Adventure's in Sydney! :-D

Well, I made it back from Sydney!!! Here's the adventure!

Friday
We were on the train at 6:37 am!!! So early! The train ride up really isn't that bad though... the train is pretty comfy and because it's so early you get to see a lot of kangaroos out the windows having their morning brekky. Plus you get to see a lot of the country side that you would normally miss out on. We arrived into Sydney Central Station at around 10:45 and dragged our enormous luggage(Laurens are not known for being light packers) to the taxi stand and caught a taxi to the Pacific International Suites on Kent Street. We had gotten a pretty good deal and the hotel was wonderful. I'd definitely stay there again. It's a very narrow building with about 27 floors that's tucked away on Kent. It's about two blocks from Darling Harbour, 2 blocks from the Town Hall Train Station and the Queen Victoria Building and a medium length walk to Circular Quay (Opera House, the Rocks, Harbour Bridge, etc) and to the Central Train Station. Our suite was really nice, with a fully equipped kitchennette, lounge and bedroom, plus a balcony with a wonderful view of... the building across the street.. hehe oh well! After checking in we wandered over to Darling Harbour.
Darling Harbour is really pretty (pictures to follow) and its definitely one of my favorite places on Earth. The Imax theatre, Sydney Aquarium, Maritime Museum, Harbourside Shopping, and the ferry docks among other things are all there, and it looks gorgeous at night! We decided to head towards the aquarium and passed a travel agent on the way, noticing a sign about a day trip to the Blue Mountains. We went in just to ask about it, and it turns out that for Saturday only they were running a half price deal. So we booked a tour for $50AUD for the next morning and headed on to the aquarium. Although it was pretty unimpressive from the outside, it was a different story inside. They have a really great Barrier Reef and Shark exhibit in particular and of course... a finding nemo exhibit, hehe! After the aquarium we stopped in Starbucks (of course) and then wandered around the shopping centre. For dinner we were tryign to decide where to go and Lauren suggested fish and chips and I told her that was fine, that I had never tried it before. You would've thought I had told her that I had never drank water the way she stared at me. Classic reaction! Evidently this was quite a sin and so we quickly found a fish and chips take away place to rectify the situation. And it was pretty good! Even though we have battered fish at home, it just takes better from a real fish and chips place on the harbour in Sydney, Australia. Yum! After this we went back home and crashed out.
Saturday
The next morning we were up bright and early to find our pick up point for our tour to the Blue Mountains. It was gorgeous because it had been raining that morning and as we walked down the street there was a huge rainbow over our heads. What a way to start the adventure! The Blue Mountains is a range to the west of Sydney where the mountains really do look blue. And I know, you're thinking, yes but all ranges look blue from a distance (hence the Blue Ridge, etc) but these mountains are blue even when you're right in them. This is because of the sunlight reflecting off the eucalyptus oils in the air. Anyway, the bus ride was about 90 minutes but it passed quickly because the driver was an excellent tour guide and provided a lot of interesting information about Sydney along the way. Our first stop was a lookout over Wentworth Falls where we had an hour to explore and have brekky. Of course Lauren and I promptly wander off and start hiking down some trail, lose track of time and have to power walk back to the bus just in time. And we missed breakfast! So, the next stop went a bit smoother with a quick stop at Govett's Leap where it's a legend that Govett and his horse dove off the cliff to escape a bushranger and their bodies have never been found. Regardless it was beautiful! Then we went to Scenic World, where we saw the Three Sisters (a rock formation with an Aboriginal Legend behind it) and rode the world's steepest railroad directly down a cliff and wandered through the rainforest at the bottom. Simply beautiful. Then it was back to Sydney, by way of the Olympic Park and a ferry ride back to Darling Harbour. We were pretty tired by then so we relaxed for a little in the hotel and then went back out to get dinner. We ate at a really good italian place on the water and then ventured over to the Star City Casino. Because we signed up for some membership deal, they gave us $10 credit for free, which went a long way on the .02 machines! I actually won about $23AUD! Beginner's luck ;-)
Sunday
we started by going to a church service at St. Andrews Anglican church. We actually found the church in the phone book of all places and it turned out beautifully because it was about 2 blocks away and a gorgeous old renovated church, complete with bells and spires. Then we made the trek over to Central Station where we caught a train for the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Basically it's a big carnivale held in the Olympic Park, but it was a lot of fun. they had barns full of horses, cows, dogs, and cats. We watched some of the horse show jumping competitions in the main arena and then wandered around the show grounds for awhile. We also looked around the Show Bag Pavillion which is basically where you can purchase goodie bags chock full of candies or toys or whatever. So many people there! After that we went back to the main arena to try and get seats for the rodeo, but all the seats were taken. We eventually got into a queue to be seated when they became available, but people kept cutting in front of us and we ended up standing for two hours through several presentations. I was a bit cranky and dehydrated at this point, so we bought some Krispy Kremes (a novelty for Canberrans) and dinner and headed home. We got back around 11 so it was a pretty full day!
Yesterday
we went to Bondi Beach after checking out of the hotel. Australian beaches are nothing like the ones at home. Even the nontropical ones have deep blue and turquoise water and soft sandy beaches. Because it was a public holiday it was decently crowded. We laid out on the beach for a little, although it was really too cold and we eventually went for lunch and to walk around the town. We found a great little patisserie for dinner and then caught the bus back into central sydney.The funniest part of the trip was that we then had to drag our huge suitcases up a fairly steep incline to get the train station from the hotel. We must've looked a mess, all windblown and sunburnt dragging our bags, hahaha! But eventually, after a few near mishaps getting onto the trains, we made it back to Canberra around 10:30 last night!All in all, a great weekend in Sydney!
And now it's time to start cracking down on all the work I need to get done! I miss everyone at home and I hope to hear from everyone soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love
Lo

Wow, long time no update

Wow! Sorry again for the huge delays in updating. Things have been busy!
This weekend had been good. Lauren and I are house-sitting at the Treddinicks, the family whom we babysat for. What that means is that we’re actually living at their house while they’re on vacation at the coast. Hence it’s been a bit difficult to get to the internet! But overall so far its been very relaxing and time to catch up on some much needed work. Yesterday (Sunday) in particular was nice because the weather was gorgeous (low 70s) and I spent most of the day lying on their huge trampoline getting a tan and reading for developmental psychology. Also spent time playing with Lucy, their golden retriever and envying her life and the huge backyard she has to play in! (Pictures to follow).
Today (Monday) was a public holiday in Canberra. Evidently it used to be celebrated on the 12th of March to commemorate the day when the Governor General’s wife opened the envelope that gave Canberra its official name way back when it was first settled. But due to Canberran’s love of the long weekend, Canberra Day is now celebrated on the third Monday of March… sounds a bit like home with our holidays! Anyhow, most Canberran’s go to the coast so the town has been pretty quiet. I was very fortunate, however, and today I got a private tour of the Australian National Botanic Gardens! The Sander’s are friends with a retired couple, Pat and Warwick Wright, who volunteer at the Gardens and give tours. Stephany, Anna and I met them at 10 and spent two wonderful hours walking around the gardens. Unlike most national gardens, the ANBG houses (for the most part) only native plants. They were originally planted schematically, putting all acacias in one area and gum trees in the next, but the more recent plantings have been done according to ecosystem. We saw more plant species than I knew existed (the ANBG houses 1/3 of Australian species) and learned a lot about the Aboriginal culture and how they used plants. One sort of interesting example was a purple pea plant that the Aboriginal men used to drop into muddy fishing holes. This reduced the oxygen content of the water, temporarily stunning the fish and causing them to rise to the top to be easily captured. Another example was a lily plant that produced fermented nectar and when the birds drank it, they became ‘drunk’ and allowed for easy capture. Aboriginal’s were the original conservationists.

updated 24/3- Sorry for the long time between updates again! Unfortunately I haven't gotten to finish this entry because I'm off to Sydney in 6 hours! But I'm really missing everyone from home these days, so no worries, none of you are forgotten!

Updates when I get back on Tuesday or Wednesday! Happy Easter!

Lo

Week 5

Hello all! I've now been in Canberra for 5 weeks, and i'm still loving it.
Before I update on what's been going on here, I have to give a quick scold to many of the Hokies who I have not heard from much! :-(I feel a little unloved guys!
Okay anyway, enough of that. Things are going really well and I'm still in love with Australia. School has gotten really busy lately hence the longer time in between updates. This past weekend was a blast however! Friday night we went to a Brumbie's game. To explain it a bit better, 'football' in Australia can mean one of the three things. There is the AFL, which I don't really understand but I will surely get a full education as the Sander's are huge Adelaide Crows fans. Then there is rugby, divided into Rugby League and Rugby Union. As far as I can tell, Rugby Union is extremely similar to American Rugby but its on a much bigger scale here. Anyway, the Brumbie's are Canberra's Rugby Union team and they have quite a decent following. We got there a little late (their stadium is on the North Side, about 30 minutes from where we live) and had to scramble to meet up with Thiru (Lauren's boyfriend) and find seats. It was a group of 6 of us- the two Laurens, Thiru, Thiru's friend Alex, Aaron (who stayed with me at Christmas), and Anna, my friend from Australearn. The game was so much fun! The boys had to explain it from the beginning but by the end I think I had mastered most of the rules. The stadium holds about 30,000 people, maybe a little less, and on Friday there was a crowd of about 23,000. That's pretty good considering we were playing a team from South Africa! I got to try Australian beer finally, which I'm pretty sure tastes the same as most American beers, but for some reason tasted much better while watching a rugby game in that stadium ;-)
after the Brumbie's won we all went to O'Connor (another suburb) to Au Bar Nun, a local bar. It was quite noisy and a Rugby League game was on. None of the girls were drinking so we only stayed for 40 minutes or so before leaving. Anna stayed the night, which was a good break from dormlife for her. The next day anna and I went Lauren's parents to Tuggeranong to drop Lauren off at work. Then we went to do some grocery shopping for anna and met her parents to come home. Later that afternoon Anna and I went into Woden to go shopping (Lauren was still at work). We had just over an hour before we had to catch the bus home, and of course we missed the bus by about 15 seconds, literally. So we took advantage of the extra half hour and walked over to Goodberry's so Anna good try their delicious ice cream. When we walked up, however, I saw that the sign above the door now read "JigSaw" which really threw me because I just been to Goodberry's a week before. Strange. Evidently they're all changing the names, but its still the same store inside with the same yummy ice cream! Thank goodness! Then we caught the bus back home. Anna was so funny because she hadn't really been off campus that much and it was her first real taste of Australia. And if you haven't seen it before, Canberra is gorgeous. That night we stayed home and watched the Notebook. Can't get enough of that movie.
Sunday we dropped Anna back at ANU, well fed and chock full of groceries :-) That evening we went again to Belconnen (in the north) because Thiru had injured himself playing Rugby and Lauren wanted to go visit him. So we dropped her off at his place and then the Sanders and I went to the nearby lake. It was GORGEOUS. We grabbed tea at Subway and ate by the lake. There were black swans and cute little black ducks everywhere. The lake was fairly nice, although you wouldn't want to swim in it, but at sunset it looked amazing. Water always has that relaxing effect. I took a fair few pictures that I'll post at a later date, but it was a really nice evening. Unfortunatly the weather is getting hotter (up near 90) for the next couple of days and then its supposed to cool off dramatically. I hope so, ya'll know how I hate the heat!
This week is going to be super busy, so if I don't update much, that's why. I got slammed with three out of four tutorials in one week, so needless to say I'll be on campus late this week. fortunately i don't think this happens again this semester. This weekend we start housesitting for the people we babysat for. I'm so excited, of course about the dog ;-) But we'll be staying at their place all next week. Then that weekend we go to Sydney for the 4day Easter weekend. The weekend after that is Melbourne for an AFL game and to see the city and two weekends after that we leave for Adelaide for David's wedding! So some awesome and busy times coming up!
Thanks again to everyone who has emailed/sent cards & letters. I miss you all so much!
AJ- long email coming soon, I promise! :-)
Lo

Great Barrier Reef pictures

So much to write, not nearly enough time. So instead I offer great barrier reef pictures. Enjoy ;-) Updates to follow.

Lots of love
Lo

Sky Fire

Last night was so much fun!!!
The evening started at about 6:30 when we picked Stephany and Anna up from their college and went to Commonwealth Park. We met Skye there and set up our picnic rugs. It was soooo cold! It had literally been in the 90s two days before and around the lake it was about 50. We were bundled up in sweatshirts and North Face jackets, hehe. It was kind of funny- so much for an end of summer celebration, more like a 'welcome winter!' one! We had all brought something for tea and had chicken caesar wraps and pasta salad and bread rolls and desserts... yummy! We all sat around and talked until about 8:30 when the fireworks began. They were gorgeous, set to a soundtrack put on by 104.7. It included the history of Canberra with some time pieces and contemporary music set to the fireworks. The only bad thing about the show was the crowd it attracted... a lot of younger kids who decided it would be the cool thing to do and walk around while everyone else was trying to watch the show. Anna finally got so annoyed because they were walking right over our blankets that she moved over and blocked their path. One of Lauren's friend Meegan decided to poke them in the back of the knees with one of our umbrellas because they were standing right in front of us. We sort of felt like old ladies, but it was funny.
After the show, Lauren, Stephany, Anna, Meegan, Skye and I went up to Redhill lookout, which is up on top of a hill. It's very cool- I've been there before when I was last here during the day. It's very different at night though- almost as good of a view as from the Telstra Tower. The coolest thing is that it is so quiet up there and dark, you kind of lose yourself in the view. Plus the stars above are amazing. Meegan and I were comparing what we call Orion's belt and what they call the Saucepan. You can also pick out the Southern Cross here, which is the constellation on all of their flags.
After this Meegan and Skye went home and the rest of us went into Civic. Lauren needed to go and meet up with her boyfriend while the three of us decided we were not up for, nor properly dressed for, the clubbing scene. So instead we went and sat in the pancake parlour where Chantelle works. There's this huge chess set that Stephany and Anna started playing. While we were doing that, these three hot Aussie blokes came up and started talking to us. They were so funny, and started calling me CIA when they found out I was from Virginia. Anna got into a heated chess game with two of them, while Stephany and I chatted up the other. It was so fun to interact with some of the locals and show them that not all Americans are stuck up and rude and whatever else... One of the guys is in a class with Anna and I so we'll see if we meet up with him anymore. We stayed their until almost 1:30 when the place literally kicked us out. Then we split from the boys and found Lauren and went home. All in all it was a fantastic night and it was so good to get out and meet people and see more of Canberra!
Well I really should go and start some homework. I'm already so far behind. I also need to start looking at Grad school/Vet school applications. How scary is that!

More pictures (in the Canberra 2005 album)

Love
Lo!

VT kids- ya'll are on break now- I expect emails :-)

Update

Grrr I just typed a long update and lost it AGAIN, so this one may be briefer.
Okay, well things have been going well. Classes are good, but tough. One of them i can't stand however, and that's Social Psych tutorial (like a recitation). It's just one of those painful classes where the TA tries to get everyone to talk and no one will answer. Also all the lab exercises are about identifying the IV and DV and thigns like that, which has gotten a little old by this point in my education. So we'll see how it goes, but it's not lookign too promising.
Wednesday was a lot of fun. We went to a farewell party for Lauren's friend Kristie. She's moving to Bathurst (about 3.5 hours north) withher boyfriend so everyone is fairly upset that she's leaving. We went to Hog's Breath in Woden for dinner. I was a little nervous about this, but one of the girls remembered me from last time so she and I had a good chat. This helped break the ice with everyone else- its always difficult to be the outsider and be accepted. After dinner we went next door to Goodberry's for ice cream. Yum! Everyone in this group is super friendly and remind me a lot of people from home- very comforting. Chantelle, who stayed with me over Christmas, gave me a lift which was nice because we got to catch up a little. She's also attending ANU so we're going to try and meet up sometimes for coffee and such. She owns and boards a horse in Canberra so she's going to take me out to meet him sometime. Woohoo! You all know how excited I am about that :-D
Tomorrow is Sky Fire, which is a big celebration that Canberra puts on every year to celebrate the end of summer. A radio station puts on a soundtrack thats coordinated to a fireworks show over the Lake. We're going early with the same group from Wednesday plus some of my friends from Australearn to have a picnic by the lake before the show starts. I'm so excited! I hope it doesn't rain, but it should be a lot of fun!
Okay kids , I'm off to bed. Thanks for all the emails! :-) Maggs- thank you for the card. It's gorgeous. AJ- email to come soon I promise!!!! VT kids- you made it to break!!! Congrats and have so much fun!!!! Love and miss you all!

Lo

More pictures (btw~ to view them, click View Pictures and then View as a slideshow to view them full size!)

Quick update

I'm super sleepy so this will be a really quick update.
Things are going well with classes- I really love Developmental Psych, but Nervous Systems is still going to be the death of me. Caught up with Anna and Stephany today... it was good to see some familiar faces!!! Figured out what classes I need to take next semesters to graduate- scary. I remember when I had 8 to plan, and now its down to TWO. Bizarre.
I need to give a huge ...
THANK YOU
to Sara for the awesome care package she sent :-) :-) :-) That meant a lot SAM! And to my Dad for all the mail- I looooooooove getting mail! :-)
Also- CMF- If I don't hear from you soon missy, I'm going to have to come and find out if you're still alive!!!! Email me ;-)

Okay kids, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow will be another busy and early day. But be jealous, it was 90 degrees today and gorgeous, 86 tomorrow and 80 on Thursday... gotta love Australian summers! Missing the snow, missing everyone from home, but hang in there guys- it's almost Spring Break for ya'll!
Great Barrier Reef pics will be up next week- I finally dropped off the film! Longer update to follow soon!

Lo