What would I have done differently?
1. Bond University is a great university with smart professors, good staff, and a beautiful campus. Unfortunately it is full of rich, snobby, unrealistic students who don't know the meaning of hard work and earning your keep. It was a good experience to be around different people, but enough is enough with being around multi-billionaires who just don't get it. If I had to go back and choose a different university to study at, I might just have done it somewhere else but I don't know. Bond did have a tremendous amount of diversity which was really a great experience. Also, if I studied in Sydney I would have been even more broke (how is that possible I don't know..) and I don't think I would have traveled as many other countries and cities within Australia as I did. Sydney is a huge city with a lot more to do and see and I think it would have kept me in the city more than Gold Coast did.
2. I would have planned my New Zealand trip differently. We pretty much were confined to one main city, which wasn't even all that great. I probably would have tried to schedule all the activities in Queenstown or on the North Island. NZ was kind of a waste of money and time but at least I can say I've been there and what not.
3. I would have made sure I sky dived over the Great Barrier Reef. I was supposed to do this but unfortunately ran out of time.
4. I would not have taken Drugs and Behavior and I would not have taken Australian Popular Culture. These two classes were awful. I didn't learn anything. First off I hate science so the Drugs class was torturous. Second, as I have previously stated, I learned more from traveling and talking with Australians than taking a stupid class on it.
5. I would have fought harder to get into the classes I originally wanted to take: Global Politics and Islam and Oil in the Modern Era. They rejected me from taking them and instead of meeting with an advisor I kind of just said oh well and took these two other boring and pointless classes. Although the upside would be I would have had a lot more schoolwork to do if I had been accepted into these classes.
6. I would have scuba dived. I know it doesn't matter but it's always good to have a friend scuba dive with you. I should have just not cared and dived while I was in the Whitsunday Islands. It was only $60AUD and it was the Great Barrier Reef! I still saw sooo much stuff with the snorkeling I did, but I did the night scuba snorkel so it's clear I could have done scuba diving no problem.
I really had a great time in Australia and can't wait to go back one day. I spent alot of money and am in alot of debt right now, but it was well worth it. I was able to go to four different countries and several different cities and islands throughout the last four months. I learned alot about Australian culture, and lack-there-of. Australians are very open and kind people (for the most part..). For example, I was in a bus station standing around. I end up having an in depth convo with a stranger for like 15 minutes. I learned so many new things from him and he learned stuff from me too. This type of thing seems to be rare in the USA. I found it easier to talk to random people off the street in Australia than in the USA.
Some of my favorite memories include 1. Sky Diving 2. Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef 3. All of my adventures in Bali 4. Seeing and hearing the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra at the famous Sydney Opera House
Future Study Abroad Students: Keep an open mind. Don't overpack because you will end up buying a lot of stuff here. Travel every weekend if you can. See a show at the Sydney Opera House. Sky dive. Scuba. Talk to as many people as you can wherever you are whenever you can.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Fiji Stopover
Instead of going straight home after Australia most of us from Bond Uni decided to do a stop-over in Fiji. My friend has a timeshare so six of us rented it out for the week. It was pretty damn cheap, a good deal. It was in Port Denauru, Nadi, Fiji. It was at the Wyndham Worldmark hotel villas. Pretty much we laid by the pool almost every day and just relaxed alot. I read some books and got a lot of sun. It was between 90-110 degrees F daily. One day it rained a little bit which was the day I was going to rent a scooter which is too bad. Jen and I took a catamaran to an island called Beachcomber's Island. It was real nice. Cool coral sand. The water was so clear and refreshing. We had a buffet of Fijian foods. The island was so small that we were able to walk around it's outer beach around the whole island in less than five minutes. This island is also where the international dateline is; so I was in two days at once sort of! On the last day we had to move over to the Sheraton Villas which were even nicer than Wyndham's. It was great. I didn't drink much this week, maybe two out of the six nights. It was just a good week of sleeping and what not. Actually, I watched two seasons of this HBO show called The Wire, which is one of the best television dramas I have ever seen in my entire life. I highly recommend you to rent the DVDs or something. At the airport we met up with the other Northeastern Bondies and Joe P was generous enough to buy us all several shots of this alcohol called Bountry Overproof, 58.5% proof rum. It was gross but it did the job. I took some Advil PM and slept the entire plane ride to LA, which was great. In LA Jen and I went on a mini-adventure on some random buses to In-and-Out Burger, a famous burger joint with very cheap food that's only located on the West Coast. It was delicious. Then we still had another 5 of the 9 hour layover left. I finished watching the mafia hit show Underbelly, a show based on true life events of the drug war mafias in Melbourne, Aussie (which I went to) from 1994-2004. It was a good show, only 13 episodes. The flight from LA to Boston went pretty quickly although I was unable to sleep much. Unfortunately our friends who took the flight to JFK had electrical problems on their plane and they were diverted to Dallas Airport, which sucks. We are lucky we missed the storms and stuff. We arrived and the airport lost my bags, but fortunately they found them right away and I was all set. Jen was sweet enough to drive me home and now I have been back in good old Massachusetts for one day now... with 3 feet of snow and more snowstorms to come. I went from 115 degree weather to 15 degree weather in a matter of hours... Yay..
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Week 13 and Week 14 - Bali, Indonesia Trip!!
Bali, IndonesiaI arrived home from New Zealand on Monday. It was a good trip, but on Sunday the white water rafting was canceled, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. I ended up meeting some Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, and as you all know, I love these guys. lol We talked and went to a local bar and just chilled. I learned some new Hebrew words.
Tuesday it was pouring out so I got a ride to the tavern and met some friends there for drinks.
Wednesday I slept and packed and then left Bond University at 330AM for a flight from Brisbane to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
We landed in Bali and checked into the Hard Rock Hotel. It was snazzy. I liked it alot. Day 1
there we walked around, got food, drank beers at the Centerstage Bar in the Hard Rock Hotel. Got dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. I got Nasi Goreng, which means Fried Rice. It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. It was also Thanksgiving so it worked out that I got such a good meal. Some people went out after the bar but I was exhausted and decided to go to bed. We woke up early the next morning and rented a car and a driver named Nelson. We drove to a place on the western side of the lower tip of Bali called Uluwatu. It is a famous surf spot. One kid surfed while we tanned on the decks above the rocks there. It was a hott day. The Indian Ocean is a very warm ocean too. Cools you off, sort of...
Then we went to a Monkey Temple on the cliffs. It was huge and hundreds of monkeys were everywhere. They were eating and jumping around and were not intimidated by people at all. The temple was pretty as it overlooked the ocean and pretty cliffs.
The temples do not allow women who are menstruating inside of them. They consider it unclean. It is kind of funny to see posters strewn about saying "Women with periods may not enter." lol.
Then we drove to Jimbaran Bay and saw the beach. It was pretty corroded but there was a
whole strip of seafood places. They were kind of expensive so we went to Nusa Dua instead and got food at a Lotus Flower joint. It was delicious. I got Indonesian soup and Balinese chicken spring rolls. The currency of Indonesia is a Rupia. One USD = 12,500 Rupiah. One AUD = 8,000 Rupia. So at first you can get confused when you see "Balinese Springrolls 28000 Rupia" and then you realize.. Oh shit.. thats not even $3 bucks for spring rolls!After Nusa and dinner we shopped around a bit and then drove around Denpasar. It was about 8 oclock and even though we could technically keep the driver for longer, we decided to go back.
We showered and got ready and went to the band playing down at Centerstage. Their name was "X-Cite" they were a full band who played all different types of American songs from Shakira to Billy Joel to whatever. We were singing along at one point lol. Some of the bar staff were so cool: Mustang gave me a rice paddy hat. I wanted to take it home to wear for Halloween but it was just too big to deal with bringing to Fiji and all over the place. Hogi was a manager there he was real nice too. After Centerstage we walked to the club spot in Kutu (which is where we were staying) and went to a club called Bounty. Bounty was huge. 2 floors with over 5 different rooms. The first room had ethnic Balinese music being played live on hand drums and with tambourines. They had a good deal for scorpion bowls: Buy one for 45000 rupiah get one free. That's about 4 dollars for 2 gigantic drinks by the way. We all drank a few too many. Danced. Talked. Laughed. Sang. It was really a good time. We didn't get home until really late.Saturday in Bali: I woke up and was like whoa I drank way too much. I drank Arak which is clear liquor made from rice. In Bali there are hundreds of rice paddies but the natives are starting to sell their paddy's to construct buildings and other things on because the rice paddies just aren't profitable enough anymore. I slept late then went to the beach and the pool and just chilled. We got lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We then shopped around and Jen and I got facials. Everywhere you walk people are like massage? massage? (do not pronounce it like Massage American style say -mah-sah-g, separate syllabus) The facials cost less than 4 bucks American. Colleen and Tom arrived (I might even be getting my times wrong but this all happened maybe not in this order though). And Colleen and I checked into our own room. We went to the pool then went and got food. This time I got Mie Goreng, fried noodles, which was awesome. The food here in Bali
truly impressed me. Then we showered and went to the other room. We have some cocktails and headed out to Bounty area again. We partied in Bounty for awhile but knew we had to be up early for Sunday's festivities.. White water rafting and Elephant safaris!!!Sunday: Colleen and I were up real early. We got breakfast at the hotel, which was bomb digs. Really good food! Fresh omelets made to order etc. We then got picked up and driven 1.5 hours away to the river, the Ayung River. On the way we saw more rice paddys, more of the scooters that almost every person in Bali owns, and again, hundreds of dogs. I am telling you, I have never seen so many dogs in my life. But supposedly most of the dogs aren't strays, they live with families but fend for themselves for food and then come back and protect the house, cattle, and other animals that a family owns. There have been 4 cases of rabies recently on the island, although it had been eradicated since the early 1980s. Culling of dogs was authorized by the government in order to reduce the threat of rabies but many home owners are in outrage.
How could you tell if one dog is a stray and one dog is owned but just roams free? Well, you can't! Most of the dogs look filthy so you can't tell like that either. We talked to our driver about it and guess what. He eats dogs. You read it correctly, he EATS dogs. He asked me if I do as well and I was like UMM my dog is my best friend!!! Aw KC I miss you.. lol Glad I got to see you on webcam!! hahah Anyways I guess back to white water rafting..White water rafting was definitely not as intense as the first time I went in Cairnes but it was way more cultural and beautiful. We had a few bumps, one enough for 2 people (including my friend lol) to fall out. It was pretty hilarious. Our guide kept asking if we were okay the whole time and I just wanted to be like DUDE we are fine there aren't any Level III rapids like the brochure says!! But we saw natives bathing and washing clothes and cleaning pots and pans and stuff it was crazy. We saw people filtering out the sand to make pottery and use as like concrete and stuff. We saw amazing hotels and rice paddies and beautiful trees hundreds of feet high with Tarzan-like rope swings and stuff. Heard some monkeys but didn't see any. It was a total of 8KM long. It was definitely fun! After this we went had to walk up hundreds of steps. It was intense and locals were bothering us to buy stuff the whole time. $1 dollar please $1 dollar. I am telling you, some of this stuff was worth WAY more than $1 measely dollar. We would have bought stuff but we left our money in the car to stay dry.. Poor people..
Got to the top and went to hot showers. Two girls were in it.. naked.. It was a trip. Colleen blurts out "I am going to wait until we are home to shower!" so loud. I just went in with my bathing suit on and then she followed suit. I guess Americans just weren't raised to.. um.. be so open.. In New Zealand women were showering naked all over the place in the hott bathes too. Then our driver brought us 45 minutes away to the Elephant Safari!!!
We got to the Elephant park and went inside. There are 27 elephants in this park. They were all rescued from Sumatra, the largest island in Indonesia, and 6th largest island in the world. The elephants here are being slaughtered for their ivory and what not so an American man who married a Balinese woman descieded to do something about it. He rescued them and brought
them to a land parcel of land in Bali. There is about to be the first ever birth of an elephant on Bali, ever, from a set of the elephants. There are only 6 male elephants so the women tend to fight over the male companions. It takes 18 months of pregnancy for an elephant, double that of a human! These creatures are actually mammals, as they are completely covered in hair. Their cute heads are full of reddish hair. They are so gentle and sweet and let you pet them, feed, them, they smile on command, and lots more. They can start having children around the age of 20-25 years old and live until they are approximately 75-100 years old. Two other cool elephant facts: Their trunks contain over 50,000 different muscles!!!! Their legs have certain creases they are only their own, no replicas anywhere; just like the human fingerprint!!!
We played with two different elephants for awhile, feeding them coconuts and sitting on their legs and stuff. I felt bad but then realized the men who work there are kind to these elephants; they have dedicated their lives to training them and befriending these guys. The elephants get fed so much food and are safe here in this park. We watched a show where the elephants demonstrated basketball skills, math skills in which I held up a number and they did math 4 + ? = 6 and the elephant took the 2 out of my hand! Smart guy! lol. They did some other tricks. It was cool. The music in the background was so corny though. Then we got on and rode them!
It was pitch black and we got on the elephant, Hamoush, and rode around for about 15 minutes through a nature jungle walk. We saw crazy huge spiders and stuff. Our elephant was misbehaving and it was pretty scary. She was hungry and kept reaching up to the trees for food. When she did this the entire back of her would tip, including the seat Colleen and I were on, and it was close to making us fall off. It made it more exciting though! I always seem to get the hungry animals aye? LOL It was cool. Then we got off at the restaurant and I will tell you, wow was the food great or what! It was bread, brushetta, salad, soup, bread crusted chicken with potatos and vegetables, and then a molten chocolate dessert. MMM MMM. Unfortunately I was having really bad heartburn and couldn't even eat it all. :( I have been getting heartburn lately and I've never had it before. It sucks really bad.. Then our driver drove us back to the hotel. Saw so many dogs in the darkness on the way back. We watched some movies and passed out.
Monday- The next morning we got breakfast and then went to the pool for alittle bit. We then
got 90 minute FULL body massages, and I mean FULL body massages, with body scrub, yogurt scrub remover, and then a flower bath. It was intense. It felt best when she was rubbing my shoulders. It was my first ever 'professional' massage. Then we went shopping around the city. We got a ton of stuff. Cheap too. Then we got our hair braided on the beach. Not only was this a bad idea because the lady did a crappy job on my hair, but because we were literally attacked by heaps of Balinese women trying to sell us junk. I ended up buying 3 necklaces, 3 singlets, my nails were done almost without my permission, and I got a sarong. So intense. They made you feel so awful if you didn't support them at all. It was quite the experience. Suprisingly enough though they had licenses to do what they were doing! We got into a coversation with a surf 'instructor' on the beach and he was talking about Obama and how he was excited for change. He was excited Obama said that we aren't Muslim, black, white, Asian, or Christian, we are all Americans. He was like you guys don't like me because I am Muslim but I hope one day you will realize I am a good person too. It was an interesting talk.This was certainly not the first person to bring up Obama. Almost 100% of the time when asked "where are you from" and I would respond America, they would instantaneously say OBAMA! you have a new president! He studied in Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia) for years! We love Obama! Do you like Obama?? OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA.. lol it was annoying by the end but it was great that the people are keeping up to date with the international community and its politics. I was reading the Jakarta Post and liked many of the articles alot. Good opinion peaces and stuff.
That night we got a buffet dinner which was good and then headed up with our friends to Bounty, Paddy's and a few other places along the night club strip. We didn't get too drunk because we were getting picked up at 8:20 AM the next day, but it was alot of fun.
Tuesday- We were picked up by 2 guys for a full day tour. We picked up another couple, grandparents lol, from England. They were nice though. We went to so many different spots through the day I am going to just list them:
Silver making shop: People were hand crafting silver jewelry and other items.
Tapestry making shop: People (including 8 year old kids) were making hand woven tapestries and hand painted tapestries. They were very pretty and unique.
Barong Dance Show: A traditional Balinese dance performance. It was veryyy strange but a good experience. They had a good god and a bad god and the people rallied behind the good god to kill the bad one. There was a huge dragon-like creature at the begining, called the Barong I think, who danced around and stuff. It was pretty and these people must get 1. so hott in these intricate and thick costumes and 2. bored of doing the same exact show every single day.
Coffee Plantation: We saw coffee bean plants and coffee being roasted. Cacao beans for chocolate. Passion fruit (So delicious). Pineapples (really cool to see growing out of the ground). And some weird fruits as well. Giganormous spiders too. I tried some of the local hot chocolate it was good. Saw some of the hottest peppers on earth. It was cool.
Painting Village: Went to a local painting shop and saw people hand drawing and painting. WOW! It was really impressive. They were so sweet and so talented for real. I ended up buying 2 small paintings for less than $50 American. I don't have any money left but these people need the business.
After the Bali Bombings in 2002 and 2005 the economy of Bali has suffered tremendously. People were scared to go to Bali thinking more terrorist attacks would occur. I never felt unsafe in Bali at any time. There are security guards everywhere. If you enter a nightclub or a hotel you are searched and your car is searched (not like everything but enough to know if you are a terrorist or not ya know?) and even the underneath of your car is looked at from a mirror device. People should not be afraid to go to Bali at all. The people are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life and we should not allow Islamic terrorists such as Jemaah Islamiyah stop us from traveling to a place that is so beautiful and friendly. The Balinese people literally depend on tourism to live. I once read 93% of the Balinese economy is based on tourism. That's the whole economy! Bali's population is about 90% Hindu and 10% Muslim.
Another thing we did: Ate lunch while looking at an ACTIVE volcano! It wasn't spewing lava or anything but it is indeed an active volcano. It blew up in 1998 and killed 1000 people its path of lava and molten hot destruction. Our guide said we were lucky because we were so high up and usually it rains but this day we could see all of the volcano although clouds and what not were roaming through it at times. It was a magnificent site and the pictures just don't show how amazing it really was. We then went home got room service and watched movies in the hotel room for the rest of the night. The next day we checked out and laid by the pool most of the day. I finished reading a book and swam and relaxed. We got lunch at Pizza Hut lol. It is a very popular spot in Bali! Oh and I saw my first Dunkin' Donuts since being away! I got a cafe latte!! For dinner we ate at a cheap local spot. My last Balinese meal! Then we got a $4 dollar taxi to the airport and ended up taking a very many shots (some free from the Duty Free shop, 12 year old whiskies and stuff! wow) with some other Bond Uni kids and got on the plane. The security to get through was very intense. They searched every person's carry on luggage. They threw away my suntan lotion that I forgot to put in my checked baggage. :( Colleen has all of the elephant photos so I will try to get them from her and post them as soon as possible. I am also working on the previous weeks entries as you finish this. I just think this was the coolest and it is the freshest in my mind. Thanks. Full photo album addresses:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232014&l=4822c&id=1812695
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232014&l=4822c&id=1812695
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232015&l=58ed4&id=1812695
Week 11
Whitsundays and Airlie Beach
I took a plane to this deserted one lane airstrip called Proserpine. We then took a cab to Airlie Beach. We walked around and got some food and drinks. The next morning we went to the Marina and boarded a boat called Powerplay. We were off toward the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped two times and snorkeled along the Great Barrier Reef. It was beautiful. I took an underwater camera and got some real good shots. Beautiful colored reef and heaps of different kinds of fish. There is one fish that was the size of a pre-teen human. For real. So huge. It would come right up to you and let you pet it. I was feeding it and it slurped up my entire hand in its mouth. So cool! It is the only male of its species in this bay, as there is only one male in each of the bays. When it dies or moves on, a female from the bay morphs into a male and grows 20X its size and then takes over. So bizarre. The food on the boat was real tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At night everyone was really tired but I made some random people stay up with me. People on the boat were from all over the world: England, Germany, Ireland, America, Australia. It was cool.
We went to the second best beach in the entire world, White Haven Beach. It's sand has never been sold except one time, to make the Hubble Telescope. It was the softest and whitest sand I have ever seen or experience in my life. Truly beautiful. You may be wondering what the best beach in the world is then. Well, I will tell you. It is a PRIVATE beach in Mexico, therefore you can't even go to it! So go to White Haven because it's the best beach you will ever actually see. We saw tons of sting rays just chillin' here. They were laying on the sand and I started chasing them around. We also saw a pod of porpoises or dolphins on the way here. It was cool. We couldn't tell which they were. I got real tan and had a good trip.
I took a plane to this deserted one lane airstrip called Proserpine. We then took a cab to Airlie Beach. We walked around and got some food and drinks. The next morning we went to the Marina and boarded a boat called Powerplay. We were off toward the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped two times and snorkeled along the Great Barrier Reef. It was beautiful. I took an underwater camera and got some real good shots. Beautiful colored reef and heaps of different kinds of fish. There is one fish that was the size of a pre-teen human. For real. So huge. It would come right up to you and let you pet it. I was feeding it and it slurped up my entire hand in its mouth. So cool! It is the only male of its species in this bay, as there is only one male in each of the bays. When it dies or moves on, a female from the bay morphs into a male and grows 20X its size and then takes over. So bizarre. The food on the boat was real tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At night everyone was really tired but I made some random people stay up with me. People on the boat were from all over the world: England, Germany, Ireland, America, Australia. It was cool.
We went to the second best beach in the entire world, White Haven Beach. It's sand has never been sold except one time, to make the Hubble Telescope. It was the softest and whitest sand I have ever seen or experience in my life. Truly beautiful. You may be wondering what the best beach in the world is then. Well, I will tell you. It is a PRIVATE beach in Mexico, therefore you can't even go to it! So go to White Haven because it's the best beach you will ever actually see. We saw tons of sting rays just chillin' here. They were laying on the sand and I started chasing them around. We also saw a pod of porpoises or dolphins on the way here. It was cool. We couldn't tell which they were. I got real tan and had a good trip.
Week 12
I got back from Whitsundays on Monday pretty early. I just relaxed and had Don's steak night for dinner. I stayed in Tuesday to finish my terrorism paper. It was over 2600 words. I think it came out pretty well. I had to figure out how to stop the terrorist problem caused by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. If anyone is interested in reading it, please let me know. Maybe you are looking for an employee in a policy forum.. Hey I am looking for a job when I get back! I also had to finish a paper on "Is popular culture in Australia distinctive and if yes, how?" So boring. We had to write it on several movies we watched in class:
Bra Boys (Surfing gang in Sydney)
The Dish (did you know that without Australia and the help of their crew and the use of their satelite down in southern Victoria the world would have NEVER seen the first man walk on the moon???)
Crocodile Hunter (it was corny because the FBI was searching for some stupid lost transmitter and a crocodile ate it)
Chopper (has anyone heard of him? he's nuts! he killed several people and went to jail and wanted his cell changed so he had his ear sliced off to move cells. now he is free and is a celebrity! he even stars in a don't drink and drive commercial YouTube clip of it: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=XpQeZEmien4 ) Watch the clip. Also the star of the movie was Eric Bana! (from Munich etc.)
Rabbit Proof Fence (a sad movie about 3 Aboriginal children who were taken from their mother and put into white camps over 5000 miles away. they ended up escaping and 2 of them made
it back to their mother. it is intense. imagine a 12 year old and a 7 year old walking 5000 miles while cops and everyone is looking for you. they ended up being taken away a second time and escaped and walked home a second time. one of the women's daughters was taken from her when she was older and she hasn't seen her since. this is a true story. :( ......
One television show either Summer Heights High or Underbelly. People if you like you will like The Office you will like Summer Heights High. I heard it was actually going to be piloted in the US soon. Check it out. I wrote about Underbelly, a show based on true events in Melbourne from 1995-2002. It's just like an episode of Sopranos. Very good. I actually was able to get all of the episodes and am now watching episode 5. Very good series. The courts wouldn't even allow it to be played in all of Victoria (the state which contains Melbourne) until recently only 4 episodes have shown because there are still several murder trials going on!
Thursday Kayte, Brooke, and I left for Brisbane on the train and then caught a flight to
Christchurch, New Zealand on the South Island. We got in and it was already 11 o'clock, but we met some Americans in the hallway of our hostel and ended up catching a cab to the city center and going out until about 4 AM. The guys were real nice, one is a fire fighter in NYC and the other a international money trader in LA. We drank and danced. The Kiwis (name for New Zealanders) were actually really sketch. The cabbie who drove us there was cool as. (Okay you may see me use this type of lingo "cool as" "sweet as" its a line used here and Australia very often and I like it alot. Sweet as translation: I confirm that what you are proposing is good by me" so cool as in this specific context would be: I confirm that this guy was cool. Get it? Got it? Good.) So why was he so cool you wonder? 1. He was like it's illegal and I could use my job and I have never done it but what the hell sure all five of yahs can get in the taxi! 2. He dropped of us of at a good spot and 3. He is a Crocodile Hunter Impersonator! Straight up! Someone in the front seat was like hey man you look like Steve Irwin! and all of a sudden he whipped out a business card saying he did impersonations. We were like noo way man! But he was like I was in Brisbane all last month, I 
swear! Okay, in Brisbane is "The Australia Zoo" which unfortunately I never got to but that's okay and besides the point. This zoo is the zoo created by Irwin and his wife many years ago and is famous really. So yeah! Cool aye?r>
The hostel: The hostel I found online is called Jailhouse Accomodation. It was a jail for almost 100 years! There is one cell they left completely untouched and it has scratching on the wall and what not from past inmates. It feels eerie inside and it's kind of cold. Everything is concrete. It is pretty cool. Definitely one of the coolest hostels I have ever stayed in. The beds were crafted for athletes who played in the Cup games in 2002, aka they were so comfortable. The showers were perfect temperature and water pressure. aka this place was better than my dorm at Bond! lol.
Very cool place to stay for sure. Cheap too. Kayte and I got our own room so we didn't have to bother sharing with 16 odd people in a dormitory.
The next day we got picked up and went on jet boats which were cool. Jet boats are boats that propel water through the boat and make it go very fast virtually sliding on the water. They are actually much safer than other boats because they have no engine dropped into the water. I asked why they don't use them more often and he said I wish I knew! I wish they did! It was cool we got soaking wet. Christchurch was pretty damn cold but that's okay. Then we went on a horse ride near the water and what not. It was okay. Kinda slow and stuff.. My horse kept eating all of the plants on the side of the road. It added
some excitement to it.. lol We then chilled at the farm for about an hour and had tea. I chased around some of the sheep because they were so annoying and they kept running away from me. There were four sheepdogs here who were awesome! They loved to play catch and were real smart dogs, fast too. One of them was so pregnant she looked like she was about to pop.
We got home got dolled up alittle bit and took a taxi to the gondolas. Little did we realize how expensive this taxi was going to be. WOW. So we got to the gondolas and took the ride up. It was cool. We were able to see all of Christchurch and the mountain side. New Zealand has hundreds of sheep everywhere on all side of you at all times. Bah!!! Some are so annoying. Some seem mean. We chilled at the top and then got dinner. We asked for the side best for the sunset and she put us on the exact opposite spot. What a loser. We were all pretty mad, I'm telling you. How long do you need to work somewhere to not understand which side looks 100 trillion times better when the sun sets.. Ugh. The food
was good but it wasn't enough. We were still kind of hungry. Then we left. Hopped on a bus and then another and got back to the hostel. We were pretty beat so we watched tv and chilled. I saw this book called like the Yiddish Policeman's Union or something and really wanted to take it from the Take One Leave One book rack but I didn't have a book to leave so I was going to hold off until Monday to take it.. Of course come Monday the one book on the entire shelf that I was interested in was gone.. For real who in their right mind wants the same book as me like that in a 2 day radius?? The cameras alic;">must have been on me and then realized they wanted it and took it before I could. Jeesh. (lol)
Saturday we got picked up in the morning and headed towards some 'natural hot springs' at a spot called Hamner Springs. It was a gorgeous ride up there! Huge mountains. Rolling rivers. Sheep.. Obviously.. Cool bungy jump spots. We got to the little country town and shopped around. Strange shops. Bizarre shops. Very weird.. Then we had lunch.. or I had potato salad and carrots while everyone ate sausage.. :( I told them no pork ! grrr.. There were over 40 huge ducks chilling around the picnic spot. They would bite at our toes asking for food so I snatched one of the chicks and held her. The pic makes it seem likes I'm choking her to death by I swear I wasn't lol. Don't worry Mom I washed my hands afterwards. Then we went to the hot springs. It was kind of weird too.. They were like regular pools.. Seriously.. but.. just.. hott... I
guess it was all natural heat from underneath though. Some were 40 degrees celcius which is like 107 F about I'd say. Those hottest ones wreaked of sulfur. I didn't mind the smell too much. We then shopped around alittle more (for what I don't know lol nah I actually got some chocolate fudge that was out of this world yum yum!!). It was a cool experience at least.
Sunday we woke up all extra early and stuff to go White Water Rafting on the Rangitata River!! Wahoo right?? Wrong. They canceled it and never called us. We called them and they said the river had bad conditions and was too dangerous to go rafting that day. Ugh. The one main part to the trip was canceled. What a bust.. So we walked into town and shopped and had lunch and stuff. Then we were out ideas and options to do really so we got beer and went back to the hostel. I got beer with Stein in the last name cuz I thought it made me look cool.
Bra Boys (Surfing gang in Sydney)
The Dish (did you know that without Australia and the help of their crew and the use of their satelite down in southern Victoria the world would have NEVER seen the first man walk on the moon???)
Crocodile Hunter (it was corny because the FBI was searching for some stupid lost transmitter and a crocodile ate it)
Chopper (has anyone heard of him? he's nuts! he killed several people and went to jail and wanted his cell changed so he had his ear sliced off to move cells. now he is free and is a celebrity! he even stars in a don't drink and drive commercial YouTube clip of it: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=XpQeZEmien4 ) Watch the clip. Also the star of the movie was Eric Bana! (from Munich etc.)
Rabbit Proof Fence (a sad movie about 3 Aboriginal children who were taken from their mother and put into white camps over 5000 miles away. they ended up escaping and 2 of them made
it back to their mother. it is intense. imagine a 12 year old and a 7 year old walking 5000 miles while cops and everyone is looking for you. they ended up being taken away a second time and escaped and walked home a second time. one of the women's daughters was taken from her when she was older and she hasn't seen her since. this is a true story. :( ......
One television show either Summer Heights High or Underbelly. People if you like you will like The Office you will like Summer Heights High. I heard it was actually going to be piloted in the US soon. Check it out. I wrote about Underbelly, a show based on true events in Melbourne from 1995-2002. It's just like an episode of Sopranos. Very good. I actually was able to get all of the episodes and am now watching episode 5. Very good series. The courts wouldn't even allow it to be played in all of Victoria (the state which contains Melbourne) until recently only 4 episodes have shown because there are still several murder trials going on!
Thursday Kayte, Brooke, and I left for Brisbane on the train and then caught a flight to
Christchurch, New Zealand on the South Island. We got in and it was already 11 o'clock, but we met some Americans in the hallway of our hostel and ended up catching a cab to the city center and going out until about 4 AM. The guys were real nice, one is a fire fighter in NYC and the other a international money trader in LA. We drank and danced. The Kiwis (name for New Zealanders) were actually really sketch. The cabbie who drove us there was cool as. (Okay you may see me use this type of lingo "cool as" "sweet as" its a line used here and Australia very often and I like it alot. Sweet as translation: I confirm that what you are proposing is good by me" so cool as in this specific context would be: I confirm that this guy was cool. Get it? Got it? Good.) So why was he so cool you wonder? 1. He was like it's illegal and I could use my job and I have never done it but what the hell sure all five of yahs can get in the taxi! 2. He dropped of us of at a good spot and 3. He is a Crocodile Hunter Impersonator! Straight up! Someone in the front seat was like hey man you look like Steve Irwin! and all of a sudden he whipped out a business card saying he did impersonations. We were like noo way man! But he was like I was in Brisbane all last month, I 
swear! Okay, in Brisbane is "The Australia Zoo" which unfortunately I never got to but that's okay and besides the point. This zoo is the zoo created by Irwin and his wife many years ago and is famous really. So yeah! Cool aye?r>
The hostel: The hostel I found online is called Jailhouse Accomodation. It was a jail for almost 100 years! There is one cell they left completely untouched and it has scratching on the wall and what not from past inmates. It feels eerie inside and it's kind of cold. Everything is concrete. It is pretty cool. Definitely one of the coolest hostels I have ever stayed in. The beds were crafted for athletes who played in the Cup games in 2002, aka they were so comfortable. The showers were perfect temperature and water pressure. aka this place was better than my dorm at Bond! lol.
Very cool place to stay for sure. Cheap too. Kayte and I got our own room so we didn't have to bother sharing with 16 odd people in a dormitory.
The next day we got picked up and went on jet boats which were cool. Jet boats are boats that propel water through the boat and make it go very fast virtually sliding on the water. They are actually much safer than other boats because they have no engine dropped into the water. I asked why they don't use them more often and he said I wish I knew! I wish they did! It was cool we got soaking wet. Christchurch was pretty damn cold but that's okay. Then we went on a horse ride near the water and what not. It was okay. Kinda slow and stuff.. My horse kept eating all of the plants on the side of the road. It added
some excitement to it.. lol We then chilled at the farm for about an hour and had tea. I chased around some of the sheep because they were so annoying and they kept running away from me. There were four sheepdogs here who were awesome! They loved to play catch and were real smart dogs, fast too. One of them was so pregnant she looked like she was about to pop.
We got home got dolled up alittle bit and took a taxi to the gondolas. Little did we realize how expensive this taxi was going to be. WOW. So we got to the gondolas and took the ride up. It was cool. We were able to see all of Christchurch and the mountain side. New Zealand has hundreds of sheep everywhere on all side of you at all times. Bah!!! Some are so annoying. Some seem mean. We chilled at the top and then got dinner. We asked for the side best for the sunset and she put us on the exact opposite spot. What a loser. We were all pretty mad, I'm telling you. How long do you need to work somewhere to not understand which side looks 100 trillion times better when the sun sets.. Ugh. The food
was good but it wasn't enough. We were still kind of hungry. Then we left. Hopped on a bus and then another and got back to the hostel. We were pretty beat so we watched tv and chilled. I saw this book called like the Yiddish Policeman's Union or something and really wanted to take it from the Take One Leave One book rack but I didn't have a book to leave so I was going to hold off until Monday to take it.. Of course come Monday the one book on the entire shelf that I was interested in was gone.. For real who in their right mind wants the same book as me like that in a 2 day radius?? The cameras alic;">must have been on me and then realized they wanted it and took it before I could. Jeesh. (lol)
Saturday we got picked up in the morning and headed towards some 'natural hot springs' at a spot called Hamner Springs. It was a gorgeous ride up there! Huge mountains. Rolling rivers. Sheep.. Obviously.. Cool bungy jump spots. We got to the little country town and shopped around. Strange shops. Bizarre shops. Very weird.. Then we had lunch.. or I had potato salad and carrots while everyone ate sausage.. :( I told them no pork ! grrr.. There were over 40 huge ducks chilling around the picnic spot. They would bite at our toes asking for food so I snatched one of the chicks and held her. The pic makes it seem likes I'm choking her to death by I swear I wasn't lol. Don't worry Mom I washed my hands afterwards. Then we went to the hot springs. It was kind of weird too.. They were like regular pools.. Seriously.. but.. just.. hott... I
guess it was all natural heat from underneath though. Some were 40 degrees celcius which is like 107 F about I'd say. Those hottest ones wreaked of sulfur. I didn't mind the smell too much. We then shopped around alittle more (for what I don't know lol nah I actually got some chocolate fudge that was out of this world yum yum!!). It was a cool experience at least.
Sunday we woke up all extra early and stuff to go White Water Rafting on the Rangitata River!! Wahoo right?? Wrong. They canceled it and never called us. We called them and they said the river had bad conditions and was too dangerous to go rafting that day. Ugh. The one main part to the trip was canceled. What a bust.. So we walked into town and shopped and had lunch and stuff. Then we were out ideas and options to do really so we got beer and went back to the hostel. I got beer with Stein in the last name cuz I thought it made me look cool.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Week 10
Hello!
Week 10 was cool. I passed in my Drugs and Behavior paper. It was alright but I am taking the class pass/fail so as long as I get a 50 (crazy right) I pass the class. The grading system here is very different from that of the US education institutions.
There are 71 million kangaroos in Australia. They are a protected species and you cannot kill them unless they are on your own private property.
That is 3 times as many kangaroos as people!
There are millions of koalas in Australia as well. In the 1920's to the 1950's the koala fur trading business was very lucrative. Furs were sent throughout Australia and to the United States, especially New York City. The koala population was almost decimated as it reached only around 100,000 koalas. In the late 1950's koala fur production was deemed illegal and the animal has been a protected species ever since. Now the koalas are multiplying at a rapid rate and are eating up all of the eucalyptus trees. They are pretty much running out of food because there is no real danger to them. They have an extremely hard back bone so birds of pray cannot attack and eat them if they aren't babies, sick, or old.
Thursday Tom, Dana, and I were picked up at 4:00AM by a shuttle and were brought to Brisbane Airport. We boarded a 6:10AM plane to Cairnes (pronounced Cans) which is a large city thats coastline boarders the Great Barrier Reef waters. At the airport we rented a car and started a drive up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Rainforest. We looked around and had some lunch at a shack, which actually was pretty good! We had to cross a ferry to get to
Daintree. It was just a wooden board that was pulled across a river by cables. There were lots of boat tours on the river because there are thousands of crocodiles living here. The ride up was cool half of the time we were riding along the coastline and the beautiful beaches of northern Cairnes. The other half of the time it was either all rainforest or Aboriginal reservations. I drove for the first time on the wrong side of the road. Well here they consider it correct, but I drove on the left side of the road! It was cool and I did a good job! :)
We got to Cape Tribulation and went jungle surfing, otherwise known as ziplining 25 meters
above the rainforest floor. We saw different bugs, spiders, birds, and plantlife. We went upside down on the ziplines and stuff. It was cool but kind of slow. The actual zipline part was fun but it took awhile to change harnesses and let everyone go etc. It was cool but I guess nothing can compare to sky diving at this point.
We left and checked into out hostel, The Northern Greenhouse back in Cairnes. The staff was kind of mean. We didn't know we absolutely needed our passports to check in and they were kind of mean about it, but they ended up letting us staying anyways. The hostel was so clean and nice. It use to be a motel. It was only like 20 bucks a night. Free internet. Free breakfast. The rooms were wicked clean. There was one kid in the 6-bed room from Montreal. He is going to Optometry school in Boston next year.
He was nice.
We went to dinner at some huge Chinese place. It was okay. Then went back got a few beers in the hostel bar and went to bed.
Friday we walked down to the espanalde at 7:00AM and boarded a boat with the cruise line "Down Under Tours." We went to two different parts of the Great Barrier Reef. It was so sunny, hot, and humid, but truly beautiful out. I went snorkeling for almost 2 hours total on the two different reefs. They were absolutely gorgeous. I saw Nemo fish, huge fish, small fish, blue fish, red fish, one fish, two fish... Okay, Okay. I saw tons of different types of coral and these very long skinny fish called Alligator fish. If you sat still for awhile you could hear "Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!" of the fish eating the coral. It was pretty cool. Otherwise I got some beers on the boat, laid in the sun, talked with some Aussies and had an overall great time. We got a free dinner at a local bar from the boat company and drank at the bar and danced and had fun the rest of the night. Tom went diving with another guy my age who ended up being from the Gold Coast area and he paid for all my drinks all night. He is a nice guy who I will probably hang out with again. His friend went spear fishing up north in Cookstown and went down too far in the water and came up way too fast and passed out in the water. He unfortunately drowned. Kind of crazy that even just diving in the water to catch fish you could
die.
Saturday it hurt alittle bit to get up but we had to. We were picked up at 6:30 AM by Raging Thunder, the white water rapid tour company. We boarded a bus and I took a great nap. We landed at a northern part of the Tully River, which has Level 3 and Level 4 white water rapids. We did 12 kilometers total over the course of 5 hours on the river. It was so awesome! When the waters weren't rough we jumped in and let the currents take us downstream. At one section they made six of us in the raft hook arms. They shot us off a white water cliff and we all barrelled into the water head first. It felt like I was underwater for a minute, but it was probably only 10-15 seconds. The water was so strong but it was SOO cool. We then had to swim to catch back up with the raft but it was so awesome. We almost flipped on one huge rapid and wow it was a close call. So fun! I definitely want to do this back in the states. I know there are rapids in Maine and New Hampshire. Would love to go to Arizona or somewhere with even bigger ones. I am going to New Zealand in two weeks and definitely want to do it there. We had a classic Aussie BBQ lunch which hit the stomach good and kept going. Some chick lost her camera when her friend tossed it down to her off a large cliff and it sunk. Stupid.
They then drove us the hour back to the hostel and we were done. We showered up and these guys fell asleep. I did some crosswords and brain teasers while I waited for them to wake up. We then walked around and found some Modern Asian cuisine place. It was delicious. Real good quality. We then went back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early.
Sunday was tough, not because I drank the night before, because I didn't but because I am officially a chicken. A wuss. :( We went to AJ Hacket bungy jump course. The bungy was 50 meters high (aka more than 150 feet). At the top we could see the ocean, all of the rain forest, it was real cool. I was hooked into the bungy and had my toes off the legde. I freaked out and froze in place. It was really one of the scariest things I have ever (almost) done. I am telling you sky diving is just VERY different. You have more time and a ton more space (clearly). I am disappointed in myself but I don't really regret it. I was scared and crying what can I say? I wasn't mentally prepared to jump off a cliff. Sorry! lol. I would like to try it again because I am so mad at myself, but I don't know if I ever will. Just not for me. Plus Tom and my friend Amber said sky diving is 100,000,000 times better, which I could already tell. Instead I did a minjin jungle swing that goes 120 kilometers per hour. I was hoistered up into some wire contraption and I pulled a rope and it swings you straight down and then upwards like a swing. It felt like freefall for the first 2-3 seconds or so. It was pretty cool. Oh well.
We had some BBQ burgers, mmm, some beers, and then grabbed the shuttle back to the hostel. We then went shopping around the town. I got some cute trickets for my family members to give to them at the annual Holiday Yankee Swap at my uncles house. I am very excited to see everybody and give them their gifts, no matter how small some of them might be. We were going to go skydiving and see the Great Barrier Reef from the sky but we messed up and it ended up our flight was at 9:00AM instead of 2:30PM. DAMMIT! Oh Well I will try to sky dive in NZ then.
Back at the hostel we went swimming all night got a slice of pizza for dinner and drank with some of the locals in the hostel. The hostel had crazy good prices and 7-8 was 2 for 1 drinks for $4. You can't even beat that in the sh*tholes in Worcester! Yeah so the people we chilled with at the hostel, cool people. Then I got a kabob. Yum.
Next morning we had to catch a flight at 9:05 am. We got a taxi and made it with plenty of time to spare. Got to Brisbane and then jumped on the train back to Bond. Got back and then went to Lakeside and did homework. Now on Week 11 but techincally week 10 of classes... Wow time flies....
Check out this news article>> It's about this spider that I saw. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24540399-5009760,00.html
Photos of White Water Rafting should be up in a few days.. Comments welcomed.
Week 10 was cool. I passed in my Drugs and Behavior paper. It was alright but I am taking the class pass/fail so as long as I get a 50 (crazy right) I pass the class. The grading system here is very different from that of the US education institutions.
There are 71 million kangaroos in Australia. They are a protected species and you cannot kill them unless they are on your own private property.
That is 3 times as many kangaroos as people!There are millions of koalas in Australia as well. In the 1920's to the 1950's the koala fur trading business was very lucrative. Furs were sent throughout Australia and to the United States, especially New York City. The koala population was almost decimated as it reached only around 100,000 koalas. In the late 1950's koala fur production was deemed illegal and the animal has been a protected species ever since. Now the koalas are multiplying at a rapid rate and are eating up all of the eucalyptus trees. They are pretty much running out of food because there is no real danger to them. They have an extremely hard back bone so birds of pray cannot attack and eat them if they aren't babies, sick, or old.
Thursday Tom, Dana, and I were picked up at 4:00AM by a shuttle and were brought to Brisbane Airport. We boarded a 6:10AM plane to Cairnes (pronounced Cans) which is a large city thats coastline boarders the Great Barrier Reef waters. At the airport we rented a car and started a drive up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Rainforest. We looked around and had some lunch at a shack, which actually was pretty good! We had to cross a ferry to get to
Daintree. It was just a wooden board that was pulled across a river by cables. There were lots of boat tours on the river because there are thousands of crocodiles living here. The ride up was cool half of the time we were riding along the coastline and the beautiful beaches of northern Cairnes. The other half of the time it was either all rainforest or Aboriginal reservations. I drove for the first time on the wrong side of the road. Well here they consider it correct, but I drove on the left side of the road! It was cool and I did a good job! :)We got to Cape Tribulation and went jungle surfing, otherwise known as ziplining 25 meters
above the rainforest floor. We saw different bugs, spiders, birds, and plantlife. We went upside down on the ziplines and stuff. It was cool but kind of slow. The actual zipline part was fun but it took awhile to change harnesses and let everyone go etc. It was cool but I guess nothing can compare to sky diving at this point.We left and checked into out hostel, The Northern Greenhouse back in Cairnes. The staff was kind of mean. We didn't know we absolutely needed our passports to check in and they were kind of mean about it, but they ended up letting us staying anyways. The hostel was so clean and nice. It use to be a motel. It was only like 20 bucks a night. Free internet. Free breakfast. The rooms were wicked clean. There was one kid in the 6-bed room from Montreal. He is going to Optometry school in Boston next year.
He was nice.We went to dinner at some huge Chinese place. It was okay. Then went back got a few beers in the hostel bar and went to bed.
Friday we walked down to the espanalde at 7:00AM and boarded a boat with the cruise line "Down Under Tours." We went to two different parts of the Great Barrier Reef. It was so sunny, hot, and humid, but truly beautiful out. I went snorkeling for almost 2 hours total on the two different reefs. They were absolutely gorgeous. I saw Nemo fish, huge fish, small fish, blue fish, red fish, one fish, two fish... Okay, Okay. I saw tons of different types of coral and these very long skinny fish called Alligator fish. If you sat still for awhile you could hear "Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!" of the fish eating the coral. It was pretty cool. Otherwise I got some beers on the boat, laid in the sun, talked with some Aussies and had an overall great time. We got a free dinner at a local bar from the boat company and drank at the bar and danced and had fun the rest of the night. Tom went diving with another guy my age who ended up being from the Gold Coast area and he paid for all my drinks all night. He is a nice guy who I will probably hang out with again. His friend went spear fishing up north in Cookstown and went down too far in the water and came up way too fast and passed out in the water. He unfortunately drowned. Kind of crazy that even just diving in the water to catch fish you could
die.Saturday it hurt alittle bit to get up but we had to. We were picked up at 6:30 AM by Raging Thunder, the white water rapid tour company. We boarded a bus and I took a great nap. We landed at a northern part of the Tully River, which has Level 3 and Level 4 white water rapids. We did 12 kilometers total over the course of 5 hours on the river. It was so awesome! When the waters weren't rough we jumped in and let the currents take us downstream. At one section they made six of us in the raft hook arms. They shot us off a white water cliff and we all barrelled into the water head first. It felt like I was underwater for a minute, but it was probably only 10-15 seconds. The water was so strong but it was SOO cool. We then had to swim to catch back up with the raft but it was so awesome. We almost flipped on one huge rapid and wow it was a close call. So fun! I definitely want to do this back in the states. I know there are rapids in Maine and New Hampshire. Would love to go to Arizona or somewhere with even bigger ones. I am going to New Zealand in two weeks and definitely want to do it there. We had a classic Aussie BBQ lunch which hit the stomach good and kept going. Some chick lost her camera when her friend tossed it down to her off a large cliff and it sunk. Stupid.
They then drove us the hour back to the hostel and we were done. We showered up and these guys fell asleep. I did some crosswords and brain teasers while I waited for them to wake up. We then walked around and found some Modern Asian cuisine place. It was delicious. Real good quality. We then went back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early.
Sunday was tough, not because I drank the night before, because I didn't but because I am officially a chicken. A wuss. :( We went to AJ Hacket bungy jump course. The bungy was 50 meters high (aka more than 150 feet). At the top we could see the ocean, all of the rain forest, it was real cool. I was hooked into the bungy and had my toes off the legde. I freaked out and froze in place. It was really one of the scariest things I have ever (almost) done. I am telling you sky diving is just VERY different. You have more time and a ton more space (clearly). I am disappointed in myself but I don't really regret it. I was scared and crying what can I say? I wasn't mentally prepared to jump off a cliff. Sorry! lol. I would like to try it again because I am so mad at myself, but I don't know if I ever will. Just not for me. Plus Tom and my friend Amber said sky diving is 100,000,000 times better, which I could already tell. Instead I did a minjin jungle swing that goes 120 kilometers per hour. I was hoistered up into some wire contraption and I pulled a rope and it swings you straight down and then upwards like a swing. It felt like freefall for the first 2-3 seconds or so. It was pretty cool. Oh well.
We had some BBQ burgers, mmm, some beers, and then grabbed the shuttle back to the hostel. We then went shopping around the town. I got some cute trickets for my family members to give to them at the annual Holiday Yankee Swap at my uncles house. I am very excited to see everybody and give them their gifts, no matter how small some of them might be. We were going to go skydiving and see the Great Barrier Reef from the sky but we messed up and it ended up our flight was at 9:00AM instead of 2:30PM. DAMMIT! Oh Well I will try to sky dive in NZ then.
Back at the hostel we went swimming all night got a slice of pizza for dinner and drank with some of the locals in the hostel. The hostel had crazy good prices and 7-8 was 2 for 1 drinks for $4. You can't even beat that in the sh*tholes in Worcester! Yeah so the people we chilled with at the hostel, cool people. Then I got a kabob. Yum.
Next morning we had to catch a flight at 9:05 am. We got a taxi and made it with plenty of time to spare. Got to Brisbane and then jumped on the train back to Bond. Got back and then went to Lakeside and did homework. Now on Week 11 but techincally week 10 of classes... Wow time flies....
Check out this news article>> It's about this spider that I saw. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24540399-5009760,00.html
Photos of White Water Rafting should be up in a few days.. Comments welcomed.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Week 9 - Bday Week :)
Hello there!
Monday I got a ride to Pacific Fair (huge shopping center) and got some tanks and a dress for Derby Day in Melbourne. Also got a cool feather to wear in my hair. I worked on my Drugs paper alot.
Tuesday I had a bunch of different classes and did heaps of work. Then I went to CBD and Varsity Tavern. Midnight I turned 22! My friends were all buying me shots and it was a good time. I stayed out until 2AM even though I was being picked up at 7AM for skydiving. I mean you only turn 22 once! It was cool.Wednesday: BDAY! I woke up and got a coffee with Tom. W
e then got picked up by "Sky Dive Byron Bay" and headed to Byron. I suited up and met the person I was to be attached to at 14,000 feet!! Big, strong, man? Nope. She was half a foot shorter than me! She had jumped out of a plane "a few thousand" times! Wow!! So we packed into this tiny plane which was rather uncomfortable and headed up in the sky. I got a video tape and over 60 photos of the jump. The video is priceless. So at one point I said so are we almost there and she said Jackie we are at 5,000 feet, we have 9,000 to go! WOW! It took about 20 minutes to get to maximum height. All of a sudden... BOOM they slid open the door and out popped a tandem. She pushed me up to the door and I was like whoaaaaaa... The look on my face is absolutely priceless. Not only do I look like I want to die but I thought I was going to die. I was second out of the plane with not an instant to even second guess it.
We started to free fall and it was one of the best things I have ever experienced in my life. It was
cold and so fast. We were moving at over 120 miles per hour (approx. 200 kilometers per hour). I couldn't help but keep my mouth WIDE open almost the whole drop. My camera man and the chick Sally told me SMILE but that wasn't what my mind was thinking. I was thinking OMG THIS FEELS SO GOOD!! WOW I AM GOING FAST! WOW MY EARS HURT! WOW MY MOUTH IS DRY! WOW WOW WOW Like my mouth was wide open all the pics are ridiculous lol. After like 20 seconds we had fallen 9,000 feet and she opened the parachutte. WAM we got lifted up. It didn't hurt though. I was in AWE. It took 
another minute to touch down to the ground. My views up in the air were amazing. Byron Bay is already one of my favorite spots in Australia, and let me tell you boy was it gorgeous.
As soon as I touched the ground I said, "I want to do it again! Let's go back up!!!!" And I meant it. When I get back to the states my friend Lisa and I are going to go up to Lebanon, Maine and do it again. After I do one more tandem, if I still feel so passionately about it I am contemplating getting my license so I can do jumps alone. The girl talked to me alot on the ride down and I kind of just wanted to be in awe and look out onto the world while floating down.
After this amazing begining to the day, the company brought us to Byron. We got lunch at the Beach Hotel which was real delicious. Then we chilled on the beach and walked around. We were all pretty exhausted. We got a ride back to Bond.
After that I showered and got ready and showed the video to a few people. Colleen and I then went down to Don's and my buddy bartender gave us 6 free drinks/shots. It was great. Then me Sarah, Colleen, Jen, Kayte, Kayleigh, Amy, and Dana went to dinner at Lake in Marketsquare. It was delicious.
Afterwards me, Kayte, Tom, Jennie, Joe, Samarth, and Josh went to Strike Bowl Alley in Surfer's. It was kind of a disappointment not more of my friends came. So many people on facebook said they'd come and didn't even bothering telling me otherwise. Ben and Will didn't even make an attempt to come. They were supposed to be real good friends of mine which is pretty upsetting. Ben especially. He really kind of just showed the lack of understanding when the next day he didn't realize he did anything wrong. I had to beg him just to watch the video nevermind a hug a happy birthday a card for crap's sake. Both guys instead of chilling with me got obliterated from whisky in the dorms. Cool.
The bowling alley was heaps of fun though! We played 2 games with girls versus boys, where we lost miserablly, and then switched up the teams. I got one strike which was awesome. Then the next round up I got zero, so kind of shows how I play. LOL. Everyone got me so many drinks and it was just so much fun. We then went to Melba's nightclub where they gave me a huge scorpion bowl for free. We danced and then I went home. It was probably the best birthday I have ever had. I did a bunch of different things, ate great food, and hung around with all different people throughout the day.
Thursday I woke up at 6AM and jumped into a taxi with Kayleigh. Halfway to the airport she realized she had forgotten her ticket to Derby Day so we had to turn back to get it. Good thing we made it back to the airport on time. We jumped our flight to Melbourne and then got a taxi to the hostel. The hostel was one of the grossest living quarters I have ever seen in my life. I have stayed in many a hostel and this one was by far the worst. Porn magazines thrown about, empty mayonnaise containers on the floor, and ever a band aid stuck to the bed. Good thing Kayleigh had a friend who lived right outside of the city. He had an extra mattress and I ended up sleeping on that the three nights we were in Melbourne. It was cool.
Day one in Melbourne we just walked around and ate lunch at a cafe. That night Kay and I plus Amber and her sis, Kelly, and Gabi went to Little Italy (Lygon Street) and got food. We talked the owner dude into giving us each a free glass of wine and free garlic bread. I even got free pasta with my chicken parm. It was good for sure. Then Kay's friend picked us up and we were off to his place. We chilled and watched some television and passed out. Friday we had to be back at the hostel to be picked up by 7:20 AM for a full day tour of the Melbourne Coast.
We left his house at 5:30 AM and went into the city and got breakfast. The breakfast was actually so good too. So far Melbourne is definitely the place to be for good food!!! We then got into the shuttle and were on our way touring the Great Ocean Road.
Great Ocean Road Tour: We saw live koalas in the forest. We went on a short hike in a 250 year old rainforest named Maits Rest Rainforest. There were trees there that are a breed that is the tallest flowering tree on earth. These trees were monsterous. Really. They were 50-80 meters high, and the highest ones go to 150 meters high (um 1 meter = about 3 feet). They were crazy. Unfortunately most of the day is rained and it was freezing but I still tried to stay positive and enjoy the natural surroundings in the environment. We went to the best wave beach in Australia, Bells Beach. We saw some wild kangaroos just chillin around.
We went to the 12 Apostles, which you can see in the picture right below.
There are really only like 8 Apostles now because some have dissipated into the sea. You could see all of the lines of sediment in the rock formations. It was pretty cool. All of the rocks are losing 2 cm per year and forming new apostles as the old ones are being washed away.
We went to an Aboriginal culture center where a guy showed us different weapons and tools, which were cool and definitely lethal. He also played the didgeridoo for us which was real cool. It seems like such a stoner type of instrument. It is made from natural wood in which a termite has eaten the insides out, but not the outer piece making it completely hollow, naturally. I got a sandwich at a health food shop for lunch and had Chinese food for dinner. They were both just okay.
We went to a giant gorge called Loch Ard Gorge. It was cool. Then we went to London Bridge, which is a natural formation of a bridge in the water. It used to be connected to the main piece of l
and but it broke off in the 1990's. Funny anecdote: There were two people on the other side of the bridge when it broke off. They were safe, but trapped on it. Helicopters and news agencies came and it took about an hour for them to be rescued. The two who were rescued? It was a man and his mistress. He told his work he was sick and called out. His wife thought he was at work. Neither were true. His wife left him and his job fired him. Moral: Never skip work and cheat on your wife in a spot where a natural disaster could happen. Ha Ha.
We got back into Melbourne real late (10PM) and didn't even get to our friends house until 11PM. It was Halloween and I really wanted to go out but it just wasn't feasable. This is probably the first Halloween I have officially missed and not done anything. At least my mom sent me a bunch of Halloween toys! lol
Saturday: DERBY DAY AT FLEMINGTON RACETRACK
Kayleigh, Brad, and I went out to breakfast. It was good and cheap. Then we got dressed up for Derby Day. The Australians pronounce it Darby Day. Over 120,000 people attend this race every year in Melbourne. The culmination of this race is the Melbourne Cup. There were 10 main horse races. I did some research and learned how to bet on different horses. I ended up betting around $100 dollars. I won some money on all the races but two. One race the horse Wilander broke through the wood doors and started to race on his own. I was pissed. He clearly has enough strength to break through the doors, he ran so fast around the track too. He would have won; I am sure of it. On race 7, this horse Whobegotyou was so famous. He had placed in 1st the last 3 of his races. On the radio people said he'd win. All my friends said he'd win. So instead of betting "Each Way" which is if the horse gets 1st, 2nd, or 3rd you win money, I bet WIN $15. Of course the horse didn't win, he got 2nd. So if I had stuck to Each Way I would have won money. In the end I made 85% of my money back which isn't that bad. It was entertaining and it enabled me to talk to a bunch of people around. We ended up getting a good table inside the glass. It was FREEZING outside so we were lucky. We ended up standing with those old guys in the photo but it was cool and they gave us a few free beers. All my friends drank champange and got toasty but I stuck with the beer because I wanted to stay out all night.
I met up with a friend who had good seats upstairs and chilled up there for a few of the races. They had a good view. I stayed until the end and went to the train. It was insane. SO many people and not enough trains. We got on the third train (after being separated from everyone but one girl) and then walked 20 minutes from downtown Melbourne to the hostel. I grubbed out hardcore on the walk home. Yum. Kay and I met up with some other people had a beer and then walked down to this nightclub. The nightclub was called Equinox. We ended up crashing some girls birthday party but I don't think she minded. There were tons of Lebanese people
there. I told one of them I had seen Lebanon two times before and he was like how. I said I was in Israel and looked out through an army post. He asked if I was Jewish and I said what if I was? I was just chillin in Israel anyways.. He said "Jews run the world! They really do! They suck." Then I flipped it and told him not really and what not I am good at the advocacy shit. Then I admitted I was Jewish. He was like, "Whoa. But you are pretty. and normal. I don't understand." I was the first Jew he had ever met in his life and he already had these horrible thoughts in his mind. Then he told his friend they were all whispering and it was weird. They were still nice to me after the fact though and hopefully they weren't drunk and remember that we are normal and nice too. OY! and no not OI like Aussie, OY like Oy gavulta! lol
After this we went to some other bar on the street. I met some chill girls and we got into a taxi and followed them to another club. Unfortunately we lost them and so Kay and I went into the biggest casino in Melbourne, The Crown. It was out of this world. SOOO nice. Like a Foxwoods but maybe even flashier. I had half a sandwich and it was time to go. We jumped in a taxi and went back to Brad's. I fell asleep waiting up for the boys on the couch. I was awoken by a 30 year old friend of Brad's creeping in the room but all was okay and I went back to bed. The next morning Brad made awesome breakfast and we watched movies all day. He dropped us off at the airport. Our flight was delayed (what else is new) and then we got back to the Gold Coast. I watched television, unpacked, and went to bed.
What an awesome week!! I love it here!!! I just wish the weather would perk up!!!!! Plans for next week: 2000 word drugs paper due. Melbourne Cup partying Tuesday. Thursday 6:10AM flight from Brisbane to the Great Barrier Reef~!!! NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE ROCKING WITH EXTREME SPORTS 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! YEA BABY YEA
I LOVE YOU FAMILY AND MISS YOU. THANKS FOR THE CARDS AND MESSAGES ON MY BIRTHDAY! :) KEEP THE MAIL COMING WAHOO!
Photos of me jumping out of a plane at 14,000 ft:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222664&l=498e2&id=1812695
Photos of my trip to Melbourne: (2nd largest city in Australia, by 2010 it will be the largest)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223807&l=b4711&id=1812695
Monday I got a ride to Pacific Fair (huge shopping center) and got some tanks and a dress for Derby Day in Melbourne. Also got a cool feather to wear in my hair. I worked on my Drugs paper alot.
Tuesday I had a bunch of different classes and did heaps of work. Then I went to CBD and Varsity Tavern. Midnight I turned 22! My friends were all buying me shots and it was a good time. I stayed out until 2AM even though I was being picked up at 7AM for skydiving. I mean you only turn 22 once! It was cool.Wednesday: BDAY! I woke up and got a coffee with Tom. W
e then got picked up by "Sky Dive Byron Bay" and headed to Byron. I suited up and met the person I was to be attached to at 14,000 feet!! Big, strong, man? Nope. She was half a foot shorter than me! She had jumped out of a plane "a few thousand" times! Wow!! So we packed into this tiny plane which was rather uncomfortable and headed up in the sky. I got a video tape and over 60 photos of the jump. The video is priceless. So at one point I said so are we almost there and she said Jackie we are at 5,000 feet, we have 9,000 to go! WOW! It took about 20 minutes to get to maximum height. All of a sudden... BOOM they slid open the door and out popped a tandem. She pushed me up to the door and I was like whoaaaaaa... The look on my face is absolutely priceless. Not only do I look like I want to die but I thought I was going to die. I was second out of the plane with not an instant to even second guess it.We started to free fall and it was one of the best things I have ever experienced in my life. It was
cold and so fast. We were moving at over 120 miles per hour (approx. 200 kilometers per hour). I couldn't help but keep my mouth WIDE open almost the whole drop. My camera man and the chick Sally told me SMILE but that wasn't what my mind was thinking. I was thinking OMG THIS FEELS SO GOOD!! WOW I AM GOING FAST! WOW MY EARS HURT! WOW MY MOUTH IS DRY! WOW WOW WOW Like my mouth was wide open all the pics are ridiculous lol. After like 20 seconds we had fallen 9,000 feet and she opened the parachutte. WAM we got lifted up. It didn't hurt though. I was in AWE. It took 
As soon as I touched the ground I said, "I want to do it again! Let's go back up!!!!" And I meant it. When I get back to the states my friend Lisa and I are going to go up to Lebanon, Maine and do it again. After I do one more tandem, if I still feel so passionately about it I am contemplating getting my license so I can do jumps alone. The girl talked to me alot on the ride down and I kind of just wanted to be in awe and look out onto the world while floating down.
After this amazing begining to the day, the company brought us to Byron. We got lunch at the Beach Hotel which was real delicious. Then we chilled on the beach and walked around. We were all pretty exhausted. We got a ride back to Bond.
After that I showered and got ready and showed the video to a few people. Colleen and I then went down to Don's and my buddy bartender gave us 6 free drinks/shots. It was great. Then me Sarah, Colleen, Jen, Kayte, Kayleigh, Amy, and Dana went to dinner at Lake in Marketsquare. It was delicious.
Afterwards me, Kayte, Tom, Jennie, Joe, Samarth, and Josh went to Strike Bowl Alley in Surfer's. It was kind of a disappointment not more of my friends came. So many people on facebook said they'd come and didn't even bothering telling me otherwise. Ben and Will didn't even make an attempt to come. They were supposed to be real good friends of mine which is pretty upsetting. Ben especially. He really kind of just showed the lack of understanding when the next day he didn't realize he did anything wrong. I had to beg him just to watch the video nevermind a hug a happy birthday a card for crap's sake. Both guys instead of chilling with me got obliterated from whisky in the dorms. Cool.The bowling alley was heaps of fun though! We played 2 games with girls versus boys, where we lost miserablly, and then switched up the teams. I got one strike which was awesome. Then the next round up I got zero, so kind of shows how I play. LOL. Everyone got me so many drinks and it was just so much fun. We then went to Melba's nightclub where they gave me a huge scorpion bowl for free. We danced and then I went home. It was probably the best birthday I have ever had. I did a bunch of different things, ate great food, and hung around with all different people throughout the day.
Thursday I woke up at 6AM and jumped into a taxi with Kayleigh. Halfway to the airport she realized she had forgotten her ticket to Derby Day so we had to turn back to get it. Good thing we made it back to the airport on time. We jumped our flight to Melbourne and then got a taxi to the hostel. The hostel was one of the grossest living quarters I have ever seen in my life. I have stayed in many a hostel and this one was by far the worst. Porn magazines thrown about, empty mayonnaise containers on the floor, and ever a band aid stuck to the bed. Good thing Kayleigh had a friend who lived right outside of the city. He had an extra mattress and I ended up sleeping on that the three nights we were in Melbourne. It was cool.
Day one in Melbourne we just walked around and ate lunch at a cafe. That night Kay and I plus Amber and her sis, Kelly, and Gabi went to Little Italy (Lygon Street) and got food. We talked the owner dude into giving us each a free glass of wine and free garlic bread. I even got free pasta with my chicken parm. It was good for sure. Then Kay's friend picked us up and we were off to his place. We chilled and watched some television and passed out. Friday we had to be back at the hostel to be picked up by 7:20 AM for a full day tour of the Melbourne Coast.
We left his house at 5:30 AM and went into the city and got breakfast. The breakfast was actually so good too. So far Melbourne is definitely the place to be for good food!!! We then got into the shuttle and were on our way touring the Great Ocean Road.
Great Ocean Road Tour: We saw live koalas in the forest. We went on a short hike in a 250 year old rainforest named Maits Rest Rainforest. There were trees there that are a breed that is the tallest flowering tree on earth. These trees were monsterous. Really. They were 50-80 meters high, and the highest ones go to 150 meters high (um 1 meter = about 3 feet). They were crazy. Unfortunately most of the day is rained and it was freezing but I still tried to stay positive and enjoy the natural surroundings in the environment. We went to the best wave beach in Australia, Bells Beach. We saw some wild kangaroos just chillin around.We went to the 12 Apostles, which you can see in the picture right below.
There are really only like 8 Apostles now because some have dissipated into the sea. You could see all of the lines of sediment in the rock formations. It was pretty cool. All of the rocks are losing 2 cm per year and forming new apostles as the old ones are being washed away.
We went to an Aboriginal culture center where a guy showed us different weapons and tools, which were cool and definitely lethal. He also played the didgeridoo for us which was real cool. It seems like such a stoner type of instrument. It is made from natural wood in which a termite has eaten the insides out, but not the outer piece making it completely hollow, naturally. I got a sandwich at a health food shop for lunch and had Chinese food for dinner. They were both just okay.We went to a giant gorge called Loch Ard Gorge. It was cool. Then we went to London Bridge, which is a natural formation of a bridge in the water. It used to be connected to the main piece of l
and but it broke off in the 1990's. Funny anecdote: There were two people on the other side of the bridge when it broke off. They were safe, but trapped on it. Helicopters and news agencies came and it took about an hour for them to be rescued. The two who were rescued? It was a man and his mistress. He told his work he was sick and called out. His wife thought he was at work. Neither were true. His wife left him and his job fired him. Moral: Never skip work and cheat on your wife in a spot where a natural disaster could happen. Ha Ha.We got back into Melbourne real late (10PM) and didn't even get to our friends house until 11PM. It was Halloween and I really wanted to go out but it just wasn't feasable. This is probably the first Halloween I have officially missed and not done anything. At least my mom sent me a bunch of Halloween toys! lol
Saturday: DERBY DAY AT FLEMINGTON RACETRACK
Kayleigh, Brad, and I went out to breakfast. It was good and cheap. Then we got dressed up for Derby Day. The Australians pronounce it Darby Day. Over 120,000 people attend this race every year in Melbourne. The culmination of this race is the Melbourne Cup. There were 10 main horse races. I did some research and learned how to bet on different horses. I ended up betting around $100 dollars. I won some money on all the races but two. One race the horse Wilander broke through the wood doors and started to race on his own. I was pissed. He clearly has enough strength to break through the doors, he ran so fast around the track too. He would have won; I am sure of it. On race 7, this horse Whobegotyou was so famous. He had placed in 1st the last 3 of his races. On the radio people said he'd win. All my friends said he'd win. So instead of betting "Each Way" which is if the horse gets 1st, 2nd, or 3rd you win money, I bet WIN $15. Of course the horse didn't win, he got 2nd. So if I had stuck to Each Way I would have won money. In the end I made 85% of my money back which isn't that bad. It was entertaining and it enabled me to talk to a bunch of people around. We ended up getting a good table inside the glass. It was FREEZING outside so we were lucky. We ended up standing with those old guys in the photo but it was cool and they gave us a few free beers. All my friends drank champange and got toasty but I stuck with the beer because I wanted to stay out all night.
I met up with a friend who had good seats upstairs and chilled up there for a few of the races. They had a good view. I stayed until the end and went to the train. It was insane. SO many people and not enough trains. We got on the third train (after being separated from everyone but one girl) and then walked 20 minutes from downtown Melbourne to the hostel. I grubbed out hardcore on the walk home. Yum. Kay and I met up with some other people had a beer and then walked down to this nightclub. The nightclub was called Equinox. We ended up crashing some girls birthday party but I don't think she minded. There were tons of Lebanese people
there. I told one of them I had seen Lebanon two times before and he was like how. I said I was in Israel and looked out through an army post. He asked if I was Jewish and I said what if I was? I was just chillin in Israel anyways.. He said "Jews run the world! They really do! They suck." Then I flipped it and told him not really and what not I am good at the advocacy shit. Then I admitted I was Jewish. He was like, "Whoa. But you are pretty. and normal. I don't understand." I was the first Jew he had ever met in his life and he already had these horrible thoughts in his mind. Then he told his friend they were all whispering and it was weird. They were still nice to me after the fact though and hopefully they weren't drunk and remember that we are normal and nice too. OY! and no not OI like Aussie, OY like Oy gavulta! lolAfter this we went to some other bar on the street. I met some chill girls and we got into a taxi and followed them to another club. Unfortunately we lost them and so Kay and I went into the biggest casino in Melbourne, The Crown. It was out of this world. SOOO nice. Like a Foxwoods but maybe even flashier. I had half a sandwich and it was time to go. We jumped in a taxi and went back to Brad's. I fell asleep waiting up for the boys on the couch. I was awoken by a 30 year old friend of Brad's creeping in the room but all was okay and I went back to bed. The next morning Brad made awesome breakfast and we watched movies all day. He dropped us off at the airport. Our flight was delayed (what else is new) and then we got back to the Gold Coast. I watched television, unpacked, and went to bed.
What an awesome week!! I love it here!!! I just wish the weather would perk up!!!!! Plans for next week: 2000 word drugs paper due. Melbourne Cup partying Tuesday. Thursday 6:10AM flight from Brisbane to the Great Barrier Reef~!!! NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE ROCKING WITH EXTREME SPORTS 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! YEA BABY YEA
I LOVE YOU FAMILY AND MISS YOU. THANKS FOR THE CARDS AND MESSAGES ON MY BIRTHDAY! :) KEEP THE MAIL COMING WAHOO!
Photos of me jumping out of a plane at 14,000 ft:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222664&l=498e2&id=1812695
Photos of my trip to Melbourne: (2nd largest city in Australia, by 2010 it will be the largest)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223807&l=b4711&id=1812695
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