January 6, 2012 BRISBANE/CAIRNS

This morning we did a trek up the Coot-tha Mountain. In my personal opinion, the actual trek in NOT worth it. You basically walk up the side of a road the entire way up so there isn’t much beauty in that. No trails, no animal noises, just cars and unnecessary exercise. I would suggest just taking a bus to the top and eat lunch or breakfast at the cafe and taking pictures from the lookout. After we rested and rehydrated, Ben, Stuart, Patrick, and I went on a bus back to Woolloongabba which the name of the part of Brisbane where our apartments were located. We packed and headed to the airport for our free weekend!!! We decided as a group to go to Cairns and go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. When we arrived we took a cab to Koala Court, the apartments we were staying for the next two nights. We decided to go to the grocery store and purchase a nice seafood dinner for the four of us. Let me just say it was the best dinner ever. 

Shrimp, fish, calamari, mussels, toasted baguette, roasted peppers, asparagus, rice, and of course some wine :) Then we watched a movie and headed to sleep early for our day of snorkeling on the reef! I’m extremely excited about it! Goodnight blokes.

January 5, 2012 BRISBANE

Today we went to the same park in Brisbane to participate in the boat tour. 

The boat went past the amazing Story Bridge which was probably my favorite part of the tour and maybe even my favorite part of the aspect of Brisbane architecture. We also saw the downtown which is on the opposite side of the river as the park.

 Then we went through a district with some pretty beautiful houses. The boat turned around and we went back to the dock. After the boat tour was over, Ben, Patrick, Emily, and I went to the Queen Street Mall’s food court to grab a bite to eat and then walked around a shopped a bit. I boat a pair of high wasted jean shorts and an oversized tank top that says                             “I <3 Oz.”                                                                                               Then we went back to the hotel, showered, napped, and went out with the professors to a Brew House. We had a few beers and called it a night so we would be tired for our trek up the Coot-tha mountain in the morning. I will be making a video about my overall experience in Sydney where I will put a slideshow of all my pictures and talk about them soon! Good night everyone. 

January 4, 2012 BRISBANE

Today we arrived in Brisbane around 11:30 in the morning. We all were feeling pretty rough after the festivities last night. When we arrived we all jumped into three taxis and had about a 45 minute ride to our apartments/hotels called the Q Apartments. We had about two hours before we began our day so we took an hour nap and then ate some lunch. I had half of a beef pie and it was amazing. I saved the other half for one of my other meals so I wont be spending so much money. I feel like things are a lot cheaper here than in Sydney though. After lunch we all got together and walked downtown to the river and the park.

 The park was built for the expo in the 80's?? I think thats right. The park was the most amazing park I've ever been to. John Pittari would love it and I wish I could have done my city comforts project on that park cause it literally had all of them and more. We walked around for an hour or so and were going to take the ferry tour but we missed the boat so we decided to do that tomorrow morning. We rode a ferris wheel that travels around Australia but is here in Brisbane right now. It made me feel kind of sick cause I'm not really a big fan of heights.

 Then we went across the pedestrian bridge called Goodwill Bridge and went to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was different form the park in Sydney which was more managed and maintained. The park here is more natural. Emily found this fruit that looked like a potato and the sign said that the tree it comes from is in India. It was extremely hard but Emily broke it and the inside smelled like dirt. We walked through a giant bamboo jungle and then went out to dinner in downtown. I got a Margarita pizza and plan on eating the other half tomorrow. Then we caught the bus back and I showered and its only 8:45 but I'm heading straight to sleep. Goodnight everyone.

January 3, 2012: LAST DAY IN SYDNEY

Today we got up and went to the Sydney Zoo. We got there by taking a ferry from Circular Quay. When we got there we took a bus up to the entrance and then went inside. We got a deal on our tickets because we were students and we had teachers with us. Once we got inside we went and got a quick bite to eat. I had a ham and brie sandwich. Then Emily, Ben, Patrick, and I went on our own. We went to see koalas, snow leopards, a HUGE bear, penguins (shout out to jamie and lauren!), seals, kangaroos, wallabies, birds, monkeys, and elephants!!! my favorite animal!!!

After the zoo we took a gondola down to the ferry, road back to Circular Quay, then we had a meeting with our teachers about a literature review. This is where it gets interesting. We drank a bottle of wine and went out to a really good pasta place that Jason suggested. Then we went our to bar broadway. Lets just say that by the time we left bar broadway, none of us were coherent enough to remember what happened. Lets just say we went through Reel's camera and don't remember taking any of the pictures of videos, but needless to say I'm pretty sure we had an amazing time. Tomorrow we leave for Brisbane. My next blog will be my overall view of Sydney. The internet is slow so I wont be adding pictures and videos until later.

January 2, 2012 SYDNEY/BLUE MOUNTAINS

Wow. I'm absolutely exhausted. This morning we left at 6:30 to catch a train to the Blue Mountains. The train ride was about 2 hours and most of us slept. When we arrived we stopped at Subway for some breakfast and then started towards the look out site where a rock formation called "The Three Sisters" is located.

Once we got there, the REAL work started. We began to descend down the steepest steps I have ever gone down in my life. There had to be between 500 and a thousand steps. By the time we got to the bottom of the steps my legs were literally shaking. Ben told me that if I wanted an ass that bad this was definitely the way to go about getting one. Then we began a hike that seemed to be over 5 miles long, up and down hill. Anoop swears it was only two kilometers but none of us believe that. Once the hike was over we took a train back up the the top. It wasn't really a train though. It was more like a gondola. It is in the Guinness book of world records as the steepest train in all of the world. Then we caught a bus back to downtown and went to an amazing restaurant. They had everything you could ever want. I got fish and chips. The restaurant was completely bohemian style which was extremely refreshing. After lunch we caught the train and again I slept for the full two hours. My legs now feel like noodles and the shower I just took was probably the best shower I have every taken. I think its safe to say that all of us are so glad to be back resting our feet. Its going to be an early night. I;m about to eat some Ramen and hit the hay. Off to the Zoo tomorrow. Goodnight everyone.

January 1, 2012 SYDNEY

Happy new year everyone. Today we slept in obviously after our long night of festivities. After waking up we all put our bathing suits on and took a train to Bondi Beach. It was absolutely amazing. I totally want to move there. Except for the cost of living there is quite ridiculous. This Swedish girl told us that she has to pay about $430 a week for rent which means about $2k a month. I would need an extremely good job to pull that off. The beach was full of people. We ate lunch at a chicken restaurant and then spent a few hours on the beach. Then Jason, Ben, and I went to a bar for a few drinks and then met up with the rest of the group for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant on the beach and I had the most amazing margarita pizza I have ever had in my entire life. I at the entire thing by myself. Then we took the train back and called it a night. Best new years day ever. We have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to go to the blue mountains. too early for me to function. I'm definitely not excited. Oh by the way, I lost my phone. No idea where it is. So all I have is my American phone if you need to reach me.

December 31, 2011 SYDNEY

Happy New Years Eve everyone! I've heard through the grape vine that Sydney happens to hold the second largest New Years Celebration in the world behind New York City. Today we went to the aquarium in Sydney. I touched a shark egg... it's actually probably one of the grossest looking things I've ever seen in my life.

They had Huge lego models of different sea creatures and even a scene from Moby Dick made completely out of legos. My favorite part of the aquarium was probably the walk through tunnels where the fish would swim around you and you felt like you were in the water with them.

After the aquarium Patrick, Ben, Stuart, Emily, and I went to the mall to pick up some sexy Australian outfits for the big celebration. I had sushi for lunch in the mall and it was absolutely amazing. Then we went back to the dorms and caught up on blogging and got ready for the evening. We went and watched fireworks downtown and it was absolutely amazing. So much better than my new years last year. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same about the rest of the year!