Sunday, May 15, 2005

May 15th - 9:24pm

It was a good weekend. On Thursday night I got a massage from Lily (even though it makes Neil jealous) and then went out for a late bite to eat at a Malaysian restaurant called Bis Me. The food was pretty similar to Indian, except there were these two amazing dishes I've never tasted before: a Roti Bomb (basically a pastry doused in a sugary butter sauce) and banana and coconut paste-filled rotis. Friday night was an IH party at the Union Bar. Later on I had an extensive chat with this Canadian born-Australian citizen-educated at an American International school in Oman-ethnically Pakistani Muslim girl named Maria. We talked about religion and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nothing really new, provocative, or truly opinionated was said, though I always feel a personal responsibility for dispelling the common misconception that Jews can't be cool. Saturday I woke up early to go work with Neil on his parents' pseudo-farm in Sunbury. They own 57 acres and have 3 cows (some kind of miniature Galloways), a bunch of sheep, and an alpaca that thinks it's a sheep. We made $60 each for 4 hours of somewhat half-assed work that consisted of stacking the fireplace with wood, raking leaves, removing covwebs, stacking more firewood, and chopping down dead blackberry bushes. I accidentally snapped one of the pitchforks while trying to use a metal ledge for leverage. Afterwards, Neil had to coach his 15 year old sister's basketball team. She's 6 feet tall and looks older than me. Neil is 6'4", his dad is 6'7", his middle brother is also 6'7", and the oldest brother is 6'9". When I got back to Melbourne, I went out to a traditional Japanese restaurant with two Japanese friends (Hiro and Moe) where I spent $35 on a meal and sake that made me cringe. Today I played footy for IH and had a few good tackles. We lost, but still did better than expected. Afterwards I napped for four hours.