Studying is Overrated Anyway...

Friday night began with Anthony picking me and my laundry up from the village.
I knew he had plans of watching footy on TV with friends so I had made alternate plans. From Seaforth, I took the bus to the city and met some girlfriends who were eating dinner at Jackson's. All I wanted was dessert, so Anita and I went to the Guliyan Chocolate Factory for some belgian waffles and ice cream. From there we met up with the girls at Lowenbrau, a German pub in The Rocks...(near the opera house). The place was alot of fun. They serve everyone huge drinks in steins and the staff is mostly German. I wound up chatting with two guys, an Aussie and the other from New Zealand. Why does everyone assume I'm from Canada, not America? I got pretty offended when they said I looked knocked up. Seeing the look on my face, they immediately recovered..."No, I'm sorry, you look like the girl from Knocked Up" haha.
A few hours later, the girls and I went for 50 cent cones at McDonalds, which was packed at midnight. They went home, and I got picked up from Anthony and Rich who were already in the city.
Saturday morning, Anthony and Steve had a house full of girls; Kim and her friends had also spent the night. Steve cooked us all breakfast as we sat around the table in James' and Anthony's clothes we had slept in haha. I'm excited for Kim to see James again. He is getting home from traveling abroad for almost a year this morning!
In the afternoon, Anthony came in, "Harry's picking us up on the boat, wanna come?" So we walked down to his dock and met Harry and another guy. We drove across the harbor a little bit to Liam's house (more like palace) and picked him up as well. Just, you know, driving around, picking friends up in the boat from their houses on the harbor, hanging out...standard way of life, right?
After getting dropped off, (you know, from the boat) we sat on the dock and watched the sunset. Earlier in the day, they had been burning the bush a couple miles off of the harbor. They do this when it starts to get hot...fire prevention. The hazy sky made the sunset extremely vivid...Easter egg-like.
Anthony took me on a date that night. Hey, I love dates. I love them so much. We went to a beachfront restaurant in Manly...he let me order whatever I wanted.
On a side note, I received my third letter from Adam. He's looooving Taiwan. Struggling some with Chinese but he says it's coming along. He thanked me for being his only friend who consistently wrote and told me I'm allowed to come back until I've ridden a kangaroo.
Sunday morning, I chose to stay and be a study slave while Anthony went out on Harry's family's yacht. I know huh...I felt soooo swamped that I turned down a yacht day.
I called mom. I miss mom. "You know I'd be totally supportive of you if you took winter term off and stayed on Maui with me. Between Costa Rica, the Olympics, and Liz having her baby, I think it would be less stressful for you to just take the term off". Just when I thought I had my mind made up, here she comes bribing me with banana pancakes, her new jungle house with an ocean view, and free fresh mangoes.
An hour later, Steve came home and said, "what are you doing?"
"Uni work"
"Yeah, well, that's about to change. You're coming out on the yacht and I've got strict instructions from Anthony to bring you with me"
So we packed some towels and drinks and got picked up in the yacht.
Holy yacht.
It is such a nice yacht.
Harry, Harry's parents Gram and Kay, his sister Nikki, Kim and her friends, Steve, Anthony, and me spent a good five hours out in the harbor. We anchored off of Manly, got our tans on and they served us lunch. Not just regular sandwiches but you know...kalamata olives, crackers and dip, tons of sandwich fix-ins, prawns, and whatever we wanted to drink. I learned how to peel prawns...ended up with shrimp brains spewed all over my leg. Anthony threw me in the water which was about as cold as Titanic water.
The boys put up the sails ("swing the jib starboard" and all that silly stuff) and we sailed outside of the harbor looking for some dolphins...which yes, I saw!
It was conveniently the nicest day Sydney's had since I've been here.
Aw, it was just an amazing day...I am so lucky to know the people I know here. Without them, my experience would be completely different.
Anthony's always swore that Sydney is the best place to live and that he doubts he'll ever live elsewhere. I'm starting to see why.
Back home, we waited for Judy to get back from her weekend golf trip and then we all had dinner together. There was a show on all about the wonders of Hawaii. Was it meant to be?
Monday morning was get up and get out the door. Anthony took the next two weeks off of work to study for his exams. A bit before 8am we left the house and went to the UTS library in Kuring-gai. "We can't sit on the same floor, it won't work, so you stay here and I'll go upstairs". 8am til noon...estudiamos. He packed both of us lunches and so we took an hour lunch together. I even got a juicebox...cute.
1pm-6pm...study study, and I still feel unprepared. He took me by the grocery store in Epping. Anita had given me a small shopping list so we could make stir fry together. I always get a little sad when he drops me off in the village. My room is still not homey and my roommates are still not my mates (not to mention someone drank half my milk while I was gone). Lucky I have next door. I spent the whole night over there eating stir fry and enchanting them with my tales of boats and yachts.
Tuesday morning now...back to reality. I'm up before 8am, ready to go on a run followed by hours of study; exams tomorrow.
I'm obviously reconsidering staying in Hawaii until March. I not asking for input anymore...I need to make up my mind for myself I think. When I'm here, I want to be in Pa'ia eating banana pancakes with mom. When I'm in Hawaii, I want to be in Oregon, floating the river with Sara. When I'm in Oregon, I want to be in Sydney, going to Manly with Anthony.
And between exams, sailing on yachts, and being treated like a princess, when do I have the peace of mind to decide what I want to do and where I want to do it?
Mid semester break, here I come.