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If I had a dollar for every time the fire alarm went off in my building, I would be able to finance another year of studying abroad. I'm not kidding--these fire alarms are the most sensitive alarms ever and go off on almost a daily basis. Using a toaster oven sets them off. Making popcorn will set them off. Even boiling water right underneath them will sometimes set them off. The problem is, once they go off, the fire department has to come and make sure that the building hasn't caught fire from a pot of boiling water. Luckily for me, the building does much better against not melting from water than the Wicked Witch of the West, so so far so good. But because the fire alarm goes off on a daily basis, people take their time evacuating the building, so if there really was ever a fire, I think we would all be screwed just like the little boy who cried wolf. The good news for the firemen is that they are getting a lot of practice answering 000 calls (that's Aussie for 911), and also they get $1500 every day since if it goes off in your room
Blue Mountains
Taken by Salome you have to pay for them to come and save you from the steam. Needless to say, I've been afraid to use my toaster from day one. I'm looking forward to making a bunch of toast once I get back home.
Normally, the fire alarm goes off at lunch or dinner time, but last weekend it went off at 2:30 AM, and we were left outside until 4 AM. This made it extra hard to wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready to go to the Blue Mountains with Kim and a couple of her friends, and it was quite the struggle to pull myself out of bed that morning. Luckily, we stopped at Starbucks on our way to the Blue Mountains. This was the first time I've had Starbucks in Australia, and it turns out Starbucks in Australia is more different from America's Starbucks than China's Starbucks. Starbucks here has pizza! And they also have sheets of paper that translate American coffee lingo into Australian. They have smaller sizes than America's Tall, Grande, and Venti, although they do have those too but they look gigantic compared to the Aussie friendly size. I got a tall
cup of brewed coffee that was three times more expensive than the same cup in the states (which is exactly why I don't drink coffee here) and it seemed huge! Kim made fun of me but in my defense I'm still American and by American standards, that was a tiny cup of coffee and I've cut back quite a bit from my three cups a day back home.
Once we had picked everyone up and I had some coffee in me, we were off to the Blue Mountains! I really wanted to see the Three Sisters before leaving Sydney, so I was excited to get the chance. According to Aboriginal legends, there were once three sisters who lived in the Jamison Valley. They belonged to the Katoomba tribe, and were called Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo. The three sisters fell in love with three brothers from a different tribe, but their marriage was forbidden by tribal law, so the brothers decided to try and capture the sisters. A huge battle took place, and in order to protect the sisters from harm, a tribe elder turned them to stone, with the intention to turn them back after the battle. However, things
didn't go according to plan and the tribe elder, who coincidentally was the only one who could turn them back, was killed in battle. Thus, the three sisters still stand there today.
That said, Wikipedia says that it's a fabricated story to lure tourists to the Blue Mountains. I don't know...I think that it's completely plausible and I just hope no one turns me and my two sisters into a rock.
Anyways, I had a great time getting to see the Blue Mountains. It reminded me a bit like China to be perfectly honest as it was very touristy and there were stairs everywhere! Maybe it's just a California thing but when we Californians hike, there are usually no stairs. We hiked down one path and then took the steepest train in the Southern Hemisphere back to the top to avoid all those stairs. That's another great thing about being in Australia--everything you do is the Southern Hemisphere's biggest or best. It reminds me of China, where every Buddha I saw was some sort of the world's largest Buddha. If you get specific enough everything is the biggest or best. For example, I'm the best Chelsea who goes
So Much Fog!
You'd think we were in San Francisco or something!
Taken by Salome. to Babson College that is currently studying abroad in Australia who previously went to China who previously went to London who is originally from California. Boom. People should really be lining up to take pictures with me.
We ended the day by watching the sunset over the Blue Mountains, before heading back to Sydney. All in all, a great weekend (minus the early morning fire alarm).
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
A lovely part of the world
Nice photo.