I am so glad the weekend is here!!! The last few days of the work week really kicked my butt. I am finally adjusted to the time zone, but I am still way too tired to be staying up as late as I have been! Hanging out with my friends has been worth it, though. I look forward to coming home every day and hearing about what they are up to at their respective internships!
Thursday and Friday were so busy at the office, which I try to think of as a good thing! Sitting around bored is always hard and makes the day drag on so long. If I am busy I at least am not looking at the clock too often, so the end of the day comes more quickly than I expect. Like I said in my last post, I did a lot (and I mean a LOT) of laminating and sorting/packaging inventory. Once I finished those tasks on Thursday, I assumed I would be able to move onto the next thing on the list to prep for the Ball.
However, on my way to work on Friday, I got a text from Isha. She had sent pictures of the completed packaged items to the boss, who said they were ‘good’, but needed to be redone in a different way. I was definitely frustrated, but what the boss says goes. I did understand the reasoning for repackaging, so that helped me to have a better attitude about it.
Isha was coming in late Friday, so I went right down into the stock room to begin repackaging the items. I took a 20 minute lunch break around 2pm, but besides that, I was working on packaging the inventory from 9am to 4:30pm when I FINALLY finished. More than 7 hours later, everything was repackaged the way the boss requested. Fingers crossed she likes how they turned out!
When I came upstairs to let Isha know I was finished, she asked if I had checked my email. Obviously I had not, since I had been busy all day. I turned on my computer for the first time all day to check the email, only to find out that the design of one of the item descriptions that I already printed, cut out, and laminated over 50 copies of had changed. Since I didn’t have time left Friday, I guess that’s what I will be doing all Monday morning!
I was so frustrated to have to redo almost all of the things I had spent the entire week doing. It was really discouraging to know that the hard work and time I spent on my tasks had gone completely to waste. I guess I will just need to try even harder on the things I do from this point on! The last days of the week were definitely trying, and this upcoming week will be even crazier considering the ball is on Saturday the 2nd. I am hoping to just get through all of it in one piece! Prayers are greatly appreciated for success at the Ball and the job as a whole.
On a brighter note, the evenings are much more fun than the work days! On Thursday, my friend Kat needed a jacket and some shoes. So Omario, Kat, Tommy, and I all went to the Westfield mall to shop! When I agreed to go to the mall, I did not realize that the it was a mile and a half from the train station in the opposite direction of our accommodation, but at that point I already had committed so I went anyways. I am glad I brought sandals in my backpack to change out of my heeled work shoes!
Kat got her shoes and a jacket, and Omario got a hoodie. We were all starving, so we decided to get some pizza on our way home. We walked a little bit and I saw a huge hotel building all lit up in rainbow colors, signifying that Vivid (a huge light show/festival held in Sydney every year) started the next day! I got all excited about it until Omario pointed out that if we were seeing Vivid lights, we were walking in the wrong direction from our accommodation. He was right. We had walked close to another mile in the wrong direction. Thankfully, we found a little Dominos by the water that had $5 personal pizzas, and we ate dinner before making the long trek home.
After work on Friday, everyone met at a sushi restaurant across the street from Central Station to grab a bite to eat. I’ve been to this restaurant already and loved it, so after I recommended it, everyone wanted to try it, too! We ate and then caught a train to Circular Quay, where the Opera House and Harbor Bridge are, so that we could see the main lights of Vivid, which officially started that night! It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! All of the buildings in the area were lit up with moving lights and different projections. There were also some installations of lights and attractions that we took our time walking around and appreciating. We went into the Botanical Gardens, which had a long one way path that took you all the way around the Harbor and came out pretty far from where you started. The best part we saw was a light up pathway that almost resembled Candy Land. When you stepped on each piece of the path, it would light up! We spent a decent amount of time just running and jumping on the different pieces to see how many we could light up at one time. Vivid lasts for a few weeks, so we will for sure be back to see more lights and installations!
Saturday had a much slower start that I think we were all very grateful for. Except Tasha, who had to go in to her internship for a shift and didn’t get out until 12. The rest of us decided to wait for her before we went out to do anything. This meant lounging around in pajamas, planning a very special long weekend getaway that I will post about in a few weeks! Stay tuned!
When Tasha did get back, we all decided to go to Manly Beach and hangout for a bit. We had a bit of trouble getting there and were all getting hangry so we decided to get lunch first. We went to Circular Quay and ate at a cute diner that looked out onto the Harbor. Even though at this point it was already after 4pm, every one of us (except Christina) got breakfast food. Australians call it “brekky”, which I think is so fun. I might be implementing that into my vocabulary when I come home. The pancakes we got were to die for. So fluffy and flavorful. They were on the smaller side, so I for sure could’ve eaten more.
We took a bit too long eating our food, and just barely missed the ferry to Manly. Instead of waiting an hour for the next one, we got on the “fast ferry” (which was $9…but it did get us there pretty fast) and we watched the sunset on the way. The sun sets so early here! Its completely dark by 5pm which is super weird. We didn’t make it to the beach as early as we planned, clearly, so even though we all had bathing suits on, they did not get used. We did walk around Manly beach and went in the water only up to our shins. I am not sure if it felt like the water was warm because my body was so cold, or if it was genuinely warmer than I was expecting it to be! After we were done in the sand, we went and got some froyo (I was too cold so I got a hot chocolate) and headed back to our accommodation.
Since it is so dark so early, my body was so exhausted! Everyone was wanting to make the most of our evening and go to a club. I will be honest, I had a bit of an attitude beforehand, because clubbing just isn’t my thing. I don’t like to drink, and the club that everyone wanted to go to had a $30 cover charge. I had no interest in paying so much money to do something I didn’t even think would be fun, so thankfully everyone decided on a free club. I tried to wake myself up a bit and change my mood so I didn’t miss out, and I am so glad I did!
The club we went to, Stonewall, is a gay bar, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. But it was so much fun, I can’t even explain it! They had a drag show and good music, but it was packed. In some places I couldn’t even move without bumping into people. I did get myself a fruity cocktail that barely had any alcohol (mostly for a cute Instagram picture to tell the truth) but it was delicious. I had such a fun time dancing with my friends! Everyone said what a good time they had, and by the time we left it was almost 1am. One girl drank a bit too much and by the time we got back home was really not feeling too great. She ended up throwing up, and I felt really bad for her because I could tell she was so embarrassed. Her roommate slept with me, since I have an extra bed, so we could give her some privacy.
Sunday morning was an early wake up call for a super exciting day trip! I was so tired from not getting enough sleep, but I drank a Spark and powered through. Our trip was over two hours on a bus, but well worth it. We headed to Palm Beach to take a ferry to a little island called the Basin so we could FEED WILD WALLABIES!!! It was probably one of the most exciting things I have ever done. The one girl didn’t join us, since she was still not feeling well from the night before, but the remaining six of us were ready to make the most of the last day of our weekend! Palm Beach was SO beautiful! I joked to my parents that I flew all the way around the world to end up back in Palm Beach, which I thought was very funny. We all ate lunch at a little restaurant by the water (I got fish and chips) and then walked around on the beach to kill some time before the ferry was supposed to leave.
Once we got over to the Basin, I was a bit nervous we wouldn’t see any wallabies, especially since we had travelled all that way. But then one started to come right up to us! We had stopped at a Cole’s to grab some carrots and bananas to feed them, so I quickly grabbed out my carrots and broke a small piece off. I barely had to kneel down before the wallaby hopped right over to me to take the carrot! I was a bit nervous, but I wanted to pet it really badly so I just slowly reached out my hand. Wally, as we so lovingly named him, didn’t seem to mind one bit. I got to sit there and pet him and take pictures and I was over the moon. Everyone else took turns petting and feeding Wally and another nearby wallaby. Then we went on a little walk around the Basin itself, and started a 2.8km hike, even though we knew we did not have enough sunlight to finish it. We tried to just get up higher to see if we had a better view of Palm Beach before we walked back down. Tommy, Omario, and I saw an opening in some rocks, so we climbed through and hiked up through the rocks instead of on the path. We found a super high rock formation and took turns climbing all the way up and taking pictures. There were too many trees to get a clear view of the wharf, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
The bus ride home was not fun for me, as I got pretty motion sick. I hate being in a car or bus for too long, and it definitely made me feel queasy. Once we were home and off the bus I was feeling much better. We all ate some dinner and pretty much passed out since we were so tired from staying up late Saturday night and waking up so early Sunday. Overall, the weekend was so great. I am loving my new friends and the adventures we and memories we are making together. They are helping to make me not feel so homesick. Enjoy the beautiful photos of Vivid taken by my sweet friend Jade! She is a whiz on a camera, and was generous enough to let me post her photos. The ones I took on my phone just didn’t do it justice! (also, there are repeats of videos that won’t let me delete them for whatever reason…so enjoy it twice!)
Here’s to hoping this upcoming work week isn’t too stressful or crazy! I am ready to go in with a new attitude and hope it gets better from here. Wish me luck!
xo, Hannah
“Life was meant for good friends and great adventures.”


