The REAL Australia

Well, it turns out that I'm officially in Australia.  I just got back from a 5 day trip to the outback, and it was probably the coolest trip that I've ever been on.  Before I start talking about the actual trip, let me reflect on getting to Alice Springs.  For some insane reason I decided that it would be a good idea to wake up at 4:40 to run before the flight because I knew I wouldn't run the whole trip, so I did a long-ish run then.  I came back and showered, and not joking, 60 seconds before I was about to leave to walk to the train station it starts pouring outside.  The kind of pouring where you're concerned that your window is going to cave in... So since I obviously didn't want to miss the train (and flight as well) Colette and I trekked through this monsoon to the train station.  As a result, we, and all of our stuff, were soaked once we got there which made for a nice, cold train ride.  Going through the airport was exponentially easier than I could have ever imagined.  Apparently since Australia isn't hated by other countries there is hardly any security in the airport.  We arrived early because we thought it might take a while, but we were literally in the terminal within 5 minutes of walking into the airport.  Basically anyone can go through, they don't ask to see your id or ticket, and they don't stick to any of their rules (for example they have liquid rules here and Colette violated them and they didn't even look through her bag, and I brought a big can of bugspray that is way larger than 3 ounces and they didn't say a word).  So as a whole, the airport experience was quite smooth and enjoyable.

Three hours later and we were in Alice Springs, right in the center of Australia, and 1,500 km from any real city.  You know the feeling when you open the oven door and heat bursts out at you?  Welcome to the Outback.  We were welcomed by this heat upon leaving the airport via stairs from the plane.  The airport is super tiny, and we noticed that on the incoming and outgoing flight screen, there were only four flights listed... insane, especially since we're used to O'Hare's insanity.   We took a free shuttle to our hostel, Annie's Place, which ended up being this really cool place with lots of character.  It was really colorful, had a pool, plays movies outside every night, is attached to a bar/restaurant, and just has a great atmosphere.  Colette and I just spent the day wandering around Alice Springs and looking at shops along the way.  For as small of a town that Alice Springs is, there is actually a lot of stuff going on and many places to go.  Also, there are tons of Aboriginal people walking all over the place, I didn't realize that the population was so large there.  Since we were exhausted from the day and had an early wake up the next morning, we went to sleep really early.

The next day began our outback adventure!  We were picked up early and welcomed by our guide, Drew, a 22 year old from England.  He was a really cool guy and knew a ton about everything that we encountered along the trip.  We were the last two people to be picked up (of a group of 21), so I ended up sitting shotgun the whole trip which was great because I got to know Drew and learn a lot about him and the area along the way.  Much to my surprise, Colette and I were the only Americans on the tour, which is a first for me on this trip.  After lots of talking to all of the Europeans, we figured out that the reason there are so many Americans that study abroad is that we can't get off much time after we start working, but the Europeans can take 6 month or 1 year working holidays basically whenever they want with no penalty, so as a result don't study abroad much but do it later.  I'm actually pretty jealous.  However, as a whole, we had an awesome group which made for a very good trip. 

We did lots of driving on Saturday, but eventually made it to Kings Canyon, where we did an awesome 3.5 hour hike.  It was quite the toasty day (37 degrees celsius, or close to 100 degrees fahrenheit), but the dry heat isn't that bad at all.  I drank a ton of water and barely sweat.  It is strange because for as hot as it was, the heat didn't bother me the slightest bit, which is saying something because I'm usually not too fond of extreme heat.  If anything, the thousands of flies are what got to me.  I definitely wasn't expecting them (I know, I should have), and they weren't the most pleasant of surprises.  Anyways, Kings Canyon was amazing and really gorgeous.  There were tons of beautiful lookouts, and it was just a great hike as a whole.  Drew is really knowledgeable and taught us about all kind of different rocks and trees along the way.  He showed us this plant ippy yippy (spelled totally wrong, but pronounced like that) which is where the idea for the 2nd skin bandage idea came from.  He demonstrated how it works on someone's cut, and that was pretty cool.  

Afterwards we did some more driving and eventually made it to our campsite for the night, in a place completely isolated from everything else.  There were no towns or buildings nearby (or toilets or showers), and it was so neat being completely alone.  However, we did have cows for neighbors, and they kept us company by moo-ing all night.  We had really good chili that was cooked over the fire, and Drew made this crazy desert bread that was super delicious.  Afterwards, we set up our swags and sleeping bags, and camped out under the stars.  I had expected to be in tents, but it was so amazing this way and the sky was so beautiful and clear.  If there's any good place to see the stars, this is it.  It truly was an amazing experience.  Much to my surprise, there were no bugs around at all (the flies luckily go away at night), and it was really cool out, so it made for a good sleep.  

We had a very early wake up the next morning, and drove to Kata Tjuta (more commonly known as The Olgas).   We did another long hike through the Olgas and it was really beautiful (as was everything this weekend I suppose).  Half of the group did a long hike which was entirely in the sun, and met up with the other half at a really awesome look out.  After some more driving and lunch, we made it to the Aboriginal culture center where we were able to learn about the Aboriginal culture, see their artwork, and just get more acquainted with everything about Aborigines as a whole.  At this point, Colette and I caved and bought fly nets because we had a very frustrating time on the morning hike swatting flies constantly and decided that in order to have a good next day and a half we would have to get them.  We were proud that we made it as long as we did.  

After the culture center, we went to Uluru (or Ayers Rock), and did the Mala walk, which is along part of the base and on which you can see all sorts of Aboriginal artwork on the side of the walk.  Drew had us stop at many places and told us different stories about the area and the artwork.  That evening, we watched the sunset over Uluru and watched it changed colors.  It was pretty incredible, and something that I wont forget (even though apparently we saw a 'not so good' day).  We camped again that night (but were luckily able to shower this time), and woke up early the next morning to have breakfast at Uluru and watch the sunrise (another really cool experience).  

The day was the least busy, and we did a base walk around Uluru in the morning (which took 2 hours to do... insane as this is just ONE rock.. and apparently at least 800 meters of the rock is completely underground!) which was pretty cool and very relaxing.  Originally, Colette and I had wanted to do the climb, but were pretty discouraged from doing it after being told how sacred it is and how much the Aborigines don't like it (and the fact that 35 people have died from doing it).  We drove back in the afternoon, and stopped to ride camels along the way, which was definitely an interesting experience.  After getting back to the hostel and showering, we met up with the whole group for dinner, where I tried kangaroo for the first time (I ordered the 'Roo Filet'... Aussies pronounce filet as fill-it).  It was really good and was similar to steak with a slightly different taste.  A lot of the people in the group were going to a pub/saloon in town, and Colette and I were going to go back and sleep because we were exhausted, but after a lot of persuasion, Drew convinced us to check it out.  We were really glad we went because it was this really cool place (called Bo's) with this saloon theme.. Apparently the pub is broadcasted on the internet every night and people can go on and buy people at the pub drinks from online.. insane!  We stayed there for a couple hours, and I got to hold a snake and put it around my neck!  

Anyways, that was my outback adventure.  It was a very busy weekend that flew by (the busy-ness is my excuse for this ridiculously long post), and I learned a lot, saw many amazing places, and met tons of cool people.  Next up this weekend is Tasmania, and it should be another adventure!  

Random Notes:  

1.  Flooding is not that uncommon in the Outback.. Apparently as soon as it starts raining, it pours, and there are flooding signs pretty frequently on the roads

2.  Colette and I were basically the only people we saw on the trip in athletic shorts.. apparently Aussies and Europeans don't believe in them..?

3.  The Outback is greener than I expected.  Not necessarily green, but there are lots of shrubs and plants along the roads.  It is also much less dangerous than originally though.

4.  Maxibons are perhaps the most delicious packaged ice cream bar in the world.  You can get them with vanilla or honeycomb flavored ice cream, and half of the bar is covered in a chocolate, crunch bar-like coating, and the other half is like an ice cream sandwich

5.  Australian money is indestructible (made of plastic) and has dollar and 2 dollar coins.. Which can be annoying since coins are easy to lose, but wonderful because you always end up having more money than you thought

6.  Field trips are called excursions

No Tripping, No Falling, No Eating.

Hi everyone!  This past week was a good one, as I had visitors here!  It was definitely nice to see some familiar faces and made me feel a little bit more like I was at home.  Craig got to come on his spring break since his mom works for an airline, and he got in last Sunday morning.  He stayed here for a whole week, so it was definitely nice to have his company.  After he got here on Sunday, him, Katie, and I went to Otford which is about a 45 minute train ride north of Wollongong to go horseback riding!  I haven't been in forever and the trip was a lot of fun.  We went on a two hour tour that went through the forests and by a waterfall, and we were lucky because we had a tiny group and the horses got to canter instead of just slowly walking the entire time.  It was a beautiful day and a good time.  

The first couple days of the week weren't especially exciting since I had class and had to work a study abroad fair at uni, but Craig got nice weather so he was able to do a good amount of hanging out at the beach.  He got along really well with all of my roommates, so that was wonderful for when I had to be gone at class.  On Monday, we tried a thai restaurant right by where I live and I got delicious pad thai.  I definitely want to go back there again.  Craig and I went for a long walk on Tuesday out to the lighthouse and did some illegal fence hopping and wandering around by the base of it.. I definitely recommend it.  After we got back from our walk, basically everyone from Campus East went to a pub that has weekly steak nights on Tuesdays for St. Patrick's Day, and it was fun seeing everyone out and wearing lots of green. 

On Wednesday, Craig and I took a day trip out to Kiama, where there is this really cool blow hole that shoots up water.  It was a calm day when we went, so the blow hole wasn't especially powerful, but it was really beautiful out there and fun to see.  We spent the rest of the day hiking up and down rocks around the blow hole, wandering around the cute town of Kiama, sitting at the beach, and Craig enjoyed feeding millions of seagulls.   Thursday was another exciting day because Jaci got in!  I was very excited to see her, and since we've both been away from home for over a month now, it was good timing.  We got a group of people together to go to this nice seafood restaurant on the ocean at night and it turned out to be very, very delicious.  We just hung out and talked that night because we had a weekend in Sydney awaiting us.

We got to spend the entire weekend in Sydney, and I feel like I'm getting to know it much better already.  I still only know a few roads, but I feel pretty comfortable there and am able to get around without any trouble.  The three of us spent Friday touring around the city and going to all the main touristy locations to see them and get pictures.  We ended up eating dinner in Chinatown and spent the night hanging out in the hostel.  Unfortunately Craig had to leave us on Saturday since his spring break was coming to an end.  He will definitely be missed by all of my friends at Campus East... someone even asked him if it was his room that we were hanging out in one day haha.  

After Craig left, Jaci and I started on our adventure of a day.  In my one guide book I found this really cool sounding hike in Bouddi National Park which is close to Sydney, so we decided we should do it.  Apparently Killcare (the town that the hike starts in) is incredibly inaccessible, and they really don't want people having an easy time getting out there unless they have a car.  The way there was fine as we just took a train and then a bus, but there was only one bus back for the day, so we needed to find another way to get home.  We had planned on getting lunch to eat when we got there, but after getting off the bus, there were no stores or really any people in sight, so we didn't really have a choice.  

We decided to go ahead and do the hike (after not eating since 9:30) and figured that we would be fine since we each had a bottle of water.  The hike was beautiful and we spent over 4 hours hiking through neat forests, going to beautiful overhangs that looked out to the ocean, and walking on some remarkably clear beaches.  It was definitely the coolest hike that I have been on so far, and I don't know why they wouldn't make the national park easier to get to since it is so gorgeous.  Some parts of the hike were super steep so we decided that the rules of the day would be 1. no tripping, 2. no falling, and 3. no eating.  We did quite well.  Since the hike was an out and back, we ended up power walking the way back since we were getting really hungry... 4 hours of hiking and lots of sun will do that to you!

After getting out of the park, we decided that we needed to find food fast.  The one road went in two directions, and we figured the street going up the hill would be the right way since it would be away from the beach and therefore into town.  After 15 minutes of walking uphill, we came to a dead end.  Figures.  We eventually made our way into town and we had the best cajun chicken burgers I could imagine having.  They were massive and had beets and pineapple on them which I had never tried before, but was really delicious!!  It was definitely quite rewarding to have it after a long day.  We had to catch a cab back to the Woy Woy train station, and since the bus driver told us it would probably be $40-50, we were very excited when it ended up only costing us $27.  Though strenuous and tiring, this is definitely one of the best days that I have had so far.

Sunday was much less entertaining, but the two of us went running over by the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in the morning and saw some beautiful sights.. I wish that I would have brought my camera with.  I think I just need to start taking it everywhere that I go.  That afternoon we went to Bondi Beach, which is the most popular and well known beach in the Sydney area.  The beach was really nice, but super crowded.  We had a nice, 80 degree day, so it was perfect for the beach.  We spent the afternoon hanging out on the beach and playing in the waves.  I got a really delicious smoothie and a piece of pear and raspberry bread which was quite amazing.  We got back to the heart of Sydney early evening and I was sad to have to say goodbye to Jaci.  I had a great week/weekend and am so glad that I got to see my friends.  Even though saying bye is never fun, I'll see Jaci two weekends in a row starting in 4.5 weeks, so that should be a good time.  Anyways, this next weekend begins my psycho traveling weeks with the Outback.  I'll be gone Friday-Tuesday, and it should be a really great experience!  Talk to you all soon!

Random Notes:  

1.  They listen to all of the same music/watch all of the same movies here

2.  Apparently some Australians really, really love American accents (some guy that was working at a convenience store that Jaci and I went to gushed about it for 5 minutes)

3.  Speedos are much more popular, and people are not all that shy about going topless

4.  It is a lot cleaner here with less trash around, but there is a good amount of vandalism

5.  Kids take public transportation (buses and trains) to school instead of having specified school buses

The waterfall is 5.5km the OTHER way???

Hello everyone!!  Though this has been the most uneventful week so far, there have still been many exciting things that have taken place.  School is beginning to feel more normal, though only having class twice a week doesn't necessarily make me feel like I'm a full time student.. I need to work on focusing and doing homework from time to time, but it's hard because there is no weekly homework to turn in!  Much like at home, I have an Asian professor who is impossible to understand for my thermo class, so it makes paying attention in lecture that much more difficult (especially since it is a 2 hour lecture).  But I'm starting to get to know more people in my classes so it makes going not as bad.  Both days that I have class I have it at 8:30 in the morning, and while I thought I wouldn't like it, it's actually nice to have something to get me going early in the day so I don't just waste time sitting around.

As I said, it was a pretty relaxed week, and I spent a lot of time just hanging out with people, going to the beach, and walking around.  The excitement started picking up a bit on Thursday, and Katie and I had plans to watch the sunrise, but woke up and saw that it was cloudy so we decided otherwise.  I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to go for a run and ended up seeing the sunrise along the beach while I was running and it was so beautiful.  I was mad because I didn't have my camera, but I think I might want to continue doing early morning runs before class so I'm sure I'll have plenty more opportunities to see the sunrise.

 Also on Thursday I tried vegemite for the first time.  It was a much anticipated event, and I was slightly scared because I've heard many people's horror stories about how much they hate vegemite.  I ended up not liking it but not hating it, so I consider it to be a success.  I think I'll probably have to give it another shot at some point in time.  Later that evening, Kelly and I went into downtown Wollongong to look at some shops and get ice cream.  We went to a place called Cold Rock Ice Creamery which is very similar to Coldstone and it was delicious!  I got ferrero roche ice cream with tim tams (popular Australian cookie that is SO good) and caramel. 

On Friday Katie, Kelly, and I decided that we want to try one new restaurant in Wollongong each week, and this week we went to a place called Mylan which is a Vietnamese restaurant right in downtown.  It had a really neat atmosphere and it was probably the best meal that I've had since getting to Australia.  Unlike the cafeteria food, it was hot (not luke warm) and very delicious.  This place actually had pretty good service, which is sometimes uncommon for Australia since you really aren't supposed to tip unless it's a fancy restaurant.  Afterwards we went down by the beach since it was such a beautiful night and walked around.. it was wonderful.

Then today, Saturday, was full of adventure!  I organized a little day trip 45 minutes north of here, and we ended up having a group of 9 people come, so it was a lot of fun.  We had remarkable timing and barely made it on two trains, but somehow everything came together and worked out.  We started out by going to the Symbio Wildlife Park which was a small zoo that allowed you to have more interaction with the animals.  We got to feed and pet the kangaroos and pet a koala!  It was very exciting!

After lunch we went another 10 minute train ride north and went to Royal National Park (which was apparently the second declared national park in the world after Yosemite... or something like that).  We had a gorgeous (but a little too hot) day, and definitely worked up a sweat hiking for about 4 hours (and probably 9 miles).  It was beautiful and after thinking that we were lost numerous times (and actually kind of being lost a few) we eventually made it to one waterfall.  Right before we got there we saw a sign that said 'Waterfall 5.5km -->' the direction away from where we were walking and we all had a minor panic attack until we remembered that the town is named Waterfall and that it probably wasn't talking about the Uloola Waterfall that we were trying to find.  

The first 4 or 5 miles of the walk were pretty easy with a wide open path, and after going past the waterfall, it got down to a path that I think is where 'bushwalking' got its name from.  We were whacked by all sorts of bushes and plants and made it through so many different changes of scenery.  Eventually we got to this giant pool in the middle of a bunch of rocks and a bunch of us jumped in.  It was a lot of fun and the water felt soo refreshing.  After getting out, we realized that we had limited time because the train was only coming once for the rest of the night and we had less than an hour to get there.  It turned into pandemonium for a few minutes when we couldn't find a path in any direction and it started thundering and pouring.  Eventually we found the way to go, and I had such a blast the last hour of the hike.  We spent half of it running through puddles and dodging bushes while it poured on us, and it was definitely as extreme of an adventure as I've had so far.  Luckily we made it to the train station just in time... though we were absolutely soaked from head to toe and starving.  I had some casualties (hopefully just temporary) as my phone now seems to be broken after being waterlogged, and there's a bunch of moisture in my watch :(.  

Anyways, it felt great to get home and I am now exhausted and almost ready to go to bed even though its just after 9pm on a Saturday.  Craig is getting into Sydney tomorrow morning and I am very excited for him and Jaci to come visit this week!  It will be awesome to finally see some friendly and familiar faces!  Hope everyone is doing well at home.. I miss you all!

Random Notes:

1.  All outlets here have on and off switches

2.  If you want fries, they're called chips.  If you want chips, they're called chips.  If you ask for chips you might not get the kind you want... though you can specify 'hot' or 'cold' chips

3.  Girls here don't wear a lot of makeup (which I love), but ALWAYS wear dresses (which I don't have many of)

4.  'Skull' is their equivalent of 'chug'

5.  We had a lengthy discussion the other day about jelly and jam.  Jelly is what they call jello, and jelly/jam is always referred to as jam.

6.  MANY Australians pronounce the letter 'h' weird as I've noticed in my engineering classes.  It is often said sounding like 'haych'

Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras-- a whole new experience

Well even though there isn't much that I've had to do, I have been staying really busy pretty much all the time.  Even though I only have 2 days of class a week (crazy, I know!), I really haven't had a ton of down time to just relax, and I still can't sleep past 7:30 in the morning (which I suppose is probably a good thing so that I get that much more time!).   I actually started running more this week, and it is such a nice place to run.  The bike path goes along the beach and I went for a 'long'-er run and made it to all sorts of neat little lagoon places.  Another day I went running with Nicole, and it was just so nice to have someone to run with... it has been quite a long time since I've had any company.  The weather has been fantastic, and even when it cools off I know I'll be able to have plenty of great adventures.  Also this week we were so lucky to have two fire alarms go off.  Fire alarms at home can be loud, but here they are deafening.  The first went off at 1:30 in the morning one night and it took me a full 30 minutes to fall asleep afterwards because my ears were still ringing so bad.  I think that they want to make sure there is no way possible that you stay inside, and it definitely works. 

Anyways, a rundown of my week is as follows:  On Tuesday, I saw "He's Just Not That Into You" with Katie, which was actually good, and not a typical chick flick as it made fun of how girls view relationships.  The cinema was really nice (though the seats had plastic covering which was odd), and Tuesdays are cheap ticket nights!  We luckily made it on time, but just barely because we took the train and it ended up being quite a walk from the cinema.  Wednesday night I went to one of the pubs with a bunch of people from Campus East, but walked home around 11 with Kelly (from Minnesota) and two Aussie boys.  It was a long walk, but we walked along the beach and the sky was really clear so we could see all of the stars!  It was beautiful.    Thursday I had a 'long' day of class, and in the afternoon went for a walk with some of my friends to the lighthouse by the beach where we stopped at a little cafe to talk and get snacks.   Then Friday, Kelly and I went wandering around Fairy Meadow to get a better idea of what's around, and then in the evening I went out for sushi with 5 other people and I got actual hardcore, uncooked, totally raw sushi.  Much to my surprise, it was really good and I lived to tell the tale!  

Then was Saturday... If I thought I had experienced craziness before, this completely blew everything else away.  Though I went with a huge group of Aussies and Americans to Sydney, after getting there, Katie, Kelly, Nicole and I separated ourselves to go see some touristy spots.  We wandered around Chinatown for a bit and then headed to the Circular Quay where we spent a lot of time by the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and took approximately 1000 pictures.  It was a perfect day, and it was awesome to finally get to see some of the landmarks that represent Sydney and come to mind when you think of Australia.  We headed over to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade to grab a spot around 5pm although the actual parade didn't start until 7:30 since we heard that it would be ridiculously crowded.  We lucked out and walked past a street just as they were closing it off, so we were able to get front row seats!!

Boy were those 5 hours interesting.  They were filled with heaps of people watching and too much standing.  For anyone who does like people watching, this is the ultimate place to be... there were tons of cross dressers, half naked people, and just tons of ridiculously dressed men and women walking around.  Some of the floats were absurd and I can't believe that they actually get away with going down the street in public.  There was so much gay pride, and we were definitely in the minority there, but it was a really fun experience and something that I'll never forget.  I think people travel from all over the world just to be in Sydney for this weekend, and they make sure to take full advantage of it.  The parade was slightly too long, and the last hour got to be sort of miserable since our feet were killing us from walking around all day and standing in the same spot for hours.  

Most people took late trains back to Wollongong, but Katie and I spent the night in a hostel.  The next morning we got breakfast from a cafe and ate with a beautiful view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge!  We spent the morning walking around the Botanical Gardens (where we saw tons of wild bats going to sleep!) and the afternoon at the Taronga Zoo, which is just a ferry ride away.  The zoo was great, and we spent many hours wandering around and seeing all of the animals.  My only disappointment was that there wasn't a petting zoo, so I didn't get to pet any kangaroos or koalas.  There's another petting zoo near Sydney, so I'm thinking I need to go there sometime soon.  By the end of the afternoon we were absolutely exhausted and glad to be heading home.  To think that this was just two days of adventure... hopefully I'll be ready to survive by the time I get to all of my bigger trips!  

Random Notes:

1.  There are obnoxious birds that are super loud every morning.. one actually sounds like a dying baby of some sort

2.  We get made fun of for not pronouncing aluminium as al-you-min-ee-um

3.  Everything is in celsius which I have trouble adjusting to and kilometers and kilometers/hr which I'm decent at thanks to running

4.  Granola bars are called muesli bars

5.   They definitely wear baseball hats, even though the study abroad office advised us not to bring them..

6.  Every primary and secondary school has uniforms

7.  Air drying clothes is huge here, and they don't have any dryer sheets available at the stores

The Blue Mountains!

So this past weekend was my first adventure trip!  I'm all for laying on the beach and relaxing, but it was awesome to do some activities that got my blood rushing.  I went with a group of international UOW students to the Blue Mountains which was only about a two hour drive from Wollongong.  We went with a company called Extreme Adventures, which is the same one that I'll be doing my New Zealand trip with.  This first trip went well, so I think it bodes well for that one too.  Anyways, the Blue Mountains were so beautiful!  I have lots of pictures, and while they're pretty, they don't do them justice.  We were told that the Blue Mountains are sometimes referred to as Australia's Grand Canyon, and the national park is so large that it's the size of Belgium which is pretty crazy.

This trip also marked my first hostel experience.  I didn't know what to expect, but it ended up being nice except for the wires that I had jabbing me in the back both nights.  The rooms had 6 people to them, but we ended up only having 4 in mine which was great because two of the ones that we did have were super loud and came back really late.  The town that we stayed in is called Katoomba, and it was just a tiny little mountain town.  There was hardly anything around, and most shops and cafes closed by 4 or 5pm, so when we went to find a little dessert, we had quite a bit of trouble.  They barely fed us, so after dinner on Friday I went wandering with Katie, Kelly (who lives a door down from me) and Avery (another Canadian, who turns out is in my fluids class), and we ended up going to a little Greek restaurant.  Avery ordered hummus and I tried it for the first time.. it was actually pretty good!  Both nights we went and listened to some live music which was awesome.  I noticed that in general, people seem a lot more genuinely happy to be around each other here.  There were some older couples that were dancing the night away and were just enjoying themselves.

On Saturday, we went abseiling in the morning!  Basically, abseiling is a fancy name for repelling.  It was a lot of fun, and while we didn't go down huge cliffs, the ones we did were about 30 meters, which is still pretty decent.  It surprisingly wasn't scary at all, minus the first part where we had to get over the edge... Once I got going and could do some bouncing off the wall and such, it was a blast!  We got lucky with a beautiful day and it was at a gorgeous location.  Later that afternoon we went to do a little bit of sightseeing and hiking around the Three Sisters, which is the most popular lookout point for the Blue Mountains.  There is some sort of legend with three sisters being turned into rock or something, but I don't remember exactly how it goes.  Apparently it's often quite foggy so you can't see out at all, but it was a clear day so we got to see some great views.  

On Sunday, we did some more hiking in the morning and walked down this trail towards the bottom of the mountains.  We got to see some beautiful waterfalls and other lookouts on the way down.  With a group that big, I think it's hard to get too intense with hiking so we didn't do as much as I would have liked, but it was a good morning.  To get back up, instead of hiking, we took a train.  This train is the steepest in the world and runs at a 52 degree angle... talk about steep!  I wish we would have been able to go down it because I think it would have been like an amusement park ride :) .  Then in the afternoon, we drove somewhere else to go grass karting.  Grass karting is kind of like go karting, except there are no motors and you pretty much just go down hills.  It doesn't look or sound it, but it is incredibly dangerous and very easy to get out of control.  It was a lot of fun, but I didn't do any of the extreme ones because after seeing so many people have bad wipe outs, I decided I would rather not risk having a broken bone for my stay in Australia.  Nicole and I went to the bottom of the hill to watch people come down and wipe out and it was very entertaining.  So all in all, going to the Blue Mountains was a really fun trip and we got to do and see a lot!  I'm quite excited for New Zealand next month!

Then yesterday was my first day of classes.  I found out that I'll basically only have class on Mondays and Thursdays except for a few weeks when I have a lab on Wednesdays, so I don't know what I'm going to do with myself!  I'm used to having all sorts of stuff packed in with no time to hang out or anything, and now I'm going to have all the time in the world.  It'll be great because it means I won't have to get stressed out ever.  Classes are very similar to U of I classes so far.  I've had two big lectures and a discussion, and the only major difference was accents and professors being a little more laid back than at home.  Here they introduce themselve by their first names and you're allowed to call them by it which is pretty cool.  I also noticed that the amount of female engineers here is less than at home and is somewhere below 10%.  The one girl that was in my discussion is taking the subject for the second time, so I'm guessing the reputation of female engineers here isn't particularly high.  Something strange is that classes here only have lecture once a week, but all classes have a discussion as well.  So my aboriginal studies class has lecture for an hour each Monday, and then a two hour discussion later in the week.  

Since bus tickets add up fast here, I decided I'm going to walk home from class everyday.. It's a 40-50 minute walk, so it lasts a while, but it's so nice out that I guess it doesn't really matter anyways.  Yesterday I was dumb enough to buy my textbooks and carry them all the way back in my left arm, so it's semi-sore from that today.  I know, I am so strong.  Outside of class, I've just been hanging out around Campus East.  I'm going to head to the beach tomorrow, so that should be nice.  I've been hanging out a lot with Katie, Pricey, and our wannabe roommate Tom, who we think should take our mystery roommate's place (yes, he STILL hasn't shown up..).  Overall, I've been lucky with the weather and having nice people to live with, because otherwise I think I would be pretty homesick right about now.  Anyways, I miss everyone at home, and love hearing from you!!  I'll probably post again next Monday, after going to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney this weekend... it's supposed to be quite entertaining!

Random Notes: 

1.  They add -y or -ie to the end of everything, even much more than I do.  For example, breakfast is almost ALWAYS referred to as brekky (but there are multiple spellings)

2.  A lot of people have dogs for pets, but I have yet to see any furry dogs

3.  They call gym shoes of any sort runners

4.  There are lots of bbq's, but I have yet to see any buns.  They just use slices of white bread whether it is a burger or a sausage

5.  Hiking is called bushwalking

6.  If you ask for lemonade, you'll get a drink that tastes like sprite

7.  Beverages that come from fruit are called juice, but any other juice-like drink is called cordial (I don't know if that's spelled right)

8.  People in cars don't stop for pedestrians like they do at home... you need to be very careful

9.  All toilets have two buttons.. one uses half the amount of water as the other one

10.  Only 10% (maybe less) of bathrooms have soap in them... kind of disgusting