Path to the Pool, Karaoke Church, and Ned Kelly

It's been a while since I've posted a video blog entry, so here goes. I talk about the feelings I'm having about leaving Australia, as well as show some funny clips walking to the pool at a hotel and discovering a new phenomenon called "Karaoke Church."

Oh yeah, and check out my award-winning beard in the video as well. (I'm not kidding, I won the "Ned Kelly" award for a contest called "Bad Beard Month" - no shaving for the entire month of May.) I still haven't shaved and plan on wearing the beard home. I'm sure Mom will love it.

Watch the video here.

Aussie Facts and Fiction

Thought I'd take a moment to clear some rumours about Australia. So here goes...

Australians say, "Let's throw another shrimp on the barbee."

FALSE. First of all, Australians don't have "shrimp" as we know it in the States. What they do have is a larger variety of shrimp, which is called "prawn." Second of all, I've never heard of a BBQ refered to as a "barbee." They usually just say barbeque. So no, no one ever says that stupid phrase and I hate Ace Ventura for ever saying it in the first place.

Kangaroos are friends.

FALSE. Australians actually consider kangaroos as pests. They frequently eat crops and run out in front of cars, causing massive damage. In the outback, people frequently shoot 'roos as a means of population control. So while foreigners like myself may consider kangaroos the awesomest things ever, to Australians, they're nothing special.

Australians drink Fosters beer.

FALSE. This was just a marketing ploy created by an American company trying to sell an image. During my time in Australia, I've only seen one Foster's beer consumed, and that was by a South African student. Foster's is available in some places, but it's not popular at all. If you want a real Aussie beer, try VB (Victoria Bitter), Toohey's, or Carlton. My personal favourite of them all is VB or Carlton Cold.

"Good'ay mate" is a common expression.

TRUE. Although I still sound like a moron when I say it.

The toilets flush/swirl counter-clockwise in Australia.

FALSE. Just to get this out of the way first and foremost, like most of the rest of the world, Australians don't refer to the place where you relieve yourself as a "bathroom" or "restroom" - it's called a toilet. And actually the toilets here work much differently than in the States. They don't really "swirl" at all. Instead, everything is just sort of washed down with some jets of water and it never really swirls. Aussie toilets have two buttons rather than a single lever to flush; one is a "half flush," suitable for flushing urine, and the other is a "full flush," which is for disposing of other sorts of excrement. The mindset behind these options is conservation of water; why flush more water down than you need to clean out the toilet? Australians have it right when it comes to toilet design... there are no plungers or anything in any of the toilets because they never get clogged - it's amazing!Australians love to drink, so beer must be cheap in Australia.

Since Australia is full of beer drinkers, beer much be cheap.

VERY FALSE. The Aussies may love their beer, but they pay for it. A carton of VB costs around $40AUD, compared to a case of Miller Lite at around $17USD in the States. When I first arrived, I was a true-blue VB drinker, then dropped to Carlton Cold at around $35/carton, and now I've recently discovered a new beer called Amsterdam that sells for only $29/carton. What a deal! There's only one beer priced below that - Resch's - at $28/carton, but that's not so good. For the foreseeable future, I'll stick with Amsterdam. On a side note, boxed wine, referred to as "goon" is extremely cheap and a popular drink among uni students. Casks of goon go for about $8, so when cash is really tight, you go for the goon.

That's all I could think of for now. If anyone has any thoughts or conceptions about Australia they'd like to see verified or debunked, just post in my comments and I'll update.

My Birthday and Evatt's 7 Sins Party

My 22nd birthday - May 13. A bit more low key than last year's 21st festivities, but fun nonetheless. My roommates and a few others got me some crazy presents including napkin holders, a Queensland mug, an angel statue, and a book entitled, "Allergies: A Patient's Perspective," among other random things from Salvation Army. We had cheesecake, played with sparklers, and I even got outfitted with that awesome sweater you see to the right, plus some sweet neon glasses and clip-on earrings. Then, they blindfolded me and took me on the next adventure - ice skating. None of us had been since 6th or 7th grade, so it was definitely an experience. It was great skating around looking like idiots. It was family disco night, so aside from the parents, we were definitely the oldest people there. I got a few strange looks in my outfit, but no worries. Lauren and I tried out luck at the ice limbo contest, but we soon discovered we were no match for the 6 year olds who easily skated underneath the bar. After a night of ice skating, we headed back to Evatt for a casual evening of libations.

Evatt also had a theme party the other night at the local seedy bar, Shorty Pub. The theme was "7 Deadly Sins" so the idea was to dress up as one of the sins. Lauren and I dressed up as "Australian Pride." We didn't take many pictures that night, but here's what Lauren and I looked like.

Fall Holiday

Spring Break...Fall Holiday...Autumn Break...Easter. Whatever you want to call it, we got two weeks off from our strenuous life here in Australia. It's not like Spring Break in the States, where everyone travels. Generally, people just go home or work. The international students are the ones who go crazy, as we should. Most people generally cruise the East Coast of Australia, though a few friends went to New Zealand and one to Western Australia. I traveled with two girls from UNI, Michelle and Jillian. We crammed a lot of crazy time in those two weeks, so here goes.

Cairns (photos)

We started by flying out of Sydney into Cairns, up towards the northeast coast of Australia. Cairns was recently hit by Cyclone Larry; some damage was still visible in some areas we traveled. The weather wasn't the best when we were there, but it was still my favourite big city that we visited. We stayed at a hostel called The Asylum. Nice name, eh? It wasn't the nicest in terms of looks, but we had the best time there - the people we awesome. We spent many four nights there and got to know a lot of them really well. There were people from all over the world: Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, England, France...but surprisingly we didn't see hardly any other Americans. That was fine with me though; I wanted to meet other international travelers anyway. At the Asylum, they have a tradition called "Mad Monday" where you pay $10 and get a t-shirt, free dinner, and free drinks at 3 bars. A grand time was had by all, as you'll be able to tell from the pictures.

>>Video: A dance contest at a bar we were at. The girl on the left is a pretty good dancer, but watch for the girl on the right who occassionally gets in the frame. What is she doing??

Another highlight was bungy jumping in the rainforest. I've been skydiving before - which was outstanding - and wanted to go again, but bungy jumping was a cheaper alternative. We drove out to the location settled in the middle of the rainforest in Cairns. It was amazing! When we first came in, there were signs pricing multiple jumps on the same day. I didn't understand why you'd want to go twice or more on the same day...until I jumped the first time. We climbed up the 50m structure and got all wrapped up. You wobble up to the edge and just fall forward. What a rush! It was so much fun, Jillian and I decided to go again - this time backwards. All in all, a fantastic time.

I've always wanted to go white water rafting. Well, we got the chance in Cairns. We rafted down the Tully River along with three Irish guys and our awesome guide, Fabio (yes, Fabio.) The Tully River is the better of the two that are in Cairns. It's a grade 4-5 (on a scale of 6) in terms of difficulty. This picture isn't of us; it's just a stock photo from the company. Actually, we don't have any pictures of the rafting trip because the Irish guys never emailed us the pictures like they said they would... Oh well. It was still a stellar trip. We started early in the morning, went down the river a bit - nothing too extreme on the first half. Right before lunch, we went right underneath a waterfall and sat there for a bit. It was awesome! Lunch was a traditional Aussie BBQ, then we headed back out. The latter half was outstanding; there was a part where we were going to intentionally fell out, and a part where we intentionally flipped over as well. Then Fabio led us into a part of the rapids where water was just pouring over all of us and in our boat. We waited there for other boats to pass for about 5 minutes. Jillian and I got the most soaked since we were in the front. At the end of the trip, we carried the rafts up and headed out. Exhausted, but well worth the trip.

Townsville - Magnetic Island (photos)

We hopped on a train and headed south to Townsville, the coastal town right by Magnetic Island. Townsville was a cool little place, but nothing too exciting to note. We stayed for a night then headed to Magnetic Island. On Magnetic Island, we were going to snorkel, but the weather was still a bit bad, and the water wasn't too clear. So we skipped that and decided to go horseback riding - again, something else I'd never done. (And again, this is a stock photo, as none of us took our cameras.) I rode a golden colored horse named "Honey." We walked and trotted through the bush of the island, and then emerged on a beautiful beach. A lot of people took their horses into the water to cool them off, but Honey stepped one foot in the water then turned back...I don't think she likes the water.
Before we all got in the water (or attempted to), we had to put stinger suits on (basically wetsuits). From November - April is prime marine stinger (jellyfish) season, and Queensland has a lot of jellies! We saw signs like these all over the place! The jellyfish up in Queensland are pretty bad. There's one called a box jellyfish - one jelly has enough venom to kill 60 adults. If you get stung enough, you will probably die anywhere from 30 seconds to 4 minutes after the sting. Those are pretty big and not as common. There's another kind called irukandji that are really really small (only 2.5 centimetres), but it can kill you as well. Bad news. So needless to say, stinger suits are important! As long as you have one on and the jellyfish doesn't touch your exposed skin, you'll be fine.

The next day, Jillian and I decided to rent scooters and tool around the island for the day. Again, something I've wanted to do, but never done. Honestly, this was probably the cheapest thing we did throughout our trip ($30AUD for the whole day + free petrol), but it was one of the most fun. I finally got to drive on the left side of the road, go through a roundabout, and see some cool stuff on the island. Not to mention Jillian and I took some awesome photos with our bikes. Look out Jillian! After a fun day, we hopped on the ferry and went back to Townsville to meet Michelle at the train station. Bad news there - our train wasn't coming. Cyclone Monica hit in Cairns and flooded some of the track. Looks like we're staying in Townsville another night. No worries, we had a grand time anyway. We took the train the next day out to Hervey Bay.

>>Video: Jillian trying to use some playground equipment that's clearly designed for kids
>>Video: Rock wallabies

Hervey Bay - Fraser Island (photos)

The distance from Townsville to Hervey Bay is pretty long, so we originally planned to stop along the way at a city called Rockhampton. But since we lost a day, we decided just to trek right on through to Hervey Bay. That may have been a mistake. We departed Townsville and 3:55 PM, and traveled overnight, arriving in Rockhampton at 4:40 AM. Then we waited for 2 more hours for our train from Rockhampton to Maryborough West. That ride lasted another 5 hours. Once we arrived there, we took a bus for 45 minutes to Hervey Bay. When all was said and done, we'd been traveling for almost 24 hours in the worst economy seating known to man. I made this video the train while we were in Cairns, but it was basically the same conditions riding economy class to Hervey Bay - cramped seats and screaming children. For anyone reading this who may be using the train system in Australia to travel a somewhat long distance - do yourself a favor and pay the extra couple bucks it costs for Business Class. It's not that much more expensive, but I guarantee you'll be glad you did. I even snuck in for a bit, but got kicked out because I was sitting in someone else's seat. Oh well, I tried.

>>Video: On the train in Cairns, me describing my personal hell.

Anyways, Hervey Bay was another excellent little coastal town. We booked our trip for Fraser Island when we arrived and headed out the next morning. Fraser Island was probably my favorite place we visited. The entire island is made up of sand. It has more sand than the Sahara desert! This is because the sand extends down into the ocean that surrounds it. Since every other island I've been on was fairly small, I was amazed at how big the surface area of the island was. We took a short guided tour, then the real fun began... We rented a Jeep and got to drive around on the beach and inland on the island. Renting a car, I felt so...adult. We drove on the beach mostly, and visited a cool shipwreck with a long history that I won't bore you with. We also saw Indian Head for a short bit - it had spectacular views, but we couldn't stay long because the tide was coming in, and you can't drive on the beach during high tide. We had to book it back to our accomodation before the water swept us away, since it'd be dark soon as well. The next morning, Jillian and I woke up before sunset and drove on the beach, heading back to Indian Head. In a word, it was absolutely breathtaking. The sunrise was gorgeous, and we were the only people out on the beach. There were no tracks in front of us, just the tracks we left behind us. We never made it to Indian Head because we underestimated how long of a trip it was, and we still had to go pick up Michelle and head in to Lake McKenzie before returning the car at 11:30. So we started to head inland and let me tell you, driving inland is nothing compared to the beach. The beach is smooth and flat, inland is hilly and uneven. The fastest we went was 30 kph. I got a good feel for it and we made good time, but after we had driven inland for 1 hour and realized it was another 10k to Lake McKenzie, we realized we wouldn't have time to go and get the car back in time. Damn. Still a bouncy, rough, and fun trip on Fraser.

Fraser Island is also famous for its dingo population. It has the purest dingoes in all of Australia, and encounters with them are not uncommon. Even though dingoes look like dogs, they are not tame, and there are strict fines for feeding them or even trying to pet them. We thought we'd at least get to see a dingo, but no luck. No dingoes were to be found. However, we did see plenty of signs like these that we got a laugh out of.

Brisbane

We headed on to our final destination, Brisbane. It was probably my least favorite place we visited - rather boring. I thought the hostel we stayed at would be more fun than it was. We went to Dreamworld for a day, a theme park. It was built up to be more than it really was. We had a really fun time, but I wouldn't suggest going there. Nothing else really of note happened in Brisbane. At this point, we were all ready to be back in Newcastle.

All in all, a fantastic two weeks that I'll never forget.

>>Random video: My musical cupboard. I took a card that my friend Alex gave me that played a song when you opened it and rigged it to my cupboard in the kitchen.

Blue Mountains

We took the trip way back at the beginning of April, but I've only just now gotten all the photos and whatnot uploaded. Better late than never.

The Blue Mountains are some of the most scenic and beautiful in Australia. Most people visit for a day and see the touristy stuff - the "Three Sisters" and other rock formations along well paved and accessible trails.

We decided to try something different. The Six Foot Track. My roommate Carl hiked it before and said it wasn't so bad. How long of a trail is it? Oh, 45 kilometres? That sounds like a lot. It's not that bad? Okay, cool.

The Six Foot Track has some of the most diverse hiking terrain I've ever seen...we hiked uphill and downhill through mountains, plains, rainforest, and everything in between. We arrived at our starting point, Jenolan Caves. After walking around and exploring the outside of the caves, along with the Green Lake, we set out. Within the first 10 minutes of our hike (which were among the worst of our many, many uphill climbs along the trail), we were all a little tired. But we pressed onward. The first day we trekked for about 10 kilometres. Along the way, we came across some very friendly kangaroos, and we even got to feed them. We arrived at our campsite and got set up just as it was completely dark around 6PM.

Day Two began early in the morning. This was the big one...we were set to hike around 28 kilometres today so there was no time to waste. Today we ran across the largest cow I've ever seen, grazing in a plain we hiked through. We stopped for lunch at a small campground and continued on, walking a large distance denoted on the map as, "The Steep Section." Fortunately for us, it was downhill the way we were going, but still no picnic. We crossed some rivers on foot and encountered a huge suspension bridge, where we tested its weight limit. The sun was setting and we still had a long way to go, so we kept pressing forward. Eventually as it was getting fairly dark, we reached our campground and set up. A few of us hacked our way through the nearby bush looking for firewood, without much success. Needless to say, we were all exhausted so our fire needn't last long. We all went to sleep pretty early.

Day Three! Only 7 or 8 kilometres today, but at this point, we were all unbelievably sore from hiking around with heavy packs on our backs. Not too bad, except the last 1.5 were apparently pretty rough, rising from about 600m to 1000m in elevation by way of lots and lots of steps. We set out and discovered a small waterfall off the track, where we took a short break and got some fun pictures. Then we hit the seemingly endless stairs, and finally emerged at the top. We made it!! Time for pizza!

Hiking the Six Foot Track was honestly one of the most intense things I've done, but I'm really happy that I did it. I feel like I accomplished something, as unimportant as it may seem. The people were great, the atmosphere was great, the trip was great. Definitely one of my favorite times in Australia.

Pictures, pictures, pictures! I set up a Flickr Pro account, so you can check out all my photos from here on out at www.flickr.com/photos/ccheviron. For the Blue Mountains set, just click here.

Photos from Fall Holiday are coming soon - stay tuned.

Wine Tour

Ahhh, wine tours. This past weekend Evatt chartered a bus and we headed to the famed Hunter Valley - a huge wine producing region in Australia. On our first stop, we visited a winery famous for chilli schnapps - but I'm getting ahead of myself. First we tried a toffee, white chocolate and mango liquours, and to finish off, we sampled the house specialty - chilli schapps. Click the link to watch a video of us taking the shot (though it's only about 1/8 full), and notice how just seconds after we all take it, almost as if on command, we all cry out "Ohhhh!" in unison.


After the liquours, we headed to another winery and tried some delicious Chardonnay, Merlot, Port, and other wines. The scenery was gorgeous; be sure to check out the pictures on my new Fotki site (yes, I ran out of space on my old account, so I had to create another free account. Just follow the link.)

After a nice lunch in the park, we headed to our third winery, where I bought some delicious Verdelho. Finally, we headed to an Irish pub for a nice beer. We elected for the beer tour there, sampling a few beers from around the world. I created my own six-pack to take home with me with a variety of beers, my favorite of which is a cheap-looking German beer simply called "Sexy Lager" with a picture of a scantily clad lady on the front. Classy.

This weekend? We're off to the Blue Mountains for a 50K hike through the Six Foot Track. I've wanted to go camping since I arrived in Australia, so now's my chance! It's one of the most beautiful parks in the country so I'm told. Plenty of photos to come I'm sure.

One other thing to note: Australia just went off daylight savings, where as you guys in the States went on it. We "fell back" into fall (turning back one hour), and you "sprang forward" into spring (turning ahead one hour). What does this mean to you? The time difference between US Central Time and Sydney time is now 15 hours, instead of 17. So, to figure out what time it is here, just take the US Central time, then add 15 hours, or subtract 9 hours and add a day. So if it's 8:00 PM Tuesday in the States, it's 11:00 AM Wednesday in Newcastle. Or, for you non-math folk, just come to my blog and check the local time at the top.

Footy, Commencement, and Fall Holiday!

My latest video blog entry! Just click and watch me discuss interesting topics like my first footy match, commencement, and plans for spring break (fall holiday).

Also of note is that my roommate Lauren and I are attempting to complete every fitness class that the gym here has to offer. So far, we've done Body Pump, Body Attack, RPM, and Fatburner. We still have Body Balance, Body Combat, Body Jam, Crunch, Leg Express, Yoga, and Total Body Workout yet to complete. Let it suffice to say that all the classes have been pretty ridiculous. Body Pump was the most beneficial, as a resistance training workout, but Attack and Fatburner both had us doing ridiculous moves like the "Superman" (which we later re-enacted after a few beers - watch the video here).

As always, pictures of said activities can be found on Fotki. Enjoy.

St. Paddy's Day

Though not as eventful as the St. Pat's day that I spent in England with Corko (drinking 5 pints of Guiness at noon in order to get a hat), we had a great time here in Australia for St. Paddy's Day. We started out the day hanging out at the beach - I wish I could have brought my camera because we went to a new beach that day with a lot of really cool scenery around. Sometime I will get some pictures for you guys; it's gorgeous! After the beach, we went out to get some costumes for the evening's festitivities. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a selection. Lauren settled on some green felt to make some clovers, Carl got a green hat, and I bought a tube of green paint. The possibilities were endless!

I decided to take a white t-shirt and just write "Green" on it (hence, a "green" shirt - clever, eh?). I wrote "green" backwards on the back as well (doubly clever, eh? Ok, not really). After that, I was thinking that I needed something else to use up all that green paint. So why not paint my face? But not the whole thing, just a beard. Still not satisfied, I got the best idea of all - why not dye my hair to top it off? Yes, that's right, I used green acrylic paint to dye my hair. (Mom, before you freak out, it washed right out, no problem.)

Armed with a good looking crew, we headed out to the Evatt Common Room for some fun times. There was a green mash eating contest (I lost horribly - the potatoes were cold and not very good), and some other fun games. Then we headed out to the bars downtown. We all piled in the train, and there wasn't really enough room for everyone, so I decided to improvise and climb into the overhead luggage rack. It was quite comfortable - I could stretch out and everything! We headed to a couple barsand finished the night with an awesome pizza from a local pizza place.

Sunday I wandered around campus and took some random shots. You can see pictures of St. Paddy's and campus on my new Fotki site (my other one ran out of space so I created a new one). All my other pictures can still be accessed through the previous links, but from now on, all my new pictures will be at http://www.fotki.com/chase453-2.

Pajama Party, Blackbutt Reserve, and Swimming Carnival

This weekend in a nutshell - Pajama Party, Blackbutt Reserve, and the Swimming Carnival.

We started things out on Friday night with a Pajama Party (click for pictures) at the local pub, Shorty's. Our block dressed up as victims of bedbugs, so we painted red dots all over ourselves and got really cool Aussie flag boxers. We also all wore singlets (white tanktops) that we wrote on to indicate we were somehow mistreated by the bedbugs (I was "fondled by bedbugs"). Anyways, the night went well: there was lots of karaoke, skulling songs, pegs, and of course a few people cried by the time the night was over. All in all, a success.

The next day, Jillian, Peter and I set out to Blackbutt Reserve (click for pictures), a local nature reserve. We had a vague idea of where it was, so we hopped on the bus but got out a bit too early. We eventually made it there and started hiking on the trails. One key we forgot was insect repellent. The mozzies (mosquitos) here are killers! So we got eaten up, but still got to see some really cool plants and animals there. We then headed to the wildlife exhibit part of the reserve, where we got to see some really neat birds, koalas, wallaroos, and a few others. The area was contained, but the animals had a large area to roam around, so it was a really nice setup as opposed to a zoo.

After we left the reserve, we hiked to the bus stop, but realized we had about a 40 minute wait. So what better to do than walk across the street to the Blackbutt Hotel and grab a schooner (glass) of beer while we wait! We hopped on the bus and went to the local shopping center to grab a few things. Later that night, Jillian and I went to see "A History of Violence" a cinema. Apparently Aussies don't attend the cinema much and I can see why - they are even more expensive over here than in the States!! A *student* ticket was $11.50, with the adult ticket at $15.00! Popcorn and soda was just as expensive as well. Needless to say, we won't be going back anytime soon.

Sunday was the Intercol Swimming Carnival. Intercol activities are like intramural sports at universities in the states; the different houses on campus (Evatt, Edwards, and International) compete with each other through the semester to win the coveted Sports Trophy. Evatt has won it the last few years. The Swimming Carnival was basically a loosely organized swim meet. They have a 50 metre pool and swam the 50 freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke, as well as a few relays at the end. Each person got points for participating, with more points for those who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I swam in all of the events except for the 50 fly. I did fairly well, but there were some hardcore swimmers there with speedos and everything! I also swam on the Evatt men's freestyle relay. Unfortunately we placed 3rd, but the Evatt Women's team won! At the end of the Carnival, our house was 3rd in standing and 2nd in participation. Not a great start to the year, but we'll have more activities for sure.

That's it for now -- so I wanted to ask if you guys prefer the text format of my past few entries or the video format? Post a comment and let me know.

Sydney

Sydney this past weekend can be summed up with one word - ridiculous. It was an outstanding weekend to be remembered for a while. Some UNI buddies and I travelled together, though we met up with plenty of other Newcastle students once we got there. We headed out Friday and arrived at our hostel, the "Funk House." It was located in a traditional red light district of Sydney called King's Cross (although it's trying to change its image). We stayed there because it was right in the middle of the action. Friday we headed out to Darling Harbour, a beautiful seaside harbour with nice restaurants, shopping and pubs around it. We ate dinner at a place called "I'm Angus" (a steakhouse). It was a bit expensive - we each spent about $40 - but well worth it. Afterwards, we headed to The Rocks district for a bit of bar action. We sang some karaoke at one bar including, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."

Saturday we went to a local zoo and got to see and hang out with kangaroos, koalas, wallabies and other Australian animals; I can check that off my list of things to do while in Australia! We also checked out Olympic Stadium where the 2000 Olympics were hosted. The place is mostly empty now, but it was amazing to see such a huge place created simply for this event. The exact cost is unknown, but I'm sure it was many many millions to construct this place. It was amazing. Finally, we spent 2 hours taking public transportation back to King's Cross (mostly waiting time amongst a combination of buses, cabs, and trains). We finally set out to the Mardi Gras parade. It was packed! Apparently over 400,000 people attended. We saw lots of, um, interesting people there. At the end, we headed out to some bars and such...

Here's what's on tap for the weekend: Friday is pajama party a local seedy bar called Shorty's,. Saturday begins rugby season, so we're all heading to watch the Newcastle Knights play. I use the term rugby, but there are so many Aussie sports, it's hard to keep them straight - there's Rugby Union, Rugby League, Aussie Rule Football, and lots more... Anyways, Sunday there's an intercol swimming match so I'll probably head out there as well.

Pictures from this weekend in Sydney can be found on my Fotki site. Check 'em out!

Murder Week!

Check out my latest video blog posting about murder week.

Also, I've uploaded some more awesome pictures of Fiji on my Fotki site.

I'm off to Sydney tomorrow for Mardi Gras; I'm sure I'll have lots of stories after this weekend!

Classes begin...

So this week we started classes. It's a shame I couldn't go on just having fun all the time, and that I actually have to go to class. But it's alright. I'm taking Intro to Aboriginal Studies, where we will learn about the indigenous people of Australia who were settled before the white people came. I'm also taking Business Communication (easy), and Business Finance (very hard). I only have class Wednesday and Thursday, so I'm got extra long weekends to go travelling! Speaking of, we're planning on heading down to Sydney next weekend for Mardi Gras!

Anyways, besides class, I've been hanging out, reading Harry Potter, and going to the beach. The beaches here are great; they're only about 15 minutes away from campus and have great waves, sand, and water. Every once in a while, they post warnings about marine stingers (jellyfish). There's only one kind around Newcastle, and they're Blue Bottles. They're pretty small (about 2 or 3 inches), and they float in depending on the wind conditions. A few friends of mine got stung the other day, but they're not that bad. They told me it feels like a horse fly bite, then it stings for about an hour or so after that.

Wednesday was our roommate Carl's 21st birthday so we made him a cake and went out. Wednesday nights are the big night to go out here in Newcastle as well. Carl ended up getting kicked out of the bar later on that night - whoops! After a night out, the train ride back to Evatt is always interesting. The trains here leave from downtown at either 12:24 AM, 2:24 AM or 4:24 AM, so if you miss the train, you've gotta stay out for another 2 hours or call a cab!

I've posted some new pictures. Make sure you read the captions below the pictures, or better yet, just click "Slideshow" and watch! I apologize to everyone for mostly posting pictures involving alcohol; that's not ALL I've been doing here, but it seems to be the only thing I'm taking photos of.

Here's my address in case any of you want to send me a care package or anything. :)

Chase Cheviron
University of Newcastle, Evatt House
Room J172
Callaghan, NSW 2308
Australia

Finally, there was some confusion about this earlier, so let me clarify. If any of you feel like speaking with me on the phone, simply call (217) 408-4118. There is no cost to you; it's just like calling any other number in the States. I pay for this number through a service called Skype. When you call, it rings to my computer and if I'm not there, you can leave me a message.

Until next time...cheers!

Pictures and Videos!

To check out all of my photos from Fiji, Sydney, and Newcastle, check my Fotki site by clicking the link above. For Marty, Alex and all those loyal to Flickr, it appears that Flickr isn't compatible with the land down under (at least the Uploadr program isn't.) Oh well.

It's videos you want? Well then, be sure to check the following:

From Fiji...
Sand crab that blends in with the sand...
Video blog from Fiji

From Newcastle...
Mardo describing the rules of our trip to Shorty pub (for reference, "skull" means "chug")
Walking to Shorty pub
Karaoke at Shorty pub
Mardo singing "Backseat of the bus"
Lockdown Restaurant show

Today all the returning Australian students are moving back in so I've finally got roommates! Lauren is from Arizona, and my other roommates Carl, Lauren and Sabrina are from Australia. There's a big party on the quad tonight for everyone, so we're all stocked up with VB (beer) and goon (cheap wine).

Tomorrow (Monday) marks the start of classes and the end of the wonderful week of debauchery that they call O-Week. I've got lectures on Thursday (large lectures) and tutorials on Tuesday and Wednesday (smaller classes). This week we only have lectures, so I'll be hangin out until then. My roommate Carl turns 21 on Wednesday so we'll probably have a shindig for that. Other than that, I think I'm gonna join the gym on campus tomorrow. It's not free like in the States - it costs about AU$200 for 6 months, but at least that will motivate me to go!

The party starts in about an hour, so I'm off to get ready. More to come...

Newcastle

**UPDATED LINK - it should work now.**

Check out my latest video blog entry here. It may take a while to download, so be patient. As for pictures, I will be posting them soon -- I'm having problems with the program I use.

Bula!

(This is my first in a series of postings I'll be making over the next few days as I have time, so check back soon for more stuff!)

Where do I start? It's been an action packed last few weeks. So I'll start with my departure. The plane trips were long and uneventful, and we had an 8 hour layover while in LA. Once we finally arrived in Fiji, it was about 5AM local time. I travelled with a friend from school named Jillian so we headed off to the bus stop. We met two Fijians there named Smith and Ily who talked with us for an hour while we waited for the bus. We asked where they were headed and they said into town, but they wanted to make sure we got on the right bus first. This was just the first example of how nice the Fijian people are! So we left and cracked open a beer on the way to the marina (we had to buy some at the duty free shop of course!)

Along our way, we met up with three other travellers - Meghan from Iowa State who was on her way to Melbourne, Robert from Czech and Chris from Austria who were travelling the world for a few months. We travelled to a different island in Fiji each day we were there, and let me tell you, Fiji is a beautiful place. We went scuba diving and saw an awesome shipwreck with some very cool tropical fish and coral. We also went to see a Fijian village, learned how to husk and eat/drink coconuts, went snorkeling, watched amazing sunsets, and drank a lot of kava. Kava is a Fijian cultural drink that's made with water and ground up plant roots. It doesn't taste the best (sort of an earthy taste) and it numbed your tongue and lips slightly, but it was a cool ceremony to participate in. By the way, "bula" is Fijian for "life," and it's used as a greeting. "Vinaka" means "thank you." We spent our days on the beach reading, hanging out in the water, basically just relaxing. It was really great overall. More pictures coming soon....

P.S. Sorry for the lack of communication. I still haven't gotten to talk to a lot of you, but O-Week (orientation week) is packed with activities, and I'm still getting settled in here. Give me a few more days and I promise I'll talk to you all!!