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August 8 through 12th.
The concert on Friday night went very well.We were told our friend Mike's band didn't play til 9pm so we left our place around 7:45, since it's about a 40 minute bus ride and we wanted to account for traffic.Together, Jen, Allyson, Dominic, and I all boarded the bus and attempted to make our way to the Gaelic club after reviewing several maps and transit routes.We hopped off the bus at the end of the line right in downtown Sydney.When I looked at the map, the walk was only supposed to be a little over a kilometer, so less than a mile… making the actual trek was different.Not only did we know any of the actual names of cross streets, but no locals knew where the street or the venue was located.We managed to walk an extra kilometers worth or a circle, before finding the intersection of Butt and Elizabeth streets.Laughing at the street name "Butt" kept us entertained for the remaining block before we finally stumbled upon the Gaelic Club around 9:30pm.Fortunately, the band wasn't playing til after ten and Mike was waiting outside for us with our tickets in hand.The band was good!!You can look them up on myspace under the name: Made in Japan.Ironically, there is only one band member of Asian descent.Eventually James showed up, as he was the reason any of us even knew Mike, and we all had some beers, enjoyed the good music, and laughed a lot at the four or five men in their forties dancing to the punk/rock music as best as their aged bodies could allow.After, we walked almost the whole way to Darling Harbour, a portion of downtown, when James decided we needed to take a cab the rest of the way - waste of money on his part.We then attempted to call some friends of his that were supposed to be visiting from Canberra (the country's Capital city a few hours south), but didn't manage to reach them.We also attempted to get into a couple bars, but down in Darling they have dress codes - which none of us except Allyson was properly dressed for.What's wrong with jeans and sneakers in a bar?!We did, however, manage to make our way back to the Cargo Bar (one I mentioned from the night of the harbour cruise) which none of us girls had realized was in Darling... we thought it was way farther away.As before, it was great.Eventually, around 2am, I managed to get in contact with James' visiting friends and they came straight down to the bar.When they couldn't get in, they called and I convinced the bouncers that they were good guys and it would be beneficial to let them in.I think my cute American accent persuaded them more than anything, but it was especially funny because I had never met the two friends - so I didn't actually know if they were nice or not.It turns out they were, I got a free drink out of it for being able to get them in and a 'sausage' as well, courtesy of James.Okay, I know that sounds bad, perverts, but a hot dog to us is a sausage over here, except it comes with fried onions and either tomato sauce (ketchup) or bbq sauce.You can also add cheese.So, I got mine with onions, tomato sauce, and cheese… oh yeah, and they come on an enormous bun, so it's really difficult to eat without taking huge bites!The end of my night was sometime after 4am, after a long taxi ride home.
I slept until 11am or so Saturday and basically didn't do much.I read a little and organized my stuff, but just couldn't get around to being productive.At 5pm our apartments had a get-to-know-your-neighbors sort of bbq, even thought the designated picnic area was way too small for the 70+ residents that attended.There were free sausages and we brought our own beer down, so that wasn't too bad.Our apartments consist of four buildings; three floors each, two apartments per floor, four beds per apartment.Basically, the whole place has a little less than 100 residents at maximum capacity.After the sausagefest (I'm so funny, I know!) we were going to organize some beer pong in our apartment, but someone else beat us to it.So, we went over there and played - met a couple of our American neighbors and other internationals.Allyson and I lost two games, both to Kevin and Gordy who were dominating the table all night, and decided to call it quits.Jen wasn't feeling well, and Allyson and I wanted to move on to bigger and better things.We regrouped back at our place, Jen went to bed, and Allyson and I went across the street to the bar where the school girl-themed party was a couple days prior.I went without money (again, because I didn't want to spend any on beer) which ended up being fine as you'll soon know why.Allyson and I immediately walked up to the bar, and, upon hearing that I hadn't brought money, she offered to buy me a drink.Right before we ordered, a tall man approached us, talked to us for a few seconds, and then bought us each a drink.(Here, if you want to buy a round of beer, you say something like "no worries mates, my shout!" just to fill you all in on some lingo.)Shortly after, the guy introduced us to a few other people, and after a while Allyson and I had each had a few free beers and a couple free shots of a drink called a "Quick f***", which was actually really good!It is made with Medori, bailey's, and Kahlua.Once we had enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, we headed back home and were in bed just past 1am.
On Sunday, the hardest thing my roomies and I did was call Dominoes and order pizzas for lunch.Now, I hadn't fully come to realize why Australian pizzas are so crappy until this one… I figured it was because there wasn't enough cheese - so I ordered mine with extra mozzarella.When it arrived, it looked extra cheesy, but further inspection proved it to be more of a watery substance rather than cheese.I don't know how it was supposed to be considered edible, because it was definitely not.I even tried baking it longer and then frying it in a pan to get the goo to solidify… but it never managed to improve and each whif of the odor made me gag and little sad.Since then, I've called off ordering extra cheese in the future and possibly any pizza here at all.I may concoct a homemade pizza one of these days, but for now I just need to get the nasty smell and taste out of my mind.The evening was even more uneventful - aside from watching the Olympics, we did absolutely nothing.We all headed to bed early.What a waste of a day, huh?It's alright; our bodies have endured a great deal of abnormal happenings these past ten or so days!We've over-danced, under-slept, been cold when we figure it'll be hot, drank more in a week than we'd ever consume in a month (courtesy of the generous Aussie male population), endured tour after tour, rode more transit systems than knew existed, and have walked all over for errands, classes, and meals.
Monday was just another school day that started at 11am with a two hour Anthropology lecture on Orientalism and Art.I actually enjoyed it, as I learned a lot about stereotypes from it.(Speaking of, last week, one of my Aussie friends thought all American's love bagels… according to him, that's all they eat on the O.C.I thought that was hilarious, then we had lunch at a bagel shop, just to confirm his suspicions and I made fun of him for watching the O.C. in the first place.Actually, the bagels looked good and I hadn't had the good old lox and cream cheese in a while.)After lecture, I meandered around campus trying to tie up my financial loose ends.Instead of getting anything accomplished, I sat in a computer lab from about 1:30pm to 3:45pm trying to upload my photos onto this site or facebook, without any luck, of course.It's really ridiculous how difficult this has become.I did end up getting a couple pictures into a new album called "Random…" I don't remember the whole name, but I guess that makes me only slightly successful.I'll for sure try again soon.I had my tutorial at 4 for the Anthropology class; we discussed the day's lecture, watched a short video, and my professor put me on the spot in front of the small class before being released to go home.When I got home, Allyson and I decided to head over to the gym again to work on whatever we found fun - which ended up being leg muscles for me with a little bit of free weights for my arms and abdominal exercises on an exercise ball; those were fun until my body wanted to fail me!Before we went to the gym, we thought it'd be a good idea to grab some dinner before, just so we'd have energy to use up… bad idea since I had a burger and she had a burrito.We're not stupid, we just didn't think it'd be that bad!As it turned out, it wasn't the most excellent idea, and we called it a night early.When we got home, I had some cravings for some junk food so Jen and I headed up to the grocery store in the mall and went shopping.This was when I discovered there is absolutely no yellow cheddar (it's white), or any other yellow cheese, in this country.So I settled with cottage cheese and some parmesan to top the spinach tortellini I bought.That was the end of Monday.
On Tuesdays, I still don't have class until 4pm and that's how it's going to be all semester.But, at noon, Mike's band, the one we saw Friday night, was playing in the school courtyard so Jen and I met up with Allyson and James over there to watch them.It was just as good as it was Friday night, minus the fact there was sun out and we didn't get lost for an hour trying to find the venue!After that, the girls and I went to the bookstore, then to the mall to get some sushi for lunch.The sushi was heaven!They went to class at 2 and I went home to listen to music and relax before 4.Class was fun, though.I learned about cockroaches, platypus, ducks, pigeons, dolphins, whales, rays, and a few important scientists (such as Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen) in the field of Animal Behavior and Ethology.After that, I went home to relax and am now headed to bed!Sorry if this was quick winded, I don't know much about how to tell stories other than listing the experiences out… occasionally I'll get a long wind that sounds good, but I hope you're not expecting too much class or style!!
Laters!
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