Spontaneity And The City

So this weekend is the first one since I got here (over a month and a half ago...can you believe it's April already??) where I did not have anything planned to do; no daytrips, no hiking, no holiday to celebrate, etc.  Although I was feeling anxious about it at first, it has turned out to be a blessing as I've quickly found out that this is the ideal place to be for spontaneity.

On Friday night, after a full day of reading at the beach, Mona, Lorena and I cooked up some kangaroo steaks and mini-quiches for dinner and discovered an Australian satirical news show.  Then we walked into downtown Coogee and got gelato (I know I'm not in Europe, so I can't claim it as "real" but that stuff is SO GOOD.) We took it down to the beach with our notebooks and studied for our upcoming anatomy test...or at least tried :)  This "studying" was cut short when a friend of mine walked down the beach with his guitar and started playing for us while we chatted.  A few other friends joined us and we spent the rest of the night in the sand just stargazing and sharing funny stories, growing quiet at times to listen to the waves and the guitar.

Kangaroo Pizza!!

Today (Saturday) was terrible weather so my usual routine of going to the beach with my homework on downtime days was ruined and I ended up bundling up (it gets cold when it's windy!) in my room and doing some reading and catching up on some of my American TV show favorites.  Later in the afternoon we took the bus into Sydney to check out the weekend market at The Rocks and then went to the Australian Heritage Hotel, which has gourmet pizzas and a really lively, sporty atmosphere.  We got kangaroo pizza (with onions, peppers, capsicum, mozzarella cheese and some kind of native berries) and watched a little bit of a rugby game, which we tried to understand, but in the end could not.  I have plans to study with an Aussie friend tomorrow and he says there will be games on and he will teach me the rules.  So far it seems a lot like football (without pads or helmets) mixed with an adult game of Red Rover.

When the architect designed the Opera House,
slices of the orange in his lunch were his inspiration.
If you were to take all of the pointed pieces of the Opera House
and put them together, they can be made into a perfect sphere.

After dinner we went back towards the Opera House, stopping to buy pancake mix from "Pancakes On The Rocks" (still my favorite restaurant!) and various touristy gifts.  We walked along Circular Quay, got 50cent soft serve from Mackers (McDonalds) and then went up to the Opera House and hung out on the steps (a great place for rich-person people watching!) before heading back home on the bus.  On the way we stopped at the grocery store to get syrup for tomorrow's pancake breakfast, and found that bananas are still $2 EACH. They are claiming that the prices are due to the flooding in Queensland, which is a major area for banana growth. Although bananas are easily my favorite fruit, I have begun favoring pears which are also great with any meal and at anytime, but have the advantage of costing only $2 for 6 of them.

This weekend will be a first and last for spontaneity as I have things planned for all the weekends until at least May.  Our plans for semester break (April 22nd- May1st) have been finalized and we are officially travelling through the North Island of New Zealand!

Tomorrow will be Daylight Savings Time for us and we will be "falling back" an hour, making the time difference 14 hours between here and home!