Harbour Cruise and First Day of Spring

Campus East puts on heaps of events throughout the session to get people to meet each other and to get to see Wollongong and surrounding areas. This past weekend they organized a Harbour Cruise in Sydney for us. It was a lot of fun!

Fun train rides with these guys!

The cruise didn't start until 6pm on Saturday, so we decided that if we were going to Sydney why not make the most of it. We left Fairy Meadow around 10.30am and had a fun train ride to Sydney. It's nice to think that you can travel halfway across the world and find friends that will keep you entertained on a two hour train ride from Wollongong to Sydney. The boys were worried that they should have hung their clothes up because that's what all the other guys on the train seemed to be doing while the girls were just like, we just stuffed ours into our bags.



Anyway, after lots of laughs on the train ride we went to Bondi Beach. A couple of us were staying with a friend in Bondi so we figured we'd stay the day and get ready there before heading to the Cruise. When we left Fairy Meadow it was beautiful and sunny with blue skies, when we go to Bondi it was cloudy. So even though we had all our stuff for the beach, we sat with our sweatshirts on and ate lunch while watching the surfers. It was crazy how many surfers there were in the water. They looked like little floating ducks and then a couple would catch a wave. It was a pretty great view. After saying bye to the boys who were staying at a hostel in Kings Cross, we went to the friend's house we were staying in (which is right on Bondi) and got ready. It was funny - three girls invading a house full of guys; we had make up and clothes everywhere! We got all dolled up, hopped on a bus to the train station and then a train to Town Hall. That's where it got fun.

After sprinting across the Harbour

On the train to Town Hall found some other kids from Campus that were heading to the Harbour, but we got separated from them once we got there. We knew the general direction of Darling Harbour, so we started walking. Then time started ticking and we needed to be ON the boat by 6pm. It was about 5.53pm and we still weren't at the Harbour. It was amazing how few people knew where exactly we needed to go to get to the docks at the Harbour. Once we finally made it to the actual Harbour it was about 5.57pm and we still didn't see the boat. Turns out we were on the complete other side of the Harbour, which conveniently, is U shaped. So we quickly took off our shoes and SPRINTED across the Harbour. I can't imagine what we looked like; three girls all dressed up, shoes in hand sprinting across the Harbour. Turns out the boat wasn't even there when we arrived (all sweaty and out of breath).

Most of us

But we had a great time on the boat. We got on, grabbed a glass of champagne and grabbed a seat while we waited for the boat to leave. It was really fun seeing everyone all dressed up and finding people that you hadn't seen in a couple of weeks. There were 3 levels on the boat; the dance floor, a floor with tables to hang around at and the outside deck. It was kind of cold so we stuck more to the indoor level with the tables where we could socialise and just hang out like usual, except all dressed up. We did go outside a couple of times when we passed major landmarks such as the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It passed really fast and before we knew it, it was time to get off the boat.

We jumped in a taxi and headed to the boys' hostel in Kings Cross. The Funk House (no jokes - that's what the hostel was called) was full of Campus East kids. So we just hung out for a while there before heading to Soho. That's the name of the club - I have no idea if it stands for something or if that's just what it's called. Again, we were handed a card for a free glass of champagne - they like giving college kids champagne it here seems. The main level dance floor was like any dance floor in Australia; with dubstep. But when we discovered the upper level dance floor with non-dubstep music we were so excited. So excited in fact that we stayed there until 3am! At which point we parted ways and headed for bed!

Darling Harbour Bridge

It was so nice to sleep in a real bed, that even after waking up at 8.30am, I felt refreshed. We headed to a nice breakfast where I had real eggs! It's really exciting after you live in a place that never seems to have real eggs, except when they're hard boiled. It was perfect - the sun was shining and warm and we had a great meal! We headed back to get our stuff together and figure out a game plan; go explore Sydney...or since we were already at Bondi just lay on the beach? We chose to stay at Bondi.

Bondi

There were heaps of surfers again, even though there were no waves. I don't quite understand it, but maybe it's a different atmosphere when you're actually out there. It was so nice just laying on the beach though. There's so much sand that you can be far away from the water but still not to the road. It's kind of different from our 50ft of sand at Fairy Meadow - it also was flat! After staying there a couple of hours, I had to head back because I am here to study and I had a midterm on Monday morning. I kept having to remind myself that yes, I do have to do school work while I'm here.



All in all, it was a very fun and successful weekend that I didn't want to leave behind because it meant a whole week of school! I had my first midterms this week...still not sure how I felt about them. The first was in 'business to business marketing' and was 90 questions! The second was in 'strategic management', it was only 50 questions but my brain was fried after taking it. Taking tests here was the same as taking tests back at CU, except for the fact that you get to see how many students are actually enrolled in the subject. In the management class, maybe a 1/4 of the auditorium is fill for lecture. For the test; it was filled!

Dragons vs. Panthers

The test was this morning (Friday), so I rewarded myself with a free Magnum (ice cream) after lunch and the last Dragons home game of the season...which they won! It was another event put on by Campus East, which was great because we got free pizza! And what college kid doesn't love pizza...especially when it's free! So we had a great time at the game, took a picture with their mascot AND got free Dragons beanies (with a Maccas sign on it). It's sad that it was the last home game of the season, but we got to watch a few and that was great!

I almost forgot!!! Thursday was the first day of Spring here, and apparently the thing to do is go down to North Gong Beach and swim at sunrise! I didn't know that until we were actually there so I didn't go in, but it was really fun to watch them all jump in the water and then take a picture doing handstands. It wasn't a great sunrise because it was kind of cloud and it was raining right where the sun was going to come up but it was still a nice experience and it was really nice. I definitely want to go to another one when there aren't any clouds because I'm sure it's breath-taking!

That's it for now. A quick sneak peak on what's coming soon - booked my tickets to Melbourne today!