Fancy Shmancy Wizards on Top of the World

Stanford's overseas program is sponsored by the Bings, who donate large amounts of money to the school each year, such as funding the new concert hall at Stanford to be finished in 2012. So, each overseas program gets a really awesome weekend trip, day trip, or night in our case paid for by the Bings. I've heard that in other programs, these trips can be multiple days and can include stays at 5-star hotels and amazing food and activities. My program seems to be on the expensive side overall with all our extensive travel, accommodations, and crazy activities, so we got a nice dinner (probably about $200 a person) at a restaurant that overlooks the harbour and got to see a play at the opera house. Snazzy! It was a great night - everyone got dressed up, the food was good, and the play (a modern twist on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) was a lot of fun. After the play, my friends and I stayed after and took a bunch of pictures in our fancy clothes in front of the opera house. Great night!

The next night was the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. Everyone was really excited about this the entire day - I was starting to feel sick from so much activity, but I knew I just had to push it for two more days until we got to Canberra when I could rest.

After our museum trips, my friend and I headed over to the theater with our ticket codes and gave them to the lady at the cashier. She asked, "how many tickets?" to which I replied, "45." She looked at me silently as if I was joking, and when I didn't say anything, she silently printed out the 45 tickets while my friend and I patiently waited for about five minutes. SO EXCITED!!!!

Five of my friends and I decided to go as the 6 horcruxes for the premiere, and as we were making our costumes (permanent marker on white t-shirts), we saw everyone else's costumes as they dressed up as characters from the series. All the major characters were there, except Voldemort, and every single person was dressed up. It was AWESOME. We all eventually met at the theaters, where we had an hour to run around and take pictures with each other and, most importantly, reenact a bunch of Harry Potter scenes. This was so much fun. If you know me just a little and know how much I love Harry Potter, you'll know that this was basically a dream come true.

Also, the movie was awesome

We had to get up early the next day, though. It was our last day in Sydney and my friends and I were planning climbing the Harbour Bridge, so I was excited, albeit exhausted. After museums and visiting the convict barracks, my friends and I headed over to the bridge to start our climb. There, we got fitted in suits with everything (radio, fleece jacket, sunglasses, hat) clipped securely onto the suit so that nothing would fall off while we climbed. We started our climb at 6pm, perfect timing to see the sunset! We were given beautiful views of the opera house and of the surrounding harbour all the way to the ocean. When we crossed to the other side, we saw the most beautiful sunset - the rays radiated across the sky. At the top of the bridge, we had a 360 degree view of the entire Sydney skyline and the multi-colored sky as the sun began setting. Next to the sunset was a huge rainstorm (really far off from where we were, so we weren't in any danger from hitting it) and we could see lighting strike! So basically, we were in view of a beautiful sunset right next to a lightning storm. It was AWESOME. It was such a shame that they don't allow cameras - the guides take pictures of you for you, but they don't take pictures of the scenery. But it was by far the best sunset I've seen while on this trip. SO WORTH IT!!

By the end of this day, I was EXHAUSTED. There were plans to go out at night, but I ended up knocking out on my bed at midnight. I had been gone from 9am to 11pm and was on my feet for most of it after sleeping at 4am. BUT SO WORTH IT!!!!

Pictures tomorrow. I promise!