Hey all,
First off, thanks to all of you who have been reading my blog and commenting along the way. It's been real nice to know that folks are enjoying my stories and pictures (or living vicariously through me, as some people have said). I'm finally back in the States, resting up and getting ready for the semester ahead.
I leave you with two links... The first is a photo album of the whole 5 weeks (mostly Australia with a few pics of Korea). The second is a collection of photos that I took while in Korea... See, the Korean people are an passionate, intelligent and wonderful community of people. Also, the written English language is beautiful in its complexity and composition.
...However... For some reason, when you put the two together, you oftentimes get some, uh... interesting results. Please enjoy my documentation of some of the more humorous samples of "Konglish" or "Engrish." :)
Australia and Korea Photo Album
Funny English Phrases in Korea
later!
-e
Friday, August 04, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Pitstop: Tokyo -- Part II: Observations
So my efforts to find something else to do in the international terminal have failed. Thus, I am back at the same internet kiosk.
Like I said in my previous post, I unfortunately don't have the time to get out and explore the city and country. But, I have had some time to explore the people and culture of Japan... as they exist in this airport. So, here are some observations I've made since getting to this wonderful country/city/airport:
- Japanese service people are polite. Super polite. Not necessarily warm and friendly, like people in Sydney. But just uber, super polite. Polite enough to give this New Yorker a minor case of the jibblies.
- You can get sashimi/sushi everywhere here. Word.
- Everybody speaks three languages. Or maybe that's just the moving sidewalk telling Japanese, English and Korean speakers that the end of the walkway is fast approaching. Okay, fine. The moving sidewalk speaks three languages.
- Actually, it's safe to say that at least the people making the announcements over the PA can speak roughly three languages. They always start with the one they're most comfortable with. Then the second most comfortable. Then by the third language, you can tell that they're thinking "Sigh... well, I guess I gotta say this shit in THIS fucking language too..."
- Something tells me perhaps I shouldn't have gotten raw fish for lunch. In an airport. In the middle of summer.
- ...The restrooms here are quite clean.
- The restrooms here also have automated soap dispensers! Awesome.
- The restrooms also have temperature readings on the facuet. I think if we had this in America, people would scald or freeze themselves to death all the time.
- Nothing makes you feel more worldly than carrying four different countries' currencies on your person (AUS, USD, Korean won and Japanese yen).
- Though, when you get back home, nothing is quite as annoying as having to deal with coins from three countries that you can't change back into USD.
And lastly:
- Dammit, sumo wrestlers are just funny.
Alright... Hopefully something interesting will happen to keep me occupied for the next hour. I'll be posting some great pictures from Korea when I get home, so check back in a couple of days!
-e
Like I said in my previous post, I unfortunately don't have the time to get out and explore the city and country. But, I have had some time to explore the people and culture of Japan... as they exist in this airport. So, here are some observations I've made since getting to this wonderful country/city/airport:
- Japanese service people are polite. Super polite. Not necessarily warm and friendly, like people in Sydney. But just uber, super polite. Polite enough to give this New Yorker a minor case of the jibblies.
- You can get sashimi/sushi everywhere here. Word.
- Everybody speaks three languages. Or maybe that's just the moving sidewalk telling Japanese, English and Korean speakers that the end of the walkway is fast approaching. Okay, fine. The moving sidewalk speaks three languages.
- Actually, it's safe to say that at least the people making the announcements over the PA can speak roughly three languages. They always start with the one they're most comfortable with. Then the second most comfortable. Then by the third language, you can tell that they're thinking "Sigh... well, I guess I gotta say this shit in THIS fucking language too..."
- Something tells me perhaps I shouldn't have gotten raw fish for lunch. In an airport. In the middle of summer.
- ...The restrooms here are quite clean.
- The restrooms here also have automated soap dispensers! Awesome.
- The restrooms also have temperature readings on the facuet. I think if we had this in America, people would scald or freeze themselves to death all the time.
- Nothing makes you feel more worldly than carrying four different countries' currencies on your person (AUS, USD, Korean won and Japanese yen).
- Though, when you get back home, nothing is quite as annoying as having to deal with coins from three countries that you can't change back into USD.
And lastly:
- Dammit, sumo wrestlers are just funny.
Alright... Hopefully something interesting will happen to keep me occupied for the next hour. I'll be posting some great pictures from Korea when I get home, so check back in a couple of days!
-e
Pit Stop: Tokyo
I don't know if anyone is checking this blog anymore, but for those of you that are, I am currently sitting in the Tokyo airport, killing time during my four hour layover here. It's been 20 years since I lived in Japan... It's too bad I don't get to check out the city while I'm here. I'd be interested to see how things have changed. Although, to be honest, I don't really remember a whole lot about Japan, outside of our apartment, my school, and the Famous Amos cookies down the street. Oh, and KFC. I remember that too. But something tells me the Colonel hasn't changed much since 1986.
Alrighty... Time's almost up at this internet kiosk. I may be back, depending on how bored I get!
-e
Alrighty... Time's almost up at this internet kiosk. I may be back, depending on how bored I get!
-e
Thursday, July 27, 2006
*bing bing bing* You're a buffet of manliness!
The shuttle bus pulled into Seoul Tuesday morning around 10am. My first day in Korea was spent sleeping and eating, mostly. I didn't have to deal with jetlag, per se, but all the traveling and red-eye flying had shaken up my internal clock a bit. Plus, I was still recovering from cold #2 (or possibly #3. I kind of lost count after the first one.)
Wednesday morning, the family and I packed up the car and headed down to Jinjoo, the city where my grandmother, aunt and uncle (all on my father's side) all live. It was the second road trip we had taken as a family in maybe 10 years. Certain things were just like old times... Dad driving, mom in the front passenger seat, and me and Chris in the backseat, arguing over something stupid. But then an hour into the trip, we switched roles a bit. Chris took over the driving, I sat in the passenger seat, while mom and dad relaxed in the back. I guess it's just natural as children get older they start to take over more and more of the parents' responsibilities.
One of the interesting things about Korea is that a lot of the noises here are so pleasant. For instance, every announcement you hear is preceeded by a pleasant, soothing tone or three... and the announcement itself is made in such a nice voice that you think you must be receiving the best news ever, even if it's just telling you that the train is coming. We had several things talking to us in the car: the GPS navigation system and the radar detector. They'd say things like "*bing bing bing*, good morning!" and "*bing bing bing* there is a radar 500km ahead of you. please be aware!" I'm surprised they didn't start saying, "*bing bing bing* My, what a well-coordinated outfit you are wearing today!" or "*bing bing bing* Have you lost weight?"
Anyhow, we rolled into Jinjoo around 4pm or so, and met up with grandma. Now, the thing is, people in that area of Korea speak with an accent, kind of like people from the South in the US. So understanding my grandmother is twice as hard as understanding everyone else. But, thankfully, I managed to get through the evening with a minimum of embarrassment.
The next day was spent mostly on the road. We woke up early, had breakfast at grandma's house (mmm, gimchi for breakfast...) and headed out to the city registrar to get a copy of Chris' registration... the reason for all this was that he wanted to figure out how to write his name in Chinese characters. For those of you who don't know, there are a whole bunch of Chinese characters for each phoenetic sound... so the whole thing can get kind of confusing if you don't actually know Chinese. ANYhow, then after dropping grandma back at her house, we were off to the Korean National Heritage Museum. This place is pretty impressive looking... but it takes about 20 minutes just to walk from the parking lot to the museum (no joke). The point of the whole $500 million dollar compound is to remind us Koreans of the shit we had to endure during the Japanese occupation (apparently the textbooks began to just gloss over that part) and to also serve as a symbol for the eventual reunification of North and South Korea.
Really, the only entertaining thing about this place was the pictures Chris took of me screwing around inside the museum. But, once again, I can't get pictures to upload here, so I'll have to post them later when I get home :(
That night, back in Seoul, we met up with my dad's older brother for dinner, during which I finally learned how to write my name in Chinese (it's a long story). I would post it for you guys to see, but... yeah. the picture thing.
Alright, I'm going to raid the kitchen for food... I'll write more later!
-e
Wednesday morning, the family and I packed up the car and headed down to Jinjoo, the city where my grandmother, aunt and uncle (all on my father's side) all live. It was the second road trip we had taken as a family in maybe 10 years. Certain things were just like old times... Dad driving, mom in the front passenger seat, and me and Chris in the backseat, arguing over something stupid. But then an hour into the trip, we switched roles a bit. Chris took over the driving, I sat in the passenger seat, while mom and dad relaxed in the back. I guess it's just natural as children get older they start to take over more and more of the parents' responsibilities.
One of the interesting things about Korea is that a lot of the noises here are so pleasant. For instance, every announcement you hear is preceeded by a pleasant, soothing tone or three... and the announcement itself is made in such a nice voice that you think you must be receiving the best news ever, even if it's just telling you that the train is coming. We had several things talking to us in the car: the GPS navigation system and the radar detector. They'd say things like "*bing bing bing*, good morning!" and "*bing bing bing* there is a radar 500km ahead of you. please be aware!" I'm surprised they didn't start saying, "*bing bing bing* My, what a well-coordinated outfit you are wearing today!" or "*bing bing bing* Have you lost weight?"
Anyhow, we rolled into Jinjoo around 4pm or so, and met up with grandma. Now, the thing is, people in that area of Korea speak with an accent, kind of like people from the South in the US. So understanding my grandmother is twice as hard as understanding everyone else. But, thankfully, I managed to get through the evening with a minimum of embarrassment.
The next day was spent mostly on the road. We woke up early, had breakfast at grandma's house (mmm, gimchi for breakfast...) and headed out to the city registrar to get a copy of Chris' registration... the reason for all this was that he wanted to figure out how to write his name in Chinese characters. For those of you who don't know, there are a whole bunch of Chinese characters for each phoenetic sound... so the whole thing can get kind of confusing if you don't actually know Chinese. ANYhow, then after dropping grandma back at her house, we were off to the Korean National Heritage Museum. This place is pretty impressive looking... but it takes about 20 minutes just to walk from the parking lot to the museum (no joke). The point of the whole $500 million dollar compound is to remind us Koreans of the shit we had to endure during the Japanese occupation (apparently the textbooks began to just gloss over that part) and to also serve as a symbol for the eventual reunification of North and South Korea.
Really, the only entertaining thing about this place was the pictures Chris took of me screwing around inside the museum. But, once again, I can't get pictures to upload here, so I'll have to post them later when I get home :(
That night, back in Seoul, we met up with my dad's older brother for dinner, during which I finally learned how to write my name in Chinese (it's a long story). I would post it for you guys to see, but... yeah. the picture thing.
Alright, I'm going to raid the kitchen for food... I'll write more later!
-e
Say Hello to Korea (and Bam)
[still can't upload pics... sorry folks!]
Most of Monday and the early part of Tuesday were spent traveling to Seoul, Korea. I woke up and had one last crappy/free breakfast at the Travelodge with all the CCSA people, ran upstairs to do some last last minute packing, then hung out in the lobby for a few minutes taking some last minute pictures. At 11am, we all hopped on the Murray's Coach bus and headed off to the airport.
The trip to the airport was pretty uneventful... Once we got there, I had to split off to check in at the Malaysian Airlines counter, but my flight left about an hour after CCSA's, so I headed over to their gate after going through security. We saw Bam Margera from the TV show "Jackass" (plus some Right Guard commercials, if I remember correctly). He was on the same flight to LA as the CCSA people. Unfortunately for him, so were about 75 middle school children, all of whom wanted his autograph. It's a living, I guess.
Anyhow, after giving/getting a few more hugs and shaking some hands, I parted ways with the rest of my CCSA people and headed back to my gate (with a pitstop at the airport Wagamama for some noodles... mmm...). My flight left without incident (something I still wasn't used to) and what's more, I practically had an entire row of seats to myself. Awesome. I watched the Pink Panther movie (the recent one with Steve Martin) about 6 times. It was surprisingly good... I especially liked the bit about the hamburger.
We landed in Kuala Lumpur around 8pm local time. I had nothing to do until 12:15am when my next flight was taking off, so I decided to wander around a little bit. I noticed the escalators were very efficient, only turning on when someone approached it. ...well, I thought it was neat, anyhow. I found a free internet kiosk which occupied me for a bit... unfortunately, the mouse didn't work, so all I could do was find out that I had some new e-mail-- then sign off. I grabbed something to eat at Sabarros, which I normally would not do, but it was the only place that would take credit cards (stupid Burger King). Actually, I was the recipient of a random act of kindness... The BK had a few internet stations, but unbeknownst to me, you had to go buy an access card at the counter. So I just queued up behind this one girl... but when she noticed I was waiting, just gave me her access card and explained that it was worth 100 minutes and there was no way she was going to use it all. Sweet.
The flight to Seoul was, again, uneventful... No real good movies or anything. I did get a seat in the row with the door, which theoretically was supposed to give me more leg room... unfortunately for me, there was a large bulkhead sticking out of the door. So much for more leg room.
I arrived on time and breezed through baggage claim and customs. My mom and brother were waiting on the other side. It was great to see them... Chris tried a few Tim Tams, but didn't really see what all the fuss was about. He's obviously crazy.
It was good to be back in Korea... It's been about 5 years since I visited. As per usual, the thought of being in a country full of Korean people combined with the thought of being forced to speak my clunky, inadequate and generally horrible Korean both terrified and excited me. Well... Okay, less excitement and more anxiety, I guess. But, hey, it's all part of the experience, right?
Right.
-e
Most of Monday and the early part of Tuesday were spent traveling to Seoul, Korea. I woke up and had one last crappy/free breakfast at the Travelodge with all the CCSA people, ran upstairs to do some last last minute packing, then hung out in the lobby for a few minutes taking some last minute pictures. At 11am, we all hopped on the Murray's Coach bus and headed off to the airport.
The trip to the airport was pretty uneventful... Once we got there, I had to split off to check in at the Malaysian Airlines counter, but my flight left about an hour after CCSA's, so I headed over to their gate after going through security. We saw Bam Margera from the TV show "Jackass" (plus some Right Guard commercials, if I remember correctly). He was on the same flight to LA as the CCSA people. Unfortunately for him, so were about 75 middle school children, all of whom wanted his autograph. It's a living, I guess.
Anyhow, after giving/getting a few more hugs and shaking some hands, I parted ways with the rest of my CCSA people and headed back to my gate (with a pitstop at the airport Wagamama for some noodles... mmm...). My flight left without incident (something I still wasn't used to) and what's more, I practically had an entire row of seats to myself. Awesome. I watched the Pink Panther movie (the recent one with Steve Martin) about 6 times. It was surprisingly good... I especially liked the bit about the hamburger.
We landed in Kuala Lumpur around 8pm local time. I had nothing to do until 12:15am when my next flight was taking off, so I decided to wander around a little bit. I noticed the escalators were very efficient, only turning on when someone approached it. ...well, I thought it was neat, anyhow. I found a free internet kiosk which occupied me for a bit... unfortunately, the mouse didn't work, so all I could do was find out that I had some new e-mail-- then sign off. I grabbed something to eat at Sabarros, which I normally would not do, but it was the only place that would take credit cards (stupid Burger King). Actually, I was the recipient of a random act of kindness... The BK had a few internet stations, but unbeknownst to me, you had to go buy an access card at the counter. So I just queued up behind this one girl... but when she noticed I was waiting, just gave me her access card and explained that it was worth 100 minutes and there was no way she was going to use it all. Sweet.
The flight to Seoul was, again, uneventful... No real good movies or anything. I did get a seat in the row with the door, which theoretically was supposed to give me more leg room... unfortunately for me, there was a large bulkhead sticking out of the door. So much for more leg room.
I arrived on time and breezed through baggage claim and customs. My mom and brother were waiting on the other side. It was great to see them... Chris tried a few Tim Tams, but didn't really see what all the fuss was about. He's obviously crazy.
It was good to be back in Korea... It's been about 5 years since I visited. As per usual, the thought of being in a country full of Korean people combined with the thought of being forced to speak my clunky, inadequate and generally horrible Korean both terrified and excited me. Well... Okay, less excitement and more anxiety, I guess. But, hey, it's all part of the experience, right?
Right.
-e
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Making Time for Lobby Time
[once again, i can't post pics right now, but i will as soon as i can!]
After our marathon hike down the coast at Manly, we hopped on a bus back into the city. We were all pretty exhausted, but since it was our last night in Sydney, we were determined to make the most of it. The CCSA people were headed out to dinner at Thai-Foon (hardy har har), a favorite Thai restaurant in Darling Harbour. So we showered, changed and headed back out the door (although I nearly fell asleep while waiting for the girls).
The restaurant experience in Sydney has been an interesting one to say the least... For those of you who don't know, tipping is neither mandatory nor expected in Australia. However, as a result, many servers don't really pay a lot of attention to your needs. Getting water is almost impossible at some restaurants. Getting the bill can be even harder... I thought maybe living in New York has conditioned me to expect everyone to move at the speed of light, but most of our friends from the South thought the service was pretty terrible too.
But I digress...
Anyhow, our dinner was fun... I discovered Heather's aversion to mushrooms was much more severe than I had first imagined. She found what she thought might've been mushrooms in her Empress Noodles, tried one, then almost puked all over the place while trying to extract the half-chewed vegetable from her mouth. She then carefully plucked anything even mildly resembling a mushroom from her dish.
I also discovered that Jessica had never tried tofu before. Despite a few attempts by Kime to get her to try it, she just wasn't having any of it. But, all in all, everyone enjoyed their food. Eryn enjoyed her veggie pad thai so much that she actually finished it before Jackie AND I finished our food! (For those of you who don't know, J & I tend to inhale rather than chew... Eryn eats as fast as any normal person would, but probably just seems slow next to us.)
After dinner, we headed back to Chez Travelodge for some "lobby time," which just consists (big surprise) of hanging out in the lobby, usually drinking alcohol and playing cards. Many CCSA folks have commented that lobby time has been among their favorite activities on the trip. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Even when there is no drinking or card playing, lobby time gave me the opportunity to get to know a few people on the trip that I am now pleased to call friends.
The night pretty much tapered off from there. We played a few rounds of Kings and one more round of the Phase Game before I called it quits. After doing some last minute packing, I dozed off... I was going to need some sleep to get through all the travling that awaited me.
-e
After our marathon hike down the coast at Manly, we hopped on a bus back into the city. We were all pretty exhausted, but since it was our last night in Sydney, we were determined to make the most of it. The CCSA people were headed out to dinner at Thai-Foon (hardy har har), a favorite Thai restaurant in Darling Harbour. So we showered, changed and headed back out the door (although I nearly fell asleep while waiting for the girls).
The restaurant experience in Sydney has been an interesting one to say the least... For those of you who don't know, tipping is neither mandatory nor expected in Australia. However, as a result, many servers don't really pay a lot of attention to your needs. Getting water is almost impossible at some restaurants. Getting the bill can be even harder... I thought maybe living in New York has conditioned me to expect everyone to move at the speed of light, but most of our friends from the South thought the service was pretty terrible too.
But I digress...
Anyhow, our dinner was fun... I discovered Heather's aversion to mushrooms was much more severe than I had first imagined. She found what she thought might've been mushrooms in her Empress Noodles, tried one, then almost puked all over the place while trying to extract the half-chewed vegetable from her mouth. She then carefully plucked anything even mildly resembling a mushroom from her dish.
I also discovered that Jessica had never tried tofu before. Despite a few attempts by Kime to get her to try it, she just wasn't having any of it. But, all in all, everyone enjoyed their food. Eryn enjoyed her veggie pad thai so much that she actually finished it before Jackie AND I finished our food! (For those of you who don't know, J & I tend to inhale rather than chew... Eryn eats as fast as any normal person would, but probably just seems slow next to us.)
After dinner, we headed back to Chez Travelodge for some "lobby time," which just consists (big surprise) of hanging out in the lobby, usually drinking alcohol and playing cards. Many CCSA folks have commented that lobby time has been among their favorite activities on the trip. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Even when there is no drinking or card playing, lobby time gave me the opportunity to get to know a few people on the trip that I am now pleased to call friends.
The night pretty much tapered off from there. We played a few rounds of Kings and one more round of the Phase Game before I called it quits. After doing some last minute packing, I dozed off... I was going to need some sleep to get through all the travling that awaited me.
-e
Monday, July 24, 2006
Now You're a Man... a Manly, Manly Man
[Unfortuntely, I'm having some issues uploading pictures to my blog from this computer... they will come later, i promise!]
We had so many rainy, cloudy, dark days in a row that it was starting to look like we weren't ever going to see the sun in Sydney again. But, at the last moment, this Sunday, which was our last full day in Sydney, turned out to be a perfect day. So Jackie, Eryn and I took advantage and headed out to Manly Beach to take in the sights and do the 10k (6-ish mile) beach walk.
Our first stop was the local Coles, to pick up some food for a picnic lunch. Mostly, we just got salads and fruit... But we did come across Simpsons themed hot dog flavored chips. Yes, that's right. Hot dog flavored. We were going to buy a bag just to bring home as a souvenir, but I decided perhaps taking a picture might be a better idea.
Anyhow, we proceeded to the beach, which was, of course, beautiful. Then after snapping a few photos, we headed over to the trailhead for the beach walk. Now, mind you, this was not just a "walk," as all the tour books might have you beleive. This was a full-fledged hike. It started out all nice, even and paved. But then it quickly turned to dirt, rock, puddles, steep inclines, steep declines, trees, mud, etc... although Eryn swore that she was going to end up face down in some dirty water, and Jackie did get a bit of a splash from the ocean at one of the beaches, and I stepped in more than a few puddles, we mostly all managed to get through the hike without getting too wet.
It was a long freaking hike (if I didn't mention it already), so we stopped off a few times. The first time, we found a nice looking beach/cove... Eryn took to writing some stuff in the sand:
It was kind of hard to stop her... she had written about 4 different phrases before we left. Jackie, on the other hand, was more about just standing around on some rocks and watching the waves come in... until one wave came in a little too far, and a little too fast. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this.... I just heard a splash and a yelp, followed by Jackie's trademark laugh :)
The next stopping point was yet another beach (big surprise). But this time, we got a small surprise: a beagle puppy! Jackie nearly wet herself when she saw it (she is a beagle owner for those of you who don't know). But, I'm not gonna lie... I nearly wet myself when I got a little closer too. This puppy was SO cute. Like, "rivaling koala bears" cute. His name was Bob. He was teething and loved to play, so he'd nip at our hands when we pet him, which of course just made him even cuter. Bob also was very intent on getting to China... or... er, Canada? See, he was very intently digging a hole in the sand and his owner at one point said something to the effect of "next stop, China!" I didn't think about it until now, but I thought that was juts something Americans said since China is opposite the US on the globe. Hm.
ANYway, we made one more stop to call the folks back at the hotel to verify plans for the evening, then forged on to the Spit, which marks the end of the Manly Scenic Walkway. We're not exactly sure what The Spit is... It could be the body of water running underneath the Spit Bridge... Or it could be the general area around the bridge. Eh, who knows. The important part is that we were there, right? Right?
Right.
-e
We had so many rainy, cloudy, dark days in a row that it was starting to look like we weren't ever going to see the sun in Sydney again. But, at the last moment, this Sunday, which was our last full day in Sydney, turned out to be a perfect day. So Jackie, Eryn and I took advantage and headed out to Manly Beach to take in the sights and do the 10k (6-ish mile) beach walk.
Our first stop was the local Coles, to pick up some food for a picnic lunch. Mostly, we just got salads and fruit... But we did come across Simpsons themed hot dog flavored chips. Yes, that's right. Hot dog flavored. We were going to buy a bag just to bring home as a souvenir, but I decided perhaps taking a picture might be a better idea.
Anyhow, we proceeded to the beach, which was, of course, beautiful. Then after snapping a few photos, we headed over to the trailhead for the beach walk. Now, mind you, this was not just a "walk," as all the tour books might have you beleive. This was a full-fledged hike. It started out all nice, even and paved. But then it quickly turned to dirt, rock, puddles, steep inclines, steep declines, trees, mud, etc... although Eryn swore that she was going to end up face down in some dirty water, and Jackie did get a bit of a splash from the ocean at one of the beaches, and I stepped in more than a few puddles, we mostly all managed to get through the hike without getting too wet.
It was a long freaking hike (if I didn't mention it already), so we stopped off a few times. The first time, we found a nice looking beach/cove... Eryn took to writing some stuff in the sand:
It was kind of hard to stop her... she had written about 4 different phrases before we left. Jackie, on the other hand, was more about just standing around on some rocks and watching the waves come in... until one wave came in a little too far, and a little too fast. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this.... I just heard a splash and a yelp, followed by Jackie's trademark laugh :)
The next stopping point was yet another beach (big surprise). But this time, we got a small surprise: a beagle puppy! Jackie nearly wet herself when she saw it (she is a beagle owner for those of you who don't know). But, I'm not gonna lie... I nearly wet myself when I got a little closer too. This puppy was SO cute. Like, "rivaling koala bears" cute. His name was Bob. He was teething and loved to play, so he'd nip at our hands when we pet him, which of course just made him even cuter. Bob also was very intent on getting to China... or... er, Canada? See, he was very intently digging a hole in the sand and his owner at one point said something to the effect of "next stop, China!" I didn't think about it until now, but I thought that was juts something Americans said since China is opposite the US on the globe. Hm.
ANYway, we made one more stop to call the folks back at the hotel to verify plans for the evening, then forged on to the Spit, which marks the end of the Manly Scenic Walkway. We're not exactly sure what The Spit is... It could be the body of water running underneath the Spit Bridge... Or it could be the general area around the bridge. Eh, who knows. The important part is that we were there, right? Right?
Right.
-e
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
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
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
Friday, July 14, 2006
Rainy Day Blues
Yesterday turned out to be a pretty packed afternoon. After leaving the internet cafe, we headed over to Federation Square which is fairly unremarkable, save a giant building with some really interesting architechture. 
But we did encounter a very nice old man, who is part of a volunteer team dedicated to helping clueless tourists like ourselves find all kinds of interesting (and free) things to do.
He pointed us to a free bus tour that circles the city and drops off/picks up people at about 15 different points throughout the city. Luckily for us, one of those points was the old Melbourne Gaol... which we didn't realize was pronounced "jail" until the pre-recorded "tour guide" on the bus started talking about it. We had been saying "ga-ohl" to each other all day. Whoops. On the way to the gaol/jail we happened upon this street sign:
That's right folks. The Batcave is in Melbourne, Australia.
Anyhow, the gaol was pretty amazing and creepy. We got to see the little cells they had to stay in, and each one had a little story about one of the more famous inmates. They used to hang people in there too, so we got to see the gallows that they used and they even had the equipment/suit they used on display. CreeEEEeepy. We also had fun pretending Eryn was a prisoner at this jail/gaol:
We also found this vintage clothing store that was suggested in the Lonely Planet book at which I found and bought a shirt with the Hostess logo on it. Hostess makes Twinkies. For those of you who get the joke, I was pretty proud of myself for that find ;)
Afterwards, we headed over to the Fiztroy area for dinner. After walking up and down the street for what seemed like forever (I was particulrly hypoglycemic, so it probably was only 5 minutes), we picked this place called Red... um.... Red-something and promptly started to stuff our faces. We also shared a bottle of wine by a winery called "Scuttlebutt," which quickly became our new favorite word for the evening.
It was only about 6:15pm when we finished dinner, so we decided to roll ourselves out the door and down the street to look at some of the shops around the area. Unfortunately, most of them were closed, so we just hopped into a taxi and headed back to the hotel. Oh, and apparently, renovations and reconstruction tends to follow us around... Not only do we get to wake up to the sounds of drills and sawing in our Sydney hotel, but our Melbourne hotel also decided this was a good time to do some renovating as well:
Anyhow, we were pretty exhausted, and it was still early, so we figured we'd just chill out a bit and head out later in the evening. However, after a game of Rummy 500 (in which I made an AMAZING comeback to secure 2nd place), we pretty much decided it was time for bed.
Anyhow, today turned out to be pretty rainy and cloudy. Unfortunately for us, there isn't much to do in Melbourne when its raining (thus the long blog post). But we aren't letting it get us down! (not too much, anyway) We'll be headed over to check out the Esplanade Hotel later tonight, which is a local venue suggested to us by an Aussie friend in Sydney.
Gotta run!
-e
But we did encounter a very nice old man, who is part of a volunteer team dedicated to helping clueless tourists like ourselves find all kinds of interesting (and free) things to do. He pointed us to a free bus tour that circles the city and drops off/picks up people at about 15 different points throughout the city. Luckily for us, one of those points was the old Melbourne Gaol... which we didn't realize was pronounced "jail" until the pre-recorded "tour guide" on the bus started talking about it. We had been saying "ga-ohl" to each other all day. Whoops. On the way to the gaol/jail we happened upon this street sign:
That's right folks. The Batcave is in Melbourne, Australia.
Anyhow, the gaol was pretty amazing and creepy. We got to see the little cells they had to stay in, and each one had a little story about one of the more famous inmates. They used to hang people in there too, so we got to see the gallows that they used and they even had the equipment/suit they used on display. CreeEEEeepy. We also had fun pretending Eryn was a prisoner at this jail/gaol:
We also found this vintage clothing store that was suggested in the Lonely Planet book at which I found and bought a shirt with the Hostess logo on it. Hostess makes Twinkies. For those of you who get the joke, I was pretty proud of myself for that find ;)Afterwards, we headed over to the Fiztroy area for dinner. After walking up and down the street for what seemed like forever (I was particulrly hypoglycemic, so it probably was only 5 minutes), we picked this place called Red... um.... Red-something and promptly started to stuff our faces. We also shared a bottle of wine by a winery called "Scuttlebutt," which quickly became our new favorite word for the evening.
It was only about 6:15pm when we finished dinner, so we decided to roll ourselves out the door and down the street to look at some of the shops around the area. Unfortunately, most of them were closed, so we just hopped into a taxi and headed back to the hotel. Oh, and apparently, renovations and reconstruction tends to follow us around... Not only do we get to wake up to the sounds of drills and sawing in our Sydney hotel, but our Melbourne hotel also decided this was a good time to do some renovating as well:
Anyhow, we were pretty exhausted, and it was still early, so we figured we'd just chill out a bit and head out later in the evening. However, after a game of Rummy 500 (in which I made an AMAZING comeback to secure 2nd place), we pretty much decided it was time for bed.
Anyhow, today turned out to be pretty rainy and cloudy. Unfortunately for us, there isn't much to do in Melbourne when its raining (thus the long blog post). But we aren't letting it get us down! (not too much, anyway) We'll be headed over to check out the Esplanade Hotel later tonight, which is a local venue suggested to us by an Aussie friend in Sydney.Gotta run!
-e
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