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!!!