I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush...

Song: "Orange Crush" covered by Editors originally by R.E.M.

Date: May 26th

Today was an interesting evening. Class was not worth writing about exactly.

But in the evening, I was invited to go to my new friend Kait's birthday celebration at Pancakes on the Rocks, which I was super excited about because I hadn't been there before. I had some sort of delicious chocolate strawberry pancake thing. It was so good. I got there early and waited for the rest of the party. Two other guests also went to Macquarie (the rest were at UNSW) and we all were headed to Scruffy Murphy's after the dinner so we decided to walk together.

It also was the kickoff to Luminous festival in Sydney and the harbor was all lit up as we walked out of Pancakes. The modern art building and the opera house were all sorts of colorful. My opera house pictures were terrible, but these turned out ok.

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

Also in the harbour were lights that you could turn on by riding on a stationary bicycle. The group rode them and it was fun. The people organizing the event gave us glow stick bracelets for doing it. They were sweet.

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

The two girls from Macquarie, Yu-Han and Pang, and I split up with the group at the train station and started walking toward Scruffy's. On the way, we passed the Apple building and saw that something was going on. The three of us asked what was going on and found out that Eskimo Joe was playing a free concert in 20 minutes and we were able to go watch it. Great timing. They also gave us a cool lanyard.

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

We were up on a balcony, but it was still decent. Here's a shot of the stage from our first spot:

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

Here's me all excited about the free concert:

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

Eskimo Joe!:

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

The concert was awesome considering it cost no money and we just happened across it. But we did finally make it to Scruffy's where we had a great time.

Oh the band. I miss them and their early 90's and Kings of Leon covers.

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

Yu-Han, Pang and I met up with Tara and Tara and a whole bunch of others, Bobby and his brother, other visiting friends, and it was amazing.

My face looks weird, but this is a great picture:

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

No clue who those guys are in the back...

From Pancakes on the Rocks, Eskimo Joe and Scruffy's

It was a great time. You know it's a good night when you get into your bedroom with the help of your glow stick bracelet. Free glow stick bracelet...even better.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.

Song: "That's Amore" by Dean Martin

May 24th

Today I woke up at a somewhat reasonable hour, despite everything, and decided to go to the Italian Festival that had been advertised in Sydney.

They actually had a real/fake public Italian wedding in Sydney. It was cool. This couple had been getting fake married here for the past three years and then chose to have their real wedding this year. It was kind of adorable.
Here's Romeo and Juliet (They had real names but I forget them):

From Another Sydney Weekend

From Another Sydney Weekend

Beautiful stuff, ladies and gentlemen.

From Another Sydney Weekend

Cute little Italian street band:

From Another Sydney Weekend

This also was an Italian festival, so I went and got some gelato, watched gnocchi being made, had some risotto, ate a cannoli. Did I mention I love Italian food? It's probably in my top three genres of food.
Gnocchi making:

From Another Sydney Weekend

There also was an Italian cheese shop there, and since it wasn't raining for the first time in awhile, I was psyched to walk around and find their other branch so I could actually buy some (the booth was packed at the festival). I walked past the Australian Museum and into their gift shop, and then left when I didn't want to pay the entry fee. I'm so cheap. I also went to a bar, waited for 20 minutes to order a glass of ice water. No wonder I'm looked at like I'm insane. Whatever, I had an awesome walk to find cheese-land.
I found a cool door:

From Another Sydney Weekend

I found this cool art gallery:

From Another Sydney Weekend

From Another Sydney Weekend

And I found cheese-land:

From Another Sydney Weekend

I bought a tiny thing of goat cheese with truffles, which was delicious. I ate some of it on a unused fountain after hitting up Woolworth's to get some crackers.

From Another Sydney Weekend

I was going to meet up with Sydnee for her guacamole cookoff, but it didn't work out, so I went home. I took this picture, which is one of my favorites, on the way:

From Another Sydney Weekend

I got home and either worked on my last optics lab report or pretended to. Crazy.

Walking on a dream...how can I explain?

Song: "Walking on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun

May 23rd

Today I decided to see how the other half live, a.k.a. what my life would be like if I was pursuing something I loved and enjoyed.

I went to Sydney's SAE (School of Audio Engineering) Institute's Open House. I took the free candy and I went on a tour. I learned about Foley artists (they make the sound that you can't really record in movies, like footsteps and doors closing, etc.) and looked at all sorts of cool machines and software that was completely foreign and fascinating to me. I don't really know why I did it, except that it looked cool, and I wanted to, so I did.

Here's a pit where they make Foley sounds:

From Another Sydney Weekend

Anyway, free candy. Sweet. I also bought a kebab from the place next to Scruffy's while walking back to the bus stop. Oh how I love kebabs. It started raining, but I didn't really care. I got on the bus, and all was well.

On the way back, the rain stopped a little so the sun could come out and there was a gorgeous rainbow over the opera house. Unfortunately, I was on the bus, so this was the best picture I got:

From Another Sydney Weekend

But still, it was gorgeous.

When I got home, it was time for Mary P.'s birthday party at Lowenbrau. I got ready and then met up with people for cake. The rest of the crew split up and went to the bus, and I went to grab Tara's friends to take them out. A bunch of people were at the Lady Gaga and Pussycat Dolls concert, including Tara. So I told her I'd grab her friends and get them into the city. We didn't take the same bus as everyone else, but we got there. Abbey and her cousin James were a lot of fun that evening. We were going to go to Lowenbrau to meet up with Mary and the rest of the birthday party, but we were given this look by the bouncer that we should go away and come back in half an hour. I feel like bouncers are taught that phrase and "how much have you been drinking tonight?" I think we would have been fine, but we opted instead to go to The Observer and wait it out. The Observer was pretty much just older guys and eighties music. The three of us had a good time though. Good fun. We then found out that the Lady Gaga crew was getting back to Lowenbrau, so we headed back up Argyle street and joined them.

Reunited, post-concert and post-Observer:

From Another Sydney Weekend

The waitresses have to wear ridiculous clothes:

From Another Sydney Weekend

I had my first mango beer tonight. That was interesting. Considering I don't like beer, it was actually pretty good. Beer-lovers despise it.

Anyway, somewhere in there I ran into Greg and we went with Brendan and Elise to Jacksons on George. I believe I met some Australian applied physics major/grad student who followed us around a bit too. Anyway, we were there for a bit, and then split off and Greg and I went back to the bus stop. On the way we found a broken bus stop window thing and took pictures.

From Another Sydney Weekend

From Another Sydney Weekend

From Another Sydney Weekend

That was a long and interesting walk to the bus, but we got there.

Some English MC's get it twisted, start saying cookies, instead of biscuits!

Song: "Friday Night" by Girl Talk (specifically "Random" by Lady Sovereign)

May 22nd

Note: I had no idea Lady Sovereign sang that line. I just used another one of her songs earlier this week. WEIRD.

Class happened. Sean and Jon were thinking about playing guitar today on the street to get money, but yet again Sydney was raining like crazy, and they had to postpone. I was all sorts of excited about going to it, even in the rain, but I got over it and headed home. I was going to have to go, then come back for the gym, get showered, and then go out again, so I guess it worked out.

I was going out tonight. I thought with other people. I bought cool fishnets and I was psyched about them.

From Another Sydney Weekend

I wanted to visit the We Love Indie night at Madam de Bier's in Kings Cross before I left forever, so I did. I called Hayley to see what she was up to, and she was with Ryan, so I decided I'd meet up with her after I checked out this place. I went at 10pm, and I should have known it'd be dead (apparently indie kids don't dance until AT LEAST 11pm), but I got some water and swayed awkwardly to some Vampire Weekend. Three nice men from the Australian navy invited me over to sit with them, and I talked with them for a bit, made up a fake name and major, and had a reasonably fun time. They tried to convince me to stay instead of go meet up with Hayley. Apparently fake me can pick up men way more easily than real me. Good to know. I left them and caught the train to Central, where I met up with Hayley and Ryan. I got to see Ryan's place and we had a good old time bonding. Ryan's friend Ryan (I know, not confusing at all) was also there.
Ryan and Hayley:

From Another Sydney Weekend

Me ("what is this 'wine' you speak of?" haha I love this one):

From Another Sydney Weekend

After I left hanging out with those kids, which was super fun (peanut butter sandwiches and wine equals great night) I tried to meet up with Shanil and Steven who I'd met earlier in Australia who both told me they'd be around Ivy tonight. So I went to Ivy. No luck finding either.
Ivy:

From Another Sydney Weekend

Shanil told me he was at 3 Wise Monkeys, which I also had yet to go to, so I went there looking for him. It was kind of like Scruffy Murphy's, but just not. Again, no luck, and by this time I was dead, so I took the bus home.

Like the circle of fifths you drew in school, the loop line takes you round and through.

Song: "Osaka Loop Line" by Discovery

May 16th

Didn't do too much during the day.

At night, I wanted to go out again, so I found Greg, met his roommates Kathy and Kaitlyn and then we went and caught the bus. We ran into Cam and Bernie and a few others at the bus stop.

From A Weekend in the City

It was a surprise to me at the beginning of the night, but we were going to meet up with his friend Brendan and his Brendan's friend Elise. They were running a little late, so we went elsewhere. Due to a variety of circumstances, I feel like we went all over Sydney that night. We started by trying to visit Charlie, Katie and Janaki's pub crawl midway through, which led us to Bungalow 8 for a bit. Then I followed Greg to meet up with Brendan and Elise, and we found them near QVB. We left there and went to King's Cross on the train. I'm not exactly sure how we ended up there, but we spent a while at this sports bar watching Manchester United tie some other team. Brendan really hated Man U, so he was not enjoying that. The four of us left there and met up again with Charlie and crew, now plus Jon, across the street at some place where people were pole dancing underwater. I would die. They just went up at the top of the tank and took breaths of air before going back under. I almost started choking up water just watching. I'm really a terrible swimmer. I think it was bringing back scuba diving memories...

Anyway, we left there, got some pizza, and went to this place Iguana which had a bubble machine.
Pizza:

From A Weekend in the City

Awesome Wall:

From A Weekend in the City

Cool lights at the club with the bubble machine:

From A Weekend in the City

I was set. It was crazy crowded in there. We left eventually, and I have no clue where we were headed, but half of our party went off to town and the other half of us decided to go back to the bus. We passed the man who sings with an elk/deer/moose head. Oh the cross...
Kings Cross Coca Cola Sign:

From A Weekend in the City

This required walking from King's Cross to QVB, which was a bit of hike. Greg almost got robbed. Whatever, we made it back...

Brendan and Elise had to get back to Manly, and I was so confused about how they planned to get back. Miraculously, there was a bus out of QVB which got them home. Greg and I took the bus back to Macquarie along with several of our friends who also were headed home.

Here's another song about a gender I'll never understand...

Song: "Kill The Director" by The Wombats

May 15th

Lab report was due today. I remember because I spent it running around, grabbing my notebooks left behind in my apartment, making copies, going crazy, etc.

I listened to "Kill the Director" on my iPod in my hurried running between buildings. This is relevant later.

Lyrics of this song that I enjoy:

Carrots help us see much better in the dark
Don't talk to girls; they'll break your heart
And this is my head and this is my spout
They work together; they can't figure anything out

So with the angst of a teenage band
Here's another song about a gender I'll never understand
Here's another song about a gender I'll never understand

After going to the gym today, I desperately wanted to go out, so I texted almost everyone I knew trying to find something to do. Didn't have much luck there, so I decided to go to this club called "Purple Sneakers" by myself. I had a most excellent time. The DJ that night, "DJ Johnny Segment" was probably my musical soulmate. Every song he played could have come from my iPod and half of them I played earlier that morning. Singing "Kill The Director" and jumping around like an indie punk was definitely a highlight. One awesome girl who was friends with Johnny Segment screamed the lyrics to "Love Will Tear Us Apart" with me. However, like most times I go to places alone, I get bored quickly, and when the next DJ started playing, I decided it was time to go.

Graffiti I saw before dancing in the bathroom:

From A Weekend in the City

DJ Johnny Segment:

From A Weekend in the City

I went to catch the next bus back and realized I had just missed it and had to wait 30 minutes or so, so I went to explore "that club in the sky" that Justin and Greg and I passed last Saturday while walking along George St. I found out that it was Ivy, the club I had heard a lot about before. It was crazy fancy and had an interesting vibe, but since I had to run back to catch the bus, I didn't stay. I love exploring. I caught the bus home and ran into Jon and Mike who had just came back from King's Cross. I was exhausted, and made it home fine.

The all too familiar QVB bus stop:

From A Weekend in the City

Something 'bout you caught my eye, something moved me deep inside

Song: "Ain't No Other Man (remix)" by Christina Aguilera

May 9th

I woke up in Bondi Junction and watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland and part of a Penguins vs. Capitals game. Great morning. Oh and I was still in my clothes from last night. As I sent thank you texts to my host on the way out the door, I wondered if it could still be called a "walk of shame" if nothing incredibly shameful happened. I decided it's pretty shameful that I was wearing the same outfit from last night, which looks fine in the evening and all, but not especially in the daylight. Regardless, I got home but not until about 2pm due to some lovely public transportation issues.

I decided I needed to go to Trafalgar to get salsa and god knows what else, and while talking with Justin online decided that I wanted to see Star Trek in IMAX in Darling Harbour. I'd walked past it last night in the course of the evening, and the idea was in my head, so I was going to see it. We tried to get more people to come with us, but weren't very successful, so the two of us went to see it around 7pm. I had heard earlier that people were going to Lowenbrau, the German pub in the rocks, and so had Justin, so we decided to meet them afterward.

The movie was mind-blowing. Oh, J.J. Abrams, I love you and everything you touch. Aside from the fairly blatant physics errors, the movie was incredibly entertaining. I knew enough about Star Trek (thanks to Dad) to know a bit about what was going on, so that was fun. The space fight scenes were brilliant in IMAX. Seeing Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in IMAX wasn't so bad either...

Justin and I left the theater way before the rest of the folks from Macquarie made it into the city, so we went to KFC to kill some time and eat some dinner. The bathrooms were locked up due to vandalism, and there were a group of about 7 guys who came in wearing togas. So confused. Anyway, we left there and headed to Lowenbrau to wait for everyone else. Eventually they showed up, and we all danced and drank and had a good time. Oh and the bar above Lowenbrau is called Über Bar. Sweet, right?

Anyway, out of nowhere, Greg pulls me aside and asks if I want to go with him and Justin to Argyle. So we go. We stayed there for a bit, until we realized the bar was closed (not that I was buying anything there anyway, it's way too expensive) and headed back to go home.

We got back on the bus, and I wasn't sure if it went back to Culloden Rd. or not, so I convinced Justin to get off with me at Macquarie Centre and walk home from there. Greg stayed on the bus, which took him directly to Culloden, while Justin and I walked home freezing. Greg was right and I was cold.

So let me hear you scream if you're with me!

Song: "My People" by The Presets

This morning was ugly. I did not want to go to class. I also didn't want to go back to my house to get lunch between class, so I went to Woolly's and got some of the Emily's Kitchen butter chicken and a container of ice cream. This all made sense Saturday, but that's not the point. Anyway, I ate most of that between class (yes, I brought a half-eaten container of ice cream to class. I'm straight-up classy like that.) and then went to physics. I went home, and I was exhausted, but I made it to my class at the gym, unlike last week.

It was my friend Sydnee's (from UMD) birthday and she and some of her friends from UNSW were celebrating down in the city. I was up for a change of pace, so I met up with them down in the city. I tried to find Tara and Bernie that night too, but without luck.

Anyway, hanging out with Sydnee's friends was a lot of fun. We went and did sake bombs in a Japanese restaurant. The waiters looked terrified of us.
The concept: drop sake into, well, we used VB.

From Sydnee's Birthday

I found out that I knew a few of the people there by association. One of the girls there, Amy, knew my roommate Sean back at Macquarie. We found this out because she said she was from St. Louis, and I said I only knew one other person from St. Louis. Her friend is friends with him and his family. Crazy stuff. Then later I found a girl Kait who knew a guy I knew in high school, and I knew one who went to hers. The world is so ridiculously small, I can't even begin to explain it.
Group shot!

From Sydnee's Birthday

So after sake bombing, we went briefly to a bar I can't remember the name of. It was called "Asian Bar" the rest of the night. Next we went to Cargo bar, after a brief detour through Darling Harbour's playground. You will never get me off the playground. It made me think of Ground and all the good times playing it.

From Sydnee's Birthday

Cargo bar was a lot more fun this time around, and I had a good time. We left and it was late, so I decided to head back to Bondi Junction with everyone else instead of finding my way back to the bus. We stopped at KFC and people were petting marsupials in Hyde Park, but we made it. I got mashed potatoes, which were in a disturbingly small container. Oh well. People, namely Steve, ran in this fountain and was chased off by security. Priceless.

From Sydnee's Birthday

I slept in Sydnee and Kait's apartment on the couch.

You've got me feeling hella good so let's just keep on dancing

Song: "Hella Good" by No Doubt
Honorary Song: "First of May" by Jonathan Coulton

May 1st

Waking up for class was massively difficult. There is nothing like staying up late doing physics to zap all energy out of your body. We made it to class, I'm pretty sure I ate nachos from the student center (Becca, Bernie and Vilde were raving about them over break; I had to try them), and then I turned in my assignment, faked consciousness, then went home and passed out. I swore I set an alarm, but I slept through my class at the gym for the first time here. I managed to hear that people were going to Cargo bar this evening, so I told Tara M. that I'd meet up with her. I found her, and then we grabbed Chloe and met their friend Emily on the way to the bus. We didn't leave until about 10:45PM because we missed the 9:58 bus. This was lame, but no worries.

When we got to the later bus, we actually ran into a bunch of people we knew who were headed down there as well. It was nice to catch up with folks and see how their breaks went. Somehow during the evening someone mentioned the Sydney Comedy Festival, and I mentioned that I was bummed that I missed seeing Joel McHale and I found a few unexpected watchers of The Soup among my friends. That was excellent.

We made our way down to Darling Harbour with no problems. We didn't exactly know where we were going, but we found Cargo after asking a few people.

It might have been the exhaustion, the atmosphere, or my essentially sober state, but I wasn't loving Cargo bar. It was the first time I had been back since my afternoon visit after my Sydney bus tour way back in February. I expressed that I was interested in checking out this place up the street called Chinese Laundry that I had read about in some of the music magazines I pick up twice a week. The only person I could convince to come with me to check it out was Greg, so we went and had a good time. There was a $20 cover charge, but I'm trying to forget that I paid that. I'd probably do it again if in the same situation.



We stayed there until 2:30am, and then decided we should find the rest of the folks we came with and catch the last bus out of the city, which we found out left at 3:10am. I was a bit disoriented, so we briefly got a little lost trying to find the bus stop, but it was a scenic walk. Found a poster for The Soup with Joel McHale wearing an outfit full of bright green sequins. We thought everyone else was at McDonald's so we left the bus stop and went there. We debated walking around QVB, but instead decided to run through the obviously blockaded path through the middle of the building. I saw the security glance at us through my peripheral vision. We ate some food, then went and found everyone else back at the bus stop. We rode home, went to our respective houses, and I fell asleep.

Oh, and I booked a Hunter Valley Wine Tour for the next day that I had to be awake at 5:30am for. So I slept 1.5 hours. More on that next post...

Don't want to be your monkey wrench...

Song: "Monkey Wrench" by Foo Fighters

April 28th
Nicole's Birthday

Went to class, nothing terribly interesting happened. I had caught up on some of my missed philosophy lectures yesterday so I was in shape for class. I also had a presentation today on material we were supposed to have covered before we left. This didn't exactly happen. I spent a lot of last night and today reading Schopenhauer straight. The saddest thing was that my presentation, despite me knowing the material, was terrible. Luckily, it's philosophy, and my version of terrible is actual quite decent.

After class, I came home and through some form or another got a hold of Tara M. She told me that folks were going out to Scruffy's to celebrate our Australian friend Alex's 18th birthday (which happened over break). I was thrilled to be getting back into Sydney again. We had a great time with Alex, Lindsey, Chloe and everyone else, minus a few shoe problems, and got home via taxi. Excellent night.

I want more. Impossible to ignore...

Song: "Dreams" by The Cranberries

April 26th

4 am taxi rides suckkk. Not missing your flight, priceless.

We boarded our flight back home to Sydney with no problems. I slept a little on the flight, but not much. Luckily the iPod was at full battery capacity. I watched Yes Man on the flight. I saw it before with the family over break, but it was nice to watch again. It was also nice to listen to again knowing some of the music was by Eels.

We landed in Sydney, and caught a taxi back from the airport. We were dead tired. All I really remember is "Dreams" playing and me singing along, even in my exhausted state. I also remember that it was COLD compared to Cairns. I missed the tropics then. The driver told us it had been rainy and gross the last two weeks in Sydney. So at least we missed all that...

I got home and passed out. It was lovely. I had a lab report to do, but like most weekends, I waited to do it until later. I downloaded the "St. Valentine's Day" Episode of 30 Rock that I missed and watched that instead.

Sunrise, sunrise, looks like morning in your eyes...

Song: "Sunrise" by Norah Jones

April 5th

Today was the end of Daylight Savings Time in Australia. This really had no effect on anything, but it happened.

My goal for this morning was to go see the sun rise. My train was getting in really early around 6 am and I wanted to go to the beach and see it. However, my train was delayed so I saw it from the comfort of my seat.

Still pretty. Once I did finally make it back to Central station in Sydney, I grabbed a ham and cheese croissant from a sandwich shop in the station which was not on par with the one I had in Melbourne. Sad face. However, it was definitely nourishment, which was necessary. I hopped back on the train to Macquarie and made it back in time to take a severe nap and then wake up and do my homework and post some pictures on Facebook.

Nothing terribly interesting here. I may have done laundry.

Baby go crazy, break the rules...

Song: "Get Shaky" by The Ian Carey Project

March 21st

ZOO DAY! Luckily, neither Bernie nor I forgot that we had made plans to go to the zoo today, and we woke up early to go so we could see all the animals. Bernie invited Becca along, and the three of us had a great time. We made it to the zoo about when we planned. Missed a train or two, but no worries, mate!

From Taronga Zoo

The zoo was fantastic.

Bernie and Becca also being from the east coast found this as hilarious as I did. Although, I imagine Australians are laughing like crazy when we get excited about seeing kangaroos.

From Taronga Zoo

Here are a bunch of pictures of animals.

The adorable koala:

From Taronga Zoo

A kookaburra!:

From Taronga Zoo

A giant dino-like reptile thing:

From Taronga Zoo

Giraffes, overlooking the city:

From Taronga Zoo

Bernie and me with the metal giraffe:

From Taronga Zoo

Why there were statues of metal children, we may never know:

From Taronga Zoo

Becca with the wild kookaburra chowing down on some fries.

From Taronga Zoo

Here's some dialogue from the Australian zoo guests seeing the kookaburra.
"Billy, go get a longer chip and get him to eat it."- Billy's Mom
(Billy, who is about 5, complains).
"You big chicken." - Billy's mom.
You guessed it. French fries are referred to as "chips" here too.

Zebra:

From Taronga Zoo

Ostriches:

From Taronga Zoo

Seal:

From Taronga Zoo

Bird...ok this is where I stop caring about what kind they are:

From Taronga Zoo

Penguins! They were one of my favorite exhibits.

From Taronga Zoo

Incredibly inappropriate elephant (I can't help it; it's too funny.):

From Taronga Zoo

Bernie with the metal gorilla:

From Taronga Zoo

Gorillas!

From Taronga Zoo

The little one was spunky:

From Taronga Zoo

Wallaby:

From Taronga Zoo

KANGAROOS! (Yeah, they're napping but I don't care.):

From Taronga Zoo

Awesome bird:

From Taronga Zoo

Bernie's favorite, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon:

From Taronga Zoo

Spiders! (not an exhibit, but still an impressive part of the zoo):

From Taronga Zoo

Loose peacock? I've never seen one of those before! haha...

From Taronga Zoo

Tasmanian Devil:

From Taronga Zoo

Reptiles!

From Taronga Zoo

From Taronga Zoo

From Taronga Zoo

Humans!

From Taronga Zoo

They were getting wedding pictures and blocked the entire entrance to the bird show. One fairly rude person (I'm not sure if she was joking or not) shouted that she was only marrying an Asian man for his money. I'm pretty sure this lady was the mother of caretaker of a three year old. This troubled me. Regardless...we went to the bird show and it was awesome. We had birds literally flying inches above our heads.

Bird show!

From Taronga Zoo

From Taronga Zoo

From Taronga Zoo

From Taronga Zoo

They released birds at the end of the show, which ended because their eagle couldn't fly back to the stage. Apparently this happens.

From Taronga Zoo

We were exhausted about now and wanted to wrap up the trip. We did see the lions:

From Taronga Zoo

and tigers...

From Taronga Zoo

and hippos...

From Taronga Zoo

and meerkats. I like that they're all sitting on each other.

From Taronga Zoo

Then we saw a rooster on the loose. What?

From Taronga Zoo

Here's me with the giant stuffed koala at the gift shop:

From Taronga Zoo

Here's another human specimen we found interesting. His shirt reads: "Do something with your life and get me a beer." He couldn't have been 10. We found this humorous.

From Taronga Zoo

We caught the ferry back, then walked to the bus stop, then took a bus to Chatswood, then took a train to Macquarie. We were so tired. But we also had already decided we were going out this evening into town to a place called Argyle.

Every girl we were traveling with on the bus into Sydney had to go to the bathroom so bad that we used the pay toilet on the street. And in the interest of being frugal, we all split the 50 cent bathroom.

Argyle was...um, interesting? I don't know. I was so tired.  I also decided to wear heels, which is fun for about an hour, but then just incredibly painful.  The blister on the back of my heel reminds me about how much of a bad idea that was.  The club was yet again too fancy for my tastes, not to mention they didn't let several of our friends in at the door.  They had to go wait for half an hour, and then one of them ended up getting kicked out anyway.   I was so busy being in pain from the heels that I don't remember anything exciting happening, except that Vilde lost her phone and it was found by the manager.

I must be listening to a lot of club/dance music lately. I'm not saying I enjoy it really, but it does get stuck in my head. "Get Shaky" sounded familiar when we heard it in the bar tonight. So much for immersing myself in Australia's indie music culture. Now that I think about it, I guess I do hear a lot of that too actually.

A group of 5 of us left at a very late hour of the evening and stopped at "Macker's" (Australian for McDonalds) and got something to eat. We made it to the bus stop (by the way Jay, I totally knew where I was going and you were wrong...just saying) and caught the absolute last bus out of the city.  It left at 3:20 a.m.. We got home around 4:30 a.m. and then I slept. Oh did I sleep.