icky first class today !!

It has been about 2 and a half months since i have had any sort of academic responsibilities. it was almost surreal going to a class today. My class today was australian history and politics and frankly i dont know what the heck i was thinking taking history, as all of you know , history  is not my strong suit. So anyway i got to my class , had some trouble finding it but Meg helped me out. My class mainly consists of girls, except for a few guys who think they are geniuses at politics and like to hear themselves talk in my opinion.  My professor is a very intelligent woman but the problem is that she speaks like a Grecian scholar (aka I DONT UNDERSTAND HALF OF THE VOCABULARY WORDS SHE USES) and dont get me wrong i really tried hard to pay attention. Mostly i just hear "So we will be analyzing the idiosyncratic views of the post Modern era especially from a Whiggish standpoint."  Anyway im sure i will have more stories and ill catch you up on my other classes as soon as i have them. Miss you all!!!!

 

Beach day!!! and yes more topless women

They are everywhere!! Old, young, fat, skinny, all women walking around topless. Unfortunately for the men reading most are old and slightly fat so its not a good visual. But here they just let it all hang out. And whoa!! i thought there were lots of men in speedos (budgie smugglers) in Naples but the old snow birds have nothing on Australians, the smaller and tighter the better. But i have to say that the beaches are beautiful, the sand is softer than anything in Naples and the scenery beats California by a mile. The sun is soo hott and im still afraid to go into the water. There are a couple of sets of two flags on the beach that the life guards set up to show you where there is less rip tide and where it is safe to swim and no joke these flags are maybe 30 feet apart  on a stretch of beach that is about a quarter of a mile. So im still a little wary about swimming, not to mention that the water is colddddddddd. Im sure ill have many more topless women stories so stay tuned but bye for now!

HUGEEEEEEE Sting Rays and Naked Women

Odd combination i know but i promise you its all true. First of all i want to clarify that the two dont have anything to do with each other so you can all breath easy.  The sting rays came from our visit to the Sydney Aquarium. Im a big love of aquariums so i had a fabulous time, Megan on the other hand got a little tired of all the fish haha oh and the screaming children all around her. But we both had a good time. The variety of animals was amazing, we saw the strangest looking fish i have ever seen. Also (and this is no exaggeration) the stingrays were probably the size of a King size bed. They were hugeeeeee (as previously stated in my title). We saw them from this underwater tunnel with glass walls. The sharks were pretty impressive too, lost of grey nurse, which as most of you floridians know are much scarier looking than they actually are. We also saw some playful seals and they really were very entertaining, they loved the human attention, they would come right up to the glass and look you square in the eye, now this probably because they wanted food but im going to go with my fantasy that they wanted to play. Now i know you are all in suspense about the naked women. As some of you may know I take the ferry to my apartment. So while on the ferry coming back from the aquarium we hear all this whistling coming from two hormone driven teenage boys. We look in the direction of where they are looking and we see a yacht heading in the opposite direction. And on the deck of this yacht (mind you this is mid day in the bright afternoon sun) we see what looks like a bachelor party. About 25 men and two topless women giving them lap dances. The women shimmied in the whistling boys direction (needless to say it gave them quite a thrill). Anyway thats all i have to update on for now but keep checking i try to update about once every other night. Cheers!

I Survived my first night in my new apartment!

Okay so my title may have been a tad over dramatic BUT! it still was a very monumental occasion. And i have to admit it is a little scary living on your own. First off always remember it is never as easy as you think, now this theory applies to basically EVERYTHING!!!! Even the smallest thing like going to the grocery store takes way more effort and time than you allocate. But it has been a great learning experience, i have definitely learned a lot. So enough of my life lessons. Megan and i were very please to find out that without paying for cable we get a great channel that plays all the latest and greatest shows which is awesome! Also we set up our own wireless internet so who ever said that women and technology dont mix was seriously mistaken. And i made a delicious dinner of bean and cheese burritos. The day mostly consisted of running errands, cleaning, and being entertained by Danny playing the guitar for me. It was a very productive day. We have some more orientation tomorrow and lunch at the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) in Darling Harbor. Sorry i have been so lax on the pictures. The past few days have consisted mainly of figuring out apartment details. But no worries im trying to get Megan to go to the Aquarium so keep and eye out for pictures. 

Got the keys!!

Not to much to report today. I opened my new place with our own keys which was very exciting. It needs a bit of sprucing up cause its very stark decoration at the moment. We started the decorating process with some new bed sheets. Now one thing i did find out is that Australia's Target being much less convenient than America's Target, and the reason i say this is because America's Target has a huge variety and is relatively cheap and lets just say that Australia's is not. And they dont believe in selling sheet sets together only individual sheets. But anyway to wrap it up today was a fairly productive day. Still missing you all. Keep an eye out for apartment pictures!

We got our First Apartment today!!!!!

Soo i feel very adult, i just signed my lease for my first apartment !!! It was one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life, i was so worried to make a mistake and im not going to lie, i did make a few. But the important thing is that i got an apartment that is very cute, within a reasonable price ,and in a great location. It's in and area called Balmain thats just a short ferry ride to the Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Opera House, and Darling Harbor! The area is beautiful. Its in a very cute quaint area of town. We had lots of help from parents and Mardi and her roommate Simon. We couldnt have done it without them. Danny was so wonderful in helping me keep my sanity whenever i was having a freak out (which if you know me are quite frequent). So i am happy to report that everything came together with housing with absolutely no help from UM or UTS. But we are very proud that we accomplished this. I miss you all!!! Ill send pictures soon!!!

Phrases to know while Visiting Australia

1. Budgie smugglers- also known as speedo, thong or banana hammock 

2. Taking a sticky beak- just browsing through a store

3. Rice bubbles- rice crispy treats

4. Mobile- cell phone

5. dodgy- crappy, shitty, gross, and all around sketchy

6. amber fluid- beer

7. How you going?- how are you?

8. g'day!!- hello!!

9. no worries!!- no problem!!

10. Lunch- who farted?

11. Reckon!- for sure!

12.  stoked- very pleased!

to be updated soon, and yes i actually have heard every single one of these

Bronte Beach (Pronounced Bronty)

We moved in with Mardi Wednesday night cause we were so sick of our over priced hotel and she was so sweet to put us up. Bronte is a beautiful area. Our cab driver that took us there was a very nice Algerian man who gave us lots of tips on living in Sydney and some great places to go. He also impressed upon us the importance of the barbi (BBQ) for the Australians, in public parks there are grills everywhere ready and waiting to cook food. He said all you have to do is push a button and the grill turns on and is ready to go. Also at many barbi places you can have your food cooked or you can cook your own food if you are picky about how your food is cooked. Once we got to Bronte we knew we had made the right decision. Mardi's apartment was right on the beach. Mardi and her roommate Simon made us right at home. The days following consisted of walking walking and more walking. No but seriously we walked every where. We were looking for apartments by day and relaxing by night. Australia is not flat like Florida, there are hills, lots and lots of hills. Im pretty sure im gonna have buns of steel by the end of this trip. Apartment hunting is probably one of the hardest things i have ever had to figure out on my own. The first place we saw was a hell hole, there were way to many things leaking and crawling in it. Megan and I ran swiftly in the opposite direction. We then found an amazing place and we are currently waiting to hear back if our application was picked. 

February 17 2008, First Post (Vulcan Hotel)

So this is my first post and i realize i have been here in Sydney for a week already so i do apologize for my tardiness but let me start from the beginning. Okay so I arrived in Sydney at 8 am on Sunday morning on Feb 10th 2008. Megan and I got there and frankly we were terrified!!! It was just a string of bad occurrences. First our room in our hotel wasn't going to be ready for another 3 hours, we couldnt contact home because our cell phones didn't work, and we were in the bad part of Chinatown in a city 10,000 miles away from home. Now i know i sound like a complainer but i promise the rest gets better. We were able to find an internet cafe so we could contact our families and our boys to let them know we were safe. Jet lag set in pretty heavily, after talking with family and Danny for a while i quickly fell fast asleep. I ended up sleeping from about 6pm to 9am the next morning. The night before had looked pretty dismal but i woke up with a better mood. We had our orientation that morning, im not going to go into too much detail with the orientation cause quite frankly (and yes robin im being frank just for you) it wasn't all that impressive. The only unique part of the ceremony was that an aboriginal dance that was performed for us but the best part (this being said in a very sarcastic tone) was that the dancers reeked of B.O. Megan and i got a whiff of it every time the main guy dancer lifted up his arms to dance like and Emu. I tried to take the dance seriously but its really hard not to laugh when you see a grown man batting away imaginary flies from his face like a Kangaroo. Now that i think about it he kind of looked like he was trying to imitate Zoe. After orientation Megan and i checked out the local mall called Broadway Center. It was strangely very much like an American Mall. So far i really haven't experienced a huge culture shock. But i will say that the population is very diverse. After the mall we stopped by the UTS campus one last time and then headed back to the hotel to contact home and sleep some more. I was still pretty down about being in Australia for 4 months so megan and i decided to do something fun the next day. We went to the Taronga Zoo. We continued to figure out the bus and train route (subways are called trains in Sydney) A day at the zoo was just what I needed. To get to the Zoo we went to a beautiful part of Sydney called Circular Quay (pronounced Key). We got on a cute little ferry that took us into the harbor and we were extremely but pleasantly surprised to see that we were going to pass right by the Sydney Opera House. It was spectacular just as beautiful as any picture you could ever see. I will say this though, it does seem bigger in photos. So Meg and I arrived at the zoo and we were so excited. It was so beautiful and so biggggggg. (We actually find out later that its one of the smaller zoos in Australia). We had hoped that we would be able to hold a Koala but they only let you stand next to one. We were very excited to see kangaroos for the first time (well as long as you dont count the man dancing like one from orientation). And Dad they not only resemble but i really think they look and act exactly like Zoe. We were able to walk through this fenced area and they were just walking all around us. We also walked right next to a 5 foot tall Emu. Kinda scary. That day we also got a real taste of the Australian sun. Megan and i were burned with in 2 hours. Needless to say we got sunscreen the very next day. Here they dont sell anything under 30 spf. (i know that makes you happy mom). We headed back to our hotel room after the zoo very tired but also with much higher spirits. That was the last night we spent in the Vulcan Hotel, thank goodness.