I just got home from Melbourne, this time with a much smaller group than before. I left the Geelong Train Station with Nick, Jeff, Donald, and Scott. We headed out at about 10:30am, and arrived in Melbourne at about 11:30am. We really had no concrete plan in mind for the day, just to go in and see where the city takes us. We walked around the city and hung out for a bit in Federation Square while we waited for Risa, an international student that attends Deakin's Burwood campus. Risa, Nick, Jeff, and Scott went to the Melbourne Aquarium while Donald and I went to a screening and Q&A for the popular (and nerdy) Red vs. Blue machinima series. It was good fun, and I got to sit in a room with about 200 incredibly nerdy Australians for 2 hours.
Afterwards we met up at the Crown, a large casino on Southbank. We decided to try our hand at a little bit of gambling. I came out on top, with my overall winnings being a whole 8 dollars. It was definitely a very different experience, but it was a lot of fun, especially the fact that I paid for my dinner with the casino's money.
We had to catch the 8:30pm train back to Geelong because of classes in the morning, so we didn't get to see Melbourne at night which I am really looking forward to. There are tall marble columns lining Southbank that shoot fire upwards every once in a while, and the lights on the buildings are supposed to be spectacular. We are planning to head back within the next few weeks and possibly spending the night at the Burwood campus so we can experience a little bit of the Melbourne night life.
I've got a class tomorrow morning at 10:00am, and then I will probably spend the rest of the day hanging out on campus... And studying. Ok Mom?
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Queenscliffe
I haven't posted in a while, and I know that it must be pretty frustrating for everyone that is reading. I have been very busy in Australia so far with things like class registration, meeting new friends, and travelling, so it hasn't left me much time to post. These first two weeks have been absolutely wonderful, and have been like a once in a lifetime holiday. (You can't say vacation in Australia... They don't use that word.) I am loving the Australians, the campus, the city of Geelong, the beaches, and anything that can relate to Australia in any way. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and I will have to start classes on Monday. It will still be good, just not nearly as carefree.
On Friday, my new friend Nick and I went to the town of Queenscliffe for a bit of shark fishing. It is about 15 minutes from Geelong, and supposedly has excellent fishing. Our Aussie friend April drove us and stayed for some fish and chips before we went out to the pier. Then, Nick and I proceeded to sit on the pier for the next two and a half hours not catching a single thing. It was good fun though, just sitting there and enjoying the ocean and birds. We packed up and went into town to see what the nightlife looked like. It was nonexistant. There was not a single person on the streets, and only a handful in the 2 pubs that sat on the main road. We explored the town a little and only saw about 5 cars pass. We ended up just going to the hostel and sleeping. The next morning, the plan was to go rent a boat on the opposite side of Swan Bay and take it out to catch a Gummy Shark. We thought the rental place was right down the road within walking distance, but it turned out that it was about 13 kilometers away. (8 miles.) No bus passed the rental shop, and a taxi would have been too expensive and more trouble than it was worth. We hopped on the next bus home to Geelong. The fishing trip was a bit of a bust, but I had a good time.
We are heading into Melbourne tomorrow to check out the city for our last day of freedom. It is supposed to be a smaller group of people this time, but we may have a few more people than we originally planned for. I have noticed that there are heaps more views for pictures that have people in them than the ones of the landscape. The picture with me at the Twelve Apostles has generated more views than any other picture, and I am flattered. I need to try harder to take more pictures of my friends and myself, because I can tell that everyone likes them a lot more. I'm sure I'll be shoving all my landscape pictures down your throats when I get to see you again anyways.
On Friday, my new friend Nick and I went to the town of Queenscliffe for a bit of shark fishing. It is about 15 minutes from Geelong, and supposedly has excellent fishing. Our Aussie friend April drove us and stayed for some fish and chips before we went out to the pier. Then, Nick and I proceeded to sit on the pier for the next two and a half hours not catching a single thing. It was good fun though, just sitting there and enjoying the ocean and birds. We packed up and went into town to see what the nightlife looked like. It was nonexistant. There was not a single person on the streets, and only a handful in the 2 pubs that sat on the main road. We explored the town a little and only saw about 5 cars pass. We ended up just going to the hostel and sleeping. The next morning, the plan was to go rent a boat on the opposite side of Swan Bay and take it out to catch a Gummy Shark. We thought the rental place was right down the road within walking distance, but it turned out that it was about 13 kilometers away. (8 miles.) No bus passed the rental shop, and a taxi would have been too expensive and more trouble than it was worth. We hopped on the next bus home to Geelong. The fishing trip was a bit of a bust, but I had a good time.
We are heading into Melbourne tomorrow to check out the city for our last day of freedom. It is supposed to be a smaller group of people this time, but we may have a few more people than we originally planned for. I have noticed that there are heaps more views for pictures that have people in them than the ones of the landscape. The picture with me at the Twelve Apostles has generated more views than any other picture, and I am flattered. I need to try harder to take more pictures of my friends and myself, because I can tell that everyone likes them a lot more. I'm sure I'll be shoving all my landscape pictures down your throats when I get to see you again anyways.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Torquay and Bells Beach
Last weekend was a busy one for me. On Saturday, I went with a group of about 30 other students to Melbourne, and on Sunday went to Torquay and Bells Beach with about 60 others. I can tell I'm exhausted, because this is the first day that I've been here that I woke up after 9:00am.
Melbourne is an awesome city. It's a lot larger than Geelong, but still has a small town feel. We were lucky, because Melbourne was doing a Chinese New Year festival. I wish that I wasn't with a group, because I would have loved to spend some more time at the festival. Street performers lined the sidewalks, and vendors sold some really great food. I paid $2 for Chicken Satay not knowing exactly what it was, and it turned out to be the best thing I ate that day.
Later, we took a river cruise on the Yarra and they served lunch on the boat. It was very pricey, as I spent $38 on lunch. The cruise went out of the city and along the highway, so it was not as scenic as I would have liked it to be. The river cruise was cool, but I don't think I would do it again. It did offer some relief from the 35 degree weather, which is about 95 degrees Farenheit. We are heading back next weekend in a smaller group of about 5 so we can see the city the way we like. I think I'll enjoy it even more.
On Sunday, we all went to Torquay and Bells Beach. We were originally planning to spend some time on the back beach of Torquay, but there were an incredible amount of people there. I'll post the picture I took while I was on the bus. I think you could see more people than you could water. We never even got off the bus there, and left for Bells Beach. Bells was much less crowded, probably because it is not a patrolled beach. There, we all split up and did our own thing. Some played soccer, footy, and cricket, and others just walked on the beach or went swimming. It was a lot of fun, and Bells Beach is gorgeous. There was not much wind on Sunday, so the surf wasn't very good even though Bells is known for it's surfing. We stopped in Torquay on the way out, and checked out the surf shops. I'm seriously considering buying a surfboard and a wetsuit. I wouldn't need the wetsuit now, but it will soon be too cold to surf without one. I could get a used surfboard for about $200, and a wetsuit for $100. We are probably heading back out to Torquay sometime this week, so I'll gauge how easy it is for me to get there and surf.
While heading home to Geelong, we stopped along the side of the road near a golf course. There were about 50 kangaroos munching on the grass of the golf course. They all looked completely identical, with their tails pushing against the ground and their heads arched down eating. It was great to be able to see kangaroos in the "wild" like that. It is a defining moment of any trip to Australia. I'll post some pictures of them on the Flickr site.
My room in the Carlton is incredibly hot, and I am going to head out and buy a fan at the Target down the street. After that, I'll probably head for campus to check out the O-Week activities and meet some new Australian students now that they have all moved in.
Melbourne is an awesome city. It's a lot larger than Geelong, but still has a small town feel. We were lucky, because Melbourne was doing a Chinese New Year festival. I wish that I wasn't with a group, because I would have loved to spend some more time at the festival. Street performers lined the sidewalks, and vendors sold some really great food. I paid $2 for Chicken Satay not knowing exactly what it was, and it turned out to be the best thing I ate that day.
Later, we took a river cruise on the Yarra and they served lunch on the boat. It was very pricey, as I spent $38 on lunch. The cruise went out of the city and along the highway, so it was not as scenic as I would have liked it to be. The river cruise was cool, but I don't think I would do it again. It did offer some relief from the 35 degree weather, which is about 95 degrees Farenheit. We are heading back next weekend in a smaller group of about 5 so we can see the city the way we like. I think I'll enjoy it even more.
On Sunday, we all went to Torquay and Bells Beach. We were originally planning to spend some time on the back beach of Torquay, but there were an incredible amount of people there. I'll post the picture I took while I was on the bus. I think you could see more people than you could water. We never even got off the bus there, and left for Bells Beach. Bells was much less crowded, probably because it is not a patrolled beach. There, we all split up and did our own thing. Some played soccer, footy, and cricket, and others just walked on the beach or went swimming. It was a lot of fun, and Bells Beach is gorgeous. There was not much wind on Sunday, so the surf wasn't very good even though Bells is known for it's surfing. We stopped in Torquay on the way out, and checked out the surf shops. I'm seriously considering buying a surfboard and a wetsuit. I wouldn't need the wetsuit now, but it will soon be too cold to surf without one. I could get a used surfboard for about $200, and a wetsuit for $100. We are probably heading back out to Torquay sometime this week, so I'll gauge how easy it is for me to get there and surf.
While heading home to Geelong, we stopped along the side of the road near a golf course. There were about 50 kangaroos munching on the grass of the golf course. They all looked completely identical, with their tails pushing against the ground and their heads arched down eating. It was great to be able to see kangaroos in the "wild" like that. It is a defining moment of any trip to Australia. I'll post some pictures of them on the Flickr site.
My room in the Carlton is incredibly hot, and I am going to head out and buy a fan at the Target down the street. After that, I'll probably head for campus to check out the O-Week activities and meet some new Australian students now that they have all moved in.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Photo Website
Putting photos on blogspot is a terribly hard and tedious thing to do, so I got a Flickr account. The internet is slow here, so it takes a long time to upload the photos. I'll try to keep up with it the best I can. You can find the photos in my profile under the "My Web Page" link under my picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcsaustralia/ Here are a few photos to start.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcsaustralia/ Here are a few photos to start.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Finally Here
I have finally made it to Australia and gotten settled in to my new apartment. I haven't been able to update because I've been staying on campus where I didn't have any internet access.
I've done so many things and met so many people over the last week, and I don't even know where to start. The flights from home took roughly 23 hours, with stops in Dallas, San Francisco, and Sydney.
Dayton to Dallas was uneventful, and on a very small plane. I sat quietly for 3 hours thinking about what the bloody hell I had just gotten myself into. Right before I got on the flight, I had lost my boarding pass within 3 minutes of getting it. The worst part is, I did it in view of my poor parents. I was off to a rocky start, but I think it was a really great thing to happen to me because I have been incredibly vigilant ever since.
The Dallas Airport was more like a gigantic mall, but I had no trouble finding out where I was supposed to be even though they switched the gates on me. On the plane, I talked hockey with this woman that had a son that played. She seemed really interested in my plans to go to Australia, and told me that after meeting me, she really wants her son to do the same thing. I stuck with her after getting off the plane in San Francisco to pick up my bags. She offered me a ton of travel tips and was very caring and motherly.
The San Francisco to Sydney flight really as bad as you'd think, but that could be due to the fact that I had some great people to sit with. I was in the aisle seat, and the girl named Lindsay by the window took sleeping pills, drank wine, and passed out for about 10 of the 13 hour flight. She was going to live just outside Melbourne for the next 2 years for school. The woman in the middle seat was an Australian woman named Gail who had just spent 18 days in Canada skiing. She was pretty happy about being the first Australian that I got to talk to on my trip, and she was incredibly nice. She's the kind of woman that I spent a short time with, but I know that I will probably remember her for the rest of my life. We went our seperate ways in Sydney, she took a different plane to Melbourne than Lindsay and I.
I got off the plane in the Melbourne International Airport and met several other exchange students and the Deakin International Student Advisors. I was greeted by Jess, who immediately confused my already tired mind by saying "How you going?" as soon as she saw me. I was caught off guard and gave her a bit of a blank stare, which wouldn't be the last blank stare I give the Aussies. A few of them are incredibly hard to understand, but I'll get better.
We took a bus to Geelong, and I was amazed by how different the trees and plants are from home. Spindly Eucalyptus trees lined the highway, and I was driving on the opposite side of the road. This definitely was not Ohio anymore. I set up temporary housing on campus and went out to dinner with the other international students that got there that day. None of us had any time to sleep, so we were all very tired.
Over the next 2 days, I explored the city and quickly made friends with all of the students going to the Warrnambool campus that is about 2 hours from Geelong. They were all staying in the same college as myself, along with a few more that were only on campus temporarily. An English guy named Pete, a German named Peter, and an American named Ben all moved about 15 minutes away to Torquay to live permanently. Torquay is one of the best spots around for surfing and fishing.
After a few nights on campus in Geelong, we all packed a few things and went to Lorne. The school set us up in some great accomodation and fed us 2 meals each day we were there. I played some footy (Aussie Rules Football) and surfed. I have never gone surfing before, but I must say, I'm pretty amazing at it. I got up on my first try and even had the instructors telling me that it looked like I had done it before. I met a ton of people in Lorne and had a great time.
We left Lorne to go on a sight seeing trip on the great ocean road. We went to the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard, the Otways, and Gibson's Steps. I took some really great pictures that I will have to load up for you to see. (The internet here is really slow, so I won't get to upload all 466 photos, but I'll try to put on the best ones.)
After Lorne, I moved my things from the Deakin campus to Carlton Central. It is one of the older buildings in the city, so it's a little run down. I have a little room with a dresser, bed, desk, fridge, and sink. There are shared toilets and showers right across the hall from me. I like it here with the exception of the incredibly loud and annoying Indian kids that live on my floor. They will be moving out on Saturday, which is a very good thing.
I am going to go food shopping tomorrow morning, which I am pretty excited about. I've never done it before for myself, so it should be fun. I'm making a list of things to buy that I've thought of over the past few days.
I'll update again when I get the chance, but I will be pretty busy for the next few days. Melbourne on Saturday and the Surf Coast on Sunday. It should be a good time.
I've done so many things and met so many people over the last week, and I don't even know where to start. The flights from home took roughly 23 hours, with stops in Dallas, San Francisco, and Sydney.
Dayton to Dallas was uneventful, and on a very small plane. I sat quietly for 3 hours thinking about what the bloody hell I had just gotten myself into. Right before I got on the flight, I had lost my boarding pass within 3 minutes of getting it. The worst part is, I did it in view of my poor parents. I was off to a rocky start, but I think it was a really great thing to happen to me because I have been incredibly vigilant ever since.
The Dallas Airport was more like a gigantic mall, but I had no trouble finding out where I was supposed to be even though they switched the gates on me. On the plane, I talked hockey with this woman that had a son that played. She seemed really interested in my plans to go to Australia, and told me that after meeting me, she really wants her son to do the same thing. I stuck with her after getting off the plane in San Francisco to pick up my bags. She offered me a ton of travel tips and was very caring and motherly.
The San Francisco to Sydney flight really as bad as you'd think, but that could be due to the fact that I had some great people to sit with. I was in the aisle seat, and the girl named Lindsay by the window took sleeping pills, drank wine, and passed out for about 10 of the 13 hour flight. She was going to live just outside Melbourne for the next 2 years for school. The woman in the middle seat was an Australian woman named Gail who had just spent 18 days in Canada skiing. She was pretty happy about being the first Australian that I got to talk to on my trip, and she was incredibly nice. She's the kind of woman that I spent a short time with, but I know that I will probably remember her for the rest of my life. We went our seperate ways in Sydney, she took a different plane to Melbourne than Lindsay and I.
I got off the plane in the Melbourne International Airport and met several other exchange students and the Deakin International Student Advisors. I was greeted by Jess, who immediately confused my already tired mind by saying "How you going?" as soon as she saw me. I was caught off guard and gave her a bit of a blank stare, which wouldn't be the last blank stare I give the Aussies. A few of them are incredibly hard to understand, but I'll get better.
We took a bus to Geelong, and I was amazed by how different the trees and plants are from home. Spindly Eucalyptus trees lined the highway, and I was driving on the opposite side of the road. This definitely was not Ohio anymore. I set up temporary housing on campus and went out to dinner with the other international students that got there that day. None of us had any time to sleep, so we were all very tired.
Over the next 2 days, I explored the city and quickly made friends with all of the students going to the Warrnambool campus that is about 2 hours from Geelong. They were all staying in the same college as myself, along with a few more that were only on campus temporarily. An English guy named Pete, a German named Peter, and an American named Ben all moved about 15 minutes away to Torquay to live permanently. Torquay is one of the best spots around for surfing and fishing.
After a few nights on campus in Geelong, we all packed a few things and went to Lorne. The school set us up in some great accomodation and fed us 2 meals each day we were there. I played some footy (Aussie Rules Football) and surfed. I have never gone surfing before, but I must say, I'm pretty amazing at it. I got up on my first try and even had the instructors telling me that it looked like I had done it before. I met a ton of people in Lorne and had a great time.
We left Lorne to go on a sight seeing trip on the great ocean road. We went to the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard, the Otways, and Gibson's Steps. I took some really great pictures that I will have to load up for you to see. (The internet here is really slow, so I won't get to upload all 466 photos, but I'll try to put on the best ones.)
After Lorne, I moved my things from the Deakin campus to Carlton Central. It is one of the older buildings in the city, so it's a little run down. I have a little room with a dresser, bed, desk, fridge, and sink. There are shared toilets and showers right across the hall from me. I like it here with the exception of the incredibly loud and annoying Indian kids that live on my floor. They will be moving out on Saturday, which is a very good thing.
I am going to go food shopping tomorrow morning, which I am pretty excited about. I've never done it before for myself, so it should be fun. I'm making a list of things to buy that I've thought of over the past few days.
I'll update again when I get the chance, but I will be pretty busy for the next few days. Melbourne on Saturday and the Surf Coast on Sunday. It should be a good time.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Cold Ohio
I've been getting acquainted with my new camera by taking pictures of things that I think might interest someone from Australia. Considering that Ohio is one of the most boring place on the face of the Earth, I don't have much to choose from.So, I decided that I would play on the fact that, as of now, Ohio is an inhospitable tundra. Australians are used to their sun, surf, and clear blue water. I took a few pictures to show them what less-than-perfect weather looks like. It hit -13°C the other night, while I was taking out the trash. (I have to start getting used to the metric system. It's 9°F.) It wouldn't be too bad, but the wind makes you feel it in your bones. If I could get a game of pond hockey together before I leave, I could take some really interesting pictures that I'm sure my new Aussie friends would enjoy.
Even though it is cold, it makes for some decently pretty landscapes. I want to go and take pictures of some more Ohio landscape to show that there is some beauty
here, just a different kind than theirs. The problem is, it's beginning to get harder to find an untouched piece of nature to photograph now that everything is getting some sort of housing or store built on it. Ohio originally belonged to Native Americans, like the Miamis, Wyandots, and Delawares, yet there is nothing that shows that they were ever even here. It would be nice to be able to take pictures of historic Ohio, but there is not much history to be seen near my house. The oldest thing we have here is Wal-mart.I'm starting the packing process now, and it's pretty daunting. I need to take so many things, but not over-pack. I also need to make sure I have all my important travel documents, like my passport. If I forgot anything like that, it would put a stop to my Australia trip very quickly.
I'll leave you with a few more pictures of cold Ohio.
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