My First Kiwi

On Monday night I met my first Kiwi! His name is Kent and he’s an opera singer with the
Australian Opera, which means…cheap tickets! We’re going to the Opera Saturday night and I am sooo excited. Kent is a cheerful bloke and a bit of a ham. He nearly has an Aussie accent from being here for a while, but he went right ahead and gave us several renditions from his New Zealand roots. Youtube: “Beached As” for an idea.

These last two weeks have been crazy. I had eight or nine friends over for my birthday party, just after the last blog entry. Preparation took two whole days; first I cleaned RED DUST off every single flat surface in my house, then I assembled beef chipolata sausages with honey mustard sauce, vegetable sticks, chips and spinach dip, brownies, and the piece d’resistance, a wheel of melted Brie with rosemary, lemon, and garlic.

Hit the beach Wed and Thursday, enjoying lovely warm sunshine, and Thursday night got a call from one of the Melbourne Fulbrighters. His other accommodations fell through, and so I had two more Americans sleeping in my living room for the weekend! On Friday they dropped their stuff off and went out, while I worked like a madwoman to finish one of my term papers, just in time to join them for dinner. It rained constantly while they were here. We had a wet bar night and some good pizza in King’s Cross, which is infamous for its red light district; explored Circular Quay and the city from under umbrellas; and on Saturday night, flaunted the start of daylight savings time by dancing at the Coogee beach bar until four in the morning.

Phew! I plan to relax a little more this week, especially since the weather is pretty chilly, not good for beaching. Did I mention that “Bondi Rescue” is my new favorite show ever? Chiseled and suntanned men (and one lady, good for her) saving lives and instructing the tourists (most of whom don’t speak English) how to avoid rips, sharks, overenthusiastic surfers, rocks and the thousand other ways there are to die on Bondi Beach.