Driving on the Wrong (Australian) Side of the road....

I have no driven on the wrong (British) side of the road... in a manual and have survived. Now considering it's probably been a good 3-4 years since I've driving a manual and the gear shift is on the left hand side - which means I was shifting with my left hand - I consider this a great accomplishment! To make things easier it was at midnight so there was nobody on the road and the car wasn't large.

My greatest fear in driving over here is the spacial difference. Compared to the states where our streets are wide enough for four cars and you slow down when you have to squeeze between two cars- the margin for error here is infinitely smaller. To make it worse, the car was parked in a tiny ally way so to get out I had to navigate out of the ally. In the end all mirrors were intact and I only had on major miscalculation when turning left for the first time - when I promptly hit the curb.

Aside from that the only other thing was the confusing fact that the signals are on the right side of the wheel not the left, so I turned the windshield wipers on every time I went to turn the blinker on.

So my advice for anyone who comes here and plans to drive is to keep the following in mind:
1. The drive should always be closest to oncoming traffic.
2. The blinkers (or signals) are by the window.

The Invation of the Pilgrims

I am not sure if the US news has covered the events of the Pope recently... but he's been in Sydney. This brought on an invasion of around 150,000 pilgrims from all over the world. Now, when most of us hear "from all over the world" we assume there is a good representation from the major countries. Not the case here. Literally there were people walking around with flags I have never seen before. Then there were the larger groups of Germans, French, Mexicans, Canadians, and of course Americans.

Sydney had something like 500 road closures over the weekend, and I was for all intensive purposes marooned in my neighborhood as the pope gave mass about two blocks from where I live. This also meant I was woken up at 7 AM on Sunday with the singing pilgrims on their way to mass - needless to say I wasn't very impressed.

Even more interestingly, they weren't the strictest of religious followers. One statistic said that 70% of the pilgrims would lose their virginity this weekend. Brothels had a 10% discount on 'sales and services.' The kicker is that the group which was staying in the residence hall of our school left a nice present of 6+ bottles of wine, 2 32 pack cases of beer, and various other beverages (all empty) in the lounge area of the school.

For those that are curious, I did not go see the Pope.

Good Wine, Good Weather, Good Friends

This weekend 60 of my classmates and their partners packed ourselves into a bus and drove up to the Hunter Valley for a day of wine tasting. It was a long day, with the bus leaving at 7:15 AM on a Saturday. Two and a half hours later we were hit our first winery and the wine began to flow. :)

Tempus Two was the first winery, and unfortunately for them they were not very polite. Needless to say we did lots of tasting but not much buying... An hour later it was off to the next winery.

Number two was Tyrell's, which is one of the oldest winery and has been around for 150 years. The people were much nicer and the wine was equally improved. After another round of sampling we headed off to the next site.

At this point (around 2PM), all the wines tasted the same and to be honest the names are now forgotten. :) But we had another sampling and lunch at the winery. After finishing up some grub we headed to our last stop of the day.

Our last stop was two wineries, one was the best of the day which was Brokenwood, and a cheese factory. This was a perfect end to the day, once we were finished the lot of drunkards loaded the bus and headed back to Sydney.

Needless to say the bus ride back was not as rowdy as the ride up, given the amount of wine consumed and the long day of drinking. When we made it back to Sydney a few of us actually managed to rally to make it out onto the town. I have to say this was the perfect end to the day as we had dinner at a place called Mad Mex, which is Sydney's equivalent to Chipotle, and I called it a night.

For anyone planning to come down if you have a weekend day this is definitely something I would recommend doing.

Flash from the past... the Stroopie!!

Ok, so this post is mainly for Steph, Diana, Jenni, and Kirby - basically anyone who might have visited me in London and had one of these amazing little treats. We initially discovered these in Holland and were more than slightly obsessed while in London. They are thin waffle type cookies with cinnamon syrup in the middle. The best part is that they are the perfect size to put on top of a cup of tea or coffee so that the syrup melts.... lets just say they are damn good.

I've managed to find them at my local produce store and am in heaven. So Steph, as promised this post is for you and I wish you were here to share one with me!

Christmas in Seattle :)

After a frantic search of every airline I've ever heard of... I found one I didn't know exists. Air Pacific is the national airline of Fiji and they have a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles which only cost $2000. YAY!!! (this is also good to know for people who might be coming over and are looking for cheap tickets)

The bad thing is that I won't be able to go home to Phoenix but the good thing is that I get to see everyone who won't be able to make it down under!

So I have my international flight and am just working on the flight up to Seattle, will send more information when I have it but for now just know that I will be in Seattle from December 15 - 28.

Can't wait to see everyone!!

Airplane Ticket Hell

So I went to change my return flight from September to December and of course it's non-changeable... At the end of the day it's just miles, so I thought while I'm awake (it's not 12:35 AM) I'd try to book my flight in Decembers. Here I am thinking that it'd be no problem and I'd just be able to book it... WRONG!

There are no flights at all... on any airlines which I have enough miles for... and of course all other flights are over $3000 (US). :(

Am going to do a massive hunt for cheap(er) tickets over the next couple days and look at my budget... but I might have to accept that I might not make it home till after graduation.

As soon as I know ANYTHING I will post it and let people know. Right now I'm trying not to be completely crushed by this as I was really looking forward to seeing everyone, words aren't enough to say how sad I'll be if I can't make it home.

Am I bi-lingual??

More and more I am realising how we Americans seem to have created our own language. Whether it is with the way we spell things or the way we communicate things, it's usually very different not just to other non-English languages, but to pretty much every other English speaking country.

I now find myself fighting over whether it is organisation or organization, realize or realise, center or centre.... honestly I could go on! So now I am beginning to think that I should be able to consider myself at least bi-lingual.

To take it a step further, it's not just the spelling. I can interpret things like "Ta" which to an American would be an irrelevant grunt, but to people in the UK or here in OZ it means thanks. Or even being able to better understand (and sometimes even copy) our neighbors to the north and their use of the word "eh". (I blame Nicole, Brent, and Steve mostly for this) This seemly innocent two letter word can be "right?" or "what?" as well as many other meanings.

All in all I can say I am beginning to speak like a local (sans the accent), with one very distinct difference - I do not (and will not) use the word "reckon" which seems to be at the core of the Aussie language. I might have used the word a couple of times in Virginia, however the visual I have of someone saying that word is someone in flannel, overalls, and chew in their mouth.

My last comment will be toward the word "root" which in the US or Canada means to cheer for or support a sporting team, as well as represent a very good winter cloths brand... here root means to have sex. So for those of you who are planning on watching a sporting event down under, please do not ask "Who are you rooting for?" because it will put an entirely different spin on the game (not to mention earn you a few strange looks).

New Layout & Features

So in my procrastination of studying for Operations Management I have made some changes to the site... Including a new layout, added a slide show and some links to my friends' blogs. Specifically, for those of you who know Meg Nelson (my little little sis from DGs) she has a blog of her travels in Europe which is worth checking out.

This week is as insane as always, however we are taking a wine tasting trip next weekend so there are sure to be some great blogs to come out of that (including pictures). I'm going to try to see if I can hijack a friends camera and take some really good pics... however I will understand if he doesn't let me considering the amount of wine which will be flowing. :D

All this Sunshine and So Much Work to do...

The weather has gotten better here (thanks to the end of the La Nina which has ended) with sunny skies and relatively warm days. Unfortunately we've been so busy with school I haven't had time to enjoy it. :(

However we did go out on a harbour cruise this weekend for a girlfriend's 30th, so was able to have a great time on the water. Other than that life has been very mundane here... am working on changing my flight back for Christmas (need to talk with Kevin & Kirby to see where/when I can possibly crash) so will keep everyone posted.

In the mean time, here is a beautiful picture taken w/ one of my friends camera's which shows the views from the water.