Lions and Tigers and a 14k, oh my!

Hey! Sorry its been so long since I last posted.  I'm starting to get busy with classes and homework.  Here I have a lecture for each class once a week and then a tutorial for each class once a week.  So even though I'm in the classroom a lot less than at Clarkson there is a lot more independent work.

Wednesday I went exploring and ended up at the Fish Market, Observatory Hill, and walked across the Harbour Bridge.  I only have class at night on Wednesdays so my goal is go someplace new in the city every Wednesday.

Anzac Bridge

Fish at the fish market

More Fish

View from Observatory Hill

This past weekend was crazy fun.  The shenanigans started on Thursday night when I went to a study abroad and exchange club social at World Bar in Kings Cross. Kings Cross is a big part of the social scene of Sydney described as "where everyone goes when they turn 18 to get hammered" by one of my flatmates. World Bar is famous for mixing drinks in tea pots that you then pour into shot glasses.  I was able to meet a bunch of people who are studying abroad or who have studied abroad in the past which was awesome.

Saturday I got to go to Taronga Zoo! The zoo is right on the harbour so the easiest way to get there is by ferry.  It was huge and on a hill so it was also my workout for the day.  The zoo has a lot of animals indigenous to Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia, some of which I had never seen before. I took way too many photos of the animals so I won't put them on here but they will be on Facebook very soon.  My favorite exhibit was definitely the giraffes because you could see the entire city in the background. The zoo also had a gondola that we rode which gave us an incredible view of the entire zoo.

The Pelican who rescued Nemo and Friends from the Dentist

Giraffes looking very out of place

I just liked the way he looked so he made it on the blog

I got to see this guy eat a whole rabbit....

And I made friends with a parrot!

The view from the ferry was absolutely beautiful!

Sunday I ran the City2Surf 14k.  It starts at Hyde Park near the center of the city and winds its way to Bondi Beach.  The race had about 80,000 people in it this year.  I was in the yellow group which started second to last.  The group that started before us had 25,000 people in it and it took about a half hour to get everyone over the start line after the gun went off.  It was basically the craziest race I've ever been too.  There were so many people running and cheering.  If anyone is ever in Australia in August I highly suggest you do the City2Surf.  A lot of people walk it and since it is one of the largest road races in the world it is definitely "the one to run".  I ran for Team UTS which came in first out of 961 teams!

Before Photo: In the city

Found some minions 

After photo: made it to the surf!

And then I iced my legs in the ocean, because its that cold

This weekend I'm hoping to do some exploring outside of the city and further into the bush.  And I might be going to my first AFL game!