Who knew grocery shopping could be so stressful?

This past week I finally decided to buckle down and buy real groceries instead of sandwich food and snacks. I made it out okay, but safe to say it was a challenge. I usually did my grocery shopping at Aldi for my basic necessities. This week I decided to try Paddy's Market, the local farmers market. I went in there with my budgeted cash and no game plan. I went midday and it was packed. I had to maneuver through crowds to take a look at vendor's food without knowing what I wanted or needed. It took me a while but I eventually made it out of there with at least three meals for the week much cheaper than I would've at a chain grocer. It may not sound like a big deal, but I was certainly overwhelmed as a foreigner in a place that seemed so native to everyone else. I just took my time and saw what each vendor had to offer and didn't make any spontaneous purchases. My advice for the next person: make a list and go in the morning! 

As for my week, it was another one for the books. I did a free walking tour throughout the Rocks, a suburb of Sydney. I learned a lot more about the history that I had no idea about. I even saw the most popular location for wedding photos in Sydney! I also had a crazy amount of school work to do with midterms next week. I had to write essays for my literature class, study for marketing communications and multicultural communication. While I was busy doing this, I still made time for myself to explore more parts of Sydney. Over the weekend, I went to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which was basically an interactive zoo. I was finally able to pet a koala and kangaroos, so I can check that off the bucket list! It was nice to get out of the City for a bit and discover the nature aspects of Syndey. Then on Sunday, my roommates and I went down to Manly Beach for the Australian Open Surfing Competition - very "Australia" of me. I thought I was shredding waves at Surf Camp a few weekends ago, safe to say I was shown up that day. 

Work this week was nothing out of the ordinary with meetings, writing creative briefs, and a free show. I saw Disney Under the Stars which was basically Disney songs galore. And yes, I did get very emotional during The Lion King.  Oh yeah and I'm running my own campaign at the Syndey Opera House. I didn't believe it when I heard it either. I was in a meeting about School Holidays with the Kids marketing team when my supervisor told me the news. I'm going to own the April School Holidays campaign! School Holiday is the 2-3 week break between quarters Australian students have. I'm going to be personally working with vendors and various marketing teams to pull off a seamless campaign (hopefully). 

This coming week is the one before our Spring Break (Autumn Break in Australia). So this week I'll really have to buckle down and ace these midterms and leave all my I's dotted and T's crossed at work. I'll be very busy but it'll be worth it once I'm in the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns and Queenstown, New Zealand!

Is it too soon to drop the "L" word?

Okay, so posting more often is pretty tough when you're having the time of your life.

This week I had the opportunity to work with a creative team on the renaming of the SOH's restaurants. The location is run by a third party vendor so our marketing team has to work with that team on drafting ideas for the rename. We had a brainstorming session first thing Monday morning and it was such a surreal feeling being at a meeting with marketing managers and directors as an intern. The best part about it was the fact that they valued my input and wanted to hear my ideas and opinions on the rename. I was the only American and newbie in the meeting so I was able to give a more objective opinion.

I also went to an authentic Korean BBQ for my co-worker's birthday. Let me tell you, you've never experienced Korean food until you eat it with Koreans. I learned how to use chopsticks (kinda) and how to eat the food, what to dip in what, and even the traditions on pouring the drinks. It was a great meal with good company, and we have a date set for us to go again. Last thing about SOH for this post (can you tell I'm slightly obsessed), I got to see another show! I went to see Purity Ring with the other interns two weeks ago and this weekend I got two free tickets to see Blanc de Blanc. It was a very scantily clad but it was a fun show to go to.


This week was also exciting for my classes. I got to go on a field trip to Chinatown for my intercultural communications course. It was so cool seeing Chinatown's history and the reasoning behind the different colors and locations of certain things. Specifically, there's one tree in the center of Chinatown which is placed where wind and water will hit it at specific angles bringing good fortune. This tour really tied together my learnings from the course to reality. People from varying cultures have that barrier which separates one's beliefs from the other's and to has successful communication there needs to be a mutual understanding of differences. Being an American in Australia creates a huge cultural gap that is often overlooked simply because we all speak English. Australians have different values than most Americans. Australians value the quality of living over working for more money. They work to live rather than live to work like the American culture. I am often told by my supervisor to leave work on time rather than stay because I need to "experience Sydney". Which of course, I don't turn down.

My time adventuring and experiencing Sydney this week was successful, yet again. About 40 people from my program actually decided to rent a boat and explore the Sydney Harbour. We were given a private tour of the Harbour and the captain even anchored the boat and let us jump out for a swim. I also finally did the Coogee to Bondi Beach coastal walk. All of my coworkers were insisting I do this because "Australians love their coastal walks". This was actually incredibly beautiful. We saw 6 beaches total and climbed up countless cliffs (exaggerating?) in order to get from beach to beach. It took us about 5 hours simply because of the photo ops and swimming at every beach / body of water. This weekend was also the end of the Chinese New Year and there were dragon boat races to celebrate. My roommates and I got up early Sunday morning to watch these races and it was absolutely insane. I've never seen a boat with so many people go so fast and the synchronization was beyond impressive. Considering there is a large Chinese population in Sydney, these types of events are very popular and full of good food.

Stay tuned for more updates on my Semester in Sydney!

Alright Australia, calm down.

I can't believe I get to call this place my home.

I swear every day I fall more and more in love with Australia. Yet another week for the books. This week I was able to dive deeper into the Australian culture through my internship and by meeting locals. I had the pleasure of attending multiple meetings for the rebranding of the Sydney Opera House (SOH) and even a marketing team bonding outing at the zoo. My co-workers have really taken me under their wing and have been showing me around local eateries and travel recommendations. However, there are a few language barriers. Yes, we all speak English - but the dialects are certainly confusing. One funny example is my co-worker complaining "I have a blister where my thong sits." As you can imagine, I was very thrown off! She then explained that a thong was another name for a flipflop. This wasn't that big of a miscommunication but when asked to do tasks at work, I almost always need to clarify what I need to do because of the different slang terms. My advice to those who will be working in another country is ask as many questions as you can! No question is a dumb questions. In my experience, people are happy to help. 

Classes are getting busier and busier. I had my first essay due this week, as you can imagine that was painful to write on an 80-degree day. I've been going to a lot of internet cafes and parks with wifi to do my homework so I am out of my flat as much as possible. 

This weekend my roommates and I went to Port Stephens, and I had one of the best weekends of my life. It was about a 4 hour commute via train and bus, which was well worth the trip. We arrived at our hostel Friday at around 1 pm (after being stranded for about an hour in the middle of a highway - but everything's fine). The hostel was bungalow style so it was almost like camping in the rainforest. The host and her husband were two of the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life. They gave us all the key places to visit that aren't as touristy as we found online. We went cliff jumping near Kingsley Beach, which sounds dangerous but it wasn't as bad as you'd think (that means your Grandma). A local showed us where the cliff was, after all, seven of us seemed to Google Maps the wrong location.
He gave us all the pro tips of when it's safe to jump and when it's not which was helpful. We all made it with only a few cuts and bruises...Then we went camel back riding at sunset, because well, Australia. That was absolutely beautiful, I love a good sunset and riding a camel was awesome!

As for Saturday, the girls and I booked a dolphin cruise where we were able to see dolphins and jump off the boat and swim. I thought it was funny how the Aussies were so lax about us jumping off the boat because in America that just screams "liability". Then came paddleboarding, it's a lot harder than it looks. Lastly for the day, we went hiking up Mt. Tomaree! This view was incredible, well worth the blood, sweat and tears on the way up (ok maybe not blood...or tears). The next day we went to One Mile Beach in the morning to enjoy our Valentine's Day together and then made our journey home. We made it home in time to go to the world's largest short film festival, Tropfest! The films had a lot of Australian culture references in them and I actually understood most of them!

Safe to say, this week/weekend was one for the books. I need to start posting more so I don't always have to write these long winded posts - I'll do my best. Stay tuned for more updates from the Australian Eastern Time Zone.

I think I'll stay here for a while...

Australia is incredible.

It's so hard for me to describe everything that we've been doing. For one, classes started and I'm enjoying them! I'm taking three courses, Australian Literature, Marketing Communications, and Cross-Cultural Communication. The other three credits I'm taking go towards my internship. All my classes are going well! We have two hours of face-to-face class and one a half hours of online lecture and activities. I'm not a huge online class fan, so it certainly will take some getting used to. As for my internship, I met Lord Mayor Clover Moore - the Mayor of Sydney!! Okay so let me debrief...I had my first full week last week and it went pretty well. Monday was a lot of research and getting to know the company more, but on Tuesday, I was able to write my first creative brief. This is a lot of responsibility for an intern who's only been working for about 4 days at this point. However, they trusted me and I'm sending over the brief to our creative team this week once we get the budget for the number of prints in. Wednesday was the same type of work, I got another tour of the Sydney Opera House - starstruck every time I walk into that building. So Thursday, I walk into work and my supervisor invited me to the media launch for the City of Sydney kicking off their Chinese New Year celebration. This was such an experience, there were so many reporters, cameramen, employees, entertainers and lots of food! Lord Mayor Clover Moore spoke at the event and I briefly introduced myself before the media swept her away. These types of experiences make me excited to continue my internship!

As for personally, this week was also awesome. It was my roommate's birthday this week so we went out to Darling Harbor and at and looked out at the water. This city is so beautiful, it's so easy to fall in love with. On Friday, I saw the sun (not) rise on Bondi Beach. I woke up at 5 am and made the commute, however, it was very cloudy so no sunrise for Kelsey. I was still glad I went because it was a pretty site, next time I'll check the weather before! This weekend, two of my roommates and me went to Surf Camp Australia! It was easily one of the best weekends I've had in a while. We arrived at 7 Mile Beach (which is about 2 hours away) Friday night and star gazed at the beach. I've never seen such clear skies at night. There was a group of about 20 that went to the beach with us out of the 100 campers. We saw the Milkyway, Big Dipper, Little Dipper - you name a star and we saw it. Forever I'll have that memory and I hope to have more nights like that. Saturday we went surfing and I was actually really good! The instructor kept giving me little challenges on how to make surfing a bit harder than the last wave. After many wipeouts, I did a 360 on the board and surfed backwards. I was super sore today considering I don't ever use those muscles that I use to surf but it was just as fun of a day. We had an authentic Australian cookout both days and I want to go back sometime soon!

Tomorrow's the Super Bowl but I'll be working so I won't follow it. It's Chinese New Year and the Sydney Opera House has big events that will be keeping me busy. As for this week, no set plans yet but I always seem to find something to do!