Off to the Races!!

This week was the beginning of the autumn carnival -which translates into the beginning of race season. So for a whopping $22, we put on our fancy dresses and headed to the local race course. Considering it happens to be right next to the school it was a nice easy walk to the course, and along the way we were able to pick up our fascinators. Now for those of you who have not heard of fascinators - they are essentially the big feathery hair pieces which come close to the hats people wear.

I did bet on a couple of the horses and am now a seasoned professional on horse gambling. :) One horse actually won on my each way bet, but nothing won on the nose - so that translates into one horse won some money back but I did not win enough to make a difference or break even.

The day did remind me how much I love horses and eventually want to have my own some day - large emphasis of some day. It is easy to say that we will be going to more races, if nothing else we need to get our mileage out of our facinators as they weren't exactly cheap.

For Easter Sunday, I made dinner for a small group of friends here at my flat. We had roast beef, potatoes, asparagus and some really good wine. Considering this was the first time I've attempted a roast it turned out pretty well and I now have some good left overs for the coming week off.

Tomorrow I'm debating on doing Accounting studying or going on a road trip south with some friends - it's a hard choice... so I should have more information to post tomorrow but wanted to put this up for everyone to read. :)

Here are some pictures to help paint the picture of the race day.

Love & miss you all!!

Aussie Slang

As part of my integration with Sydney I had to learn the local slang and terms... So as part of educating you on my life I wanted to share some of them with you. :)

Angry or unhappy = Spewin’
Australian Wild Dog (which doesn't bark, but rather howels) = Dingo
Barbeque = Barbie (not to be confused with "Ken and Barbie")
Australian male = Bloke
Beer Cozy = Stubby holder
Bluey = redhead and/or a poisonous jelley fish often blown into the local swim areas
Bottle Shop or Liquor Store (pronounced "bottle-oh") = Bottlo
Breakfast = Brekkie
Bum, Butt = Arse
Case of Beer = a Slab
Complain = Whinge
Conversation = Chinwag
Cookie = Biscuit
Dress Warmly = Rug up
Drunk = Pissed
Drop Bear = a fictional Australian Marsupial said to be related to the koala (Click here for a more detailed description)
Dubious or underhanded = Shonky
Electrician = Sparky
Fireman = Firey
Flip Flops = Thongs
Frills = birds (e.g. "No Birds" is our car rental agency. - see definition for "rent" below.)
Gas station = Servo
Good looking person or either sex = Spunk
Gum = Chewy
How are you? = How ya going?
If you fancy meeting up just give me a bell. = If you like me and want to hang out... Call Me!
Impertinently bold; impudent and saucy = Cheeky
Large Beer = Schooner
Lots of = Heaps (Aussie's LOVE this word)
McDonalds = Maccas
Old Car = Bomb
Pharmacy = Chemist
Really Tired = Buggered
Registration = Rego (pronounced "rej - oh")
Rent = Hire (e.g I hired a car last week from Hertz. Even though the car hire place we use here is called "No Birds".)
Schedule = pronounced "Shheh-dual"
Shady = Dodgy
Shopping Carts = Trollies
Skip School = Wag
Sunglasses = Sunnies
Sweater = Jumper
Sweets/Candies = Lollies
Television = Idiot box
To Show Up = Rock Up
Toilet = Dunnie
Try = Have a go
Umbrella = Brollie
Vegitarian = Vejjo
Well Done = Good Onya
Z = "zed" - Aussie's infrequently use "z's" in their language - it is replaced with an "s"

Catching up....

Ok, so I realise it's been a while since I've posted so I'll try to give a bit of an update... Since I last posted I have gone to a rugby game, been elected Events Coordinator for my class, and managed to knock a girl out (more details later). So to give you the very fulfilling details in order of when these events happened, which is not necessarily in order of entertainment factor. :)

Rugby Game

Unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as it was built up to be... not to mention the fact that it was raining, cold, and I spent as much time in line for beer as watching the game. All in all it was much like your typical game in the US - cheap seats, expensive beer, good friends, and guys running chasing a ball and hurting each other. Will definitely go again and hopefully it will be more exciting. The picture below is of the stadium and the downpour of rain...



Events Coordinator

What this essentially means is that I will be planning the end of session parties and any other parties for the student society. It does not mean that I am coordinating everyone's social calendars - contrary to some peoples idea... More than anything this will be a fun position to have and enable me to play a part in the Student Society.

One thing that I'm going to try to organise is a trip through Habitat for Humanity. With being so close to countries who need help it is a great opportunity to help people and see a new area of the world.

The TKO

Soo... this was actually today. I've been going down and playing volleyball on Sundays with a group of really good players. Today we were doing some hitting activities and the ball I hit happened to bounce up and hit another girl (who, in my defense, wasn't paying attention) right under the jaw... the next thing she was like a falling tree and hit the sand. She was out for a couple seconds then managed to come to and was fine. Needless to say it wasn't my finest point in time, but it is something I never thought I would say I've done.

Surf's Up

Surfing has been on my 'to-do' list of things to do in life and especially since I have been here in Australia. So this last weekend a group of 16 friends and I took a trip up up north to a surf camp and spend the weekend surfing. Initially things were looking a bit shaky as the weather was forecast to be questionable, however it turned out to be two epic days of good waves and not too much sun. :) Considering this was my first trip outside of Sydney I felt this was a good time for a healthy blog posting, so in true form I will give you a play by play of the weekend festivities with the standard colorful injection.
Friday
7:00 PM - Van leaves from AGSM
Considering our group was as large as it was we were able to arrange for the drivers to pick us up at the school. So we piled into the van and headed up north after picking up a few additional people in central Sydney.
7:45 - Bottle Shop Stop
Now just a bit of translation... bottle shop = liquor store. Being good little MBA students we figured that it would be cheaper for use to pool our money and buy a massive amount of alcohol in the city instead of spending tons of money at camp - especially given we don't know what kind of alcohol they had. So we ended up buying $515 of alcohol. Just so you have an idea of how much alcohol that much money buys you here is the receipt: 2 fifths of Jack Daniel's, 1 fifth of Southern Comfort, 1 fifth of vodka, 3 gallons of Coca-Cola, 1 gallon of Sprite, 4 bottles of red wine, 3 bottles of white whine, 4 slabs of beer (24 bottles in each), 1 six pack of Corona, and 4 bags of crisps (aka chips).
Needless to say the drinking commenced as soon as we got the alcohol onto the van. :)
11:00 PM - Arrive at Camp (after a couple emergency pit stops)
Surprisingly the accommodations were actually nicer than what I was expecting. The camp was on an old resort - which I believe was built by an old time Sydney gangster, and possibly used as a swingers camp - with a couple of cabin's packed with bunk beds, a main building with a pool, large deck and full bar. The entire place reminded me of the camps we have in the states... just add in gum trees instead of pines and surfers instead of hikers.
Saturday
7:30 AM - Wake up to Go Surfing!
The first morning we woke up and there were wallabies playing/boxing out in the yard. It was a very crisp morning and we were looking forward to what had been sold as a very appealing warm breakfast... which turn out to be cereal and fresh muffins... not exactly what we were expecting but we were optimistic.
10:00 - Arrive at Elizabeth Beach
Our group of 22 people were virtually the only people at the beach, so it was perfect. Below is a picture of the beach - words cannot describe how amazing it was.

The way the instructors taught the class was amazing - starting out really slowly with just learning to paddle fast enough to realize when the wave is hitting you, then trying to stand, and finally trying to turn (on Sunday).
By the end of the first day I was able to stand up and even managed to catch a few pretty decent waves. While I loved the size of the group we had, there were times at which we seemed like we were all surfing on top of each other - literally! Below is a picture of me catching a wave where I happened to be further out than the others... Yes that is me standing up!!! The picture is amazing, but you can also see that I'm about to run over one of my friends...

The water shots are compliments of one of the guys who had a water proof camera - which when I buy my next camera this will be what I look at getting. :)
It's hard to tell from the picture, but we all had wet suits on. Now the water wasn't exactly cold but if nothing else this helped to keep us from being completely fried by the sun. What I forgot to do was reapply on my face, so I now have a pealing face and have invested in a tube of zinc oxide which I will use religiously from now on.
At some point in the day we managed to fit in a lunch and continue to learn and take the abuse of the waves.
4:00 - Leave Surfing and go Lawn Bowling
Now I'm not sure if batchee balls are what you'd call an all American game, but they were certainly big in our family. For those who don't know what I'm talking about: it's a game where you essentially roll large heavy balls at a smaller light ball and the team that gets their balls closest gets points. With that said... they are a bit more refined here. We almost weren't let on because we had running shoes with 'cleating' in them... our instructors managed to talk us onto the grass. I don't have pics but if I can I will post some, it's quite an interesting thing that is HUGE here.
6:00 - Return to Camp
This was when the drinking proceeded... now I'm not going to offer much details here as that's not what people want to hear about, but we'll just say it was fun. :)
Sunday
7:30 - Wake Up very slowly...
Now our expectations for breakfast weren't very high, but I was completely shocked when they brought out spaghetti for breakfast. Packed and got ready for another day of surfing.
10:00 - Arrive at Seal Rocks
The second day we went to a different beach, and the waves were a bit bigger. Which only made the punishment that much worse.
We finished strong and finally piled back into the van for the drive home at around 4PM Sunday afternoon.
Next steps...
I am proud to say that I can now surf!! :)
So I now have a new hobby and even made friends with the instructors who are lifeguards at the beach I'll surf at. For any of you who have heard about the Bra Boys one of the guys is even a part of that gang. They are good people to know and who I might even be able to get some pointers from every now and then.
To close here is a picture of our entire group w/ our very colorful teachers (one front and center) just before we leave to go home on Sunday night.

"People Magazine" Kerri Style...

OK Jodie... this ones for you. Although I know Jenni and many others will probably get a good laugh out of it. :)

80's Fashion Gone Bad...

Now I feel I can almost say I lived with 80's fashion considering all the jewelry, cloths, and general experiences I had w/ my sisters whom I love dearly. But the local style here in Sydney is serious 80's fashion gone bad. There was a 'sighting' of a girl playing beach volleyball w/ a tank that had large holes in the sides - think Toni Braxton's white dress. Now as any good 80's child would I of course first thought of the awful tan line she would get, let alone the fact that it wasn't fit for beach sports.

Then there are the shorts... which could not get any shorter. This doesn't just apply to the women... the men are just as guilty. We're talking 1-2 in inseams... which on the majority of people is just WRONG.

Now I must say I admire the confidence that the general public has, and their courage to wear super tight, low cut, and extremely short dresses... but there is a point at which certain people should wear more fabric than less.

So Many Men... So Little Swimsuits

Yes I am referring to bungee slingers, banana hammocks, or as we call them in the states Speedos. Now I must say that in my previous travels this has been completely and 100% an area of complaint. However, I must say that there is a good majority of the men here who I can honestly say pull off the little skimpy swim trunks. (Think Daniel Craig in Casino Royale... yum!!) This adds another fun aspect to beach watching and it's even better when you realize you know some of the guys. True you do get the occasional overweight, sun burnt and almost pruning older men who really shouldn't wear such things in public; but I can honestly say the occasional hard body makes up for it... especially considering there are usually more than one.

2 months and Still Single (and Loving It!!)

While I know the previous two sections have probably been entertaining, if not humorous, I know what many of you are looking for is if I'm going to report on how I've found the man of my dreams and am never planning to return to the continental US. Sorry... can't say that I have. I have managed to meet quite a few new people. Some I would consider dating but most are just friends.

Now realizing that this is the perfect opportunity to stick my neck out there and really meet some new people - especially considering I'm no longer travelling. With that in mind I have registered for a couple of local dating websites and have earmarked a couple of the local bars which are known as great singles spots. So far I'm just testing the water, but there are a couple possibilities which I will explore.

While I wish I could write an entire article describing the in depth insights I have into the psyche of the Aussie men... but I would be better suited to write a book on the insights of men across the globe. I say this because the men I spend the most of my time with are from: Turkey, Brazil, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, US and the UK. Given the differences between the countries… my most insightful fact is that men think almost exactly the same no matter which country they are from. Now I find this as both a sad and reassuring fact, because having grown up with a brother I feel I have a fair understanding for the weird and twisted ways men think… which as a single girl in today’s dating world is a good thing.

I hope you have all enjoyed this posting, as I have enjoyed writing it!!

love, hugs, etc. to all!! miss you!

I now officially can say "I live in Sydney"

So on I had the fabulous chance to go out on a sail boat on Friday night. It was a good friend's birthday and his girlfriend organised for 12 of us to go on a sailboat around the harbour for a couple of hours. It was fantastic. I've uploaded the pictures to my Flickr account (linked here: http://flickr.com/photos/kerri_mcclelland/
sets/72157603975971557/) but just to give you a preview, here is the best picture of me w/ the opera house behind.


The boat was a bit late at leaving the dock so there are only a few pictures that were taken before it became dark, but it was good fun. We managed to drink all the alcohol we brought on board and the guacamole I brought was killed in about 15 minutes... if that. :)

The water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, but then again the weather has been MUCH better than it has over the last few weeks. For those who don't know... for the last 2-3 weeks it has rained the equivalent if not more than their annual rainfall. So needless to say I have not been very impressed. This weekend it has been nice though and I was able to go down and play beach volleyball this morning.

Every Sunday there is a group of people who go play beach volleyball and I've managed to keep enough of my volleyball skills to be 'able' to play with the advanced group which starts at 8:30AM... which has put a damper on my Saturday nights. Which honestly is a good and bad thing... good in that I don't go spend more money and bad that I don't go out. So far I've managed to compensate with going out on Friday nights. :)

This upcoming week we are going surfing at a place called Seal Rocks. It is about 2 hours north of Sydney and the group we are going with will come pick us up and drive us up there. They give us lessons, surf boards, wet suits, places to sleep, food... pretty much everything but alcohol. For only $225, which is a steal considering we will be there for 2 ful days. So many fun pictures will come from that. :) And hopefully I'll be able to say I can surf. The unfortunate thing is that next weekend is also the gay Mardi Gra here... which means I'll either need to stay here next year and not go on exchange, come back, or just never leave... Mom I know which one you're NOT voting for. :)

OK must get back to my Organisational Behaviour reading so I can go home and sleep.

xoxo + Cheers!!

The First Post!! :)

OK, so to make it easier to communicate with everyone who wants to find out what's going on in my life, where I'm going, where I've been, and anything in between - I am creating this blog. This way I can post updates either small or large and those of you who begin to miss me and want to see what's goin on can check what I've posted.

Simple as Pie!! :)

Right now its the second week of classes at the AGSM. It's about 9:45 PM and I've had a productive day so am not allowing myself a couple hours of procrastination on the web. So far classes are going well. I'm getting back into the habits and rituals of student life... aka finding the $5 dinners, cheat drinks (which are nearly extinct in Sydney), and spending too much time with your nose in a book. Classes for this sesssion are:

- Organisational Behaviour (OB)

- Accounting

- Data Analysis (DA)

- Economics

I love the OB class as it is what my old job was, just more of the theory and intellectual meat behind what I was doing in practice. Most of the class hates it, but I love it. :) Accounting is just that... accounting - I find it interesting and very challenging at the same time. I will say that I will never look at a financial statement the same way again and it's only the second week. DA and Econ are both just covering what I had in undergrad so it's a bit of a review for now.

My class mates are great! We are 63 strong, with 12 women and 6 Americans. Below is a picture of everyone during Orientation week... you probably can't see me, I'm in the back standing on my tip toes. :)

So far I've been exploring Sydney as much as possible, I haven't yet made it too far into the outer reaches or too far from the central business district or my area for that matter... but I have a while. :)

Our school has our student society elections in the coming weeks. I'm thinking of running for the events coordinator (aka social chair). It is something that for all intensive purposes I have been doing for the last month so it seems like a natural next step, so hopefully all goes well.

Well I think that is a good start to my blogging career.... will write more later.

Love, hugs, and kisses to all!

Cheers,

-K