Push Bike

On Friday, I ducked out of work early to go play some footy with everyone in a park near the apartments. We played for about an hour and I was absolutely exhausted. It was probably a really bad idea for me to play. I couldn't breathe very well because I was sick. I couldn't run for more than 10 minutes with out being entirely out of breath and almost dead. By the end of the game I was very dizzy and I didn't feel well at all. When I got back, I showered and went to talk to my advisers about seeing a doctor the next day. They gave me a couple places to call. They were all closed and I didn't want to go to the hospital so I just decided to stay in for the night and get some rest. I watched TV while everyone went out and I went to bed early.

I woke up the next morning feeling much the same as the previous night. After I ate some breakfast and took a shower I actually felt much better. I still didn't feel great so I called the clinics and discovered that they were booked for the weekend. I didn't want to go to the hospital and I was feeling a little bit better so I decided to wait it out and see how I felt on Monday. Putnam and I spent the day at an anti-scientology protest just for fun. Putnam had been to the previous one and said it was fun so I decided to see what it was all about. We wore masks and handed out flyers that other people printed out. We talked to other protesters and spent most of the day doing that. After the protest, we went with some of the protesters to a pub and had a couple drinks. Then we went one of the protester's house and hung out for a while. It was cool to hang out with people our age for once. We met some interesting people for sure. At around 10 we decided to head back into the city and meet up with the other guys to go to a club. We barely missed the tram and were dismayed when we saw that the next one wasn't for another 30 minutes. Two girls with bikes walked up to us and asked us for directions. We had no idea where we were and told them we weren't from around here. One of the girls introduced herself as Tommy and asked if we were American. When we said yes she said that she had a friend studying in New York. She said that she and her German friend were going to her friend's birthday party and asked us if we wanted to come. Not wanting to wait for the tram, we said why not. She got a call from her friend who gave her rough directions to the house. She still didn't know where it was so she asked if one of us wanted to ride the other bike with her and find the place. So I decided to take the bike with Tommy to find the place and Putnam decided to walk with the German girl. After about a 2k ride on a bike that was older than me, we found the place. Tommy stayed and I took the bike to lead Putnam and the German girl back to the apartment. The whole ordeal was pretty fun. It was Tommy's friend's 20th birthday. They were all our age and went to the same university. They were very friendly and just real people. It was refreshing to hang out and chill in a home environment with normal people our age. After about an hour the group decided to head into the city to find a club. Chris and I had to go into the city to get back home anyways so we decided to join them. The group took three cabs into the city. The club was exactly what we had been looking for our entire time in Melbourne. It had good music, people our age, it was packed and had cheap drinks. The people in our group paid for the cab, my cover, and my drinks. They were pretty much the nicest people I'd ever met. Tommy was all over Putnam and he wasn't liking it so he left early and went back to the apartment about an hour before I did. At about 3am we left the club and everyone wanted to go to another bar. I told them it was getting late and I would head back to my apartment. I said goodbye and thank you to everyone and walked in the direction they pointed me. After about a block, I knew exactly where I was. Surprisingly, the club was only about a half mile from our apartment. When I got back Steve and Zan were still up and we talked about our nights and then headed to bed around 4am.

We all slept in Sunday till about noon. We went down to the market to buy groceries for the week and then spent the day relaxing and doing work our projects. We had some burgers for dinner and everyone went to bed early in preparation for the work week. By this point, I felt much better compared to Friday and I was sure it was just a cold that had gotten out of hand. I decided to not waste the time or money going to a doctor.

Monday morning I woke up feeling refreshed. My sore throat was gone and my cough was barely still there however I was still congested. It seems like my cold is slowly going away. I spent the day working with my spreadsheets and calling people. By the end of the day we had less than 10 people left to call in the phone survey and over 370 responses to the online survey. It seems we will complete the survey by our goal, which was Wednesday. Today was John's last day as well. We thanked him for his help and headed home at 8pm. We'll spend almost the rest of the project analyzing the data and writing our report. I hope to be booking all tours and flights for after the project with in the next couple of days. It's also time to get souveniours so if you think you'll get one let me know what you want.