Sydney

So... here's some stuff about the past couple days. More to come later (including the Opera House-- we went there today. Oh, and don't let me forget to tell you about the stupid seagull!)

Day 1: Met a lovely couple at the Boise airport—flying to New Zealand. Actually met the man first, and he said I could watch/join him when he went to the international terminal in San Fran, because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. J The lady at the desk was also very helpful and nice. While I was on the phone with my BFF reminiscing about the Super Bowl, he came over with his wife, and pointed out to her that I was going to Sydney. After I hung up, I decided to go and visit with them, ‘cause hey! I’m a Comm major. *Note, the guy was very clean cut, older, gray hair, kinda looked ex-military. So, when I went over to them, his wife and I started chatting, giving him a reprieve to read his book. J Her name was Sonya (pronounced Sawn-ya), and she was lovely. An ex-schoolteacher. She watched my bags while I made my final potty run, and jokingly said that they got ‘unruly.’ That’s when I knew I was talking to a teacher. J I actually ended up sitting in the row behind them on the plane, but on the opposite side, so we couldn’t chat. They had to run to make their connecting flight though, ‘cause they had about half an hour before their flight for New Zealand left. Hope they made it! As she was deboarding the plane, Sonya turned around and we waved goodbye to each other. So, Sonya and Mr. Sonya’s husband made a lovely start to the trip. When I got off the plane, there were SO MANY PEOPLE! The only place I could find an outlet was in the hallway, so that is where I’m sitting, which is nice because I have all this space to myself and it’s not crowded. J SFO looks pretty big, but I’ll explore it more when Brooke gets here. I had an hour to wait for her, but 20 minutes have gone by writing this, so not too much longer now (I hope). J I don’t want to pay for internet, so you will all get to read this after the fact. Katie Koala, signing off. 7:22 pm Pacific time, 2/8/09.

Day 2 (Feb. 10, 2009): I’m not sure what to write in my gratitude journal for Monday since we seemed to have skipped that day entirely. It is Tuesday, and I have only slept for about 3 hours total (on the plane), and am quite tired, but still have more time before we go to sleep. So far since we have been in Sydney, we got picked up at the airport for free by our hostel (which was awesome, although the wheels on my newest favorite blue swiss company bag are now broken, so I was kinda, well, a lot POed about that), we got to the hostel, discussed what to do, I got pooped on by a bird shortly after arriving, but whatever; we’re overtired anyway and pretty much apathetic. Brooke and I took a shower (we have our own room with Shona and Brittany, complete with our own facilities—that and the ride to and from the airport is totally worth it right there.) We went out to lunch; Shona and Brittany ate at Lindt Café (as in, the chocolate truffles), while Brooke and I ordered from a café next door. I got a homemade beef pie with a salad and chips (fries). It was pretty good. Afterward Shona and Brittany had to go get their stuff, and Brooke and I went to the Sydney Aquarium. I inadvertently forgot my camera in the room, so Brooke has all the pictures. We saw cool stuff like a dugong, a weed sea dragon (or something like that… it’s a pretty goober lookin’ thing), a platypus (those are AWESOME), a picture of a fish that can change sexes (called the Blue Groper), and Penguins (that are actually local to Sydney and live on the sand) among other cool creatures. Brooke and I ended up walking all the way back, so we got quite the workout, which, I guess was cool after an incredibly LONG plane ride. We’ve seen some pretty hot Aussies, but no connections yet. Now we’re gonna go to the supermarket and grab some dinner. We are supposed to have wi-fi available, but my computer can’t find it, so you guys will just get to read all these probably after we get to Perth. Over and out, 6:53 pm Tuesday (for the record it’s 11:53 pm Monday night for all the Portland folk). Now 9 pm (3 am Boise time): forgot to mention that the weather is rainy and blah. Kinda like Portland. Only warmer and humid.

Day 3 (Wednesday, February 11, 2009):
So… today was a big day. We did a LOT of stuff, and I got a lot to write about. First off, I slept really well last night. The hostel provides linens and a pillow, so I just slept with that (they’re clean), and was really comfortable just lying there with the comforter over me. Then, around 7 am, there were these 2 guys speaking in a language that I could not even decipher (meaning that I don’t even know what language it was). We went back to sleep… until the construction workers started working on pipes and sawing stuff outside our window at 8 am on the dot. We laid around for a bit more and finally got up around 8:30 after an excellent night sleep (we went to bed around 10:30 pm). We ate breakfast food that we bought at Coles (the supermarket corporation), and I had my apple mango juice and a blueberry muffin. Mmmmmm. J Then we left and caught the free bus to Circular Quay (I know, it looks like Kway, but it’s actually pronounced Key), where we took a ferry through the Sydney Harbor to Manly Beach—about ½ an hour away. Yesterday was pretty rainy and chilly, but when we were at Manly, the sun came out and it was incredible! We walked along the beach and enjoyed the soft sand (nothing at all like the rocky sand on the Oregon Coast!) We ate lunch at a little kebab place. Australian kebabs are more in the spirit of the style of chicken wraps; I actually had a piece of barbeque chicken pizza. Oh yeah, and when Brooke and I bought our daytripper passes to take the ferry, it was $17 AUD. I didn’t have a 20, so I stuck in a $50, and got $33 change—all in $2 gold coins (with one $1 gold coin for those of you who are mathematically minded). On the way back, Brooke and I sat on the top deck of the ferry—outside—and it was incredible! We also took about a bazillion pictures of the Opera House when we passed by it (but we’ll see it again tomorrow; we have a tour at 10 am tomorrow). The we split up, and Brooke and I went to the Rocks (an old part of town). We went to C—something, which was an old house of some prisoner dude guy. It had some old stuff, and I was pretty fascinated. Then we wandered around some more, and came across the Rocks Museum. It was pretty cool too. We went to a souvenir shop place and wandered into this store that has Aborigine stuff. We probably spent about ½ an hour there while a guy explained quality digeriedoos to us. I think Brooke may have been bored out of her mind, but I was absolutely riveted. Mom, I tried to get you one, but it’ll be about $200 US, +$80 to ship it anywhere in the world in 5 days. There’s no way I’m fitting one of those on the plane. You want to get one that is in the key of C sharp, D, or E. And they are completely natural—the termites do the work, and it’s made from a eucalyptus tree. The aborigines find them, and kind of carve out the bottom a little bit; you want it to be as thin as possible—that’s what makes the good tone. Also, sometimes they coat them in beeswax, and that makes it so that your spit and stuff travels through and doesn’t get stuck in the middle. He also told us that there’s 3 things you use to play the digeridoo: vocal chords, tongue, and ….? I forget. Lips maybe? And try to do circular breathing. The Aborigines created the instrument; it’s completely Aboriginal. The we caught the bus to Paddington, and got lost there for a bit. Oh yeah, and we randomly met up with Mollie Allers—twice. The first time we saw her, she had already met a guy who was hanging out with her, and she just got here at 8 am this morning! Then we came back, made spaghetti and Caesar salad, and now we’re watching Step Up, and we need to watch it on my computer, so I gotta go. Oh, and we’re also all sitting on the top bunk. Hopefully we won’t fall through! Then it’s off to bed ‘cause we gotta leave at 7 am! Oh, and we got a little sun today (as in sunburnt). Oh, and I bought a miniature boomerang from the guy that showed us digeridoos. Oh, and at the Rocks Museum, there was this recording that kept saying ‘Allo Sailor! And we also passed a guy today at Manly that said G’day. It was awesome! Okay, I really gotta go now. Laters!