Aussie Life

Sometimes it can be really hard to remember that I'm in Australia, because Monday-Friday feels just like life at home. I get up much earlier than I'd like to in the morning, go to class or work until at least 5, and then come home and hang out with my roommates before I go to sleep. This basically sums up the last 4 days of my life!

I had my first presentation for class today [during our second class meeting...rough], but it went super well and now I have nothing due in that class for 4 more weeks. Initially I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with homework, but it doesn't look like that's going to be the case, for the first time in forever. On Thursday nights, Sam, Julie and I all have our Learning Through Internships class. Sam and I have it earlier in the evening, so Bekah waits for us and we all come home together. Once we get home, we've already developed a Thursday night tradition of watching Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition while we chow down on dinner [ironic, yes?] Tonight, we were actually inspired, and all went for a run after the show ended...hopefully something we'll continue to do!

I also got to hear from some of my very favorite people this week. I had wonderful Skype sessions with Abe, Shelby and the fam - I'm so glad that I can still see everyone from around the world! And when I got home today, after my longest day of the week, I had a letter from my grandparents waiting for me! [Thank you Grandma and Grandpa, I loved it and you made my day!]

This will be the last post for a few days, as we head to Port Stephens for the weekend tomorrow. Expect a full post with lots of pictures sometime after we return - I'm so excited!

Oh, and because she asked for it, shout out to this lovely lady on the right:

Paxton Marissa - My favorite smelly sister. Love and miss you from across the world <3

Happy Australia Day!

So, after a long first week of classes and internship, you’d think we’d maybe want to go out on a Friday night and celebrate. Instead, our Friday night looked a lot like this:

Happy Holidays from room 804!

We decided to stay in and build a mattress fort in our living room before proceeding to fall asleep watching “She’s the Man”. We’re pretty wild and crazy, we know.

Saturday was Australia Day, which meant we were spending all day at Bondi Beach. This is not what actual Australians do to celebrate the day – they usually have barbeques with friends or spend the day at a local beach (not the most tourist-y beach in the whole country). But, since we aren’t actual Australians, we decided that Bondi was the way to go. We spent about 5 hours on the beach and in the ocean, just hanging out. It was a gorgeous day and the beach was absolutely packed. As much as I love the Minnesota lakes, they can’t compete with the ocean – the sand, the clear water, and the waves.

Everyone!

In our Australia gear!

5 hours on the beach was incredible, but felt slightly less incredible when I got home and realized how sunburned I was. It didn’t matter that I had put on sunscreen at least 5 times; I was still pretty burnt, as were several other people.

Later in the day, we headed home to shower and get ready for the night. Australia Day is kind of like our 4^th of July, so of course there were fireworks involved. We went down to Darling Harbour and watched the best display of fireworks I’ve ever seen. Apparently in Australia, fireworks are set to music and accompanied by a light show! There were 6 of us that went together, and I think we all spent the whole time smiling nonstop. It was a very cool experience, and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go and see them.

The Australia skyline from Darling Harbour

We finished off the night by heading down to George St, where we went to the Three Monkeys pub. They have a live band that plays all kinds of American hits, so of course we are singing louder than anyone else there and probably driving all the Aussies crazy!

Sunday was our first rainy day in Sydney and as a result, we did basically nothing all day. This was kind of okay with me, as I was really struggling with my sunburn and probably would not have left the apartment if it was a sunny day either. I still have plenty of homework here, so I spent the day doing that and watching Sex and the City with the roommates. We finished off our Sunday by going over to our friend Tim’s with a group of people and watched Mrs. Doubtfire and She’s the Man. (Even though we just watched She’s the Man on Friday, we figured the similar theme between the movies was too good to pass up).

Since Saturday was a public holiday, we have today (Monday) off as well – no work or school for us! Unfortunately, it’s raining again today, so we are trying to figure out what to do. Sydney is already putting a big dent in our bank accounts, so our goal is to find something to do that requires zero money. It’s a bit of a challenge, but hopefully we’ll find something.

Back to work and school again tomorrow!

What I've Learned

I survived my first week of internship and classes! In honor of that, I have the following list:

Things I've learned in Australia:

1.       Living in a bad part of town in Australia is very different than living in a bad part of town in America. According to Aussie natives, we live in “the ghetto” of Sydney, but we all feel safe here and everything is incredibly nice. Walking around at night here feels safer than walking at night around the U of M campus.

2.       The phrase “A dingo ate my baby” actually came from an Australian murder case. A woman was camping with her husband and child, and they left the baby alone for a couple minutes and when they came back, he was gone. The mother was initially charged with murder, and the above line was made famous because everyone thought it was impossible.

3.       Two things learned in my internship class: 1) The success of an interview is based only 7% on what you say – the rest is body language, mannerisms, and attitude 2) Apparently Aussie resumes are very different…I learned about what goes on page 2 and 3 of a resume yesterday [I probably won’t be following that advice].

4.       Gas prices here work out to about $5 a gallon, and from what I’ve heard, Australians believe that American gas prices are super cheap and that they need to be raised so we become less dependent on oil.

5.       It’s very, very hard to find Mexican food in Sydney, but it can be done, and finding it is delicious and rewarding. [California Burrito – yum, yum, yum]

6.       When people said it was possible to get sunburnt in 20 minutes, they weren’t kidding. I sat outside for literally twenty minutes all day today and I definitely burned. (Yes mom, for the most part I wear sunscreen!)

7.       Getting lost is not the end of the world. It has happened to me more than enough times here, and every single time I have eventually ended up where I needed to be. There will always be someone to point you in the right direction and things will be okay.

8.       It does not take very long to become comfortable in a new place. A week and a half in and I can find my way around my part of Sydney, and I feel like I’ve been here for forever.

9.       …However, I’m so far from being an expert. I’m always so excited when people ask me for directions, only to realize that 75% of the time I have no idea where they need to be. I have so much left to learn about this place!

10.   If you have roommates who build mattress and blanket forts, eat tons of food, and watch chick flicks with you – you are set for life.

The most life-changing list? No.

But I still have a long way to go, and I can’t wait for every second.

Being Grown-Up

First day of the internship was today! I don't have much to report yet, I mostly spent the day learning about the history of the company and the event I will be working on, the Lexus Cup. 

It's actually a very cool event - it allows all the golfers in the country to compete in this giant tournament. All they have to do is sign up and go about their golf lives as normal, with their 6 best scores over 3 months making up their total score for the Lexus Cup. The top 8 get a chance to play at the nicest course in Australia, and they give away a ton of prizes over the course of the event, including an $80,000 Lexus! I'm excited to prove myself there and get more responsibilities, it's incredibly weird not being in charge of things and making decisions, and I definitely miss it. I was very spoiled with my MN Daily experience!

I probably won't post again until this weekend - class and interning these next couple days, there will probably be nothing to report!

Can't wait for Australia Day this Saturday [basically the Australian 4th of July]!

Cheers!

First Day of Class!

Reality hit today, when I woke up at 6:30 for this morning for my 3.5 hour class. Granted, each of my classes is only once a week, but I definitely do not have the attention span for this. I also have class Friday afternoons until 4:30, and have to intern 20 hours a week. So even though I'm going to be having a lot of fun, there's plenty of real life thrown in there.

After class, my roommate Julie and I went to lunch with a few other people in the CAPA program. Then we checked out a few shops and wandered around near Central Station. Our success story of the day was hopping on the completely wrong bus and ending up exactly where we needed to be. [Must have been karma going our way this time, we ended up lost a mile and a half from home a couple days ago].

Today was another fairly lazy day for us - we do our exploring early in the afternoon and then hang out. [Positive: we discovered it's currently Shark Week in Australia!]

Also, my address here is:

Bailey Alto
Meriton Apartments, Apt 804
30 Danks St
Waterloo NSW 2017
AUSTRALIA

Send me a letter/postcard and I'll return the favor (as soon as I figure out where the post office is)!

Cheers!

Bailey

AU v. USA

Truthfully, I don't have much to report for today. I went in for my internship interview this morning and the person who was supposed to interview me was sick this morning, so I had a pretty quick chat with his boss and we decided that I would start on Wednesday. One of the more laid-back interviews of my life - we mostly talked about all the fun things I had to do while I was in Australia.

So, because I have nothing to say, I have my AU v. USA comparison:

THINGS THAT ARE BETTER IN AUSTRALIA:
1. Tim Tams and chicken schnitzel
2. Beaches
3. ...the drinking age....
4. Summer weather
5. My living accommodations
6. The accents
7. The view on my way to work - The Opera House, Sydney Harbor, etc. 
8. Watching my roommates trying to learn the Thriller dance
9. Australia Day!

THINGS THAT I MISS FROM MINNESOTA:
1. Affordable prices - food and clothes [I will never get used to $25 meals or shirts that are on sale for $70.]
2. Cheetos, Dairy Queen, and all my other favorite restaurants
3. Walking on the right side of the sidewalk [Everyone here walks on the left...and it makes me feel bad for all the times I've been angry at people walking on "the wrong side". Turns out we're the weird ones.]
4. The 16 bus
5. Watching "Pitch Perfect" like every other day
6. Dressing in athletic shorts and a t-shirt and still feeling like a normal person [everyone is crazy fancy here!]
7. My smart phone
8. All the fam and friends :)

I'm sure there are more things - but that's all I've got off the top of my head!

Bailey

The Blue Mountains

Yesterday was definitely one of the best days of the trip so far.

Our entire program took a full day excursion into the Blue Mountains, and it was a blast. We started off by going to the Olympic park in Sydney. Unfortunately, we didn't really get to see anything other than the main stadium before we had to get back on the bus. I can’t imagine how cool it would have been to be here during the Olympics though!

The Olympic Stadium

Where they tracked the medal count

After that, we went to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which was heaven. Kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and all kinds of other animals – and I got to pet them all! I spent the best dollar of my life getting a cone full of food and spent the next 45 minutes wandering around feeding and petting kangaroos and wallabies. It definitely made me regret my pizza eating choice the day before!

New best friend!

Emus are absolutely terrifying.

We stopped after that to get lunch, which would have been uneventful, except for the fact that I ate this:

Chicken Schnitzel burgers. So much deliciousness.

Next, it was off to Echo Point – a huge lookout cliff in the mountains. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy, so the views weren’t as great as they would have been on a sunny day. It was still a gorgeous view though.

The Three Sisters Peaks.

So high up - what a view!

The roommates <3

Our day ended with a hike through the Australian rainforest in the Blue Mountains. We went down way down the side of a mountain – lots of steep stairs and paths, and it was a crazy work out. Pictures definitely capture the hike better than words:

Finally, when we reached the bottom of the mountain, we took a cable car back up to the top. It was slightly terrifying to get into a giant car dangling from a single cable and hanging thousands of feet above the rain forest floor! But all was well, and we reached the top perfectly safely.

See that car hanging way up there...? That was our ride back up the mountain.

A blurry postcard rendering of our adventure

Last night, we went out and explored some Sydney nightlife. It was a great time, and I love getting to be part of all the fun that I have to miss out on at home!

Today is a lazy day for the roommates and I – just heading out to find our internship locations and explore a little bit. Need to enjoy our last free day before our school and working lives start!

Cheers, everyone!

Bailey

Things Are Heatin' Up

Two-for-one post today! But first, I'll be catching you up on my Sydney life through pictures (For those of you who are my Facebook friends, I apologize for the repeat).

 The roommates: Sam, Julie and Rebekah in front of our favorite city landmarks! So lucky my roommates are so normal and lovely.

My apartment at the Meriton is probably the nicest place I will live for the next ten years of my life, the pictures do not do it justice:

1.17.2013

The morning began with me being incredibly confused. I was very ready to wake up in my bed in Blaine, MN, and not so ready to wake up in my bed in Sydney. It took me far too long to figure out where I was and how I got there!

We headed over to North Sydney in morning, where our school and my internship are located. We took a bus to the train station and then took the train to school. It took around an hour for us to get there, so it is safe to say that I will never complain about the Minneapolis commute again! We also do a lot, lot, lot of walking, so I need to break in my shoes in the very near future.

We spent 2 hours in an orientation, with the highlight being that I got a cell phone! A cell phone straight out of the year 2000, so different than what I’m used to. We get free texting and calling between other students in our program, which will be super nice, but it should be a nice break from being permanently attached to my phone back home.

Also, side note, favorite sign in Sydney so far. I feel oh-so-cool here:

After orientation, we took a little adventure into downtown Sydney. It was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen so far – you can check it out below:

The greatest sign ever on George St.

Downtown George St.

Downtown Sydney

Back alley cafes

 A back road full of bird cages..so cool!

 1.18.13

The high today was supposed to be 99 degrees, but we hit a record-high of 114 degrees today! This is excluding the crazy humidity here - Sydney puts Minnesota summers to shame. I'm going to hate going to work in my nice dress clothes and sweating through them before I even get to the office [Too much information? Sorry!]. Like I said, things are heatin' up here!

We had our internship orientation this morning, and I have an interview at 10 a.m. on Monday morning! I'm really excited to start at Golf Link, so hopefully it goes well.

The crew

We also had a presentation about trips we could take while we're here. My roommates, myself, and a bunch of others are planning to go on a trip to Port Stephens where we will be doing things like dolphin watching, dune surfing, camel riding, wine tasting, and so many more cool things. More details to come, but it's the weekend of February 1st..so soon!

For lunch, the leaders of our program took us to The Australia Hotel for pizzas on the house [Fam: highly recommended when you come]. The place was really cool, and everything was original from when it was built:

Portraits on the walls

The best "chips" I have ever tasted. And that's saying a lot.

So Aussie.

Inside of the restaurant

Also....

Eating crocodile pizza...

...and kangaroo!

After that, we decided to embrace/beat the heat by taking a ferry over to Manly Beach. 

Got a solid start on my tan today! This place is gorgeous, and I am not sure what I did to deserve this life for 3 months. Tomorrow morning we're going to the Olympic Park and the Blue Mountains, so expect pictures with kangaroos and koalas! 

Until next time: Cheers, everyone (look how Australian I am)!