NBA Finals + Sydney Harbour Lights Show

Week 18: 6/1-6/7

Monday involved a lot of writing and not much sleep, but I completed my final essay and so my two social science courses are now officially done. It turned out that the topics and requirements (2000 words and one textual example) for these two final essays were relatively similar, so I ultimately decided to combine them into one essay I wrote about American History X. Since I technically hadn’t handed in a graded paper in twice, I wasn’t breaking any rules. I handed the two copies in Tuesday and Wednesday and spent the remainder of these two days recovering besides training. Everybody else had finished with lectures as well so the weekend involved a lot of bars and celebration. Friday morning Chuck and I went to Cheers Restaurant & Bar down George Street to watch the first game of the NBA Finals. It felt a lot like back home, because Cheers is an American themed bar (based on the show and bar in Boston) and they primarily show American sporting events. We played some pool upstairs and had lunch (I got myself some fish and chips) together. Later in the night, some of us went to Sydney Harbour to view the light show going on. It was pretty cool – differently colored lights all around the area were used to decorate buildings, trees, or whatever else they could think of.

We proceeded to walk across the Harbour Bridge (which you would think I’d have done by now, but haven’t except on a bus) and I got a few more cool views of the harbor from above.

Shortly after stepping foot in North Sydney for the first time I got on a train and rode back home. Next week brings the final national holiday of the year for Australia being the Queen’s Birthday – yes, they celebrate the Queen of England’s birthday as a national holiday. It’s actually expected to be a little colder next week and carry snow to parts of southern Australia, which should make focusing on my studying a little easier. Also, a lot of girls from our hall our going to New Zealand starting Tuesday next week, but on the other hand, Brett just got here today, so I will most likely be spending at least one night with him over the next few days before he goes to Fiji with Danielle on Thursday for a week and a half.

One Month Left

Week 17: 5/25-5/31

Only one month left until my departure June 26th and there’s still so much I haven’t done, even in Sydney. I feel like I’ve done and seen so much in the past four months, which I have, yet I’ve probably only seen about 5% of what Australia has to offer. Consequently, during the week I began to create a list of different things I can still do before leaving. My main goal is to do at least two more dives (scuba) since I got all this expensive snorkeling equipment for my birthday before coming here and have only used it once. Chuck and I have discussed taking the three-day train ride across the outback to Perth in Western Australia for a couple days where I could dive at another beautiful reef off the southwest coast. I would also kind of like to try surfing one more time and could hire a board over there and do that as well. Now that I’m confident driving here I have also thought about driving a car up the Gold Coast north of Sydney. In Sydney itself I have yet to visit: Hunter Valley vineyards, Featherdale Wildlife Park (to revisit some tame kangaroos and wallabies), AU National Maritime Museum, Sydney Aquarium; or see a movie at the world’s largest iMax theater in Sydney Harbour. I will officially begin training for my second Twin Cities Marathon tomorrow giving me exactly 18 weeks to prepare for the October 4th race. Qualifying for Boston Marathon requires that I finish in 3 hours and 10 minutes which would require I cut about 15 minutes off the time I finished in last year. I’ve managed to stay in pretty good shape here although my weight has fluctuated more than it ever has in my life and seen me as high as 180 pounds and now right around 175 pounds (I’ll probably weigh closer to 165 by 10/4). Chuck and I actually completed are first full week’s workouts with four days of running (3 miles) and lifting, and an additional two days of longer runs for me. I know Drew, my roommate back home has also begun training so I look forward to getting back on some familiar tracks. Tomorrow I will write my final essay of the year leaving the following two weeks to study for my final exams in Quantitative Management and Math Stats, but probably just Math Stats. Hopefully I utilize my time well and get a lot done, so I can continue to see and do more. My friend Brett Tuma is visiting Danielle (girlfriend and mutual acquaintance) next week and traveling with her until the following week so it would be fun to hang out and take him around Sydney. Also, tomorrow (June 1) is the first official day of winter. Temperatures will generally see highs in the 60’s until my June 26th departure. Below, I've posted a couple more pictures of campus...they're both

taken from the same spot (one facing left and one right) in the Alumni Green behind the tower building.