Attack of the Night Stalker

Days 24 & 25: 2/24 & 2/25

My long day of class wasn’t very much fun. Math Statistics will be challenging for the first few weeks – I never took Introduction to Statistics, or any form of statistics for that matter, so I will have to a little reading to understand what our instructor was talking about for three hours. I bought a few books and supplies and got a hair cut during my short break in classes. We grabbed some dinner at Broadway Café and went back to Scruffy Murphy’s at night (this time I remembered not to wear a hat). Before we left our rooms for Scruffy’s, however, there was a little scare in UniLodge, when a known resident above us, that we call the Night Stalker, showed up at Julia’s door (two doors down) with a wooden baseball bat. We call him the Night Stalker not because he spies on people, but because this 200+ pound, bald (except for a strategically placed round blotch of hair on the bottom half of the back of his head), tattooed, Australian man, had been in our hallway on two prior occasions to tell us (in as an intimidating fashion as possible) that our “door has hinges for a reason” and to keep our doors closed because we were being too loud and the sound was rising. This time I approached him as he was talking to Julia and Evan outside Julia’s door. He was quite a bit angrier this time and said “…you’re looking at 108 kilos of pure testosterone [with distaste for American and an inferiority complex]”. As I attempted to communicate with him, he decided to interrupt me by swinging his wooden bat into the door frame next to us. This scared everyone a little and when I told him that what he just did was not okay, and that he was now waking everybody else up, he announced that he could be much louder and hit the frame harder this time. As he swung I immediately pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, dialed 0-0-0 (Australian 911) and put it on loudspeaker as I explained to the operator that we had just been assaulted by a man with a baseball bat. I was fairly certain this wasn’t the first time this happened, so the call was motivation enough for him to walk away and back to his room. We ended up talking between floors awhile as I waited for the police – this didn’t accomplish much, and by the time we had finished, the other girls (that were down the hall as this was happening), arrived with the UniLodge late night security. We filed a joint complaint and the security notified us that the police would probably be coming, but not for a long time since calling 0-0-0 isn’t the best option in less it’s a life or death scenario – he explained that there was a good chance they might not come at all, and that if they did, it wouldn’t be for at least another 3-4 hours. I gave him my mobile number in case they did and we went to Scruffy’s, as we were all anxious to forget about what just happened. I had a good time, although neither Chuck nor Luke came out on this particular night, and got back to learn the police had never come. I went to bed and wasn’t awoken by any calls, so my complaint was actually disregarded in the end.
Wednesday classes consisted of only one Rethinking Culture lecture and tutorial. The class is interesting and should be relatively easy. I figured out how to print documents from the UTS Library (at 11 cents/page), had a long overdue workout with Chuck at Broadway Gym, and had a quiet night, getting some much needed rest.

Tropfest + School Starts

Day 20-23: 2/20, 2/21, 2/22, 2/23

I woke up at 6:30am today and couldn’t fall back asleep. I decided to take advantage of the morning, catch up on my blogs, and take care of a few tasks. I had some coffee and watched the sun rise besides the UTS Tower building from our rooftop, which provides a spectacular view of the city (pictured). As I waited for my laundry to finish (at an outrageous $3 per load and $3 per dry cycle), I managed to FINALLY catch up on my blogs. By the time I had completed all the items on my list it was nearly noon and time to get ready for O-Fest (a live DJ show put on every year in the Alumni Green behind the UTS Tower). We stayed for a while, but the show ended at 8pm so we all went back to UniLodge and hung out on the roof for the remainder of the evening. The Canadian girls (from before) met us, we played some cards and we had some drinks until it was time for the roof to close.
The following morning we decided to find a park to play disc golf and discovered one that was located in Olympic Park where the 2000 Sydney Olympics were held. Chuck, Chris, and I boarded a train at central station and took it out to Olympic Park. During the ride, we were witness to one of the funnier bickering matches I’ve heard in a while. An Irishman and an Australian lady, with two of the most incomprehensible accents I’ve ever heard, were yelling at each other for about 20 minutes straight and I could maybe understand every tenth word. The Irish man would occasionally utter loud noises in the form of grunts, and something I can only compare to Damon Wayans in “Blankman”, between his name-calling which included ‘f*ing dog’ and ‘bushie’. They both got off at the same stop and continued as the train pulled away from the station. When we got to Olympic Park it was completely empty. We checked a map to figure out where the course was and couldn’t find it, so we asked a guide at the station. He pointed out a spot on the map that seemed relatively far, but told us it shouldn’t be any more than about a 10 minute walk. One hour later, after some additional help from the locals, we found the small green hut that rents/hires discs. This wasn’t the first time an Australian had misquoted walking time – the lady that directed us to the RTA to get our Aussie ID’s told us it was about 15 minutes from the building we were at and it took about 45 minutes. Anyways, we played nine holes and started back to the station. Interesting to note is how empty Olympic Park is now. It kind of reminded us of zombie movies where a whole major city has been abandoned. The remnants of the old stadiums and facilities still stood (location of many large concerts and shows in Sydney), but there were hardly anybody to be seen. By the time we were leaving, more people had shown up, but it was fascinating to think about how packed this place once was and the revenue it must have generated. That night we took another trip out to Bondi Beach for the after party of an international skate competition that had occurred earlier that day. We met up with the Canadian girls and my friend Danielle (and her friends who had arrived about a week earlier) from back home, and hung out until about 2:30am before heading home.
The next day (Sunday) was a large independent film festival called Tropfest. It is a free event where you bring your own food and beverages, and enjoy the screening of several independent short films, along with some other music and entertainment. We took the bus out to Circular Quay at the Sydney Harbour and made our way to the Botanical Gardens where the festival was being hosted. In the center of the park was a large, three-sided monitor supported above a stage. The gates opened at 3pm and the show ran all the way until 11pm. We set up camp and enjoyed our picnic for a few hours – after that, Luke and I found some open space and tossed a Frisbee around for a while as some bands and DJs performed. At dusk the films began to play, and after they were done, some prizes were presented. One of the awards for the “best actress” was $3000 donated by Nicole Kidman, who is a large supporter of the festival, and in the past, celebrities including Russell Crowe have served as judges for the competition. Every year there are two Tropfests: one in Sydney and one in New York, so it’s a pretty respectable event.
Monday was the first day of classes for me and also the Academy Awards. Every year our family and friends get together and vote for who we think will win each category. The person with the most correct guesses gets the prize of all the money from the entry fees, which goes up $1 every year. I joined in via Skype, but was unable to figure out who won because I had to leave for class before it was over. I don’t think I did because I haven’t gotten any e-mails from my brother yet, who’s responsible for the details of the event. I am currently writing this blog, will be working out soon, and calling it an early night, as tomorrow is a big day for me. I have class pretty much all day from 9am-6pm with a two hour break at 2pm. I also need to take care of a few payments and emails for the clubs I have just recently joined, including: the Outdoors Club, DOUTS (Dive Organization of UTS), and Ultimate Frisbee. Also, new pictures will be added to my blogs soon. Cheers!

Bondi Beach II

Day 19: 2/19

We went back to Bondi Beach today. We had intended to go to Manly Beach today, but it was pretty late in the day already, and Manly is pretty far away, so we decided we’d leave it for another day and settle for Bondi. It wasn’t as packed as last time, but still quite a bit of people. The waves today were great and we had a lot of fun swimming. We ran into some Canadian girls we had met a couple days prior and enjoyed hanging out together until the sun started to descend at about 6pm. We kind of disbanded and went home in smaller groups. When we got back, Chuck and I got another workout in, and I went and swam a little and did some hot tubbing in UniLodge with Luke. We got word later that the girls at Gumal were making some cookies so we went over after our swim and had a few and hung out. We came back at about 1:30am and went to bed.

Cocktail Party

Day 18: 2/18

Where to begin? What a crazy day…today was the annual O-week international students cocktail party. Yes that’s right, the University sponsors a cocktail party for all of its international students that provides free beer, wine, and mimosas for an hour and a half. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, because obviously something like this would be considered scandalous in the United States, yet it is completely accepted here – faculty were at the party drinking with us! I definitely got my fill before the pub crawl that was scheduled for afterwards. On an interesting side note, I met a small white girl with a British accent named Sarah at the party. As we chat she tells me she’s Kenyan, which I found bizarre, but very interesting. Next, hundreds of drunken students boarded buses that were to take us to three different bars around Sydney throughout the night. I can’t remember any of the names of the bars, but the first place we stopped at was a good time. Luke, Liz, and I participated in a shout together (a shout is basically just when a group of people takes turns buying drinks for each other – it’s considered very offensive to back out midway through shout). Anyhow, when Luke’s turn had arrived, he bought us all a liter of some dark beer (similar to Guiness) and I drank mine within about 5 to 10 minutes. I wasn’t really trying to chug it, but I just thought it was pretty tasty and got it down quickly. Needless to say, I was quite intoxicated by now and after a very brief visit to the next bar in the crawl, we decided to head back home. Luke, Jenna, Emily, and I got on a bus that I don’t recall paying to board, and by the time we realized what was going on, we had passed our stop by about 15 minutes. Fortunately, Jenna noticed before we were halfway to the next town, we got off and walked home.

Opera House

Day 17: 2/17

I got up early today so that I could run to campus and sign up for some “sessions” for Orientation Week. These “sessions” are basically informational meetings intended to teach us about whatever it is we sign up for. Some sessions included a library tour, advanced excel tutorial, and IT systems tutorial. I signed up for these plus a couple more but ended up attending none of them anyways. When I got back, Chuck had arisen and we got in another workout before a BBQ at the UTS Tower building (considered an eye sore, because it’s just a large stained tower in the middle of our suburb of Ultimo – one of the largest educational building in the world I believe) as part of O-week. The food wasn’t too great and consisted of sandwich bread, butter, sausages, and some small pieces of chicken. We decided to take a walk this afternoon to the Sydney Opera House to buy tickets for an upcoming showing of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and journeyed through the Sydney Botanical Gardens along the way. It was a good little trip and was topped off with some snacking at the ice cream and gelato stands along the wharf. We all voyaged back to campus and got ready for the evening’s events. Tonight we went to a pub called Scruffy Murphy’s. It was a cool place, but not what I had expected. It was more of a club-like atmosphere again with live music upstairs and a DJ and dancing below. I wore a hoodie and a hat expecting a more relaxed and subdued venue. They kept making me take my hat off and told me I would be kicked out if I didn’t obey, but I basically just kept putting it on and getting warned all night. I danced in the sauna downstairs most of the time and left with Chuck at around 2:30am, stopped off at McDonald’s for a late night snack and went home.

Chinatown

Days 15 & 16: 2/15-2/16

Chuck and I went shopping in the morning while others went to Australian Mardi Gras (largest gay festival in the world apparently). By the time we were done everybody was back and were totally weirded out (including a gay guy in our group). We grabbed lunch at Broadway Café and decided to get a gym membership at the club across the street because they were offering a deal for a four-month student membership at $200. We toured the facility and it was really nice – all the equipment was old but very well-maintained and there was plenty of space and open machines. Not a very eventful day, but we went to Kmart and bought Cranium to play together that night. This was a lot of fun, especially since it was made for Australians. Questions involving descrambling the name of a Cricket player I had never heard of and answers including lingo I had never used such as ‘monobrow’ instead of ‘unibrow’. Despite our team’s poor effort (me and Lauren Devane), we ended up winning and went to bed deeply fulfilled. The next morning Chuck and I hit the new gym. When were done we wanted get everybody together and go to another popular beach called Manly Beach which is on the North side of the harbor. It had been raining everyday for about a week now, and right when we were about to leave, it started again. Luke, Chuck, and I used this time to go to the Gumal rooftop where there is free internet and work on our blogs and check e-mails. Luke and Chuck still both can’t get the internet at UniLodge to work, so I went with them for the heck of it. After a couple hours we had all grown hungry and discussed getting some food in Chinatown. We walked to the center of Chinatown in search of a decent place to eat and when we couldn’t agree on a spot, we just went to the mall there and chose something in the food court. Chuck and I got similar Chinese dishes and I scarfed mine down within 10 minutes – it was delicious. The girls of course complained and ate about a third of their plate. On our way home something crazy happened: there is a gum tree right in the center of Chinatown and today there was a young, half naked Asian man sitting on a crate with some kind of broken plastic bat in his hand. To him though, it was a fishing rod and he kept imaginarily casting and reeling with it. As we walked by, a couple Australians stopped to get a picture and when one of them put there arm around him, the Asian man erupted. He stood up, elbowed him away and started relentlessly attacking him and his friends. He nearly tore off one guy’s shirt and kicked another in the stomach. The Australians, who didn’t seem to know how to fight, finally realized that if they all restrained him simultaneously that he couldn’t do anything. The Asian was still resisting and attacking until one of the Australians punched him pretty hard in the jaw, dizzying him and causing him to fall down. Meanwhile, as everybody stood and watched in disbelief, the Asian got back up, tore a bag of papers out of one the Australian’s hands and hurled it into the air, causing papers to scatter all over the street. The Asian then turned around, walked back to his crate, and continued fishing. This made for a good discussion topic on the way home. That night, for some reason, everybody decided to go back to the night club Scubar. It was much worse this time – I didn’t really dance, got beer spilled on me again, and left early. Good night.

Valentine's Day

Day 14: 2/14

Valentine’s Day! We woke up before our checkout at 10am and considered another activity in the Blue Mountains before going home, but the weather was even worse. The only option was to take a cave tour, but when we discovered that it would cost us $70 and that we wouldn’t be back to the hostel until 5pm that night, we decided to just grab some breakie and go home. We had some Belgian Waffles at a quaint little Waffle House in town and enjoyed a nice relaxing meal with coffee and tea (pictured). We hopped the next train to Sydney and went home. While we were away the girls all bought red and pink dresses for Valentine’s Day and made reservations at a restaurant along the wharf in view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. This was actually my first in-person sighting of the two famous landmarks and it was pretty cool. The service was very poor here: our waiter made us split the bill ourselves and never came to our table once besides taking our orders and serving our meals (which were nothing to brag about). That night there was a Stoplight Party at the Gumal residence which is just a party where single people where green and those in relationships wear red. It was about as lame as anticipated and was actually stopped by security after about an hour. We walked down to Land’s Downe again for a few drinks. I spent my whole time here talking to an Australian band called Serenik and they were pretty cool. The next thing I knew everybody was heading out and so I joined them and went to bed.

Blue Mountains

Day 13: 2/13

What an interesting day! Eight of us met in the UniLodge lobby to embark on our first journey beyond the constraints of the city of Sydney. It was a wet, cold, and foggy morning at the Sydney train station. The train ride took three hours to reach our destination of Katoomba, NSW—a small tourist hub of the Blue Mountains. When we arrived the fog had thickened and the temperature decreased slightly. We made our way to the YHA Hostel I had booked for us the previous night and checked in. From there we walked to the Visitor Information Centre and the site of the famous rock formations known as the Three Sisters (pictured left). On the way, we stopped a little café for a small lunch of burgers and fish & chips (the specials of the day). Then we went to the Centre and when we first attempted to view the rocks, forests, and scenery from the lookout, all we could see is a wall of white fog, which I would describe as being like looking out from the edge of the universe into nothingness. The visibility was literally zero besides the small gaps in the misty fog, which allowed what was still an amazing view of the canopy about 400 feet below. A little disheartened we entered the nearby Information Centre and researched possible activities for the day. The Blue Mountains offer a wide variety of adventures including mountain biking, gondola rides, horseback riding, rappelling (called abseiling in Australia), bushwalking, and much more. Given the weather conditions and our financial situations, we opted for a free hike. Then a miracle happened – as we left the Information Centre and rounded the pillar at the entrance, the mountains that had previously been masked in white came into full view, as the fog had dissipated! We all ran with excitement back to the lookout and busted out our cameras. It truly was a beautiful sight – we were right at the cliff’s edge with the trees 400 feet directly below us. The thought of abseiling the cliff edge was much more terrifying than I had anticipated as I gazed down and a slight case of vertigo set in for some of us. I’ve always had a small fear of heights, but even those who claimed to not have any were taken aback by the drop. Anyways, we were all in a great mood now and set off on our walk. It took about 3.5 hours to traverse the path including a giant steep 900-step staircase (I don’t envy the people who had to construct it). It took us about 3.5 hours as anticipated plus an additional 20 minutes to get back up the staircase at the end of the trail. We reached the top to find that the shuttles back to the information centre had stopped running for the day and that we would have to walk 45 more minutes to get back to it. Along the way someone in the group was able to flag down a car passing by and convinced them to let six of the eight of us pile into the car and hitch a ride back. As luck had it, Luke Vincent and I were the two to not fit it, and in fact, didn’t even try; but right after they pulled out of sight, we came to an intersection and realized that we were much closer to our hostel than the Information Centre anyways, so we just walked back and actually beat the rest of them. In fact, Luke and I were able to get all showered up before they made it back, and when we were done, we all grabbed some dinner at a small Chinese food shop in town. That night we all hung out in our room and played some cards and had no problem getting to sleep.

Aussie ID's

Days 10-12: 2/10-2/12

Pretty much all that happened these three days: tossed the Frisbee with Chuck and Luke, made two attempts at getting an Aussie Photo ID at the RTA in downtown Sydney (second of which was successful—another interesting tidbit is that they print the card off for you right there at the office rather than make you wait for two months like in the states), ate more Broadway Café, 12 of us squeezed into my tiny room and watched Flight of the Conchords, we spent a night at a pub across the street called Land’s Downe, and we finished planning our trip to the Blue Mountains which would begin the following morning.

UTS Welcome & Scubar

Day 9: 2/9

Today was the initial UTS program orientation (pictured) welcoming us to the University and preparing us for the week ahead which is our official orientation week or “O-Week”. It was pretty much pointless and boring, mostly geared towards incoming freshman. Later in the day was another small session for international students which provided us with some useful information such as services offered by UTS to its students. Luke Vincent, Chuck Hansen, and I walked to Chinatown (pictured with Gum tree in Chinatown) after orientation, which is essentially located in our backyard and investigated a bit. When I got home, Liz Reichel, Chris Dirkes, Christina Simmonds, and I went for a run (all of which are friends and fellow students by the way). Liz and I ended up running off ahead of Chris and Christina, ending up back in Chinatown, and nearly locking ourselves out of our respective apartments in the process, because we had given our key cards to the two we left behind. Once that was figured out we all got ready to go out to a nearby night club called Scubar for the night with the rest of the group. I had a lot of fun hanging out at the bar and dancing even though these places aren’t typically my scene. It was extremely crowded, smelled much like a men’s locker room and I probably won’t go back again, but I made the most of it and had a good time. By the end of the night we had all lost each other at Scubar and went home in pairs of two or three (a few people by themselves), but I think everybody enjoyed the evening.

Bondi Beach

Day 8: 2/8

We went to Bondi Beach today – a HUGE popular tourist beach. It’s not necessarily the largest I’ve seen in terms of shoreline, but definitely the most people I’ve seen at once all densely packed on the white sand. It was a beautiful area and just what I needed – it was a perfect day and the chilly water was very refreshing. It was a little bit of a journey (45 minutes involving a train ride followed by a bus) but well worth it. We walked around to some local shops and sidewalk sales, but nothing to interesting to report – pretty much what’d you’d expect. That night we barbequed on the patio on UniLodge roof and I made myself a tasty Porterhouse I bought at Coles and enjoyed some boxed wine (the cheapest option for alcohol here at about A$12 per 3 liter box)…bed…

More Shopping + Darling Harbour

Day 7: 2/7

Today can be summed up much better in the pictures that were taken at Darling Harbour. I opened my computer for the first time since leaving and set up my internet in the morning. We had another shopping session at both Coles (the popular grocery store chain of Australia) and Kmart and grabbed lunch back at the Broadway Café. That night we went to Darling Harbour, which is a popular spot just south of the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. We tried to get into a night club there, but since none of the guys were wearing pants or shoes (necessary at all night clubs and some bars), they wouldn’t let us in. We instead ended up at a nearby pub for a few hours. Some of the girls went back to the club afterwards, so the rest of us grabbed taxis home (which we realized wasn’t necessary since it’s only about 15-20 minute walk, which isn’t bad, and taxis here are expensive here since they charge by time rather than distance). Another relatively early night.

Arriving in Sydney

Day 6: 2/6

Not too much to say about today. I woke up at 3:45am and the flight went smoothly. There was a slight mix up at my housing called UniLodge-Sydney (about five minutes off campus) but it got figured quickly, I made my way to my 15x15 foot room with AC (thankfully) and a small bathroom (small, but cozy and private/no roomies). I purchased my cell phone and unpacked in time to greet the other UTS students and discovered our rooms are all right next to each other, which was great news. We all bought some necessities, including sheets and breakfast items at the Kmart in the shopping center across the street. Kmart is actually much more popular than Target here, but what really sucks is that everything is more expensive. We nearly make up for it with the exchange rate (approximately 70 cents to every Australian dollar) but not really. The currency is very pretty and colorful – it’s also plastic which makes it waterproof and all the notes (not ‘bills’ here) are sized according to their value ($5 and up). Ironically the coins are not – they use metal for: $1, $2, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, & 50 cents but the $2 coin is the second smallest one (smaller than $1). It’s gold colored rather than silver like the cents coins, but that doesn’t stop people from losing them. If you keep your eye to the ground, you’re bound to find one on the street occasionally (I’ve already found about three without even trying). We had dinner at what’s become our favorite eatery right across the street called The Broadway Café. They have great happy hour rates and pizza specials in addition to some other decent items I’ve yet to try. After our meal we had planned on meeting some other UTS people who are living at another residential housing provided by UTS for its students called Gumal apartments. UniLodge is actually not affiliated with the University, but since housing is so limited in Sydney, this was the best alternative accommodation AustraLearn could provide for those of us who couldn’t get into Gumal. I’m fine with it because, despite missing free wireless internet on the roof, UniLodge is much more comfortable in my opinion. We made our way to the liquor store (Liquor Land), but it was closed and since everybody at Gumal was drinking and we were all still exhausted, we decided to hit the hay.

Great Barrier Reef

Day 5: 2/5

Day five started just as early as day four and the long hours and heavy traveling was beginning to take its toll. Today, however, was the portion of the introduction I anticipated with the greatest excitement -- today we were diving at the Great Barrier Reef! I bought my own snorkeling equipment and got certified before leaving and what better place to start diving than at the largest known structure of living organisms on the planet? The boat ride out took several hours but my excitement made the trip seem much shorter. Before I knew it, I was on a small boat with the three other certified divers from the main boat heading to our dive site. I was surprisingly nervous and nearly panicked when we got in the water and my goggles kept leaking and fogging. I took my time, readjusted with some help from our friendly dive leader, Dirk, settled down, and we began our dive. The conditions underwater weren’t the greatest, but it’s something I will certainly never forget. The coral itself was a breathtaking sight, but the abundance of sea life was amazing. A large fish pretty much followed us the entire dive and while I wasn’t able to spy it out, Dirk kept pointing out a shark that was apparently circling us just beyond the range of distinguishable visibility (approximately 15 feet). We saw some large sea clams and got very close to a sea turtle, which I managed to get a decent photo of (pictured left). Again, time seemed to elude me as 45 minutes passed in a flash. I was then dropped off at a nearby island full of native birds and other students who had completed their controlled dive. We made our way back to the main boat about 100 m from the island and had some lunch and a rest in preparation for our next and final dive. It was at this point that I realized I could unfortunately not participate, as my flight out of Cairns to Sydney was departing the next day at 5:45am and it was already 4:45pm. It is recommended that you not fly within 18 hours of a repetitive dive to avoid what’s called “decompression sickness” due to the higher concentration of Nitrogen in the blood, which can lead to some serious, and possibly fatal, consequences. The rest of the group had flights leaving around 12pm so they were able to go out again. I wasn’t too disappointed – I saved A$45, I was extremely worn & tired, I had seen what I came to see, and more importantly, I plan on doing much more diving throughout the duration of my trip (currently looking into Diving Club at UTS – I’ll keep you posted). Anyways, I did a bit of snorkeling while the rest finished their second dive and an hour later we embarked on the cruise home, which seemed exceedingly longer than the ride out, yet was quite pleasant. We got back to port around 5pm and had about 30 minutes to clean up and meet for our last session. They provided us with some delicious pizza and salad as we discussed the orders of business for the final leg of our trip to our permanent destination in Sydney. One of the group leaders, Andy, allowed us to sign up for a surf trip in March up the coast. He had discussed the details and showed us a short video at a prior session which captivated my interest, so I put down a deposit and confirmed my spot on the bus. A few other UTS students signed up as well and it should be a blast! I made my way back to our room and called it a night at around 8pm as I would be waking up at 3:45am the next morning to catch a taxi to the airport. I had no problem falling asleep after the vigorous five day introduction.

Rainforestation

Day 4: 2/4

We woke up early this next morning, had breakie, and prepared for our trip to a place called Rainforestation up in the mountains of Cairns. I had a GREAT time here – we walked around a little bit and saw a Cockatoo who would repeat common phrases and some little green ants whose bums tasted like sour patch kids. I only know this because one of the group leaders (Jess) pointed it out so I plucked one up and gave it a lick. Shortly thereafter we boarded an amphibious vehicle called a DUCK that took us through the forest and a damned up waterway on a short tour. We saw some interesting vegetation including a 200 year old tree and a Banana Tree. We made it back just in time to view some authentic Aboriginal dances in their outdoor theater and then witnessed some spear throwing and boomerang tossing. We all got the chance to throw one (mine was miserable) and also had the opportunity to play the Didgeridoo which I tried my hand at and was able to produce some noise. To end the trip we were led into the wildlife containment area. This was definitely my favorite part. Here we could feed and pet tame Kangaroos and Wallabies (picture to the left) as well as see Koalas, Wombats, and a couple huge Crocodiles. On our way out of the area we were able to hold a Koala and get our picture taken for free, which was also pretty cool. That night we had another information session and went out to a local pub called the Woolshed. We had a good meal and enjoyed some free beer. They had fish racing on this particular night, which I decided to participate in. They auctioned off six fish for $5/piece and I bought one named “The Raging Dike from Holland”. To race the fish, they were put into two parallel narrow, long tanks and we racers were given a straw to blow bubbles by which to scare the fish to the finish line. My fish seemed to actually enjoy the bubbles and never reached the end. A little disappointed in my performance, we marched back to Gilligan’s, had a few more drinks, enjoyed a bit of dancing, and went to bed.

Leaving Home

Days 1-3: 2/1-2/3

I spent my first day prior to departure at the parents’ house. We celebrated my birthday (1/28) on Saturday and the first leg of my flight to Australia bound for LAX left at 5pm Sunday. After a couple drinks & appetizers at Houlihan’s in the Minneapolis airport with my Dad & brother, I went through security and boarded my plane. The four hour flight landed in LA just in time to see Santonio Holmes catch the game-winning touchdown to give the Steelers a victory in Superbowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals. I proceeded to my terminal where I would spend five hours in anticipation of my 14 hour flight to Brisbane, AU. Here, I was able to meet many other students in my program, including one of my friends and neighbors in Sydney (University of Technology – Sydney = UTS), Chuck Hansen (fellow Mechanical Engineer from Michigan Tech) as well as a young lady named Ellen, whom I met first. Coincidentally, they, along with the rest of the group, were all taking the same flight as me even though I booked my flights independently. AustraLearn (the name of the program sponsoring my trip) is partners with a company called STA Travels, which arranged group flights for those who were interested. I opted out to save some money and turned out to be the only one. The flight to Brisbane was long but surprisingly bearable. We were on a Qantas Boeing 747 which is probably the largest plane I have ever ridden. Small TV monitors were built into the back of the headrest that were connected to an entertainment center with games, newly released movies, and TV shows. I spent most of the flight trying to sleep & taking advantage of the free drinks. Afterwards, I watched “The Wrestler” starring Mickey Rourke, which was an awesome film, but sad (definitely recommended). We landed at 8am on February 3rd…in addition to the 14 hour flight, we had also travelled 17 hours ahead in time zones, so we effectively skipped February 2nd, but we weren’t done yet. We had a little over an hour to clear customs, catch a shuttle to the domestic airport, pass through security, and board our plane to Cairns (where we spent our first three days in AU for our “program introduction”). This is when the problems started. The shuttle scheduled to take us to the domestic airport didn’t show for one of its regular stops, so we had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one leaving us with five minutes to clear security and run to our terminal. At security, the scissors I’ve had since elementary school (with a piece of masking tape that my Mom wrote my name on that was still on the handle) along with my needle nose pliers were confiscated from my bag even though they were okayed through security in both Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Since I had no time to argue, I sprinted to my terminal and made it just in time, because they fortunately held the flight past the scheduled departure time for us. At this point I was drenched in sweat, but I was happy we made the flight. The last leg to Cairns lasted two and a half hours so we made it by around noon and were greeted by three of our program leaders: Russell, Jess, and another Australian lady whose name I can’t recall. We were immediately notified that although we had made it, our luggage hadn’t, and that we could expect it to arrive at our Backpackers by about 6pm that night. This was awful news, especially since I was still soaked in my own perspiration and amidst the tropical 90oF+ conditions. We hopped a bus and were taken to our accommodation called Gilligan’s Backpackers. It was a very uncomfortable stay…five of us crammed into a stinky, damp room with separate closet-sized shower & toilet rooms and four bunks (pictured left). My first goal was to get out of my wet clothes, so I walked with Kirkland (one of my roommates) to the local Billabong retailer where I purchased board shorts, a tank top, and some flip flops. I quickly scurried back to my room and changed because I had to meet our group in the lobby for our first information session. Of course I was a minute late (literally) and the group was gone. A little worried (because I had no idea what we were doing and for how long), I asked the front desk to contact my group leaders and the desk fortunately was able to get a hold of one. It turned out they were only in a building just across the street, but needless to say, I didn’t feel very welcome at this point (mainly since they had seen me walk right passed them waiting in the lobby when I was running up to change). The first session was a little boring, but informative. I was in a bad mood by now, but after our free buffet dinner, a Corona (which I discovered are REALLY expensive here since it’s imported overseas), and seeing that our luggage had finally arrived at Gilligan’s, I was feeling much better. I decided to go out that evening and take advantage of the drink special at the bar downstairs with three other students where I got my first taste of Australian beer. I tried Vincent Bitter (Australia’s Budweiser or Miller) as well as Draught beer called Touhey’s New. They’re both pretty decent for the price (albeit more expensive than back home) and I have recently started up a bottle collection and am trying to sample as many Australian beers as possible during my stay. During the program introduction, we had AustraLearn students who are studying at two different universities (not called “college” here by the way): Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia and University of Technology – Sydney (or UTS) where I will be studying. Gilligan’s isn’t the classiest of places and it turned out that Tuesday night involved a wet t-shirt contest. I really wanted to go to bed by now, but the girl we were with (who scared the crap out of me and resembled…something…) decided to participate as one of the three contestants and forced me and Chris (the only other two of us downstairs still) to support her. The show started much later than expected and was extremely awkward. The room was half empty and surprisingly quiet during the 15 second performances. It was kind of funny though, especially with Australia’s version of “Girls Gone Wild” called “Wild Girlz” recording the whole thing. After it was done I shook her hand, said goodnight to here and Chris and finally went to bed at about Midnight. I was in Australia!