ADVENTURES in Port Stephens....

 Things I learned this weekend:

1.     Animal cruelty is prevalent in Australia.

2.     I love BU kids (cant stress this enough).

3.     Rude people are THE worst.

4.     I would rather shave my head than work in a brewery.

5.     Whales aren’t all that exciting.

6.     Buses with neon colored seats with 80s designs on them make me nauseous (I actually knew that already but I was reminded..)

7.     I’m an inconsistent bowler.

8.     Always pack/have access to extra rubber-bands.

9.     Peter and I both want 5 kids (except he wants to name one girl “Evelyn”…so that’s where our similarities end…)

10. Camels (specifically ones named ‘cookie’) don’t enjoy torrential downpours.

11. I still enjoy pasta and hot dogs as much as I did the first time I ate them.

12. I’m an atrocious competitor…on and off the field.

So…let me rewind a bit and tell you how I came to these conclusions…

So the BU group that went on this trip (about 25 of us) all met the bus at 7:00pm on Friday night. We were informed that there would be another group of 25 (ish) American students joining us this weekend (aka sharing the bus, the hotel, etc). After driving a few hours and watching “Something about Mary” (very hilarious) we got to our hotel…which happened to be super nice. I think nice hotels here are really cheap or something cause we keep getting put in these very nice places? Anyway, we wake up the next morning at an alarmingly early time for a Saturday morning…7am. 

 

our huge kitchen...

After walking to get some breakfast we head to our first activity…"the shark and ray center." I was very much looking forward to this adventure because I (very wrongly) assumed I would be swimming with large sharks - which is something on my bucket list. However, I was very wrong. The center was a large (animal cruelty) warehouse with 4 or so “pools” with water that reached just to your thigh. First obligation was to put on some “water shoes” and some “gloves”…these were indescribably disgusting and unsanitary. After putting those on (about 8:45am at this point) we dove (aka took a step down) into the water. There was actually one pool with some 7ft shark in it that was cool! However, I am pretty sure they were sedated because they just floated around while we attempted to feed them/touch them. There was one particularly large shark who was trying to squeeze itself under the steps…which I believe was his attempt at suicide (don’t blame him at all considering his living conditions). I lasted for approximately 4.5 minutes in the water and decided to get out and wash my feet and hands off and be the designated photographer. The stingrays were actually really cool though.. There was one about the size of a queen sized bed (weird comparison but I cant think of anything else?)..his name was George. While this place was very misleading, unsanitary, and inhumane for animals to live in…most people enjoyed it. SO that’s the good news. Also, one of the kids from the other group got KICKED OUT for trying to PIN DOWN one of the sharks/rays. So that was our first clue that this group had no understanding of acceptable behavior...

Unsanitary "swim booties" we had to wear...

poor stingray eating shrimp off a stick..

 

ANIMAL CRUELTY - baby sharks and stingray attempting to have a conversation through the glass....:(

We then went on about a 30 min hike to the top of this little mountain that had this GORGEOUS view overlooking the ocean/other mountains. The climb up was one of the more physically challenging things ive ever done. It was almost at a complete 90 degree angle with the ground. So VERY steep, by anyone’s measures. But the view from the top was awesome and I actually really liked the hike. 

 

 

We then went back to the hotel to shower and get lunch and met up a few hours later to go whale watching. For some reason, I was THRILLED about this whale-watching trip. It probably had to do with the incredibly MISLEADING brochure. The brochure, which 100% lied, had a giant whale springing out of the beautifully calm ocean. It also “GUARANTEED” a whale spotting. So we get on the boat and start heading out to sea. As the land gets farther away from us the waves start getting bigger and bigger. Thank the LORD for Lisa because she gave me some Dramamine before we got on. I can not thank Lisa enough. There were definitely points were I was wondering what the protocal was for boats like this capsizing. I was particularly worried about my camera. A bunch of us sat up on the top deck for the HOUR PLUS long journey out there. At this point it was about 2pm, and the “other group” was drunkenly dancing and screaming on the top deck and trying to “defy gravity” by attempting to not fall down as the boat rocked…and laugh hysterically every time they did. It was probably the peak of my frustration. Other than that, I actually had a lot of fun on the way out there! Peter and I had a beautiful conversation about “torture methods” that we had read/heard about. I could go on about this for an entire post but I wont...
So about 2 hours in, I realized that there HAD NOT BEEN ANY WHALES. I was searching the treacherous seas like an insane person when finally we (aka the captain) spotted two big humpbacks breaching at the front of the boat. After a boxing-out challenge (which I obviously won with flying colors) with a very serious and evil middle-aged woman, I got a pretty good view of them. This part was actually pretty cool and I wish I would have gotten some better pics but I didn’t! sorry! On the way back we saw a playful little baby whale jumping around which was so cute (I thought it was a giant dolphin)!! Unfortunately about 1/4^th of the boat was barfing over the balcony the ENTIRE time…which I honestly cant imagine how awful that must have been for them. So I am once again, very VERY grateful for Lisa. 

 

all the sea sick people  : (

After the boat ride, we headed to the vineyard/brewery where we had a tour, tastings, and free pizza! The tour was boring (again, mostly only for me) and I don’t like wine or beer so the tastings didn’t happen for me, unfortunately. The warehouse that they actually brew the beer in smelled worse than I could possibly imagine anything smelling. Ever. It was very hard to breathe. Basically impossible. However, the pizzas were great and I got some good pics! The vineyard was really pretty too!

 

 

After that, we headed back for the hotel and some people went out to THE bar in town (as in the only bar in town). It closed at 11pm. I chose to stay in and play gin rummy and finish my book (which I didn’t even read 1 page of before I fell asleep).

Sunday morning (aka this morning), we woke up at 7am, again. The original plan for today was to wake up and go ride camels on the beach, go dune boarding and go karting. However, those are all outdoor activities and there just happened to be a monsoon outside. SO, after a talk with Tasha (the trip coordinator) we decided that there would be a vote on whether or not we would go ahead with the camel riding/dune boarding (in the rain) or wait and see if it clears up. We were even warned that “the camels might not move in the rain.” There was a vote (followed by a cheering celebration from the "other group")…the groups split straight down the middle…and “the other group” (aka non-BU kids) won the vote 28-27. So we were off to ride camels and go dune boarding in a monsoon…………. (this actually was probably the peak of my frustration). 

The dune boarding was actually super fun!! The rain stopped for about 20 min so it turned out OK. It looked like we were in the middle of the Sahara desert! If the sky were actually bright blue (like it is 95% of the time here), I would have been able to get THE BEST pictures.. : ( The only bad part was the excruciating winds that blew the sands against our bodies until our skin was raw. Peter informed the group at one point that “there was a moment I truly thought I was going to die. I thought, well, this is it guys.”

 

After about 30 min of that, we went to get on the camels for a short walk around the beach. I was pretty excited about that as well!

Peter and I shared a camel. Her name was Cookie. She was insanely irritable and definitely depressed about her living conditions (very understandable) as well as the weather conditions (also understandable). She was also desperately in need of a bath/shampoo.
Cal, one of the BU staff who came with us, is beyond hilarious and VERY sarcastic. He suggested that they specifically use “Tresemme” to get her tangles out...which made me laugh!! As soon as the camels started walking, the rain started up again and there was a DOWNPOUR. Again, if it weren’t for the rain, I could have gotten the BEST pictures because it was so cool! We were surround on one side with sand dunes and the other side was the ocean. You couldn’t see anything else! It was really fun!

Trooper

Candy

Cookie and I (didnt want her to bite my face off)

Peter, Cookie and I (Cookie's smile is NOT sincere)

Sweet Joe : )

Jedda and Cal :)

 

At this point I was SOPPING wet and it was time to get back on the bus for our 3 hours ride back home. ….

Sopping wet hair/clothes + felt (itchy) neon colored bus seats = my idea of hell

I couldn’t deal with this even for .2 seconds and luckily I was one of the 1^st people back on the bus..so I went underneath the bus (thanks to the help of the driver) and dug through the luggage to find my bag and retrieve dry clothes..I then preceded to get 100% naked in the back of the bus and change. There was NO OTHER option. This was probably rock bottom.

Even my most optimistic friend, Maggie, was miserable. They gave most wet people TRASH BAGS to sit on until we got somewhere to change. Can you please imagine for a second the following  : the noise/feeling of the trash bags sticking to your wet skin. while riding a bus.
Oh and the smell of 50 wet people in a small enclosed area. It was just delightful!!!!!!!!!!

Maggie : )

Oh, I forgot…the “other group” was CHUGGING boxed wine at 930am in the morning on the bus/while dune boarding…they were wasted, loud and BEYOND RUDE. The only positive thing that came from there existence is my new-found appreciation for BU. There was a pretty obvious rivalry by the end of the trip between the two groups….

So since go karting was canceled, we ended the trip with bowling…which was probably one of the highlights of the trip, oddly. I even made multiple strikes and was (probably) considered by some a STAR. Also the highest scorer of the whole group got a prize…and every BU person was pulling SO hard for a BU person to win instead of someone from the “other group.” THANK THE LORD Tom won.GO TOM!!

SO… the trip was very misleading. HOWEVER, I don’t regret going because I got to see/do a lot of new things and I laughed a ton!!!! SO yeah, that was Port Stephens...

This week is going to be hell because it is exam week and I have a huge paper due Friday…however, after Friday is SPRING BREAK!! WOO!! So I will keep yall updated!! Miss you all!!!!! xoxo

A trip to Melbourne!!

HEY EVERYONE!!

Sorry I have been slacking on the posts. I know yall have been checking for updates religiously…

Anyway, so I just got back from Melbourne on Wednesday night. Melbourne is a more artsy and cultural than Sydney, which I really liked! It was so much more different than I thought it would be. We left early on Sunday morning and flew down there…it was only an hour and half flight. It was super easy. We stay at “Mantra on the park” in downtown Melbourne. It was SO nice. We (4 to a room) all got our own beds and kitchens and balconies. There was a pool and a sauna and the view was super pretty! The picture below is a view from our balcony at night. Some of the other rooms had WAY better veiws though…but I didn’t get a picture. 

The view from our balcony at night..

Our beautiful room..

View during the day..

So after we got there around 2pm on Sunday, my Mass Media class had a tour of the ACMI, the Australian Center for the Moving Image. It’s this (controversial) hideously-designed but amazing museum in Federation Square which is the center of downtown Melbourne. They had costumes and props from a bunch of famous movies, they had some Oscars there (like Cate Blanchets) from Australians who had donated them..They had all this awesome interactive stuff too..You could create your own animation, play all these games, and play with the green screen. It was super high-tech and really really fun! So after that tour (if you want to call it that?).

ACMI museum 

That night basically everyone went out and I thought I was hallucinating I was so tired so I stayed in, like “the 90-year-old woman” I am (according to Peter). However, my two friends, Maggie and Becca stayed in too and we basically exchanged life stories and stayed up talking for a few hours! They are in the “education” part of this program…so instead of classes and internships like the rest of us, they teach at a school in Sydney 5 days a week. They are the first people I met when I got here and I forced them to be friends with me : ) They are super great!

The ‘rule’ was that you were there for 3 full days and you had to do 2 academic tours…we got to pick out of a big list. They only last a few hours so they would only take up your morning or afternoon so it wasn’t bad at all.

On Monday, Pascal took like 8 of us on our first tour. It was basically a casual stroll through Melbourne…we stopped at some cool/famous alleys, restaurants, bars, etc. Bascially wherever Pascal felt like stopping, we stopped. 

Alexa : )

Pascal and Nick. 

This bar is called the "Horse Bazaar"...and while you are there there are different images that are projected onto the walls..its like moving artwork. It so awesome!

We ended in “Fitzroy”, a suburb of Melbourne…its kind of like a much cooler Carborro (that’s the hippie area next to Chapel Hill for people that don’t know). We took a short tram there and ate $4 pizza at this really awesome/weird/creepy bar called “Bimbo Delux.” It had baby doll heads hanging from the wall and all these awesome lanterns everywhere and it was basically a big living room with couches and tables and you ate cheap food. It was great! After the tour ended, Ishtar and I walked around for a bit and looked in all the vintage/thrift shops. They had endless amounts of skull things that I loved! Oh and mom/Nancy, they also had a shop with tons of random creatures/gadgets and stationary that you would LOVE!! 

That night we went out with my friend Kelly’s friend from home (also named Kelly) who is studying abroad in Melbourne. She was on Spring Break so all of her friends were out of town..also, since we were there Sun-Tues, the nights were pretty quiet. We ended up going to this fun bar called “Turfs” and dancing and drinking there for awhile…until Peter and I decided we would rather be eating McDonalds ice cream and got a cab home. We had to settle for “Hungry Jacks” (exact same as Burger King)…thats when I discovered the most mouth-watering  (American fast food) dish in Australia…the Hungry Jacks chicken wrap (just $3.45). There is no point in going into detail because you wont even understand…but for everyone from Pawleys…it reminds me of those delicious Pita Rollz subs they used to have. UN-BE-LEVABLE.

Tuesday was my day of no tours. So I went shopping downtown. I also walked through the market and picked up some gifts for you people at home : )

I got some great things and finally got this bag I have been staring at for the past month!! So WOO.

That night Ishtar and I didn’t feel like going out so we went to this Italian place that we were forced to go to. This man on the side of the road, Bobby, basically harassed us until we went there. Sophie, I am very unsure of how you would have handled yourself in this scenario…it was a very strange publicity move…however, it ended up being amazing! I had the best spicy pasta with chicken..we also ended up getting some of the best ice cream on the way home that I have had since I have been here! Then Kelly, Ishtar and I ordered a movie at the hotel and passed out….

Wednesday was my 2^nd/last tour…it was a tour through all the “laneways” (or alleys) of Melbourne that were decked out in graffiti. It was SO entertaining. I am 100% sure that if/when my career falls apart I want to become a street artist (by the way that is different that a graffiti artist). We learned all about the underground graffiti culture and how it is SUPER famous in Melbourne. Even though it is illegal, like everywhere else, it has become one of the biggest tourist attractions in Australia. Its so cool!! I couldn’t stop taking pictures….as you can tell..(the rest of them are in my facebook album)

After the tour I decided to wander around by myself and have lunch down by Federation square/by the river and take some pics. I walked down the river and through the market and went to a cool contemporary art museum...

..Then, sadly, we headed to the airport that evening and got back to Sydney around 10pm...

And now, 48 hours later, I am about to leave (in a few hours) to go to Port Stephens for the weekend! We have so much planned (camel riding, swimming with sharks, dune bigging, etc.) that I will fill you in on next week!!  I am SOO excited!

Next week we have class everyday and exams…so it will suck..but once Friday is over, I AM DONE and it is SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!! So tune in for that soon!! : ) 

I miss you ALL ... 

xo, Bess.