Paddleboarding

     I am so pleased to say that paddleboarding seemed easier than surfing (so I did not fall off the board as many times as when I went surfing!)  It could be because the board is bigger, which makes it easier to balance.  Or it could be that I felt like an ole pro after surfing.  Or. . .the most likely reason: I went paddleboarding in the lagoon so the water was calm!  I did not have to battle the waves like other paddleboarders; I just stayed in my little section of the lagoon.
     After getting the hang of it, I was racing people for fun and jumping on the board.  Perhaps I was getting a little too much into it, because then I asked one of my friends, Kyle (from Buffalo, NY) if she wanted to combine our paddleboards and both paddleboard at the same time.  I don't know why I did not think about the possibility of doing the splits when my right foot was on my paddleboard and my left foot was on hers, but I clearly did not think about it!  I will just tell you that I wish I would have gotten that wipe-out on video because it probably looked very hilarious!
Here is some math:
     Paddleboarding = Fun.     Splits = ouch.     Standing on 2 paddleboards = Splits which also = ouch  

Do something Random!

     I don't know if I have said this yet in my blog, but I am trying to do something new/exciting/random every day while I am here in Sydney!  Yesterday, I went to the city with one of my friends, Emma, who is from about an hour away.  We saw the ship Queen Mary 2- sooooo cool!  It was huge and I heard that some of the people got off of the ship in Sydney, so some people could buy a room for $50/night!  That is a sweet deal!  Anyways, I am going to research it some more now that I have seen it (we saw it in the afternoon and it set sail for New Zealand at 5:00PM so I am lucky to see the ship!)  We also went to Darling Harbour AND experienced rush hour at its finest!  We headed across the Harbour Bridge at 5:15- perfect timing for the most traffic ever, but it was so good get to see the way to get to Sydney via car (though I will probably be taking the ferry most of the time.)
     My random thing for Tuesday happened in my events class.  My team is working on a walk in 1.5 weeks and we had to get sponsors for goody bags for volunteers.  Though I really do not like going around and getting sponsors, I had a lot of experience with it at the chamber of commerce so I taught the members of my group how to get sponsors in Manly.  It was very neat to compare businesses in Australia and the U.S.!  At night, I convinced all of my friends to go to get an ice cream cone and sit on the beach- it was delicious!
     Da da dum. . . I have two random things for today: I joined swim team.  Yes, swim team!  I practiced swimming a good deal this summer and thought that I should get better while I am here.  It is a great way to get excercise, the only negative is that I have to leave the school at 5:55AM.  But, I make it back for breakfast at 7:15 and it is a hot breakfast!  (Here, Tuesday and Thursdays are the days I look forward to because they serve eggs and bacon. . . Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are cereal days.)  Anywho, the second random thing happened this afternoon while I was at the beach.  I went in the ocean and my ankle started stinging.  Thinking about it now, I probably looked really funny because I pulled my foot to my chest and was bouncing around in the water!  Then, I went out and my ankle was bleeding a little bit- I think I am making this sound worse than it is- it really was not that bad.  But I was stung by a jellyfish!  My first jellyfish sting.  Lovely.

A tid-bit of Recent News!

*Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 sailed into Sydney Harbour today!  I went to see it from the North Trail Head today and I could see it!  These ships are huge and have a lot of history (here is an article about it: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/02/22/two-queens-sail-into-sydney-harbour/)

*New Zealand had a 6.3 magnitude earthquake today and it was all over the news here.  It was bad and killed a lot of people

*Thank you Mary Kate for telling me this: The Amazing Race just featured Oceanworld in Manly!  ICMS is in Manly and it is just a 5-10 minute walk to Oceanworld!!!  My friends and I watched it and told all of the American study abroad students.  It was the hit here (too bad they filmed it a couple months ago because I would have loved to see part of the filming.)

*That reminds me- The biggest Loser is being filmed here now!  The contestants live in North Head which is also a five minute walk.  I am not going to lie, but I have definitely been trying to find them!  Maybe sometime soon.

(My marketing teacher is requiring us to keep up with the news, so my home page is now the Australian news!  Maybe I will throw some random pieces of news in blogs that follow!)

The Opera House and Harbour Bridge

     Anyone who looks at my pictures from Sydney would definitely comment on the number of pictures that I took of the Opera House.  Apparently, I thought that I should get one from every angle!  Take a picture, walk 2 steps and take another picture. . .and the process continued.  This building was amazing (of course it probably should have been since it costed $102 Million dollars!)  My group went inside and saw the atrium.  The atrium is pretty, but the outside is the main attraction.  I am planning on going to an opera with ICMS in March and my friends and I really want to see a ballet as well (the ballets begin in April though!)  Maybe for my birthday?  How cool would that be?
     Harbour Bridge is very pretty as well!  Though I did not walk across on Saturday, I definitely will walk across the next time I go to Sydney!  I also really, really, really want to climb Harbour Bridge!!!  I have heard that climbing the bridge is a must-do in Sydney. 
     We spent the whole day walking through Sydney and seeing all of the sites!  Most of the group left in the afternoon, but Megan, Kate, and I wanted to stay later.  We came back to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge around 6:45PM, which was perfect to catch the 7:00 ferry.  We sat on a bench with a beautiful view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and then decided to just keep sitting and talking until the 7:30 ferry.  Then, a small jazz band began playing music near us and we really enjoyed it.  Totally forgetting the idea of catching a ferry back then, we went for ice cream and came back to sit on the opposite side of the Harbour.  By then, both the bridge and Opera House were lit up (it gets dark late here) and we decided to stay a little longer.  We ended up taking the 10:00 ferry!!!  I usually can't sit and not do anything, but it is so easy to do with such a beautiful view!

Pancakes!

     The ferry ride from Manly to Sydney takes 30 minutes, and you can probably guess that I was on the edge of my seat every minute, anticipating the Opera House and Harbour Bridge!
      And let me tell you- it is prettier than the pictures!!!  It was impossible to capture everything in a picture (though I tried to!)  After arriving in Sydney, we went to a breakfast place in The Rocks called Pancakes on the Rocks.  Let me just say, I used to absolutely hate pancakes.  Blueberry pancakes-uggg, Chocolate Pancakes- yuck, Pancakes with all types of fruit- even more disguisting!  But, after eating in this restaurant, my mind was changed forever and pancakes are like my new best friend now.
     Let me tell you, eating these pancakes were like tasting Heaven (at least I hope Heaven will be that good, haha just kidding!)  I got the Devil's Food pancakes which were chocolate pancakes with strawberries on the side.  As if that was not enough sugar, chocolate fudge covered both AND there is a scoop of chocolate ice cream on the top!!!  Woohoo- THIS IS WHAT I CALL A BREAKFAST!
     I am almost 100% positive that this is the most unhealthy breakfast that I have eaten in my life, but it was totally worth every bite.
     Many people and guidebooks have recommended going to Pancakes on the Rocks and I am so glad that I had my first chocolate pancakes with fudge in Sydney :) 

 

Ping Pong

      I have so much to include in my blog from the last couple of days!  This past weekend, I went to Sydney on Saturday and went on a day long guided tour of the Northern Beaches on Sunday!  Before I start talking about the sites, I want to talk about the people! 
      One of the ways that I have enjoyed integrating into the Australian culture through spending time with Australians.  Many of my good friends at ICMS are from Sydney or other parts of Australia, and I have also enjoyed talking to other people when I have the opportunity.  On the ferry, a very nice couple sat beside my friends and me and we began talking about college life and everything that we should do and see while we are here.  They shared their experiences in Sydney and told us about their daily life.  Communicating with people on the ferries, at restaurants, and around the city has shown me a part of the culture that no tour book could show me!  And there is no way that I could have expected to run into these two 16 year old guys on Saturday-
     Our third stop (after seeing the Harbour Bridge and Opera House of course) was the Royal Botanic Gardens.  It was a gorgeous day (I seriously could not have asked for a prettier day) and as Michelle, Kelly, and I were walking to the entrance, two guys stopped us.  One of them had a video camera and the other asked if he could do a quick interview.  Even though we told him that we were not from Australia, he still really wanted us to comment on the rather funny question of "Should 16 year olds be able to drink in Australia?"  Umm, that was not very hard for me to answer with a NO!  (I think the guys either wanted to be able to legally drink or had the time to protest the drinking age and make a video.)  So when they asked for us to do some dance moves for them, I of course had to show them a move!  Yes, I showed them my ping pong move.  Why?  I have no idea!!!!!  So embarrasing!
      At first I was satisfied that we helped the 16 year olds out with their project but as we were leaving, they said that they were making it into a youtube video.  Of course Kelly found it and posted it on my wall on Facebook, so I feel as if I am obligated to show my beautiful ping pong dance move on my blog.  Here is the link to my first youtube video in Sydney! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR5CFAz79bo  

Signed: Lauren "the actress and best dancer in the world" Williams

Fire Warden

That is me.  Let me explain. . .
     My dorm hall (2nd floor is the bomb.com) had a meeting with the RA and we went over rules for living in the dorms.  After the meeting, I had to ask the RA a question about the dorm and then she asked me if I wanted to be Fire Warden for our hall.  Sure.  So, lucky me had to go to a meeting with the house manager and fire patrol on what Fire Wardens do when there is a fire.  This meeting was an hour and a half and I actually learned cool things about fire extinguishers and ways to remain calm when there is a fire.  (Apparently, if the fire wardens do not freak out, then 75% of students will remain calm(er) during a fire!)  I had not told anyone about my position as fire warden until. .
     Last night.  The fire alarm went off in the other dorm building next to where I live.  I heard the alarm (and I am not kidding, I was kind of excited to put my new fire-knowledge to the test, haha!)  People started coming out of their dorms to the hall and I said that I would see what we needed to do.  I did not want to slack on fire warden responsibilities!  Turns out that everything was fine and that a guy in the other dorm had overcooked his noodles.  Go figure!  Then my friends started laughing at me when they found out that I was fire warden, and nearly died out laughing when I showed them the correct way to open the doors.  You touch the door knob with the outside of the hand to see if it is warm- and they laughed even harder when I told them about the official meeting that I had to attend to be "fire warden."  My roomates joked and said that they did not trust me to be the fire warden, haha!
    
     Random bit of interesting knowledge: if someone is unconscious during a fire, put them on a bedsheet and drag them down the hall.  I kind of want to try that right now!
    

Like a Native Australian. . .

     Yesterday when I went on a walk with Sarah through the city of Manly and to the beach, a lady came up to me and asked for directions to the Warf.  Pause.  Do I look like a native Australian???  This made me so excited that she asked for directions, and I got even more excited when I realized that I actually knew where the place was that she was looking for!  (True, it is an easier place to find in Manly, but I felt a sense of accomplishment!)
     Before she asked me for directions, I thought that most Australians could tell that my friends and I were Americans even before we started to talk but now maybe I am fitting in more?!?  Anyway, it made my day! :) 

Running By the Ocean

     Today I went on my first run on a path by the ocean.  It was so beautiful and such a perfect day and I could expound for a very long time on how pretty Manly is but I really want to tell the WHOLE WORLD a very important bit of information that I learned today.
     Thus begins my story.
     During my jog, I was looking around everywhere, looking back and forth from the ocean to the shops and back to the ocean- not really paying much attention to the people around me.  (And I am sure you might guess what happened). . .I almost ran into a man standing in the very middle of the path.  What makes it worse is that the older man was wearing the tightest and smallest speedo that I have ever seen.
So here is my bit of advice: 1. Do not wear a tight speedo and 2. If you do decide to wear a tight speedo, do not stand in the very middle of the running path, haha!!!

Just ask me how the ocean tastes. . .

    I spent the weekend drinking the lovely ocean.  Actually, I was attempting to surf and spent most of the time falling (not so gracefully) into the water.  I fell on my stomach, performing a stomach flop, and also did a variety of back flops and side flops into the ocean.  Here is where the drinking the water part comes in- when I fall, I must make a weird face with my mouth wide open because I got some good mouth-fulls of salt water.  But, I was determined to get the hang of surfing which is why I went on the trip to Crescent Head Beach for the weekend.
     Crescent Head is 6 hours away from ICMS (as I learned later, it is 8.5 hours away if the bus breaks down) and a group of 70 students went to surf for the weekend.  I spent around 6 or 6.5 hours on Saturday in the ocean and about 2.5 hours on Sunday surfing.  At first, I tried a couple of times by myself and then an instructor helped me and I stood up for the first time!  Then I was able to surf a couple waves on my own which was amazing and unlike anything I have done before.
     Some of the tips that the instructors said were to keep your feet flat on the surfboard, keep arms down, and to look straights ahead.  Even though I was thinking about these, when I saw my surfing pictures later I realized that my arms were definitely high in the air!  Whoops.  I guess that I was just trying to balance!
     Surfing
     Under
     Real
     Freaky
     Intense
     Nice
     . . . .. waves!!!  (haha, corny-sorry!)

My first Australian YOGA

     I want to pause all of the adventure posts and everything to talk about a yoga class that I just finished!  It was the first one offered at the college for this semester and I had a. . .umm. . .unique start. 
     First of all, since I like to attend yoga at home on a regular basis, I felt prepared for the class.  The first 40 minutes were spent doing poses like downward dog and such, but the last 20 minutes are spent "cooling down."  Somehow, during the cool down period, I fell asleep.  Yes, FELL ASLEEP!!!  And with that, came loud snoring. . .IN YOGA CLASS!
     I woke up when we were doing the last move and in prayer position.  I tried to play it off like I had been doing all of the poses with the class, but realized that everyone knew that I was snoring after class when they started dying out laughing.  My friends said that they had to just bite their tongues during the last part of class to keep from laughing in the dead silence (I guess it wasn't that silent if I was snoring though, haha!)
     Lesson learned- if you fall asleep in something like yoga, do not start snoring- I repeat- do not start snoring.  It will lead to you being the subject of everyone's jokes for a while!!! :)
    

Heaps of Animals

(I included heaps in the title because every time I heard that word today I laughed because of my blog post yesterday!)

     Last night, the college hired a professional animal handler to show us some cool Australian animals.  Like most "Australian Animal Handlers," this guy was crazy and I was scared for his safety.  Since I do not remember his name, I will call him Mr. Crazy Adventure Man.  The animals that Mr. CAM showed us were amazing and totally deserve a post of their own.  One of the animals that Mr. CAM let me hold (around my neck and put on my shoulders) was a python.   While I thought that it was so cool, I honestly was questioning how he knew that the snake was not about to eat me.  In fact, I probably looked like a pretty good meal- I had a cool Australia flag tattoo on my face (yes, on my face- I am that cooool! ha!)  But I was also very tense which is definitely how you are not supposed to be in that situation.  Being tense causes the snake to also be tense and squeeze harder.  And I am not sure if this is true or not, but I feel like being tense also causes the snake to want to get VERY close to my face. 
     Holding the python was a thrilling experience in itself.  I do not know what I would do if I saw one of these in the "bush."  Also, I had the chance to hold some of the other animals that Mr. Crazy Adventure Man brought to our campus.  I held a large lizard, another small snake, and a crocodile!  Very exciting!
     I saw more animals today on my hike.  Lauren and I went on a 13.4 mile hike through Sydney National Park and saw a million Bearded Dragons.  When we saw the first Bearded Dragon, we took a ton of pictures because we thought that they were rare.  Once we found a lot more on the trail, I realized why hikers who passed were staring at us like we were tourists or something, haha.
     Yesterday as I was walking back from the beach, a car pulled over and people quickly got out of the car.  Wondering what they were going to see, I walked over and saw a hedgehog!  It looked like a porcupine.  The Australians told me that hedgehogs are very rare to see in the city.
     And last- but CERTAINLY not least- I have seen 3 bandicoots.  Yes, bandicoots!  Why have you not heard of them?  Because they are endangered animals.  In fact, the only place in the world that bandicoots are found is on ICMS campus and a very tiny part of Manly.  There are signs for drivers that say "Endangered Bandicoots" when cars enter the ICMS campus.  And here is the thing: bandicoots look like rats with long noses- I am not kidding!
     Some other animals that I have seen recently are: spiders (that are HUGE!), kangaroos, koalas, large bats, *birds that sound like monkeys that like to wake me up in the morning, and several ocean animals!  Australia is the perfect place to be for wildlife!!! 

Brisbane Continued. . .

     Since staying in Brisbane was a surprise to everyone, our group leaders for Australearn had to quickly decide where over 30 students should stay (with all of our luggage too).  So for the first time, I stayed in. . .da da dum. . .a hostel.  And it was really nice and not what I expected!  The hostel had a pool, tv area, reception area, and a game room.  I shared a small room with Lauren and Faith.  Lauren is from California near Lagoona Beach and Faith is from southern Michigan and we all got along well- they both are studying at ICMS this semester too.
     Over the week that I was in Brisbane, I enjoyed taking walks around the city.  I really love the fact that Brisbane has a bike and walking trail beside the Brisbane River, so I did not have to worry about the traffic.  There is also an amazing pedestrian bridge with cool architecture that crosses the Brisbane River towards the city.  I think I took about 76520 pictures of the bridge because it was my favorite!

     Many people walk everywhere in Brisbane.  On Saturday each week, there is a farmers market in Brisbane and a large number of food, jewelry, and clothing tents.  Lauren and I bought a Dragon Fruit to eat (I still have to eat it-maybe tomorrow?)
     It is around 11:00 PM here and I am about to head to bed because I am going to watch the sunrise on the beach tomorrow at 6:00AM.  It should be beautiful! 
     *ohhh, I forgot to mension the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane-I don't know if it was a combination of the gorgeous weather or beautiful scenery, but it just seemed perfect!

Ballin' in Brisbane!

Before I continue blogging about random stories, I wanted to point out some of the differences between the U.S. and Australia that I noticed during the first week:

1. (The most obvious) Australians drive on the opposite side of the road and the drivers side is also reversed.  Note: when crossing the street, look right, left, right instead of how I was always taught of left, right, left.  This is particularly important and I learned it very quickly when a speeding car almost crushed my right foot!

2. The toilets DO spin backwards

3. The bathroom is called "toilet."  Signs point toward the toilet and the front of the bathroom door says toilet!

4. Australia is sunny and extremely hot.  The temperature is measured in Degrees Celsius, so to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, double the Celsius degree and add 30.

5. Waitors and waitresses are paid by the hour and you do not need to tip in Australia.

6. Everything is more expensive in Australia.  It is almost impossible to find a meal for less than $10.  Most meals average around $20 though.

7. Kangaroos are slobbery.  I don't think I need to drag this out but I had a nice bath in kangaroo saliva/drool when I tried to feed them.

8. When walking through Brisbane, the signal to walk across the street sounds exactly like a video game.  It makes a clicking noice and I feel like I am in the Mario game.  Seriously cool!
9 & 10. This is so important that it needs to be two numbers.  "Heaps" is used for everything here.  For example, I love you heaps and heaps!  . . .and there were heaps of corn on her plate.  No, it won't take heaps of time.  Please give me a heap of that!  This blog is heaps and heaps of fun!  I am going to publish the post now before I can say heaps again.  Heaps, heaps, heaps.

The Sunrise!

Australia!!! (Pronounced Aostrayyya here!)

     I am so excited to finally have a chance to blog about the trip!  I did not have Internet access during the first week in Australia, so it is nice now to be able to use the computer (and the Internet in my room is still in and out so I am having to blog from the computer lab!)
     The journey here was long but good.  In total, I spent 22 hours and 20 min alone on travel time-not including the time I spent in the airports for layovers.  When I checked my bags at the airport, the flight attendant printed out all of my tickets and said "You have a long couple of days ahead!"  I laughed and told her that I thought that Australia was definitely worth the long flight.
                                             B'ham to Atlanta (car):  2:30
                                          Atlanta to Dallas (plane):  2:35
                                                Dallas to LA (plane):  3:20
                                            LA to Brisbane (plane):  13:55
                                                                                 22:20
     I met the other study abroad students in LA.  They all seemed so nice and were from all parts of the country!  We laughed for a while about everyone's accents.  Apparently, I have a super southern accent (now, I am trying to avoid saying "yall," instead I try to say what some people say here in Australia which is "yous").  But we could tell who was from different regions of the U.S. just by the different accents.
     The flight from LA to Brisbane was on a 737 plane.  It was the biggest plane I have ever flown on- tv's were on every seat and we were served meals and HOT CHOCOLATE- yuuuummm!  The movies and music keep me entertained and I did sleep some.  Then, we arrived in BRISBANE-yay!  Only one more flight and we would be in Cairns, our final destination.
     . . .or so we thought.  After the flight landed, I heard that there was bad weather in Cairns but I did not realize until later that an estimated level 5 cyclone was headed straight for Cairns!
     But, back to the airport- I was getting all of my bags and heading through customs.  Everything was going smoothly until I was the one person randomly selected from our flight to have the quarantine check.  They checked everything- my purse, backpack, and 2 suitcases.  Then I received a nice sheet of paper that read "You have breached Australian Quarantine Law!"  Whoops.  I had some dirt on the side of my tennis shoes that I forgot about.  Thankfully it was just a warning, but I will definitely think about everything when I fill out the sheet next time for customs!. . .and clean my shoes very well.
     Five minutes later, I learned that the group flight to Cairns was cancelled because of Cyclone Yasi, which was headed straight for Cairns.  So, last minute, the group of 32 students was told that we were going to spend the week in Brisbane instead.
     Even though the news was devastating at first, we tried to make the best of it (and we ended up having an amazing time!)  In fact, a news reporter took pictures of us sitting in the airport and wrote an article about us.  Here is a link to the Internet site: http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/exchange-student-trip-on-hold/story-fn6ck45n-1225998365688.
     The day that we arrived in Brisbane, the group went swimming and to the local mall.  We were told that we should not take a nap so we could adjust to the new time so it was good that we stayed busy.  I will hopefully post more today about the week in Brisbane, but right now I have to head to a Team Building session- more to come "S'avo" (this afternoon!)