May 4, 2010

Still in Sydney and loving it. I've seen most of the touristy things in the city, so I'm taking it easy now. The site seeing with Michael and Ben went well. We went to the Opera House, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, The Rocks, and Bondi Beach. It was an all day event. The next day I did a job search and the skytower. The coastline here is pretty awesome. Beautiful on a nice day. My birthday was the next day. I did a web chat with Mom and Dad and the boys in MI bright and early. It wasn't my birthday for them, but it was for me, so that was nice. I went on a tour of the Opera House in the early afternoon and then did a self guided walking tour of the Rocks. Micheal took me there Monday but it was really cute, all old-town-ish, and I found like six tours of different areas of the city so I figured I'd start with the one closest to the Opera House. That took a few hours and ended at the north end of the Rocks where there was a perfect view of the Opera House, bridge, and city. I found a nice little seat and read my book while the sun went down. I'd stop reading every fifteen or so minutes and take a picture of each. The sky was beautiful so I got some really good pictures! On my way home I stopped and got some TimTams and Subway for dinner... sort of lame for my birthday dinner but I had an awesome day in most other categories so I was pleased. I tried getting a hold of Sven and Joe (worked with them in MB and they are now in Syd) for drinks but couldn't find them. I think I spent that evening watching movies. The next day I went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains. They reminded me a lot of the mountains in VA or NZ, but they were still beautiful. I met an American, Aaron, who was on a short leave from Iraq. He was older, but nice guy, so when we got back to town we went to see Iron Man 2, which was just released here. IMAX too. Can't say I'm a fan of IMAX, but it was certainly an experience. Aaron and I met the next day and were going to go to Manly Aquarium to swim with the sharks but it was all booked so we went to the fish market instead. It closed early so we weren't able to eat there but it was kind of cool. We were expecting a cool fish market with people throwing fish around and that terrible fish smell. The smell wasn't pleasant but it wasn't as bad as we expected and there wasn't any fish throwing. There were a lot of crazy fish and shellfish. We went back to Darling Harbour for a late lunch and then I met up with Michael, Ben, Carla, and Klair. Carla and Klair were also on Michael and mine's Contiki trip, so it was really cool to have a reunion. We went to dinner in Chinatown and then outside of town for a bit for some drinks. It was a short night, but it was good to see everyone again. Carla is leaving for the States soon (Minnesota... poor girl), so she's leaving work and suggested I go in to apply. It's a retail shoe store, which really sucks, but I need work in a bad way so I'm dropping off my resume tomorrow. Other than my constant job search, I've been just relaxing. I've slowly been working on the walking tours and find myself stopping at benches and parks to read and lay around. I'm a little nervous I'm going to have to throw in the towel soon, so I'm enjoying the laying around as much as possible. I had an interview with Perisher, a ski resort a few hours away and should hear back from that this week. Depending on that, I'll have to start making definite plans. We'll see. I'm trying to be optimistic and I don't want to head home yet, so I'm going to do what I can to make it work.