I've been to Sydney Harbor (or Harbour) multiple times since arriving in Australia, but it wasn't until last week that I was able to see Sydney ... BY SEA. The University's Civil Engineering Society set up a harbor cruise for us and it was a blast. People danced the night away dressed up as what they hoped to become when they were a child. So, of course, I dressed up as a study abroad blogger -- tie and all.
Here are some views of the Sydney Harbor bridge, the world famous Sydney Opera House and a look back toward the city.
*Sorry in advance for the fuzziness of some pictures, I was using a high sensitivity camera setting and most of the pictures were taken from a moving boat.
The second half of our Blue Mountains trip involved learning more about the history of the area and about the Aboriginal people of Australia. On the way to meet our soon-to-be-new friend Goomblar, Cam took us to see some Aboriginal carvings that date back thousands of years. The carvings were in a protected area near some houses and, if I'm not mistaken, were meant to tell a story. As we would learn on this trip, many traditions and history in Aboriginal culture is passed down through the process of storytelling. Unfortunately, since many of the carvings are on land that people wanted to develop long ago, many of them were defaced or destroyed by greedy landowners. After our short stop, we continued on to a theater to meet Goomblar and watch his performance.
Goomblar and me
Also, take a look at one of my boomerang throwing attempts (turn on HQ and enlarge to see the boomerang more clearly)
Our weekend trip into the Blue Mountains started off with a highly anticipated afternoon visit to the pleasant little animal reserve known as the Featherdale Wildlife Park. We had all been in Australia for several weeks and still hadn't encountered many of the animal species that are exclusive to Australia, so this stop was a real treat. When we entered, they gave us 'passports' that could be stamped when we visited the 'Kangaroo Kingdom,' 'Koala Kanyon,' etc. Of course, as tourists, we were pretty excited.
With my passport, trying to make the same face as the koala - then with Jenny feeding some small marsupials
Ahh! The past few weeks in Sydney have been pretty crazy. Last week, I was breaking a sweat just walking to class a few blocks away and then for three days Sydney was experiencing constant rain and some torrential downpours. I walked to my class with an umbrella and wearing a raincoat only to sit in lecture and listen to how "Australia is drying up." I couldn't help but think that my dancing at a club the night before must have been some kind of rain dance that they had been missing. Maybe it was "the sprinkler" dance move that did it ... they should have thought of that by now though. Seriously, though, on the way to class it was apparent that it didn't rain often simply by observing the drainage routes of the sidewalks -- there were none. Just about every sidewalk I walked on would be considered a level one white water rapid in any other context. So what's the best thing to do when its raining? Attend a sporting event, that's what!
After class on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon, Sara and I decided to embark upon a legendary journey that many Australians and tourists strive to complete before their death: The Coogee to Bondi walk. The walk (which is reversible, hah) starts at our 'home' beach of Coogee and ends at Australia's arguably most famous beach, Bondi beach. The walk is about four miles long one way and is full of bays, cliffs, shops, and most importantly ... BEACHES. You are about to embark on a 40-plus picture photo documentary of our walk, so prepare yourself before clicking into the entry. Here are a few teaser pictures:
(They will all appear again and be explained within the entry)
No ... although it's a wonderful place and I probably would have requested to live here if I had to choose. Google Earth was right! I now reside in the right half of a whimsically pastel colored house located in the suburb of Sydney they call Randwick. Our location is awesome because Randwick has a lot of stores and things to do and is just two blocks from campus. We also live 60 feet from a supermarket, 80 feet from a gym and only 100 feet from a spectacle-making shop! This is what I call my group of friends here
Being so close to campus is especially great because it is about a 15-minute walk to any of my classes and in Australia classes start about five to 10 minutes later than their scheduled time. During one of my engineering lectures last week, kids were still arriving 40 minutes late for class and walking up to the lecturer to get a copy of the notes we were following. Mr. Rogers in Australia
After our mini-vacation on the Mornington Peninsula, we were scheduled to go visit some kangaroos at a local wildlife park, but due to raging brush fires our group was advised to stay away from wilderness areas and cancel the trip. Ironically, we woke up to rain the next morning but we still couldn't visit the roos. Oh, and I took a five minute shower, but don't tell the Aussies.
After nearly 26 hours of flights and layovers, we finally arrived in Australia! Over the maybe 22 hours of different flights, I didn't get up from my seat once - almost like a sitting marathon, if you will. I don't really know why I never got up, but it may have something to do with the Tetris rip-off that I couldn't stop playing on the plane.
On the way down into the Melbourne area, the landscape was extremely brown, sparse and almost a bit desolate. We soon found out that most of Australia is in a severe drought and that some places in the Melbourne area hadn't gotten any rain since Dec. 12. As a result, we were told that we should try to limit showers to three minutes ... or four if we are washing our hair. You can imagine the reactions of the 20 American girls when we heard that news.
OK, so maybe not a cop, but by any estimation I'm at least some kind of educator. On my last full day in the States, I decided to go visit the Valley View Elementary Center and teach my mom's kindergarten class a little bit about Australia. I won a spelling bee here once with the word r-a-i-n-b-o-w, so I'm kind of a big deal.
Here is a picture of me with the class:
"One of these things is not like the others!" - Cookie Monster
While preparing myself physically (practicing 15 hours of sitting in one place) and mentally (learning the lingo and faking an accent) for my trip to Australia, I've gotten a lot of advice from a plethora of people in my life. The most common thing I've heard so far was put pointedly by my friend Matt: "If you ask for a Foster's you might get punched." There's an old Australian saying that a man values his beer more than his food, horse, or good name. So to many Australians the corporate outsourcing of Fosters has apparently disenchanted many Australians from the idea of Fosters being an Australian beer. Since I'm trying to blend in and immerse myself in Australian culture as soon as possible, it's been recommended that I stick with Toohey's, a locally brewed and respected lager.
