Unexpected Adventure

Whew... a lot has happened since the last post. As some of you know, I got really sick Saturday night and ended up taking an unexpected adventure to through the Australian health care system (translation: I had to go to the hospital and get an IV because I was dehydrated from constant vomiting. Yummy). It was pretty terrifying, being sick and all alone, but my parents and CJ walked me through it and I'm now recovering in a very nice hotel where I can call room service and the hotel doctor and sit in bed watching TV. I'm feeling weak, but a lot better, as you can see from the fact that I am posting.

Before I got sick I did a few other exciting things. I went on the subway, which has double-decker trains and some seats that pivot so that they can either face forward or backward (craziness!). On my way down to the subway I discovered that not only to Australians drive on the wrong side of the road, but that you are also expected to stand to your left on the escalator if you don't want to walk and leave your right side open for people who are in a rush to run down the escalator. Maybe this is not that exciting to all of you, but I thought it was interesting. On the track there is also a monitor that tells you exactly how long till the next train comes, and which stops the train will be making. Unfortunately, by 5pm on Saturday, the trains only come every 15 minutes, which is really absurd. Anyway, enough about the subway.

I took to subway to the Opera House where I was going to see Marriage of Figaro. It was a lot of fun- kinda campy I think, although I haven't seen many other productions to compare to. There were fireworks on the stage at the very end, which seemed like a fire hazard to me, but it was cool. I also got to walk around and see the view of the harbour, which is really nice. After the show, I walked around a bit more. I watched this street performer who hardly did any tricks and mostly stalled doing tricks by making fun of the people walking by. I also noticed this bizarre sight- It was a bunch of bleachers set up and filled with an audience of people wearing headphones and they were watching people walk by, going into the subway station and shopping and everything in this busy square. And I was thinking, what are they watching, this looks really interesting. I thought maybe the headphones were playing something that was commenting on the crowd- then I realized that there were actors in the crowd with microphones in their ear, so you could hardly tell they were actors and not just regular people in the crowd talking to each other. They really blended in amazingly well- I mean, people just walked right between the actors and the audience without realizing what they were doing. I found a booth that I thought might be selling tickets and they told me that the show was called "Small Metal Objects", that it was part of the Sydney Festival going on now, and that I could buy tickets over the phone. So I bought tickets for Wednesday evening and hopefully I'll be well enough to go by then.

Anyway, after that I went back to the hostel and started to feel sick. I tried to eat something, but it didn't work that well. But I did play poker with 4 Germans and I made it to the last three people. We weren't playing with money fortunately.

So that's about it. At least I'm pretty sure that things can't get any worse than they were Saturday night/Sunday morning. I feel like I can probaby handle anything after being so sick and scared. I should also mention that everyone at the hostel, hospital, hotel, etc has been incredibly nice and helpful. It really does seem like people are extra friendly here.

Love,
Emma