This past weekend has been quite fun and extremely rewarding. I volunteered at Sydney National Harbour Park, which really isn't one park, but a bunch of parks all along the Sydney Coast.  The area that I was in was called Middle Head, which is about 10K from the Opera House.  The park actually used to be used for military purposes and in the park, which is a sort of peninsula, old tunnels, cannon holds, and barracks, run along the shore.  They were built in the late 19th century and were added onto up until about WW1.  Obviously, I loved that part of the weekend, just walking around and viewing the old stone work.
Volunteering wise we basically picked weeds.  To make it sound better we removed invasive species, such as the Asparagus Fern, Lantana, and the Fish Bone Fern, which, along with countless other foreign plants, are overtaking the natural bush of Australia.  Through our hard removal (weeding) we opened up a small part of land and mulched it over.  I worked with 5 other Uni students from UNSW and Macquarie.
After the tough removal, we got to lounge about in an old officer's quarter house, which was located two minutes from a beach and had a stunning view of the harbour.  Mind you, that this beach, along with most out of the central cities view, is a nude beach.  I thought it was interesting, I really didn't mind it, but I didn't see the whole allure of the nudist culture.  But the beach itself was awesome and it had some great tide pools to explore.  Later at night, we enjoyed the stars and bats, and even had a visit from a possum, who was very curious and seemingly hungry.  The posoms here are actually cute, they resemble a smaller raccoon, with large brown eyes, that make you want to cuddle with it.  But it is a possum.
The trip was definitely a success and I'm glad I got to get at out and help clean up Sydney.
When I returned, I dressed up and headed over to the Opera House to watch Wayne Shorter and his quartet.  For those of you who don't know Wayne Shorter, he played in the Miles Davis Quintet.  He's an amazing saxophone player and despite his age still did a phenomenal job.  The drummer, I think his name was Brian Blade, was the best part though and is definitely one of the best I have ever heard.
As for the Opera House itself, it was good, not great.  Compared to the outside it is really lack luster.  I expected more, but still it was a great venue and you really can't get a bad seat, it's pretty small.  The acoustics, again, I thought were good not great.  They had a bunch of microphones hanging from the ceiling, which picked up on everything but the musicians, so the applause thundered through the theater, almost sounding better than the music itself.
And so far so good, classes continue and I'm having a great time.I'm sure there is more that I could write, but those are the major things I think.  Hope everything is well back in the U.S.