Blue Mountain Adventure

Today we got up extremely early to go the Ble Mountains. We were on the road at 7 a.m... too early if you ask me! I sat next to a kid named Carl on the bus. He's from Minnesota and goes to St. Scholastica, so it was pretty fun chatting with him! He knows a couple of kids I went to high school with! Small world huh? (OH random! Buuuut I meant this kid name A.J. and he's from Rochester and he knows my best friend Casey. Now that's really a small world!) Anyways, after the 2 hour bus journey we arrived in this small town (forget the name..). And of course, it starts raining. Matt (tour guide) told us that since December, it has rained 5 times in Sydney. We were there 3 of the 5 days.. we brought the nasty weather with us. And then Matt tells us that one of the vans that take us to the actual blue mountains broke down, so now they can only take 15 of us at a time. There are about 45 of us total. Guess who was on the last van. It was ok though! We sat on the bus and played a fun game called "connection." No tim to explain now.. but we can play at our next family get together :)
Once we finally got to the blue mountains, we were given a harness to put on and a helmet. Since I had no idea what I was doing, I had an instructor help me put my harness on! I told her to make it nice and tight! We then grabbed gloves and began our decent down to the rock climbing mountains. This was probably the hardest climb of my life! It was all downhill and it was raining and slippery! I was walking on shaky rocks, fallen tree limbs, and mud. It was very difficult.. especially since I'm not an avid climber! After we made it to the climbing rocks, we were immediatly told to get in line to go down the "baby" rock. It was only about 2 stories high.. nothing too dramatic. Naturally, I was freaking out the whole time in line. I had never done anything before, and everyone just laughed and said I'd be fine. When it was finally time to go, I told the man that was helping me about a million questions! I kept asking if I was safe.. he finally told me to stop freaking out and step up on the rock. So I did. He then told me to just start walking backward, and to make sure that I was leading with my waist and not my feet.
Since the rock was slippery, it was of upmost importance that I lead with my waist.. otherwise, I'd slip. That really made me feel better. But like most things, as soon as I started going down, I got the hang of it! It was such an adrenaline rush! I loved it! The second time we went down, we were told to yell "brake!" then we must let go of the rope, and it was up to the belay (person at the bottom making sure you don't die. oh, we had to do that after we went down the rock. yes, I had people's lives in my hands) to hold tight to the rope so you didn't come crashing down. Lucky for me, there was a guy as my belay, and he was strong. So I knew I was safe!
After the baby rock, we got to experience near death experiences first hand. We had to go down huge rocks, some with drop offs half way down. Seriously, the scariest thing of my life!! As I was going down one of the rocks, I started to slip a little bit, and thus I started freaking out. I thought I was going to lose control and die. Exaggeration, I know, but still, it's how I felt. After the near slippage, I cam to the drop off. I had to lower my body so that my eyes were parallel with my feet. As soon as I reached that point I had to drop my feet and let gravity take its course. If I wasn't low enough, my head would hit the mountain: wonderful. Again, I'm greatful that I am awesome and my feet were low enough so I didn't hit my head! After that, the absail was easy. I just shimmied down the rope until I hit the ground: literally. I fell a little. oops. haha. To be honest, the worst part was the ladder climb back up the mountain. The ladder was very slippery and if you fell, well, that wouldn't be good.
After lunch is when we embarked on the crazy big mountains! These were 15-17 stories (approx. 170 ft.) We had to go down the smaller mountain before we were able to go on the largest mountain. It was crazy!! As I went down I looked to the side, and I could see for miles! Even though it was foggy, it was breathtaking! Again, the worst part was the walk back to the top. We had to basically walk on our hands and knees to get up! There were branches, mud, water, everywhere! It was horrible.. The biggest mountain was indeed huge. We had the option of wearing a chest harness and going face first. Naturally, I was crazy enough to do it! It was the craziest thing! They had you sit at the top of mountain. I swear we were sitting for atleast 10 minutes! Then they told us to slowly stand up and begin to walk forward. Since it was rainy, it was really hard to grip your feet. You were supposed to be able to walk most of the mountain, but like I said, it was slippery, and before I knew it, my feet slipped out from under me and I was hanging in mid air. I was completely scared, but it was the coolest thing ever!!! So I shimmied my way down the mountain. Towards the bottom I started spinning uncontrolably! It was awful. I just closed my eyes, and before I knew it, I was at the bottom! Best experience of my life!! I loved everything about this trip!!
Until next time!!!!!!!!!!!


p.s. sorry this was soooo long! I just wanted you to know everything :D

Day 2 of my adventure!

We awoke bright and early Thursday morning to beging our Sydney tour day! We first went to Hyde Park, which is situated in the middle of Sydney. It is beautiful! There are trees, fountains, statues, everywhere you look! The wildlife isn't half bad either. There were birds, frogs, geckos, possums (not like the possums in American, these possums were furry and adorable!), and lots of other fascinating creatures! We walked around Hyde Park for awhile. Russ pointed out museums and statues that were of historical importance. We then crossed a street and sat by a fountain with a gorgeous Catholic cathedral in the distance. Russ explained to us some differences between the states and Australia. He talked about the usage of drugs, alcohol, even prostitution (it's legal here). After that talk, we continued our walk. Russ talked about the terms malls and arcades. Arcades aren't like the ones back in the states, arcades were alleyway like areas inbetween shopping centers. Inside these arcades were more stores. We walked through some and they were very pretty! We stopped by the Sydney Hospital which was very tiny! Not like the hospitals I'm used to! Although it was tiny, like everything else in Australia, it was very beautiful! After the hospital, we walked over the the Art Gallery of New South Wales. We just sat on the steps and rested for awhile. We had been walking for about and hour and a half at this point.. we were a little tired! We then proceeded to the Botanic Gardens. The trees were absolutly breathtaking! I had never seen anything so beautiful! My favorite part, however, was when we walked past a school field trip! We passed about 20 kindergartners n rain ponchos! They were adorable!! Russ talked about all the laws that are currently protecting this garden area. If it wasn't for these laws, the park wouldn't exist, there would be buildings galore. An interesting fact is that the laws are so strict that when buildings go up around the park, they cannot cast a shadow on it. That's why the buildings have funky shapes to them! We proceeded through the park until we came up this large tree. Russ mysteriously walked away and when he came back, upon his shoulders sat two cockatoos. They were adorable! He then handed us slices of bread and told us to hold them up in the air, and the cockatoos will come right to you! So I did as I was told, and in no time, cockatoos came flying to me! It was really cool!! The cockatoo began to walk up my arm and it freaked me out.. haha. He kept walking until he got to my shoulder; it was there that he sat for awhile! It was adorable!
After feeding the cockatoos, we rounded the corner and there I saw it: the Sydney Opera House. It was stunning. It was more beautiful than I ever imagined it to be! It looked like it was floating on the river.. breathtaking! We stood alongside the river for awhile and took pictures. We then walked around the river to go directly to the Opera House. The closer I got, the weirder it looked! The panels on the side, and open front, made it look like snails.. haha. Still beautiful though! Russ explained that there were different buildings inside the the Opera house: the far right is the concert hall and drama theatre, the middle was the main opera house, and the far left was a resteraunt. The Opera House was our last stop on our Sydney walking tour! We were now off to a wildlife zoo!
Right as we got off the bus we were greeted by a joey! It was the cutest thing i've ever seen! He was wrapped up in a blanket.. adorable! I cannot even begin to talk about everything that I saw inside the zoo, so I'll give you some main highlights! The only animals really fenced in were the birds, otherwise, the "fences" consisted of one wooden bar. So kangaroos, emus, and wallabys were just roaming around! It was pretty cool.. you could just go up to them and pet them or feed them. They are such gentle creatures! Except for this one wallaby.. I had food in my hands and he started jumping up and grabbing it out of my hands! It was cute yet scary all at the same time!
After the wildlife zoo, we went back to our hotel! We had the night off and we took advantage of that! A couple of us went out and experience the Sydney night life first hand! I had a blast!
until next time!!

arrival :D

(sooo i know this is 6 days late, but we didn't have internet access till now!!)

the flight from l.a. to sydney was a pretty decent flight.. we boarded at 11:00 and we took flight around midnight! as i approached my seat, i saw a little gift waiting for me! the gift was a bag full of goodies! a blanket, headphones, slippers (i know right!), a pillow, toothbrush, and tooth paste are amongst these goodies! and as i sat down, i was surprised yet again! there in front of my face was a built-in screen. glorious! there were movies, t.v. shows, sporting events, documentaries, you name it, it was there! the movies ranged from latest premiers to classics! within the first hour we were served dinner. the dinner consisted of moraccan chicken, cous cous, snow peas, carrots, a dinner roll, a salad, and delicious chocolate cake! can you say YUMMY?! anyways, after dinner, i decided to watch a movie. after looking through about the 35 they had to offer.. i decided to watch a movie called tropic thunder. horrible. wasn't funny. so i turned it off and decided that that was a sign that i should be sleeping. so i went to sleep for about 5 hours. i awoke to find yet another present! while i was sleeping, the placed a goodie bag on my tray! inside were things like m&ms, cookies, fruit snacks, etc. also delicious! instead of a movie i decided to watch grey's anatomy! but while watching i fell asleep again! this time for only an hour! after i awoke this time i thought about watching another movie. my neighbor and i decided that we would watch step brothers. hilarious! we were cracking up the whole movie! sometime after that we were given breakfast. i had cereal, muffin, orange juice, and fruit. i was spoiled. so after breakfast we were only about 3 hours away!! super exciting!! i was sitting next to all study australia people, so i really got to know them before the flight was over!
after passing through customs and getting my luggage, the real fun began! we were taken to our apartments which were in the middle of town! this is where we would be staying for the duration of our orientation. we found out later that these were worth approximately 1.3 million dollars.. so they were pretty nice! after we ate in the conference room of the building, we were given our room assignments. i was in a room with 5 other girls. we all would be going to Brisbane together. two of them are from New Jersay, one is from Dallas, one from Massachusettes, and one is from New York. So i was the only midwestern!
After showering and getting settled, we took a 5 min. tour to the areas around our apartment. Ross (orientation director) showed us where we could find adaptors, food, clothes, atm's, etc. We then proceeded to Darling Harbour where we would be eating dinner. At dinner, the majority of us ate a special dish; a dish only found in Australia: kangaroo. It was probably the best piece of meat I have ever eaten! Very delicious! I completely recommend it!
After dinner we all went back to our apartments. We hung out for awhile. A bunch of us decided to go out and see the town at night! Very beautiful! The sights at the Darling Harbour are gorgeous!! That was day one of my Australia adventure!! Till next time!