What is Mardi Gras?

     So Mardi Gras in the States is a giant festival/party thing in Louisiana. I don't know anything about it other than the streets are super crowed, everybody's drunk and wants beads. I honestly don't know what's going on the whole time. In Australia, Mardi Gras is a week long celebration/festival for the gays and lesbians... huh. At the end of the week there is a giant parade on Oxford Street in Sydney. Millions of people go and watch, and like in America, get totally drunk.
     Of course we wanted to go. A group of us from Weerona got ready on Saturday morning and took the train into Sydney. Victoria, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Jackie, Keri, Allie, Anne and I all went to the train station and met up  with Ashley's and my friend Mark (Netherlands). We got off the train in Sydney Central and started walking. We were looking for China Town. It wasn't supposed to be very far. We stopped at an intersection to try and decided which way we were supposed to go. I was standing on the curb waiting for someone to decide a direction when a bus shoots right behind me. It was literally inches away from my backpack. Just to give an idea of the closeness of this bus, it freaked out the girls who were standing IN FRONT of me... Needless to say, I was a little bit frightened by the experience. WELCOME TO SYDNEY!
     Since Weerona doesn't give us lunch on the weekends we were getting pretty hungry. When we had found our way we thought, "Hey, we're going to China town, let's get some good Chinese food." Somehow, it's not actually as easy as it sounds. All the restaurants were overpriced and, to be honest, were kinda hard to find. We finally decided on one, that in order to enter, required walking up a narrow stairwell and turning a few times to get to the dining area. At the top of the stairs we were greeted by a giant fish tank of grey disgusting looking fish waiting to be eaten... wooo! Now I'm ready to eat.
     In Australia minimum wage is pretty good. This means general employees like waiters and waitresses get paid pretty well. As a result, customers are not expected to tip, which is pretty cool. Except for the fact that since they aren't working for a tip, the service is a bit lacking. In the restaurant the water was always empty and they rarely came by to check if we needed anything. The food came out super slowly, and they forgot part of our order. The menu was wrong and the food wasn't very good. Our order did include chicken feet though... I guess that's just setting them up for failure. ANYway.
     We left there feeling a little sick to our stomachs and headed down the road. We stopped again at Paddy's Market. This is just a giant, touristy flee market. There were heaps (<–Australian slang) of trinkets and weird shirts, cell phone covers and jewelry, scarfs and headbands, kangaroo pelts and kangaroo nuts... Also Keri and I found a little spot with just neck ties. More neck ties than I had ever seen in one place in every color and pattern possible. This included one with pigs in different sex positions... classy. A couple of the girls bought some random things and then we headed out.
     With our stomachs still settling, memorabilia in hand, and a purple boa around my neck we headed out in search of Oxford Street. We could tell we were getting closer when peoples clothes got more and more outrageous. There were girls AND guys in butterfly wings, dresses, bright colors, and spandex... There were even a couple guys that were split in half. Their left side was in a men's black suit and their right was wearing a bright red, sequined dress.
     Before we knew it, we were being herded around buildings, up and down streets, through alleys, and into random buildings with thousands of other people, equally as lost as we were. We ended up walking through some sort of mall before finding our way to the overcrowded Oxford Street. The sidewalk was packed all the way to the entry way of the building. We stood around a bit and waited since this was our second attempt at getting a good view. We figured this spot was as good as any. Then, all of a sudden, the crowd rushed forward about 15 feet. What is this a concert? Whatever, now we're at the edge of the sidewalk by a street sign with a bike rack at the bottom. This will work great as a perch to look over everyone in the street.
     After standing around for about 45 minutes motorcycles started revving and driving through the streets. Mark pointed out one specifically. This is my thought process as I realized what I was looking at. "What? Where? Oh nice. Look at that old man, covered in tattoos, not wearing a shirt. How funny. Wait, what? That's not an old man... OMG it's an old woman! Oh no I'm scarred for life! Mark! Why did you point that out to me?!" An interesting sight that I can honestly say I am NOT glad to have seen.
     These motorcycles rode by for a long enough time for us to get board with them. The day had already been long and some of the girls wanted to go home. The parade hadn't even started yet. At this point Anne, Keri, Kaitlyn, and Jackie went home. Most people had come to this event much more experience than us in the art of parade watching. They had brought milk crates and buckets to stand on. Gonna have to remember that for next time. Luckily there were vendors selling plastic stools to stand on. Victoria went and bought one. When she returned she promptly made friends with the people standing in front of us and joined them out in the street. Despite being a little difficult to stand on our bike rack perch worked quite well as a look out. Occasionally we were told to stop climbing on the sign which we would do. For a while.
     The parade had started now and we had met this guy named Andy (Oslo, Norway). He was super friendly. And drunk. We all made friends with the people around us. The parade included a heaps of people holding signs about equal rights. They wanted to raise awareness for events they were holding and things like that. They wanted to be allowed to get married, adopt and be accepted. There were groups that were advising people on who to vote for and people who, I think, just wanted to dance... All in all pretty cool. My camera died though which wasn't cool.
     The parade lasted a few hours and then as soon as it ended, everyone was gone. People just seemed to disappear. We found our way to Kings Cross where we had a few adventures which include me being asked if I was looking to have a good time tonight... I can tell you about these adventures upon request, but this blog has gone on too long. Hasta pronto.

This Means War!

So classes have only been on for 3 weeks. It's strange because most of my friends at home are already in spring break... I've fallen behind in blogs, but in the next couple days I will be catching up. Prepare yourself for a blogging tornado!

     Wednesday, March 2nd was my first day of class. I had my Spanish tutorial. My classes here are set up with one lecture a week (1 hr.) and one tutorial a.k.a. Tut. or lab per week (3 hrs.). My Spanish Tut. is on Wednesdays at 5:30 and Lecture is on Friday at 12:30. Printed Media Lab is on Thursday at 9:30, but it got bumped back to 10:30. Yay! Right after that class ends I have my Printed Media Lecture. On Friday I have Intro to Web Design at 8:30 (yikes) and then nothing until my Spanish Lecture. Right after Spanish I have the Web Design Lab. This makes for an awesome weekend, but is a little annoying because Fridays are my busiest days. Over all I'm very happy with my schedule, and wouldn't mind having it set up this way every semester. Three days of class a week is not too bad.
     Once I figured out where all my classes were and when I needed to leave to get to them on time... school was, and still is, pretty fun. Apparently during the first week of classes there are no labs for my art classes... This wouldn't be too big a deal if they weren't so dang early. It's rough getting up at 8:30 to go to a class that isn't on. But it all worked out. After not having class, I came back to college. I played a game of pool and saw Keri (Pennsylvania). She said that a group of people were going down to the beach soon, and asked if I wanted to come. DUH! After getting ready, I headed upstairs to where everyone was. I went to Laura's room and she was just finishing getting ready. The other people who were going had all started skyping or something so they were NOT ready... Laura and I wanted to get going, so we took off without them. The two of us went to North Beach and hung out. I went into the water for a bit while she did the girl thing and laid out in the sun. The Ocean and I got in a bit of a tussle, with the water being the victor. It threw me around a bit and slammed me into the ground a couple times. It also made me late... When I came out of the water I had barely enough time to get to my class. I jumped on the bus and made it to campus with a few minutes to spare. Haha Ocean! I made it. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know where my class was... I went into the library and looked everything up, asked the librarian for a general direction of the building and headed out. I found it. I was only 15 minutes late. To a class that was only an hour long. And it was the first day so they let us out early... I talked to the teacher after class and I didn't miss anything. Phew.
     Earlier in the day I had told Ashley that I would go down to the beach with her, so when I got back to college I found her. We headed down to North Beach for round two of my fight. We met up with Laura who was still there and Jess (Connecticut) was now with Laura as well. While the girls talked, I dug a hole... I've discovered that it is compulsory to do so when at the beach. Weather I want to or not (I usually do) I end up digging one. It also works well as a warm up for my battle with the waves. After digging, I went into the water and fought my opponent once more. Once I had shown the water who was boss in round two, I decided to come in and relax a bit. This way I could recover a little for the final round. 
     I jumped in one more wave and rode it in. While I was putting the final blows on my nemesis I felt a few pokes... What's this?! When I stood up I could feel the poking all over me. I looked down and there was a Bluebottle (jellyfish) on my right hand! I shook it off, but there was another one on my left hand! The waves had called in for back-up! I didn't know they had such effective artillery! I got them all off and stumbled to shore. I went to my fighting coach (the lifeguard) and told him about the cheap shots (getting stung), but all he could say was, "I'm sorry son, there's nothing we can do. It's too late. I'm afraid we're going to have to throw in the towel." The battle couldn't end like this! I must prevail!
     My "coach" said that a shower with fresh water was the best thing I could do. I rinsed off and took a seat in my corner (the beach). This whole thing happened at exactly the wrong time. My back-up (the girls) were just about to join me in battle... not anymore. After about 10 minutes all the places I had been stung were visible. The tentacles had wrapped around both my wrists and had gotten random parts up my arms. I had gotten hit with another one on my back and also on my side. I'm not sure how many stung me, but the places where I had been stung rose up and turned red like an allergic reaction. They felt itchy and uncomfortable. The Ocean had bested me this time. At that moment I took a vow NEVER to be defeated by this enemy again. I must work harder. I must train longer. I must listen to Eye of the Tiger Louder! Oh shoot, I'm late again!
     Nathan, one of the guys from The Red Frogs (a group that comes to the college and hangs out with everyone on random nights), had told me about a garage gym that he goes to with a bunch of his friends. GYM MASSIVE! Two pecs, two biceps, one vision, GET MASSIVE! We had been trying to connect and go work out there, but I didn't have a phone so it was hard to make plans. We had talked on facebook previously and Nathan was going to pick me up from Weerona at 5:15 today. The Ocean had made me late once more, but this time only by 5 minutes. When I got in the car, Nathan had also gotten me a phone! Now we could get a hold of each other much easier. Thank you Nathan.
     The gym was a perfect chance for me to prepare my next attack against the enemy.  I met a few guys at the gym and learned a bit more about working out. You better watch your back Ocean. I've been growing and learning very quickly. Before you know it I'm gonna be the one stinging you.

WARHAMMER 40000!!!!!

     I want to start by saying that I play pool in the TV room on most nights. Ashley and I play best 2-out-of-3 games. She has beaten me pretty much every night. It's rough. I might win one of the games but that's it. After playing so much pool, I'm proud to say that I have gotten much better. My shots are no longer... well less often, based completely on luck, and as a result, my winning nights have increased. By the time I get back from this trip I will gladly challenge all y'all in a game of pool.
     I've walked around town a bit more and am starting to know where everything is. I've looked in a ton of stores and know where to get most of the things I might look for. I've gone to the beach a bunch of times, and know that I like City Beach the most. All I do is body surf, and it is so much fun. I would use a board, but I don't have one. I get sunburned most days so sunscreen and lotion are a must. OOOOHHHHH YA! When I was walking around the mall one day I went down a weird little branch of stores. It was kinda empty, but I found this strange little gaming shop. There was Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and Lord of the Rings... I had no idea what any of them were, but figured I'd take a look. The man who owned the store was pretty cool. He started to explain everything to me and show me how the game works. We even played a game against each other. I won. Duh. The three games were all similar in concept, they just had different side stories and themes. The game was a little like risk, but took a lot more imagination. There were different races of people or monsters, and each race had different characters. The different characters had different abilities, strengths, armor, weapons, vehicles, and buildings. Each character was a small model. The gamer could build and customize each piece individually. Even the painting of each one was done by hand. This made the game into an intricate hobby. It also made me think, "Wow, apart from being kinda nerdy, this game and it's players are pretty impressive!"  I couldn't believe the detail in each character. They even had painted and decorated landscapes for them to play on. But I digress. During game play the characters were usually in units and had to move together as one. The player rolls dice to see how far they can move and then uses a measuring tape to go that distance. Once contact has been made with an enemy unit, they can attack. Dice are rolled to see how many hits are made, then again to see how many are landed. The defending player rolls to see how many hits are blocked or avoided. The shop owner was really cool and described what happened with each hit. It was almost as if he what was watching everything happen and then telling it to me. He knew each character and could tell you how they were going to react. When certain units were attacked both players would roll to see if the losing soldiers would flee. Some units had shooting weapons and could attack from distances. There were different cone shaped rulers to see where the shot would go and land. Everything was decided with dice. There was one turn where I rolled 17 dice at once. The game was actually pretty entertaining, and once I understood what was going on, I enjoyed playing. The saving point for me was that each set cost at least $30... Way too much money for a hobby that would take way too much time. 

Weekend "Camping" - Day 2

     So getting up early in the morning was awful, as always. The girls had already started on breakfast. Laura was making scrambled eggs and Victoria was makin some bacon. Ashley was starting on our lunches and I did the boy job, cutting cheese... for our sandwiches that is. We sat out on the porch and enjoyed the beautiful morning. After cleaning up we headed over Tonia's to leave for our hike. We all piled into the van and began our trip to Gulaga. We were not sure what to expect. Tonia had said that we were not going to be able to talk for the entire hike up the mountain, and it was at least a 2 hour hike... that would be rough. We also weren't sure how long it would take to get there. One guess was 45 minutes. It was 2 hours! What ever this gave me and Ashley lots of time to ramble on about sleep, dreams, random places we have slept, and how good we are at sleeping. Laura was quite impressed with our ability to talk about nothing for such an incredibly long time. It was a fun trip and all the rambling helped the drive go quickly.
     When we got out of the van, we were in at a small gas station/convenient store kind of place. It had one gas pump outside and a porch out front. It was a nice little place, but we had to start our hike right away. We were introduced to our guide, Lynn (aboriginal Australian), who's family was some of the leaders in a group of aboriginals who had lived there in the past. The walk began on a dirt road and then slowly transitioned into an overgrown trail, but was steep the whole time. Before the brush started to get to thick we stopped and looked out over the valley. Lynn started to tell us what the aboriginals had believed about the land and creation. We were hiking the mother mountain and one of her sons had gone off into the see and become an island just off the coast, and the younger son had split off and moved a few kilometers away. We walked up further and Lynn would talk to us all the way up. (Yay, we didn't have to do the whole hike in silence!) Where ever the ground was moist we had to keep an eye out for tiny leaches that would get on our legs. They weren't dangerous or anything, just annoying.
     For the majority of the hike we were unable to see much of the mountain. There was a rock that showed us that we were half way up the mountain, but we basically just had to keep going with no idea of our progress. I'm assuming Lynn could tell our general progress, but for the rest of us it was just blind hiking. It was kind of fun, but even when we got to our stopping point (a picnic kind of area in a saddle near the top of the mountain) we couldn't really see where we were. This was kinda disappointing because there was no satisfaction of seeing how high you had gone. Maybe that's just me though. Once we had all made it, we sat down at the table and ate our lunches. Most of us were out of water since the hike too so long. That wasn't too big a deal though. It was nice and cool in the shade. Lynn mixed some special clay stuff with water and made a sort of paint with it. She gave each of us a spot on our chin, forehead and each of our temples. One for our eyes to see, our mind to be open, our mouth to talk and our mind's eye to put them all together.
     We started walking down a trail that went off into the bushes and Lynn was telling us about the aboriginal culture. We had to let the forest know that we were all coming by clapping two sticks together once for each person. That was my job. We went a little further in until we were at a few giant rocks. One of them had a ring around it and it was what the elders had used to communicate with the earth and meditate. There was a rock that represented females and a rock for males. We went a little further and there were three giant rocks stacked up. They represented body, mind, and spirit. They showed how the three needed to be balanced with each other. Further in and there was Noah's Ark. I found it interesting that they used a Biblical story to name one of their totems (what they called the rock formations). We went up onto a giant rock that was flat on top. It was the teaching rock. When the boys were about 13 and becoming men, they were taken there to learn about themselves and their beliefs. There was a rocks that looked like whales, dolphins, sharks, giant snakes, and all sorts of other things. It was amazing, because that really did look like those things. Then there was the ladies area....     
We walked back and saw a birthing rock and a pregnant lady rock. It was a pretty interesting experience. The hike down was pretty fun. The girls I was staying with and I walked together and each one of them rolled an ankle at least three times... I didn't even one time. Booya. No one was seriously injured and we only got leaches on our shoes and socks. When we got down we were dying of thirst so we went into the little shop and bought some bottles and some ice cream bars. SO GOOD! Most of us hadn't had anything to drink since the top of the mountain. We sat on the porch of the store for a bit relaxing. When we got back into the van for the trip back, the inevitable happened... we ALL fell asleep.
     We made it back to our "cabins" around 5 ish. We had wanted to go to the beach since like 10 minutes into the hike, so that was our first move. The water felt amazing, and the waves were fun to play in. This time the girls came into the water as well, so I was brave enough to venture out to the big waves. It was lots of fun. We were down there for maybe 40 minutes, then went up to the pool... it was a little chilly cuz it was getting late, but the water felt very nice. We dried off, got dressed and went to dinner. Tonight we had pumpkin keish stuff. It was pretty dang good. Right before dinner we pet some kangaroos. No big deal. Just average stuff. After eating, the roommates and I went back to our place. Victoria, who shall from now on be called Baby Bone, sat on the couch and wrote in her journal while Laura, Ashley and I went to walk on the beach. The stars were beautiful and the air was warm. I was expecting to see different constellations while here since we are in different hemispheres but we could see Orion. He was upside down though... We made our way back to the house and just chilled there for the night. We were going to go into the pool, but it closed at like 8. Boo. We... sat around and drank the champagne while getting to know each other a little better. It was a fun night. I really had a good time getting to know everyone from the program a little better.

Weekend "Camping" - Day 1

     So the ciee leaders said that we were going to go camping up at Merry Beach. We would be staying in a cabin for 2 nights. We would be given money for groceries that would provide us breakfast and lunch for those two day. Dinner would be provided for us at camp. The bus would arrive outside Weerona (where I live) at 9:10. We would pick everyone up and then head out. It would be a 4 hour drive and we would stop at the grocery store on the way to get our food.
     When the "bus" arrived, it was a van. I guess they call them mini buses. We drove for a while and stopped at a grocery store. We bought eggs, bacon, juice, milk, cereal, bread, cheese, turkey meat, Sprite, chips, grapes, granola bars, frozen pizzas... and... champagne. We stopped at a lookout point with a giant blow hole right before this but only for a little while. It was cool the signs just said there was potential for injury, not that you couldn't go out onto them. So I did. We drove a little further and stopped again for gas I think. The drive didn't feel too long which was nice.
     As we pulled up our driver, Scott (Australia), told us that we would start to see kangaroos on the side of the road soon. WE DID! They were little ones. It was exciting. As we rolled up to the campground we could see the beach. We were pretty excited to be staying so close. There were lots of people camping on the side close to the beach and then on the other side... there were houses. So "staying in a cabin" actually meant "staying in a beach house!' It was a super awesome surprise. We had split up into two groups of four students for our eating and living arrangements. Since there were four of us coming from Weerona, Ashley (Wisconsin), Laura (Connecticut), Victoria (South Carolina) and me, we became a group.  We got our key for our "cabin" and walked in. We could see the beach from our porch... There were two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen/dining room area, and the bathroom was split with the sink and jacuzzi tub/shower in one room and the toilet in another. Ashley and I took the room with the bunk beds and Laura and Victoria took the room with the queen ish sized bed. We unpacked and then headed over to Tonia's (ciee leader, Australia) "cabin." While we were waiting for everyone to get ready we saw a Monitor Lizard outside. Most of us went out and took pictures of it. The body was about a meter long and with the tail it was close to two. It was climbing a tree... kinda strange, but whatever. We went back inside and Tonia's friend Rhona (Australia) talked to us about her beliefs.
     There was some stuff about it that I agreed with with. The main one was that we need to look for more reasons that a person may have done something like cut us off or say something that was mean. It sometimes has nothing to do with you and there is something going on in their life at that point that gives a reason for what they did. It's kind of a complicated matter, and when she went further into it is when I started disagreeing. She was saying that we all have our own history books (our past experiences), and our history books make up what we know and think. There are no wrong decisions and though we don't condone what rapist and other bad people do, they were only making the decision that they thought was right. Her explanation was complicated and confusing. She didn't give us a chance to rebuttal which I find amusing, because I could tell she knew we had some things to say. She diverted away from all the right and wrong type stuff, and that's when I stopped listening... I was falling asleep. oops.
     When she was finishing up we saw some kangaroos outside and were given permission to leave and go take pictures. The kangaroos were all different sizes and were EVERYWHERE! They just kinda came out of the bush (woods) and walked right into the camping area. We took a ton of pictures while keeping our distance. After taking way too many pictures of kangaroos, we went back to our rooms for... something. I don't remember what. On our way back to Tonia's we heard a ton of noise from over by the road. When we went over there there were about 50 bright green birds in a clump. There were 3 or 4 little girls screaming along with the birds. The girls had birds on their heads, arms, and hands. It was crazy. They said that they had put out a box with a bunch of old bread in it and the birds had gone crazy for it. We were able to grab little bits of the bread and then lure the birds to us with it. Once there was one bird on you, the others lost all fear and joined in. At one point I had 3 birds on my arm and another one on my shoulder. The girls all got to hold a bunch as well. It was really cool. And only Ashley got pooped on... twice.
     When we made it to Tonia's the others had already left for the walk to Pretty Beach. On the way we got a little more brave and inched in closer to the kangaroos. A couple of the girls were able to feed one some grass out of their hand. We saw a Wallaby on our way back. It was more orange than a kangaroo and way more shy. When we got back we were given like an hour before dinner. I wanted to go to the beach even though by the time we were ready we only had like 20 minutes and it was almost dark... The girls went down with me and drank wine on the beach and I played in the water. There was no one else on the beach it was crazy! The waves were decently sized, I was just a little to creeped out by being the only one in the water to get out to where the big ones were. After about half an hour we all headed back in for dinner. Dinner was not quite finished by the time we got there so everyone sat in the living room and talked. I was participating in the conversation until I made the mistake of laying down on the floor... I fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Supposedly there were things thrown at me while I was out, but I didn't notice. I was woken up when the food was finished and we were able to serve ourselves salad, corn on the cob, and coleslaw stuff.  We were each given a piece of steak and a chicken breast as well. Oh my goodness, it was sooo good! Some of the girls were unable to finish their meals, but don't worry the food did not go to waste. I ate it. We all talked and hung out for a while and then went back to our own places to relax before bed with a little bit of chocolate for dessert. Ashley, Laura, Victoria and I stayed up until about 12 talking and getting to know each other a little better. It was a great day, but we needed to get some sleep for our giant hike the next day...

10 days in, and lovin it

     Well I'm sunburned.... It's only the second time it's happened. I've been to the beach twice, so my odds are looking pretty good. Wait, what? Whatever, the beaches here are awesome. The sand is soft and the water is pretty warm. The waves at South Beach were great. They rolled in in sets and as the day went on they kept getting bigger. I'm not the best at estimating their size, but there were some probably around 6 ish feet, maybe? Whatever size they were, I had a blast! Playing in the water and body surfing will never get old. I swear as soon as I step into the water I become a child again... well, more of a child that is. Today we went to North Beach. The weather was a little cooler than the last beach day, so the water had a stronger effect on my body temperature. a.k.a I got cold. The water was kinda choppy so none of the waves were very clean or easy to catch, and any of the big waves would close out almost as soon as they picked up. It was still a fun day, and I will never tire of going to the beach. I have yet to get on any type of board, but there are still many beach days to come. Of course, you can't go to the beach without digging a hole, so on the first day Kieran (Waga Waga, Australia) and I made one large enough to fit me into easily all the way up to my chest. Once I was in, we put the sand back in. It was a little tough to get out, cuz it was kinda pulling my shorts off, but I made it. It's photo documented so you will see it soon.
     This past week was Orientation at the Uni (University). There were tons of tents up for different organizations and companies around the area. On Tuesday there was a meeting thing for all the international students at the University of Wollongong. There are people from over 30 different countries. It was crazy. Austria, Canada, Sweden, Korea, and everything in between. They just gave us some basic info on Australia, and what to expect while we're here. It really wasn't that helpful. After the boring talks, we went on a tour of the campus, got our ID photos taken, and were let loose in the chaos of the tents. The tour was slightly helpful at giving me a better idea of where things were, but if I needed to get from one class to another, I would still get lost. When I went up to wait in line for my ID I was standing next to a guy from Mexico and a guy from the Netherlands. We started talking and they were pretty cool guys. Mark (Netherlands) had just gotten to Australia a few days before and was still staying in a Hostel. He was in the process of looking for a house to move into and rent. Eduardo (Mexico) had been here a little longer so he already had a place to stay. He and his friend Hugo had just looked at some of the places Mark was about to. They were able to help him find a few more places to look. Mark likes to surf and skate, but I don't remember what his major is. He's a third year at Uni and is a really funny guy. Eduardo and Hugo are both studying engineering I think, and they knew each other before coming to Australia. They attend the same Uni in Mexico. As it turns out there are only about 6 Mexicans in the city of Wollongong, and I know two of them. Go figure. ...what does go figure mean? whatever. I ended up eating lunch with them and I will hopefully be seeing them around. Since they were not living in the campus housing and going through all the crazy orientation stuff, they weren't really sure where to go to hang out or what to do for fun. We exchanged information and are going to let each other know if we do anything cool.
     After lunch I found a few of my friends from here at the college (dorm) Bec (Australia), her friend from home Steph, and Laura (Penn State). We walked around and looked at a few booths. I went to the one for the rock climbing gym here in the city. It's $30 a week for unlimited use. I might get it for a week or two. We went before and it was loads of fun. I signed up for some emergency car pick up thing and got a bunch of free stuff from them and every other booth. I found a church group who I actually ate and played soccer with today. There was live music and people wearing crazy costumes. There was a guy playing bagpipes on like stilt things. They just made it  look like he had giant long legs though... and there was a person in a... kinda dog suit. He walked around on all fours but sorta looked like a monkey. He could actually control his, well, male anatomy, and would shoot out water like he was peeing everywhere. It was pretty funny. I went to a bank to open an account, because when you did, you got a free ticket to a MGMT concert in Sydney. I was super excited about it, but it turns out I needed my passport in order to open one. I was bummed, but hoped I could just come back the next day and they would still have some tickets left. As I was waiting for Bec and Steph to finish applying, one of the tellers told Bec that they might be running out soon. Bec explained our situation to the teller and the wonderful lady, Margaret was her name, called me over and said that she would send me one of the tickets! How cool is that! I didn't even have to open an account! I want to now though, just cuz the lady was so nice. That was all pretty awesome.
     We headed back to the college and when I got here I was talking to Ashley and Lauren about my day and as it turns out Ashley was friends with Mark on facebook! She had met a guy at a party last summer who was from the Netherlands. She was talking him about her studying abroad and he said that he knew a guy who was doing the same thing. They became friends on facebook, and had talked a little, but seriously, what are the odds that I would hang out with a guy from the Netherlands, that one of my friends from the States kinda knows??? Crazy cool odds! That's what kind.
     I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but I'll let you know when I remember. We're going on a trip this weekend with ciee, so I'll get to know all those people a little better. It should be fun. OH YA! I have the internet in my room now!!!! Major woot! I've skyped a few friends, and I have a few more calls home to make. This next week should be full of conversations with friends from home. If you all would just come out here, we wouldn't have this problem. Just kidding. No, but seriously

Life here is different

     One thing I forgot about my first day here. Before I got on the airplane I was sitting in my terminal and an incredibly well dressed elderly couple came and sat down beside me. They were on their way to Portland but the airport kept sending them to different terminals and gates. We started talking, and the man said that he had fought in WWII and had been to Australia. He had been in the air force, but spent a huge amount of his time during the war on a boat. More than most Navy men he said. He was describing to me the incredible rout that he took to get to Australia which took him all around the world when I was called to board my plane. I was sorry to have to leave in the middle of his story, but his wife said that it was alright and they he loved to tell it to anyone who would listen. I enjoyed it and was happy to have some company while I waited. As I headed over to my plane I heard someone yell and when I looked back it was the elderly man running towards me. I had left my iPod on my seat... he was comig over to give it to me. He was one of the nicest men I've met, and sadly, I didn't even get to know his name. Just thought that event was worth documenting.      When I first got here it was interesting to see everyone go crazy at the pub. It's a different kind of culture and a very new experience for me. I had never been to a pub before or even really an event where there is dancing. The whole drinking thing is still not a big deal to me. I prefer to just enjoy myself while being sober. The dancing part however....  I still can't decide on. I'll just say it's growing on me. When the people here get drunk and crazy, they often times end up making out with each other. I find this action a little strange, but others apparently do not. For O-Week (Orientation Week) everyone here has been split up onto teams of about seven people, and we compete with each other in different challenges each day. When you win, you get points. There are other ways to get points by doing random tasks that the O-Week leaders ask. One of these tasks is by being the person who hooked up with the most people in a day... The leaders also pass out things like a condom necklace (for the person who hooked up the most), flourescent orange and yellow vests (the people who get the most drunk), a pacifier necklace (for person who whines and complains the most), and a helmet (for a person who does dumb stuff). These are passed out each night at our meetings. There are very random things as well. Whenever a leader blow a whistle one time we have to fall on the ground and do a commando roll, two times, you fall on your back and kick your arms and legs like a dying ant, and three times, you have to cling to a person that is near you. These can all be quite awkward when you're just getting to know all the people around you. All in all I'm happy to be here and am making some good friends that I hope will last a lifetime.
     I've got my room set up now, my bed made, my laptop running, a working alarm clock, an area fan, but still no internet in my room. I have been using the computers in the lab that is in my dorm. The computers are a little old and they only have internet explorer, but they get the job done. I've been taking a picture each day of what has been going on, but mind you, some of them will be WWWWAAAAAAAAAYYY less interesting than others. One day I was here I woke up went to a trivia game we had here, came into the computer lab, walked to the mall, bought nothing, and came back here for another event. Not a lot of action, or interesting photo material. All well. You guys will live.
     I have been able to pick up the things I need to survive, and I've met a few more people from the US and Australia, and I've learned a couple cool new words. Last night I went out with a group of people from here in Australia and Ashley (Wisconson). There was Becca, Emma, James, Kieren and Matthew. All of them are from Australia. There were a few other there as well but I don't remember their names...
     Today I went on a trip with the people from ciee. We went up to the North end of town and went across the Sea Cliff Bridge. It's pretty sweet. We went up to a look out point and could see all the way down the coast line. It was pretty cool. The others from ciee (that I can remember) are Laura Bologna (Penn State), Victoria something [North Carolina (she says Y'all!)], Alex Meyer (Don't remember), a girl from Glendora, a girl from Portland (I think), and I think there were others, but I'm not too good at this name learning thing. I am enjoying my time here, and I'm excited about the events to come. Skydiving?????

How bout' that flight in huh? Guess that's why they call it the land down unda

So my plane ride was awesome! there were TVs in the backs of all the chairs with good movies, episodes of tons of TV shows, strange little video games, and even a bunch of good CDs. I watched come random TV shows, Due Date, and an episode of American Dad (it wasn't that good), Then i started getting tired. I made myself a playlist of Mumford and Sons, Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Beetles, and a few others. No big deal. I was able to fall asleep so I missed most of my playlist, but it wasn't exactly good sleep. A chair, towl sized blanket, and a pillow the size of a loaf of bread don't exactly lead to a good night's rest. I landed in Sydney at 6am on the 15th of February. This is cool and all, except I left America on the 13th... No Valentine's Day for me. Anyway, it took about two hours to finally get through everything and head out. There were about nine of us in the van headed to Wollongong. There was a guy from Colorado, a girl from California, a guy from Germany (21 hour flight), and another guy from someplace I can't remember... but his flight had some troubles and took over 30 hours!!! Most of the poeple in the van were staying in other housing places, but the guy (Robert) from Germany was living in Weerona with me.
     When we got here we signed in and were given a few packets of information. We were led to our rooms. Mine is C1.01, it's in the C building, on the 1st floor, room 1. I put my stuff in my room and was instantly led to the Dining Hall for a quick bite to eat. From there I was led into the TV room (self-explanitory) for the start of a scavenger hunt. I am on the red team and our leader is Stuart (he's from London) we were given a list of things to search for and get pictures of. So now, I've been in Ausrtalia for a total of 3 hours and am out walking the streets with 5 people I just met, can't remember their names (now I know a couple Justin, Grace, Alex, Riley, and Lizy I think. She's from London), and need to look for stuff I've never heard of. We went to the beach and people were taking of their clothes, we went to Maccas (McDonalds) and borrowed a random person's car, ate a happy meal in in under a minute, ate an entire lemon (peel and all), went to Wullys [Woolworths (grocery store)] and bought a single grape, had to buy beer for some wise men (rugby players) in order to hear a story and learn the moral (wear protection during sex), get a tatoo or piercing, go to a sex shop, thrift store, and mall, Catch Wally (Where is Waldo), sing on a stage, serenade a stranger, find a stick, shine someones shoes, do a good deed, get apiggy back ride from a buisness man, get 30 signitures on a petition we made up, .... you get the point. We went for a few hours and then met in the mall. Everyone split up from there and headed random directions... I wanted to go back to the dorms but had no idea where to go. I started following people in the direction I thought was home, and that's when I met Ashley. Ashley (Wisconson) is one of the other students that's going with ciee to study  here. I've been hanging out with her lately and another girl named Lauren (Australia).
     When we got back to the school I went to my room and unpacked. I hadn't brought any sheets or blankets because I thought that they were going to provide me with them... There weren't any in the room, so I guess it's a good thing that I stole the blanket from the airplane. Everything fit in my closet really nicely, and my bed barely fits my body. It all works out though. The halls are co-ed and so are the bathrooms... a little strange, but I haven't had any awkward encounters yet so whatever. That night we went on a Pub Crawl. This just mean we all went to four different pubs (bars/clubs) together. We all got matching pink shirts and got onto one of two busses. We went to one bar and people started going crazy. The drinking age here is 18 soooooo everyone started getting crazy. I am not real big on the whole drinking thing, so I just went and sat at one of the talbles and startd watching some confusing sport that I thought was rugby. Turns out it's the AFL (Australian Football League). The rules are similar to rugby and soccer, but there are a bunch of other ones that make it a little more confusing. Ashley and Lauren were sitting with me and another friend Joe (Outback Australia). They were able to explain the main idea so I kinda get it. I also learned that the rugby I know of is Union rugby not League rugby. They are slightly diferent but League is the main one played out here. This was all at the first pub. After 2 hours here, we went to the next one. I was beginning to feel the effect of my poor sleep on the plane. It was about 10:00 now and I was crashing. I pushed through my weariness and the random people trying to get me to dance at pub number two. I was talking to Ashley, Lauren, Joe, and Kieren (Australia) while here and just hanging out. While we were here some girl dropped her drink, shattering her glass and cutting her foot. There were shards of glass and blood all over the ground. This was weird cuz, it took the owners like 30 minutes to come clean it up. Eventually they did and we moved on.
    The third pub we went to was more of just a bar. We sat outside and talked to a few more random people and watched everyone else, who was totally wasted, stumble around hitting on each other. I think I got a water at this pub... I was just watching people waiting for something funny to happen. I was disappointed. We left for the fourth pub and I was about to crash. This place was by far the coolest, but no one was in a state at which they could realize this. The music was super loud, the base shook the seats, the lighting effects were cool, and they had a fog machine! It was pretty fun and super loud, but I still almost fell asleep. The bartender came over and kicked my footrest to wake me up. I met a bunch of random leaders during this event cuz I was sitting on the side for most of it. Oh ya, at this last pub there was a guy and a girl making out for at least 30 minutes.... I would check up on them every once in a while and they were still going strong. The only reason they stopped is cuz we were leaving.
     When we got back I brushed my teeth and went right to sleep. On my mattress with no sheets. With the blanket I took from the plane. With no clock. This was all day one and I'm happy to have experienced it. I'll try to keep everyone posted on what's going on, but I'm sure that after this week, there won't be a lot of interesting stuff going on. That I know of...