With my trip in Sydney coming to an end, I would like to do a summary of my thoughts on the trip and the city, final thoughts about my internship and class, and my final trip to Royal National Park. This trip was an experience that I will never forget, and I also made some amazing friends along the way.
The trip itself was amazing. I got to do so many different things such as hiking, sleeping in a zoo, going to the Great Barrier Reef and just everything that I got to do in my previous blogs. Our program, CAPA, set us up very nicely in Urbanest (The Nest for short) and they had various activities planned for us throughout our stay. For example we stayed in the Toronga Zoo, went to the Sydney Opera House, hiked in the Blue Mountains, and we even did a food crawl in Newtown. The program leaders, Laurence and Richard were very friendly and easy to relate to when it came to questions about the city. Overall, I would go on another stay directed by the CAPA program because they take their time in planning the activities and try and relate them to the group that they have. Then we have the beautiful city of Sydney. I could totally see myself living there at some point in my life because of how closely related to the states it is. Everything there besides the driving and accents is highly Americanized and very easy to relate to if you are from the states. Plus everyone there is super nice and helpful so it just makes getting around the city easier. I definitely plan on coming back to finish up some site seeing that I didn’t get to do and I am hoping to possibly live there one day.
My internship with the Sydney Blue Sox went pretty well minus a few things that were highlighted in one of my previous blogs. I enjoyed my time interning there but some days were more boring than others, but that is inevitable when you’re working. I was hoping that working for a smaller team would mean more rigorous tasks, but I am still glad that I got to have this experience. I got to see the underside of working in sports and it was a real eye-opener, but it hasn’t deterred me from wanting to pursue a career in sports marketing. My sports marketing class was amazing. My professor, Dr. Andy West, was a great teacher and was very personable. I could come to him about questions I had regarding assignments or material and he always could simplify the material to make it more understandable. I’m pretty sure that I will end with a perfect score in the class because he was blown away by our group presentation and is looking forward to our report we made regarding March Madness.
On our final day in Sydney, my roommates and I went on a hike in Royal National Park to see Wedding Cake Rock. We woke up super early in the morning to travel about two hours to the park, but once we got there it was so worth it. The park has a coastal walk that takes you right to Wedding Cake Rock, and the views off the walk were amazing. It was a beautiful day out and the water looked so breathtaking, and as we walked we just all bonded over our favorite experiences that we had throughout the trip. Once we got to Wedding Cake Rock we all took individual photos as well as a group one of us on top of the rock. It was overhanging the water so it was kind of scary but we all survived obviously. Then we came back to the Nest where we all hung out and talked about how we were going to miss each other.
This trip was the best experience of my life, and created so many memories and friends that I hope to have for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t have changed it in for anything in the world and I am so thankful to have gotten this opportunity through Pitt. So this will be my last post that I write about my trip in Sydney. I hope that whoever read these enjoyed my little recap of everything I did in Sydney, Australia. Until next time Sydney, you made this summer amazing.