Chinese Gardens of Friendship

Between settling in, finding a job, and scuba diving I didn't have time in the past few weeks to do what I came here to do: sight see! That stops now. I’ve decided that on every day off I will explore something new in Sydney, starting with the Chinese Gardens of Friendship. These gardens were built according to the Taoist principles of “Yin- Yang” and the five opposite elements: earth, fire, water, metal, and wood. Yin- Yang plays such a vital role that one missing element would disrupt the garden’s harmony and balance… this all according to my self- guided tour pamphlet of course.

The Dragon Wall: the gold dragon represents Guangdong and the blue represents New South Wales. The Pearl of Prosperity floats between the two states symbolizing their bond with one another.

Those Taoists sure know there stuff! I found the garden both beautiful and peaceful.

This lamp signifies prosperity... seems to be a popular theme.

The Gurr is situated at the highest point in the Garden.

For only $10 you could dress up in formal Chinese attire and walk around the gardens to take pictures. I think that's reason enough to go back another time with Rachel.

All Hallow's Eve

Australians don't really celebrate Halloween, but I didn't let that stop me. Rachel and I invited a few of our girlfriends over to celebrate on Saturday night. Our English friends Kat and Tamsin came, as well as my new friends Kelly and Jen. I met Kelly through my cousin Kendall; they did club gymnastics together as kids and ran into each other again this past summer. Kelly and Jen have been here about three weeks and live near Bondi beach. After hanging out at our apartment for a while we decided to go to SideBar, a well-known backpackers hang out in the city. And where there are backpackers, there are Halloween costumes. I saw everything from an Oompa- Loompa, Papa Smurf, and all five Teletubbies. It made me wish I had put a little more thought into my costume, nonetheless it was still a fun night!

We make such adorable hippies, don't we?

All the girls together: Me, Kelly, Tamsin, Kat, Rachel, and Jen.

Kelly did club gymnastics with my cousins. Small world, huh?

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.