We began this day by walking across the street in front of Wesley College into a small grove area on the University of Sydney's campus that is covered in wonderful shade trees. We sat on the ground, rocks, and a couple of benches and had a thorough discussion of the two movies - "Autralia" and "Whale Rider" - that we watched in preparation for our trip abroad. Everyone seemed to have mixed feelings regarding their liking of each movie, but I thought each one was worth the watch. "Australia" was by far my favorite, especially how the movie portrays the role that music played in connecting a mixed race aboriginal to his native culture and English culture. "Whale Rider" was ok, not my favorite movie of all time, but it was interesting to learn about the Maori culture, a people group that receives little to no attention to anyone on the other side of the globe. The young girl did a wonderful acting job portraying a young girl destined to be a leader in a male dominated society. I felt like the movie portrayed the belief that leaders are made, not born - contrary to what the Maori teach from their ancestors.
Before we adjourned from the grove, we discussed the book by Bill Bryson "A Sunburned Country" that we also read in preparation for Australia. Bryson, a world renowned traveler, painted a detailed story of his excursions and adventures all throughout the Australian Continent. After the discussion, we left to find internet and take a 50 question test over the book.
After the test, we met in the breakfast area to have our first temporary structures class. Professor Hein who will be leading the course, provided a neat overview of the course and showed us a lengthy slideshow of pictures and explanation of temporary structures found in his study abroad in Europe a few semesters ago.
We had about an hour of free time around the college before we set out to take over the city. Our exploits led us first to the 2000 Olympic Complex. We traveled a good 30-45 minutes by train to get to the complex. We walked around on an unofficial tour taking in the site and taking many photographs. Below are several I took of the stadiums and concourses.
Above, you will see, respectively, the train station that handled the daily influx and return of hundreds of thousands of people. The next is a photo of the Opening Ceremonies Stadium. Next is an interesting row of trees that was planted to create a homey, country feel in the middle of an urbanized area. The last photo is of the inside of the Aqua Center. The Aqua Center picture shows the "members only" side, but the center has been changed into a public and private swimming club and park. Complete with cafes, smoothy shops, massages, health club, fitness center, slides, swimming pools and lanes for young and old alike! I enjoyed the sight, though being indoors the chlorine used to treat the water built up heavily in the air and began to irritate my eyes. Walking outside was nice and refreshing!
We left the Olympic Complex by train in the direction of Sydney Harbour to ride a ferry across to a lovely area known as "Manly Wharf." The ferry ride to the wharf took about 20 minutes and I was able to take some breathtaking pictures of Sydney in the late afternoon sun. Here is a taste of the spectacular vista:
All I did was take these pictures. The breathtaking scenery and cloud/sun formations are God's majestic design!
We spent our evening relaxing at Manly Wharf. We walked around the concourses looking for some good food, though everything was terribly expensive (especially from an American perspective). We whiled away several hours at a neat place (perhaps called "The Shore Hotel" or something along those lines). We chilled on the third level as the sun went down. The place had a retractable roof that opened to the heavens above and the sound of the crashing wind and waves below. Sitting there we practically forgot we were in Australia for a time. It was so pleasant. Hard to imagine that this day started with two papers due, a test, and class.
We would have been satisfied to spend the night camping somewhere on the wharf, but alas the last ferry leaves at midnight back to Sydney. We departed, as we would be expected in the morning at the College.
I had a pleasant nap on the ferry ride back to Sydney Harbour, and thank goodness I saved my energy. We wandered through the Harbour and out of Circular Quay before deciding to catch a bus to go back to the University. We had absolutely no idea if the buses were still running, where to catch the right bus, and had some dispute as to which bus was the "right" bus. Steele led the way into the depths of the city with astonishing confidence. However, his valiant effort only found us in the middle of the hospital grounds. Refusing to pay for a taxi we trucked onward in a new direction (the only one that didn't lead towards water.) We actually did ask several people for directions to the University of Sydney, though sadly nobody had even heard of it nor knew how to get there. (Actually it was probably more due to the language barrier. The only English word the several Oriental folks we saw knew was "No," which may or may not have been directed at our question.) Anyway we did meet a fellow tourist from Canada (who of course had no idea where the University was though at least he was able to tell us so in English) who had never met someone from Texas or Alabama. Other than these few conversations, we spent time exploring a new part of the city and walking through several well lit parks. We did eventually find the correct bus though, as the buses run all night in the city and made it back to Wesley College safely, somewhere around 1am.
What a wonderful day!!
Sounds fun! Your pictures are so pretty!
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