I am heaps more cultured thanks to Canberra.

5/20/08 11:20am

Hey ya’ll! (Believe it or not, I actually said that in casual speech the other day, living with a Texan is rubbing off on me. AND I tease my hair real big on a regular basis.)

How are things back in the States? I heard the weather is kinda crappy on the east coast. Lame for you guys. It’s definitely autumn here but the average is about 65 and it’s sunny 90% of the time. Beautiful weather today, and still almost warm enough at night to wear cute little dresses (we do anyway even if it’s not warm enough).

  Last week was pretty normal, got back into the swing of things after my birthday and no one went out all week except for Thursday. We went to this club/bar (there should be a word for that...blub) in North Sydney that apparently, is known to house all the 18 and 19 year olds who want to party (don’t forget, the drinking age/going out age here is 18). So the 20 something Americans were surrounded by Australian teens for a night. Exciting stuff.

Friday morning my program, CEA, had a trip to Canberra (the capital pronounced "Canbra", Sydney is not the capital of Australia). Canberra is sort of known to be a bit...boring, but we all already paid for it, so most people went. Our group had a small bus and drove down for about four hours. Bus games and merriment occurred the whole way (plus naps since some people were a bit hung over). We got to Canberra in the early afternoon and started at the Australian War Memorial. We saw fighter jets and all sorts of army related things, plus the changing of the guards (called the post). After a few hours there, we headed to our hostel to drop our stuff and get ready for dinner. We all had some before dinner drinks at the local pub and then went to Vietnamese. I love Vietnamese and was very excited.

I’m sort of known here as the resident foodie since a lot of kids are from smaller towns and haven’t been exposed to a lot of different foods. When everyone heard Vietnamese (and I jumped up and down with glee), they rushed over and called dibs on sitting next to Selina. It all wasn’t necessary though because we ordered a banquet of pre-determined food. Overall it was disappointing, I wouldn’t have normally ordered anything I actually ate, but it was an interesting experience.

Some people went out to explore the “Canberra night-life” but I was exhausted and about half of us just crashed. We got up early on Saturday, got a good breakfast and began our incredibly cultural activities. The first stop was the Australia National Museum where we saw lots of Aboriginal history, some dead animals, and made our own virtual 3D spaceships (the best part of the day by far, we all always run to the little kid activities). Next up was the Australia Art Museum where I saw Jackson Pollock’s “Blue Poles”, very exciting, as well as a lot of other art. After that, we headed to Parliament and took a guided tour of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Not the most riveting thing I’ve ever done, but educational nonetheless. We all piled back onto the bus and headed home.

The original plan was to go out on Saturday night but once everyone ate, showered, got dressed and was ready, we were all too tired to make it out. So we stayed in, played some beer pong, watched some movies etc.

 Sunday was homework and relaxation day and then we had a girl’s night at Hugo’s to take advantage of the $5 Sneaky Sundays. This time I had a pumpkin, Gorgonzola, zucchini pizza, it was marvelous.

School finally came about and now it’s Tuesday in between classes. Later today we’re going to have some afternoon tea at the center and then I believe we’re hosting a beer pong tournament since Cyd’s boyfriend came yesterday to stay for 2 weeks. I’m sure very exciting things will be happening all week, and you lucky dogs, will get to read all about them. I suppose I should do some homework now/look for an internship that I still haven’t found/apply for visas that I need to travel. There are some Canberra pics (though not many) in a new album with this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2315087&l=20d35&id=824622

Byebye for now!

So, there was a birthday.

5/12/08 10:24 pm

And it was mine! I finally (finally) turned 21 and it happened in Australia and it was awesome. I will start from the very beginning.

Our friend Jai came and stayed with us this week and his birthday was Tuesday, so Cyd and I went out with him and met up with our Australian friends. Wednesday was well, Wednesday so of course we hit up Epping hotel for another lovely local night.

Thursday I stayed in, took it easy, watched a movie, relaxed a bit before the big weekend. Friday we just had a small group and played some beer pong in our apartment.

 

Then it started. Saturday, my three girls (Lindsey, Jen and Cydney) and I all cooked dinner together and they surprised me with a yummy cake (with 21 candles of course) and a crown (every birthday girl gets a crown). I also got a big wine glass that’s painted with confetti and says ‘21’. So we all got ready and went out. We were a smaller group, but we met up with some people later that night. I had decided on going out in Darling Harbour since I hadn’t done that yet, so we headed off to Cargo. Cargo is right on the water in the harbour and it just a very young and trendy area. A lot of dancing and fun ensued. We stayed out for awhile, made the 2:50 bus home, and went to sleep...a bit later.

 

I woke up Sunday to my lovely roommate and Jen giving me french toast and lots of balloons in bed! I slept in a bit later, and hung around the Parklands. Lindsey gave me some delicious tea and a tea canister. Joanne and Ashley gave me four (4!) Warm Delights. If I get fat, it’s their fault. I had originally wanted to go see a movie or something but...sleeping was a better option.

 

I had also decided to go out on Sunday (my real birthday) as well, and this time we had a different group of girls, all my blondes! There’s this really swanky lounge in King’s Cross (the red light district, which is always super fun) and I love it. If you read reviews of it online it says “When going to Hugo’s, if you own Prada, wear it”. On Sundays they have a $5 special: $5 to get in, $5 huge gourmet pizzas and $5 drinks from 8 to 10. Needless to say, we took full advantage of all three of those things. It started to get busy around 9 and we had a lot of fun. A few of the girls wanted to make the last bus home, which is unfortunately at 11:11, so Joanne, Melissa and I stayed later. We continued the festivities for a bit longer and then also, headed home. Bed pretty quickly after that, and classes this afternoon.

 

Now, for those of you that are curious, no, I did not do 21 shots/drinks. I actually wanted to remember at least part of my 21^st birthday and decided against going completely insane (at least as insane as 21 shots is). It was still an awesome birthday, and now Sundays at Hugo’s will definitely become a regular thing, we all loved it.

 

This weekend is my program’s trip to Canberra, the capital, we come back Saturday, so who knows what the weekend will bring.  Besides all the above-mentioned things, everything here is continuing as normal. Still desperately trying to find an internship and still booking flights/getting vaccinations. My backpack for Asia arrived, it’s really nice, should be very helpful.

And that is all. Here is the link for my random things/birthday album. I pre-warn you, they are all of my friends and other people dancing and drinking. Don’t go looking for any spectacular views or scenery.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2309811&l=cb0e4&id=824622

Taking it down a notch (but +stress other places)

May 7, 2008 8:04pm

So yes, it’s been a few days, and the reason I haven’t updated is not because I’ve been super busy, but because nothing that exciting has happened. School started again and we all got back into our normal routines again, only I think the non-stop going going going caught up to me and I ran out of steam. Luckily, this past weekend was really low key and relaxed. I finally just slept (went out once for an awesome night) and took it easy for a few days, which had yet to happen to in this country. I got over a little cough thing I had going on (if you ask anyone here, I’m always, always sick...which is true anywhere I go) and am now just counting down until my birthday (which is Sunday the 11^th for those that don’t know). You should all probably send me something. Hah. I’m still trying to figure out what to do for it, since it’s a really big one (the big two-one), I think we’ll go out Saturday for dinner and then out on the town. Sunday will be recuperation and probably brunch, I’ve been craving French Toast for weeks now.

Cydney and I have been spending a lot of time together, we’re a really good tag team when it comes to...well, anything. I’m going to miss her so much when we have to go home! We’re such a dynamic duo, every time we go out, people always think we’re trouble (but we’re not, I swear!).

I’ll probably go out tonight, just to Epping, and sleep in tomorrow because tomorrow I have...nothing! It’s so exciting to have no plans and to just take it as it comes. As you can see, I don’t have much to report for once, although after my birthday, we have a week of school and then my program goes to Canberra. I am really busy setting up my Asia and New Zealand tours, which I will now be going on alone, because my friend couldn’t come. I bought a ticket to Bangkok and to Christchurch for now, still have a couple more to buy. I’m also working on visas and vaccinations, it’s all very confusing and I’m a bit overwhelmed. The biggest stressor of all however, is finding a fall internship.

Now, finding an internship is easy, I’ll do anything. Finding a part-time PAID internship is impossible. I would prefer something in the magazine world, but I would do book publishing again in a second. Internet publications are fine too, as well as just office work. I’ve sent my resume to a few places, but it’s hard to find things now since I’m looking so early. I have to do it now though since I’ll be MIA for all of July (the most important month to apply). If anyone has any suggestions, leads, tips or you want to hire me, please let me know! Leave advice in the ‘comments’ below, I will do anything!

I’ll give a link for more pics once I actually put up more than three, which I haven’t yet. Melissa leaves Sydney on Friday, for Fiji and then home. It all seems so soon but she’s been here longer than me and she’s ready for it. Anyway, hopefully more exciting things to come! Miss you all (but I’m not quite ready to come home yet)!

The Gold Coast is slightly gold.

10:32 PM

At least the sand is.

I’m back! Just got back from Gold Coast today and it was a blast. We left on Sunday morning and checked into our hotel, then headed out to walk around. Surfer’s Paradise is spread out along a huge beach with many surf shops, bars and restaurants. Our hotel was right in the middle of things with a view of the huge beach. Sunday we went to the beach, got some drinks and went out for dinner. We were exhausted so we were going to call it an early night, but on the way back to our hotel we got recruited by a promoter to check out a club. We went and got our free drink, then went to bed. Monday we got up and out to head to the beach again and eat lunch out. Funnily enough, we ran in to a boy we knew from Macquarie and his friends, so we hung out with them at their hotel that night and then went to a bar/club for a little bit.

Gold Coast is about 2 hours south of Steve Irwin’s zoo, the Australia Zoo, so Lindsey and I bought tickets to go up there for a day on Tuesday. This zoo is really amazing, the animals have tons of space and are really happy. And there are tons of them! There are huge enclosures where visitors can walk with the animals and feed them, as well as many interactive activities. We finally held a koala and got a picture with it! There’s one in the album (link below) and hopefully the real one that I can scan in. After the long day at the zoo we headed back to the hotel, went out for dinner and then met up with the boys we knew. We all went out together and then went swimming in the ocean at 2am (you only live once...).

Wednesday Lindsey and I slept in a bit more than we anticipated but made it to Brisbane, which is only an hour north by train. We went shopping and explored Queen Street then had some Malaysian for dinner. Took the train back home and hung out in the hotel for a bit, we were tired.

Here comes the really funny part of this blog post: Lindsey and I are idiots. Thursday we both decided to head to the beach for a while until we had to grab our bags and go to airport to fly home. We checked out of the hotel, however the receptionist asked us why we were leaving, they had us written down for another night. We assured her that we were going home today and that they must have made a mistake. Then we were on our way.

The airport took about 2 hours to get to since we had to take 2 buses, but we finally made it, although a little bit late. We ran to the JetStar counter and hurriedly tried to check in, only to have the man look at us and ask, “Really?”. Turns out, our flight home wasn’t until Friday.

...yeah. So after being mortified and leaving the airport as fast a possible, we realized that we would have to go back to the Marriot and check back in for another night, and run into all the staff members we had come to know, and told that we were going home. Talk about embarrassing. We got another room and, hey if we’re still on vacation, let’s go out. Italian dinner and then off to an Irish Pub. It was Thursday so people were out having a good time and we met a couple guys that we hung out with for a bit. We were exhausted from traveling for 4 hours though so we went home and slept (plus we had to travel to the airport again the next day).

Lindsey and I killed time Friday morning by enjoying the weather (we had perfect weather all week by the way, no rain at all) and then again, went to airport. As a side note, our favorite concierge came up to us on our way out the door (again) and asked why we were still here, didn’t he watch us leave for the airport yesterday? We grudgingly told him what we did, and he laughed, gave us chocolate and then said, “Oh and thanks for promoting the American stereotypes.”

Great.

We made it home finally, and had a quick dinner. Cydney was so excited to see us, we missed her so much (she’s making me write this right now). I’ll probably go to sleep early tonight, even though it is ANZAC day, which is a big day here. Tomorrow we’re running errands, heading to the gym to run and swim (yes, me, I know), then going to a rugby game, and then out.

Sorry this is such a long post, I’ve been busy as usual. Here’s the album link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2305031&l=4fa24&id=824622

Love, love, love!

Here, there, everywhere (Wombat!)

5:18pm (no matter what it says at the bottom of the post).

Hi hi! I had a crazy last few days (but I feel like I say that every post). Last we talked...oh, right, I went to the Opera House, but didn’t talk about it because I forgot. My program all went to a symphony plus didgeridoo at the opera house. The first half was a normal orchestra symphony and then the second half was that, accompanied by a didgeridoo and tree branches and huge drums. It was pretty awesome. After that a few of us went out to eat and then to a kid in our program’s house to hang out.

Since then autumn break has finally come, I spent a full week writing papers and once they were done, my Dad came! He’s still here, leaves tomorrow, and we’ve had a busy week. We had three days in Sydney before we went down to Tasmania. We did all the things you have to do in Sydney; the Opera House and Bridge, Paddy’s Market, Darling Harbor etc. Then we caught a flight to see our old friends who live outside of Launceston. Tasmania is beautiful, but if you’re not in a city, it’s really remote. These friends of ours had chickens for eggs, cows for meat, made their own beer and wine, had a full garden and lives pretty much out in the middle of nowhere in this valley. They had 50 acres of gorgeous land, part of which they hadn’t even seen. The three days was spent eating fresh cheese, wine tasting, seeing the wilderness and going to wildlife parks. I pet and fed a kangaroo, held a baby wombat and touched a koala and a tasmanian devil! It was awesome! And there are pictures of it all.

Once we got back to Sydney we threw a small dinner party on Thursday, and today, Friday we went to the Sydney Tower. It’s raining and is pretty gross here, but it’s his last day so we made and are making the best of it. Tonight I think we’ll head over to Kings Cross so he can see the hookers and seedier side of this lovely city.

After he leaves tomorrow I have a day to organize myself, maybe go out to dinner and then Lindsey and I leave for 4 days in Gold Coast on Sunday. I just learned it’s supposed to rain all 4 days we’re there but hopefully we’ll still get to parasail, jungle surf, hold koalas and all the stuff we want to do. I’ll be busy, I get home next Thursday and then have 3 days to “relax” (there’s already talk of a rugby game and more) before classes start again.

Things are great, minus the rain. I think my Dad had a great time (right, Dad?).

Here’s the link for my (and Dad’s) new album, enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2302487&l=3cd86&id=824622

A little R&R (sort of...)

Hello all! Haven’t written because (finally) there’s not much to report. My weekend was spent in North Ryde and downtown with friends. We went out to new places both Friday and Saturday. Friday we went to a place called The Argyle in the The Rocks. It was a cool louge/bar with 2 stories and a huge courtyard with big red lamps. It was all wooden and glass with iron chandeliers, very medieval and very fun. Satuday I finally explored King’s Cross (the cross, aka the red light district). Not as seedy as I had heard, but it was a Saturday night so there were a lot of young kids. We started at a really fancy piano bar, the kind with celebrities (but we don’t know any Australian ones, minus the obvious Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Hugh Jackman etc). The drinks must have been $30 each, luckily we were with some of Lindsey’s family friends, so they paid. After, we were supposed to go to our friend’s birthday party, but even on the guest list, the line for that club was too long so we tried another place. Hugo’s Lounge was really swanky and nice (the kind of place where drinks are $10, as opposed to $30 or $5) and we met some really nice and fun people. Cyd and I made one of the last buses home and went straight to bed.

Sunday morning the Red Bull Flugtag came to Sydney! (for those of you that don’t know what that is; 1) I’m really disappointed in you 2) look it up...now) We got up early, 8:30, which is early when you got home at 3:30 in the morning, and headed downtown again. The four of is, Cyd, Joanne, Ashley and I walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens (a must if you ever come here. Dad, we’re doing it) and as close to the ramp as we could get. We stayed for about 3 or 4 flying machines, but got bored and tired so went home and relaxed.

It’s been midterms for the last week or so, I had a couple papers to write but those are done so after I hand them in tomorrow, I will officially be on ‘autumn’ break (which is 2 weeks here, hah you guys in the States!).

Going to bed soon, but Cyd wants to do some painting now so I suppose I’ll join her. We bought little canvases and paints to decorate our sterile rooms. So far I have a fish scene, a unicorn and some boomerangs. Now I’m making a sea horse.

Things are great, my Dad gets here Friday. Send me some love anyway!

Australia is my favorite place in the world.

4/2/08

 Ok, I found 10 spare minutes to write about the last week. As I left off earlier, I had the winery and brewery tours on Friday. One of our surf instructors, Jai, from our surf trip came to stay with us for a week (he was the younger one, so 18) and we had him around which was very fun. I only got an hour of sleep on Thursday because we were up all night hanging out with everyone in our building. We had to get to the bus for the winery at 8am on Friday so we could make our first wine tour at 10:30 am at Lindeman’s. We had cheese and crackers, lunch and hit three wineries before 2 pm. We must have tried about 20 different wines and we also took a tour of how wine is made. Hunter Valley is absolutely gorgeous, they’ll be a link for pictures at the end of this. After the wineries we were all pretty tired and dehydrated, but little did we know that the best was yet to come. The brewery was Blue Tongue (as in skink), a brand of beer here that makes delicious beers. We all get out of the bus and walk into this patio area with tables and chairs set up. On all the tables there were bowls and bowls of potato wedges and sweet chili sauce (it’s an Australian thing, delicious) and sour cream. On another table was paper with a run through of their 6 best beers and next to that, about 400 shot glasses filled with all their beer. “Take as many as you want, eat and relax.” Exactly what we wanted to hear. Everyone went to town on the beer and wedges, it was incredible. Blue Tongue makes this ginger beer that is so good, we bought a 6 pack and regret buying more.

After we got home that night around 6, we were all pretty much dead, but we made dinner, hung out a bit and then went to sleep since we were leaving for the Blue Mountains at 8:30 on Saturday morning. Everyone in my program (plus a few, Jai, Cydney and a couple other non-CEAers) met at a bus stop and headed off. We got to Katoomba around 10:30, dropped our stuff at the hostel and headed off to do the Great Staircase and the Three Sisters. The Great Staircase is exactly what is says it is, a huge staircase/trail about 5 miles long that goes down a cliff into a valley around the Three Sisters and then leads you to the railway, the steepest train in the world. Once you get there, this train takes you up the cliff on other side, so you basically go in a big circle. It was so beautiful there, lush rainforest around these towering cliffs.  Lots of pictures are posted.

That night we all went back to the hostel, Jen, Lindsey and I helped Murray, our program leader, go food shopping and make dinner. Our hostel was great so we had a courtyard with a BBQ and some tables. Everyone just ate and drank all night, until we went out to a local piano bar. We came home by 12, and pretty much everyone was asleep by 1.

Sunday morning we had a choice of either going caving or mountain biking, but you had to be in shape for the mountain biking, so only 3 kids did it. The rest of us took a bus to the Jenolan caves and went deep into a mountain. The caves are huge and steep, and they’re over a river. It was awesome.

Once we all got back to hostel we grabbed our bags and had to run for the train (Cydney and Mandy missed it), we were home by about 8:30. Jai was still with us, so we all made dinner and went to bed early since I have a full day of classes on Mondays. Since then I’ve just been going to class and trying to catch up with my life. Today is Wednesday so I may or may not go out. Tomorrow my program goes to the Opera House to see a symphony plus didgeridoo. Someone is having an ‘opera after party’ and then Friday I’m going to Paddy’s Market to stock up on fruits and veggies.

Luckily I’ll have a few hours of downtime tomorrow, but I do have two “papers” to write (papers here are 1000-1500 words, pretty short). Hope you all are well, sorry for the hiatus, I’ll try to be more constant!

 

Link to winery and more:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289914&l=b1e83&id=824622

 

Link to Blue Mountains:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296089&l=479f7&id=824622