Happy Birthday to Buddha and Another Footy Game

I've recently realized that I'm now into the penultimate week of classes here at UOW, and for some classes the last lectures are this week, with only quizzes left next week (which shouldn't really be called that since they are cumulative over the whole course...). Where has all the time gone??

This past Saturday Katie and I went to go check out the festival at Crown St for Buddha's birthday. We had noticed paper lanterns go up earlier in the week, and discovered there was a few activities going on that day.

 When we walked up, everyone was standing around, waving these paper flags, singing a song. The lyrics were something along the lines of "we are Australia" and very warm and fuzzy. On the stage were a variety of different people- from cops to monks from the temple we went to a few weeks ago. When they finished, we wandered around a little exploring the stands that were set up, and decided to go into the mall for sushi. I have a hard time explaining to people that I really like sushi, but I really hate fish. I got an avocado California roll (which I believe actually had a little bit of crab in it, but shhh). Definitely very yummy and appropriate for the occasion, we thought.

There is this campaign here, I think it's to bring in tourists and a general positive public view of Wollongong. Its slogan is "We <3 the Gong" and there have been people around town wearing shirts with that on it, along with bumper stickers and balloons. These are highly coveted by me. Problem is, you can't buy any of these things anywhere, no can you really reliably find a stand anywhere. So when we showed up to that Buddha festival and saw a bunch of people walking around with those balloons and stickers, I was pretty determined to find where they were coming from. Our preliminary wander before lunch hadn't yielded any love for the gong apparel, so I went so far as to ask a lady with a balloon attached to a stroller where it had come from haha. Unfortunately, I think it had come from a special van/booth, which must have left by the time we got there, because we continued to search to no avail. On our way out we caught a tiger dance show though - it was really cool. It was like those pictures you always see of Chinese new year's dragons in parades.

Sunday was a late morning for all of us, but just after lunch we went and bought hill tickets for the last home game for the Dragons. We hung out while most people got lunch at Chicko's, a chicken place near there, and then went in to claim a spot. This game was against the Cronulla Raiders. The first half was actually really close - I believe it was only 8 to 6. The end of the game saw the Dragons get pounded by the Raiders though, so it was kind of disappointing. It was fun to go to another game nevertheless though. Got a good laugh when the announcer was reading an ad and said "breast-taking.... breath-taking views" haha. They are about to do some big construction on the stadium and put in a big addition, so it was good we got to go.

That night I went to grab some pizza since I hadn't been grocery shopping in like 2 weeks, and ran into Amy, Jason, Ashley, and Desiree briefly, who we had lost after the footy game. As I walked into the elevator in my apartment building holding my delicious Hawaiian pizza box, another lady walked in with me, holding a pack of cigarettes and two ice cream bars. There was a moment where we both just looked at each other in that "you're having a fat sunday too, huh?" look. Me and Katie also discovered later that night in search of hot chocolate that maccas (mickey d's for anyone speaking american haha) has cheesecake. I wasn't lying about that fat Sunday bit lol. 

I got up early this morning and actually went to my Indigenous Australia class for once, which turned out to be utterly pointless since it was my art class professor basically repeating my first lecture from that class. My real plan had been that going to class would force me to work in the library for 3 hours on my various assignments, but that grand scheme was thwarted once I proudly settled into my little library cubical only to realize I had left my work at home... and of course once back home, I just ended up taking a nap until my next class, so so much for that. I did finally recharge my phone on the way back from that second class though, and then soon after finally go to wooly's or some food. I had 3 huge bags of food, and a bigger bill than normal, and of course my credit card wouldn't work. It's supposed to expire this month, so I don't know if it has something to do with that, but it wasn't so much fun to have to run to Crown St, grab some cash, and come back to pay and apologise to the cashier. Now equipped with supplies, I did make a really good dinner though if I do say so myself. I finally found some normal sausage and made a rendition of a dish Alisa actually showed me last semester with pearl couscous, sausage, spinach, mushrooms, garlic and herbs. yummmm. Actually, I'm kind of amazed that I've done so well cooking almost all of my meals for myself, I'm proud haha.

PJ's, Steak, and Now I'm an UOW Alumni

I felt overdue for a blog post. I haven't really been up to too much though. I've been working on more schoolwork lately as the end of the semester is in sight (ahhhhh!). We hosted a pajama party this past weekend, which was kind of quiet but fun and obviously very relaxed. I don't know if I mentioned before that we've moved the extra double mattress from the garage up to our living room for extra lounging as of the past few weeks, ashley, jason, and amy added their 4 singles also, so it was like one huge bed on the floor of our living room. We even had feathers and most of us had funny pj's (though I was cheap and just bought some slippers).

Katie's birthday was yesterday as well, so we went out to dinner at one of the places across the street from us. There are a bunch of restaurants practically out our front door, but we really haven't gone to any of them since we would all rather save money on food and spend it on travel. Going out was nice though - we splurged since it was such a rare occasion and I got a steak with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. yumm! Right after dinner, we picked up the banana bread muffins we had made (because Katie had said she didn't want cake or anything, but she's always talking about how much she loves banana bread, so I couldn't help it) and headed up the hill to Desperate Mondays. Apparently, as we found out at the end of the night, they aren't actually doing that promotion anymore - lame! We still got our automatic discount though since Matt didn't even know and I feel like at this point the manager/owners pretty much know us. Yet another delicious cocktail (passionfruit!), tv drama, and a couple muffins later, we said goodnight and headed home. Come to think of it, we never properly sang to Katie or had her blow out a candle... hmmm.

Today was a "farewell ceremony" through the school, which kind of made me panic a little because while we still have some time, we are only a month away from being done with everything school-related, and being home isn't too far removed from that. I'm pretty good about living in denial about that sort of thing though, so no worries. It was pretty simple - some people talked, they gave us a photo, certificate, and alumni card (who knows what it does for me), and of course some free food.

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.

Footy, followed by a short walk around Asia, and dinner in Saudi Arabia

Saturday we hung out, being mildly productive until about 4pm. Marshal, one of our friends who lives in Sydney through Study Australia had come down the night before and stayed over so her could go to the footy game with us also. At 4:30ish we donned our red attire in support of the St George Illawarra Dragons, and headed to the Five Islands Brewery for a drink while we waited for Matt to get in from Sydney. He and his friend go in at about 6 and we went to go stake out a place on the hill. The game was a lot of fun - it was the Illawarra Dragons vs the Cronulla Sharks, and we whooped their asses. Like, the end score was 38 to 0. Yet to score, is how the commentator kept putting it haha. Matt treated us to meat pies, as is necessary to have at the footy game :). While it wasn't a very close game, it was fun to be on the inside of the stadium when we can always see it from the outside in our apartment. The stadium was so much smaller than the Melbourne stadium that I was at a couple weeks ago (though that seated 100,000...).

This morning we hopped on the bus since the train wasn't running to the south, and made our way down to Unanderra. The largest Buddhist Temple in the southern hemisphere, Nan Tien Temple, is a short walk away from there, so off we went. Amy and Jason had been there before, but none of the rest of us had. It was really cool - it was like taking a short trip to Asia haha. There were indeed a bunch of monks walking around, complete with shaved heads and long brown robes. We went to the tea house and got lunch - I decided to forgo the tea as it was pretty warm today, but I had pretty good dumplings. When we got home Marshal left to go back to Sydney and we hung out until 6, at which point we headed next door.

Fatima had told us a few times before that she would teach us how to cook the kabsa that she cooked for us, so I texted her last week asking her if she was free to teach us this weekend. Tonight, obviously, was the night we went over to see how she cooks it. It was actually pretty simple - moreso than I thought it would be anyway. It's just remembering everything that will be hard - we will have to get a written out recipe from her I think. Some of the spices were different as well, but mostly pretty straightforward. We watched as she made the meal, and then ate it of course. Delicious as always. I'm just always amazed by the feast they give us when we go over there - we had coffee and dates before cooking, and then the kabsa, salad, fish, and these calzone-type things, followed by cupcakes and the little cinnamon roles she always makes (my kryptonite lol), accompanied by more coffee, followed by tea.... sooo much food. And sooo yummy. So yes, hopefully some time in the future I'll be able to cook my very own kabsa :D.

Sydney

This past Friday me and Katie got up early and caught the train into Sydney. Some of the Earlham students that were studying in New Zealand this semester were headed home and had a 10-hour layover in Sydney on the way. I had told them I would meet up with them and show them around the city for the day before they had to go. Unfortunately when I got into Sydney I got a call from Alli saying that it cost too much for them to store their bags, so they were staying at the airport. It actually wasn't all that bad because it was awful weather that day - rainy and cold, so not so great for walking around in all day.

Instead, I just went with Katie to the Study Australia BBQ that was being hosted in Bondi Junction. Except that once we got there, there was nobody around for said BBQ... so I called around and found out that it had been canceled due to the weather. Luckily Matt, who was organizing the whole thing, said that he would still treat us to lunch since we had come all the way from Wollongong. So after meeting up with him for some awesome sandwiches, we headed over to the mall in search of something red for Saturday's footy game. We spent a good chunk of time wandering around that mall - it's absolutely massive. I also never cease to be amazed at the number of American stores that are here. I ended up getting a red hoodie at Target, which is apparently not affiliated with the US Target, despite the fact that the logo and ads are practically identical. But anyhow, we decided we didn't want to trek all the way over to the aquarium like we had originally planned, so we sat in a chocolate bar for a while to kill time and then headed back.