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