First Weekend In Sydney

This weekend has been amazing! I am sad to see it end. On Friday, Amy and I visited the girls in student housing. It was supposed to be about an hour to an hour and a half walk (yes there's buses, but walking's more fun) but they got a little lost so it was about a two hour walk. That was fun, then Friday night a bunch of us went out and did a few things in Sydney. Sydney at night is so pretty! Saturday, I was going to go to the beach, but it was raining off and on, so Amy and I decided to explore Burwood some more. We stopped in several cute little shops and walked through Burwood Park, then we went to a little cafe called George's cafe. It was a cute little cafe and the milkshakes there are wonderful!

Sunday, my host brother Anthony took me and Amy to
Hillsong Church. This Sunday they were having the service at the Capital Theater instead of the regular place. The theater is 140 or so years old and was very neat looking! I absolutely LOVED Hillsong and will definitely be paying them another visit. They have a college group on Wednesday nights thatI am looking to get involved in while I'm here. Amy and I met some new friends at church today that we spent most of the day with. A girl named Florence from France, a girl named Paivi from Finland/Australia, a girl named Esmerelda(I think) from Mexico, and Keith and Ashton from the states. Going around the picture clockwise: me, Paivi, Florence, Keith, Esmerelda, and Amy (Ashton had left at this point).

We went to the Royal Botanic Gardens down by Sydney Harbor. They are so beautiful! I don't have any pictures of them yet, I left my camera at the house in my rush to leave for church that morning, but I will be going back at some point and will take pictures then. We then went and say for a while at a place that overlooks Sydney Harbor. Then Amy and I headed back home, only to find an invitation to join some people from our ASC group for a film festival that was going on that night. So we ate a quick dinner and hopped on the train back into Sydney. The film festival was interesting, they played several short films and some of them didn't make much sense to me, but overall it was good. I have been trying many new things since coming to Australia, even though I've only been here a few days. I ate a meat pie today. A meat pie is alot like what we call pot pies, but slightly different. The pie was full of beef and gravy and topped with mashed potatoes and mashed up peas. It was pretty good, but I didn't care too much for the meat part, it had kind of an odd taste to it. I also ate an ice block. I know, that brings up a very interesting mental picture, but it's not what you think. What they call an ice block is the equivalent of what we call a popsickle.

I am beginning to get more familiar with getting around by public transportation more and more. However, my sense of direction is like zero, so, I'm still trying to figure out where things are and such.

Tomorrow (or rather today I guess by the time I post this) I am starting classes. I am excited to see how the Universities in Australia are run and I'm excited for my classes. On Mondays I have my photography class and I am really looking forward to that. I love taking pictures and want to learn more about the art and technique of it.