Pictures from Lecture Recess at Sydney

So as I'm sure some of you know, I went to Sydney a couple of weeks ago for lecture recess (spring break). I went with two of my friends, Lindsey and Amy. We had a grand ole time and visited a lot of different places. Most of our activities are shown in the pictures below. In addition to those, we also went to see the musical Wicked which was amazing, the ballet The Silver Rose which I really enjoyed, on an double-decker sightseeing bus tour which I have a lot of architecture pictures from, saw Avatar in 3D on the largest IMAX in the world which was epic, and shopping in Darling Harbor where I bought a new pair of shoes! If you guys want to see anymore pictures (cuz I took a lot) feel free to leave a comment, and I'll see what I can do. Enjoy!

Me, Amy, and Lindsey on our first night in Sydney!
Me with my surfboard post lesson.
Beach that I learned how to surf on!
A view of the Chinese Garden. This is one of the only such gardens that can be found outside of China!
View of the Chinese Garden. I have a lot of really beautiful pics, but since this is going to be such a long entry as is, I'm only going to post more than these few if someone requests it. Btw one of my favorite spots in Sydney, it was gorgeous.
Picture of the main lake at the Chinese Garden.
A picture of the Sydney skyline from the Sky Tower. I have a lot of these, so just leave a comment if you want to see more!

I have a lot of pictures from Wildlife World which I should put right here, but I'm feeling lazy. It has a lot of the same animals as Billabong Sanctuary does, but if I get a request to put some of them up, I will happily do so.
One of my best pictures of the Sydney Opera House.
Part of the Sydney skyline.
Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bay Bridge.
Guy on a 12-ft unicycle!
Opera House at night.
Luna Park at night from across the bay. I always meant to get there, but I never got around to it...
The Harbor Bay Bridge at night. This picture was taken from the Opera House.
One of my favorite pictures from Sydney. I took this after going to the ballet at the Opera House, and I have no idea who the strangers are who are casting the shadows.
Flying foxes at the Royal Botanical Gardens. There're killing all the trees, so they plan on running them out using sound disturbances. There were close to a hundred of them in the same small space!
You're supposed to rub the warthog's nose for good luck, that's why it's the only part of the statue that isn't tarnished.
Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World were both on this Where's Waldo kick; however, in Australia they call Waldo Wally for some reason... Also, I have a lot more pictures from the aquarium than the ones I featured here. If you want to see more, send me an email or leave a comment, and I'll create a dedicated update.
Adorable platypus at the Sydney Aquarium. These cute little guys only get to be about a foot long and are found in Northern Australia.
Penguins at the Sydney Aquarium. They were so cute. There are wild penguins in southern Australia.
One of the many sharks at the Sydney Aquarium.
Hostel that I stayed at with Lindsey (top) and Amy (Bottom).

Pictures from Billabong Sanctuary

Me with a very happy looking kangaroo.
Me with the lizard falling onto my face. I have a picture where he was more content to stay on my head, but I thought this one was funnier.
Me with a baby croc (I don't remember if it was a fresh or saltwater) in front of the scenic billabong!
Me with a really big python that I cannot remember the name of right now...
Me petting one of the baby koalas. They were too young to be handled, but they were simply adorable. As a note, baby koalas eat their mom's poop so that they can digest eucalyptus leaves... yum!
Me with a red-tailed cockatoo.
Me with the wombat. He was so cute!
Me holding the koala bear. He didn't really want to look at the camera... As a note, they have vicious claws...
Another of me with a kangaroo. The ones down South are so much bigger!


Until next time!

Hello avid readers! I'm going to begin this post with an apology for such a belated update on what I've been up to, or rather what I was up to three weeks ago.

In my last post I promised an intriguing adventure to the beach and Billabong Sanctuary. We'll start with what has become pretty typical here, a trip to the beach on a Saturday. This Saturday was nothing new except I actually remembered to bring my camera with me, so I was able to take pictures of the very cute waterfall that I walk by on my way from the bus stop as well as some of the really cool trees that they have all over the place here. I've included a picture of both the tree and the waterfall. As a note, what I think is so cool about the tree is that it's roots actually grow downward from the branches. This gives it a very unique look. One of my friends always takes the time to braid these roots (before they've reached the ground) saying that one day her grandkids will think it looks pretty :).


Now on to the more interesting topic of Billabong Sanctuary. Queensland (where I am) is just about the only state in the world where it is legal to hold koala bears (not that you want to go grab a wild one or anything!), and Billabong Sanctuary is one of the few places in Queensland where you can hold one of the cute things! So while I was at Billabong, I got to hold and take a really good photo with both a koala bear and a wombat. They also have a slew of other animals there including snakes, lizards, cassowaries, kangaroos, and crocs, so I also got pictures with all of those except the cassowary. All in all it was a pretty amazing time, and if you ever come to visit me in the states, I can show you the pictures of me with the koala and wombat. I'm also gonna include the ones I took of me holding them, but they are not nearly as good.

On second thought, I'm just going to put those pics in a different update, because they are a pain to add under all this text... I should be writing another post soon on my trip to Sydney over lecture recess!