in a sunburned country, indeed

So this morning at 3:30AM Sydney celebrated the inauguration along with the US!! Later this afternoon I am going to a Sydney Uni bar to watch a replay of the inauguration and probably further my path towards being a "sot," as Thao calls it. No doubt there will be plenty of celebration at the bar--for the primaries over 1,000 people showed up at this bar (and here I am thinking, just how BIG is this bar anyway?!). And best of all, after the bar I have CLASS. My Australian Culture and Society class, to be exact. And my professor, knowing that we're going out before class, adamantly said yesterday, "Look, I don't care HOW inebriated you are tomorrow... I want you here in class!"

Side note: the alcohol policy in Australia, or New South Wales (NSW) specifically. Here in NSW they have a very tolerant view of alcohol, with the drinking age at 18. Instead of Americans that have strict taboos against teenage drinking, Australians practice a code of "responsibility." And, by extension, the BU Sydney program encourages us to be responsible for our actions, but wants us to have a good (and drunken) time. Pretty cool that they treat us like adults here.

As I alluded to in the previous post, this weekend I spent in neighborhood marketplaces and surrounding beaches. Saturday morning I awoke to join a bunch of friends to travel to Paddington Market located a short bus ride away from Central Station.

Paddington Market

Me Amongst the Market Stalls

The market was typical to any crafts/arts market you might find in the US, with lots of local artists showing off their wares. There were quite some neat items, particularly children's toys (which I was SO close to buying... for my future children?), beautiful dresses, and intricate jewelry. I bought some gifts for those back home, and then ate some Thai food while sitting outside just beyond the market. It was so lovely.

Afterwards, instead of taking the bus back to UniLodge, we walked all the way home through Paddington and passed the edge of Surry Hills and Kings Cross (both neighborhoods in Sydney). We walked all the way down Oxford St., where the locals say the best "CHIC GRUNGE" nightclubs are. Chic grunge, I love it!

We found this immensely amusing on the way back. Lick her. Liquor. Get it?!

We passed Hyde Park (London knock-off, hah), which was this beautiful green park that we leisurely rested in. Overall a peaceful day followed by a trip to Chinatown in the afternoon for some groceries and then a relaxing beer with dinner.

My friends in Sydney's Hyde Park.

Sydney's Chinatown was not exactly as I was expecting. If you're from Boston and reading this, I'm sure you know what the inside of Super 88 looks like. Well, there is NO Sydney equivalent of a Super 88, just incredibly small grocery stores a lá Midwest Suburbia. And although there are more food courts than you can count (like the type outside Super 88), there are few really nice restaurants. I am almost missing Boston Chinatown :( but at the same time I think I am missing the picture for Sydney's Chinatown... I mean... there MUST be some great stores around here somewhere, right?!

Emblematic of Chinatown.

Oh, sidenote again: Since I have no rice cooker I have no means to make or eat THE STAPLE FOOD OF MY DIET. Augh, does this mean I have to make it in a crappy pot like Americans do? This is really "roughin' it," guys. I sort of joke, but in all seriousness what am I going to eat?

Sunday morning after my disappointing attempt to not drink the previous night, we woke up to take the train to Bondi Beach, Sydney's most well-known and CELEBRITY-POPULATED beach. Apparently people from previous years have seen Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts in some of the nicer beach cafés. NO SUCH LUCK GUYS. No hot Australian celebrities for me, sorry, my humblest apologies, will-try-harder-next-time.

Me, right before a dip in the Pacific.

As you can see, it was BEAUTIFUL. At first I got there and was like, "wtf Puerto Rico was so much better (read: less crowded)," but the crowds kind of grew on me and I had a great time in the waves. The waves down under are seriously HUGE compared to those I've encountered elsewhere. Just jumping up and down in the water with the waves exhausted me after 30 minutes, and I spent the rest of the time lying on the beach, reading, chatting and overall having an incredibly sun-filled time.

A better visual of how crowded it was on the beach.

After bumming around on Bondi Beach, we took an hour-long cliff walk along the beach to end up at another two beaches, the Tamarama Beach and Bronte Beach, both of which were beautiful but had strong undertows and not nearly as soft or fine sand as Bondi Beach. From the cliff walks we took some amazing pictures of the beaches from afar:

View of Bondi

View of the Cliffs to the east of Bondi.

View towards Tamarama Beach.

A very cute couple basking in the sun among the cliffs. This country is an entirely romantic place.

Tamarama Beach. Much smaller and more secluded, but still pretty crowded.

Bronte Beach.

We caught the bus from Bronte Beach back to UniLodge to nurse our sunburned bodies. None of my neck, face, or back really got sunburned, but my arms, legs, and breasts got a shade of pink resembling a radish. (No I was not topless sunbathing, my swimsuit just has less-than-desirable coverage.) Oh, and only AFTER I get back does anyone tell me that Australia lacks the natural protection of... the Ozone. Apparently the ozone is ridiculously thin here, and pretty much 80% of Australians get skin cancer at some point in their lives, with another percentage of that population getting MULTIPLE skin cancers. Ok, cool, I say. Gonna make my roommate check me using the ABCs (asymmetry, border, color).

Long story short, never again am I going to spend six consecutive hours outside in the Australian sun. Ok, who am I kidding? I'm going back this weekend.

I'll stop the post here since I've got to run, but next time I'll be sure to catch you all up on my two classes that just started on Monday: The Australian Wine Industry and Australian Culture and Society.

Love and Sunburns,
Xu