talk about a walk...

this week was full of interesting walks... the first was last saturday along the coast, from bondi to tamarama.  luckily, we caught a lovely day... warm and sunny!  the reason we made a special effort to do this walk was for the sea sculptures!  (see giant lightbulb made out of silver butterflies... where liz and i have just had a brilliant ah-hah moment!)  there were some crazy sculptures along the way.  luckily i appreciate most art, but i can't say that all of my friends do... haha.  but, basically it was a nice walk and interesting to see.  this is a yearly ordeal along the costal walk, and luckily we caught it!  new jersey should do something like this!!  the only thing that would have made it an even better event is would have been sand sculptures and sand castles!  that would have been the best!

and that was just the first walk of the weekend!  it was fairly short though.  the second one, however, i cannot say the same... it was a whopping 25km walk.  that's about 15.5 miles!  it's also a yearly thing here in sydney and it's to promote health.  it's called the seven bridges walk because it takes you over seven of the major bridges in sydney.  pretty awesome, huh?

well, a few of the bridges were cool.  definitely including the sydney harbour bridge in the cool ones.  and some were just your average bridges.  anyways, it was definitely a long walk... about a 6 hour walk!  8:45am start.  i sure did feel healthy after that one!!

as you can see there are some nice views and some great photos of me (and liz)!  oh and i got that great shot off the harbour bridge where you can also see the opera house in the background.  i know... i know... i'm just soooo cool.

in other news, i had a phone interview and a face to face meeting with someone from the big australian corporation about the office job i wanted.  and woo hooooo!!!  i'm now employed full-time.  normal hours, good pay.  oh yeahhhh.  i start on monday at the new job.  i'll be working for the help desk in the it department.  it'll definitely be something different for me, but it'll still be great office experience.  and this role is for a few months.

halloween is tomorrow.  nobody here really celebrates, but we're planning on getting spooked!  more on that next week.

same old, same old

weather in sydney this week has been pretty lame.  not enough sun, temperatures too low.  ehhh, what can you do.

basically, i gave notice at my job a while back because i decided i wasn't as happy as i have the potential to be.  so i just finished work at the place this week.  it's pretty sweet knowing that i don't have to go back there to work anymore!  no worries though, i have another part time job for now at a pizza place with my roommate... and get this!?!  it's called "the new jersey pizza company" and has all these different pizzas and meals and things named after places in jersey.  they definitely got a few things wrong... but they did give it a good try!  it just opened in september and so now they are going to have a second employee from jersey to make the place more authentic!  it's a really nice atmosphere and very chill.  it's a gourmet kind of pizza place... not like your normal jersey pizza place.  and it's fairly classy.  should be fun.  i also already went on an interview for an office job.  we'll see where that goes...

we had two visitors from jersey stay at our apartment this week.  friend's of liz from work.  it was really fun having visitors!  a nice change of pace.  and i got to play tour guide a bit.  being slightly knowledgeable about where you live is great for when you have guests who are unfamiliar with the area!  lots of fun... therefore, more guests would be appreciated in the future.  any takers?  haha.

that's about it for now.  nothing too new and exciting.  i'm still alive and well.  just fyi.

i always knew i was born to be an explorer

and this week has definitely been a week of exploration!  i walked to circular quay (where the sydney opera house is located) for the first time and, to my surprise, walked through the botanical gardens to get there.  the walk to get to circular quay is quite beautiful... i walk past old navy ships, along woolloomooloo bay (yes, that's really how you spell the name of the suburb/bay and yes, you pronounce it phonetically), up into the botanical gardens and from there, i can take one of many routes.  this week i did this walk three different times and saw three completely different parts of the botanical gardens which i hadn't explored before.  the walk is absolutely superb.

not only did i explore with the walk to circular quay, i also decided to take a sydney ferry for the first time.  only a short distance though.  i hopped on by the opera house and got off in darling harbour by the aquarium.  (it's a short distance and only a 20 min. walk probably, but i just felt like being on the water!)  the trip took about an hour and i was able to see a different view of the opera house, went under the bridge and past luna park.  the picture to the left, by the way, is of the entrance to luna park.  it's kind of creepy but i determined that it is the picture of the week.  luna park is the theme park in sydney.  it does not compare closely to six flags.  the tallest ride is the ferris wheel.  at the same time, i hope to make into luna park for a fun evening!  i love ferris wheels.... anyway, the ferry was  a nice ride (and didn't cost me anything as it is included with my weekly travel pass for the redline.)

what else did i explore... oh, i went into cadman's cottage which is the oldest building in sydney built in 1816 and used as the coxswain's barracks.  it was pretty cool.  nice and old and a piece of history.  i love this type of exploring... learning something about the past and appreciating what is left to tell the story.  and actually, in november i'm going to be taking part in an event in sydney called sydney open 08 and the city is opening 50 sites (both old and historical as well as new and contemporary architectural sites) for the public to explore on just the one day.  should be really interesting.

that just about wraps up my week... i wish i was going to my college's homecoming game this weekend... i'm a bit jealous of everyone who is going... but sydney is pretty cool too, i guess.  haha.  one evening this week i felt like i was back in america.  the us navy was in sydney for a few days and when i was out somewhere with liz, we found ourselves completely surrounded by american accents.  it was so strange and familiar and pretty cool.  they also played some r&b at the place which never happens because the aussies apparently love their dance techno-influenced music (which i have been growing to actually like, go figure).  the sailors' behaviors also screamed american... you have no idea.  oh, america.

2 months already!

i cannot believe that i have been living in australia for 2 months now!  time is moving too quickly!!  when i first came here, i was wearing sweaters, a coat, anything warm that i owned... and now i'm finding myself in t-shirts, a bathing suit, and without a jacket (most days).  the weather is getting much warmer at a rapid pace.  we've had 3 days since my arrival in the 90s!

since i'm a beach bum at my finest, i think i'll go whenever it's warm enough and i'm free of other responsibilities.  this is bondi beach.  i wish i had a panoramic setting to really show what it looks like.  it's absolutely beautiful.  a much smaller beach than those in jersey though!  i can't wait to take a surfing lesson and get in the water with the surfers!  it's incredible.

just figured i could be lame and write something in the sand.  but it's also true.  i do love Sydney.  it's diversity, relaxation, and freeing!  it's also huge and i have stayed in the main area of sydney nearest the cbd where all the action goes on.  there are markets in the streets open on the weekends, festivals planned in different suburbs all the time, and on any given day i definitely hear at least 5 different languages!  i just love it.

since i'm planning on living in sydney for a while, then i'm definitely going to try and see everything i possibly can in sydney (starting with the free stuff... haha).  luckily, i received two great city guides as going away gifts before i left the states and i've started to read them thoroughly.  they are really going to be playing a key part in my sightseeing!

today i had off from work because of yom kippur and decided to utilize one of the guide books!  i went to the royal botanical gardens in the city with my kiwi friend from work.  we took a walking tour, which was not nearly as lame as expected and definitely educational!  luckily, it was a beautiful day (about 70 degrees and sunny).  

here, i'm hugging the oldest and tallest tree in the park!  aren't i just so cute?

so there is this type of coniferous tree that was though to be extinct for thousands and thousands of years.  buuuut in the 90s, someone in australia stumbled upon this tree.  it goes way back.  way way back.  before the dinosaurs even.  and you can only see a small piece of it behind this statue thing, but the statue is part of the exhibit.  this piece of art has an engraving that says "i wish" because it used to be said that if you walk three steps forward, three steps back and made a wish in front of the tree, it would come true.  something like that, i can't remember exactly.  i wasn't giving my full 100% attention.  anyway, there are a bunch of these no longer extinct trees in australia, but only a few people know their locations and are keeping them a secret from the general public so that they aren't damaged/chopped down.  go plant a tree!

now this one is at the entrance to the palace garden (?) at the botanical gardens.  there were many a statute like this one, but she looked like a better friend than the one across from here that was missing an arm.  she was pretty cool.  very shy though, didn't talk much.  hah.

mmm... smell so gooooood.  

i <3>

look how huge this tree is.  awesome.  just awesome.

dun dun duuuuuun... a few pictures!

the last of the states for the time being.  we decided to live it up in the airport while we waited to board the plane for our longggg trip.

awww... look at my little friend!  what a cute koala.  but pretty darn smelly.

out by the bridge!  lovely day. (clearly these aren't exactly in order)

feeding a kangaroo!!  they are such funny animals.

giant turtle.  this one is for 1884.  i just know how much you all love turtles.

liz & i at one of the gorgeous vineyards in hunter valley.

looks like i made a friend at the zoo!  haha.

and one of my personal favorites... me outside of the opera house!  love it.