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.