2nd Exam, Cairns and The Whitsundays

So its all over. I am back in the states now in Maine for a little while before I go back to Boston and start co-op. I had my last exam (thermodynamics) on the 17th before heading to Cairns on the 18th. My exam went alright but I'll have to see the results before I am really satisfied. I was doing really well in that class before the exam so hopefully I continued my run of good results. The rest of the day after the exam was spent getting things ready for the trip up to Cairns and The Whitsunday Islands. Wednesday night I went out with a bunch of my friends that I've met here in Australia to probably my favorite bar in Hawthorn, the Nevermind. Its a really relaxed bar with a bunch of couches inside on multiple levels and a couple different decks on the outside. When we got there I was surprised to find four of my friends from the Aussie rules team in addition to the 12 or so people that had came with Will and I from our apartment. Anyways, it was great to hang out with those kids for one last time.

The next morning Will and I went and got on the plane to Cairns at 7 am and arrived at noon to balmy conditions somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 degrees (mid 80s Fahrenheit). I have to admit it was pretty nice after coming from Melbourne where it had been around 15 degrees on average for the past 2 months. We checked into our hostel Thursday night and went on a rain forest tour on Friday. The tour was pretty fun and our tour guide was amazing. He knew so much about the area and the wildlife that lived within it in addition to being hilarious and conducting the whole tour barefoot. We went on a boat ride on a river, to a pretty cool beach, a rain forest wild life sanctuary and saw one of the rarest birds in the world (a cassowary, sort of like an emu but weirder). The next morning we got on a Greyhound bus that took us down to Airlie Beach which would serve as our jump off point to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The bus ride was 11 hours which kind of sucked but I didn't mind it too much because by now I am more than used to traveling long distances.

On Sunday the 21st Will and I walked around Airlie beach until it was time to board the boat at 4 pm. When we got on the boat and got our cabins, met the crew and the rest of the guests it was quickly apparent that it was going to be a sick trip. I was actually a little worried that I wasn't going to enjoy the rest of the guests because there were only two other kids on the trip the same age as Will and I. The rest were significantly older except for 3 kids who had came on the ship with their parents. However, it actually worked out really well and we met some great people on the trip. The food was amazing on the trip and if it was a restaurant it would be the most expensive one I've ever been to (but luckily it was all included in the price of the trip which wasn't that bad). However, the real highlights of the trip were obviously found off the boat. The reefs and beaches were amazing! I went snorkeling a bunch and scuba diving twice in one of the coolest places in the world. The trip also included a trip to one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world, Whitehaven. It was so sweet and after being in Australia I have a much better appreciation for ocean beaches than I did before. The first time I went snorkeling I was swimming around watching fish hanging around the coral and then I looked around me and I surrounded on three sides by by between 100 and 200 different fish of probably 12 different species. It was amazing! For the rest of my time snorkeling on the trip I saw over 100 different species of fish and over 30 different kinds of coral (however, the coral was not as colorful as I had pictured it would be). Anyways, it was still crazy and like nothing I have ever done before in my life.

Anyways, Australia has been amazing! The people are great, there is so much to do and there are so many great things to experience. Do it!!!!

End of The Road Beach Party, Studying and First Exam

Last weekend started off with a bang. Thursday was fairly uneventful other than footy training. After training we went back to our place and just hung out. The next day was the finale to our Mexican friend Chico's parties. Before the party we had a great barbecue on the deck of out building. In the place where I am staying on the third floor there is a common area which contains a large tv, a pool table and an outside deck-ish thing. On this deck-ish thing there are some electric barbecues that anybody can use for free! Its such a good idea because barbecues are one of my favorite things in the whole world. Its sweet because you put a little money together, get some beers and some food and then go hang out outside while you cook the food. Its like a really laid back party where you can just hang out and talk with your friends. Anyways, we had about 20 people over to our building and had a barbecue before this great party. Chico's parties seem to get bigger every time. the first one was probably 20 people or so, the next one about 40 and they have just kept on growing until this one was probably over 100 people. I was really excited for this one too because I hadn't really drank for about two weeks so I was ready for it! Anyways, it was a great time with plenty of ridiculous things going on.

On Saturday I started studying for my Structural Mechanics test which took place yesterday. I studied for probably or 5 hours each day after that and I was still feeling pretty nervous. The test was last night at 6 and was to last 3 hours. It was both the longest and most important test of my college career because it was worth 70% of my grade in a class that I was not doing great in. Well I got the test and I was pretty confident because I had seen all the material before. Come to find out 3 hours is apparently not enough time to complete this test for me though. ugh. I left a few answers blank so needless to say I am a little nervous about the results.

Next on my plate is a paper I have due Monday and a Thermodynamics test next Wednesday. and then I am out of here...

Mornington Peninsula, Going to the Country, Stitches round II, Preparing for exams

So since classes ended on the 29th I've pretty much been bumming around waiting to start studying. So in order to put off studying Mike, Scott, Will and I went to Australian Will's house in the country. We boarded a train to Will's hometown of Colac at 8 in the morning which was pretty early for a Saturday morning. Will's dad picked us up and drove us to there house where we had some great home cooked food which included fresh tomato soup, chocolate chip muffins and grilled cheese, tomato and ham sandwiches. It made me really miss the home cooking of my mom.

After they fed us we took their car and went and saw some of the sights of the great ocean road. Mike and I had already been there but Will had not. We also managed to see some things that I had not seen before which was pretty cool. The weather was also a lot better than the last time I was there so we had a great time. When we got back to Will's house we were treated to another excellent meal including potatoes, a lamb roast, carrots, and some amazing cake afterwards. I really really need to learn to cook. I think when I get back to the states I'm going to pick up a cook book of some sort because I am getting a bit sick of the stuff that I am currently capable of cooking.

The next day we relaxed around the farm and slept in. When we woke up we played games in their pool room and then took a drive around the farm. It reminded me a lot of what I thought the midwestern U.S. would have been like 20 years ago. They owned a small amount of cattle(four or five hundred), grew a lot of their own food, the house had been passed down from the father's parents and although they weren't that far from a small town it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was great to get out of the hustle and bustle of Melbourne and into the country side. We returned from the country at night and promptly relaxed for the entire week. I really should have started studying but I couldn't muster the strength of will to do so. On Tuesday we went on the last Swinmates trip to the Mornington Peninsula and the hot springs. It was great and as usual the Australian coast did not dissapoint. It was very rocky and sort of reminded me of Ireland or Scotland with its green pastures running almost directly up to the edge of the ocean when all of a sudden it dropped down in steep black volcanic rock cliffs into the ocean. The sunset was a bit of a dissapointment due to the clouds but we still had fun.
The hot springs were great because they were like a series of hot tubs minus the nasty chemicals.

Thursday was another night of footy training and then Friday morning I finally was rid of my stitches. Last Friday the 29th when I went to get my stitches out the doctor said that a part of my skin had overlapped. The result was a need for the current set of stitches to be removed and 4 more to be put in. Anyways after another week I got that set of stitches out yesterday. Last night a bunch of us got together and had a really fun barbecue beforea really great party at one of our mexican friends place Chico. It ended up being one of the best nights I've had in Australia so far. I am definitely missing home at this point but at the same time I am extremely reluctant to leave my life here. I have made some great friends that I doubt I will see regularily if at all when I go back to the States. I also have started playing an amazing sport that I already love and will miss playing it as well as watching it on TV when I go back to the states. Anyways, must go watch the Carlton game and then to bed before waking up and studying tomorrow!

End of Semester, Post School Plans, Footy Excitement

Alright so pretty much the reason why I haven't written anything in awhile is because nothing that interesting has been happening. The last few weeks I have kind of fallen into a routine of playing Aussie rules, going out, going to class and doing school work.

Last weekend I started on the field for my first Aussie rules game for the team I play for, the Razorbacks. I started at half-forward which was pretty fun and played for most of the game. I played pretty well with a few kicks, a couple tackles and a handful of disposals. Needless to say, we lost handily. Since we one the first two games of the season both the seniors and the reserves (I play reserves) have experienced some injuries. As people get injured the best players on reserves move from reserves up to seniors. This is nice because it gives us international students a chance but on the other hand it makes reserves play a lot worse. After those first two games we have lost four straight.

On Sunday the 17th, Will Arundell (my Australian roommate) took Will (my American roommate) and I too the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The MCG is one of the largest athletic stadiums in the world (Number 8 on the list, capacity of just over 100,000) and that day we went to an Aussie Rules Football game between Carlton and Collingwood. It was a pretty good game but it was clear from the beginning that Carlton was going to win. It was really fun though since Carlton is the team that I root for.

In the past few weeks we (American Will) and I have finalized our travel plans. After our last final exam on the 17th we will fly to Cairns on the 18th and stay there for two nights and go on a day trip to the Daintree Rainforest. After the rain forest adventure we will take a bus down the coast to Aerlie Beach where we will stay the night. The next day we will board a sailing ship and stay on that for 6 nights among the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The ship that we will stay on isn't very big with space for only 21 people so it should be pretty cool. Seeing the Great Barrier Reef was my number one thing to see while I'm here so I am really excited. Its going to be expensive but I kind of doubt I will ever come back to Australia so I have decided to spring for it and borrow the money from my parents.

So that brings me up to yesterday. Yesterday we had a game up in Kew at Victoria park. The game was going alright up until the 3rd quarter. I had been assigned to the defensive back line which kind of sucks because your main job is just to prevent the man you are guarding from catching the ball. I like to have more creativity like what you get when you play half forward or in the middle of the field which I had been playing earlier in the game. Anyways, in the 4th or 5th minute of the 3rd quarter I was charging forward after a bouncing ball as one of my teammates was charging backward. His elbow ended up hitting me in the eyebrow and a few seconds later I'm on the ground spouting blood like a leaky garden hose. Part of my eyebrow was drooping down in front of my right eye as a walked off the field led by our athletic trainer. She did a pretty good job momentarily stopping the bleeding but it was clear that it was going to require stitches to close the 5 cm gash. One of my teammates drove me to the closest hospital and about three hours later I walked out with 8 stitches. Luckily, I had taken care of my health insurance situation a few weeks earlier so I was covered. I think I probably won't play next weekend because of the stitches but we'll see I suppose.

Water boy, Books, Night time

Alright so last weekend was the second round of games for the Razorbacks. Unfortunately for me I had missed a week of training and round one because I had been on the road trip. Also, I still kind of suck at footy. All of these reasons contributed to Scott, Will and I getting left out of the roster for the weekend. However, there is an agreement within the team that if you help them out during the game you are guaranteed a spot in the roster the following weekend. Anyways, Will and I were appointed water girls (haha) while Scott was assigned to the time keeping role. The game went pretty well with the Razorbacks initially down after the 1st quarter but from then on they absolutely dominated. It was alright being a water girl but it would have been a lot better to be on the field. It just feels demeaning to not be selected for the team and then have to watch it while delivering water to them. Its alright though because tomorrow Scott and I will get our shots on the field!

Also going on that weekend were a couple fun parties. One of them was at my friend Chico's place. He is the most Mexican person I have ever met and is as a result, hilarious. Will, Scott, Mike and I went there around 10:30 or 11 on Friday and arrived to the surprise of a bunch of people with their country's flag painted on their faces. We all went along with it and got the stars and bars painted on us. The party was pretty fun with a bunch of international students as well as a couple of girls who work for Unilodge(the place I'm living) as receptionists. I made the unfortunate mistake of letting people write on my arms and I woke up with a couple very vulgar sayings written on my forearms. Saturday night was a birthday party for a German down near St. Kilda. The building was a very tall apartment building literally across the street from the beach which was pretty sweet. The party wasn't great, but we met some fun people from all over the place. This included my first encounter with a lady from South Africa and their native language(Zulu maybe?)! That was amazing! Its crazy how seemlessly they integrate their tongue noises (tongue clicks doesn't really describe it accurately) into the language. I left kind of early though because I was exhausted. On the tram ride home I lost my phone, again! Uggh. It turned out alright though because I got it back from the lost and found on Monday. I still can't believe that I've lost my phone twice down here and gotten it back both times!

During the week I started reading again with a book I picked up last summer. It was by Agatha Christie and called "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." I finished it on Wednesday night and then yesterday I went out and bought Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince which I am really excited about and will probably finish it far too fast to justify the $45 I spent on it. Other events in the week included ladie's night at Space Bar on Tuesday and last night we went to a great club called "Seven." "Seven" was pretty cool with a bunch of different rooms with different music. One room played some great hip hop. I heard 2pac, Biggie and the first song I heard was "A Milli" by Lil Wayne as I was walking in. I was immediately sold on the place as all I hear around here is techno and the latest shitty music playing on the Top 40 countdown. I have missed hip hop so much! Actually, that's not really true since I listen to it whenever on my Ipod or computer, but I just hate the constant thump intertwined with the synthesizer of techno. This week Will and I also moved back our flights from the 27th of June to the 29th to give us a few extra days up in Cairns or on the Great Barrier Reef.

Surfers Paradise, Chelsea are through!

April 15th-24th

So I woke up Wednesday morning at 5:00 am to watch the second leg of the Chelsea vs. Liverpool Champions League tie. The first leg of the tie had been my favorite game of the year so far with Chelsea (my team) winning 3-1 in Liverpool's stadium. Therefore going into the second game, Chelsea looked like they would go through. However when I woke up Liverpool were already up 1-0 and would soon add another before half time to make it 2-0. I was not happy. Luckily, in the second half Chelsea scored 3 unanswered goals to make it 3-2. Liverpool were still in it though and score two quick goals in the 81st and 82nd minute. Super Frank Lampard finally put it out of reach though in the 89th minute. What a relief! Anyways, Chelsea are through and will face Barcelona in the semi final on May 6th.

When the game was finished it was still 6:30 am so I had some time to kill while Will and Mike slept. I ate breakfast out on the balcony and took a shower. When they got up we were off to the beach! The beach was amazing. When we walked down to the beach from our hotel I looked in both directions and could not tell how long the beach was. I have never really traveled in a place like Surfer's Paradise before where the water and air is warm year round but it was great! The water was just warm enough not to chill you but still cool enough to refresh. Before we went swimming we went to the pharmacy to get some sun screen and some sinus medication as I was starting to have some serious issues breathing. On our way back we got ensnared by a saleswoman making a pitch for a club crawl later that night. I don't normally like to pay cover charges but I figured since we were on a vacation it was alright. We threw down $40 a piece for entry into 5 clubs and a drink at each club. On that note Mike rented a boogie board and I rented a surfboard and we were set for a great day at the beach.

The waves were pretty choppy that day which made for some challenging surfing conditions. I had fun all the same and it was great just to be in such a great place. We played some frisbee and soaked up the sun and 85 degree heat. Luckily, none of us managed to get burned too badly and we retired to our hotel room to prepare ourselves for the night's festivities.

The club crawl was actually pretty cool. We met some good looking girls from all over the world and sampled some of Surfer's best night life. The people were all really friendly and we had a great time. However, I woke up in the morning at 5:30 with the jitters because instead of drinking beer the night before I drank scotch and cokes. Due to the effects of the caffeine from the coke I couldn't sleep anymore. It wasn't all bad though as I was up before the sunrise and went down to the beach and took some amazing pictures of the Australian sunrise. Once I got back to hotel after the sun rose I had a bowl of cereal and went out for a walk to find a real breakfast place.

I found a place about a kilometer away and I ate a huge breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and sausage. I talked to the waiter a bunch about soccer and the U.S. since he and his girl friend are going to travel there in June. I took my time eating the breakfast and watched the Arsenal vs. Villa Real Champions League game on the TV and then walked back to the room around 8:30 or so. We checked out of the hotel at around 11 am and got on the road back to Melbourne. The plan was to knock off a few hours that day and hopefully stop somewhere at a beach or park that afternoon and then travel to Sydney the next day. Unfortunately though, when we were about an hour and a half from Surfer's in a little town called Ballina, Mike punched through third gear while shifting and we could not shift out of it. We had to get the van towed to a repair shop and we were stranded there overnight. The van got fixed by the next morning and we were able to leave by around 11:30.

That night we made camp in a National Park just south of Sydney next to a waterfall. At this point I had become sick with a bad sinus infection and did not sleep well waking up around 6 in the morning coughing pretty terribly. We made the rest of the trip that day without incident and were back in Melbourne by around 8 pm. Great road trip, in the bag.

On Monday it was back to school and I was feeling a little stressed about my first Structural Mechanics test since I was not sure what to expect. My test was on Tuesday and I think it went pretty well with the problems on the test well within my reach. I didn't go to footy training on Tuesday as I was still feeling under the weather but I did go last night and today I feel pretty good. Unfortunately, Will, Scott and I got left out of the roster for the footy game tomorrow but I suppose it is to be expected after missing practice and Round 1's game over break. In other news I have begun planning our trip to Cairns/Great Barrier Reef which will take place after the semester.

Easter Break Road Trippin

Easter Break (Part 1)
April 10th-April 14th

Alright so I last week I left off at the point when we were staying at Manly Beach just north of Sydney. We were supposed to meet up with one of my friends who is going to school in Sydney. For whatever reason it didn't work out so Will, Mike and I wandered around Manly for awhile and then since it was Good Friday everything closed at 10 pm. We did the only thing we could do, go to sleep in our luxury accommodation known as the Wicked camper van. It actually wasn't too bad; we slept three across with plenty of leg room. Although, should room was lacking somewhat in the early 1990s model Mazda cargo van. We slept alright, rising early with the sun and then dozing off until around 7 or 8.

When we finally did wake up for good we planned to do the usual tourist things. I drove the van to downtown Sydney where we parked in a garage near the Rocks for the day. We walked around the shops and markets until we found a breakfast place called "Pancakes on The Rocks." I was a little skeptical going in because it was rather expensive for breakfast food, but it was delicious! I'm not even normally a huge fan of pancakes, but these were amazing! After the pancakes we walked around and saw the Botanical Gardens as well as the Sydney Opera House. To be honest the Opera House looks a little ugly up close but from far away it is magnificent. In
the Botanical Gardens we saw trees filled with huge bats, called flying foxes and there were so many bats hanging upside down in some trees that they looked like cat sized redish-brown Christmas tree ornaments. That was pretty weird to say the least. We spent some more time in Sydney walking in Hyde Park and around Darling Harbour. When evening fell on us we decided to pack it up and go to Bondi Beach in hopes that the next days weather would be better the next day. Waking up in the morning was not great as it was cloudy and not exactly a beach day.

Time to get on the road again. Once about an hour or so outside the city we did some tourist recon at an information stop along the side of the highway. Will discovered a tourist drive with great views and many beaches and a few small towns we could stop along the way. Once we drove for an hour or so after that the weather began to clear up and we looked for a beach to plop down on a for a few hours. We came across along the drive a place called Avoca beach which was great! It wasn't the longest beach I had ever been on but it was very wide and had great sand. It was so weird though, the sand was squeaky! Whenever you walked or ran it sounded like a very small pair of tires were squealing or a perhaps hands squeaking along some glass (Mike suggested that it was probably due to the high silica content of the sand). After a few hours it started to cloud up so we decided to move on after exploring the town a bit and getting something for lunch. I got probably the best fish and chips of my life for $10 at this place called "burger girls." It was amazing except for the fact that (like many places in Australia unfortunately) they made me pay for the ketchup to put on my chips. At any rate, it was time to get rolling again.

Later that afternoon while we were on the road it rained some and then it was just cloudy. Kind of annoying but not terrible. We made camp that night at a place called Old Bar again, parking right on the beach, hoping for a cool sunrise to wake us up. Alas, it was not to be, we woke up to cloudy and drizzly weather. Whatever though, we still had a week ahead of us and it was supposed to clear up on Tuesday or Wednesday. We drove the rest of that day through places like Nambucca Heads which in the travel guides looked like something out of, well a travel guide, but in the pouring rain looked fairly similar to the Sandy River in Farmington, Maine. We parked that night on a yet another beach in Byron Bay, the eastern most town in Australia. It was still pouring rain but we decided to brave the weather and walk around town for some night life. We found ourselves at a local reggae concert which was sweet! Pints were $6 which isn't bad so we had a few of those and listened to some white guy serenade a bunch of hippies with some Matisyahu-esque music. We had a great time until the concert was over and we had to walk back through the heavy heavy mist (it never rains per say on my vacations) that was coming down and climb into our van absolutely soaked.

We were awakened early Tuesday morning by a stern police officer asking us some questions about what time we got into the parking spot and what we were doing etc. He kindly told us that he would leave the parking fine on the wind screen. Luckily we had been armed with the Wicked Camper handbook which said parking fines are nothing to worry about if you don't live here. So other than the hassling we got from the officer we came off from that incident unscathed. Its a good thing we won't be paying that parking ticket too because it was $81. That is absolutely silly.
Whatever though, no big deal. We moved the van to another beach in the same town and it was once again cloudy with patchy rain. At this point I was contemplating becoming suddenly relgious on the hopes that the weather would get better. While Mike caught some much needed rest the already awake Will and I adventured along this new beach until we reached the very tip of the Easternmost point in Australia. It was kind of a cool morning adventure and little did we know but that was the last we would see of the rain on the trip. We spent a few hours of the day in town at the main beach (where we had gotten the ticket) surfing, walking around to the different shops and buying gifts for friends and family. Once we had had our fill of this, to the van and the road to Surfer's Paradise. Though of all the places we visited on the trip Byron Bay was probably my favorite simply because of the hippie/surfer nature of the town along with the great scenery and low number people to number of beaches ratio.

We all piled into the van and severely looked forward to staying in the hotel room that I had reserved for Tuesday and Wednesday night. There was some confusion though as I had only written down a phone number and address for the hotel and not its name! Once we got that worked out though we eventually found the Crowne Plaza hotel, a block from the beach on the Gold Coast highway. It was amazing! We were on the 14th floor with two beds, a balcony and probably the nicest bathroom I have ever been in. We didn't even pay that much to stay there, only the cost of what it would have been to put the three of us in a hostel for 2 nights. Anyways, we walked the 2 km or so from or hotel up to the main shopping/night life/restaraunt area of Surfer's Paradise for dinner and relaxed in a bar. That night we retired somewhat early for our first night in a real bed in what seemed like ages.