Jones Family Haircuts

4/6

We went to Oceanview Café for brekky and we had the- oh so delicious white chocolate chip raspberry pancakes. I tried to work again in the afternoon but I’m not sure that really sure that much got accomplished. I took about a two hour nap. Angie and I then went to the Jones house to give haircuts. They were supposed to cook us steak for payment but I guess all of the shops closed at noon that day so they couldn’t get any groceries. We ended up ordering Indian takeaway. We cut all of their hair, just trimming Kelsey and Mrs. Jones’s.

We got back and JD had made chocolate chip cookies so we had warm cookies and cold milk. DE-Licious!

I ended up just hanging out in the cabin rather than going to the “slumber party” in the classroom.

JD, Awal and I

To Be or Not to Be?

4/5

Angie and I layed out with Mary and Kristin in the morning, despite the fact that we all should have been working. A morning request turned out to be quite the adventure. But it turned out pretty well...

We went to the Chinese restaurant for dinner, and then walked along the beach, followed by a viewing of "Armageddon." Afterwards, the ever-popular, Euchre.

Mon petit ami ;0)

Pizza Twice A Day

4/4

JD, Ashley and I got up and went to Byron in the morning with her parents.

They picked up their super cool gift and then they took us to lunch. Yummy pizza. We shopped for a bit after that, I tried to finish up my souvenir shopping, and did a decent job, although I’m still not done.

We drove up to the lighthouse after that, (after we found the road up finally) gosh the view up there is amazing.

In the evening they took us all (The 7 minus Craig) out to dinner. Some people got Mexican, others Chinese and we got Italian. We got the El Rancho pizza and spaghetti bolognaise. Haha. A typical meal for some... We brought all of our food up to their apartment and had a nice dinner on the balcony.

They drove us back and I went back to the lodge to “work” I ended up falling asleep at like 8pm. Later, JD and Awal walked into my room and they told me I'd better wake up and work.. I did a bit of work after they left and then went back to bed.

The Lighthouse in Byron

Tues Night Partay

4/3

We had class pretty early because D. Arthur wasn’t feeling well. We mostly finished up the last of our topics for study and talked about our projects. JD, Mike, Angie and I went into town for Subway night afterwards. We were pretty lucky in that we got a ride on the way there from Julie.

We grabbed some groceries then went and visited AWAl’s parents after dinner. They are staying at the nice apartments by the pub.

When we got back it was about time for the party. Mike cut his hair into a Mohawk. That was quite interesting.

There was a little bit of drama at the end of the night. But we wouldn't be our group without it I guess..

I talked to Angie, Angie G, Mary and Courtney when I got into the room. Girls are fun. Most of the time. Haha

A group of kids down at the cabins

Another group pic! Top: JD, me, Cara

Bottom: Angie, Tristan, Rachael

Mike's new-do.. It's since been cut off..

But I spiked the front.. while JD did the back... who's looks better?

Out of The Way Trip

4/2

I woke up this morning feeling a lot better than the previous mornings. I took a shower, made some toast and headed to class. We finished up the group presentations and Lyn gave everyone an award from the Tenterfield trip. It was pretty funny because I got the “Special Interest in Tenterfield History” award. I’m pretty sure some of us he was unsure of names, so mine must have been one of those because…if you know me. I’m not that much into history, which you could tell from my side comments during the history tours or perhaps my doodling during the presentations.

After class I looked at my bank account, and had a bit of a heartattack before realizing that we still got one more 200$ food deposit in our BSU accounts.

The 7 (minus Mike) went into town for lunch and groceries. I kind of bought a lot, but we actually have two weeks in Lennox that we aren’t traveling! I know, its pretty unbelievable after the past several weeks.

I tried to stop by Steve’s by his house to print some stupid tax forms, in the middle of the hot day, with a backback and bags full of groceries and they weren’t home. So I started flipping out about my job. I went back an emailed my boss saying I wasn’t going to be able to send in my forms on time.. should I start looking for another job?

Our Class Printer...its in the shop.

G'Day Sydney

4/1

I wanted to get up really early so I could walk around the city. However, my alarm went off and I did not have the energy to get out of bed. Tracy suggested that it might have been because we all actually slept in nice beds and were warm through the night.

Anyway, at 9am Tracy and I headed down to Circular Quay so I could return the shirt I bought for myself at the Opera House and she went to see The Rocks. Then we met Tracy, Angie and Craig for breakfast. We sat on a bench and looked out at the harbor…strategically situating ourselves so we could see the bridge, Opera House and the kids dance studio that was performing. Sitting there with a doughnut and iced coffee, life couldn’t get much sweeter.

We walked back towards the hostel, stopping at a few opal shops along the way. Australia is famous for opal—and that becomes very obvious in Sydney. We took a shuttle to the airport and I tried to rest away the sickness waiting on our plane.

The plane ride was short and we all took a shuttle from Ballina to camp. (There were a total of 18 of us that had been in Sydney that weekend) I loved Sydney. Even if I did feel crappy the entire time it was an amazing weekend!!!!!

There are two weeks left, and lots of work to be done before we leave Lennox Head. How has it gone by so quickly?!

Town Hall

See Sydney Pass

3/31

We woke up early and had to pack our stuff up to move to XBase from Homebase. We split up and took taxis there…yes, I was able to hail one this time. They didn’t have our room ready so we left our stuff in a DJ booth inside and went for our first stop with our See Sydney Passes- the Sydney Aquarium. It wasn’t overly impressive except for the part where you could walk in a little tunnel beneath a huge tank so the sharks, stingrays, turtles and fish were swimming all around and over you.

The aquarium was in Darling Harbor and then we had to head to Circular Quay. (Previously referred to as the harbor... where the Opera House and such are) We went on our Jet boat tour of the harbor. It was so amazing. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and warm but not hot. Looking at the city, bridge, Opera House and surrounding suburbs from the water was just breathtaking. Then we turned around and went for a thrill ride, getting wet along the way back to the wharf. It was a lot of fun.

From that we went to our free tour of the Opera House. I wont lie, even though I’d fallen in love with the place—an hour history tour wasn’t on top of my to do list ... but we went and it was really cool. Our guide was awesome and it just made me appreciate the place even more. We got to go into the concert hall and take pictures an then go in to the opera theatre (where the stage was completely bare and they hadn’t begun to build for the opera that was starting in 6 hours.) And they do that every day. Each day there is a new opera and they take down the set and put up a new massively beautiful one. I spent too much money in the gift shop after the tour and then we sat for lunch. A cough had settled in so I proceeded to hack up my lungs while the kids ate.

At the last minute we caught a ferry to Olympic Park. The ferry took about an hour to get there and we were fighting time to catch the last free tour of Telstra stadium (where the opening ceremonies were held). We got off shortly after the tour would have started…unfortunately we didn’t realize that we had to catch a bus from the wharf to Olympic Park. The next bus was 30 minutes away so we just started to walk. This proved to be a fist clenching experience as we had missed the tour, and didn’t know where we were going or how to get back to the city.

When we finally got to the park there didn’t seem to be much to do, as there was a rugby game that evening and Telstra had been shut off to non-ticket holders. We pretty much immediately caught a train back to Town Hall in Darling Harbor, by our hostel, so we could make our plans for Earth Day that evening.

I don’t know if this happened at home—you tell me… but Sydney had advertised that from 7:30-8:30 all lights should be shut off to conserve energy…and force people to be more environmentally conscious. (Even though they are 20 times more so than at home-- here) We had seen a poster for The Earth Bar, advertising an acoustic, candlelit performance in Kings Cross.

We got ready for the evening…I talked to this guy that was in our hostel room from England about living here and such. Its great to meet people from all over the world and just be able to share experiences and information.

Anyway, we took a taxi to Kings Cross to the World Bar. It turned out to be a dud. At 7:30 some lights, but certainly not all-- did go off, including those of the restaurant across the street from the bar. They had candles all over and we were immediately attracted to it. The girls got their free drink from The World and then we all went to dinner.

It was a very cozy little restaurant with good food and a nice waitress. I had a really good time.

We walked around Kings Cross for a bit (which turned out to be filled with hookers lined on the sidewalk, adult stores, and strip bars.) Once we figured out that there wasn’t much more to Kings Cross, we headed towards the Sky Tower near Circular Quay.

It was a nice walk through the city and Hyde Park. We ran into a group from the lodge when we were on our way up. The view was spectacular at the top, and after much peer pressure I was able to look straight down. We went back to the hostel afterwards which was fitted with a mattress you couldn’t feel the bars through, and a comforter!

Darling Harbor

Walking toward the Aquarium

Shark Attack!

The city

The Opera House!

The Concert Hall

Testra Stadium

Me and the Bridge

OPERA!!!!

3/30

We woke up early and walked down to the harbor to the Opera House to see about tickets. None of “the 7” were really interested in going to an opera but it turned out my roommates were. We talked to the guy at the box office and he told us that if we came back at 6:30 for a 7:30 show we could get “student rush tickets” which were for seats that hadn’t been sold yet.

We got a muffin from a pierside restaurant and met up with Ashley and her mom. We all went to the botanical gardens and then split our separate ways. We went souvenir shopping some more and then walked back to the hostel to get ready for the night.

The girls had heard that the new rooms they had been moved to were inhabited with bed bugs, and we still hadn’t all been put in a room together so they were pretty upset. We decided to cancel our reservation for Saturday night and find somewhere else to stay.

Tracy, Angie and I got pretty and went down the Opera House. They were trying to get tickets for the sold out “Macbeth” and I met up with the roomies. We ended up in the 4^th row splitting the center. They were $220 tickets for the Italian opera “Alcina” and we got them for $50!!

The Opera was SO amazing. First of all, if you didn’t know… there are three theatres inside the opera house, the largest is the concert hall and then the opera theatre is one of the smaller ones.

It seats 1,050…so it is much smaller and more intimate than I had expected. The stage was smaller than my high school stage, both in depth and width. It was so cozy and we could see the conductor and orchestra in the pit and everything in full detail on the stage. The sets were amazing and of course the singing was spectacular. It made me miss Ball State School of Music. I just wanted to be up on stage. They were spectacular performers. We didn’t look at the subtitles or “surtitles” much because the story line was so evident. Their gestures and facial expressions were phenomenal, and there was more dancing than previous operas I attended.

It was over four hours in length, but that included two 20-minute intermissions. Because it was so amazing—it didn’t seem long at all. I absolutely adored it.

None of us had eaten dinner so we stopped at McDonalds and tried to catch a taxi home. Some how four young prettied-up women can’t get a taxi to stop at midnight in downtown Sydney on a Friday night, that right is reserved for grungy looking men. Go figure. We walked home.

Tracy was waiting to let me in the hostel because she thought I didn’t have a key. She had fallen asleep reading a book on the stairs, I felt bad because she wanted to go to bed early and I did have a key. That night Craig got in, so there were 5 in our small bunk bed room.

My New Found Love

Looking at the city from the Opera House at night

Mary and Angie waiting to go in!

Mary and I with our Mango Daquiris

Me with Sydney behind me! I was SO excited!!!

The Opera House Again

Souvenir Shopping...Camera Issues

3/29

I woke up in the morning and didn’t feel great. My head and throat hurt and I had no energy. But I was in Sydney and was not going to let that get in the way. So JD and I went out shopping for the day. We met Awal and her parents and decided we’d meet back for “appetizers” later in the day.

I spent way too much money on souvenirs and gifts but hopefully people will be happy. We walked around The Rocks and The Harbor. It was then that I discovered my camera. I took a picture of the Sydney hospital for ma mere, put the camera back in my purse and continued to walk. Five minutes later (after not putting my purse down, or hitting anything with it) we stopped to take a picture of some aboriginals playing didgeridoo. I saw the display on my camera screen was covered in lines—all grey and white. There is no viewfinder, other than the screen, but in the bottom right hand corner you could still make out shapes, so I used my camera “blindly” all weekend—hoping that the pictures would turn out when I put them on my computer. I hope its still under warranty.

I took a bit of a nap and then we walked back to the hostel (40 min walk) to meet Tracy and Angie. As soon as we got back they were ready to go back into town and eat dinner at the Hard Rock Café.

After that we walked back down to the harbor to look at the ever-amazing Opera House and Harbor Bridge. We ran into Ashley and her parents and they tried to take us for a drink but that didn’t work out so we ended up just going back to the hostel. I was dead tired and we were ready for bed, but it turned out that Angie and Tracy had to walk across a plank on the roof to get to their room…which creepy Asian guys were already in, so we just all stayed in one 2 bed room.

The Sydney Hospital

Why Doesn't Methodist Have a Pig Statue?

Aboriginals Playing Didgeridoo

$$ Dinner, Sickness Begins

3/28

I woke up and got on the computer. Tracy and Angie came in and said that they were going to go lay out by the pool so I went with them. The sun was pretty intense and we couldn’t get into the pool so after a while I went back to the lodge to clean up my room, finish my laundry and start packing for Sydney. I decided to bring the big suitcase so I could roll it instead of dragging it annoyingly across the ground like I usually do.

I showered and then waited for a bit for JD and Ashley to come to the lodge. But I didn’t know if we were meeting or not so I just started walking to the bus stop...I was also kind of in a bad mood and my throat still hurt. I thought I was going to have to go all the way into town, but after a bit of apprehension, we stayed at the campground and the bus took us to the Ballina airport. A VERY small Ballina airport it was. We checked our bags and sat around for a bit, catching up on the latest celebrity gossip—as per AWal’s obsession.

The flight to Sydney was very short—about an hour and our flight wasn’t full so I got to grab a row and lie down because I wasn’t feeling fantastic.

When we got to Syndey we caught an airport shuttle to Ashley’s parents’ hotel. It was really nice. They were right on the harbor with a view of the Opera House. We hung out in their room for a while and then they took us to dinner. They had asked for a casual dining spot and we were sent to the Sydney Café. We had quite the adventure finding this “café” to begin with, and then when we did…we quickly discovered it wasn’t casual. The men were in suits and women in cocktail dresses while JD and I were both wearing jeans and t-shirts. The menu was not exactly what I was hoping dinner would be, with seafood or fancy duck or something of that nature... and everything was really expensive. I had just met her parents that night and didn’t want them to buy me a $30+ meal so I ordered a side salad and garlic nan. They also gave me a glass of their wine. I didn’t care for the wine that much, but I didn’t want to be rude and wasteful, so I drank it.

While we were waiting for dinner I started to feel worse. I got hot and dizzy and just… weird feeling. But I just tried to act normal because… I wanted to be fine and didn't want to be thought of as some whiney kid. The food came and I didn’t love my vinegar dressed salad …so I ate as much as I could and shoved the rest around to look like I had eaten more. Yeah, I still can use the little kid tactics. The bread was good though and I ate that. I know, you’re all stunned.

We went back to their hotel and got our bags to head to the hostel. During the taxi ride I started breathing kind of shallowly and quickly and freak out. I tried to just talk myself out of it because I thought maybe it was just a mental thing. Who knows what it was. We ran into Angie G when we were getting into the building. and she took us up to their room to put our stuff down. JD took care of getting the room we were in while I laid down for a minute.

When we got to our room we pretty much went straight to bed. I got pretty cold and I guess I was shivering- thus shaking the dirty, cheap metal bunk bed. Luckily someone gave me their sheet even though they froze to death. (Yeah, all they gave us was one sheet and it was not hot.) I guess the fever broke sometime in the night because I started burning up later on.

Welcome to Sydney!!