Beach weather in winter.

Fairy Meadow  Beach

Even though it's the middle of winter here right now, we've had some amazing weather. It's been beautiful, sunny and warm for the past week. It's been so nice that everyday after Uni we've been going to the beach and laying out in the beautiful Australian sun. For me, the water is a bit too cold, but there are always heaps of people swimming and if you're there at the right time of day when the surf is good, there are surfers too. I never really thought of myself as a beach person, and I have absolutely no problem living in Boulder where the closest thing we have to the beach is the Res, but sitting or laying out there on your towel with a book is so relaxing and it makes it so easy to hang out at the beach for hours. It does get warm enough that going in the water up to your shins is perfect and wonderfully refreshing. I finally signed up for surf camp yesterday, so come September (when surf camp is) I'll be joining the surfers at Fairy Meadow beach, hopefully.

Dragons vs. Rabbitohs

Last Sunday we went to a St. George's Illawarra Dragons rugby league game. As we were waiting for the game to start they were playing music which isn't different than anywhere else, but they kept playing "The Saints are Coming". And once the game finally started the crowd was cheering for the "saints". I was really confused because we were watching the Illawarra Dragons so why would they be cheering for the "saints". Turns out that their sponsor, St. George Bank, is a huge part of the Dragons. Go figure. Anyway, I didn't really know what was going on, but eventually the game became easier to understand. It was so much fun; the sun was shining, we were sitting in a great spot on the "standing hill" and it was a really exciting game.

WIN Stadium

WIN Stadium (where the Dragons play) is pretty small so you have a really great view pretty much wherever you sit, but we were right in the middle. Even though the game was great and the Dragons were up at half time, the South Sydney Rabbitohs got the lead and won the game. No worries though, the Dragons are really good and already made it to the NRL cup. The rest of the weekend was filled with beach activities; frisbee, reading and just relaxing.

On one of the cooler days at Fairy Meadow Beach

Tutes (tutorials) started this week, and it's weird to see so many new faces. Turns out people really don't go to lectures, but roll is taken in tutes and you have to attend to pass the class. Lectures are not mandatory and often times students can't even go because of overlapping timetables. People often alternate which lecture they go to if they can make it, miss an hour to go to their tute, or simply get the notes online if they can't make it at all. Since this is a regular occurrence in class, professors often record their lectures and put it online. Group projects and the case study method are uses here so it's similar to CU in that regard. But we'll find out soon how similar the formatting and content specifications are soon.

View from the top of Mt. Keira

This past Saturday I finally made it up Mt. Keira. We had a nice big group of 10 of us and we all went for a nice bushwalk. I didn't realize that bushwalking is the exact same thing as hiking. It seems so much more adventurous and exotic, but it's the same as good ol' hiking. I was expecting the bushwalk to be really similar to hiking Chautuaqua - I was pretty wrong. At first there's a lot of man made wooden steps that make it easier to climb, but oh my gosh - they seemed never ending. It was a great butt workout but they seemed to go up the whole mountain. Finally we got to a bench where we had to make a decision.

Another view from the top

Take the long easy route or take the more direct, more challenging and more adventurous route. Obviously, we took the adventurous route. It started becoming more and more interesting with wildlife all around us. It felt like we could have been in the jungle anywhere in the world; we could just have easily been in an Amazonian rainforest. At one point we needed to use our hands to pull ourselves up over rocks with little streams of running water cascading down to tiny waterfalls (really tiny waterfalls - more like water trickling down rock). It was hard work but definitely worth it. The view at the top was breathtaking. We could see all of Wollongong and the ocean that stretches forever. It was so big I couldn't even capture a fraction of it on my camera (turns out I had the wrong lens with the big zoom - next time I'll get some more impressive pictures). Once you get to the very top there's a lookout area. There are two ways of getting to the peak of Mt. Keira; the fun, exciting way (the bushwalk) and the other way (driving up a nice paved road). So when you get to the peak there are lots of people, cars and a nice restaurant. But because it's a nice area to come in the evenings there's a big metal fence keeping the jungle away from the lookout point.

Wedding locks

There are lots of gold padlocks on the fence which is look really cool. They're for people that come up to Mt. Keira to get married (or have just gotten married), they attach the lock and throw away the key, never to be found; a symbol of their lasting marriage. It's a really cool little ritual and makes looking out to Wollongong really interesting. While we were up at the peak we took a lot of goofy touristy pictures before heading down. We went straight down the way we came up...in 26 minutes. It was a great tricep workout.

Lookout at the top of Mt. Keira

This past week hasn't been very exciting - partially because the weather was so nice that we were at the beach a lot, because tutes started but also because we're starting to plan trips. I'm going to surf camp the second weekend in September and I am so excited!!! For spring break we're going to New Zealand and then for study break we're trying to organize Thailand. In between we also want to discover Australia so we're trying to figure out when and where we can go. I never realized how hard it is to sit down and plan trips. Everyone has different schedules, places they want to go and things they want to do that it's hard to make a plan that satisfies everyone. But sitting down and trying to figure everything out made us realize how much we really do need to start getting our butts into gear to plan the vacations. Also the fact that we all get so excited doesn't help us get plans made.

Model of the Five Islands

Everyday on the bus we pass a fruit market and because all we can get at the caf is apples and oranges, it was so hard to go past this fruit market everyday and not go. But we finally went and it was amazing! Fruit is so cheap and looks so bright and fresh and juicy! Being fruit deprived for almost 3 weeks now has not been easy but it was hard to not go crazy and buy heaps of fruit and veggies because we don't have a fridge. But I did get some delicious apples, oranges, kiwis and carrots. I'm still looking for peaches and nectarines, but no luck so far. All the fruit is from Australia and New Zealand. Another fruit I'll be craving when I get back to the US is bananas. Because of a cyclone that hit wherever the bananas are grown, bananas are $15/kilo. They don't import most fruit and vegetables because of their strict contamination laws, so that means no bananas for us!

Being tourists!

More that I've learnt about Australia is that they have very strict adoption laws. Surrogacy is illegal, so people often go to the US for a while to use surrogate mothers because to adopt a child in Australia usually takes about 10 years before you can get a child. I guess because adoption is so common in the US, but it was weird to think that adoption laws are so different here. The more I'm here and the more I learn about Australia the more I can see the differences between Australia and the US. As I learn more, I will tell you more. But for now that's it!