The morning after

So after sleeping for a grand total of 3.5 hours. We got up and got the ball rolling to go see some Commonwealth games action. The men's triathalon was in St. Kilda and we could watch for free so we made a valiant effort and managed to make it there in time to see the last leg of the event. While we weren't in the best position for seeing the most exciting parts like the finish or the exchange zones where they switch from swimming to biking (we wouldn't have been there in time anyway), it was pretty cool to be there and experience it all. There was great crowd support and a lot of the runners interacted with the crowd and it was just a very fun atmosphere. A guy from Australia won the event and it was great to see him come around the turn on the final lap of the course. You could tell he had been waiting for this day for a long time and was loving every minute of it. It was amazing to me to think that I was standing in a crowd of people, halfway around the world from where I would normally be, cheering on world class athletes from around the world. To see them at the end when they're dog tired and yet still have the energy to raise their arms up and share the moment with the crowd.

An extremely long night

We spent St. Pat's day in Melbourne (thanks to the wonderful transport from Mo) and met up with Amber, one of Katie's friends from Ohio who is studying at Deakin's Melbourne campus. We went to an Irish pub and after waiting in line to get in for 45 minutes met up with some of the other international students from Deakin. All in all it was a pretty good time. We talked to some interesting people who probably don't remember us. Katie, Amber, Drea (another int'l student) and I ended up going to KFC once the pub shut down and sat there for a long time talking with some of Amber and Drea's friends. At this point Katie decided she was hungry for some chicken, but really didn't want to pay for it. So at this point she approached the counter and said, "I'm an American, do you have any spare chicken?" And it worked! They gave her a whole to-go box full of chicken. It was pretty much the high point of our night.

At this point it would have been the best option to just go home. That's what I would have liked to have done. However, there were people in our group who absolutely just had to go to the Crown Casino at 5 in the morning. This is a pretty big place. In fact it's the largest casino in the southern hemisphere, or so I've read. I've never actually been in a casino so it was kind of cool except that I was dog tired and my feet hurt. Katie and I and one of the guys who had been hanging out with Amber ended up losing the other four people. So after walking around for 1.5 hours, we decided that since the trams were running again we would just find our tired way home. We finally got back to the campus at 8:30 in the morning and we both pretty much collapsed. All in all it was a good time, it just lasted a lot longer than it needed to.


PS - That's Katie in the picture with me. The other guy is just there cause of the hair. We don't really know who he was.

PPS - They don't like it when you take pictures in casinos.

Show 'em your Mo face

This is Mo, which is short for Mohammad. He lives on the Collins side of the Blocks just down the hall from my friend Katie. He's probably one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Last Friday he gave Katie and I and another girl from the U.S. a ride to Melbourne and it was one of the most enjoyable trips I have ever taken. We left in the afternoon and the windows were down and the music was up and the weather was just as perfect as you can imagine.

Some things that Mo says that we find funny:
"So, what's going to happen next?" and "Is that awesome?" Most people say, "Is that alright?" but not Mo. With him, it's gotta be awesome.

So anyway, that's Mo and he's one of the many great people I've met here at Deakin.

Belay Certified

So on Tuesday I went rock climbing. It was a pretty sweet deal because if members of the DCC (Deakin Climbing Club) brought along a guest we both got in free and got free shoe rentals. Whoo Hoo! (check 'em out, they're green and yellow... so cool) I was a little nervous all day but that wasn't enough to stop me from eating dinner (or tea as they call it here), even though we were going as soon as we got done eating. On the way there, we saw the most amazing thing. We were going down the road and down by the river we saw some big tents set up and then, just standing around, not tied up to anything, were two elephants! When's the last time you saw two elephants just standing around? At that point I was so thrilled that I didn't even care what happened the rest of the night. When we got to The Rock (as the rock climbing place is so originally named), we first had to figure out how to get the harness on. It was tricky but we made it. Then, everyone who was new had to go through a short training session and learn how to belay. This is when you're not the one climbing but you're on the ground keeping the rope taut and making sure they don't crash to the floor. I am now certified, which means I can belay with the best of them. I even have a blue, laminated card to prove it. Anyway, climbing was quite fun even though I wasn't super at it. Turns out my hands aren't the best grippers in the southern hemisphere. But I managed quite nicely. I made it to the top on all except for one of the walls I tried. To make things tougher, you're supposed to only use one color of hand grips (i.e. move up only stepping or hanging on green ones). I never managed to accomplish this feat. I usually ended up getting stuck and sneaking in a purple or something at the last minute. Course it wasn't helping that Adam, my belayer, was of the impression that bursting into random song would help my cause. Nothing like being halfway up a wall, clinging to small little lumps of plastic and hearing, "when I get that feeling, I need sexual healing" and then remembering that I am kind of trusting him with my life as he is supposed to keep me from plummeting to my death. No worries though, we all survived.

Nothing says Happy Birthday like a wrecked unicycle.

So Sunday was Josh's 19th birthday. He threw himself a picnic and we all joined him. Even though we made him cupcakes, he still provided cake and punch for everyone. And he brought his unicycle. Honestly, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than eating a $5 Sesame Street cake, drinking punch out of a bucket and trying your hand at unicycling. Josh is actually quite good, the rest of us - not so much. I tried valiantly but the only way I could do it was with one person on each side and one in front. Still it was fabulous. Because we had such a good time, I think we're going to celebrate a birthday every Sunday, regardless of whether or not anyone is actually having one.



I'm here to get an education. Honestly.

A tremendous amount of navel gazing...

So, first I need to apologize to Dad for taking so long. I'll make it up to ya buddy, I promise.

Classes started on Monday and I think the hardest part will be sitting in Lecture for 2 hours each time. That said, all the classes are set up with one lecture a week and then a tutorial which is a smaller group that then goes over the material and works through questions, kind of like recitations back at home. (Ok - side note - the girl next to me at the computer has on her ipod and is seriously blowing her eardrums out. I can hear the music as if it was playing on her computer. Massively annoying techno stuff that makes it hard to keep the train of thought going in in any direction whatsoever)

So I had two lectures on Monday, and a lecture and a "tute" on Thursday. Usually I'll have a tute on Tuesday as well, but we didn't start them this week. So on Tuesday and Wednesday I really had absolutely nothing to do. That's actually been the biggest adjustment of all. I don't think I've had this kind of free time since I was probably 6. I do kind of understand now how kids can get bored in the summer. In this respect, being here really has been a vacation from real life. It is weird to wake up in the morning (as I did on Tuesday) and realize, there is no place in the world I have to be today. There is nothing I have to do. To a point I think that this would be the truest test of a person. What would they do if they had nothing else they "had" to be doing. Would they lay in bed for 3 days straight or would they get involved with troubled youth? Would they clean their house and floss their teeth?

There's a nice little 5k trail around campus that I've been running a couple days a week, just to fill the time, because I have no ligitimate excuse not to. I can actually tell a difference too. It's amazing what a couple days of semi-regular exercise will do for a person.

On Wed. I went into town to meet with the people at the radio station. The head of the promotions dept. was gone because her mother is pretty sick so I just met with her assisstant. I expected to be there for at least 45 minutes but was in and out in about 10. I'm a little sketchy on how things are going to work, but from the way I understand it, I'll just get to be one of those people who goes around and gives out free movies passes and coke. Should be interesting.

Yesterday, Friday, several of us went to the beach out at Torquay. It was just a perfect day to be out there. We had to walk quite a ways from the bus stop to the beach but once you get over the top of the hill, the breeze from the ocean hits you and the temperature drops at least 4 degrees. The water is always cold because the closest other landmass is Antarctica, so it is amazingly refreshing. There were surfing lessons going on, which are always interesting to watch, as well as the usual contingent of pot-bellied speedo generation boogie boarders. I did get a bit of a sunburn (don't freak out mom!) but I've been putting on Aloe Vera and Vit. E lotion morning and night to hopefully minimize the effects.

I have some slight school work I should try to take care of at some point this weekend... but the thing is, it doesn't make sense to really buckle down and get things done because then you've got nothing to do the rest of the time. During the weekends, it really is kind of like being on an island with a lot of other people and nothing else. No offices are open, the bus runs on a less frequent basis, and all you've really got are the other people. It's no wonder people make friends here. There's nothing else to do!

In explanation of the title: One of the teachers used it in the context of taking a good hard look at yourself doing some introspective thinking etc. To me it is also kind of evocative of how I've been spending my endless, eventless days. I've been doing a tremendous amount of navel gazing. A combination of thinking about stuff while doing nothing whatsoever.

And then there were whistles...

During O-week there are lots of forced interaction activities. I don't typically like these at home and I don't for the most part like them here. They had games on Sunday for all the new Jaffys (just another f**king first year) as we're all known. I did one, but snuck off when they started doing things involving shoving your face in flour to find jelly beans. Just not my idea of a nice way to get to know people. A bunch of people went down to a bar then that night, but I didn't go because I was tired and there was a guy I had met who had left his id back in Melbourne and I felt bad for the poor fella so I invited him to hang out with Jill and Jamie and I - I think he might have been better off on his own, but hey, we didn't force him to stay.

On Monday we had a mix-up at a bar called Max. When you walk in each guy and girl get a number. Then they kept us seperated for a couple hours to build the tension or something. Finally you're allowed to go mingle and find the guy/girl who has your number. Lucky #64 turned out to be Aman, a guy from Washington that I had already met. It was actually pretty fun though and I chatted it up with some people I hadn't really talked to before so it was fun. There's a guy from Oregon (he was actually matched up with one of my friends) and we had a pretty good time mostly just arguing about the various merits or lack thereof of our respective states. For the record, Oregon's got nuthin' on Kansas. When we got back home, Jill and I sat around talking with a drunk first year Aussie. It was wonderful because he was interesting and had a bowl of mini M&Ms to which I helped myself quite liberally. I finally went to bed at 4:28 am and fell into a nice deep sleep only to be royally pissed off at 5:00 when the RAs started blowing whistles, banging on doors and playing music at obnoxious levels. If you know me, you know I am not a big fan of things like this. I ignored it for awhile thinking it was a bunch of dumbass 18 year olds. But after 10 minutes I could take it no longer. There were very violent thoughts coursing through my brain. Most of them centered on using the whistle to strangle whoever was blowing the damn thing. If someone had taken a picture of me at this moment, camera, film and person would have all probably been turned to stone. I was not wearing my happy pants. In fact I was wearing the angriest pair of pants I could find.

What followed, was probably, by definition, minor hazing. And I do use that term tentatively. No one was hurt, no one was verbally abused or humiliated, but people did do things they wouldn't have done in a normal situation by choice. We tramped across campus and at some point things were thrown at us. Flour, water balloons, and eggs where the projectiles of choice. I didn't get any direct hits but my pants did have some nasty egg stuff around the bottom. Then people were pushed into doing things such as chugging a bottle of maple syrup or tabasco sauce, eating a clove of garlic or a whole onion and they kept telling us that no one can leave until everything is done. I suppose it was "all in good fun" and I'm not trying to indict anyone, I just think it was dumb and my life would have been better if I could have skipped the whole damn episode. They didn't try to make me do anything which is a good thing because I wouldn't have done it and probably would have made "a scene". The fact of the matter is, they couldn't force us to do anything. They couldn't have physically kept us there if we had all just walked off, so by that standard it was voluntary to a point, but I still just think it was the dumbest thing I've ever stood around and witnessed.

I apologize for the somewhat bad tone of this post, and maybe I should have spared everyone the details of this but it's all part of the experience I guess, so now you've all heard about it too. I still am having a wonderful time and I love being here, but I think this was one event that was in very poor taste.

Great Ocean Road/Ballarine Penninsula

So I realize I just posted but I'm going at it again because this is different subject matter and I don't like to jumble everything together. Last week from Monday to Wednesday we had an international student orientation trip to Lorne which is a little tourist town on the coast. We were camped out there because all the hotels were filled up due to the fact that the Ocean rescue competition was being held there that week as well. It's a big international event that we didn't get too see much of because we were kept occupied elsewhere. Team Canada was quite prevelant though; we just kept seeing those guys all over town. While on the trip I tried surfing and lets just say God knew what he was doing when he placed me in Kansas. It's quite fun and a hellova workout but I would need many more sessions before I could conquer the ocean. I did manage to stand up once for like 1.4 seconds but no one caught that on camera - so I guess believe me if you want. I also did beach yoga which was nice but not very exciting to write about. There were some retired Australian couples also camping out and some of us int'ls had a good time visiting with them. One couple owns a pretty big ranch and when they heard I grew up on a farm they invited me out to visit etc. So we'll see what happens there. We also then did a tour of the Great Ocean road and I don't believe there was one single straight mile on the whole darn thing. Beautiful scenery but as I was quite tired (see previous posting on birds in Australia) I did fall asleep for some of the time despite the rolicking motion of the bus. If you want to see any pictures of this, let me know and I'll email you the link.

Since we've been back I've gone into Geelong a couple of times and wandered about trying to get an idea of where things are in the city etc. I have vague notions of where things are and where I need to be, but I'm still always amazed when I actually get where I want to go. I stayed overnight with another K-State student who lives in town and we walked down by the waterfront at night. It was really nice because it wasn't as cold as it usually is in the evenings and people were out fishing all along the edge. It was a relazing way to unwind from the day and I think it would be nice to live in town just so you could do those little things without having the hassel of riding the bus to get there.

On Saturday there was also a little day trip around the Bellarine penninsula. It was nice but they tried to get us around to so many places that we didn't have much time at any of them. We stopped in the town of Queenscliff for ice cream and it seems like a nice place to live. I didn't see any traffic lights so I think it must be quite small. I'd like to go back at some point and just wander around town doing nothing in particular. We also went to a golf course that is notorious for having kangaroos out in the middle of everything. This is basically the whole reason I paid $15 to go on the darn tour and it turned out to be quite anti-climatic. There were two kangaroos and they were hiding behind trees. We couldn't even get off the bus either, so the whole kangaroo thing didn't really meet expectations.

Since then O-week has started. This is a big week long orientation event where you can sign up to join all kinds of clubs and things and I try to see how much free candy I can get. This will require yet another post because I don't want this one to get too long.

How the other hemisphere lives - Part 2

Here are a few things I've noticed about life in general here in Australia:

1. The landscape is all much more natural than you find at home, if that makes sense. You really don't see many bright green manicured lawns like we have bach in the states. And to be honest I think it's much better that way because you save yourself a lot of time, money, water etc.

2. I know the water is supposed to go down the drain the opposite direction, but unless you look really really hard, it's impossible to tell. The toilets just kind of flush down in a big whoosh.

3. The most common greeting is "How're you goin'" It's like a combination of how's it going and how're you doing and the first couple of times it's confusing. I often didn't know if they were asking "where are you going" or what. So I would always stammer around and bit etc. It was quite embarrassing.

4. Around here Foster's is a dirty word. Haven't seen a single can or sign or anything. Apparently it's a beer that is solely exported to crazy American's so we look like fools when we visit.

5. The birds here are out of control. They're big and bold and they will not be denied the pleasure of ruining a perfectly good morning. The cockatoos are public enemy #1. When we went camping (more on that later) they liked to fly over the campgrounds at 7 minute intervals between 6 and 7 am, sqawking as if they were getting paid by volume.

6. All the shool age kids wear uniforms. It looks quite cute on the smaller ones, especially if you're on the bus in the afternoons and they all come trooping on. However, on the older kids it's just a little unfortunate because they often don't fit very well and are not flattering, but I suppose maybe that is the whole reason for having them. It is interesting to see they way the girls try to "spice up" the look. Large, obnoxious jewelry is a favorite course of action as is hair in the style of Mowgli or other wilderness dweller. They're big on that ravaged 80's style fairy look here. Personally it's one trend that I hope doesn't jump the pond. If I come back and am greeted by anyone in leggings I will probably sink into a deep depression and eat nothing but dairy queen blizzards and corn dogs for a week.

7. They really like to pile skinny little ham "noodles" on pizza. It's hard to describe. It doesn't taste bad, it just isn't super.

8. Bondi beach is pronounced bond-i with a long I sound instead of ee like most of the words around here (barbie, stubbie, tinnie etc.) And Torquy is Tor-kee. Also they don't pronounce r's in normal words like Melbourne (they say Mel-bun) and Lorne is "Lawn" but they do attach a slight r sound to words like no and idea. When I try to sound like a local I feel like I'm putting on a show so I feel quite self conscious.

The area around Geelong is actually more rural than you would expect since it is the second largest city in Victoria (behind Melbourne obviously). Once you get out of the city/suburb areas it goes straight back to pasture type land. There are typically large plots of land fenced off with a few trees growing along the edges. There are small herds of cattle that you can see grazing etc. It's nice because it reminds me of home. On the other hand there are also local vineyards which is different. I haven't visited any but they look neat when we drive by. I have yet to see a sunrise/set but I'm betting they're better in Kansas. (unless of course you're out in a wild area like Ularu in which case it might be a close competition)

Room 99

I didn't think I'd have anything to post so soon after the last one, but lets just say we went out last night... It was a good time overall. Suffice to say there are no places like Room 99 in Manhattan. It was a big two story bar/club (more club than bar to my way of thinking though) and had a crazy long waiting line to get in and a $7 cover charge. Ridiculous, but I guess that's normal everywhere that's not Manhattan. Once inside I saw some amazing things which I will now list for your entertainment value. Now just remember I'm not judging, I'm just relating.

1. 1980 Workout Barbie - complete with heels and a crazy headband with lace flowers (note: there were several of these)

2. "I've got a Mullet AND Dreads" Ken - just ponder that combo for a bit

3. Satan in the form of a boy with bleached hair. (seriously, I looked up at the stage area where the really cool people dance and thought, whoa, there's Satan, guess it is a crazy night out)

4. A lot of braces. The drinking age is 18 so maybe this has something to do with it, but there was seriously a lot of orthodonic grills running around.

The bars also stay open way later than at home. 4:00-5:00 is not uncommon apparently. I don't know about you but I just can't dance that long. I don't have enough moves and some people are fine with that, but I feel like after 4 hours everything I've got is a little played out and it's time for next season's swimwear, you know?

Anyway, the big news today is that we get to move into our permanent places so I'll get to finally unpack and get everything straightened out. I'm looking forward to it.

How the other hemisphere lives

There's not too much to post just yet. I made it through customs without having my granola bars and microwave popcorn confiscated (despite all the flight attendents warnings to the contrary). All of my bags came through and the luggage trolley was only slightly uncooperative. (You have to keep the handle pushed down or raised up, otherwise the brake is on) I only slammed myself into it a few times and there were no major injuries to innocent bystanders. We did a small amount of shopping for some basic food items and I'm slightly dismayed that the cereal selection is not as extensive as I am used to. They've got plenty of fruit loops and choco puffs but as far as healthy cereals go, it seems we have only the very high fiber varieties. I'm going to sorely miss Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds. I have not yet taken any pictures. I will try to get on that though. I hate drawing attention to myself though and when you pull out that camera, people start looking. I know that's kind of the whole purpose but still it's a hang up I'll have to get over. The people have all been very nice and helpful but I hate the feeling of not being able to just know how things work. I guess that's the whole reason I came down here though. The next 7-10 days should be quite enlightening. Keep me in your prayers.

One skunk, two shots, and a big stack of vinyl.

So in the past few weeks absolutely nothing has been happening. At least to the untrained eye. However, I have been at home, working for the neighbors, and "running errands" getting everything ready to go to Australia. Here is a brief summary of my latest endeavors.

Last week at work I had to run to the vet's and buy a scrotal measuring tape - $18.97. Apparently when you're dealing with registered angus bulls size does matter.

I got a great deal on shampoo in Topeka on Monday; it was marked down 80% which is outstanding.

On Tuesday I got a shot in each arm, so I'll be immune to the major diseases for the next couple of years at least. Then I met up with my roomate and we went wedding dress shopping - for her, not me.

Today I got to work only to discover that there was one pissed off skunk running around and as a consequence everything, including the house smelled terrible. It wasn't too bad except when you had to breathe.

Later I went to Manhattan to pick up my ticket to listen to Mr. President speak on Monday and I bought a digital camera, some ziplock bags and a hair cut. I also managed to hit my head on my car as I was getting in, so now I have a cool scrape across my forehead.

The last few nights Mom has been getting out the records. I've rediscovered the joy we know as vinyl. It's one of those things where the music is loud and you're totally rocking out to Rod Stewart and Billy Joel, shaking your groove thing etc. But you've got to keep it in check because if you rock the living room too hard the needle skips and it totally messes up the ambiance, you know?

As you can see, it's been positively hopping around here.

The best thing about Christmas is always coming Home.

Christmas this year was pretty good, but then I can’t recall ever having a “bad” Christmas. Santa came to Palmer on the 17th, riding as usual on the back of the fire engine. Since the turnout was less than normal due to the snowstorm, everyone got a bag of peanuts and candy this year, instead of just the kids, which is how it usually is. Since it was too cold to have the prize drawing outside around the Christmas tree in the middle of the main intersection of town, we had it inside the café instead. Mom won a gallon of antifreeze and I won a telephone, which I sold to a neighbor because his phone was going bad. Turned out to be a pretty good deal for me, because, while I don’t have any use for a landline phone, I do have many uses for $25.

On the 24th we went to the Christmas Eve service at church (the kids did a wonderful job with the program even though the congregation struggled with some of the unfamiliar songs) and then headed down to Grandma’s to open presents there. It was a little tough because it was our first Christmas without Grandpa, but we all had a fairly good time I think. Kristi made a piñata, which we broke while waiting for some of the family to arrive. We had done this once when we were little and so we thought we’d bring back the tradition this year. We also all chipped in to buy my uncle the Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story and it was as tacky as we had all hoped it would be. Fantastic.



On Christmas morning, Dad revealed the nativity set he had bought for Mom the crèche he had made the day before. I think it turned out quite nicely and looks a lot better than the crèche we saw in the store. We then went back to Grandma’s for dinner and napping and in the evening we (“we” consisting of 3 uncles and a motley assortment of cousins) played basketball at the old grade school gym. Suffice to say my calves and shoulders were still sore on Wednesday.

To sum things up in the words of The Linn-Palmer Record Social Happenings report:
“A good time was had by all.”

It's Official

I just bought my ticket to Melbourne so I guess now I have to go. I was delighted to see that on my return flight, I leave Melbourne at 10:25 am on Sunday and will arrive in LA at 7:30 am the same day. The flight will actually take negative time. How many people can say they've done that? (only every other person who crosses the Int'l Date Line going the proper direction.) Anyway I'm excited. Now I just have to manage to not get run over by a bus or catch some life threatening disease in the next two months.