The days wind down, but we don't

I want to preface this by saying that as it gets hotter I can't be more happy that I'm home for Christmas. I used to fantasize about Hawaii and Australia during the holidays when I was young and the image of a surfing santa seemed so amazing to me. Now I have no desire to be in the sun and away from my family during January 25th.



Yesterday I started off the day by going to the Queen Vic Market with Old Gregg (Camille). We bought souvenirs, and the ingredients to make a final Pad Thai together at some point in the near future...maybe even for lunch today..? Not sure, really. We are doing the Great Barrier Reef next week, which is going to be amazing. I seriously can't wait. Then, I received a text from Abbey, my friend from North Carolina (North Care-ah-line-ah, as she says with her amazing slightly southern accent). She's my girl. Here's a picture of her doing her thing at the Shrine of Remembrance.

She wanted to go to the large Christmas tree in Melbourne and take pictures in front of it wearing swimming suits. Of course I was in. So I rounded up Odoyle, and we set off. Oh yeah Odoyle is a girl from Reno who goes to school in Washington DC. Her actual name is Scarlet, but lets just call her Odoyle. Odoyle claims she is visiting me in LA soon. We'll see. Here's the only picture of her alone that Abbey had on her camera. Somehow Abbey's photos ended up on my mac...not exactly sure why but it works.




Here is the first picture of us three in front of the tree, but the day only got better from there.

Our walk took us further down Swanston to the river, where we took another picture in front of the buildings. Typical touristy thing to do. The river is actually really dirty and gross, but let's pretend it's pristine and blue.
On the way back we went to Taco Bills, where we bought margaritas and food and got sombreros. Apparently Carly and Kate got colored sombreros which admittedly is more cool, but sometimes you just take what you can get I guess.
After that, we went back to the village and drank a little bit. Before long, Carly and Kate called and stopped by to join the party. I wound up going back to the colleges with them and kicking it with Carly in her room for a bit. Kate went to bed, tired from raging I assume. I said goodbye to Carly and walked home, stopping by 7-11 and getting a Slurpee on the way. On the way out of the store I high fived the guy. When I got back to the village I couldn't sleep so I went on a run. It was this run that made me really feel like I'd meshed with the city. Looking for cars on the left side of the road is like second nature now. I danced through the traffic as I crossed streets and cut through alleys on one of my favorite run routes.

When I got back I skyped my high school friend who is in Spain. He sent me the link to a video from our past. In it, we are 15/16, and idiots. Here is the link. Watch it, it's pretty ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqFDetqz4ZQ&feature=related



Big things today as well with the last minute village crew.