Project Week

Hey All!

As I said in my last post, I'm headed out to the great barrier reef in two days, so I wont be updating for a little while.
It's been an amazing week so far! Sunday, I went to the palm sunday service at St. James- what a beautiful service.
Monday I pretty much hung out at home and dabbled on some homework. Later in the evening I went out with the Anderson girls to the Sydney music conservatory to watch a beautiful quartet symphony. We kind of just walked around the city after and got some munchies.
Tuesday a bunch of us from the group went to F-Dale, or more commonly, Featherdale, which is an wild life resort. There were wallabies and roos hopping all around! We were able to pet and feed them- they're so cute, especially the babies! I could have gotten my picture taken with a koala, but I felt bad :( You can just tell that they're in such an unatural habit. People just pet them like cats or dogs- they're not the same at all! It was like koala slave labor. There was a line of people and a guard who was standing near by and switched the koala every 10 or 15 minutes. It just seemed wrong :( But they're cared for very well there, and there are tons of them. Anywoo- I saw lots of cool birds, tasmanian devils, wombats, quolls, and other crazy animals.
I didn't take many pictures of the animals...let me explain. It's like, why would I take a picture of an animal behind a cage? Its not like something I am proud of...I didnt see it in the wild- everyone who paid $20 sees the same thing. People were taking pictures as if they were some wild life guru and im thinking "why are you taking a hundred pictures of captivated animals. not cool. idk it just annoys me. So yeh. After F-dale Caitlin, Jess, and I headed to art museum which we stayed at for 20minutes and then headed back home for the night.
Wednesday I went to IMAX and saw the 3-D "under the sea" movie. It was so cool! Sydney is home to the worlds largest IMAX theatre. After we got delicious gelato and aimlessly wandered around darling harbour.
Thursay I spent all morning watching TV. lame. but not really. Some aussies came over and brought "Summer Heights High" (an australian series) and we watched the entire season. Its a ridculously crude but funny show. It definitely wouldn't have flied in the U.S. NO way. hahaha- Jonah. Youtube it. I walked to Coles for some tim tams and candy and then I went to the Maundy Thursday service at St. James which was a beautiful as usual.
Today I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and homework. woot. it needed to be done and I'm on my way to being done with a couple of annoying assignments. yeha!

Well I will update you all after my trip to the reef! Leave comments if you're enjoying my blog! Miss you all.

I haven't done this is a while...
Australian terms of the week

Good on ya- good for you
bloke- guy
hire- rent
shark biscuit- new surfer

The Back of Your Ankle Looks Ridiculous...

Just a little commentary of Jess's experience with lenny the leech

Katoombaaa

Hello Beautiful People!

I'm just wrapping up my seventh week in the land down unda! Australia just had daylight savings time yesterday and it's getting cooler and rainier here as move into the fall months (A chilly 66 this morning). Well, today is the first day of my two weeks break! This week I'm going to catch up on some homework, write a couple of papers, and explore sydney. On Sunday the 12th, I'm headed out to Magnetic Island with 5 other girls and Dave! Magnetic Island is right off the coast of Oz, next to townsville and it's in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef area. We're going to be staying in a house right on the beach! We're taking a day trip out to the reef to go snorkeling, hopefully do a little fishing, and of course, explore. It's going to be such a fun trip.
Well, Saturday morning I went to the Katoomba, where the Blue Mountains are, with Sarah, Jess, and Ty. It takes about two hours by train to get there. Jess and I sat across from perfume lady....She was on the train no more than 45min and sprintzed 28 sprays of nasty smelling-old baby powder perfume on her wrist (trust me, we were counting). After she got off the train she started spraying the perfume in the air. People are strange... Any how, When we initially got to the train station we waiting an hour. Within five minutes of the train coming, my three comrads decided to go get tickets. We missed the train. So we waited another hour. When we got to Katoomba we made our way past the quaint little town, down to echo point to check out the three sisters- three large rocks. But it was so misty we couldn't see a darn thing. We made our way down to the "giant stairway". This stairway was amazing- by far the coolest thing I've seen on the trip yet. We climbed down thousands of ridiculously steep steps that were built on cliffs in order to get down to the main hiking trails. It takes about an hour to get down and an hour to climb back up. No picture could truly capture how beautiful this area is. We bushwalked for a while, encountered a bunch of bloodsucking leeches, and fell...a lot (at least I did). The forest was like a tropical rainforest. Everything was wet with mist and the air was heavy; it was beautiful. I saw a couple of really cool birds- some blue and red ones and some type of beautiful wild pheasant. We were planning on camping overnight, but Jessie Cakes wasn't feeling well so we trekked back up the cliff before dark and headed home. We were pooped at the end and I'm still sore, but it was fabulous! I am definitely going back before my time in Oz is over!