I missed the first class because of the holiday, but they watched Australia, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. I've been trying to watch it, but it's a really long movie so I still have about an hour left, but I do think it's very interesting and beautiful and I'm enjoying it, though I have never seen a movie with so many places it should end. The first class I went to we had a trip to the movie theater in Newtown and saw Mental. It was quite an odd movie, with very Australian humor. It also used some Sound of Music songs which have been stuck in my head ever since. The following night we watched Bran Nue Dae, another Australian movie, this one by an aborigine director. It was a political movie but a musical which made it incredibly funny. Again, very Australian humor. This one actually had aborigines as the main characters, and had major actors such as Geoffrey Rush as background characters. Since it was by an aboriginal director, there was a lot of making fun of aboriginals, how aboriginals are viewed by whites, and whites themselves. A lot of the movie could not have been made by a white person or it would have been considered racist. While it was an odd movie, it clearly illustrated a lot of modern issues. It was cool though, how in it everyone wished they were aboriginal, in contrast to the mindset that everyone should be assimilated and white. Needless to say, it's a cool class. We're going to two more movies in theaters so that'll be fun (we were supposed to go only to one more, but our teacher, Anne, was surprised that so many Australian movies are in the theater at once, so she asked Marc to get us tickets to an extra). Today we saw Picnic at Hanging Rock, a period piece about 1900 and people disappearing into the bush. Apparently it was a common theme. It was a beautiful movie, kind of slow, with an open ending. I personally found it intriguing though parts were very weird. We then watched 10 minutes of a horribly crude movie which is what started the period pieces here. I wasn't a fan, and when she asked if we wanted to see part of another we all opted out. I'll keep updating what movies I've seen.
Ok on to the exciting parts.
On Thursday, I went out to take pictures for my assignment for my internship. I took the bus to Circular Quay, and as I got off, I noticed a lot of cameras and trucks outside of the Customs House. I went over, curious, and saw this weird screen in the middle of the square, and lots of people and camera crews around. This woman then came over and told me that if I wanted to hang around, I had to sign a release form, as they were filming an Australian Special K commercial and if I was in any shots they'd need my permission. Naturally I had to stay. I stayed for around 3 hours, sometimes taking my own pictures, and sometimes doing whatever the director said, walking around, looking confused and excited. While I was doing my own thing, I talked a lot with the women who were getting the release forms. Through one of them, I met one of the lighting guys, Danny, which, me loving lighting, was amazing. He's a freelancer and wasn't lighting director on this shoot but sometimes is other places. I also met the girls who were the main actresses, though they were actually just regular people who they found on the street about a week ago. While I was speaking with one of them, she told me a better person to ask questions was the woman next to her, who turned out to be the agency producer. It was a really cool experience. Hopefully I'll figure out when the commercial comes out, and I'm hoping it will be on Youtube and maybe I'll be in a shot or two! I wish I could have stayed longer but I had to run back for class.
Friday I went to lunch at the Opera House! My roommate, Hanna, has her internship there, so she signed me in as a visitor and we went through the stage door and down under the theaters to the cafeteria for lunch.
Does that mean I can come back every Friday if I steal it?
Then I finally went to Bondi to buy meat. I think I'm probably good for the rest of my time here. While Jessica and I were in the mall though, we found a pet store on our way! The puppies were precious. I went over to the glass and made a motion as though trying to pet the chocolate labs, and one of them came over and started trying to paw at me and then biting and licking the glass. There was a policy that you could take the dog home for 3 days to see if it fit in, and it was really tempting just to take him for three days but we thought that would be bad when we would have to return them.
Now, I was told that I talked in my last posts a bit too much about food, but I have to here. I made Shabbat dinner and I'm super proud and it made me feel at home. It was a kind of rough week for both me and my friend Pam, and I know that she had once said that she misses Friday night dinner at her house, so I thought I don't have my internship this week, what better time to put together a Friday night meal. So Jessica and I decided what we were going to have, and Lindsay came up to help us. I don't think I've written this before, but our microwave has a microwave, oven, and grill function. However, using a microwave as an oven is sometimes confusing, so I wasn't quite sure how I was going to make the chicken. I knew that the room below us had made chicken before, so Lindsay came up to show me. We weren't so specific on the phone though, and she buys boneless chicken slices, whereas I had chicken pieces on the bone. Anyway, she helped us figure out how to cook it on the stove in a pan. First we poured in some soup mix for seasoning, but it started sizzling so we decided we should put the chicken first then pour it over so as not to get splashed as much. It ended up as a great adventure, but in the end all the chicken was cooked through. We also made Israeli couscous (the pasta kind) with the same seasoning, and cauliflower and carrots with curry powder. Pam contributed by bringing dairy free (and they happened to be gluten free so my roommate Kate could eat them too) chocolate chip cookies, and since the store was sold out of Challah, she brought garlic bread. We went down and said Kiddush (the blessing over wine) with Joey, Alex, Ariella, Liz and Molly, and then we came back up to eat. Pam, Jessica, Rachel and I all ate what I cooked and Kate joined us with her food. I am happy to say it all came out great and I'm pretty proud of myself and was actually surprised with how good the chicken was (sorry to toot my own horn). Ok now I'll try to stop talking about food so much.
Lindsay making chicken on the stove
Jessica, Pam, Rachel, Kate and Me
Dinner!
What I cooked
Yesterday was a lot of fun but a really long exhausting day. I woke up at 4 am to go with a group to Bondi Beach for sunrise. Sarah, our RA, found out about it, there was music on the beach and BYO breakfast. There was actually a surprisingly large crowd. So Sarah, Juliana, Rachel, Chris, Kathleen, Pam, Randy, Andres, Jessica and I all went. It was cloudy but with enough breaks in the clouds for us to see the colors of the sunrise. It was pretty chilly, and I wished I had a coffee just to hold to keep my hands warm, but I had a nice time. I couldn't figure out how all the surfers were doing it, it was so early and cold. Some of the music I really liked, and some I really did not. There was some opera, and there was violin which I loved. It was difficult to hear though, and I think if we'd payed for the VIP seats it would've been easier but clearly free is better. I had fun regardless. The couple sitting behind us was speaking Hebrew which was fun, and a girl next to us was wearing a Northeastern sweatshirt which was pretty funny. People watching was great there.
From back left to front right:
Randy, Juliana, Chris, Sarah, Jessica, Rachel, Andres
Pam and Kathleen
Surfing
Writing in the sand
I was going to take credit for this but I just can't. It was Sarah
My personal favorite
Then, most people from our program have already gone to the Blue Mountains, and I really wanted to go, so I decided I would just go on my own. As everyone else had, I stopped on the way at Featherdale Wildlife Park, a small zoo type place. They have areas like some zoo's have farm animals walking around, but in one was wallabies and the other was kangaroos. You could pay for food for them, but I found that I could pet them anyway, so I decided not to. Anyway this will be more interesting just through pictures so here it goes:
Petting a wallaby
Petting a kangaroo
I think it's a green tree python
I got a little freaked out with it looking straight at me so I hna
There's a law in New South Whales (the state I'm in) that you can't hold koalas, so I got to pet one instead.
Wallaby
Kookaburra
Eating from an ice cream cone (no it did not have ice cream in it
THESE ARE THE PENGUINS I SAW AT ST. KILDA!! NOW I GOT A PICTURE!
Tasmanian Devil
Dingo. It looks like a cute puppy that I'd love to take home but I hear that'd be a bad idea.
This guy was showing off for quite a while
Self explanatory
From there I went on to the Blue Mountains. I wish I had gotten there earlier, but I hadn't thought to look at the bus schedule from Featherdale and I finally looked at 10:45 when I was ready to leave, but the bus came every hour at 36 past the hour... so I'd missed it by 10 minutes. Oops. Anyway I got there and wow. Even during the train ride the scenery was amazing. I got a ticket in Katoomba for a trolley that has a bunch of stops and you could use it any of the day. So I got on, hopped off at the Gordon Falls stop, and then started hiking. To tell the truth, hiking alone is actually pretty relaxing, and it was nice that I could stop and take pictures whenever I felt like it, or pause wherever I wanted and speed up whenever I wanted. The down side, I just about finished my water on the train ride over since I was having lunch then, so I ran out of water on my first hike and would have loved to have someone with me to get some. Another con is that there were points I wasn't positive which way I should walk and I had no one to help me, but I just sucked it up and tried to use logic and in the end I got to the right place. While I was trying to take my time, I wanted to find somewhere for water and I wanted to get the trolley at Leura Cascades in order to get to the next spot where I hoped to hike, so unfortunately by the time I got to the Cascades which appeared to be the best part, I had to rush and just made the trolley.
Me at the first lookout (after that all those layers quickly disappeared as I got warm hiking in the sun)
I'm pretty sure there was recently a fire, as there were a lot of blackened trees.
Lookouts
Leura Cascades
I think this one's my favorite of the mountains
I got off for a quick view at Honeymoon Lookout, and then got out at Echo Point for my next hike. Apparently in certain conditions you can hear an echo, but no one really knows what those are... From there you can see the Three Sisters. I then started a confusing hike, trying to get to the scenic railway. The scenic railway starts at the bottom and brings you all the way to the top, and it is the steepest railway. Getting there though, was confusing. Aside from the few places I was unsure where to go, it was very pretty and nice. I finally found a sign that said 30 minutes to the bottom of the Scenic Railway, last ride 4:50. Sadly, it was 4:40, and I didn't feel like walking down for 30 minutes (since I didn't think I could make it in 10) just to have to climb back up (which would surely take longer than 30 minutes) especially considering that I wanted to make it to the top by 5:35 for the trolley, and I was nowhere near the top, so an hour detour would not work. I then started climbing (which I had hoped not to do by taking the railway) and made it to the top before 5. I found out that there was actually a shuttle at 5:05, and took that. Overall, it was a very nice day, and I enjoyed the time on my own. Honestly, I don't even remember what I was thinking about along the way, but it was quite relaxing (despite my legs hurting). These sketchy guys offered me a ride back to the city, but I decided not to take it as I'd rather get back safely than quickly.
Three Sisters
Scenic Cableway (I could've just taken that if I'd know I was going to miss the railway... but I guess hiking's good too)
Juliet's Balcony. See the rainbow? I tried to make the rock point to it.
To see some of what I did as a video, my friends made this video when they went and I didn't post it then since I hadn't gone, but here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahu1-DeO1lM
New words:
whinging= whining (The family I stayed with uses it and from the context I quickly figured it out)
bludging= ditching (I said playing hooky and they don't use that hear so they taught me this one)
skulling= chugging
Off to bed for my first day of work tomorrow!
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