I took this video during the Blue Mountains trip, actually... (I told you we got close to the kangaroos!)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Pictures (part 3)
I went to a Chinese Moonlight Festival last night with my friends Anne and Claire. Here is a picture of them with some scary mannequins.
The festival was really pretty. It was inside the Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour. There were lion costumes and drums and a show and music and lights and fireworks. All very pretty. None of my pictures came out very good, but here's one anyways. (It looks like something crazy exploded...actually it was during a part in the show when fire shot up into the air...)
My pseudo roommates in the Herring Road apartments are planting crops in their backyard. Corn, beans, and watermelon. Also, take note of Richie's "W.A.N.G." t-shirt. It stands for "We All Need Grub." Apparently the WANG club gives out free sausages every two weeks if you are a member. Not for me though, being a vegan and all...
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Pictures (part 2)
Here it is, the famous one and only epic homemade Scrabble board! Made out of a $6 artist's canvas, balsa wood, and paint. And with the help a ruler. Yay Scrabble! Also, I played a game Scrabble today, and I totally got QUIZZES on a triple word. 131 points. It was incredible.
A couple friends and I went to this awesome "Urban Chalk Arts Festival" in Sydney this weekend.
Dozens of artists worked all day on their chalk masterpieces; other highlights included a poet who recited her poetry while her outfit, a white suit, was spray painted by two other people (thus turning her into art), two funky Australian bands, one of which included members wearing velvet jumpsuit type things in multiple colors and rapping about grocery store sale signs, and a "wearable art fashion showcase" which I can't say much about besides the fact that it was very...bizarre. Although I did love one dress which appeared to be made out of tulle and gossip magazines...
These ducks are always wandering around campus. See that papa duck? He attacks everybody that walks by on the path. (It's happened to me multiple times, but it's funny to watch when it happens to unsuspecting others.)
A couple friends and I went to this awesome "Urban Chalk Arts Festival" in Sydney this weekend.
Dozens of artists worked all day on their chalk masterpieces; other highlights included a poet who recited her poetry while her outfit, a white suit, was spray painted by two other people (thus turning her into art), two funky Australian bands, one of which included members wearing velvet jumpsuit type things in multiple colors and rapping about grocery store sale signs, and a "wearable art fashion showcase" which I can't say much about besides the fact that it was very...bizarre. Although I did love one dress which appeared to be made out of tulle and gossip magazines...
These ducks are always wandering around campus. See that papa duck? He attacks everybody that walks by on the path. (It's happened to me multiple times, but it's funny to watch when it happens to unsuspecting others.)
Monday, September 8, 2008
Lessons in Australian slang
1. Everyone has to do a presentation in my creative writing class, and one of the first guys to do one brought in lollipops and gave them to people who answered his questions. Now everyone brings in lollipops or other candy when they give presentations. Except they never call them lollipops or candy or gummy worms or malted milk balls...it's always "LOLLIES."
2. Whenever you go on a trip somewhere, you go "on holiday."
3. People really do say "mate."
4. Two really big ones: Gas is never gas, it is PETROL. And cell phones are not cell phones, they are MOBILE PHONES, with the mobile really pronounced out. This baffles me a little, because Australians do tend to shorten words a ton (University is always, "uni" for example) but both petrol and mobile are more syllables than gas and cell. Also, lines aren't called lines, they are called "queues." I suppose in this case queue is the same number of syllables as line, but still I feel like line is just so much easier to say.
5. This one makes me laugh: "tutorials" (the smaller classes here) are always refered to by Australians as "tutes." ALWAYS. Actually, a couple weeks ago I had a sweet Australian boy come up to me and say, "I saw you in our tute and I reckon you're beautiful." Notice his use of "tute" and of "I reckon" (as Australians use this phrase often, too.)
6. There is no ketchup! Only tomato sauce! Although the tomato sauce is ketchup...I think. Very confusing. I mean, is tomato sauce still tomato sauce too? Also, fries are chips, or hot chips, or wedges. It depends on the type. I had an Australian man on a bus explain it all to me, but it was just much too confusing. I'm also not quite sure if (US) chips are chips, like if you buy a bag of chips, are they chips? Possibly crisps? I will have to investigate this further and get back to you.
2. Whenever you go on a trip somewhere, you go "on holiday."
3. People really do say "mate."
4. Two really big ones: Gas is never gas, it is PETROL. And cell phones are not cell phones, they are MOBILE PHONES, with the mobile really pronounced out. This baffles me a little, because Australians do tend to shorten words a ton (University is always, "uni" for example) but both petrol and mobile are more syllables than gas and cell. Also, lines aren't called lines, they are called "queues." I suppose in this case queue is the same number of syllables as line, but still I feel like line is just so much easier to say.
5. This one makes me laugh: "tutorials" (the smaller classes here) are always refered to by Australians as "tutes." ALWAYS. Actually, a couple weeks ago I had a sweet Australian boy come up to me and say, "I saw you in our tute and I reckon you're beautiful." Notice his use of "tute" and of "I reckon" (as Australians use this phrase often, too.)
6. There is no ketchup! Only tomato sauce! Although the tomato sauce is ketchup...I think. Very confusing. I mean, is tomato sauce still tomato sauce too? Also, fries are chips, or hot chips, or wedges. It depends on the type. I had an Australian man on a bus explain it all to me, but it was just much too confusing. I'm also not quite sure if (US) chips are chips, like if you buy a bag of chips, are they chips? Possibly crisps? I will have to investigate this further and get back to you.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Pictures (part 1)
Here are some pictures! The first one is in front of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in Sydney, the second is the horrifying clown face in front of Luna Park in Sydney, and the other four are from the Blue Mountains pre-orientation trip! 
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Surfing and such
I tried surfing the other day. It did not go well. However, I was very happy because I got to wear a wet suit, and I have never worn a wet suit before. I felt like I looked very, very cool.
Then, I dragged my surfboard into the water, and did not feel very cool anymore when i repeatedly got whacked in the back/gut/head with the surfboard. And also almost drowned. That is because I am a very bad swimmer. And I can't hold my breath underwater unless I seriously consciously think about it, which of course I can't when I am trying to not fall off/get punched by this giant, very hard object. That being said, I never even stood up on it. I think I was able to "boogie board" at one point for a second, but that's about it.
I presented my writing for the first time in creative writing class. That was a somewhat terrifying experience. In creative writing classes here you bring in 20 copies of your work and hand them out and everyone reads silently while you wait in at your desk, horrified, for your classmates to finish. I always thought it was terrifying to read my work outloud, but i'm thinking this might have been worse.
Nevertheless, people seemed to like my story. It was about a guy slowly getting obsessed with this neurotic girl at a grocery store. A boy in my class came up to me and started talking to me about it afterwards. He said he worked at a grocery store and could relate.
I'm going to New Zealand at the end of this month with this girl I met named Anne. I like her a lot for many reasons including the fact that she rented a piano for her room for the semester because she's that good and couldn't go without one, that she is an amazing cook and willing to make me vegan food, and that she likes nerdy board games. About New Zealand I am most excited about the fact that we shall be going ZORBING which is when you go in one of those giant clear plastic human-size hamster ball thingies and roll around. I'm so psyched! POSSIBLY skydiving too...
Then, I dragged my surfboard into the water, and did not feel very cool anymore when i repeatedly got whacked in the back/gut/head with the surfboard. And also almost drowned. That is because I am a very bad swimmer. And I can't hold my breath underwater unless I seriously consciously think about it, which of course I can't when I am trying to not fall off/get punched by this giant, very hard object. That being said, I never even stood up on it. I think I was able to "boogie board" at one point for a second, but that's about it.
I presented my writing for the first time in creative writing class. That was a somewhat terrifying experience. In creative writing classes here you bring in 20 copies of your work and hand them out and everyone reads silently while you wait in at your desk, horrified, for your classmates to finish. I always thought it was terrifying to read my work outloud, but i'm thinking this might have been worse.
Nevertheless, people seemed to like my story. It was about a guy slowly getting obsessed with this neurotic girl at a grocery store. A boy in my class came up to me and started talking to me about it afterwards. He said he worked at a grocery store and could relate.
I'm going to New Zealand at the end of this month with this girl I met named Anne. I like her a lot for many reasons including the fact that she rented a piano for her room for the semester because she's that good and couldn't go without one, that she is an amazing cook and willing to make me vegan food, and that she likes nerdy board games. About New Zealand I am most excited about the fact that we shall be going ZORBING which is when you go in one of those giant clear plastic human-size hamster ball thingies and roll around. I'm so psyched! POSSIBLY skydiving too...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
3 weeks in one blog!
So, on July 26th I left for the Blue Mountains pre-orientation trip. It was amazing. While we waited for the bus to take us to the mountains I talked to this girl named Nicole, and the Lithuanian boy, Arvy, who I originally met at the airport. We sat together on the bus and talked on the way to the Wildlife park zoo, the first stop of the trip, and one of my favorite stops actually. The kangaroos roamed around freely within the park and we could pet them; I also got to pet a koala. I've also decided I love dingos very much. I saw all the poisonness snakes to watch out for and wondered about how the wildlife park workers feed them.
We saw lots of other beautiful things on the trip and I should have written about them 3 weeks ago when I came back from the trip. I do remember lots of very tiring climbing and walking. Very tiring because I am lazy and out of shape. However, they were good preparation for when I came back from the trip and realized how unconviently far my room is from campus/the mall/everywhere and everyone else I want to see. But more on that later. The hiking was worth it though; the views were amazing. I'd definitely recommend that anybody studying abroad at Macquarie go on this trip. We were able to choose from this trip or two surfing-related trips and when I tell people who went on surf trips about this trip they are very jealous.
Another of my favorite parts of the trip occured on the way back. Our tour guide stopped the bus randomly and we all got off and started hiking down a path towards and park when all of a sudden there are a dozen wild kangaroos in the distance. I figure we are going to stop walking and watch them from here, but we keep on hiking towards them, closer and closer, and they don't hop away! Our tour guide pulls up some grass and feeds it to one of the kangaroos before it hops away. Everyone is taking pictures with the kangaroos and it is awesome. Our tour guide later said that those particular kangaroos were used to human interaction (probably from all the tour buses pulling over in that area?) but it was still very, very neat.
I met this boy Richie on the last day of the Blue Mountains trip, and he has become my close friend here. I hung out with him everyday after the trip before classes started. Really, I practically live in his apartment. I am the Kimmy Gibbler of his apartment. Mostly we play Scrabble a lot on the epic homemade board we made (Scrabble costs about $100 to buy here, we made one instead out of an artist's canvas, paint, and balsa wood. It is so much better than normal Scrabble).
My classes started soon after coming back from the trip. I love my creative writing class. It is all Australians except for me. They are all either really nerdy or like cool Australian hipster kids. And there is a random old man. We read an Australian short story about this perverted guy and it was full of sexual Australian slang that I have now learned! Also, my teacher is very, very nice. I think she likes me because I am from the U.S. and probably not many students from the U.S. go to Macquarie to study creative writing. I like my sociology and culture study classes a lot so far too. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the whole 300+ student thing, but it's really not bad. The way classes work at Macquarie is that you have lectures and tutorials; lectures are the huge 300 person classes; tutorials are much smaller, smaller or equal to the typical Hampshire class I'd say, maybe 10-16 people. So you go to the lecture to take notes/gather information/view screenings, and tutorials usually consist of group work, student presentations, and a chance to ask questions on information covered in the lectures.
I just got a job writing English lessons for a 4th grade tutor/teacher. I make $30 for 2ish hours of work a week, on my own time, and I might possibly start writing for 7th grade too, for which I'd make another $30. I had the most painless job interview of my entire life. I sent the lady hiring a writing sample and my resume through email; she looked them over, said she thought I had the qualifications she was looking for, and then we met up for a "quick interview." She didn't ask me a single question! She had me fill out tax forms and told me about what I'd be writing, and i asked her questions. One of her students was still around and gave her a bag of mango slices and she seemed to not really like them but she was sort of eating them while we talked. Afterwards she gave me a ride home (which was exciting to me to be in the front seat of an Australian car!) and on the way told me about why she moved to Australia and such (her husband is in a band, apparently. Awesome!) But seriously, the most painless possible job interview EVER. Australians really are some of the nicest people I've ever encountered. For example, I was on the bus with a few friends the other day, and we were pondering how to get to Chinatown. An Australian man overheard us and pulled out a GPS to help. Then he drew us a VERY detailed map to his favorite restaurant in Chinatown. THEN, we got off the bus and he decided to lead us, out of his way, the ENTIRE WAY to the restaurant. Incredible. I feel like if a random man did that in the U.S. people would be creeped out, but here it's normal.
We saw lots of other beautiful things on the trip and I should have written about them 3 weeks ago when I came back from the trip. I do remember lots of very tiring climbing and walking. Very tiring because I am lazy and out of shape. However, they were good preparation for when I came back from the trip and realized how unconviently far my room is from campus/the mall/everywhere and everyone else I want to see. But more on that later. The hiking was worth it though; the views were amazing. I'd definitely recommend that anybody studying abroad at Macquarie go on this trip. We were able to choose from this trip or two surfing-related trips and when I tell people who went on surf trips about this trip they are very jealous.
Another of my favorite parts of the trip occured on the way back. Our tour guide stopped the bus randomly and we all got off and started hiking down a path towards and park when all of a sudden there are a dozen wild kangaroos in the distance. I figure we are going to stop walking and watch them from here, but we keep on hiking towards them, closer and closer, and they don't hop away! Our tour guide pulls up some grass and feeds it to one of the kangaroos before it hops away. Everyone is taking pictures with the kangaroos and it is awesome. Our tour guide later said that those particular kangaroos were used to human interaction (probably from all the tour buses pulling over in that area?) but it was still very, very neat.
I met this boy Richie on the last day of the Blue Mountains trip, and he has become my close friend here. I hung out with him everyday after the trip before classes started. Really, I practically live in his apartment. I am the Kimmy Gibbler of his apartment. Mostly we play Scrabble a lot on the epic homemade board we made (Scrabble costs about $100 to buy here, we made one instead out of an artist's canvas, paint, and balsa wood. It is so much better than normal Scrabble).
My classes started soon after coming back from the trip. I love my creative writing class. It is all Australians except for me. They are all either really nerdy or like cool Australian hipster kids. And there is a random old man. We read an Australian short story about this perverted guy and it was full of sexual Australian slang that I have now learned! Also, my teacher is very, very nice. I think she likes me because I am from the U.S. and probably not many students from the U.S. go to Macquarie to study creative writing. I like my sociology and culture study classes a lot so far too. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the whole 300+ student thing, but it's really not bad. The way classes work at Macquarie is that you have lectures and tutorials; lectures are the huge 300 person classes; tutorials are much smaller, smaller or equal to the typical Hampshire class I'd say, maybe 10-16 people. So you go to the lecture to take notes/gather information/view screenings, and tutorials usually consist of group work, student presentations, and a chance to ask questions on information covered in the lectures.
I just got a job writing English lessons for a 4th grade tutor/teacher. I make $30 for 2ish hours of work a week, on my own time, and I might possibly start writing for 7th grade too, for which I'd make another $30. I had the most painless job interview of my entire life. I sent the lady hiring a writing sample and my resume through email; she looked them over, said she thought I had the qualifications she was looking for, and then we met up for a "quick interview." She didn't ask me a single question! She had me fill out tax forms and told me about what I'd be writing, and i asked her questions. One of her students was still around and gave her a bag of mango slices and she seemed to not really like them but she was sort of eating them while we talked. Afterwards she gave me a ride home (which was exciting to me to be in the front seat of an Australian car!) and on the way told me about why she moved to Australia and such (her husband is in a band, apparently. Awesome!) But seriously, the most painless possible job interview EVER. Australians really are some of the nicest people I've ever encountered. For example, I was on the bus with a few friends the other day, and we were pondering how to get to Chinatown. An Australian man overheard us and pulled out a GPS to help. Then he drew us a VERY detailed map to his favorite restaurant in Chinatown. THEN, we got off the bus and he decided to lead us, out of his way, the ENTIRE WAY to the restaurant. Incredible. I feel like if a random man did that in the U.S. people would be creeped out, but here it's normal.
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