Bucket list shenanigans (And finals)

After our honeymoon getaway in the islands, it was back to reality for me. Finals started the 17^th, and I had a “take home final,” aka an essay, due the 17^th, a marketing final the 19^th, and my finance final the 21^st. Luckily I had written most of my paper on the plane ride home, but since I was writing in the vacation state of mind it needed a lot of help. Then it was onto a few days of marketing studying, which I wasn’t too worried about, and the final. Not that finals are fun or anything, but since it was so different than back home I’ll fill you all in. Basically since hardly anything else is graded during the semester, they take finals EXTREMELY seriously. You’re given not only an assigned room to take the final in, but an assigned seat. They let you into the room about 10 minutes early, you put all of your bags into the back room, and find your specific seat number. Then you literally can’t get up unless you raise your hand and one of the proctors escorts you to wherever you need to go. Then you have to fill out an attendance form, they check every single student ID for the photo and signature, and then inspect water bottles, calculators, and anything else that might be on your desk for cheats. Then you have ten minutes of reading time to literally just read the exam and if you pick up a pencil, as one kid in my room did, they rip the exam from your hands and give you a new one. I honestly can say that the pre-exam routine was much more stressful than actually taking the physical marketing exam!  After that, though, I had approximately 38 hours to learn an entire semester of finance (sorry mom and dad! The truth comes out). So, for the next 38 hours, minus a sleep or two, I literally sat in the same exact chair at our kitchen table and learned that entire semester of finance….to my best ability. At 9:20 am I took my last final in the Great Hall (Hogwarts), and at 12:00pm I was free for the next 10 days!!

Since it was one of the last weekends, a lot of Newcastle people I had met on my NZ trip were coming into Sydney for their last time, so Saturday night was full of new “old” friends and goodbyes. Sunday my housing program provided us with tickets to an Opera House show, so even though I had already been, I decided to check it out. The show was Peter and the Wolf narrated by Dame Edna, so it was pretty interesting to say the least. As you probably know, Peter and the Wolf is a childrens story, but Dame Edna is a famous male Australian comedian’s female alter ego. Dame Edna is basically this character with a complete life story that has been created and the comedian only performs as her. The show was pretty enjoyable when the Sydney Symphony was playing and Dame Edna just did stand-up, but once she started narrating children’s stories it got kind of dull. After the show I went out for my last punch bowl in Darling Harbour with Kelsey, one of my Newcastle friends in the program. Later we found this bar with a bowling alley that had a Sunday deal where you just had to buy a drink at the bar and got a free game of bowling! After our first game a few of my other friends from my apartment met up with us and competition got heated. One of my friends and I were fighting to avoid last place, and in the very last turn of the last game, he just missed some pins so I avoided last place by one point!!

Monday Naomi and I headed up to Newcastle with Kelsey since visiting her was also on my bucketlist. We got into the area about an hour before sunset, so we went out to Nobby’s beach to wonder around and watch the sun go down over the water. There’s a really cool light house and “pier,” basically a pathway out into the ocean,” so we walked down that while waiting. Not only did we get to see some really cool stone artwork along the path and an awesome sunset, but we also got to see a pack of wild dolphins feeding like 100 feet away. Watching dolphins feed on a beautiful fall evening with a beautiful sunset in the background is another one of those moments where you kind of have to pinch yourself because it seems unreal.

 

 

Another activity I had been wanting to do all semester was sandboarding and a really popular place to do it is Port Stephens, which is about an hour bus ride from Newcastle. Kelsey hadn’t done it either, so we took a day trip up there Tuesday. After walking around the town and grabbing lunch, we headed out to the dunes from some sand adventures! The dunes were absolutely amazing because they literally run right up to the ocean. We got 4 wd’d to the sandboarding hill, picked out some boards and climbed to the top! The view was absolutely beautiful as you can look out and see the ocean on one end and rolling green hills on the other. After taking in the view we sat down on our boards and scooted out to the edge of the slope, which was WAY more steep than we expected it to be. Since the hill was so steep you weren’t allowed to stand, so you sit on the very back of the board, bend your knees, rest your heels on the front of the board, and put your hands out to the sides in the sand to steer/control your speed. We were all kind of nervous so it took us a while to get going, but finally I just said “peace guys!” and pushed forward. I gained a lot of speed and went way faster than I thought I would and made it about ¾ of the way down the hill before taking a tumble. We went again and again and again, but eventually climbing up the hill got pretty exhausting and we had gathered enough sand on our bodies to make our own beach. There was a mini hike we had wanted to do back in town and one of the sandboarding workers said he would drive us over so we made sunset. The walk up Tomaree Head look out was only about 20 minutes (although after climbing that sand dune hill it felt like forever) and the view was absolutely beautiful. You could look out over most of Port Stephens from one side and into the ocean from the other. After watching the sunset we headed back to town to catch a bus to Newcastle so Naomi and I could catch our train back to Sydney.

My last big Sydney adventure was doing a 10k hike from Spit bridge to Manly. It’s a 4 hour hike along the northern coast of Sydney and it was absolutely beautiful. The winter weather in Sydney is really just rain, rain, and more rain, but the day we did it felt like the perfect spring day. We started the hike after lunch time and I was instantly so happy that I was able to fit it in. The path goes in and out of all of the bays and it reminded me a lot of home or Star Lake, making me at least a little bit excited to be heading home in 3 days. The first third was over beaches along lake homes. Like Lake Geneva, I was more distracted by the insane houses than the ocean views. The middle third of the walk was through a national park, so it was more of a hike than a walk and was were all the scenic views came in. For much of it we were in the woods, but at one point you get a glimpse of the ocean and see the city way out in the distance making you realize how far you actually are. We wanted a better  view, so after adventuring a bit I found some rocks in a clearing that gave an absolutely amazing view of the opening to the Sydney Harbour, Manly, Watsons Bay, and the city. It was pretty bittersweet looking out at all of the places I had spent the last months calling home. The final chunk of the walk was through the neighborhoods of Manly, and again I spent most of it gaping at houses that I couldn’t fathom ever even dreaming of living in. After finally making it to Manly about 4 hours later, we treated ourselves to a jug of sangria and took our last ferry ride home.

 

 My last few days of Sydney have been spent packing, wandering around the city, eating at all the restaurants I loved, hanging out with my roommates and friends, and saying goodbyes as they come.

Study Week aka VACATION WEEK!

Here in Australia they do finals a bit differently than back home. In Madison I would have my last day of classes, then a designated "study day" then finals week. Here, I had my last day of classes June 7, then the next week (June 9-15) is called Stuvac week and is intended for studying, then finals last two weeks. But the way I see it is that if they are going to call it "Stuvac," aka "Student Vacation," well, I'm going on vacation!

So, as one last little trip before finals and my last weeks in Sydney, my friend Tory and I decided to vacation to the Whitsundays, which is a group of islands off the coast of Queensland, after our classes ended the 7th. We found a really good groupon type deal for a 5 night stay, full day Great Barrier Reef tour, and half day Whitehaven tour, so we treated ourselves to that! We mostly just lounged around at the resort filling our bellies with lots of food and champagne and treating ourselves to doing absolutely nothing which we hadn’t done all semester! It was really nice just to sit back on the beach or by the pool and relax for probably the first time all semester! Our resort also had sea kayaks, Lorikeet feeding, and poolside bar, so when we did feel up to doing stuff we did have options!

Our Great Barrier Reef tour was on a pretty windy/wavey day, but it was still pretty awesome. We had a two hour boat ride out to the reef again and then we arrived at Reef World, which is like a permanent barge off the reef with a sun deck, an underwater viewing room, picnic area, and partial submarine. We started off with the submarine trip over the reef because it was high tide and they could sub right over the reef. It was sweet because it was all windows and they literally go right over the reef at the drop off, so you get to see a mixture of the small coral fish and the larger fish that hang out by the drop off. After the sub ride we filled up on lunch then hopped in for a snorkel! At this point it had been approaching low tide, so when you were over the coral you were literally 2 feet away from it, which was awesome because the colors stick out a lot more. There was also a drop off that you could swim down and around, too, and I saw a Nemo and Marlin hanging out around there! This group also had a professional photographer, so we had a little photoshoot with him. He has some fish food so he’s literally surrounded by fish and at one point food must have gotten right by my face because a fish literally just hit me straight in the goggles!! He captured the moment just before the hit!! Tory went in because she was cold, but I wanted to stay in and swim around some more because there were SO many more fish species at this location than the previous one I had gone too. Finally I decided to swim in and all of a sudden I look forward and see this HUGE fish. I have an irrational fear of fish, so I was kind of freaked out, but he seemed super curious and friendly because he just kept swimming around right in front of me and around me! I wanted to touch him but he had two stubby teeth that stuck out soooo I got scared and didn’t, but it was still so cool!!

The day of our Whitehaven beach tour was kind of cloudy and crappy weather, but the beach was still absolutely beautiful. This is Australias “most photographed beach” and is only accessible by boat so we did a mini tour around the islands as well on our way out! The beach is 98% pure silica sand which makes it super white and soft. We used the sand to exfoliate (it really works!), built sand creatures, and napped on the beach!

Vacation can’t last forever, though, and it’s back to Sydney to write some papers and study for finals!  I can’t believe I’m almost done with school here!

Vivid Sydney

Despite being pretty sad about leaving my family, I did get to come back to Sydney during Vivid Sydney and bring Keanu with! We got back in Sydney Monday evening and planned on going to dinner and vivid right away that night, but when we left the apartment later it  was pouring rain, soooooo we turned around and just had dinner at the apartment and I caught up on some homework so we could enjoy the rest of the week. After my classes Tuesday, we headed to Darling Harbour for the vivid water show and dinner. For a quick explanation, vivid Sydney is a festival of light and they light up EVERYTHING in Sydney from buildings, to cool light sculptures, to the opera house, to the water, to the bridge!

Darling Harbour featured Aquatique, a water and light show timed to music, for the first time this year and it was absolutely amazing. We watched the first show, which was themed “Rock and Roll.” It’s absolutely beautiful to see the water and lights with the backdrop of the city in the back. It really couldn’t get better (but wait until later and it does). Then we walked around looking for dinner and found a harbour side restaurant with a $35 deal for a main or entrée, a drink, and dessert. For those of you who don’t know, this is (unfortunately for my wallet) an extremely good deal. During dinner, we got to see another vivid show that seemed to be Baliwood themed from afar. After filling up on deliciousness, we walked across the Pyrmount bridge to look at the light fixtures on there and watch the light show on the maritime museum, which was “sounds of India.” After finishing the Darling Harbour light festivities, we walked down George Street to Circular Quay! There was so much going on here it was a bit overwhelming! 90% of the buildings were lit up and there were light fixtures everywhere and a photograph display. The contemporary art museum had a really cool and intense show that had done by a young Australian artist. After watching the opera house change from across the quay, we wanted to hear the music with it, so we walked around the circle. Along the way there were fiber optic fixtures, magic mirrors, giant spikey things, and more. Once closer to the Opera House we could hear the music that went along with the images and colors being projected on the sails of the Opera House, so we just sat there for an hour or so and took it all in. On our way back to the bus station, we stopped at the Customs house, which was definitely the coolest of them all. The music is picked by a person, who then dances on a dance floor to the song and the lights on the building move along with their dance moves. The images and colors on this building were also the most intricate and artsy.

Wednesday we made our way to the Sydney Sealife Aquarium, which was on my “one month left in Sydney bucket list.” I was pretty stoked because I had been trying to get there all semester specifically to see some Nemos, Dorys, and a Dugong. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit (way more than a bit) obsessed with Manatees, and a Dugong is a southern hemisphere Manatee. We got to the aquarium at the same time as like 5 school groups, so it was a bit frantic and scary at times, but still really cool. It was cool to go after the Great Barrier Reef, too, because I could see some of the fish I saw in the water and know what I saw! Also, I got to hang out in Dugong island for a good like 30 minutes and watch a Dugong eat lettuce and blob around. Even when there were literally 100 small children in the same tunnel with us, I just followed it around. PLUS….once you exit the aquarium you go into the gift shop and they had a GIANT dugong stuffed animal. VERY UNFORTUNATELY, it wasn’t for sale, but Keanu did buy me a small one for my birthday and from now on I am on a hunt for a human sized dugong stuffed animal! Tonight was one of my friends 21^st birthdays, so we went to another Darling Harbour vivid show and met up with her there for some drinks!

I had some classes and work to do Thursday, so Keanu and I hung out on campus and took naps in my favorite lawn chair meadow. I clearly have a really good definition of “classes” and “work to do” after a semester of class only twice a week and plenty of distractions to make even that hard ;). Since we wanted to see the Harbour Bridge Vivid display we had to go over to North Sydney because they only do it on one side. This was fine because also on my “one month left in Sydney bucket list” was Luna Park, the theme park located in North Sydney just under the Harbour Bridge! Admission is free, so we weren’t really planning on riding anything and just were going to wonder around and look at the bridge, but there was a $20 Ferris wheel ride, “gourmet” snack, and drink deal, so we did that. The park was practically empty and I swear they forgot about us in the Ferris wheel because we went around and around and around and around for at least 35 minutes. It was really neat to be riding around in the Ferris wheel with all of the theme park lights and then also being able to see the colours projected onto the bridge. Finally they were like, “we’re stopping it to let people on, but you can stay if you want!” I was pretty Ferris wheeled out and the line to “colour the bridge” was pretty short, so we got off, grabbed our snack and wine/beer and hopped in line! There were 4 parts on each half of the bridge that you could color, so naturally I did a lot of purple and Keanu did a lot of green. Then we threw some blues and teals in there, some flashy light patterns, hit go, and a fancy, whimsical noise sounds, then BOOM! You’re colors and light patterns show up on THE Sydney Harbour Bridge! It’s pretty fantastic and exciting to say that we got to colour the iconic Bridge during vivid!

Friday we tackled yet another item on my bucket list which was to go to Cronulla, an area of South Sydney. It was about an hour train ride away and once we got there we planned on ferrying over to Bundeena, which is where the Royal National park is. Upon getting off the ferry, it was a bit confusing and we weren’t sure which way to go. After looking at a map and heading towards what I thought would be an information center, we somehow ended up at a nice, quiet beach that overlooked the city of Cronulla. Since it had been a while since I got to beach in Sydney, we took the accidental opportunity to soak up some sun and I went for a nice (freezing cold) dip in the ocean. Finally we decided that we should ACTUALLY try to find the park, so we got a map from a local store and headed towards one of the walks through the park. After doing one way of the walk, we saw a huge sandy peninsula that Keanu was set on going on. Apparently he thought it was connected to the land we were currently on, but it wasn’t, so after Keanu tested the waters for crocodiles, sharks, and deepness, we threw our bags over our head and waded through to the other side! It was basically just one gianttttt beach because the entire peninsula was pure sand, so again we just lazed around and swam! Once we were all beached out we headed back to the ferry to head home. That night we headed to circular quay again to meet up with my roommates and watch vivid for one last time before heading out for the night to Oxford Street with some friends. Yes, if you remember from my earlier posts that is the “gay” area of Sydney, so we did hit up one of the gay bars. It was actually one of the most fun nights I’ve had here so far because it was just 3 stories of pure dance floor, so we all literally just danced our asses off until like 4 am!

Since it was Keanu’s last day here, the days itinerary was up to him. He wanted to see Manly Beach, so we took a ferry up there just intending on walking around since it was too cold to beach. It ended up being “Taste of Manly,” though, so we sampled some of the wines. I got a “pink blush” and it was literally the best sparkling wine I have ever had in my entire life. If I could I would bring home an entire suitcase full of Pink Blush wine bottles!! That night we wanted to get one last nice dinner together, so we headed to Darling Harbour for the Saturday night firework show they always do and dinner despite the fact that it was a super rainy evening. The fireworks were absolutely amazing because they time it with a vivid water/light show and music. After the show we wandered around looking for another dinner deal, but decided on eating at the South Styne floating restaurant (just guess…also on my bucket list). It is (was?) one of the worlds largest operational steam ferry’s and is one of Sydney’s most famous boats because it was one of the first big Manly Ferries. We finished the night off with the final firework/vivid show of the night then headed home to pack and watch a movie!