- 6 February, 2012 //
- Asia & Oceania, Current Students Abroad, Jessica in Australia //
- Tags : classes, Study Abroad in Australia, Sydney
- 0 Comments
We spent a fun filled weekend in Sydney. The city was quite amusing. Starting the day off right, I over slept for my alarm and instead of waking up at 5:45 as originally planned; I woke up at 6:30 and needed to be on the bus at 6:45. Rushed as rushed can be, I had showered, dressed, packed, and Laura made me toast, packed a few other snacks and raced to the bus making it on time thankfully. Then for the next 3 hours we were on the bus for our adventure in Sydney. We did make a stop after a half hour to get breaky. I had Macca’s (McDonald’s) McCafe, which taste quite different from home. They also had Aussie trivia on the bus for us and Laura and I actually knew some of the answers from what the boys had taught us. I felt pretty smart.
Our first stop once in Sydney was to the Sydney Tower. It was an amazing view, and it was also cool to see everything from up above to get a sense of what we were going to do and where we were going to be going throughout the day. After this we walked down to the Circular Quay (pronounced Key). Here we had “free time” and were able to do whatever we wished. Of course, I hadn’t paid attention and Laura had heard we needed to meet at the Sydney Opera House, which was all the way around the bay so we walked directly there. Then realized that the Opera House was our meeting place at 2:45, not right away. It was only 12:30. So we walked basically all the way back to where we started at because that is where the Starbucks was—which Laura was craving and wanted since Sydney is one of the only places with a Starbucks in Australia. After that it was time for lunch because we were starving so we figured we’d try meat pies because we had been hearing about them since we had gotten here. I had a chicken and mushroom meat pie, oh so delicious! I would compare them to a potpie but it didn’t have the veggies inside, they were pile on top. Next it was time to walk around and check out the little shops. I bought a few post cards but nothing else really floated my boat. I was more interested in everything that was around me. We got to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House, The Rocks, and the Circular Quay, which was the harbor essentially. We stopped at the Paddy Markets, which is very very cheap shopping. Lots of merchandise in a very small area.
After the markets it was time for my favorite part: the aquarium! I can’t decide if I like zoos or aquariums better, however they both are pretty sweet! We got to see just about everything minus the platypus. He was hiding up around the corner, I saw him moving but not actually swimming, and then right when we left he decides to come out, stupid! But otherwise there were so many other cool animals. We had about 4 hours to go through the aquarium and eat. We spent a good few hours there then walked around the bay looking for food places to eat at. The first place was quite cheap but Rebecca, the lady in charge, told us that there was other cheap places around the bay so we walked the entire way to find that everything was much more expensive and to find ourselves back to where we started. I guess we walked off our dinner before we even ate it! From the aquarium we went to the hostel we stayed at. It was much nicer than I ever expected, and having it as my first hostel I feel like I will have very high expectations now. But it was pretty cool, 4 people to a room. There was a great view from the roof and the center of the building was actually outside. Since we were in Sydney, most of the kids decided to go out but since I wasn’t feeling well I decided to stay in. Actually, the night was very fun. We played a card game called BANG with others who stayed in and had a very relaxing evening and went to bed early to be well rested for the next day.
On the docket for Sunday was the beach, however check out was at 9:30 and we didn’t have to be at the bus until 11. Laura and I didn’t make it to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday so we decided to be there since it was only 15 minutes away. I’m very glad we decided to do this, it was absolutely stunning and an extraordinary view. It also continued our relaxing night into a relaxing morning. Then off to Manly Beach. It was scorching hot out and the beach was packed! The waves were huge! And actually for most of the time we were there the beach was closed to swimming because there were ridiculous rips, so it wasn’t safe for swimming. When standing about ankle deep on the beach, the rips pulling back out in the ocean just about swept you off your feet. It was so crazy. Luckily, there were Frisbees and footballs that were brought so we played around on the beach and lay out for a while. I got some of the weirdest burns. I did put lots of sunscreen on often but there must have been spots I missed. On my back there are random spots as well as on my legs and arms, I look like a clown. Oh well though, it really wasn’t bad compared to what it could have been.
On the way home I was going to sleep from having such a busy weekend. However, feeling better the whole day, my cough decided to flare once on the bus. Because of this, I tried to drink water to calm it down but this then lead me to needing the toilet terribly. Literally didn’t think I would make it because we didn’t plan to stop but then Rebecca said we would stop because a lot of people were hungry and needed to use the bathroom. At Macca’s I got a $1 cheeseburger and a 50-cent cone and was golden! We had also asked Alex, a friend back at home, to make us dinner before we knew we were going to stop so I didn’t need much. He made us honey chicken and rice, which was bomb. And after the long weekend I was ready to sleep! Plus, this week classes started.
Yesterday, I luckily didn’t have class and was able to watch the super bowl—and I was rooting for the Giants! However, they don’t have the commercials like we do so I’ll have to catch up on those on youtube! It was beautiful out too so Laura, Ryan, Alex, Chris, and I went down to the courts and played basketball and footie for a while, messing around. Tonight I need to get all of my things together for the big first day of classes. We don’t have our tutorials this week (which are similar to discussion) we only have lectures. It’ll be a nice ease into school after being off for about 2 months.
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