Rain rain go away

So I woke up today at the lovely late hour of ten o'clock (seriously, the latest I've woken up in weeks!), and there was just rain POUNDING against my window. Mom and Nick left early this morning and I said goodbye to them last night, so it was such a relief to not have to go anywhere and just stay inside! I literally stayed in my pajamas until about three in the afternoon. :) And it's good that I had some fruit in my room, otherwise I just wouldn't have eaten because the prospect of leaving my room was that unappealing. I just can not be grouped into the category of rain-loving people, especially when the rain is cold and it's cold outside too. Yuck. I finally got to talk to some people back home on the phone though - Sam and Sasha!!! Which made me so happy, because since my family's been here, I actually don't think I've talked to any of my friends from home, which is without a doubt the longest I've ever gone without speaking to them. (I mean, we email, but it's not the same.) What makes me feel so removed from the States is not the distance away but the time difference. Especially when everyone starts school, it's going to take some work to coordinate when I can actually talk to people! Luckily, Skype is a miracle invention and amazing (except when it breaks like it did the past couple days...haha).

Anyway, this weekend was much more relaxed than last weekend! On Friday, Mom and Nick came to the skating rink with me out in Canterbury, which was nice, because they got to see the dodgy neighborhood that makes me so nervous and understand why. Haha. On the bus out there, we definitely saw some people with serious mental problems talking to themselves and such. Nick loved it. Awesome. In any case, despite the conditions of the neighborhood and the rink, it was SO good to skate because three weeks without skating is the longest I have gone since I was about 11, I think. As long as I get to do it once in a while, though, I have faith that my abilities won't go down TOO much. Then we had a casual dinner in Asian Central (as I like to call the area where they were staying - during dinner, out of the HUNDREDS of people passing by our window, I believe we counted 12 white people - haha!) and looked around the ridiculous Asian stores and just hung out at the apartment. I have to say one of my favorite things about their apartment besides the AMAZING view was the fact that there was TV. It is such a great waste of time. :)

Then on Saturday, we had YUM CHA, which is what we would call Dim Sum back at home. It was one of the most amazing meals I have had here, without a doubt. We went to this place right in the middle of Chinatown (sorry Daddy I know you must be jealous...but we were thinking of you!), and it was incredibly crowded and bustling, with carts flying everywhere, and you choose your little dishes off the carts. There was practically endless selection and everything was SOOOOOO GOOD. As much as huge groups of pushy scary Asian tourists kind of annoy me, the food of Asia more than makes up for it, I must say. Seriously, I am obsessed with Asian food. And it is just unbelievably good here! The downside of it being such an authentic experience is that they just mark off on a little card what you've gotten, everything is in Chinese, and you have NO idea how much stuff costs until you look at the bill and are like ooops. Heh.

After that, we went to Bondi Beach because Mom really wanted to see it, and it's beautiful! Unfortunately they won't get the chance to see it again but I for one am 1. planning to learn how to surf and 2. going there as FREQUENTLY as possible come October or so! So that was a nice relaxing afternoon, and then at night since it was their last night here we had dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sydney Tower, which is the tallest building here and really distinctive looking. It was this all you can eat buffet so we probably each went up about 7 times. Because that is what you have to do at one of those - milk it for all its worth. Haha. :)

So after all the touring and everything of the past couple weeks, it was GREAT to have a day today doing pretty much nothing. Although I do have some work to do - I have my first quiz this week in my Materials class and a lab for that same class and another assignment for scary drawing class to start working on. But Larissa is coming this week so the vacation will pretty much continue! I hope the rain doesn't, though...seriously, when is the weather going to get perfect like I've heard it should always be in Australia?

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