Good Luck Kelley!!

These are just a few pictures over the last few days from my window in my room. I love them.

Just talked to my grandma and Aunt Dorthy on skype. Great times. They looked phenomenal. I'm starting to pack for this weekend, should be a great time. We are leaving early tomorrow morning for penguin island and are staying until Sunday night. There are 12 of us going so we rented a huge van which should be fun. We also rented a house on the beach that has 10 bedrooms, 6 couches, a big kitchen, a game room, a pool table and an outdoor patio for grilling for only $30 per person for the whole weekend. Sounds amazing, almost too good to be true right? We'll see, but I'm definitely excited for this weekend.

Just booked my tickets for Sydney in October so that should be good too. The next month is going to be pretty crazy in terms of traveling and school work, so I'll have a lot to talk about for sure.

My sister just moved into Loyola this morning. Talk about CRAZY. Where'd the time go? I feel like it was just yesterday that we were playing in a sandbox acting like our favorite Disney characters (even though I still do that). My parents now have an empty house, no one to yell at, no dinners to make and no one to drive to sports practices. How the time flies. I just can't believe she's starting college, at MY school, WITHOUT me! Crazy.

If my timing is right, they probably just finished moving all her stuff in (which I'm sure is 10X more than I had and 10X more than she'll need). I can see it now - my dad is drenched in sweat, my sister is embarrassed by her parents (like everyone else always is) and my mom is on the verge of tears. Oh how grown up I feel. Wasn't it just yesterday that I started college? And now it's more than half over? ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN KELLEY. It'll fly by, trust me.

Just finished my homework for my marketing class tomorrow morning. I Went food shopping today for the rest of this week and also hit up Subway and this new bakery that just opened. The owner was this old lady who was SOUPED on America - she loves everything about New York! She asked a bunch of questions and was retelling old stories from her last two visits ('79 and 06'). We talked with her and another lady for a long time actually and it was pretty cool. My friend Mike got a canoli, which was apparently great, and I went with a chocolate eclair. It was real good. Definitely gonna be back there a lot.

A couple of my friends just got back from Sydney and said it was amazing. Better than Melbourne and the weather was gorgeous too. I'm looking forward to go sometime soon. We were going to go this next weekend, but instead we're going to Phillip (Penguin) Island. It's where all the penguins are supposedly. We rented a 12 person van and it's about a 3 hour drive to get there so it should be a lot of fun. We're going Fri-Sun, but don't QUITE have a place to stay yet so I think we're playing it by year. That's always fun.

My cousins Danny and Bridget (both great humans)had asked me for the website to this blog. I had to type out this whole long address and I thought to myself, 'wow this is stupid. Why don't I just shorten it up?' I did, and in doing so found out it would just be borderline inappropriate to change it - wwww.connorsAA.blogspot.com - Not quite what I was looking for!

I listened to the Bills-Packers game this morning. I'm half way around the world and the Bills STILL somehow make me want to throw things. They were terrible. It was hard to even LISTEN to (and I can't imagine watching them). Yeah I know it's preseason and the games don't mean anything, but C'MON, at least put SOMETHING productive together. They had turnovers on 3 of their first 4 possessions! The offense hasn't found the end zone in 3 games now. Show me SOMETHING! I love the comments after the game: "Turnovers hurt us. We can't do that to ourselves. It kills drives and momentum. We won't win football games like this." REALLY. I would have never guessed. I don't hate Dick Jauron, I actually like him a lot. But he reminds me exactly of my doctor..who's 80..and a doctor. GET MAD!! THROW SOMETHING!! YELL AT SOMEONE!!! HIT SOMEONE! THROW A CHAIR AT TRENT! POUND THE PODIUM! DO ANYTHING TO SHOW ME YOU'RE ALIVE!!
It's preseason so no big deal. We beat the Steelers last year in preseason and then they won the Superbowl. But every year we say 'Oh it's just preseason, it means nothing. This isn't how they'll really look when the season starts.' And every year they stink.

You play how you practice, and the Bills looked terrible in practice today.

I told you they make me mad.

Video

Gonna try this video thing - we'll see how it works out. Kinda boring, just me talking but that's okay. I'll try to spice it up a little bit for the next one. I say phenomenal like 12 times, I don't know why, so don't judge me. Cheers!

Great(est) Ocean Road

It's been a pretty crazy week so far. It's Thursday night here, and the week just blew by. I had a dream last night that I woke up and I was heading back home already, it's crazy! I've only got a few months here left, and I feel like we just got here. This past weekend was crazy and such a great experience. I put pictures up from the trip already. I know there's like 300 of the exact same thing, but we went a lot of different places and I always tried to get the BEST picture so I took tons of them. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about the trip and the past few days, but everyone is getting ready to go out for the night so I must get going. But I'll update real soon.

War Memorial and Botanical Gardens

Just got back from a LONG but great day in the city. Just threw in some laundry (aren't you proud Mom!), and now I'm going to try to bang out a paper before I got to bed. We leave at 7:45 AM for the Great Ocean Road trip which should be awesome. The one problem I have is that I've been putting my dirty clothes in my Nike duffel bag because that seemed so smart and space-saving. False. Now the bag that I need to take on this trip REEKS of high school locker room. Great.

Today was pretty amazing as the weather was awesome (upper 60s and sunny) and we got to see some great stuff in Baltimore. Also I was the only guy that went, aka like 15:1 girl to guy ratio. Winner = Me. Anyways, we got up at 10 and took the train to the city where we met one of our teachers for our Australian history class. This wasn't a mandatory trip, but it sounded fun. We took a tram to the WWII memorial and it was awesome. It reminded me A LOT of Washington and being on the mall for some reason, probably because there were a lot of runners and it was pretty peaceful. We went into the memorial where they have a big plaque on the ground that says "Greater Love Hath No Man," and the sun beams down on the word "love." There was a balcony on the top of the building that we went to and you could see the whole city and I think the ocean (I don't know what one it is though).

We then walked over to the Botanical Gardens and went on a tour of Aboriginal history. Our leaders were these two crazy guys who were of Aboriginal decent and had some crazy stories. The one guy Brian was taken from his family at 2, and basically has had a hard and difficult life ever since. He was addicted to drugs and alcohol and after 30 years finally found his sister and brother. Him, his mother and his siblings don't get along, so he basically has no family connections. He was a real interesting and great guy though. They took us through a miniature version of what would be "the bush." We ate plants, hugged trees, and drank tea made from plant leaves, and used the land like the Aboriginals do. The land is considered very sacred and the walk was somewhat spiritual as well. One guy was chosen to be our "spiritual leader" and two girls were chosen to bang on sticks to let the Gods know we were there. The pictures I took (which are again very manly, poorly taken photos) don't do this place justice. It was beautiful and all the different trees and plants were amazing.

After the walk we went to a cafe to get some food and then headed home. Overall a success day I think. I've finally spiced up this poor-lookin' blog by putting a few pics on here, but the rest are at www.australianadventure2.shutterfly.com. I'll have pictures and stories from this weekend when I get back!

Official Announcement - "I'm Sorry"

Today is probably the best day here so far. Not a cloud in the sky, and it's in the upper 60s. Good enough for me. Today starts the weekend for me so nothing much on my schedule. Today is going to be a laundry day which I'm DREADING. Mom I need help. KIDDING! But only one dryer works, and my clothes never seem to dry so it's a long, painstaking process. Today I'm probably going to go to the gym and then a bunch of the boys are going to get their haircuts at some place up the road. Hopefully it isn't too expensive. I've got some essays to do too before I leave tomorrow.
I talked to my Aunt Ann last night for the first time, she was great. Warned me of every dangerous creature to ever exist in Australia. Thanks Aunt Ann!
I also tried to teach my grandma how to use skype. Interesting to say the least. I could see them and hear them, but they could only see me, not hear me. So I tried writing things on paper and putting them up to the camera. Never quite worked out though.

I just wanted to officially announce that I've ended my relationship with the meatball sub from Subway. It was tough, neither of us wanted to see the other go, but by spending so much time together, we found out who we really were. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all her. But towards the end she put in a few lackluster performances (ex. she started to wear less and less cheese, and I just can't do that to myself). I felt I was putting in more effort for this relationship than I was getting out, so I had to call it off. But I'm going to be real with you - there were some other factors involved, and I blame myself completely. I said to her, "I love you, I really do. We've spent some of the best and worst days of our lives together. Like that one morning when I felt really sick, you were there for me. And that other time when I had you, a large bowl of french fries and a full bottle of ketchup, that was one of the happiest days of my life. But I can't do this any longer. I can't even look in the mirror at the person I've become. I've cheated on you with Chicken, Bacon, BBQ." We haven't talked since.

I'm trying to procrastinate from doing work because I have so much to do! Well not really, but it feels like a lot. I have two essays due Wednesday and one due Tuesday, but I already did the one for Tuesday. On Friday I am going on an Aboriginal Heritage Walk and then Saturday morning we leave for Great Ocean Road, so I need to do all my work NOW. I just tried to call my Aunt Ann because I know she's worried about me, but she didn't answer which put a damper on my night, but that's okay. The weather has been pretty crazy here. It will be thunderstorms and pouring one minute, and then it will be blue skies and no clouds 15 minutes later. Pretty crazy! I think we are going to Sydney in 2 weeks which should be a lot of fun. Flights are $30 each way right now, so it hopefully will be a cheap trip! We are probably going to book them tomorrow which should be good. Okay well I need to get back to work and stop procrastinating !

The weekend has flown by, and the next few weeks are packed with things to do. On Thursday we went to the Victorian Market which was amazing. I got an unreal breakfast for $6, and a fantastic, huge smoothie for $5. The guys bought cheap cigars for a celebratory occasion sometime, and I brought a few t-shirts and such for people at home. They have over 1000 vendors, and they have anything you can possibly think of. On Saturday I guess it's even crazier, but it was still a lot of fun. We spent a few hours there and then walked around the city a bit before we headed home. The last few days I've really just laid low and tried to rest up. I've watched a lot of movies and spent a lot of time outside shooting around. The weather is starting to warm up a lot which I'm really excited about.

I realized by blog looks real bland and dreary because I haven't taken any pictures lately, but trust me I'll have many soon. I ended up not going to Sydney this past week because it was too last minute and no one would commit to actually going. Today through Thursday I have a mountain of work because all of my midterm papers are due next week. This Friday we are going on a historic walk around Melbourne for one of my classes so that should be really cool. And then Saturday morning we leave for the Great Ocean Road which is the southern coast of Australia. We are going surfing and hitting the beaches so it's gonna be a great experience. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures to liven up the blog. Everything else has been pretty normal, nothing too crazy to report. I just watched Bruce Smith get inducted into the Hall of Fame live online and it was awesome. Highlight of my day for sure. Tomorrow the Bills play their first preseason game so that should be fun to listen to. I might wake up early to listen to it, we'll see. Once I get through these papers it will be a good feeling. I'm going to try to go work on them now, but I'm dreading just thinking about it!

I just sat down from a good workout at the gym, and a shower is VERY much needed soon. It's been awhile since I've updated the blog, sorry about that. My to-do list is long, and my motivation is short. That's basically the root of all my problems right now! Friday night we went to another footy game, and I went to go turn on my camera - dead battery. Just my look. I guess my camera was sick of it being used for terrible pictures. At least that's what all the girls here told me. The game was fun though. I had a "superdog," basically a footlong but not as good, and some french fries. After the game we walked around for awhile and then came home. The next two nights I stayed in and watched movies and caught up on rest because we always seem to be doing something here!

I'm 2/3 of the way through classes this week and it feels good. I had a presentation about Indigenous Australia today and I don't wanna say I killed it, but I did. It was pretty good.

At dinner the other night a few of us were talking about how we really haven't done anything CRAZY. Like yeah, we go to the city, go to bars, saw a few kangaroos, a footy game, but nothing that you couldn't do in the states (minus the 'roos). So we decided that maybe we should just go to Sydney, so tomorrow night I might be heading there. Its only 1:30 plan ride, and tickets were $88 roundtrip. If you book for October they were $40 roundtrip! Crazy. So we still haven't decided if we're going, but it's a strong possibility. I have a friend from Rochester who is going to school in Sydney and she has a big house and said we could crash there for a few days. That would definitely save us a lot of money too. It feels like we are in a different city, like Chicago, not a different COUNTRY. We are in the outskirts of the city, so it's just like a big city atmosphere. When you think of Australia, most people think of beaches, kangaroos, the outback - NOT the city. So it's a different experience than I thought, but I like it. Once the weather gets warmer, there is a beach that is about a 30 minute bus/train ride away so we will probably be going there a lot.

I'll make sure to try and update this a lot more!