Australian Adventures

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2013-07-01T23:13:00.001-04:00

Post Forty: Last Post for this Blog

2011-06-07T16:33:00.000-04:00

Hi all readers! First off I want to thank you all for joining me on my trip. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing about my adventures, I would not have continued without all of you to keep me posting.

As the title says, this is the LAST post for this particular blog. I will not be putting anything else on here and this website and its pages will remain static for the rest of Internet time.

HOWEVER! I would like to let you know that I have enjoyed writing and reading blogs so much that I am going to attempt to continue blogging on a NEW site. This one much less specific, I hope to write about general thoughts as a college student, exciting events or travels, but mostly I really really want to start cooking and baking and posting recipes and tips and such.

SO! I am going to attempt to join the ranks of regular bloggers. I will hopefully post frequently, sometimes with pictures and funny stories, sometimes with just thoughts or perhaps writing, and hopefully many times with interesting recipes with photos, ingredient lists, origins, etc.

We shall see how it goes, if you want to check it out follow THIS LINK or, I have put at the top of this blog a page that will also lead you to my new blog.

Cheers!!!! Farewell from Australia, and greetings from the next phase of life!

~Ariana

Post Secret Two: Things I have been thinking, experiencing, and doing but was not able to write in order to keep my early return to the United States a surprise

2011-06-06T17:37:00.000-04:00

The Feelings:

It has been different now that I know I am going home, the Vivid show in Sydney was the last time that I will ever be there, and it was quite a bittersweet experience. I am so happy and ready to be going home, REALLY happy to be leaving DLC and Macquarie, but I am so sad to be leaving Sydney, Australia, and my friends here. It dawned on me a couple weeks ago exactly what leaving Australia really meant. I am leaving a whole continent! A whole hemisphere! Without any idea when—if ever—I will be able to return. Granted I have had some amazing experiences, I think I made the most of my visit, and, though I did not get to do EVERYTHING I wanted to, I was able to fit most of it in. All the most important bits like the outback, and the reef anyway, I feel like my experience is a good one and as complete as I could have made it. But still, leaving Australia…its just…an odd thought, and yet, totally normal, and yet…its hard to explain.

I will not copy Angie, but she says some stuff about how she feels about coming home (she goes on the 12^th) that I think is fairly relevant to me as well. I know I have changed some, become more independent, more capable, more, ‘of the world’, but ALSO I know that home has changed while I have been away, even though in my mind it is in sort of a static state, I know it has changed, and so, going back to all that different-ness will be really weird. My friends have had shared things without me, family too, etc. I am a little scared. Also, I am not exactly sure how I have changed…I just listed some of the obvious, but I guess I don’t know how this will effect me in my life once I return to the States.

The Departure:

Early in the morning.....

early...

So, I woke early the morning of June 2. I had packed everything the night before of course; all that was left was the clothes on my back and my shower stuff. I said my last goodbyes to the early risers, before being accompanied by Angie and Anthony to the Airport. It was really nice of them to come along, Angie supplied Breadtop for us for breakfast and both helped lug my considerable baggage. The train ride was no different from most others I have had. It felt similar to the trainride when I was flying out to Alice Springs. I was aware that yes I was headed to an airport, but not really getting the whole magnitude of the situation. After checking in at the airport, getting a whole extra kilo in my check bag thanks to a friendly agent, it was time to say goodbye. We hugged and got a picture taken, still surreal, still not sinking in that I will not see these people or this country again for a long time if ever. I spent the last few moments waiting in a quiet corner of the departures lounge gazing out at my last time seeing Australia…When the flight began to leave the ground is when it finally hit me a bit harder I think, I felt some sort of wave of emotion so that has to mean something, but again I am still in denial I think.

The flight was really long. It was only one hour more than my trip to Japan, but it felt like a lot longer. I tried to keep myself on Chicago time as much as possible, so for the first few hours I watched a movie that I had really wanted to see (the Mechanic), another that I figured ‘oh why not’ (Never Say Never, actually an interesting movie, though I didn’t really learn anything except Justin Beiber is spoiled and doesn’t listen to direction or rules very well, I must say that he is talented especially for his age when he was younger). Then I attempted to sleep from midnight CH time to around 5am. I think I got a few hours, but certainly not much nor was it very restful. Finally I gave up and pulled out my Jack Reacher book. I was then entertained sufficiently for the rest of the voyage and by the time we landed in Vancouver I was already halfway through. It was so odd to land, there was fog! And, green stuff like pine trees! I had not realized how different the trees look in AU compared to here. It was almost like stepping into a ‘north woods’ postcard or painting or something. My feelings? The weather was so weird and different, and yet not different at all, I was also tired and being on a plane for so long does things to ones head so I was a bit out of it. Ready to be back in the States!!! But sadly I had a loooooooong layover to look forward to before I could get to Chi-town (from 7:30am to 1:30pm). Walking through the Vancouver airport though, there were things like REESES chocolate, and Cinnabun, and whisky, and books about grizzly bears, yep, stereotypical Canada alright! I was excited to see what Chicago was like, this whole in-between stuff where I was not even back in the states yet was weird. Kinda like limbo, it is also how my head felt…floaty and not attached to anything…yep…so began the jetlag!!

Post Secret One: Things I have been thinking, experiencing, and doing but was not able to write in order to keep my early return to the United States a surprise

2011-06-06T17:31:00.001-04:00

The Decider:

Ok, so around the beginning of May I made the decision to explore my options for returning home. Since DLC kicks us out by the 25th of June, and my current plane ticket was for the 2nd of July, I needed to make changes regardless of when I decided to come back. I had been considering for awhile the possibility of returning by June 5th so that I could attend Lawrence University's graduation, several of my close Lawrentian friends are graduating this year, not to mention my Brother, so it is a big event this time around.

Not making any solid choice, I gave Continental Airlines a call to see what flights were available from Australia to the U.S. around June 4th, planning to arrive in the States just in time to make it to graduation, but not leave Macquarie before the official end of classes on the 3rd. The first person I talked to barely spoke English, misunderstood most of what I was asking and gave me the information that there were no flights before June 12th that worked with my ticket options. I decided that perhaps it would be good for me to call back and speak to someone else, so I waited a day and again called the Airline. Again I spoke with someone who had fairly poor English (a completely different person though) and she initially told me that there was a flight on the 1st in the early morning, and NO flights on the 12th...hmmm...I decided to call back one more time later that evening, just to be sure, since again, I thought perhaps there had been not so good understanding just based on what I was being given in responses (not because I was told there was nothing free, but, there were some other odd things as well). I called and OH NO! It was the FIRST person I had talked to again!!!! I asked my question and she told me that she would check for flights, she found one leaving on June 1st in the evening going from Sydney to Vancouver, to LA, to Houston, to Chicago. Certainly not optimal, long travel time AND leaving on the 1st I would not have any time to accomplish my exams. So I asked if there was ANYTHING else. I was on hold for a looooooong time and then the call suddenly cut to another line (whether I was transferred or it just jumped I do not know). Anyway, just as I was giving up on the idea of going home early, perhaps it was not 'meant to be' I was thinking, the person who picked up and asked "how can I help you" sounded like a native English speaker. I asked one last time about flights from Sydney to the U.S.

We proceeded to have lovely conversation about flights across the dateline, his impending 49th birthday, and the milestone of turning 50. He saw what had been done by the previous agent and laughed.

"That is not a very direct flight now is it!?" he said "I can get you in WAY better than that!" and within minutes he told me there was a flight from Sydney to Vancouver to Chicago on the 2nd of June. Easy to find, don't know why the other agents had such trouble! Perfect!!! Decision time!!! Should I book the flight? pay the money? If I don't do it it may not be available. At this point I had not yet decided to go home so early, because that was very early...was I done with my Australian experience? I had not yet been to Broome or Tasmania...but then again, I didn't really have the funds did I? What would I choose!? I decided to book. I could always change later if needbe, so I gave it a ‘here goes’ and asked him to switch the ticket for me. He proceeded to do so and I said,
"ok let me get my credit card out" to this he said
"shhh shhh I am concentrating!" I was a bit baffled by this, but ok, then I asked
"ready for the card number yet?" he replied
"nono shush! there you are, you are all booked I have sent the confirmation email."
"so, no credit card?" (I knew from previous calls and checking online that there was undoubtably a fee for changing tickets and airports)
"no Miss, we will collect that from you if you switch again. Thank you for flying with us!"

So, I was gifted a ticket home by a man I have never met, I don't even know his name. Ok Ariana, perhaps going home early was 'meant to be' after all. Also, a week after I booked the ticket I secured a part-time job in Oberlin beginning on the 6th of June, tickets to Broome are really expensive, and I need some reason to come back to Australia someday right? So going home early works out well.

Post Thirty Seven: Blogs I follow

2011-05-30T02:58:00.004-04:00

I managed to covertly sneak around campus again today to snap a few shots of Autumn at Macquarie University. It is not often gray and rainy, and the native trees are evergreen; but there are enough imports that there are leaves a-fallin' and unfortunately even in Australia the weather is occasionally less than beautiful. I know they are not of exactly the same areas, but compare the following photos to the ones I took earlier in the Summer, and you can get a general idea of how things have changed in these four months.

outside the old library

top of main path

looking up the main path

DLC

Now, on to that which is the subject of the title of this post. I have nothing to write about, I am just waiting for my impending exams tomorrow and Wednesday, so I decided to inform you about the various blogs I like (featured on the right side of my blogsite).

There are a few categories.

1.) Australia: the blogs here are various friends blogs of their experiences in this continent. Alicia and Angie are two fellow DLC/Macquarie Study Abroad students, and Hannah Sawitsky is a Lawrentian who Studied Abroad in Melbourne Australia last year. They each blog about their experiences in Alicia's Adventures in Australia, Seventeen Hours Later, and the Last 100 days respectively. Heidi is a former neighbor of mine from Wisconsin who is visiting and writing in Australia 2011. All of them have different and interesting viewpoints, experiences, photos, and information about what Australia is like.

2.) Food: I am a food-lover, as well as an amateur cooking and baking enthusiast. There are hundreds of cooking sites on the web, and I am constantly looking for good ones. Some of my favorite discoveries are featured here. Foodwishes is done by a professional Chef who posts a new recipe and video pretty much every day, I find his videos easy to follow, directions simple and clear, and narration style engaging and funny. Baked is a blog I stumbled upon when I was looking for very easy cookie recipes (since I am college student and have no ingredients, time, or space). She doesn't update too frequently, but all of what she posts are delicious looking baked goods recipes along with an anecdote on how she found the recipe, ways to make it original, and tips regarding when to use. Liberal Arts Cupcakes is another blog by Hannah Sawitsky. It is new and developing, but she makes amazingly creative cupcakes and will continue to post new endeavors or items I assume. Alimental is done by Hannah Voss Surges (Not Hannah Sawitsky from Lawrence, different Hannah) a friend of mine from the old Homeschooling days. Hannah Voss Surges gives healthy vegetarian, gluten free, or vegan recipes with some really great photos and comments on some not-so-well-known but good for you ingredients. Cakewrecks and TDAC (They Draw And Cook) are a couple sites I just enjoy looking at to look. Cakewrecks is all pictures of failed, weird, or just funny cakes found in stores or delivered as orders. But! on Sundays they do a special on the actually really well done cakes some of which are spectacular. TDAC is a recipe site, but focuses on some pretty fantastic illustrations done by the recipe submitters (hence the name). Finally, Foodbuzz is a cooking site NOT an add (so clicking on it does not go to the Ariana fund, even though it looks like an add in my sidebar), it is similar to the Cooking Club sites, but it is free and I think Foodbuzz is more like a collective Blog, less advertizing than most sites and almost anyone can submit recipes or comments, or advice, and some are quite interesting. If you are at all interested in food I highly recommend you take a look at these!

3.) Misc.: the rest are as follows (no pun intended): other travels abroad by friends of mine to Granada Spain and Santiago Chile from Fall 2010, advice and inspiration by a writer for writers, and creative living by Lisa a friend and teacher from Homeschooling, learning to live as a high level athlete and student with Diabetes by a friend and fellow Lawrentian Dimo, Masa writes his observations about a Europe hockey tour, Japan, and various other facets of life, and lastly but not leastly, Sarrah AbuLughod another friend from Homeschooling posts funny, inspirational, and entertaining anecdotes of her life experiences.

There you have it! I will update this if I start following any other blogs of course, I am also open to recommendations of good Blogs to take a peek at, I find it enjoyable and informational to read them. Blogs are a good resource and are fun because they usually update on a fairly frequent basis (a blog is sort of like a series of books, where a website or book is more like, well, a book) but it is often difficult to find the good Blogs so I hope this gives you some good info, feel free to give me some as well!

Post Thirty Six: Night lights

2011-05-28T09:10:00.001-04:00

Yook at tha YIGHTS!!!!!

This Saturday evening several of the DLC crew took the train to Sydney's Circular Quay to see the Vivid Sydney light show. We arrived at the Quay and walked along through the crowds of people, taking photos and gazing at the spectacular lights projected on the Operahouse as they changed and shifted in a dazzling array that was different each moment we turned to look.

Looking at the city from the bridge


Ariana: "Everyone turn around and smile!" Angie: "You sound like my Dad!" From Left to right: Alicia, Kate, James, Anthony, Angie, and Karen

We then walked across the Harbor bridge, and visited Luna park to see its lights and to laugh at the creepy faces that seemed to be everywhere in this tiny old amusement park. It was alot of fun to walk around the Quay/Operahouse/Bridge area of Sydney at night in the cool fall air with friends.

I find this area of Sydney to be one of the most captivating places in the city. Even though it is not 'in' the city and is certainly the tourist central, I absolutely love the Operahouse, and the Quay, and the night, and crisp night air. After so many months here, even though Macquarie is a bit of a distance from this area, I don't really feel like a tourist anymore, more like a local who just visits the place, much like I would visit a park or a museum back in the States. I find that this sense of 'my place' has developed more in the weeks since break. Even at university and at DLC, it feels much more natural to be here in Australia, again, less like I am dipping in for a bit and more like I am actually here here. It is a very comfortable feeling to be sure.

What a wonderful way to end the school semester, enjoying so many things I like about Sydney, feeling like I belong, and all with good company!

"You've no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light's light's a slight light,
And tonight's a night that's light.
When a night's light, like tonight's light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On light nights like tonight."

-Tongue Twister

Post Thirty Five: Windsday

2011-05-25T00:39:00.003-04:00

"Oh the wind is lashing lustily
And the trees are thrashing thrustily
And the leaves are rustling gustily
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubtedly
It looks like a rather blustery day, today
It sounds that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubtedly
Looks like a rather blustery day today"

-Lyrics from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
(the best Winnie the Pooh in my opinion)

Today is an amazing chilly and cloudy and windy fall day. Though I have said this before, I am again reminded of soccer. It is one of those days where one finishes classes cold and tired, heads to the gym and changes into uniform or training clothes as fast as humanly possible and bundles up in the 'practice greens' for a gray practice on a squishy field under the swirling trees. A training that ends with a longer-than-necessary warm shower and a quick drive back to campus for a hot meal.

As I walk around the Mac campus I wish (as I often do) that I had brought my camera and could sneak some photos, but then again, photos wouldn't really capture this weird fall feeling in (ahem, May).

Today in approximately 2 hours I hand in my last two out-of-class assignments ever in my Macquarie experience! Then all I will have remaining is a take-home final consisting of two 1,000 word essays (I will have 2 days to accomplish this...not excited) and one in-class essay exam. Then I am finished forever with my Australian school experience as an undergrad study-abroad student! I will not take time to reflect on the entirety of my experience in this post because I am not quite done yet and I feel that if I did that then my brain would officially check out. And, since I still do have a couple things to do that kind of matter...I will wait. But I am so close!!!

This last Sunday, Andrea, James, and I went to an AFL game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. We had some trouble getting there, since the cricket ground is literally right next to another stadium that looks pretty much the same from the outside. So we tried to get in to this other stadium (which also had a sporting event happening) before figuring out that we needed to walk a bit farther on to the next one. There were no signs or anything pointing which way to go for what event, not very well laid out. We made it though and got to watch the Sydney Swans get annihilated by the Hawthorn Hawks. I couldn't really care less who won, I was not for a particular team (note: NEVER under any circumstances say you 'root' for a team, 'rooting' means...something else...) so I did not care who won. The Swans did really well in the first quarter, dominating the play, but the Hawks came out after the half and totally took over, it was almost as if the Swans were no longer even on the field!

The spectators

AFL has alot of rules, and they are all pretty complicated. I did not understand most of what was happening, though I got the general gist of the goals. I think I prefer rugby to AFL, it may be a bit slow, but it is easier to follow and there are less men on the field in rugby (about 12 each team as opposed to 17).

We left early to beat the crowds and I introduced my companions to the wonders of Breadtop. I should be paid a commission for all the business I have brought this wonderful bakery!

and that's it! nothing else interesting to report from this past weekend. Coming up, some friends and I are planning to attend a light show over the Operahouse and perhaps go to a bar at fancy hotel NOT for the alcohol, but to see the sunset over Sydney from one of the top floors, apparently it is quite worth the trip.

Post Thirty Four: Baking things

2011-05-21T08:01:00.005-04:00

Friday!!!!! Still finishing things up. Seems like once the semester starts ending it continues to 'end' forever! and I took the time to count, I sill have 18 classes left! That is alot for only two weeks! I have 20 left if I actually went to all of them, but I have sadly ceased to attend the lectures for one of my classes since the lecturer is so boring!

Let me take a moment to explain that last bit. I have finished all of the graded assignments for two of my four classes. However we still have class until the 3rd of June. I continue to attend all the lectures of one class just because I like it so much, I would not choose to miss it! But this other class, the lecturer speaks in a monotone for two hours...no joke, same same tone, same inflection, same rise and fall of the voice nonstop for two hours. The material is interesting, but I would rather spend the two hours to read a book about it than to sit in a darkened lecture hall (which is in such bad shape that the arm desks for the chairs don't work and there are...unidentified stains on all the chairs...) trying not to fall asleep. I can download the lectures from the school website so that if I ever feel I really was missing something I can go back and listen. I am still attending the mandatory tutorials (smaller discussion classes), but I just can't bring myself to go to the lecture for this one class any more. To conclude, yes I do feel a bit guilty, I have never before in my college career skipped a class merely because it was boring...but...it is just a waste of my time...which is too bad because it could be really fun if the lecturer was not so abysmally bad. Oh well, a good learning experience, teaches me to appreciate the other profs more!

That being said, on to the Munchkin and, more importantly, BAKING!!!!!!!!

I talked with the Dean of Residents (DOR) about a referencing system for one of my papers once upon a time and noticed that he owned the game Munchkin, when I remarked "oh you have Munchkin!" he looked at me brightly and said "you know of this game?!?!" we then proceeded to have a small conversation about the wonders of this silly card game. This was back in late February I believe. About a month ago he approached me again and said "how would you like to play Munchkin? Please oh please? I am so bored and I have never found anyone to play it with" or something to that effect. I said yes, but playing with two people would be kind of boring, perhaps we should get some others. Then, a couple days later I was talking with my friends at dinner and James asked if I was planning on making cookies again (I had made some fairly ok ones in the microwave before break). I remembered that the DOR had said he had a full kitchen in his apartment that he and his wife let students use for baking on occasion. So, putting two and two together I said I would love to make some cookies or something, I could use this kitchen so that microwave wouldn't be needed, IF we would all play Munchkin together! My friends agreed to this and after much scheduling and re-scheduling we finally decided on Friday evening the 20th. The baking pool decided on peanut butter cookies and molasses/ginger cookies (for some people who don't like peanut butter) and Angie wanted to introduce us to Missouri Gooey Butter Cake a St Louis specialty.

Andrea and Karen entertain us

We all had fun in the kitchen laughing and baking, it was cramped but we managed. I had trouble figuring out the beater because the way it worked was that it was automatically ON unless you held this trigger, but holding the trigger made it go faster if you squeezed too hard and turn off completely if you pushed this little button (also on the trigger)...anyway, it was difficult but I got it to work enough to mix everything.

attempting to use the blender...

Some of the Chefs

Grating cinnamon, the lesser of two evils

We also had no pre-ground cinnamon or cloves so we used a grater...this worked fine for the cinnamon sticks, but, have you ever tried to grate cloves!!?? if not, try, and let me know how it goes. Karen and I found it exceedingly difficult to grate them and not our fingers or knuckles. Thank goodness we only needed a half teaspoon!

Our final troubles lay in removing the cookies from the pan. The pan was not sticky, but the spatula was, so we had more cookie pieces (for the peanut butter ones) than we had cookies. But they still were pretty good if I do say so myself.

Angie

The butter cake was a bit singed on the edges (not Angie's fault, the oven was not very good, it did not cook things evenly, even some of the cookies suffered. Still better than a microwave though!), and since there is no such thing as yellow cake mix here (one of the ingredients) she had to improvise and use vanilla cake. Even so, the cake was delicious, absolutely fantastically wonderfully marvelously stupendously scrumptious, and HOMEMADE!!!!! I shall have to try making it again sometime, since according to Angie it is better with the proper ingredients and no black edges.

Alicia is an expert at scraping molasses

The cookies turned out pretty good too! and thanks to Alicia, they were all expertly criss-crossed.

peanut butter cookies pre-baking stage

Butter cake

Once all the baking was accomplished, we all joined Sean, James, and the DOR Eli to play a long game of Munchkin. Using our spiky knees, ghoul-lashes, and boots of running really fast to defeat the wight brothers, the gelatinous octahedron, flee from the bullrog (and its mate), and of course backstab our buddys with ducks of doom, sex changes, and big feet all whilst munching our delightful baked creations.

you are now an orkish wizard

All in all it was a lovely night with friends eating good homemade food, an excellent way to spend a Friday night!

"Ariana, while you were in the other room we skipped your turn, but you gave Karen your crabs"

Post Thirty Three: GLP GLP GLP!!!

2011-05-17T08:34:00.002-04:00

Like most everything else at Macquarie Uni, I have not been particularly impressed with the GLP here. However, as part of the program we are invited to a prestigious event called the "distinguished speaker series" and since I wanted to have the event on my transcript, and the speaker actually looked like he could be interesting (though in the past, looking interesting and the GLP usually do NOT mean interesting), I thought I would give it a go. But I did not expect much. I was actually pleasantly surprised this time! I had a great time, and the talk was fascinating. Definitely worth the trip.

The Global Leadership Program hosts a 'distinguished speaker' every year to have a talk about some Global Issue or another. This years speaker was Waleed Aly, a well-known Australian figure in both the Islamic sphere and the Australian Media.

drinks beforehand

fellow glp'er Alicia, and guest Angie
(note the purple jacket lurking in the background)

The speaker

Mr. Aly was a very good speaker, relaxed but poised, and comfortable and engaging in just the right ways to win the crowd but keep his talk informative and knowledgeable.He spoke largely about the idea of identity, the ideas of prejudice, and the phasing out of National identity due to more global views and identities, or multiculturalism.

I particularly enjoyed his remarks regarding what he saw as the amazing differences in U.S. culture across America. That is, one can go to a small town in Washington, and then another in Alabama and get very different experiences. He contrasted this with the more homogeneous Australian Nation. Not that Australia is homogeneous and identifiable, but there is more commonality in its people and their differences than the U.S.
This pretty much affirmed my experiences in my travels around Australia, I thought I was being stereotypical when I thought of Australians as all belonging to one big town in a sense. Again, not that I saw Australians as 'the same' all over, just they are similar in the same ways and differ in the same ways across Australia. However, it was nice to see that my views and observations had not been entirely without merit.

Sydney Town Hall

Lawrence University Memorial Chapel

Also, fun fact, the Sydney Town Hall (the building we were in) room that we went to the lecture in was VERY similar to the Lawrence Chapel!!! Same balcony, stage, and seating design, even had an organ in the front! Just further affirming that I was supposed to come to this, gave good reason for the thing.

It was a great way to conclude my GLP here. Though I do have one more optional session on Ethical Living, I am pretty much done, and this talk was a fun way to end.

Post Thirty Two: a brief moment of inspiration

2011-05-17T01:59:00.002-04:00

a wish flew by the other day, on glinting silver string
it twisted dived and blew away in puffy patchwork quilting

chased afterwords by many men it sailed along the tides
it shining swirling dipped again, unpressed alone it flied

it was the dream crept seemly by, snuck, slowly traipsed along
avoiding rampant 'mirers eyes, humming its undersong

what say I to this cheerless plight of silly prattling gleams?
forget air wishes in your sight, instead follow the dreams

Post Thirty One: these Australian adventures are quickly becoming the adventures of the purple fleece jacket!

2011-05-15T03:35:00.005-04:00

What a weekend. I have gotten absolutely nothing done! ERGH! I am currently writing a Philosophy paper which I hate. I like the class, its really interesting and I feel that I am learning alot, just this paper is worth way too much of my mark and I just wrote draft #1 and it was TERRIBLE. Hence, I hate the paper.

But ANYWAY, I shall re-write it...later. Instead I will procrastinate some by blogging. At least that way I am being productive in some way or another and not just wasting time doing nothing.

The weeks are winding up well, I have finished most of my classwork (except this monster of a paper which I am NOT thinking about!), I have done almost all of my souvenir shopping. I am checking things off the to-do list etc.

watching a street show

walking the Quay

Turtles?

The group

Cacti!

Nini

Alicia

Karen, Angie

Yesterday some friends Angie, Alicia, Karen, Nini and I went downtown Sydney. It was a gorgeous fall morning when we left, bright and blue. We headed down to the Rocks markets and I felt like it was October, the leaves are falling, and the weather was cool, it was just "wow, it really feels like October right now". We hunted around for some stuff (I shall not say what, can't give gift ideas away!) before walking to the Opera house and the Botanical Gardens. We allowed ourselves to just meander for the better part of 3 hours, taking pictures, talking, and just enjoying the park. It really is quite something to go to such a large park on the edge of such a large city and to know that you just visited the Opera house in SYDNEY AUSTRALIA.

I wish!!

I enjoyed the Cactus section of the gardens the most. I love cactusses (yes I know they are called cacti), when I get plants of my own, I will definitely buy (and name) cacti and by the way Amirah, unlike the plastic x-mas trees, I plan to name them ALL.

the ever-present purple jacket

It was relaxing to spend the day in the downtown, like I said it was a beautiful fall day. For lunch we went to Breadtop, perhaps the ONLY reasonably priced bakery in the whole of Sydney, and they have some really good stuff too.

I then went with Alicia up Sydney tower again, it was cloudy while we were up there, but it was fun to get to see the city now that we were 'pros' and knew where everything of note was.

The day ended with some relaxing on the couch, meeting up with some other DLC friends, and watching a bit of POTC 3 and then LOTR 2. A good way to spend a Saturday. and actually, writing this post has made me feel a bit more relaxed! Hopefully I can get this paper done and then fun plans for the future include baking some cookies, perhaps going to the Jenolean Caves, perhaps going to Hunter Valley to Wine taste (AU is well known for its wine apparently), and going to see the Distinguished Speaker for the GLP. All of this will hopefully happen this coming week/weekend and I can blog about it then!

Post Thirty: Skating, and almost done with papers

2011-05-10T00:42:00.001-04:00

so, not quite almost done with papers. I still have two left, but with any hope I will get them both over and done with...soon...then only two exams and we are home free!!!!!!!!!!!! Three weeks until school is up! I cannot WAIT!

So, on Saturday night some friends and I went skating at the Macquarie Ice Rink. The skates they had were absolutely horrid, man, you thought unsharpened skates were bad? try unsharpened on one skate and superdeduper sharp on the other. also, these skates were not lace up they were plastic strap on, kind of like skiboots, so really uncomfortable. BUT WHO CARES!!!! WE WENT ICE SKATING WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Man it was really nice to get skating after so long without it! made me miss hockey all that much more, but it was still awesome. Skating and Australia, I mean, how much better can it get?!

Anthony, Amanda, Alica, and Sean

What then? Well, nothing else exciting happened on the weekend, however when Monday rolled around I had a package!!!!! And can you guess what was inside? Suffice to say it was heaven in a box. I now have enough ketchup to last me probably until I leave (probably) and enough REAL chocolate to last a little while. BLISS. THANK YOU THANKYOUTHANKYOU

Haven't even tried them yet and already this is my reaction!!

made in the USA. oh yeah.

Love

Post Twenty Six went for a holiday: a week of nothing

2011-05-06T06:57:00.003-04:00

Ok, the the title of this post pretty much explains everything that is in it, so, if you are not particularly interested please stop reading now because I promise it does not get any more exciting.

I just realized that for some reason post twenty six is either missing or was not created in the first place, and I haven't posted an awhile so naturally I felt I must remedy both of these conundrums.

Hence, this is post twenty six.

No that is not all, I am not THAT bad. I have spent my week pretty much just doing classwork, I have done my traveling in Australia, I have been around Sydney enough that I have been to all the major sites at least once. I have been to the Blue Mountains a couple times. I also have alot of classwork to do, not more than I would have at LU, but the assignments here that I have to work on now are worth a large percentage of my 'mark' (what grades are called here), so I have been working on all of them. Additionally, I have no finals outside of class, this is really nice as it means my month of June instead of being exams will consist of...pretty much whatever I want it to (within budget lines...). However, the consequence of this is that I do have several major projects (papers and in-class tests) all in the merry month of May fa la la la (it's a song we sang in my highschool chorus class freshman year...).

I have gotten almost all of my LU classes worked out, its looking to be one heck of a busy senior year, but I am at least pretty interested in all the classes I am signed up for so that will hopefully make it better.

What else have I accomplished this week? Well, nothing. so lets talk about the weather. It has gotten pretty cool here pretty quickly, I have almost started wearing pants (before now it was shorts, not nothing sillies), I have put the blankets on my bed, and stopped drawing the shades at night. The sun is beginning to set around 5pm these days and the trees (which are NOT native to Australia, the native trees are evergreen) have started to either lose their leaves, or to change color. It is decidedly fall! It is making my mentality all confused because fall is the time I go back to LU to do soccer practice, or classes, so its weird that things are wrapping up here...really weird...Which will make it all that much more weird when I go back to blistering and humid Ohio in the middle of summer...and then BACK to fall at LU!

I would like to congratulate all those who worked on Lawrence University's rendering of The Tempest, particularly the seniors. I am sorry I couldn't be there but I am sure it was fantastic!

I would also like to thank my Dad for providing me with the latest Jack Reacher book (Jack Reacher is on the level of Dean Winchester and Han Solo and Crocodile in level of awesomeness)...I cannot read it until after I finish all of these humongous assignments...torture...thanks Dad. But no seriously, thank you very much! I will enjoy it very much as soon as I can read it. It is "worth dying for" (both my sentiment and the title).

Lastly, I would like to wish Shu Takahashi GOOD LUCK! In his rugby game on the 8th!

Anything else of note? well...no. I told you this was not going to be an exciting post! Since when do I lie!?

Reacher

Winchester

Solo

Estuarine Crocodile...just to clarify

Post Twenty Nine: A week back in Sydney

2011-05-02T02:34:00.006-04:00

ok, just FYI for those of you who are less technologically adept than others, if you click on any picture that is posted on this blog, it will make it much bigger and easier to see.

Having said that! Back to Sydney!

I finished my travels around Australia on the 22nd of April, flying to Sydney later in the evening. Since DLC does not let us move back in (without paying an arm and a leg, which if you will remember I did not have any left), I stayed with some friends in the Macquarie Village. This was really nice, their apartment was more homey than a dorm is, and I enjoyed having a couple lovely meals that we made together. and just spending time chatting with friends after returning back to campus!!!

There is not much left to my break adventures, the 24th was Easter, so I met up with Angie (returning from New-Zealand) at St. Mary's Cathedral, the oldest one in Australia, for the Easter Mass. I found that it was not anything particularly special, the Cathedral was beautiful, but that's about it. One is not allowed to take pictures inside, and seeing as it was Easter, I thought I should probably adhere to this policy, but I have put in the blog a picture that I got from the web.

On Monday, Angie, Alicia, Karen and I went to the Royal Easter Show. It has nothing to do with Easter, this is just the Australian version of a State Fair. We saw horses and dogs and cows and alpacas, we also sampled alot of local foods such as chilies, nougat, nuts, granola (muesli), and meats. I watched a really cool sheepdog (yard dog here) demonstration with an Australian Kelpie performing. It was rainy all day, but we still enjoyed walking around the show together, Angie and I also had Deep Fried Cheesecake....it was....a heart attack on a stick, but it was pretty good, I think I prefer funnel cakes as my fair food of choice though.

I can spell better than this!!

After this, it was back to the Village for the final dinner with my host friends. I made them chocolate peanut butter brownies, and since Australian cocoa was used out of necessity I used DOUBLE the cocoa for one batch...it turned out to not even be chocolaty enough then! But they were still fairly decent.

To end the break adventures, I finally got to move back into my room on the 26th, (they had cleaned very nicely and the cockroach was not stuck to my wall anymore!!) before classes commenced again on the 27th.

Here ends my narrative (of break anyway, I will keep posting other stuff). I have nothing more exciting planned at this point, just finishing up classes and surviving the papers that are worth %50 of my grade....

Post Twenty Eight: no arms and no legs remaining.

2011-04-30T07:12:00.004-04:00

My final part of the break journey began when I departed Cairns the morning of the 18th. I flew out to Melbourne and met Janet and her son Jacob at the airport around 2pm. We then drove to their house in a small, rather nice sort of suberb area of Melbourne.

"their house is gorgeous! located right behind Peter's business office which connects to the street, it has lots of wood and a bright sunroom at the back of the house which is the eating area, then it has an outdoor courtyard and an studio for Janet, which at this point doubled as a bedroom for me. I learned that the kitchen had been totally redone, and I have to say that I approved immensly! Nice and open and central to the rest of the house, it was everything a kitchen should be (minus a dishwasher) AND it was oriented to left-handers!!! YES!" --Journal entry April 19th

After quickly settling in and refreshing up, we all four headed across the city to a friends house for my first ever real Seder. Along the way I was able to get some insider information on various buildings, parks, and other locations of interest as we drove by.

Songs

Food

"The Seder was so wonderful. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and fun and not afraid to tease. I was able to feel fairly comfortable fairly quickly. WE sang Seder songs to rock tunes, and ate tons of amazing homecooking including beef briskit, sweet potatoes, flourless cake, and chicken. It was so nice to be among real people in a real house around a real table! I was so privileged to be able to share in this experience and I look forward to many more lovely times with this family." --Journal Entry April 19th

On Tuesday the 19th, Janet, Jacob and I went on a bikeride along the shore down near St. Kilda's. We had a bit of trouble getting there, but we eventually made it down to the path. It was a lovely ride, a great way to see some of the sights (including some famous and colorful beach cabanas). Melbourne is definitely the place of food, hence I will be mentioning it alot in this post. We had authentic fish 'n' chips first, then some fancy bakery items later at Aclan Street. I could definitely grow fat there (if I had the money) I am told that it is not what it used to be, but even so, the few bakeries there had alot of variety and everything looked marvelous.

Jacob was not feeling too well, so they headed home from Aclan street. I made my slow way back by biking along the path and past some gorgeous parks, before heading to the (amazingly prevalent) bike lanes on the streets. I kept thinking to myself as I pedaled past and through Melbourne, "Hannah was probably here, oh she was probably here too!!". Upon my eventual return to the house I was able to help Janet make a scrumptious and colorful REAL AND HOMECOOKED (I love this home cooked meal stuff, can you tell I am a college student?) dinner of chicken meatballs in tomato (NOT ketchup, actual tomato sauce) sauce, mashed potatoes, carrot salad, and some really yummy and super fresh brussels sprouts sizzled in garlic and olive oil.

HANNAH!!!

Wednesday the 20th I spent by myself in downtown Melbourne discovering the main area of the city. It was raining pretty much all day, so I browsed some of the mall/arcades looking for Haigh's chocolate shop (I found it, it was pretty good for Aussie stuff!) and went to the free Australian art museum at Federation Square. Unfortunately (and ironically) the 'stormy weather' exhibit was closed, and the Aboriginal area was also being cleaned or something, but there was a gallery devoted to the best high school art of the Victorian area, it was cool to see some 'young' art.

Post art gallery, I headed by tram to Bimbos Pizza to satisfy the demands of Hannah Sawitsky and eat their $4 pizza. It was fairly well priced considering amount for dollar (by Australian standards) however, still did not have the cheese or sauce that makes pizza pizza, it was more faithful to the real Italian version of the stuff. So, conclusion, good, well priced, nice and gourmet, worth the trip, but still not the (terrible for you) American style of pizza.

rosemary, onions, redpepper and sausage

I finished off the day by walking through an old cemetery, it was the perfect sort of day for it and the cemetery was filled with gravestones where the markings were rubbed off, my kind of cemetery! I also found some real Mcvities at a shop nearby!!!! So I munched down a half package of these as I meandered in the cemetery. It was cool how the sounds of the city seemed to disappear while I was there...creepy!

apparently Wall-E died...

a momentary lull in the crowd

Family dinner!!!

my Pavlova

After another amazing dinner and meeting some more of Peter and Janet's friends, sampling some excellent Australian wine, and making my first Pavlova (underneath the watchful eye of a true Aussie aka Peter who said "make a Pavlova right and you will win over any Australian"), I got to use the internet for a few minutes to sign up for my LU classes. Yes, break is not all break, I now had to start planning my (gulp) senior year at college!!!

Friday the 22nd was my last day in Melbourne.

"we all traveled to a farm which Peter had very recently purchased, about two hours from the city, a beautiful piece of land surrounded by fence, with its own wild goats, woolshed, former racehorse named Henry, old trees, and some new trees that Peter had planted. We walked through the property, spotting wild kangaroos and wallabies, thankfully it was too cold and cloudy for snakes. We then had another picnic lunch (a feast more like, with chocolate cake, and eggplant parmesan, and lots of fresh fruit) and I was given the honor of planting a tree." --Journal Entry April 22nd

'sound of music' or 'man from snowy river'?

I was then driven to the airport under a glorious sunset as we all thought of man with no arms and no legs jokes (hence the title of this post). It was no less than absolutely wonderful to spend time with Peter Janet and Jacob. To be welcomed into their family for the time that I was there, watching old movies, looking at photo albums, eating amazing food, laughing teasing, seeing Melbourne and just generally having a great time. I am very thankful that I was given the chance to stay with these gracious people. It was the perfect way to end my break before returning to University to finish out my school semester. I am very very thankful.

?????

Post Twenty Seven: Second leg

2011-04-25T21:44:00.008-04:00

view from the shuttle port at the airport

Cairns was so different from Alice Springs it was like landing in a different country! Alice is hot and Dry, and quiet. upon arriving in Cairns I was greeted by a sunset over palmtrees and a mangrove swamp, as well as some very chattery tropical birds.

I met an Irish woman while waiting for my shuttle that would take me to the next backpackers. She was very pleasent and even gave me the $5 I needed for the shuttle (I had no cash and they only accepted cash). I told her I wold make a point to support some other needy backpacker in her honor.

"Upon arriving at the backpackers I met up with Angie!!! Hooray! we both talked a mile a minute (she had just come from Melbourne) as we walked downtown for our free dinner at a local bar/pub/grill called the Woolshed. The food was terrible but it was free so we were not complaining. Here also we found Alicia (another DLCer) who had been out to the reef already. It was extremely nice to meet up with people I already knew. I was invigorated and refreshed and ready for more travel as a result." -Journal Entry April 13

Cairns itself at first seemed very much like Appleton. It was a city, but a smaller one with not too many tall buildings, it felt safer than Sydney and more familiar more quickly (due to its size). Though by the time I left Cairns seemed nothing at all like Appleton, it is more tropical, a beach town, not a Midwest place.

On the morning 14th I headed out to the reef aboard a sailboat called the Rum Runner with five other tourists and a crew of five. It was a real switch of environment to go from the dusty red outback to the blue and wet water of the ocean! This day I got to do some snorkeling on the reef and one actual dive for 25 minutes.

"there is no bad spot to be out here. at first one reaches the reef and there is really nothing but green coral. but then fish just pop out! loads and loads of fish of all different sizes and colors. It is so fascinating that they all live together peacefully. The actual dive was incredible, but it is so weird to feel the water around you and still be able to breath. I was also a little unnerved by my proximity to the coral. I did not want to touch anything. I have found that there is just something about touching things in water that creeps me out. Luckily for the rest of the snorkels I found a wetsuit so I was entirely protected from touching ANYTHING. this made it better for the rest of the trip." -Journal Entry 14th April

We were on the boat for two days and one night. Unfortunately I never got my sealegs and instead received many bruises from running into everything as the boat rocked. Although I did note that this is not too unusual for me (running into things that is) so really nothing changed. The reef was fantastic, I got to see pretty much every well known reef creature except a ray. I enjoyed the experience and the small personal feeling of the boat and crew vs. tourist ratio was really nice.

the 15th Angie and I had one more day together in Cairns, so we took a bus up to Palm Beach. NOTE: if you are traveling to Cairns rent a car. the public transport is virtually nill and the bus we took pretty much only went to the beach. nowhere else. Anyway, we spent time on the beach (my first beach with palm trees!!! It looked like what I would imagine Hawaii looks like), we made sure only to swim in the enclosed area as there was a sign that warned of saltwater crocodiles....We also went on a beach walk

"not anything special, just a quiet walk along a beautiful tropical beach. However! We reached a rocky bit and I noticed there were crabs!!!! They were everywhere! and would scuttle from underneath the rocks (where one could not see them) to other rocks as one came closer to them. I was terrified! My toes were curling with every step! I kept a brave face though and pushed on, however if one had touched me I would have jumped four feet in the air and crawled backwards (like a crab actually) faster than the speed of light." -journal entry April 15

We saw a sign for sea kayaks to rent and decided it was well worth the money, so Angie and I went Kayaking on the ocean out to an island. It was wonderful! First time sea kayaking for me, peaceful and again, we were on a tropical and blue ocean!!!

The last day in Cairns I was by myself again, I went to Palm Sunday in a small and very welcoming church with real palm fronds! in the morning, but it was the afternoon that was really special. I took a trip out to Hartleys Crocodile Adventures!!!!!!!! Home of over 18 saltwater crocodiles that are larger than 3 meters, as well as many other crocs, some wallabys, kangaroos, koalas etc. But the crocs are the main show.

Satwater crocs are basically the bomb. They can run 40 mph, climb trees, bite with 3,000ppsi, hide in (I kid you not I saw this with my own eyes) 1 foot of water, hold their breath for up to 3 hours, AND due to the salt glands in their cheeks, they live in lakes, ponds, oceans, rivers, waterholes, estuaries, seas, creeks, basically everywhere there is enough water. The biggest croc at Hartley's was 4.6 meters long and was there because he had attacked some fisherman and then found his way 300km back to the same spot after being relocated. The biggest recorded estuarine croc was 8.4 meters long....that's big...

Anyway, I spent the afternoon there just aweing over these amazing dinosaur-like creatures. I spent my last night in Cairns writing in my journal and departed the next morning for Melbourne where I was to meet up with the family that was going to take me in for the last leg of my journey.

Post Twenty Five: Beginnings

2011-04-23T06:50:00.002-04:00

April 8th, 5:30pm: First Journal Excerpt (please note that this is a bit edited, not exactly the original journal entry IHRTLUHC)

"So it begins. I moved totally and completely out of my room at DLC since according to their stupid policy one has to pay extra to stay over break. Supposedly they need the space for paying conference guests...psh...I wonder what the conference guests will think of the cockroach that is still stuck to my wall."

I flew out to Alice Springs at 6:05am on the morning of the 9th. It was super hot there, and very dry, upon exiting the aircraft my hair instantly stood on end from the dryness. I was not impressed with the backpackers I stayed at (Toddy's), although the people employed there turned out to be the most friendly in my hostel experiences. Since I arrived at 2 in the afternoon I had some time to explore the town, not needed, Alice Springs is absolutely void of anything to do, it is more of just a jumping off point for tours out to the Red Center (Uluru etc.) I stayed at Toddy's only for the night, meeting Corelie, a Swiss student who was also from Macquarie and was going on the same trip that I was the next day!! Fancy that, we had not met prior to bunking in the room!

The first of many 'look, my face!' pictures

The next morning was when things really got started. Leaving the hostel at 5am, we picked up the rest of our group at another hotel. There were only eight of us and our guide on the trip, this turned out to be a real blessing because it meant that our group could get places faster, ask questions more freely, get to know each other well, and bond quite quickly (most of the other tours had at least 20 people if not more). We drove out of AS as the sun was rising over the outback, it was quite beautiful but this was just the beginning! the four hour trip took us farther and farther from everywhere. Along the way, Corelie and I measured the prices of everything by comparing the price of a container of Tim Tams at all of our various stops (the prices rose from $4 in AS, to $6.95 by the time we reached Ayers Rock).

We stopped here for firewood. Note: this was not the road we took, just an offshoot from the paved one we were actually on.

We arrived at our campsite and ate a quick lunch before heading out to Kata Tjuta for a hike. KJ is much like Uluru, except it is a lot of big rocks, not just one giant one. Here, our guide Bron explained how KJ and Uluru were formed.

"When Australia was squeezed from West and East by techtonic plate movement, it created mountains tall enough to have ice on top. The ice melted and huge chunks of rock fell off into the sea that covered this part of Australia, then they were covered by earth as the seas dried. Then Australia was squeezed again from North and South and these rocks were pushed to the surface a little, exposing them again to the upper world (scientists believe Uluru is a massive rock that extends down into the earth much farther, what we see is just a small bit of it). So basically, KJ and Uluru are Giant earth pimples." -Ariana Flood, Journal entry April 10th 2011.

The Kata Tjuta (Aboriginal name) or Olgas (Settler name)

Sunset over KJ

The Hike was enjoyable, I was constantly reminded of sleeping cattle as we walked among the huge red rocks just resting out in the middle of nowhere. We then finished this first day with a spectacular sunset over the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) before returning to camp for some Kangaroo for dinner and a celestial starshow that was unlike anything I have, or ever will see again I imagine. The stars were so numerous that one actually had to look away from the milky way because it was too bright! We got to sleep in swags (basically a mattress inside a sleeping bag) out in the open under these stars, and I had the pleasure of waking a few times and just having to look up to be awed again.

Yes, I was awake this early, and no the sunrise was not any more beautiful than the sunset

Day 2 we headed out to Uluru itself at 5am to see the sun rise on the Rock and then to circumnavigate the base of it. I was struck by the spiritual feel of the Rock. It really was special, I was not expecting it to be so interesting, I mean, it is just a rock in the ground...but there is something about it that just takes your breath away. Perhaps it is that every single step of the way the rock changes as the light, or your position shifts, perhaps it is the absolute silence other than the morning rustle of wind that almost is music unto itself, or maybe there is something more. Regardless, Uluru was even more amazing than I had imagined.

truffula grass?

part of Uluru

After our walk we got to learn some about the Aboriginal culture and beliefs surrounding it, in particular one story about a Dingo God who massacred a group of Indigenous women, so violent he left his mark on the rock itself in the form of a massive pawprint.

The pawprint on the left, a faceless and armless woman on the right. See it?

We then headed in our bus for our 6 hour drive over to Kings Canyon (it takes a while to get anywhere out there), our last stop of the tour. Along the way was more outback, outback, outback. I was reminded of my out West trip in the U.S. when a certain person in the car kept commenting on all the "sagebrush and juniper", only out here it is something like "deathplant and buffo grass".

In the swag

Kings Canyon was also quite amazing. Though apparently it is rusting. that is where the red color comes from. Kings canyon is like the Badlands, the paths were marked, but mostly we were just walking along the rocks and along the canyon. At one point one could shout and actually hear the full echo, it was really cool. Also, since our tour group was so small we were able to move quickly and finished the walk in only 3 hours with plenty of time to stop and take pictures, we just didn't have to wait for people to catch up or rest etc. We finished with the canyon at 10am, just before the thousands of flies started coming out, and departed from the Red Center taking our 6 hour trip back to Alice Springs.

According to Aboriginal legend, these are all warrior men who were turned to stone in case they were needed later

two anecdotes of AS before my departure

"Getting ready to leave Toddy's I was greated by a young police officer who asked if I had found anything missing (sort of an odd question, how does one find something if it is missing...). Apparently the person a couple doors down had been burglurized in the middile of the night as a couple of locals had opened her door and stolen her backpack. We had been warned that AS was not a friendly place after dark, but this truly brought it to reality........Unrelatedly, later, while I was waiting for the shuttle for the airport, I was approached by a couple of young men who asked to use my toilet. I laughed and told them it was not MY toilet and as far as I was concerned they could go ahead. whilst one of them left, the other sat with me and introduced himself as Guy from Israel. He and Yanni (the other) had been out in the desert doing a reptile survey for the past week. Yanni joined us again and Guy treated us all to Paul's local iced coffee which Guy insisted was the best in Australia (pretty good though more milk than coffee). We chatted for about a half hour and I was invited to share a taxi to the airport with them after lunch, but since I had already paid for the shuttle I declined promising to meet up with them upon their arrival at the airport instead. I did end up finding them again while we waited for our respective flights and they sang for me a song they were planning to put up on Youtube, entitled "the crayfish funnyfarm song" to the tune of Yellow Submarine. Someday perhaps I will be able to find this video and these two awesome guys again." -Ariana Flood, Journal Entry April 13th 2011

Doing homework at the airport and drying out my shoes after washing them

Post Twenty Four: Back from Break!!!!

2011-04-23T05:06:00.002-04:00

Ok! First let me say that, although I love disconnecting on occasion to go camping or something, being away from the internet and thus all contact with people outside my immediate bubble (no cellphone really either, since almost everyone I know is not in AU right now) is EXTREMELY taxing! Holy Moly! I did not like not being able to talk to people or to share, or to even just check in and see how things were going in various places. I would not hurry back to not having internet that is for sure! I know I sound spoiled, but it is really hard to be in the dark as to what loved ones are up to, what experiences and news, I can only imagine in horror what it must have been like in the ages before telephones!

Now that that is settled. On to describing my amazing break experiences! Just to refresh your memories, I traveled on April 9th out to Alice Springs, then began a 3 day camping trip with a tour group on the 9th, left Alice Springs for Cairns on the 13th, went on an overnight sailboat out to the Great Barrier Reef on the 14th, departed Cairns for Melbourne on the 18th, spent time in Melbourne with Janet, Peter, and Jacob Bau; friends of my old piano teacher Stefanie Jacobs, then returned to Sydney on the 22nd. Classes don't start until the 27th.

I did keep a journal of my travels so that I would not forget anything and could write alot down on my blog once I returned (thankfully!) to internet range/access. I also took over 600 pictures. Needless to say I will not feature all of those pictures here, nor will I have the full version of my journal, just the important or interesting bits. I will also be posting a few separate posts, one for each leg of my journey, this way you will not be subjected to reading one super long post.

Just as a general overview, my 'holiday' was incredible. It was fantastic to travel around Australia, especially since that is the real reason I am here after all. I feel like a travel veteran now, and airports and place travel are no big deal. I have learned much about Australians, about backpacking hostels, different people, certain cities, tours, etc.

And now, without further ado...Ariana's Australian Adventures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My way IS the highway!

Post Twenty Three: Off into the wild yonder

2011-04-06T20:21:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! I am going on break (FINALLY WHOOPIEEEEEEEEE!!!!) so I will be out of internet contact for the next three weeks. Thus I will not be posting at all, I will try to remember and write down as much as I can in a journal or something and then post one really super long post, or a bunch of shorter ones, or something when I return from my adventures!

So yep, I leave Friday afternoon by my time, and I return on the 23rd. though I may not have a computer until perhaps the 26th. So until then, farewell to everyone and I will get in touch again upon my return to DLC!

TTFN!

Love - Ariana

Post Twenty Two: ok, a few things I forgot to mention

2011-04-02T23:39:00.001-04:00

How to kill a cockroach family:

Step 1. Locate cockroaches. This will happen purely by intuition. Similar to suddenly getting the feeling that there are raccoons by your picnic table, you will allof a sudden get the urge to look to your left to the corner, or to go over by your sink not knowing why with goosebumps prickling your neck. You will then spot a cockroach parent on your wall, or cockroach child on your floor respectively.

Step 2. Choose weapon. Find something that you do not care if it becomes either broken or smattered in cockroach. (cups from the dining halls that you have no respect for are perfect).

Step 3. Calmly and firmly grasp weapon and slowly lower towards cockroach. No fast movements, they will notice and subsequently skitter out of sight causing significant distress to your person as you will now have no idea where they have gone to.

Step 4. Once weapon is sufficiently close, quickly finish the blow and squish roach thoroughly making sure that it is separated into at least two halves. Otherwise it will continue to live. If either of the halves are still moving, repeat step 3 and 4 until no movement is detectable and roach is in a number of pieces.

Step 5. Leave in conspicuous spot for the cleaning crew to discover. Perhaps they will realize that there is a problem. Or. if this is impossible because the roach is in a traffic area and you will forget that the roach is there and will inevitably step on it, use utensil (again, dining hall materials such as knives work well) to pick up roach and place in trash.

Step 6. Hope and pray that you have now killed mom and child and not dad and child. if you have succeeded in killing the mother, then any subsequent children will not exist. If you have only killed the dad and child then you have only cut of the head of a hydra, as the cockroaches will continue to multiply. If this second is the case. Repeat steps 1-5 until problem is no more.

Step 4

Step 3

Ideal results of Step 4. (thumb included to provide scale)

second thing one must know. they PAY you to take psych studies here! no candy involved you get CASH MONEY!

third. the concept of the icecube is utterly foreign to the Australian. Thus, so too is the idea of cold beverages.

lastly, 'all you can eat' dining service is a lie at DLC. it is not 'all you can eat' it is instead 'limited first servings, only allowed one option of the three given, served conservatively by staff, then no seconds allowed until 10 minutes before closing (if there is any left at this point) to make sure we actually have enough for everyone because we don't plan well and often run out of food by the end even with our restrictive first servings'. So show up early to make sure you actually get food, and if you want seconds, bring a sweatshirt or something so you can go in with a different shirt on, sometimes they will not recognize you and will give you seconds thinking they are your firsts.

Anything I left out? oh yeah. make SURE you check your apple before EACH bite. otherwise you may end up finding you have just eaten half of a black spot or worse...

Post Twenty One: Almost there, but one more adventure before break.

2011-04-01T23:47:00.001-04:00

Not much to report this week. I have been trying my best to finish all of my homework so that when I go on break I can actually be on break. I am currently trying to finish a huge research paper. It is not due for a little while even after the break, but seeing as during the month of May I will have a total of three of these monsters to accomplish (in addition to all other papers and tests). Granted, the workload here is not as pressuring as the one at LU, but I have one more class than back home and only a couple of extra weeks (since we have this giant break) of actual school. So, anyway, this will be a short post.

Yesterday I went with some friends beck to the Blue Mountains. The weather report was "mostly sunny"...however the sun did not get "mostly" until around 3pm...typical. I am finding it a trend that whenever I make plans to go places the sky tends to be either raining, or cloudy and cold.

However, it was actually pretty sweet to have this weather as you will see in a minute. After a long trainride we arrived in Katoomba and walked down to Echo point. We learned why people usually take tourbuses, because it is a fair walk (not undoable for sure, but it is a bit of a walk) to get anywhere.

where are the mountains?

Anyway, once we arrived at the 'scenic lookout' Echo Point. But, wait, where were the mountains? we couldn't really see anything due to massive cloud-cover. it was hauntingly interesting, every now and then a mountain would emerge and then disappear again into the clouds.

We then walked down to the three sisters, again it was so cloudy that it was hard to see anything. but it did clear now and then, enough that we were able to glimpse some of the vistas.

Lunch!

After this, was lunch on the side of the path (we received some looks from the passersby, perhaps because we were all sitting on the ground in front of a bench...instead of on the bench...)

can you find us?

sunlight turns it into a tropical woodland!

Then we walked along a path trying to get to the Leura Cascades. The walk was really fun, sometimes it was like walking through a misty valley in a horror movie or a rainforest. and then the sun would come out and it was like a tropical island walk! the walk was supposedly only 3 km... however, it took us 2 1/2/ hours before we reached a sign that said Leura Cascades 750m ahead. GREAT! but then, about 100m farther we saw another sign that said Leura Cascades 1.1 km...hmmmmm not good. we decided to sadly forgo trying to find the falls and instead headed up away from the mountains and onto the road to Leura town. after walking up and down and up and down hills we reached Leura and enjoyed windowshopping (it was a beautiful day at this point) for a bit before heading back on the train.

Since we had all purchased tickets that let us travel on all transportation free for that day, we decided to continue all the way back to Sydney City. We went to the Rocks Pancake House for dinner, I ordered one of their 'famous chocolate pancakes' and shared. It was our consensus that "they forgot the pan in that pancake!" Still, it was pretty good, even by my snobbish chocolate standards.

On the ferry, behind me is Circular Quay

Blue, and the Opera house. how can it get better!

We finished the night by riding the ferry to a litup Luna Park before returning tired but happy and satisfied, to the Uni.

There was my one day adventure! a bit short and to the point, I apologize. but homework calls.....

Post TWENTY!!: Australia really is pretty darn awesome

2011-03-27T07:03:00.005-04:00

I realize that I have been doing alot of complaining in my previous posts. Please let me say right now that AUSTRALIA IS AMAZINGLY INCREDIBLY AWESOME! Do not take my complaining the wrong way, the fact that what I am complaining about is food (which we complain about even back at LU) and birds (same deal) is good. Australia is wonderful and I am so happy and lucky and privileged to be here.

That being said, this post is all about the magnificence of Rugby, SPRING BREAK (which is i suppose really fall break...) that is coming up soon!!!!!!!!!! and actually having time to spend a total of thirty-three hours in eleven lectures that give me no credit whatsoever.

#1) on the list. Spring Break! (ok I know it is fall break. but old habits...) .

Here is my itinerary.

April 8th: Break begins. this is Friday. I will spend the day packing up everything and getting ready to go.

April 9th: Depart from Sydney airport at 6:05am for Alice Springs via Brisbane. Arrive in ASP by noon and check in to Toddy's Backpackers for the night.

April 10th: Depart 5:45 am from Toddy's for the Adventure Tours Rock the Centre 3 day excursion to Kings Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and surrounding OUTBACK areas. The outback is the reason I came to Australia. So I am so excited for this.

April 13th: Depart from ASP for Cairns via Ayers Rock 1:55pm. Arrive in Cairns at 6:25pm, check in to Cairns City Backpackers (hello 15 dollar a night rooms!)

April 14th: Depart from the Marlin Marina at 7:00am on the Sailboat the Rum Runner for a 2 day, 1 night snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef, I will get to do one introductory scuba dive for free, and if I want to shell out some more cash. I can choose to do additional dives.

April15th: Return to Cairns at 3:30pm, re-check in to City Backpackers.

April 18th: Depart from Cairns Airport for Melbourne at 10:35am. Arrive in Melbourne 2:00pm and meet Janet, a very VERY generous friend of my piano instructor Stefanie Jacobs' who has offered to be my host during my stay. This night, we will attend the 'Rolls Royce' of seders at a friend of Janet's.

April 21st, 22nd, or MAYBE, 23rd: Depart from Melbourne for Sydney. Arrive in Sydney where I will crash on the floor of some wonderful friends from Malaysia who live in the apartments in the Macquarie Village near campus.

Somewhere after the return to campus I will go to Sydney and attend the Royal Easter Show (a bit like the state fair I am told, not really a religious thing but more of a pastime).

April 24th: Attend the Easter service at THE cathedral in Sydney, St. Marys.

April 26th: ANZAC DAY!!!!!!!!! EAT AS MANY ANZAC COOKIES AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!!

There you have it! Looks busy, but in the time period where I will have no homework I need to fit in as much as possible!

#2.) Now, on to the experiences I had today! This involves RUGBY LEAGUE!

I am told this is called a 'scrum' but I still have no idea why they do this.

A group of 20 exchange students got tickets through 'club X' to go to the Rugby League match between the Bondi Roosters and the Canterbury Bulldogs (dogs were 'at home') at the ANZ Olympic Stadium in the Olympic park.

It took us 4 trains to get there and our journey there was actually longer than the 80 minute match we came to watch, but it was well worth it. Upon arrival we were told that apparently the Dogs and the Roosters have a heated rivalry, since Canterbury is from a certain part of town and well, so is Bondi. There were alot of police and we were told to stay in our group and not to talk to anyone. If we were to interact, it was best to 'be a fan' of whatever jersey the person we were talking to was wearing. So, 20 exchange students entered the stadium a bit on edge, but very excited to be in such a 'real' situation. We were told that we would be told the rules upon entering, however our guide forgot to do this so we were left to figure them out for ourselves. I knew a bit about rugby already, and I had seen some on the TV at the gym, so I had a very general idea of the basics (can't pass forward for example) but alot of my rule understanding was still just sort of by guess and by golly.

the Bulldogs enter

The game was so fun to watch. One has 6 plays to get from one end of the field to the endzone, and it looks similar to a very intense game of red rover. One guy takes the ball and runs as hard as he can from his line of people and towards (and into) the other teams line of people (stretching across the field). Then he is tackled, or he can lateral the ball back to keep the play going. There is a 4 point score for getting the ball over the endzone line and touching the ground with it. There is then 2 points added if they can kick the extra point through the uprights.

Tourists (aka our group)

there were water people on the field even during play! (see dudes in blue and yellow, pink is the ref)

Angie and...I dunno who that other person is...

Play is pretty close to non-stop, since when one is tackled he stand up as quickly as he can and starts the play going again. It is also very...brutal, no pads or anything and men weighing over 250 pounds running full force into each other. It was so exciting! There were 24,000 fans in the 80,000 capacity stadium, so it looked pretty empty, but they were sufficiently loud during the good plays and 'bad' reff calls to make it a real experience, though, we did not witness any police action, in fact, I did not see ANY police inside the stadium at all. We did see a couple injuries including one where I said that "I think the guy broke his leg" (turned out I was right...)....not good for the Roosters. Also, the favorite hometeam Bulldogs walked off with a victory after a dominating first half performance (though the Roosters picked it up after the halftime chat).

#3.) the Global Leadership Program (GLP): Here at Macquarie I have chosen to take part in the GLP for Study Abroad Students (there is another one for undergrad and postgrad students here for longer than we are, but theirs is much much much more involved than ours is). The program is a series of at least 10 colloquium ranging from lectures to workshops each lasting 3 hours, on different aspects of Global Issues. We pick and chose them from a number of different ones offered: subjects include (but are certainly not limited to) international humanitarian law, sustainable leadership in business, morality and living well, etc.

So far I have attended

Religion Secularism and State

Leadership

Sustainable Leadership

International Aid

Me. Inc

and I plan to attend

Career Mapping

Poverty Development and Microfinance

Believe Me When I Tell You 2 (persuasive speaking)

Climate Change, Leading for the Future

Beyond Borders (cultural understanding)

Living Well and Doing Right (morality in the Global community).

I have found these colloquia vary on their level of interesting-ness. But I am learning about the world through a Global perspective, all of them are very informative. I am also gaining some useful knowledge about being a person of the world, that I can apply to my own life.

There you have it! post two of a weekend! I am making up for the lack of posts that will occur during break ( I will not have my computer in Uluru or in Cairns or in Melbourne. so you will have to wait awhile to hear about my adventures there).

Plans for the near future include finishing up alot of schoolwork, and yep, thats about it. Not too exciting.

Post Nineteen: terrible conclusions

2011-03-25T23:29:00.004-04:00

This morning was the first time I was able to sleep in past 7am. I was pretty excited and ready for a restful experience. Not to be, not to be.

Most of you readers know that when at home in the states, there is a certain bird associated largely with spring and summer, that I cannot stand. It's incessant ugly warbling loud imposing call rouses me from slumber and pesters my ears daily during these months of the year. Yes, I am speaking of the house wren.

Here in Australia, there are no house wrens. this is good, however, there are crows and the sulphur-crested cockatoo....Never in my life did I imagine that there could be a worse bird than the house wren. Australia has sadly lead me to the most terrible conclusion that perhaps the house wren is not all that bad. I know. its amazing. But the crows here and the cockatoos are now officially more annoying than any other bird, insect, or creature I have encountered.

Do not be fooled by the pretty appearance!

yuck yuck yuck, I can imagine the sound it is making and to that I say YUCK!

Crows here do not sound like real crows, they sound like dying lambs mixed with complaining babies. Worse are the cockatoos. These birds make a noise as loud as a lawn mower and the sound is similar to that of a coffee-grinder and the screeching of brakes/crunching in an automobile accident.

This morning (and a couple mornings this week), these cockatoos decided to have a conference outside my window at 5:30am and at 7am. Twice as loud as the house wren, and yes, even uglier and impertinent, the cockatoo (and the Australian crow) has now topped my list as the worst bird. Compared to these birds, the house wren is ALMOST musical. However, I maintain that the house wren is by no means a pleasant sounding bird, and it is still on my bad list, but it can be redeemed by these other two extremely unpleasant creatures.

Second: I must take the liberty to complain a bit more about Aussie food. I have tried and tried and tried, but no matter where I have looked I have failed to find 1.) Ketchup that tastes properly like ketchup 2.) tomato/spaghetti sauce 3.) good chocolate (that is not either American, Swiss, British, French, or German made). The conclusion is, that here, some things just taste different and I will not experience good versions until my return to America. I must say that, it is not that they are essentially bad, but just that they do not suite my previously formed taste preferences. Having said that,

Australian Ketchup...

The Ketchup here is called "tomato sauce" and while it has the semblance of proper ketchup (it is red and thickish) and tastes...ok...If I found ketchup like this in the states I would say it had been open for too long, it just doesn't have the fresh tangy taste that I am used to. It is more of a darker almost burnt (for lack of a better word) flavor. I am not the only one who has had this experience! It is a matter of taste preference yes, but there are others who agree on what I have written.

What regular spaghetti sauce looks like. Australians really don't know what this is.

Tomato Sauce (careful, here one needs to call it spaghetti sauce or marinara sauc, as 'tomato sauce' means ketchup here), is non-existent basically. I recently had lasagnia and there was not any tangible tomato flavoring except one or two stray tomato skins (meaning there must have been SOME sort of sauce somewhere, but.... ) there was no sauce visible, or tasteable. This has also been my experience with pizza as noted in earlier posts. really, the concept of sauce is foreign. Even the pasta sauces are more like bunches of diced tomatoes, not really a 'sauce' there. It is also really difficult to find spaghetti sauce in stores, which leads me to believe it is not only DLC and pizza places which have this problem of no sauce.

Lastly, as I have mentioned before, the chocolate does not taste like chocolate BUT ALSO! one has to be careful when one goes to buy 'real' chocolate, because sometimes things such as M&M's are made in Australia! Make sure to check the label to see where they were manufactured!

It must be noted however, that most of my eating experiences (with the exception of chocolate) have been through the DLC cafeteria, probably not the best representation of Australian cuisine. Extrapolating conclusions from here to the rest of AU would be a bit like comparing the college food at old Downer in Lawrence as representational of American food. So I do make some allowances for quality. However, the ketchup is the same as any grocery brand, and I have noticed that pizza elsewhere comes with little or no sauce as well. I have not tried pasta.

To conclude my food talk, since I was feeling a little down and I did dip into my ANRCN (Ariana Needs Real Chocolate Now) fund a bit this past weekend, making sure to check labels for manufacturing I indulged in some Cadbury's (which to me will always taste like England since we ate it there as treats for being good, thanks Mom!) and M&M's.However, real chocolate is expensive here, and Reeses are really hard to find (when one finds them they run at about $1.50 per peanut butter cup, cup, not package, just cup, so a normal package is usually $3). I have also decided maybe to try making chocolate brownies since I found a fair trade shop with Cocoa from not Australia, and one of my resident leaders at DLC. So! Due to all of these food experiences the ANRCN organization has now expanded into the "THANKS ALOT" (Taste of Home, Ariana Needs Ketchup Sometimes And Loads of Other Things) anti-homesickness fund for donations!

Ok, that was not a cry for money, it was just a joke :) I just enjoyed trying to come up with a cool acronym.

In other news, I have not done anything particularly interesting in awhile, I am trying my best at my schoolwork, though since I have not gotten any assignments back I still have no idea where I stand regarding my classes.

Tomorrow Angie and I are going with the Exchange Club to see a Rugby game at the ANZ Olympic Stadium, so that should be heaps (an Aussie word that means 'alot') of fun!

I have also ALMOST finalized my spring break plans. I will post them up soon I promise, along with my adventure at the rugby and perhaps a description of the Global Leadership Program that I am doing. I will TRY to do this this weekend, but blogging is time consuming and, depending on a paper and a presentation that I must finish, I may have to wait until next weekend.

Post: Eighteen: this one is for Rob Elliott

2011-03-18T02:56:00.005-04:00

Discoveries a plenty!!!

First let me relate some discoveries: last weekend I was walking along Bondi beach and I saw what looked like a sorry used up bus ticket on the ground. I picked it up just to throw it away and lo and behold! it was a 'travel ten' (ten rides to one ticket) ticket with only one ride used! AU dollar value about 12. HOT DOG! THEN on Thursday this week I saw a 'my multi week' ticket on the ground (allows the user to access all trains ferries and buses one wishes for one week), I though "no way this could happen twice" but I picked it up anyway. Sure enough! It is usable until the 22nd of March! For this one, since they are expensive I did ask the lost and found people to keep it, but no one picked it up by the end of the day and I got to take it! Value around AU 40. that is a total profit of over $50! not bad. Never will I ever again leave a ticket lying on the ground!

Thursday night.

Set the scene: I am sitting at my computer, looking over references for an assignment. It is getting late and I am thinking, "oh I am kinda tired, seems like I should go to sleep soon". then out of the corner of my eye I see movement in the corner to my left. I turn. COCKROACH! again, the size of my thumb. I twist internally, then swirl in my chair (as quietly as possible), leap to my sink, grab my trusty drinking glass (from the dining hall, not my own of course, that would be gross!) and turn back to squish the thing. Yipes! it has disappeared. Not to be detterred I poise my (plastic) glass and wait. Suddenly, there it is, it appeared no joke, just appeared. I carefully track it and WHAM! sever the abdomen from the thorax and the head and one leg. problem solved? Nope! the head and leg are still squirreling around!! EWWWWWW!!!!!! So I had to squish the head again...now as far as I can tell it is dead (it is still stuck to my wall as of this morning).

This is only the head and half the thorax....still there....

Needless to say, I did not even attempt to go to sleep for another two hours after this. So much for the early night. But, crisis averted, bug dead, now I can sleep right? WRONG. I forgot, this is DLC...this is my floor DLC...Thursday night....aka, no sleep until 3am. yep, I kid not.

Oh well, I woke up at 7:30 and I was not too awfully tired, plans to visit Sydney still on. It was gray and rainy, (like all my excursion days seem to start out) but since I was planning on touring some of Sydney's famous bakeries (I have developed an adoration for Australian bakeries, they are everywhere! and I had researched the very best cheap ones.) and then going to Sydney tower thus I would be inside for the morning at least.

Two (ok three) shots of espresso later, I departed from the train station (using my free ticket!) for Sydney central. on the way I visited the colonial bakery (milsons point) as well as st honore (north Sydney) and infinity bakery (kings cross). I have to say, colonial has the best prices and the best sweet stuff: I had a macadamia nut 'slice' and a pumpkin scone for breakfast here. St Honore had some recommended flourless chocolate cake, pretty good, but the best part was the bottom, sort of a sugary crunch, not what one would expect for a cake as the icing is usually the good part. The icing here was not great, but that is typical of Australia. at Infinity I had lunch of a cheesy 'pullapart' and some fresh carrots. It was really nice that there were fresh veggies here, though they were too expensive to make it really worth the trip, and the cheesy baguette thing was cold. Thus the winner is...Colonial bakery.

From here it was on to the tower. I don't know if it is the tallest structure in Sydney, but it was pretty high, and despite the clouds the view was amazing. and since it was Friday and around lunch time, there was no one there.

Sunshine over the pacific ocean

Yep, we are higher than the airplanes here!

and yes, since I was by myself today I had to do the cheesy 'I was here' shots myself.

Add caption

Ok, so we have seen the tower been to the bakeries. It is still cloudy, and I forgot my free pass to hold the Koala (and I think I will not do that anyway, seems kinda against my principles...) so then now what? Being hungry for something salty, and remembering Rob Elliott told me that I should go to the fish markets, (though granted he said go at 3am, it was not 3am), and drizzle and gray is the perfect time for fish, I walked down to darling harbor, and then from there to Blackwattle Bay and the markets. It was pretty busy here, and interestingly, pretty much everyone I saw was of Asian descent, it felt like I was back in Japan! Also the fish smell was nowhere near as overpowering as I expected. Even though I missed the auctions that occur early early in the AM I did get to see some crazy stuff including a fish the size of my leg, some live mud crabs the size of my head, and I bought and ate an oyster with creamy potatoes and then later a soft shell crab.

so, how does one eat an oyster? I had no fork so I discreetly used my fingers. the Oyster tasted like...what I would imagine Elephant tastes like...and it looked like a dead hairless mouse...needless to say, I am in no hurry to try oyster again...at least not cheap ones...

Oh Ariana, little do you know what this thing you are holding will taste like...

The shell was not edible.

'do not hold the mud crabs'...right. cause that was on my to do list. it took all my might to put my hand that close for scale (it is about a foot away from the crabs, this was NOT what I ate)

I have had softshell crab before and this one was really good too. freshly fried. yum!

Then, I was tired of walking so I caught a bus and some trains back to MQ Uni, but not before buying some chocolate using the generous donation from my loving family to the 'Ariana needs to have some REAL chocolate NOW' fund. A good way to finish the day.

REESE'S! now THAT is acceptable chocolate!

Post Seventeen: Temporary Town Hall Trouble, Beaches, and the Opera House!

2011-03-12T23:53:00.014-05:00

This blog has now become a weekly thing. For this I apologize, but with homework increasing and increasing and me still wanting to have SOME fun here, I can't afford to spend a whole lot of time blogging.

However, I can still hope to post weekly.

I have now had my first Global Leadership Session. For those of you who don't know, the Global Leadership Program has several colloquia designed to enhance one's knowledge of the global community and relations etc. For example, the session I just attended was titled "religion secularism and state" and was about how the Government (in various countries) deals with religion (rights it grants, religious stuff it recognizes). It was really interesting, though focused more on what religion is considered to be, and less the political aspect. I would have liked to learn more about the State actions etc. Not just general recognition of religion etc. Nevertheless it was interesting.

Friday I attempted to make M&M brownies, the regular, American Nestle cookie recipe version. Suffice to say it was a total disaster worthy of cakewrecks.com. I have never made anything worse in my life and I was too embarrassed to take a picture to put on here. First of all, the flour here tastes funny (kind of like soy flour mixed with...starch) so the brownies did too. Second, the baking soda and the eggs made it cakey in some areas and gooey in others. Third, I was forced to use a microwave to cook them so...Anyway, we ended up trying eating the better tasting gooey parts and then picking M&Ms out of the cakey parts. It really is kind of sad that one cannot make just regular American cookie bars here...Did not help with the needing to feel at home...conclusion, while it may be a wonderful place, Australian food is both expensive, and not the best to cook with. Especially when one does not have an oven...

Friday night was the DLC commencement dinner. Another fine example of Australian organization, we were told we MUST attend, but then, the principle of the college deemed it not important enough to show up...The dinner was basically just to announce the scholarship winners. "Anyone can get a scholarship at DLC!" false. we study abroads are left out of this category...THEN the waiters were totally incompetent and the service abominable. instead of asking us for our orders, plates of food were thrust under our noses and one had to be fairly forceful several times (as several different waiters offered one food) if one wanted the other option. Sigh. Oh well, the food was pretty good and the ceremony ended a half hour after I would have liked, but a half hour earlier than it said it would. So I suppose it was not a total bust.

Saturday was the most fun. Angie and I went out to Bondi Beach. Our journey began on the train. We were very excited because we realized that there was no track work for the first time since we have been here, thus we would only have to transfer trains once to get to our destination (instead of transferring trains to remain on the northern line several times). It was not to be. First our train experienced 'technical difficulty' so we had to switch trains at North Sydney. Ok, no big deal, still on the right track, just one more train. We planned to transfer at Town Hall just as we were going to before. However, Town Hall temporarily fell off the face of the earth...I kid you not. Our train pulled into Wynyard, then Town Hall is the next stop. we get ready to get off, look out the window at the signs and they read 'Central'. What!? We had not passed through any train station, we had not stopped at any train station, Central is the one AFTER Town Hall!!!! Where did Town Hall go?? Perhaps it was our train that went somewhere...(twilight zone music)

No problem we got on the line that would take us to the beach, this line just went back to TOWN HALL (it was there this time) before going out to the beach....strange. perhaps the technical difficulty experienced by the one train was due to a wormhole through which we tumbled for a bit.

Bronte from the coastal walk

Some Real Estate for sale along the walk...if only...

Eventually we made it to the beach. We walked from Bondi to Tamarama and then to Bronte via the coastal walk (about 3.5 Km). A beautiful walk along the shoreline we enjoyed looking at the real estate and the view. Bronte beach is alot smaller than Bondi, but the waves were alot bigger!

Can you find my feet?

Angie and I enjoyed soaking up the sun (through liberally and hourly applied sunscreen) and playing in the 6' waves for hours. After this, we walked back the coast and up to a hamburger place near Bondi where we had some quite taste Australian beef. Here we split up and while Angie went back to the beach, I headed to downtown Sydney and Circular Quay and the Operahouse!!!!

These waves are actually huge

The Operahouse:

I walked around the quay for a bit before sitting on a bench outside the Operahouse to watch the sun set over the bridge. I was joined on my bench by a lovely couple who were there to attend the play and we had some conversation about the architecture of Sydney.

Around the back INSIDE the Opera house

This is not from my camera. I would be sitting to the right of where this was taken (I pretty much had a straight view), and then for the second half, I was in the center about 8 rows back from the stage

Inside the Operahouse: upon entry I saw that the points that one sees of house are actually three different buildings (restaurant, concert hall and opera theatre) connected by the platform on which they sit. This does not detract from their beauty. Though the inside (before one gets into the hall) is not too interesting, alot of cement although the windows are gorgeous. One is not allowed to take pictures inside the concert hall, but I have posted a photo I got online. It was BEAUTIFUL and worth the money I paid to get in. I was sitting at the back of the back but this is where the balance is best I am told. The Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor was first, it was gorgeous and played well, though there were simply not enough instruments on the stage to fill the hall with enough sound. The balance was great, but it just felt like one wanted to turn up the volume. After intermission (there was champagne served at $10 a glass I did not get any, just looked) I was able to sit 8 rows from the front in an empty seat I had seen earlier. The sound was of course louder from here and I am glad I moved so I could see.....The Conductor!

Ashkenazy was his name, a very famous pianist who is about 4 feet tall (I exaggerate, but it did look like he was not much taller standing up than his violinists were sitting down). He was...so fun to watch, it was like Bugs Bunny meets Victor Borge. Very fun. At the end, he was given flowers and he picked a few off to give to his orchestra members before throwing some petals into the audience on a whim Anyway, the Mahler piece was also interesting and all in all it was a fantastic performance and all around experience. Worth the trip for sure!