The Sydney Fam

Before I even get to describing the past few days of my life, I can sum it up by saying that I had an excellent weekend. There was nothing overly outrageous or exciting about it - just a great time with my favorite people on the continent.

I'm not entirely sure what I did when I got home from class on Friday, but it was probably something along the lines of watching the Ellen show and Friends with my roommates, before getting ready to go out for the night. We went to Three Monkeys again - haven't had a bad night there yet, and it was a great way to start the weekend off.

After a nice Saturday sleep-in, we got up and went to Maroubra Beach. It's one of the local beaches in Sydney, a different scene than Bondi or Manly, where all the tourists head to. This beach was definitely quieter, and absolutely gorgeous. The weather wasn't the greatest, warm but cloudy, which at least meant that I avoided sunburn! It also meant that I didn't go in the water at all, which may have been a good thing since one of the people we went with got stung by a jellyfish within a few minutes of getting in the ocean! [Yes, something weird happened with my camera for these pictures!]

We didn't stay at the beach for too long because everyone was starving, and we decided that it was finally time to have our "family dinner". [Just a cheesy side note: I have the greatest Sydney family ever. So lucky to get to spend the semester with all of them, I could not be happier.] Tim said he had an amazing recipe for us to try, and he did not let us down. We had Mexican Fiesta Bake for dinner, along with chips and guac, and we were definitely in heaven. We went and bought everything we needed at the store, and all 7 of us prepared different parts of the meal. It was the best thing I've eaten in ages, and the leftovers today were equally incredible! [Another side note to everyone who knows what a picky eater I am: you would be so proud of me...I try and like everything I've eaten here!]

Mexican Fiesta Bake - the best meal ever!

Chips and guac

Toasting to our delicious meal!

The fam <3

After that, we stayed in for a movie night, and I feel asleep on Tim's floor at probablyyyy 11 o'clock. Oops. 

When I got up this morning, I decided to do some marketplace exploring. There is a market that is in the Rocks area of Sydney (near the Harbour and Opera House) every Saturday and Sunday, so I stopped there first. The weather was perfect and there was loud music and people everywhere - I so appreciated where I was right in that moment in time. I wasn't in a shopping mood, so I mostly wandered around the stalls, checking out everything that was there. There were so many different things offered, and I loved walking around and taking it all in. I forgot my camera at home, so no pictures, [but if you Google Image search "The Rocks Market Sydney" you will find tons of pictures that sum it up!] but I did buy a ton of postcards...coming soon to mailboxes near you! After that, I went back to another market, Paddy's, because I was in desperate need of a hoodie. I did not think I was going to need a sweatshirt here, but picking one up was one of the small highlights of my day.

Finally, this afternoon, we went to a Bulldogs rugby game, also called "footy". From what I understand, rugby is a form of Australian Rules Football, I think. In spite of having the rules explained to me a few times, I never entirely caught on to what was happening. That, in combination with the afternoon's freezing weather, led us to leave the game at halftime. This was totally fine with me - I gave it a shot, and have decided that at least for the time being, I'm still all about my American sports.

Gotta love free cupcakes!

And now here I am, up at midnight finishing off this blog post! I do have to be up in 6 hours though, so it's probably about time to get some sleep. (Even in Australia, my habit for staying up late when I have to get up early remains.) So, cheers everyone, I'll post again soon!