Can you smell the aromas?

Ahhhhh what you all have been waiting so patiently for, pictures! It has taken awhile, but Adam and I went and did something this weekend that I finally documented with my camera. On Sunday, the Aroma festival was going on down at the rocks an old part of Sydney that is across from the Opera House. The festival was advertised as “a divine world of coffee, chocolate, tea and spice” ummmm yes please!


This is the first picture taken upon arriving at the festival and deserves its own special comment, because right after I took this picture a guy came up to me and the following commentary took place. P.S. I'm doing this from memory, but this is more or less the wording.

Stupid guy:"Excuse me, are you by any chance American?"
Me: "Yes?"
Stupid guy: "I thought so, that is such a typical American thing to do. To take a picture where you are trying to do something funny with an object."
Me: "What?"
Stupid Guy: "I went on a tour one time where the guide was American, and she was so embarrassed by all the Americans and there stupid posing for pictures like holding up the leaning Tower of Pisa, and that she was always trying to pull away from being considered an American.
Me: "Well honestly I don't think that posing for pictures like that is considered an American thing to do, because I've seen many other non American people doing similar things."
Stupid guy: "blah blah blah I'm a dirty guy
Adam: "Okay lets go"

And yes, I was annoyed for a while after this conversation.



The picture of Marilyn Monroe is made completely out of cups of coffee with different levels of milk in them. Pretty cool, huh? Last year they did the Mona Lisa.



You were not supposed to take pictures of these masks, but we did anyway! Even after the lady kind of yelled at Adsy for trying!























It never gets old to look at the beautiful architecture that is the famous opera house.










There were camel rides for $5, but we didn't partake. Too bad, I kind of wish we had now.

First week recap

Here it is Monday and I never did a recap of my first week of school. Oops. Not only that I also have a terrible cold so please excuse me if none of what I write makes any sense.

First week of classes went well. After I got over the inconvenience of that one class change I realized it was not so bad after all. We ended up having that class at its original time on Thursday for last week only so we wouldn’t be a week behind, and it made me realize having all those classes Monday-Thursday made the week really long. Now I have to see how it goes today having two three hour classes back to back. I might be a zombie afterwards.

I already told you a little about my Monday class, Visual and museum cultures of the Asia-Pacific region, so I won’t really go into that. Tuesday night’s class is interesting, Cultural property, ethics, and law. The professor is pregnant so she basically set the class up so that after the baby is born everything will be online. The class is also set up so that each week we’ll have a topic that we have to debate with each other. I’m not sure what this means or how I feel about it, but I’ll soon find out.

Wednesday night’s class is going to be my favorite I think, organizational psychology. I find the topic interesting already, but I really liked the professor. She was so engaging and passionate about the course that it was hard not to like her and what she was talking about.

Thursday night’s class (which is now on Monday afternoons) was pretty boring for the first class. The professor seems very knowledgeable but very dry, which she herself acknowledged. The class is organization and management. She did tell us that she will be having a lot of guests come and talk to our class about what it is like working in the arts industry. I think that will be very beneficial to us, plus will give us a break from boring material.

In my recap I would also like to say that so far I find graduate school interesting. I don’t have to buy any books for any classes this semester, which is nice. I also don’t have any tests. All my assessments will be based on papers and presentations. Also the vibe is very different from undergraduate life. All of my classes are at night, so most people work during the day, or they have kids, etc. It may have just been the awkward first week, but it seems that most people are there to learn and not make friends. I of course find this interesting because I am there for both. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the semester goes. I am feeling upbeat and excited about it. I hope those feelings last.

My first Uni party

Before I started class last night I got a text from one of the girls I have made friends with since starting Uni*, that “the group” as they call themselves were going to go the “Unibar” on campus. “The group” is composed of people who met during the international orientation, so I guess this includes me too. They have been doing a lot together most of which I’ve had to miss out on either because I was out of town, had, class, or just couldn’t make it.

I decided I would meet them after I got done with class. As most of you have probably seen on my status on Facebook the Unibar bar is on campus. All of us Americans found this strange because none of us had bars on our campus. Across the street from campus? Yes. On campus? No. The building I had my class in is called the squarehouse and it is located next to the roundhouse. The Unibar is located in the Roundhouse; therefore the bar is approximately 20ft from my class. Awesome.

Much like in most university life, Thursday nights are the nights to go out. This is still true for the kids at UNSW. This Unibar place was no joke. They had two lines to get in, one for UNSW students, and one for non UNSW student. They also had heavy police, who checked my bag, and a drug sniffing dog sniffing people down. As I was walking in the dog started chasing a non UNSW guy down and the cops surrounded him. Sucks for that guy.

The place was huge and there were people everywhere. There were girls dressed up so much you kind of forgot that you were on campus and not at a regular club. It made me laugh because here I was straight from class with a bag on my shoulder with my spiral and planner inside. The place had a huge dance floor complete with dj, lights, and lasers. There was an outdoor place with a live band as well.

We spent the first hour or so walking around, people watching, and then commenting on the people we were watching as everyone does. There were a bunch of people we all knew or sort of knew from orientation that we ran into. It was fun running into people and going I know you, and our little group would get bigger and bigger. Finally, we headed over to the dance floor, where we made our little circle and started dancing. You know the circle that inevitably happens when a bunch of girls are dancing? Yes, but we also had guys in it as well. All of us threw our bags and jackets in the middle and just started dancing around them; it became a sort of bonfire of stuff.

It was so fun to be surrounded by so many people, and people from so many different places. There were people from America, China, Norway, Germany, Mexico, a guy from Chile, Zimbabwe, and a weird Persian guy that showed up out of no where. A great mix of people from all over the world dancing together at the Unibar made for a fun night!

One last funny thing I’ll write to finish up my story is the conversation I overheard while sitting outside waiting for the bus. There were two guys, who I figured were American and traveling around Australia, then a young Australian girl who was a student at UNSW. One of the guys was talking about how he and the other guy “crashed” the uni party and obviously thought they were really cool for doing so. Then someone made a comment about how there were so many “old” people there, “like 25 years olds.” As you can probably imagine I was dying laughing, A. because I am 25 and just got called old, and B. because everyone I was just with inside the bar, all 15 of us, were 25 and older. Anyway, I thought it was the perfect way to end the evening because I got called lame by a guy who is traveling around Australia and didn’t have anyplace better to be than at a university party for enrolled university students like me. I wonder what they would have said if they found out I am going to be 26 this year, and still going to Uni parties!

*Uni is the abbreviated term that all Aussies use when referring to a university and I have adopted it as well.

First day of school, cont'd

Thank goodness I had no more freak out moments on the first day of school. I don’t think I could have handled it. One was definitely enough for me.

The rest of the day went well. I caught the bus and made it with plenty of time to spare for my first class, Visual and Museum Cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region. I have a friend in the class already so that is nice. Funny actually because she is the person I am interning for this semester, but I will get to at a later time.

As class started I sat listening to the professor talk about what the class was, etc. The whole time I sat listening to her I kept thinking to myself, “something sounds weird” and I felt confused, but I had no idea why. Then it hit me, she is American. I know it sounds like a silly and stupid feeling to have, but I was expecting an Aussie accent so when I heard an American one I didn’t recognize. Maybe I have already acclimatized to the Aussie accent. She introduced herself as being from New York originally, but has lived in Sydney for the last 30 years.

Once I got over the novelty of having an American professor, because lets face it I don’t really care who my professor is as long as they do a good job teaching me, I started listening to what the class is going to entail. It sounds like an interesting topic. It is focused on the Asia-Pacific region, but it seems more about visual culture in general. We will be learning a lot about museums and how they develop, i.e. out of memorials, trauma, culture, etc. Anyway, it should be good, and I'll keep you updated.

P.S. I’m still waiting on that email from the school telling me that my class has moved to a different day and time.

First day freak out!

My first day of school was going well until 3:30pm; I had done a bunch of washing (and hung it to dry), I had corresponded with many people via email and Skype, and just as I was writing all of my class names, times, and locations into my planner, disaster hit.

When you apply to school at UNSW, you first have to create a “myUNSW” account. This account is used to apply for school, accept your offer, enroll in classes, pay your bills, etc. It’s a very important website with a lot of information on it.

I was on this website today looking at my class timetable, and like I said earlier, was using it to enter all of my classes’ information into my planner so I would be super organized and well prepared like the good student I am. When I enrolled a month and a half ago, I knew I had classes Mon-Thurs from 6-9pm at night. I have known this for again, a month and a half. When I clicked on the class timetable at 3:30pm it somehow refreshed and showed that one of my classes was schedule for Monday from 2-5pm.

Of course I immediately started freaking out. How had I not seen this? Haven’t I made sure I had everything right and was aware of everything for this semester? I kept signing in and out of myUNSW to make sure it wasn’t a mistake on its part. Then finally I called Adam freaking out, hoping he’d be home soon to give me a frantic ride up to Uni. Being the calm guy he is, he made the suggestion I call the university and speak to someone about it.

I called the COFA student center and talked with someone who then talked with someone else, and told me that they could not find a teacher to teach the original Thursday class so they switched it to Monday. They did all this mind you, without telling any of the students. The person I talked to also reminded me that, “the university has the right to change…blah blah blah.” Thank you UNSW for freaking me out on my first day back to school. As I was getting off the phone they told me there were working on an email to send to all of us enrolled in that class. It’s been awhile; I’m still waiting for that email.

I still have my class to go to tonight so there will be another post about that tomorrow. Hopefully it will not be titled, First day freak out, Part II. Now my schedule is as follows: I have two classes on Monday, and one Tuesday and Wednesday. I guess it somewhat works out though, because now I have the same school schedule as Adsy. Plus, I can still watch/participate in indoor soccer on Thursdays, and best of all who doesn’t love a four day weekend?

Time traveler

When I made the decision to move down under, I didn’t know my choice would also result in traveling back in time. I joke with Adam that Australia lags about 5-10 years behind the US, but last night I realized its closer to 100 years behind.

Last night, as we were meandering through the aisles at the grocery store making heaps of impulse buys (like always), Adam came across something he insisted I buy, a hot water bottle. I started laughing because I thought he was joking, apparently he was not. Its winter here, and I have been getting really cold at night (because of another reason I will explain shortly), so he thought it would help me. He wondered why I was laughing and I told him it was because people do not use hot water bottles anymore. He told me that here in Australia they do, and then asked me what they use in the US? To this I replied “CENTRAL HEATING!” which we don’t have.

Other things we don’t have that keeps Australia in the dark ages. No heating or air conditioning. No dishwasher. No dryer. To keep warm we use a little electric space heater that heats up the room pretty well after about 30 minutes. To cool off in the summer, a fan gets plugged in. We wash dishes manually by hand, and set them on a drying rack. Clothes get dry by hanging outside on a line.

Now I shouldn’t say that the whole of Australia doesn’t have these modern conveniences, but from what I’ve gathered, most people don’t have them. It has been fun doing things differently, except for when it rains for days and I cannot do laundry. One thing Australia does well is conserve electricity.

What I thought was so funny about it the whole thing was that is was in such a fashionable color like purple. The makers of this product are obviously trying to market to a younger generation. Well it worked!! We bought the hot water bottle and it did actually work. I filled it with hot water last night; put it in the bed down by my feet, and it kept my feet warm.



So until we move to a place with heating (which probably won’t happen) I’ll stick to my hot water bottle and hope that I don’t die from the bubonic plague.

'Step Up', walk out

Oh these international student seminars. Why do I keep going to them? Maybe it’s because I have nothing else to do. Maybe I’m hoping that for once they’ll give me some good information that I can take away with me. Either way, I need to learn my lesson and stop going to them. They don’t really provide me with any new knowledge, and while I am there I can always think of many other things I’d rather be doing.

Today’s seminar was a big one. Scheduled from 9:30am-4pm “Step Up” was sold as an academic preparation program. I understand that I have already had about enough academics in my life to get me through another degree, but I fooled myself into thinking that Australia did things differently and that I would need to know about them before school started. They do things exactly the same. Except instead of A, B, C, D, F grade scale they have high distinction, distinction, credit, pass, fail. This was the one thing I took from the whole time I was there (*disclosure* I couldn’t take anymore and didn’t come back after we broke for lunch. I felt it was the best decision for me at the time.)

So I don’t sound like too much of a negative Nancy, there was a positive outcome to the morning spent on campus. After the introductions, we broke into groups within our faculties or colleges/schools as we Americans would call them. I met and made friends with four other College of Fine Arts (COFA) students. This was beneficial because then I got to talk with others who will be taking similar classes as me. Pretty diverse group we were, one American, one Iranian, one Bulgarian, and two Asians (Singapore and China). A couple of us exchanged numbers which means my phone contact list is growing by day!

I met two American girls as well while I was there. One is from Missouri and the other from California. I ended up going to lunch with them and hanging out on campus after. We swapped reasons for choosing UNSW, Australia, and exchanged contact information so we could find each other again. (More contacts!) They were nice girls and it is always pleasant to talk to some fellow Americans.

The “Step Up” program continues tomorrow and as much as I complain I’ll probably be there, at least, until I can’t stand it anymore.