Where the Wild Things Are

Hello, all. I've just returned from two days packed full of adventure. Thanks for all of the wonderful photo and blog comments! I love receiving them and it makes writing this a lot more fun:)

So, Sunday, I signed up for an all-day trip to the Blue Mountains and as I was quickly running out of my apartment to catch the bus, I noticed that this day was not like the others. Instead of a sky full of sunshine and bright white clouds, I was greeted by a cold wet wind and a promise of rain. Winter arrives.

The meeting place wasn't very difficult to find. Upon approaching Circular Quay (one of the main areas in Sydney where all of the ferries dock), I saw 10 international students walking around in groups of two and threes, looking a bit like me: lost and unsure. So we banded together, and sure enough, at 8am Brett (our real Aussie tour guide) arrived with a bus full of other international students. So far, I think I've met about 70 international students VS 8 Australians so far.

Warning, "brief" tangent... The international community in Australia is fairly different from that of the US. In the US, it's pretty much expected that immigrants learn English and interact in communities outside of their Indian/Russian/Chinese community. Therefore, even in places like Chinatown or Brighton Beach, you can expect to easily communicate with the people living there in English. Turns out that this is a pretty unique "Melting Pot" way of living. Sydney has a huge international population, however, it's distributed into clusters that don't necessarily have to interact. I've met many people here who are unable to speak English even though they live in an English-speaking country. This makes certain things quite difficult. For example, the area that I live in has a very large Chinese and Korean population, and therefore, all of the telephone poles are covered in Chinese and Korean ads. Yesterday, I was trying to buy a penguin lamp from one of the ads, and upon calling, found that the girl on the other end knew no English. Luckily, a nice Korean girl standing nearby heard me trying to explain myself and offered to translate for me and only then did I find out that the lamp had already been sold. Therefore, I find, once again, that I gain greater and greater appreciation for America's unique culture by traveling outside of its boundaries.

Meanwhile... back on the bus, Brett had stopped us at Sydney's Olympic Park which was constructed for the 2000 Olympic Games with so much determination to be the best and greatest, that after the Games, the city couldn't figure out what to do with it. Now its main use is to house the "Easter Show," a two week event during which farmers bring their cows and produce to display to the public. It's also used for some Rugby games, but the majority of the seats still can't be filled. It makes you think about what happens after the Olympics, like the trash in the streets after a great New Year's celebration.

Next stop: Featherdale Wildlife Center; A place where I wish I could live! Here, I met my first joey (a baby kangaroo), pet an emu, played paparazzi to a wombat, stared at a sleeping koala, listened to the wonderful song of the kookaburra, befriended a cold little wallaby, and ran around for an hour in absolute happiness stopping to feed kangaroos from an ice cream cone. Unfortunately an hour wasn't nearly enough, so I'll be going back there with Cody when he comes to visit. But, instead of telling you how cute all of the wild Australian animals are, I'll let you judge that for yourself:)

Next stop: The Blue Mountains National Park. A bit of trivia: the mountain range gets its name because it is covered in eucalyptus trees whose leaves emit a blue gas when the sun shines on them. Therefore, from a distance, the mountains take on a beautiful blue color. Quite magical! Unfortunately we weren't there on a sunny day and by the time we got out of the bus it was steadily drizzling.

No matter, we still headed off for our bushwalk through the rainforest and got thoroughly soaked, but saw some absolutely beautiful views. All worthwhile in the end. You can judge yourself by looking at the photos. I plan to come back for a weekend hiking trip, sometime around September when it's a little warmer and drier.

After our return to the city, Brett told us about a great backpacker bar called "The Gaff," where we all headed to to dry off. Once there, our hiking group toasted me to my first legal drink in a bar:) We didn't stay there too long, though, because Sunday isn't a big night for the bars and we were all pretty exhausted.

At about 11pm, I finally made it home cold, exhausted, and happy, and fell asleep dreaming about my forthcoming adventures with the humpback whales. More about that tomorrow:)

Check out the pictures that go along with the entry here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022273&id=1125810475&l=cef4921aea