Friday morning, after getting enough rest at the hostel, I made plans to meet Nick again so he could show me his beloved chocolate restaurant, Max Brenner. Instead of going all the way back to Saeed’s, I just showered at the hostel, using my dirty shirt as a towel and my underwear as a rag. I just used the hand soap as shampoo and body wash. It worked fine.

Then I met Nick and we went back to South Bank.

Belgian waffles at Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, which is sort of like the Ghirardelli place in San Francisco

Nick is drinking a thick Italian white hot chocolate, which I think I could only tolerate a few sips of before I would go into a sugar coma.

Infinite

Most students here have to wear uniforms. Yet another aspect of Australia exerting its control over its citizens.

After our chocolatey lunch, I went with Nick so he could look for a shirt for a party that night.

Apparently most of Australia has this tradition called “Schoolies” where kids who graduated from high school go to some beaches, usually at Gold Coast, and party for a week. Sounds like the U.S. spring break tradition, but for little kids. The name is fitting. And they apparently also fall off balconies and die, as Nick is reading.

I also did some shopping and ended up buying three shirts for $75 and three pairs of shorts for about $60. Not bad for Australia!

Hurricane Sandy shirt!

This store called Culture Kings has a DJ, lots of screens showing music videos, and they cut hair.

Then I got a piece of pizza with Nick, and went back to Saeed’s.

Instead of Calories, labels are in kilojoules. It's great, because it's a lot easier to remember you need 8700kJ per day instead of 2000 Calories per day.

That night, Saeed and I met his friend Luke again, and their friend Claire, and went to The Beat. My second time at The Beat, and no dramatics this time.

At The Beat

Saeed at The Beat

Random girl at The Beat

Saeed at The Beat

Saeed and me

At around 4 in the morning, we left the club to get food. More pizza. Then we opted to try to take public transit home instead of a taxi. This ended up not paying off. A taxi would have cost $30 probably, but the alternative involved waiting 45 mniutes for a train station to open, then waiting for buses, and ultimately walking a mile not wanting to wait even longer for another bus. Saeed and I got home at around 7:30.

Claire, Saeed and Luke waiting for the train station to open

After sleeping, we went back to the city to meet our friend Anthony who works at The Beat.

Fish and chips is a pretty common meal here. And ibis.

I've never seen so much public transit security in my life. Every train seems to have several security people, and the stations are crawling with them.

Then we went back to Saeed’s to contemplate going back out that night. We ended up just staying in, which was probably a good thing.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day. In the evening, David and Monty came over to Saeed’s. At one point, Saeed’s father called Saeed inside to discuss how Saeed’s friends he has over are too gay. That was interesting.

Anyway, we made a plan to go eat at this Japanese dumpling restaurant called Harajuku Gyoza, and then we went to a venue called The Family for the event Fluffy. I ended up not even making it to the dance floor… it was kind of an off night for me, but it was all right. The Egyptian costumed dancers were cool.

We went to this wonderful Japanese restaurant, Harajuku Gyoza, with lovely little screaming waitresses. Everything on the menu was cutesy and silly.

When you order shots of sake, all the waitresses scream and cheer.

Fluffy

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Saeed and Anthony

Then Monday we woke up later than planned and ended up going to the Gold Coast to go to Surfer’s Paradise Beach. The original plan was to get up earlier and go north to the Sunshine Coast, but a bunch of people flaked and we made the best of it. But once we got to the Gold Coast, we needed to eat, and it took a ridiculously long time to get our drinks and food, and we only made it to the beach for about 30 minutes of sunshine. It was still all right though; at least I can now say I actually made it to a beach during my month in Australia.

Monty adding some of his drinking water to his poor little car.

Directional signs in Australia lack the arrow tips I'm used to in the States

Surfer's Paradise beach

Waiting for the train back to Brisbane from the Gold Coast