Tweet Tweet

Hey everyone, I've got Twitter now, so follow me-- ldevane

Additionally, if you don't know what Twitter is, it's yet another social networking phenomena that is creeping up on the world. Pretty much the basis is people can just update their "followers" on what they're doing. So say I just bought my tickets for the FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifier for Asia, Australia vs. Uzbekistan, which I just have, I could type that in and then people who "follow" me could see that when they log on and think "Wow that's pretty cool".  And with all the Blackberry's and Iphones and all that jazz these days, people can update their twitter, or be updated on other people, straight from their phones. Taylor Swift was twittering about sightseeing in Australia a couple weeks ago when she was here.  Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder, was twittering just a few days ago about being at Bondi Beach...crazy. There are tons of celebs on there now too, along with corporations, magazines, websites, etc. Point is, if there is someone or something you feel like you want to keep up with, get on Twitter. 

And side note, for all of you who saw my address and immediately ran out to send me a package, before you seal it up, lets remember that it is almost Easter, and the one thing that the Easter bunny has always brought me (besides underwear until I was about 11) was  Peeps, and they don't make them here, so I don't think the Aussie Easter bunny is going to be able to deliver this year. What a travesty! So go ahead, send me some Peeps! But if you're as poor as me and don't have cash money to send me anything, just a good 'ol snail mail letter  would make me smile.  I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to miss home. Like I said, I love the people here, but I miss my friends from home so much. And even though I hear it's snowing in Chicago right now, I miss my city. Sydney is beautiful of course, but I really do love Chicago and my view from my apartment. Anyways, if you want to brighten my day you now know how. Ow now brown cow. 

Oh and one last thing, I've become obsessed with omelets. Seriously. I've got a portable cooktop in my room, and I make omelets for myself every morning when I wake up now, really good ones with red and yellow capsicum, mushrooms, onions, ham, cheese, you name it. And recently I came up with the ingenious idea to chop up all the ingredients right when I get them, throw them into a tupperwear, and then all I have to do is pour some into a pan and sauté them then make the eggs. Best idea ever. And it makes me room smell delicious all the live long day! Howanski, you'd love it, its the most wonderful thing ever, I'll make you one straight away when I return. 

That's all. 

Nothing too exciting in here

I have not been neglecting the blog, it's just that nothing exciting has really happened since the concert on Tuesday.  Since the money always seems to run out before the month does, I've been having to cut back on going out.  But it really isn't just due to the lacking of funds, sometimes it just gets to be too much and you need to take a break, let the body recover.  

Two more weeks of class then we get a nice two week Fall Break to relax.  In my group there a bunch of people going to Thailand, which the parents weren't too keen on, so I will not be making that trek. Luke V. is going to BluesFest  for the first couple days of break, up north near Byron Bay with some of his buddies from back home that are studying in other places in Australia. The Gumalis are going to Melbourne I believe. Which leaves myself and Emily here by ourselves.  We're looking into finding stuff to do, maybe Whitsunday Islands or Frasier Island or somewhere with amazing beaches pretty much. Maybe Fiji for a few days, who knows. My vote will be wherever has the cheapest roundtrip airfare.

Julia and I are going to book our New Zealand trip later this week. I'm so incredibly stoked for this, we're going to go in June, since neither of us have final exams because our classes are design classes and we just have final projects that are due before the break, we won't have any studying to do over the three weeks between the end of classes and everyone elses exams. It's really weird, you hear of universities having dead week, a few days between the end of class and exams, but three weeks? Really?! Whatever, doesn't affect me, actually kinda helps it. The plan is to go through Contiki Tours and do a tour of the Southern Island. I wanted to do both Northern and Southern, but again with the empty pockets...so Southern it is, for the main reason that Queenstown is on the South Island, which is considered the Adventure Capital of the world. I'm so excited. There is just so much to do, skydiving, bungee jumping, glacier climbing, amazing scenery, even zorb balling! If you want to check out the itinerary of the trip, go ahead! The link is:

http://contiki.com.au/tours/91-scenic-southern-anti-clockwise

So I guess I could fill you in on school.  Classes are pretty hectic right now. I've already turned in two projects, got decent grades on them. The grading scale here is a little bit different than home, it goes HD (high distinction), D (distinction), C (Credit), P (pass), P+ (very low end of pass), and F (I think you can guess this one). So the conversion is pretty much HD=A+, D=A, C=B, P=C, P+=D, F=F.  But HD's are pretty much impossible to get, and even distinction is a reach.  For my most recent typography project, our professor said he hasn't had a HD in the past three years of doing the project, and this year of the 70 some kids enrolled in the class (we're split up for our tutorials and workshops to much smaller classes, its just the lecture that we're all together for) only 6 received distinction. So it's actually pretty tough, though they explained that back at orientation, that the highest grade in the class in America is usually somewhere in the 90th percentile, whereas here the highest grade could be low 80s or something of the like. Weird, I know. 

My lecturer for typo is most definitely my  favorite here. He sounds exactly like Arnold Schwartzenager (I'm guessing I spelled that wrong, but spell check doesn't know it and I'm not taking the time to look it up) and sometimes will do impressions of him.  He has really dry humor and half the time I feel like I'm one of the only ones laughing, though it could be because the other kids just don't understand him. Regardless, I think he's hilarious and actually wish lecture was longer than an hour.

My other classes are going alright. They are a lot of weird work, making mock up fruit bowls out of cardboard, creating weird shapes out of cardboard in order to build some sort of object...not really sure what is going on with that project actually. But I'll find out Tuesday. But I've also had a lot of just busy work. Yesterday, a Saturday, Emily and I spent the whole day in my room doing our respective homework while watching season one of The OC.  No beach for us even though it was quite nice out yesterday, but we are here to study right? 

The weather is starting to cool off though actually. But when I say cool off I mean mid 70s, so I really shouldn't be complaining since my weather widget has informed me that it's snowing in Chicago right now. Sorry guys. I'll try not to get any tanner, though in my opinion, I'm really not dark at all.  But it does look as if it's going to rain all week, so maybe that will make you feel better.  It's been awhile since we had some rain, early in the week when my visitors were here was the last time that I can recall. Aussie weather is pretty good 90% of the time if you ask me.

Ok so I need to tell you about my newest weird obsession. Biggest Loser Couples. I'm honestly addicted. The fact that it is on every night doesn't help any either. But it's just so good. I've learned to love and hate the contestants, so sad am I. But it's just so intriguing, some of these people have lost over 120 lbs already and it's not even half over yet. How is this possible? I do not know! But I wish that I had a personal trainer to yell at me! But yes, I am obsessed, and Sunday's are the best because Sunday's are weigh-ins.  Really keeps ya on the edge of your seat, riveting I tell ya! Oh and my other obsession, fmylife.com.  That is a problem because I spend far too much time on there reading about how other people's lives suck. That is not ok, but it's just so addicting! 

What else what else. I'm starting to get worried that I have yet to find some sort of American pub here in Sydney.  Opening Day is creeping up on us and I dont know of anywhere that I'm going to be able to watch my Cubbies play. I'm not happy about it. They hate baseball in this country, all about the cricket, so it's gonna be tough to find somewhere broadcasting it. And especially with the time difference, I mean night games shouldn't be a problem if I find a place, but any day games are gonna be tough to catch.  I may just designate someone to leave their Skype on in front of a television so that I can watch that way. Always gotta have a backup plan. That's mine. 

Ooh ok so something important to talk about. On April 25th, I'll be participating in a worldwide activity. This activity is called The Rescue.  It is through Invisible Children, which is a group raising money and awareness about the ongoing war in Uganda, here's a brief synopsis:

For 23 years, the government of Uganda and a rebel group called the Lords Resistance Army, led by a man named Joseph Kony, has engaged in Africa’s longest war. In recent years, peace was seemingly within reach, largely due to the Juba Peace Talks that began in July 2006. However, despite a  ceasefire signed between the LRA and Ugandan government, efforts toward peace through the Juba Peace Talks were stalled on several occasions by Kony’s refusal to sign the final peace agreement. Kony’s absence at the peace agreement signing on November 29, 2008 proved his promises to be futile and ultimately disabled the peace talks. Furthermore, the ICC has obtained evidence that Kony  used the ceasefire during the peace talks to regroup, regain strength and resume child abductions.  Joseph Kony is the world’s first individual indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Since September 2008, hostility in the Orientale province in DR Congo and Western Equatoria in South Sudan has reached a feverish pitch. In apparent desperation and a renewed will to spread terror to DR Congo, the LRA murdered over six hundred and abducted more than one hundred and sixty children to fight amongst its ranks. More than 104,000 Congolese have been displaced since Christmas in attempts to escape the LRA forces. A civil war, originally contained within Uganda’s borders, has now evolved into a widespread regional crisis. Invisible Children, in concert with other policy organizations including Resolve Uganda, The Enough Project, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, now believes an international effort to apprehend Kony and rescue his child soldiers is the most viable way to end the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today.

 So what The Rescue is, is in 100 cities across 10 countries, all on April 25th, thousands, if not tens, it not hundreds of thousands of kids are going to be "abducting themselves for the abducted".  What this means is that, in these 100 cities, kids will meet up together at a predetermined meeting place, leave pictures of themselves with friends and families to symbolize their abduction, then walk single file 3 miles to a campground where they will wait to be "rescued".  A successful "rescue" consists of two things: a media outlet from the city must show up and cover the event, and secondly you must have a "rescuer" come to rescue you. This "rescuer' can be a political or cultural leader from the area.  So it's the kids jobs to contact these people, explain to them what is going on, and get them to show up at the campsite. They can also be well-known celebrities, like here, Ricky Ponting could show up, (for those who don't know him, he is an outstanding, world-renowned cricketer) or maybe even Russell Crowe.  But it takes effort, people need to writes letters, make phone calls, and the likes. As for celebs, Invisible Children is recommending that we make videos and post them on youtube asking for the celebs to come to The Rescue. I'm so excited about this. I'm in the process of trying to get the two shirts for the event, but they're super backordered and ship from San Diego, so we'll see, apparently they're bulk shipping them over here and we can pick them up somewhere, haven't figured out where. But you're supposed to wear the two shirts the entire month to raise awareness for the event. I could do that, less work in the dressing department, though more laundry... Anyways, super stoked about it.  So any of my friends reading this that are in school, find out the closest city to you that is involved and sign-up now, the more people involved, the bigger of an impact this will make.

Ok that's all I've got. Nothing exciting has happened this week, with the exception of signing up for The Rescue, nothing to write home about at least. So this is what you're left with. Boring day to day details of my Sydney-rific life. But honestly, even the most boring day in Sydney is a day in Sydney, which is better than a great day at home. Not to say I'm not missing Chicago, because I'm starting to, just a little bit.  Though with this word about snow, not so much anymore. 

PS, our mailbox keys finally came in, so I want to check my mail yesterday. None. Well a nice flyer for some restaurant and an overseas health insurance card. Soooooo if anyone wants to send me anything my address is: 

Apt 3024 

185-211 Broadway 

Ultimo, NSW 2007 

Australia

Love and miss you all! xoxo

The Frrrrrray

So yesterday, Erin and I had tickets to see the good 'ol Fray. This was exciting for me, because try as I might, I'd never seen them live before, which is actually shocking, but true.  So I was pretty stoked for this since we've had it planned since Erin told me about it while I was in Cairns.  And the day had finally arrived. Went to class and sat through four hours of torture (the fact that the concert was later that night, plus the fact all we did the entire four hours was draw, I repeat, torture) and then came back and made myself a healthy lunch, turkey pita, yum yum. Had a chat with a fellow back home, then thought about taking a nap, which didn't happen because I realize Erin was almost out of class. So I got myself ready, consisting of putting my hair in a messy pony on the top of my head, since you could slap a kazoo up in your hair and it would be normal here.  They seriously don't care about what their hair looks like here, and I love it! 

From my place I meandered over to meet Erin in front of her Harry Potter castle, no big deal. We walked back to her place, and made some PB sandwiches then hopped on a bus to Central.  Now I thought I'd done all my necessary commuter research, ie. went onto the venue's website, which clearly states "Take the 336 bus right from central to the Entertainment Quarter." We arrive at Central ready to hop on, until we realize, there is no 336 bus. Now normally I would have looked into two possible options for getting there, but I figured if the website told me flat out, I was golden. Apparently not. So we spoke with a lady in the bus information booth, who didn't seem too thrilled with her job mind you, who educated us on the three different buses we could take, none of which was a 336. Instead, the bus to Coogee was the one we needed to get on, who woulda thought, though which stop we needed to get off at, no clue. I decided that I'm pretty smart in the whole directional game that I could figure it out. Once I saw a sign for Moore Part Golf Course I came to the conclusion we needed to be in Moore Park, so we hopped off and meandered around in the 85 degree heat for awhile until I saw a sign for Fox Studios, which I recalled the venue was right near, so we walked thataway. Soon enough, we saw signs for The Hordern Pavilion, where The Fray would soon be singing. Of course we go to the wrong entrance and see people across the way standing in line so yes, we RUN around the building to get in line. Now let me explain that our tickets were general admission, so the goal was to get front row by arriving quite early (we got there around 4:30, gates opened at 7).  The lines were not long at all, but quite a complicated mess that we didn't quite understand, so we just got in one on a whim. They all led to the same gate so we figured it didn't matter much. 

There was a lottttt of sitting until the gates opened. There were some 15 year old girls, or what we assumed to be 15, sitting a few people ahead of us in the cue.  Around 6:30, three other girls hopped in line with them, who had not been sitting there previous. Though I should let it be known, people are really nice about saving seats here. People hopped out of line the whole time to go buy food then came back and got right back in line where they were. I feel like this would not happen in America, when I saw Goo Goo Dolls, the people in line behind us (we were pretty much in the front of the line) would have never in a million years let us back in our stop had we gotten out of line for any reason at all!  Anyways, these stylishly dresses 15 year olds hop in line with their friends, and the security guard comes over and tells them to leave, at which point they explain to them they were there earlier, and their friends had their tickets, as they slyly as a 15 year old can, wink at their friend without the guard seeing.  He then looks to us for some guidance in which I quickly shake my head.  Hey, it's The Fray, gotta fight to the death for the close spots (or so we think, I'll explain later) Of course the little teeny boppers are not happy with me, and give me the evil eye the rest of the time in line, in which I give right back, obviously.  Regardless of the outcome, it gave us a little entertainment while we waited.

Finally the gates open up and we are instructed to walk, and if we run, we'll be escorted out. We felt like we were back in elementary school, and we were going to be put on "the wall" for running. Once we got to the front, we were about four rows back, dead center, which we were pretty happy with. Then it started filling in around us. Soon, we were just two little sardines in a can full of 15 year old screaming sardines. I did not sign up for this. The Fray wasn't scheduled to go on until 9:30, it was only 7:00. Nothing could have persuaded me to stay in my spot, I didn't care how close we were, it was hell. We attempted to ween our way out, but literally couldn't even move. Once I found a path, I walked about six steps before my entire body was trapped between other bodies and literally could not move an inch, so that was fun. I somehow got Erin and myself out of the mess of children who should not be standing in the front row, but somehow were, and we decided at that point we needed a drink and some food. Grabbed a beer and some wedges and headed up to sit down for the first two acts, some chick I didn't know, and Secondhand Serenade.  Five seconds after sitting I spilled my entire beer, real good start to the night Lauren! Later Erin went and got two more for us, and was asked by someone in a not so asking, and more commenting way, "Jesus Christ girl, are you wearing any pants!?" This was baffling because her shorts were clearly visible to everyone. Gave me a good laugh though. 

Finally after sitting around for two hours, Secondhand Serenade finished their set, which was our cue to head back down to the floor. We decided standing further back was actually a better view seeing as the main singer sits on a piano the whole time. We sat down for awhile while they changed sets, and people watched. What stood out most was that everyone and their mother (though I saw far too little mothers at this concert for the number of screaming girls under the age of whatever age it is you can stop being accompanied by a parent) wears Keds. Laces, slip on,  boys, girls, it doesn't matter, EVERYONE wears them. I like to call this phenomena The Keds Movement.  So anyways, we're just sitting on the ground and all of a sudden this guy is literally RUNNING at us and decides that faster than going around us, would be to jump directly over Erin, his foot coming within an inch of her face. I probably sat there laughing for a good 3 minutes. Why? Why would you decide jumping over a perfect stranger would be a good idea. I do not know. Then the lights dimmed and the show began.

The show itself, absolutely fabulous.  Only about 30% of me was mad I wasn't in my original spot, considering the man never would have had the chance to jump over Erin. But seriously, we would have had to deal with those little children pushing us for three hours, and I was most content being a bit further back in exchange for arm movement. They sang almost all of their new album, with a bunch of oldies but definitely goodies dabbled in between. Issac was so sick on the piano all night, and of course his lead vocals were more than extraordinary.  In the middle of Look After You, Issac explained that they were having  a contest to see who could sing loudest and Melbourne was currently winning, and then began singing Wonderwall for us to belt along with. We quickly became the winners of this contest, and then he continued on with Look After You. Once they walked off stage, I was pretty upset because they hadn't played my favorite song off the new album, which is Happiness.  I doubted they'd play it for the encore cause it isn't really a fast song. They came back on, and popped a bunch of those little poppers that look like champagne bottles, but shoot baby streamers out of them.  The song they chose to sing, Heartless by Kanye. Loved it, but it was no Happiness. And then, a different guitar was handed to Issac and the first chords of Happiness began and all was well in the world.  It was absolutely amazing, then normally 5:23 song was turned into 8:33. Needless to say, I could go home happy. And I have to thank my camera battery for being awesome the whole show and not dying, and at one point going from two bars, back to three bars. And I have to thank Dad for my 8gb memory card, which made it possible to take 100 something pictures, and record 10 videos, one of these being the 8:33 of Happiness, so that I will now have it forever to watch over and over and over. I'll try and get that up here.

Getting home sucked, obviously. We walked awhile to the bus stop, which was gobbed with people trying to get to Central as well. When a bus finally came, it wasn't going to Central but we got on anyways and got off up near Hyde Park, and proceeded to walk a few blocks to George St. and hop on another bus there.  All we wanted was to be in our beds! But we were soon enough, and it was a wonderful night. I get home from Australia June 27th, and the Fray is playing in Chicago the 28th, I'll be there. So amazing!

Family & Friends

Leslie and Smat are here! They arrived last Friday morning early, looking rather chipper, which is quite unusual after flying for 21 hours. But they took my great advice about staying up as long as possible on the plane, so they were on a pretty regular Aussie sleep schedule. Once they got to UniLodge we went and banged on Guido's door for awhile (after finding out from Smat I'd given him the wrong room number, on whose door he was banging for quite awhile, hopefully no one was in there since it was quite early!) Les, Mom and I went across the street and got breakfast which pretty much sucked, in other words, Broadway should only be used in the case of lunch or dinner. After being thoroughly disappointed with my scrambled eggs, we went back to UniLodge so Les could shower and Mom could finish laundry and waited for Erin to come over so she could see my parents and stuff. We grabbed a cab back to the hotel and met up with Dad and Davis and walked around in The Rocks and found a cute little patio cafe that we had lunch at. After lunch we walked around The Rocks Market, which had quaint little stands down the closed streets, selling everything from bread to fresh produce to chocolate covered strawberries, which of course Erin and I purchased. It started to rain some, so we walked inside the little shopping center and went in some of the stores there and bought a few souvenirs. They had some interesting stuff, one of the stores had authentic kangaroo scrotum bottle opener, yeah...? We also went into a shop with a bunch of really cool aboriginal art pieces. There was another place called Sticky, which sold rock candy, but a different sort of rock candy than you'd think of in states. This is like really small pieces of broken up "loli" or lollipop. We were lucky because right when we walked over they told us they were about to make some candy and we could watch the process which was actually really, really cool! I think I'd seen it on How Its Made or Unwrapped, but seeing it right in front of me was just awesome. After purchasing a few bags for myself, (passionfruit flavored, obviously) we headed out of the mall into the good 'ol rain, in which we decided we should find some cover, and apparently the only place to do that is a restaurant, and apparently when you're at a restaurant with Mark deVane, wine is involved, so we got a bottle, you know at around 4. Good times. Once the rain subsided, Erin and I headed home to shower/nap before dinner at Wolfies, a really nice place right on the water in the Quay. Erin and I both ordered ravioli which ended up being the best ravioli of our lives pretty much. Dad and Davis ordered Croc and 'Roo, both of which I tried. Here is my thoughts on them. Both very good, the crocodile had a texture between chicken and fish, leaning more toward chicken, and tasted reeeal good. Dad decided it was because crocodiles have the same sort of blood cells as chicken...who knows. The kangaroo was good as well, it's a tough meat, sort of game-y tasting, but still enjoyable. I preferred the croc of the two though. After a delicious dinner, we took some Christmas card pictures (or so says Mom, $100 she doesn't get around to sending out cards as usual because her life is far too busy!) with the Opera House in behind us. Moseyed on home, but not before getting a scoop, or in Erin's case two scoops, of the world's greatest ice cream, Midnight Cookies. This was in fact the best ice cream to exist, ever, anywhere. Truth.

Last Saturday the family went up to Hunter Valley, New South Wales' largest wine country. A 4-wheel all-terrain bus picked us up from the hotel, this was normally used for their Outback tours, but they were randomly using it today, it looked like it should have been lined up next to some tanks or something. We picked up a bunch more people and were on our way by 8am. This would have to be the earliest I've woken up since being in Sydney, 6:15, in order to get ready, get to the hotel and by ready for pickup by 7:15, grossss.
Our first stop on the trip was Reptile World, which honestly, I don't believe I saw any reptiles besides a croc. It was much more an Australian Wildlife park than a reptile park, but who am I to tell them to change the name. Anyway, we got to feed some kangaroos which was pretty exciting for the rest of the family since they hadn't done it before, I still had fun though. Except for the enormous emu that was running around. My fear of birds is pretty strong with parakeets, try imagining me with a bird that is actually bigger than I am! Let's just say I was not happy I wasn't wearing proper running shoes, because I was running away from that guy and hiding behind Dad probably every 30 seconds. I did not like it. We did get to see a joey this time though, which was pretty neat, but also strange. They hang out in their moms pouch with their head, as well as tail and legs hanging out the opposite side from their head. Very strange site, not what you'd expect, but I guess as they get bigger than don't all really fit in there. One was really little and fit in with just his head poking out, except for it looked like a really ugly chihuahua!

   

A huge emu following mom around, I did not like him.

 

Me feeding a hungry 'roo with a joey in her pouch!

After realizing we were late to get back on our 4-wheeler, we ran back and were happy to see we were not the last people on board. The next stop was the Convict Trail, which if you were unaware, Australia was actually an island founded by convicts, so there in lies the reason for a convict trail. It was laid by the prisoners originally back in 1830, and we just got to walk along it for awhile and stuff. Nothing too exciting, but the scenery was pretty at least! After hopping back on the bus (thats how I plan to refer to it from now on because I don't even really know what it was actually called) we got back on the road and then stopped again at a little cottage like pub that was famous for something called Dr. Jurg's Jungle Juice, which was port wine and brandy, not my favorite, but I was glad I at least tried it. See, I'm still doing well with the whole trying new things! Good job me!
Then it was off to Hunter Valley. The view from the top of the mountain looking down on the valley was breathtaking, absolutely beautiful. Once in the valley our first stop was Brokenwood Winery, where we tried about nine different wines, most of which I enjoyed thoroughly. We got a try a couple different types Shiraz, which if you're a deVane, is your favorite. Dad bought himself a few dozen crates to be waiting on the doorstep back in Naperville 10 days after he returned home. Ok, not a few dozen creates, but maybe a few dozen bottles, we like our wines! The fact that I'm positive those will all be finished by the time I return home, Dad bought me two bottles of their infamous Cricket Pitch Merlot, which was very good as well.

Hunter Valley from above

From here, we traveled down the road to an establishment housing three different places, San Martino Restaurant, Blue Tongue Brewery, and another winery. Lunch was delicious at San Martino, which was paired with four more wines, two red and two whites. We then walked over to the brewery and grabbed two flights of beer, a flight is pretty much a paddle with six holes in it, in which six extra large shot glasses are filled with different ales. We got to try all six of Bluetongue's different brews. I liked three, didn't like the other three, but who am I to let beer go to waste, so I finished them anyways, in the style of shots. Mom was appalled, of course, she isn't much of a beer person, and by much of, I mean really dislikes. Then we went and laid in the sun and listened to a guy play guitar to us while we ate our apples stolen from the concierge lounge back at the hotel. (And by stolen, I don't mean stolen. This concierge lounge was the greatest thing ever. It's got food and drinks all day long, along with fridges stocked with drinks you can take with you and everything. Amazing.)

 

Our two flights of beer at Bluetongue Brewery

Anyways, back to the tour, next we headed to Oakvale and tried about eight more wines, didn't like these ones as much though. Here we also got to try a bunch of cheeses, and a bunch of different olive oils. Then from here we went to Hunter Valley Chocolate Company, in which we got to try a couple different chocolates, even one with chili powder, which had a pretty intense kick at the end. Then we slept on the two and half hour drive back to Sydney.

Vineyards at Oakvale

Everyone was wiped so Les and I went back to Unilodge and the others went back to the hotel for the night. I decided to go out with Guido and Smat since I'd hardly seen Smat since he arrived, so Scott and I met up with Guido and Smat at Darling Harbor and headed to CargoBar, which was pretty interesting. If I haven't mentioned before, there are some pretty interesting characters our in Sydney. So Smat was just just a little taken aback by some of the people in there, mostly the dancing though, which is just a wee bit not American, and that seems to scare Smat. Hearing his thoughts on the whole Australian nightlife scene was rather amusing to say the least.

Sunday, Leslie and I met up with the rest of the fam at Paddy's Market, which is a MASSIVE flea market that is open Thursday-Sunday every week. It takes up the entire car park underneath a shopping mall, literally rows upon rows upon rows of all sorts of crap. One booth will be selling boomarangs, next to a booth selling underwear with cheeky sayings on the cbum (pun intended, I know, I'm clever) next to a booth selling wigs next to a booth selling fake Ugg booths. Probably any object you ever wanted or needed to purchase was for sale there. Mom got some scarves to take back to some of her co-workers, and Les bought some Australian shot glasses for some of her friends. Then we walked pretty far down Pitt St in the sweltering heat until we finally found somewhere to eat. After eating Mom and Les went to the Botanical Gardens and I met up with Erin and Smat, Guido and Scott at the St. Patrick's Day parade, which was pretty low-budge, but still fun. Hung out in the park for a bit, then walked back home so that I could get some homework and stuff done before the last dinner with the family.
The restaurant we went to was called Aria, which had a great view of the Bridge, as well as the Opera House. The place was super classy, the children came to the conclusion that it was probably the nicest place we'd been, and from our many vacations, we've been a lot of nice places. But this place followed all the rules of a nice restaurant. When taking our orders, he took Mom's order first, then mine, skipped Davis and went on to Leslie. Apparently it is proper etiquette to take the oldest women's order first, then the rest of the women, then oldest man and the rest. Who knew. As for the bread, no bread basket was placed on the table, though one was held out by a waitress who asked why type of bread we'd like and one roll was placed on the table. Come on, bread is like water to me, I'm clearly gonna need more than one roll! The menu was a bit of a shocker to us as well, with main courses requiring one to take out a second mortgage. Us kids declared that we probably were not classy enough to be in a joint like this! In addition, we didn't even know what half of the ingredients in most of the dishes were. Leslie and I concluded that the safest thing would be the beef tenderloin something or other, and Davis was adventurous trying the quail. As it turns out, best meal ever. The meat was to die for, and the truffle mashed potatoes...dont' even know where to begin. In other words, I should have never opened my mouth about this place not being any good, because it was great. And as it turns out, the chef has his own cookbook in which Anthony Bordain has a quote on the front saying "I will steal ideas from this book every chance I get" I guess the guy has some chops.

The rest of the family left Monday after we had one last breakfast. Les and I went back to UniLodge, I went to class while Les and Smat did some beaching. Bummer for me. Chill night,  I went  to the library for a good four hours and worked on a project with my partner Nick, then came home and watched The Office in Scott and Guido's room. I worked on some other homework, while Leslie did the drawing part for my project. Yep, my sister comes all the way to Australia and then does my homework. What a little sister!  

The next day was St. Patty's Day. I had a project presentation in my class, so I went and did that, which I'm pretty sure went well considering my teacher asked my partner and I if we'd practiced our speech, because "he could tell we had." We had most definitely not, but we did rock the presentation, then got out of class two hours early. I walked down to Darling Harbor and met up with Smat and Les and had some lunch then we headed to the Sydney Tower, which was pretty cool. Apparently it's as tall as 60 giraffes stacked atop each other. Yep, learned that fun fact in the elevator going up. It sort of looks like the space needle, and we got a nice 360 degree around view of the entire city. Then began our task of finding something green to wear for the night. We must have gone into, no joke, 30 different stores. Apparently there is some sort of law against selling green clothing? They didn't have it ANYWHERE. And then there was something, it was very not cute. Poor Smat got dragged along on this little escapade too, which I'm sure he was just thrilled about. He did get his 30 cent ice cream from McDonalds which he was quite happy about. I ended up buying a Celtics jersey at the sports store literally across the street from uniLodge. Whoops! Started the party pretty early in Guido and Scotts room with a bunch of us, and eventually ended up on King St, attempting to go to Kelly's, an Irish establishment, obviously. But the line was longer than 60 giraffes stacked upon eachother then fallen down, so we headed down the street to a place called Zanzibar, yep, the one from Tenacious D. It was a fun place, stayed there awhile then walked home with Les and Anna. Good day all around, minus Smat and Leslie jointly breaking my flip flop on the way to the bar. Thanks guys!

Celtics and Rabbitohs

Smat finally made it to Australia!

Wednesday we headed to Coogee Beach, a much smaller beach than Bondi, and entirely less crowded. I loved it. And it only took one bus to get there. We spent the day there with Erin and two of her friends. We got lunch at a Thai place called Chili Box. I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but there are Thai places here like nobody's business. Honestly, Thai restaurants are up there in number with Starbucks in America, just disgusting amounts. And they all have clever names like Thai Me Up. Love that one. On the way home we stopped at GYG and got burriots, had to show them the different between it and Chipotle of course! Then we took the long way home and walked through the USYD campus, which is absolutely beautiful.  I'd guess 90% of the buildings look like castles, I mean thats normal and everything.  I do not recall what we did this night, probably just conked out early, then sun takes a lot out of us.

Thursday I went to lecture and then hung out with Smat and Les the rest of the day, watched Inside Man and pretty much just sat around for the day. Later that night, Leslie, Julia and I went and met up with one of the Australian basketball players that came to North my senior year. Hello, random. We met up with him and a friend for drinks at a hotel pub and had long conversations about rugby (I now know everything there is to know about the rules of rugby, along with the difference between Rugby Leauge and Rugby Union), their two month trip to South America, and lots of differences between Aussies and Americans. It was pretty fun, but also weird because I wouldn't have thought in a million years I'd see any of those Aussies every again, and there I was having, having a drink with one of them. The world is too small my friends.

Friday a huge group of us all went to Manly Beach. Took the bus to Circular Quay and then the ferry over to Manly. The beach was pretty crowded, being Friday and all, but I wasn't that big of a fan. There were far too many birds flying and walking around and squawking around me. Not ok with that. Not at all. Ooh, and I actually bought sushi for lunch. I chose to do so all by myself.  I'm really branching out here! After heading back home, we quickly got ready and met back up to head to ANZ Stadium for the Rabbitohs v. the Eels Rugby League game. ANZ Stadium is in Olympic Park, and one of the coolest places ever.  The stadium seats 83,000 so you can imagine the sight of the place. The game was really awesome too. The South Sydney Rabbitohs (my team baby) put up a good fight, but in the end pull it out in the end. Bummer. But still a good night overall. We ended meeting up with Erin and sitting with her and her friends since half of my group ordered tickets ahead of time and so were stuck in a different section than the rest of us. The Rabbitohs are red and green though, which bothers me when teams are these colors because it feels like Christmas, and it's not, and I always want it to be, so it just makes me sad. Haha, clearly that is stupid, but its true.

Saturday, Leslie, Smat, Lauren (Guido's older sister who has been visiting as well) and I went back to Coogee for the day. We were literally there the whole day. They wanted to soak in as much sun as possible on their last day of Australia lovin'.  Now the last time we went to Coogee when we took a bus back and I saw a Maltese Cafe out the window on King St and freaked out! So this time we got off and wen to get ourselves some long awaited pastizzi, a Maltese delight that we can't get ANYWHERE in the states, which absolutely sucks.  We only get to have them when we go to Canada because there are a few Maltese bakeries in Toronto.  Pastizzi which are sometime referred to as cheesecakes by my Maltese family, are basically puff pastry or filo dough filled with ricotta cheese or peas (these are the two Maltese flavors that are original).  Turns out this one I found is the only one in Sydney, possibly Australia. How's that for luck. We went in and I got three, then when we left I got two more to take back. Like I said, ricotta and pea are the only two kinds I'd ever know about, but they had a huge array of flavors, clearly not genuine Maltese though. I had a chicken and mushroom which was really good, and a ricotta and fetta, absurdly good! We spoke with a few of the people working about Malta and our family being from there, and so I think he was the manager, gave us a few Tortas from Gozo, which are pretty much date filled tarts. After this we went home, watched Misery, then got ready to go out for their last night. We ended up at Cargo Bar, where Smat and Scott both decided to have a dance off with this really good dancer. Hilarious. Leslie got a kick out of the Australian nightlife as well. We decided we may as well walk home seeing as no one was really too drunk, and so we walked back from Darling Harbor, well most of us walked, Leslie somehow managed to get Smat to push her back in a shopping cart half the way. I already miss them and they haven't been gone even half a day!

So today, Sunday, Guido, Lauren, Smat, Leslie and I got breakfast across the street at Broadway before they headed off  to the airport. Now that they've left I've decided to get my life together! From now on, regular blogging (I know I say that all the time), healthy eating, more working out, less drinking.  Julia and I went to the grocery store and bought all sorts of healthy food, I didn't even go down the candy/lightbulb aisle! I bought a bunch of different meats, instead of white bread I bought pitas (which I realize isn't that much healthier, but they're high in fiber at least!) and lots of vegetables and all that good stuff. Instead of chips I bought multi grain granola bars, and even yoghurt, which I don't normally eat, but I'm gonna start! Ps, yes yoghurt is spelled with an H here. I also Skyped with the whole family, aunts and uncles and cousins and all. Took a nap since I finally got the twin bed to myself, sharing it with Leslie was NOT fun, considering it's seriously smaller than a twin. Then Julia and I went to the pool and swam laps then made ourselves a healthy dinner, and watched Biggest Loser, obviously!  And now I'm watching Friends and finally caught up with my blog! That only took forever. Byyyyyyye.

Updates!

Ok, I realize I'm posting this on Saturday...er Friday back home, and there is not information up to today, the internet has sucked bad in my room, so it wasn't letting me post this blog. I'll be updating what has happened since this real soon, I swear!

Sorry, sorry, sorry! I suck at keeping up with this blog lately. It's been a week, so I won't update you on EVERY day that's gone by, just the important junk. Take into consideration that since I'm horrible and haven't blogged since last tuesday, I'm backing all the way up to then.

Last Tuesday night was, well Tuesday night. And  you may know by now means that you go to Scruffy's.  I decided to go hang out with Scott and Guido because they'd bought a grill and smuggled it up to their room and onto their balcony. In turn, barbecue!  A few of the other IU guys came over, along with S&G's neighbors, Anna and Krista, who both go to BC.  After eating a delicious meal and having some drinks we decided to head to Scruffs, where I of course ran into Erin because, Hey, Tuesday night is Scruffys, FOR EVERY HUMAN BEING IN SYDNEY, clearly. I also ran into the Luke's and Chelsea. Good tiiiimes. So later in the night I'm having a perfectly nice conversation with Luke V and a bouncer comes and taps me on the shoulder and tells me that my night is over. Now, I'm quite confused at this point, seeing as I've done nothing wrong. So of course I ask what he means, and he proceeds to tell me that I have to leave because I'm "too drunk." Now this confused myself, as well as Luke. Luke asked why I was being thrown out and he told him "She stumbled once, and I could see it in her eyes." Yes, clearly, since he came up from behind me,  he could see my eyes through my scull and brain, so that makes perfect sense. Anywho, I wasn't gonna fight the guy, so Scott offered to walk me home, and that was that. Stupid Scruffy's, but of course I'll be back.

The nights are sort of blending together, but one night we decided to rent a movie, Funny Games, with Naomi Watts. I do...not? recommend it.  It's just a very strange and messed up movie about these two whacko guys and a home invasion. If you really feel like wasting your night, go ahead, it's actually somewhat humorous, though I'm not sure it's really supposed to be, but Julia and I got a good chuckle out of it.

Another night I went to Cargo Bar with the IU kids and the BC kids, where we ran into every other person we've met since we've been here. It was hoppin. Now this was an interesting night for one reason and one reason only. Scott Beeler. Allow me to explain.  Before going to Cargo Bar we decided to play some six cup wine pong on the BC girls balcony for awhile. Now, this means we're all just drinking wine, in the amounts you'd down beer for beer pong, only wine. So we really weren't that drunk. I went down in the middle of the games, and everyone seemed pretty sober. I was there for maybe another hour and a half, and we were just hanging out playing, I think I only ended up playing one game even. Regardless, Scott went back to his place to change right before we left, and when he came back, he was HAMMERED.  Now I'm not sure if we just didn't notice before, but he was drrrrunk. I told him he probably shouldn't even come because it was a slim chance he'd even get into the bar, since they're big on not letting drunk people in. He decided that he was not drunk, and completely capable of going, and who am I to crush the guys dreams, so into the cab we got. Once there, he dropped his wallet getting out of the cab and I politely instructed him to keep his ID in his breast pocket for easy access. In line, he decided it would be a good idea to fall on his hands and knees. Disaster. He somehow managed to be let in, no idea how. After getting about 20 feet, er, correction 6 meters into the establishment, Scott turned to me and announced "I'm going home!" This was probably for the best. He got himself a cab, which later I found out he only rode in for 3 minutes until he told the cabbie he needed to get out, and then walked the three miles home. So the mystery will now be put into the history books right along with Who shot JFK?, the new addition will be How did Scott Beeler go from sober to blackout in a matter of seconds? It may never be solved. Minus that bit of ruckus the night was fun, I paid a lovely $12 for a VCR (vodka, cranberry, redbull; I realize  this is probably bad for me, but tastes oh so good) and danced the night away.

Saturday was the Mardi Gras parade.  It was madness my friend, absolute madness.  Think Election Night in Grant Park back in November, except take all those people packed in the street  and line them up along the street, then add costumes, gays, and booze.  It was so crazy, and we could hardly even see the parade.  As we learned when we got there, bringing stools is the way to go.  Everyone stands on them so they're all two feet taller than normal, and seeing over them is pretty much impossible unless you're Shaq, and to my best knowledge, I am not him.  People improvised by climbing the sparse trees, or sitting on tops of telephone booths. Somehow we got separated from the rest of the group, so Julia and I walked waaaaaaaay down Oxford St. (but not before Julia took a nice photograph with a tall, red dress-wearing drag queen) until we could squeeze in somewhere and get a better view. After awhile we decided we should head back towards town before the parade ended, otherwise it would just be absolute chaos!  We met up with the rest of the group at Scruffy's for dinner, then they all went out to Sidebar, I grabbed some Starbucks and went home to bed since the fam was getting in the next day.

The family minus Leslie got here Sunday morning, after a pretty crummy flight evidently.  I walked to their hotel which is right out near The Rocks, and decided I'd be taking cabs and buses from now on. The three mile walk at night isn't as bad as it is in the middle of the day. The boys were pretty jet lagged, so they took a nap while Mom and I got lunch and Mani/Pedi's. Now, these pedicures were probably the greatest pedicures of our lives. Mom straight up asked the woman if she could take her home with her. They were amazing! And now my toes look very pretty :) Dinner later was at the Italian Village, which was very good and entertaining. The entertainment for the night: Mom, after a few glasses of wine and no sleep for 48 hours. Needless to say she has brought up at least four things we spoke about that night in the past couple days, not realizing we had in depth conversations about it that night. Whoops. Tonight we went to Wildfire, which was right in Sydney Harbor, so good. 

I've been sick lately, which sucks. I haven't really been able to make it out to the zoo and aquarium and stuff with them because Tuesday I woke up and literally felt like death, didn't even make it to class, just laid in bed like a ball all day. We think Mom and Davis had the flu the night before, so I may have caught it from them.  My stomach is feeling much better today, but I'm still really sick, cold/sinus-wise. Better get better soon, Smat and Leslie depart from Indy in just a few hours to fly themselves on over to visit me! They get in Friday morning early, so I'm really stoked to see them both. 

Emily, Julia and I joined the gym across the street, finally. Yes, I know I said we were going to do that a lonnng time ago, well we've been busy! All that matters is that we've joined now, and as soon as I can breathe through my nose, I'm going to be working out a lot, because drinking and eating a lot is not being kind to me. The (wo)man that signed us up was named Felicity, and (s)he was a character, let me tell you! Clearly it's understood by my use of parenthesis, I'm still not sure if this was a man or a woman, though Felicity was the name, I'm still not quite convinced she was a woman. But regardless, she was just outrageous all around, I wish I could explain her, but I can't so this part of the post is pointless, too bad, not deleting, when I look back and read this I'll laugh, even if you don't. 

Alright enough about what I've been doing, I think it's time for some fun Aussie information/observations.

I do want to talk about TV over here. Shut up Luke, it was my plan, even if you got to it first.  I may have mentioned that we get about seven channels, four that actually come in clearly enough to watch. They're called 7, 9, 10, and some other one without a name. Oh yes, and also on that is not in English, ever.  According to my brother, Two and A Half Men is the most popular sitcom over here, not sure how he knows this, but lets trust him on it. I never really watched this back at home, but as of recent, my mother has become absolutely obsessed with it, it's actually all she can talk about. So I've been giving it a try, and it is pretty funny. Ellen is on everyday without fail at noon, and also I think at 1am, though I'm not sure if thats regularly or just last night. The View comes on after Ellen and then Oprah I believe. As you can see, the women of America have a great influence on Aussie culture as well.  I walked into Luke V's room one day as he was intently watching Oprah talk about living a long life.  She explained that drinking goat milk will help you live longer, and Luke decided to buy some and try it. He never did, so after two weeks of talking, I bought it for him and we tried it, not too bad. I guess I can check "Try milk from an animal other than a cow" off my list of things to do before I die. Annnnyways, back to TV. As for primetime, they get a lot of the same shows as us, but they're about six episodes behind on everything. Greys, Private Practice, 24, Cold Case, SVU, etc. The show they're most definitely obsessed with is Biggest Loser Couples. No joke, it is on every night. But everything is in kilos so its just too over my head. I supposed I could use my math skills and know that one kilogram is 2.2 pounds, but I'm watching TV, I don't need to think too. They also have a lot of their own dramas, such as shows called Home and Away, Neighbors (I think this is their version of The OC), and Underbelly, which I have yet to get into yet. And now on to late night. Once I came back from the bars, maybe 3 or 3:30, flip on the TV and what do I see? Good 'ol Al Roker, just the smiling face I was expecting...or not.  Yep, the Today Show was on. Flip the channel, because really how much Al can one person take, and Good Morning America is on. Crazy.

Another thing I've noticed, there are a lot of blind people here. Now I realize this is a strange observation, but I must've seen enough to have brought it to your attention.  Honestly, I feel as if I rarely see blind people on the streets of Chicago. But here, I see at least one a day. The other day I counted four. Four...in one day!  It's been brought up on conversation amongst us before, someone has thrown the idea out that the sun is so bright here thats what causes it. I'm gonna say probably not, but a good guess as least. 

Ok that's good for now, I PROMISE I won't wait so long again before I write.