Days 128-130: One Last Full Weekend to Get Myself in Ridiculous Situations

On Friday (day of my last final in social work) I wake up, make myself some tea and a bowl of Uncle Toby's and then potter around my apartment for a bit trying to get ready for the study fest that's about to go down in the Lair. I really haven't done any sort of efficient studying prior to this, so its crunch time. I make myself really nervous and go into hyperstudy mode until 2 when its time for me to go find my exam location; its on the Darlington campus which is still near to me, but I never go there really. So I rock up to the chemical engineering building about 30min early just to make sure I've found it alright then find a vacant floating chair out on the terraced lawn and study a bit more until a quarter til. I go into the building and then start looking for the elevator or stairs or some way to get up to the 6th floor where my exam room is. As I'm circling this weirdo building with all its creepy labs and whatnot, I'm starting to panic because there are no stairs that go past the 3rd floor and no elevators at all... I double check my planner and see that I'm actually supposed to be in the ELECTRICAL engineering building. Ahhg! Hit the panic button! I have not a clue as to where this building is! I rush back outside to the now nearly deserted lawn and remember that there's a campus map back up the hill a bit towards the gym. I spot it and take off running in that direction and manage to locate the electrical engineering building which luckily isn't that far away and it appears as though I will have enough time to make it over and get in before its too late. So I run there and then manage to navigate the also very confusing building and make it in just before the exam starts along with a couple of other stragglers. Yea, so my adrenalin is really pumping for this exam. I breeze through the multiple choice, and quite enjoy myself in the process, and then crank out my essays while getting massive hand cramps for the rest of the 2 hour period.

We all finish up and/or get kicked out at 5:10. I'm finished!! Woohoo! (except part of me is really, really sad to be finished with uni.) My classmates and I all go to the Marly to celebrate. I have a lovely time chatting with them and we end up hanging out most of the night. A bunch of them even came back to my apartment for a bit which was embarrassing because the Lair is a total wreck, but everyone seemed to appreciate that.

Saturday I'm up fairly early and meet Maya and Liam to go to the royal botanic gardens. I mentioned to Liam earlier in the week that I wanted to so go spend a day there before I left so he planned a picnic for Saturday. The gardens are GORGEOUS, they're right on the harbour if you go to the opera house and keep walking past it. We brought lots of blankets and cushions so Maya and I sprawl out and fall asleep straight away after we finish marveling over the beauty of the whole scene and I get in a bit of a winge about having to leave in a week. Later more people arrive and we have a game of cricket (my first ever) which is really fun until the garden police show up and yell at us; apparently there are no ball games allowed. After they drive off we pull out the frisbee, because it obviously isn't a ball, and commenced a lovely frisbee tossing session. A bit later Maya and I potter around the garden exploring all the different flora before its time to go. That day definitely solidified the gardens' spot on my favorite things of Sydney list.

Later myself, Liam, and his housemates Chris and Greg all go to Bambino's as I would like to have a goodbye hunk of lasagna. Then we proceed to hang out in my apartment while I get ready for the night and, in true Aussie fashion, they proceed to "take the piss out of" (aussie for make fun of) everything from the mess in my apartment to one of my favorite dresses. I want to punch them all in the nose, all in good fun of course. Then we go to Maya's and hang out with other friends before attempting to go to the Ivy which is this swanky sweet pub/club downtown I've been wanting to go to for awhile. By the time we finally get out the door to Ivy its really late and a series of events unfold from Maya forgetting her ID and having to get off the bus halfway through the trip to a massive traffic jam on George. Basically, we don't get there and end up back at Central station. I make sure the others get on buses home and then catch the 412. Chris texts me and asks how everything is going and when I say awful he volunteers Liam to come get me when I get off the bus. So I end up hanging out at the boys house again and falling asleep in the loft while listening to Miles Davis. I wake up the next morning with the sunrise a little before 6 wondering how in the heck I managed to fall asleep in the loft. My going inside to crash properly on the couch sets off another series of events involving me getting really, really angry with Liam and leaving the house to catch a bus home. Long story short I wait at the bus stop for about 45min before I think I left my purse back at the house which causes me to miss the only bus that will be coming for another hour. I don't know where I'm going but end up walking halfway home before finding a cab and getting back around 8 all the while grumbling and wondering how I get myself in these situations. Oh well, can't do anything but laugh about it now, which I am currently doing.

After hearing that story, I think you can understand why one word can sum up what I did most of the day on Sunday; that word being: slept. When I finished that up though, I went to church at Hillsong one last time with Amber and actually enjoyed myself.

Day 127: Sydney + Kathryn = LOVE.

I have my last final tomorrow! Naturally I'm blogging instead of studying. So much has been going on, its made my head spin a little bit. So remember that Buddhist philosophy final essay I had to crank out? I was really afraid of it and I started working on it last Monday when it wasn't even due until today (Thursday a week later). Aren't you so impressed? I can't study in my room, I get way too distracted, and this poses a problem for me here as I prefer to study late into the night. The libraries are a bit of hike and they close at 10pm anyway, the study rooms in SUV were a free for all during finals, and the Well was full of people playing poker, so I didn't know where to go study. My solution was to turn my living room into The Lair. I borrowed a friend's lamp so I wouldn't have to use the florescent awful lights, pulled the arm chair up to the kitchen table which now doubles as my giant desk, and proceeded to litter the room with books, papers, energy drink cans, tea cups, pizza boxes, etc. Ta-dah! The Lair was born: the best study environment in all of Newtown. So basically I lived there last week and worked on that paper day in and day out. The only day I took a break was Tuesday which I dedicated to the Saints and watching them play their Monday night football game. It was really fun to watch the game, see the dome, and ads for JC Penny and other such American things. Coincidentally that day we had a massive heat wave which was intense because most people don't have a/c, including us here at the village. After the game was over I went with some of the boys to play a pick up game of basketball down at Camperdown park. It was really fun, but I almost had a heat stroke afterwards because I just couldn't cool off. Anyway, back to the paper. So I straight tortured myself because I just had to get it out of the way to study for my other exams. Honestly, I've never worked on a paper so hard in my entire life. The weather was total crap after the heat wave, rainy and the like, so at least I wasn't tempted to be outside enjoying the weather. Miraculously, I finished it Saturday! Then I proceeded to dance around and giggle before going to BWS to get a celebratory bottle of wine.

Amber and I put on fancy long dresses and went down to the rocks that night since I hadn't gone out or had any trace of fun in my life for over a week. First stop was Fortune of War, Sydney's oldest pub. Its pretty small with an older crowd packed in tight. There was a sweet dude playing oldie jams on his guitar by the door. We had a beer there and chatted up some old folks, mostly middle aged/older couples we thought were cute. They thought we were cute too haha. Next we went to the Argyle for a bit, but it was a bit stuffy/prententious/not entertaining. We heard cool music coming from next door and went there to check it out. And that's how we ended up at the Lowenbrau again and had a fabulous night. We met this German guy who was 7 feet tall (no lie) and named Casper (also not lying) who hung out with us and ended up splitting the cab home with us. Amber and I make a legendary team, I can't imagine leaving her.

Sunday was the Newtown Festival which had heaps of food, clothing/goods stalls, and live music. They had it in Camperdown Memorial Park and it was HUGE. I bought a shirt with a picture of Australia on it and it says Straya, she'll be right. That is one of my all-time favorite Aussie sayings. That night Amber, Jackie, their friend Cameron, and I went to the Hillsong album recording. They have it in the Sydney Entertainment Center which is this arena in Darling Harbour. It was an awesome super awesome duper night of prayer and worship which was so nice to go to. Aaaand, I'm going to be on the next album (along with several thousand other people haha).

Monday I goofed off and hung out with housemate Lindsey in the Lair as we both had the Aussie history exam in the morning. And I got the greatest news ever: I emailed my internship coordinator and asked if I could submit to her the materials I used for my BMRI presentation in place of doing the 2500 word final reflection (which I certainly was not looking forward to writing). She replied with a yes! and I was ECSTATIC. That lightened my work load exponentially and all I had left to do was my social work exam Friday, woohoo!

Tuesday was GORGEOUS. We got up and we to take the exam. Our legendary professor gave us the questions ahead of time (it was all essay) so it was a pretty stress-free exam and I felt great about it after finishing. Liam came over when I got back to the village and we went for 6 dolla Thai (one of the things I will miss most about Straya). I proposed we go for a swim after as it was warm and spring and wonderful. He brought his bike over which posed a problem for us getting back to Petersham; we solved it however, by me riding on the handlebars until we came to an uphill section part of road where I would hop off and run up alongside the bike. That way I didn't have to go to the gym that night haha. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, it was grand. Then Lindsey and I got Eagle Boys (as they have large pizzas for $5.50 on Tuesdays, aww yea) and hung out in the Lair for a bit more study action. Then I went with some friends to the Establishment which is this swanky bar in the CBD that has a renowned salsa night on Tuesdays. Tim came along and has a fabulous time salsa-ing the night away, well until midnight anyway. Then I came back to the Lair and did a bit more studying for my social work exam on Friday.

Wednesday was another gorgeous day and Liam took Amber and I to Bronte beach. The area around Bronte is really Jewish and subsequently I was beyond delighted that there were an abundance of bagel shops! I haven't seen proper bagels since I've been in Sydney, and I've been looking. We went in the morning on the way and I got a cream cheese and jam bagel. Then we went in the afternoon on the way home and I got a veggie sandwhich bagel. So good. The beach was wonderful too; it wasn't crowded and the water was clear, cold, and refreshing. I spent most of the time swimming. The surf is really big, relative to the Gulf and Carribean anyway, so I have a blast every time I go out in the waves here. I have a pretty mean tan now too as you can imagine! I meant to study when I got home, but was really sun-tired and ended up crashing for two hours. Lindsey had her last final that day, and we've bonded quite a lot in the Lair, so I agreed to go out with her and have a big night. That's exactly what we did. It was really fun until later when things got a little hectic and I had to try and creatively ditch the boy that lives upstairs who I had been dancing with all night. He thought I liked him, I don't, um, yea.

So today I haven't left my apartment except to get a burrito because basically, I'm afraid that if I do I'll run into the boy upstairs and/or one of his friends. It was that magnitude of awkward. Lonely times in the Lair today attempting to study, but getting a lot of nothing done. Luckily Amber has been here since the late afternoon keeping me company. I really don't know what I would do without Amber Wilmshurst. Honestly, a friend like her is a rarity and I can't believe I've made a once-in-a-lifetime friend like that over a few short months.

Everything here is so unspeakably good. Its so near the end now and occasionally it will hit me. I'll be thinking, "Wow, salsa Tuesdays are so fun! I have to do this every Tuesday!" And then I realize I only have one Tuesday left and it feels like getting punched in the stomach. And what's life going to be like when Amber isn't constantly at my apartment or me at her's? Or I think about wonderful 6 dolla Thai lunches and beach days at Bronte, Coogee, and Bondi and nights in the rocks, or my social work class and it kills me to think all that is about to be gone. I'm not upset about going home because I'll get to see so many people I love and miss; I'm upset because I'll never get an experience like this ever again. People tell me not to worry because I can always come back to Australia, which is true. However, I'll never get to live at the village with all my friends, go to Sydney uni, and just get to do life here as a student. It has been beyond anything I could've imagined or hoped for.

After I finish my exam tomorrow I am going to eat, drink, breathe, and bathe in Sydney. I am going to have the week of my life.

Days 113-117: "Make Love Not War": My Aussie Halloween

Ahh finals are upon us. The idea is absurd to me. I'm basically on vacation; they can't ask me to do finals on vacation. At least the village is taking the sting out of it a bit by giving out free Tim Tams and hot chocolate every night of stuvac. (Stuvac = study vacation: the week in between class ending and finals beginning.) I just came back from one of these events, I'm quite full. Oh which reminds me, I tipped new heights on the scale today. I still think the scales I use off or that there's some different gravitational pull here because I like automatically gained 5 pounds getting off the plane, but anyway, I've gained something like 15 pounds while I've been here. I know. Its happened to everyone I know though and a lot of kids who have come and gone say once you go back to the US its not that hard to get the weight off. I feel optimistic. Maybe.

Last week I just spent a lot of time working on my final presentation for the BMRI. Thursday morning I busted up in there with my very professional green dress and sleek hair and rocked that presentation. All the work really paid off. I know I did well because of Bradley. He's one of the higher up guys who works there and he takes the piss out of (Aussie for pick on, criticize, make fun of, etc.) everybody when they finish presenting. When I finished and asked if there were any questions Bradley didn't say a word. Aww yea. Afterward I went back to the village and watched Ellen in the Well with Amber and felt victorious.

Friday was the day of our Halloween harbour cruise. There isn't an abundance of costume shops in Sydney, seeing as they don't really recognize that Halloween exists. When I went to the mall earlier in the week to look for stuff at Target and K-Mart they already had decked the place out in Christmas stuff; much to my immense horror might I add. I heard about a costume shop up King Street, but had a few back-ups picked out since I probably wouldn't make it there/feel like paying for any of it. A good friend of mine, who we'll call Moonbean, was freaking out the day before about a costume so I told her we could go as hippies (one of my back-ups) as I had two tie-dye shirts and plenty of accessories. She quite liked the idea and ended up going all out taping flowers to her skirt and making this sign to carry around that said "make love not war." Ohhh that sign...

Yea, so about 30 minutes before we have to leave to catch the boat I can't find my second tie-dye shirt. Oh yea, I mailed that home a few weeks ago with my winter clothes. Oops. I substitute this floral print top for tie-dye instead; its not an incredible costume but it suffices. The cruise is all you can eat pizza (kind of) and all you can drink. So we get on the boat and race for the pizza because everyone goes hog wild on the pizza and it runs out fast. Moonbeam, myself, and several other friends of mine are scarfing Dominoes like we haven't eaten in years. And then we get in the bar line. That's kind of the story of the night as we spent like 65% of the night waiting in the drink line. It was so great though when I wasn't in line: there was a DJ and dancefloor, heaps of Americans (a few other nationalities represented as well) in costumes, and the boat just kept going back and forth through the harbour. So I would go out on the deck fairly often and oogle at the skyline or get a kick out of going underneath the harbour bridge for the 3rd time or whatever. I'm not being entirely fair to the drink line though, there were some entertaining moments in it as well. Anyway as the night progresses they make it to where you can only get one drink at a time and downsize the cups, which is lame. However, they start to give out these orange vodka energy drinks. I'm sure you can see where this could make things interesting. I think I had like 3-4 of these in addition to several beers but am fine because I'm watching myself VERY carefully after the Avoca and internship cocktail incidents happening back to back (shiver). Moonbeam has almost as much beer as me and then 5 of these orange things and she's quite a lightweight. So its quite clear by the last hour of the cruise that she is a bit pissed as the Aussies would say (aka druuunk); oh and bouncing off the walls.

The boat drops us back off in Darling Harbor at Cargo Bar and so we all go in there. Its seems the energy level is a bit bonkers thanks to these orange things which is interesting. I'm having a good time socializing and whatever before I realize that I have a great task ahead of me: babysit Moonbeam. She and that freakin' make love not war sign are on a mission. Turns out my other close friends went back to Newtown while I was off doing something else. The two of us meet this guy who says he's from Tasmania and apparently he told Moonbeam he's going to be the opening act for John Mayer in Sydney in a few months. I know she fancies the guy and I'm quite curious as to whether or not he really is opening for JM, so while she bounces off to chat up someone else or use the men's restroom for the umteenth time (Moonbeam:"the queue was just too long for the women's!") I move in for a chat. We talk about jazz and stuff since I'm from New Orleans. And then he tells me that he can't talk to my friend anymore because she goes to Hillsong. I may not like Hillsong, but I light into this guy and tell him he needs to be stop being so judgemental. And he never mentions the John Mayer thing even though I steer the conversation so as to give him every chance to say something about it so I know he's lying. Moonbeam comes back so I let her cut in and I walk elsewhere. Some debacle ensues with this chick who's a friend of a friend trying to borrow my IDs to get in because she forgot her's that I don't want to go into. Then I head back to where I left Moonbeam and Mr. Poser. Apparently he took my advice about not being judgemental because when I turn back around I see them "talking" very close to each other's faces. Hahaaa.

When that's over I grab Moonbeam and ask her if she's ready to go. She says yes so I steer us toward the door. On the way, however, she flashes that stinkin' sign in every boy's face that we pass and they are all quite flattered as they think she's hitting on them. One of which happens to be this blonde Scandinavian dressed as a hula dancer. Blonde Scandinavians are Moonbeam's weakness. Yea, she strikes up a conversation with him. She isn't listening to a thing I say anyway so I know the best thing for me to do at this point is just let it happen but keep a watchful eye out. So I find a chair about 30 feet away from them and sit down by myself. This makes me an automatic target; Moonbeam better be so glad I love her to death. I was later pondering the nature of boys in Australia and they are just so forward. I've had boys try to pick me up in New Orleans, but its just a whole 'nother ballgame here. Behold:

First comes this tall blonde dude that knew me from the elbow trip (if you can recall one of my first entries from July I believe?). At this point I'm sitting by a hotdog stand and it smells heavenly. Naturally I start dropping hints about how hungry I am and then take it up a notch talking about how good it would be to have a hotdog. He must be too drunk to get it or too Scandinavian or something and so I end up having to buy my own hotdog. So I'm not happy about that, but then he asks me for a bite. Yea, I'm fine with that. Instead of a bite, however, he manages to eat HALF of my hotdog that I paid for MYSELF in one swoop. Ok, that really, really makes me angry. I give him a look that could've killed a small dog, and tell him to get lost. After him comes some dude (nationality indeterminable) and his friend who start talking to me about basketball. They're Chris Paul fans, so I talk to them for awhile. My Moonbeam radar goes off and I see her and hula dancer move to a booth so I excuse myself and trail them. I settle into a new spot about 30 feet away from the happy couple and am approached by some French guy no more than a minute later. I can't remember a thing about what he was saying except that I thought he was pretty dumb. I tell him I know a French phrase and say in my best French accent, "laissez le bon temps rouler!" He has no idea what I'm saying and then when I tell him he's like,"Oh. No one says that." And I'm like,"Whatever, we say it in New Orleans all the time." Then I encourage him to move along. Next come a couple of American boys. I think the one doing most of the talking was from Boston. We all know how much I love people from Boston, sheesh. But I talk to him for a bit, all the while keeping my watch. I see Moonbeam and hula boy part ways so I flag her down.

Its definitely time to go, I've had all I can take, so I excuse us and drag Moonbeam towards the door. She continues to flash that damn sign at every male we walk past while I'm yelling at her the whole time,"Put that away!" and "Give me that!" But she thinks this is really funny and keeps it just out of my reach. We're trying to figure out the best way to get home and she thinks it would be a good idea to call Liam to come get us. I know there's no way he's going to come down here and get us but she somehow manages to call him anyway. When I wrestle the phone away from her I apologize and explain everything is fine and that despite the condition of my friend here, I'm quite sober. I think that we should cross over to the other side of the harbor or walk to George St. because we don't have a lot for cab fare, but she ignores me and takes off for the nearest street where all the cabs pass and flags one down. I tell the driver we only have $15, and that manages to get us back to campus and the rest of the walk isn't bad. We pass these wasted angry dudes on Carillon right outside the village and Moonbeam gets in an insult match with them. I tell the dudes to grow up and hussle us into the village. Ah village, sweet village. I get Moonbeam back to her apartment and then wash my very dirty hippie feet before getting into bed myself. And that was my Aussie Halloween. Very hectic at times, but so entertaining just the same; I'm very satisfied. [Sidenote: while it sounds like I want to kill Moonbeam for her drunk antics, that is not the case. Every drunko deserves a good babysitter.]

On Saturday, actual Halloween, it was a gorgeous spring day. I laid out a bit and then wrote my final paper/reflection for social work on the porch at Hoochies. Reflecting back over the course, it really hit home for me how much I enjoyed it. It was by far my favorite class here and I've bonded with the other kids in my tutorial quite a bit. The professor was amazing and she encouraged me to network with the Aussie kids, which I have. So say I really get fed up with America someday I'll have some good contacts in psych/social work over here, haha. But yea, great class. It has made me consider social work even more seriously as a grad school/career path.

Sunday I went to Coogee beach with some friends to reward myself for finishing my two final social work projects a day early. The weather was so gorgeous this weekend. As I lay on the beach, I remarked to my friend that I thought that was probably the best November 1st I'd ever had. I was a huge failure after the beach though and bought myself an ice cream cookie and bag of chips for the bus ride home. After eating that I felt really gross so I went for a run when I got home. My ipod died halfway through though and so I ended up in a park playing on the swing for half an hour thinking about how much I love my life.

Today I didn't do anything of note but start researching for my Buddhist philosophy final paper. What a pain in the bum, I have such a hard finals schedule compared to everyone else. Oh well, at least I know that there will be free Tim Tams and hot chocolate awaiting me at 8 in the Well every night this week. Also, tomorrow morning I get to watch the Saints game since Monday at 7pm = Tuesday at 11am here. I have some big fanfare planned. Even during finals I really can't complain. Such is life down under I guess. Man, I'm going to miss this place (just 3 weeks left...).

Day 111: So I lied...

I manage to have a couple of productive days Monday and Tuesday which is really fortunate because we have a cocktail in the Ocean Room on Tuesday night for the internship program promo video. They somehow talked me into being on this video to talk a little bit about my experience interning after I initially declined, because we all know I don't do much of anything at my job. But yea, I'm glad they did because I got a night of free drinks on the harbour for doing it. So I catch the bus down to the Quay with fellow Tulanians Joanna and Sim. Joanna spends the entire bus ride telling us greek mythological stories as she has her mythology final on Thursday. They're really weird and provacative and she talks really loud so we attract a lot of weird looks. We get to the Ocean room and meet up with my BMRI friends. I have something like 3 glasses of champagne in the first 30min setting a horrible pace for the night and make a liar out of myself (inevitable right?). My friends and I have a wonderful time chatting and taking in the harbour views. I look dumb on the video, as I really didn't have anything interesting to say for it (imagine that), and the camera adds 10 pounds to my face which is really gross looking. Or maybe Australia added 10 pounds to my face, its debatable.

While I should go home after the cocktail to do something productive and/or sleep, we decide it would be better to go out. Brilliant, right? First we head to the Argyle as I made a big case for it because I've never been and its supposed to be ledge. And it is quite nice. We have another drink and chat for awhile. Then out of nowhere, someone gets another brilliant idea: (I really can't remember whose idea it was, but all signs point to either Joanna or I embarrassingly enough...) its Tuesday, therefore we should go to Scruffy's! Oh, and we should walk. From the Rocks to Scruffy's. That's a long way, but that's alright! We can do it. (Please note I'm making fun of us.)So we start off and have a jolly time walking there. Tony, Joanna, and I notice a bus going by about halfway there and so we run to the bus stop and catch it the rest of the way there, and I'm quite glad we did. The other girls though were true champs and walked it all the way.

So we get to Scruffy's and take over the downstairs creepo basement that is oh so familiar. I'm quite happy to be down there having a nice breakdown session; it has been way to long since I went out dancing. Then I hear the DJ come over the speakers and yell,"What up Tuesday at Scruffys! Make noise for Jo-ANNA's 21st!!" I look toward the booth and sure enough see her back there.. hahaha. (Just to be clear, it is definitely not Joanna's birthday.) Then DJ Benny starts buying us free drinks, lots of free drinks. So we take turns wearing the DJ headphones, yelling things over the speakers, etc. Its really hilarious. We eventually decide it would be in our best interest to go home and go to bed (seeing as we never should have come in the first place). Before we go, DJ Benny asks for my number so he can tell us where he's DJing around. I think that could be cool as we would be VIPs and all that stuff so I give it to him, yea my real number. Then we head home.

The next morning as I'm sitting in my office chair at the computer in the data room at the BMRI, which I seriously struggled to get to 30min late, I get a text message from DJ Benny. I have totally forgotten that I gave him my number and while reading this message all I can do it laugh at myself and my ridiculous life. Ohhh my ridiculous life. I wouldn't trade it.

Day 108: The Hangover

Its another rainy Sunday. Subsequently, I can't be bothered to do anything but sit in my room in a t-shirt stuffing my face with cereal and toast or sleeping. After waking up from a nap that drug on for hours, I just polished off one bowl of cheerios, one bowl of corn flakes/cheerios/cocoa krispies (I miss mix-a-bowls, can you tell?) and 2 pieces of black currant jam toast and 1 piece of cheesy toast. Mmmmmm. I'm about to explode. And I really, really want to go back to bed. I figure the sleeping will pay off and I'll be really sharp when I stay up late tonight doing homework. I have officially hit the home stretch for the semester. This week I hope to complete round one successfully: BMRI presentation, a Buddhist philosophy short essay (750 wd), and my two final projects for social work. I can't even remember what happens in round 2, but my large Buddhism essay is due (2500 wd) and that makes me very, very afraid.

So this weekend we went to Avoca. The house we were staying in was really cool, it was quite large with a nice back patio with beach views and an indoor pool. Upon our arrival I just wanted a pizza from Eagle Boys so Koko and I went to pick that up and stop by the bottle shop. They were having a special on Canadian Club for $30 (yea, liquor prices are RIDICULOUS if I haven't already whined extensively about that...) so I bought that. When I was getting out of the car back at the house, the bottom fell out of the freakin' brown paper bag they put my whiskey in and it FELL TO THE GROUND AND SHATTERED. I can't even tell you how angry I was. Really, I'm not going to try. Imagine watching your only bottle of alcohol for the weekend plummeting towards the cement in slow motion then smashing into a million pieces and the smell of whiskey filling the air as it races around the glass shards down the driveway into the gutter. Yea. So after having a few pieces of pizza and trying to pull myself together I determine the best course of action would be to go buy myself the cheapest bottle of wine I can find as a pitiful substitute for all that whiskey that had now either evaporated or found its home in the gutter. Matthew stopped me on the way out and said that the others were going to stop by the bottler on the way home from buying their dinner and buy me another bottle. Aww how sweet, yea? So they show back up a bit later with a bottle of some stuff called Woodstock. I noticed it at the bottler earlier, it was very cheap relatively speaking, but that was really nice so I am happy.

So flashforward a few partytastic hours later and this Woodstock business has hit me pretty hard. Flashforward to the next morning and I wake up feeling as though I have been hit by a freakin' bus. What is this foreign feeling? Could it be, the mythical hangover? Oh my gosh, I have a hangover; a first for me in Australia. I have a headache, I feel perpetually nauseous, I just want to lie around and not be bothered. So I lie around until its time to go to the beach. Then I go there and sleep in the sand for a couple of hours. Then I go back to the house before everyone else, shower, and sleep for a few hours. And FINALLY around 5pm, I wake up from my latest nap and feel halfway normal again. Curse you cheap nasty poisonous whiskey!! I declare that I'm never drinking again. Crap that was awful. And, for the record, I didn't drink again Saturday night.

That's basically the Avoca trip.

Day 105: The Beginning of the End (wow that's the saddest title ever...)

As of today, 22 October (as the Aussies would write), I only have one month left in Sydney and only one week left of class. I dreamed about going home two nights ago, it was weird. I don't wanna leave!! And I sure as heck don't want to pack this room up...

So, if you recall, I had quite an awesome weekend; and the fun didn't stop on Sunday. It was a lovely spring morning with showers rolling in. Matthew and I drove to Sydney's beautiful landmarky church St. Mary's cathedral that morning for mass. I haven't been to proper mass except for Krissie's confirmation so this was great fun for me. The church is gorgeous and I really enjoyed hearing the choir and loved the incense they were swinging around everywhere. After church, Matthew took me to see Elizabeth Bay at Potts Point. We strolled around enjoying the neighborhood and its nice gardens and shops before stopping in at a German cafe called Maggie's for brunch. I got this massive omelet with hashbrowns and toast. I think I can say breakfast is now officially my favorite meal of the day. Except for fourth meal, ha. Maybe not, I have a very ambivalent relationship with four meal. We went back to Newtown after that and I took a rainy Sunday afternoon nap, which is the best of all naps.

The rest of the week has been pretty standard, there were a few things of note: Monday I upped the weight on my bar for pump class, which was a lovely challenge and my arms actually felt a bit sore the next day. Tuesday I had a really awesome day, it was sunny and gorgeous out. There are these really great trees all over campus that are covered in purple flowers that I love. My connect group was good and I had my very last history tutorial and lecture until the final! Yay. That night I went for a run and ended up getting lost in Stanmore which was a fun adventure and good exercise.

Wednesday was another day at the BMRI doing 9-5 things. I'm really feeling the heat right now because I present on my research this coming Thursday. I spent the entire 8 hours of work crunching numbers on SPSS and sorting out what all of my data meant. I think in the end I came up with some presentable findings. I don't really know though. I didn't leave work until 6 actually and left my data for St. Tony, as I like to call him (who is another intern, but like a really important one that doesn't have to organize filing cabinets and stuff...) to look over and determine whether or not it makes sense. He has been my savior for this whole thing re-teaching me SPSS and dealing with all my annoying questions. While I hate fooling with stats and stressing over all this, some part of me thinks its cool.

I went straight to the gym after work for step class. I caught my reflection in the mirror a couple of times and couldn't help but think about how I am SO my mom when I'm doing aerobics. On the way home, I was passing the Wentworth building when I heard a saxophone. I listened a bit more and sure enough, it was the sweet sound of jazz floating out from the Herman Bar. I couldn't help myself and turned back around to go sit in and have a listen. The bar is really small so I was still noticeable sitting by myself even though I tried to get an inconspicuous table in the back. I was quite enjoying myself when this drunk dude sitting with a bunch of other drunk dudes yells,"Hey pretty lady." Or something to that effect. I cringed. He can't really be talking to me, I just left the gym. I stink. I'm sweaty. Everyone at the bar heard him yell that and looked at me. I tried to hide a little bit, but it didn't work because one of the other dudes yells,"Hey! You're Liam's friend." Oh, great. And then another yells,"Precious? PRECIOUS!" (As in the nickname Liam and the other Aussie boys gave me on our Blue Mountains trip to make fun of me.) I know one of the boys out of 5, and I certainly had no idea who this guy was that was calling me Precious. I was quite embarrassed and also cornered so I joined them over on the couches they were sitting on. After I got over the initial embarrassment of appearing to be that girl that got picked up by a bunch of drunkos, it ended up being pretty amusing. They bought me a drink and there was some promotion going on for a cider brand so I ended up getting a free visor and pair of sunglasses. When I left the bar I promptly gave Liam a call and whinged about his friends embarrassing me. Then I ended up hanging out at his place that night mostly listening to jazz in the loft. He kindly let me do my laundry over there, which saves me $15, and couldn't have happened any sooner. I was definitely out of underwear.

Nothing of note happened today really except Liam and I had breakfast at Hoochie's; two flat whites, a bowl of cinnamon porridge for me (I LOVE their porridge) and a Big Hoochie Breakfast for him. Did I already say how much I love breakfast? Also, I picked up the pictures I had developed from the water camera I brought with me over spring break. They came out very nicely and I'm quite excited. Tomorrow I'm going to the Central Coast with about 12 other people for the weekend. We rented a swanky house up there. Should be a good time, I hope the weather is nice.

Day 101 (woah broke 100!): The Surreal Life

I just got up from a nap and I'm sitting at my desk now having a cup of peppermint tea thinking back over the last few days. I feel like I'm living somebody else's life. Some really cool person that lives in Sydney and hangs out with cool Aussies in all the amazing neighborhoods that are full of so much character. I had such a fabulous weekend, check it out.

Thursday is University of New South Whales' Oktoberfest which is supposedly their party of the year. I have class until 6 but hear there's no chance of getting in if I leave that late, so my friend Maya talks me into leaving at 4. We meet at the uni bus stop, except she's across the street from me when the bus pulls up and is like,"Hurry up! Get over here." Well, the day before I was talking it over with a local friend, Tom, over chicken schnitzel at the Lansdowne Hotel and he said to make sure I catch a bus headed towards Broadway. So I was like,"No, its okay, we have to get the bus going this way." So she's like, oh, and comes over to my side and we continue to wait for a 370 that's headed towards Broadway. One finally shows up and I punch my travel ten (bus card w/10 rides on it) and then ask the bus driver where the stop is for UNSW. He says,"Wrong bus. Catch it on the other side." WHAT?! I already punched my card! Oh, and then I look at it and see that I wasted my LAST trip on the card. Crap, Tom! Naturally I have a fit for a few minutes as we get off the bus and head across the street. Maya has an extra card with a trip left on it and kindly lets me use that. Finally a 370 comes that is heading in the real correct direction and we're on our way. In Newtown Tim, Noah, and Codey happen to catch the same bus we're on, so that's cool.

Its a REALLY long trip out into weirdo Sydney suburbia and we finally get to this place that looks like a large high school complete with one of those scrolling marque sign boards out front. Yep, that's UNSW. We go around the corner to the entrance and there I behold the longest, hugest line I have ever seen in my entire life. It was like 20 yards wide and went back for at least 100 yards, probably more. We are all feeling very intimidated. Maya has housemates that left a little earlier than us, so she gives them a ring. Somehow they have managed to weasel their way up to towards the front of this massive queue and so Maya and I decide it would be in our best interest to join them. Once we squeeze into line, its like a giant mosh pit. I'm squashed into all sorts of people, some of which have intense body odor. I talk a bit with some people that are pinned on my shoulder that go to University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a girl was like,"Oh, you go to Sydney. That's a really proper school." Or something to that effect. That comment in addition to the marque sign in front of UNSW confirm for me that I'm going to the Yale of Australia. (UTS and UNSW are the two other big schools in Sydney.) After a very intense half hour or so in line we make it in the gate and proceed to drink lots of beer. Oktoberfest at UNSW is comprised of lots of food and beer stands and then several stages with DJs and dance floors; good times. Maya's roommate tells Maya he will buy her a beer if she snaps this guy's suspenders who's standing behind us in line. I decide to up the anti and ask if he'll buy me a beer if I snap the guy's suspenders with my teeth. Of course he will. And so begins me getting free drinks and food for the rest of the night, aw yea.

The security people end up shutting it down at midnight and we have to figure out how to get home since the buses have stopped running. Luckily, they've chartered buses to get people back to Central so we get on one of those. I realize I really don't want to walk or get cab home from Central so I get brilliant and call Liam and ask him to come get me. He's sweet and drops Maya and one of her remaining roommates off at their place and then we go back to his where he's having a get together. I end up hanging out there the rest of the night. Around 4, I get really hungry for some ice cream and get his roommate, Chris, to walk with me to the nearest gas station (he promptly corrected me, its a petrol station). I get a hazelnut vanilla swirl drumstick (my new obsession) and we proceed to make up a quasi-rap about it the entire walk home. I end up crashing on the couch. This ends up being convenient for a few reasons. The first is Liam and I are planning on going kayaking in the harbour today anyway. The second is Liam cooked me a steak for breakfast, "Walt Whitman style." I'm pretty sure he made that up.

After breakfast and stuff we drive to a very swanky neighborhood on the harbour called Rose Bay. After stopping at a petrol station for some juice and lollies we get to the beach where the kayaking guy has his rental stand. The bay is terrifically gorgeous. However, the rental guy is nowhere to be found. We wait around awhile on the beach before giving up and heading to Watson's Bay. There's some national park land there as its at the mouth of the harbour that offers amazing views of the skyline and harbour bridge from across the bay. We scramble around some of the rocks over the bay and walk to some of the harbour-side beaches. One of which is a nude beach where a bunch of old dudes hang out all day. It is the most ridiculous thing; some of them are sunbathing, but most of them are just up walking around, poking rocks with sticks and stuff. Needless to say, we don't stick around there long. We end our walk there at the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbour looking out over the Pacific. The whole thing is so surreal and gorgeous. I'm a little ticked I don't have my camera.

After that we head to the gap which are these giant cliffs over the Pacific. Apparently this is the site of the most suicides in Australia; people hurl themselves over the edge with relative frequency. Subsequently, there is a large fence separating the road and the cliff edge. We jump it and lay down to gaze over the edge. The surf is magnificent and we spend at least half and hour staring at the delightful patterns it makes swirling over the rocks. Then a trip to Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo is in order to have the best meat pies in Australia. Liam orders a massive hot dog de wheels for himself and a tiger for me. The tiger turns out to be triple decker: a beef pie on the bottom, a layer of mashed green peas in the middle, then mash potatoes and gravy on top. I have no idea how to eat this, but figure it out somehow. Decadent. I have to head back to the village after the pie as I'm meeting Amber at Hoochie's before we go to a party at Koko's. Incase you can't tell, I had a really stinkin' wonderful day.

On Saturday, I wake up, run some errands, and go grocery shopping before meeting up with ArinMichelle (friend from Tulane) to go on our adventure quest for Italian food. We catch a bus to Circular Quay (the harbour hub) and then buy tickets for the ferry to Balmain where one of her friends who studied here a few years ago suggested we go for good Italian. While waiting for the ferry we go shop for a didgeridoo for her little brother and I spot a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in the harbour. Upon closer inspection I discover its THE RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS!!! The very first cruise ship I have ever been on! It sailed all the way to Sydney to come see me!! I get Arin to take several pictures of me in front of it. Then the ferry comes and we're sailing past the cruise ship doing their muster (thanks for the correction Scrobert :) station drills, the opera house, and right under the harbour bridge. I want to explode because my life is that incredible.

We get off the ferry in Balmain and after asking several people for directions, we happen upon a very promising Italian place. We have the best time doodling on the white paper table cover and catching up on each others lives. Then my lasagna and her cannelloni come out and they are SO divine. For dessert, Arin insisted I buy a Tim Tam (which I did before we left) so I could do the Tim Tam slam. By the way, Tim Tams are these amazing cookies adored by all Aussies. So I got myself a flat white (coffee) and bit off two cattycorner ends of the Tim Tam which I then used like a straw to suck the coffee up into the biscuit. Then I turned it around and bit off the coffee saturated end before it crumble/melted into my coffee. It was so mindblowing. Don't take my word for it, you must try this. I'm bringing Tim Tams home, you must try this.

Arin and I end up having lots of lovely adventures in Balmain before getting a bus back to Glebe, which is the neighborhood across campus from Newtown, where I live. We have big designs on going out in the Rocks once we get home and change, but it starts to rain while we're on the bus. Our ambition fades and we end up just hanging out at a cafe in Glebe having more dessert (cannoli and apple strudel). Another amazing, mindblowing, Sydney-rific day if I do say so myself. I really have the best life ever.