Friday I caught the 8:25 train to Katoomba with a bunch of my other classmates and we settled in for the roughly two hour train ride. We slowly left the city, went through the suburbs, and traveled through the countryside into the mountains. Towards the end we dozed off for a bit and then woke up at Katoomba. Turns out a few of our other classmates missed the 8:25 and had to catch the next train so we had half an hour to fart around Katoomba. This turned out to be a fabulous thing as we happened upon a cupcake shop that had a coffee and cupcake for $5 deal. Sa-weet! I got some coffee and two little cupcakes: a cookies and cream and a white chocolate coconut. They were so divine. When we finished up there, the other group had arrived and we broke into our groups for the weekend who were our cabin mates. I was in girls cabin three with Jackie (adorable Minnesotan with huge blue eyes, one of the only Christians I've met here), Maya (hilarious Berkley kid, was wearing her ultimate frisbee team gear), Mahalia (German who I did the group project with who is rather bossy/argumentative, but lovable), and Alice (the Canadian). I suggested we call ourselves team SB after a ridiculous rap song that had been stuck in my head all week (and that I have a huge affinity for). It was agreed upon. I really loved the girls in my cabin, we bonded quite nicely.
At the visitor's center type thing we waited for the "world's steepest railway" to come pick us up so we could go on our first bushwalk (aka hike). I thought the world's steepest railways was on Pike's Peak. I still think it is because this wasn't actually a train, it was more like an amusement park train. But anyway, the track down into the valley was REALLY steep and a fun ride. At the bottom we took lots of pictures and set off down the trail. Maya, Jackie, and I had tons of energy and were hyping out the whole way being spastic, singing, etc. Every time we came across a rock or waterfall or something we felt that we needed to climb it. Several of the other cabin groups passed us; they obviously weren't getting the full experience like we were. At the end of the trail there are hundreds and hundreds of stairs to ascend to get back out of the valley to the parking lot. I appreciated their calorie burning potential, but they were a bit of a challenge to take on. At the top were super gorgeous views and things of that nature.We went to the grocery store after that to buy food for the weekend. It was a bit complicated trying to get 5 girls to agree on meals for the weekend. I grew a bit annoyed after a while and went to the cereal aisle. Everything was sorted out soon though and we brought our groceries to the bus and then went exploring in the town. There were bakeries galore. I had to exercise extreme willpower not to walk into all of them and eat loads of decadent whatnots. I did well though and the only store I went in was to buy some postcards. Then we loaded up the bus and went to our camp.
The road to camp is really windy and I swear, overtime we drove to and from, I felt nauseous. It was adorable though. The cabins were really nice. The kitchen had good appliances and was stocked with all the cooking supplies we could ever need. The living room had two couches that we pulled up around the cozy fireplace that heated the house. We crashed out and napped for a bit before making pasta primavera for dinner. I bought lots of healthy food, but other bought cookies, chips, etc. so I ended up way over eating of course. Oh well, then we went down for the campfire.
Our instructor, the gorgeous NFL QB-esque guy I've spoken of in previous posts, really likes to hear himself talk and make us do dumb group exercises. So he rambled for awhile about challenging ourselves and rah rah and then made us go around the circle and share what we would do to make tomorrow the "goodest day ever." Yes, goodest. I'm not really sure why he was so stuck on the word goodest. And we had to put our name in it somewhere so we could learn each other's names better. My girls left soon after this campfire sharing session ended and went to bed.
The next morning I woke up at 6 to go try and track kangaroos. Jackie, Noah, Liam (who will be expounded upon later), and I broke off into a group and went down into the field. Soon after we got there we saw two kangaroos hopping off, very cool. We walked around for another hour hoping to find some but didn't have any luck. Its a lot colder in the mountains than it is here in Sydney so I was quite freezing, but it was lovely seeing the sunrise over the valley. One of the boys cabins consisted of 3 Aussie boys-Liam, Craig, and Job-and Noah. These Aussie boys were the most flaming INTENSE people I have ever come across. They would yell at everyone about picking up the intensity and showing initiative and generally acted like loud morons. They were never quiet, never ever ever. They called Noah the fresher (similar to freshman) and would run around yelling FRESHER INTENSE! And he was supposed to respond, but generally just looked at them like they were insane. My cabin and there's ended up hanging around each other a lot, I guess because we were all sitting towards the back of the bus. They got it in their heads to pick on me, Maya, and Jackie a LOT. They called me the princess, and precious (which they consider a derogatory term). Maya started this game where the only object was to smack people on the bum. Well they took that and ran with it. Craig had this big walking stick they called Ram Rod and he would pop me on the bum with it which would really set me off. Anyway, I could fill 6 pages talking about their antics, but the takeaway point is they were intense and liked to push our buttons. And at this point in the day I could deal with it, all fun and games, rah rah.
Our bushw
alk for the day took us down into a canyon type thing that was heavily forested. It was lush and tropical with a stream running through it, heaps of ferns, lots of rocks to scramble over, quite shady and very cool. I've never been anywhere like it. The girls and I fell silent once we had made it a ways into the canyon so we could all just take it in. Occasionally the boys would get close to us and we would groan because they were hootin' and hollerin' the whole way through the valley. At the end of the track the canyon got really narrow and there was a swimming hole. All the boys from the intense cabin, Maya and Jackie, and a few others swam across it. I sat that one out as it was fuh-reezing. That walk took several hours, and then we went on another shorter one after that. This one was through a more arid climate and took us by a river that flowed through a cave that was really neat.
After the hikes I decided to reward myself with a big steamin' plate of wedges and cheese back in town. Oh and then I bought an ice cream cone because that just wasn't enough. Back on the bus the boys thought it would be really funny to try and light my hair on fire. I FREAKED out on them and went to the back of the bus to avoid them. I legitimately wanted to poke their eyes out or beat them over the heads with a sack of rocks. I know they felt bad about it after that and gave me the lighter as sort of apologetic gesture. We made it back to the cabin and cooked delicious burritos for dinner. Campfire time after that. We had to go around and share some meaningful experience we had during the day, how special. In town we bought Lindt chocolate and marshmellows to make s'mores. However, they don't have grahm crackers in Australia. We bought some Ritz cracker type things and they worked really well. I was so stuffed. Jackie and I went to sleep on the couches in the living room so we could sleep by the fire. Everything was peaceful and perfect.
alk for the day took us down into a canyon type thing that was heavily forested. It was lush and tropical with a stream running through it, heaps of ferns, lots of rocks to scramble over, quite shady and very cool. I've never been anywhere like it. The girls and I fell silent once we had made it a ways into the canyon so we could all just take it in. Occasionally the boys would get close to us and we would groan because they were hootin' and hollerin' the whole way through the valley. At the end of the track the canyon got really narrow and there was a swimming hole. All the boys from the intense cabin, Maya and Jackie, and a few others swam across it. I sat that one out as it was fuh-reezing. That walk took several hours, and then we went on another shorter one after that. This one was through a more arid climate and took us by a river that flowed through a cave that was really neat.After the hikes I decided to reward myself with a big steamin' plate of wedges and cheese back in town. Oh and then I bought an ice cream cone because that just wasn't enough. Back on the bus the boys thought it would be really funny to try and light my hair on fire. I FREAKED out on them and went to the back of the bus to avoid them. I legitimately wanted to poke their eyes out or beat them over the heads with a sack of rocks. I know they felt bad about it after that and gave me the lighter as sort of apologetic gesture. We made it back to the cabin and cooked delicious burritos for dinner. Campfire time after that. We had to go around and share some meaningful experience we had during the day, how special. In town we bought Lindt chocolate and marshmellows to make s'mores. However, they don't have grahm crackers in Australia. We bought some Ritz cracker type things and they worked really well. I was so stuffed. Jackie and I went to sleep on the couches in the living room so we could sleep by the fire. Everything was peaceful and perfect.
On Sunday morning, Jackie and I got up early and had a little quiet/prayer time on the front porch of our cabin that was really pleasant. Sadly, after that we had to pack up everything and load it back onto the bus. I said goodbye to our cozy cabin and then we headed off for the day's bushwalk.
This one was SO incredible. It followed this stream from the top of the ridge down into the valley and there w
as waterfall after waterfall after gorgeous waterfall once again set in the rainforest. We stopped for lunch at the bottom of this huge waterfall and I went for a dip in the pool at the bottom of it. It was horribly freezing and so I got my picture made and then ran back out of it. And, yes, I had my coat on over my swimsuit the whole time. Then we ascended all the way back up to the top of the ridge at the waterfall. It was a giant series of ladders and really steep stairs getting back up to the top. But waiting for us up there was an ice cream truck! Yay. I got a "nutty nibbler," so good. Liam came around and looked at the view with Maya and I for awhile. He was acting extremely civilized and after giving him a hard time, I remarked that he was almost pleasant when not acting like a total moron. He invited Maya, Jackie, and I over to his place that night to play foosball. For some reason, I accepted the invitation.
It was time to leave after that. Sad, I know. We caught the train back to Sydney. I made dinner and a little later Liam came to pick me up. When helping his roommate move the foosball table out into the yard, we somehow lost all the balls and spent the next half hour looking for them. No luck. Instead we played their version of paddle ball which involves hitting tennis balls at each other from across the yard at each other with giant q-tips towards a target to score points. Liam is quite the nice/decent person when not on outdoor ed field trips. He said he was acting like a moron on purpose to liven up the trip or something... who knows. Later we all went up on the roof and hung out up there. It was cold, so I borrowed Liam's jacket and I realized after he took me home that I forgot to give it back. This worked to my advantage as he invited me over tonight to watch a movie so that I could give him his jacket back. Sadly, I couldn't go because I've been working on a presentation on substance metaphysics ALL DAY and have made no progress. I'm really brain dead and am about to go to sleep. Do you have any idea how frustrating trying to understand substance v. process metaphysics is when the author of the article juxtaposes all these schools of thought in such a way that its really hard to keep them all straight. This presentation is going to be terrible. I had an Aussie kid tell me today though that professors always pass international students; I hope that's true.
This one was SO incredible. It followed this stream from the top of the ridge down into the valley and there w
as waterfall after waterfall after gorgeous waterfall once again set in the rainforest. We stopped for lunch at the bottom of this huge waterfall and I went for a dip in the pool at the bottom of it. It was horribly freezing and so I got my picture made and then ran back out of it. And, yes, I had my coat on over my swimsuit the whole time. Then we ascended all the way back up to the top of the ridge at the waterfall. It was a giant series of ladders and really steep stairs getting back up to the top. But waiting for us up there was an ice cream truck! Yay. I got a "nutty nibbler," so good. Liam came around and looked at the view with Maya and I for awhile. He was acting extremely civilized and after giving him a hard time, I remarked that he was almost pleasant when not acting like a total moron. He invited Maya, Jackie, and I over to his place that night to play foosball. For some reason, I accepted the invitation. It was time to leave after that. Sad, I know. We caught the train back to Sydney. I made dinner and a little later Liam came to pick me up. When helping his roommate move the foosball table out into the yard, we somehow lost all the balls and spent the next half hour looking for them. No luck. Instead we played their version of paddle ball which involves hitting tennis balls at each other from across the yard at each other with giant q-tips towards a target to score points. Liam is quite the nice/decent person when not on outdoor ed field trips. He said he was acting like a moron on purpose to liven up the trip or something... who knows. Later we all went up on the roof and hung out up there. It was cold, so I borrowed Liam's jacket and I realized after he took me home that I forgot to give it back. This worked to my advantage as he invited me over tonight to watch a movie so that I could give him his jacket back. Sadly, I couldn't go because I've been working on a presentation on substance metaphysics ALL DAY and have made no progress. I'm really brain dead and am about to go to sleep. Do you have any idea how frustrating trying to understand substance v. process metaphysics is when the author of the article juxtaposes all these schools of thought in such a way that its really hard to keep them all straight. This presentation is going to be terrible. I had an Aussie kid tell me today though that professors always pass international students; I hope that's true.So, as you can imagine, today was really blah. It was also rainy which added to the blah. Tomorrow is going to be another metaphyisics ontology extravaganza so the future isn't looking so bright yet. I'm ready for the week to be over.
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