Dennis

Dear Den,

Right now I’m eating an Aero bar. A mint one. And I have a feeling there are going to be many more over the next year.

I promise I’m not trying to make you jealous. Let’s say I’m enjoying it for both of us. Like I said, I wish Wonka TV was real so I could beam one over to you.

Anyway, I’ve spent the past couple days starting to explore Sydney. Why is it so satisfying to learn your way around a new city? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still got a whole lot to learn, but any little victory—especially if it involves public transportation—feels like a major coup. Getting where I want to go when I’m on my own honestly gives me a little bit of an ego boost. And you know what? It doesn't feel bad!

However. That only happens...oh, maybe 70 percent of the time. And when I don’t get where I meant to go? Well, then I wander.

That’s what happened today—I took the bus too far and ended up in the middle of downtown, so I got off and wandered for a few hours, then walked on a main road through several different areas of town until my poor battered feet wouldn’t tolerate any more and I had to hop on a bus. I wish you were here to wander with me—we would have fun running around this city. Today for lunch I stopped in one of those sushi places with the revolving carousel like the one we ate at in London, and I thought about you and that day. Remember when the spider came out of the faucet?

On Friday night I went with a girl from San Diego down to the harbor and saw the Sydney opera house. It really is stunning at night—I’ll have to go back and see it during the day as well. For some reason my camera refused to take a picture you could see it in, but here’s a picture of me in front of a black background and a few lights—I swear it’s back there.

Yesterday I took a gorgeous walk along the coast from Bondi Beach to Coogee. The beaches here are tiny both in length and width—they look miniature compared to California beaches. But it’s kind of nice—it makes them seem friendly, sort of tailored for leisure. I’ve never liked trekking through what feels like miles of sand to get to the bathroom. At the beach in Santa Monica, there's so much sand that it’s seriously a 20-minute round trip. Here, between the few small beaches is a lot of rocky coast.

On the way, we stopped for lawn bowling with some New Zealanders I met. Lawn bowling is actually not very similar to indoor bowling, except for the fact that you throw the ball the same way (except these are not perfectly round so the weight is distributed differently, which makes them do this crazy curve kind of like a frisbee). Instead of knocking over pins, you and your team try to get your balls as close to the target as possible.

The court (alley? field?) was weird because there’s a cemetery adjacent to it, so we were basically surrounded by graves. That, along with the light and the total silence up there, made it feel pretty surreal.

Later I watched a rugby game at a bar. And this morning, since my jet lag is still in effect, I woke up in time to see the sunrise, which was unbelievable from the second-floor deck of the Williamsons’ house. The photos don’t do it justice.

How is your alone time alone at the apartment going? Are you going down to San Diego? Miss you--I’m so glad I got to come see you last week. Is it weird that I’m craving those Cuervo chocolates??

Love,

Megs