Follow the Yellow Brick Road...

stepping into the unknown, again

2009-11-06T21:08:00.003+08:00

Big news of the month: I have moved to Perth. Currently living on the dorm room floor of an ND friend who is studying at the University of Western Australia... but they go back to America next Friday so hopefully I will have found a place of my own by then!

The weather is much warmer and sunnier up here as compared to down south, but I'm sure it will be almost unbearably hot soon.

Here are a few photo albums of the past few months. The links don't work when you click on them but you just have to copy and paste them into the address bar.

Pictures from the footy season:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2244415&id=5612955&l=b0e79523dd

Pics of spring:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2244425&id=5612955&l=1754745fee

ParkLife 2009

2009-10-02T22:26:00.005+08:00

Hey kids! It's been a long time coming, but I figured that with this little blog getting some ink I should go ahead and update it.

First of all, let's start off with a couple of pics from the footy season. As usual, click if you wish to expand them.

looking to get the ball out of the defensive 50

everyday I'm hustling. haha okay that was lame.

footy boys

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For about a month now, my friends and I have been anticipating ParkLife 2009. ParkLife is an annual outdoor spring music festival held in Perth's Wellington Square, with five stages and over 25 artists lasting from 2pm- past 10pm. We bought our tickets awhile ago, and this past weekend it was finally time to party.

The concert being in up in Perth, of course we decided to make a weekend of our trip to the city. Even though we didn't leave until about 6:45am, we were meant to leave much earlier so I got up at FIVE A.M. Keep in mind that I requested off work for that day, and I was normally supposed to be at work at 5am that day. Getting up at work time on a day off, now that's dedication. Anyways that was night one of little to no sleep. There were 6 of us going up to ParkLife from Denmark along with a few others hitching to Perth so we took two cars. I went with Jeff and Mia, while Damo and a few girls went in another car. The only good thing about this crack of dawn, four hour drive was A) seeing the sun rise over the inlet as we left my house and B) the fields of gold. Allow me to explain: in addition to sheep and beef cows, Australia's SW also produces a lot of canola, and as it is spring, the canola was flowering. This meant that for much of the way we drove through fields and fields carpeted by bright yellow flowers. It was really scenic and pretty, especially with a ghostly, towering eucalyptus tree intersperced here and there over the fields.

I should state that the whole reason we left so early was so we could make it to Perth in time to watch the AFL Grand Final, essentially the super bowl of the Australian Football League. However, we had a few stops to make first. Finally in the Perth area, we initially stopped in at Mia's grandparents' house to drop off her younger sister who was on school holidays but ended up staying for lunch. Mia's grandparents are from Greece and we were treated to a delightful Greek spread. We had a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the thing that sticks out are the homemade stuffed vine leaves, which were little parcels of rice and meat wrapped in grape (?) vine leaves and served with an unsweet. Not too sure on what I was eating or what it was called but Dakes, I'm sure you can help me out here.

Next we hit the road again with one more stop before our final destination. This stopover was at the Belmont Forum, which is a mall. It's actually a quite ordinary, run of the mill mall, not even two stories, but it was great. If you find this humorous, try living in an isloated town of 4,000 for five months and then tell me how sweet a mall looks. I don't even remember what we had to get but unfortunately we couldn't stay long as it was getting close to 1pm and gametime. No thanks to the shoddy GPS, we finally made it to Sean and Pat's house. Sean and Pat are Denmark guys who moved up to Perth for college and live in a house together with some uni mates. We only missed the first quarter and were treated to a real thriller of a game. It was cool to see the game responsible for bringing me back to Oz played at the highest level, on its biggest stage. In the end, the dynastic Geelong Cats defeated the upstart St Kilda Saints (original, eh?) even though the Saints led at the turn of each quarter. The rest of the afternoon I attempted to nap but was distrupted by the Aussies playing drinking games in the backyard so after awhile I gave up and hung outin the back yard with them. It felt divine to throw on some shorts and soak up the sun after so many cold, rainy days down in Denmark. Just to feel that warmness lingering around even as the sun set was so nice... spring has arrived in Australia!

At around 7 Jeff, Mia, and I headed out to a part of the Perth area called Victoria Park for dinner with Mia's Dad, sisters, and relatives. We ate at a Lebanese restaurant, and along with that one time I got lunch from a Thai lady who spoke no English on the street in Bangkok and perhaps brunch in SDH on home game Saturdays, it was one of my more unique dining experiences. First, it was decorated just like a Lebanese Arab place if that makes any sense. There was canvas draped from the ceiling simulating a tent and other cool effects. We sat on small cushions on the floor at low tables, almost Asian style. As we had a big group, Mia's Dad ordered the works for everyone to share and we were treated to a delicious smorgasboard of fresh Hummus, Baba Ganoush, Feta cheese, thin Lebanese bread, Falafel, Tabbouleh, and multiple types of marinated Chicken, Lamb, and Beef kebabs and skewers. It was absolutely incredible so of course I stuffed myself. Oh and there was even a belly dancer who danced around the tables for at least half an hour. Keep in mind this was a pretty trendy, swanky place so it really lightened the mood and brought the whole restaurant together clapping, hollering, and dancing.

After that amazing dinner, the three of us drove back to Sean's house to quickly shower and get ready to hit the bars. Everyone else was already having drinks and ready to go so we had to move fast but were able to jump in one of the multiple cabs we called to take our whole crew to Northbridge. Again, another memorable moment. The cabbie had a brand new ride, and he surely was not holding it back... the dude was blowing by people on the freeway and tearing up entrance ramps like it was the Indy 500. We got to talking and it went a little like this:

Cabbie: So you are from Canada, yes? (note: unfortunately I get this a lot)
Kyle: Nooope I'm from the States.
C: America?? I'm from Iraq, so we're enemies!
K: Oh crap.

But it turned out to be okay... he had been in Australia for 12 years and was quite friendly. He also had family in America and was excited to go visit them soon. He said he is originally from Baghdad and had actually been back to visit since the invasion, which seemed insane to me. All he would really say about it was how annoying it was to be on the freeway, only to get stuck behind an American tank going about 12 miles per hour... once a cabbie always a cabbie I spose.

Anyways our group of 10 or so all met up in Northbridge (nightlife district of Perth City) and went to a few bars before settling on a club called Paramount where we cranked it until about 4:30. Interestingly enough, with violence on the rise in Northbridge, we had to be photographed and electronically finger printed to get into the club. When we finally got back to Sean's, I found all avaliable soft sleeping spaces occupied, much to my dismay. Rather than sprawling on the hardwood, I opted to spend the night moving from car to car parked on the front long trying to get comfortable before settling on Damo's SUV. My first sleeping in a car experience wasn't all that bad until the sun knifed its way into my eyes a few hours later. Night two of little to no sleep.

We all got up semi early and headed out to Sarah's house Sunday morning for our pre-ParkLife gathering at 10am. Same deal with Sean and Pat, Sarah and a few of her Denmark girl friends moved up to Perth. Hmm they must be onto something there... Anywho with ParkLife starting at 2pm, we had a few hours to chill and have pre-drinks while the girls got ready. The weather was GORGEOUS. Even by noon it was warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky and there was a perfect little breeze going on. We were having such a good time just sitting in the sun sipping our goon and juice that I didn't even want to go to the festival, but eventually the time came and again we hopped in a couple cabs.

ParkLife itself was really good. As stated earlier, there were five stages and tons of acts. It was mostly DJ's and dance/club type music. I really didn't know any of the artists, except I did see Lady Sovereign. Also, I saw Empire of the Sun put on their first ever live show. They are a Perth band that is blowing up in Australia and I wouldn't have even brought them up here, but they were recently mentioned on an episode of Entourage so perhaps they are getting noticed in America too? For most of the performances I would recognize a song or two that get radio/club play but otherwise it was all new to me. That didn't matter though, I still jumped and danced my way through all of it. It is really funny to think about my dancing progression and change of heart in terms of Aussie dancing. During my first time in Oz, when I was studying with other Americans, I can remember how much we made fun of the Australians for their dancing. We were shocked and amused to see groups of dudes dancing together, sometimes with girls and sometimes without. I guess you have to be here to see it but I think the best way is that us Americans were conditioned to be embarrassed to try and dance ourselves. However, since coming back the second time and spending all my time with Aussies, I have officially jumped on that dancing bandwagon. It probably helps that no one here knows me outside of 5 months ago but also it's just that carefree Aussie attitude. After Saturday night and ParkLife all day Sunday, I seriously need to detox from dancing... my friends and I cut some serious rugs this weekend.

That's generally all there is to say about ParkLife... it was warm, sunny, loud, crowded, energetic, blurry, and oh so much fun. When it was all over we all met at a predetermined gas station across the street. The convience store there had security out the wazoo; they had about 10 rent a cops inside the store and even set up a queue outside, forming a line and only letting a certain number in at a time like a bar. I bought everyone Paddle Pops (Australian fudgecicles) and as we sat on the curb slurping away and hoards of people descended on the place I understood the need for security. With somewhere around 30,000 drunk Australians across the street, if the place didn't have the insane security it would have been ransacked worse than Georgia during Sherman's march to the sea.

We couldn't get a cab so Jeff, Damo, Mia, and I walked about half an hour to 40 mins down to the central Perth train station to catch a train to Freo. Being a Sunday night it was rather quiet downtown, so we amused ourselves by softly singing songs such as Livin on a Prayer (oooh-oh walkin to Freeeo) and Dust in the Wind as we walked. We finally got back to Sarah's house and hung out before turning in around 2am. The next day Jeff woke up early and since we were all in the same room we all ended up getting up then too. Night Three of little to no sleep. Again, though, it was worth it, because Jeff wanted to go grab some breakfast at McD's or HJ's (Hungry Jack's aka Burger King) but I convinced him and a few others to go into Freo instead since we were just south of town. Monday was a public holiday so luckily the Fremantle Markets were open. It was kind of funny with myself leading the way for once, as I knew the area more than any of the others. I tried to refrain from too many "that place has great __'s" and "this one time __ happened over there" 's as that would probably be annoying but I slipped in a few fun facts here and there. For all those who studied in Freo with me, we got crepes from the markets and then had Old Shanghai. Everything is exactly the same, even that one bar that was boarded up (Madonna's I think it was called) is still closed with nothing new in its stead.

To make a long story long, that's about it. After walking around Freo a bit we went back to Sarah's, said our goodbyes, and hit the road. Sadly enough, I'm now sick thanks to my three nights of little to no sleep and the other disservices I did to my immune system over the weekend but luckily I have this weekend off as well so I can hopefully relax and sleep a lot.

That's all for now. In closing.... GO IRISH, BEAT HUSKIES!

ParkLife crew... spot the American

in the shadows of Perth CBD

...comments please!

new post soon.

2009-09-30T22:53:00.003+08:00

YO update coming soon... just got back from an amazing weekend in Perth, Western Australia and I am itching to tell all about it. However I'm sick as a dog, which no doubt relates directly to said weekend, so bed and recovery come first. Check back in a day or two!

Blog 3: The End of the Beginning?

2009-08-25T11:07:00.006+08:00

Hi everyone. It appears that it's been an entire two months since I have last blogged so I figured it's high time that I got back on that train. The only excuse I have is that I've been busy putting time into making friendships and settling into the community. As many of you have already noticed, I also finally got around to posting a bunch of pictures on Facebook. You can view them, even if you aren't a member of the site, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2234464&id=5612955&l=674337973c

This past Sunday was the final match of the Great Southern Football League regular season. It was at our home field, and for some reason I seem to play better at home so I was excited to play. I played all 80 minutes of the Reserves game, as usual, and was tiredly waiting around for the League players to run out of the locker room when my friend Josh came up to me and said "I think you're playing League today." "Hmm shouldn't someone have told me earlier?" I thought. He went and double checked and indeed I did make the list for the A Grade team. I rushed into the locker room mid-coach's speech. I was happy to finally be in the lineup with all of my friends and the guys I have been practicing with for the past three months. I started out on the bench, and was glad to have the opportunity to rest as I was still exhausted from running and hitting for 80 minutes with no break. However, as the quarters clicked by with no change I realized that I was pretty much put on the team out of pity. In the break before the final quarter I was told my time had come. I think the coach just had the intention of leaving me in for a little bit while another player rested. I went in with a "balls to the wall" mentality and played my tired legs off. Not that anyone reading this will know, but I had several nice marks, a bunch of disposals, and at least one assist. Needless to say they left me in for the length of the quarter. As I trotted off the field I was greeted with many "great jobs" and even the coach said "Damn we should have brought you up sooner!" They were preaching to the choir on that one! It confirmed what I had thought all along; although my skills aren't on par with the big boys, I'm athletic enough to contribute in a well-defined role, as opposed to Reserves where it was basically everyone for themselves. In the end though, I was super tired from playing in back to back games but it was amazing to not only be finally called up but to have played so well in my first League game. I was getting a bit jaded with Aussie rules football but this was a great way to cap off the season. I'll be glad to let my ever present injuries heal now.

Things are changing at work. In the fruit and veg department we had two people leave, which catapulted me from fourth on the ladder to second in command for a small period of time. Then a man and his wife were hired, each with allegedly 20+ years of experience in F&V so it was back down to the bottom for me. For awhile I was literally chopping every vegetable and bagging every piece of fruit myself. The new guy is a real piece of work though, as he came in expecting to usurp the top spot from my manager, who has "only" 8 years of experience. On his very first day he was spouting off slimy comments such as "when i'm in charge things will change" and "do things his way for now but know it won't be that way for long". Now that he realizes his rise to power isn't happening anytime soon, he has ceased communication with the manager. Very mature. Of course you all want to know how this affects the dear author. With more than enough collective experience in the department, I now get to spread my wings in other directions. On Wednesdays I work in the Dairy department and on Fridays I work out on the floor with the Shop Manager. I don't mind it though, it's nice to have some variety from the monotony of produce prep. There has been lots of turnover in the other departments as well so there are many new faces around. Unfortunately the new hires are all older people. No disrespect to my wiser readers, but I miss seeing the cute checkout chicks.

Now for the part you've all been waiting for, the quick anecdotes!

>I'm drinking 2-3 cups of tea per day. It's easy when your morning break is labeled "Tea Break"

>I won $32.40 at the Pub betting on a dog race. I only bet because I had $3 and wanted another beer, so I placed three one dollar bets. Kyle 1 gambling 0.

>I went to see Transformers 2 twice. Like I said, we live in a small town... which brings me to my next point: You know you live in a farm town when you get in your car to drive home after work and you see a gaggle of toddlers walking/riding past on a pony.

>We went hunting awhile back but didn't get any kills. We went out to a farm because the overpopulated kangaroos break cattle fences. I rather enjoyed stalking around in the bush on the edge of the paddock as twilight approached; just a man with his gun, alone in a wild and strange place. It was also cool that on my right was what reminded me of the English countryside (or at least what I imagined it to be) with little babbling brooks among matted grasses and small stony hills and on my left was full on Aussie eucalyptus forest. Often I heard the soft thump-thump of an otherwise silent Roo jumping through the bush but didn't see one until, of course, I stopped to take a leak and put my gun down. Figures.

>One day at work I was unloading a stack of banana boxes from a metal push cart. When I lifted the final box from the bottom I noticed a menacing and very poisonous Red-Backed spider sitting on the cart right next to where my fingers had been. Just a day in the life.

>Speaking of work, I hate to disappoint those who thought IGA was connected to the IGAs at home, but I just found out that it stands for "Independent Grocers of Australia"

>Also speaking of work, the head of the Dairy is an avid movie watcher, and since most movies come from the US, every day he comes to work with questions about America for me. One particularly humorous exchange was about prom.
Nick: "Hey so what's the deal with prom? Does everyone do that?"
Kyle: "Yeah every high school has prom. It's just a big dance in the spring that the upperclassmen go to."
Nick: "And prom court. The American football guy is always the king... the quarterback?"
Kyle: "Ha not always but yeah there's usually football players on it"
Nick: "And the quarterback always dates the cheerleader. I bet that was you wasn't it"
Kyle: "nahh I was just a wide receiver and I wasn't prom king. Hahaha I did date a cheerleader though."
Nick: "That's so AWESOME. Football player dates cheerleader.. That's so American!"
Kyle: lol

>Also, many many Australians think there are 52 US states. And it's not as if they think Puerto Rico is a state, in fact no one has any idea PR is a part of the US. No, for whatever reason, they think Hawaii was the 52nd state.

>In July a group of us made the 4.5 hr trek up to Perth to celebrate Josh's 21st birthday. We even rented a stretch Hummer limo and dressed up in coats and ties to arrive in style. This was a great weekend because it marked the turning point in my social life here, as the many hours spent recounting hilarious stories from the night (most of which are too college to be discussed here) cemented several friendships.

>One perk of working in F&V is that I've been able to sample a great variety of odd, mostly tropical fruits. Look em up on Wikipedia for more info. I've tried passion fruit (hard outer shell; sweet, tart pulp with seeds that look like tadpole eggs), persimmons (looks like an orange apple, it is very astringent), lychee (from Thailand, it is very sweet and Asian-y. This probably isn't P.C., but it was somehow infused with like that smell you get in most Chinese restaurants), tangelos (cross between orange and grapefruit, not that exciting), papaya (actually not very good), champagne melon (watermelon with bright yellow flesh), mangosteen (a superfruit with extremely high antioxidant levels), and the strangest of all, a blood orange which tasted and looked like a regular orange except for the unavoidable fact that the flesh was dark purple with dark red, blood colored juice. I dripped some on my shirt and it looked as if I had committed murder.

>Thank you so much to those who have sent me letters and pictures. Pen pals are awesome.

>This past weekend Brent, Andrew, and I went up to Perth for a gathering of American footy players. There are 5 of us playing footy in the Southwest and the head of development wanted to bring us all together for an AFL (pro) game before our respective seasons ended. After being interviewed by a TV reporter and filmed kicking around an Australian football and passing an American football, as well as what seemed like an unnecessary number of takes of us merely walking across a park, we got to watch West Coast Eagles go through pregame drills in their private warm up drills before standing on the field as they ran out for their game vs the North Melbourne Kangaroos (how original, eh?). We then got box seats in the 40,000 seat stadium and enjoyed an exciting game. Oh and the night before I got to visit with two friends from my former dorm at ND who are studying this semester at UWA, which was great.

Whew, that's about it for now. I guess a lot has happened these last two months after all. In closing, I must say it's hard to believe that school is starting back up again, a fact that I am reminded of with a daily barrage of "omg i love Notre Dame, so happy to be back with all of my best friends" type of status updates on Facebook. I am sad to not be there in the thick of things anymore but at the same time I think the pain is fading. Graduation can only be described as a bad breakup; with time and separation, the sense of loss is slowly healing. I surely miss campus and my friends a lot, and am very jealous of those who still have time left, but already my time as a collegian seems like another lifetime. This can only be a good thing.

Blog 2

2009-06-22T21:58:00.007+08:00

Heyo everybody.. Sorry for the hold up. I've been struggling with getting pictures uploaded in the format I want.

I've played in three footy games now and we've lost all three horribly. I'm still on the reserves team, which is frustrating because everyone on the team plays selfishly and refuses to get back on defense (especially aggravating when one is playing defense and is confronted with a 7 on 2 situation). The league team isn't doing much better and have lost all their games since I've been here as well. Oh well, I can't really say my skills warrant a promotion to the top level yet, as I'm still figuring everything out. Training remains quite difficult... for instance the other day we ran 10 laps around the track for warm up, a 4K. That's 2.5 miles, in case you were wondering. I'm waiting for the time when running a crapload will not be so hard but I guess I'm still out of shape!

Weeks are fairly mundane; work everyday usually 8am-5pm with footy practice on tuesday and thursday nights with a game on saturday or sunday afternoons. Since it's winter it's dark by 5pm so we can't really do anything after work except come home and watch tv, which is usually fine by me because I'm usually tired from work or training. It will be so nice when the weather gets warmer and it stays light longer. I think there will be a lot more to do then, such as take advantage of the fact that we live next to the water.

Weather has been pretty dismal, it rains every day without fail. Even if the day starts out sunny and promising it will be raining by late afternoon. The rain patterns are kind of weird, it either rains in half hour spurts and then gets sunny or else we get torrential downpours all day. It also hails a lot. Oh well, at least it's not snowing (even though it is a chilly).

Yesterday, Saturday, was a pretty good day. I woke up to a text from my friend Josh and met him for breakfast at a cafe in town. Ham and cheese croissant was dece but the chai vanilla latte was phenomenal. Then went down to the pub so he could place a bet on one of the horse races. That's right, gambling is legal in Australia and officially licensed bookies are as common as shoe stores. Aussies love betting; in fact, Josh also was doing instant lotto tickets at breakfast, or "scratchies." At the pub, there were about 6 older men watching the races and betting while enjoying beers. It was 11am. All in all though, the sports betting seems pretty harmless even though I didn't place any bets (too stingy). Next, we drove over to the footy oval to watch the Denmark women's team play. I was expecting to see a pretty sloppy game but we were both surprised by some of the skill exhibited by a few of the girls. After that Josh, Damo, Brent, and I drove out to Albany to watch our Colts team play (again, the colts is the U-18 footy team) because Josh coaches them. Brent and I then hung around Albany because we were going to go to the one nightclub that night, and it was pointless to drive 45 minutes back home beforehand. We stopped in an electronics store and purchased a wireless router, which I installed today. Having wireless is soo nice. Anyways we grabbed a case of beer and had a nice dinner at a BYO restaurant before going over to Jamie's place. He plays on our footy team b/c he's originally from Denmark but lives in Albany now. We had some predrinks and walked down to the nightclub. It is literally the only club in the entire south west part of the state.. the next closest ones would be 5 hours away up in Perth. It was a pretty good time but I spent too much money. Supposedly the place was voted worst night club in all of Australia but it didn't seem too bad to me. A year of Finnies and Fever will do that to someone.

Interesting parts from the last 3 weeks:
>The one time we went to the beach it ended up being too cold to get in so instead we explored Elephant Rocks and Greens Pool, which has good snorkeling when the weather gets warmer.

>There was a huge rainbow outside our front door the other day which was cool, until I realized that this is standard because as I said earlier, it usually rains and then gets sunny. Rainbow count is now at 7. If I didn't work indoors I'm positive I'd see one every day.

>I learned every member of AC/DC is from Australia. One is even from Fremantle.

>We sell Ratatouille at IGA. It's in with the potato salads and cole slaw in the deli. It looks like vegetables in marina sauce but I could be wrong. Hopefully no rats.

> I was talking to a girl about her trip to Seattle and asked her what she thought about our money. I was expecting something about how its boring and not very colorful (aussie money looks like monopoly money) or something about how dumb pennies are (the lowest australian coin is a 5 cent piece). Instead, she commented on how dirty it is. She said it was gross and she felt like washing her hands every time she handled it. You were right Mom!

>Josh, Brent, another kid named Sean and myself went fishing at the Wilson Inlet and the Denmark River last weekend but didn't get a single bite. Bummer.

> I got an unexpected letter from a friend in the US, which was really great. What is it about snail mail that is so satisfying?

>We made a huge batch of cole slaw from scratch the other night. Half a head of regular cabbage, half head of red cabbage, a few carrots and a onion. Miracle whip, vinegar, some olive oil, and a bunch of pepper. It was fun... In the post graduate world, you gotta get your kicks wherever you can.

Bed time.

click the pics to expand

Green's Pool

Good view

Elephant Rocks. The middle three or so are supposed to look like a group of elephants from behind

En route to fishing destination

Wilson Inlet on winter day

Good view x 2

2009-06-20T12:59:00.003+08:00

having trouble uploading pictures... will try again in the morning

First Week (back) in Australia

2009-06-04T16:16:00.006+08:00

-click pictures to expand-

View of water from the kitchen

the crib

mean streets of downtown Denmark.. right down the hill from our house, 2 minute drive)

place of employment (again, 2 min drive from house)

downtown again. i love how the sun makes the skyscrapers sparkle

Denmark (a shop on this row is actually where I am posting this from right now)

Forest on edge of town

Neat trail

Wilson Inlet

Denmark River, feeds into inlet

Ocean beach from lookout

sunset at ocean beach

(Edit: wrote this monday but am posting thursday... the internet at home stinks!)

Am currently sitting on our back porch in Denmark, WA with a view of the water a ways off, it’s sunny today and very nice. It is going into winter here but today just may be nice enough to make my first trip to the beach. Otherwise it’s pretty chilly in the mornings and at night but jeans and a sweatshirt are generally all I need. The worst part is that it starts getting dark between 5-5:30 which really bums me out because the days were just getting longer back home and now it’s hard to get out and do stuff in the dark. Anyways I’ve been in Australia for a week now (wow is that all?) so I guess it’s time to get everyone caught up to speed on what’s been happening. I’ll give a blow by blow account of each day because it was the first week but after this post I’ll just talk about important and interesting things.

I left the Wednesday after Graduation, so it was definitely a whirlwind trying to unpack the past four years of collegiate life and then turn around and repack everything I would need to live on the other side of the world for a whole year in the span of basically two days. Flew from Dayton to Chicago to LA to Sydney (14 hour flight) to Perth (5 hour flight), leaving on a Wednesday afternoon and arriving on a Friday afternoon. It was quite a trek but overall uneventful, which is usually a good sign when traveling. This was definitely my easiest trans-Pacific flight so far, as I slept for what had to be about 8 hours, meaning after a few movies I had arrived in Sydney.
In the Perth airport I was met by Tony Fairhead, the man in charge of the footy training program I participated in when studying in Fremantle last year and the guy most responsible for getting me over here. We took the scenic route rather than the highway from the airport to Freo where he lives. We drove right along the swan river past downtown and the bell tower, down past Cottesloe beach and hotel, right along the train route and across the infamous bridge over river down by the freo port (no comments please, Shannon). It turns out Tony lives in the top floor of an apartment building literally across the street from NDAU. If graduation and senior week was previously my most surreal experience, it definitely took the cake to be back in Freo, retracing my steps of a year ago. The rest of Friday went as follows: lunch with Tony and a few others at Roma on the end of High Street, having a few beers down at the South Freo Football Club, eating at Waggamamma (recently put in next to Sweet Lips), and meeting up with Mackenzie--a girl I worked with at Reckers--and being introduced to the new Port Lodgers before retiring to Tony’s incredible pad for an early bedtime.

Saturday I went back to Port Lodge to catch up with Tom Staudt an O’Neill junior who lived in 3B with me and who was the first underclassmen I met my soph year. Tom and I and a few other junior domers got dinner at Pizza on High for the all you can eat pizza and pasta, which was great because I actually never made it there before. Then just like old times we pounded goon in Plodge before going to Newport. It was good to be back but just really not the same. I realized that so much of my wonderful experience last year was due to the great group of people I was there with.

Sunday I got up early and Tony took me to Cottesloe to meet up with Andrew Werner, an American that came over with Brent to play footy in Mt Barker, a small town just north of Denmark. We drove the 5 hours down to Albany so he could play in his game and I met up with Sarah, the owner of the house where I am now living. She’s the daughter of owners of the IGAs in Albany and Denmark and a manager of them. I grabbed the car and followed her on the 30-40 minute drive to Denmark. I should mention that Brent Mergen, the American who is doing the same thing as I and my roommate who has been here since the beginning of the season in March, had to return to America for his grandpa’s funeral right when I left the states so when I moved in down here I had a week in the house by myself. The house was very nice but I just went in and passed out right away in my new bed as I was exhausted.

Monday I met up with Sarah and was introduced to all the people down at the IGA but didn’t have to work yet so I decided to explore rather than sit around. I walked around my neighborhood and the tiny downtown area and took pictures. I stumbled upon a nature trail at the edge of town and went on about a 2 mile hike through a really cool eucalyptus forest where I saw lots of colorful parrots and some kookaburrahs. The trail dead ended at the Wilson Inlet which was cool. I got back to my car in town and was still feeling adventurous even thought it was getting late in the afternoon so I went for a drive and found Ocean Beach, which obviously was the actual ocean rather than the inlet (look Denmark up on google earth if you want to understand the layout). I saw some surfers down in the water even though it was rather chilly. I stuck around for awhile waiting for the sunset and was treated to a good one. That night two of the guys from the footy team, Josh and Damien (aka Damo), came over to meet me and they seemed like really fun guys.

Tuesday was my first day of work. I work 7-5, with an hour lunch break and 15 minutes for "morning tea", in the Fruit and Veg department at Supa IGA. The work is fairly mundane, consisting of cutting, wrapping, bagging, and pricing fruit in the back and stocking the shelves out in the store for 8 hours a day. It would be pretty boring but I work with some very chill guys who I enjoy working and talking with. That night was my first practice, or "training", down at the oval. It was at 6pm but was already pitch black by then so it was under the lights. Apparently Tuesday is the hard conditioning day because it kicked my butt.. we ran 6 200s and two 400s in addition to all the running in the drills. I did pretty poorly because it had been so long since I touched a footy ball. After training I went to Josh and Damo’s--which is apparently right across the meadow across the street from me--for a little to hang out.

Wednesday after work I went down to the oval to "have a kick" since I was so rusty but there were a lot of people there, so instead I decided to explore more and drove on another road which winded through the country and eventually became unpaved. It was a really cool drive; a dirt road with huge shady trees on the side of the road looking over vast fields full of wild kangaroos and forests. It was dusk, which is when the roos come out, so I saw hundreds of them. I turned back when it started getting real dark because I was scared of getting lost and potentially running over a roo, which happens quite often. I went to Josh and Damo’s for Chinese and a movie. The Chinese wasn’t anything like the stuff back home (no General Tso’s chicken), it seemed more like the Indonesian/Malaysian stuff I’d get back in Freo. Just goes to show you that neither country has authentic Chinese, just food tailored to the local population.

Thursday was pretty uneventful, I set up my bank account at lunch time so I can get my cheddar and had the second footy training. I did better, the skills are slowly coming back. The cool thing about this training was that there were kangaroos on the field! Of course I was excited but no one else cared since they’re just like deer here. After Thursday trainings people come down the club house for cheap burgers and beers so I had some of each since everyone else was. It was kind of funny to me, because as an American all I wanted after a strenuous practice was a Gatorade and maybe a cold shower but instead we were having greasy burgers and sucking down cold beers. Questionable, but hey, when in Rome…

Friday I made my first attempt at cooking, sautéing some roast beef and veggies in soy sauce, garlic, chilis, and random seasonings I found in the cupboard and eating it with rice. It was decent but needed some more flavor. I also learned that a little bit of rice makes a lot of rice so I had way too much rice. Later I went to Josh and Damo’s for drinks, met a few more Aussies there, and actually finally met Brent as he unexpectedly got a ride home from the Perth Airport that night. We then went to "the tav" (tavern), one of two bars in town, where there was a band. Everything closes at 12 here (yuck) so everyone came back to our place for awhile. A rando girl asked if she could have some bread and before I knew it she had turned the entire brand new loaf into toast with vegemite. I thought maybe under the influence Vegemite would taste better but it was still disgusting. Also, I was mad she took the whole loaf without informing me.
Saturday was pretty much a wasted day. Brent and I spent most of the day lazing around watching footy games before finally getting our S together and going down to have a kick at the Oval in the late afternoon. Hilariously, when we got back there was a loaf of bread on the front doorstep, in repayment. We went out to a sick party at this weird shantytown-type place outside of town that night. Apparently a bunch of alternative, hippie type ppl live there but let younger people party there whenever. Josh, Damo and some other footy guys have a band and were playing so we watched them but since we had a game the next day Brent and I didn’t drink and were both real tired so we went home early.

Sunday (yesterday) was my first footy game. It was up in Mt. Barker so we had to drove there. Oddly enough everyone has to pay admission, even players, so it was $6.50 for me to play. Strange. Anyways there are always three games: Colts (under 17), Ressies (Reserves), and League (the top level). Brent and I both played ressies (he because he had been gone for a week and a half and I because it was my first game ever). I did alright, caught most balls kicked to me, but handballing or kicking it off after catching it was a bit tougher. Also tough was just knowing where to be at all times as it is such a free flowing game. Oh well, these game-awareness type things will hopefully come with more experience. The worst part was just running so much.. I need to get in shape if I’m gonna make it through four 20 minute quarters of straight running. Anyways we won (I scored a point but missed the 6 point goal) but the league team lost. I guess Denmark and Mt Barker were tied for last place in the 5 team league so losing to the Bulls was not a good thing. Oh yeah, we’re called the Magpies and uniforms are white and black striped. After driving back home we went to the tav for the traditional post-game awards and dinner. Club members vote on the best players and the top three get small monetary prizes. Many of the guys kept drinking but all I could think about was icing down my aching body and going to sleep so I did just that.

Today, Monday, is Foundation Day, a state holiday celebrating the date Western Australia became a state so everyone is off work. It is unseasonably warm so we’re probably going to go down to the beach in a bit.

I apologize for the long post but again, now that I will be settling into a routine life of work and football I won’t have as much to write about. Leave comments!

Whale

2008-07-10T01:47:00.006+08:00

here are pictures of the minke whale i saw on the Great Barrier Reef, as mentioned in the post below

Trip Home 1: Goodbye Freo, Hello Cairns

2008-07-03T08:42:00.011+08:00

dockers vs. north melbourne kangaroos

swan valley wine tour

Well here i am at 849 Britton Ave and its time to wrap up this bloggage. On my way home i traveled for a little over a week, going to the great barrier reef and sydney. but first here is a summary of my fun and busy yet bittersweet last week in freo:
-at some point my friend chris and i were interviewed for an article on our exploits with the yankaroos footy program we were in, since we took the most active roles in coordinating practices and such. if you havent read it yet here it is: http://www.nd.edu.au/news/fremantle/yankeroos_learn_aussie_rules.shtml
--friday we went out in freo one last time, hitting all of our favorite spots; bar orient for reggae night and shannon's birthday, Newport for the hard rock girls band, and then Metros for one last time at a typical aussie dance club.
--saturday chris and i got free tickets to another Dockers game from Tony the head of the Yankaroos program in thanks for putting in all the work we did throughout the semester. it was my 4th AFL game and we finally got to see a Dockers victory, only their 2nd on the year. that night we went to northbridge (perth's bar district) one last time, actually went to Mustang Bar, an American themed bar, that we had never been to before but it was still a good time and full of aussies. i walked back to the train by myself and took some pics of all our favorite night spots.
--sunday got up early and went on a wine tour of the swan valley with eddie, trish, and kate. it was rainy and chilly but we were in a bus so it was a really good time and we all learned a lot about wine, which we knew nothing about although we had been drinking lots of it since being in australia. if you were unaware, australia is very well known for its wines, being on par with california and italy; the swan river is the one that goes through perth and freo so not surprisingly the swan valley wine region is only about 20 minutes outside of the city. we went to 5 wineries i think and got to sample about 6-9 wines at each place. the first place, sandalford, was founded in 1840! the coolest thing there was that they had a $90 bottle of port and we went in a store room full of barrels of this port. there was $40,000 worth of the port in each barrel so all together the room was worth over $3 million! all the vineyards had really old grape vines, some being over 60 yrs old. we also got to go to a brewery and a chocolate factory.
-throughout the week the goodbyes had to begin; people began leaving wednesday i think. also i had to knock out my final 3 exams (2 the previous week), one each tuesday, wednesday, and friday.
-wednesday i went into Perth to have one last lunch with sara by her work, it was weird knowing we would probably never see each other again. later on everyone went to Orient for one last karaoke night (which happened every wed). it was great as usual, and us four guys from Port Lodge got to sing the last song. We belted out Piano man and all the 50 or so other study abroad kids put their arms around each other and sang along. it was a good way to go out.

so finally we can get to the bit about traveling, i realize i've written a lot already so i will try and leave out the useless details that i usually include in these blogs. anyways after my last exam friday afternoon i packed up, had a great spaghetti dinner cooked by my friend ashley in the P&O (other dorm), said bye to all the kids over there, then grabbed my bags to leave Port Lodge. a few of us were all taking the shuttle together and as they had been doing throughout the week, everyone gathered at the door to see us off. it was sad to go but it was cool to know that i had made so many new friends over the semester. tears were even shed but haha they were not by me or for me. flew out of Perth that night, watching the Perth-area lights fade away, replaced by the blackness of the outback was a moment full of meloncholy. arrived in Cairns 5am or so, Julie, Mandy and I got to the hostel around 8:30 after waiting for a shuttle (ok so maybe i will include useless details). walked around Cairns. its pronounced Cannes, same as the town in france. it is on the east coast and in far north of the state of Queensland. it was pretty small but it really just used as a staging ground for tours of the great barrier. great warm weather even though it was winter (close to the equator) after being in the more southern Perth on the west coast. we walked under trees full of hundreds of big fruit bats, which was neat cuz they were awake and climing around the tops of the trees.went to info center for a map and advice, rented a car, and headed up to the Daintree Rainforest around 12pm. The Daintree Rainforest is a World Heritage-listed natural site, is home to the highest concentration of ancient plant species in the world, and is the oldest rainforest on earth at over 135 million years old. the drive up into the rainforest took us along a beautiful road; alternating between steep rainforest and sheer cliffs on our left and the ocean on our right, it was just awesome. it reminded me of a prettier/more exotic drive along the california coast even though i had never been to california at that point. we had a few mix CDs of the Australian music that we liked and listened to them, together the drive and the music made the three of us really happy and excited for our travels, as opposed to sad about leaving WA. we stopped off at a lookout to enjoy the view further and saw people hang gliding pushing off the cliff.. looked crazy dangerous. we finally got up into the actual rainforest and took a short hike to Mossman Gorge. we saw brush turkeys and a neon blue butterfly along the way. the gorge was cool, there was a river with a lot of huge rocks, it kind of reminded me of big rivers in the Smokey Mountains. so harkening back to vacations down there i got the girls to join me in some creek-hopping. we got in at this wide, still part where it was about 8-10 feet deep. the water was freezing cold just like the smokeys but you got used to it. i swam upstream to some rapids, climbed over some rocks and got to a part that was kind of like a slide. it looked kinda dangerous and the girls were to scared but i jumped in and was wooshed downstream. it was great i did a few more times after battling my way back upstream and got mandy to do it too. we drove further north and soon the canopy enveloped the road. we crossed the Daintree River on a ferry, apparently there are two 10 foot crocs that live in that area but we didnt see them. got to another lookout, this time looking out across the whole rainforest to the ocean. our last stop was at a fruit ice cream stand that made its own ice cream from its own home grown fruit, it was really good we got 4 flavors in 1 cup: coconut, black sapote, yellow sapote, and wattleseed, all tropical fruits. i drove back to the hostel in Cairns after that, about a 2 hour drive as the sun set, after dinner i went to bed early.

the next phase of the Cairns trip, our 3 day snorkeling cruise of the Great Barrier Reef, began with a 6:10 pick up from our hostel. there were 30 people on the cruise and surprisingly they were all scuba divers. there were also about 6 crew members so the boat was at capacity. we 3 were the only snorkelers but it didnt matter as we ended up seeing all the same stuff as them. it took 3 hours for the boat to get out to the reef, a VERY rough ride but we slept since we were exhausted. we did three dives a day, and were also fed 3 delicious meals by a chef. the first day we didnt see any of the big cool animals but i realized how huge the reef was.. the great barrier is the world's largets coral reef system, comprised of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands over an area of 133,000 sq miles. at the Ningaloo Reef we hit up over easter break back in march you could always see the bottom and you would just snorkel around coral formations no bigger than the size of a room. Here the coral stretched in every direction as far as you could see, and often as we crossed the chasm of open ocean between the boat and the reef the floor was too deep to see and the coral formations would rise out of the depths, who knows how many stories tall. the fish and coral were incredible but like i said we didnt see any of the big animals everyone comes to see. it was interesting to note that the biggest fish congregated underneath the boat, probably waiting for food scraps.

the second day our wakeup call came at 7:30am and we got into the water at a new dive site soon after, on our 3 dives that day we saw 2 sea turtles (got to swim with and all around one) and a stingray. we also got to lay out a bit that day, as it finally got a bit sunny. most of the rest of the time it was cloudy and really windy and a bit chilly. that night the girls taught me how to play rummy which was fun.

our third and final day on the reef started super early in order to fit 3 dives in before the journey back. we were in the water by 6:30 with the sun low on the horizon. our first dive of that day we saw a small white tipped reef shark, no more that 3 feet long. we had just gotten back on the boat and dried off and warmed up when we were informed that a whale had been spotted. so we jumped right back in and got to see a minke whale up close and personal, which was definitely the highlight of the cruise. all 30 of us were in the water holding on to a rope with just masks and snorkels on, and it would swim past us, back out into the depths, then back. it kept circling around us for a long time investigating, only about 30 feet away or so. it even swam right underneath us once. it looked exactly like a humpback whale but was only about 12 feet long--minkes are a smaller whale species. still it was awesome to be able to swim with a whale; one of the guys back at the dive shop said he has been working at Pro Dives for 8 years and diving his whole life and has never seen a whale. our last dive was a good one too.. the coral at that site was the most colorful and varied yet. we also saw another shark, which was surprisingly being chased by a larger fish, and saw the biggest fish we had seen yet, this 4 ft long parrot fish with a large boney protrusion on its head. it looked really old and moved really slow, so it looked like it was from the dinosaur times. on our way back in to the boat we also saw a line of 7 squid, i chased them and they changed all sorts of colors but never broke their perfect linear formation. after that it was another bumby 3 hour boat ride back into Cairns and they took us in a van over to the airport for free after we picked up our luggage from the dive shop.

---first lookout, right off the road -river in the Daintree close to where we got in
-mossman gorge
-great barrier reef, notice the wave break three miles out from land
-sunset on the great barrier

Thailand Part 2: Phuket

2008-06-16T13:31:00.009+08:00

Continuing on with my week-long trip to Thailand, this post will be about our time on the island of Phuket (pronounced poo-ket). So after leaving Bangkok and the Prince Palace at around 5:30 am, we got into Phuket at about 7. There were three of us on that flight, so we had to wait about half an hour for the next flight, and the rest of our friends to arrive. Dan and i had signed up for the free ride to our hotel, and we were met with a man holding a sign for us, which was pretty baller. The island turned out to be really big, it took about 40 minutes to drive from the airport to our hotel, the Sunset Beach Resort. Located just to the north of Patong Beach and the town of Patong, we were literally right across the street from a beach on a large bay. Our place was really amazing, it was centered around an awesome little pool. There were palm trees all around it, an upper level pool that had a waterfall, and two pool-side bars. Placed in such a beautiful resort, with really hot weather and an inviting pool, we decided to lounge all day and enjoy our surroundings. After such an early morning the pool felt so good and everyone took advantage of the pool side bar service, drinking a few Changs each. I was starving so I had some delicious Thai chicken noodle egg dish delivered and ate it in the pool, which was amazing. Later that afternoon I watched some TV, which was exciting in and of itself. They had about 20 channels so i watched rugby and Euro soccer, as well as a bunch of American movies; there wasnt anything like that in Bangkok and even in Australia we only have 3 channels so it was a treat to veg out while watching the tube. I eventually ended up falling asleep and got a good little nap. That evening Greg and I decided to go down to Patong and scope out the scene for later, instead of being cooped up in the hotel even longer. We caught a ride into the city and it was CRAZY. There was a few main strips, and they were all like Khao San road on crack. The venders heckled even more and the promoter girls were even more in your face... we walked all around, we would go down a main road with tons of shops and big touristy bars but then there would be little dark alleys branching off that would be completely lined with tiny little open bars. It was clear that most tourists stayed away from these places, since the Thai girls promoting these bars went crazy over us, grabbing our arms and stuff. Ha one even grabbed my nipple, which was interesting. Having our full, we rode back to the hotel and had dinner with everyone. I got some ginger beef with oyster sauce, it tasted exactly like that ginger beef dish that dad makes sometimes.. we ended up eating at the hotel A LOT, since the food was good and cheap, they had lots of nice table areas, and we could put all the food on a tab to be paid later (handy for me as i never had any cash). We hung out in our rooms for awhile before going back downtown, this time with the whole group and looking to hit the bars. Who knows why we picked the one place we did out of the hundreds of bars, but it had 20 stripper poles, all with fully clothed girls dancing on them. Some of our girls jumped up on stage to try their hand and then murph and steve decided to put on a show as well which was hilarious. For those of us not stage/pole dancing inclined, there were some jenga sets laying around so we played jenga. It was pretty weird to be playing jenga in a thai bar with neon lights and pole dancing going on. we stayed out late and went to a few other places before eventually calling it a night.

The next day, wednesday, we had a elephant rides lined up through the hotel concierge but it was not until 4pm so we had another day of poolside relaxing. I ordered my first room service in my lifetime (hamburger and fries... also the first western style food i had ordered in thailand up to that point), and watched some more TV. However I was getting antsy and wanted to see more of the sights instead of laying around all day so i got i took the free hotel ride into the city and checked out the city beach. I had to go by myself but i like adventuring so it was ok.. the beach was more of the same, with vendors walking up and down the lines of chairs trying to sell stuff and so many jet-ski rental operators heckling. It was difficult to find a place to just sit by myself but i did. It was extremely hot tho so i didnt stay for long, and walked down the beach back to our hotel, which took about 40 minutes. There were a bunch of tiny crabs that were burying themselves into the sand so that entertained me on my walk. So finally it was time for our elephant ride, and we were driven out into the jungle to the company.. but on the drive out we got to see a wild elephant off in the distance and water buffalo roaming about which was sweet. we got to pet and pose with a baby elephant, who was also able to do a few tricks like doing a handstand and playing a harmonica through its trunk before we got to ride the big ones. We rode two people per elephant, sitting on a bench strapped to their backs. every elephant also had a driver, who just sat on its head. It was an hour ride through the jungle and was so cool, we crossed rivers, rode through rubber tapped-trees and actually got to drive the beasts ourselves; the drivers jumped off and we took turns sitting on its head. By the time we got back it was getting on in the evening so we ate at the hotel again before going out back downtown, where again we sang on a stage.. I dont know what it was but the Thai bands LOVED for us americans to sing and dance on stage with them.

Thursday, my last full day in Thailand, was my favorite by far. We got up early and were driven to a marina where we were to go on a cruise of the islands surrounding Phuket. I almost missed the tour again but i was able to barely get up in time. luckily on board they had snacks and drinks for us. we got on a big speed boat (probably 25-30) people in all and sped off. The scenery we saw that day was absolutely amazing, even though it was anywhere from an hour to 30 minutes between stops, it didnt matter because we marvelled at beautiful scenery the whole time. There are thousands of islands in the area, ranging from tiny tree-covered rocks to ones large enough for habitation in the area, and the water was such an awesome green-turquoise color and the clouds were so huge and magnificent. Most of the islands seemed to just straight up out of the water with sheer rock cliffs and no beach. Our first stop was Maya Bay, where the film The Beach with Leo Dicaprio was filmed. our boat squeezed through a narrow passage and we were in this awesome lagoon where we got to go swimming and walked back through the forest a bit. Then they took us around to the other side of the island where we snorkeled for a bit. At this stop and all the others there were schools and school of these green fish with blue strips that we could feed bits of bananas to, they would swarm around you and even eat it from your hand. Then we went to Monkey Island, and although the tide was up completely covering the beach, they were able to take the boat in right under a tree where a lot of monkeys were and we tossed them nuts. After all this it was lunchtime and they took us to an island (Ko Phi Phi, pronounced ko pee-pee) where probably the only thing on it was this really fancy resort, where we got to eat a delicious thai buffet lunch. So yummy and so scenic. Our last stop was at Ko Khai (ko means island), where we were given a few hours of leisure time to relax and explore before heading back in to Phuket. We got back around dinner time and that night i went to bed early as our flight back left early in the morning.

After a short flight from Phuket to singapore, a long layover in Singapore, and then another flight south, we were finally back in Perth. Our time in Thailand was great, we go to see incredible sights and do crazy things that we couldn't do at any other place in the world; it was definitely the trip of our lifetimes. However, at the same time it was such a nice feeling to be back in Australia, and back amongst a culture that we knew and understood. Back home in Fremantle we breathed in the fresh clean air and relished being able to walk down the streets back to our dorms unaccosted. The next few days we all suffered from varying levels of sickness as our systems detoxed from Thailand, and a sense of melancholy set in as we buckled down for exams and realized we had a scant two weeks left together in this wonderful land down under.

click the pics

View down from my balcony at Sunset Beach Resort

kate and i on our elephant
bros at Maya Bay
Walking back to Maya Bay

snorkeling
yes, the water was actually that color
Ko Phi Phi, where we ate lunch
niceee
some of us at Khai island

Thailand Part 1: Bangkok

2008-06-11T10:37:00.009+08:00

It has been a long time since i last blogged, but this post and the next will surely make up for the wait. The reason i haven't written in so long is because the month of may was extremely busy school-wise. Here in australia they pile on all the essays and assignments in the last month of school, meaning i had anywhere from 1 to 3 papers due every friday in may. obviously we all did not have time for any trips and just hung around the freo/perth area the entire time. going to another footy game (dockers-bulldogs) and also a rugby match (the local western force vs some NZ team). however the first week of june finally rolled around, meaning the end of classes and a whole week off before exams so we all took off for a week long vaca in thailand. there were about 20 people total in our group, about half from port lodge and half from P&O, the other dorm. our port lodge group was comprised of notre dame, iona, and sacred heart students and the P&O group are all from st johns/st ben's in minnesota. but we have all been hanging out all semester so there weren't any divisions.
we flew from perth at nighton friday may 30th, at 9:30 i think, with a long stopover in singapore until around 5 or 6am. but before we left perth i realized i didnt have my wallet with me. luckily i phoned our shuttle service and they had it; apparently it had fallen out of my lap while i was collecting everyone's money. they dropped it off back at the dorm but it was too late for me so i had to borrow money from everyone all week.
singapore was pretty uneventful. we ate, realized we were minorities, and were surprised that english is the country's first language. we had to go through customs tho, even though we weren't leaving the airport, which was a bummer. our next short flight got us into bangkok around 7am. the bangkok airport was absolutely massive, the biggest many of us had ever seen. makes sense tho, as the city has about 9 million people in it. after collecting out bags and going through immigration we got our introduction to thai heckling, as we entered a lobby and about 5 cab companies accosted us. we got two big vans and were soon on our way. driving on the highway was crazy, there were big billboards saying "long live the king" and the city seemed to never end. boline and i listened to thai radio on my zune. it was my first experience being in a country that didnt speak english.
we arrived at the Prince Palace Hotel around 9:30am and checked in. the place was absolutely massive, with four big towers and what seemed like miles of richly furnished lobby space in between them. i forget the exact number but there is between 650 and 700 rooms in all. murph and i were in a double and thus in a separate tower from the rest of the group who were in suites so we dropped our bags off and explored the hotel. it had 2 pools, several restaurants, a spa, gym, you name it they had it. seriously the hugest hotel ever. and the cool part was that there were such awesome views from every location. every room, every elevator lobby, and especially the pool areas looked straight out at the city, since it surrounded us.
once everyone was settled in we went out to find brunch. we ended up in a mall type thing next door to the prince palace going up to the food court, but a few of us were eager to go experience the real bangkok so eddie, trish, and myself split off from the group and set off exploring. we got our first tuk tuk ride (three wheeled motorcycle taxi) and did our first bargaining, paying a mere 20 baht for the ride, which is about 60 cents (30 bahts in 1 US$). we went to the Golden Mount (labeled elsewhere as the golden mountain, mount was probably an english typo, there was incorrect english everywhere even in official pamphlets and signs), also known as Wat Saket. Wat is the thai word for temple, and this one was a big pure gold temple on top of a big hill. after a long climb we got to the top and were offered breath taking views of the city. you could walk 360 degrees around the top of the mount and it really made us realize just how massive bangkok is. there were big buildings as far as the eye could see in every direction. it was a great view. it was also cool to see people worshipping in it, there were numerous shrines or something where people would kneel and pray. oh yeah, and it bears mentioning that all of these wats were buddhist. next we walked to the next closest wat on the map. we walked over one of bangkok's numerous sewage filled, disgusting smelling canals before arriving at (wat?) Loha Prasat. it had both the typical golden oriental looking decorated temple and also a big black and white one. we took a spiral staircase in the center of the building all the way to the top for more great views. this one was cool because all 5 or 6 floors had walls that were arranged in a sort of a thatch-work or crosshatch pattern so that at each intersection you could see the outside in 4 directions and a the end of each 4 directions was one of the many buddhas that lined the outside of the complex. its difficult to explain...
on the way to our next stop we walked past a leafy alley where there were a few food carts set up. It looked good and fresh and not iffy like a lot of the other food stands so i insisted we get it. the lady didnt speak any english so we pointed at what we wanted and were served some absolutely amazing stuff. it was chicken stir fried with diced chilis and some leafy thing maybe basil? along side a fried egg and on top of steamed rice. it was so good and really spicy. i was glad bottled water was only 10 baht (30 cents). probably the best food i had on my entire trip.
we then walked further and passed by the big democracy monument, four prongs sticking up into the air in the middle of a traffic circle. interesting to note since i believe the king seized power within the last few years for a certain amount of time before handing power back over. currently they have a constitutional monarchy, and everyone loves the king. i guess he has given a lot of money to the burma disaster but we also wondered if everyone was just saying that they love him because i think it is illegal to speak ill of him.
next we walked to Wat Suthat and the giant swing which was used for ceremonies in past times. there was some sort of organized prayer going on, with a bunch of people inside and prayers being broadcast on speakers outside. Buddhism is very strange, from watching people at all of the temples i still can't figure it out. it involves burning incense, laying flowers at shrines, putting money in donation boxes, kneeling on prayer rugs in front of statues, shaking the incense sticks inside of their case, pouring water on one's head and possibly in tubs of lotus pads. also there were crazy amounts of buddha statues of all sizes at every temple. it was strange also that they let us walk around and do whatever as they worshiped.
our next stop (wow we did so much in this one day) was Khao Son road, where a lot of westerners and other tourists congregate due to the shopping, eating, and nightlife. here we got our introduction to the thai vendor, every stall you walk past has someone come up to you and try to shake your hand and talk to you and basically suck you into looking at their shop. same goes with tuk-tuks, if they see a white person walking down the street no matter where you are about 3 will run over to you and see if you need a ride. also, many try to trick you by saying the place you want to go is closed and that they know of a place that is open or a place that is better. or while you are on your way they try and take you to a suit shop or something. this is because they have connections to certain shops where they can get commissions. but anyways back to khao son road, there was all the knock-off and illegal merchandise that you could imagine, from brand name clothes, bags, and shoes to dvds and music. all for dirt cheap if you bargain right. i didnt buy anything though, and on a whole did not get much throughout the week as it was just too much of a hassle to keep asking people for money.
that night (keep in mind, still the first day, saturday), after some serious nappage a few of us went to a muay thai boxing arena. originally all 9 or so of the guys were going to go but it ended up just being murph and steve and i. for 2,000 baht (60 bucks) we got transportation there and back and 9 fights. we got a bite for dinner in a little hole in the wall restaurant by the arena. it was the kind of dirty little place that absolutely no one would eat at in the US or australia, but hey when in thailand. the boxing was awesome, for those who don't know muay thai boxing is thailand's national sport and an absolute brutal mix of kick boxing. we had ringside seats and there were 55 baht (approx $1.20) beers, which was dirt cheap compared to what we are used to in australia. the fighters were kind of young, clearly not professional but still the fighters got older as the fights advance and thus more disciplined. we made friends with our beer server, named Kunk, and she actually gave us a free ride home when the night was over. the three of us went to one of the pool decks and enjoyed the views of part of bangkok's skyline lit up at night.
FINALLY we got a good nights sleep, although on sunday we did have to wake up early. we got an amazing continental buffet breakfast and then 14 of us piled into the vans and were driven out into the country to the famous floating markets. after an hour drive we arrived and were given two 7 person boats with drivers. it was really cool we drove through palm forests and past people's shacks on the canal until we go the market which we stalls that we could barter and buy from right from our boat without getting up. all i bought was a little thing called a thai pancake which was like melted marshmallows with citrusy pepper inside a taco shell. only 5 baht (15 cents?). we got to a larger central part and it appeared that people had arrived on land at restaurants where the cooks had paddled up from their houses and were making food on the water. after the long drive back during which most of us fell asleep, i and some other relaxed at the pool.
for dinner dan, steph, jess v and myself were hooked up by our hotel concierge with a ride to a nice clean restaurant where we enjoyed good thai food and some thai dancing. after wards we came back and hung out with everyone in the big group before grabbing tuk-tuks up to Khao Son road to see what the night life was like. we went to a place called Lava bar, where lots of crazy things happened, included one guy (jeff), being handed a thai baby by its parents to hold outside the bar at 3am as we were leaving.
on our last day, monday, we were supposed to go on a huge scenic tour set up by the concierge of the grand palace and some other places but 7 of us slept in too late and missed both breakfast and the tour time. but we decided to make the most of our day and go to the grand palace on our own. one stayed behind so the 6 of us went next door to the mall food court for brunch. it was my first time there and it was actually pretty good and of course, really cheap. and i got those candy chocolate and strawberry sticks that we used to buy at the hong's food store, which was fun. we took a couple tuk tuks to the grand palace, first stopping off at a suit store since our driver gave us a free ride if we looked inside for 10 minutes (he got free gas out of it). we decided to get a guided tour of the grand palace complex and i'm very glad we did since it was such a massive place with more temples and royal buildings that we really had time to see. i really cannot describe everything we saw, everyone there had their breath taken away and we all agreed that words and pictures just could not do it justice... luckily i took some video... there were a bunch of temples, some holding sacred buddhist scriptures, some holding relics, some holding ashes of former kings, one holding a dolid block of jade carved into a buddha, also there was the coronation building, the royal reception hall, the royal guest house, and others. oh and we also got to see the royal collection of weapons. it was a bunch of old weapons, no firearms, but it was still cool. i mean, what guy doesnt like weapons? of course i thought of rj this entire time, i feel like the royal collection of weapons is something you would excitedly blog about too.
after about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, our tour was over. the st johns guys headed back to prince palace and myself and eddie, trish, and jesse o decided to go on a boat tour of bangkok's main river. it was kind of uneventful, esp since i had already been on a boat in the floating markets but this was still cool because the river was so big and there were big ships around us and big buildings. it took us to bangkok's most famous temple, Wat Arun (temple of the dawn... feel free to wikipedia any of these names), and also to the reclining buddah, which was a golden statue of budda lying on his side. the thing was about 30 yards long, just unnecessarily big but cool just for its novelty.
after the hour boat tour it was late afternoon and the 4 of us again went to khao son road. they got massages but i was out of cash for the moment so i wondered around my myself, getting pad thai from a street vendor for 20 baht (60 cents!) sat on the curb and people watched. i realize i keep mentioning prices but i still cant get over how cheap everything was. i got a tuk tuk home by myself and pooled it for awhile with the people back from the tour i missed in the morning. i dont remember what everyone else was doing that night for dinner but whatever it was steph, jess v and i wanted to walk around a little more so we tuk-ed it back to khao son road. we ran into some other from our group who were eating at an italian place but i thought that was a cop out so steph and i went across the street to and indian restaurant (a lot of indians have immigrated to thailand, along with chinese). it was soo good, i have been wanting to get indian food for awhile and this was the real deal. i got some sort of dish with mutton it was very good and spicy, i also took a tiny bite of this mini pepper on steph's salad and a few minutes later my mouth was on fire. i had to order some naan (indian bread) to save my life. after that we shopped for a little while and i finally bought something, a Polo brand polo shirt for only 6 dollars after some haggling. steph got all 4 seasons of entourage and 3 movies, 16 disks in all, for the equivalent of just over 3 dollars each. on the way back we stopped at mcdonalds and i got a cup of iced milo which was absolutely fantastic. Milo is a hot chocolate type drink made in australia and it was amazing served cold on ince, which you dont ever find in australia. that monday night i packed. 11 of us were going on to phuket for the rest of the week and the rest of them were staying in bangkok. it was at this point that i realized my 30gb zune was missing and the front desk wasnt too helpful in assisting me ing finding it. it was most likely stolen out of my room, since i didnt use it elsewhere. i guess there actually was a reason for having a safe in every room afterall.
anyways i had a late night looking for it and then we had to get up at i think 4:30 am to check out. check out was also an adventure as the front desk tried to scam a bunch of us, saying we took things out of the mini bar that we didnt, and broke things that were never used such as a coffee maker. it took over 45 minutes and we were still arguing with them but we had to catch our flight so we just said screw it and left. i guess we were not safe from the bangkok spirit of haggling even inside our supposed 4 star hotel. we were pretty steamed about that but in all the trip was really eye-opening and probably the craziest i will ever go on. to be in an asian country, where there is little english spoken and i was in a vast minority of people was so different and great.
well this post covers only friday night thru the wee hours of tuesday morning, and i still have to cover tuesday thru friday in the resort island of Phuket. For the sake of your eyes, my fingers, and also my grades since i have a final tmr, the phuket blog will be worked on at a later date in time. enjoy the pictures... remember click to expand:

bargaining with tuk-tuk driver

view of the prince palace hotel (big compound middle of picture) from the Golden Mount

democracy monument
inside of wat suthat
wat suthat

about to shove off at floating markets

floating market canal
grand palace complex
one of our pools
view from our elevator lobby

Kojonup: Small Town Australia

2008-05-04T18:15:00.009+08:00

So a few weeks ago in April (maybe 2 weeks after the Broome trip) I got to spend a weekend in rural Australia. My friend Sara took me home with her to the town of Kojonup. I was excited to see this side of Australia, as so far I've only been in the city and outlying suburbs like Fremantle; after all, only 4 australian cities have 1 million people or more so most aussies live in non city-settings. It is common for young australians to move to the city after graduating from their country high school to go to uni or work, which is what she did. So Friday late afternoon i caught a bus out to her apartment in Como (a suburb between Freo and Perth) and we loaded up her car and set off. Unfortunately we were leaving during rush hour so we got stuck in the Perth traffic and then we had to put gas in the tires (or "tyres" as they're spelled here). So after the 4 hour or so drive we didnt get to her old house until 9 or 10. Her mom made us some fried steak and salad and we watched footy on tv for a little while until bedtime. We also had Milo (like hot chocolate) and Tim-tams (quintessential aussie chocolate wafer cookies). The first difference i noticed between the Perth area and Kojonup was the temperature. Koj is in the southwest of WA, which means its further away from the equator and thus closer to antarctic, so it made sense that it was colder. Also, as its going into Fall in australia now so that factors in. There were big blankets on the beds and they had an old-fashioned wood fired stove that pumped heat into all the rooms through vents like central heating.
Anyways we got up fairly early saturday morning to get our day started. It was pretty chilly compared to even the night before, i had to wear jeans and a hoodie for the first time this whole trip... haha terrible, right?... my buddies who were in europe can relate to that... After breakfast of eggs and aussie bacon (its much thicker and wider than US bacon, but also less crispy) I finally got to see where the heck i was since we had driven there in the dark. The house was on a bunch of farmland (called a paddock) and we looked around at everything for a little bit. There was a red-backed spider in her garage, which is one of the most poisonous spiders in all of australia which is really saying something cuz they have some dangerous things over here. So that was neat to see, bc i had read about them before i came. Then Sara drove me around the little town center, I got to see what Kojonup was all about; definitely a farming town, there were sheep everywhere. Wool is one of Australia's biggest "crops", and has a lot of historical significance in the forging of Australia's national identity and economy. For those readers that have read In a Sunburned Country, you might recall the part about all the big tacky statue things, and appropriately, Kojonup has a massive wool-wagon. We also checked out the fresh water spring that originally drew white settlers to the region. So then we came back to the house and set off with her mom and her mom's boyfriend on our big adventure of the day. We drove further into the southwest, stopping at a bunch of little towns along the way such as Bridgetown (where we saw the old "gaol" the old time spelling of "jail"), Pemberton, Denmark, and Manjimup. There was a bunch of driving between each place, 1 to sometimes 2 hours with nothing but farmland in between. It made me realize how big australia is... our 1-2 hour drives to columbus and cincinnati would be no sweat to an aussie. Along the way we got to see lots of natural wonders too. From town to town when not in farmland we were traveling through several national parks and our first such attraction was the Diamond Tree. A huge karri eucalyptus tree, you can climb up rungs driven into the trunk of the tree in a spiral all the way to a tree-house type lookout at the very top. It was awesome to climb all the way up... it was like a bigger version of the fire lookouts in the Smokey Mountains, except on top of a tree! And that's exactly what it was used for too in the past, a fire lookout. The top was chilly and windy and it was cloudy and sprinkling a bit but the view was amazing. We later went to the Gloucester Tree, which was the same deal in a different location but it was too crowded with annoying little kids and I didnt want to hold us up so we didn't climb that one. I did get to see a bunch of bright green parakeet-type birds there, they looked like something from a pet store in the US but apparently are a nuisance to the locals and Sara and her mom laughed at me for taking pictures. I guess it would be like watching someone take pictures of sparrows... weird. We next went to the Giant Tingle Tree. Tingle trees are another type of giant eucalyptus trees, and the one in question was hollow at the bottom and large enough to drive a car through. It is closed off to cars now, so we hiked down a short trail to it. Along the way i got to see a fantastic forest.. granted it was only in the upper 50s but it had just rained so it was all wet and there were lush ferns and huge trees everywhere, it was probably the closest to a rainforest that i'll ever be. I was reminded of the temperate rainforest in the US's pacific northwest (or at least pictures of it). Silly as it may seem, that walk was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Our last stop was the famous Tree-Top walk but unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there. Silly, it was only 4:45 too... everything closes soo early here. But it was ok, b/c the Diamond Tree was good enough for me, and cooler too from what i've heard. It was a pretty long drive back to Kojonup, prolly another 2 hours, as we had driven fairly far south. I got to see lots of kangaroos, though, which is always fun. It seems like they are very similar to deer in that aspect, coming out of the forest into the fields at dusk.
It was night by the time we got back to the house, and after dinner we again watched australian rules footbal on tv. Can i just say now that i love footy! both games we watched were really exciting, coming down to the final minute and all teams scored over 100 points. it also helped that the Rowe's had an HD tv... ok dad, now it's your turn. after that Sara and I watched Transformers (also superb in HD) before turning in fairly early; we were pretty exhausted from all the driving.
Sunday we headed out to Sara's aunt and uncle's farm. Formerly run by her Grandpa and Grandma, her aunt and uncle took it over when they retired. They are a wool farm with what seemed like hundreds of acres. we had a real aussie barbeque with lamb chops, sausages, and onions on the barby. while everything was cooking sara and i poked around the farm and checked out the shearing shed and the "chooks" (chickens) among other things. after lunch her uncle took Sara, her mom, myself, and the two little cousins out to the dams to check for koonack. Now i'm sure you all are wondering what the heck i'm talking about so let me explain. Every single aussie paddock (pasture) we passed while driving had a "dam", which is are square man-made ponds. whether used as a watering hole for animals or just water reservoirs i'm not sure but they all had them. Many farmers stock them with koonacks, which are big crawdads. We checked all the traps and got a big haul to take back so everyone could eat them later. that was pretty much the end of our trip to the farm, but Sara drove me out to a big lake they used to go camping and boating on, lake towerrinning. it was interesting to see such a large body of water in such a dry place. but it was still pretty chilly so we couldn't get in. That was pretty much it for our trip, we had to leave sunday afternoon to get back to the city since I had early class monday and she had to go to work. All in all it was a really nice trip, relaxing and nice to get out of the city and see a part of Australia that I had not experienced yet.

pics--click to maximize
real aussie verandah
deadly red backed spider
the paddock and house
wool wagon
diamond tree
view from top
on way back down, looking up
tingle tree
koonacks
lake towerrinning

Aboriginal for a Week: Broome and the Kimberly

2008-04-26T13:07:00.021+08:00

For this post I'm going waay back to the beginning of april; we had a mid semester break (i would call it spring break but its fall here!) during which our whole dorm (about 35 people) went on a field trip for our Australian History Course. On this trip we flew way up north to Broome and then drove out into the bush to stay on Aboriginal land for four nights.
Our flight out of Perth was delayed so it was dark once we arrived in Broome. It bears mentioning that as Australia is moving into fall, daylight savings time has ended so now it gets dark around 6... bummer. Anyways since it was dark we couldnt go tour around Broome, which is a former pearling center and currently popular tourist destination. we spent the night at the NDAU Broome campus and got to see an australian possum while we sat outside and watched tv. completely unlike the american opossum. brown with a hairy tail, it looked exactly like something we would see at the nocturnal house at the cincy zoo, which was awesome because i love the nocturnal house. i suggest googling it. at the crack of dawn we woke up to meet our trip guides, the aboriginal Morgan family. They run a tour group called Wundargoodie Aboriginal Safaris and have been working with NDAU leading these field trips for ten years. We piled into their 4 wheel drives and set off for the Kimberly. The Kimberly region is a large area stretching across the top of Western Australia and is roughly the size of California. It is one of the few parts of Australia that is still mostly inhabited by indigenous people, and the point of this trip was for us to be immersed in and learn about their culture. The roads were all dirt which made for a bumpy 3 or 4 hour drive. They said that in the rainy season the road gets so bad that the drive can take 10 hours. We stopped off for lunch at a friend of Morgan family's house, which truely seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere. She talked to us about all the mining going on in the area, as much the massive mining that is fueling Western Australia's economic boom goes on right in the Kimberly. It was our first experience hearing about the modern legal battles for land between natives and government. It is a sad fact that these and other indigenous people do not legally own the land where they have been living for over 50,000 years. In order to attain status as Traditional Land Owners they have to go to court and prove their continuous habitation and indigenous culture. Unfortunately many of the Aboriginals were sent to missions and driven off their land in other ways, only returning within the last 50 years. Also, their culture and language were suppressed in such a way that most can now only speak English and their children have to rely on special cultural days in school to learn about their heritage. All of this makes it extremely difficult to win legal rights to their land in court, opening the way to easy exploitation by mining companies and other whites. Fortunately, the Bardi-Jawi mob (tribe) which inhabit the Dampier peninsula we were driving to had won their case in the last and were finally legal owners of their land. Anyways after a lunch of sandwiches and damper, simple bread made of yeast and water cooked in the fire, we were back on our way. We stopped at the old Beagle Bay mission to see the old church. It was built entirely out of native materials and the inside was decorated beautifully with oyster shells, natural paints, and pearls. At some point during the drive we saw a frilled neck lizard run across the road, which was really cool. It runs on its hind legs and stood about a foot and a half tall with a big frill around its neck like the dinosaur that kills newman in jurassic park. Also, i forgot to mention that on our easter break trip to Exmouth a huge goanna crossed the road in front of our car. Goannas are the largest lizards in australia, kind of like a smaller komodo dragon. Anyways, after a little while longer we arrived at our camp site at Mudnunn, which was a small home site owned by friends of the Morgan Family who run small tours of their own. The rest of that night we set up our tents and went to bed after a dinner of beef stew. Its worth mentioning that the weather in the Kimberly was stifling. It was super hot during the day and never cooler than the 7os at night and very humid. It was difficult sleeping that first night in a cramped sweaty tent with 2 other guys and dawn could not come soon enough. we soon found out that what little relief the night brought in terms of heat was erased as soon as the sun rose, with it jumping back up into the 80s by 6:30 in the morning. The next three days-Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday-would start with us listening our main guide, Colin, talk about Aboriginal culture and his experiences being a native Australia. Unfortunately much of white australia is very racist still which is something we American students sometimes struggle with (something i'm sure Carrie can relate to). For instance it was only in February when we arrived when the central government formally apologized for the Stolen Generations (the decades when it was official policy to relieve native families of their children and attempt to "westernize" the kids. indeed it was a common belief that the whites could breed the aboriginal genes right out of the children by ... master race darwinism b.s.), and this simple apology is hugely controversial. It was refreshing to hear Colin's unbiased opinion on treating everyone equally. Later that sunday morning they took us to see something truly amazing. Out on some coastal rocks there are 11,000 year old human footprints. They are from men running out to hunt sea turtles and are followed by women's footprints which were visibly deeper due to the children they carried on their backs. It was so cool to see these prints, especially when you realize the pyramids are only 5,000 years old. These footprints are so much older than the pyramids and we saw boys walking along the same beach, hunting turtles with spears just as they used to. Granted the kids were wearing jean shorts and basketball jerseys, but still... It was interesting to learn that these footprints were vital pieces of evidence in the native title case, helping to prove the continuous habitation criterion. After lunch we went swimming while the aboriginals stayed on the beach to watch for salties, huge man eating crocodiles that live in the Kimberly. An interesting fact about aboriginal culture is how respectful they are; every speaks very quietly and have unassuming personalities. We were not allowed to swim until the local boss, Uncle Bundy, had officially welcomed us and given us his permission. The same went for pictures, we had to be officially welcomed to an area before we could take anything. In some instances we would be standing right by sacred ground and those were especially off limits for pictures.
After our swim we were driven to One Arm Point where we listened to an old lady named Auntie Irene talk to us about her experiences at the Sunday Island mission on an island across the bay. I never realized how many islands there were off the coast of Australia... there are thousands just in the north west where we were. She told all sorts of yarns, which is Aussie slang for stories, including many about her and other old timers' efforts to re-teach their culture to the younger generations who were deprived of it. It was also here that we first learned about the tides in the area... the area is home to the second highest tide in the world and as we stood there the water was rushing past-back out to sea-like a river which was amazing. We learned that the area is also a huge producer of trocha shells which along with tourism form the main money makers for the locals. We also heard about the problems with poaching, as Indonesians boat down and illegally take trochas, shark fins and sea cucumbers. Apparently it is a big, big problem... I didnt realize how close Indonesia is to Australia.
Every night after dinner we would all sit around the fire and play word games, which were fun. On monday after our usual talk with Colin we got to learn how to make a boomerang. A local aboriginal named Brian with the cool long white hair and beard started making a boomerang with hand tools and we all got to have a try at forming it with the hatchet. After we all had a whack he used power tools to save time and finish it off. After that Uncle Bundy showed us how to make spears out of long 8 foot sticks. You have to heat them in a fire to be able to peel off the bark and make it easy to bend and therefore straighten. After that we all got to try throwing the boomerang and our spears at a target. The boomerang was pretty hard to get right, and no they don't come back that's just a myth. They do, however curve through the air. They are traditionally used not for hunting but for settling disputes. When two men had a dispute they would go out into the outback and throw boomerangs until one was hit, then it would be over and they would drink tea together (albeit one with a broken leg or arm!)... The curving path of the boomerang made it tricky to dodge. it was in this way that conflicts were settled and there was no war between tribes. The spears were more fun to throw. The four guys had a big spear throwing distance contest and I ended up getting second. Later I speared the target from about twenty yards away on my first try which was awesome. That afternoon we went swimming again. That night one of Colin's sons, Robert, put on a didgeredoo demonstration. While people in the West Kimberly didnt traditionally play it, he had picked it up and of course we were eager to learn. After some brief instructions he passed around 2 of them so we could try our luck at it. After a lot of experimentation i was able to get it... Dan was really good and able to even do the dingo and other animal calls on it like Robert whereas all i could get was the base standard sound but still we were the only two that got it down. Then Colin told us creepy ghost stories around the camp fire, which would have been corny but it was about about the spirits he has seen and other creepy things experiences students have had with spirits on prior trips. Again, like the surfing trip the stars were amazing with the milky way in full sight. My favorite thing about this night besides the didg playing was when he showed us a massive emu in the sky. Not a constellation, it was rather a massive dark spot in the sky that formed an emu with one star as its eye that stretched across almost half the sky. Later after everyone had gone to bed, myself, Greg (guy from Iona) and Dan stayed out by the fire letting ourselves be transfixed by the stars which led to a great conversation about the meaning of life and other such deep topics.
Our last full day, Tuesday, started with a 6am wakeup to go crabbing. We drove out to a massive coastal plane, mud as far as the eye could see. We divided up into groups with one Aboriginal per group as a guide and went hunting for crabs. It was really neat to be walking on the ocean floor as with the massive tides, the area we were walking in would be under 30 feet of water in a few hours. We got to see depressions where stingrays had sat and even got to see croc tracks where it had walked along the ocean floor. The many rock outcroppings were where the crabs hit when the tide went out. We used long metal hooks to pull them out and wooden spears with metal rod tips to spear them once we got 'em out. We walked for hours in mud sometimes sinking up to our calves or knees but it was so worth it; i got to battle with and finally hook a crab and got to spear another one. As you can see in the picture these were the real deal: mud crabs sometimes two feet across. We also learned about a plant that the natives use to catch fish. Called fish poison, they mash it up into a paste and drop it into tidal pools where it deoxidizes the water, knocking out fish so they can just grab them with their hands.
After crabbing we went for our standard afternoon swim, our saltwater showers as greg, dan, and myself called it. Haha we chose not to shower the whole trip, 6 days! Needless to say everyone stayed away from our tent...
Tuesday afternoon we went to the Lombardina-Djarindjin community to visit the school. originally one settlement, it is now a divided community with a Catholic side and a secular side. The school was surreal, it reminded me of my friend Christina's pictures of African schools... there's really no other way to describe it. The the little kids were so cute, i wish i could have taken pictures but its frowned upon as the scars of the Stolen Generation and kidnapped kids still run deep. It was kind of sad to see the class sized dwindle as we visited older kids; we were told it gets difficult to keep older kids in school as they start to see no point in education... suicide and alcoholism are a huge problems in aboriginal communities. On a lighter note we gave gifts of sporting equipment, games, and coloring books to the kids and they sang us a song which was so cute. That night, our last night in the bush, all the local men who had been our guides throughout the week brought their kids to the campfire and we had a big thank you barbecue. I was able to sit down with Colin and talk with him and his family one on one for awhile that night. We talked about funny stuff like sleepwalking, yes Carrie i told them all about your adventures, but then switched to the more serious issues i was wondering about. It was really nice to talk to them and see what their thoughts were on all the aussie race-relation problems after hearing only white opinions for months. That night i was awakened by dingos howling which was terrifying at first but then cool when i realized what i was hearing... we saw their tracks on the road the next morning.
Wednesday i put on a clean shirt (haha) and we drove back to the Broome airport and flew home to perth.

PICS (click to maximize)
...somewhat out of order...

dirt road, made for fun 4 hour drive

beagle bay church
beagle bay
our ride
colin and i

djarin catholic school

playing the didg
huge mud crab
ancient 11,000 yr old footprint
one arm point, rushing tide
gum trees
homemade boomerang
spear i made, target i nailed
coastal plane where we crabbed

Easter in Exmouth

2008-04-04T10:38:00.002+08:00

Wow, it's been way too long since my last post and I apologize for that! This post is about our easter holiday at the Ningaloo Reef.

We got Good Friday and Easter Monday off so the six of us decided to get out and see a little more of Australia. Since myself, dan, and shannon have no class on thursdays, we decided to set out a day early to get our bearings set and explore on our own. We had to get up at i think 5am to catch the first train to the city. from there we wandered the streets of Perth as the sun rose looking for our bus stop. from there we had a 40 minute bus ride out to the airport. after getting up at 5 or 5:30am, we finally arrived at the airport around 8 for our 9:45 flight... quite a trek in and of itself. instead of the usual little bridge from the terminal to the cockpit of the plane we had to walk out onto the tarmac and climb up into our plane, which made me feel a bit like a celebrity. also, our plane had propellers on it, which was different. it was a short 3 hour flight on which we received a lunch of a sausage roll and the most delicious milk chocolate bar ever, a cadbury bar. i also decided that from then on out i will accept tea when it's offered inflight hey, when in australia... we touched down in a really isolated airport (if you could call it that.. more of just an airstrip) in Learmonth. one landing strip, one room airport. baking hot, middle of nowhere right smack dab in the outback. we thought, whaaat did we get ourselves into? these fears were not assuaged after a 30 minuted bus ride through the bush to the town of Exmouth revealed a town of no more than a few hundred, a real desert town. our spirits were bouyed somewhat by our hostel. Exmouth Cape Holiday Park was a multi functionable place, it had villas, cabins, room for trailers and campers as well as our hostels, which were brand new and had air conditioning (a must as it was over 100 degrees). we went for a dip in their tiny, albeit really nice pool to cool off before setting off into "town". oh i almost forgot, on my way to the bathroom before i got into the pool i spotted my first emu strutting around the buildings. a 5 or 6 foot tall bird, it is the largest in the world after the ostrich. it was really cool to see, i ran back to get the others and it stalked right past us no more than 4 feet away. i christened her Edith the Emu and throughout our time in Exmouth we came to find they were all over the town, walking around with no one paying any more attention to them than we would squirrels.

we then bought groceries, hit up the visitor center, and then rented our car for a really cheap price from a really dodgy (nice aussie word there) company. it was funny that Exmouth had about 7 car rental depots, more than gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores combined. the rest of the day we planned out our next few days and went to the beach, where the water was really warm, the warmest i've ever felt, probably around 70 degrees. it was like a hot tub. that night we grilled hamburgers at the outdoor community kitchen, and with a seasoning that shannon bought combined with our long day, they were the most delicious ever.

the next day we got up around early and did some touristy things before the others arrived, such as driving up to see the wreck of a cattle ship from 1906 that is still visible offshore, going to the turtle center (where we found out you can only see turtles come up to the beach at night.. bummer), drove up this big cliff to see the lighthouse on the very tip of the cape, which had incredible views, then went to another beach which had the clearest water i had ever seen. then we came back and waited for bridget, elyse, and kate to arrive. not too much else happened that day, we drove over to the other side of the cape and scouted out our snorkeling spots for saturday. i must mention that driving on the left side of the road was frightening at first but we got used to it. the funniest thing that happened was when i went to put on my turn signal for the first time i switched on the wipers, as the signal bar is on the right side (closest to the door just like in the states, basically their cars are linear symmetrical to US cars). due to the vast distances in australia, we drove over 600km just going from exmouth to the reef and back everyday.

got up early saturday to get our REAL vacation started: snorkeling! the Ningaloo Reef National Marine Park is considered the second best reef in australia after the great barrier, and better in the respect that you can swim right out from shore to see it rather than having to take a boat out like in the GBR. we rented our gear (only $10 a day) and hit the tides. there were three spots along the coast that we went to and the first one was the best in my opinion. we were swimming out for awhile and didnt see anything, got kind of confused. i ended up ahead of everyone and saw two big fish swimming around in a depression in the sandy floor. i dove down to get a closer look when i realized that the depression in the sand was a massive sandy-colored stingray. this puppy was around 5 feet in diameter so needless to say i went back to the surface as fast as possible... i didnt want any steve irwin-type shennanigans happening to me (side note: most australians view the crocodile hunter somewhat derisively for being so stereotypical.. no one ever says "crikey"). once at a safe distance, the ray was a magnificent sight as it swam away. eventually we found the reef and it was amazing. big colorful fish, schools of tiny fluorescent ones, all different types and shades of coral: green, purple, red, blue. just incredible. within the first hour i had seen that big ray, little ones, a sea turtle, and even a 4 foot shark which glided right underneath me. this was what we did all day saturday and sunday, get up eat a light breakfast, pack lunch for later, jump in the car and drive around the cape to the reef, snorkeling all day. what a life. also saturday we saw our first kangaroos, there were about 20 of them (a group of roos is called a mob) chillin the shade by a small lake by the beach. so cool, especially when they took off running, or jumping rather.

thursday night and to a lesser extent the other nights as well there were huge lightning storms (heat lightning?) off in the distance inside of banks of massive clouds, so most nights we would sit outside, have a few drinks, and watch the show.

other interesting things:
>i think it was sunday night we decided to drive up the range that divides the cape (which made us drive up and around to get to the reef rather than straight across every day) to a lookout to see the sunset. i was "lucky" enough to get to drive... picture this: you are in a toyota corolla with 6 people crammed into it, driving up a mountain on a seemingly one way dirt road (when in fact it was two ways), several hundred foot drop offs on either side with just a tiny metal rope lowly strung across the sides. it was extremely stressful and the lookout kinda sucked but coming back down as the sunset turned into twilight was worth it. one of those deals where it was scary at the time, but funny to think about now.
>in the grocery store i wanted to buy a gatoraide. there was a high school aged employee standing behind the register texting on his phone. after waiting awhile i asked "uhh can i buy this?", seemingly noticing me for the first time he said he would go get someone. great, thanks for your help. a woman came over to ring me up and exasperated with the younger guy, looks at me, rolls her eyes, and said "those damn kids". haha i thought to myself, geez do i really look that old??
>sunday morning we ventured over to the little catholic church for mass before going out to snorkel. it was a very interesting mass. a tiny tiny little church, the priest was straight out of poland with a very thick accent. apparently they come up from the bigger town of carnarvon several hours away for mass on sundays. most of the church goers seemed to be tourists, not too many catholics in exmouth. not surprising as there wasn't too many of anyone in exmouth!

we left early monday morning to head back. it was weird realizing that i was thinking of freo as home, it really hit me then i was a far way from my real home but for the time being fremantle was what i was familiar with, what i knew.

there is probably a lot i am forgetting about that trip, as it was two weeks ago but we are leaving for our midsemester break field trip in 40 minutes so that will have to do.
real quick, not much happened happened since then, just the usual classes, reading, and going out. the coolest thing was going to my first real footy game. i had gone to a preseason one earlier but this was the real deal. my Aussie friend Sara took me and we met up with her friend and that girl's boyfriend. the friend's parents were members of the club (read: season ticket holders), which meant all four of us got in for free! it was the Fremantle Dockers' home opener and they played the Hawthorne Hawks, who had just annihilated Melbourne 120something-40something in their last game. surprisingly, the Dockers kept it close and even pulled within a point in the 3rd quarter before eventually losing by 18 or so. it was really exciting and it was great that i could follow it and knew the rules from the practices for our study abroad team.

ok time to pack for Broome! next post will be about our time in the Aboriginal community.
cheers

Lancelin Surfing Trip (out of song lyrics)

2008-03-15T10:45:00.007+08:00

...click on the photos to expand them...

A few weekends ago we went to a weekend surfing camp up to Lancelin, which is about 2 hours north of Fremantle/Perth. For only $180 we got two days of instruction, all meals, and even sunscreen. 8 of us US students went in a group, 6 domers and 2 girls from Sacred Heart who live in our dorm. There were also a collection of Brits, Irish, Swiss, and a German. We had to get picked up at 6:30am saturday morning, which was terrible as some of you know i am by no stretch of the imagination a morning person. we arrived at our destination after picking up the europeans in Perth and driving for around 2 hours. The drive was fun, as we finally were out in the bush. It was a mix of completely brown dead looking grassy pasture, and exotic looking shrubbery. We may or may not have seen our first kangaroos, as it looked like a herd of them were in a field off in the distance but they were so far away that they might have been farm animals instead. actually on the way back we saw one for sure, but it was roadkill. Apparently kangaroos are pests, the equivalent of deer back home, getting hit by cars and eating people's gardens.
Anyways we finally got there roughly around 9, applied sunscreen and zinc (a very aussie form of sunscreen... it comes in neon colors in a stick and you put it on your nose for extra protection), got issued our boards and rashies (rash guards) and wetsuits to those of us who wanted them and hit the beach. There was a really bad smell around the whole area which was most likely due to the mounds of seaweed washed up on shore but luckily we walked about a mile down the beach to get to the sandy non-smelly part. We got some instruction, some of which i knew already from surfing in hawaii, and some of which was actually very helpful. We then went out to try our skillz and then the fun began. With the new tips that i got combined with my prior, albeit brief, experience i found it to be so much easier than in hawaii. I stood up on one of the first waves i caught and i think i was the first one in the group to get up. After that we had morning tea, which was just a snack of fruit and granola bars to keep our energy up. The main instructor came over to me and had me switch to a shorter board bc he said i needed to challenge myself more, which of course made me feel special. He took me and another guy (an Irishman who surfs in Ireland a lot, go figure) out to the back of the lineup (past where the waves were crashing) to try and get the really big waves. It was a lot harder but it was cool to get a wave right when it was cresting and surf down the front of it. But then i would wipe out and get thrashed around underwater which wasnt cool. Then we had lunch, a classic Aussie sausage sizzle.
That afternoon they drove us inland to a massive sand dune area where we attempted sand boarding, which was basically snowboarding but with sand. The scope of the area was just massive, there was acres and acres of massive dunes like the one in the picture and they formed a sort of bowl in the middle of them all. people were riding dune buggies and motor bikes all over them. apparently scenes from the famous movie Gallipoli were filmed there. also, further down there is a section fenced off that the aussie military uses as a bombing range and also for war games. our instructor, Phil (one of the coolest guys around), told us that when US aircraft carriers come by on their way to the port they launch jets that are allowed to bomb there also. i really hope i get to see an aircraft carrier, he said its so big it looks like its own island city out on the water. the rest of the day was ours to do with as we pleased so while most of the europeans stayed back at the camp we went back out surfing to get our money's worth and came back right as the sun was setting. we all pitched in to make a dinner of spaghetti bolonese and salad which was amazing. after that we sat around and hung out, drinking a few beers and looking at the stars which were absolutely incredible. i've been out in the country in ohio and thought there were a lot of stars there, but that can't hold a candle to what we saw that night. I really can't describe it but it was just incredible to see millions of stars, it was more intense than a planetarium. there was a certain part that was packed more tightly with stars that ran across the whole sky, it was like we were peering out into the galaxy. we slept outside in swags, which are very aussie; they are traditionally what workers out in the bush slept in, basically just a canvas sack that you put your sleeping bag in.
sunday we got up early around 8:30 and surfed until around 2 with breaks for morning tea and lunch. i did really well that day, riding a few reallly far in; one i got out in the back and took it literally all the way in, it had to be around 100 yards. one time murph and i caught one and rode it standing side by side for around 60 yards, which was sick.
that's about all ive got on the surfing trip, it was a great time altho my feet, knees and hands got really torn up and i screwed up my elbow. we got back to freo around 5pm, ate dinner, and passed out from such a tiring weekend.

originally i was going to post about surfing last week but i never got around to it (oops), so now ive gotta throw in a little about this past weekend. there was a huge concert in the esplanade (the park across the street), the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival. it was a 2 day deal with multiple stages but the tickets were 125AUD for a one day pass, so i passed on that. luckily we could watch from the roof so i got to see OAR saturday morning and then sunday night we grooved to John Fogarty of CCR. it was exciting to have music and people around all day, and since we are so close you could hear it no matter where you were in the dorm, but its nice to have some peace and quiet for once.
this past sunday the our RS's organized a bus trip to caversham wildlife park. it was great, we got to feed kangaroos, pet koalas, and hold a big fat wombat. i'll post pictures eventually but as of right now it looks like there is a 5 pic limit.
thursday morning we are taking off for our easter holiday trip to the ningaloo reef and coming back monday so my next post will be all about that. sorry its been so long between posts, i know you are all craving to hear from me haha

Early Update

2008-03-06T14:50:00.005+08:00

first off: your lack of facebook has forced me to do this on a public forum, sooo HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY JONAH BAUTISTA!! we'll celebrate both of our bdays at college park come august... not as good as last year's joint bday hawaiian bbq at north plains beach or wherever but it'll have to do

now that that's taken care of, a few updates... earlier this week dan and i joined the local footy club for only 30AUD. we are now card carrying members of the South Fremantle Bulldogs. yesterday we both utilized our membership for the first time. he lifted and i did a lot of running around the oval (field), which is realllly big. i did all that running b/c i realized i was out of shape after we played the australians in american football, or gridiron as they call it here, on wednesday. The Friendship Cup is a series of sporting events throughout the semester between aussie and american students. Unfortunately Dan and I were the only American guys who knew about this first event, so the teams were about 14 really athletic australian guys against dan and it, several US girls, and some aussies that the athletes didnt want on their team. needless to say it was quite a mismatch... but we pulled out with a tie so it was a moral victory. it was funny to see them play, they set the rules in the beginning so they knew what they were doing for the most part but then they would pitch the ball forward or keep going after an incomplete pass. While I'm on the subject of football, this afternoon we have our first training session for the study abroad footy team, so that should be interesting.

Yesterday was the first cloudy day since we got here two and a half weeks ago. It was nice though, since it was not so hot. This morning (i'm writing at 7:30am) we are getting a lot of rain, there was even a little thunder and lightning. I think the change in air pressure or whatever happens when its going to rain kept me from going back to sleep, i could tell something was different even before it started raining.

well thats about it for now, i should go eat something and maybe shower before my 8:30 class. looking ahead, tonight all the study abroad guys on the footy team (dan, myself, one iona guy, and then the 15 or so guys from st. john's in MN in the other dorm) are going to go see the West Coast Eagles, Perth's AFL team, play in their big stadium after practice tonight. Then my group is getting picked up at 6:30am saturday morning to go on a weekend surfing trip to Lancelin, which should be great. Also, we booked our trip for the easter holiday last night... we are going up the coast to Exmouth to explore the Ningaloo Reef national marine park, the second best reef
in oz after the Great Barrier.

You Better Run, You Better Take Cover

2008-03-02T20:55:00.006+08:00

fremantle markets building
cottesloe beach (x2)
sunset at bather's bay in freo, 2 minutes from our dorm

This past week was the first week of class. i'm sure i've said this before but its just crazy to me that i have only a single week of class under my belt and my ND friends are home for spring break. madness.

anywho before i talk about classes i have to say that last weekend we went to cottesloe beach for the first time. its off the train between freo and perth and def worth the ride, no need to describe it, just look at the pics! that night we went to metro's back in freo. it was different, as so far we have just gone to bars and pubs, but this was a legit club with techno, strobes, neon lights and what not. it's pretty funny to watch australians dance; in the states guys just kind of dance with a girl or not at all, whereas here its perfectly acceptable for a bunch of guys to dance with each other in a group, which is very humorous to all of us. the club experience was, well, an experience and i prefer the more low-key bar scene i must say.
sunday we went back to the fremantle markets. they are open on weekends and i feel like it will become a sunday routine to go there. i did a lot better, buying apples, carrots and bell peppers which pretty much serve as my only side dishes throughout the week. (i also did a lot better at the super market this week getting deli meat and cheese and eggs, pasta and all that good stuff... i think i'm liking making my own meals) i also got the same delicious cheap malaysian plate of food at the markets. playing music or singing or whatever in the street for money is socially acceptable here and is called "busking". its odd to see a couple of really well dressed guys doing it, but i like it. on our way back from the market we saw a guy dressed as a pirate climb 15-20 feet up a pole and eat a flaming sword on top, it was nuts.

i was just scratching my head now and i realized ive had sand in my hair for at least a week now. it wont come out and probably is there to stay!

so classwise i am taking australian literature, strategy and security in asia, aussie theatre and cinema, early church history, and australian history and society. classes are 2 hours often followed by a 1 hour tutorial so i usually have 3 straight hours of a class which i really hate. it allows the professors to ramble off course often, which makes it difficult to discern what is important and what isn't. also although we get a short break halfway through each class sitting that long really irritates my back. the first week of class really wasnt bad, tho, just a lot of course outlines and professors pounding proper citation rules and sources into our heads. i feel like australia is just coming on board with using proper accredited academic sources, since it was all old news to us but it seemed like it was a new thing for the australians since they were stressing it so much. first week was pretty uneventful, we still went out most nights since we weren't doing anything in class. i do have two 8:30 am classes so once the course work sets in i'll be staying in those nights! one noteworthy thing during last week getting "middies" at the Orient wednesday. middies are like half-pints, i would guess, and the Orient, the on campus bar, has afternoon specials on them so some of us went up there one afternoon and just sat at the sidewalk tables taking it easy. these two old guys behind us started talking to us, one was english and the other irish. both had been in australia for over 30 years. they talked to us for awhile about anything and everything. the irishman quizzed us on us state facts and told us about ireland and stories from when he was in the RAF (royal air force). he oncer flew a plane under the golden gate bridge and at one point in the cold war they were "seconds away" from taking off on their bombing runs before the order was cancelled. it was really interesting to hear his stories and he was a funny guy so it was good fun to joke around with him.

this past friday night we took the train into perth and walked up to the part of it called northbridge which is a good spot for nightlife. it was a girl's 20th birthday here so she picked a club called geisha house... again not my scene but there were a few aussies there who were clearly on some type of pill and in a trance so it was really funny when bridget and i went out there and tried to dance like them. on the walk to northbridge i had a close call with an aboriginal. we were walking past a group of them in a pretty well lit area just across the street from the pub district when a younger guy came up and grabbed my shirt, spun me around, got in my face, and started yelling things at me like "listen up, f__ing wanker!" another of them pulled him away pretty quick but it really caught me off guard... another example of the racial tension simmering under the surface over here.

ooh also friday i went to my first australian rules football (aka footy) game. there is a large group of american guys from st. johns in minnesota staying in another dorm and they joined the local footy club (all sport teams are "clubs" that have club houses and stuff that anyone can join... they are basically social clubs that field a team. even the major league teams are clubs). dan and i, along with another port lodge guy from iona, met up with them and took in the first game of the season for the south fremantle bulldogs, which are in a semi pro league. the game is most easily described as a cross between soccer and rugby, its really crazy. we are going to join the club... for only $30 we get access to their gym, bar, and get to learn how to play. every year the study abroad guys get taught how to play and compete as the Yankeroos... i think we are going to be training twice a week starting here soon.

saturday was a lazy day, as most people went to cottesloe beach but my friends and i took our time and just went down to south beach to relax for the day. that night we went to final showing of the fremantle film festival and watched a movie at a little impromptu outdoor theater. it was a western australian filmed movie about a nerd in college who learns shakespeare to get a girl... ive already gone into too much detail about it... it had its moments though. after that the ND girls headed back and dan and i went out with the iona students from port lodge, who are all fun to hang out with.

wooo this post is getting long but i've gotta write about today before its over... today we got up and met up with the americans staying in the P&O (another dorm) and the big group hopped on the train up to cottesloe beach for some beach volleyball organized by our RS's. the waves were the biggest they've been so far, so we did some body surfing after volleyball. i ate my first meat pie today, kind of bland, nothing remarkable but it did hit the spot. sunday is a big going-out day for aussies, so we headed up the street to partake in our first "sunday sesh" (session) at the ocean beach hotel... i dunno if i've said this yet but "hotel" = bar here. we all just grabbed a pint and hung out there before coming home for dinner, since we were all really tired. for dinner tonight i ordered my first fish and chips, about time since this is a port city after all. they were real good... and now here i am utterly exhausted and hitting the sack for some well earned rest before my 8:30am class tmr.

thanks for all the comments and updates... keep 'em coming!

Can't You Hear, Can't You Hear the Thunder?

2008-02-23T10:07:00.004+08:00

first 2 pics: notre dame australia campus
3rd pic: perth
4th pic: south beach in fremantle

Well a full week has passed down here in oz. this post might be a little disjoined as i have a lot of days to cover but hopefully i'll remember to write about all the interesting things.
a few general notes on australia after a week of observation: they say "how you going" instead of hi or what's up, when you walk in a store or pass someone on the street, its "how you going". they say cheers instead of thanks, always say no worries and sometimes say "good on ya" and i'm still trying to figure out the context of that one. on the whole aussies are very friendly, passing by the cleaning lady in the hall or standing in line with someone you are guaranteed a conversation. i'm also digging the two dollar coin and the fact that they have no 1 cent pieces.
the hardest and frankly only culture adjustment we've had to make is getting used to looking right when crossing the street. its been a real struggle to look the correct way since we are used to cars coming from the opposite direction.

unfortunately underneath all the sun and friendliness i've definitely noticed a darker side to australia. almost every homeless person you see is aboriginal and almost every aboriginal is homeless. pretty much the only time i see police are when they are hassling the homeless aboriginals, making them move on or arresting them or whatever. ive seen things get physical between police and aboriginals a few times already. i think there is a drinking problem among them also.
but lets move on to happier things such as what ive been up to the past week. we still havent started class yet. its ming boggling to realize that our friends in south bend have spring break in a week and we havent even started class yet. last week was orientation week, so our days consisted of tours and information meetings followed by the long walk or bus down to south beach followed by homemade dinner and going out. i dont know if anyone is interested but i've got to include stuff on meals, just for you mom. i had a much more successful trip to the store, bought ham, cheese, pasta, sauce, eggs, chips, sausages, burgers, maybe more but i'll do much better for myself from here on out. tmr we will go to the market and get cheap fruits and veggies from the vendors.
we've checked out a lot of the hot spots for nightlife this week since we don't have class. we've gone to a couple of the freo bars and went to a full out club last night which was different, with techno and neon lights and what not. we also took the train to the cottesloe hotel on tuesday night and went to up claremont to the claremont hotel on wednesday. they are both burbs between freo and perth... oh and the drinking age in australia is 18 so no worries, nothing illegal going on here.
One day of orientation we took a day trip to Perth, the big city a 20 min train ride away. so much to do and see there, when we get familiar with Fremantle i'm sure we will start exploring perth. one cool part of that day was the aboriginal performance. we got to see a man play the didgeridoo and saw some authentic native dancers, which was cool.
last night dan, kate, bridget, shannon, elyse and i went out to dinner at a thai food restaurant and it was really good. my dish had both curry and coconut milk in it and was deliciously spicy, creamy, and sweet at the same time. there are a lot of asian restaurants around since we are so close to asia.

that's all for now, we are going back to cottesloe today, apparently it has a popular weekend beach.

2008-02-20T16:10:00.003+08:00

kate harrington, shannon traeger, briDget blum, and elyse muratore yelled at me yesterday

also i made it so you don't have to be a google member to leave comments so if something catches your eye in an entry, leave a comment! i would love to hear from everyone

Where Women Glow and Men Plunder

2008-02-18T21:18:00.003+08:00

finished up my second full day today. someone commented on how it seems like we have been here much longer than that and i would have to agree. yesterday, sunday, we (the same general group i've been hanging out with) hit up a nicer beach than the one we went to on saturday. the old one, Bathers Bay, is really small and the sand and water isnt that great (but it is close). the new one, South Beach is about a 25 minute walk from port lodge but it is entirely worth it: white sand, and just amazing views... the water is beautiful and clear, and there are some islands off in the distance... with the sun blazing it was just gorgeous. the weather has been sunny every day here and it is hot, but there is also always a stiff ocean breeze that negates the heat. the breeze can make it a little chilly later at night but then it just feels like spring instead of summer, both of which are quite preferable to south bend in february. after the beach we came back and did whatever. two new girls came in so i helped them with their luggage. there are about 35 people in port lodge, 18 ND kids-i think- and then there are some from iona, catholic, and sacred heart. only 5 guys total, and in all of the other american dorms there don't seem to be many either. i took a nap and then we went to Little Creatures for a late dinner. little creatures is a microbrewery across the park on the harbor, another 2 minute walk. i got kangaroo shish kebabs (heavily marinated/seasoned and very tasty. the other ND guy, dan murphy, said it tasted similar to venison). they make 3 beers, a Pale Ale, Pilsner, and Bright Ale. The bright ale was the best. the place was really cool, i'll put up pictures of it and every thing else one of these days. then a few of us got some wine and hung out on the beach, as it was one girl's 21 birthday and most places were closed.
today, monday, we had our first orientation sessions, mostly tours and talks and such, then later we went shopping and exploring, walking up to the grocery, mall, drug store, electronics. caught the free orange bus back home. grocery shopping was definitely an adventure. i had frozen pizza pocket things for dinner and yes mom, i made vegetables and had an apple also. everyone is exhausted from going out the past two nights and obviously the time change and travel, so we're all just relaxing tonight. more O week events tmr, and hopefully some beach time

I Come From the Land Down Under

2008-02-17T07:59:00.001+08:00

Well I made it. The land down under. Bonus points to you if you know why I named the blog as I did. My two day travel bonanza is finalllly over. As I’m still a newbie to air travel, bare with me as I go over some of the things that stood out during my travels. First I flew out of Dayton to St. Louis. My plane was absolutely tiny: two seats per row on one side of the aisle and only one on the other. Luckily I got one of the singles. Sky Mall officially has the most random crap ever, such as a remote control car that can fit two beer cans in it. Interesting idea, but really… not necessary. My flight to LAX was pretty uneventful until we were flying into the city. It was interesting to see how close the city is to mountains, now I see why the call the show The Hills as such. Off in the distance I saw the Hollywood sign, which was pretty cool. When we were landing the people next to me asked if I was from LA which I found to be funny, I guess I’ve just got that cali look (haha). I had about 8 hours to kill in LAX so I pushed 4 chairs together and took a short nap/watched stuff on my laptop until a few hours before departure, when I went to the Quantas gate and met up with everyone else. If the American flight to St Louis was the smallest plane ever, the Quantas flight was the hugest; it had 3 sets of rows; 3 seats next to each window and a middle section of 4 seats. I’m most of you seasoned travelers don’t really care about that but too bad. The flight was terribly long (14 hours), I watched several movies and several episodes of different tv shows on the person entertainment system each passenger gets. Didn’t sleep much at all, which really sucked. Airline food SUCKS. The highlight of this flight was getting a Victoria Bitter, or VB, beer with dinner, my first legal drink. Finally getting into Sydney was a huge relief. Saw the opera house from the air. We had to go through customs, quarantine, etc so we didn’t have a whole lot of time there, but enough to get some money from the ATM (aussie money is very brightly colored with each bill a different color and also with a small see through plastic part unique to each denomination of bill which is very odd) and get a whopper meal from Hungry Jack’s aka Burger King. Next up was a 5 hour flight across Australia to Perth, which was pretty uneventful. Getting out into the fresh Perth air was great; it was in the 90s but with a really nice ocean breeze that I guess the area is famous for. A bus came and took us on a really long and circuitous route around the Perth area to Fremantle. We got room keys (my single is about 8 ft x 7 ft, no exaggerations involved. also every room is a single), dropped our stuff off and then a group of us went to the beach, which just so happens is only a 2 minute walk away. Our dorm is right by this nice open park and on the other side of that is the harbor and a bunch of fish and chip restaurants right on the water and beach is off to the right of all that. It was really breezy and windy so we didn’t get in all the way but it was nice to just relax in a completely stretched out position after all that flying. Then we came back, showered, and hit the streets of Freo. The beach group and I went out to dinner, unfortunately as it was 9pm at this time most places were packed. But we finally found a little Mexican place that could fit us downstairs. It’s really cool in that all the restaurants are open to the street with tables and chairs out on the sidewalk. Going out to dinner is going to be quite expensive as everything was around 20 AUD even at this casual place. Tried Carlton Cold with dinner, not bad. Then we walked around looking for some place to continue the evening and found some bar/club whose name I don’t know. I had to go back to the dorm and change into shoes because they wouldn’t let me in with sandals. Had another Carlton Cold and a Carlton Draught but I decided I didn’t like them that much. I was feeling realllly tired and the few beers weren’t sitting well with me for some reason so myself and a few others went back early to try and catch up on sleep. And here I am at 7:30am wide awake and writing a blog entry… I hate jet lag. That’s all for now, sorry it’s so long but I’ve got nothing to do. We have a week of orientation before classes start so that will be nice. Today, Sunday, though is still a free day as we are waiting for a few more kids to get here. We will probably go out exploring the town today and hit up the beach again at some point.