Week 3!

Hey hey!! I'm just trying to stay a little more on top of things.... I started writing that last week when I was gonna update my blog and that's as far as I got! :) haha


I feel like this should be the new poster for Australian tourism? Any thoughts?

Well down to the good stuff here's what we've been up to! Sorry again if it's kind of a marathon read, I'm pretty much doing this instead of a journal so don't feel like you need to read the whole thing.... Although I'm not really sure who would want to miss the opportunity for my brilliant intellect and charming slash witty banter? No? Ok. :)

Tuesday June 24
We have really been having an awesome string of weather, super sunny and no rain! This is not normal, because it’s supposed to be very rainy during the winter! Naturally we’ve been trying to soak up as many rays as possible, so Wendy and I spent the day down at the beach! The waves were huge and there were so many surfers! We must have just gone at the right time today, because normally there are only a few surfers. It was fun watching them and made me want to learn how to surf like crazy!

Later that night we took our flat mates Ely and Jorge out to dinner. I don’t think I’ve said too much about them but they have been here since February, Jorge is going to school to get his Masters in something with Computer IT and Ely is just working at a place called Harvey Norman (it’s like Best Buy) to support them, even though she has her degree in graphic design it’s super hard to find a job out here for that! They are both super cute and so sweet! School just got finished for the semester for Jorge so he was going back to Ecuador to surprise his mom and I’m going to be gone before he comes back, so we wanted to all get together one last time! They wanted to try Thai so we took them to our favorite Thai place! Later that night we made them Peach Cobbler and they loved it, but probably not as much as I loved it, because I love it a lot!


This is Ely and Jorge they really like Tim Tams.... Really Really!


This is Brighton, Wendy and Jayne, they really like Peach Cobbler....really really!


These are all the residents of 5/34 Brown Street, they really like each other... and that sweet Thai waitress that took their picture and made sure the spring rolls were made with a little extra TLC!

Wednesday June 25
After having a lazy afternoon updating our blogs and chillaxin Wendy and I went to meet Brighton for lunch but we didn’t get there until 3 and discovered that everywhere shuts down their kitchens for lunch right at 3! Poor Brighton was starving and we had to wander around all over to finally find somewhere that was open! Haha

After that Wendy and I went and hung out in this cool park and read. There was Basketball and Tennis and lots of stuff going on and so many people had their dogs running around everywhere! So we’re just laying there minding our own business and this dog comes toward us and starts smelling Wendy, when all of a sudden it lifts its leg to pee on her! I started screaming and luckily she sat up but he still peed on her bag right where her head had been, who does he think he is, seriously! It was so funny!! We both couldn’t stop laughing but at the same time we were disgusted! We went back to Brightons work to clean up and I’m pretty sure her boss thought we were crazy! So Brighton was pooped on by a bird and now Wendy was peed on by a dog, I think we’ve angered the animal gods somehow and I probably need to be careful!  haha


Wendy was so sad slash confused at why a dog would mistake her for a fire hydrant!


This is the culprit to the aforementioned heinous crime!

Thursday June 26
We met Brighton after work down at Circular Quay, which is where the Opera House and Sydney Bridge are! It’s so beautiful to see the Opera House lit up at night! Randomly, as we were walking around the Opera House a security guard started talking to us and asking us where we were from. We told him Utah in the States and asked if he had ever heard of it. He was like “Yeah, I know it. I’m going there soon.” So we were kinda like oh sure but asking him if he already had the trip planned or if he knew where exactly he was going and he was like, “Yeah I’m going to Provo to the MTC.” We were like, “What!?!” Apparently he’s obviously a member of the church and got his mission call to the Philippines and is leaving at the beginning of August! It really is such a small world, we were laughing so hard!


For some reason since coming to Sydney I have become prone to pigeon hunting, this is not one of my stealthier approaches, but if we had tried to get a picture during my actual approach I would have been invisible to the naked eye..... That's how good I am!


Sometimes Brighton will pretend to be reading a magazine during the hunt, it's all just part of the routine.... However, in this picture I don't think she's fooling anyone


This is a sweet picture of the Opera House from the bridge!


Apparently this swing was not meant for big kids... Don't worry I made it work, it just took the removal of one shoe and the swing riding up places it shouldn't have been riding....

Friday June 27
Friday night we met Brighton after she got off work and went to an activity for our ward. The sister missionaries taught us some cooking stuff and about food storage, the best part to this was that they cooked some way sweet food! Chili, homemade bread, granola, cinnamon rolls!! Probably some of the best food we’ve had since we’ve been here, and you would have thought we hadn’t eaten in years the way we attacked that food like 3 starved cubs after a long winter!  haha

Later that night our friend from the ward Jess, who is so great, took us around to some of the really cool lookout points around Sydney Harbour! So gorgeous!! After that we hung out with Jess’s boyfriend and his flat mates. They are all from New Zealand and a lot of fun! For some reason though when the three of us get together boys tend to get a little overwhelmed, I’m not really sure why…  haha But we didn’t really even do anything but still managed to stay up until 3. And by we I mean Brighton and I stayed up talking, and by talking I mean squealing and being dramatic like we do, while everyone else including Wendy, who was not feeling like the million bucks that she really is, slept like angels! I just don’t think they’ll be inviting us to hang out the next time they want to actually get a good nights rest! haha


This is our friend Jess! She's way cool and even has a real Australian accent, some people have all the luck! And for some reason she even puts up with us! Way sweet view of the Opera House and Bridge!


This is Jess's car and even though it looks like Wendy is driving, this is an authentic Australian car and the driver actually sits on the right side! :)

Saturday June 28
Well once again the plan for Saturday was to head to the Blue Mountains, but this time Wendy was not feeling good at all, she had a major ear infection and we hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, so we figured what’s the big deal putting it off one more week… 

Instead we decided to check out Paddy’s Market in China town, which is sort of like being in downtown Beijing without all the excitement of the Olympics coming, but there are still lots of Asians! It’s supposed to be some of the cheapest shopping in Sydney, it reminded me a lot of some type of expo, it’s just in this huge warehouse type thing and there are tons of clothes and hat and trinket shops in one part of it and the other part is all cheap fruit and veggies! It’s a really cool experience! The shopkeepers in the food side of things were just yelling stuff and saying things like, “Oh you beautiful girls, you want come buy fruit?” “Pretty lady, where you from” Just different things like that, it was funny and don’t even worry we did get free oranges from one of them after turning on the old charm…. And by charm I mean we walked past and they said here have this... :)


This is just an example of the plethora of goods they had available for purchase at Paddy's Market

That night Wendy was still feeling way sick so Brighton and I, with Wendy still in our hearts, decided to go clubbing! They had heard from some boys they had met before I was there, that they should try a place called Pump House, which is right by Darling Harbor. So we went there only to discover that not only did the girls outnumber the boys 3 to 1 but we were pretty much the only white people in the whole place! Everywhere you looked you saw, Asians or Indians or Polynesians but none of our fair skinned friends!  haha It was way great though and the ratio of guys to girls did get significantly more balanced! It was a Hip-Hop club, and the way people dance over here is hilarious, it’s like they forget they actually have hips and that they can move them when they start dancing! Haha So needless to say we danced way different than everyone else and stood out just a little bit, which for anyone who knows me or Brighton knows that’s probably not a good thing, cause we usually stand out too much as it is! haha Also it’s interesting here, people don’t grind or freak dance, it was nice not having to worry about guys getting up in your grille! :) After dancing we went to McDonalds for a 30 cent cone, which has quickly risen to the top of my must do when you’re in Australia list, because everything else is so dang expensive! We met some boys from Turkey who were way funny but said in not so many words but in pretty much the same breath how much they hated America but all their favorite TV shows and movies were, strangely enough, American, explain that one to me chief?


"You can find me in the club bottle full of bud" or apple juice! On our way clubbin!

We took the bus home because the trains were down. On the bus there wasn't room for Brighton and I to sit next to each other so we were kiddie corner and this 50 year old drunk man gets on the bus on for some reason just starts talking to me, I didn't say anything and I couldn't even really understand what he was saying but he was just talking so much and telling me how much he loved his wife and that they loved each other so much they didn’t know what to do but he had met this girl and they were staying together but she would just beat the crap out of him then he started asking me about all these shops in America like Ross and TJ Maxx and if I knew what Jack in the Box was and I said Yes so he gave me knuckles and then said "God bless you" and kissed me on the forehead, I just froze I didn't know what to do! It was so funny Brighton and so many other people on the bus were just laughing so hard at me! Finally the seat next to Brighton opened up and there was a kid from Chicago in front of us that started talking to us to save us from the drunken kissing crazy man!!  Needless to say I washed my forehead with disinfectant that very night! Haha

Sunday June 29
Wendy’s ear was still hurting really bad and it had been leaking and oozing out and we just wanted to help make her better but didn’t know how! So after church we went to the clinic and she got some antibiotics and stuff, they have some type of socialized medicine over here, so it was pretty crazy how cheap the medicine was! It was cool to see how the doctor’s offices are set up over here and it was funny, none of the doctors wear lab coats, they’re just in their normal clothes and they think it’s weird that our doctors do wear lab coats!


This is waiting at the clinic, and even though Wendy still looks as pretty as always, she was not happy she had to come here and be sick!!

Monday June 30
This was the day that Brighton started her spell of this dang sickness we all had to catch! Wendy was still pretty sick too and I was finally all the way better, so needless to say I was a little restless and decided to go for a run to Bondi beach! It was perfect weather and I wished I had brought my swimming suit! But I just don’t think I’ll ever get over how pretty that run really is! And that really is such a beautiful beach!

Tuesday July 1
Wendy and Brighton were still sick, but Brighton tried work and only did a half day, so I decided to go for another run the other direction and got to see Coogee Beach and Waverly cemetery which is the huge cemetery with all these fancy headstones that overlook the ocean! It was very pretty! I didn’t bring a camera, but I’ll go back one day and get lots of pictures to post! Later on that night, we decided to splurge with our internet and got to watch another episode of So You Think You Can Dance! Although, I haven’t developed a connection with the dancers the way I did last year it still makes me giddy like a school girl every time I hear that intro music!


This was also the day I found my car's long lost twin, I've been searching the world over! Presley (my car) and Chester (the other car) were separated at birth, Chester seems to be in pretty good shape other than he got his fathers genes for driving on the left hand side of the road! I'm just happy to be a part of the special reunion that will soon take place!


Who says all Subaru owners are tree huggers?