Fri. Field Trip pt. 1 Blue Mountains

We've all been talking about this weekend for some time and it definitely lived up to all of our expectations. This was the order of the field trip on Friday. ZOO, Blue Montains and then Opera. I've decided I'll explain the Blue Mts. in this post only and will report on the other two soon. At 8am we were all bundled up as we hopped aboard our big bus that would take us 2 hours away to the zoo and then the Blue Mountains. I can't tell you much of how the ride went, because about 20 minutes in, most of us fell asleep. Howeverrrr, before we fell asleep we had a choice of movies to pick from and I can't even remember what the other ones were, but a few of us went crazy when Summer Heights High was an option. This is one clip of "Jonah" who also
plays a female student named Ja'me and Mr. G. The above clip is of Jonah and this next one is of Ja'mie. watch it if you have a minute.

When we woke up in the blue mountains it was a cute town that reminded me a little bit of Big Bear Mountain. We parked and walked out onto the lookout called Echo Point, where you could really start to take in just how huge the whole area was. In this picture it is Amanda on the left and Cossette on the right. Amanda is here playing rugby, which is really big down here, and she got to meet like the "John Madden" for Rugby and went out to a bar with him and some of the players after a game. Cossette, if you remember from my first post is here golfing.

As you can see from the picture, we're dressed pretty warm with jackets, mittens, beanies and what not. We were cold at first, but once we got hiking it started to heat up.

As we walked along the lookout you could see the Eucalyptus trees stretching pretty far with a bit of a blue haze over them. We're told this is because the type of oils on top of the leaves and the amount of sunlight that reflects off of them. I also learned Koalas eat only a certain type of Eucalyptus leaf which you're not suppose to because it kind of messes with you're head...maybe that's why Koalas sleep 20 hours a day.

We walked around up top for about 10 minutes and took pictures with a bunch of people and a group one that is on my facebook. If you look up the Blue Mountains, the main attraction you could say is the Three Sisters. They aren't real people, but three thin and pointy mountains right next to each other layered top to bottom with all types of rock and sediments throughout the millions of years. The picture to the right is of Desiree, myself and Adelle standing in front of them.

We were told that the 1,000 step trek to the bottom would take about and hour which sounded kind of long if you really think about. We found out quickly it wasn't the number of steps, but the kind of steps we were taking on. In the picture to the left, you're seeing when we had it easy. We had a metal staircase with sterdy, evenly placed steps with a flat surface. However, 90% of the walk down were very short and steep steps carved out of rock and worn into dips because of the amount of feet having treked up and down them before us.

The steps were starting to make my legs shake from having to slow-mo walk down them and with them being so steep. We reached another lookout a bit lower in the pic to the right, but still very cool where we snapped a few photos.

Once we were near the bottom we started walking on metal stairs again. Our trail was not only a dirt trail, but covered in snowball sized rocks everywhere with dips and turns.

Besides the Eucalyptus trees, the area was covered with ferns and red trunked trees that were as hard as rock. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if some dinosaur just popped out of nowhere because I felt like we were in a Jurassic Park movie.

When we were about 20 mins. into the walk I tripped (typical) on a rock and that trip caused me to trip again and look like I just snapped my ankle because my hands even touched the ground in front of me keeping me from face planting. The people behind me thought I sprained it and one of the teachers offered to take me back up. The thing is, my ankles are so flexible I didn't feel a thing, but nobody seemed to believe me because of how bad it looked.

waterfall

We walked for sometime and we all seemed to enjoy every minute of it. Nobody complained, it wasn't too cold, nobody got hurt, though a few close calls, and we would stop to take photos on rocks, climbing trees and along the winding trail.

The picture to the left is of a tree holding up a huge rock over us. As we continued along we saw only a couple other hikers, no animals and thankfully had no lectures mid-walk. We were however told that one of the oldest living trees in the whole world (millions of years old) is found in this park, but only a few rangers and scientists know its exact location.

Near the end of the walk we started to hear some water and eventually found a pretty waterfall that a bridge took us over. The picture up and to the right is the waterfall starting at the top right. Once passed the waterfall we found the path we'd take back up the mountain...THE STEEPEST RAILWAY IN THE WORLD>>>CHECK OUT THIS LINK. I screamed my head off the whole time because we weren't given seat belts and I totally thought this was going to be a slow scenic tour and you couldn't see how steep the railway was from the ground. If you look on facebook im desperately holding onto the fencing inside the ride. To the right is us going in between the mountains on this fast ride and it eventually completely closed around us for what seemed like forever and I kept yelling, "Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?!?!" because it was sooo dark. The reason why it was so scary is because it used to be used for mining.

Thanks for reading this post and I'll be sure to report on the ZOO, Opera House, Harry Potter on the Biggest IMAX screen and how we're going to play Rugby in the park tomorrow and then go to a professional game!

CHEERS,

Love,

ME

The Rocks, Surfing, DEACON, Scary Canary

On Monday we had class where we learned about ecosystems and more ecosystems and how you shouldn't eat fish in the Great Lakes when you're pregnant.

After that we went on a field trip to the Rocks which is an old part of Sydney where the poor were pushed to live and housing looked more like scraps and rubble. We also took a picture with this aboriginal guy who was selling his music. 

 Now, it is a thriving shopping area with a lot of history and views of the Bridge. This trip wasn't as fascinating as our past ones, but afterward a bunch of us went to this very popular place called Pancakes on the Rocks. 
Any time of the day they serve all sorts of pancakes that are covered in creme, syrup butter and or even ice cream. The chocolate chip ones I got was more like eating a fudge brownie so I only made it through one.

Tuesday we had more class and field hockey was pushed back to 4pm. We were pretty early for once and were met by a few more players than usual who were back form their holiday. Now there was three of us goal keepers and if it wasn't for having a high boiling point I would've snapped at this other goalie from the get go. In the end, we got along quite well, I guess if somebody brought in another keeper to my team without me knowing I might come off a little bit harsh too.

Wednesday I didn't have class until 6pm where we had a quiz so I decided to go to Manly Beach with Brenna and Gabby. We rented boards for $15 and I opted to wear a rashie (rashguard) instead of a wetsuit because I thought I could brave the 20 degree celcius water. After giving Gabby a few quick instructional tips, we hit the waves and found out Mother Nature was ready to rock us.

The first wave I caught, I didn't realize Gabby was behind me and I was heading straight into her. I ditched the board so the fin wouldn't hit her head underneath and she was fine. The next wave I caught and I was yelling to Brenna the whole time I was on the wave because she wanted to take pictures, but she was busy talking to a photographer.
After that, I blew out on every single wave and Gabby didn't catch a wave, but we'll get her one before we leave. This is evidence of me not paying attention when I was in knee deep water not holding onto my board and a wave slammed it into the outside of my knee.

When leaving Manly, we were walking toward the ferry and somebody grabbed onto my backpack. I turned around and saw JEAMIE DEACON. Jeamie was a senior when I was a freshmen at MSU on the hockey team and she also visited me in San Diego for Spring Break. I knew she was in Australia, but the chances of that happening are just astronomical. We chatted the whole ferry ride back and decided that we would get together with Adelle too and go to the Scary Canary for a drink after Adelle and my 6-9pm class.

In class we were handed back our Australian Quiz which I managed a 8 1/2 out of 10 which I thought was pretty alright and then I saw a few peoples scores as fives, sixes and even a three. So far so good with classes and I usually study about 30 mins. before the exams and do quite well.

Adelle, Gabby and I headed to Scary Canary to meet Deacon and her Aussie friend, but while on the bus this drunk guy was tossing a couple free mini stereos to anyone who wanted one on our section of the train and I'm happy to say I didn't hold onto the box for nothing in the club because this little guy BUMPS!!

Scary Canary was fun because if you're an international you don't have to pay to get in. We took a picture with this guy wearing one of those shirts with a drawn on muscular body and he was quite drunk, but hilarious. They also had a wet t-shirt contest going on, but we stayed away from that and ended up leaving before the show began. Turns out Deacon is driving up the Australian coast and we will see her again when we all happen to be in Cairns (great barrier reef) for the same few days!

Today (thurs) we had class and I took my exam on ecosystems and then we went to practice where we did a ton of shooting and me getting up and down for a good majority of the practice. Tomorrow is our big weekend with our roadtrip to the zoo to wrestle some Kangaroos, hike the Blue Mountains and come back in time for the Sydney Opera House Symphony!! Thanks for reading :)

Love,

ME

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