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Published: March 29th 2008
Hey everyone!
I hope everything state side is going great. The past few weeks have been amazing. I’ve had a good mix of work and fun. Jake and I are in Harbord for another week before we take off on our three week adventure up the Australian coast and into Asia. One of the best things Jake and I did out here was schedule our days off together, we’ve been able to either go off on an adventure or just hang out at the beach. We made a list of the things we wanted to do before we took off, and over the past two weeks…we were able to do everything we wanted.
The last time I put a blog up was the 12 of March, so I’ll try and be concise with the update of my life out here. We spent one day sailing out in Middle Harbor, a smaller harbor about a 20 minute drive north of Sydney Harbor. We spent about 3 hours sailing around the shore-line of the three cities that sit on the harbor. Note to the wise…don’t sail up to just any beach in Middle Harbor. We made that mistake and came within
50 yards of joining about 30 men on a nude beach. For the record, Jake was sailing ahead of me turned around the minute he realized what he was getting into. The wind wasn’t great that afternoon, but we didn’t care…we were sailing! At the beginning of my trip, I was bummed I couldn’t get a job sailing, but looking back on it…everything has worked out well.
That weekend Jake and I went to “opening night” of Rugby League in Sydney. Almost every neighborhood has a team or has a shared team with the neighboring town. We got on a bus with a ton of screaming Manly-Warringhah Sea Eagle Fans and headed off to The Oval…the home stadium of our adopted team. The game was awesome, and we met some people who managed to explain some of the game to us. The environment was awesome; it was basically a stadium full of drunk people whose sole goal that evening was to lose their voice and support their team with all their might. I was surprised how controlled the crowd was, especially since Manly lost in the last few minutes. After the game I realized the locals love supporting their
team but to them it is only a game. I guess Jake and I are either thrilled after a Michigan victory or hanging by a thread after a loss. The idea that there is more to life than Michigan Football is interesting, but not one that I’m willing to ever entertain.
Monday the 17th brought a National Holiday to Sydney…St. Patrick’s Day!! Of course we arranged it to have the day off and spent the majority of the day at the beach. We hadn’t had a whole day to just relax in a while and it was nice to start talking about or Asia trip. That evening we went to Manly and spent our hard earned paycheck at an array of local pubs.
We both worked Tuesday and Wednesday, and then finally arranged for us to get on a tour of the Hunter Valley…Australia’s version of the Napa Valley. We met our tour guide and the rest of our group in downtown Sydney and took off on our two hour trip north into the Hunter Valley. We were by far the youngest two on our bus. The rest of the group was probably on the trip because they have
a true appreciation for good wine and were there to actually taste the wine. I think Jake and I were there to not only taste the wine, but also drink it. I knew each glass we got was going to be a taste, but I didn’t realize that a lot of people either don’t finish their glass or spit it out!! Well Jake and I had no interest in doing either. The tour we signed up for promised 35+ wines, and they didn’t disappoint! We also got to taste a bunch of liquors and schnapps. This one winery produced some chili pepper schnapps! It was sweet at first and then next thing I knew…it felt like I ate a chili; I really enjoyed it! I bought a small bottle so those interested at home could try some. We also got to a cheese factory and a chocolate factory. Has anyone ever heard of Esrom cheese? They had some at the cheese factory…It smells like a back alley in Columbus. We have some in the back room of the deli, but we only sell the whole blocks. We don’t cut it…I now know why. It was SO foul. So by the
end of our 5 hours winery tour, everyone on our tour was ready to get back on the bus and head back to Sydney. Of course no trip with Jake and Dan is complete without a hitch…the air-conditioning didn’t work on the way back! To make things worse, the bus broke down when we stopped at a rest area to get some cool air. Fortunately, the bus driver fixed the problem in about 15 minutes…but for a while there we all thought we were spending the next few hours at a rest area in the middle of nowhere. We stayed downtown that evening and celebrated a birthday with a friend and then headed back around 1130pm because we both had work in the morning.
This week was our last two days off before the end of our time here in Harbord. We took two days off in a row in case we decided to take an overnight trip. We had some things lined up, but everything fell through. Looking back, I’m glad some of the plans we had fell though. We spent Tuesday at Palm Beach, another famous beach about 30 minutes north of here…and then the night playing
Euchre at our apartment just relaxing. Yesterday we got up early and headed downtown to walk around the Royal Botanical Gardens. It is a giant city park (like central park) right next to the harbor and Opera House full of people exercising and just enjoying the beauty that Sydney has to offer. We decided to bring a Michigan flag for a picture and to make everyone aware that even across the world; The University of Michigan is still the most outstanding university in the WORLD. Fate would have it that just as we finished taking pictures, some chubby guy in an Ohio State hate “jogged” by us and of course a war of words broke out. The three of us put him in his place and sent him off to enjoy the rest of his miserable life. The main goal of the day was to journey off to Sydney’s Olympic Park, site of the 2000 Olympics. I was totally surprised how far outside the city the venues were! It was about a 25-30 minute train ride west of the city. We knew they rented bicycles there, and when we called they said they might be able to get us a
bicycle built for THREE! Unfortunately when we got there, they only had a two seat bike and a bunch of regular boring one seat bikes. We rented the tandem and a regular bike and biked around Olympic park for two hours. We also went to the park because the Olympic Swimming Trials were taking place last night. The first event was at 730, and we got into the Aquatic Center at 530. If you pay $5, you can swim at the center, and use all their facilities. We knew this in advance, so we put our suits on, sat in the hot tub and sauna, and swam for two hours before the swimming trials started! Last night was one of the six of seven nights of trials, but it was still fun to be there and see some competition!
Tomorrow night we are going to see Sydney play South Africa in a HUGE Rugby game in downtown Sydney. Max's friend got tickets from his dad, so Jake and I will try again to understand this crazy game. I let my boss know last week that I was quitting, so Sunday is my last day of work…and then we take
off! We rented a camper-van, and have five days to drive up the coast where our flight to Malaysia leaves on April 8th. We have to move out and take care of a few things this week. I don’t want to leave our awesome apartment or fun the fun city we live in, but I’m also excited to start traveling. I’ll make sure to post another blog before I leave for our short road trip.
Go Tigers!
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