Gunnamatta Bay

It's Sunday morning, and since my room faces east I was unable to sleep in due to the intense sunlight pouring through the window. I decided to make the best of it and walked up to my favorite breakfast joint to grab a to-go bacon and egg roll plus a long black (same as an Americano). I bought the Sunday edition of the Daily Telegraph and walked up to Gunnamatta Bay, a really lovely park with naturally still water where people go to swim if they're not in the mood to get pummeled by waves at the main beach. There was an adult swim club of some kind meeting there this morning, so I ate my breakfast and watched all of the oldies race each other in the 100 freestyle.
I went for a long walk along the shoreline, which is great because it's lined with gorgeous homes, and it's so deserted that it feels like a private beach. If only I had a spare couple of million dollars lying around, I would totally buy a house here. Maybe it's not too late to become a doctor, or an oil tycoon, or... whatever you have to do to live here. The water stays really shallow for at least 100 feet; in the first photo you can see that there is a guy fishing way off in the distance in knee deep water!

I walked all the way to Darook Park, where there were lots of toddlers splashing around, and decided to head for home. I have to work tomorrow, but since it's Christmas Eve it should be a quiet day and I'll most likely get to take off early. Here's hoping that the weather stays great for my days off work!

Librarian Conference/Dork Convention

This past weekend my work hosted the Orchestra Librarians Summit, a meeting of all the major orchestra librarians in Australia and New Zealand. The library where I work is closed to the public, and we don't work directly with the performers, so I was really eager to learn a little more about the day to day challenges of working with all the performers and administrators. Of course, it didn't hurt that the conference was in Melbourne, a place I had been meaning to visit for ages!
It was really great to meet the people I have been constantly emailing for the past year. "You look about how I thought you would, but don't sound like I thought you would" was a common reaction when people met me. Except for the West Australian Symphony librarian, I was the only non-Australian or non-New Zealander there, which was really surprising. The meeting was really informative, and we actually got to discuss some practical applications of what I learned during my master's degree regarding copyright law (finally!) in an orchestral library setting. The Melbourne Symphony librarian was able to get us all free tickets to see the MSO perform in the beautifully remodeled Hamer Hall, so that night we all went to dinner and then saw Ian Bostridge sing some Schubert lieder and recitatives from Mozart's Idomeneo.
Everyone left the next day, but I paid for an extra night in the hotel so that I could explore Melbourne a bit. One highlight was the Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne. I had no idea Percy Grainger was born in Melbourne, and that he donated his considerable collection of personal artifacts to the university when he died. In his will, he requested that the flesh be stripped from his body and his skeleton displayed in the museum, but the university politely declined. In case you were wondering, he was a bit of an eccentric. I got to see all of his letters to mother. I got to see the outfits he made for himself out of towels. And I got to see his collection of whips that he used for self flagellation. It was awesome!
That afternoon I just walked around the city a bit. The Yarra River runs right through the middle of Melbourne, and I was staying in Southbank so I had some lunch in a cafe there. I was glad to take a bit of time to see Melbourne. I came away with a few impressions of the city compared to Sydney: it is flatter, with less beaches, more outdoor cafes and Victorian architecture, and more angsty artist types.

This is Flinders Street Station, the busiest train station in Melbourne.

This is a view of the city from Southbank. You can see the clock tower on Flinders Street Station peeking out through the trees.

Hunter Valley Escape

This past weekend I decided to get out of the city and go to wine country. The Hunter Valley is about two hours north of Sydney, and is a popular weekend getaway for city people. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was for 40 degrees Celsius (also known as 104 Fahrenheit) on Saturday. I was feeling some serious regrets as I left my nice beachy suburb, but I decided to brave it anyways since the tour I booked was non refundable.

The bus picked us up from Central Station, and wound its way through the Northern Suburbs until we had left civilization behind. We stopped for coffee in a tiny town called Wollombi, and before I knew it we were at the cellar door of Lindeman’s. They were SUPER generous with the tastings, and I ended up buying a bottle of port here to drizzle on my ice cream this summer. We had lunch and more wine at Hunter Cellars (where I picked up a Shiraz), and finished the tour at McGuigan’s, where I bought a cheap red blend. While most of the group was heading back to Sydney, I was dropped off at the hostel in the middle of a vineyard/cow pasture a couple of kilometres outside of Cessnock. It was more like a cabin than anything else, with a wooden veranda surrounding the whole building. I was greeted by a five foot snake on the driveway (non poisonous according to the caretaker), who slowly slithered away under the porch fortunately not to be seen again during my stay. It was BOILING hot by this point so I went for a dip in the pool, had a shower, and sat in the shade drinking my red blend out on the deck. As night fell, there was an electrical storm from all the heat. I took a video of what it looked like-it’s not the best quality, but you can kind of tell how dramatic it was!

The next day was equally lazy. I walked into town and watched the early bird showing of Skyfall, and by the time I got back it was time to return to Sydney. Great weekend! 

Odds and Ends

So far I've been enjoying a relaxing weekend. I spent all of yesterday afternoon outside of Bunnings Warehouse (the equivalent of Home Depot) peddling sausage sandwiches to raise money for the Sutherland Shire Brass Band. I can't believe I'm saying this, but interacting with random people who came to buy paint or flowerpots or whatever and detoured over to my sausage cart kind of made me miss working in customer service. I guess it helps that I only had to be there for 3 hours and wasn't getting paid, so I didn't have to be overly cheerful. I slept in a bit today (Sunday) but by the time I woke up it was already about 80 degrees, so I'm just waiting for my laundry to finish and then I'm hitting the beach.
I always feel like I'm missing out on a lot being so far away from home in November. I tried calling mom on her birthday but she could only hear static, which was kind of depressing. Thanksgiving was especially hard; it has always been one of my favorite holidays, since you don't have to worry about buying presents and everyone gets to overeat and drink too much. This year it was just me and my roommate, so I didn't bother with a big dinner or anything. I decided to make pumpkin pies from scratch to celebrate. I found a recipe online, but when I started putting everything together I realized everything was in Aussie terminology (apparently 185 grams of brown sugar= about 1 American cup). They don't stock canned pumpkin puree in the stores here, so I steamed a pumpkin and then pureed it in our blender. I also realized that I do not own a rolling pin, and nearly gave up on the crust, which was extremely weird and lumpy and gross looking. Despite all of the setbacks, it actually turned out really well! I took one pie to work, where not a single person in the office had ever tasted pumpkin pie. It was completely gone by the end of the day, so I feel like my attempt to indoctrinate Australia on American food customs was a success. Yay!

Jacaranda

It’s been kind of chilly and rainy here lately, which is annoying because I was hoping for a really hot spring and summer this year. One thing that has assured me that it is actually spring are the Jacaranda trees. They were one of the things I really noticed when I first arrived last year, and it’s amazing to think that already another year has gone by. There are a TON of them in the Sutherland Shire (my neighborhood) and I learned that during the 70’s there was a hospital that would give parents a seedling Jacaranda tree to take home with every new baby. Now, there are 40 year old Jacaranda trees all over the place! They have really beautiful purple flowers, which are starting to fall now that we’re headed into summer. It kind of reminds me of the cherry trees on the quad at UW, except these actually match the school colors! I went for a walk on my lunch break and took a couple of photos around Surry Hills. These are a bit younger than the ones near my house, but you get the idea.

Four More Years!

I've been trying to keep up on the election today. It's so frustrating to be at work, when four years ago I was sitting on my parents' couch stuffing my face with guacamole. There is a lot of interest in the election here, but I've been getting most of my updates via US news sites. I have to say, so far the results have mostly been a relief. And early this morning, I received proof that I have done my part:

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween. It’s not a very big deal in Australia yet, but it seems that people are slowly starting to adopt it. (Although they’re a little confused on the details of what you’re supposed to do) I got asked a lot of questions:

Do you give the kids candy when they come to your door, or let them reach in and take it?

How late are they supposed to stay out?

How do you carve a pumpkin? The pumpkins over here are more like squash, so... you can’t really.

So far they’re treating it like a holiday for kids, with a big emphasis on trick-or-treating, no costume parties for grown ups the Saturday before, no gory movies, etc. I stole a few of my favorite brands out of the basket intended for the trick or treaters: Boost, Aero, Dream, and Cherry Ripe. Sadly no Reeses or Twix to be found!

Imported from the USA

Ben and Jerry's. Only $11.95 at the local IGA.

Canberra

This past weekend I decided to make a trip down to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Canberra was selected as the capital as a compromise between Melbourne and Sydney, who were both competing for the honour. I left straight after work on Friday, and couldn’t see much during the three hour drive down there since it was already dark by the time we got past the suburbs of Sydney. I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning to take a hop-on-hop-off bus tour that allowed me to select four attractions that I wanted to see.  I started off with the war memorial, which was incredible! There were different sections for each conflict involving Australia. I only had a little over an hour to look at the exhibits, and the amount of artefacts and information to absorb could easily have taken me twice that long. The outside of the memorial is incredibly peaceful, with a reflecting pool and eternal flame leading up to the domed building containing the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Wall adorned with poppies to commemorate people who have lost their lives:

The next stop was Floriade, which I thought would be an arboretum/botanical garden but turned out to be a carnival with a couple of sad, wilting flowerbeds. I basically just killed an hour here before I got picked up again to go see Parliament House. Here is a view from the front:

There were an impressive amount of portraits of various politicians and prime ministers on display. I think my favourite part was seeing the chambers where the House and Senate meet to pass bills. Unfortunately they weren’t in session since it was a Saturday:

The last stop on my trip was the Australian Museum. I was pretty tired by this point, so I did a quick walk through and sat in the cafe looking out over Lake Burley Griffin, an artificial lake in the middle of Canberra. It was named after Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion, two Americans who designed the city in the early 1900s. I could see the many similarities between Canberra and Washington D.C., and I’m sure that’s what the Burley Griffins had in mind during the design process. Overall, it was a very educational (and cheap) trip, but I could never see myself living there!

Long weekend and Grand Finals

Labour day is Monday so I'm enjoying my first paid holiday in my grown up job. It's a huge weekend in sport since there are two Grand Finals for the footy this weekend, with AFL (Australian Football League) today and NRL (National Rugby League) tomorrow. I mostly watch the NRL, since it is the more popular sport in New South Wales and AFL seems to be bigger in Victoria. Another reason I kinda prefer NRL is because it's more like American football and just makes sense to me: good old-fashioned dudes crashing into each other. AFL involves too much running, and they do this weird move where they give each other boosts WAY up into the air:

Anyways I'll probably skip the AFL final and go hang out with Hayden's sister who has no interest in it either, and save my energy for tomorrow when the Canterbury Bulldogs play the Melbourne Storm in Sydney. It should be a good game, and although I really like watching Billy Slater play during the regular season (he plays for the Storm), I still have to support Sydney and say Go The Bulldogs!

Cockatoo eating a cheeseburger?

Protests in Sydney

Last weekend a crowd of about 500 people swept through downtown Sydney protesting some You Tube video about the prophet Muhammad. The protests were focused in Hyde Park (right across the street from where I work) and Martin Place, where the US consulate is located. It ended up all over the news since it turned into a non-peaceful demonstration, with six police officers being injured and several people arrested. One of the more disturbing images to come out of the whole thing was of a child holding this sign while his mom took a photo:

Australians tend to be less delicate than Americans when talking about race issues, and this demonstration just renewed a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment. One of the main principles here (and one that I had to agree to in writing to get a visa) is that if a person is living in Australia, they should do their best to respect the country's values, and in this case I have to agree completely. If you want to enjoy your freedom of speech by demonstrating peacefully, then you should also respect the freedom of speech of some idiot (who isn't even Australian) to make a movie about your prophet. 

Part of what bums me out about the whole thing is that an anti-American demonstration has brought violence to Australia, a country that has managed to avoid a lot of drama so far. The US consulate even issued a warning to American citizens in Australia advising them to avoid the central business district this weekend and to not identify themselves as American for the time being. Fortunately it looks like not much is going on downtown this weekend!

Back in Australasia

It’s my first full week back in the office. After arriving back in Sydney at 8pm last Tuesday and making the extremely ill-advised decision to come into work Wednesday morning, I’m finally feeling back to normal.

It was really great catching up with everyone in Seattle. People in Sydney are nice but it just takes me a really long time to make friends, and getting together with friends I hadn’t seen in over a year was pretty effortless. By the end I was ready to come back, which reassured me a bit that I’m making the right decision.

I have to admit, the view from Cronulla beach made the decision all the more easy. I took my book down to the beach on Saturday, and even though it’s just now spring it’s already getting up to about 70 degrees, so the kiddies surf lessons were going in full force!

The Olympics are over...

... but enjoy this meme!

Victory in the Pacific Day

Since I was finally reunited with my trumpet this past February, I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of practicing, and to keep myself motivated I joined a brass band that rehearses near my house. I was a little surprised at how popular they are in Australia (I kind of assumed it was an American thing). So far I’ve enjoyed it a lot better than concert bands and wind ensembles I’ve been in, since a lot of the music we play is orchestral music arranged for brass ensemble, as opposed to the crazy avant-garde stuff that wind ensembles tend to perform. Also there are no pesky woodwinds taking all of the interesting parts, so we are playing almost constantly without long stretches of rest to count.

I had my first performance with the band last Sunday at the Kingsgrove RSL (Returned Services League) club. RSL organizations provide support to veterans and their families, but the clubs are basically just bars and restaurants where people hang out regardless of whether or not they have served in the military. It was VP (Victory in the Pacific) day, which commemorates the end of World War II, so there was a service in the morning where we played some hymns. Afterwards they served us a free lunch (and beer!) and we played a set consisting of a mix of military marches, movie tunes, opera arias, and Broadway show tunes. It was good to be performing again, I’ve really missed it!

Here is my outfit. I feel like I’m on the Lawrence Welk show.

Olympics

The Olympics are officially in full swing down here! Unfortunately with work and the time difference I haven’t been able to catch much swimming, but I’ve been following it a bit in the news. All the Aussies are in panic mode ever since the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay choked and their golden boy James Magnusson has been failing to deliver despite all the bragging he did before the games started. Although I generally keep it to myself, I feel a little smug every time the USA manages to edge everyone out. I watched women’s weightlifting last night (no Australia or US representatives unfortunately), and it was unexpectedly fascinating to watch a girl from Tunisia lift 100 kilos over her head. Hopefully I’ll stumble upon a few more sports I never knew I liked!

For your enjoyment (and mine), here is the photo the Sydney Morning Herald ran this morning of Magnusson losing yet another race to an American. USA!

Kiama

I finally managed to get out of the city last weekend and go for a little trip down the coast to Kiama. It’s a really beautiful little town right on the water with all these old lava flows leading into the ocean. Part of the rock has eroded and formed a blowhole which spouts up every few seconds when the waves crash in. Hayden and I went on a day that alternated between extreme sunshine and dark clouds. This made the water look really unusual, with brilliant sun reflecting of some sections alternating with stormy grey parts which you can kind of see in the photos.  After going for a walk along the cliffs we went into town for a late lunch and a few beers. The town itself is filled with buildings that are on historical registers and really well preserved. The post office is from the 1860s and painted bright pink, and is located right next door to the police station and courthouse. It was such a relaxing weekend that I’m feeling inspired to do another mini vacation soon, maybe up to the Hunter Valley to visit the wineries!

This is a (not very good) picture of the blowhole.

Lighthouse just a quick walk up the hill from the blowhole.

The views were amazing!

Stealth photo of Haydos

Look who I saw

I had a pretty uneventful weekend. Sunday was chilly but since the sun was out I decided to go watch Hayden play baseball, and spotted this kookaburra hanging out on the right field fence! I guess if you have a piece of meat some are brave enough to come peck it out of your hand. I didn't happen to have any on me, but I was happy enough just getting this close to one.

I kinda need these pants

Spotted on my walk home from work. Australian fashion at its finest.

Happy Fourth of July Ya'll!

I got a couple of half-hearted "Happy Independence Day" comments from people here, but that's about it. I decided to take matters into my own hands and BBQ a bunch of stuff for dinner with my friend Nicole and her boyfriend. Sadly, they thought I was doing it for the final footy game of State of Origin. I decided to buy Budweiser even though it's not my favorite beer. Sadly, it costs five dollars PER BOTTLE here. Fireworks? They're only legal in Canberra. I set my ringtone to the Star Spangled Banner, but nobody called me during the game. Even as I write this, autocorrect is trying to change favorite into favourite. I guess this Fourth of July is a failure. But not as big of a failure as the San Diego fireworks show, which blew up within fifteen seconds due to a technical malfunction:

Happy Fourth of July!

Visa News

Here's a little something I got from the Australian government this morning:

DECISION

I am pleased to advise that Clare Joyce Krier has been granted a Temporary Business Entry (Class UC) Business (Long Stay) (Subclass 457) visa. This visa allows you to travel to, enter and remain in Australia and is valid until the date specified above.

Looks like I'm eligible to stay for up to four more years!

Winter!

It's officially the fifth day of winter in Sydney. Here's a current view of The Rocks:

It is POURING rain and we're supposed to get winds of up to 100km/hour. Just in time for rush hour!

State of Origin

Tonight is the first game of State of Origin, a series of three rugby league matches between Queensland (the maroons) and New South Wales (the blues). The best players in the league are selected to represent the state where they first played rugby league (their state of origin), and since the sport is mainly played in Queensland and New South Wales most of the players are eligible to participate. It’s basically the Rugby League equivalent of the All Star Game, and is played right in the middle of the season.  

State of Origin began in the early 1980s, and since then Queensland has generally been more dominant. There was one extremely misguided attempt in the late 80s to play a 4^th game in California in order to popularize the game in America, but since then it’s been held in Australia. Also, thought I would tell Patrice and Mom that ever since Doug Fister got traded I’ve been researching who my new athlete husband should be. How about Josh Cordoba? 

There's a menace on the roads in New South Wales...

I got my driver's license! And it was disturbingly easy, all I had to do was pass an eye test and present my old license. Now I actually have to figure out how to drive through a roundabout on the left hand side.

Blue Mountains

A couple of weeks ago, I finally made it out of the city for a trip up to the Blue Mountains. There are numerous places you can go in the area, but I decided to go to Katoomba, which is probably one of the more popular destinations. I can see why; we drove right up to a viewpoint, and overlooking a gorge were the Three Sisters, a stunning rock formation that is one of the main attractions in the region.

The Blue Mountains were recognized by European settlers as an area rich in coal, and there are still abandoned rusty mining tools lying around all over. Probably one of the best remnants of the now-abandoned mining operation is the Katoomba Scenic Railway, which qualifies as the steepest railway in the world at a 52 degree incline! The train carries you down into the valley, where there are boardwalks and bushwalking trails.

From above, you can take cable cars across the valley. We decided to take the cable car across, and then walk along the trails back to the car.

Even though the air is much cooler at 1000 metres, the cockatoos are still everywhere.

We stayed the night about 10 minutes outside of Katoomba. Unfortunately, a lot of the accommodations in the area are SUPER creepy and old-fashioned. This was the “sitting room”. Yes that is brandy in the background. Unfortunately I still think it tastes like cough syrup.

Australia is in mourning...

...one of the members of Men at Work has passed away.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/friends-tell-of-love-for-eccentric-star-greg-ham/story-e6frf96f-1226333756338

Update

Lately I’ve been getting anxious because it seems like the year has gone by MUCH quicker than I thought it would. In a couple of days, it will have been 8 months that I’ve been in Australia, and for the most part it’s been really great. The thing that sucks is that it feels like I haven’t even gotten around to doing what I wanted. I originally came to do some volunteering with the symphony, but mostly to do a bunch of travelling throughout Australia and New Zealand. When I initially got here, the cost of living was an enormous shock, and I went through my (pathetic) savings quickly, so I’ve been working nonstop to get to the point where I have a little more disposable income. Also, while I do like my job, it’s the kind of thing I actually have to take seriously, which limits the amount of free time I have.

I recently asked my employer to sponsor me on a 457 temporary visa, which would allow me to stay up to four years. I’m not sure I would want to stay that long, but I do feel like I could use another year to get some more experience at my job and of course to have a chance for more of the fun stuff! She agreed, so now I’m in the process of applying for it. There’s no guarantee I’ll get one; 457 visas are often used to exploit overseas workers, so I’m a little nervous that the Department of Immigration is being extra picky about granting them. I’m already looking at plane fares back home on August 25^th-hopefully it will be for a fun trip to Seattle and not a permanent move back.

Lunchtime Snapshots

It’s starting to feel a bit like fall in Sydney. We set our clocks back this weekend, so I was confused to wake up at 6am Monday to blinding sunlight coming through my window. It’s still fairly hot during the days, but the nights are getting cool enough that a few leaves are starting to fall from the trees. Luckily I only work four days this week, since both Good Friday and Easter Monday (Easter Monday!?) are public holidays in Australia. The forecast is for good weather all week, so I decided to scarf down my sandwich at my desk and then use my lunch break for more worthwhile activities like walking around Hyde Park, which consists of about 40 acres of trees, walking paths, and monuments right in the middle of the Central Business District.

One of my favourite sections of the park is a long path that is lined with fig trees that arch all the way across the walkway. During the hottest part of summer the trees are filled with cicadas that make a really loud humming/chirping noise, but today it was mostly quiet.

At the end of the path there is the Archibald Fountain. It’s apparently there to commemorate the close association France and Australia had during World War I, but I don’t really see the connection because it portrays Roman gods grabbing on to bulls' horns and shooting arrows and playing lutes and stuff. I really like it though, because if you walk around it there is always something new to look at. It points east towards St. Mary’s Cathedral, and since it was almost time for 1pm mass the bells were going off.

There were lots of schoolkids around the park eating lunch, which is always sure to attract maybe the creepiest bird I’ve ever seen: the Ibis. The ones in the park are not shy at all and you can frequently see them diving into trash cans or trying to snatch people’s lunches with their disgusting beaks.

Footy!

Yesterday I went to my first game of footy! From what I can tell, the term footy is loosely used to describe Australian Rules football (AFL), Rugby Union or Rugby League (NRL) games, the latter being the variety I went to.

 NRL is more popular in New South Wales than it is in other states, and the players and fans have a reputation (perpetuated by Rugby Union enthusiasts) for being a lot rougher and unsophisticated, partially because Union is mostly played in private schools. I’ll stay out of that debate, but apparently fights break out fairly often at games, to the point where they have purposely begun to water down the beer to maintain the peace. Luckily for me, it was a fairly orderly match between the Newcastle Knights and the Cronulla Sharks (my team).

When we got there, a game was already going on for the Under 20 players (the teams that feed into the regular Sharks team). The stadium holds about 20,000 people, and since it was the first home game of the season and a beautiful day outside, I would estimate that it was close to capacity. The stadium is quite old, with never-remodelled bathrooms featuring a chain hanging from the ceiling that you pull to flush the toilet. There is a grandstand on each side of the field, but we just sat in the grassy hill on the south side of the field. I was close enough to the field to hear players swear, and there were some colourful moments throughout the game. The Sharkies had a rough time, and weren’t able to score a single try (similar to a touchdown, but you have to ground the ball in the end zone). Hopefully they’re just dusting off the cobwebs and can get in better shape before the next game!

The view from where I was standing.

Spotted: An OSU fan!?

Visitors!

This past week I had my first houseguests in Sydney! Rochelle and Stephan came down for ten days, and even though I had to work for a good portion of those days, I managed to squeeze in some leisure time. I took work off the Monday they arrived in Sydney, and met them at the airport to show them back to my house in Cronulla. They were a little tired from the flight, but jetlag from Seattle to Australia actually isn’t too bad (apparently it’s awful on the way back to the US). They really wanted to see the beach so we headed down there pretty much right away for a swim.

 
I had to work Tuesday, but Rochelle and Stephan met me at my office in the city for a few drinks. After 5:00 on Tuesdays, the Australian Museum is open to adults only. They serve beer and wine, and there is live music while you wander around looking at the exhibits. I would definitely go back since I probably only looked at half of the exhibits-the Aboriginal art exhibit was my favourite, but they had a lot of other nice exhibits specific to Australian animals, dinosaurs that used to live here, birds, etc.

Here we are at St. Mary's Cathedral before heading into the museum.

Saturday and Sunday were my only days off, so we had to cram in as much touristy stuff as possible. We went on a free walking tour of the city that I had gone on with Tony and Katrina when I first arrived in Sydney. It was fun to learn about places I walk by everyday without giving any thought. For example, in the Queen Victoria Building there is a clock donated by the Queen of England, with a letter enclosed that cannot be opened until 2080. Or the glass floor in Custom’s House with an extremely accurate model of the city underneath. Or the barracks near Hyde Park where convicts as young as seven years old were housed.

Sunday we took the ferry to the Taronga Zoo, which is probably the nicest zoo I’ve been to. It’s up on a hill on the north side of Sydney Harbour, so you get glimpses of the skyline while you walk between the exhibits. I finally saw a platypus! They’re usually very shy, but this one was swimming circles right in front of the glass. The Tasmanian devil was asleep in his den, but I still got to see him up close. I didn’t realize this, but the devil population is currently threatened due to a facial cancer that has a 100% mortality rate. It’s a very unusual cancer because it is contagious, and devils pass it when they bite each other in fights-very sad!

View from the ferry to the zoo.

 Making friends with a wallabee.

That night we went to opera bar and relaxed with a few beers. It was a really warm night, so we could sit outside with a view of the harbour and the hundreds of bats that were flying out of the botanic gardens. It was a really nice end to their time here, and I was really sad to see them go. Hopefully I get some more visitors soon!

View from Opera Bar.

America Party!

After six months of being here, I'm finally getting the chance to meet up with a few people from back home! Last Saturday, Lily (friend from Husky Band) was visiting from Melbourne for a few days, and I got a chance to meet up with her at the Botanical Gardens in the city. We walked around a bit and made our way down to The Rocks, the oldest section of Sydney. We started at the Hero of Waterloo pub, which has been operating since the mid 1800s. It's a pretty cool bar with live music and a lot of history, and no TV or pokey machines (somewhat rare in Australia) so you actually have to talk to the people you go drinking with. There is a dark, dusty tunnel that runs from the cellar of the pub to Sydney Harbor which was apparently used to smuggle rum out to the ships. Legend has it that there was a trap door next to the bar, and if someone became too drunk they would suddenly be dropped through the door, dragged through the cellars, and would wake up the next day as a newly (involuntarily) recruited sailor aboard a ship.
Lily and I had a really good time, but unfortunately an extremely intoxicated redheaded guy decided he was going to have a chat with us. We spent the next 20 minutes or so messing with him (I told him that my name is "Gwyneth" and that I'm a dancer with the Australian Ballet), and ended up fleeing to an Irish pub for one more drink before I headed back to Cronulla.

Here's a picture of our last drink of the night. Lily is on a working holiday visa like me, but she's been in Oz longer so she has to head home in a month or so. Rochelle and Stephan are arriving on Monday at 8 am and I'm already getting excited to see more people from Seattle! I'm taking the day off work to meet them at the airport and show them around a bit before heading back to work on Tuesday.

Happy Australia Day!

Last week I celebrated my first Australia Day! It's the national day of Australia and is celebrated every year on January 26th in commemoration of the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia. According to Wikipedia, the First Fleet was "the name given to the eleven ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 consisting of 10 Civil officers, 212 marines, including officers, 28 wives and 17 children of the marines, 81 free persons, 504 male convicts and 192 female convicts." They came to establish the first European colony in Australia, and landed in New South Wales (the state where I live). Basically people do the same thing as you do on the 4th of July in America- I ended up having a barbeque and drinking beer by noon. There was a free concert in the park about a five minute walk from where I live, so we ended up sitting out on the grass and listening to the runner-up from Australia's Got Talent sing Frank Sinatra mixed in with Nessun Dorma and a few other arias, followed by a fireworks show.


Australia Day was on a Thursday, so I took Friday off work and went to the Gold Coast with Hayden. It's about an hour plane ride away, and known for its really beautiful beaches and sunshine. Unfortunately Queensland has been caught in the middle of some pretty massive tropical storms lately, so by the time we got there the water was really murky from all of the storm drains that feed into the ocean. There were also a bunch of branches and logs lurking in the water, waiting to hit some unsuspecting swimmer in the head. Here are a couple pictures of the cleanup effort that was underway when we got there:

View of the main beach. It stretches on for about 7 miles.

There were backhoes all over the beach raking all the debris into little piles, followed by a dump truck that would come and collect them...

All of the shops sell stuff with the flag on it for Australia Day (flip flops, towels, shirts, stickers), so here I am modeling a flag that you can clip onto your car. You can see that there are a lot of high rises in the downtown area (known as Surfer's Paradise), many of which are vacation homes that people rent out when they're not using them.

On the hotel balcony. The weather was hot but you can see how gloomy it is in the background. Unfortunately it was pretty much like this the whole trip...