Blog 6

July 24-31

Last Saturday Hughesy and I went out on the town with our new lax bro/tour guide/renaissance man Sidd. We found ourselves on the Yarra tram on the way down to the southern CBD (central business district) listening to a group of wonderful American girls babble about how they had no idea where they were going or what to do (like us on most nights) and quickly introduced ourselves. Katie, Katie, Helen, Jamie and Cara quickly latched on to our group and our plans since they had none of their own, and after waiting outside "The Deck" for a half hour, were admitted and joined our friend Sidd at the bar. Earlier in the day Sidd had told me he would be my wingman for trying to find and meet some Aussie girls, who may not even exist based on my experiences thus far. Anyway, I have to say that having an Aussie as your wingman for NON-Aussie girls is possibly the worst idea ever so in our case, the American girls who seemed to love me and Hughesy forgot about us like Fischer after his inception (yeah we saw the movie it was incredible). However, we still managed the occassional conversation on the side of Sidd describing the time he was on Deal or No Deal, his DJing talent, his lawyer qualifications but dissatisfaction that has led him to pursue medicine, etc. and Sidd's guidance to a handful of new places was incredible.

This past week was the first week of classes at the Uni. It was an interesting and brand new feeling to go from my first class of a few hundred (which I have never experienced) into my second of about fifteen. My third course was another of a few hundred students entitled "Drugs that Shape Society," a study on the societal and economic effects of alcohol, penicillin, opiates and thalidomide. I think our professor must have mentioned wine as his favorite drug about six times over the course of two classes. Aussies really love their goon. My fourth class, which I take with Chris and Hughesy as well, is "Sport and Education in Australian Society." I think this pretty much explains itself but I must mention that over the course of the semester we get to go to a rugby match, a cricket match (woo...) and go surfing.

On Wednesday I sat for my two hour midday lunch break outside of my faculty center on a nice picnic patio. I think I fell in love three separate times in a half an hour. Got to meet some more Aussie ladies.

For some reason Aussies have this idea that Americans cannot drink very much. On Saturday night, Hughesy and I headed to one of our new friends' 21st, which is a big deal in Australia even though it doesn't really mean much (they can already drink, smoke, etc. by 18). An Aussie about our age, who we had shot the shit with before, started insisting how he would drink us under the table and would be sure to turn us on our sides once we passed out. How thoughtful. Well with an open bar this escalated fairly quickly. However, the last thing I remember was still having a drink in hand (responsibly enjoying it mom, no worries) watching Joe, empty-handed, ruining the birthday boy's picture with his father...good form. After that, we ventured off to find another venue to continue the night while Joe stumbled up King St. alone. Hope ya made it home man.

USA 1

Blog 5

July 15-20

On Sunday, the entire group of study abroad/international students were lucky enough to score free tickets to an AFL (Aussie rules football) game in Melbourne. The North Melbourne Kangaroos had put on a brief clinic for us at their training grounds the week before, and were kind enough to donate the 100-something tickets, probably because it was so entertaining to watch us try to play their game. The day after the clinic, we had tried to play a game on the quad at Uni and it was frankly the biggest shit show I've ever been a part of. A few of us had a good understanding of the rules but for the most part, it was like 40 international students chasing a funny ball around the field and running into each other. Muffins and I led our team to victory but MVP probably went to Hughesy who scored like 6 times. Cherry picker.

Anyway, back to Sunday. We got to the MCG stadium in the pouring rain to find the place about half full. Yet, that still meant there were like 50,000 fans in attendance. Kangaroo fans (who I associated with) sported the blue and white with pride while the Richmond fans wore black and yellow. Most everybody (except for many of us guests) clearly supported one or the other with their attire. Although wet, the game proved to be a blast to watch and the Kangaroos...hopped...to a huge victory. Here are some pics and a video of a goal from the game.

Blog 4

July 18th

This past week I spent my days in an orientation program known as the Melbourne Welcome from the Uni. For four days, nearly all of the students studying abroad were jammed into two of the residential colleges and offered various activities throughout the day, as well as group ‘outings’ at night. As some pictures below show, we took a(nother) tour of downtown and ended the first full day’s activites with a trip to the Eureka Tower, the southern hemispheres tallest building. Another day took us to the Melbourne zoo, which might have been more depressing than the average zoo as the animals paced their boundaries with a hint of insanity. Kind of reminded me of Egan pregame in the locker room, although he always gets let out the cage to ravage some unexpecting victim.

Over the course of this week, it has really been a pleasure to meet students from all over the world: Canada, Mexico, England, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, etc. Hearing all of their diferent accents has also been incredible, though difficult at times. Two nights ago in a bar I rebelled on Australian night by wearing my Dutch soccer jersey (since I own no Australian gear) and quickly found myself talking to a group of Dutch students who saw the KNVB logo, which they quickly taught me how to pronounce. They proceeded to teach me much more about Netherlands, from which I partly hail from, than I had ever heard before in the matter of a few minutes.

Europeans think its hilarious how most Americans dance. Since, after all, grinding is not dancing. They point and laugh. Glad at Bowdoin we have a few more moves, it pays off.

Here's some more eye candy

The mighty wombat...

Blog 3

July 12

Last Friday night was our first night out on the city. We started with goon bags, the Australian way, and later found ourselves in the upstairs of The Elephant & The Wheelbarrow, a traditional-looking bar, jamming out to a cover band playing “American Idiot.” Typical.

The past three days our group ventured to Halls Gap in the Grampians, a range of rugged cliffs and peaks with large stretching valleys in between. Upon arriving at our camping park, we realized that kangaroos were literally everywhere and could care less that we were joining them on the lawn. Many of the roos also had tiny, chihuahua sized joeys in their pouches, which was incredible to see up close. During the days at Halls Gap, we went for beautiful hikes, runs, and also a visit to an aboriginal cultural center that enlightened us about the spiritual history of the land in which we were staying. At night, kookaburras laughed and cackled just outside the windows, and the largest roos snuck out into the fields to rest. Don’t try to catch/tackle them. You can’t. They’re too fast. The final day in this area was our rockclimbing day and I was forced to transfer my indoor climbing skills over to the real deal on a stained 100 foot rock wall. In addition, we climbed up on top of the large rocky peak to find a breathtaking panoramic view of our surroundings. This is definitely Australia.

Blog 2

July 8-9th

On the 8th and morning of the ninth, we remained in the coastal town of Sorrento, which was nearly deserted since it was winter. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Yesterday we were able to make it down to the beach twice, and these pictures pretty much say it all

We spent our last few hours in Sorrento on the morning of the 9th before heading back towards Melbourne. We stopped at an incredible wildlife park on the way back. A couple minutes walk out of the forest put our group on an expanse of rolling hills and brush lit by a bright morning sun and clear skies. As our group leaders took us slowly up a brushy slope, we spotted our target. Again, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

After our stop with the kangaroos, we made it back to Melbourne and spent the afternoon wandering through downtown and eventually made our way to Federation Square:

Finally realized I was in Australia. Sorry, realised.

Blog 1

July 5-7

The journey began on the 5th of July as a group of anxious and nervous students grew outside aisle 6 of the SF International airport. None of us was quite prepared or had a firm grasp on what was to come in the next couple days, so boarding the monstrous double decker 747 was really a leap of faith.

We were soon excited to hear that drinks on the flight (which would last 14 hours) were free, that’s when I was unsure whether Arcadia had ordered us an economy flight or the Wright Bros. version of the party bus. Don’t worry mom, we stopped after two…

Does anybody recall July 6th? I don’t. Didn’t happen.

Just before landing (and yes it was so uneventful I skipped the first 13 hours) I spoke with an elderly Australian man of our travel/study plans in Melbourne. I explained that we would first stay a couple nights in Sorrento, which as an American I foolishly pronounced with somewhat of a Spanish accent. He proceeded to tell me that this time of year I was likely to have “my head blown off there.” I quickly began to ponder how many Australian beer-proof dollars it would set me back to buy a glock for protection, until I realized my Nike windbreaker would do the trick. Not because it’s bulletproof, although that would be some idea, but because his expression was to describe how blustery and cold it would be there, as it is the middle of the Australian winter.

We arrived in Sydney the morning of the 7th, stopped at the duty-free shop, flew through customs and then waited over an hour to check our bags and get through security…again. However, the sight of about six American students all standing before the metal detectors in our socks proved quite amusing for the other travelers. Turns out the basics of our airport security system don’t all carry over. Oh and Qantas lost Chris’ bag. But he got it back with a $100 check a few days later. Drinks were on him that night.

Next on the agenda was a quick hour and a half flight to Melbourne, which was really just a slap in the face after the 14-hour trans-Pacific ordeal.

We stopped for lunch in St. Kilda, next to Melbourne on the bay, paid $19 for a burger and beer. “You know boys, it doesn’t play music,” said the local of the pay phone eight of us huddled around trying to figure out how to use for ten minutes.

Food is tucker. Beer is expensive.