Manly Sydney

Contrary to what you may have thought about this blog post because of the title, I still have no upper body strength. Manly is actually a beach in Sydney right on the Pacific Ocean. Ashley's friend Ashley came to visit from Brisbane early Saturday (August 14th) and we took her out for a gorgeous day at the beach. We took a bus to Circular Quay where the bridge and Sydney Opera House are and took a ferry to Manly Wharf. The ferry ride over there was so beautiful it was a shame that we had to sit inside and take our pictures through the windows. I took so many because everything was just so beautiful and green. We saw all of these beautiful apartments on cliffs that look right onto the harbour, awesome lighthouse, and gorgeous boats of all different sizes:

Once we made it to Manly, we had a lunch picnic on the steps overlooking the beach. While fighting with the seagulls for our hot chips (french fries) we managed to fill our stomachs and still want Copenhagen Ice Cream. The shops and restaurants on the Manly Strip are so cute and fun that I'm thankful they're so far away or else I would lose all of my money (or my parents' money).

We finally made it down to the sand and relaxed under the sun. It was such a beautiful day but the wind was blowing pretty hard so it made enjoying the warmth difficult. Aly and Makenzie took naps that included a little drool and a lot of rest!

After the sun was no longer dominating the wind we got up and walked around the market and shops. In hopes to catch free dinner at the dining hall at Wesley we quickly hopped on a ferry! It was perfect timing because we caught the sunset over the Pacific as well as dusk/dark along the skyline (we also made it just in time for dinner). I hope you enjoy the pictures because I took so many trying to capture how beautiful the trip really was!

Bike Tour around Sydney

Our Study Abroad program signed us up for a Bike Tour with Bonza Bike Tours on Sunday, August 8th.

I would have to say that is one of the best tours I have ever been on! I learned a lot of great history about Sydney and that I can still ride a bike after 13+ years! My bike was called "Meatballs", probably because I'm Italian but the you don't get to choose the bike - the bike chooses you.

Here are some fun views at different angles of the Sydney Opera House, Darling Harbour, and the Darling Harbour Bridge! We actually crossed the bridge twice on the bikes which was pretty awesome! A little piece of history about the bridge - you can't see but there are tiny bolts that line and stabilize the entire bridge. These were nailed in by men holding onto the bridge for dear life while the bolts were still hot. Surprisingly, only two men died from constructing the actual bridge part. Unfortunately, 14 men died because of the machinery that was used to construct the towers on both sides that serve no structural purpose to the bridge.

When we walked through the Botanical Gardens we saw this huge tree. No one really knows how old this tree is because its actually not a tree at all! Its a vine! When the vine grows, the stems can grow into the ground and act as roots! It is gated off because the branches are actually hollow so they don't want anyone to climb on it (sorry Carly)!

This is St. Mary's Church at the North End of Hyde Park. This is actually where the Pope stayed when he came to Sydney. A funny story we heard was that before the Pope came, there was no bathroom in the church. They thought they would have to put him up in a hotel but then they had a hard time deciding which hotel would get to say that they put up the Pope! Long story short they decided to put plumbing in the church so that the Pope could stay where he wanted. They have no idea if the Pope used the bathroom but they destroyed the toilet because they wanted to make sure no one sold it on ebay! St. Mary's is now a Catholic Church with no bathroom once again!! I guess that's why there are so many Port-a-potties out on the side!

We saw so many things around the city all in four hours! I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone coming to visit. Carly, if you're reading this - I'm signing us up for a tour when you come to visit because I get a discount for my second ride (and I'm trying to get a job at the bike shop)!

Some things I left out...

I may or may not have already told you we lost our last Rugby game but we had fun watching and learning anyway. It was supposed to be cancelled because of all of the rain we were having but they just moved it to a different field. The boys were covered in mud! The boys were tackling each other in these huge mud puddles that were pretty gross but I guess they didn't really care too much! I was on the sideline and almost got my legs taken out from under me by a St. Paul's bloke. He went to tackle one of our guys and just kept sliding right for me! It was a good thing I moved out of the way as fast as I did or I would have gotten mud all over the jumper (sweatshirt) that Addie let me wear for the game! Of course I kicked him while he was down and said "stay on your own side!!!!!". Just kidding.. I considered it though. Its a shame that we didn't win but the boys had Christmas in July to look forward to that night!

Wesley is the Black team and the Griffindor wanna-be's are St. Pauls. The beautiful building behind the field is another college St. Johns.

Christmas in July was a beautiful formal dinner prepared by Wesley for the students. We dressed up, sang songs and made people do funny things! For instance, everyone started banging their spoons on the tables and chanted "Sabretooth!". All of a sudden this one boy goes to the back of the dining hall and runs to the front on all fours!!! He was literally running like an animal - a Sabretooth in fact. I could not stop laughing, I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen! I wish I took a picture of him! Then they would make people stand up on the chairs and tables and scream funny things like: "I'M A MONSTERRRRRR!!" or make donkey noises. Yes, this was supposed to be a formal dinner, haha! After the dinner there was a big party for the Wesley students in the courtyard that lasted what seemed like forever. It was definitely a fun time and I can't wait to have another formal dinner like that. If we win the championships in one of our sports we get another dinner just like this called a Victory Dinner.

Makenzie is dressed as Hannukah and I'm supposed to be dressed like an Angel.

This is when we all stood up on our seats and sang funny Wesley songs. Toby decided to stand on the table.

Carnivale and Wesley Softball

As most of you know, Ashley and I joined the Wesley Softball Team! We got a cool Wesley Softball polo shirt, a jumper (sweatshirt) that says Wesley Softball, and a hat with a big W on it so that's pretty neat! Yesterday (Tuesday afternoon for Australia, Monday evening for America), we played a college called St. John's. They're the most similar college to Wesley so we don't really like them. In fact we don't really like anyone except Wesley! However, yesterday we lost 11-9 but we put up a good fight! I hurt my thumb which kind of stinks because it really affected my throwing for the game yesterday as well as today. Good thing I don't have another game until Tuesday! Today's game was against Sancta Sophia - one of the all women's college. We won 18-4 which was really great for us!! Let's hope it wasn't our only one! We have two more games - next tuesday and wednesday against Women's College and St. Andrews. Our biggest rivals are St. Andrews so us American's refer to them as Slitheran (obviously Wesley is Griffindor). Apparently both teams have really amazing pitchers so we'll have to be on our offensive game next week!

Carnivale was last night. It was a HUGE party hosted by Wesley and right on our front lawn. Everyone dressed up kind of like they would for Mardi Gras - bright colors, glitter, feathers, tutus, ... etc! I painted a pink dress with gold paint in spirals all over and then wore bright purple tights and crazy sparkles on my eyes and face! My hair was extremely curly and bouncy with a silver sequin headband. I don't have any pictures but maybe Makenzie does! All of the Freshers (first years) at Wesley had to work for a 3 hour shift but it was still a lot of fun! We raised a lot of money for the college and showed everyone that Wesley throws the best parties!

Here is a picture of Ashley and Makenzie in their Carnivale outfits!