15 January: Toranga Zoo, Rooftop, Landsdowne Hotel, Marlboro Hotel

Riding the tram back down from the zoo.

It may be blurry, but I AM cuddling with a koala.

A fishing cat!


Jen and I as Francios' Langur.

Pelican

Anna about to fly out to harbour.

Kuckaburra!

Alright, let’s get down and dirty. Class started and ended with talk about Australia fauna by a professor from Sydney Uni. As a follow up we had a class excursion to Toranga Zoo. Of course, like everything in Sydney, we had to take a ferry from Circular Quay. The area of the zoo is very nice and most points have astounding views of the Sydney skyline. I travelled around with Maren, Anna, and Jen and that ended up being pretty hilarious. One of the memorable moments was Jen (who has a phobia of fish) seeing these ugly ass fish as we entered an enclave and she just disappeared. We had no idea where she went but when we went to look around the corner, there she was just standing, disgusted as ever. Haaa. I think the rest of the Toranga Zoo will just be a photo blog above because all you really need is to see the animals.

The group got home at around 6:30 and because it was Kaitlin Leonard’s birthday, it was going out time! After some rooftop drinking we went to the Landsdowne Hotel, a place I’d never been to. It was hopping and so fun! There was some live music; when we got there a punk band was playing. We danced the night away until Kelsey asked me if I wanted to accompany her to Newtown with some people she had met. I met the group (some middle-aged Australians and this crazy Lithuanian wife of one of them) and said what the hell, why not. We hopped into a cab and got out at a place called the Marlboro Hotel (or the Marly Bar). There I kind of did my own thing and started hanging out with this hilarious Egyptian guy with dreads named Roy. We danced to some great Top 40 hits and other alternative and 80s type stuff. I was so surprised he knew most of the songs! He hasn’t even been in Sydney for that long. Sometimes we would pop outside for a breath of fresh air and he’d talk about his family back in Egypt – mainly his father pressuring him into business, but he continues to live out his rebel phase at the moment (cue dreads, haaa). That pretty much sums up the night. Kelsey and I caught a cab back to Arundel at 2:30’ish and ran into Anna, who was also just coming home. Yeeee haw.

Tomorrow, the BLUE MOUNTAINS!