Camping @ Narromine

Happy Easter everyone!!! I just got back from camping over the weekend. A group of 8 of us (Claire, Lucy and Nolan from Aussie, Percy from Mexico, Nicole from MD, and 2 Aricans- Brian and Deep) went to my friend Claire's farm in Narromine. We left friday around 11 from IH to pick up Claire's friends from Africa who live off campus... we stayed there for about an hour, trying to get them to come out of their dark, dirty, cave of a house with about 10 other Africans - it was pretty scary just to be inside. Lesson learned this weekend - African's have no sense of time.

So we finally hit the road for about a 5 1/2 hour drive west. We took Lucy's old Applause and my roommate Ben's car ( 1994 Holden Executive wagon.... it was a miracle this car even made it. The odometer has been broken for years, so it's stuck on 214,000 KM - didn't even put a KM on it this trip! We didn't wanna take it but couldn't find another car. Wouldn't mention it to mom and dad before because it was pretty unsafe to ride in for that long time, but fate was on our side!) The scenery we passed was magnificent, which made driving not so bad. We stopped every 2 hours, as per Aussie rule on their signs "Stop. Revive. Survive. Every 2 hours." We finally pulled onto a dirt road which was Claire's street... Clarie was driving my roommate's car and goes, "Oh they re-grated our road how nice!" Ummm, it was the bumpiest, roughest dirt road I've ever been on. We kicked up a dust trail a kilometer long, which wasn't too good for Lucy's car.

After another 15 minutes on the dirt road, we pull into the Webb family farm. Impressive. Her mum and dad had built their dream house on the front of the property about 10 years ago, and had a massive "shed" which could hold about 20 tractors. Her house was very luxurious for a farm house - all her lights in the house went on when you walked into a room/hallway, crown molding all around, flat screen TVS - and every room had an awesome view of the crops. Their old house is pretty run down and in the back of the farm, and is currently being rented out to someone.

So we meet her parents, and all her 5 brother's were home for Easter. We were there for about 2 minutes when her whole family comes revving up from the fields with everyone in the back of the yoot and her parent's driving - quite the grand entrance. Everyone was really nice and friendly, her dad and bro's drank with us all weekend. Her one bro is nicknamed Bluey cuz he wears blue singlets all the time (didn't let us down this weekend either) and one of her other bro's name is Angus. So I asked why they call him Angus, thinking he loves steak or something - she goes, "Well that's his name."

We loaded up her yoot (truck) and her Pajero (4WD) and headed out to our campsite. Her farm is 1,400 miles - the same number as the population in Narromine. About a 15 minute ride we arrive at the campsite which is located just next to a giant marsh. We pitched the 2 tents with not too much trouble, and started a fire for the night. Had 2 eskies filled with some drinks and started the night. We actually ordered take away of fish and chips that night (had to ease ourselves into the rough camping scene). We stayed up till about 5am, then finally called it a night.

Campsite:




We awoke at 8am to rain on the tops of our tents (pretty relaxing actually), but there were puddles forming, so we headed to her house for brekkie. Had another barbie of eggs and sausages (sausages were featured at every meal. they don't do hot-dogs or burgers). It was pretty crummy weather all day saturday, so we kinda bummed around the house, played XBOX 360 on her flat screen, and played with her 2 sausage (hot dog) dogs. We all decided we liked Claire's idea of camping.

The weather finally broke around avo, and we went fishing for yubbies (mini lobsters or giant cray fish). Claire has a bunch of giant lakes on her farm with traps set, so we got to pick through the little fellows which we threw back and kept the big ones. We threw the big blue ones into a bucket but not before pulling the claws off em - apparently yubbies live to kill eachother, which is why they have massive armor and claws. We headed back to the house, cooked em up and started the evening. They were delicious too, tasted like shrimp- the claws were the best part. After some drinks, we headed back to the campsite and started the fire (which amazingly still has ambers) and kicked off the night.

Here's a vid from the back of the yoot driving to the campsite:



That night I decided to sleep out under the stars in a Swag (kinda like a heavy duty sleeping bag but double the size, with a mattress pad inside and blanket and a pillow). It was amazing laying under the stars by the campfire falling asleep. But we sadly awoke at 6am to rain... on Easter Sunday. The weather proof swag had some faults to it and we started to get wet. Puddles were forming around the tents too so we all packed up camp and headed to the giant shed which had an office in it where we slept till mid morning. Apparently Narromine never gets rain in the autumn, and hasn't for the past 15 years - the one weekend we come it rains every morning! Figures! But it was still cool waking up in the rain.

So we bummed around Claire's house again that day, but since all her family and their girlfriends were there, plus the 8 of us - we decided to get out even with the bad weather. It finally stopped raining and we took a tour of the farm - well part of it... it's massive! We also headed into town with her bros to watch the big Rugby game - Sydney VS New Zealand. Realllly small town... The pub was pretty cool though with old locals - everyone routing for Sydney. Unfortunately they played like shit and lost 20-30. Good game though and I finally had the rules/scoring explained to me! Rugby is so much better than american football - faster paced and higher impacts. One of the African's went out for a smoke and met a local Aboriginee who was at the pub in Narromine. They got to talking and the local told Deep he just got out of prison, Deep asked what for and he replied, "For slitting a guys throat." Deep then said nice to meet you and came inside to the rest of us.... later we asked Claire's father and he said, "Ohh, Darrel, yep, true story."

We got back and headed down to where we would sleep that night - the woolshed. I had gone to the Woolshed bar in Cairns but never knew what it meant - duh, it's the place where they shear the wool off the sheep. Yup, we had a woolshed party and slept on the dusty floor where thousands of sheep have crossed. Oh and the smell was delightful.


After about 30 mintes you didn't notice the smell, but if you went to the outhouse (yes she has one) the smell came right back. That night we decided we needed to end big in order to sustain a night sleeping here.


We had a few beers with Claire's Dad who told us the history of the farm... then he asked me about the presidential election - Aussie's are really into politics. He asked soo many questions, some I could answer but some I didn't know myself, I felt like I should have researched or just known them though... We had another barbie of sausages and salad and started drinking games - Mafia is sooo fun, I'm bringing it back to Towson! Say you have 8 people playing, you'll get 2 red cards = mafia, and 6 black cards = everyone else. You randomly deal the cards out so no one knows who is who, and then everyone puts their heads down, the 2 mafia's raise up so they know eachother, then heads back down. And people accuse other's of being the mafia and you have to defend yourself if voted on. Eventually everyone has to decide to kill someone they think is the mafia, then heads down, mafia heads back up and they pick someone to kill, then everyone heads up and the accusations start again. It's pretty cool and fascinating b/c each time, the 2 mafia's were left alive in the end and everyone else dead. You get 1 person accusing someone else and everyone follows.... people are very easily persuaded.

After way too much drinks, Claire's bros came and brought some home-brew beer with them - that stuff was potent. We then played around in the woolshed.

Playing mini cricket - harder than it looks!



And Percy attempting to throw me down a sheep shoot. They herd all the sheep up in the back, then bring one out and shear it, then down the slide it goes into a loading zone until all the rest are finished. But the one's waiting to be sheared are standing directly over the rest, so you get all the nasty animal functions on the others - and Claire was sometimes the person who had to go down below and pray she wasn't hit.



Percy then drank too much and volunteered to send himself down :



Picture of a giant walk in freeze they had with feakishly long boots which reminded us of I know what you did last summer :

These next few pics are for Dad - you might be the only one to appreciate them.
The old sheep shear's woolshed, circa hundred years ago. Clare's dad sheared sheep here, and he said it was built from trees on the farm that were cut to size. Indured a floor 6 feet deep, and still standing :


OOOLD kerosene fridge!


Dirt bikes used to herd up the cows/sheep (although they still use dogs which I met). There's a spot on the back of both for the dog's to ride on - saw Clare's dad pulling away with Sally dog (one of the best herders) on the back, riding the curves like Sherwin used to in the truck on the way to loch raven :


Eventually we all passed out in the swags on the dirty floor and awoke at 8am monday to start packing up. The africans slept till noon while everyone else disassembled the tents and loaded up the cars. We said the goodbyes and were on the road. I drove the entire time back- driving on the left is pretty natural by now. I had Percy riding shotgun which was good - we bonded a lot this trip. But we also got stuck with the 2 Africans in the back seat. African's smell. We stopped at Macker's got a quick lunch that turned into an hour ordeal - the lines were out the door. The workers (all white and super friendly) have this really cool hand held palm pilot. They walked around to the lines and took people's orders then gave us a ticket so when we got to the counter, the meals were ready (in theory, still took some time) and we just had to pay. Pretty sweet idea.

The African's got their food - at liquor land. They got 2 bottles of rum and 1 of scotch. The next 4 hours driving, they drank a bottle of rum a piece and half of the scotch. Incredible. All they do is drink and smoke. Percy and I were gagging at the smell of alcohol... and at the end of the drive, they didn't even act drunk.

It's tuesday night now, raining, night before classes start (not too bad considering I have a 1 day week now!). Just finished our traditional movie night - cartoon theme this time. We watched the Lion King (always a classic) and Lion King 3 (pretty cool, same story but from the point of view of Pumba and Timon), then Corpse Bride (reallly cool Tim Burton movie).

All in all, it was a different but good easter weekend. Hope everyone had an equally enjoyable and exciting easter!

Commencement / Recovery Week

Hey! So I haven't updated in a while... and heaps has happened. Last friday night IH had a big commencement dinner (big dinner where head of college gives a speech and we find out who was elected into positions). I wore my aussie friend's baby blue "safari" suit. Classy. It was held at Shortland Union on campus, but was actually really nice - 3 course catered meal, DJ, dance floor, and open access to GT Bar which has a really cool balcony/deck area. After the dinner everyone caught a free bus into town for the pubs. All the pubs were ridiculously overcrowded and had fog machines turned on full blast, so I caught the 2:17 bus back.

The guys before Commencement:


And the ladies:

Mali, Me and Annika:


The next day was "Recovery Day" - which I assumed was a day everyone chills by the pool, sleeps off the night before. Oh no. Apparently recovery to Aussie's means waking up at 9am, going to the hall for a barbie of amazing bacon and egg sandwiches, and washing it down with more alcohol. I'm fairly sure everyone woke up still feeling the night before and needed just 1 drink to cap it off. So after brekkie I headed back to the fridge for my goon sack, and returned to the pool where pretty much everyone was chilling/swimming/dancing cuz they had a DJ spinning some pretty sick remixes. At 12pm, a few of us decided to do power hour - so we headed back to the apt. above mine. Word got out and when we started, there must have been over 50 people crowded into this tiny living room, which we had brought in a picnic table for extra space. An hour later, everyone emerged and bombarded the pool since it was sweaty and hot in there... the rest of the afternoon was spent at the pool of goon. Surprisingly no one was killed and I only cut up my foot. Everyone took a quick nap, woke up around dinner and continued to "recover." Around 11 we decided to find the only sober person - Ellen, to drive us to Hungry Jacks. Best idea. So all in all, recovery in aussie terms means a lot more fun than I was expecting.

The theme of Recovery day which we got shirts for - "I'd rather be a liver than have one..."


Frank's amazing new haircut:

Dance party :


Ursula and I in the pool:


IH's pool :


My roommate Bec :
Clare (taking me camping!) :



Here's a vid of the pool party:



Here's another, featuring the most over-played song in Australia by Pot Belly's - Dont Hold Back :




Then it was the sad realization of school the next day. It was the last week before Easter break (which I'm on now!) so I had a lot of group meetings and work to do. Learned that Aussie's only use 1 space after their periods... how many does everyone else use? I was always taught to use 2.. weird. And the group meetings... when they say meet at 11, they really mean 11:40 - that has happened to me 3 x's now.

It's thursday night, spent the day at Nobby's beach with Lucy, then went to fill up my roommate's car with petrol cuz he went on a PO (pacific ocean) cruise for 2 weeks and left his car with me... what a nut! Anyways, cost me $80 to fill up his station wagon.... wow. And they fill up by the litre, not the gallon. (The litre is less). And their signs read it full cents... so the sign read 148 - I was like holy shit 148 for a litre of gas?? Noo, 148 cents.... weird. But they don't use 1 cent pieces here, so anywhere you go, they round up to the nearest 5 cents (their smallest coin). So in shops they still have weird prices like $2.98, but instead of paying that, they'll round it up to $3 and you get jipped off (no tax). Orrr if its $3.02, it's only $3 - dunno how they work it out but sometimes it's in your favor and sometimes its not. They say "it all comes out in the wash" - meaning it evens out in the end.

I just spent about 4 hours watching TV and talking with Eric, my korean roommate. What a champ - he speaks broken english but I can understand him pretty well. Dunno how he is taking IT classes taught in english here. He asks me a lot for help with his work and I coudln't be more happy to help.. like last night he had to do citations, and he couldn't figure out which was the author's surname (last name) or first name, since you spell out the last and only abbreviate the first. Whenever we talk, he just asks questions about America or the english language... it's pretty cool being able to answer the stuff he reallly wants to know but says he doesn't feel comfortable asking anyone else. Tonight we talked about how his younger sister got plastic surgery to make her eyes slightly bigger in Korea, and how most women have this surgery. He said it's verrry superficial over there. The first thing people look at is your height (taller is better), then your face (if you're ugly he says people shun you and you have to walk with your head down), then your body (hardly anyone is fat), then your job and how much money you make. I told him that's pretttty similar to America.

Korea, South of course, seems like a pretty cool place from what he says. Girls cover their chest with their hands when they bend over to pick up something, and when walking up steps they cover their backside with a handbag. Girls and guys can't really touch in public and dating is pretty rough... he said American's come over and teach english and earn mucho dinero. He showed me some of his english books with Korean written next to it, pretty fascinating. Eric also offered me to come visit him and stay with his family - could you see me in Korea next?? HAHA, I extended the offer to him (don't worry mom and dad, or melissa.. lol he's a nice guy).

Anyways, tomorrow I'm off to Narromine to go camping at Clare's farm! I'm stoked, there's 9 of us going 5 hours west into the bush. Should be a fun easter. Definitely different than what I'm used to. Better grab some sleep. Happy easter to everyone!!!

Gnarly Swell

Just back from surf camp! What a weekend. Went on a 2 day trip with Mojo Surf and yes, they did name it after Austin Powers. It was founded by 2 aussies and a NY frat guy named Ian, whom I met in Cairns and got me to sign up. They have their own coach bus and it was suppose to pick us up friday at 6:15... typical for Australia, they were an hour and a half late. We ate dinner at IH then got a friend to drive us to the train station at 6, then booked ass to catch a train so we wouldn't be late. We ended up running off the train to the stop where we were suppose to meet them, only to find out the delay due to traffic. I was carrying 2 six packs of Toohey's Extra Dry for me and 1 six of Toohey's New for my buddy Frank. I had em in this green-friendly grocery bag and forgot his were on top, ended up dropping his 6 pack and 2 bottles popped, so we had to skull for the sake of not loosing a $10 six pack.

So there was a group of about 30 Newcastle kids sitting at this train station on the side of a highway for an hour and a half with all our alcohol we were instructed to bring for the weekend. Needless to say we had a bit of a party on the side of the road. The bus finally pulls up and out pops your stereotypical blonde, shaggy haired surfer dude - "WHASSSUP DUUUDES YA'LL REEADY TO SUUUURF" Hell yeah we were! Threw our stuff on the bottom of the bus and hopped on. I was the last to get on bc Frank was finishing his beer, and there were no empty seats. 2 girls were taking up 2 seats each, so I asked one to scooch over. Completely random, BTW.

The surfer had us play the name game, where he put on a song and we had to march down the runway of the bus to the front and introduce ourselves over the microphone and say our turn ons and turn offs- there were some good responses considering people had been drinking. So one after one goes and this one chick said she was from Maryland! Turns out from Bethesda, going to St. Mary's! Then the chick next to me, whom I asked to move over, says she's from Maryland too! Turns out... SHE GOES TO TOWSON. What a flippin small world! And she WAS in ZETA but disaffiliated and knows Steph! HAHA freeeaky.

So we watched American Gangster on the ride up, very decent movie but long, never got to see the end! It was about a 3 hour drive up the coast to our destination - Crescent Head.


We had to go for about 30 minutes on a dodgey dirty road with so many potholes... couldn't go more than like 10 mph, really had to go to the boondocks to get to this place! Saw some Kangaroo's on the road as well! And a Gohanna lizzard.



Finally we make it to camp and get our rooms. The big room that slept about 40 people got filled, so I made my way to the loft rooms and stayed with a guy from VT named James, and an Irish couple and German couple - James and I were lerious the couples might try something late at night. Although we were sleeping on a thin foam mattress nailed to 8 milk crates. Not comfy. Mojo has this huge compound with a giant house that sleeps like 60 and another house that sleeps about 40. They have an outdoor kitchen that fed all of us, showers and bathrooms, and private walk to this secluded beach - soooo nice!

We all headed to the beach for a bonfire around 12:30 or so. I didn't stay too long cuz I knew we had to be up at 6:30 on Saturday. They gong to let you know food is ready.... 6:30 came wayyy too early. We had some cereal and fruit, picked up a surfboard and wetsuite, and were at the beach by 8am. The wetsuits all had names written on them signifying their size - Each name started with a S(mall), M(edium) or L. My name was Loopy. Some other kids got Lactating nipple, Mankey Boobs and Smelly Anus - surfers are clever folk.



So we got the typical lesson of how to paddle and jump up on the board, then they pretty much let us loose. Everyone charged the water with our 9 foot massively heavy boards (the bigger and heavier, the easier to ride a wave). Majority of kids were done within an hour and up on the beach sun-baking. First 2 tries I wiped out pretty bad, but the third time was a charm and actually got up and rode a wave! Seriously, the feeling of riding your first wave is nuts you feel like you've achieved this impossible task! After that, I maybe only caught 2 more in the next 4 hours lol. Surfing is harder than they make it look! There's sooo much paddling and jumping up quick enough and being in position. My board kept nose-diving into the bottom of the wave before I could stand up - learned I was too far up on the board and had to push up with my hands back at my chest. You're spose to have your toes just hanging off the back of the board, near the fins.

Path to the beach:



So we stopped for lunch - massive spread with tuna that had corn and peas in it - delicious! Lizze/Bunny - try it! Also had lunch meats and more fruit. Then we had 3 hour down time which I appropriately spent in a hammock the entire time. After that we headed back to the beach for some more surfing. Didn't do a whole lot better in the avo. So we called it a day around 6 and headed back for cold showers and a barbie. After steak, hamburgers, sausages, salads, and everything else- we all grabbed all our beer and headed to the beach for a bonfire.

Played some lame campfire games... everyone progressively got very intoxicated. I talked to the Irish couple for an hour or so and learned how the girl's dad was a professional rugby referee, like the 4th highest one in the world - pretty cool! Irish people can reallllly drink! Next thing I look up and everyone is naked sitting around the campfire playing some crazy drinking game. I decided it was time to walk to the water with some other sane people. I can't begin to describe what I saw at the beach at night.... this place is so in the middle of no where, I saw more stars than I thought existed. It was the most beautiful, humbling thing I've ever seen - even in the country someplace with no lights in the states, you wouldn't see this. Australia has got the view. Someone pointed out the southern cross to me... the American's kept looking for the big and little dippers, which apprently we can't see from the southern hemisphere - oops. But I have never seen any sky like this... I'm still in awe.

We stumbled back to camp through the pitch black trail (takes about 8 minutes to walk from the beach to camp) and were in bed by 2am. But not before Kristy and I raided the outdoor kitchen for a late night snack attack haha, we ended up in a corner with 2 burgers in our hands and pasta salad in our laps. Good night.

At 8am we were back at the beach on sunday for one last day of surfing. This is when it all came together. Something just clicked and I was up on every wave! It was incredible.. the majority of kids were again done in an hour, but about 10 of us were troopers and stayed out till noon. My body has never been so tired in my life but after each wave I caught, something in me made me paddle back through about 10 waves breaking in my face and toppling me over just to catch 1 more wave. Frank and I rode wave after wave in and kept saying - 1 more.






In the middle of surfing, the instructors decided it was time to surf naked. So 2 of em caught this massive wave and stripped off their wetsuites while riding it! Nuts. Literally. Everywhere. They surfed for the next hour butt naked and paddled alongside us like it was everyday thing. They did flips and handstands nude on the boards... some positions you just wouldn't want me to repeat. OH, and they have this pitt/mix dog named Grummit, or Grummey for short - she's a better surfer than me! They took her out on the boards and rode waves with her on it! Talent.

Andy, crazy surf instructor and our bus driver:


So the weekend ended with a sad goodbye, but the glory of actually being able to catch waves! All of us were on the bus pulling away, only to be saluted by all 8 or so surf instructors coming running out of the house butt naked- as they proceeded to ride brooms around, ride a girls tricycle, and just rolling around butt naked. Australian surfers are truly insane. But they know how to have fun. They honestly have no shame and hold nothing back. We couldn't get over how this was their job- they get to surf all day, party at night, and get paid for this. What a life.

Quick Entry

Hey! Just a quickie before I head off to Surf Camp for the weekend!
Last night was a Mexican party and they brought a salsa instructor to teach us some moves! As lame as it sounds, it was reallllly fun and not too difficult. Should seriously take a salsa class it was fun and I actually remember the basic moves. They have Latina nights at BOTH (Bar on the Hill) every monday night, might be going with Ursula, my mexican blockmate. Afterwards we headed back to our apartment and Percy and Ursula (the token mexicans) reallly got into the salsa-ing. It got steamy, I was pretty impressed.

We ended the night making sushi! I know I know, sushi at the Mexican party... we did have doritos and tequila! I had no idea how to make sushi but this girl had the bamboo roll, the seaweed, rice, and then we put tuna and chicken into them with avocado. SOO Good! I got to roll my own, did pretty good too! It's not even that hard, might have to start rolling our own and put Sushi Hannah outta business.

So my roommate brought his car to uni and hates driving... so whenever we run to Jesso (the shopping mall) or to the beach, he let's me drive. At first I didn't want to cuz they obviously drive on the other side of the road... but I gave it a go. Didn't help when he gave me the keys I walked to the left side of the car, not the right. They use circles everywhere, and they actually make a lot more sense than sitting at a stop light or braking for a stop sign.

Went to my first barbie as well the other day... it was on campus and pretty cool- they had awesome veggie burgers and sausages (they don't do hamburgers or hot dogs, just sausage. And their veggie burgers literally have whole pieces of corn and peas and I dunno what else). They also had live music, ended up just laying in the grass for an hour listening to this one girl play the keyboard and sing.

Also, already had to give my first presentation in class. It was only a 15 minute presentation on structures and competencies of management, but was followed up by a 45 minutes intense questioning/answer session from the class and professor. Aussies hate talking in front of crowds and people are reallllly bad at presenting. It was painful to watch the 2 guys in my group... we managed to get a 12/15 and I think it's thanks to me. For once, thank you Towson.

Alright I'm off, hope everyone's doing swell at home - miss you all!

Mardi Gras

Friday night, 2/29/08 was Toga night. We spent the day at op shops (opportunity shops a.k.a. thift stores) getting our togas. Turned out to be a ridiculous night, so much fun. We caught the bus in and stayed at Finnies till closing, then went for kababs. Typical.

The next day on 3/1/08, a big group of us went down to Sydney via the train for Mardi Gras. It was a 3 hour train ride, not bad considering the train was 3 levels- we sat on the top for the sweetest view. The seats were nuts, you could fold em down and make like a conference for 4 people... hard to describe but fun to play with. We were suppose to catch the train which has a station right on campus, which is very convenient and only about 15 minutes away from IH. We ended up having to run when we saw it pull up at 11:15, saw the conductor standing outside, he saw us, then pulled away. We missed the train by literally 15 seconds... AH! Then as it pulled away some little kid flipped us the bird. So we sat on a bench for an hour till the next train came, sweet. The scenery was awesome though, passed lots of lakes, farms, and mountains.

Ended up getting to Sydney around 3:30... immediately stopped at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and got a Whopper. I upgraded to the larger size to get a larger cup to put goon in, then forgot Aussie has the smallest sizes ever. Their Medium is a kiddie size at home, their large is a small and their XL is a medium... GR. But they do have .30 cent huge ice cream cones (not sure how a Whopper meal costs $7).

Immediately opened the goon sack since we were told you must be intoxicated to be able to handle Gay Mardi Gras in Sydney. That was an understatement. Some 300,000 people turned out from all over the world for the 30th anniversary on Oxford Street where it all went down.

Here's a view from the hotel we booked which happened to be overlooking the parade route:


Sydney is crazy nice. It's similar to NYC but cleaner, with lots of more asians and huge parks everywhere. And they have a mono-rail that rides above the city in addition to buses and trains.

So we checked into the hotel and my roommate from IH, Ben, was marching in the parade since he's a member of NUSA, some student organization on campus. He got dressed up in some hippie/revolutionary outfit while the rest of us drank. Then he found out he had 1 extra wristband for someone to get into the parade. who nabbed that?! ME. I don't mean let into the parade to watch... I mean to literally be inside the gates IN the friggin parade. When else in my lifetime will I be in Sydney for Mardi Gras and be able to actually be IN IT? NEVER. So I skulled and said what the heck.

NUSA's theme color was red, luckily I had this nice hoodie Lizzie found ahem gave to me - perfect. Off we went. The things I saw that day could not be put into words. I had a vague idea of what it might be like... I'm sure you do too- well multiply that by 1000 then quadruple that. It was an experience I'm glad I got to see. There was an INSANE amount of people everywhere. Lots of drags putting on makeup and platform shoes... wow.

Here's one of the crazy get-ups :

This is the massive amount of asians who all had first row. They sold milk crates to them so that could see. Luckily I got the wristband because before it started I got to walk all around and see all the floats up close, then there's sooo many people watching it, they say the only way to see it is to actually be in it. Can you spot the one white guy??

Here's a pic from actually inside the parade. I'd say the whole thing was about 2K but lasted about 2 hours maybe? Insane:


Here's a video from inside the parade... they do this crazy line dance I just couldn't seem to get down. It was to a Madonna song, how more typical can you get?! :



Did you catch my appropriate "WOOOOO"?

The end of the night came around 5AM. The streets were covered with trash and you were literally walking on a sheet of broken glass bottles. Next day we woke up at 8am and went to get sushi and to a market for typical Sydney souvenirs. Oh, the sushi here is HUGE. It's about $3 a roll, but instead of getting little guys, you get 1 massive like 4 inch long piece of seaweed wrapped deliciousness. We hopped on a train and was back in Newcastle around 5pm. Ready for class the next day... Have many more photo's I deemed inappropriate for this kosher blog. All in all it was a great weekend experience. Definitely going back to Sydney to see it on a normal weekend though.