Thursday, October 23, 2008

I did my first mini-biathalon tonight: 4 km run followed by a 300 m swim. Despite having awful weather, including unseasonably cool temperatures and rain, it was really enjoyable. As the stragglers at the rear, Kate and I met up with a Canadian girl who was also moderately lost and spent the race with her. We finished around 29 minutes, 2 minutes of which was spent convincing myself that my heart hadn't stopped when I jumped into the icy pool. Races are every Thursday evening for the next 20 weeks, and next week begins the free drinks and nibblies after the race. Everyone I talked to tonight was super friendly, so the social hour should be another good way to meet people.

As Kate and I were walking to the train station through The Domain, we saw the influx of bats from the Harbour that I've read about. It was just at dusk, and I happened to look up to see hundreds, maybe thousands, of huge bats flying overhead. Freaking awesome.

After I dropped Kate at Martin Place to catch her train, I continued on to Wynyard. Just in April I walked from Martin Place to Wynyard at about the same time in the evening, but I was a bit lost and a little scared that I wouldn't find my way. Now I'm confidently striding about Sydney CBD taking a look in a shop window here and there. It's almost inconceivable that that was just over 6 months ago, when Eric and I hadn't even started packing.

Some new vocab for you: Cossie is short for swimming costume, which is what Aussies and Brits typically call a bathing suit. When I was instructed via email to race with a cossie under my shorts, I wasn't sure if that was some kind of rocket or what. And to rock up somewhere is to turn up there, as in, "I'm going to rock up to work around 10 am tomorrow after boot camp." Kate thought it was an American saying, which is funny. Apparently it was a really hip saying 7 or 8 years ago in Britain and Australia, but you still hear it multiple times a day.

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