girl day

In Wellington right now, I'm surrounded by wonderful people, many of which are named Alex. Yesterday my girl friend Alex and I took a break from our respective theses and had a much-needed girl day.

First we went to a classy old theater which shows movies; the International Film Festival is going on right now and there are tons of great films in the city, for once. We saw Cheri, which was totally gorgeous- lots of silks, pearls, decadent interior design and cigarettes, tons of beautiful people, but was a little empty. We had vegetarian Mee Goreng at a satay house, bought expensive Italian shoes and delicious tea, and ended the day with chocolate covered pretzels and wine. 

Today we're going to this craft show just outside the city. It should be totally fun, and I need to get some birthday presents and souvenirs to send home, anyway. Tonight I have a quiz night in support of my hockey team, and then Alex (boyfriend) and I are going to see our flatmate's band play. Tomorrow I have a game. We have a month left of hockey only. 

I also have just 7 months left here, which is long enough that it puts no pressure on me travel-wise, but I do have a thesis to write somewhere in those months. 

I had planned on uploading some pictures of the room Alex and I just moved into, but the internet is particularly slow in my flat today, so I'll update this post later. 

I haven't seen the sun since Australia

That's not true- we had about five minutes of pathetic little rays today in Wellingon. But that didn't stop the rain. It's been misting constantly and raining off and on since last Wednesday at midnight when we landed, but that's okay. Australia was awesome.  

                                                   

We first went to Cairns, which is in north Queensland, which didn't mean anything to me until I found out this meant "tropical," and then it meant the whole world. Flip flops, tank tops, bathing suits, none of these things are particularly important to those of you at home where it's gorgeous and summery, but to me and Alex, it was the best. Cairns was SO HOT and sunny. We even got a little sunburnt (yay!) and swam in the reef, like we wanted.

   

Sydney was nice- it was good to be in a real city again, like one bigger than the W-B, but it was still kind of small. But there was lots to do and see, even if it wasn't tropical or particularly warm.

We saw these koalas, and a host of other weird/adorable Australian animals, but really nothing could be better than a momma koala with her baby. The baby just sticks itself to whatever part of the mom's body is available- stomach, back, side, leg. It was even on her face for awhile. 

My evilest flatmate moved out while we were on vacation, another is moving out Sunday, which means Alex and I are switching into a bigger room and buying a couch for our visitors from the States. Which, at this point, is no one. Does anyone even read this at home? 

But I'm super happy right now. All I needed for my life to be awesome was a great vacation. Who knew?