Hey all,
After reading and getting updates from my friends' blogposts this morning, I realise that I haven't been updating them on my life much on my blog anymore. So yeah, I'm back to Blogger blogging and compromising on my study time -- which isn't too good an idea when you consider I still have a lot to catch up on and school starts tomorrow!
At the beginning of Easter break, I didn't feel particular excited. Simply because I didn't have any solid plans while many other people in my dorm were leaving back to home or some other places for vacation. I thought that I would spend most of my time this break catching up on school work and perhaps forcing myself to engage in more sports and exercise. But this feeling gradually faded after I decided to be proactive and made a list of things that I wanted to do in Sydney this break:
1) Go to a beach
2) Walk on the Harbour Bridge
3) Go to the North Shore suburbs (past the Harbour Bridge)
4) Take a train
And in the afternoon that I made the short list [yes, I know it's short but to me, it was tough even to get everything done...]
I already accomplished one of my goals: walking on the Harbour Bridge. It was really spontaneous really. Jamie and Tim just felt like running across the Harbour Bridge and after reflection on my boring and empty schedule for the day, I decided to do it. I did know that the Harbour Bridge was something like at least 5km away but I didn't care. I just didn't think. It was a chance for something fun and different, and I was ready to take it, regardless of how tough it was going to be.
And so we left for the Harbour Bridge. I was a little fatigued from my morning run as well as a brief game of squash before the run. But I didn't mind it because my mental determination to do something fun and different. We ran past the Sydney fish market, Darling Harbour, CBD and up to the bridge. All we brought with us were our bus tickets [in case we got too tired and decide to take a bus home...] and our student ID. Tim also brought his phone, which proved useful later on.
The beginning of the run was fine; I felt fresh. Running just gives you such a good feeling with its mass production of endorphins. However, there were times during the run when I felt like giving up. Because Sydney is such a hilly city, there were many places where we had to run across steep long slopes. And these were tough, both physically and mentally! But when I saw that Tim and Jamie were so determined, I decided that I should just keep going, for fear of having to go back alone and losing face [Jamie's a girl btw, real athletic too].
Little by little, we finally made it up to the Harbour bridge with its sublime view of the Sydney Harbour. We could see the Sydney Opera House to our right and many other wonderful landscapes surrounding it. The ships, cruises, the city; simply amazing. What made everything even better was the sun and its warm side cast onto the bridge. We stopped a little on the Harbour bridge, partly because we were tired and partly because the view was great. We got some photos of us with Tim's phone.
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| On the Harbour Bridge! [Photo Credits to Tim] |
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| Luna Park! [Photo Credits to myself with Tim's phone] |
After crossing the bridge, we were at the North Shore of Sydney. We were genuinely thirsty, and decided to go find free water nearby. We went around, planning to get a drink from this swimming pool but unfortunately it wasn't open. So in the end, we went to Luna Park, an extremely old themepark that existed even when my father was studying in Sydney back in the 80s, to get water from the washroom taps [just being cheap...I guess]. We also managed to take some photos at Luna Park.
Following Luna Park, we went back to the South Shore and CBD via the bridge, had McDonalds $0.30 ice cream and took a bus back to our dorm because we were simply too tired to run another 5km back.
The next day, my parents and little brother came to Sydney to visit for 3 days. Over the 3 days, we met up with my uncle, who has been living in Sydney for the past 3 years now. He brought us around some of the Sydney suburbs [including Flemington, Chatswood, North Ryde, and Eastwood] for us to explore the quieter places in Sydney.
As a result, I achieved my second goal of visiting the North Shore. We also went to Darling Harbour, hoping to catch the fireworks. But unfortunately we missed it by minutes because we took some time finding car park and the fireworks stopped just before we arrived. My parents and brother brought along with them some of my stuff back from China so yay, I got a supply restock! They left on Monday, the 9th and sadly I won't be seeing them until the end of the year...
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| Parents and little brother at USyd Quad! [Photo Credits to myself] |
Over the next few days, I've been doing lots of things that you'd expect from a student. STUDY! I made a schedule on my scheduler about the things I ought to accomplish everyday. For some known reason [procrastination and inefficient use of time] I never get to finish the day's work that I set out for myself. Other than studying, I also did plenty of exercise. I ran in the morning on every other days, played badminton, squash, football [unfortunately Aussies call it soccer too...] and FRISBEE. I feel the healthiest that I've ever been for the past 8 months, where I was seriously deprived of exercise in KL. Entertainment wise, I played with my friend's PS3 on many nights and had 'movie nights' too. But I always feel that they are very much a waste of time because... well it's entertainment and they made me sleep real late -- 2am everyday! We did occasionally go out for a picnic or for a meal outside.
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| Playing squash with Jensen and Harrison! [Photo credits to myself] |
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| Picnic! [Photo credits to myself] |
On
Friday the 13th, I accomplished yet another one of my goals: going to the beach! I was going to plan a beach outing but some other friends did it first and it was a totally spontaenous thing. I had 5 minutes to pack my camera, water and supplies [sunglasses, clothes] as well as to change into beach clothes. Luckily for us, it was a nice sunny day and everything went pretty well. We chilled at the beach, taking photos and playing Frisbee. I was planning to get down to the water for a swim but it was cold and my friends didn't really feel like going so I didn't.
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| You guys have probably seen this photo on my FB page. We be beaching! [Photo credits to myself] |
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I love this photo so much...we should totally do portrait collages like these everytime we have something special going on! [Photo credits to Jamie]
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Today's Sunday and school will resume tomorrow. I don't think I'll have the chance to accomplish my last goal of taking a train but that's alright as it's only a small goal anyways. Point is, the Easter break hasn't been as boring as I had anticipated it to be. Living at IH surrounding by a community of friends in the holidays = not-boring!
Gah, it took me almost an 45 minutes to write this post. That's like 45 minutes wasted on my readings! And I haven't even had breakfast yet. June just ditched me for breakfast because I was too slow in finishing this blogpost. So I'm just going to stop here. Have a nice day, peeps!
