banana

not all bananas look like this but i thought it was interesting...

Royal Botanic Gardens

Yesterday we wandered around the opera house and the royal botanic gardens, it was beautiful. We took a pretty scenic route on the way there and it was very reminiscent of fall, chilly, stone buildings, a street market, with a view of this bridge...

Harbour Bridge from "The Rocks"

Opera House

Andrew and Nikki, my fellow explorers standing next to the Opera House

that's me there in the middle standing in front of the Opera House

inside the gardens there is a bird roped off

we were thinking maybe it's nesting? it just sits there and looks around but never moves

one of the many massive trees inside the garden

yes, those are bats! there are thousands of bats hanging from trees all around the garden, sometimes they get spooked and 20-30 of them fly off at once, it's eerie

some close ups of the bats

a fountain in front of the government house, looking out on to the water

a tulip garden

the government house

there are herds of cockatoos hanging around the gardens

they will jump up on you, and as Andrew learned the hard way, if you don't have food in your hand they will just go ahead and bite you

this guy got right up and personal with me

from the gardens

on the walkway that takes you along the water around the park

another tulip garden

another massive tree on our way out

a boar in front of a hospital, a sign read that if you put money in the fountain and rubbed his nose it brought good fortune, so we did, just for good measure

a huge fountain in Hyde park

Yesterday left me extremely tired and I was asleep probably by 9 and up by 8! I wonder how long that is going to last ha. Today is the first day of classes, mine today is from 4-7 and is on Mass Media in Australia. I'm sure we'll get right into it since there are only 6 weeks of class!

harbour cruise

The harbour cruise was a lot of fun, we toured around the inner harbours near Sydney, and as you can see we went by both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The harbour near these landmarks, and where the buildings in these pictures is called Darling Harbour. 

After the harbour cruise we went to one of the biggest casinos in the southern hemisphere called Star City. Having never really been in many casinos before it was pretty cool, massive really. They had just opened their new sports bar so we were given free drink vouchers, that was a nice end to the night.

We had to walk quite a ways to get back to our rooms but we pulled it off without a hitch.

Today I actually slept in which is a first since I've been here, hopefully that means the jet lag is wearing off. The internet is now set up in my room so I can skype if anyone wants to!

I think tonight we're heading to Luna Park which is like Sydney's Coney Island, there is actually a sign there reading Coney Island ha. 

some pronunciation that I've picked up...

Melbourne=Melbin

Brisbane=Brisbin

Cairns=Cans

quay=key

a shout= a round of drinks

Signed up for Surf Camp yesterday- a weekend (leave Sept 11) on a beach learning how to surf, should be pretty amazing. Spoke with my internship advisor, he is pretty confident and excited he will find me somewhere that I will like.

I'm basically free for the rest of the day until the Harbour Cruise at 530 (leave our place around 3). Need to update my CV (resume) and send that over to Darryl while maybe going out and setting up the internet in our room- so then maybe I can skype a little!

Well I am starting to miss the US a little bit (certain people more than certain places ), but hopefully that is erased for awhile by this cruise around the harbour. I cannot wait to see the water!!

first full day

Went to sleep last night around 7, everybody was exhausted. Woke up around 5 but was able to fall back to sleep until around 8 when I had to get up. We had some orientation classes this morning and signed up for classes.

We have a break now so my roommate, this kid Andrew, and I went up the road to a small cafe and had some lunch/breakfast. It was really good. It was odd when we paid because there was no tip or tax? The meals were somewhat more expensive than you'd expect so maybe it gets included in there.

The money has been pretty fun to work with. There are no pennies so totals get rounded if it ends up being anything not divided by 5. There also aren't any one dollar bills, there are one dollar coins and two dollar coins, the two dollar coin the size of a thick dime. There's a 10 cent coin, twenty cent coin and fifty cent coin as well. The cent coins are silver in color and the dollar coins are goldish.

The bills are really pretty. The 5s are purple, the 10s are blue, 20s red, and 50s are yellow and orange. They all have people on one side and a drawing on the other. Oh yeah the dollar coin has kangaroos on it!

It's still pretty chilly out but it's supposed to be around 23 today which equals around 73 F. It was starting to warm up when we left the cafe.

Tonight we're meeting up with adventure travel groups who are going to show us some trips we could plan and whatnot, with a pizza party after haha.

We were hoping to walk to the harbor afterwards but we're not sure if we'll be up for it, tired-wise. It probably would be quite a view to see at night (the sun sets around 6).

Tomorrow we're going on a harbor cruise, which is incredibly exciting since I completely forgot about it! It'll really feel like I'm in Sydney once I see the water. Right now it sort of feels like any other city (if you ignore the accents).


For the rest of the day I'll just be hanging out until I meet with my internship advisor, put a deposit down on my books and phone, and the pizza party.

ah!

I am here, it is 2pm Sydney time which makes it 12am east coast time? I believe that's correct. My stream of consciousness is already is talking in an Australian accent. We arrived around 7am, after a 14ish hour flight. I slept most of the way and woke up with about 6 hours left and watched two movies. We were served both dinner and breakfast and had snacks along the way, all free of additionial charge. We were shuttled to our rooms which aren't so bad and were just issued our phones and given a brief orientation. Around 3 the RA's are going to give us a tour of the area and at 530 there is a BBQ on the roof of the UniLodge (where I am staying).

I am definitely happy with my roommate. We get along really well and have been joined at the hip so far. She is from Boston and is in TV as well so that makes things even better. She's a junior and is 19, going to be turning 20 while she's here.

They're trying to keep us up as long as possible to adjust to the jet lag. I'm still pretty awake but very out of it and my body is sore from both being tired and sitting so long on the plane. Tomorrow and Friday and more orientation type things and I will be meeting with my internship advisor to figure out my deal. He wrote my name as Evelyn Mackay in the email he sent with the interview times, ha.

Sydney is pretty chilly comparably. It's sunny right now and I don't think I will be getting over the accents. They do drive on the opposite side of the street which is REALLY odd. We were making a left hand turn and it felt like driving into oncoming traffic.

I have a phone in my room which is only 7 cents a minute to call to a landline, not bad.

Australian money looks anything but real and when it's new is kind of hard to bend. The bills are all different colors and have a little cutout on them that is plastic. It is strange.

I'm in the computer lab at the Fusion building where all of the classes will be held.

Well I should get off the computer and let someone else get on.

Speak soon!

Alcatraz

Caroline and I toured Alcatraz yesterday and it was absolutely incredible! We grabbed the 2:20 boat out there (that we almost missed) and spent the rest of the afternoon touring the island. We took an audio tour through the prison that lasted about and hour and was narrated by former prison guards and prisoners.

I think it's easier to get a feel for the Rock if I just show you some of the pictures I took...

Our Boat

Alcatraz

your greeting
"Persons procuring or concealing escape of prisoners are subject to prosecution and imprisonment"

the lighthouse and I believe the warden's quarters that were burned down during the Indian takeover of Alcatraz in the 70s

where families of officer's and guard's lived, children were shuttled back and forth every day to San Francisco for school

evidence of two different times in the island's life
in the 1970s as a sort of self-determination and returning to ancestral roots Indians from San Francisco and eventually all around took over Alcatraz Island

the social hall and Angel Island in the distance

what's left of the social hall


Caroline peeking inside

the interior of the social hall- it had a bowling alley and soda fountain, residents were members of bowling leagues

the sign read "apartments"

more housing for families- the island also had a post office

I don't know what this building was since this was as close as we could get, but it looked broken down and hollow on the inside

the morgue

the prison

where prisoners first got acquainted with Alcatraz, shoes were lined up on the tables

where prisoners traded in street clothes for prison attire

the showers

I think this was "Michigan Ave"

"Broadway"

the average furnished prison cell

the corner of cellblock C, "C-D St"

in a 1942 prison escape attempt that left guards and prisoners dead, the marines and national guard were called in and hurled grenades at the armed prisoners and left these pock marks on the ground

entrance to D Block, unruly prisoners were sent here, also contained isolation or "the hole"

D Block

a cell in D Block

isolation

isolation again, one of the prisoners talked about how he would pass the time by removing a button from his shirt and throwing it in the air, he would spin around a couple times and then search on his hands and knees for it

the gun gallery, prison guards would patrol these posts with rifles

a small window looking out to San Francisco

the view that constantly reminded the prisoners of what they were missing

visitation window on the prisoners' side

visitation from the side of the visitor

the exterior of the administration building

mail room, office


a sound board and microphone

the average guard attire, prisoners called them "red ties"

what's left of the warden's quarters

some of the view from right outside the administration building


in 1962 3 prisoners escaped into San Francisco bay on a raft fashioned out of raincoats, they created wax heads with real hair to fool the guards when they were taking head counts that night


they dug through their walls with spoons (sorry it's blurry)

the kitchen

dining hall


these canisters are all over the dining hall and if they were turned on gas would have filled the entire dining area, fortunately they never had to be


before Alcatraz was a prison it was a military post protecting the mainland, this is a howitzer- it would be loaded with multiple cannonballs and would tear through anything in its way


Alcatraz is now a national park, but the modern day version of Alcatraz can be found in Florence, Colorado


heading back to San Francisco

boat full of tired and probably cold people

goodbye Alcatraz