Duck Attack

I was attacked by a duck while walking to my Chivalric Society class this morning. The little bugger bit my ankle! To be fair, I was walking on a path close to were his babies were eating with their mom, but still!

I have a feeling spring time will be very interesting around here.

The First REAL day of classes

Today was the first day of real lectures and tutorials. My day started at 8 a.m. when I got ready for them, still half asleep because I was up until 2 a.m. reading about Australia's Liberal (actually conservative) party and why they don't want Australia to become a Republic. At 9 a.m. I began my 30 min walk to were my class, and the only recognizable form of coffee, is. My Australia in the 20th century lecture began at 10 a.m. after walking up three flights of stairs and spilling my coffee all over Ringo Stars head. The lecture was two hours long.

At noon I went to the student union and ate at Subway. Again.

At 1 p.m. I was in my Romantic and Victorian Literature seminar. We were 'discussing' Blake. Turns out it was more of a I'll tell you what I want to be said and lets see how well you can repeat it type of discussion. Blake deserves better.

At three I walked back to my dorm for a jacket and to drop off my gigantic Norton and then made my way back to were I was for my 4 p.m. AU in the 20th century tutorial. We had to do an icebreaker where you say two true things about yourself and one lie. We are a very boring group of people. The most exciting lie was "I am a Canadian."

Then we discussed the reading I did early this morning except I couldn't remember what I read!

Now, though classes are done for the day, I have to head to the library and watch Mad Max 2 and I still have to read 100 pages on Chivalry.

This is the 5th consecutive day of rain...

Rugby and Australian Popular Culture

Picture #1--Kelly and I waiting for the game to start. You can see the Rabbitahs in the background. It was taken by a very nice man who did his best to explain the game to us.

Picture #2--The Knights. Player 4 is the oldest on the team (well into his 30s) and plays better than most of the young guys. He was the star of the game, scoring 12 points (two touchdowns). He is called 'Mad Dog.'

Picture #3--A scrum. It was a penalty against the Knights so the guy standing to the side is about to the throw the ball into the scrum toward is team mates in order to regain possession.

Yesterday a group of us went to see the local rugby league (the Knights) play the South Sydney Rabbitahs. We kicked the bunnies tails!

I don't think most of the girls enjoyed the game or wish to repeat it. However, Kelly and I were thrilled. It was my second live game and Kelly's first. We had a very nice man sitting next to us who explained the rules to us. Rugby looks complicated, but isn't.

The captain rejoined the team for the first time in three weeks--since being injured in the Origins game (NSW vs. Queensland). The crowed really went wild for him. It was like Michael Jordan was on the field.

I intend to watch the next three games and will also see a Rugby Union game (England vs. New Zealand) in October. I'm so excited. After all, when will I ever be able to watch it again?

Today was my first Australian Popular Culture class. It was mainly an introduction to the course, but we did have to discuss a few questions we had been given. Like "What is Australian?" It was no surprise that everyone answered drinking (which is one of THE popular past-times here), nor was "sporty" a big surprise as 80% of their media consists of it. I was surprised at the self deprecation, though!

It isn't that Australians don't think highly of themselves. They just don't think of themselves very grandly. For example, one of the stories that came up was of an Australian speed skater who won a gold medal in one of the winter Olympics. The skater was dead last and then everyone else fell down and that's how he won. He wasn't very fast, he just didn't fall down. The Australians in the class explained that it was better winning a medal that way than if he had been faster than everyone else. Winning that way is more Australian. Even the 100 Years film I had to watch for my Australian history class showed that Australians still don't want to be truly independent of Britain. They call themselves weak and feel that they need Britain for protection. The people refuse to become a republic even though England has had nothing to do with Australian law for 40 years!

Autonomy Day 2008

Imagine being in a deep sleep and then rudely awakened by a fire alarm and a bull horn by your ear. That is what happened to me this morning.

I grudgingly woke up and went next door for what promised to be a nice normal brekkie (breakfast): bacon and eggs. Not Weetbix (a weird granola bar type thing you put in milk and eat really fast), not muesli, not their version of granola and yogurt and not their weird overly sweet cereal, but a real brekkie.

What I got was Canadian bacon. It was all fat and chewy. The only thing more disappointing was finding out what a BBQ is to an Australian.

The eggs were inhaled by the drunks before I got there.

After brekkie we went to the other side of Townies (the International House dorms) to see what was going on. Drunkenness. I did not participate. For me, booze should is best consumed after dinner.

After the disappointing morning I went back to my room and tried to sleep through the songs the DJs kept on repeat: I Kissed A Girl (and I liked it) and Hotel California.

Around 1030 I went down to the Bar On The Hill. The tiny bar-room was filled with couple thousand drunk students. Those who couldn't fit into the bar, braved the rain (its been raining for three days straight) and where jumping on one of those giant inflatable castles usually set up for kids at those out door events like fairs and birthday parties.

Since I am uncomfortable and claustrophobic in large groups and I hate being wet and cold, I went back to my room and spent the day watching The Goonies, Grease and Jane Eyre.

I'll post some pics later.

Sorry it has been so long...

I've been absent for two reasons: 1) I had to pay for the internet until now and 2) I'm lazy.

I lived in a hostel for elven days and I have to say they were some of the best days of my life so far. I have never had so much fun in my life and I know that without them I would not be the happy state I'm in. It's always easier to go through culture shock when you are going through it with everyone else.

After the hostel I moved into the dorms. The International House to be exact. Dorm life so different here. I have lived in co-ed dorms before, but here the guys are on the same floor and you share the same bathroom. Not that I mind, it's just different. At least the boys I live with are clean. I only get one meal a day, which is dinner. The rest I have to cook myself in our joint kitchen (and I can't cook, so its been interesting). I eat a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Well, they call it peanut butter, but its not really.

Classes are also very different here. You have a lecture and then you go to a tutorial. Unless you have a seminar class (I have two) in which case you only have that two hour seminar. They put a great deal of emphasis on writing and research. You have to turn your papers in through a system called turnitin, which is suppose to keep people from plagiarising. It just makes life more complicated. I can't really explain how they are so different, they just are. The way people treat their classes, grades and even the professors are different.

The school has a reserve running through it, so walking to class everyday is kind of like walking through a zoo. The parrots are hanging out with the crested pigeons and the cockatoos are hanging out with the magpies. There are oyster-snatchers and some blue bird that is as big as I am.

About 20 minutes away there is another reserve. We went a week ago and got to pet Koalas (including a baby) and saw some Kangaroos and emus and some other crazy birds. Koalas are not as soft and cuddly as they look.

The beaches here are beautiful (except for the coal boats blocking the view the sunset). People love their sports here and they REALLY love their surfing and body-boarding. Rain or shin there are always people catching the waves. There are also these seagulls, some of which fly over from NZ for the winter, that just hang out on the beach. They rarely fly. They just stand there and soak there feet in the surf. The pelicans are incredible. I had no idea they were so big.

World Youth Day brought a ton of people from all over the world. Sydney got most of them, but there were thousands here as well. They had a small fair for the kids and in the fair they had camel rides. I was the only person over the age of 10 that rode one. It was great. A dream come true. Now if I could just get a couple camels for myself and ride them through the outback like Rachel Davidson did back in the 70s, I would be so happy!

Everything is so expensive here. Food, transportation, clothes, cds and books. Books are a minimum of 20 dollars for a mass market. A trade size can run you anywhere from 30 to 60 dollars depending on where you go. Borders is the cheapest place I've found so far but you still pay a good 5 to 10 dollars more than in the states. It's actually cheaper to buy the books online and have them shipped to you. About the only semi-cheap thing here is the beer. No wonder people drink so much here.

Speaking of drinking, tomorrow is Autonomy Day here at Uni. It is the day when students and faculty celebrate Uni's emancipation from the tyrannical University of NSW. Drinking starts at 3 a.m. and goes the rest of the day. I'm not sure what else happens, but it sounds crazy. It's not really my thing and I'm sure Reality at SJC would beat the pants off Autonomy day, but I'll participate if only for the free breakfast. A breakfast I don't have to cook.

Newcastle. Finally...

I made it! After six months of planning, getting tickets and visas and insurance, making plans, canceling plans, saying goodbye and spending 24 hours getting to the great continent of Australia, I made it!

I am setting in the computer lab of a hostel next to a beach. I am jet lagged and dirty and hungry (even though I just ate) and the excitement, the "oh crap I'm in another country halfway around the world" hasn't hit me yet. It will when I wake up and shower and eat and become a productive traveler instead of a sit and wait for sweet sleep to come traveler.

So, far everyone has been friendly. My driver was really nice and told me about places of interest (I would have enjoyed the trip a lot more if I wasn't motion sick). The flight attendants were nice (except one named Christopher who never spoke, but did through snacks in your lap when you were fast asleep), which is a relief. I believe the best way to judge a country is by there flight attendants.

There is so much more I could write, but I won't be able to think of anything until I sleep.