St. George Down Under

Tea, Town, Tix

February 17, 2009 at 10:46 pm (Uncategorized)

Well, yesterday I took it pretty chill. Visited the mall, bought some stuff…I found some looseleaf tea for Vasiya and Genia, which I was super-pumped about! They had been looking for it for a while, and couldn’t find any, so I was totally stoked when I found some. Also made friends with the tea woman/girl, so that was sweet!

Went into town again today trying to get tix for the Victorian Bush Fire benefit at the Opera House for Vaisya, Genia and myself, but they were sold out. Just kinda perused everything again, then came back. Wasn’t a wasted trip because I took the bus and found all the stops and such, which is kinda difficult in a city like Sydney. I was proud of myself! Oh, and had some great prawns for a snack downtown. Was gonna have McDonald’s, but I rememberd Vaisya, who is trying to get me to eat healthier, so I ate the prawns instead. 

When I got back we all looked through the Opera House calendar and settled on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Mendelssohn and Shakespeare”. Here is the description…

                 Madness, mayhem, music! Vladimir Ashkenazy opens the Sydney Symphony’s 2009 season with a magical concoction of Mendelssohn and Shakespeare.

A midsummer night. Madness. Mayhem. Music. Our new Principal Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy opens the 2009 season with a magical concoction: Mendelssohn in the full flight of genius and Shakespeare at his comic best. Mendelssohn composed his miraculous Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture at 17. Years later he returned to the play, adding more enchantments – from fairy songs and a poignant Nocturne to a fleet-footed Scherzo and the triumphant Wedding March. The play ends with three marriages. In this concert there’s a fourth – the marriage of music and theatre. Wait, a fifth! Come join our revels and witness the forging of a musical partnership between Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony.Mendelssohn 
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Overture and complete incidental music with an abridged presentation of Shakespeare’s play

I’m superpumped! We got pretty decent seats, so it should just be incredible. I also got some nice clothes at the mall yesterday, so it will be fun dressin all up! The show’s on the 28th of Feb!

Also bought tix to the 2010 World Cup Qualifier of Australia vs. Uzbekistan, which will be played in Sydney. I’m goin with my buddy Ryan and another friend we met, also named Ryan. It’s on April 1st in the Olympic soccer stadium. holy crap.

Well, I’ve been talking a lot with my Russian housemates, and its been just freakin great. We’ve talked about pretty much everything, especially politics, which is interesting. I asked them what they thought about Obama, and they said that he seemed good, but they don’t know anything about him. They also confirmed the notion that Medvedev is a puppet for Putin. We talked about the South Ossetia conflict, and it sounded like we were completely fed propaganda to fuel our dislike for and the feeling of ‘otherness’ towards Russia. These people now are my good friends, and they have no reason to lie to me or try to shape my thinking. I don’t exactly remember what they said actually happened in South Osetia, but if y’all are interested, lemme know, I’ll ask em again, and post it on here.

One last thing. Everybody says that Aussies are amazingly nice and everything, and they’re RIGHT. There’s no way to convey just how hospitable they all are. I am never nervous about getting lost or anything because i KNOW that anybody will answer whatever question I have, and it even feels like they’d give me a ride home if i got lost. Ive asked probably 10 different people in the mall where certain stores are, and all have gone out of their way to help me. It’s just amazing. Maybe its because I’m American, I don’t know, but man, everybody feels like family here…

Downtown ▶

This is just a vid of what downtown Sydney is like. I was tryin to give y’all the gist of the city, idk….