Lord Mayor Masquerade Ball 2011

This Multicultural Business Dinner was quite a different "Brisbane experience" for me, it was a lovely evening with very distinguished guests. I had the opportunity to meet Brisbane's Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk and many other interesting people.

Photography by: Leong Ming

Photography by: Mohammad Badiul Islam

Photography by: Eden Wu

Photography by: Leong Ming

Photography by: Leong Ming

All the masks were original and they made the event quite fun and colorful. Dinner was delicious and the entertainment was surprising! It included a boys choir, a magician, a vietnamese dance, a belly dance and singers. We had a really good time!!! Some of the international student ambassadors wore their countries traditional dress, they looked marvelous!

Araucaria Tours

Last month I was lucky enough to participate in a day-tour to explore Australia's wildlife with Araucaria Ecotours, whose guides were lovely Ronda and fun Darren. We did a very complete tour, starting early in the morning with a bushwalk at Daisy Hill where we spotted a wallaby. After a nice walk we had a relaxing time to sit down and enjoy the setting with coffee and tea next to the Daisy Hill Koala Visitor Centre, which we visited afterwards and saw a beautiful half asleep koala.

Afterwards we went to admire a really cool waterfall that freshened our moods!!!



Later we went to a wonderful Skywalk on Tamborine Mountain which was an amazing part of the tour, with an incredibly high biodiversity of flora and fauna, so many types of vegetation, huge and old trees that were the size of sky-scrapers and with very different figures that formed bizarre shapes...it was a really nice experience. The rays of sunlight  percolated through the branches and leaves...

I saw species of trees, plants and insects that I had never seen before and  they were all very exotic! I love Australia's wildlife!



Later that day we had a delicious lunch in Jubilee Park in Beaudesert that consisted of 

wraps with hummus, olives, veggies, tuna, brie and other delicious cheeses... it was 

immaculate! 

Finally, we went to Kooralbyn and saw three different species of kangaroos and wallabies: red-necked wallabies, whip-tail wallabies (which were very fast!) and eastern grey kangaroos (very big). For the first time in my life, I saw female kangaroos with babies in their pouch! It was soooo exciting and the baby kangaroos were too cute!!!

http://www.learnaboutwildlife.com/
http://www.facebook.com/AraucariaEcotours

Living in Brisbane

I arrived to Brisbane on January 2011 and I can’t believe that my first semester here is almost over! Even though time has flown, and it has literally felt faster than ever before in my life, I also feel like I have done many things, experienced a new lifestyle, discovered incredible places and learned not only academically but socially, culturally and spiritually. This place has given my the opportunity to meet amazing and very different people that I would have never thought of, it has also offered me a great education so far. The time that I have spent here has made me grow a lot as a person, as a woman and as a student. I really look forward to all that is waiting for me….

Lovely Brisbane at sunset

  

Brisbane is a city that I can’t describe but I will try my best….it is not too big to get lost but not too small to get bored, it is as multicultural as it can get, it has a very good infrastructure but its close to nature, the river brings peace and there are beaches very close by. The weather is perfect! I love the way it is designed for cars and buses but also for bikes and pedestrians.

I bought a bicycle as soon as I got here and it is the most efficient transport! You can get to anywhere you want in a bike, using the bridges and green roads exclusively for bikes and people. 

The City Cat of Brisbane is very efficient, I really enjoy hopping in this public transport on a sunny day and I can take my bicycle with me from one place to another. There are many areas of the city that I love, one of them is Southbanks where there is a nice temple next to the city cat stop. 

Since I arrived to Australia, I wanted to see kangaroos and koalas and I have finally not only seen them but touched them…I could actually spoon a kangaroo! He didn’t seem to mind ;).