I live in the Gold Coast, which is an hour south of Brisbane (really near the Easternmost

point of Australia if you look at it on a map), and it's made up of a

bunch of suburbs. I'd say this place is the equivalent of LA

(lifestyle, fake-ness, tourism), but since there are only 20 million

or so people here, it's definitely small scale. Beach and surf culture

really permeate this area... well, this whole country. I mean it's a

normal look for people to wear surf shorts as regular clothes, or for

people other than crazies to go barefoot, that kind of thing... brands

like Roxy, Billabong are still big. The Gold Coast is also home to all

the theme parks (that I haven't been to yet) and all things touristic,

so with that, there's a decent nightlife here in the "downtown" suburb

of Surfers Paradise. I mean, not that I know since I'm studying all

the time. :p I could equate Surfers to about the size of the

Magnificent Mile.. all the good stuff is in a 2 block by 2 block

square that's right off the beach. There are highrises, but they're

all residential buildings. Everywhere else, including where I live

now, is just like.. Rockford kind of small. YEA I don't know how I do

it without a car. (I've driven my girl's car a few times... DEF

different on the other side) I really like the lifestyle here. It's a

little bit more relaxed, but there's always something to do. And the

weather is good like 25 days out of the month.. it's nice. Another

aspect of living here that I take for granted is how international

everything is. I've learned more geography just by meeting people here

than I ever did in school (Wikipedia is really useful). For example,

my closest friends here are from Tahiti, Japan, Singapore, Zimbabwe,

Sweden, and my friend/flatmate is from Hong Kong. I don't know how,

but I've managed to avoid all the Americans here for semester

studies... except for one girl that I'm going to New Zealand with on

the 20th, but she's cool I met her through a hiking club.. haha.

Oh, Mrs G will probably want to know where I ended up with my studies.

I'm doing a Bachelor of Business in Tourism Management, and I want to

minor in Outdoor Recreation and Parks Management (ecotourism,

environment related). Okay, it's a far cry from industrial design, but

I think I'm well suited for it.. plus the courses are almost a joke

compared to what my friends are up to in terms of difficulty, but I

really like what I'm learning. It's an ideal situation. :) In

retrospect, I know for sure that my portfolio was extremely

premature... but it got me here. I brought my little ArtBin of

acrylics, a couple brushes and pads of cold press, and some tools. I

painted just once, but I plan to bust it out a few times more over the

next few years, hopefully.

Hope things are cool with you, too! Say hi to everyone for me!

-Victoria