Cairns Part II

The motivation it takes for me to drag my sorry butt over to blogspot and start typing and uploading photos would shock and appall you. But here I am after way too long updating on things that are no longer relevant. *sigh* So here it goes!

So our second day at Cairns started with us dragging our tired butts out of our room and into the car. As you can see, this is what $32 a day can buy YOU!

And this is what $20 at Coles will do to keep you full for the day!

Cairns Part 1

So strangely, about a month ago (eek!), Christian, Jake, Koki and I decided to take a flight to see the one of those few unique and beautiful natural sights in Australia. After the night of debauchery that followed going to the Sydney Aquarium (video to follow!), we all woke up at 2:30am and took a taxi to get to the airport for 4:30am.

After lounging around for a few hours, we got onto our flight and flew out at 6am and arrived in Cairns (pron: Cannes in Aussie) in the north of Queensland. The weather, contrasting with the 10 degree weather of Sydney, was a balmy 26 degree Celsius.

Food Rant

To digress from my adventures (and long waited delay), here's something that's actually really near and dear to my heart. Please watch this and raise awareness where YOU are regarding the issues that Jamie Oliver brings up. Love him or hate him, he's putting forth something that I truly believe in. While it might be hypocritical for me to talk about healthy eating after destroying my body with sushi... nonetheless, consider it.

Take care!

The Sydney Aquarium

So after long delay, Christian and I finally got a chance to see the Sydney Aquarium. Videos and real post later! Lots of photos, so hopefully click on the title before you read too much!

Jazz Festival

Shockingly, this post is literally a MONTH overdue. whoops!

So in a nice little break for the usual antics, my friends and I decided to check out the Jazz festival in May.

The Last Days

So over the past 2 days, all my roommates have moved out of my apartment. It's strangely quiet, despite the fact that I can now blast my music without worry about disturbing someone.

In some respects - this is the calm before the storm. Everything has culminated in me sitting here, alone typing out this last post before my internet dies. I have a few days left in Sydney, and will spend it with the last two internationals in the city.

I'm going to run over to the library tomorrow at around 9am local time and sit there until I finish posting about the Jazz festival, Cairns, Koala Park and anything else I have left off the blog since exams started. It may or may not culminate in a sentimental, sensitive artist moment. No promises.

You may or may not have also noticed that the layout has been jazzed up a bit since the last time you've been here (JEBUS the last post was over 20 days ago?!?! exam season is pretty dreadful), but that's just so it's not super dry and boring with the black background. See what I do for you guys?

Rick

Final Fish Market Excursion

So for presumably, the last time, I went to the Sydney Fish Market. I've been there about three times now, and as I've mentioned before, is one of the major reasons why I decided to come back to Sydney after a 5-year hiatus. I took Evan, Koki and Jake for their first experience of the Peter's Fish Market platter. We opted to split the 3 person meal between 5 of us (The aforementioned gentlemen + Nicole + me), just because we weren't all super hungry but wanted to try a bit of everything.

champions are made. heroes are born.

So a couple weeks ago, my household was invited to a hot dog eating contest at the International House. For any prospective travellers who are genuinely interested in studying abroad, then I whole-heartedly endorse this place for a spot. Unfortunately, it's super exclusive so unless you come from derka-derka-ga-lam-a-badstan... you better apply early. Otherwise it's great because lots of international and indigenous Australians hang out and live there.

Eat on the Cheap and some news from home.

While it doesn't surprises most people who visit Sydney, this country is pretty damn expensive. Sorry Australia, you guys just need to calm down with your ridiculously strong dollar and ridiculous priced good. In the words of one Jake... "I'm not saying but I'm saying". So, being a poor student who's getting absolutely ruined by your countries recession-proof economy, how do you eat when you want to go out? Well, the Fish Market is fairly pricey, despite being overwhelmed with a mountain of food. But if you just want a reasonable meal out, I almost certainly recommend some shady looking asian restaurant. For lunch or dinner you can do it for almost half (or even a quarter!) of the price of somewhere else. If you want something cheap, always go to the Chinese (or in Australia's case, the Thai/Vietnamese/misc. Asian Minority).

So where do I go?

After being initially overwhelmed by the prices and choices of food in this ridiculous country, I managed to find "my spot". A nice restaurant in Newtown that provides an incredible $6 lunch. Translated back to Canadian it's about $5.50? And it's really good! I imagine Native Australians lose their minds at such incredible prices (minimum wage is $15/hr?), but for me it's something that's incredibly welcome, especially considering prices for other basic ammemnities. Although truthfully, Coles is also fantastic.

And finally, the most disgraceful of meals... The infamous McDonalds Family Meal ($20 of glory)

But, in other news, I think everyone who ends up studying abroad realizes that sometimes (okay, all the time), you end up missing stuff back home. And I'm not just talking about fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds (oh speak to me symphony of gluttony), but major events. While it'll be another 3 months before I see the little bugger, my cousin Alyssa and her husband Brian just had a kid. I guess this means I'm an uncle? In Chinese terms, if you share the same last name and come from the father's side of the family, you might as well be siblings. But this is amazing news, because this little halfsie is going to be a part of the future of the world guys! More incredibly, my great grandmother is now a great GREAT grandmother. 104 years later, she got to see 5 generations! Kah-Ray-Zee. Here's the newest addition to our family, Sir Taran.

Just chillin like a villian.

Since blogspot is super counter intuitive and enjoys punching me in the face everytime I want to do something, unfortunately the picture is at an angle. If you're a certain Brit I know, you'd turn the computer so you could read it. I'm glad I lived in a civilized country that has technology.

Today is fish market day with my amigos, and time for some Abalone sushi! My wallet hates me, but my heart and stomach swoons at the thought.

Best Wishes.

Rick

The Infamous Deep Fried Mars Bar and Night Time Beach Culture

So trying to avoid a vicious cop out, here are the photos from awhile ago when Christian, Frankie, Koki and I went on a bit of a hike to Bondi Beach to do the very easy and quite scenic Bondi to Coogee (sp?) walk. I'm pretty sure we got lost a couple times, but in our defence it was dark and we're all foreigners. If you hate on us, I'm calling the police and registering you as a sex offender. I'm just kidding. I'll just get deported.

Newcastle: The Lost Album

Lo and behold! Here is the long awaited photos and blog about Newcastle, the dirty bald spot of Sydney.

Australian Foreign Policy

So a couple weeks ago, I was thinking about something distinctly "Canadian" that I could share with my unenlightened roommates. Between maple syrup & Canadian bacon, something everyone knows about, I elected a French Canadian Classic: the noble Poutine. Much like with my previous post regarding ramen, here is the wikipedia page for the unawares:

Source: Wikpedia

Poutine is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curd, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients.... The French fries are of medium thickness, and fried so that the inside stays soft, while the outside is crunchy. The gravy is a light chicken, veal or turkey gravy, mildly spiced with a hint of pepper. Fresh cheese curd (not more than a day old) are used. To maintain the texture of the fries, the cheese curd and gravy must be added immediately prior to serving the dish.

So after browsing through the local supermarkets, I was able to find most of the ingredients to make this, most noblest of traditions. Unfortunately, Brown Sauce, the ubiquitous secret ingredient of Poutine, was no where to be found. I asked my mom to send me a packet of the stuff. And lo and behold, after about a week, it arrived. I had to pick it up from the post office, and what I got was a bit of a surprise...

Atypical of Australia (fear of things coming on boats), it appears that Australians have a deep-seeded fear of things coming in packages. So while my beautiful gravy mix languished in an Australian holding cell, unbeknownst to me or my family. But finally, after suffering through that horrible ordeal... here it was. I actually haven't made it yet, but it's nice to know I have a piece of Canada with me (or very shortly... in me!)

Happy Eating,

Rick

What is the point?

I think something I've learned from trying to get a degree in philosophy & history is that eventually you have to keep asking yourself...

... what's the point?

Eventually I have to try and figure out what the point of this blog is. There are plenty of far more interesting travel blogs out there... so what is it exactly that I'm trying to do that no one else has done before? Is it going on ridiculous adventures? Sight-seeing? Being a tourist? A cultural journey into the heart of a new and foreign place?

I guess the heart of this little adventure into the blogsphere is a cultural one. I'm probably more interested in seeing how someone, transplanted out of their little comfortable niche that is "life" copes with changing conditions. I could also probably be a bit more honest with what it's like to be away from friends, family and other normal conveniences. Is this all about adaptation, adoption or re-invention? I'm not sure yet... but I suspect the more honest I am here, the easier it'll be for you (my oh so patient and loving readers) to get a sense of this rather personal journey.

To start, for one thing, school sucks. Let me clarify, school work sucks. The actual university life, going to class, reading cool material is awesome. I like learning. But, I'll be frank about school. After taking 2 months off beforehand, and THEN arriving in what could be one of the most slack universities out there, and THEN being forced to do assignments while simultaneously planning ridiculous road trips up the coast... it's not exactly the most conducive student learning environment. Personally I've had both ups and downs in terms of school here (pun?), but the reality is that trying to do everything at once is pretty hard.

I think it might have something to do with the lack of class + realizing everyone in my class doesn't do any work or go to lecture + living in a houseful of really fun people = not good perfect for academicstudent life. Not to knock on my friends back home... but I guess I'm in a different environment and it's been challenging trying to adapt.

And adapt I did! I now frequent the library like it's nobodies business... but only to steal their internet. Work gets done but... I think I work better late at night with my laptop and a cup of tea. You adapt or die. I think that's the mantra for this trip. Between finding a place to stay, trying to meet people, trying to set up life for 4 months, doing school work... it just never really ends. And on top of that, TRYING to fit in all those cool things that people expect you to do while abroad, leads to a bit of a mess. Luckily, I've handed in my last assignment for the year, so all I have left to do is exams and one take-home test. At the same time, I'm IN that work zone.

You know what I'm talking about right? That "writer's high" were after finishing something you feel immediately compelled to continue writing? That might explain why I'm pounding away at my keyboard with the utmost conviction while my roommates are watching Family Guy or actually doing assignments. It's pretty bizarre but I WISH I had an assignment to do right now... this feeling will probably fade in time for exams. *sigh*

Anyways, this was my little digression and delay of an actual real post. I did in fact go to Newcastle a couple weeks ago. The place is pretty beautiful, but I will happily say it was not worth a 4:00am wake up. Although I did find out about feeding sharks near there. I'm going to try and plan a road trip up there and check that business out (Nicole&friends... I'll pay for gas if you want to check that bullshit out?)!

I've also got the Sydney Aquarium to do again, and maybe one more stop at the Fish Market. Oh and another International Beer Pong tournament to host. Possibly do more school things on the side? God I need a desk.

Cheerio,
Rick

a little too sentimental.

Sorry for the lack of update guys, been caught up with what has been known world-wide by University students as "Death Week" aka the one week where all your profs decide to designate all the assignments due-dates. I'm in the tail end of one now, so don't really have too much to worry about until exams.

When I first met Koki, one thing he told me he missed most about Japan was Ramen. To the unknowing reader, Ramen [Source: Wikipedia]...



Ramen (ラーメン, rāmen, IPA: [ɽa-meɴ] is a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China. It is served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork (チャーシュー, chāshū), dried seaweed (海苔, nori), kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn. Almost every locality in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen of Kyūshū to the miso ramen of Hokkaidō.

So, being the awesome dude that I am, I asked my uncle (who lived in Sydney about 5 years ago, and the one I stayed with) for the best ramen in Sydney. Although he pointed me to one stop in Artarmon, this was pretty far away from my place. Luckily, my uncle's friend directed me to his favourite ramen shop in Sydney, conveniently in Chinatown.


Koki approved. As soon as we walked in we were bombarded with Japanese culture. Koki felt right at home. Arguably it wasn't as good as in Tokyo. But I guess from this little trip I learned two things.

1. Little touches like a bowl of noodles, a little care package, anything really that reminds you of home is always most appreciated in a new and unfamiliar place
2. Australia, I suppose, is best describe as an Asian city full of white people. The fact that the place was rammed with a 50/50 split of both Asians/Caucasians should show how the tastes of everyone here are pretty similar. Otherwise, good food transcends cultural boundaries.

I realize this post is a bit of a copout, but we actually went to Newcastle a few weeks back and I've just been suffering from writer's laze and from Death Week. I think sometime in the next 2-3 days I'll try and do a ridiculous DOUBLE post. Hopefully that'll remind me to keep doing this thing. Taylor Swift and John Mayer are great company in Fisher!

Yesterday Christian, Evan and I hiked up to Pennant Hills to watch the Flyers/Bruins game at our friend Nicole's house. Yes, that's right, even in this god forsaken country they have cable tv that lets people enjoy the wonders that is Hockey. Ridiculous game! Who saw that coming?

Peace in the Middle East,
Rick

P.S. At the risk of losing all street cred, how awesome is that Ke$ha character? Besides her completely over the top music, she seems a little TOO genuine and nice... Taylor Swift + Jack Daniels? I think so.

[Edited] I tried fixing some of the images so they'd expand, but alas it appears they haven't worked. Whoops!

Beer Pong; Intercontinental Inebriation Delivery System

What’s better then having your essays pushed back? Having an International Ultimate Beer Pong Tournament of Champions League (IUBPTCL) with countries from all over the world of course!

Where legends are born...

While this might seem like a cop out when compared to one of my usual blogging epics, I think that during this little exchange trip there’s a lot (or as Australians say, HEAPS) of cross-cultural exchange going on. I’ve met tons of Australians who’ve heard of this magical, ubiquitous rite of passage, but not enough who’ve played it. So, as good cultural ambassadors; Christian, Jake and I showed our British, Italian and Japanese roommates this noble sport. Afterwards, a member of the Manchester Crew aka Dave learned of the game and we’ve been holding exhibition games ever since.

Finally, after a few trial rules, we decided to hold the International Ultimate Beer Pong Tournament of Champions League (Shortened from the International Ultimate Beer Pong Olympiad Tournament of Champions League of Champions because Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook hate us).

Japanese Canadian Relations at an all time low.Team Highlands getting served by Team CanadaThe Axis of Evil (Italy and Japan)Team Commonwealth's slow start and Nicole's disappointment.Co-ordinating the shenanigans

The Highlands resorting to black magic to win. The declaration of the top-seeds while one half of Team America acknowledges their terminator-like status. Defeat after a 7 - 0 start.

The gold-standard of the North American university/college drinking scene has now gone international. Although we had some dodgy moments getting the rules down solid (I’m looking at you Team England), by the end we had some ridiculously thrilling games, including the Axis of Evil (Luigi and Koki) who played solid games of beer pong against all the top ranking teams, and one of the greatest upsets of the century, as the bottom ranked Team England [Manchester] (Paul and Sam) defeated the top-seeded Team Australia (Bianca and Kyle). After some intense elimination games, the true Cinderella story of Team Commonwealth – the last minute team of Evan and Nicole – blew past their competition and arrived in the final against the unstoppable juggernauts that was Team America.

The well colour co-ordinated Team Canada (and Nicole!) Team AmericaTeam Australia.

Team Commonwealth smashed their way through the formidable offence of Team America and secured their place in international history as the champions of the first ever Sydney Classic.

I think we’ll definitely be doing more of the same!

It also goes to show, that you don’t need to be flying all over the place to have fun. It’s the people you’re with. *Cue sentimental music*

Special thanks to everyone who came out, and especially Koki for taking all those pictures despite being a royal asshole by hating on Canada the whole night, and even if in your intoxication managed to take extra blurry pictures. You’ll get your comeuppance.*

*I’ve waited a long time to drop this line!

Best,
Rick

Tom Cruise and Oysters

Between doing assignments for class, trying to find things to do that will be “somewhat” interesting while at the same time retaining my sanity, bank account and moral hygiene… it’s a bit of a challenge. I don’t think I can ever claim a live an adventure filled life (unlike my friend Evan, check out his blog for REAL stories), but I do my best to find ways of entertaining myself while at the same time doing this thing called “life”. I think that’s about as much of an emotional/sentimental response as I’ll drop down on this blog, since the last thing anyone needs is anyone sharing their feelings on the internet. So I suppose I can run through my ordinary routine at the University of Sydney.

After waking up at 8:30 – 9:00 am, I usually get myself a bowl of cereal or PB&J. I’m normally greeted by two incredibly optimistic Europeans, the exemplary Sir Andrew and the always friendly Luigi. After poking and prodding me into gastronomic debauchery, I usually end up abandoning the cereal and move onto pancakes, crepes, sausage, or bacon-related shenanigans. After this gets sorted out, I typically look up from my ridiculous breakfast to see Koki looking at me, his face lined with both shame and disappointment, declaring to the assembled crowd (Luigi, Andy and I)…

You fat bastard.

Guilted at my shameful morning, I slink off to the bathroom to scrub off my dishonour and shower in my own self-pity. Upon my return, Koki has typically joined in onto our debased breakfast of champions and is chowing down on some protein of unknown providence, in which case I promptly feel much better about my own lack of culinary morals. I then walk back to my room to swap my PJ’s for a crisp, freshly laundered t-shirt and the pair of jeans I’ve been recycling for the past week. After packing my bag (Ayer’s Truth, Logic and Justification), I pull my iPod, USB memory stick, and my headphones out of my giant, prehistoric sized desktop laptop and walk over to campus. At this point, my two American roommates wake up to the smell of our depravity; I swiftly make my exit before having to explain my participation.


I cut through a McCafe (which has free internet, perfect for my poor ass!) and the Prince Albert Hospital, through a loony bin and past a boxing gym where the smell of urinal cakes and stale sweat hang over me like the sickly stench of manliness, punctuated occasionally by grunts and Australian accents. I then walk past the Ovals, where Cricket, Rugby and Australian Rules Football are played, the latter of which makes no sense to anyone, even the players themselves. After walking through a few buildings, including Manning Bar (one of my favourites!) and soliciting more than one baleful stare for photographing this rather mundane walk, I walk up a few stairs and reach the center of campus. To my left, is the magnificent, historic, majestic Quadrangle; a testament to a simpler time where minorities couldn’t go to school and where kangaroos and convicts are were still the norm. In front of me is the beautiful, stark, indomitable old 70’s era Fisher Library, where internet is neither free nor accessible.

I cleverly sneak down to the 1st floor, where I bypass all the other nerds and head off into a room where I can get 8 hours of internet, with unlimited bandwidth. After ignoring the 50mb warning of internet usage, I promptly prop myself up onto a computer and let my nimble fingers dance across the keyboard, expressing my bullshit creative genius. I sneer at those around me – what do they know about the Verification Principle and my limited knowledge and subsequent exposition of course material? I skim through Facebook, Hotmail, and other websites that I can no longer frequent because of an indecent internet connection.

After more self-absorbed literary snobbery, I usually panic and realize I just spent about an hour and a half cycling through photos of my friends back home, where I jump back into my work and plough through the rest of my work. Syntax error? Not a problem! With one stroke of my finger, I slam the “delete” key and erase my grammatical transgressions. I chortle heartily at the power of a 130lb (on a good day) boy with a keyboard, before a loud sound startles me and I nearly wet my pants. My cell phone has just received a text. My roommate Jake has decided he wants oysters and sashimi. I oblige him, as not only do I love seafood, but my gluttonous stomach growls with the prospect of terrifyingly fresh, raw oysters. Embarrassed as my neighbours eye me suspiciously, I quickly vacate the computer lab.

After taking the 20 minute walk from Fisher Library, we arrive at the Sydney Fish Market. Since it’s around 3:30 when we get there, most of the shops and fishmongers are already shutting down. Peter’s had limited selection, so we walked over to their neighbours and picked up a dozen oysters and some sashimi to share. For about $12 each, we both had a dozen oysters and a more than reasonable amount of sashimi. Since it was closing time, we also managed to get a mediocre Fish and Chip for about $5, which truthfully I wouldn’t have paid full price for. While seagulls gawked at our feast, we crammed down our delightfully greedy gullets everything in reach. We looked at some pretty delicious looking lobsters, but decided that was for another time.
Instead of walking back the way we came, we decided to go to Coles at Broadway Shopping Centre to pick up some essentials for the house (and to replenish our rations). We stumbled into a pretty impressive butcher, and found this gem that I’ve been dying to try, even if my wallet disagrees with my ambitions.

After discussing the merits of offal and contradictory attitudes towards food, we decided to cut down a fairly uninteresting street, and found the internet-meme goldmine that is the Church of Scientology. Despite it being fairly late, we could not resist walking into its gilded, e-metering, auditing, and Tom Cruise-bat-shit-crazy doors.

At this point a man stopped me from taking more photos, but the next one down is me in the bathroom being a professional asshole.

After taking a few photos, I was stopped by a rather pleasant man who began to regale us with the story of Mr. Hubbard and his philosophy on life, drugs and personal achievement. Despite being tempted to ask about Xenu, Thetans and John Travolta, Jake and I bit our tongues and feigned interest. After learning about the Caribbean cruise ship (where you achieve the highest level of Scientology), the resort complex in Florida and my eyes wandering to information about Auditing, we were lead to the bookstore where you too can reach personal achievement after dropping $500 on lectures and textbooks! After being coerced (half willingly and half out of fear of retribution) into listening to audio tapes of L. Ron Hubbard preaching his self-help-message, we wisely decided to leave. I managed to sneak a picture of the bathroom while I was there, before we said goodbye to our new friends. While trying to put together what just happened and looking over our shoulder to see if we were being followed, we realized we were right behind the shopping centre. I think I’ll take my other roommates back to that Scientologist centre, which is apparently one of only five in the world, and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere.

After buying a few important vital foodstuffs, we hopped onto a bus and arrived back at home, greeted by my now apathetic, exhausted roommates who ask politely, “how was your day?”

A typical day in the life of a Canadian Exchange Student in Sydney

Best,
Rick

P.S. please don’t take this post particularly seriously. Although the events actually happened, my exaggerated prose should suggest I’m making fun of myself and my mediocre life. Jazzing it up with a few misplaced adjectives shouldn’t change the fact that I literally, have no life. Although… today IS the International Ultimate Beer Pong Champions League tournament. Go Team Canada!