Papers, being touristy, and the substitute fair

Hey!
I guess it's been a while since my last update. There hasn't been much to update on, though. Since being home from spring break, I've spent most of my time doing work. In 10 days, I wrote almost 10,000 words worth of papers. It was a bit exhausting. I am now pretty much incapable of carrying on an intelligent conversation- I've run out of academia for the foreseeable future.
The good news from all this is that I'm nearly done! Only one paper stands between me and next weekend, and this is the final week of classes. Also, Australian uni's are weird, because some classes end before the final week: I only have 1 class that's still meeting (the others dropped off a week or even 2 ago, sweetness).
Not to worry though, I've still squeezed in some fun. :) Classes ending has reminded my friends and I how much stuff we want to do before heading to our respective countries, so we've been doing a lot of tourist-y things in Sydney during the weekends. I went to the zoo last weekend, lots of fun. They have a baby elephant, Luk Chai, who is really cute! Also a regular fixture on the nightly news. (Australia's news is not what you would hope. Apparently not much happens here, ergo they put things like the newborn elephant on the news almost weekly.)
For those NCer's out there, I hope you're enjoying the fair. I haven't been in a couple years, so I was really missing it. But we found a solution: Luna Park! Luna Park is this amusement park on the north side of the Sydney Harbor bridge (the opposite side of the city), and a bunch of us decided to check it out Friday night. It was really small by US theme park standards, and also nearly empty. But it was exactly what we wanted. It had many of the standard fair rides (no roller coasters, it was more like the fair than a theme park), cotton candy (which they call fairy floss), random people dressed up walking around(Australian take on clowns? maybe), even an arcade. There were also some things uniquely Australian- the creepy/smiling face you walk through in the entrance, meat pies, and some really random rides. There was one where about 8 people sat with their backs to each other on this big circular thing, almost like a really gently-sloped hill, which spun around pretty fast. The goal was to not get spun off, and it was hilarious. While waiting in line for it, I got to watch a group of kids all under 10 do it, and as they tried not to fall off they would make hysterical faces. Additionally the ride operator would make you do stuff to help the sliding off process (pick up your feet, touch your toes, tickle the person next to you,etc). All in all, a good night. The only thing missing was funnel cake. :)
A couple weeks ago I realized that I only have about 2 weeks left in Sydney. After this next week I'm traveling, coming back for a week to take my exam, then heading off to Melbourne, New Zealand and who knows where else before coming back to the states. With this came lots of conflicting emotions: excitement (both for travel and to see all you lovely people), shock, and the feeling of "Aahh! There's so much more I want to do in Sydney!! How did I put it off until the last minute?!" The latter feeling prompted the aforementioned activities, with more in the works.
That's all I've got for now. I'm sure in the coming weeks I'll have lots of adventures to share. Thanks for everyone's emails and love!
Love from down under,
Emma