Doing the whole Sydney Touristy Thing...

Hello! Soo since my last post, I did heaps of things in Sydney! On Thursday we had some of the gang from our former Parklands come over for a bit, and they loved our new townhouse. Good times. 

Let's get to the big stuff! On Friday, Kelli and I went to a ballet called Firebird and Other Legends at the Sydney Opera house. We had great seats, right in the middle! (I got in trouble for taking pictures with a flash camera before the show started though...oops.)

Saturday morning we got up and went to a wildlife park that we heard we could interact with real animals, and they weren't kidding! The park we went to had little kangaroos running (or actually hopping ha) all over the place! The roos were kind, some of them stopped to let us pet them. We even got to pet and pose for pics with kangas that had baby joeys in their pouches! IT was so awesome! We found a favorite though... he had an injured hand :( and a scar on his back. We fed him leaves that we found on the ground (mmm delicious) and we took pics with him. 

We also got to pet a koala, and we saw lots of other animals indigenous to Australia. It was a good day. 

Saturday night we went to our first Australian Football Game! It was the Sydney Swans (interesting mascot huh?) versus the Hawthorn Hawks from Tasmania. We won!  We had no idea what was going on and how the game was played, but we followed the lead of the drunk blokes around us, and when they cheered, we cheered! We even threw in a couple, "Aww come on, what was that?!!!" hahaha. We went down to grab some beer and ended up getting lost in the Olympic stadium. It was set up really strangely, and it was just a pain to get anywhere... you couldn't access any floor besides the first and 6th...after you climbed to the top of the stadium for about 10 minutes. Just when we thought we got to the right location, we ended up being completely opposite of where we started in a section with hundreds of seats that were COMPLETELY empty! I guess the barricades that we just walked through on our way up weren't enough of an indication that this side wasn't open. Anyway, it worked out... because we got to go to the vip levels and just play dumb. We ended up touring the whole stadium pretty much. It was fun!

I had a midterm on Monday, hopefully I passed. There was a question or five I didn't know, and it was short answer... my teacher advised that if we didn't know an answer, we shouldn't leave it blank, so just write what you do know or a joke or anything... it still might earn us some points. So I decided to throw in as one of my responses something I read on a sign I saw on display at a bookshop on my way home the other day; It said,

" Television is called a MEDIUM because it is neither RARE nor WELL-DONE. "

That should earn me something in my public relations class, don't you think? 

I recently noticed something I've been missing in my life... dancing. Real dancing, NOT shuffling to techno in the night clubs- there's been plenty of that. So I found the Sydney Dance Company, that offers over 60 types of adult dance classes that you don't have to enroll in for a period of time, you can just come and pay the night of the class and join in! I am SO excited because tomorrow night I'm going to take an Intermediate Contemporary class and then a JFH (Jazz-Funk-hip hop) class! I CANNOT WAIT!!!

The seasons are changing from Summer to Autumn here. I don't want to admit it, but it's cooling off... yes, at some point in the near future, it will be warmer in Missouri than in Sydney, Australia. But if you ask me, I won't admit it.

We're getting excited for our Fall Break trip coming up. We're going to the Gold coast, traveling up from Brisbane and ending in Cairns. It's about 10 days, and we leave this Saturday. We will be snorkeling, scuba diving, we have the option of night bungy jumping (but I don't want to), exploring the Whitsundays, and what we just booked last night.... SKY DIVING over the great barrier reef and landing on Mission Beach. I CAN'T  believe I've opted to do this, but once I get over peeing my pants from pure fear, the view should be amazing. I've paid for a dvd of the event too, so you should be seeing it in the future! 

Today at work was pretty rough. We have a marketing team of 3 ( plus me and the marketing director), and just a year ago there was a team of 6. Last night the company decided that one of the marketing positions needed to be cut (made redundant) so they had to give one of my beloved co-workers the sack today. I couldn't believe it. None of us, including her had any idea. Her and I were supposed to have a meeting today to catch-up on projects! And now I'll never see her again!!! The worst part about it is that she's from California... and if she doesn't find a job within 28 days, she gets deported back to the US. I feel bad for her! And now there are only 2 left (plus me and my boss). Ridiculous.

But now the reality has set in... I knew the job market is basically hopeless in the US but it didn't seem nearly as bad here. But Australia's following America's lead... and it's tough times here too. Why am I investing so much into obtaining a college degree when I will most likely see nothing but disappointment after not securing a job?! THIS IS SO SCARY. I'm terrified for my future (and my generation's as a whole)... regardless of which continent I'm in. Maybe I'll follow my sis's lead and join the national guard after obtaining a bachelor's degree.... they get benefits and have more security than I might find! We'll see what she says about boot camp after she goes, and then I'll look into it more closely.

But Kelli came home today and brought me a surprise... the latest issue of the magazine she interns for- Outdoor Australia. She sent in to her editor some pictures from abseiling and they published two of them of me on page 16 of the mag!!! I'm going to try to pinch some mags and then maybe send a couple of them home! SO exciting to be published in one of Australia's national magazines!

This week, we booked a cheap flight  (only 90 bucks round trip) to go to the other major city in Australia, Melbourne in mid-May. I'm looking forward to comparing the cultures of the two cities because I hear they are vastly different. 

Well that's the latest... I'm sure I will have heaps to report about after this upcoming trip to the coast, but after Saturday I won't have internet access until I return April 22nd. 

The internet at my new place is pretty weak, so I've been having trouble uploading any pics to the blog. I'll try again tonight, but I'm not too optimistic that it will work.

Cheers mates!