After our trip from Melbourne, I had another week/weekend in Sydney. It was mainly filled with doing research, studying for exams, and writing a bunch of papers, but we still managed to squeeze in some fun. Me, Gabi, and her sister went to the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour, which were very pretty. A bunch of us also went to the Opera House the night that it was all lit up with different colors and images. I always saw post cards of the Opera House with images and different colors on it and wondered if it was real...apparently it is, so I was glad I got to see it. Other than those events, the week was pretty boring and strenuous trying to get everything finished in time before I left for Fraser. I luckily did finish all of my papers before leaving, though I hated every second of it. Gabi, Mike and I made some pina coladas to celebrate the last week of classes the night before we ventured off to our final vacation in Australia.
We left for Fraser early on Friday morning and stayed there until Wednesday. It was our "Stud Vac" Week, which I always thought meant "student vacation," but as it turns out it actually means "study vacation." It's an easy mix-up. So instead of studying for our week-long vacation, we decided to go be beach bums on the coast of Fraser for five days. We stayed in a resort right on the coast of Hervey Bay, which is just a ferry ride away from Fraser Island. Our resort was very nice, located in a secluded area, with a balcony that overlooked the ocean. We were also very fortunate to have beautiful weather while we were there, so we actually got to experience some warm sunny weather, which was quite a relief since it has been rainy (very rainy) and rather chilly the past couple of weeks in Sydney. We took full advantage off the beautiful weather, the secluded beach, and the crystal clear water to actually relax and forget about schoolwork. It was the first trip I went on while I've been here that I've actually felt like I was on vacation. We didn't have a schedule, there wasn't much to see, and we didn't have any more papers to write. It was glorious.
When we first arrived on Friday, we decided to walk to the grocery store so we could take advantage of our kitchen and actually cook home-made meals instead of going out to eat. Once we bought enough food to last us for five days, we took a walk along the beach, walked into the ocean, and watched the sunset. It was a nice, relaxing day. Saturday, we decided to rent bikes to go explore the entire area. It has been a very long time since I've ridden a bike and it was great. We rode on a trail right next to the ocean for as far as it went. Gabi had a pretty rough time riding the bike. She was so busy looking at the ocean that she didn't realize the path had a slight turn to it and almost ran straight into a tree! I literally screamed and she turned right in time to avoid the tree. Then we were crossing the road and a car decided to take a quick turn and nearly hit Gabi but luckily missed her. And then after all of this, we rode up to a jet-ski rental place to see how much it would be to rent some jet-skis. As we ride up, Gabi runs straight into a giant, metal sign and knocks it to the ground causing it to make a very loud noise and everyone to rush out of the building to see what had happened. Gabi was pretty embarrassed and I was too slow to get off my bike to help her, so I just laughed. I'm a terrible friend. As it turns out, it was $125 an hour to rent jet-skis, so we had to turn them down (after the owner admitted to being hesitant to letting us rent his jet-skis after Gabi ran into a sign while riding her bike). After our all day adventurous (and nearly dangerous) bike ride, we went back to our resort to make some dinner and hang out on our patio for the rest of the evening.
It seemed wrong to go all the way up toward Fraser Island but not actually go on the island, so on Sunday we decided to buy a ticket for the ferry that takes us to the island. It ended up to be cheaper to buy a packaged deal for the ferry combined with an all-day stay at the resort on the island, so we decided to once again take the "glamorous" option. After our short ferry ride across, we got to our new resort for the day and decided to lay by the pool and spa the entire day. We wandered around for a little bit, but realized there really wasn't much to do and we just wanted to lay in the warm sun by the pool, so that's exactly what we did. While we were wondering around, a giant snake slithered right across our path! I'm not really afraid of snakes, so it wasn't too big of a deal for me (even though this snake was HUGE). However, Gabi is absolutely terrified of snakes and was freaking out wishing we could jump on the ferry to go straight home, but I convinced her to stay on the island until our designated 5:00 departure time and to just continue on our way to the pool. We unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) did not see any dingos while we were on the island. I think I would have been slightly freaked out if one would have came our way, but I also think it would have been pretty cool to see one.
On Monday, our good friend Mike came to stay with us at our resort for the last few days of our vacation. He was with a group of our friends who were camping on the island and actually roughing it. We were excited to have him come stay with us...it's always more fun when there's more people on your vacations. We essentially all just continued to be beach bums for our last couple of days - layed on the beach, drank some Coronas, took a walk on the beach, and played in the water.
The three of us decided to go out for lunch at the nearby cafe after a nice nap on the beach. I wasn't too hungry and just wanted to order off the kids menu. For some reason, every restaurant I have been to in Australia is very strict about their 12 year old age limit and deny me when I ask to order off it. I decided it was worth a shot, so I asked our waitress if it was possible for me to order off the kids menu. Our waitress looks at me and says "well, you look young enough." Mike died laughing because he's been making fun of me the entire time for being one of the oldest people here yet looking like I'm the youngest, so he got a real kick out of the waitress thinking I looked like I was 12. After we placed our orders (yes, I ended up ordering off the kids menu), our waitress came back to ask if we wanted any drinks. I decided that I was going to throw our waitress for a loop, so I ordered a mango daiquiri. Our waitress looked at me a little shocked and then asked how old I was, so I informed her that I am 21...she was pretty surprised. So for lunch I had a kids meal with a mango daiquiri. Later on that night we went to Baskin Robins to get a little ice cream treat. Yes, they do have Baskin Robins here but surprisingly no Dunkin Donuts. They even had a street sign pointing to where Baskin Robins was located, and I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of it...oh well. When we got inside the store, I told the man behind the counter that I had no idea what kind I wanted, so he just started giving me samples of nearly every flavor in there while telling me which ones are the most popular, it was pretty great. Apparently Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is the most popular ice cream flavor in there according to the worker and he kept going on and on about how wonderful it is. I decided to expand beyond the oh so common flavor for the one called "Gold Ribbon Award" which consisted of chocolate and vanilla ice cream swirled in caramel. It was pretty delicious and gave Mike (who ordered the very common Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough) food envy, which we both agreed is the worst kind of envy.
So basically our "student vacation" was filled with laying in the sun on the beach while eating ice cream and drinking Coronas - exactly what a vacation should be. It was my favorite place I went to in Australia and was, naturally, my favorite trip I made. I really wish I was back there right now laying in the warm sun, but instead I'm hanging out in rainy Sydney attempting to get motivated to start studying for my final exams. I have one final on June 19 and another on June 25 and then I am finally done with school for the semester and off to explore the North Island of New Zealand before returning to my beloved home in Minnesota. I have very mixed feelings about leaving. It's going to be very hard to say goodbye to all of the friends I have made here as well as saying goodbye to Sydney and Australia, but I also miss my friends and family back home and will be glad to see them. As for right now, I'm very glad I still have a few weeks left in Australia and am going to make the most of it (while remaining moderately studious, of course). I'll let you know how my finals go...wish me luck!
Much love,
Whit
P.S. I uploaded photos from Melbourne, the Sydney Opera House, and Fraser Island on my Photobucket account, so go ahead and take a look!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Melbourne
I have once again allowed myself to get several weeks behind on my blog. With all the traveling I've been doing combined with finals rapidly approaching, I have found very limited time to sit down and write for fun. Today, I have decided to procrastinate on my studying and researching so I can fill you all in on what I've been doing for the past month.
On May 22-25, I took a weekend vacation to Melbourne. Obviously I traveled with Gabi since she is my little travel buddy and great friend, but we also met her two sisters who came to visit her. We stayed in a hotel near the middle of the city, which was very convenient since we didn't have to spend a ton of money on transportation.
The first day we were in Melbourne was a little bit of a hassle. Our flight left Sydney at 9:00 in the morning, so we had to be at the airport pretty early. Neither Gabi nor I slept very much, we averaged about 3 hours of sleep that night. Gabi had to hand in a paper before we left, so she woke up at 4 am to finish it, print it off, and hand it in. I was a slacker who didn't pack the night before because I was doing a lot of research for a paper, so I had to wake up extra early to make sure I was all packed up. So needless to say, Gabi and I were pretty exhausted before we even left Sydney. Ben was nice and woke up early to give Gabi and I a ride to the airport so that we didn't have to pay for a taxi, but on the way to the airport, Ben took a wrong turn and got lost. I never pay attention to where we're going whenever we take a cab to the airport and so I had no clue where to go and Gabi was passed out in the backseat. Luckily, Ben figured out where he was and we still made it to the airport with plenty of time. We checked in, dropped our luggage off, and headed toward our gate to wait until we boarded. While we were waiting, both Gabi and I fell asleep in the airport chairs and woke up right before our boarding time due to very noisy men sitting directly across from us. We were both a little annoyed and a little thankful that they were there. There were plenty of other seats at the gate that these guys could have sat in, but they chose to sit directly across from us and talk very loudly, which made it a little awkward when we woke up. But if they hadn't sat there, I wonder if we would have even woken up to board the plane, so I suppose we couldn't get too mad at them. Once we were on the plane, Gabi and I fell asleep before the plane even took off. I woke up one time throughout the flight when we hit turbulence, thinking that we were taking off. I was pretty surprised when I looked out the window to see that we were already flying and realized that I had been sleeping for an hour, then fell back asleep (I'm telling you, we were very tired) and finally woke up right when the plane landed.
Gabi and I get off the plane and go into the smallest airport we have ever seen in our entire life. It had one baggage claim area and two booths - one for information and another for car rentals. So we grab our luggage, go up to information and ask them how much it would be to take a taxi to our hotel. They inform us that we are at the airport that is 55 kilometers outside of Melbourne, so it will be a $100 cab ride. Gabi and I were quick to veto this option and asked what other options there were. They told us that we could take a bus for $20 a person, but it would be an hour until the bus got to the airport or we could rent a car for $90. We thought about renting a car, but then realized that neither of us knew how to drive manual, especially on the opposite side of the car. So Gabi and I were stuck at this tiny airport for an hour and we were starving! I walked outside to see if there was many a McDonald's or something nearby and realized that we were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. I saw no buildings, houses, or any other form of civilization and was stuck buying a $3 bag of potato chips from the vending machine. After I bought the world's most expensive mini bag of chips, the lady at information informs us that there is a cafe in the departure section of the airport, which is down the block. So Gabi and I take our luggage with us and head down the block toward the cafe. Once we get there, we see that we are the only two people there and that we have to walk through security to get to the cafe. We tell the security guards that we are just going to get a cup of coffee, but they make us stuff our giant suitcase through the x-ray and walk through the security gate. After we get our bag back (which barely fit through the x-ray), I get pulled aside to be "randomly searched." It was seriously the biggest hassle to get this one cup of coffee, particularly since we were the only two people in the entire airport.
Our bus finally arrives and 45 minutes later we are in the actual city of Melbourne. We asked our driver for directions to get to our hotel and he tells us to jump on the free tram that goes around the city. Gabi and I are unaware that there is more than one tram and that only one of these trams is the free one, so we just jump on the first tram we see. The driver on this tram is very nice, lifts our suitcase on the tram for us, asks us where we are going, and told us that he would let us know when we need to get off. Suddenly, two stops later, security gets on the tram to check everyone's ticket. As it turns out, Gabi and I were not on the free tram nor did we buy a ticket for the one we are on. Gabi and I exchange worried looks, trying to figure out what we should do. The security guy comes up to us and asks us for our ticket. Gabi whips out her Australian tourist book to a map of Melbourne and quickly explains that we were told the tram was free. The officer just looks at us, laughs, and says "obviously you guys are not from here, so I'll let it slide this one time. You're pretty lucky though, because I'm supposed to be charging each of you $175." He then tells us which stop we need to get off at and gives us directions to our hotel. He was a very nice guy and we were pretty lucky that we didn't get charged for not buying a ticket for the tram.
So after being stuck at the airport for an hour, taking an hour long bus ride to the city, and getting on the wrong tram, we finally make it to our beautiful hotel. We had a few hours until Gabi's sisters arrived, so we turned on the TV to see what was on. As we flipped through the channels, we came across the American Idol season finale and were very excited. It was the first time since we've been here that American Idol has been on any of the channels. After we watched the finale (and after I decided that Adam is a much better singer/performer than Kris), Gabi's sisters arrive. We decide to walk around the city to get a feel of the atmosphere and then went out to dinner. We went out for Indian cuisine, which I was a little hesitant about due to my dislike of spicy food. I ordered a very basic meal - chicken in rice - and asked for it to be as mild as possible, which apparently wasn't mild enough for me. I could only eat a quarter of it and then I could no longer eat it because my mouth was on fire and it just wasn't enjoyable anymore. Everyone else was making fun of me because they couldn't even taste the spice, I must just have very sensitive taste buds. So after dinner, I decided that I was going to get some ice cream to cool down my mouth and to fill me up, which was one of the best ideas I had all day. Gabi's sisters were pretty tired from all their traveling, so we just went back to the hotel once we were done eating and watched Sleeping Beauty (it was on the Disney Channel).
The next day we got up relatively early to get a full day of shopping in. Melbourne is a very trendy, artsy city filled with wonderful shopping, cute boutiques, and cute cafes. We essentially just walked around all weekend to soak up the ambiance and to see as much as we could. I sadly could not afford anything in the shops, nor could I imagine to afford anything in the shops. Everything was super expensive, but a lot of fun to try on! We also went to a place called "Little Cupcakes" which had the tastiest and cutest cupcakes I have ever seen! My favorite one was the coconut cupcake, but then again, I love coconut everything.
Saturday night we went to an AFL game. You may remember me telling you about AFL in my last blog post and how confusing it was. This time, however, we were smart enough to ask the guy sitting behind us to explain the rules to us so that we could actually understand what was going on. Once we learned the rules and what the game was all about, it made much more sense and it was much more exciting. We all got pretty into the game - cheering, hollering...just trying to fit in with the crazy Aussie crowd. Melbourne ended up loosing, but we really weren't too concerned; it was still a lot of fun.
Our weekend was filled with shopping, eating at cute cafes, going to the AFL game, and watching random Disney movies late at night in our hotel. I was a little sad we didn't go to Great Ocean Road because it's apparently the thing to see when you go to Melbourne, but we for some reason never made it over there (I can't remember the reason. I actually don't think there was a reason...oh well). But I did really enjoy Melbourne and would definitely like to go back someday when I can actually afford to go on a shopping spree.
Now onto the next adventure!
On May 22-25, I took a weekend vacation to Melbourne. Obviously I traveled with Gabi since she is my little travel buddy and great friend, but we also met her two sisters who came to visit her. We stayed in a hotel near the middle of the city, which was very convenient since we didn't have to spend a ton of money on transportation.
The first day we were in Melbourne was a little bit of a hassle. Our flight left Sydney at 9:00 in the morning, so we had to be at the airport pretty early. Neither Gabi nor I slept very much, we averaged about 3 hours of sleep that night. Gabi had to hand in a paper before we left, so she woke up at 4 am to finish it, print it off, and hand it in. I was a slacker who didn't pack the night before because I was doing a lot of research for a paper, so I had to wake up extra early to make sure I was all packed up. So needless to say, Gabi and I were pretty exhausted before we even left Sydney. Ben was nice and woke up early to give Gabi and I a ride to the airport so that we didn't have to pay for a taxi, but on the way to the airport, Ben took a wrong turn and got lost. I never pay attention to where we're going whenever we take a cab to the airport and so I had no clue where to go and Gabi was passed out in the backseat. Luckily, Ben figured out where he was and we still made it to the airport with plenty of time. We checked in, dropped our luggage off, and headed toward our gate to wait until we boarded. While we were waiting, both Gabi and I fell asleep in the airport chairs and woke up right before our boarding time due to very noisy men sitting directly across from us. We were both a little annoyed and a little thankful that they were there. There were plenty of other seats at the gate that these guys could have sat in, but they chose to sit directly across from us and talk very loudly, which made it a little awkward when we woke up. But if they hadn't sat there, I wonder if we would have even woken up to board the plane, so I suppose we couldn't get too mad at them. Once we were on the plane, Gabi and I fell asleep before the plane even took off. I woke up one time throughout the flight when we hit turbulence, thinking that we were taking off. I was pretty surprised when I looked out the window to see that we were already flying and realized that I had been sleeping for an hour, then fell back asleep (I'm telling you, we were very tired) and finally woke up right when the plane landed.
Gabi and I get off the plane and go into the smallest airport we have ever seen in our entire life. It had one baggage claim area and two booths - one for information and another for car rentals. So we grab our luggage, go up to information and ask them how much it would be to take a taxi to our hotel. They inform us that we are at the airport that is 55 kilometers outside of Melbourne, so it will be a $100 cab ride. Gabi and I were quick to veto this option and asked what other options there were. They told us that we could take a bus for $20 a person, but it would be an hour until the bus got to the airport or we could rent a car for $90. We thought about renting a car, but then realized that neither of us knew how to drive manual, especially on the opposite side of the car. So Gabi and I were stuck at this tiny airport for an hour and we were starving! I walked outside to see if there was many a McDonald's or something nearby and realized that we were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. I saw no buildings, houses, or any other form of civilization and was stuck buying a $3 bag of potato chips from the vending machine. After I bought the world's most expensive mini bag of chips, the lady at information informs us that there is a cafe in the departure section of the airport, which is down the block. So Gabi and I take our luggage with us and head down the block toward the cafe. Once we get there, we see that we are the only two people there and that we have to walk through security to get to the cafe. We tell the security guards that we are just going to get a cup of coffee, but they make us stuff our giant suitcase through the x-ray and walk through the security gate. After we get our bag back (which barely fit through the x-ray), I get pulled aside to be "randomly searched." It was seriously the biggest hassle to get this one cup of coffee, particularly since we were the only two people in the entire airport.
Our bus finally arrives and 45 minutes later we are in the actual city of Melbourne. We asked our driver for directions to get to our hotel and he tells us to jump on the free tram that goes around the city. Gabi and I are unaware that there is more than one tram and that only one of these trams is the free one, so we just jump on the first tram we see. The driver on this tram is very nice, lifts our suitcase on the tram for us, asks us where we are going, and told us that he would let us know when we need to get off. Suddenly, two stops later, security gets on the tram to check everyone's ticket. As it turns out, Gabi and I were not on the free tram nor did we buy a ticket for the one we are on. Gabi and I exchange worried looks, trying to figure out what we should do. The security guy comes up to us and asks us for our ticket. Gabi whips out her Australian tourist book to a map of Melbourne and quickly explains that we were told the tram was free. The officer just looks at us, laughs, and says "obviously you guys are not from here, so I'll let it slide this one time. You're pretty lucky though, because I'm supposed to be charging each of you $175." He then tells us which stop we need to get off at and gives us directions to our hotel. He was a very nice guy and we were pretty lucky that we didn't get charged for not buying a ticket for the tram.
So after being stuck at the airport for an hour, taking an hour long bus ride to the city, and getting on the wrong tram, we finally make it to our beautiful hotel. We had a few hours until Gabi's sisters arrived, so we turned on the TV to see what was on. As we flipped through the channels, we came across the American Idol season finale and were very excited. It was the first time since we've been here that American Idol has been on any of the channels. After we watched the finale (and after I decided that Adam is a much better singer/performer than Kris), Gabi's sisters arrive. We decide to walk around the city to get a feel of the atmosphere and then went out to dinner. We went out for Indian cuisine, which I was a little hesitant about due to my dislike of spicy food. I ordered a very basic meal - chicken in rice - and asked for it to be as mild as possible, which apparently wasn't mild enough for me. I could only eat a quarter of it and then I could no longer eat it because my mouth was on fire and it just wasn't enjoyable anymore. Everyone else was making fun of me because they couldn't even taste the spice, I must just have very sensitive taste buds. So after dinner, I decided that I was going to get some ice cream to cool down my mouth and to fill me up, which was one of the best ideas I had all day. Gabi's sisters were pretty tired from all their traveling, so we just went back to the hotel once we were done eating and watched Sleeping Beauty (it was on the Disney Channel).
The next day we got up relatively early to get a full day of shopping in. Melbourne is a very trendy, artsy city filled with wonderful shopping, cute boutiques, and cute cafes. We essentially just walked around all weekend to soak up the ambiance and to see as much as we could. I sadly could not afford anything in the shops, nor could I imagine to afford anything in the shops. Everything was super expensive, but a lot of fun to try on! We also went to a place called "Little Cupcakes" which had the tastiest and cutest cupcakes I have ever seen! My favorite one was the coconut cupcake, but then again, I love coconut everything.
Saturday night we went to an AFL game. You may remember me telling you about AFL in my last blog post and how confusing it was. This time, however, we were smart enough to ask the guy sitting behind us to explain the rules to us so that we could actually understand what was going on. Once we learned the rules and what the game was all about, it made much more sense and it was much more exciting. We all got pretty into the game - cheering, hollering...just trying to fit in with the crazy Aussie crowd. Melbourne ended up loosing, but we really weren't too concerned; it was still a lot of fun.
Our weekend was filled with shopping, eating at cute cafes, going to the AFL game, and watching random Disney movies late at night in our hotel. I was a little sad we didn't go to Great Ocean Road because it's apparently the thing to see when you go to Melbourne, but we for some reason never made it over there (I can't remember the reason. I actually don't think there was a reason...oh well). But I did really enjoy Melbourne and would definitely like to go back someday when I can actually afford to go on a shopping spree.
Now onto the next adventure!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Finally, a weekend in Sydney
G'day mates!
As you can tell, I've been doing a lot of traveling. I had been gone almost every weekend for a month straight, so as you can imagine, it was very nice to have a weekend at home in Sydney. One of our friend, Justin, who studies at Wollongong (about an hour away) came to visit Gabi and I this weekend. We met him during our bus tour through New Zealand, so we were excited to see him almost a month later! We took him to all the touristy spots that everyone needs to see when they come to Sydney, which was a lot of fun for us since it was so long ago that we saw everything in Sydney.
Saturday night, Justin bought us tickets for the AFL "footie" game: the Sydney Swans. Now let me explain AFL footie. It's the Australian version of football and it's intense. It's played on a field similar to soccer, the football is shaped like our football, and the sport itself is a mixture of football, rugby, and soccer. The men don't wear pads, they run around the field and never stop unless the whistle is blown (which is very rare), and they slam each other into the ground. They can only pass the football by hitting the ball similar to an underhand serve in volleyball, they have to dribble the ball every so often, and the object of the game is to kick the ball between two poles. Sounds confusing, right? Yeah..I thought so too. We all had no idea what was going on and just stared at the field, cheered when someone got slammed into the ground and when they scored. Clearly we were awesome fans.
Other than showing Justin the ins and outs of Sydney's touristy spots and nightlife areas, we hung out and enjoyed are nice weekend at "home." It was great to catch up, relax, and spend time with all of our friends.
Cheers!
Whit
As you can tell, I've been doing a lot of traveling. I had been gone almost every weekend for a month straight, so as you can imagine, it was very nice to have a weekend at home in Sydney. One of our friend, Justin, who studies at Wollongong (about an hour away) came to visit Gabi and I this weekend. We met him during our bus tour through New Zealand, so we were excited to see him almost a month later! We took him to all the touristy spots that everyone needs to see when they come to Sydney, which was a lot of fun for us since it was so long ago that we saw everything in Sydney.
Saturday night, Justin bought us tickets for the AFL "footie" game: the Sydney Swans. Now let me explain AFL footie. It's the Australian version of football and it's intense. It's played on a field similar to soccer, the football is shaped like our football, and the sport itself is a mixture of football, rugby, and soccer. The men don't wear pads, they run around the field and never stop unless the whistle is blown (which is very rare), and they slam each other into the ground. They can only pass the football by hitting the ball similar to an underhand serve in volleyball, they have to dribble the ball every so often, and the object of the game is to kick the ball between two poles. Sounds confusing, right? Yeah..I thought so too. We all had no idea what was going on and just stared at the field, cheered when someone got slammed into the ground and when they scored. Clearly we were awesome fans.
Other than showing Justin the ins and outs of Sydney's touristy spots and nightlife areas, we hung out and enjoyed are nice weekend at "home." It was great to catch up, relax, and spend time with all of our friends.
Cheers!
Whit
Monday, May 18, 2009
Townsville
Hello!
After being gone for a weekend in Canberra and spending a total of 4 days in Sydney, I packed my bags yet again and headed on another weekend getaway. This time, I went to Townsville to visit my dear friend, Emma, with Gabi and Ben. Townsville is located in northern Queensland and is about 1,000 miles away from Sydney (so obviously we choose to fly for 3 hours rather than forcing Ben to drive us 12 hours). Though Emma wouldn't allow us to tell people we went to Townsville since it sounds lame, so Gabi, Ben, and I traveled to "Tropical Queensland."
Once we arrived in Tropical Queensland (and after I jumped on Emma and screamed with excitement to see her), Emma made us a nice little lunch and we all hung out and talked for a little while. Ben was feeling pretty sleepy, so he went to go take a nap while Emma took Gabi and I on a campus tour. I thought the campus was super cute! I'm not sure if I could study there since I'm too much of a city girl, but I really did enjoy it. The buildings and classrooms are sort of hidden in the bush; you have to walk along a path that leads into the forest for a second and then you are suddenly on campus. It's very much "Australia-esque," wild turkeys running around, rainforest all around, pic-nic tables in the grass, and mountains in the background. Emma also took us to see the different on-campus housing. Some of them looked pretty normal and cute, but there was one that I thought was hilarious and would die if I had to live in it. They're called Western Courts...sounds lovely doesn't it? It's actually a trailer park on top of an old outdoor basketball court. When we walked by, there were college kids sitting on their porch playing card games in rocking chairs, it was quite the site.
After we walked around campus, we went back to Emma's (her apartment is very nice...comfy cozy with great neighbors and a nice community kitchen area) to find Ben missing. Apparently he accidentally locked himself out of Emma's room and decided he was going to go on a walk and explore campus. He came back about a half an hour later with no shoes on and no phone. We all made fun of him. Later on that night, Emma took us over to her friend's place to participate in a beer pong tournament. Emma and I were on a team (we named ourselves 1,2,3 Triple D! Mighty Ducks anyone?) going against Gabi and Emma's friend, Norm (their team name was Purple Monkey something...it was weird). Our glorious 1,2,3 Triple D team suffered a terrible defeat by the Purple Monkeys...it was upsetting. After the tourney ended, we all went out to one of the bars called Mad Cow, which was a lot of fun. Gabi started talking to the manager of the bar, who then gave us vouchers for free drinks all night. Hooray for a free night!
On Saturday, we went down to the Strand and walked along the beach. It was a lovely day (despite it being rather cloudy...it was still warm), so it was nice to go walking along the beach, playing on the playgrounds, and running knee deep in the ocean. While we were walking, we came across a little event promoting fire safety. We noticed a fireman passing out bright pink stickers, so naturally, we all ran up to him to get our bright pink sticker promoting the stop, drop, and roll saying. The fireman then gave us a bunch of temporary tattoos, key chains, and balloons. We all immediately blew up our balloons and had a balloon fight; we were all very excited. After our nice little walk, we went back to campus to start preparing food for the International Dinner held by the apartment complex Emma lives in. It was a very nice event and looked like a mini-prom. Everyone got dressed up (luckily Gabi and I packed dresses), there were lights hanging everywhere, balloons and confetti on the tables, and sparkling wine being served (okay, so maybe that isn't so prom-ish..but it's still classy). After the dinner was over, we all decided to enjoy a low-key night and watch a movie. It was 5 girls and 1 guy in the room, so guess what kind of movie we got to watch. That's right, we forced Ben to watch a chick flick - He's Just Not That Into You...surprise surprise. As it turned out, all 5 of the girls fell asleep half way through and Ben was the only one who stayed up to watch it. He claims he didn't enjoy it, but I think he was lying. Why else would he be the only one to stay awake for it?
On Sunday Emma took us on a hike up a mountain. And by hike...I mean hike. It was pretty intense and made me realize that I should probably start working out a little more regularly. Once we got to the top of the mountain, though, it was breathtaking. The ocean shore was right below us, so we could look out over the ocean and see all of Townsville at the same time. After our wonderful hike, we went back to the apartment to prepare dinner - marinated kangaroo, broccoli, and potatoes. I was a little hesitant about eating kangaroo at first, but it was actually very very delicious! I don't really know how to describe it, it was a little tough (but not too tough), juicy, and delicious. Once we were done devouring this scrumptious meal, we decided to crack open a bottle of champagne (we're not as classy as we sound...it was $5. We're poor) and play some cards.
Gabi and Ben left to go back to Sydney on Monday morning while I stayed an extra day to spend more time with Emma. Emma and I had a very typical day for us. We made some oatmeal, sat on the bed, and watched the Sex and the City movie. Once we had our fill of Sex and the City, we went for a walk down by the river and talked nonstop for a couple of hours. We later met up with some of Emma's friends at a restaurant, had some pizza and beer to celebrate my last night/them being done with papers (wish I could say the same). It was a very nice last day with Emma - just hanging out, talking, and watching girlie movies all day. It was perfect. Then I sadly had to say goodbye to Emma and go back to Sydney just in time for my class. I really enjoyed Tropical Queensland. It was warm, it was beautiful, it was remote, and it was just overall nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney to relax with good friends.
I hope everything is going well with everyone back home!
Whit
After being gone for a weekend in Canberra and spending a total of 4 days in Sydney, I packed my bags yet again and headed on another weekend getaway. This time, I went to Townsville to visit my dear friend, Emma, with Gabi and Ben. Townsville is located in northern Queensland and is about 1,000 miles away from Sydney (so obviously we choose to fly for 3 hours rather than forcing Ben to drive us 12 hours). Though Emma wouldn't allow us to tell people we went to Townsville since it sounds lame, so Gabi, Ben, and I traveled to "Tropical Queensland."
Once we arrived in Tropical Queensland (and after I jumped on Emma and screamed with excitement to see her), Emma made us a nice little lunch and we all hung out and talked for a little while. Ben was feeling pretty sleepy, so he went to go take a nap while Emma took Gabi and I on a campus tour. I thought the campus was super cute! I'm not sure if I could study there since I'm too much of a city girl, but I really did enjoy it. The buildings and classrooms are sort of hidden in the bush; you have to walk along a path that leads into the forest for a second and then you are suddenly on campus. It's very much "Australia-esque," wild turkeys running around, rainforest all around, pic-nic tables in the grass, and mountains in the background. Emma also took us to see the different on-campus housing. Some of them looked pretty normal and cute, but there was one that I thought was hilarious and would die if I had to live in it. They're called Western Courts...sounds lovely doesn't it? It's actually a trailer park on top of an old outdoor basketball court. When we walked by, there were college kids sitting on their porch playing card games in rocking chairs, it was quite the site.
After we walked around campus, we went back to Emma's (her apartment is very nice...comfy cozy with great neighbors and a nice community kitchen area) to find Ben missing. Apparently he accidentally locked himself out of Emma's room and decided he was going to go on a walk and explore campus. He came back about a half an hour later with no shoes on and no phone. We all made fun of him. Later on that night, Emma took us over to her friend's place to participate in a beer pong tournament. Emma and I were on a team (we named ourselves 1,2,3 Triple D! Mighty Ducks anyone?) going against Gabi and Emma's friend, Norm (their team name was Purple Monkey something...it was weird). Our glorious 1,2,3 Triple D team suffered a terrible defeat by the Purple Monkeys...it was upsetting. After the tourney ended, we all went out to one of the bars called Mad Cow, which was a lot of fun. Gabi started talking to the manager of the bar, who then gave us vouchers for free drinks all night. Hooray for a free night!
On Saturday, we went down to the Strand and walked along the beach. It was a lovely day (despite it being rather cloudy...it was still warm), so it was nice to go walking along the beach, playing on the playgrounds, and running knee deep in the ocean. While we were walking, we came across a little event promoting fire safety. We noticed a fireman passing out bright pink stickers, so naturally, we all ran up to him to get our bright pink sticker promoting the stop, drop, and roll saying. The fireman then gave us a bunch of temporary tattoos, key chains, and balloons. We all immediately blew up our balloons and had a balloon fight; we were all very excited. After our nice little walk, we went back to campus to start preparing food for the International Dinner held by the apartment complex Emma lives in. It was a very nice event and looked like a mini-prom. Everyone got dressed up (luckily Gabi and I packed dresses), there were lights hanging everywhere, balloons and confetti on the tables, and sparkling wine being served (okay, so maybe that isn't so prom-ish..but it's still classy). After the dinner was over, we all decided to enjoy a low-key night and watch a movie. It was 5 girls and 1 guy in the room, so guess what kind of movie we got to watch. That's right, we forced Ben to watch a chick flick - He's Just Not That Into You...surprise surprise. As it turned out, all 5 of the girls fell asleep half way through and Ben was the only one who stayed up to watch it. He claims he didn't enjoy it, but I think he was lying. Why else would he be the only one to stay awake for it?
On Sunday Emma took us on a hike up a mountain. And by hike...I mean hike. It was pretty intense and made me realize that I should probably start working out a little more regularly. Once we got to the top of the mountain, though, it was breathtaking. The ocean shore was right below us, so we could look out over the ocean and see all of Townsville at the same time. After our wonderful hike, we went back to the apartment to prepare dinner - marinated kangaroo, broccoli, and potatoes. I was a little hesitant about eating kangaroo at first, but it was actually very very delicious! I don't really know how to describe it, it was a little tough (but not too tough), juicy, and delicious. Once we were done devouring this scrumptious meal, we decided to crack open a bottle of champagne (we're not as classy as we sound...it was $5. We're poor) and play some cards.
Gabi and Ben left to go back to Sydney on Monday morning while I stayed an extra day to spend more time with Emma. Emma and I had a very typical day for us. We made some oatmeal, sat on the bed, and watched the Sex and the City movie. Once we had our fill of Sex and the City, we went for a walk down by the river and talked nonstop for a couple of hours. We later met up with some of Emma's friends at a restaurant, had some pizza and beer to celebrate my last night/them being done with papers (wish I could say the same). It was a very nice last day with Emma - just hanging out, talking, and watching girlie movies all day. It was perfect. Then I sadly had to say goodbye to Emma and go back to Sydney just in time for my class. I really enjoyed Tropical Queensland. It was warm, it was beautiful, it was remote, and it was just overall nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney to relax with good friends.
I hope everything is going well with everyone back home!
Whit
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Canberra
Greetings,
I'm still rather behind on my adventures, so the catching up continues. My friend, Ben, is originally from Canberra and he asked Gabi and I if we wanted to go home with him for a weekend so we could see the capital of Australia. On May 1 - 3, we made the 3 and a half car ride journey to see the capital.
We didn't get into Canberra until 10:00 Friday night, so we just went straight to Ben's house in the country. On our way through the country, Ben told us that we had to watch for roos to make sure he didn't hit any. Gabi and I were really excited that we were on the lookout for roos and thought we would only see maybe 1 or 2 hopping along. Oh no, there were heaps (over-used Australian word that I love and have adopted)! I couldn't even count how many we saw and had to stop for, and they were all just hanging out at the edge of the road. I think I squealed with excitement every time I saw a roo...pretty sure Ben got a little annoyed by the end. There were even roos hanging out in his front yard. It was pretty great. When we got to his house, Ben suggested that we take a walk to the top of hill so we can see all the lights in Canberra. So Gabi and I get all bundled up (it was pretty cold), Ben grabs the flashlight, and we head off through the forest and up a hill. About 10 minutes into the walk, our flashlight burns out and we can no longer see a thing, which was an issue considering we were in the middle of a forest on a very small path, so we did the whole train thing holding onto eachother's shoulders while Ben led the way. We made it out of the forest perfectly fine and just had a giant hill full of rocks and logs to survive. There were a few trips and stumbles along the way, but nothing too serious...until we were about 2 feet away from the top. Gabi did not see a giant rock on the ground and ended up slicing the bottom of her foot open, causing her to start bleeding all over the place. It was not pretty. So Ben walked back to his house, got his car, and came to pick us up. We did luckily get to see the lights of Canberra and all the stars, so it wasn't all bad. When we got back to Ben's, we were all pretty tired and got ready for bed...by setting up a tent. Yes, we camped out in a tent in Ben's backyard. Gabi is allergic to dogs and since Ben has two dogs, we decided to camp out in a tent. It was pretty hilarious; we were all wearing 3 layers of clothes and had 2 blankets on us to stay warm. I, naturally, slept very well and stayed pretty warm all night.
Saturday morning Ben took us to meet up with a couple of his friends for a breakfast BBQ in a park. However, before we went to the park to eat our breakfast, him and his friends took Gabi and I for a cruise through the windy roads and up a mountain. Gabi and Ben both got a little carsick (yes, Ben made himself carsick with his own driving), though neither of them got seriously sick. I don't get motion sickness so I was good to go and thouroughly enjoyed the nice scenery. After we enjoyed our delicious breakfast BBQ, Ben dropped Gabi and I off near the parliment house so we could see all the tourist attractions. Unlike Washington DC, where there are a never-ending amount of monuments, memorials, museums, and any other sort of historic attraction imaginable, Canberra has about 5. Gabi and I spent quite a bit of tmie in the Old Parliment House, went to the New Parliment House, walked along the river, and then went to the science museum to get a coffee (it was $15 to actually see the museum, and we were too cheap to pay it). Ben came and picked us up a few hours later and then we went to his sister's high school play - Grease. Gabi and I were super excited to see Grease and had a lot of fun watching it. Everyone in the play were trying to speak in an American accent throughout the whole thing, which was pretty hilarious. The play was also filled with American stereotypes. Every scene would end with some comment about going to get a cheeseburger or going home to watch the Mickey Mouse Club. Overall, the play was very entertaining. Later on that night, Gabi and I introduced Ben to the wonderful, delicious, amazing S'mores. He had never had one before, nor ever heard of one, and thought they sounded discusting. So Gabi and I forced Ben to start a bonfire, we went out and bought marshmallows and chocolate (my mom had already sent me graham crackers a while ago...they don't exist in this country), and we forced Ben to eat it. He ended up really liking them, but really...who doesn't love a s'more? They weren't as awesome as they normally are since it wasn't made with Hershey's chocolate (granted Cadbury chocolate is better, but not for S'mores) and it wasn't made with Jet-Puff marshamllows. Actually, the marshmallows we used tasted a little like raspberries, so our s'mores were a little fruity. Oh well, they were still pretty good.
On Sunday, Gabi and I went to the War Memorial, which was really interesting. I really didn't know a whole lot about Australian history, so it was cool to learn about it all. I really liked the World War II section; it was interesting to learn about the war from a different point of view other than the U.S. After we were done with the final tourist attraction (see..I told you there were only about 5 things to see), we packed up our things and made our way back to Sydney. So there was my little adventure to the capital of Australia!
Cheers!
Whit
I'm still rather behind on my adventures, so the catching up continues. My friend, Ben, is originally from Canberra and he asked Gabi and I if we wanted to go home with him for a weekend so we could see the capital of Australia. On May 1 - 3, we made the 3 and a half car ride journey to see the capital.
We didn't get into Canberra until 10:00 Friday night, so we just went straight to Ben's house in the country. On our way through the country, Ben told us that we had to watch for roos to make sure he didn't hit any. Gabi and I were really excited that we were on the lookout for roos and thought we would only see maybe 1 or 2 hopping along. Oh no, there were heaps (over-used Australian word that I love and have adopted)! I couldn't even count how many we saw and had to stop for, and they were all just hanging out at the edge of the road. I think I squealed with excitement every time I saw a roo...pretty sure Ben got a little annoyed by the end. There were even roos hanging out in his front yard. It was pretty great. When we got to his house, Ben suggested that we take a walk to the top of hill so we can see all the lights in Canberra. So Gabi and I get all bundled up (it was pretty cold), Ben grabs the flashlight, and we head off through the forest and up a hill. About 10 minutes into the walk, our flashlight burns out and we can no longer see a thing, which was an issue considering we were in the middle of a forest on a very small path, so we did the whole train thing holding onto eachother's shoulders while Ben led the way. We made it out of the forest perfectly fine and just had a giant hill full of rocks and logs to survive. There were a few trips and stumbles along the way, but nothing too serious...until we were about 2 feet away from the top. Gabi did not see a giant rock on the ground and ended up slicing the bottom of her foot open, causing her to start bleeding all over the place. It was not pretty. So Ben walked back to his house, got his car, and came to pick us up. We did luckily get to see the lights of Canberra and all the stars, so it wasn't all bad. When we got back to Ben's, we were all pretty tired and got ready for bed...by setting up a tent. Yes, we camped out in a tent in Ben's backyard. Gabi is allergic to dogs and since Ben has two dogs, we decided to camp out in a tent. It was pretty hilarious; we were all wearing 3 layers of clothes and had 2 blankets on us to stay warm. I, naturally, slept very well and stayed pretty warm all night.
Saturday morning Ben took us to meet up with a couple of his friends for a breakfast BBQ in a park. However, before we went to the park to eat our breakfast, him and his friends took Gabi and I for a cruise through the windy roads and up a mountain. Gabi and Ben both got a little carsick (yes, Ben made himself carsick with his own driving), though neither of them got seriously sick. I don't get motion sickness so I was good to go and thouroughly enjoyed the nice scenery. After we enjoyed our delicious breakfast BBQ, Ben dropped Gabi and I off near the parliment house so we could see all the tourist attractions. Unlike Washington DC, where there are a never-ending amount of monuments, memorials, museums, and any other sort of historic attraction imaginable, Canberra has about 5. Gabi and I spent quite a bit of tmie in the Old Parliment House, went to the New Parliment House, walked along the river, and then went to the science museum to get a coffee (it was $15 to actually see the museum, and we were too cheap to pay it). Ben came and picked us up a few hours later and then we went to his sister's high school play - Grease. Gabi and I were super excited to see Grease and had a lot of fun watching it. Everyone in the play were trying to speak in an American accent throughout the whole thing, which was pretty hilarious. The play was also filled with American stereotypes. Every scene would end with some comment about going to get a cheeseburger or going home to watch the Mickey Mouse Club. Overall, the play was very entertaining. Later on that night, Gabi and I introduced Ben to the wonderful, delicious, amazing S'mores. He had never had one before, nor ever heard of one, and thought they sounded discusting. So Gabi and I forced Ben to start a bonfire, we went out and bought marshmallows and chocolate (my mom had already sent me graham crackers a while ago...they don't exist in this country), and we forced Ben to eat it. He ended up really liking them, but really...who doesn't love a s'more? They weren't as awesome as they normally are since it wasn't made with Hershey's chocolate (granted Cadbury chocolate is better, but not for S'mores) and it wasn't made with Jet-Puff marshamllows. Actually, the marshmallows we used tasted a little like raspberries, so our s'mores were a little fruity. Oh well, they were still pretty good.
On Sunday, Gabi and I went to the War Memorial, which was really interesting. I really didn't know a whole lot about Australian history, so it was cool to learn about it all. I really liked the World War II section; it was interesting to learn about the war from a different point of view other than the U.S. After we were done with the final tourist attraction (see..I told you there were only about 5 things to see), we packed up our things and made our way back to Sydney. So there was my little adventure to the capital of Australia!
Cheers!
Whit
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
New Zealand
Hello dear friends,
Apparently I suck at updating my blog and staying on track. I have the opposite mentality that should normally occur when I have a lot of stuff to do. Instead of just doing everything and getting it done, I become overwhelmed and just avoid it. Yet, today I decided that I would sit down and tell my tales. It's time to catch you all up!
We had our Spring Break April 11-19, so Gabi and I booked a trip to tour around the South Island of New Zealand. It was one of the best experiences of my life and it really was the most beautiful place I have ever been.
Saturday, April 11:
We arrive in Christchurch and have a free day since it's the day before our tour begins. We decide to check into our hostel (which was really not that great of a hostel...a little disappointing) and then walk around to explore the town. We were so excited to see the mountains to be in New Zealand! After we explored and went out to dinner, we attended a midnight Easter service at a beautiful church. Gabi and I were a little sad we couldn't spend Easter with our families, but were glad we had a good friend to enjoy it with.
Sunday, April 12:
Today is the first day of our tour and I really wasn't sure what to expect. We loaded the bus (which was named Roxy) and set off for our adventure. Our bus ride was similar to the surf camp one - loud music, everyone had to introduce themselves to the bus (all 50 of us), and basically a party. We were on Roxy for a good 6 days (off and on of course), so we all got pretty close to one another and pretty sick of Roxy. Our destination was to Lake Ohau the first day and we made several stop son the way there. We were all really excited - everything was so beautiful and exciting. I took about a million pictures of the Southern Alps. After a while the mountain pictures all start to look alike, so I had to force myself to tone it down a bit. We stopped at Lake Pukaki, which was probably one of my favorite stops. The Southern Alps were in the background with sparkly, turquoise, fresh glacier water; absolutely amazing! We also took a hike (and by hike, I mean uphill walk) through some of the mountains to get closer to Mount Cook. We finally made it to Lake Ohau later on that night and it was peaceful, beautiful, and amazing. We had a very lovely dinner followed shortly by a toga party. I was lame and did not participate in the displaying of a toga (it was really cold and I didn't feel like spilling wine all over my bed sheet), but I still enjoyed myself with everyone and took lots of pictures.
Monday, April 13:
It was an early wake-up call at 6:00 in the morning in order to load the bust at 6:50. The poor people who went all out at the toga party were dragging quite a bit as Roxy made its way to Milford Sound. We made a few stops to have some photo opportunities with the waterfalls, rivers, and beautiful scenery before we drove through the mountain (a literal tunnel that goes through the mountain) on our way to the sound. Once we arrived at Milford Sound, we unloaded the bus, loaded a boat, and began our journey on an overnight cruise. The cruise was a lot of fun and I was able to see amazing waterfalls, seals, and of course the mountains. Before we enjoyed our delicious dinner, we all went kayaking (I even kayaked up to a seal sitting by a waterfall) and then we all went for a swim...bad idea. The water was about 40 degrees and stung the second I hit the water. Gabi decided to swim a lap around the boat (or more so she was easily persuaded by our tour guide who she has a huge crush on) while I just jumped in, screamed in shock, and jumped right out. After our very cold swim, we ate dinner and then played a long game of Monopoly. I was doing really well and winning throughout the entire game, but suffered a defeat when everyone started making shady deals. The game ended a few hours later with one guy owning EVERY property with houses and hotels...there was no hope and I was a little disappointed at my sudden loss. One day I will win a game of Monopoly.
Tuesday, April 14:
After being awoken by the captain's announcement followed by a very loud horn, we cruised a little more around the Tasman sea, saw some more waterfalls and seals, and ported back where we started. Once we were off the boat, we hopped back on our beloved Roxy and set forth to Queenstown - the adrenaline capital of the world. When we first arrived, we walked around the city, went into the little shops and cafes, and just hung out until it was time for our group dinner at an awesome pizza bar called Winnies. After we were done eating, our group went to a bar called 5 below, which is a bar made entirely of ice. There were ice sculptures, the floor was ice, the walls were ice, the bar was ice, even our glasses were ice (I started to eat mine when I was done with my drink). It was really cold in there, but they gave us a giant fur hooded coat, gloves, and boots, so it wasn't too bad. After the half hour rendez-vous in the igloo, we all went next door to a bar called Frasers, where we spent the remainder of our night. The bartenders played our "bus song" and we all got up on the bar to dance while the bartenders made us all flaming shots. It was a small town bar, but a lot of fun.
Wednesday, April 15:
Today is my adventure-packed day. The first half of the day was spent horseback riding through the Southern Alps. It was very relaxing and amazing to be able to see everything. I even got to see where they filmed some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings (which, of course, I was all about). My horse, named Murphy, was a little skiddish and did not like it when any of the other horses came near him. There were a few times that I thought I was going to fall off the mountain when Murphy made sudden movements to get away from the other horses, but I was fine in the end. Murphy also did not understand the concept of picking up his feet when he had to step over an object, so he tripped a lot. There were a lot of gasps and little screams made by me throughout this little adventure. However, these screams were nothing compared to the one I made while bungy jumping. Yes, I bungy jumped off a bridge - the first bungy jumping sight in the world. It was exhilarating, it was exciting, it was amazing, and it was terrifying. I actually was unaware I could make such an atrocious scream, but I managed to accomplish it while I was plummeting toward a beautiful blue river head first. As scary as it was, the fun factor definitely outweighed it; I would definitely do it again. Maybe next time I'll try skydiving...we'll see.
Thursday, April 16:
After an eventful couple of days in Queenstown, it was time to hop back on Roxy and head toward Fox Glacier. We had a 2:00 appointment to go on a 4 hour hike up a glacier, which I was pretty thrilled about. However, our glacier walk got canceled due to all the rain and flooding in the west coast of New Zealand. So we were stuck in this tiny town known as Fox Glacier with nothing there...besides the glacier of course. Well luck would have it that this would be the day that I came down with a fever and a cold, so I just decided to take some medicine and go to bed. Don't worry, I didn't have the swine flu and I have been healthy ever since...besides a minor case of strep throat, but that's all taken care of as well. So this day was relatively uneventful.
Friday, April 17:
I woke up feeling well rested and feverless, so that was a good sign. However, it was still raining and we missed yet another activity on the agenda due to the flooding and a collapsed road. We were scheduled to go to Flock Hill and see all the sheep, cattle, and deer. I was pretty excited to pet a sheep, they look so cuddly (random fact of the day, there are more sheep in New Zealand than there are people). However, we were still stuck in a tiny town at a cafe, so I decided to entertain my friends with a talking teapot. They all thought I was crazy, but it did make the time go a little faster. The road finally cleared up and we were able to go on our re-routed way back to Queenstown. None of us were complaining that we got to go back to Queenstown for a night, even if we had to give up the petting of a sheep. On the bus ride back to Queenstown, our tour guide (who Gabi has a huge crush on and we have both befriended...we are actually going to be staying with him when we go back to New Zealand at the end of the semester) decided to make up some bus games. One bus game was a dating show and he needed volunteers in order to play, so I forced Gabi to participate while I refused. It turned out to be one of those dating shows where the guy has to pick from three contestants without seeing who the contestants are. The questions that were being asked were pretty ridiculous and embarrassing, Gabi was hating me for making her play...I found it quite amusing. But as it turns out, the guy ended up picking Gabi and so she won a date with him that night. Our tour guide set up a separate table for them with flowers, a glass of wine, and a tequila shot (keeping it classy) at the hotel restaurant we were staying at later that night. So thanks to me, Gabi got a free date!
Saturday, April 18:
This was our last day on our bus tour and we were all sad for it to be over. We made our way back to Christchurch where we had our final dinner and night out together. We ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant and then went out to a low-key bar where we could all sit around and talk. It was sad to leave some of the people, but it was overall a great last night. I ended up going to bed fairly early this night since my plane left at 6:10 the next morning and I had to be at the airport at 4:00.
So that was my Spring Break, a wonderful tour around the south island of New Zealand! It was one of the best experiences, I made a lot of friends, and I got to see a lot of amazing things. I'm excited to go back and travel the North Island in just 2 months!
Much love,
Whit
Apparently I suck at updating my blog and staying on track. I have the opposite mentality that should normally occur when I have a lot of stuff to do. Instead of just doing everything and getting it done, I become overwhelmed and just avoid it. Yet, today I decided that I would sit down and tell my tales. It's time to catch you all up!
We had our Spring Break April 11-19, so Gabi and I booked a trip to tour around the South Island of New Zealand. It was one of the best experiences of my life and it really was the most beautiful place I have ever been.
Saturday, April 11:
We arrive in Christchurch and have a free day since it's the day before our tour begins. We decide to check into our hostel (which was really not that great of a hostel...a little disappointing) and then walk around to explore the town. We were so excited to see the mountains to be in New Zealand! After we explored and went out to dinner, we attended a midnight Easter service at a beautiful church. Gabi and I were a little sad we couldn't spend Easter with our families, but were glad we had a good friend to enjoy it with.
Sunday, April 12:
Today is the first day of our tour and I really wasn't sure what to expect. We loaded the bus (which was named Roxy) and set off for our adventure. Our bus ride was similar to the surf camp one - loud music, everyone had to introduce themselves to the bus (all 50 of us), and basically a party. We were on Roxy for a good 6 days (off and on of course), so we all got pretty close to one another and pretty sick of Roxy. Our destination was to Lake Ohau the first day and we made several stop son the way there. We were all really excited - everything was so beautiful and exciting. I took about a million pictures of the Southern Alps. After a while the mountain pictures all start to look alike, so I had to force myself to tone it down a bit. We stopped at Lake Pukaki, which was probably one of my favorite stops. The Southern Alps were in the background with sparkly, turquoise, fresh glacier water; absolutely amazing! We also took a hike (and by hike, I mean uphill walk) through some of the mountains to get closer to Mount Cook. We finally made it to Lake Ohau later on that night and it was peaceful, beautiful, and amazing. We had a very lovely dinner followed shortly by a toga party. I was lame and did not participate in the displaying of a toga (it was really cold and I didn't feel like spilling wine all over my bed sheet), but I still enjoyed myself with everyone and took lots of pictures.
Monday, April 13:
It was an early wake-up call at 6:00 in the morning in order to load the bust at 6:50. The poor people who went all out at the toga party were dragging quite a bit as Roxy made its way to Milford Sound. We made a few stops to have some photo opportunities with the waterfalls, rivers, and beautiful scenery before we drove through the mountain (a literal tunnel that goes through the mountain) on our way to the sound. Once we arrived at Milford Sound, we unloaded the bus, loaded a boat, and began our journey on an overnight cruise. The cruise was a lot of fun and I was able to see amazing waterfalls, seals, and of course the mountains. Before we enjoyed our delicious dinner, we all went kayaking (I even kayaked up to a seal sitting by a waterfall) and then we all went for a swim...bad idea. The water was about 40 degrees and stung the second I hit the water. Gabi decided to swim a lap around the boat (or more so she was easily persuaded by our tour guide who she has a huge crush on) while I just jumped in, screamed in shock, and jumped right out. After our very cold swim, we ate dinner and then played a long game of Monopoly. I was doing really well and winning throughout the entire game, but suffered a defeat when everyone started making shady deals. The game ended a few hours later with one guy owning EVERY property with houses and hotels...there was no hope and I was a little disappointed at my sudden loss. One day I will win a game of Monopoly.
Tuesday, April 14:
After being awoken by the captain's announcement followed by a very loud horn, we cruised a little more around the Tasman sea, saw some more waterfalls and seals, and ported back where we started. Once we were off the boat, we hopped back on our beloved Roxy and set forth to Queenstown - the adrenaline capital of the world. When we first arrived, we walked around the city, went into the little shops and cafes, and just hung out until it was time for our group dinner at an awesome pizza bar called Winnies. After we were done eating, our group went to a bar called 5 below, which is a bar made entirely of ice. There were ice sculptures, the floor was ice, the walls were ice, the bar was ice, even our glasses were ice (I started to eat mine when I was done with my drink). It was really cold in there, but they gave us a giant fur hooded coat, gloves, and boots, so it wasn't too bad. After the half hour rendez-vous in the igloo, we all went next door to a bar called Frasers, where we spent the remainder of our night. The bartenders played our "bus song" and we all got up on the bar to dance while the bartenders made us all flaming shots. It was a small town bar, but a lot of fun.
Wednesday, April 15:
Today is my adventure-packed day. The first half of the day was spent horseback riding through the Southern Alps. It was very relaxing and amazing to be able to see everything. I even got to see where they filmed some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings (which, of course, I was all about). My horse, named Murphy, was a little skiddish and did not like it when any of the other horses came near him. There were a few times that I thought I was going to fall off the mountain when Murphy made sudden movements to get away from the other horses, but I was fine in the end. Murphy also did not understand the concept of picking up his feet when he had to step over an object, so he tripped a lot. There were a lot of gasps and little screams made by me throughout this little adventure. However, these screams were nothing compared to the one I made while bungy jumping. Yes, I bungy jumped off a bridge - the first bungy jumping sight in the world. It was exhilarating, it was exciting, it was amazing, and it was terrifying. I actually was unaware I could make such an atrocious scream, but I managed to accomplish it while I was plummeting toward a beautiful blue river head first. As scary as it was, the fun factor definitely outweighed it; I would definitely do it again. Maybe next time I'll try skydiving...we'll see.
Thursday, April 16:
After an eventful couple of days in Queenstown, it was time to hop back on Roxy and head toward Fox Glacier. We had a 2:00 appointment to go on a 4 hour hike up a glacier, which I was pretty thrilled about. However, our glacier walk got canceled due to all the rain and flooding in the west coast of New Zealand. So we were stuck in this tiny town known as Fox Glacier with nothing there...besides the glacier of course. Well luck would have it that this would be the day that I came down with a fever and a cold, so I just decided to take some medicine and go to bed. Don't worry, I didn't have the swine flu and I have been healthy ever since...besides a minor case of strep throat, but that's all taken care of as well. So this day was relatively uneventful.
Friday, April 17:
I woke up feeling well rested and feverless, so that was a good sign. However, it was still raining and we missed yet another activity on the agenda due to the flooding and a collapsed road. We were scheduled to go to Flock Hill and see all the sheep, cattle, and deer. I was pretty excited to pet a sheep, they look so cuddly (random fact of the day, there are more sheep in New Zealand than there are people). However, we were still stuck in a tiny town at a cafe, so I decided to entertain my friends with a talking teapot. They all thought I was crazy, but it did make the time go a little faster. The road finally cleared up and we were able to go on our re-routed way back to Queenstown. None of us were complaining that we got to go back to Queenstown for a night, even if we had to give up the petting of a sheep. On the bus ride back to Queenstown, our tour guide (who Gabi has a huge crush on and we have both befriended...we are actually going to be staying with him when we go back to New Zealand at the end of the semester) decided to make up some bus games. One bus game was a dating show and he needed volunteers in order to play, so I forced Gabi to participate while I refused. It turned out to be one of those dating shows where the guy has to pick from three contestants without seeing who the contestants are. The questions that were being asked were pretty ridiculous and embarrassing, Gabi was hating me for making her play...I found it quite amusing. But as it turns out, the guy ended up picking Gabi and so she won a date with him that night. Our tour guide set up a separate table for them with flowers, a glass of wine, and a tequila shot (keeping it classy) at the hotel restaurant we were staying at later that night. So thanks to me, Gabi got a free date!
Saturday, April 18:
This was our last day on our bus tour and we were all sad for it to be over. We made our way back to Christchurch where we had our final dinner and night out together. We ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant and then went out to a low-key bar where we could all sit around and talk. It was sad to leave some of the people, but it was overall a great last night. I ended up going to bed fairly early this night since my plane left at 6:10 the next morning and I had to be at the airport at 4:00.
So that was my Spring Break, a wonderful tour around the south island of New Zealand! It was one of the best experiences, I made a lot of friends, and I got to see a lot of amazing things. I'm excited to go back and travel the North Island in just 2 months!
Much love,
Whit
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Gold Coast
Well Hello there!
Do not worry, I didn't get lost or anything. I've just been a little slackertown on my blog. So about a month later, I finally decided that I should post stories of my latest happenings. Besides my trip to the Gold Coast this past weekend, there really isn't much to talk about.
School is boring, but going well nonetheless (well at least as far as I'm aware). I dropped that terrible "Genres in Cultural Context" class, so now I only have 3 classes to worry about, which makes most of my friends pretty jealous. I had my first paper due a couple of weeks ago, I have another one due next week, then I have two debates the week after that. So it's starting to pick up, which is making the time go by way too fast. I can't believe I've already been here for 2 and a half months! So that was my life the past month in a nutshell.
Onto the exciting stuff! This past weekend I went to the Gold Coast for four days with Gabi and it was amazing! It's a really beautiful place and I wish we could have stayed a little longer.
We arrived at our resort on Friday morning and it was a BEAUTIFUL, huge resort. We had our main bedroom, a nice bathroom, a room with a pull out couch, a full kitchen, a large living room/dining room, and 3 balconies. When we first got there, Gabi and I went on a walk on the beach. The waves were huge and there were "danger: no swimming" flags/signs posted everywhere. Gabi and I weren't even walking that close to the shore, but one wave came out of nowhere and was up to our mid-thigh. I wish the weather would have been a little nicer (it was pretty rainy) so we could have hung out on the beach a little more. Friday night we were pretty exhausted since we hardly slept all week trying to get all of our assignments and papers done before we left for our trip, so we decided to watch a movie and lay low. The resort didn't have a DVD player, so we went to Blockbuster and rented one. While we were trying to plug the DVD player into the TV, I pulled the TV out a little too far and the entire cable connector snapped out of the TV and broke. So yeah, we broke our TV the first night we were there. We tried to superglue it back together, but that failed. We finally ended up going down to the front desk a few days later acting like we didn't know what happened and played dumb. They believed our story and we didn't get charged for breaking the TV.
Saturday we went to Dreamworld, which is an amusement park/water park. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't as large as our theme parks back at home. We went on a few roller coasters, saw a tiger show, got to pet a tiger, saw a Spongebob Squarepants show (I was laughing hysterically the entire time and took a bunch of pictures), and went on the water rides. Then we got back to our hotel room around 6 and decided to lay down for a nap. We fell asleep with our clothes on, laying on top of the covers, with all the lights on and still managed to sleep for 4 and a half hours. We woke up at 10:30 and were still really exhausted, so we decided to just eat a bowl of cereal and go back to bed since we had to wake up at 6:00 the next morning. So Saturday night we just slept for 12 hours. I had no idea I was that tired, but I was caught up on all my sleep since then and haven't felt exhausted at all! It was nice to be refreshed.
Sunday we went on a tour through the mountains where we got to see all the waterfalls and the lookout spots from the mountains. We also got to go to Tropical Fruit World which is the largest growing spot of tropical fruits in the world. It was a lot cooler than it sounds. The tour was amazing! Pretty sure Gabi and I were the only 2 on this tour under the age of 40, but we still enjoyed ourselves. At fruit world, we got to taste a bunch of exotic fruit which was delicious! My favorite one was pineapple (I'm so lame), but I also really enjoyed Dragon Fruit and Champagne Fruit. After our stop at Tropical Fruit World, we went up through the mountains and saw a bunch of waterfalls and got to see the city from the top of the mountain. It was extremely beautiful and amazing. I met a really nice couple from New Zealand who offered me a place to stay when I go and travel the North Island after I'm done with this semester. They gave me their card with their e-mail address and phone number. They were very nice and Gabi and I hung around them most of the day. Sunday night we made dinner and then went out to the Casino. Gabi and I only spent $2 between the two of us, which we were very proud of. Granted neither of us know how to play the card games and we don't really like to gamble all that much, so we stuck with the penny slot machines. We ended up winning our $2 back every time and was able to play with that same coin all night. Then at the end of the night we lost and decided we shouldn't press our luck anymore, so we gave up on gambling.
Monday we went shopping all day at a very large mall that was both indoor and outdoor. Then our plane left in the afternoon and we arrived back in Sydney on Monday night. It was a really great weekend. Tomorrow I leave for New Zealand for the next 9 days. It's our "Midsemester Break" (aka Spring break..though it's technically not Spring here) and Gabi and I are traveling the entire south island of New Zealand. We are very excited! So my next posting will be all about my New Zealand trip!
I hope everyone has a fabulous Easter holiday!
Much Love,
Whit
P.S. I finally posted pictures on my photobucket account. So if you feel so inclined to look at them, they are posted!
Do not worry, I didn't get lost or anything. I've just been a little slackertown on my blog. So about a month later, I finally decided that I should post stories of my latest happenings. Besides my trip to the Gold Coast this past weekend, there really isn't much to talk about.
School is boring, but going well nonetheless (well at least as far as I'm aware). I dropped that terrible "Genres in Cultural Context" class, so now I only have 3 classes to worry about, which makes most of my friends pretty jealous. I had my first paper due a couple of weeks ago, I have another one due next week, then I have two debates the week after that. So it's starting to pick up, which is making the time go by way too fast. I can't believe I've already been here for 2 and a half months! So that was my life the past month in a nutshell.
Onto the exciting stuff! This past weekend I went to the Gold Coast for four days with Gabi and it was amazing! It's a really beautiful place and I wish we could have stayed a little longer.
We arrived at our resort on Friday morning and it was a BEAUTIFUL, huge resort. We had our main bedroom, a nice bathroom, a room with a pull out couch, a full kitchen, a large living room/dining room, and 3 balconies. When we first got there, Gabi and I went on a walk on the beach. The waves were huge and there were "danger: no swimming" flags/signs posted everywhere. Gabi and I weren't even walking that close to the shore, but one wave came out of nowhere and was up to our mid-thigh. I wish the weather would have been a little nicer (it was pretty rainy) so we could have hung out on the beach a little more. Friday night we were pretty exhausted since we hardly slept all week trying to get all of our assignments and papers done before we left for our trip, so we decided to watch a movie and lay low. The resort didn't have a DVD player, so we went to Blockbuster and rented one. While we were trying to plug the DVD player into the TV, I pulled the TV out a little too far and the entire cable connector snapped out of the TV and broke. So yeah, we broke our TV the first night we were there. We tried to superglue it back together, but that failed. We finally ended up going down to the front desk a few days later acting like we didn't know what happened and played dumb. They believed our story and we didn't get charged for breaking the TV.
Saturday we went to Dreamworld, which is an amusement park/water park. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't as large as our theme parks back at home. We went on a few roller coasters, saw a tiger show, got to pet a tiger, saw a Spongebob Squarepants show (I was laughing hysterically the entire time and took a bunch of pictures), and went on the water rides. Then we got back to our hotel room around 6 and decided to lay down for a nap. We fell asleep with our clothes on, laying on top of the covers, with all the lights on and still managed to sleep for 4 and a half hours. We woke up at 10:30 and were still really exhausted, so we decided to just eat a bowl of cereal and go back to bed since we had to wake up at 6:00 the next morning. So Saturday night we just slept for 12 hours. I had no idea I was that tired, but I was caught up on all my sleep since then and haven't felt exhausted at all! It was nice to be refreshed.
Sunday we went on a tour through the mountains where we got to see all the waterfalls and the lookout spots from the mountains. We also got to go to Tropical Fruit World which is the largest growing spot of tropical fruits in the world. It was a lot cooler than it sounds. The tour was amazing! Pretty sure Gabi and I were the only 2 on this tour under the age of 40, but we still enjoyed ourselves. At fruit world, we got to taste a bunch of exotic fruit which was delicious! My favorite one was pineapple (I'm so lame), but I also really enjoyed Dragon Fruit and Champagne Fruit. After our stop at Tropical Fruit World, we went up through the mountains and saw a bunch of waterfalls and got to see the city from the top of the mountain. It was extremely beautiful and amazing. I met a really nice couple from New Zealand who offered me a place to stay when I go and travel the North Island after I'm done with this semester. They gave me their card with their e-mail address and phone number. They were very nice and Gabi and I hung around them most of the day. Sunday night we made dinner and then went out to the Casino. Gabi and I only spent $2 between the two of us, which we were very proud of. Granted neither of us know how to play the card games and we don't really like to gamble all that much, so we stuck with the penny slot machines. We ended up winning our $2 back every time and was able to play with that same coin all night. Then at the end of the night we lost and decided we shouldn't press our luck anymore, so we gave up on gambling.
Monday we went shopping all day at a very large mall that was both indoor and outdoor. Then our plane left in the afternoon and we arrived back in Sydney on Monday night. It was a really great weekend. Tomorrow I leave for New Zealand for the next 9 days. It's our "Midsemester Break" (aka Spring break..though it's technically not Spring here) and Gabi and I are traveling the entire south island of New Zealand. We are very excited! So my next posting will be all about my New Zealand trip!
I hope everyone has a fabulous Easter holiday!
Much Love,
Whit
P.S. I finally posted pictures on my photobucket account. So if you feel so inclined to look at them, they are posted!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Surf Camp
Hello!
As I'm sure you all know by reading my previous blog entry, I went to surf camp this past weekend. It was probably one of the best weekends I've ever had. I'll start from the very beginning.
On Friday, March 13 at approximately 5:15 pm, a group of us walked the 2 blocks down to where the Mojo Surf bus was waiting to pick us up. We arrive at our pick up spot, load the bus, and wait until all 50 participants are on board. As soon as everyone was set and ready to go, we departed for our six hour bus ride to Crescent Head.
I sadly did not get to sit next to Gabi. We were, by no surprise, one of the last people to arrive at the pick up spot and almost all the seats were taken. I ended up sitting next to a really nice guy named Mamu. He is from Saudi Arabia, is studying in Sydney for the next 5 years, and was really excited to meet an American, which I thought was so cute...he was seriously the most excited person when I told him I was American. He says he wants to visit American when he's done studying. I asked him where in America he wanted to go, and he said Ohio. I'm not really sure why. He also shared his cookies, chips, and pop with me, showed me pictures of his entire family on his iPhone, and we talked almost the entire way there.
This was not a typical "field trip" bus ride. The bus driver, whose name was Morgan, had a mohawk, and was one of the surf instructors, plugged his iPod into the radio and cranked the volume. Everyone was singing along to the songs, talking loudly, and dancing in their seats. Suddenly, the music stopped and Morgan's voice came over the speakers and told us that we were going to play the "name game," where everyone on the bus has to come up to the front, take the microphone, introduce themselves, and say what they like and dislike about life in general. It took two hours for everyone to have their turn at making their speech on the moving bus, and once the name game was complete, we stopped for dinner at McDonald's - so classy. I'm sure the tiny McDonald's loved having a coach bus full of 50 young, eager, surfers bombarding their "restaurant."
After everyone was full and happy from the delicious, healthy meal, we reloaded the bus and jammed out to some more great, loud music. After two more hours of conversing with neighbors, singing, dancing, and playing card games, we make another stop. This time we stop at a liquor store in a very, very small town. When the bus pulled up, people from inside the bar (which was located right next to the liquor store) ran out to greet everyone that came off the bus. It was as if they had never seen any sort of an outside world before, it was quite bizarre. Everyone ran to the bus with their arms waving above their heads, the guys flocked to the girls asking for hugs and kisses, and we just had to push our way through this crowd of craziness. All 50 of us purchased what we wanted, pushed our way back through the crowd of obsessed fans (what they were fans of...we will never know), and got back on the bus to drive the remaining 2 hours until we reached our final destination. Apparently there isn't a law against open bottles in a motorized vehicles in Australia (well obviously there is for the driver; they are really strict on drunk driving, as they should be) because a lot of the people on the bus started playing drinking games and got pretty drunk. What the purpose of getting drunk on a bus where you can't really move around or do anything? I'm not really sure. It seemed like a waste to me, so I just watched and made fun of people.
When we arrived to our campsite at 12:30 am, we all headed down to the beach. It was the most beautiful beach I've ever seen (seriously...in a very uncheesey sort of way). There wasn't a single building around, there were grassy hills surrounding the ocean, large boulders in one area for the waves to crash upon, and the reflection of the moon shining on the water. We all just hung out on the beach until 3 in the morning; it was very peaceful.
At 7:30 am, after getting approximately 4 hours of sleep, the surfers came into the bunk rooms to wake us all up. After eating our delicious breakfast, we all lined up to get our wet suits. Each wet suit had a name on it and that is how you were to remember which one was yours. The majority of the names were rather inappropriate but funny. Mine was far to inappropriate for me to post on the Internet for the whole world to see, so if you really want to know what it was, just ask me and I'll let you know.
After putting on our wet suits and getting all ready to go, we all walked down to the beach for our first surf lesson in the sand. We all made a circle around our surf instructor with our surf boards while he taught us the basic skills of surfing - paddling, standing up, how to keep your balance, etc. After about 20 minutes, the instructor told us it was time to try it in the water. My initial reaction was "oh no! I'm so not ready for the water yet!" But everyone else was already heading toward the ocean, so I nervously followed. It turns out I really wasn't all that bad. I'm not a professional surfer by any means, obviously. But if you give me a giant foam board and a cute surf instructor who will push me, I can stand up. There were a few times I was able to paddle, stand, and surf a wave all by myself, but usually when I tried I would fall off or I would just decide I didn't feel like standing so I would just sit on my board and ride the wave. I did always get a little nervous every time a wave would approach, but I just chose not to really look at it and I would just stand when I heard my instructor yell at me to stand up. I basically just took the lazy route to learning how to surf. When I was exhausted and tired of paddling, I would just walk to my surf instructor, he'd tell me to get on my board, and then he would push me when the wave came and all I would have to do was stand. It was pretty great.
The food at the surf camp was amazing; easily the best food I've had here so far. It was pretty surprising that a bunch of surfer guys could cook such great food for 50 people. At night, everyone would sit around the large campfire, hang out, and play some games (usually drinking games, since that's what Australian surfers are into, which usually got a little out of hand and resulted in at least one of the surf instructors to be running around naked. It was highly entertaining).
Overall, it was a great weekend at a beautiful private beach and I really want to go back. Surfing was a lot of fun and I was really excited that I got to learn. I don't really know if I'll pick it up or not. I'm a little terrified to try at a beach around Sydney since they're all pretty busy and I will most likely run into someone and kill them, but we'll see.
Until next time,
Whit
As I'm sure you all know by reading my previous blog entry, I went to surf camp this past weekend. It was probably one of the best weekends I've ever had. I'll start from the very beginning.
On Friday, March 13 at approximately 5:15 pm, a group of us walked the 2 blocks down to where the Mojo Surf bus was waiting to pick us up. We arrive at our pick up spot, load the bus, and wait until all 50 participants are on board. As soon as everyone was set and ready to go, we departed for our six hour bus ride to Crescent Head.
I sadly did not get to sit next to Gabi. We were, by no surprise, one of the last people to arrive at the pick up spot and almost all the seats were taken. I ended up sitting next to a really nice guy named Mamu. He is from Saudi Arabia, is studying in Sydney for the next 5 years, and was really excited to meet an American, which I thought was so cute...he was seriously the most excited person when I told him I was American. He says he wants to visit American when he's done studying. I asked him where in America he wanted to go, and he said Ohio. I'm not really sure why. He also shared his cookies, chips, and pop with me, showed me pictures of his entire family on his iPhone, and we talked almost the entire way there.
This was not a typical "field trip" bus ride. The bus driver, whose name was Morgan, had a mohawk, and was one of the surf instructors, plugged his iPod into the radio and cranked the volume. Everyone was singing along to the songs, talking loudly, and dancing in their seats. Suddenly, the music stopped and Morgan's voice came over the speakers and told us that we were going to play the "name game," where everyone on the bus has to come up to the front, take the microphone, introduce themselves, and say what they like and dislike about life in general. It took two hours for everyone to have their turn at making their speech on the moving bus, and once the name game was complete, we stopped for dinner at McDonald's - so classy. I'm sure the tiny McDonald's loved having a coach bus full of 50 young, eager, surfers bombarding their "restaurant."
After everyone was full and happy from the delicious, healthy meal, we reloaded the bus and jammed out to some more great, loud music. After two more hours of conversing with neighbors, singing, dancing, and playing card games, we make another stop. This time we stop at a liquor store in a very, very small town. When the bus pulled up, people from inside the bar (which was located right next to the liquor store) ran out to greet everyone that came off the bus. It was as if they had never seen any sort of an outside world before, it was quite bizarre. Everyone ran to the bus with their arms waving above their heads, the guys flocked to the girls asking for hugs and kisses, and we just had to push our way through this crowd of craziness. All 50 of us purchased what we wanted, pushed our way back through the crowd of obsessed fans (what they were fans of...we will never know), and got back on the bus to drive the remaining 2 hours until we reached our final destination. Apparently there isn't a law against open bottles in a motorized vehicles in Australia (well obviously there is for the driver; they are really strict on drunk driving, as they should be) because a lot of the people on the bus started playing drinking games and got pretty drunk. What the purpose of getting drunk on a bus where you can't really move around or do anything? I'm not really sure. It seemed like a waste to me, so I just watched and made fun of people.
When we arrived to our campsite at 12:30 am, we all headed down to the beach. It was the most beautiful beach I've ever seen (seriously...in a very uncheesey sort of way). There wasn't a single building around, there were grassy hills surrounding the ocean, large boulders in one area for the waves to crash upon, and the reflection of the moon shining on the water. We all just hung out on the beach until 3 in the morning; it was very peaceful.
At 7:30 am, after getting approximately 4 hours of sleep, the surfers came into the bunk rooms to wake us all up. After eating our delicious breakfast, we all lined up to get our wet suits. Each wet suit had a name on it and that is how you were to remember which one was yours. The majority of the names were rather inappropriate but funny. Mine was far to inappropriate for me to post on the Internet for the whole world to see, so if you really want to know what it was, just ask me and I'll let you know.
After putting on our wet suits and getting all ready to go, we all walked down to the beach for our first surf lesson in the sand. We all made a circle around our surf instructor with our surf boards while he taught us the basic skills of surfing - paddling, standing up, how to keep your balance, etc. After about 20 minutes, the instructor told us it was time to try it in the water. My initial reaction was "oh no! I'm so not ready for the water yet!" But everyone else was already heading toward the ocean, so I nervously followed. It turns out I really wasn't all that bad. I'm not a professional surfer by any means, obviously. But if you give me a giant foam board and a cute surf instructor who will push me, I can stand up. There were a few times I was able to paddle, stand, and surf a wave all by myself, but usually when I tried I would fall off or I would just decide I didn't feel like standing so I would just sit on my board and ride the wave. I did always get a little nervous every time a wave would approach, but I just chose not to really look at it and I would just stand when I heard my instructor yell at me to stand up. I basically just took the lazy route to learning how to surf. When I was exhausted and tired of paddling, I would just walk to my surf instructor, he'd tell me to get on my board, and then he would push me when the wave came and all I would have to do was stand. It was pretty great.
The food at the surf camp was amazing; easily the best food I've had here so far. It was pretty surprising that a bunch of surfer guys could cook such great food for 50 people. At night, everyone would sit around the large campfire, hang out, and play some games (usually drinking games, since that's what Australian surfers are into, which usually got a little out of hand and resulted in at least one of the surf instructors to be running around naked. It was highly entertaining).
Overall, it was a great weekend at a beautiful private beach and I really want to go back. Surfing was a lot of fun and I was really excited that I got to learn. I don't really know if I'll pick it up or not. I'm a little terrified to try at a beach around Sydney since they're all pretty busy and I will most likely run into someone and kill them, but we'll see.
Until next time,
Whit
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The first few weeks of school
Hello loved ones,
So much for being punctual with my updates. My apologies for promising often updates and not following through. I blame school; it's in the way of me being able to take the time and type out my life for all of you lovely people to read. Frustrating, isn't it? I think so too, yet I don't have enough guts to skip class and not do my homework, so I guess I'll have to learn how to manage my time a little better.
While we are on the topic of school, I'll dive right into all the great details of my classes. I'm taking four classes while abroad...four very worthless classes. Actually, one is of importance so I'll rephrase and say three very worthless classes. Here they are:
Varieties of English Grammar - I know you're all thinking "why in the world would you take varieties of English grammar as a fun class while you're in Australia?" Good question. I don't have an answer. Anyway, this class should really be called "The History and Philosophy of English Grammar." Sounds fabulous, doesn't it? In all honesty, it shouldn't be too bad and I find myself to be surprisingly interested in the majority of the material. It's a lot of reading, but it's doable. My professor has a great Australian accent and is very animated, so it keeps the class interesting. I am a little terrified to how my grade will turn out in this class seeing as we are graded on one essay (which is 45% of our grade) and one exam (which is a 2 question exam that will take 2 hours, also worth 45%). Participation makes up the remaining 10%. So if I write a terrible answer for one of the 2 questions on the exam, there goes any chance of doing well. It's a little terrifying.
Australia: Land and Nation - Worthless class number 2. This is a pretty interesting class and it's fun to learn about the place where I'm studying. Right now we are learning about the Aboriginals and I am thoroughly enjoying it. However, my professor is the opposite of my English professor. This guy apparently doesn't understand the concept of voice inflection. Not only is he monotone, but he speaks very softly with a not-so-great Australian accent. It's a struggle to stay awake.
Genres in Cultural Context - Worthless class number 3. I really do not enjoy this class at all. It will probably be the easiest of all my classes, but I care very little about any of the content. One would imagine that a course with such a title would be about learning about different cultures around the world (or something among that line). Oh no, it's not. In fact, I'm not really learning about real life cultures; I'm learning about aliens. I can sense the confusion from halfway across the world and through a computer. Let me explain: yesterday we had a screening session for this class. What did we view? Let me tell you. We watched 3 hours of Star Trek. Laugh it up, people, laugh it up...it was torture. Next week we are watching Star Wars (which is at least better than Star Trek...but really?). While watching these films, I am to be analyzing how the "others (characters who are alienated from the rest of the group)" are being portrayed. Why? I have no idea. So that's that class...a mistake to be enrolled in.
Media Globalisation - This is the only class that is worthwhile to me and also the only class that I actually enjoy in its entirety. It's very comforting to know that I picked the right major. My professor is awesome, brilliant, and has the best Australian accent of them all. He is also very laid back and helpful, which is great. It's very interesting to learn about the material while in Australia because a lot of it is about different arguments as to whether or not America is taking over the world with their culture and media outlets. It was really awkward for me to read the last chapter in our book becuase it was all about "Americanisation" and how the world is doomed because American culture is taking over and making everyone illiterate dumbasses. It was actually very insightful and interesting, but still a little awkward.
So there are the great, wonderful, juicy details of my classes and professors. I successfully did not get lost on my way to classes nor did I go in a wrong classroom (which is always a fear of mine whenever it's the beginning of a semester). I only have class 3 days a week, which I love. Though after enjoying my 4 day weekend, it's hard to get back into the grove of school for the week. There are a couple of times when I have an hour break between my classes, so I go and sit under the archways of campus to act like I'm in Harry Potter while reading my course materials. One day, while sitting under an archway and admiring how the campus looks like Hogwarts, a guy wearing a black cloak walked past me. It made me laugh and slightly confused. Is he also just wishing he was in Harry Potter and therefore wears a cloak around campus or is he actually a wizard? He didn't have a wand, but that could have easily just been in his back pocket.
This past weekend Emma came to visit me! She is studying up in Townsville at James Cook University, so her and her friend, Vivian, came down to escape the cyclone that was hitting them and to enjoy Mardi Gras with me! It was very exciting to have them here.
As I mentioned in the previous sentence, it was Mardi Gras. We went to the gay/lesbian mardi gras parade on Oxford Street Saturday Night and it was absolutely insane. I don't even know how to explain it. There were rows and rows of people on the street all standing on stools, so we couldn't see a thing. We were trying to plot a way to run across the street and make friends with the people watching the parade on their hotel balconies, but that was impossible since we a) couldn't get past the rows of people, b) couldn't run in the middle of a parade, and c) probably wouldn't have been able to make friends with cool balcony people. So after abandoning that plan, we went to a Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King) and went in the upstairs sitting area to watch the parade from the window. There were a lot of amazing costumes and crazy floats. My favorite 2 floats that I could actually see were "My Big Fat Gay Wedding" and "F*ck Homophobic Religions." There were many way more vulger ones, which I also loved. It was just an overall great and fun experience and I must say that the GLBT community knows how to throw a hell of a party. While we were walking around on the street attempting to see the parade, Emma walked up to every person wearing a crazy costume and asked if we could have a picture, in which everyone allowed us to take pictures with them.
After the parade, we went to a club in King's Cross called World Bar. They are famous for their teapots, and they are delicious! A teapot is exactly as it sounds - a cocktail in a teapot and you just drink straight from the spout; it's great. As much as I love drinking straight from a teapot, they were really awkward to dance with. You basically just had to hold the teapot out in front of you and bounce. I did witness one girl who didn't put the top on her teapot and so when she went to drink from the spout, all the contents came out of the top and went all over her face. I laughed at her. Later on in the evening when we were no longer dancing with teapots, we went downstairs (this is a 4 story bar) to go dance on the main dance floor. While dancing, a guy comes up to me and decides that he is going to teach me how to do the running man. He does it in slow motion at first and I'm doing it with him in slow motion, and then he shows me how it looks normal speed. Little does this guy know that I already am a pro at the running man, so when I was able to bust it out right away at normal speed, he thought I was the coolest person ever. I never told him I already knew how to do it, I simply just accepted him praising me all night for "learning the running man so quickly." Apparently it took him days. Then I decided to bust out the side running man, in which the guy was completely amazed. Oh yeah, and I did all of this in heels. I'm a champ.
After wearing my heels for twelve hours, my feet were killing me. Yes, idiot me decided to wear a pair of heels out for mardi gras parade and a nightclub. This was a full twelve hours of walking, standing, and dancing. We leave World Bar and are embarking on our 45 minute walk home and I am dying. I have a rule about heels: if you wear the heels, you commit to them. I hate seeing girls walking on the street holding their heels; you knew what you were getting yourself into..now wear them. Well, I had to break my rule for about 10 minutes. But I hated the fact that I was carrying my heels, so I put them back on. Then Emma gave me a piggy back ride and I think we got hit on more while walking home than we did our entire time at the bar. One guy came up to us and said he has never seen a girl give another girl a piggy back ride. He though Emma was "really sexy" for giving me a piggy back ride and that he "didn't think he could even bench press my weight." I got mad at him and told him to go away.
The next day we went to Darling Harbour, but while we were there, it started pouring outside. We only had one umbrella for the four of us. We tried to all fit under this one tiny umbrella, but it didn't work so well. We all looked like drowning rats. The rain never stopped the entire day, so me, Gabi, Vivian, and Emma all decided to go to a movie. Of course we saw "He's Just Not That Into You" for a second time. It was a good day. The next day was a nice day, no rain and hardly any clouds, so us four went to the Opera House and walked through the gardens. Then Emma and Vivian left very early Tuesday morning. It was great to have them here and very nice to have a little taste of home. I'm planning on going to visit them sometime in May.
And here is a fun little story to end this novel. One day, Gabi, Jeff, Cliff, Evan, Suvir, and I all go down to the hot tub (only Gabi and I read our books becuase Gabi forgot her swim suit...she doesn't live in Unilodge like the rest of the cool kids). After we leave the hot tub, the boys start playing soccer in the lounge area. Gabi and I had to finish our chapter, so we came to the lounge a couple of minutes after the boys...who are already playing soccer at this point. So I open the door to the lounge to go join in the fun, and as I open the door, I get smoked in the face with the soccer ball. Don't worry, I was fine and there was no blood, but it was pretty embarrassing.
This weekend I will be at my surfing camp! I will probably do very poorly and will be extremely sore, but I'm very excited for it nonetheless. I'll tell you all the fun stories from this little adventure.
Thanks for taking the hour out of your day to read this long, but exctiting (I hope) entry.
Much love,
Whitney
So much for being punctual with my updates. My apologies for promising often updates and not following through. I blame school; it's in the way of me being able to take the time and type out my life for all of you lovely people to read. Frustrating, isn't it? I think so too, yet I don't have enough guts to skip class and not do my homework, so I guess I'll have to learn how to manage my time a little better.
While we are on the topic of school, I'll dive right into all the great details of my classes. I'm taking four classes while abroad...four very worthless classes. Actually, one is of importance so I'll rephrase and say three very worthless classes. Here they are:
Varieties of English Grammar - I know you're all thinking "why in the world would you take varieties of English grammar as a fun class while you're in Australia?" Good question. I don't have an answer. Anyway, this class should really be called "The History and Philosophy of English Grammar." Sounds fabulous, doesn't it? In all honesty, it shouldn't be too bad and I find myself to be surprisingly interested in the majority of the material. It's a lot of reading, but it's doable. My professor has a great Australian accent and is very animated, so it keeps the class interesting. I am a little terrified to how my grade will turn out in this class seeing as we are graded on one essay (which is 45% of our grade) and one exam (which is a 2 question exam that will take 2 hours, also worth 45%). Participation makes up the remaining 10%. So if I write a terrible answer for one of the 2 questions on the exam, there goes any chance of doing well. It's a little terrifying.
Australia: Land and Nation - Worthless class number 2. This is a pretty interesting class and it's fun to learn about the place where I'm studying. Right now we are learning about the Aboriginals and I am thoroughly enjoying it. However, my professor is the opposite of my English professor. This guy apparently doesn't understand the concept of voice inflection. Not only is he monotone, but he speaks very softly with a not-so-great Australian accent. It's a struggle to stay awake.
Genres in Cultural Context - Worthless class number 3. I really do not enjoy this class at all. It will probably be the easiest of all my classes, but I care very little about any of the content. One would imagine that a course with such a title would be about learning about different cultures around the world (or something among that line). Oh no, it's not. In fact, I'm not really learning about real life cultures; I'm learning about aliens. I can sense the confusion from halfway across the world and through a computer. Let me explain: yesterday we had a screening session for this class. What did we view? Let me tell you. We watched 3 hours of Star Trek. Laugh it up, people, laugh it up...it was torture. Next week we are watching Star Wars (which is at least better than Star Trek...but really?). While watching these films, I am to be analyzing how the "others (characters who are alienated from the rest of the group)" are being portrayed. Why? I have no idea. So that's that class...a mistake to be enrolled in.
Media Globalisation - This is the only class that is worthwhile to me and also the only class that I actually enjoy in its entirety. It's very comforting to know that I picked the right major. My professor is awesome, brilliant, and has the best Australian accent of them all. He is also very laid back and helpful, which is great. It's very interesting to learn about the material while in Australia because a lot of it is about different arguments as to whether or not America is taking over the world with their culture and media outlets. It was really awkward for me to read the last chapter in our book becuase it was all about "Americanisation" and how the world is doomed because American culture is taking over and making everyone illiterate dumbasses. It was actually very insightful and interesting, but still a little awkward.
So there are the great, wonderful, juicy details of my classes and professors. I successfully did not get lost on my way to classes nor did I go in a wrong classroom (which is always a fear of mine whenever it's the beginning of a semester). I only have class 3 days a week, which I love. Though after enjoying my 4 day weekend, it's hard to get back into the grove of school for the week. There are a couple of times when I have an hour break between my classes, so I go and sit under the archways of campus to act like I'm in Harry Potter while reading my course materials. One day, while sitting under an archway and admiring how the campus looks like Hogwarts, a guy wearing a black cloak walked past me. It made me laugh and slightly confused. Is he also just wishing he was in Harry Potter and therefore wears a cloak around campus or is he actually a wizard? He didn't have a wand, but that could have easily just been in his back pocket.
This past weekend Emma came to visit me! She is studying up in Townsville at James Cook University, so her and her friend, Vivian, came down to escape the cyclone that was hitting them and to enjoy Mardi Gras with me! It was very exciting to have them here.
As I mentioned in the previous sentence, it was Mardi Gras. We went to the gay/lesbian mardi gras parade on Oxford Street Saturday Night and it was absolutely insane. I don't even know how to explain it. There were rows and rows of people on the street all standing on stools, so we couldn't see a thing. We were trying to plot a way to run across the street and make friends with the people watching the parade on their hotel balconies, but that was impossible since we a) couldn't get past the rows of people, b) couldn't run in the middle of a parade, and c) probably wouldn't have been able to make friends with cool balcony people. So after abandoning that plan, we went to a Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King) and went in the upstairs sitting area to watch the parade from the window. There were a lot of amazing costumes and crazy floats. My favorite 2 floats that I could actually see were "My Big Fat Gay Wedding" and "F*ck Homophobic Religions." There were many way more vulger ones, which I also loved. It was just an overall great and fun experience and I must say that the GLBT community knows how to throw a hell of a party. While we were walking around on the street attempting to see the parade, Emma walked up to every person wearing a crazy costume and asked if we could have a picture, in which everyone allowed us to take pictures with them.
After the parade, we went to a club in King's Cross called World Bar. They are famous for their teapots, and they are delicious! A teapot is exactly as it sounds - a cocktail in a teapot and you just drink straight from the spout; it's great. As much as I love drinking straight from a teapot, they were really awkward to dance with. You basically just had to hold the teapot out in front of you and bounce. I did witness one girl who didn't put the top on her teapot and so when she went to drink from the spout, all the contents came out of the top and went all over her face. I laughed at her. Later on in the evening when we were no longer dancing with teapots, we went downstairs (this is a 4 story bar) to go dance on the main dance floor. While dancing, a guy comes up to me and decides that he is going to teach me how to do the running man. He does it in slow motion at first and I'm doing it with him in slow motion, and then he shows me how it looks normal speed. Little does this guy know that I already am a pro at the running man, so when I was able to bust it out right away at normal speed, he thought I was the coolest person ever. I never told him I already knew how to do it, I simply just accepted him praising me all night for "learning the running man so quickly." Apparently it took him days. Then I decided to bust out the side running man, in which the guy was completely amazed. Oh yeah, and I did all of this in heels. I'm a champ.
After wearing my heels for twelve hours, my feet were killing me. Yes, idiot me decided to wear a pair of heels out for mardi gras parade and a nightclub. This was a full twelve hours of walking, standing, and dancing. We leave World Bar and are embarking on our 45 minute walk home and I am dying. I have a rule about heels: if you wear the heels, you commit to them. I hate seeing girls walking on the street holding their heels; you knew what you were getting yourself into..now wear them. Well, I had to break my rule for about 10 minutes. But I hated the fact that I was carrying my heels, so I put them back on. Then Emma gave me a piggy back ride and I think we got hit on more while walking home than we did our entire time at the bar. One guy came up to us and said he has never seen a girl give another girl a piggy back ride. He though Emma was "really sexy" for giving me a piggy back ride and that he "didn't think he could even bench press my weight." I got mad at him and told him to go away.
The next day we went to Darling Harbour, but while we were there, it started pouring outside. We only had one umbrella for the four of us. We tried to all fit under this one tiny umbrella, but it didn't work so well. We all looked like drowning rats. The rain never stopped the entire day, so me, Gabi, Vivian, and Emma all decided to go to a movie. Of course we saw "He's Just Not That Into You" for a second time. It was a good day. The next day was a nice day, no rain and hardly any clouds, so us four went to the Opera House and walked through the gardens. Then Emma and Vivian left very early Tuesday morning. It was great to have them here and very nice to have a little taste of home. I'm planning on going to visit them sometime in May.
And here is a fun little story to end this novel. One day, Gabi, Jeff, Cliff, Evan, Suvir, and I all go down to the hot tub (only Gabi and I read our books becuase Gabi forgot her swim suit...she doesn't live in Unilodge like the rest of the cool kids). After we leave the hot tub, the boys start playing soccer in the lounge area. Gabi and I had to finish our chapter, so we came to the lounge a couple of minutes after the boys...who are already playing soccer at this point. So I open the door to the lounge to go join in the fun, and as I open the door, I get smoked in the face with the soccer ball. Don't worry, I was fine and there was no blood, but it was pretty embarrassing.
This weekend I will be at my surfing camp! I will probably do very poorly and will be extremely sore, but I'm very excited for it nonetheless. I'll tell you all the fun stories from this little adventure.
Thanks for taking the hour out of your day to read this long, but exctiting (I hope) entry.
Much love,
Whitney
Monday, March 2, 2009
I love Sydney
G'day mates,
A lot has happened since my last entry, so this will be, yet again, a long one...brace yourselves.
It was O-Week this week at the University of Sydney, which is basically a large festival filled with live bands, bumper cars, fairy floss (aka cotton candy), popcorn, BBQs, and hundreds of clubs/organizations handing out brochures. I met up with my friend Stefan and he introduced me to a few other Australians. All of us hung out for the majority of the day. Stefan and I did a free hip hop class for about a half an hour; it was pretty funny. I'm not a great dancer to begin with, so trying to hip hop was quite a difficult task. I don't think I did any of the moves correctly and ultimately learned nothing, but at least I had a good time.
I went to Bondi Beach on Thursday...again. I have now gone to the same beach 3 times in one week. I think it's time for us to explore the alternative beaches around the area. There's a popular show in Australia called Bondi Rescue, which is filmed right on Bondi Beach and it's basically a real life "Bay Watch." It's Gabi's goal/dream to be on this show. I'm pretty sure it's because she wants to be saved by an attractive Australian lifeguard, but then again, who wouldn't want to be saved by an attractive Australian lifeguard? It might not be such a bad plan (only I don't really know how to swim and Gabi is an actual good swimmer and could get herself out of the mess if a not-so-attractive lifeguard came to save her...I would just be stuck with the not-so-attractive lifeguard while getting attacked by sharks. Maybe it's not such a great idea for me after all). I'll let you all know if Gabi achieves her goal of starring in this reality show.
This past weekend, Gabi and I were ultimate tourists and went to explore the remaining major areas of Sydney. We went back to Darling Harbour (which has no become my favorite place in the world) and went to the Sydney Aquarium, China Town, and Paddy's Market. We were going to go to the Chinese Garden, but by the time we were done with the other three, it had closed. Looks like we have an excuse to go back! The Sydney Aquarium was amazing and huge. At first we complained for a while about the fact that it cost us $20 to get in, but after about 30 seconds, we got over it. There were many amazing sea creatures, including a platypus, giant stingrays, sharks, and giant sea turtles, amongst other things. China town was pretty fun but it isn't the same as China town in New York. Paddy's Market was insane; I don't even know how many vendors there were. It was very hectic and confusing, but they had a ton of awesome souvenirs in there. I found a stand with authentic aboriginal didgeridoos and found an awesome one for Nate! I had the guy play it for me to make sure it sounded alright; I'm pretty excited for Nate to have it and play it ALL THE TIME for me.
After we were done looking at all the touristy places at Darling Harbour, Gabi and I decided to have a seat on a bench, relax, and look at the water. While we are sitting on a bench, a giant lizard pops up from behind us! For my fellow Rugrats fans - basically Reptar came to chill out with us on this bench (alright, so maybe it wasn't that huge, nor did it walk on two legs, but it was insanely large). I took some pictures of it, so feel free to have a look at Reptar.
Later that night, a bunch of us went to a professional rugby game: Sydney Wartah's vs. New Zealand Hylanders. Sydney won by a landslide. It was a ton of fun and we are all going to go to more rugby games throughout the semester. The fans were hilarious and intense!
The next day Gabi and I ventured to Martin Place where all the shops and malls are. We went into Prada, Armani, and a few malls. It was fun to be able to go into the high-end stores and see everything they had, though it was slightly awkward since the workers followed you around everywhere you went and watched you like a hawk. They were basically your shadow and watched your every move, so it was a little limiting. I found an awesome dress and sunglasses. Too bad I don't have $3000 laying around, shucks. After we went into the stores, we grabbed a Caramel Java Chip Frappachino at Starbucks (very delicious) and went to a park to enjoy the nice day. While we were at the park, a guy starts peeing on the wall that is right next to us. We're a little grossed out, but laugh about it anyway. Then when the guy was done peeing, him and his friends came up to us and introduced themselves. The guy who just peed all over the wall held out his hand for us to shake. I so did not want to shake his hand, but thought it would be rude to turn him down, so I shook it anyway. After talking to them for a little while, they left and shortly thereafter, 4 more guys came to the exact same wall and they all started peeing on it. At this point, Gabi and I are laughing pretty hard and then we started taking pictures...because that's the normal thing to do. Apparently the wall we were sitting next to is the peeing wall, even though there was a bathroom about 10 feet away from it.
Yesterday we went to the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was amazingly beautiful and very exciting to be looking at the two most well-known landmarks in Sydney. We also walked through all the gardens, which were also beautiful...shocking. All of Sydney is beautiful; I absolutely love it here. There were a bunch of huts set up by the Opera House that were selling hand made jewelry. I purchased a pair of earrings and a ring and Gabi also purchased a pair of earrings. Apparently they're one of a kind; we'll see if it's true.
Today I had the worst day ever. Everything seemed to go wrong and I probably should have just stayed in bed all day. At least the weather was beautiful so I could hate the day while enjoying the sun. So the dress I was wearing ripped, then the necklace I wanted to wear broke as I put it on, then I walked to campus to get my schedule figured out but the international office couldn't help me so they sent me to a different building, then the lady in that building who deals with schedules was on her lunch break and wouldn't be back for an hour. Gabi and I decide to go to Paddy's Market to pick up Nate's didgeridoo that I have on hold during this hour period, so we take the long bus ride there to find out that Paddy's Market is closed, so then we have to take the bus all the way back home. While we're on the way home, Gabi realizes she left her folder full of all her important school information at a counter near Paddy's Market, so she gets off the bus to go back while I continue towards campus to meet with the lady that was on her lunch break. I go to the lady's office and she tells me that she is not the person I need to talk to, but she has no idea where I need to go to solve my problem. So I call the international office and they tell me to go back to where I just was (in which I told them that they were wrong), so then they realize that I need to go to a different building which is all the way across campus, so I walk briskly over to the building and when I get there, it's closed. I look at the sign and it says they close at 4:00, I look at my watch and see that it is 4:05. Looks like I'll have to figure out my scheduling questions tomorrow after class. After this frustrating relay of going to wrong buildings all day around campus, I decide to go home to read for a little while. Then Gabi comes back (with her folder..she found it), and we decide that since we had such an awful day that we deserve an awesome night, so we treat ourselves to a very lovely dinner right on the water at Darling Harbour. It really was the perfect ending to a dreadful day.
Tomorrow I have my first day of classes and I'm a little nervous. I feel like I'm a freshman all over again! Luckily I only have class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so I get to enjoy 5 day weekends. Wish me luck on my first week of school! I'll try to be a little more punctual on updating this blog so you guys don't have to read novels every time I post something.
Love,
Whit
A lot has happened since my last entry, so this will be, yet again, a long one...brace yourselves.
It was O-Week this week at the University of Sydney, which is basically a large festival filled with live bands, bumper cars, fairy floss (aka cotton candy), popcorn, BBQs, and hundreds of clubs/organizations handing out brochures. I met up with my friend Stefan and he introduced me to a few other Australians. All of us hung out for the majority of the day. Stefan and I did a free hip hop class for about a half an hour; it was pretty funny. I'm not a great dancer to begin with, so trying to hip hop was quite a difficult task. I don't think I did any of the moves correctly and ultimately learned nothing, but at least I had a good time.
I went to Bondi Beach on Thursday...again. I have now gone to the same beach 3 times in one week. I think it's time for us to explore the alternative beaches around the area. There's a popular show in Australia called Bondi Rescue, which is filmed right on Bondi Beach and it's basically a real life "Bay Watch." It's Gabi's goal/dream to be on this show. I'm pretty sure it's because she wants to be saved by an attractive Australian lifeguard, but then again, who wouldn't want to be saved by an attractive Australian lifeguard? It might not be such a bad plan (only I don't really know how to swim and Gabi is an actual good swimmer and could get herself out of the mess if a not-so-attractive lifeguard came to save her...I would just be stuck with the not-so-attractive lifeguard while getting attacked by sharks. Maybe it's not such a great idea for me after all). I'll let you all know if Gabi achieves her goal of starring in this reality show.
This past weekend, Gabi and I were ultimate tourists and went to explore the remaining major areas of Sydney. We went back to Darling Harbour (which has no become my favorite place in the world) and went to the Sydney Aquarium, China Town, and Paddy's Market. We were going to go to the Chinese Garden, but by the time we were done with the other three, it had closed. Looks like we have an excuse to go back! The Sydney Aquarium was amazing and huge. At first we complained for a while about the fact that it cost us $20 to get in, but after about 30 seconds, we got over it. There were many amazing sea creatures, including a platypus, giant stingrays, sharks, and giant sea turtles, amongst other things. China town was pretty fun but it isn't the same as China town in New York. Paddy's Market was insane; I don't even know how many vendors there were. It was very hectic and confusing, but they had a ton of awesome souvenirs in there. I found a stand with authentic aboriginal didgeridoos and found an awesome one for Nate! I had the guy play it for me to make sure it sounded alright; I'm pretty excited for Nate to have it and play it ALL THE TIME for me.
After we were done looking at all the touristy places at Darling Harbour, Gabi and I decided to have a seat on a bench, relax, and look at the water. While we are sitting on a bench, a giant lizard pops up from behind us! For my fellow Rugrats fans - basically Reptar came to chill out with us on this bench (alright, so maybe it wasn't that huge, nor did it walk on two legs, but it was insanely large). I took some pictures of it, so feel free to have a look at Reptar.
Later that night, a bunch of us went to a professional rugby game: Sydney Wartah's vs. New Zealand Hylanders. Sydney won by a landslide. It was a ton of fun and we are all going to go to more rugby games throughout the semester. The fans were hilarious and intense!
The next day Gabi and I ventured to Martin Place where all the shops and malls are. We went into Prada, Armani, and a few malls. It was fun to be able to go into the high-end stores and see everything they had, though it was slightly awkward since the workers followed you around everywhere you went and watched you like a hawk. They were basically your shadow and watched your every move, so it was a little limiting. I found an awesome dress and sunglasses. Too bad I don't have $3000 laying around, shucks. After we went into the stores, we grabbed a Caramel Java Chip Frappachino at Starbucks (very delicious) and went to a park to enjoy the nice day. While we were at the park, a guy starts peeing on the wall that is right next to us. We're a little grossed out, but laugh about it anyway. Then when the guy was done peeing, him and his friends came up to us and introduced themselves. The guy who just peed all over the wall held out his hand for us to shake. I so did not want to shake his hand, but thought it would be rude to turn him down, so I shook it anyway. After talking to them for a little while, they left and shortly thereafter, 4 more guys came to the exact same wall and they all started peeing on it. At this point, Gabi and I are laughing pretty hard and then we started taking pictures...because that's the normal thing to do. Apparently the wall we were sitting next to is the peeing wall, even though there was a bathroom about 10 feet away from it.
Yesterday we went to the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was amazingly beautiful and very exciting to be looking at the two most well-known landmarks in Sydney. We also walked through all the gardens, which were also beautiful...shocking. All of Sydney is beautiful; I absolutely love it here. There were a bunch of huts set up by the Opera House that were selling hand made jewelry. I purchased a pair of earrings and a ring and Gabi also purchased a pair of earrings. Apparently they're one of a kind; we'll see if it's true.
Today I had the worst day ever. Everything seemed to go wrong and I probably should have just stayed in bed all day. At least the weather was beautiful so I could hate the day while enjoying the sun. So the dress I was wearing ripped, then the necklace I wanted to wear broke as I put it on, then I walked to campus to get my schedule figured out but the international office couldn't help me so they sent me to a different building, then the lady in that building who deals with schedules was on her lunch break and wouldn't be back for an hour. Gabi and I decide to go to Paddy's Market to pick up Nate's didgeridoo that I have on hold during this hour period, so we take the long bus ride there to find out that Paddy's Market is closed, so then we have to take the bus all the way back home. While we're on the way home, Gabi realizes she left her folder full of all her important school information at a counter near Paddy's Market, so she gets off the bus to go back while I continue towards campus to meet with the lady that was on her lunch break. I go to the lady's office and she tells me that she is not the person I need to talk to, but she has no idea where I need to go to solve my problem. So I call the international office and they tell me to go back to where I just was (in which I told them that they were wrong), so then they realize that I need to go to a different building which is all the way across campus, so I walk briskly over to the building and when I get there, it's closed. I look at the sign and it says they close at 4:00, I look at my watch and see that it is 4:05. Looks like I'll have to figure out my scheduling questions tomorrow after class. After this frustrating relay of going to wrong buildings all day around campus, I decide to go home to read for a little while. Then Gabi comes back (with her folder..she found it), and we decide that since we had such an awful day that we deserve an awesome night, so we treat ourselves to a very lovely dinner right on the water at Darling Harbour. It really was the perfect ending to a dreadful day.
Tomorrow I have my first day of classes and I'm a little nervous. I feel like I'm a freshman all over again! Luckily I only have class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so I get to enjoy 5 day weekends. Wish me luck on my first week of school! I'll try to be a little more punctual on updating this blog so you guys don't have to read novels every time I post something.
Love,
Whit
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A hodge podge of stories
Hello everyone!
Classes still have not started and I am therefore still living my vacation life. I went to the beach with my friends Gabi, Evan, and Jeff the other day and it was beautiful out - a perfect beach day! Don't worry, I apply a ton of sunscreen and have yet to get sunburned. I did, however, get annihilated by a wave. I was just chilling out in the ocean, trying to catch up to Gabi and Jeff who were pretty far out (if anyone has seen me swim, it's like watching a black lab..no good) but I couldn't make it out to them, so I started talking to the people next to me and made friends with them for a little while. Two of them were trying to teach me and another girl how to body surf, so I decided to give it a go. Well a giant wave is approaching (which we all know my silly fear of waves) and they tell me to get ready. I completely misjudged the wave, it crashed down on top of me, I went tumbling underneath the water, and got salt water up my nose and in my mouth. The people all around me were cheering and laughing at me. I then decided to give up on body surfing and I went to go lay back down on my towel. Hopefully my surfing experience goes slightly better than my body surfing one. Only 3 more weeks until I go to my surfing camp! Also while we were at the beach, these 3 guys from China approached Gabi and I and asked if they could have a picture with us. It turned out to be about a ten minute photo shoot with 5 different cameras! Gabi and I were laughing the entire time, it was very bizarre. I got a few pictures of it on my camera; I couldn't let that moment go undocumented!
That night, a bunch of us went out to Kings Cross (which is sort of downtown..but not really) to a few clubs. This night turned out to be the most epic night we've had here so far. While we were at a bar, me, Gabi, and our friends Cliff and Arjun lost the other people we were with and had no idea where they went so we just decide to go out on the dance floor and have fun. Well the bar is playing alternative 90s music and we had no idea how to dance to it. Everyone around us all have their arms around each other in a circle while swaying to the music. After a while, Gabi and I decide to go sit down at a table and as soon as we sit down, a guy behind us throws his cup in the air, which means that we got beer all in our hair. We were pretty pumped. After a while me, Gabi, Cliff, and Arjun decide to leave. So we leave the bar and cross the street to try and catch a cab to get home. While we are trying to hail a cab, a guy right behind us starts having a seizure and none of his friends are calling an ambulance and are telling everyone to go away (Gabi and I think the seizure was drug related since all of his friends were acting a little sketchy). Cliff calls for an ambulance and it took forever for it to show up! I think he was on the phone with the ambulance for 10 minutes and then it didn't show up for another 10 minutes after that (in which the guy had 2 more seizures during this time). It was a little ridiculous. Finally, the ambulance shows up, the guy's friends stare us down, and we flee the scene to make sure we don't get beat up. So yay! We did a good deed and perhaps saved a guy's life.
After walking a few blocks, we continue trying to catch a cab (which is a very difficult task). One finally pulls over and while we're getting in the cab, this crazy Australian chick comes running towards us screaming and swearing and freaking out about how we stole her cab. I'm already in the back seat buckled in, Gabi's in the front seat, and Cliff and Arjun are still standing on the curb. This crazy chick opens the passenger door and tells Gabi to get out (with a lot of curse words thrown in there). Cliff is handling the situation and telling the girl to calm down and that there will be another cab in a few minutes. This girl is not having it and is continually screaming at us and mocking everything we say to her. Finally we just tell Cliff and Arjun to get in the cab and as they are getting in, this crazy chick punches Gabi in the arm and slams the door in her face. So yeah, Gabi got punched by a crazy Australian chick and had a giant bruise on her arm. So ridiculous and so funny! We still laugh about it all the time. That girl was insane. And that concludes the epic night.
The next day Gabi and I went down to Darling Harbour and walked around. It was absolutely gorgeous, I don't even know how to describe it (just check out some of the pictures..which doesn't do it justice). We went into a really cool marine museum, walked around the entire harbor, and went into a few shops. In an ideal world, I would live in the amazing apartment complex right on the harbor.
That night, we told Marco we would meet him for dinner and drinks so we went back to go get ready. We were both so tired from walking around all day that we really didn't want to go out, but since we said we'd meet up with him, we got all dressed up to go out anyway. Right before we were about to meet him, we realize we are going to be 45 minutes late by the time we take the train to where he's going and so we just decided it wasn't worth it. Marco was totally fine with it, so we took a rain check for dinner and drinks. However, Gabi and I were really hungry, but also very lazy and didn't want to change out of our dresses. So we go and eat at this very low key bar/hotel across the street in our fancy dresses and order the most manly meal ever (our waitress even called us out on it). We ordered the supreme meat lovers pizza with a side order of french fries. The pizza was a mountain of ground beef and other meet with cheese flowing all over the place. It looked disgusting, but it was one of the best meals we have had so far! While we were walking back to my apartment, I fell down in the middle of the street and it was really embarrassing! I completely just ate it. Gabi was dying laughing and could hardly walk since she was laughing so hard. I'm the world's clumsiest person. Then we just came back to my apartment, changed into sweats, and went to the common lounge area to watch TV. We ended up finding a movie that was in German with English subtitles and it was the most depressing movie I have ever seen! These two twin sisters get separated at the age of 4 at their dad's funeral, one grows up Jewish, the other grows up German (this is during WWII), the Jewish girl's fiance gets killed in a concentration camp, the German's husband gets killed in the war, the sisters hate each other, and then they die at the end. Talk about an upbeat film. After the movie was over a really weird dating game show came on and it was super awkward, I don't even know how to describe it. I don't know why anyone would ever go on that game show. Apparently The Biggest Loser is the most popular show in Australia and it's on every night. So You Think You Can Dance is also a very popular show. So Dad, I'm sorry to tell you that you will not be able to escape these shows even if you flee the country.
Tonight Gabi and I (yes, we spend every second together) went to the movie "He's Just Not That Into You." We absolutely loved it! It's a total chick flick and leaves you very giddy and happy. If you haven't seen it, you should probably stop reading this blog and go buy a ticket to the movie. After the movie, we went to go meet a bunch of people at a Scruffy's (it's a bar close by). While I was dancing at Scruffy's, a guy came up to me and told me I was a very good dancer...I died laughing. Looks like people over here love my flailing dance moves.
I've continued to meet a lot of people from around the world as well as Australians. All the people here are so nice and welcoming. I love listening to them talk, but sometimes I have a hard time understanding what they're saying to me and I have to ask "what" a lot and then I feel really dumb. Sometimes I just go with the smile and nod method so I'm not asking "what" every two seconds. There were these two guys at a club one night who told me they were in Sydney for a back party. I, naturally, had no idea what a back party was so I asked. The guy gave me the weirdest look and said in a really slow manner, "Well two people get married and all the guys get together and go out." I replied, "Oh, you mean a bachelor's party!" He responded, "Yeah, that's what I said, a back party." Then he thought I was really dumb. Oh well, I guess I need to get used to them abbreviating everything.
Classes begin on Monday and I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm sure it will be fine though, once I actually figure out when my classes are and where they are (just a few minor details). I'll let you know how it all goes!
Love,
Whit
Classes still have not started and I am therefore still living my vacation life. I went to the beach with my friends Gabi, Evan, and Jeff the other day and it was beautiful out - a perfect beach day! Don't worry, I apply a ton of sunscreen and have yet to get sunburned. I did, however, get annihilated by a wave. I was just chilling out in the ocean, trying to catch up to Gabi and Jeff who were pretty far out (if anyone has seen me swim, it's like watching a black lab..no good) but I couldn't make it out to them, so I started talking to the people next to me and made friends with them for a little while. Two of them were trying to teach me and another girl how to body surf, so I decided to give it a go. Well a giant wave is approaching (which we all know my silly fear of waves) and they tell me to get ready. I completely misjudged the wave, it crashed down on top of me, I went tumbling underneath the water, and got salt water up my nose and in my mouth. The people all around me were cheering and laughing at me. I then decided to give up on body surfing and I went to go lay back down on my towel. Hopefully my surfing experience goes slightly better than my body surfing one. Only 3 more weeks until I go to my surfing camp! Also while we were at the beach, these 3 guys from China approached Gabi and I and asked if they could have a picture with us. It turned out to be about a ten minute photo shoot with 5 different cameras! Gabi and I were laughing the entire time, it was very bizarre. I got a few pictures of it on my camera; I couldn't let that moment go undocumented!
That night, a bunch of us went out to Kings Cross (which is sort of downtown..but not really) to a few clubs. This night turned out to be the most epic night we've had here so far. While we were at a bar, me, Gabi, and our friends Cliff and Arjun lost the other people we were with and had no idea where they went so we just decide to go out on the dance floor and have fun. Well the bar is playing alternative 90s music and we had no idea how to dance to it. Everyone around us all have their arms around each other in a circle while swaying to the music. After a while, Gabi and I decide to go sit down at a table and as soon as we sit down, a guy behind us throws his cup in the air, which means that we got beer all in our hair. We were pretty pumped. After a while me, Gabi, Cliff, and Arjun decide to leave. So we leave the bar and cross the street to try and catch a cab to get home. While we are trying to hail a cab, a guy right behind us starts having a seizure and none of his friends are calling an ambulance and are telling everyone to go away (Gabi and I think the seizure was drug related since all of his friends were acting a little sketchy). Cliff calls for an ambulance and it took forever for it to show up! I think he was on the phone with the ambulance for 10 minutes and then it didn't show up for another 10 minutes after that (in which the guy had 2 more seizures during this time). It was a little ridiculous. Finally, the ambulance shows up, the guy's friends stare us down, and we flee the scene to make sure we don't get beat up. So yay! We did a good deed and perhaps saved a guy's life.
After walking a few blocks, we continue trying to catch a cab (which is a very difficult task). One finally pulls over and while we're getting in the cab, this crazy Australian chick comes running towards us screaming and swearing and freaking out about how we stole her cab. I'm already in the back seat buckled in, Gabi's in the front seat, and Cliff and Arjun are still standing on the curb. This crazy chick opens the passenger door and tells Gabi to get out (with a lot of curse words thrown in there). Cliff is handling the situation and telling the girl to calm down and that there will be another cab in a few minutes. This girl is not having it and is continually screaming at us and mocking everything we say to her. Finally we just tell Cliff and Arjun to get in the cab and as they are getting in, this crazy chick punches Gabi in the arm and slams the door in her face. So yeah, Gabi got punched by a crazy Australian chick and had a giant bruise on her arm. So ridiculous and so funny! We still laugh about it all the time. That girl was insane. And that concludes the epic night.
The next day Gabi and I went down to Darling Harbour and walked around. It was absolutely gorgeous, I don't even know how to describe it (just check out some of the pictures..which doesn't do it justice). We went into a really cool marine museum, walked around the entire harbor, and went into a few shops. In an ideal world, I would live in the amazing apartment complex right on the harbor.
That night, we told Marco we would meet him for dinner and drinks so we went back to go get ready. We were both so tired from walking around all day that we really didn't want to go out, but since we said we'd meet up with him, we got all dressed up to go out anyway. Right before we were about to meet him, we realize we are going to be 45 minutes late by the time we take the train to where he's going and so we just decided it wasn't worth it. Marco was totally fine with it, so we took a rain check for dinner and drinks. However, Gabi and I were really hungry, but also very lazy and didn't want to change out of our dresses. So we go and eat at this very low key bar/hotel across the street in our fancy dresses and order the most manly meal ever (our waitress even called us out on it). We ordered the supreme meat lovers pizza with a side order of french fries. The pizza was a mountain of ground beef and other meet with cheese flowing all over the place. It looked disgusting, but it was one of the best meals we have had so far! While we were walking back to my apartment, I fell down in the middle of the street and it was really embarrassing! I completely just ate it. Gabi was dying laughing and could hardly walk since she was laughing so hard. I'm the world's clumsiest person. Then we just came back to my apartment, changed into sweats, and went to the common lounge area to watch TV. We ended up finding a movie that was in German with English subtitles and it was the most depressing movie I have ever seen! These two twin sisters get separated at the age of 4 at their dad's funeral, one grows up Jewish, the other grows up German (this is during WWII), the Jewish girl's fiance gets killed in a concentration camp, the German's husband gets killed in the war, the sisters hate each other, and then they die at the end. Talk about an upbeat film. After the movie was over a really weird dating game show came on and it was super awkward, I don't even know how to describe it. I don't know why anyone would ever go on that game show. Apparently The Biggest Loser is the most popular show in Australia and it's on every night. So You Think You Can Dance is also a very popular show. So Dad, I'm sorry to tell you that you will not be able to escape these shows even if you flee the country.
Tonight Gabi and I (yes, we spend every second together) went to the movie "He's Just Not That Into You." We absolutely loved it! It's a total chick flick and leaves you very giddy and happy. If you haven't seen it, you should probably stop reading this blog and go buy a ticket to the movie. After the movie, we went to go meet a bunch of people at a Scruffy's (it's a bar close by). While I was dancing at Scruffy's, a guy came up to me and told me I was a very good dancer...I died laughing. Looks like people over here love my flailing dance moves.
I've continued to meet a lot of people from around the world as well as Australians. All the people here are so nice and welcoming. I love listening to them talk, but sometimes I have a hard time understanding what they're saying to me and I have to ask "what" a lot and then I feel really dumb. Sometimes I just go with the smile and nod method so I'm not asking "what" every two seconds. There were these two guys at a club one night who told me they were in Sydney for a back party. I, naturally, had no idea what a back party was so I asked. The guy gave me the weirdest look and said in a really slow manner, "Well two people get married and all the guys get together and go out." I replied, "Oh, you mean a bachelor's party!" He responded, "Yeah, that's what I said, a back party." Then he thought I was really dumb. Oh well, I guess I need to get used to them abbreviating everything.
Classes begin on Monday and I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm sure it will be fine though, once I actually figure out when my classes are and where they are (just a few minor details). I'll let you know how it all goes!
Love,
Whit
Friday, February 20, 2009
I suck at posting pictures
So I suck at figuring out how to put pictures on this blog, so I created a Photobucket account where I have uploaded all of my photos for you to enjoy! It seemed a little easier to do it this way. To see all of my pictures, follow this link:
http://s666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/wnjohnson10/
I'll keep posting new albums so you can all see!
http://s666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/wnjohnson10/
I'll keep posting new albums so you can all see!
"It's Whitney in the city!" - Marco
Hello again!
I'm sure you're all thinking I'm the biggest slacker on the planet for not updating my blog in the past week. Sorry to keep you all anxiously waiting for the latest development in my journey.
This past week we had orientation at the University of Sydney. One would ima
gine that going through 3 days of orientation would clear the air and make everything more comforting and not as daunting. However, it did quite the opposite. We all walked away from orientation ten times more confused as we did going in. I don't know if they messed up on explaining things or if all the students didn't do a great job of following the information, but none of us have any idea what's going on as far as figuring out our classes and schedules go. I'm sure we'll figure it all out soon. Besides the fact that I have no idea how to arrange my schedule and where any of my classes are, orientation was pretty fun. We got to know the campus a little better (I can now walk around without getting too lost), got free food, and met a lot of people from around the world. Gabi and I met three people from Holland with whom we have become good friends - Marco, Emilie, and Jente. We met them the first day of orientation during morning tea and have been hanging out with them ever since. I also won a free wine tasting tour in Hunter Valley at orientation. STA travel drew my name out of a box and I won! I was super exc
ited. I haven't decided yet which weekend I am going to go on this trip, but I'll let you know all about it when I do.There have been a lot of events going on for us newcomers this past week - mainly BBQ parties. Unilodge (the apartment complex that I live in) hosted a BBQ party on the roof on Wednesday. There was free food (though it wasn't that great), a live band, and prizes. Campus organizations have also been throwing BBQ parties for us to get to know more people and the campus a little better. Thursday night was the international party, where all study abroad students went to the bar on campus (yes, there is a club in the middle of campus next to all the classrooms), ate for free, and danced on the dance floor. I met my first Australian friend at this party named Stefan! I also met a lot of other people from other countries. I'm all about the free food, I think they should just keep hosting these things all throughout the semester so I don't have to buy food ever again...maybe I'm just being greedy.
I am 100 percent settled into my humble abode and have been out and about the city of Sydney. The rain has finally subsided and the sun has finally come out which, in turn, allows me to happily wander around. I have yet to go to downtown Sydney (with the bridge and opera
house), but I intend on doing that sometime next week. So far, I've been getting acquainted with the areas around campus and central station. Yesterday, Gabi, Allison, and I went to Oxford street and went in all the little shops.Since it has been so nice out lately, I have been able to go to the beach! Thursday, Gabi and I met up with our friends from Holland and we went to Bondi Beach. It was here that I finally had the realization that I am in Australia. The beach was beautiful, the sand was soft, there were people surfing, and there were large rocks that we climbed so we could have a better view of the ocean. I think a bunch of us are going to go back on Sunday.
Culture shock set in a couple of days ago while I was eating a bag of Skittles. As you all know, the lime skittles are my favorite. I open my bag of skittles, pour some into my hand, stick a green skittle in my mouth, and as I'm chewing it I realize that it is not lime; it is green apple. I was thoroughly disappointed. Don't worry, I ate the bag of skittles anyway (though I don't think the green apple tastes right with all the other skittles). Also, if it's 2 am and you are wanting an inexpensive late night snack, do not go to McDonald's. I know this is the hot spot in Dinkytown (besides Mesa of course), but it is not in Sydney unless you feel like paying $7 for a McChicken. So yeah, I paid $7 for a usually $1 McChicken. I guess some things you just have to learn the hard way.
Now you are up to date on my latest happenings. Right now I'm basically on vacation - sleeping in every day, wandering the streets of Sydney, going to the beach, going out to eat with friends, then going out to the clubs with everyone. It's going to suck when classes start and I'm actually going to have to do something.
I miss you, I love you, I'll update you soon!
Whit
Sunday, February 15, 2009
My first few days in the Land Down Under
Hello friends and family!
My apologies for the delay in beginning this blog; everything has been pretty hectic and I haven't had much down time. Due to my lack of time/motivation the past few days, this entry will be rather long but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Cheers! (my attempt at being Australian).
After 22 hours worth of flying and missing a day of my life, I have made it safely to the opposite side of the world! I have experienced so many amazing things, met a lot of great people, and finally got settled into my rather tiny apartment. I will take you through my journey thus far.
I arrived in Cairns (pronounced "cans") on Tuesday, February 10, which would have been Monday for all of you, for our week of orientation. Upon arrival, we had hardly any time to relax and get settled. We actually only had 45 minutes for all six people in the room to shower and get ready to be on time for our meetings and dinner (and yes, all six girls in my room made it on time). We stayed in a backpackers resort (similar to a hostel) that turned into a club scene at night, so after the meetings and dinner were over, we all walked downstairs and went to the club. I didn't stay out too late the first night since I was pretty exhausted from flying and we had to get up at 5:30 the next morning to go to the Great Barrier Reef. While at the club, the DJ began a game of Simon Says, in which I did not participate for good reasons (though I did take some great pictures). This was not an ordinary game of Simon Says, it was actually Simon Says - sex positions. The DJ would say a sex position, and the team (all the teams were 2 guys for some reason) who did not get in the position the fastest was out. Yeah...Australians are crazy, but very entertaining.
On Wednesday, our group got to go see one of the natural wonders of the world. On the 45 minute boat ride out to the reef, nearly everyone got sick, even after we all took the seasick pills. I was fortunate enough to not fall victim to actually getting sick, but I really thought I was going to at one point and walked around with a white paper bag (I'm not really sure if I was actually seasick or if I was just nauseated by everyone else getting sick all around me). Once the boat stopped it was a lot better and we all got to put on our scuba gear on. So yeah, I got to scuba dive and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! It was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced. I was really sad that I didn't get to see a sea turtle (a lot of people in my group did), but I did see a baby shark, a stingray, a sea cucumber, a TON of colorful fish (including Nemo and Dori!), a giant clam, and of course coral. I accidentally backhanded a fish while I was swimming through the reef. I felt kind of bad, but I'm sure it's fine...or at least I hope it is.
On Thursday we went to Rainforestation, which is a touristic rainforest experience (or so I have deemed it). There were many activities here with a very tasty buffet lunch - I have never had better fruit in my life. We rode on Army Ducks throughout the paths and rivers of the rainforest, watched an Aboriginal performance, fed/pet/took pictures with kangaroos, and took a picture holding a koala bear. After the performance, the Aboriginals taught us how to throw a boomerang (I was no good - it went straight up, hit a tree, and then came right back down) and they also taught us how to play the didgeridoo (again, I sucked. Sorry to disapoint you, Nate).
After we got back from Rainforestation, a bunch of us went out to a club d
own the street having ladies night with free champagne, which was right up my alley! It was our last night out in Cairns, so nearly everyone went and it was a lot of fun. It was here that I lost my camera (or moreso it got stolen, though it was completely my fault). My friends, Gabi and Alison, and I asked a guy to take a picture of us. After the picture, us three girls started talking and forgot to get my camera back (very responsible) and I'm assuming the guy just walked off since we couldn't find him or the camera anywhere. Luckily I uploaded all my pictures right before we went out. So surprise...I am now on camera #5!
We left for Sydney Friday morning and arrived in the late afternoon. I didn't really see much of Sydney the first day since I was trying to get situated in my apartment. I did go across the street to K-Mart, along with everyone else, to buy everything I needed for my room. So my first day explorations of Sydney consisted of me walking across the street to K-Mart and back...so exciting. My apartment is pretty small, but I don't have roommates so it works out well. It's a two level loft apartment; the desk, TV, bathroom, and kitchen (which consists of a sink, mini fridge, and microwave) are on the main level, then there's a spiral staircase that goes up to my bed and closet. The spiral staircase looks really cool, but I've found it to be quite dangerous. They're really narrow and steep and I will most likely fall one day and break something, so just be prepared for that situation to occur. So far I've been safe and haven't injured myself, but i'm not ruling out the possibility.
I went out and explored a little bit of Sydney with my friend, Gabi, on Saturday. We went to lunch and walked around all the shops on the streets near our apartments. While we were in a boutique, the girl who was working was talking with us for a while and then gave us her number and invited us to go out with her for the night to downtown for a "no boys allowed" anti-Valentine's Day party. We called her up and attempted to meet up with her, but we went to the wrong bar and then couldn't get into the bar she was at because it was full. We still had a ton of fun and ended up finding people through our study abraod program at another bar with a live band that played all American 90's music. It was like I was at a middle school dance again - it was great. Apparently the bars don't close here. I was waiting for the bar to close and for all of us to get kicked out, but 4:00 am rolled around and everyone is still dancing to the music and clearly not stopping any time soon. We all finally decided to go home and go to bed around 4:30 am.
Today, which is Sunday, a bunch of us went out to lunch and then went to explore the campus. It is absolutely beautiful (for my fellow Harry Potter fans, it looks like Hogwarts!) and absolutely huge. I'm going to get so lost walking to my classes. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out where they all are and memorize it before classes start on March 2. It sounds like an easy feat, but I'm not so sure. Gay/Lesbian Mardi Gras started today, so a bunch of us went to that festival, but we didn't last too long since it started down-pouring. The festival goes on until March 7, so there's still plenty of time to experience it. This evening/night, we all went on the roof the apartment complex, and it is a huge BBQ area with a fantatsic view of downtown. We stood up there for hours talking, eating, and sipping on wine while looking at the skyline. I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of nights up there, it really is an incredible view.
So that has been the past 5 days of my life. It's crazy to think of all the things I have already done. Hopefully the weather will clear up pretty soon - it's been raining in Sydney since we've gotten here - so I can go explore more of Sydney and go to the beaches! We have 3 days of orientation at the University this week and then we have free time until classes start. I haven't seen any spiders nor large bugs lingering around my apartment. When I was helping Gabi unpack and get settled into her apartment, there was this bug of some sort crawling up her wall. It was really fast and it flew whenever we tried to kill it. We, of course, were screaming the entire time and were really freaked out. Don't worry though, Gabi killed it and we were not injured in any way.
I'll keep you all posted as I continue on my adventure! I hope everything is going well for everyone back at home!
Love,
Whit
P.S. To answer the question you're all dying to ask: No, the toilets do not flush the opposite way. I have yet to see a toilet even swirl when it flushes; they all just shoot straight down. Sorry for that disappointing answer.
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