Me, my roommate Caitlin, and our friend Steph planned our Melbourne trip a month and a half ago or so and it finally snuck up on us! We had a packed weekend that was extremely relaxing and we saw some amazingly gorgeous scenery as well.
Our trip began Thursday night with our train to the Sydney Domestic Airport. It's weird to think about, but I've become used to flying because of my time over here and I think that I quite enjoy it. Except for my right ear, which doesn't like to pop and I have to wait for it to do it by itself. If I try to, I just sit there, blowing while holding my nose until my face turns red, without any success. But yeah, we arrive in Melbourne after a 1.25 hour flight and take a taxi to our hostel, Urban Central, which ended up being one of the best hostels any of us had stayed in. There was complimentary rice/pasta that you could make in the kitchen, it was just the three of us in a huge room, the security was good, everything was clean, and they had free breakfast in the morning too! We get situated in our room, plan out what we want to do the next day and head to bed.
On Friday, the plan had been to wake up at 9 to get breakfast and then make our way out into the city. Wellll, that did not happen. We woke up around noon. Despite our late start, we all agreed that it was really awesome to sleep in because generally we don't get to sleep in very much - if we miss breakfast at I-house, we miss the chance to make our lunch, so you actually end up missing both meals. After we freshen up, we walk into the main part of the city (only about ten minutes away from our hostel) and then catch a tram to the Shrine of Remembrance.
The Shrine of Remembrance is Victoria's (the state/province that Melbourne is in) memorial to their fallen heroes. It was very serious business. Like I've mentioned before, I know a lot of how Australia was affected by World War 1, which is probably why I considered it to be so serious and intense. Have I said that Australia suffered the highest casualty rate of any country in WW1? At the memorial, they have an eternal flame, some statues, a garden, and the Shrine itself. Inside are rows upon rows of medals bestowed upon Australia servicemen and there is also a crypt that has some flags and plaques. There was one really interesting room - the top is like a pyramid with the top cut off so the light can shine through, and directly below it is a plaque bearing the words: "Greater Love Hath No Man." Apparently, on the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month (Armistice Day, when WW1 basically ended) the sun is shining directly on the word "Love." Does that give you tingles? It did for me. Military industrial complex aside, I think the supreme sacrifice people give for their country is absolutely gorgeous and is no small thing to throw aside.
We got a cab from the Shrine of Remembrance to basically the other side of the city to see Dralion, the Cirque du Soleil show that was playing. We had really good seats - we were on the second level, so we didn't have to strain our necks to look up when they were doing aerial stunts and we were directly center stage. I don't have any pictures from the show itself because they don't allow you to take pictures, but man, it was a fantastic show. I had only seen some snippets of Cirque du Soleil on tv, but it doesn't compare anyway. Some of the things people can manage to do it just incredible - this one girl, she was like rubber. At one point, she was standing on one hand on a post and lifted her legs up behind her and was using her feet to move her head. Unbelievable. Some of the other main acts included people falling onto trampolines and then running up walls, a man juggling 6 balls at one time all the while doing crazy acrobats, people doing flips through hoops, a girl and a guy flying around holding onto each other but not supported by any wires except the ribbons they were flying around on (this part was supposed to emulate two lovers, but we did some research later and discovered that the pair was actually brother and sister! we felt a little grossed out), and then a bunch of girls standing on their tip toes on top of one another while the bottom girl was standing on a glass bulb. Seriously, I was amazed and awed and had a fantastic time. I haven't been to an animal circus in a long time, but I think that human circuses are probably way cooler - this way no animals are treated cruelly and you get to see the outer limits of what human bodies are capable of.
After the show we got some dinner at an italian restaurant and while the food was okay, the service was slightly lacking. They told us, when we came to Australia, to absolutely not tip because it the waiters and waitresses get paid enough that it's not expected. But when we were out, it sure seemed like it was expected! We asked someone about it here at I-house, and he said that if you're at a classier restaurant, you tip anywhere from 5 to 10%. Whoops. We definitely didn't tip but we felt it was slightly deserved because of the attitude we got. We returned to our hostel and although we originally had intentions of going out, we decided instead to go to sleep - we were going to have to get up very early for our Saturday trip.
When we told people we were going to Melbourne, a common comment was that we had to do the Great Ocean Road, so that's what our Saturday consisted of. We woke up at 7 am for breakfast and then got picked up at 8 am for our tour. The Great Ocean Road stretches I think around 250 km, but we ended up driving around for 600 km on the tour. It was inspired by the Great Pacific Road (I think that's the name) in California by an Australian who was working there. Technically, the Great Ocean Road is the longest war memorial in the World, because it was built in memory of all the fallen soldiers. What happened is that Australian who visited California came back and wanted to see the same thing built to go around Victoria's coast line, so he talked to the local government about it and said it would be a way to give returning soldiers jobs and the opportunity to be with their mates again. Really, I think that the dude just wanted the road so he was willing to swing it whatever way he needed to get it, but I'm not about to talk smack about a war memorial.
The tour takes us to Bells Beach, where most of the international surfing competitions are held in Australia and the beach name that was used in Point Break (it was actually filmed in Oregon or Wisconsin or something like that). We stopped at the memorial arch for the Road and checked out the beach right by it. The coast line is absolutely fantastic - there are cliffs and rocks that the water breaks against and I really think it's nature at it's finest (and potential deadliest). We visited this place that has a lot of wild koalas (it's illegal in Victoria for humans to handle koalas) and parrots - we got to feed the parrots and my guess is that people have been doing it for quite some time, because the parrots would just fly up onto your hands, shoulders, head, ears, etc. After lunch in Apollo Bay, a popular vacation destination for Victorians, we went for a walk in the rainforest at Mait's Rest. Now, when you think of rainforest, you think hot and sticky. No. Not here. It was actually colder in the rain forest than it was out of it. Apparently carnivorous snails live around where we were walking, but I couldn't find any, even after attempting to do an impromtu carnivorous snail mating call. After our trek in the rainforest, we went to the main attractions of the Great Ocean Road - the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are rock formations that are out in the surf area of the ocean - it is postulated that they were once part of the land, but erosion from wind and water eventually separated everything. They were all quite magnificent to see. Then we visited a gorge known as the Loch Ard Gorge, after a ship that crashed right outside of it had only two survivors, whom seeked refuge in the gorge. The final stop on the tour was the site of the London Bridge. It has since fallen down (it collapsed in 1990), but Lee, our tour guide told us an interesting story:
A couple had just finished walking over the bridge to the other part of the rock formation when the bridge suddenly crashed down into the water below. Luckily, the group of school children that were behind them had yet to walk onto the bridge so they didn't plummet to their deaths. Now, the couple stuck over on the other side had no way of getting back to the main land and it was starting to get cold and dark. Someone had run down to the police station to see if they could call a helicopter in but they were all being used elsewhere except one, which was on a training exercise for flying in bad weather (did I mention it was stormy?) Well, the local news station decides it wants to cover the story of the London Bridge collapsing and instead of having the helicopter fly out to help the people, it went to pick up the local reporters first and then over to the people. But, the couple doesn't want anything to do with the news (you'll find out why later!), so the reporters get back in the helicopter but the couple isn't allowed in the helicopter because they're not insured! So they have to wait for a rescue helicopter and finally they get off and into the parking lot and they just take off! Turns out, the guy was taking a sick day/extended weekend from work and BIG SURPRISE HE WASN'T THERE WITH HIS WIFE!! He was there with his mistress!! Hahaha.
So we get back from the Great Ocean Road around 10 pm and our plan had, once more, been to go out (there was a bar in the bottom floor of our hostel!) but once we laid down on the floor, we were like, ehh, let's go to sleep. So, we plan our day for Sunday with a 8 am start.
We actually get up at 830 am. We eat breakfast, shower, check out (we leave our luggage in the hostel) and then catch a tram up to the Queen Victoria Market. Getting around Melbourne is actually really easy - there are trams that come every 5 or 10 minutes that go in any direction you could want and I think that they had a metro and bus system, but we never had to use them. The Queen Victoria Market is like the Eastern Markets on crack. There were so many stalls! After a row or two of them though, you realize that it's mostly all the same stuff - just different prices. We shopped around for some souvenirs and then caught a tram down to Federation Square, which had some crazy glass arts buildings and a big courtyard that people were just chilling in. From there we walked to the Eureka Skytower, which has the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere and the only 'edge' experience. We rode an elevator up to the 88th floor and got a really cool view of the city - I was able to spot our hostel and the Queen Victoria Market and the Shrine. The city proper of Melbourne seemed just way smaller from up so high! The edge experience you basically go into a glass box and you are moved out from the building 3 meters. You can look straight down through the bottom to the street below - it didn't scare me or even make a little bit of adrenaline pump. I think that having jumped out of a plane at 15000 feet has made me a little impervious to lesser heights. We left the Sky Tower and then caught a tram to St.Kilda, which is right next to the beach and has a really eclectic community. We got some dinner, then walked around on the two main streets - Fitzroy and Acland. Fitzroy has a lot of restaurants, and Acland street is known for it's bakeries and nightlife. We got some tasty treats from the bakeries, took a few pictures and then headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and make our way to the airport.
Overall, we decided that you could spend at least a week in Melbourne and not even on sightseeing - there were some really cool looking places in St.Kilda that we would have wanted to go check out if we had had some more time. We really had a great time there because everything just fell into place - the hostel was clean which left us feeling refreshed and ready for the day, Cirque du Soleil was awesome, the Great Ocean Road was an adventure, and moving around the city was very stress free. It was fun though, being in a city and not really knowing anything about it and just figuring things out as you go. I can't wait to do it again when we visit Canberra!
04 May 2009
History Lesson and ANZAC Memorial Service
So this week begins Week 9 of uni and surprisingly enough, I'm actually going to have to start doing work! I have three papers due in the next month and a half or so, and while I'm not overly concerned about them, I haven't started doing research at all for them. So, I'm going to have to put off reading The Two Towers and Return of the King until I got a little more work done. I started The Fellowship of the Ring last Monday and was finished by Wednesday, but in that time period I didn't do much else except read and seeing as how I really need to start doing homework, I can't afford to start reading just quite yet. This does bring my "Books Read in Australia" toll up to 7 - the most leisure reading I think I've done in a semester ever. Anyway, reading is not what this post is about, so I'll get started with Australian stuff.
April 25 is called ANZAC Day here in Australia and I'm guessing New Zealand, although I don't know how big of a deal it is for them. I know a lot about ANZAC from my history class, so be prepared to read a little bit about Australia in World War 1.
ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and back when men were needed in World War 1 the two countries for the most part were kept together. So because the British like to think themselves quite superior to everyone else, they sent the ANZAC forces to Egypt for additional training because they did not think that they had been sufficiently trained in their native countries. I suppose this is actually probably true, but I like to think of the British as pompous. The Aussies were chillin' in Egypt, generally being drunken, loud, promiscuous soldiers when finally they were called up for duty. Now, they were all under the impression they were going to the Western Front in France, except no, they were being sent to Gallipoli in Turkey. There is quite a bit of scandal surrounding the decision to attack Turkey - Churchill agreed to send men to fight in Gallipoli even though he was only sending about half of the soldiers that it was suggested was needed to win and further they sent ANZAC in using old tourist maps as their battle maps. I think the best explanation is a comment Lenin made which has been gathering some credence - the Gallipoli campaign was always meant to lose, so that way Russia would not have a gateway to the sea and therefore gain that waterway.
So now that you know some history, the Aussies landed on Gallipoli on the 25 of April. As it was explained to me by someone else, Gallipoli to the Australians is kind of like Normandy Beach to us. Basically, it's really a big deal. So, ANZAC day commemorates Australia's big entrance into war and the realization of her national identity as well as remembers those men who gave their lives for Empire. Wollongong celebrates this by having a 4:45 am MORNING SERVICE. That is right, I woke up at 4 am to go to their memorial service. There were about 10 or 12 of us from International House that ended up going to the service - all Australians except for a Canadian and me and my friend Rachel (we're both American, clearly). It was held down by their war memorial and just had some local military personnel, some talks, some songs (including the Australian National Anthem, which says Australia 5 times!), a bugle song (it wasn't Taps, but I still liked it) and that was pretty much it. It lasted around half an hour. There was to be a parade later on, but I went back to my dorm and fell asleep. Overall, I was a little let down but I think that had something to do with me expecting it to be something like Memorial Day back home. I don't know how it happened, but I think that I have more of an appreciation now of what American soldiers died for and I'm a little sad that I'm going to miss Memorial Day in good ol' West Grove.
Because this post is kind of long, I think I'm going to leave off for now and I'll write up about my trip to Melbourne (I went this past weekend) tomorrow. I'll also go ahead and make an effort to put up pictures from Melbourne, just because I'm making you wait to read about the trip.
April 25 is called ANZAC Day here in Australia and I'm guessing New Zealand, although I don't know how big of a deal it is for them. I know a lot about ANZAC from my history class, so be prepared to read a little bit about Australia in World War 1.
ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and back when men were needed in World War 1 the two countries for the most part were kept together. So because the British like to think themselves quite superior to everyone else, they sent the ANZAC forces to Egypt for additional training because they did not think that they had been sufficiently trained in their native countries. I suppose this is actually probably true, but I like to think of the British as pompous. The Aussies were chillin' in Egypt, generally being drunken, loud, promiscuous soldiers when finally they were called up for duty. Now, they were all under the impression they were going to the Western Front in France, except no, they were being sent to Gallipoli in Turkey. There is quite a bit of scandal surrounding the decision to attack Turkey - Churchill agreed to send men to fight in Gallipoli even though he was only sending about half of the soldiers that it was suggested was needed to win and further they sent ANZAC in using old tourist maps as their battle maps. I think the best explanation is a comment Lenin made which has been gathering some credence - the Gallipoli campaign was always meant to lose, so that way Russia would not have a gateway to the sea and therefore gain that waterway.
So now that you know some history, the Aussies landed on Gallipoli on the 25 of April. As it was explained to me by someone else, Gallipoli to the Australians is kind of like Normandy Beach to us. Basically, it's really a big deal. So, ANZAC day commemorates Australia's big entrance into war and the realization of her national identity as well as remembers those men who gave their lives for Empire. Wollongong celebrates this by having a 4:45 am MORNING SERVICE. That is right, I woke up at 4 am to go to their memorial service. There were about 10 or 12 of us from International House that ended up going to the service - all Australians except for a Canadian and me and my friend Rachel (we're both American, clearly). It was held down by their war memorial and just had some local military personnel, some talks, some songs (including the Australian National Anthem, which says Australia 5 times!), a bugle song (it wasn't Taps, but I still liked it) and that was pretty much it. It lasted around half an hour. There was to be a parade later on, but I went back to my dorm and fell asleep. Overall, I was a little let down but I think that had something to do with me expecting it to be something like Memorial Day back home. I don't know how it happened, but I think that I have more of an appreciation now of what American soldiers died for and I'm a little sad that I'm going to miss Memorial Day in good ol' West Grove.
Because this post is kind of long, I think I'm going to leave off for now and I'll write up about my trip to Melbourne (I went this past weekend) tomorrow. I'll also go ahead and make an effort to put up pictures from Melbourne, just because I'm making you wait to read about the trip.
27 April 2009
New Zealand Lord of the Rings Trip!
Well, I have officially been to the most gorgeous place I’ve ever seen (yes, this beats Kiama). And that place is New Zealand! Not really one specific place, but all of it completely. Because there are so few people that live in New Zealand, as soon as you leave the cities you can really understand why Peter Jackson filmed Lord of the Rings there – it seemed to actually be Middle Earth.
We flew into Auckland, one of the major cities on the North Island. NZ doesn’t have states – instead it has regions, but apparently that doesn’t really make a difference until it comes to rugby. At a population of 1.4 million, Auckland has one third of the entire population of New Zealand. We didn’t spend any time in Auckland itself really – it was just where we picked up – a 6.8 meter long, 3.1 meter high, 3.2 meter wide – campervan that we affectionately named Gwahir, after the eagle that saves and carries Gandalf a few times in the novels/movies. We name our GPS system Galadriel, because she does the voiceovers at the beginning of the film and helps guide the fellowship along.
Ok, so, the Lord of the Rings sites that we visited: Weathertop (Port Waikato), Hobbiton (Mata Mata), Mt. Doom (Mt. Ruapehu), Mushrooms/Get Off the Road Scene, Dun Harrow, Isengard, Lothlorien, Rivendell, Unconscious Viggo (all of these were around Wellington, we visited them on our 8 hour day tour), and the Misty Mountains (Southern Alps). We also drove past the quarry where Helm’s Deep was built, visited the jewellery shop where The Ring was made and visited Weta Cave, a mini museum belonging to Weta, which is the special effects company Peter Jackson helped found. While some people out there might not find this fascinating, I loved thinking that I stood in the same place where 10 years or so before some awesomeness was being filmed. In a decent amount of places, I and my friend Brett acted out some of the scenes. On Mt. Doom, we have a mini slideshow of what happened in the film at the beginning of the Fellowship.
In addition to Lord of the Rings sites, we also saw some other really cool places. Lake Taupo, where I sky dived (more on that later!), was an absolutely amazing place. We had no idea it was such a cute little place with so much to do, or else we would have budgeted more time in there. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in the southern hemisphere and had some magnificent views – it was surrounded by mountains and forests and nature at its absolute finest. We spent a few days in Wellington, but one day was specifically for being in the city. We checked out Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand, did some shopping, and I took a tour of Parliament and walked around the Harbour for a bit. I loved Lake Tekapo too, where in the distance you can see where the Southern Alps. The lake is fed by glaciers and was really cold, but that didn’t stop me from walking around a bit in it. Only up to the middle of my calves though because it felt like in under a minute your feet would go numb.
So what exciting things did I do? Well, besides seeing all of the Lord of the Rings places, I also watched all three extended movie versions in New Zealand! I find there to be something poetic about it. Onto the real exciting things. I took a ferry ride from the North Island to the South Island and driving on and off the ferry was fun. Because Hobbiton was filmed on a sheep farm, we got a sheep shearing demonstration and I bottle fed a sheep. I ate at the Green Parrot, a restaurant in Wellington where Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) used to eat at all the time back during filming. And of course, I went sky diving!
To start off with, I would absolutely sky dive again. We had perfect weather that day; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We decided to sky dive from 15000 feet so we pile into the plane and start flying up. Aside from the four of us, our four tandem divers, and four cameramen, there were two other divers going from 12000 feet and their two tandem divers. So 16 people in a tiny little plane. I think the craziest part of the entire experience was right before we dove out of the plane. We’re strapped to our dive masters (mine was a German named Albert) and they just pop your legs out of the plane so you’re dangling on the edge of the plane with absolutely nothing underneath you for miles except air. Then, we just slid off the edge of the plane and fell. I think that for the first few seconds, you don’t even realize that you’re plummeting towards the Earth – there definitely isn’t a sensation of falling, except for the wind blowing past your face. As we’re falling, the wind was blowing in my face so hard that my cheeks were flapping hardcore and spit was flying out of my mouth (probably into Albert’s – sorry dude!). Free-falling is definitely one of the wildest feelings ever – there’s absolutely nothing around you except the air. Once the parachute was pulled, we just drifted down and that’s when I really got the chance to look around me at the scenery. I was on top of the world! Everything looked so small. Albert and I ran in for the landing ( I don’t know why he had us run in, everyone else got to slide in) and it was over! One minute or so of free fall and I guess two or three minutes of just drifting. Regardless, it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! I have 100 pictures that were taken of me during the free fall (some are very very funny) and a DVD of everyone jumping out. Find me when I get home and I’ll show you!
There were some things that I’m a little sad I didn’t get the chance to do. At Lake Tekapo, we were going to go on a horseback ride along a trail that took us around the lake, but we didn’t get a chance to. Two of my friends also bungee jumped, and while I know that it’s probably best for me to not risk hurting myself (my knees, I’m not worried about anything else), I still want to give it a try. I think I would also like to kayak along some of the rivers in NZ – it’s the beginning of autumn over there right now, so the foliage was beautiful and I think that a kayak trip down a river would give me a spectacular view of all the trees. We visited Mt.Cook, which is the highest peak in Australasia, but only got a glimpse of it and I think that hiking up it would be a lot of fun, albeit very cold. There are a lot of places in the South Island that we didn’t visit – there is a glacier which I wish we would have been able to fit in, Queenstown which has a lot of adrenaline filled things to do, and Dunedin where apparently is just a happenin’ place. There are also a few places in Wellington that I wish I would have been able to get a look at – the National Archives, a bunch of exhibits in Te Papa, and I would have liked to see a session of Parliament. I’ve decided that in order to do all these things, I’m just going to have to return to New Zealand one day.
Finally, after what seemed like forever to upload, I've selected for your viewing pleasure some New Zealand pictures! Follow this link and it'll take you to Google's picture website: http://picasaweb.google.com/hohumdedum02/AbroadDownUnder?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6g_OWo5ZakXw&feat=directlink
We flew into Auckland, one of the major cities on the North Island. NZ doesn’t have states – instead it has regions, but apparently that doesn’t really make a difference until it comes to rugby. At a population of 1.4 million, Auckland has one third of the entire population of New Zealand. We didn’t spend any time in Auckland itself really – it was just where we picked up – a 6.8 meter long, 3.1 meter high, 3.2 meter wide – campervan that we affectionately named Gwahir, after the eagle that saves and carries Gandalf a few times in the novels/movies. We name our GPS system Galadriel, because she does the voiceovers at the beginning of the film and helps guide the fellowship along.
Ok, so, the Lord of the Rings sites that we visited: Weathertop (Port Waikato), Hobbiton (Mata Mata), Mt. Doom (Mt. Ruapehu), Mushrooms/Get Off the Road Scene, Dun Harrow, Isengard, Lothlorien, Rivendell, Unconscious Viggo (all of these were around Wellington, we visited them on our 8 hour day tour), and the Misty Mountains (Southern Alps). We also drove past the quarry where Helm’s Deep was built, visited the jewellery shop where The Ring was made and visited Weta Cave, a mini museum belonging to Weta, which is the special effects company Peter Jackson helped found. While some people out there might not find this fascinating, I loved thinking that I stood in the same place where 10 years or so before some awesomeness was being filmed. In a decent amount of places, I and my friend Brett acted out some of the scenes. On Mt. Doom, we have a mini slideshow of what happened in the film at the beginning of the Fellowship.
In addition to Lord of the Rings sites, we also saw some other really cool places. Lake Taupo, where I sky dived (more on that later!), was an absolutely amazing place. We had no idea it was such a cute little place with so much to do, or else we would have budgeted more time in there. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in the southern hemisphere and had some magnificent views – it was surrounded by mountains and forests and nature at its absolute finest. We spent a few days in Wellington, but one day was specifically for being in the city. We checked out Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand, did some shopping, and I took a tour of Parliament and walked around the Harbour for a bit. I loved Lake Tekapo too, where in the distance you can see where the Southern Alps. The lake is fed by glaciers and was really cold, but that didn’t stop me from walking around a bit in it. Only up to the middle of my calves though because it felt like in under a minute your feet would go numb.
So what exciting things did I do? Well, besides seeing all of the Lord of the Rings places, I also watched all three extended movie versions in New Zealand! I find there to be something poetic about it. Onto the real exciting things. I took a ferry ride from the North Island to the South Island and driving on and off the ferry was fun. Because Hobbiton was filmed on a sheep farm, we got a sheep shearing demonstration and I bottle fed a sheep. I ate at the Green Parrot, a restaurant in Wellington where Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) used to eat at all the time back during filming. And of course, I went sky diving!
To start off with, I would absolutely sky dive again. We had perfect weather that day; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We decided to sky dive from 15000 feet so we pile into the plane and start flying up. Aside from the four of us, our four tandem divers, and four cameramen, there were two other divers going from 12000 feet and their two tandem divers. So 16 people in a tiny little plane. I think the craziest part of the entire experience was right before we dove out of the plane. We’re strapped to our dive masters (mine was a German named Albert) and they just pop your legs out of the plane so you’re dangling on the edge of the plane with absolutely nothing underneath you for miles except air. Then, we just slid off the edge of the plane and fell. I think that for the first few seconds, you don’t even realize that you’re plummeting towards the Earth – there definitely isn’t a sensation of falling, except for the wind blowing past your face. As we’re falling, the wind was blowing in my face so hard that my cheeks were flapping hardcore and spit was flying out of my mouth (probably into Albert’s – sorry dude!). Free-falling is definitely one of the wildest feelings ever – there’s absolutely nothing around you except the air. Once the parachute was pulled, we just drifted down and that’s when I really got the chance to look around me at the scenery. I was on top of the world! Everything looked so small. Albert and I ran in for the landing ( I don’t know why he had us run in, everyone else got to slide in) and it was over! One minute or so of free fall and I guess two or three minutes of just drifting. Regardless, it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! I have 100 pictures that were taken of me during the free fall (some are very very funny) and a DVD of everyone jumping out. Find me when I get home and I’ll show you!
There were some things that I’m a little sad I didn’t get the chance to do. At Lake Tekapo, we were going to go on a horseback ride along a trail that took us around the lake, but we didn’t get a chance to. Two of my friends also bungee jumped, and while I know that it’s probably best for me to not risk hurting myself (my knees, I’m not worried about anything else), I still want to give it a try. I think I would also like to kayak along some of the rivers in NZ – it’s the beginning of autumn over there right now, so the foliage was beautiful and I think that a kayak trip down a river would give me a spectacular view of all the trees. We visited Mt.Cook, which is the highest peak in Australasia, but only got a glimpse of it and I think that hiking up it would be a lot of fun, albeit very cold. There are a lot of places in the South Island that we didn’t visit – there is a glacier which I wish we would have been able to fit in, Queenstown which has a lot of adrenaline filled things to do, and Dunedin where apparently is just a happenin’ place. There are also a few places in Wellington that I wish I would have been able to get a look at – the National Archives, a bunch of exhibits in Te Papa, and I would have liked to see a session of Parliament. I’ve decided that in order to do all these things, I’m just going to have to return to New Zealand one day.
Finally, after what seemed like forever to upload, I've selected for your viewing pleasure some New Zealand pictures! Follow this link and it'll take you to Google's picture website: http://picasaweb.google.com/hohumdedum02/AbroadDownUnder?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6g_OWo5ZakXw&feat=directlink
09 April 2009
Halfway done with the semester?!
Apparently I'm halfway done with this semester. Unbelievable, completely. Next week is our mid-session/Easter break (not spring break, because it's fall down here, although all us Americans still refer to it as spring break) and then there are seven more weeks left and then finals! Although, we get a study week for finals and finals extend for a good two weeks I think. But after that comes June 30 and then I'll be heading home. It's strange to think about - it definitely doesn't feel like I've had six weeks of classes already, but I suppose that's because my schedule is just that awesome.
I'll go ahead and comment on my classes - my parents will be happy to know that I am doing all my work and it at least feels like I'm doing well. In my history class, I've had two assignments that were returned to me - I got A's on both of them. I've given two presentations so far (I mentioned the one for my history class I think - the other one was a presentation on the Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) harvest of the Sooty Shearwater (a bird that breeds in New Zealand). I didn't have any midterms this semester but when I return from break I'm going to have to start working on three papers - they're not due for a while (mid to end of May) but it's a lot easier to get big assignments done here because I don't spend so much time on doing homework. The reading load is just way less than back home. I think it's also because of the subjects I'm taking here - as an Arts student (basically, not an engineer like everyone else here) I don't have a lot of contact hours, so it leaves more time for me to just do things. For one of my assignments, I did legitimate research - it's actually probably the best piece of work I've written in a while.
Moving on, I haven't really been doing anything very exciting. All last week it was rainy and overcast so we couldn't go to the beach, not to mention it's getting colder and that is really tragic too. Of course, by colder I mean it's in the high 60s low 70s, but it's all relative. My dorm had a Harbour Cruise on Sydney's Darling Harbour, so that was really awesome. On the walk from the train station to where the boat was picking us up, we saw 10 brides. 10! It was neat though because we got to scrutinize all the dresses and decide which one we would or wouldn't wear. I didn't bring my camera that night, but luckily (I suppose) I left my purse on the boat that night and had to go back to Sydney to retrieve it so I took pictures of the harbour when I went back. I plan on spending a weekend in Sydney anyway though, so of course there will be more pictures. I also plan on spending a weekend/making trips to Canberra (the capital!), the outback, the Blue Mountains, and Melbourne (this trip is actually already planned - we're seeing cirque du soleil!). And of course, NEW ZEALAND!!!
I'm leaving tonight to go to sleep in the airport because our flight leaves at 7am tomorrow. If you aren't aware, Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand, so we're going and seeing a bunch of filming sites. It's going to be so epic!! We're traveling around the North Island and the South Island and visiting a few major cities in the process. We will be spending the most time in Wellington - We're doing an 8 hour tour of places where LotR was filmed. And yours truly will be driving a 6.5 meter long motor home! On the wrong side of the road! And it's a manual! To say the least, this is going to be quite an amazing adventure. I'll copy in our itinerary, so you'll be able to look at it and think: "Lisa is in the Misty Mountains - Dear Lord I wish I was her!" (btw, I'm not bungee jumping)I plan on taking lots and lots and lots of pictures - most likely, we'll be taking them doing LotR poses too, because that's the kind of people I'm going with. :D
Well, that's about it from me for now. I won't be posting next week as I won't have internet access, but I'm taking a notebook with me to NZ so I'll make sure that I take notes about the trip and put them up back on here.
Oh, and Happy Easter everyone!
Friday April 10
Arrive and get ready to head off around 4 pm
Go to Port Waikato
Drive to Mata Mata
Saturday April 11
Hobbiton Tour (9:50 am)
Drive to Lake Talpo
Sunday April 12
Sky Diving @ Talpo 10:30 am
Taurangi for the day
Monday April 13
Taihapi – bungee jumping
Drive to Wellington/Upper Hutt
Tuesday April 14
Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt exploration
Wednesday April 15
LotR day tour
Thursday April 16
Wellington for the day
Friday April 17
830 am ferry to Picton
Mt. Sunday
Nelson
Saturday April 18
Nelson
Drive to Christchurch
Sunday April 19
Jenn leaves – noon at Christchurch airport
Mt. Cook
Monday April 20
Mt. Cook/ Misty Mountains
Tuesday April 21
Arrive at airport at noon
I'll go ahead and comment on my classes - my parents will be happy to know that I am doing all my work and it at least feels like I'm doing well. In my history class, I've had two assignments that were returned to me - I got A's on both of them. I've given two presentations so far (I mentioned the one for my history class I think - the other one was a presentation on the Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) harvest of the Sooty Shearwater (a bird that breeds in New Zealand). I didn't have any midterms this semester but when I return from break I'm going to have to start working on three papers - they're not due for a while (mid to end of May) but it's a lot easier to get big assignments done here because I don't spend so much time on doing homework. The reading load is just way less than back home. I think it's also because of the subjects I'm taking here - as an Arts student (basically, not an engineer like everyone else here) I don't have a lot of contact hours, so it leaves more time for me to just do things. For one of my assignments, I did legitimate research - it's actually probably the best piece of work I've written in a while.
Moving on, I haven't really been doing anything very exciting. All last week it was rainy and overcast so we couldn't go to the beach, not to mention it's getting colder and that is really tragic too. Of course, by colder I mean it's in the high 60s low 70s, but it's all relative. My dorm had a Harbour Cruise on Sydney's Darling Harbour, so that was really awesome. On the walk from the train station to where the boat was picking us up, we saw 10 brides. 10! It was neat though because we got to scrutinize all the dresses and decide which one we would or wouldn't wear. I didn't bring my camera that night, but luckily (I suppose) I left my purse on the boat that night and had to go back to Sydney to retrieve it so I took pictures of the harbour when I went back. I plan on spending a weekend in Sydney anyway though, so of course there will be more pictures. I also plan on spending a weekend/making trips to Canberra (the capital!), the outback, the Blue Mountains, and Melbourne (this trip is actually already planned - we're seeing cirque du soleil!). And of course, NEW ZEALAND!!!
I'm leaving tonight to go to sleep in the airport because our flight leaves at 7am tomorrow. If you aren't aware, Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand, so we're going and seeing a bunch of filming sites. It's going to be so epic!! We're traveling around the North Island and the South Island and visiting a few major cities in the process. We will be spending the most time in Wellington - We're doing an 8 hour tour of places where LotR was filmed. And yours truly will be driving a 6.5 meter long motor home! On the wrong side of the road! And it's a manual! To say the least, this is going to be quite an amazing adventure. I'll copy in our itinerary, so you'll be able to look at it and think: "Lisa is in the Misty Mountains - Dear Lord I wish I was her!" (btw, I'm not bungee jumping)I plan on taking lots and lots and lots of pictures - most likely, we'll be taking them doing LotR poses too, because that's the kind of people I'm going with. :D
Well, that's about it from me for now. I won't be posting next week as I won't have internet access, but I'm taking a notebook with me to NZ so I'll make sure that I take notes about the trip and put them up back on here.
Oh, and Happy Easter everyone!
Friday April 10
Arrive and get ready to head off around 4 pm
Go to Port Waikato
Drive to Mata Mata
Saturday April 11
Hobbiton Tour (9:50 am)
Drive to Lake Talpo
Sunday April 12
Sky Diving @ Talpo 10:30 am
Taurangi for the day
Monday April 13
Taihapi – bungee jumping
Drive to Wellington/Upper Hutt
Tuesday April 14
Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt exploration
Wednesday April 15
LotR day tour
Thursday April 16
Wellington for the day
Friday April 17
830 am ferry to Picton
Mt. Sunday
Nelson
Saturday April 18
Nelson
Drive to Christchurch
Sunday April 19
Jenn leaves – noon at Christchurch airport
Mt. Cook
Monday April 20
Mt. Cook/ Misty Mountains
Tuesday April 21
Arrive at airport at noon
29 March 2009
Hey I'm almost 21...
...But that's not what this post is about. Because I still haven't found the time to sit down and type out my experiences in Sydney or the absolutely gorgeous Kiama, I figure I'll still put something up. So instead I figured I'll talk about my life a bit more, because as we all know I love talking about me :)
University of Wollongong is way different than AU. It still gets me. Actually, I even got a bit lost walking around the uni last week trying to find my classrooms - sometimes I decide I'll go a different way and then I end up discovering a whole new part of the campus. I actually found this really pretty duck pond area. The campus itself is huge compared to AU, but it's not as big as Penn State or IUP I suppose - mostly because there is no on-campus housing really. And while I adore AU and the quad, the uni here is so much prettier! There are ponds and trees and bushes. I'm going to end up taking pictures probably right before I leave because that's when there will be less people on campus to give me funny looks. It's also a huge commuter campus - in the mornings when I have my 830 class, there will be about 3 shuttles that come within 5 or 10 minutes of each other, just to deal with all the people that are getting off the trains. My neighbor Ben, before he got a room in I-house, had to wake up at something like 5 am just to get to class at 830 or 930 (I don't remember which). But lots of people do the whole commuter thing! I know some people back home have long commutes because of the metro and rush hour, but for these people it's really just a matter of location. I don't know how they do it. Also, there are more older people here than at AU, and not even taking graduate level classes. There are at least 5 older people in each of my classes, which are just 200 level classes. It's strange to think about, seeing as how back home it was really just kids my age. Sometimes they have interesting things to say, and most of the time they enrich the conversation, but I think it's also obvious the difference in the way we communicate - the older people tend to draw out things they say and elaborate a lot (although there are younger kids that do that too - can you tell I'm just annoyed by people in general who aren't concise/take too long to say something?).
I hang out with a decent mix of Americans/Australians. My roommate is American and our friend Steph is also American, but for the most part all the guys we hang out with are Australian. I'm not sure exactly why this is - the Australian girls here are mostly first years and banded together with other Australians in the first week or so, but I suppose we did the same thing (me, Caitlin, and Steph). If the situations were reversed, I would try to make friends with the Americans, but at the same time, knowing that they were all going to be leaving at the end of the semester would be kind of off-putting. Regardless, I'm getting to know some cool people from the States as well as some awesome Aussies. Would you believe I have a friend here who is legit Australian? Like America, Australia has a lot of immigrants, but this kid's family has been here since the convicts were first sent over (yup, he's a descendent of convicts!) I'm also listening to some new music - some American music that was never really big over there, and some Australian music too (listen to My People, This Boy's in Love, or Talk Like That, by the Presets - I can't get enough of this band!). Night time when we don't go out, we'll watch movies, listen to music, or generally bum around on YouTube. It's actually pretty fun - Caitlin and I always have our door open (we don't have air conditioning so it's good for air flow) so people just pop in and hang out for a bit.
Today I went on a field trip for my Aboriginal Studies class and we hiked up a mountain, which made me realize that as much as I like hiking, the draw is gone a bit seeing as how I am always staring at the ground and never really looking up to enjoy the view. I took some pictures when we stopped, but I also bashed my head into a tree because I was looking where I was walking and not looking up. It was pretty funny, actually, in hindsight.
That's all for right now - I'm about to start some pre-birthday celebrating, courtesy of my roommate (she's very excited about it). I think the best of the celebrating we're going to be doing is going to a place that has 3$ tacos! It won't taste as great as Mexican food from home, but it'll have to do.
(Here is a surprise video for reading the post! This video is from Kiama - you can hear me sighing at the beauty at a few parts I think and you also see Steph's head)
University of Wollongong is way different than AU. It still gets me. Actually, I even got a bit lost walking around the uni last week trying to find my classrooms - sometimes I decide I'll go a different way and then I end up discovering a whole new part of the campus. I actually found this really pretty duck pond area. The campus itself is huge compared to AU, but it's not as big as Penn State or IUP I suppose - mostly because there is no on-campus housing really. And while I adore AU and the quad, the uni here is so much prettier! There are ponds and trees and bushes. I'm going to end up taking pictures probably right before I leave because that's when there will be less people on campus to give me funny looks. It's also a huge commuter campus - in the mornings when I have my 830 class, there will be about 3 shuttles that come within 5 or 10 minutes of each other, just to deal with all the people that are getting off the trains. My neighbor Ben, before he got a room in I-house, had to wake up at something like 5 am just to get to class at 830 or 930 (I don't remember which). But lots of people do the whole commuter thing! I know some people back home have long commutes because of the metro and rush hour, but for these people it's really just a matter of location. I don't know how they do it. Also, there are more older people here than at AU, and not even taking graduate level classes. There are at least 5 older people in each of my classes, which are just 200 level classes. It's strange to think about, seeing as how back home it was really just kids my age. Sometimes they have interesting things to say, and most of the time they enrich the conversation, but I think it's also obvious the difference in the way we communicate - the older people tend to draw out things they say and elaborate a lot (although there are younger kids that do that too - can you tell I'm just annoyed by people in general who aren't concise/take too long to say something?).
I hang out with a decent mix of Americans/Australians. My roommate is American and our friend Steph is also American, but for the most part all the guys we hang out with are Australian. I'm not sure exactly why this is - the Australian girls here are mostly first years and banded together with other Australians in the first week or so, but I suppose we did the same thing (me, Caitlin, and Steph). If the situations were reversed, I would try to make friends with the Americans, but at the same time, knowing that they were all going to be leaving at the end of the semester would be kind of off-putting. Regardless, I'm getting to know some cool people from the States as well as some awesome Aussies. Would you believe I have a friend here who is legit Australian? Like America, Australia has a lot of immigrants, but this kid's family has been here since the convicts were first sent over (yup, he's a descendent of convicts!) I'm also listening to some new music - some American music that was never really big over there, and some Australian music too (listen to My People, This Boy's in Love, or Talk Like That, by the Presets - I can't get enough of this band!). Night time when we don't go out, we'll watch movies, listen to music, or generally bum around on YouTube. It's actually pretty fun - Caitlin and I always have our door open (we don't have air conditioning so it's good for air flow) so people just pop in and hang out for a bit.
Today I went on a field trip for my Aboriginal Studies class and we hiked up a mountain, which made me realize that as much as I like hiking, the draw is gone a bit seeing as how I am always staring at the ground and never really looking up to enjoy the view. I took some pictures when we stopped, but I also bashed my head into a tree because I was looking where I was walking and not looking up. It was pretty funny, actually, in hindsight.
That's all for right now - I'm about to start some pre-birthday celebrating, courtesy of my roommate (she's very excited about it). I think the best of the celebrating we're going to be doing is going to a place that has 3$ tacos! It won't taste as great as Mexican food from home, but it'll have to do.
(Here is a surprise video for reading the post! This video is from Kiama - you can hear me sighing at the beauty at a few parts I think and you also see Steph's head)
25 March 2009
Week 4 of school, Week 5 of Awesomeness!
So I’ve been in Australia for more than a month! It’s crazy, it absolutely doesn’t feel like it. In honour of this occasion though, I’m going to make a list of favourites/things I’ve done since being here…
Favourite Place: Kiama!!
Favourite thing I’ve bought: my gladiator shoes!
Favourite thing I’ve eaten: SWEET CHILI SAUCE ZOMG SO GOOD!
Favourite experience: Great Barrier Reef Trip
Thing I’m most looking forward to: My trip to New Zealand for Easter Break! (I will BE ARAGORN!!)
Food I miss the most: Chipotle (also, good home cooking)
Person I miss the most: Bella (Alex too, I suppose :D )
Most Commonly Worn Piece of Clothing: pair of shorts I bought here – they’re super awesome
Most Schoolwork I did: I wrote a 1000 word annotated bibliography about my research on how Australians reacted to the declaration of war in 1914
Favourite Class: Australians and the Great War
Most exciting thing I’ve done: Sky diving (ok, haven’t done that one yet, but it’s coming up within the next two weeks!)
Most Painful thing: Using my skull to stop a surfboard from moving forward
Most time spent at the beach: 7 hours – 2 hours surfing, 5 hours lounging
Books I’ve read: Watchmen, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, and Dune (just started The Road)
There are of course many more, I’m sure, but I think that’s good for now. You might notice that I’ve switched over to Australian typing – I type up the blog posts in Word, which I had to switch over so I don’t get points taken off when I turn in papers. Speaking of papers, classes are going pretty well, although I haven’t gotten anything back yet. I’m really enjoying my History class – everything we learn about is interesting and in my tutorial I get the chance to speak pretty openly with Australians about our nations’ relationship. I actually gave a presentation today in my class – it was unnerving because I was the first person to present and I’m pretty sure I did it the American way as opposed to what Australians do (from what I’ve heard and what the Australian who presented after me did, they just read their essays…I straight up sat in front of the classroom, rambled off some notes, and then asked questions). I learned a lot, so I can only hope that the rest of the class did too. You can pretty much ask me anything about how the Australian people reacted to entering World War I and I’ll have an answer for you.
Besides classes, life here is perfect! I spend my time relaxing, reading, hanging out with friends, or sitting at the beach. I need to go to sleep now, but I figured that I should at least attempt to update, seeing as how it’s been quite a while.
Favourite Place: Kiama!!
Favourite thing I’ve bought: my gladiator shoes!
Favourite thing I’ve eaten: SWEET CHILI SAUCE ZOMG SO GOOD!
Favourite experience: Great Barrier Reef Trip
Thing I’m most looking forward to: My trip to New Zealand for Easter Break! (I will BE ARAGORN!!)
Food I miss the most: Chipotle (also, good home cooking)
Person I miss the most: Bella (Alex too, I suppose :D )
Most Commonly Worn Piece of Clothing: pair of shorts I bought here – they’re super awesome
Most Schoolwork I did: I wrote a 1000 word annotated bibliography about my research on how Australians reacted to the declaration of war in 1914
Favourite Class: Australians and the Great War
Most exciting thing I’ve done: Sky diving (ok, haven’t done that one yet, but it’s coming up within the next two weeks!)
Most Painful thing: Using my skull to stop a surfboard from moving forward
Most time spent at the beach: 7 hours – 2 hours surfing, 5 hours lounging
Books I’ve read: Watchmen, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, and Dune (just started The Road)
There are of course many more, I’m sure, but I think that’s good for now. You might notice that I’ve switched over to Australian typing – I type up the blog posts in Word, which I had to switch over so I don’t get points taken off when I turn in papers. Speaking of papers, classes are going pretty well, although I haven’t gotten anything back yet. I’m really enjoying my History class – everything we learn about is interesting and in my tutorial I get the chance to speak pretty openly with Australians about our nations’ relationship. I actually gave a presentation today in my class – it was unnerving because I was the first person to present and I’m pretty sure I did it the American way as opposed to what Australians do (from what I’ve heard and what the Australian who presented after me did, they just read their essays…I straight up sat in front of the classroom, rambled off some notes, and then asked questions). I learned a lot, so I can only hope that the rest of the class did too. You can pretty much ask me anything about how the Australian people reacted to entering World War I and I’ll have an answer for you.
Besides classes, life here is perfect! I spend my time relaxing, reading, hanging out with friends, or sitting at the beach. I need to go to sleep now, but I figured that I should at least attempt to update, seeing as how it’s been quite a while.
13 March 2009
My "Week"
Happy Birthday Mom! This post is going up as a special birthday present to her.
So, let’s go through my week, which is basically just Tuesday and Wednesday – everything else counts as a weekend in my eyes.
Tuesday morning I wake up around 7 so I can take a shower and get ready for my 830 class. We, being my roommate and our friend Steph, go to breakfast at 730ish. Breakfast for the most part is just cereal – some days they have hot breakfast, like sausage, bacon, pancakes and eggs, but we all know I don’t eat any of those, so I stick to my cereal. I have started eating it with milk though – I don’t know why I had such a huge problem with it before, it’s actually quite manageable. Anyway, we hop on a shuttle to the campus and I have my 830 Redefining
I’m enjoying this class so far. It’s not specifically about aboriginals; it extends to indigenous knowledge worldwide. This week we learned about how indigenous knowledge tends to be more sacred and holistic than western knowledge. My professor isn’t advocating specifically for indigenous knowledge over western knowledge, but more for a blending of the two.
After that class, I walk to my 930 class – Australian Content: Media, Narrative and Celebrity. I think that if I were taking this class back home, I would probably drop it and take a different one, but I don’t feel like going through the whole process of approvals and what not. The class seems a little hokey to me – this is a new class, so I suppose I should cut the professor some slack, but in general it just feels like it’s all over the place. Then my professor took thirty minutes of class time going over motivation/time management techniques. I was kinda bothered by this – I’m a junior at a decent university, I think I know how to do these things. However, my irritation with the whole thing might just have been because I had to pee really badly.
Those two lectures are over by 1130 and my next class, my Australians and the Great War tutorial, doesn’t start until 330, so I walked back to my dorm and took a nap, among other little things. During that time, I’m usually able to talk to people from back home because it is night time back home and most of my friends/family are still awake. Oh! For lunch, at my dorm, they don’t actually serve lunch. At breakfast, they have a sandwich bar with different lunch meats and cheese and toppings, so you just make a sandwich and wrap it up for lunch.
Anyway, so I head back to uni for my last class of the day. Normally it will be a two hour tutorial, but it was shorter because it was the first one of the year. I’m really excited about this class – it’s good to learn a bit about history and apply it to war, especially seeing as how I’m going into an international security field, and what better to look at from a different perspective than World War 1? Even more exciting, I’m one of two Americans in the tutorial – which is basically a class of 12 people where we go over the lectures and go more in depth about some stuff. We started the tutorial off with trying to define war. While I see it as a highly technical term and I define most other things relatively technically as well, we talked about the events of 9/11 quite a bit. It was strange to see it from an international view – I felt that even though I was surrounded by people, they couldn’t actually understand what it was like to have that happen on your home soil. Although during WWII the Japanese bombed
After that class is over, at 530, I’m done for the day and I head back to International House for dinner and then Tuesday Topicals. I-house runs events every Tuesday and Thursday which are meant to broaden your horizons and what not. This most recent topical was a Faculty Face-Off, where everyone got in groups with their majors. Here, I’m in the faculty of Arts. It’s weird, back at AU, SIS is the most popular major…here, I have yet to find anyone else studying International Studies (as a major at least). I’m not used to being in the minority! Most of the people here that I know are engineers or science majors. Ha, oh well. I actually often think, maybe I should have picked a different school/country that is more relevant to international affairs, but I decided that I’m here not just for school but for the experience, and experience abroad is still experience abroad. Additionally on Tuesdays, I-House has supper, which is when they put out donuts, cookies, crackers, cheese, and people drink coffee and what not. It’s delicious! There are cookies here called Tim-Tams – at first, I didn’t think much of them, but I think there’s an exponential curve of how much you like them.
Wednesday mornings I have a tutorial for my
Well, that right there is my week. I suppose I should say a few other things, like how the food (at least at I-house) is kinda bland – I’ve started putting salt on a lot of my food. Not a ton of salt, so my blood pressure should be fine, but enough to give the food more flavour. Every night for dinner, I-house has brown rice, white rice, two different kinds of vegetables, and a potato option. For the main meals, there are three meat eater options – chicken, beef, or fish – and one vegetarian option. The chicken is sketch for the most part/it doesn’t meet my standards – it’s often on the bone and doesn’t resemble chicken breast, so I’ve been getting beef a lot. I know that beef isn’t as healthy an option as chicken, so who knows, I may even start eating fish. I doubt it though. There is one food thing here that I absolutely love and know for sure that I am going to be very saddened to leave: sweet chili sauce. IT IS DELICIOUS! I’m going to bring a whole bunch back/import it myself from
Back to Brett and Marissa. The three of us are taking our spring break together – Marissa and I met on the plane from
I know a few people are aware that I went to Sydney last Saturday for the Gay Mardi Gras Parade, and I’ll have a post up about that sometime this weekend or so, because I’m actually going back into Sydney tomorrow to go to the aquarium, so I feel as though a joint post would be more efficient.
Finally, I’ve already picked up an Australian phrase. I was actually trying to say it before I left for
I’m almost finished with this post. Today, I was at the beach for right around four and a half hours. Of course, I didn’t think to bring my camera, but I really should have. Probably around 4 I decided three and a half hours of tanning is enough and that perhaps I should go check out the water. It was so warm! After walking around for a bit looking for Mom’s birthday present (she loves it, I called her up to wish her a happy birthday and told her all about it) I just go in about knee deep and look for shark teeth, which involves me sticking my hand into the sand and looking through the little pebbles of sand and seashells in hopes of finding a tooth. After many unsuccessful attempts, me and my roommate go to this rock area right next to the beach, where there are tons of little pools of water supporting fish and seaweed and fun stuff like that. It was lots of fun crawling over it and seeing all the little pockets of life. Like I said before though, didn’t think to bring my camera. I don’t think I’ll make the mistake again, but I’ll probably go back to the little area to check it out and crawl all over the rocks again. It’s fun being active again, after spending so long in knee braces. I’m of course always conscious of my knee and its limitations, but I think that just doing things is a bit of a help for it too.
Once more, happy birthday mommy! And happy march 12 to everyone else out there too.
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