Good On You!

Hey everyone!

So I've been pretty quiet for the past month because I've been busy completing some assignments for my classes. However, I have managed to go on a winery tour of the Yarra River Valley here in Victoria and I just came back from a trip to Sydney, New South Wales and the captial city, Canberra. Here are some pics!

It is fall here so the grapes have already been picked. Note the mountains in the background as the better wine is grown at a higher elevation here.

Here is a cool wine holder that I found. I thought it was pretty cool so I snapped a pic! #woodworking

Another picture of some cabernet sauvignon(left) and some pinto grigio(right).  Unfortunately I've become a wine snob...

                                

                                                                         St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. English Gothic architecture.

Rugby League game.  South Sydney vs. Canberra. South Sydney are the "rabbitohs" and their mascot looks like Buster Baxter from "Arthur."

Bondi Beach. Touristy.

Pretty cool Aboriginal street performer.  He plays the didgeridoo like a pro.

                                 

                                        Sydney Opera House. As a civil engineer in study this was a cool experience.

Eating at "Harry's Famous Mince Pies." It is like a shepherd's pie but with mashed peas, mashed potatoes and gravy on top.

Parliament House in the background. We got to go to question time for the Australian House of Representatives and see the two parties (Liberal and Labor mostly) accuse each other of wrongdoing and yell at each other like first-graders, which was very entertaining.

                      

                               This is the a replica of the "Mace" that the speaker would hold to remind everyone of his power.

This is part of the "Tent Embassy" that was set up by the Aboriginals in protest of unjust treatment by the government. 

Cairns!

Hey everyone!

Here are some more pictures from my last two weeks of activities.  This past week was mid-semester break so I headed up to Cairns (pronounced 'keens' in Queensland) for a few days to check out the Great Barrier Reef.  That's one less thing on my bucket list!

Departure from the airport.  Cheap JetStar tickets means small seats!

This is a 'strangler fig'.  It starts as a vine growing up a tree and over time it eventually looks like this.  

This is the best picture I could get from a fruit orchard in Queensland.  There were some pretty exotic fruits and the only one I remember is 'wattleberry'.

Proof that I actually was there.  The background is somewhere near Cape Tribulation, so named by Captain Cook upon first arrival.

Queensland Turkey.  

Swimming in a river in the Rainforest.

As you can see there is a lot of water so I was very careful with my camera.  That is the reason why I don't have any pictures of me snorkeling Great Barrier Reef or swimming through a giant waterfall.  Overall a fun, exciting and rainy few days!

Weekend Update!

Here are some pics of my adventure over the past three weeks or so!  This is the week before Spring Break so I'm preparing to turn in some papers and projects.

Rock climbing at the Grampians National Park

St. Patrick's Day.  I'm wearing blue haha!

Action shot rock climbing at the Grampians.

We finally made it to the top at Grampians National Park.  Time for some yoga and meditation.

Dad I think you'll get this picture.  I sent it to Natalie also.

I learned how to throw a boomerang.  The guy in the picture is actually of Aboriginal descent.  Throwing off the jacket to reduce the drag force.

Cathedrals Mountain Range- Lord of the Rings country.  We went bushwalking and mountain climbing and orienteering.  Very fun weekend!

AUSTRALIANS DRIVE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!

It's the 3^rd week of school now, and I've comfortably settled into my classes.  The system is much different here, and I have much less class time than I am used to at Northwestern.  But less class time just means I have to put in plenty of time outside the classroom so I understand the material.  My class schedule looks like this:

1.  Engineering Site Characterisation

2.  Structural Theory and Design II

3.  High Rise Structures

4.  Australia NOW

I like all of my classes so far, but I really haven't had a lot of assignments due.  But just like in the US the workload for engineers seems to be a little more than the workload for other majors.

As for social activities on campus I've come to the conclusion that the campus is really only active during the work week since most students are commuter students.  This is good because I can avoid a wait for a school computer at the computer lab by going in the evening, but it is a little disconcerting that most libraries close at 11PM and only a few are open till midnight. 

Footy practice was a failure.  It turns out the "club" teams here are more like varsity teams in the US.  But, being a foreigner I didn't know that.  I hustled to the footy field with my fellow American friend only to be politely informed in front of a locker room full of 30 meatheads that the club team is not for beginners or for recreation.  Message taken!

However I've found other clubs on campus and have joined the mountaineering club, which does a lot of camping, rock climbing, kayaking and other outdoorsy things.  It is a large club and they usually have interest from enough people to go on multiple excursion every weekend.  I've signed up for a "beginners" rock climbing trip on the 23^rd of March, but I don't remember where exactly it is.  I've been able to practice rock climbing indoors and really enjoying it and hope to continue to get better.  Contrary to popular belief rock climbing is very safe as long as you know what you are doing and trust the person belaying you from below.  I think I may have found a new hobby.

This past weekend I booked a car with four other friends and we set out for 3 days to experience The Great Ocean Road.  The Great Ocean Road is a scenic highway that is similar to Highway 1 in California but with an Australian flair.  We stayed in hostels for the two nights, and some sights we visited were:

1.  Belles Beach (home of the Rip Curl surfing competition)

2. 12 Apostles

3.  Gibson's Steps

4.  Melba Gully State Park

5. Otway Lighthouse

6.  Port Fairy Music Festival (think Crocodile Dundee + accordions and you have a pretty good idea what it was like)

We also saw plenty of small beaches and went on tons of hikes.  More importantly I learned how to drive a car with the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car on the left side of the road.  It takes some getting use to but I was aided along the road with multiple sign stating, "AUSTRALIANS DRIVE ON THE LEFT".  The Great Ocean Road is very touristic.  But by the end of the trip we were exhausted and tired of each other. 

Fun Facts:

1.  Rednecks=bogans

2.  Melbourne as a city has tons and tons of Asians.  Couple Asians with the Melbourne hipster urban style and you have an odd combination.  Think skinny jean with 2 inch heels for guys.

3.  Most college students work at the same time they study.  Also they don't pay for college until they have secured a full-time job and then a portion of their paycheck goes to the university to pay for tuition.

4.  It's $4 for the washing machine.  Detergent not included.

5.  Prime Minister of Australia is Julia Gillard.  She is unmarried, lives with male companion, has no kids and is an atheist.  

6.  Calling someone a wanker is like calling someone a douchebag.

7.  Australia's standard copy paper size is narrower and longer than the standard copy paper in the US.  I can't fit anything I print out in my folders.

Here are some photos finally!

Picnic at Princes Park.  I'm eating grapes like it's my job.

Neutrino in the Botanical Gardens.  Also last know whereabouts of my sunglasses.

Surfing with friends.  We are all new at this.

Triplet falls in Otway National Park along The Great Ocean Road.

Me standing next to a giant tree in Otway National Park.

Triplet Falls.  A little anticlimatic.

Beach near 12 Apostles.

Two of the eight remaining Apostles.  They topple over due to the constant bombardment by the waves.

Last week before classes begin

Birthday!

Although my 21^st birthday would have been an extra special occasion in the United States, my 21^st birthday celebration here in Australia was memorable in its own right.  A few other Americans on the program and I went out to eat at a BYOB restaurant on Lygon called Tiamo’s.  Everyone shared some cheap wine (from bottles not a bag because we’re classy) and had a great time chatting and eating .  Afterward my 8^th floor friends bought me a red velvet birthday cupcake to celebrate and they sang me happy birthday.  I’m glad I remember my 21^st.

Orientation week was a little lackluster compared to the welcome week activities I am familiar with at Northwestern.  I think the main reason the orientation wasn’t great was because most students here commute to campus a couple days a week and don’t want to trek to campus just to meet people they probably won’t talk to again.  Not many Australians live on campus so making orientation events mandatory is difficult, but I did manage to meet plenty of Australian first year students in my host group which I was happy about. 

I visited the Melbourne Museum and saw some amazing Aboriginal art, boomerangs and shields as well as a 15 person canoes made of tree bark.  Admission was free with a student card so hopefully I can make it back there to investigate the exhibits more.

The last two days of Orientation Week was the societies and clubs fair.  I joined the Student Wine Society and the Science Club and am considering joining the Mountaineering Club and the footy (AFL) team.  The Student Wine society was only $10 and has free all you can drink wine tastings every other week and you get a 15% discount at the local liquor store.  The Science Club does things like pub crawls and barbecues (cookouts) on campus weekly and also does pub crawls (Australians like pub crawls which naturally begin at 5PM).  The Mountaineering Club does a lot of trips to the bush where people can rock climb, canoe and do other outdoors things.  AFL should just be a learning session for me because I can never figure out the rules when I watch on TV.

I just got back from surf weekend.  It was simply amazing!  I got surf lessons and two hours to “practice” during which I fell on my ass repeatedly.  I did manage to stand up a few times and the feeling was exhilarating and I hope to try to surf again while I’m here.  I was a little sore the next day from pulling myself to my feet on the board which I was not prepared for but other than that I have no regrets.  There were some amazing surfers out there who caught the waves with ease and also there were a few kayakers who caught waves too which seemed odd to me.  We stayed at a YMCA center near a different beach and layed out at that beach most of the time and had some friendly yet competitive drinking games.  The surf weekend was only international student so I met people from Ireland, Canada, England, Norway, Spain, France and Italy. 

Fun Facts:

1.     Americans speak louder than Australians, so that is another way to identify an American besides the accent.

2.     The honor system is used for all trams, and each passenger is required to swipe their card when he gets on.  There are undercover cops on the trams to enforce the system, and the ticket for failure to swipe is about $200.

3.     Most Americans are used to a night out beginning about 10PM and ending in the early hours of the morning.  Australians on the other hand begin to pregame a night out at 6PM, arrive at the bars or clubs at 8PM and are soundly back at home no later than midnight.

4.     Canberra is pronounced “Cambra.”

5.     Sunglasses are “sunnies.”

6.     Footy means different things in different regions in Australia.  In Victoria, the state where Melbourne is located, footy means Australian Rules Football (AFL) and in other places of Australia it means rugby.  People also call soccer footy. 

7.     Cheapest alcohol in Australia is called “goon” and is basically wine in a bag and is a worse version of Franzi in the states.

That’s all for now.

Next time: first week of school, first footy practice, 

Moving In Day!

Moving In Day!

As we stepped off the bus onto Swanston Street we all check out our accommodation for the next 4 months.  We live on 746 Swanston Street in the suburb of Melbourne called Carlton to the north of Melbourne.  My room is #805 and it is at the end of the hall so I suspect that the noise will be reduced here.  University of Melbourne Parkville Campus is right across the street and is about a 30 second walk aways which makes it an easy commute to and from campus.  Also the tram runs right on Swanston so we can utilize it to get to the Central Business District(CBD) with ease.

After settling in to our new homes we set out to find out new things on our own.  Lygon Street is parallel to Swanston Street and has a ton of restaurants, stores and supermarkets so getting acquainted with that street is a priority.  However everything is new and getting lost is inevitable.  Australians are superfriendly and are eager to direct any foreigner to a destination.  Melbourne is home to many foreign-borns and has something like 140 different languages spoken in it suburbs. 

In the first week or so we’ve been to a lot of the bars in the area and have met people from a ton of countries and from many different places around the US.  I’m noticing there are not a lot of Americans here and more Canadians than I would have guessed.  So usually people think I am from Canada when I introduce myself.  We’ve been to the botanical gardens, seen the best aboriginal didgeridoo player perform at an outdoor amphitheater and seen Rod Laver Stadium where the Australian Open is played.  Also we’ve located the Victoria Market, which is the best outdoor market I’ve ever been to and has every thing including wine sellers (who sells refills at really cheap prices!) butcher shops, and tons of fresh fruits an vegetables.  Haggling required!

This week is orientation week where all the first years and new international student have the opportunity to get acquainted with campus and the daily routine of a typical UniMelb student.  I was by far the oldest in my group but I had a good time meeting new people and learning a few new things. School starts next week. 

Facts:

1.     Australians always say CBD and never downtown.

2.     Crossing the street is very dangerous because the cars are going the wrong way and there are trams running in the middle that don’t stop really fast. 

3.     Signage in Australia is very graphic.  Signs on the tram promote no smoking with a man coughing up blood on a white cloth with the caption reading, “Money isn’t the only thing you are coughing up.” A pack is about $20 but there are a ton of people importing cheaper from China haha.

4.     When the crosswalk sign turns green there is a rapid beeping to help the blind.  It is odd and takes a little time to get used to.

5.     Melbourne is prounounced “Melbin.”

6.     Internet is pretty poor in Australia compared with the US.  There is a significant amount of people who don’t have great internet access at home, which I’m used to but which frustrates a lot of the Americans especially the girls.

7.     UniLodge: great location, great people, weird indoor design and apparently infested with cockroaches on some floors (although I believe this might be a myth, but the deception scares all the girls to death for sure).  If I can handle Kansas mice I can handle these buggers!

Next time:  my birthday, fun food and surf trip! 

I made it!

I made it!

The 16 hour flight was the longest of my life but thankfully the time passed swiftly with the help of benedryl and free unlimited drinks (is it bad to combine those two?).  From the airport we met the rest of our crew who are also on the abroad program.  There are students from Fordham, Pomona (California), Northwestern and a few other students from other schools. 

After congregating and sharing our common sufferings or celebrations on the just-finished flight over we headed to our bus.  Our first stop was in St. Kilda, which has a great view of Port Phillip and has a lot of hipster shops and tasty restaurants.  My first Australian meal was a pita pocket filled with felafel balls, vegetables and something green that was sliced really thin.  Felafels are made from chickpeas mashed up and formed into balls and then fried.  They are delicious.  After checking out the beach and noticing the leathery back and sunscreen of the bathers we decided to get out of the sun before we ourselves were burned…  Too late for me because I got a light burn on the back of my neck from the intense sun.  Needless to say I applied plenty of sunscreen on from there on. 

After St. Kilda we moved on to a nature preserve where we saw kangaroos and some great Australian scenery.  Finally we moved on to our hotel for our 3 day orientation in Sorrento.  Sorrento is right on a peninsula separating Port Phillip and the Pacific Ocean.  For our Orientation we learned interesting facts about Australian and got acquainted with Australian laws, history and culture. 

Fun Facts:

1.     They eat kangaroo meat here.  Kangaroos are viewed as pests

2.     Australians main form of humor is sarcasm (self-proclaimed)

3.     Vegemite smells like peanut butter, tastes like salt and looks like shit

4.     Australians are obligated to vote and if they don’t they are fined a couple hundred dollars

5.     It is illegal to drive a bicycle with a BAC of greater than 0.05

More to come!