Quick Update
We had a weekend excursion but now I'm back at Macquarie. We went up to Hunter Valley and tested wine! We went to 4 different wineries on Saturday. That night we stayed in an interesting hotel, let me paint a picture for you. The room hardly fit 4 beds. None of the comforters matched. One bed was a double, 2 were twin, and one was just chilling on the floor. The light probably had a 40 watt light bulb and it looked like something from a police interrogation room. Oh yeah, there were community bathrooms there and it was above a pub. Our room was right across from the mens bathroom. Scary biker men need to wear more than boxers to the bathroom! The women's restroom was all the way on the other end of the hall. At least we only stayed there for one night.
Sunday we to a small town called Morpeth. We did a little tour there of the city and saw old churches and buildings. We went over a bridge that can only hold one heavy vehicle at a time. We did a little ginger beer tasting, although it's not real beer. It's flavored liquid that you had to something like sprite. I tried a root beer kind, passion fruit, and chili lime. They really like chili flavored things in Australia. They also like chicken flavored things whether it's chips, popcorn, or crackers. Anyways, I also did some honey and fudge tasting as well. We had a quick little mishap. Oops, our driver James accidentally scraped the front of a car as he was pulling out of our space. That set us back a little but then we were off to Port Stephens and to go on a dolphin cruise. We didn't see many dolphins at first but then it started to pick up later. There is a picture that needs to be painted for this day as well. Okay, so it's winter here in Australia, but nothing like Michigan winters. There were lots of Japanese tourists on our boat and they were all bundled up in jackets and scarves. Although I would consider it a nice day. So they have this net on the back of the boat that they let down for about 15 minutes and you can get in it and sometimes dolphins come up close to it. So all 8 of us wore are bathing suits because we wanted to go in it. We got in and the water was a little chilly. But of course with unsteady feet and cold water we let out a couple yelps and screams. All of the sudden the dolphins were forgotten and we were the new attraction. All 3 levels of the boat started snapping our picture. In fact I think all the people on the boat ended up getting better pictures than we did. So out picture is probably around on the internet somewhere. But it was an awesome experience. After the cruise we drove to an Aboriginal Art place to look around. Then we went to a youth hostel in New Castle for the night. We had dinner at an Irish pub and then got some slurpees at 7-11. This night all 8 of us were in the same room. So we stayed up talking and had a little girls night to get to know each other better.
Today we went to New Castle University and went on a tour of the University. It's an Aboriginal University so it was very interesting hearing about their stories and struggles. We went on a tour of the city with a guy from there. We stopped at many different beaches which we so amazingly beautiful. I just wanted to stay at them all day but we only had time for a quick story about them. Then we went to this place, I forget the name to learn about plants and food that the Aboriginals used. It was really neat; we tried some different berries and fruits. We used a leaf that was like sand paper and crushed a leaf that smelt like pine sol. We had a barbque lunch there, or as like to call it here in the land down under, a barbi. Then we made our way back to the University. Tonight I have to work on some assignments and readings...Boo. But it was a good weekend!
Sunday we to a small town called Morpeth. We did a little tour there of the city and saw old churches and buildings. We went over a bridge that can only hold one heavy vehicle at a time. We did a little ginger beer tasting, although it's not real beer. It's flavored liquid that you had to something like sprite. I tried a root beer kind, passion fruit, and chili lime. They really like chili flavored things in Australia. They also like chicken flavored things whether it's chips, popcorn, or crackers. Anyways, I also did some honey and fudge tasting as well. We had a quick little mishap. Oops, our driver James accidentally scraped the front of a car as he was pulling out of our space. That set us back a little but then we were off to Port Stephens and to go on a dolphin cruise. We didn't see many dolphins at first but then it started to pick up later. There is a picture that needs to be painted for this day as well. Okay, so it's winter here in Australia, but nothing like Michigan winters. There were lots of Japanese tourists on our boat and they were all bundled up in jackets and scarves. Although I would consider it a nice day. So they have this net on the back of the boat that they let down for about 15 minutes and you can get in it and sometimes dolphins come up close to it. So all 8 of us wore are bathing suits because we wanted to go in it. We got in and the water was a little chilly. But of course with unsteady feet and cold water we let out a couple yelps and screams. All of the sudden the dolphins were forgotten and we were the new attraction. All 3 levels of the boat started snapping our picture. In fact I think all the people on the boat ended up getting better pictures than we did. So out picture is probably around on the internet somewhere. But it was an awesome experience. After the cruise we drove to an Aboriginal Art place to look around. Then we went to a youth hostel in New Castle for the night. We had dinner at an Irish pub and then got some slurpees at 7-11. This night all 8 of us were in the same room. So we stayed up talking and had a little girls night to get to know each other better.
Today we went to New Castle University and went on a tour of the University. It's an Aboriginal University so it was very interesting hearing about their stories and struggles. We went on a tour of the city with a guy from there. We stopped at many different beaches which we so amazingly beautiful. I just wanted to stay at them all day but we only had time for a quick story about them. Then we went to this place, I forget the name to learn about plants and food that the Aboriginals used. It was really neat; we tried some different berries and fruits. We used a leaf that was like sand paper and crushed a leaf that smelt like pine sol. We had a barbque lunch there, or as like to call it here in the land down under, a barbi. Then we made our way back to the University. Tonight I have to work on some assignments and readings...Boo. But it was a good weekend!