Happy Australia Day!

So, after a long first week of classes and internship, you’d think we’d maybe want to go out on a Friday night and celebrate. Instead, our Friday night looked a lot like this:

Happy Holidays from room 804!

We decided to stay in and build a mattress fort in our living room before proceeding to fall asleep watching “She’s the Man”. We’re pretty wild and crazy, we know.

Saturday was Australia Day, which meant we were spending all day at Bondi Beach. This is not what actual Australians do to celebrate the day – they usually have barbeques with friends or spend the day at a local beach (not the most tourist-y beach in the whole country). But, since we aren’t actual Australians, we decided that Bondi was the way to go. We spent about 5 hours on the beach and in the ocean, just hanging out. It was a gorgeous day and the beach was absolutely packed. As much as I love the Minnesota lakes, they can’t compete with the ocean – the sand, the clear water, and the waves.

Everyone!

In our Australia gear!

5 hours on the beach was incredible, but felt slightly less incredible when I got home and realized how sunburned I was. It didn’t matter that I had put on sunscreen at least 5 times; I was still pretty burnt, as were several other people.

Later in the day, we headed home to shower and get ready for the night. Australia Day is kind of like our 4^th of July, so of course there were fireworks involved. We went down to Darling Harbour and watched the best display of fireworks I’ve ever seen. Apparently in Australia, fireworks are set to music and accompanied by a light show! There were 6 of us that went together, and I think we all spent the whole time smiling nonstop. It was a very cool experience, and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go and see them.

The Australia skyline from Darling Harbour

We finished off the night by heading down to George St, where we went to the Three Monkeys pub. They have a live band that plays all kinds of American hits, so of course we are singing louder than anyone else there and probably driving all the Aussies crazy!

Sunday was our first rainy day in Sydney and as a result, we did basically nothing all day. This was kind of okay with me, as I was really struggling with my sunburn and probably would not have left the apartment if it was a sunny day either. I still have plenty of homework here, so I spent the day doing that and watching Sex and the City with the roommates. We finished off our Sunday by going over to our friend Tim’s with a group of people and watched Mrs. Doubtfire and She’s the Man. (Even though we just watched She’s the Man on Friday, we figured the similar theme between the movies was too good to pass up).

Since Saturday was a public holiday, we have today (Monday) off as well – no work or school for us! Unfortunately, it’s raining again today, so we are trying to figure out what to do. Sydney is already putting a big dent in our bank accounts, so our goal is to find something to do that requires zero money. It’s a bit of a challenge, but hopefully we’ll find something.

Back to work and school again tomorrow!