Saturday was fun-filled and jam-packed. We woke up at 7am in order to catch our bus to Hunter Valley (vineyards) which took about 2.5 hours to get to. The trip included visits to 4 vineyards, a brewery, a cheese tasting and a bbq. We got to the first vineyard around 11 and tasted 10 or 11 different wines. Since we went through this organization called Colourful Trips, they put us in a private room, away from all the other groups which was pretty nice. My favorite was definitely the sparkling pink wine (which I wish I bought a bottle of) and least favorite were all the ports (yuck). We also got to try chocolate dessert wines which as it turns out taste absolutely nothing like chocolate...sad.
After the first tasting our bus driver cooked us a bbq lunch of grilled sausages (called snags here)..delish. The next place we went to had wine tasting and a beer brewery. At the brewery you could pay $12 to taste 6 different kinds of Blue Tongue Beer in little shot-like glasses and then whichever one you liked best you could get a full glass of. The first beer was a ginger beer which basically just tastes like super fizzy, alcoholic ginger ale and the last was a dark beer which I actually liked the best. The 4 in the middle were lighter and all pretty much tasted the same to me.
The last place we went to had wine and cheese tasting. The wine was just like all the other places--we tasted about 10 wines, starting with white, followed by red and some sort of port or dessert wine. Next we got to sample a tray of 5 different cheeses which were SO good. We got to try a blue cheese (my favorite), cheddar, brie, something else that tasted like a foot and another kind that was really soft--kind of like ricotta mixed with cream cheese that was sitting in garlic, oil and sundried tomatoes--YUM!
At the end of the tour we were all EXHAUSTED and a little drunk, but mostly just sleepy which was perfect since we had to get back in the bus for 2.5 hours to get home. We got back to Sydney and most of us had to immediately jump in a cab to meet our sports teacher at the rugby stadium.
We made it to the stadium just in time to get our tickets and see...kickoff? I'm not really sure what it's called in rugby haha. There are two kinds of rugby here--Rugby Union and Rugby League. We watched a Rugby League game (the Waratahs) which apparently is a lot less violent and aggressive. After watching that game I'm a little nervous to go to a Union game next month because these guys were brutal! Almost every player on both teams was bleeding from some hole/cut/gash on his body. One guy was bleeding from his head BEFORE the game even started, but don't worry he taped it up and the gause caught all the blood so it didn't run onto his face :)
The game is really fast paced and intense. They place for 80 minutes, running clock, with only one short break at the halfway mark. They wear absolutely NO padding and are constantly getting hit, trampled on, tackeled, punched, etc. It's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever watched! My sports teacher was telling us that most of the guys on the team are between 6'2 and 6'8 and the lighest guy weighs 100kilos which is over 200lbs. In other words, you wouldn't want to get into a fight with a rugby player.
The game got out at about 930 and we took a free shuttle back to central station which is about a 10 minute walk to unilodge. We then decided it would be a good idea to go out after waking up super early and drinking all day. We only stayed out til about 1:30 (about 2 hours earlier than usual) :)
On Sunday, my friend Theresa (from Northeastern) invited us all to go to a bbq that her aunt (who lives in Sydney) was having for her because her birthday was last week. We took the bus to Brontee beach which is near Bondi. At first we were all questioning whether the weather was going to hold up--it was cold and windy and looked like it was going to rain. But as soon as we got to the beach it cleared up and got warm again and ended up being a beautiful day! Theresa's family made us WAY too much food and of course we ate it all, so by about 2pm we could barely move and decided it would be a good idea to at least try and walk off some of the food.
There are a stretch of beaches along the coast and you can walk along the cliffs from one to another...I think the total distance is 5km, but we started in the middle at Brontee and walked to Bondi which was about a 20 minute walk and went out onto a couple of the cliffs which was really cool (and a little scary!) We ended up at Bondi because Brian and Justin wanted to surf and stayed there until sunset.
The beginning of this week has been pretty low-key so far. I had my econ midterm today which was pretty terrible, but I only need a 50% to pass according to Northeastern, so I'm pretty condifident that I at least got half of the things right :) Spring break starts Sunday and I cannot WAIT to go to New Zealand! We're not really sure exactly what we want to do when we're there besides sky diving. There are supposed to be some really cool beaches up the coast of the north island including one with black sand, so we're thinking about renting a car for a couple days and driving up the coast. Other than that nothing is set in stone, so it should be a really fun trip! We're also trying to plan some weekend trips to Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Tasmania for May, so hopefully those all work out.
I think that's all for now. I probably won't write again until I get back from New Zealand so stay tuned!
much love
xoxoxox
