Food is so yummy in my tummy!

This past weekend, a group of four of us (Nikolai my roommate, Nicole, and Rolf and myself) traveled to Adelaide which is the capital city of South Australia. It is also technically the food capital of Australia yum! Our travels to the airport however were ridiculous. We missed our train by just a minute and figured out that the next train was in an hour and a half. But we scanned down and figured out the stop next to us had a train going out in 10 minutes. So I stupidly said that we should buy our tickets because I read the sign wrong and figured we were picking the train up from the station we were already at. Once we had all bought our $20 dollar tickets, we read the sign again and figured out I was an idiot and we needed to get to the next station by walk/car in five minutes. We sprinted and caught a taxi which got us there ten minutes past the train. We then discovered that the next train would put us at the airport with 15 minutes to catch our plane - not so good. So we called a taxi because the one who brought us from the first to the next said he would drive us straight there for $25 each. We had already bought our train tickets so we thought that was ridiculous but now that was our only option. We called his company back and got a taxi. We asked the driver how much is was to the airport and it turned out that it's a flat rate of $180 because they can't work in Sydney so it would pay for their drive there and back. We were quite reluctant but it was our only option. But we got to the airport fine and started our adventure! We caught a bus from the airport and took it into the city. We ended up not knowing where to get off and took a little side trip into the suburban area of Adelaide before Rolf asked someone. Once we got turned around and found the right stop, it was a short walk to the hostel. We stayed at Cannon St. Backpackers which was almost like a college dorm. It had ping pong, a lively crowd, a bar and free apple pie at 8pm. We were able to book a four person room for $2 more a night so that worked out perfect. We grabbed some essentials and then were off to tour around and find dinner!

This was us on the bus from the Airport to the City - finally arrived!! Our trek to dinner was hilarious as Nicole and I were oogling over cute little cafes and restaurants with clean linen table clothes and little T-lights. The boys were totally fine going to McDonald's - ridiculous! So I told them that if we couldn't find anything, Nicole and I would go on a cute date of our own and leave the boys to their four dollar meal. We ended up finding this cool place call Woodshed that was rustic and most of all had kangaroo on the menu. Then the owner of the place next door convinced the boys that they served the best pasta in Adelaide - they were hooked and Nicole and I were left to eat at Pasta Palace - honestly, Pasta Palace!? haha but the gnocchi was actually pretty good and we got a decent sized house wine. But it was hard convincing Nikolai that Pasta Palace might not be your ideal spot to take a girl on a first date - although I will say the plaques on the wall were pretty spiffy! We went to bed on the early side because we had to be up at the crack of dawn for our Central Market tour with Adelaide food and wine tours. The Central Market was this big place with vendors and fresh produce, meat, bread, and cheeses. This is one of the pictures detailing the inside:

We met Helen our tour guide at 7:15am to have a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, warm croissants and fresh coffee (because I hate coffee I got a hot chocolate - it was amazing!). We then toured around and got to meet all different vendors and get samples of their food at most of the places. Helen was quite a chatter so she kept us super late. Rolf got a new camera lense so he was camera boy for the morning. Helen repeatedly asked him to send them to their company so they could add them to the website - so fun! I also had the best yogurt I have ever had at one of the vendors. It was 98% fat free and made with no sugar but instead sweetened with honey. We had the mixed berry kind and it was absolutley fabulous. It tasted like cheesecake but fresh and glorious and out of this world. This is us with Helen:
Afterwards, Helen realized she was really late for her second tour and she hadn't moved her car yet. She asked if any of us could move her car around the corner and up to the parking at the central market. I volunteered (I don't know what I was thinking because they drive on the other side of the road) so she gave me instructions we were off to hi-jack a car! We found it fine:
...But me being the idiot that I am started opening up the passenger side of the car because I was all excited to get in and drive I forgot it's reversed. Everyone else knew so they made me pose and take a picture and then decided to tell me I was stupid and needed to get on the other side. Oh goodness, I prayed I woulnd't do the same while driving. We parked the car however fine and now I can check off my list "drove an Australian car"! I still don't know what Helen was thinking but I'm totally okay with her trusting us and fulfilling one of my goals. We then walked around the city until our 1pm tour at Haigh's Chocolate Factory. The chocolate was so good and everything is hand made and the factory looks just like willy wonka's - so cool to watch. This is us in front of the sign:
We then decided to do some shopping. Nikolai and I tried on some sweet Akubra hots. I'm still a little upset I didn't buy this one - it was beautiful. I also would look ridiculous any other time then at like a rodeo or hunting crocodiles but hey, that happens on a frequent basis...
We then decided for dinner we would go back to the central market and get all the fixings for a picnic on Victoria Square which is this beautiful grass plaza in the city. We bought bread and then I got feta, sun dried tomatoes, hard salami, kalmata olives, brie, avocado, grapes and a big bucket of mixed berry yogurt! It was unbelievable. Everything was so fresh and delicious. I would break my bread into chunks and have different combinations of everything. One of my favorites was brie, sundried tomatoes, avocado and a little feta. Uh, my mouth is watering just thinking how glorious that event was. This was our lay out:
Our next adventure started the next day at 6:15 am when we were picked up from our hostel to tour Kangaroo Island. It took 2 hours to get to the ferry and then a 40 minute ferry over. Our first stop was Pennington Bay which was absolutley breath-taking. The water was so clear and turquoise with perfect surf. We only had time to walk around a bit but the sand was so fine and soft and the rocks were awesome as well. Nicole and Nikolai made it all the way up the top:

This was the view of Pennington Bay:

We then went to the farm where we were staying, grabbed some lunch and went on to the next stop - a bird show. Nicole got to get up and hold some Kookaburras on her arm:

We then bee-bopped over to see some fur seals. You can't see the seals in the background but this is us in the caves with seals in the background haha:

We then went to the Remarkable Rocks which I don't actually know why they are remarkable but they were pretty fun to jump around. We didn't know what to do with just looking at rocks for 45 minutes so we started taking random photos. We have one with self-timer and ones looking like someone is getting pushed off the rocks. Jumping pictures as well peekaboo shots were taken - it was fun to play photographer. This is one of our more creative ones - can you find all four of us?:
We then went to the beach for the rest of the day and snorkeled a little bit. At night we trekked out to go see the little penguins come back from fishing all day. Because they have very sensitive eyes, we weren't allowed to take pictures but we did get to see several of them which were super cute. The stars were actually one of the most amazing sites - you could see the milky way and everything. The next day we went to see the Sea Lions down at a Conservatory where only guided tours can go and see the seals. We got to be about ten feet from them and watch them interact in the wild - this one kept on following us - looks just like a little puppy!:

We then were off to sand board - this is Rolf on the way to the dunes. It was one of my more creative photos I took so I wanted to add it to the blog:

The Dunes:

So you get this sled like sandboard and go right down these huge dunes. I bit it hard my first go and have it on video. Five dollars to see it...just kidding...but really it was bad. The good part is, it doesn't hurt, you just get sand everywhere. All of us did a couple runs but lagging up and down the dune was quite a difficult and by the time you get to the top you're exhausted. This was all of us on the top:
We then packed up and went to the beach for a couple hours. The boogie boarding was great and the sun was beautiful. We had gorgeous weather and it was absolutley fabulous. I was glad to get back and get some rest but traveling I've decided is awesome.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to give you an update on things! School is going well - I'm in the middle of my five hour break at Uni and I have just gotten done three assignments in the library so this was my break for being so deligent! I guess I haven't really shared my class schedule so this is what I do on a weekly basis:

Monday: 8:30-9:30 Aboriginal Studies Lecture (super boring and basically pointless, I still go to it though so I can do homework in the library after)
12:30-1:30 - Scripture and Prayer (this is at the Catholic Society chaplaincy. It's a great way for me to take a break out of my day and we pick one scripture from the Bible and go into it a little ending in prayer

Tuesday: 8:30-9:30 Learner's With Exceptional Needs Tutorial (Just like a recitation at home except this one is broken up into all P.E. students which is awesome because then we can do things that are specifically applicable to P.E.)
2:30-3:30: PASS class for Australian Studies (this is basically like extra help but I think you secretly get extra credit for going to this. It's with students who have taken the class before and statistically those that attend this get 15 points higher a semester - banging!)
3:30-5:30 Australian Studies Lecture
5:30-6:30 Australian Studies Tutorial (This ends my streak of Australian studies ridiculousness. I would probably space out in this tutorial but my tutor is the lecturer so it's a little more intense but she is actually really nice and super interesting so I'm okay with it)

Wednesday: 10:30-11:30 Net/Court Games (this is one part to my Skill Analysis class but it's awesome because he goes over how you modify the class while still challenging students. Very hands on in-depth P.E. class)
12:30-1:30 Daily Mass with Catholic Society
1:30-2:30 Target Games (Part two of skill analysis, another awesome class of application with education)
3:30-5:30 Aboriginal Studies Tutorial (this class is "Death Class". It's two hours with a ridiculous tutorial woman who nervously laughs all the time and doesn't really answer questions. We also have a 68 year old man named "Marve" in class who has hearing aids so he talks in an outdoor voice and always interrupts the tutor. We also have a girl that asks questions at the very end of class keeping us after for a good five minutes when we didn't think 2 hours could ever go slower. I cringe thinking about this class)

Thursday: 1:30-3:30 Learner's with Exceptional Needs Lecture (this would be bad because it's my only class on thursday but the professor is super awesome and I really enjoy the lecture)

Friday: 1:30-3:30 Aquatics - I haven't had this one yet but I'm excited to see except our big assignment in this class seems impossible so that will be interesting to do haha

I also was quite a risk taker this week and myself and three others just decided to book flights to the Adelaide which is the food capital of Australia - we leave thursday haha. I still can't believe I'm going so soon - man that's in two days! But I'm quite excited because we are doing a two day tour on Kangaroo Island so that should be outstanding! We are also doing a Haigh's Chocolate factory tour and a tour of central market with food and wine tours of adelaide so I'm excited to eat...yessss! I just now have to play catch up so I can get work done prior to leaving because I know I won't do it there and I dont' want it all in my face when I get back so I am being very studious! But I am really excited and can't wait to Blog about it once I get back! Also Becca and Mollie come in two weeks - DYING!! soooo crazy!!

kangaroos plus wine equals a VERY good day!

This past Friday, my friend Amanda (from Pennsylvania, lives on Campus East with me!) and I attended a Hunter Valley wine tour. We had to catch the train to Sydney and be at the University of New South Wales at 8:00 so that meant a very early morning. We woke up at 4:30am to walk to the train to catch the 5:30. Once we were in Sydney we scrambled to get a taxi and make it to the Uni which we did with one minute to spare. Our first stop was the reptile park where we got to see koalas and feed kangaroos in the open park. Amanda and I had contests to see who could get the best kangaroo picture - she won...it was ridiculous. We then ventured out to the Hunter Valley which is about two hours north of Sydney where we visited four wineries and had a grand time! The first was golden grape where we tried six different wines - one being something called "dragon's breath". It was butterscotch schnapps with rosemary and chili peppers. The shot was so firey but so good!! I decided to buy a whole bottle for a family occasion because this will blow limoncello out of the water! The next winery was a bigger, more proper wine taste with a cheese sample in between glasses - delicious. Amanda and I decided to get a "break" wine so we could drink on the bus while going from one place to another. The third winery was McGuigan's where we had a whole range of different wines in a very fun little wine glass (which I hid in my purse and now is displayed on my dresser) Our last stop was at Dr.Jurd's jungle juice where we got to sample it at this very hick bar. There happened to be a wedding reception at the same time so it was interesting when 50 quite tipsy/drunk wine tourers got off the bus and basically crashed this ridiculous wedding. They left pretty soon after we got there -whoops! But it was a great day to go and explore one of the wine capitals of Australia!

This is me with a koala!! They are suuuper cute!

I got a little up close and personal with this guy - we're totally pals now

Feeding kangaroos - AMAZING

This was the rack of the smaller bottles of dragon's breath - ooo spicy!

This was at the Lindamen's wine tasting. These were all the samples we tried with lovely cheese and crackers - put food in front of people who have been drinking and they become ravenous

Amanda and I at the last wine tasting - how great are those cute little cups!

A whole day of wine tasting + a camera = self explanatory. haha but there actually was a story behind this...we were doing a photo shoot with different "themed" faces and for one of them I shouted - "Face just after white water rafting!" And this was the after photo when we processed the actual theme and figured out it was ridiculous. Whatever...I thought it was good.

Picture Upload!

So I decided to upload some more pictures because it is frustrating me so much that facebook won't let me upload any of them online. These are some pictures of the Bateman's Bay adventure! Also new fun fact update - one of the fashion trends here is Aladdin Pants. No joke, they are sequined or flowy colors and big and baggy and then end at your ankle in a tight elastic. Very interesting. I was not a fan at first but now I see them everywhere and I think it would be kind of fun to have Aladdin pants - I can just hear Michaela's comments already!

These were the wild kangaroos we came across in the wild. My friend Amanda got surprisingly close before they all noticed her and hopped off on their merry way!

Another kangaroo but this one had a JOEY! ahhh!! so cute! I couldn't get over it!

This was the beach before we went down and had a beach walk. It was such beautiful sand with awesome little coves to find little creatures in.

This was the sign on the framed picture of Princess Diana in the room I slept in - I know - unreal.

The boys - Adam and Pat with their weapons and wetsuits before going out on their epic fisherman adventure.

The boys and the fish they "speared"...We all got to watch them gut and clean them and then we got to eat them...mmm so tasty!! I should hire boys to hunt for my food all the time!

Kangaroos are both adorable and delicious!

This weekend, a group of eight of us took a trip down to Bateman's Bay which is about three hours south of where we live in Wollongong. One of the Australians I have met here is lovely and her name is Sophie. She's originally from Perth which is all the way across the country but her family has a vacation house in Bateman's Bay so she kindly enough invited some of us up for the weekend to get away for a bit. We arrived Friday night to the most beautiful house. As soon as you walk in, you take in the huge space of the living area/kitchen which is wide open and magnificently decorated. There was a long dinner table that faces out to the house wide glass windows facing the beach. The bedrooms were gorgeous and I actually got to sleep in the bedroom where it is said Princess Diana slept right before she announced her engagement! (There were about seven different tiaras in the room - it was awesome!)
The next morning, we leisurely got up and made a delicious breakfast of egg in a hole - you take a piece of bread and cut a circle into it. Then put it on the grill and crack on egg in the hole. Flip it both sides until cooked - egg-in-a-hole! Two of the boys went out snorkeling and the rest of us took a drive to McKenzie beach. We walked out to the water and I felt like I was in a movie or somewhere in the Caribbean. The water was glass clear and turquoise with pristine waves and the softest sand ever. The boogie boarding was so good and I had a great time teaching one of my friends Amanda how to do it. I felt like Big Dave a little bit yelling out - "okay get on your board, here's a good one" and then launching her off in front of the wave. We then regrouped and went on a kangaroo adventure. Sophie knew of a place where we could go see kangaroos in the wild and possibly feed them. Like idiots we forgot the apples so we didn't end up feeding them but they were EVERYWHERE! There were so many and you could get a good few feet near them before they all hopped away. And oh man were there legs looking powerful - it's almost like they have permanent crutches built in for legs. Afterwards we walked a little farther from where we were and had a beautiful scenic beach walk in and around rocks and beach.
That night - we were determined to try something a little adventurous - kangaroo meat. I know it sounds cynical to have just seen amazing kangaroo in the wild and then eat them but oh my goodness, kangaroo meat is so good. It's a very dark meat, almost like a flank steak but it's 98% fat free so it's a very lean meat. The boys came home with $90 worth of meat so we kind of had a feast. My roommate Pat fired up the grill and did a master job - it was so delicious! The next morning we even had kangaroo omelets with the left overs. My friend Adam from Indiana and Pat decided to go spear fishing for our meal on Sunday so they got all decked out in wet suits and weapons (not a fan - the spear gun freaks me out!). While they went spear fishing, we sunbathed and boogie boarded while watching them hunt hundreds of meters away. They came back with two huge fish and so we fired that up and ate it as a treat before our journey back to campus. Fresh fish is unbelievable. We also made friends at night with possums that we gave them apples and they let us pet them. It was unbelievable. All in all, it was a touch of heaven and the perfect get-away weekend!

I tried to upload photos yesterday but it was not letting me so today I decided to dedicate my blog to some pictures of this past weekend! enjoy!

My roommates Pat and Nikolai came and met us at the zoo to join us in our fun-filled day! This is Pat and myself at the parade!

This was just after we (Amanda, Myself and Mali) bartered a deal for those boas but oh man we're they fabulous!

This was the view from the Ferry boad on our way over to Taronga Zoo. I got to see the magnificent Sydney Opera House as well as the beautiful skyline in the background.

This was on our scenic walk in Coogee Bay - we got to see some of the coolest rocks and have a little expedition exploring them.

Fat Tuesday!

This past weekend I took a journey to Sydney to go to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade! I first went down Thursday because I didn't have anything to do on Friday and my friend Carter from S.U. is studying at University of New South Wales in Sydney so I decided to stay for an extra night. My friend Matt didn't have Friday classes either so he took the hike down with me. The train was only $4.80 to Sydney but Carter lives about two miles from the city so we had to take a bus which stopped a gazillion times (yes, I know, gazillion is a lot exaggerated but that's what if felt like) and we got there in good time. We grabbed some food and went to a neighborhood cookout where we cooked our own burgers which I don't know why, but tasted amazing.
The next day was beautiful so Matt and I stayed at Coogee beach and soaked up some amazing rays. We decided to take a scenic walk to a different beach which ended up being a really cool walk where we saw all these awesome rocks and plants. We ended up taking a lot of kodak moment photos so the walk there took about an hour and a half and then we had to walk all the way back once we got there. When we got back, our other three friends from UoW had arrived at Coogee so we checked into our hostel and went out for dinner and drinks.
Saturday morning we woke up super early (my friend Amanda and I were the drill sergeants getting the other three out of bed) to catch the earliest ferry to Taronga Zoo. We ended up catching the ferry - miracle of miracles - and got to the zoo where it was basically empty. We got to see such awesome animals and attend a seal penguin, elephant and koala show! The chimpanzees were quite addictive to watch because they were all riled up playing with each other and the baby one even got a piggy back ride - I think we stayed in front of them a solid half hour. But I got to see my first koala and kangaroo which was so cool (but it will be even better if I get to see them in the wild so we'll see about that). Koalas eat leaves that have eucalyptus in them which is basically like a drug so the reason why koalas don't move a lot is because they are in a natural drunken state. Pretty awesome. After the zoo, we caught the ferry back and got some dinner before the parade. Already there were huge amounts of people but in the most ridiculous costumes ever. Rainbows galore were everyone and the floats were decorated and lining up. Apparently people got there at the crack of dawn to line up on the street corners so where we were was about 12 people deep so I didn't get to see most of the parade which is a bummer (but rumor has it I guess a lot of the floats were nude - hilarious...so I missed out on all the nakies...oh well!) But when we first got there and saw all the outfits we decided we needed to get decked out so I bought this ridiculous headdress of pink feathers and my friends bought boas. We felt a little bad ass but just enough to fit in. But it was a lot of fun to just be around the environment where everyone was just united in a free and open response of togetherness. Some woman who took our group photo yelled out "everyone say penis!" I mean honestly, how much better can it get!? haha But it was also really great to go back to a hostel and fall asleep for the night.

Time is Flying!

So I just noticed that I have not posted in almost a week - slap me in the face and call me Susan, I am so sorry! This weekend, I visited Sydney and a friend in Coogee beach in right outside the city but that is a whole big adventure that I need some serious sit down writing to describe so I might wait until tomorrow to fill you in on the details! I'll just tell you about some new happenings that are pretty boring but hey, I think they're fun.

So I got a new camera. I had one at the blue mountains trip but it decided to be a jerk and not function. So the lens got stuck out and wouldn't go back in and refused to take pictures so I aggressively shut it and it worked sporadically from there. The lens however was messed up in some other way, so the only time it would clearly focus was on a magnification of 3x or more - stupid. I figured since one of my orientation trips got canceled, I would just use the money to scope it out and buy one. Within minutes, I was able to find a camera with a sweet deal on an 8 mega pixel camera and without question I purchased it and have been playing with all the fun options! One of my roommates opened his eyes super wide so we could examine the red eye effect. There's also a feature where even if your hand is being very shaky or your for some reason bouncing up and down (aka pogo stick and taking a picture) the camera will straighten the shot out - wicked cool! It also has a feature that can magnify just one color on a picture and put everything else as black and white so that one object pops out beautifully - so moral of the story I'm completely in love with my new camera!

I started school last week which was interesting. I also discovered Syracuse is stupid and didn't tell me I didn't have enough credits until enrollment was over. So I got an email saying I needed to take another class to stay valid as a student at Syracuse. So my perfect little schedule of three classes was shattered and I had to go on a wild goose egg hunt to try and fit something together. It turns out the only class that could potentially transfer over to credits is an analysis of skill themes (target games, striking games and aquatics) which lucky for me conflicted with one of my tutorials. But with a little coaxing, I was able to get in so now I won't be deported. The only really terrible thing is that I now have a friday class - thank you Syracuse University. My dreams of having a three day weekend to travel are ruined and I am not a fan. The good part is, the class actually looks really fantastic so at least I'm giving my Friday's up for an awesome class.

I have discovered the coolest toy ever that for some reason the United States or just massachusetts or maybe just me didn't know existed. They are called "Kinder Surprises" and they are the sweetest thing since sliced bread. It is a chocolate egg with the outside being milk chocolate and the inside as white. You crack it open and it the shell and inside is another "yellow" plastic roundish can that is supposed to be the yoke but instead holds a prize inside! So far I have a collection with two musical creatures, a robot that shoots arrows from his hands and a plastic flower that when the button attached is pushed becomes a spinning top - unreal! Needless to say, my five year old mind thinks these are the coolest things ever and I will keep up the tradition to trying to get as many different toys as possible. Also to introduce them to the united states because let's be honest, if POGs were a big hit, these would have been even bigger that's how cool they are.

I have booked my flight to Cairns for when Becca and M0llie visit - yay!! So I am super excited to go up and explore the reef. I also called the woman at the hostel where were staying and she was an absolute peach, telling me all the newest tours we could do and giving me outlined directions to our room because we'll be landing kind of late. I can't wait for break to begin but I just started classes - whew, I've got to buckle down because I still feel like I'm here on such a vacation-y adventure instead of it being real life. But so far I really like all my classes and I'm quite excited for the upcoming week :)

Hello everyone! I decided because I started school today and don't really have any fun stories to post some pictures up instead! The internet is really slow here so I attempted to post all of my pictures up on facebook and it malfunctioned a bit so I will just have to upload my whole lot on another day! But here are a couple from this weekend and earlier! I hope everyone back in Massachusetts is loving the snow - I just got back from the beach with some pretty crazy waves!

This was getting pulled up the hill from grass carting...I think already have some killer grass stains on my clothes from going down.

This is a view of the skyway cart going across the blue mountains and if you look really closely on the right hand side you can see three bumps which are actually the famous three sister rocks!

This was a group of us from the blue mountains tour after abseiling...I don't know why it won't let me flip it so my apologies if you have to turn your head!

This is me getting ready to abseil all decked out in my gear!

My roommate Nikolai and I went on a lighthouse walk -
look we're so creative with cameras!

These are my three roommates!
Nikolai, Pat and Amy!

Blue Mountains of Amazingness

So I traveled to the Blue Mountains this weekend for an orientation trip for University of Wollongong students run by Extreme Adventures Company. Wow, what a weekend! There was a group of 40 from all over the university (aka from all 4 different living campuses). We left on Friday evening to make the three hour drive to get to our Blue Mountains hostel for dinner time. We all hung out and had some drinks while playing cards and getting to know each other. In the morning, we woke up to take a trek in and abseil the mountains (they call repelling abseiling). We got our safety procedure and then went on a ten foot boulder to practice. I'm not gonna lie, I almost panicked going down on the rocks because I felt like I was so unprepared and just didn't know what I was doing. The woman leader said I was fine and I smiled and nodded but inside my head I was freaking out. I watched one of the Norwegian girls on the trip have her feet swing up over her head so she was almost upside down against the "test" rock and I just pictured myself doing the same thing. What you are supposed to do is keep your legs straight - which is quite hard to do going backwards down a rock because your instinct is to bend them into an athletic pose - then sit your bottom and almost make your body into an "L" shape as you move down the cliff. The scariest part was getting harnessed into the real drop line and just looking over the edge of what you need to potentially get down without freaking out. As I started my descent, I thought my heart was going to explode. My guide Patty noticed I was very jerky with the rope and he told me to just loosen my grip while I went down. Holy Smokes! That was so much easier! It turns out, we instinctively hold the rope tighter when we are scared so the rope gets pulled only a couple of inches instead of smoothly dropping you. I just imagined if my hand was loose on the ropes that I was just going to zip down and crash and burn at the bottom. But the ropes are tied in such a way that it causes enough friction to slowly release and let you gently soar down the cliff while building confidence. By the end of my first abseil down, I was dying to do it again because I had finally solved why I was so awkward before. I got to do the same mountain edge again before they moved us on to the largest cliff face - a 35-40 meter drop. This had more gaps and was a straight edge cut off which just makes for a scarier start haha. But it was awesome to zip down such a ridiculous mountain while bouncing off the face of the cliff and zig zagging here and there. So so cool.

After we did that, we had a quick lunch and packed up to go visit the three sisters. These are three amazing rock formations that aboriginal legend has it used to be three sisters whose tribe was about to be attacked. The witch doctor turned them all into stone - preserving them from any harm to be turned back when it was over. The witch doctor however was killed in the battle, leaving the three rocks to stay forever in this state. The views from the lookout were absolutely breathtaking - very similar to the grand canyon but with gum trees covering the whole valley. The eucalyptus inside the leaves of the gum trees produces an oil that in the humidity and sunshine of Australia makes a blue haze - hence the blue mountains. We then hiked a ten minute climb to cross a ladder and go inside one of the three sister formations. That was awesome because from the first lookout you could see the tiny people going through on the ladder on the mountain and then to actually be that speck for someone else was awesome. After site seeing obviously hitting up the gift shop (man, that craving for cheap souvenir things never goes away even when you get older) we boarded the bus and headed back to our hostel for dinner. We had a great steak dinner and while we were eating, a woman came over to our group. She was part of an irish dancing team that was doing a fundraiser for the Victoria Bush Fires so for $10 donation we could stay and learn how to do traditional Irish group dances. About 20 of us decided to stay and participate and man, I'm so glad I did. This was probably the highlight of my weekend and it was completely unintentional. We were so bad that it was just hilarious. We would attempt to learn the dances and after a bit got the flow to confidently dance around like we were straight from the heart land. We danced, drank and laughed all night. Our tour guide Pete was apparently being "too" loud for the leading dancer so after being scolded, the dancing was that much more hilarious. She then pointed him out later saying that his dancing was 'perfect' - I think she was trying to win brownie points. I was able to get our 60 year old bus driver up and dancing and we all just had a marvelous time messing up the dances but not caring because it was just so fun!

The next day we had an early morning wake up so we could start our hike down the blue mountains to see the Katoomba Falls. It was a beautiful hike down with rushing waterfalls, cockatoos flying everywhere and the most bizarre rock formations that were unbelievable. Once we got down to the bottom, we had our "kodak" moment sessions and headed back up the mountain on the steepest railway in the world - a 52 degree angle. My friends and I got the first and second row facing down which was pretty scary but excellent at the same time. Before we got on the train though, me being the idiot that I am decided to dismount the "display" horse they had for tourists and swing around the neck to the pathway. I didn't notice however that there was a big iron sign inbetween me and the path. I swung hip first into the sharp edge of the sign haha. It took my breath away for a moment and no one actually noticed that I did this stellar act until I was doubled over and trying to concentrate on something other than the pain. I have a pretty good pain tolerance so I just shook it off and kept on moving. I could feel my hip trying desperately to try and stop the internal bleeding that I had just inflicted in my body. I decided to show one of my friends on the trip to just make sure it didn't look to bad - the faces were not good haha. They both gasped and were like "oh my gosh Brenna, you need to get that checked out". I apparently had a big gash on my hip which was bleeding and a bruise of violet was already forming. I luckily got a tissue and plastered it on so I could get up the mountain. In the gift shop I was kindly helped by a man named Robert who took me in to the first aid "lounge" to fix me up. I forgot that alcohol wipes stung so that was another hit to the brain when I swabbed that on. Worst of all, after I was bandaged Robert wanted me to help him fill out an incident form so they could remove the hazardous sign. I didn't exactly know how to tell him that it was me that should be removed and not the sign as I swung into it (I just told him I wasn't looking and ran into the sign and not I guess the "whooole" truth) Oh goodness - but I'm totally fine - best of all it's going to be a sweet battle wound in a couple of days!

After the hike we packed up and went out to go grass carting. I was thinking in my head we would be in those caged little go carts going down a grass track. Yep, not the case. They were the most rickety metal contraptions with a tire attached for a seat and your steers were your feet on the front bar. A bunch of us missed the tutorial where they apparently went through how to break. A whole group of us launched off and when we got close to the stopping point, I suddenly realized I didn't know how to stop my careening cart. Flashbacks of me trying to ski and going straight down the mountain started filling my head. I ended up slowing down and then ramming into some poor girl on our trip - needless to say I was classified as a "people hitter" that people should watch out for. This was almost like back alley grass carting where at any moment I felt like I could flip over with a swerve of my feet or a loose bump in the grass. The carts also didn't look like they were going fast but ooo man, you could move! I ended up clipping another person on a different run but I slowly started getting the hang of slowing down. There were many spills and the numbers of participants dwindled with every go. Myself and five others were still going strong as we were told one more run. My friend Adam took some sweet videos which I got to upload on my computer to have. All in all it was a wicked jam packed with amazing experiences and a great way to start my adventure here! Oh yea speaking of, first class - tomorrow at 8:30 am...let's hope this goes well.