Well, I’ve been here for 13 days now, so I think it’s about
time to start my blog so you guys can read about my adventures! Bear with me,
the first days were jam packed with stuff, so this may get a bit boring, and this
is just going to be about the first weekin which i kept a detailed account of everything :D
Day 1: The Journey
So, I’ll start with the looooong plane ride. 14 or so hours to be more specific. It actually wasn’t that bad, I slept a little, first for 2 hours then woke up for a little, then fell back asleep for an hour and woke up again, then I got a whopping 3 hours of sleep before waking up for the rest of the flight. Luckily on the flight there’s a little screen in the headrest in front of you on every chair that had free tv shows and movies! I watched some Big Bang Theory and some How I Met Your Mother, also some New Girl which was pretty funny, and I also fit in watching The Avengers and The Muppet Movie. Oh, and some Family Guy. There was a lot of time to fill!
Anyways! So we arrived in Sydney around 6:30 (on Wednesday morning, which was actually like 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon in AZ) and got our luggage and then headed to the Meriton (the apartments where we are all staying). Luckily, mine was one of the few rooms that were actually ready so I got to head right up and take a much needed shower. Met one of my roommates also! The first day we went on a walking tour around Waterloo, the city where the Meriton is. We also had a brief orientation and then the rest of the day was ours. I went with Kristen, one of my roommates, and we decided to explore the city a bit! We took a bus to the Darling Harbor area and just walked around there for a while finding a really cool fountain, some nice shopping areas, and a couple random art structures. Definitely enjoyed walking down there and can’t wait to check out palces like the friendship garden. After that we headed back and did a little food shopping and ate some dinner. I managed to stay up until about 9:15 and then passed out until 7:15 the next morning. Needless to say, I slept well!
Day 2: Brewhaha
This day was filled orientations, walking, and bus riding. This was the day I got my new cell phone and dongle (USB plug in for internet!) I then walked around North Sydney with the awesome girls I met from Anderson and we stopped at the best café called Brewhaha for an amazing iced caramel coffee and a piece of banana bread. Ohmygosh so good. After that we headed back to the apartments and I went and had spaghetti dinner with them and we all drank wine.
SIDENOTE: Beer is $40+ for a 6-pack here. A 6-PACK. Looks like if I’m drinking here at all it’ll be wine haha.
Day 3. The day I ate
kangaroo.
This day started with going back to Brewhaha for an early morning pick-me-up, after that was the internship orientation and then a travel presentation thing as well. After that we had a welcoming lunch at a pub in the city called Australian Hotel. This is when I tried kangaroo and crocodile. Crocodile.. was disgusting, never again. Kangaroo was okay, but.. never again. Glad to say I’ve done it, but I’m good now. After that I wandered with a group of people to go see the Sydney Opera House! Let me tell you, it’s incredibly beautiful. I never knew it was tiles, I always just thought it was pure white. I’ll put pictures of that up on Facebook when I can get to some reliable wifi. But, wow. I was blown away by how gorgeous it was. After that we wandered past the Opera House into the Royal Botanical Gardens, again, wow. It was so beautiful, and green, with so many interesting plants and trees to look at. I can’t wait to go back and wander around some more!
Another side note! It’s cold here. I was not prepared for being a popsicle in the mornings and at nights and pretty much always except from about noon-1. And I don’t care if it’s in Celsius, 19 degrees is cold whichever way you look at it!
Anyways, it started to get super chilly and a little rain so we ended up finding our way back to the Meriton.
Oh and I made a note in my phone to mention that the weirdest part to having people drive on the opposite side of the road is that I have no idea which way to look when I need to cross the street!
This day started with going back to Brewhaha for an early morning pick-me-up, after that was the internship orientation and then a travel presentation thing as well. After that we had a welcoming lunch at a pub in the city called Australian Hotel. This is when I tried kangaroo and crocodile. Crocodile.. was disgusting, never again. Kangaroo was okay, but.. never again. Glad to say I’ve done it, but I’m good now. After that I wandered with a group of people to go see the Sydney Opera House! Let me tell you, it’s incredibly beautiful. I never knew it was tiles, I always just thought it was pure white. I’ll put pictures of that up on Facebook when I can get to some reliable wifi. But, wow. I was blown away by how gorgeous it was. After that we wandered past the Opera House into the Royal Botanical Gardens, again, wow. It was so beautiful, and green, with so many interesting plants and trees to look at. I can’t wait to go back and wander around some more!
Another side note! It’s cold here. I was not prepared for being a popsicle in the mornings and at nights and pretty much always except from about noon-1. And I don’t care if it’s in Celsius, 19 degrees is cold whichever way you look at it!
Anyways, it started to get super chilly and a little rain so we ended up finding our way back to the Meriton.
Oh and I made a note in my phone to mention that the weirdest part to having people drive on the opposite side of the road is that I have no idea which way to look when I need to cross the street!
Day 4: Blue Mountains
are actually blue-ish!
This was Saturday and the Blue Mountains Excursion! We all got up early and loaded onto the bus. On the bus ride I saw a Hungry Jack’s (aka Burger King) sign that called breakfast, brekky. They’re big on abbreviations (or as I like to say, abbreves) here, I guess they don’t want to waste too much time talking!
The first stop on the trip was Sydney’s Olympic Park! We only got to stop for about 15 minutes but it was really cool to see all the poles out front that had the names of every single person who helped at all with the Olympics, even people who had simply handed out flyers! Then, we loaded back onto the bus and she gave us a little factoid about the Australian 20 dollar bill. On the back, is the man who started the Royal Flying Doctors. He traveled by camel which was too slow so he approached Qantas who eventually donated a biplane. (She said more stuff but that’s as much as I could remember). Next stop was Featherdale Wildlife Zoo! I got to pet a baby wallaby at the entrance, which was possibly the cutest thing in existence. Then I got to pet a koala and take pictures with it! Found out that they sleep for 18-22 hours a day and for the time that they are awake they eat and the leaves they eat make them completely stoned out of their minds. Then I got to feed wallabies and kangaroos! The kangaroos were just small ones but they were pretty adorable. And they were different than I expected them to be, they didn’t hop everywhere, they kind of crawled and moved pretty slowly. And even the bigger ones we saw weren’t as big as I expected. Still very cool though. Oh and they weren’t really caged in so occasionally you’d have one hop right by you! After that we walked around and saw dingoes, and an alligator, and peacocks, a Tasmanian devil, funny little wombats, penguins, lots of birds, and my favorite animal of the day, an albino peacock! It was probably the prettiest animal I’ve ever seen!
Next, we stopped in a little town for lunch which wasn’t really worth mentioning, so moving on!
Our next stop was the Blue Mountains! It was kind of like a tree filled Grand Canyon. (I think I like the Grand Canyon better, but it was still very pretty). One of the main things we saw were called the Three Sisters, which was a group of rock formations which again I’ll show on Facebook. After that we went on a hike (which most people complained about) but I really enjoyed it! It was about 3.5 km which was less than 2 miles, but the first 1.5 km were 982 VERY steep steps. Scary steep. Like, if you fell, 30 people in front of you were going right down with you and not stopping until you hit the bottom. Luckily, no one fell! The hike, after the steps was absolutely gorgeous! There were a couple little trickily natural waterfalls, like tiny streams, still gorgeous nonetheless. At the almost end it opened up a bit and it was like a scene from a magazine, a bunch of waterfalls working their way through big, moss covered rocks. It was one of the prettiest landscapes I’ve ever seen that’s for sure. So in doing this hike, we were at the bottom of a mountain, and guess how we got back up? A SUPER scary, amusement-park-like ride thing. It went up at a 52 degree angle. And if you can’t paint that picture, IT’S REALLY FREAKING STEEP! I’m going to try and find a picture of this thing because nothing I say will do it justice. But then once that was over we hopped back onto the bus and drove back to the Meriton. BUT! On the way home, I saw a cockatoo just flying. I didn’t know that actually happened! Woah!
And, I have a new favorite candy or cookie, it’s kind of both, but anyways they’re Timtam bars. Holy yum.
This was Saturday and the Blue Mountains Excursion! We all got up early and loaded onto the bus. On the bus ride I saw a Hungry Jack’s (aka Burger King) sign that called breakfast, brekky. They’re big on abbreviations (or as I like to say, abbreves) here, I guess they don’t want to waste too much time talking!
The first stop on the trip was Sydney’s Olympic Park! We only got to stop for about 15 minutes but it was really cool to see all the poles out front that had the names of every single person who helped at all with the Olympics, even people who had simply handed out flyers! Then, we loaded back onto the bus and she gave us a little factoid about the Australian 20 dollar bill. On the back, is the man who started the Royal Flying Doctors. He traveled by camel which was too slow so he approached Qantas who eventually donated a biplane. (She said more stuff but that’s as much as I could remember). Next stop was Featherdale Wildlife Zoo! I got to pet a baby wallaby at the entrance, which was possibly the cutest thing in existence. Then I got to pet a koala and take pictures with it! Found out that they sleep for 18-22 hours a day and for the time that they are awake they eat and the leaves they eat make them completely stoned out of their minds. Then I got to feed wallabies and kangaroos! The kangaroos were just small ones but they were pretty adorable. And they were different than I expected them to be, they didn’t hop everywhere, they kind of crawled and moved pretty slowly. And even the bigger ones we saw weren’t as big as I expected. Still very cool though. Oh and they weren’t really caged in so occasionally you’d have one hop right by you! After that we walked around and saw dingoes, and an alligator, and peacocks, a Tasmanian devil, funny little wombats, penguins, lots of birds, and my favorite animal of the day, an albino peacock! It was probably the prettiest animal I’ve ever seen!
Next, we stopped in a little town for lunch which wasn’t really worth mentioning, so moving on!
Our next stop was the Blue Mountains! It was kind of like a tree filled Grand Canyon. (I think I like the Grand Canyon better, but it was still very pretty). One of the main things we saw were called the Three Sisters, which was a group of rock formations which again I’ll show on Facebook. After that we went on a hike (which most people complained about) but I really enjoyed it! It was about 3.5 km which was less than 2 miles, but the first 1.5 km were 982 VERY steep steps. Scary steep. Like, if you fell, 30 people in front of you were going right down with you and not stopping until you hit the bottom. Luckily, no one fell! The hike, after the steps was absolutely gorgeous! There were a couple little trickily natural waterfalls, like tiny streams, still gorgeous nonetheless. At the almost end it opened up a bit and it was like a scene from a magazine, a bunch of waterfalls working their way through big, moss covered rocks. It was one of the prettiest landscapes I’ve ever seen that’s for sure. So in doing this hike, we were at the bottom of a mountain, and guess how we got back up? A SUPER scary, amusement-park-like ride thing. It went up at a 52 degree angle. And if you can’t paint that picture, IT’S REALLY FREAKING STEEP! I’m going to try and find a picture of this thing because nothing I say will do it justice. But then once that was over we hopped back onto the bus and drove back to the Meriton. BUT! On the way home, I saw a cockatoo just flying. I didn’t know that actually happened! Woah!
And, I have a new favorite candy or cookie, it’s kind of both, but anyways they’re Timtam bars. Holy yum.
Day 5. The disappointment of Ginger ale.
Woke up feeling a tad homesick so I ended up calling my wonderful sister and she cheered me up! After that I went to the grocery store, and let me tell you. Shopping here just isn’t the same. They have a lot of the same-ish stuff. But it’s all just a little… off. The brands are just a little different and the taste follows suit. Chicken flavored chips are kinda big here, so that’s different! All the frozen pizzas are a little odd as well, no “normal” cheese or pepperoni. Hawaiian is popular and ham and other somewhat random flavors.
Now, gingerale is somewhat of a comfort food (err.. drink) for me so I was excited to see they had it! Although nervous that it looked different than what I remembered it to look like in the U.S. but I decided to try it anyways. Well, it tastes like someone put a ginger plant in a blender and then put some sparkling water in it or something. Straight from the garden. Aaaaand not my cup of tea, but that’s okay.
Also, Philadelphia cream cheese has a weird consistency, it’s almost grainy. Bagels are super tasty though! Other than the fact that they get moldy really quickly.
Funny story for Katie and my mom.. So remember like 3 weeks ago I was eating that pita bread and then mom pointed out that it was moldy? Yeah well I’m pretty sure that my parents didn’t teach me to inspect my food well enough because I ate a third of a moldy bagel the other morning. Sooo.. that was fun.
Anyways!
Later in the day I went and found my internship and then explored The Rocks, which was really cool! There was a cool little market type thing going on with people selling art and jewelry and clothes and candies and other random stuff too. Definitely looking forward to going back.
Woke up feeling a tad homesick so I ended up calling my wonderful sister and she cheered me up! After that I went to the grocery store, and let me tell you. Shopping here just isn’t the same. They have a lot of the same-ish stuff. But it’s all just a little… off. The brands are just a little different and the taste follows suit. Chicken flavored chips are kinda big here, so that’s different! All the frozen pizzas are a little odd as well, no “normal” cheese or pepperoni. Hawaiian is popular and ham and other somewhat random flavors.
Now, gingerale is somewhat of a comfort food (err.. drink) for me so I was excited to see they had it! Although nervous that it looked different than what I remembered it to look like in the U.S. but I decided to try it anyways. Well, it tastes like someone put a ginger plant in a blender and then put some sparkling water in it or something. Straight from the garden. Aaaaand not my cup of tea, but that’s okay.
Also, Philadelphia cream cheese has a weird consistency, it’s almost grainy. Bagels are super tasty though! Other than the fact that they get moldy really quickly.
Funny story for Katie and my mom.. So remember like 3 weeks ago I was eating that pita bread and then mom pointed out that it was moldy? Yeah well I’m pretty sure that my parents didn’t teach me to inspect my food well enough because I ate a third of a moldy bagel the other morning. Sooo.. that was fun.
Anyways!
Later in the day I went and found my internship and then explored The Rocks, which was really cool! There was a cool little market type thing going on with people selling art and jewelry and clothes and candies and other random stuff too. Definitely looking forward to going back.
Day 6. The interview,
dun, dun, DUNNNNNNNN!
It went well J. I was freaking out! But it ended up being a group interview with 2 other girls on the trip and the interviewer, Joel, took us into a room and basically just asked what we wanted to do or get out of the internship and then he walked us around Quay West. And that was it!
I work in the marketing department of the Quay Grand Suites Sydney, which is a RIDICULOUSLY nice hotel with apartment style rooms and beautiful views. Honestly, nicest hotel I’ve ever been in!
It went well J. I was freaking out! But it ended up being a group interview with 2 other girls on the trip and the interviewer, Joel, took us into a room and basically just asked what we wanted to do or get out of the internship and then he walked us around Quay West. And that was it!
I work in the marketing department of the Quay Grand Suites Sydney, which is a RIDICULOUSLY nice hotel with apartment style rooms and beautiful views. Honestly, nicest hotel I’ve ever been in!
OKAY! That’s it for now. I’ll write about what I do at work
in my next post. Again, sorry for all the details, I’m new to blogging so
hopefully I’ll get less boring as I go!
I miss everyone at home a ton!
I miss everyone at home a ton!
AND for your viewing pleasure, PICTURES! :)
this is me petting a BABY adorable wallaby!
a bunch of us on the way down the 982 steps on our Blue Mountain hike
Manly beach:)
me feeding a kangroo!
me and an old man in front of the opera house! aka. this was the first time I had seen it and I really wanted to get a picture with it, and the old man being in it didn't phase me. but I will be getting a better one of this soon :)
PS. I should definitely mention that i am LOVING this adventure. I am completely out of my element and doing my best to figure out what the heck I am doing. I'm learning new things every day and I am so thankful that I have this opportunity!
I finally found the time to sit down and read your first blog...babe you are really funny. You write just like you talk. I felt like I could hear you saying the words. I really enjoyed this first installment of what I look forward to being a wonderful verbal picture of your adventure. Miss you, Love Dad
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