Week 4: Applause

11.9 – 11.15

Week 4

Things worth mentioning in week 4:

Townsends

Spent a couple evenings with the Townsends. On Sunday just to hang out since I hadn’t seen them since that first weekend. Braedon had been finishing up at Uni and is now officially done! So I went over there and we got Crust pizza. And by we got pizza, I mean, we got an abundance of pizza so large that I was uncomfortably full for quite some time. I think in the end we had 5 different large pizzas (burrito, pulled pork, chicken avocado, garlic chicken, smoke salmon) plus 2 garlic breads. We also got something called “Rocky Road Calzones: which are pastries, filled with Rocky Road chocolate. These are both the best and worst thing that has ever happened to the dessert world. On one hand, they were totally delicious, on the other, one could easily put themselves into a sugar induced coma ( is that a thing? I’m making it a thing). We also watched The Hangover Part II which I had never seen.

We also laughed a lot as Neil tried to operate his new “smart camera”. This camera allows you to take self-timer shots while standing in front of it. It reads the motions of your hands, so if you turn your finger one way, it focuses. Another twirl and it zooms in/out. And supposedly, if you clap your hands, it starts the timer to take a photo. Well, you would have thought Lady Gaga was in the house from all of the Applause (Yay pop culture reference!). 45 minutes later, they had 2 pictures. I don’t think it helped that the longer Neil attempted to take pictures, the more drinks he had in his system. I left the house that night with a very sore stomach; perhaps from the laughing, perhaps from the excess amount of carbohydrates, but likely a little bit of both.

I went over there again on Tuesday for Kieran’s Birthday dinner. We ate ribs that had been cooking since I left on Sunday. So needless to say they were very delicious. Daniel’s friend Sarah, from Scotland, was there. She is going to be staying at the house for a short time in December. Anyway, she was super cool and funny. She works with Daniel at the restaurant. Daniel also introduced us to a dessert he made. This thing has about 1000 ingredients, but I, not being a chef, will put it in layman’s terms: Pineapple ice cream with macadamia nut crumble and a spicy jelly thing (see, how layman can you get?). The jelly things were kind of like raisins but they started out a bit sour and the longer you chewed them there would be a spicy kick to it. Quite interesting. But the pineapple ice cream was ah-mazing!

Kimberly, Me, Michelle

ASC

I got to have lunch with the staff at Australia Studies Centre. This is the Best Semester program I was a part of last time I was here. It was excellent to hear about what is going on in their lives and to update them on mine. It is also a lot of fun to be an alumni rather than a student. We talked about the group I was in compared to groups that came before and after. And I learned that apparently Kimberly now uses me  as an example of being open to making friends from all cultures, not just American or Australians. For those who don't know, last time I was here, the two people I spent the most time with were from South Korea. The program is moving from Sydney to Brisbane, so they are in a big transition process. I was very happy that I was able to see them before they make the move up, and now I have an excuse to go visit Brisbane! Although I probably would have anyway.

Pokémon

Harry and I went to the library this week and picked up a couple DVD’s. As eluded to by the title, they were Pokémon DVD’s. Harry has now started on a bit of a Pokémon kick and will sit and watch it for hours if you let him. Because I’m a good nanny, I try to avoid that. One thing that doesn’t get old is singing over the top of the Pokémon theme song. It drives him crazy and that makes me very happy. Perhaps I’m not as good of a nanny as I thought earlier in this paragraph.

Picnics 

Harry and I had talked about perhaps doing a picnic in the park that is across the street. And the day we were finally going to do it, it was raining. So, thinking on my feet, we had an indoor picnic! This really translates to: we ate our lunch on the floor of the living room. But still, it was fun and Harry enjoyed himself. Plus there were significantly less bugs in the living room than at the park.