Days 10-12

Friday was pretty relaxing. A group of us went to a BBQ on campus held by one of the organizations. There were sausages, but no hot dog buns, just pieces of bread. Then we went to Victoria Park (the park across the street from IH) with some people from the house and we fed the ducks. Feeding the ducks then led to feeding the pigeons and seagulls as well. The ducks got bored with our bread, so we ended up throwing an entire loaf of bread to the pigeons at the same time, it was crazy! We also ate fairy bread, which is apparently a huge hit at birthday parties of 5 year olds. Its white bread with butter and sprinkles on top, very interesting and strangely addicting. After we ran out of bread (and tried feeding the pigeons a bagel) we headed back to the house to chill a bit before our evening plans. We got dressed up and went downtown to Opera Bar (by the Opera House, go figure!), but we only stayed for 5 minutes because it was really expensive ($17 cocktails!). Then we walked over to th Rocks (the historic part of downtown) and got pancakes. They were almost dessert pancakes. I got one that was 2 pancakes with banana, walnuts, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and chocolate ice cream on top. So good! My feet were killing me by the end of the night, because I forgot that the heels I wore weren't very well broken in. I got about 6 blisters on my feet.

Saturday, a few of us went over to Glebe (an area close to campus) for a market. It was pretty cool, they had all sorts of stuff there from books to clothes to jewelery and food too. It was pretty similar to the Ft. Pierce farmers market actually, but with a little less food. Then I relaxed all afternoon. In the evening, we all got all dressed up to go out to a club in Darling Harbour, Home Bar, for my birthday. I wore my gold sequin dress, everyone else wore black (or dark colors) so that I stood out (which was not my idea). We had some drinks in the house before we left, and then took the bus down there. We left the house around 11pm or so and stayed at Home Bar until 3:30am. I went to sleep at 4:30am. It was a really fun night though. Everyone was buying me drinks and we were all dancing. it was all fun until my feet started killing me from my heels (and the blisters from friday night).

Today was my birthday!! I slept in until 11am. Talked to mom and dad on the phone. The got some lunch. After lunch, Claire and I decided to do some baking. We went to the grocery store (Coles) and managed to find everything we needed (which was harder than expected) and came back to the house to bake. We didn't have much that we needed. We bought brownie mix and yellow cake mix. We didn't have a mixing bowl, we scrounged up measuring cups, spoons, knives, and cooling racks. It was interesting. Then we ate dinner. Now I'm just waiting for movie night which is going to start shortly. It's been a pretty good and relaxing birthday. Classes start tomorrow, so I didn't want to do anything too crazy tonight!

Heres a picture from before we left the house Saturday night:

Addition: After I posted this, my door got knocked on by a large group of people from IH. It was door-knock night apparently. This means that a small group started on the 8th floor (top floor) knocking on ppls doors, giving them candy, playing music and taking pictures of them. Slowly, more people joined the group. By the time they got to my room on the 6th floor there was probably about 20 people. We knocked on every door, blasting music and eating candy the whole time. It was a lot of fun. There was probably 35 people or so by the time we got to the lobby. Then we went into the main room and Claire and I brought our "surprise" (the baked goodies we made)  out to share with everyone. Then they sang me happy birthday (again) and we all ate the goodies. They actually came out very well and everyone liked them and appreciated us baking and sharing. Then we watched Shutter Island, and it was the perfect weather for watching it as well- stormy. Then we discussed the movie, among other things, and now i'm about to go to sleep. It is no longer my birthday here in Sydney. It feels like my birthday went forever though :)