the sun shines again

Wow, a much better mood this week! Apologies to those of you that i scared with my abnormal behavior last week! :)

So anyway, my weekend turned out to be quite perfect! Friday night I was supposed to meet my friend, John, and his friends in Coogee, but they were running about an hour late. So, to entertain myself, i wandered into the newer of the Coogee bars, Cushion. (oh, sorry, i'm tossing terms around. Coogee is the yuppie beach town that we always used to go out in when i studied abroad here. Once the school year starts it's flooded with American study abroaders and the aussies start calling it "little america"... all my favorite jappy girls and frat boys!) But anyway, I was at this newer lounge bar that faces the water and is just my style. I went in and ordered a drink and proceeded to just relax, enjoy my specially made cocktail, and wait for the crew. One of the things i love about traveling, and it was like this in europe too, is that i absolutely don't think twice about going to a bar alone. in fact, i love it! inevitably i end up talking to people in the bar or making friends with the bartenders (NEVER a bad thing!). this was a "make friends with the bartenders" night. there were two guys behind the bar who were semi-bored and very entertaining. One started making up drinks and offering them to me to try. Then i challenged his skills and told him to peel an apple from the fruit bowl in one peel. he proceeded to try and fail with every apple in the bowl, and then moved on to cutting them up and eating them -- offering me pieces as well. Eventually my friends got there and we headed off to go dance to the cheesy hiphop remixes at the bar next door. One of John's friends was a crazy, wirey kid who danced all over the place and decided we should attempt to salsa to the house music they were playing. ever try that? it doesn't really work...

Saturday i went back to coogee to watch the Ironman Series on the beach! There was a women's race and a men's, and it consisted of a swim, paddle of sorts while kneeling on a surf board, and a kayak - all around the same markers in the water. The order of the events switched each time, which i thought was nuts because you really have no way of training transitions. The race started with 18 participants, and the bottom 6 finishers were eliminated. The top 12 had 5 minutes to recover, then did the whole race again! -- in a different order!! Again the bottom 6 competitors were eliminated, and again the top 6 had a 5-minute recovery period before competing a third time! Each race took about 10-15 mintues and the whole thing finished in an hour. I can honestly say this was the first athletic competition i've watched that i had NO desire to ever try...

Sunday i decided to try two dance classes back-to-back at the Sydney Dance Company. Street Jazz and Jazz Funk Hiphop. Street Jazz scared me a bit at first, but i ended up really liking it! JFH was awaful. The girl teaching did mostly modern/jazz movements - no funk or hiphop -- and for those that ever saw me compete floor in gymnastics... i'm not graceful. it wasn't pretty.

This week has kicked off with a bang and i've been crazy busy! I hopefully secured myself a summer job coaching gymnastics and cheerleading and acting as housing director at the huge gymnastics/action sports camp in PA. i'm WAY too excited:) Thursday morning Scott gets here (yey!) and I also have an interview with Octagon Sydney! Most likely not for a job, just an internship, but i'm aiming to impress the hell outta them and make them hire me! (that sounded confident, right? ok, good... i'm trying.) :) work is busy this week as we put together the final details for the huge annual awards dinner friday night. Oh, and i have a new website banner up on our homepage! www.nbl.com.au... check it out!:)