A shorter follow-up post

So apparently there's this whole other side to the Sydney area, Newtown. I had heard a little about it so when Brittany asked if I wanted to go check it out yesterday I was interested. I realized once we got there that I had actually gone running in the area the other day, but just wasn't paying attention to the shops, etc and hadn't realized it would actually be an interesting place to check out.

We took the bus over (which you can do if you want but it's also about a twenty minute walking distance) and when we got off, it felt like we were in some strange Australia version of Allston. I guess that's the best way to put it. Allston, a little bit of Cambridge, just with more incense and ethnic restaurants. We had heard that it was a great people-watching spot and that was certainly a correct statement. It's very scene but almost to the point that it's a little absurd. Lots of multicolored dreadlocks and that sort of thing. We stopped in a number of different shops and I finally brought myself to buy a dress and I'm happy I did; I always have to convince myself it's okay to buy clothes and then convince myself for the rest of the day it's okay that I did. There were a lot of vintage stores and unique clothing.

We stopped at a cafe in the middle of town where I finally discovered how to get a normal iced coffee around here (yeah I'm annoying about this, don't care). Instead of asking for a normal coffee over ice, you have to say a long black over ice. Since coffee here is apparently milk with coffee syrup, or something like that. They came over with my order like, "so you just wanted..a long black, and ice..right?" as if that were the weirdest request they had ever gotten. But it ended up being $2.50 as opposed to their $5.00 for iced coffee, Australian style. So there.

The weather was still bad when we got there and it didn't really get better. It started downpouring for a little bit but we were determined to get dinner in town since we've only heard good things about the ethnic restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, it was about 5 when we were starving and most dinner places didn't open until 6. So we walked back and made dinner, but we're hopefully going to try again within the next few days.

Today I slept in way too long..about 12:45 to Brittany asking if I was coming or not to Cheers to watch the Super Bowl. A few of us were planning to go together to watch the game at maybe one of the only sports bars showing the game for us Americans. By the time I got there it was the last 20 minutes or so of the fourth quarter, so I didn't see much. But it was really nice when I got there anyway..a corner of the bar was taken over by BU students watching the game together. Unfortunately I know nothing about football...which is why I wasn't too depressed to get there late. Apparently a great play was made, and everyone jumped up cheering and I just sat there like, wait, what happened? I'm oblivious. Oh well, I hardly even knew that the game had ended. Still, it was nice to be there and kind of be in the middle of some American-ness for a bit.

Tomorrow we're going to Manly Beach, which is a ferry ride away from the harbor. I'm really looking forward to it; it's supposedly beautiful, and the ride is supposed to be half the fun.

And next weekend we're going on a week-long academic trip to Melbourne, flights paid for by the program. That should be fascinating and I'll be sure to update once I actually have something to update on.

And the weather's getting better! There you go, Sydney.