After an amazing summer in Australia, I am finally back at Wheaton what I hope will be another eventful and successful year. I came back a few days before the freshman got here for WAMs (which stands for Wheaton Athletic Mentors). For those of you who don’t know about the WAMs, each athletic team has about two individuals who act as liaisons between athletics and academics at Wheaton. We attended various meetings along with RAs and preceptors about sexual assault and learned about our job as leaders on campus. We helped move in all the freshman bright and early that Saturday as well, which brought me back to that day two years ago. I still can’t believe I’m already a junior in college.

Anyway, classes have started and the workload is starting to pick up. As an English major, I am trying to fulfill my requirements for two pre-1800s literature classes. I am taking the 18th Century Novel which should be interesting and is with a professor I really like. Even though my US Foreign Policy class for my Political Science minor is at 8 am (way too early to think), the class is really informative and obviously extremely relevant to what is going on in our world right now with the War in Iraq. Introduction to Macroeconomics and another writing class I think are good electives to take. I think it’s good to take classes in all subjects and get the real “liberal arts education” that Wheaton is known for.

Preseason for basketball starts tomorrow too. We lift, play, do pilates, sprints, and core workouts five days a week. This will prepare us for the big day on October 21st (a little later this year) when our actual season begins. I am really excited to play with my team and start getting a taste of what the chemistry on the court will be like this year. Also, I’ve never done pilates before and have always wanted to! It should be a nice refreshing workout to accompany our usual sprints and lifting. Well, that’s all thats going on now! I’ll write more soon!

Even though I am back in the US now, there is so much I crammed in my last week in Sydney that I can’t forget to write about! I tried to see all of the notables my last weekend in Sydney like the Sydney Tower, Bondi Beach, Royal Botanical Gardens and some of the outdoor markets that Sydney is known for. The Sydney Tower is one of the trademarks of Sydney’s skyline and offers the most amazing view of the entire city from above. From the top, you can see Sydney’s eastern shores, the harbor and some suburbs. The highest working mailbox in the Southern Hempisphere is also at the top of the tower which I thought was a cool fact. That same day, we wandered over to Darling Harbor, souvenir shopped and took some more pictures of the Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge during daylight. The Royal Botanical Gardens is a huge park adjacent to the Opera House and overlooks Sydney Harbor. I think it offers the best photo opportunities of the city’s skyline and harbor. After living there for two months, I am convinced Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. There is never a dull moment there either. We continued to check out the Rocks outdoor market to get some creative and handpainted, authentic gifts for our family and friends. I picked up a few kangaroo-leather golf gloves for the golfers in my family, even though I did feel a little bit guilty about it being kangaroo. The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney with stone and brick buildings and a colonial feel to it. It’s right on the harbor (hence the name) and the outdoor market is known as one of the best in Sydney. To top off our day we ate at the famous 24-hour Pancakes on the Rocks, sort of an upscale IHOP with award-winning pancakes.

Bondi Beach is Sydney’s and probably one of Australia’s most famous beaches. Surfers from all over the world come to surf Bondi’s waves. Even in the winter, the water temperature is still warm there, actually warmer than the air. The beach is pretty much the perfect beach, nestled in the perfect natural cove. The waves were what got my attention first: they were SO big and seemed to rush up to the shore forever. After being an expert surfer now after riding already broken waves up to the shore for a weekend, I couldn’t even imagine surfing those waves, not to mention with the undertoe, jellyfish and sharks in the summertime. Bondi had your typical beach shops and tourist spots, but the beach itself was far from typical. I just couldn’t take enough pictures of it, and it was winter! Bondi was the perfect way to say goodbye to Sydney! More about my last days to come!

Last week I saw Othello at the famous Sydney Opera House! I still couldn’t believe I was actually at the Opera House when I was there. It is one of those landmarks that looks fake in every picture you take. Othello was a contemporary version with creative music which my friends and I loved. The play was entertaining but being in the Opera House made it so much better. It’s interesting to actually explore the inner nooks of the building since the frame is so abstract. It looks so much different up close too. At night, the Opera House lights up and glows. The white surface of it is sort of made of shingle type pieces, something you would never know until you are right at the base. My professor told our class that the Australians basically paid for the Opera House to be built and at one point called it the “white elephant,” thinking it would not bring in any money to the city of Sydney. The city was definitely paid back for the construction as the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge are two of the biggest landmarks not only of Sydney but Australia. Just a quick update on the Opera House. More to come!

It’s the middle of the work week, my last full week of work at my internship. Time sure has flown by here down under. I am currently working on biographies for the top 50 artists for each of the Australian music online magazines I am interning for. I have been doing interviews, feature articles and news articles prior to this project, but either way, I am getting to write and my writing is being published. My internship placement could not have been better.

Last Saturday, about 20 of my friends and I went to a big rugby game here in Sydney. There are three rugby leagues in Australia but I don’t know the names of them all. We went to the international rugby game where Australia’s Qantas Wallabies played South Africa. This was a really important game for both teams as it determined their rankings in the world cup I think. The game was all over the news and commercials the last week and we were lucky we go tickets ahead of time. We all got decked out in Wallabies gear and had a cookout all day on the terrace before taking the train to Telstra Stadium just outside of Sydney. The stadium was beautiful and it was the perfect night for a rugby game. Fireworks, banners and lots of cheering later, the game began. South Africa went up by 17 within the first 15 minutes but eventually, the Wallabies fought back and won 25-17. I don’t really know the rules of rugby but I attempted to figure it out while watching. It was so much fun cheering and yelling “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi” like the Australians do. I hope to get some more Wallabies gear before I return home. Must get back to writing my final paper due Saturday. No worries!

Wow, what a weekend. I just spent 4 days up in Queensland, Australia in Cairns, (pronounced “cans”) one of the many places to see the amazing Great Barrier Reef. I took 3 hour flight North with 6 of my best friends here for a weekend exploring Australia’s northern coastline. We were all ready for some warm weather since it’s winter here and Sydney has been unusually rainy. We took a catamaran 2 hours out to the inner reef on a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky. We first stopped in Michaelman’s Cay, a huge sandbar and bird sanctuary in the middle of the ocean surrounded by reefs filled with wildlife. I have snorkeled in Hawaii, the Cayman Islands and a bunch of other places, but I have never seen anything like this before. The coral was so bright, colorful and diverse and the tropical fish were so exotic. The underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef is the only living thing that can been seen from space on Earth. I find that fact astounding. Next we sailed out to the outer reef to Paradise Reef that is exactly what its name suggests. I jumped off the boat into what felt like the Finding Nemo movie. We snorkeled in a reef in the middle of the ocean with huge dropoffs on all sides. The fish here were even more spectacular as a school of big fish (sorry I don’t know names) swam right up to us. We say sea turtles and I even found Nemo! He was hiding in coral as expected with a few other smaller clownfish. I really hope the pictures from our underwater camera come out because Nemo came right up to my hand! The Great Barrier Reef was all that I imagined and more.

On Sunday, we all jumped out of planes 14,000 ft in the air. Yes, I went skydiving. It was the biggest thrill of my life and so much fun. I would definitely do it again too. The scariest part was sitting on the edge of the plane looking down at the beautiful Australia coastline. You have to dive tandem with an instructor the first few times you skydive, so that eased my fears a little. Overall, it was amazing and a great way to see the Australian landscape and the Great Barrier Reef from above.

We did many more awesome and interesting things in Cairns and rested on the beach our last day to try and soak in that much-needed sun. Cairns was by far one of the biggest highlights of my trip so far. I’m so glad I got the chance and had the time to make it up there. Now after a week of lots of writing at my internship, another weekend is at my fingertips. I only have 2 weeks left down under so I am trying to see as much as I can. More posts soon to come!

No worries,
Jennie

My first week at my internship turned out to be great! I was a little nervous going into an unfamiliar workplace, in another country. However, the people are so laid-back and friendly here. No worries is really what they live by. Myself and the other intern, Miguel, were immediately welcomed into the office. I intern at an online magazine called InTheMix which specializes in Australian dance music, which I know nothing about but am willing to learn. So far, I have been writing news articles and I already conducted an interview with an artist and published a feature. It’s a great experience here and I am just glad I am not doing the typical intern things like making coffee and spending all day copying papers. Right after work on Friday I caught the bus for a surf trip down south of Sydney with a bunch of my friends. It was awesome! It was pouring rain and hailing the first time we went out, but that didn’t keep us from getting up. I was surprised how much the advisors lessons helped and I stood up for a few seconds on my second try. The other day of the trip was a lot nicer, but we still wore some pretty stylish full body wetsuits. It was a blast and I am so glad I got to surf in the place known for it.

I just passed in my 30 page portfolio for my travel writing class this Saturday. It feels great to be done and have part of my grade in the class secure. The portfolio was a collection of journal entries, essays, pictures and information about my two week trip down the south coast of Australia. I put a lot of hard work into it and I know I will appreciate having it for documentation of my trip. Anyway, my friends and I decided to celebrate the completion with a nice dinner and night out on The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney that is right on the harbor. Yesterday, we also visited the aquarium, went shopping and walked around Sydney exploring. There’s so much to see and do in the city: I just hope I have enough time for it. It’s been kind of rainy here lately, which is extremely rare for Sydney, but I am off to Cairns in Queensland this weekend to see the Great Barrier Reef, snorkel and possibly skydive. I can’t wait and I hope the weather will be nice (its hot all year round there). My friends and I are flying out Friday and will be back next Monday night. It will be awesome to see the world’s largest ecosystem and the only living thing that can be seen from space. For all you Finding Nemo fans, I am hoping to find nemo and dori while I am snorkeling too and figure out if 42 Wallaby Way really exists. Until then, no worries! -Jennie

Hey! Finally i was able to get this cool blog set up! It’s been a busy 3 weeks here down under in Australia! I am having the time of my life in one of the most interesting and amazing places in the world. I am here on the Boston University Sydney Internship Program, doing an internship at an online magazine and taking a travel writing class. The past 2 weeks I was travelling all down the southern Australian coast, through New South Wales and Victoria. We explored small towns, met Australians, beheld amazing wildlife and nature at its most beautiful. One our first day, we took a detour to take a chance to see kangaroos in the wild. It sure paid off! We drove through the thick rainforest to a remote beach of cliffs, tropical water, trees and dunes, all inhabited by about 50 kangaroos. We fed them and petted them and of course I took over 100 pictures! I could not believe it and still can’t, that I had this experience with such an exotic animal in the wild. There’s so much more to be said about the trip and I am so glad I am taking my class. Learning a lot and seeing the country could not be better. Anyway, now I am back in Sydney, having to pose as an adult (I like to think I am not one yet) and go to work Tuesday through Friday 9-5. I really enjoy my internship as well, and love Sydney even more. The friendly, laid- back people, great restaurants and nightlife, a gorgeous harbor and so much more make it a wonderful place to spend my next month and a half. Well, that’s all I have time for now. Till next time, no worries, mate!