Aquarium, iMax & the Weekend!

G'day mates!! ;) 

Myself and my bff's... Mr.Dugoon (Australian name for Beluga Whale) and my Mermaid pal who seems to believe that her long hair counts as legit "shells". She's pretty scandalous if you ask me. 

**play JAWS music**

Matt, Danny, and Kim. Check out the HUGE stingray on the left!! It was absolutely MASSIVE. 

Our Aussie pal thankfully got a shark in this shot!

Hahaha... our fancy and expensive Aquarium picture that we illegally took a picture of when the workers weren't looking... gotta save money!

Diva shots before "Watchman" at the iMax :)

I ate a Kangaroo! I'm Sorry! It was just so so good!

Danny, Matt, and Kim after dinner at "Blackbird Cafe"

It's Wednesday night and raining so I guess it just seemed like the best time to write just a little sumthin' sumthin' for you all!

This past weekend was a bunch of fun! Friday was relatively lazy. I did go for a walk, but there was no beach action during the day :( Friday night I did go over to Anna and Abby's apartment where they made a fajita dinner for myself and Kim! It was incredibly sweet, and not to mention insanely delicious. Their apartment is SO SO nice. They have a little balcony and a swimming pool in the middle of all the apartment complexes. For Anna's 20th birthday at the beginning of June, she's planning to have a pool party with cake, Tim-Tams and everything wonderful like that! Haha, who can say no to that?! After dinner we made our way over to see a couple of our friends (Taylor and Abby--a different Abby) perform in the student written musical, "Dark Day's Knight". It was a parody of Star Wars! Kinda funny... slightly awkward... and I was definitely more than a little confused since I have never seen the show before. I know I know... I'm not a true American. 

Saturday was a full day of good times. The best way to avoid homesickness is to keep busy, so for the most part, I really enjoy my busy and packed full days here. I left around 2 with Kim, Danny, and Danny's roommate Matt for the famous Darling Harbour in downtown Sydney. We first made our way over to the iMax theatre first to get tickets for "Watchman". I was a little hesitant to drop $21 on a ticket to a movie that I heard was pretty bad... but my friend Danny insisted that if Kim and I hated it SO much he would buy Kim and me a drink at dinner. Haha, he just really wanted to go :) So. We bought our tickets and moved on to the Sydney Aquarium. The shark tunnel was absolutely insane and being up close and personal with a crocodile was pretty stellar, but I have to say that I just really enjoy the dolphin show at the Chicago Shedd Aquarium!! Sydney was definitely missing that part. 

After hitting up the Aquarium, we made our way over to the iMax but stopped along the way at "Blackbird Cafe" to make reservations for a late dinner after the movie. Well, the movie was pretty terrible... in my opinion. I laughed during the inappropriate spaceship scenes and the whole plot line was just pretty cheezy and lacked a HUGE epic battle scene. Needless to say, Danny bought Kim and I a beer at dinner... nothing too crazy, Mom! :) Dinner was a lot of fun--AND I tried Kangaroo for the first time ever!!!!! It sounds cruel, but it was so delicious that I had to eat it all. It's supposedly very good and is the leanest meat you can eat. I would definitely recommend to anyone who is visiting Australia. 

We made it home by a little after midnight and by that time I was ready to go to bed. It was an absolutely beautiful warm day with good friends and some great sightseeing along Darling Harbour!

Sunday, I was a little "down" and homesick, so I got out of my room and went for a walk to a nearby park about 15 minutes away. The moment I stepped outside I felt so so much better. I ended up laying down on the baseball field in the park for a good ten minutes listening to music and just thinking about White Sox baseball and Derek's softball games this past fall! I can't wait for White Sox baseball when I get home!! Southside pride...

My writing is boring tonight, so I'm just gonna bullet-point some totally COOL things coming up!

**Full day trip to Hunter Valley on Friday! We'll be going to 3 wineries and a brewery!

**Going to see Anna's "Monkey Play" on Saturday night with Kim!

**Beach day on Sunday (not sure which exact beach yet...)

And then... NEXT WEEKEND:

**Attending the LIVE recording of "So You Think You Can Dance: Australia" on April 3rd with Kim, Anna, and Abby!!!!!!!!!!! I am so incredibly excited. It'll be down to 8 contestants by then, so it should be pretty good.

**My friend, Dan Jensen's, 21st birthday later Friday night!

After next weekend, it will be time when my Mom & Dad arrive in Sydney after a few days in Cairns!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait to see them. It will be great to have visitors here to break up some of the time abroad :)

Time to illegally download "Desperate Housewives" off the web. Sorry this update was really quite boring. 

Love you all!

xoxo,

Carly

Dangerous Bushwalking Adventures

Hey All!

So sorry it's been so long! I shouldn't have waited this long to write... but I will still try to fill you in on everything absolutely ridiculous that happened last weekend :)

Well first of all... last week, I found out that I made the musical, "Cabaret", here on campus!! I'll be playing the role of a Kit Kat Girl. It's not a lead part, but more of a "supporting character" and more or less the lead character's prostitute posse. Yep. Prostitutes. I'm sure my mom is thrilled and proud of me :) Finally doing what I LOVE!!!!!! Hahaha kidding! Rehearsals will be Sunday afternoons, Monday nights and Tuesday nights. I'm sure I will keep very busy with that. I'm thrilled that I'm getting the chance to get back into the "theatre" scene. It will definitely remind me of high school again-- in a good way!

Other than that, Friday night was the fabulous and fancy DLC Commencement Dinner. Everyone dressed up in formal attire and scholarships were given to several Australian students who live at DLC. There was a cocktail hour beforehand in the courtyard followed by the dinner inside. The food was nothing to rave about--aka I wasn't really sure what I was eating--but it was fun to see everyone dressed up! Afterwards, everyone headed to "The Ranch" bar up the street. I didn't stay too long because my heels were hurting my feet and I had to wake up early for the full day of Bushwalking ahead!

So yeah.......... and then there was the Bushwalking trip on Saturday. This was an absolutely hysterical day, to say the least. Bushwalking is what the Australians call "hiking"! Fancy lingo, right? I signed up with my friend Anna through "Macquarie University's Bushwalking Club". Anyway, the day started off a little rocky and we were convinced out fearless leader had no idea where he was taking us. It took a good 2 1/2 hours to get to La Perouse Beach from Uni. I'm convinced we could have gotten there in an hour! But at least we got there, and started our 17 km (10.5 mile) hike along the east coast of Australia. The sights were beautiful and the weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm, but definitely not miserably hot. It was great to go with Anna and this guy I've met a few times, Matt from Connecticut, ended up going on the trip as well. 

Now the adventurous part. As many of you know, I'm deathly afraid of spiders. I need my Dad or someone who is around at the time to kill them if I see one. I have this fear that they will jump off the walls at my face and eat me alive. Pretty vivid, but it's the truth. SO Australia is known for their poisonous spiders--cool, right? WRONG. We saw plenty of spiders along the walk and they honestly looked like the man-eating spiders in my dreams. It freaked me out, but I put on my big-girl pants and took pictures instead of freaking out! :) Besides the deadly spiders, our "fearless" leader Matt Lee also was insanely dangerous. Before the walk he told us all he had walked this path a couple times before... probably a good thing considering he is leading us and all... Well, turns out he is full of it and none of us believed him when all of a sudden were trespassing on two different private properties. #1) A fancy golf course along the coast that was crowded with old men at the time. Turns out, we just happened to run into the manager and owner when we entered the course and they told us we needed to leave the premises immediately. Awesome. We ended up having to take a good 5 mile detour around the golf course and through this little town. #2) Towards the end of the trip, we were exhausted but all seemed to wake up when we heard what sounded like guns firing near us. Guns? No way. Oh, but you better believe it. Once again... fearless leader MATT lead us onto an active rifle shooting range. Unbelievable. We walked/booked it along the very edge of the shooting range, but still were freaking out!

So. Deadly spiders, dodging flying golf balls, and dodging flying bullets. An adventurous day to say the least.... We got on the bus and it started to downpour. Anna and I were cracking up about the day and told one another we would never go on another one of Matt Lee's bushwalking trips again.... Just a little too dangerous for me.

Life is has been good, but unfortunately I think all of us international students have discovered that Australian Uni's actually DO have work to do. A whhhhat? Professors and students don't hang out at the beach all day every day? Yeah. Weird. I know! I actually have a large paper due on Tuesday for my Australian Contemporary Arts course that is worth 40% of my final grade... so that's just wonderful. It's a beautiful day for the beach, but I'm going to try and be productive and lock myself in the library. At the rate I'm going, chances are I won't get there until lunch and then get cabin fever after an hour in the library and go lay out on the grass :) 

I need to get some stuff done today because I have some activities planned for tomorrow and later tonight! Tonight, Anna, Kim, Abby, and I are going to make a Mexican dinner and then go watch our friends, Taylor and Abby (different Abby) perform in the musical "Dark Day's Knight" on campus! It's a musical about Star Wars... hmm... I've never seen Star Wars (*gasp* I know) but I'm sure my father would be proud of me.

Tomorrow, I'm heading to the city with a few friends to visit the Sydney Aquarium, see a movie at the iMax on Darling Harbour, and grab some dinner out and about! It should be a good time... hence the reason why I'm killing myself with this Arts paper today... ekk, I hate just mentioning it!

Only a couple short weeks now until I get to see my parents. I am so incredibly excited to see them!!!! They will be traveling in Cairns near the Great Barrier Reef for a little less than a week before coming to Sydney for a few days around my big 21st birthday! From there, we'll be leaving on April 10th for a week in New Zealand. I miss my family, and seeing their familiar faces will be the best thing ever. After they leave, I will have another full week of my "Fall Break" so I really need to start planning out what I want to do! I cannot stay at my dorm back on campus because they rent out the rooms to various people (Who are these mysterious visitors stealing my room? Who knows!?) so I will need to stay busy traveling around so I have a place to stay! 

After that, it will only be about a month and a half until Derek visits!! I am too excited for all my wonderful visitors :) It will be great to show this country!

Sorry about the wordy post! Let's hope I can write an Arts paper as easily as writing in my blog :)

Enjoy the pictures:

DLC Commencement Dinner! Tons of bread and wine bottles with the DLC logo on them! Truly fancy.

My friend, Erika, and I at the dinner

Where the Bushwalking Day began... La Perouse Beach on the East Coast

Can you see the spider?!?!? I think this could give anyone nightmares! They were all over the place!

Posing like a true "bushwalker" :)

Matt, Anna, and another girl from Austria (forgot her name!)

Anna & I checking out the beautiful view

We walked 17 km along this coast

Trespassing adventure #1: Private Golf Course. You can see the manager and owner walking towards us in the distance... hahaha

More nature shots :)

This one is for my Mother!!! It was a pretty big cliff too! Hahaha, typical Miller thing to try and freak out Mom...

Trespassing adventure #2: Rifle Shooting Range. Look at how close we were to the red and yellow flags!!!! ahhh!

Finally at the end of our trip. I wish I had a video of this. Everyone was so disgusted with Matt (the one with the hat in the middle of the picture) and so ready to go home. Hahaha

My friend, Cassie, and I taking the train to King's Crossing on St.Patrick's Day!

The group outside of O'Malley's Hotel Bar! We all embraced our inner-Irish side for the night :)

Casse, Kimberly, myself, and Julie celebrating St.Patrick's Day!

That's all for now!

Love you all & Miss you constantly!

xoxo,

Carly

Blah, I'm tired!

Sorry friends and family...

I meant to update you all tonight before going to bed, but I got caught up with homework and my eyes are going CRAZY looking at the computer screen! I need to close this dang computer...

Hopefully tomorrow I will inform you of my crazy weekend of hiking through dangerous private properties... ahhhh

... the suspense is killing you, I know.

xoxo,

Carly

Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Finally got my pictures uploaded in chronological order. I just have to reverse it! Lame... but at least I have it figured out after my 10th try :)

Spent the entire day at Manly Beach on Friday--my day off! If you can see, check out the sign and then the set of legs sticking straight out of the water on the left side. Hahaha, good timing on my picture perfect moment!

Saturday morning at "Pancakes on the Rocks" with Danny, Matt, Anna, and Abby. I don't really like pancakes, but anything tastes better with butterscotch, chocolate, ice cream, and bananas on it :) SO GOOD.

Exploring the Market at the Rocks. That spider in the frame is actually pretty common in central Australia. I think I may skip out on a central Australian vacation!

Abby (from Scotland!), Anna, and I waiting for HOURS before the Mardi Gras parade. I bought a pink Australian flag in support of Mardi Gras! It's definitely spicing up my plain brick walls. Gotta love room decor. 

The start of Mardi Gras! A whole bunch of Lesbian lovers on their motorcycles... haha

A very "conversative" picture and float compared to the rest of the night!

Joan Rivers was there!!!! It's hard to tell because of the lights... but trust me... she is pretty damn ugly. Too much plastic surgery. Rumor was Carson from "Queer Eye" was also there! So sad I missed him. 

Hahaha, this man's hairdo was OUT. OF. CONTROL.

The Sydney Opera House at 5:30 a.m. Anna, Abby, and I stayed out in Sydney until the sunrose on Sunday morning. 

Sydney from the steps of the Opera House-- 6 a.m.

Myself and the beautiful sunrise :) Good thing you can't really see me... I was pretty tired after 24 hours of being in the city!

This weekend was extremely entertaining and jam packed with things going on! I was starting to get homesick a few days ago... so the busy schedule definitely helped me get my mind off some things going on back in the States. 

Friday has basically become the official "Beach Day" with friends! This past Friday we went to Manly Beach and soaked up some rays (aka got a little burnt. Note the AWFUL tan lines in the pictures above) Since I'm a direct exchange student I have a "concession pass" that let's me travel while paying HALF of what everyone else has to pay! It is amazing to pack up and get to and from the beach with only $5. Myself, Anna, and Kim stayed a little later than everyone else and ended up going to 2 different ice cream places in a matter of 15 minutes. Hahaha... we really wanted ice cream, okay?

Later that night, my friend Danny had some people over for a "barbie" at his apartment! I tried just a nimble of kangaroo because the meat wasn't really cooked... but the sausages were VERY delish :)

Saturday morning, I woke up early (kinda...) and headed to the city at 10:30 with Anna, Abby, Danny, and Matt. We ate some DELICIOUS pancakes at the famous "Pancakes on the Rocks" and walked around the Market at the Rocks. "The Rocks" is a VERY nice part of town with designer shopping, old pubs, and just beautiful buildings and streets. It's all made out of stone. Or rocks?

We walked EVERYWHERE on Saturday. We went from way up north at the Rocks to Oxford Street where the Mardi Gras events and parade was going down. It's advised to get there at least 3 or 4 hours before, so we did. It was a lot of waiting but we got a "front row" spot at a great location, so it was worth it! The parade was outrageous. I had never seen so many topless women or men in just thongs. Well... I have actually never seen MANY of those at all in my life, so seeing both of these at least every 5 minutes was definitely pretty weird. But we had a blast, and I'm really glad we went. It's something you just have to see if you're in Sydney during Mardi Gras season! 

Afterwards, Danny and Matt peace'd out and us girls met up with some more friends on the other side of Darling Harbour. It was another long... but ENTERTAINING... walk. On the way, we caught a couple "making sweet love" in the very public Darling Harbour park (eww) and also saw about five 13-year-olds resist arrest and get tackled down by police officers. We had NO idea what they did, but we sat down on a bench a ways a way and just had to watch. Hahaha... it was like watching "COPS" live. One of the girls was screaming so loudly, it was pretty freaky, but just weird. Mardi Gras is a pretty wild and huge festival, so they could have been up to anything!

We met up with friends at this Prymont Bridge Hotel bar and ended up making friends with this 41-year-old Fiji man and stayed there all talking until 4 in the morning! I was struggling to stay awake by this point... but since the last bus home leaves at 3, we decided that we just HAD to stay to watch the sunrise. We walked a fair distance BACK to "Pancakes on the Rocks" and had some caffeine and 1 scrambled egg to stay awake for another couple hours. On the way, we were approached by a male prostitute which reminded me of "Flight of the Conchords" so much, I could not stop laughing afterwards!!! My friends didn't understand since they have never seen the show!

Around 5:15 we made our way over to the Opera House and watched the sunrise. It was beautiful, but pretty cold and I was ready for bed. I took the 7:06 a.m. bus home and slept from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Needless to say, that wasn't enough sleep and I will go to bed as soon as I wrap up this post!

It was an incredible, but long, day in the city! I'm really glad we stayed up for the sunrise. It was definitely an experience :) You'd be surprised how many other people were hanging out doing the same thing.

I hope everything at home is well! I miss and love you all everyday!

xoxo,

Carly

"If the dark of the night arrives in the middle of the day. I'm gonna say my prayers of sweetness and light, fix myself a Coke and hope it's alright." :)  -- The song "1967" by Adrian Belew

<3 <3

"So stare up at the clouds, then at least you'll know you're always looking up"

Thank you to a certain someone for introducing me to that quote today :)

Expect an update the end of the weekend!

xoxo,

Carly