Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This weekend was supposed to be “action-packed”… But not so much after all the rain we had.

Friday, my group had team building activities. Tug-o-war, synchronized walking, and JUMBO volleyball with a ball that was about 6 feet in diameter. There was a giant blow up obstacle course, too. That was even more difficult after hours of rain soaking the ropes and multiple puddles along the way. It actually wasn’t a bad afternoon. I had the chance to meet some new people, so that was beneficial before classes start.

Later that night, we got all dressed up to go out, and never made it off campus. We ran into Amy, our Study Abroad advisor. She was sitting in the courtyard with her boyfriend and we sat down to chit-chat and never got up. It was actually really cool—while we were sitting there, a momma opossum came through the courtyard with a baby on her back searching for food. The opossums here are actually kinda cute, not like the ones back in the States. Then, a bandicoot, which is an endangered species, came hopping around our picnic table. I was pretty excited about that.

Saturday morning we had to be up for our bus tour of Sydney. It would have been a lot nicer if the rain would have held back for us, but what can you do?! We traveled through Sydney Harbor National Park, down to The Corso at Manly Beach, through the suburbs and ended up in Sydney. We stopped off at viewing area of the Opera House and Sydney Bridge. It is absolutely beautiful, and we are definitely going back on a day with more favorable weather. While we were taking pictures, my camera broke. The lens smashed on a rock, but Mom to the rescue… She is sending me hers. There is just too much going on here not to have a camera. After that stop, we quickly visited the New South Wales Art Gallery. I’m not so much an artsy person, but I would have liked more time there. From there we headed to the Rock Markets, sorta like a flee market, which was located almost directly beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge. There were some really cool things there, and I think we are all planning a trip back there to pick up some souvenirs. As part of our tour, we stopped at Cargo Bar in Darling Harbor to get our complimentary drink. For anyone that watches The Real World, Darling Harbor is where the last house was located. The cast often partied at Cargo Bar, so that was actually really cool for a lot of us to see.

Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge... This one is for you, Dad! :)

A huge statue outside the NSW Art Gallery.

A view of Sydney. That is the Sydney Tower (kinda looks like a Q-tip)... We are visiting it the next time we go into Sydney.

After our tour, we grabbed dinner and got ready to head down to The Steyne Hotel, which is a series of five bars all connected with a shared patio. It was a long night, and we actually ran into a few people we had met last weekend. It seems as though we always have a good time when we are there. It turned into a long night, and we actually wound up seeing sunrise just over Shelly Beach. It was definitely on my things to see list while I was here. Sunrise, check.

Stephanie (Texas Tech.), Me, Caitlin, Steph, Erin (Belmont), Annie, and Perri (GVSU).

My MSU crew! :) Love them!

Up early Sunday morning for brunch and surf lessons… and again, due to bad weather, our lessons were postponed until next Sunday. Not much later in the afternoon, the weather turned around and the sun came out. So we headed to the beach to tan, even though the beach was closed for swimming. I took a little nap and relaxed on the beach all afternoon. Here: beach, sun, and swimsuits… Back home: snow, cold, and sweatshirts. Wish you were here with me!

Today (Monday) was the first day of class at the school. My schedule worked out so that I don’t have Monday courses. Three day weekends, every week! My uniform came in… Yuck. Not excited for that, but I will survive. I will post a picture of it when I get the chance.

We had our All-College Welcome Ceremony this morning in the chapel. It is absolutely gorgeous in there. The guest speaker was a previous Australian Olympic swimmer in the 1972 Munich games. Her name is Shane Gould and she competed when she was 15 and won 5 individual medals, 3 gold, a silver, and a bronze. She retired from swimming when she was only 17! Her life story was actually rather interesting, but she wasn’t very motivating, if that was her purpose.

Sean and I then headed down to the Corso and ended up at the beach for the afternoon. Took a little nap and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was about 30 degrees Celsius today, which is about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. No complaints!

First day of school tomorrow! Wow. This should be interesting. I guess I am kinda excited. It will be very different from Michigan State.

Hope everyone is enjoying the winter wonderland at home. I am thinking of you always. Drive careful in all that bad weather (like I can be one to give driving advice!).

Love&Miss.
xoxo