Fact: scuba divers are "under" achievers

As of this week, I am officially a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certified open water diver. Yup, the girl who was once almost too afraid to jump off the high dive is now willingly exploring all that the ocean floor has to offer. I suppose it all started this past February when my grandmother Nana took my entire family to Turks and Caicos. I went snorkeling for the first time and was amazed by how natural it felt to breathe underwater and how incredible it was to see the beautiful plants and animals that lived there. I knew the second I stepped foot in Australia getting certified wasn’t a matter of if more like a matter of when, so I signed up for a three day Pro Dive course. The first day we spent in a swimming pool learning the basics: how to breathe out of our regulator, how to equalize our ears, how to clear water out of our masks, etc. The next two days we continued our skills tests and practiced buoyancy control in the ocean at Camp Cove. Even though the visibility wasn’t great in this area, I still managed to see an octopus, a cuddle fish, and a whole lot of jellyfish. Finally on the third day, after passing my written exam and filling out a bit of paperwork I received my temporary PADI card. The coolest part is the certificate never expires I just need to take refresher courses if I go a number of months without diving.

The fourth day, I went on my first official dive with some of my classmates. We took a boat out to Manly beach. The first dive was about 45 feet and I must admit it was a little scary because for the first time I couldn’t see the bottom as I went down! The visibility was amazing; I saw many schools of fish, beautiful starfish, as well as one massive blue grouper. This dive was too deep to take my underwater camera but I did get a chance to bring it on our second dive at Blue Fish Point, where I saw another big blue grouper and a many more colorful fish. Perhaps the most exciting part of the day happened above the water: our boat was lucky enough to spot three dolphins and two whales!

On top of all that, I met some really great people! Thijs (pronounced like “Taj” Mahal) and Renske are Dutch, John and Sean are Australian, Brooke is from the Chicago area and her boyfriend Jay, who also happened to be our Dive Master, is from Toronto. Many of us are planning on going for a night dive next week and then grabbing a drink together afterwards. I’m very much looking forward to it as well as all the underwater adventures that lie ahead of me.

Renske, Thijs, Sean and me after our first official dive!

Reiss

A couple of weeks ago, I was handing out my resumes to different stores in the Broadway Shopping Center, the closest mall to my apartment, when I walked into a store called Reiss. Lucky for me, Marie the manager had just gotten back from a trip to the States and loved shopping at Nordstrom! I had an interview this past Tuesday and then had a three- hour “try- out” on Thursday, after which she offered me the job. It’s a very small store, about one fourth the size of the Men’s Sportswear department I worked in this past summer, and sells mostly cute tops and dresses that you might find at Forever 21 or Urban Outfitters. I feel very fortunate to have found a job; I look forward to creating more of a daily routine for myself and I am excited about working with and (finally) meeting some Aussies!

Broadway Shopping Center, where I'll be working for the next few months.

Newtown

So much has happened this past week: I moved into my apartment, got my first job, and started to pursue my life long dream of being a beach bum. Let’s start with the apartment. It’s small, but cozy and I think Rachel and I made the most of the space we had. The nicest part about our studio is that is came with a recently renovated, fully furnished kitchen. I like to pretend that I’m Rachel’s sous chef; I’m learning a lot and hopefully I will be able to cook for myself when she isn’t here to walk me through cutting potatoes. As a neighborhood, Newtown has a young and alternative atmosphere with plenty of cool vintage shops and funky cafes. We are about a five minute walk from the train station, but find ourselves walking or taking the bus most of the time. They have plenty of public transportation options so I have to say I don’t miss my run- down Jeep one single bit!

My bed!

Our lovely TV that gets three whole channels.

That little christmas tree came with the place. How festive!

Rachel's bed.

So about this job… I worked in a paper factory for a day (I can’t tell you how thrilled my parents were by the thought of their college graduate doing manual labor). Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I could wear gym shoes to work and listen to music all day as a sat and counted big white paper in stacks of twenty and then small blue paper in stacks of a hundred. I walked away with a bit of money and only about four or five paper cuts. I’m still trying to decide whether I can make it as a factory girl or if I should just go back to the retail world. It’s hard to have work ethic at all when the weather is as beautiful as it is here. As the weather gets warmer, Rachel and I are determined to visit every beach in the Sydney area at least once. We started with Coogee, which is about a forty- five minute bus ride from Newtown… try not to be too jealous of the life I lead =)

Pretty crowded, right? It was a Wednesday. Aussie's are known to skip work and head to the beach on nice days.

This is Gordon's Bay, which is just a short walk from Coogee.

Into the blue

Rachel and I left early Sunday morning for the Blue Mountains, a national park about two hours outside of Sydney. We signed up for a day tour through OzExperience and our first stop was Euroka Clearing to see wild Eastern Grey Kangaroos. Even though they are “wild” these kangaroos are very use to human visitors, so we were able to get quite close. Our guide told us a fun story about how they got their name, which I will now retell in dialogue form.

English settler (pointing to kangaroo): What is that?

Aboriginal: Kangaroo?

English settler: Kangaroo.

Aboriginal: Kangaroo?

English settler: Oh ok, cool.

The only problem is kangaroo means “what?” in abbie language. So really, the Aboriginal was asking him to repeat the question because he was confused. By the time they had figured out the misunderstanding the name had already stuck.

A momma roo teaching her baby boy how to box.

After the roo sighting, we moved onto Wentworth Falls where we went on a two- hour bushwalk. On this walk, we went through many different types of habitats including hanging swamps and a cool temperate rainforest. The waterfalls were breathtaking and the colors of the rocks and mountains were gorgeous. Later, we walked down about 600 steps through Jamison Valley, which lead to the famous rock formation the Three Sisters. There are many different stories as to how this came to be, some say that a father turned his daughters into stone to protect them from the advances of young men (that would be a nice magical power to have, huh Dad), but died before he could turn them back. From the bottom of the valley, we took the steepest railway in the world up to the gift shop and then headed to our hostel for the evening.

These designs were made by a moth's eggs.

There's just no way around it posing for pictures by myself is awkward... in front of Katoomba Falls.

The Witches Leap.

The Three Sisters: Elizabeth, Alison and Jackie.

About to ride on the steepest railway in the world... did I mention there weren't any seat belts either?

The following day was an even greater adventure: I went abseiling and canyoning for the first time. For those that aren’t familiar, abseiling is basically repelling: you start at the top of a cliff and work your way down. Canyoning is a combination of treading water, jumping into pools and abseiling down waterfalls. I was actually the only person signed up, so I had a nice one- on- one abseiling session with my guide Nathan. We started by going down a 15 ft rock and ended with an 100 ft cliff. Nate said I was a natural, in fact I felt so comfortable I stopped to take a few pictures mid air and even went repelled upside- down.

Child's play.

Getting to the big girl stuff.

After lunch, Nathan and I met up with another guide and two of his clients (a couple from California) to go canyoning; it was much more fun to experience this with other first timers. This is where it got tricky. The water was so freezing that I thought my feet were going to be blue by the end of it. We waded through shallow waters and did about three jumps and two slides (into pools of more freezing water) before we got to the grand finale: Empress Falls. Going down a 100 foot waterfall is more difficult than you’d expect! The wet slippery surface combined with the constant rush of water to my face made it difficult to maneuver, but I made it down in one piece. It was actually a bit embarrassing because there was a group of people watching me the entire time, but they were very nice and gave me a round of applause when I reached the bottom. I conquered the waterfall and it was awesome! Overall, it was the perfect first trip-- I can’t wait for the next one.

Nathan was a great guide, not the best photographer.

Yup, I went straight down that 100 foot waterfall. No big deal.

Where the wild things are

Just the other day Rachel and I made a trip to Wildlife World. Although there were lots of cool insects, lizards, and snakes I was most intrigued by the cuddly koalas and kangaroos. Hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Even though they are often called "Koala bears" these adorable creatures are actually marsupials.

My hand, Koala's hand, Koala's foot. Koalas have two thumbs so they can better climb trees.

We were crazy close to the kangaroos!

Mr. Roo just chillaxin'

Under the sea

I’m beginning to think I’ve moved to Seattle, not Sydney… It has rained for the past five days and it looks like we can expect another thunderstorm tonight with showers the rest of the week. I guess I should cut the weatherman some slack; after all it is still spring in Australia. Despite the crummy weather, I have kept myself busy. This past weekend I learned a lot about the friendly fish—and not-so friendly sharks—that reside in the very waters I hope to swim, surf and scuba dive in. On Saturday, Rachel and I stopped by the IMAX Theater to watch the 3D film “Under the Sea” on the world’s largest screen. The following day, we got up close and personal with aquatic life on our visit to the Aquarium, which hosts over 12,000 animals from 650 species (tid bit courtesy of my Lonely Planet Guide). My favorite part was the underwater walkway; we saw everything from fish and sea turtles to stingrays and sharks.

Top of a stingray...

and the bottom.

Just in time for a penguin feeding!

It kind of looks like this sea turtle is headless, but don't worry everything's intact.

Ba bam... Ba bam... Ba bam...

(I was going for the "Jaws" theme song with that one)

After the aquarium, Rachel and I met up with Kat and Tamsin at a pub to watch the Rugby Grand Final—Australia’s version of the Superbowl. Apparently, the game always takes place on the Sunday before Labor Day because everyone’s too drunk to go into work the next day… gotta love that Aussie culture! Tamsin has said before that rugby is far superior to American football because it isn’t as slow and boring… and I have to admit, after watching my first rugby game I can’t help but agree! For those of you that don’t know much about the game of rugby, I’ve listed some of the basic rules down below. And yes to answer your question, I did google “rugby for dummies” before going to the pub. Even though “my team” the Paramatta Eels lost to the Melbourne Storm 23-16, I still had a blast and would love to see a live game sometime.

Rugby Rules:

• A rugby match is split into two 40-minute halves with no time outs

• Each team has 15 players on the field at a time

• The ball can be carried or kicked at any time, but under no circumstances may it be thrown forward

• A “try” is like a touchdown, the scoring team is rewarded 5 points

• A “conversion” is like the extra point after the touchdown; the scoring team kicks the ball between the goal posts and is rewarded 2 points

Yesterday, I received some exciting news… our apartment application was accepted and we officially are moving into our Newtown pad next Tuesday! We are so thrilled to be leaving our hostel in a week—especially since it’s been more difficult to live with a sixty- year old grandmother than expected (yeah, when I referred to my other roommates as “middle aged” in my first post I was just being polite). But I digress... Our apartment is a small one- bedroom studio and comes fully furnished with a brand new kitchen and bathroom. Newtown is a young, funky area with lots of restaurants, shops, and live music venues. It’s about a 10- minute bus ride or 30- minute walk to the city centre and is very close to the University of Sydney. I plan on scooping out the area more this week and will post pictures of the town and our apartment once we move in.

Glebe

The following are pictures of Glebe, the neighborhood I’ve been living in for the past week. I love everything about this street: the bright colors, adorable awnings, and charming window displays.

This is just one of the many used book stores on Glebe Point Road.

There’s color everywhere… from the buildings to this fence outside of Glebe Public School.

This park is just minutes from my hostel. I went for a run through it the other day and read a book there earlier today.

These stairs lead up to the University of Sydney’s campus.

Kirsten, a Swedish woman also here on a work and travel visa sleeps on the bottom, Rachel’s on the top.

Our kitchenette area (we have a much larger fridge next to the computer), we also have a full kitchen on the roof.

I sleep above a grandmother. I know this because her eight- year- old granddaughter slept over on Saturday night.

Rachel is also a photographer and took these at night with her Nikon D60 (much nicer camera than my Canon Power Shot… haha). She’s very talented.