Sydney Harbour Bridge and Surfing

Wednesday morning we had class in Amy's room and then had a free afternoon. Sarah and I headed to Paddy's Market by Chinatown. This is one of the coolest places in Sydney. Its a HUGE flea market and I was completely overwhelmed the first time I walked in there. Since this was the second time we went, I knew what to expect and had a better idea of what I wanted to buy. There is also a great produce section and we bought a bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables for cheap! After the market, a group of us walked to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked across the bottom for free since its almost $200 to climb to the top. We still saw great views of the harbor and Opera House. A small group of girls decided to do a little bar crawl down George Street on our way home. We stopped into about 6 different bars (all very different atmospheres) and tried all sorts of drink specials. Because it was only a small group of us, we didn't completely overwhelm the employees. Usually our group draws a lot of attention to ourselves... 21 American girls stick out like a sore thumb at many public places.

Today we had our surfing lessons. It was really cool because everyone in our group decided to go. A bus pick us up from our apartment building at 9am and drove us to a private beach specifically for surfers. We enjoyed a little off-roading to get from the parking lot to our spot on the beach. The guys that taught us were super nice and individually helped all of our girls. It was funny to watch everyone try. For most of us, it was our first attempt ever to surf. The weather wasn't the typical Sydney summer day. It was overcast and windy, but great surfing conditions. It made for bigger waves and warmer water. I was really proud of myself because I actually was pretty decent. I was really getting the hang of it and the surf instructor was surprised to hear that I've never surfed or snowboarded before. It was chilly getting out of the water so that gave us more motivation to stay in and surf all day. We all rushed out of the water in the afternoon when the tide changed because everyone started to get stung by jellyfish. I got stung belong my knee but I can't complain because some of the girls had HUGE welts on their legs from the floating tentacles. Overall, it was an awesome day and I hope to surf again before the trip is over :)