Sydney

News from Oz (as they call it): I have an obscene number of pics of the Opera House from like every imaginable angle. That's cuz it's Sydney's "dice thing". Pretty much all it's got. I also learned that Australia passed the US for fattest country, so that tells you about the food here. That it's all fattening, not that it's particularly good.

So the first day, in a stupidly tired haze (the flight was full of HS and early college kids yammering away so no sleep), I went on a walking tour from the hostel. But the hostel person was bored of doing the same thing, and the whole thing devolved into an hour and a half of her trying to feed ducks, while half of us went out of our minds. We did watch out of the corner of our eyes, hoping the eels would eat a duck. Never happened. Worst tour ever. But in the meantime, I did learn that Sydney has a penchant for turning historic buildings into shopping malls. Oh, and there are more McD's and almost as many Starbucks here as the US. It's weird. So, basically, it's America, but pricey and they drive on the left.

Yesterday, this guy Andrew and I went on the beach walk up the Eastern Coast, which was really nice, actually, and then hopped on a ferry to another surfing beach, where he surfed, and I read. I would've surfed, but it wasn't a good day for a beginner, it was cold, and I was jetlagged. Basically, I'm making excuses cuz I feel like a wimp for not trying it. Then we went to the Sydney aquarium, which I resisted but everyone kept saying to go. Well it was not worth the money, especially cuz the platypus and penguins hid the whole time, and the rest is just an aquarium. Then free bad sausage at the hostel, and you're up to date.

The hostel's pretty good, very new and modern looking, tho it annoys me that they advertise cheap eats which are actually not. Huge bar downstairs which can be fun, but turns clubbish at night. the first night I got drunk and tried to be a wingman for a smartass Asian engineer guy I met on the tour, but he kept disappearing. And Andrew (also an engineer, but environmental, and looking to go into business) was also scouting the floor the whole time and was more entertaining to watch, cuz he was much better at it. He's a pretty cool guy, actually. Last night I went to bed at 9 - my body has no clue what time it is and the winter sunset being at 4:30 isn't helping.