What's new.

Monday the 22^nd was a reading day for me. Then Tuesday was back to classes and we had planned a small get together for dinner. Joey made chili and people brought stuff and it was a nice little potluck. Except there were 35 people in our apartment. There was hardly any room to move at all. We borrowed 5 more chairs so we’d have enough seating for most of the people. It was a really good time, and we had a lot of chili and pasta. We had some desserts too, like mini cakes and a cool chocolate cookie like dish. We had some wine and ended up staying up until around 3:30.

That Wednesday was a pretty uneventful tutorial. Then back to Ultimate Frisbee club and then the Ranch for Hump day celebration. That Thursday we were all pretty tired so we went to the Ranch for dinner. I got some humongous buffalo wings and we all had a bunch of potato wedges. It was quite delicious.

Ahh Friday at last. Now’s where things get interesting… We were supposed to meet at 11AM at Lane Cove National Park for my Advanced Sound Design class to record some sounds and get familiar with the equipment. I made it about halfway there before I realized I didn’t have the phone number they had given us in case we got lost. I tried calling some people, but they were in class or didn’t have any credit on their phones. I got to where I thought it was supposed to be and didn’t see it so I decided to go back and try the path I had seen. I took the Great Northern Trail all the way through the park (4.2  km). It was a pretty gorgeous walk and beautiful weather so It wasn’t that stressful. By the time I got to the end of the path I had seen about 5 other people, a big lizard, and all sorts of birds. Walked down by the river for about a kilometer, and was a little tired. At the end of the path I ran into the class, and got a bit of pity from them when I told the tale. But I got a ride home out of it. Overall I walked about 10.8 km (5.6 miles). By the time I got home I was a little less exhausted. We went to the U-bar for some drinks around 5:30 and ended up staying there for several hours. It was fun.

The Big Merino

Shot from inside the big Merino

Saturday we work up early to get on the road by 10 to go to Canberra. We stopped at Goulbourn on the way to get some meat pies and see the world’s biggest merino. The meat pies were delicious! The whole trip was about 3 hours of drive time. 

View of Capital Building
from the lookout

When we got to the Capital, we went up to Mount Ainslie lookout to see the city from up high. We then spent a few hours at the Australian War Memorial. It was pretty sobering and really cool at the same time. Saw some great displays and they had a lot of diorama exhibits that were awesome to look at. Afterwards we checked in at the Youth Hostel there and went out for some Thai food, where we had some red curry duck, curry puffs, garlic chicken, squid and some other stuff. One of the best meals I’ve had here so far. After that we watched a Rugby game at one of the downtown bars and had some $3, weak drinks.

Sunday we got up and went to the National Museum of Australia and wandered through there for a few hours. After that we went to the Parliament house and took a tour. It was really cool to see how their system works over here. I felt like I knew more about their government than that of the US afterwards. We then visited the National Art Gallery. After that we grabbed some food and hit the road. The trip back seemed much quicker.

Monday was a catch up day. I used it to write a paper outline due on Tuesday and catch up on the blog. Well now I’m caught up to the present and I am sure you don’t want to read about how I’m updating my blog, so I’ll see you next time. Thanks for reading!

Another view of the Capital Building

Fountain in the manmade lake in Canberra

Cool statue in front of War Memorial

Entrance to War Memorial

Pool inside entry to War Memorial

View of the path up to Capital
with our guide Murray and Sarah

Wall of names of soldiers lost

Tomb of an unknown Aussie soldier with stain glass reflected in it

another wall of names

Reading about the unknown soldier

Reflecting pool with the flame

Entry way to the War Memorial 

Murray and Sarah

The cannon shot out the sun!!

-Dan 

What's old.

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this, so I will do my best to remember what happened. The Friday after my last post (12 August.) we had a “booze cruise” on the harbor. Sarah, Joey and I went down early and walked around Darling Harbour a little bit. We got on the boat around 6:45 and took full advantage of the open bar until around 10 when we docked to get off. The whole trip cost $20 and we had open bar of beer, wine, and champagne as well ass some appetizers that they walked around with. Afterwards I walked around the pier a little bit enjoying the weather, and then we hopped on a train to go home. A pretty uneventful Saturday followed, until that night when we had a little gathering at an apartment next door.

Didn’t do a whole lot on Sunday if I recall. That Monday I went to an internship orientation session. It was pretty boring and uneventful. I waited for people to get back to the apartment so we could go get some fish and chips at the Ranch. By the time we got around to heading out, the kitchen had closed at the Ranch. We found out that the Maccas a bit away was open 24 hours, so we decided to take a little excursion over there. It was a good walk and we hung out there for a while. It tasted fresher than McDonalds back home.

That Tuesday was back to classes, then there was a party at the World Bar in King’s Cross. I went downtown early to stop at the Opera House to pick up tickets for Graphic (more on that later). Sarah and I then walked from Sydney Opera House to World Bar, only making a minor detour out of the way to ask for directions…  We got student price teapots of alcohol for cheap. They were fairly alcoholic mixed drinks and they gave us little shot glasses to go with it. We hung out there for several hours, drinking, and karaoke-ing, and having fun.

That Wednesday was pretty cold and rainy out and I had a meeting with some guys from Colourful Trips and a bunch of other students to talk about a mid-semester break trip, so I forewent Ultimate Frisbee club that night. The trip is a 13 day, practically all inclusive trip up the east coast to our final destination of Cairnes. Along the way we will be stopping at Fraser Island, surfing, and doing all sorts of fun stuff. But more on that later…

That Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. Then Saturday was Graphic at the Sydney Opera House! I got up early and caught a train to the city and got in around 10:15 or so. Got to watch a panel with several Australian comic writers who were presenting their work in a slide show. Highlights of that were, one guy who had a friend playing metal guitar as a soundtrack for his Viking epic about the last Viking, and the Chinese dragon dance to present the comic about the training that goes into learning the dances.

After that, I went to watch Masaya Matsuura talk about his career in sound and music video games. It was pretty fun. Then I had a few hours off so I wandered around Sydney to get the lay of the land better. That was pretty uneventful, but I do feel more comfortable in the city now. I went back to the Opera House and watched a panel on wordless comics and how they need to be approached differently than normal comics when being created. It was alright, but I wasn’t very familiar with any of their source material on the subject, so I didn’t get as much out of it as I would have liked. After that, the final show of the evening was a screening of Talking With The Gods, a documentary on one of the greatest comic writers, Grant Morrison. This was an awesome movie and a great ending to a great day!

The following Sunday was day two of Graphic. This was the day I was waiting for with the Scott McCloud talk on Understanding Comics. His books lead the market of the graphic arts “how to” books. Sometime during the hectic weekend I got in my head this event started at 4. It wasn’t til I got on the 3:00 train that I realized it was at 3 actually. I decided to go for it anyway, but the theater was closed and said no entry when I got there around 3:45. I was pretty distraught, but decided to walk around the rocks after grabbing some fish and chips and eating on the Quay while listening to some didgeridoo buskers playing there. I wandered through one of the markets in the rocks and looked at all the cool arts and crafts they had around there. After an hour or two down there, I went home and had a pretty easygoing night.

That’s all I have time for right now, I have a paper outline due tomorrow. I will hopefully have time to catch up to this week tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

-Dan

Catching up.

Hey there! Welcome to my new blog! I like this one better so I will be using it now. This post is going to be for putting all the stuff from the old one onto here now so this is just a catch-up.

More pics can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/114301813770586203479/BondiAgain?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIrnkpX65bn_DQ&feat=directlink

and https://picasaweb.google.com/114301813770586203479/Sydney?authkey=Gv1sRgCKWbibu4-JeNswE

Classes, ugh!!

August 10th, 15:28

 Second week of classes! There’s a lot of reading to do. The classes are set up differently than they are in America. There’s a lecture and a tutorial for each class. The lectures are just what they sound like, huge classes with tons of students where the professors get up front and talk at us for an hour. The tutorials are the class participation portion, small groups where we have more in depth discussions on the topics discussed in the lectures.
Enough about classes, let’s get to the fun stuff! The last 2 Saturdays we got a fairly big group together to go to Bondi and hang out on the beach. We threw balls and Frisbees around and waded through the shallows getting soaked by the giant waves. Last week was the welcome back, join some clubs fair on the main courtyard. I signed up for chess club, the film society, and W.A.N.G. (We all need grub). Have yet to make it to chess club and W.A.N.G. hasn’t had any events yet, but I have already seen two movies with the Film Soc. Last Wednesday we went to the event cinemas to see Captain America. It was quite an awesome film, especially for the cheap student price ($8) we got. After the movie was the big back to school bash at the Ranch. It was pretty much jam packed, but we had a fun time hanging out and chilling at some apartments afterwards.
The following Thursday was a normal school day and that night was the big welcome back event at the U(niversity)-bar. Yes there is a bar in the campus hub. Complete with billiards, dance floor, and most importantly a small arcade. It was pretty fun. Again lots of people and loud music though. Friday was good. Had a pretty easy class period and went to the speed friendship event. It was a great time. Met loads of people there. When we were walking home we got invited to an apartment for dinner. We went over there and there were a couple Italians cooking a sausage chili dish and an egg/potatoes dish. We spent the evening eating and drinking wine there, and it was delicious. We went back to the Ranch to enjoy a nice calm night there. 

Saturday was Bondi all day then we went out to some Sydney bars. It was stressful getting home since the train was down for repairs so we had to find where the bus stop was. Sunday was a nice, laid back, lazy day. I made some lazy-man’s spaghetti for the guys. Monday was my day off and then we went to Inferno’s Caffe for all you can eat pizza and pasta for $20. We brought some bags and gladware to put some leftovers in. Shhh! We got about 4 meals out of it. It wasn’t a buffet since the waiters were bringing the food out to us. At one point the waitress asked, “Would you like vegetarian or meat lovers?” so I asked, “You can carry those on the same tray?” After that we went to an apartment party next door. I went home early since I had to get up early for class the next day, but everyone had a good time. Yesterday was Tuesday. I had 2 classes and just hung out on campus. Today I spent in class then trying to figure out internet stuff. Not sure what’s going on for the rest of the week.
That’s about it for now! Thanks for reading!

(no subject)

July 30th, 2:42

 I’m adjusting quite well. Almost on a reasonable sleep schedule. Slept in until 8:30 or so today. The weirdest part of adjusting is my internal compass. I’m so used to the sun being in the Southern part of the sky, so I keep catching myself thinking that north is south and vice versa. The campus is quite gorgeous. We’ve done quite a bit of walking around.Another roommate arrived on Monday. John is pretty cool. We’ve got a good group of guys. John and I went to the Macquarie center and ran into Mike again and ended up hanging out with him most of the day. That night we went across the corner to The Ranch Hotel for dinner and a few drinks. I Had a meat and mushroom pie and Fat Yak beer. It was quite excellent. 

Tuesday was the big day in Sydney. The program I booked the study abroad through, CEA, had a day trip with the five students from the program, and our guide Murray. 

 We met up at 10 AM and did a quick tour of the campus. Then caught a train to downtown Sydney. We walked around for a few hours down there, then caught another train out to Bondi beach. We had lunch and then walked around for an hour or so. Possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. 

Guy playing with bubbles in Hyde Park

Cool fountain in Hyde Park

Thursday was pretty laid back in comparison. I was able to sleep in a bit and then went to an interview with the International office to work on setting up an internship and learn more about the program. Then last night was the international students’ welcome cruise. We got on a boat around 7 and had lots of pizza and took a cruise around the harbor for 3 hours. They had a DJ playing music and there was lots of dancing.
The best things about Australia so far, besides the weather, are that the prices at restaurants and stuff have the taxes built in, so you pay the price that’s on the menu; they import almost no food items so everything tastes fresh and much better, including the pop; and they are much more easy-going and not as uptight about things (i.e. they have signs for toilets, and I have only seen one sign for a restroom.) That’s all I have for now

Greetings.

July 24th, 16:41

G'day mates! Welcome to Dan's wonderful world of super Sydney silliness. I arrived here safe at about 7 this morning local time after a 16 hour flight that departed around 10:50 PM from Los Angeles last friday (Where did Saturday go?). 

LA through the fog

Shot of Los Angeles area

I've only had a couple hours of sleep since I got up early Friday morning, which seems like a lot, but it's really only going on 2 days right now. So far the trip has been great. We waited at the airport for a good half hour for a plane that got delayed. 

Qantas A380 Air-jet like the one I rode in

First view of Sydney Skyline

 We then took a van from the airport, through Sydney, to the Macquarie campus where the 8 of us from that airport pickup were dropped off at the 4 different housing locations. Here's some pictures from the van on the ride to campus. I got my keys and moved into my apartment where I met one of my apartment mates, Joey. He's pretty cool. Quite easy to get along with. I have my own room in an apartment with 3 bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen/dining room, a restroom, and a toilet closet (?). Pictures to follow.

Finally some authentic Australian culture!

We spent most of the day wandering around the macquarie shopping center, a huge 5 story mall with all sorts of food stores and everything else you can think of. We picked up some necessities, e.g. food, pillows, wine. While wandering through that monstrosity, we met up with a couple of the guys I met from the van trip to campus and we hung out there for several hours before retiring to our apartment for a bit. We decided to go for a walk since we were falling asleep (Yay jetlag!!) and now I am getting my internet fix at the library. :)

First view of the Opera House.

There are certainly lots of things to get used to here, such as the metric system: It was 7 degrees when we landed, which is ~44 degrees farenheit, gas is 1.44$/litre which is about 4$/gallon. The roads and cars are reverse of what I'm used to, and theres tropical plants and birds (Joey swears he saw a macaw) and it is only 45 degrees out... Plus everything is really expensive due to it being a big city and the exchange rate, about $1.165American:$1 Australian. So far it's been worth every penny, and we haven't even gone to downtown Sydney yet!! 

Orientation stuff begins on Tuesday, we register for classes on Wednesday, and we start classes Monday. It'll be a busy week and I may not post again until we get internet in the homestead...

First view of my new Uni!

-Dan