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January 13th 2009

Published: January 13th 2009

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angelaw

getting ready to absail!

Hello everyone from Gold Coast, Australia. I'm writing this as I sit in my living room of my apartment on the 12th floor of Meriton Hotel. My classes do not start until Monday, the 19th, so today my time was spent at the beach. But we need to travel back in time to last week in Sydney! I have so much to tell you. Let's see...

Here is the short version of what I did:
Monday- left USA
Wednesday- arrived in Sydney, met everyone, got our awesome rooms, went to dinner and ate kangaroo, walked around Darling Harbour, saw street performers, fell asleep before 10 pm due to jet lag haha
Thursday- went to the Blue Mountains to repel at 6 in the morning until 5pm, went out at night to the local bars
Friday- walking tour of Sydney including Hyde Park, Botanical Gardens, Market Street, and Sydney Harbour (where the Opera House is), went to an animal park where I saw Wallabees, kangaroos, koalas, crocs, and many more cool things, went on a run down to Darling Harbour, explored the Maritime Museum, went on a dinner cruise from Darling to Sydney Harbour, went out to the bars
Sunday- orientation

absailing

starting to repel off the cliff!

meeting, walked around Darling Harbour with friends, explored the city on my own, went to mass at the cathedral, went to Sydney Festival!
Monday- flew from Sydney to Brisbane then took a bus to the Gold Coast and moved into my apt

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Okay...so now my thoughts if you are totally bored right now and want some entertainment haha.

So Sydney was absolutely amazing. I never thought that I would like a large city (it's Australia's largest), but Sydney blew me away. There is so much culture, history, and character amongst its streets. It's evident by the people that you see walking along. Everyone is completely different- in how they dress, act, look. It was such a breathe of fresh air.

The trip to the Blue Mountains was one of the best parts. We started repelling off of an approximately 10m cliff then increased so that by the end we were repelling (known as absailing here) down a 17 story high cliff haha. I even went face first down the cliff!! It was quite possibly the scariest thing I have ever done. The views were breathtaking though. We were literally among the clouds.

The walking tour

Blue Mountains

our view...its all foggy due to the clouds. :)

was wonderful. It really showed me how much history Sydney had throughout its streets and our guide was great at explaining each building etc. We walked through gardens where there were Parakeets just flying about. And bats were hanging out in the trees haha! The Sydney Opera house was amazing. It's mind boggling tome how someone would ever come up with that design!!

The animal park was really neat. I got to pet a kangaroo and a koala bear! Then later that night was the cruise, which was at the top of my favs! It was absolutely beautiful to see Sydney at night from the water! And of course I did some dancing that night. 😊

The Sydney festival on Saturday is Australia's biggest festival and we were there for opening night! It was crazy packed--there were over 3 million ppl in the city. All the main streets were shut down and filled with performers including djs, singers, and dancers. It was so great and free to the public!

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So what have I learned thus far, you ask?

Well here's what I've got... I was so naive about how much America affects the world

Blue Mountains

girls and I on the cliff...beautiful view!

and how other countries think of America. This are little things that I've noticed: the front sections of the paper have been about America, bookstores have Obamas books, the news focuses on America's financial crisis. Everywhere I go, there is somethiing to do with American politics or money. Aussies know much more about us than we do about them for sure! Most of them know Ohio surprisingly and I only knew Sydney before I started researching Australia. I guess I take our country for granted. It is something I want to work on though.

Alright, I'm getting a bit tired. It is currently 11:45 pm on Tuesday night. Tomorrow I'm heading to campus for more orientation. I am currently living off campus, about 20 min busride to school. The campus is absolutely beautiful though! Alright, let me know what's going on with all of you!!!

Cheers!!
Ang

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