Loving Each Day

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(note: I finally added birthday pictures to my entry before this one - check them out!!)

G’Day -

With my busy social life (wooo), school, and work… this semester is already FLYING by!! I just finished my 4th week of uni, which means only 3 more weeks until my 2 week Autumn break!! AHH!! Which then means only 5 weeks of classes left - ahhhh!! This week I have been going non-stop! I have 2 essays and an essay test in the next 3 weeks, in addition to cleaning the apartment for the arrival of our new Brazilian roommate (who is coming tomorrow), PLUS work, PLUS making time for some fun with friends… but I can honestly say I’ve never been happier! I am loving my life here more and more every single day and know I am really going to be so sad to have to say goodbye to this amazing place!

I am really loving my classes (in addition to making new friends in them!) and am learning SO much! Keeping up with reading around 100 pages a week PER class is a bit much, but it's always rewarding to make intelligent comments in class instead of sitting there silently listening to everyone else, haha. I don't think I've ever enjoyed school so much in my life, actually! It could be due to the fact that the weather has been INCREDIBLY beautiful the past couple weeks... cloudless skies and temps in the low to mid 80s... couldn't get any better!! Walking to the bus stop in the morning and enjoying the sun is SO much better than trudging through a foot of snow and ice in Iowa City! Also, I have discovered $4.00 spinach/ham/cheese omelets at the gym's cafe on campus (which is pretty much like getting paid to eat, nothing in Sydney is that cheap!). So yeah, life = great!

Anyways... last weekend was SO much fun!! Thursday night I stayed on campus and went to Ubar (the Uni Bar... a bar that's run by the university on campus) and it was toga night - which was great! I went with my (American) friend Eric from one of my classes and my friend Andrew from Hong Kong, who is good friends with MY good friend and old neighbor, Chris! It was fun to see everyone that I hung out with last semester who I don't see much, unless running I run into them on campus.

Friday night a bunch of my friends (Eric, Andrew, Andrew's brother Angus, Chris, Chris' girlfriend Clare, and an Aussie girl, Maureen) and I went to Hugos for amazing $5.00 pizza and drinks! After that we came back here and played some really fun card games and had some goon (code for the cheapest boxed wine that uni students tend to buy). After that, we walked down the street to Jacksons, but everyone but Eric decided to leave. So Eric and I hung out in Jacksons and we sat and talked to this Kiwi who was hitting on Eric all night (who isn't gay, but gets hit on by more guys than me, haha)... then Eric went to ask for a shot or something and the bartender said no, and next think we know we are getting kicked out for no reason! That's the stupid thing about bars in Australia - they kick everyone and anyone out for NO reason, which kinda sucks... especially since all we were doing was sitting quietly at a table talking! Anyways, it was a really fun night... I'm definitely going to miss going out in a multi-cultural group of people - we had people from Australia, America, and Hong Kong 😊 FUN!

Saturday night I decided to stay in and get some work done - nothing too exciting. Raphaela works 7 nights a week now, so since it's just been us 2 in the apartment the past 2 weeks, it's been nice to have a lot of alone time!!

Sunday I went to church, which, again, was great! It's called Hillsong and they have them in London, Stockholm, and a couple other big cities. The Assistant Pastor spoke (a really good sermon), but it's cool because the Assistant Pastor is the Pastor's wife, and I don't think I've ever heard a woman do a sermon in all my years of church! It's a very multi-cultural church as well... mostly people in their 20s I would say, but there are a few families here and there. After church I met up with my friend Justin, and American guy (who I've probably mentioned before) who is from Boston but has been living and working here for a few years. We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art (because it's free and we're poor) and we actually had a lot of fun walking around looking at the different exhibits and trying to critique them 😊 After that, we sat on the harbour by the Opera House (in the hot sun) and chatted while people watching for a couple of hours. We played the 'guess the nationality game' (haha) and tried to pick out where each person that walked by was from. American's are usually the easiest because of the American brands they wear... or the guys that wear cargo shorts! Haha. I had so much fun with him though - it was a perfect day spent in Sydney!

Now it's Thursday night and I just finished cleaning and am going to start on an essay, in hopes that I can get most of it done and be able to go salsa dancing down the street for a bit with my roommate! This weekend will be pretty uneventful due to all the homework, but hopefully if this amazing weather keeps up, I can head to the beach to work on my tan for a little bit!! Miss you all!! XOXO

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Photos

TOGA!!!!!
Eric, Andrew, and I on our way to Ubar for the toga party!!

Uni Bar
Eric, Andrew, & Marlow chilling on the deck outside at Ubar (because it's still warm at night here too!! woo)

Friday Night!
Angus, Clare, and Chris @ HUGOS!

HORSE RACES!!
Horse racing, the best card game ever!! Really gets exciting... haha

Hahaha
Andrew, fm Hong Kong, and I :)

RANDOM SHOT
Eric probably laughing, because all he does is talk REALLY LOUD and he giggles at everything!! Hahaha.

My Faves :)
Chris, Eric, and I -- some of the best people I've befriended here in Oz!