Getting there: Melbourne

Thursday 28 April
     After only being home for 2 days Kirsten and I were off to Melbourne for the weekend. We started our journey at the domestic terminal in Sydney airport. We go there really early just to be safe, and it was good we did because their lines aren't labeled so we stood in the wrong one for 20 minutes the the right one for 15 minutes, and then wouldn't you know it our flight got delayed twice, about 25 minutes each time. Nothing too unbearable, but still a minor pain. When it was time to board, I handed them my "boarding pass," which was really a plain piece of paper I printed at school, and was instructed to go down the stairs and to the left. I followed the instructions and soon enough I was on the tarmac. I believe my exact words to the stranger in front of me were, "Well this is new." I then followed her to the tail of the plane, where we boarded through the back door, which until now I thought was for emergency use only. I was wrong. Kirsten had a seat up front and so we didn't board together. After this we were soon in the air. The plane seemed to be a little old and outdated, and boy the seats were uncomfortable, but other than that the trip was fine, and after only a 1 hour flight we were landing in Melbourne.
     I disembarked through the back door and out onto the tarmac once again. I then walked along a "hallway" and by this I mean a sidewalk with a roof and no walls (and mind you it was pretty cold) to "baggage claim," and by this I mean a little caged in area (much like a mini garage) where by the looks of it one would imagine horrible things could happen. I was not impressed. Nor was I impressed by the amount of time it took for our bags to arrive from the plane... I mean its not like they had to take them inside...
     After finally getting our bag we headed out to the bus stop, but it wasn't running from that stop, so we had to walk to the "other" terminal, or the REAL terminal, which has an actual building, to catch the bus to finally make it to.... nope not our hostel.... the bus station, because after 10 pm the bus doesn't do hotel drop offs. So we took my handy dandy map and headed for the hostel on foot. After walking many blocks (in a hurry because if we weren't there within an hour of our estimated arrival they could give up our room) we finally made it. It was after midnight and we were exhausted, so we went straight to bed.
    This adventure alone was enough to make me NEVER want to take a budget airline again, but I still had the trip home...

KBs Adventures Pt 2

KB came along to Auckland, but he liked Base hostel so much he didn't go anywhere.

Here is a picture blog of his "adventures" in NZ.

This is KB relaxing after an exhausting day of travel from Rotorua to Auckland. 

This bed was super comfortable and he almost fell asleep, until....

I introducing KB to Tim Tams! 

KB having his first Tim Tam! 

He LOVED IT!

Lauren and KB enjoying a box of double coat Tim Tams together! 

Trust me... I'm an Expert!

Public Transport.... I am now a master at it. In Minnesota we don't really have that much public transportation, I mean we have a bus system but not anything near what a big city like Sydney has. On my way home from Auckland I took all forms of transportation.

1. A bus to the Auckland airport
2. Then plane to Sydney International
3. A train to Circular Quay 
4. Then a ferry to Manly Wharf 
5. Finally a Taxi to the top of Darley Road.

All this to get back to the Castle and to leave again and do it all in reverse to get to Melbourne 2 days later where I took one other form of transportation, a trolly! I'll write about that trip next.

New Zealand Pt 4- Polynesian Spa Day

Monday 25 April
In the US this is known as Easter Monday, and it is usually is known as this around the rest of the world as well. However, this year it fell on the 25th which in Australia and New Zealand is ANZAC day, which is similar to our memorial day, which meant Easter Monday was on a Tuesday. So on ANZAC day we all decided we were going to do separate things. Kirsten and I really wanted to go to the Polynesian Spa at the hotel across the street and the others wanted to go to a volcano park.

An arch in the town. 

     Kirsten and I decided to go to the adult pools and priest spa. It was an adult only area with 7 hot mineral spring pools with view of Lake Rotorua. There were 3 cascading marble-line pools which is where we started. Then we moved to one of the 3 priest spa pools that have Radium hot spring water, which is renowned for its therapeutic properties, and then we went into large deeper pool, which was just like a hot swimming lap pool. We ended by going back into the cascading pools, which turned out to be our favorite. We spent over 2 hours just relaxing and finally we got hungry and decided to go grab lunch. We ended up at the little deli they went to for breakfast the other day.

Rotorua clock tower. 

    After this we walked around the town and hit up all the little shops, and found lots of fun souvenirs and we went to a little cafe and split a chocolate cake. Later, we went back to the hostel and met up with the others to take the bus back to Auckland.
     On the way back there was a ton of traffic, so it took an extra hour. We made it back to out hostel in Auckland right before 10. We went to our new room which was in the sanctuary again and it was AMAZING! It was just the 5 of us for the night, and we had our own bathroom and a TV! After getting comfortable we made a big meal of pasta with marinara and went to bed right after because we had to be ready to catch the airport bus at 5am!
    Altogether it was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to visit the South Island someday!

New Zealand Pt 3- Maori Dinner

Sunday 24 April

Our group with a traditional Maori sculpture. 

     Tonight we had booked a traditional Maori dinner. The Maori are the indiginous people of New Zealand and we were really excited to learn more about their culture... and also about not having to cook our own meal.

Intimidation dance.

    The evening started with us walking to the company's main offices where we were being picked up for the evening. Here we received our itinerary for the evening and some phrases we would need to know. Such as Kia Ora (pronounced key oar-a) which means hello and goodbye among other things. We then got on our bus (or waka), and headed to the village.
    While on the bus our guide gave us some background on the Maori people and told us some things we should expect that night. He also picked out chief who would represent our waka when we got the village and during the opening and closing ceremonies.
     Once we got off the bus, we followed our chief to the front of the village where we gathered around to watch our chief and the other waka chiefs face the warriors. The warriors of village were doing their traditional intimidation dance to see if our chiefs were weak. We were soon let into the village where there were little huts with someone at each explaining something different about the Maori culture. We learned a traditional Maori games, how they stored their food and how they carved their houses.

Explaining about carving. It would have taken his ancestors 10 years to carve the mantel behind him. 

Earth Oven.

    After learning about their village we went over the cooking area where our dinner was being prepared in a traditional earth oven. They explained how the dug a hole in the ground and used lava rocks to cook the food because they won't crack in half because of the heat. Then they put the meat in, and the vegetables, and then finally the desert on top, and over the whole thing in huge wet leave and then pile on the dirt from the dug hole to keep the heat inside.
     After this we went into the meeting house for the welcoming ceremony which is "The Pressing of Noses, Twice." Most Maori villages only do the pressing of noses once, but the particular tribe we were visiting does it twice. Our chiefs all got on stage with the village chief and each shook his right hand while pressing noses together once, then twice. After the ceremony the chief and his family put on a show for us. Check the video bar to see some of the songs performed.

Pressing of noses twice ceremony.

New Zealand Pt 2- Rotorua

Friday 22 April

     Sulfur. Sulfur. Sulfur. This is what Rotorua smells like! And if you don't know what Sulfur smells like... its like rotten eggs. And if you don't know what rotten eggs smell like... Well LUCKY YOU! Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity. This means there are lots of hot springs and geysers and volcanic activity going on around the area. Now this all sounds really cool and it was, but I wish someone would have warned me about the smell. I did NOT know about the smell. 

This is why the whole town stinks! A sulfur lake.

     We got to Rotorua late, almost 10 pm late. Which normally I wouldn't consider late, but on Good Friday it is pretty late. Or at least it felt late. The whole town was deserted. I wasn't expecting a big city, but it is a tourist destination on the North Island, so I was at least expecting people. Nope, there were none! It was us and the people on our bus. So we got directions from the bus driver and headed to our hostel, Crash Palace. 

     We were lucky because we got there right before they were about to close reception for the night. This was weird because it is a backpackers so you think they would be open late...? Nope. But it was a nice cute place. It wasn't a chain and I believe it used to be someone's house. So it was really fun and the staff was so nice (we were constantly asking them questions... Where is there good food? How do you get to here? How much is a taxi? What is there that's free?) hahaha you get the idea. So we got all checked in and our stuff up to our room when we realized we were starving! 

     We went back down to reception because they had free pasta available that night. So we got a bowl and started trying to get the water to boil. Lauren and I decided to go see if we could find any pasta sauce. We walked to the outskirts of town and NOTHING was open. "Looks like we'll just have to deal with plain pasta." Well the lack of pasta sauce was the least of our problems. We got back and the water hadn't even started to boil, turns out the stove was broken. So we switched to another one. And this one was taking forever. Soon Lauren and Michelle decided to take over and once the water was "hot" not boiling, they put the pasta in thinking it would be fine. BOY WERE THEY WRONG! It was sitting in there for an hour, we were using an electric kettle to boil water and changing it out frequently to get the pasta to cook. We were soooo hungry. Finally they decided it was "cooked" enough and we all started to dig in. Ugh! It was horrible, it was gluey on the outside and still slightly crunchy on the inside. So we found the spice rack and attempted to cover up the mess. It wasn't perfect but we made it work. We all had different combinations of spices, and after a blend of garlic, rosmary, black pepper and basil, mine was alllllmost edible. But of course as starving backpackers we ate it anyways. Every last noodle! 

     Finally we went up to bed so we could be up early for the next day's activities. 

Saturday 23 April

View of Skyline. 

     We got up pretty early and headed to breakfast. Some of the girls ate at a little deli and had pancakes or eggs, but Lauren and I went over the to grocery store and each bought a pastry and a piece of fruit. After this we decided we were going to go to Skyline (even though it was raining and foggy). This is at the top of the mountain and has a ton of stuff to do. To get to the top you take a gondola, and then once at the top you can go on the skyvue swing, or do a street luge down the side of the mountain, or you can even dine on the gondola or at the restaurant at the top. 

     We all decided to go up on the gondola, and the view was amazing even with the fog. We could see most of the town.  Then all of us except Michelle decided to luge. But first Jessica and Kirsten decided to do the skyswing! It was really fun to watch, but I would never do it. Its similar to the ripcord at Valleyfair, but instead they were in a giant swing/ ball thing, and were flying over the side of the mountain! 

     After this we went over to the luge area.

We're ready to Luge!

I was a little hesitant to go, not because I was scared of the ride, but because I was afraid to ride the chair lift back to the top. Ha. But I decided it was worth it and got in line. It was so much fun. You get a little cart with your feet in front of you and almost like bike handles between your legs. You steer like a bike, but to go faster or slow down your move the handles forward or backwards. 

Luging! 

     After my 1 ride the others had 1 or 2 more to go, so I waited inside with Michelle, and once the others were done we got food, and headed back down to town. Here we had a debate about what to do next. Kirsten and I ended up going to get stuff for dinner while the other went to the hot springs, and then Kirsten and I went to find them, but ended up wandering around the park looking for them before giving up. But it was really cool to see the different hot springs, at least while the wind blew in the right direction. After a while though the smell got to us, and in then end we could only look at bubbling pools of mud for so long. (See video bar for my commentary). So we decided to go back to the hostel and wait for the others. 

Hot spring/ bubbling mud. The sulfur causes the different colors. 

     They showed up soon after us and we began cooking dinner. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. We used the upstairs kitchen this time so the stove worked and we had a pretty decent meal. But Lauren and I were still hungry so she had a fantastic idea! Let's go get some pasta from the front desk and put the rest of the soup on it! Now normally this would be totally disgusting, but the soup tasted like marinara sauce. So I agreed, and with adding a little bit of rosemary and garlic to the soup it actually tasted pretty good! After this we decided to sit in the spa (hot tub) and just relax. 

Sunday 24 April

The bungee platform!

     Today was the day that Kirsten was going to bungee jump. Its an interesting idea since she is terrified of heights but is an adrenaline junky... (such a combo). So we all headed out to Agroventure for the day. Here there were tons of things to do, but it all turned out to be super expensive. There was the bungee jump, the big swoop (similar to ripcord again), the shweeb which is like a mini monorail race, and you're in a capsule and you pedal as fast as you can to make it move. There was also the agrojet, which is a jet boat ride, and finally the extreme freefall which is like indoor skydiving.

Shweeb!

     After waiting 1 ½ hours for Kirsten to jump, Michelle, Jessica and I decided to go over to the Zorb area. For those who don’t know what zorbing is… its where you get into a giant rubbery/plastic ball and roll down the hill. We were all going to do it together, but after a while Michelle and I decided it wasn’t worth the money (since we can do it in Michigan where she is from) and so Jessica went alone. (Check out the video below). On our way back we met up with Lauren and Kirsten who had finished her bungee and we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our Maori dinner experience.

      I’ll write about that in the next blog! 

My beautiful friends! Jessica, Lauren, Kirsten and me!

New Zealand Pt 1- Auckland

Wednesday 20 April

A group of my friends and I decided we wanted to go to New Zealand while we in Australia, since it is "right there." It just so happens this year that ANZAC day (which is Australia's memorial/ veterans/labor day all in one) was the same day as Easter Monday, which means Easter Monday was moved to Tuesday, which meant we got an extra long weekend to travel! So Wednesday night myself, and my friends Jessica and Lauren headed to NZ, while our other two friends Kirsten and Michelle we meeting us the next day. 

     We headed to the airport, got checked in and had time to eat before our flight. We settled on Maccers and made an amazing discovery... they have American style Ketchup! Not tomato sauce! You cannot imagine our excitement. Tomato sauce is much much sweeter and runnier than our ketchup, so it was quite the treat to have normal ketchup again. After this we went to our gate, and right when we got there they started boarding. We didn't even sit down, we literally walked up to the gate and handed over our tickets. The flight was normal, it took just under 3 hours to fly from Sydney to Auckland. Here we found the cheapest transportation to our hostel and were quickly on our way! 

     We arrived at the hostel, got checked in and headed up to our room which was in the sanctuary. This is a part of the hostel that is just for girls. You also get free shampoo, conditioner, a towel, bar soap, and a free glass of bubbly (champagne) from the bar next door just for staying here! It was a great deal and it now our new favorite hostel. Once we got to our room we went to bed so we could get up and explore the next day. 

Thursday 21 April

     We started our day early by heading down to the wharfs and getting brekky. It was a really nice day which was perfect because my friends were bungee jumping today! I was not participating so I was the official videographer/photographer. We were picked up from the wharf by the company and taken to their office where we all strapped on harnesses and helmets for the climb. I went up the Auckland bridge into the jump pod with them, and caught the whole thing on tape. The view was amazing from the bridge, we could see the whole skyline, and though it does go against nature to let your friends jump off a bridge, it was really cool to see! hahaha!

The crazy bungee jumpers!

Auckland skyline

     After this adventure we walked around the city and saw some parks and we were pleased that they had Wendy's! New Zealand has far more American items than Australia, they even had Hershey candy! 

     While we were walking around we saw this huge tent with lots of people outside holding small cans of Coke Zero. So we headed over to see what was going on where we were each handed a free can of Coke Zero in support of the All Blacks. This is the New Zealand Rugby team and they were having a huge campaign to support them in the upcoming world cup, which is in NZ this year! They had this a place to write an encouraging message to the team (we did),

Writing our message of encouragement! 

and you could get an autograph from an All Black's legend (we did), and they had a chance to win game. The game was you had to drink your mini Coke Zero, recycle the can, then pick a empty Coke bottle off a wall of Coke bottles. 

Wall of Coca-Cola bottles for the game.

If there was a W on the inside of the cap you win a t-shirt. You're allowed to play 3 times a day, and if you win again you get a different prize. So we went up, and wouldn't you know it we all ended up winning! Odds of 1 in 7 and all 3 of us won! 

I WON! 

     After this we went over to Vector Arena and then to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner! Finally we went back the hostel where we met up with Michelle and Kirsten and we made a yummy dinner of penne pasta with tomato sauce and a ceasar salad. That night we went over the bar next door to check out the locals, but it wasn't really our taste so we ended up leaving after our free glass of bubbly.

Friday 22 April (Good Friday)

     Today we decided to explore more of Auckland as it was our last day here and Kirsten and Michelle hadn't seen anything yet. We walked down to the wharf, but the whole city was really quiet because it was a holiday, so a lot of things were closed. 

Countdown to the Rugby World Cup! 140 days! 

We decided to go see if the museum was open but on the way it started to rain, well pour is a more appropriate term, so we were hiding under 2 umbrellas under a tree, when the owners of the hostel across the street invited us out of the rain. They were so nice, they let us watch TV while we waited out the rain. Soon we were on our way again, and after getting lost a few times we finally found the hiking area that is before the museum. 

Hiking to the museum.

    However, a few of us were getting tired of walking and thought the museum too far and that it wouldn't even be open because of the holiday so they decided to explore the city more. Lauren and I decided to continue on and to our delight found the museum was open! We went in and saw a large exhibit on the Maori people, which are the New Zealand Aboriginals. We then went through many other exhibits including a fashion one, one one WWI, one on WWII, one on the Holocaust, and finally one on volcanoes! The museum was really unique in that they were really interactive, for instance in the war exhibits parts of them were fake trenches, with tapes playing war noises. And in the volcano exhibit there was a fake house that had a volcano simulation! It was definitely worth the trip. 

In a model traditional Maori meeting house! We had to take our shoes off to go in! 

     After this Lauren and I headed back to meet the others, and then we all headed to the bus station to head to our next location, Rotorua! 

New Zealand

Hey everyone,
I'm headed to New Zealand in a few minutes!!! AHHH I'm so excited! But this means I won't be posting while I'm there. I hope you all have a great week! I will update when I'm back!!!

Love,

Dani

Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb

Sunday 17 April
     Today it was 2 of my closest friends birthdays, so to celebrate they wanted to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and of course I was totally down to go as it was on my list of things to do while I'm here. We decided to do the night climb because it was the cheapest and we thought the city would be so pretty at night.... we were right.

Harry Potter climbed this bridge! =D

     We got to the BridgeClimb building about an hour before our start time and that was good because we got to calm our nerves and look at the all cool souvenirs and pictures of celebrities who climbed as well. Then we went upstairs and were shown a video of people getting ready for the climb and then started ourselves.
    This part took way longer than I thought, like 45- 1 hour for all 14 of us to get ready. We started by signing off release forms and were given a breathalizer test. The legal limit is .05 here and if you're over you can't climb the bridge, all of us were fine haha. Then we went to another room where we introduced ourselves and got our jumpsuits. We went to yet another room where there were lockers for our things and changing rooms. Just so you all know you cannot take anything up on the bridge that is not firmly attached to your body. i.e. no dangly earrings, no bracelets, no bobby pins in your hair, and nothing in your pockets. We then put on the lovely grey jumpsuits provided and proceeded to another room to get harnessed up and all of the attachments in place. We were given so much stuff to attach to these suits is was unbelieveable! We had a hat, gloves, the key to your locker, a walkie with headphones so you could hear the leader, and 2 jackets. After this we did a small simulation of climbing the ladders and then we started off.

Getting ready to climb! Fabulous jumpsuits!

    One of my friends is extremely afraid of heights so we were right up front by the instructor. I was right behind Kirsten (the one who was afraid) and so to keep her mind off her fears the rest of us decided to entertain her. This included singing, dancing, and booty popping (the 2 jackets were right on our butts) all the way up and down the bridge. I'm sure the instructor, and everyone else for that matter, thought we were insane but we had so much fun we didn't even care.

Opera House!

City!

     On the way up the bridge we got to see the end of the sunset over towards the mountains which was beautiful. The climb wasn't hard, to start you're on wooden beams, almost like scafolding, and that was a little intimidating for most of us, as we're not too fond of ladders, and it didn't seem like we should be walking on the wood area. But after that once we got to the arch is was super easy and the view was fantastic.  We slowly made our way to the top the crossed to the other side of the bridge over the traffic, and proceeded down. The whole thing took probably 2 1/2 hours to walk. There were 1390 stairs and it was a 1.3 miles long walk, but you didn't even notice because the stairs weren't steep, and the view was to great to notice anything else.
    I also learned that although the bridge looks like a perfect curve none of the steel beams putting it together are curved. The bridge is made out of 18 meter long beams that are place at slightly different angles which make the curve look perfect. It was really cool to see that up close.

We climbed all the way to the red light at the top. 

     I highly recommend this to anyone coming to Sydney and I plan on coming back and doing it again! It could have been really boring, but with the right people I had the Climb of my life! (Ha corney, but that's their slogan, so I thought I'd throw it in!) Also, next time I want to do the Twilight climb where you get to see day, sunset and night all in one climb! Wouldn't that be something!

Our climb instructor Mike!

KB's Adventures

     For those of you who don't know my sorority does a white elephant gift exchange each year for Christmas. This year we all sat in a circle with a wrapped gift, then passed them around the circle for about a minute. Then whatever was in our lap after that minute, we got to open and keep!
    This year I got the perfect gift and it was pure luck that it happened to land in my lap. I received a stuffed Koala backpack!!! You cannot even imagine my excitement at this lovely gift, as I was about to head off to Australia, what could be better than a large koala to carry around on my back? NOTHING! So I affectionately named him King Blue (KB for short) as that is one of our sorority colors and stuck him in my suitcase for the trip.
    Now here it the fun part, I've been trying to take him along on trips and outing so I can get pictures of him. He hasn't been too many places yet, but keep checking for updates. Here is a look at our beach day in Manly!

This is my friend Jessica and KB getting ready to lay out on the beach. They both understand the importance of sunscreen in Australia.

 KB loves lying out on Shelly Beach!

 This is KB chilling out by Manly Beach. He loves to people watch! =D

 KB and I strolling Manly Boardwalk! We both love shopping and having the beach so close!

This is KB at the beginning of the Corso which is the center of Manly. It has lots of shops and places to eat and right near the beach! We were getting ready to go get ice cream!

City Day

Saturday 2 April
     Today my friends and I decided we needed a trip into the city seeing as my friend Kirsten and I still hadn't been to the opera house or the botanic gardens. Yep, it took me 2 MONTHS to get to the opera house.

My first time at the Opera House!

     We started our journey on the lovely Manly ferry, and I got seasick of course, and then headed straight over to the opera house. We walked around the whole thing, the part facing the water is all windows. Can you imagine the view? The "sails" of the opera house looke different up close, almost like a reflective material... kind of like what speed limit signs look like up close, but rougher. Soon we made it over the Opera house steps where we took pictures. I'm planning on attending a show before I leave, we're thinking a ballet, so that's when I'll get pictures inside!

This is what the "sails" look like up close.

     After pictures we moved on to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which happen to be right next to the opera house. We wandered around, it was pretty much a park, but there were some gorgeous views of the harbour and some cool structures. The coolest but also slightly creepy part was all the bats! Literally hundreds of them hanging from the trees. And of course not just any trees, but the old creepy looking ones like in Snow White. Yeah, cree-py! We even saw a couple of them fighting. Also, they make the weirdest noise. I took a video and all the background noise is the bats! Check out the video bar to listen.

All those black balls hanging... BATS! 

GDR- Grand Dining Room

Thursday 31 March
     ICMS is a hospitality school, this means there is a lot of hands on classes. One of these classes involves working in the Grand Dining Room for 3 weeks, to learn how to serve in a 5 star restaurant. I'm not taking this class, but as an on campus student, I get to eat here for free! They serve lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, you have to be in business attire for lunch and dressed up for dinner also it is a 2 hour affair. I went here for the second time on Thursday and it was even better than the first time.
     The doors open at 6:15 and we are shown to our table. Out server takes our drink orders. As on campus students there are a few free drink options which include, fake red and white wines (they're really just juices), orange juice, and water. If we want pop, wine, or cocktails it costs money. We all ordered water and the faux red wine for the table. Our server then takes our first course and main course orders. After this the manager on duty welcomes everyone to the Grand Dining Room at ICMS (there are people from Manly and Sydney area who dine here as well).
     After a little while out drinks are brought out. They do a full wine service where the person who ordered the bottle (this was me) does a taste test, and smells the cork to make sure the wine is still good, and what they wanted. Since it was juice I just did the taste test and he proceeded to fill everyone's glass.
     Soon we were given our bread course, it comes with butter and is served fresh from the basket by the server. Then we received our first course. There is always an option of soup or salad. Tonight the options were a lentil and chorizo salad or a potato and roasted leek soup. I chose the salad, and it was amazing! The chorizo was so good, and I discovered I quite like lentils. Some of my friends got the soup and said it was delicious as well.
    Next came the main course, steak! We were all really excited about this since the food in the cafeteria is usually borderline edible. There was an option of rump steak or chicken, however every single one of us chose the steak. It came with roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and zucchini. We were all extremely pleased with our choice.
    After this our server brought the menus back and we had the option of 2 desserts. A triple chocolate cake or a pear compote with marzipan. We all chose the chocolate cake. It was delicious, but it was exactly like the one served in the cafeteria except it had lots of chocolate sauce on the plate. It was still delicious. I even at half of my friends piece.
    After this there was yet another course! The coffee course. We have the option of tea, espresso, or coffee. This time I got a cappuccino. It very good, but I had to put a few packets of sugar in it. However, I will not be getting it again, because at this time, it was already past 8 pm and I was up until 3 am because of it.
    Altogether the meal was fantastic! I even have reservations to go back Monday 11 April. The menu changes every 3 weeks, so I will get to have a delicious steak again!

Comments

Hey Everyone,
I hope you are starting to thaw out up there in the frozen tundra! It is finally April after all. So, the reason for this post is that my comments have not been working for a long time. If you've left a comment in the last month or so, I am sorry but I never received it. I don't know what the deal is, but it seems only people in Australia can post them...? Its weird since they are here as well, and can talk to me in person. Anyways if you know how to fix it any help would be greatly appreciated so just leave a comment.... hahah just kidding, send me an email if you have any suggestions as to how to fix this.
Thanks,

Dani

Things I've learned.

Here are some of the differences between the US and Australia.

1. They call cookies, biscuits.

2. Its Celsius not Fahrenheit, and Kilometres not miles.

3. Fries are called chips. This took some getting used to. Sometimes I still expect potato chips when I see the word chips on a menu.

4. Australians like to abbreviate. 

    Examples: McDonald's= Macca's.  Breakfast= Brekky. Central Business District= CBD

5. Things are not pronounced how they are spelled. 

    Examples: Melbourne=Mel-bin. Brisbane= Bris-bin. Canberra= Can-bur-ah or Can-bruh (still not entirely sure which) Cairns= Cans

6. No one says G'day mate. A few people do say mate... but not many.

7. Tim Tams are the best biscuit ever... but I've already told you this.

8. It is not shrimp on the barbie, its prawns on the barbie. 

9. Kangaroos do not hop everywhere. (See my video below) Also people do not ride kangaroos to school or anywhere for that matter. (I didn't think this, but I just thought I should clarify since I have been asked)

10. Alligators are squishy, not scaly and rough like you think. 

11. Canberra weather is completely wacky. I think that's why people say its so horrible. 

12. People actually really love vegemite here. They eat it on toast with butter. 

13. Everyone wants to know about Jersey Shore. They are a few episodes behind here, so when they find out you're from the states they want to know what happens next. 

14. They call it America here, not the US, not the United States, just America. 

      Example: "I'm going to America next year." or "O, you're from America?'

15. They don't say fall or spring. They just say the month. 

       Example: "In September I am going to America."

16. Bandicoots are actually kind of cute. They only live on Northhead which is where my school is. 

17. Students wear uniforms all through elementary up to high school. 

18. Highschool is called college. College is called uni.

19. Everything is more expensive here. Chicken Mcnuggets will set you back at least $8 for a whole meal.

20. The seasons are backwards. If its winter at home, its summer here. 

21. They drive on the left hand side of the road. Not the wrong side, the left side. 

22. Pancakes are hard to come by, and unless its breakfast they are served with ice cream.

23. Whip cream= cream. 

      Example: Do you want cream on top of your ice cream?

24. They love techno music. 

25. Sunscreen is an absolute must, even if you're tan. There is a hole in the ozone that is right over Australia, so you must reapply!

26. No shirt, no shoes, no service doesn't apply. People walk around everywhere without shoes, into stores, around the mall, down the street, EVERYWHERE!

27. Koalas are just as cute as you think. 

28. There is no 42 Wallaby Way Sydney. 

29. Apparently I have a very strong Minnesota accent, and say Minnesota and boots weird. 

30. Everyone in Sydney goes to the beach on the weekends and everyone from the beach area goes to the city. 

31. They don't call Sydney by name, they just say the city. This is also true of other big cities.

      Example: I'm going to the city.

32. Surfing is way harder than it looks.

33. Australian accents are just as cool, if not better than british accents. 

 

TIM TAM TIME

This post is for those of you who don't know about Tim Tams.

     Tim Tams are one of the greatest things I have encountered since arriving in Australia. Tim Tams are an Australian biscuit, or as we say, a cookie! They are little sandwich cookies dipped in chocolate. They come in all type of flavors including, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, which chocolate, double coat, mint, black forest, and caramel to name a few. Double coat is by far the best of these all. My friends and I have even established "Tim Tam Time. " We have a rotation of who buy Tim Tams. Its become a highlight for all of us.

I LOVE TIM TAMS!

     The real Tim Tams are not available in the US. Apparently there is a super high tax on them for some reason. (When I heard this I was outraged and proceeded to tell my aussie friends I was going to call Obama about this! Needless to say they thought I was insane.) A form of Tim Tams are available at Targets in the US from October to March. I suggest you all go and try a box. However, their selection is much more limited and it just won't be the same as having an Arnott's Tim Tam. Lucky for all of you I plan on brining a suitcase full of them home (no I am not joking, I have an extra suitcase readily available) so you will all be able to enjoy some aussie culture, a real Australian Tim Tam!

Canberra: "The Booming Metropolis"

Friday 18 March
     This weekend my friends and I decided was the weekend to see the capital city. I was really excited to go and so were my friends. I've never been to Washington DC but I hear it has a lot to offer, and so I thought maybe it was the same for Canberra. After talking to some Australians and hearing about it in class I wasn't sure I wanted to go anymore. I was told there is nothing there, don't waste your money, and asked many times why would I even think about going there. My friend Jess has a travel guide book about Australia, its relatively detailed, and even that only had 3 pages about Canberra. Since it seems to be so small and boring we have come to call Canberra "the booming metropolis." So after all of this negativity we decided we would just go for a night.
    We took the bus from Sydney which is about a 3 hour ride. When we got to Canberra the first thing said was, "Wow, a building." and "Hey, its actually a city." Everyone had made it seem so bad we were pretty much expecting a big empty field with maybe 2 or 3 buildings around.

Right off the bus at the hostel, making a PB&J with my fingers. 

Bondi Beach Bum

Saturday 12 March

Bondi Beach (This is not just because of the surf comp. It's always really packed. )

     Today there was a surf competition at Bondi beach (this is a really famous and popular beach), so my friends and I decided to go check it out. We started off the day early by catching the 9 o'clock ferry. Then we had to get a bus ticket to Bondi. It took about 45 minutes to get there from Sydney and once we were almost there the boys in front of us told us there would be a bunch of free stuff from the sponsors (that was the sole reason they were going.) And they were right. We got free hats, a t-shirt, ice cream, and snow cones. A couple of my friends also got those blow up plastic guitars.

Midterms yay!.... not so much.

Hey everyone,
Sorry for the few and far between posts. Last week I had a big project due (a 22 page report). And this week is midterm week. Yes, I actually have to do work here. Its the one speed bump on my perfect vacation. I had one "quiz" Monday (for whatever reason they aren't allowed to call them exams anymore), a 1000 report due yesterday and another "quiz" in about 2 hours. I will try to get up to date by the end of the week. Hope all is well at home, apparently there is a bizzard coming? Good luck with that and stay warm! =]

Love,
Dani

Blue Mountains

Sunday 6 March
     Today I went to the Blue Mountains. The mountains are about 3 hours outside of Sydney so we took a mini coach bus for the day because there were only 12 of us going. We started off by stopping at Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Baby Wallaby! He's only 8 months old!

Here we got to see all kinds of Australian animals. It was different because a lot of the animals weren't caged. We were walking around the Koala area and suddenly there was a Wallaby right by my leg. I got to feed wallabies and kangaroos again!

Feeding Kangaroos. 

These ones were more in your face though... and there were emu in the same area and one almost poked my eye. Yikes! It was really fun though, I got to see a tasmanian devil up close (he went back in the shade too fast to get picture though) and a some wombats.

Wombat

  

















 After an hour at the park we got on the bus and headed up to the mountains. We arrived at about 11:15. We started by going to a lookout and I have to say, the pictures do not do it justice. Everything was so beautiful!

First lookout.

Stringy eucalyptus.

     After the lookout we headed on a mini hike down to another lookout, and on the way our guide told us about the different trees and the mountains. He told us about this one tree which is a called the stingy eucalyptus. This tree is very unique in that the bark is stringy, its hard to explain but there is a picture below. Anyways, the leave on this tree give off a specific oil and smell that linger near the leaves and when it gets hot it catches on fire. This is the only way to open the seeds of the tree. So the bark also  catches and falls away from the tree and covers the opened seeds so the tree stays alive, and the ash helps the seeds grow. These trees have been imported into California and have become a huge problem with the wild fires.
     After this we made it down to the second lookout and it was so beautiful. There was a little waterfall and we could see all kinds of walkways. We took a so many pictures! There was apparently a snake near one spot, but I stayed far away from that.
     Once we were done taking pictures we headed back to the bus and went to the town Katoomaba for  lunch. My friends and I found a little bakery that was cheap. (Its really hard to find anything cheap here so we were really excited and stocked up!)