Shopping and Fire Works

After the zoo on Saturday I opted to stay out instead of go back to the apartments and rest. We hopped back on the ferry which had to make a few other stops before taking us to Darling Harbour.

 A couple girls went back and then Laura, Brenna and Julie wanted to go to the aquarium but I had already been.

 They recommended Paddy's Shopping Market about a mile away, and we decided we would meet back up in front of the aquarium in an hour. I walked along Darling Harbor Board Walk, past the IMAX theatre where we will be seeing the final Harry Potter on the biggest IMAX screen in the world. Ohhhh Ahhhhh.

I found a travel agency along the harbour and stopped in there and got a map because Julie's directions about walking toward a small ferris wheel was a wee bit hard to find when there was towering sky scrapers around.

Eventually, I found a small ferris wheel in the distance. The ride was surrounded by tourists and many fountains.

Continuing on I found  the entrance of Paddy's market in the picture to the left. Paddy's was definitely the place to be, not only if you were a tourist but anyone interested in finding a good deal.

The moment you walked in, your heart would jsut start to race, as if you were in the middle of a stock market exchange. You were bombarded with people all around and you were pinched even closer because of the amount of small shops they managed to cram in the old building. The majority of the shops were either jewelry like in the picture to the right, tourist knick knacks and shirts, clothing, toys, Ugg shoes and even wig shops.

I cruised through most of the shops and found some earrings that I loved and thought I was ready to call it a day before I went shopping crazy with all the options. But then, pure bliss happened. I saw this huge poster in a store of this model wearing uggs on the beach (who does that?) and the uggs were ones that I had never ever seen before, so of course, if you've seen my closet at school, shoes are my Thing. If you've ever bought Uggs you know that they go around $120 and up. When I heard $80 I was amped. Oh and by the way, these Uggs have feathers  on them. And if you click on the link you'll see they are going for $190. Boooyaahhh.

If you'eve ever had the moment running through a new city in jeans with bumping music and new shoes for cheap, gosh, you'd understand the complete ecstasy of a moment like the one I experienced that Saturday afternoon.

I met back up with the girls and we decided to take in the beautiful harbor at twilight and enjoy the firework show that was to come.

Before the fireworks started we grabbed some grub and decided to shop inside the huge mall in the harbour. Julie and I bought some cute dresses as Laura and Brenna were shopping around for a jacket because they were really cold and didn't want to freeze watching the fireworks. Laura and Brenna bought some jackets (brenna's was absolutely hilarious), but to keep even warmer, we reserved a table at a chinese restaurant in the mall that had an outside balcony with heat lamps.

The fireworks started and the show didn't last long, but it was definitely a spectacle. People were cheering the whole time and it was as if we were finally able to celebrate the 4th of July we never got this year.

After the celebration we decided we weren't even in the mood to eat so we headed back home on a high note. Not ready to call it a night, a few of us went to the Tea Gardens Bar and watched the Tour de France, watched drunk people on the small dance floor and I lost in pool against AJ by hitting the 8 ball in. We had a wonderful time and hit the hay early after a great day. Loving life here and I hope you're enjoying my adventures.

Love,

ME

Ferry Ride to the Zoo

You would think after staying out until 5am at the Scary Canary I'd be too dead tired to do anything the next day if it involved waking up before noon, but that wasn't the case.

 I jumped on the bus with Chelsea, Kelsey, Laura, Hallie and Julie and headed toward Circular Quay to catch the ferry across the harbour to the Taronga Zoo.

As we entered I was the only one who got screwed and my student ID wasn't accepted to save $13.   I, being the daughter of my dad :) went back to a different cashier and the lady came over and tried to say to the new cashier that its not protocol to give me a student discount cause my ID doesn't have an expiration date, but I negotiated my way through it respectfully stating all my other classmates did with the same ID so they refunded me the cheaper ticket :)

We started out walking into a huge bird cave like the one in Jurassic park where the lost, but then found son gets scooped up by the big dinosaur bird. They had the initial door you entered, but then the door to get into where the birds were, wouldn't open until the door behind you was closed.We saw a couple colorful birds, but mostly trees.

One interesting animal we saw, that I had most definitely never heard of before was a Kangaroo...that lived in a tree. Called the Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo, this smaller guy must've had the same long tale but smaller body.

Back in the day, on cartoon network I watched a cartoon character who I saw for the first time at the zoo. The little Tasmanian Devil was a little guy that kept on the move and had a huge jaw span.

The picture I thought really took in the day is the one to the right. The giraffes were beautiful and watching them move, you were just waiting for one of their stick little legs to give out beneath their towering body. The zebras actually looked fake for sometime because they didn't move from each other's side until we were moving on. And you can't help noticing the beautiful city skyline and harbour in the background.

The animals below are a couple of the other creatures who

wanted to pop their heads out of the ground or out from behind their cave.
We found a few lazy bears sun bathing on the rocks, an Ostrich and then we had the elephant show which gathered a huge crowd. The elephants walked out holding each other's tail with their trunk. They had the elephants carrying logs, but the best is when they put an oversized soccer ball in front of them and booted it around in the picture below and to the right.

We tried to see the seals, but people must have been lining up for 45 minutes because the mini stadium was packed full. On our way out we saw an older seal in a tank that was doing summersaults.

We then saw this hugggee bird that kelsey and I both reached over the railing and pet the big guy on the head when he wasn't looking.

On the way out we were all really happy we rallied and got up and went out even though we were up so late and pretty tired. The zoo was one more thing we were happy to say we went and saw. On our way back, which I'll show pictures of in the next post, was a great part two and three for the day.

I'll fill you in on the shopping and fireworks in the next post!
Thanks for reading,

Love,

ME

Aboriginal Hike, View and Scary Canary!

Friday started off quick with a 9am departure on the train to Town Hall Station. One of our girls sent an e-mail to the professor that morning saying she was too sick to go on the field trip...the professor thought she meant like flu symptoms, but the Thursday night got the best of her.

 Once we got off the train we ran around the corner and found a huge commercial bus that we boarded to travel to some aboriginal mountains about an hour away. In the back of the bus was Lauren, Kelsey, Ryan, Aj, myself and our professor Igor. We spent time listening to our music and watching the scenery until we got into the mountains.

Once we reached the mountains, I honestly felt like I was caught in a car with somebody who was horrible at driving stick shift while caught in a constant out of control spin. When we stopped almost to the top of the mountain to pick up our aboriginal tour guide, one of our girls ran off the bus and "tossed her cookies." The rest of us managed to make it, but that doesn't mean we felt all honkydory once we arrived.

Right when we hopped off the bus, we were just met by a breathtaking view of ocean and mini islands hopping up everywhere. Throughout this blog will be majority of photos from the view we all became obsessed with. What was really nice was that Brent in our group brought a Michigan State Flag that we could sport in all the pictures.

After we took some photos, our aboriginal tour guide sat us down to talk, but I was really tired and still feeling woozy so I fell asleep with my glasses on while sitting up haha.

We then went on our first hike to go look at aboriginal carvings in sandstone that are starting to fade away because of all the wind and water erosion. They used symbols such as shields to tell where they lived, stick figures, fish, arrows and curvy lines for various things. Some areas had it marked off where not to walk and other areas you had to find where they carved and had to watch your step.


Once we hopped back on the bus we went to another area to hike, which only girls are allowed to go on. So the guys went on a different trail. On the girls trail we eventually found a huge carving of a whale that had this whole story to it. It was pretty cool, but I accidentally stepped on the fin but the lady didn't see.

Our next stop was this beautiful park in the mountains that had a lake sunken in between them with a fishing dock, some boats and beautiful houses built into the mountain side. Here we ate lunch and posed on these stoops like Karate Kid and took pictures looking like we were jumping into the lake which you can find these pictures on my facebook.

We were all pretty tired but decided we still wanted to go out on the town and have a good time. We got a deal so we could all get in free into a big club downtown called the Scary Canary where they had $3.50 drinks all night when they usually go around 10 bucks. It has to have been one of the best nights of my life in terms of going out. Nobody was too drunk, we were celebrating two birthdays, everyone had fun with no drama, everyone was buying drinks for everyone including these mini buckets, one of our girls got thrown out for crowd surfing and we met some people who want to meet us Wednesday night at the bars around us. I stayed out with Olivia, Lauren, Chelsea, A.J. and Ryan until 4:30am, we then stopped in McDonalds for some to eat up and then we had to wait for a bus for like an hour. As we were waiting this 18 year old Indian kid came up to us asking if he smelled like alcohol because if he went home his dad would beat him with a stick. The kid was hilarious and we just listened to him talk about basically the pressures of coming from such a strict and not understanding home. Absolutely amazing night...Ill talk about the trip to the zoo and fireworks in my next post.

Love,

ME

Crocodiles and Koala Petting

This Tuesday was kind of a casual day because we couldn't plan much around the schedule we had with class and hockey practice. Practicing with the mixed Australian club team down here has been absolutely a phenomenal experience.

They do have a completely different style of play which I was a little lost with at first, but at the end of the day its the same in every country for goalkeepers...Just save the ball! Adelle and I were so happy playing with them because they are so happy-go-lucky and laughing, but are still extremely skilled and challenging to work with. After hockey, I met up with Ryan, Deanna, Brent, Olivia and Ashley to go to the Tea Gardens bar and play some pool like the good ole pool sharks we are.

Wednesday was a G'day :) because I had no class until 6pm AND no field hockey practice so I'm able to make the most of my morning and afternoons. I decided to sleep in for the first time since I don't know when, and woke up at 10am and got ready. I was on my way to the Sydney WIldlife World which is actually located right next door to the Aquarium I went to before.

The start of the wildlife world was a little eww and creepy because it was full of tons of overgrown, hairy and freaky deaky looking bugs and insects. The first thing I saw was the biggest Dragonfly in Australia, but not in the world and some other huge beatles.

My favorite insects that I saw were the butterflies. In order to not have to go about catching the butterflies all over Australia the WIldlife World simply breeds their own butterflies in a garden that you get to see as you walk in. Along with the butterflies were a huge variety of moths.

Next, the wildlife world just wanted to creep you out a little more, by displaying their collection of dangerous (Most Dangerous one in the world) and hairy spiders (one spider carriers her babies around on her back) in a window pane to terrorize you once you've gone home and think those same spiders could be making home in your home's windows.

If you've ever watched Discovery Channel or Animal Planet, Australia has had its fair showing of reptiles that come out at night, creatures of the deep and whatever else. After the insects were a thing of the past, I had the chance to see overgrown lizzards, venemous snakes and what looked to be mini dinosaurs out of Jurassic Park.

The next picture I think you're gonna get a real kick out of. People were absolutely freaking out because the crocodile that honestly couldve been mistaken as fake because apparently it never moves...well it moved. All I heard was some woman say, "look it wants to eat the girl's backpack." After going through my photos this is the shot I found.

After my close encounter I went to see the Kangaroos. Some were lazy, some tall and others possibly going crazy. I really liked seeing these guys because it isn't everyday you get to see this (only in aussie) and its not like they're common in other zoos around the world.

As a lost stop, I had the chance to take a picture with and pet a Koala. They had about four in the netted area and all four were sleeping. They normally sleep 20 hours a day and only feed on a certain Eucalyptus tree leaves. I was lucky that this little guy climbed down and we were able to take a picture with him awake for it.

After heading back to the apartments, I finished studying for a quiz for our class from 6-9pm, which I did very well on.

On Thursday we had class in the morning and then I went on a run after. We then headed off to practice and arrived on time for once even though our train route is still in question. After a very tiring practice(i fell asleep on the train) we headed home and decided to hang out in one of the guy's rooms where we played the card game Uker? and played the game quarters where I was set up to fail.

 A bunch of others ended up joining us because it was Laura's 21st birthday and we had plans to go out with no class on Friday. Another girl in our group, Chelsea had her 21st birthday on Friday(tech. midnight), but we never ended up making it out of the apartments because we had a security warning and everyone had to leave the room. I ended up heading to the bar with Ryan, AJ, Alex and Deanna where we played pool and AJ and I are now reigning champs after some slop pool :) After a fun night, we headed in because we had a long day on Friday for a field trip, which I'll talk about in the next post.

Love,

ME

Memorial and Museum Toursits

I was talking to one of my best girls in the world, Amanda Huck, and she reminded me that I need to kick my butt into gear and send out this new post! So lets get at it!

Monday, they really wore us out because they took us to three different buildings around Sydney for a class field trip on Australia history and government.

Our first stop landed us at the ANZAC War memorial in Sydney is dedicated to the thousands of men and women from New South Whales, Australia that have served or are currently serving in the military. It was originally opened after World War One when Australia made its first debut for the British Empire, but was re-dedicated 50 years later to all service men and women.

The picture to the right is the main statue inside the memorial which is called the Spartan Statue of Sacrifice. Holding up the statue are three women: his mother, sister and wife who is also holding a baby which represents Australias past present and future.

Now, the picture to the left looks like I took a picture of a chocolate stain on a white shirt I failed to scrub out. However, it means a whole lot more. WHat you can't tell is that this picture is actually the ceiling inside the memorial and on the ceiling are 120,000 gold metal stars that represent the amount of New South Whales citizens that SERVED in WWI.

After the memorial we walked through Hyde Park, which I've shown you before in the picture to the right. We then reached the Parliment House where we had to check ourselves through security and were taken into the Legislative Assembly House.

The guy giving us the tour was an as* and said you only have ten seconds to take photos, and go! He told us about the Speaker, how security can throw people out and how there is an $800,000 mallet type thing they bring into the room which lets the room know they are in session and there is freedom of speech.
To the left you can see the room with the podium and media seating up in the balcony and to the right is actually a lavish looking chair which has a note on it telling you to keep your dirty mits off it. This chair has only been sat in twice (allegedly) by Queen Elizabeth and her son Charles. Hint, the royalty factor.

Some random facts for you about Australia: that once you register to vote once, you have to vote until youre 6 feet under or else you are fined around $150. They have a party called the Liberals, but they are actually the conservative party. Yes, they are still a monarchy because of Great Britain. The Queen appoints the Governor aka Head of State.

After the Parliment house we headed down the street and around the corner and found the Sydney Museum. Before we walked into the building which is actually the base of a skyscraper building for a business company, there were carved wooden posts outside which resembled Aboriginal traditions. You were suppose to be able to hear sounds and music coming out of the posts, but we didn't hear a thing.


Inside the museum, it was pretty small, but it did offer quite a few different things. We first looked at how so many herbs and spice and much needed materials were brought into Sydney which is on such an isolate continent. In the picture to the left is a wall with the herbs and materials with their origin written across them. This is also A.J. standing in front of them. 

The museum had interactive screens describing the history of the bridge being built, local artists looking to capture the uniqueness of neighborhoods in Sydney as well as cases with old artifacts. They weren't really big on you taking pictures, but I snapped a few. To the right is a picture of some of the boats the British shipped convicts over to Australia on.

After we left the Sydney Museum, one of our local professors told us to walk around the corner and check out the Customs House in the picture to the left.

It was where people who be sent right after de-boarding the ship back in the day. However, the cool thing about the place was that when you walked inside you were standing on glass floor that had a replica of the entire city of Sydney (1/500,000th the size) beneath the glass in the picture to the right. It was measure down to the last park and type of architecture for each building.


Ill post about Tuesday and Wednesday and today in the next post :)

Love,

ME