Halloween in Sydney!!

Sorry for the long awaited blog post!!

As you will read I have been very busy building up my social life and trying to build up my GPA.
In Australia, Halloween is not a big holiday and many people don't celebrate it by dressing up in crazy costumes....However, that is not going to stop us American college students...

For the weekend we decided to travel to Sydney, which was actually the only place in Australia that I knew of prior to my decision to study here. Allie, Marisa, and I left Thursday afternoon...we were flying out of Gold Coast airport which is a small airport with about 10 gates max! Upon our arrival we realized that our flight was 2 hours delayed!..Australian airlines are very unreliable when you fly domestic flights many are delayed or even canceled without any notice. We decided to be wise with the time we had to sit around the airport and we thought the best choice was to buy a couple bottles of wine and and hang out!

Famous Coke Sign in Kings Cross

After we arrived in Sydney we went to our hostel which was in 'Kings Cross'...when people told us about Sydney their only advice was "be careful of Kings Cross". We soon realized the reason people said this was because at every other corner there were strip clubs, homeless gangs, and sketchy people. However, it was the best location for all the clubs, bars, and small shops. Allie and I spent Friday night meeting her best friend who she went to high school with in Shanghai 3 years ago! This was the first time they have seen each other since. Lucy (her friend) was originally from Sydney but her because of her dad's job she travels all over the world. She is now living in Sydney by herself in a great apartment with a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House! We spent the night catching up, sipping champagne and meeting some of her friends...One is featured in Happy Feet, the other is in a country music video, and Lucy was featured in the top style magazine of Australia this week!

Full View of Sydney

On Saturday Allie and I spent the day being tourist. We walked all around Sydney, visited many cute boutique, cafes, and parks. Sydney is amazing! If I would have to compare it to a city in the States...I would have to say it's a New York, but a lot cleaner! It was amazing, I definitely wish I could spend more time in Sydney. On Friday night we all went out, we started out with a few drinks on the hostels rooftop where we had a view of the Sydney skyline it was beautiful! After that we proceeded to a night club....and that's all I can say.

Saturday was the best day!!!! We woke up bright and early (which wasn't so great) and then went to the harbor where we were going to sail around all day! Our friend Jon from SLU knows some of the guys on the golf team at Bond and one of them knows a guy who takes a sailboat/yacht out and travel around for days! We all got on the boat and it was amazing great views, it reminded me of my mom's pictures of Greece.

The captain of the boat provided all of us with any drink we wanted ALL DAY!! We spent the whole day sailing around the Sydney Harbour. At one point the captain stop in a cove and allowed us to jump off the boat and hang out in the Pacific Ocean. I thought I would jump off just to say I did it...Needless to say it was FREEZING! and I quickly got right back on the boat!  We finished the day grilling fish and bratwurst on the boat!

On Sunday we walked around again...We headed towards the Harbour where first went through China Town, and then to Paddy Market. Paddy Market is this huge center filled with gypsy like stands! There was so many people selling so much JUNK! and then we walked back through China Town, we decided to grab lunch and relax at this small Chinese Restaurant. However it was the least relaxing thing I did all day! We sat down and immediately were approached by 3 waiters quickly asking us what we want...We all just stared at each other and laughed, we had no idea what they were saying. After looking over the menu for about 10 minutes we all came up with a plan and decided that we would just order a couple small things and just share. We had NO IDEA what we were ordering or what we were about to eat...After the stressful lunch we went to the Sydney Harbour to relax before having to fly back to the Gold Coast.

When we got the the Harbour we realized they were having a ceremony. We sat down and quickly realized it was a dragon boat races for Brest Cancer. I thought it was equivalent to our Relay for Life. It was a beautiful ceremony and brought tears to my eyes!...Allie and I started talking about people we know with the terrible sickness...We also took some time to say a prayer for all! It made me happy to see how universally people are fighting to find a cure and hopefully one day worldwide we will come together and be successful to fight cancer!

We then flew back to Bond, and spent the remainder of the night enjoying our last dinner with Mrs. Enno and Lexi!! We were sad to say good-bye but so happy they enjoyed Australia!

On Monday I was of course playing catch-up with my homework and then started working on my Abnormal Psychology Case study...Monday night we had our volleyball game and we played great again!! I really am loving this beach volleyball league, but unfortunately I don't think I will be able to play in when I return to the States. On Tuesday when I took a break from my studying I booked my birthday weekend trip to Cairns!! Allie, Kiley, Marisa, and I are taking a girls trip to the Great Barrier Reef! We are going to spend the day snorkeling and Scuba Diving!  All week I have been camped out in the Library in attempt to get ahead in my studies! This weekend we are in Byron Bay enjoying the surf town and HOPEFULLY...propelling from a plane!!!!!

Hope you all are staying warm in the states! It was 85 degrees here today!!
SEEya-
lib