It's Raining (Cats &) Dogs!

Today was a busy morning followed by what is devolving into a very lazy but good afternoon!

This morning, Megan and I woke up as planned to head to the Newtown Festival. Newtown is an area of Sydney a few blocks away from where we live - kind of like SoHo to Midtown Manhattan, same city different area code. They were having their annual town festival, kicking off a series of them that apparently will continue until we leave. Megan and I wanted to go to this one because it's known for its music presence and its dog show! Both of us are pretty starved for animal attention; she misses her dog Lucy back at home and I miss three furry fat felines. So, we decided that it would be a good outing worth the free admission.

We hopped on the bus and went out there, getting slightly lost for a moment or two but, following the pack of dogs, found the fair grounds right in the middle of Newtown. It was pretty early when we got there so we bought some juice drinks - fresh squeezed juice is huge here, there are smoothie and juice stands on every block, something I'm definitely going to miss when I get home. I led us slightly astray, I should really listen to Megan more often, but we eventually found where the dog show was going on. It was informal but incredibly cute and there were gaggles of dogs everywhere and of every breed. A Dalmatian found my face quite tasty, a Bull Mastiff hopped around in the rain like a lap dog, a Papillion pranced with ribbons in her tail, many Labs and Beagles and Pugs chased each other everywhere, it was amazing. We sat down right up front on the grass despite the rain and watched the agility and costume competitions oohing and aahing at how cute they all were. It made both of us pine for our pets! Australians are incredibly friendly dog owners, letting us pet and kiss their dogs left and right. I was amazed at how well they all got along, too, not a single fight broke out in the entire hour and a half we watched the show. We saw all the winners get treats and pats before heading off to get some lunch. My new favorite fair treat is this Turkish crepe that has spinach and cheese in it before being sprinkled with lemon juice, it's delicious. We also got some baklava and Nutella crepes while wandering the stands filled with skirts, tshirts, purses, and jewelry from local artisans. It rained pretty hard on and off, which did suck and did discourage us from staying too long, but we got to see some really beautiful pieces of art and funky designs. I have decided I'm not nearly hip enough for Newtown after seeing all of the residents! On our way out, I fell in love with a Jack Russel Terrier/Chihuahua mix named Bo, nearly dognapping him from his owner because he was so damn cute. He even smiled! I was smitten and very sad we needed to leave.

The rain and walking really took it out of me so now I'm back in my cool, dry room feeling the effects of my antibiotics. I'm one day away from being done with my first half of my treatment, which makes me very happy, this exhaustion will hopefully go away when I'm done! But, my sinuses are most definitely clearing up and I'm looking forward to a healthy last four weeks here in Sydney! The time has gone by so quickly, I can't believe we only have 30 days left. I'm sad but at the same time am looking forward to heading home to see my new room thanks to Mom and Ray!

This afternoon has been spent catching up on Grey's Anatomy episodes I've been missing while I'm here and I'm totally roped back in. I think it's great this season despite the challenges with Ellen Pompeo's pregnancy and Katherine Heigel's adoption - the story lines have been fantastic! I can't wait to get to LA.

I'm off to watch the last two episodes then maybe start in on How I Met Your Mother, or I might just go watch Lost with Megan. :)

G'night from downunder!

Sick in Sydney: Part Perpetual...

So, I'm sick again.

But, the kicker is, I guess I was never not sick. How fantastic is that? I'm officially allergic to Australia.

I started to feel kind of gross on Monday but chalked it up to a long weekend after Halloween and the fact that my knee had blown again (that's another story...). I slapped on my knee brace and powered through it, rationalizing that with the changing seasons and old dorm room my allergies were haywire to begin with. I'm pretty good at ignoring things - my knee, my sinuses, etc. Tuesday was the Melbourne Cup - The Race That Stops the Nation - and man, did it ever! Work consisted of actual projects until 1pm and then we all retired to the conference room to eat a beautiful catered lunch and drink champagne while watching the race coverage. Did I mention the race didn't start until 3pm? No? Yeah, two hours of this for a three minute horse race. But it was incredibly fun! A great way to build camaraderie and get to know your coworkers. I won $33 in the BUSC sweeps when my horse Crime Scene placed. It was a lot of fun! Plus, at 3:30pm my boss came up to me and said, "You know, Meggie? Nobody is going to do anymore work today, go on home and enjoy your evening." Sweet, thanks! So I got to wear my pretty flowered hair piece and go home early, score! But Tuesday night I could feel the sickness coming on, so I went to bed early, hoping that sleep and a firm commitment to health (aka, mind over matter...) would miraculously heal me. It did not.

Wednesday morning I woke up and could barely breathe my sinuses were so stuffed up, it was awful. I decided to head to work and power through, getting there early enough to finish my two projects by 11am. When I went over to my boss to tell her I was done she immediately said, "Babe, you're sick, I appreciate you coming in and finishing your work, but go home. Do you need any DVDs?" God, I have the best job in the entire world. So, home I went. I curled up into bed and watched some TV then took a solid three hour nap. I woke up just in time to meet Jennifer Newman, our aboriginal studies professor who's helping me with my religion independent study. We had a great meeting and I'm excited to continue with my project, but by the time I got home around 7:30pm I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. I was back to the mouth breathing and wheezing. Thankfully, Megan wasn't feeling great either so we banded together and agreed to stay home from work and head to the doctor together, I don't do the doctor alone. So this morning I slept in, which was beautiful, then woke up and headed over to the physician again. I got right in and the doctor proceeded to poke and prod me for awhile, coming to the startling conclusion that I still had a sinus infection (poking my cheeks and yelping in pain was probably the giveaway). Still being the imperative - it never went away. He said for the past eight weeks, since I started feeling nasty, the bacteria have been throwing a little party up in there and now it's spread to my orbital sinuses and ears. Beautiful. So I'm on a two week cycle of antibiotics to hopefully clear it up once and for all. But for now, I'm stuck in bed watching Dexter and True Blood. No class tonight and no work tomorrow, no going out for two weeks (no drinking on antibiotics), and taking it easy for at least ten days. Well, looks like I have no excuse not to get my papers done this weekend....

34 days until I'm home! As much as I love it here and am pretty much actively planning on coming back for a period of time, I'm really looking forward to stepping off that plane and seeing Mom and going home to my wonderful kitties. Not to mention everybody that comes with them! I'm excited for Los Angeles next semester, too. It's just one good thing leading to another - hopefully once I get rid of this sinus infection!

I'm off to bed to watch a couple more Dexter episodes. Tomorrow - paper writing and more Dexter!

G'night from Down Under!

Happy Halloween!

Here in Australia, Halloween isn't nearly as big of a deal as it is in the US. While most Australians know about Halloween, it's not a huge deal nor do many of them dress up. Though, all of us being Americans, we had to celebrate, new continent or not.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early for Pilates, which always makes me very energized and happy all day. Afterward, I walked to Paddy's market (not to be confused with the Paddo market from last weekend) and met up with Sam and MJ to shop for our costumes. Paddy's is basically Canal Street in New York on crack - it's huge and sells literally everything you can imagine from batteries to handbags. It's pretty overwhelming but it is a great place to find costume-like clothing, and man, were we successful. Our entire group of friends decided to go as different high school cliches - jock, punk, teacher's pet, prep, band geek, etc. Sam was going to be punk, I was going to be a Literary Cliche (aka, that girl who's obsessed with Virginia Wolff and Sylvia Plath and talks about how awful the US is while embracing European culture), and MJ was really unsure about her initial decision to go as prom queen.

I immediately found a beret and pocket watch necklace - two hallmarks of my character. Sam found a great punk skirt and some fishnet tights while I found a pair of black leggings, a black turtleneck, and a black belt with a big buckle - very Parisian. We kept wandering around picking up pieces of punk paraphernalia for Sam's costume and debating what MJ should be if not a prom queen - and then it came to us when we saw some pretty bunk Baby Phat track suits on major discount. MJ should be ghetto. She's the white girl who wants to be ghetto. It was amazing. She got this brilliant Kanye West skeleton hoodie, a big gold chain, Kanye glasses, and had our friend Nathalie braid her hair in corn rows. She looked AMAZING. It was fantastic. We spent around three hours at Paddy's just exploring all of the stands. Then we headed home, went to the mall so I could get the finishing touch of my costume - a Sylvia Plath book. I hopped in the shower and ran over to Sam's room to start getting ready. It was so much fun. We made Sam completely Punk'd out, MJ got braided, I pained on my cat eyes, and everybody gathered to pregame for the BUSC party. Although we were running about an hour late, we had a fantastic arrival at the party and immediately sat down and started playing trivia. The entire program had some great costumes - Maria as a crocodile, the Dunder Mifflin crew, the Village People, even the program directors got into it - Pascal was Willy Wonka, our director Mark and his family were The Simpson's, and Caroline, Cal, and Adrienne were the three main charactres from Summer Heights High. We had so much fun - we even won the costume contest!

After the BUSC party ended we headed to Argyle, a club where they were having the largest Halloween party in Australian history. It was crowded and sweaty and we only stayed for about an hour before bailing and heading to Pancakes on the Rocks - a 24 hour pancake place near the club. It was delicious. We had an amazing devil's food pancake with strawberries and chocolate and Sam and I split some nachos. It was the perfect cap to the night. After looking for a cab for almost a half an hour we headed home, wiped off the makeup, organized the candy, and fell into bed!

Sunday MJ and I had our usual hangover routine: Thai food and the beach where the Sculpture by the Sea exhibit was going on between Bondi and Tamarama beach. They were gorgeous. We did a bunch of walking, had some fresh watermelon, and got to check out some great art. Dinner was at Wagamama, another one of our favorites.

Now I'm in class, wishing I was out enjoying the weather! The only casualty of my weekend was my knee, which is back in its brace and quite sore. Hopefully another round of Pilates this afternoon will clear that up and I can enjoy Thai and finish some work tonight.

G'day from down under!