Sydney Vaca!

So this is going to be pretty brief as I didn't do too much in Sydney. It's a beautiful city and I enjoyed walking around it. I flew Emirates over there, and it was the best flight I've ever been on. I would highly suggest them to anyone and everyone! The seats are so roomy (even for economy class), it's comfortable and there's sooo much to choose from, between games and TV shows and movies it's amazing. You can also pay to get online as well and check your email or facebook or whatever. It's fantastic. And the food's pretty ok too, obviously not great since it's air food but still. Anyways, my first night there I just stayed in Central City YHA hostel. I walked around town, found an internet cafe and got online. I found out that all the McDonald's in Sydney have free wifi, which ended up being pretty bad. After using the internet, I went back to my hostel, read a little bit, journaled, and then went to bed. The next morning I woke up and ate breakfast at McDonald's after checking out. I talked to both Chase and Cook online, which was really nice. After, I tried to figure out how to get to Coogee Beach, which is where Jeff lives. I waited for a specific bus at the wrong bus stop for 40 minutes before giving up and taking a bus that was supposed to take me to Coogee. I was trying to follow the directions on my computer, but they sucked. I got off at a bus stop not too far from where I'd been, still trying to follow the directions on my computer. I waited for 20 minutes for a bus that never came, got bored and started walking to the previous bus stop, only to watch the bus I'd been waiting for pass me. I was so done with everything by then because I'd been lugging around all my luggage as well. Finally, the next bus came, I found a hostel in Coogee and booked 2 nights on the spot. Then I went to go find internet, but really didn't want to sit in McDonald's again and eat it twice. I found a free wireless hotspot (which are all over Sydney I guess) and was able to send Jeff a quick message and get his correct phone number since I'd been texting the wrong one. We finally met up as I was ordering nachos and grabbing a very late lunch. After that he showed me his place, I dropped off my computer there and we went into downtown Sydney, near Circular Quay. I got to see the Opera house up close and we tried to break in but it didn't work. Then we walked around the botanical gardens and I fed these cockatoos, which was really cool. After, we ate at a little Indian restaurant back in Coogee and I really liked it. Grabbed some ice cream and then watched a movie at his house before heading over to one of his friends' parties. At the party, I really didn't know anyone and it was awkward and I was exhausted still from the time change (New Zealand is 2 hours ahead of Sydney). So I finally left around 11:30 and went back to my hostel and back to bed. Or was going to, until the guy that slept below me kept talking to me, and then at one point got up on my bed (which really creeped me out) before I was finally like, "It's 1 a.m. and I really need to go to sleep sorry." He kept pestering me to go swimming with him in the morning, which I refused adamantly. Then he changed the time he was going to go to later to try to get me to come. Um, no thanks. Really leave me alone. Thankfully he was out when I woke up the next morning. I got ready and then dropped my stuff off at Jeff's before heading out to another part of town to find Nick and Daniel, who were staying with a friend of Dan's in another part of Sydney. When I got to the place where he told me to get off the bus, he hadn't contacted me back yet with further directions. I ended up walking around this little suburb-type area of Sydney looking for the University of Sydney for over an hour. I finally found the place and had sent numerous texts to Dan, clearly showing I was irritated at how he hadn't gotten back to me and asking where the heck they were. When I finally found the place, it was 2:15 in the afternoon and the free BBQ I was supposed to attend at 1 was over. I sat there for 15 more minutes before giving up. I walked back to the main street (King street) and found this little Mexican restaurant that reminded me of Chipotle. I was so excited to eat there, and I also grabbed a book from this secondhand store. I rode the bus back into Sydney and walked around downtown and central city, looking at all the shops and malls. I found myself in Victoria Square, which is a quite cool mall with heaps of shops. Once everything started closing down, I rode a bus back to Coogee and got ready for the next morning. I watched the rest of a stupid movie with Eva Longoria in it. I'd asked Jeff if he could take all my stuff since it was my last night at the hostel and he came around 11 to take it back to his place. Then I went to sleep.

My 4th day there, Monday, I woke up at 5 and got ready for a day trip to the Blue Mountains. I planned for being there an hour early in case I got lost, which was a good thing because I ended up getting there right on time. I took the wrong bus at one point and had to retrace my steps. Anyways, I finally got there and got on the bus which took us to this quaint little town for brekkie. After that we reached the Blue Mountains, were able to take some pictures from a scenic spot, and then headed down closer to explore. I rode this train-type contraption that's the steepest in the world, with Indiana Jones music playing in the background =). It was really short though, and when we reached the bottom we were in a National Park. I walked around, took way more pictures than I needed, and was asked if I was traveling alone. When I responded "yes" the guy told me "HAHA no one loves you!" and then walked away with his girlfriend/wife. I was like "um, nice, thanks jerk." UGH! I do NOT like traveling alone. It's boring. Anyways, I went off-trail at one point because I got bored with everything and had time to kill. Then I realized I probably shouldn't be going tramping around off-trail in Australia with all the deadly creepy-crawlies they have there. So I went back to the trail, rode this little gondola thing back up the mountain, and then ordered chicken nuggets for lunch. After eating we traveled back to Sydney and went to the Featherdale Wildlife Reserve, which was the best part of my entire trip! I got to see heaps of animals and the little wallabies hopped around freely. I fed a kangaroo and an emu and was able to pet a koala! It was a small place, actually, but still fun. We finally headed back after that and I searched around central city/downtown to find a hostel that was closer to Circular Quay. I thought about a hotel, but the cheapest room available at the first one I walked into was $100, and I was definitely not going to pay that for the next 4 nights. I finally found Westend Backpackers and got a good deal, 4 nights for the price of 3. The place was pretty shanty and not as nice as Central YHA, but oh well, Coogee hadn't been that good either. Anyways, I was in the room alone for the first night, so I read my book, watched Friends episodes on my computer, and finally went to bed around 11. I woke up the next morning to people moving in, which was slightly disappointing at first but ended up being really nice. They were both from England and had been traveling around Australia for the past few months. The mindset about travel in Europe and Australia and New Zealand is soo cool. I love it! They just randomly quit there jobs, get a work visa, and go travel to other parts of the world, "settle down" for a month or so when they're running low on cash, and then travel around again after. It's a really laid-back view and I love it. You don't really hear about people doing it that often in the States, and if you do, you're impressed and like "wow." Most of the people staying in my hostels were from Europe doing the same thing. It was just cool.

Anywho, I finally met up with Dan and Nick on the 5th day. I went and laid on the grass in the park, and we all figured out that Dan doesn't get my text messages until 3 hours AFTER I send them, which causes problems obviously. Anyways, I'd had a little mishap that morning because I freaked out thinking I'd lost my Debit Card, but then realized I was comparing the wrong cards and expiration dates (it's kinda a long, complicated story where basically I'm just a moron) and I found that I lost my New Zealand Vodofone sim card the day before. Great, I know. Anyways, Grandpa I'm sure you're not going to like the phone bill for last month....sorry bout that! Mom said she'd take it out of my account for me to pay you for it. Anyways, Nick, Dan and I finally met up and went to the Aquarium, which we'd heard "great" things about. It ended up being small and kinda lame, although it was the first one I'd ever been to so I enjoyed it. After that I rode with them back to Newtown (the place they were staying) and met the friends they were staying with. We had some pizza and then went and saw Harry Potter again in the IMAX theater, which is the BIGGEST IMAX IN THE WORLD! It was quite awesome even though I don't really like the movie. AND the first 15 minutes were in 3-D, so I felt like I was really in Harry Potter =). AWESOME! After that I walked back to my hostel and went to sleep.

On Wednesday, I met up with Dan and Nick in the morning (around 10) and we rode the ferry to Toronga Zoo. We got some beautiful pics of the Opera House and met this little couple that was visiting Sydney. They offered us free passes into the zoo on their cousin's zoo pass, since it included up to 4 people and they only had two. That way, we only had to split the cost of 1 ticket between the 3 of us. We gladly accepted and got to pretend we had a "mom and dad" in Sydney =). They were so cute and sweet and nice, I just loved them. Once in the zoo, we went separate ways, but it was still awesome. I regret not getting their names though, I would have loved to send them a Thank You somehow! The zoo ended up being fantastic! It was so much better and bigger than the aquarium, and we got to see heaps of animals again! I really loved it! I decided, however, that I will never take an infant to the zoo unless I have an older kid that can be excited and appreciate it. I saw heaps of couples with a baby no more than 1 year old. You cannot convince me that that baby will remember "going to the zoo when s/he was 1." Really? What a waste of money! I mean, maybe the parents like zoos I guess. If it was free or cheap, I could understand, but 1 ticket was around $40 if you didn't have a discount! That's just ridiculous. AND we also walked around the corner to see this little kid peeing/pooping in the bushes on the side! We all started cracking up! There were toilets within viewing distance to this kid and his mom, and she just said "hurry up before people see you!" Oh wow it was hilarious. Anyways, we followed them to a bird show, which was pretty cool. After that we finished walking around the zoo and then headed to Manly Beach. A bus driver told us it would only take us about 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop we needed to get to the beach, and it definitely took us 40. Ugh. When we finally got there, it was late in the afternoon and chilly. I would have been disappointed, except I had brought my book and had something to distract me. Nick (stupidly in my opinion) decided to go swimming anyways. Manly Beach also has the highest amount of shark attacks in Australia, and it was getting near dusk, which is when they feed. He's a genius I tell ya. Ugh. After riding the ferry back to Circular Quay, we all parted ways. I went out to eat by myself and then went to bed rather early again after hanging out with people from my hostel. The next day I was determined to go souvenir shopping, but it rained. I was disappointed because the morning looked like it was going to be really nice. I got lost (go figure) and walked around looking for downtown Sydney for a really long time, walking in the rain. I wasn't really happy at all. None of the souvenir shops I visited even had anything cool in them either. I finally found a relatively big one compared to the rest and gave up, grabbing a few souvenirs. I then walked back to my hostel, but on my way found a book store that was closing down and grabbed 2 books. Nick and Dan went to see the orchestra play that night at the Opera house, but I didn't want to spend $70 on a ticket for something I really am not interested in. If it had been an opera, I would have gone, since I really want to see one and why not see one at the world's most famous Opera House? But it wasn't, and I wasn't interested. Instead I hung out with people from my hostel again, got free pasta (which sucked of course) and watched the girls I'd made friends with sing Karaoke. At around 11:15 I went back to my hostel, packed everything up and talked with some of the other girls, and then went to bed.

The next morning I woke up early (5:30) and went to catch my shuttle. I was really tired because I hadn't slept well the night before. We didn't lay down to go to sleep til around 1:15, and I kept waking up and thinking that I'd missed the shuttle to the airport. When I finally got there, I'd been so bored with everything and traveling alone that I thought I'd have some fun on my last few hours in Sydney, and I started talking in a French accent. It worked well and people kept asking me where I was from =). I either avoided the question (a.k.a. acted like I didn't understand) or said "Paris." Haha it was fun. I checked in and found that my flight was delayed an hour, so I grabbed some brekkie and coffee and read. Dan and Nick met up with me after customs and I was able to catch up with them before boarding. On the plane I had a window seat and the other two seats to myself :)!!! It was glorious. I watched the stupid movie The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and stretched out, but couldn't fall asleep thanks to the coffee I'd drank. I decided on the plane that I was going on a diet when I got back to New Zealand, meaning no more sweets or caffeine. So far so good :). Anyways, after landing and getting back home, I unpacked and then talked to Joshua, which was nice since we hadn't really spoken at all in the past 2 weeks. After, I had friends from my program from Dunedin stay over, and I stayed up late chatting and catching up with them. It was SOOOO NICE to talk with girls again! I mean it was fine traveling with guys, sure, and its' better than traveling by yourself, but it's nice to have a group of girls that you really get along with and are comfortable around.

The next morning (Saturday now) we went to the market in central city Christchurch. It was a lot of fun and the market is always fun to be in. The girls needed to leave around 4 and dropped me off before heading back to Dunedin. I was able to talk to Joshua again (briefly) and then my flatmate Sara was home! We caught up and went grocery shopping together, and I don't remember what we did the rest of the night, but it was probably sleep. The next day I did a whole lot more of nothing but work out, then hung out with Sara and her friends as we all caught up after break.

This past Monday, the 7th of September, I went to class, talked to Marqui, and worked out. Yesterday I started research for my philosophy paper that I really don't want to or care to do. I absolutely abhor philosophy and couldn't care-less about it. I've never vehemently hated a subject in all my life. I hate it more than geometry even. UGH! Oh well...I ate pancakes for dinner last night (tuesday) and they were delicious! Then today (wednesday) I went to class, came back expecting to talk to Joshua, instead we rescheduled for tomorrow I guess, and am now going to work out and then finish this dumb paper. It's about color and whether it's inside us or outside us...I don't really care either way, it is what it is and you can't claim it's inside you because there's physicality to it and you can't claim it's outside you because how do you know what everyone else sees is the same as you? Just like how can you know if everyone else is conscious and not just zombies? See why I hate philosophy yet? It's dumb. K sorry for complaining and sorry to anyone that really enjoys philosophy...I'd rather just have my numbers thanks. I'll try to update more often and I'm sorry this is so long. Miss you all and hope you had a good Labor Day weekend!!!