EscapadesAbroad With a planet as big and brilliant as ours, I find myself unable to resist seeing it all... This journal is a tool to record my experiences when I travel (which isn't often enough), and a crude tracking device for my mother to keep tabs on me.

Loyal and Patient Readers, I apologize for the long delay in updating. My first week and a half here has been spent settling in, recovering from jetlag, starting 4 hours per day of classes, taking a day trip to the capital, and catching up with friends on the weekends. I will summarize the highlights below. Sinclair's is probably the best budget accommodation I have ever stayed in. The City Hostel is in Surry Hills, Sydney's version of Brooklyn (formerly fairly dodgy, currently hipster paradise). The rooms are a bit small, but for one person are definitely comfortable. In addition, its just a short bus ride from central station downtown, and UTS, making it super easy to get around the city in a short amount of time. Surry Hills is packed with ethnic restaurants, and Bryan and I have set a goal to eat at as many different ethnicities as possible before leaving Australia (for all of you recent inquirers, Bryan is my boyfriend from law school). I will create an exhaustive list of our gastronomic accomplishments in the coming weeks. The managers at the hostel, Jeanette and Bob, are just wonderful. Jeanette is the resident mom, and is always baking delicious goodies for our (free!) breakfast every morning, and warning us that she will call our parents if we look too good when we go out. Yesterday she called Bob "Bob the Builder." He definitely is that, and is always around for a good chat in the kitchen. Our second night in Sydney, we had dinner at Phillip's Foote, a self-grill steakhouse, followed by Edward Scissorhands the Musical at the Sydney Opera House! The show was in its final weekend, and despite extreme jetlag, the performance was incredibly enjoyable. Staying true to the storyline and the quirkiness of the film, the musical used extreme costuming, sets, and pantomime to tell the beautiful story of Edward's brush with mid-twentieth century suburbia. There was absolutely no dialogue or traditional stage musical song in the show, just instrumental music, which prevented any possible cheesetastic interpretation of one of Tim Burton's best films. The next day (Friday) was a full day of university orientation, which included a walking tour of the city and a genuine Aussie Sausage Sizzle (barbeque). My love of (Er...obsession with) Sausage Sizzles was infamous among some at Macquarie, and the food was as good as ever! I really need to find out what they're made out of, or the spices used, so I can perhaps replicate the event properly at home. It was good getting to know some of our fellow law students. The group dynamic is...interesting. To give you a hint, at the start of our walking tour, a random man sitting on a bench exclaimed, "Well, THERE'S a motley crew!" with a tone of both bemusement and horror. Another first week highlight was an epic return to the Taronga Zoo! While the wildlife population is reported to be as vicious as ever, and attacks on wranglers are up 32%, poor weather on the day of our trip kept many of the more deadlier creatures in hiding. Sadly, the poor weather also meant that the cable car was completely inoperable, and after the zoo ferry dropped us on the shore we were forced to take a bus to the entrance, increasing our risk of animal attack by 56%. After spending the entire day filming the waddling echidnas, touring the tranquilization station, escaping a zebra stampede, and surviving a particularly brutal peacock attack on the dining hall, we made our way back to the ferry on foot. Not realizing we could have waited for a bus, Bryan and I were soaked to the core, and shuffled dangerously along the edge of the road down to the ferry. After walking for a long time, a bus drove by and the driver picked us up out of the compassion of his heart. This lucky break meant we were thankfully out of the reach of the night prowling Ligers, and would probably make it home alive. In the interest of time, and my need to read before my next class, I will refrain from posting the incomplete second half of the “first week highlights” until tomorrow. I hope you are all had a wonderful week in your respective domiciles, and that any brushes with wild animals ended in your favor. Until next time…AMG