Is it bad when you wake up at the same
time you could, in theory, be going to bed and not
be considered completely insane? 1 am. That happened.
Breakfast at 4 am. Also happened.
Aside from accidentally misplacing 5 students, 4 of which were
at the hotel, 1 already in Sydney, the flight in was rather
uneventful. All students have since been located and are all
accounted for. No stress.
We started out the day by taking a visit to Featherdale Wildlife Park
where everyone got the opportunity to meet some Australian wildlife.
Among the good company were wombats, little penguins, assortments of
colorful birds, owls, echidnas, dingoes, venomous snakes, and plenty
of wallabys and roos to keep all the students busy. We even got to
see a few albinos.. including a kookaburra and a kangaroo!
Despite all the foreign wildlife, I somehow couldn't resist the draw
of the farm animals. Mandy and I promptly proceeded to act like 5
year olds on Christmas, pointing out the odd looking chickens and
jumping cage to cage, petting goats and “bunnies”. We actually
imitated the cow's moo until it mooed back. No comment. I'm mature.
My absolute favorite animal that the zoo had to offer was the
cassowary. It's so ancient that it looks like it jumped right out of
the Jurassic Park movie. Honestly, you could put this creature
side-by-side with an animatronic version and I'm sure I wouldn't be
able to tell the difference.
And amid all the weird creatures we defaulted to the wallabys which
for what ever reason didn't seem to keen for Mandy's affection...
more time was spent chasing them than petting them.
The Jabiru is another interesting animal.. see photo evidence.
I'm really trying to resist the urge to (1) faceplant on my laptop
and pass out sound asleep and (2) post only pictures of random
animals. I would give in to urge (2) but my limited internet access
is preventing said action.
Oh, and the owls were really cool.
After we made a literal struggle bus ride back to Sydney, we checked
into YHA on the Rocks which was chaotic and twirly. Big surprise.
Mandy and I led a crew to the grocery where I spent too much on food
(any is too much) and scored an awesome price on sushi. I've been
waiting a year for this. FINALLY.
A run ensued, up the Harbor Bridge and back which took far less time
than I expected. A quick shower and inhaled sushi (sounds appetizing,
right?) later, we had the orientation led by the beloved Bob. And
now, here I am, battling sleep like there's no tomorrow in order to
write about cute little fuzzy (feathery and scaly) animals so I don't
forget this experience later on down the road.
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