whale-less watching & vivid sydney

23.05.2010
well...i went whale-less watching.
what is this whale-less watching you may ask?
oh, well let me explain it to you.

whale-less watching [verb]: paying a company to take you on a boat out into the great ocean blue so you can NOT see whales in their natural habitat.

also, i'm pretty sure about 90% of the people on the boat lost their cookies.
incredibly disgusting, i assure you.

but, to stay positive, i think the ocean is absolutely beautiful so it wasn't terrible and i still enjoyed myself.
i obviously didn't get sick on the boat.

here are some pictures of the excursion:::

a perfect view of the whale-less ocean.

pirate ship! ...ok not really. apparently there is this thing where younger kids go out on this boat to learn how to man a ship and such...super rad, right?!

on the way out...this is part of watson's bay...i'm pretty sure.

27.05.2010
every winter (yes, it's winter here...), sydney puts on this "festival" if you will, called "Vivid Sydney"...here's a little excerpt about it:

"From 27 May to 21 June 2010, Vivid Sydney brings together large scale light installations and projections, music performances, creative ideas, stimulating discussions and debates, showcasing Sydney as a major creative hub in the Asia-Pacific Region."

Today (the 27th of may), i went to the opening ceremony..."the lighting of the sails"...for those of you who don't know what this means...the sydney opera house was designed to look like a the sails of a ship...so "the lighting of the sails" is just what it sounds like, they light up the "sails" of the lighthouse. here are a few pictures...the images changed every 5 minutes or so.

later on in the festival, they lit up different parts of the city...it started at St. Mary's Cathedral and went all the way to Sydney Harbour and ended with the Opera House (which stayed lit during the entire vivid sydney festival)...it was really beautiful...but my camera took a dive in the ocean when i was in Cairns...i managed to save the memory card (yes i know i haven't written about that trip yet...i will when i get back to the states and can upload photos)...so i took pictures with a friend's camera...and he has yet to upload those pictures.

buuut....yeahhh...that sums up my australian adventures up until my study break in Cairns :]

ice bar! :]

On may 22 i went to an ICE BAR!
the whole bar was made of ice! there were ice sculptures, an ice jeep (ha), and a checkers board :]
you were only allowed to stay in the bar for 30...since it was so cold, obviously.
and we got a free cocktail that was mucho delicious.

james and me in our super stylish parkas
me driving the ice jeep ;]
ice bar sydneyyy!!

01 May - Footy Game

Sooo...obviously it is june...and i haven't updated my blog in over a month! so...here is me attempting to update :]

so...i saw my first footy game!!!...for those of you who don't know what that is...it's AFL, Australia Rules Football League. Don't ask me to explain...because i have nooo idea what was going on the entire game. i watched the sydney swans play the brisbane lions! and sydney wonnnn!!! wooooo!
i went with my lovely friendlies torie and james. we had a blast even though we didn't know what happened

here are some pictures :]

here is the field
here is a picture of the field during the game...
goooo sydneyyyyy!!!