Just a quick tour of my apartment 1/32 Arcadia St. Coogee, NSW Australia!

Crazy Weekend!

So this past weekend I took a trip with the UNSW Waterski and Wakeboard club up to Cliftonville Lodge which is about an hour North of Sydney. The plan was to leave from Sydney at 8am on Saturday and be on the river all weekend. So I of course overslept and forgot to pack flip flops (thongs in australia) but that's not important. Barely made it to McDonalds where we were meeting but I did thankfully otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it haha.

I jumped in the car with the president of the club so obviously we were the first ones there and I got to help take the first boat out. I wasn't too sure what to expect (which seems to be the case a lot of the time here) but once we got both boats out onto the river we all signed up and took turns taking runs. We also set up a trampoline by the water which was fun. I honestly think I was the only water skier since most people went wake boarding. It was such a great time though. Water was a little cold but we had two beautiful days and I got some good runs in. The second time I went I attempted to wakeboard for the first time. Five or six failed attempts later I was pretty frustrated but I wanted to get my runs in so I decided to postpone getting up on a wakeboard until over the summer.

Once it got a little bit colder and we were done for the day we went up to our cabins that we were staying in which were actually pretty nice. Cody and I were given the task of trying to set up this really old inflatable hot tub, and actually found an email from the club to the manufacturer saying that the hot tub was shocking people. So we kind of gave up on that haha. I go the the University of New South Wales but the University of Sydney waterski club was also there, and we knew one of the guys that was there so we ended up staying in a cabin with him. Had a huge cookout to end the night and enjoyed getting to know a few Australians and a bunch of other nationalities too. France, Norway, Netherlands, Singapore (wherever that is, not really helping the ignorant American stereotype) to name a few. Got a bunch of compliments on how good the chicken Cody and I grilled was too.

The next day we woke up around 9 and cleaned up the cabins, had a light breakfast and headed back down to the river for another awesome day. For the first time ever I tried to drop a ski and slalom which was so cool but I fell both times. Went a little bit farther the second time. I'm really pumped to get out onto the lake this summer. Once we got all our runs in we packed up the boats and headed back to Sydney. It's always pretty amazing to drive across the Sydney harbor bridge. Got back and went to the movies to see the Avengers for an overall awesome weekend.

Time flies...

I have been so busy since I last posted. It's hard to believe that I'm over halfway done with my time here. I stand by the fact that this country is amazing, and there's no way that I won't be back here at some point in my life. The more I explore the more I keep wishing there was some way I could stay here forever.

I still haven't posted about my Fall Break with IES (it's Fall in Australia), so check back in a few days and hopefully I'll have that entire trip posted about, it's gonna be a long one.

Highlights from the last few weeks let's see... 

Well classes are going pretty well. I might as well touch on that. They grade a lot harder here than they do back home, but I'm doing well as far as I know. I've got a few essays due next week, and I'm actually looking forward to a little bit of stress and structure for the next couple weeks. Yesterday in my Vertebrate Zoology class a Zoologist from the Taronga Zoo in Sydney brought in a few different animals, which was an awesome change from normal lab (which is still way more interesting than anything I've ever taken at Ithaca). The best animal was an Echidna named Brian, and it looked like a cross between a porcupine and a platypus and it was so awesome.

Last Wednesday was Anzac Day, which is basically Australian Memorial Day, to remember all the troops that died fighting in World War I and all the other wars Australia has fought in since. We had a bunch of people over to our building and had a cookout in the backyard. It was a pretty good time. This weekend we're actually having a cookout for Cinco de Mayo so we seem to have an endless amount of reasons to grill which is great. 

This past Sunday I went wine tasting in the Hunter Valley, which is about two hours North of Sydney. I'll put a few pictures up on facebook soon, but it was a lot of fun. I went with a group of about 10 people from the states, and a few Frenchies and a Brazilian kid too. We stopped at a chocolate shop to try some fudge (it's just as good here as it is in America) and chocolate, then stopped off at a vineyard that makes this wine called Tin Soldier which we tried a few of. I liked white wines more than red, but it was interesting trying different types of wines that were actually pretty nice. We also stopped at a cheese shop called The Smelly Cheese Shop, which had more kinds of cheese than I've ever seen before. I ended up buying a cow feta cheese with sundried tomatoes and garlic, so good. Then we went next door to another winery and tried some really really nice wines. 

After that we went to another winery (I wish I remembered all the names, but the thing is that most of the wineries in the Hunter Valley are so small that they don't produce enough to export, so most of the wines can only be bought directly from the wineries. And no, I never tried yellowtail haha). I found out that I like sweet wines and white wines. Verdhelo was my favorite wine I tried I think. After the last winery we went to The Hunter Valley Brewery and tried a couple really nice beers that they brewed. It was cool to be able to sample all the different kinds that I never would have tried on my own.

Check back soon for my Break posts!