"And where in The States are you girls from?"
Cue sleazy saxophone music.
"California" I jump in.
The guys I lived with in Sacramento always play this game called Your Team/My Team. Tony tells me the rules are simple: If she's my type she's on my team, his type his team.
The guy in the elevator is dark hair, dark skin, not too tall and looks like Colin Farrell.
MY TEAM.
We spend the evening at the bar dressed in garbage bags (it's a bin bag party) getting to know each other. He's a college graduate from South Carolina, but currently a lieutenant at war in Afghanistan. He's on leave for two
weeks and decided to come to Australia with his brother who went home just two days ago. At the end of the night he shows me photos on his computer of back home and we talk about our friends and family. There's so much to this guy that I love to hear about. He has so much to say, and a lot of interests. He's also a very good listener. We agree 
to meet up the next day.As I'm climbing out of my bunk the next morning I hear a knock on the door. It's Alex (that's his name) and he's ready to go. I get dressed and we take off to the fish market where I order calamari!!! We walk around Sydney in the sun and Alex insists we see a show at the Opera House that night. He buys our tickets and then it's an all out scramble for me to find the right shoes to go out in. I bought a really cute outfit in Melbourne last week, but I can't wear my
walking shoes!! We part ways and agree to meet up at 6:45pm. After my frenzy shopping spree I get dressed and made up. We meet in the lobby and head down to the harbor. The Opera House is having an event right now where they are projecting different images like leopard print, scribbles, leaves and inspirational quotes onto it. It's beautiful sitting in the harbor all lit up like this. We're so excited because we actually get to go in to the theatre instead of just standing outside of it and taking photos.The show we're seeing is called Glow. It's done in black light and the characters wear neon costumes. It's funny, creative, and seems to transend all cultural, age and language barriers. The plot is basic and the show is done in Italian and English.
After the show he gives me a piggy back ride around the harbor since my frenzy shopping spree lead to me purchase heels a half size too small. We watch an old man and a young woman in their hotel room drunken dancing as we voice over what they're saying. We have dinner in a cafe, and then head to the bar for a few drinks.
Though I awake the next morning with a nasty hangover, we decide to go check out the zoo since
it is his last day. The zoo is across the harbor so we have to take a ferry. Never chase a hangover with a ferry ride. When we get to the zoo nobody charges us admission since it's almost closed. We take a gondola to the top of the mountain and begin to make our way down through the zoo. It's completely empty and all of the shops are closed. Our favorite are the chimps. We walk up to the glass and three of them come and join us. They seem just as interested in us as we are them. We go visit the huge sea lion undulating through the water in absolute silence. It's so serene getting to watch him through the glass swim figure eights and torpedo himself throught the water. We pass the giraffe standing tall as the sun sets, and visit the little penguins darting through their habitat playing around with eachother. Mama and baby elephant stand huddled
together in the harbor breeze.Our boat ride back to the other side is just as peaceful and serene as we approach the city lights once again. Such a beautiful view.
We decide to make dinner so we go to the grocery store. Alex is completely in his element. He plans the meal and has the best time cooking it in the hostel kitchen. He never gets to do this in Afghanistan. We're starved and sit down to an amazing pasta/chicken dish. Tomorrow we'll say goodbye.
I told you that you would fall in love!
ReplyDelete