Day 97: A Taste of Home (kind of..)

Today I wake up, read a little history, and put on my new lilac sundress. That's right, it was sunny out; and warm! I don't think I've mentioned in the last post that the weather has been total crap the past week. Its been rainy and cold, not very spring like. So I'm quite thrilled this morning, as we all know wearing dresses is a hobby of mine. After breakfast, I make my way to my teleconferencing history tutorial and sit through the UNC students once again embarrassing America. What a bother. After class, Liam calls and I see if he wants to have lunch with me. He suggests I come over and we can lay out in the backyard. Well seeing as that is also my hobby, I hop the 428 bus to Addison St which is fun because I still find public transportation to be novel/an adventure.

We have a pleasant lazy afternoon. I do a little reading while he and his housemate try to build a pair of stilts which they manage to break about 5 minutes after building them. Then we get in a big debate over the Federal Reserve Bank because he tries to tell me that its existed since the founding of the country and that the Rockefellers own it. Eventually we end up going to Macca's where he spends his last $14 (til Friday) on a Mighty Angus burger meal for him and a hot fudge sundae for me. Turns out they don't give you a little package of peanuts with your sundae here and I fuss about that for awhile. He ends up giving me his fries to dip in my sundae, which makes me feel better, and we have a picnic until its time for me to go to lecture.

My social work lecture today is all about suicide, which is depressing, but quite an interesting topic. Matthew texts me during class suggesting that we go out to Sydney's only New Orleans style restaurant: the New Orleans Cafe. I was feeling a little homesick earlier in the day while talking to Peyton and think it would be a riot to see how Sydney does New Orleans, so I accept a dinner date at 7:45. Then I head straight from class to the gym for spin. If you will remember back a few entries (at least I think I recorded it..) I was whining about my knee hurting me after spin class. Well I forgot all about that and midway through warm-up my stinkin' knee starts hurting again. Its bearable enough for me to work through so I keep going because its really embarrassing to stop. By the end of the workout however, when I get off the bike, my knee is extremely stiff and hard to bend. Yea, totally fouled that up again. I'll probably have to get it checked out when I go home.

Amber told me earlier in the week that Matthew's been asking her whether or not he should ask me out and stuff. I like Matthew, he's quite kind and I enjoy his company, but I'm not romantically interested and am finding myself a little aggravated that another one of my friends "likes" me. Amber told me she told him that this is def a "just friends" thing, so I feel free and clear enough about going out with him and not being awkward. So anyway, we hit up this New Orleans Cafe in the Crow's Nest across the harbour. Don't worry, I don't have high expectations. I am really excited though for this experience and perhaps a taste of home. There are about 4 traditional nola dishes on the menu mixed in with, surprise, chicken burgers and things. I order jambalaya and he gets a bowl of gumbo and we both order corn bread. The jambalaya is kinda like Zattarain's and his gumbo is the most un-gumbo tasting thing I've ever had; more like chicken soup with some veggies and sausage in it. In fact, I asked the waitress if the cooks used Zattarain's and she looked confused and asked me what a Zattarain was. I think she expected me to say it was a vegetable, but I told her it was a brand and not to worry about it. So apparently the jambalaya wasn't out of a box. It was pretty spicy and the corn bread was pretty good. Anyway, I was amused by the whole thing. We head back to Newtown after dinner and end up at this cake and coffee place on King Street where Matthew insists we try the mortal sin cake. Oh my gosh, I ate like 7 bites of that thing and wanted to keel over. It was delicious, but wow, couldn't quite handle that one.

So, all-in-all it was a good date type thing, Matthew took wonderful care of me. He wants to take me for cocktails in the Centrepoint Tower (the tallest structure in Sydney with a rotating top for 360 degree views of the city!) and then dinner at some other super-fancy revolving skyscraper restaurant sometime in the next few weeks. Yea, count me in!