Land Down Under: 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.