$10,000 Fine Might Be Worth It

I'm going to make this uber snappy for ya'll. Today we hopped on the railway to the Olympic Park in Sydney. We were given a tour and taken inside NSWIS (New South Whales Institute of Sport), where they have the most advanced training facilities, equipment, scientists, nutritionists, trainers and training rooms. For instance this is just a few of their gadgets: They have rooms heated to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and resemble cycling at 3,000 ft. I was given a heart monitor as one of the few people who got to test out the room. I started sweating just putting on the heart monitor in that room. They also have hyperbaric chambers that pump out 100% oxygen that athletes will sleep in and hang out in for 12 hours a day and then train at sea level.

They have video cameras every 10yds that take down your speed, form and record it for further trials at it when it comes to sprints and running. I also volunteered to have these reflective looking stickers that have grey circular balls attached to them. They stuck about 15 of them all over my lower body from my lower back to the backs of my heels and knee joints. Around the room there were in-fared cameras that put a model of my lower body on a tv in the same room that showed every slight movement my body was making. It helps them assess what movements a person is making while doing a certain action in a sport.
 They also had reaction boards that lit up and you had to hit the lit up parts as the wall as fast as you can and I WON...I felt kind of slow and discombobulated because I did it right after biking in that hot room. They also had us do push ups, dips, sit ups and squats in a room like 5 mins before out seminar on training to keep us awake. We were later given a tour of the sydney stadium where the olympics were held and now I'm going to hit you with some COOL stats:

It cost them $650 million to build the stadium and took 30 months to finish
It is the largest privately owned stadium holding 110,000 people
The poles in the picture above have the names of the 70,000 volunteers at the olympics
The lighted room picture above is actually the platinum suite which costs a check of $300,000!!! WIth that you got access to every event for the olympics, and tickets for any event at the stadium until 2030. Russell Crowe owns the suite next to this suite and also owns a rugby team of his own in Australia.
The podium we are standing on in the picture is the same one for the olympics.
They have the 2 biggest LED HD TV's in the southern hemisphere which cost $1 million each
It was the first "Green" Olympics with the stadium having a water catching system when it rains draining to a tank that could hold 3.1 million liters of water which they used to irrigate the fields and clean.
They use the stadium today for rugby, cricket, soccer and concerts like Snoop Dogg and Bono.
I would also like to say that the signature in this photo is of DAVID BECKHAM!! That is for my friend Gigs at school.
And my favorite stat is that it costs a civilian $5,000 if you touch the grass on the field...and $10,000 if you do it naked. hahah.

Adelle, Desiree and I went to exchange some money and went out to eat at a Japanese place around the corner from the apartments and went back to the apartments to workout. Desiree was trucking on the treadmill and Deli worked the elliptical as I warmed up and then did our lunges test for school with 20lb weights and lifted a bit. It's really nice to have that commonality and goals in mind with other people on a "vacation." They're all yelling at me to get ready now because they want to go out so I'll leave you be now. Have a good day and thanks for reading...more tomorrow!

Love,

ME

There's Beautiful and then there's BONDI

More than any other time in my life, I’ve really come to see that you’ll miss 100% percent of the shots you don’t take.  After I left you wondering how my run went today I’m here to tell you I found myself at a crossroad. I could either go left toward where I could see the water in the distance or go right toward the direction the front desk told me I’ll find the beach…eventually. But no matter what I chose, I knew I would find what I had my head set on, and that was the beach. The shot I’m talking about missing is this idea, “We’ll we’re gonna be here 5 weeks, we don’t have to do it all in one day.” When everyone was still sleeping or just hanging out, I knew I wanted to just put on my shoes and go for a run and stumble upon something, anything, because at least I’ll be out there seeing whatever this city and country has to offer. In the end I chose to go right.

 I ran until I found the “Bondi Beach” sign pointing the direction I was already going. I passed beautiful parks filled with families and children trying out rugby drills, I passed fresh sushi and fish markets that kinda got that scrunched nose look from me as I passed and the same color shop wasn’t seen all the way down to the beach. I was on a slight downhill run and I felt like I was playing that game, “Red light!...Green light!” every time I came to the end of a block and had to cross the road. With the fear of being hit by a car coming from the right, I didn’t even risk jumping across the street until the little green guy walk sign gave me the A-Okay. 

Bondi Road was the road I was heading down and it reminded me of a beach-like district back home, but so much more diverse when it came to the people eating in cafes, walking the streets and going about every day life in their aged-looking shops.

When I first saw the dark blue water from a distance I was already breaking down my steps to try and take it all in. But wow, I’ve been thinking all day about how I’d be able to describe to you the lookout I saw today over Bondi Beach and well, the best way I can describe the site is to tell you how it affected me. After college I’ve considered traveling to Ireland or Holland to give professional field hockey a go for a couple years, but now, I am certain I could find Sydney as a Home Sweet, Sweet Home and play professionally here. Not to mention, if I moved here, it would make my parents have to trek the 14 hour plan ride to visit me.  

Back to Bondi… The water was spotted a dark blue, like the diamond necklace in Titanic is what pops in my mind, with torquise splashed here and there around the jagged rocks and cliffs. The sandstone cliffs were sunken in and weathered by the misguided gusts of wind hitting the crescent shaped beach town. I met a Dutch couple who I spoke “Ik hou Van you” to and some explicit words I learned from a few Dutchies I love. I continued along the rocky running path carved into the Bondi Beach lookout and was just in awe of this view.

 After a couple hours running around the cliffs and taking pictures in the park, I was on a quicker run back to the apartments when I was about 4 blocks away and saw the 5 members of the study abroad group who had come in early like me, heading toward Bondi Beach. They asked if I’d like to join them and even though I was dead tired, hot, winded and whatever else…How many times do you get to see a sight like that? So I headed allllllll the way back to the beach with them, thankfully we walked, and we were only able to spend about 5 minutes at the closest lookout because he we had to head back to meet the 20 other students coming in from their flight.

Long story short, Adelle, Gabby and Desiree are my roommates for this trip. Adelle and I play field hockey together at Michigan State where Desiree is a soccer player on the women’s soccer team. Gabby also plays field hockey, which I mentioned earlier, but she attended art school in San Francisco. As a group, we were given groceries, a brief overview of the program in the lobby and some facts on Australia before we received our bus pass and hoped on the train to downtown. 

We toured the streets and Hyde Park and the Botanic Gardens which I already saw on my first day running around and Russ (our head honcho) and native Aussie, gave us brief facts on monuments, the legalized prostitution distrct, the transportation system and more. Four areas in Australia have banned water in plastic bottles and won’t sell them, the voltage coming out of sockets here can fry your blow dryer and they eat Kangaroo which has less than 2% of fat on the meat. (Yea, I know, they eat the little guy they put as stuffed animals in airports.) We walked down in front of the Opera house and around the back of it where we found high-end bars and food as well as a beautiful sunset view of the harbour bridge and city skyline. 

We took a boat ride under the bridge to a farther part of the city where we had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. Looking to commemorate the night, a bunch of us ordered a $10 drink at the bar. (Once again, this is legal for us 20 year olds in Australia) I noticed they had this drink called Ginuine which included the drink Absinthe in it, which is illegal to drink and be sold in the U.S. so of course Adelle and I had to get one. One drink set us pretty well for the rest of tonight. We had plans to go to the bar across the street tonight, but I had so much I wanted to write about and we have to get up quite early tomorrow for some tour…I guess I’ll let you know what happens when they fill us in on it first. I’ll try and shorten up the posting tomorrow. I don't have any pictures of tonight really because my camera died, but I'll post the pictures when my friends here post them.

Love,

ME

Lucky..or maybe Blessed

I want to back track a little bit because in the beginning this trip felt so rushed. In actuality though, the journey from San Diego to where I am now, was quite smooth compared to my other classmates whose flight left LAX at 2am this morning. It should be noted that my Mom tried for months to get my seat on Quantas airlines upgraded to First class with our air miles. She would call every day and see if they had any openings. The day before I was set to take off, she called at 4am when she woke up and found out I was going to get the full 9 yards. I received three wonderful meals, that were accompanied by a little Vino! (Don't worry, yes I'm still 20 and it's legal in the air with the drinking age 18 Down Under.) My bed was beyond comfortable, but it was quite awkward that the flight attendants made your bed for you and wanted to hang up my clothes because they gave us pajamas. This flight was the start to an amazing experience and allowed me to adjust to Australia time as if I had been living here on the regular.


The hotel I stayed in (after my run around the city..past blog) was full of buttons and switches but all the same tv stations except instead of America's Got Talent! it was Australia's Got Talent. When looking for dinner, I walked down the streets at 8pm and every lightshow was on trying to get you to walk in their adult store, club or risque shop. I grabbed some Subway and opted out of the nightlife scene for the night haha. After checking out yesterday morning, I confirmed a pick up from one of our program coordinators, Russ, who picked me and my huge goalkeeping bag up in his BMW convertible. The rest of the program participants were stuck in LAX because of the volcanic ash in Chile, but they wanted to get the people who did make it into town, checked into the shnazy apartments in Bondi Junction, Sydney.

When I got to the apartments that overlook the harbor to the left, I met Hallie and Cosette in the lobby waiting for our rooms to be ready. Hallie plays club soccer at MSU and Cosette plays tennis but decided she wanted to try golfing down here. We had to sign documents agreeing to a $500 fine if we get two noise complaints and $20 every time we lose our room key. About an hour later, Gabby joined us in the lobby and we found out she plays field hockey too !! She is an art student from Boston who found our school study abroad program on google haha.


Once they finally checked us in, we took the elevator up to the 11 floor where only 5 apartments are on the floor. The rooms have a fully loaded kitchen, dinner table, washer and dryer, two full baths a comfy living room and balcony with a table set. Our two bedrooms have two twin beds in each and large closets. We be livin' large !! After settling in we decided to take a trip to an indoor mall that was like 7 stories high. They had fresh food markets, hair salons and other brand name company stores we didn't recognize. After lunch we ventured back to the apartments which is only about a block away and went up to our place and took in the beautiful sunset. The girls were starting to get pretty tired and the Wimbledon match wasn't helping to keep their eyes open.


We were asking the front desk for any places to eat for dinner when we thought to ask if anyone else within our program had checked in. Brenna, Laura and one of the 5 guys apart of the trip. They had been traveling for 26 hours which included the 14 hour flight from LAX, a 8 hour lay over in Brisbane and a 6 hour stay in Sydney before checking in. They had already ordered some expensive pizza to the room, so we headed around the block where we found what looked to be an alright place to eat at.
After difficulties ordering because there was a language barrier we found a convenience store on our way back, where we could buy some milk and cereal. I bought the items in the picture and it cost me $30...no joke. And that is Australian dollars so its more like $35 american dollars. I was in shock and even voiced it kindly and rhetorically to the cashier saying, "WHat did I buy?!!" and he laughed and said shampoo can get expensive. Well, maybe I'll just let the salt water wash my hair the rest of this trip.
I went to sleep around 11pm after reading another handful of pages in my book 19 Minutes, which just keeps getting better...if you're looking for some summer reading, author Jodi Picoult is the answer.  I woke up this morning at 6:30am feeling a little tired, but once that thought popped into my head (You know, that thought that, IM IN SYDNEY, YOU'RE WASTING DAYLIGHT) well, I couldn't go to sleep after that. I took a picture of the sunrise after I ate some odd tasting Froot Loops with funky, but fresh Skim milk, and was happy I decided to stay up. After watching some Wimbledon and getting ready, I'm going to go off and doin' some 'splorin! I now have this new area of Bondi Juntion to check out. Adelle should be landing in an hour and then they'll have fun waiting in line at customs, so I'm sure I'll be back on my run before then. In case you were wondering, "Golly G, Molly! What happens if you get hit by a car coming from the opposite direction (happens a lot to tourists), and nobody knows where/who you are?!?!?!" Well, I have my handy-dandy mini wallet hooked onto my sports bra which contains all the necessities: a copy of my passport and visa, copy of my international health insurance card, drivers license, debit card, US and Aussie money and of course my room key. I have a map of the immediate area which I'll try not to lose like my last map :) Have an awesome rest of your day and I'll be sure to fill you in on how my day goes !

Love,

ME

Phew!! What A Day!

I think when all you have is some running shoes and an unexplored city in front of you, you're hopefully going to put to good use all of the little things your parents have taught you. I first found the nearest STA Travel Store (Student travel agency we booked with) and got a map with my head set on finding the harbor and Sydney Opera House.
 After jogging around a bit, I realized I was heading North toward, well, I don't know where, but it wasn't the direction I wanted to be going. I ran down some side streets where I some some apartments that looked quite worn out and had bars on their windows and doors looking to be their biggest investment. Needless to say, I was happy I wore running shoes and found an old mom and pop Deli Store and they steered me in the right direction.
 I had found the main drive into the city and I wanted to see Hyde Park. The churches, fountains, statues and overall trance everyone seemed to be under while laying under the trees in the park, was just a magnificent sight. After living in San Diego all my life, you get use to seeing people bike riding in packs, jogging with baby strollers and what not, but here, I'd never seen so many people just outside playing their desired sport. Whether it was rugby, soccer, or even frisbee (no field hockey sightings yet), I saw people of all ages enjoying big spans of parks.

After running down the main drag of the City that would drop me right near the Sydney Opera House, I decided to go off the beaten path once I passed this Music Conservatory. I had jogged right into their famous Botanic Gardens and it was sure a sight to see. Realizing I wasn't going to want to leave this place a while, I decided to grab a quick lunch outside the gardens and then head back in.
Inside the gardens you could see the city skyscrapers over the tops of trees, monuments dedicated to famous founders and of course endless flowers, trees and people enjoying themselves as if they didn't have a care in the world.

 I ran until I saw the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and it was a big "Wow, I'm really here" moment. I jogged along the wharf/lookout parallel to the sights and took some pictures along the way. I met a British student who had just flown in that day like I had, and he was here to study for a year with a friend.

I wanted to beat the rain and ran back to the hotel a different route and got lost in a few beautiful side streets. When I was a block away, I lost my map haha.

Today, I just got picked up and taken to our fancy apartments in Bondi Junction.. Most of the people are still stuck at LAX airport because of a volcano in Chile blew ash that has cancelled all flights into Australia. We are staying in the Tiffany Apartments that overlook the harbor and the sights are just unreal from the balcony. I'll be sure to post some pictures tomorrow of the apartment and new area we'll be staying in. As of right now we only have internet service service down in the lobby and won't have internet in the apartment until way later tonight. Have a spectacular day! Off to get some food around town with a few girls here for the program!

Love,

ME

Lots to Catch Up on

I wanted to talk about the amazing time I had at the ebach for my last day in San Diego, with my boyfriend |Steven and with his best bud \casey, but everything seems to be happening so quickly right now. My last day was spent hanging out at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, Ca (my hometown). That day which was Saturday June 18th was the day of the Bro Am Surf Contest and Switchfoot Concert at the Beach where thousands of people showed up to listen to a few other bands play as well, get free prizes and donate to good casuses. |Steven, Casey and I were swimming and they were sponge boarding out in the water when we were told to move father south down the beach because a rip current was starting to pull people farther out to Sea. Overall, it was an amazing last day before my trip to Down Under.

On Fathers Day Sunday June 19th, my brother Jordan and my dad |went to our church Carlsbad Christian Assembly (mom was feeling under the weather).  We grabbed some surf brothers after the service and hung out as a family back at the hosue watching tv before I had to get packing. After packing one too many things and cleaning my goalkeeping equiptment, I said good bye to Steven (until Aug. 4th) and the whole family headed to Los |Angeles airport. We stopped in Irvine to buy a book I needed for the trip, and it was fun to see my parents drift back down memory lane because the office they first met each other at was the same street the bookstore was on. After a sad goodbye to the family I made it trhough security and got to go hang out in the lounge 5 stories above the flgiht gates. I ate soem grteat teriyaki chicken and rice and watched the Miss American Pageant in Las vegas before my flight was called to board. I posted a picture of my seat on facebook if you want to see what it was like, but I can just tell you that it was a dream. I was given pajamas to change into, drawers to put my things in, a chair the swiveled, reclined into a bed, massaged you and had a control board that allowed you to electronically close the blinds, turn on lights, watch movies and even watch a camera placed on top of the plane so you could see your departure and arrival from above the plane. The food was to die for. I was given a chicken,cheese burger with bacon, a glass of red wine and a shrimp salad. |I also had Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge ice creme for dessert. before falling asleep, the lfight attendants made my bed and then I caught up on some Aussie reading about the country. After a 10 hours sleep I woke up to scarmbled eggs and bacon with toast and apple juice, and before I knew it we were about to land.

After making it through customs and what not I was given a cab and the cabi tried to rip me off on how much it wwould cost to go about 15km and tried to charge me 50 aussie dollars he ended up totalling it to 30. After  a struggle to get internet I know have about 20 minutes before I have to pay another couple dollars to get it again in my hotel. If you want to check it out online, I;m currently in Potts Point, New Sotuh |Whales Australia which is basically Sydney. Tomorrow I'll travel about 10 km to the apartments well be staying at as a whole study abroad program in Bondi Junction, called the Tiffany Apartments. Sorry for all the speeling errors and rushed info, but there is a ticking clock for the internet and I'm all set to run around town toward the water. Have a nice day and I'll be in contact soon and hopefully it won't be so rushed and without pictures.

Love,

ME!!

Fun @ the Fair

Lets get down to the fair details!

Steven and my 5pm departure for the fair was pushed back to 5:15 because Steven finished golfing later than planned with his best bud Casey. As 5:30pm came and went, Steven changed out of his golf get-up, but his dad needed the car to go to the bank. On the road at 6pm, the fair was set to close at 10pm, however, I didn't plan for the bumper to bumper to bumper to...you get the point, traffic we faced when we were within earshot of the Fairgrounds. After I exploded at a few cars to stay in their lane and disobeyed a few traffic guards, Steven and I meandered our way to the front of the line and a decent parking spot.

Objective number one was to enter the fairgrounds and take the bridge over to Kiddieland to make a wax mold of Steven and my hand. This is something I've done by myself since I was 8 years old and always gave the finished piece to my grandma for her birthday. Steven and I managed to work together to allow for a great looking piece.

Objective two was to wander around the home shows inside the building area and look at all the inventions, knick-knacks, recipes cooked in front of you, chocolate covered bacon and fried butter on a stick (yes, you read that right), jewelry and probably anything else you'd like to see in one setting. I bought some homemade cookies and Steven bought this invention called Aussie Ice. The invention allows you to fill up this plastic cup with any liquid drink you would like, add the 3 frozen packets of salt water and apply the lid and shake for about a minute. When you open the lid you find a frozen ice/slushy drink.

Since I opted out of doing the 150ft bungee jump because Steven and I watched a guy almost kill himself by doing it wrong, I asked Steven to go with me on my favorite ride of all time, The Zipper. A long story short, I thought steven was having an anxiety, asthma and heart attack all at once. I think I demolished any chance he'll ever step foot on a carnival ride, big or small, again.

Taking a break from rides for a while, we passed a few carnival games where you could win a real fish that might be dead before you even leave the fair, an irie banana and extra large professional team jerseys. We chose to shoot bb guns and try and wipe out the red star hanging on a piece of paper about 15 feet away. We got close, but maybe next year.

One of the last things we did was take the all to cliche ferris wheel ride with one too many other couples thinking the same thing. Up that high we were able to see the whole fair twinkling just before closing and the waves crashing on the beach. To top off the night, we posed inside a photo booth for some funny pictures to commemorate the night.

What a perfect night :)

Love,

ME

Time Well Spent

It's official...I am losing my tan more every day because 1. I didn't want to get as dark as I have in past summers, so I didn't apply tanning oil  2. This last week or so I haven't spent much time at the beach. The bright side is I have found other fun things to do as well. Before I get to the San Diego Fair adventures,( next blog) I think I'll go in order of past events.

After working at my mom's wine shop on Monday after our trip back from Fresno, I also passed out in the back of my mom's shop on the floor with my face in my new book Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult. This isn't anything too out of character for me, but a wine vendor had come into the shop to taste test some wines with my mom when she saw me face down in between the pages of what is a super good book. She ran to the front and told my mom somebody had passed out in the back of the store and my mom pulled her leg for a while, declaring she had no idea who I was. Groggy, I woke up and introduced myself as my mom's hard working daughter.

Steven, my boyfriend called a little later in the evening, and my mom, Steven and I decided to catch an early showing of the new sci fi movie Super 8. I thought it was pretty exhilarating, funny and overall creative and well done action movie. I found out later at dinner with Steven, his grandma and older sister that, "Steven, you said that Super 8 movie was terrible right? So we shouldn't go see it?" said Steven's grandma. haha I guess I should've known when we've watched the Hangover 2, Hall Pass and Anger Management this break, that sci fi thrillers aren't his genre.

I'll post about my time at the fair and what's new about my study abroad trip next!

Love,

ME