Part 2, Week 8: March 11-17
- Katie and Webster
- Mar 17, 2019
- 4 min read
The weather has been horrible this week! It rained every day for at least a few hours and today the streets were flooding.
On Monday, I went to school for the entire day. It was a busy, but usual school day. We are starting on a few group projects in my classes and I am getting to know some of my professors.
It was Webster’s first day of classes this week! On Monday he had a full afternoon of lectures and tutorials. He said it was busy but felt good to be back in classes.
On Tuesday, we both had class again. It was a VERY hot day, over 35 and rainy. I did a practice test using a funny answer paper. Here they don’t use Scantron cards but instead scratch off cards. They are similar to lottery tickets and make a mess, but the answer is underneath the scratch so you know if you get the answer right in the test.
In the evening, we started to plan our summer adventure. We are taking 9 weeks after school ends in Australia to travel in Asia. We have started to look at tours, hotels and activities to do in each location.
On Wednesday, we made the most of a sunny afternoon (that only lasted 2 hours) and went to the Sydney Fish Market and Paddy’s Markets. Webster really wanted to go to the Fish Market after seeing a billboard for it. It was very busy, full of tourists, and very expensive! Most of the fish sold at the market was caught in Sydney, Australia or New Zealand so they were able to sell it as a touristy souvenir. Most people were eating gourmet lobster meals, with the entire lobster on their plate. The gourmet meals started at $119 per person! Webster was really into it and got some calamari, for much less than $119, before heading out.
Then we headed on our way to Paddy’s Market. Paddy’s Market is in Chinatown and is known for their cheap souvenirs. We both wanted boomerangs while we were in Australia and wanted to check them out where we knew they would be more reasonable. Most souvenir shops had boomerangs for $30 each but we lucked out and got a great deal, so we bought 5! We spent about an hour wandering around looking at the other stands of knock off Prada purses, Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys, and Supreme hoodies. Some of the knock offs were so bad, we just laughed. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.
On Thursday, we did absolutely nothing and it was wonderful! We watched Netflix, got some groceries, and made pitas just like Johnny Fresco’s because we were really missing home.
On Friday, we woke up to another rainy day so we decided to check out the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Webster and I aren’t really art people, but it was free and a good way to see something when it’s raining outside. We were surprised to see a lot of destination paintings of places we have been, hope to go, and have never even heard of - that was our favourite exhibit. We ended up wandering around for a few hours and then walking through the city centre between a few breaks in the rain.
Then, we headed to the Peanut Butter Bar. A few months ago we saw this cool video on Facebook about a cafe that has peanut butter on tap. The photos looked awesome and we added it our Sydney food list to check out while we were here. We were so excited to eat some sugary garbage but when we showed up everything was gluten free, sugar free and vegan. We still tried what the barista recommended, Reese’s inspired cheesecake and chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter on top. I was excited until I tasted it and there was hardly any flavour. It was a huge letdown. Moral of the story, don’t always trust Facebook or the beautiful food pictures you see online.
On Saturday, we headed to Birkenhead Point to do some shopping! Birkenhead has a huge shopping centre and we heard they had great prices. When we got there and started to shop around, we didn’t find deals that we would see at home. Prices are more expensive here for clothing, shoes and luxury brands, and the outlets weren’t much better. It was still fun to poke around and try some things on while it rained all afternoon. We did our weekly grocery shop and even enjoyed a nice lunch out by the water.
On Sunday, it was raining so hard that we weren’t able to do anything we had planned. We ended up sitting at school studying all afternoon. We had plans to stay until 7-8pm but the fire alarm went off at 5pm, so we thought that was a sign for us to head home. We spent the evening meal prepping for the week and doing some more research into our summer plans.
Hopefully the weather clears up this week and we are able to do some more fun things! We can’t believe how fast our time here is flying by. This week I start volunteering and Webster has his first clubs meeting.
コメント