Getting Settled In

Hello Everyone,

It's been a bit since my last post, so I think it's time we catch up.  This week has been pretty standard.  I've just been getting settled in and this place is starting to feel more like a temporary home.  Things have been going really well, I'm having fun, meeting lots of people, and just trying to get the most out of this trip.  Here's a run down of my weekend so far.

Friday

The time flew.  I got out of class at 4 and walked down to Manly to the Optus store to buy a SIM card.  A SIM card is a card that you put in your phone underneath the battery.  It is a pre-paid wireless card that allows any phone with 3G capabilities to have service.  I was given a phone by a girl in my HOTS group, Ash, so I figured while I have this phone in Australia I might as well use it.  My friend Ivan was also at Optus so we walked back to school together and since it was over 30 degrees I bought a slurpee on the way back.  Once we got back, we ate dinner, and then I rushed up to my room to pack my bags.  Most of the Americans made reservations to stay at a hostel near Darling Harbour called Base.  Before all of that happend, my HOTS group (Ash, Krista, Georgie, and Rochelle) decided that we all wanted to go out to eat that night.  Once I had my bag packed, I walked down to Manly Wharf, but I had missed my ferry.  I took the Jet Cat instead, a faster and smaller boat.

Once I got to Circular Quay, I took a cab to where I thought Base was, except I was actually about 5 blocks East of it.  I called Ash and she looked up the address for me.  I checked in, threw my stuff in my room, then walked back to where I had been dropped off to meet the 3 girls (Krista couldn't make it, she got engaged last Saturday.)  We ended up eating at a palce called Gazebo, a really laid back, young restaurant with no walls.  It was basically a kitchen with a roof that overhung out over all the tables.  It was raining this night so it was actually pretty cool.  I had fish and chips, but I tried everything that the girls ordered.  Squid, lamb, sirloin, and sangria.  The food was amazing.

After that, we walked over the The Lincoln (it made me feel right at home.)  It was a cool classy bar in Kings Cross, not far from Gazebo.  The girls knew the bartender so none of us paid for a drink all night.  The Lincoln is having a promotional night this Friday, so I think Scott and I are going to go check it out.  The promoter told me how to get in, and that there will be a couple magazines and a ton of photographers at the event, plus free cocktails.  The most bizarre thing happened while the 4 of us were drinking at The Lincoln.  All of the sudden these guys walk up on the sidewalk with these lit bottles and start blowing fire everywhere.  We were sitting inside next to an open window and whenever they blew fire, the entire inside of the bar felt like a sauna.  Here's a couple pictures.

Those cabs are not parked, they are just waiting in traffic

Saturday

I thought it was funny when I got back to my room Friday night and no one was there.  The reason this happened was because the hostel has screwed our reservation up and put all 6 of us in 6 separate rooms, instead of 6 of us in a 6 man room.  We finally figured it out, and got our rooms situated the way we wanted.  We started with a few cocktails at a place in Darling Harbour called the Platoon.  Then, we had dinner at Nick's, a steak and seafood type of place, pretty nice actually.  Five of the guys ordered full racks of pork ribs.  That's 2.5 pigs we took out at one meal.  The ribs were enormous, I don't think I've ever seen ribs that big back in the states.  After dinner, we went to a club called The Wallaby.  Some guys wanted to fight Frankie so he bounced and it was kind of a huge buzz kill.  Shortly after John, Mike, and I left and went back to the hostel.  Doug and Julianne followed shortly, and Penny, Daniel, and Scott came home at 6:30 am with some funny stories.

Sunday

Today we all accidently woke up at 9:45 instead of 8:45 (there was a time change last night) and we had to be checked out by 10 or else we got $35 fines.  Somehow we all made it, and caught the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly.  We all had brunch here at school (it ended at noon) and now we're all getting ready to go to the NRL finals.  Think of it as the Super Bowl of the National Rugby League.  It's Manly v.s. Melboure, so we all bought Manly Sea Eagles jerseys and shirts, and will be cheering loudly for the home team.  I should have some pictures up from the game in my next post.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Clay