May's totally over-rated anyway...

In my defense, May was a very busy month, as far as school work went. But…you’d think I would have managed something!

In the first weekend of the month, I saw a lot of Amanda, my Sydney friend from camp two summers ago. Friday night she came over and just hung out with Marti and I, then Saturday morning Marti, Matt, Jason and I headed to Manly Beach on the North Shore—you take a ferry to get there—and Amanda met us and took us around the markets and town a bit. Later that afternoon we took the ferry back to Circular Quay where I changed out of my beach clothes and into a dress for drinks with John Baty and Cooper (from last summer at camp) and Cooper’s friend Amanda for drinks at the Opera Bar, which is right next to (and kind of part of) the Opera House. It has a great view of the big city sites. Then, Sunday night, I met up with my Amanda and her friend Sam at the Enmore Theatre to see Missy Higgins in concert, one of my goals for my time here. Check that off the list!

That next Friday, May 11, was Emmy’s 18^th and also my friend Matt’s 21^st, so we went out for Italian and then were supposed to go out to the clubs, but Marti and I slipped out of it and hung out with Amanda instead. Then, I spent the rest of that weekend working on my religion paper due Monday on the topic “How is Aboriginal Art Religious?” which was interesting, at least! Thursday I had to give a presentation on Theravada Buddhism for my religion tutorial, so I talked about Thai forest monks—forest, here, actually meaning “jungle full of tigers, elephants, and incredibly big snakes.” It was sensational to read, and people were amused which was good enough for me. The following Monday I had a presentation in my Aussie Lit tutorial on A D Hope’s “Imperial Adam,” which meant I put a lot of my Wellesley-training to good use, seeing as it’s one of the most misogynistic poems I’ve ever read.

Before that presentation—May 18-20, in case you’re trying to keep track—I went to visit Chloe, another camp friend from last summer in Adelaide, which is a nicely sized city tucked in the hills on the southwest coast. Friday night her dad took us to a footy match, Go Crows! I kind of got the game… you can’t run the ball for a touch down, you have to kick I, but you can run with the ball, you just have to dribble every so often (but the ball isn’t a sphere, so you better be careful) and there’s tackling, of course.

When I woke up in the morning, her parents had gotten me some Crows socks from a sports store, which was heaps exciting! (Aussie for Really Really Really exciting) After brekkie, Chloe, her mom, and I drove up to a mountain point where you could see all of Adelaide spread below and then we met her aunt and cousin at the Cleland Wildlife Park, where we saw rainbow lorikeets and bats and snakes and tassies (Tasmanian devils) and dingos and emu and a wombat and strange little rodents…and bigger rodents, too, like wallabies and kangaroos! We fed those, which was fantastically fun! I saw—and even pet—my first koala, but it turns out I like kangaroos and wallabies more, because they have noticeably distinct personalities, whereas the koalas all seemed sleepy and nervous. It was a really great time all around. That evening was Chloe’s going away dinner—she’s back at camp now, first session starts tomorrow!—so I met some of her friends and other family. After the yummy thai, we headed to a pub. It was fun to see who Chloe hangs out with/grew up around, because it explained a lot about who she is.

Sunday we made vegan cho-chos (a camp favorite, vegan so that her sister could have some) and then watched Mona Lisa Smile, which I hadn’t seen since before I went to Wellesley, and made me a little Wellesley-sick, on top of being a bit camp-sick and home-sick, which didn’t seem very fair! I flew home late that afternoon and started downloading the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy so that I could watch it before going to sleep…hey, I have all my priorities in line!

In June news, winter is here. It’s cold, grey, and rainy! Ok, so cold here means highs of 56* to
60*, but that’s a big change! It’s the southern hemisphere’s equivalent of December, though, so I can’t complain. I mean, I rarely even have to wear a jacket. The sun sets before 5 pm now—the solstice is in 2 weeks. Crazy! Shortest day of the year, and then a week and a half later I’ll be back to Summer.

Classes ended yesterday! Now I just have 3 academic things left: my visual diary for ceramics, my philosophy exam (4 500 word essays in 2 hours), and my religion exam (50 multiple choice questions in 1 hour… 10 or so people fail every year! Oooh buddy). They’re all pretty well spread out, so it should be fine!

Last night was the Butler farewell dinner at a restaurant right under the Harbour bridge. It was yummy, and had a good view, AND it had stopped raining! Afterwards, Marti and I went to a bar with a bunch of other people—it’s called Argyle and is very swanky. Their emblem is a argyle patterned sheep with a crown and wings. It’s probably the wings that got me, but I totally want a t-shirt!! :-)

Assuming the rain keeps up, which weather.com says will be the case, it’s going to be another chill weekend, just my style! I’ll do some studying, some chilling, and a whole lot of not getting soaked by the rain!