Douglas gets a routine

His routine consists of hanging out in my room all day

while I go to work during the week, and find things to do on the weekends. 

Sometimes I'm successful, and sometimes I don't find much to do. I haven't written a blog post simply because I don't have much to post about. Occasionally I'll go to the beach with friends, go shopping, play volleyball, have a cookout, go to dance clubs, go to jazz bars, etc. 

The reason I haven't post much is because I haven't taken a ton of pictures. Most of the time, the experience doesn't merit a photo, or I simply don't feel like taking one because I'm enjoying myself otherwise. I have a few pictures I can share though:

We had a pool competition after work! It was quite fun

Douglas likes Bronte Beach

This seagull was eyeballing my TimTams, too bad seagull, these Australian delicacies are mine

Douglas laments the fact that he lacks the arms and height to play volleyball

This is the building I work in, it's been lit up for the past two weeks for Vivid Sydney, a big light and idea festival that's two weeks long in Sydney

One of the Vivid sculptures. I didn't realize this at the time, but when you clap, the flower changes color!

Another vivid installation

Douglas and I rode the ferry to Manly Beach because they have volleyball nets there and everyone wanted to play beach volleyball!

I kept Douglas company while everyone played. The sand at Manly stuck to my feet more than any sand has before. I ended up having to scrub my feet to get it off.

The beach side of Manly. There was a festival called the Taste of Manly, it was quite busy

My dear friend Katy, she loves Douglas! She's one of my favorite housemates because we always eat dinner together and talk about the good things that happened during our day

I got my earlobes double pierced over the weekend! They're still sore, but I think they're healing well. Pro-tip: don't try and curl your hair afterwards, you'll catch the earring and then want to keel over in pain

It's the Harbour Bridge! In the distance you can see my work building from afar (it's on the right between the harbor bridge and the building closest to me)

Katy, Heiko, Michael, and Claudia looking bad ass walking into Luna Park, it's like a carnival/fair ground! I bought a corny dog (here called a pluto dog???) and was disappointed. The hot dog was red!!!! I think I'll stick to State Fair of Texas corny dogs

The opera house from the other side of the harbor

Underneath the Harbour Bridge

My weekends are my favorite time in Sydney. The week days have a tendency to run together, becoming monotonous and making me homesick. The weekends I'm so busy having fun I don't have time to be homesick. I think one of the reasons I haven't written in awhile is I just don't have the energy when I'm finished with my day to want to write all the time. It will get better once I start my travels because I'll be doing more and will have more to write about. 

Thanks for reading!

Douglas Meets a Kangaroo

This is not a drill, Douglas actually met a real life kangaroo

You can't quite see the fear in Douglas's eyes.

Multiple kangaroo's actually. Above is just one of the many kangaroos I met while wandering Morisset Park with my friends Katharina (she goes by Katy), Andres, and Katrine. Morisset Park is about a 2 hour train ride north of Sydney. Once arriving to Morisset Station, you can pay a shuttle driver $3/person to shuttle you to the park. When you're ready, just call him, and he'll come pick you up and take you back to the train for another $3! I decided that was the best business idea ever, and they must be making bank. They only have two shuttle vans (each van seats about 10) and it's not even a ten minute drive to Morisset Park from the station. Anyways, that's just my business degree talking.

Morisset Park is an interesting area because it's a hospital ground surrounded by nature preserve.
Upon arrival the driver gave us a few tips and ground rules. Mostly: Don't feed the kangaroos people food (fruit and veg only). Don't go near the male kangaroos, they're aggressive. Lastly, no walking to the hospital ground for shops/bathrooms - you won't find either there. The kangaroos hide out in the shade during the day, so our best bet would be to walk around the fields in the wooded area.

See the laughing kookaburra bird on the branch. He was laughing at our inability to find the kangaroos

Unbeknownst to my friends, the direction we set off was the opposite direction of the kangaroos. We wandered around the forest to the north (I think it was north) side of the road and quietly sang "kangaroooos where are yoouuuuu?" to no avail, not realizing that all the kangaroos were laughing it up on the other side of the forest. 

Finally, we decided to check the wooded area on the other side of the road to see if the kangaroos were relaxing there. There were kangaroos EVERYWHERE! It was kangaroo heaven. Fun fact: Kangaroos love bananas. If you come to them with a carrot, they'll nibble at the carrot out of courtesy, but if you have a banana, all bets are off, bananas beat carrots everytime. (I have to sing Gwen Stefani every time I spell bananas).

I believe that's a male kangaroo. The males are much larger than the females and their arms are super buff. Don't go near the male kangaroos.

"Mmm yes, please hand feed me more bananas"

Douglas was terrified and not so sure how the kangaroo was going to react. The kangaroo was checking to see if Douglas was bananas

Sweet relief for Douglas. Indifference for the kangaroo, Douglas is not bananas. 

Katharina was taking photos of me while the kangaroo was munching on the banana (I didn't have the hindsight to bring bananas, only carrots).

"Yes your companion may rest lightly on my back, but not for the price of a carrot. More bananas please"

The kangaroo realized Katharina was the one with the bananas "Yes. Bananas. Here I come."

Katy the Kangaroo Whisperer

Douglas trying to steal my thunder

"I have no interest in you and your lack of bananas"

Eventually, we ran out bananas to feed the kangaroos and they quickly lost interest in us. Definitely worth getting all the pets and ear scratches though. Bananas are a small price to pay for meeting kangaroos.

We wandered back to the field where there was a nice set of trees and a fallen log for all of us to sit and enjoy a picnic. We made a few bird friends who were interested in our picnic as well.

 These particular birds were interested in Andres' Pringles

Another Kookaburra graced us with its presence 

All in all, even with the two hour train ride to and from Morisset Park, it was worth it. The kangaroos were amazing, sociable, and pet-able. The forest was stunning. If I wasn't in the midst of getting over yet another sinus infection, I would have really enjoyed hiking through the nature preserve (and maybe getting to meet even more kangaroos). I'll leave you with the amazing photo Katrine took of a kangaroo munching on a banana and myself.

Photo Credit: Katrine W.