I'm American, I don't eat those things!

Let it be known, that I am not a morning person! That being said, Bec and Janice had to wake me up because her grandpa was waiting to leave until we were all awake. Janice's method of waking me up? Hugging me! I was not happy! I can't do peppy in the morning. I need my staring off into space time. (right, Jacki?)

We packed up all of our stuff and drove to Sydney. I fell asleep in the car. I didn't sleep well that night because it was really cold. We had warm blankets, but the blankets were really heavy and I tend to toss and turn in my sleep. The heaviness of the blankets made that difficult and I kept waking up.

When we got to Sydney, our first stop was Qube. It was a cafe that we met up with Bec's friend, Kristy, to eat breakfast/brunch. I got banana bread, but it wasn't very good. They had toasted it, which I don't like. I wish they had asked if I wanted it toasted, but oh well.

Then we went to Kristy's flat. She had gotten Bec a Sydney Uni jumper, but got two different sizes to see which one would fit, so she had to return one. She wanted to go drop it off instead of carrying it around town. Kristy lives in the UniLodge in Sydney, but it is very different from the one that I live in. Mine is associated with ANU and ANU housing, but hers is not associated with Sydney Uni. Anyone in Sydney that is a student can live there, so you'll have people from UTS, UNSW, and other places like beauty school or something. It also used to be a hotel and the rooms are, I believe, all single rooms and you have to go down the hall to the kitchen, which belongs to the whole floor. I like the set up of my UniLodge a lot better.

Next we went to Newtown. Janice wanted to get a bag from Crumpler. Apparently it is an Aussie brand, but it's really popular in Singapore. It is crazy expensive in Singapore, but it's cheaper in Australia and Sydney has an outlet store in Newtown. She ended up getting a pretty bright red and orange bag.

Kristy then left, to meet up with us later. We met up with Janice's friend, Suyi. It was kind of difficult trying to find her because she didn't know where some of the landmarks we wanted to meet at were, but we found her. Then we went to the Sydney Fish Market. Janice and Suyi waited in a long queue to get sashimi. I wanted cooked food, so Bec and I went to a different place. I don't know different types of fish, so Bec suggested the barramundi and chips.

After Bec and I got our food, we went over to meet up with Janice and Suyi, who were still waiting. When they finally got their food, we went outside to find a seat. It was really crowded and we had to share a table with some other people. Kristy also joined us again. She was really scared of all of the birds around us. She didn't want to get pooped on. She had good reason to be scared, because Suyi did get pooped on! Luckily, it was just her bag.

Then we walked back to the car to figure out the parking. They used to have this student rate that was all day every day. You would get your ticket validated and you could park for up to 24 hours for $12 if you were a student and parked on the upper two levels of the carpark. When we got there, we noticed that the sign said Monday through Friday, and it was Saturday. The machine was there and let us validate it, but we weren't sure if it worked. Then we tried it on the machine where you pay and it said $12. It still would have been free if it hadn't been validated. We weren't sure if we had just messed it up by putting it in the machine, even though we cancelled and didn't pay. So, we went inside the shopping centre to find the information desk. He told us that he couldn't help and to go back to the ticket machine and press the button for help. We did that and he told us that it was validated. Yay! (Otherwise it would be $40 a day)

Next we grabbed our stuff and went to the YHA. On our way there, Bec's suitcase got caught and she cut her finger a teeny tiny bit, but it was bleeding. Janice freaked out and made us stop so that she could pour some water from her water bottle on it. She's so funny. I also got my picture in the lobby in one of those poster things with the face cut out. It was a kangaroo. How could I NOT get my picture taken? We went up to our room and dropped off our stuff.

Then we went to Gelatissimo. I eat gelato a lot when I'm here. They have this theme of Naughty or Nice, so half of their flavours had really funny names. I took pictures of some of them. I'm boring and wanted something normal and fruity, though. I did try the Aero bar one. It was mint with some chocolate flavour, but not big chunks like mint chocolate chip. I love mint Aero bars and it was really good. I wanted fruity, though, so I got strawberry and forest berries.

Kristy left to go home after that. The rest of us went to Central station to catch the train to Strathfield. When I went to get my ticket, the first machine took my money! Luckily it was just the change, so it wasn't a lot. It kind of made me mad that the guy at the desk didn't care because it was stealing money from other people too and should have had a sign on it.

Anyway, we caught the bus to Strathfield, which is apparently like Korea town or something. We went to a Korean bbq that Suyi said was really good. It was! We got a seafood pancake, a scotch fillet, and fire chicken. It will take me a while to get used to 'fillet' being pronounced fill-ette instead of fill-aye.

The fire chicken was really good, but REALLY spicy! It has three peppers, the little icon for how spicy it is, on the menu. Three was the spiciest. The first bite was really spicy, but then I kind of got used to it. Every once in a while my mouth felt on fire, though. I was the only one that was able to handle it. They all thought it was hilarious because they had never seen a white person handle their spice so well! It was even too hot for all of them! It didn't hurt at all at the time, but I think that I'm paying for it as I write this, on Sunday. I've had an upset stomach and heartburn all day, but I'll get to that in Sunday's post.

Random things about the restaurant: I had to ask for a fork five times before I got one. I think they were kind of confused. Sorry, I don't know how to use chop sticks. Also the title refers to some of the things that were on the menu. I can't remember them now, but I know there were some kind of hooves and chicken feet. Yeah, I said the title quote. Probably not the best light to put America in, but whatever. It's kinda true.

After dinner, we went back to YHA. We took the train back to central and went our separate ways from Suyi. On the train, I had told Bec most of my life story and she asked if she can read my lifeview paper. Everyone wants to read it!

When we got back to YHA, we talked for a while. Then the fourth person in our room came back. She was from Hong Kong and didn't say much except that she was going to the Blue Mountains the next day. We wanted to leave the room so that she could sleep, so we went out to the lounge. The Olympics were on, so we casually watched them as we talked. We all agreed that basketball does seem like a weird sport to have in the Olympics. I know that there was a debate about that in my family, well Bec agrees with me. I also found out that Bec wants the US to win in the medal count because she has a bet with a friend. He picked China and she picked the US. We finally got to bed around 1.