July 23
At 5:30 this morning I woke up because there was a drunk guy being very loud outside singing and shouting about who knows what. Fortunately after about 15 minutes he was quiet, or left, and I ended up going back to sleep. I didn't sleep in as late this morning as I have the past few days, because I wanted to go for a run. I ran around Lake Ginninderra today, but I ran it the opposite way as I did previously. I manged to do the loop in about 34 minutes today. It will be interesting to see if my times get faster in future weeks.
Later this morning I walked down to the mall to buy a copy of the Sun-Herald, Sydney's sunday morning paper, so that I could get the entry form for the City to Surf race in August. I filled it out and tomorrow am going to try to find an envelope and send it out. Only 3 more weeks until the big race! I'm excited about the 5K I'm doing this Saturday too!
Around noon a couple of us exchange students (Jamie from CO, Steve from Chicago, and Megan from San Diego) decided to hop on a bus and try to find the "Old Bus Depot Markets" in Kingston. It took almost 45 minutes on the bus before we got there, but it turned out to be a really nice market. There was plenty of homemade sauces, breads, candies, and other goods for sale, as well as a modest amount of fresh groceries, as well as jewelery, artwork, and crafts sellers, among others. There was also an antiques section, and two art galleries of really beautiful scenery photos, many of them panoramas. A lot of them were for sale for several hundred $$, and I would have to say their quality definitely made them worth (almost? ;)) that much. In one corner there were some restaurant-type booths as well, offering a variety of ethnic foods, including Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, and others. I ended up getting a "large" plate from the Ethiopian place with "lentil stew". It was pretty much just a plate of white rice with a bunch of this yellow lentil stew on top. It was really good though, and for $7.50 it was well worth it for how much they gave you.
Back on campus, this evening I went with a couple of the guys on the floor down to civic, and just wandered around and hung out for a couple hours. We went to the casino and I got to watch everyone lose their money. It was crazy watching some people there play. One guy put $100 on the table, and bet all of his money playing roulette, and lost it all. He put another $100 down, and bet it all, and this time ended up winning it back (he bet on black). It was just crazy how much some people would bet, and then lose. I saw another couple playing blackjack, and they managed to increase their money significantly, and then they quit when they were ahead. They were smart gamblers though, and only bet $15 at a time, even when they had a lot more that they had won.
After a few minutes at the casino, we went down to an irish bar down the street, and a couple of the guys drank a beer while the guy that drove, and myself, just sat and we all talked about random stuff. After a while we finally left and came back to campus. The car we took to and from civic was a white toyota camry. It was kinda weird having the driver in the "wrong" side of the camry. This is the first car that I've been now where I've experienced both the American and Australian positioning of the driver's seats. At one point we were talking about the radio, and how apparently all the radio stations in Canberra are crap. I asked about XM radio, and apparently Australia doesn't have satellite radio. I reckon it's pretty much true what I heard back home about Australia being somewhat behind the U.S. in technological advances. It's kinda weird, seeing how it's a developed country that's not all that different culturally from the U.S. Anywho, I have classes tomorrow. Time for the second week of school to begin!
Later this morning I walked down to the mall to buy a copy of the Sun-Herald, Sydney's sunday morning paper, so that I could get the entry form for the City to Surf race in August. I filled it out and tomorrow am going to try to find an envelope and send it out. Only 3 more weeks until the big race! I'm excited about the 5K I'm doing this Saturday too!
Around noon a couple of us exchange students (Jamie from CO, Steve from Chicago, and Megan from San Diego) decided to hop on a bus and try to find the "Old Bus Depot Markets" in Kingston. It took almost 45 minutes on the bus before we got there, but it turned out to be a really nice market. There was plenty of homemade sauces, breads, candies, and other goods for sale, as well as a modest amount of fresh groceries, as well as jewelery, artwork, and crafts sellers, among others. There was also an antiques section, and two art galleries of really beautiful scenery photos, many of them panoramas. A lot of them were for sale for several hundred $$, and I would have to say their quality definitely made them worth (almost? ;)) that much. In one corner there were some restaurant-type booths as well, offering a variety of ethnic foods, including Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, and others. I ended up getting a "large" plate from the Ethiopian place with "lentil stew". It was pretty much just a plate of white rice with a bunch of this yellow lentil stew on top. It was really good though, and for $7.50 it was well worth it for how much they gave you.
Back on campus, this evening I went with a couple of the guys on the floor down to civic, and just wandered around and hung out for a couple hours. We went to the casino and I got to watch everyone lose their money. It was crazy watching some people there play. One guy put $100 on the table, and bet all of his money playing roulette, and lost it all. He put another $100 down, and bet it all, and this time ended up winning it back (he bet on black). It was just crazy how much some people would bet, and then lose. I saw another couple playing blackjack, and they managed to increase their money significantly, and then they quit when they were ahead. They were smart gamblers though, and only bet $15 at a time, even when they had a lot more that they had won.
After a few minutes at the casino, we went down to an irish bar down the street, and a couple of the guys drank a beer while the guy that drove, and myself, just sat and we all talked about random stuff. After a while we finally left and came back to campus. The car we took to and from civic was a white toyota camry. It was kinda weird having the driver in the "wrong" side of the camry. This is the first car that I've been now where I've experienced both the American and Australian positioning of the driver's seats. At one point we were talking about the radio, and how apparently all the radio stations in Canberra are crap. I asked about XM radio, and apparently Australia doesn't have satellite radio. I reckon it's pretty much true what I heard back home about Australia being somewhat behind the U.S. in technological advances. It's kinda weird, seeing how it's a developed country that's not all that different culturally from the U.S. Anywho, I have classes tomorrow. Time for the second week of school to begin!
posted by itsbenrael at 10:18 PM
1 Comments:
I love you and I miss you and I like reading everything you write!
Rachel
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