Harbour Bridge, Woolloomooloo, IMAX

 Yesterday I took a walk on the Harbour Bridge in the morning. It was fantastic. The weather was nice, the walk was easy, and there were cute guys running with the occasional one glancing back. Teehee. I walked across and back then took the Cahill route to the Royal Botanic Gardens to meet with Hannah, Karissa, and Marianne. I got sidetracked and ended up taking a tour at the Government House. There were no photos allowed inside, but oh my goodness that place was incredibly gorgeous. Especially the dining room and ballroom. I just wanted to dance in there. There was an upstairs balcony where the band would have played. I was immediately swept into Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey. Oh gosh it was amazing. It was definitely one of my favorite places I've been to so far. I couldn't keep my mouth closed. The chandeliers, dining table, ornate grandfather clock, and decor were exquisite. I had to refrain from touching everything. After that, I finally met up with the group and we made our way towards Paddy's Market. We stopped by the St. Mary's Cathedral and went inside. I took some sneaky pics but they don't do it justice at all. It was so beautiful inside. The stained glass windows and architecture was mesmerizing

We left and found this nice platform on a pool of water much like a catwalk. Karissa and I Blue Steel'd for the cameras. We got to the markets and found that it was an indoor mall upstairs with a flea market downstairs. There was a ping-pong tournament on the first floor. No big deal. We explored the flea market first. It was huge and overwhelming and looked exactly the same in every direction. Lots of clothes, souvenirs, uggs, makeup, and random stuff. I got souvenirs and a nice dress with a china-like print. I got upstairs and bought a couple things, including the nice silk-like robe I'm wearing right now from Cotton-on Body. I love that store. I had sizzling Mongolian Beef for dinner and it was delicious. They do meat really good here. It's always super tender. Points for cow-shaped plate. I went back down to find the rest of the group and got distracted by three fluffy poodles.

 We met up with Esther and walked to the IMAX theatre. Lauren arrived and we enjoyed Spiderman 3D on the largest screen in the world. It was pretty epic. I took more sneaky pics some of which turned out pretty good. I love Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield is growing on me. I think I may like this one better than the originals. Tobey Maguire was too moody. It was a crazy awesome experience. We left the theatre and explored a bit of Chinatown. We tried Emperor puffs which were kind of like a mix between eggetts and Beard Papas. Nomnomsss

Botany Bay

So I'm terrible at keeping a blog. I know that no one reads this, but I'd still like to make it presentable. I continually post happenings days after they've occurred and I apologize. We had a field trip to Botany Bay Thurs July 5th. It was pouring and we spent a good deal of the time indoors watching films. We finally got out when the rain stopped and took a nice nature walk. I missed those since the Blue Mountains. Geoff, our teacher after Rosalie is very entertaining and a good lecturer. But even that doesn't help keep me awake in lecture every morning. Sighs. Anyway, we ended our time at Botany Bay with whale watching. I did see some whales but it was nothing like when me and Aunt Helen went whale watching and saw them up close.

ZOOSNOOZ

Came back today from our overnight stay at the Taronga Zoo. It was fun getting to know the animals after dark, but really there wasn't much to see at night. We got to hold some cool critters such as the diamond python and a couple of marsupials. Our group was so large - 52 people- they split us up. Our wildlife group stuck together for the most part. I preferred seeing the zoo during the daytime. I fulfilled my life goal of seeing a platypus, a red panda, and the fairy penguin. My life is now complete. One of the wallabies got real friendly and gave me, Esther, and Kelvin each a kiss. I definitely had to refrain myself from grabbing it and running. I got a plush platypus from the shop. Her name is Persephone, Perry for short.

We ferried back to Circular Key and Esther and I decided to check out the Contemporary Art Museum. There were some pretty cool pieces and some wacky ones. More the latter. Still, free admission and I'm not complaining. I made a trip back to the Opera House to scour the shop and picked up a nifty teal passport holder. I then made my way back to campus and ended the day with a sushi dinner with Hannah. We reviewed our days shopping and at the zoo. I just bought Spiderman 3D tickets for Sydney's IMAX theatre, the largest in the world! Super excited.

Surf's Up

This all happened yesterday and I'll start with the beginning of the day. I gave my presentation on feral camels and I consider it one of the best presentations I've ever given so far. I was definitely less nervous and my peers found it amusing, especially since I included this picture. And I also wore my vintage camel sweater that I bought at Supre in dt Sydney. After that success, Kelvin stole the show during his presentation when he gave a impressive statistic on foxes and said "that sh*t cray," which somehow escaped our professor, but cracked up the class.

We left for our surf lesson at Bondi right after lunch and suited up. The weather was morbid with huge rainclouds hovering, looking heavy with rain. By the time we got our boards, it was pouring. The hardest part was getting into the water with our boards since the waves kept cresting and knocking me over. I must have swallowed at least a gallon of ocean water. After numerous tumbles involving me being knocked over my board and having the board land on top of me, I finally stood up! It was a glorious moment. Once I actually stood up for a significant amount of time and I whooped while on my board. Now I can say I'm a surfer. I should invest in a wetsuit and try surfing back home, where there are no sharks.

Kelvin Says

Since his musings are so hilarious, I will dedicate a post, which I will update, to Kelvin.

7/3/12 Discussing religion:
"I don't have a religion." I am not good at following rules and I don't give a sh*t."

Kelvin's Logic

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but while we were at Bondi Beach, Kelvin made a statement that had us all gasping for air. Here it is:

"I see birds and when there are birds there are fish. When there are fish there will be sharks. When there are sharks and people, there is Jaws."

I die.

Bondi Beach Festival

 So I did end up going to the beach at Bondi and it was gorgeous. I am going to run out of adjectives soon to describe Australia. Many surfers were braving the waves and the sand was like powered sugar.
The festival seemed to be an environmental awareness one since booths were mostly campaigning for support towards national parks and reserves. I got myself a small carton of chips (fries) and wandered barefoot on the beach with Esther while Karissa and Kelvin stayed ashore.

We walked to the end of the beach where there were many large rocks and tide pools. There we did some shell searching. I got to a rock close to where some fisherman lay their lines when a huge wave, taller than me, crashed into the nearby rocks. I thought it was the end. It would engulf me and take me to its watery depths and my time in Australia would be over. But luckily, all I got were soaked jeans.

But seriously, I was terrified out of my mind for a second there. I quickly retreated and headed back towards shore and realized that was no easy feat. I found a huge triangular rock and reached over and landed flat on my stomach. In that position, I crawled up the side of the rock and straddled the top. There I booty-hopped my way across only to reach another downward sloping rock. I inched myself off, fearing that I would slide to my death and praying that friction would save me. What an adventure. Esther was more daring, she passed the rock where I almost got eaten by the ocean and discovered natural sandstone etchings in the wall. It wasn't an easy way out of the rocks though. By the time we all made it out safely, the sun was starting to go down. We went over to the ice skating rink, which was bizarre to see next to the beach, and got ourselves free cups of chai latte. It was lovely. Then we had dinner at a Japanese ramen place, which filled our bellies with nice warm soup and noodles. And that was the end of a rather eventful day.