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.