It has been a hot minute since I have written a blog post, but for good reason. To be honest not much has happened in the last three weeks. At least nothing too interesting to write about!
First of all, I am composing this blog post on Thursday October 25th, which means it is week thirteen. In translation, this is my last week of classes before exams. Tomorrow is my last class at JCU, ever…. It is absolutely crazy to think how time has past me with a blink of an eye. Over the past three weeks the only two significant things worth talking about are Val Ball and Castle Hill. The rest of my time I have been studying and writing papers. After everyone returned from lecture recess classes got more intense and required less time relaxing on the beach and more time in the library studying.
Val Ball, which stands for Valedictorian Ball was October 6th. This is where our dorm, Uni Hall, celebrated all of the people (valedictorians) that are moving off Uni Hall next year. It is also used to recognize and award all of the RA’s and our Senior RA for their amazing work over the past year. This was a time for all of us to dress fancy and wear heels and celebrate. It was almost like prom. We picked our table group of ten people and we were served a two course meal, in addition to an open bar of champagne, wine and beer. Val Ball was such a fun experience because it reminded me of my high school prom experiences and it was fun to get dressed up and see everyone so well put together. After Val was over, all of us changed into regular going out outfits and went to town all together.
This past Tuesday Dena and I took a bus into town to climb Castle Hill. Castle Hill is a massive rock in the middle of Townsville. You can either climb or drive up it but it leads to a beautiful view of the city. Hundreds of people visit Castle Hill every day. It is a very popular place to get a great workout it considering it is a massive steep hill. Dena and I met up with Will, one of our friends we met in our hostel in Byron Bay. He stayed in Townsville for two days and we were glad we could meet up with him. Castle Hill is one of the main things to do in Townsville, so it was a “right of passage” to take Will up to the top (even though Dena and I hadn’t done it yet). Always, we went up around sunset and even though it was a bit of a difficult climb it was absolutely worth it. Unfortunately we didn’t get the best view of the sunset because of some clouds and the sun was almost already set but below is a photo from Google so you can get the idea of how beautiful it is.
Overall, even though these past few weeks have been pretty slow with school work, this upcoming week is SWOTVAC. SWOTVAC is the study week before exams. Most of us Americans tend to travel around this time. Dena and I are headed north up to Cairns and that’s what my next blog post will be about, until then…
Cheers!
Makenna