Blue Mountains and more

It's been awhile since I've updated this thing, life gets busy and you don't even realize it sometimes. A few weekends ago, I went rock climbing and abseiling (repelling) somewhere near by, not sure, but the place is called 'monkey face.' It was good fun, except for the leeches..... Could not shed them for the life of you, every 5 min another one would somehow manage to get on your legs, or arms, or neck! I didn't get a picture of the leeches, for those who have weak stomachs, but I did finally get a picture of a "goanna," it was up a tree in our campground. Here's some pictures from the weekend:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056919&id=49009102&l=e637c217ad

Later I was able to attend a local soccer match, the Newcastle Jets vs. a Korean team. We ended up getting seats 5 rows from the field, midfield, and enjoyed a great game. We won 2-0, and the crowd was insane! Australians know how to cheer for their team. Last weekend I went bush walking in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are absolutely gorgeous, if you come to Australia, you have to go visit them. They are called "blue" from a blue haze emitted from the all the eucalyptus leaves. To get there, we traveled 5 hours by train, and then hiked 6 hours down into a valley and camped near the blue gum forest. The next day we got up and hiked into the blue gum forest, and then started the climb up and out of the valley. We made it out in a little under 4 1/2 hours, but spent the last 45 min or so pushing ourselves to catch a train. It is a little rigorous trying to catch a train after 2 days of hiking with a 15 kilo pack on your back. Needless to say, we did catch the train, perfect timing. The pictures really do not do the blue mountains justice, but they will have to do.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057378&id=49009102&l=82ea8a4618

Today my host family took me and my friend from Korea to the Kurri Kurri Nostalgic Festival. I was rather impressed by how many people were out there, Kurri Kurri is kind of in the middle of nowhere, but people came from all over to go to this weekend festival. It was nice to see some good ol' American muscle, my pictures are slightly biased in that regard, sorry. They also had 6 stages set up with bands playing all the time. The band I have pictures of were the main guys this afternoon, not to bad, the saxophonist was tearing it up, but I can't really say the same for the other guys. All in all though, not to bad. Lots of 40s, 50s, and 60s music, cars, clothes, and dancing. All around a really nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. After that, we drove up to Mt. Sugarloaf, the highest peak in the area, and took a few pictures. I guess that's all for now, currently I'm working on my Easter break vacation plans, once they get solidified, I will post them here.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057821&id=49009102&l=d38bd0d78e

1st trip to Sydney

This week was my 1st week of school. Very casual for the most part, but I do already homework (bummer) Their university system for the most part is similar to the US, but it does have some key differences. Their maximum course load is equivalent to 12 hours in the US, or our minimum. For one course, you usually have a 2 hour lecture once a week, along with a 1 hour tutorial, also once a week. They expect you to do a lot more independent studying than I think they do in the US as well. I don't expect to encounter any big problems, a business degree for the most part is pretty universal, however, my finance class deals directly with their system of government and taxation, which is different from the US, so I will have to do a lot of research in that area. But, I'm looking forward to it, I think it will be interesting to see a different way of doing it.

Friday I went to Sydney for the day. It was about a 3 hour train ride from Newcastle to Central Station in Sydney. Once we got to Sydney, we walked through Hyde Park and went into St. Mary's Cathedral. I wasn't able to take pictures inside, but it was quite beautiful. Apparently it just recently underwent a huge restoration project because the sandstone was becoming discolored due to the pollution in the air. It looked very nice, wasn't as big as the cathedrals in Europe, but still massive. Then we continued up to The Royal Botanic Gardens and the New South Wales Art Museum. The botanic gardens were huge, we didn't see all of them. They had all kinds of plants, even cactus (I was home almost for a moment!) However, the park was infested with bats, or "flying foxes." The bat's natural habit is being destroyed, so they are moving more into urban areas to find food. The art museum was free, so of course we went in. They had a nice variety of all kinds of art styles, the aboriginal art was probably the most interesting.

From there we ended up at the Opera House, which was really amazing to see in real life. I wanted to take a tour, but it was rather expensive, so we didn't. But, I do plan on seeing a concert there before I leave. Then we walked around to this area called "the rocks," which is where the 1st settlers came to Australia. All of the buildings are built out of rocks, apparently by convicts. Then we walked back into the center of Sydney to Chinatown. It was very crowded, but was also the 1st place we found where you could eat something that was less than $15. (Sydney is very expensive) Finally, we found an Irish pub and had a Guinness, a great way to end a full day of walking and sight seeing. It was a very short trip, but I do plan on going back a few times before I leave. I saw a lot of really cool things I would love to sketch. I am having problems posting photos here, so I have a link below that goes straight to all of my photos from this trip. I will continue to figure out how to post more photos here, but until then, enjoy below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056320&id=49009102&l=1aafa