This summer, we are spending 3 weeks in Sydney on the University of New South Wales campus. We arrived in Sydney by bus on Saturday afternoon and checked into our student dorm in the New College building. To name these dorms “New College,” was very deceitful; they are probably the oldest, nastiest dorms I’ve seen! I have to keep reminding myself that I’m only staying here for 3 short weeks!
Sarah and I have trips planned for every weekend we are in Sydney: long weekends in both New Zealand and Melbourne and Hunter Valley/Blue Mountains day trips. We are going to New Zealand with one of Sarah’s friends from the States, Erin. Erin is in Sydney doing an internship with a publishing house in downtown. We are going to Melbourne with Jo, from our class, and two students from the Imaging class. Jo is also going to come on our Blue Mountains tour, but Sarah and I will be doing the Hunter Valley wine tour by ourselves.
We have had a busy first week in Sydney! On Saturday, our day of arrival, we had a short orientation, threw our bags in our rooms, and headed for the train station. Our typically group of 9 of us had purchased tickets to the International Rugby Game (Australia v. France) at Sydney Olympic Park. We left the dorms early so we could have time to explore Olympic Park and purchase Wallaby merchandise before the game. We were all star struck as we walked around the park and there was no doubt we were tourists! We got all geared up in yellow and green, grabbed a quick dinner, drank a few beers, and headed into the game. Once inside, we discovered that although we were in one of the end zones (is that what it’s called for Rugby too?), our seats were amazing!! The guys had learned about the general basics of the game from our main professor, Pete, but the girls were all completely lost! The guys were really patient with us and explained it the best they could, but we were helpless! Nonetheless, the game was a blast!! We jumped on the train and headed back to the city. Once we got to Central Station, we all decided we were hungry and went exploring. As we were walking around, we decided to save the bus ticket and walk all the way back to the dorms (thinking it wasn’t thaaaaaaat far!). We broke up the nice 3 hour walk with some kebabs and pizza.
We woke up on Sunday, grabbed breakfast together, and went to explore the city. If you ever see a group of 8 American students wondering around with no direction, it’s probably us! We are all too laid back and never have a plan. We’ll be doing something, stop to look at something, and stand around for an hour before someone finally asks what we are doing! We spent Sunday down by the Harbor admiring the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. We also spent quite a bit of time in the Royal Botanic Gardens before getting lost and caught in a downpour! After FINALLY finding the gate out of the park, we ducked inside a noodle house (Who knew Sydney had a Wagamama’s too!? I LOVED it in London and was excited we stumbled onto it here!) before heading back to the dorms. Everyone else sat in the common room and watch the first Transformers while I studied for my GMAT. I was able to take both practice tests the GMAC provided. FYI, I rocked those practice tests!! My first GMAT score was embarrassing, but I increased it on both practice tests by 130 and 110 points respectively.
Monday morning was spent taking our campus tour and getting our student ID cards. We were supposed to have both our politics and sports class Monday afternoon, but our sports professor never showed up! After class, we grabbed dinner and headed to Darling Harbor. We had ordered tickets to see Transformers 2 on the world’s largest IMAX, which is located in Sydney. Surprisingly, Transformers was actually a good movie. After doing some research, I learned the screen was 8 stories high and 10 stories wide!!! It was MASSIVE!! We called it an early night and headed back to campus after the movie.
Tuesday morning was D-Day (AKA my GMAT retake day). I was feeling more confident this time around and had cleared my head on Monday by not studying at all. Sarah, being the AMAZING friend she is, got up with me early to grab breakfast. After breakfast, I jumped in a cab and headed to the testing site.. arriving an hour early!! I went upstairs to see if I could start my exam early and they let me. 4 hours later… I pressed “grade my exam” and….. I received the score I needed to get into UMKC!! Let me back up, I needed a 460 to get into UMKC, but my personal goal was nothing below a 500. I had scored a 550 and 530 on my practice exams. I told Sarah that if I didn’t get at least a 500, I was going to take a semester of classes at a local community college to reach my 150 (I’m only 13 credits away) and spending the remaining 8 months (until I start work full-time) traveling and volunteering abroad. Guess what… I got a 500 exactly. I was a little (okay, a lot) disappointed with my score. I increased my verbal section by 5 points from my highest score (between my first exam and the two practice exams). I ran out of time on my quantitative section (MAJORLY RAN OUT OF TIME!!!) and scored 10 points lower than my lowest score on my practice exams (which was higher than my first exam!). So, I’m yet again not happy with my score, but it works I guess!! After class on Tuesday, our little group of 8 went in search of some Mexican food. We actually found a place down the road from our dorms. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but most restaurants in Australia are BYO for a SMALL corkage fee. So we grabbed a few bottles of wine and beer and went to enjoy some decent Mexican food. Anyone that knows me pretty well knows how much I love Mexican food, so it was good enough to satisfy my craving! After dinner, we walked back to campus and grabbed our laptops. The entire campus is wireless…. Except for our dorms! So we have to walk to the quad behind our building to get wireless. After quickly checking facebook and email, we all headed inside to call it a night. I know I was personally mentally and physically exhausted!
I woke up early Wednesday morning to do laundry in preparation of our trip to New Zealand. I haven’t done laundry since Darwin and I’m glad I waited! Laundry on campus is only $1 AUD verse the $3 AUD I paid in Darwin! Free drying helped out too! After class, we went to Coogee Beach to eat at a restaurant that runs a promotion on Wednesday nights. If you purchase a drink ($4AUD), you get a steak, chips (fries), and salad for only $4 AUD. It was our celebration night out in honor of my GMAT score, Tommy’s AMAZING MCAT score, and Ben’s job offer as a broadcaster for the UC-Davis campus radio station. A night filled with numerous pitchers of beer and a few tequila shots, it was definitely a great celebration! I was smart and celebrated my GMAT AFTER the fact, instead of the night before like I did the first time I took it!! I must point out that Allie and I kicked ass and took names at pool that night… I think at one point we were on a 7 game winning streak verse 3 different teams.
Needless to say… Thursday morning was rough….. but WELL WORTH IT!!
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