Hello hello all!
Just a really brief update on what I got up to last week. Unfortunately it was mostly class, so this will be rather short. Did a lot of writing for my journalism class, but luckily Sue (our professor) gives us plenty of time to work in class so that we have the night relatively free (if only Sharon would do the same....) to go explore Sydney. We're all starting to freak out because we only have about two weeks left and we're not ready to say goodbye to Australia yet. I absolutely love it over here, and am currently trying not to think about having to leave soon, because it makes me really sad.
Tuesday night I went with a friend to see 22 Jump Street; I hadn't seen the first one, but it was pretty funny, I guess. Stupid, but entertaining. Also because it was a Tuesday, tickets were half price (which really only brought them down to what a normal price in the US would be), but it made us feel better about it.
Wednesday I got some more free vouchers for lunch at Central Mall which has been really nice, as I haven't needed to buy groceries or pay for meals lately with all the free food I've been getting. Woohooooooo! That night was the huge State of Origin game here, where Queensland plays New South Wales. Even though NSW already technically won the series, they still play the third game. We went to a RSL club (kind of like a country club but not), that was all decorated in blue and white (NSW colors) and had some guy singing parody songs about rugby and other Australian related things. A lot of it went straight over my head, but it was really funny to listen to. I actually really enjoyed watching rugby, and everyone was super into it which was awesome, but unfortunately NSW lost the game. It was okay, because they still got the trophy for winning the series which everyone was super psyched about, but a win would have been nice. Still, the energy level was super high because it was the first time they'd managed to win the series in 8 years, haha.
Thursday night was spent mostly working and packing, as Shea and I had plans to check out Manly in the morning, before the bus came to pick us up for Port Stephens that afternoon. The rest of the girls in our program all headed off to Melbourne, so we had the whole place to ourselves! Friday morning we got up early, and headed down to the Rocks to go see an exhibit at the Discovery Museum that was going on, that we'd both been wanting to see for a while. It's Australia's cultural week right now, so they have a whole bunch of things to try to raise awareness about the Aboriginal people. There's this movement which I think is really really awesome to rename The Rocks back to it's original Aboriginal name "Tall wo la dah", and just have The Rocks be secondary, and all the shops and stores have banded together to try and help, so all the staff no matter what store you went into had shirts with the Aboriginal name. Pretty cool.
We didn't have much time to look around because we had a ferry to catch to Manly, but we got to see the one bit we really wanted to see, which was a photography exhibit of urban Aboriginals which was really cool. It had a lot of amazing pictures of urban festivals, famous Aboriginal actors and sport stars, and some really cute pictures of the photographs daughter. We want to go back when we have more time to look around so we can see the rest of the museum, so hopefully we'll do that next Tuesday.
Just a really brief update on what I got up to last week. Unfortunately it was mostly class, so this will be rather short. Did a lot of writing for my journalism class, but luckily Sue (our professor) gives us plenty of time to work in class so that we have the night relatively free (if only Sharon would do the same....) to go explore Sydney. We're all starting to freak out because we only have about two weeks left and we're not ready to say goodbye to Australia yet. I absolutely love it over here, and am currently trying not to think about having to leave soon, because it makes me really sad.
Tuesday night I went with a friend to see 22 Jump Street; I hadn't seen the first one, but it was pretty funny, I guess. Stupid, but entertaining. Also because it was a Tuesday, tickets were half price (which really only brought them down to what a normal price in the US would be), but it made us feel better about it.
Wednesday I got some more free vouchers for lunch at Central Mall which has been really nice, as I haven't needed to buy groceries or pay for meals lately with all the free food I've been getting. Woohooooooo! That night was the huge State of Origin game here, where Queensland plays New South Wales. Even though NSW already technically won the series, they still play the third game. We went to a RSL club (kind of like a country club but not), that was all decorated in blue and white (NSW colors) and had some guy singing parody songs about rugby and other Australian related things. A lot of it went straight over my head, but it was really funny to listen to. I actually really enjoyed watching rugby, and everyone was super into it which was awesome, but unfortunately NSW lost the game. It was okay, because they still got the trophy for winning the series which everyone was super psyched about, but a win would have been nice. Still, the energy level was super high because it was the first time they'd managed to win the series in 8 years, haha.
Thursday night was spent mostly working and packing, as Shea and I had plans to check out Manly in the morning, before the bus came to pick us up for Port Stephens that afternoon. The rest of the girls in our program all headed off to Melbourne, so we had the whole place to ourselves! Friday morning we got up early, and headed down to the Rocks to go see an exhibit at the Discovery Museum that was going on, that we'd both been wanting to see for a while. It's Australia's cultural week right now, so they have a whole bunch of things to try to raise awareness about the Aboriginal people. There's this movement which I think is really really awesome to rename The Rocks back to it's original Aboriginal name "Tall wo la dah", and just have The Rocks be secondary, and all the shops and stores have banded together to try and help, so all the staff no matter what store you went into had shirts with the Aboriginal name. Pretty cool.
We didn't have much time to look around because we had a ferry to catch to Manly, but we got to see the one bit we really wanted to see, which was a photography exhibit of urban Aboriginals which was really cool. It had a lot of amazing pictures of urban festivals, famous Aboriginal actors and sport stars, and some really cute pictures of the photographs daughter. We want to go back when we have more time to look around so we can see the rest of the museum, so hopefully we'll do that next Tuesday.
From there we hopped on the ferry over to Manly, which is about 30 minutes on the opposite side of the harbour. I love taking the ferry because you get such an amazing view of the city and the Opera House. We even saw some dolphins swimming right next to the ferry as we went, so it was a pretty magical moment!
Once we arrived in Manly we headed down towards the beach, which we've heard was amazing. We certainly weren't disappointed by what we found! The water was incredibly blue and clear, the sand was soft and warm, and the sky was absolutely gorgeous: we'd pick the perfect day! We went and got some fish and chips, and sat on the beach while we ate them. I was incredibly peaceful, watching the surfers and just relaxing. We actually started to get kind of hot in our sweaters and boots, because the day ended up being so much nicer than what we'd anticipated it would be! There were tons of kids and families everywhere, playing and having a great time. This would definitely be a super cool place to grow up. After we'd soaked in the incredible views, we decided to get some frozen yogurt and then head to this seaside walk that takes you over to Shelly beach, maybe 15 minutes away.
The walk was really nice, there were a whole bunch of these saltwater pools right along the ocean, which were absolutely gorgeous. The sea was sparkling with the way the sun was hitting it, it was magical! We found this really cool sculpture (which you can see in the picture on the right) that looks awesome between the ocean and the saltwater pool. When we got to Shelly Beach it was beautiful, as the forest came right up to the edge of the beach which was really cool. It was really clear, and we could see right to the bottom, and even see some fish swimming around! We found a hiking path right next to it that went up to the cliffs on the other side, where you could only see ocean in the distance. After we'd walked around there for a bit, we headed back down to the main strip of Manly to see what else there was to look at. We walked around the neighborhoods a little bit, which were all incredibly cute and really nice looking; we hated to think how expensive it must be to live here. For Australians, homes are so expensive, most people have to rent their entire life, because it's just way too much money to ever consider buying something for yourself. It's crazy.
We then followed the signs over to Little Manly, which was only about 5 minutes from the main strip. It was a really tiny boardwalk with a wedding pavilion and some more cliff walks. The view of Manly and the harbour was amazing, and we stopped to take some pictures. Even cooler, there were signs on the sidewalk everywhere to "Watch Out Penguins About" which made us really excited! Manly is home to Little Penguins, who roam around all the time. Unfortunately, they're nocturnal, so we didn't get to see any. We'll have to come back at night if we want to be able to do that. After we'd walked all around Manly, we decided to take the ferry back a little earlier than we'd originally planned to make sure we would have time to grab dinner before the bus came to pick us up and take us to Port Stephens. We arrived back with plenty of time, got some really good Indian food, and then got on the bus to Port Stephens! For everything on Port Stephens, I'll put a post up after class, I just don't have time right now to add the pictures in! I have a slideshow up with more pictures of Manly for those who are interested, it's really pretty so take a look!