Up, up and away!

This week has been named Extreme Week! It began last Thursday with the Bruce Hall Beer Pong Tournament. Twelve teams participated in the event and each team came in costume. My friend, Chris, and I were Team America (how original). He was my designated drinker for the night. We lost in the second round, but we will make a comeback sometime soon!

Sunday rolled around and it was time to learn how to fly! There were eleven other people who went on the trip. The president of our hall, Alex, organized the trip for us. We took a bus to Picton, which is about an hour outside of Sydney. We arrived at the skydiving site and had to fill out some forms. An hour later we were being suited up to go. I thought there was going to be training session, but there was not much for me to do because I was going tandem skydiving. My instructor's name was Cindi and she has been skydiving for years. I can't imagine skydiving more than once, but more power to her. She put a harness on me and taught me how to land...next thing I knew we were in a plane. I am not sure why or how, but I was surprisingly calm throughout the whole process. Knowing that I had someone pulling the parachute for me probably helped ease the nerves. After about ten minutes we reached our elevation of 14,000 feet and then I was jumping out of the plane. It was definitely an experience! I think I enjoyed the part where we were floating around rather than the free falling part, but I am happy I did it. As I promised my father, I will not be jumping out of planes for a very long time.

  

The rest of the week was spent preparing for Inward Bound. I did not get nervous until a few hours before the competition. It is a very long, drawn-out process before you actually start running. My division began scrutineering at 7:30pm. Scrutineering is simply where the committee checks to see you that everyone on your team has all of the required items. I believe my pack weighed about 10 pounds once everything was in there. We had to carry three liters of water, thermals, rain jacket, one kilo of food, maps, compass and other various objects. Once scrutineering was over we loaded the bus at 10:00pm. We then had to put on blindfolds, so that we could not see where we were going. The bus drove us around for about an hour and a half. I chose to sleep the entire way because I knew it was going to be a long night and I get a bit grouchy when I do not have my sleep! We arrived at our destination and the nav, my friend Holly, sent each of the scouts out to survey the area. I had twenty minutes to take bearings of the road and anything that I found interesting. I found a satellite dish along the way, which made our navigating pretty easy. We were off running for the endpoint by 12:45. It took my team about 6 hours to get to the endpoint! The committee did not plan for the 50km division to get in before 7am, so when we were finished there were barely any spectators to see us come running in.  The whole experience was amazing. All of the halls had tents and barbeques set up to celebrate. I was at endpoint until seven that night, which was exhausting but I had a great time cheering everyone else on.  I think I will take awhile off from running, but I am ready to take on some mini-marathons and possibly some marathons when I get home. 

Mock Drop!

Division 5 Navigators: Holly and Christian 

I had a pretty low-key weekend in Canberra, which was much needed. Saturday night I had a mock drop for my Inward Bound competition, which was very exciting! I was pretty nervous all day Saturday because I was not sure what to expect. In the team of four there is a navigator, an assistant navigator and two scouts. As most of you know I am not the best with directions, so not to worry I am scout...my team now has a chance of finishing. The nav will survey the area we are dropped of at and send the scouts out in opposite directions. I run out for 20 minutes and take compass bearings of mountains, roads, streams or whatever it is I find interesting. As I am doing this I have to draw a map to give to the nav. I was nervous about getting lost since I was going to be running by myself, but luckily we are usually dropped off on a road instead of the middle of bush. The mock drop ended up being a lot of fun, and my team works really well together. We left Bruce Hall at around 6:30 and then were dropped off at around 9. We got back home at 1:30, so I was pretty tired after that.

We found the end-point! 

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day spent reading and hanging out with my doormates. At night, I went with one of my friends, Jaden, to Burton and Garren which is a self-catered dorm on campus. I met some of his friends from back home and we cooked a vegetable stir-fry for them. I missed cooking! One of his friends made this delicious pumpkin soup that I will have to try to make sometime. Now I am off to go do some reading at gods cafe which is supposed to serve all organic food. This could mean I will be concentrating more on the food then my Investments reading!

Fun in the Sun: Bondi Beach and Manly Beach

I spent another amazing weekend at the beach. Will I ever get sick of beach time? I think not. I went to Sydney with Holly, Emma and Pretty. Holly goes to USC with me and I met Emma and Pretty at Bruce Hall. We arrived in Sydney early Saturday morning. The weather was very humid, which reminded me of lovely Indiana summers. We stayed in a hostel in downtown Sydney, which to my surprise was pretty clean and exceeded my expectations. The trip began by exploring downtown and the Circular Quay area. On the way to the famous Sydney bridge, we stopped by the botanical gardens which were gorgeous. Although when I looked up in the trees there were hundreds of bats hanging out. I can't say I have ever seen a real bat before, so that was interesting to see them all just hanging from the tree limbs.  I was ready to take some lovely pictures when I realized I left my battery at home, so I had to rely on Emma for my weekend pictures. I bought a disposable camera, but I am not sure how those will turn out. After some sight seeing we decided to head down to Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is the one of the most action packed beaches. It reminded me of where people would go for Spring Break. Blackberry was at the beach putting on different competitions to give away free merchandise. Watching people compete for a free Blackberry is always entertaining. I have noticed that the beaches are much smaller then they are in California, but they all have more personality. There is a beautiful 3.5km walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach. On the way you get to see several different beaches. Something I found rather interesting is that Australians put swimming pools next to their more popular beaches, so that people can swim laps next to the ocean. Hopefully my disposable camera worked so I can show you this combo. We finished the day by having wood-fire pizza and then going to the bars for some cocktails. Sadly I was the only one asked for my proof of age card. Do I really not look 18? O well the night was still enjoyable.

On the walk from Bondi to Bronte Beach. 

Sunday was filled with more beach time! We took a morning ferry ride over to Manly Beach. Manly Beach is also very crowded, but you can find quieter beaches around it. Emma's family is from Manly, so we walked a little past Manly Cove and met up with them there. They let us use there snorkel gear, which I am so thankful for. We got to see all kinds of fish and the reefs were spectacular. The sea urchins were huge and I only saw a few jellyfish thank goodness!! Snorkeling was by far the highlight of my trip. We headed back to Canberra the next morning. Now I am starting to get a bit of a cold, but the weekend was worth it!

Beaches, Rugby, and Rogaining!

Look another post and its only been a week since the last one! This week was full of new adventures. During the week I had the usual class and at night I went on runs with the Inward Bound team. They are starting to get intense! The runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday were all over 15km, which left my body very angry with me. I am having a blast doing it and I am getting to see some beautiful scenery while running.


Saturday morning I headed up to Batemans Bay with a few friends. It is about two hours south of Canberra. We hopped in the car around eight and reached Surf Beach (how original) around ten. The beach was nice, but nothing too special. I am not too sure how people surf there because there were no waves, but I won't pass too much judgement. We had lunch and than decided to try out a new beach. We could not decide where to go next and finally Tom picked a random beach named Lilly Pilly. We drove to Lilly Pilly Road and were laughing at how awful the beach must be since it was in the middle of nowhere, but we decided to give it a try anyway. We stepped out of the car and looked down the mountain where saw the most gorgeous beach. We had our own private beach for awhile and I was in heaven. The sand was soft and the water was clear. I got to do some exploring on the beach, which always makes me happy.

I thought my day could not get any better, but that night I went to my first rugby match. I actually think I understand the game. Rugby is much easier for me to watch because of how face paced the game is compared to football. I am surprised there are not more injuries because they don't wear any padding. The game was a union game and it was between the Canberra Brumbies and the Queensland Reds. Unfortunately the Brumbies lost by a couple of points, but the game was very exciting to say the least!

Now for Sunday's events...The Rogaine. Rogaining is an interesting sporting event. I had never heard of it before and I will probably not do it again until my muscles are no longer sore from all my running, but I am glad I had the experience. For the Rogaine, I was put in a team of four. Our team was given a map of the Roby Roy Park with different checkpoints marked. Each checkpoint is given a different point value. We had six hours to get to as many checkpoints as possible. Now these checkpoints were not along a road or on flat surface. For six hours, I was hiking up, down, and around mountains and through thistle patches. My legs are covered with bumps and scratches...so attractive. To be more positive, I did learn more navigational skills using a compass. The scenery was gorgeous and I got to see a couple of kangaroos along the way! I wish I had brought my camera, so I could share with everyone. I am exhausted now and am going to be falling asleep at nine tonight. Looks like I am back to my old sleeping habits!

Update of the Past Month in Canberra!

Hello! I apologize for the long delay, but Google just did not seem to want to work in Canberra. No worries all is well now! A lot has happened since I landed here, but I will give you a brief update. I am currently living in Bruce Hall, which is a dormitory with both boys and girls. They treat their dorms like fraternities and sororities. The first week I arrived we had an Orientation Week that was full of planned activities. During the day there would be icebreaker games and at night they would have a themed party.

My home for the next five months!

Canberra is a lovely place. Many people do not like the capital city because it is so quiet compared to Sydney and Melbourne, but I am enjoying this after being in LA. The campus is surrounded by mountains and parks, which makes for great running trails. Speaking of running...I am currently training for this competition between all the halls called Inward Bound. There are seven divisions based on distance starting at 25km going all the way up to 100km! You are placed in teams of four and at the night of the competition  everyone is dropped off at this secret location. Teams have to use navigational skills to get back to campus. I have been training with the group from Bruce Hall, which has been a blast. I love being able to run with a a team again.

Parliament House! 

Some notable places I have been: Parliament House, Botanical Gardens and National Museum of Australia. Canberra has many museums to keep me busy. The Parliament House was amazing! A group of us went and we were able to sit in and watch Question Time with the Prime Minister. At the Botanical Gardens, I was able to see my first kangaroo! They come out usually at dawn and dust, so you have to keep your eyes peeled for them.

First kangaroo I saw, but hopefully many
 more to come. 

I have began to travel around Australia. Last weekend I went up to Sydney and stayed at Coogi Beach, which was gorgeous. I missed being by the ocean and forgot how beautiful it is. We stayed at the beach all day Saturday and on Sunday the group did a bit of exploring around downtown Sydney where we saw the Sydney Opera House. I am going back to Sydney in two weeks to do more exploring!

Coogi Beach. A bit crowded, but the water felt great!

This post is a lot and I promise to update more frequently, but all in all I am having a wonderful time in Canberra. I have met people from all over the world and the other students from USC are wonderful. Classes just started, so I must find time to fit all the lovely reading I have been assigned already into my schedule! Now I will leave you with some pictures to look over! Cheers!

Lake Burley Griffin 

Paddle boating on Lake Burley Griffin. My
legs felt like jello afterwards.

Masquerade Ball at one of the
bars on campus with Bruce Hall. 

Sydney Opera House! I can't wait to go to an opera there. 

Funny looking bird I saw in
Hyde Park in Sydney

Gearing Up to Go

       My attempt to pack light. Thank you
space saver bags. 

The time has come for me to finally make my travels to Australia. I will be in LA tomorrow to spend the night with Caroline! Saturday night I will be on a plane ride to Sydney followed by a three hour bus ride to Canberra. I will be relieved once I make it across the globe. I will be sure to keep you all updated on my adventures. I am thinking it will be more of a picture blog since those are more fun to follow.  For now I will leave you a few pictures of my last night at home.

Not happy about the bags. 

   

Who would have guessed that currency
could be so cheerful?