Big weekend

I will now be just be writing in sets as now that school has started everyday wont be worth reading about.

Sat
Luke, Chris and I went to the Sydney Olympic grounds to play frisbee golf. This is when now I have decided Aussie run everywhere or must think Americans all are the fastest walkers ever. We got of the train at the station and ask the guy how long it is to walk to the course. Well first he didn't know what frisbee golf was so we had to just ask the general area. Then he told us that it would be a 10 min walk. It ended up being a 45 min walk. It was really creepy to walk though the ground. It was such a huge place and with no real events going on the place was empty. We walk the whole 45 min with only seeing about 5-8 people that included cars. Then when we got to the place we stood at the gate waiting for a car to come by to enter. We then figured out that the gate we went into was on the opposite side of the course and we had to walk to hire disc at the other end. We then played a round of the most pathetic course i have been on. There were only 9 baskets and just to tee points for each one.Also it was in a giant field with very few trees. After that we walked back to get some food thought this town. I got a Pide which is pretty much a giant hot pocket. We then walk back to the train and headed home. When we got home we went to Broadway fro 5 dollar pizzas. After This we rested up a bit and got dresses to go out to this after party at Bondi beach. The after party was for a huge skate competition at the skate park in Bondi. We had a lot of fun. It is funny in a city of 3.4 million how many of the same people you run into all over the place. We ran into a couple of girls we had meet before and a bunch of the Europeans I know. When we wanted to leave the trains had stop running. I was not liking the idea of taking the night bus but it was so safe. There was probably 20 people on the bus all having a good time. It was like a little party back to central. There were some really drunk guys that kinda got into a fight about the Mexicans in the back singing in Spanish but once that subsided everything was fine. It was really funny cause there was people like hanging of the poles to hold onto and people playing music in the bus and the driver didn't care. On the way home a chick we knew got on the bus and was happy to see a familiar face (3.4 million and cant go anywhere with out seeing someone I know) ! After that we all when to sleep to get ready for tropfest.

Tropfest www.tropfest.com/

Tropfest is the biggest short film festival in the world. They but up this huge tent and these screens in a triangle at the royal botanical gardens and thousands of people come out to watch because it is FREE! We packed a huge picnic lunch and dinner because it runs from 3pm-11pm. it was brilliant because they give everyone these folding cardboard chairs to sit on and trash bags and recycling bags and food waste bags. So everyone is siting around not creating a mess. The movies were all very good and i enjoy just sitting in the sun with a bunch of friends. At the end of the event the winner was one of the movies i really liked. I will be buying the newspaper next sat because it will have the movies in it on a dvd. When we left it was so clean. Everyone had taken all there waste and was putting in the piles for that type of waste and all the chairs in piles so they were easily cleaned up. There were not tons of bottles and stuff all around. I forgot they also were giving out free water and ice so no one dehydrated and remember this is all for FREE no entrance fee nothing just walk into the park and sit down. After that we took the bus home and had to go to sleep because our first day of class was tommorow.

First day of class

The first day of class i had 7 hour of it but only two classes. I figured it would just be like America and I would get the hand out and leave. This is not what happened We got the hand out and then did all 4 hours of class. This wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it was was during the 4 hours we had 30 min or break and the last 2 hours we just drew these two chairs( the class is furniture design and context). All I have to say is thank god I took so many art classes before this. I'm the only Eng in the class and held up pretty well. The teacher thought I drew very well for being an Eng. The other class was a Arch class and was the longest lecture ever. It was so hot and he was so boring I don't know how I am going to make it through that class it is also 4 hours long.

The Big Fight

Day 14 15/02/09

Monday was a pretty slow day just walked around and chilled. I worked out for the first time in my new gym. It was empty which was super nice. Then we decided we were going to go to china town and get some real Chinese food. Unfortunately to get real Chinese food you have to be able to read Chinese. We ended up going into this shopping center and ordering food by numbers and picture. I ordered what look to be something like Kung Poa chicken with noodles. All the guys like there food all the girls didn't like what they ordered. On the way out there was this guy pretending to fish near that leaking tree. He was half naked and using what looked like a old twisted wrapping paper role as his rod. We were watching him from across the street when some Aussie school kids went to take a picture with him. This then started into a huge fight between the kids and this guy. he stood up and kick one of the kids in the stomach right at the beginning and then started to brawl. The Aussie kids ganged up on him and grabbed his legs and threw him on the ground. I tried to get my camera out but I only got the end of it. At one point the fisherman grab one kids bag and threw it in the air and all the papers and stuff flew out all over the street. This really pissed the kid of and he jacked the guy in the face which dazed the fisherman and then the other Aussie pushed him and that pretty much ended the fight. We then just walked home and chilled. We then went out to this bar right by the fight and the kid that was in the fight was there. We talked to him and asked him what really happened. He said that when his friend went up for a picture the guy stood up and kicked him and that is what started the fight. Who knows what really happened but that is the story for the start of the fight.

Day 15 16/02/09

Luke and I went to work out then we all walked to the opera house to buy tickets for a Mid Summers Night Dream. We got the tickets for $35 AUD which is dirt cheap and the theater is really small. So they shouldn’t be that bad of seat. The walk was about 3 miles but about a mile of that is threw the botanical garden which are beautiful we took lots of pictures and play Frisbee all the way there. We then got really good ice cream at Sydney Harbor and then walked 3 miles home in the rain. The weather here is really odd it will be sunny and really hot then rain and then be sunny and hot again. It gets really annoying to be pulling your umbrella out all the time.

Day 16 17/02/09

Today I wrote some post cards and then when to the Group fair. This is where we joined a bunch of groups and just generally hung out with some people we had met. I joined some clubs and I am going to join the Ultimate Frisbee club all the rest of the clubs are just student org that dont really do anything other then give info out that I joined.

Day 17 18/02/09

This is more a relax day I went to the store and bought some more food. I also cleaned my room a little and then tried to update this thing a little bit. I didnt do much as you could see i didnt even Post it. At 5:30 Pm we had a School cocktail party to attend. This was very odd for me to be drinking at school with my Profs and other people of the faculty. Not only was it at the school it was open bar. SOOO they were really jsut pumping everyone full of booze so that everyone was a little less shy and everyone was really good at mingling. After that there was a School based Pub crawl. we left the school to go up to the rocks which is right by the bridge and opera house. The first pub was a German pub this is were they served us free food. So now everyone is got some booze and is now being fed we didn't leave this bar till11 pm and this was of three pubs the second bar was not nearly as much fun or cool. It was really dark and i felt like i had to be at east 30 and had a job for a couple of years. Also it was almost all business people not so much a younger crowd. We left this bar at about 1. The next bar was way up in the top of a building and was the only place you could play pool in view of the bridge and the opera house. It looked kinda like a run down Vegas hotel. There are slot machines everywhere. This ended the crawl in the we hours of morn. Everyone was still going hard when I left but im use to the 2 am bar close so i was so much for staying much later then I did. We walked home the 3 miles to the Apt it was such a nice night and you would think the streets would be empty but they were not. We ran into some people we knew and all walked home together in a big group. Even then the streets were still packed.

Day 18/02/09

Bondi Beach

Well it is everything you could ever think it was. It was a beautiful this was the first really sunny really warm day we have had in a while. We got up grabed the train and then the bus to get there. Once we arrived we sent up camp. All the girls went sun bathing and the guys went to go play frisbee in the water. This was really hard there where such big waves and currents. the waves like 20 feet into the water were still like 6-12 feet high. Then when the hit you you would move 1o feet just from the power of the waves. A lot of the weaker swimmers had to get out of the water. We then started body surfing the waves All you need to do is get in front of it and it will bring you to shore faster then you thought was possible. We did this for a while in till we were worn out. We then went and got lunch. I got a kebab which is what we call a Gyros. They are everywhere here. We then went and played in the water some more and then sat out and chatted. Just a very relaxing beach day. We then went for a 3km walk and took some pictures of the beach and rock formations. there are bums that live the rock face. What a view!!!! after that we a had a relaxing night making cookies and watching TV. I will try to update this and my flickr account with pictures in the next couple of days so everyone can see what im talking about but my school comps wont let me upload pics right now.

OZ observations

• Water comes to the table in Beugel type bottle
• Water has no ice unless asked for
• trash cans are hard to find not on every corner or every room
• They don't have hot dog or hamburger buns most the time they just use bread
• American TV has screw up the kids so bad they have to run ads on tv to tell them to dial 000 which is the same as our 911 and not to dial 911 in a emergancy
• you can be topless at any beach
• Macdonald's and Burger Kings ice cream cones are 30 and 50 cents AUD
• Atm cards are called handy cards
• Credit and ATM cards have 19 digits
  
• On lifts the close door button actually close the door the second you push it.

Calming down finally

Day 12

We all woke up and decide it was too rainy to do anything and we had to carry our bags all day cause check out was at 10. Therefore, we went to this little Belgium Waffle place got breakfast that was so delicious. The Waffle was very small only about the size of a tea saucer(I ordered two). They were so dense because the dough they used look like little cubes of play doh and then it would be smooched. They were so good I cannot get over it. We then went to the train station, bought our tickets, and boarded the train. We then somehow found the one train door that did not close all the way and had a draft the entire time. The ride back seemed a lot shorter then the ride out there. I photoshoped some of the photos and then just watch time fly by on the train. It was Valentines Day and so all the single people decide we should go out. So the girls caring much more then guys found a restaurant and made reservations. We all got ready hailed the cabs and got to the place at 8. I didn't know where we were going and ended up right on the pier in view of the bridge and the opera house. I never really thought I would eat dinner in view of the either of those places but I did. Then it was back to the apt to get changed. One of the Dorms was having a Stop light party (singles wear green yellow if not sure and red if in a relationship). It was really weird to be at a party with drinking and such at a dorm roof. They even had campus security to regulated the party but when I got there it didn't seem like they really even cared cause there was very little regulation. After that I went to bed it was a big day and I don't think i slept very well the night before at the hostel because i was so tired when i went to bed.

Day 13

Nothing really exciting happened this day other then i found out why my internet doesn't work and Lenovo has to send me some back up disc. I joined the local gym and it is super close. It on my block and we get a huge discount for being at the place in staying which is super cool. My friends and i join the boxing classes and plan on starting a regular plan again once school starts. I need a hair cut so i cut it we then also bought Cranium which is mush more difficult if it isn't bought in your country. This is because culture is different here like instead of baseball player it is cricket players and music is Aussie music and such.

FIRST POST!!!!

Day 1

So I have finally arrived after a 4.5 hour flight from DTW to LAX then a 14 hour flight to Brisbane and 2.5 hour flight to Cairns. All of them were actually pretty enjoyable. On the flight out to LAX, I sat next to a Canadian couple going to Auckland. I talked to the guy for pretty much the whole flight. We talked about curling which he was really in to. Each stone that they curl with comes from only one granite pit in Scotland (talk about a monopoly). They last about 20 years and cost a lot. The flight actually went pretty well. When we landed we had to walk pretty much a mile thought the terminal to arrive in Quantas. At security then took my Nalgene because it had like maybe an ounce of water (FUCK CALI). From then on we had to gather all the troops as all the flights came in I had a 6 hour layover in LAX. We all gather in the BK and then migrated to Chili’s where I paid 8$ USD for a beer. I then boarded the plane on my way to OZ. On the plane I sat next to two kids coming back from Vail on a Snowboarding adventure. We exchanged all the difference and they gave me a little heads up on what to say and not to say. Also a little Does and don’ts out in public. He told me that Sydney was very americanized and that I could find many places I shopped and ate at in Michigan in OZ. That was kind of disappointing but ended up being true. The flight of 14 hours went by wicked fast. I talked to those kids for like 4 hours and ate at like 2 in the morning. What is funny is you can get beer or wine with your meal free and pretty much as much to drink as you want. I then slept for about 8 hours and woke up and watched AUSTRALIA THE MOVIE.

I know very fitting right watch the movie about where you are going. Actually like 2/3 of the people watching movies were watching that. We touched down and went through customs I check so many boxes cause I wanted to be careful that the lady though I was so honest about it that she let me go right threw without even searching my bag or asking any other questions and I got super fast tracked. We then got on a train to get from international to domestic flights where we held up the flight for 30 min because check in was so god damn slow. The entire back of the plane was missing. In OZ no one takes their shoes off and you can have as much liquid as you want. The Flight to Cairns was very uneventful other that instead of getting peanuts and a coke you get a Pink frosted cupcake for breast cancer.

Day 1 after all the flights

Well after we got to Cairns, we only had about an hour before we had to go to the first info session. The sessions were all very boring with lots of information so that we could fit into OZ better. Actually a lot of the sessions were customs and stuff about the animals and this is all I going to post about them cause they all sucked. Pretty much after it, everyone went to bed because everyone was dead.

Day 2 Rainforest station

We went up the mountain in Cairns to a place called rainforest station. Here we went on a very tourist trip through the rain forest and hung out with kangaroos and koalas. We played didgeridoos and I learn that if females play them they are cursed with twins. I don’t know why that is bad but I guess it is. Then we went back to the hostel. We had to go to another meeting about OZ. We then went out o the backpacker bar in Cairns. This bar wasn’t that much different hen any bar in the USA other then it had golf fish racing. I will repeat GOLD FISH RACING.

This is probably the cool thing I have ever seen. You each pick a gold fish for 5 $ they were all from different countries. One of the kids I was with bought the raging dyke from Holland. Unfortunately the Canuck won and the kid won the pot of I don’t know how much money.

Day 3 the REEF

So when you go to OZ you have to go to the Reef. We took this giant catamaran sailboat out to this little island in the reef. It is a sea bird sanctuary so they roped off like a 20 by 10 foot section that you couldn’t go out of. If you did, it was an 8500 AUD fine. I did not go out of my area. I when snorkeling with everyone and just floated in the ocean and watched fish. It was nuts how blue the water is. It’s also cool to see giant clams. They don’t eat or move like the cartoons make them out to be at all. They have like tubes they eat stuff with. They don’t really open and close there shell to eat at all. It was beautiful down there just floating with the water watching everything. Then I went scuba diving in the reef. It was really cool to see the reef at eye level. I unfortunately then I found out I was scared of eels. I really didn’t like the reef after that. They hide all over it and just pop there head out of little holes and stuff and really creeped me out. I did take lots of picture underwater with my camera. This was the first time I used my camera in salt water and it didn’t rust which is good. The boat was lots of fun sailing around on the ocean I did get burned. I even put tons of sunscreen on like 3 or 4 times but getting in and out of the water I guess washed it off. I didn’t even think that I was that burn but somehow even my lips where burned from the little trip so I got lots of sun I guess. That night we just went down to the bar at the hotel and had a couple of beers. No one really wanted to go out because the next morning we had to get up and go the airport at for a 9:30AM flight. There was a grog party. This is the term Aussie use to describe any crappy wine. The wine was actually really bad I couldn’t even drink it. I would put it up there with like mixing everclear with grape juice and saying that is wine.

Day 4 more plane flights and setting up shop

So we woke up and ate then went and caught our flight. The people of OZ have the easiest security ever. You don’t have to take your shoes off or remove your liquids. This makes going though security very fast and if you screw up you do not feel like you going to be strip-searched if you forgot to take your watch off. When we got to Sydney we got our shuttle to our place. It was an interesting ride seeing a working suburb before getting into the CBD, which is the Central Business District, which is what they call downtown.

I got to the place I am staying for my 6 month stint here in Sydney. The place is about 215 square feet. It is really small but has really high ceilings. The conditions of the rooms are very nice they are just well small. I wish I would have gotten into the dorms but oh well so far I really like being at the UNILODGE. After we put all of our stuff in our room we had to go shopping to buy all the stuff we didn’t bring. I bought some sheets that are red just like my ones at Tech. I bought this really cool blanket but it sheds just like a dog pretty much. I washed it twice already and it is still shedding so I’m just saying screw it and when it stops shedding it stops. That night of course because we had been traveling all day we finally got around to eating. I ate at 7 and at midnight that day. We went to this café that sold pizza and beer. They have a happy hour from 3-8 with $5 pizza and $10 pizza. It was very cheap. It is odd in Sydney there are meal menu based on price. So like a $7 menu with purchase of a drink. After that we were going to go to the roof of our building. It was closed so we said screw it and just went to bed.

Day 5

This day was also spent really just setting up my Apt. We went food shopping which was really fun. Everything here is very americanized. I went shopping so far at Kmart and Target and the food place was Coles. Everyone here uses those green bag you don’t see any plastic bags for the most part. I have like 3 or 4 already it seems like everyone gives you when you buy so much stuff. After that we walked around a little to get to know the area. We went out that night to a bar near by.

Day 6

This whole time I have not had internet so my friend and I went to the school to get internet. This was the first time I had been on campus. The building is somewhat weird because it was built in the 70 but has all very modern furniture in it.

Day 7

Monday was orientation for all international students. I went to campus again and sat though a bunch of stuff I already had hear about when I had to go to orientation for my school back home. I did meet this German guy that day. We exchanged numbers and now have gone out to the bar and hung out. I then meet like ever German in Sydney I think that is on the exchange program.

Day 8

I opened my bank account! This is good because I can now get to money. Other than that during the day was lots of just general screwing around it took 2 hours for me to open the account. We then did try to get an Australian government id to carry around with us. This was not a short walk. The woman at the desk said it was an easy walk just straight up this road. She was right about half of it. It was a 45 min up the road. When we got there we needed a proof or residence which none of us had so we had to come back the next day. That night we went to the dance club. It was CRAZY and very hot. It is kind of weird how they dance it reminds me off what you see in the 50’s for a dance style. It was so hot and muggy in this place it wasn’t even funny. One thing I have noticed is America Owns all things media wise. The place only played American music for the most part it didn’t even seem like I was out of the country. It was all very billboard top 100. They also love Kings of Leon It plays like every 5 song I swear. Also all the stores play what I would consider pop music there is no elevator music. They also don’t listen to American rap which I am very grateful for. It is so nice not to hear about Bitches rims and a bunch of useless hood life.

Day 9

This was the day we decide we were going to go to the Blue Mountains on the weekend. We then went and got our id card for the government. This was super cool because they print them out right there. There is no temp ID or anything you go in and they just print you a new card right then. Before we got our government ID I had gone to the doctor because I have a sinus infection which really sucks. I then had to find a Pharmacy so I did the most racial thing I could think of and we went to china town and found a place I could get the RX filled. That night we went to the Hotel across the street. This was really cool because they had li ve music. It was also interesting because of the people that were not there for the music was a bunch of Rugby players that were on the way to the USA and were all giants. They all had to be twice my width and a foot taller then me it seemed. It was really nice to only have to walk across the street to get home.

Day 10

The day before we left for the Blue Mountains it was time to hit all of the books I brought with me for stuff to see and do. We kind of just screwed around all day I went to the school to use the internet. I then also found out that I have somehow screwed up my laptop and can only use wireless internet. This sucks but whatever. I actually decide that instead of using the shitty internet at the place I am living at which has the worst service ever and you are stuck with them I bought one of those Usb Mobile Modem, which is cool. Unfortunately this does not work on my laptop either because it is screwed up I have to call Lenovo so I can get it working. I then just went out to meet up with the Germans and hung out and played Snooker.

Observations so far

· The Mohawk mullet is a popular hair cut same with long hair.

· No Refills on drinks

· They don’t put ketchup on fry’s and they call it tomato sauce

· They have Tasty and old English cheese

· Most of the guys dress like people in America would consider gay

· Cheers and no worries are bought the ending statement when you stop talking to someone

· Coke and all bottled drinks are really expensive

· They have all the fast food chains here

· The KFC sponsors cricket

· They have two types of flushing for toilets half and full

· They stand and walk on the opposite direction we do

· All the food here is healthy even McDonalds for the most part

· You can ultra lean burgers like 99% meat and only 1% fat which is nuts

· You still buy pants in inches

· There are a billion Asian people in Sydney

· I don’t think that many native born Australians live in the city they all live in the suburbs

· People really don’t like to wear shoes. They always try to take them off.

· I have seen people in Speedos walking around the mall like it is no big deal and no one even cared either it is normal

· Everyone seem to be going or coming from the beach and regularly were a bathingsuit

· Once and a while you will reach in your pocket and find that you have $20 dollars in change from the dime sized $2 coin.

· 100 people fall in the gap at the train station every year more then sharks and bee deaths

Day 11

Woke up and packed for the trip to the Blue Mountain. We went to the train station which is like a 10 min walk from my apt which is very nice. We bought the tickets that were only $12 and boarded the train and watched the world through a window. Actually I type days 4-10 well on the train and everything before this also. So we got to the Blue Mountains and it was actually really raining and misty.

But while we were there it cleared up and it was absolutely beautiful. We then decided to go on a bushwalk that ended up being about 9km plus about 200 meters down and 200 meters up. It was so much fun to be roaming around in the forest and seeing all the waterfalls and stream. We went down a giant staircase that was about 1000 steps down. This took forever to get down about an hour. They were the steepest steps I have ever been on. They were all just carved out of a rock face and went on for what seemed like forever. After hiking for about 1.5 hours we finally reached the waterfall. It was pretty cool plus we all jumped over the rails and made our own little path closer to the falls. After that it was just all uphill or really up a rock face. After going up the other 1000 steps on the other side of the canyon we figured out we were not close to everything and had missed the last bus. We then figured out what way we needed to go and started walking. One of the chicks started to try to hitchhike and it work perfectly. The second car that went by picked us up. I jumped in the trunk of this woman named Jennie. She was very nice. She actually was in her PJ and apologized for not being dress. She took us back where we needed to go and we all thanked her very much. After we got back to the hostel, we figured out where we were going to eat. We ate at this Noodle place and I had a big bowl of noodles, beef, chicken, pork and prawns. It was really good after a fairly cold day of hiking. We then went to Liquor Land got some beer and went back and played cards for a little while before we all went to bed.

Day 12 first half

We all woke up and decide it was too rainy to do anything and we had to carry our bags all day cause check out was at 10. Therefore, we went to this little Belgium Waffle place got breakfast that was so delicious. The Waffle was very small only about the size of a tea saucer. It was dense because the dough they used look like little cubes and then it would be smooched. They were so good I cannot get over it. We then went to the train station, bought our tickets, and boarded the train. We then somehow found the one train door that did not close all the way and had a draft the entire time.