Are you ready to rock?

It's Monday - the start of a new week. Most people would spend their Mondays at work or at school ... not me. I have the day off, so I haven't been doing much. But, we did book our Spring Break trip today. Hard hit on the ol' credit card ... but I'm SUPER excited. We're spending 16 days traveling up the east coast, starting in Sydney and ending in Cairns. Along the way, we'll be attending surf camp, sailing in the Whitsunday Islands, camping on Fraser Island and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Hard to imagine that it's only 25 days away! Time flies here. Sadly. We leave Friday, April 10. Can't wait to write about all of it :)

This past weekend, we went to Sydney again. Can you tell how much I adore that city? We caught an afternoon train on Friday and spent the night in a hostel. On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to the Sydney Cricket Grounds for the Sound Relief Concert. We promptly took our spot in line and waited for the doors to open at 11 a.m. And, although it was general admission, we ran like hell once the gates opened and secured a spot about four rows back from center stage. Coldplay started the day off. What an amazing performance. They were incredible! A few Australian bands followed ... and our next big performer took the stage at 5:30 - TAYLOR SWIFT! I was about 10 feet away from here and screaming like a little girl. You can imagine it, I'm sure.

This was hands down the best music festival I've ever attended. It was ten hours of live music, and included Coldplay, The Presets, Josh Pyke, Taylor Swift, The Bee Gee's with Olivia Newton John, Jet and others. All of the proceeds went to the victims of the recent bush fires and floods in the area. All in all, we helped to raise 5 million dollars. Wow. That should give you a rough estimate as to how packed the place was! We were right in the center of the mosh pit. Which, I have to admit, has always been something I wanted to experience. It's officially been checked off the list. What's worse than a rowdy mosh pit? A wet one. Yes, it started to pour down rain right before Taylor Swift took stage. Did that stop anything?? No way. The music continued - and the crowd get even crazier. It was AWESOME.

We took a late night train back to Newcastle after the concert on Saturday night and spent all day Sunday on the beach. The waves were the biggest that I'd ever seen them. I attempted to 'ride the waves' like all of the guys were doing. And, you guessed it, I almost drowned. So, I think I'll stick to the beach for a few days before trying that again.

This weekend is Surfest, Newcastle's largest event. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the competitions ... and attending the Wine & Wave festival, of course. 

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! We ordered a keg and we plan on having a sweet ShamROCK the House party. I think we might need a few lessons before we try and set up the keg, though. They are extremely different from the ones back home. If you wish to order a keg, you have to order a magic box with it. This is a giant black box, filled with ice and has a tube coiled around it. You put the keg on top of the magic box, and turn the gas on, which carbonates the beer and sucks it from inside the keg. The beer then travels through the ice tubes and comes out in your cup ice cold. Sounds cool and confusing. Let's hope we can figure it out. Our balcony has been yearning for a big house party :)

T-minus two weeks until my parents arrive! They are ecstatic about bringing me my own suitcase full of clothes and other necessary items :) Can't wait!

I'll check up with you all again. No worries :)

XOXO, Jennifer Lynn

After the rain. Can you see the huge crowd behind us?!

So close to Taylor Swift!