Awesome Saturdays!

Well since I have returned from break I have been enjoying my Saturdays. The weather seems to be getting nicer here, in other words, not raining 24/7 and some sun in the afternoon. It is a bit chilly in the morning and evening, but the middle of the day is usually in the 60s and sunny. Last Saturday I spent the day with my friend Lee and we went shopping at Chatswood, a place nearby. What was really cool, was that we didn’t have to pay a bus fare to get there because the trains weren’t running, so your only option was to take the bus and it was free. Basically we spent 4 hours walking around the different shops and malls in the area before heading back and just playing cards in my room.

This Saturday I went to the Koala Park with my friend Angie. The Koala Park is very close to campus, only a 15-20 minute bus ride and then a short walk. We had an awesome bus driver who was very kind to give us directions to the koala park after getting off the bus and then told us what time the bus comes for when we wanted to head back. He also gave me the student rate for the bus. Usually I don’t get the student rate, because I’m a study abroad student. Only Aussies and exchange students can get the student rate, which is really annoying, because for the train and bus fare, the student rate is half the price of the regular rate.

When we arrived in Pennant Hills, where the Koala Park was, I noticed all the flowers on bushes along the sidewalk. It is Fall here, not Spring, so it’s weird to see that they have flowers in the Fall. There were also trees with leaves changing colors. While this makes sense for Fall, many of the trees that lose their leaves around here just have their leaves turn brown and fall to the ground. It was nice to have a change from campus and see a neighborhood and all the beautiful colors of fall and spring together, even though it was odd at the same time.

At the Koala park, we first saw a bunch of adorable Wallabies and then some Dingos and cockatiels. Throughout the park, there were chickens and some other types of birds just walking around. My favorite bird walking around was this rainbow bird. It was so beautiful with all of its colors and its feathers looked like string. 

Swamp Wallaby

Wallabies!!

Rainbow Lorikeet

Next we bought some kangaroo feed and went to pet and feed the kangaroos. That was so much fun, even if I ended up with kangaroo slobber all over my hand. They loved the food and would try to steal the bag of food from my hand as I was posing for a picture with them. 

my 2 new friends

so cute!!

After that we waited around for the koala presentation. I learned that koalas mate between November and January and the baby is born in 35 days but then has to climb up the pouch of the koala. Once the baby finds the nipple, it latches on and stays in the pouch for a few months. Once the baby gets too big for the pouch, the mom will carry the baby on her back and care for the baby until he is 12 months or so. Then the mom will tell the baby to leave so that she can be ready to mate for the next season.  Following that short presentation, we were able to pet a koala and take a picture. 

petting the koala, I think his name was Tezzy

Shortly after that we decided to head back over to the bus stop, but we were still there about 20 minutes before the bus was going to come so we walked around the neighborhood and looked at the houses and the beautiful trees changing colors on one side of the street and flowers on the other. We definitely picked a good day for being outside.

It was early afternoon when we returned to DLC and mostly I just relaxed in my room until dinner time. Then after dinner I went ice skating with a few people. If you go ice skating in just the last hour, it is just over half price. I hadn’t been ice skating since last April, but it was a lot of fun hanging out with people and a great way to spend a Saturday night! (I have to get pictures from my friend of the ice skating)