A new week...

...and hopefully a better one. Last week was rough mainly because of the job situation. But yay! I think I've actually managed to land one! I'm not going to get my hopes up, but I met with a woman today at a catering company and I'm going to a training session on Monday. I don't know if this guarantees a consistent job, but it's something, right?

Today I'm a little sad because my good friend Rojda left to go to Malaysia and then home to Switzerland. She became such a good friend over the past two weeks. We spent a lot of time together and I think we've developed a lasting friendship. She might come to NY in December actually which would be awesome!

Yesterday, we went to the Blue Mountains and got driven around by a friend of Rojda's named Maria who lives in Sydney. It was cool because we had a local guide with us the whole day and she knew of all the good places to go. The Blue Mountains were absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect...warm, sunny and dry. First we went to this little town called Leura. There were a bunch of cute cafes and some great antique shops. Then we visited the 3 Sisters, a trio of rocks that rise up from the mountains, hiked around the trails, and took an old coal mining railway down (the steepest in the world!) to where the coal mines used to be. We ate lunch beside a waterfall and then headed to this old hotel for some great views from the lobby. The whole day was just amazing. Maria drove us to Paramatta (supposedly the "second city" for business...looked a lot like NJ to me) and we took a beautiful ferry ride back to the city.

Friday, we all went to the Mercantile to see this Irish woman, Shaylee Wilde, perform. She was great! She played so many great songs by The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles and various Irish songs as well. For a while I had this little dancing competition going on with some random guy...he was a really good dancer! I think he won but that may have been the alcohol's fault. I think Kate and I frightened the cab driver on the way home, as we were continuing our bitch fest.

Sunday was another lovely day starting with the Chinese New Year parade with it's beautiful costumes and bright-colored floats. Then we had a barbie on Bronte beach (which I just found out is pronounced Bront-ee, not like the novelists). This is one of the nicer beaches in my opinion, so we decided to go back this weekend. Hope the weather is good. It's been so temperamental lately...

This week should be a lot more low key since Rojda left, but I think Becca's coming back on Thursday!

I'm starting to feel more at home in the city. It took me a while, but I really think the next 3 months will be great. I can't believe I've been here for almost a month. It's unreal, but I really feel as though I've settled quite a bit.