I finally caved...

When I was packing for this magnificent journey I basically packed my entire summer wardrobe, cause you know, Australia is known for being warm and tropical, right? I checked what the weather would be like in Sydney and noticed that it did drop down to the mid-50s in May/June but being from Buffalo I thought that was amazing... when it hits 50 degrees in Buffalo you break out the flip flops and summer dresses and head to the beach.

Not the same for Sydney.

For those of you who aren't aware, the seasons are opposite here in Sydney - our summer is Australia
Fall/Winter. Yes while all you Americans are enjoying 80 degree weather and laying by your pools, I am sitting in my room bundled up with sweatpants, a hoodie, socks, and a HEATER. Yup, you heard me, I need a heater in Australia.

me in my Buffalo shirt with a heater. tonights temp: 60 degrees. what is wrong with me?

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the fall season but this completely threw me off. I'm from Buffalo! Why am I freezing in 60 degree weather? I guess it's safe to say that I am slowly but surely being converted into a true Aussie.

One of the perks of this chilly weather? I get to see the trees change pretty colours twice this year! I went around and took some shots of campus in celebration of the pretty-ness.

Uni is basically a concrete jungle so being able to see some colour makes the walk to class much more enjoyable.

On another note I am slowly but surely recovering from my pneumonia stint. To be honest I think my mind is more prepared than my body. I'm so tempted to get back into the swing of things and travel around a bit more but my body still can barely handle a trip to Woolys (the grocery store). So in my spare time I've been watching I Love Lucy and even created an Australian bucket list for the month that I have left here. Here's a little sneak peek of what I plan to do while I'm still in this beautiful country....

-whale watching
-visit the aquarium/madame tussauds/ sydney eye tower (tallest tower in Sydney)
-visit chinatown
-check out Bondi Beach and the Bondi markets - maybe try out some long-boarding like a real Aussie
-Paddy's markets - they're supposed to be amazing!
-go ice skating in the shopping centre (yupp there's an ice rink INSIDE the mall, how cool is that?)
-hit up the jazz festival
-hike a National Park or two
-Sydney Botanical Gardens
-see Lady Gaga (June 20th - yay!)
-check out an Australian Art Museum
-visit the infamous Luna Park
-walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
-watch Our Lips Are Sealed (Mary Kate & Ashley movie about Australia - its a must for me and my friends)
-try fairy bread (a popular treat at Australian kid's birthday parties)
-go to darling harbour for dinner and watch the fireworks
-eat Kangaroo & crocodile

Exactly one month, 3 papers, a presentation, and a Marketing final stand between me and finishing this bucket list. Bring it on, Sydney!

Isn't it ironic?

A few weeks ago I was on the phone with my mom talking about how great it was that I didn't end up having to use much of the medicines that I brought to Australia. Aside from a little cold I hadn't been sick here at all and with 6 weeks left I thought I had cheated the "being sick while abroad" curse.

Turns out I didn't.

I had a great week spent going to Sydney Fashion Weekend and checking out a bunch of pubs and clubs around the Sydney Harbour. I even managed to scoop up a pair of gorgeous heels and designer shorts from the fashion show for under $80 and get a research paper for my history class done that week too!

me in my fierce designer outfit haha

Then last Friday my friend Julie and I attended A Gershwin Tribute performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Sydney Opera House. Yes, we were actually INSIDE the opera house. Amazing. And the music was phenomenal. It was really beautiful and I'm super glad we went. I even managed to snap a few pics while the stage directors weren't watching (no photos were allowed in there.. psshhtt, like they could get past me and my camera!)

Then my luck started to dwindle. I started getting the chills during the concert which I assumed was from the AC. But they continued and I started coughing my lungs out all over the city afterwards. It was like my body was trying to stop me fro breathing. So when I got home I made some tea and toast and went to bed hoping I swiped out the nasty bug. I woke up Saturday morning with a high fever and felt like I wanted to roll over and die. I was as sick as a dog and turned to home remedies and cold medicine to help out. When I woke up on Monday I STILL had a fever so I wobbled down to the bus stop and went down to the clinic here at Uni.

When I finally got in to see a doctor I found out my temperature was 39.7 degrees Celsius aka 103 degrees Fahrenheit aka I was in trouble. After checking me out the doctor said I probably had pneumonia. PNEUMONIA, SERIOUSLY? I immediately panicked because the only things I had ever heard about pneumonia were bad things plus I was completely alone and knew that I had a huge group project for Marketing due the next day that I hadn't finished. So as I was being transported to a local hospital I texted my group about the situation and hoped that I would be out before the day was through.

As luck would have it I got to be transported by ambulance. No sirens or anything but again to me ambulances never had good memories attached so that wasn't fun, neither was being in the ER with 10 doctors staring at me while having to convert my weight and everything into metric (110 pounds is 50kg for those who don't know). After that I basically spent the day being hooked up to needles, having xrays, taking blood and being pumped with fluids. Finally at around dinner time the Dr. Lam (his name always made me giggle inside cause all I could think of was Mary had a little Lamb - oh man ahaha) anyways Dr. Lam decided that I should stay overnight just because my fever was still very high.

I stayed in that hospital from Monday til Friday afternoon. I was kept for the first half because of my fever and the second half because the medicine I was on wasn't doing anything so they changed it to a stronger antibiotic. Oh and TV was $5 a day, how lucky was I? Surprisingly I think I did pretty well being there all alone, and I had some friends visit as well and if any of them are reading this I want them to know that I appreciate everything they did for me! Really though without them I would've been a sad lonely American students with pneumonia. Haha. Oh and I wanna thank my adorable housemates for leaving me this to come home to, it's so cute how caring they are, I really got lucky with them.

Thankfully I am now home and have 14 days of antibiotics to get through so I'm trying to get as much rest as possible so I can finish off the work for my last 2 weeks of classes and get better so I can finish off everything on my Australian Bucket List. I have 34 days, THIRTY FOUR DAYS, to accomplish everything and I still have pneumonia soooo that makes deadlines even tighter.

Until I get better my life will be filled with movies, gatorade, medicine, and gallons of chicken noodle soup. Just wanted to blog about another wonderful experience I've had here in Australia; I've done so many things completely on my own and now I can say that I can go to the hospital all by myself, even though I hope I won't be by myself next time. Gotta look on the bright side, at least this didn't happen the week I have to go back to the States!

xoxo

The Ugly Truth

Last night I went out and explored some of the pubs around Sydney with a couple of my good friends. We planned to check out Darling Harbour but after finding nothing but restaurants and bars with cover charges we decided to look elsewhere. After wandering the city we finally came across some awesome pubs in The Rocks and had an amazing time, in fact, it was the best night I've had out this entire semester. We couldn't have planned a better night!

NOW THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS. There are exactly 5 weeks left of classes and then 3 weeks after classes end until I go home. For all of you who can't count, that's 8 weeks. EIGHT WEEKS. Ever hear the saying "so little time so much to do?" well in my world its "so little time, so little MONEY, so much to do." There's so many things I still want to see in Australia and... well I'm gonna be honest here, I ran out of my own money to use a couple weeks ago. Since then my credit card and the wonderful money transfers from my parents have been my best friends, and I wish they weren't.

Surprisingly I can't wait for the moment I can start working again, as much as overnight shifts at Wal-Mart destroy my social life and sleeping schedule, I miss having that steady paycheck every couple weeks. Living off credit cards and keeping a tab for whatever money I owe my parents is not fun. Granted I'm super thankful my parents have been loaning me money but I'm eagerly waiting for the day I get my housing credit put back in my bank account so I can pay them back. LOVE YOU GUYS ;)

Study abroad tip #1 - Start saving the MINUTE you know you want to study abroad; especially if you wanna go to Australia. I read somewhere that Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. I picked a winner, right? But really, I had 3 jobs last summer and worked for Wal-Mart throughout the school year and right up until I left and STILL ran out of money. So unless you're traveling courtesy of the "Bank of Mommy & Daddy" make a budget plan your best friend, and stick to it!

One other "ugly truth" I have to mention about studying abroad in Australia.... when they say you're going to be studying abroad, pay attention to the STUDYING aspect. Before I left I heard stories about some of my friends taking easy classes overseas and thought "hey, it shouldn't be so bad!" Boy was I wrong! I;m currently taking 3 classes here at Macquarie and have had more work and reading than I have had from my 5 classes at Bonaventure. The teachers are also tough when it comes to grading. I don't know if they have a different style of teaching out here or what, but let me tell you, getting an A out here is not easy. I'm not going to say I don't love my classes because in fact I do find every one of them really interesting and beneficial but I'm not too keen on the grading system.

I mean, put yourself in my shoes for a second. 20 years old, from Buffalo, NY studying abroad in Australia, the sun shining everyday ... now imagine what its like to sit in the library and do work on a nice day (which is basically everyday). It's doable, but takes a lot of will power not to put the books away and head to the beach for the day. I'm slowly learning how to get my mind away from the beach and the city and on my studies when I need to, it's really difficult but I'm trying!

And so this week kicks off the tail end of the semester. Starting this week I have at least one presentation or paper due every week up until the last day of classes. Then I'll have two weeks to study for a Marketing Final and once that's done I'll have one week until I fly home. Talk about insanity.

I didn't mean for this entry to sound so negative, believe me, I'm probably the most optimistic person on this planet but I'm only human and dealing with money shortages and classes is stressful! Nevertheless, I've got my head held high and am doing what I can with what I have because complaining never gets you anywhere.

Happy note - my mom sent me a wonderful little package full of Jiff Peanut butter, tuna fish, granola bars, and Easy Mac this week! I love having that little taste of home right by my bed (haha).

Until next time!

UPDATES GALORE

Things have been pretty crazy lately with break ending and getting back into the swing of classes again so I'm basically using this post to sum up alllllll the fun little trips I've been on.

After I got back from my One Fish Two Fish spring break trip some friends and I went on a few day trips around New South Wales (which for any of you who don't know is one of the states in Australia). One of those day trips was visiting Hunter Valley - a huge well known winery here. That day we visited two beautiful wineries and took part in wine and cheese tasting. The wine was absolutely amazing and I managed to pick up a nice bottle of Merlot to take back to the states, yum. Then we had time to walk around the cute little shops within the winery and grab lunch in this adorable country style cafe. So cute. As we strolled through the area all I could think about was my sister's wedding that she had last summer at a winery back home, so it was nice to reminisce (thinking of you Julie! haha). Then it was time for cheese tasting, which was super delicious as well and we even got a few laughs out of an Asian couple who were eating the wax around the cheese - "ummm you're not supposed to eat that part!" - eventually they understood. After cheese tasting we traveled to another winery and did some more tastings, played a game of hide and go seek, and got back on our bus to head home. All in all delightful day.

The next day of break was spent doing the millions of loads of laundry I brought home with me from One Fish Two Fish.. which by the way cost me $20, $4 to wash and $1 to dry. Oh how I miss Bonaventure's free laundry services.

On our last day of break my friends and I went on a trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Jenolan Caves of the Blue Mountains. Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park, which was so amazing! We we're literally surrounded by little Kangaroos and Wallabies! I mean granted I had my nice dose of Kangaroos at the Australia Zoo but I seriously cannot get enough of these little guys. We even had the chance to feed them! Adorable.

After we fed the cute little buggers we visited the Koalas and of course took tons of photos with them, Seriously, they're the cuddliest things on the planet, and I don't even know or care if "cuddliest" is even a word.

After getting that much needed time with the Koalas we spent the day exploring the rest of the animals in the park... you know the usual Tasmanian Devils, Emus, Dingoes, Pythons. Oh and I finally was able to see a live croc show! I once spent a day in the Everglades scoping out Alligators with my best friend but have never seen anything as big as this crocodile. CRICKEY! That thing ate a whole bird in one bite!

Our next stop on the trip were the Blue Mountains. We first made a stop at Echo Point to check out the Three Sisters, no not the vegetables that the Native Americans ate, but an amazing rock formation. The view was breathtaking, it was like the Grand Canyon but instead of orange rock it was filled with trees!

Then we headed over to the other side of the mountains for our hike through the Jenolan Caves. We stopped in this area for lunch that looked like it came straight out of It's A Small World at Disney World. So cute! Afterwards we headed over to the caves for our hour and a half hike. Throughout the hike we had to climb heaps of stairs so everyone was exhausted but the beauty of the rocks surely made up for it. I couldn't grasp the fact that I was actually walking through a cave like this. It was insane.

its a small world after all!

Once we were out our tour group piled into the bus for a 3 hour ride home, it felt long but my friends and I spent a majority of the time reminiscing and singing songs from our childhood, so much fun haha.

Now that break was over it was time to head back to classes as well as my internship. Same routine as always! This past weekend my friend Rachael and I went to the Schwepps Sydney Cup horse races and it was so much fun! I admit I was a little skeptical about how much fun it would be considering how bored I get watching the Kentucky Derby at home, but being there was a completely different story. Did I mention how under dressed I was? Yeah, I thought "hey I sundress would be perfect!" - not the case. When we stepped off the bus and into the raceway I swear I thought I had traveled to England for the Royal Wedding - fancy hats, cocktail dresses, and nice looking men in suits EVERYWHERE. These Aussies sure took their fashion seriously. Even though I wasn't dressed the part I still had fun checking out all the intense hats these girls were wearing. There were 8 races going on that day so every race Rachael and I would pick who horses that we wanted to win for fun, but the funny thing was was that nearly 3 out of the first 5 horses Rachael picked would win! So since the 6th race was the biggest race of the day, we took our chances and bet on it. The horse NIWOT stuck out to us so we threw down $60 ($5 of which was mine haha) on him and hoped for the best. AND THEY'RE OFF! Niwot was in the middle of the horses for most of the race but once he approached the final stretch, BAM! he went full speed to the front of the line and won the race, and I won an extra $20. What did I do next? Of course put $10 down on two horses for the next race and walked away with $16. I could clearly see why people love horse races... the gambling is addicting and once you bet on a horse the race becomes 100x more enjoyable. It is now my goal to make it to the Kentucky Derby at least once in my life. Good times!

Niwot!

The next day me and my friends Karee & Julie went down to the city to see the Titanic Exhibit at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Titanic is one of my favorite movies so I felt like I was in heaven. First we checked out some of the other exhibits in the museum and then spent the rest of our time in Titanic, checking out old articles, photos, and costumes that the actors wore in the original movie! I was in awe. After the museum we stopped at Pie Face so Julie could experience her first meat pie and I could have my first sausage roll. Australians are definitely doing something right with these meat pies, I'm addicted. Next we headed across the city for more food - this time, chocolate from Max Brenner's (which apparently we have in the states, which is incredibly awesome). We all got this dish called Tutti Frutti Waffle which was basically waffles drowned in chocolate with ice cream, bananas, and strawberries. HEAVEN ON A PLATE. Such a great ending to a fun day out.

meat pies!

So that's basically all I think I have to update you people on. Until next time! xoxoxox