What a month!

I cannot believe my time here in Sydney is over! This morning Amanda and I woke up early to send off our group, it was pretty sad.. I'm going to miss those little buggers!

So since I've been awfully irresponsible about updating let me see if I can figure out some highlights...

The Rugby Game

Well the main reason I stopped updating for a while was because at the Rugby Union Australia vs. South Africa game my camera was stolen! It was terrible. My CCSA group tried to pick a fight with the people they thought stole it.. as if people aren't annoyed enough by americans already! Anyway, I lost pictures from the Toronga Zoo and the ghost story tour. But they were awesome.

Canberra

We took a day trip to Canberra, the capital. It was not too much fun.. it was a three hour bus ride and we spent an hour at the capital, an hour for lunch, 30 minutes at the mint and 25 minutes at the art museum and then rode three hours back! it was not fun. It was also quite gloomy and grey and cold SOOO cold.

But the capital was pretty neat, it was built right into a hill.. there's grass on the roof! It's an incredible building.





The art museum there was pretty amazing.. but we only had a little while to look around.





The Gold Coast

The rest of the group went up to see the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns, but Kathy and I went up to the Gold Coast. It was great.. about 70 degrees and keep in mind.. that's the dead of winter for them! The water was clear and the night life was insane.

The area we were in was called Surfer's Paradise. It was right on the beach and had a ton of shops and things around. It was really crowded. Kathy wanted to go on a pub crawl and it was there that I participated in my first ever drinking contest. I beat the girl next to me, but our team lost on the whole.. the guy from Holland just couldn't handle it! But despite my first time alcohol experience on this trip I have yet to get drunk and don't really plan on it. Maybe I'm responsible.. but like I've said before.. spending money on alcohol seems a little senseless. I'd much rather spend cash on important things like clothes and tanning lotion.







It was also my first time to stay at a hostel. It wasn't too bad.. it reminded me of summer camp, though it was a little wierd getting used to having guys in our room.

I wish we could have been there longer.. but it was nice to get out of the city for a weekend.



Some Aussies

Well I've been meeting some swell people up here.. well mostly guys I've picked up in bars to tell the truth. But it's nice to have natives show you around the city.

The day the rest of the group left for Cairns my friend Angelo led me on a two hour hike that connected two beaches.. it was great! We went salsa dancing that night and between the hike and the dancing I was so tired on the way to the gold coast the next day.. yet I still went out that night. Adam says that I can sleep when I'm 30.. I hope I can make it till then.



I've also been catching up with Shane once or twice a weeks since I've been here. He teaches aboriginal health care at Sydney Uni. He introduced me to Thai food last week and I've been eating it ever since.. it's like a drug trip for the tongue.. so many flavors..I can't eat the stuff fast enough.



We're supposed to watch cricket tonight.. but I have a feeling I will fall asleep as soon as I get back to the hostel.

Goodbyes

the last two nights our group has stayed out late.. the plan was to party on Tuesday so people could go to sleep early on wednesday.. so we went out tuesday but then wednesday they decided they couldn't sleep in on their last night in the sydney.. some people stayed up all night.. insane.



I did karaoke for the second time in my life.. it was pretty fun. Sarah picked Honky Tonk woman and all us TN girls sang it.



Last night I finally got around to doing all the things I hadn't.. walked across the harbor bridge, went to the 24 hour pancake place, and the observatory.



Off to the land of the All Blacks

Tomorrow my flight leaves at some ungodly hour of the morning.. bleh.. I have to be there early to go through customs. The flight is kind of long too.. but then I'll be in Auckland for a day and then my tour with Contiki starts. I'm a little nervous about venturing out solo, but I'll be fine. I will miss this city though.. it really is a great town.

.. oh yeah.. and I passed my exam ;)

Holiday

Not vacation.. going on Holiday.

July 4

Well I found out that for some reason the Aussies don't celebrate the day America gained independence from Britain. What's up with that?

Interestingly enough the USS Kitty Hawk docked on Tuesday so there were american sailors everywhere! But I only met a few Aussie navy guys. They were friendly enough to say the least.

The cool kids in my group hit the town in search of some BBQ.. but we couldn't find any so most everyone just got pissed (as the aussies say.. or completely plastered).



I opted not too.. I'd like to say it was because I was being responsible.. but mostly because I had no money. A navy guy bought me a drink and that was it for me.



My roommate on the other hand was out of control! She beat the guys in a drinking contest which was good. But when we got back to the hotel she freaked out because her earrings were gone so we flipped over the bed and turned the room inside out. But when we got back to the our hotel room she found them on the dresser.. it was pretty crazy. Then she vomited all over the bathroom, which she has no recollection of and sense I had to take a shower I had to clean it up. Happy fourth of july!



Other random days this week

I haven't done anything too terrible exciting. The past few days I've been going from bank to bank in search of someone that can help. .my ATM card broke last friday and I've been peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and dinner for a week! But today I finally found a solution.. so first thing I did was hit Chinatown and get some grilled prawn.. mmmmm..

So for lack of specific exciting stories here are some fun things about Australia.

Words..
They lazy bums shorten everything:
Uni (university
Ut (truck.. short for utility)
Barbie (bar b que)

and so on. Some things that have really thrown me off
Jumper - pullover. Someone said, 'you should have worn a jumper' and I thought they were suggesting I wear a denim type dress. But in fact they just wanted me to be warmer..
Pissed - drunk. Someone came in the hotel screaming "I'm so pissed!!" and I was like.. I wonder what he's so mad about.
Rugged up - dress warmly.

Everyone also says "How you going" I guess a mix between how's it going and how are you.
And you don't go running over here.. you go for a run. You don't look at something you have a look. You also don't go to the bathroom.. you go to the toilet or the loo.

Anyways.. the cars here are really really small.. and in very neutral colors. I've seen about 6 red cars and one yellow.. the other thousands have mostly been black or grey.





The birds here are pretty crazy too! The cockatoos are everywhere! And there are lorakeets which are like big parakeets. They're like birds you'd pay thousands of dollars for a pet store.. but they are everywhere down here.







Actually that last one was a bat.

Anyways, the Aussie superbowl was Wednesday and I went over to my travel agents house to watch the action. It was rugby league, which is a litttle different than rubgy union. But the guys were betting on everything! Who would score, how much they'd score, who'd come out of the game, who in the room would pass out first. You name it, they'd bet on it.

Our group did go down to the Uni tuesday.





The guide told us that it looked so much like Cambridge that the school in London often sends their photographers down here to take pictures since it's always rainy up there.. and no one can tell the difference.

Good Fun

That's something everyone says down here, "that's good fun." or "she's good fun." or "it was good fun." It sounds so modest to me. Why not "great fun" or "fantastic fun"?

Friday, July 1

I went to a huge union rally at Town Hall. The speech was broadcast live all over Australia.



The Town Hall was beautiful on the inside. I was glad I got to see it. The rally it's self was interesting.. it's one of those things that the people who aren't in the unions don't really care about though.





Friday we tried to go Salsa dancing, but the place only plays salsa on wednesday nights. So we went to our favorite local bar.

I purchased my first ever alcoholic drink! It was a rum and coke, hand picked by the bartender. It wasn't too good, I sipped it for a long time and didn't finish it.. hardly worth $4.50! Then some friendly Aussie bought me a malibu and coke a few hours later.. which I also didn't finish but enjoyed it more. Maybe that's just because it was free.

Unfortunately I was wearing salsa shoes and my feet basically gave out by 2 AM. I couldn't walk! My feet swelled up and I had to put bandaids on most of my toes. The night before I was also in heels.. my sensitive footsies can't take the pressure I guess.



But the shoes were so cute!

Anyways, I feel asleep around 3:30 and some of our friends called us at 5 AM to tell us they had arrived safely at the hotel.. I was just like.. congratulations.

But I couldn't fall back asleep so I got up a 6 AM to go running.

Saturday July 2

I didn't get lost, but I took a nasty fall. It was a combination of the extreme exhaustion and mangled feet from the night before. I thought I was fine but today my knee really started hurting.

Anyways, my friends went off to the various markets but, I, not being able to access cash (my ATM card isn't working!), hung around and did exciting things like laundry and essays.

I did however book a trip to the Gold Coast... I'm so excited!



I went to Sydney Uni (short for university.. aussies cut everything short..) to see a lecture that I was invited too. The topic was aboriginal health care, which was fairly interesting.. although perhaps a little less interesting the second time around. but it was nice to meet some real australian students.. even though they were med students.

But the Uni was absolutely beautiful.. it's about 10 minutes outside of the main part of Sydney.



They have about 20,000 kids, and only take about 2 americans a year! ouch!



Anyways, I basically got home around 6:30.. made it till 8 and then passed out. I was so tired. Someone in my group called at 9:30 to tell me she was throwing up because of vodka.. and I was so tired and not really comprehending why she was calling me. And you know how sometimes when you're not really listening to someone you have these set things that you say, like if they are talking about something bad you might say "oh my" or "oh gosh" .. or if they are trying to impress you you say "wow" or "whoa" or "cool". Unfortunately I was so tired I became confused and used the wrong words. She was like, I'm so sick! and I was like "cool".. not really realizing it.

Sunday July 3, 2004

I woke up extremely refreshed and went on a long run.. it was.. long.



Amanda and Kathy and I went to Bondi beach to meet up with some people they met last night. It was so beautiful.. but kind of chilly. The beach was packed with people! It cost us 30 bucks to get there in a cab because of the traffic.



Anyways.. I have an essay due tomorrow around 1:30.. it's about 9 PM and I suppose I should have a crack at it.. but .. I probably will wait until tomorrow. Somethings never change.

Living the big city life!

Monday, June 27

I went running and got so lost! I got lost last time I went running.. but this time I got REALLY lost. I walked the path the night before and thought I was cool.. but then I missed and turn, but figured I could run the route in reverse.. big mistake!

It was a beautiful run but I ended up in some suburub. I went into the police station and asked for directions to Circular Quay and the guy was like.. uhh.. do you have enough for bus fare? But two hours later.. I made it back.

Class started and it's pretty okay. We're going through the Australian short stories book. It is very frustrating that we have to write journals and essays though.

I went to a cafe to write some of my journals and started talking with the waitress.

She told me that the place was so busy on last Saturday that they just shut down. I asked why she didn't stay open to make the extra money and she said, well after awhile, I just got annoyed with running around so much so we just closed down.

I was like.. if only my Ben and Jerry's manager could hear that now. I love Australia.

Tuesday, June 28

I finally got to do a little shopping, and there are so many places to go! Basically, Sydney has the whole underground shopping mall the covers a large part of the city.. it's insane!

The a few of the group members went to the zoo but I decided I wasn't really up for walking around in the rain (it's been raining all week!). So I got off the ferry, intending to head back to the hotel, when a group of union protestors marched by. So I was like, eh, what the heck. So I joined the march and walked down the business part of Syndey.

It was a small little rally of only one union I think. A reporter came by and stood next to me, so after the rally we started talking (because I'm so nosey). She invited me up to her office! I was pretty excited. She told me about a huge union demonstration on Friday (which I just came from).



There's a lot of stuff going on right now with Unions in Australia. The republicans recently attained full control of the senate and when they reconviene in August will vote on several key union issues including lowering minimum wages, AMA contracts that Australians will have to sign, and the abolishment of wrongful termination protection for business under 100 members (everyone here calls it "getting sacked").



Wednesday, June 28

A few of us hit the aquarium which was underconstruction. But the best part was the oceanarium.. it was a amazing! There was this huge manta ray that was just hanging out right above our heads.




Jessica and I went to the botanical gardens and it was so beautiful.. right in the heart of the city.





They had a place though, the home of the flying foxes. It's like... your walking along and then you look up and you're like.. hmm.. what kind of fruit is that.. and then you're like.. AHHH!! giants bats!!! they were huge!



The literature class that evening went to see a play at the opera house called "Two Brothers." It is a poltical drama that is widely known to be based on the life of a former Aussie prime minister (but of course the author denies it to avoid lawsuits). The play painted a pretty negative picture of politics, but the play has been one of the Opera Houses' most popular in years. Interesting. It was really wonderful! It was really suspensful at times.

Despite the fact that we were crazy tired afterwards Sarah and Kathy and I went exploring and found a salsa bar!! I'm so excited. I think we're going back tonight.

Thursday, June 30

The literature class went to the oldest churches in Sydney and to the New South Whales art museum.. it was pretty awesome.



It's been raining though.. which made walking around pretty miserable! Sydney hadn't had any precipitation in three months, then we arrived, and now they are having the worst flooding in June since 2001!


More shopping, but I haven't been too bad. We went to this place for dinner that had steak and pasta for five bucks! It was really delicious (a nice change from the PB&H I've been eating twice a day). But it was a really swanky club.. they get you in with the food but then get your money with the drinks (16.50 for a long island iced tea!).

Then we went to the casino. It was my first time, but some guys had already been and lost a lot of money.. apparently though last night they were getting closer to where they started. The girls mostly stayed at the bar.

Speaking of the bar.. a lot of my classmates are going broke already! Drinks here are pretty expensive. So some have taken to buying wine before hand and getting buzzed in the room.. then going out to get drunk (because it's more efficient and cost effective). But everyone is getting along really well!

Learning to walk upside down...

It's more difficult then it sounds.
Saturday, June 25.
The 14 hour plane ride went straight from Thursday night to Saturday morning. As if the plane ride wasn't bad enough.. then we had to stand in a horrific line at Customs. Everyone had to declare their nutri-grain bars or pay a $500 penalty. As much as the Aussies are famous for being laid back.. let's just say .. the Customs workers were not interested in being anyone's mate.

Sarah's suitcase was lost. We got to the hotel and she went up to the desk and the male clerk said the hotel was due to call in the morning and bring the suitcase by. When he recieve'd it he'd just go up to her room and knock her up. Apparently, in Australia, that means to call someone on the phone. Interesting.

The excitment of the city kept us most of us awake until about 9PM.. then we all passed out.


Our hotel is right by Circular Quay, which is the main tourist harbor area in the city. There are so many different kinds of languages spoken it kind of makes your head spin.

Of course, the most idiotic street preformer on the pier was American. Jessica and I stopped to watch.. because he was playing with some fire tourches and we were hoping he'd burn himself. But alas, he stayed unharmed. Unfortunately I made the mistake of making eyecontact with the bloake and he grabbed me out of the crowd and I became his safety girl/cheerleader. It was not too much fun.. but I got the fame I've always dreamed of. At the end of the show he took a long nail and hammer and drove a nail into his nose.. I had a close view and thought I was going to have to resign my position as safety girl and throw up. But I survived.



Sunday, June 26.
We had a tour of the city and then of the Opera House.

The city tour was wonderful. I hope to explore many of the places further. We saw Nicole Kidman and Russel Crowe's house. The neighborhood was so swanky it hurt my head.

Bondi Beach was great too! There were only surfers out there.. the water wasn't too cold though.





By the way, the psuedo mo-hawk is really in style down here.

The Opera tour was interesting. The place is really interesting on the inside.. not as glamorous as you may think. They also have a wild bird that lives in there and flies around. The wood inside is all Euclyptus... pretty crazy.



The inside of the auditoriums were so beautiful. We walked in during a Sydney Symphony rehersal and the sound was absolutely perfect. It was overwhelming.

At night we had a real fancy dinner on a boat. The food was pretty good.. the crab was really good. The fillet was just okay. But the chocolate dessert was SOOO good. I was still kind of hungry and basically enhaled the thing before I noticed that no one else liked theirs. Oh well.. losers.






That night I was so tired but most of the rest of the group was going out.. so I was like.. eh.. why not? Three of the girls were so adament about going to this one bar (St. Patty's).. it was all I heard that evening. So we get there and there are two tables of all males, and no one else.. but the group decides to get a new table! I was like.. what are they thinking!!

So after a few minutes of politely sitting with my group, I rallied Jessica and Jacienda and though they thought I was crazy, they said they would come with me to talk to the other tables.

Well as it turns out we happened to approach five rugby players from New Whales (the one in Britain!). They were so friendly. We all started to have a really goodtime, and my roommate Anne, joined us quickly. Then after about 30 minutes half of the other group left (including the three girls that dragged us there in the first place). But the three other students migrated over to the other table of guys, who were from Ireland.

We got there around 10:30 and ended up staying there until after 1 AM! The bar singer played singalong classics such as Free Fallin', Coldplay, U2, every Oasis song that ever existed, The Gambler, Country Roads, and Stand by Me (3 times!).. and every single person in the bar knew all the words to every song.. that blew my mind!



I have to say that I was quite impressed with the rugby guy next to me, David. He works at an animal rescue place in Whales and seemed really cool. His accent was crazy.. half british half keltic! He taught me some Welsh words too.. that is the craziest language. He knew a whole lot about American music.. apparently the stuff is everywhere. The guys knew about Nashville too.. though they didn't know where it was on a map. But we taught them how to say Yee-haw and everyone was happy.