I thought once I got back from my trip I would have time to relax, but that hasn’t really happened yet. I couldn’t sleep in the first day back since I had to go to the dentist and get my tooth fixed. I left that excitement out of my last post, a few hours after getting back from our trip I was sitting in my room eating and my fake tooth broke off. Not really the best ending to the day, not to mention all of my roommates were gone, and it happened after the medical center on campus closes so I had no idea what to do. I went to campus to use the internet and found out there is a dentist in the shopping center which is a few block away from my apartment so I planned on going there first thing the next day.
So no sleeping in for me Thursday morning, I woke up at 8 so I could get to the dentist right away. They thankfully had an opening but it wasn’t until 3:30 so I had all day to walk around looking like a hillbilly. It actually worked out because I had a group meeting for my Marketing presentation scheduled for 10:30 so I was still able to go to that, even though I really didn’t want to talk to anyone while missing one of my front teeth. The dentist wound up being one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life, he really turned my mood around 180 degrees. Before going in I was worried about the whole situation but he was really understanding and assured me everything would be fine. I’m still waiting to hear back from my health insurance company, with the international student health cover you have to pay up front and then file a claim which they review and decide if they want to pay for anything.
Friday I decided that something had to be done about this apartment, it was a mess. I vacuumed, swept, washed the floor, took out the overflowing recycling and trash, did the dishes, and even washed the bathmats. After that I went to campus to use the internet, I had to set up my classes for next year, check my bank statement and e-mails and book a flight to come home. I did all of that, and by the way I’ll be home June 24th at around 7pm. Friday night there wasn’t much going on, a lot of people were still gone on break and the rest of us were all exhausted from our trips so we just hung out.
Saturday was Anzac day which is a big holiday here. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian in WWI. There’s a mass at like 4am, but mostly it’s just a day for people to go into the city and drink/celebrate. Joe, who lives upstairs, birthday was on Sunday so we decided to celebrate Saturday in conjunction with Anzac day. The plan was to get ready and start drinking at noon and then head to the city because there was supposed to be live music and stuff in the afternoon. As usual no one was ready at 12, we all met up in Joe’s apartment around 2, hung out there for a couple of hours and then headed into the city. We went to a bunch of different bars and then later in the night we all met up with people from our trips and most of us split up. The group I was with decided that the rocks wasn’t fun and that we should go to Bungalow8 which is on Darling Harbor and a good 20 minute walk from where we were. I’m stubborn and didn’t want to pay for a taxi so we walked the entire way, which was probably a stupid idea since my knee still hurts from white water rafting and I had flimsy sandals on for walking. We got there eventually and it was actually a lot of fun, pretty similar to Cargo bar, which is also on Darling harbor but it was cool to see someplace new.
Sunday I tired to be studious and go to the library, got there around 1 and didn’t really get that much done. I checked facebook, e-mailed my mom, and researched a few articles for my paper but couldn’t concentrate enough to actually read them all. I woke up craving Mexican food so Marie and I decided to make tacos for dinner, which were delicious. The finale of the Australian version of So you think you can dance was on so Marie and I watched that and by the time it was over I was ready for bed, especially since I had to get up for my internship the next day.
By Monday my lack of sleeping was catching up with me, I had to hit the snooze button a few times and struggled to get out to the bus stop on time. I made a poor decision in wearing heels and my feet/knee were killing me by the time I got to work. I figured work would be decent since I hadn’t been in a few weeks and theres internet there so I could always facebook if I was bored. Well just my luck, the internet was “down” so I got the awesome job of putting together 40 binders for a conference they were having later in the week. Around lunch time the internet starting working again and it was funny because within minutes my supervisor was on facebook so I figured it was okay for me to do the same. Then she asked me if I wanted to do some shopping because we needed gift bags for the wine we were giving to presenters. Again, this would have been fine except that I was wearing stupid heals, and my knee still hurt so the walk during lunch wasn’t so enjoyable. I did get an extended lunch though so it all evened out. I feel like I had to wait for eternity for the bus that night and got home about ten minutes before I had to head out for my meeting with my Marketing group. We wrote our speech for our presentation but gave up soon after that because we were all tired and hungry, I came back ate some food, watched the new show Master Chef, and attempted to work on my paper.
Tuesday was a much better day, I got up before my alarm, showered and had breakfast (which I usually don’t do before work). We had a staff meeting at work which was pretty boring until the power went out around 10. I guess this is like the third time in the last month that Sydney has had a blackout. It lasted for about an hour so we just sat there, kind of continuing the meeting but moreso just talking about random things. The rest of the day went pretty fast, I had to write a Media release announcing the Export Hero’s for 2009 so that was kind of cool.
Wednesday I thought I would finally get to sleep in but woke up at 8:30 and then again at 9:30 so I just got up. I was at the library pretty much all day, group presentation; paper and huge test all in the next two weeks. It would be fine but the test is in my ECO200 class, the one that I barely understand so I have to study a lot. I didn’t buy the book so I have to go to the library to read it which you would think is a better place for studying than my apartment but the library here sucks. There’s really no good place to study there, and it drives me crazy that they allow you to eat because when I’m trying to read and it’s quite the sound of chewing drives me insane. If you know me at all you know how much this annoys me.
Thursday is my busy day as far as classes go. Luckily I didn’t have my ECO tutorial this week so I didn’t have to start until 11 which is my Econ lecture. I actually like that professor and although it’s somewhat boring the 2 hours go fairly fast. My marketing tutorial was completely pointless this week but gave my group time to work on our presentation that we have next Thursday. That night no one was really doing anything, school’s finally catching up with everyone. I watched Harry Potter with Jill and was yelled at because I’ve never seen any of the movies, I didn’t mention to them that I haven’t even read the books. I might do that this summer though, seeing as I own them all. Speaking of reading I’m almost done with the Pillars of the Earth, it’s really good and I just found out Julie upstairs has another one of Ken Follett’s books so I might borrow that from her when I’m done with this one.
Friday I went into work because I want to make up some hours. I’m hoping to finish a week early and I know that I’m going to be missing a few days when I go to Melbourne. My boss told me not to bother coming in until the afternoon because that way I could stay and have cocktails. Work was actually kind of fun, I thought it was going to suck at first because one of the computers was broken so I didn’t have one for the day but then we re arranged and I did have one. I confirmed the booking for the photographer and audio systems for the Hero’s awards in June and then I started working on a slideshow of all the Hero’s and past Hero’s that’s going to play during the dinner. They got out the wine at about 4 and I thought I would just have a glass and then be home by 5. We were sitting in the board room drinking and talking about before I knew it, it was 6 o’clock. We were talking about how expensive University is in the states and all kinds of random stuff, it was actually a lot of fun, I’m going to have to start working more Fridays. that night when I got home everyone was hanging out upstairs in Joes apartment so I went up there, we left soon after to go across campus to some other girls apartments and we all just hung out there for the night.
Saturday I decided to tag along with the CEA group to go to the Blue Mountains. CEA is just the program they are studying abroad through, basically they paid a little bit extra and then have prearranged trips every once in a while. We went up to the Mountains but on the way stopped at a aboriginal place and tried throwing boomerangs and then learned about their culture. After that we went to a few lookout points and then started our hourish long walk. The guide, Murry, told us we’d be climbing down some stairs and that it was a pretty long walk and then we’d take the train back up the mountain. The stairs were extremely steep and there were more than a “couple” I think the whole walk was 2km, kind of long and my knee still is sore but it was an awesome experience with some amazing views. Along the path we met a bunch of people that had numbers tapped to them. Turns out there was a race in the Mountains, they started at 8 am and were hoping to finish by that time the next day. In total they were doing a 100km hike all around the Mountains, non-stop through the night. Personally I think they are crazy but they were doing it as a charity even to raise money and awareness some wildlife foundation that’s trying to preserve the natural beauty of Australia. It was actually pretty cool talking to some of the people, you could tell they were really passionate about it. When we finally got to the bottom we were waiting for the train to take us back up, turns out it’s the steepest train in the world, we thought it’d be a good idea to sit in the front row...kind of scary. After that we had lunch/dinner in town and came back, I was exhausted so I just hung out, typed my blog, updated pictures, and did some reading. I have a huge test on Tuesday, and presentation on Thursday so I’ll probably be living at the library for the next few days.
Sunday I went to the Market with a few people, mainly to get some fresh produce. We also walked around for a while and since I was cold I decided to finally buy the Australian Zip up that I’ve been wanting. It was only $10 and actually decent quality which I was skeptical of since it was at the market and so cheap, but I like it. Kim and I bought a ton of fruits and vegetables because we’ve decided that we’ve been eating like crap here and we were both talking about how much healthier we are at home, just living in general, and we want to get back on track. Joe found a store that sells North Face fleece and jackets incredibly cheap so I’m going to have to go back there and probably buy something. That night I had a meeting with my marketing group to work on our presentation which is this Thursday, after that it was pretty much tiem for bed.
Now here it is Monday, I’m taking a break from studying. I have to check the book I need out of reserve and you can only keep it out for 3 hours at a time so I did that and read from 9:30-12:30. Soon I’ll have to go back in and hopefully the book is there for me to use.
Only a month till Brian comes to visit me and then not long after that I’ll be home! Can’t wait to see you all!
Love,
Steph
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