Convicts, Chocolate and Teapots

HEY EVERYONE!!

OK so this week has been soo busy but so much fun! I think I am finally starting to get over this jet lag?!

So, I joined the Sydney Uni gym this week! Woo! 97.4% of the reason for doing so was so Ishtar (my roommate) and I could meet the (male) students…However after 2 workouts the only thing that has come from my $130 membership fee is me not being able to move and lying in bed all morning…soo my plan has been really getting off to a rough start. I will let you know how that (hopefully) improves next week.

On Sunday, my uncle’s really good friend, John Francis, took me out to lunch with his son and his son’s girlfriend. I immediately fell in love. John Francis is the sweetest, most adorable Australian man I could have possibly imagined (you should have seen his shoes…I almost cried). He took me to the harbor to eat at the fish market…this really nice (weird) restaurant that has such a beautiful view of the harbor. His son and gf are THE nicest, coolest people and invited me to come over in a few weeks for dinner/to go out. Love them! The only problem with this outing is I despise seafood and it’s the one thing I hands down refuse (not matter the circumstance) to shove down my throat. Normally I can pretend/fake that I like what I am being served…but not seafood. So I got there and had no choice but to tell these 3 nice people (who all LOVE seafood…obviously) that I cant eat seafood or I will die(which I think I might). So I had some delicious chicken. They took me to the actual fish market afterwards and I saw the most insane animals being sliced open I have ever seen. HUGE bright fish, lobsters, octopus, blue crabs the size of a football…everything..it was gross/cool. I got a picture with John Francis and when he sends it to me I will post it. He also took me on a drive around Sydney and showed me all these cool places to go (and not to go). So that was a lot of fun and I am so glad I have someone to call if I need to!  

Monday we started classes…I honestly didn’t even think twice about the academic portion of this trip. Much to my surprise, there is a large portion. I am taking two classes (cant complain that much), “Mass Media in Australia” and “Australian culture and Society.” Luckily, I have no classes on Friday! The classes are sooo long though (3 and half hours) but pretty interesting and we get to watch a lot of films … which is superb and my doodling has already gotten soo much better.

In Mass Media we watched this short Australian animated film called “Harvie Krumpet” that won an Oscar. You HAVE to watch it. Its SO cute/hilarious!! You will love it even if you don’t have a heart.

Ahh and we watched this other thing…Henry you will like this (even though I am positive he doesn’t know this blog exists)…..

It was an episode of this show (their version of Saturday Night Live) where these 4 guys dressed up as Secret Service guys and drove a car with a guy dressed up as Bin Laden in the back into this huge world leaders meeting that was held in Sydney like 5 years ago… they basically got through all the security check points/less than 300 ft away from 40 top world leaders (including Bush) and everything with fake badges and a fake Bin Laden in the car…all to prove what a joke Australian security was. Anyway, it made major headlines here but it was hilarious. These people honestly are so relaxed…such a different lifestyle. With the exception of national security, I strongly encourage adopting it.

 

Wednesday we went on a tour of the old prisons were all the old convicts from London were sent in the 18th century. Ishtar pointed out that the old building reminded her of Anthropologie (the clothing store) haha so that might give yall a better visual.

They all slept in these cool hammocks...so that picture of me in a hammock does have some relevance. They had the weirdest sentences..like they would get life for "stealing linen" and then 7 years for "manslaughter? Very weird setup!? 

most unfair sentences ever!?

After the tour, Ishtar, Joe and I ended up walking all around downtown Sydney that afternoon and got ice cream and took some cool pics! Ishtar like forces me to take all these solo pics and im getting so natural at them! KK and Soph, im really glad yall arent here...you would make so much fun of me. 

Opera house!! woo

Hyde Park

Inner Harbor in front of the bridge

SO the food situation here has been interesting. First off, the grocery store that is closest to my apartment is in the basement of a mall about 5 blocks away. Ishtar and I went to get groceries (thinking it wasn’t going to be no problem) and it was truly one of the hardest (physically and kind of mentally) experiences of my life. After spending hours in the store trying not to barf at soups sold in plastic bags (SO sick) and milk not refrigerated I found my pasta, chocolate milk, coco pebbles (very different than my normal coco pebbles), hot dogs, etc. The self-check out appeared to be the best method of checking out at the time – WRONG- it ended up a complete disaster and thank god this man Shane helped us out. To get out of the store you have to take your CART of groceries UP THE ESCALTOR….(weirdest/worst concept ever).I couldn’t keep control of the cart and it basically flew out of my hands and omg I cant even tell you how bad it was. We then tried carrying our 20 bags of groceries back 5 blocks and literally over half the bags ended up busting on the street and it was a complete fail and everyone was staring and I wanted to die at the time. 

This picture doesnt even come close to describing the issues we had...

However, they have this place called “Max Brenners Chocolate Bar” here..they have them all over the world but it originated here so they are EVERYWHERE. It is truly like walking into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

There are pipes all over the ceilings and walls carrying all forms of liquid chocolate to huge churning pots of chocolate and massive chocolate fountains.

They serve EVERYTHING you could possibly imagine eating with chocolate on huge plates with a big bowl of melted chocolate to dip it in (I got strawberries the other day). They have all these chocolate-themed smoothies, coffees, teas, ice cream, etc. Then they have this huge “Chocolate Station” where you can buy any type/form of chocolate you could ever imagine. I mean it truly is a magical dream and I want to go into business with Max Brenner and I want to live there permanently. I am only allowing myself to go on Sundays though. ..woo!

Last night Ishtar and I went to this insane bar called ''World bar" and met up with this guy who was an exchange student at her school last year and we met a bunch of his friends (they all go to Sydney Uni) and it was SO much fun! So I am pumped we now have actual local friends outside our program! 
woo! There is one red head in the group that they call '"ranga"...like everyone calls him that because he has red hair like an orangatang (new nickname for Bridge?)! hahah he was seriously hilarious!! 

Ishtar with Ben, "Ranga", and Reece

 There were legit people from every country in the world there I think.

I also think it was a half-gay bar..a ton of the guys dress very metro here so its a pretty thin line...but I am pretty sure half these dudes were gay! They were all VERY nice and festive :) This bar is famous for these things called "teapots" that you buy and everyone was just carrying around their little teapots haha...which you fill with whatever kind of mixed drink you want and then you get three tiny shot glasses and just like share your "teapot" with your friends. Its sooo much fun! genius idea..

OK I still have so much to tell you but I have to pack because I am leaving in 2 hours to go to SURF CAMP!! Woooo!! The water is supposed to be kind of cold but apparently this beach is like to-die-for beautiful! SO I will tell you all about it and take tons of pictures!! And Pascal is coming! Couldn’t be more thrilled about that!! Have a great weekend! Miss you all! : )
Xo, Bess