E Floor and Red Week

All the people in my res college are pretty cool, but I really like the ones living on my floor. Our floor is mostly guys on one side and girls on the other, but for some reason my room is in the middle of all the guys' rooms. Everyone just hangs out together all the time, which is cool. I live next to this guy named Dave (wow Christina, I'm replacing more of you all the time... haha), that is really into music and made me mix of the last 30 years of Australian music. It has some pretty cool stuff, Redgum, Hilltop Hoods, The Herd, it's always good to get new music. They have a file sharing system here for music/TV/movies/whatever between everyone at Union (D.C. it's called) that is like OurTunes, and it is amazing. I have downloaded way too much already. The girls on my floor are really cool too and fun to hang out with when I make it to the other end of the hall, one of them is an aerobics instructor at the gym. I went to her class yesterday and it was hilarious, about 50 girls and 4 guys doing all this crazy stuff to techno remixes of Fall Out Boy and other such wonderful music. It was actually a lot of fun though, I thought I wouldn't really be into it but it's not as boring as just running miles. One of the other instructors also fell off the stage when she was doing some sort of kick in the middle of the routine, and that was pretty entertaining too.

This week of school is called 'Red Week', when everyone is back at school and moved in. The social coordinator of Union organized events and they bus us out to a different bar or club every night. You might not believe it but I have gone out in high heels (flip flops not allowed, what is that about anyway?) and actually did things with my hair the last 3 nights. It's a lot of fun, I have met a ton of people. I was going to stay in last night and watch a movie with the international crew, but my floormates would not have it and made me come out to The Chalk (it was downtown in this area called Woolongatta - my friend Olly and I decided that Australian city names are all ridiculous because they just sortof roll off your tongue when you're drunk and it makes it easier to tell whoever is driving how to get you home. He is from Toowoomba, a couple other of my favorite names are Indooropilly and Noosa), and it ended up being a really cool night. They were playing salsa music because some class was going on at the place, and two of the guys from Union were doing made up flamboyant salsa moves all in between the people taking the class, it was pretty hilarious. I mostly hung out and talked with people that night, the night before was at a club called the Embassy and it was a more dancing type place. We also went out to a bar/club named Union Jack's and that was a really fun night, lots of people there from all the res colleges and a fight even broke out between a couple guys. It's funny noticing how the Australians dance differently from people in the US, the guys here seem to be more excited about dancing and aren't embarrassed about it, they even dance with other guys pretty often, which is not something I have seen in the US. At times they get really into doing moves like 'the sprinkler' or 'the shopping cart'. At first I thought they were kidding about it, but I think that's just what they do... it's funny.

The bus rides on the way to these places are quite the experience also, the boys have these chants they do that are so un-politically correct yet hilarious. I don't think they would ever go over in America very well. One starts off like, "My name is Jack, I'm a necrophiliac, I get frustrated when people get cremated." And they get worse from there, I'm sure the bus drivers love getting these jobs.

Byron Bay

I took a trip up north about 3 hours to Byron Bay this past weekend. My friend Lindsay knew a guy that was traveling up that way, and 4 of us from Union got a ride with him there and then bought bus tickets to get back home. It was a beautiful place, definitely one of the nicest beaches I have ever been to, if not the best. The water was warm and it was about 105 degrees outside, so a good day to go swimming. Lindsay's friend Steve had some surfboards too, but there were not very many waves at all, so that didn't really happen. We stopped in Surfer's Paradise on the way up, which is only about an hour away from where I live, and that was a great beach too. There is a huge city in Surfer's Paradise, a lot of high rise apartment buildings and a big downtown. Byron is more like Santa Cruz, a smaller town with a lot of hippies. Everywhere you go there are street musicians (they call them buskers), even a guy playing processed music with his digiridoo. A lot of tourists go through there, I think one guy said something like 5,000 people per week? There are a lot of hostels and backpackers all around.

We stayed at the coolest hostel ever. It was called the Arts Factory and it was a couple blocks outside the main area of town. They had a chill spot with hammocks, an indoor area with pool tables, a bar, and an area where they did workshops like learn to massage or build your own digiridoo. You could stay in the main lodge area, or they also had this option to stay in the 'islands', which were these huts that looked like covered wagons out over this marshy area. You walked out on a wood plank walkway to get to your little place, and they were really neat. We crammed all 5 of us into a two bedroom place and it was a cozy night for sure. When we first went by the room, there was a spider about the size of my palm on one of the beds. Steve trapped it in the trash can and got it outside, and we thankfully did not see any more of those the rest of the time there.

The city had a cool night life, we went to this bar for their $2 dinners, but Lindsay and I ended up eating free dinner at the seven day adventist church. For some reason they were giving away free soup and toast and playing projecting sports videos on their wall. Cool church, nice people, and they didnt even talk to us about converting or God or anything. Good deal. We went and hung out on the beach after that with a bunch of other Canadians mostly that a guy with us knew (they travel in huge packs, i look around and realize there are like 20 of them around me, weird). It was a really nice night, just a bunch of people out on the beach. The guys picked up some 'goon', this box wine that is the only affordable alcohol in Australia, its $8 for 4 liters. That's how you know it's quality for sure. They call it goon and make punch with it and its pretty awful stuff. About the same as Franzia, but ugh, just sortof sickening. I didnt really drink that night, I was just happy with being outside and hanging out with people. We slept allright then got on the bus the next day back to Brisbane, it was a cool trip for sure, but would have liked to spend more time there, another day at least. It was a bit last minute planning and could have been done better, but all in all was a very cool weekend.


These pictures are: beach, our island hostel room, very mellow iguana in the hostel yard, Lindsay with indigenous child mural, and more pictures from the beach.

End of Orientation

Finished up 0-week today, we all went out to a water park which was awesome because it was ridiculously hot outside. Even now at night I am sitting in front of the fan, its still really warm out. Last night was a lot of fun, pretty much all of UQ went out to this toga party in downtown Toowong (they have such great city names here). We took the bus over and got there early at about 7, which was good because the line to get in was about 2 blocks long by 8:30. It was at this bar called the R.E. which is apparently a big student hangout. I hung out with the international people for awhile, and was listening to the band that was playing there (it was funny, they played all American cover songs from bands like Green Day or The Eagles), but then wandered around and met random people that were all really awesome. I met a guy that plays on the national water polo team for Australia, and also plays for their intramural league at UQ that I just signed up for. That should be interesting considering there are super beginners and national team players in the same games. Everyone else I talked to was really cool too. Other people have photos, and I will try to get them because there were some pretty great outfits. One guy dressed up as a transvestite toga-wearer with a rainbow wig and heavy makeup. He had a great transvestite accent too, it was very entertaining. It was probably one of the best parties I have ever been to, just a good vibe and I had a great time meeting all these new people. And who doesn't like to wear togas?

I really like the Australian people I have decided. They are all very positive, easygoing, and very friendly. They don't complain about things and they don't think they are too cool to do things that Americans would be embarrassed about, they just seem to have fun in whatever they are doing. They are all really easy to have conversations with about anything, everytime I have sat next to someone new on the bus or at a meal its like you have been good friends with them for awhile. It's interesting hanging out with them compared to the international kids. At our international meetings, people just keep bitching about the cafeteria system, how the internet works here (you have a 220 megabyte quota/month that gets eaten up on every website or application you use that streams anything over the net. One of the guys used it up in 30 minutes streaming TV on his computer.), or just random things that are not up to their standards of living in North America. They also were complaining that the Australians didnt get their sense of humor, which mainly consists of quoting family guy. I think they just need to suck it up and deal with it. I really do like the international people too, but it's just refreshing to go back to the Aussies that do not seem to really be bothered by anything.

We also went on a boat ride down the Brisbane River for another orientation activity, which was cool. I got to see the city at night which was neat, and it was Hawaiian themed so people wore a lot of funny stuff. We went by these cliffs that have been turned into a 24/7 rock climbing place with belay ropes and everything set up. They looked really neat, and were higher up than any rock wall I have ever seen, probably five stories tall? I'm not exactly sure. They were lit up and people were climbing all around. Tonight, there were a few local bands playing on campus for free, so I headed over with some people and we caught the last one. They were called Butterfingers and were cool. They played rap/reggae music and the singer had great lyrics. Some really hilarious stuff, and it was cool to listen to with the accent. Sortof reminded me of The Streets, but with more instruments. I'm going to try to pick up some of their music.

The pictures are of Brisbane at night, international kids at the Hawaiian boat event (that I can't seem to get right side up), and the rock wall on the bank of the river.

Orientation Week

I moved into my room at Union Residential College a couple days ago after hauling all my stuff from the hostel through the city to the ferry to the University of Queensland. Then I had to find Union College, which was a bit of a trek around campus as well. But I finally arrived and got moved in and have been pretty busy with activities for the college, as well as for international students. At one welcome meeting, a guy gave us a talk about how not all Australians are like Crocodile Dundee, and that contrary to stereotypes, he did not kill his breakfast this morning. I thought it was funny that later on at dinner I sat with these two Australian guys, and they were talking about going spear fishing and killing a 5 foot ray, and then barbecuing it, along with other stories of eel and shark fishing. So maybe there is something to these stereotypes of killing and eating strange animals...

Earlier that day, I asked if anyone ever swims or rafts in the Brisbane River that goes through the city, and I found out that it is full of bull sharks. Apparently these sharks will go after you and swimming is not recommended. However, the guys I was talking with at dinner say that it is the best place to wakeboard, and that you only have to worry about the sharks when you are waiting to get up out of the water. Crazy people.

The people I have met here have been really cool so far, all the Australians are a very friendly and outgoing group of people. It's strange going around and hearing their accent everywhere, and they tell me I have a funny accent. We have been doing a bunch of welcome week/orientation activities like bowling, ice skating (it was crazy, they rink actually stopped in the middle of the public session to play red rover on the ice... I think that would lead to a lot of lawsuits in America), and going to a water park. They make us wear these red 'Union College' shirts at all of these events, we look like clones. We also had a formal dinner last night, which was cool. The food is really good at the cafeteria here normally, but they cooked us salmon and other good stuff that was pretty impressive for dorm food. We also had a BBQ for lunch today and they cooked the best hamburger I think I ever had. They do not mess around with the BBQ'ing.

The international kids in my college are from Canada the US, Sweden, Malaysia, New Zealand/England, Hong Kong and a some other places. At the international orientation, they mentioned every country that had students coming to UQ, and I would say that most every part of the globe was represented, even North Korea and Zimbabwe and other places. They are all interested in traveling around, so hopefully we will organize some trips around the country pretty soon.



The pictures are of the city cat ferry, a bridge on the Brisbane River, and a random shot of Union College in red shirts at a BBQ.

Brisbane Downtown Hostel

I didn't expect to write in here this soon, but so much has happened in the last 24 hours that I thought I should write it down. I got into Brisbane at about 10:30 AM yesterday morning and got dropped off at the Palace Central Backpacker's Hostel downtown. Other people on my bus were staying outside the city or in homestay situations, but I was glad I picked the downtown hostel. There was a lot going on, they were fully booked with about 200 people staying there. They were from all over the world (Wales, Canada, India, Germany, lots of Asian countries...) and everyone was very friendly and outgoing. I was in a room with 8 people total, many of them traveling alone throughout the country. I made friends with this girl Sinead from Ireland and she was real fun to hang out with. I walked around the downtown area, and it is a really neat place. There is a lot of shopping there, along with food places, a museum, some churches, and parks. A river runs through the city, and there are City Cat ferries that bus people around. There are a lot of 7-11's, just about on every street corner. They sell a lot of weird and interesting stuff, such as this product called 'cock up on the mountain', which was some frozen food item that I did not feel the need to try. They also have a big selection of candy I had never seen, all these different brands. I bought an Aero bar, which was pretty good. Everything is crazy expensive though, I had bought a juice box sized milk for breakfast and it was $5. Kinda insane, and everything else is similarly priced. It makes sense though, because their minimum wage here is about $15. I think I'm going to look into getting a job...

Anyways, I wanted to write about the hostel. It was a crazy place. I took a nap in the afternoon because I couldn't even stay awake, but I woke up and went to the 'Down Under Bar' with Sinead. It was right downstairs, and definitely wants all the backpackers to go drink there. They had different themes every night, and even started yelling at people in the hostel over the intercom to get out of their rooms and come down. It was pretty funny. Sinead and I were just hanging out and having some drinks, and we met a bunch of other people that were really cool. Some guys from Melbourne told us we should come visit them, and I also talked with a group of Canadians that said we should go to Byron Bay. We were all dancing most of the night and it was a lot of fun. The place kindof reminded me of frat parties at SC, but more ridiculous. The guys were crazy, if you didn't want to dance with one of them, you pretty much had to literally beat them away or yell at them. At one point, I went to the bathroom, and when I came out of the stall, I saw this girl's face through the bottom of the door across from me. She was all passed out on the floor and I tried to get her up, but she was pretty out of it. I told the bartenders and they got her up eventually and took her outside. It took a good 15 minutes though, she was quite messed up. We hung out there awhile longer, and then decided to go back to the room at about 3 AM. We got in just as this one Asian girl in our room started throwing up all over her bed. We got her some new sheets and a pillowcase, but she wouldnt let us change them. It was nasty. We finally got the pillow away from her and changed the case, which was good, but I still would really not want to be her in the morning. I slept allright, but woke up at about 7 AM and couldnt get back to sleep, so I just got up and decided to go jog around before I had to check out. While I was brushing my teeth, this guy was wandering through the halls totally naked with sharpie marks drawn all over himself. He said good morning, like it was a completely normal everyday thing that he was out for his nude morning stroll through the hallways. I got back from running, and he was wearing the hostel polo shirt uniform, apparently he works at the front desk... haha. So in conclusion, these people party pretty hard. Everyone is really nice though, and very helpful with answering questions about directions or anything else. The city has a chill vibe that I really like (maybe not so mellow in the bars/clubs), and I think it will be a very awesome next 5 months here.




These are pictures of the Brisbane Museum, a church downtown, and Sinead and I after changing gross pillowcases. Good stuff.