As I have been in college, I have found the importance of community in Christ. Along that note one of my best friends, Lauren has the brilliant idea to continue this idea in a blogging community of Christian College Bloggers!! We are called Camp(us) Fire Collective and you can find the full link here!
A little bit about where I am right now in my walk with Christ and my schooling:
In an effort to find myself, I went abroad. In this process of finding myself, I found God. This is a little bit about the start to my Junior year of college.
Going abroad was something I always knew I wanted to do, it drove how I acted in university, how I studied, how I saved, and how I planned. I knew it was something I wanted and felt as though I needed to do for me. Four months into my time abroad, I have to say it was exactly what was needed, however, not just for me, but for me and my relationship with Christ.
Being in Australia has led me to seek all my answers to questions and decisions, my actions, and my thoughts in God. At the University of Pennsylvania, I do a lot; I do everything I do because I love it (well, minus schoolwork but that is just one of those necessary evils of being a Uni student), but that doesn’t leave much time for me. I often find myself using my precious “me” time as time to do life in this world not to seek God.
Here, I have so much more “me” time and coming abroad I made the effort to have God as my first and foremost priority, and I have to say, this has made all the difference. I know that everything I am doing would be fun as is, because, hey, I’m in Australia, but I also know I am having that much more fun because I am seeking God in my daily situations.
This has made all the difference!
Now for a bit of my travels and what I have learned as a broke college kid last week!!
Day one of my spring break trip to Cairns!
Last Friday at 10:30pm I departed on a plane from the Melbourne airport, leaving the cold behind, I stepped off the plane on a tarmac at 1:45am, breathing in deeply and feeling my lungs fill with the warmth of the tropical air. I was here! Let my second spring break of 2014 begin! Last one was spent in South Carolina with one of my best friends and this one was to be spent in Cairns!
This whole experience made me feel the most like a college student I have ever felt! Make that a broke college student!
Step one of the broke college kid life: sleeping on the airport floor from 2am until the free shuttle arrives at 8am because why would you pay for a hostel room for a few hours and why pay for a shuttle when you can get one free!
Step two of the broke college kid life: utilize the free airport shower at 5am when you can’t sleep anymore.
Step three of the broke, social, college kid life: make friends with the other 10 broke college kids and gap year students waiting for the free shuttle at 8am.I’d like to note, these steps were completed, in the correct order even!
Once my new friends and I caught the shuttle into town, I had plenty of time to explore before I could check into my hostel at 2pm.
Step four in broke college kid life: take advantage of the free luggage storage and lockers at your hostel.
I dropped off my bag, went for a stroll around town, and did my grocery shopping for the week, completed at this lovely little fruit and veggie market, Rusty’s Markets, and the local Woolies.
Step five in the broke, sensible, college kid life: don’t give into the temptations of eating out when you can spend the same amount you would on one meal on 3 meals a day for 7 days!
Afterwards it was time to get in some sun time at the pool attached to the hostel! I got suited up in my bathing suit and slathered up in my sunscreen. (the hole in the ozone layer is right over Australia, sunscreen must be 50+ for this girl!)
Step six in the broke college kid life: Utilize the free sunscreen at your hostel and always buy sunscreen before you get to Australia! It is almost three times the price here!
Laying out by the pool solidified the fact I was on spring break. For all of you Gilmore Girl fans out there, you remember Rory and Paris’s trip to Florida for spring break? Well that was EXACTLY how my experience was, a ton of guys drinking beer by the pool, cheering really loudly, rating girls (outloud) as they passed, lots of hookups, all my fellow hostel mates sleeping at 4 in the afternoon and lots of noise. After laying out for a while I felt objectified and awkward. I spent most of my time by the pool praying for the souls of the people around it. A true blessing I know God placed in my life was a young 30’s couple who happened to come down and show Christ’s love to me during the awkward task of walking past the line of bar stools that had drunk, loud guys on them. The man asked if I’d like him to escort me out while his wife stayed with their stuff, I took him up on the offer and felt so much more comfortable to be out of the situation and thankful that God placed Tim and Cassandra there at that specific time!
What was more my speed was the local lagoon: since the area around Cairns is salt marsh, salt flat area with crocodiles you can’t swim in the ocean, the city built a huge pool area overlooking the ocean and the mountains. It was full of families, babies, and lots of other tourists, much more my speed.
After a beautiful swim and a few hours of sun time, I went and checked into my hostel and got changed for a wonderful six mile run along the ocean and the pier! One really cool thing they have in Cairns is the best public exercise equipment: like full on arm machines, bikes, ellipticals, and your typical sit up, tricep dip, pull up type equipment, all worked off of your own body weight! So interspersed in my six miles I tried out all of the equipment!
Step seven in the broke college kid life: Always take advantage of free gyms, whether they be park equipment or that “one month” free offer from your local gym!
Showering felt amazing after all of this and my yummy chicken, cabbage, and carrot concoction (just noticed those were all C words!) was just what I needed to refuel before taking advantage of the free happy hour at the hostel!
Step Eight in the broke college kid life: free food and drinks are ALWAYS a good idea, take advantage while they last!
At the bar/ nightclub that was attached to the hostel I got free entry and met a lot of nice, funny people, but was so tired from my odd hours flight I had to call it a super early night!
Step Nine in the broke college kid life: If you can go out dancing, go out dancing where it costs nothing!
A trip to the pharmacy to purchase ear plugs completed my first crazy night in Cairns 😉 My room for the first night was right over the nightclub and rather loud so the ear plugs were completely necessary!
This was day one of probably the best seven day trip of my life! Come back soon to hear all about scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, swimming on Sea Turtles, swimming in waterfalls, seeing Platypuses, spending the night in the jungle, meeting amazing people, and getting really tan! Until then have a lovely week and be on the lookout for free things!!
That sounds like an amazing time. Definitely made some memories to last forever on that trip!
I definitely did! Thanks for reading Robin!
What great memories you are making as a young college girl! And you are wise beyond your age! So excited that you are part of a group of college Christian bloggers! It’s also important to me to put Jesus first in everything I do.
Thank you so much for the encouragement! And it is so nice to have fellow Christians to keep encouraging each other in this blogging world 🙂 I have truly been blessed because of women like you! Thank you so much!
The airport had a shower?!? I never knew that. And yes, for trying to get by as free ans possible!
It did Lindsey! Definitely something to check for if you are ever stuck there!
I enjoyed reading your adventures. Praising God for your salvation and your Christian Fellow involvement. It sounds like those college lessons include life lessons on frugality. Smart girl. Be safe.
Thank you so much for the encouragement Shirley 🙂 God has been so good to me in this whole journey!
Christina Fellowship, not Fellow 🙂
So Awesome! I’m going to Austrailia NEXT November and am super stoked! How awesome that you’ve started your blog in college. I wish I would have done that!
Ahhhhhhhh!! Where are you going?! I’d love to give you some tips and tricks to figure out the land down under! 🙂 I am heading over to check out your blog now!
Sydney! My best friend will be living there for one calendar year. I could really use some tips on the flight! I can’t find any way to save or earn credits towards the flight at all and boy is it expensive.
What an amazing trip! I would love to go to Australia someday. So glad your relationship with Christ strengthened.
Thank you so much for the encouragement! It is definitely a place to visit!
It looks like you had a really fun trip :)! I love how you utilized all the free stuff. I have 2 little boys and when we go on vacation we never have a lot of money so I tend to take advantage of freebies too (And I always pack food! Eating pop tarts in our hotel room is so much cheaper then going to breakfast!!)
That is so perfect! Also pop tarts taste so much better on vacation, I actually think it is a real thing!
Looks and sounds like a very good trip! and you did it on a nice budget, and thanks for passing that on to us, so we can see how it all worked out.
Thank you for reading and encouraging!!
Awesome photos!! Looks like a great trip 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
http://neatly-packaged.com/
Thank you for the encouragement 🙂
All the photos are great. Sounds like your first day of spring break was wonderful.
Thank you so much Catherine!
I was in Cairns in 2010 and one thing with did while there was visit the Great Barrier Reef. It was a Awesome time.
Ahhhhh Letty!! Wasn’t it awesome!! You will have to check back next week to see my pictures of the Reef and me riding a Sea Turtle!!
Having other broke college kid friends is really the only way to survive!
Amen sista!! Haha so true 🙂
What an amazing adventure! Thanks for sharing!!
Sounds like you had more adventure as a broke college student than many with money have. The Christian College Bloggers sound awesome too. I’m going to check out the link.
Thank you so much for the encouragement Erica! I truly think we must live with what we have been given!
A great name and a great program! Sounds like fun.
Thank you so much for the encouragement Cassie!
We get one shot at life! I love that you “get that” and are making it count. The value of life is really found “outside the box”. Congratulations for really living!
Danielle, this truly made my night! Thank you so much for the sweet encouragement, I am truly blessed with blogging buddies like you!
I hope to go to Australia myself some day! It looks like a gorgeous place to go!
If you can make it over most definitely do! Such a cool place 🙂
I think you’ve proven you don’t have to spend much to enjoy yourself. The pictures look awesome.
Thank you so much Taya!
I too had unforgettable memories while still in college. I’m also Christian so I appreciate the blessings that He gives me.
It is so wonderful when we realize all we have been given, right?! Thank you for reading!
I sure bet you’ll enjoy there! I am actually missing being in college, where life is so simple and carefree!
Thanks for sharing the tips here 🙂
I’m not looking forward to entering the “real world” anytime soon! Thank you for the encouragement! 🙂
“Broke college kid life” I love it! I’m right there with you!
I agree with the commenter above. Broke College Kid is basically my life story! LOL!
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