After a couple of weeks in Australia the jet lag has finally faded, and I have finally gotten into a routine. My classes have been going well, and I gave a presentation this week that I believe I did well on. I feel good about how I have performed in my classes while preparing to begin the last week of this block. This week I was able to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Chinatown. There is a lot of Chinese culture here and it is such a great experience to be around. I was able to shop around in the Chinese market again like I did the week before, but I was also able to watch the traditional lion dance for the New Year.
This year will be the year of the snake, and here in Sydney, there are signs everywhere to let you know that. It’s amazing how prevalent the Asian culture is here, and it is really cool to be around. Here is another cool piece of décor that I saw in front of a restaurant while walking through the city.
I have also been trying to network as much as possible while I am in Sydney. I’ve been making a lot of friends from our program and even from different programs. I cherish these connections because of everybody’s individuality and because we are all business majors and may be able to work together or help each other out in the future. This week I was able to spend some time walking around the city with a few of the new friends I made who are studying abroad through the University of Sydney. We walked around the city for a while and ate at a place that they had recommended. It was a Thai restaurant that is a little different than what I am used to, but it was still great. I am grateful that I was able to experience a new culture and meet new people this week in Sydney.
To finish off my week, I took a surf lesson through a class that you can sign up for at Bondi Beach. I have skateboarded for a decent amount of time in my life and I always wanted to try to surf so this was something that I had to take on. It was a really cool experience where they taught us some extras like some good stretches for surfers and how to stay out of riptides. By the end of the lesson, I was riding the surfboard the whole way back to the beach. It was somewhat similar to skateboarding and hurt a lot less when you fall. Sadly, because my other two friends and I were all a part of the lesson, we couldn’t get any pictures or videos of this but it was such a great experience that I will never forget.