The Gold Coast & Brisbane

This past weekend I traveled to the Gold Coast with KP to visit a friend from home. Unfortunately, it rained the entire weekend but it was still great to explore another part of this beautiful country. The Gold Coast reminded me a lot of Miami, very beach-centered and touristy. It was very different from Sydney, much quieter and much more residential. I enjoyed having a low key weekend, but certainly missed the liveliness of Sydney. Brisbane is an hour train ride from the Gold Coast, and an incredible city. It not only has a rich history and gorgeous landmarks but also has a central area with shops and restaurants that I loved. After spending the night in Brisbane KP and I went to the Gold Coast Sanctuary, which was definitely the highlight of our trip. At the sanctuary I was able to hold a koala, play with kangaroos and see countless different animals including crocodiles, dingoes and snakes!

Bike Tour

After fighting bronchitis for a few days, I woke up on the morning of the Bike Tour ready to rally because it was a part of our Butler Program I simply did not want to miss! Nine am came early that Sunday, and a group of us traveled to Circular Quay to meet our program director and begin the tour. We all got bikes with different Australian names and wore very unflattering helmets with massive ponchos to protect us from the warning of scattered showers - we were certainly a site to see. An hour into the tour it turned out to be a beautiful day and everything we saw was gorgeous. We even biked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge which brought an incredible view of Sydney. With about an hour left all of us were starving and couldn't wait to make our way through the Botanical Gardens to enjoy our lunch on Observatory Hill overlooking the city. On our last stretch, LB fell off her bike by biking directly into a pole while fist pumping to a concert in the distance. After laughing hysterically at her, I followed NY in front of me who decided to cut across the grass. As soon as my bike hit the grass I realized that I no longer had control. Looking in front of me there was a three foot wall with an iron fence above it, and the right of me where NY successfully turned there was a large truck parked. In a split second I had to decide between biking head first into the wall or falling into the truck as I persistently tried to bring my bike to a stop. At the last second, I decided to take the wall, and biked literally head first into an iron fence. My helmet hit the fence and my body flung to the handlebars of my bike. Although it was incredibly painful, all I could do was laugh along with the seven other boys in my program and LB who saw my accident. LB then joked that the following day I would be in the paper with the headline: "Young woman no longer able to have children due to a bike accident outside of the Botanical Gardens." Guess that's what I get for laughing at her fist pumping fall!

Mardi Gras in Sydney

Since I arrived at the University of Sydney, I have been seeing signs everywhere for the Mardi Gras parade on March 5th, 2011. The only thing I knew about Mardi Gras before coming here was the stories I heard about New Orleans of women exposing their chests with beads draping from their necks and of drunk mobs who had started to drink at the crack of dawn. A few days before the parade I found out that unlike Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Mardi Gras celebration in Sydney is the biggest gay and lesbian festival in the world. Having never experienced something like this before, I was really looking forward to heading to the parade. On the morning of March 5h, I was woken up by a text from my roommate, KP, telling me that in thirty minutes we would be leaving to shop for clothes to wear for the parade. When she and I got ready to go, we both admitted that we had no idea what to wear for Mardi Gras and hoped that LB, the other girl who was shopping with us would know. As we left Sydney University Village, music was blaring and no person stood without a drink in his or her hand. People were dressed in all sorts of costume, from died hair to gay pride flags to casual everyday attire. The three of us had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to, and walked in out of about eight stores in King Street empty handed. Finally we came to a funky store that sold wigs for less than twenty bucks, and after trying them on decided that we were going all out and each of us bought a pink or white wig. We then found fake eyelashes, beads and sunglasses to add, and were ready to go:

After we got dressed looking simply ridiculous and having nothing in particular to do with Mardi Gras itself, we went to an outdoor party with nearly all of the residents at the University of Sydney. We then took a bus into the city, and began to make our way to the parade. On our way through Hyde Park, which was surrounded by policemen and security guards, we saw some people dressed just as strangely as us. We saw a group of about 12 men over fifty wearing thongs and nothing else, we saw drag queens, we saw people in elaborate costumes and even a few half to completely naked individuals. Having had no idea what to expect, it was quite a shocking scene! After walking for what seemed to be miles, we finally made it to the street from which the parade ran down. There were thousands of people everywhere, and it was impossible to see what was going on. All we managed to see were men driving down on motorcycles holding gay pride flags, but failed to see anything else. After a long day in costume, we decided to turn home after only twenty minutes having been pushed and shoved by the rowdy crowd countless times. While we did not get to see the actual parade, it was still an incredible scene to see and I was happy to be able to experience such an event that is not possible to partake in in America.

First Week in Sydney

Because school has yet to start, the past week has felt like summer vacation. We have been exploring all around Sydney, going to different restaurants and bars every night. Each bar has different floors, usually one that's like a club, another like a lounge and a third that has a live band. They're all a little bit different too, so it's really fun to try different ones around the city! Some have karaoke too, where I recently saw a seventy year old man with tattoos covering his body sing "Somewhere over the Rainbow." He was definitely a regular! During the day we've been making trips to different beaches in the area, the two I've been to so far are called Bondi and Coogee, both of which are absolutely gorgeous. Yesterday at Coogee I had my first frightening Australian adventure, where I jumped off of a 40 foot cliff into the natural pool surrounded by rocks at Coogee beach. Definitely not the safest thing I've ever done, but with three thirteen year old Australian boys jumping off countless times in front of me and my friend Mike chanting "you only live once!" I couldn't resist! I certainly don't take it back, but considering I landed in water that was less deep than I am tall I definitely wouldn't do it again. On top of going to the beach I've also been figuring out my classes and signing up for clubs, so far I am enrolled in 5 classes, student teaching and am in the volleyball, dance and education societies. I've also been spending a lot of time with my flatmates, last night we stayed in and played games. My personal favorite was when we made our own charades game and each person had to put in five different words according to the categories we chose. PA, my roommate from Australia who lived in England for 15 years - who is also holding two rifles in his profile picture - put down people we did not know, movies we had not seen and "syringe" for the random category. He's quite the character, but one of the nicest people I've ever met!

Program Orientation

When we arrived in Sydney, leaders from the IFSA: Butler Program picked us up to take us to orientation in an isolated town in the suburbs at a sports complex. On the first day we just relaxed and got to know each other and I already began to feel the cultural differences between America and Australia. Thinking back to my Boston College orientation, I knew what I was suppose to do down to the minute mark. Here, we had no idea what we were suppose to do and only on the second day did they decide to post a schedule on a board that we were expected to discover on our own and show up to our events on time. In Australia everything is much less structured and independent and everything is strikingly more laid back. It's certainly going to take some getting use to, but I think I'm going to love it! Their motto is "No worries, mate!" - how can you go wrong with that? On the second day we went to the zoo and to Sydney harbor and I absolutely loved it.
The sights were breathtaking, and I absolutely loved all of the animals I saw (but the giraffes especially, of course!) In Sydney harbor a crazy Canadian man made a few of my friends participate in a street show that involved a unicycle, a chainsaw and a machete. So crazy! We also went to the opera house and walked around the rocks, which is a beautiful area along Sydney harbor. Compared to Boston and NYC, Sydney is much cleaner and very different because it's centered around the harbor. At night we learned native Australian dances and watched an aboriginal performance which were both incredibly interesting and fun. Here's a picture of BC students with the native performers:

On the last day of orientation we went boogie boarding, surfing and paddle boarding which was a blast! We continued to surf even when it began to thunder and lightening, when the Americans immediately began to rush out of the water and the Australians asked us where we were going. Too funny! On the last day of orientation we made the trek to the University of Sydney where I moved in to my apartment suite. I am living with Kelly, a good friend from BC, two boys from PennState and a boy originally born in Sydney who has lived in England for the past 15 years of his life. Quite a cultured group!

After spending the weekend at University of Sydney, I am finally starting to get use to Australian life (except for the cockroaches - ahh!) and am looking forward to a semester of no worries.

Thirty-Six Hours

After months of waiting, I woke up on the thirteenth finally feeling ready to travel half way around the world. Even though I knew I would miss America and everything I was leaving behind, I woke up with excitement and was ready to tackle the 21 hours of flying that lay ahead of me. The first flight was great, besides the strange man sitting next to me who decided to lay out all of his things and constantly rearrange them in the seat in the middle of us, I enjoyed listening to music and looking out the window as I flew across America. Once we finally made it to LAX, I met up with a few of the kids on my program who I had met in Logan airport. We were under the impression that we couldn't leave the terminal for the first five hours, so we sat and played Would you rather? (Thanks Donna!) My personal favorites: Would you rather wear a bicycle helmet around all the time or clown shoes (without any explanation)? Would you rather only be able to crawl everywhere or only be able to stand still on your hands? After that, we got some dinner and went to meet up with other people in our group before boarding the flight. The fifteen hour flight actually flew by, as I slept most of the time, ate surprisingly good plane meals and watched Life As We Know It. Again, I had a very interesting plane partner who decided to sleep with his shirt inside out on top of his head and constantly woke me up to stretch or to tell me different things about the plane. After a long 36 hours of travel, I finally arrived in Sydney and headed to orientation.

Just Keep Swimming

Hi everyone! I decided to make this blog so that family and friends could keep track of what I'm up to while I spend the next five months of my life abroad studying at the University of Sydney. The title of the blog is Just Keep Swimming, after Finding Nemo - one of my favorite movies - which takes place in Australia. I hope you enjoy reading, and I miss and love you all!