After our honeymoon getaway in the islands, it was back to
reality for me. Finals started the 17th, and I had a “take home
final,” aka an essay, due the 17th, a marketing final the 19th,
and my finance final the 21st. 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment