Thursday, February 21, 2013

Trip to Sydney

This week I had my first adventure outside of Newcastle in Sydney.  Long story short, I am obsessed with this city.  You could say that this is destiny considering I named my pup "Sydney" 12 years ago when the Olympics were held there!
We took the train from Newcastle and after about 3 hours we arrived in Sydney. We checked in our hotel and started exploring.  Walking around the city was awesome and we ended up in Darling Harbour,  a gorgeous area with lots to see and do. We then took the Ferry over to the Sydney Opera House, and we actually got to DRIVE the ferry. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but so happy it did -- experience of a life time for sure.  The view from the water was breathtaking of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera house.  The next day we traveled to Bondi Beach, very touristy, but beautiful.

Here are some pictures of my trip!
Darling Harbour
Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House



Bondi Beach, Sydney 


Driving the ferry!


Saturday, February 16, 2013

Around town

Here are some pictures I have taken the past few days, including the view from my balcony and the sun rise from this morning (which gives all of you at home a look into the future because it's Sunday morning here!).  I live at 62 Church Street, and the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral is my next door neighbor.

 


   

Christ Church Cathedral

naming of the blog

So, this being my first blog and all I wanted to come up with a cool and witty name.  Xanna came up with an awesome name for hers "The Xanna of Oz", so I felt up to the challenge to create an equally creative name.

A different kind of south.  It came to me when I woke up the morning after I had been trying to think of names the entire night before.  Names were thrown around like "boola and the roos", "down unda days", or "boolarang" but none of them quite hit the spot.  Believe it or not I thought of the name when pondering the concept that the toilets are supposed to spin the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere than at home (spoiler alert: the toilets don't really spin at all). Oh well, I got a good blog name out of it. 

As you can probably guess these toilet thoughts made me think about being in the southern hemisphere, i'm pretty much as south as you can get on the globe without being in Antarctica.  I began to think how funny it was that my whole life I have been a "southern girl" and took pride in that.  Born and raised SC girl, right here. But now I find myself in another south that I have begun to love in its own right.

The south I'm from and south I am in now have more in common than I imagined.  Now don't get me wrong, there is no Bojangles or sweet tea here, but there are some friendly reminders that make me feel a little less than 10,000 miles away.  For instance: the heat and humidity, the little noises of cicadas as you walk around, the sea breeze, and the beach sand all make me feel like I am in North Litchfield, SC, my second home. 

It seems that I will forever be a southern girl, no matter what context or part of the world it puts me in. 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Welcome to the land down unda!

I can't believe I am finally here, and almost settled in!  After 32 hours of travel including three planes and two cars, I arrived at the sunny, quiet, and very hilly city of Newcastle, Australia. 

I have decided to write this blog so my family and friends can keep up with my travels. Disclaimer: I have never written a blog, so don't make fun! 


Anyway, here is a little tid bit about my first few days on this new adventure. 


Merriam-Webster defines jet lag as "a condition that is characterized by various psychological and physiological effects (as fatigue and irritability), occurs following long flight through several time zones, and probably results from disruption of circadian rhythms in the human body."  


I think this is spot on, considering I traveled 10,000 miles, Feb. 11th never existed in my life, and it's 16 hours ahead, so to everyone at home I will be living in tomorrow for the next four months. Yeah, I felt like a crazy person the first few days. Describing jet lag in one word: miserable.  We'll just hope that in a few days I will be able to sleep past 4:30am. 


It's the little victories that I have thrived on these past few days.  Like finding a McDonald's for comfort food, successfully taking the public buses around town, and Skyping many friends and family to relieve homesickness.  But, with little victories also come little failures. I was taught the hard way that sunscreen is a MUST here every 30 minutes, considering there is no ozone layer above this country! (I got a tad crispy my first day out on the beach).


I can't wait to get fully settled in and fall in love with this place, as I know everyone does when they come to study here. 


P.s. Happy Valentine's Day!