Only one more month to go, then I'm outta here like a bat out of hell (well, more like a reluctant bat out of hell). This Friday will mark 4 months since I arrived in Australia. My does the time fly. On the other hand, it feels like I've been here for a year.
Much has happened lately. Because Becca, Jen and Nathalie all came back within the same week, it's back to having a life. On Thursday it was Skip's Trivia at Forrester's, where we were joined by two new suspects, Sarah and Matt. Team X hadn't made an appearance for some weeks, so it was a long overdue comeback. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but we didn't do too bad what with 5 people on the team. We did, however, manage to score a free bottle of wine during one of the rounds of "Guess Who I am?" where Skip reads clues about a famous person and whoever guesses it right first wins a bottle of wine. I don't remember who the person was, some Aussie dude. Who cares, free grog is always good. And there was more of it as most of the winning team left by the end of the night, so the two remaining guys asked if we wanted to share their $60 voucher. They bought us all a round of drinks! Even losers can be winners sometimes...
On Friday, I finally went to Minus 5, the ice bar in circular quay. It's in a room made almost entirely of ice. They serve the drinks in cups made of ice. Before you go in, they give you warm coats, gloves and boots to wear because it's so freakin' cold. However, you're only allowed to stay for 1/2 hour. It's definitely a touristy thing to do, but pretty cool (pardon the pun). There were beautiful ice sculptures all over the room. And I finally met Tricia, another au pair from the agency who I'd been trying to meet up with for weeks but it never worked out for us. She joined me, Becca, Jen and Anna at the bar. Afterward, we went to Bar 333 and Cargo Bar, where Tricia got kicked out for being intoxicated. Fun times! To be fair, she didn't seem more intoxicated than any other person there, and we have no idea what happened to get her kicked out. We may never find out because I don't think she remembers much from the night. Before that, we were having a grand time with a couple of guys we met outside the bar. One was a Canadian dude, pretty cool and a fun dancer. The other was this 6'6" Czech guy who said to call him Z because his name was too complicated to pronounce. Randomness ensued.
The following night was Kate's dinner party at Dennis' (and now her!) apartment in Ryde. Mmm, mmm, good. She made three awesome dishes: chicken parm, chicken curry, and prawns with bok choy and rice. Insanely delicious! It was a nice low-key night, a good change of pace.
On Sunday a bunch of us went to what was my first Rugby League match. It was the Manly Eagles vs. the Paramatta Eels. The Eagles won! I suppose I was cheering for them mainly because the eagle is sort of an emblematic bird for America. I was having a weird patriotic moment. The game was pretty exciting at times. I actually paid attention to what was going on from time to time.
After the game, Becca, Jen, Nathalie, J and I went for sushi at a nice Japanese restaurant (yum, real sushi, not the $1.60 hand rolls you get from take-away). Then it was off to the Three Wise Monkeys for some pool. At the bar, we made friends with a couple of guys, who may or may not have been on a date. They invited us to play pool with them and they turned out to be pretty interesting people. One was an Austrian nurse, the other was an Australian hotel manager for the Shangri-La (one of the top hotels in Sydney).
Last night was Comedy Night at Fringe Bar. The bar itself is really nice and a cool place to hang out in, but the comedy was seriously lacking. Some jokes were really funny, but none made me laugh like the way I do at the Comedy Cellar in NY. Maybe I just don't get Autralian humour, whatever that is.
Tonight I'm seeing American Dreamz with Becca, who shares my admiration for Mandy Moore...I know, it's a sickness. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.
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