.Today was Callie's Birthday!.

Today was a great day! First of all. I got to celebrate Callie's birthday with her before anyone else! I think that is pretty awesome. We started out the day by doing something awesome. Getting phones. I feel much more connected to the world, even if my only contact is Callie. The guys at the phone station were super nice, although one admitted he probably shouldn't be at work because of everything he had done the night before. The other guy responded with "we have no shame". Oh Australia. After this we did something else awesome. Got me some internet! It is awesome. I feel so much more connected and it is great to be able to message and skype with people. Even if it is measured in broadband and I have a limit. I will take it! After this we went shopping so I could get a few necessities. Like a toothbrush and toothpaste...because apparently mine were lost somewhere along the line. Some of you might be trying to do the math to see how long it would have been since I brushed my teeth. Don't. It's gross. I would also like to mention that I am pretty sure we went shopping at the Walmart of Australia. So that was a big step for me. Once we got all of these important things done we started exploring Sydney!
We started with getting our passes and taking the train to the harbor. Oh! I forgot to mention something I love about Australia. When you are at a crosswalk you push the button and it goes *beep*beep*beep*...until it goes *dingalingaling*click*click*click* and that means you can start walking! (im not quite sure what the clicks mean although it makes me feel like I am being timed so I try to walk faster) It makes me feel like I am in a video game! Everytime. I love it. ANYWAY...so at the harbor were the chinese dragon races. Apparently this is quite a big deal. I meant to upload pictures of all of this but that didn't quite happen, hopefully soon! We watched that for a little bit and then wandered around the harbor. All around the harbor there is this like river fountain thingy. Again, I will have pictures later. It is super cool because all the little kids were playing in the water (even if it wasn't that warm out) I am hoping to go back someday when the sun is out and watch them. It was super cute! From there we went to the Chinese Garden. This was super pretty and peaceful, but mostly Callie and I just talked about how great of a time Devin will have in China. We decided it was about lunchtime at this point and went to lunch in a food court in Chinatown.
Oh! Other side note. Everything in Australia is EXPENSIVE. Granted there is no tax, so that is nice, but it is really really hard to accept the cost of everything. Although there are no pennies, so they get a point for that.
Anyway! After forcing some pad thai down my throat for lunch (apparently a part of jet lag is loss of appetite, who knew?) we walked around Paddy's market. This seems like a very nice place to get some souvenirs later in the trip. From here we walked around the fish market and then took the train to The Rocks, which is pretty close the opera house! Again, pictures later. This was pretty cool to see and just be so close to, it made it feel like we were actually in Sydney. After snapping a few pics we walked around the shops and market in this area but it started to POUR. I didn't really dress for the day (shorts and a tank top) so after awhile we decided to just head back to the train and come home. We finished the day with a great dinner and some emails and skyping! All in all. Pretty successful day. It was good to really be around the city and to get a feel for the transportation system. Tomorrow we are headed to the Hillsong Church and the beach! Hopefully the weather is a little better, although maybe I will pick out my outfit a bit more carefully. Alrighty. Good night!