Good ≠ History NO!

(The title of this post is what was written down on the board in my business law class. Yeah, it didn't really make sense to us either.)

Our last evening in Melbourne was spent at the great Hotel Esplanade, a huge music venue (3 stages), restaurant, and bar (or 3 of them) rolled up into one beachfront complex. We made friends with some of the waitstaff, who tried to help us understand the difference between a New Zelander's accent and an Aussie accent. We think we get it, but what the hell, we probably don't. We also saw this great punk band from Japan called The Facefuls. The lead singer was probably 5'0", and dressed in this red leather outfit... She was so much fun to watch and would, in between dancing around on stage, run out into the audience and dance with various people in the front row. Also, the drummer wasn't wearing any pants. Yeah... all he had on were some briefs that definitely had something stuffed in them. Awesome.

Our flight the next morning was mostly uneventful... Unless you count the three crying babies on our plane. Jackie mentioned that they have limits on how many dogs you can bring on a plane at once... then said they should have limits on how many babies you can bring on a plane too. I concur. This one baby would not shut up for the entire flight. As we were desperately trying to get some sleep, this little kid was SCREAMING (not crying... SCREAMING) bloody murder. Then, just as that one shut up, another baby would pick up the slack and start crying. Awesome.

Anyhow, bleary eyed and slightly bonkers, we made it back to the hotel by 11am. That afternoon, Eryn, John and I went over to the nearby park to kick around a soccer ball, toss a frisbee around, and kick/throw the rugby ball around as well. It was a nice time and all was going great... that is, until this old lady walking by started yelling at John. At first, none of us could hear what she was saying, but according to John, she was scolding us for playing on the grass. Little did we know, but apparently the grass is for "people's enjoyment" and not for "kids to play on." John basically just stood there with a blank look on his face, unwilling to argue with a crazy old woman and kind of unsure as to what he would say even if he was to argue. In any case, we figured since it was about time to leave anyway, we'd just head back to the hotel.

After showering, (well, I showered... i don't think Eryn did, cuz she's dirty) we headed out to Watson's Bay to check out the sunset. It was spectacular... I would post some more pictures of it, except my stupid camera decided to freak out right before the most beautiful part of the sunset happened (y'know, when the sun is real low, and the reds and oranges are bouncing off of the clouds). So I'm posting a shot I got with Eryn's camera:

Anyhow, after the light show, Eryn (still dirty) Sean and I went over to Doyle's to get some dinner. At this place, you order at the counter and then they give you this little pager/buzzer thing to tell you when your order is ready. Except they gave us all pagers that were broken or out of batteries. So they'd beep, we'd walk over, they'd tell us it was broken, give us new pagers... then five minutes later, it'd beep again, we'd go over, they'd tell us it was broken again, etc. etc. Eventually, we did get our food, and it was good. mmm. food.

Here's a shot of Billy, Patrick, myself, John and Sean at the Watson's Bay dock.

Yesterday, our class visted Fox Studios. This turned out to be the most interesting and enjoyable field trip so far (for me, at least). First, we got a tour of the soundstages, which, since they were in between productions, were just big, empty spaces. But cool to look at, nonetheless. Then we headed over to Trackdown, the scoring stage/studio (not owned or affiliated with Fox Studios, actually). It was a beautiful space (similar in size to the Enterprise Studio A live room, for those of you who know it). Then we moved onto their post production facility. We even got to hang out with the director of Clear and Present Danger, Phillip Noyce, who just happened to be at the post facility. When he found out we were a group of students from the US, he decided to do some market research and showed us 4 different drafts of the movie poster for his latest work, Catch a Fire, and asked us our opinions.

We left the studio meaning to catch a bus, but ended up walking for 45 minutes to get back to the nearest train station (damn Sydney buses)... That evening, Eryn and Jackie finally got me to watch Billy Madison, which they insisted I had to watch or else they would stop being my friends. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. O'Doyle rules.

Nothing too special happened today... Except I finally got my hair cut for the first time since getting to Sydney. And I must say, it feels SO GREAT. I hate it when my hair gets shaggy (which, for me, means anything past half an inch). I must run, but thanks to all who have been commenting... Keep it up!

-e