Done and beyond...

I finished schoolwork shortly after the last post, and spent the next few days with SFS having fun unwinding. We had a free day where we went to Atherton for the last time and played 'sport'. We usually played sport on our Friday afternoons out, and over the semester I'd become a decent ultimate frisbee player. Then our interns planned a 'magical mystery tour' day for us, including Nandroya Falls, Mongali Dairy, and the Millaa Millaa lookout. At the falls, we got into the freezing water and swam the short distance to under the falls. Unfortunately it was so cold that a friend had an asthma attack- good thing a classmate Laura and I were close to pull her over to shore. The view and hurricane-like experience was amazing though. Mongali Dairy had a fantastic teahouse and at the lookout we enjoyed the beautiful views and had fun taking pictures of us jumping off the fences. The next day was a debrief and we had a goodbye dinner- two of our classmates made a fantastic video with pictures and music and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. That night I stayed up until 3 friends who were leaving on the early flight. I flew to Sydney the next day (Friday) with several SFS students.

So far, my travel buddy Nathan and I have walked all over central Sydney and seen the sights. On Saturday there was a fantastic (free) walking tour with a University student that ran it off tips, Nate and I were the only people who showed up, so we had a personalized 3 hours of Sydney facts and trivia. We went to a guided Opera House tour and went inside the concert halls and did some more exploring of the city. On Sunday we went to the Australian Museum of Natural History- my favorites were exhibits on skeletons (including marsupials) and dinosaurs. Then we headed to Chinatown and walked the bontanical gardens. Okay, maybe took a nap there too. Today we went to the Aquarium and Wildlife World, saw all sorts of animals including jellyfish, sea cows (we stood in a tunnel and they saw over), eels (big ones, Dad), koalas, and my personal favorite when a Cassowary chased a pademelon. This afternoon we went to Manly Beach (named because Captain Cook apparently thought the rocks were 'manly') by ferry. Each night we've been meeting up with the other 8-10 SFS students for supper and hanging out in the city, it's been really nice to reconnect with them after each day. One more day to finish exploring and then I'm on my flight home!