Chilly autumn nights

I should be a photographer no?

I took this photo from the top level of "The Palace" situated right beside my favorite beach in Sydney: Coogee.

I wish I liked coffee

Ahhhhhhhhhh papers on lab rats and rugby games sdkfjsdljfdslkjfsdk1!@!#!

Sometimes when on exchange you realize that you're actually here for school and not a vacation.

Drop Till You Shop

I decided that the photo in the last post was too violent and depressing. So here is a nice and friendly post -not involving fire- about my fabulous day of shopping with my girlfriends. I have not gone out shopping (for clothes) since I've arrived here in Sydney. So today my friends finally pulled my butt out of bed at 10 a.m. Way too early for a Saturday morning to go shopping. It wasn't a spree or anything. I only bought two things.

Long sleeve hoodie type thing which gives the illusion that I'm wearing multiple layers: $35.00

Dressy flat closed toed sandle thing: $9.00

For a student I think that'd be considered a spree. I'm pretty stingy when it comes to spending money on clothes. Oh! Below is a photo of my girls posing in the dressing room inside a rather large mall at the infamous Bondi Junction.

Saint Barnabas Anglican Church

Paradise in the South Pacific (part I)

On Beachcomber Island. Native Fijian dancers. Aren't they just gorgeous?

Sandboarding down the historic Sigatoka Sand dunes.

By a swimming pool at a backpackers resort in Nadi, the capital of Fiji.

We hung out at this beach...swam, played footy and volleyball. We had the whole beach all to ourselves (something that never happens in Sydney). Then as we were leaving we saw these people on horses appear from over a hillside...it was like a moment out of The Lord of the Rings, only by the beach. It wasn't surprising though because we were in the province of the horses. Each province in Fiji is distinguishable by an abundance of a certain type of animal, from horses, to cows, to dogs.

Fijian kids doing a warrior dance in the rain to welcome the group I was travelling with into their primary school.

Paradise in the South Pacific (part II)

We were swimming and watching the sunset at a resort called Mango Bay on the Coral Coast.

Me smiling even after a gruelling 3 hour hike (trek) through the Namosi Highlands. I did great during the first half of the hike. It looked and felt just like hiking in B.C. Then when we entered the rainforest I was in a new world. We trekked through streams going as high as our hips at times. Sometimes as I'd pull my body through the water I'd see water bugs and spiders swimming past me. My runners, socks, and shorts were soaking wet. You couldn't tell any of that by looking at this photo though. Here I am posing in front of the Navua river just before we all went tubing down the river. I love tubing and was ecstatic but my tubing experience was short lived. My friend Rita and I got caught in a circular river current. Our group leader, Teresa, quickly rescued us on her long boat before rescuing a few others heading for a waterfall. Good times. And this is why I got travel insurance mom and dad.

Visit to the primary school mentioned on the last post. The kids are incredibly friendly and are just adorable.

The beginning of our Namosi Highlands hike. It was boiling hot so everytime we saw a pool/stream of water we jumped in to cool ourselves off. In this photo Teresa and Tucker on the left are standing on a log underwater and Paul and Rita on the right are doing the same. They were busy balancing on the logs and having a good laugh when all of a sudden they saw two ginormous dragonflies mating. We all stopped and watched in awe. Haha, can you see Teresa pointing?

Parasailing way high up in the sky in Beachcomber island. It costs 80 dollars. I paid nothing. The Fijians love me.

Qu cala iko kece!

(p.s.- This is only a glimpse of my trip. I just picked 10 photos out of nearly 400. Village visits, kava ceremonies, par-taying in the city of Suva, bathing in mud pools and hot springs, snorkelling, flat bus tires, and stories of other such amazing experiences still remain untold. If you're interested I will be more than happy to tell you all about it. If not, I'll probably still tell you all about it...)

Le jour de ma naissance

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday I'm 20 and no longer a teenager
Happy birthday to me

Back in the comfort of my own room

Je suis back. Back to the city life. School, traffic, cold autumn rain, wet beaches...

But hey, I look at the bright side of things. There are no mosquitoes in my room.

Bula from Fiji

Bula!

So here I am. In a ridiculously small island called Beachcomber in Fiji. It takes me 10 minutes to walk around the island. Yet it still has internet. The only thing here is a resort. I'm staying in a big room with bunkbeds. Hut like roof. No walls. My mosquito bitten body is going to have a party. Amazing food though. Today I had guava, papaya, and passionfruit. And banana jam.

Tonight, crab racing. Sounds like they do it differently here. In Sydney, evey Wednesday night my friends and I head down to a pub to witness and sometimes participate in crab racing. We'll see how it goes down tonight. Will keep you updated.

This internet place is costing me a fortune. Must head back to the non-airconditioned world.

Moce!

V to the ancouver

Oh how I miss...

- Rootbeer
- Pedestrian friendly streets
- Bagels with creem cheese
- Tim Hortons
- Snow-capped mountains
- JJ bean's chocolate whipped cream
- Spicy salmon sushi rolls
- Reading ingredient lists in French

However, the rain and the wind I do not miss.

Where the mountains are blue

I went on a church retreat to the Blue Mountains on Friday. It wasn't held at the actual touristy spot but in this other area called Springwood. But in the touristy spot (Katoomba), the mountains are actually blue.

At the retreat we had a very good speaker from one of the congregations who spoke to us on the topic of "faithfulness." It was interesting. We played crazy games on Saturday night, as you can see.

More random and crazy games involving balloons and tape.

Earlier that day I went abseiling with a group of people from the retreat. Here is me pretending to be artsy and taking a photo of my shadow after putting on the harness and looking like a pro.

Here is Zenith realizing that jumping off an overhang and being shot down 50 meters is a BIT of an adrenaline rush...moment. One of the instructors was Canadian. We bonded. Except for when he pretended to pull me back up the cliff by the rope after I had reached the bottom and scared the crap out of me for a good 5 seconds. He figured he could bug me throughout the climbs since we were both Canadians and obviously were "tight like that." Dude, you're from Ontario.

I told my abseiling buddies to strike an abseiling pose. Unfortunately Al was the only one who pulled it off on time. Now he just stands out and looks a tad silly.

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.

Organized activities can be über fun

This has been an eventful week. Which makes me happy because the two weeks before were a tad boring. That is because this week the international student orientation started and (aside from the long days filled with info sessions) it was great fun. I've met a lot of cool international kids. Well, by that I mean Americans. From the 200 or so undergrad int. students, I believe at least half are from the U.S. so it's kind of hard to NOT come across one of them. The six girls that I've become close to and have been hanging out with a lot this week are from Tennessee, New York, Maine, California, Illinois, and Texas. I'm the only Canadian in the group which makes me feel quite cool. But I've also gotten to know a few snazzy Swedes, Swiss, Frenchies, and Aussies so I'm pretty happy.

Besides the info sessions the university has also organized tours, activities, and parties to keep us entertained and socializing. I am not complaining. And because (I guess) the international students pay so much money, we've been getting free food and drinks at all these events. And by drinks I mean alcohol. I know that drinking is big here but I cannot believe they offered hundreds of students complimentary drinks at the different events this past week. I don't think my home university's international staff would ever do that...because of all the money they'd lose. But here it's just a big part of the culture and they're very casual about the whole deal. The undergrad American students were just ecstatic about a university that openly offers them alcohol at events. That's mainly because the drinking age in the States is 21. Okay so not much of a segue here...actually a terrible transition...but I've found myself a church! It's a 20 minute walk from where I live so it's very close to the university. Consequently, the evening service that I attended last Sunday was filled with uni students. An aussie friend of mine suggested that I check it out and I am ever so thankful to her. Thanks Kimber!

Well I think it's time to share a few photos. A few days ago I went on a tour around the city offered to us by the university. We took the train, visited old suburbs and pubs, walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and walked back through the university neighbourhoods.

Me pointing at the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House with no pointing fingers

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

We stopped at a German pub/restaurant during the tour. Me and another girl ordered lagers and potato wedges because we were a bit hungry from all the walking. With the wedges we were given ketchup, mayo, and this. What is it? It tasted like a wad of butter or cream in the midst of sweet chili thai sauce. If fact, I'm 99% sure that's what it was.

The sun setting near the end of our tour.

Sega na lega baby!

Who's going to Fiji to

-bilibili raft
-soak in mud pools
-river tube
-snorkel
-swim at secluded waterfalls
-drink kava
-and sandboard????

Her name starts with a Z, and ends with an enith.

Just chill ing

Long time no posting.

What have I been doing since I've moved into my new place? A whole lot of nothing much. My days are taken up by grocery shopping, banking, info sessions at school, cooking, cleaning, and eating. It's not a bad life but I must admit I'm getting a bit restless. I won't lie, I actually miss school. However I am very thankful that the Winter Olympics is on because I have been glued to the T.V. cheering on the Canadian athletes. Most of the time I am too loud and probably confuse and scare my non-Canadian roommates.

But seriously. The Canadian women's hockey team is fully kicking derrière. If pounding Italy and Russia wasn't enough...they go on and school the Swedes. I was cheering for Sweden for a while, but had to stop when the home team came on the rink.

Meanwhile, considering that Australia won its first gold medal in the Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City, its athletes are not doing too badly. There are no medals so far but man, there sure are a lot of aussies in cold Turin cheering their country on. Here are some blurry shots to prove my point. Blurry because I am a geek and snapped away at my T.V. You should try it sometime.







This boy above is not only really cute,
but,
more importantly, is a supportive sibling of an aussie luge athlete and shows great pride in his country.
Hence the flag worn as a cape.

A melting pot of society

I am moving into my very own house tomorrow! No more living out of a suitcase. I can finally unpack for good.

My place is located in a suburb called Newtown. But this suburb is located right in the city. I've slowly realized that what "Sydney-ers" call suburbs, Vancouverites call neighbourhoods. So Kerrisdale,Grandview-Woodlands, Shaugnessy, and Killarney would all be considered suburbs, by an Aussie. I've seen and heard the most interesting things about Newtown. And so far, everything has made me come down to the conclusion that it is a lot like Commercial Drive. Judge for yourself.

- "Newtown is an artsy-fartsy suburb filled with freaks, poofs, junkies and weirdoes"
- "Newtown is a suburb where you will encounter anyone from same sex couples, goths, suited professionals, heterosexuals and students from the local Uni"
- "There is an air of tolerance about this place. You can tell there is no expectation either way - you can be whoever you want to be in Newtown."

Sound familiar? I love Commercial Drive so I think I'm going to be down with this place. The area also looks very quaint because...during the 1920s there was a lot of investment going into the real estate in the area and loads of impressive shops were built along the main street while the middle class workers were all shoved into terrace houses built in between the shops. And these same shops and houses are still standing there today. Thought I'd share that little tidbit with ya. Oh and this...it's a montage someone has made from photos of the area.