I have been on oh so many boat rides this week. Starting this past Tuesday with a USyd guided tour to Manly as a part of orientation week. Manly is a beautiful beach town on the North Shore of Sydney. The quickest way to get there from the south shore (which is where my apartment and the University of Sydney sit) is by ferry. My buddy Clara and I got to the University Union where we were bused down to the wharf to get on a ferry. Once on the other side of the harbor we met up with some friends and spent the afternoon relaxing on Manly Beach and checking out the local shops. It was relaxing day of getting to know a new part of our new home.
My next boating experience was Friday night. This weekend the city of Sydney celebrated Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which is very similar to Pride Fests in the US. I am genuinely confused as to how they combined these events. It has nothing to do with Mardi Gras; Mardi Gras was a couple weeks ago and has just about no similarities to this event. The streets, the parade floats, the costumes - everything - was decorated with rainbow colors and pride flags. I don’t know how Mardi Gras got to be the title of this celebration, but it was it was still a very cool experience. My friend Clara and I signed up for a Mardi Gras Harbor Boat Cruise. Honestly, I’m not sure how the cruise had anything to do with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Celebration that was going on, but we had so much fun.
Only students who are studying abroad to Australia, like ourselves, attended the cruise. We got to see amazing views of the city and meet other international students - most of which were also from America. The next day my roommates and I attended the Sydney Mardi Gras parade. We’re all short, so we saw very little, but the acts and floats for this parade are very vibrant and elaborate with lots of dancers. I would recommend googling it and see the parade for yourself; it’s nothing like a parade in America.
My final boat ride of the week was back to Manly. My friend Clara and I are both a part of Alpha Delta Pi sorority at ISU, and one of our sorority sisters is studying abroad to the International College of Management Sydney, so we took the ferry over to meet up with her. We caught up and talked about our Australian experience thus far and had lunch on a beautiful restaurant balcony looking over the ocean. Last weekend was also the end of the Sydney Surf Pro competition. So, we took a quick hike up to a cave overlooking the ocean and then went back to the beach to watch the surfers. It was a great afternoon of amazing views and even better friends!
This coming week is the first week of classes - more updates to come!