Photographs galore!

Well, things have most definitely gotten a little busier down here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! Another week of class is done, and the third is underway. I still don’t have my books or my uniform. I’ve pretty much given up hope! If they try to give me my uniform in the sixth week, like they did for someone last term, I will say no thank you, I will take my thousand dollars you made me pay for a really ugly suit!

On Sunday the 17^th we had our sunset harbor cruise of Sydney…which, with our luck, turned into a cloudy-sky-with-spattering-rain-showers cruise. We still managed to have fun, though it seemed like we were sailing all the way to America. It was about a four hour long ride, and we just went from the harbor into the bay, and back and forth. Two hours of it would have been perfect, but oh well. I managed to get some decent pictures, even though we were on a moving boat in wavy water. They’re posted online, here’s the link:

http://gvsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2182835&l=9ed8c&id=22414798

We got an interesting project in my marketing class last week: our marketing teams had to create a new toy for Mattel and pitch it to our teacher. My group of seven students ended up making Stackos, which we based off of those large cardboard bricks that used to be in the nursery at church (if you know what I’m talking about). We modified them into basically giant legos made out of stress-ball material. Our presentation went quite well, one other girl and myself did the pitch. I’ll let you know in the next post if my group won or not!

The rest of my classes were mediocre-my facilities management class we got an hour and a half to read in class. Wow, I don’t think I’ve had that since about 8^th grade. It was absolutely ridiculous and a complete waste of time. Some of these people would simply die in school in America.

On Tuesday evening I went to a small home group with some of the people that I met at church the Sunday before. It was nice to meet some people not from school and share our views with each other. We had dinner, did some bible study and took impromptu communion using champagne and white bread. (Our hearts were in the right place!) I think I’ll go back tonight.

Wednesday was the best beach day I’ve seen so far. It was ridiculously hot, and the waves were huge! I went down after my only class that day, from 8-10, and laid our and swam from about 10:30 until 3:30. That’s a really long time when it’s that hot out! It was pure bliss.

This weekend consisted of tons of sun! We went to the beach on Saturday and coerced the Australian guys to watch a chick flick with all us girls that night, binging on chips and salsa, hazelnut chocolate bars and Tim-Tams, my new favorite cookie.

Sunday was the ZOO! We left really early (okay, around 8:45) to catch a ferry and then another ferry to get to Taronga Zoo in Sydney. It was such a perfect day to spend walking around and looking at all the animals. Let me tell you, these animals have the best views of the city-no joke! Check out the backgrounds in the photos…another link is at the bottom. We saw all sorts of crazy animals, but no dingos. There were kangaroos, penguins, lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), meercats, elephants and giraffes, among many others. We could walk right through with the smaller kangaroos, but the elephants were definitely my favorite (big surprise right, like mother like daughter!). They were having so much fun, playing in the water for such a long time! The second time we went by the giraffes they were being fed, so that was neat.

There were originally near 25 of us that ended up meeting up at the zoo, so we broke off. After some miscommunication and waiting around, Perri, Kari (she’s from Central) and I decided to hop the next ferry. We were supposed to all have lunch at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks, (cheap and really good food), but we didn’t know if they would be there or not, and none of us knew where the restaurant was, so we headed back to Manly. Pear and I got some ice cream, and just had dinner at school. Church was at 6:30, then I met up with my marketing group to finalize our presentation that we had to give the following day.

All of Monday I was high on life. I had caffeine in the morning, which helped exceptionally, but I knew what I had to look forward to that night…a Motion City Soundtrack concert!! It was to be my fourth time seeing them. Opening for them were Mae, Sugarcult and Cartel…three more of my favorite bands. I knew it was going to be the show of a lifetime. It started at 6:00, and I had class until 4:30. As soon as I got out, my friends Andy, Chad and myself went down and caught the ferry into Sydney. The place where our boat ported was right next to the Queen Elizabeth II (think Parent Trap). We had a little time to spare once we got there, so we decided to grab some fish and chips from a stand. We got a dinner for two, thinking we could just eat it fast and run. However, we received such a massive amount of food that it was crazy! It was delicious, of course, as we burned our fingers with dripping hot grease trying to eat as fast as we could.

As soon as we scarfed the food, we caught a cab to take us to the Metro, where the show was. What we didn’t take into account was the time, and it was almost 6:00. The traffic was horrendous. We rode about two blocks in 10 minutes and I was freaking out because we were missing Mae. I convinced the boys to get out and run the rest of the way. Dumb idea on my part…running about 12 city blocks with two rather fit and in shape guys…I was quite grateful when we got stopped at a crosswalk! We made it there in record time, dodging business men the entire time, and run inside and upstairs to find that a local band was playing before any of the big acts! Thank goodness we didn’t miss them. Celebratory libations were in order, then we walked right up to the second row on the floor-the place was pretty empty. I think we were among the oldest people there, most were about 16 year old kids. After the local band was done, Mae came up and rocked, followed by Sugarcult, who are getting so old and fat that it’s hilarious. One of the guitarists surfed into the crowd right by us and stole Chad’s beer! He gave it back though, and proceeded to take a huge swig of his own and spit it all of us…gross. Cartel was next, and by this point in time it had gotten more crowded, though there were probably only 250 people in the entire venue it was so small. Andy, Chad and I devised what we called “The Pyramid,” with me in the second row, and them right behind me so that we could keep our spots right in the front middle of the stage. Motion City was out of control awesome. I ended up being sandwiched in between these two guys in the second row, the one on my right trying to get into my space. The kid on my left, probably about 16, kept telling me to push him out of the way, and he ended up helping me with joint pushing. Oh concert fun! After the show was over (ending with “I’m on Fire,” same as all of the other three concerts I’ve been to!) we wanted to try to get backstage or at least find out where all the guys were going. We ended up meeting the singer from Sugarcult and got our picture taken with him.

After catching the very last ferry out of Sydney back to Manly, we sat on the back of the ferry outside, just the three of us, looking at the stars and the gorgeous glowing city. Once back in Manly, we got some pizza and made the walk up the hill. It truly was an awesome night! Here are the pictures from the zoo and the concert:

http://gvsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2183932&l=0de64&id=22414798

Cheers and enjoy the photos!
MJ

Fun facts:
True blue=through and through or to the core
Mobile=cell phone
Full on=right on
Reckon=they say it all the time!