Jeff R

The Following is a post from my mother: --------------------------------------------------------------------- It has been amazing seeing Jeff and all the places he has told us about. He’s a great Australian guide. We toured his school, the University of New South Wales, and met some of his new friends. One is nicer than the next. Coogee, where Jeff lives is so much like La Jolla. He is one block from the beach! We have seen the Taronga zoo, the Sydney Aquarium and experienced a sandstorm—something no one here has ever experienced in their lifetime. The sky was red and was a bit eerie, like Armaggedon. Extremely strong winds brought the red sand from the Outback into Sydney and the airport was closed and the ferries stopped running. Hundreds of people were taken to the hospital for breathing problems, we ... read more

It’s been nearly a week since I returned from my trip to Fiji, so I figure I should recount the tale of the best trip I’ve ever taken. I went on the trip with 13 of my friends from Sydney. I apologize in advance for how long this entry is. I arrived in Fiji on Sunday night and promptly hopped on a sketchy bus to the hostel we had a reservation at, the Smugglers Cove. Here we had a late dinner and some drinks while getting our first taste of Fijian culture. By that I mean that we learned how to say "hello" ("Bula") and "Thank You" ("Vinaka"). After a couple of hours wandering the beach and laying around in hammocks, we headed to bed so we could catch the bus to Port Denerau in the ... read more

It has been an eventful weekend this week! It started Friday when I bussed out to Sydney University to go indoor rock climbing with the rock climbing club. I have been climbing a few times, but this climb was way more fun. I plan to go again next Friday when the club meets again (and when my body is less sore.) On Saturday, we planned to meet at the train station at 11:00am to catch the 11:40 train to a town called Wollongong. Our main purpose for going to the town: to go to the Outback Steakhouse that we knew was there. One of my friends here works at the Outback Steakhouse in Santa Barbra, California, and wanted to see how the Outback here compared; the rest of us just wanted to be ironic. The only ... read more

A very quick update. poor planning lead us to go to Newcastle this weekend instead of canberra. We expected little out of the trip and because of that had a greattime. only problem is that during the trip I got ferociously ill. I can back early to our hotel room (a 4 bedroom furnished apartment), and went in to bed. i woke up a few hours later and had obvious signs of fever. I slept the entire way home on the train (4 hours). now I'm back home in bed feeling better but still sick. Doctor at uni tomorrow.... read more

Today was a good day. I was in bed for a good portion of it, though, because I stayed up late last night. I woke up feeling sick, so I decided that the best way of getting over my sickness was to stay in bed until I felt better. To my surprise, it actually worked and now I feel better. I did take medicine as well, however, just in case. :-) Some people had texted me around 11am to invite me to take the beach walk from Coogee to Bondi again, but as I mentioned I was still asleep. Instead, I invited them to come over to my house for dinner. They accepted and we met at the grocery store at 7:30 once they returned from Bondi. I had decided that we were going to make ... read more