Busy Day!

February 22, 2014

My day began fairly early thanks to the birds and still adjusting to the time difference. I made the most of it by catching up on emails and of course doing my blog! Lianna and I also took a walk down to the river next to uni (campus). It is very beautiful! It was misting when we got down there so it looks kind of gloomy in the picture. 

We continued to walk around for awhile orienting ourselves to uni and the area near by. Afterwards Venessa, the awesome Australian adopted mom of the Americans, took us shopping around town. She knows where all the deals are! All of us girls bought 4mm wetsuits for $45 AUD. It was an amazing deal. I cannot wait to try it out! 

Venessa also introduced us to meat pies. I ate mine plain but she made me take a picture of hers. "This is how the Australians eat meat pies." It was very good!

After all our running around town, I was wiped out. I took the rest of the afternoon to relax. We were invited to go to a 21st birthday party later in the evening so I was happy for a little nap. The theme of the 21st birthday party was costumes. Katie, Lianna, and I just got inexpensive masquerade masks (my idea). Here are the pictures!

When we arrived at the party I was surprised because Aiden's family was there along with his friends. Drinking age here is 18, so I thought it would have been a low key party. I was wrong. Pool is a very intense social game here. So we ended up meeting him and his friends and watching the pool games. One of his relatives kept coming around and serving us all sorts of food. It was super good! When it was time for cake, it was almost like our wedding where everyone gathers around to watch Aidan cut the cake. Then they have "speeches." Family and friends talk about how they know Aiden and their favorite memories of him. It is a very lovely tradition. We all went downtown next. Out taxi driver was very funny and was giving us Americans the inside scoop of taxi drivers in Australia. The rest of the night we talked to Aiden's friends at the bars and played some more pool.