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.