You gotta fight! For the right! To PAAARTAAY!

Yes! I have succeeded in going out EVERY night for the past week! Phew! Now that Lear's over, and I've come to the realisation that I have ONLY FOUR WEEKS LEFT until the end of the semester, I am determined to make the very most of my time here. I still have loads to catch you up on, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about that, but let me tell you about my week.

Monday: Went to see THE best movie (or one of the best) 'V for Vendetta' with my roomies. Man, I don't know when that's coming out to the cinemas in Australia or wherever my readers live (ISRAEL!!! Thanks Bunny and Itzick for your comments!!), but you must see it. I won't give it away, but it does raise questions about the justification of terrorism and the needs/means of the government in which to control the masses. Wow. Just wow.

Tuesday: I went with a friend from the play, Stephanie (picture below), to see Margaret Cho, a famous comedian whose platform is mainly politics - politics of race (she's Korean), her sexuality (she's bisexual) and her many problems with the Republican party - the Iraq war takes the cake, though. She was enjoyable - funny, but she seemed to slugging it at the Bush administration but doing as much damage as she accuses them of perpetrating. As narrow-minded as they are. Not that I'm a Republican sympathiser, no siree, but I felt that was lacking from her show. Anyway. Then we went for a quick bite to eat (coz both of us hadn't had any dinner: I only finished class fifteen minutes before the show) and Stephanie, i found out, has a very VERY loud voice. SO basically the whole restaurant heard our conversation - which at times wasn't so appropriate... And then we bumped into Krystal, who joined us. We kept nattering on until they kicked us out. It was a fun night.

Wednesday: This was a crazy day. I first went with Krystal downtown to take her shopping for a dress - I wanted to go downtown because I haven't been there often enough. Then I had to go back to campus and meet fellow Aussie Jess for lunch. And THEN I went with Stephanie to South Street - which I heard was a funky, eclectic street filled with kooky stores and cafes. I thought cool, similar to Brunswick St or something, but it kinda disappointed me. The stores were a little tacky, and the cafes didnt seem so appealing. I know I might seem like a snob, but the whole of Philadelphia is kinda grubby. Anyway, what I did see was in this cool food store (why the hell does it always come back to food??) was YEHUDA MATZA! I was SO excited. It's the only matza I eat. I thought I might be missing my Pesach staple. Well, fear not, for I found the magic food.... yay! I was lugging it round with me the whole afternoon. But it was nice place to visit.

Wednesday night: Went out with Maija and her friend Laura to Smoke's, a typical campus bar/pub. It was 'Sink or Swim' night - 50 cent drinks until midnight. Woo hoo! So the challenge is to 'swim' the night - not get totally trashed and 'sink'. Here are some lovely pics of us!














Thursday: I decided to go to the Hillel formal - "Fidel on the Roof" at a bar called Cuba Libre. I never thought I'd percieve an event as too Jewish, but somehow I felt a little too cool for this school. Yeah, as if that's possible. Sarah? Cool? Well, if you looked at this crowd, you might have been thinking what I felt. I'm used to Aujs events where there are at least over 100 ppl, and thats a bad function. This 'formal' only attracted around 70 ppl. As soon as Krystal and I got there (she was my date - and thank god for that! Without her, I don't know who I would have danced with...Definitely not the short Jewish boys that wore pink ties, glasses and kippot... yeah, I told you.. Not that I'm judgemental, but I had different expectations - especially for a school that was nicknamed JewPenn) we decided to go straight to the bar. It seemed that was the only thing to really make the most of - the absolutely delicious cocktails. Both Krystal and I danced and danced and had a ball going nuts. We had fun, despite our surroundings. It was us that pulled the shmoozing jews from the sidelines and onto the dancefloor. Who would have thought - Sarah the dancer.... As my mother told me today, I only began dance lessons when she noticed that I was an awkward and stiff child. Thanks mum! I certainly appreciate it here! Even though I am just a white Jewish Australian girl, I seem to have some moves that keep me up with the rest of American society. Well, perhaps the Hillel formal represented where I was coming from, I thought my dancing was on fire! Woot!

Friday: Went with Maija to get her computer fixed FAR AWAY (= expensive taxi ride!) but we had fun because we went out for a nice lunch in Old City Philadelphia, complete with pesto butter with the accompanying bread, and delicious veggie burgers. It was a nice change from the crap around here. Well, Friday I was blessed with good food. Rebecca's parents wanted to take us roomies out for dinner, and since I was the only one that was free, we had a nice intimate dinner at a lovely French restaurant. Her parents are really sweet, and our families seem quite similar. Their dog also has a lot of health problems like my Sandy boy. Rebecca's dog Connie even underwent some heart surgery. Anyway, it was nice meeting her parents, since I think I may join them over Pesach. Yes! A home cooked meal! Ok, this is real weird now. I'll shut up about food. Maybe I should be a food critic? Hrmm......

Saturday/Today: I was going to watch Rebecca in a chalk drawing contest, but it was raining this morning, and we didn't feel like standing out and getting wet. However I did do something silly today and joined Jess to watch her boyfriend Kenny play baseball against Columbia. First off, it was a longggggg walk, in the near wet, and we thought we were about to get lost. We finally arrived, and discovered that they were only in the third inning - six more to go! Arghh! Within ten minutes it turned realllly cold and after an hour we found a place behind the stadium and did star jumps to keep warm... At the end of the game I couldn't feel my feet or toes... Seriously, they were numb... Were we going to walk allll the way back to our apartment? I don't think so! The first cab we hailed chucked us out after twenty meters. We didn't do anything, and all of a sudden he said, "Get out of the cab. Get out now." What the? So rude! We were FREEZING! We managed to get another taxi and finally into our warm room. Ahhhh. What a week.



By the way, the pics are of me, Krystal, Lauren (editor of First Call) and Amanda. I also wrote another article for First Call - it's about the trials and tribulations of being tall - and you can check it out at www.firstcallmagazine.com Yay! Have a great weekend, y'all!