Pirates, Pancakes, and Vending Machines

Photos:

• Top left: Sydney Harbour Bridge at night
• Top right: Sydney Opera House at night
• Bottom: Dinner at "Pancakes on The Rocks"

Started off yesterday morning with a trip down the street to get some documents printed for work. I didn't think getting a work Visa for Japan could be so complicated... But at least it's in the mail and on its way to SanFran now, and hopefully I will never have to think about it again for a very long time.

Went to the grocery store by myself, as well as a couple of other shops not far from my friend's apartment. It took a lot longer than I'd planned because I keep forgetting that I don't recognize any of the brands, packaging, or sometimes even the products here. I feel like everything takes me forever because I'm spending so much time reading labels.

Started off the afternoon meeting up with Carla at the Uni again. She took me on a tour this time. One of the highlights was, drumroll please, the largest vending machine in the Southern Hemisphere! (I'll have to go back sometime and take pics.)

Next we went to do something that I've been waiting to do since February: we found a movie theater and watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which I will now take the opportunity (without trying to spoil too much) to highly recommend. If you liked the first one, you need to watch this one. I also fully support the Scottish accent they've given Davy Jones... Just one bit of advice, though. If you have a hard time understanding heavily-accented English, you may want to wait until the movie comes out on DVD so you can watch it with subtitles--I felt like some of the dialogue in this movie was substantially harder to follow that in the first film.

After the movie, we went back to Carla's apartment and got ready for an evening out. We went back to Circular Quay and took some photos of the harbour at night and then went for a late dinner at this place called Pancakes on The Rocks, a 24/7 pancake joint that proved to be quite the experience. I may try to go back again before leaving. Great food.

Finished up the evening with a walk back to the bus stop and a trip home.