Coogi beach walk

So, once again I have let a little too much time go between my posts. The other day my friends and I walked from Coogee to Bondi beach. It was pretty neat, we passed by a bunch of smaller beaches and coves. The houses along the water were gorgeous. You guys jealous yet?

Mardi Gras

This blog post is dedicated to Kyle Pyke. No, I'm not done with this whole blog thing.

So, Mardi Gras was this past week. We were all pretty excited because its a huge celebration around here and the parade is great and hilarious. Dressing up was neccessary, so we went to Hot Dollar (this great dollar store in the mall) and I picked up some rainbow fishnets, rainbow fake eyelashes, a pink feather boa and a tiara.

This was the finished product. Too bad you can't see my super stylish white sneakers. They really added to the outfit. Uncle Chris said I looked like someone from Working Girl with the tights and the tennis shoes. Oh well. We did alot of walking that night, it was neccessary. The trains were insane, so crowded, so much glitter everywhere. Once we got up on the street it wasn't much better. They had cops on horses directing the foot traffic everywhere. You could barely move, everyone was dressed up and drinking on the street. The more seasoned parade watchers got there early with crates and little plastic kid chairs so they could actually see the parade. By the way, plastic kiddie chairs and full-grown drunk people is not a very practical combination. You'd think they would have come up with a better solution already.

We ended up taking a cab to the end of the parade because there were so many people at the beginning we couldn't even move. We had to walk at least 3 streets below the parade if we wanted to get anywhere. Once we could actually see everything it was great. So many fabulous drag queens in fabulous costumes. I think the theme was history or something because there were Spartans and all sorts of period costumes. Gay and lesbian groups came from all over the world to march in the parade, so that was pretty cool to see.

When the parade was over two of my friends and I met up with Chris and Terry and walked around then went to get a drink and catch up. It was great because we saw people in drag or costume at pretty much every bar we went to that night.

Here's a picture of our whole group before we got separated...Not sure who that random guy in the red is...

I am the WORST blogger ever

I've really been slacking with this whole blogging thing, sorry. It's because my internet hasn't been working and I've had to pay for it and I'm broke. Today however, my internet decided it wants to work and its free! Hopefully this continues.

So, what exciting things have I done up to this point. I've finally met up with my friends from BU. We've been going to the beach alot and I got sun burned the first day. Now my back looks like I have that disease that Michael Jackson had where your skin doesn't hold pigment. It's really unfortunate looking.

I started class on Monday. My school is super small, only about 2,000 kids, sooo different from BU. My schedule is pretty sweet. I'm taking an Australian politics class on Monday; I have a one hour lecture and then a two hour tutorial. Tuesday I take Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, Postcolonial Australian Lit, and Comparative Indigenous Lit from 8:30am to 5:30pm. With no breaks. Its like a job. I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm in the real world. I pretty much have to read 3 books a week since I'm taking 3 lit classes, which should be interesting. I can already tell my Indigenous Lit class is going to be super depressing, so thats cool. I tried to make friends with some Australian girls in my class, but mostly they just answered my questions and went back to talking to eachother. I have to take the train to school everyday, I navigated it by myself on tuesday and I was pretty impressed with myself. I think since I only have two classes I'm going to try and get a job. I signed up for this bartending/barista training class through my program and they try and place you with a job. Fingers crossed.

I went to Tropfest this week, which is the world's largest short film fest in the world. I thought it was just going to be this little screen on the beach or something, it ended up being this huge festival in the middle of the city. 40,000 people with blankets, bottles of wine, picnic baskets and lawn chairs crammed into this gorgeous park in the middle of the city. We got there at around 3pm and there was music playing and they had a live feed from their red carpet. Elijah Wood and Toni Collette were the celebrity judges. The fest started at 7pm and as it started getting darker these huge bats started flying out of the trees around us, there were hundreds of them. It was super creepy. We watched the first seven films and then they had intermission and a band called Whitley (I think) played on the stage underneath the screen then the last 8 were shown. It was really cool to be with so many Australians and get to see the culture like that.

I think thats pretty much all I've done thats worth writing about. I've just been going out with my friends and going to the beach and such. Yesterday I moved into my apartment, such a pain in the ass but I'm finally all unpacked and settled. So I think thats about it, I now have to hop on a bus to Bondi Beach so I can fix my spotty back. Such a hard life. Oh here's a picture of the beach, it was kind of overcast on this day. The water is super warm and amazing, by the way.

Day 4

By the fourth day of orientaion I was getting a little tired of being shuttled around everywhere, I just wanted to move in to my apartment and get settled. Thank goodness it was the last day. We ended up walking down to a restraunt on the harbor called Pancakes on the Rocks. We had tried to go there before, but the line was outrageous. The pancakes were the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.

That night we went on a harbor cruise and got to drink champagne, watch the sunset over Sydney and enjoy a four course meal. They had a cash bar on board so everyone pitched in and we bought one glass of wine to share. Alcohol is really freakin expensive over here unfortunately.

Day 3

Today (2/15) we woke up at the crack of dawn to go rappelling in the Blue Mountains. Thank god it stopped raining and was actually gorgeous and sunny for the first time since I've been here. We took a bus two hours outside of Sydney and then a van up into the mountains. Our van driver looked, talked, and smelled like an Australian pirate. We hiked down into a canyon with all of our gear on; I fell down on my knees in the first 5 minues.

When we got down into the canyon this was what we saw:

It was absolutley terrifying but I managed to rappell down a wall face that was 20 stories high. The picture to the right is of the medium rappell we did (I'm in the red helmet). It was super intense cause you had to hike back up and climb ropes and ladders. I made it though. I think I'm going to go back and go hiking.

Afterwards they gave us a beer to celebrate our victory. YAY AUSTRALIA! (And its wasn't Fosters, much to my suprise)

Welcome to Sydney

So I'm finally here. I'm not moved in to my actual apartment yet, instead I'm staying with three other girls in a two bedroom suite at the World Tower. The travel experience was hellish. I left at 3pm on Thursday and had a two hour flight to LA. I slept the whole time so that wasn't so bad. I got into LA at 5:30pm and had to navigate my way to the international terminal, which didn't take too long. I then had to wait until 11:50pm for my plane to board. I sat by myself and watched while groups of mostly girls started showing up, obviously on their way to Sydney. When we finally boarded, I ended up letting a girl switch with me so she could sit by her friend. I shoved my way back up the aisle like a salmon swimming upstream; the steward glared at me and kept asking me for my seat number like I was trying to scam the airline out of a seat that was a few rows better. I finally made it to my seat and realized I was sitting next to the most over-excited sophomore boy ever and that most-likely he was going to talk through the whole flight. Much to my suprise, he took a Nyquil and fell asleep with his mouth hanging open about an hour into the flight. He kept elbowing me in his sleep. The food was pretty gross, we got a chicken dinner and then a fresh  fruit and cereal breakfast. I watched a few movies and then slept for most the flight. My bod felt like shit when we finally landed though, cause I was so cramped up.

We landed at 9:30am on Saturday, and I found my luggage right off the bat and made it through customs pretty quickly. When the group of students who had been on the flight finally gathered, we all got on a bus and took it to a conference room. They gave us lunch and told us our itinerary, then we were divided into our rooms and sent to the hotel to get cleaned up before dinner. It turned out my roommates were the two girls I had let sit together on the plane, both super nice. We went to the hotel and shower and got ready for dinner. Walking to dinner, I tried to take in as much as the city as possible. It was kind of difficult since we were all moving in a pack and trying to keep up with our group leader. The harbor was pretty touristy, we were all excited to see a Starbucks looking out over the water.

Dinner was pretty crazy. All 100 of us spread out upstairs at this place called the Blackbird Cafe. I was confused as to whether it was a club or a restraunt, because there was hardcore house music thumping over the voices of everyone in the place. Our group leader suggested we get kangaroo, but I played it safe and got a salad. As soon as everyone ordered their food, there was a mad rush to the bar. Most everyone was underage in the states and excited to order an adult beverage. I ordered an Illusion, which tasted like pineapple juice.

After dinner, my roommates and I decided to head back to the hotel so we could get ready to go out. Well, it was monsooning when we walked out the door. I had on a white button up shirt and a bright green bra and it looked like I had jumped in a pool. Walking back from dinner was seriously probably the most uncomfortable and embarassing thing I have ever experienced. Needless to say, that nice consisted of going to the sauna, getting internet, and going to sleep early.

Today we woke up early and went with our group to an Animal Park  This little guy greeted me when I got off the bus. I saw koalas, and kangas, and emus, and all sorts of birds and reptiles. We watched one of the zoo hands get chased by a tazmanian devil. My roommates and I were trying to feed the kangaroos and ended up getting chased by a hungry emu, which was kind of scary. We spent an hour there and then headed back to the city to go on a walking tour. Which we ditched out of. Instead we took our own tour of the city and went and ate at a pizzaria, forgoing the packed sammies supplied by the program. We made it back to our hotel in one piece and now we're just sitting here watching the best of the 90's music videos. Tonight, since its Valentines Day, I think we're going to go out to dinner and then out out, it still looks pretty rainy though so who knows what will happen.

Anyways, I miss everyone and I'll be updating soon!

Down Under in 8 More Days

I'm almost there; eight days separate me from kangaroos, koalas, and kiwis. And I still haven't packed or even made a list of what I'm going to bring. Typical. I do, however, know that I will be having an orientation on the 17th where I will get to pick out all my courses. I know I have 5 roommates; three of them are from Maryland I think, one is from Wisconsin, and one from Virginia. I also know that my program has officially been paid and my tickets have been purchased. So, all in all, I'm pretty on top of things. Packing really isn't that big of a deal.

My family has also been on top of things. They have been extremely helpful financially and also have provided me with some tools to help me acclimate to Australian culture. The best gift I've received is a book of Aussie Slang from my Aunt and Uncle. So, in order to practice my slang, I'm going to write the rest of this post the way the Australian's intended it to be spoken.

I woke this morning and my room looked like a mad woman's breakfast. Instead of cleaning up, I went to the lav' then went downstairs to eat something that would put a little hair on my chest. I enjoyed my cheerios but I was really craving some mystery bags. Then I said to my cat Elvis "Lets' get some munger into ya mate." He's loyal as a sheepdog that one; he's also a meggsie.

When I was walking back upstairs, Elvis swatted me right on my napper. So I screamed at him, "Don't upset me or I'll end up doing my flaming nana!" That cat had gotten me bloody narked. Once I calmed down a bit and threw on some clothes, I was off like a bride's nightie to go explore the never never.


Alright, that's all I've got. I can't stop laughing out loud while I'm writing this and the Starbucks regulars look like they're getting a little narked. So I guess I'm finished for now and I'm going to go nick off.