LSU sighting in Sydney

Today I went to Maquardie University in Sydney to do promotional work for the Australian. It was a pretty long day, but cool to see a local uni. While I was in the quad (which doesn't even compare to the quad at LSU), I saw a girl walking with an LSU bag. So I walked up to find out that she is an LSU student on a semester abroad program. She said that her friend suggested wearing something LSU because she would probably run into a Tiger fan. What a small world. They're LSU fans around the world!

It was a real pain to get to the uni this morning. It took me about 2 hours. I had to walk to the train station, ride to town hall, walk to the bus station, and ride to the uni. Everything went pretty smooth until the ride to the uni. With all the stops and traffic it seemed to take a really long time. The ride home was different as I rode with an American I met in his car to a nearby train station. As I walked to his car, I went to get in on the right side which is the passenger side in America, but the driver's side in Australia. I still can't get used to driving on the left side of the road. Anyway, the way home was quicker because of him giving me a ride to a train station, but it still took a while.

Map of Oz

As requested, I have a map of the country to help you figure out where I am talking about.

It may not show all the cities, but it will help out. And I must give a shout out to Sydney from Sydney for the link; and yes, I am feeling very special.

Leaving Sydney

I am on week 4 of my time in Sydney. It's been great, but I have decided there is lots more in Australia to see. I will be working a promotions job this week at a local university selling newspaper subscriptions because the weather is calling for rain at the beach. I think it will be fun and it pays $17/hr and will be 5 full days of work. Next week I am planning to go to surf camp 2 hours south of Sydney. Then I'll work one more weekend at the beach and start my journey up the east coast of Oz. There are a lot of places I want to visit. My plan is to go all the way up to Cairns.

On a different note, I have learned a good way to greet someone is to say, "How you going mate?"
And a not so good thing to say is "you're welcome." I don't think they know what I mean. I've found most Aussies just say "no worries" where I'd say you're welcome.

Manly

We got out of work really early yesterday so me and my mate took a ferry from the harbour to Manly which is 7 miles north of the city. It was a really cool ferry ride and Manly is great. It has a small town feel and is surrounded by water, well not completely but there is a lot of water. The beach was really nice.

More pictures

I was able to upload some new pictures today. You can follow the link on this page or copy/paste the links below. I had to add a new ablum.
http://lsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042066&l=61644&id=23402585
http://lsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037193&l=1cd61&id=23402585


I moved in a house this weekend. There's a ton of us in there, but its cool. I haven't spent hardly anytime there yet.

I have the phone number straightened out. If you want to call, you must dial 0011 61 401 278 350. Jenni D helped with that when she called me. I wasn't expecting to hear an American voice on the line, but was a great surprise.

Blue Mountains

Yesterday I was in the Blue Mountains which are about a 2 hour drive west of Sydney. On the way there we passed the Olympic park where the 2000 games were held. The mountains were a sight to see. They weren't huge like the Rockies but they were pretty cool. We saw the 3 sisters which is a famous rock formation around here. The mountains have lots of trees but there are some parts that are rocky which reminds me of Arizona. We first went to hike one trail and saw wild kangaroos; they let you get pretty close. After doing some more hiking there, we rode an incline train to the top of one trail. It is the steepest in the world! And it is all open; I don't think this type of train would fly in the U.S. Nonetheless, it was fun. I met some English girls who were teaching me there slang while making fun of my accent. They also had lots of questions about Brittany Spears once I mentioned being from Louisiana.

Kayaking

The other day I went kayaking in Sydney. We started in Rose Bay and went into the harbour around Shark Island. From there we had awesome views of the city and got some great pics. Then we went on to a little beach and back to where we started.
After I got back some of us went body boarding at Bondi Beach. It was a tough day.

I forgot to mention that last week while at Darling Harbour I saw this guy jump off the bridge into the harbour. It is about a 70' drop or so. Those crazy aussies...

Pictures

I have posted a few pictures online. I have taken a lot more, but have not been able to upload them yet. Follow this link or click the link on the right side of the page.

Cheers! (Aussies say this a lot)

http://lsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037193&l=1cd61&id=23402585

Coolest place in Sydney

A couple of English guys took me to the coolest place in Sydney. I didn't know what to expect, but began to wonder when they had us putting on big coats and gloves. The place was called Minus 5. The name says it all; they keep the place at minus 5 degrees celsius. (Zero is freezing). Everything is made of ice! They have ice sculptures of all the Sydney attractions and some Aussie animals, even the seats are ice. You are only allowed to say in for 30 min and believe me, you don't want to stay for much longer. It was nice to come back out to the warm summer weather.

Working

Today I went to work; I am staying at a new hostel out at the beach. The walk from the hostel is absolutely beautiful! The roof top deck has an awesome view of the Tasman Sea/ Pacific Ocean. The work was pretty cool, but my shoulders are sore from carrying around a big ice chest around my neck.

Things in Oz are somewhat different than back home. One big difference is they drive on the left side of the road. My mind can't seem to remember which way to look when crossing the street. They also walk on the left side of the sidewalk. This seems simple enough, but it gets confusing when you try to head up the escalators... Speaking of walking, I have done a ton of it (or the Aussies would say heaps of walking). I probably average walking around 5-6 hours/day. It is not uncommon to walk 30min to an hour at one time, sometimes longer. I am starting to get tired of walking and my feet are too. I am beginning to use the trains and busses more.

One cool thing here is that they do not have one cent money. The smallest is 5 cents. If something is priced with pennies, they'll just round to the nearest five cents. And whatever the listed price is, that's what you pay. No tax is added in at the register. You have to carry a lot of coins though because the one and two dollars are in coins only, no bills(notes).

Fish and chips is a very popular meal here. I have eaten it several times, but it tastes pretty plain as does most of the food. You definitely need BBQ sauce or tomato sauce (aka ketchup).

10 February

Things here are great. I have gotten to do and see a lot. I will be going to work tomorrow at Australia's most famous beach selling juice and water. I think it will be pretty cool to hang out at the beach all day. I am moving to a hostel out there instead of the city.

Yesterday I saw kangaroos! Pretty cool. I also saw the city from the harbour on a ferry which was great. Sydney is absolutely beautiful.

Day 3

It is only the 3rd day that I have been here, yet it feels like much longer. I have met people from all over the world including parts of the US, Canada, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Japan, Malaysia, Sweeden, and of course Australia. It is so englighting to talk with these people and learn about where they have come from and how they see the world.

This morning I went to Hillsong. It was pretty cool. I met a guy who has only been going for a few weeks; he showed me around and made sure I knew what to do, where to go, how to catch the bus, etc.. It was very encouraging.

I now have a phone number that allows me to receive calls from anywhere in the world at no charge. However, I do not know what the charge is to call from the US. The number is 0401 278 350. The country code is 61. To dial out of the U.S. I think you must dial 011. So in order to call me, you must dial 011 61 0401 278 350.

Arrival

After more than 24 hours of traveling, I made it to Sydney! The plane ride was great though very long. I met 2 Texans (one originally from Australia) on the way to L.A. We walked together to find the Qantas plane which was not marked nor on the screens. Thankfully we found the plane. It was weird because we flew west, so the sun never set. I think it finally got dark outside after midnight (central time).
On the 747 which has 2 levels and TVs in each seat (with about 15 channels), I met 6 other people around my age who are coming to do the same thing as me. We all exchanged emails and plan to hang out. One of the guys (from DC) is in the same program as me, so we were able to find our orientation office together.
I got to the hostel in central Sydney (downtown) a little before midnight. I shared a room with 3 other guys, one who snored really loud. They gave me breakfast this morning and now I am about to go to orientation.
Thanks for everyone's comments.

Everyone here really does say g'day mate!