20 Dollar Bills, Pizza Parties, & 5am bedtimes...

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Seriously, where does time go!?! It has been flying by, I can't believe it! Not that I'm excited to leave, but I do have a little countdown going, and I'm in the process of changing my ticket if all goes as planned, which means I have only 11 weeks left in this amazing place.

Anyways, last week was a lot of fun! Sunday I went to church at Hillsong again, and they have a bus that takes you from the church to the train station, so on the bus I was sitting in front of 2 American guys (obvious from their accents) and so I turned around and started to chat with them (sophomores from Cali/Wisconsin) and they are studying at a business school in Manly (30 min ferry ride from me). Anyways, they were walking back to the ferry, which is one block from my place, so we all walked the 45 minutes home and it was really fun. I gave them my name to add my on facebook so we could meet up later, but they never added me, haha. But the story will continue on, so keep reading. Anyways, that night I went to my friend Justin's house and he made me a really good dinner (he owed me) and we watched So You Think You Can Dance with his Aussie roommates, which was fun. It's always great meeting new people... and having a delicious home cooked meal 😊

Tuesday was my good friend Chris' 20th birthday. He was my neighbor last semester when I lived in the village by uni (kid from Hong Kong, I'm sure I've mentioned him here before) Anyways, we went to this pizza place (about 15 or 16 of us)... good times & good food... then we went back to his house and had some beers, played some games, then went to the admin building and played some intense ping pong and hung out. I tried catching my 12:30am bus back home, but missed it (the bus schedule lied!) and slept at my friend Eric's place instead of catching a 50 dollar cab home.

The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it, it was Friday! My Aussie friend Norman came over and we grabbed some ice cream that night and sat out by the Opera House and chatted then came back here to watch a couple movies. If you haven't seen 'I am Sam', go rent it! Anyways, he left around 1:30 and my roommate Raphaela had messaged me and said she was at Ship Inn, a small little pub just around the corner from our place. So I stopped by there and ended up staying there til about 4:30am. All her co-workers from her old job go there (lots of South Americans and Aussies) and they are all so nice, so I chilled with them and had a great time. And then I did uni work all day Saturday like a good little student. And then participated in Earth Hour as well 😊

Saturday night was CRAZY! Around 9pm I went down the street to get some beer, but unfortunately it was closed... so as I am about to walk into my apartment building, I see this girl that kind of looks familiar, so I did a double take... and it was Welsh singer, Duffy!! I had just seen an ad on tv that night that she was in town for a concert, and there she was, right outside my apartment! I'm not a fan of her or anything, but she was alone on the phone so I kind of wanted to say something to her, but I didn't. I felt pretty cool though. Anyways, so then Daniele (my new roommate) and I hung out and listened to some Backstreet Boys (no matter what country you're from, all girls know the words to some BSB songs) and we got to know each other a little better, even though the language barrier was a bit difficult. We made it work. So then we went to Ship Inn so we could have a drink and wait for Raphaela to get off work, but she never came and my friend Eric came instead. After that, we headed to Argyle and a couple of my Colombian friends were there as well. As I was standing by the bar, I looked to the left and saw a 20 dollar note on the ground!! I couldn't believe it! It was the best feeling ever and it's now sitting safely in my wallet. After that, a fight broke out at Argyle, which is always exciting, haha. After bar close at 4am, Eric, Daniele, Eric's American friend, and I went to McDonalds for a little late night snack. This place is right in the middle of the city and gets PACKED after bar close, so right after we got our food and sat down, a huge fight broke out by the cash registers and some guy had blood all over his face (very appetizing) and it was pretty intense. I was safely standing on a chair watching while enjoying my cheeseburger, haha. And as we walked outside, there were like, 3 cop cars and 2 ambulances (yes, that is how intense it was. pretty cool, haha.) So then Daniele and I went home and fell asleep around 5am. It's funny how even when you can't fluently speak the same language, that you can still get to know someone and find commonalities, despite coming from different continents 😊

Sooo, Sunday I did homework all day and then met up with this Aussie girl, Kayleigh, for the live album recording for Hillsong church. It was at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and there was probably 3 or 4000 people there, it was huge!! It was basically like a big Christian rock concert - it was so cool!! The stage and singers were amazing... and it was all for free! I will definitely have to buy the cd... one female singer, probably not much older than me, had the most amazing voice EVER!! It was a great night and I am really loving this church and starting to meet some great people. So after that, I met up with Raphaela and we had a cheap, late dinner at Jacksons, just down the street from our apartment. After that, I was walking home a different way so I could stop at the ATM, and guess who walks by me!? The 2 guys I had met at church a week ago!! SUCH A COINCIDENCE! Haha. They told me they had somehow lost the paper with my last name on it and couldn't find me on facebook, haha. So now we are finally friends on facebook and are going to hang out this weekend after church 😊

6 more days of classes for me and then 16 days of BREAK! Woohoo! I'm planning on spending 6 days in Melbourne and then spending the rest of the time working at my job and working on uni assignments. And don't worry Mom, because I'm sure you're reading this and thinking I've turned into a party animal, but I have not 😊 I'm trying way harder in school that I probably ever have (which is strange, since most exchange student blow off school altogether)... and I also love my classes and enjoy what I'm learning, so that probably helps too. Overall, I'm still having an absolute blast and am trying to live up my last 80 days here!!!

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Photos

Pizza Party
Chris' Birthday

Chris' Awesome Bday Present
My friend Andrew and I got Chris a birthday present, but we didn't have tape, so we used a stapler and made it into a pirate ship... hahaha

Friday Night!
@ Ship Inn with Raphaela, Andres, Eddie, & Andres#2

Saturday Night!
Daniele & I @ Argyle

Drinks @ Argyle
Eric & Daniele