March 2- 2nd day of orientation

We woke up and got ready. Merlin had an information session for us to tell some really important things to know about Australia. Then we grabbed a bus to the city. Got off and walked through the Paddys Market to Darling Harbour. We saw the Real World house along the way. Then we boarded a jet boat to ride out onto the habour. The boat ride out of the harbour was slow but when we were about to go underneathe the bridge it kind of hit me that I was actually in Sydney. The rest of the boat ride consisted of twist and turns and was insanely fun. After heading back into the harbour we grabbed lunch at Blackbirds and Rob ordered kangaroo and I figured I had to atleast try it. Its kind of sad to say that I've eaten it. But they overpopulate Australia. I was told there is 2 kangaroos for every one person in Australia so over 40 million. It tasted like steak too...After lunch we grabbed a monorail to Sydney Tower which is the tallest building in Sydney and we were able to look out over the entire city and get a grasp of where everything was located. Afterward we took this virtual tour of Australia and thats when I realized that I really should go to the outback. Maybe just for a weekend with a group friends to camp out underneathe the stars. Who knows when I will be back here so I should def go while I'm here. After our adventures in the city we headed back to the hotel to change and then headed down to the beach for an hour or so. Then we all showered and ate at this amazing Thai food place on Coogee Bay Ave. Then we bought some wine and went back to the hotel to drink and watch/learn the game of cricket. Then we went to Leora and Samara's house for a party.

March 1st= 1st day of orientation

I arrived at the hotel and dragged my luggage over the lift (elevator). Met my roommate Sarah once I got into my room and dropped my luggage off and gave her sometime to herself because she had just flown in about 2 hrs earlier. Then I ventured outside to see the beach and to take a couple pictures. On the beach there was an iron man and woman contest about to start up and I was little disappointed we were going to miss it.

Then I went back to the hotel to meet everyone up on the roof. Once I got up there everyone introduced themselves as we waited on Merlin our IES advisor to arrive. Whenever he got there is was a little flustered because one of the guys' planes was delayed and waited on him at the airport to get him back to the hotel. Once Merlin got there we all headed downstairs to board onto the most amazing party bus that was double decker so all of us sat upstairs to see all of the sights. We drove along the coast to Maurbra Bay and then we parked and ate lunch. After lunch we headed into the city of Sydney and saw the Harbour Bridge and Opera house and all of the other great buildings downtown. We got off and walked around and saw the War Memorial, St Marys Cathedral, the Botanical Gardens. In the gardens there were trees just covered in these huge bats that were just chilling. Then we rounded a corner and saw the Opera House. We walked underneathe of it to get to the ferry. The ferry took us all around the harbour and allowed all of us to get some really great shots of Sydney. After our adventure in the city we returned back to the hotel and then Merling took Rob, Sarah and I to Westfield shopping center in Bondi to get mobiles (cell phones). When we got to the mall we were sprinting through like mad men because it was almost 6:00 and about to close. We ended up not making it in time so we weren't able to get phones. Then we came back to the hotel and changed and then went to dinner and chilled at one of the bars in Coogee because we decided not head downtown for the Mardi Gras parade because we didn't want to get stuck with no way back to the hotel and we had to be up early the next morning.