Blog Entry #2: Saturday January 4th- Thursday January 9th
4th: I got off my flight found some people I knew who landed at similar times and took an Uber with one friend to the hotel. The rooms were not ready, but we still checked in and then went out for lunch. It was really hot, humid and smoky that day and I had a terrible headache. We managed to walk to place for lunch, but it was too busy, and we ended up going to Subway and then a Starbucks-like coffee shop called Gloria Jean’s for food and coffee. There we met up with people my friend knew, and I recognized from campus. Later that afternoon, at heat of day, we had city walking tour with a recent grad from the school where our class is at, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and she was awesome. I was so tired, jet lagged, hungry and just really wanted to lay down and relax and unpack, but the tour was so cool and beautiful and interesting! It was great to learn about the history of how Sydney came to be. I took a ton of pictures because I recently got new phone with more storage and a better-quality camera. Our tour ended by Sydney Harbor, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. It was an amazing and iconic view, but then we had to find our way back to the hotel on the light rail and almost immediately had to get ready for the group dinner. I was so tired at this point I could barely keep my eyes open and dinner was around 8pm which felt like 2am for me. This was such a busy, go go go day that really drained me, and I went to sleep super early.
5th: I woke up pretty early today before my alarm and went to breakfast at the hotel down the street where we had free continental breakfast vouchers for every day. We had a little orientation in our classroom and a mini tour of the building at UTS and then our first class from 2-5pm where I immediate fell in love with the content of the class and got excited for the next two weeks of learning. The class didn’t go nearly as long as planned and we had the afternoon and evening to ourselves. We went to a three-story restaurant and bar on Coogee Beach where we all met at the top level and hung out as a large group (almost the whole class)! I was taking in and observing the landscape and the beach views but also the people, how they acted and dressed and was constantly comparing and contrasting the US and Australian young adult culture. I came to the conclusion that we are actually very similar in behavior and clothing style, but it was interesting to notice the micro differences between American and Australian culture. Afterwards, we went on the actual beach and I found some small shells for my grandma and took a video of me putting my feet in the water to show I went to a new beach! My grandma loves the beach and wanted me to bring her back something.
6th: This day was crazy busy and crazy go go go at all moments, which was very out of the ordinary for me because I am a more laid-back person and like to have time to relax. Especially since I was jet lagged, had a major headache since I got off the plane and that my personality isn’t as extroverted as some of the other students, but I still went along! We had class at 2pm but managed to take the light rail, then a ferry and then a bus to the Taronga Zoo across Sydney Cove. On the ferry we saw amazing and new views of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House with the city skyline in the background. I took a ton of videos and pictures. The zoo was awesome! I love animals and saw so many new Australian animals up close with no fence in between. Some of the animal I saw were emus, kangaroos (obviously), koloas, wallaby’s, giraffes, capybaras, meerkats, and lots of birds and reptiles. It was a great zoo with some great animal exhibits, but we were running out of time and had to make it back to UTS to get to class! We ran to get the bus to the ferry stop, got on the ferry and I was freaking out the whole time. We were really pushing it and barely made it back to the hotel in time to grab our backpacks and get to class (which was the building right across the street). After class, some of us hung out in one of the hotel rooms and played card games, laughed, danced and had a great time, but I definitely got to bed early and wanted to have the next day to relax and unpack, which I have not even had a chance to do yet.
7th: Today was another crazy day where we barely made it back to class again! I wanted to relax and sleep in, but the group had other ideas and I didn’t want to be left out, so I tagged along. Today we went to Manly Beach which was a ferry ride away. Then we had class and a guest speaker who worked for a company called Weave where she was a social worker specializing in criminal justice for aboriginal people! I want to be a social worker so I’m so happy I got to meet her and learn about her work. Additionally, my professor gave me her contact information and maybe I’ll try to find a time to meet with her on a free day and chat about social work.
8th-9th: These two days were more relaxing, but I still haven’t gotten unpacked! On the 8th, my friend and roommate here and back in San Diego had a calm day where we got up early and finished studying for our first exam! Yes, we already had an exam and we’ve only been in Sydney for 4 days. After the exam between 2-5pm, we did some shopping and got dinner by ourselves. The 9th was also less eventful because we had a program planned activity where we got a tour of the Sydney Opera House in the morning, went to class from 2-5pm again and then went to an opera at the opera house called La Boheme. The opera was all in Italian and absolutely amazing to witness! We were seated in the second row and could see it all! We even got the tickets extremely cheap because of a student discount and I would say is a definite must-see, once in a lifetime activity.
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