So a few weeks ago (Saturday I believe) the ankle was finally behaving so I headed to the Cross with everyone as planned. We ended up going to pretty much all of the same places that we went to last time-strange because there are heaps of other places to go. The most memorable place was called the Sugar Mill where I spotted a sign advertising "Sketchy Sundays." Hmm so sad I missed it.
Kel and I and a couple others ended up staying out pretty late (per usual) so we decided to head to the harbour to watch the sun rise. We hailed a cab probably around 4 am to take us to the harbour. The cabby was pretty rude...he wouldn't accept the change we were trying to pay him with. He screamed, "Notes only!" My thinking is, buddy, in these tough economic times, you should take what you can get. Paper or metal- Moolah is moolah, my friend. Anyway...we hit up Maccas to grab an eggmcmuffin for energy and made our way to the Sydney Opera House. We talked for hours in the darkness of early morning, and then suddenly, dawn broke. It was an absolutely beautiful sight to be able to directly watch Sydney and all of its landmarks wake up and begin the day. But man o man it was windy and chilly! After awhile, we sent the boys on their way back to the Parklands and Kelli and I made our way to a place called Pancakes on the Rocks. It was time to grub...again. Our bad. After filling our bellies with delight, we hopped the train to get home and finally go to bed. success.
Before I knew it, it was Monday..and the last week of my internship. It was a great feeling. I felt like I wasn't able to contribute to the company as much anymore and it was just time for me to be done. On my last day, the marketing team and I went to lunch to this dumpling place by work that I have been dying to visit! It certainly was delicious. But it was really weird because when you eat the dumplings, you're supposed to take this spoon type thing, fill it with soy sauce and ginger, then place the dumpling on top of it and basically take it like a shot.. this juice stuff squirts out of the dumpling and rushes your whole mouth. I can't really explain it, but it's weird. But also tasty.
When close of day came on Wednesday, I realized that I may never see the people I work with again. I actually got pretty sad about it. It's like I spent the whole week thinking about how I couldn't wait to be free from work, but when it came down to it and we were saying our goodbyes while exchanging cards and hugs...it hit me. This was my first of many goodbyes to come, and it wasn't a good feeling. I'm really going to miss those people...especially Bianca and Heidi. Great Aussies I tell you. I plan to keep in touch with them via Facebook still though, so no worries. They bought me my favorite Aussie cookies in addition to tim tams and some Australia memorabilia..a koozie (stubby holder) and kangaroo and koala stuffed animals. It was really sweet. Overall, working at ACP Magazines was a good experience and one I won't forget.
The Parklands People hosted a beer pong tournament at their apartments on Thursday. After much contemplation on whether or not I should stay home and do something productive or attend...we ended up choosing the latter of the two. I knew if I stayed home while everyone went out, I would be so frustrated that I had to stay in, so I wouldn't get anything accomplished anyway. I went for it. Glad I did..it was a pretty good time. Apparently the cops came to 'break it up' four times due to noise complaints. I love how they handle situations like that here. 'No worries mate, just keep it down'...right.
So the weekend came and we had a trip planned, woo hoo! We took the train a couple hours up to Newcastle where we were to visit some of our friends from the Spring Break trip and go on a wine tour in the Hunter Valley Region...something I had been wanting to do for some time now.
We arrived in Newcastle to pouring down rain and as we were walking to Lauren's house...you'll never guess what I spotted way down one of the side streets! MY CAR FROM HOME!! yes, the sunburst gold (booger) kia rio! It was amazing. I took several pictures, naturally. Can't believe I haven't driven in 3 and a half months.
Later on we went out and I tell ya, Newcastle is crazy! It's just funny because the local crowd seems a lot older than general college age. I gather that there are a lot of middle aged blue collar workers people living there, which is cool, but it was funny to me because they were all stumbling around as hammered as I would expect younger kids to be. Richie and Zach met us at The Brewery which was awesome because we really wanted to see them but we just kept missing each other at each of the bars we went to. Glad it ended up working out.
Early morning on Sunday it was time for the wine tour! Ten of us hopped in a van with our guide, Tex. Funny guy. The ten of us together made for a great dynamic because of everyone's different personalities. Richie said the most random things, so he cracked me up all day. (see the title quote-yes, that was from him.)
The night before, we used this book that one of the guys had that had a bunch of 'Would you rather scenarios' that were just hilarious! One scenario posed to Kevin was, "Would you rather start every sentence for the rest of your life with 'Legend Has it' or end every sentence for the rest of your life with 'According to the Prophecies'". Our friend Julie wasn't in attendance when this question was posed so we decided that at the wineries Kevin would randomly throw in a 'legend has it' or 'according to the prophecies' in about every other sentence he spoke to Julie to see how long he could do it before she would catch on and shut him up. We all laughed silently the whole day as we watched her huff and roll her eyes every time he said it, but she didn't crack until the very last winery when she said, "Kevin, if you say that one more time I swear I'm going to..." and we all basically died. It was just hilarious, I'm telling you. Good on ya, Kevin, for providing us with some great laughs.
We attended five different wineries and tried all different types of red and white wines. I wasn't really crazy about any of them. I've figured out what red wine tastes like...it starts with nothing, then I sense a buttery taste and it ends with a wood flavored aftertaste. No thanks. We also attended a cheese and dip tasting place where we tried variations of brie, cheddar, bleu, etc. They were all surprisingly delicious. Personal favorite: marinated feta. But the goat cheese was NOT good. Steer clear.
The fourth place we went to that day actually specialized in schnapps and they were famous for their Chilli Schnapps. We all had to take a shot of it and if we liked it, we could have another shot to sip. We took them all on the count of three and it was hilarious because almost everyone was coughing and choking after they took it, but I must admit, I quite liked it. I had another glass. And I finished someone else's glass for them. Feel the burn...
That evening we made our way back to Sydney. A drunk irish guy that we ran into earlier in the evening came and sat next to me on the train. I was not happy about it because our first encounter with him was outside of the train station when he asked how to get to sydney but could barely get the question out because he was almost too wasted to speak. Then I'm sitting on the train trying to read, and he sits next to me. Swell. He asked my name three times. He also asked my age and said I looked younger than 21. He told me he was 23. Ten minutes later he asked my age again and told me he was 24. This guy was nuts. He also tried to get my number but his phone was dead and I certainly didn't offer to put his in my phone. Then he wrote his number in chicken scratch in my book...i couldn't read what the numbers were but I told him it was clear as day. He wanted to go catch a movie. I think he needed to catch a break-from drinking. But as beligerent as he was, and as much as I couldn't understand this irish man that his friends termed 'foxy', most of the time, he wasn't that bad of a guy I guess. I kept trying to fall asleep bc I was tired and every time I did he would ask if I was okay. We talked about a lot of random things (our favorite actors, movies, colors..his family, etc.) The train ride was like 3 hours ok, you can cover a lot of ground. Ha, what a character.
This past week was not enjoyable...I had two final papers due on Friday. Thursday evening my friends Kevin and Noel and I pulled our first Aussie paper writing all-nighter. Noel brought over snacks to keep us going: mandarins, gobstoppers and sea salt chips. And every hour at the top of the hour, we would stop typing and get up and dance to a nineties dance hit of Kevin's choice to loosen up...one of the songs was Baby Got Back. Yes, this is the lameness that engulfed our lives this week that proved our studiousness. We finally finished the paper at about 9 am and turned them in around ten. What a great feeling that was. I still have one more huge paper (3000 words) due at the end of this week. Ugh I don't want to talk about it.
So we're finally up to last night. After much debate, the roommates and I hosted the third and final 'party in the palace'. It was supposed to be graffiti themed but due to my catch-up sleep that took place most of the day, I didn't have time to go pick up a shirt, so most of us didn't abide by the theme. But some people still did. It was a good time...the cops came once, but they basically laughed it off, told us to have a good night and drove off, because it wasn't loud at all by the time they got there. I love the crowd control system here.
Today was a day of rest and relaxation, and the weather was gorgeous.. for the first time in awhile! The first day of winter was about three days ago, but it really felt like Spring with not a single cloud in the sky!
Tomorrow's plan is to day drink at King's Cross to mask the harsh realization that is setting in...I leave Australia in three weeks. UGH I shiver with sheer anxiety.
CHEERS.
