Beach Party, and a birthday down under!

Yesterday was Beach Party at the University, which is supposedly the biggest university party of the year.

They cart in 400 tonnes of sand and fill a parking lot and then there are three stages set up, and bands play all afternoon and evening. It was really a great time!

The pre mixed drink cans seemed a little expensive...there was a $1 deposit on each can in order to encourage you to recycle the can after you consumed the contained beverage. Return the can, get $1. Well, for whatever reason, there were cans...everywhere. After the last band was done playing, I wandered around for 40 minutes and grabbed some cans and made almost $100. I'm pretty sure there were people that did that the entire day and came out with well over $1000!

Today's my birthday. Well, technically it is the 30th of November, but if you think about it, I will not have been alive for 23 years until the 30th of November back home. I have decided to celebrate twice! Today I've done nothing but lay on the beach and go for a swim. Shame the surf was so choppy, hopefully it will improve by tomorrow before I have to sell my board! :(

We've all moved out of the apartment now. Of my six roommates, three of them are in America, or on their way. The remaining three have shacked up with different friends for the week (me), 8 days (Nate), or three weeks until their parents show up (Krysti).

What a warm Thanksgiving this is!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Aussies, of course, don't really celebrate it. However, I am going to two different Thanksgiving feasts tonight, I am pleased! (Plus, my parents promised to save me some food for when I return!!)

Went for a morning surf today. It was pretty calm when we got there but as we were paddling out, the ocean got violent in a hurry. I lost sight of Bronwyn and ended up getting washed into shore, exhausted and beaten. She apparently was heading out a bit to the left of me, near some rocks, when a giant wave formed and came towards her. She was about to roll off the board underneath the wave when she saw two dark spots in the wave. Then she saw fins. Sharks? Could this be the end? Then two noses poked out...just dolphins playing in the surf! She was so busy watching them she forgot about the wave and ended up getting smashed. Hahaha.

Well, enjoy your feasts back home, something like 15 hours from now. I've got to go get some actual pants on (boardies are NOT appropriate attire to wear everywhere!)

Last weekend away from Newcastle?

Bronwyn and I packed up in anticipation of heading two hours north to Taree, her hometown, for her sister's birthday. She's the third oldest out of thirteen girls!

We got a ride on Friday from her "adopted" uncle Anton. (you know what I'm talking about, one of those family friends that is close enough to be considered a relative) Anton is about 6'5" with a giant scraggly red beard. He's a biker, and one of the nicest people I've met down here, and wouldn't you know it, he spent three weeks in Wisconsin about 15 years ago riding around on a Harley. Had he known I was who I am, he said he would have worn his Pabst t-shirt and his Green Bay Packers hat. That would have scared the crap out of me! Haha.

We stayed at a friend's house in Old Bar on Friday. In the morning, we walked to the beach after choosing one of about 25 boards that were laying around and went for a surf. The party was a lot of fun. It was Mexican themed so we brought Coronas, limes, tequila and sombreros. I discussed guitars with two of her uncles and cars with her dad and just really got along great with everyone. It was a really great night and then we slept in a tent in the middle of a field (accessable only via 4x4, as fording a creek was involved!)

Today, we were going to ride bicycles off a ramp into the pond but didn't have time :( Oh well.

Monsters in the Parasol

I saw Quantum of Solace tonight. As such, this blog will compose entirely of my disdain for said movie.

I'm not what one would call a "big" Bond fan. I have, however, seen every movie in the series at least once and am in possession of approximately one fourth of the series. I can tell you that Timothy Dalton was the last Bond before Pierce Brosnan and, was the only Bond to appear in a pair of movies, 1987's The Living Daylights, and 1989's License to Kill. However, I can't tell you who was the main villain in Moonraker, or who was the Bond girl in You Only Live Twice. I thus conclude that I should refer to myself as a "marginally overweight" Bond fan.

I digress. Let me return to my description of the evening's cinematic experience. I had watched several Bond movies the day before in anticipation of this one, including Casino Royale(2006), a film that directly precedes this one. This was good because if you had not watched Casino Royale in the previous three days, it is likely you would have really no idea at all what was happening in Quantum of Solace. This is bad because I had to remember what a great film Casino Royale was and what a poor film this was in comparison.

The film opens with the traditional Bond theme song while shapely silhouettes perform suggestive acts in the background. Besides being a rather boring sequence, the song was performed by Alicia Keys and Jack White, which is akin to playing a cheese grater with a live cat.

The film does that really annoying thing that some action films do where every action scene is filmed with the camera mounted in a paint shaker. The camera angle changes every second in a half on average, only pausing long enough to show things like guns being fired, explosions, or people falling down. It's really quite difficult to discern what is happening. I noted that the previous movie that annoyed me with such shakefoolery was The Bourne Ultimatum, or whatever the third Bourne movie was. I found out after the movie that the second unit director responsible for such scenes was, indeed, the director from Bourne 2 and 3. One point, this guy.

Casino Royale was radically different than every Bond movie in the series before it. This movie, too, broke the mold of the previous movie. However, everything that Casino Royale did right, Quantum of Solace did wrong. The plot was desperately leaching off a movie that needed no sequel, and it struggles to maintain a deliberate focus.

The reviews seem to give the movie around about a 6/10, which is pretty much on par with what I would give it. It's worth a watch, but only if you've seen Casino Royale in the previous 24 hours.

My Building Was Designed By M.C. Escher.

This is the only reasonable explanation I can concoct in my head as I once again exit a door different than the one I think I am exiting. Why there are two exit doors two feet apart on the back side of my building is beyond me. How these two doors lead down two eerily similar twisting narrow passageways and end up in two completely different parts of my building is something I will never understand. It took me four months of living here to discover this hidden labyrinth, and only today did I discover that one of these passageways actually does lead to the first floor. I want to know who approved the blueprints for these "fire escapes." Anyone trying to escape a fire would be doomed to wander and inhale smoke for a bit.

Some completely unrelated things that made me think of or miss home.

I made chili yesterday. It was pretty good chili, but chili really isn't the same unless it's made in a crock pot. It was the first time Bronwyn had chili.

I ordered Domino's tonight. It doesn't taste the same as Domino's back home...and they only have one size of pizza. They call it a "large", but they can't fool me, it's the same size as an American medium! For two of these pizzas, a 1.25L bottle of Coke and two tiny orders of garlic bread, the grand total was something like $23...picked up...in the pouring rain. Upon returning to my apartment, I pondered over whether or not saving the $8 delivery charge was worth the walk. Back home, I could have probably gotten the same deal for around $14 delivered.

Bronwyn and I are going to see Quantum of Solace tomorrow...not only did it open earlier back in the states, but it wouldn't cost $12 to see it! Oddly enough, soda and popcorn is cheaper here.

I guess I'm just sick of everything being expensive. Oh well...two and a half weeks until I'm stateside!

Random Rambling.

There I was. It was 6:23PM. I was walking north on Beaumont Street in Hamilton, in order to catch the 6:28PM train back home. In my left hand was a small hot chips. In my right was a Turkish pide (Number 21, the Margarita, cabonossi, sausage, pepperoni and onion, hold the mushrooms!) I happened to glance across the street, and I saw something that made me stop walking and stare.

Coming towards me was a middle aged man wearing a jersey. It is pretty uncommon for people to wear jerseys on the street, and if they do, they are rugby jerseys with no numbers on the front. This jersey appeared to be dark green and have yellow stripes on the sleeve and a giant 89 on the front. I watched him and sure enough, "Ferguson" was on the back. This was a Green Bay Packers jersey. The first NFL jersey I've seen over here, and the only piece of NFL apparel I've seen (sans a Seattle Seahawks hat that walked past me when I was in Cairns).

For some reason, I felt an unreasonably strong urge to cross the street right there and talk to this person, who I felt had to be awesome. I wanted to discuss the loss to the Vikings and ask him what he thought about Aaron Rodgers and just talk football with someone, something I haven't done with anyone since last football season.

However, I did not. Perhaps it was because I was walking briskly towards the train station. Perhaps I was not sure how he would react to an overly excited unshaven American with food in both hands. Maybe I couldn't tell if the jersey was dark blue or dark green until after he had passed me and I didn't want to double back and sprint up behind him. Either way, hats off to you, Packers dude. I can't wait until the day when someone on the sidewalk wearing a wedge of cheese on their head doesn't draw a second look.

Deep Sea Fishing!

We chartered a boat to go deep sea fishing. There were five guys and it was an afternoon trip. We departed a dock near our house at 1:00PM.

We headed out the mouth of the Hunter River aways to a location on the GPS and dropped anchor. We were using frozen shrimp as bait, two hooks and a sinker to a line. Drop the line to the bottom and wait. As soon as the first line hit the bottom, there was a fish impaled on it, and it began. I caught a fish the first time I dropped my line.

It was not big enough to eat.





I dropped my line again and caught what would end up to be the biggest fish of the day, who informed me he was disappointed with being caught by bleeding all over my boardies. Thanks fish.


A few minutes later, I hooked another monster. It was either a shark or a very large snapper. It took the line out, stronger than the clutch on my reel would hold...there was really nothing I could do. The fish took the line around the reef and cut it on the reef. The line was frayed off when we got it back up. Crafty lil bugger. The skipper informed me that a fish that size would have gone for around $70 had I been able to land it. Oh well.

Speaking of hooking monsters, I grabbed this ugly thing at one point. Rather than unhook him, the skipper just cut the line above him. "I don't mess with eels", he said. We caught three or four of this bright red fish with giant spikes down it's back...apparently extremely poisonous. We let the skipper unhook those for us as well :)



We ended up keeping 19 fish. I got the big one in the back, one of the ones in the middle, and one of the green/purple leatherjackets up front. They feel like they're made of leather and they have a unicorn spike up top. Lots of interesting colors on these interesting fish way out in the salt water!



We cleaned em and grilled em with some garlic and onions and they were delicious :)

My surfing experiences thus far...

A few months ago, I was probably much like you. I was enjoying summer in Wisconsin and had never really touched a surfboard.

I got down here and it was winter. I bought a pretty big surfboard and a wetsuit and hopped in the ocean! It was pretty frustrating at first, not really taking lessons other than a few pointers from my friends. Surfing is pretty physically demanding and you can wear yourself out pretty quickly.

The problem with surfing is that no matter what the problem is, the answer is always "paddle harder".

I'm in the wrong spot!
Paddle harder.

I'm not catching any waves!
Paddle harder.

My arms are tired!
Paddle harder!!

Today I was awakened at 7:30 by a slap on the chest from my friend Bronwyn, who has vowed to improve my surfing. She was forced by her friend Rachel to surf every day, early in the morning, no matter how cold the water was. If there weren't waves, they would go out and have paddle races to keep their arms up. I'm finally starting to get paddling arms after two or three months of trying.

We headed out for a successful morning surf. By "surf", I mean paddling and complaining, and by "successful", I mean that I didn't try to sell my board and wetsuit to the random bodyboarders that were out on the ocean for at least an hour and a half!

Bodyboarders. The speedbumps of the ocean! Anytime they are seen or mentioned, most surfers mutter "bodyboarders!" in the same way that Jerry Seinfeld always muttered "Neumann!" No matter how you are surfing, there is almost always one, or a pack in the way, and they tend to not notice you until you hit them in the head with your board. That's a good way to ding up a board!

You know another good way to ding up a board? Put it on the roof rack don't attach it to the car. Luckily, my board was in a case and is more or less bulletproof. Bronwyn's, on the other hand, recieved a nice dent. Whoops!

Ready to go, somewhat?

I was sitting here, talking to my brother, and it's starting to sink in.

I will be home in less than 30 days. 26 to be exact. 26 days ago was October 15th, which seems like yesterday. I can't believe how fast time is going.

October 15th was a Wednesday. The Wednesday after I got home from my wonderful Spring Break trip. We had gone out on the previous night for another American's 21st birthday. I woke up in the early afternoon and walked to Pizza Hut with Kelly, Sam and Jack. That weekend was the weekend I played in my (quite possibly) last rugby tournament. It's funny how I remember the most minute details so vividly and some stuff not at all...

I miss real Coca Cola, and large drinking glasses. I say this as I sit on my balcony drinking almost Coke out of a 12oz or so glass, which is the largest one the local grocery store had. Most drinking glasses are probably about 6 ounces here, which is three big swallows if you're thirsty. Nothing like standing by the sink and filling your glass three times.

And now I'm rambling. I will, however say that I will NOT miss the fact that I am on my balcony in my boxers at the minute, and it is below freezing in Wisconsin. That's going to be difficult to get used to again!

Dolphin spotting and an Aussie petting zoo!

On Friday, we headed up to Nelson Bay.

After a quick lunch of fish and chips, we hopped aboard a dolphin boat to head out and sight some dolphins.






The deckhand told us that the dolphins know her because she goes out every day. Dolphins are very smart, inquisitional animals with great hearing. Clapping and whistling on the deck got them to come right up to the boat, but with us on the front of the boat and her on the back, they went right for her every time.

There's a net on the back of the boat that sits about a foot deep in the water. They allow passengers to chill in the net while the dolphins around. I didn't go out at first because I was taking pictures, but the dolphins came within a few feet of the nets. Cool.

They left the net out behind the boat while we cruised in. I hopped out there then...it was pretty cool, the water is pulling you into the net so hard, it's very hard to move!

After this, we headed to Oakvale farms, which is a petting zoo, more or less. The dangerous or large animals were in enclosures, but everything else, all the baby animals, were more or less free to wander. They were very, very friendly, and it was a lot of fun! I'm pretty sure the entire park was tailored to 10 year olds, but we all had a blast!

The girls wandered off and Nate and I played with some baby goats for awhile. We kept walking and eventually gathered a giant entourage. It was comical to see all the different animals chasing us....at one point, we probably had between 25 and thirty animals following us! This included four baby goats, some ducks, some geese, a cow, an emu and a sheep!


We headed to the spot where all the kangaroos were chilling. They, like most animals native to Australia, are ridiculously lazy and wouldn't really move. The cow would NOT bugger off and was constantly nuzzling Nate, trying to get at his food. He kept this up for two hours. I kept tripping on ducks and the goats were nibbling on my shorts.
Nate and our entourage.




Yours truly with another LAZY Aussie animal!

School's....out...for...summer! (duh-duh!)

Today is Wednesday, November 5th.

I just went to my final lab for the semester, where an essay/webpage was due. I tried to save my essay to my thumb drive before I left, but either I saved it to my external HDD by mistake, or my thumbdrive is hosed. It wasn't on the drive when I got to school. (I'll blame the stupid mac lab anyways). Basically, I had two hours to either complete my assignment from scratch, or run home and back (probably 90 minutes, at least), and then finish my assignment. I started from scratch, wrote a MUCH better essay than my first attempt, and got a really nice looking webpage done in about an hour and fifteen minutes. Having turned that in, I'm officially done, except for two finals I have coming up in the next two weeks.

It's the evening of Tuesday, November 4th back home, and the election results are just getting over here. I've gotten so used to the time difference now that I just kinda expected to see the results around noon on Wednesday, rather than any time on Tuesday.

Yesterday was Melbourne Cup day over here. It's one horserace that everyone in the country seems to bet on. The country stands still at 3PM for two and a half minutes, it's pretty much the superbowl of horse racing. A friend of mine put $10 on "some horse", and ended up winning $416. I didn't bet because I don't understand all the numbers that flash around and I'd just be throwing money away. Hah.

Let's see...the rest of the week...I'm going on a tour of the Hunter Valley Vineyards tomorrow, I'm going on a dolphin boat tour and to a petting zoo on Friday, there's one last rugby get-together on Saturday...and then I'm going to my coordinator's house on Sunday to go for a swim and take some pictures of her house. Should be a busy weekend!

I've discovered a way to end the drought!

Apparently, Australia is in drought. It doesn't rain for a few weeks at a time, and when it does rain, it tends to rain for three or four days.

This idea might be a little far-fetched, but hear me out. Every single time I go for a run, it rains. No matter how hot the day is or what the weather looks like, as soon as I get the furthest I plan to get from home, the skies crack open and liquid mockery rains down like, well, rain. Either more Australians need to go running, or the government needs to pay me a stipend to run more often. Problem solved!

I like to think I fit in pretty well with the surrounding population, but apparently, my accent is still very, very American. I think I've lost some of it, and picked up a ton of the slang and lingo down here, but I think I'm still best off fitting in with my mouth shut. While I was running, a guy asked "'Scuse me mate, do you have the time?" I thought for a second and all I said was "I reckon it's about quarter after four." He nodded and said "Thanks! What accent?". Haha.

Also, immediately after writing that last blog, I figured I should check out the iTunes store. Voila, three TZU cd's.

Halloween...I think!

Last night (today, for those of you in America) is Halloween. It was really strange, I didn't even know what day it was. Back home, you know exactly what day it is. The days get colder and colder, you can almost SMELL it in the air, there are decorations everywhere, and everyone seems to be gearing up for it. Here, there are no decorations, the days are getting hotter, and the 31st of October is nothing more than another day on the calendar. Luckily, I have a good number of American friends who spent a good amount of time searching the local discount stores for cheap decorations for a party last night. They don't have pumpkins down here as we know them, (at least not in this season), so we carved watermelons instead. It was a pretty good party!

Tonight was the Rugby end-of-year presentations. It was really good seeing the guys I've played with all year, but at the same time, a bit depressing saying goodbye to some of these guys for probably forever. The night was incredible though, I had a great time.

Also, I am going to encourage anyone reading this to give TZU a listen. They're an Australian group I stumbled upon; they were playing at a bar I happened to go to. Lately, I haven't been able to hear enough of them, trying to find one of their CD's locally! http://www.tzu.com.au/

-Nathan