All the people who told me that studying abroad was so much easier than being at Bucknell did not take the same classes that I'm taking at the University of Sydney. I'd say that it is overall easier than Bucknell, I'm spending less time on my work, but the work that I am doing is much less pleasant.

The main problem is group work. Now, I'm not normally one who has a problem with group work. My group members are usually a selection of the same 28 people who I've been in classes with for years. We have a process, we keep similar hours, and everyone is very accessible. Here, I've been assigned to groups with people I don't know and I have no way of finding out who those people are.

There is no directory with their e-mail addresses, so you first have to find the group member (in a class of about 200 strangers) and get their e-mail address from them. We should really get graded on how well we are able to get in contact with our group member, because it's quite a feat. OK I'll stop whining.

My studies (well, my archaeology class) have taken me to some pretty interesting parts of Sydney. On Thursday, the class went on a field trip to the Museum of Sydney, which is built on the site of the First Government House. We were lectured by the woman who worked on the excavation and preservation of the site under the museum. Just a short walk away, on the edge of the botanical gardens, is the Conservatorium of Music. The Conservatorium of Music, a massive and castle-like structure, was once the stables for the First Government House.

During the building of an addition for the CoM, artifacts were discovered and preserved. For my archaeology project, my group and I are supposed to research a historic property in the Sydney area. Our site is an old estate home not far from campus. The house was eventually torn down and an orphanage and chapel were built around it by the Catholic Church. Today the building serves as the Catholic Education Office. My group members and I spent Friday morning at the site, crawling around under the building, measuring off where the house would have been, and trying to figure out if the remains would have been disturbed by the installation of utilities.

It was an interesting morning and gave me the opportunity to see one corner of the city that I probably wouldn't have explored otherwise. The class has also led me to the Mitchell Library, part of the grand State Library in a historic part of Sydney. The library is gorgeous! I would have taken a picture, but I wasn't sure if I would be allowed. I wasn't into the idea of a security guard wrestling me to the ground. Next time.

So, as I've said before, St. John's competes against the other colleges in sports, music, and other events. The Rawson Cup, the prize for the inter-college men's sports is the oldest running trophy in the country. Anyway, on Wednesday we were supposed to have the swimming and diving competition. We were told that at five a bus would be in front of the college to take people to the pool. So I figured that it would just be at some random community pool. I was excited for the opportunity to wear my snazzy new John's rugby shirt, so I decided to go. What do you know, we end up going to Sydney Olympic Park and use the aquatic center there! Hundreds of people from all the colleges were there in their respective colleges' rugby shirts, and everyone was cheering and singing their college songs, and it was pretty sweet ... and very Harry Potter.

My super sweet rugby shirt and socks.

I went sailing again last Friday, which was yet again amazing. We had a beautiful day and sailed to Rose Bay (a little bay toward the mouth of the harbor) and did figure-eight to practice jibing and tacking. I spent most of the time steering, which is definitely my favorite position on the boat. My friend brought her camera on the boat, but when we got out on the water and turned it on, we discovered that the batteries were dead. I have a few pictures of the marina, but sadly I won't have sailing pictures until next week.

Saturday was my relaxing day, and Sunday I went to St. Mary's Cathedral to celebrate St. John's 150th year anniversary. All the students wore their academic robes and we had a bunch of archbishops and bishops and a cardinal perform the service. A bunch of John's alumni were there with their families. It was very nice to go to mass in the cathedral - it is gorgeous!

So I made yet another attempt at trying to capture the amazing view from my bedroom window. I promise that one day I'll get it! The buildings look a lot closer than they look in the pictures.

Trying to show the view through the window

I also took some pictures of the money, because let's face it, it's pretty cool. The bills are not all the same size and get longer as they increase in value. The smallest bills are $5, and there are $1 and $2 coins, which are gold (strangely, the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin). The other coins (5, 10, 20, and 50 cents) are silver and get larger with increasing value. Since five cents is the smallest increment of money you can pay, prices often get rounded up (sad face). Also, it is WAY too easy to spend money when you can buy things with coins. The whole "oh, I'm paying with change so it's basically free" mentality doesn't really work here. If you lose a few coins out of your pocket, you might be losing several dollars. However, you do sometimes find two-dollar coins on the ground, which is a lot more exciting than finding a penny I guess it all evens out.

Showing how the money is different lengths

This post turned out to be longer than I expected ... but avoiding work for a little while was nice!