I went to the show, which was really enjoyable. There had been some personnel changes so it was the first time the group had all played together. I really enjoyed watching their interactions on stage, I'm pretty sure I caught most of their (few) tiny arrangement/chord mistakes as they figured each other out.
The real value of this show is that I finally connected with the Sydney bluegrass scene! I guess when you're the only 'young-en' at these shows people presume you're into it. Therefore, I found myself cordially invited to a Saturday evening bluegrass jam with promises of a fiddle I could play. Yay!!!
Spent Thursday afternoon at the beach and ate at Mocean again. Ordered calamari under the impressin it would be cute little rings of squid....but instead got tentacles. Not an experience I needed or enjoyed....or intend to ever repeat. Thankfully I was able to cover up several gagging episodes with my still-lingering cough.
Friday was the completion of our scuba PADI certification. We took a test on our e-learning (I got a 100%) and then headed to the ocean. There we were tested on our skills and also went on 3 dives. We saw some really cool marine life (I'll describe it later when I have my logbook with me and all the right names). Now that I'm a certified diver, I'm going on a weekend trip to the Great Barrier Reef! The trip is 3 days/ 2 nights on a boat with 11 dives, including 2 night dives! Its a bit pricey but who knows when I'll be back at the Great Barrier Reef! I'm so excited!
Saturday during the day, Jay and I went to the Tarongo Zoo. Jay knew somebody at the zoo so we got in free which was really nice. We saw some really cute marsupials and had a photo shoot with a koala that was even awake!
Did you know koalas sleep 20 hours a day becasue eucalyptus is such a low energy food? We also watched the seal show which was adorable and just had a great day overall.
Saturday night was bluegrass night! Lindsay picked me up at 7 and had a fiddle for me so off we went. The fiddle had a pretty flat bridge but it hardly fazed me and I was thrilled with how well my muscle memory held up. As long as I could start the song (which isn't as easy as it sounds) everything was pretty solid with even some new improvs to save my butt if my fingers faltered. I played a quick 10 minute set for the gathering with Lindsay on guitar, Jenny on banjo, and Val and bass. We played Blackberry Blossom, Lover's Waltz, Gold Rush, and then Wheel Hoss which were all very well recepted. Then we jammed the night away until 2am and it was such a blast. From this night I ended up doing a studio session on Tuesday for a local country/old-time artist which was not only fun and more experience but also a nice windfall of spending money. I literally had to set up the provided fiddle...bridge, strings and all which was quite funny to me.
I caught up on sleep and schoolwork on Sunday but also went to the Rocks Market with some friends. I resisted all temptations until I ran across a beautiful silver ring of two intertwining branches that I simply could not walk away from. Believe me, I tried. I was so thrilled when it was only $20. Funnily enough, all three of my friends with me ended up buying pieces at the same stall...even Steven.
Monday we went on a field trip to the Manly Quarantine Station which was right up my ally being about public health, communicable diseases, and all that fun stuff. There were some crazy ideas of what was good for you back then (medicinal arsenic, garlic foot pastes, wearing onions) but overall the Qstation was effective. The weather was beautiful so after our tour we headed to Manly Beach (another famous AUS beach) before catching the ferry back. Shout out to Charity for making delicious lunch sandwiches of turkey, avocado and tomato. Nom nom nom.
I had class until 1pm on Tuesday but after that I caught the 2pm ferry back to Manly Beach. This time though I wasn’t going to enjoy the beach but to record some tracks as mentioned above. I ended up laying down 12 tracks over 3 hours of some really enjoyable old-timey country music. I wish I would have had my fiddle with me, the fiddle I played on didn’t have nearly the sound quality as mine but oh well. It was still a bunch of fun and actually pretty relaxing. After getting back to the Travelodge, Charity and I went and checked out the Sydney Aquarium. Because it was nighttime, we got to see the platypus (A nocturnal animal) being really active and playful, not to mention he must have been itchy because he was really intent on rubbing his back on all of the different branches in the water. I was surprised at how small a platypus is; I expected them to be about the size of the river otters in the Chattanooga Aquarium but he was perhaps ½ of the size. I read that male platypuses rarely weigh more then 2kg, or 4.5 lbs. There were some magnificent sea dragons, jellyfish, and coral displays at the aquarium as well as the dugongs which are basically ocean manatees. We saw the dugongs being fed their dinner of ice-berg lettuce and they were terribly inefficient eaters. I’d say more of the lettuce ended up floating at the top of the pool then they ate! After the aquarium, Charity and I met up with 6 other students and watched the movie Avatar at the Sydney Imax. The reason we watched it was that the Sydney Imax is the biggest Imax screen in the world and it was the very last showing of Avatar in 3D. It was definitely worth seeing it again on such an amazing screen!
Wednesday afternoon, I went to the Sydney botanical gardens and gawked at all the fruit bats in the trees. 
I felt like I was in Transylvania or someplace that should have loads of vampires and other creepies, not in the middle of metropolitan Sydney! I spent Wednesday evening at Jennie’s apartment. Jennie is an Australian banjo player who lived/toured in the States (including Georgia!) for a few years as well as worked as a nurse. We met at the bluegrass gathering on Saturday and really hit it off. She also had a daughter who is training to be a classical violinist that is my age whose name was Georgia so Jennie thought we had to meet….which is how I found myself invited me to dinner! It was really neat getting to talk to someone who knew both Australian and American culture so well; Jennie set me straight on a few misconceptions I had about Australia and especially Australian foods. For example, vegemite (a salty, yeast based spread) is only to be eaten on white toast that is smothered in butter with only the thinnest layer of vegemite. It was interesting to talk to Georgia who is only 3 weeks into her first year of Uni (pronounced Unee - what they call college here) about what school is like here and such. Even public school runs about 20k here a year and scholarships sound much rarer here than in the States. Jennie told me that anytime I was Sydney I was welcome to stay with her and she would let me know the next time she is in the States for a bluegrass festival!
Thursday was a field trip to the Blue Mountains. I must admit to sleeping on the trip out there and back, but apparently I didn’t miss any good scenery or wildlife. The Blue Mountains reminded me a bit of the Appalachians in how they looked and their history. 
Just as in the States, at the beginning of colonization the mountains were a pretty substantial barrier to the pioneers. We spent the day hiking, collecting some data for our Biology 311 class, and avoiding leeches. Thankfully it had rained the day before which supposedly decreases leech activity but there were still a TON of leeches on the trail literally wanting to suck our blood. 
The only other impressive wildlife we saw was the lyre bird, which is renowned for its ability to mimic almost any sound including construction work. The birds we saw weren’t trying to attract mates so they weren’t being very noisy. The scenery was nice (though I still prefer NZ’s landscape) and there were some impressive rock formations and waterfalls. The Three Sisters is a famous rock formation that in Aboriginal lore were three sisters that were turned into rocks by their father to keep suitors away from them and he could never figure out how to reverse to change! href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkGbufN54Vq6_9PjoNy59jGAcS-tDlCxWiZnzgysS6cEwfvdN-k4yyFjhNgiRYhnydgCOFLbwaYzHIUoBp4T0a8u1dYp28VQoPQH0DbtDN8KscBcK6XMbbpjQiQTFrta0GSa1taEelog/s1600-h/P1010698.JPG">
After returning to Sydney, Drew, Steven, Katherine, Charity, Tomas and I went out in search of kangaroo. We found a place that had kangaroo steaks for not to ridiculous price and chowed down. It didn’t really taste like any other meat. It definitely wasn’t as gamey as deer as some people had told us it would be and was almost a little sweet tasting…though perhaps that was the sauce it was in. With this nice dinner, we bid downtown Sydney farewell and went back to the Travelodge to pack for departure the next morning. The next morning, we caught a flight to Brisbane which I’ll catch up on in my next blog entry
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