Week 2 (July 19th - July 25th) We get back from the farm on Monday and reality slowly starts setting in. On Tuesday I went to orientation at the St. Lucia campus. The campus is incredibly beautiful and captures a type of university setting that I felt lacked from CSUN and always wanted to experience. I don't know how to describe it but the people, the energy, and the environment are so different. And last I checked CSUN didn't have wild turkeys roaming around campus (yup, you read that correctly, wild turkeys on campus - makes thanksgiving dinner incredibly convenient. kidding). I'm not going to school bash or anything but I think you know where I'm going with this. Anyway, orientation went well, I wont bore you with details.
Since we had really only been in Brisbane for a short few days before heading to the farm, the city still feels like relatively new uncharted territory. We continued exploring and on Wednesday happened upon an amazing Farmers Market in Brisbane Center. It's the healthy hippie in me that just loves supporting local farmers, fresh/ organic produce, and outdoor market/ fair type things, so obvi I plotzed over this! I'm so excited to pick up some veggies and other goodies there every Wednesday!
On Thursday evening we decided to go have dinner in South Bank, just a short bus ride and walk over a Brissy River bridge. After dinner we randomly found a french horn symphony performing in an open air theater in the middle of a park, so we stopped and listened. Other passers by did the same, it was just too beautiful and peaceful to not take a seat and appreciate the music for a moment. Maybe it was the impromptu french horn concert, or the amazing Farmers Market, or the way the city lights up at night, but I couldn't help but think to myself while listening to the music that I am one lucky bitch!
Friday we took a train down to Surfers Paradise. It was the first time when we actually had a moment to stop and rest and be alone with our thoughts. I think it was a reflective train ride for all of us about how much our lives had changed and all the life events that led up to the present moment of being on a train in Australia, creating a new world for ourselves for a (relatively) short period of time. It was a great day trip, and I still got the same "this is where I want to be" feeling just as I did the first time I had visited there.
Saturday was a particularly big night for us, we experienced our first rugby game - and it was A-MAZ-ING! We started off at a BBQ for Rowena (one of the Irish girls we had met at Michael's Bday) where we got our pre-drink on. Michael and I decided to get decked out in Wallaby (our rugby team) paraphernalia. We made a deal that if he wore a bright green and yellow mullet, I would wear his prized blow-up kangaroo, RooPoo. Seemed like a harmless enough deal at the time but then things went horribly wrong for me. I thought it would be this little kangaroo I would wear on my back, until Kate blows it up and the thing is as nearly as big as I am. Then Michael started dressing said roo in a yellow mankini reminiscent of Borat. The yellow mankini was NOT part of the deal, and when Michael started stuffing mini sausages in the "down under" region of the mankini I was ready to call the whole thing off. We truced that the sausages went but the mankini stayed. Although I found my argument of "kangaroos don't typically wear mankinis so why should I have to wear one that does?" to be a valid argument, I decided to be a good sport and go along with it. Very aware of the unwanted attention I was about to receive, I braced myself by having a few more drinks. This is where things get really weird. So I'm walking down a busy pedestrian street with a life-sized yellow mankini wearing kangaroo strapped to my back, and NOBODY says anything. They hardly gave a second glance. I started wondering if people maybe did this often - how was nobody phased by this? The lack of attention would have been a let down if it wasn't so damn embarrassing. But I did get a chance to bond with RooPoo a little bit, and gave him a more L.A. ghetto fab style name, K-Jizzle. We got to the stadium and although K-Jizzle was an absolute hit with security, he was not allowed into the stadium. They gave us a claims ticket and we would have to retrieve him from a claims desk after the game. We kept our drinking going and watched the Wallabies claim victory over whatever the South African team is called. Rugby is a super fun game to watch and pretty easy to pick up the rules quickly too. After the game we head over to the claims desk to pick up RooPoo and come to find that someone else had taken the roo! Although this was really devastating for Michael (it was a very precious and irreplaceable item) here are some funny bits of the argument with the guy behind the claims desk that should be shared:
Michael: Hi. We're here to collect RooPoo, my kangaroo
Claims Guy: I don't think we have anything like that here. what did it look like?
Michael: Brown. 4 ft tall. wearing a yellow mankini.
and
Michael (to claims guy): I can replace the mankini, I can replace the sausage stains, but I can't replace RooPoo!
Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, it was useless, RooPoo was gone. The only way for us to salvage the night was to continue drinking along the bars on Caxton Street near the stadium - and that we did.
Sunday - recovery day
And that sums up week 2.
Peace, love, and RooPoo,
Jillian aka Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes
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