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.