ABST: Indigenous People and the Environment: 85; High Distinction, American Equivalent: A
MACS: Australian Content: Media, Narrative, and Celebrity: 76, Distinction, American Equivalent: A
HIST: Australians and the Great War: 76; Distinction, American Equivalent: A
First session of all A's! I get a total of 16 credits for this session, so with all A's this should help out my GPA a lot. I would say, I got pretty damn good marks considering all the fun I had!
06 July 2009
01 July 2009
That's all, folks
Ok, so I’m sitting in the airport waiting to board my plane – I have an hour as I’m writing this. In reality it will go up when I get home as a final post. I want to just take some time to reflect on my experience in Australia. (As you can tell, I wrote this while I was still in Oz - I've made it home safely now)
For starters, this is the longest amount of time that I have been away from home, ever. And while it’s true that it’s easy to talk to people via google chat and skype (at times, if my internet were a little better) and then even on the phone occasionally, there is nothing quite like seeing people face to face when you talk to them. I’m really excited for that and to be able to hug my family and just be in the same place as them. I can’t wait to see my dogs and cats and walk around my house. And of course, my friends, some of whom I’ve learned are really amazing – those friends who did all sorts of things to stay in touch with me. I can’t thank them enough, because even though I lived in paradise, I would still become sad from time to time and there are about 5 friends from home who were always there to help me.
I’m excited to eat all those foods that I’ve missed so much – mostly Mexican and good home cooking. I’m happy that I will be able to sit down in my kitchen and make whatever food I want. While here, I’ve expanded my food choices, at least by a little bit. First of all, I will miss sweet chilli sauce like no one could believe. I’ve brought a bottle of it back, but who knows how long that will last for. I ate veal here and realized I have no problem with it. And guess what?! I like fish now too! I had it for dinner the other night, even though some of the other options looked good. Of course, there is the fact that I now eat milk in my cereal, something I hadn’t done since…well, since as far back as I can remember.
I’m really going to miss all my friends that I made here, all the Americans and the Australians. I know I can’t go back to what we all shared this semester and that when I see them all again, it will be different. But at the same time, I don’t care. These are some super awesome people that I’m sad I couldn’t spend more time with. My little group consisted of Caitlin, Steph, Gavin, Scott, and Steve and I know that without them all my semester would not have been anywhere near as amazing as it was.
I don’t know for sure if I’ve learned a lot about myself so much. I think that perhaps it has been more gradual, so I can’t say one way or the other definitively. But I know more about myself and how I’m most likely to act in a situation, whether for good or for bad. I remember being so anxious about going to a foreign country not knowing anyone else that was going to be here with me, but now I’m pretty confident in my ability to make friends in a new place. I’m really not too worried anymore. That actually applies to my life in general – the ‘no worries’ attitude has its benefits. You think about how much whatever has just happened will really affect you and you realize that maybe you should just let it go. I don’t feel very different, but I know I was completely affected by everything that happened here down under and I’m better off because of all of it.
I don’t know for sure if I can point to one experience that I enjoyed the most. I loved it everywhere I travelled to – Cairns, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and of course New Zealand (which is now my desktop background). But I also loved going to the beach and just relaxing with friends. I loved living at I-House and being surrounded by heaps of nationalities and learning about all of them. Most Thursday nights we would have movie nights and I enjoyed them too. Down to the very most basic things, I loved because it was a new experience and it was always with great people.
I will love Australia with all my heart for the rest of my life. I loved every second of every minute that I was here and I can’t say that I regret a single thing (except perhaps not bungee jumping…I’ll just have to do it another time). All I know is that I’m extraordinarily lucky to have had this opportunity to have such a great experience and meet such great people.
For starters, this is the longest amount of time that I have been away from home, ever. And while it’s true that it’s easy to talk to people via google chat and skype (at times, if my internet were a little better) and then even on the phone occasionally, there is nothing quite like seeing people face to face when you talk to them. I’m really excited for that and to be able to hug my family and just be in the same place as them. I can’t wait to see my dogs and cats and walk around my house. And of course, my friends, some of whom I’ve learned are really amazing – those friends who did all sorts of things to stay in touch with me. I can’t thank them enough, because even though I lived in paradise, I would still become sad from time to time and there are about 5 friends from home who were always there to help me.
I’m excited to eat all those foods that I’ve missed so much – mostly Mexican and good home cooking. I’m happy that I will be able to sit down in my kitchen and make whatever food I want. While here, I’ve expanded my food choices, at least by a little bit. First of all, I will miss sweet chilli sauce like no one could believe. I’ve brought a bottle of it back, but who knows how long that will last for. I ate veal here and realized I have no problem with it. And guess what?! I like fish now too! I had it for dinner the other night, even though some of the other options looked good. Of course, there is the fact that I now eat milk in my cereal, something I hadn’t done since…well, since as far back as I can remember.
I’m really going to miss all my friends that I made here, all the Americans and the Australians. I know I can’t go back to what we all shared this semester and that when I see them all again, it will be different. But at the same time, I don’t care. These are some super awesome people that I’m sad I couldn’t spend more time with. My little group consisted of Caitlin, Steph, Gavin, Scott, and Steve and I know that without them all my semester would not have been anywhere near as amazing as it was.
I don’t know for sure if I’ve learned a lot about myself so much. I think that perhaps it has been more gradual, so I can’t say one way or the other definitively. But I know more about myself and how I’m most likely to act in a situation, whether for good or for bad. I remember being so anxious about going to a foreign country not knowing anyone else that was going to be here with me, but now I’m pretty confident in my ability to make friends in a new place. I’m really not too worried anymore. That actually applies to my life in general – the ‘no worries’ attitude has its benefits. You think about how much whatever has just happened will really affect you and you realize that maybe you should just let it go. I don’t feel very different, but I know I was completely affected by everything that happened here down under and I’m better off because of all of it.
I don’t know for sure if I can point to one experience that I enjoyed the most. I loved it everywhere I travelled to – Cairns, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and of course New Zealand (which is now my desktop background). But I also loved going to the beach and just relaxing with friends. I loved living at I-House and being surrounded by heaps of nationalities and learning about all of them. Most Thursday nights we would have movie nights and I enjoyed them too. Down to the very most basic things, I loved because it was a new experience and it was always with great people.
I will love Australia with all my heart for the rest of my life. I loved every second of every minute that I was here and I can’t say that I regret a single thing (except perhaps not bungee jumping…I’ll just have to do it another time). All I know is that I’m extraordinarily lucky to have had this opportunity to have such a great experience and meet such great people.
28 June 2009
Last Full Week in Oz
Well, the last week was basically filled with a lot of time spent with friends. There are now only a few things left that I want to do while I'm here and I've already been scheming on how I'll be able to do them.
So, what did I do all this past week? Let's start with Sunday.
Well, hashbrowns for breakfast at I-House! Always a big deal - they go perfectly with sweet chili sauce. While at breakfast, me and some friends (Steph, Naomi, and Fiore) decided to head to Kiama again. If you don't remember, that's the town that I consider to be absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, it was a bit stormier so not only did we get to see the blowhole blowing (we all learned how to tell if it was going to be a big 'geyser' - basically it's by the sound and how 'full' the hole looks) but we saw some pretty awesome waves crashing against rocks. I took a lot of pictures. We wandered around the town for a bit (we looked at a market that was closing up and we attempted to climb this huge tree) and then our Australian friend Fiore told us that in order to really experience Australia, we would have to order hot chips (fries) and eat them while looking out over the ocean. And that is exactly what we did. It was so quaint and encapsulated so much of what I'm going to miss about Australia. As it was getting dark, we drove up a mountain that overlooked Kiama and some of the surrounding towns. Because the storm was coming in, there was a lot of lightning out on the ocean so Fiore took pictures of it for us. Then Naomi and I slow danced to our version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." It was a fantastic night.
Monday was the day of everyone's last exam (except mine was a week earlier) so we went to the UniBar to have a celebratory drink, then came back to I-House and decided to have a water fight. Caitlin and I filled up about 75 water balloons and decided to ambush our friends Steve and Scott as they were walking back from their exams. Well, it didn't go exactly as planned and ended up more like this: Steph, Andrew, Caitlin and Lisa are crouching by some bushes behind I-House while Gavin tricks Steve and Scott into coming out back. From there, things got wet. I realized from all this, I have terrible aim. Just awful. After everyone was a bit drier, we had a mini party in our room to celebrate being done completely with school in Australia. It was a great night filled with friends, good conversation, and perhaps a little bit of beer.
Tuesday was a gorgeous day, no clouds in the sky and it was warm as well so of course we made a beach trip. I played some rugby on the beach, played in the water, and sat on a couch made of sand. When we got back, Caitlin and I decided we should get some thai food - it is apparently better in Australia because they have more thai people. I got a Fresh Chili stir fry with beef and it was super delicious! Later that night we watched a movie called "The Castle." It is considered a classic Australian movie and we all found it quite hilarious. I have a copy on my computer so I'll try to share it around.
Wednesday we went to do some last minute souvenir shopping as well as attempt to find a place to get our ears pierced. The ear piercing didn't happen because it would have cost $80 and none of us have that kind of money! We did eat kebabs though, which is another dish we had to try while being in Australia. Also delicious, but I liked the thai better. Later that night was our last Wednesday night out in the Gong and we made the most of it.
Thursday was kind of a lazier day - we had to recover from the night before! Regardless, we went and took some pictures of uni and then later that night Steve took Gavin, Steph, Scott, Caitlin and me out to dinner (in reality it was his parents' treat). We went to a delicious Italian restaurant and enjoyed some of our last moments together.
Friday Caitlin and I finally made baked mac and cheese for everyone! Our craving for it started a long long time ago but it took us a while to get around to buying the ingredients. After searching for pots and pans and what not else, we started. We were especially worried about tempering the egg but we managed okay and didn't mess anything up. The mac and cheese turned out absolutely delicious (not as good as Dad makes it, but still) and everyone loved it. Later that night, we went out again because we had free drink vouchers and wanted to put them to good use. It was a fantastic night out - our last night out all together. After we left the bar, we wandered past the lighthouse, harbour, a cliff wall (we sat on it and looked out at the ocean for a bit), and then onto the beach. I think we made it back home at 4 am, but it was totally worth every second.
Today was a bit more depressing than the entire week was. We all knew this day was going to come, but as much as you try to prepare yourself for your friends leaving, it always hurts. Especially because we have all grown so close in our time here; we shared one of the best experiences ever and there's no getting around how much you come to depend on the people here. Friends from home weren't really accessible so you no longer have them as a back up for anything. It's difficult to explain. Caitlin left this morning a little after 10:30 and Gavin left a few hours after that. With Caitlin, I know I'll see her again - she goes to UConn and her family is making a Rehobeth Beach trip at some point this summer. Gavin though, he's Australian and that makes things tricky. In order to keep my mind occupied, I spent the day packing - here's to hoping that all my bags are underweight!
So, what did I do all this past week? Let's start with Sunday.
Well, hashbrowns for breakfast at I-House! Always a big deal - they go perfectly with sweet chili sauce. While at breakfast, me and some friends (Steph, Naomi, and Fiore) decided to head to Kiama again. If you don't remember, that's the town that I consider to be absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, it was a bit stormier so not only did we get to see the blowhole blowing (we all learned how to tell if it was going to be a big 'geyser' - basically it's by the sound and how 'full' the hole looks) but we saw some pretty awesome waves crashing against rocks. I took a lot of pictures. We wandered around the town for a bit (we looked at a market that was closing up and we attempted to climb this huge tree) and then our Australian friend Fiore told us that in order to really experience Australia, we would have to order hot chips (fries) and eat them while looking out over the ocean. And that is exactly what we did. It was so quaint and encapsulated so much of what I'm going to miss about Australia. As it was getting dark, we drove up a mountain that overlooked Kiama and some of the surrounding towns. Because the storm was coming in, there was a lot of lightning out on the ocean so Fiore took pictures of it for us. Then Naomi and I slow danced to our version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." It was a fantastic night.
Monday was the day of everyone's last exam (except mine was a week earlier) so we went to the UniBar to have a celebratory drink, then came back to I-House and decided to have a water fight. Caitlin and I filled up about 75 water balloons and decided to ambush our friends Steve and Scott as they were walking back from their exams. Well, it didn't go exactly as planned and ended up more like this: Steph, Andrew, Caitlin and Lisa are crouching by some bushes behind I-House while Gavin tricks Steve and Scott into coming out back. From there, things got wet. I realized from all this, I have terrible aim. Just awful. After everyone was a bit drier, we had a mini party in our room to celebrate being done completely with school in Australia. It was a great night filled with friends, good conversation, and perhaps a little bit of beer.
Tuesday was a gorgeous day, no clouds in the sky and it was warm as well so of course we made a beach trip. I played some rugby on the beach, played in the water, and sat on a couch made of sand. When we got back, Caitlin and I decided we should get some thai food - it is apparently better in Australia because they have more thai people. I got a Fresh Chili stir fry with beef and it was super delicious! Later that night we watched a movie called "The Castle." It is considered a classic Australian movie and we all found it quite hilarious. I have a copy on my computer so I'll try to share it around.
Wednesday we went to do some last minute souvenir shopping as well as attempt to find a place to get our ears pierced. The ear piercing didn't happen because it would have cost $80 and none of us have that kind of money! We did eat kebabs though, which is another dish we had to try while being in Australia. Also delicious, but I liked the thai better. Later that night was our last Wednesday night out in the Gong and we made the most of it.
Thursday was kind of a lazier day - we had to recover from the night before! Regardless, we went and took some pictures of uni and then later that night Steve took Gavin, Steph, Scott, Caitlin and me out to dinner (in reality it was his parents' treat). We went to a delicious Italian restaurant and enjoyed some of our last moments together.
Friday Caitlin and I finally made baked mac and cheese for everyone! Our craving for it started a long long time ago but it took us a while to get around to buying the ingredients. After searching for pots and pans and what not else, we started. We were especially worried about tempering the egg but we managed okay and didn't mess anything up. The mac and cheese turned out absolutely delicious (not as good as Dad makes it, but still) and everyone loved it. Later that night, we went out again because we had free drink vouchers and wanted to put them to good use. It was a fantastic night out - our last night out all together. After we left the bar, we wandered past the lighthouse, harbour, a cliff wall (we sat on it and looked out at the ocean for a bit), and then onto the beach. I think we made it back home at 4 am, but it was totally worth every second.
Today was a bit more depressing than the entire week was. We all knew this day was going to come, but as much as you try to prepare yourself for your friends leaving, it always hurts. Especially because we have all grown so close in our time here; we shared one of the best experiences ever and there's no getting around how much you come to depend on the people here. Friends from home weren't really accessible so you no longer have them as a back up for anything. It's difficult to explain. Caitlin left this morning a little after 10:30 and Gavin left a few hours after that. With Caitlin, I know I'll see her again - she goes to UConn and her family is making a Rehobeth Beach trip at some point this summer. Gavin though, he's Australian and that makes things tricky. In order to keep my mind occupied, I spent the day packing - here's to hoping that all my bags are underweight!
15 June 2009
DONE!!
Well, this is just such an awesome feeling that I can't contain it!
Today, I took my final (it was pretty easy, I was never searching for an answer), got back my history paper (I got an A) and turned in my last assignment (um...that one might not go so well, but I don't really care!).
I am officially done with school in Australia which means I am now a senior in college! By this time next year, I will (hopefully) have a diploma!!
I celebrated this joyous moment by going out and having a victory beer with some friends at the local pub. Good times, all around.
But now the question remains: What to do with all my free time?
Today, I took my final (it was pretty easy, I was never searching for an answer), got back my history paper (I got an A) and turned in my last assignment (um...that one might not go so well, but I don't really care!).
I am officially done with school in Australia which means I am now a senior in college! By this time next year, I will (hopefully) have a diploma!!
I celebrated this joyous moment by going out and having a victory beer with some friends at the local pub. Good times, all around.
But now the question remains: What to do with all my free time?
13 June 2009
Legitimate Sydney Trip
So I've actually been to Sydney to do a few things before: I went for Mardi Gras, to the Aquarium, and on a Harbor Cruise. But I had yet to really do the touristy things, so that was my goal for today.
I woke up at 745, got breakfast, and headed to the train, just in time to miss the train by about 90 seconds. It was fine though, there was another one coming in an hour, so I went back to my dorm and made a breakfast sandwich, attempted to make my internet work (hence why I missed the train - I guessed at what time it was gonna be there), did some studying and then caught the 9:22 train. I arrived in Sydney at 11ish, after spending most of my time on the train sleeping.
Now, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go and for the most part I was getting to these areas based off what I had remembered from previous trips. My first stop was Paddy's Markets where I got the rest of my gift shopping done for everyone (yay presents!). After spending an hour or so walking around in there, I walked over to the Powerhouse Museum, which had lots of interactive exhibits. One, I 'made' fireworks which ended up exploding on the ground (it was a film), another one I turned a handle to 'produce' electricity to light up a house...I only made it to the third floor, after that I couldn't turn the handle consistently enough to light up the top floor. I also 'made' video of myself from a cut out picture, took a test to determine what area my intelligence is in (intrapersonal) and walked in a space station simulation (I got dizzy and kept trying to align myself with the walls that kept moving - I was walking around slanted!). I spent a good two hours in the museum and didn't see all that the museum had to offer - really I was just on the bottom floor.
I left the museum, ate my packed lunch (I fed some to the birds), and walked to one of the only other areas of Sydney that I know 'well': Darling Harbour. There is an information center there and I figured they might be able to help me out with finding where and how to get to a couple of other destinations. The guy at the information desk was really helpful and figured everything out for me and while I was in there I saw a pamphlet for the Australian Museum, noticed it was right along the way of where I would be going and decided to go there too.
I walked to Hyde Park, which has Sydney's ANZAC War Memorial. It is under construction so I wasn't able to go inside, but I still got some cool pictures of it. I haven't mentioned, but it was an absolutely beautiful day in Sydney today - I'm not sure of the temperature, but it felt like low-60s and it was mostly sunny. It made walking all over the city very pleasant!
I really enjoyed the Australian Museum, although my Frommer's Travel book says that it's nothing too spectacular. The exhibitions I visited are: Skeletons, Planet of Minerals, Dinosaurs, Birds and Insects, and Surviving Australia. The skeletons exhibition was really cool because they had a stationary bike that you could ride and then they had a skeleton on a stationary bike behind glass that moved as you moved. I especially liked seeing how the kneecap moved...can you guess why? ;) The dinosaurs exhibit was cool too - I'm pretty sure I haven't really ever seen one recently so it was definitely enjoyable - I learned, among other things, that carnivorous dinosaurs only made up about 1% of all the dinosaur population. Surviving Australia had two parts to it - one was about all the animals that were going extinct or had gone extinct and another was about the dangerous animals that live in Australia. Did you know that about 120,000 Australians die each year, but the amount that die from snakes, spiders, sharks, etc, can usually be counted on one hand? Why does everyone make Australia out to be such a dangerous place then, I wonder? I figure it's just because they have the most dangerous species.
I left the museum and headed back through Hyde Park, this time on a different side, and saw a garden dedicated to King George V and King George VI. It was very quaint. Then, I caught a ride on a bus to Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Australia (I think that's its claim to fame). If I had had more time, I would have liked to have walked along this coastal path that they have that takes you from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach and apparently is just gorgeous, but I was running out of sunlight and didn't want to walk the path in the dark and not be able to take pictures. I got some pretty pictures of the beach, the surfers, and the sky and then headed back to the city. What I realized though was that Sydney is HUGE! I mean like, I understand most cities are, but every part that the bus drove through was developed and there were lots of people around. I like it though; although Wollongong is the ninth largest city in Australia, it doesn't really have a lot going on.
After I got back to the city center area, I walked to buy dinner at a place called Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Dad actually suggested I go check it out. If you look at the menu on that site, the pie that I got was the Tiger. Potentially because I love tigers so much, but also because the toppings seemed pretty good. So, it's a beef meat pie with a scoop of mashed potatoes, peas, and gravy and they stick a fork in it. I ate it by dipping the fork way down so that I would get a bite of gravy, peas, potatoes, and beef. It was delicious, especially for someone who had been walking around all day and because it had gotten a bit chilly as the sun went down. It wasn't anything too spectacular, but the place is open until 4 am so I think it's probably really good as a drunk food.
From there, I did some creative walking around to make it to the Sydney Opera House, which because of this Vivid event that Sydney was doing had artwork displayed on it. I stayed for two rounds and then decided that I was cold and that I would like to get back to Wollongong at a decent hour. Regardless, it was still beautiful and the Harbour lit up at night is really pretty too (I was a little incapacitated for my Harbour Cruise and didn't have the chance to appreciate how pretty it was then...).
I guess I should say, in case you haven't figured it out, that I did this trip all by myself. It was really nice actually, to be free from worrying about what other people want to do or if they're questioning what you are doing. For example, today, some of the routes I took to get places I just guessed on based off my map. Sometimes I was like, well, this seems right, so I'll just keep walking to see if I get anywhere that is correct. It all worked out for me, but I know that others might not have been as comfortable just going with the flow. It was also cool that I was able to just decide what I wanted to do as it came up - the Australian Museum wasn't even on my list of things to do and I ended up cutting out an Art Museum so I could see Bondi. I really enjoyed the freedom and it gave me time to just relax as I walked along. I've also decided that I like Sydney and I definitely could spend more time there wandering around. In fact, as I was attempting to find places, I would find museums/buildings that had I had more time, I definitely would have checked out, like the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the State Building, and the Botanical Gardens. I basically just walked by these places and thought to myself, damn, I should have allotted time for that.
I got back to Wollongong at 930, making it about a 13 hour day overall. Totally worth it, although I wish I had more time...maybe I'll just have to go back! Anyway, I have a little bit more studying to do for my final and two more components to my reflective essay and then I'm done! My essay is due online Monday at 10 pm, so Monday 8 am your time I will be officially done with school! Sweeeet...now for the weather to just warm up and stop raining so I can spend the rest of my days at the beach!
I woke up at 745, got breakfast, and headed to the train, just in time to miss the train by about 90 seconds. It was fine though, there was another one coming in an hour, so I went back to my dorm and made a breakfast sandwich, attempted to make my internet work (hence why I missed the train - I guessed at what time it was gonna be there), did some studying and then caught the 9:22 train. I arrived in Sydney at 11ish, after spending most of my time on the train sleeping.
Now, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go and for the most part I was getting to these areas based off what I had remembered from previous trips. My first stop was Paddy's Markets where I got the rest of my gift shopping done for everyone (yay presents!). After spending an hour or so walking around in there, I walked over to the Powerhouse Museum, which had lots of interactive exhibits. One, I 'made' fireworks which ended up exploding on the ground (it was a film), another one I turned a handle to 'produce' electricity to light up a house...I only made it to the third floor, after that I couldn't turn the handle consistently enough to light up the top floor. I also 'made' video of myself from a cut out picture, took a test to determine what area my intelligence is in (intrapersonal) and walked in a space station simulation (I got dizzy and kept trying to align myself with the walls that kept moving - I was walking around slanted!). I spent a good two hours in the museum and didn't see all that the museum had to offer - really I was just on the bottom floor.
I left the museum, ate my packed lunch (I fed some to the birds), and walked to one of the only other areas of Sydney that I know 'well': Darling Harbour. There is an information center there and I figured they might be able to help me out with finding where and how to get to a couple of other destinations. The guy at the information desk was really helpful and figured everything out for me and while I was in there I saw a pamphlet for the Australian Museum, noticed it was right along the way of where I would be going and decided to go there too.
I walked to Hyde Park, which has Sydney's ANZAC War Memorial. It is under construction so I wasn't able to go inside, but I still got some cool pictures of it. I haven't mentioned, but it was an absolutely beautiful day in Sydney today - I'm not sure of the temperature, but it felt like low-60s and it was mostly sunny. It made walking all over the city very pleasant!
I really enjoyed the Australian Museum, although my Frommer's Travel book says that it's nothing too spectacular. The exhibitions I visited are: Skeletons, Planet of Minerals, Dinosaurs, Birds and Insects, and Surviving Australia. The skeletons exhibition was really cool because they had a stationary bike that you could ride and then they had a skeleton on a stationary bike behind glass that moved as you moved. I especially liked seeing how the kneecap moved...can you guess why? ;) The dinosaurs exhibit was cool too - I'm pretty sure I haven't really ever seen one recently so it was definitely enjoyable - I learned, among other things, that carnivorous dinosaurs only made up about 1% of all the dinosaur population. Surviving Australia had two parts to it - one was about all the animals that were going extinct or had gone extinct and another was about the dangerous animals that live in Australia. Did you know that about 120,000 Australians die each year, but the amount that die from snakes, spiders, sharks, etc, can usually be counted on one hand? Why does everyone make Australia out to be such a dangerous place then, I wonder? I figure it's just because they have the most dangerous species.
I left the museum and headed back through Hyde Park, this time on a different side, and saw a garden dedicated to King George V and King George VI. It was very quaint. Then, I caught a ride on a bus to Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Australia (I think that's its claim to fame). If I had had more time, I would have liked to have walked along this coastal path that they have that takes you from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach and apparently is just gorgeous, but I was running out of sunlight and didn't want to walk the path in the dark and not be able to take pictures. I got some pretty pictures of the beach, the surfers, and the sky and then headed back to the city. What I realized though was that Sydney is HUGE! I mean like, I understand most cities are, but every part that the bus drove through was developed and there were lots of people around. I like it though; although Wollongong is the ninth largest city in Australia, it doesn't really have a lot going on.
After I got back to the city center area, I walked to buy dinner at a place called Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Dad actually suggested I go check it out. If you look at the menu on that site, the pie that I got was the Tiger. Potentially because I love tigers so much, but also because the toppings seemed pretty good. So, it's a beef meat pie with a scoop of mashed potatoes, peas, and gravy and they stick a fork in it. I ate it by dipping the fork way down so that I would get a bite of gravy, peas, potatoes, and beef. It was delicious, especially for someone who had been walking around all day and because it had gotten a bit chilly as the sun went down. It wasn't anything too spectacular, but the place is open until 4 am so I think it's probably really good as a drunk food.
From there, I did some creative walking around to make it to the Sydney Opera House, which because of this Vivid event that Sydney was doing had artwork displayed on it. I stayed for two rounds and then decided that I was cold and that I would like to get back to Wollongong at a decent hour. Regardless, it was still beautiful and the Harbour lit up at night is really pretty too (I was a little incapacitated for my Harbour Cruise and didn't have the chance to appreciate how pretty it was then...).
I guess I should say, in case you haven't figured it out, that I did this trip all by myself. It was really nice actually, to be free from worrying about what other people want to do or if they're questioning what you are doing. For example, today, some of the routes I took to get places I just guessed on based off my map. Sometimes I was like, well, this seems right, so I'll just keep walking to see if I get anywhere that is correct. It all worked out for me, but I know that others might not have been as comfortable just going with the flow. It was also cool that I was able to just decide what I wanted to do as it came up - the Australian Museum wasn't even on my list of things to do and I ended up cutting out an Art Museum so I could see Bondi. I really enjoyed the freedom and it gave me time to just relax as I walked along. I've also decided that I like Sydney and I definitely could spend more time there wandering around. In fact, as I was attempting to find places, I would find museums/buildings that had I had more time, I definitely would have checked out, like the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the State Building, and the Botanical Gardens. I basically just walked by these places and thought to myself, damn, I should have allotted time for that.
I got back to Wollongong at 930, making it about a 13 hour day overall. Totally worth it, although I wish I had more time...maybe I'll just have to go back! Anyway, I have a little bit more studying to do for my final and two more components to my reflective essay and then I'm done! My essay is due online Monday at 10 pm, so Monday 8 am your time I will be officially done with school! Sweeeet...now for the weather to just warm up and stop raining so I can spend the rest of my days at the beach!
11 June 2009
Home Stretch..
I really don't have much to report right now but I figured it's been 10 days since I last posted and I should at least put an update in.
I turned in my last paper on Tuesday; now I only have two bits of schoolwork left. I have to write a 1000 word reflective essay and take my history final. I've started working on the reflective essay, but I don't expect either it or the final to be anything too complicated. My final is a whopping 3 questions, one of which I already know (Assess the film Gallipoli as an interpretation of Australia during World War One). Basically, school is almost over for real this time!! Most likely, by the next time I write, I will be completely done.
So what am I doing with my time? Sleeping, mostly. I've been doing some reading and some movie watching too. Caitlin and Steph are in New Zealand right now so I can't bother them - not that I would be able to, they both have legitimate finals that they're going to have to study for.
Tomorrow and Sunday I'm going to attempt to go to the beach - the Pacific is lovely no matter what time of year, I've decided. We went to the beach last Saturday and played in the water. The tide was really low so we walked out really really far and it was still only up to our knees. Because it was warmer in the water than standing in the air, we laid down in the water and would push ourselves up when the waves came. It was a lot of fun. Also, because it had been raining and storming for about a week and a half prior to us showing up, there were some awesome shells. My quest to find a shark tooth is probably never going to be realized, but I have found quite a lot of awesome shells.
Now that the semester is winding down, there is a lot of talk about going home. The earliest that I know of someone going home is my friend Alyssa - she's leaving 16 June because she has to start summer school. There are a ton of people going home in mid-July. I love Australia and I definitely want to come back, but I miss home a lot. I've pretty much planned out everything about my return trip home (I have my outfit picked out, a ride to the airport, and I've imagined what it's going to be like to see my little sister (and rest of my family :D) and Bella after so long away). I'm sure that once I get closer to the point of actually leaving, I'll be a little more reluctant, but I'm ready to see everyone once again. I've made some good friends here, but I think that I've always realized that this was a temporary thing, so I haven't invested myself too hardcore in anything.
One of my Australian friends asked me if I was ever going to come back to Australia, and my answer was "OF COURSE!" I love the attitude everyone has here - when you're here, your motto automatically just becomes 'no worries'. It's a great way to live and I'm way more relaxed here than I probably have ever been at home (except for maybe when I was like, 5 or something), but I realize that I'm going to have to return to the real world and be all mature. It's likely to be a bit of a shock, but I'm sure I'll adjust. I'm sure that I'll end up reflecting more closer to the time of when I leave, but right now I haven't got much of anything else to do.
On another note, right now it's Study Break so we've had this entire week off. Everyone I know is hardcore studying for maths and other engineering exams, and I just sleep til 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Here I'm classified as being in the "arts" school (not creative arts), which has a reputation for not being a legitimate major. I don't suppose the fact that I don't have to work very hard helps that stereotype. I tell everyone that back home, my major is totally legitimate and I would usually be working just as hard as all of them come finals, but here my classes aren't as intense. Oh well, I love my major regardless of what anyone says.
I want to try to do a few more things with my time here in Australia - I have yet to do all the touristy things in Sydney, so I'll make an effort to do those (I'm thinking in between my beach days) soon. I also want to attempt to hike Mt. Kiera, one of the mountains right behind uni. There are also lighthouses here that I want to go look at and a few parks too. Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain all next week, which is not very conducive to me doing anything outside.
We'll see how things turn out.
Oh, I forgot! I did something really productive with about half an hour or so of my time yesterday. A long time ago, I was out at the beach one night with some friends playing in the water and I found a shell that had a part of it that I'm assuming was...eroded...by the ocean, which made it perfect for a pendant! So I made a pretty necklace of it. Maybe I'll add that to my outfit for returning home...
I turned in my last paper on Tuesday; now I only have two bits of schoolwork left. I have to write a 1000 word reflective essay and take my history final. I've started working on the reflective essay, but I don't expect either it or the final to be anything too complicated. My final is a whopping 3 questions, one of which I already know (Assess the film Gallipoli as an interpretation of Australia during World War One). Basically, school is almost over for real this time!! Most likely, by the next time I write, I will be completely done.
So what am I doing with my time? Sleeping, mostly. I've been doing some reading and some movie watching too. Caitlin and Steph are in New Zealand right now so I can't bother them - not that I would be able to, they both have legitimate finals that they're going to have to study for.
Tomorrow and Sunday I'm going to attempt to go to the beach - the Pacific is lovely no matter what time of year, I've decided. We went to the beach last Saturday and played in the water. The tide was really low so we walked out really really far and it was still only up to our knees. Because it was warmer in the water than standing in the air, we laid down in the water and would push ourselves up when the waves came. It was a lot of fun. Also, because it had been raining and storming for about a week and a half prior to us showing up, there were some awesome shells. My quest to find a shark tooth is probably never going to be realized, but I have found quite a lot of awesome shells.
Now that the semester is winding down, there is a lot of talk about going home. The earliest that I know of someone going home is my friend Alyssa - she's leaving 16 June because she has to start summer school. There are a ton of people going home in mid-July. I love Australia and I definitely want to come back, but I miss home a lot. I've pretty much planned out everything about my return trip home (I have my outfit picked out, a ride to the airport, and I've imagined what it's going to be like to see my little sister (and rest of my family :D) and Bella after so long away). I'm sure that once I get closer to the point of actually leaving, I'll be a little more reluctant, but I'm ready to see everyone once again. I've made some good friends here, but I think that I've always realized that this was a temporary thing, so I haven't invested myself too hardcore in anything.
One of my Australian friends asked me if I was ever going to come back to Australia, and my answer was "OF COURSE!" I love the attitude everyone has here - when you're here, your motto automatically just becomes 'no worries'. It's a great way to live and I'm way more relaxed here than I probably have ever been at home (except for maybe when I was like, 5 or something), but I realize that I'm going to have to return to the real world and be all mature. It's likely to be a bit of a shock, but I'm sure I'll adjust. I'm sure that I'll end up reflecting more closer to the time of when I leave, but right now I haven't got much of anything else to do.
On another note, right now it's Study Break so we've had this entire week off. Everyone I know is hardcore studying for maths and other engineering exams, and I just sleep til 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Here I'm classified as being in the "arts" school (not creative arts), which has a reputation for not being a legitimate major. I don't suppose the fact that I don't have to work very hard helps that stereotype. I tell everyone that back home, my major is totally legitimate and I would usually be working just as hard as all of them come finals, but here my classes aren't as intense. Oh well, I love my major regardless of what anyone says.
I want to try to do a few more things with my time here in Australia - I have yet to do all the touristy things in Sydney, so I'll make an effort to do those (I'm thinking in between my beach days) soon. I also want to attempt to hike Mt. Kiera, one of the mountains right behind uni. There are also lighthouses here that I want to go look at and a few parks too. Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain all next week, which is not very conducive to me doing anything outside.
We'll see how things turn out.
Oh, I forgot! I did something really productive with about half an hour or so of my time yesterday. A long time ago, I was out at the beach one night with some friends playing in the water and I found a shell that had a part of it that I'm assuming was...eroded...by the ocean, which made it perfect for a pendant! So I made a pretty necklace of it. Maybe I'll add that to my outfit for returning home...
01 June 2009
Nation's Capital!
No, sillies, not Washington D.C, but Canberra!! This past weekend, Caitlin, Steph and I visited Australia's Capital Territory to check out what was all about. Canberra did remind me a lot of DC though, so I was a little more homesick than usual.
We left Friday morning on a bus that was similar to a Greyhound bus. Our other options for getting to Canberra would have been to fly or take a train, but for either of those, we would have had to get to Sydney first. The bus picked us up in Wollongong city, just one train stop down. It was a three hour bus ride, so we napped for the most part. The times when I was awake though, I was able to check out more of Australia's land and sky scape. I decided that I could totally see dinosaurs roaming around in Australia, even right now. It was a strange thought. Because it was a cloudy day, I saw a really pretty sun-cloud thing - the sun would go behind a cloud, and I guess because the cloud was thinner/filled with water, it created a rainbow effect around the edges of the cloud. It was absolutely gorgeous and I wished I had remembered my camera (yup, I'm the tool that forgot my camera...totally wasn't thinking!) so that I could have gotten a snap of it. Oh well - I at least will always remember it.
We arrive in Canberra and walk to our hostel. We were in a 10 person mixed room (the cheapest option). By the time we freshen up and eat our lunches, we have to get a cab to the National Zoo and Aquarium. For the most part, that was the only option for getting to and from the National Zoo. The zoo is privately owned and is about a 5 minute drive out of the city, but it would have been impossible to walk to because walking on the freeway just doesn't seem like a good idea.
So why did I go to the zoo?! For the Zooventure tour! We got a behind the scene look at animals, and the coolest part was that we got to feed them! The tour started off with the European brown bear, which apparently is the smallest of the brown bears. Regardless, it was still huge, and to see it lumbering towards you was a little bit frightening, despite the fence in between us. The zookeeper/our tour guide Leigh put some honey/wheatbix/apple mixture on our hands and the bear licked it off. The bear was quite adorable - as it was licking my hand, it would close its eyes. Precious! Bears are Steph's favorite animals, so she was pretty psyched to have one lick food off her hand.
After the bear, we made our way over to my favorite animal, the tiger!! We fed the smallest tiger of the tigers, a Sumatran Tiger. They had a Bengal tiger, but it was his starve day so we couldn't feed him. Because tigers don't eat every day in the wild, the zoo tries to replicate that and so two random days during the week they don't feed the tigers. Anyway, we fed the tiger cow heart, but not with our hands - it was instead just with a pair of tongs. The cool thing was that you could put the meat up high and watch the tiger jump up and attach himself to the fence to eat at it. Absolutely gorgeous animals, and he was so strong too! I would say that I want a tiger, but I respect them too much to ever want to take one out of it's native environment. I did see a show once where they took baby big cats to this one family and the family helped them grow up. I would do that, for sure.
Ok, moving on. Other animals that we fed: otters (we flung fish at them, which they then grabbed and ran off to their pool to clean), giraffes (when you see them up close, they are very strange looking animals indeed), cougars (you could see the muscles bunching up under their skin when they walked around), elands (basically like a big gazelle - their horns were super scary too), and six white lions. These lions are white because of a mutation - it's a recessive gene, much like how blue eyes and blonde hair is for humans. The white lion has gone extinct in the wild - the last one to be seen was spotted in 1994 I think it was. Anyway, this zoo had a whole pride of them - six male white lions. At first, only one came over to be fed, but then the rest of them showed up. Ok, so, picture SIX huge lions all competing against one another to get a piece of meat. It got kind of intense at some points when they would start pushing/shoving one another out of the way and would start roaring at one another. Granted, we didn't get a full on roar, but there were definitely some little half roars. Now, picture all that happening with only a fence separating you from the lions. Gorgeous animals, but knowing that all of them could probably find a way to bust out and kill you is a little intimidating. When we were done feeding them, they all just stayed by the fence, all lined up. It was a picture perfect moment, which of course would happen when I don't have my camera. Steph and Caitlin got it though, so as soon as I have their pictures I'll share with you all.
We also had encounters with two other animals. The zoo had two dingoes, so Leigh put them on leashes and brought them out to us so we could pet them. They're basically like dogs, except they're a little more devious. It made me miss Bella even more than I already do! The last animal we got to hold - a snake! I thought it was the coolest thing ever and have already decided to own a snake some day. Some of the other people in the group didn't enjoy it as much, but Leigh said this was the first group in about six months where everyone had actually allowed the snake to go around their neck. After washing our hands, we left the zoo. All in all, it was a really cool experience - I doubt I'll ever get that close to these types of animals again my life. I guess that's kinda sad to think about, actually.
We catch a cab back to the city and go to an Irish pub called King O'Malley's for dinner, then head on back to the hostel to figure out what we want to do. Luckily for us, we walk by the Canberra Centre - a HUGE shopping mall. We spent about two and a half hours in it Friday night and then more time on Saturday and still didn't see all of it. In Wollongong city, there is a mall, but it is small and not really legitimate, so this was an exciting change. I got a shirt with a tiger on it and a really cheap pair of boots ($20). Friday nights the mall stays open late, so we were there until 930 or so. We then actually make it back to the hostel and try to decide what we want to do in the coming days. Because we were all pretty exhausted, we go to sleep around 10 (or at least got ready for bed until 10 - I went and watched some poker and talked to some kid from Western Australia who had broken both his wrists and feet in a motorcycle accident and so was going to have to have his right wrist fused straight because of cartilage damage, so he was doing a snowboarding tour of Japan/Australia as a last hurrah).
Although we had intended to wake up at 930, we actually slept until 1130 or so. It was okay though, because we discovered a flyer in our room for an 'explorer bus' which means we could hit up a lot of the historical sites Sunday and not worry about how to get around to all of them. So, we go into the mall again to look at opals, shop around a bit more, and Steph and Caitlin got haircuts. I've actually needed my ends trimmed really badly, but then one night last week I got really sick of them and just cut them off myself. We left the mall to go to a place called the Gorman Markets, which was a little arts market. Very quaint, and one of the men selling stuff there told us some funny stories about America and the US. First though, he thought we were Canadian because I was wearing my Canada hat. I was actually mistaken for Canadian a couple of times because of the hat, but it's no big deal to me - I love Canada! Anyway, he told us that when America coughs, Australia gets pneumonia, meaning that whatever happens to America hits Australia worse. He also said that America practically owns Australia, ever since WW2. He told us a few other stories about his times in America, but I liked that he was practical about it. He wasn't angry at America for the fact that we 'owned' Australia, he was just realistic about it. Here is a joke he told us:
Two American men decide to go on a tour of the world to survey men on what the sex life is like for men all over the globe. They're about to head back to America when they realize that they've forgotten Australia. They get there and realize that they're going to have to stay for a while because of how big it is, so they rent an apartment on Bondi Beach in Sydney (Bondi is Australia's most famous beach). They go out the next day and see what looks like the typical Australian - chiseled body, gorgeous tan, and wearing a speedo. They go up to him and say, "Hi, we're conducting a survey - about how many times do you have sex?" And the Aussie says, "About twice a month." The Americans are amazed by this - they say "Only twice a month?! The Peruvian sheep herders have more than that!" The Australian shrugs and says, "Hm, I don't think it's too bad for a Catholic priest with no car."
Interesting, eh?
We return from the market and walk back to our hostel to drop off our spoils, then walk out to Regatta Point. There is a lake that cuts Canberra in half and this was just one point where you could see all around it as well as a bunch of museums/important places. It was a pretty sight, but I think that the cold kind of diminished how cool it could have been. There is also a Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet (Cook 'discovered' Australia) that shoots water 90 meters up in the air, but it was turned off for maintenance. So, we walk back to the hostel and plan out what we want to do for the night. We had about an hour to kill before we had to go out for dinner, so we put on our bathing suits and headed down to the pool, hot tub, and sauna that is in the basement of our hostel. It was so relaxing!! Definitely a good break for all three of us - we had all had really stressful weeks last week. We get ready to go out and then go to dinner a Wagamama's a Japanese restaurant. After a delicious meal (and because it was Japanese, it filled us up but didn't make us feel gross) we go out and sample some of Canberra's nightlife. When we told people we were going to Canberra, they were like, ew, why would you go there, there's nothing to do! We did not find this to be the case though - it was so much fun! We went to four different bars and had a great night.
We woke up the next morning to check out of the hostel and go on our Explorer Bus tour. Although it wasn't going to give us a lot of time at each spot, it was still worth it to us because it provided a source of transportation, and getting around Canberra was kind of confusing unless you were walking or catching a cab. Our first stop was the War Memorial, which is the most visited museum in Australia. It is a stunning memorial - it has the names of every Australian who had been killed in war, as well as every theatre of war/peacekeeping in which Australia had participated. Underneath the memorial is the museum, of which we saw two exhibits. I really wanted to see the World War 1 section because that's what I've been learning about for the past 12 weeks of uni. I liked that I got to see some tangible artifacts from the time period to add to my knowledge. I felt a bit like a historian even - Steph would ask me questions about the war and I would be able to rattle off the answer. So for anyone out there who doesn't think I've been doing work here and just playing, you can test me by asking me about the Great War and Australia. We also visited the A is for Animal exhibit - I think it's supposed to be more geared towards children, but we figured it would be interesting nonetheless. And it was - did you know they used koalas and kangaroos as mascots in wars, as well as any other animal that they found and didn't use for eating? If I ever go to war, I would want an animal companion as well.
Our next stop was Parliament. We weren't going to have enough time to take the tour, so we walked around by ourselves. The new Parliament building was built in 1988 (go '88 - lots of good things happened!) so it was really pretty - there were marble staircases and a lot of glass. We went up to the roof and got a bird's eye view of Canberra. We wandered around and sat in both the House of Representatives and the Senate Room - I'm still amazed at how small these rooms are - it was the same way in New Zealand - I'm just used to America.
We were supposed to be picked up from Parliament around 245, but the bus never showed (Although the driver said she went there a few times looking for us - bollocks I say!), so we ended up catching a cab to the National Museum of Australia. The museum was AWESOME! There were so many things to do and each of us was completely entertained - it was just a shame that we didn't have more time there. We decided that we thought we had an adequate amount of time in the War Memorial and Parliament, but we would have wanted to spend way more time in the museum. We only made it through 1.5 exhibits - one about the animals in Australia and then we saw part of the Aboriginal exhibit. There was a room right before the Aboriginal exhibit and it was dark but with 6 big tv screens that had some Aboriginal dancing, so we took a break from looking at things and just danced like Aboriginals. It was absolutely silly but one of the best parts of the trip, in my opinion.
We caught the Explorer bus back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and went to a place called Koko Black. We know a few people at Wollongong from Canberra, and they suggested this place for us to visit. It's a chocolatier sort of place, and although they had lots of chocolates inside, we sat outside (they have outdoor heaters) and ordered drinks - I got a cinnamon hot chocolate, and Cait and Steph got Ice Chocolates. Mine was absolutely delicious - it was rich and thick though, so I couldn't drink it really fast. The Ice Chocolates were basically chocolate, milk, ice cream, chocolate syrup, and chocolate shavings. They were pretty good too, but I enjoyed my hot beverage.
After that we walked to the bus station to catch our bus back to Wollongong. It was relatively uneventful, but I do have to give mad props to the bus driver. We were driving down a mountain, and some of the turns were absolutely deadly. If you attempted to go around them at maybe even 20 miles an hour you would probably fly off the road. At one point the bus had to back up in order to actually make it around a turn. There were red signs saying something to the effect of "EXTREME TURN YOU WILL DIE IF YOU ARE NOT GOING 15 KM/H!!" Ok maybe not to that extreme, but the limit was 15 km/h, which is I believe 9.3 mph. I honestly can't even think of any turns or roads in general to compare what driving on this mountain was like, but it reminded me of driving in New Zealand - there were times when I was scared to put the camper into fourth gear just because I didn't know how intense some of the turns were going to be.
Ok, so this is an extremely long post - I was going to write another one about life in general, but I'll just include a quick summary here. Last week I completed two of my three final papers and I'm working on my third one now. This week coming up is my last week of uni - I only have 5.5 hours of class (approximately, assuming I don't get out early for any of my classes) so I should get this paper done relatively quickly. After that, I have two journals due and then only one final. After June 15, I will have academically completed my stay in Australia. It's crazy, May went by so friggin fast. Before I know it, it's going to be June 29 and I'm going to have to pack up my life here and just hope that everything fits in my bags!
(A side note - I just spell checked this post and Wheatbix came up as spelled incorrectly - it's basically like Frosted Wheats - but one of the options for a correct spelling was Wetback...wtf mate? How is that pc??)
We left Friday morning on a bus that was similar to a Greyhound bus. Our other options for getting to Canberra would have been to fly or take a train, but for either of those, we would have had to get to Sydney first. The bus picked us up in Wollongong city, just one train stop down. It was a three hour bus ride, so we napped for the most part. The times when I was awake though, I was able to check out more of Australia's land and sky scape. I decided that I could totally see dinosaurs roaming around in Australia, even right now. It was a strange thought. Because it was a cloudy day, I saw a really pretty sun-cloud thing - the sun would go behind a cloud, and I guess because the cloud was thinner/filled with water, it created a rainbow effect around the edges of the cloud. It was absolutely gorgeous and I wished I had remembered my camera (yup, I'm the tool that forgot my camera...totally wasn't thinking!) so that I could have gotten a snap of it. Oh well - I at least will always remember it.
We arrive in Canberra and walk to our hostel. We were in a 10 person mixed room (the cheapest option). By the time we freshen up and eat our lunches, we have to get a cab to the National Zoo and Aquarium. For the most part, that was the only option for getting to and from the National Zoo. The zoo is privately owned and is about a 5 minute drive out of the city, but it would have been impossible to walk to because walking on the freeway just doesn't seem like a good idea.
So why did I go to the zoo?! For the Zooventure tour! We got a behind the scene look at animals, and the coolest part was that we got to feed them! The tour started off with the European brown bear, which apparently is the smallest of the brown bears. Regardless, it was still huge, and to see it lumbering towards you was a little bit frightening, despite the fence in between us. The zookeeper/our tour guide Leigh put some honey/wheatbix/apple mixture on our hands and the bear licked it off. The bear was quite adorable - as it was licking my hand, it would close its eyes. Precious! Bears are Steph's favorite animals, so she was pretty psyched to have one lick food off her hand.
After the bear, we made our way over to my favorite animal, the tiger!! We fed the smallest tiger of the tigers, a Sumatran Tiger. They had a Bengal tiger, but it was his starve day so we couldn't feed him. Because tigers don't eat every day in the wild, the zoo tries to replicate that and so two random days during the week they don't feed the tigers. Anyway, we fed the tiger cow heart, but not with our hands - it was instead just with a pair of tongs. The cool thing was that you could put the meat up high and watch the tiger jump up and attach himself to the fence to eat at it. Absolutely gorgeous animals, and he was so strong too! I would say that I want a tiger, but I respect them too much to ever want to take one out of it's native environment. I did see a show once where they took baby big cats to this one family and the family helped them grow up. I would do that, for sure.
Ok, moving on. Other animals that we fed: otters (we flung fish at them, which they then grabbed and ran off to their pool to clean), giraffes (when you see them up close, they are very strange looking animals indeed), cougars (you could see the muscles bunching up under their skin when they walked around), elands (basically like a big gazelle - their horns were super scary too), and six white lions. These lions are white because of a mutation - it's a recessive gene, much like how blue eyes and blonde hair is for humans. The white lion has gone extinct in the wild - the last one to be seen was spotted in 1994 I think it was. Anyway, this zoo had a whole pride of them - six male white lions. At first, only one came over to be fed, but then the rest of them showed up. Ok, so, picture SIX huge lions all competing against one another to get a piece of meat. It got kind of intense at some points when they would start pushing/shoving one another out of the way and would start roaring at one another. Granted, we didn't get a full on roar, but there were definitely some little half roars. Now, picture all that happening with only a fence separating you from the lions. Gorgeous animals, but knowing that all of them could probably find a way to bust out and kill you is a little intimidating. When we were done feeding them, they all just stayed by the fence, all lined up. It was a picture perfect moment, which of course would happen when I don't have my camera. Steph and Caitlin got it though, so as soon as I have their pictures I'll share with you all.
We also had encounters with two other animals. The zoo had two dingoes, so Leigh put them on leashes and brought them out to us so we could pet them. They're basically like dogs, except they're a little more devious. It made me miss Bella even more than I already do! The last animal we got to hold - a snake! I thought it was the coolest thing ever and have already decided to own a snake some day. Some of the other people in the group didn't enjoy it as much, but Leigh said this was the first group in about six months where everyone had actually allowed the snake to go around their neck. After washing our hands, we left the zoo. All in all, it was a really cool experience - I doubt I'll ever get that close to these types of animals again my life. I guess that's kinda sad to think about, actually.
We catch a cab back to the city and go to an Irish pub called King O'Malley's for dinner, then head on back to the hostel to figure out what we want to do. Luckily for us, we walk by the Canberra Centre - a HUGE shopping mall. We spent about two and a half hours in it Friday night and then more time on Saturday and still didn't see all of it. In Wollongong city, there is a mall, but it is small and not really legitimate, so this was an exciting change. I got a shirt with a tiger on it and a really cheap pair of boots ($20). Friday nights the mall stays open late, so we were there until 930 or so. We then actually make it back to the hostel and try to decide what we want to do in the coming days. Because we were all pretty exhausted, we go to sleep around 10 (or at least got ready for bed until 10 - I went and watched some poker and talked to some kid from Western Australia who had broken both his wrists and feet in a motorcycle accident and so was going to have to have his right wrist fused straight because of cartilage damage, so he was doing a snowboarding tour of Japan/Australia as a last hurrah).
Although we had intended to wake up at 930, we actually slept until 1130 or so. It was okay though, because we discovered a flyer in our room for an 'explorer bus' which means we could hit up a lot of the historical sites Sunday and not worry about how to get around to all of them. So, we go into the mall again to look at opals, shop around a bit more, and Steph and Caitlin got haircuts. I've actually needed my ends trimmed really badly, but then one night last week I got really sick of them and just cut them off myself. We left the mall to go to a place called the Gorman Markets, which was a little arts market. Very quaint, and one of the men selling stuff there told us some funny stories about America and the US. First though, he thought we were Canadian because I was wearing my Canada hat. I was actually mistaken for Canadian a couple of times because of the hat, but it's no big deal to me - I love Canada! Anyway, he told us that when America coughs, Australia gets pneumonia, meaning that whatever happens to America hits Australia worse. He also said that America practically owns Australia, ever since WW2. He told us a few other stories about his times in America, but I liked that he was practical about it. He wasn't angry at America for the fact that we 'owned' Australia, he was just realistic about it. Here is a joke he told us:
Two American men decide to go on a tour of the world to survey men on what the sex life is like for men all over the globe. They're about to head back to America when they realize that they've forgotten Australia. They get there and realize that they're going to have to stay for a while because of how big it is, so they rent an apartment on Bondi Beach in Sydney (Bondi is Australia's most famous beach). They go out the next day and see what looks like the typical Australian - chiseled body, gorgeous tan, and wearing a speedo. They go up to him and say, "Hi, we're conducting a survey - about how many times do you have sex?" And the Aussie says, "About twice a month." The Americans are amazed by this - they say "Only twice a month?! The Peruvian sheep herders have more than that!" The Australian shrugs and says, "Hm, I don't think it's too bad for a Catholic priest with no car."
Interesting, eh?
We return from the market and walk back to our hostel to drop off our spoils, then walk out to Regatta Point. There is a lake that cuts Canberra in half and this was just one point where you could see all around it as well as a bunch of museums/important places. It was a pretty sight, but I think that the cold kind of diminished how cool it could have been. There is also a Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet (Cook 'discovered' Australia) that shoots water 90 meters up in the air, but it was turned off for maintenance. So, we walk back to the hostel and plan out what we want to do for the night. We had about an hour to kill before we had to go out for dinner, so we put on our bathing suits and headed down to the pool, hot tub, and sauna that is in the basement of our hostel. It was so relaxing!! Definitely a good break for all three of us - we had all had really stressful weeks last week. We get ready to go out and then go to dinner a Wagamama's a Japanese restaurant. After a delicious meal (and because it was Japanese, it filled us up but didn't make us feel gross) we go out and sample some of Canberra's nightlife. When we told people we were going to Canberra, they were like, ew, why would you go there, there's nothing to do! We did not find this to be the case though - it was so much fun! We went to four different bars and had a great night.
We woke up the next morning to check out of the hostel and go on our Explorer Bus tour. Although it wasn't going to give us a lot of time at each spot, it was still worth it to us because it provided a source of transportation, and getting around Canberra was kind of confusing unless you were walking or catching a cab. Our first stop was the War Memorial, which is the most visited museum in Australia. It is a stunning memorial - it has the names of every Australian who had been killed in war, as well as every theatre of war/peacekeeping in which Australia had participated. Underneath the memorial is the museum, of which we saw two exhibits. I really wanted to see the World War 1 section because that's what I've been learning about for the past 12 weeks of uni. I liked that I got to see some tangible artifacts from the time period to add to my knowledge. I felt a bit like a historian even - Steph would ask me questions about the war and I would be able to rattle off the answer. So for anyone out there who doesn't think I've been doing work here and just playing, you can test me by asking me about the Great War and Australia. We also visited the A is for Animal exhibit - I think it's supposed to be more geared towards children, but we figured it would be interesting nonetheless. And it was - did you know they used koalas and kangaroos as mascots in wars, as well as any other animal that they found and didn't use for eating? If I ever go to war, I would want an animal companion as well.
Our next stop was Parliament. We weren't going to have enough time to take the tour, so we walked around by ourselves. The new Parliament building was built in 1988 (go '88 - lots of good things happened!) so it was really pretty - there were marble staircases and a lot of glass. We went up to the roof and got a bird's eye view of Canberra. We wandered around and sat in both the House of Representatives and the Senate Room - I'm still amazed at how small these rooms are - it was the same way in New Zealand - I'm just used to America.
We were supposed to be picked up from Parliament around 245, but the bus never showed (Although the driver said she went there a few times looking for us - bollocks I say!), so we ended up catching a cab to the National Museum of Australia. The museum was AWESOME! There were so many things to do and each of us was completely entertained - it was just a shame that we didn't have more time there. We decided that we thought we had an adequate amount of time in the War Memorial and Parliament, but we would have wanted to spend way more time in the museum. We only made it through 1.5 exhibits - one about the animals in Australia and then we saw part of the Aboriginal exhibit. There was a room right before the Aboriginal exhibit and it was dark but with 6 big tv screens that had some Aboriginal dancing, so we took a break from looking at things and just danced like Aboriginals. It was absolutely silly but one of the best parts of the trip, in my opinion.
We caught the Explorer bus back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and went to a place called Koko Black. We know a few people at Wollongong from Canberra, and they suggested this place for us to visit. It's a chocolatier sort of place, and although they had lots of chocolates inside, we sat outside (they have outdoor heaters) and ordered drinks - I got a cinnamon hot chocolate, and Cait and Steph got Ice Chocolates. Mine was absolutely delicious - it was rich and thick though, so I couldn't drink it really fast. The Ice Chocolates were basically chocolate, milk, ice cream, chocolate syrup, and chocolate shavings. They were pretty good too, but I enjoyed my hot beverage.
After that we walked to the bus station to catch our bus back to Wollongong. It was relatively uneventful, but I do have to give mad props to the bus driver. We were driving down a mountain, and some of the turns were absolutely deadly. If you attempted to go around them at maybe even 20 miles an hour you would probably fly off the road. At one point the bus had to back up in order to actually make it around a turn. There were red signs saying something to the effect of "EXTREME TURN YOU WILL DIE IF YOU ARE NOT GOING 15 KM/H!!" Ok maybe not to that extreme, but the limit was 15 km/h, which is I believe 9.3 mph. I honestly can't even think of any turns or roads in general to compare what driving on this mountain was like, but it reminded me of driving in New Zealand - there were times when I was scared to put the camper into fourth gear just because I didn't know how intense some of the turns were going to be.
Ok, so this is an extremely long post - I was going to write another one about life in general, but I'll just include a quick summary here. Last week I completed two of my three final papers and I'm working on my third one now. This week coming up is my last week of uni - I only have 5.5 hours of class (approximately, assuming I don't get out early for any of my classes) so I should get this paper done relatively quickly. After that, I have two journals due and then only one final. After June 15, I will have academically completed my stay in Australia. It's crazy, May went by so friggin fast. Before I know it, it's going to be June 29 and I'm going to have to pack up my life here and just hope that everything fits in my bags!
(A side note - I just spell checked this post and Wheatbix came up as spelled incorrectly - it's basically like Frosted Wheats - but one of the options for a correct spelling was Wetback...wtf mate? How is that pc??)
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