Finally a new one!

We are back! We sincerely apologize to our intrepid readers for our lack of posts. We've had a busy week with my parents coming to Sydney! They stayed in Sydney for a week and are now in New Zealand. In a few days, we'll all go to Tasmania for a long weekend. Our week was spent showing them around the city interspersed with school obligations. All the sights that we have grown used to were new and exciting again when showing them to people.

They got in in the morning and were feeling fine with no feelings of jet-lag....as the afternoon wore on, they got sleepier and sleepier. Alas, they succumbed, and didn't even notice me taking this picture on the train.



After feeding them their first meal in Australia (we made kangaroo burgers!), we took them around the closer sights of Sydney at first: the opera house (this is proof they were actually here!) and the botanical gardens where my dad made a new friend. The ibises are so tame here that they will eat out of your hand....even when all we had is a crummy muffin.





In the Circular Quay area, they were thoroughly amused by the talented street performers and arguably more amused by the bad ones (we don't have any pictures of the bad ones as we didn't want to encourage them). The living statue and the dixie-land group were the best ones.




While we were in class and working, my parents went off on their own and saw the sights of greater-Sydney. They managed to come back with half a suitcase of native Australian wood and a bunch of material to take home. In the evenings, we were to go out to eat with them and see a bit more of the city. At one restaurant, we ordered (and we all-my mom included!- ate, I might add)kangaroo and crocodile skewers.

They did get to experience one incident that is the epitome of Australianisms. In the hotel they were staying in, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and who ever it was said "Oh, ah, I'm from housekeeping. We need to check the drapes. We're going to replace them and we need to see if their put on right. We won't do it now while you're here, but we need to check anyway." They went to the window and jimmied the drapes and said "Yep, these need to be replaced. We'll wait till you're gone otherwise it will be awkward with you here. Thanks, bye." They left the room, turned off the lights (with us still being there!) and closed the door. The three of us (my mom, dad and me) just looked at each other and blinked several times before the oddness of the situation passed.

We have several days of the grind until we get to go to Tasmania. We'll write more later and tell you how it was!!

~Mike