Day 7: Wine, Chinatown, and Good News

Saturday morning I allowed myself to sleep in partially because of the previous day and partially because I woke up with a head cold. I had been waking up at 8 or 9 daily, which I have actually grown to really like, but I decided to allow for some lethargy. When I did wake up at about noon I headed off to the Sydney Wine Festival in Hyde Park, which is like a 10 minute walk from my Hostel. Now, pretty much any of my friends could tell you I'm really not a wine fiend. I'm not a big fan of any wine unless it has the name "Arbor Mist" on the label. LOL. But, I decided to go check it out and it turned out great. The wine tickets were 5 tastings for 20 dollars, so I decided that for someone who didn't like wine that was definitely not worth it. Instead I wandered around looking at the different vendors, and eventually just bought a meatball pita from a food vendor at the festival. They also had a live band which was great - the main singer had a voice like one of those old time singers, and it was nice listening to her. I ended up pulling out my handy kindle and reading for about an hour with them in the background. I figured I'd seen enough of the northern part of CBD so I ventured south down george street. After a while of walking I realized I was in Chinatown and meandered, looking around. I found this great indoor flee market called Paddy's which has everything you could ever want for cheap! They even had a produce section so I know where I'm going for fruit when I get in my apt. I walked for a while, bought some dried mangoes and a blended coffee, and eventually gave up on the maze to go outside to the main Chinatown street in Darling Harbor. It was pretty cool, though compared to LA's Chinatown it was really small. I bought some 'emperor's cream puffs' which were 4 for a dollar and fresh off the oven and continued walking. I was sad to see shark soup being advertised for $3. Yes, I understand that it's not that out of the ordinary for a chinatown to have it, but it makes me so sad that it's still sold. Shark soup does terrible things for the oceanic ecosystem and for the general shark population. Most of the time the sharks are caught, their fins are cut off and they're thrown back in the water to basically die. Not ok. After that I decided my venture into Chinatown had come to a close and I started heading back to the hostel to rest. On my way I stopped by a movie theater to see what was showing and what the cost was - and what I found was much like everything else in Sydney movies are EXPENSIVE. $20 for a ticket and there are no matinee or student prices. So it looks like movies won't be contributing the the use of my time in Sydney. I also stopped at McDonald's to score some free internet and found TWO important emails waiting for me. One was from Indiana University, Bloomington and one was from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I opened both and each were congratulating me for being accepted into their Master's Programs!! I will actually be a grad student after all, and what better way to kick it all off than with an acceptance from two schools I really didn't think I had much chance with. I was so excited that I basically ran out of McD's and back to my hostel to calm down and celebrate - and when I say celebrate, I basically mean chill in my room and read, but that's the way I do what I do ;) haha. The rest of the night was actually just spent in my bed listening to one of my roommates and her friend slowly get plastered on GOON. Now, GOON as I've learned is basically a 4 liter boxed wine in Sydney (SLAP THE BAG?!.... except not). There are many different brands, but the idea is the same: cheap wine to drink before going out so you don't spend a hundred bucks on an outing. The three of us talked for probably 4 hours before they finally decided it was time to head out at about 1am (when they tried very hard to force me out of my pjs to drink some goon and to go out with them... to which I responded 'no, no, no... i am siiick). The girls (Shawn and Suzi) were interesting and at times strange conversation but chattin' it up about Bavaria, Cannes, and what cool things to do around Sydney was a fun relaxing way to spend the night.