All kinds of fun
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2004
1
23
34
Trip End
Dec 18, 2004
UNSW Library,
New South Wales,
Australia
Thursday, August 26, 2004
So I'm trying to really enjoy what's left of my time in Sydney. Last weekend, I went snowboarding with my Japanese friends Marie and Masa. I almost didn't even make it on the trip though because I fell asleep! Luckily, I woke up at 11:55 pm - five minutes before I was meant to meet up with the tour bus in the city! So I frantically ran out of my apartment and hopped into the first taxi I saw. It added another $15 to the already expensive excursion, but at least I made it. The tour was funny because it was run by a Thai travel agency, so I got to hear everything in English AND Thai
1-Ferry to Manly
. I learned that Thai people are super-punctual - after every stop, they were always back on the bus at least 10 minutes before we needed to be. It was actually snowing when we got to Perisher Blue resort in the Snowy Mountains, about 5 hours after we left Sydney. Pretty funny to see snow in Australia! Even though it's billed as Australia's biggest ski resort, the mountains honestly weren't all that impressive. At 2000 metres, they looked more like Pennsylvania than Colorado. And there were mostly T-bars instead of chair lifts. But I had a great time... once I remembered how to snowboard. I heard that this year there's been a record amount of snowfall - it's the best snow in about 30 years! Snowboarding in Australia is quite expensive, but it was totally worth it to be able to say that I've been to Smiggin Holes (which Roy and H.G. decided should host the 2010 Winter Olympics).
Because of my day in the snow, I missed the Opening Ceremony of the Athens Olympics (which was broadcast live at 3:30 AM). In order to watch any of the events here live, you have to be awake ridiculously early in the morning. With a little help from my favorite 5-chair lift op, I actually stayed up until 2:54 AM to watch Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett battle it out in the 400m freestyle swimming final. But unfortunately, I missed seeing my man Gary Hall, Jr
2-Nice view of Manly
. winning gold in the 50m free. Another one of my favorite swimmers also won gold - Ryk Neethling from South Africa! I've been a fan of his ever since I met him at the 1998 Goodwill Games on Long Island (ok, so maybe my friends and I stalked him after the swimming event... but hey, we were 18 year old girls and he's hot!). I now have an Olympic gold medalist's autograph!! My Japanese friends weren't too happy when the Australian baseball team beat Japan. As my Aussie flatmate said, "I didn't even know we had a baseball team!" I've been getting a lot of crap from the teachers I work with about the USA's poor performance, especially the "Dream Team"'s loss to Puerto Rico. (Pathetic!) The Australian media loves to report any American loss, and they really loved it when they were ahead of us in the medal tally for the first few days of the Games. They even came up with a per capita medal count so they could show that Australia has the highest number of medals per person as opposed to America being fourteenth in the rankings (one gold medal per 49 million people!). I also love the fact that the Iraq soccer team beat both the USA and Australia. Go Iraq! I absolutely love the Olympics, but I'm actually looking forward to August 30th because then I can see how the Home and Away cliffhanger will turn out! Before the Olympics began, someone on the show was killed!! But I won't find out who until the Games are over!
3-Ferns!
I also recently started doing a lawn bowling course (similar to bocci ball) with my friend Christina. Yes, we're learning how to play a game primarily enjoyed by elderly people. But you can drink beer while you play! And beer only costs $2.50 at the lawn bowling club!! So far I've learned how to bowl and that the little white ball is called the jack. I still kinda have no idea what I'm doing, but hopefully I'll be a lawn bowling champion by the end of the 6 weeks!
Last Friday, I went out for drinks with David (one of the other teachers I work with) and some of our students, because one of them (Akinori) is leaving Sydney soon to go fruit picking. Apparently, fruit picking is very popular with the Japanese backpackers in Australia. This kid Akinori is one of the funniest and craziest people I've ever met in my life! He made up this dance called the "stalker dance" that we took to the dance floor even though no one else was dancing. And there was also this kid from Colombia named Juan who I enjoyed talking to. We had a real conversation, instead of the usual ESL student-native speaker conversation, about how all Americans aren't close-minded idiots and all Colombians aren't drug lords. I had a great time that night.
Well, enough procrastinating
Perisher Blue Ski Resort
. I have an assignment to finish - my first assignment of the semester! And it's due on Friday! My classes this semester are significantly more difficult and more frustrating than last semester. In particular, I have issues with my Language for Specific Purposes professor because I can never figure out what the point of that class is. She makes us have group discussions about the reading for about an hour and forty-five minutes and then rambles on about nothing for the last fifteen minutes. I get nothing out of that class! Apparently I'm not the only one who's feeling frustrated. On Monday night, hot Anthony came up to me after class and we talked about how pointless one of the exercises she made us do was. But anyway, I have work to do, so more later... 
