Beaches, rugby, and tacos

Hey everyone!
It has been funny and strange to hear about everyone moving in, going to back to school events, and generally preparing for school while I'm in my 5th week of class. :) I'm a quarter of the way done with my semester already- craziness.
This past weekend was very eventful and fun. It started on Thursday, when Elyse and I went to a play for our film and theatre class called Saturn's Return. After having a bit of trouble finding the place (the theatre is in a wharf on the harbor, and all the wharfs look the same on the outside...) Its an Australian play written specifically for the theatre we saw it in, and it was... bizarre. I liked it, but it was so strange. There were only about 4 scenes, and they didn't go in chronological order, and the three actors played all the characters, so it got confusing who was actually who. It was meant to be that way- one guy would go from being an old school mate of the girl to her baby to that same baby five years older in the same scene. Like I said, weird. We're going to see another one tonight called Norm and Ahmed. It should be a little easier to follow. :)
After the play we went to this restaurant famous for its pancakes, which was amazing! We got some chocolate pancakes, served with cream (not whipped cream, something different that I'm not sure what it was), ice cream, chocolate sauce and strawberries. We will definitely be going back there soon to try some of their other amazing concoctions.
Friday I was supposed to go surfing, but the waves were nonexistent. But that was okay, because Saturday I went to the beach also! No surfing, but we spent the afternoon playing ultimate frisbee, swimming (yes, we got in the water even though it was freezing), exploring the rock outcroppings off to one side, and just hanging out with friends.
That night some of us went to a rugby game too! There was a group of us going, but by the time we got tickets we could only sit in pairs scattered through the 80,000+ fans in the stadium. It was the Australia Wallabies against the New Zealand Allblacks- those two and South Africa are known as Tri Nations, they're considered some of the best in the world. Rugby is kind of like football, but less stopping. Its a great game- I loved it. Going into the game I knew the basics, and now I feel like I understand it pretty well. The only thing I didn't completely understand was the ref calls and penalties, and neither did Chandos (who I was with), so it was funny to try and predict/understand the different calls. After leading most of the game, the Wallabies lost by one point with 3 minutes to go, which was disappointing. But it was a close game the whole time, and really fun to watch. Also, the Allblacks do this Maori dance-thing before every game called the Haka- go look it up, its the most intimidating thing ever.
Sunday I played it lazy and wrote a paper during the day, and then some friends came over to my place and we had a taco night! Everyone brought something, and we ended up cook 3 kilos of meat. There was a TON of food, and it was so good. Its also funny, because I'm pretty sure its the only time some of these guys get vegetables in the diets. :) We just cooked, hung out, watched British stand-up, relaxed- a really fun night.
That's about it here! Some friends and I are going to the Blue Mountains this weekend, Friday- Sunday. (I LOVE having no class on Fridays. Its amazing.) This will be our first plan-it-ourselves trip, so I'm excited to hang out with everyone.
We've also been looking into plans for semester break (aka spring break- its okay, you northern-hemisphere people can be jealous). We're thinking that we will spend 3-4 days on a sailboat in the Whitsunday islands, snorkeling and such in the Great Barrier Reef, and then head to Cairns, which has more touristy stuff plus the rainforest. It's in less than a month, so we have to figure it out soon so we can book flights and things! (Nothing in Australia is close to anything else- you have to fly to nearly every other major city.)
I love you all- thanks so much for emails and messages. They make me feel connected to everything back home. I miss you all!
Love from down under,
Emma