Sea World- Movie World

Sea World was quite the day! Not as exciting as I remember when i went ten years ago, but we still saw a lot of cool things. It was only like a five minute drive from Surfers Paradise. Throughout the morning we just looked around at the aquariums and animal nurseries they had set up. We saw a huge shark tank with about twenty sharks, and a whole bunch of coral fish, and some sting rays in it. The sting rays are so big and gross...I cant believe my family made me swim with them before! They also had a "Paradise Winter" where they kept four different polar bears, with an underground viewing place so you could see them swim. There was a bay where probably like one hundred little penguins were....but they smelt so gross we could only watch them for a few minutes. There was also a really ugly animal they had a tank for, it was like a cross between a dolphin and a whale. They called it "Pig". The afternoon was the coolest part though. First we watched a "Waterski Wipeout" show where they had a play going on with waterskiers, wakeboarders, and even surfboarders doing tricks off ramps and behind boats. After that we got to ride their version of splash mountain...got soaking wet! There was a seal show on but we missed that, then we headed off for the dolphin show. That was defanitly the highlight of our day. They are so funny how they just jump and flip and dive like crazy. They also had a waterpark but there was too much to do we had no time to go there. Today we went to "Movie World" which is like a disneyworld but smaller. It was really cool too. We got to meet Batman & Robin, Marilyn Monroe, Scooby Doo and the bunch, The penguins from Happy Feet, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Shrek, and The Police Academy people. The first part of the day we just walked around and looked at all of the displays they had, and watched some of the shows. They had Austin Powers and some disco girls dancing down the street...and they actually looked a lot like the people from the movie. We spent the afternoon going on all the rides. They have this crazy superman roller coaster that took us probably the fastest I have evern gone! That was a new ride to the park as well as the Batman Shoot. That was where they shoot you up soooo fast it is the wierdest feeling. There is a 4.5 gravity force..I guess that means a lot! lol. The "Lethal Weapon" is a roller coaster where you hang freely and do so many twists, turns, and loops, I thought I was going to puke. After going on those three our stomachs really needed a break. We went on their splash mountain and it was a lot more exciting than Sea World's. They take you through the mountain and there is displays and stuff in side and you go backwards down a hill. The drop is like ten times bigger and you get about ten times more wet! The Matrix Reloaded was actually filmed in one of the studios there, so we got to see the costumes and sets and stuff. I hated those movies though so I thought that was boring. They had so much cool stuff in all the stores too but of course they were so overpriced. But I did get a cool Batman mug! Tomorrow we have our first job interview!! So I will let you all know how it goes....hopefully this week we will both start working so that it gives us something to do. Tandri also wants to go golfing again tomorrow so we are most likely off to do that. Other then that not too much else is new here. We are off to make cookies! Miss you all!

Tandri and Brittni

Golfing-WetnWild-Australia Day

So Tandri finally got to go golfing! After a bus ride and then a taxi ride, we finally made it to the course. It was a little different golfing with palm trees as opposed to dauphins nice course. And there were birds everywhere..yuckk. But it was funny because someone hit one right in the head and it just died right on the tee box. haha. We didnt go until late afternoon but it was still sooooo hot out...thanks Bev for the hat! We are going to try and find different courses that are easier to get to. We are starting to feel like this is more home now. Everyone here is so laid back and it seems like they are on vacation all year. During the day it gets quite busy around the city center but even more at night. Everyone here goes out for supper and the night life is crazy! Every Wednesday and Friday night they have a market all along the beach where people bring their homemade crafts, food, and basically anything they think that they can sell. One guy worked all day and made a chameleon out of sand, its was really cool. We went to WetnWild yesterday- the huge waterpark. They had some of the craziest waterslides we had ever seen but the lineups were even more crazy. We stayed in line for two hours and only got on two waterslides! They had an awesome wave pool though that we were in most of the day because it was +35 so we couldnt stand in line for too long! There was some pretty funny pictures of us coming down the slides...lol. We went out for supper after for "kebabs" which are so good. They have little restaurants all over selling them. But they arent like shishkabobs they are more like a gyro/wrap. Everyone eats them down here. We are still trying to find a kangaroo...no luck yet. Officially the first animal we have seen that is new to us is a camel..haha. Yep thats it. So we really need to get to a zoo or something! Just thought I would post a picture of the view we get to see from our place....pretty nice hey. Some funny things we have learnt here...1)Mcdonalds has pasta kid meals 2)Burger King here is called Hungry Jacks 3) They spell tires with a y..Tyres and we are learning new crazy stuff each day. lol. Australia Day was today but not to much normal then any other day. Lots of people dressed up in patriotic clothes and drank all along the beach...thats another thing thats so different here, they all carry open alcohol and just drink wherever. And there was a live band and more markets everywhere. We didnt stay up to late though because we are still screwed up from the time change. So tomorrow we are off to Sea World and will hopefully get better pictures and see some animals. G'night!

Tandri and Brittni

Surfers Paradise

Well we are finally here! It is so amazing here, I can't even believe how different it is. Surfers Paradise is like a little resort town almost, there is so much going on all the time and a lot of young people. It is a pretty small town but if you look on a map you can see there are a lot of towns like broadbeach, mermaid beach, miami, and they are all small resort places but are almost connected. We travelled down yesterday to Currumbin to check out their beach and got to see a surf competition! We haven't started looking for a job yet, we are kinda liking the relaxing part of being here! The ocean here is so beautiful! Though it does get extremely hot here- we aren't quite used to that yet! We havent seen a kangaroo yet....which is disappointing but we did find out they eat them here. I guess they taste like chicken. haha. Food has been the most dramatic change we have found. We went grocery shopping and what a hassle! They dont have kraft dinner, perogies, ranch dressing, chicken fingers, or anything easy to make. Everything here is more natural and expensive. haha. Pop is very expensive here...$18.99 for 24 cans. Alcohol is also very expensive here. But we are enjoying it here a lot! We have met a family from a town north of here that has already invited us to come stay with them so they could show us around there. And they loved the maple candies we brought over from Canada. Its so funny talking to all of the people here and listening to the way they talk. And they think the stories we tell about Canada are so funny. We just found out that we are also living in the perfect location. Sea World is ten minutes away, WetnWild which is a HUGE waterpark is twenty minutes away, and they also have two different parks that are just like disneyland called movieworld and dreamworld which are also only twenty minutes away. So tomorrow or the next day we plan on taking the bus to see some of them! The shopping here is very different as well. Girls here all wear little summer dresses, and guys were board shorts and flip flops. Oh and those converse sneakers are so popular here as well- almost everyone wears them. So we have not gone shopping to buy any clothes yet. There are designer stores everywhere as well, like Louis Vuitton, Fendi, BCBG and so many more. So its cool to look at all of those kinds of stores too. I know Becky will like this picture.....Tandri is getting pretty antsy because we have not gone golfing yet, so I guess that is on our list of things to do as well. We still have not gotten used to the time change yet. When you guys are going to bed we are just waking up, so we are tired a lot of the time. Today we are going to go down to the ocean (which is about a 3 minute walk) and talk a walk through the markets with the family that we met. Tandri is sunburnt already so we are off to buy some suntan lotion! hehe. Miss you all.

Tandri and Brittni

Travelling To Australia

BULA!! (The traditional greeting we heard way too many times in Fiji)
Our first flight to Minneapolis was surprisingly very quick. We arrived there and took our time looking around the airport and stopped at Chili’s while sharing some good Mexican food! We had a little bit longer of a layover so we tried to sleep a bit while waiting. Then we were off to Los Angela’s where the flight was a little bit longer but still went by quickly. I was pretty nervous went we got there wondering if I would be able to get us to the right place…but it was actually really easy to get to the international section and we were through security quickly. We definitely were not looking forward to the eleven hour flight after we had just traveled on two planes already but it was really cool to see how big it was. And no we did not get bumped up to first class unfortunately. We were at the in row 80 of 80 rows haha; so it took us quite a long time to get off the plane. But we were so glad to get up and move around after. Even a sleeping pill couldn’t put us to sleep the whole time. So we arrived in Fiji in the morning at 5:30am but by the time we got through security and got our luggage put in lockers we weren’t out in the town until 8:00am. Surprisingly most of the stores were open all ready so it was exciting at first to see all their different souvenirs and culture. After being in a few stores and realizing how pushy everyone was, we were getting pretty sick of it. So we thought we would get a bite to eat (We were ready to eat lunch but in Fiji time they were only serving breakfast). Walking through the main city center we came upon a lady who was passed out on the middle of the sidewalk which was pretty weird and we didn’t really know what to do-that’s when Moses came along. He starts asking us where we were from and finally meeting someone who was friendly we took advantage of it. He begged us to come with him a few stores up where his good friend Mike and him owned their own souvenir store. We were boldly welcomed and were told to sit on this mat laid out in the store. In Fiji it is customary to take off your shoes when entering and to sit cross legged. Tandri was told to be the “Chief” and I was told to be the “Mrs.Chief” whatever that meant. Haha. They then showed us these articles from their daily newspaper of how performing a “Kava” ceremony is a traditional welcome from your host. Not knowing what to expect it was interesting watching them clap and mix the root of a plant (which is pressed into a powder) with water until it absorbed most of the powder. This liquid is then put into little coconut dishes and then everyone around takes a drink. Good thing for us we had been warned about this “liquid” – it is a hallucinate which is kind of little marijuana but in a liquid form. So we just watched them instead. Then they gave us these necklaces because we were such good company and so we were excited about getting some free stuff. So we go to leave the store and then are asked how much money we are going to give them?!?!? For what?!?! I guess by giving us the necklaces they meant BUY THEM. Haha. So after enough of that we left the store and continued on looking around. It gets to be pretty hard because the people here are so persistent with the stuff they are selling, and I felt so rude not buying anything. So finally we just decided to go to good ol’ Mcdonalds for some lunch/breakfast.
We did so much walking and in the hot weather it really tired us out. We arrived back at the airport at 10:30 soaked in sweat and feeling so gross because of the humidity. So then we were like great we only have ten more hours to go until we leave. We got to go to a hotel which was only about a five minute walk from the airport and take a VERY nice three hour nap. They had a really big pool and a restaurant where we amused ourselves until 3:30. So from then on until 8:00 when we left we did a lot of lying around and playing cards. Our flight to Brisbane was a little slow just because we were so anxious to get there. We are very excited to be in Brisbane and eat some real food! The worst thing in Fiji is their Ketchup! It is sooooo gross. Because Fiji was not exactly what we expected we were pretty picky about where we should eat so we stuck to the airport food which was not very good either. We woke up this morning feeling so rested because of the time difference though; we came out to have breakfast at 7:30! Haha can you actually believe Tandri was up and awake at that time?!?! So today we spent the morning walking around their town center looking at all the different stores, watched the “Vim Boys” which was like three flying monkey guys who did tricks. We came back to have a rest and plan on going back to get a good supper and see what else goes on at night here. We are feeling so much better and actually are excited now being in this culture. They are so friendly here and make us feel so welcome. Tomorrow we take the bus to Surfer’s Paradise in the afternoon to finally see where we will be living! We are very excited for that! It has been such a crazy couple of days so we are looking forward to relaxing and getting to know the place. We are trying not to think too much of everything we are missing, because we don’t want to get too homesick! But we do miss everyone back home! Email us to let us know how all of you are!
Tandri and Brittni