So, it's been a while...

First, I would like to apologize for the delay in updates. I have no excuses, I've just been lazy. So here goes a long list of things I have done lately. They may not be in chronological order because my memory sucks.

Since my last post I have gone to the Australian Museum, an Australian Rules Football game, Max Brenner's, Bikram Yoga, and random adventures around the city and beach. I will start with the museum because I will be a nerd and admit it was the coolest.

When Gina, Marcus and I got the the museum we went right to the dinosaur exhibit. Marcus was amazed because I think he didn't believe in dinosaurs. We first saw a skeleton and then as we walked around there were dinosaur recreations and videos playing. I took a bunch of pictures at the stegosaurus section to amuse Jackie Dolan's obsession. One section was a hands-on paleontologist exhibit where we got to talk to one (or we had the opportunity to do so, but some old woman would not shut up). We got to use a brush in this pile of fake dirt to find bones and stuff. It was pretty cool. We then ventured around through the birds and insects and other animals and saw stuff that was unique to Australia an some that was endangered or extinct (obviously models of those animals). It was interesting to see species that I had never seen before. We then found this room with a bunch of computers with digital teaching programs, books, and an art section. This was definitely used for kids but of course we stayed in there for a while and played on the computers. But in the same room there was a terrarium with stick insects (living) and the keeper told us all about them, like how the males and females differed and how the species differed. Then he let us hold them for a little while. They were constantly trying to climb up, like feeling around for something higher to grab on to. All of the insects really did look like leaves, really good at blending in. The last exhibit we went to was EASILY my favorite... CLIMATE CHANGE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY! The whole exhibit was built with recycled cardboard and it was so interactive. There was one display where we got to dance on floor tiles and generate electricity, a technology some dance studios and dance clubs are looking into. There was an interactive game-type thing were with four players and you were each a leader of a different country and you had to make decisions about green issues but every decision you made affected your budget, popularity, or green status. The winner was head of the next world green conference (great prize, right?). Regardless, we stood there playing it for quite a while. There was a board were you could post a card with what you will do to help the environment. There were some really funny ones. One of them was something like this girl won't straighten her hair as much, another one said he will wear a snuggie instead of turning the heat on. Almost all of the cards were written by kids but that didn't stop Marcus, Gina, and I from adding to the board. I don't think it mattered too much because the exhibit was ending two days later (we got there just in time!). Just walking around the entire exhibit was so cool because it was all stuff I have been researching, reading about, and studying for the past 3+ years. We finally walked through an exhibit with a bunch of skeletons of more modern species. There was this weird display of a human reading a book with a dog next to him and a cat chasing a mouse... all skeletons. It was boarderline creepy. After that we decided to get some dinner in the Harbor and head back home.

Last weekend I initally had plans to go to Wollongong with a few friends but I decided to stay in Sydney and go to an AFL game on Saturday night, the Sydney Swans vs. Geelong (really Sydney, you couldn't think of anything more intimidating than the Swans?). The game was in the Olympic Park, which is absolutely incredible. We were only in a small part of it, too. I definitely have to go back there and roam around to see all of the stadiums. So, it took us a while to get to the stadium so we got there a little before half time. Luckily I was sitting next to my friend Ben who is playing AFL for USyd. I kept badgering him about what was going on, but at least now I kind of understand the sport. At half time they set up like 6 or 7 smaller fields and little kid teams got to play. That has to be one of the coolest things ever, getting to play on the Olympic field. I mean, I am probably 8-10 years older than those kids and I would be stoked. Unfortunately we lost by 1 point and sadly I didn't even really notice when the game ended (I don't understand why some sports count up instead of down). The trek home was terrible, it took us over an hour and by the time we got home we all just wanted to sleep so that we did. But it was an awesome night and I'm glad I stayed in Sydney to see the game.

Apparently we have Max Brenner's at home so when I get back to NY I am finding it and going there. It is a chocolate bar. It is glory. I went there a few nights ago with Gina, Ben, Colin, and Everett and I think we all agreed that the trip must be repeated. Gina and I split waffles with chocolate, bananas, strawberries, and ice cream. If I ate the whole thing myself I would have exploded. I didn't feel too bad because earlier I did...

Bikram yoga! I just discovered this because there is a studio about a 3 minute walk from my apartment. It is essentially yoga in a sauna. The room is about 40 degrees C (roughly 104 degrees F) and really humid. Pretty much as soon as you walk in you start sweating. It is pretty awesome though. It feels good to work out again. At least my Dad will be happy with that.

So other than that I have just been venturing around the city and the beach, exploring and adventuring. Gina is taking a photography class so I go with her to Centenial Park, Hyde Park, and Bondi Beach when she takes pictures, mainly because I have no other plans. The parks are so beautiful here. Hyde Park reminds me so much of Bryant Park.

The next two weeks are going to be packed with excitement. On Wednesday I have my first assignment due, Thursday I leave for Melbourne with Gina, Jeff, Ean, and Chris. I come back Monday and then then Thursday I leave for Townsville and come back Monday. So I will have plenty of adventures to report.

Until then,
Lara

PS: I am trying to be more creative with the blog, so I hope you like the pictures. I'll keep them coming in later posts!

To the best Dad ever...

Happy Birthday! I love you!

Foxfields in Sydney? Go ahead and say it, I would...

When we found out that there was a horse race this weekend at the Royal Randwick track we quickly put off our plans to go to Newcastle and started preparing for our new adventure. There wasn't much preparation though, which is good for last minute decisions.

Before I go on with this post I should touch on Foxfields. It is a horse race in Charlottesville at the end of April that is attended by students from UVA, JMU, UMD, Georgetown, etc. Basically, it is a bunch of preppy, dressed up, and (mostly) drunk college kids "watching" horses. There are sundresses and big hats, seersucker, bowties. It's crazy yet amazing. I'll just say I've been there twice and I don't think I've seen horses either time. Anyway, it's a lot of fun and it has a great southern feel and it's just a Virginia tradition.

So getting back to Sydney, my roommates Laura and Vanessa took it upon themselves to go pick up a few bottles of bubbly and some orange juice for the morning festivities. Our day started nice and early with getting all pretty, putting on dresses and heels and such, and then making mimosas! Luckily there were no major Ottomanelli Christmas Champagne incidents, aka we didn't break anything via flying corks, but it was close. There are six of us living here and initially we had 6 wine glasses but one mysteriously broke so I had to drink my classy mimosa out of the free Ice Age 3 color changing cup I got at McDonalds. (Don't get me wrong, I love the cup. It is yellow and when you put cold liquid in it, there is a dinosaur that turns red! Jackie Dolan, I know how jealous you are right now.)

So at about 12pm we headed over to the tracks. Since we didn't really know where we were going we decided to just take a cab there because apparently it was only going to be about $15 and there were 4 of us in the cab. I sat in the front seat of the cab and yes, I did try to open the driver's door. Still getting used to this whole driving on the opposite side of the road thing... The ride was short which is much different from the terrible ride to Foxfields. We went inside and actually got right next to the track. I actually saw horses as soon as I got there! I decided against betting on horses because I couldn't bet on #9 (sorry, that's a joke for my Dad). We met a bunch of Aussies who were telling us about the races while mocking/imitating our accents. My roommate Gina and I were joking around with them the entire day and it was a lot of fun.

Unlike Foxfields where it is normally about 90 degrees, it was about 60 degrees today. So when the sun went down we took a bus home. But this was the general impression I got from the day: Foxfields+15 years. Everyone was older and just a little more dressed up. Fewer sundresses and more cocktail-like dresses. Definitely more sophisticated, but nothing will ever be like Foxfields.

Peace, love, and bedtime.
Lara

Stay left and other lessons from my first month

Though the title of this post makes me seem like a hardcore liberal the content actually has no political agenda. Instead, staying left has a completely different meaning. I have been in Australia for a month and I am using this post to sum up some of my adventures so far and to let y'all know what I have coming up in the near future.

So, let me embellish on staying left. Have you ever been walking down the street or down the hallway and someone is walking in the opposite direction towards you and you kind of play chicken to see who moves to the side first so you don't run into each other? I know you all have. You've done the awkward stutter step and almost run into someone on several occasions. Since being here I discovered the solution! It all comes down to driving. Ok, those who know me are saying right now, what do I know about driving anymore? Well in America we drive on the right side of the road, the up-escalator is on the right, etc. Here, they drive on the left side of the road and the up-escalator is on the left. So when I'm walking up stairs or when walking down the street or when walking down a hallway and someone is coming at me in the opposite direction I just move left and there is no confusion or collision. Brilliant! I must bring that back to America. But the opposite of course. Because I think I would just make things worse if I continued to stay left.

Now I'm going to write a quick note on fashion here. I'll use an analogy:
UVA girls = sundresses
Sydney girls = long sleeve shirt with a dress over it, leggings, and flats. All together.
Guys cannot get into bars wearing shorts or flip flops or sneakers. Not like college bars...
Also, although it is winter here it is still like 65-70 degrees F. I still see people walking around with full out winter coats. I think that is a bit of an overreaction.
It is very interesting. I SCREAM American with my Converse sneakers, jeans, North Face back pack, sweaters, etc. I've given up hope on trying to fit in.

My final note right now is just on food. And I have something very sad to admit. I, Lara Donato, am overwhelmed by food here. Cooking is crazy because I don't know what to make so of course my fallback is just chicken, which is crazy expensive. I've been eating a lot of pasta and, sadly, bottled sauce. It was disappointing. But in better news, food here is awesome. I can get sushi rolls for like au$2. Asian food in general is awesome here. There is a whole Spanish quarter that we haven't yet explored but I am excited for that. And best of all, seafood is AMAZING. Fish and chips is the best. And they have this sweet chili sauce for potato wedges and chips that is incredible too; I'm hooked. Also there is a place in Sydney famous for meat pies and I have yet to try them but I have been told to go there as much as possible.

I could keep going on about my first month here but a lot of it has already been mentioned in previous posts. It is all going by so quickly. This weekend I am going to Newcastle with a few friends and I am heading to Melbourne in a few weeks. So be prepared for some random adventures.

Love from down under,
Lara

Rippin it, dude

I'm sitting in my apartment overlooking the Sydney Harbor and procrastinating so I figured this is the best time for me to add another post. And oh this one is SO exciting.

This past weekend I went to... SURF CAMP! It was one of the best weekends I've had here so far. Here's how it all went down.

On Friday I woke up unusually late and then packed for my weekend. I keep forgetting about how long I need to travel so I was rushed at the end and later realized I forgot to pack my camera. I wouldn't have had much of an opportunity to take pictures though so I guess it wasn't a big deal. Anyway, I thought the bus station was right next to the exit of the train station and while I was correct the bus was not picking us up at the bus station (logically). So I had to frantically call my roommates to get onto my computer and get the address of the place I needed to go to. Because I actually had NO idea where I was going and I was rushed for time I just got a cab... to take me a total of 3 blocks. I guess it was better than possibly missing the bus. I sit down on the bus and a guy asks me if the seat next to me is taken and I said no and we started talking. His name was Vivek and he ended up being from Duke (worst!). It was no coincidence that he sat next to me because I was wearing my UVA sweatshirt and apparently there isn't a mutual hatred between Duke and UVA students. About half way through the bus ride we stopped at this burger place and it was awesome. I got like a gourmet gus burger. Ok, that's not really important but I wanted to mention it anyway. At the burger place I met some of Vivek's friends. One of them (and one of the girls I lived with at the camp) was from UNC. Oh the ACC rivalry. In total it took about 2 hours to get from Sydney to the camp at 7 Mile Beach, so we got there at about 8pm. It was kind of a hostel/camp within a trailor park, quite interesting. We didn't do much of anything that night, just got an introduction to camp and the instructors. Then we hung out a little bit and met a few people including a girl from Long Island who said my name like people from home. I haven't heard that in a while. We all went to bed pretty early because we had to be awake really early to start surfing on Saturday.

Our day started at 7am on Saturday with breakfast and wetsuit fitting. Then we walked down to the beach (about a 5 minute walk) and picked up our boards. They were foam and the first board I used was 8'2". Quite awkward and unmanageable. Luckily we didn't have to walk much with our boards. When we got to the water we broke into our groups and started our lessons. We started learning the basics on the sand before we got into the water. We just learned how to catch a wave and stand up during our first lesson. After about 20 minutes on the sand we picked up our boards again and got in the water. The beach slope was shallow so we were able to walk out to most of the waves, decreasing the amount of paddling. At the beginning I will admit that I struggled a lot. The whole balance thing does not come too easily for me. At least I knew what I was doing wrong. For the next hour and a half we just kept trying. The instructors would come over and help us out one by one. We weren't surfing actual waves yet, just the break water (the white water). Yea, I know, not as cool. By the end of the first lesson I was standing up at least for a short time. After that lesson we took a picture with our entire camp which was split into two groups (group B had their first lesson after ours). While taking the picture I realized that Matt (Towson) from the Study Australia program was also on the trip! I hadn't seen him since the pre-semester trip because he went to a different city. It was really cool to see him.

So after the lesson we went back to the camp and ate a much needed lunch. We just relaxed for a little while and then went back to the beach for the second lesson of the day. We learned how to gain speed on the wave by leaning or moving forward on the board. We kept reviewing the motions and techique on the sand before we got back in the water. The second session was a lot better for me. I was standing on the board much more frequently but I was definitely falling off a lot. Because it was high tide the waves weren't as strong so I didn't have enough speed to balance for too long. The lesson ended too soon; I wanted to keep surfing forever. But I got another chance the next day.

Saturday night we had dinner at a restaurant near the camp. The camp staff cooked the dinner and it was actually really good, but we were also so hungry from the day's activities. I hung out with Matt at the restaurant and caught up with everything he has been up to at his University. Most people stayed at the restaurant (which later turned into a pub) but I headed back to camp with some of the girls I met in my group because we were all pretty exhausted.

The next day we got to sleep in... until 8:30am. When I woke up, I thought I got hit by a truck. I was so sore. I discovered why surfers have such nice bodies because it is actually a very strenuous activity. During our third lesson we learned how to turn on the board and it was time for us to get on an actual wave instead of just riding breakwater. I was still not so proficient with the whole standing up thing so I kept working on that before trying to turn. I was definitely getting a lot better. Actually standing up on the board and surfing was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I wanted to get on an actual wave if my life depended on it but the waves got a lot bigger towards the end of the lesson and I got rocked by a few and decided to stick to the break water for now. I was so upset (yet so exhausted) when the lesson ended.

So nothing too exciting happened after the last lesson, we just hung out before hopping on the bus and going home. I ended up buying a wetsuit there so I'm halfway ready to start surfing on the regular basis with my friends here. I'm gonna be a cool surfer chick when I come back to Long Island, just wait.