Well, the week after the weekend where I left off last time was my first week of uni. It was quite confusing because the campus is a lot bigger than I'm used to and I wasn't registered or enrolled for one of my classes, and ended up changing another one as well. However, I made it through the week and the next weekend was Mardi Gras. Apparently Sydney Mardi Gras is even better than the one in New Orleans. I don't know how New Orleans is, but the parade was great! Floats and floats full of eccentrically dressed gays and lesbians. Lucie, Linda and I bought these fluorescent pink tops (it seemed to be the thing to do) but it was so cold we ended up putting loads of clothes on top.

I then had another week of uni, but I won't bore you with all too much. I figured out all my classes and my timetable by that time, and I am pretty happy with my classes. I had to buy a bunch of books that were quite expensive, and I have no idea how I am going to get them back home. The original plan for the next weekend was bush walking in the Blue Mountains. That was, until Lucie and I got a better offer. Lucie's cousin's boyfriend (yes slightly confusing I agree) lives in Sydney, and he offered to take us wake boarding! For those of you who don't know what wake boarding is, you ride a board like a snowboard behind a motorboat, in its wake. Well, of course we couldn't say no to that so we decided to go bush walking another weekend. We had to get up very early, but in retrospect it was absolutely worth our while. They had booked a spot on the reservoir behind Manly Dam, which is used for recreational sports. The boys got the boat into the water - with some difficulty - while us girls set up the stuff by the water. I learned that Ben (the guy who invited us) and his friend Nathan, with whom he owns the boat, have been wake boarding for years and have even taken part in competitions. First we let the boys show off a bit - and I have to give them credit here, they were GOOD. They were doing jumps, flips (yes like somersaults) and they even went off this really big ramp that was set up there. Lucie was up first, and after a few attempts she managed to stand up, and after a bit of practice she was doing well, she was doing turns and everything. Well that set the bar for me of course. I actually managed to get up a little more easily than Lucie, because I was lucky enough to have been taken water skiing, so I had an idea of what to do. In the end I think Lucie and I were a good match and I reckon we both did a great job for the first time. We definitely had a lot of fun.

Because we had initially planned to go bush walking on Saturday we had also decided to go surfing on Sunday. We had mentioned this to Ben, and he offered to lend us one of his old surf boards and drive us to a nice quiet beach. Well, being students of course we didn't pass up the opportunity of a free ride to the beach and surfing without having to pay for hiring the boards. Unfortunately what we didn't know was that the board Ben had offered us was far too difficult for us handle. We had both learnt on foam boards, which are very big and relatively stable. This was a small fiberglass board which was much easier to paddle out to behind the waves on than the cumbersome foam boards, but impossible to get up on. None the less, we had a lot of fun that day as well.

Well, since I have been packing my weekends full of fun stuff to do, my weeks have been quite boring consisting mainly of classes, reading, studying and the occasional dinner get together or a trip to the gym. By now it is the middle of March, and it is Megan's, a friend of mine from the USA, 21st birthday. Because she is from America this is a big deal for her, as at home she can legally drink now, although I can imagine it is a bit of an anticlimax since she has been able to drink in bars the whole time she has been here in Australia. Nonetheless we decided to have a big girls night out. Megan even got glittery party hats for everyone! Her friend who is studying in Newcastle (a few hours from Sydney) came to visit and there was a big group of us. We first had dinner at Pancakes on the Rocks in Darling Harbour. The pancakes were delicious! We then went to Cargo, a really nice sort of lounge bar with comfy sofas, for drinks. After Cargo we decided to go to a club called Home, which is apparently one of the best in the world. There was one girl who lives near New York, and goes out there quite a bit, and she managed to talk the person 'working the door' as that's called into putting us on the guest list, and we all got a discount on the covercharge, and Megan got in for free. It was quite a nice club, but nowhere near as nice as the one I went to in Singapore. The crowd wasn't great either, the guys seemed a bit sleezy and slimy, but us girls stuck together and we had a great time!

That Monday was St. Patrick's Day, and I had hear that The Rocks, a quaint old neighbourhood in the city, was a fun place to be then, so Lucie, Linda and I headed into town in the afternoon. We went to a few pubs, heard some live Irish music and got the coolest hats ever - shaped like the top of a Guinness glass with a shamrock on the back! We then went to dinner in a very cute little Italian restaurant, walked over to the opera house to take some pictures and then headed home.

Well, I should now probably get back to doing something useful. like studying. Miss all of you!