go essendon!

For our last morning in Melbourne, we went on an Aboriginal Heritage Walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne. We walked to the Queen Victoria Markets and from there took the free tour bus to the Gardens since it was raining pretty hard. When we arrived at the Gardens, we met our guide, Den, at the café and then he led us to a bungalow in the park which is especially reserved for the Aboriginal Heritage walks. There he spoke to us about the Aboriginal culture and his life story of being an Aboriginal. We also participated in a traditional smoking ceremony, complete with clapping sticks and eucalyptus leaves. We then split us up into two groups and went on two different walking tours. Our guide taught us about different uses for plants as we walked by them and we even used some of them. I rubbed up my hands on the massage tree, chewed on special roots which relieve pregnancy cramps (obviously did not feel any effects), and our guide even wove a bracelet using those same roots and gave it to me!

When the walk was over, we took the free tour bus back to the Victoria Markets for some lunch. Because we were having an early dinner, I chose to have a lighter lunch and ordered half of a grilled falafel wrap. I have honestly eaten so much fresh falafel here, I don’t know how I will go back to eating mediocre falafel in the US. After lunch, we headed back to the hostel to finish packing before leaving for dinner and the footy game. For dinner, we went to a pub by the stadium (which happened to be the Melbourne Cricket Grounds) called Beer DeLuxe. This was our last group dinner and it was free for us, so we were all planning on stuffing ourselves completely. I ordered a pizza with roasted pumpkin, mushrooms, rocket, pine nuts, pepitas, and no cheese. It was a great last meal and I wish I could have eaten more, but that pizza was pretty filling.

At around 7, we started walking to the stadium since kick off was at 7:50 pm. The sports event we watched was a game of Australian Rules Football (called footy) between the Carlton Blues and the Essendon Bombers. I do not know much of the background of these two teams, but we were told that it was a pretty big game since they are both highly ranked and are two of the more hated teams in the league due to their constant dominance. It is also one of the largest spectator sports in Australia and it was expected to have about 80,000 people in attendance tonight (there turned out to be 87,000 which, although large, still does not beat Michigan football attendance.) When we arrived at our seats, there were Essendon fans sitting next to us and the man closer to us asked us who we were cheering for. Our response was obviously Essendon based off their apparel and we became good friends with them. Although we had had a quick lesson about footy at the University of Sydney, they re-explained some of the rules for us throughout any points of confusion.

Since gambling was legal in Australia and extremely popular, the guys decided to use all of their leftover change and bet on the game. According to Tom and Jayson, there were over a hundred things you could bet on like which player was going to score firsts or how many failed goal attempts per team, etc. Not knowing much about either of the teams, they decided to just bet on which team was going to win and they put all of their money on Essendon. Essendon was the first to score so it was starting to look promising. But then, Carlton started scoring and at the half, things were not looking promising for Essendon, who was losing 41-22. However, in the 4th quarter Essendon started picking it up and somehow caught up to Carlton to make it an extremely close game. Then there was the classic, one team would score and then the other and then the one team would score again. At the end of the 4th quarter though, when it looked like Carlton was for sure going to win, Essendon comes in and scores a goal with seconds left in the game to beat Carlton 77-72. It was so exciting to be in that environment surrounded by both Essendon and Carlton fans—so both emotions were felt and witnessed. Something I noticed about these fans though is that they are only loud after something big had happened to either celebrate or yell angry remarks. In fact, during the game you could only hear a couple people in my program who felt it necessary to provide commentary throughout the entire game—something I do not think the Australians sitting near us enjoyed.

After the game, the entire group headed to a pub to celebrate both the Essendon win and our last night together in Australia. Since we had to leave for the airport at 5 am, we decided it would probably be best to not sleep that entire night so that we could sleep the entire 14-hour plane ride to the US. So we did just that—went to a pub in the city, danced, played pool, and hung out with each other since it would be the very last time we would be able to do this is a group.

toodle-loo kangaroo.

Today, we had the morning free before heading to Phillip Island in the afternoon, so we took advantage of that to do some last minute shopping. We visited the Queen Victoria Markets and then headed to the CBD once again. And the morning would not have been complete without stopping at Haigh’s Chocolates once again. Upon entering, the lady who had attended to us, greeted us and gave us even more chocolates to sample. She also brought us a bag of chocolates that Kaitlyn had purchased, but had not made it to the bag; she had written a note on it saying “Belongs to 3 American girls!” After saying our final goodbyes to the kindest Melbournian we have met, we headed to the Central Arcade to grab some lunch. I stopped by a vegan restaurant and purchased sushi made out of brown rice, vegetables, and tofu, while other Dana bought soup at a nearby restaurant and Lexi bought scrambled eggs at a café. We ate outside that café in a large seating area in between the shops of the arcade. I don’t know what it was about it, but it felt like a very cultural experience: eating lunch outside among other Australians in a very popular, local place, drinking my soy chai latte to warm up from the early winter breeze, and eating my uncut sushi roll like a banana (pretty much the only way sushi is sold here.)

At around noon, we headed back to the hostel to gather our things for the long bus ride to Phillip Island. On the way to Phillip Island, we stopped at a wildlife sanctuary. At first, I was not really that excited to stop because my nap was interrupted. But upon entering, I completely changed my mind. This wildlife sanctuary featured native animals of Australia such as koalas, emus, Tasmanian devils, wombats, and most importantly kangaroos and wallabies. The best part of the sanctuary was that the kangaroos and wallabies were roamed the grounds freely and weren’t in an enclosed area like the rest of the animals. I bought a small bag of kangaroo and wallaby food, placed small amounts in my hand, and before I knew it they were coming at me from all directions. It was so much fun! Especially since the kangaroo exhibit at Taronga Zoo had been somewhat of a letdown.

After about an hour, we were on the road again towards Phillip Island. We had a strict timetable to stick to because we had to get there at around 5:00 pm or sunset. At that time, a penguin species native to Australia called Little penguins, rightfully named because they are the smallest species of penguin, swim up to the beach after a long day of fishing at sea. In order to protect the penguins, they are very strict about where you can watch the penguins and not allowing any photography. It was about a 5 minute walk down a boardwalk to the viewing decks where we had to stay seated in a set-up very similar to an amphitheater, facing the beach. From there, we waited until 5:29 pm, when the researchers calculated that the penguins would arrive. Right on the dot, the first herd of penguins arrived. This herd was small and had about 20 penguins. The following herds were larger and would contain a couple hundred. At one point, there was a penguin that fell behind his herd and could not catch up. Then the cutest thing happened—a penguin from his herd noticed him falling behind, turned around, and waddled back to him to help him catch up with the rest of the herd. From the beach, the penguins climb up a hill and head to their nesting areas. To get there, they would go underneath the boardwalk and continue on up the hill to their nests. At this point, it was recommended that we leave the seating, and head to the boardwalk to get a closer look at the penguins. They were really precious and I wish I could have taken pictures of them, but after seeing a penguin freeze in confusion after another tourist decided to ignore the rules and take a picture with flash, I completely understand why we were told not to.

Once it was too dark to see anymore penguins, it was time to get back on the bus and begin the two hour drive back to the hostel. By the time we returned, we were starving since it was 9 pm and we had not eaten dinner. Tom, Chris, Jayson, Josh, Lexi, and I decided to grab a quick dinner nearby. We headed to a bar called Prudence where they do not sell any food. Instead, they have take-out menus from a variety of restaurants and it gets delivered to your table at the bar. The guys chose to order pizza, while Lexi and I opted for Thai food. I ordered a green curry with tofu and vegetables and it was probably the spiciest meal I have ever had. I felt the burning in my esophagus and stomach until the next morning, but still worth every delicious bite.

sports on sports on sports.

Today was a sports filled day as we toured the National Sports Museum, Melbourne Cricket Grounds, and the Rod Laver Arena. The National Sports Museum was both dedicated to Australian sports as it was the history of the Olympics and conveniently located below the cricket grounds. It was really neat because the guides of the museum were former Australian Olympic athletes. The guide I spoke to was named Maureen Caird. She ran in the 80 meter hurdles in the Olympics in Tokyo, Mexico City, and Munich and won the gold medal in Mexico City. It was extremely interesting to hear about the changes in the Olympics from her perspective. When we finished in the museum, we headed to the interactive part, which was extremely similar to the one at the Australian Institute of Sport. After that, we met up with our tour guide, Leslie, to tour the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The Melbourne Cricket Grounds is the largest sports stadium in Australia and can fit up to 100,000 people and one of the oldest as well (constructed 1853). It was also used for the 1956 Olympics. In comparison to the Sydney Cricket Grounds, I find it interesting the two remarkably different styles and environment. While both were constructed in the 19th century, the Sydney Cricket Grounds are all about preserving tradition and keeping the old stuff, new. The Sydney Cricket Grounds look very similar to what they did back in the 1800s, but by looking at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, I cannot tell what was originally part of the structure—if that even exists. The Melbourne Cricket Grounds are very modernized and sleek, while the Sydney Cricket Grounds are very old-fashioned. 

After we finished the tour of the MCG, we had a couple hours to kill before our tour of the Rod Laver Arena so we grabbed some lunch in the café located in the stadium. Luckily, there were televisions showing the NHL playoffs because lunch only took about 20 minutes. When it was finally time for the Rod Laver tour, we walked down there in about 5 minutes. For those of you that do not know, the Rod Laver Arena is the venue of the Australian Open. The tour took us through the Walk of Champions, which features every single male and female winner of the Australian Open. We then headed to the male locker room. Our guide informed us that all the players get to choose their own locker, but it’s based off rankings. He then showed us which ones Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal always chose. (I was slightly tempted to temporarily move into Rafael Nadal’s locker until next January…) From there, we went onto the court where the final game is always played, but they were preparing it for a concert so you could not see the actual court and it was rather underwhelming. Because of that however, our guide took us to the practice courts which is what we are used to seeing on television when watching the Australian Open. Needless to say, lots of pictures were taken here.

Since it was the last night for a person in my program who was heading home early for her brother’s graduation, we decided to make a group dinner like we had in Lennox Head and in Sydney. The group decided on Mexican night and the boys were in charge once again so they did the grocery shopping and cooking in the hostel kitchen. The meal turned out great and it was nice to have a relaxing and cheap meal. After dinner, we headed to a pub by the University of Melbourne campus to watch the first game of a three-game series between Queensland and New South Wales, known as the State of Origin Series. We were hoping to be in a college student environment so we could experience that and compare it to our college bars. However, the University of Melbourne is currently in their finals week, so students are either home or studying is what we were told. Once the game ended, we made a quick stop at Equinox because the guys wanted to take part in their beer deal, while the girls just bought gelato and then we all headed back to the hostel and called it a night.

no such thing as too much chocolate.

Today, Lexi and I woke up craving some fresh produce, so we headed to the Queen Victoria Markets, which were about a ten minute walk from our hostel. I bought kiwis, grapefruits, oranges, bananas, carrots, raw nuts, and a box of muesli—all this for about $6. For the rest of the morning, we had the great fortune to take a tour of Melbourne by a born and raised Melbournian, Matt. The tour lasted about an hour and a half and there was a lot of information to share with us, so he spoke and walked quickly in order to get the most in as possible. He started off by sharing some history with us about Melbourne. It was originally inhabited by indigenous people, but the Europeans arrived in about 1835. The leader of the settlement was John Batman and Melbourne was almost going to be named Batmania, which would have been awesome. Even more interesting is that he had had syphilis and was ashamed of what he looked like and did not allow anyone to paint him so no one knows what he looks like—they can only guess.

Melbourne is known to be a very artsy city, so as Matt took us to different areas of the city, we walked through alleyways covered in colorful and intricate graffiti. As long as the graffiti artists receive a permit from the owner of the building, then it is actually completely legal and has quite a big following by the locals. When we weren’t looking at the graffiti in the alleyways, Matt showed us through Queen Victoria Village, Greektown, Chinatown, the CBD (Central Business District—what Australians call “downtown”), the Royal Arcade, the Central Arcade, the Block Arcade, Federation Square, and then across the bridge to the Melbourne Art Museum.

After the tour, a group of about ten of us decided to take the free tour bus back to the Queen Victoria Markets (round two for me), which are open every day (but Monday and Wednesday), and the stands sell a variety of things ranging from extremely fresh produce to souvenirs. First, we went straight to the food court area for lunch. I ate a surprisingly light Indian vegetable and potato curry with naan bread—extremely delicious meal, I had to restrain myself from licking the plate. After lunch, we walked around the souvenir stands and did a little bit of shopping. Once Kaitlyn, Dana, and I had seen enough of the market, we headed back to the downtown shopping area of Melbourne and traced back the steps of our tour in order to find a couple of stores we had seen and wanted to return to.

We surprisingly were able to trace back our steps perfectly and stopped to do some shopping; the most notable of which was Haigh’s Chocolates in the Block Arcade. We probably spent an hour there looking at all of the variety of chocolates. Every type of nut and fruit was sold covered in white, milk, or dark chocolate or in bar form. When it came to ordering the individual chocolates, we had an absolute field day. The lady that attended to us was an absolute gem and gave us over $30 of chocolate to sample—milk chocolate coconut, milk chocolate banana caramel, dark chocolate almond crème, dark chocolate marzipan, dark chocolate passion fruit crème, milk chocolate macadamia honey, and so many more. At the end of tasting all of those, I decided upon dark chocolate covered scorched almonds, milk chocolate macademias, dark chocolate marzipan, dark chocolate pastilles with sprinkles, and an assortment of truffles. Don’t worry; all of these were gifts for my family (which I am totally planning on ‘sampling’ once they open them).

After a long day of shopping, we returned back to the hostel to change for dinner. That night the group decided to grab dinner downtown and then go to a bowling alley that we had seen on our tour. For dinner, we went to Grill’d, a healthy burger joint. I had a roasted pumpkin, quinoa, and rocket salad with lentil patty on top. I hadn’t even been hungry after eating all of those chocolates, but the second I my food came, I devoured it. When we finished eating, we headed to Strike, a bowling alley located in the mall that had a special that night of $8 per person for one game of bowling and $8 per person for a game of laser tag. By some miracle of God, I bowled the highest score out of the people in my lane so I was feeling pretty accomplished. On top of that, it was such a fun night to be out with all 20 of the students in the program and spend time together doing something casual and laidback.

a new perspective.

Not trying to break my usual tradition of exploring a new city with a run, Lisa, Kaitlyn, and I woke up at 6 am to see what Melbourne has to offer. It was a little difficult to truly take everything in because the sun had yet to rise. However, it was still fun. Since our hostel is in North Melbourne, we ran south towards the heart of Melbourne and through the Royal Botanic Gardens, then back. On the way back, we decided to go a different route and ended up getting lost. Even with the map we had brought, we couldn’t quite figure out how to get back so we stopped for directions at a café and they were able to direct us back to the hostel.

After a quick breakfast, we were off to the University of Melbourne for a tour of their sports facility and then a shadowing day. As ecstatic as I was for the shadowing day, I was even more ecstatic to finally wear my khakis and polo! (Just kidding. About the khakis and polo.) The tour through the University of Melbourne was very interesting! Our guide was the director of sports at the University of Melbourne, named Rod. He explained to us that it was the hardest university in Australia to get accepted into. It was established in 1853, and they were currently undergoing a lot of reconstruction to their buildings. Other than a few of their ‘heritage’ buildings that legally could not be changed, Rod explained that there were plans to update almost all of their buildings to make the campus appear nicer (which I don’t necessarily blame—some of the older buildings didn’t look really well maintained). I also found their educational model to be really interesting. The Melbourne Model was created in 2008 and it was slightly controversial at first for such a high profile university to completely switch their curriculum. The idea behind the Melbourne Model was to receive a general education in a field of study for your undergraduate degree and then specialize in graduate school. Because of this, the only fields you can receive your major in are: agriculture, arts, biomedicine, commerce, environments, fine arts, music, oral health, and science.

When we finished the tour, we had lunch and then it was time for shadowing. Since there are 13 athletic training students in our program, they split us up into different shadowing days and my group went today. We had the great opportunity to shadow Kusal Goonewardena, a sports physiotherapist who has a very impressive 15-year career. He has treated over 15,000 athletes, opened the most successful chain of physiotherapy clinics in Australia, and has opened another private clinic within the University of Melbourne called elite aKademy. It is opened to all elite athletes at the U of M at no cost to them due to their scholarship, partial scholarship athletes had their membership fee waived, but still had to pay for treatment, and then the clinic was also open to the public at their cost. Kusal also developed a better payment method for his patients in order to increase success of treatment—instead of paying per appointment, they paid for a certain time span depending on what they are receiving treatment for (ex. 4 weeks, 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, etc.)

I was extremely impressed by the way that Kusal practiced—definitely the best lecture I have experienced so far. He is one of 60 physios that follows the Ridgeway Method in Australia and is one of three who has won an award for excellence in practice when it comes to that method. Kusal truly focused on the comfort of the patient and made clear the patients’ goals for each of their sessions. The best way I can put it is that he really emphasized the ‘happiness factor’. For example, when we asked him how he felt about kinesio tape (after seeing him apply the McConnell taping method on a track runner) he said that while evidence based practice was important, if something works and the athlete is content with the results, then continue to use it. During our shadowing experience we got to see one of his appointments and then since the other appointment cancelled, he showed us how he performs the initial evaluation on his new patients. His first appointment was a long distance track runner who had come in with hamstring problems and through his initial evaluation he had been able to pinpoint the primary cause for her tight hamstrings—hypomobility in her thoracic spine. Upon entering his clinic, all you see are tables—there are no ultrasound machines or electrical stimulation machines, which is a major difference from ones in the US. This was not due to lack of funds however, it was simply the way he chose to practice and it made sense once I saw him in action. Through various muscle energy exercises, he was able to increase mobility and show us how she has improved since she started visiting him.

To simulate his initial patient evaluation since his second appointment had cancelled, he used Lexi as the patient since she has felt hypomobility in her PSIS joint since surfing in Lennox Head. Before even evaluating her hip, he pinpointed what movements bothered her most and then evaluated her thoracic spine, lumbar spine, gluteus muscles, and supraspinatus to see how they were related because he has found that those are the four main problem areas for most people. His evaluation found that Lexi while she had tightness and hypomobility in multiple areas, the one that was related to her PSIS ‘feeling stuck’ was hypomobility in her thoracic spine. After doing a couple of muscle energy exercises, we went through the evaluation again to see how those few exercises improved her movement, gait, and the way she walked up and down the stairs. Seeing Kusar work was an amazing experience and I will definitely be looking into his past and future published work more.
After an amazing shadowing experience, we returned to the hostel to relax for a little bit before exploring Melbourne for dinner. A group of us walked downtown and spotted a restaurant called Equinox, which had a promising menu with reasonable prices and a happy hour that ended at 9. Needless to say, we stayed there most of the night, ate good food, and were able to be as loud as we wanted since no one else in Melbourne was out on a Monday night.

bus, bus, train, bus, bus.

Today was an exhausting travel day. Fortunately, we did not have to wake up too early since we didn’t have to leave until 8:45 am, so we got to enjoy a nice and relaxing last free breakfast at the AIS. Our first bus arrived at 8:45 am. It was the nicest bus we took all day: clean, comfortable, and we each had our own row to ourselves. However, that lasted all of 15 minutes because this bus was just taking us to the bus station in downtown Canberra. Lucky for us, this next bus was not arriving for another 45 minutes after we arrived and it was raining and cold outside, so we all huddled underneath the awning of a closed café. Once this bus arrived, it was not so comfortable, but we only had to ride in it for an hour before we got the train station. When we arrived at the train station, it had stopped raining so waiting for the 30 minutes that we waited was not so bad. This train was also not as comfortable as the train we had taken to Canberra because we did not have our own car and had to share rows. I did not mind it as much and managed to sleep the whole four hours. After the train ride, we boarded another bus for about another four hours to take us to Melbourne. Also not as comfortable, but we managed. And when we finally arrived at Melbourne, we had to take yet another bus to the hostel which is located in North Melbourne. 

Although it was about 9 pm by the time we were all settled in, we were all pretty hungry so we decided to try to find somewhere to eat. To make it easier we split into smaller groups. My group was headed to Lygon Street, which is Melbourne’s version of Little Italy. However, we were given wrong directions and ended up on a random street where most things were closed since it was a Sunday night. We managed to find a small Italian bistro that was open until 10 pm, but when we walked in they informed us the kitchen closes at 8 pm (not sure what was supposed to be open between 8 and 10 since there was nothing else there…), but that they would still be able to make pizzas. When I asked if they could make me a salad, they said no. When I asked if they could make me a vegetable salad with no cheese, tomato sauce, or crust they still said no. Since I was not that hungry, a couple of us went to the grocery store next door and came back to the bistro with food. Lexi and I just split an avocado and that was perfect. It was definitely an exhausting travel day and I feel asleep the second I hit my bed.

a beautiful day for a city tour.

I took advantage of a rainy Saturday morning and I went on one last long run. I woke up at 6 am and ran along the bike path to and around Lake Ginninderra, which was about 18 km total. It felt so great to get in a long run since it is difficult to in the city and I do not know if I will be able to in Melbourne. For our last day in Canberra, we had a cultural tour planned where we were going to visit all of the famous buildings and landmarks in Canberra. Because it was a very rainy and foggy day, we were not able to fully appreciate the beauty of Canberra. Our first stop was at a viewpoint from Mt. Ainslie, which is supposedly breathtaking. However, we were unable to see anything through the fog and so we took a quick group picture and ran back to the bus the second it started raining harder.

The second stop was the Australian War Memorial. It is apparently one of the best war museums in the world and I am not surprised to hear that. Upon entering, there is a large courtyard with a fountain made of black volcanic rock leading up to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where a soldier is buried, but no one knows his name and he is there to represent all of the lives of soldiers lost from past wars. The exhibit themselves were also very interesting and each one focused on Australian involvement in different wars, including world wars. There was a lot of war memorabilia from both world wars including fighter planes, tanks, cannons, propaganda, uniforms, medals, etc. all from different countries.

The third stop was the Parliament House, which pretty much houses all Australian government branches, most notably the prime minister, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. From walking around, you could see a lot of Washington, DC influence on the architecture of the buildings and the way that the capital is set up. The original architect that had the opportunity to design Canberra was an American named Griffin. In his original plans he did not want to place the Parliament House on top of a hill because he did not want it to represent that the government was above the people. However, the capital did not begin construction until Griffin past away and the only available place to put the capital was on top of the hill. So instead, they chose to compromise and what they did was build the Parliament House so that it was directly aligned with the War Memorial. This way, if you were to open all of the doors on the first floor in the Parliament House starting at the front door all the way to the last door (which leads to the office of the Prime Minister), you would be able to see directly across the park (which houses several different monuments in remembrance of different parts of Australian history) straight to the War Memorial as a reminder to the government all the lives of Australians lost and that they are working for the people of Australia. I thought this was a very intriguing idea because something that I have picked up on is that Australians really love their symbolism. For example, the color scheme of the House of Representatives is a light green. They wanted to maintain the tradition of the House of Lords from England, but at the same time maintain their independence as a commonwealth, so they chose the green from eucalyptus and gum trees, which is a shade lighter than the House of Lords. They also made the Senate be red because of the flower of the gum tree. The set-up of both the Representatives and the Senate were also interesting. Both rooms, which are housed in the Parliament House, had the ground floor with seating and table for members of parliament. Then there was seating for the public to watch the processions, as well as a media area, and an area for students to come watch as well. Also, only members of parliament are allowed to stand on the floor, so when Obama came to speak a bit ago, he had to stand on a block as to not touch the floor.

After the tour of the Parliament House, we headed to the National Australian Museum. On the way we drove through Embassy Drive, which resembled Greek Row, but with massive embassies from around the world. It kind of resembled Greek Row, but the houses were larger, the architecture represented each country’s culture, and were also heavily guarded. Notably, the United States had the largest house on the most amount of property on the very top of the hill. At the National Australian Museum, we walked through several exhibits that explored the history of Australia, starting with the indigenous people. It was very interesting, but it had been a long day for all of us and we were getting tired. After the museum, we headed to the Australian Mint and saw where the Australian currency was minted. This did not last too long however because we were exhausted at that point. We had a great time on this tour and that is all due to our guide, John, who was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. Thanks John!

Upon arriving back to the AIS, it was time to finish up laundry, pack, and enjoy our last dinner in the dining hall. Overall, Canberra was a great experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to not only be able to see all of the different parts of Australia’s Olympic Training Center, but take part in it by meeting staff members and athletes, and residing there.

cupcakes and brumbies.

Today was a free day, so we all headed to downtown Canberra. We mainly stayed around the mall area and like classic American tourists went directly to the souvenir shop first. From there, we just walked around and checked all of the shops. Since we had all day, we all purposely walked slower and perused the shops more closely, afraid of the potential of being bored if we did everything there was to do before the evening bus came. While Canberra may not be as exciting as the past cities, I still appreciate the fact that I am in Australia and try to make every moment a learning experience. And today, it came in the form of people watching and studying the different stores and what they sold. Not very surprisingly, it was very similar to the US. It was comical when we passed by the Apple Store however, because there was currently a class going on for a group of elderly people to learn how to use their iPads. 

Around lunch time, part of the group decided they wanted to go see a movie and others decided to grab a nice lunch and continue exploring downtown Canberra. I was part of the group that wanted to get lunch and continue exploring, so Jayson, Dana, Kaitlyn, and I decided to eat lunch at Guzman y Gomez, which is pretty much Australia's version of Chipotle or Qdoba (if either of those places also served their burritos with Coronas or margaritas). I ordered a vegetable burrito bowl and it was actually pretty good--definitely a competitor with 'Potes or 'Dobes. From there, we headed to a cupcake bakery that my Happy Cow app (tells me where I can find vegan food) told me was nearby. It was called the Jazz Apple Cupcake Emporium and when I went in, I instantly fell in love with their array of cupcakes. But when I read the labels, none of them were labeled vegan and I started to worry a little, so I asked the employee which ones were vegan. I almost melted with happiness when he told me that all 20+ flavors were vegan. It was so hard to choose just one, but I ended up choosing the berry chocolate chip since I have never seen a berry flavored cake with chocolate chips and berry frosting. Needless to say, that was probably the highlight of my day. 

When we finished devouring our cupcakes, we did some more walking around and looking at shops, but it was starting to get somewhat old so we decided to catch an earlier bus and head back to the AIS. It turned out to be perfect timing however because that gave Dana and I the opportunity to go on our run before dinner. As for dinner, tonight was the first night that they had a vegan dessert (a berry and apple crumble)! It was obviously my lucky day that my sweet tooth cravings from the past couple days were finally being fulfilled. 

After dinner, we headed to the Brumbies' game. The Brumbies are rugby union team for Canberra and tonight they were playing the Hurricanes from Wellington, New Zealand. They were playing at Canberra Stadium, which is at the AIS; very convenient for us because it was less than a five minute walk. We sat behind one of the goal posts all in one long row. We were also really easy to sport because we were the only ones not wearing any Brumbies gear, but still waving the complimentary Brumbies flags, bam bams, and banners. Even after all of our rugby lessons and watching other rugby games, I still feel like my understanding of rugby is a little shaky. Nonetheless, the game was still extremely fun to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being at a major sports event for a different country. Oh and the Brumbies beat the Hurricanes 30-23. Go Brumbies! You have officially gained yourself 22 new fans. 

shooting hoops with olympians.

After our usual breakfast in the dining hall, we had our first lecture of the day about Sports Psychology given by Amanda Palmer, a psychologist at AIS who works with netball, volleyball, football, and basketball. I have not taken a sports psychology class, so I found her lecture to be extremely interesting. She focused a lot on treating the athlete as a whole person because all psychological issues that they may encounter through their sport are likely to transfer over to their personal life and vice versa. She also did a great job of combining both the physical role and the psychological role to the treatment of an athlete when recovering from an injury, which made it more applicable to us.

Next on our schedule for the day, was a tour of the sports science and sports medicine building, where all of AIS’ research takes place. Our guide was Clare, a physiologist that works in AIS’ physiology (obviously). She showed us both the biomechanics lab and the physiology lab. In the biomechanics lab, they were currently measuring the bowling movement of cricketers. They were also testing something with sprinters on their indoor track containing ten force plates—which is a lot of force plates for one lab because most have one or two if they are lucky. In the physiology lab, they were collecting the air exhaled by rowers as they were on stationary bike. Currently, the men’s rowing team is staying in the altitude apartments of the AIS for three weeks. For those three weeks, they have their regular training schedule, but then they live in the altitude apartment. The altitude apartments have the barometric pressure controlled so that it would be like they are living at an altitude of 3000 ft. This way they are able to get the benefits of their actual training and also the benefits of increased red blood cell count from living at a higher altitude. To follow their progress, the rowers come into the physiology lab every day to get their blood drawn and to have their exhaled air collected.

When we finished our lunch, it was time to head to the netball courts where we were going to learn how to play netball. However, once we got there we found out that there was an error in scheduling the netball courts, so instead there were two Australian Olympic basketball players who were going to teach us basketball. While they were obviously better players than us, it just felt slightly ironic that we were being taught how to play basketball from Australians. Luckily, they turned it into a couple of drills and then to playing 3 on 3 and then 5 on 5. We played for about an hour and it was actually really fun. It’s also pretty cool to say that we were shooting hoops with Olympic basketball players! One was named Maddie, who was actually going to play at Virginia Tech starting in August and I cannot remember the name of the male player, but he was also just 18—such a weird concept that they are younger than us.

Between basketball and dinner, we had a couple hours of break so I took advantage of that time to catch up on my travel journals and organize all the pictures I have taken on this trip. After dinner, we all went back to the small common room and had another movie night. We watched Total Recall this time—we are all extremely excited for tomorrow night when we go to the rugby game simply because it is something to do. 

cold then hot then repeat.

I woke up today feeling refreshed after 9 hours of sleep—something that I am rarely ever to do. I headed down to breakfast and then we had our first lecture of the day. It was a nutrition lecture given by Alicia Norris, a sports dietician at AIS who works with football and volleyball. She covered the basics about nutrition and the importance of each macronutrient for athletes and what effects they have on their training and recovery. I always enjoy hearing talks about nutrition because since becoming vegan, I have developed very different views on what it means to have a healthy and balanced diet. Although she did not provide any new information for me, I found it refreshing that some of the information she was saying tended to steer clear of the fad diets currently going through the US, some of which are endorsed by nutritionists. I also liked that she emphasized that with a well-balanced diet, it was unnecessary for athletes to take supplements, whether they be vitamin supplements or protein supplements.

Our next lecture was about Injury Prevention and it was given by Damian Raper, a physio at AIS who works with netball, volleyball, track, rugby, and football. He also did not provide too much new information—it kind of felt like an overview of what we learned in our introductory class for athletic training. What I did find interesting was that as a physio in the AIS, his role included more than that of a normal physical therapist in the US. In fact, a lot of his duties are duties that athletic trainers in the US are responsible for. For example, he attends most practices and competitions of the sports he oversees and provides some immediate care if his athletes get injured. In the US, most physical therapists stay in the clinic and only care for an athlete once they are ready to begin their rehabilitation after an injury.

After a quick lunch break, we headed to our third lecture of the day about Recovery with Nathan Versey, a recovery physiologist at AIS. Since the athletic training classes I have already taken, have not focused too heavily about the recovery process, this lecture was a bit more informative than the others. He started off by teaching us about the Supercompensation Theory that states that even though recovery and regeneration will occur with time, it can be accelerated and that is where we come in. He taught us about different recovery techniques, focusing on sleep and periodization since nutrition has already been covered earlier that day. In addition, he mentioned other techniques like stretching, massage, compression garments, cool downs, relaxation techniques, and hydrotherapy. Once we finished learning about hydrotherapy, it was time to head to the contrast pools to test it out. Contrast therapy is the combination of immersing yourself in cold water and then hot water. Since we were a group of 20 people, we had to split up and take turns. My group started off in the hot tub (about 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit) for 2 minutes, then immersed neck-deep into the cold tub (about 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit) for 1 minute, then hot tub for 3 minutes, cold tub for 2 minutes, hot tub for 4 minutes, and finally cold tub for 3 minutes. It was not nearly as cold as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong—it was freezing and I did not enjoy it, but I had imagined it to be way worse. Experiencing that was also good for me because now I have more insight into how it feels and can better explain it to my athletes.

Between that last lecture and dinner, we had a couple hours of free time so I went on another long run around the outside of campus, and felt very refreshed after that contrast therapy. Then was time for dinner and as soon as dinner was done we were lost and had no idea what to do. There is nothing to do around AIS at night because the athletes go to bed early and there are only residential areas outside of the AIS. Since there was nothing better to do, we squeezed into the tiny common room and watched some television because Seinfeld was on and then Modern Family. Unfortunately since Australians do not believe in central heat, we were all trying to keep warm using the small space heater and needless to say it was ineffective. After we could find no other programs to watch, we settled on Everybody’s Fine, which turned out to be a very depressing movie. The beginning was sad and made people look heartless and then the end is so sad it’s impossible not to tear up. It wasn’t even late when that ended, but we all decided to head back to our rooms to sleep because nothing could brighten up our moods after such a somber movie. 

surrounded by australian (olympic) giants.

Today we woke up at the ungodly hour of 5 am in order to eat some breakfast before catching our train to Canberra. After finishing the quietest breakfast our group has ever experienced, we headed to Central Station on a coach bus and boarded our passenger car. Fortunately, we had the entire car to ourselves so I was able to sprawl over two seats and sleep most of the five hours to Canberra. I woke up a little before we got there and was able to see a small group of kangaroos chilling on nearby train tracks!  When we got off the train, I immediately felt the cold and knew that from now on we would be experiencing real winter weather. In Canberra, we are staying at the Australian Institute of Sport, which is about a 15 min drive from the train station. On the drive there, our bus driver decided to tell us some history about Canberra. Originally, there was a slight dispute between Melbourne and Sydney over where the capital city of Australia would be. So in 1908, it was decided to build a whole new city, which was finally established in 1913 and named Canberra. The name Canberra was chosen because it was believed to derive from an Aboriginal word meaning “meeting place.” As it turns out, recent evidence now shows that Canberra actually means “a woman’s cleavage.” Oh classic, Australia.

Upon arriving at the AIS, we had lunch in the dining hall. Even though everyone has warned us that there is not much to do in Canberra and that we will be bored out of our minds, I think we are all looking forward to have our food provided and not having to pay about $30 per meal per day. For being cooked in bulk, the food is actually pretty good and there are lots of vegan options for me (including tofu!). Walking around the dining hall also makes me feel extremely short because I am pretty sure everyone there is taller than 6 ft (or 2 meters). For those of you that may not know, the AIS is Australia’s main Olympic Training Center (yes, that means that I will be living with Australian Olympic athletes for the next week). After their poor performance in the 1976 Olympics (only received 5 medals total), the government wanted to revamp their entire sports training program and established the AIS in 1981. Currently, there are about 25 different sports in about 35 different programs. At the peak training times (normally before the Olympics), there are up to 200 scholarship athletes living on campus. Now, since the Olympics have just wrapped up less than a year ago, it is their slowest time and they have about 120-140 scholarship athletes, but they can have up to 700 scholarship athletes spread out among their other training facilities. Athletes as young as 15 and disabled athletes participating in the Paralympics can stay here, but it is required for all scholarship athletes to either study or to have a job. Not all teams that train here are Olympic sports—such as netball, cricket, softball, footy, and squash—but they all tend to be the most elite level of that sport or an elite development program to play at the elite level (which sometimes means leaving the country). Since Canberra is landlocked, a lot of other sports, including water sports, have training facilities elsewhere. One aspect that I really thought to be interesting was the AIS’ focus on sports science and sports medicine. A major part of their campus is dedicated to research to improve athletic performance; whether that be in the clothing or technology that they use or in new training techniques.

After lunch, we went on a tour of the AIS. Our guide was a netball player named Lauren. She is 20 years old and has been playing netball for 12 years. Lauren first took us to Sportex, a large room on the second floor of the visitors’ center. They called it an active classroom because it was a mini museum about AIS athletes participating in the Olympics and other elite competition, with interactive exhibits. For example,  you could try your hand at wheelchair basketball, rock climbing, simulated skeleton racing, alpine skiing, snowboarding, soccer, cycling, cricket, and footy or you could measure your balance, standing long jump, reaction time or arm wrestling strength. From there, Lauren gave us a tour of the rest of the facilities including basketball, netball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, and strength and conditioning.

When the tour was finished, it was time for me to do some exploring of my own so I went on a nice long run off campus. I found a bike trail and just followed it until it ended and I then turned into a residential area. I have discovered that one of my favorite things about visiting new places is looking at the architecture of their buildings and their houses. Homes in Canberra have a more modern and contemporary appearance than the ones we had seen in Lennox Head. They also tended to be multiple stories, as opposed to only one as most in Lennox Head were. Once the sun set, I decided it would be a good time to turn around so that I wouldn’t be running in the dark. I surprisingly was able to find my way back even after all of the turns that I took—quite the achievement for me since I cannot use the GPS on my phone here! After a large dinner (have to take advantage of free food while I can), I went straight to bed to try to catch up on all of my missed sleep from Sydney (and from the looks of it, it will not be too difficult to do here especially since we all finally have our own rooms). 

last hoorah.

Today was our last day in Sydney and I woke up the same way we had arrived—to pouring down rain. Of course, there is nothing better to do in this situation than to go on a run so Dana and I put on our raincoats and headed towards the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens for one last chance to take them in before we left. I personally love running in the rain (makes it feel like home) and thoroughly enjoyed it. We ran to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, which is a bench hand carved out of sandstone by convicts in the early 1800s for Governor Macquarie’s wife, Elizabeth. I wanted to sit in it, but there was already a couple cuddling there, trying to escape the rain, so we just ran back since we had to make it in time for breakfast before we left for the University of Sydney.

At the University of Sydney, we took a tour of the workout facilities, the aquatics center, and walked around campus. It was very similar to a campus in the United States—students trying to get other students to sign petitions, students creating displays to increase awareness over an issue, students studying on the lawn (it had stopped raining and actually turned into a nice day), and students tossing a Frisbee around. For lunch we ate at one of their food courts, which featured typical dining hall type foods as well. We even went to a bookstore where everything was overpriced like all other university bookstores. Moral of the story—universities in Australia and the US are pretty similar. Where they differ are with their sports. While in the US it is a big deal to play sports for your high school or college, in Australia it is quite the opposite so their programs are not as developed. Currently, the University of Sydney is working on developing their athletics program to make it better and to generate better athletes. They have a number of scholarship athletes, but their scholarships only cover a small portion of their tuition. As far as training goes, they have to share the same facilities as other students and practically receive no benefits like student athletes in the US. I cannot even imagine how American student athletes would react knowing that if they were to go to school in Australia, they would have to mix with the ‘muggles’ (non-athletes).

After our tour we had a quick lecture at the University of Sydney, given by an intern from England named Will. He works with the University of Sydney footy team as a physiology intern so he spoke to us about what he does as an intern and about the Australian Football League, or footy as they call it. I found his lecture interesting because a lot of his duties are things that we do as athletic trainers and because the game of footy confuses me and I have yet to figure it out. For his internship, he tracks the athletic performance of the footy players during games by weighing them in before and after for hydration purposes, recording their play time during practice and games, how many hours they have been sleeping, and their muscle soreness before and after activity. Will then explained the rules of the game—while I still do not fully understand it, I have a general idea. The oval in which they play on is 150 meters long and each team has 18 men on the field. At the end of each side, there are 4 goal posts. In order to score six points you have to kick it in between the middle two posts. If the ball hits the posts or goes in between the outer posts, it is one point. To get the ball across the oval, you have to punch the ball and if you are running down with it, the ball has to touch the ground about every 10 meters. Also, if you are tackled, the play is not over—you have to get rid of the ball or at least make an effort to get rid of it. When we go to Melbourne, we will be watching a footy game so I am hoping that watching it will help me understand it better.

Once we finished up at the University of Sydney, we had the rest of the day off to do any last minute things that we wished to do. Since Lexi had been dying to find the Great Synagogue, we headed to Hyde Park to do that. This was also conveniently located by the mall, so we did some quick grocery shopping and also stopped by Lulu Lemon, which is something Kaitlyn and I had been dying to do. It was funny because when we entered, the sales associate said that they had just gotten in a shipment of the new winter line. Upon inspection, it was the same winter line that had come to the US for our past winter. So in addition to being a different season than the northern hemisphere, Australia also receives the clothing later (which makes complete sense, I just had never thought about it.)

For dinner, we had made a reservation at Sake since that did not work out last night and our sushi craving was left unsatisfied. Dana, Lexi, Kaitlyn, and I arrived at Sake and were seated at a sunken table where we were instructed to take our shoes off and place them in a cubby below the table. Sake was a very contemporary Japanese restaurant and the strong aroma of traditional Japanese scents made me instantly hungry. I personally ordered a bowl of miso soup, avocado rolls (such fresh avocado), and zucchini kushiyaki. It was just what I wanted and my craving of Japanese food had been more than fulfilled. Dinner however was our last hoorah, because we had to head back to the hostel to do laundry and pack before our train ride tomorrow morning at 6 am. 

hopping kangaroos and sydney harbour views.

 Today, I woke up with the need to go on a long run around Sydney. I quickly changed, grabbed my shoes, and headed out the door. I wanted to start off by running across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but I had no idea how to get onto the pedestrian walkway. While meandering, I spotted a group of three Australians and asked them for directions. It turned out they were headed that same way and invited me to run with them. I happily accepted and joined in. Little did I know that they were marathon runners and were running at an incredibly fast pace—I was determined to keep up with them, so that made for great motivation to run at a faster pace. This morning is just another example of how kind Australians are—I was a completely lost tourist and they offered to change their route in order to show me around Sydney. First, we ran across the bridge and back. Then we followed a pathway around The Rocks to run past the Sydney Opera House and through the Botanical Gardens, where we weaved through different paths and I could take in the beauty of the gardens as the sun was rising. We then weaved our way back to the Opera House, through Circular Quay, and I headed back to the hostel. It was a total of about 13 km they told me which converts to about 8 miles and since we were running at about a 7 minute mile pace, I was exhausted, but also exhilarated and ready for a day of being at the zoo and climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

After breakfast and a much needed relaxing shower, it was time to head to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to the Taronga Zoo. My program went as a group and Leanne met us at Circular Quay to come with us. Today was in the 70s and sunny with not a cloud in the sky—probably one of the best days we have had in Australia yet and the perfect day for the zoo and bridge climb. The Taronga Zoo is probably one of the best zoos I have ever been to. It is basically situated on a large hill, so when you get off the ferry, you take a gondola to the top and work your way down. We started off at the kangaroo exhibit, which felt more like a human exhibit because it’s an enclosed area with a path. When you go in, the humans have to remain on the path, but the kangaroos can hop around freely and come up to you if they wished to do so. Unfortunately, the kangaroos did not want to play with me and they continued to lie on their rocks and soak in the sun as I walked by :( But, I finally was able to see kangaroos (that were not dead on the side of the road)! Next, we saw wombats, a platypus, a Tasmanian devil, emus, elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), monkeys, meerkats, tapirs, gorillas, and mountain goats. It was such a large zoo and we unfortunately were unable to see all of it because we had to catch a ferry back to Circular Quay in order to make it back in time to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

13 out of the 20 people in our program decided to sign up for the climb. We were all extremely excited because it was a beautiful day and we knew we were about to experience some spectacular views of Sydney. Since there were only 13 of us and a normal tour has 14, they added an individual named Darrell to our group. He was a middle-aged man from Victoria visiting a friend and had always wanted to climb the bridge.  It was a much more sophisticated process than I thought it would be. For the first hour, they made us prepare for the climb. We had to wear these gray jumpsuits and could bring nothing else up with us or be wearing anything that could in any way fall off. In order to wear sunglasses, they attached it to our jumpsuits with special hooks, as well as a complimentary cap (also attached to our jumpsuit), a small bag containing a fleece jacket (also attached to our jumpsuit), and a hankie (attached to our wrist). We were then given harnesses to wear around our hips with a radio and headphones (also attached to our jumpsuit just in case), and a spherical, metal contraption that attaches to the ropes on the bridge. We then practiced going up and down the ladders on practice replicas. Once all of that was completed, we were able to start the climb.

Our guide, Lauren, was the absolute best. She was really funny and knowledgeable about the bridge. She shared a lot of stories from when the bridge was constructed during the Great Depression and how it is nicknamed the Iron Lung because it kept so many Australians alive during that time. She would also ask us to imagine what it would feel like to be up there climbing the bridge without a harness during the construction of the bridge. When the workers left that morning, they did not know if that would be the last time they saw their kids. I found that to be very thought provoking because when I know when I see such a grand structure, my main thoughts are about how cool it is—definitely not about the hardships of the people who built it. It gave me a new perspective when looking at structures like that and a much deeper appreciation for them. Especially during the climb while I was in awe of the beauty of Sydney. The climb itself was not too bad—I never felt any sensation of being up too high or like I was going to fall. There were three stopping points for pictures, and at the first stopping point, Lexi and I made a video of us singing Hail to the Victors! Once we got to the top though, I was able to fully take in everything around me. I could see all of the famous landmarks—the Opera House, Luna Park, Fort Denison, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, the Botanical Gardens, and even our hostel! It could not have been a more perfect day for the climb. The skies were perfectly clear, the water below us was dotted with sailboats, and there was absolutely no wind—Lauren said it was the first time she had ever seen the Australian flags on top of the bridge not flap around! I wanted to stay a bit longer to take in the views, but we had to head back down. By the end of the climb, I was truly exhausted. I regret not wearing a pedometer at the beginning of this trip because I have never done so much walking in my life.

On the walk back to the hostel, some of us stopped at the Glendmore Hotel for some potato wedges and sweet chili sauce. I don’t know what it is about those potato wedges because I normally do not like fries, but they are so good, I could probably eat multiple plates. With that pre-dinner snack taken care of, we arrived at the hostel and chilled for a couple of hours before dinner. Once again, I found myself in my bed unable to move from exhaustion. Had I not been so hungry, I probably would not have gotten up for dinner. A group of us had talked about wanting to get sushi, while others headed to the Australian Hotel to try kangaroo pizza. We went to a Japanese restaurant called Sake and we did not realize how formal it was until we got in. I could tell the hostess was judging our jeans and hoodies and was not surprised when she said that since we did not make a reservation, there would not be any open tables for two hours. Since we were not trying to wait two hours, we walked back to the Australian Hotel and while everyone tried some kangaroo pizza, I had a cheeseless pizza with roasted pumpkin, olives, tomatoes, zucchini, artichoke, capsicum, and pesto. Probably one of the best pizzas I have ever had. For dessert, we all headed as an entire group downtown to Max Brenner’s Chocolate Bar. I had a hot chocolate made out of coconut, dark chocolate, and soy milk as well as strawberries in a dark chocolate dipping sauce. I do not believe in too much chocolate, but it was definitely chocolate overload. By the time I finished licking my bowl of dark chocolate dipping sauce (not an exaggeration), I was ready to return to the hostel and sleep contently after that amazing chocolate experience. 

touring, strapping, and cruising.

This morning started off with a bus ride to the Sydney Cricket Grounds. At first, I wasn't all that excited, but being on the grounds I could feel the tradition and pride that Australians felt about the grounds—a very similar feeling to when I am at the Big House. The grounds were established in 1848 and have been very well maintained. Most of the original structures still remain including the original Member’s Pavilion from 1886, the Ladies’ Pavilion from 1896, when females were not allowed to have their own membership until the 1970’s, and the locker room where the original wooden table in the meeting room and the wooden lockers have been there since the 19^th century. Currently, the grounds have expanded to include the Allianz Stadium for rugby union, rugby league, and footy, pools, tennis courts, and other fitness areas. Our tour guide mentioned that in order to become a member, there was a 12 year waiting list and once you got off that waiting list, you have to pay the entrance and annual fees. As a member, you get to sit in the members’ pavilion, tickets to every event held at the Cricket Grounds, Allianz Stadium, access to the fitness area, and the opportunity to take part in a tradition that is a major part of Australian sports heritage. Although I did not previously feel any passion for cricket or rugby, being on the Sydney Cricket Grounds was a great experience because I could sense the passion that Australians feel for their major sports.

After that tour, we bused it back to Circular Quay for a quick lunch break before our training session with the North Sydney Bears Rugby Union game. Since there was limited time, a few of us went to a small café called Blend Café and Espresso, which had a great salad bar. When it was time to leave, we took another bus to North Sydney across the Sydney Harbor Bridge and arrived at the North Sydney Oval. There we had the opportunity to observe the strapping session before the game began. The game started at 3 pm and the players had to be out by 2:30 pm to warm up, so they started coming at 1:30 to get strapped (taped). The team’s strapper was a local physio who happened to work at the same clinic as Jenny McConnell. He strapped several ankles, knees, wrists, shoulders, and one sternum. He had a very different technique than what a lot of us had learned in the US. He also used coverall instead of heel and lace pads and leukotape instead of regular white tape. Looking around the room made me laugh because there were 20 athletic training students just watching him strap for a whole 90 minutes and taking pictures, while our guides were sitting on the bench confused as to how we weren't bored out of our minds. As soon as strapping finished, we headed to the stadium to find seats for the game. This stadium was a little more sophisticated than the one in Ballina—there were bleachers for fans to sit on and a fence around the field so that dogs weren't constantly running in! We unfortunately could only stay for half of the game because we had to head back to the hostel to get ready for the dinner cruise that night.

That evening, we walked to Darling Harbour to catch the dinner cruise. It was very similar to your average dinner cruise—lots of people (mainly tourists), unlimited alcohol packages, and platters overflowing with food. We were seated at a table upstairs and quickly booked it to the buffet tables. Although there were many options, only one dish of stir-fried noodles was vegan so I quietly ate my small plate of noodles, while everyone else feasted on their steak, shrimp, cheesy pastas, and buttery roasted vegetables. Luckily, with the help of our directors, I was able to talk to the waiters who talked to the chefs. About 15 minutes later, they came out with a large platter of roasted tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, and beets. I have no idea what seasoning they used, but it was one of the best vegetable dishes I have ever had. By the time we finished eating dinner, we had arrived at the Sydney Harbour, so we went outside to the deck to watch Vivid Sydney. It was an even more amazing view than we had had so far because we were in the middle of the light show and no matter what direction we looked, there was an extraordinary light design being projected on Sydney’s most iconic landmarks—a truly breathtaking experience. The cruise could only stay in the harbor for a certain amount of time though, so after leaving it continued to cruise around for a little more. The 20 of us in the program all returned to our table and played the classic high school get to know you games—yet another fun and carefree moment that united us even more even though most of us came on the trip knowing absolutely no one. 

just your average friday in sydney.

Today started off like most other days--woke up early, went to the gym, and then had breakfast. What made today special was that we toured the Olympic Park in Sydney from the 2000 Summer Games. To get there, we walked to Circular Quay and took two different trains. So far, we have been receiving a lot of help in figuring out the Sydney transit system, but I am starting to understand it better and think I would be able to figure it out for myself! We got there a little before our tour started so some of us walked to a nearby cafe where I got one of the best soy chai tea lattes I have ever had. It even rivaled Starbucks' (which I have not been to in 12 days and am surprisingly surviving!) To kill some more time, we walked around the outside of the main Olympic Stadium where there were about a hundred or so poles, all painted with the names of the 75,000 volunteers from the 2000 Olympics. There were also some poles dedicated to the Paralympics from that year because it was the first time they had been held in the southern hemisphere! 

When it was time for the tour to finally begin, we met with out guide who took us inside the main Olympic Stadium to a room to watch a short documentary about the 2000 Games. the Olympic Stadium cost about $250 million to make and originally sat 110,000 people (sorry Sydney, but the Big House is still bigger). Once the games ended, they remodeled it to better suit the needs of the city and to make it more profitable. It is now called the ANZ Stadium, they took out 25,000 seats to build a partial roof cover on the ends of the oval-shaped building, and they moved the track to another location so that the stadium could be used for rugby union, rugby league, footy, cricket, and concerts. I also found it interesting that the shape of the stadium and the partial roof cover was designed in order to keep the noise inside the stadium so that it does not disturb the nearby residential areas. It is also a LEED certified building, which is amazing for such a large stadium.

Within the stadium, our guide took us to the lockers rooms, media/press rooms, luxury skyboxes, and on the field where they had placed the original podiums used for the games. After the stadium, we walked to the practice track, which is leased to schools for carnavals (what they call meets) and was currently being used for a track carnival for middle school-aged children. From there, we walked to the Aquatics Centre, where we got to see the water polo and diving pool, and the swimming pool. Both pools were the first to use 'fast pool' technology, which means that they have the overflow edge to decrease turbulence and the water bouncing off the walls and hitting the swimmers, which explains why times were significantly faster in those games in comparison to past games. We were also told that we would have the opportunity to swim in those pools and were all excited. However, when we arrived we found out that we could swim in the kid pool on the other side of the building. There was a slide and a lazy river and hundreds of children, which no longer appealed to me. Something funny that did happen though was that Lexi had accidentally gone into the boys' changing room and a couple of minutes later a large group of elementary school-aged boys also went in and all you could hear was, "Oh my God, there is a girl in the boys' changing room!" And then you saw Lexi running out only half changed. It was a great moment.

Once the tour ended, we started heading back to the hostel. I was content returning the same way we had arrived, but for some reason people wanted to take the ferry instead. So first, we had to find the bus to take us to the ferry, which was a 45 min process within itself. Then it was another hour long wait for the ferry, which also took an hour. Compared to the 50 min it took us to get from the hostel to the Olympic Park. Lesson learned--take the train. Always. By the time we arrived at the hostel, I was exhausted and collapsed onto my bed, where I stayed for about an hour. But Leanne was on her way over to meet for dinner, so I had to force myself to get up, shower, get dressed, and be a real human being. 

When Leanne arrived, we decided to explore The Rocks and find a place for dinner. We were both craving Thai food and found a restaurant called Sailors' Thai. We got there at the perfect time because it filled up right after we got there. It was a small room with a long wooden table in the middle where all customers sat together. We sat next to a family from New Zealand and England, who had just arrived at Sydney on a cruise ship (the same cruise ship currently blocking the view of the Opera House from the hostel). They were really nice and chatted with us the whole time, especially the grandfather who shared stories with us about his many trips to the United States. For dinner, I ordered a pad Thai dish with tofu and an assortment of vegetables, which fully satisfied my Thai craving. I was completely stuffed and could not imagine eating anymore, but afterwards Leanne and I decided to walk around the outdoor food markets. They were all brimming with delicious food and suddenly, I was no longer stuffed. Leanne opted for the freshly made cannoli, while I chose the super moist berries and chocolate vegan cupcake.

After our dessert, Leanne decided to head home because she had a long trek back to her apartment and it was starting to rain pretty hard. I then headed to The Glendmore Hotel, where people in my program had chosen to watch the Vivid light show from their rooftop restaurant and bar. It was an amazing view--the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and all other buildings surrounding the Harbour were used as canvases for the changing, brightly colored, and intricate light designs projected to the beat of the music playing. Although I do not know much about the background or history of Vivid Sydney, it was an incredible experience and cannot wait to see it from the dinner cruise we are going on tomorrow. We hung out there for a while, but once it started raining harder and we got a little bit tired of looking at lights (no matter how amazing the displays may be, you can only look at them for so long), so we headed to The Argyle, one of The Rocks' 'hippest' clubs. It was just as extravagant and over the top as The Ivy and a very fun environment. But we still had the urge to explore The Ivy since we were unable to last night and took advantage of the momentary clear skies to walk on over. 

We first headed to the 4th floor, where there was an open rooftop pool bar. Since it had started to rain, we hung out on the couches in the cabana and soaked in everything around us. Like the other floor we had gone to last night, every detail was flooding with luxury. We then chose to explore the 3rd floor, which contained multiple high class toilets (what they call restrooms) with mosaic walls, showers (?), and inappropriate, but humorous signs on the doors to indicate gender. There was also a large dance floor surrounded by more fancy seating areas, and since they were all taken we decided to start dancing. Although people just watched us at first and could tell we stood out as tourists, they later joined in when they saw how much fun we were having. We then moved the dance party to the 2nd floor, which is where we had been the night before with the partially open rooftop. Although it was raining, we continued to dance in the rain even though our clothes were completely soaked through. And once again, no one was dancing and were judging us at first, but later joined in. That was just one moment, but those carefree actions are what makes you appreciate being young and enjoy the experience of being in a whole new country with new people. 

taping, breathing, and exploring sydney.

I would first like to start off by wishing my best friend in the whole entire world, Maggie Penn, a happy 20th birthday! Wish we could celebrate together, but I know you Italy will treat you well.

Today, Kaitlyn, Lexi, and I started off our morning by waking up early to work out at the gym across the hostel. It made for another cultural experience--having to calculate everything to the metric system took a lot more effort than I imagined. While using the treadmill, I had to convert the speed and distance, but did not have to go from kJ to calories, and when using the free weights, I also had to convert the weights to pounds. Because the weights would convert to random amounts in pounds (not the usual 8, 10 or 12  lbs that I'm used to) I had to slightly alter my workout. But hey, it's all part of the study abroad experience. 

For our morning lecture, we had the opportunity to meet and listen to Jenny McConnell speak about anterior knee pain. For those of you that may not know, she is somewhat of a celebrity in the athletic training world for developing the McConnell taping technique, which uses coverall and leukotape. She is a physio with a local clinic in Sydney. She was a great speaker and made me think more in depth not only about knee issues, but about the way we practice as athletic trainers. She emphasized that we are on the forefront of changing the way people think about sports medicine and the way it is practiced. Jenny also spoke to us about common causes of knee pain, different knee conditions, her research with the infrapatellar fat pad, and what to do when our athletes have anterior knee pain. Using Allie, a girl in our group, as an example since she has chronic knee issues, Jenny demonstrated what to observe and test for, different strengthening exercises and stretches to do, and taping techniques to alleviate pain and adjust for proper patellar tracking. Listening to her was a very educational experience. She was very set in her ways (she completely wrote off open chain exercises and kinesio taping), but also emphasized the importance of evidence based practice. Interestingly enough, she mentioned that had she lived in the US, she would have gone into athletic training because she feels that physical therapy is on the downhill because athletic training covers more areas of sports medicine. I found that to be extremely thought provoking because even though I am majoring in athletic training and planning on getting certified, I also plan on attending physical therapy school. Being on this trip has made me think about my future life plans and if physical therapy is truly something I want to pursue. Seeing the lack of athletic training here makes me realize the potential for growth that there is in the career of athletic training and I think it would be a great challenge to try to spread it to other countries around the world.

For lunch, we had wanted to go exploring around The Rocks, but the pouring down rain deterred us from choosing that route. Instead, Dana, Lexi, Kaitlyn, and I found a little cafe in an alley called, The Baker's Oven. I ordered a toasted Mediterranean sandwich, which was good, but did not compare to Lexi's bowl of muesli with apples and macadamias. Muesli is like a mix between oatmeal and granola and has been my breakfast every single day this trip--it's my new obsession. 

After lunch, we had our second lecture with Dr. Courtney, a local osteopath. The topic of her lecture was dysfunctional breathing. Dr. Courtney's focus was on sharing with us the prevalence of dysfunctional breathing and how often it is misdiagnosed as exercise induced asthma. She shared with us the signs and symptoms of DB, as well as musculoskeletal issues that could be caused by it such as lower back pain. We also went through some exercises to improve breathing and make it more efficient. These included holding our breath and breathing through our nose instead of our mouth. Dr. Courtney also expanded specifically on hyperventilation as an example of DB. I had always thought that hyperventilation would appear as heavy breathing with minimal oxygen intake. What I learned was that it actually is a condition where you intake too much oxygen and your carbon dioxide levels drop significantly, causing multiple negative effects on your body. 

Next on our plan for the day was to go to the markets in Chinatown. It took some time to try to figure out the transportation system, but a bus ride and a couple of train rides later, we finally found the markets. They are located in a massive building and are very similar to your average flea market with identical stands selling cheap souvenirs and other trinkets. I found all of the people and items for sale to be slightly claustrophobic and only lasted about ten minutes. While it would have been nice to purchase items there because of their extremely low prices, I also feared that they had the potential to break apart within seconds due to their low quality. After the markets, we used public transportation once again to go to Darling Harbour for dinner. By that time, the sun had set and the harbor was lit up by all of the boats and restaurants that bordered it. There were so many options for dinner, but we finally chose the Tokio Hotel, which surprisingly enough served Italian food, because it seemed to be the liveliest. We also wanted to be sitting outside because they were practicing a light show for Vivid Sydney, a music and light festival, where they create amazing light displays accompanied by music all around the city and it starts tomorrow. While ordering dinner, we overheard a group of Americans ordering drinks, so Lexi and I started talking to them. As it turns out, they actually went to Ohio State and were also studying abroad. After a couple of playful jokes about the rivalry (except we truly meant them), we actually found out that we had several mutual friends, which is always fun to find so far away from home.

After dinner, I was anxious to get back to the hostel because Leanne, one of my roommates last semester, is also studying in Sydney and was coming over to hang out! It was so great to see her and be able to experience a little bit of Sydney with her. That night us and a group of girls from my program went to The Ivy. We had heard from locals that it was a really nice, high end club with multiple stories and normally the cover charge  was $20, but if you arrived before 10 pm, it was free. Taking full advantage of this offer, we got there early and hung out. We had pretty high expectations for The Ivy and they were surpassed. It was an amazing venue with beautiful views of the city and everything was over the top and extravagant. It had a partially open ceiling, so you had the comfort of being indoors with the adventure of being outdoors. It was a unique experience however because the age group there was a bit older than us and dressed quite professionally. In which case, we were dressed pretty casually, but I'm getting accustomed to pulling the American tourist card to defend my wardrobe choices. After hearing so much about the different floors of The Ivy, all we really wanted to do was explore the venue, but we were told that the other floors were closed off (which we later found out was incorrect), so we did not end up staying too long and left soon after arriving. The group of girls from my program returned back to the hostel, but Leanne and I chose to meet up with people from her program in Kings' Cross. When we arrived at the World Bar, where her friends were, they did not allow us in because Leanne was wearing thongs (flip flops), which I found entertaining. Instead, we chose to explore Sydney a little more before calling it an early night since we both had class in the morning. It was the perfect way to spend the night with Leanne though because we were able to catch up--which we had a lot to do since it had been about three weeks since I had last seen her!

a rainy sydney welcome.

We all woke up this morning with the excitement of knowing that we were finally going to  Sydney. The bus that was supposed to take us to the regional airport in Ballina was scheduled to arrive at 9 am. By 8:50, we were all outside literally giddy to get a move on. However, in classic Lennox Head fashion, the bus drivers were in no hurry and arrived at 9:45 am. I am guessing it was one last way for them to test our patience, and can't say I have fully embraced their laid back style. My biggest concern for the flight though was that for domestic flying, the maximum weight for my suitcase was 20 kg and coming to Australia my suitcase was already over that. Add everything that I bought and I am well over the limit. However I placed my heaviest items in my backpack and crossed my fingers that I wasn't over. When we arrived at the airport my suitcase weighted 20.2 and they let it slide! As for the flight, it was luckily only an hour, but I slept the entire way and was ready to go when we arrived in Sydney. I then looked out my window to see dreary skies and heavy rainfall. 

Determined not to let the rain get me down, I took in everything that I could as we drove from the airport to the hostel where we are staying at. We are staying in a YHA hostel in The Rocks of Sydney which is a very historical area of the city. I was also very pleasantly surprised by how great the hostel was. It definitely was not what I expected when I thought about hostels--it feels like a really nice hotel for young adults. It's a very modern building with modern furnishings and great amenities. We are staying on the top floor too and there is an outdoor rooftop area with an amazing view of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After settling in, we went on a mini city tour to gain our bearings. Unfortunately, it was still raining so the pictures did not turn out great and the walk was cut short. But it got me excited for when the rain finally stops and we can explore some more! For dinner, we went to a place nearby called The Orient, which was just pub food. I had a pretty good cous cous salad with rocket and pumpkin, but I'm ready to branch out from the pub food which we had had pretty often so far. For dessert, Kaitlyn, Lexi, Dana, and I walked across the street to a Belgium chocolate bar and I bought dark chocolate covered hazelnuts and dark chocolate orange ganache--both of which were delicious. Due to the rain, it was cold and kind of miserable to explore so we decided to head back to the hostel to chill and plan out the rest of out week in Sydney which I have very high expectations for! 

last day in lennox head.

Today is our last day in Lennox Head and I can't say I'm too disappointed. I've had a great time so far, but I'm ready to experience city life in Sydney. To commemorate our last day, I went on one last run on the beach--it was just as exhilarating as the others and I said goodbye to the fresh sea air. After a group reflection, some of us headed back into Byron Bay for our free afternoon. The original plan was to lay out on the beach, but the chilly weather and the lack of sun did not allow for that. Instead, Lexi and I went back to the health foods store, Fundies, and bought more delicious raw, vegan mint chocolate and coconut balls, Noah's fruit and vegetable juice, and lentil patties for the barbecue the group was planning on having that night. We then headed back to The Beach Hotel and ate our lunch. We sat in a far corner that overlooked the beach. It was relaxing and also a great people watching spot. Since people watching is already a hobby of mine, it is something I have been doing a lot more of since coming to Australia. Even though they are pretty similar to Americans, I still enjoy observing them and comparing their mannerisms. Since we had also already done so much shopping the previous Sunday, we decided to avoid the shops and not tempt ourselves so we moved tables across the street and read the local newspaper. It was interesting to compare their current events to ours, as well as to read their headlines (some of which would not be considered politically correct in the US). 

As evening approached, we started walking back to the bus stop and stopped at the grocery store, Woolworth's, to help the boys choose what foods to get for the barbecue that they were in charge of. We did not have very much faith, but they pulled through and dinner that night was great! They grilled chicken, burgers, and hot dogs (and lentil patties for me) at the barbecue by the cabin. Hope also grilled amazing corn on the cob that was the perfect compliment to my lentil patty and Australian barbecue sauce (which is my new obsession and I don't even know what makes it so amazing). 

To end the night, the entire group headed down to the pub for musical bingo, where they would play a song and we had to identify it on our bingo card. The first round was Australian hits, which was a little difficult, but the second round was new school rock, which was much more doable. Since Tuesday night wasn't exactly a bumping crowd for the little Lennox Head pub, our group dominated and won all the main prizes which were a six pack of beer, a bottle of wine, and a gift card to the pub. And because it was our last night and we had to head back to pack, we all shared that between the ten people there and headed back to the cabin. 

Overall, I am glad we started our trip in Lennox Head. It was the relaxing break that I needed after finishing up with finals a couple of weeks ago. I am not very good at relaxing  and Lennox Head is all about not being in a rush and taking it easy, so I feel like I was able to learn a lot from them. But I am done relaxing now and am more than ready for city life in Sydney!

rain forest hike.

Today we traveled across the countryside to the rain forest where we hiked through the Rocky Creek Dam in the Big Scrub Reserve. The drive there was eventful because we were able to see a new side of Australia. We also drive through crops of macadamia nuts and were told that that region is the macadamia capital of the world so I'm definitely going to have to be on the hunt for some of those.

Can you see the koala?!

We had a tour guide who was a botany professor from Southern Cross University named Peter. When we picked him up at the "uni" he mentioned that there was a koala in the tree and naturally we all went running. It was so precious! So cute with furry little ears and kept looking down at us. New goal for the trip is to hug a koala. Once we arrived at the park, Peter mentioned that it was one of the first national parks in Australia and it was established in the late 70's/early 80's. Originally, it spanned from the eastern coast, but was cut down for timber once Europeans first arrived. The beginning of the hike was really pretty with views of the water, but once we got past that part, it was straight trees and leeches. I was looking forward to hiking through the rain forest and comparing the flora and fauna from other hikes. However, it wasn't that amazing and was really everything looked the same--there were not many points of distinction and I was ready to leave after a couple of hours. Only true highlight of the hike was the koala sighting!

When we finally arrived at the cabin, we had some group bonding and made breakfast for dinner! I stuck a bowl of oatmeal, but they made pancakes and scrambled eggs. We have gotten pretty close as a group--its hard to believe we have only known each other for less than a week!