Fun-Filled Weekends

This homestay type thing has worked out really nicely so far for Sterling and me. Andrew, Marion, and Lilly are the cutest little family and we have gotten the chance to get to know them pretty well in the short time we have been here. They already feel like family to us. They are really fun to be around-- we tease each other about accents and American vs. Aussie slang quite often and just have an all around good time. They are genuinely nice people and have gone out of their way to make sure that we make the most out of our trip in The Lucky Country.

Lilly-- So cute!

Last weekend, before we headed to the Blue Mountains, Andrew and Marion told us to hop in the car so we did even though we had no idea where we were going. They ended up driving us around to some really neat places nearby that we would have probably not known existed if they didn't take us. This is one of the major pros of living with an Australian fam. We drove through Dapto, Jamberoo, Berry, and Kiama where we saw the Kiama Blowhole. Sterling and I would definitely like to go there again sometime. We ate lunch at the Gerroa Fisherman's Club. The view of the water was gorgeous AND believe it or not I actually ate fish! It was alright I guess haha. 


Yesterday (Sat.), we went on another little road trip, this time to Kangaroo Valley where Sterling had his first meat pie and where we got to see the Hampden Bridge, Jervis Bay where we will be going camping and taking surfing lessons in October, and Hyams beach. Once again these places were stunning. My favorite was Jervis Bay-- I can't wait to go back! 

Jervis Bay

Today, Sterling and I climbed Mt. Kiera with Lindsey (our friend who goes to Uni with us at Gettysburg). It was quite a workout! We went the wrong direction a couple of times but the forest was so beautiful it was all worth it. At the top we could see all of The Gong, Fairy Meadow, and the ocean. It was such a clear, beautiful day so we could see extremely far. We ate lunch in a little restaurant on top of the mountain. We were starving after those couple hours of bush walking! 

Wollongong

When we got home, Sterling and I went to a Rugby League game with Marion right here in Wollongong. It was a great experience, even though I don't quite have all of the rules down. I would definitely like to go again!

I can't wait to see what next weekend brings our way... hopefully not too much school work :)


ps... Sterling often reads over these blogs and adds things I forget so it's not all just me talkin' :D

Blue Mountains Trip

Last week was cold and raining non-stop so Sterling and I were not so excited about the trip to the Blue Mountains anymore; however, we ended up having a blast! We both had our first experience staying in a hostel. It took about two and a half hours to get there and when we arrived we got settled in our rooms (our room had 12 people in it) then we had pizza in the lounge area and got to know everyone. I do not think there could have been a more awesome group of people. We were all international students from either the US, Canada, Mexico, England, Norway, or Switzerland. I expected everyone to stay with people from their own countries for the most part because people usually stick to what they know, but everyone seemed to mesh and truly make an effort to get to know everyone on the trip and it was awesome. 

Part of our room in the hostle 

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast in the hostel, and then headed to the Mountain where we would be abseiling. It was drizzling when we left and quite foggy so it was difficult to see the beautiful scenery at first, but it ended up clearing up and being a nice day. Abseiling was scary at first but a lot of fun! The scariest part was taking the first couple of steps over the edge of the cliff and then it wasn't so bad from there. The first cliff was for learning the technique and was only 5 meters high. I think it was actually the hardest because it wasn't exactly vertical-- it had a little bit of an outward curve to it. It seems as though it would be easier that way but you are supposed to walk down the cliff with your legs straight and perpendicular to the rocks. It was hard not to bend them and let them get too far below your hips on the first cliff. Also, the cliff was a little bit slippery because since it wasn't quite vertical, the water wasn't able to run off as well. I actually slipped and lost my footing on my very first try because it was wet any I led my feet get too low but everything was fine and I kept going! It actually made me feel more confident because I knew what would happen if I were to lose my footing on the higher cliffs. If the rope is pulled tightly, you cannot move, so when that happened, the guys at the top and bottom of the cliff pulled the rope tightly and I just stayed right where I was. When I got my feet in position, I was able to keep feeding the rope through and continue down the cliff. The next cliff was higher, but easier in my opinion. It was 15 meters high with a free fall at the end. Sterling got all fancy on this one and went side to side and tried some jumps. The final cliff was 30 meters high and pretty scary at first. Maybe I shouldn't have looked down right before I jumped... Anyways, it was amazing once I got over that initial fear of going over the ledge. There was a big free fall at the bottom where you just sit in your harness and lower yourself on the rope and you slowly spin down and are able to see the mountains and valley. It was incredible!

First jump!!

Attractive gear

Sterling free falling the last bit of the 3rd cliff

After everyone had finished, we hiked back to the bus and went into town for lunch. Later, we went sight seeing. Our first stop was to see the Three Sisters. They are a sacred rock formation to the Aboriginal people. There are many legends as to how they got there. Here is one of them if you are interested. We saw them from the overlook and then we got to hike down the mountain a little ways to actually be able to touch one of them. An Aboriginal man was actually visiting the formation and took our group's picture there. In the evening, we went out to dinner as a group and got to know each other even more.

The Three Sisters

The Four Sisters (haha) @ Echo Point

The AWESOME group next to one of the sisters

Sunday morning, we packed our things, ate brekkie, then headed out to hike down the side of the mountain. We saw spectacular views such as the Katoomba waterfall and the gorgeous valley which was filled with fog. We then rode the steepest railway in the world back up the mountain. Finally, we jumped on the bus for the last leg of our trip. We drove a couple of yours to Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to see tons of Australian animals, most of which we were allowed to pet. I fed a kangaroo and we got to pet Koalas. They are so soft and cute! The Tazmanian devil was really funny. It just sprinted around in circles for the longest time and occasionally stopped for a split second to change directions. There was also a Dingo fam-- So cute! After the wildlife park we came back to The Gong. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! :D

Fog-filled valley of the Blue Mountains

Katoomba Waterfall

Koala!

Feeding a roo

Adorable dingo pups

Familiarizing

Since Saturday Joy and I have been focused on getting settled. We have had two wonderful dinners with our hosts, and finally got everything moved in this evening. We live in Fairy Meadow, a town/neighborhood of Wollongong. We are equidistant between a mountain with a gorgeous view, and a beautiful beach. However, the weather has not been pleasant (lots of rain and wind the past few days)-- so we've been riding the bus around and been getting acquainted.

On Tuesday we had Wollongong orientation, which was also cut a bit short (at least on tours and the outdoor lawn), and met some more people and found out some cool things about the Uni. Although orientation is supposed to prepare us for a good semester ahead, I don't think either of us are ready for a real class. Oh well, we will be! We spent most of today walking around the campus and the town, and stopped this morning for a date in the coffee shop to share a package of TimTams (delicious chocolate cookies here) and a hot chocolate. Normally, we wouldn't share ONE hot chocolate, but it's 4 dollars here, (ouch) and we do what we must. We came home and prepared dinner and had a great time with our house-mates Yuji and Leaf, and learned a lot about both of them.

I'm writing this more as a fill in of what is to come, because for the next few days we will be all around. Starting early Friday we will be on an orientation trip to the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains look like a beautiful place and we will be rappelling and climbing, hopefully for some great pictures for all to see. The weather looks like it will continue to rain, but perhaps that just means giant rainbows are to come. Then we return Sunday afternoon; however, after that school begins on Monday! Hope we're ready!

Arcadia Orientation: St. Kilda, Sorrento, Melbourne

After about 20 hours of pain-free airtime (believe it or not) we finally made it to Australia! The flights really could not have gone any more smoothly. We kept ourselves busy by either watching movies or sleeping for the most part and arrived at the Melbourne airport around 8 am on Wednesday our time (so about 6 in the evening back home)... we actually skipped Tuesday all together. We were greeted be the awesome Arcadia staff. They are associated with Arcadia University in PA but are from Sydney and were there to help us transition to life in Australia... or "straya" as the Aussies pronounce it. 

On the way to the orientation guesthouse in Sorrento, we stopped in St. Kilda for a couple hours for lunch and to look around. We got our first taste of culture shock while eating lunch. The prices are a bit expensive, however tax is included in everything and you are not supposed to tip because minimum wage is about $20 (AUD). The orientation leaders explained that because waiters are paid well and don't depend on tips, they are not as motivated to give the best service. Our waitress was just fine, although she did look at our friend Lindsey as if she had two heads when she asked for a "regular" coffee. After lunch we walked to the pier to find some penguins (yes, there was even a sign that said they lived there... We thought our orientation leader was pulling our leg) but we didn't have any luck.

St. Kilda

We boarded the bus around 2-ish and headed to Sorrento. When we arrived, we got settled in our cute little rooms, had a couple of meetings, had a delicious dinner, had a final meeting, and finally I was ready to go to sleep at 8:30. Unfortunately, the next morning I was wide awake by 4:30. Jet lag is not so fun. Anyways, we had a few more short meetings about what we are expecting to get out of this experience, financial issues, and housing; then we were able to go out to the town for lunch and go see the beach. One of the orientation leaders described the beach as "not your average little manicured beach but rather raw, rugged beauty" (of course this was all in her cute Australian accent :) This place was incredible! I could not stop taking pictures and the pictures I captured do no justice whatsoever. It was truly amazing. Finally we had another really awesome dinner, some free time, and then later in the evening, we learned some traditional Aussie dances and listened to music from the Bushwazzie Band-- I unfortunately still cannot get one of the songs out of my head... "G'day g'day! How ya goin'?".... And alas even though I had planned to stay up to try and get over the jet lag, I just could not keep my eyes open and fell asleep around 9. 

Sorrento

The next morning (Friday) I slept all the way to 6:30. We had breakfast and one quick meeting before packing up our things and taking off to see some wild kangaroos. Seeing the roos was an awesome experience. There were so many of them! Also, the landscape was so beautiful. I went off on my own to get some good pictures (surprised?) and I got so close to one! I had to be within a meter or two! (Trying to switch to metric because that's what they do here) Sterling and I spoke about the magnificence of the entire area-- one second we were on a beautiful beach, next in the wild aussie bush, and the next we reached the happening city of Melbourne. We went on a walking tour with the orientation people, and then set off to explore the city. We had some lunch on Federation Square, went back to the hotel to check in, then explored the city for a while. We found an internet cafe, where I sat down to message home. Then we were back in the hotel where some of the students had a penthouse room (two stories and all) and we hung out there for a while. We went to Chinatown for dinner, at a place called Ants Bistro. Then we met up with John Hill from Gettysburg at the Turf Club, where they held an Australian themed party! It was great to see him and meet some of the friends he had made while preparing for school at the Uni in Melbourne. It turned out that some of the students on orientation with us knew some of his friends, and they came back to the hotel to see each other! The whole experience in the city was amazing, and we went to sleep that night-- ready to head off to Sydney, and eventually Wollongong, to finally reach our place.

Melbourne

View from the penthouse

Today is The Day

At the beginning of the summer, I said to myself, "Wow, two months and we'll be shipping off". And it felt like two hours. Honestly, I can't remember a time that went by any faster. Some work, some play, and a lot of expectation. The last couple days have been the opposite. Turning, pacing, thinking-- not really worried, perhaps just anxious. Although I will miss my friends, my family, spending summer afternoons playing golf or basketball, I cannot help but wonder all that awaits Joy and me in the next four months.

And today it all begins. Two flights, twenty-one hours in the air. It will be tiring, and boring at times (especially the long layover between flights) but we're in this together and 'tis all we need. But as we fly across international waters for the land down under, we will remember all of our friends and families' good wishes and prayers, and begin a new journey for all of us, for you all have really made this amazing opportunity possible, and pushed us to follow our dreams. So, thank you. Until next time.   **tip of the hat**

-Sterling

Bon Voyage!

Yesterday evening was the Bon Voyage party at my sister's house. I can't even begin to explain how awesome it was. Our friends and family are the absolute best. I was shocked at how many people came to show their love and support for us and our journey... It seemed similar to our wedding reception only with a totally different type of nerves. It was a true reminder of how blessed we are to be surrounded by the incredible people who play such a huge role in our lives. I'd like to thank everyone who came and especially thank Sarah and Jake for all of the hard work they put into making the evening so special :)

 

T Minus 3 Days

I'm getting so anxious! I can't believe how quickly this has come up. I think I'm ready(?).... I have a few more things to pack and Sterling needs to start packing (I'll probably end up packing for him because I need something to do)... but this is crazy! In 3 days I leave the country for 4 months... I haven't even been out of the country for a day! I am going to miss everyone so much but I know it will go by extremely fast.

On another note... my friend Olivia just introduced me to this song and I can't stop listening to it!!