Registration, Gelato, Boomalli, and Being Responsible

I know. What is this responsibility thing? I will get to that later...

 I finally registered for classes this week and it was nearly disastrous, but I have to wait to register for one last class (that I might end up dropping anyway) until next week. Tuesday was also my last day volunteering at Sydney Story Factory :( On the bright side, I got invited to a holiday party there for right before I leave.

Wednesday, NYU took me out on another date- this time to Darling Harbor. We went to this cute restaurant called BlackBird and I got a lamb salad with pumpkin and other delicious things. After, we walked over to Gelato Messina and it was amazing. I was going to wait to go for my birthday, but who says no to gelato? I got a scoop of Drunky Money (rum and banana).

Thursday, I went on my last required academic field trip!!! It was for Aboriginal Art (not surprising) to an artist co-op called Boomalli in the suburb Leichhardt. The artists we met were incredibly nice, funny, and genuine- everything all of the other people who spoke to us were not. It was really refreshing to talk to them and here their perspective of Aboriginal art politics because they seemed to have the most rational mind set- if you don't like the way people are doing something, do it yourself. Love. It also majorly helped me gather evidence for a paper I am working on. When I returned to my room, I thought I would do some homework, but I watched a trashy British scripted 'reality' tv show on Hulu and went to sleep.

Today is Friday- aka the day I am responsible... So why am I writing this blog post? Because I like to procrastinate effectively. Today, I woke up and immediately started working on homework, wrote some scathing evaluations of NYU Sydney to NYU, and spent the day at the State Library trying to write my Aboriginal Art paper. I officially finished two final assignments of four. I am done with the research for the other two and am about 3/4 done with the Aboriginal Art paper I am working on. I should be done with it by tonight, which will bring me one step closer to freedom/ being able to actually spend time in Australia without worrying about homework. The plan for the weekend is to go to Hunter Valley (wine country) with NYU as my sugar daddy date (paying for everything). Sunday, I will either go to the beach or lock myself indoors to write my final final paper. We will see.

Life is pretty good. Can't complain. Winter break plans still in the air and working on getting my internship for next semester is happening, but really slowwwwwwllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...

A domani, ragazzi :)  

Thanksgiving in Sydney

Today was Thanksgiving (still 16 hours ahead), but I am planning on Skyping my family tomorrow at Thanksgiving dinner. I went to the gym, went to class, participated in an epic game of capture the flag, helped make cookies, ate food with most of the people in my program, and watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Then, I freaked out a bit about all of the papers I have to write. Haha. Life. Tomorrow, I will be scuba diving again (only this time in Sydney at Watson's Bay)- yayyyyyy!

A domani!

#SydCityTalk, Lebanese Food, SBS, Sydney Aquarium, NSW State Library, + Mosman Art Gallery

I saw a man walking his pig. Took a photo because that is my obligation as a virtual citizen to humanity. You are welcome. This is for real.

Tuesday, I did some volunteering and acted like I was a citizen of the lovely city of Sydney by attending a City Talk (Recipes for change: how food is changing the cultural and community life of cities) because I am a food nerd. I say food nerd because I find food policy (everything from GM foods to the Malthusian Moment) fascinating in that it is something that everyone has to care about because everyone has to eat- there is no getting around this aspect of involvement that is key to other political issues.

#SydCityTalk

One of the speakers at the Sydney City Talk, David McWilliams, was really inspiring. He is an economist/ jack of all trades, but did this awesome video on 'Punk Economics'/ how food is actually politics and economics. Basically, the whole event was very community-oriented, which I never thought was my thing, but I felt really inspired to be more of a citizen. By this I mean actually check out what government is doing and learn more about policy in both Sydney (while I am here) and NYC (when I return). I just read through the official Sydney 2030 plans and even though it was a bit dense, the plans are really interesting and inspiring. The city as a whole is going to become more sustainable and eco-friendly to combat climate change, boost tourism, and prove itself as a global leader- all positive things. Part of the reason I went is because I am working on a piece for my journalism class on urban gardening in Sydney. Once I write the piece, I will publish it on here.

Thursday, I took weird sleeping patterns to a whole 'nother level and went on a 'field trip' to eat at a Lebanese restaurant (because we could) with my Australian Society class. I have no qualms with free food, but really?

Friday, I visited SBS ("Australia's multicultural and multilingual broadcaster") studio because an NYU alumni works there and I wanted to check out the newsroom. I have been to the set of Good Morning America with NYU freshman year, but that is the only other studio tour-type thing I have done. This was different because I actually got to sit in on the news meetings, which was cool.

manatee!

Fishies!

Saturday, I went to the Sydney Aquarium. It was pretty cool, but honestly, I have been to better aquariums.

fish that naturally live in the Great Barrier Reef, where I saw these same fish wild!

Sunday, I went to the New South Wales State Library after freaking out and realizing I needed to change a paper topic. I finally got that library card, only to learn pretty much everything is on reserve and the books you can take out require a very long process that just isn't worth it, so I used the internet database (which you need a library card for). Now I can research all about Australia using the internet!

Monday, I had class and went on another field trip with my Aboriginal Art class. We went to the Mosman Art Gallery and listened to curators and artists talk about their work. Here are two pieces I liked:

...

 

As for my general feelings- weird. I am leaving Sydney in less than one month to go back home. I face uncertainty of where exactly I will be living, what classes I am taking (registration got pushed back because of Sandy, so nothing is for sure yet), if I will be interning, and what I am doing over winter break (specifically). I also am leaving Australia, which is going to be weird as is. This has been my home for the last 2.5 months and I am really in love with the City of Sydney. It feels like so long ago since I have arrived here, but the time has passed so quickly. I already have such fond memories, though my current favorites are skydiving, snorkeling, and scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Basically, that weekend made my life- definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. Ever. Plus, being able to go to the beach whenever I feel like it in Sydney is really nice. Australia is such a lovely place, but I am also really excited to return to NYC. I am looking forward to skating again and coaching, seeing friends, petting my dogs, and eating my mom's food/ seeing my parents. Perhaps my last few months of international traveling have come to a halt and I will return to a near sense of normalcy, but only time will tell. As I ponder all of these things, I am starting my final papers and looking forward to my final trip to Melbourne.

Crashing meetings, some famous art, and kayaking

After coming back from the Great Barrier Reef, I have been sick- no fun. I have been drinking tons of liquids and soup and all that- but I tend to drink tons of water and soup on a regular basis, so it is whatever. In other news, it is not snowing in Sydney like it is in NYC and Obama won! I sent in my absentee ballot a while ago, but I technically voted for the first time and my candidate won in both CT and nationwide! The only thing I am not really happy about is that California rejected genetically modified food labeling, but this can always change in the future.

This week, I have also continued to volunteer and also manage to crash a community garden meeting, which actually worked perfectly in terms of doing research for a piece I am doing for journalism. Wednesday was election fever and my brother's birthday (and the day my Global Media professor followed me on Twitter). Thursday, my pop star Australian Society professor Toby Martin of Youthgroup serenaded the class as everyone suddenly perked up to pay attention. For my Aboriginal Art class, I visited Roslyn Oxley9 art gallery, which was actually pretty cool. It is one of the most famous galleries in Sydney and has tons of famous pieces from Australian artists like Tracey Moffatt and Destiny Deacon. The only downside is that now I have to write a paper for the class, which I am dreading in my brain, even though I like my topic and did most of the research already. It should be fine, but I stress unnecessarily.

Today, I am kayaking at Rose Bay, which should be nice. Other things I am doing include applying for several different things and it is nerve wracking to wait to hear back from so many different people, but that is part of the deal. I also have many more field trips coming up. Hopefully, I will feel better soon because it is hard to do all this stuff when I feel so bleh.

A weekend in the Great Barrier Reef

I arrived with a large group on friends to Cairns Thursday night to the unique experience of hoards of bats (I recognized their cries after my encounter with their epidemic proportions in the Outback a few weeks ago. Friday, we devoted the day to going out to Mission Beach to go sky diving. I can confidently say that the Great Barrier Reef is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and skydiving was one of the coolest experiences of my life. It was just unreal. I thought I would be a lot more nervous, but I was just in awe of how beautiful everything was. When I was free falling from 14,000 feet in the air, I was exhilarated as I flew upside down out of the plane, circled around with the wind whipping my face, and finally parachuted over the vast ocean, landing softly on the beach where I later sunbathed for a while. The water was also incredibly warm- a perfect day to sky dive and chill at the beach. I am also happy I got to sky dive with friends- it made the experience so much more memorable.

Saturday, I went on a Great Barrier Reef cruise. We visited two different reefs where we went snorkeling and scuba diving. Both areas had gorgeous and diverse marine life. It was really breathtaking.  After the cruise, we went to the Lagoon by the Esplanade in the center of Cairns. We returned Sunday after a lazy day walking around. It was a really great weekend over all J Now, back to real life.