An American Down Under

I mentioned earlier that I was planning to go on a beach camping trip Dec 28-Dec 31. Unfortunately a massive tropical low (almost a cyclone - or hurricane in the N. hemisphere) developed right off the coast we were going to, causing ridiculous weather. Constant wind upwards of 70kph and waves as big as 7 meters (~20 feet)! The morning we were leaving I was told we were going inland instead, down towards the Queensland/New South Wales border in a national park called Giraween. I decided to bring along my sneakers and headed out. I should have also grabbed my jeans and a hoodie, but I survived. Continue reading →

Christmas in Brisbane this year was a bit warmer than usual for me, but it was nice to be able to spend most of it outside, even got to play some cricket! Christmas Eve came around seemingly unannounced. Besides the presents under the tree and around the family room, it was hard to tell that it was the holiday season. Christmas Eve Tom and Lauren invited me to go up the coast with them for a few hours. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t too nice, raining off and on throughout the day, but the beach was all but deserted. We kicked a rugby ball around, then packed it up when it started raining, got some ice cream and went to K Mart to buy our secret santa gifts for that night. Continue reading →

Jill is working all this week leading up to Christmas, which leaves me to my own devices until 4:15pm each day. For the most part I stay in my room, playing different computer games, surfing the web on the latest internet buzz, chatting to Ben and sometimes to Nellie and Mitchell, and playing with the dog and other random things. I know Brisbane very well after studying here for 6 months last Autumn, but I have no money, so going downtown (and paying the $6 to get there on the train) is not very tempting. There are a lot of presents here with my name on it, and so I’m mostly looking forward to Christmas, though missing the festivities I would be experiencing back home alot. I miss the cold, never thought I’d be saying that, but it’s true. It really doesn’t feel like Christmas, and it’s hard to get into that spirit while I’m here. They say “When you start sticking to the furniture, you know Christmas is here.” That’s a new one. Christmas trees, lights, and presents all look really out of place when all the windows are open, I’m wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt, and I’m still hot. The funny thing is it’s really not that bad of a December for Brisbane. It has been raining quite a bit since I’ve arrived, and few days have peaked into the 80s, but no days have been below 75 either. Continue reading →

Wednesday night marked Lauren’s graduation from TAFE (Technical and Further Education) with a Diploma in Building Design and Technology, working now with the government’s housing development department, well done! Lauren didn’t have enough ticket for everyone to go, so Jill and I spent the time walking around South Bank, a Newport-on-the-Levee-esq place in Brisbane while the ceremony was going on. We headed back towards the graduation ceremony place around 7:30pm only to find it wasn’t close to being over. We snuck in the upper balcony with enough time left to watch Lauren accept her diploma and an award as well. The plan was to go out to dinner afterwards, but the ceremony went too late and we went to Hungry Jacks (Burger King) instead, haha. Continue reading →

I renewed the lease on this website and the hosting, so I feel like I should start writing on it again, at least every once and a while. Today is Tuesday, December 11th in Brisbane, Australia. I just woke up from a 12 hour sleep, the most glorious sleep I’ve ever experienced, my body making up for the 5 hours of fitful 15-minute naps from the plane ride. I crashed at 9:30pm and didn’t stir until 10:00am, haha. Travel wasn’t so bad, for the first time the TSA didn’t rummage through my bags, and customs was also a breeze. Jill picked me up around 10:00am and we headed back to her house, in 82 degree weather! I was wearing a pair of jeans and a long sleeve OSU T-shirt, but that quickly came off. It’s really humid and ’sticky-hot’ here, though it is forecasted to scattered thunderstorms for the next five days, so that might alleviate it a bit. Also should help the horrible drought Australia is going through currently, just pray it rains on top of the dams, heh.

Last night we went to the premier’s Christmas party, Continue reading →

This weekend, most likely Saturday night or Sunday midday, someone broke into my car. Now, to preface, my car sits behind our house, a 1993 Nissan Altima with 160k miles on it, rusting in some parts, and its windows are not tinted. The reason I point this out is that there was nothing in the car, not that could be seen through the windows, so why would anyone want to break into my car? Second thing to point out, 4 of my roommates cars were parked within 10 feet of my own car and they included a 2006 Accord, an audi, a Rav4, and another mid 90s sedan. Why my car??? I’m befuddled, annoyed, but mostly confused. Nothing was taken out of my car, but a rear window was smashed and the back left door was unlocked. My golf clubs were still in my trunk, my CD player wasn’t missing, nothing.

HUH?!@?! Guess someone just wanted to be a dick.

Hahahahahha

Go Bucks! The Buckeye basketball team has made it through their first four games to the Final Four. After two nail-biting games, OSU coming back from a 9 point deficit with 2min left, and from a 20 point deficit at halftime against Tennessee, we dominated Memphis tonight. A possible rematch for the National Championship against Florida coming up in a week, go bucks!

Got back from my O Chem final, it was tough, but I think I did well enough to get an A in the class overall.  So now I’m bored and procrastinating studying for Immunology, so I started perusing through my hundreds upon hundreds of photos, here are some of the good ones.  There are lots of them, so to see them, click on the link -> Continue reading →

As a quick update I just got my history grade back: 96% on the final and a 98% overall for a solid A! Wahoo! I took Food Microbiology two days ago and I think I should’ve done well enough for an A, and in an hour I have my Organic Chemistry final.

So since that’s all I have to say, how about you go find these songs and check them out:

The Shins (From their new, fantastic album) - Australia

Eskimo Joe - London Bombs

Sublime - Waiting for my Ruca

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh!)

Nirvana - Lake of Fire

Enjoy

It’s here, the dreaded finals week. Unlike Australian universities we only have one week, not three, to take all of our finals. I have four classes this quarter with finals, one of which I just completed online as it’s an online history course I took with my roommate. It was all essay, so hopefully I get scored well on that, I had to write about the changing English kingdoms throughout the High Middle Ages, pretty exciting that William the Conqueror! So anywho, I have three more exams to go, one on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Food Microbiology, Organic Chemistry, and Immunology respectively. I have strong grades in all of them thus far, but since finals are worth so much I need to make a good showing in each to secure an A, wish me luck! Continue reading →

As in hairdo! I don’t have much else to comment on besides I’m doing really well in classes this quarter (4.0, cross my fingers!), and Jill looks really hot with her new hairdo, ow ow, and it’s totally not fair that I’m not there to party with her, grr! By the way, she’s the brunette (wierd, huh!?) on the right! Continue reading →

Winter seems to be coming, at least for the moment, to a swift and sudden end. This week started at 24 degrees and by today (Tuesday) we hit 48, looking to get nearer to 60 by Saturday! So Jill got her wish with all the snow and once she left it started getting really warm again! More proof that this latest winter storm was all her fault, hehe, just kidding! Continue reading →

Maybe I spoke too soon or too loudly about how weak the winter has been up until mid January, she really hadn’t bared her teeth at all. The temperatures were fluctuating up into the 50s at times (the teens in celcius), I should have just shut up and enjoyed it! The past week winter came back, and with a vengeance, the temperature even dipping below 0 Fahrenheit with a wind chill nearing -15 Fahrenheit this morning! That’s -25 centigrade! The temperature today in Brisbane is 85 and sunny (25C and sunny), meanwhile we’re on the other side of 0. Continue reading →

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted what I’ve been doing, so I’ll try and catch up. For the most part I’ve been going to class during the week and partying on the weekends. This weekend was a 3-day weekend for Martin Luther King, Jr Day so we had an extra night to stay up late and be stupid. Imagine how dirty your house would get after 3 days of parties and over 30 different people stopping by and multiply it by ten, it’s disgusting. Hence why I usually stay in my room and I’m thankful I have my own microwave, fridge, and plates - I’m not dependant on that kitchen.

Continue reading →