Almost to Syd...

The group (or most of us, at least) is leaving tonight on the red eye (12:15 flight to be exact) to fly into Sydney for the last 4 days of the trip. I am looking forward to it, but will surely miss the beautiful city of Perth and WA. The city kind of reminds me of Richmond, with a river running right through and a perfect mix of small buildings mixed in with taller skyscrapers. The people are so nice here (not too much like Richmond...) and are always willing to help, which is awesome.

Anyways, yesterday I was supposed to spend the day with Simon Jones of the Australian cycling team. That didn't go so well...but it turned out to be one of the best days I have spent here.

I arrived at the WAIS complex to meet Simon at around 10 in the morning. After speaking with the receptionist, I proceeded to wait for about 30 minutes for Mr. Jones (even though he told me to meet at 10...). But I figured, no big deal. We did the introduction stuff and then he basically proceeded to tell me that I have 20 minutes with him, so ask away. It caught me off guard; I was told I was to be there for the day and he would take me through everything having to do with Aussie cycling. So yeah, I asked him a few random questions, then left slightly dissapointed. Oh well. He did tell me that "There is no such thing as hope, just good plans." Maybe thats a british thing or something (Simon is from Manchester, England).

So Ian picked me up and drove me towards North Fremantle to the PT office of Kieran Bell (who we had visited a few day before). Kieran is a really nice guy, and we quickly became friends. I spent the next six hours or so helping him out with his appointments and learning the in's and out's of physio. The patients that he saw were all good sports about me being in the room and wished me luck in my studies. I definitely learned a lot from the day, and I am glad I was able to get in some more PT shadowing hours for my (hopeful...I mean planned) future in physical therapy.

Ian picked me up again at 5:30. We had a quick drink at the hotel restaurant (I had water!) then everyone said our goodbye's to Ian. Dr. Fairnie is a great man, and I hope to be able to see him again one day once he travels around my area in the states. Ian is a world-traveler, and seems to know just about everything, so he was a great guide and professor while we were here in Perth. Anyways, I came up to my room to pack up for Syd and then headed to bed. It's really funny to watch tv here, as at least 4 times a night (not even kidding) the channels here play the television show "Two and a half Men". I guess they like their Charlie Sheen comedy?

Today was a free day, so after sleeping in a tad and skype-ing with my girl we check out of the hotel and traveled down to St. George's terrace. We found the giant kangaroo statues and took some good pictures while there was a nice break in the recent heavy rain showers. We then took to the shops to get a few last minute gifts (a boomerang for myself) and walked over to the Western Australian museum and art gallery. We walked around most of the museum full of stuffed mammals and aboriginal artifacts then headed to the gallery. The art gallery had some great works and I enjoyed seeing all of that. I did take some nice under-the-jacket photos as cameras were not allowed in the gallery. Don't tell anyone that I did though...

The next few days will be spent in Sydney. The educational part of our trip is done, so we will get to do the whole "tourist" thing while in town. We will arrive early in the morning on Friday and have the whole day to do whatever we like. I plan on going to the Australian museum and Darling harbor while going around the city on the sight-seeing bus. Hopefully the weather will be nice! Saturday is the sydney harbor bridge climb (which will be awesome; again, hope for good weather) while Sunday is a day tour out to the Blue mountains and a wildlife park to hold some koala's. We fly back to the states on Monday!