After a week of good progress at work, I was ready for a great weekend. It began Friday morning when our group got to take a tour of the Sydney Opera House. It was an amazing opportunity to see the most famous landmark on the continent. The tour took us to some backstage areas, a studio where Coldplay has done recording in, and the two main theatres. Since we only got a taste of what the Opera House had to offer, some friends and I decided that we needed to see a show there. We bought tickets to see a world class composer and pianist in mid February, and we are extremely excited for that. After the Opera House, we went to Manly Beach and enjoyed a day in the water. Quite a splendid Friday.
Then came January 26, which is known to the nation as Australia Day. It’s their equivalent to the Fourth of July in the States. The day began by receiving a phone call from some friends at 7 am saying to come to Coogee Beach. I arrived and had a few drinks with my friends to get the day started. The waves were very strong that day too, so we had fun getting crushed by the current. We also had to deal with some members of our group drinking a little too much too early. It was quite entertaining, but at the same time, it was quite the hassle. Getting them back home for lunch was a long process. But we wanted to keep having fun, so we decided to go back to the beach once we rehydrated and got some more energy. We came home for dinner, and then I prepared to head to Darling Harbour to watch their big fireworks extravaganza. It was the most amazing fireworks display that I have ever seen. They shot the fireworks right out of the bay, they had spotlights that changed colors, and the fireworks were well coordinated. We then met up with some friends at a bar to grab some drinks and dance to a live band. It was an extremely successful Australia Day, and I am going to find ways to celebrate Australia Day in the future.
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Posted on January 28th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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Being in Australia in January means that I get the opportunity to go to Melbourne to see the Australian Open tennis tournament. It’s not every day that a grand slam tennis event is a quick flight away, so I definitely had to take advantage of the situation. I flew down to Melbourne on Friday and I immediately went to Melbourne Park. We only had ground passes, so we couldn’t get into the big arenas to see players like Federer and Djokovic, but we still watched high quality competition. On the first day, we saw Marion Bartoli lose to Ekaterina Makarova (who just upset the #5 seeded woman), Janko Tipsarevic come from behind to beat Julien Bennetau, and Sam Querry, the last American in the men’s tournament, lose to Stan Wawrinka (who just had the 5 hour match with Djokovic). So all in all, we saw some very good tennis for a cheap price. The next day, we saw a legends doubles match featuring the famous Aussies Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde against Mansour Bahrami and Wayne Ferreira. Bahrami is arguably the most entertaining tennis player ever. He was making fun of all the players, pulling silly trick shots, and even making the head judge laugh on plenty of occasions. It was quite the experience. After that, we saw Elena Vesnina upset Roberta Vinci (Vesnina lost to the #1 seeded woman in her next match), the number 7 seeded Joel-Wilfried Tsonga easily beat Blaz Kavcic, and we saw the beginning of a doubles match with Venus and Serena Williams crushing some random Europeans partners. For paying $80, I got to watch some of the best players in the world on one of the biggest stages in the world, so that experience was definitely worth the price I paid.
After the flying home from Melbourne, I still didn’t get too much time to relax. On Sunday, we had a mixer with another American group staying at our apartments. The mixer was held at the Bat & Ball pub, which I have mentioned in a previous post. I arrived and started mingling with the other group. I liked some people in that group, I didn’t like some people, and I got a few phone numbers. It’s always good to make new friends. But just when I thought the mixer was going to be the highlight of my day, I was proven wrong.
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Posted on January 28th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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Though I have thoroughly enjoyed my free time for my first week in Sydney, it was time to finally do the thing I came here to do: work. Monday, I met with my bosses at Bowls NSW, and we discussed what I would be doing throughout my six week internship. I am the Sports Development Intern, which means that I am helping develop the sport of bowls (I know, it’s tough to comprehend). There are many different challenges that face this department, and I will have to use my skills of adaptation to my advantage. My main project over the course of my internship will be to help create a handbook that gives all of the basics of the sport of bowls. They are excited for my input because I will be a fresh pair of eyes on this process. Overall, this should be a fun internship.
Even though my challenges seem lofty, my first week of work was more like dipping my toes into the pool instead of diving head first. On Tuesday, my bosses took me out to play a game of bowls because they assumed (correctly) that I had never played or seen a game in action. It was a lot of fun starting to get the basics down of the game, but I still have a long ways to go if I’m going to make a career out of it.
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Posted on January 20th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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My days of “vacation” quickly came to an end, but I was able to have some fun before the seriousness starts. On Saturday, I took advantage of sleeping in for the first time on this trip because I did not have anything specific that I wanted to do. Still, that afternoon I went with my roommates to Paddy’s Market, which is the biggest market in all of Sydney. There are stands that go on forever selling souvenirs and other random stuff. It also is the cheapest place to buy fruit, so I took advantage of that, as well. All in all, it was a relaxing Saturday, but I still had a great Sydney experience that I will repeat again.
Sunday was far from relaxing, but I absolutely loved it. After watching the amazing American football games, I went with six other friends to a football game in Sydney. Of course, I usually call it soccer, but it was still fun nevertheless. For the whole first half, it was pouring rain, and as I write this blog I continue to feel wet from the downpour. The game was a home game for Sydney FC, and they were facing the Melbourne Heart. Sydney was in last place before the game, so we didn’t expect much.
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Posted on January 20th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly have any better days that what I have already had in Sydney, I was proven wrong. I have seen downtown Sydney, I have visited places that I only have dreamed about visiting, and I have already have made memories with good friends, so how can it get better? Visiting the Olympic Park from the 2000 games.
Posted on January 20th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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One thing is for sure about my time in Sydney so far: my feet hate me for how much I have been walking. All of my days so far in Sydney have consisted of walking miles upon miles around the city. On Sunday, my day consisted of nothing more complex than just strolling around. Some friends and I got on a bus so that we could go to downtown with no intentions of doing anything other than just checking stuff out (I did this after watching the Vikings/Packers game, of course). But we met a 60 year old lady from South Africa who suggested that we should take the bus to the first stop across the Harbour Bridge and walk across it back the other way. We thought it would be a fun idea.
Nothing makes you feel like you are in Sydney more than walking over the bridge and seeing the city. Even though we walked through some areas on the north side of the bridge where we might have found used heroin needles, we found the path on the bridge and just strolled along. It gave us the perfect view of both sides of downtown, and we had the postcard view of the Opera House. We probably stopped about every 20 feet just to look out on the city. That alone was a day’s worth of fun.
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Posted on January 20th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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So just when I thought that things were going to go smoothly with my journey to the Land Down Under, travel got in the way. To begin, it took over a half an hour just to check in for my flight at O’Hare because the lady behind the desk (bless her heart) had to jump through so many hoops to make sure my bags were going to make it all the way to Australia. So after all of the confusion, I finally was on my way to Australia, but my problems were only just beginning.
After the long and excruciating flights to Los Angeles and then to Sydney, I was in no mood for any sort of shenanigans to go down. All I wanted to do was get my bags, get to the apartment and take a long shower, but that process was delayed by a nightmare for every traveler: lost luggage. One of my two bags that I checked didn’t arrive with the rest of the luggage. This bag had my toothbrush/toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen (a necessity in Australia), new contact lenses, all of my casual outfits, and my baseball glove. You can believe how this put a damper on my spirits.
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Posted on January 20th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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As I am preparing to leave for Australia, there are multiple thoughts running through my mind. First, laundry sucks. It never ends. I need to get rich enough to have someone do it for me or marry someone who loves dealing with my dirty filth.
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Posted on January 20th, 2013 by pkleinhans-schulz10
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Journal Entry #3
Today has been one of the most rewarding days of my life.
Today was our first of teaching at the alpha boys school. The alpha boys school is located in the heart of Kingston, the capitol of Jamaica. This school is where many young boys who have nowhere else to go come to live and learn, and it has turned out some of the worlds famous musicians. We arrived in the morning at the alpha girl’s school side, which doesn’t function as an orphanage, simply a great school. Even though it was the student’s winter break, there were over 50 girls waiting to learn. We all gathered together in their auditorium, and our group sat on the stage. The girls stood in straight lines and sang to us and they had the most beautiful voices! We all sang Bob Marley’s “One Love” together and I think many of us were tearing up. After the girls sang, their principle, Mr Singh, gave a very powerful speech to the girls. He first introduced us and explained that part of our group was there to teach the girls math. Since they had lost time because of the hurricane, they were very far behind. He told them about the young women in Pakistan who are being attacked for speaking for women’s rights, especially for women’s educational rights. He warned the girls that unless they worked hard, they would not be ready to face the discrimination that could come their way. It was very sobering, and all the girls looked motivated as they went off to their classrooms.
After the assembly, we walked across campus to the alpha boys school to meet their principle, Sister Susan. Sister Susan told us that all of the boys who were here had done something to get here. She described them as “delinquents” and that we should expect to have to use very firm punishment with many of them. (I am happy to say that every single alpha boy proved Sister Susan quite wrong. Never before had I met a more polite, well behaved group of young men.)
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Posted on January 17th, 2013 by jessicaallen10
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I can’t believe that I’m here! I’m finally, finally in Jamaica. This trip has been so long anticipated, so long planned for that it began to feel like it was never actually going to happen.
I’m surprised at how, although we are in a third world country, I still feel like I’m in America. The costumes were like America, the airport is like America, and the resort is definitely like America. I could be in Florida right now; you couldn’t tell a difference if I showed pictures of the two next to each other.
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Posted on January 17th, 2013 by jessicaallen10
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