Straya Observations

Despite how nice people are here, they will speed up when you try to cross the road. So be careful, even if you know you've timed it right, you still might get hit.

The Mall will close at 6 or 7pm, and everything will be closed off except for the grocery store. Those usually close at 12am.

There's a Hooters Australia. How do I know this? There's a mini Hooters car parked on my street. Pictures to be posted later.

I saw a kid get handcuffed and searched the other day at Bondi Junction train station. I had been walking into the train station thinking that my Monday was going to suck. After I saw that, I felt a little better.

Spiders are everywhere. Roaches are common too, thankfully we've been able to keep both outside of the house. The roaches here are much smaller and less ugly, but they still need to stay outside.

Dryers don't really exist here.

Turkey doesn't really exist here either and the concept of it seems to bother some people.

I hate ironing, especially since my ironing board only makes it up to groin level.

Every Friday is a barbecue at mi casa, except for last Friday which was Fajita Friday. Maybe next Friday will be StirFriday.

Restaurants and food establishments do not have sanitation grades posted. I don't like that, but I guess they get inspected regularly. Right?

In the Grocery Store:
Eggs are not refrigerated.
Pet food is refrigerated directly next to the beef.

Shout Outs

Before going any further I would just like to say that I'm sorry that this has taken so long. Every time I sit down to write my blog either the internet goes out or one of my mates finds a cool new way to distract me. This section was inspired by Mike Cohen, the other brother down under. He said that many of you enjoyed my blog and deserved a shout out. So let's see who's reading.

Most enthusiastic Blog Follower: Herr Bender, thanks for reading buddy. Every time I got distracted and didn't update my blog I felt I was failing you.

Best at keeping in touch: This one's a tie between Igal and Ian. Igal, you probably shouldn't even be reading this. You should get back to doing homework. Ian, you aren't reading this and that's perfectly fine by me.

Secret Blog Follower: My main man SuperCam, Mike told me you liked my blog and kept up with it this was nuts, miss ya dawg.

Mike Cohen: My Australian American compadre, we haven't been arrested or chased by angry rioters yet. We've got to work on that.

The Aussie Crew: The Dinosaur, Big Leach, AK-47, and The Godfather, if you don't know who you are, it's ok because I just made these up. They're a work in progress.

Good Samaritan Shout Out: Mysterious Asian Woman Lilly, I left my phone on the train a week ago and thought it was a goner for sure, but little old Lilly left it at the station for me. How cool is that? Heaps cool

Ready, Weather or Not...GO!

The weather is generally in the upper 60's to mid 70's now. So it's Spring time here?

I'm not sure what to call it, but we're on the cusp of summer and it's great. I'm so excited. I go to the beach (Bondi) semi-frequently and went into the water for the first time the other day. The water was (bad pun warning) cold as I'll get out, but it was refreshing too. I went with my housemates and we had a good time. 90% of the time I go to the beach, I end up passing out in the sand. It's a great feeling. It was really interesting to go with a few of the locals this last time around because I learned a few things about Bondi beach culture. The tourists and backpackers stay on the side closest to Bondi Junction. The attractive people and muscle heads are on the other end. A few French nudist types are in between the backpackers and the middle of the beach. I know now where I should be chilling from here on out. There were also quite a few camera men this time around as they were filming a show called Bondi Rescue. I had to resist the urge to walk behind them and be as awkward as possible, but I was able to successfully repress the urge. TV just isn't ready for it yet. Every time I go to the beach, I meet the most attractive person in Sydney. It's baffling how many of those there are on the beach. I wonder when I'll find "the one." I'll keep you up to date.

(On the right side: Backpackers,  Far left: Attractives, Not nearly this crowded yet)

The weather has been nice enough that I've started running again. I woke up at 5:15am the other day and ran to the beach to watch the Sunrise. It was pretty epic. If ever you need something to fibrillate your soul or make you realize how beautiful earth is, there's (almost) nothing better than watching the sunrise over a beach.

I also ran to see the sunset over the beach. It was gorgeous as well, but the sun can't really be seen from the beach. It gets lost behind buildings to the left of the beach. The change in colors are gorgeous, but for the ultimate romantic experience, you need to actually see the sun set over the water.

Pictures to be posted soon!

That's Pretty School

So I get a lot of questions (Well, I imagine I might if it was easier to correspond with me) about what my school is like.

Buildings, style and structure: It looks a lot like Hogwarts, at least the quadrangle (pictured above) does. All of the buildings look very English and, while some of them are quite new and chic (See New Law Building below), I don't find them very attractive.  However, I guess it's the same across most universities. Old buildings look old and creepy and new buildings look hospitable.

Campus Life: Walking through Campus at mid-day can be difficult at times. With 50,000 students, the place is always packed and everyone has somewhere to be. Correction, the place is always packed during school hours. On the weekends and at night, it's a ghost town. It's the ultimate commuter school, although there are some on campus "colleges" (a little similar to a Greek house/dormitories). There are pubs on campus. So if you've got time to kill between classes or aren't rushing to get back home, you can grab a brew with some friends and play some pool too. Universities in America should really look into this. Students spend a considerable amount of the cash on beer, why not have some of that money go back into the University.

Teachers: All seem fairly nice, are all interesting at times, and haven't put me to sleep in lecture yet.

Classrooms: Every row in a big lecture hall is graffitied. Students, bored or refusing to pay attention, uses pens and sharpies to write and draw random things on the places where people put their notebook. I find most of them pretty amusing and wonder, if these drawings are made without the intention of garnering fame or fortune, are they not the truest form of art? I guess the same could be made for bathroom art as well. Call me maybe crazy, but I prefer bathroom art and classroom doodles over heaps of modern art.

Assignments + Exams: There are relatively few assignments here. The majority of assessments are put into 1 or 2 exams and 1 or 2 papers plus either a mandatory 80% attendance or fail policy for toots aka recitations or you actually get a participation grade for attending your tutorial. I'm currently getting shalacked by assignments. I have two tests coming up, one next Thursday and then one Friday night (I'm really pissed about this one because I don't have any classes ever on Fridays, it's at night, and it's the only thing holding me back from my Mid-semester break). Friday night exams should be included into the Geneva convention.

Australian Slang Part Deux

Variations in Pronunciation

Heych- Apparently that is the "correct" way to pronounce H. I'm skeptical.
Pahss- It's Pahss, not pass

Debut- Day boo

Cities you're probably pronouncing wrong:

Melbin- Melbourne

Cairns- Cans
Brisbane- Brisbin
The general rule of Australian slang is to shorten anything and everything.

Slang:

Shout- to buy someone else a round

Serviette- If you thought Napkin, you were right. Neither of those words really make sense to me, but I'll stick with what's familiar and say that napkin is a better word. It sounds much more informal.

Barby- Barbecue

Prawn- Shrimp

Ending things with Prepositions for ex. Me: How was that party last night? Aussie: It was hectic tho Me: Though what? Aussie: ?, sometimes people here end things in prepositions and it totally confuses me. It's something I hope doesn't catch on back home.

Footy- Football

Mueslis- granola bar

Chemist- Pharmacy or Drug Store

Toots- Recitations

Coon- Is a brand of Cheese, not racist slang. Needless to say, I did a discount double check when I walked past the cheese isle.

Flat- Apartment

Thongs- Sandals and also thong thongs

Trainers- Sneakers, tennis shoes

Wog- Post-WWII migrants, particularly darker skinned. I.e. Greeks, lebanese, etc. it's confusing if this is pejorative or not, but I think it depends on circumstance.

Bogan- the Australian version of a redneck

RUGBY

Hello Everybody,
     It's been in the works for a long time, but I'm back. Let's start off with Rugby. On the 18th of August, I went with two other international students to the Wallabies vs. All Blacks game. It was an incredible event. Initially, I had a hard time deciding who I was going to root for. Being from America, I knew very little about rugby, but I did know about the All Blacks. A friend of mine was especially keen on their pre-game ritual, the Haka  so I thought of rooting for the All Blacks. However, while discussing my conundrum with another international student I completely changed my opinion. Paraphrasing of course, he said "Rooting for the All Blacks and not being from New Zealand is like rooting for the Yankees and not living in New York." That statement resonated and shook me to my very core. If my father has taught me anything or Uncle for that matter, it's that the Yankees are not to be rooted for or tolerated under any circumstances. So I went down to the local grocery store and bought some green and yellow for the game (the commonwealth colors worn by the Wallabies and Australian Olympians). The game was held at the Olympic Stadium which was a pretty impressive place, although it wasn't quite as big as it was when it held the Olympics. The atmosphere was intense. I'd say that attendance,76K+,  was split 60/40 Wallabies/All Blacks, quite a high turnout for the "away" team. Once they performed both the Australian and the New Zealand  national anthem, the game began. The Wallabies never really threatened at any point in the game, although New Zealand squandered plenty of opportunities. The home crowd was shushed for most of the game, but everyone was on their A game for the Wave. We must have done the wave 10 times in a row, a personal sports event record. The crowd was quite rowdy and everyone was having a great time, except perhaps the die hard Wallabies fans, however they knew it was coming. I figured out most of the game the night before watching NRL teams play, but I still ended up clapping for the wrong team at the wrong time on a few occasions. In my defense, it was hard to distinguish who was yelling for joy or out of anger in the stands. All in all, it was a great experience and I'll have to make it to another rugby game. I still won't stand for the argument that rugby players are better athletes than American Football players, but I'll let the Aussies  Kiwis have their game and I really respect it. It looks way more brutal than Football, I can tell you that, but I guess having free health care comes in handy. The final score: Wallabies 16 All Blacks 24.

p.s. Getting on the train to go home looked and felt a lot like this.

Everything's the same, but different. A General Update on Life Down Under

Hey Y'all,
I'm back! I know you guys were like, "damn, what's missing from my day? I just can't figure out why I have this feeling deep down in my soul that I'm incomplete." Well, you were missing me and my blog of course. So sit back, relax, I'm back with a general discussion on all things random and life down under.
ADVANTAGE: MY READERS

Housing:
I'm currently living in bondi junction, about a 10 min walk from the train station. It's a great location, well it will be once it warms up, and I'm living with a bunch of interesting people. I'm living with 10 other people. Two guys from Australia, one Kiwi (New Zealander), two girls from Chile, two Canadians, an Irishman, a girl from Australia and one girl from Taiwan. It's a great mix and, even though I'm sure I don't need to state the obvious, I'm the only American in the house. A few of them are students and the rest are here working. We're all young adults and, so far, we really enjoy each other's company. It only took me a few days, but I've been renamed, nicknamed if you will. I believe it began because the Kiwi couldn't remember my name and it's a reference to something, but he began calling me Americain. One of the Canadian girls loved it, thought he was saying American in his Kiwi accent, and started calling me America. Hence, my new name is America. Probably the second best nickname I've ever gotten. One of the Chilean girls can barely speak English, but if America has anything to do about it she'll learn it. It takes me about 40 min to get from my door to campus, but most of my commute is via train so it's not bad at all.
ADVANTAGE: DIVERSITY

Weather Update: After a miserable weekend, rain+cold+wind, the weather has finally gotten to t-shirt and jeans level (fingers crossed it stays that way). Most of my housemates know how to surf so hopefully they'll start teaching me soon.
ADVANTAGE: MY MOOD

The Aquarium: WAS AWESOME. I really love animals. I've realized this as a lot of my pictures from the Coastal Walk, the walk from Watson's Bay to Bondi Beach, consisted of colorful birds. I've realized that I really love animals, especially when I don't have to clean up after them. I give it an A- only because they had moved the Dugongs and they wouldn't be back until September. I want more Seacow :(.
ADVANTAGE: SHARKS THAT DON'T EAT ME

Electrical Outlets: Being in a different country, I've gotten to notice differences big and, mostly, small that make or don't make a lot of sense. One of the small differences that made a lot of sense to me are the Australian electrical outlets. Every outlet here has a small switch on it. You can actually switch an outlet off. I know sometimes there are light switches in houses that will turn off the power from outlets, but I'm sure it saves a lot of energy having the switch so easily accessible for every outlet. If we had outlets like that back home, I wouldn't have to unplug and replug everything for winter/spring break. I could just flip the switch.
ADVANTAGE: AUSTRALIA

Restrooms: They call them toilets here. I find that disturbing. It's one of those differences in vernacular that I just don't approve of. I don't think anyone from America would regularly say, I'm going to the toilet or I need to use the toilet. Signs here say toilets instead of restrooms. I don't like it, toilet just sounds dirty to me. Unless you're talking about buying a toilet or fixing one, just say bathroom. El ban~o is also acceptable.
ADVANTAGE: AMERICAN NICETIES

Cheese: There are no cats in Australia, at least none that I've seen. Does this have to do with the fact that the  cheese tastes all wrong here and therefore it's not a suitable place for rats to live? Probably not, but I'm sure the rats would agree with me. If I were to run a grocery store, I'd put Australian cheese in the weird tasting food aisle.
ADVANTAGE: AMERICA

Internet: This is my biggest issue with Australia to date. The internet here is awful. Campus Wi-Fi failed, not once, but twice on campus during the first week of school. If that happened more than once at UNC people would riot. I know I would be right there flipping cars and burning dook flags in protest of such awful internet. I've recently learned that they don't have fiber optic cables here and so there are no T level internet connections. To most people, that means nothing, but put simply, it's like switching back to dial-up. In my opinion there are very few things more frustrating than moving from something very technologically advanced back to something much less advanced. Off the very top of my head, I can only name three things more frustrating than having to endure said switch: reading entire chapters of a textbook, reading anything virginia woolf, talking politics and, oh yeah, make this number four, trying to figure out what the hell is going on in LOST.
ADVANTAGE: AMERICA

Kebabs: Pronounced Keh-behb and not Keh-Bob. They are everywhere here in Sydney and they aren't those delicious meat sticks you're so used to thinking about. They're more like shwarma. You can choose between some sort of beef concoction or chicken roasted on a vertical spit which is then sliced and put into a pita. It was very odd the first time I went into a Kebab place and ordered one. It was way better than what I was expecting.There are Kebab stands all over Sydney, it seems every Turkish person here owns a Kebab place, and they're open all night long. I've concluded, solely through observations of course, that the Kebab is the drunk food of Sydney.
ADVANTAGE: AUSTRALIA

The British: Left their mark everywhere here in Australia from their dumb way of driving on the wrong side of the road, to the way they like to misspell words like color. It's been really weird to see a statue of the Queen in the heart of downtown and her face all over the currency. Sometimes I just want to pull an Iraqi citizen and topple it over. 'Merica doesn't bow to monarchy.
ADVANTAGE: COLONIZATION

Recitations: They're called Tutorials here aka toots. Basically, a recitation is a regurgitation of lecture material and involves practicing problems. You even get a chance to ask a question, if you so dare, which is never the case in a lecture hall. However, in Australia, all of the tutorials are run by people who speak English which is in stark contrast to the recitations UNC. Back home, I've never come across material from lecture that's been more difficult than it is trying to understand the TAs who try to teach.
ADVANTAGE: TOOTS, NON-ECON MAJORS

Trucks: In Australia, pickup trucks are called "utes". They suck. Well, the majority of them suck. I just don't get it. I'm from the south. We like our trucks big, the bigger, the better. If you have a truck, it's got to look like it can either: A. Run over an Elephant or B. Tow an Elephant. Here? The most popular truck resembles a low-rider. Every time I look at these trucks, I wonder: Are there no speed bumps in this country and how the hell do they stay above ground when they put anything of significant weight in it? Someone told me that they're also popular because they're kind of like "sports cars." That's kind of like stupid. If you want something fast, buy a sports car, not a truck.
ADVANTAGE: THE SOUTH