International House- Block 1120

I decided to post some pics of my actual apartment... I live in block 11, room 1124, with 4 roommates. Chase is a cool girl from Iowa, Eric is an actual outgoing Korean (very rare here, there's a lot of asians but most dont speak english, eric is a champ!), Ben is an eccentric Aussie from the coast, and Bec is an aussie who lives down on a farm. All very nice and cool people. Our apartment was the only one who was neglected by an RA and wasn't decorated, so we took it upon ourselves to sidewalk chalk the walls with our names then hippie/trippy stuff, and 4 giant quote boards that every block has- for when people say hilariously embarrassing stuff. I predict I'll fill up one entire board.




Bathroom:

The toilets have a half flush for #1 and a full flush for #2 to conserve water! Clever:


Crazy electrical outlets (they use 240 Volts whereas we only use 120):

My room, jealous of my calendar?


How about that typical tourist beach towel of the Aussie Flag? Apparently, unlike American flag towels, a lot of Aussies have it and it's actually "cool" so right on :


Yesterday I went to a frat party... the only "Frat" on campus is the Engineering frat.. and it's not a typical American frat. Although we did meet in a field on campus with 8 kegs and about 50 kilos of sausages to cook. I had class all day till 5, then walked right from class to the field with a lot of my classmates. My roommate snuck me a wrist band so I got in for free... but it was $20 for everyone else. Kegs here cost, get this, $190 for the cheapest stuff! I went to my rooomates boyfriend's house for a kegger and it was $20 a person to cover the insane cost they had to pay, and people paid it willingly. Try charging that at a Towson party!

So they have positions like first year rep, second year rep, vice president, PR, all the normal jazz. But this is how they "vote"- whatever you wanna do you run for, and to run you stand up on stage in front of everyone and whoever skulls (chugs) their beer first and places it on their head wins office. How clever is that? Not very actually.. but damn fun. I don't think they get very much accomplished in this frat... but have a good time. The lines were insane for the kegs, so they passed around boxes of goon then took out the empty bags, blew em up and made goon sacks or beach balls to throw around.

And there's party rules, like if you point at someone, you skull, or it starts off as a right handed pub and you have to hold your cup in your right hand, or you skull, then they switch it up. I had to skull a lot. Before you skull they sing, "Here's to Justin he's true blue. He's a piss pot through and through. He's a bastard so they say. Tried to go to heaven but he went the other way. Drink it DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN" And you skull it down... quite fun.

After the frat party everyone walked to Bar on the Hill then downtown to Customs... the night ended with late kobabs- seriously, I have to bring one back for you guys, it's heaven on earth.

Hope all is well at home... We're headed down to Sydney this weekend for the gay mardi gras which I hear is a sight to see.

PS- Check out this story!

Nobby's!

Hey!  While you guys had some crummy weather, it's finally been sunny and 80s here!  So nice.  I've been at the beach for the past 3 days... amazing.  Went to Nobby's Beach.  The waves here are huge!  So much bigger than at home.. and they are actually considered small now.  The rips are horrible so you can only swim between 2 red/yellow flags the lifeguards setup and change hourly to make sure it's safe.  But the surfers can go outside the flags where there's blue flags.. although the rips are real bad out there.  Today the lifeguards had to save 8 people in an hour on the sea doo.  So there ends up being a heap of people playing between these 2 flags that are only about 60 feet apart.  

Also lots of women go topless sunbathing and way too many guys in dick-stickers.  

Puffer that died and got washed up... wouldn't wanna run into this guy.

Last night we stayed in and watched Bridget Jones Diary 2.. haha (actually not a bad movie, Renee looks a mess in it which it ok for Kenny) followed by Exit Wounds with Stephen Segal, apparently our Chuck Norris, who when falls in water, Chuck doesn't get wet, the water gets Chuck.  (We did chuck quotes for about 30 minutes)

Tonight about 20 of us are going to a central park in the city right off the beach where they have outdoor movies played on a giant screen.  Bringing a picnic and some goon... should be a chill night.  Bunny - "Hairspray" is playing so I'm stoked!

Missing everyone... can't wait to get back and enjoy a Bethany weekend!

First week!

Finished my first week of classes!  Well, only my 3 days of classes.  Weren't too bad... campus is huge and I got lost several times.  My digital photography class seems more intense than I thought.  The final project requires us to produce a set of 10 photos describing a sense of place... but it doesn't have to be tangible.  Some of the examples were a state of drunkenness, textures, self identity... it's a lot of symbolic pictures that represent something.  Any ideas people?????

My business venturing class is all about how to start a small business from scratch!  I'm impressed and stoked... our project requires us to write up a business plan for a new, original business that hasn't been created so far- pretty hard considering I feel like all the good ideas are taken!!  Again, any ideas???  I'm so unoriginal.. ha

My 2 business classes actually appear to teach us relevant information that will be useful in the real world, unlike all the bullshit at Towson.  Granted some of the classes I've taken thus far are helpful (maybe 1 or 2), the majority are just fluff.  The classes here seem to actually teach info that will be used in the real world.  Like 95% of all businesses are small businesses!  Here and in the States.  And the majority are started by baby boomers who recently retired... mom/dad/bunny - starting any businesses?   And the statistic that more than half fail in the first 6-12 months is actually wrong its much much less... people apparently read it wrong.  The stats show the total number of small businesses that exit the market in a year, whether they are new ones or old ones... then they compare that to the smaller number that enter the market each year - comparing wrong numbers!  

The class I was most excited for, The Australian Experience history class.... is horrible!  The woman loves to hear her voice and goes on and on about nothing.  That class is roughly 500 kids... and my 2 business one's are about 400 or so - massive!  Oh, and apparently it's normal to bring your baby to class... I had a mother sitting behind me with her googleing baby and no one thought it was weird.  And it's also okay for a guy to come to class with no shirt and no shoes on... what a different culture.  

Last  night was Wednesday, the big night out... we all went to happy hour at Bar on the Hill which is right on campus - soo fun.  I thought it would be lame cuz it's on campus, but EVERYONE was there, and it's huge.  Needless to say I didn't even make it out downtown.  

My dad informed me that Little Bob, Steve Irwin's son, had his first snake bite the other day... coincidently, I saw my first snake.   I was doing laundry and propped the fire exit door open cuz it's right outside our hallway and didn't want to walk all the way around the front of the building... so I came out of the laundry place (which is all free!) and there's this 3 foot black snake blocking the entrance!  So I stared at him, he stared at me and I ended up running around the front of the building lol.  I grabbed my camera cuz I'm an American, and went outside and got some pics... later that night I showed my aussie roommates the pics and they freaked out.  Apparently I saw a red belly black snake which are very hostile and extremely venomous... so I told the office and they put out warnings and are gonna try to exterminate it.  And I went to take pictures, sweet.

It's finally gotten sunny and hot here!  So I'm off to Newcastle beach today... I hear it's snowing at home - how much??  I love that I'll have 1 full year of summer...

Classes tomorrow!

So I've been at uni now for over a week and the fun still hasn't stopped!  Towson really needs to take a lesson on how to orient people.  Even the lame ice breaker games were fun... like making a guy into a bride out of newspaper.  We have a huge dining hall here where we get 5 meals a week, just dinner, then cook for the rest.  But everyone is 18 and legal to drink, so people bring a 6 pack to dinner or a goon sack and just drink that, soo strange.  Someone try that at Glenn and tell me what happens.  Last night  couple of us had burrito night, and they don't eat rice with it and thought I was crazy for doing it!  No chipotle fans here.  Then my Mexican friends Percy and Ursula are making burritos again tonight, needless to say I'm down.  Finally a REAL burrito!  

The weather has been shit so far... like 70s and overcast with rain and spotches of sun.  It's really unusual because usually it's sunny all day and hot, I picked the wrong time!  I still manage to get red when just sitting at the pool... each dorm has it's own pool area!  And each block has it's own massive outdoor grilling station.  No more getting yelled at for grilling in the village!  

We had our "Back to School" party which was hilarious... theme parties are the best.  We went to 2nd hand shops and had the old ladies help us find the dorkiest stuff, my tie had onions and daisies on it - random!  Here's a pic from it :

All the kids here have to wear these little caps to play outside - "No hat - no play!" 

On Valentine's day we had speed dating which was hilarious.  Some people got really into it but the majority of us just had fun with it.  You got a sheet and after each person had to classify if they were "friend, hookup, loser... etc"  lol I was harsh.  The best was getting an asian or german or french person who hardly spoke english... 2 minutes can be a very long time.  

On friday night we had our mystery dinner, which is where everyone meet in the courtyard, have some drinks, then get onto buses and they take you somewhere but you don't know where.  We were on the bus for an hour!  Then pull into Nelson's Bay - AMAZING PLACE.  We got a cruise boat for dinner, soooo nice.  Seafood buffet!  Tons of Calamari (Meliss you woulda love it, they were huge), oysters, shrimp which they call prawns, barramundi fish and so much more.  There were about 100 kids on the boat on the first level, then the 2nd was open to the public and was a bunch of older couples, and the top was open to see the views.  We had an amazing band with a latina singer who sang love songs and classic 80s/90s hits all night.  After dinner the older people came down to our party and some really old drunk man did a pole dance to his wife for her 60th birthday.  He was a big hit.  The cruise was super nice and it ended around 11 where we all went to he bow (front of the boat I think?) and laid down and looked at the stars.  You can see so much more here, but everything is obviously at a different place in the sky.

It wasn't too expensive for drinks, my friend and I split 4 bottles of wine, each at $18 a piece, which is cheap here.  So drinks... guys get this, a 30 pack of beer is $42. (I can get natty for $14!)  A bottle of Jose Cuervo, $70.  Whiskey is about $50... cheap vodka is like $45.  Goon, or boxed wine, is $10-12.  Luckily I like the cheap goon!  Mixed drinks at bars are called spirits, and are about $8+.  And you can't order shots!!  No shot's allowed, so you have to get it on the rocks and ask if they can leave the ice out, some do.  Oh and they sell bags of chips at bars, so random drunkies are walking around munching on chips... lol.  They also put the stamps or X's on the back of your wrist, which makes it look like a badass tattoo and then can't see it so much the day after.  Smart, eh?  

No thongs (flip flops) are allowed in bars and guys have to wear jeans... cause we were at Customs, this fun indoor/outdoor bar, and Aussies just outta no where will slam an empty glass on the floor and shatter it.  The bartenders don't even care... lol don't try this at Rec Room.  And late night we went into the city and had kabobs.. well this isn't meat on a stick but an amazing burrito/gyro wrap thing, so delicious.  

Their food is a little bit different, they keep eggs warm next to pasta in an aisle at the food store, WoolWorths (Yes, they have WoolWorths!  I'm stoked, I miss the one at home with the diner in it... Pop and Gram would be in heaven).   Their mayonnaise is sweet and gross tasting, ruined my egg and tuna salad.  And their shopping carts have the swivel wheels on the front and back so it's like a slick track and your cart goes everywhere.  All their foods are weighted in kilograms, so I'm clueless to the weight of how much I'm actually buying.  Haven't have the courage to order from the deli yet, sticking to prepackaged lunch meats.  Lizzie I miss our 2 hour long shopping trips :(  

They also have the Big W which is identical to Wallmart.  They have some Target's but they are pricey and not many Aussies like them, opposite eh?  

So classes finally start tomorrow!  The system to sign up is worse than Towsons', believe it or not.  You have to sign up for a lecture for each class which is 3 hours long and meets once a week, AND a toot (tutorial) which meets once a week for an hour.  The toots are just smaller versions of the bigger lectures.  My lectures range in size from 200-500.  Ridic.  So there are a million different class times to schedule, and the system actually lets you book yourself in 2 classes which have the same times - not cool.  But I think I finally got it down, here's my schedule Bunny and Parents :

Monday - Digital Photography, 9-12pm.

Tuesday - Business Venturing, 11-1pm

   Contemporary Management Issues, 2-3pm

                   Business Venturing, 6-7pm

Wednesday - Australian Experience, 1-3pm

  Contemp. Management Issues, 3-5pm

              Australian Experience, 5-6pm

Not too bad, 4 day weekend for trips!  And there's 2 bars here on campus that everyone go to on a regular basis, which is different but really cool.  The big nights to go out are Wed. through Saturday.  Sorry I just noticed I went straight from class schedule to drinking... I promise to study!  I did walk around and try to find my classes today, the campus is huge.  And it's built on a swamp which is pretty neat, but lots of mossies and wildlife.  

I also had to join the campus gym today, the Forum, yes, it's NOT included in tuition, which sucks.  And you can pay every fortnight (2 weeks) or per month, so I did the $52 a month fee - ridic.  But I need it.  It's super nice too, all brand new.  And you get to meet with a personal trainer who develops a program for your needs.  They have tons of free classes like spinning which they call RPMs, body pump, and heaps more, which subsets the fee.  I'm gonna try some, I saw one and it was packed with students and old people too.  Their treadmills and crosstrainers (ellipticals) have a digital touch screen where you can choose from a list of personal digital trainers, shows you running in a stadium, mountain, hill, track - so cool.  And there's a dock for your ipod and you can see all your music and playlists on the screen and play through there.I felt bad because you NEED to carry a sweat towel with you and I didn't know.. I got some bad looks so I made one out of paper towels.  Inappropriate.  

Ok, time for burrito night numero dos.  

First Post

G’DAY MATES!! Sorry I’ve fallen off the face of the earth (actually just down under!) for the past 2 weeks but it’s been absolutely insane here! Not having the internet for 2 weeks is torture! Then not having a cell phone was hell. (Believe it or not Steve my built in hand phone wouldn’t even ring) The system at uni is so messed up and takes forever to get the internet. So whereas I would have been writing a little bit each day, here is a massive compilation of what I’ve been up to. After I noticed how much I wrote I realized I’m way too excited to tell everyone how much fun it is here. Why can’t writing papers be this easy? So bear with me for the first post... from now on I'll post a little bit every now and then, won't be so long and boring to read. Sorry Mom/Dad for my bluntness, but I figured it was easier to tell everyone everything instead of making different entries for certain eyes only... lol SORRY!

So by now I’m a pro at flying now… had some worries before leaving but now it’s no worries! My flight from LAX left at midnight 2/3/08 and was 13 hours long. Oi veh. I flew on Qantas and they had mini TV’s on the back of every seat and we could pick between like 8 movies to watch, too bad the system was messed up and the picture flashed in and out every 20 seconds, oh and the headphones had static the whole time, so that was a huge bummer. After a while I said fuck it and watched some of Atonement (Melissa knows that one!) and 3:10 to Yuma (you WILL have to see this). They also had a picture of the plane and its progress- we were 11,000 ft in the air, traveled at some 560 mph and it was -52 degrees F outside!

I got the aisle seat and sat next to an Aussie couple in their 50s-60s. The woman was a hoot and we talked it up quite a bit. She couldn’t understand why Americans would want to study in Aussie… and bashed Newcastle (my uni = university = college = dorms…. Got that??) to shreds – although I found Aussies are like us and think wherever their from is the only place to be. She was from Darwin – the outback pretty much. She told me how Aussie is in a 7-year drought but it’s been an unusually wet summer (stinks for me but great for them!).

Oh yeah, so her husband – huge drunk. I actually remembered him from the airport in LA, every time I looked up he seemed to be passing by with a new cocktail! So he stumbles on last minute and curls up in a ball and goes to sleep through the entire flight. It’s crazy how limber they are! He had to be 60 and was literally in a ball on the seat like a 5 year old… and whenever they had to use the toilet (bathroom) they insisted to climb over me instead of me just moving. That was a good way to get to know the woman when she went to lift her leg up to hop over me there was quite a bit of bad turbulence. She ended up in my lap – “Sorry bout that mate guess we’re pretty close now.”

So the food was pretty awesome surprisingly, with a killer omelet in the morning! Oh and it is all you can drink free wine/beer… I had Toohey’s New (my favorite so far).

So I flew into Stralia (not Australia) on 5/2/08 (that’s February 5th not May 2nd … never experienced the 4th because of the international dateline - HAPPY REALLY BELATED BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!) into Brisbane and nearly missed my connecting flight because of crazy customs! Literally ran through the airport and onto the plane as they were about to close the connecting ramp! In fact, about half of the 40 students from AustraLearn did miss the flight and were stuck in rainy Brisbane all day. Sucked for them cause I was in Cairns!!!!! Home to the Great Barrier Reef.


The locals said we got extremely lucky cause it had been raining for forever and the 3 days we were there it was beautiful! We stayed at a hostel named Gilligan’s – more like a mini resort. This place was sick- 2 bars, loft, lagoon pool, volleyball sand pit– crazy nice! And it was only $24 a night (free cause of AustraLearn).

There was way too much orienting, but the next day we went to Rainforestation – a rainforest in the mountains. They had a zoo where I got to feed a kang and hold a water python (Will don't look below...)! We also got to take a picture holding a koala bear, literally just like a stuffed animal, very cuddly.

We went on Water Ducks which were used for WWII and made in the states then brought to the park for $26,000. It reminded me of the duck attraction at the Inner Harbor but much more rugged and cool (like everything here). We went through the rainforest with an awesome tour guide who cracked jokes the whole time while educating us about everything, then went straight into the water since it’s a boat too! Very cool.


Had an amazing CHINESE BUFFETT for lunch. I went to town. Tons of local fruit which was amazing. Then ended the day with an Aboriginal dance show. It was actually very lame and fake, these guys were laughing through the whole thing, but they did play a mean Didgeridoo. Then we got to throw boomerangs (actually pretty easy to do).

So the next day at 6AM we went on a massive pontoon boat called Passions. Destination- Great Barrier Reef. It was about a 2 hour ride till we got to the reef and typical Americans were complaining about it- I loved the ride. The reef was insane. Water so clear and so warm, about 80 degrees F. The first reef we went to I snorkeled around for about 2 hours while the majority of people scuba dove. But the lesson to learn was $60 and was too long and I felt the need to soak up the sun. Amazing pictures…. I saw crazy fish and just beautiful coral. Then we had another buffet for lunch (Pop woulda loved this one) and set sail for another reef.

                             Can you find me??

The 2nd time I decided last minute to scuba dive… well everyone else that did it went to a 45 minutes course on how to learn. I was the only one who didn’t do the course the first time, so a lady taught me in 5 minutes and thoroughly freaked me out. Saying how if I panic and surface too fast my lungs will explode. Nice. She said if water leaks into your mouthpiece you breath in, then remove the piece and breath out then put it back in and say “two” which flushes out the water and you’re good to go. I ended up just swallowing the water.

So everyone else went in a big group to scuba dive with an instructor, but since I hadn’t gone before I got my own personal tour guide- Mookoo! That’s here name, not an Aussie word. I got to follow her around for 30 minutes underwater where she took me to all the good places since she knew. I saw Nemo’s protecting their babies, got to touch the coral, the sand on the bottom was like dust, saw a sting ray, tons of HUGE angel fish and other fish bigger than me! The coolest part was seeing a giant sea turtle which is really rare. No sharks ☹ Some of the big fish were so friendly they would follow me around and brush up against me… I had this one guy follow me and kept staring at me in the face! So when we surfaced Mookoo shakes my hand and says “Good job. That was first time for me and you!” Apparently she had just come from Asia and it was her first scuba tour. I’m so glad I decided to scuba last minute, everyone needs to do it once in their life. I could definitely get into that more.  Dad the underwater camera is champ!  Everyone was amazed and it took perfect pictures - thanks!!!









The rest of the day was spent lying in the sun on the boat which had 2 giant cargo nets that you could lay in which had open water underneath. So cool. Apparently there’s a giant hole in the ozone layer above Australia so the sun is super intense- I put on lotion all day and still got red!

That night we pregamed at the hostel on our balconies, drank a bottle of $7 wine and didn’t realize I didn’t have a corkscrew so had to push it through with a knife- real classy. Then we all went out to the Woolshed- sick bar. This place was bumping! It was free champagne night for ladies, so there was pretty much naked model men walking around dishing that out (The girls at Towson would have loved it). (They are big on promos here….on campus there’s a Gloria Jeans coffee and half nude girls in 70s waitress gear were promoting that. The mall had a live band to announce the opening of Krispy Kremes- opening song “Hit me with your best shot.”) Needless to say I made close friends with a girl and got her to fill me up all night with free champagne. (Makes me miss CVPs) The music here is soooo strange. It’s either 80/90s, which I love cause I know all the words and most of it are my guilty pleasures. Then the other half plays crazy techno/electronic junk. Not a fan. But some are nice mixes of normal songs, good to dance to.

So the dancing… Aussies don’t grind, ever. And are apparently disgusted if you do. They sorta do a very white, middle aged person’s dance at a wedding reception. So weird. The young kids I met at uni do this intense harlem shake but like on crack. It was like a strobe light. Some American girls I went with got on the tables and started to grind, everyone walked away and there was a huge empty circle around them haha.

We left Woolshed around 2AM and went to JP’s dance club. It was close to their Chinatown so it was PACKED with HEAPS of Asians going crazy! It was their Chinese New Year too, so people were setting off fire works in the streets and Asians were getting annihilated! I loved it. But it was so sweaty and hot we left and went to Mackers (McDonalds). There were these school kids in there around 3AM in their little uniforms bugging all the drunkies for free food. So naturally I became friends with them and ended up doing a shout of hamburgers. (Shout is when you’re at a bar you SHOUT or buy a round for everyone around, then someone else does, then someone else, and it goes on till everyone is pissed (very very drunk, not angry) So they all got their hamburgers and I got my Big Mac, then they snatch my drink and fries outta my hands and run away! Little buggers!

We ended up walking to a lagoon area which was so beautiful and got in the water. Then I got to wake up at 4:30 for my flight to Sydney. Fun.


I slept the entire flight then we took giant buses to Newcastle, which turned into a 4 hour ride even though it should have taken 1 ½ hours. Oh, the middle aged bus driver decided it would be a treat for us to watch Beyonce Live the entire time. He LOVES her and by the end of the bus we all stepped off it to the left, to the left (sorry I’m getting bashed on for my lameness, I tell them its really cool at home…).

On 08/02/08 I finally stopped living out of a suitcase and moved into International House College (they call dorms colleges). It’s so different here, the dorms are all super nice apartment buildings, kinda like the village. But everyone is really into their college and we got IH polo and t-shirts. They have competitions in sports between colleges and themed parties with different colleges (Rave, Toga, Red Light Green Light, Superheros, Back to School party, where everyone dressed up like teachers or little kids, or Britney Spears. Each party we start at the college then go into town to the bars dressed up. Think we can organize this back at Towson??) It’s sorta like a frat or sorority but not all the BS, cause they don’t have Greek life here. And we have RAs, but no worries. Unlike at home, your RA will come get you TO party and usually are the loudest most drunk people.

The campus is so awesome, tons of trees and wildlife. It’s HUGE and the architecture is insane. Spiders/millipedes/all kinds of bugs I’ve never seen are EVERYWHERE. It’s normal to brush your teeth with a spider or sleep with a beetle. Oh and the Mossies (mosquitos) are horrible. They are EVERYWHERE and never leave you alone, even the buses are filled with them from opening the doors.

The other day I went to the beach for the first time with Sarah who is an Aussie with a car. (a Toyota Corolla, but not really. All there cars are almost the same in style, but not really- all much smaller and green friendly. The Aussies hate American Hummers and huge SUVs). We went to Nobby’s beach – amazing. It’s been cloudy and rainy since I got to Newcastle, but you still can’t beat a rainy day at the beach. Water was a bit cold but we got in anyway for over an hour. HUGE waves…. Like monstrous. And you can only swim between 2 red flags the lifeguards set up each day, or else you’ll pretty much drown. Their sand is so fine, it’s really strange when you walk on it, it makes a “school” noise, so weird I thought it was another crazy bird. I wake up each morning to a bird that cries like a baby then to one that I named Vicki-bird from Real Housewives of Orange County because it goes “WOOOOOO WOOOOOOOO.” And there are lizards and tropical parrots you see in pet stores all over campus. So cool. Although I was walking home and noticed a leech type thing on my leg and he had gotten some blood pretty quickly.

CONGRATULTIONS if you made it this far! Sorry that was a heap of a post, but it shouldn’t be as boring/hard to read from now on if I update a little every now and then.  PLEASE write comments on here or just send me an email, let me know what's goin on in your life or if you have a question.  It feels so good to hear from people when you're away.  I feel like I sort of took my family and friends for granted when I was home, but now that I can't call or see you whenever, I know how much everyone means to me.  So when I get back and you ask me to do something and I just don't feel like driving or going, CALL ME OUT.  Ok, that was a bit sappy but had to get that out there.  So check back and write back! It feels so good to hear from everyone. I miss and love everyone heaps.

CHEERS!

-Justin