A flood and a tipped caravan..

Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Yes, I am that behind on my updates.. bah.

Went back to the hostel after our day in the GBR. The rain came back.. as expected. We went to Woolworths (the Australia equivalent of Safeway.. I believe it's owned by the same company) and bought pasta..wait I think I already mentioned that. Okay nvm.
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Arrived at hostel, dinnered, and checked the weather for tomorrow. Things weren't looking too great for us as tours were once again flooded out. We would know tomorrow if it would actually run.. The night was weird as I didn't really feel like consuming any beer for fear of deadly morning after-effects (even though I am not usually prone to hangovers) but these brothers from Minnesota were quite the characters. Ended up having a good 'ol fashioned fight over which country is better, USA or Canada. Suffice to say, I lost as other Americans decided to chime in.. S'alright though, met some cool English people who arrived with 16 others. Meanwhile, Taylor and French boy were playing cards. Heh.

Morning came, rain continued..and we were told our tour would run! Even though they warned us the river was probably still too high, but we wouldn't know for sure until we got there. We sprayed on 40% DEET insect repellent. This stuff is literally deadly. It chokes you but definitely helped. Our tour guide was.. I'm going to call him Tom.. and was interesting to say the least. He constantly said "No worries" in the most Australian accent. Hard to describe, but definitely something I took back from the tour as he would say it no matter what happened, good or bad. We went to one of the rainforests and walked through it. Water levels there were extremely high and the rivers looked deadly if you fell in. The currents were extremely fast.

We approached the creek that would determine if we could make it across to Cape Tribulation.. anddd........... no go. Too high. We got out and just stared at our failure. We soon learned our company was actually the only one that departed on this day.. A bit dodgy if you ask me as they probably knew we wouldn't get across and since we chose to go on it anyways, no refund. Ah well.. I guess it's their way of ripping us off and making a nice profit. We were sort of disappointed I guess.. but we did get to go into a wildlife sanctuary where we saw cassowaries, wallabies/kangaroos (I can't tell), birds, CROCODILES (there are no alligators in Australia, remember that), and a Golden Orb Spider which was scary as. Size of my hand.

The crocodiles were definitely scary. 'Tom' threw a rock into the water and the largest one in the sanctuary (I think he said it was 6 metres? long) would attack it as it was hidden beneath all the vegetation in the water. Taylor has a video, hopefully she'll post it. The rain was coming down pretty good on us but by now, I really didn't care. I accepted the fact I'd be wet the entire day. Such is life in Australia.

So, we were disconnected from civilization literally as there was no cell phone reception where we were. We stopped by an ice cream factory and had some decent freshly made cream of the ice. Oh right, there was also no 'electricity' that connected to Cairns. Every place had their own generators and such, sort of alarming as I was not used to this. So we were told instead of the original hostel we were going to be at (where it was between a beach/rainforest type thing..so choked) we'd be at Crocodylus. We had heard about this place from the brothers and they were spot on with their description of it: No locks. Must buy their food. Dingy. Right in the middle of the rainforest. I will say though, in retrospect, this was definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been in. Basically burned an entire day there (1pm onwards..). Happy Hour would start at 7pm.. and we were ALL looking forward to that.

The owners are a couple and they asked if any of us wanted a free dinner in exchange for a shift in the kitchen that night helping out. I jumped at it as did Taylor and we were basically the kitchen bitches for an hour. I washed dishes as they came (we weren't allowed near the food..) and basically washed for an hour. Whatever, I got a huge roast chicken meal out of it and I was satisfied. Nothing compared to what White Spot could be. Happy Hour was much welcomed and our group just chilled with Steve, Tobias, and this guy from LA. Certain people got progressively intoxicated as there was literally nothing else to do there. The lady owner also got crazily drunk.. She was screaming and talking nonsense once it was about 11pm? I don't even remember. We stayed up and talked (I don't remember what anymore) and called it a night when our bodies gave up.

I tried to spot for cane toads (as I want to kill one of those suckers..) but no luck. THe walk back to our cabin was freaky though. Picture a barely lit rocky path in the middle of a rainforest with 256 different noises of the nightlife going off.. I always walked really quickly. The ambiance the noise created was surprisingly manageable.

Woke up to SUNLIGHT. Oh bloody hell, it was sunny. I took pictures of the morning rainforest and it was great. We paid for a transfer to get across the river today (it finally subsided) and proceeded to go zip lining through the jungle! Jungle Surfing was definitely a new experience as we zip lined over the trees and learned about the different vegetation/history of the place. How they managed to build the entire thing was incredible as there is no solid ground/area for machinery. We were with a couple who was on their honeymoon, aw.

After jungle surfing we just walked around Cape Tribulation as we waited for our afternoon pickup from the company. Nothing much to do.. the internet was down everywhere as Sandy and I tried to find a place that had it. Saw a dead cane toad (yes!) and the heat got progressively worse. Finally got picked up, ate crackers/dip for lunch and went back to Crocodylus to get others. We went on a river cruise and spotted some wild crocs, snakes, and random birds. Our guide on the way back was Baz, he had a great sense of humour. Australians I find never run out of things to talk about..and it's all interesting too as they have a different take on life than North Americans.

I fell asleep as the tour went through the luxurious parts of Queensland where a night at some of the resorts could cost you $10 000+. Toook some nice pretty pics (many of which my camera decided to delete on its own..) and went back to Cairns. I decided to go to Airlie Beach (Whitsundays) this night alone as I didn't really want to waste another day in Cairns just doing nothing as the girls had skydiving the next morning.

I sort of wish I stayed in Cairns as a group of Canadians I met on the shuttle to the greyhound station were going out and we hit it off for our love of hockey. Ah well. The bus ride was ... interesting. I purposely sat on the outer seat and made myself as FAT as possible hoping no one would sit next to me. It worked :). I had an entire two seats to myself and the ride became instantly 10x more comfortable. Stopped numerous times during the 11 hour trip at random expensive pit stops. $4 candy bars, drinks, water... $13 sandwiches with bugs lurking around it.. Not the most appetising. Finally got to Airlie by noon and checked into the hostel. It was scorching hot here. Finally. I spent the day just chilling out by the lagoon and worked on my tan. It was great. I needed a day to myself and it was good to just get away from everything for a day.

Hostel room was a bit weird as the people there were all from a sailing trip so everyone sort of knew eachother and they were all going to their respective after-parties. I did meet a Scottish girl there and we went down to the bar later to watch some live music. Again, quiet night as I didn't know any of the people there and I was feeling a little tired.

Tomorrow would be the final adventure of this trip as I would go on a 2day/2night sailing trip! The weather called for perfect conditions so I was ecstatic..

Alright, post too long, continue soon. Need to write about Tasmania after this too..

Update!: Great Barrier Reef

I don't know why I've been so lazy in updating this thing, but I guess I'll stop being so lackadaisical. Even though it's been over a month since I went on my epic Easter trip, I should write about it. On the plane ride back I had written every little random thing I could possibly think of into my planner. Thank god I did that or else half my irreplaceable memories would have been lost.

Before departure

Right, so landing in Cairns it was raining. It rained for a good four days straight, in hindsight I suppose it wasn't that bad, but during the downpours I certainly felt like shit. Cairns is a city where it's a total Backpacker's city and more of a gateway to all the adventure activities (white water rafting, horseback riding, skydiving etc..) with lots of hostels. We stayed at Calypso, a funky place with cool walls and colours. Luckily we got our own self contained room with a working air conditioner. The humidity was something else. I don't think I've ever experienced such high humidity. For example, I left out a box of Cheerios (best breakfast food ever) and the air con got switched off. Coming back at night the box was pretty much so moist it was no use. Our wet clothes never dried, in fact it felt like they got wetter if we left them out..The ants in the room were also unwelcomed. I unknowingly dropped a couple of Cheerios on the ground and the ants would swarm it and no jokes, the Cheerio would turn black from all the ants on it. Protein anyone?

(as I'm writing this Chicago just took the lead 2-0 over us in Game 6.. ugh. Damn you Bieksa)

Right, so the first day was spent at Woolshed. Next day basically went into town to see what there was to do on a rainy day.. the answer was sadly, nothing. Ate, shopped at the market a bit, went back to the hostel and read/chilled. Found out Sandy's friend decided to go back to Melbourne early because of the weather. Drastic, but something that didn't even cross my mind. Didn't want to go out because of our Great Barrier Reef trip on Monday.

Great Barrier Reef time. My excitement was building from the moment I woke up. We went on a day cruise offered by Ocean Spirit Cruises. It was one of the cheapest options available, but by no means was it a bad boat. For the first time in two days there was SUNSHINE. The marina where we would board was perfect, even at 7:30 in the morning. Warm, not too humid, and the bright sunshine rejuvenated everyone's spirits. Tea/coffee & cookies were served. There was a significant number of Japanese tourists on the boat, I say this because they hoarded like 20 bags of cookies. Asians living up to their stereotypes, I love it, ha.

(f--ing eh, 3-0 now. This hurts)

Since we were all pretty tired from waking up so early, we napped [uncomfortably] as the boat headed towards our first destination, Oyster Reef. During this we got debriefed on how to breathe underwater for our introductory dive and basic skills and things we should do/know. On land, I thought it was all pretty basic.. until I actually got into the water. We were the first group to go on our dive while other people snorkelled first. The tank + weights were surprisingly heavy as we were strapped in. The stinger suits (to protect us from jellyfish stings as it was jellyfish season) were a bit awkward and they charged us $8 for them. Rape. Once we got into the water, we practiced clearing our mask and breathing properly. I was first. For some reason I could not get the hang of it..and I forgot how to clear my mask. Embarrassing because the instructor seemed to be getting annoyed at me. Oh well, she's being paid to deal with idiots like myself.

The sensation of breathing underwater was something new and a bit scary. You had to take deep breaths and only through your mouth obviously. I'm the type of person to usually only rely on the nose to breathe so that was an adjustment.

Once everyone got used to it, we "dove" down about 12 metres? I think it was.. Something pretty shallow. With my trusty underwater digi cam, I went crazy snapping pictures of everything possible. It was pretty neat. We even got to see this huge stingray! The guide said those are rare to see, it was massive. Nemo was found, I think that was everyone's goal. And the rest of the dive went relatively smoothly. It was sometimes hard trying to avoid hitting the corals as we'd sink down due to the tanks + weights. Kicking continuously seemed to help but I was apparently too fat and started to drag the group lower into the coral. :) I don't think I'm capable of diving, ha.

Stingray!

After that, I started to get seasick.. really bad. For some reason the dive made it worse. There were ginger tablets the boat provided to ease/prevent nausea, I took another two (4 total now for the day) in hopes it would chase it away. Lunch was being served too, sadly I was feeling too nauseated to eat much. Shame too, there was a good selection of fresh salads, fruits and meat. The prawns looked disgusting and made me want to vomit some more.

I snorkelled a bit after, fighting through my weak ass self for being prone to sea sickness. Min had it worse though, she was out for a good hour, ha. Snorkelling was a bit cooler because you could sort of go out on your own to the coral and see the marine life in its full glory. A lot of fish were spotted, none of which I could name or recognise, but it was still awesome.

We departed for Upolu Reef after lunch. During this, it was still relatively sunny, although the boat would literally go through rain clouds, then out into clear, sunny skies, then back again.. this went on the entire day. When it was sunny, I ran out on deck trying to soak in some rays. It was glorious.

So, got to Upolu, and just snorkelled for about a good 45 minutes here. I used a noodle because I was too lazy to swim on my own. Swimming felt good though, I sort of miss it after a couple years of not getting into a pool. More of the same thing as before. A lot of pictures, some failed ones, and just some perfect relaxation out in the ocean looking at the corals and unique fish species. Hard to describe, but this was finally a lifelong dream achieved. I let out 'holy shits' and 'wows' subconsciously many times. Everyone needs to experience this especially with the deteriorating conditions the Reef is in now. It won't be around for much longer with current predictions (I'm learning alllll about this in my Ecology class, it's great).

Had cake and a glass of sparkling wine on our way back to Cairns. The rain started to set in halfway and didn't let up as we were going back to dark, grey clouds. Oh well, the sun was good while it lasted. :( Got off at around 5pm and headed to Woolworth's to get some groceries for dinner. Eating out every night eats a hole into your pocket, well mine especially, when you're trying to save. Pasta + soup was on the menu tonight. Cost us a total of $2.60/each? I think. We left a bowl of leftover pasta in the microwave.. I wonder if anyone actually ate it.

Gorgeous eh?

Again, we had an early day the next day as we would attempt to get to Cape Tribulation. The past couple of days all the tour buses couldn't even get up to the Rainforest because of the massive flooding. The only road leading into Cape Tribulation just so happened to be on top of a creek and because of the torrential rain, water levels prevented many cars from getting across. We had our fingers crossed that it would subside enough by tomorrow to let us go..

Funky pool at Calypso

Okay, update #1 done (EFFING HELL. 4-1 NOW. ASJKHAKSJDHAKSJDHASJKLDHALSD :'(...)
Will update again when I'm not as depressed. (OH GREAT. 5-1)

Rain rain go away..

Okay, so Queensland so far's been a bit of a bust. I'm currently paying $5 for an hour's worth of internet so this is going to be quick.

Arrived last night to pouring rain. Saw a bird protecting two other birds with its wings from the cold?or something underneath this canopy. Arrived at Calypso hostel. It's a neat little place. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some pictures of it soon.

Happy hour ensued with a buffet BBQ dinner. I was starving, I ate 2 good sized plates of meat, meat and more fries. Screw it, I'm going to come back fat and damn proud of it. Went out after to the downtown core and chilled out at the Woolshed.

Awesome awesome music. Drinks were relatively priced. I had more Bundaburg. NEVER drink that. I repeat, NEVER. Called it an early night, time difference and all.

Woke up today to more pissing rain. Great. It's rained continuously for the past .. 12 hours now. And it's a heavy downpour too. Not that I'm not used to it, just that I'm here on vacation and not being able to do anything and explore the beaches really sucks. I guess I took a gamble coming up here during the rainy season.

So, tomorrow's my diving trip out to the Reef. I will make damn sure that I have fun on the boat there. No way is that going to be ruined for me. Hopefully. This rain really needs to let up.. like now.

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.

Alas, the fun's started.

Lack of updates due to lack of sleep, mental brain power, and coherency to make a post.

In fact, sort of tired right now to update with anything substantial. My second week in Melbourne has been unforgettable thus far due to the inclusion of Melbourne Welcome. In order to divulge into the full details of this I'd have to kill this blog. Therefore, the PG version will instead be described.

Met lots of people, learned about the city, partied quite a bit (with wine because I'm classy, cough) and got sunburnt in the process. Worth the $540? Um, yes. I can't imagine how it'd be here if I didn't do this program and met some amazing people..even though most are Americans who think I say "about" differently. Deal with it, Canadians speak proper English.

I'll give a proper update soon enough when things die down. I still need to find professors and advisers on my courses here, problems are arising quickly.. Everything has to be manually done here for Exchange students so it's a bit of a hassle. I'm taking this upper level Ecology course (or trying to) without any real prior knowledge in it. I think I'm way out of my league here. Good thing it's on a pass/fail basis.