This week, I had my most memorable hiking experience as I trekked to The Figure Eight Pools with two of my classmates after class on Thursday. After an hour and a half train ride, we started the 5 miles hike up the hills and then onto the beach in order to get to this incredible site. Due to us doing the hike on a cloudy Thursday afternoon, we were fortunate enough to have the whole site to ourselves (which is impossible according to traveling websites). On the bright side, there was not many people, however, it was starting to rain on the way back. As we passed a parking lot on the way back, we decided to try our luck with hitchhiking as we asked a local finishing up his hike for a ride to the train station. After an enthusiastic “of course hop on in!”, we were able to make it safely and dry to the train station. The man driving explained to us how he often went surfing down at the beach next to the tourist attraction, but has limited his trips over the past couple of years due to how many tourists are often present. This is a hike I highly recommend, and a hitchhiking experience with a very friendly Aussie was a day to remember.
Pictured is a fireworks display that occurs every Saturday at 9pm in Darling Harbour. This is a short walk from our apartment and an incredible way to spend 15 minutes of our night as we watched with thousands of other individuals along the harbor.
Another highlight from this week was traveling to a Japanese Cuisine after my last Global Management class of the week on Wednesday. Our professor has made it a ritual to visit some of his favorite dinner spots after our Wednesday classes throughout the 4-week block of class. From Spice Alley last week, to the cuisine this week, our class has been fortunate enough to visit and enjoy food from spots that I would not have found if it was not for our professor. Learning about his fascinating life experiences working for the multinational conglomerate company 3M to now teaching has been very insightful. I have enjoyed learning more about the Asia-Pacific economy and how it plays a role in global trade and the United States economy that I am more knowledgeable about.