Parents in Australia

Hey All,

I had a pretty awesome weekend with a wonderful visit from my parents!  They are in Australia for a 3 week trip and started with four days in Melbourne.  I took them around Melbourne and we did heaps of stuff.  They were jetlagged and tired each day but were excited to be here!

First, I took them to Federation Square and some of Melbourne's famous alley ways for lunch.  They were thrilled to see the CBD (central business district) and explore a neat part of the city.  I then took them to the Queen Victoria Market to get some souvenirs and then back to St. Mary's to show them where I live.  We caught some dinner on Lygon street (the Italian district... some of the best pizza period) and had a pleasant evening.  They were wiped, so I let them get back to their hotel to get some much needed sleep.

Over the next three days we went to such places as the Melbourne Museum, and Australian Rules Football Game, an attempt to see the Formula 1 grand prix that was taking place in south Melbourne (we saw the tops of the cars from outside the fence!), china town on Little Bourke, the famous arcades and laneways of Melbourne, St. Kilda, the Shrine of Remembrance, and Parliament.  I kept them good and busy.

They are currently traveling along the great ocean road seeing some cool scenery and enjoying the countryside.  They'll be visiting Adelaide, Sydney and Cairns while they're here.  Again, it was so great to see them and spend time with my family over seas!

Paul

Time for some Australian Football!

Hey All,

This week has been pretty tame but really relaxing as well.  I've been going over plans for weekend travels and Easter Break and of course studying.  But today, the Australian Football (aka footy) season started!  I went to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds to watch Carlton Blues play the Richmond Tigers. 

If you're unfamiliar with footie (like I was), it's completely different from American Football.  First of all, Americans are used to the standard rectangle field 100 yards long.  Footy is played on a cricket pitch, which is a huge oval about 150 meters across.  Check it out:

It's an absolutely massive field.  Unlike American Football, it is continuous play.  There are no stops or downs or anything of the like.  A team scores by advancing the ball (kicking or rolling) through the goal posts, 6 points in the center and 1 point on the sides.  You can't pass or lateral, so the only methods of forwarding the ball is by kicking or handballing, something like a volley ball serve.  there's more nuances than that, but to be honest I don't know them.  If you want to learn more, read up on wikipedia!

Also, on a side note, I'm getting visitors in two days!  Mom and Dad are coming to visit Saturday morning, and are taking their flight soon.  I can't wait to see them, it will be nice to have some familiar faces on the other side of the world!

Keep reading!
Paul

More Diving!

Hey guys!

Another week of classes and another weekend of diving!  I was fortunate enough to fit in another dive today down at Rickett Point along Port Phillip.  This dive was a shallow one, only about 5m max (15 feet), but it was nonetheless incredible.  Here are some of the pictures I got on this round:

Sea Urchins!

Little Sea Tree thing

Sting Ray!

I even got a video of diving if you've ever wondered what it's like to dive:

Tomorrow will also be a fun filled day with roller blading in the morning and the Thai food festival in the afternoon.  It should be quite a good day!

Cheers,
Paul

One Hell of a Weekend

Hello all!  or should I say g'day?  As the title suggests, my weekend was full of fun and generally life changing experiences.  To begin, I basically surrounded Port Phillip, the inland bay which Melbourne is seated.  Take a look:

I went to each side (day 1 is Saturday, day 2 is Sunday) within 36 hours.  To let you have a grasp of how large Port Phillip is, it's 1,930 km² (750 sq mi for my American friends) and each trip highlighted took 2 hours one way (That's roughly the distance from UIUC to Chicago).  Also, for reference, the Bass Strait is the Pacific Ocean.

That's right! (pun)

So, lets start with day one since that's the logical order of things.  Road trip to Phillip Island!  It was nearly a perfect day (30 C/86 F).  Day one began with a car rental from Budget and some left side driving.  It's pretty nerve racking at first, especially in a large city.  It's easy after awhile, you just have to keep saying "left!" in your head and remember that the turn signal control is on the right of the steering wheel (and the wipers are on the other side... totally made them go a couple times).

After driving to Phillip Island, the group of us (Susan, Justin, Erin, Kristin, Emily, Lizzie, Dani, and Maddie... we took two cars)  stopped at one of the 24 beaches for some sun and relaxation.  Afterward, we visited the Nobbies Center which is supposed to be a great spot for seal watching, however we didn't see any seals.  That doesn't mean we missed out:

I don't have 1000 words to describe this picture because I was speechless when I took it. 

After walking around with our mouths wide open, we took a trip up to the main town on the island called Cowes.  There we discovered a night market with heaps of food, so we grabbed dinner.  Then the grand finale: Penguins.  That's right, natural Penguins.  Though we weren't allowed to take pictures, it's something I'll remember for a long time.  We saw a bunch of Little Penguins come out of the ocean at dusk to waddle to their homes on the hillside.  It was extremely cute to see small, foot tall penguins scurry from the shore to their burrows in this nightly ritual.  After this, another drive home and sleep at 12:30am.

Yeah, I'm underwater, what of it?

On to Day 2.  I woke up at 5am to meet my ride down to Queenscliff where we would dive (4 and a half hours of sleep... I'm really tired right now).  Not quite sure what to expect, I was driven down the other side of Port Phillip to a boat dock for an early dive at 7:40am.  Being out of practice, the first dive was not the best, however I rebounded at had a phenomenal second dive with pictures to boot (underwater camera!):

Lobster Catching

Patrick!

 I have started my diving adventures in Australia!  I can't wait to go up to the barrier reef!

The third dive was hardly a dive at all, since the weather decided to change moods quickly from sunny and calm to turbulent storm.  We tried diving, but the current was so strong that I could not keep up with the other divers and just surfaced instead.  The boat ride was thrilling however.  There is a part of the port which used to be the river that flows out of Melbourne which is a large gorge in the entrance of the port.  This affects the currents of the bay and creates 20 to 30 foot swells (called the Heads) at the edge of the bay.  It felt like a roller coaster but with a lot more danger involved.  Exciting but dangerous.

After the botched dive, we came back and now I'm here.  I'm extremely tired but for very good reason.  I declare this weekend to be a phenomenal success.

Hope you enjoyed the read!  Keep reading for more Australian adventures!

Paul

Update of the Week

Hey all!

It's been several days since my last post, and I have some exciting news:  I'm finally going diving in Australia!  I joined a diving club on campus and will go down to Port Phillip this Sunday to dive!  I'm very excited, and with my underwater camera, this means that I can take some cool aquatic photos.  Stay tuned for that!

Otherwise, life is becoming more normal.  The second week of classes are done, and I absolutely love three of them (Graph Theory, Programming, and Musics of the World).  However the last one is Mathmatica programming and is really intense.  We'll see if I choose to stay enrolled in it, I may end up dropping it.  Hopefully everything will work out for the best!

Also on the agenda this weekend, I'm going to Phillip Island!  Well known for its seals and penguins, I've booked tickets in advanced to see some small flightless birds roam onto the beach.  Should be exciting!

That's all for now, I'll let you know how the weekend turns out!

Paul

O - week

Classes just began and real life is starting to set in.  But now that it's done I can share with you the adventures of St. Mary's AmigO-week (orientation week, zesty-Mexican style!).  That's right, I travel 10,000 miles across the world to dress up like our neighbors to the south.  Esta muy comico!

Anyway, the week before last was a wild one.  Filled with running, partying, and a little beach time, O-week was a good experience.  First of all, I was considered a "fresher" (they don't have the same "freshman, sophomore, jr, sr" system that we do) which is really annoying because I've been through this all before!  Not to mention that I'm older than the majority of the O-week leaders, so it's pretty frustrating to be called a "fresher" by people who are less experience in university than me.  But that aside, everyone has been extremely friendly and open.

The week started off with "defreshing" which involved rolling through baked beans, peanut butter and Vegemite.  In my opinion, it was kinda fun.  Then we learned the "fresher dance" to One by Yeasayer.  I might show some of you when I come back if I can remember it.

The first night we had an "Amigo Turn" (turn is the same as party here) so I went to the local thrift store and got this little number:

Fantastic, isn't it?

Then the next day we were falsely led to believe that we could sleep in.  We were woken up early to go for a run around campus and do a lap around the track called the "fresher 400".  As I have taken up running over here, I enjoyed the nice morning run even though it was quite early.

Then that afternoon we had a series of Mexican themed "Olympics" involving smuggling "tequila" (apple juice) over the Mexican-American boarder.  All in good fun, but a tad politically incorrect.

That night we went to a bowling pub- that's right, beer and bowling.  It we a good time bowling and having a couple drinks with my new Australian friends.

The next day was filled with university orientation.  I signed up for classes and got my student card.

That afternoon we had an amazing race around Melbourne!  It was heaps of fun and ended in the city center doing our silly dance in front of hundreds of Melburnians.  I was quite tired and everyone crashed as soon as we got back, but the night wasn't over.  We had "fluoro-yellow" night! (fluoro here means neon in america).  So again, I got a ridiculous outfit:

Glamorous, I know.

Wednesday was filled with more university orientation, which unfortunately wasn't very helpful and most people took it as a time to recover and get some well needed rest.  The day was relaxed and that night we saw an outdoor movie (Pulp Fiction to be precise) which was a nice change of pace from the events of the week.

Thursday morning we got up and did yoga, had lunch with the neighboring residential college.  That afternoon the clubs had a fair on campus (much like UIUC's famous Quad Day).  I mused around and found a skating club much like the Inline Insomniacs at U of I (except they don't skate at midnight here, so automatically not as awesome... I will always be an Inliner first and foremost!)  I also found a diving club so watch out for underwater pictures soon! 

Toga party that night (very Animal House) and unfortunately I have no pictures from it, sorry.

Finally, Friday was spent at St. Kilda's beach down in south Melbourne.  A fun day spent playing cricket and volleyball on the beach and then we headed back to Mary's for dinner and trivia night (which my group won!).  And just like that, O-week was finished!  It was a long hall but a fun one!

Now I've had a week of classes and have changed one of my classes already.  We'll see what the next week has in store... I might be diving next weekend or taking a trip down to Prince Phillip Island to see some natural penguins!!

Hope everyone's having a good and safe time back home!

Paul