Festive Sydney

There is always something going on and something to do in the vibrant city of Sydney, and I love this (I'm not, however, a fan of the fact that I can't fit everything I want to do in my schedule). The Vivid Festival started up on May 23rd. This is a unique annual event of light, music, and ideas. All around the city there are extraordinary light installations and projections, performances from local and international musicians, and public talks/debates from leading global creative thinkers. I only had the chance to explore Vivid on a few occasions, and I would have loved to see more. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and yesterday (June 9th) was the last day of Vivid. Last night I walked around to soak in the last bit of Vividness.

I have come to realize that I may have a slight obsession with the Sydney Opera House. I just can't get enough of it. Though it may be a little hyped up, I can't help but get super happy and excited every time I get a glimpse of this beautiful building. On Saturday, in a mere 4 days, I'm going on a guided tour of the Opera House with my friend, Heidi. We will discover the stories, history, and magic of my favorite Sydney building. I'm super excited!

Being as obsessed with the Opera House as I am, my favorite part of Vivid was (naturally) the spectacular illumination of the Opera House sails. Every night from 6pm to midnight during the festival the Opera House came to life and depicted a dramatic journey through time - from the birth of architecture and civilisation through the pinnacle of human and technological achievement. It was a great sight seeing the sails change from one thing to another. I could have watched this all night. Truly mesmerizing! 

You could take boats around the harbour to get better views of the Opera House and the city. These were lit up with bright lights, creating a beautiful rainbow of colors in the water. 

In my opinion, the Opera House illumination was the highlight of Sydney. However, there were heaps of other beautiful attractions. For example, the continuously moving projection on the Museum of Contemporary Art building was colourful and spectacular.  

The Vivid Aquatic Water Theater at Darling Harbour featured water shows and aquatic effects. A constant flow of water jets and color lasers enabled the audience to see people dancing beautifully on the water. Pretty nifty, don't you think? 

Huge inflatable white rabbits invaded Sydney for Vivid. The 7meter/23feet bunnies appeared to be enjoying their new home. 

After taking in the beautiful views for an hour, I met up with my friend, Christian (from Australia), to go to another festival: the Sydney Film Festival (SFF). SFF is one of the world's longest-running film festivals, and is a major event in NSW. It is a 12-day festival that screens feature films, documentaries, short films, and animations from around the world in venues across the city. This year the festival is from June 4th - 15th. 

On our way from Darling Harbour to the movie theater, we suddenly heard the familiar sound of Mario theme music. Childhood memories of playing Nintendo with my brother and cousins in California quickly came to mind. Remember how you had to blow into the game if it didn't work? Ah, the original Mario was the best! As we continued walking, the person playing suddenly came into view. It was Mario himself! 

The movie was playing at the State Theater on Market Street. Lovely venue! We saw "Cold in July" starring Michael C. Hall (the guy who plays Dexter). Perhaps not the best movie I've seen, but was entertaining! 

I look forward to more cinematic adventures in the near future. Tomorrow Anne, Anita, Isabelle and I are seeing the Norwegian/Swedish/Danish action comedy "In Order of Disappearance". Should be fun! 

Before I end this post, I'd like to say a quick hello and thank you to my friend in California, TJ Berger. I spoke to my Grandma today, and I am happy to hear that you are keeping her updated on everything I'm posting. I appreciate it!

Love, 

Suzy 

A short but sweet visit to the Whitsundays

I love visiting new places and seeing new things. I especially love doing this when accompanied by fun people like Anne and Caitlin. Anne, Caitlin, and I flew to the Whitsundays for a brief visit. Though we only had approximately 48 hours there, we maximized our time and saw quite a bit. 

We arrived at the Proserpine airport in the afternoon on Thursday (May 5th), and made our way to Airlie Beach. We took the overpriced $18 per person shuttle. Airlie Beach is approximately a 35 minute drive from the airport. We arrived at our hostel Base Airlie Beach Resort, and were happy that we got a 4-bed dorm all to ourselves. Again, the Australian hostels didn't disappoint us. Clean, spacious, and most importantly, no bugs! 

The weather forecast said that there would be scattered clouds with a chance of rain on the days we were there. We saw that there weren't  too many clouds in the sky when we arrived, so we quickly changed, and went to the nearby man-made lagoon to take advantage of the sun. 

After some time in the sun, an ice cream, and walking around the mellow streets of Airlie Beach, we headed back to our room to shower up before dinner time. For dinner, we went to a cozy restaurant down the street with outside seating. We were initially drawn to this place because of a guy playing an acoustic guitar in the restaurant. We liked him at first, but felt he sang waaay too many sappy songs after a while. Though the musical performance wasn't to our liking, we did enjoy the great 2-for-1 pizza deal; two large pizzas for the price of one! Only $22. Madness! Once our stomachs were satisfied, we headed home and went to bed early. Like 9pm early. We were so tired! The next morning (May 6th) we were ready to see more than just the surrounding shops and restaurants near Airlie Beach. The Whitsunday Islands are made up of 74 islands, and only 8 of these are inhabited. We booked a 3-island boat tour, and were picked up at around 7:30am.  

Our first stop was Daydream Island. This is the smallest of the Whitsunday Islands; it's only 1km/0.6miles long and 400meters/0.25miles wide. The island has the world's largest lagoon-style aquarium, containing over 40 marine fish species and 50 coral varieties. Our nice tour guide, Becki, showed us around and provided lots of fun facts. 

The most memorable fact: All clownfish are born male, but when the current female of the group dies, the most dominant male will transform into a female. When Nemo's mom died (in Finding Nemo) the dad, Marlin, should have turned into a female. That would've probably confused the kids though... 

We saw some other wildlife beside sea creatures. There were lots of bush-stone curlews walking around Daydream Island. They are also known as Murder Birds because when they communicate, they sound like someone is being killed. Charming birds, indeed. We weren't fortunate to hear the murder birds communicate, but I'm sure they are just as hilarious as the screaming/laughing birds that I have previously mentioned. 

They were all about mermaids at Daydream Island. Mermaid statues, mermaid paintings, mermaid-named restaurants. We took a picture with one of the three mermaid statues by the beach. Poor mermaid, we kind of just climbed all over her. Our next stop was Hamilton Island, one of the largest inhabited islands. We had lunch here at the Marina Tavern, ice cream at the ice cream parlour, and browsed around in the cute shops. 

We considered investing in some real estate while there, but unfortunately our student budgets did not make the cut. The cheapest apartment we found was around $400,000, and the most expensive house we found was $3,500,000.  The last stop on our trip was Whitehaven Beach, a 7km/4.3miles stretch along Whitsunday Island. The sand consists of 98% pure silica. This gives the sand a beautiful white color, and also makes the sand squeak when you walk on it. Before we got off the boat, we were told that we could grab stinger suits. Though jellyfish season is over, the guides said there could still be some swimming around in the water. To be honest, we weren't too concerned with the jellyfish. However, we couldn't pass up an opportunity to look like beach ninjas, so we each grabbed a suit when disembarking the boat. The suits were truly magnificent. Had it not been for the fact that we would technically be stealing, we totally would've brought the suits home with us. They covered the majority of our bodies, except parts of our feet and faces. The mitten hands were likely the best part. 

Me doing cartwheels

Caitlin posing 

Whenever I'm on a beach, I get the urge to write something in the sand. I'm not the only one who gets this. There weren't too many sticks on the pristine beach, so Anne had to make do with what we found. 

Instead of writing something corny like "Whitsundays 2014" or just hearts (like I did), Anne wrote "I'm writing with a stick". She's a clever one!  

While enjoying our time at Whitehaven Beach, we suddenly saw a shark in the water. We were in the water splashing around at the same time, so I'd say that we were technically swimming with sharks. Based on what we saw at the Daydream aquarium, we concluded that it was lemon shark. 

See the dark spot in the water? That's the shark!

Though our excursion likely doesn't seem too strenuous, we were exhausted by the time we got back to our hostel at 6:15pm. We counted down the hours until it was an acceptable time to go to bed (we concluded that 8pm was an early yet acceptable bed time). Initially, I attributed my tiredness to my old age (ha ha). However, I think Caitlin, the spring chicken of only age 21, fell asleep first, so maybe we just needed sleep. 

Beautiful sunset on our way back to Airlie Beach 

We flew home yesterday morning (May 7th). The visit to the Whitsundays was short but sweet. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I am happy that we had a chance to go and that the weather cooperated a little. 

Last night I had the pleasure of accompanying my friend, Christian, to a World Cup Celebration. It was an event that raised funds for Special Olympics New South Wales. Their mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disability. This provides continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, and build friendships with their families, coaches, other Special Olympics athletes, and the broader community. Christian works for the Western Sydney Wanderers FC, a club that supports Special Olympics NSW. 

The celebration featured lots of entertainment from (among others) the Ten Sopranos, Anastasia Zoi, and Rio's Brazilian Dancers. There was also a raffle and an auction. Despite my limited knowledge about the World Cup (and being pulled on stage during the Brazilian dancing act), I had a great time. The food was delicious, the entertainment was enjoyable, and the company was excellent. Most importantly, lots of money was raised for a great cause!

Love, 

Suzy 

Oh, Everybody's Starry Eyed!

As today has been a day full of procrastination, this will be a very brief post. Tomorrow morning Anne, Caitlin, and I are heading to the Whitsundays for a little visit. The Whitsunday Islands are a group of islands off the central coast of Queensland. Though we only have 48 hours there, we plan to soak up as much sun as possible.This will be me tomorrow afternoon (except I won't be wearing a pink one-piece or holding an umbrella): 
Yesterday, I attended my first musical event while in Australia. Isabelle, Liza (from Russia), and I went to an Ellie Goulding concert at the Hordern Pavilion, and had a great time. She was sooo good! We were amazed by how well she sang live. No need for lip syncing! 

Her setlist was great, and some of the songs she sang were Starry Eyed, Lights, Only You, Guns & Horses, Goodness Gracious, and Tessellate. Isabelle and I were ecstatic when she sang You My Everything and Burn as her encore songs. What a great ending to a great show! Unfortunately, she didn't sing How Long Will I Love You. As Sydney would say: "That's my favorite!" Oh well... I was still very satisfied with the evening. 

Seeing as my first final is only two weeks away, I should be spending most of my waking hours studying. I had big plans of being super productive today. However, rather than be studious, I spent the day cleaning every nook and cranny of my room. I managed to convince myself that this was a wise way to spend the whole day. I know I'm going to feel the urge to clean as finals come closer, so really this was a proactive measure on my part. You can always tell that final exams are in the near future by the way my room looks. Every clothing item in every drawer is neatly folded, nothing is out of place, and there's not a speck of dust in sight. Suddenly vacuuming becomes a life or death issue. It must be done, and definitely cannot wait until later! Though I may not be any closer to knowing anything about theories in Organizational Psychology, at least my room looks impeccable at the moment. Maybe I'll go through some notes while soaking up the sun at the beach. We'll see. 

Love, 
Suzy 

MS Walk & Fun Run

What a great way to start out the month of June! I woke up to one of my favorite Australian sounds early this morning: the chirping of birds. Now, when I say chirping, I really mean the laughing/screaming of birds. There are some birds here in Australia that make very, very weird sounds, and they are absolutely hilarious. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it... One of the sounds is like a laughing monkey (hoo-hoo-hoo-hee-haa-haa). The other sounds is a cross between a crying cat and a screaming goat (search for "screaming goats" on YouTube). I'm not exactly sure which birds make these incredibly funny sounds. However, based on random observation and Google searches, I think the first is a kookaburra and the second is a raven. Regardless of which birds make these sounds, they always make me smile. Even when it's 6:30am, and they wake me up when I still could sleep in for another hour. As the birds continued making their hilarious laughing/screaming sounds, I gave up trying to get more sleep and figured I might as well get ready for the day. 

I put on my workout clothes, laced up my running shoes, and grabbed my wallet. I got ready to meet Sydney and head to the city center to participate in our activity for the day: the MS Walk & Fun Run. Thousands of people participate in this event every year to raise money for the treatment and management of MS (Multiple Sclerosis). Before the MS Walk & Fun Run began, a total of $1 360 000 had been raised. Hurray!

Of this big amount, Sydney and I contributed $510 thanks to our generous family members and friends. Thank you so much to everyone that contributed to our fundraising. We really appreciate your contributions. You guys are great, and your money is going to a truly great cause! 

Ready to walk 11km/6.8miles

Due to some health issues, I wasn't able to actually able to run in the race. Sydney, being the true friend that she is, decided to walk with me instead of run. We did the 11K walk instead of the 10K Fun Run. We still had heaps of fun though! 

I have never had the pleasure of meeting Sydney's family members, but I have heard a lot about them over the past few months. One observation that I have made, is that Sydney's mom is the cutest when it comes to texting. She ends her texts with little icons of koalas and hearts. When we had to pick a name for our team (which consisted of only Sydney and I), we decided to call ourselves "Team Koala <3"

The walk started and finished in Tumbalong Park near Darling Harbour. We had a great time walking around the lovely Sydney Harbour, Royal Botanical Gardens, Opera House, and Pyrmont Bridge. The weather wasn't the greatest, but everyone was pumped up to walk around Sydney for a great cause, so it didn't really matter.  

Standing in front of my favorite building in Sydney with my favorite Sydney

I can cross off "Royal Botanical Gardens" after today's walk 

After passing the finish line, it was time for a late breakfast. Prior to starting the walk, we decided that we should go to Pancakes on the Rocks, a place where fabulous pancakes are served. I had never been there, but Sydney told me stories of delicious pancakes served with ice cream (YUMMY!). Throughout our whole walk, our growling stomachs and yearning for pancakes kept our pace up and our feet moving. Needless to say, Sydney was pretty satisfied when the pancakes were finally in front of her. I was, too. They were delicious! 

We headed home afterwards. I spent the afternoon with Isabelle, doing a little shopping at the Macquarie Center. Though it was raining, it was such a beautiful walk home. The birds were making their usual hilarious screaming sounds, and the sun was low on the horizon, creating a beautiful yellow lighting. We even saw a rainbow! 

A great start of the month of June, indeed. 

Love, 
Suzy