Horses and a Ferris Wheel

Otford Farms

My lack of communication as of late can be easily explained with one word; finals. I’ve been to the library an average of 8 hours per day everyday this week to study and still have so much left to do.  On Friday I finished anatomy with a surprisingly difficult exam due to what I thought were unfair and poorly written questions as well as an overly intimidating exam setting. However, I appreciate the unique opportunity to draw male genitalia in an exam booklet for points.

My horse: SJ

To reward myself for studying so hard the whole week, I took a full day off on Saturday and had a great day with my roommate, Amanda.  We took the train south to a town called Otford where we went to Otford Farm and met SJ and Cassius, our horses for the trail ride we had booked for the afternoon.  The farm itself was so peaceful; tucked away in the mountains, but only a few minutes ride from the coast.  The family who owned the farm asked us all about America and our semester and told us that they had hosted a home stay for two girls our age doing exchange at a nearby university. I have loved living in Coogee and everything about my exchange experience, but seriously how awesome would that have been?! 

Our ride was a little over an hour of walking, trotting and cantering through the rainforest part of the farm’s 300 acres.  In Australia they mostly ride English instead of Western, which is what both Amanda and I had ridden before, so we took a little time to adjust, but both got comfortable fairly quickly.  At one point in the ride we reached a field where the horses are usually taken for runs, so our guide said we could take them as fast as they could go.  I’ve been riding a few times before, but never on a full-on sprinting horse, and it was incredible.  My hair was whipping my face, mud was going everywhere, all I could hear was the beat of SJ’s gallop and all I could think was how amazing my life is; flying across a field on a beautiful brown mare somewhere in the mountains of southeast Australia.

After our ride, we took the train back to the city while the sun went down, and it was fully dark by the time we got to the station.  A second train took us across the Harbour Bridge and we walked to Luna Park, a small theme park at the water’s edge built in 1935 with free admission and a pretty creepy theme of clowns and moons.  We walked around and admired the flashing lights, cheesy rides and games, and the view of Sydney Cove with both the bridge and the Opera House.  We bought fairy floss, of course, and took pictures with the Luna Park mascot and some clowns on stilts.  Then we bought a ticket for the ferris wheel, set our iPods to the same set of songs and had an awesome silent dance party while we rode it around and took in the lights of the city and the full moon on the water.

Today I'm taking a half-day off from studying...I woke up early to get some work done and then this afternoon I'm going to a rugby game at the ANZ Olympic Park stadium with a few of my Aussie friends from class. 

In even better news my countdown says that my mom will be landing here in 3 days and 21 hours :) It's weird to think that I will be coming home soon, but I'm enjoying every remaining second I have here.