A Much Needed Weekend

Hello friends and family. I am back on the farm as of yesterday afternoon. We had an amazing weekend...it was expensive but amazing. Here's the rundown of how it happened:

Friday morning we were dropped off at the Bendigo Station to catch our bus to the airport. I didn't even realize it but Stephen knew that we needed to go to the international terminal. We both get up to the counter and hand the person our ID, my passport and his Texas ID. The man told us that I could check in but Stephen couldn't since we were on a leg of an international flight he needed a passport. So we rushed over to the domestic terminal to make sure that he would get on another flight, with a fee of course. He was able to get onto a flight at 4:40 and getting into Sydney at 5:15. This was our last resort so we said ok and I ran to catch my flight.

When I landed I found out that Stephen went standby and ended up getting in about 30 minutes after I did. I love it when things work out! I took a bus over to the domestic terminal and met up with Stephen. Then, we were on our way to Bondi Beach.

After two trains and a bus, we were standing out on the street meeting up with a girl that Stephen had met once about a month ago and I had no idea what she even looked like. She recognized Stephen and we walked all the way up the hill to her apartment. It was an incredibly hot day and I was in jeans and boots because, in true Jeff Dunn fashion, I packed 5 pairs of clothes into my backpack and remembering what I learned from our night out in Bendigo, I needed closed-toed shoes that looked somewhat nice and a nice pair of jeans. So, I thought it would be a good idea to wear my boots and jeans on the beach in the summer...maybe I didn't think about it at all.

We got to her apartment (Her being Lorena) and found out that it did not have air conditioning so I immediately changed into shorts. Lorena shared a one room apartment with a college friend of hers named Nina. Both of these girls are Americans, went to Penn and are friends of Stephen's friend Evan (who you may remember from earlier blogs was the guy who was going to pick grapes). Lorena left and went out to dinner with one of her friends as Nina came home from work. We made pasta (a theme of the weekend because we spent all our money at the bars). Then Chloe, the only Australia that we hung out with the entire time (who lived for sometime in Canada so she isn't a true Australian), came and picked us up to go into Sydney for drinks at the Opera Bar. It was a really amazing bar across the water from the Opera house. We had a pretty good time but felt kind of left out so the three of us left and had a drink at another bar, then we went back to Bondi to meet up with Lorena and Nina because at 12 it was Nina's birthday.

We picked up Lorena from the restaurant and then swung by the apartment and picked up Nina. We started the birthday celebration at Ravesi's and that is when I learned how expensive the drinks were but I figured it was ok because we earned it. We met a few more Americans and a few British guys that the girls hung out with. Then, We went to another bar that I don't remember the name where the animated pictures of me started. The group dwindled and Stephen, Chloe and I decided that we needed to get some drunk food so we were able to get into a Kabab place as it was closing. We got to boxes of chips (french fries) and a free Kabab, thanks Shawn (Shawn is whoever ordered and bought the Kabab but didn't claim it). We parted ways at about 4am-ish screaming lines from "the Hangover" because Chloe thought that I looked like Zach Galafanakis, another theme of the weekend.

Saturday we spent a good portion of the day on the beach and then we went to a place to have a birthday brunch for Nina. We ended up staying there, drinking for 3 or 4 hours with the whole group of Lorena and Nina's friends, funny enough, they were all American. The four main guys that were telling jokes and playing games, and oh yes, quoting lines from "the Hangover" were Stephen, Brad, Ernie and I. Lorena, Nina, and Hannah were in on it as well. When we were a few drinks in, someone brought up the best drinking game I have ever heard of. It's called "Coming in Hot". It is where everyone at the table is drinking beer and they have to have their hand on their beer or else someone can swoop in and steal their beer, only after saying "Coming in hot!" The person who steals the beer has to chug or skull the beer in order to "win". If they chug the beer then, the person who's beer was stolen has to buy himself a new beer and a beer for the person who stole it. It is an amazing game! We were also labeled as the loud Americans by everyone else there. Chloe came a little later and told me that I needed to stop drinking because I looked drunk and I wouldn't be able to come to her birthday party so of course I had a few glasses of water and kept going because as some people know, I get mistaken for that all the time. Plus, I think she was mad because I "came in hot" on her beer as she was learning the game.

We went back to the apartment and got ready to go over to Chloe's penthouse for her birthday party. We get there and it is more amazing than I thought it would be (in my recently added pictures on facebook, it is the really nice place). The whole group came over plus her family and a few more friends. We had an authentic Australian barbecue! Afterwards, we went to The Club in King's Cross where we were VIP. We had a lot of fun dancing and playing around as well as making fun of the girls that were just way into dancing on the stripper poles.

Sunday, we woke up at about 2 pm and made omelettes. Stephen, Lorena and I walked on down to the beach where I made a sand castle. Everyone on the beach was jealous but I'm sure you all knew that from the pictures. We stopped by Chloe's for a little bit to exchange pictures and talk about the weekend and I also had to do the hair flip that Zach Galafanakis does in the Hangover because Chloe decided that my nickname was Indiana Jones. It came from the line about the man purse/satchel only she called me Indian Jones...haha.

We relaxed the rest of the day and made more pasta for dinner. We watched a few movies and it was a great end to an amazing weekend. I am so glad to have made some new, fun friends. If we weren't hanging out with mostly girls then I probably wouldn't have any pictures so you can thank them for that because they took most all of the pictures.

Sorry its just a run through the weekend but I just wanted to get it all into one blog before I forgot. I promise tomorrows will be more thoughtful.

Aussie word of the day:
Skull = chug