University of Arkansas Office of Study Abroad: In the Splash Zone! #HogsAbroad in Australia

I may have said this before, but Sundays are particularly great here in Newcastle. New South Wales public transport has a daily cap of $2.50 bus fares on Sundays. (Typically, the cap is somewhere around $7 or $8, and individual trips can run as much as $2.25.) This means that Sundays are for exploring my city and surrounding areas.

Today, I returned to my favorite spot here, Nobby's Beach with my friends (other U of A students) Elise and Jean.

This time, though, we explored the lighthouse and breakwall that I have previously photographed from afar, and I swear, this was the most beautiful day I've seen in a long, long time.

To the right is the view of the lighthouse and city from the path and breakwall.

The views never cease to amaze me.

Once we got to the end of the breakwall, things got a bit...eventful.

Here we have a before, during, and after series.

Before: photographing a darling little crab.

During: An enormous wave hits.

After: I was soaked. Really and truly SOAKED.

After recovering from the shock of getting smacked by the ocean, which I found absolutely hilarious, by the way, we decided to journey back toward the city. As we walked, though, we saw a group of people with binoculars looking just off the path at a very sleepy seal basking in the sun.

I think many of us would like to be this seal some days...

Once we made it back to downtown, we stopped for a quick bite to eat at Maccas (McDonalds, Mickey D's, Macks, it seems everywhere has one and has their own cute nickname for it.), we headed to the Newcastle Art Gallery. Outside, there is this HUGE egg sculpture. It's actually pretty iconic for the city, but wow, it looks bizarre at first glance.

I didn't take any pictures of the actual art here, but I do want to say a couple things about it. The aboriginal art that was displayed was awesome. For obvious reasons, it reminds me of Native American art in many ways. However, I realized how spoiled we are in Arkansas to have Crystal Bridges. Every art gallery seems minuscule in comparison. Nonetheless, it was awesome to be able go!

As we continued to wander, we came across this tree. Have I mentioned that this was an incredibly random day? Anyway, this is one of the largest trees I have ever seen, and it was climbable. Yes, even Miss Uncoordinated here was able to climb into it.

Just look at this thing!! I'm sitting between two branches the size of large tree trunks, and even with the branch that is just to the left of the picture, this isn't even half of the full trunk.

And we were probably 6 feet up. (Elise and Jean were across from me, also in the same enormous tree.)

Okay, was that too much freaking out over a tree? I'll stop now.

BUT IT WAS SO COOL.

The end of the day meant hopes of a great sunset. This time, though, a storm was beginning to roll in just before, so that didn't happen. Instead, though, I got the last few rays of sun before the storm as the boats passed by.