Not Again!

Nike Run in Sydney is a club of people who meet each week and run around the city, starting from the Nike store.  It’s free and you get a really cool t-shirt!  A few girl friends and I went on Monday night and joined the hundred or so people who do this ritual.  They were out of shirts unfortunately, but are getting them in next week.  So we went with the 5k group, just for fun, right?  Well, I got mixed up and ended up in the fast-paced 10k group, very lost.  A guy ran up next to me and asked what I was training for.. I told him nothing, I was just running with some friends the 5k.  He laughed and said, “You’ve gone a lot farther than that! You’re in the 10k track!”  I thought it was too long…  Well, he pointed me back to the end and I left him for the shortcut to meet back up with the girls… I got lost of course and was running around Sydney trying to find the Nike store. When I got back to the store an hour later than I started, the girls had left, thinking I had left before them. I tried to find my way home and again… got lost. When I finally made it to a train station the train was stuck.  I arrived home around 8:30, so hungry!  Dinner was waiting for me… which included mashed cauliflower…  It was quite a night. 

Woke up Tuesday to my phone account shutting off.  Don’t know why yet but I’m still trying to work that one out.  Well, on the bus I lost my wallet AGAIN!!!!!!!!!   I never lose things like that and this is the second time in 8 days!!!  I was freaking out again but thank GOD that the same bus depot found it just a few hours later and my friends Percy and Niko drove me there after class to get it.  God is so patient with me to give me my wallet back twice!  Ugh, I’ve got to be better about that… But I got to spend the afternoon with my Australian Grandma, Georgette so the day improved.  We sat and talked while she fed me Tim Tams (chocolate covered chocolate cookies) and coffee :)  She is such a blessing to me!  She is an Egyptian 84-year-old who is a resident at my service placement, The Sisters of St. Joseph’s Hostel.  We have a good time together every time I go, even if I hear the same stories over and over again.

The Dreaded Week 4...

We’ve been warned about week 4.  Time and again our program directors and study abroad advisors have all told us that week 4 is break down week.  Everyone begins to get really homesick and work starts getting intense.  Well, it was quite a week.  At the start of the week both my roommate and I lost our wallets on the bus.  Same day, different bus.  I was freaking out when I found out, I never loose things like that!  She wasn’t as frazzled because that’s not too out of the norm for her…  Well, Thank GOD after I called the bus depot around the area all morning the next day, they found it and I was able to pick it up that day!!!!!  EVERYTHING was in there: ID’s, credit card, bus pass, everything!  God is good.  My roommate still hasn’t found hers…

This week was really busy with homework and projects.  We had a group project that was specifically intense on Friday.  After that, me and a few friends went to the beach to celebrate!  Then Megan and I, not wanting to be home for dinner for many reasons (it’s complicated), got Thai food at a local restaurant.  Thai food is everywhere here! It’s like they invaded Australia.  It was delicious though J Then we packed for the weekend.

South Coast Trip!!!!!  We drove about 3 hours south of Sydney to Jarvis Bay in the South Coast for an overnight stay at an Aboriginal National Park.  We camped there and were given a tour/show/class of Aboriginal people, their customs and their history.  It was definitely unique, but pretty cool.  We were right on the beach (these beaches are known for having the whitest sand in the world!) and wallabies would hop around the whole site throughout the days… so cool!  We went on a few hikes, to some botanical gardens, cooked BBQ, watched some Aboriginal traditional song and dances (which we participated in… yes we did), and had Australian s’mores (definitely not the same as American…).  Megan, Sarah and I (we’ve gotten really close), shared a tent which was a blast! We didn’t get much sleep but that wasn’t our goal J  We might have kept some other tents up for a bit… oops.  We also went star gazing on the beach which was incredible!  And I only had to pull two leaches off me all weekend…

Sunday morning we went to Shelley Beach where we saw a school of dolphins (at least 12-24) feeding in the bay.  They were jumping up and out of the water, having a good old time!  On the long bus ride home we stopped at a place called the “blow hole”.  It’s a rock/cove bay in a town called, Kiama, where the waves crash into a cove that looks like a whale’s blow hole and it spurts straight up really far!  It was pretty cool. We picnicked there for a late lunch then continued back to Sydney. 

Weekend’s over, another week to come.  I’m excited for whatever will happen; it’s always an adventure here J 

Another Weekend in "the Land of Opportunity"

Friday was a half-day!!!!  A group of us went out to Bondi Beach and did a 6k coastal walk in and out of a bunch of beaches and rock pools.  It was beautiful!  We ended at Coogee Beach where three of us stayed for a while and swam in the rock pools.  Harder than it looked; we all laughed through the pain as we “swam” along the rocks to get to the ones above the surface.  Another Australian adventure!  It was a good time :)

Saturday, Tam, Monika and I found this adorable little café a short walk from my home where the sitting area was past the secret bookshelf entrance!  Free wifi, heck yes!  Later that day…  I actually began my first day at the Bakehouse!  That’s right, I found a part time job right across the street from Wesley Institute.  It’s so much fun so far!  It’s a small (but really popular) bakery/café owned by an Italian woman and her family.  The grandparents work, barely ever do they hint at a smile but they are so cute and very Italian, speaking very little English.  I sometimes get picked on from the customers about my American accent (for instance, caramel is Care-a-mel, not Carmul and apricot is Ape-pra-cot not app-pri-cot).  I think they enjoy teasing Americans…  Anyway, the staff loves me and it’s a fun little gig and will help me pay for a weekend trip to the Great Barrier Reef in June!

NEXT weekend is our south coast trip, we’re camping on the beach!!!  Where we’ll be has the world’s whitest sand.  I’m excited…

What the Roo???

This weekend was such a great adventure!  Saturday morning we all met at a train station and headed down to Featherdale Zoo.  This was a petting zoo with Australian animals!!!!!  We fed, petted and hung around with kangaroos and wallabies, petted wombats and koala bears… koala bears!!!!!!  They were adorable.  So many different animals that are so unique to Australia.  I just kept thinking, God is so clever!  The Koalas were my favorite J 

Later that day some of us girls went and visited Church by the Bridge, a small church right next to the Harbor Bridge.  It was really great church, we met some really cool people and they had a coffee and cookie break half way through the service… I liked it. 

After the service, around 8ish, we got a few take-away pizzas from a wood-fired grill in town and walked down to the harbor.  We picnicked on a beautiful lawn looking over the harbor, bridge and opera house.  We ate, swapped hilarious stories and just got to know each other better for a few hours.

Sunday was blue mountains day!!! I organized a trip for those of us who were interested to head early down to the mountains where we spent the day hiking in the rainforests.  It was gorgeous!  It wasn’t really mountains though.  It was actually a canyon that we hiked down and into, with tons of waterfalls, caves, bridges and rainforest bushes.  SO beautiful! We saw a huge (4 foot long and FAT) lizard on the path down deep in the canyon which Tamera went running away from and I ran towards…  I got some great pictures!!!  Everyone else decided they’d just look at my pictures later.  I also was designated the group leach taker-offer since everyone else freaked out about it.  what’s the big deal?  We saw some amazing peacock-like birds which we had no idea what they were.  The rock formations were incredible, so amazing and the waterfalls were breathtaking!

On the train ride home we saw some wild kangaroos!!!!  And a fox J 

One of the greatest parts of this weekend was really developing the friendships with the others here.  I’ve been blessed with a great group, some of whom I’m especially connecting well with and we often end up in extreme fits of laughter J  

Dun Dun Dun...

I forgot to mention a minor little detail about our Adventure here Down Under…  During orientation there was a middle-aged man who was hanging around with us, he said he was a first year master’s student.  We all were talking to him and kind of humoring him.  We all were planning to go to the beach with people from Wesley and he wanted to join so we said sure!  Anyway, he came to the beach with us, hung around with us all day and even “taught” us how to surf(you might remember the name Carl from an earlier blog, yeah him).  He went out to pizza with a group of girls the other night.  A few days later, after he’d been around campus and talking with and exchanging numbers with everyone he could, we get an emergency email and text saying that he is NOT a Wesley student and he’s been posing as members of certain churches too trying to get women’s numbers.  He’s banned from campus and if he approaches or talks to any of us then we need to contact staff immediately.  CREEPYY!!!   I knew that guy gave me the creeps…

P.s.  I won bingo today at the elderly home!!!  

A Foggy Day in Sydney Town

Good Day Mate!

This week has been a bit rainy but good nonetheless.  Classes are not as demanding as they are at Gordon but that’s a good thing J that way I can have some extra time to explore.  Yesterday a few of us went into the city and visited the Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful!.  Along with the gardens came huge spiders in their massive webs and at one point there was a section of trees with tons of bats!!  I walked a little more quickly under those trees…  After that we explored some shops around the city for a while before we took the train back to our home stays.  And I am proud to say that yesterday was the first day I did not get lost on public transportation!!!!! HURRAH!!!!  That is a huge feat.  I’m not promising to keep a perfect record though; I know better than that. 

This weekend is a big celebration of Mardi Gras in Sydney.  Mardi Gras here is not the same as it is in the states, however.  Here it is a big gay/lesbian celebration.  This should be interesting.  Not sure exactly what to expect. 

Ok, so far there are a few words that I always get stuck on… Manky means gross, whinging means whining, lolly means candy (even it doesn’t have a stick!). I shouldn’t say bloody, fanny or root (they have other meanings…).

I know I’ll pull so many stupid American moves but I try to avoid that as much as possible!  We’ll see how it goes. 

I needed two extra credits here because my schedule got a little messed up so now I’m enrolled in Pilates.  Basically we do organized stretching for two hours.  Mind you, I’m in a dance school here so everyone is highly trained in ballet, hip hop, latin and other dances.  We Americans feel just a little inadequate in that department but they just like to laugh at us.  Did I mention Aussies are extremely sarcastic?  They don’t waste a moment to pick out a flaw or mistake in anyone, whether you’re new or familiar.  At least they’re not scared of us!  In fact, most people first ask if we are Canadian because they know that Canadians are offended if they are asked to be Americans, but Americans don’t care if they are asked to be Canadians. J  I’m trying to pick up all these little things, but I know I have a long way to go.