Alright, now that we've taken care of that-let's get back to the story at hand.
I stayed at Eva's Backpackers, a small hostel in the Kings Cross area of Sydney. I didn't know it at the time, but Kings Cross is Sydney's Red Light district which made for some very interesting walks back to the hostel last at night. Along with the prostitutes, it's full of backpacker bars, strip clubs, more hostels, etc. It reminded me of the French Quarter in a way. I think that was largely due to the smell and the massive amounts of drunk tourists stumbling about.
When I arrived back at the Hostel after the day of furniture shopping for the new house, I mentioned to Travis that I had some a little research and found a pub that was going to be playing the LSU vs. Auburn game live...which was at 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I asked him if he'd like to come and he agreed, perfect! Originally I had just planned on going alone...but how much fun would it be to watch a game all by yourself? This was just getting better and better; maybe Sydney wasn't so bad after all!
For the entire first half, Travis and I were literally the only two people upstairs at Cheers watching the game. Then Umie arrived.
Umie is a 22 year old recent college grad from the New York University. If that's not impressive enough for you, he also double majored in Finance and Marketing...from one of the top 5 business schools in America. Not to mention the fact that he's just flat out freakin' awesome. Umie grew up in Beaver Creek, Ohio but decided to give 4 years in NYC a shot...big change. His father is from England and his mother is from Pakistan. White people think he's brown and brown people think he's white. Most people would grow up with severe self identity issues, but Umie seems to manage just fine. You'll be hearing A LOT about Umie in the future, so get used to it. This kid is here to stay.
Alright, so Umie brought this British guy (Tom) that he met along with him so he could teach him a little about American Football, or "gridiron" as they say. Tom didn't say much, but he did have a Spongebob wallet and is apparently a good breakdancer. I never witnessed either of these things. Anyway, as soon as Umie and Tom walked upstairs we invited them to join us at our table. Conversation began and before you know it, we were all headed down the road to get $7 steak at some dodgy pub for lunch.
After lunch, we parted ways and Travis and I headed back to the hostel. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with the others at the hostel (around 90% of them were German) until it was time for Mass. I still didn't have my "normal" clothes at this point as they hadn't arrived just yet. I had to wear the same pair of jeans that I had been wearing all month in Asia and the only collared shirt that I owned. Oh well, I'm going to Mass with what I have...God understands. Mass was really beautiful inside St. Mary's Cathedral that Sunday evening, followed by a young adult group. The young adult group wasn't what I was expecting. Most of the people were from other parts of the world and the topic was very surface level...just not really for me. I headed back to the hostel that evening feeling very hopeful and rejuvenated about Sydney.
More to come I promise, but it's 4 am here and I'm exhausted.
