February = Watermelon Fest!!

So, I finally have internet!! I never expected it to take this long, but now that i have it I can start updating my blog again. The following post is a post I created back in March but couldn't upload it because of the internet problem. I'll catch up on what's happened since March soon!

I know it's already March, but you'll just have to forgive me as i go back and dedicate a post for February. Life is starting to settle down again and so I'm able to start planning some fun activities for myself. A few weeks ago my friends and I went to a Watermelon Fest!!! Let me just explain some of the things that happen at a Watermelon Fest.

• Watermelon Skiing: The act of placing one's feet into two watermelons and holding onto a rope while being pulled down a soapy tarp covered with smashed watermelons. sounds fun huh!
• Watermelon Bungee: An activity involving 4 people who are all attached to a circular rubber band. These four people are situated on top of a square tarp with a watermelon in each corner. All four people are trying to reach and grab their assigned watermelon while at the same time trying to stop the others from reaching their watermelon (so they're all reaching for one of the corners of the tarp). Does that make sense?
• Watermelon seed spitting competition: the name says it all
• Unlimited fresh watermelon: they were passing out whole watermelons for free!! and they tasted Amazing!

It was a pretty exciting adventure. We arrived in the morning after waking up really early and driving for 4 hours to the town of Chinchilla (love it!), set up camp and then participated in the crazy watermelon activities. At dinner time we went back to camp and cooked ourselves some true Aussie burgers and then got ready for the country concert. The concert was loads of fun! The night was beautiful with clear skies and a full moon. Slept soooo good!

In the morning we packed up and then drove back to town. We were very blessed because as we drove home we were millimeters away from a deadly car accident. A truck was moving into our lane and didn't see us in their blind spot and we had a massive semi truck coming towards us in the lane on the other side of us. All four of us girls in the car screamed as we realized that we were dead meat. I don't know how we didn't end up crashing but I think the truck next to us realized that we were there just in time. SCARY!

What an adventure!

Last week I began my third (Junior) year of university. I really like my classes this semester. I'm taking Intergroup Relations and Group Processes, Psychopathology, and Research Methods. I was supposed to be taking another class as well, but I just got a job! Yay! I'm going to be working about 10 hours a week as a receptionist for a chiropractor's office. I've realized that I've spent sooo much of my life living an unbalanced life - usually so focused on School - that my health is starting to take a toll. So, I'm trying to balance my life more - hence taking only three classes and working a bit and I'll be taking some exercise classes. I'm thinking about Zumba. It seems to be the new craze.

Catch UP!

So, I made this new years resolution and I've done a really bad job of keeping it. Typical! But, I do have some good excuses. I was homeless for a month, and once I was no longer homeless I was without internet... and, at the moment I'm using the internet at my friend's house.

so, we're just going to pretend that this is a post

for January. Just before the new year began I flew back to Australia

with my awesome friend Ashlee. We has so much fun traveling around Sydney and up the coast to Brisbane. We met many awesome people along the way and even gathered a few to join us on our adventures. Here's a little taste of what we got up to.

Ashlee and I attended the National YSA Convention held in Sydney. This was the night of the Ball. We got all dressed up, ready to get out dance on!

After convention Ashlee and I sent out a few texts letting people know we were going hiking in the Blue Mountains. The word spread and over 20 people showed up for the hike. The hike was beautiful and full of fun moments... sometimes we may have thought we were lost, but we made it out alive and leech free!

For our next adventure, we packed my awesome little car Jimmy to the brim with camping gear and four crazy girls. I'm so proud of my car. He never lets me down! Ashlee and I recruited Anna and Danielle for a three night camping trip on the coast of northern NSW. We stayed in a place called Delicate Nobby. Isn't that the coolest name ever!? Reminds me of something out of Harry Potter. I won't put pictures of Delicate Nobby here. I'm afraid it will make you all jealous. Actually, I didn't take pictures - I was too relaxed to pull out a camera.

Ashlee and I had some good plans in place once we got to Brisbane, but none of them happened. Turns out we had just entered a disaster zone. Brisbane had endured a few solid months of rain and to the point where it's damns were up to 195% full. Another rain storm was forecast for the Brisbane area the weekend we arrived and it was just too much for the river systems to handle. A town about two hours away endured massive flash floods and that water slowly made it's way to Brisbane. Roads became shut down and towns were evacuated. I was sent home early from work because the business district was shut down. We were all told to avoid travel at all cost. So, instead of simply waiting at home for the floods to come and go we decided to go 'dancing in the rain.' kind of. We got some skim boards and went to a soaked field and went skim boarding! might as well enjoy it while you can.

As the floods came we spent a few hours helping people move their to the top levels of their homes. This is where the water was when we got to the homes and the water continued to rise another few meters. We later found out that it was a good thing we moved the stuff up to the top floor because the homes we helped ended up having their ground floor flooded.

Ashlee left just before the clean up efforts began, lucky her! hehe. As soon as the waters started to go down the clean up efforts began. Of course, the Morman Helping Hand vests came out. It was so inspiring to see how many people wanted to get involved and help. The LDS church in the area organized some projects for it's members to get involved in and I joined a group of about 30 YSA who went to a street with a few apartment buildings that were flooded. We worked for 8 hours straight with only a few short breaks. We all had smiles on our faces knowing we were helping people who weren't able to help themselves!