Mt. Keira

This past Saturday my friends and I decided to go climb Mt. Keira which is a small mountain only about a mile away from where I live.  On the way up I convinced everyone to take the steep route which was pretty steep and had to actually climb up some of the rocky parts but on the way down we too a long flat route.  At the top of the mountain were some really cool views of the city of Wollongong.  After the hike we all went to a really good fast food restaurant called Chickos, which is kinda like KFC but much better food.  The best thing is the "regular" sized chicken schnitzel burger, more like gigantic burger, I can barely finish it.  Here are some pictures of the hike.

40 Hour Famine

                               

So starting early last saturday morning at 2am was the 40 Hour Famine which is a nation wide charity cause in Australia to fundraise money for starving children in various countries around china and asia.  I decided to participate and see if i could actually go 40 hours without food along with 40 others from the dorm I am in.  We were not allowed to eat or drink anything but water, juice that just has sugar added, and boiled sweets which are like zero calorie lifesaver type things.  The famine was scheduled to go from 2am saturday morning and ending sunday evening at 6pm with a huge feast in the dining hall.  All of us stayed up late friday night and made a run to McDonalds, or "Maccas" as they call it here. All of us got happy meals and finished them just before 2am and the start of the famine.  I cant remember the last time I had a happy meal but it was a great change and a lot of fun with all the toys and the word search on the box entertaining us for quite a bit until we all decided it was time for bed.  All day saturday we had events planned in order to keep our mind off food.  Starting at 11am all of us went down to the Long Room and starting making arts and crafts for Global Highway which is an event put on by the University where they have about 20-25 stands each with a different country and activity at each countries table.  Our dorm (Weerona) was given two table to make, Japan and Norway.  I was on team Japan and we decided to make a bunch of mario stuff.  So we made carts out of cardboard boxes and designed them like Peaches, Marios, Luigis, Toads, and DK's car in the game Mario Kart and then made costumes to wear for each character.  We also got Mario golf and Mario tennis games to play.

          

Once we finished a few of us went outside and played some american football which then turned into a small game of rugby league until it started to rain and us american who wernt 100% sure of what we were doing got sick of playing.  Next a few of us set up a mini golf course with the Mario golf game around the dorm, and played some totem tennis.  Finally it was 8:30pm and time for fort night where we made a giant fort out of our mattresses and the like 30 couches and chairs in the TV Room.  Once the fort was built we decided to play some more Uno until midnight when me and the rest of the people going on the One Fish Two Fish trip during spring break went to book our flights from Sydney to Brisbane and then from Cairns to Sydney!  So excited for this trip to see two more australian cities, the great barrier reef, daintree rainforest, whitsunday islands, bungy jumping, bungy swinging through the rainforest, maybe skydiving, snorkling, 4 wheel driving and so much more!  The next day (Sunday morning) I wasnt really feeling hungry as much as just really really tired and I just had no energy to do anything.  Even walking up the stairs made me tired so there was no way I was going to participate in the Intercollege AFL (AFL is Australian Football League which is a form of rugby played mainly in just Australia) game at 1pm so I just went and watch our Weeronians win every game against the other dorms like campus east, I-house, kooloobong, and kieraview.  AFL is played with 18 people on each team and is basically no form at all, kinda just tackle and run and eventually try to kick the ball between two post at each end of the field.  During the game one of our players dislocated his knee and had to be brought to the hospital, so that made me glad I choose not to play, some of these aussie rugby players are pretty big.

 Finally It was 6pm and time for the big feast.  It was delicious mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, brocolli, chicken breast, and steak along with either blueberry cheesecake or rocky road cheesecake for dessert.  It was a great way to end the famine.


Also last Thursday was the first big assignment I had due.  It was an essay for my Locating Australia class.  The question was:
i) Provide a working definition of 'transnational history' and describe how it differs from national history.
ii) What does transnational history offer historians of Australia?

I found myself repeating the same thing over and over in order to get to the 1000 word limit but I think it was a decent essay so hopefully I get an HD on my first paper, but I doubt it because I heard they grade hard. The grading goes High Distinction (100-85), Distinction (84-75), Credit (74-65), Pass (64-50).
Next essay is due this Thursday.  I need to perform an interview with someone asking questions about their opinions on the Australian National Guideline for Physical Activity and write a 1000 word essay on their responses and how the interview went.

UWollongong Campus

Here are some pictures of campus.

And pictures of my dorm room

Sydney Half Marathon

Signed up for the Sydney Half Marathon on the 18th of September today.  Im excited for my first ever half marathon but also a bit worried because i dont think i have time to do enough training for it as i would like. At least ill be able to have an easy time to beat for when I do another one.  The coolest part of the race is that you get to run over the sydney harbor bridge and finish at the opera house!

Shopping in Australia

So this past thursday was the first time I have gone clothing shopping since ive gotten here and I needed a pair of dark jeans and black shoes in order to get in to the Sydney clubs.  First of all jean shopping was probably the funniest shopping trip I have ever been on because we wernt really sure what we needed to wear to get into the place we were going to but were pretty sure dark jeans would be fine.  So the second problem is that the models of jeans in Australia are skinny, tube, tight, and straight.  There are not many baggy jeans or jeans that us Americans are used to wearing anywhere.  I tried on 2 pairs of jeans, one was skinny and the other was straight.  I had to try really hard to get the skinny jeans on and once they were on it felt as though I was wearing my track spandex pants, there was no way I could buy these.  I tried on the second pair ( the straight jeans) which were also tighter then most american jeans but they wernt too bad so I bought them.  Good thing I am kinda skinny because the bigger you are the more trouble you will have fitting into these skinny jeans which made it an entertaining shopping trip watching us all try on skinny jeans.

Sydney!

August 6th started out like any other Saturday waking up around 8am-9am and going down to the cafeteria for some hot breakfast.  But this time we were all getting ready to head into Sydney for either just the day, just the night, or both. Since I had yet to see Sydney my friends and I went for both the day and night and just packed backpacks full of our dress up clothes for the night.  So after breakfast ten of us walked over to North Wollongong train station to catch the 10:30am trian which unfortunately came before we had all purchased roundtrip train tickets to Central Station (cost $10.80) so we had to wait for the next train which didnt come until 11:50am.  Since we had an hour to waste we headed over to the local restaurant and watch tv.

(From left to right.  Joe, Nicole, Craig, Amy, Steve-o, Me, Billy, Andy, Christa.  All Americans except Amy and Andy who are from England and Steve-o who is from Canada)

Eventually the 11:50am train came and we boarded and arrived in Sydney around 1pm.  The train ride was really scenic with lots of ocean and jungle views.  Once off the train we walked a short distance to the Backpackers Accommodation which is a really nice hostel.  The hostel looked just like any hostel would except in the room was three bunk beds.  We only bought one bed and just used it as a place to leave out backpacks full of clothes while we walked around Sydney.  Next we walked through the Chinatown of Sydney and then over to Hyde Park where we checked out the ANZAC Memorial which is a memorial to the Australian Armed Forces who have died in battle.  (ANZAC = Australian New Zealand Army Corps) In the memorial we were all given paper gold stars with fallen soldiers names on it and we were supposed to drop them off the balcony and say a prayer as the stars fell to the ground.

Backpackers Accommodation Hostel

 ANZAC Memorial

View of Sydney skyline form ANZAC Memorial

After leaving the ANZAC Memorial we headed through Hyde Park towards the Botanical Gardens and Sydney Harbor.  The botanical gardens made you feel as though you were in the middle of the jungle but really you were half a mile from the center of Sydney. 

Walking through Hyde Park were lots of weird looking birds like the one above.  The picture to the left is of us walking through Hyde Park, it was a canopy of trees over the walkway which was really cool.  Above and to the left is the Botanical Gardens, the city from the edge of the gardens and then the middle of the gardens which looked like a rainforest.  There were lots and lots of fruit bats living in the trees here.

Finally once we got through the Botanical Gardens we got to our main destination, Sydney Harbor.  The harbor was amazing, so many people walking around the Opera House and the Circular Quay and ferry area.  After taking a few pictures we all found a small restaurant and each got battered fish and chips which were really good.

Harbor Bridge

Craig, Steve-o, and Me at the Opera House

 Sydney Opera House

Panorama From Sydney Harbor Bridge

 Opera House

Harbour Bridge

Once we were to tired to walk anymore we found a bar/restaurant to sit down and watch a rugby union game between Australia Wallabys and the New Zealand All Blacks.  New Zealand beat Australian pretty easily but it was still fun sitting at the bar with live music and watching a big screen of the game.  There were a lot of drunk fans screaming and cheering during the entire game which made it really cool. After the game we started walking all the way back to our hostel in order to change into our dress up clothes.  On the way we stopped at the Century Bar for a drink and a Kebabs shop for a delicious chicken kebab.  Eventually we made it back to the hostel to change but there were 2-3 people in our room already asleep so the five of us (the other 5 left and went back to Wollongong after the rugby game) Billy, Joe, Craig, Steve-o and I went and changed in the hostel bathroom before going up to the rooftop which was an awesome view of the city and partied with a few Australians for a little bit as we waited for our friends to arrive who were coming just for the night.  They we supposed to meet us at the train stop at 7-8pm but someone jumped in front of their train about a half hour from Sydney and delayed them a good 3 hours.  We found out this morning in the newspaper that the guy who got hit by the train actually lived.  So we had plenty of time to waste before meeting up with the rest of the group so we went back to the cheap Century Bar and had another $3 drink.  Eventually we found the rest of our group and we headed to the famous World Bar/ Candys Bar for the night.  Leaving around 3am and walking all the way to the train station and grabbing our stuff from the hostel in time to catch the 5:30am train back to Wollongong which we slept the entire way back arriving back at our dorm at 7am.  (the trains do not run from 12:30am to 5:30am so we were forced to take the 5:30am train because nobody wanted to spend the $45 for a hostel bed and stay overnight in Sydney)  As soon as I got in my room i fell asleep for a good 4 hours waking up in time to catch a quick breakfast before it closed at 11am.  Later just like every other sunday we had a barbaque followed by a game of soccer in Weerona East.  Tried to get some homework done this afternoon but did very little, going to bed early tonight.

 Having fun walking down the street

New Zealand rugby team pose

Classes

So all of my classes are getting into the flow of things a lot faster then I am.  Having to do homework in July/August when your in Australia is not an easy task.  For Locating Australia class we have been learning about how Australia was first founded and mapped and how Britain had to find a new place to send their convicts once the American Revolution began and after their first choice Africa did not work because everyone was dying they decided on sending them to the Eastern coast of Australia.  Every week we have to read a few articles and write a one page summary along with a few long essays during the semester.  In biology we are studying cells, prokaryotic and eukaryotic, and learning about proteins involved in the cells.  I have my first biology lab tomorrow and we are supposed to just be looking at cell through microscopes.  Finally in psychology of physical activity and sport we are learning about what motivates people to do exercise and how to keep that motivation.  Soon we are going to have to interview a sedentary person along with making our own exercise routine and commenting on how well we follow it.

The University of Wollongong campus is so nice.  Its like they just built it in the middle of a rainforest.  There are trees and ferns everywhere as well as a few ponds.  Tropical birds are always flying around and the buildings are all new and nice looking.  Today before my AUST102 tutorial and a bunch of us went and hung out at the beach on the beautiful 79 degree day.  Not too bad for the middle of the winter, its going to be really hot once summer comes.

This weekend we all are planning on climbing Mt. Kiera which is a mountain just down the road. (the one you can see in the pics below in the background of the city)  Then on saturday a group of us are going to Sydney all day and staying in a hostel before returning sunday morning.