Meeting People

Yay for meeting a few people here! Last night Yayah, the guy from Saudi Arabia who lives in the apartment just across from us (so our porches overlook each other), came over and gave us Arabic coffee and dates. Despite me hating coffee, this actually tasted more like spiced tea so it wasn't bad, and the dates, which were from his father's farm back home. It was a big heaping plate which he said was all ours and then explained it was usually worth about 200$. holy cow, surely that can't be right. But it was very nice because he invited us over for dinner with his wife and 5-year old any time we wanted for a traditional meal and said he had a car if we need to go to the hospital or something. Neighbors with cars is always a great resource to have haha. So we are planning on reciprocation his gift, but we can't really think of either any dessert to bring to him or meal to feed them that is typically American - any ideas? Our biggest idea is brownies, but it doesn't quite match up to 200$ dates...

We also made friends with a bartender and waitress at a really nice local hotel - which basically means bar/club here. They just started "Desperate Mondays" where you can go watch Desperate Housewives and get 10% off for every inch of heal you're wearing. We didn't really go there to drink, but me and Ashley ended up talking to the bartender and one of the waitresses probably more than we actually watched the show. He said we were one of the few nice Americans he had met, which is kind of sad that Americans can be so obnoxious. It's also funny because I've heard a couple people with his point of view, and I've heard other people, like our neighbor Yayah, say that they think all Americans are friendly nice people. So I guess it's up for debate.

Other than that we haven't been up to much - classes start Monday and this week is all orientation activities. We went yesterday for the Bollywood day but it was pretty dead by the time we got there. Me and Ashley did get roped in to read these two scripts by these two people, but it was really only for our benefit... though I think Katie got it on video. Today is some comedy shows, so we will probably meander over there again. Actually we've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do for spring break (which I think is kind of weird they don't call fall break... but whatever). I found week-long trip that goes up to Cairns and around there that I might take. It's one of the few that travels and sees a lot of things, but doesn't include a bunch of crazy and expensive extras like bungy jumping or sky diving (which I can do here in Wollongong if I really wanted to). There's a travel agent on campus I'll have to talk to again...