So long Sydney!

The lyrics in Ingrid Michaelson's song "oh what a day, it is today" rung in my head all day long. Happy is as happy gets!

The day begun bright and early to get up to the temple for the first morning appointments. The spirit that our group felt at the Sydney temple was unforgettable. I'm so grateful for temples and the time we can spend in the house of the Lord, serving Him.

We had free time once we got back to the city and our little groups choose to hit up the local market first. It was the swap meet in a warehouse times a million. People and crappy trinkets lined this massive place! These psycho Koreans came up to Kendall and I and while speaking a gazillion words per second, they pulled us by our arms into their booth thing for a l korean massage. It was hysterical! We couldn't stop laughing. In a blur, we were sat down, being rubbed by a crazy Korean. What an experience! Goodness I'll never forget that! I also bought a cheap watch and one piece swimsuit! Cheers! (that's what they say her!)

Our favorite part of the city, the rocks, had their weekend farmers market today, so we headed across town to hit that up! We had to get a Guylians chocolate dipped cookie first! Kendall may have had 2 or 3 today...it's her new found dessert obsession. Haha she crack me up! Anyways, we made our way over to the market booths and sampled everything from pomegranate vinegar to roasted cinnamon honey almonds to the worlds best banana bread! But the best part of the market was the cute aussie Joshua radin soundalike singing so beautifully! We all sat there in lalaland as he serenaded us, well the entire market for that matter. Mark wilkinson was his name!

We thought we would have plenty of time to get our favorite dinner and make it back to the hostel for our group meeting time. We ordered our kebabs and dumplings with only 15 minutes to spare! We were on the opposite end of town and rush hour wasn't working in our favor. So we took off running...sprinting really! Dinner in hand, weaving in and out of traffic, we weren't making too much progress. So we decided to hop on the next bus that pulled up at the perfect time! Luckily traffic cleared, we got off at our stop and bolted to the hostel right on time!

Sweaty and still dying of laughter, we immediately left for the rugby game!! We all didn't really know what to expect. We didn't know the teams nor the rules so it were just going blind into islander mayhem! On our way over, the train was packed to the max with rugby (male) fans...decked out in bulldog or eel colors! It was rather intimidating to be quite honest haha a group of 23 BYU dorks trying to navigate and stay together amongst massive crowds of rugby island men. After lots of laughs and concerned looks, we made it to the Olympic Park Stadium!! The stands were roaring and the energy was pumpin! These people get crazy into their rugby! We settle into our seats and find ourselves being highly entertained by this huge group of fans at the front rows. They were loud and rambunctious and had people from all ages in their group. We went down to the front to take a picture and somewhere during this time we figured out they were all mormon and there for a ward/YSA activity! We instantaneously become friends and I loved getting to know them. Their stories were incredibly inspiring, it's so humbling to hear how much faith they have! The bishop had to be the coolest guy I've ever met. He played professional rugby and now have 4 kids under the age of 4 and a baby on the way! He was such a stud. My favorite memory of him was when there was a bad call he was literally screaming in the deepest voice "freak you ref, freak you!!"...then whispered in my ear and said "I'm sorry, I gotta be so careful with my temper and language around the ward! But it's so hard!" it was hilarious! We chatted and cheered the whole night! I never really was aware what was going on so I yelled when they yelled and sat down and was angry when they did! I had the best night and meeting our new friends made it!