Easter in Sydney
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2004
1
14
34
Trip End
Dec 18, 2004
Randwick,
Australia
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Well the semester is almost half over, crazily enough. I haven't had that many assignments due yet and some of them have been pushed back, so I'm not looking forward to all the work I'll have to do after Easter Break, which is this week. Plus my teaching practicum starts in a week, so I'm definitely going to be busy. May will be a good month though, because not only is Rina coming to visit - Kevin is coming all the way from Colorado to hang out with me in Sydney for a month!
I started off my week off by going to another lame party at uni. I got to play third wheel to Kristin and her new Aussie boyfriend Steve, whom she met through the crew team. But he's a really nice guy, so I approve. I don't see as much of Kristin anymore because she's quite busy with rowing, her numerous Landscape Architecture projects, and her boy. So I'm left alone in our apartment with our strange, anti-social flatmates. Just a little while ago I learned a fun new fact about one of them, Victor. Apparently, he was training to be a top hair stylist in Hong Kong!
On Friday, after I spent some quality time with my bench (I'm obsessed with it! I love it! I can't get enough of my bench!), I went to my friend Christina's apartment for a little pre-fountain swimming pizza party. To explain: Mark had told Kristin and me about this thing where you're supposed to jump in all 5 of the fountains in Sydney in one night. Then I told Christina and her posse of international student friends. They apparently took it on as their own, researched the official fountains, and made it into this huge event, complete with flyers. I was going to go with them, but after spending a couple of hours with them I had had enough. They were mostly Americans... the annoying breed of Americans. And anyway I was starting work at the racecourse the next morning.
Which brings me to my first day at the races. I have somehow managed to find a job even more inane than ticket scanning! All I do is stand at the entrance to the lawn party and stamp people's left wrists when they leave. That's it. That's all I have to do. I stand around for 7 hours and stamp people. Stamps are way less exciting than scanners. The fun part though is seeing all the people who attend the lawn party. I have never seen so many good-looking well-dressed guys in my life! They're all decked out in expensive-looking suits and designer sunglasses, and oddly enough many of them have Beckham-inspired mohawk hairstyles. And then there are all these Paris Hilton-type skinny girls wearing stylish dresses and big fancy hats or flowery-feathery hair thingies. It's all very amusing, until the beautiful rich people get drunk on their free alcohol and turn into obnoxious, condescending jerks. Like the guy who refused to let me stamp him because he didn't want ink on his Italian shirt or expensive watch and thought the rules didn't apply to him because he's not one of the "cattle". He informed me that my "rules are shit", which I appreciated since two seconds later the woman supervising us came over to remind me that we have to stamp everyone the same way. Yeah, thanks - that's why I just had a 15 minute argument and was yelled at! But in any case, I'm making good money and I even get a free lunch.
On Easter Sunday, Kristin and I participated in a Sydney tradition - we went to the Royal Easter Show. It's kind of hard to explain what it's like, but basically it's kinda like a country fair with animals, food, carnival rides, games, arts and crafts displays, shows, and competitions. It cost $26 for transportation and admission, but then you have to pay for everything once you're at the show. It seemed to me like a big rip-off. And there are these showbags you're supposed to buy, which cost at least $10 each and are filled with crap you don't really need (like candy and toys). I don't get it. But for me the best part was the woodchopping competition! We saw an exciting sudden death axe throwing final between a big burly American guy and a big burly Kiwi guy. Too bad I didn't have a big American flag with me because the American won! Kristin's uncle who lives in Queensland is actually a competitive woodchopper, and she found out from one of the woodchopper guys that he had been at the show the day before! Small world!
So that was my typically Australian Easter weekend. I even had hot cross buns, which are the traditional Easter food. I've been surprised by how big a holiday Easter is here. Everything's closed on Good Friday, Easter, and Easter Monday. But now it's back to life as usual... only 3 days until I see Maroon 5!!
