TRAVELOGUE.jesswrites.com

Hey all- so I never got a chance to get back online the other day, but I’m here now. My weekend was fun. On Friday night Lauren Jodner (she’s in year 12… last weekend I was with Lauren Balyntine from year 11) stayed the night and we went to a football game. It was Australian Rules Football and nothing like our good old American football, so I didn’t understand what was going on. Then we went into down to this hall called the Jampit. There’s about five guys from Cairns High that have spent the last year and a half making this video with skating tricks and stupid pranks. (trying to be like the guys in Jackass) Well the finally finished it and made this big deal about having a ‘premier’ for it. Well I’m good friends with a couple of the guys who made it so I went because they begged me too all week, and Lauren and Lana just went for fun. A lot of my friends ended up going so it was kinda fun and the video was actually really funny. I was quite impressed. I was surprised at how they went all out for it though. They rented the hall, hired a band, had a table full of free food, and they even made very professional looking movie posters and stuff which were hung up all over. On Saturday Lauren and I ventured over to Smithfield Shopping Centre to buy hair dye. When we got home she dyed my hair blonde again (cuz my roots were getting long) and then we put orange/red steaks in it and it looks really cool. Then we took a taxi over to Machan’s Beach where my friend Sam was having her birthday gathering. Tons of our friends were there and we all had a lot of fun hanging out all night. Lauren stayed over again and on Sunday morning I went to church with her and then spent the rest of the afternoon killing time in town.
This week has gone pretty well, but I’m really glad that Wednesday is over because the rest of the week is easy. I’m going to school tomorrow even though it’s senior day off cuz my friend Sarah and I are going to develop a bunch of pictures that we took at school today. It’s actually really fun going to school on Thursdays because you don’t have any classes so you can just walk around campus and do whatever you want… and a lot of my friends go everyweek for art and digital media and stuff.
But anyways… a lot of you have been asking me about the war. Well in case you haven’t heard, Australia is in the war as well. (Britian and Australia declared war along with USA.) So yes, I hear about war constantly. Everyone at school is constantly discussing it and I have some friends who are active in peace marches and protests. It’s all over the tv all day everyday and a lot of people are quite freaked out about the whole thing. It is scary… especially being so far from home because we don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m not really too worried about it at the moment. So that’s that I guess.
I hope everyone has a GREAT spring break!!! Send me postcards! Hope to hear from everyone soon. Love ya! -Jess

Hey! Just a quick note to let you all know that I’m alive and well! I guess some of the emails I’ve sent recently haven’t gone through and I don’t know why, but I’ve been so busy that I really haven’t had time to get online at all in the last week. Everything is going good. I had a fun weekend, but I’ll write about that later cuz the bell just rang. So check back tomorrow cuz I’ll try to get back online tonight. See ya!

Hey ya all! I just wanted to say hi since it’s been a few days. Everything is going great and the wet season has come to an end so we are enjoying sunny warm days once again!
My weekend went pretty well. I spent Friday night at home with Lana watching ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ and eating popcorn and chocolate. (what a life!) Actually, we weren’t at home, we were at the neighbors babysitting for their baby who was sleeping most of the time that we were there. (3 hours) We each got paid $10 for doing exactly what we were gonna do anyways except in a different house.
Saturday was spent with Lauren (yr 11) in Redlynch and were at a party/open house thing for a friend of the family’s birthday. While I was there I met and became friends with this girl named Isabelle Lucas who just recently got a part on one Australia’s most popular Soap Operas–Home and Away. I can’t wait to watch it in a few months and be able to say, “I know her!” On Sunday Lauren and I pretty much just sat around all morning listening to music and chatting online because it was too hot to go outside. I didn’t get a ride home until about 3:00. After that, Lana and I just hung out for the rest of the day.
I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day! We didn’t really do anything to celebrate it over here. They just acknowledged the holiday on the radio and that was about the last I heard about it. I did think of all you though and Clare’s parade, and bed races, and green beer. It always cracks me up what a big deal Clare makes of St. Patty’s Day.
Well I gotta go cuz I’m in tourism class right now. I’ll write again soon! I hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather! Have a great day and I’ll post pics soon! (I just scanned some last night.) <3 Jess

Today I spent most of the afternoon at the Dept. of Transportation to see about getting a Queensland drivers license. After about an hour and a half of reading through their rules booklet I was about to take the written test when they told me I could just drive on my American license with no restrictions. So yay… now I am allowed to drive but I don’t have anything to drive at the moment. I don’t have insurance either so if I drive something, it will have to be wreckable. (Kita’s old car for instance–if I crash that it won’t make any difference.)
But anyways… it’s raining again today and I’m getting really sick of it. The only good thing about it is it’s starting to cool off. I’m actually at an internet cafe right now killing time before the bus comes. I really don’t have anything exciting to say at the moment, though so I will write again after the weekend. Have a good day everyone!!

Hey everyone, I know it hasn’t been long since my last entry but I thought I’d tell ya all about my weekend. Lauren stayed over here on Friday night and we went to the beach after dark because the sky was SO starry that I couldn’t believe it. The beach is really gorgeous at night and we had a nice walk along it while we talked. Yesterday we went into town and hung out at Central for awhile, and to the beach again. Then we went out and had lots of fun and stayed the night at Lauren’s afterwards. She lives in Redlynch and her house is beautiful! This morning we got up bright and early and went horseback riding. It was lucky that there was breeze cuz it was really sunny and hot.
I can hardly believe I’ve been here for 6 and a half weeks! I will be home in about 4 months now and I know that will go so fast! I almost wish it wasn’t summer when I came home cuz by then I’m going to be sick of this hot weather… ah well. I like it better than though snow. (I heard you got a lot over the weekend–sorry ’bout that.) hehe… have a great day everyone! (P.S. I’ll try to put some new pictures up soon!!)

Hey everyone! I hear you’re getting spring weather! Well it’s been raining here everyday for about two weeks cuz it’s the “wet season” but hopefully it will be over soon. It was actually sunny out all day today but it started raining this evening. School is good as usual. There’s been a lot of fund raisers for the seniors and we’ve had shows during lunch. Last week we had a comedian show and this week we had “battle of the bands.” They are pretty fun to watch. I had HRE day yesterday which is “Health & Relationships Education” which covered everything from sex ed to how to lease an apartment… haha. It was kinda boring but fun to spend the day with friends. I went to central afterwards with Lauren and Danielle and we had a blast just goofing around. Then I met up with Chris and hung out with him for awhile. Lauren is spending the weekend over here and we are going horseback riding on Sunday so I’m really excited. I hope everyone is good. I love ya all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIANNA! Take care! <3 Jess

Hey everyone! Time has been flying so fast and I didn’t realize it had been so long since I’ve written in here. I was on the phone with my mom the other day and I didn’t believe her when she told me I had been gone for 5 and a half weeks! It’s been six now, I think. I seriously can’t believe it because it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. My weekend was a lot of fun. I went to my friend Jordan’s house on Friday evening. He had about 20 people over. His house is HUGE and walking through the halls felt like a maze because there were so many doors. He also had a giant pool… the whole place was so nice. I was pretty good friends with everyone there which made it a lot of fun. I would have taken pics but the battery in my digi cam died. On Saturday afternoon we went to Port Douglas where we stayed in this awesome hotel. Lana and I had a huge room, kitchen and dining room, living room, and back porch with a jacuzzi all to ourselves. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t ideal because we are at the end of the rainy season right now, but we still had a lot of fun. The town was really cute and we went on a hike and a walk downtown. On Sunday morning we went to the Markets and did some shopping. We had a really good time. Once we got back to Cairns we went to a big bridal expo and then another expo thing that had markets and live music. That was cool as well. School has been going good. I just handed in my first major assignment today (English) and we had school pictures taken today too. Everyday at school is a lot of fun because I’ve made lots of friends and theres always people to talk to.
THANKYOU SO MUCH to my friends who put the birthday video together for me! I got it in the mail today and I was thrilled! It was so fun to see all of your smiling faces again and all the snow you had blew my mind! I loved it though, so thanks a bunch!!! Well my foot fell asleep so I should probably get up and walk around for a bit. I’ll try not to let it be so long before I update again. Take care everyone, and have a great day! *hugs and kisses* ~Jess