Home Sweet Home..

So as you all probably know (or have guessed), I am now back home. The flight was terrible, I had strep throat, and I was nearly two weeks late for school, but I have finally almost made up for all of those things. I just had midterms, have seen many of my friends, gotten a job, and am now trying to tackle the 'let's transfer grades back from Australia' mess. Overall, I think I am doing pretty well. :) Just thought you all should know.

DONE

I have finished finals over here. I promise oh test grading gods, that if you pass me in all my subjects I will legitimately focus on school this summer. Thank you.
YAY! I AM DONE WITH FINALS IN AUSTRALIA. Phew.

Now to enjoy my remaining days, without any terror floating over my head.

Hats Off To Studying

Wait...
Okay, what I meant to say was that I made a hat while meaning to study.
... Yep.

Now you can admire my skillz, and wish me luck on my exam later today. LAST ONE! And yes, I will likely need all the luck I can get. I have been rather distracted with packing and other minor activities. Oh well.

The Suitcase Nightmare

Needless to say, I have more stuff than I came to Australia with. I need to somehow stuff all of it into my suitcase... This is a problem. I am afraid that I will fail miserably, and end up wearing six outfits through the airport.

On A Side Note

I am thinking of taking up quilting because I saw a really awesome PacMan quilt online. Not that I would make one of those. Mine would obviously be Harry Potter themed. Clearly.

I can tell that Mom, as you are reading this, are not thrilled at the prospect of your living room being covered in fabric bits.

Sydney At Last

My friend, Jocelyn and I left early one Saturday morning for the train station. We boarded the train and headed to the airport, where we boarded our flight to Sydney. They we sat. For some reason, short flights always seem really long to me, whereas longs ones seem short, because I can sleep through the whole thing.
Anyway, we finally arrived in Sydney at about ten in the morning, took a train to the central part of the city, and found ourselves nearly face-to-face with the Sydney Opera House. It was beautiful. We could see the bridge, the opera house, and a wonderful view of the water, all while standing in one spot. It was splendid.

Afterward, we took a stroll through the botanical gardens, which was suggested by my Grandpa's friend. It was well worth our time. However, all the trees looked so climbable, that we had to use all our self discipline to resist running up the trunks.

After this little expedition, we went to find a library, use the internet, and then with the help of google maps, set off for our hotel. In Australia there are bunches of websites that offer "deals" on all things local, from hotels to plumbing. It's very useful. In this case, we got to spend our first night in a hotel for a very cheap price. And it had a sauna and pool. Epic. After checking in, we went on a little exploration of the surroundings which included a massive asian shopping complex. Now satisfied with bubble tea, and picking up some ramen for dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening in the pool/sauna (and in Jocelyn's case, the gym).
Then we went back to the room, where I showered and fell asleep. Jocelyn did not sleep. After working out, she left for two hours to go on a run.

On day two of our trip we went on a wonderful ferry ride. Although, there was a very strange boy on the ferry that tried talking to Jocelyn. I found this rather amusing, and proceeded to take pictures of the surroundings.

Hark! The land of Manly!
We had arrived. Luckily, it was a very nice day out, and the Manly food and wine festival was in full swing, so we headed straight to the beach, and spent the morning wandering, and listening to the live music. Whimsical.

By this point of the trip Jocelyn seemed to be annoyed with how many pictures I was taking of her. Understandable now that I look back on it. But really, in twenty years, I'm sure she will find something to appreciate about it.
After Manly we went back to Sydney to pick up our camper van. It was a spaceship named Potter. I was pleased. However, the finding of Potter, and the van kerfuffle with getting insurance for it (which we may have needed by the end of the trip), this whole experience took the remainder of the afternoon.
Finally we were off in Potter to find Bondi Junction.
OH! I forgot to tell you! The morning of this fine day led me to the local starbucks, where I met a former UW husky who bought be coffee. It was neat.
Anyway, back to Bondi. We found the junction, we had great pizza (I have a new love for potato pizza), and then slept in the van which was parked on the street by some park.

The next day led us to Bondi beach. It's famous. I was expecting it to be some grand and impressive beach. Alas, it is a peanut of a beach. So small. I could hardly imaging it holding hundreds of people. We didn't go in the water, because it was a rather nippy day, but we did find ourselves a park with some sculptures, and walked in the sand, to say we did. There were some crazy little boys running around naked in the water. They looked very cold. Our feet led us off the beach and along the strip mall where we found a wonderful little gelato shop. Now, I am not one to pass up gelato, so we had some, and were very delighted with the shop and it's very Italian manager. We then walked back towards the beach with the intention of going back near the junction. Along one side of the beach we saw this public pool, that had a fee of $5 per person for the whole day to use the pool and sauna. We couldn't resist. We spent the afternoon soaking and steaming, and left feeling all sorts of warm fuzzies. We then went to the van, changed clothes, and drove back to the main part of the city.
On one of the previously mentioned deals menus we found this deal that was $70 for two of us for a very nice multi-course seafood dinner, with wine. Valued at $160. It was the best meal we had on the whole trip (not hard since most others were ramen). I have now tasted various Australian fish, that I don't remember the names of. This was one of our favorite days on the whole trip. We wrapped it up by going to the wharf, and watching the Vivid Sydney show. This is a show where lasers and lights are displayed on the walls of the opera house at night, and they change shapes and colors, taking various forms as they move across the shell-like opera house exterior. I sat under a tree that was lit up and looked like it belonged on Pandora. We had tea and coffee, and finally dragged our tired feet in the direction of the van.
Before we reached the van, a powerful urge to pee came over me. This led us to a bar in order to find a bathroom. As we had already shared a bottle of wine, we skipped getting drinks, but fell victim to the pool table. As it turns out, Jocelyn and I are both very ordinary when it comes to playing pool. The other men that we ended up playing with found this rather amusing. It seems that Monday night with when all these middle aged men gather at this bar and chill. We had interrupted with our lousy pool skills, but they didn't seem to mind. In fact, they were very nice, played a couple games with us, told us a bit about Sydney, and then saw us off about an hour later.
Now with empty bladders, and much clearer heads, we found our way back to the van.
Jocelyn then drove us to some random park, and I woke up with no recollection of where I was or how I had gotten there. Luckily, my travel partner did.

And thus our adventure in Sydney was over.
Next up: the road trip North.

Two Down, One To Go

Exams that is. I have my last exam on this coming Friday, and then I will be officially done with school in Australia. I will then have 4-ish days to pack, and put my life in a suitcase before coming home. I am excited to see all my friends and family. I miss you guys.

I know that some of you would like to know about Sydney, and I have every intention of writing a lengthly account for everything that my friend and I did, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow, which is when I expect that I will have officially recovered from the week, and am ready to write, think, and process.

On a side note, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY PAPA, and GRANDPA, GRANDPA, AND GRANDPA! I love you!