The last few days have flown by. I had class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and it's the weekend AGAIN. Crazy. There hasn't been too much going on around here, just getting into the swing of classes and such. Classes aren't too bad, just a lot of reading. No busy work like they have in the States. I have a presentation on Tuesday about the Aboriginals, so that's something I'll have to be working on this weekend. Other than it, it's been pretty low key. Tomorrow we will be going to the AFL footy game for our Australian history class, so that should be a lot of fun. I've been to one already, and it's addicting to watch. One of the girls we came with has her birthday this weekend so we will probably be doing something fun for that as well. I'm trying to cut back on the amount of money I'm spending on food! It's killing me. Nothing is cheap here, so it looks like PB&J and soup will be holding me over for awhile. Today I'm doing laundry, being lazy, and maybe going to the gym before we all go out to our usual Thursday night spot. I'll make sure to take pictures at the footy game and wherever else we go in the city. Take it easy and I'll update on the weekend soon.

For the first time in awhile the weather has actually been pretty good today. Usually it's on the colder side (high 50s, but windy), but today it felt great in the sun. Definitely shorts and a long sleeve shirt. Today was basically a waste of a day. I slept in, and then went to Nando's down the street for a chicken burger and fries. And that's about it. Not too bad of a life ya know. I feel like I'm on a reality tv show, and this is just a vacation. Except that tonight I have to do a lot of homework (mostly reading), so that puts a damper on things.

Last night we went to the Casino in the city. This place is AMAZING. It's the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere apparently, and it was spectacular. The casino is in this huge hotel called the Crown and on the weekends it's PACKED. The four guys decided to hit the roulette table and my friend Kev threw down $400 and proceeded to lose every dime of it. He put down another $50 and put most of his chips on red 23. And it came up. The payout is 35 to 1 so he won like $1100, it was awesome. My other friend Josh lost $220 in about 1 minute because he put $100 on black twice in a row and it came up red both times. I didn't drop a dime until we were leaving and I decided to put $50 on red and it hit. Then I got greedy and put it on red again and lost $50. I threw it on red one more time and it came up and I ended up walking away +$70 - not too bad right?? We went to this bar called Motlee's after and it was a great time. There was no one in there but they played American music and everyone loved it. For some reason I acted like I had won $1000, not $70. I was buying drinks for people and the whole nine yards. What an epic fail. Instead of going home up $70, I went home -$130. You can do the math. Fail.

Tonight I am going to just catch up on all my homework for the week and then watch Entourage and eat tons of ice cream. I've literally watched over 12 hours of Entourage in...2 days. It's the greatest show, and I feel like I'm actually rich and famous when I watch it. Then it's over and I "wake up" to a guy in pj's, in a tiny messy bedroom, eating chips and ice cream, with piles of homework - being a complete slob. Not exactly the glamor life, but just let me think it.

I forgot to mention one very important thing - the Buffalo Bills. I've been reading everything I can online and I'm more excited than being at a breakfast buffet. I think this team has potential (I know...we say it every year). But I think Trent is going to turn the corner this year and become a consistent, reliable quarterback for us. With TO, Lee, Josh Reed and Roscoe out there, he's going to have a ton of options (don't sleep on Steve Johnson either, I think he could be something big). With those goes on the outside, defenses won't be able to stack guys in the box, and I think our running game is definitely going to benefit. I love Marshawn and Freddie, and I'm confident Rhodes will bring something to the table for us as well. The guys in the backfield are going to be a lot fresher towards the end of games if all 3 of them are playing well.
The only thing that worries me is our offensive line, especially because the two rookies (who are projected starters) haven't signed yet. If they don't get to camp soon it's definitely going to set them back. If the O-line can protect Trent and give him time, I think he'll make smart decisions back there and we'll hopefully have a high-powered scoring offensive, something we haven't seen since the early '90s. I'll definitely be talking about the Bills more because here people A. don't know what the NFL is B. don't care what the NFL is or C. even if they do like the NFL, don't care about the Bills. So this is my only outlet to talk about them!

Anyways, hope all is well in America. Eat a juicy burger and REAL pizza for me. Cheers.

My highschool Spanish teacher told me once that after about two weeks in Spain, her dreams would be in Spanish. I didn't believe it. After last night, I believe it. They speak English in Australian, but their vocabulary is slightly different. I don't remember what my dreams were exactly, but I know for a fact that I kept saying mate, bloak, sheila, no worries, I reckon..., how are you going (meaning how are you) and cheers A LOT. I woke up and was like, "wow, that really worked." It was pretty cool.

The weekend started for me today because I don't have classes on Thursday or Friday, so I went to Subway (another meatball sub) and Coles supermarket to get bananas and peanut butter. Overall it was a pretty relaxing day - nothing special. Tonight we are going to a bar called The Nott that everyone goes to on Thursday. It should be a good time.

So embarrassing moment #1000 in Australia today. After shopping I got on the bus and the bus driver said something to me. Whenever I can't understand someone, which is most of the time, I just say "yeah yeah" and laugh. I did my usual yeah haha to the bus driver, only for the guy sitting behind him to stop me and go "I think he's talking about ya zip mate." I looked down in horror to find my zipper wide open and the whole bus staring at me and laughing. Welcome to Australia.

Classes

Today was my first full day of classes and I realized academics are going to be completely different than what I've come to know from Loyola. This morning I had an Intro to Management lecture that had over 200 kids. That's something I'm DEFINITELY not used to. I'm used to 20 students in every class where the teacher knows your life story. Here the teacher doesn't even know if I show up to class, let alone anything about me. I have one lecture for every class, and 1 tutorial. A tutorial is like a mini-class where there's anywhere from 10-30 people from your lecture class. This is where you talk about the lecture and formulate ideas for papers. Basically for every class I have one or two small papers and a final. That's a lot different from Loyola where I would have quizzes, a test every couple weeks or so, a midterm, and a final. For most of my lectures and tutorials I have friends from Loyola in them, so it definitely makes it easier. There's a ton of reading to do for every class and I'm not ready to actually have to do work! Isn't this supposed to be a vacation or something?! I wish.

Tonight I'm probably going to just go to the gym and grab a bite to eat at Subway. I'm really craving regular American food right now, but the footlong meatball from Subway will have to do. I can't complain about the fries though. I would consider myself a connoisseur of french fries, and the fries here are fantastic. They literally have them as a side for every meal, but I don't think I'll ever get sick of them. I don't know how people here are so skinny especially with all the fried food that they eat. The one problem I do have is they charge like .20 for ketchup packets! That's crazy! I NEED ketchup. So whenever we go to the Fish and Chips place, I bring my own bottle of Heinz (I think it's illegal, but don't tell anyone).

I just put up a few pictures from the ice bar and then pictures from the sanctuary. You can see those at www.australianadventure2.shutterfly.com

The Last Week

Sorry I haven't written anything in like over a week. It's been a pretty crazy, and pretty stressful couple of days. Today was my first day of classes and it still hasn't hit me that we are actually going to school here. My first class got canceled so I didn't have class until 4, and everyone from Loyola is in my 4pm class. It's about the history of Australia and we go on tons of field trips to the Outback and different parts of Australia. Today if you answered a question right, the professor gave out free beer! He'd just toss a bottle to ya, it was amazing! Completely different than in America. Tomorrow I have 3 more classes, starting at 9. I'm definitely not looking forward to it, especially my philosophy class on enviromental ethics.

THURSDAY
On Thursday we went to the Nott, which is a pub down the street that everyone goes to on Thursdays. It was awesome, and everyone had a really great time. I met a lot of guys from Australia who seemed real cool and I met my man George from Kenya too. He was a winner for sure. He's a lover of life and seemed like an all-around good guy.

FRIDAY
Everyone was a little slow to get up on Friday after a long Thursday night. The assistant coach from Loyola's womens team is in Australia for the next couple of months and she happened to be in Melbourne for the weekend. She invited me to go out wiht her and her friend Josh (this crazy Australian guy, and I mean CRAZY) to a footie game. Footie (AFL) is basically Australia's NFL. It's more of less football, rugby, soccer, basketball, hockey and every other sport combined into one. You can only kick or underhand serve the ball to someone and you can only run with it for so many yards before you either have to pass it or bounce it on the ground to keep going. If someone on your team catches a kick that's over 15 meters then no one can play defense or tackle you until go beyond where you caught it. And if you kick it between the middle goal posts it's 6 points and between the one of the left or right its 1 pt. It sounds confusing, but once you figure it out it's AMAZING to watch. I'm addicted. It's so fast-paced and the field is so big that you can see plays developing. The stadium was inside, and it was HUGE. We had $200 seats right next to the coache's box so it was awesome. After the game we went to a few more pubs where we hung out and listened to music. Overall it was a great night.

SATURDAY
On Saturday we went to a sanctuary an hour away. It was a zoo for Australian animals, and it was amazing. We saw kangaroos, dingos, koalas, tazmanian devils, basically everything Australian. We got a tour and then went to a Birds of Prey show which was awesome. The keepers would stand right above you and the birds would fly right over your head, almost hitting you! It was fantastic. Then we toured around by ourselves and got to pet and play with kangaroos. I took a million pictures, and it was amazing. The koalas were awesome because they were eating when we saw them and we were a foot away from them. The phrase "koala bears" is wrong because they aren't bears, but actaully marsupials. I finally touched a kangaroo so my life is pretty complete.

That's a quick update at what has been going on around here the last few days. The weather is still pretty cold, but the wind makes it 10X worse. When it's not windy, it's really not too bad. I am going to put pictures up from the sanctuary and also a few of what the campus and everything looks like. I'll make sure to keep on top of the blog this week too! Cheers

Australian Things You Should Know

Over the past week, I've noticed a lot of things that are completely different here in Australia. From food, to traffic, to rules and etiquette, things are different here:

-People drive on the other side of the car and the road which makes crossing the street borderline dangerous because every time I look the WRONG way. You look to the right first, not the left!
-People walk on the left side of the sidewalk, not the right. I've run into way too many people so far because I'm on the wrong side.
-Tomato sauce = ketchup, just more watery.
-Subway does not have regular mustard, American cheese = Old English, they don't have oil and vinegar and they don't know what provolone is.
-BBQ sauce is not like American BBQ, it tastes terrible and is watery.
-Chips = fries and crisps = potato chips.
-You can't negotiate with cab drivers to take more than 4 people, and you have to use the meter every time.
-They don't tip here. Not at a restaurant, not at a bar, not for a cab. If you tip them, they get real confused and just put the extra money in the register.
-Things close here EARLY. Pizza places and stores like Target close at 5 or 6 on the weekdays, MAYBE 7 or 8 on Friday and Saturday, and most things are closed on Sundays. The latest a place to eat is open till is 10, and that's like one place (Subway). Bars close really early on the weekdays, like 10 or 11, and on the weekends at around 1 or so. Buses and trains stop running at 10 and 11 on the weekdays, and a little later on the weekends.
-They don't have regular pizza here. You can't get just pepperoni, and if they have that, it's not really pepperoni. It seems that the most popular pizza is Hawaiian, and Aussie's love putting eggs on everything.
-Everything here, from shampoo to food is usually more expensive than in America. The store-brand products are usually pretty cheap actually, but if you get a name-brand item, it's usually really expensive.

Those are just a few things that are different than America. There will definitely be more things to come, and this is just a few of the things I've observed from the Australian culture in the first week.

Ice Bar

Last night we went to the city and got dinner and explored the city. We went to this Italian restaurant that was really nice. I got chicken parm which was phenomenal and better than the usual Subway we always have. Then we went to this placed called Chillll Onnnn. It's an ice bar, aka everything is made out of ice. It was $20 for 30 minutes and a free drink. They give you gloves, coats and hats too. It was crazy. The bar, all the seats, the glasses, the menu, the floor - everything was made of ice. It was pretty solid (get it, like ice is solid...ok) It was FREEZING though, and I couldn't feel my hands or feet. We left the ice bar and then walked around the city for a bit looking for a place to go. We ended up at this place called Lounge, and we all hung out, talked, and played pool all night. Every bar and restaurant has a pool table, no matter what. Whether its a carry out pizza place, or five star restaurant, they have a pool table SOMEWHERE in the building. It was a lot of fun though, and pretty cheap compared to a lot of other places we've been. Everyone got Hot chocolate with Bailey's in it, and it was awesome. It was $8, which is a lot but definitely worth it. The last train left at 11 so we stopped at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and got a few things to go. I went nuggets and fries, always a solid choice. The BBQ sauce was terrible, which really brings down the whole nugget experience. I persevered though, and fully enjoyed my first Hungry Jacks experience. Today we are just going to hang low and not do too much. I did laundry for the first time just now, and I hated it. Doing laundry just isn't for me. But it's free so it's not too bad. I'll probably go to the gym today, get Subway, and watch movies. I also got my class schedule today, and it's pretty awesome. Two on Monday, 3 on Tuesday and 3 on Wednesday and then no classes Thursday or Friday! Sounds pretty awesome to me!

Yesterday a group of us decided to go and explore the city. To get there, we have to take a bus to the train station, and then a train into the city. It wasn't too confusing, and all of Melbourne's public transportation is really clean. We had no plan when we got there, but we were looking for somewhere good to eat. We went to this place called Taco Bill's, but it wasn't open for dinner yet. With the innate ability to find brewhouses and the like from afar - something passed down from generation to generation in my family - I spotted James' Squires, this really cool brewhouse up the street. It was an awesome place, and we all ate dinner there. I went with the bacon cheeseburger, an American classic, but it was definitely different. The burger had some spices in it, but it was still delicious. A bunch of people that we went with got Kangaroo steak, and it looked and tasted phenomenal. Beers were $9.50 for a pint, but a pint here is like double the size of one in America. We stayed there for awhile, and then headed out to explore some more. We went to the Crowne Plaza Casino near the train station just to check it out. I put a $1 in the slots, got up to $1.64, and stupidly proceeded not to cash out. I lost it all. Everything. I was already spending that .64 cents in my head, and then, in a matter of seconds - it was gone. The trains and buses stop running early on Sundays, so we headed back after a few minutes at the casino.
We've decided men, and more specifically me, are terrible at taking pictures. I've put my blurry, random pictures of nothing important on www.australianadventure2.shutterfly.com. Feel free to check those out. Adios.

Pictures : The brewhouse ; A building in the city ; A KANGAROO!!! ; Those are pastels people used to draw on the sidewalk down by the water. They were amazing.

I just got back from the gym for the first time, and it was an interesting experience. Weights are in kilograms, not pounds, so I have no idea how much I just lifted. I haven't played bball yet, but they had a lot of courts and it looked pretty nice. As we were leaving, a few of us were hungry so we stopped at an eatery place on the way out of the gym. I got chicken and fries. Seems pretty counter-productive, but hey, its the weekend. Last night all the international students went to the Red Scooter, this really cool restaurant where we had an Australian bbq dinner. The food was alright - sausage, bbq chicken, and "grandma's hamburgers." It wasn't your typical hot dogs and hamburgers, which I'm CRAVING by the way, but that's okay. They had music and dancing and after watching some of these kids dance, I feel a whole lot better about having two left feet. I looked like Michael Jackson in Thriller compared to these guys! (too soon??)
I still don't feel too well so I went back after the dinner with a few others and the rest of our group went to this club for the after party. I guess it was fun, but I'm glad I came home and went to bed. We've got off until the 20th, so for the next week we are just going to be hanging out living the dream! Cheers

Thursday 7/8/09

I just got back from Pinewood for shopping and dinner. This girl Courtney from Rochester, Katie from outside Buffalo and myself went shopping at Coles and got some dinner. Shopping was crazy! Next time I go I'll take pictures of all the crazy stuff they had! We ran into a little trouble when we went to order ham and turkey. Everything is metric here, and I have NO idea what a kilogram is compared to a pound. I said to the lady "I'm not from around here, I don't know how you measure stuff so can I just like, tell you when to stop?" She laughed at me and my inability to convert kilo's to lbs, but went along with it anyways. Everything that is Coles brand is SO cheap. I feel like I got a lot of food and only spent $23. It was awesome. We were going to go to Subway, but I made the awesome decision to go with The Fish and Chippery. It was this little shop between a bakery and a Chinese place and it just sounded good. I went with the cheese burger ($3.40!), a medium chip (fries, $3.00!) and we split chicken fingers ($1.60!). It was like $8 for everything and it was AWESOME. We got so much food, and its definitely going to be a place we hit up a lot! I'm still so tired from the traveling and everything, but I'm feeling a bit better. Tonight we are going to The Nott, which is a pub that EVERYONE goes to on Thursdays. Before we go we're gathering to enjoy Goon (boxed wine). It's the drink of choice for most people here, and the cheapest too! Tomorrow we have a fancy dinner at The Red Scooter. I've havent taken many pictures yet, but I will soon. Here's the view from my room!

I'm Here!!

Three days and over 24 hours of flying time later, I've finally arrived! To say flying was terrible would be an understatement. I got the middle seat every time, and seemed surprised each time I received my terrible seat number. I should have known better that I don't have the BEST of luck with these things. We got in Monday morning Australian time, and took an hour bus ride to campus. Everyone drives on the opposite side and it's crazy to see at first! Once we got to campus, we got our room assignments, dropped our bags off, and went straight to the bank where we opened up our accounts and filled out some paperwork. It was a trek to the center of campus, and the whole campus is HUGE compared to Loyola. After that, we were free to do whatever we wanted, and everyone went back to try and set up their rooms. We decided for dinner that we were going to take the bus to Pinewood, a stretch of places to eat 2 stops down. We ended up just going to Subway because it was convenient and cheap. Interesting fact : They don't have provolone cheese or regular mustard here, and it's called Old English cheese, NOT American! I tried to go to bed early that night because orientation started at 9am the next morning! Unfortunately, I became really sick and for the next 2 days I laid in bed missing out on everything!(I've decided its either A. Jet lag B. Food Poisoning or C. Swine Flu). Tuesday and Wednesday all I did was sleep and finally today I've started to feel better. I hated Australia for the first two days, but now that I'm almost better it's starting to grow on me!