Paige

Dear Paige,

Sorry it’s been so long. I still haven’t gotten a new battery for my camera, and not having photos kind of takes the fun out of blogging. However, I was able to use my flatmate’s camera for a few things the past month or so and just got the photos, so I’ll catch you up.

A few weeks ago I went to the Taronga Zoo with the Williamsons. I love zoos anyway, so I was insanely excited. It doesn’t hurt to go with kids too—their excitement makes everything extra thrilling. The zoo is located on its own island in the harbor, so we met at Circular Quay and took a fifteen-minute ferry trip over. I love that ferries are part of the transportation system here. The views are idyllic and it’s just a great feeling to board a boat to get where you need to go.

Apart from the animals, the zoo is known for having spectacular views of the city because of its elevation, and they didn’t disappoint. It was smaller than I expected, but that made it easier to navigate. We started at the top of the island and worked our way down. First was the Australian section: koalas, wallabies, emus, wombats, and kangaroos. Here’s a koala:

The wallabies, emus and kangaroos were all roaming free in a section with no barriers. It was pretty cool—they just hop right across your path. There was even a wallaby snoozing that we got to pet. All the animals were pretty chilled out—I wonder what they feed them.

The Williamsons told me the giraffes supposedly have the ultimate view of Sydney, and after seeing it, I think that’s pretty accurate. Lucky guys.

We also saw this tiger stalking back and forth in front of a glass wall, making eye contact with all the onlookers. With such a thin, transparent barrier, it was really intense.

Last weekend I went to my first Australian Football League game. The rules are pretty simple (even for me), and it was such a gorgeous, sunny day. We had a great time.

Chrissy and I have also gone to a couple museums. We saw the Contemporary Art Museum, where we watched a hilarious live installation where people did sort of a standing yoga kind of thing with an instructor and then went “cruising” (walking around like they were in a trance) and looking at the art. I have no idea how that made it in the museum.

We also went to the Powerhouse Museum, which is a really cool design and technology museum here. They had exhibits on Australian fashion, the 80’s, recent Australian inventions, and this Australian fashion photographer. In the photo below, I’m imitating one of his famous photos—then we both hopped in and goofed around.

Your photos from France are beautiful! How is school so far? I heard you have a couple of Den’s former teachers.

Love you!

Meagan