Aaaaand another week has gone by in Sydney, just as fast as all the other weeks before it. This week seemed to go by especially fast, as I got to spend the time with my family [hence why I have been slightly behind on blogging, such a busy week]! I loved reverting back into slightly-touristy mode in order to show them all the things I think are wonderful about Sydney, as well as exploring a few things I hadn’t yet experienced during my time here. A brief rundown of our [...]

Friday, March 8 Friday marked our last day in Cairns – and we definitely did it right. Tim, Matt, Brian, Connor, Julie and I went whitewater rafting down the Tully River. It was an early morning, 6:45, so we spent the entire 2 hour bus ride sleeping and mentally preparing ourselves for the day. Matt had signed us up for the extreme version of whitewater rafting, and we weren’t entirely sure what that entailed. By the end of the day, there was no doubt that we had made the right [...]

Wednesday, March 6 For Wednesday, we booked a waterfall and rainforest tour with Captain Matty and Barefoot Tours. We were pretty excited; the prospect of spending all day swimming in waterfalls around the rainforest sounded appealing for sure. Right off the bat, Captain Matty let us know what kind of day we were in for. The title “Barefoot Tours” is incredibly accurate, as he wears no shoes, even while driving. He hopped off the bus that morning, gave all of us huge bear hugs, and declared us “Team America” for [...]

I have safely returned from my Spring Break in Cairns! Let me start by saying that this break was probably the best one I have ever had/will have in my entire life. 4 nights in a row I went to sleep thinking “this is the best day of my life”. And each day was, in its own right. Everything about Sydney has been incredible, but my time in Cairns made me appreciate Australia and everything it has to offer in a new way.  Tuesday, March 5 Tuesday morning began bright [...]

Our adventures in Sichuan province began as we arrived in the capital, Chengdu. We took a bus from the train station to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and found lunch at a nearby restaurant. After lunch we took a bus to Chengdu’s main shopping district and walked around a bit before heading to People’s Park. The beautiful park was filled with locals, many of them taking part in group dancing (Michael even got into a dance-off with somebody). I was really impressed by the number of people, young and [...]

Since I’ve last blogged, I can’t say that an incredible amount has happened, but enough that I’ve fallen behind! As a result, the last few days of my life are as follows: Thursday, Feb. 21 My communications class took a field trip to Chinatown! It was a part of the city I had really wanted to see, especially because Chinese New Year is happening right now. It was a surprisingly small area, but our tour guide gave us a ton of information [which I now have to use to write [...]

As the sixth and final week of our winter break approaches, I’ve finally found some time to write about all that’s happened. I spent the first three weeks traveling throughout China with friends. Then I got to spend the past two weeks with my parents, who came to Beijing. For the sake of length, I’ll stretch those five weeks over multiple posts, starting with the first leg of our trip across China. On January 12th, my friends Michael, Yao Li, Julia, Julia (yes, two Julias) and I began our 3-week [...]

  Saturday morning it started off raining, of course. We took advantage of the rainy weather and to watch more movies. In the afternoon, it cleared up and Julie, Bekah and I explored Crown St. which is pretty close to our apartment. There are all kinds of cute shops and cafes down the street, reminding us that we will never have enough time or money to enjoy all of them! One of the best stops we made was to get gelato, which was one of the most delicious things I [...]

Hey all! Before I detail yesterday’s adventure, I have a (rather short) list of the strangest terms I’ve heard in while in Australia. I need to have them all down in one place so I can remember them! Aussie word: Macca’s American Equivilent: McDonald’s [It's even Macca's in commercials!] Aussie phrase: How you going? American Equivilent: How are you doing? Aussie word: Mozzie American Equivilent: Mosquito  [Words are frequently shortened here, like "criminals" to "crims", etc.] Aussie word: Pram American Equivilent: Stroller [Umm...what?] Aussie phrase: Happy as a Larry American [...]

Before I even get to describing the past few days of my life, I can sum it up by saying that I had an excellent weekend. There was nothing overly outrageous or exciting about it – just a great time with my favorite people on the continent. I’m not entirely sure what I did when I got home from class on Friday, but it was probably something along the lines of watching the Ellen show and Friends with my roommates, before getting ready to go out for the night. We [...]

This weekend, we left our new home for the first time and took off for Port Stephens, a couple hours North of Sydney. Friday dragged on for forever – I had to go to work that morning to make up for having Monday off for Australia Day, and then I had class until 4:15. Buuuut, 6:30 finally rolled around and about 50 of us got on the bus and spent the next 3 hours driving to Port Stephens. Saturday morning was when the fun started. The only downside was that [...]

So, after a long first week of classes and internship, you’d think we’d maybe want to go out on a Friday night and celebrate. Instead, our Friday night looked a lot like this:  Happy Holidays from room 804!   We decided to stay in and build a mattress fort in our living room before proceeding to fall asleep watching “She’s the Man”. We’re pretty wild and crazy, we know.   Saturday was Australia Day, which meant we were spending all day at Bondi Beach. This is not what actual Australians [...]

Things I’ve learned in Australia: 1. Living in a bad part of town in Australia is very different than living in a bad part of town in America. According to Aussie natives, we live in “the ghetto” of Sydney, but we all feel safe here and everything is incredibly nice. Walking around at night here feels safer than walking at night around the U of M campus. 2. The phrase “A dingo ate my baby” actually came from an Australian murder case. A woman was camping with her husband and child, and [...]

First day of the internship was today! I don’t have much to report yet, I mostly spent the day learning about the history of the company and the event I will be working on, the Lexus Cup.  It’s actually a very cool event – it allows all the golfers in the country to compete in this giant tournament. All they have to do is sign up and go about their golf lives as normal, with their 6 best scores over 3 months making up their total score for the Lexus [...]

Truthfully, I don’t have much to report for today. I went in for my internship interview this morning and the person who was supposed to interview me was sick this morning, so I had a pretty quick chat with his boss and we decided that I would start on Wednesday. One of the more laid-back interviews of my life – we mostly talked about all the fun things I had to do while I was in Australia. So, because I have nothing to say, I have my AU v. USA [...]