Day 89 Reunited!!!!With Ally!!!

All of the waiting is over!!! My girlfriend is here!  She came for a visit and I'm so excited and stoked she is finally here.  Waiting for Ally in the last three days was the hardest though.  I couldn't really fall asleep the night before so I was up till twelve and I had been trying to fall asleep by 9:00pm because I had to get up early.

Before leaving via the train I checked on Ally's flight online at 3:00 am in the morning just make sure she was online or late or early or whatever.  She was early, so I hopped on the 3:30 am train to the city to make sure I got there on time to pick her up.

The funny thing about airports is they get you super excited when you're waiting to pick somebody up.  So when the arrived popped up next to her flight, I figured I didn't have to wait that long.  Time goes by so slow when you're looking for somebody, it was not till 7:04 am that I saw her walk through customs.

There she is!  Still looking adorable after a 20 something odd flight from New Jersey to here.  Indeed: Welcome to Sydney babe!!!

I can't speak for this photo.  Ally took it.  I told her we were gonna visit that beach, it's called Stanwell Park.

Arrival at Campus East.  I felt bad, it was a hour and twenty minute train ride right after a flight.  At least she could walk around on the train and stuff.  But nonetheless she's here.

After getting herself settled, we went to the beach we always go to.  It was a little windy that's why we were bundled up.  In the background you can see Mount Kiera and the Mountain Range.  We were the only ones on the beach. So it was our beach =).

Meet Petey the Sand Crab!!! Ally named him.   She's got good eyes.

Isn't she beautiful?  The coastline eventually turns from sand to rock, she was checking out the rock pools.

Just gives you some perspective of the cliffs that liter the coastline.  They're cool looking things. 

I don't know where she got all this energy but we did the Blue Mile Walk.  We stopped at various spots along the route.  This is the Wollongong Harbor.

This is just outside the Wollongong Harbor. 

The lighthouse is surrounded by these cliffs that have been dug out so we walked around the bottom of the lighthouse.

If you guys can remember this is where I went for a swim with Jesse in front of the lighthouse. We weren't so bold as to go in this time.   

I don't know how she did it, and frankly I don't know how I did it either.  We had the energy to go out to a nightclub and dance for a good two and a half hours.  It was the first legal drink that I got to buy Ally a drink at a bar!  Anyway she had been up 22 straight hours and I had been up 21 straight.  haha anyway, after that we got back and literally crashed in five minutes haha.  It had been a long long day but a great fun one!  I hope she enjoys her visit.

Day 82 Absesailng in the Blue Mountains

Couldn't have been a more perfect day in Australia and a trip to the blue mountains.  The funny thing was I had no idea what we were doing on this day trip.  It's a good thing they didn't tell me at first because I probably would have been mentally psyching myself out.  We got to the blue mountains and next thing I knew we were putting on helmets and harnesses to get ready to absesail.  Or in other words do the opposite of rock climbing, we were rock descending.

Here we are getting all suited up and ready for action.

The rock on the right is the rock we practiced technique on.  It was a baby rock.

There I go!  Too easy!  At first I thought this will be no sweat.  Well my confidence quickly went away when we got to the next location where we would be climbing down.

This was the view from the second location where we would be descending down the side of the ridge.  It's weird to think that the only thing holding you up is a piece of metal drilled into the rock and then glued down.  Good thing we learned that afterward.

I don't know if you can see it but if you zoom in I want to explain something about the landscape.  Since the majority of the Blue Mountains is Sandstone it has been worn away by the rain.  Therefore, the slope leading up to the top of the mountain appears to come to a dead stop.  Where the slope stops it looks as though the mountain range has been unnaturally pushed up and that's where the ridges appear creating a plateau. In reality, the ridges are formed with the side of the mountain breaks off in a landslide created the bare spot which people apparently absesail off of.

Proper technique includes keeping your feet flat against the rock, having your dominant hand on the rope that is harnessed to you as your break, and squatting down so you are literally at a 90 degree angle.

This is the second location from the bottom.  The person you see at the top is 30 meters away from touching flat ground again.  That is about 80-90 feet of walking backwards down a cliff.  I happened to do this one twice to really try and shake off any nerves before the big one.  It's actually easier to go down faster because when you go slow the constant stop and go jerk makes you more nervous.  That's my opinion at least.

Just a photo for good measure.

Cecilia and I were trying to look tough even though we looked like cone heads with these particular helmets.  the figure eight things you can see are where the rope was threaded through and attached to the harness.  It felt like I was wearing a diaper the whole time though.  Not particularly comfortable.

This was at the top of the third location.  What a gorgeous view.

Alright, so this is not me but I wanted to give some perspective of how far we descended for this next part.  From the top of the ridge to flat ground again was 90 meters or in other words nearly 300 feet.  Even thinking about it gives me sweaty feet.  I tell you what: this trip has really challenged my fear of heights, but I'm trying to overcome it.

Apparently, the first 30 meters your feet are on solid rock.  The other 60 meters you're not touching anything.  As you can see, I forced myself to go upside on the way down.  We could only do this one once, there was no practice run so I went for the spider man pose.

In a way once you're going, you actually forget what you're doing and how ludacris it is.  As I slowly descended, it was as though I was my own personal gondala.  I was just staring off into the Blue Mountains and having fun and feeling alive.

This is the dead man pose.

Spiderman, spiderman, he can't do it no one can!

After our excursion, we stopped for a brunch.  These series of rocks are called the three ladies. 

The last thing we did in the Blue Mountains is visit Wentworth Falls.  Australia's east coast is full of stuff like this.  It's truly incredible to think that such a place like this exists in the universe and we're fortunate enough to live on it.

Check out the size of that moon.  Apparently, the moon is the biggest it's ever going to be for a while.  The moon was smiling away and was even bright enough to allow for my friends and I to go for a swim at 10 oclock at night!  It was so bright we could even play catch with a rugby ball.  It was a beautiful night and a great way to end a beautiful day.

Day 78-80, Relaxing at Rylan's

It had been a hectic week and a half of research and work so I decided it was time to relax and enjoy a little quiet time in the country side.  There I could focus on my homework while being at my friend's house and chill for a bit.  Thursday night, we got there and played some scrabble before passing out early at ten to get a good night's sleep.

The house runs completely on solar energy which is really neat.  It is an eco-friendly household and they don't use more energy than what is necessary. Heat the house by wood, use rain water for washing dishes and showering, among other designs in the house that make it an environmental haven.

Rylan chilling in his room, out of Cecilia, Rylan and me; he did the least amount of work lol, he was too happy to be home.

Friday morning we decided before doing any homework to go for a bike ride and get our daily sunlight in.  Vitamin D is important! haha

The entrance to their driveway has this sign.  So if you're ever looking for a countryside house in this part of Australia, they own a bed and breakfast place which is cozy! Just saying.

The national park is only a five minute bike ride away from his house.  How lucky is he that he gets to live that close to a beautiful national park.  I'm jealous for real.

I am not sure what the deal is here, but this is definately some kind of insect home.  Whether it is ant or termite, i'm positive it was a nest of some sort.  It was huge though, and the whole bike ride we were passing various ones and most of the were next to trees which further confirms my suspicions.  Insects dig by trees because the roots soak up moisture which means moisture is bound to be by tree roots.  It's logical.  As for correct, that's another story.

That is a vintage gum tree. Nothing more, nothing less. Looking sweet though.

 There is nothing like looking out over beautiful scenary.  This is definately one of my favorite lookouts, especially because there is a river in the shape of a horseshoe cutting through the valley.

Looking at the view.

His dogs are precious.  Sunny and Molly are their names for a refresher course.  Sunny is the Golden Retriever and Molly is the Border Collie.  Both love attention and being petted.  But you couldn't say no when they asked for tummy rubs.

Because of the free homecooked meals and stuff, I helped around the house as much as I could.  Even had fun with my chores.  Split some firewood.  However, I wish I could have used a wedge and sledge hammer instead of an ax.  It's annoying when the ax gets stuck in the wood.

It was a quiet weekend at Rylan's and a good one too.  I got a lot of research done believe or not while being away from Campus.  It was sweet.

Day75, The New South Wales Waratahs vs. the New Zealand Crusaders

It was a day full of experiences on April 29th, 2012.  Before heading into Sydney for the Rugby League game.  Our school held an international food fair in which students that were studying abroad made a traditional food from their country.  Best part was it was free for the students.  America made some good old mac n cheese with some brownies for dessert.  I had a cinnamon pie and apple crumble from South Africa.  England produced some mashed potatoes with onion gravy.  Sweden made these heavenly meatballs in gravy with chocolate balls dashed in coconut ( I didn't eat that but they would have tasted good without the coconut.  I had perogi's from Poland and Norway by far had the best dessert.  It was this oatmeal/rice cream with rasberry sauce, absolutely delightful.  I had some lamb from New Zealand and India had the most interesting combination of food I have had in a long time.  It was spicy spicy rice with curry with yogurt on the side and in a weird way it worked.  From Malaysia I had chicken something but the dessert was the best: banana cream strawberry pudding with real fruit pieces.  I had nutella crepes from France, pasta from Italy, Chicken stirfry from Vietnam, Chocolate fondu from Switzerland.  To all of you that know I don't like fish I want to explain why I ate sushi....There is this international kid from Japan whom I know and he is a good guy.  He saw me and gestured for me to come over and try the sushi he made....He was so happy and proud to be serving all his Australian and American friends I couldn't turn him down.  So...I ate sushi raw and all...I successfully swallowed with a smile on my face. However, beef should be in the middle in my opinion hahahaha.

Once we had finished at the fair we hopped on a train and headed to Syndey for the game.  here is a look at the outside of the stadium.

A little closer view.

They were handing out free stuff so I grabbed a flag to wave during the game.  I also snagged a blow up seat cushion.  I didn't know what to cheer for really so whenever the crowd got excited I would wave my flag around yelling sounds like WOOOO! or YEAAAA!   Other than that the only time I knew when to cheer was when there was a "try" and the "extra point"

Here is the view from our seats of the stadium.  It was a relatively small stadium but beautiful in design and layout.

Introductions and pregame rituals

The first scrum of the match!

A throw-in!

You need to zoom in, but this is an extra point attempt!

http://www.superxv.com/video/waratahs-vs-crusaders-rd10-super-rugby-video-highlights-2012/waratahs-vs-crusaders-rd10-super-rugby-video-highlights-2012-video_99b94a5f6.html

Here is the link to the match highlights where you can see all the trys and extra points.

Here is a link to the rules of the game.

http://www.rugbyunionrules.com/rugby-positions/

The Waratahs ended up losing but it was a close match and it was very entertaining. I'm glad I got to experience a rugby match in Australia it was a very fun experience.