Tuesdays are Beachdays

I went to the beach today since I didn't have class or any concrete plans. I started at Coogee Beach and did the walk for the second time to Bondi Beach. It was a really nice day and it was really nice to go outside. I spent a lot of time just sunbathing after the walk. I also saw dolphins jumping and a seal chilling in the water at Bondi. Other creatures were eels captured by a fisherman on the rocks, crabs scurrying, and a lizard on a rock. It was exciting to have so many sightings. I also liked taking the time for myself to really just relax. I actually wasn't stressed at all and got a bit of reading done. When I got back to my room, I ate a ton and watched Cider House Rules. I feel obligated to do some homework, but I really don't want to. I kind of just want to spend time at the beach drinking smoothies and tea and watching really amazing movies/ reading a really great book. This is what I consider an ideal day. I also wish I had some dogs to play with (like my own). That would be nice.

Also, my zoo article got published (the thing where I fed a giraffe and pet a quokka and seal, and touched some other weird Australian critters): http://nyunews.com/index.php/2012/09/24/zoo/.

Lazy Sunday

I think it is in my nature to worry and think I am never doing enough- I could always be doing more of something. I bought a few groceries before my trip to the outback (very excited! and I leave Thursday), did my laundry, and cleaned my room a bit. I also finished quite a bit of homework, so I felt that it was a well deserved trip to Bondi Beach after skyping with the parents this morning. The beach was really nice- but then again, it seems like every day's weather is nice in Sydney compared to the 4 seasons of New England, USA. For the rest of the weekend besides chores and reading for class, it was lots of tv and relaxing- the way I like to spend my time. I feel like I should be trying to get ahead in my work all the time, but the saner part of me tells myself to chill out and live a little. I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do my last week in Sydney. I was thinking about either volunteering or traveling some more, but I think volunteering won't work out. I need to look into it more, but it seems like positions are either for events or long-term commitments. I will look a bit harder, but I am not seeing anything promising so far. In terms of travel ideas, I am thinking Nadi, Fiji or Christchruch, New Zealand. I still really want to go to Phuket or Bali, but I keep telling myself I can go when I am older because the flight prices are so much more expensive than to Nadi or Christchurch from Sydney. I am also thinking about staying in Australia and doing either Gold Coast or Brisbane. I also want to go to Melbourne, but I think that it is something that I might do for a weekend rather than a few days time. I could also stay in Sydney and chill at the beach all day, but I am trying to really take advantage of my time here and consider many possibilities.

Free food, art, laser tag, and working out

Thursday morning, NYU Sydney gave me free food because we met the new director of our program and the food was sooooooo good. Omg. Yes, all I am focusing on is the food. Then, I went on a field trip to the New South Wales Art Gallery. I liked the art, but I felt tired and walked back immediately after the end of our tour to go to sleep, but ended up finishing The United States of Tara on Netflix. Clearly, I have my priorities straight.

Friday, I slept in really late, did a bit of reading, and then played laser tag and pool (and even sang a little karaoke). It was fun, but I was a fan of the free food- pizza. Mmmmm. I went to sleep immediately after that, too. I have been very tired lately.

Saturday, I found out I will probably get to go to Israel on Birthright (but I still have an interview to do- which I am not sure if it is a 'get to know me' or 'are you the best candidate' type thing). It has been a long process, but I am trying to be positive. Speaking of positive, I need to start drinking more water and tea again. Anyways, after answering some emails, I joined 'Running Club,' which is a group that meets once a week to run and do other work out activities. I was a little scared, but I knew that there was free (healthy!) food involved and I knew that it was good for me, so I committed. It reminded me that I need to step up my regular workouts a bit. After, I played pool and actually won a game. For the rest of the day, I just want to get some chores like laundry done and get some reading done.

A domani!

A Night at the Zoo

I just spent last night and this morning at Taronga Zoo. I am actually writing an article on the experience, which I will post once it gets published. It was pretty fun :)

Fireworks and Snorkeling

After quitting my internship Friday, I went out with friends to a gay club called Arq. Even though I was supposed to be a wing lady for my gay friend, all of the gay guys loved me and were meh about him. One hot gay man called me beautiful, which made my night. In other shallow news about myself, Saturday I didn't do much besides read during the day. Later, I saw fireworks at Darling Harbor and played at the playground there- the best playground I have ever encountered in my life. There was a zip line, giant tire swing, a circley spinny thing, net/ climby thing, swings, slides, and everything else in the name of epic childhood-ness. Today, I went snorkeling at Balmoral Beach and learned rugby throws (though I am still truly terrible). I also got fish and chips, gave up on reading for my class that hasn't started yet for the day, and went to the gym. And now, I can't sleep. Mer. Other things are in the works like me writing for my school paper again. Again, major tbc. Arg. Love from this side of the world.

A domani!

The latest in my life

The last few days I have been pretty stressed because there have been quite a few changes regarding my academics. For example, I was supposed to go on a week long trip to Armidale starting tomorrow, but the trip got cancelled. I wasn't too heart broken, but I did want to go. Also, I found out one of my 14 week classes is being condensed into 10 weeks. As a result, my classes are getting flipped around all over the place and even I (who is pretty organized) am confused as to exactly what my homework is...

I also quit my internship this afternoon because I felt I was not learning anything. This decision was very stressful and hard for me to make, but I definitely feel like I made the right decision for myself. I still would like to gain international work experience, though I feel that I should be a certain caliber of work and treated  with respect. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and now I can really focus on school (and some fun).

I am planning on going to the beach and going back to the Museum of Contemporary Art for my Aboriginal Art class.

The rest is in the future.

A domani!

Swings and things

Today I gave a presentation in my journalism class, ate lunch, went to the gym, read a little while swinging on swings with friends in Prince Alfred Park, and ate pancakes. A good day :)

A day at Featherdale Wildlife Park

Today, I went with most of my school program to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which is basically a zoo that lets visitors pet the animals. We had all been wanting to pet kangaroos and koalas and we got our wish. The park had tons of different kinds of animals, including dingoes, alligators, snakes, ducks, owls, and penguins. However, we made sure to pet and feed the wallabys, wallaroos, kangaroos, koalas (ok- only pet the koalas, but whatever), goats, sheep, and cows. It was really fun and nice to get out of the city for a bit and pet some adorable animals. On my rating of softest animal I pet at the park, the kangaroo is a winner. The only other time I pet kangaroos was in Israel at Gan GaRoo (translates to Kangaroo Garden), which is an open area full of kangaroos, wallabies, and such. Today was another good day and I realized my trip to Armidale is coming up. That is do be continued...

Wallabys

Sleeping wombat

Sleeping koala (sleep about 20 hours of the day)

kangaroos!

Saturday at Manly like a Lady

Today is Saturday here and I went to Manly Beach. I rode the ferry to get there from Circular Quay and the ride was nice (about 30 minutes and gorgeous views of the water and the outer edges of Sydney). I didn't realize (which makes me feel pretty stupid), but Manly is completely separate from Sydney and is very different from the other beaches I went to like Bondi and Coogee.  There were tons of shops and places to eat from where the ferry drops passengers off leading to the beach. It felt like a beach town- not just a beach. Apparently, there is also a museum and some other stuff special to Manly, but I was mostly interested in the beach. I got some food (everything is so expensive in Australia, i.e. $4 coffee and $7 pizza) from Hungry Jacks (actually its Burger King with a different name) to save money and because I was craving a burger (which is rare). It was actually just what I wanted. After, I laid out of the beach and read the newspaper, a tour book of Sydney, and finished a book I was reading on happiness. I also started 'The Lovely Bones' the other day and I really like it so far. Anyways, the beach was really nice, but I prefer Bondi so far. I want to check out Tamarama Beach next (next to Bondi) and want to do the walk from Coogee to Bondi again. In comparison, Manly Ferry is expensive, it is further away than the other beaches, more crowded than other beaches because the actual beach/ sand part is really short, and it is really loud. There were lots of children and families, which is nice, but I prefer the space and more mixed vibe of Bondi. I also am thinking about writing a paper on Bondi Beach/ the obsession with looking perfect as part of Australian beach culture for my Australian society class, so going to Bondi several more times will count as 'research.' I am really happy I went to the beach and did something for myself rather than bathing in homework, which is important, but I honestly don't have anything I HAVE to do today. I can do some work after I am done writing this post and tomorrow. I almost finished my presentation for journalism on the environment movement for Monday. I just want to practice presenting out loud and all that to check for mistakes and inconsistencies. I have 2 readings I also need to do for my global media class, but that should be do-able tonight. I feel like I am in Sydney and should not stay inside all day- plus, it is Saturday. Anyways,  after the beach, I went to the gym and now I am making food. Yesterday, I just interned and heard about cocaine snorting fashion designers misbehaving at New Zealand Fashion Week (and did some work). Anyways, I have work to do...

A domani!

@VogueOz #FNO like a Sydney-sider

Thursday was absolutely crazy. I started my day watching Canadian cartoons at the gym, did some homework, went to class, quickly ate lunch, paid for my fall break to go to the Outback (so excited!) with some friends, and then went out for Sydney's Fashion's Night Out. I ironically have never done FNO in NYC, but it is a new habit I will take a hold of. I started with a big group heading towards ASOS with a major game plan in mind, but we went to Hermes first. We got salted carmel popcorn, se several fancy drinks, scented leather wristbands, and even a goody bag. The waiters were super hot and a whole bunch of fashion editors from magazines like Vogue walked in right after us. I ended up splitting from the group because I was going to meet my supervisor at the store for one of our major clients, so I walked over to the different mall with just one friend- Haleigh. We were a little early and decided to get some more free drinks and food at a few other stores. For example, Coach and Jigsaw had cupcakes, whereas almost every single store had champagne. I had a macaroon, candy, turkish delight, chocolates, and then the 2 fancy cupcakes- it was really exciting to get so much free stuff for just showing up to a store. It was also fun to see showed up in what clothes. I love looking at what people are wearing, and going out to the stores was a good idea because I pass by a lot of the stores every day to go to class, but never stop in because a lot of the items are thousands of dollars/ unaffordable for the average bear. Anyways, my supervisor had an emergency press release to write about a model falling on the runway and the Auckland mayor helping her up, so I was left to represent my communications agency. At the store, there was a beautiful shirtless man with candy that women kept approaching to ask out on dates (but he was married), fairy floss (cotton candy), and lollipops. Haleigh had a good conversation with a tranny who I convinced to buy an elegant green dress. I left after the 1 hour time commitment I had to make and mingling with people in store (as well as taking some photos). My plan was to go to a few more stores like Prada, Gucci, and Burberry, but as I started walking over to the OTHER mall (this amuses me because there are literally 5 malls on every corner of the street) with the expensive stores, I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep (even though I had also planned on going to Tranny Bingo (bingo with trannies as announcers) with friends and University of Sydney kids after additional shopping). I slowly but surely put one foot in front of the other until I reached my room (it felt like forever in my 5 inch platform ASOS wedges) and fell asleep at the embarrassing hour of 7:30 PM. I woke up around 12:30 and did some reading for my journalism class because I couldn't sleep. Then, I ate 2 packages of ramen because alcohol and chocolate isn't really dinner. Haliegh and Jon had gone to Tranny Bingo and got back as I started on my first ramen creation. They are rice, vegetables, and microwaved blue pancakes from a mix (it is a Doctor Who thing apparently). Anyways, they had a good time while I was sleeping. After Tranny Bingo at Kings Cross, they got tea pots (like fish bowls that are basically straight alcohol) and shots, and then went dancing at World Bar. I will go out with them next time, but I was really tired for some reason. I have my internship tomorrow and I should go to sleep. Good night!

Bondi!

I really love Bondi Beach! Today, I went to the gym, went to class and met a famous Australian journalist named David Marr, got indian food for lunch (my favorite!), went to Bondi, and then made myself dinner. Since, I have been avoiding doing homework by cooking food for tomorrow and blogging here.

A domani!

Reading, reading, and more reading

I have been doing lots of reading lately (if not obvious from the title of this post). Monday, I went to the New South Wales State Library with my Journalism class, but I actually didn't do any reading there. We got a tour of the library, which was beautiful. It is the second oldest library in Australia (after the library in Canberra). There are two halves- one is modern and one is old. They are very different, but both seem like good places to do research. The only problem is that I am in love with Google, but I guess getting a tour and an update on Australian research databases was a must, even though the explanation and tour ran a bit long. The shelves in the old half are stack all the way around a large room with multiple levels you need to walk up rickety ladder-like stairs to reach and the whole room looks like a cathedral with high ceilings, a marbelized floor styled with angels and as a map of Australia, wooden paneling on the walls, and tons of gorgeous stained glass and clear glass doors given to the library by dukes and princes. There are cozier rooms in the old half of the library with old oil paintings and Victorian style  chairs (with a fireplace!), but most of them are closed to the public. After visiting the gorgeous library, the class grabbed a coffee in a nearby cafe, and walked back to the academic center where we created a blog for the class (OZoneNYU.wordpress.com). I am presenting next week, which means I will have to post on it first. I am a bit nervous. My second class for the day was cancelled, which I found a bit annoying. I planned on going to the gym and paying for fall break, but ended up just reading for fun the rest of the day. I finished my homework for the week the day before and thought I deserved some me- time. It was nice. I also got some pancakes at the Urbanest common area and made soup, which I had for breakfast this morning. Today, I am at my internship, but most of the office is away for New Zealand Fashion Week. I need to figure out my fall break plans soon, and it is stressing me out. However, I know I am definitely going to the Great Barrier Reef in November with my friend Jon and a few other people- I just have to go pay for that today after I am done with my internship. I should get back to work...

A domani!

Cockatoo Island and Prince Albert Park

Saturday, I went to Cockatoo Island to see the 18th Biennale of Sydney. It is basically a whole bunch of art from tons of different artists on different parts of the island- when on the cement port, inside tunnels in a cave, inside old warehouse buildings, or hidden in old jail cells. Cockatoo Island used to be a reform school, jail, and industrial area, so I think art is a good alternative for 2012. The island was really beautiful and the art was amazing. I went on a tour, as well. One of the featured pieces on the tour was a giant box with a midden (empty oyster shell pile usually created by Aboriginals) and teacups mixed in. It was really beautiful and was meant to represent the relations in Australia between colonials and natives. I also really like an area on the edge of the island with a tiny entrance that people had to crouch to enter the enclosed cement box. Inside was a secret stash of billowing wind chimes with all different colors. They clicked and clacked in the wind and it felt like knocking on the sky. So beautiful. Most of the other pieces I loved were giant papers of assorted colors hanging from ceilings. There was a similarly constructed room draped in different colored fabrics with mismatched buttons and ribbons hanging from the wrapped ceiling, hiding a long table that extended down the room with various teacups for a completely marvelous Alice in Wonderland theme. It was spectacular. Also, I loved getting to spend some time by myself, which I hadn't done in a while. It felt nice. I also read a bit while waiting for the ferry back and relaxing on the lawn there. I would definitely go back, especially since the ferry is free. Next weekend if the weather is nice, I will go to Manly Beach, though. When I came back, I just read for school and talked to my parents on skype. I ate some ramen, which I have been doing a lot of lately- having ramen cravings, that is. I finished most of my readings, which is good.

Sunday, I went to the gym, read for school, did laundry, talked to my brother on Skype about his first week at college, and talked to some friends to try to figure out my fall break plans. I am so confused about it at the moment. In the afternoon, we went to Prince Albert Park and swang on the swings, talked, and read a bit. There were tons of dogs, people playing sports, and picnics. It is close by and a cute park to hang out in that is nice for an afternoon place to read, but I might chose somewhere closer to campus to read in The Rocks. I should do a bit more homework... not that I want to.

A domani!