Hello again all! Another great day here in Sydney, with lots of things going on! I'm a little tired right now, and it's starting to get a little late, but I'm going to do my best to finish all this up tonight, but I may have to split this into two parts. Today I got off to an early start, having to be up by 8 in order to be at orientation again at 9. Made myself a lovely breakfast of a cream cheese bagel with raspberries before sitting through several meetings on fire safety and the dorm, before having a fire drill. We then had the middle of the day to do whatever we wanted.
Me and two others decided to take off exploring (and run a few errands) and started by walking down towards the train station down the street which is absolutely gorgeous (featured on the right). We looked around a nearby park for a minute before heading back up the street towards Broadway, as we needed to sort a few things out at the phone store, and pick up some groceries for dinner food as well. Jaimee, as requested, I've managed to snag a picture of the magical stairless escalator, which I've put below. I was also intrigued to find that the Broadway mall seems to be just as in to the whole "Be You" hashtag thing as BU is (also pictured below) with signs hung up all over the mall with the slogan. Nice to know I can't escape it even halfway around the world. We were all incredibly surprised to find that movie tickets are an astounding $24 for 3D movies and $18 dollars for normal....yikes!
After that we had to return to the dorms in order to have a floor meeting, and get our mail box keys. If anyone needs my address for some reason, just let me know and I can send it to you! Then there was a meeting on traveling, including presentations by two tour companies offering discounted trips around Australia for those who wanted to travel. They had some trips that sounded amazing, including some going to the Blue Mountains, Cairns, and Port Stephens. It'll be hard to choose exactly what I want to do and how I want to book it, as there are so many options, and so many different things to do! My roommates and I are going to sit down and figure out the things we want to do most, and try to make it happen. There was also a presentation on a weekend surf trip, which sounded like an absolute blast, but I'm not sure I'll be going. With so little time already, I'm not sure I want to spend a weekend doing something other than exploring Sydney or traveling, but the instructors there seemed super fun, and incredibly nice, so I'll have to mull it all over. My favorite moment of the session was definitely when a girl went up to the instructor afterwards and said, "So I didn't bring a bathing suit because I was told it was winter so could I, like, do it naked?" And when the instructor looked at her like she was crazy, she said "What? There's a wet suit right?" and didn't seem convinced by his pleas to please buy a bathing suit. This was made even better by the fact that it was the same girl who minutes before had attempted to use an American Express card to pay for the trip (which isn't taken in Australia), and argued with them over whether or not she could actually use it here, to the dismay of the instructor. After a little bit of free pizza, we were finally able to set out actually exploring Sydney, something we'd all been dying to do.
We set off for a 40-45 minute walk down to the Sydney Harbour, as we all knew that's what we wanted to see most. We took our time as we walked down George Street, taking in all the sights. We were particularly amused by the "Seven Dollar Foot Long" at Subway (which are everywhere here, they're impossible to escape), and Hungry Jack's (whose design and logo look suspiciously like Burger King). After a bit of walking, we reached the first part of the Vivid Sydney Light Festival, a series of installments around the city that are transformed by lights and graphics at night. I've put a gallery in below with pictures form the event, as well as some on the Galley page as well. It was absolutely incredible to see all the installations, they were gorgeous and hypnotizing to watch. Some of the installations including a bar made out of lit cube blocks stacked together, a water fountain that spelled out words as the water fell, a giant tower made into a tree through graphics, complete with animals running through, a growing vine on one of the buildings, a face sculpture you could get your face projected onto, and a giant dome with lights that changed colors. It was nice to see so many people from around Sydney all gathered to look at all the installations, especially when we saw how busy the "American Food Stand" was (burgers, fries and fried chicken galore!)
After spotting the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the distance, we quickly set off that way, encountering more art installations on the way. We were absolutely blown away when we entered the harbour at exactly how gorgeous it was. The Opera House glimmered in the distance, lit up with beautiful and exciting graphics, as the bridge shown opposite it. A large building across the opera house was lit up as well, and a giant lightbulb animation walked across the city skyline. We spent a lot of time watching the ships go in and out, taking pictures, and watching the Opera House, complete with music to go along with it. It was an absolutely fantastic time and we can't wait to be able to return tomorrow, as BU is taking us on a Harbour Cruise, so we're hoping to be able to take closer pictures and see everything a little better.
By this point, we were absolutely exhausted, and the idea of another 45 minute walk wasn't feeling too great, so we stopped at the bus station, only to be completely bamboozled by the maps, with no idea what bus to take. Luckily, one of the girls asked one of the bus drivers, who, was not only the correct bus to be on, but also let us on for free! Woohoo! Australians are definitely more relaxed here than in the states, I can't imagine what the response of a Boston bus driver would be....unfortunately for us, we got off at the wrong stop (oops) and were mildly lost for a bit, before we stumbled into the friendly Sydney Police who were able to point us in the right direction. We were soon well on our way home, and made it back with no other problems, besides one majorly drunken man who yelled something non-discernible after us. It was an incredible day, I'm so happy I was finally able to go explore some of Sydney, and can't wait to be able to go out again tomorrow and this weekend.
I'm off to bed now, but feel free to look through the gallery!
I'm off to bed now, but feel free to look through the gallery!