Day 12: Tuesday, March 25th

we wake up at 5:30 am. we call in to hot air balloon company to check the weather report and status of flight... and WHAT?!?! IT'S CANCELLED? oh yes my friends. sure, australia's in the middle of a drought. sure it hasn't rained in canberra for the past 2 weeks. but today, today when we want to fly amongst the clouds... it is a rainy forecast.
so we went back to sleep. until 9.

we woke up, showered, and called the zoo asking if you were allowed to hold a koala. the one australian animal my sister has yet to see. apparently there is a law that in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) (the state within Canberra lies) one cannot hold a koala. even Beyonce once got refused. so instead we thought we'd spend the rainy day patronizing all the museums.
we first took a taxi to the National Museum of Australia. i had been there once before. in my first week in Australia back in Feb of 2007 with my mother, but I figured i could stand it once more.

the museum sure is confusing, with it's layout. first of all, it has some sort of skateboarding loop-d-loop art sculpture at the entrance. it's tacky, and big, and red. the museum itself is ok. they have a stuffed platypus. and a huge nugget of gold. and i'm sure there was lots more.

so after we saw what there was to see, and browsed the gift shop, we took the bus to the City Civic Centre. and mind you... it is pooooouring.

we hit up 2 souvenir stores. oh yes parents, you have something very nice coming your way. then we ate at a little italian restaurant i've walked by many times but never stopped in at before. it wasn't too bad. i found out later one of my pretty good friends worked there all last year. i don't pay attention much to other people's lives.

next we sorta figured out the bus schedule and hopped on one to take us to the museum/old parliament district.

i made us get off the bus one stop too early, but this then gave us time to walk 4 blocks in the downpour. my sister loved it, i'm sure.

we arrived at the Canberra Art Gallery and even though we explored it for what seemed like 2 hours, we discovered we only saw half of it. this place was huge. but by this time our legs were aching, we were soaking, and thought it was time to head home.

we grabbed our coats and bags from the bag-check man... who stuffed them in a cubby and hung our coats on top of each other... so thank goodness there was no drying of the items was possible.

we exited the building... and were both very confused on where the closest bus stop was. we found an abandoned one. and stood for a few seconds wondering what direction we should go in... when we saw a bus pulling up to a stop around the corner. so we ran. ran fast. in the ran. we rain ran.

AND THEN when we tried to purchase our bus ticket from the bus driver he offered us the bargain student price, which every other bus driver had failed to mention! we could have saved about 5 bucks!!

so we returned home, showered, and hung out for a bit. and that's when the clouds disappeared and the weather was beautiful.

we went out with my friend J for dinner at Wagamama. it made my sister very happy. she even got to buy an Australian Wagamama shirt!

and i've found it tradition here in canberra, that when a guest comes to visit, they must be taken to Mount Ainsley. i've been there a few times now. and i guess it's nice. you get a view over the entire city... and its suburbs. i guess the way the War Memorial and Parliament are lit at night, it is very nice to see. but really folks, that's all there is to see of canberra from atop a mount. anyway, we went at J's behest and my sister got to see canberra lit up at night.
then we returned back to my dorm and it was movie nite! all of my friends and plenty of others had gathered in the common room to watch 'cool runnings'. my friends D and I came over to talk to us in the back, and something funny was said so my sister and i laughed our very infamous quiet laughs, when we got unanimously shushed.. and my sister replied rather loudly with "what? this movie's really funny!!" which made me bust out a guffaw and i angered the crowd even more. while my friends wanted to take my sister out for a drink, we had plans of packing and sleeping. which we followed through on.

we did have to wake up at 6am for her early flight, so we knew sleep was the best choice.

i do have a few pics from today's entry, but i'm on my office computer and not my laptop, so i'll have to upload those pictures later. and one is of my sister singing at the bus stop. she did it more than once.