Sydney: Day 2

day 2 was a little more exciting! i went on my hostel's city tour, so for the first time got to see the Sydney harbour, the bridge, the opera house (way, way more amazing in person than in photographs), the royal botanical gardens (very central park - i think i will be spending a lot of time there), hyde park, and everything in between! so i got a much better view of sydney and all of its glamour than i did yesterday just opening up bank accounts and registering for tax numbers! in the evening i met up with Will at his company's charity auction and trivia night - met some wonderful people and had a great time. i also met another friend on the hostel city tour who is doing the same thing as me - just got here, is spending a week at the Wake Up hostel, and is here for a year on the work & holiday visa and no idea what he is going to do for work/residence! makes me feel just a little less crazy for doing this :) we picked our tour guides brain and learned some good info - including that in order to get any food/beverage service job you need to take this federal 6 hour course, so i am going to look into that today. also on the agenda for today is to hit up bondi and do the walk from bondi to coogee (ive been hearing wonderful things about coogee) and then going to my first australian "barbie" (i was invited by a girl who i met last night). interestingly enough for all those worried about there being a lack of theme parties in Oz - apparently theme parties are the biggest rage here right now, and the barbie tonight is themed for the '80s' - i will do my best to throw something together with the few clothes i brought with me but would love to find a thrift store (or American Apparel) here!

aussie fact of the day
-Australia is the one country in which Starbucks has failed miserably. they opened up 130 stores here and only have about 20 left. makes me kind of proud of my new country (sorry D!)