Australia's Adventures

Suspended 100 feet above the ground, I could not do anything about the water falling on my face. My feet were slipping on the wet rocks and I grabbed onto the rope. This was only the second time I had ever repelled, and it was down a cliff with a waterfall in Australia. The country "down under" has been one of the most adventurous and life changing experiences in my life so far!  My trip to Australia was a summer study abroad program in 2007 in my freshman year in college. Not only did I learn about the history and music of Australia but about the natural beauty it contained.  It had rugged outdoor activities such as repelling mountains and going through deep dark caves but also had sophisticated outings involving the opera house, visiting historical museums, zoos, and site seeing. My favorite was the daring climb of Australia's bridge in the middle of the night with cool outfits!  Australia was truly an eye opening experience that opened new doors for excitement and anticipation for life. 

My first rugged encounter with Australia was repelling the Blue Mountains. Repelling the mountains first required some training. My best friend and I prepared for the climbing part of the repelling with the stair master.  For about a month we reluctantly dragged ourselves onto the machine for 30 minutes a day which whipped us into shape! 

Upon the arrival of the Blue Mountains, we had to be trained on safety and equipment use from the experts. We started on the small cliffs and Julie our expert  told us to wear our yellow helmets, yellow backpacks, and our black straps which were important parts of our adventure.  The yellow helmets were important in protecting our heads just in case we fell and for other repellers to see us.  The yellow backpacks were important in keeping our clothes dry and holding our gear and the black straps were especially important in supporting our weights when repelling. We were taught to go up to the cliff and once someone strapped us into the clips, we were supposed to use the friction when going down to slowly descend. Of course I didn't listen and sped down the cliff!

Then our exploration through the Blue Mountains began. As a group of ten students, we started to make our way up to the highest peak.  The landscape was beautiful in so many ways. The bright green plants dangled over my head and when I walked by the plants, it gave me a slight draft of the most indescribable freshest air. The light mist brushed upon my face and gave my face a beaming glow. And the sunlight warmed my body up so quickly that it gave my body chills -- and that was just the walk to the top. Other than the fact that we were walking for about 45 minutes to reach the top of the mountain, it was breath-taking. From the top of the mountain, I could see the vast land with millions of trees that looked like tiny ants! 

Then it dawned on me, we were getting ready to repel through the waterfall, a waterfall! We slowly went one by one and got clipped and repelled down through the waterfall. But my experience through the waterfall wasn't as pleasant as you could imagine.  Repelling was extremely difficult to concentrate on when holding your rope and trying not to slip simultaneously.  The water was unbearably heavy on my head therefore I could not look up or let go of the rope to clear the water off my face which was quite scary.  There I was, in a wetsuit, with our backpacks, holding a rope, seconds away from death in the middle of a wall of rocks with water trying to push me down. At this point it wasn't even fun, I just wanted to survive.  But, the few minutes going through the waterfall was the most outrageous thing I have ever done, and it felt good. It felt good because I was on my own away from my family, and I had accomplished something that I never intended to do, and I felt the most exhilarating feeling of my life. 

Where I almost died, nice place actually. 

Furthering my education abroad, I attended an Opera at the Sydney Opera House, known for their stunning sail-looking architecture where we watched the romantic opera, "Carmen". The opera, which was in a foreign language, was like one of those silent movies (it wasn't silent) that just glowed with dramatic emotions where words were not needed.  "Carmen" was a love story of a beautiful gypsy that falls in love with the corporal Don Jose, and when the relationship turns to rejection he joins a gang of smugglers. She falls for a new man and Don Jose's jealously forces him to kill her!  It was an intense but romantic story.  It had the dramatic heavy music that rumbled through my body, and the opera was able to transport me to the different places and emotions. The characters were so talented at singing and dancing in addition to the costumes that were outrageously elaborate and ornate. The storyline was so moving that I couldn't even hold back the tears. It was the most enchanting experience of my life.

Being the animal lover that I am, staying in Australia meant having the amazing opportunity to meet different species of animals. For example, feeding the wallabies ice cream cones (with no ice cream of course). At the zoo, my friends and I got to be surrounded by "mini kangaroos" and we got to feed them. We were able to get so close that not only petting was easy, but taking picture right next to them was even easier. They were so calm and were used to strangers touching them and taking pictures of them!

It was trying to kiss me!

Now the bridge climb was unreal.  We climbed and walked across the tallest bridge in Sydney, Australia that overlooked the whole city. The bridge climb first started with putting on our silly jumper outfits. We had to wear our special jumper suits, flashlights, and special microphones that went on our heads like old school headphones.  It only touched the temporal area of our heads and was able to pick up our voices (without a microphone) using high technological devices that were also used in the army. The next step was getting instructions from our tour guide, which was quite boring, but once we stepped outside to climb it was freezing and glittery (because of the lights at night) all at the same time. The opportunity to witness any city on top of the tallest structure is always an incredible experience.  We slowly made our way to the top of the semi-circular bridge and start "walking the plank" (because it was so narrow) across the whole bridge. We watched cars drive beneath us and thought, if we fell (we were clipped onto the bridge) we would die instantly! Other than that, we looked at the vast unfamiliar world around us and took snapshots for our memories. I felt like I was on top of the world. 

Our funny jumpers

Overall, Australia was a fun-filled packed month with full of experiences that I, never in my wildest dreams, could have never done without my parents and the study abroad trip program. I would recommend a study abroad trip to anyone.  It is an eye-opening experience and an opportunity to become more independent. I would definitely go again if I ever had the financial opportunity, but definitely to another country, to other adventures and experiences. I loved Australia, and will always have it in my memories.