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August 13th through 15th
G'day again, mates!Let me fill you in, yet again, on the past couple of days in the life of me.
Wednesday the 13th started out with me going to my Philosophy of Biology lecture at 10am - which I've decided is really freaking weird.We went over more material about the theories of inheritance, but most importantly how those theories may or may not be correct and such things.The class is basically teaching students how to assess the philosophical aspects of many areas in biology.Who thought of having this as a class?It makes sense… but I'd think a core Ethics class might just suffice.Then I had a break, or so I thought, until my tutorial at 1pm.Turns out my tutorial was actually right after the lecture, but going to the 1pm tutorial worked just fine.It was dull, but I'm sure the subject matter will become more interesting as the course progresses.After class, I met up with my roomies and we got ready to head downtown to do more sightseeing; our typical Wednesday afternoon!Our friend Matt, from Arizona State University, met up with us and we all took the bus.On the way in to the city, our bus crapped out and we had to meet up with another bus so that all of us commuters could change buses; it was hilarious and a great example of our awful transit luck!Our destination was, what tourists call Sydney Tower, but locals call Center Point (self explanatory).In a book Jen has, I read that it is well over 70 stories up with 4 levels for visitors to see at the top with a water tower just above all that. Before heading up, guests can go through this weird ordeal in which you put headphones on and watch these silly little information tidbits set in model backgrounds that featured projected images of people.There were four little scenes, each required the entire seating area to rotate so we could view the next thingy - it was cool, but kind of weird at the same time.After that, we all filed into a large theater-type room with rollercoaster-like seats which we were secured into.We then watched a film that talked about all the different areas of Australia and moved the seats to match the screen motion.It was pretty cheesy, but definitely sweet.The elevator ride was hilarious - both on the way up and headed back down.It was a small corner-shaped lift in which the staff felt they could pack about ten or so people in… yeah, way to make us uncomfortable!The top level is the observation deck; from which you can see all of Sydney and we were able to watch the sun set.I took loads of pictures and even bought a couple of souvenirs for some of you guys back home!There are 56 cables that stabilize the building in case of high winds, each weighing over 7 tons!When we'd had enough of the Center Point, the four of us made our way to the Pyrmount Hotel - the place Gordy, Kevin, and I had dinner the previous Wednesday.This time, I ordered the $7 fish and chips special - it was bomb!We attempted to play the pokies (Slots, if you will) but none of us could figure it out and Allyson ended up putting a dollar in and a slip printed out saying she won a dollar - funny!Being severely confused, we headed home to have some more fun.Once home, Allyson, Jen, and I headed over to the Ranch to see what was hoppin'.It was slow at first, so we had to actually buy our own beers.We sat and watched the Olympic highlights, and teased Jen that she is bad luck for us.Before long, Jen had to leave because she was heading to Canberra early in the next morning.About ten minutes after that, Allyson and I got hit on by a group of four or five guys… see how the luck thing makes sense?They were trying to guess where Allyson was from; they guessed France, Sweden, and some other European country.I convinced them I was from Holland.The funny thing about that was that I never even tried to fake an accent, they just believed me!After a jaegerbomb and more chatting, we all hit the dance floor then headed home around 1am.
Thursday was crap for me.I hadn't planned on going out Wednesday night as it was, but I didn't want Ally to be left alone; I know, I'm a good friend.I woke up with a worse cough and stuffy sinuses, which led me to the conclusion of not attending my one hour lecture.It's not a big deal anyway because the lecture is recorded with a microphone and put on the internet soon after.Around 1pm Ally and I went to campus to buy books - I spent a little over $200 on two books, one I've used in a class before - and to, again, try to pay my fees… which fell through again.That night, the Uni Bar was hosting a toga party, which I had planned on attending, but ended up not due to my killer cough.Allyson and I stayed in and watched more Olympics and missing Jen.
Friday, I was supposed to have class from 9am to 1pm but the class's tutor never showed up due to confusion in the department and the main lecturer/department head being out of the country.After an hour of waiting, and a man coming in to inform us of this, we wrote our names down as proof of attendance, and left.This was fine with me because it gave me ample opportunity to finally complete my housing payments.After that, Ally and I went to the mall to look for sweet deals on boots because both our wardrobes needed a pair.Once our exhausting shopping trip was finished, we met up for coffee with Matt, one of the guys we made friends with Wednesday night.He filled us in on some local stuff like lingo, sweet places to visit, and other places to shop.Ally and I headed home to see if our new roommate had arrived, which she had, but we still have yet to meet her!The suspense is unbearable.Both of us were able to use Skype to talk with our families, which was sweet.I talked to my parents for over an hour!Later on, Matt (the Aussie) called us and invited us out to his suburb, offering to pick us up if we couldn't get a bus, so we accepted and were picked up around 10:30.We went to this place called and RSL (Retired Services League), which apparently most of the suburbs have and we thought would be filled with old retired folk because of the name, but it wasn't.It was a ton of young kids, loud music, and fun.Matt, his friend John, Allyson, and I all hung out and talked.They basically grilled us with hundreds of questions about the American University system - how it works and how it is.I can't count the number of references to Van Wilder I've heard regarding US schools.How the "Uni's" work here is most kids just go to the school nearest home.They live at home all during Uni and move out when they get a career, married, or anything serious.It's craziness.Every time I referred to school, the guys made me clarify whether I was talking about high school or uni.School, college, and uni are all different things here, I'm not quite sure if I've gotten the hang of it all yet, but I will with time!A while later we headed upstairs to enjoy the dance scene.Another side note: Aussies dance weird.It looks kind of like they're having seizures while standing or like someone put a porcupine in their pants.When 2am hit, the lights turned on and we all got booted to the curb.John had left around 12:30 and was supposed to pick us up, but we couldn't reach him.So, we just took a courtesy van ride to Matt's house and crashed there; which was probably the most awkward thing for Allyson and I this morning.
Like I mentioned before, even at 22 Aussies still live with their parents, which is fine, but a cultural difference Allyson and I could not get over.Before going to bed, Ally and I tried planning on how we were going to sneak out without the parents or 19 year old brother noticing, but Matt said they'd be up early and it didn't make a difference anyway.Plus, since his car was still being borrowed by John, he'd have to use his mom's car and she'd want to know why.Sneaking out was in no way an option.So, he set our shoes outside of the room door as a sign to let his parents know there were guests.Matt made sure to introduce us in the morning to his parents, who were really nice, but how awkward is that?That's like the ultimate walk of shame, even if nothing happened, you know?It's not like we had a way to get all the way back to our suburb, but imagine the things the parents were thinking!Yeah, we're all adults, but still - cultural differences are crazy!A few funny highlights of the brief thirty minute parental encounter included meeting them, having them ask us about where we're from and what we're studying.Matt's mom is French and both he and his brother were born in France, so the whole family speaks French fluently.At one point, Matt's brother said something in French and his mum yelled at him back in French… but Ally and I had no clue as to what that was about.After we left, Matt told us that his brother was asking if we'd had a threesome!I'm glad he asked that in French because, even though it wasn't true, had it been in English, I don't know how I would have reacted.We stopped at Macker's for breakfast - which is actually better than back home, except for the orange juice, which was maybe a 6oz cup of juice.We arrived home and discovered that our new roommate had still not been back since her first mysterious drop in.We're starting to think this girl is a freaking ghost or something.Now, it's Saturday night and we're likely going to head downtown again and see what havoc we can wreak.
Cheers!
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