Monday, August 13, 2012
A little slow...sorry!
After some more computer trouble, I am back on the wagon! And more so than ever, as I am spending more time in the library because midterms are approaching. I can't believe I've already been here over a month! It's challenging to balance experiences with Uni work but I'm managing pretty well. My friend Charlotte and I are making a bucket list because we are worried time is escaping us!
Last week after Mt. Bogong, I was invited to go rock climbing at this indoor gym at Sydney University on Thursday nights. The outdoors club goes there every week and when the president invited me I told him that I would bring pretty girls with me. He laughed.
Little did he know that I don't mess around. That Thursday I showed up with three pretty girls ready to climb! He was impressed. The head guy working at "The Ledge" helped us with gear and showing us the ropes (literally). It was packed in there by 7:30! We weren't as bad as we expected! Everyone was having a lot of fun (whew! I was a little worried my friends weren't going to have a good time and then blame me for dragging them along).
The president then invited us out to a nearby pub that they go to every night after climbing. We stayed to climb some more and ended up staying until close! By the end of it I was sweating a lot and could barely feel my forearms - I also spontaneously climbed to the ceiling from a rope ladder!
We headed over to the pub and found a lively group of guys waiting for us! We had drinks and chatted all night. Going to the ledge again this week and Charlotte and I are going to try to go on the surfing trip coming up! Yippee!!!!
Monday, August 6, 2012
Mt. Bogong Photos!
After 4 hrs of labor this is what the igloo looked like!
Here's what the view from one of our campsites would have looked like without all the fog!
Here's me in all my glory!
No pain, no gain - a risk worth taking.
Finally!! My computer is fixed so I am back on the map! It's horrible how dependent I've become...
Let me start by saying: Fantastic weekend.
So last weekend on my hike through Royal National Park, I met a guy who invited me on a trip up Mt. Bogong the following week. It was kind of up in the air whether he would be going or not since his friend got pretty sick last time when they tried to make it up a few weeks ago. But as the week passed, he emailed me to say that they were in fact going. I debated not going because I just met him, I didn't have all the equipment, etc...Also Mt. Bogong is in Victoria - about a 7 hour drive from Sydney.
...We left on Thursday afternoon. I thought it was going to be just me, and three guys but it turned out that three more guys came- the president of the Outdoors Club, his friend, and another guy. Man was I happy to finally have some male friends! There's that tomboy side of me coming out again...
The drive was pretty long but enjoyable with my two new friends. Stopped for dinner along the way and got to the campsite at about midnight on Thursday. Two of the guys were already there and had started a fire for us. We set up camp and this really sweet guy let me stay in his tent with him. He even made me coffee in the morning! Again, I can't believe how nice everyone is here...lucky me!
Since I didn't come here with the intention of going hiking through snow, I was slightly unprepared equipment wise. But thanks to this guy I met the previous week, he supplied me with everything I needed - super warm sleeping bag, state-of-the-art sleeping pad (some of the guys actually tried to bribe me for the mat on the third night it was so nice), an expensive down jacket, a beanie, gloves, hiking poles, dinner for two nights, waterproof pants, snowshoes, ice axe, and crampons. Need I say again how nice people are!?!
Here's a picture of me at the campsite before the start of our trek!
We started our trek up to 20,000m early on Friday morning. After some coffee and delicious oatmeal I was ready to go! It actually took us about 6 or 7 hours to get to the top because a couple of the guys were cramping up. Surprisingly enough I was in much better shape than I thought, and I ended up leading for most of the way! (Pretty impressive, I must say...)
It was getting dark so we decided not to go all the way to the summit that day. We made camp at the treeline. It was a pretty gray day and so by the time we got to camp it was so foggy I couldn't see anything. There was however plenty of snow. I wasn't quite sure where we were sleeping, but everyone started shoveling snow on the side of this vertical slope so I quickly learned that I was gonna be very, very cold that night. My tentmate and I shoveled a flat platform for our tent and threw our stuff in. We picked the best spot of course - sheltered from the wind!
Here's our tent- a little small but good for cold weather, cozy! (That's my ice axe...I learned how to self arrest too in case of a glacier...)
Saturday morning I woke up to more snow and sleet. All of our stuff was covered in icicles. Needless to say that one glance out of the tent and it took me a long time to get out of my sleeping bag...
But my tentmate made coffee for me again so I was a happy camper. Some of the guys went ice climbing that day, but I opted to hike to the summit and then build an igloo instead. Thought the ice climbing might be a tad intense...but now I kinda wish I had tried! Oh well, next time.
Getting to the summit was crazy - so foggy I couldn't see 5m in front of me. We had our crampons on and were walking on a pretty vertical slope. In retrospect it was probably good it was so foggy because I couldn't see just how steep it was. Following the barely visible pole markers along the way, we finally made it to the summit.
Here are two images, one of what the summit would have looked like on a clear day, another what it kind of looked like - except add tons and tons of fog...
It truly was up there in the clouds...
After deciding that building an igloo up there with winds whipping by burning my cheeks wasn't such a good idea - we headed down following our tracks and built an igloo in a slightly less open area. My friend actually carried an igloo maker all the way up the mountain! After a few mishaps, and four hours later, the igloo was half built and we were wrecked... but it looked awesome!! No photos yet :( but 10x10 igloo was pretty impressive looking! Three of the guys slept there that night but I wasn't really feeling like bivvying it ... (mountaineering term for no tent, just a tarp-like thing that goes over you, hardcore). I slept in my nice tent again, very warm and dry. Played cards with some of the guys in our tent - whipped their butts of course (thanks mom for all those years of practice).
Smashed it down the mountain the next day in a mere 1 1/2 hrs, falling a few times. Here's a picture of me and Mike right before he caught me as I slipped down the path! (Did I mention he carried 2 packs up because one of the guys was having trouble??! Beast...)
Smelly, dirty, and a few chocolate bars later I was down the mountain and packing up the car. I was sad to leave my new found Aussie friends. But they invited me rockclimbing this Thursday actually!
All in all, great experience. Couldn't believe I was driving through the beautiful countryside with people I barely knew, about to have a completely refreshing experience. It's also remarkable how good food tastes in the wilderness...hello peanut butter and jelly in the same container! Took a risk and it paid off. That's what I came to do anyways, right?! No pain, no gain.
P.S. Shout out to Alice Wislocki- the guys think that your Arcteryx pack is awesome. Thanks a million <3
-"I was enchanted to meet you..."
Let me start by saying: Fantastic weekend.
So last weekend on my hike through Royal National Park, I met a guy who invited me on a trip up Mt. Bogong the following week. It was kind of up in the air whether he would be going or not since his friend got pretty sick last time when they tried to make it up a few weeks ago. But as the week passed, he emailed me to say that they were in fact going. I debated not going because I just met him, I didn't have all the equipment, etc...Also Mt. Bogong is in Victoria - about a 7 hour drive from Sydney.
...We left on Thursday afternoon. I thought it was going to be just me, and three guys but it turned out that three more guys came- the president of the Outdoors Club, his friend, and another guy. Man was I happy to finally have some male friends! There's that tomboy side of me coming out again...
The drive was pretty long but enjoyable with my two new friends. Stopped for dinner along the way and got to the campsite at about midnight on Thursday. Two of the guys were already there and had started a fire for us. We set up camp and this really sweet guy let me stay in his tent with him. He even made me coffee in the morning! Again, I can't believe how nice everyone is here...lucky me!
Since I didn't come here with the intention of going hiking through snow, I was slightly unprepared equipment wise. But thanks to this guy I met the previous week, he supplied me with everything I needed - super warm sleeping bag, state-of-the-art sleeping pad (some of the guys actually tried to bribe me for the mat on the third night it was so nice), an expensive down jacket, a beanie, gloves, hiking poles, dinner for two nights, waterproof pants, snowshoes, ice axe, and crampons. Need I say again how nice people are!?!
We started our trek up to 20,000m early on Friday morning. After some coffee and delicious oatmeal I was ready to go! It actually took us about 6 or 7 hours to get to the top because a couple of the guys were cramping up. Surprisingly enough I was in much better shape than I thought, and I ended up leading for most of the way! (Pretty impressive, I must say...)
It was getting dark so we decided not to go all the way to the summit that day. We made camp at the treeline. It was a pretty gray day and so by the time we got to camp it was so foggy I couldn't see anything. There was however plenty of snow. I wasn't quite sure where we were sleeping, but everyone started shoveling snow on the side of this vertical slope so I quickly learned that I was gonna be very, very cold that night. My tentmate and I shoveled a flat platform for our tent and threw our stuff in. We picked the best spot of course - sheltered from the wind!
Here's our tent- a little small but good for cold weather, cozy! (That's my ice axe...I learned how to self arrest too in case of a glacier...)
Saturday morning I woke up to more snow and sleet. All of our stuff was covered in icicles. Needless to say that one glance out of the tent and it took me a long time to get out of my sleeping bag...
But my tentmate made coffee for me again so I was a happy camper. Some of the guys went ice climbing that day, but I opted to hike to the summit and then build an igloo instead. Thought the ice climbing might be a tad intense...but now I kinda wish I had tried! Oh well, next time.
Getting to the summit was crazy - so foggy I couldn't see 5m in front of me. We had our crampons on and were walking on a pretty vertical slope. In retrospect it was probably good it was so foggy because I couldn't see just how steep it was. Following the barely visible pole markers along the way, we finally made it to the summit.
Here are two images, one of what the summit would have looked like on a clear day, another what it kind of looked like - except add tons and tons of fog...
It truly was up there in the clouds...
After deciding that building an igloo up there with winds whipping by burning my cheeks wasn't such a good idea - we headed down following our tracks and built an igloo in a slightly less open area. My friend actually carried an igloo maker all the way up the mountain! After a few mishaps, and four hours later, the igloo was half built and we were wrecked... but it looked awesome!! No photos yet :( but 10x10 igloo was pretty impressive looking! Three of the guys slept there that night but I wasn't really feeling like bivvying it ... (mountaineering term for no tent, just a tarp-like thing that goes over you, hardcore). I slept in my nice tent again, very warm and dry. Played cards with some of the guys in our tent - whipped their butts of course (thanks mom for all those years of practice).
Smashed it down the mountain the next day in a mere 1 1/2 hrs, falling a few times. Here's a picture of me and Mike right before he caught me as I slipped down the path! (Did I mention he carried 2 packs up because one of the guys was having trouble??! Beast...)
Smelly, dirty, and a few chocolate bars later I was down the mountain and packing up the car. I was sad to leave my new found Aussie friends. But they invited me rockclimbing this Thursday actually!
All in all, great experience. Couldn't believe I was driving through the beautiful countryside with people I barely knew, about to have a completely refreshing experience. It's also remarkable how good food tastes in the wilderness...hello peanut butter and jelly in the same container! Took a risk and it paid off. That's what I came to do anyways, right?! No pain, no gain.
P.S. Shout out to Alice Wislocki- the guys think that your Arcteryx pack is awesome. Thanks a million <3
-"I was enchanted to meet you..."
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
HELP!!!
Currently on a Uni computer in the library, debating whether to cry or not based on my present situation.
My macbook hard drive has crashed. I took it to the apple store here and was informed that it is dead. Needs a new hard drive and to top it all off, I have not backed up any of my data (not very smart, I know). In any event, I got a good deal on an external hard drive but I need to bring everything to a specialist to have them back up the data and then fix my hardrive completely.
Traveled to many different places for consultations and to check prices - about $350+ for data recovery and then $300 for hardrive. Student here--- no money, horrible luck, horrible timing, the works. Any advice on what I should do??? Desperate here...please comment!!
My macbook hard drive has crashed. I took it to the apple store here and was informed that it is dead. Needs a new hard drive and to top it all off, I have not backed up any of my data (not very smart, I know). In any event, I got a good deal on an external hard drive but I need to bring everything to a specialist to have them back up the data and then fix my hardrive completely.
Traveled to many different places for consultations and to check prices - about $350+ for data recovery and then $300 for hardrive. Student here--- no money, horrible luck, horrible timing, the works. Any advice on what I should do??? Desperate here...please comment!!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Just keep swimmin, just keep swimmin...
Ah ha! Finally all those years of being the most persistent little girl (mostly about trying to get clothes) has done some good! I have been researching and researching the outdoors club on campus and around the general Sydney area, but with little to show for it. But finally after emailing the club president on campus and searching for a sign-up booth on the club fair day (both with no success), I managed to find an outdoors club BBQ advertised.
However, my friend Charlotte who was also interested could not attend and I was nervous to go alone. I thought about just tossing the idea, hoping that it would be a waste anyways - but then my friend Ali said she would go with me.
After having some trouble finding the venue, we made it and the struggle paid off. Friendly people, lots of manly men, and a club that actually does stuff! Do you know how many clubs on campuses don't actually do anything because no one can get their act together??! Well not this one! We talked to this guy for a while who told us all about the trips they do and that there is usually one a week - from hiking, kayaking, climbing, to white-water kayaking, etc. Thank god! I was a happy Lily to hear all that.
Another organizer we talked to mentioned that she loved all the study abroad students who joined on last year and she was thrilled to have more! Then two girls, also new members, came up and started talking to us. One of them is a psych major like me!
Things are looking up, these seem to be just the kind of people I was hoping to meet. Although that one guy did say that the club was more like a drinking club…well as long as it's on top of a mountain I'm ok with that!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Finally, social commentary!
Sorry it has been so long since I've posted! Each day here seems to have fewer and fewer hours to it, and more and more stuff to do. There is an endless checklist of things I want to do, and things I want to tell the world about! I'll start with some exciting news:
SPRING BREAK PLANS ON ROUTE TO BEING FINALIZED!
I have booked a one-way flight to Cairns (Great Barrier Reef)! Sorry mom and dad, but I will not be going to Uni anymore. Just kidding. Whew! One way flight up the coast, day of scuba diving & snorkeling, one day of whitewater rafting, one day of hiking, all while staying at the youth hostel in the center of Cairns (is there a 1000 person capacity club in the downstairs of the hostel? Why yes.) Then taking an overnight bus (saving time and $$) down to the Whitsundays. If you haven't already looked up photos of these places, I warn you - prepare to be extremely jealous. 2-night, 2 day sailing boat trip around all of the islands, then taking a cheap flight back to Sydney! Let's hope I don't have too many assignments for the week back...eeek.
Traveling with one of my new best friends, Charlotte. She's from Belgium, computer science major at Vanderbilt, family just moved to Singapore, and hilarious. What a great find! She and I are quite keen on doing the adventurous activities, but we are also traveling with my friend from Conn, Shaelah, and another one of our new friends, Ali. We are all starting in Cairns together and then we might do our own things for the second half. Ali is visiting her friends in New Zealand for a few days, and the rest of us want to stay on the Golden Coast.
I realized that I haven't talked about the people I've met that much...maybe because some of them might be reading this? Haha, in any event, I am very happy with the friends I've made so far! Most of my friends are from my program, almost all of them from the US. The orientation program group is made up of mostly Wakeforest and Vanderbilt kids. Just from the universities' reputations you might think I wouldn't be the biggest fan of those type of students, but I've managed to find some great people. Here's a photo of a bunch of us!
From left: Charlotte, Shaelah, Ali, & me.
Photo was taken during our epic "Oz Party Bus" event. We all signed up for this party bus, advertised to all the study abroad students, which bused around 150 Americans to four different bars all around Sydney. Four complimentary drinks, karaoke, bowling, music, the works. You can imagine how crazy it would be to have a giant bus drop off hundreds of drunk Americans...
But it was an experience - not entirely recalled - and I met some nice people!
I definitely have to make quite an effort to meet people though because I am living off campus. There's lots going on on campus but sometimes I hear about it too late or something like that. I'm working hard to stay updated! There are a lot of Americans living in Coogee with me - which is nice - but not great for meeting Australians. Class lectures are over two hundred so that's also hard, but I am happy with the friends I've met so far, and it's still early in the game.
Oh I almost forgot to mention that I was introduced to the love of my life! Fortunately, she is a singer. Here's something to end with:
"Now my life is sweet like cinnamon, like a fucking dream I'm living in." - Lana Del Ray
P.S. COME VISIT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPRING BREAK PLANS ON ROUTE TO BEING FINALIZED!
I have booked a one-way flight to Cairns (Great Barrier Reef)! Sorry mom and dad, but I will not be going to Uni anymore. Just kidding. Whew! One way flight up the coast, day of scuba diving & snorkeling, one day of whitewater rafting, one day of hiking, all while staying at the youth hostel in the center of Cairns (is there a 1000 person capacity club in the downstairs of the hostel? Why yes.) Then taking an overnight bus (saving time and $$) down to the Whitsundays. If you haven't already looked up photos of these places, I warn you - prepare to be extremely jealous. 2-night, 2 day sailing boat trip around all of the islands, then taking a cheap flight back to Sydney! Let's hope I don't have too many assignments for the week back...eeek.
Traveling with one of my new best friends, Charlotte. She's from Belgium, computer science major at Vanderbilt, family just moved to Singapore, and hilarious. What a great find! She and I are quite keen on doing the adventurous activities, but we are also traveling with my friend from Conn, Shaelah, and another one of our new friends, Ali. We are all starting in Cairns together and then we might do our own things for the second half. Ali is visiting her friends in New Zealand for a few days, and the rest of us want to stay on the Golden Coast.
I realized that I haven't talked about the people I've met that much...maybe because some of them might be reading this? Haha, in any event, I am very happy with the friends I've made so far! Most of my friends are from my program, almost all of them from the US. The orientation program group is made up of mostly Wakeforest and Vanderbilt kids. Just from the universities' reputations you might think I wouldn't be the biggest fan of those type of students, but I've managed to find some great people. Here's a photo of a bunch of us!
From left: Charlotte, Shaelah, Ali, & me.
Photo was taken during our epic "Oz Party Bus" event. We all signed up for this party bus, advertised to all the study abroad students, which bused around 150 Americans to four different bars all around Sydney. Four complimentary drinks, karaoke, bowling, music, the works. You can imagine how crazy it would be to have a giant bus drop off hundreds of drunk Americans...
But it was an experience - not entirely recalled - and I met some nice people!
I definitely have to make quite an effort to meet people though because I am living off campus. There's lots going on on campus but sometimes I hear about it too late or something like that. I'm working hard to stay updated! There are a lot of Americans living in Coogee with me - which is nice - but not great for meeting Australians. Class lectures are over two hundred so that's also hard, but I am happy with the friends I've met so far, and it's still early in the game.
Oh I almost forgot to mention that I was introduced to the love of my life! Fortunately, she is a singer. Here's something to end with:
"Now my life is sweet like cinnamon, like a fucking dream I'm living in." - Lana Del Ray
P.S. COME VISIT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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