Winding Down

It's so weird to think that I'll be leaving in a week. It honestly feels like I just got here, just started to get accustomed to living here with 13 random people I've never met before. Honestly, if I could give any advice to anyone coming here, it would be to come in not knowing a soul. It has honestly been the greatest experience of my life coming here and getting to meet so many different people from so many different walks of life. I know I've defintitely found some people who I'll be friends with for the rest of my life.

Despite the sap and the sadness of leaving in a week, this past week has been pretty uneventful actually. We had quite a few things that we needed to do for class so we mostly spent this past week trying to finish papers and projects. Also, the weather was not cooperating and it decided to rain more on our last full week here.

But! It's always important to make the best of the situation and we managed to have some adventures anyway!

Like we went to Chinatown for class because apparently Sydney, and Australia as a whole, has been a place where Chinese immigrated to or came to visit!

(Addie, Katie and I got Bubble Tea in Chinatown)

Kieran and Britt, our RA's, were also super nice and got us free pizza one night! College kids love free food, and trust me, I love free food more than most...

We also took a field trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which was actually really cool and we got to see someone play the didgeridoo! We also got to go around and eat some of the plants that the tour guide said were edible. We had no idea, but we trusted him not to kill us...

(Dragon's Blood Tree)
This tree is so cool. Apparently its sap is red, so when it oozed out it looked like blood!

It also happened to be someone's birthday in the group so some of us got dressed up and went out to dinner for her birthday! It was really cute because it gave us a chance to celebrate and look nice as opposed to when we (mostly me) get up and go to class in just a huge sweatshirt and baggy pants.

(Shannon, Addie, Kelley, Katie, Ciarra, and I celebrating Kelley's birthday)

This same group, minus a couple, went to see a show because we wanted to be able to say we did... Most of us ended up leaving early because we got hungry, but the venue was cool!

(Oxford Art)

Also, because we won the scavenger hunt at the beginning of the trip, Kelley, Andrew, Shannon, Ciarra, and I went to the Sydney Sky Tower and we got some really, really gorgeous views of the city. We got to go at sunset, which is arguably the best time to go, and it was absolutely phenomenal. I'm generally pretty ambivalent toward towers because I've been in so many, but this probably had the prettiest views.

(Sydney Harbour, Harbour Bridge, and the Opera House)

The Harbour is kind of obstructed by buildings but if you look really closely you can see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House!

(Darling Harbour from above)

(Hyde Park and the Anzac Memorial)

I am so in love with Sydney, and I know it's going to be extremely difficult to leave. One more week! Definitely have to make the most of it. Just gotta finish all my homework first...