Chinatown

Days 15 & 16: 2/15-2/16

Chuck and I went shopping in the morning while others went to Australian Mardi Gras (largest gay festival in the world apparently). By the time we were done everybody was back and were totally weirded out (including a gay guy in our group). We grabbed lunch at Broadway Café and decided to get a gym membership at the club across the street because they were offering a deal for a four-month student membership at $200. We toured the facility and it was really nice – all the equipment was old but very well-maintained and there was plenty of space and open machines. Not a very eventful day, but we went to Kmart and bought Cranium to play together that night. This was a lot of fun, especially since it was made for Australians. Questions involving descrambling the name of a Cricket player I had never heard of and answers including lingo I had never used such as ‘monobrow’ instead of ‘unibrow’. Despite our team’s poor effort (me and Lauren Devane), we ended up winning and went to bed deeply fulfilled. The next morning Chuck and I hit the new gym. When were done we wanted get everybody together and go to another popular beach called Manly Beach which is on the North side of the harbor. It had been raining everyday for about a week now, and right when we were about to leave, it started again. Luke, Chuck, and I used this time to go to the Gumal rooftop where there is free internet and work on our blogs and check e-mails. Luke and Chuck still both can’t get the internet at UniLodge to work, so I went with them for the heck of it. After a couple hours we had all grown hungry and discussed getting some food in Chinatown. We walked to the center of Chinatown in search of a decent place to eat and when we couldn’t agree on a spot, we just went to the mall there and chose something in the food court. Chuck and I got similar Chinese dishes and I scarfed mine down within 10 minutes – it was delicious. The girls of course complained and ate about a third of their plate. On our way home something crazy happened: there is a gum tree right in the center of Chinatown and today there was a young, half naked Asian man sitting on a crate with some kind of broken plastic bat in his hand. To him though, it was a fishing rod and he kept imaginarily casting and reeling with it. As we walked by, a couple Australians stopped to get a picture and when one of them put there arm around him, the Asian man erupted. He stood up, elbowed him away and started relentlessly attacking him and his friends. He nearly tore off one guy’s shirt and kicked another in the stomach. The Australians, who didn’t seem to know how to fight, finally realized that if they all restrained him simultaneously that he couldn’t do anything. The Asian was still resisting and attacking until one of the Australians punched him pretty hard in the jaw, dizzying him and causing him to fall down. Meanwhile, as everybody stood and watched in disbelief, the Asian got back up, tore a bag of papers out of one the Australian’s hands and hurled it into the air, causing papers to scatter all over the street. The Asian then turned around, walked back to his crate, and continued fishing. This made for a good discussion topic on the way home. That night, for some reason, everybody decided to go back to the night club Scubar. It was much worse this time – I didn’t really dance, got beer spilled on me again, and left early. Good night.