(Saudi) Arabian Nights and Goodbye Parties

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Our good friend Jama (from England) headed home this past week, so we had a few different going away parties for him.

The first came during hell week for me. I had three assessments due last week, and I did nothing but that. So the first going away party at the Hog’s Breath Café was quite non-eventful for me.

We all headed out Thursday night (about 20 of us in the end I believe) and ate and drank for a few hours with Jama. We were quite the crew in the upper dining area of the place (it’s basically a bar and grill down by the Wharf). After his dinner, Des, Nikki, the other Nikki, and I headed back to UniCentral, where Des and I worked on assessments that were due on Friday until almost one in the morning.

Des and I had promised Jama that we’d see him again before he left, possibly at Sand Dunes.

Side story: last week, before we went out, we were hanging out in Jama’s room and an angry security guard named Calvin kicked us all out, and kicked Jama out for good. Calvin has a vendetta against LIFE, and is always unhappy. So that was not a fun night. Jama went to stay for his last week at a place called Sand Dunes where our Saudi Arabian friends live.

So Friday came and we found out that there was to be a surprise party for Jama at Sand Dunes that night, and that our friend Obi would pick Jama up and we would all take a taxi there so that he would be none the wiser.

However, the clock turned six (we were going to be at Sand Dunes by seven) and Jama showed up! We had no idea what to do, so we convinced him that we were leaving for the night to take pictures at a spot someone told us was awesome. In the process, Ashley accidentally asked all of us where Marcoola Beach was (the beach Sand Dunes is on) while Jama was in the room. So we had to lie some more and tell him the place was somewhere around there.

All this time, we were trying to figure out how to get ahold of Obi to have him come pick Jama up so that we could all leave. We tried to convince Jama to call Obi and to stick around Uni while we left…he basically thought none of us wanted to hang out wit him on his last night.

So Obi finally showed up and we left, saying we’d maybe see Jama on the beach. A $70 cab ride later, we helped our other Saudi friends set everything up. There’s Jass (Jazz), Abdullah, Arman, Fajad, Obi, Obi’s French girlfriend Aude, and Aziz, and then there was our group: Ashley, Eddie, Misha, Des, Berto, and I. We were quite the crew!

Jama showed up and was super surprised, and we had a great barbeque. After the barbeque, we decided it was a good idea to head down to Marcoola Beach (a five minute walk, if even). It was about ten at night at that point. We spent the next six hours at the beach listening to music, playing in the ocean (bad idea, I know!), taking pictures, having a few drinks, and just talking. It was by far the best night I’ve had in Australia yet! It was like a scene out of a movie.

Around 4, we proceeded to head back to the boys apartment and watched a movie, and then everyone spread out in the apartment and went to bed around six in the morning. The next day, we all felt pretty gross, so the story ends with me showering and falling into bed at noon!

Saturday I did absolutely nothing except for get off my butt around 7 to hang out with Jama, and then when he left at 9:30 we all went our separate ways. It was a very low key weekend, and a pretty boring holiday as Monday was Labour Day and we did absolutely nothing. Two four day weekends in a row aren’t as exciting as you’d guess.

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Photos

Hog's Breath Dinner
Jama and his ladies

Candlelit Beauties
Me Des n Ash