Another Great Week in Sydney

  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sunday, February 1, 2009

It's been about a week since my last entry, but nothing too knew has really happened since then.  School is picking up just a bit, as I've been given my first homework assignment (yes, I've been working extremely hard in my month here), but I still have very little to do in that area, other than show up every Tuesday and Wednesday.  I've fallen into a bit of a pattern on my days off here- I like to walk the city and go see different neighborhoods, I go for runs through Centennial Park and along the Harbour (running to the Opera House and back is about 4 miles) and going down to the beach.

Cool tree

 

After going out with Ryan, Lenny and Dale on Wednesday (at the bar I was thrown out of last week), I didn't do a whole lot on Thursday other than watch tennis.  I have been watching a lot of the Australian Open since it is the biggest sporting event of the year in Australia and is always on in prime time.  Roddick played Federer Thursday, so I watched that, and am watching Federer vs. Nadal in the final as I type this.  Friday afternoon I got up, went for a run, and then met Leslie Gerdes's friend Kim for lunch, and then we went to the beach for a while. The weather this week ha been spectacular- pretty much 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky every single day.

Pelican

Friday night, I went to dinner with Ryan (my roommate), two girls from LBS name Becca and Sandra, and two guys from LBS name Ryan and Will, along with their significant others.  We had a nice dinner along the harbor and then went to a very chic place called The Ivy in downtown Sydney, where it is worth noting that I saw yet another fight in a Sydney bar/club.  It's very much the see and be seen place in Sydney and is priced accordingly, as I realized the next morning when I inspected my wallet.  

Wooloomooloo

Saturday afternoon I went for a nice long walk around the Rocks, which is the oldest neighborhood in Sydney and sits right along the Harbour and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  I went and checked out the narrow streets, pubs and shops that characterize the neighborhood for a few hours, as well as where the Sydney Bridge Climb is located, which Courtney, Andy and I are planning to do when they come to town in two weeks.  You get to actually climb on top of the suspension area of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is probably 500 feet high if I had to take a guess. 

Saturday night was what I would consider one of my favorite nights thus far in Sydney.  I've had trouble getting my roommate Ryan to hit more of what I would consider the bar scene (which is much more of what I would consider "my" scene) because he is more of a fan of the club scene.  So, we haven't gone to a lot of the bars in the Surry Hills/Darlinghurst/Paddingotn areas near where we live because we are seemingly going downtown or to King's Cross a lot. I prefer the bar scene in these neighborhoods because it is a lot more locals and reminds me more of going out in the neighborhoods in Chicago, rather than the tourist and suburbanite enclaves that encompass downtown and the Cross (or Rush/Division and Weed Street in Chicago).  Anyways, an Aussie girl in the full-time program at AGSM invited us to her birthday party so we decided to go, thinking there would be a lot of people there from school that we would know.  Well, we arrived and knew no one other than Michelle, whose 30th birthday it was. So, we were forced to make some friends, which is exactly what we did.  We met a really cool group of Australian girls (really the first Australians that we've hung out with very much) and talked to them most of the night.  We then went with one of them to another bar (which we thought was a gay bar, but turned out to not be, which is great since is happens to be across the street from my apartment) called Kinsela's (also notable since I once carried the nickname Kinsela, which is a long story).  We met some more locals who were friends of the Australian girl there, which was great, and we hung out with them all night and will definitely try to hang out with them in the future. 

Tomorrow at 10:30 in the morning is the Super Bowl, and after much debate, we decided to organize a super bowl game watch at the Coogee Beach Hotel,which is a massive complex right on the beach with a great outdoor patio and a massive sports bar.  Hopefully some of our friends from school will make it down there to meet up with us, although I think Lenny and Dale have just decided to watch at home  In terms of this week, on Friday I am leaving to go to Melbourne on Friday, which will be my first travel in Australia outside of Sydney, so I'm pretty excited about that. Some of my friends that have been to Australia before have told me that they actually prefer Melbourne to Sydney, and everyone tells me that it is much more like a European city than Sydney is, so I'm curious to see it.  Alright, until next time....