March 30, Tuesday
Almost break time! Hooray.
This morning I woke up early to shower and eat breakfast before class. While I was eating breakfast I checked my emails from Judy Poffenbarger, my advisor at Tech. I had emailed her asking her about registration for the Fall 2010 semester. She told me that if I were taking four particular classes her and then took at least 6 hours in the summer semester then I would be able to graduate on time. However, out of the four classes that she had listed I’m only taking one of those. So now, I have found out that only ONE of my classes is counting while I’m here. Awesome. It’s very frustrating that all of this is happening. Had I known before then I’m sure I still would’ve come just for the experience but I just wish I would’ve known before I was halfway through my semester. I’m going to try to appeal this or something when I get back to Tech so hopefully I can get credits. So, it’s looking like the absolute earliest I can graduate is August of 2010.
That whole thing kind of set me off in a bad mood for the day. I went to my Journalism tutorial (the only class that is counting!) and we had to write a news article. I was paired up with a guy who wants to go into journalism so that was lucky. The tutorial Instructor ALWAYS asks me if my name is “Say-ruh” or “SAR-uh.” ...and every single time I tell her I don’t care. Haha. I should just change it every time she asks. One day tell her it’s “Say-ruh” and the next be like “no no, it’s SAR-uh.”
After class I went home and had lunch and watched some television with Joey. Around 4 Natalie came over and we ran some errands.
First we went to the bank. Then, it was SO exciting; we walked into Cole’s and guess who was there...the Easter Bunny! YEP! He sure enough was. He gave me a high five. And his lovely Cole’s friend gave me a free hot cross bun. THAT, my friends, is why I love Cole’s. I was totally “dev-o-ed” (devastated) though because I thought I didn’t have my camera with me. ...it wasn’t until we got back home that I realized I’d had it the whole time. Ugh.
When we got home we made our tasty pancakes, packed and hung out for the rest of the night. Joey, Stacey, Marina and I stayed up pretty late talking. It was lots of fun. J Stacey told us a story about this retarded guy who called his mom saying that he’d found a troll and locked it in the closet. It ends up that the “troll” was actually a midget who was Mormon that came to their house to minister to them. The poor guy had been locked in the closet for like six hours. Haha. Marina said “the moral of the story is, when you’re retarded son calls you and tells you to come home, GO HOME!” haha.
Melbourne tomorrow!!!
March 31, Wednesday
I stayed up SO late last night talking with the housemates and then to Jordy on facebook. I had to wake up at 7:45 this AM in order to get shower and pack a little more before class. After showering, I went into the kitchen to get some apple juice and there was a dead mouse on the trap. I screamed SO loud!!! Ah it was terrifying. I woke up poor Marina and she went and threw it out for us. ...She’s got to be the best housemate ever. I was so jittery after seeing that disgusting mouse. Blah, just thinking about it makes me want to puke!
My first class of the day was my public relations tutorial. We did some stuff to prepare for the assessment two. Which didn’t really make sense to me considering we haven’t even done assessment one yet. After that I had Gender, Power and Change. I still really like the class and I find it interesting but sometimes it just kills me. The other day ALL we talked about was Obama’s health care plan. Today we talked about Cougars. It wouldn’t be so bad except that there are a couple of grownups in the class and they don’t know what cougars are and ask so many questions. There is one lady who is awful...she asks so many questions and then when she’s given the answer she’s like “oh yeah, that’s what I was saying” when it was completely NOT what she was saying. UGH. It’s so wonderful because she’s in my tutorial as well. Thankfully I have a friend named Angelique in that class!!
When I got home from classes I made lunch and did some last minute packing/checking to make sure I had everything. One of the guy’s from Stacey’s white water rafting club, Will, had said he could take us to the airport which was awesome because a taxi would’ve been like $40+. Will got to the house a little before 3:30 and we were off to the airport!!!
It was so strange, at the airport anyone can go through security. They don’t ask for your ticket or anything to get in. And we didn’t have to take off our shoes, jewellery, jackets, take our laptops out of our bags...it was way chill.
While we were waiting for the flight they made an announcement that the flight would be boarding in 5 minutes. Then we looked up on the screen and it said “final call” next to our flight. We got so worried that we’d missed something but the plane was running behind schedule and they just hadn’t bothered to update the board information.
When we boarded the plane we got to walk straight out on to where the planes take off from and walk up stairs directly into the plane. It was so cool...I had always wanted to do that! I felt like a celebrity haha.
Stacey, Natalie and I all sat different places on the plane. I was in the window seat next to these two girls. During the flight I was SO tired and trying to sleep. I laid my head down on the fold out table but that wasn’t comfortable so I got frustrated and sat back up again. The girls next to me looked SO concerned. They thought I was going to puke or something so I had to explain to them that I was just tired and couldn’t sleep.
Lee and one of his friends picked us up from the airport! It was so kind. Lee’s friend, J.P., had a booze cruise to go to and since our flight was running late we were in such a hurry! We were pretty much running when we got off the plane.
Lee lives on campus in a “hall” not a dorm. Even though it isn’t a hall at all...it’s kind of like apartments. But it’s strange because everyone has their own room. It’s like a normal dorm room...built in closet, white brick walls, desk and bed...except it’s smaller and you live alone. I would’ve been so depressed if I came here and saw that that was my room! But it ended up being good for Lee because it forced him to meet people faster.
Lee, Natalie, Stacey and I went to this Portuguese restaurant called Nando’s and it was SO YUM!!!!
After we ate we went to the game room at Lee’s hall and played pool. Natalie and I wanted to play ping-pong but the only ball we were able to find was broken. So, we stuck to pool. Natalie and Stacey played against Lee and me. Wow, I am SO not good at pool. We were solids and at one point I hit the yellow striped ball thinking that it was the cue ball. Haha.
April 1, Thursday
Australian Words:
Queue = Line
Bogan = White Trash/Affliction Tool/Guido/etc.
Fairdinkum = Yeah/You’re right
Wranger = red head
They do not celebrate April Fool’s Day here! LAME.
Today Stacey, Natalie and I went into the city!!! Lee had to go to class so he did his best explaining how to get there. We had to hop on a bus and then switch over to a train...much more difficult than our lovely little Hobart. Haha.
When I was first buying the bus ticket we had some communication errors...I didn’t know what I needed to buy and the guy was totally confused as to what I was asking him...but we worked it out somehow. When we got to the train station we were trying to figure out where to go...basically just following the crowd. There was a green button that you could push and it would tell you when the next bus was coming. Stacey, without reading what it said, pushed the button just because it was green. Then we told her she didn’t need to push the button so she quickly pushed the red one which was next to it. Wrong button...she had pushed the emergency button. Goodness! Thankfully all that happened was someone came over the speaker phone asking what the emergency was and Stacey told them that it was an accident. Natalie and I were both so embarrassed though because we were already sticking out like a sore thumb due to our utter confusion! To make it even better, Stacey then decided to say very loudly that the police would be there soon for us. ...I’m not going to lie we got a couple of looks.
Oh it was SO wonderful to be in the CITY!!! There are REAL skyscrapers here. Ah it’s wonderful. I love Hobart, don’t get me wrong, but it’s good to see the city every now and then. I get excited when I haven’t been to Dallas in awhile and I come back from Lubbock and see the prettiness of the big city; so I’d say this is about the same thing.
We went and bought tickets to see the comedian Adam Hills. He is supposed to be really good and he is up for Personality of the Year. The show that he is doing, called Mess Around, is unscripted and he is just going to play off whatever the audience gives him. I’m REALLY excited about it! When we bought our tickets they told us that it had been sold out but that they actually opened up more and there weren’t even 10 left. How lucky were we!?
Nothing else really went on while we were in the city. We walked around a LOT and found cute little shops. We found a cute tea shop. I bought post carts 10 for $3...what a steal! There are tons of Asian people here! I guess I’m not surprised though.
When we got back to campus where Lee was he was SO impressed that we’d found our way home without any help...I was quite impressed too!
Back at Lee’s, we hung around and talked for awhile. Stacey, Natalie and I were talking about how expensive it was being here. Sometime during the conversation someone suggested we go home a little bit earlier than Thursday. Eight days is a LONG time to be gone. Thankfully everyone was perfectly fine with that idea. So we got on the phone and started calling the airlines and hostel to have it changed. It cost $40 to change our flight but with what we’ll be saving on the hostel and food. After that I think we were all much more relieved about money. I’m just glad we all agreed on coming back early. I had already been thinking about it because I told Marc that I’d see him sometime over the break but I didn’t wait to bail on the girls when I had already made a commitment to them first. But now this works out perfectly. J
Everyone was going to this bar called Notting Hill tonight...it’s what they do every Thursday. However, by the time we got ready and Lee ate dinner it was pretty late. We walked down to “The Not,” as they call it, and there was a massive queue. The security guard said we could wait in the line if we liked but that chances are we weren’t going to get in. I was honestly quite okay with that. The only reason I wanted to go to that bar was because of its name. Besides that I was super tired and just wanted to go to bed.
After leaving “The Not,” we walked down to a Caltex gas station and bought some snacks. We then headed back home. Lee went to go hang out with his friends and we girls decided to go to bed. It had been a long day!!
April 2, Friday
Good Friday sure was a Good Friday!
We woke up entirely too late today! Natalie and Stacey both woke up around 10 and showered and explored. They came and woke me up around noon. Reluctantly I got up and showered so we could get the day started.
By the time we got into town it was around 2. We first went to get lunch at Hungry Jack’s (every time I say “Hungry Jack’s” I feel like I should be saying it in a deep powerful tone haha).
Then we went to see if we could possibly get Lee a ticket to the show tonight. Unfortunately it was sold out but he was able to get a ticket to another show at the same time as ours.
We wandered around for awhile exploring more of the city.
Then it was time to head to our comedy shows!!!
They opened up the seating, which was general admission, and we got seats on the third row! J I was sitting next to a lady named Hannah who is from the U.K. but is here visiting her sister. She said she’d seen Adam Hills before and that he’s real funny. Yay!
When Adam Hills came out he straight away called on Natalie and asked how old she was because she has SUCH a baby face. He then asked where she was from and what she was doing here. She told him she was from the States and that she was here touring. He asked who all was with her so Stacey and I raised our hands. He then asked Hannah, who was sitting on the aisle seat, if she was with us and she said “no, I’m just some random person.” This gave him something to joke about. He started talking about how stereotypical that was “Hi we’re the Americans! We’re here touring! Did we mention we’re from the States! Yeah, we’re from America!” And then he compared it to the British people saying “Oh, I’m nobody. Don’t call on me. Please don’t look at me, I’m not important. I’m just some random person!”
He went on to ask Hannah if she realized that Americans think that British people have bad teeth. He asked me what I thought of her teeth. They definitely weren’t the awful British teeth that you generally think of so that was good!
Next, he called us up on stage to have a 3 on 3 teeth show off between Americans and British. So Stacey, Natalie, Hannah and I all headed up on stage. There were two other British ladies whose names I don’t remember...one was probably my parents age and the other my grandparents age. He asked us all of our names and ended up making a lot of fun of Stacey because she said her name real country. A girl in the crowd yelled out that Stacey was a good name and he shouldn’t make fun of it because it was her name as well. It just so happens that this girl was dressed in a corset, fishnet panty hose, a tiny skirt, feather hat and high heals...we’re talking Lady Gaga here...you getting the visual? So of COURSE she gets pulled on stage to be the “ring girl” for our showdown. Oh, and by the way, her name was Stacy Cakebread and she was an apprentice chef...ironic, yeah? Anyways, we had the competition and I’m pretty sure the Americans’ won SOUNDLY. But the Aussies had to be a little nice to the Brits I guess.
After the showdown, Adam invited us to stay on stage for his whole show to be his “bities” (aka his girls). The old British lady didn’t want to because it was too hot but then he offered to buy us drinks. Could life get any better? He bought us a bottle of champagne and we got to stay on stage the whole show! It was so cool!!!
Adam tried to pin point the roles that each of us had in our friendship. He said that I’m the one who keeps everyone and check and makes sure that nothing crazy happens. Then he said Natalie is the innocent one and Stacey is the crazy one of the group. We quickly corrected him about Natalie and Stacey. Haha.
Oh, and Adam is trying to make this one dude whose name I can’t remember more famous than Shiloh Pitt (Brad and Angelina’s son) because his whole premise for the act is that we, his audience, are far more interesting than any famous person he’ll ever meet. But in order to make this guy famous he is going to make a calender and we’re going to be in it!!! How awesome is that!?!
I think this was the coolest first comedy show I could ever go to!
When we got out of our show we were SO stoked. Everyone kept coming up and telling us that we were awesome and that we did a good job. We’re FAMOUS. We found Lee and told him all about it! He said his show had been good too so that was good that we all enjoyed ourselves tonight!
While we were deciding what our next plan of action would be, this guy came up and offered us two tickets to a comedy show tonight. The show was some improv act called something about Puppy Fighting Society or whatever...I don’t remember. It was only 8 though and that show wasn’t until 11.
We walked around aimlessly for awhile. Natalie and Stacey went and bought “Spanish Donuts” aka churros. I bought a normal donut. Yum!
Since we only had two tickets to the comedy show at 11, we were each going to have to pay $11 or two people were going to have to miss it. I didn’t really care either way but Lee and Natalie were both tired so they decided to head back home.
Stacey and I walked past the huge town hall where all of the Comedy Festival stuff was set up. This guy stopped us and offered us two tickets to his show, called Capital Punishment, which was starting at 10:45 and was at the building we were already at. The show that we had tickets for was starting at 11, in 30 minutes, and we would have had to walk to the other side of town. We could have made it but we were pretty tired from walking so much so we decided to go to this guy’s show instead.
While waiting in the queue for the show we made friends with these two people behind us. Their names were George and Maria and they were siblings. They had been given the free tickets as well so we were kind of wondering how good this show was going to be!
It was actually really funny. It was 5 short, 12 minute acts. We had gotten to talk to two of the guys in the show. The first act was these two people singing funny dirty songs. They sang one about wrangers, one about what you really are thinking when you’re in love, and a couple others that I don’t remember. Next was one of the guys we had met, Daniel...he was pretty funny, he seemed kind of nervous though. Then was this guy who really wasn’t funny at all...poor guy. Then Dayne, another of the guys we met, and he was hilarious. He acted really nerdy and nervous on stage and was reading his lines off a sheet of paper...funny guy. Then it ended with these twin boys who reminded me a lot of Cory and Chris. They were kind of funny but I love my cousin’s humour much more and theirs didn’t stand up to it.
When we left the show we had about half an hour to kill so we went to KFC to stay warm. But the doors didn’t close there to we went to Hungry Jack’s. Then we decided we were hungry so we went to Macer’s. Haha.
By the time all that was done we needed to catch our bus.
We got on the bus that Lee had told us to. Stacey was sitting across from me and I told her to come and sit next to me but it was already too late. This Chinese guy came and sat next to me and started talking up a storm. He kept telling me how he really wanted an American girlfriend and how he always dreamed about going to America. He was asking a million and a half questions. And asking why I didn’t have a boyfriend back home when I left for Australia and if I was popular at home. He kept saying I must be so popular and have a lot of friends and boyfriends...it was so awkward, what do you say in a situation like that? I just tried to talk as little as possible.
Unfortunately it was our bus driver’s very first night and he had NO idea where he was going. This lady on the bus had to give him directions. He had to pull a u-turn and kept asking the lady if he was going to correct way. Awesome.
When we finally got off we were still way far away from Lee’s dorm. We were about 5 minutes away from “The Not” which was probably 10-15 minutes away from campus.
On the walk home Stacey and I had a good talk. She’d made a comment earlier in the week about how Natalie hates her. It was starting to get really awkward. Stacey is really easily amused by a lot of stuff and Natalie is really easily annoyed so they kind of wears on each other at times. I told Stacey that maybe she should direct her excitement more towards me rather than towards Natalie because she won’t take it. We figured out that at the beginning, Stacey and Natalie were closer because Stacey was more reserved and calm. As she got more comfortable with us though, her personality got stronger. On the other hand, I have a very strong personality when you first meet me. As you get to know me, I calm down and learn when/with whom I can act crazy. So, for Natalie, Stacey and I kind of just switched roles which means I’m now closer with Natalie. Hopefully talking that out will make things a little better for everyone. I hate when people aren’t getting along and it makes things awkward!
Regardless of the crazy directions that we were given and the deep talk, Stacey and I found our way SO wonderfully!!! It was awesome. J
When we got home we passed out!!!
April 3, Saturday
Not so early to bed...but still early to rise!
We had to wake up around 8:45 so we could all shower and get to our hostel.
We took the buses into town. I had seen the hostel the other day while we were on the train so we knew where we were going. It’s in the city really close to the Yarra River. The hostel is called Nomad All Nations Hostel. It’s only $20 a night so we liked that!
Let’s just say it isn’t the nicest place I’ve ever stayed. On the first floor there is a bar and a travel shop. The second floor has the reception desk, sex specific bathrooms/showers, the kitchen and a little hang out area with a bunch of computers. Then there are two more floors of just bedrooms. I’d really like to know what this building used to be...we threw out the ideas of a hotel, boarding school, brothel, massive house...we don’t know.
We’re in a room with 5 other people...so 8 total. When we first walked in there were two people sleeping and all of the beds were still taken so we just set our stuff in the corner. We got there at around 12 and cleaning didn’t come until 1 so they told us we’d have to wait to get our beds until later.
We then went to find China Town! Natalie really wanted to go there because she was looking for a gift for her sister. We ended up finding this famous restaurant called The Dumpling House...apparently the guy from Man vs. Food has been there before. They have an all you can eat for $12. As you all know, I hate Chinese food. Natalie, Stacey and Lee were so kind and asked me like a million times if I was sure I wanted to eat there. If I sat at the table with them then I had to pay the $12 because they couldn’t regulate who was going to be eating or not. I figured I’m in China town in Melbourne at this famous restaurant; I’ll give it a go. ...Wrong choice. It was disgusting. They kept bringing out all this boiled, soggy stuff and nasty soggy leaves and it was just gross. I think I tried like 3 things...fried rice, some cracker type thing and then a fried biscuit which ended up having pumpkin inside and it was pretty gross.
Towards the end of the meal Lee’s dad called and said that he’d gotten in town and that Lee needed to get to the airport. He had earlier told Lee to plan on being there 50 – 75 minutes after this flight got in but apparently he wanted him there sooner than that. So, Lee had to roll out early.
Once we left The Dumpling House we wandered around for awhile. There was a lot going on by the mall area of town because it’s Saturday. We have done so much walking this trip it’s insane. We never actually walk anywhere; we just wander aimlessly looking for something to do that sounds fun at the time. It’s kind of nice because we can just not have a schedule or anything but at times it’s a little tiring because we just walk and have no purpose or sense of direction.
We ended up back at the hostel fairly early in the afternoon. When we got back there were only two beds that had been made up for us. There had been 4 total made up but there were two other new people in the room, Joy who is from Korea and Eugene who is from Malaysia I think. We went to the front desk to try to get that sorted. It’s pretty crazy here, no one really knows what’s going on because there are so many people who work here and the occupants come and go so freely that you can’t regulate what stuff belongs to whom and if they should be there still or not. The guy at the desk looked up the information and saw that there really should only be 8 people in the room rather than the 9 that were there. We told him that we would just come back later and hopefully everyone would be back and we would be able to sort it then. Natalie and I shared a bed for the time being. She read for one of her classes. Stacey worked on her journal. I took a glorious two hour nap. J
By the time I woke up I was STARVING. Considering I hadn’t really eaten a lunch, I needed food. I have fallen in love with Subway over here. Back home they totally gyp you on the amount of meat that you get...it’s like 3 slices per 6 inches. Here they actually give you a good amount. Subway is also the only place I’ve found that has ranch. Yum! Oh, they have $7 foot longs here as opposed to $5. We tried to sing the $7 foot long song but that just doesn’t work out too well. But getting 1-2 meals for $7 is such a steal over here. At Macer’s or Hungry Jack’s they don’t even have a dollar menu. We told our friend Steve, from Cairns, about the dollar menu at all of our fast food restaurants and he was in total awe of the fact that you could get a full meal for $3. He said he wanted to come to the States for that reason only. I think when I get back home I’m going to be so excited that food is so cheap that I’m just going to be like “large size that for only a dollar more!?! DO IT!” haha I hope not.
Anyways, I went and got supper from Subway and I was so hungry that I ate the whole foot long sandwich. THAT’S how hungry I was!
After eating we wandered around the city, again. We went to Town Hall in hopes of finding someone to give us free tickets to a comedy act. We didn’t have any luck though. We went down to the Yarra River and watched some street performers. There were two guys who did tricks with fire! They were so awesome. Next there was a guy who did a dog show with his 4 poodles. He was so full of crap...I realize that most of those people probably are but he was so open about it that it rubbed me the wrong way. He kept saying that he had gotten the box of how to do a dog show in the mail that day. He also said that one of the dogs was 6 months old...for 7 years. It was a fairly good show but the guy was just eh. But I really enjoy street performers, I think they’re awesome. We also saw a couple of street artist who do chalk drawings on the sidewalk. They were extremely talented!
Then we headed back to the hostel and got settled. They still didn’t have the bed situation sorted and there was a different guy at the front desk so we just decided to drop the issue. Natalie and I were fine to share a bed. But if it happened again the next night then we’d ask for some money back. We all kind of did our own thing; Natalie read, Stacey journaled, and I blogged. Then it was time to sleep. Travelling sure does wear you out!
April 4, Sunday
Terviseks = Sounds Like = DIRTY SEX = “Cheers” in Estonian.
Happy Easter!! J
Today was Australia’s daylight savings. We were terribly confused this morning when we woke up...we didn’t know what time it was! After asking our roommate, we found out that it was 9 AM. So, please note:
THE TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DALLAS AND HOBART IS NOW 15 HOURS.
It’s crazy...when I first came there was a 17 hour time difference. Then there was Spring Forward back home and it became a 16 hour time difference. Now it is 15 hours difference. So, for home to convert the time to Hobart, you change the AM ßtoà PM and then add 3 hours.
Ugh, last night one of our guy roommates from England totally had sex in our room. It was SO awkward and rude and nasty. Oh the joys of staying in a backpacker’s hostel!
This morning we went to look for some place for Stacey to eat breakfast. She wasn’t sure what she was wanting though. It was rough finding a place that was open on Sunday, let alone on Easter Sunday. We ended up just going to the 7-Eleven next door to our hostel and buying fruit from there.
Then we headed off to St. Kilda Beach. We had to hop on a tram to get there.
In the city there are trams (which run along tracks with the little wire on top), buses, and trains (like a dart rail system). It was confusing at first getting used to the different names for each thing.
When taking the tram you have to buy your ticket on the thing while it’s moving. It was way crowded and hard to walk over to the little ticket thing while it was moving so quickly. If you get caught without a ticket then you can get a $600 fine. We did NOT want that fine! So we slowly worked our way over to the ticket machine. It didn’t accept bills and we didn’t have enough coins to cover the cost so we hopped off at the next stop. We were in some little neighbourhood...it was quite possibly the worst place to get off if we were wanting change but for some reason we got off there. It ended up being perfect though because the beach was just in the distance. We had to walk probably half a mile and we were at the beach.
When we got onto the beach we saw The Spirit of Tasmania, the ferry that goes between Melbourne and Devonport, Tasmania. That was exciting! We walked along the beach for awhile looking at all the sea shells. There were TONS...so many that it almost hurt to walk along the beach. There was heaps of massive jelly fish washed up on the beach...blah. We walked down this pier and this kind old lady took some photos for us. We then went and laid-out for a bit. The water was definitely too cold to go swimming in but the weather was perfect for laying-out. This was the first beach that I’ve been to in Australia that has had volleyball nets set up. We were hoping that we’d see someone playing and be able to join them but no one had a volley ball. Sad.
We left the beach around 12. We started walking down towards where we thought there would be buses.
Ah, Bay Street is so cute. It was the main street in town and it was just so picturesque. There was the ocean at the end and then all the cute little shops with palm trees down the middle of the street.
We found a cute little candy shop which we of course had to stop in. There was also a burger place called Urban Burger that I SO want to go back to!
Once we were on Bay St we easily found the bus that we needed to take!
Back at the hostel we showered before heading out again. That was an experience. Two of the showers weren’t working; they would only get scolding hot, so Natalie and I decided to share this one huge one and just shower with our bathing suits on. We had to keep messing with the temperature. It would get real hot then super cold. We would stand away from the water and one of us would wash our hair and the other would feel the water and adjust it until it was suitable then would yell “go, go, go!” for the other one to quickly rinse off. It worked out pretty well. It reminded me of my mission trips in Mexico when we would have to run back and forth between the hot and cold showers.
After showering we went to The Big Laugh Out which is part of the Comedy Festival. They are going to have it every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This weekend was the kick off for it. Basically it is a family friendly comedy show in Federation Park. We got there a little late.
When we showed up there was some crazy girl, Jess Love, who was probably around my age or so who was acting like a 10 year old. She was wearing this little baby type outfit...which showed off her leg tattoos as well as the massive tattoo that she had on her butt/hip. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know too many 10 year olds with tattoos on their butts. She was wicked awesome at hoola-hooping though. Besides that all she did was jump rope and tell fat jokes though. At this point I was thinking this Big Laugh Out was going to be the biggest waste of time ever.
The next act was these two French Canadians who did acrobatic/gymnastics stuff. They were really funny and talented. They would do dances, flips, lifts, and whatever else. They were really interactive with the crowd.
We decided to text Jenny and invite her to dinner tonight. She had been begging to hang out with us so we figured we could stand her for one night. Also, there had been so much tension between Stacey and Natalie that I was thinking that maybe if we invited Jenny it would relieve a little of that and they could bond over their mutual hate for her. So, I sent her a text telling her we were having Taco Bill’s at 7 if she’d like to join. After all the time she spent begging to hang out with us, the reply I got was “I don’t really feel like eating Mexican food. Maybe we can catch up later?” ...go figure that she would find something negative to say about Taco Bill’s!
Once the show was over it was only 3:30 and we weren’t planning on going to dinner until 7. We decided we needed food! We went in exploration of the Harajuku Crepe shop...and we found it!!! For anyone who ever comes to Melbourne, this place is a MUST. It’s on La Trobe and Elizabeth St. I’m writing that in here so that I’ll never forget it. Haha. This place is incredible. You can get anything imaginable in your crepe. You can get any kind of fruit, ice cream, cheesecake, brownies, chicken salad, ham, and eggs, basically anything you could ever want. In mine I got a brownie, strawberries and ice cream. It was so good. I could eat those crepes forever. I think we’re going to go back again sometime and next time I’m getting cheesecake in mine. That’s how good this place is, I’m already thinking about what creation I’m going to come up with next time I go back there.
We sat at the park across from the crepe shop and listened to these crazy old men take turns griping about whatever they wanted. This one guy was going on and on for more than 10 minutes before we were able to figure out what he was so adamant about. ...crazy bored old men.
We wandered around the city some more. We found some book shops and some clothing stores to stop and browse through. When we were ready to go back to the hostel we actually got a little turned around. For the first time we walked the opposite way of where we needed to go. We’re generally good about directions but I’m not sure what happened this time. It didn’t set us back too much though, maybe 10-15 minutes of walking. It was funny because the only way we realized we were lost was because we stopped recognizing the restaurants and because we saw a gentleman’s club that we’d never seen before. Haha.
By the time we got back to the hostel it was nearly 6:30. We have a roommate from Estonia named Kylie and she is travelling throughout Australia alone. We had asked her earlier if she would want to come to dinner with us and she said she would. We were supposed to meet up the Brendon Dugan for dinner but I hadn’t heard from him. Finally, on the walk over I got a text saying that his friend’s parents were taking them out to supper and that we’d have to meet up later. We were SO excited about Taco Bill’s that we were practically running to get there. Poor Kylie was like “you walk REALLY fast!” haha.
Taco Bill’s is famous for their fish bowl margaritas. Plus, when you buy a fish bowl you get a free sombrero! Stacey and Kylie didn’t want to split it so the massive classic margarita was just between Natalie and me. Our waitress brought us our chips and salsa when we got there. It was a tiny little bowl of each and if you wanted more you had to pay a dollar. Goodness, if I had to pay a dollar for every time I’ve gotten a chip refill at a Mexican restaurant I’d be broke! The margarita was okay but the food was so yum. I can’t even tell you how wonderful it was to have Mexican food. I got quesadillas but they weren’t normal ones...it was more like a flattened burrito. I ate it so quickly!
We went to the Oaks Hotel to meet up with Brendon, Scott and Matt. They weren’t back from supper yet so we had to wait on them a bit. We girls all sat on the couches in the lobby. When the boys finally got there they had to shower so we waited longer!
We then went to the Crown Casino! It’s funny, on all the signs rather than calling it a casino it is called an “entertainment complex.” Talk about good Public Relations!
Jenny, Stacey and Kylie all decided to go home not long after being there. I wanted to stay because I’d been trying to hang out with Brendon for the past 3 days. Thankfully, Natalie said she’d stay with me! We watched Brendon play the game where the circle spins and you have to try to guess where it’ll land.
We left there at midnight. We were SO tired. When we got back to the hostel we passed out!
April 5, Monday
Oh, strange thing, the Monday after Easter is considered a public holiday here. These Aussies just really don’t like working!
We got to the aquarium by 10...exactly what time we had hoped! J Natalie had seen something about the tickets being around $60...steep, yeah? Thankfully it was only $23! That price is much better than the alternative.
When we first got there we were in Antarctica! There were lots of penguins. J One of the exhibits right now is with Madagascar’s penguins and it is that they have Penguin Parties every day...the kids can make party hats and badges and play penguin games. It was pretty cute.
I got a call from Dad when we first got there. I hadn’t really gotten to talk to anyone in awhile because of travelling so it was good to get to talk to him! It was kind of loud in the aqua
We went to a talk with a diver. It was cool because the guy was actually in the tank with heaps of stingrays, sharks and other fish while we were talking to him.
While we were there we also went to a fish feeding. Two divers went down and fed the sting rays, sea turtle, snapper fish, and all the others. The sharks didn’t really come around because they only need to eat about once a week and they obviously weren’t hungry. The sea turtle was hilarious. Apparently they’re greedy little things. She wanted more and more food. Also, sea turtles can’t see very well and so if she smelled the food then she would start biting. As a result, she kept biting onto the diver’s hand and arm. The diver kept pushing her away but then two minutes later she’d be right back at it. Sometimes the little turtle was lucky enough to get her head into the bucket while the diver wasn’t looking. It was really cute. The other fish that was cool to watch eat were the sting rays. I think the lady said that the largest sting rays are the ones that they had there. I’ve always thought sting rays were kind of mean and ugly just because they’re and ugly colour. But when you watch them swim they’re gorgeous. Watching them eat was funny; they don’t have teeth so they just look like happy old men munching away at their food. It was cute. Haha.
Before we left we hit up the shop. I was really banking on them having some whale stuff that I could get for Rachel considering she has a newfound fascination with whales. Unfortunately they closest thing they had was a whale shark stuffed animal and it was $30...sorry Sissy. But I was able to get two other gifts! J
After the aquarium we went home to nap!
That evening we all just got dinner on our own...I got Nando’s. We stayed in and watched Wedding Crashers on my laptop. It was a busy day so it was good to have a night in!
April 6, Tuesday
The day we go home! Wow, Hobart is home and I actually miss it. It was so good to be in the city. I love Melbourne and I could probably live there, especially in St. Kilda; however I’m really excited to be able to be back at my house in my bed with my own space.
This morning we woke up around 8:30 and packed up our stuff and checked out of our hostel. Thankfully there is a luggage room where we’re allowed to leave our bags since have a late flight out. Unfortunately it is fairly easy for anyone to just go up to the desk and ask for the key to that room so they recommended not leaving any valuables in there. This meant that I had to carry my backpack around all day since I had my laptop. Ugh. Oh well, at least I didn’t have to carry both bags around!
We were going to go to the Immigration Museum first but they didn’t open until 10 and we didn’t feel like waiting for half an hour.
Next we went to the Queen Victoria Market. It is a huge semi-outdoor market kind of like Canton or McKinney Trade Days.
At one of the booths there was heaps of aboriginal work. There was a really cute kangaroo carving that was all painted. The man told me all about what it meant. It was so interesting! I asked him if I bought it if he would write down all the meanings for me and he did! J
We spent a long while at the market. There were two different sections, one with merchandise and one with fruits and veggies. It was heaven. I was real sad though because Tasmania doesn’t let you bring in fruits and veggies so I wasn’t able to buy any of that unless I wanted to eat it before the flight out.
After leaving the market we went to a couple of exhibits at the library. There was one called “Shop ‘Til You Drop” and it was all about how shopping in Melbourne has grown and changed throughout the years. There was another one about literature and art. Then the last exhibit was about Victoria throughout the years. It was real interesting.
Stacey and I had gone off on our own and when I tried to call Natalie to tell her that we were done she didn’t answer. So Stacey and I went to get Subway for lunch. I was starving! The dude who made my sandwich didn’t put much sandwich meat on there...I was so upset, after all the praises I’d sung to Subway, there they go letting me down!
Once we found Natalie, we were off to our next stop, Federation Square, to see a collage exhibit. It was real small and didn’t take much time at all to go through.
I don’t know why but I was so tired today. Everywhere we walked it was like I would just zone out and somehow make it there without even remembering the walk at all. It was a weird feeling.
We then headed back to the hostel. When we had checked in they gave us a coupon for free drinks at the bar downstairs. We stopped in there and got some cokes. Then we went up to get our bags from the luggage room.
There is an airport shuttle that leaves from Southern Cross Station which is about a 5 minute walk down the street. It cost $16 which was lame. L But hey, at least it’s getting us home! J
At the airport, we used the little self check in things to get our ticket. However, it said that our reservation wasn’t listed. We figured since that had happened to all three of us though that it was just because we had made a change to our flight plan. That was exactly the problem. J We were able to get our tickets A-okay from the lady at the desk.
When we were going through security at the airport the guy in front of me took off his shoes and I thought "haha, look at that American!" haha.
There was an hour to spare before the flight so we sat around like bums and played games on our ipods.
On the plane, Natalie and I sat together on row 7. Stacey was way at the back of the plane. The flight went quickly enough.
Landing in Hobart was amazing. First of all, we got to walk down the stairs which is always just so exciting! Also, the weather was wonderful. It was nice and cool and not muggy like the city. Furthermore, our ride, Will, was already there waiting for us!
When Stacey and I got home we found that our electricity was off. We weren’t sure how long it had been off but we cleaned out the freezer and some of the fridge because everything in there was warm. L After that wonderful discovery, we also found out that our internet wasn’t working for some reason. UGH. Welcome home! Oh well, we were tired anyways. I took a nice hot shower and went to bed! J
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