Sex + Death, Crab Racing, and the Pope

So I'm leaving! Home I come! I figured I'd do one last post, since I have some time to kill.

To begin with, Sydney's pretty lame. It's just another big city, and once you've seen the opera house and the bridge, it ain't all that spectacular.

I spent yesterday wandering around town (again), and had lunch at the same place (and ordered the same thing), and then spent a couple hours walking around the botanical gardens, which brings me to the "sex + death" part of the title. I was walking (and walking and walking) and I came across this huge glass pyramid with plants in it. It was pretty neat. Then, as I walk closer, I notice that in flowers, right in front of the pyramid, it says "sex + death" and I mean it's huge. The "S", if I laid down next to it, would be longer than I am (5.5 feet), and all the other letters were in caps, as well. Anyways, I found it strange and amusing.

I bought two books on sale for 5 bucks. (I am so sick of spending 20 dollars for a book) And yes dad, I know "Why don't you just go to a library?" WELL! I did. The Melbourne Library doesn't even loan out books, and at other libraries I can't get a card because I'm not an Aussie Citizen. So there. And I was not about to lug around library books with me from back home, while I traveled.

Alright Crab Racing. The bar below the hostel in Sydney (Scu Bar), every monday night, does crab racing. Hermit crab racing. It's a giant circular platform, and the crabs start underneath a bowl in the middle of the platform. Once the bowl is lifted, the first crab that gets to the edge of the platform first, wins. Well, the bartender is from San Francisco, so he told me to pick crab 16. Well, crab 16 was taking his steroids because he just flew (and i mean FLEW) to the edge. It was the most spectacular crab race I've ever seen. And for the hard work of my awesome crab (who I named Flounder) I won a free day trip w/ a scuba dive. Unfortunately, I was leaving today, so there was no way for me to do it. So. I sold it. bwahahahaha. Being the amazing person I am. It was a 95 dollar value, and I sold it for 50 bucks plus a drink, so like a 55 dollar value. I was very pleased with my negotiating skills.

Anyways, other than crab racing, last night was pretty amazing. I hung out with a bunch of aussies and california people. A bunch of girls from UC-San Diego were out here for next semester, so they just got into Sydney for orientation, and start school next week. So last night was lots of fun.

Now, the last segment of the title. The friggin Pope is here. It's World Youth Day here in Sydney. Although it's a lie, it's world youth days (July 15th - July 20th), but it's also like World Youth WEEKS, because while I was in Melbourne all the kids (and adults -- "youth" is also a misconception) were there. It's a Christian extravaganza, and there's thousands of people everywhere with there red/yellow WYD SYD 08 backpacks. And everyone comes in 'teams" from their home countries, and walks around with their country flags and stuff. It wouldn't be so bad, except it's totally consuming Sydney. Plus all the streets are closed down for the Pope, and it's a good thing I don't have a car, otherwise it'd be super frustrating.

Anyways, I'm going to go grab some breakfast and head on home! Yay!

Oh, and for those of you who know Alex Shank, he got promoted to Full-time, Annual Salary, Jr. Programmer position. (He was a 3 - month intern before). So if you know him! Tell him Congratulations!!