KB Down Under

3:30 a.m.

2006-11-06T03:29:00.000+10:00

It is 3:30 a.m. right now.

I have refused to post anything new on my blog until I completed posting about my trip in September to Sydney and Alice Springs, but I have decided to break my silence and give up on my procrastination. I will try to post about all I did on my mid-semester break soon, but I want to post about other happenings in the meantime.

I am up right now because I am tracking my dad's split times in the New York City Marathon. Every 5 kilometers I receive an e-mail letting me know his progress in the race. I have been looking forward to today since my dad told me about his acceptance into the marathon months ago because I knew I would be able to track him and "watch" him run, from Australia.

Well, about three hours ago I started to attempt to load the tracking Web site. from 12:20 a.m. until 3:17 a.m. local time I tried to load the Web site in four different browser windows on my computer and Val's computer before I finally had success in having the page load. I was very upset when the page wouldn't load for me at first and then the clothes dryer died on me and I couldn't restart it. Luckily, Val was able to fix the dryer, by doing the same things I had done in attempt to fix it, but of course she succeeded.

My dad is over half way done with the marathon at this point. He has picked up his pace and despite being slightly behind his goal split times for much of the first 13.1 miles, at the 25 km point he has sped up to ahead of his goals. Yippee!

I'm sad that I can't be there to barrack (Aussie word!) for him in person, but it is great that I can be kept in the loop with his progress. If he finishes in under 3:35:00.00 he qualifies for the Boston Marathon in April. Run Dad, Run! :)

Day 1: Brisbane to Sydney, Bondi Beach, Penrith Whitewater Stadium, Hard Rock Cafe

2006-10-06T13:05:00.000+10:00

I woke up at 3-something a.m. the morning of Friday 22 September after about four hours of sleep. I hopped into the shower, ate half of a grapefruit and took the rubbish out to the dumpster. The cab was already waiting for Val and I before 4:45 a.m., so we were able to start our trip without delay.

The cab ride to the domestic terminal of the airport cost $45.30. Not very cheap, but since no public transportation was running that early in the morning, it was the best we could do. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare before our 6:30 a.m. Qantas flight to Sydney. I was amused by the televisions in near the check-in counter and at the gate which were playing reruns of "Good Morning America" and "Today" - very appropriate to be shown in Australia I thought.

On our flight to Sydney Val had the window seat and I had the aisle seat next to her. We were served a delicious brekky: cereal, blueberry yogurt, milk, juice and a sultana bread roll thingy. It is so nice to fly on an airline that will serve you a meal even on a flight that is only 90 minutes long, unlike any airline in the U.S., where you're lucky if you get a bag of pretzels flying for hours across the whole country. I can't wait for my three-leg flight of starvation across the U.S. in December!

As we approached Sydney Val pointed out the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge to me and then she was able to see Bondi Beach as we did a loop over the Pacific Ocean to line up for our landing. When we were in the southern end of the loop I said to Val that at that point we may be at the furthest south we will ever be in our lives.

We landed in Sydney around 8:00 a.m. and after picking up my backpack from the baggage claim area we searched for where to pick up the phone to have our hostel pick us up and found nothing. We finally gave up searching for the non-existent phone and called them from a pay phone. The guy at the hostel told me to go outside and to look for the bus that was called "Super Shuttle, like Superman," he repeated the "Superman" emphasis several times. We went outside and waited about five minutes for the Super Shuttle to come and pick us up for our trip from the airport into the city and our hostel.

After winding through the city, in parts I knew were nowhere near our hostel, we finally arrived at Jolly Swagman Backpackers and checked in to our room. The hostel was brightly coloured - painted yellow and red and out room was nice, with a TV, fridge and table. We wasted no time in starting our adventures in Sydney and left the hostel straight away. We walked a few blocks south to where we could catch a bus to Bondi Beach.

A bus came shortly after we arrived at the stop, but the driver couldn't or wouldn't break the $50 note I handed him (all I had), so we had to go break it. We walked across the street to 7-11 and bought a pack of gum and a phone card. We caught the next bus to Bondi Beach; one of the stops along the way was at Bondi Junction, the train station we knew we would have to get back to in order to make it to our next destination.

We were only at Bondi Beach for about 30 minutes. It was farther away from the city than I had thought (maybe this mis-estimation should have been a warning sign to me), so we had to check and see when the bus left to get us back to the train station at the right time. At the beach we walked into the water to wet our feet, but it was cold! It reminded me of Cape Cod water - I guess I am just spoiled being up north in warmer weather in Brisbane. Val and I sat on the beach for a little while before running through the sand up to the street to catch the bus. We went to Sydney's famous beach, but we weren't blown away by its amazingness.

From Bondi Junction we rode the train to Penrith, which was a little over an hour out of the city. We napped a little on the train, which was a good idea because we were only going to become more tired as the day and the week continued. Upon arrival in Penrith we walked across the street from the train station to the Penrith Shopping Centre and searched for somewhere to eat. We passed by KFC and McDonalds in the food court and went to Oporto, an Australian fast food joint with the most delicious chicken burgers!

At 2:20 p.m. we left the Shopping Centre and began our walk to the Penrith Whitewater Stadium - the man-made venue for the whitewater and kayaking events during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We had alloted 40 minutes to walk there, thinking that would be more than enough time to arrive in time to check in for whitewater rafting half an hour before 3:30, as we had been told to when I booked it. As it turns out, 40 minutes was not enough time.

I had done a lousy job estimating how far the walk was from the train station to the the whitewater stadium and we ended up having to jog/run sections of the road along the way. It was very hot, there was no wind and no shade along the way. Val's chicken burger was not happy in her stomach, but she managed to keep it down, thankfully. After the second of three "entrances" to the whitewater stadium I left Val with the water bottle and ran ahead to check in, since it was already after 3:00.

When I arrived at the desk I noticed on the white board next to it that the only time the water would be turned on that day was 3:30-5:00. This helped me understand why I had thought I was in the wrong place when I saw no rapids. I checked in and then a few minutes later Val, with a red face from running, showed up, also slightly confused about the lack of rapids. As it turns out, we didn't need to be there at 3:00 to check in since the 3:30 tour was the only one running that day. We changed into our get wet gear and waited to go rafting.

There were eight of us on the raft, plus the guide. We suited up in life vests and the appropriate size helmet, grabbed paddles and hopped into the raft. Our guide taught us how to paddle together forward and backward and how safely hold onto our paddles when getting down in the raft or leaning to either side. He instructed us on what to do if and when we were to fall out of the raft - this came in handy later on in the day.

The course is set up so that we entered the water at the end of the circuit in a calm area and had to ride a conveyor belt uphill to the beginning of the course. We went through the course fairly quickly the first time and I wasn't so sure about how extreme it was going to be, but it turned out to be a simple warm-up run to let us know what the course was like ... the rest of the times we went through the course it wasn't nearly as easy going. People kept falling out of the raft and we kept losing paddles to the rapids.

Eventually I got jealous that almost everyone else, including Val, had fallen out of the raft and into the water, and I helped the rapids a little bit and sort of "jumped" overboard when we were caught up in one of the rapids. It was fun being swept away, but it was harder than I had expected to gain control of where I was going and to swim to the side of the course to wait to be picked up by the raft once it traveled to where I was waiting.

The next few runs though the course our guide led us into the rapids so we could see what it was like to be stuck in them. I think he was also trying to make sure everyone ended up out of the raft and in the water at least once. One of these times, I was in the front of the raft and I was completely sucked out and ended up underneath the raft. Remembering what our guide had told us earlier that day, I pushed myself along the underside of the raft until I popped up out of the water, but by the time I realized where I was, I was already through the next rapid and headed for another. It took me a while to get on my back, with by feet pointed downriver, but eventually I was able to gain control of what I was doing and made my way to the side of the course to be picked up after the raft picked up a girl who had been sucked out in the same rapid and I had been. It was a crazy ride down the river - I loved it! You can see in the picture at right the portion of the course that I traveled through when I was sucked out of the raft (this picture taken was after the rapids had been turned off for the day and the water level was dropping). The rapid that got be is in the foreground in the bottom left corner and I floated along almost all the way to where you can no longer see water in the picture. I may not look like much here, but with the water going full blast it was intense!

After my ride down the river my head was full of water and I welcomed the end of our tour after a few more times around the course. We changed into some dry clothes and decided to split the cab fare with the three girls on the raft with us, but five of us wouldn't fit in one cab, so they called for two. Val and I started walking down the road leading out from the whitewater stadium and our cab eventually picked us up - we saved a few bucks by walking part of the way. After the torturous walk/run to the whitewater stadium from Penrith, we had no problem dishing out $12 for a cab back to the train station.

There was a weird guy on the train ride back to Sydney. He tossed his comb in the air, sat in every seat, sat on the floor, walked from car to car, asked people for money and then threw the money out the window. Once we were off the train and back in the city we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe. It brought my Hard Rock Cafe continent count to three: North America, Europe and Australia. Val and I made use of our International Student Identification Cards (ISIC) and had $20 meals. We had burgers and fries, with free refill soda and a dessert. We also bought matching Hard Rock Sydney t-shirts with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge on the back.

We returned to the Jolly Swagaman very tired after waking up so early that morning and spending the day walking, running and paddling. I was alseep as soon as my head hit the pillow ... resting up for the adventurous day which would begin around 8 a.m. the following morning.

A true Australian adventure

2006-09-21T20:22:00.000+10:00

Things you can do in Sydney in four days: go whitewater rafting, eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, tour the Sydney Opera House, tour the Harbour, see an opera at the Sydney Opera House, roller skate in a park, eat in a rotating restaurant, go to an amusement park on the Harbour, watch the sunrise on Bondi Beach, tour a mountain range, explore caves, go to the top of the second-highest observation tower in the southern hemisphere, walk through botanic gardens, visit a science museum, visit an aquarium, go on a speed boat adventure, observe the Sydney Opera House from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and to finish it all off: climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I'm not sure if sleeping is one of the things you can do in Sydney in four days, but I am hoping it is ... I'll let you know when I get back to Brisbane in October.

After a packed four days in Sydney I will be heading to the Red Centre. My itinerary four my mid-semester break holiday in New South Wales and the Northern Territory is below:

Fri 22/9

Fly from Brisbane to Sydney
6:30 - 8:00 Qantas #503

Whitewater Rafting
3:30 - 5:00 (Penrith Whitewater Stadium - whitewater venue for Sydney 2000 Olympics)

Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe in Sydney

Sleep at Jolly Swagman Backpackers in Sydney

Sat 23/9

Sydney Opera House Tour
9:00 - 10:00

Magistic CruiseSmart Tour of Sydney Harbour
11:00 - 12:00

Pirates of Penzance at the Sydney Opera House
1:00 - 3:30 (Stalls V32 & V33 B Reserve)

Rollerskating in Centennial Park

Dinner at Summit Restaurant
7:30 - 9:15 (rotating dining room for a 360° view of Sydney)

Luna Park

Sleep at Jolly Swagman Backpackers in Sydney

Sun 24/9

Sunrise at Bondi Beach
5:48 a.m.

Train from Sydney to Katoomba

Bus Tour of Blue Mountains
10:30 - 5:15 (Three Sisters, Govett's Leap, Jenolan Caves, Blue Lake)

Jenolan Caves
Stop on bus tour (Lucas Cave, Chifley Cave, Imperial Cave)

Train from Katoomba to Sydney

Sydney Tower
8:00 (Observation deck and OzTrek)

Sleep at Jolly Swagman Backpackers in Sydney

Mon 25/9

Chinese Botanic Gardens
9:00

Powerhouse Museum
10:00

Sydney Aquarium
11:30

Jet Blast Adventure
2:30 - 3:05 (275 km/h, 270° turns ride on Harbour Jet)

Pylon Lookout - Sydney Harbour Bridge

Bridge Climb - Sydney Harbour Bridge
5:25 - 8:55 (three hour climb of the Harbour Bridge)

Sydney Opera House and The Rocks at night

Sleep at Jolly Swagman Backpackers in Sydney

Tue 26/9

Fly from Sydney to Alice Springs
9:40 - 12:35 (Qantas #790)

Sleep at Desert Rose Inn in Alice Springs

Wed 27/9

Day tour of West MacDonnell Ranges
8:00 - 17:30 (John Flynn Memorial, Mt Gillen, Angkale Creek bed, Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ochre Pits, Ormiston Gorge, Glen Helen Gorge, Mt Sonder, Glen Helen River valley, Simpsons Gap)

Sleep at Desert Rose Inn in Alice Springs

Thu 28/9

"The Rock Tour" - Day 1
6:10 - Saturday 17:30 (guided Uluru base walk, Mala Walk, Mutitjulu Waterhole, Aboriginal cave paintings, Uluru sunset)

Sleep at Yulara resort campground

Fri 29/9

"The Rock Tour" - Day 2
Thursday 6:10 - Saturday 17:30 (Uluru sunrise, Valley of the Winds, Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), Tales from the Dreamtime)

Sleep at Kings Creek Station

Sat 30/9

"The Rock Tour" - Day 3
Thursday 6:10 - 17:30 (Kings Canyon, Lost City, Amphitheatre, North Wall, South Wall, Garden of Eden, Camel Farm)

Sleep at Desert Rose Inn in Alice Springs

Sun 1/10

Fly from Alice Springs to Brisbane
11:30 - 14:30 (Qantas #982)

Cairns AustraLearn photographs

2006-09-18T11:42:00.000+10:00

Here's something fun for you to do while you are sitting there missing me: look through the pictures posted on the AustraLearn Web site from my July orientation in Cairns (pronounced cans) to see how many times I am in the pictures.

Page 1 of orientation photos

Page 2 of orientation photos

Enjoy!

(detailed itinerary for my upcoming trip to Sydney and Alice Springs will be posted in the next few days - check back soon!)

Sing for Water and TP

2006-09-11T01:43:00.000+10:00

Tonight Val and I attended Sing for Water, which was one of the many Riverfestival events scheduled this month in Brisbane, but only the second we have attended (Riverfire was the other). We took the CityCat from Guyatt Park to QUT Point - one stop beyond our previous furthest on the river at South Bank. We walked along the bottom of the highway and then finally popped out underneath it on the QUT campus and heard music in the distance, so we wandered toward it.

Sing for Water

Sep 10, 2006 - 7 Photos

We trekked up a hill and were upon the amphitheater lit in purple and green. There were over 400 people on stage singing when we arrived (about an hour into the performance, which was scheduled to go from 6:00 to 8:00). We found a spot to sit and watch the performances from on the hill. Of course, two people decided to stand and watch themselves directly between us and the stage, so we moved.

The choruses filed off stage until there was less than one-third remaining and they sang a few songs. Then they left and a pianist, bassist, and drummer performed. Then a quartet sang some African songs (accompanied by someone on a djembe drum like Val has).

If Val writes a blog post about tonight, read it because I am sure it will be a little better than my "this happened, then this happened, then this happened ..."

Then the whole 500+ chorus returned to their spots on stage and David Campbell came out and sang a few songs (Frank Sinatra-ish, Elvis, some other rock songs, etc.). When we got back to the apartment, Val checked online and he is an Australian celebrity - which would explain all the barracking at the concert.

After dancing to his singing and the accompaniment of the chorus, we walked through the QUT campus and into the CBD to find a 7-11 (or anywhere that was actually open at 8:30 p.m.). We found a 7-11, bought two rolls of much-needed toilet paper and then moseyed on over to the Queen Street Mall. We poked around in a bookstore for a while. I was amused by the Lonely Planet guide for the USA - I looked up Connecticut to see if Old Newgate Prison was listed. Sadly, no Australians will be visiting East Granby if they adhere to that book. After buying nothing in the bookstore we caught the CityCat at North Quay and made out way back to the apartment with our toilet paper. When we got back here, we made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.

I love making cake with $0.59 AUD cake mix!

Brisbane Broncos

2006-09-10T16:27:00.000+10:00

Last Sunday (3 September) we went to the last Brisbane Broncos rugby game of the season. We took the CityCat to Regatta in Toowong and then the train two stops to Milton and walked along the pathway and on the bridge over the road to Suncorp Stadium. We didn't have to wander very far to find our section, as it was pretty much straight in from the entry gate. We found out seats (1 and 2) in row 23 and were very happy with the view we had of the field.

Brisbane Broncos

Sep 3, 2006 - 15 Photos

We arrived less than 15 minutes before kick-off (if that's what they call it) and got to hear the player introductions for both teams and saw the players run out onto the field. When the New Zealand Warriors ran out they were greeted with boos and Val and I commented to one another "I guess they boo here, too." I think we both thought maybe they would give the Warriors a fair go, but apparently not. The Broncos, on the other hand, ran onto the field via a path made by their cheerleaders shaking gold pompoms and were greeted with waving flags and heaps of barracking (cheers).

The first half of the game mostly took place on the far end of the field because the Broncos were better than the Warriors, but we were able to figure out some of the basics of rugby. They can pass the ball with side or reverse laterals and at some points (probably when necessary for some reason) they punt the ball down the field. If a player runs with the ball into the American football equivalent of the end zone it is called a "try" and six points are posted on the board. After a try there is a field goal attempt, but it isn't straight on, rather it is from way off to the side of the field. If the ball goes through the two uprights two more points are awarded.

Similarly to American pro football, the referees can and do use instant replay review to make calls on close plays to determine if tries were scored. Trainers/medical people come onto the field while the game is still going on to tend to injured players, to give them water, etc. One of the Broncos players left the field at one point because he was bleeding on the field and the fans in the row behind us said he was probably going to get stitched up and then come back in - and sure enough a little while later he was back in the game.

At halftime four teams of school-aged rugby players came out onto the field and played in two mini-games of rugby. It was really amusing to see the little kids tackle each other. During the second half, although the Warriors scored a few more times, most of the action took place on our side of the field.

Val and I wandered around the stadium, completing one full circuit, and grabbed two Cornettos (ice cream cones similar to drumsticks in America) to enjoy during the remainder of the game. We asked the attendant for our section to take a picture of the two of us (check out the album) and it came out great (except for Val's eyes being shut) because she took it simultaneously with when one of the Broncos players scored a try in the background.

After the completion of the second 40 minute half (the clock keeps running most of the time, so it is a much shorter game than American football) and a victory for the Broncos 36-12 we filed out of the stadium and back onto the train. I wish it wasn't the end of the season, because I would have loved to see more rugby games, including some of the different types of rugby.

Riverfire

2006-09-04T12:24:00.000+10:00

In Australia, seasons are defined meteorologically, not astronomically. In the Northern Hemisphere summer will end and autumn will begin in late-September, but in Australia winter ended and spring began September 1. To kick of the season, Brisbane holds an annual River Festival, with activities focused around or on the Brisbane River for a little over a week.

Riverfire

Sep 2, 2006 - 10 Photos

Saturday night was the big opening ceremony - Riverfire. Val, Chris, Natalie and I took the CityCat from Guyatt Park to South Bank and planned on either watching the festivities from South Bank or one of the bridges crossing the river. When we got off the CityCat, there were people checking our bags to make sure we weren't sneaking anything in to the event and they also checked that we had actually paid for our ferry tickets. Upon wandering around South Bank some more we discovered that the entire area was fenced in and there were checkpoints at the few entrances. Parts of a few of the roads had been closed off too.

It was still two and a half hours until the main event was to begin, but people were already staking our their spots all along the river. Speakers were set up on poles along the river edge and were broadcasting the radio station sponsoring the event. A little after 5:00 six prop planes few overhead and began doing acrobatic moves in very tight formations. They would swoop in from one end of the river and shoot up into stunts above the city and then come back and do things in the opposite direction.

A bit after 5:30 we found a decent spot in front of most of the crowd and sat down there. Val and I had packed a dinner, but Natalie and Chris had not and they didn't want to sit there until 7:00 so they found some food and watched from elsewhere in the crowd.

We knew the time had almost arrived when the CityCat and City Ferry stopped running and the only vessels in the river were a few anchored barges and police boats. Suddenly, two F-111s flew in from the east over the river did their first of two flyovers and "dump-and-burns" of the evening. They flew in at 300 ft. and shot up to 10,000 ft. - it was awesome! Their second appearance was after the fireworks show.

After to F-111s the choreographed fireworks show began and the barges up and down the river launched an amazing display of fireworks into the air. It was cool to see how it was coordinated with the music and similar fireworks were exploding from the various launching points along the river. One of my favorite parts of the 30 minute show was when we glanced over to the footbridge connecting South Bank to QUT (Queensland University of Technology) and it wasn't launching fireworks into the air, but rather it was spilling them into the river. White fireworks were falling from the bridge downward to create the appearance of a waterfall - it was beautiful (check out the album to see my attempt at photographing it).

Another cool part of the show was while one of the songs was playing along with the fireworks, every time the singer said the word "love" (which was quite frequently) pink fireworks would explode in the shape of a heart. The grand final (or grand finale as one of the DJs on the radio choked out - not something they say here) was impressive and of course the second dump-and-burn by the F-111s topped it off quite nicely. Last year (as surely was true this year) the F-111s were seen as far away as the Gold Coast (about 50 miles away).

The fireworks at Ekka made up for my missing fireworks on the 4th of July in the USA, but Riverfire really raised the bar ... sorry America, Brisbane has my vote for the world's best fireworks show I've ever seen.

What to do in Sydney ...

2006-08-23T12:12:00.000+10:00

Bridge, opera, caves, tower, ghosts, Olympics, skates, marine life, ship, boat, and raft.

Last night Val and I started mapping out what we are going to do over our four days in Sydney during our mid-semester break (which is now less than one month away). I was flipping through the Sydney section of my AAA, Fodor's and Lonley Planet books and stumbled upon an amazing Sydney discount card. We have decided to buy a card good for three days, which will cover free admission, drinks, meals, souvenirs, etc. at 40 Sydney area attractions. We read through the Web site for what we could do with the card, selected what seemed interesting and noteworthy, did further research online and in my books, and added in a few more items to bring our list of Sydney activities up to 16 for our four days in the largest city on the continent. The first line of this post is just a glimpse of the fun we have penciled in for our trip. We are waiting for our cards and a 144-page guidebook to Sydney to be posted to us, then we can make the necessary reservations and come up with our itinerary to fit into the blank spots on our mid-semester break schedule.

We have scheduled one portion of our Sydney adventure already, check out my post Just booked: Sydney and Alice Springs to see what it is and what I will be doing after the first four days of break.

Labor Day

2006-08-22T15:23:00.000+10:00

I will be missing out on Labor Day in the United States this year, but I have found a way you can help me make up for not having a day off from classes. Click here to see what you can do for me. Remember to consult other readers of this blog so that two of you don't accidentally do it. If you find that someone has already beat you to it, let me know and I would be happy to give you something else you can do to help me cope with missing out on Labor Day. Thanks.

Thanks mom for taking care of us this Labor Day! :)

Father's Day Footy

2006-08-21T16:20:00.000+10:00

Last night we bought four tickets to see a Brisbane Broncos rugby game in two weeks. Val, Natalie, Chris and I will get our first dose of National Rugy League (NRL) footy Sunday, Sept. 3, which is Father's Day in Australia. We have aisle seats in the 23rd row at one of the ends of Suncorp Stadium near one of the goals. I have only watched a little it of rugby on TV a few times and I'm not sure if it was even League or Union rugby (not that it would matter because I'm still trying to figure out the basics). There is also a rugby game straight across the street every Saturday at 3:00 p.m., but I also haven't watched enough of that to know what is going on. My homework over the next two weeks is to read up on how the game works and hopefully catch a few games on TV and across the street.

Ekka!

2006-08-15T10:19:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Val and I went to Ekka, which is basically a 10 day long state fair for Queensland. It's a huge event (I would say bigger than the Big E) where people from all around the state bring in their cattle, horses, roosters, dogs, sheep, goats, birds, etc. to be judged in competitions. Of course there is also non-animal fun (otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stay from 10:45 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.).

When we first arrived we wandered through the maze of roads and pavilions full of shops and stands selling everything from the world's best lemon juicer to kangaroo leather hats to alpaca scarves to wine from Texas, Queensland. We soon became hungry from walking around and smelling heaps of fair food, so we wandered over to the international food pavilion. We passed on the Malaysian food and were pulled in by the looping recording of the Dagwood Dog song blasting from one of the stands. We looked to see what it was all about and, just as Val had suspected, a Dagwood Dog is like a corn dog. The Australian twist however, is that they dip the end of it into a bucket of tomato sauce (ketchup) right before serving it to you. The corn bread around the hot dog also tasted a little more like fried dough than the corn dogs I have had fairs back at home. As we enjoyed our Dagwood Dogs and a cup of chips (french fries) we watched a food eating contest on a nearby stage - the contestants had to eat a plate of spicy chili food from the Malaysian stand without using their hands.

We walked around some more and visited the buildings with the various animals. We saw sheep, llamas, and alpacas first and then horses. After that we saw cats and dogs at two stands promoting pet food and then we went into the bird building. That was a crazy place. There was an area when we first entered that had Rainbow Pheasants from Asia and other water fowl - the pheasants were beautiful. We strolled down a few of the aisles of various birds in various size cages - we saw ducks, geese, and enormous roosters. After walking down the aisle with the roosters we left - too many birds making too many noises.

After the animals we went upstairs in one of the buildings to the Woolworth's Food Pavilion - which was home to heaps of stands from various food sellers. Our favorite stands were the one giving away pineapple and watermelon samples and the one giving away little milk jugs with fun straws. We ended up going back to the milk stand later to buy a lunch box cooler, which came with our choice of two cheeses, yoghurt, an ice pack, and a headband with cow ears.

After sampling Aussie BBQ potato chips, Greek yoghurt, fruits, cheese, and other treats we made our way across the street to the Show Bag Pavilion. When we entered it was further reinforced what I had been seeing/hearing earlier: American foods are donuts and hot dogs when I saw the sign at right.

Once in the pavilion we wandered through about a dozen aisles of stand selling bags full of candy, toys, hats, magazines, coupons, product samples, costumes, and other random items. Val and I managed to make it out of the pavilion only purchasing one show bag - one full of Wonka brand candy and a purple and white fuzzy hat. I wanted to get it because I thought Val could use the fun hat in future clinicals - having her clients pull something out of the crazy hat. A good chunk of the candy is already gone less than 24 hours later.

We also made one other purchase in the Show Bag Pavilion - a silhouette cutout of the two of us, done by a man who has been at the Ekka for nearly 60 years. We were drawn to the board he had displaying some of his many silhouette cutouts, which included President John F. Kennedy and Muhammad Ali, among others and the newspaper clippings he had from the press coverage he has received over the years. Val and I were happy to be a part of his most recent clipping in today's issue of The Courier Mail for all of Queensland to see (click here for the newspaper clipping) (click here for the article online). We were pretty excited. I bought five copies of the newspaper today because I only had $5.

After the madness by the show bags we wandered around the fair grounds some more and stumbled upon the circus tent about half an hour before the next show was to begin, so Val grabbed some free tickets for us and we walked around some more to pass the time until the circus began. We walked into the building with the dog competitions on the far end of the building I saw some Westies so we walked that way. We discovered that the Westy competition was taking place right then and sat down for a few moments to watch all the Winnie look a likes be judged and walk around. I have to report that they were all a little more well behaved than Winnie - only one was distracted by the other dogs and didn't stand rigid. Winnie is more fun.

We checked our watches and zipped over to the circus - which happened to be sponsored by the Sunny Farm egg company (the ones with the smiling eggs). The circus was fun - there was a guy who juggled eight rings, a woman who did acrobatics on a ring way up high, and two girls who balanced and did tricks while riding on a horse together.

We then wandered around again and went to the buildings with the stands selling all sorts of items and rested by watching an Aboriginal dance performance by members of a Brisbane-area tribe. There were four men and three children in the dance troop and one of the men played the didgeridoo the whole time. After the show we walked around some more and started to look for hats for Val and I (most importantly for when we travel to Alice Springs and Uluru and need protection from the sun. I am horrible at picking things out, especially when I have a bunch of options and have to walk around to different places to compare. I finally ended up buying a hat that had a coupon for $2 off in the Ekka guide we had as a reference for when events were occurring. Val picked up her hat at another stand shortly after. Mine is brownish and hers is, of course, pink.

For dinner we picked up chicken and chips. For dessert and a treat for later on we bought two buckets of fairy floss (cotton candy) - using another coupon from the Ekka guide (always trying to save a few dollars!). We devoured one bucket before the night was over, but the other one still has two-thirds remaining.

It had started to cool down and get dark so we headed over to the big grass arena and found seats to watch the line up of performances that were scheduled. As we walked in there was a man on a horse in the arena reciting a bush poetry about the Outback. After him there was a "Buffalo Bill" show - it was hard for me to hear and to follow it, but I enjoyed seeing a man riding on a bison on a saddle at the end of the performance. Next up was a coordinated performance of over 100 whip crackers and then an Australian country/western music star sang a couple songs. Next up was a freestyle motocross competition where two riders squared off and did some amazing jumps through the air. After that four cars came ripping out and did amazingly coordinated stunts of driving super close to each other facing opposite directions and driving at each other into the center of the arena and just barely missing one another. The final performance was by an American woman who was a human cannonball. It was so cool to see her launch out of the cannon, fly over 70 feet high and land 130 feet away from where she took off. The previous two nights she had barely made contact with the huge air bag cushion, but on our night she hit it right in the center.

The night ended with a fireworks display. Val and I called it our 4th of July fireworks show since we weren't home to see any. It was a good show and a great way to wrap up an awesome day packed with fun.

Happy eggs

2006-08-13T23:34:00.000+10:00

This is a random post just to let you know there are happy eggs in Australia. They are pretty yummy too. Val and I have enjoyed using them as part of the recipes for cake, cookies, meatloaf, chicken casserole, omlettes, french toast, chicken nuggets, and other delicious foods.

Just booked: Sydney and Alice Springs

2006-08-07T21:54:00.000+10:00

I haven't had time to sort through the 397 pictures I took this weekend at Australia Zoo and Noosa, so I am not going to mention any more about what I did right now ... that'll be in my next post.

The exciting news right now is that Val and I just booked our reservations for our mid-semester break adventure! We will be going to Sydney, Alice Springs, Uluru, Kings Canyon, and heaps of other fun and beautiful places. We will be using almost all of the break (22 September to 1 October) to do our travels. Here's the itinerary as it stands right now (click on the links to see photos of the places we will be seeing along the way) ...

Fri 22/9

Fly from Brisbane to Sydney
6:30 - 8:00 Qantas #503

Sat 23/9

Pirates of Penzance at the Sydney Opera House
1:00 - 3:30 (Stalls V32 & V33 B Reserve)

Sun 24/9

Sydney

Mon 25/9

Sydney

Tue 26/9

Fly from Sydney to Alice Springs
9:40 - 12:35 (Qantas #790)

Sleep at Desert Rose Inn in Alice Springs

Wed 27/9

Day tour of West MacDonnell Ranges
8:00 - 17:30 (John Flynn Memorial, Mt Gillen, Angkale Creek bed, Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ochre Pits, Ormiston Gorge, Glen Helen Gorge, Mt Sonder, Glen Helen River valley, Simpsons Gap)

Sleep at Desert Rose Inn in Alice Springs

Thu 28/9

"The Rock Tour" - Day 1
6:10 - Saturday 17:30 (guided Uluru base walk, Mala Walk, Mutitjulu Waterhole, Aboriginal cave paintings, Uluru sunset)

Sleep at Yulara resort campground

Fri 29/9

"The Rock Tour" - Day 2
Thursday 6:10 - Saturday 17:30 (Uluru sunrise, Valley of the Winds, Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), Tales from the Dreamtime)

Sleep at Kings Creek Station

Sat 30/9

"The Rock Tour" - Day 3
Thursday 6:10 - 17:30 (Kings Canyon, Lost City, Amphitheatre, North Wall, South Wall, Garden of Eden, Camel Farm)

Sleep at Desert Rose Inn

Sun 1/10

Fly from Alice Springs to Brisbane
11:30 - 14:30 (Qantas #982)

G'day from the Sunshine Coast

2006-08-05T18:33:00.000+10:00

Val and I woke up super early this morning (6:18) and literally ran to catch the CityCat and then hopped on a train north to the Australia Zoo to see some kangaroos, koalas, and of course, CROCS!
After we spent the whole day at the zoo we boarded the free bus north to Noosa, just to see what was there. We're spending the night here tonight and will check out the Pacific Ocean beaches tomorrow and perhaps give surfing a go.
More details and some pictures from our spur of the moment weekend adventure to come soon!

Courses and popcorn

2006-08-01T14:15:00.000+10:00

I suppose I should post my course schedule on my blog since I am now in the second week of classes.

Monday
nothing
Tuesday
10:00-10:50 -- News and Technology
12:00-1:50 -- News and Technology
4:00-5:50 -- Developmental Psychology
Wednesday
10:00-11:50 -- Contemporary Australia
1:00-1:50 -- Contemporary Australia
2:00-3:50 -- Geographical Information and Analysis
4:00-5:20 -- Contemporary Australia (not every week)
Thursday
10:00-10:50 -- Geographical Information and Analysis
12:00-1:50 -- Developmental Psychology
Friday
nothing

I just got back to the apartment from my first tutorial (for News and Technology) - last week there were no tutorials, just lectures. I like that class because it is my smallest, with only 16 students. My other classes easily have 60 students minimum, but as many as 170 I would estimate (I'm not great with guessing crowd sizes though ...). I'm still trying to get used to the way courses operate here ... rather than assignments on a weekly basis or even more frequently, there are only three or four pieces of assessment to determine my marks for each course. I knew it would be a different system than I was used to at Etown, but it a little confusing when trying to figure out what I need to do to prepare for the next lecture ... do I read the next two chapters? ... do I do nothing? ... do I look at Blackboard to review the three pieces of assessment again? I'll get the hang of it eventually.

And on a completely random note, as can be seen in the picture to the right, Val was excited the other night when she discovered the bag of popcorn she has popped was filled to the very top with popcorn. She was thrilled to see that she had received her money's worth, unlike in the US, as she said. Unfortunately we are not used to the microwave and the popcorn, so a good portion of the full bag was burned.

A winter day in Brisbane

2006-07-30T00:29:00.000+10:00

Val and I spent our Saturday afternoon relaxing at the South Bank Parklands.

We had delicious crepes, did some homework with our feet in the lagoon, laid out on the sand to get some sun, and watched a street performer before returning to our apartment for a yummy ham dinner.

Check out some of the photos from our day: A winter day in Brisbane.

Almost three weeks on the other side of the world

2006-07-17T22:04:00.000+10:00

I've done so much so far on my Australian adventure. I suppose it is about time I start writing about some of it before I forget any of the fun details.On day one, July 1st, I traveled from Hartford to Orange County. When I showed up at the airport that morning I was faced with something I didn't expect - a HUGE line for security. My mom and sister get into the security line to hold a spot for me while I went up to the Southwest kiosks and checked in and noted I had two bags to check, that went quickly. Next I hopped into the security line while Shannon printed out the seat request cards for my mom, dad, and herself for their "flight to Atlanta" so they could come up to the Southwest gate to say good-bye to me. It was strange to be flying somewhere and to not have to worry about actually having a seat. I got on the plane and sat pretty far back, but I had a window seat so I was happy.When I arrived in Baltimore, Val was waiting for me to deplane at the gate, she wasn't happy I had sat so far back on the plane because it took me quite a while to get off it. We walked to our gate at the other end of the airport together and waited a little while for our flight to Orange County. When we got on the plane, we boarded in zone B so we had to sit fairly far back, but again we had a window seat. Val took the window and got to see the fields and the desert below us as we flew across the country and into Phoenix, Arizona. It was the first time Val had been west of the Mississippi River. When we stopped in Phoenix we moved up to the second row on the plane so we wouldn’t have to wait a long time to get off the plane and into the airport after our next short leg to Orange County.

At the Orange County airport we caught up with Uncle Pat and Connor

-- I never completed this post, but it pretty much tells the beginning part of my trip enough to catch you up to speed with Val's post on her blog about the beginning of the trip, so I invite you to check out her blog at valeriesrhodes.blogspot.com --

Photographs from Australia

2006-07-14T22:20:00.000+10:00

Check out some more photographs from my first couple in Australia: http://picasaweb.google.com/KyleABrady/Australia

Quick first post from Down Under

2006-07-12T21:44:00.000+10:00

I'm not going to write about everything I have done so far in Australia, but here a few of the many pictures I have taken so far down here ... Val and I in Cairns and each of us with the boomerang we threw at the Tjakupai Aboriginal Park.

Track all my flights (in 3-D)

2006-06-25T00:41:00.000+10:00

Below are links to Web pages for tracking each of my flights. I know if I weren't in the plane flying, I would be tracking. Each page also provides a link to track that flight in Google Earth (just click on ) so you can see the path of the plane and the altitude. Enjoy!

All dates and times have been adjusted to the Eastern Time Zone (UTC-4/UTC-5)

Date	Time	Flight	Tracking Link
1 July	0745 - 0855	Southwest 280 BDL -BWI	Track SWA280
1 July	1030 - 1655	Southwest 127 BWI -SNA	Track SWA127
3 July	0220 - 1605	Qantas 176 LAX - BNE	Track QFA176
3 July	1940 - 2205	Qantas 782 BNE - CNS	Track QFA782
6-7 July	2245 - 0050	Qantas 649 CNS - BNE	Track QFA649
9-10 December	2030 - 0300	Qantas 397 BNE - NAN	Track QFA397
17 December	0550 - 1605	Qantas 3839 NAN - LAX	Track QFA3839
17 December	2145 - 2248	America West 399 LAX - LAS	Track USA399
18 December	0259 - 0659	U.S. Airways 740 LAS - PIT	Track USA740
18 December	0915 - 1046	U.S. Airways 3542 PIT - BDL	Track USA3542

Flight Itinerary

2006-06-17T06:44:00.000+10:00

Here is a copy of my flight itinerary - covering all ten flights from Hartford to Australia and back.

The five flights in July have me hopping around the States and Australia. I leave Saturday morning from Hartford on my first Southwest flight to Baltimore, where I will meet up with Val, who will join me on the flight at 10:30 a.m. to Orange County in California. We will spend that night with my aunt and cousins, who live nearby the airport. The following evening we will be driven to LAX, where we'll board the plane on which we will spend more than half a day - taking off just before midnight Sunday and finally landing in Australia early Tuesday morning. We have a layover in Brisbane before hopping on another Qantas flight up north to warmer weather in Cairns. After a four day AustraLearn orientation and a reunion with Natalie and Chris we'll head back down to Brisbane. Flying around will finally be done with for a while.

Here's the itinerary:

Saturday, July 1

Hartford (BDL) to Baltimore/Washington (BWI)
Southwest Airlines #280
7:45 a.m. - 8:55 a.m.

Baltimore/Washington (BWI) to Orange County (SNA)
Southwest Airlines #127
10:30 a.m. 1:55 p.m.

Sunday, July 2

Los Angeles (LAX) to Brisbane (BNE)
Qantas Airways #176
11:20 p.m. - 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, July 4

Tuesday, July 4

Brisbane (BNE) to Cairns (CNS)
Qantas Airways #782
9:40 a.m. - 12:05 p.m.

Friday, July 7

Cairns (CNS) to Brisbane (BNE)
Qantas Airways #649
12:45 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.

Sunday, December 10

Brisbane (BNE) to Nadi (NAN)
Qantas Airways #397
11:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 17

Nadi (NAN) to Los Angeles (LAX)
Qantas Airways #3839
10:50 p.m. - 1:05 p.m.

Los Angeles (LAX) to Las Vegas (LAS)
America West Airlines #399
6:45 p.m. - 7:48 p.m.

Las Vegas (LAS) to Pittsburgh (PIT)
U.S. Airways #740
11:59 p.m. - 6:56 a.m. Monday, December 18

Monday, December 18

Pittsburgh (PIT) to Hartford (BDL)
America West Airlines #3542
9:15 a.m. - 10:46 a.m.

Preparing to depart

2006-06-14T08:57:00.000+10:00

The great Australian Adventure will be under way in just a little more than two weeks.

It's almost time to start the packing process - unfortunately I still haven't unpacked everything from Etown ... I'm planning to have all that squared away this weekend. I have started a list of everything I am going to pack to bring Down Under with me - it is going to be a full inventory (down to each item in my wallet and toiletry kit). While cleaning up my room I have been sorting through my clothes to narrow down what will and will not be packed in my suitcases in a few weeks. I will be living out of a suitcase for quite a while in the near future: I am going to Texas with my family Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then I leave that Saturday to head out to California, where I depart from Sunday, I arrive in Cairns Tuesday, leave Friday, and stay in Brisbane until the following Wednesday when I finally move into the apartment. Woo!

On another note, I started enrolling in my classes for the semester - I was approved by UQ for eight classes, but I will only take four, so I need to decide which to actually take.