Classes, Calvin Harris, Taco Bills, Karaoke, SYDNEY, and MY MOM CAME TO VISIT OMG!!

WOW

Weird to think that I'm almost halfway done with classes. We just finished our 5th out of 12 weeks of classes. Time flies, crazy.

Just like the last post, it's been a while since I've blogged last. There really haven't been much exciting shenanigans going on (except Sydney last weekend!). I've just been around Melbourne, actually focusing on classes. I know this is a shock to most. One of my classes is actually really really interesting. It's called Business Consulting. We're put into groups of 5 and actually work as consultants to businesses around Melbourne to help them solve their problems. My group and I are working with Taboo, a marketing firm in South Yarra, to decide whether or not it is a viable option to import sugar from Fiji here to Australia and market it as a premium commodity item. Check out their website The Taboo Group.

Despite being around Melbourne for the past four weeks or so, I've managed to still have fun adventures around town. Let's go down the list, shall we?

1) Calvin Harris

Not gonna lie, I'm not the biggest fan of teechno/trance/house/electronic/dubstep/whatever else its called with a lot of bass and techno beats. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the music and like to listen to it, but I wouldn't be running out the door to buy tickets to see these guys live, which is exactly what happened with Calvin Harris. Everyone bought a ticket, they showed me his music, and I thought to myself, "oh this will be fun." I was wrong. It was AMAZING. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to the concert because I thought I would break it or lose it, but, thanks to the beauty of Facebook, I can just go online and steal all of Joe's pictures from that night.

After the night was over my ears were ringing for a few hours after, but it was so worth it. Check out Calvin's remix of Hello, as well as the original. It's good stuff. 1st is the remix then 2nd is the original.

 

2) Taco Bills

You never really realize you miss something until you don't have it anymore. For us, it was Mexican food (and margaritas). There really aren't any Mexican places in Australia, it's just not their thing, so when we found out about Taco Bills, you can imagine how happy everyone was. Plus the best thing about this place was you get a sombrero when you buy a big margarita. Hilarity ensues shortly after. Ole!

3) Karaoke!

Another thing we missed! We found a karaoke bar in Chinatown that rented us a room for $5 a person for two hours. They also randomly had drag in the room to dress up in, which was weird, but also hilarious and ridiculous. I personally think I look sexy in a blue wig.

4) SYDNEY!

Last weekend I went to Sydney! It was great to get out of Melbourne for a while, but after 4 days in Sydney I was ready to come back. Sydney has a completely different vibe than Melbourne - there are no hipsters, and it's a lot more spread out than Melbourne. It actually has other neighborhoods rather than just having a downtown and suburbs. Kind of like LA in a sense, but a more compact LA. Here's a photo recap of the weekend.

Clearly we went to see the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge

Also on the first day after we dropped our stuff down at the hostel, we jumped on a ferry to the other side of the harbor to Manly beach, which was absolutely beautiful.

Along the beach there is a path that goes to a state park on the peninsula next to the beach, we wandered up there to check out the views.

They also have these things called water dragons running around everywhere.

Running joke of the whole trip: DAMN NATURE YOU SCARY!

Here are some views of the city from the ferry ride back.

We hopped off the boat and made our way to the botanical gardens right next to the main harbor.

AHH MORE NATURE

Then we wandered back to our hostel through the city center.

The next day we made our way over to Darling Harbor, which is a smaller harbor southwest of the main harbor where the bridge is. On the way there, we stopped at the Chinese Garden of Friendship, which was actually very suiting for us since our group consisted of 4 guys.

 

And here are a few pictures of the actual harbor.

 

The aquarium was right there in Darling Harbor too, so we decided to go and see the fish.

 That night we went out to King's Cross, Sydney's so called red light district. It was a mess but really fun.

Sopranos anyone?

These guys....

Day three: we went down to Bondi beach, which is the main beach always associated with Sydney. Unfortunately it was rainy that day, so we weren't able to lay out but there was a cool 3 mile hike along the coast that connected a bunch of the beaches.

Our last day in Sydney we went to check out the Rocks, which is the oldest part of Sydney.

We also made our way out to the olympic stadium, even though we didn't see much.

Also, MY MOM IS HERE! She's doing a 12 day tour down the east coast of Australia and just happened to be in Sydney when I was there. We went to dinner together, it was cute. She's going to be in Melbourne this weekend, so I get to show her around the city.

That's all for now!