One of the best weekends here so far!

Thursday, September 16:

Thursday morning after rocking my Math Midterm, I took an awesome nap to rest of for Girls' Night Out and Brianna's 21st Birthday Celebration. Wesley hosted this event "Girls' Night Out, Boys' Night In". The Wesley boys stayed at Wesley and had a massive Frat party where they got way too drunk and way too rowdy by themselves. The girls, however, went to a karaoke bar in the city and had an awesome couple of hours of free drinks and singing! Each "grade" had a different theme to dress as: 3rd year - gangter/rapper, 2nd year - 90s/grunge, 1st year - 70s/hippy. However, the same night was Brianna's 21st Birthday dinner so Makenzie and I missed most of the Girls' Night Out but got to see the end which was probably the best part! Brianna's dinner was wonderful! We went to this Greek restaurant by her school and had some awesome food and company!

Friday, September 17th:

Friday morning was AWESOME thanks to one of our new good friends Faf. He has been taking girls at Wesley out to breakfast for the past few weeks so he took me, Ashley, Aly an Makenzie! We drove thru Mcdonals (because that is what we wanted) and then to a really cool dock that looked right onto the Anzac bridge. We saw so many live jelly fish in the water and talked about funny things like embarrassing stories. It was a wonderful morning! The rest of the day was kind of quiet but it was a good day to rest up for the big day we had Saturday. I watched a lot of One Tree Hill thanks to Addie who got me hooked!

Saturday, September 18th:

Ashley, Makenzie and I had another early morning and headed to the beach. But not just any of the popular beaches around Sydney, a very secluded and quiet beach. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't wait to hit the sand! We took two busses and arrived in one of the most beautiful areas called Vaucluse and decided that we would live there if we ever earned enough money. We finally made it to Milk beach which literally stretched about 40 yards! I don't even know if I would call it a beach! The water was just the harbour and there were no waves! However, there was NO one there except us and it has an amazing view of the harbor and the city from the other side. We climbed up this huge rock that had a flat top and tanned up there to absorb as much sun as we could. It was also the first beach I found shells at so I went crazy picking up almost all of them!

As the day went on we saw a lot of people going up this path and we decided we wanted to go for a little walk to find out where everyone else was going! We walked along the harbour from the other side and just saw amazing views from really awesome cliffs. Carly and Trey made an album of themselves in handstands all over New Zealand so Makenzie and I decided we wanted to do something cool like that. So, on this huge rock we found overlooking the Sydney Bridge so we decided put ourselves into bridges. As you can see in the picture, we're identica. One rock was over really deep water and we decided to jump! I, of course, let the girls go first so that if anything happened I could go in and save them. How responsible. Also, I had to take the picture! So after hearing about how cold but awesome it was I was convinced to jump off! They were definitely right about the cold part! Getting out was tough because we kept cutting out legs on the sharp snail shells and barnacles on the rocks. Other than the cold water, the blood dripping down our legs and the wet bathing suits under our clothes, the jump was totally worth it!

We walked through the rest of the park and back to the bus satisfied with our trip! It was the first beach I actually wore my bikini, went into the water, and wasn't freezing because of the wind. I now have a bit of sunburn and I've never been happier about it! Its a terrific sign that winter here is over and its about to get really fun :)

Later that night Makenzie, Kendra (another friend from Trinity studying here), and I went to the Fogarty's (Lachlan's family) house for dinner. We had the worst luck when it came to catching busses so the trip there was very frustrating however once we did it was so much fun. We had a wonderful home cooked dinner (salad, hamburgers and chicken yum!) and amazing mousse for dessert. The company was even better than the dinner! Lachlan's two friends Nick and Evan came over as well so we had plenty of laughs at the dinner table. There was not a silent awkward moment for a whole 4 hours that we were there! It really amazed us girls how close Lachlan's friends are to his family and of course how close the family is. We have been so distant from any form of family not just because we don't have any here, but kids at college rarely have there parents come and visit! We have become pretty good friends with Lachlan's sister Gen as well and we all plan to go out again sometime soon. We are going to have to plan something awesome for the Fogarty's for being our home away from home!

Sunday, September 19:

Makenzie and I had another early morning and went to church. We decided to go to the beautiful cathedral in Hyde Park because we hadn't had a chance before. We got there pretty early and saw that the Sydney Marathon and Fun Run were going on right in the park! We cheered for a bit for the runners and giggled at the little girls chanting "Go Daddy Go" at all the men because they had no clue when their actual father was going to run past them. Luckily, we got to watch the dad hi-five the girls and the wife which surprisingly made both me and Makenzie tear up! It was so sweet. We made our way into the Cathedral and took our seats. This mass was a bit different from their services because they had a boys and mens choir singing almost the whole mass. They are one of the best choirs in all of Sydney apparently and I can definitely believe that! The race was over when mass got out so we didn't get to see them all finish and congratulate anyone but we decided that we wanted to run through Hyde Park because it is so beautiful! It is a good thing Mom is staying so close to that park. I passed the street she is staying on and it is so close to everything! The shopping, the park, the markets, the harbour, literally everything! I can't wait for her to come. On our way back to school, Makenzie and I planned to go back to where we were and do some sale shopping for winter things going on sale! And of course for dresses for Black Ball, the formal coming up in a few weeks!). We also stopped into the Woolworths Grocery Story (yes mom, thats the popular one and its so close to where you'll be staying) and bought some TimTams, the best cookies here, 2 for $4. Big deal! But dont tell the boys I live with that I have them because they'll be gone before I even open them!

Once back to Wesley and after lunch, Makenzie and I did some planning for out traveling once school ends. Makenzie did her research and marked all of the places we should go and I looked up prices for the Greyhounds that can take us to and from these destinations! We have 3 weeks after our last final to travel the whole east coast and little money to do it on. Hopefully couch surfing will be as convenient as everyone says it is and save us a bunch of money! We have plenty of time before November 17th but a lot of planning to do before then in order to make sure everything goes smoothly and so we don't throw away too much money on spontaneous fun. We will fly up to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef and just find our way back to Sydney before the 8th! Don't forget, we have a whole week in Fiji after we leave here!