Food, Fun, and Festival

I can't believe we have already been here for 2 1/2 weeks!  The days really have been going pretty quickly and I assume it's because we have a lot to see and do.  After my last blog it was so fun to read all of the emails from those of you listening! :)  Thank you for filling me in on your lives at home.  Keep them coming, pretty please!!

We had a busy weekend.  On Friday I headed into North Sydney to meet up with Luke, his KC manager, and another coworker. We had a fun evening and ended the night with a nice dinner at a restaurant with a great view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.  We, I mean, I was slow moving on Saturday morning after all of that fun but we finally made it out for the day.  We decided to take the ferry to Manly Beach...along with what seemed like everyone!  Everyone was in their swimsuits and board shorts, ready to hit the beach.  By the time we got there it was after 4:00pm and don't be jealous because it started raining after about 45 minutes so we didn't get much sun time!  :)  It was still nice to relax, people watch, and see so many people surfing.  Once we left we walked around for awhile and then decided to go back to the city for dinner.  The picture below of the bridge is when we were on our ferry ride back with the sun setting. 

We both were set on Thai food so we searched all over and couldn't seem to find a Thai restaurant anywhere!!!  Now, keep in mind that they are ALL over Sydney so we couldn't figure out why we couldn't find one because we are always passing by them.  Luke got his phone out to search for places and I had to give him "the look" after the Italian place incident from last time.  I really didn't feel like doing that again!  It seems to be the case for us right now so we decided to just go for Chinese instead. 

The Chinese food here is not like Chinese at home...no crab rangoon, no fortune cookie, no Kung Pao Chicken.  They have a massive (this word is used in place of "huge" here) menu with things that I'm sure are really ok to eat but I'm not really interested in pork belly or fish head or the other random things listed- at least not yet!  I finally found Hot and Spicy Prawns and Luke ordered a spicy soup with noodles, chicken and veggies...when he ordered the waitress said it was "really spicy" and if he was sure he wanted it.  We waited and once our food came I was a little concerned.  Mine was exactly what I ordered...but I had to peel the shells and remove the heads with those eyes staring up at me.  I have included the picture below.  I also included pictures of how big of a mess our table was by the time I peeled these large shrimps with hot oil and spices all over them and then all over me!  The only napkins they gave us were little and thin- like what you would find in a diner if you only needed one that small!!  So you will notice in the picture that I ended up using quite a stack!  Luke's spicy soup had what he called "chicken knuckles" and some other interesting items floating around in there.  We avoided the other things and stuck with the noodles and soup which were pretty good.  The spicy flavor was good but still not what we had in mind for the evening but we did our best.  Hopefully the next Chinese place we try will have another safe and delicious option and we'll be ready to try something new.  We then of course had to follow this dinner with ice cream to take care of the flavors.  :)  It helped!

On Sunday we went to lunch with my new friend Kyra and introduced her husband, Sam, and Luke to each other.  We had a nice time and then we met up with some of Luke's coworkers and their friends in Newtown at the Newtown Festival later in the day.  Apparently this is a big sign of the start of summer and people come from all around to go to this big festival with food, drinks, tents with crafts, and 2 or 3 stages with bands playing.  The weather was much more warm this day and it really did feel like summer finally!  The majority of the group we were with were actually Americans.  I'm not sure how to explain the people we saw at the festival but lets just say I felt like we were at Sandstone in the lawn watching a concert. I think the PC term would be "progressive" which is the term his friends used to warn us before we got there!  I definitely saw some new tattoos, on interesting body parts, on people who chose to wear (or not wear) whatever they wanted, while they smoked and drank whatever they could get their hands on!  This event won our people watching contest so far.  We really wanted to get out the video camera but we were afraid that some people may catch on to what we were doing!  Check out the picture of the big tree I took on our way out of there, though.  Most of the trees I've seen here have the roots growing up out of the ground.  I thought it was a neat picture to share.  I'm sure I'll blog about trees some other day!!!  :)

We were able to Google Chat with my whole family and with Luke's parents this weekend which was really what we both needed.  It helps to talk and see each other every once in awhile!  We are so glad that this technology is available. 

Luke is traveling again this week so I'm working on finding some new things to do/explore this week.  I am going with the relocation company on Friday to look for apartments again.  Going with her will be a different and much better experience than when we go on our own plus we'll have a greater chance of being chosen if we put in our application with her there.  I hope to report back good news to you all!