Dec 5 - Church and Perth (again)

Got up early and went to mass at the Catholic church here at 7:30 in the morning. Suddenly 9:30 AM mass at home doesn't seem so bad... The mass was essentially the same as any Catholic mass I've been to, with 3 exceptions. They didn't say the Apostles' Creed like I'm used to, instead they did the other one (Nicean Creed, is it?), they sang the Our Father (which Brennan says he's done before but I've never seen), and right after shaking hands for "peace of christ" everyone sat down (which eliminated the awkward standing around until someone decides to sit down and everyone follows after the Eucharistic Ministers get their host/wine on the altar). All those times back home it was a struggle to get me to mass and now I go on my own accord haha. It was just a nice reminder of home and of routine that has been lost in traveling. Walked back to the hostel and packed up everything in order to check out before 10 (lest we be charged a late check-out fee of $20) and then sat around and watched some news, read the paper/flyers, etc. because there was a bit of rain and we didn't want to wait for the bus or on the beach in rain. Missed out on the Christmas parade in Perth city central today, but it only did like a 2 block loop, so probably wasn't that sweet... Once the rain subsided we took a bus to the city and walked what seemed like an endless number of blocks (due to the heavy backpacks we were lugging) to our new hostel. It's a half decent little place with no A/C (0 for 4 on air conditioning at hostels in the hottest place in Australia...wow) that will suffice for the one night we are here for. Used up the hour remaining on our 1 month of Global Gossip internet and got the photos current, etc. Then took the free inner city bus over to the shopping district and had a burger at a British pub. It was surprisingly hard to find a place with burgers, and then harder to find one with burgers under $20. Alas, our burger was pretty tasty and when we got back to the hostel I spent some time on the web investigating Christmas gift ideas, while B opted for an evening run. Then we turned in early, as we need to catch a shuttle to the airport at 3:20 AM tomorrow. Back to Sydney to look for jobs and a place of our own to stay (no more hostels!) for the next few months. Wish us luck.