G'day May.

May

When I first arrived in Oz, the ground was crispy and it was hot. Summer is typically from December and starts to dwindle slowly from the end of February. In May, you start to see glimpses of the 'winter,' which in Australia that means a little more rain, green grasses, and temperatures hovering around the 60s. Rough life if that is their winter. However, each sunny day was a blessing, and I would sit outside on the lounge doing homework, enjoying the kiss of sunshine on my paling skin. Or I would try to venture into the city to mark off some of my Australia Bucket List...

Most major cities around the world have Chinatowns, and Sydney is no exception. Nine of us (Nacho, Mitch, Eddie, Eric, Karli, Laura, Mariana, and Emily) took a trip into the city to check out Chinatown, and ironically enough, we chose to dine at a Japanese restaurant. Ordering was a struggle with slight communication errors where we almost ordered a whole bottle of Absolute for $60.00 (when we thought we were getting a deal, definitely sounded like she said '$16.00'), but in the end, we all were satisfied. And that was when my eyes were opened to green and red peppers in stir fry...yum. This had to be the most hilarious dinner I had in Australia. It was one of those where the maturity levels drop about 10 years, where you hit the point of loopy-ness and everything becomes so funny breathing is a challenge. It was the "I.I.I.O.O.O" Japanese boy band music reverberating from the restaurant, it was the bendy straws, and the resemblance of our chopsticks to wands from HP. Once we finished our meals, we proceeded to wonder to Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay Wharf, dueling with our newly acquired wands from Emily's wand shop (located in the basement of the jungle gym). In this time, I was able to successfully disarm Mitch, propel water from my wand, and make the water change colors, all while enjoying the best hot chocolate from Lindt Chocolate Cafe. Oh and Karli got a free drink because she's HOT! Needless to say, my abs got a workout, and my inner child get to grace us with her presence for a few hours.

I am not sure if anyone has noticed, but I walk fast. Personally, I blame it on my father who has a much longer stride, leaving my mom and I to practically sprint to keep up. So I have been trained: when I need to be somewhere, just flip a switch and I can basically act like I am on The Amazing Race. Laura and I joked like we were on the Amazing Race all the time, because we would always seem to be those two people that were on the other side of campus when everyone else was ready to go. We found ourselves in that position again, when we were meeting a group to kayak Sydney Harbour. Our starting point was Rose Bay, and it was pretty much a straight shot out to Shark Island with the winds at our back. Shark Island...I know...lovely, comforting name...just what I want to paddle out to in a tiny little open sea kayak. But Mitch and I paired up and took on the adventure. We were the first to cruise up on shore, while dodging several rocks jutting above the surface of the waves. Shark Island is a quaint island, which technically is not supposed to be occupied unless you have a permit, but we had the foreigner excuse if necessary. After many pictures with the city and popular land marks in the background, a dizzying cartwheel race, squeezing two people into one gargantuan life jacket, and some climbing of trees, we embarked on our way back to Rose Bay. Unfortunately this time we were headed straight into the wind, which made the trip back a bit of a workout. We dodged a few boats, took in some water, and laughed about everything.

(Mitch: "Have you seen my room yet? Everything is green.

Me: "Mitch, is that some kind of pick up line to lure girls into your room?")

Shark Island: #9817349071241635465413215456 reason why I love Australia.

I went through an insomniac phase in the middle of May. Mainly I have Bugra and Yigit to thank for that. These guys have such bizarre sleeping schedules, where they sleep at like 6 am and wake up at 8pm. My roommate, Laura and I started hanging out with them, playing cards, and chatting about everything under the sun, then suddenly we found ourselves with bags under our eyes and the sunlight starting to pierce the sky.

There is a popular song reaching the top 40 charts called Tonight, Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae. The lyrics go something like this: "We're goin' at it tonight, tonight, there's a party on the rooftop top of the world tonight,tonight." I heard this song once I reached the US, and my mind instantly flashed back to an unusually comfortable May day in Australia. It was a friend who knew a friend kind of thing, a guy who knows a guy who had a penthouse apartment in Milson's Point. Milson's Point is located on the lower Northern shore of Sydney, right before you cross over the Harbour bridge into the city, and let's just say it is a well-to-do area. A bunch of us got dressed up and attended a sunset party of about 50 people overlooking Sydney Harbour and Luna Park. The sights were breathtaking! Pictures were snapped, and drinks were drank, including an Australia v US skull race, which the good 'ol Red, White, & Blue squeaked by with a victory. Among the guests on the rooftop was a guy named Tristin. We talked music (he was a DJ) for a while, before taking a stroll to see the lights of Luna Park down below. The two of us ended up somehow getting locked on the other side of Luna Park, and scaled two fences to make it back to the rooftop party. Again, Australia isn't exactly making it appealing to leave.

The adventure home was really entertaining too! David started planking...Planking is also known as the Lay Down Game. Basically, you lay down on your stomach with your head down and arms at your sides. Really goofy. Well people start to get creative, planking on statues, other people, and inappropriate places. In fact, someone in Australia tried to plank off a 7th story balcony and fell to his death. From then on planking became illegal in Australia...but the phenomenon wasn't over. Being the rebel he is, David planked on fences, and bushes, and statues. Laura attempted a baby bike.

Food, unexpectedly, was a big difference in Australia. My first time buying groceries at Woolworths (or Wooly's) took so long, and would have taken even longer if it weren't for my Aussie mates there to help. "A trolley? Oh...same thing as a shopping cart...you have to pay for one?" (Controlling one was a challenge too!) "How much is a Kilogram?" "Banana's are $8 for one?!" "Muesli bars? You mean granola bars?" : It was things like that, which made shopping an adventure. All the different brands, and NO idea what was good. A few interesting Aussie dishes:

Fairy bread: bread, butter, hundreds and thousands (hundreds and hundreds? hundreds of thousands?--or what we would call sprinkles)

Pizza with BBQ base instead of tomato

Kangaroo mince

Pies

Shapes: like chips

Tim Tam's (DELICIOUS!! Try a Tim Tam slam...)

Tasty Cheese (As opposed to non-tasty cheese?)

Vegemite: a traditional Aussie spread made from yeast extract. The only people that like it are the Australian's that grew up with it. Personally, you would never want to mistake Vegemite for jam, because you will be in for a rude awakening. Disgusting! Australian's also claim that you can't just eat it alone, but you are supposed to put butter and Vegemite on toast (or with cheese)...either way...it doesn't make a difference.

Fish and Chips: I don't really care for seafood, but my friends where obsessed with it...An interesting fact: Most 'fish' in fish and chips in Australia is shark.

Spaghetti Bolognese: What I would consider spaghetti with meat sauce

As May neared an end, the Village put on a Village Harbour cruise with an open bar for only $25. Again, we lucked out on the weather that night, because it was unusually warm. A big crew dressed up, showed up and partied hard. At the same time as the harbour cruise was going on, Vivid was just beginning. Vivid Sydney is a festival of lights, music, and ideas, in which the city is transformed into a canvas of creativity and inspiration. Among some of the displays include the breathtaking light projections on the sails of the Sydney Opera House. There are also performances like light throwers, and various other sculptures. On the harbour cruise night, the illuminated bridge, Opera house, and majestic buildings were accompanied by fireworks. I just had to sit back and keep telling myself..."Kerry, you are in Australia!"

By May I had attended my like 10th (or 10 millionth) Hump Wednesday at the Ranch. The Village would come alive, and hundreds of students would catch the courtesy bus to The Ranch Hotel (or at least they did when they figured out they didn't have to walk all that way). The appeal of the Ranch was in their free drink coupons if you clicked attending on Facebook, the dancing, and the people watching. Every first Wednesday of every month was a themed party. Among the themes included Fluoro (Blacklight), Toga, Superhero, and Spotlight parties. Often times there were really random games, like a giant blow up twister and boxing with huge gloves.

With Thursday's came Ubar nights. Coming from GV, the thought of a bar on campus was mind boggling. Every Thursday throughout the semester had a theme...did I mention Australians never miss an opportunity to dress up? Some themes included: Jocks and Cheerleaders, Summer haze, Toga, and PJ. The Summer haze was the largest of the year, where they opened up the atrium, allowing three floors of drunk Uni students to get acquainted. It still cracks me up that there was such a large dance floor, claustrophobia would ensue when people decide to dance like they were cattle being herded to the center of the floor. The Toga party was out of control too. The line twisted among the courtyard trees for hundreds and hundred of people in sheets. They ended up cutting off the line, and most went off to create their own Toga party at the Ranch. The PJ party was entertaining. Some guys draped themselves in women's nighties, and I even saw a guy duck tape a pillow to his head.

As you can see...we had a pretty regimented party schedule...Yes, I did study too...

Up next: June, my last month =[

G'day!