Spring Break

I had the most incredible 10 days of my life on Spring Break. We left on Friday March 2nd and arrived in Cairns at 10:00 pm.

Saturday March 3rd:
It was an early start heading out to the Daintree Rainforest at 7:30 am.

We saw the Mosman Gorge, traveled through the rainforest, saw some huge spiders, had lunch on Cape Tribulation, saw the Low Isles from a distance (the spot where Steve Irwin died :( ) and finished the day off with a crocodile crusie along the Daintree River.
Our first stop was at a wildlife park where I saw a huge 6ft tall kangaroo and got chased by emus which "harmless" and were just "playing". I disagreed and proceeded to run from them and inadvertently photobombed people trying to get pictures of these creepy birds.

 Would you want this thing coming at you full speed? Didn't think so.

I was happy to get on with our day.

Our tour guide, Peter, was crazy and hilarious. One of the first things he said to us was "You guys can wear sneakers or sandals or whatever for the walks. I'll probably just go barefoot." And he did and acquired a good amount of leeches along the way. When we explored the shores of Cape Tribulation, he also yelled "Don't go in the water. You'll die!" to remind us of the box jellyfish again. We learned that the Daintree Rainforet is the oldest continuous growing rainforest in the world

A cute baby croc

We also had the chance to see a cassowary in the wild, which is very rare. It is Australia's rarest and deadliest bird.They are known to only eat fruit, but there three were definitely cleaning up some roadkill.

A cassowary father and his two chicks

That night we had a welcome dinner where I lost my mind and signed up for bungee jumping and skydiving.
Our group of 4 did manage to snag a free pitcher of beer for signing up for bungee jumping. Encouraging our fake courage for signing up.

Sunday March 4th:
We headed out early again for the Great Barrier Reef and it was amazing!
It was the perfect day for being out on the ocean. We started off the day with scuba diving and it was my first time. I thought I would be scared of being that far down in the ocean, but nope breathing was my biggest issue. We had to stay at the bar and do some "simple" tests and I struggled for a few minutes then convinced myself that I was going to panic at the bottom, but kept it together. It was totally worth it!

Scuba diving champion 2012

We rented an underwater camera and took some great pictures of the reef. We even found Nemo!

 I saw some sea turtles from the boat and some rays scuba diving. The reef was gorgeous and scuba diving was an awesome experience. After our scuba diving session, we had an amazing buffet lunch. Our group may have been a little too excited about it. We hurried to catch the last submarine journey of the afternoon and saw some sea turtles up close from the sub. We got to spend the rest of the day snorkeling on a nice, deserted island. Surreal!

Now that I know the basics of scuba diving I should be ready for my shark dive in a few weeks! We spent all day on the boat snorkeling, laying out, and scuba diving. One of the best days of my life!


Monday March 5th:
Another early start heading out to the Atherton Table Lands for a waterfalls tour. We got to slide waterfalls at one site, swim underneath a huge waterfall at the next, see sea turtles and jump off trees at the last site. Another insane day! The group also made a stop to see a platypus in the wild. Most Australians don't see a cassowary and platypus in the wild in their lifetime and I managed to see both within a matter of days.

That night we headed out to AJ Hackett for bungee jumping and a jungle swing.

Me and my roommate, Carley, signed up at dinner and it seemed like a good idea at the time especially with the free beer thrown in. I figured I would hang out, watch a couple people go, and be fine. Nope. Absolutley not. We get there and were informed that Carley and I were first and needed to head up to the platform right away. The stairs weren't even lit yet and needless to say the further up I went, the more freaked out I got. Carley was the very first one, but I didn't get to see her go because they were strapping me on. I made the mistake of looking down and was so nervous. In the video, you can see the pure terror in my eyes asking the guy a million questions and contemplating my death. The man at the top basically had to push me off and I got a surprise dunk in the water. It was incredible once I actually did it and I was crazy enough to go a second time! The second time I was much more confident and decided to go all the way in the water. The jungle swing was crazy as well. It was me and 2 friends and the swing goes nearly as a high as the bungee platform. The three of us laid down on the swing and were strapped on and yelled the whole way going back and forth over the water. These adrenanline rushes were what I needed to prepare me for skydiving.

Tuesday March 6th:
SKYDIVING! One of the craziest and best things I've ever done! I can't describe it well enough in words, but it was the ultimate rush. There isn't any time to think once you get to 14,000 feet. Everyone was out of the plane in less than a minute. The free fall was 10,00 feet and the other 4,000 was with the parachute. I got to fly the parachute for a little while. The whole experience was awesome and I'm addicted now! I want to go again this summer I think.

Wednesday March 7th:
The day started off with a flight to Alice Springs. We landed in the middle of nowhere.We had a welcome dinner at night.I got a kangaroo burger for dinner. So good! I'm hooked on the stuff now. Nothing too exciting especially compared to the last few days.

Thursday March 8th:
The group headed out at 6am to head to the outback! We stopped at the Outback Camel Farm along the way and had a chance to grab lunch at the centermost point of Australia. That afternoon we explored Kata Tjuta. It was a hard hike at some point with a lot of vertical uphill slants and rocky, uneven pavement.

Cat rock :)

Killin it!

The group then headed back to Uluru to watch the sunset. Uluru changed colors as the sun went down and it was gorgeous to see. It changed from red to purple to aluminum-like red. Words don't do it justice.

We settled into the campsite for the night, which surprisingly had bathrooms, showers, little cabins, and a covered dining area. Our dinner consisted of kangaroo meat, beef, and camel sausages. I have had kangaroo a few times and I still think it's delicous and the camel sausages were surprisingly good. We were expecting us in the middle of the desert with sleeping bags. With that said, I still barely slept.

Friday March 9th:
I made it through the night and up at 4:30 to see the sunrise over Uluru! We then had a short guided walk followed by an unguided walk around Uluru. It was really cool to hear the aboriginal stories about Uluru and realized how sacred all these places are to them. Taking a rock or anything else from Uluru is bad luck and there is a sorry book at the Cultural Center for those who had misfortune after taking a piece of Uluru. The Cultural Center also had a lot of aboriginal art work and more stories to read. We then had a 4 hour drive to our next campsite near King's Canyon and needless to say everyone passed out.

Saturday March 10th:

King's Canyon was definitely my favorite place in the outback. It was amazing and beautiful! We started the day off bright and early with a hike straight up the canyonside. That was the worst of the hike and we were soon at the top of the canyon. You could get a lot of gorgeous views at your own risk since they were no railings anywhere thorughout the canyon, which is a bit scary at times.

We headed back to Sydney on Sunday totally exhausted.

Tasmania

Me and my three roommates spent the weekend of the 24th in Tasmania. It was beautiful, everyone was friendly, and I loved it! We stayed in Launceston which has a population of 100,000, but it felt like a small town.

We arrived around 10 in the morning and couldn't check into our hostel until 2 so we decided to explore the city. We visited a tiny radio museum first and the old couple that ran it was adorable. They were so excited to tell us about their collection of radios. Their oldest radio was from 1916 and they managed to get up and running for us. We ventured into the city park where they have some monkeys. We were informed by our cab driver that all the monkeys are born with hepatitis so that's pretty unfortunate. The city park was beautiful and it was great weather. The botanical garden was filled with huge flowers. They had visitor books literally everywhere for people to sign. It was nice to be out of the city for awhile.

We decided to venture to Cataract Gorge seeing the park. It was the best day for it. We went on the world's longest chairlift and had awesome aerial views of the gorge.

Friday night, we got on a bus to head down to the Low Head Penguin Colony. We arrived after sunset to see the penguins come out of the water and waddle to their burrows. It was hilarious to me watching the penguins come up the hill. They weren't afraid of people at all and would walk right past everybody. The penguins that were molting were an exception. They were losing their feathers and were embarrased to be seen. They would bow their heads down and dart into the bushes. It was a very cool experience and maybe I'll do it again if I decide to visit Phillip Island in Melbourne over Easter.

The next day was an early morning to head out Freycinet National Park. It was a hot day about 90-92 F. We had some hikes planned and they were rough in the heat, but the views were amazing.

After a long day, we headed off to a little italian place and watched a symphony under the stars.

Unfortunately, we had to leave Sunday morning. I wish we had more time there.

Awesome life

I haven't updated awhile because I've finally been busy with my internship. I work at Spectrum Communications doing public relations and marketing work. It's in North Sydney and is not too far from the ACU campus. I get to pass the Opera Houseand go over the Sydney Harbor bridge everyday for school and work. I'll definitely miss that when my trip is over. Everyday is different, but I usually work on media monitoring reports, go to meetings, look at magazines for client mentions, and site visits for events. Everyone there is so nice and laid back.  Almostof all of their clients are in the tech industry so I read a lot of tech-based magazines to try to learn more about it. This is their website that probably explains what they do better than I do.
http://www.spectrumcomms.com.au/aboutspectrum/index.cfm

I usually work there around 25 hours a week and I'm taking three classes: intercultural communication, international marketing, and ourmandatory internship class. The classes are 3 hours long, which is painful. The only reliable Internet I have is at work and occasionally on campus unless I want to go to a cafe and pay for a coffee.

The weekend I went to Port Stephens which is 2 hours north of Sydney with 5 other girls for a day trip. We went to a wildlife park where they had a lot ofr eptiles which were gross. My favorite part of the park was that there was a kangaroo with a joey in her pouch that came up to me that I got
to feed.

After, we went on a dolphin watching cruise out in the bay.

Halfway through they lower a net into the ocean that hangs from the boat and you're basically sitting in the ocean. A couple of dolphins came right up to the net and just hung out for awhile. It was amazing.

 For the end of the trip we went sandboarding. They take you on an RV out into the sand dunes thatare massive and you get to sled/board down them. You have to climb back up the dune yourself each time so I only made it 4 times down, but I'd love to go again. A huge storm was on the horizon as we were finishing up on the dunes and it began to downpour a few minutes after we got on the bus. It was the perfect day.

On the 18th a big group went on a wine tasting tour in Hunter Valley, which was fun. I haven't done anything like that before so it was nice to know more about wine. The amazing views didn't hurt either. Reminded a lot of Jurassic Park not going to lie. That's probably me and my roommates had a dinosaur photo shoot or just because we're really weird.

Time is going by so fast here. It feels like I've only been here for 2 weeks, but its already been a over month. I'm sure I'll be back in the frozen tundra before I know it.

Sydneysider

Thursday the 26th was Australia Day and it is similar to the 4th of July. We got up early and went down to the see the ferry races on Sydney Harbor, took a lunch break, then went to Darling Harbor to get ready for the fireworks. It was a long, but fun day.

Fireworks on the harbor on Australia Day

Since my last update, I have made it to the beach twice and loved it! Coogee Beach is beautiful. Some of the waves totally picked us up and moved us around, but it was really fun. I'm also getting over the fact that there's seaweed everywhere. It's become apparent that the sun is much stronger here and my goal is to not get burned while I'm here. By the beach is also the best ice cream place with flavors ranging from nutella, berry cheesecake, blood orange, and tons more. It will definitely be tempting whenever I'm down by the beach.

I've spent some time exploring Sydney this week. Leonardo DiCaprio just returned to finish filming The Great Gatsby, so I've been on the lookout for him! We ventured out to Luna Park, which is an amusement park on the harbor that's also nestled into the city. There were apartments on one side and the harbor on the other. The park reminded of my Mary Kate and Ashley days and their movie Our Lips Are Sealed. Afterwards, a few of us visited the Sydney Tower Eye. You could see for miles at the top of the tower and I could really see just how huge Sydney is. At night, my roommates, myself, and a few others went out and ended up at a small dive bar. Almost everyone that I've encountered is really laid back, friendly, and willing to tell us all about Australia.

view from the top of the Sydney Tower

I also had my first meat pie this week at Harry's Cafe de Wheels. It's a cute little street cafe on wheels that has been around since the 1940s. It was delicious!

This week began the first full week of classes and the work load doesn't seem too bad so far. I have my internship on class on Monday nights and class all day on Wednesdays with international marketing and intercultural communication. When I was riding the city bus to school yesterday morning, a lot of children going to school got on. I learned that public and private schools all have uniforms and many kids take the city buses and trains to and from school. I'm glad I'm learning more about Australian culture during my time here.

I finally made the commitment and spent the money to book some trips. I will be going wine tasting in a couple weekends in Hunter Valley followed by Tasmania where we are going to explore Freycinet National Park that includes the gorgeous Wineglass Bay, go on a penguin tour, and see the cities the following weekend. 

A preview of Wineglass Bay

We're also looking into going dolphin watching, visiting the sand dunes, and going to a reptile park as a day trip the weekend of the 11th up in Port Stephens. My spring break trip is going to be crazy and I'm so excited! It will be March 2nd through the 11th and will include: a night under the stars in the outback, full day cruise on the Great Barrier Reef with snorkeling and scuba diving, exploring the Daintree Rainforest, crocodile spotting cruise, safaris to Kings Canyon, Ayers Rock, and the Valley of the Winds, and some more traveling and activities!

Last night was the Twenty20 cricket match. It was Australia vs. India and was held at ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park. It was really exciting to be in the stadium and see a major Australian sporting event. The closet thing I can compare cricket to is baseball. The man sitting next to my roommate was very nice and explained the basics of the game to us and gave us updates throughout the game. In the twenty20 style game, there is one "inning" and each team has one at bat. They flip a coin to determine who bats first. They have 20 rounds with 6 pitches in each round or 10 outs; whichever comes first. Then it's the other teams turn.  In other styles, the matches can go for days because you must get every team member out before moving on. Crazy! When the ball is hit by one of the two batsman, they both run as many times as they can without getting out to score runs. If the ball goes outside the yellow line it counts for 4 runs and if it's hit over any walls it's 6 runs. The team only has one chance to score runs so it's the other teams job to beat that score. That's summary of what I learned so hopefully I didn't butcher the description of the sport. It started getting close towards the middle of India's go. It was exciting! It was fun being there at first, but way more exciting when I knew what was going on. Australia ended up winning 172 to 140 and I might just be a cricket fan now. 

Towards the beginning of the match. India is in the bright blue and is Australia is at bat in this photo

Loved being in this stadium!

I can't believe it's already February. My time in Australia is already flying by!

Adventures and Getting Comfortable

This is basically a novel so I suggest reading this while you're bored in class and/or work :) 


It's been less a week, but I'm slowly becoming comfortable with my surroundings. I'm getting used to walking on the left side of the street and looking the other way before I cross. Having no regular coffee was a little rough at first. An iced coffee is essentially a chocolate milk with an espresso shot. There is no standard drip coffee. It's either instant or an espresso shot/drink. The TV and radio is also interesting. It's a lot of 90s and early 2000s in the US. Some of the TV programming includes: The Simpsons, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, That 70s Show with some "newer" shows mixed in on weeknights. The radio and music played at bars and clubs gets me every time. I heard the classic tune Mesmerize by Ja Rule and Ashanti last Saturday along with some Blu Cantrell. It was great. The weather is still beautiful and I'm going to make it to the beach one of these days!


 On the 21st, we had a day filled with excursions. We visited Sydney Olympic Park where the 2000 Olympics were held. They already had London 2012 monuments around, which were cool to see. I love the Olympics! The architecture of every building was amazing and some of the buildings are now used for concerts and big events. After the Olympic park, the group headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park outside of Sydney. At the park, I had the chance to feed kangaroos, pet koalas, and see other cool wildlife.

The crocodile the park had was a rogue. He was brought into captivity and attacked and ate his sister crocodiles. Whoops. I have also decided to start learning crocodile facts to add to my repertoire of shark facts.

Our group then headed to the Blue Mountains, which were gorgeous!! It had been raining all day so when we got to the first lookout, the mountains were being overtaken by fog. We hiked through the mountains and rainforest that included many sets of slippery stairs. At one point, it started pouring, but no one really cared because the views were worth it and it was a great experience. It's awesome to say that I hiked through rainforest in the rain and I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything! The views of the mountains, waterfalls, and rainforest were unreal! My legs were shaking by the end of it and everyone was soaking wet, but it was worth it.

After the mountains, I slept almost the entire bus ride back. We finally had a day to sleep on Sunday so we were determined to go out. We went to a couple local bars and totally stuck out, but it was still fun to see different parts of Sydney. The downside is that everything here is more expensive including drinks. A standard beer or cocktail is $6 and up. We decided to venture out to Kings Cross, which was insane. It reminded me of a mini Times Square with people everywhere (most of them drunk), lights, food stands, and a lot of clubs. It was a little overwhelming, but even with terrible cab drivers we made it home and had a good night out.

I spent Sunday using the free Internet at the local cafe for awhile and getting some skyping done. Then ventured out to the Chinese New Year celebration by Central Station. Chinatown was close by and inside is a huge market with cheap clothing, food, accessories, etc. I got some gear for Australia day this Thursday ( a day similar to the 4th of July). I also plan on going back there to get some presents and postcards so get ready :).

We started classes yesterday and it's weird to be in school here. Everyone is required to take an internship course and I am also taking international marketing and intercultural communication. I just want to go explore everyday! The work culture is very different here. Everyone is very laid back and there isn't really any emphasis on customer service, which is so strange with my years of serving experience. My internship interview/first day was strange. I had a little freak out, but talked to the CAPA leaders and I'm sure everything will get straightened out. No worries as the Australians say. Many of our classes this week are cancelled due to Australia day. I'm really excited to go out for the big celebration and experience an Australian holiday.

I'm looking into going to the Great Barrier Reef and the Outback for our spring break time in early March. It's an expensive trip, but  I think it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would have to pay the $2,000 plane ticket to get back here again so I've decided to just go for it! It looks like rain today, but I'm determined to go to the beach with a free day from classes. It's been almost a week and no beach time yet. Time to change that!

First few days

Finally arrived in the beautiful city of Sydney.  The Internet here is spotty so I’ll try to update when I can. Therefore, when I do write anything it will most likely be pretty long. DEAL WITH IT! The first few days were pretty hectic with jet lag and 8:30 am orientations, walks, learning public transportation, meeting people etc. The 15-hour flight went well enough besides being unknowingly placed in the baby section. A baby on a 15-hour flight? Really? I was able to distract myself because Virgin Australia hooked us up with TV screens in every seat so I managed to blow through an entire season of Modern Family,  all of Crazy Stupid Love, and some Family Guy episodes instead of sleeping through a majority of the flight like a normal person. I got in at 6:00 a.m. Sydney time which would have been the afternoon the day before in Minnesota. Needless to say, I was a hot mess at the airport. Our group managed to book a shuttle and the driver almost forgot to shut the back door so the trip almost started off with our entire luggage flying down the highway.

Today was the first day we really had the chance to explore Sydney. For lunch I had kangaroo pizza. The kangaroo meat tasted like roast beef and I probably wouldn’t mind eating again. Tomorrow is the Blue Mountains and wildlife park trip. Perhaps I’ll get to pet one of the brother or sister kangaroos of the one I ate on my pizza today.  You never know. Circle of life.

Today was the first day I felt like I was truly in Sydney. The Harbour Bridge is amazing and one of my goals while I’m here is to climb the bridge especially at night. I finally made my way to the Opera House and it was gorgeous and amazing to see. The views from both the bridge and the Opera House were awesome. The weather here is also nothing I can complain about and I am now a wizard at Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions. I heard it’s freezing cold in Minnesota and I have myself a solid tan thanks to the 80 degree normal temps here J

These first few days have been great and I can’t wait to see what the next three months have in store for me here in the land down under!