And that's a wrap

As I sit here in the Sydney Airport waiting to board my flight back to LA, a strange feeling has come over me. I find myself at a dead end as how to express all of the overwhelming emotions going through me at this moment. Part of me is excited that I soon get to see my family and friends (and dogs of course), another part is extremely sad knowing that I'm leaving the place that I now call home without any idea of when I'll return, and the last part of me is so happy when I look back at the amazing time I've spent here. The past five months have been the best and most unforgettable of my life and now it seems that they have come to an end. I am so thankful for the experience I have had and all the wonderful people I have met whom I now call family.
The past few weeks have been quite sad as I've watched all of my friends leave one by one, but they've also been full of good dinners, many trips to the harbours, lots of souvenir shopping, and time well spent reminiscing over all of our amazing memories from the past semester.
I've grown so much as a person since I first arrived here. Let me tell you, going to live in a country where not a single person knows your name is not exactly the most comforting idea, however it turned out to be the best thing I could've done for myself. I've opened myself up to new things such as surfing, skydiving, traveling on my own, and eating everything from kangaroo to crocodile. I've hugged a koala, scuba dived in the great barrier reef, seen the tiniest penguins in the world, and I've finally taught myself the right way to look when I cross the street!
I will never ever forget the time I have spent in Sydney--I plan to tell my grandchildren all about it one day. As I'm choking back tears while trying to finish this last blog post, all I can think of is the Winnie the Pooh quote: "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard"
Sydney will forever be my home, and it will always be in my heart.
And that's a wrap.

Blue Mountains

Finals have begun at UNSW and they last for three entire weeks. Of course none of my finals are until the very last week, so I've had nothing to do while the rest of my friends are studying; so to entertain myself, I decided to take a solo trip up to the Blue Mountains for two days. The Blue Mountains are a small section of a much larger mountain range that extends all the way from Tasmania up to Cape York (the most Northern tip of Australia). They are about two hours West of Sydney and home to the famous Three Sisters.

On Friday I woke up at 6 am (which I found quite difficult) and took a bus to the center of Sydney to get picked up for the trip. We drove all morning and the tour guide decided to teach us about Australian History for the entire two hours. We first arrived at Wentworth falls, a three-tiered waterfall in the heart of the mountains. We began at the top and hiked down to the bottom of the waterfall. Because it was a windy day the water was spraying all over us, needless to say I was glad my camera is waterproof. The hike back up to the top was more of a mountain climb than a hike. The trail consists of 1,400 extremely steep stairs that would be impossible to climb without using the two rails on either side of you. Even though the hike was tough, the view was definitely worth it. Later that afternoon we embarked on our second hike which provided us with an amazing view of the Three Sisters. The commonly told legend of the Three Sisters is that three sisters (Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo) lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe (Katoomba is now the main town in the Blue Mountains). They fell in love with three men from a neighboring tribe however their marriage was forbidden by tribal law. The unhappy brothers refused to accept this law and decided to capture the three sisters. A major tribal battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them. Unfortunately the elder was killed during the battle so the sisters were never able to return to their human form. So the three sisters still remain at the top of the Jamison Valley for us to visit today. Our hike lead us to the bottom of the Jamison Valley where we got to take the famous world's steepest railway back up to the top. 

The railway is on a 52 degree incline and was actually quite scary to ride. When your first get into the cars you sit down in seats that are angled backwards, however when the railway begins up the mountain your seat is suddenly upright and actually angled forwards. I had to put my feet on the seat in front of me to stop myself from sliding forward out of my seat! After the thrill of riding the railway, my tour guide dropped me and a girl on my tour from Germany off at the hostel in Katoomba where we would be staying the night. We decided to go explore the town however we were unlucky because all of the shops close at around 5 pm even on a Friday in the little town of Katoomba. The receptionist at our hostel had mentioned that the three sisters light up at night so we decided to venture back to see them in the dark. However we of course got very lost and ended up roaming unlit streets in the forest for about an hour before someone told us that we were on the completely opposite side of the mountain from the three sisters. After another hour we were finally at echo point which is a lookout, that we had yet to see, right next to the three sisters. There was a huge light under the lookout that projected onto the rocks so they were all lit up in the darkness. If it wasn't absolutely freezing out we definitely would have stayed longer to enjoy the majestic view. 

We then walked back to Katoomba and roamed the streets searching for a restaurant that was still open. Because it is now winter in Australia, Katoomba was dead silent even though it was 9 pm on a Friday night, so after dinner we headed back to our hostel and watched a movie before crashing after our long and tiring day. On Saturday morning I was picked up from my hostel by a new tour that would take me to the Jenolan Caves. The Caves are an hour and a half farther into the mountains from Katoomba. They are the most visited limestone caves in the country and the oldest discovered open caves in the world! Before venturing off to see them, our tour stopped at echo point so I finally got to see the Three Sisters up close during daylight--such a better view than at night.

 After taking way too many pictures we drove up to the Jenolan Caves. Before touring the caves, we were given free time to explore the Blue Lake outside of the caves. Although the Blue Mountains aren't actually blue, the Blue Lake definitely was! 

The color of the water was absolutely insane to look at. Apparently it is caused by the minerals in the water, and the color will change from green to blue depending on depth. After strolling along a trail around the lake, I headed back up to the caves for the start of the tour. We spent two and a half hours walking through the caves hearing many different stories about different limestone formations such as a miniature statue of liberty. It was really funny to hear about how people used to tour the caves back in the 1800s when they were first discovered. Because there obviously weren't stairs yet, men and women would sit down on paper bags, holding the railing with one hand, their lunch with the other, and a candle in their mouth, and would slide down some pretty steep slopes to get through the caves. Now that would definitely be a site to see. 

After our tour of the caves ended, our bus headed off on our 3.5 hour drive back to Sydney. About an hour and a half into the drive, our bus broke down. We stood outside in the freezing cold for a while, and then were allowed back onto the bus which was also quite chilly without any heat, where we had to wait for a new bus to come pick us up. Finally after about 30 minutes of shivering a new bus arrived and took us home to Sydney. 

I've been told many times that you never want to spend more than a day in the Blue Mountains because it is so quiet and there are only so many sites to see. However I really enjoyed my two days in them and definitely could've stayed longer to enjoy the peaceful serenity that they offer. I definitely hope to return to them one day. 

Oh and in case you were wondering why the Blue Mountains were named 'blue,' it's because of a gas that is emitted from Eucalyptus trees that when mixed with water and hit by sunlight turns a blueish color in the valley of the mountains. Apparently when the colonists were first exploring the Blue Mountains they actually brought a boat with them because they believed that there was a lake in the valley! I'm sure they were pretty unhappy when they discovered that it was just the air that was blue after lugging their boat such a long way.

April-March

Well it seems that I have totally forgotten that I had a blog. As soon as Spring Break ended, my Professors decided to make sure that I had no life by giving me assignments and tests every other day—thus I had to time or space in my memory to remember that I had a blog I was supposed to be writing. However, despite the insane amount of school work I’ve had the past month and a half, I’ve still made time for a bit of fun down under.

I finally made it to the a show at the Opera House. I saw Cirque de la Symphonie which was basically Cirque du Soleil but with the Sydney Orchestra playing right behind them. The show was incredible--my back hurt just watching the performers. 

My 21^st Birthday was a few days later and my friends made sure that I had an absolute blast. They got all of my friends over the night before and surprised me with cake at midnight. The next morning they woke me up with pancakes in bed, decorated my room, took me to the beach, and made sure I celebrated being 21 even though it's not quite such a big deal here in Australia. They also made a scrapbook for me full of pictures throughout the day, and happy birthday messages from all of my friends. It truly was the greatest birthday ever.

The next day, instead of being able to recover from all of the fun, my friends and I hoped on a plane and headed off to Melbourne for the weekend. We drove along the Great Ocean Road our first day there and saw famous sights such as the 12 Apostles and London Bridge. We also stopped in a eucalyptus forest and got to see koalas out in the wild! 

The second day we drove up to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade. We sat patiently on the beach that night waiting to be the first to spot a fairy penguin pop out of the water. Suddenly a whole group of penguins was visible in the water and slowly they made their way onto the beach and up into the hillside to sleep for the night. It was such an incredible experience seeing hundreds of little penguins waddling on the beach only meters away from us! They were so cute and I was very tempted to take one home with me. During our last day in Melbourne we decided to wander the city until we had to head to the airport that night. The city reminded me somewhat of San Francisco—it had a very low key vibe compared to the constant hustle and bustle of Sydney. I’m sad I didn’t get to spend more time in the city, but now I have a reason to return one day!

The next week, was full of birthdays so not much studying got done. Three of my good friends had birthdays on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so we all celebrated and ate way too much cake! I also spent Cinco de mayo at an AFL (American League Football) game that weekend! It appeared to be a mixture of rugby, American football, and regular football (soccer). The Sydney Swans destroyed the Brisbane Lions and we all cheered despite our lack of understanding for any of the rules.

The following week was spent in the library until one morning when I decided it would be fun to wake up at 5 am and jump out of a plane. I’ve always wanted to go skydiving but never really thought I had the guts to do it. However my friends here convinced me that I could do it, so that morning we drove in a bus down to Wollongong and got in a plane that soared to 14,000 feet above the ocean. My tandem instructor knew I was the most nervous of all my friends so he made me jump out first! I’m not sure I’ve ever been so scared in my life as the plane got higher and higher, but around 10,000 feet I told myself that I just had to do it and not look back. The scariest part is definitely swinging your legs over the edge of the plane and waiting for the instructor to push you out, but after that all of my fear was gone and it was just pure excitement. Falling through the air above the beautiful ocean on a sunny day without a cloud in the sky was one of the most thrilling and amazing experiences of my life. I have to say it’s probably my favorite thing I’ve done since I’ve arrived in Australia. As soon as I landed I wanted to go again and for the rest of the day I felt completely invincible. I am definitely going to skydive again when I get back home.

Since that thrill of a lifetime, I’ve been spending the majority of my time in the library writing papers and studying for tests. I even had my first final today! I cannot believe I only have 6 more weeks here. Where did the time go? My time in Sydney thus far has been the greatest of my life and I can’t imagine leaving. The only thing that makes leaving sound ok is knowing that I will get to have Mexican food when I go home!

Spring Break

It just so happened that Courtney's spring break this year matched up perfectly with mine! So the family decided to make a trip out to Australia for two weeks. I was so excited to have them here and show them around, but it was also so weird watching two completely different worlds in my life collide. They arrived in Sydney early Monday morning so of course the first place I took them was the rocks. They got to see the Opera House, Harbor Bridge, and we even took a crazy boat ride that was guaranteed to get you soaked through the harbor. Even though they were jet-lagged, they pulled themselves together pretty well! They rented an apartment for the week in Randwick, a suburb pretty close to my uni. After we checked into their apartment and they got a bit unpacked, I took them to Coogee beach where they got to meet some of my friends and get in the warm Australian water for the first time! We went to dinner in Bondi where we all of course had delicious fish and white wines. Unfortunately Courtney and my dad had a very hard time staying awake through dinner. But who can blame them after a 15 hour flight? The next morning we all woke up early, which was much easier for them than it was for me because they were still on California time, and went to Bondi beach. Because we were there so early, there was hardly anyone on the beach. We tanned all morning and of course as soon as the sun came out we had to leave because I had a biology lab. That night we went to dinner in Darling Harbor which is a harbor directly adjacent to the city with tons of fun restaurants. Surprisingly it was my first time there! We ate dinner right on the water and watched the sunset which was way too pretty to not take photos of. 

The next morning we went out to an amazing breakfast in right on the water at Bondi beach before I had class. It was such a nice day, which made it hard to leave for my Australian history class--definitely not as fun. After my class we took a ferry ride to Manly beach where we played all day in the sun. A while ago I had mentioned to my parents that I wanted a surf board for my birthday, so we decided to go take a look in one of the surf shops in Manly. Needless to say, as soon as I saw the hot pink board I was sold. They guys gave us a great deal on the board, finds, ankle strap, and even through in a free carrying case so that I can bring in on the bus with me!.

I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the night. It was all I could do to stop myself from leaving dinner to go take her out in the water. Luckily I got the opportunity the next day. I had a lab in the morning, so we went back to Bondi Beach in the afternoon where the waves are pretty calm and the water is warm. As soon as I got in the water I knew I was going to be struggling. The boards I have ridden before are always around 9 feet, and the one I bought is only 7 feet so I could carry it on the bus easier. However this made even paddling on the board much harder than I was used to. It's definitely going to take me a while to get good on the board, but I am up for the challenge!

 On our last day in Sydney, the weather was pretty gloomy so we skipped the beach and decided to tour around the city. We hopped on a bright red double decker bus that drives you all around the city with commentary about each area you're passing. We only lasted about 30 minutes on the bus before we got a bit bored and got off. We walked around the botanical gardens and then decided to go up the Sydney tower which is the second tallest building in Australia. The views of the city and surrounding suburbs was spectacular and I could even see my school.

The next morning we woke up at 5 am, which didn't go over very well for me, and headed to the airport to fly to Cairns. I had been in Cairns less than a week before but I was still so excited to go back! Because it's much farther up north than Sydney, the weather is super warm and tropical. Before coming to Australia I had never though of the country as a tropical rainforest area, but apparently it is. We spent the afternoon at what the locals call the "lagoon." Because of the crocodiles and jellyfish, you can't get in most areas of the ocean in Cairns so they created a salt water swimming pool right on the beach. They had a local band playing on the grass near by so we all camped out on the lawn and easily fell asleep. The next day was Easter and we thought, what better way to celebrate the day than go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef? Neither Courtney or I are certified so we both did two beginner dives, and my parents both did two normal dives. We saw quite a few jellyfish which scared me to death, and Courtney got stung! We also saw a white tip reef shark and followed it for a while until it swam away. Needless to say, it was a good Easter.

My friend from uni, Jackie, arrived in Cairns the next day to spend the rest of the week with us. We all piled in the car and drove to a town north of Cairns called Trinity where we would be staying for the rest of the trip. We spent the rest of the day at Trinity beach. Even though the beach is huge, you're only allowed to get in one area of the water where there is netting to keep the jellyfish out. No need to get stung by a box jellyfish and rushed off to the hospital during break! 

 The next day we headed up to Port Douglas, about an hour north of Trinity, to the Wildlife Habitat. Courtney was just a little excited to hold a koala and feed the kangaroos. Despite the amazing beaches and trips we went on this was easily the highlight of the trip for Court. My mom and her both snuggled up with a koala, but because I had already done that, I decided to harness my inner Britney Spears and take a photo with a python. At first I was a bit freaked out, especially when the caretaker wrapped it around my neck, but after a while I got used to it and couldn't stop laughing.

We then went to the kangaroo area where Courtney got to feed a bunch of roos and pet a few. That afternoon we went to the famous four mile beach in Port Douglas. And again, even though the beach was four miles, there was only a tiny netted area for everyone to swim in. 

We woke up super early the next morning to go on Uncle Brian's Tablelands and Waterfalls Tour. Our group leader was named Cousin Rohan and was probably one of the funniest people I've ever met. He made the tour so much, with the help of our bus Nigel--yes they named the bus, and he would even pretend to have conversations with it. We spent the day driving through the Tablelands from waterfall to waterfall to swim under. And although we initially were unsure about spending the majority of our day in a bus, it ended up being on of the highlights of the trip. Cuz Rohan got the entire bus to sing a long to songs, play different road trip games, and even learn a few dance routines for his favorite songs. 

By far the funniest game we played was called "Where's Wally?" We all had to put matches in our mouths and pass a life saver, named Wally, all the way around the bus without using our hands. When you were having trouble passing it from one person to next, and the life savor dropped on the ground, everyone would yell "Where's Wally?!" At first we were all pretty skeptical about actually playing the game. We didn't want to get that up close and personal with complete strangers. But as soon as the game began we all busted up laughing and had the best time ever watching Wally get passed from person to person. And let me tell ya, it's harder than it looks. Apparently an Herbel Essence shampoo photo advertisement was taken at one of the waterfalls we went to that afternoon. The ad consists of a girl flipping her hair through the water in front of the waterfall, do you want to buy the shampoo now? So of course, what did we have to do? We all had to try the hair flip. After a few failed attempts we were able to walk away with some pretty good photos, although I'm sure how they compare to professionally done ad.

At the end of the day we were all so sad to leave Uncle Brian's tour. I'm not sure I've ever been unhappy about getting off a bus before, but I definitely was after this amazing day. We spent the whole car ride home drinking beers and ciders, and doing crazy dances to the best sing a long songs. We even had disco lights flashing in the bus! However we were told to get Mexican food for dinner at a place in Cairns, so that helped me a bit with not being too sad while leaving the bus. At home I usually can't go longer than a week without mexican food, so the past two months here have been torture. The burrito and huge margarita called "the fish bowl" definitely hit the spot! The next morning we again had to wake up at the crack of dawn for river rafting. Luckily we had a three hour bus ride before we arrived at the Tully River that we were all able to pass out on. When we finally got to the river, I couldn't have been more excited. River rafting is one of my favorite activities wherever we go so when I heard the offered it in Cairns, I knew it was a must. We were teamed up with a kid from England that was traveling around the country, and our rafting instructor who was from Chile. 

We went down some huge rapids and Courtney and I got absolutely soaked from head to toe in the front of the boat. One of the best parts of the day was when, while approaching a 5 foot waterfall, our instructor says, "Ok who wants to play a game?" Basically all 7 of us huddled together on the back of the boat and were only allowed to hold onto each other, not the boat. The instructor assured us that this would help us stay on--not sure why we believed him. After a mere glimp of hope of not falling off, we of course all fell backwards in the water! I have to say, falling out is probably one of the most fun parts of rafting. We spent the rest of the afternoon rafting, swimming down the river, and then headed off to a local bar. The 3 hour bus ride home was a bit torturous because we sat near a couple on their honeymoon from Missouri who needless to say is the reason Americans get a bad rap over here. They proceeded to ask the bus driver if they celebrated Thanksgiving in Australia, and were confused when talking about how you can make lefts turns on a red light while driving in Australia, but you can only make right turns on red in the States. 

 The next day we headed back to Sydney and spent my family's last day in Australia grocery shopping and going out to a nice dinner. The next morning we went out to breakfast in Coogee and then we unfortunately had to say our goodbyes. As sad as it was saying goodbye to my family knowing that I wouldn't see them again until July, I think they were more sad about leaving Australia! I can't really blame them though. It was an end to an amazing two weeks where I got to live the nice tourist life instead of being a local student.

A Weekend in Cairns

About two weeks ago two friends and I traveled to Cairns for the weekend. If you look on a map, Cairns is close to the tip top point on the East Coast of the country—about a 3 hour flight from Sydney. Full of excitement we headed to the airport where I flight ended up being delayed. We didn’t arrive in Cairns until midnight but luckily a bus was waiting to pick us up and drive us to our hostel. The hostel we stayed at was called Global Central and although we couldn’t see it when we arrived late at night, it was in the perfect location in Central Cairns. The next morning we had to wake up at 6 am, and knowing me that was not easy! We walked to the harbor and got on a catamaran headed to the Great Barrier Reef. It’s the world’s largest coral reef system, consisting of an area of approximately 133,000 sq miles. There are over 150 species of coral and more than 1,500 fish species, and I was going to be scuba diving in it! I’m not scuba certified but luckily I found a beginner scuba tour group that let’s you dive for 20 minutes while holding hands with an instructor. When we finally arrived at the reef—it’s located about an hour and a half away from shore—we had a quick lesson on diving and then hopped in the water to snorkel. The coral reef is unlike any I’ve seen before. There are so many different kinds of coral: soft, hard, orange, green, etc. We quickly found a few clown fish living in a sea anemone and immediately thought of Nemo who lives at the Great Barrier Reef! 

Finally it was our turn to dive! The instructors put all of our gear on, which made it pretty difficult to walk across the boat and jump into the water, and then we slowly headed deeper and deeper in the water. The instructor showed us different corals we were allowed to touch and picked up a sea cucumber for us to play with. Towards the end of the dive we even saw a barracuda  which I have to say was a bit scary. It was huge and how really big teeth! After what felt like 5 minutes, but was apparently 20, we got back on the boat and were greeted with a huge buffet lunch. 

We spent the rest of the day snorkeling and two different locations on the reef where we saw an octopus and a white tip reef shark! After the dive tour that day we headed to a local bar on the harbor that had a two for one drink special. After about an hour is started down pouring outside so we decided to just stay at the bar for dinner and then run home to our hostel in the rain. That night we went to grab a drink at a pub near our hostel and ended up being convinced to join a pub crawl that took you to five different bars throughout the night and included a free drink at each. Even though we were exhausted from the day, we had tons of fun at each bar and didn’t make it home until 1:30 am which made waking up at 6 am the next morning extra fun! The next day we were picked up in a bus outside our hostel heading to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. The bus ride up north was long but we stopped at a wildlife habitat in Port Douglas on our way up where I got to take a picture hugging a koala bear and feed kangaroos!

 We then stopped at the Daintree River where we boarded a little boat and had a cruise down the river. We saw one crocodile and spent the rest of the tour looking for tree snakes. Lunch was next and then another long bus ride up to a “hike” through the rainforest. The “hike” was about 15 minutes long and on a wooden paneled trail—not exactly what we were expecting. However it was pouring rain like I’ve never seen! It felt like being under a shower head. Everyone else on the tour brought rain jackets and umbrellas but silly us only showed up in our shorts and tank tops. We were soaked by the end of the walk and had learned the lesson that it does rain in the rainforest. After toweling off a bit and hopping back on the bus we arrived at Cape Tribulation Beach. In one of my biology classes I took about a year ago, we spent quite a bit of time learning about the box jellyfish—a deadly jelly fish that lives off the coast of Northern Australia. One of the power point slides we studied featured a picture of a sign in Australia warning the beach goers to stay out of the water. When we arrived at Cape Tribulation Beach I realized that I had found that exact sign. I was so excited I couldn’t help but run to the sign and jump with joy—my friends of course thought I was a complete nerd. 

However, even though seeing the sign in real life pretty much made my day, it also meant that we weren’t allowed in the water. So we walked around the beach a little bit and then hopped back on the bus ready to conk out on the 3 hour bus ride home. When we arrived back at the hostel we all took warm showers which felt amazing after being soaked all day and then went out to a nice fish dinner on the harbor. We went to bed early that night because we were all so exhausted, and then spent the next morning wandering through the shops in Cairns before boarding the airplane back to Sydney. It wasn’t too hard to leave the wonderful town knowing I’d be back in the less than a week with my parents!