This weekend was pretty lame because we had to go on a Marine Biology field trip at 7:00 am to Port Hacking. We got to get on a boat so we thought it would be pretty cool but it was actually the worst possible experience. All we did was analyze sediments. And since the professors wouldn't help anyone and none of us know a thing about sediments, we probably failed the assignment. We all changed Marine Biology from taking it for a grade to just taking it pass/fail as soon as possible. I'm now adding this class to my list of awful gen eds, right behind Dance 100 and Buddhism 101.

Here is a group of us at Ivy. The blonde one is Synne from Norway. She lives with me. The one in the middle is my roommate from Austria, Lisa. The other two are Lisa's friends from home. Ivy is the Thursday night bar. There's a huge pool in the middle that you almost have to wade through at certain times and I still don't understand how more drunk people don't fall in. Sydney is just way classier than U of I I guess.

In case I ever need to help an animal out I am for sure going to hit up Struggletown. 

Rugby Match

There was a huge rugby game this weekend in the Olympic stadium between the Australia Wallabies and the New Zealand All-Blacks. We kind of wanted to cheer for the All Blacks because of their sick Haka cheer that they are known for.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrkvpi9IuSk

We ended up cheering for our own country though.

I would say that it's the equivalent of a big football game here in America. The trains were full of fans and people were pretty serious about it. Australia ended up losing, but it wasn't that much of a surprise because we were the massive underdogs from the beginning. It was just fun for all of us to pretend like we knew the rules of rugby and were die hard fans of a team we just heard of. 

Blue Mountains

We went on a trip to the Blue Mountains this weekend. Twelve of us just booked a room in a hostel and went hiking all day Friday and Saturday. I'm actually exhausted today, but it was worth it.

Family dinner in the hostel. The Europeans actually know how to cook. The next day the Americans all made tacos together to try and prove ourselves. We tried really hard to impress everyone else and even folded napkins. But we will still never be able to compete.

The whole group

This is during a really long stairwell down into the woods. We walked more stairs in those two days than I think I have in my entire life.

two hour train ride from Sydney

my favorite of the waterfalls

From New York, Connecticut, Denmark, Germany, Chile, Spain, California, and France. 

We played this game called "Zoo" a lot. It's really stupid and made for first graders/drunk people but it explains the pose.

Toga Party in Sydney! These are a bunch of the exchange students I hang out with.

This is my good friend Sarah from England. She lives about two blocks away in Coogee also. This was a Heaven and Hell themed night at an on-campus bar.