Just a typical day with my foreign friends

One Sunday on the ferry home from Manly Beach... Gotta love these guys <3

Australia, I love thee!

Hi Everyone! I've been so busy lately I've had no time to blog recently. I sit at the computer all day at work so I barley want to get on here on week nights. Today is my day off (Friday) and sadly I've been on the computer all day... but for good reasons! This morning I got to skype with my home boy, Nate and all day I've been booking travel arrangements to go to Melbourne in a few weeks...  can't wait! 

Last weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday I joined a gym that is on the first floor of my office building. On the way home my friend Kari and I got lost in Circular Quey, the train station in front of the Opera house, and ended up in the great botanical garden! It is a huge beautiful garden located right in the middle of the city. When I got home, I ate a home cooked Italian pasta dinner made by my very best Italian friend, Mario. He is such a good cook. Everyone prepared for a fun night out to celebrate Claudio's 21st Birthday! Us American's showed him how to do it right for your 21st. First we went to side bar where there was a 2 man band playing American hits. I got a shout-out for knowing the words to Free Fallin' :) We all had a blast and eventually split into groups and some of us went to Scubar- a backpackers bar. After a long night out I slept in til 1 the next day and it felt wonderful. 

On Saturday it was very rainy. We went to Paddy's Market for lunch and some shopping. It's a right near Chinatown so a lot of the shops are run by Asian people and it's cheap- not something you see in Sydney very often. On the way back from down town Sydney we stopped at blockbuster to pick up some dvds for the week. Saturday night we spent the night to watch a movie. On Sunday I went to Manly beach with Claudio, Yves and Mario and some people from their school. We took the ferry to Manly and spent the day playing beach volleyball. It was beautiful weather and I got to teach all my foreign friends how to throw flick (frisbee term). They all love it! On Sunday night me and the boys ordered pizza and watched more movies. 

My third week at work was awesome. My company, the Export Council of Australia, is getting super busy planning an up coming event. I got to attend a few more meetings this week and wrote an article that went to the website and blog, only the first of many. Also, I've been going to the gym everyday which is awesome! I took a body pump, boxing, yoga and spin class. They were all sweet-as and Aussie's really know how to power through a work out.

On Monday night some of us went out to celebrate my best girl, Kayla's, 22nd Birthday. We went to a mexican joint called El Loco and made happy hour by 1 minute. After dinner we went to hole-in-the-wall bar called century bar for $3 drinks- cheapest I've seen in Sydney. Then we went to McDonald's and got 30 cent soft served ice cream cones. This is literally the ONLY thing in Sydney that you will find cheaper than in the US. 

On Tuesday after work I met Claudio for dinner in Circular Quey and then we went to Opera Bar, a classy high end bar right next to the Opera house. We met an American bar tender there from California. This week was busy busy but I'm glad it's over because I like being able to relax now.. ahhh. 

Last night we welcomed in a new intern/resident, Andrew from Florida and everyone went out to Scubar. We had a lot of fun dancing in the black lights. A group of med students came in their white lab coats. It was a riot. This weekend I am going to take it easy, but still make good use of my time here in Sydney. Next week should be super busy at work but I'm looking forward to it. Until next time~

Peace, love and no worries

~mrlb

Group in the kitchen on Claudio's 21st

Opera House and city from the Ferry 

me and Mario on the ferry

Sail boats in the harbor

Beach volleyball

Manly Surfers

Manly Beach

Manly volleyball

Me and Mario on our sunset ride home

The city & sunset

It was a windy ride!

City sky line from the hill in Moore park

Street Artist

Wild Parrots... I think they're a couple, I've seen them twice in the same spot now.

Great Botanical Garden

A cool tree

Mario cooking his famous Italian pasta for us

Chocolate anyone?

Black light part @ scubar

cool face paint!

Chile, America, Mexico and Holland

Photobooth!

I love my friends 

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Australian Export Forum: 'Alternate' Channels Provide Significant Opportuni...: Last week the Export Council of Australia teamed up with Access USA to present part 2 of its webinar series entitled “Accessing Virtual Cha...

For your enjoyment

All hail the queen

Hi friends! Missing everyone more and more each day although, Australia just keeps getting better. This weekend was a long weekend for me and my fellow American interns in Sydney. We always have Fridays off and Monday was a national holiday. Last Thursday after I wrapped up my first week at work, I went down town with my house mates to see Vivid Sydney (again). There was suppose to be a performance by Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am. which I saw in the paper. When we got there it had turned out he was just there for a photo shot. It was pretty lame but I got super close.

will.i.am Vivid Sydney

 After the disappointment we all went out to celebrate surviving our first week. First we stopped at Sydney's oldest pub- Fortune of War. Then we went to an outside bar to enjoy the light show and some drinks!

The crew at Sydney's oldest pub

Outside bar

Just a peak at the light show

 On Friday we all slept in and spent the morning lounging around the hotel. Our beloved orientation leader Todd made an appearance to give and orientation to our newest Park Lodge resident, Marie (from Philly- yea!!). Todd, being as amazing as he is, then took all of his intern students to Frames for a cuppa (Aussie slang for coffee). Afterwards we went down town to check out the Pitt Street mall and Chinatown. The mall was absolutley insane. It was like 5 miles combined into one. It had all sorts of food and drinks and every kind of store you could imagine. I think it 5 or 6 stories and went from one block to another. This mall made King of Prussia look like k-mart.

Street performers at the mall- they were actually really good

 At the mall our first stop was at famous chocolate restaurant with a fully loaded menu of treats- all made with chocolate in some way shape or form. It was really hard to choose between a chocolate milkshake, hot chocolate, chocolate fondue, chocolate brownie sundae and more. After a long time of mouth water contemplation, me and my best girl Kayla decided on a chocolate pizza.

 After a long day of chocolate, shopping and Chinatown, we all headed back to Park Lodge to get ready for a night out. We went to Kings Cross a crazy party district in Sydney. The group got separated when we had to split up for taxi's so Kayla, Patricia and I were on our own. We walked into the first club we saw and danced til we couldn't stand it any more. Then we headed out to look for a better one. Next we went to Kings Cross Hotel which was 6 stories high with a different themed bar on each floor. The top floor was an outside roof top bar with an amazing scenic view of the town. It was tons of fun mingling with a bunch of Aussies. One of the guys we met told us how much he loved our accents...

Lets get this party started!

Club @ King's Cross 

 Saturday was probably my most favorite day in Sydney so far. We spent the day in Beautiful Bondi! First we went to the beach. It was my favorite sight so far. The beach was backed by a huge lawn where people were picnicing, playing with their dogs, dancing and having fun. The beach was filled with surfers- Bondi is the ideal beach for surfers with rough tides and big waves. Huge cliffs surrounded the beach. We walked along the jagged coast line and overlooked the ocean from several different view points. It was absolutely beautiful.

Bondi Beach

Bondi Street Art

Bondi Icebergs Swim Club

 We stopped at the Icebergs swim club for cuppa... Check out the ocean side pool that gets filled with waves that rush over it!

The crew on the coast line from Bondi to Tamarama

Bondi Cliffs

 After a wonderful day at Bondi Beach, we went back to Bondi Junction (just inland) for a Sushi dinner. This was my favorite dinner so far. We went to the Sushi Train which is a small restaurant laid out like a bar, where every one sits on bar stools. But instead of drinks being served, a tight conveyor belt runs around the bar with all kinds of sushi options. Each serving is on a different colored plate that tells you the price of the option. The plates ran from 3.50-8$. Me and Kayla killed 12 plates of various sushi dishes and yes, we will return.....

On Sunday some of the girls and I went to a little market in the morning and then headed back to Frames cafe (where Todd took us) for lunch. Frames is my favorite cafe in Sydney so far. Then we sent the day inside watching movies and relaxing. By evening it was time to get ready to out to celebrate the Queens Birthday!!!! (public holiday). We all went to Cargo Bar at Byron Bay. Besides for the rain, it was tons of fun. I loved dancing all night long with my fellow Park Lodgers!

Danny, Cladio, me and Carlos

Mario from Italy and his American babes!

Me and my Swiss boys- Yves and Cladio

Salt n Pepper! <3

Monday was my wonderful day off but due to unfortunate weather, I spent the day in my pjs doing absolutely nothing, and I can't say I'm upset about it. I got to watch movies with my housemates and eat an authentic Italian dinner made by Mario... it was delicious! I made him promise to teach me. Today was the start of another work week. It was a long day but this week is short. It has been rainy but hopefully the weather clears up again soon.

Just want to give a shout out to my momma- today is her birthday! LOVE YOU MOM

Hope everyone is having an amazing summer so far.
lots of love
~mrlb

BEST DAY EVER

I survived my first week! WOO. Today was the greatest. To start, I woke up to the beautiful sunshine (it's been raining quite a lot since I've been here). I got to work easy breezy on public transportation, which hasn't been a problem but I'm quite confident with it all now. On my way to work, I made a phone call home to my beloved ex-roomy Lindsey Giroux. It was wonderful to hear her beautiful voice and feel the love from home! For my first work week, I was taking a course offered by the organisation I work for (Australian Institute of Export) to get a better feel for the expertise I will be working with in these up coming weeks. The course is a vigorous 3 days of pure Australian Export Handbook definitions and case studies, so you can only imagine how I felt about the whole thing, although I did learn some very resourceful information. Today was the last day so it felt good to walk out of there. I actually got to leave early to go off to a short meeting with my supervisor. We walked further down town from my building and went into this high rise, where we went all the way up to the 48th floor!The view was absolutely amazing. I never really realized how big Sydney is until I got to see the WHOLE thing today. So my adviser and I met with a supervisor of another company to discuss some up coming events and then we went to textile panel where we handed out pamphlets for these events. Once we were done, my adviser let me go home early! yeah! On the way home I stopped at Liquor Land and bought my first bottle of wine, legally! double yeah! Now, I'm sitting here, kicking off my weekend with some wine and cheese and crackers, waiting for my fellow mates to get home from work! It's a four day weekend because I always have Friday's off and Monday is a national holiday, the Queen's Birthday! Some of my mates and I have super fun plans to get out all around Sydney, can't wait to share with you all. One of my Swiss house mates just passed me a bar of authentic Swiss chocolate so I'm going to go indulge myself some more now.....
Peace, love, party !

~mrlb

Amazing Australia

ELLO LOVES! I've been on quite the adventure this past week... Life has been moving extremely fast, but every moment has been incredible. It's been exactly one week since I left the states and I think I'm finally adjusted to my new environment. I left LA Monday night and flew into Sydney for a quick layover, and then landed in Carnes Wednesday morning. Once there, I had orientation with my fellow US intern students and my amazing orientation leaders, Todd and Ross, both of whom are Americans living in Australia. Our first day consisted of getting settled in at our hostel called Gilligan's Backpackers. Then we had an information session where we were learned about setting expectations and goals for our internship, as well as a little background on Australia (history, culture, lingo, ect..). We then had dinner at The Pier and headed back to our hotel for a night of Aussie Bingo and drinks! Things really got interesting when the game turned into loosing one article of clothing until someone gets naked... 

That's Aussie Bingo for you.... Moving onto Day 2 in Carnes

Thursday we woke and had another info session before we set out for Rainforestation. We took a bus way up a mountain for a day of Australian wildlife and culture. We got to hang out with some wildlife, go on an Australian Rain forest duck tour (yup, just like the one in Philly), met Aboriginal peoples and experience their culture, learn how to throw a boomerang, and hold a real live koala!! When we returned to our hotel, Ross took some of us ladies for a nice long bike ride around town. After dinner I was beat and went to bed early so I was well rested for the Great Barrier Reef tour on Friday.

My amazing orientation leaders, Todd and Ross

Jack the Ripper

Wallaby 

Baby Wallaby 

Carnes from up top

 Friday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to hit the water. Our group shared a local boat tour with some other students from Mexico. It took about 2 hours to get out to the first reef, where I opted to scuba dive... best decision I ever made. Even though it was an extra cost, the experience was incredible. I saw tons of coral, fish and all sorts of sea creatures. The best part of all was I found Nemo. He's so stinkin' cute in real life!! After lunch on the boat we headed out to another reef. I snorkled this one which was just wonderful. There were loads more fish on this reef. It was incredible to be swimming on the GBR with thousands of fish all around me. The pictures did not capture the essence of the moment and words can't even describe the amazement I felt. I'll never forget this experience in Australia.

Great Barrier Reef Tour

Me with our scuba instructor

 Saturday was another travel day, and I would final arrive to my temporary home in Sydney. The evening flight was gorgeous, with clear views and a beautiful sunset in the sky. When I got to Sydney I met my roommate who is from California who didn't get to go to orientation because of a delayed visa. There are about ten of us from the program staying in the same hotel which is just across the street from a huge park in Surrey Hills, Sydney. Almost everyone staying in the hotel are extended stay international students. Not only do I get to experience the amazing culture of Sydney, but I'm living with people from Chile, Italy, UK, Holland and Mexico. I couldn't have asked for a more culturally enriched environment to be living in.

 Even though most of us were exhausted by Saturday night, we couldn't resist living it up on our first night in Sydney. 5 of us girls took one of our 2 fellow American mates, Carlos out to the local bars. Everyone must of thought he was our pimp (lol). First we went to a mod bar where we crashed a private birthday party, then we went to pub that was having a costume party. Since we weren't dressed for the occasion, we split after ripping up the dance floor. Sunday I was able to explore Sydney at it's finest... well not really since it was pouring. For those of you who don't know, it's winter here. Sydney winter is like fall in PA, except very very wet. It's mid 60s during the day and drops to low 40s at night. Despite the ran, I went for a run in beautiful Moore Park, went to central station to get a bus/train pass and went grocery shopping. Sunday night a few of us went downtown to check out the light show. It really hit us that we were finally in Sydney when we got to the harbor and saw the Opera House. WOOOOOOOOO!!!

 Today (Monday), was my first day at my internship! It was a very long day but the weather cleared up nice. I work right across the street from the harbor so I enjoyed my lunch outside along the water :) Check the view below-

These next few weeks should be interesting, challenging and but most importantly, just plain fun! I will continue to blog my experience. I miss everyone and I hope things are going well back home. I hope everyone is happy and healthy. If anyone would like to personally contact me please get a hold of me via facebook or e-mail, where I can give you my address, phone number, or skype address. It would be lovely to hear from anyone back home, any time.

lots of love
~mrlb