earth hour

melbourne..well more specifically the great ocean road was amazing and as soon as my computer is fixed i will do a detailed post with TONS of pictures

i just want to write a quick post on what happened tonight.  Starting at 8:30 tonight for an hour everyone in Australia as well as around the world was supposed to turn off their lights.  Its called earth hour and has been advertised all around australia.  I turned off all the lights in my apartment and watched in amazement as most of the city went dark. 

it was a beautiful thing.

The weather here is so bizarre. Yesterday I went to the beach and laid out all day and then when i got home it started pouring rain.

I am going to Melbourne this weekend and I am really excited about it. Ashley knows someone there that owns his own restaurant/bar/club and we might rent a van and do the great ocean road which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. All the beaches here are straight out of magazines. The sand is sooo soft but it gets EVERYWHERE!

More observations:
-Everything closes SO early here, especially on Sunday. Yesterday everything in the SIX STORY mall across the street was closed by SIX!
-They are very energy/water efficient here. All the toilets have two options for flushing (a half and a full flush) and all the outlets have switches on them so you can have stuff plugged in but it wont work unless you turn on the switch. Also in some of the hotel rooms we've been in you have to put your key into this box to turn on the power. so in order to leave you have to take out the key thus turning off all the lights
-this sounds weird but the money here is so pretty. It's all different colors and has this see through part and is made out of plastic so you can get it wet and it wont tear. The only annoying thing is they have one and two dollar coins so you ALWAYS have a ton of change with you.

-In all of the places where they sell cigarettes they have HUGE signs that say SMOKING KILLS but yet more people smoke here than they do back home.

More Aussie Observations

Nothing too exciting has happened to me lately so I'd figure I'd list more fun observations about life out here for all of my American loves.

The Aussies love to add y to the end of everything. We were giving our friends dean and jacob shit for it the other day saying they make all of their words cute. For example: breaky (breakfast), prezzie (present), boardy (board shorts) etc

All of the kids in elementary and high school here have to wear uniforms regardless of whether they go to private or public school. And they are legit uni's too like ties and blazers and everything.

There are a lot of hot young dads here. Which i guess is weird to say but we've all noticed.

Their eggs freak me out. At the market they aren't refrigerated. They are seriously on the shelf right next to the paper towels. And their bacon is like not cooked at all. Its almost like canadian bacon. I dont even know how to explain it.

Every night is a weekend night. There are certain clubs that are HUGE on one night of the week but not the others and when you get there you feel like its Friday even if its just Tuesday. And they ALL play the SAME 6 songs:September - Cry for you (you'll never see me again), Guru Josh Project - Infinity, Freddie La Mac - Put your hands up for detroit. it's changing my taste in music.

They serve fries (or chips) with EVERYTHING. You can even get salad and chips if you wish hahah.

They arent big on fountain drinks so if you order a coke with your meal you get it in a can or bottle.

Even though this is an english speaking country there is so much slang and they pronounce so many words differently that you almost need a translation book half the time. Ex filit is pronounced fill-it

I think Americans are more obsessed with summer heights high than Aussie's even though its an australian show.

They have many american tv shows here but they are months or even seasons behind. They are only on season 1 of the hills!

College (or rather UNI) is A LOT different here. Back home its almost a lifestyle. Here they just go to class and thats it. They don't really even have dorms or anything.



more to come!

Yesterday was gay mardi gras. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Casey and Ryan came down from Canberra and we had around 10 other boys who were friends with my roommates here as well. So it was a little crowded to say the least but definetly fun.

Everyone got all decked out in masks and feathers and glitter...even the boys! We then headed down to watch the parade. There was over 10,000 people there from so many different countries. It was nice to see that everyone came together or this even though it was a gay and lesbian parade.

So far life here in Sydney has been great. Right now its raining which sucks. The weather here is so unpredictable. Yesterday it was all sunny and nice and today it's pouring. Im definetly not used to it.

Ash and I are planning to possible go to either Tasmania this weekend or camping in Melbourne. I can't wait!

This past week and a half in Sydney has been amazing. The first week we had orientation and were put in this amazing hotel room right in the heart of the city. The first night they took us out to dinner and I actually ate kangaroo. It tasted like really good teriyaki chicken, which is kind of wierd now that I think about it.

The rest of the week we got to do such amazing stuff like repel down these huge cliffs in the blue mountains which beauty rivals that of yosemite. We also played with kangaroos and koalas. Kangaroos are kind of ugly up close. Like giant jumping rats. And everytime I saw the little kangaroos (i forget what they are called) I kept thinking of 'Roccos Modern Life.' The last night we went on a harbor cruise and saw the sydney opera house up close. It was beautiful.

I'm living on the beach in coogee until I get my housing in Bondhi on Saturday. The weathers been amazing and every morning we have been getting fresh fruit and banana bread and sitting on the beach. It all seems so surreal.

I still cant believe I'm here. And for all of you who know me really well, I still can't believe I'm actually getting tan hahaha.

Things I've noticed so far about Australia:
1. Thier portion sizes here are SO small. No wonder Americans are fat
2. Americans are liked here becuase we helped them out in WWII
3. A lot of Aussies love to talk American politics. I think its crazy that they all watched OUR election and I still cant even tell you who thier prime minister is
4. Even though there is a recession here as well they dont talk about it nearly as much as we do
5. They say mate, cheers and aye...A LOT!
6. They are tons of other nationalities living here as well. You never know who you're going to meet.
7. They call Sprite lemonade
8. They are big on thier chicken schnitzel here which is just basically really good breaded chicken


i'm sure i'll think of more soon

I am FINALLY at sydney at my orientation. we left the gold coast this morning after only 2 hours of sleep. It is seriously insane there and SO much fun.

We went "club crawling" a couple of times and go tin free because we were american. though ive been told many times that i dont look american, but the second i open my mouth they can tell im from california. And then they start talking about arnold the govenator

ashely and i seriously have the worst luck. we were walking to a club (the bedroom where the club is actually lined with beds) the other night when it started POURING and not just that but insane winds as well. we were holding on to the light post to keep form falling over. all we could do was laugh. then yesterday everything was all booked up because of valentines day so we walked around for 2 hours in the rain looking for a place to stay. when we finally did it was at this kids resort and our room had bunk beds and play station in it. the pictures are hilarious an das soon as im in my new apt i'll post them all.

its wierd to be around all americans again since weve only talked to one in the past week. its nice though. we are all lost together.

"go forth and set the world on fire"

I have to write this fast becuase im paying for internet but i promised you all i would post so i'll let you know about my last couple of days

the plane ride to sydney wasnt bad at all. we were in a brand new plane that let you choose the movie you wanted to watch. so that was pretty amazing

after we landed in sydney we took a flight to collengata. we met some friends and stayed there one night. Ashely and I threw an authentic australian boomerang...and then broke it. we also went night swimming. the water was soooo warm. but knowing our luck...we got stung by jellyfish.

the next day we took a bus to surfers paradise and checked in the cheers hostel. we went on a massive club crawl with all of the hostels around here. we partied with english, aussies, canadians, swedes, french, welch, germans, irish and italians. it was so insane and soooo much fun. we then broke into the marriot pool and swam until 5 in the morning.

today we laid on the beach all day. even though it rained a little bit. saturday we are going on a booze cruise for valentines day and on friday we are doing another club crawl with 4oo people!

everyone here is so amazingly nice. and surprisingly enough there are NO americans. everyone makes it a big deal when they meet us. its kind of funny.

love you all and miss you!