New Zealand

So Sorry I am a little late. I had some really bad internet problems in the past few days 

So, I am in the middle of Stu-vac (student vacation) which is like the UTS spring break. Most people go on holiday during Stu-vac and I was lucky enough to have my grandma come visit me here in Sydney. 

We spent a couple days in Sydney showing her around and my favorite places in Sydney and then we took a flight to Auckland, New Zealand.

Aukland Skyline 

New Zealand is honestly one of the nicest places on Earth both in beauty and friendliness. When we landed, we were waiting at the bus stop to make it to our hotel and everyone around us were trying to help us figure out where to visit. One man who was sitting next to me insisted that we visit the little town of Hamilton just because he lived there. Then on the bus, we were unsure which stop to get off at so the people around us asked the bus driver to drop us off in front of our hotel. Everyone in the city was extremely nice and anytime we asked for directions the locals went out of their way to help us.

The first full day we were there we took a bus to the movie set of Hobbiton (the Shire from the Lord of the Rings) We drove through the beautiful countryside through sheep and cow ranches to the cute town of Matamata.

 Then we headed to the Shire. We saw hobbit holes, the home of Bilbo Baggins and Sam Wise, and even had a hobbit sized pint cider at the Green Dragon pub. 

3 of the 44 hobbit holes in Hobbiton 

The Green Dragon 

It was a perfect day for a nerd like me. I was on a cloud seeing the homes of some of my favorite characters and running around pretending to be wizards next to the tiny hobbit holes.

The Home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins 

The next day we took a hop-on, hop-off tour around Auckland. I got to climb Mt. Eden a crater covered in grass that is the remains of a dormant volcano. 

The Carter of Mt. Eden and the City Skyline

We got to see some of the charming suburbs in Auckland as well as get my grandma a new suitcase which we named Mully for some reason. After finishing the day by eating seafood on the pier, we headed back to the hotel completely exhausted.

            On the third day we got a tour of the Auckland Harbor. We saw a lot of the different parts of the harbor and even got to make a stop on Rangitoto island, the youngest dormant volcano in Auckland. 

Rangitoto volcano 

We got to go under the bridge and then headed back. 

Auckland bridge 

We didn’t want to be late to the airport. Exhausted we headed home to finish the vacation in Sydney.

            I loved New Zealand and am planning to go back to the South island in two months with friends.

Easter in Sydney

Easter for me was a little hard but It was also really fun. Easter is very important in my family so it was hard to be away from the people that I love but it was also really fun to see how other cultures do Easter. I am Catholic so I am showing a bit of my Polish Catholic traditions as well. The easter festivities started on holy Thursday. My friends and I went to the beach for a picnic, a very Australian thing to do during Easter weekend.

My friend Shanley gave me a chocolate Rabbit for easter, which is very common for Australians as well. Australians love their chocolate, there is a chocolate shop on every street and all the chocolatiers were in full force for the holiday. I got my chocolate from Haigh's, a chocolate shop that originated in Adelaide, Australia. They use a lot of nuts (which I love) and it is very creamy which makes it melt in your mouth.

On Holy Thursday mass I went to St. Benedict, which is a small church that caters to college students. It was a little different than I was used to, instead of ringing bells at certain times during the mass, they beat two sticks together and they used a lot more incense than I was used to. The whole church was filled with smoke and I thought they might set off the fire alarm.

On good Friday, which is a national holiday, the whole city, except the bus drivers and trains, shuts down. All of the stores were closed including the grocery store. This was a bit of a shock and because of this, I spent the day in the park which was still really nice. I then went to Good Friday service at the Cathedral. St. Mary’s Cathedral was packed. There was probably between 3-4 thousand people in that church and veneration of the cross took close to an hour. It was cool to be part of something that big and to see that amount of people all part of my faith. I then went home and had fish. Most Australians fast from meat on Good Friday and all east fish.

The next morning I put together my Polish basket and went all the way to Bankstown to get my basket blessed. In the Polish tradition, all of the foods you eat on Easter morning is to be taken to church and the priest blesses it. I refused to give up on my tradition, so I went to a Polish church and got my basket blessed. The blessing was in polish and i didn’t understand any of it, but it was cool to see other Polish women participating in the tradition. The baskets were all decorated with ribbons and flowers. It was very beautiful and we have nothing like that in the states.

My basket

It was a lot more full than this, but this was the Polish Parish that I got my basket blessed at

That night, I went to the Easter vigil mass at St. Peter’s church. This mass is done halfway in candlelight so it was very beautiful and peaceful. What’s cool about the Catholic faith, is that this mass is the same anywhere in the world so it made me less homesick to be able to go to my regular mass.

My Easter outfit 

On Easter, I ate the food that was in my basket and I went to the beach. Everyone goes to the beach on Easter, it is one big celebration on the beach. I went to Freshwater beach, the originating place of surfing, which meant I had to take the Manly ferry. Even with loads of tourists, I still had a lot of fun. I got to see how the locals spend Easter and got to see one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen.

Easter Monday here is also a national holiday so I had the day off school. I spent the morning skyping with my family to combat the homesickness and then I  went to take a walk across the Sydney Harbour bridge with my friend Lizzie. I got to see the opera house from the other side of the harbour and had some incredible moments looking over the boats in the harbour. In the end we ended up scarfing down some pizza and heading home. It was a great day.

Cool shot of the bridge 

Pirate ship in Sydney Harbour 

Classes

So this week is Easter week and as much as I would love to tell you guys all about it, Easter week isn’t over because it melts into Monday here. So I will write about Easter next week. This week I will talk about classes. I have been going to classes for about a month and a half now and am loving it.

I think the biggest adjustment class wise was just the fact that UTS is a city campus whereas I am used to a campus that is isolated in the middle of the forest. It took some getting used to that I have to avoid business people and traffic signals on the way to class. But after getting used to the sound of cars constantly I was able to settle in quite nicely.

This is an eco-friendly apartment building across from UTS. The sides are covered in vines and plants.

Classes here tend to be more hands on. There are a lot more labs than there would be in the states. Classes include field trips and debates and constant lab work. I really like that part of UTS. I tend to understand things better when I have hands-on examples so I have been doing well in my classes.

The labs here are great. I have one lab in the superlab where we have access to some pretty dangerous chemicals and a lot of high-tech equipment. I have had access to some of the latest technologies of labs and feel super lucky. My other lab is a microbiology where we are growing bacteria. Again this is a super innovative lab where we have access to some of the newest microbiology equipment. I like this lab the most. We work a lot with fire and plating organisms which I did a lot of in high school. It was cool to get back in the swing of things. I made me feel good to be back in an area of science that is so hands on but I already have a lot of history in. I already knew how to plate bacteria and how to properly handle contaminated equipment. It made the transition that much easier.

We have to wear lab coats and goggles here 

The lectures are pretty interesting in most of my classes and most of the lectures use a website like Kahoot or Socrative that allow the students to personally interact with the lecturer and ask anonymous questions. I love that; I’m always nervous to ask questions in class for fear of sounding stupid but a lot of the teachers allow you to ask your questions to them directly or so that you don’t have the pressure of 200 eyes staring at you.

This is the business building where I have all my Stats classes 

The outside looks like a building out of a Dr. Suess book and the inside looks like a game of Jenga 

Here at UTS I am listed as a first year which has been difficult for me because I am in a second year mindset in a bunch of classes where this is everyone’s first year at University (They call it Uni here) They have taken a lot of steps to ease students into university life and pressures. I sometimes find this annoying and repetitive because I have already transitioned to this mindset and I already have a system that works well with me at University. It took a little adjustment to be taught how to adjust again but it just made the first couple of weeks of class pretty easy.

Staircase in UTS library 

So the grading is different here at UTS, a D here is actually an A. So here I am technically a straight D student. I love trying to freak out my mom by telling her that.

UTS clock tower outside the Library 

Overall I have done really well here so far academically. I have been praised in some of my classes and have made some really good friends and lab partners. UTS is a great school, even considered one of the Ivy league school here is Australia and I am having a great time here.

Sydney Beaches

So Sydney is known for its beaches. While I have been here, my favorite thing to do is to end the week by going to one of the beautiful beaches. My classes end at noon on Friday so Shanley, Lizzie (The two friends that I have made here), and I have made the tradition of Friday afternoon to go and spend the afternoon at the beach. At the beginning, I got to see Manly. Manly is beautiful, beautiful water, great scenery, and soft sand.

This is Actually at Shelly Cove which is just off of Manly and is considered as part of the same stretch of beach 

It is known for its surfers and I got to watch a really cool surfing competition.

Surfer at Manly 

I then got to go to Bondi. Bondi was one of those beaches that you only hear about on television and in books. I never expected to actually be able to go. It’s this long stretch of beach with incredible waves. I even got to try a deep fried Mars bar which is basically a mix between a Snickers bar and a Three Musketeer. Best thing in the whole world.

Bondi Beach

The next week we went to Coogee. Coogee isn’t as big as Bondi but it still a very popular beach. The tides are stronger here with really big waves. Shanley and I went out in the water and were almost dragged away.

Aboriginal Whale painting at Bondi. The walls there are all covered in local art. It was paradise.

Yesterday I did the Bondi to Coogee walk. It is a coastal walk where you get to stand on top of cliffs and walk from beach to beach along Sydney’s East coast. The views were stunning. I started at Bondi with just a stroll through the sand then started my trip around the cliffs. The wind carries the sea mist all the way up to the cliffs so you can feel the waves even from 100 feet above them. It was the perfect day for the walk. The sun was up and the water was the perfect temperature.

Cliffs on Bronte to Coogee walk

I ended up at the Tamarama beach. It was a local surfing spot but had some really cool tide pools. I stayed there and hung out on the sand for a while.

Tide Pools near Tamarama. 

I then went to Bronte. I think Bronte is my favorite so far. There is a good portion of the beach dedicated to sunbathing but half of the beach is just tide pools. There are a lot of natural rocks that block off the waves and make natural swimming pools filled with fish, coral, and other marine life. I helped some Americans today who were nervous about sharks and who were unwilling to go in the water. By the time I moved onto a new beach they were playing and laughing alongside a group of local kids.

Bronte (Bonus picture of a Surfer)

I then headed to Clovelly. Clovelly is more for the snorkels, as it is more of a Bay, but it was still cool to see.

Clovelly Beach

I had been in the water there the day before (Shanley and I went on Friday to sunbathe) and almost had some nasty encounters with some Blue Bottles (Super painful Jellyfish) so I passed on getting in the water here and headed towards the snack bar.

This is a Blue Bottle or a Portuguese Man of War. Thier blue stinger wraps around its victim and gives a nasty sting. I have never run out of the water so fast.

I had had the Calamari and chips there the day before and fell in love to I grabbed a smoothie (which tasted more like a strawberry milkshake) and some hot chips (fries) and kept walking.

So the next part was a bit challenging. I decided to pick up a geocache (a modern day treasure hunt) which was along the rocky banks of the next cliff/beach area. There seemed to be a path so I decided to take the path and go for it. So long story short, I got the geocache but ended up sliding down a big rock chasing after my water bottle (the red one with a ton of cool stickers) which fell off my backpack. It landed in the water and I ended up knee deep in water running after a red water bottle. Not my best moment but it was still fun and I got my water bottle back.

Along the trail, I kept walking and came across a really old cemetery. My family and I think that seeing history through cemeteries is cool, so respectfully, I took a quick look around the cemetery. It was beautiful. There were really large, white gravestones and it was right on the cliff looking out on the ocean. And it was quiet. Along the whole trail, there are noises and people laughing but there is something extraordinary about silence and it was cool to hear the world hush for a while. The only sound that could be heard was the ocean crashing against the cliffs and the breeze blowing against the headstones. It was perfect. The cemetery was old. Some of the earliest I saw were in the late 1800’s.

The Cliffside Cemetary

Last was Coogee. And to be honest, after the water bottle fiasco I was tired so I waved goodbye to Coogee for now and will be back and I headed home on a bus.

Coogee Beach

Random differences

Word Differences

• Maccas- Mc'Donalds
• Arvo- Afternoon
• Brekky- Breakfast
• Cuppa- Coffee
• Singlet- Tank Top
• Flatmate- Roommate
• Mate- Bud or friend
• Swimmers- Swim Suit
• Burgen- a mix between a hippy, a hipster, and a red neck
• Bottlo- liquor store
• The Never Never- The outback
• Lollies- Gummy snacks (like gummy bears or worms)
• Slab- A pack of beers
• No worries- okay
• Goon- Cheap boxed wine
• Princess- Spoiled Brat

This is the most Australian thing I could show. This is a Wallaby at the Featherdale Zoo

Other Random Differences

• Dogs often go without leashes, they just walk beside the owners a lot even though it is the law to use leashes
• Helmets for motorcycles are required
• Walking happens on the left side of the sidewalk which took some time to get used to
• Crosswalks are a lot shorter and they don’t tell you how much time you have to cross the street

Again the most Australian thing I could think of