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Published: January 28th 2008
If anyone's ever been to a Young Life camp for a week then they know its nice to have at least a day or two to recover from the busy, not-a-lot-of-sleep week! I got about four hours of sleep the last two nights at camp and was hoping to get back and catch up a little...however, I wasn't that lucky! Upon returning, my teacher informed me of the many assignments he was expecting me to make up (in the 4 days that I was home before leaving to Sydney Friday morning), such as visiting 5 museums and writing page summaries on each, watching and summarizing two movies on top of keeping up with the weekly assignments we were now on. That lead to a continuous sleeping schedule of about 4 hrs per night for the week and then an all nighter Wed. night with my friend Sam so we could get everything done before missing class Friday to go to Sydney! Thurs. night, after we'd finally gotten everything done, my friend and I were excited to get a few hours of sleep so we set our alarms for 5am to make our 6:45am flight, went to bed....and then SLEPT thru our
Across the Harbour
The reflection of the sunset off to the left with the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the distance!alarms! She slept thru 4 different alarms and I totally turned mine off in my sleep! I figured after all the mornings of getting up at 3:30am to open at Starbucks I'd have no problem getting up, however my body choose no, haha. So, that was a very expensive little mistake because we had to buy another ticket there which ended up being $180!! Lesson learned: try to get more than 4 hours of sleep every night and just don't pull all nighters -- it's not worth it, especially when you have important places to be!
We landed in Sydney at about 1 and met up with Vanessa, my cousins' exchange student who lived in Chehalis with them all last year and who flew to Sydney to meet up with us for the weekend. We then connected with some friends of Steve Ridgeways: Tim & Helan who live in the Northern suburbs of Sydney and volunteered to let us 3 girls crash at their house for the weekend! Their home was just a 10 minute walk from the train station and a quick 30 min. train ride from downtown Sydney. Friday afternoon we went into the Harbour and saw
Across the Harbour
Downtown Sydney from across the water! the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was really neat being right next to the Opera House after always just seeing it in pictures. One thing that surprised me was how old looking it is when you get close to it...the pictures we see sure keep it looking nice and "new." We had dinner on the harbour and then took a ferry across to Luna Park, a little theme park with rides where we watched the sunset over the city!
Saturday the 26th was Australia Day, like our 4th of July, so there was all kinds of events going on in town such as free concerts, events in the parks, and a 30 min. firework show in Darling Harbour. After a pancake breakfast we headed to Sydney's famous Bondi Beach where we enjoyed the sun, did some body surfing and rented a boogie board! I reminded myself that they have Shark nets and enjoyed swimming way out in the huge, warm waves! Then we had dinner and spent the evening in Darling Harbour, which is a beautiful part of Sydney where the water comes in and is surrounded by restaurants, clubs, and shops. There was a
Bondi Beach
Busy Bondi Beach on Australia Day! stage set up in the middle of the water and a 30 min. firework show and TONS of families and people of all ages watching!
Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and said goodbye to the family we stayed with. It was very fun meeting this couple and their 4 young kids (and also nice having somewhere to stay for free)!! Although we didn't see too much of them because we were coming and going, we were so thankful for their generosity and enjoyed talking to them a little bit; they were so sweet! My friend Genesa, who I worked with in the nursery all week at YL camp, came and met us in the Sydney Harbour where we caught a ferry to Sydney's other very popular beach: Manly Beach. It was another hot day and we enjoyed plenty of swimming in the warm ocean and soaking in some sun! There was a bunch of beach volleyball nets set up and I really was wishing I had a volleyball! Bondi & Manly were beautiful beaches and both were packed with people the days we were there because of the Holiday as well as it being the last weekend
Cheers on Australia Day
Vanessa talked me into buying a cocktail, my first drink here, after reminding me that the legal drinking age here is 18 and insisting that it was the "Ozzie thing to do" on Australia Day, Haha...cheers! before school starts for everyone!
Once we finally made it to Sydney it was a great weekend seeing some of the city's main attractions!! It was really fun spending time with Vanessa in her country after getting to know her back in the states and also meeting up with a new friend from here, Genesa. Now that we are in Week 5 of our program -- our last week of classes here in Melbourne -- I will be keeping really busy until Thursday when classes end and everything is due!! Hopefully then I will have some time to get in touch with some of you before getting ready to enjoy my week off: up North in Cairns relaxing on the ocean by the Great Barrier Reef (Feb. 1st - Feb. 8th)! Cant Wait! :D
Whats new at home!?
Love, Lacey 😊
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Stacey
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So much fun!
Lacey, I love seeing the pictures and reading the stories of your adventures. I think about you all the time when I look at my phone and it shows me what time it is in Australia! Love ya girl! Talk soon.