A very long Steakday

As a note, I should mention that I occasionally go back and add a few things to previous posts (editing them). Such as yesterday, added a few other things I remembered. I've done it a few times already. I'll try to post at the beginning if I've changed previous ones so you don't have to read all of them.

So this Steakday was a very long day. I woke up and did the walk up to campus taking a picture of the beautiful day it was at the beach. Figured out it takes 30-35 min to get to campus and then however far it is to the building in addition to that. But yeah, not too bad...just uphill the entire way. With my nice pace, managed to get that wonderful burn in my legs.
Classes were long starting at 11am and continuing till 7pm with 2 one hour breaks. Below is my schedule and one translated to Eastern time if that helps any of you.











Translated to your time:











Neuropharm today was pretty uneventful. It seems this class is going to be a lot of stuff based on things I've already learned but adding all the pharmacology that goes along with it. So i think it may be some work, but doable considering my background.
The God, Life class was pretty interesting although there came a heated debate during class between some of the students with the professor talking occasionally. Too much of it was semantics and concepts that if they took some time to reason would have either seemed mundane or paradoxical. Directly afterward, we had our tutorial (section) for that class and much of the same debate continued as the two main provokers were in that class. We (other Americans and myself) took a more passive roll as i deemed most of it pointless. At the end of the class the prof assigned our presentations of the reading for the next 7 weeks. I volunteered for next week, thinking I would get it done early.

Got out of class and did some random interneting in the library and then decided to head to the nearest ATM because there are things like...oh, i dunno...books that I need to buy. Unfortunately, the nearest ATM that I wanted to use was a good 20-30 min round trip walk, little did I know. So I get there and and hurrying to get to class. I'm about 10 min late and can't find the room. We finally found them room (met up with some other lost people)...they need better signage around here...and the room was empty. Realizing that there was a room change we now were off to go 1)figure out where it moved to and 2) where that was. So we trek to the new location after I pop open my laptop and get there about 20some min late (it's a 2 hour class...it's ok).
Sports law class was vaguely interesing as we talked/debated about what was sport. He gave us some other background in the second hour and then we headed out for our hour break between that and the tutorial.
James, Chris Hanson (water polo player at Hopkins, for any of you who know him) and myself headed to the ARC office. ARC is kinda like HOP as they do that sorta stuff but you have to become a member ($99) but you get lots of free stuff (backpack, water bottle, planner, 2GB flash drive, $25 at bookstore, 5 free beers at the roundhouse, and many many many many coupons) as well as waiver on fees for joining clubs and free entrance to all ARC events. So most of us though it was worth it an have/will join(ed). Afterward we headed right next door to grab a beer during happy hour at the roundhouse to kill the extra 3 min we had between class. Had an interesting one...half of Toohey's Old and Toohey's New...really good because one's heavy/creamy and the other is lighter...very nice blend. (Sorry, random beer coniseuir coming out).
The tutorial was pretty laid back as we talked about what we were all interested in and what we'd be doing for the semester. The two guys teaching are both very very chill and just enjoy sports and the stuff about it. We also divided up presentations for each week and I volunteered for next week (he said he grades much easier for the first one) and I wanted to get it out of the way. This means I have TWO presentations next week that I have to prepare for...Woot! Ugh...

After class the profs gave me some of the reading I would need for it and then we headed to the busses for Steakday. I went back and dropped my stuff in the apartment and joined James and people in the line. We ate, we talked, it was nice. However, I was exhausted from the day and developing a headache. So I left like 10min before the rest of them, came back did some reading for a while, not wanting to go to bed too early, and headed to bed slightly later.

Picture I took on my way out of my building on my walk to class

Picture of the quad today right outside of the library.

Strangest Day Ever

OK, so today was quite possibly the strangest day known to existence.

Let me begin. So I get up this morning nice and early around 9am. I grab a bowl of cereal and do some light reading. Around 10 I start getting ready for my 12pm class. Shower, shave, etc. and throw some clothes in the laundry to dry for the entire day (&@#%! no dryer). I hop on the bus thinking that walking will makes me late (even though I have to wait 15 min for the bus that is just chilling down the street). Strange event #1 happens: I saw the Australian Clone of Mrs. O'Rear (for all of you in charleston who know her) on the bus. Anywho, class today was, again, uneventful. Briefly went over syllabus and then did a quick lecture (today was my Neuropharmacology class...the hard one). Seems like I know the fundamentals of the class so I'll just be building on the pharmacology point of view, which shouldn't be bad since I just have to pass.

After class, I hoped on a bus to Bondi Juction because we needed a router for our apartment. So I get on the 400 bus and decide to meander a bit before I go into the actual Mall. I stop in a little book store figuring I'll be done with this Eragon book soon and need the sequel or something else. This is where Strange Event #2 happened: A man in a bookstore, on the other side of a short bookcase from me, had his hands in and around his head just laughing, hysterically laughing...for no reason. Kinda disconcerting, really weird. I guessed it was some sort of psychological disorder. So I exited, strolled a bit and found a cafe and grabbed this really good BLT (not ordinary...had an egg on it, but whatever). While sitting there, the dog of a customer slowly crept toward me till it was essentially staring me down. I finished my food and started petting it and it was wholy uninterested. While sitting there I also enjoyed the Strange Event #3: A guy simultaneously tapping his foot for a drum, playing the guitar, and playing the didgeridoo. Talented. Wish I had taken a pic. Also while walking I had Strange Event #4: There are STILL world youth day people around here. Still in circles playing music and dancing. Kinda crazy. Couple of them stopped me today in the mall trying to get me to go to some meeting.

So I went into the mall got a router and a pillow since the pillow they gave us was essentially A feather...yeah, you try contorting one feather to the shape of your head. Milled around a bit and then got on the bus to head back to the apartment. Lo and behold, Strange Event #5: This one takes the cake. A guy (who was with a group of friends--guys and girls) pissed on the bus. That's right...he pissed either on the back of a seat or on the floor in the back of the bus. One of the men across the way (2 rows behind me) saw him and pushed him against the window and was like "WTF?!...get off the bus!" Yeah...I don't know. The two behind me who took an active roll in the incident seemed to think they were Irish, but I couldn't tell. So, talking about it the whole way home, I eventually arrived and then started telling the roomies about a thus eventful day. But it gets better.

So I met up with Jason downstairs and we headed out the the bus stop to go to see the Dark Knight at the Worlds largest IMAX. We got great seats at almost center on the 2nd to top row. It was &#@! rediculous. 1) It was a great movie 2) IMAX made it even better...the visuals were great, any city scape footage made you feel like you were flying through the city and 3) the sound alone was worth it. There were parts that made your bones rattle a bit. Shockingly good performance. Having loved the movie we headed toward food/bus. Jason left me and Mike to head back home while Mike and I explored for food. It seemed as though most of the restaurants we spotted that seemed good were either closed or too expensive. Eventually we stopped at one. We thought it was called Fitzy's Cafe, but it was instead an Indonesian restaurant called Tendra(?) I think. So the prices seemed decent but the way it worked was a little confusing. I call this one Strange Event #6: Basically how the restaurant worked is that you go up to a little bar, pick out which sticks of meat you want (chicken, beef, fish, shrimp, chicken liver, squid, other strange things) and tell them how you want it cooked. Then you order whatever else you want, they bar-b-que it and bring it to you. I got a stick of beef and chicken and a thing of rice. Mike got some Indoesian Ramen. Now figuring out how to order the sticks was hard enough, but they also gave Mike chop sticks for the ramen (which he had no idea how to use. So it was EXTREMELY FUNNY. We were so totally lost in how to work this resaurant it was amusing.

We exited after successfully conquering our meals. Mike then remembered that we could get buy one get one free Gellato with our IMAX tickets so we headed back to Darling Harbor to get some gellato. It was amazing and we got there right before it closed. By this time many of the people back home were heading out to the city so we decided to meet up with them after our gellato.

So the place to be on Tuesday night is Scruffy Murphey's. They have $7 pitches of Tooey's New, which is a great deal considering Aussie prices. So Mike and I headed there and met up with many people each of us knew, Aussies and Americans alike, and introduced each other. So we were standing around and I was wearing the newly purchased UNSW sweatshirt (jumper as they call it) and these random guys approach me. Strange Event #7: So this random guy starts staring at my sweatshirt, grabs me, turns me around to look at the back. He backs off for a second and a few moments later he approaches me and says something to the effect of do I play rugby because that's his team (pointing at the UNSW insignea). I said no, but he kept talking. Couldn't understand most of what he said, but he and the other guy he was with start feeling me up essentially. They grabbed my biceps, shoulders, chest and generally were testing my frame. Very very weird. Then one of them said "push on me", I responded with "huh?" and he repeated "push on me". Going in a rugby fashion I pushed on him with decent force trying not to kill the girls behind him. Making this long story shorter, the guys essentially were recruiting me for the Rugby team. They said that I was built for it and could make a nice recruit. So he gave me his number and told me to call him tomorrow. I don't know what to expect. (it's kinda like getting a girls number...the whole do I call, when and what the hell do I say?...cept its a rugby team). So the one team I was NOT planning on trying out for I might be recruited to...go figure.

So a bit more of some live and DJed music, some pitchers, and other random meanderings later, Mike and I headed to the bus stop to catch a ride home.

Today was rediculous, I have no idea why it happened. I'm blaming it on the fact I wore my "this is my party shirt" today. I'm sure that's not all the details, but I tried to remember the main events. Here are some pics of the day as well to try to give you an idea.
Mike looking confused on how to eat this dish
Me with finished stick of meat. Behind me is the bar of random sticks that you had to chose from. Very very strange style.
Me and two of the rugby players (can ya tell?). There's one more beside the camera (the first one to approach me) who's a bit bigger. Crazy night...

Oh, I forgot one! Strange event #8: Today while walking from the bus stop to my apartment (after the pissing incident), I walked across the park in front of Coogee Beach. I stopped to talk to Jennessa (in the place near the bus stop surrounded by pigeons) and continued diagonally across the grass. I look back and there are about 15 pigeons FOLLOWING ME! No idea why, and not just a short distance....the ENTIRE WAY. Creeped me out. Soon as I hit the path, they stopped though, thank god.

Forgot Another one! Strange event #9: Didn't think of it for a time but I just saw it on my pictures. There was a full (broad) rainbow right as we left on the bus to go see Batman. It spanned the entire beach from one end to the cliff right near where I live. Very pretty.
Other half I didn't see till we were on the bus.

First Day o' Classes

The day has come. But before I get into today, just thought I should point out some funny apartment quirks mainly because I just battled one.
#1: As I said before, no dryer. It sucks, we have a laundry rack, because it's cold it takes forever to dry...whatever...we deal.
#2: The fung shui of this apartment is all off. The couches are a little in the way although the seating is nice. Needs to be fixed later date.
#3: Apparently our oven doesn't work. The reason, so it seems, is that the heating element in the bottom...is gone. That's right an oven without the ovening ability. Useful!
#4: Water heat v. water pressure. This one's fun. When showering, as is good for hygiene, it is important to keep a careful eye on where you put the heat of the water, not because of large heat fluctuations, but because the water pressure often goes down with heat. Exhibit A: the other day if I had it on a hot setting it wouldn't have enough pressure to go from the bath spigot to the shower head, but touching it sliiiiightly to the right made it blast out of the shower head. Other times, you can have a hot shower with little to no water pressure and 5 seconds later it blasting out at full force. Strange? Along with the random variations of water pressure comes the design of the shower. it only had a third of the "wall" typical of most showers and there's no shower curtain. Meaning as you shower you have to be concious of where the shower spray is going to avoid having a soaked floor upon exiting.
#5: Lastly, the sink, the one I just battled. Much simpler. Turn on the sink slightly, your fine. Aaaaany more, and you have HYDRO THUNDER!!! What's really fun is making this mistake with a bowl and having it go everywhere. Joy!

Back to the day:
Today I had class at 10am. Nothing too special, just showed up, met the two other study abroad people in my class that i recognized and the lecturer just went over the syllabus commenting on the different things we were going over this semester. This class was "God, Life, the Universe & Everything", more of a philosophical debate kinda class. Apparently the lecturer is an atheist, so it should prove interesting. Afterward I hung around the library before grabbing some lunch and walking back home. The walk back was nice. Gave me something for the 5 hour break I have between my classes on Monday (one at 10am, one at 4pm). So I came back, talked with James for a bit, finished a movie and it was time to head back to campus. This time however, it was niiiiice and rainy (& cold). So instead of walking as I had planned, I bussed it. It was good I left so early because I had the hardest time finding my classroom. It was on the first floor of a building that you enter on level two...but for the life of me I couldn't find the stairs. After about 5 min of searching, I asked a cleaning lady who had trouble understanding me, and she pointed to the stairs directly behind her (I felt like a moron...yes, it's a common feeling). Went down stairs, had even more trouble locating the room, finally ducked into an unlabled room right around where it should be and asked the indian girl in there where it was. It was that room.

Zarrah (I think that was her name) and I talked for a bit before her friend Nicole (I think) showed up. They talked for about 10 min, and no professor or the like showed up. I got up to leave and wound up getting into a 40+ min conversation with those two about a lot of different thing from Majors to skiing. Around 5, those two had another lecture to attend so I walked out with them and headed back in the rainy weather to the bus stop, waited about 30 min for it and eventually got back. Our plans for tonight were to go to see Dark Knight at the Sydney IMAX but it was apparently sold out for the 9pm showing. So we bought tickets for tomorrow at 6. I will let you know how that goes. I threw together some chicken and pasta for dinner while we watched a few epsidoes of Entourage. Now, with our newly aquired internet in the apartment, I will post this blog entry. We still need to get a router, but for now we are just rotating who gets the connection.

Note on the internet we got: I swear it's magic. The modem we got only has a power cord. It doesn't plug into the wall or anything to get internet it just wirelessly receives it. No idea how or where...but it does. The company is called Unwired, which makes sense, but still....weird. (I'm convinced they shoved a mini Harry Potter inside)

The definition of Blue

Another surprisingly beautiful day. When we looked up the weather on Friday, it said it was supposed to be dismal for the rest of the week with Saturday as the only nice day. Today was GORGEOUS. I got up and had a simple breakfast read a little and then headed out around 11:30-12. I walked a little up Coogee Bay Road looking for food before heading back to another little chicken sandwich type place next to our once hotel. Got a chance to talk with Mom a little and pace around the park watching people on the beach or on the lawn just playing game, sunbathing or swimming in the cold water (apparently James and others were amoung the simming group).

After some food I decided to go on another walk. I headed South (away from Bondi) on the walking path and went for a bit. It was a beautiful walk. The sky and water DEFINED the meaning of Blue. Deep, rich, vibrant blues. At the end of the path, there were stairs heading down the cliff to where there were tidal pools on the rocks. I went down there and found a cool little alcove on the cliff face where I sat for a little and just watched as the waves crashed on the rocks right in front of me. The spray didn't quite reach me, but if the wind was blowing it might have.

I started my way up the hills ont he South side of Coogee. These are steep hills, but I figured it would be some good cardio or something. So I walked up these 45+ degree slopes through some really cool nice homes on the hills around Coogee. It was a cool little walk and the neighborhoods were fun. The most surprising part, aside from the hills and architecture was the silence. It was REALLY quiet there. The loudest thing was some strange bird. Peaceful. What I would kill to live there, although I'm sure the hills would get annoying.

I explored a little more and headed back home grabbing a few groceries on the way. I got back here, grabbed book and headed to the cliffs to read while the weather was still good. It didn't last long as a nasty storm rolled in with lightning and thunder in the distance. I headed in right as the lifegards were making anouncements that it would be wise to get out of the water/off the beach.

The roomies showed eventually and I later went and joined James in Ben's room. A large number of their group (the people that did the pre-semester program up in the GBR) were making food. They all kinda split into groups and made their own food including meatloaf, fish and rice, and pasta with meatballs. I just sat and socialized as others were heading out later to Five O's to get food. Five O's is a place that has food on the 3 price scales: 5, 9 and 13 dollars. So basically you can get a 300g steak and mashed potatoes for $5 at this place. Not quite as good as steak night, but it will do. We ate and came back to the apartment. No one was doing anything besides watching movies so we put on our own: Stardust. Some of the guys didn't like it as much, they tend to like more action, but I still maintain that I love Robert Deniro's role in that movie.

Movie ends, light discussion, some movie exchanging, catch up on the blog...aaaaaand bed.

Rugby Day

Aaaaaaaaaah, Saturday! I woke up late for once having had a surprisingly late night. Got out of bed and kinda lounged. Unlike Friday, it was a beautiful day outside. People were out walking, playing volley ball on the beach, etc. I took some time to relax with my book with such a nice day, knowing that tonight would be more hectic. So I read into the afternoon. With a few breaks to enjoy the weather.

Later on, the twins, Jason (Ryan's roomie), and myself headed to the beach to throw around a football. The sand was deep but it was fun. Only downer was at the veeery end when Ryan was thrown a pass, sprinted to get it and forgot about the small stone wall about 6in high. Whoops! He says it's not broken, but just hurts like a mofo.

We rounded up people to go to dinner round 6:15 and headed to the Chili Box (my second time visiting it)....reeeeeally good Thai food. All the others like Aliza and the twins and a few other new acquaintances hadn't been. We ate good food and then headed to the nearest sports bar.

And then there was the game. Tonight was the Rugby game between the Austalian Wallabys and the New Zealand All Blacks...an intense rivalry. The All Blacks are rediculously good and apparently have won many years in a row. Their team is rediculous and their pre-game ritual, the Hakka (sp?), is kinda intense and frightening. Their thighs rival those of Titan from American Gladitators. A couple of people including flatmate (we're working in those Aussie terms) James acutally scored tickets at lower prices than what we saw when we looked to go. We saw $120+, they got $77...not bad at all. So I was kinda jealous, but we watched it all from the Sports Bar. We got there and grabbed a few beers and the game got on. Ryan and I decided to shoot some pool on what we thought was an open table, but apparently was still being used by some Aussies, so we played them. They essentially hustled us, it was almost a clean sweep. However we played them again and though some sort of act of God, we won. The game was good, the crowd would errupt everytime Australia scored. And in a strange turn of events...Australia Won!! Now, typical intense rivalry operating proceedure dictates riots in the streets, but there we none. There was some shouting at the end of the game, but no erruption of happiness. To us Americans, it was kinda suprising. Guess they really are just more laid back down here.

We stuck around for a little while and bounced around some other pubs before heading back to bed. It was a good night and the rest of it was spent meeting new people and getting to know other friends better.

Friday...cold and wet

Friday was a kind of a whimsical day. We (myself and the roomies: james and matt) headed up to the Uni to get some work done interneting. So after all making some sort of breakfast/lunch we hoped on the bus and split up. The others headed to the book store to get some books for the semester while I stopped by Kim's place to grab my backpack which I had left in there the night before while going to china town. Kim was heading out, but we chatted for a bit then I joined back up with the guys in the new book store (they went to the used one first). I purused the fiction section having been told by Merlin to wait a week or two to get books for classes while the other two made their purchases. Having finished After Dachu, the book I had on the plane with me, I figured getting another book might be a good idea with all the down time. Being a horrible judge in books, I went for Eragon since other said it was a good book and it was in series (aka might keep me entertained for a while). Not being a huge reader, it's been kinda nice just sitting back with nothing to do besides reading. Yes, Mom, I know I have much more to do in coming days. So we bought our books and headed on.

James left to go to the Study Abroad office to use their computers while Matt and I went to the library. I tried uploading more photos there, but somehow it failed. Don't ask. Working on it I promise. While trying to upload I got a chance to call a few people with my handy dandy phone. It was actually perfect timing because Elizabeth was having her B-day Pub Golf event so I called the gang back in B'more on their 7th hole and got to talk to them (they weren't expecting the call so it was even better).

We headed back to Coogee with only a few of the internet things done. Friday was also a DISMAL day. It was cold, wet, and rainy. We didn't really do to much because it was so awful outside. So instead we popped in a movie. We watched a portion of the Assasination of Jesse James (I say portion because it's reeeeally long and reeeeally slow). After that we got bored again so we put on a few episodes of Arrested Development (the twins hadn't seen it yet) and after the first one I made some quick pasta for the lot (hooray shells and tomato sauce!). We broke up for a little bit, but a few of us decided to go over the the Palace to shoot a little pool, nothing to intense. We played a few rounds, other showed up, stayed late talking to other people. Talked to Rachel for a long time for some reason. Then headed back for some sleep.

I also appoligize. I'm trying to work in names figuring they might get to be more familiar with time. If they are new or confusing....um...deal? I figured it will be easier for continuity of stories to say "Ryan" instead of "the twin of the guy I'm rooming with". If you need a glossary...yeah no, I don't have the time or effort. :D

O-day

So today we had our orientation up at UNSW at 9am. We got there in large auditorium where they talked about random things to know about whether it be services on campus, how to handle the housing, travel, or classes. It was long and they gave us a break for "Australian Tea" aka tea and snacks.They also had a travel company their that they work closely with that gave us breif overviews of their trips and did free give aways. One of the girls I've been palling around (Aliza) with a lot won their trip to Fiji. Totally jealous but offered to possibly be a travel companion :D. After that we all headed down to the UniBar on campus for a B-B-Q. Hoped in the long line for food after playing a round of pool and got a hotdog. Most of us split up to go do another things, Aliza and I waited for one girl to finish some other orientation stuff before heading off to China Town to try Paddy's market again and meet up with a few other kids from U Syd. I didn't find anything at the market but others did. Afterward we went to a random chinese restaurant in China town (you walk though and their are people lining the walks shoving menus in your face trying to get you to go there...one convinced us at $15 a head for lots of food).

I came back, grabbed a quick nap and then met people at the Palace for some late night pool and general socializing. Nothing too intense, just casual fun and more "hey, meet this person."

Steak Day

So today is Wednesday, aka Steak Day. Bear with me and I will explain.
So we got up this morning to go to our IES meeting with the Study Abroad division at UNSW. We met up with Merlin at 9 and he showed us where to go on campus. We talked with college advisers, filled out paperwork and worked on getting our class schedules finalized. People here typically don't have their schedules finalized till two weeks after classes start (that's also when people tend to buy their books). So I changed some classes around. Right now I'm signed up for Neuropharmacology (for kicks & stuff); the Marine Environment; Sports, Law, and Society; and God, Life and the Universe. All subject to change. My acutal class schedule doesn't look that bad so far. No classes on Friday. only 1 hour of class on Tuesday. Wednesday is my full day.

After that Merlin took us on a small walk around campus to get ourselves oriented telling us what was where. We looked around the library and got the internet working on my computer (woot!) which is how I was able to post my last few blog entries as well as a few pictures (both on my google/blog thing and facebook). I will upload more later when I get the chance. We also got a chance to go visit the rooms of the people staying in the residential colleges on campus. The guys room (Mike) is pretty sweet. He has a balcony that wraps all the way around his room. The other girl has a pretty small room, but still nice. We stayed around there doing some stuff then got a few more things done on the internet at the library and finally headed back to Coogee. I came back and lounged around the apartment for a while until meeting up with and IES girl, Aliza to go grocery shopping. Got a bit of food, not to much, and nothing extremely parishable.

After getting back I met up with some of the guys to go to the Palace Bar where they have free steak on Wednesday night with the purchase of a $4 beer or wine ($2 extra for salad and fries). Free steak?! Every Wednesday?! Hellz yeah!! Especially because food tends to be more expensive here. So Wednesday, for the duration of my stay will be known and celebrated as Steak Day. So we had massive tables of Study Abroad kids, all getting to know each other. Met a few more girls tonight that live in a house of about 26 study abroad kids (including some guys I recognize from the Hopkins water polo team). But overall, it was a pretty exciting night.

Move In Day

So last night we crashed early after the pizza party (say 9ish) and consequently I woke up around 5:30am. Being fully awake, I realized that it was a full 8 hours of sleep and instead of fighting to get back to sleep decided to get up and go for a walk. So it was still dark outside...Orion was in the sky and I decided to do the Coogee to Bondi walk. Now if you do a google map, you will see that this is no small distance. It was far, really far, really really far. It was a multi-hour walk, and the cooler part was that it was all on the water. You basically walked a path along the cliffs and coves right along the ocean. Now even though it was 6am, apparently this stretch is a spandex highway in the mornings, only getting worse as I got close to Bondi. There were some amazing sights. The cliffs, the waves, the colors of the sun trying to rise, the beaches, the trees...breathtaking. So I walked and walked and came to realizations of how amazing Sydney is. Yes, I know it's kinda repetative, but it's the best of all terrains: mountain, ocean, beach, city, forest, etc. So right as I hit the lifegard station to turn around at Bondi Beach, the sun crested over the clouds above the cliff edge. It was one of the sights where you expect choirs of angels. Overall, very calm relaxing walk.

When I got back it was time to grab a quick shower, pack, head downstairs and move into the apartment. After helping a few others move into theirs, I was delivered to my humble abode. Here I met one of my roomies, James (he's from Boston and goes to BC). We talked for a bit after Merlin left and got to know each other a bit while I unpacked and settled in. The apartment itself doesn't overlook the water (I'm on opposite side of building), and is a little old but still nice...I mean...it's on the beach. Almost all the building is study abroad kids which is good for getting to know lots of other people...the networking has begun between people who know people who introduce other people that they know to people of people of people....yeah you get the point. The apartment itself has a nice sized TV...almost like Mike's but a tad smaller...a washer (no dryer) typical kitchen stuff and some other random things. It's got a single and a double. I'm in the double and James is in the single.
Round 11:30-12 he headed out for a run and I headed to the bus station to meet some of the IES kids to go on a shopping trip to the Westfield Mall at Bondi Junction. Now this mall was HUGE. Five stories, multiple large mega stores, huge numbers of smaller boutiques, and some other key differences. Cultural Observations 4-7: First, there are actual grocery stores in the mall there, complete with fresh produce and cooking supplies. There are also bakeries, meat markets, and other smaller specialty food kinda stores. Second, the Target here is NOTHING like the target back home...like...wow. There is no way to explain it. Third, the prices here are MUCH higher. Let me offer some exhibits and explainations. As I said before, food appears to be much pricier because of worked in amounts, but its even a little more than that. Other commodities are also pretty expensive. Having to buy sheets, I obtained a base-line, target-bought flat sheet for $28, fitted sheet for $28, and pillow cases for $13. Clothing is even worse (which is bad because I wanted to supplement my wardrobe). Jeans here can be anywhere from $80-~$200. I picked up a pair of $195 Nikes today as well. Ocasionally you see decently priced stuff but it seems to be on clearance racks or in stores having 70% off sales. Oh well, off to the cheap-o, feaux-designer markets for some supplies.
Basically all I got was some linens, toiletries, detergent and a new phone. Aparently the Piccell one I got before coming here has very high prices and often lead to astronomical phone bills. Instead they have other phone companies that you basically do prepaid "minutes" and just recharge it. You actually just pay a fee (e.g. $30 or $50) for a certain amount of money for calls (e.g $130 or $310 respectively) and calls can be anywhere from 18-32+ cents per 30 seconds. It's weird, yes, but it's cheaper. Also weird is the fact that it cheaper to call the States than anywhere around here (18c vs. 32+c). Kinda nice though. Also get free incoming calls from anyone, so feel free to call me (just keep in mind the time change people). Will send out number.

Post shopping I came back to meet my other roomie who had just arrived in Sydney, Matt (goes to Duke). I dumped my stuff and helped he, his twin, and a fellow Dukie get money and some stuff from around the area. I then joined back up with the mall shopping crew to go try one other shopping run (this is where i saw the nikes and jeans). We were trying to go that feaux market in China town but it was closed by that time so we went to the actual mall like thing above it. Victor found some decently priced shoes he wanted, but we'll have to go back for the rest. We ate some good Japanese in the food court and headed back via bus.

Got back here to find buch of people in the apartment that James knew from the IES pre-semester trip to the Reef. We went around town for a while then back to one other girl's apartment that I know. Her (acutally their...Aliza, Aubrey, & others) apartment is SWEEEEEEEEEET...it puts mine and all others to shame. 6th floor, corner apartment VERY nice inside fully furnished LOTS of space and convieniently overlooks both beach and ocean. We went there to watch a movie and hang. Came back here made a few phone calls. Went to bed.

Austalian Wild

So today we did more Australian wild kind of activities. We woke up to
an info session regarding health, safety, customs, etc. After that we
boarded a chartered bus to go to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. So all
the animal everyone wanted me to bring back, I pretty much saw today.
We saw all sorts of cool birds, animals, and other types of creatures.
I have some AMAZING pictures. We petted and fed emus, walabees, dingos,
and koalas. Some of the coolest creatures around. All really cool, all
different. Other things were little penguins, crocs, albino walabees,
the most venemous snake in the world, and echidnas. I didn't really see
any tasmanian devils, but I think I got a picture of the tail of one
hiding in a log. We stayed around there for a little more than an hour
and got some lunch. We then boarded the bus again to head to the Blue
Mountains for a hike.

Today was actually pretty cold, but more
than cold, it was windy. So when we finally got to the mountains
(>1hr) it was FRIGID. We walked out the the lookout to see some
amazing breathtaking views. The wind was killer. So then we did a small
hike around a trail that had several lookout points. Some had view of
waterfalls, cliffs, or just sheer drops. I got some postcard worthy
pics. We took crazy individual and group pics. One we all climbed into
a small kinda grotto in the side of small cliff. People decided to jump
out of it past the stream that was running in front of it and got a
little wet. Lastly we headed up to the top of a cliff. We almost didn't
go all the way up because Merlin said the wind was too strong (which it
was...i'm thinking over 40mph...it pushed me) but we did anyway. We got
up to the top and lied down and inched toward the edge and looked
straight down. It was intense. We headed back up the mountain to where
the bus was afterward. Most of this hike had some fairly steep stairs
or climbs that became annoying on the reverse assent.

With
many many many pictures taken, we barde dth bus for our long ride home.
Merlin put on Meet the Fockers for us to watch. Side note: meet the
fockers, when said in an Australian accent, sounds much more like the
intended pun...he didn't get it at first why all of us died laughing on
the bus. We got back headed out and had a BYO on the roof of our hotel
and Merlin bought huge amounts of Domino's pizza. It was a nice end to
our orientation with everyone hanging about eating, having a few beers
and listening to merlin's hello kitty iPod setup. Tomorrow we are to
get up round 9 to go move into appartments. It will be nice to stop
living out of a suitcase and acutally get settled in.

I'll
have to find a better way of posting pics when I do get internet
because as of now I'm looking at about 300pics already. Keep watch of
the little slideshow right next to these blogs (on the right). I might
post them there.

Day Two...

So today continued our wonderful orientation. Most of us woke up at some ungodly hour and went back to bed till about 7ish. So we got up and some of us met up walking on the rocks that are right behind my apartment (you can see 'em on the google maps I posted from the first entry). After that we came back and had our first info session that was more about culture and culture shock and things that are different between the two. Too many things to discuss in a blog but it ranged from how Aussies are insta-friends, meaning they will actually start asking what may be considered personal questions right after meeting you, all the way to the lack of ranch around restaurants.

Post-info session, we went by bus down to Darling harbor (the western-ish part of the long harbor) after walking through china town. I have to admit there are some sweet shops and markets that we are gonna have to go back to. One Paddy's Market was just full of fake-brand stuff so it's all really cheap (e.g $25 shoes). When we got to the harbor walked past the massive IMAX (used to be the worlds largest) where they are showing the new batman. Some people who got here early went there to go see it and said it was amazing. We went to lunch at this trendy little place (IES paid) and got some really good food. Merlin ordered 3 plates of Kangaroo steak so any of us who wanted could try some (pretty good actually). From there we walked around the harbor to a Harbor jet boat. Now, the harbor jet boat is basically a roller coaster on water. They took us all around the harbor at full speed doing 360's and playing in boats wake like a wave runner. We got wet... Funniest part was when Bohemian Rhapsody came on the boat's radio and we hit the gas out of the no wake zone right as it hit the fast part. People sang...and got wet...it was sweet.

We dried off a little and went on the monorail to Sydney Tower, the tallest building in downtown. We got up to the top and got to see an aireal of the entire city. It was sunset, but also a pretty cloudy day...still a beautiful skyline. It was nice to get a better picture of where everything was in relation to one another. Inside the tower at the base they also had a little virtual tour of Australia that was corny but kinda fun.

Heading back to the hotel, some of us were still pretty exhausted (it's like 5pm at this point) from jet lag. I was still full of energy to go and do stuff, however our previous plans of going to see Dark Knight fell through with the general energy level. Instead, we got food a the bar/pub next door. Pretty cool place (it's the buidling right across from the beach entrance on those satillite photos I posted). It's about 3 stories with a resaturant, pool tables, bars (note the s), an escalator, game rooms, and sports betting if you know how any of these sports work. We got food there and head back to the hotel for a bit. Round 9-3:30 we were all gonna met back up there for a little night on the town action. We played a couple rounds of pool, had a few beers, made friends with two Aussies. Good time overall. Crashed round 12am. Overall, jet lag seems to be gone already!

Freaking Sweetest Day Ever

So we met downstairs to get on our tour of the city around 12. So we cross the street and find this freaking sweet ass bus. Lemme 'splain.... so we see this black bus sitting across the street and start hearing some thumpin' bass coming from it...it's a double decker party bus complete with disco ball on the first level. We board and all go to the second story and we just go through the town with music blaring, us jammin, and beautiful Sydney all around us. Because of the World Youth Day happening, we had to take a different route than planned. We went up the coast line, visited Bondi Beach, went farther north toward the entrance of the bay. Saw great skyline of downtown Sydney and saw a lot fo the residential area. Culture Observation #1: So there are 3 house designs here. There is this adobe-like house look (red tile roof), there's very simplistic houses, and there are very modern looking houses. Strange. We went to a place called Gap Park. Place is actually this beautiful set of cliffs that looks out on the Pacific...and is a huge suicide point (go figure). Great view, large drop.
From there we got back on the bus and went into downtown. We saw things like the Sydney tower (that we're going in tomorrow) and a Coca-Cola sign that cannot be change because it's somehow become a historical landmark. It also apparntly kinda marks the area of the red-light district. For those of you who don't know, prostitution is legal here. other fun sights were a 3 or 4 story Mac store and of course the Harbor Bridge and opera house. We actually sat on the bay right next to the opera house eating lunch. Afterward, we got back on the bus and were dropped in the middle of the city for the actual walking tour. We started in Hyde park lookin at the ANZAC memorial (australia new zealand armored core) and continued walking through there seeing tons of the World youth day pilgrims. Saw the plaza(?) that the scene from the matrix with the woman in the red dress was filmed. From here we went to the Botanical Gardens. This was beautiful. The welcoming sign is unlike any natural garden or park you'd ever see in the US. It basically encourages you to get on the grass, picnic, hug trees, smell flowers, etc. Walked futher in and saw the hundres of hanging wombats in the trees. Lots of beautiful wildlife, gorgeous. Continuing through the gardens we walked in front of the Opera House (it's huge...really really huge...why, i don't know). By now it's about 5 pm (feels like 9-10pm) and we get on a public bus to head back to Coogee where we're staying. We're basically all running on E and are dead tired. Merlin encouraged us to try to stay up till 9 at least 8, so that's what I'm currently doing by typing this. We went out for dinner after watching a little TV, which leads to Cultural Observation #2. They have about 5 stations here, with very limited TV. It's either bad TV, American TV (they had simpson on), or stuff like Australian rugby (which we are watching now). We went out to eat at a Thai restaurant which was extremly good. We includes me and the two guys I'm rooming with in the hotel room. We ate, we talked and i avoided sleep. Cultural Observation #3 The tipping here is also extremely different. You don't tip unless it's good service, and then it's 5%, or if it's a nice restaurant 5-10%. Also tax is included. So here's the weird concept: the price you see while seeming like much more is exactly what you pay...not 2-3 dollars more. It puts you off at first sight, but afterward it's kinda nice.

Two appologies for the blog thus far. 1) I took about 114 pics today but can't post them because i have about <1 bar of internet in my room that i'm stealing. 2) For the almost list format of what we did. It was a long day and we saw a lot, so that was cool, but it's way to much to go in detail about w/out writing chapter names or headings.

So good night to all!

Touch Down

Made it here. All in one piece. Woot! The flight was LONG...lemme repeat...LONG. In total about 26 hours of traveling. The last flight which lasted an eternity was about 13+ hours long. They showed four full length feature films, some TV shows, I watched two of my own movies and still had ample time to sleep. Thank you mom for getting me the 5 extra inches of leg room.

Another fun traveling note was my close encounter with what I would consider the "Home Alone" airport scene. Let me paint you a word picture. Imagine Wade searching furiously for a place to store his enormous bag on the plane, finding none and decided to have it checked. Now, I assumed that I would get the bag back right after I got out of the plane. So I walk up the front and was like "Bag?"...the responded "Baggage claim"...wade: "BAG?!".
Now here's the fun part. My layover in LAX was about 2 seconds long. In other words, the other flight was boarding when I got off my plane. So I hurried down to the other and explained that my bag was check, heading for baggage claim, and more importantly had my passport in it. They explained that I HAD to have it and to basically run. Wade begins sprinting down the terminal to the baggage claim. I wait anxiously for it to come out grab it now to find that I have to go through security again. T-minus 10 min or less till plan departure. Pleading with people to let me cut them, I whip off clothing (shoes, belt, anything in pockets) almost wanting to dive through x-ray myself and unpack my bag into little plastic trays. I quickly pack and dress dropping half my stuff including secure money pouches on the ground as I SPRINT back to the gate. It's two minutes past when the plan takes off. I get there, out of breath, chuck my boarding pass and passport at the woman very disorderly and haul my butt onto the plane. Long long long plane ride ensues.

But I'm HERE!!! and it's amazing. The weather is cool and a bit breezy but crystal clear skies and beautiful places. The water is a crystal blue, and I can see where I will be living. Pictures will be posted below. I met Merlin (our IES guide) and he's amazing and very cool for a guide type of person. They gave us nice rooms, food, calling cards, plug converters, etc. I got in and had some breakfast and a shower. We've had some downtime, so I called people did some walking around the beach (forgot camera on walk, sorry), and just had our "welcome to sydney meeting". At noon, we're going on a bus/walking tour of Sydney going to see the opera house, going to the talest building to see the city, going to the bridge and i think something like a harbor cruise.

Will post more later when I remember anything I've forgot, have gotten more pictures, or have more going on.

(Internet connection not good right now...stealing it from somewhere...will post pics later)

Pre-Trip and where I'm living

So I'm basically a week out and figured I'd do a little pre-trip excitement blogging. Monday I got the address of my apartment that I will be living in and then google mapped it. Below are some of the satellite images that made me really excited.

So this is where I'll be staying (the apartment building on the corner with the little red A above it). Seems nice, granted I'm only seeing the roof. So now zoom out a little from that roof to find the really really really fun part. That's right...I'm a block away from a beach entrance. Me...right next to beach....WOOT!







To give you a better view of the area and where I am in relation to the campus (a bus ride away) Here are two more pictures with cool views.












Other than that, Mom and I have been running around town trying to get things in order. There's a lot to do and only a week to do it. Totally worth it.