So for anyone who actually follows this blog regularly, I am VERY VERY sorry for taking so long between posts, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.  That being said, put your reading caps on, because I'm going to catch you all the way up on the past two weeks (plus a few days). 

After we dropped the JUCY van off at the airport, we spent one last night in Queenstown to round out our New Zealand experience.  We went to a place called Fergburger for dinner, and I got a "Double Ferg".  It was probably the biggest, best, messiest burger I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.  If you ever happen to find yourself in Queenstown, get one. 

A lot of the romanticism of Valentine's Day was lost because of the fact that we spent almost the entirety of it in airports.  Nonetheless, it was great to be able to be with Brenna; I know a lot of couples aren't so lucky.  We probably came the closest we have to being seriously injured or dying so far on the trip on our shuttle ride from the Sydney airport.  Our driver announced that he "just wanted to get home and have a beer", and then proceeded to turn a 45 minute drive to our hostel into a 20 minute one, almost crashing what seemed like hundreds of times in the process.  At any rate, we made it alive, and our Sydney adventures began.

The 15th was our "settle in and book things" day in Sydney.  We became acquainted with our new roommates, whose names were Chris, David and "German Guy" (we never quite got that one down).  We called and reserved our place on the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb for the next day, and Amanda, Kaylee and Christine signed up to do a little skydiving on that Friday.  After this was all taken care of, we got some directions to the nearest beach and went on our way.  It was about a half hour walk from our hostel, but it was absolutely worth it.  It was a small, clean beach with a great swimming area and not too many other people.  This was our first opportunity on the trip to actually swim in the ocean, and we found out pretty quickly that swimming with your mouth open in salt water isn't going to make our list of smart ideas anytime soon.  We also found out that swimwear in Sydney is more of a suggestion than a requirement.  I'll let your imagination do the rest.  In the evening we walked about half an hour in the other direction down to the harbor, and got the stereotypical Sydney experience.  We saw the Harbor Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and the beautiful downtown skyline all at once.  It was about that time that it set in (for me anyway) that we were going to be climbing to the top of the bridge the next day.  Then I got nervous.

Thursday we headed back to the same beach in the morning (it was called "Red Leaf" by the way).  In the afternoon we returned to our hostel to get ready for our first big undertaking, climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  This was just as cool an experience as it sounds like.  Unfortunately, I can't promise any facebook pictures of this one, because we weren't allowed to bring our cameras, and they charged us for the pictures they took.  I did order one 5x7 and had it sent to my house, so if you're REALLY interested, stop on by and ask my family to see it.  If you're a part of my family, you should be getting it soon (I hope).  If you're not sure what I'm talking about when I say the Sydney Harbor Bridge, pull up a picture of it on google or something, then imagine climbing to the top of the arch.  Yep, it was amazing.  For dinner after our bridge climbing adventure, we used the pocketpals the hostel had given us to go to McDonald's and get a Big Mac, small drink, small fries and a hot fudge sundae for $5!  What a deal, huh??

On Friday Brenna and I needed something to do while the other three went and jumped out of a plane (apparently that's fun for some people).  I was in the middle of a great book, and she wanted to journal, so we decided on a trip to the park.  It was here we discovered just how fun people watching in a place like Sydney can be.  And if that's not your cup of tea, there are plenty of unusual birds to feast your eyes on.  We got back and found the rest of our group alive (thankfully), and we all decided we should go out and celebrate their accomplishment.  We got dressed up and walked down to the harbor again to see what we could find.  We ended up coming across this restaurant with drinks and great pies, and we split a few different slices.  In our excitement while ordering, we made a poor decision.  The waitress offered us still water, sparkling water, or tap water with our meal, without addressing the fact that they weren't all free.  Being the dumb Americans we are, we assumed they were, and ordered still water for the table.  We should have known when it came in a classy looking green bottle that we were in trouble.  Long story short, we ended up getting charged $12 for a bottle of water that wasn't even enough to satisfy all of us.  Lesson learned.  Still water = bad.

We had been hearing during our time in Sydney that Manly Beach was the place to go, so on Saturday we decided to do it.  We had to splurge and pay $14 each for a round trip ferry ride to get there, but in the end I think we all agreed it was worth it.  I figured Manly Beach would be, as its name suggests, just a beach.  Turns out I was very wrong.  The area had tons and tons of shops and restaurants IN ADDITION to a massive beach that just HAPPENED to be hosting the 2012 Australian Open of Surfing while we were there.  For lunch we grabbed some meat and cheese pies (which are much better than they sound), and eventually met up with some other people from St. Ben's and St. John's.  All around, it was a very eventful, very enjoyable day.

On Sunday we realized we had been in Sydney for 5 days and only seen a few select places, so we decided to do some exploring.  We saw the Royal Botanic Gardens, which had some extremely cool plant life that we would never have seen at home.  Otherwise, nothing terribly noteworthy happened during this little adventure, but it was probably one of my favorite things we've done so far.  It was really interesting getting to see some of the less tourist-driven areas of the city, and get a better idea of what life in Sydney might be like.  Sunday night we were planning to go across the harbor to a place called Luna Park, but just before we were going to get on the ferry, it started to rain.  We decided it wasn't worth it, and caught the train back to our hostel (which was an experience all its own).  We called it a night pretty early on Sunday, as we had to be on a shuttle to the airport by 5:30 the next morning. 

It turns out I made it less than halfway through getting everyone up to speed on the goings on here in Australia, but I have to hustle to class right now.  With any luck at all, I'll be able to pick this back up with another post right after class so there's less waiting around involved this time.  Wish me luck!