Best Western Hotel Unilodge Sydney

On Thursday the 17th I left Boston thinking I would be in Sydney in about 20 hours. Little did I know what lie ahead. After arriving at LAX, I noticed that my flight to Sydney wasn't on the departure board. I soon realized that my 10:30 PM departure had been delayed until 10:30 AM the following morning due to a workers' strike in Sydney. After collecting various food and accommodation vouchers, I headed to a hotel about 20 minutes from the airport. On the way there, I met a family from Perth ...

G'day Mates! It is hard to believe that the weekend has come and gone already! Last week I was extremely busy at work, helping the staff get ready for Australia Day and all the events that went into the day. I did a lot of work with Sarah, the project officer that coordinated the Australia Day Lunch, which is a corporate lunch for Sydney and NSW businesses, and is held the day before. I helped her put together accreditation packages, budgets and make phone calls to the events team. Wednesday ...

You know it's a good vacation when you're too tired to write a proper entry. Sydney, in brief: -Arrived awesomely, with no issues on ANZ. Flight wasn't as nice as SYD-AKL -- can't beat those 777s, I spose. - NZ apples confiscated at SYD agri inspection. Travis thrown in jail for arguing. (just kidding!) - Went scuba diving in Sydney Harbor (Chowder Bay). Saw seahorses, cottlefish (like squids), sponges, porcupine fish, etc. etc. Very nice divemaster named Jude at Plunge Diving. - Took the Bon...

I finally made it to Australia!! Believe it or not, the plane ride was not bad at all. I actually thought the 4 hour flight to San Francisco was worse than the 14 hour one to Australia. On our flight to Australia we got fed a hot meal right away. It was kind of weird eating at that time because it was about 1:30am Chicago time! After the meal I decided to watch a movie and found out that my tv screen on the plane didn't work. Luckily the flight attendant moved me to a new window seat with no ...

Today my parents made the trip safely to Australia! They arrived at around 8am in the morning! I wish I could have been there to meet them at the hotel, but I had to work today. It was so ***********centrate on anything (I was so antsy!) because all I could think about was getting to see them at 4pm. They are staying at the UniLodge (the same place I stay at) while they are in Sydney. They are actually just three floors above me. It will be really nice having them at the same hotel because I ...

Well we all made it into work this morning! I'm actually not that tired, but I'm sure it will hit me later on. Britt and I went and walked around the Botanical Gardens today after work. They are so beautiful. I never realized how huge it was. You could walk for hours around in there. By the time we were done we had walked so far we really had no clue where we were. After walking down the road for what seemed like forever, we finally just took a cab back to the UniLodge. Tonight Missy made us ...

From the airport crammed into a shuttle that took us to the UniLodge. The drive took us about 15 min and the city looked really clean, a lot of nice cars, generally... gorgeous. We waited for our rooms for a little while and Mellgren and I found ourselves in a lovely room with two big windows (sadly facing other UniLodge windows). We ventured across the street to the Broadway mall. Walked into a department store/grocery store (Cole's) and found oursleves most definetly out of place with brigh...

I have to be to work by 8:45 so I have to leave here by 8:15 to catch the bus downstairs. I get off at the Central Railway station, walk through a tunnel and then down Devonshire. I know that is quite detailed but just in case I want to look back and remember how I got to work. Today at work was my dreaded first day of working out. Mellgren reminded me that it would be great to have a free personal trainer for 8 weeks. So I had to think that way and it really made it a lot better. It was actu...

Today was just a regular day at work. Bridgette wasn't in so there really wasn't much to do. I did some filing, I did some harvesting and that's about it. I really wish I was swamped with things to do at work, because it makes it really hard to be at work when you hardly do anything all day. I am always daydreaming about what I could be doing, or what sites I could be seeing. Basically all of the other interns are in the same situation. Half of the kids just sit there all day and their superv...

Today is Australia Day which is a national holiday.  Australia Day is very similar to our 4th of July and all the Australians are celebrating their independence today.  So basically all day is a huge party filled with barbie's and drinking.  The Caywoods, Jess and I got up early and left the Uni Lodge around 10:30am.  We headed to Hyde Park which was filled with tents selling meat pies (something Australia's known for), corn on the cob, and all other types of food.  The tents and the atmosphe...