Sunday, September 28, 2003

Fraser Island Trip--Sunday, Day 2

Keep in mind, the pictures really tell a better story!!! Check them out if you haven’t done it yet…

We left for Fraser Island at 8 PM. Our first stop was Byron Bay, New South Wales, and we got there about 7:30 in the morning. We were early so we couldn’t actually check into our rooms at the hostel. While everyone else was standing around with their fingers up their butts, Ana and I availed ourselves of the free bikes the hostel had. We rode around the town. It was a quaint little beach resort town, really quiet at 8 AM. We only rode for about 10 minutes because the bicycle seats were specially designed to be extra painful. We had a crappy eggs-n-toast breakfast at a place I later noticed was for sale (never a good sign) then headed back to the beach. I spent the rest of the morning walking to the Cape Byron Lighthouse, which is Australia’s easternmost point.

The highlight of this day was kayaking on the Brunswick River. I have some great pictures of the sun setting over Mount Chincogan so go check them out! Our guide spent a year getting all the permits to give tours on the river (it goes through national park land). He’s the only one who does it because the long process keeps others away. You could tell he was really passionate about his job and the land. His voice got soft when he was telling us how he would have to stop the river tours if his liability insurance rates went up any more. I went home soaking wet, freezing my ass off, and really happy.

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

SHORTS!!

I actually got to wear shorts to school today! The high was 30C, which is about 80-something degrees. I hope this means Spring is finally here and I can wear all the clothes I brought. I loved being a manger, but I’m getting a little tired of wearing my black windbreaker everywhere. I get asked, “Women’s basketball, huh…Did you play?” everytime I wear it, and every single person thinks they are the first person to ask me that. I only have so much patience…

Listen to what a moron I am….

I’ve had been working on this paper for one of my classes for about a week. I even stayed home while everyone else in the house went to Port Stephens (could there BE a better name for a port?). After much struggle trying to reach the 6,000 word limit (which isn’t a lot, really), I finally decide 5,200 is good enough. Before cleaning it up, I checked our syllabus to figure out how to turn it in (that story later…). While I’m scanning the page I see, “The word limit for this essay is 3,000 WORDS”!!!!! I had 3,000 words 3 days before!!! Dejected, I decided to have dinner first. Then I spent the next 4 hours (and part of the next morning) trying to cut my paper down. I finally got it to 3,100 and stopped.

So I go to turn the paper in (cue theme music)…Another way Australia is backwards (I think I’ll trademark that phrase and start a newspaper column or TV show…) Well, probably not Australia so much as UNSW. The professor says to turn in the paper at the main reception desk of the law school so we can get a receipt. This makes sense. We turn in papers at the communications desk at UTLaw for the same reason—get things time/date stamped and what not. But no…things can’t work that way at UNSW.

First, no one is at the desk (Small tangent…The counter closes for lunch! No staggering of lunch breaks or covering by other folks in the office here, no sir! Who cares if students need something? Back to the story…) No problem, I says. I’ll just ring the little bell (yes…there is a little bell). Oh, no I won’t. There is a handwritten sign that says “If you are turning in an assignment, do not ring the bell.” How helpful. Underneath the counter is a slit in the desk labeled “Assignments”. I looked into the slot and saw an enormous Salvation Army-type bin. There was all kinds of stuff in there—essays, applications, letters. All just tossed in this big wooden bin.

Just as I was about to drop my essay in the slot (I had forgotten to put my class, prof’s name, etc. on it), I saw a little stack of forms. From what I was able to figure out, you fill out the little form (prof’s name, class #, word count, student id) and staple it to your essay. Then you toss it into the abyss and hope the capable staff sorts it out. No receipt. No time stamp. I’d rather slide it under a professor’s door or something.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Here's another little movie I made for my Mom. Just a tour of my house. Click Here...this one's big, too. (You can also right-click, then choose "Save target as...", it doesn't make it download faster, but it does save a step).

Monday, September 15, 2003

Blue Mountains, abseiling

The Blue Mountains are only a 2 hour train ride from Sydney. We came into the town of Katoomba (how fun is that to say?) at around 10 PM so we could get an early start. The youth hostel we stayed at was really nice. Kind of like a big frat house, but cleaner and without all the pretentiousness. They had a big screen TV, pool table, kitchen where you could cook your own food, and board games. After we got back from abseiling (don’t worry, I’ll explain what that is in a bit), we played a game called “Speed Scrabble.” Basically, each player pulls tiles from the pile and tries to use them all in their own little Scrabble game. The first one to use all their tiles says, “GO!” and everyone pulls another tile, and so on until all the tiles are gone and someone can use all the ones they have. I made us play about 4 extra rounds because I hadn’t won. I got stuck with the Q TWICE!! Never got a single U to go with it. That’s just not fair. Anyway, on to the abseiling.

To us in the States, abseiling is repelling, as in off a cliff. According to our guide, the German and the French started doing this sort of stuff at the same time. “Rapel” comes from the French word for, well…rapelling, and “abseiling” is German for “down rope.” We signed up for the entire day package so we started early. The cool thing was that the four of us (Ana, Leslie, Leslie’s friend Lynn, and myself) were the only people in the group for most of the day. It was like having a private instructor. There was another girl from Denmark, I think, who was with us in the morning. She enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery and fresh air by having a cigarette every five minutes. Some things I’ll never understand.

The weather kinda sucked. It was about 50° F, windy, and overcast all day. And I mean hella windy. Dangling off the side of a 30 meter cliff doesn’t help, know what I’m sayin’? We started with 15 and 30 meter cliffs in the morning. The best part was the 60 meter cliff we did in the afternoon. That’s over 200 feet, y’all! Actually, the 30 meter was scarier because the first few steps (the hardest ones to begin with) were blind because the ledge receded right after a foot or two. After starting, going down was easy—gravity did all the work. The girls had a harder time getting started because they weighed less (that gravity thing) and 60+ meters of rope weighs a lot. To let yourself drop you have to move the rope from behind your hip out to your side. It can take some effort, especially at the beginning. I have a video of it…click here if you want to see it.
(WARNING: The file is pretty big (14 MB)…you might want to download it somewhere with a fast connection.)
(Also try to right-click and choose "Save target as...")

The really hard part was the hike back up the mountain. It was 7 minutes of uphill hiking up narrow paths over rocks and trees. It took so long to get up that everyone behind you had already gone by the time you got back to the top. You got there just in time to hook up and go again. We all had to help get all the ropes and harnesses together in order to beat the rainstorm we could see coming through the valley. Needless to say, we were all pretty pooped that night. Leslie and Lynn stayed another day for a hike, and Ana and I came back to Sydney. It seemed like a lot longer than a one day trip. Tons of fun!

Saturday, September 13, 2003

For the next 2 weeks, there are going to be SEVEN people in our house!! 3 beds, 2 air mattresses, and only 4 chairs. This is going to be fun…It'll be just like summer camp, but without the mosquitos and acne. (Or at least, how I imagine summer camp to be from watching TV...folks from my neck of the woods don't really go to summer camp.)

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Another way this country is backwards…I tried to buy some rubbing alcohol for my ear. Yes, there is STILL water in my ear. Sounds easy, right? Any grocery, pharmacy, etc. should have it. The grocery store does not, but never fear, plenty of pharmacies around. After searching the shelves myself for about 5 minutes, all I could find was Swimmer’s Ear, which was $13 for a little bottle. I asked the pharmacist if they carried any rubbing alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol, just in case the called it something different here. She pointed me to a bright green bottle of something called “Isopropylcol” or something like that. It was cheaper, but just didn’t seem right. The label called it an “antiseptic lotion”. Now, I know what lotion is. And from my time here, Australians have the same definition of “lotion” that we do as far as I can tell. I wasn’t about to pour something called a lotion down my ear. I had to settle for the Swimmer’s Ear. I got the water out just in time for my second lesson.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

September 5, 2003 Surf lesson

Today, I had my first surfing lesson at the world famous Bondi Beach. Pictures of Bondi are on Snapfish, but sadly there are none of me surfing. Hard to do both at one time, you see.
I started by getting to the surf shop 10 minutes late! Technically, I was in Bondi 30 minutes early and got within 100 yards from the shop before getting “lost”. SO CLOSE! Whoever designed the streets here should be shot, that’s all I have to say. Streets shouldn’t merge into another street, then spit off and continue further down the road. And heaven forbid you have numbers on your buildings and street signs at intersections.

Thankfully, almost no matter your physique pretty much everyone looks cool in a wetsuit. The water was a little chilly, but the wetsuit works very well so I didn’t notice it at all. The first thing I remembered when we finally got in the water is why I don’t like swimming in the ocean—It has SALT in it! It is so annoying. I caught on quickly as we practiced catching waves without standing up. This part was easy; I even went up on my knees on the first try. I then spent the next hour and a half trying to stand up without succeeding. In my old age, I have mellowed quite a bit and my competitive streak rarely surfaces anymore. But I was nearly getting very MAD because I couldn’t stand up. I kept getting stuck trying to get my legs underneath me. The frustrating thing was that I knew what to do, I knew what I was doing wrong, and I knew how to fix it…I just wasn’t doing it. The part that sucked the most was that there were people who were standing up, but doing everything wrong! It just didn't seem fair. I guess the silver lining is that I bought a 5 session package so I have 4 more chances to get it right. I just hope I don’t get tired of the structure after the 3rd lesson.

I somehow managed to slice a layer of skin off of my foot, but don’t remember how or when. I also almost sprained my hand when I got tossed by a wave and tried to stop myself by putting my hand down. All in all though, I got home in one piece…and tired! Surfing is hard work. I thought about it, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fat surfer. The only bad thing about the day was that I have water in my ear and it REFUSES to come out!

Friday, September 05, 2003

August 29, 2003 Julie’s weekend visit

Julie, our friend from law school, came up from Melbourne (a 10 hour trip by high-speed train) this weekend. She is doing exchange like we are. Though she knows both me and Leslie, I am claiming her for my visitor list because the girls already have a small nation of their peeps visiting them.

The big thing we did was go to the opera. We got all dressed up (pictures on Snapfish). I got to wear my suit so bringing it was not a total waste. There actually isn’t a dress code for the opera itself, but we had dinner at the restaurant inside it, which did have one. For $500 (7 people), I think I should have been able to wear whatever I wanted. Oh, well...the hamburger I had was great. JUST KIDDING!! I had some sort of fancy-ass chicken thing with some other sort of corn/bean (cous-cous?) thing on it. It wasn't bad.

We also spent a day at Manly Beach, capping the evening off by watching “Finding Nemo” (a super cute movie, BTW). It has only been out here for 2 weeks!!

Thursday, September 04, 2003

August 23, 2003 Saturday

The exchange office organized a group outing to a “Footy match” tonight. Footy actually refers to rugby here in New South Wales, but this game was Australian Rules Football which is called “footy” in Victoria (where Melbourne is). The games are fairly similar, but you can tell which one you are watching by looking at the uniforms and the number of posts in the “end zone”. Aussie Rules has 4 sticks and the uniforms are sleeveless. Rugby (Union and League…I won’t even try to explain that distinction except to say that I am told the private school boys play Union and blue collar thugs play League.) uniforms have sleeves and there are only 2 posts; rugby also has “scrums”, where two huge groups of thick-necked men appear to head butt each other. Aussie Rules looks roughly like our football, but has high scoring like basketball and people run around everywhere like soccer.

The game was between the hometown Sydney Swans and the Collingwood Magpies (2 of the sissiest team names I’ve heard since the Hawaii Rainbows). It was a big game with playoff implications, Collingwood being the Aussie Rules equivalent of the Chicago Bulls of the Jordan era. That’s what the Magpie fan in front of us told me, anyway. Did I mention we were sitting in the Collingwood section? Enemy territory…

The game was played at Telstra Stadium (Telstra is the big phone company here), which is where the opening ceremonies for the Olympics were held. We set some sort of attendance record, most for a non-playoff game/played on a Saturday/during a full moon/in the rain…that sort of thing. Either way, 76,000 people is chingos, as we would say in my ‘hood.

[Brief definition of the word chingos—Chingos is a slang term that represents a huge, astronomical number; To give you an idea, take the largest number you can think of, add infinity, and double it…that should get you close; The amount represented by chingos can be increased by stretching it out when said, for example “Chhhhiiiiiinnnnngosss” would indicate a greater number of things than simply “Chingos.”; Now back to the show…]

As for the game, it is kinda hard to really cheer and boo and the right times when you don’t know the rules or what the referees’ little gestures mean, but we managed. It was obvious even to the uninitiated that Sydney played with their heads up their collective butts for the first 3 quarters. They were down by 6 goals (like touchdowns) when they decided they felt like playing. (During the rally, I tried to explain the concept of “rally caps” to some of my friends from Europe, but I didn’t get very far.) Things finally got exciting when the Swans cut the lead to 2 goals with about 3 minutes to go, but a defensive blunder led to a Magpie goal that pretty much killed the rally.

Oh yeah…and it rained the ENTIRE NIGHT!! I was cold and VERY WET…it wasn’t nice. I’ve got a great picture on Snapfish.com that shows a little of what it was like.

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Crap...I've run out of the "back issues" of the blog, so to speak. I haven't actually written anything since August 7th; that's almost a month! Good thing is not much has happened since then. Bad thing is I have school stuff to do now, meaning less time to share this with...well, no one really. I know I'm the only one that reads this thing, but oh well...

I'll try to get things up soon...New pictures are up on Snapfish.com if you want to head on over there...

August 7, 2003 Thursday
After a week of class, I’ve already been called on twice to provide “the American perspective” in class discussion. I wasn’t called on twice in my entire first year of law school. I kind of asked for it, though. Two of my three classes were not on the list the office tried to convince us were the only ones “available.” Therefore, I’m the only international student in either class. Representing an entire country can be hard work. Then again, if George W. can do it I can, too. Actually, he probably makes it easier for me. He has to be all, “Hey! I’m the President…I’m from Texas, where we used to execute people every 15 minutes…I know what I’m doing, because the people that worked with my Dad tell me what to do.” That let’s me be a little more moderate and show Australians not all Americans, and especially not all Texans, are war-mongering, death penalty supporting, gun toting rednecks who can’t speak English right…er, correctly.

Ana, myself, and another law exchange student went to see the new “American Pie” movie tonight. Pretty damn funny, I have to say. Well worth the $7.50 AUS ($5 US). I highly recommend it to all of you who aren't too uptight to enjoy some really good bathroom humor.

August 4, 2003 Monday
Today we all went to Leichardt, one of the many suburbs of Sydney. (Sydney itself is actually very small. Most of the city is made up of all these smaller suburbs. Sort of like SoHo, the East Village, Harlem, etc. are parts of New York City.) This neighborhood is Sydney’s Little Italy. We had some really good Italian food (of course), as I would expect from a place where Italian was still spoken on the streets. Gareth and the girls headed back to Darling Harbour to visit more touristy things, while I had to *sigh* go to class.

The big news over here is what happened during the big Australia vs. South Africa rugby match last week. The South Africans were busted eye gouging and biting during the game. You should see the bite marks, ouch! The player that did that only got suspended 8 games. The rugby leagues “sentencing guidelines” say biting should get at least, like, 16 games or something. Needless to say, Aussies are pissed. The South Africans went on to play New Zealand, where the coach said he was glad to go because they didn’t “play like sissies.” Wow.

August 1, 2003 Saturday

Gareth, the brave soul that he is, did the Bridge Climb today. That is "bridge climb" as in, he climb OVER the Sydney Harbour Bridge...you know, like the top. He also looked at his pictures from the bridge climb every hour on the hour for the rest of the day. We met him downtown for an early dinner at a place called “Pancakes.” They serve, oh I’ll let you guess…You got it, pancakes! Ana had been going on and on about their chocolate pancake covered in chocolate syrup, topped with chocolate ice cream and chocolate chips. I was less than impressed, but oh well. Ana is continually making up excuses to go there; she's got a thing for chocolate, you see. Personally, my body doesn’t know how to enjoy pancakes at 4:30 in the afternoon. We caught an Australian movie called “Danny Deckchair” starring Rhys Ifans (Hugh Grant’s skinny, dorky flatmate from “Notting Hill.”) The movie was kinda…eh. There’s just nothing else out here that I haven’t seen. I saw a bunch of movies before I left, and most of them haven’t even come out here, yet. Even movies I saw back in January. One movie that’s still in theaters here we saw on the plane! “Agent Cody Banks” was also playing on the plane, and THAT doesn’t come out for another MONTH! Another little way this country is backwards. Oh, well…

August 3, 2003 Sunday
We all went for a walk, today. The longest freaking walk of my life! We walked from the famous Bondi Beach all the way down to Coogee Beach. It took 3 hours! We went up hills and down hills, across beaches and around bays, even through a cemetery. Today was one long day. I did have some pretty good fish-n-chips (French fries) in Bondi. They came wrapped in paper; the fish and chips all together. And yes, the ketchup was extra. As always, pictures are up on Snapfish.com.

July 29, 2003 Tuesday
No class today, but that will change soon. I’m going to have class 4 days a week. If I’m not careful, class might develop into a habit. The whole gang (Leslie and Ana didn’t have class until 6PM) hit downtown again. We checked out the Centerpoint Tower, pictures on Snapfish. Back in the day, every major city in the world decided that they had to have a huge tower, so this is Sydney’s. My favorite part was that it had a huge doughnut full of water that acts as a balance. The huge balance keeps the tower from tipping over if all the people are standing on the same side, like to watch the New Year’s fireworks on the Harbour Bridge. I’d like to think making something that big tip over wouldn’t be that easy, but oh well. If we need a big water doughnut to keep it from falling over like a stack of Lego’s then I’m all for it.

Afterwards, the girls headed to class and Gareth and I had a look around. We checked out the Queen Victoria Building. It used to be this really old important building until whatever the important stuff was moved and they let it go to pot. The government was going to tear it down until some foreign rich guy turned it into the nicest mall I’ve ever been in. It’s nice to see big business saving history instead of tearing it down, for a change. Then we walked to the Bridge to walk up the “Pylon”. Actually climbing on top of the bridge costs about $150 US, but you can climb up one of the pylons for $6 US. The stupid pylon closed at 5 PM and we got there at 5:10 PM. How much does that suck? We ended up walking across the bridge and back, watching the sunset and lights turn on. I am finding it mildly disturbing that Gareth and I have shared so many romantic sunsets.