Tuesday, November 22, 2005
brisbane
I have been having such a blast the last few days here it's amazing! The "fight club" house turned out to be worse than I had imagined, you can imagine sunken ceilings, ripped up floors, beer bottles EVERYwhere, several beat up couches... you get the idea. Turns out that the owner is waiting for the right permit so he can tear it down anyway, so the kids living there are happily trashing it for him. It was a blast having a BBQ with all them, and going out was pretty crazy as well. We even went back the next night to play poker with all of the guys there, and there was more fun times to be had.
My sister's friend got us up at around 5:30 or so a couple days ago to go surfing in the morning, and I decided that either it was way too early or I just suck at surfing. I was having a terrible time trying to get up on the board! It was still fun though, and we got to watch the sun rise over the edge of the ocean (rather than set, like we usually do in California) Later, I even got to play in a game of ultimate with my sister and some people from the uni team at Wollongong!
Yesterday I guess it was, we hopped on a plane up to Brisbane, the third largest city in aussi-land behind Sydney and Melbourne. We have some family friends here who we are staying with which makes it fun being submerged in the culture here. There are many similarities, but many differences as well. When we walked in the door we were met with a hot cup of tea and a plate of cookies which was so relaxing after driving from the airport. Needless to say, my mum is still a bit crazy behind the wheel of a right-side drive car, especially in the traffic of a city with nearly two million residents! After sleeping in this morning, we went to a beach about an hour or so north where the water was nearly swimming pool warm (it's not even summer here yet!) but the waves left somehting to be desired. It was fun nonetheless, and when we got back my sister and I quickly showered and were rushed to our family friends' daughter and her husbands place for a nice dinner. After, we went out with Ryan to shoot some pool at a local place - the aussies love their pool! I'm still getting used to just walking up to a bar and getting a XXXX beer without anyone so much as batting an eye.
Anywho, I guess tomorrow we are going into the city and I think I want to check out the uni here, because I guess they offer my major- which is amazing considering barely a handful of schools in the states offer it.
Oh, and thanks Uncle Tony, I'll try and spread the word to mum about the bungee jumping! I was thinking about this place.