Aye yi yi, wow has this trip gone whizzing by me! I can’t believe I am already a third of the way done with school. I found out that I will be officially finished with school at the end of October with my last day of class on the 29th, following that final exam I will only have 2 essays left to finish out my semester in Australia, finishing on November 5th. I was expecting to be in class until mid-November, so this new was a very pleasant surprise; I won’t have to listen to crow’s accents on campus for much longer. Staying on the subject of school, I did my first presentation for my Sociology class, which is 10% of my grade. In Australia you much earn your grade rather than in the states where you start at 100% and get your points marked down. The presentation was on 2 readings about self-esteem and it went really well. My teacher was very impressed especially with the example we used from the media, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, which I used as an example in a research paper for a communication class in Chico last semester. So I was amped about the good remarks and the good discussion that we started among the class.

Located on Level 4 of Jupiters Hotel & Casino, Kiyomi is part of the property's $345 million transformation. Other elements include a sleek new poolside area complete with private cabanas and the Cucina Vivo restaurant. When complete, the redevelopment will also include a new six-star luxury hotel tower. Elsewhere, Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast is about to enjoy a spruce-up of its own, with a multi-million dollar face-lift on the cards. The Treasury in Brisbane boasts over 1,400 pokies and a full range of baccarat, roulette and blackjack.

Now for some fun news! Last weekend (Friday) went to the Sushi Train with Tiffeny and her brother Tory for the Friday special, all sushi rolls were only $3, so to say the least I gorged myself with salmon, raw tuna and tempura shrimp rolls, not as good as the one by our house in Broady but for $3 it was pretty delicious. In Australia they LOVE mayonnaise, it was every single roll, and I’m not talking about spicy mayo which I love, normal nasty mayo all over. Also the usual rolls that Tiff and Tory would pick on the sushi train had tempura chicken, teriyaki chicken/beef and even rolls with just egg inside them, very random. We were full to the brim with Japanese and even a language lesson, “Irasshaimase”, which means welcome, and headed back to Tiff’s for some wine before we headed to Surfers. It was Friday the 13th and there were some cool drink specials, scary costumes and decorations at the clubs but as usual we got over the scene pretty quick so we headed to Waxy’s to meet up with Tiff and he roommate for some drinks and dancing. It was another successful night at our favorite bar meeting some more new locals. We stayed at Tiff’s for the night, the boys went out fishing early in the morning and didn’t get very lucky, only catching a flat head; Tiff and Bri went out to Tiff’s grandparents house inland. I stayed around watching movies waiting for the boys to finish up and then headed back home to meet with Paul. Bri stayed with Tiff keeping her company during the visit and going to the weekly Sunday market.

Paul invited us to come to Brisbane and stay with him and of course I took him up on that offer. He picked Jason and me up and we headed to Logan to pick up some of his buddies from work, pick up some sausages and party favors for the night and headed back to his house, which was in an upscale suburb in Brisbane. His house was beautiful, filled with sport memorabilia that his father has collected throughout the years and the biggest pool table I have ever seen in my life. We fired up the grill for dinner and started in on the fun. Five of Paul’s friends, Jason and I hopped in a cab to downtown Brisbane, to the clubbing area called “The Valley”. We ended up arriving downtown pretty early to the clubs, which was kinda cool because we had the whole club to ourselves basically. After leaving the Electric Stadium, which had video visualizer screens in every booth, we went to the #1 ranked club in Australia called “The Family”. It was a four story dance club with four different types of music, a bar made completely of ice, the coolest decorations, lights and scenery, by far the coolest bar I have ever been to in my life. After going to a few other places we decided to call it a night and cab it back to Paul’s house. The next morning we woke up and helped make the most delicious coffee I have had all trip, bacon, eggs and sausages for breakfast with his parents. We hung out for a few hours chit chatting away and even Paul’s Italian grandparents came by for some coffee after their Sunday mass. Paul took us to a look out spot on top of a near by mountain for some great views of Brisbane even though my camera died the night before. Paul told us the Brisbane was one of the biggest cities in the world, area wise and you definitely see how big the city was from the mountain top. We headed into the city checking out the downtown square during the day. We walked around for a while, there was a market going on so we walked around checking out the local venues. I grabbed a corn on the cob and we sat by the canal watching the street performers and people go by. There was a public swimming pool turned into a beach with a water park for the children, it was cute watching all the families on the beautiful Sunday afternoon. We grabbed a pot of beer (a pitcher) at the Beer Garden and reminisced about the night, then headed back Broadbeach.

Wednesday night it was my friend Kyle, from Chico’s, birthday so him and his friend Davis, from San Diego, came down to our house to do some drinking and head to the Jupiter Casino to try out our luck. I baked him one of my famous stoney bologna cake creations: orange poppy seed cake with cream cheese frosting, I added Nutella too the frosting and Bri piped “Happy Birthday” on the top, it was SOO BOMB. We got 2 boxes of Goon (Ozi Franzia) between the five of us, pumped the jams and played some funny drinking games. We walked to the casino, only 3-4 blocks away from out house, and headed into the ring, I was feeling lucky ;). The casino was a lot different then the ones I have been to in Tahoe and Reno, so many young people, some random Nana’s with the buckets filled with $1 coins for the slots, and a few random Asians! It was pretty unreal drinking a vodka soda with lime while playing a hand of black jack at the casino. I was having too much fun; I won $6 on the slots, but bought 2 drinks so I was only down $5. Once the birthday boy lost his $40 on the black jack table 2 hours later we decided to call it a night.

One last exciting piece of news is that Kyle has hooked me up with a job! He works as a server in a catering company that his family friend owns. I start next Sunday for my first event, I’m stoked because I get $15 an hour, cash on the spot under the table and basically I get to call when or if I want to work so I am still able to have a social life while making some side cash. My first investment with my work earnings is going to be a ticket to an awesome music festival called Parklife on the 25th of September,the start of spring break. The full day festival includes headliners Groove Armada, Missy Elliot, Delorean, Soulwax, Kele, Jack Beats and CHIDDY BANG!!! Yay, I’m so excited! Alrighty cyber world, friends and family, thanks for reading I miss you all very much! Til’ next time!

Notable Places in the Area

Localities in the Area

Jupiter Casino Brisbane Australia

Jupiters Hotel & Casino

• Type: Casino
• Location: Queensland, Australia, Oceania
• Latitude: -28.0319° or 28° 1' 54.7' south
• Longitude: 153.4287° or 153° 25' 43.2' east
• Elevation: 19 metres (62 feet)
• GeoNames ID: 6509368

In the Area

Localities

• KurrawaLocality
• Miami KeysLocality
• BroadbeachSuburb
• Florida GardensLocality, 1¼ km north

Jupiter Casino Brisbane Hotel

Landmarks

• BroadbeachBeach, 710 metres northeast
• Kurrawa BeachBeach, 720 metres east
• Mermaid BeachBeach, 1½ km southeast
• Girung IslandIslet, 2½ km north

Other Places

• The Star Resort and CasinoBuilding
• KiyomiRestaurant
• Mei Wei DumplingsRestaurant
• ZenRestaurant

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