Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb & Chocolate Pizza?

Ever since I saw that Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movie Our Lips Are Sealed, I always wanted to go to Australia and walk on the Bridge. Thankfully, my roommate and MSU soccer player Desiree Aber had the same feelings. With our walk at 12:15, we woke up around 10am and printed out our tickets and took the bus to the Harbor.

Besides the Olsen sister climbing the Brdige there has been tons of others who have made the climb. Among them are Prince Harry, WIll Ferrell, Steve Irwin, WIll Smith, Robert Di nero and even the Glee Cast. Below is a picture of Keith Urban and Matt Damon who have also done it.

We walked off the bus and headed toward the harbor where we stopped to take pictures with the Opera House and then saw a shopping market outside called the Rocks. Vendor after vendor was lined up selling anything and everything from jewlery, candles, blown glass, baby clothing to corn on the cob. Not really sure where the Bridge Climb address was, we decided to cruise through the shops to get to our appointment on time. We plan on going next week so Ill take pictures then.

We checked in were given our complimentary hat, our NOT complimentary ticket and then each bought a shirt to commemorate the day. I also bought a little knapsack backpack describing he climb. It was soon our time to go and we walked up stairs and had to sign off on not being a health risk and had to take a breathalizer test. We PASSED :) and then we went around and introduced ourselves among the 10 other people in our group as we were given our suit to wear for the trip.

After we changed we had to put all of our belongings in a locker including our CAMERA! They make a killing off of not allowing camera for "safety" reasons and charging an arm and a leg for photos. We then have to walk through a metal detector and once we were cleared we were sent to a room where we had to put on a ton of equipment. We strapped ourselves into the harness, latched on sunglass and hat holders with clips as well as handkerchiefs and our radios to hear the instructor at the front.

After we did a test walk up a flight of stairs that resembled the ladder and pulley system we would be attached too, we proceeded out the door and onto the catwalk under the bridge.
It was pretty scary being able to see the water about 150 ft under your feet with a thin sheet of metal holding you there and then realizing you had about 400 more feet to go up.

Our group leader Alec, was hilarious and very informative. We continued the walk up about 4 flights of stairs where we met an emergency crew in case somebody starts freaking out. Apparently Oprah had a horrible time when she went up it for her show because her best friend was freaking out, the helicopter was late and she's apparently a germ a phobe.

The climb up the outside/on top of the bridge railing has to be one of the most amazing moments and sights in my life. Feeling the chilly air while watching that same air put wind in the sails on tons of sailboats on a beautiful day was just magical up that high. Desiree and I couldn't stop smiling and taking in all the harbors within the SYdney harbor as a whole. We could see all the way to the Blue Mountains which Alec said is unusual. We waved to people passing by on open boat tops as well as helicopters flying maybe 75 ft above us. You could see all the way out to the ocean, Luna Amusement Park and cars and trains traveling beneath us on the very bridge we were climbing to the top on. Once we reached the top, we posed for a group picture that we were given for free at the end, and Desiree and I posed in the picture to the left. The flags flying overhead and the feeling of being on top of the world was one I know I'll never ever forget.

440ft high
3,370 ft long
1,390 stairs
52,800 tons of steal
6 million rivets
view 360 degrees

AND I CLIMBED IT!!


After we climbed down the bridge and got our certificate and bought the photos you see of us on top of the bridge, Desiree and I headed back through the Rocks shopping where I bought a jacket. We then headed back on the bus and ate at this Chocolate restaurant. We ordered a chocolate covered pizza with bananas and marshmallows. I ate too fast because it was actully really good haha. Thats all for now! I hope you enjoyed it!

Love,

ME

Art, Hockey, Jail and good Fun

Time to get caught up. After I went to the aquarium on Wednesday I got back to the apartments with enough time to get ready and jump on the train with the class to head to the Sydney Art Gallery (New South Whales Art Gallery).

Once again like the aquarium, its a little bit difficult and dull to talk about art, so I'll upload some of the photos I took.

WHat was different about tonight than any other night at the gallery was that they were having a guest speaker that a good amount of people showed up to hear her talk about her books. Dr. Anita Heiss writes like a Sex and the City version of books about aboriginal and Aussie women in Australia and traveling the world. She talks as if she is a Carrie Bradshaw and she kept everyone quite entertained and laughing when she was reading from a few of her books.

The funky looking picture to the right is just one of the crazy pieces of "art" put together for the night. It is made up of about 7 ladders, a huge spinning globe, a spotlight on the left shinning onto the disco ball near the top and a tv playing mumbo jumbo on the floor. I didn't read what this one meant, but your guess is as good as mine.

The picture to the left is one of the area we were allowed to take pictures and in here there were tons of painting and sculptures. One of my favorite paintings was the one to the right where there was an armored hero slaying another man to save the girl. The sunset which is a little overexposed in the photo, was really beautiful. Don't forget that you can click on any photo to see it blown up even bigger.

If you are completely read to get creeped out I have a great next photo for you to click on and get up close and personal with. The artist of this piece to the left thought that this girl represented how women have strayed from their natural selves due to societies influences. I think we all had nightmares about her and thought she was going to lift her head up and come alive. She's also holding what looks to be a deformed so called "baby, that has fingers for feet..I think.

In the same room as the creepy and hairy girl was this huge canvas with another unorthodox way to view women and art. When it came to the amount of color and shades and how they were used, this was my favorite piece. In the picture to the left I posted a closer view of the face of the women who is lying down. In this photo you can see the amount of detail and in such a small area when compared to the whole thing.

After the gallery we all went back in smaller groups as some people decided to go try a meat pie which is a big obsession in Australia. We decided to go out when we got back as a group to a local bar that we heard is fun on Wednesdays.

Adelle & Gabby

I forgot to mention before that AJ and I started playing the game Ride the Bus. I saw him struggling which is putting it nicely hahaah and I was talking like an expert even though it is just luck. So, he told me he'd like to see me try and win and if you won you didn't have to drink. In this game you lay 7 cards facedown in a row. The 1st card you have to get the right suit, if you get it right then the 2nd and 3rd card is higher or lower than the previous (if you guess wrong no matter where you are at in the 7 cards you have to take a drink and start all teh way over), the 4th is either black or red, 5th is higher or lower 6th is higher or lower and the 7th and final card you have to guess whether it is black or red. I took the chance and well, I'm thinking I should go to Vegas as soon as I'm 21 :)

Thursday was more of a low key day with class at 9am where we took a bajillion more notes on the environment. We also got into groups (I'm with Zach) and him and I will be doing a 15 min. presentation on AIDS in Australia which should be interesting.
After class Adelle, Gabby and I hopped on the train to Maquarie Park for hockey practice. However, Gabby decided she rather play on the field instead of in goal. At the end of practice I was definitely tired because of the amount of work we did that day and with no goalie to rotate out with. It was a lot better than my first practice so I was happy.

Friday was a it more exciting with our field trip planned to go to the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney. We were given a tour of the placed thousands of convicts called home back in the 1830's when Britain shipped them over. Convicts were given two meals a day and when they renovated the barracks they found thousands of rats and trash in the floor boards where they were stealing from the convicts to build their nests. When they were shipped over here which took around 260 days, they were cramped in the boats and many died because of the unhleathy journey.

Like the ships, the convicts were packed into their sleeping rooms which had hammocks lined up so close you could feel the shoulders of the guy next to you and reach over and feel the guy next to him. We were allowed to lay in the hammocks and I wanted to just take a nap right there.

Once we were released form the field trip, I went with Brenna, Ashley, Zach and Deanna around town to get some much needed lunch. We found a cafe and apparently we insulted the chef because Ashley asked for like 3 changes to her sandwich. We decided to shop around the area and watched a crazy jump rope routine in the middle of the wide walkway outside the stores. None of us got anything but we had a blast looking in stores and sitting in Starbucks talking about our lives and getting to know each other's back round a little more.

As a group we decided to go out after hanging out at Brent, Ryan and Zach's room first. We played Ride the Bus and just hung out and had fun. I raced down the stairs to find AJ waiting because he assumed he was gonna find me tumbling down the stairs because of my shoes. We all headed to the Gaff but some people didn't get in so Julie, AJ and I headed to Subway to hang out. It was a long night in Subway so then Julie and I jumped in a cab back to Bondi Juntion. I came back to find Adelle already asleep and Desiree half awake.

On Saturday we headed to Bondi Beach, but instead of going straight to the sand, we grabbed some expensive lunch along the water and shopped at the open market for jewlry and knickknacks. Adelle got herself a bracelet and a gift for Codi, and I got that Irish ring that shows whether you are in a relationship or not depending on how you wear it. We then headed down to the beach and watched the surfers with Zach, Gabby and Desiree. We then saw Hannah, Brooke and Olivia and decided to walk wiht them past the ice rink on the beach and go up to some of the souvenir shops. I bought some souvenirs for my family and Steven, so lets hope they like them.

When we got back, I watched Glee with Alex and AJ tried to ignore it but we know he loved it. I went and got Adelle and Gabby and we went to the Tea Gardens to meet up with Amanda, Alex and AJ because Amanda plays rugby and a huge game was on and we wanted to learn a bit about it. We went there but searched the bar and couldn't find them.

We went back and found they opted for the room because the bar was too loud to hear the game. We ended up going down to Brent, Ryan and Zach's room where we played water pong and watched the game as well. Everyone ended up joining and AJ and I were running the table after such an amazing performance. He almost knocked me in the face as I was blowing a ball out of a cup because he was swatting the bouncing ball that was also throw haha. We eventually lost but it was a good start. After causing security to come up to the room and ALMOST give a warning, we left and went to the Gaff.

 I wasn't drinking and I'm not sure how many other people weren't so I helped keep track of everyone getting on and off the bus and into the Gaff. The girls got in for free and we were stoked. We had an awesome time taking pictures on stage, dancing with people form around the world and just having a great night. I helped round up the troops and didn't realize until we were back in Bondi that we forgot a girl. Turns out she didn't wanna come back yet and bar hopped with this guy all night. I was kinda mad, scared and nervous about her out all night without us and its just sad I didn't realize we forgot her and the fact the girls who did see her, didn't make her come with us. Lesson learned I guess, thank goodness she's okay.

I'll explain what I did today (Sunday) in my next post!

LOVE,

ME

Down Under...in the aquarium

Lets get right into it. On Tuesday night after I had posted, I went to a local bar called the Tea Gardens with Adelle, Ryan and AJ. We had a couple of drinks but we mainly just enjoyed a quiet night out on the town and play a few games of pool. It was a great night out.

On Wednesday morning I woke up and got my butt kicked at 6:15am during a spin class that I went by myself to. Wanting to make the most of my day except for a field trip we had planned later that night, I decided to buy this ticket package that allowed me to visit three attractions that our professor said we would not be doing. I decided to pack my bag and head down the the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour. Understanding the train routes to get there, I didn't have a problem.

Once I entered the aquarium I got to see a Platypus which only lives in Australia and has a waterproof fur that can also be poisonous. They have a bill like a duck, fur like a mammal and the ability to live underwater.
 They also had the biggest fish Australia has, on display as well.

A.

B

In picture A. this turtle is known as a Side-Neck which means that besides one other turtle in Australia, turtles cannot retract their heads into their shell for protection so they have to turn their necks to the side to avoid enemy attacks.

In picture B. this is another form of coral they have in Australia which is florescent due to the algae and plankton it eats.

The Jelly fish in the picture to my left were one of my favorite things to watch because they also glow in the dark and are known to be quite dangerous if you get stung.

The octopus in the picture to the right was definitely getting a lot of attention while I was there because he was climbing up, over and around everything.

The aquarium had so much plant and fish life that could live together, that there were many windows to look at the wide range of creatures, some of many of which cannot be found anywhere else.

What was different than any other aquarium

I had been to before, was that you could walk through a hallway of sorts and look at the sharks, stingrays and fish as they swam over your head and under your feet. 

 This had to be my most favorite moment because the sharks were so active and scary looking and   I don't know another time I plan on getting quite so close.


For those just interested in feeling as if they were swimming right there up and  close with the sharks, their more dangerous sharks were put in a separate tank that folks could walk through as sharks swam around. 


I'm really bitter right now because half of this blog and the pictures just got deleted. The picture below on the right is a picture of a Dugong which looks like an oversized dolphin that has a flabby mouth and only eats sea grass. It is the only mammal that is completely marine that eats only plant life. 


Before leaving the aquarium I made sure to buy a ton of souvenirs for my family, but we'll keep that a secret for now. 


However, I did forget to mention that after I had visited the aquarium the teachers told me that they forgot to put the aquarium on the field trip list, so now they want to pay me back for the money I already spent.


And if you haven't already found out you can click on any of these photos and they will blow up into a bigger viewing window so you can get right up there in the grill of the scary sharks! 


I have to eat and get ready because once again I'm lagging when it comes to dinner and getting ready. I'll post on the art gallery and prison we visited tomorrow!


Have a good night!


Love,


ME

Long, Long dayy

My hand deserves a medal after the amount of writing it suffered today. In my first day of the Environmental  management class we wrote notes off of slideshows from 9am-noon. After three hours I understood all of the info., but the main point seemed to be USA lacks efficiency when it comes to producing products, reducing pollution and conservation of the earth's natural elements in our everyday lifestyles.

At 1:40pm, Adelle, Gabby and I were suppose to wait for one of our tour guides Brandon, outside of the apartments to take us on the train and to the hockey field to meet our coach and practice for the first time. At 2pm and still no Brandon, we decided to find our own way with some basic directions. About 20 paces later, Brandon came running toward us and rushed us on the next train out of Bondi Juntion toward Town Hall station. He told us that the reason he was late was because when he was leaving one of our teacher's homes, he witnessed a lady get robbed and he was a witness that the police wanted to talk to.

After getting off at Town Hall Station, in a panic we ran up and down platforms trying to find the train to take us to Maquarie University stop. This train ride was a good 30 minutes and crossed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We finally got off at our station and we had five minutes before our session was suppose to start. We treked up huge hills with our goalie bags in tow and passed countless intersections until Brandon called another coordinator and found out we were suppose to get off at Maquarie Park and not Maquarie University.

We finally reached the field sweating and 15 minutes late when we met our coach Ziek. I'm not going to walk you through the practice but I will definitely say it was a day spent dusting off the goalie pads since I hadn't played since April. Next Tuesday we were invited to practice and play with the mixed boys and girls team that Ziek coaches, which should be pretty fun after seeing some of his athletes hit the ball around today on their day off.

Tomorrow I'm going to hit the 6:15am spin class again and then head to the beach with Gabby and anyone else who wants to go afterward. We are going to go to Bondi Beach again, but this time we are going to rent surfboards and spend the day surfing and shopping around the area. Tomorrow night we all have to get dolled-up and get the opportunity to go to this party at the Sydney Museum where everyone will be in tuxedos. We are suppose to have our Aussie class, but they said this is a rare opportunity that we just happen to get the chance to be apart of.

More tomorrow, have a great day and good night.

Love,

ME

Balancing Class, Hockey and on Rocks

Today started out a little different than usual. I couldn't fall asleep because my hand was in so much pain from hanging on a rock ledge yesterday. I was constantly waking up to needles jabbing in my palm. I woke up at 3am to eat a piece of bread, take a few Advil and slapped a bag of ice on it and slept with it under my pillow.

Adelle and I woke up at 6am for the 6:15am spin class at our gym down the block and it was like no other either of us had been to before. The lights were turned off except for the one on the instructor and we were glowing from the blacklights shinning on us and the whites of our clothing popping. The class was great and we joined desiree to lift for a bit after.

Today was our first day of summer class at 9am and here are the FUN FACTS about AUSSIE:

22million people in the country but there is 140 million sheep, 40 million kangaroos and 24 million cattle
In the 80's tourism went through the roof with the Crocodile Dundee Movies
The term "Shrimp on the Barby" is complete B.S. and they don't do that
Longest straight stretch of railway (478km) and longest fence (5,500km)
1965 they invented wine in a box

Double Bay Beach

When 10,000 Aussies were polled on what they felt were Australian Icons this was the order they listed.

1. Vegemite- a pasty type jelly initially for babies that people spread on toast.
2. Acoobra hat- kinda like a cowboy hat that takes 10 rabbits to make it.
3.Meat Pie- like hot dogs for us.
4. Surf and Lifesaver cap- resembles all the lifeguards on duty at every beach and being a member of the club.

The harbour wasn't mentioned until #6 and Kangaroos #15

Double Bay

Watson's Bay

After class we took the train to Double Bay Beach where we then took a ferry to Watson's Bay where we got off to hike up the Sydney Harbour National Park Gap Bluff.

Gap Bluff

The bluff is actually notorious for people jumping off of it during the Great Depression to commit suicide and today they have a huge fence and a help-line if you have any ill feelings.

After hiking up the bluff and learning about Captain Cook, how Bondi beach was named and more, our field trip was over and a few of us split up and went in different directions.

rocks alex and I climbed

wood plank

A group of us went down to Camp Cove beach and instead of walking up the path to another beach lookout, I opted to walk along the rocks below the cliff and climbed up some pretty steep rocks. First I had to walk in thigh high water over what seemed to be ruins of something in the water from years ago and then I had to walk across this wood plank to get to the shallow rocks before the enormous ones. It was a little tougher than the day before and a littler bit different because I didn't have anyone with me and nobody could see me too well from the beach. I noticed this one steep rock that had divets where I could put my hands and feet as if it were made to climb.

The difficulty was hoisting myself up there with a backpack on and not slipping on any of the moss covering the rocks being hit by water that I was standing on at the moment. I climbed up the rocks and made home on top of the HUGE rock because the highest rock was too steep from the only place I could reach to  get up it.

diveted rock

 I sat up on top of the rock and took in the amazing view of Sydney Harbour.  As I was climbing down the rock, Alex, a surfer in our group wanted a little more of an adventure and decided he wanted to climb the rocks too. I showed him where we went and we found this cool cave. The rest of the group was back from their hike so we carefully climbed down from the rocks and caught the last ferry leaving for Darling Harbour with them. As we were on our way, I took a picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, that Desiree and I are planning on walking up this coming Sunday.


After dinner and walking around the city, I have to get to some reading for tomorrow and be ready for our FIRST DAY OF FIELD HOCKEY. We have practice on Tuesday and Thursday at 3pm and on Thursday we stay a bit longer to practice with our coach's club team. We will take a 40min. train ride to the field where we'll meet the coach who is from South Africa and I'm assuming we'll play a bit. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a wonderful day!

Love,

ME

Lost My Shoes...Climbing Cliffs

I've never felt so uncoordinated in my life after the Zumba class a bunch of us took at our gym today. The hour long class was led by this guy who already led a step/dance class before this one. We had fun, but I think I'm going to stick to spin classes.

We decided after the class to make today and beach day and we walked down to Bondi Beach (Alot of them hadn't seen it yet) and took pictures overlooking the beach. We then continued down to the somewhat busy beach today and as soon as we put our backpacks down I was the first one to go running into the clear water. I think everyone else was kind of hesitant because to them the water was cold, but compared to back home it was about the same. There were more surfers than swimmers so I think I'm gonna rent a longboard the next time we go to the beach, and I'll be sire to bring my underwater disposable camera.

 Our big group split up with people who wanted to go eat and people who wanted to go walk the pathway around the cliffs. Well, I chose to go walk around the cliffs, but being the adrenaline junkies that a few of us are, we jumped off the walk path and were walking along the cliffs and rocks where the water was hitting. There were tons of little tide pools and weathered rock that was like a jungle gym for us with all the climbing up and down we had to do. We scaled the whole cliffs and rocks that had water crashing and rushing over them. We had to watch out for the green algae because it was like slipping on oil and we had a couple minor slips. We took pictures hanging from jagged cliffs overhead and ones in a mini waterfall. Ryan did a handstand with the water crashing only about a foot behind him. We went until there was no way we could go any father unless we wanted to be crashed into the rock wall by the waves or we had rock climbing equipment.

 We then hopped back onto the pathway every sane person was on and walked to the top where there was a mini park and people were playing with their dogs. I saw a really cute Wheaten Terrier that the women ordered from Pennsylvania and she lived in Australia. After snapping a few photos over a cliff with about a 75ft drop into the ocean I was happy to get back on the designated path.

However, when I looked for my shoes in my backpack, I realized I must have left them back at the beach, so I had to walk the couple mile walk home barefooted. I now have like hobbit feet. We're about to eat, but if you wanna check out some photos of what I've talked about you can check on my facebook because my camera died pretty early in the day.!! Have a great night!

Love,

 Me

Ooops, my bad

Don't laugh and don't judge, because the reason I couldn't post last night was because I was trying to plug in a blow dryer to the converter I have and it sparked and blew up a few sparks and all the outlets in our apartment were shut off including for the internet. Gabby fixed it today.

The night before last night we all went out on the town it was a blast. We went to Kings Cross, which is about a 5 minute train ride into an area known for clubs and whatever else might strike your fancy. We went to a club called The Bank which was a lot of fun and the club owner gave all 18 of us that went out, free shots when we came in. We danced there a while and then were escorted by a security guard on the street to a bar across the street.

 It was a hotel but I believe the club name inside was the Ivy. The ceiling was absolutely covered in different size disco balls wherever there wasn't already ivy covering a hanging down from the ceiling. The club had big chandeliers that were lit up with all different colors, a huge oval bar in the middle of the club, music videos showing on blank walls, and tons of mirrors reflecting the crazy assortment of lights they had going. The DJ played all american music and when "California Girls" came on, it was just a blissful moment.
We received a shout out from the DJ and when I went to the bar I met a girl form New Jersey who use to play lacrosse at Cornell but she had to quit due to major arm surgery.

 We decided to leave as a group to go home, but then a couple people wanted to stay out so I went with Gabby, AJ, Ryan and Olivia to this bar that looked awesome because of all the lights coming out of the windows up this hug set of stairs. After paying the cheap cover, Ryan, Gabby and I were in when we saw Olivia and AJ get stopped at the entrance. Turns out the bouncer wouldn't let AJ in because he was underdressed hahaha. It was quite funny at the time. After entering the club, now just the four of us, we quickly noticed we were in an older bar where everyone was dressed in suits. Trying to make the most of our money we danced a little bit and saw a few people our age wander in and out. This one guy around our age was running around the club spinning the hanging disco balls with his hand when one fell and hit Olivia in the head. It was pretty hysterical and the guy felt pretty bad.

 We left the club and jumped on the bus back to Bondi Juntion when we saw our group mates Brenna and Ashley jumping on the bus too because they went to a different club. We were talking to some other study aboad guys on the bus that were from Italy and Hawaii and were enjoying all the surfing down at Bondi. I told them my old government teacher has a brother who surfs and asked them if they knew, Rob Machado, and they just flipped haha.

We got back to the apartments around 3am and then I skyped my Dad for a little bit to fill him in because he HASN"T been reading my BLOG!!
 I then crashed and we woke up and went to the gym to get our membership and this new gym is AWESOME!! After doing a little extra grocery shopping and showering after our workout, we got ready and walked down Oxford street which has a ton of shopping!! I didn't buy a thing but lemme tell you, the amount of shoe shops in this city is just unreal and I hope I don't snap and buy a ton.


Last night we went out again as a group and got into a bar for free down on Oxford street. Our friend Ryan competed in the Michael Jackson contest on stage and we all lost our voices screaming for him. He then did a backflip on this small stage and every started chanting USA USA USA!! He won some trip to some place, but I couldn't hear him. After a while Adelle, Desiree, Brent and Zach went to a gay bar which is really expensive to get in and Zach ripped his pants all the way down dancing!! Ha he was a good sport about it. Today we're going to go to a Zumba class at our gym around the corner and I'm gonna go cook up some eggs. Have a great day!

Love,

ME