Sydney and Such

So kids, how have you been? Let’s see… these are some things that have happened since my last real post:

1) S bought a small oven that sits on the counter top. We’ve made muffins and cookies, and I bought brownie mix. This new purchase of hers might not be healthy, but it’s gonna be fun.

2) went and had coffee one evening where one of my german friends told me he wanted to go to another bar but saw it was ‘too crowdy’

3) went to a pub where the music seemed to be based around the theme of 80’s and 90’s and it was the best music I’ve heard in a while. Bon jovi, lynard skynard, bryan adams, pat benetar… I was in heaven.

4) I was asked why our coffee is called Joe and a toilet is called John

5) went to a Mid-Morning Tea with the anthropology and archaeology department for the professors and grad students. It was nice. I talked with 2 of the girls I know from my classes and tutes and then we ended up talking to our Human Skeletal teacher for about a half hour. He’s young and really nice and funny. It was nice to be so carefree with our professors. Maybe give us an edge from those silly undergrad students

6) I made scrambled eggs

7) I actually stayed in the ENTIRE weekend last weekend because I was still sorta congested and I spent the time on writing up that presentation on species. I had no idea it was going to be so complicated. I spent a few nights at S’s room. We stayed up for hours doing homework and drinking coffee and laughing. I was telling her how in undergrad, during finals, my friends and I would claim a study room in the library for ourselves and live in it for a week. Oh man, those nights of studying were so much more fun than any of those nights we went to a bar or party. We were drunk from no sleep and we were crammed into a room the size of 2 closets. It was awesome… aw, I miss you guys.

8) I watched days of our lives. On quite a few of the afternoons

9) I made vegan tofu and bean burritos from a recipe in a book (yep, the vegan recipe book you gave me N.) and they weren’t half bad. The next recipes I’m gonna tackle include mango salsa and stuffed potatoes with broccoli.

10) I HAVE YET TO SEE A KANGAROO! And when I tell australians this they ask if I have been hiding under a rock. No, no I have not. Apparently they can be found everywhere. They are even on the outskirts of our campus. Whenever I go driving with S or J, I always look. But these danged kangaroos do not want to show me their faces. I think however I saw one that was dead on the side of the road on the way to Sydney. But following my strictly self-enforced rule of not looking a dead animals on the side of the road, I quickly looked away. I think however I caught a glimpse of a kangaroo leg in the air… :(

11) I’ve learned a few words in Turkish. J and I are using our Turkish friend’s phone as our starting point for learning. Menu is Menu. Secenek is options. We are gonna go far with this, I can feel it.

12) I downloaded the first season of scrubs. I don’t know why I never started watching this show until now. It’s awesome!

13) my fellow archaeologist M back home suggested I watch Dexter, the showtime series. So I downloaded the first season off the school network, and thanks M, I got heavily addicted. I finished the whole season in like 3 days. It was good. Can’t wait for more episodes!!

14) I explained to my friends that neither New York nor Rhode Island are actual islands.


Now.. This weekend, I went to Sydney! I went home with J b/c she was going to attend “Head of the River” which is the final rowing competition for all the private schools in Sydney. The boys race on Saturday and the girls race on Sunday. It’s a big deal in Sydney… for the private school patrons. Anyway, we left Friday afternoon and took the 3 hour drive down M5 (motorway 5. The highway) to Sydney. And it was a beautiful drive. We were driving along, making our way down a long winding road in the hills and we had been passing bright green farms and rural land for a while, when she pointed straight ahead and said ‘see that green area?’ yes I replied. ‘that’s a lake’ she informed me. Hmm.. Well J, there’s no water in it, how can it be a lake? ‘it’s called a drought.’ now this lake doesn’t fill up often, she said it mainly fills about once every 10 years when a freak rain storm season comes in, but it indeed was categorized as a lake, even though in between those heavy rainfalls, farmers use the land at the bottom of the lake to feed their flocks and herds. I so wanted a picture of it (but my camera was in the boot… er, trunk), it was quite unbelievable. It was a HUGE amount of land, and it sure was a basin. A big empty lake-bowl. Lake George if y’all are curious. Also, on the highways, their passing/fast lane is called the overtaking lane. For when you want to overtake a fellow motorist.

But anyway, the drive was uneventful, her radio was busted, but we just talked the whole way to her house. It was nice. The scenery is, as I’m sure y’all imagine, breathtaking. Trees, mountains, blue skies… it was great. So we arrive at her house and settle in, I meet her fam. Her parents and younger brother, they were all very nice and warm and welcoming. And her cute dog who can jump as high as my head. Anyway, we ate dinner (her mother made me eggplant while they ate spaghetti with meat sauce. Australians don’t really understand vegetarianism. I mean, they understand the not eating meat part, they don’t understand why on her someone would do such a thing. But her mom was very accommodating.) then we went out into the city to see a ‘secret gig’. a concert that wasn’t publicized well on purpose, so only the true fans would know about it… or something silly like that. Anyway, we went with her friend R and the club was very nice. The band is actually from California… Soft Lights I think they are called. The music was very trance-licious. Anyway, I saw they had cheap brut champagne, so I ordered some and since they didn’t have pomegranate juice, I asked for it with a few splashes of grenadine. The bartenders had definitely never served this before, but guys, it’s real good. While at the bar, this guy next to me bumped into me and when I turned to say ‘sorry’ (cause that’s what we do, even when the bumping wasn’t our fault) he did a double take and said ‘where are you from? You aren’t from around here’. he heard my accent on the word ‘sorry’. I told him Texas and he yelled “LONGHORNS!‘ that was about the extent of his knowledge on the state, but hey, that’s more than some people. We then headed to another bar and it was an uneventful but fun evening, that was cut short b/c we had to wake up Saturday morning at 7 to make it to the lake on time for her brother’s race. So anyway, hailed a taxi home and went immediately to bed.

Saturday we woke up, acutally left the house on time (7:30am), and drove out to Penrith, which is about an hour’s drive out. Once again, beautiful area. I have some pictures, of course, and I’ll be posting them once I get webshots or something going on online. But J was explaining to me how the private high schools work in Sydney, or all of Australia really, and it is just like Harry Potter, minus the magic. I think because my first exposure to that type of schooling was from a book about a magical boarding school, the whole idea of belonging to a House inside the school, and House races, and boarding seemed all so mystical and amazing to me. I just keep picturing Hogwarts. Her school had 10 houses, and each had a house captain, and some girls boarded, some still lived at home. Her brother’s school is exclusively boarded, and he wakes up each morning to the sun rising over the bay. Lucky Australians. But anyway, each House has it’s own color and they do have House championships and House cups… but no quidditch. Dang it. However, they do have their rowing, which is a huuuuuge deal to these schools, and here I was in the middle of it all. It was mandatory all the students come and in uniform to support their school’s team. And all the parents are wearing the school colors. This race includes 8 private schools. Anyway, it was great being on the water and watching the races. We left early so that J could give me a motor tour of Sydney, but I loved being there. I even bought myself a Head of the River shirt. I bet I’ll be the only one in America with this shirt. It says “Head of the River’ then has drawings of each of the schools’ oars on it with their different designs and colors.

Ok, so then J drove me into the city where I also have a few good pictures. She took me to a lookout point right on one of the bays that includes the opera house, luna park, their crazy big harbor bridge, and a well known theatre on the water. And guys, get this, you can climb the bridge. You don‘t really like scale it, but walk on top of it, all the way to the middle point on the highest point of the arc where they have the Australian flag waving. And I have pictures of people up there. They look sooo small. This bridge is huge. I really wanna climb it. It’s all professionally done and you pay for it. They also have climb times at sunrise, sunset, and at night, so you can see all the lights of the city. Anyway, the sun was shining, the wind was calm, there were kayakers, sailboats, cruise ships, there was a crazy bird that kept stalking us, but it was fabulous. All the streets are narrow and old with beautiful buildings, all are different from the next. It’s a great city. We then parked and walked to what I think was called Martin Place to meet one of her friends, V. just a city square area with shopping and such. And when I told him I was from texas he said “OH! Like Kelly Clarkson!“ Yes, just like Kelly Clarkson. And I saw an Ibis!! That dang bird is in like every crossword puzzle ever, and I saw one.

We had some lunch and sat around and chit chatted til we realized it was time to be getting home to rest before we went out. I know I didn’t do anything real touristy, but J didn’t go to her home just for me. But I can’t wait to go back and do all those touristy things. Like climbing that bridge. Oh man, it’s gonna be great.

So we went home, I caught up on some internet surfing, I read some for my essay that’s due soon, and J got to nap. Now, here comes the part about Earth Hour. I’m not sure what cities were included, but Australia, or maybe just Sydney, was asking the citizens to turn off all the power they could, not to drive their cars, or use water from 7:30-8:30 that evening. So we had dinner by candle light and it was really quite nice. We talked, J shared her Chinese she is learning here at Uni, and I of course was asked questions about what America thinks of Bush. I can’t tell you how annoying the Bush topic is getting. Yeah, I get it Australia, you all think Bush is a fool. But her parents were quite polite and then I told them about the rodeo and how I don’t have a gun. Anyway, we got ready and went out for a night in the city. J was explaining to me that Sydney’s night life is divided up, just like any city. You have the rich bars, the college bars, the gay bars, and the pubs. J then also informed me that no one has seen what Sydney night life is until they have gone clubbing at the gay clubs. So that was our destination. We went to one of V’s favorite ones and it was really fun. They played the best music, I danced and no guy groped me, and everyone was friendly! It was a 3 story club with a disco ball with revolving doors at all the entrances and exits. It was awesome. So we arrived home safely and today, we slept half of the day away. A great relaxing Sunday. We had brunch (at 2pm, haha) and drove home and arrived back in Canberra this evening. It was a fun weekend in Sydney and I can’t wait to go back and really explore the city.


Some things to note:

When the students are referring to their homework, or assignments, they call them ‘assessments’.
For example (actually, in conversation they will say “EG” when asking for an example. Like, “oh, give me an EG of why he was crazy”) “I had all my mid assessments due this week” “how are your assessments going?” “I got a good score on my first official assessment!“ it’s kinda weird, but kinda cute.

When a woman is pregnant, some say that woman is ‘up the duff’. don’t know why

all trucks, pick up trucks, are called U’s. short for utility I think. “look at that dirty U.” (have I already posted about this??)

they have their AFL here, Australian rules football league, and they too have Friday Night Football… however, and I’m serious, they even write it on advertisement signs, they call it Friday Night Footy. I don’t see my male avid football fan friends in America ever calling the sport Footy. I however, will carry on this tradition. For always. Can’t wait for Fantasy Footy this year!!

My friends insist that an Emu is pronounced: E-mew. Not E-moo, like I call it.

I still haven’t be able to master their accent, but we’ve figured out some certain points of difference between the way we talk. They drop their R’s and use an ’ah’. like watah (water). They make fun of me for pronouncing the er like a boggen. but then they add R’s where there isn’t one at all: pizzer. And this change, they don’t really say them strongly, it’s not like they said ’pizzerrrrr’(like I think some new Englanders do) it’s more of a soft ’er’ that just faintly drops off at the end of the words… wow, I have no idea how to explain any of this….. Whatever, you’ve all heard the accent, it’s just funny how they consistently drop the R’s and relocate them in other words.

they have salvation army stores here. But they are called Salvos. Seriously, everything is abbreviated. The store signs say SALVO with salvation army written really small underneath it.
I am officially Texas now. J introduced me to all her Sydney friends as Texas. I have no other name. I don’t know why my parents ever bothered giving me a real name.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I know I ran across more cultural differences this weekend, I‘ll have to wait til they come back to me.

but back home, congrats to my Grand Sister on her fabulous performance in her school play! (haha, sounds like you are 8 years old). And to my old roomie N on his new job! And congrats to me for not doing that poorly on my face book.com NCAA bracket. I’m in like 7th place among my friends, and I picked the winners solely based on how lovely I thought the school name sounded. ( I can’t believe my undergrad didn’t make it. I wanted to shed a few tears.) My friend E did hers on how religious the school was, and as she said, the God Squad did not come through this year.

Love and hugs to all of you! And I promise I’ll start posting more regularly again :)