New Found Paradise!!!

After an incredibly boring 15 hour flight... I finally landed in Sydney. The postcards don't do the city justice. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I went from rainy low 40s Seattle, to a sunny high 70s Sydney. The long flight was completely worth it.

For the first few days we stayed in a hostel for orientation. The hostel was pretty sweet. If your interested in heading down under, you should hit up the YHA hostel on the rocks, it was super nice. Orientation started the minute we touched down. We were given an hour to freshen up and then it was off on a 3 hour walking tour of Sydney, sunscreen and comfy shoes are mandatory. Australian history is rich with crazy convicts and a lot of tries and fails. Alcohol also plays a large part in their history. Did you know they have a hospital that was built by rum traders? Part of it currently serves as the Parliament building.

After the walking tour we got some R and R time... and had tried some interesting pizza. I had kangaroo pizza... it tasted exactly like chicken. And it was pretty tasty. Since most of the Americans in the group are under 21, we were all excited about being able to go out for the first time... legally that is... We all got on our best party outfits and headed out to Scubar. There are some important differences to take into consideration when you go out... one that Australians actually look at you when they dance and they don't just grab from behind like Americans. Also the drinks are extremely expensive and are very tiny. Supposedly the alcohol content is higher but so far this hasn't proven to be the case. Another important thing to note is that the men don't generally buy girls drinks, so ladies its all on you. At the bar we went to, there was crab racing... I didn't really get it but the Aussies went CRAZY over it. Maybe one day I'll understand...

The second day started bright and early... we headed out on an all day adventure. I thought we were just going hiking but that wasn't the case. Our first stop was at a zoo... Australian zoos and American zoos are very different in that you can actually pet some of the animals. I petted a kangaroo! It was a little weird because I ate one the night before... but I figured he'd understand. I also got to pet a koala!! They're super soft... I would cuddle with one if they weren't super aggressive.... I also saw some ferry penguins/little penguins. They were SUPER adorable!! You can buy them as a pet... so I don't really see why you wouldn't especially when they look like this:

I plan on bringing one home with me. After the zoo we went to go hike in the blue mountains. The blue mountains aren't really blue they just look like it. Also they're not really mountains when compared with American standards. But we went on a really scary train ride that has the steepest descent in at least all of Australia. We went on a hike that ended in climbing 1,000 steps to get back to the top. I think I'll have some great looking legs by the end of the trip...After we went and learned a little about the aboriginal culture, painted boomerangs, got our faces painted and learned some Aboriginal dances. It was pretty sweet.

Tuesday was also Valentine's day, which unfortunately for us single people is also celebrated in Australia. Some of the girls and I headed out to a pub and got some tasty fish and chips and I still owe the bartender 10 cents, he didn't seem to mind that he got shorted. The currency here is still a little confusing. Being in a new city, is a bit like being a freshmen in college, you don't know where any of the parties are and you feel weird about following upper class-men around, at least you should feel weird... We wandered around the city looking for a place that wasn't dominated by couples. We found a latin dance club and learned a little bit of salsaing. It was creepy when the older men hit on you but all in all it was a ball of fun, much better then the night before.

Day 3 was the best day ever. It was a day at the beach! Manly beach is beautiful!! I plan on going at least once a week, until it gets cold. The pictures don't do it justice... the men were also beautiful! I'm not going back to the states.... I picked up an awesome tan line from the beach... It was our last night of orientation so we wrapped it up on a fancy boat for dinner. It was a huge sailboat! Sydney is beautiful at night! Someone told me there would be free booze, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The night ended with my english getting corrected by some natives. Apparently I say certain words incorrectly.

Today we finally got to school. Getting some necessities was a struggle... but it was a learning experience for sure. Tonight we're pretending its my birthday and testing the uni's night life... So thats all for now...

Taa!