Cricket and Cookies.

The last few days have been very fun!  On Wednesday, my roommate Camille and I took a trip to Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula.  It was an area that I hadn’t been to yet and decided needed exploringJ.  It took a LONG time to get there (close to 3 hours by trams and trains).  But we made it and found that there wasn’t much to see after all.  We made our way to the beach, but as it was cold and windy we only stayed for about an hour.  Despite the cold, I’m pretty sure I fell asleep listening to the sound of the lapping waves.  It’s so peaceful to be near the water.  I LOVE it.  We found some lunch, wandered through a couple of their smaller stores and then caught the train back into the city.  We got off at Richmond (LOTS of cute stores along our tram route).  We wandered down the main street and then got on the tram back to campus.  The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful and even though Frankston turned out to be fairly uneventful as well, we ventured and felt good about trying something newJ.  The next day (Thursday), I caught the tram downtown with Marisa and Christina (from Portland and Wisconsin – friends from the Beach Orientation trip).  We got off and made our way to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds to catch our first (and probably onlyJ) cricket match.  There was a very sweet gentleman outside that was super chatty – Australians are so friendly!  He was excited we were American women who had come to see cricket.  Apparently it was a big deal.  We soon found out that it was because cricket takes a special kind of person to enjoy it… and we were definitely not that kind of person.  First, none of us knew any of the rules.  Second, the game moves VERY slowly.  Third, it was cold and we were hungryJ.  So, we left after about 45 minutes to find food.  We saw the same guy leaving and he was pleasantly unsurprised by our early departureJ.  We took the tram into downtown and ate at a small sushi place.  I hadn’t eaten sushi since I was in 5^th grade, but discovered that I LOVE it.  It was great!  Marisa and Christina both raved about it, so I was interested to try it again.  Great decision!  After sushi, we found The Little Cupcake shop and I got a teddi-bear cupcake.  It was precious and delicious (two of my favorite thingsJ).  We decided to head back.  When I got home, I went for a run and then came back to check my facebook and kill a half hour before going to the store with Camille.  What was to be a half hour quickly turned into an hour and a half.  Sarah had left a comment asking if I wanted to skype right when I got on facebook so I logged on skype and we got to chat for a few minutes.  It was so good to talk!  While I was talking to Sarah, Kim logged on and we got to talk for a few minutes as well.  And then Tyler called me, as I was finishing with Kim.  Right after I hung up with Tyler, Callie logged on and I got to talk to her as well!  It was crazy.  Spontaneity wins the dayJ.  It was perfect and so good to catch up with everyone.  After I finished my “half-hour” online, I found Camille and we went to the store.  It was time to teach her to bake!  I decided we’d start with my favorite recipe and the one I learned to bake with – chocolate chip cookiesJ.  We bought all the necessary ingredients and came back to start.  It was so different baking WITH someone, but it was really fun too.  We watched a movie, ate some cookie dough, and enjoyed our fresh baked cookies throughout the rest of the night.  It was so comforting and pretty perfect.  Also, all of our roommates seemed to appear, as they smelled the cookies.  It was really fun hanging out with everyone throughout the night.  Camille was so excited about learning to bake – she wrote down the recipe in her own recipe book and everythingJ.  The only catastrophe of the evening was that I left the oven on for a long time and discovered that I had also forgotten to take the last tray of cookies outL.  They were CRISPY!!  Oops.  It was ironic that my first plate of burnt cookies happened when I was teaching someone how to bake, but we laughed about it and enjoyed the rest of the night.  Overall, lots of good things the last few days!  The weather has been pretty terrible, but no snow… proJ.  I’m living and loving life.  And never forgetting to smileJ.