So this is life: Guess Who's Having THE BEST WEEK EVER!!!!

It's one of those rare and lovely days, when everything seems to melt smoothly together from one string of activities to the next. A day when you and your friends all have great smiles on their faces and the majority of their expression is laughter. A day when the most beautiful and random events happen that could only happen on a day like this. I never could have thought days like this... could last a week.

As you have seen already, my week began with the 8K mountain/river walk with all my friends from Sleeping With The Enemy. On Monday I went to Dee Why Beach and had lunch with Renzo who I hadn't seen for two weeks. We caught up over deli sandwiches, Italian Hibiscus and Blood Orange sodas and Blueberry cheesecake. After that, I came home and Virna and I went for a walk over to Freshwater Beach by our house for sunset. It was a gorgeous warm day. Then we grabbed Jade and a bottle of red wine and walked down to my roommates pizza shop that has lovely outside tables and heating lamps and we chatted and drank for hours.

On Tuesday, Renzo took me out to breakfast at a new beachfront restaurant in Dee Why before he had to go to work. Anja came over on the ferry late in the afternoon and we walked to Shelly Beach for sunset. It was jaw droppingly gorgeous. She had her camera that day so Ill post sunset photos when I get them from her. Spending that day with just her was really nice since she left (today) on Sunday. We beach combed the sand and got several really cool shells for her to smuggle back into Germany. Before she went back on the ferry we had Thai food for dinner at the wharf and made plans for later in the week. Renzo came over that night to meet my roommates and brought over Ice Age 2 and a lovely bottle of Riesling. I had gone down to the local Patisserie and gotten a scrumptious little apple dessert for us to share. We had decided to watch Ice Age 2 because the 3rd one came out the next day; we found it absolutely necessary to go and see it.

On Wednesday, yet another gorgeous and sunny day, Renzo and I got up and went to his house to surf all day. I was chatting with a guy next to me out in the water about being from Northern California when a family of about 15 dolphins came frolicking through the water about 30 feet from where I was. I could hear them calling to each other and was watching them catch waves right next to me; then they decided to just hang out for about 5 minutes and swim and jump in the water. I was absolutely in heaven. The guy I was talking to told me he loved to surf in the winter time because they come swimming through all the time... I told him I have never seen a dolphin in the wild. After a day in the water Renzo, Victor, and I went to dinner at the best fish and chip restaurant in Sydney. I had the grilled New Zealand Cod with pumpkin spinach salad, and yes, it was incredible. After a quick cat nap Renzo took me to the movies and guess what!? Ice Age 3 was in 3D!!!! So awesome! I had never been to a 3D movie before and it was quite fun. For anyone who's a fan of Ice Age, the 3rd one doesn't disappoint. I absolutely love spending time with Renzo since he continuously makes me laugh. All of you know that laughing is my most favorite thing in the world. I am very lucky to have made such an incredible friend so soon to moving here. I undoubtedly think that knowing him has made my transition here much easier and would not have been as comfortable without him. This was proven on the following day :)

Thursday. Renzo is from Peru, he moved here when he was 18 and is now a resident. He is also a chef. A few weeks ago he asked me what was the one thing I missed most about California so far and I told him that it was Mexican food. On Thursday we spent the day relaxing with each other in the sunny weather and then he made me Nachos for a late lunch! While he was preparing the meal he said, "I don't know how they make nachos in California... but this is how we do it here so hopefully you like them." They were so good. Afterwards his friends and roommates joined us who are also from Peru and Uruguay. I've spent a lot of time at Renzo's home and his friends and roommates are really great people who I enjoy being around. Learning Spanish has become my new task :)

On Friday a bunch of us went out in the city to party with Anja. We ended up meeting a group of Aussie guys who were just awesome. One in particular was Beau, he has the personality of Jim Carrey and was one of the funniest people in world. Anna and I will definitely be hanging out with them again soon.

On Saturday Anna and I got up and grabbed a train to Newtown to meet Anja and Siobhan for breakfast and shopping. Newtown is the equivalent to Haight street in San Francisco. It was Anja's going away party that evening so the ladies went out in search of cute outfits. I think the photos do a fine job of showing how the rest of the day and night went: