My three weeks in Sydney are almost up! While I've had a blast going on adventures here, it will be nice to go back home and see my friends and family. Yesterday we had a negotiation exercise in the morning. It was a six person/four-way negotiation and actually got pretty heated! (i.e. "Italy, we don't need you!"- David Mikulus, poor silent Dan) in the afternoon, after doing some assignments for the class, I went to the natural history museum with Hannah. There, we saw dinosaur fossils, creepy bugs, exotic sea life, and strange birds. It was all pretty cool, but alas, we did not find the fangeroo. In the evening Danielle, Greg, Hannah, Hongyi and I ate at the infamous Pancakes on the Rocks, which was okay but didn't exactly live up to all the hype. The evening was unfortunately spent working on our final marketing paper, which lasted from 11 pm to 3 am :(
Today is our last full day at Sydney. We climbed to the top of the Sydney Bridge, which was very cool. We had to wear special equipment, including astronaut-like suits, harnesses, hats, earpieces, and wristbands. Our guide, Dean, was very well informed and told us all sorts of stories about the history of the bridge. It was a great experience, although it took a little longer than I would have liked (we started a 12:45 and didn't get out until almost 4). After the climb we were absolutely FAMISHED so Danielle, Greg, Hannah and I went to G'day Café for $8 kebabs, which were excellent.
In the evening we all got dressed up very fancy schmancy for a dinner cruise in the harbor. The food was great; there was a cabaret singer; and the view was amazing. We got to see the Opera House and the bridge at sunset, and the weather was wonderful. Tonight will be our last big hurrah, so I think everyone is joining together to go dancing in the clubs on the Rocks. Tomorrow I leave to return back to the US and should get there around 9 PM MD time!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Kangaroos, and Wallabies, and Emus, oh my!
Today was probably the highlight of my trip here thus far. After a short class discussion on business ethics, we took a bus over to Featherdale Wildlife Park, where I got to play with baby kangaroos, koalas, and emus! They were so adorable! We also went to visit the Olympic Park, which was underwhelming after petting the wallabies :P
In the evening we went to Sidebar, a local hotspot across the street where they played a lot of good dance music! I'll post pics later; the internet is slowly dying here
In the evening we went to Sidebar, a local hotspot across the street where they played a lot of good dance music! I'll post pics later; the internet is slowly dying here
Cheers to the freakin weekend!
Yesterday was HOTTTT!!!! And I mean that literally: it was about 100 degrees outside (and we still don't have AC in our apartment). Unlike Maryland, Australia has low humidity, so the air is just heavy- it feels like you're in a convection oven. We spent the whole day on wine tours, traveling to the different vineyards on the outskirts of Sydney (about two hours out). Our second wine tasting was hosted by this really awesome guy, Matt, an Aussie EE (I'm not gonna gush here, but OH. MY. GOD.) ;) We were also provided lunch at this family-style thai/Asian place that wasn't half bad. Go Australia!
Today we did SO MUCH in such a short amount of time. We woke up at 3 freaking 30 to go to Bondi Beach and watch the sunrise over the cliffs. Then, we went surfing at 6:30 AM for two hours...the sea was so rough for the first hour; I got smashed around a lot and was so tired. However, for the second hour it was a lot calmer- we went out to deep water where they had a triathalon going on, and cheered on all the swimmers. Greg and I broke off from the group and came back to the apts to watch THE RAVENS GAME OMG!!!!! It was so exciting and we were jumping around and screaming like banshees in the apartment. Even though I had woken up so early I was so pumped after that and couldn't sit still. The rest of the afternoon was spent working on our final papers and other assignments, before going to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and the mall for dessert. Tonight we have an outdoor movie in Circular Quay, which would be great except that it's freaking raining outside, so we'll see. I'll put pics up soon!!!
Today we did SO MUCH in such a short amount of time. We woke up at 3 freaking 30 to go to Bondi Beach and watch the sunrise over the cliffs. Then, we went surfing at 6:30 AM for two hours...the sea was so rough for the first hour; I got smashed around a lot and was so tired. However, for the second hour it was a lot calmer- we went out to deep water where they had a triathalon going on, and cheered on all the swimmers. Greg and I broke off from the group and came back to the apts to watch THE RAVENS GAME OMG!!!!! It was so exciting and we were jumping around and screaming like banshees in the apartment. Even though I had woken up so early I was so pumped after that and couldn't sit still. The rest of the afternoon was spent working on our final papers and other assignments, before going to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and the mall for dessert. Tonight we have an outdoor movie in Circular Quay, which would be great except that it's freaking raining outside, so we'll see. I'll put pics up soon!!!
Friday, January 11, 2013
Busy days!
It's been busy since I've last posted (I've been delinquent in my updates, I know, but since I doubt anyone except maybe my mother and boyfriend are reading this, oh well)...
Let's see, since I last posted...
Wednesday:
We had our marketing presentations and we ROCKED. The task was to market a brand new product to an assigned country from an Australian point of view, having understood the cultural differences and the needs of the country. We were assigned China and designed a breathing mask (like the surgical masks that the Chinese wore during the SARS outbreak in 2003) that both filters air and uses internal turbines to capture energy and power a lithium polymer battery for charging an iphone, camera, mp3 player, etc. Then, Danielle and I went shopping and spent FAR too much money on clothes and food (but when in Australia, right?) Danielle, Hannah, Greg and I cooked in the apartments that night (oven baked pizza, salad and balsamic, fresh French bread, and moscato, mmmmmm)
Thursday:
After waking up at 5:30 to do my workout (I ran all the way from Darling Harbor along the coast to Circular Quay and watched the sunrise over the Sydney Opera House) we ventured over to ATP, an incubator for start up companies. Hamish Hawthorne gave us an entrepreneurial talk, and then we got a tour of the facilities, which houses over 60 tech start ups. The building was incredible; I absolutely loved it and could see it being converted into a house or something. It was a heritage-protected warehouse with the internal structure still housing old work sinks, indoor bricking, exposed metal beams and rivets, and even an industrial crane! SO cool. Afterwards, the group had to split up...a small group of people, including Hannah, got to go on a Quantas tour (a major Australian airline) where they got to tour a double decker commercial plane inside a hangar and even sit in the cockpit...unfortunately I wasn't part of that chosen group, so Greg, Danielle, and I ventured over to the Sydney art museum. They had a large mix of art mediums and time periods, from Asian to European to Indigenous art and modern art. The coolest art was the larger-than-life Asian statues; the creepiest things were very realistic dead mannequins lining the floors (some dressed like crowns, freaky!) in the modern art section. in the evening, after grabbing burritos at a local Mex joint, we joined back up with Hannah and two Dans and took a train to the Blue Mountains, where we stayed at the YHA (youth hostel). The town was small and sleepy and the hostel was SO nice. fully equipped kitchen, pool table rooms, television room, very clean bathrooms, and bunk beds. By the time we got there and got ready to eat it was about 10 PM so unfortunately we had to just grab pizza at the Domino's nearby (side note: apparently sizes in the US are just bigger than everywhere else around the world. a "large" pizza at this Domino's was just plain pitiful).
Friday:
This morning we woke up early at the hostel to bad news: because of all of the Australian bush fires and the projected temperatures of upper 30s (Celsius), the national parks association and the fire department issued that all national parks in New South Wales be closed due to fire hazard. The police even said, DO NOT GO. Us being the youngins that we are, went anyways! We ended up hiking close to 10 miles around the valleys of the Blue Mountains, which was actually very tasking (a lot of hills) even though I consider myself a pretty fit person! The coolest parts of the climb were definitely being elevated above the valley and being able to see the Three Sisters rock formation, the waterfalls (which were full of cool, clear flowing water, even though Hannah fell down and scraped up her entire knee!) and when we sat down in a clearing and a wild cockatoo came and bonded with Silent Dan! The absolute hardest part was the 1000 steps (literally) that were so steep and climbed all the way up the side of the valley. I was the first person to reach the finish and got there in about 11 minutes; the last person that reached the top took about 20 minutes. Afterwards, after picking up our stuff from the hostel, we went to a local pub and grabbed some snacks and drinks (I had icecream, myself) and just sat to unwind by playing some pool. We took the 2 hour train ride back, grabbed some pad thai for dinner, and voila! I'm back at the apartment, EXHAUSTED but finally clean after showering and ready for bed (as soon as my laundry finishes!!!)
Tomorrow we are going on an all day wine tour, and Sunday we are getting up early to go surfing and then coming back to the apartment to watch the Ravens/Broncos game wooo!!!
Let's see, since I last posted...
Wednesday:
We had our marketing presentations and we ROCKED. The task was to market a brand new product to an assigned country from an Australian point of view, having understood the cultural differences and the needs of the country. We were assigned China and designed a breathing mask (like the surgical masks that the Chinese wore during the SARS outbreak in 2003) that both filters air and uses internal turbines to capture energy and power a lithium polymer battery for charging an iphone, camera, mp3 player, etc. Then, Danielle and I went shopping and spent FAR too much money on clothes and food (but when in Australia, right?) Danielle, Hannah, Greg and I cooked in the apartments that night (oven baked pizza, salad and balsamic, fresh French bread, and moscato, mmmmmm)
Thursday:
After waking up at 5:30 to do my workout (I ran all the way from Darling Harbor along the coast to Circular Quay and watched the sunrise over the Sydney Opera House) we ventured over to ATP, an incubator for start up companies. Hamish Hawthorne gave us an entrepreneurial talk, and then we got a tour of the facilities, which houses over 60 tech start ups. The building was incredible; I absolutely loved it and could see it being converted into a house or something. It was a heritage-protected warehouse with the internal structure still housing old work sinks, indoor bricking, exposed metal beams and rivets, and even an industrial crane! SO cool. Afterwards, the group had to split up...a small group of people, including Hannah, got to go on a Quantas tour (a major Australian airline) where they got to tour a double decker commercial plane inside a hangar and even sit in the cockpit...unfortunately I wasn't part of that chosen group, so Greg, Danielle, and I ventured over to the Sydney art museum. They had a large mix of art mediums and time periods, from Asian to European to Indigenous art and modern art. The coolest art was the larger-than-life Asian statues; the creepiest things were very realistic dead mannequins lining the floors (some dressed like crowns, freaky!) in the modern art section. in the evening, after grabbing burritos at a local Mex joint, we joined back up with Hannah and two Dans and took a train to the Blue Mountains, where we stayed at the YHA (youth hostel). The town was small and sleepy and the hostel was SO nice. fully equipped kitchen, pool table rooms, television room, very clean bathrooms, and bunk beds. By the time we got there and got ready to eat it was about 10 PM so unfortunately we had to just grab pizza at the Domino's nearby (side note: apparently sizes in the US are just bigger than everywhere else around the world. a "large" pizza at this Domino's was just plain pitiful).
Friday:
This morning we woke up early at the hostel to bad news: because of all of the Australian bush fires and the projected temperatures of upper 30s (Celsius), the national parks association and the fire department issued that all national parks in New South Wales be closed due to fire hazard. The police even said, DO NOT GO. Us being the youngins that we are, went anyways! We ended up hiking close to 10 miles around the valleys of the Blue Mountains, which was actually very tasking (a lot of hills) even though I consider myself a pretty fit person! The coolest parts of the climb were definitely being elevated above the valley and being able to see the Three Sisters rock formation, the waterfalls (which were full of cool, clear flowing water, even though Hannah fell down and scraped up her entire knee!) and when we sat down in a clearing and a wild cockatoo came and bonded with Silent Dan! The absolute hardest part was the 1000 steps (literally) that were so steep and climbed all the way up the side of the valley. I was the first person to reach the finish and got there in about 11 minutes; the last person that reached the top took about 20 minutes. Afterwards, after picking up our stuff from the hostel, we went to a local pub and grabbed some snacks and drinks (I had icecream, myself) and just sat to unwind by playing some pool. We took the 2 hour train ride back, grabbed some pad thai for dinner, and voila! I'm back at the apartment, EXHAUSTED but finally clean after showering and ready for bed (as soon as my laundry finishes!!!)
Tomorrow we are going on an all day wine tour, and Sunday we are getting up early to go surfing and then coming back to the apartment to watch the Ravens/Broncos game wooo!!!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
A lesson in Aussie talk
G'day mates! Today's post will be dedicated to my very own limited dictionary that I've been compiling since I've been here:
g'day: hello
sheila: lady
yoghurt: yogurt
or-ah-GAHN-oh: oregano
PRIM-airy: primary
bush fires: forest fires (a HUGE problem all around the country, considering it was 106 deg F yesterday in Sydney...AND our AC in the apartment doesn't work)
air con: A/C
cozi: swimsuit
chemist: pharmacy
woop woop: out in the middle of nowhere
lift: elevator
aluminium: aluminum
lobstered: sunburnt
take-away: to-go
sun cream: sunblock
humid: NOT anything close to Maryland humidity
inexpensive: a fast food meal less than $10, a 6-pack of beer less than $40 -___-
tim-tams: delicious heavenly cookies
vegemite: gross vitamin spread
blowy: windy
sunnies: sunglasses
train: metro
Yesterday we took a tour of the University of New South Wales under the direction of the manager of Photovoltatic Research (who is actually from California). It was actually really cool to see all of the solar-panel research, although it was 106 degrees outside, which was not ideal for standing next to the panels :P Our guide, Robert, was really funny and even did experiments with us- our very own Bill Nye!
Afterwards, we met with the director of Sydney's New Year's Eve event, which was SO COOL. He told us all about the logistics of planning the fireworks (they start planning 15 months out), all of the exclusive events, and even about cool smart phone apps that can be used during New Year's.
I will say I'm kinda bummed about the night-life here. Considering it's the city, everything closes SUPER early (like 8 PM) unless you want to go out to a bar, in which case you have to dress up and be prepared to spend $9 on a beer (and as it turns out, I'm not even a fan of beer). But in terms of the museums, parks, shopping and other public attractions, everything is closed early, so by the time we get out of class there isn't a lot to do. I guess that's why our instructors have been giving us all the homework that we have, to fill our limited amount of free time!
Today we have our marketing presentations all day, but we get out around 3, so a couple of us girls are gonna hit up the mall and go SHOPPING WOOOO!!! Tomorrow after our scheduled events a small group of us are taking a train into Katoomba to stay in a hostel overnight and get up early the next morning to hike the Blue Mountains (the Aussie equivalent of the Grand Canyon). Should be a good time, given that my sunburn goes away by then :P
I'll check in later!
g'day: hello
sheila: lady
yoghurt: yogurt
or-ah-GAHN-oh: oregano
PRIM-airy: primary
bush fires: forest fires (a HUGE problem all around the country, considering it was 106 deg F yesterday in Sydney...AND our AC in the apartment doesn't work)
air con: A/C
cozi: swimsuit
chemist: pharmacy
woop woop: out in the middle of nowhere
lift: elevator
aluminium: aluminum
lobstered: sunburnt
take-away: to-go
sun cream: sunblock
humid: NOT anything close to Maryland humidity
inexpensive: a fast food meal less than $10, a 6-pack of beer less than $40 -___-
tim-tams: delicious heavenly cookies
vegemite: gross vitamin spread
blowy: windy
sunnies: sunglasses
train: metro
Yesterday we took a tour of the University of New South Wales under the direction of the manager of Photovoltatic Research (who is actually from California). It was actually really cool to see all of the solar-panel research, although it was 106 degrees outside, which was not ideal for standing next to the panels :P Our guide, Robert, was really funny and even did experiments with us- our very own Bill Nye!
Afterwards, we met with the director of Sydney's New Year's Eve event, which was SO COOL. He told us all about the logistics of planning the fireworks (they start planning 15 months out), all of the exclusive events, and even about cool smart phone apps that can be used during New Year's.
I will say I'm kinda bummed about the night-life here. Considering it's the city, everything closes SUPER early (like 8 PM) unless you want to go out to a bar, in which case you have to dress up and be prepared to spend $9 on a beer (and as it turns out, I'm not even a fan of beer). But in terms of the museums, parks, shopping and other public attractions, everything is closed early, so by the time we get out of class there isn't a lot to do. I guess that's why our instructors have been giving us all the homework that we have, to fill our limited amount of free time!
Today we have our marketing presentations all day, but we get out around 3, so a couple of us girls are gonna hit up the mall and go SHOPPING WOOOO!!! Tomorrow after our scheduled events a small group of us are taking a train into Katoomba to stay in a hostel overnight and get up early the next morning to hike the Blue Mountains (the Aussie equivalent of the Grand Canyon). Should be a good time, given that my sunburn goes away by then :P
I'll check in later!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Surfing
I learned to surf today! It was pretty tough, but I was actually able to stand up on the board for a bit. They were only baby waves, but I'm okay with it :) We took 90 minute lessons at Bondi beach after they explained all about how boards are made, what different types of fins there are, etc. It as actually pretty cool! Then they took us into the water and had us ride waves in on our stomachs, and then transitioned to standing. It wasn't scary at all; the boards were so big and the waves were so calm that you rarely wiped out and if you did it was pretty minor. I'm exhausted and sunburnt, but overall it was a great day!
More pics from Manly
On the way to Manly!
heh heh
Me and Greg being all manly
Danielle, me, and Hannah at Manly beach
4 Pines microbrewery in Manly
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