Birthday parties and weather updates

So Thursday night we went out for my friend Sofia's 20th... and then Friday went out for Deb's 21st. It was a lot of fun to finally push homework aside and go out, but after two days I'd had enough. Friday night was also karaoke at school. There were 9 contestants and it was more like ICMS Idol than karaoke because the screen was behind them and they more or less performed for the crowd. It was nice to have the SandBar open again. After the competition the American guys went up to sing "Born in the USA" and a group of girls sang "Time of my Life"... everyone kind of looked at them like they were nuts. Apparently group karaoke is an American thing. The school hired a coach bus to drive us down the hill at 10:30. Not only were teachers and faculty at the karaoke event, they came out afterward as well. Still weird.

PC starting off the karaoke event. He also MC'd all night in his shiny purple coat. He's awesome, one of my favorite faculty members here.

Lana, Chelsi, Deb, and I at Shark Bar for Deb's birthday!

Saturday night it was freezing! I know Minnesota is still colder, but I guarantee even people in Minnesota would complain about 50 degrees with 20mph winds in June. I stayed in to watch The Holiday and drink champagne with Deb and Linnea since Saturday was Deb's actual birthday. Amy came later with fun fetti cake. Deb's mom sent her cake mix and Amy was able to go to a friend's to bake them. They feed us desert with meals, but its just not the same as fun fetti cake. Seriously delicious. Amy said her friend's parents were appalled that we would make cake from a box mix. This is a foreign concept in Australia, adding it to the number of reasons I'd never be able to survive here long term. The others are ranch dressing (BBQ sauce is my substitute, one of the girls from Texas actually had her mom send a bottle of ranch here), and Chipotle. So maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But within 24 hours of returning to the States I will eat boxed cake, ranch dressing, and Chipotle.

Sunday it rained... again. I've managed to go to the beach on the few nice weeks we had early on, but it was kinda crappy all weekend and looks to be raining all week again here. I don't know if this is typical of Sydney or not. I went to the city anyway to finish souvenir/Christmas shopping at Paddy's Markets. We took the train there but were able to walk back because the rain stopped. I realized it'll be one of my last times in the city. This weekend is New Zealand, one inbetween (I might head to Canberra for a day, or go into the city), and then Melbourne. After that I'm back home. 25 days... whoa. Its coming too fast, but I'm excited too.

Christmas decorations popped up everywhere here. Its hard to think about Christmas without snow. They don't wait til after Thanksgiving here because, well, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving. A few people were going to go talk to the chef about making some turkey and stuffing on Thursday because of the overwelming American presence on campus this term. We'll see how that goes over. Found out Australians don't make pumpkin pie either. Which is odd because they eat pumpkin all the time.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Enjoy the short week ahead:)