Exploring the City

I can’t believe I’ve only been here for 4 days; it feels like so much longer. I’m finally starting to get to know the city, and what an amazing city it is. Last night, as our final orientation activity, we did a harbour cruise, which was phenomenal. We walked down to Daring Harbour, which was about a 30-40 minute walk from our apartments, and is absolutely gorgeous. There was this great park, with a huge playground that I fully intend on returning to to play on, and on the harbour were all these great restaurants, and the Sydney aquarium and the Wildlife World. The cruise was amazing. The Sydney harbour is huge, and so incredibly beautiful. We went under the Harbour bridge, which was really cool – we could see the bridge climbers heading up and down the bridge. I’m really excited to do that. And then we came around the corner and saw the Opera House, which was just breathtaking. As we boated around the harbour, we saw the botanical gardens (which I got a chance to walk through today – unbelievable), and when it got dark, we had an amazing view of the city all lit up, which was gorgeous. And they served us a delicious meal. After the cruise, we went to Cargo Bar, a restaurant/bar right on the harbour that had an extensive cocktail list with the craziest concoctions! We had a drink there, and hung out in the lounge that overlooked the water, and then began to walk home, though we weren’t exactly sure how to get back. When we were about halfway home, we stopped to try to make sure we were going the right way, and a very nice Aussie guy who actually works at the bridge climb helped us out and assured us that we were headed in the right direction. He was walking the same way as us, so we talked to him for awhile, and he eventually asked us what we were up to for the night. We were planning to go to Purple Sneakers, an indie bar about 2 blocks from our apartment, on the recommendation from a past BU Sydney program student. When we told him that’s where we were going, it turns out he was heading there too! Small world. Apparently, he’s been going there for 4 years, and it used to be completely underground; he used to know everyone that went there. It’s now a bit more commercial, but he was still shocked that we knew about it. So we went home and changed into more comfortable clothes and headed over to Purple Sneakers, where we met him and his friends and hung out there for awhile. They were really funny, and we talked a lot about Aussies vs. Americans, particularly about the Aussie girls and their crazy outfit choices. When we were leaving Cargo, we passed a huge pack of girls, all wearing tiny dresses and very high heels. They also told us where else we should go in the city, including gay bars and an 80s bar. It was also Jac (one of the girls in my program)’s 21st birthday at midnight, which was fun to celebrate, even though it doesn’t mean much here, where the drinking age is 18. Speaking of which, it’s crazy that 18 year olds are out at the bars (although with all the fake IDs in Boston, I guess it’s not that weird to see people under 21 out at the bars, but still). The weirdest part is that it’s possible that some of these kids could be our students! Especially for the couple of girls in my program who are teaching at the International Grammar School, which is right around the corner from where we live.

Today was a great adventure as well. I was planning on doing the Cliff Walk with a bunch of people in the BU program, but it was raining this morning, so we ended up going to Rocks instead, which is where the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are. After a little trouble finding the right bus, we got down to the Harbour where there was this great street market that we walked through. We got these chocolate covered strawberries on a stick that were SO good! We also walked down to Circular Quay (pronounced “key”), where we had an amazing view of the Opera House and the harbour. We also met another American student who had won a free flight to Australia from STA and was traveling on her own. We talked to her for a bit and might meet up with her later, which would be really fun. We also went into the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was so cool. They only had a couple of exhibits open, but they were awesome. They’re opening more exhibits in a few weeks, so we’ll have to go back to check those out. We then walked around the Harbour to the Opera House, which is even more spectacular up close. We walked around it and enjoyed its spectacular views of the bridge, the harbour, and the city, and my friend Jane and I also got tickets to see Ben Folds play there next weekend! I’m really excited for that. We then walked around the Botanical Gardens, which are so cool, and absolutely huge. We walked up to the Government House, which looks like a castle, but it was closed for a private function so we couldn’t take a tour. We then walked to this lookout point where we could see the harbour, and continued on the tropical center, which are a couple of greenhouses shaped like pyramids. It cost money to go in, so we just looked from outside, but it was still pretty cool. There was so much of the Botanical Garden that we didn’t see, and we walked around it for at least an hour. We also passed by a wedding, which was so beautiful. We then ended up walking home, which was a very very very long walk. But we got to see a lot of the city, which we learned is mall after mall after mall. And they all have the same stores. But they’re all huge, and really cool looking. They also have a lot of fussgangerzone type areas with courtyards of just people walking – no cars- and lots of shops and restaurants – very European.

I also realized yesterday that our kitchen doesn’t have an oven – something I am really going to miss. We have a microwave that supposedly can function as an oven, but I’m not quite sure how that’s going to turn out. The good news it that we do have a stove, and out on the balcony we have a grill. That’ll be fun for all of us to do once in a while to break up our weeks of teaching. I also get to visit my school this week, which I’m very excited for. The interesting thing about the Australian calendar, however, is that October is the end of the term, and when we get back from our spring break, they will have started a new term, and though we will have been observing in a class for a few weeks by then, it probably won’t be the class we end up teaching, due to the change of term. I’m also very interested to see how things will change once we’re in the classroom 4 days a week. I’m looking forward to having some kind of routine or schedule that I can get used to – I think that will help things feel more settled as well. Coming soon: photos!