Sorry about bringing that up...

The weekend never lasts long enough, but with the school weeks winding down we really don’t mind going to school twice a week to get our classes done for the week. Also, today was Mother’s Day back in the States so we both had skype sessions with our mothers. Unfortunately the school internet wasn’t so willing to let us skype and actually hear the person on the other end clearly so those didn’t last long. My Australian friend, Jess, that I had met when she was attacked by the magpie birds had wanted to meet up with me to catch up so I had to run off anyways. We covered a lot of topics like music and how she is remodeling her house in the suburbs. I was already done with classes, but Lauren still had two more to go. Her lecture was a little more exciting though since her teacher had invited a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman to come talk to the class about her home country's educational background. The lecture began with the women giving her respects to her ancestors and her teacher doing the traditional song on the didgeridoo. This was quite the sight and sound to hear. Lauren was supposed to have a tutorial that day but instead the woman invited the class to come watch her practice and record her piano pieces. We met up at the library to fill the time by getting even more work done on our papers. Lauren was planning to go to dinner with her Australian friend, Serena, from her class afterwards so I was on my own for dinner anyways. Her tutorial never happened since the woman had told the class the wrong time and never ended up showing. That meant an early dinner for Lauren which she was happy for. It took the girls a while to figure out what to eat but finally decided on a small, cute restaurant called Pie Tin which sold the famous Australian meat pies. They raved about how delicious they were and Lauren brought half a pie back for me to try. I had gotten wrapped up doing my paper in the library and lost track of time but still managed to get it all done. This meant a late dinner for me so I was starving by the time I got done cooking sloppy joes. I was so convinced that I had worked so hard on my paper that I needed to relax by watching even more episodes of the Walking Dead!

Our way out!

Schoolwork had apparently piled up on us without us realizing so we figured it would be smart to head back into Sydney rather early. It was easy to pack up all of our things since we have gotten better about the whole packing light idea. We had originally planned on seeing a little bit more of Newcastle before we left, but I think we were both ready to get heading back. We had woken up later than expected and ended up not having a lot of time before the train came. We mainly just relaxed in the apartment with Kevin while Riley and him watched some of the NBA playoffs. It’s been a while since Riley’s seen a game, so he was definitely sucked into it. It soon came time for us to say our goodbyes and thank him for hosting us. The train ride wasn’t as long as going there we think, but that’s how it always seems to be. While on the train we remembered that it was Sunday and we would make it back well before the markets closed so we knew we had to stop and pick up our fruits and veggies for the week. Completely exhausted from carrying all of our bags and belongings around, we made it back to the apartments and crashed! This also meant we were a little unmotivated to get any school work but we figured it would be better to rest and eat dinner before heading to the library to knock everything out. The plan worked perfectly and both of us got a lot of our school done. My reward for the night was getting to watch yet another episode of the Walking Dead.

I guess we’re going bowling!

Sandboarding was first on our list of things to do in Newcastle. Kevin had offered to drive us to Port Stephens once he found out we wanted to go sandboarding, so we had booked a departure time of 10 o’clock. The drive to Port Stephens wasn’t far, since it just consisted of crossing over the bay into even more bays. We saw a few things along the way like a rugby game, koala and kangaroo crossing signs, windmill, and lots of dark clouds. We were afraid that we were going to get rained out of sandboarding since it had started sprinkling whenever we finally arrived at the 4WD pick-up location. The lady told us not to worry though since we would go even faster on the dunes, which got us a little excited although we were still worried since it was rather chilly. We boarded a van which took only the two of us into the dunes and over to the right dune owned by the company. The ride was a little bumpy as you can imagine since we were in a van going over sand dunes, but it was a pretty short ride so it wasn’t too painful. Upon arrival the workers showed us how to properly sandboard with the board and soon we were heading up the huge sand dune to get our first ride.

Gotta love the random camels!

Showing off her board!

Life on the dunes

Seemed like they stretched for miles!

The sand was really smooth and wet, which did make us go pretty fast like the lady had told us. We were also thankful for the clouds since we had to climb up their huge hill to slide down again, which was already making us hot. Within fifteen minutes we were the only ones on the dunes and really got some quality sandboarding in. Every time we got to the top we would see this even bigger dune just calling to us. Since we were the only ones out there and the workers obviously weren’t worried about us we ran over to the dune (which was pretty hard) slid down this huge dune and then ran back to slide down ours. This completely exhausted us since running through the sand and up hills isn’t easy. We took a rest and watched van after van return with more and more people. We struck up conversation with one of the workers that had just returned from Sydney that morning and he informed us that their would be a group of 89 people coming soon. We couldn’t believe that, but he informed us that over Easter Break they do over 1200 in one day! We couldn’t believe that since the dune really isn’t that big and would obviously get overcrowded. The huge tour group eventually did arrive, all wearing the same shirts and more interested in taking huge group pictures than actually sandboarding. By the time that some of them had made it up the hill it had started to sprinkle and they all ran for shelter. Then they started catching the shuttle back out of the dunes. So it didn’t stay busy for long, but we were already pretty exhausted at this point and decided to call it a day. We had gone down the dune many times and had even tried a double seater (when we both go together on one board) and found that to be more fun! Kevin met us at the bay and we told him all about our adventures. He had wanted to originally join us with another friend, but it ended up not working out. He was keen on taking us to a national park that had a great view of Newcastle and surrounding bays so we set off. It was only a kilometer walk to the summit which wasn’t bad, especially since we were keeping our eyes peeled for koala bears the whole time. We had read that Ecalyptus Trees were the best nest for koala bears, but we weren’t too lucky in finding any. We probably didn’t know what to look for, or they are just good hiders. But Kevin commented that koala bears are actually becoming extinct anyways because we keep cutting down trees, so we might not see as many as we had originally thought throughout our time here. This is a little bit of a downer, but the view at the top was great anyways. We saw even more padlocks on the fences at the lookout. The trend had obviously gone coastal. Lauren and I were exhausted from all the sandboarding we had done all morning so we had a hard time staying asleep in the car ride, but didn’t matter since Kevin kept asking us what we wanted to do. It was a little obvious that he’s new to the hosting deal but we were able to find another tourist attraction that had putt-putt, a toobagan ride, maze, rock climbing and arcade games. Unfortunately, the place closed fifteen minutes after we got there so we weren’t able to participate in anything, but we didn’t mind since that meant money saved. Kevin was keen on going ten-pin bowling that night with a girl that had contacted him through the couchsurfing website. She was from Chili and staying in Newcastle for about a year. We are fans of bowling so we were excited until we found out it was going to be $28 for 2 games! And he wanted to go to a healthy burger joint that was famous in Newcastle beforehand. That wasn’t really in our budget, so we hated to be party poopers and were fine with just watching but he wasn’t having that. The burgers were pretty good, but not great for the price that we paid. We’re obviously still not used to the Australian prices. Luckily, the bowling place was booked out for another hour and a half so we thought we were free from that commitment. However, Kevin remembered there was another bowling place closer to his apartment, so yet again we were back in the sticky situation. This place was a little cheaper, but it was still $20 per person for unlimited cosmic bowling. We felt bad if we didn’t participate since apparently it was our idea in the first place, but it was obviously not a price we are used to paying. We ended up just sucking it up and playing which was a blast. I had been missing my bowling, so it was great to throw a ball down the lane again. The day was starting to catch up with us though and we were both starting to get sleepy and weak. We bowled about five games though and had a great time laughing with Francesa who had just learned to bowl (although she was a natural) and Kevin learning how to spin his ball like I do. The night ended rather early for us considering we crashed right when we got back, although Francesa and Kevin kept going.

Is this the place for couchsurfers?

Once again we found ourselves boarding an early morning train. We decided to test out another couchsurfing host in Newcastle named Kevin. Newcastle is the second biggest city in our state and another option that we had picked for our exchange program so we wanted to see what the city was like. There seemed to be a little more to do here than in Wollongong since we have not gone to the famous Hunter Valley and the vineyards or sandboarding, swimming with the dophins or whales. We didn’t really know what to expect but we were soon exploring the city after we dropped our bags off at Kevin’s place. Once again we had gotten lucky with the location since it was a straight walk from the train station and pretty much in the middle of one of the main streets in the town. Kevin was very nice and new to couchsurfing like us so we were both a little unsure on how things worked. He gave us a brief tour of his place and Lauren immediately picked up on the fact that he likes to run in races just like her sister Tiffany. We soon realized we had a lot in common with this guy – he is in the Air Force, runs in races, has been skydiving, just to name a few. Conversation was really easy between us which was nice for having just met him. He was going to be busy watching the NBA play-offs, but we didn’t mind since we were just going to explore the city anyways. He gave us a map of the free shuttle bus and we were on our way. He had pointed us in the direction of the lighthouse where he has seen dolphins both times he’s been there.

We both think the trees here are awesome!

And here is the lighthouse! Just slightly bigger than a marshmallow!

I think Lauren has found her big grading pencil!

Look what washed up on shore!

It was a rather long walk all the way out to the stormbreaker, just a long pathway out into the ocean and kept our eyes peeled for dolphins but unfortunately never saw any. I think it was probably because it’s the time between whale season and dolphin season, but regardless it was a little disappointing. Along the way we had seen a shopping centre with a Big W and knew we wanted to see what that was all about. We had gotten the impression that it was the Australian Walmart, and walking up to it we thought we were right.

They look the same don’t they?

As we wandered around we realized that it probably wasn’t like our Walmart because their prices were nowhere near as low as ours were, and they also didn’t have food section or a pharmacy. It’s a nice try though Australia. Kevin had asked us what we wanted to do for dinner and had somewhat offered to make dinner or we could go out, but we didn’t really want to put the burden on him to make us dinner. We grabbed a snack before we left the shopping centre just in case we had to wait a while for dinner. We figured that we would go easy and make spaghetti but Kevin insisted on him making it for us, which was very nice of him. Definitely not something we’re used to anymore since we’ve been cooking for ourselves for over 2 months now. It was nice to just sit back and relax after a full day of exploring, but we also had plans to catch a couchsurfing social event. The Polish couple that had stayed with Kevin the weekend before had heard about this place where couchsurfers/hosts meet up on Fridays. It was right on Kevin’s street, so we figured why not. It appeared to be in some community centre, so we ventured upstairs where a lady directed us and walked right into a salsa lesson. We asked around to see if we were in the right place and everyone knew about couchsurfing so we figured we were and took to the dance floor. We had missed a few of the lessons, but as we rotated partners we soon picked up on the steps. Everyone was so nice and the same age as us. We soon put the pieces together and realized we weren’t at a couchsurfing event but rather a Newcastle University event called FEAST. Its just a club that focusing on bringing unique events to campus that pertain to Food, Expression, Art, Song and Thought. This was part of the expression part, but either way we were getting free salsa lessons – something we’ve been meaning to catch in Sydney at one of the pubs. We had a great time and met a few more Australian people that go to the uni of Newcastle. We even met a girl that had been to South Carolina and raved about our nice the people in the South were. That was nice to hear, or just to hear somewhere say they’ve been close to North Carolina anyways. She gave us a few tips on what to do in Newcastle as well. The small room that we were in was busting through the seams with salsa music, so we soon had to escape the loud music. We felt like Kevin wanted to stay out and enjoy the nightlife more but we were already exhausted and still full from dinner. We ended up just people watching from his balcony since there is a popular pub right across the street. They actually started scanning IDs there, so if you get in a fight and get banned then they can keep track of it. We all thought this was a great idea and something that the US should definitely adopt. We just swapped stories from Australia and the United States, which kept us entertained. He grew up in Brisbane with koalas in his backyard. One night he had a male koala stand outside his open window and start his mating call which just sounds like heavy breathing to us. He said that’s been one of the only times in his life when he’s been truly scared since he thought someone was standing outside his window, staring at him, while breathing heavy. That could be very haunting. 

T minus 5, 4, 3, 2, chshh

The months have continued to add up and we have now been dating for 2 years and 1 month (yeah we count each month). We like to celebrate the small things. My day started off with another skype session with my family, which now includes Alex since he is home for the summer! I think I kept them laughing with all my Australian stories, or probably just my off comments that I am known for. Riley and Alex were reunited and can you guess where their conversation ended up – bird watching. These guys now have another shared interest. Our plans for the day were going to consist of checking out the famous Luna Park on the Sydney Harbour, but I’m glad we looked at the website before we left since it was actually closed during the week. We had to quickly think of something else to do before the afternoon got away from us. We had been contemplated, or rather putting off, buying this combo pass that would get us into five main attractions in Sydney – The Eye Tower, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife, Manly Wildlife, and the Madame Tussauds (wax museum). We figured what better day than today and even better since we found an online deal that we couldn’t pass up. That meant we were going to the Sydney Aquarium today! We had been told by one of the guys at trivia night that it wasn’t anything spectacular and he walked through in 20 minutes, but I don’t know if he was running or not because we ended up spending over 3 hours in there! The place was a lot bigger than we thought and have two tunnels that you could walk through with the manatee, stingrays, and fish in the first one, followed by a shark tunnel. These tunnels were absolutely amazing since the sea creatures would seriously swim right over you or next to you giving you a great close up view. We’ll let the pictures do the talking, giving you a mini tour of what we saw!

Platapus was the first creature we saw. But seemed he liked to get stuck inbetween the tree logs. 

Fish striking a pose while in the light. 

Ever seen a long-necked turtle? Well you have now!

Nemo didn't want to come out!

Upside down Jellyfish!

Just the New Zealand Giant Crab lookin' Creepy as always!

Little baby Nemos that were that were about a half an inch long!

Such an intimidating Leafy Sea Dragon.

Fish for dinner?

Pucker-up baby! 

There is a fish in here somewhere... can you spot him?

Lauren with the Japanese Spider crab. Don't think it looks big..?

How about now! That's the size of its legs!

Taking a picture of someone taking a picture of the manatee. Oh how they are so popular!

Did you say it was picture time? 

Me almost picking the manatee's nose....

Lauren definitely picking the manatee's nose! 

We thought it could be the great white, but it definitely wasn't.

True synchronized swimmers.

Do you hear the music..? Baa ba (Jaws theme song)

They never wanted to take a reguar picture!

Just chillin on top of the glass! If you think about it, his 'noses' and his mouth  make the shape of a face ;)

Dinner awaited us since we were making our ever famous and delicious barbeque sandwiches! We had another trivia night planned at a pub we had been to last week called Kelly on King which had the video trivia. Neil was supposed to join us but he said he was too exhausted from work to make it. We decided that we were going to go have a shot at it anyways since we could have a chance at winning the airplane contest at least. (Riley had been practicing) I now know why we were meant to go to that pub because lo and behold we saw Zey! We met Zey and her boyfriend Chris in Fiji on the main island and then saw them while island hopping as well even though they hadn’t planned on doing that. She had told us that she was moving to Sydney in a few weeks, but with Sydney being so big we never thought twice about running into her. Funny thing is, she doesn’t even live nearby, rather in North Sydney and her new work friends were going to this pub that was 20 minutes away and she figured she’d tag along. None of us could believe that we ran into each other and we knew we had to exchange numbers at this point since we couldn’t test our luck anymore! I really think its fate that we’re meant to keep running into each other for some reason. We had a great time catching up with her and sharing the rest of our Fiji stories that happened in the absent of each other. We unfortunately left the night empty handed and defeated. Our team name had been ‘Hoping for 10’ and we actually exceeded that by getting 14.5 points! We were pretty proud of that! 

Who eats a burger with a fork and knife?

Considering today is my busy day of classes we weren’t able to do much besides go to lectures and tutorials. However, we did find time afterwards to fit in another trivia night at the pub underneath Broadway Shopping Centre – the location of our first ever trivia night. We were reunited with the two guys that religiously go to this pub every week and basically refuse to go with our friend Neill anywhere else. Apparently, back in the day when they were younger (3 years ago) these guys would follow Neill and they would do the trivia pub hopping like we have been doing, visiting lots of pubs in Sydney. But, now they have settled back at the Broadway Lounge and have been going there weekly for the past 3 years. We would love it if they would come and try other pubs with us again since we do make a very powerful, diverse team, but they just won’t have it. When I say that we make a powerful team, I kinda mean minus Lauren and I. We have a hard time answering more than two of the questions that this hosts ask because he likes Australia sports and Australia facts in general, either that or older music like Abba. I don’t think we knew any of the answers but we still always have a good time hanging out with the guys anyways. They just know so much information it’s almost ridiculous, actually some of the information is ridiculous.  

There it is! I see it! Hallelujah!

Today marked the first Tuesday where we didn’t have to go to our Outdoor Education class since we finished with the course. All we have left to do is complete a 3000 word reflection blog on our Blue Mountains weekend trip, but that’ll get done somehow I’m sure. We knew that we had to celebrate by going to explore of Sydney, since that’s what we’ve been waiting to do all along. We had a couple of plans floating around in our heads like maybe having another go at making it down to Cronulla beach, but we ran out of time again, then thought about going to Luna Park but figured we’d save that til Thursday. Finally we just decided to flip through our Sydney books that Riley’s mom had given us and just pick an attraction that looked appealing. We laid our finger on the Macquarie Lighthouse and set off. This meant we would be walking across the city to catch a train that would take us to Watson’s bay, kinda on the other side of the harbor. It was also close to the Sydney Harbour National Park (which we didn’t know existed) so we figured we would check that out as well. Our bus took a turn off the main road and seemed to be doing front door service for people, but out of nowhere popped the national park. Of course we got off here to check it out and actually had a hard time finding the entrance. Then when we found the entrance we didn’t even know if we were in the right place. There were only a few people about and most of them were swimming in this small little section off part of the bay.

We didn’t really know what to think, but they weren’t too surprised to see us so we just went on our way. Up the hill we saw a house that we thought was maybe a visitor centre of some sort. It turned out to just be a historic house, but a pretty one at that.

Well, we were in a National Park after all, so we figured there opt to be some trails and we sent off. This led to great views of the Harbour and Bridge, as well as the Opera House (although it looks so small).

Perfect view of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and boats going by!

Our lunch spot was similar to this, but a little more flat on the top.

We decided to go out on a rock ledge and enjoy our lunch with the scenery of Sydney right before our eyes. Lots of boats were going by and we even saw a famous Jetboat. This is an attraction where you pay like $40 to get on this small boat that jets you around at some crazy kilometer per hour for 30 minutes. When we first arrived we thought that would be pretty fun, but now that we’ve been on many boats in Fiji I think we’ll be passing on that offer. We knew we had to find our way out of the park somehow though since we still had a lot more to explore before the day ended. We took the easy way of backtracking out of the trails and taking what we thought was the main road out of the neighborhood to the bigger main road. Let’s just say that neighborhood road was definitely the longer way around and took us almost all the way around the bay before putting us along the main road which did lead to the lighthouse. We were almost completely exhausted at this point, but very glad to have found the lighthouse! This one was a lot different than we had seen in Wollongong since it seemed to have a house underneath it.

The clouds were billowing up in the distance and getting rather close and dark. Made for a great picture, but not so great weather. We weren’t trying to test our luck so we started on our long journey back. We did stumble upon this mini gym right on the other side of the lighthouse. 

I know that I would love to ride the elliptical right next to a lighthouse that was overlooking the sea. Much better than seeing the inside of gym walls! Why hasn’t the US thought of this? We tried to see if there were any good shops before catching the bus back, but there were just bakeries which I was of course drawn to, but Riley wasn’t too keen on looking at more chocolate. He thinks I’m addicted, but I just tell him that I like to look at the possibilities and creations. We had originally planned on going Salsa dancing at a pub later that night, but our feet ended up being more exhausted than expected. We agreed that next Tuesday we would go Salsa dancing and not travel as much throughout the day.