The Adventures of Sam and Scanlon

Some of you may actually be wondering who Scanlon is so I guess I’ll start with that. She is one of my friends from Northeastern that happens to also be studying in Australia this semester.  I just can’t seem to get rid of her.  We’re in the same major, same year of school, we play the same sport, and we chose the same country to study abroad in.  Anyway, her semester here started this week but before she decided to really settle in she first came to visit me and see this awesome city that I’m living in!  We had a great week full of adventures.

Scanlon arrived here last Wednesday.  Sadly I had class so she had to find her own way into the city but she made it here safe and sound.  First thing we did was go to get Thai food!  It is by far my favorite type of food and lucky me, it’s fantastic and cheap here especially at lunch.  So we spent a few hours catching up and swapping stories and then I had to leave for class again.  Stupid class is always getting in the way of doing cool stuff and hanging with cool people.  No worries because one hour later I was free and so we ventured off into the city.  I had showed her around campus earlier so we skipped that and went straight downtown.  We walked from Ultimo, where I live, to Darling Harbour and then along the harbour all the way to Circular Quay.  We had a pretty sweet view of the bridge at sunset and then the Opera House after dark.  It gets dark here really early so it was probably only 6:30 by the time we got back to my place but we had to hurry up and have dinner so that we could get ready for the foam party!  Neither of us had ever been to a foam party before so we weren’t sure what to expect.  I have to say it was really fun and also really gross at the same time.  Not sure I’ll do that again but it was definitely an experience worth having.

Darling Harbour

Harbour Bridge

Opera House

My favorite picture from the foam party

Thursday was a more typical day for me here in Sydney.  I had to go to class for a few hours so I suggested that Scanlon take the free tour of the city and we found a buddy for her to go with so I didn’t feel too bad leaving her for part of the day.  We met up for lunch and ate at Pancakes on the Rocks.  We talked about going out and doing something that night and somehow never ended up going out at all.  We sat for 6+ hours just hanging out.  It was great to have someone familiar around.  Staying in actually worked out well for us because we had to get up ridiculously early the next morning to go to the Hunter Valley for an all day wine tour.

This is where I live

So Friday morning we got up at about 630am to catch our tour bus to The Hunter Valley.  The Hunter Valley is the wine region near Sydney.  It’s about two and a half hours outside of the city, which is why we had to get up so early.  Our tour was full of other Americans and an older Australian couple.  There was also one Australian girl there with her boyfriend.  It was a really fun group.  So at just after 9am we rolled up to our first winery of the day.  Wine really isn’t my thing but I was determined to try everything and find something I liked.  Well after four different wineries and way too many sips of wine I now know which wines I really hate and which ones I sort of like.  I guess wine really is an acquired taste.  All in all it was a great day and a great tour.

9am at Savannah, our first winery

Buying some wine

Tulloch's, winery #2

It was another early night for us Friday because we had another tour lined up for Saturday morning.  Saturday we visited The Blue Mountains!  We learned on the tour that the mountains appear blue because of the oil from the eucalyptus trees.  This was probably the only fun fact our tour guide gave us.  He was a horrible tour guide but we still had a good time.  We got to see several different lookouts over the valley in the morning.  For lunch we stopped in Katoomba to check out the local shops and find some food.  Then we moved on to the site of the Three Sisters and Scenic World.  Scanlon and I had made some friend on our tour at this point and decided to hike with them to the Three Sisters and down into the valley.  The hike was a little ridiculous.  It was mostly stairs straight down the side of the mountain. As many of you know I’m terrified of heights.  This hike definitely had me scared.  My legs were shaking the whole way both from fear and from the incredible amount of work it was to get all the way down 900+ stairs.  Once we made it into the valley we got to walk along a very easy trail and by a waterfall.  Then back up the mountain we went to catch our bus and head home to Sydney.  On the way back our tour guide stopped at Olympic Park to show us around and Scanlon and I decided to leave the tour and take the ferry down the Parramatta River into Sydney Harbour.  It was the perfect ending to our tour.  That night we went out for Italian food in Glebe (the neighborhood next to mine) and then went to a chocolate bar for dessert.  It was a very low-key night but we had a good time.  Scanlon had to leave Sunday morning early to head to school for orientation and so our long weekend was over.

Hanging off the ledge at flat rock

The three sisters (rocks in the background) with our new friend Susi

Holding on for dear life

Amy, Me, Scanlon, and Susi at the waterfall

It was a whirlwind of a weekend and it was fantastic.  Thanks Scanlon for coming to visit! I hope your semester is awesome!  I’ll have to come check out the Gold Coast when you’re all settled in.  And now back to real life, as real as life gets in Australia.

Royal National Park

It’s been a while since my last post.  I figure I should fill you all in on what I’ve been up to.  School has been a little crazy and I had a visitor to entertain so I’ve been plenty busy.

Two weekends ago, August 26^th I think it was, a group of us venture off to Royal National Park.  It’s this huge national park right along the shore, just south of Sydney.  We got up horribly early for a Friday, 8am to be exact haha, and got ready for a day of fun.  The trip there wasn’t bad.  I think it took us about 45 minutes total, 30 on the train and 15 on the ferry.  We were dropped off at the dock just outside of town and had to venture through a neighborhood to find the trail we had planned on taking.

We were a little ambitious in planning this.  The trail we picked was 14km long (just under 9 miles).  But whatever, it was clearly the best choice as it took us right along the cliffs and we ended at the beach.  I had expected it to be a rough hike but it really wasn’t bad.  For the most part the trail was flat, my only complaint is that it was a little muddy and I didn’t really wear the right shoes (my converse are very sad looking right now).  All in all it was a great day. Check out the pictures of our adventure below.

The trail ahead

So many pictures

Just one of the many paths of mud

Cliffs

Stefano and I at Cheesecake Rock

Fishing at the beach

Antonio chillin' out on the sweet rocks

We finally made it to the beach!

Observing Oz

Vocabulary Lesson:

• Oz - Australia
• Macca’s – McDonald’s
• Arvo – Afternoon
• Brekkie – Breakfast
• Sunnies – Sunglasses
• Thongs – Flip flops
• Tall Poppy Syndrome – tendency to criticize and tear down successful people
• Uni – University
• Bush – Outback, forrest, anywhere not in the city or town
• G’day – Hello
• Middy – Small glass of beer
• Goon – Boxed wine
• Practice – Training

These are just a few of the words I’ve learned in the past month.  I’ve actually had occasion to use most of them too.  I’m sure I sounded like a foreigner though.  Here are a few more things I’ve learned since I’ve been here.

• I love Tim Tams! They’re these small chocolate cookies covered in chocolate and they’re addicting.  I’ve been limiting myself to one box a week.
• Fashion here is different
• People wear peacoats when it’s 65 degrees out
• Leggings are an acceptable form of pants
• No one wears sweats to class or in public unless it’s to workout. Same with sneakers
• All of the girls wear boots with stockings and dresses all of the time!
• Everything seems to run a little bit behind.  Not a single one of my classes ever starts on-time
• People go out and drink a lot! There is always something going on.
• Monday is a very popular night out
• Friday and Saturday the cover at a club will cost you an arm and a leg because of how many people want to get in
• The internet is expensive and slow.  It also works differently here than in the states.  Here I pay for an amount of data per month and once I’ve used it up that’s it.
• Everything is expensive
• Cover at Kit and Kabootle in Kings Cross: $20
• Internet for the month: $70
• Lunch at Macca’s: $12
• One load of laundry: $7
• Ticket to the movies: $15
• Being in Australia: Priceless

Also, I've been learning about ethnocentrism in a few of my classes so check out this map.  Just think about what your world revolves around. It's clearly not the same for everyone.

Fireworks and Beach Ultimate

No those aren't stars, they're fireworks!

Last weekend was a lot of fun and mostly low key.  Saturday night we went to see the fireworks in Darling Harbour.  They’re a monthly event that lasts about 10 minutes.  It reminded me of Friday nights at Comerica park watching the tigers and then the fireworks show after the game.  When the show was over we walked to china town to have dinner and then stood around in the rain for a while trying to decide where to go next.  The night was still young so we ended up at Bar Century.  It’s a dive bar with really cheap drinks.  Three dollars before midnight and four dollars after for beer, wine, or liquor.  Certainly the cheapest I’ve seen.  In addition to cheap drinks on the floor that the bar was on, they also had an entirely different floor for dancing.  And even better yet, I didn’t have to get all dressed up to get in like usual.  We ended the night pretty early, which was good because I had to get up the next morning for some beach ultimate!

Bar Century Save the Planet It's the Only One With Beer

Sunday morning I got up nice and early.  I had been invited to play beach ultimate at Bondi Beach, one of the famous Sydney beaches.  There was a scrimmage going on with some of guys from the Australian beach ultimate team.  They’re headed to worlds next week and it was their last time to practice together before heading off to Italy.  It was a lot of fun and really hard work.  I’ve never played beach ultimate before so it was definitely a new experience.  May I just say that running on sand is one hell of a workout.  Good luck at worlds guys!

The rest of this week has been mostly about settling into a routine.  I no longer need to check my campus map for where my classes are or write down the room number for my tutorials.  I’m also starting to have actual assignments for classes instead of just readings, which is kind of nice because it gives me a reason to really do work.  This weekend has been a bit boring.  I haven’t been feeling well so I didn’t go out at night and the forecast said it would rain during the days so I’ve mostly been reading, sleeping, and watching tv.  Tonight was the only exception.  I group of us got together for dinner.  Two of the girls are from France and had offered to make crepes for everyone if we brought all the fillings.  We did, and it was fantastic!  Since many of us are from different countries we’re planning to maybe do a dinner each week with the theme based on the country of the host.  It should be fun.  I’m already planning for burgers!

Ah, well on to a new week and new adventures.

I'm Free Tour!

So I’ve been slacking a little bit when it comes to this blog.  I’m going to attempt to catch up and fill you all in on everything.

Last Sunday (July 31st) some of my friends and I found a free tour of Sydney called “I’m Free Tours!”   It’s a three hour tour of all things Sydney and best of all it’s free!

http://www.imfree.com.au/

I figured some of you might enjoy the tour so I’m going to walk you through some of my pictures.  My plan was to remember all of the history of each place and the names, but I doubt I will actually remember so bear with me.

We started our journey at Sydney Town Hall on George Street.

My friends who came along for the tour: Christian, Adhi, and Lauren.

Our lovely tour guide whose name I have forgotten...

To start off our tour he told us a story about the word Eternity.

Over 80 years ago this word started showing up all over Sydney.  It was written in chalk and crayon, on buildings, sidewalks, and bells.  No one knew where it was coming from or who had written it but it was a special message to Sydneysiders of inspiration and hope.  In 1956 (I looked it up) a Reverend came across one of the members of his church writing the word eternity on the sidewalk.  He had discovered Mr.Eternity, Arthur Stace.  The message, eternity, had actually been inspired by a sermon when a reverend exclaimed, “I wish I could shout eternity through all the streets of Sydney!”  Since then Arthur Stace had been writing eternity all over Sydney, helping to spread the call of the Lord.  Arthur continued to write eternity all over the city, over half a million times.  And even after his death Sydneysiders have taken on this rich tradition by preserving the original words and sharing the message with the world at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics (it was displayed in lights across Sydney Harbour Bridge). 

Statue of Queen Victoria

From there we moved on oddly enough to a shopping center, The Queen Victoria Building or the QVB (they like to abbreviate everything here).  It’s a very old building that has had many different purposes over the years.  The inside has been redone and it is now a high end shopping mall.  This statue of the queen hasn’t always been here.  It was in storage in some other country and they didn’t want it so Sydney took it and put it outside the QVB. 

This picture hates me and for some reason I can't rotate it sorry.

This is Sydney Tower.  Our tour guide told us that from the top on a clear day you can see all the way to the Blue Mountains (2 hours away).  The cables around the bottom of the tower help to keep it balanced in the winds and if all of those fail to work there is water contained at the top that acts as a counter weight to keep the tower from swaying.

View of St. Mary's from Hyde Park

This cathedral is the largest in Australia.  The original church was destroyed in a fire.  They rebuilt it over several decades.  It was only just finished in 2000, just in time for the Olympics. 

 Learning about Governor Macquarie and all of things named after him.  He was the one who believed that Sydney could be a great city and not just a colony of convicts.

The Australian Coat of Arms

From there we moved on to Martin Place.  Where we found the Australian Coat of Arms.  The Kangaroo and the Emu were picked to be on the seal because neither can walk backwards (weird right?).

Our tour guide must have really liked The Matrix because he kept showing up sites where the movie was filmed.  We saw the fountain where the lady in red distracts Neo. Or something like that… This is the building that the helicopter crashed into in The Matrix. Pretty cool right? Yeah…

The Opera House from underneath Harbour Bridge

We walked a little farther to the bridge where we had a great view of the Opera House.  Then we finished the tour at Circular Quay.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  If you come to visit maybe I’ll show you some of these places for real!