Nearly two months in

As I take a break (at 11:39pm) from researching the teeny bopper culture, while listening to O-town, I'm trying to get into the feel, I felt as if I needed to update this thing. Oh wait, Kiss - Because I'm a Girl is on now. Wow, I love my old music folder. And when I say old, I mean high school..elementary school music, the kind KaZaa and Napster provided, I digress.

Traveling wise during my stay here, it's been at the best, minimal. I've only gone on a day trip to the Great Ocean Road and a weekend at Phillip Island. I wish I could have spent more time doing the GOR but Priscilla and I needed to find a quick trip to go on.

Pictures from that trip are up on Facebook. Hmm, I grabbed the itinerary so bear with me as I try to recall just what the hell happened at each place. Our day began at 6:30am as we woke up dreary eyed on a Monday. I'm desperately trying to remember what we did the Sunday before.. but nothing's coming to mind. We walked down to Federation Square, which in itself deserves at least half a day to explore it and the Southbank area, and waited for our tour bus. We had some random South African guy take us around, his accent was so peculiar.. It was hard to understand him at times, but whatever. I was there for the views.

Bell's Beach was our first stop and then we proceeded to rush off to Torquay (surfing area - going there this Tuesday to surf actually :)), Lorne, Apollo Bay and I believe Port Campbell as well. Of ourse, we went to the Twelve Apostles, but one's fallen and erosion's been their worst enemy as each year the apostles and cliffs are being eaten away. (Eason Chan - Shall We Talk is playing now). Lunch was had somewhere, and once again, we were rushed for time. I barely had time to finish the chicken before we realized we only had 20 minutes left in the town. I ran out to take random snapshots of the beach and whatnot.




The weather was not the greatest as we got rained on at Loch Ard Gorge. Mother hell, it was brutal. One moment there were just a couple of raindrops, then within another minute we were soaked - head to toe. Our tour bus (of 15 people) smelled wonderful. We did manage to see some Koalas during our trip too, but they were really high up in a tree.

Nothing really exciting to say about the trip. It was a nice day trip and I can check off this part of Australia that I've seen. (Why - 98 Degrees is now on.. HAHA).

So, a week later I went to Phillip Island with Taylor, Mark and Fleur (who's Dutch, I don't know why she has a French name :)). We decided to rent a car for this mini adventure. Mark drove most of the time..and actually got caught for speeding, ha. He pulled the tourist card and got off with a warning, lucky guy. He was only going 20 over too, damn cops here need better things to do.On our drive there we saw signs for FREE WINE AND CHEESE TASTINGS. Of course, we went in and true to the signs, free cheese and wine. Taylor enjoys downing her wine in one gulp. Ha.

(Richie Ren is playing, only my Chinese friends will have a clue which retarded song is playing.. something about the girl next door is looking over?)

As we got onto the Island itself, another sign! Free chocolate tastings! Again, we made a quick pit stop there. The rest of the day was spent exploring the island. It took us no more than 20 minutes to go from one end to the other. It really was quite small. We went around to each lookout point our trusty map had marked. The motorcycle grand prix (or something to that extent) was actually taking place that very weekend. Mark was happy to go watch it, I didn't really feel up for it..

Loved these signs.. there were more

So, we checked into our shitastic $40/night rapage of a hostel and prepared to go into town. But not before Fleur made her move on this poor unsuspecting Dutch guy who was working there. I'm telling you, the Dutch just find eachother without even trying. (I had to fast forward Simple Plan, Savage Garden's on now, woo). Walked into town to get some Fish and Chips! Taylor said she overheard them say something was 'wrong' with my order but she didn't think much of it. The fish was great, my stomach paid for it a couple days later as I was bedridden for a good week. But I won't get into those details.

Hmm, Taylor got drunk and yelled at 14 year old girls..while carrying her bottle of wine. The rest of us were sober so walking around with a semi-obnoxious American was slightly embarrassing, but funny as hell. We bought more wine and made plans to go back into the 'city' of Cowes later on to see how their night life would be like.

Look at all them motorcyles.

Big mistake. It was the most awkward and lame night out yet. Old people were in the club and everyone was stuck up, old, stuck up, old and expensive drinks made it not very appealing. Something about seeing 30-40 year old men grinding with large ladies or young partially attractive, probably gold digging women bothers me.

Had an early night I guess as Fleur had to be up early for her surf lessons! Breakfast was included and it was decent. Went to Smith? Beach and dropped off Mark at the motorcross races. Lucky bastard ended up sneaking in for free.. Taylor and I took turns driving around the island just seeing what we could find. I swerved left many times, but I'll get better.

Picked up Fleur, had lunch, laid out at the beach, Fleur reconnected with Dutch guy who she decided to ditch later on, got Mark, and headed home. All in all, a pretty relaxing trip. The views were breathtaking and I wish I could go back (maybe I will..) and just stare out at the ocean again. Problem is, there are snakes there. I fell in love with Australia some more after that weekend.

(Robbie Williams - She's the One.. sweet song)

Okay, break time over. Have to get this essay started tomorrow and completed by Friday. Ecology prac write up is also due on Thursday.. So much work to do before my Easter break. I'll be up in Cairns and then to the Whitsundays. Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation (rainforest), ziplining through the jungle, sailing for two days, and white sandy beaches await me. I'd be more excited about it at this very moment if I didn't have school to stress over. The snorkelling and diving is what's going to make me piss my pants from excitement though. One my life goals is about to be accomplished, huzza. It's going to be so worth the $1500 I'm forking out for it. Hopefully.

And I get to go Australian bird watching this Wednesday, HAHA. That's going to be interesting. (Wave - That's How)

Only in Australia will I type "Miley Cyrus" into Google scholar. Sadly, nothing promising found. Damn.

When in Oz..

I had told myself I'd keep this blog updated consistently through my stay here. I lied. Not that I don't have the time to, just I think I've ran out of things to say. I guess I could update it daily with what I actually did each day, but that'd be too much of a Dear Diary entry, n'est pas moi.

Just a couple of random things I've noticed here a month and a half into my exchange:

• It's very hard driving on the other side of the road especially when the wheel is on the other side too. I kept swerving left, I actually had to use my side mirrors for once
• House music is very big here.. I sorta miss the mainstream top 40 stuff
• Everyone loves a Canadian
• I've spoken more French here than I have in the past 5 years, it all comes back to me with the help of bzzr
  
• I actually say "about" differently
• You can definitely burn on an overcast day, they weren't kidding about the nonexistent ozone
• Pop here is beyond expensive.. $15 for a 12 pack
• Toilet paper is also expensive
• Wine is not expensive
• No one uses the word "washroom"...
• "G'day mate" is not used that commonly actually
• Female tactics to get into clubs back home do not work that well here
• I hate the bouncers at Billboard, enough said.
• Beer is way too expensive here. $8-9/pint at clubs and bars
• I'm never going to drink wine again after this
• People don't chug, they skull
• Vancouver's weather is nothing compared to the crazy shit that can go on here
• What you pay for internet access here is a joke. I miss my fast cable..
  
• Melbourne has extremely fit people, moreso than Vancouver it seems
• Short shorts are in fact fashionable and widely accepted..even if you're fat and it causes a wedgy, or maybe not.
• There are so many smokers here. Women smokers are still a turn off
• American Idol is actually shown here, up to date too
• I'm surprisingly not homesick at all
• I HATE ECOLOGY, EVEN IN AUSTRALIA. HATE HATE HATE.
• My goal is to kill a cane toad, it's illegal to NOT kill it if you're in possession of one :) I've learned so much about the Bufo marinus.
  

I guess I'll be adding more to this list as time goes on. Until then, off to the beach I go before it gets too cold here.

This is one of the reasons why I came to Australia, you just can't see anything like this anywhere else. The picture does it no justice, the colours of the water were simply amazing, it was a breathtaking view, believe me:

Phillip Island

Livers need loving too

Currently: suffering from bout of food poisoning. Cooking congee. Blog called, update ensues.

I guess I should briefly recap Melbourne Welcome (the orientation 'camp' for incoming international students) since I probably won't remember much of it in the future.

Day 1: Woke up to rainy weather. Esther and I decided to try and wait out the storm.. we were supposed to check in at Newman College between 9-12. A lot of sitting around waiting for the rain to go away, but it didn't. So we went out in the pissing rain sans parapluie (I'm in a Français mood these days, bear with me) and checked in at the College. People here do not call them 'dorms' and instead it's a College. BBQ Lunch was interesting. There seemed to be a huge abundance of Americans, many of which seemed to know eachother. Awkward because little groups formed everywhere, but regardless, met some cool people including a guy from Lithuania.

Met our group that we'd be travelling around with for the next couple of days. Host: Kirsty. Nationality: Scottish. That was a surprise. Let's have an international student lead around more international students. Not that I minded, ha. She was cool, had a lot of energy albeit a bit.. dare I say it, confused? at certain times but in a funny way. (if you're reading this, it's not a bad thing, I swear). Went up to the Eureka Tower, this tall building in Southbank. My fear of heights were sort of conquered. Took me a while to be able to stare down at the view. Stomach was doing 2323 flips/minute. Dinner was the first of three 'formal' ones we'd be having there. I hate dressing up. That's all I have to say about it.


Wine and cheese tasting followed apres dinner. It was supposed to be classy as one would expect. It turned out to be an open bar of wine and beer with hosts running around forcing us to taste cheese. It was here that I met Taylor and Sarah, two friends I've been hanging out with quite a bit since. Effects of alcohol were .. well expected. Went out to another pub afterwards. Drank, talked, walked back, slept.

Day 2: Thankfully brunch was a bit later.. The 'rest' was much needed. We headed off to the Queen Victoria Markets. Didn't really buy anything other than food. I keep telling myself I still have a good 5 months here, I'll have plenty of time to go. Sadly, the weeks are flying by. Went to the zoo afterwards. Saw a variety of animals. Butterfly house was breath taking. Never seen anything quite like it. You go in and there are literally hundreds..thousands of butterflies just flying around. If you're lucky, they'll land on you. So many different colours and varieties. Downside was that it was in a greenhouse type place and considering the weather was in the upper 20s/30s, it was uncomfortable.

Got my first sunburn on my neck. It's still not healed. Met Mark here, Dutch guy. Along with him, T & S we went bothering the animals. Taylor's American, so she enjoys disturbing animals by yelling and clapping loudly at them. I'd attack her if I were one of those animals, like the kangaroos that almost did. Ha.
I'm still Chinese.
Cute eh?

A couple people went off to the St. Kilda Festival (district just south of Melbourne city) but I decided to stay behind for Trivia Night. Our group almost won even though another host, Jack, was giving us not so subtle hints. I hate ties, especially in summer. What else... We went to a bowling place but they were being the biggest pricks and wouldn't let us in unless we showed them our passports. Of course, barely anyone had it as it's just stupid to bring it out at night. Most of the group bailed and went to some expensive bar in Melbourne Central. I met my American drinking buddy here. (I really shouldn't be putting all of this up, whatever) We shared a jug..or two. They don't call them pitchers here. Stubbies, schooners, pints and jugs. I'm still not used to calling it that. And their jugs are way smaller. The cheapest one I've come across was $9.. most are about $11-15. Expensive.

Day 3: SURFING! Woke up at 7am. Suffice to say, I was severely sleep deprived during this whole thing. Barely ate anything. Ocean Grove. Cold, windy, bad sand, lame. Sun finally came out at noon, it made up for the initial 2 hours. Surfing is harder that I imagined. I almost, almost, got up on my feet on it. Our group's instructor was too busy flirting with a certain someone. Damn girls, they get it so easy in life. It was a good experience, and I definitely plan on giving it another go in the near future. I think I'm just too tall and heavy to get up on it. I swear. The board sinks everytime I get my knees on it. The waves were also pretty small, so it was slim pickings all afternoon.

Weather really cleared up nicely later in the day..

Turf (I think) at night. I really don't remember what exactly went on here, not because of intoxication, (I had good control this entire weekend) but because my memory's failing me. Oh wait, I went on a mission. Mission: failed. OH, right, and we went to a park. T, S, M and I met possums and Alanah. Alanah is a psycho. "TEXT ME. CALL ME BACK PLEASE" Freak show. We didn't recycle the bottles though. Whoops.

Day 4: Went on the Yarra Boat Cruise. The Yarra River runs through the city of Melbourne, really nice actually. Was a hot day, got tired. Took many pictures like the tourist I am. No shame at all. Lunch at the Crown Casino Buffet. They were still in the Chinese New Year mode, so there was a fair number of Chinese-inspired dishes. The siu mais were disgusting. Chocolate pudding cake was incredible. Never had anything quite like it. I'm already drooling for it. I also learned from a certain someone people in Australia are like us back home with Sharpies and sleeping individuals after a night out. I had a good laugh. Headed back to the College early (missed the afternoon tours..couldn't be bothered) and tried to just relax and prepare for the last dinner. A formal one complete with a white shirt and black tie.

This was painful to watch. We were at Federation Square waiting around for the cruise in the morning. I was the only loud obnoxious Canadian around I think cheering on Mike Robertson.. I could not believe the American overtook him in the final couple of turns. What the hell. I was so sure he'd win too with his lead.. Doesn't matter though, 14 golds this Olympics, straight into the record books.

Arrived late for the pre-dinner drinks at the pond for other reasons. Dinner was pretty good. I tried so hard not to laugh during Grace. Newman is a Catholic college, sorry, but I'm anything but religious.


Puggs + Bimbos at night. That echo room was neat. Compared the different vegetation BC and Tasmania has with these guys. I think BC wins.

Day 5: Good bye Newman. Packed, ate half a banana and left.

Even though the program cost quite a bit the friends and experiences I had there made up for it. I couldn't imagine how my life in Melbourne would be like without this. Even though one of my main goals was to try and befriend some locals, making new international friends is just as worth it. If anyone is going to go on exchange and such an orientation program exists, I'd highly recommend that they do it..even if it means living like you're in first year again.

This post got long very quick. I'll leave it at here for now. The other events of the week and weeks following are not meant to be publicly talked about at this moment.

After Melbourne Welcome Priscilla came and visited. Elaborate on that another time. I still need to find some way to properly celebrate Canada's gold medal in hockey.. Je veux des Canadiens maintenant s'il vous plaît.