Cinco de Mayo and Another Trip to Sydney

Apparently cinco de mayo isn't celebrated in Australia. But it fell on a Wednesday, so none of the Americans could seem to resist educating the Australians lol. I hadn't had my full Wednesday schedule for over a month for various reasons, so I was beat by the time I got home, unenthoused by the concept of noodles for dinner. But wonder of wonders, when I walked in the door, the apartment smelled amazing! Ashley, Jason, Amy, and Heather had all made tacos, and had extra for me and Katie who also got home super late. So I got to have appropriately delicious tacos for dinner, and then we made some margaritas - made with tequila complete with the worm. Jason ate one of them - it was so gross! We hung out for a bit and then went out, where I actually spent most of the night just talking to people. Had a long conversation with some aussies about how I saw 'phone' funny and that one of their other American friends can't get over their pronunciation of it haha.

Friday I did some work and went to the beach briefly since it was a little warmer than it has been. It was midday on a Friday, but nobody was out - maybe 3 other people. I guess it's gotten cold enough (the water is freeeeezing now) that the lifeguards aren't watching the beach anymore, so nobody was in the water except a few surfers. When I got back, I shoved some stuff into my backpack and took the familiar trek to the train station. They are still doing track work, so I had to take a bus to Waterfall, then a train that luckily went all the way through to Bondi Junction. Marshal had said that I could sleep on their couch that night, but I couldn't get ahold of him. Luckily Justin was there to let me in so I didn't have to stand awkwardly in the lobby with the receptionists staring at me haha. I had gone to go to this party that the group that lead my spring break trip was throwing at a local bar, so we got ready to go once everyone woke up (that was why I couldn't reach anyone before). Turns out the place was on the same road we had been on for Mardi Gras - it's weird to randomly recognize parts of Sydney, plus that seems like so long ago now! The party was a lot of fun - I saw my two tour guides, and we got free dinner, a couple free drinks, and discounts. It was funny to see a bunch of the people from my trip, it seemed out of context now. There were a ton of people there though - because it was from all of their trips, and you could bring guests, so I think upwards of 400 people rsvp'd. One of the coolest things about going though is that I got to see Maricarmen, who I went to St Agnes with! It was kind of bizarre - I havent seen her in about 4 years now, as she had moved to Mexico the same time I had moved to Holland. She is also studying abroad in Sydney for the semester, which I didn't know until after I got here, but I haven't managed to meet up with her.

The next morning everyone got up and went to the BBQ which had been rescheduled for that day. Convenient for me haha. It was good food - burgers and sausages, salad, fruit, chips, and cookies. I snagged a couple of the leftover fruit as well - one of the bananas just became my breakfast today. Me and Jen were talking about going to see Alice in Wonderland 3D in the giant IMAX like I've been trying to do ever since it came out, but it was only playing at 10am, so we didn't end up going. Instead, Jayme and me decided we would go to the aquarium after lunch, which I had also really wanted to do. It was kind of funny, last week I had been talking about how I really wanted to see a Platypus and I haven't seen any at any of the places we've been to. So I looked it up and found out that there was one in the Sydney Zoo. Thing is about the zoo though is that you have to take a ferry to get to it, and that's after changing trains from central, so it's kind of a pain to get to. Turns out though that the aquarium also has a platypus, so I was doubly excited to go haha. We did indeed get to see one - they are smaller than I thought they would be. Saw a dugong as well, which was cool.

The aquarium was really big - I'm glad we went, it made for a good day trip. I had been thinking of staying an extra night, but I didn't have extra clothes, so I left at 5:30, and because of the trackwork didn't get home for another 3 hours. I think it's warm again today, so I might make another beach trip... maybe, maybe not.