Whatta week!

I believe that I've seen more of Sydney in this past week than I have in the last four months. Now that I'm free of school, my schedule has opened up considerably and I've been making good use of the empty hours. This week was an absolute whirlwind of activity so I'll attempt to sum up (very briefly) exactly what I got up to.

Monday:
Sarah and I hit the city to see the massive Christmas tree at the Queen Victoria Building (it's a massive shopping center) and then had tapas at a little Spanish cafe off of George St. (that's the main avenue in Sydney). Afterwards, it was off to Darling Harbour for a mini-stroll and some sunning on the boardwalk. As we were sitting overlooking the water, not only did we see plenty of fish but an entire swarm of jellyfish! (It's the first time I've seen a jellyfish outside of an aquarium.)
After our marine life experience, we walked to the Sydney Fish Market where I had passionfruit for the first time (it was clearly a day of firsts). We then headed back into the city to meet up with Michelle who had just finished her last exam (and her undergraduate degree) and proceeded to wander around the city for over an hour trying to find her university's campus. It was extremely frustrating as we basically walked in a massive circle and backtracked more times than we could count--but we did get to see another part of the city.

Underneath the tree at the QVB

Tuesday:
Although I had been planning a day trip to Canberra with Jess, we decided at the last minute that driving to Canberra and back in one day might be a bit too much for us to handle. So instead we headed to the coastal city of Wollongong (pronounced WOOL-on-gong, not WALL-on-gong). We drove through miles of Australian bush (I still didn't see a kangaroo, unless you count the dead one on the side of the road) and then wound our way down the side of a mountain with the ocean and Wollongong spread out beneath us. I felt like a puppy with my head stuck out the window taking in the view and making tiny squeaks of excitement. We spent a solid couple of hours sunning ourselves on the beach and then took a walk around to take in our surroundings. There really isn't much in Wollongong but we stopped by the harbour, ate a quick lunch at the lighthouse, made an even quicker detour at the Vietnam Memorial, and then stopped at another beach for a short stroll. I still can't get over how clear the water is here!



One of the beaches at Wollongong--you can see the lighthouse in the distance.

 Wednesday:
I finally got in touch with one of my uni friends, Mary, who I hadn't seen since the beginning of the semester, and we decided to meet up in Canley Vale and spend the day together. Canley Vale is one of the western suburbs of the city and has a large Vietnamese population, hence the nickname "Little Vietnam." It's chock full of shops and restaurants serving everything from Thai to Chinese to fast-food fried chicken. Mary, who is Vietnamese, decided I need to experience a little bit of Vietnam and so took me on a guided tour around the area. She bought me a cup of sugar cane juice to try and then took me to a little hole in the wall where we had yum cha for lunch. Yum cha is actually more of a Chinese thing but, ethnicities aside, it was delicious. For those of you who have never had yum cha, you sit down at a table and the waitresses bring around trolleys or platters of different "hors d'oeuvres" (things like dumplings, for example) and you pick and choose which ones you want. I don't remember everything we ate but I really enjoyed the Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce, the seafood roll, and the dumplings.
But my food-tasting experience was not to end there. Afterwards, I bought che which is a Vietnamese dessert drink made from coconut milk, sugar, and your choice of ingredients which can be anything from tapioca to corn to jelly to avocados. I had no idea what would taste good (I mean corn and jelly and coconut milk?) so Mary chose for me. Surprisingly, it was much yummier than I anticipated, although much too sweet for me to finish the entire thing. (check out the pictue to see what it looked like)
As I was recounting to a shocked Mary how I had just had my first passionfruit earlier that week, she decided that my limited knowledge of fruit needed to be broadened and took me to a nearby market where we bought lychees, rambutans, and longans. They are all very similar fruits with hard exteriors and insides that look like peeled grapes. My favorite were the rambutans which resembled tiny sea anemones and tasted a bit like apples.
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies at Mary's flat with her friend Richard and then headed to Bankstown for dinner where we had pho (pronounced fuh) which is the national soup of Vietnam. It's a noodle soup served in a massive bowl (think the size of your head) with either beef or chicken. You can actually order the beef raw and place it in your soup where it will "cook." (Needless to say, I ordered my beef well done!) Then you dress up your soup however you want it with chili, hoisin sauce, bean sprouts, and basil. Seeing as I was the only non-Asian at the table the waitress gave me a fork but as I'd already eaten lunch with chopsticks, I went ahead and wielded them like a pro with the rest of them.
Dinner was followed by a trip to Leichardt, the "Little Italy" of Sydney, where we had iced chocolate at Bar Italia. The drink was amazing and the entire experience was made considerably funnier when a slightly tipsy older man at the counter exclaimed that I was a "gorgeous Asian-looking half-caste" and invited me to share his table. We finished the day with a walk to the Italian Forum which is a re-creation of an Italian square complete with fountain and gelato shop.

Me and my che

Thursday:
After the beachwalk I did from Bondi to Bronte when I first arrived here, I've been dying to do another. So Thursday Michelle and I decided to walk from Taronga Zoo to Balmoral beach. We took the train into the city and then a ferry across the harbour to the zoo. During our ferry trip I learned from Michelle that there are, in fact, sharks in the harbour as they like shallow waters to breed and feed (!!). Our first stop on our walk was Athol Beach which is a tiny private cove right off the pathway. Of course, I did little more than dip my toes in the water as I anxiously scanned the horizon for menacing fins. (Thankfully, the only wildlife we encountered were several iguanas along the trail. At least, I think they were iguanas. Have a look at the pic to decide for yourself.)
Halfway through our trek we had to take a detour as work was being done on the trail and took a series of residential streets to Clifton Gardens, another beach. Then, back on the pathway, we hiked to George's Head, a lookout point over the harbour which served as a fort back in the 1800s and offered us a fantastic view of the city skyline. We made it to Balmoral beach around noon where I took my first plunge into the ocean (shark fears aside) since my arrival in Sydney. The water was frigid but I stuck it out for a solid 30 minutes. We stopped later for fish and chips and then it was back to school to work the evening shift.

Michelle at Athol Beach, our first stop on the beachwalk

Friend or foe?

Friday:
I decided that Sarah needed to visit Dee Why as it is quickly becoming my favorite beach (so far) and, hoping we could find our way there via train and bus (I've only been there by car), we packed up our things after lunch and headed out. I've already mentioned Dee Why in a previous post so I don't have much to add except that this time was my first time getting in the water there (not counting the times I've done a little wading). Sarah and I braved the waves and did a little body surfing despite the fact that it was overcast and not very warm.
Saturday:
Having been told about Newtown, Sydney's artsy suburb, Sarah and I figured that a day trip to said area was in order. We did our research beforehand and decided we'd grab lunch there and have a look around. The main street, King St., is a virtual melting pot. You can find a restaurant serving African cuisine right next to a shop selling exotic Himalayan wares. There's an incredible amount of secondhand bookstores and retro clothing boutiques. The entire area has the same funky, eccentric vibe as Fitzroy in Melbourne. We had lunch at The Italian Bowl (which our city guide recommended and for good reason) and dessert at Gelatomassi which serves some of the best gelato in Sydney. The rest of the afternoon was spent window shopping (since there was little we could actually afford) and then a relaxing train ride home.

So there you have it, folks--my exciting, jam-packed week. I realize it's not the most in-depth or coherent entry I've written so you'll just have to interrogate me when I get home. :o) Now that I'm down to only seven days before my departure, this may very well be my last entry to conclude the first half of my stay here. So I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll see you soon!
Cheers!

Moustaches in Movember and more...

Here in the Land Down Under, the fuzzy growth above a man's lip is not a sad throwback to the 1920s but a way to raise money and awareness for men's health the world over. All over New South Wales and beyond, moustaches are sprouting (and have already sprung) as men are growing a "mo" to support causes like prostate cancer and depression in men. Even our tiny, mostly female, microcosm of Abbotsleigh has been affected. We have several "Mo Bros" on campus including our chaplain and IT manager. Apparently, this moustache-growing mayhem is part of a worldwide men's health initiative sponsored annually by the Movember Foundation. (I must say, however, I'd never heard of Movember prior to living here.) The rules are simple, you begin the month clean-shaven and have 30 days to "grow your mo" while seeking the sponsorship of all the females you know, aptly named "Mo Sistas." I first noticed this mo epidemic while at the beach with Jess and while Australian fashion has always been questionable, the moustaches pushed the envelope a smidge too far. Thankfully, I was quickly set straight by Jess and can now calmly appreciate the hairiness, knowing it's there for a good reason and will, hopefully, be gone by Dec. 1st.
As Movember is quickly (so quickly!) coming to a close, my thoughts are drifting ever closer to Christmas. Of course, it doesn't help that everywhere I go there are Christmas decorations and Christmas songs and Christmas trees and Santas in their sleighs taking pictures with the kiddies. It all seems slightly surreal since it's 70 degrees and sunny out and I have tan lines. Is it still Christmas if you're not wearing three layers of clothing and you can't see your breath when you walk outside? Is it still Christmas if you're snuggling up to an air conditioner instead of a fireplace and sipping lemonade and not hot chocolate? I'm not so sure about all of this. In my mind, the two are absolutely inseparable. Granted, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" so I can lay my concerns to rest. But in the meantime, I'm not quite sure what to make of a tropical Thanksgiving...
Meanwhile, changes are underway here at the boarding house. With the school year coming to a close in two short weeks, preparations for the new year have begun. Having had quite an...(ahem)experience...with the year 9s and 10s these past four months, I put in a request to try my luck with a different boarding house. I found out this week that next year I'll be moving to Vindin House to work as resident with the year 8s. I am not only looking forward to living in a real house (Vindin is a beautiful old Heritage house) but also working with a much smaller group of girls (about 25 compared to the 61 I had this year). Videos of my new residence and updates will be forthcoming in January.
The important thing right now, however, is that we're down to two weeks and counting, folks! I'm still in shock at how fast the time has gone. I'm planning a last minute, mini-road trip to Canberra (the capital of Australia) with Jess this Tuesday so I'll probably do a little write-up about that (and maybe a video if I'm feeling creative), but that'll probably be my last blog for the first half of my year here. All other news you'll just have to wait to get from me in person. ;)
Cheers!

The Wild Life

It's official, the skinks are out. Now that spring is well underway and the temperature is on the rise, the Australian wildlife has started to come out en masse. And that includes the slim mottled black lizards that line the sidewalk and see me off to class each day. I have to say, my first encounter with one nearly ended in a heart attack. There I was walking along, head in the clouds, when I spied out of the corner of my eye a thin, snakelike animal sunning itself next to the bushes. Before I could take a good look, the creature had wriggled under the foliage and vanished. When my heart returned to its normal rhythm, it became clear...the bushes had been compromised. Now as I make the trek across Abbotsleigh's campus to the train station, I expect to encounter at least a few of them. Yesterday, there were five. Lined up in a perfect little row, heads facing the sidwalk, tails still partially hidden in the leaves. It's a bit disturbing knowing five sets of reptilian eyes are watching you as you scurry along the furthest side of the walk but thankfully they seem to understand my paranoia and vanish before I get too close. The skinks are actually the least of my worries. Australia is know for its poisonous spiders and snakes and I've already seen a redback spider in another resident's window and heard tales of a red bellied black snake spotted in Wahroonga. And the best is yet to come. Apparently, flies are a huge nuisance in Australia during the summer, with little swarms of them that simply follow you around all day. I've heard it's worse out in the bush but to me any fly is a bad fly.
However, not all of the emerging wildlife is bad. The change of seasons also means it's cricket time. Now whenever I go to The Glade (the park behind the school) on the weekends I can expect to see a group of grown men dressed all in white running back and forth between two sticks and yelling wildly. It's funny how here you expect to see a game of cricket being played in the park while at home it would be baseball or football. Which, speaking of sports, I was on the train yesterday and passed a croquet club. Yes, croquet. Again, all of the players were dressed in white (and over 70) and were having a grand ol' time next to the massive blue sign advertising trials for new members who would like to join. I'm thinking I might just have to whip out my own white linen suit and have a go at one of Australia's spring sports.
In the meantime, however, I am in the midst of finishing up the semester. Today is actually my last day of class (!!!!) and then I have a little under two weeks to turn in my final essays. Granted, the end of class simply means I have to make up for lost time on my thesis, but it also means more free time to hit the beach and go into the city.
I did finally make it to the beach on Monday (after not having been since our beach walk a few months ago) and spent a few hours with another resident catching some rays. We literally just dropped everything and decided we needed to lay out on the sand at Dee Why for a bit. And the beaches here are amazing! I've only been to a handful but I've yet to meet one I don't like. The sand is soft and not littered with trash. The water is crystal clear and since there's so many beaches to choose from you never have to worry about over-crowding. (Unless of course you head to really tourist-y spots like Bondi or Manly.) And for all of you guys who love nothing better than to get battered by massive waves, Australia's the place to be. There's a reason so many people come here to surf.
Outside of school and work, though, there's very little to report. I haven't had the chance to do much what with working at Abbotsleigh and babysitting and studying. However, I plan to make the most of my last three weeks and Michelle and I have already decided that once my last papers are turned in and her exams are finished on the 22nd we are going to make a point of doing something everyday. Which means lots of trips to the beach and plenty more stories to tell when I get home.

Dee Why Beach...lovely, no?