Sunshine Coast :: Mooloolaba!

On Friday our host parents took us to the Sunshine Coast, or more specifically, Mooloolaba. It was by far the best place we have visited yet. The shops were neat, but the beach was SO wonderful. So we spent the day shopping, eating, got ice cream (which has turned into a daily event for us), and then headed to the beach. The beach was so different on the Sunshine Coast
compared to the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast had a lot of room to lay out on the sand. The Sunshine Coast had rocks and more rugged terrain along parts of it. It still had sand to lay out on, but there were more places where the waves would crash up on the rocks and make big splashes. And you must understand how exciting this was for a couple of Minnesota girls. It was just Kari and me for the day so we spent a lot of time taking pictures of each other with the
fantastic scenery behind us.

We came back to Morayfield in time for a Good Friday church service. It was at a church that neither Bruce nor Heather had been to before. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Unfortunately, it wasn’t geared toward the meaning of Good Friday too much and there wasn’t a consistent message throughout the service. So needless to say, I am a bit homesick for the
Easter traditions my family follows back in the States. I’m sure tomorrow I will mostly be missing the songs of praise and the rejoicing atmosphere. I guess I’ll just have to sing “Jesus Christ has risen today, alleluia!” on the plane tomorrow morning!

Kari and I were creating some entertainment for ourselves on Friday night by leaving videos for people from our blocks. By the time we got to the sixth and seventh video we were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. I even had a headache when I laid down for bed last night because we had had so much fun. I have really been enjoying all the memories we have been
making here. I can’t wait to bring them back to the States to share with everyone!

Today was full of unexpected events! One of the videos Kari and I left on Friday night was for Ashley’s host mum, Angie. She is just an angel. She is more of a mother hen for the nine of us. She makes sure that we are all taken care of and makes sure that we are all having a good time while we are here. This is the lady that went to a tourist place and picked up ten sets of brochures and bags for all of us to have so we can plan adventures. Anyway, since we left her a video the night before she talked to us via facebook and told us she could pick us up tomorrow if we wanted to go to the mall. We were definitely down for that because we needed to get some things
together before we took off for Sydney. Low and behold, you must know that if you get into Angie’s car it is never a direct drive to and from. So when we shared the news that four of our girls were sky diving that afternoon, she said, “Well we better go watch that then!”

It was really neat we pulled up to the place and surprised the girls. It was quite the process for them to actually get into the air and jump, so Kari, Angie, and I went to the mall for a bit.
We returned to the beach with about forty minutes to spare. We talked with Jenny (who is a QUT staff AND Kim and Jordyn’s host mum) and then we all took pictures and videotaped the whole ordeal. It was super cool to see and definitely exciting to know our good friends were the people falling out of the sky!

When we returned home for the evening Bruce and Heather weren’t too far behind us from work. This is a special evening for us because the plan was to go pick up food for supper. Heather wanted to get KFC for supper. She took Kari and I along to make sure she ordered right. We got a
family pack of course and the price displayed on the menu was about $30. But when we ordered the clerk said the total was only $25. The three of us looked at each other and Heather said, “Well isn’t it supposed to be $30?” The clerk responded, “Well yes, but I gave you the senior discount.” Heather looked kind of taken aback and then said laughing, “But I didn’t even show you my card to prove it!” We all had a good giggle though because that was the first time Heather had been given the senior discount without being asked to show her card… Oh the milestones we have reached in Oz.

So we spent the evening packing for Sydney tomorrow. I will be there until America’s early Wednesday morning. I am not taking my laptop so I won’t be able to blog until I get back. However, I’m sure I’ll have heaps of stories to share with you when we return! (See! I used the word heaps!)

Hugs and love to you all! Miss you all SO much!