Featherdale Wildlife Park. It's très cool.

A wildlife park. Where the animals roam free. Except for some birds...including penguins. Here in this first photo you'll find Tiffany and I pointing happily at a parrot while being reassured by the photographer (Saira) that the parrot will most definitely not bite our fingers.

Then the parrot almost bit Tiffany and we both told Saira that we'd never trust her ever again (during our trip). Then we discovered the sign above our head and felt like even bigger fools for listening to Saira. We angrily pointed at the sign and posed. Except my angry face turned into a ridiculous looking fake smile. Tiff's angry face is priceless though.

I later realized as we looked through our photos that we point a lot. Here is Katelyn pointing at a bunch of little penguins. That's what they're called. Little Penguins or better known as Eudyptula minor. They're only found in this part of the world. You can't really see them in this photo though. I tried to fix the lighting.

Yes, this is me posing with a sleeping baby koala. The cutest one I've seen so far. It just slept right through all the snapping cameras and the swarms of hands trying to pet its body.

These kangaroos run freely through the park. One ran past us so fast I thought we were gonna get hit in the face by its tail. But they're smart cookies.

New Mates. Old Mates.

New friends

are fun.

But running into a friend who you haven't seen for almost 3 years is über fun.

Nippers on an early Sunday morn

I cannot remember the last time I woke up at 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning. My friend Tiffany (a very chill N.Y. girl) and I were a bit bitter for the first two hours of the day but got into a better mood once we hit the beach. Why were we at the infamous Manly Beach at such an ungodly hour? Fieldtrip. That's right. I'm a cool cat and so have managed to find courses at university that include fieldtrips. It's an education course called Australian Sports. So about a hundred of us from the class (all international students) bussed and ferried over to Manly Beach at 8:30 in the morning to watch the Nippers Surf Competition. Nippers = children. My professor's daughter is in the club and so he's heavily involved with the Manly Junior Life Saving Club. I've never seen anything like it.

These kids start training at the age of six. They learn everything from how to surf, to how to avoid rip currents in the ocean, to how to become trained lifeguards. Except in Australia, most of these kids grow up to become lifesavers and not lifeguards. The difference? Lifesavers are all volunteers. Unlike other parts of the world, most of Australia's beaches are patrolled by (qualified) volunteers. It blows my mind.

At the competition today we saw all sorts of races. Sprinting on sand, sprinting on sand into the water and swimming to a designated flag, and surfing were the three main events. I don't understand how these kids run that fast on sand. I can't even walk fast on sand without tripping and falling.

All of us in the class have to write a 1000 word report on what we saw today. I spoke to the club executives and interviewed some of the parents to get a feel of what they're all about. This club will be celebrating its 100th birthday next year.

After getting two shades darker and munching on sausage, sliced bread, and tomaaato sauce (which would be equivalent to our North American hotdog, bun, and ketchup), Tiffany and I took the ferry back.

:D

Woke up and walked to uni today for my first day of classes. 35 degrees and sunny. Humidity: 41%. Pressure: 1003.8 hPa. I don't even know what that really means.

But hey! Look at my sandal tan. No one understands how proud I am of this. It takes me months to get a distinct tanline.

O Week

Best pasta I've ever tasted. I'm so good I scare myself. And yes that's penne in a wok. You gotta make use of what you got.

This below is the equivalent of frosh/clubs week at UBC. I thought UBC had too many clubs. USYD changed my mind. Clubs week here is called "O Week." Why? I do not know. Also this takes place the week before school, not the first week of.

The Capoeira Club did a little demonstration. It made me think back to my 3 month relationship with the Brazilian martial art.

I know I'm impulsive but man I've really joined some random clubs and societies. Psychological society (which by the way has little to do with psych and more to do with socializing) and interfaith club anyone? There was an Xbox amusement park to the right of this stall. I forgot to take pics of that though.