I just can't get you out of my head...

Song: "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue

March 7th

Mardi Gras is a big deal in Sydney. Some of you who know that Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" and might recognize that today was neither a Tuesday, nor the day before Ash Wednesday...

Regardless, we all decided we wanted to see the Mardi Gras parade going on in the streets of Sydney. The crew that went to the mall yesterday to get outfits was doing some getting ready prepping at Cam, Bernie and Erin's apartment. Everyone looked phenomenal.

From Sydney Mardi Gras

From Sydney Mardi Gras

From Sydney Mardi Gras

We eventually left after spraying and glittering everyone up, and made it to the train station where surprisingly the whole group boarded the train successfully. Well, the first one at least. I think the second one even worked too. However, when it came time to switch to our third and final train, we had a group that decided they needed to use the restroom.

Earlier this morning, my roommates Sean and Andy went to go pick up their friend Bryce at the airport. He was flying in to visit them for his spring break at school. This means all of them had been awake since 6am. These three, Tara, Mary, Jeff and I all decided to either use the bathroom, or wait for someone who did. This was where we lost the other 30 people we were with.

The Bathroom Crew:

From Sydney Mardi Gras

We got off at St. James station, because I knew that was close to Oxford St. since I had been there the other night. The bathroom crew successfully found the parade. Tara and I went to Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King) and got something to eat, then realized the guys had gone to get kebabs and split one of those too. Tara hadn't eaten all day, and I just love kebabs, which are essentially thinner, crispier pita wraps with different sauces. I'm not sure I ate any more the rest of the night.

I think by this period of time Mary had found some other friends that she knew, and we lost her as well. We did find her again and decided to go to the Brighton Hotel, which was essentially just a bar along Oxford Street. We had some time to kill before the parade actually started, so we chilled in here for a bit. This place played essentially nothing but Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Britney Spears, and boy bands from the 90s. It was essentially the perfect theme music for the evening.

Here are the boys:

From Sydney Mardi Gras

Me and Tara:

From Sydney Mardi Gras

The theme of the parade was "Nations United" which I thought was a beautiful theme name once I realized that I was incorrectly reading the sign name as "United Nations." It felt especially cool to me being from a different nation and uniting for this excellent celebration of the liveliness of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian community. It was the greatest party ever; I had a blast. The funny part was when we actually did find the rest of our travel group, they were across the street. The only way to get to them would be to cross through the parade. After all that work trying to find them, we were at an impasse.

We did spend a bit too much of the parade looking for everyone else, but aside from that, watching and admiring the wild costumes and spectacles made the day incredibly enjoyable. The guys were exhausted, as expected, so we ended up back at the Brighton Hotel for a bit to rest from walking all over the place. Toward the end of the evening we had to start holding hands in order to not lose what was left of our shrinking group, but we made it to the bus stop and back to campus without trouble. The guys were so exhausted that we went straight to sleep. I was ready for it too.