TheDownUndaThunda

The word on the street

2010-03-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

There was a time...Life has been hectic as of late folks. Spring break came and went with me going to hilton head for a weekend. I played a few rounds of golf-almost made an ace and stuck a cut 5 iron on the green from about 175 from the rough in a torrential downpour. I also found a great sport called flounder gigging. You go out on the water at night with special under water lights and gigs aka tridents and you attempt to catch fish with by stabbing them. It's pretty awesome. I didn't do much spring break except for work on a paper, go to a clemson v. uncc baseball game, and apply for summer jobs. I got a conditional job offer as a life guard given that I get certified. So that was good. School has been insane since I got back. I have an econometrics test tomorrow and a juvenile delinquency exam. Tuesday, my Medellin project is due, and wednesday I have to turn in a paper on the development and effects of westward expansion in relation to property rights and economic policy. I also have to meet with a professor to discuss the prospects of writing a senior thesis on some aspect of sports economics on Wednesday. I haven't been doing much outside of school, but I did play whiffle ball on bowman last Friday which was fun. Bo dow has its second softball game of the year tomorrow night at 6. Hopefully I will be able to replicate my 3-3 performance from a few weeks ago. Well I'm off to bed so that I can conquer my world this week. Adios.

Photo Recap of the Soccer Championship

2010-03-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

So Flexible

LLFC: Bottom Row (left to right): Lizzy, Margaret, Nick, Rebecca, Jake, Evan

Top Row: (Left to right) Sarah, Liz, Stephen, Drew, Brendan, Me

Absolutely tossed this kid

They called a hand ball on me, even though this kid had me in a headlock

One of the coolest pictures of all-time

Making things happen

Update as of Late

2010-03-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Life Update

School-

Things I'm currently working on include: a project on Pablo Escobar and the Colombian Cartels. Analyzing a paper that defines a baseball player's impact on a game-the goal is to figure out whether the pride of Greenville, SC, Shoeless Joe Jackson, actually threw the 1919 World Series. Econometric says No by the way. These guys developed a rating system that calculates how every play affects the team's probability of winning at that given moment. Its Aggregation for each players called a Player Game Percentage or PGP. Shoeless Joe had the third highest PGP on the white socks. I am also learning about dummy variables in multiple linear regressions. This may sound dumb, but its actually really important. My econometrics professor went to a conference with the Head of Freddy Mac, and apparently a misuse of econometric regressions led to the mortgage crisis. Careless mortgage firms omitted income as an independent variable in mortgage risk analysis regressions because income is difficult to quickly measure and incorrect measures of income led to a lot of statistical variance which drove down its regressionary coefficient (low coefficients imply that a variable doesn't have an affect on the dependent variable). The "dummy" variable was the decision to approve or disapprove the mortgage. So a bunch of idiots with MBAs thought that income didn't affect the risk of someone defaulting on a mortgage. Who knows? I am also learning about how economic property rights affect an individual's decision to get married and divorced. In summary, I'm learning about drugs, sports, how to save the economy, and the benefits of divorce. Gotta Love College.

Sports

Bo Dow IM softball is back. We opened up the first game of the year last night with a 12-2 victory-the game was called due to the mercy rule after three innings. As the lead-off man, I went 3-3 with an rbi. I also had a nice studs up slide into second to break up a double play. The second baseman has a nice cleat mark in his leg for a keepsake-just kidding. I also played racquetball last night for the first time in forever. Note to the world, I don't suck at that game.

Other Things

I think I want to be an investment banker nowadays. I am going to Hilton Head for a couple of days for spring break. Hopefully, I'll get some fishing and relaxation in...the probability of this seems very likely. Recently, Tim, Joel, and I have been challenging all-you-can-eat BBQ establishments across the upstate area. We actually drove an hour to go to this place called huntin' camp bbq. It was amazing, but I'm pretty sure my heart stopped about 5 times during the meal. I can't wait to consume something healthy. I spend a lot of time in the library these days. I'm kinda tired. One out of every three people on the Clemson Bus Line looks exactly like Salim from slumdog millionaire. I have yet to see a single jamal. Latika doesn't exist. We'll I gotta get back to school work. Be Easy.

Heartbreak City

2010-03-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

The intramural update: Wednesday night, we had the ultimate game. Playing with only 8 players we beat the number one seed 3-1 in a slugfest securing our spot in the final. The team we played wasn't that good, but playing down 3 was tough. We dug in defensively, and just never let up. I felt like one of the 300. Enter the Championship. Back with our full squad we came out firing, I flew down the field and found stephen with a great ball in the box for our first goal. The opposition equalized a few minutes later on a ridiculous header. The second half was a defensive struggle. It was a physical contest, and no one could break the tie. So we go to sudden death. Two five minute over time periods go by and still no goals. So we go to a shoot-out. Our first 5 kick takers are reba, brendan, lizzy, nick, and evan. You have to alternate guys and girls. Brendan and Nick both scored, reba hit the cross bar, lizzy shot over, and evan's shot was saved. Thankfully Drew was up to the task and saved all 3 girls. Stephen was next for us and he fired over the goal, and somehow Drew made a great save on their shooter. Next Liz miss-fired for us, and their girl couldn't beat Drew. Up steps yours truly. There was a pretty good crowd at the game and all I heard was one kid yell out, Here comes Abbott-He's got ice in his veins. I wanted to go down the middle so I approached the ball and stutter stepped to see what the keep was going to do, he stayed really still which made me think he was gonna guess middle (I was right) so I decided to fire for the upper right corner. I thought I hit it perfectly, but I was denied by the post. Just utter devastation. Thankfully, their next player missed, and the shootout continued. It went all the way down to the 11th shooters which are the keepers. Drew shot over, and their keep hit the mark to end it. So to recap it all we lost a double overtime 11 round shootout for the championship. Heartbreak.

Sportscenter

2010-03-01T23:06:00.000-08:00

Intramural Co-Rec soccer has a new giant on the block, and that giant is Love Lockdown FC. Tonight was our first round playoff game against FC Blaze, and bad things happened. We brought the hammer and won 5-0. We have another game wednesday to see if we make the finals which I'm pretty sure is played in the actual Clemson Soccer Stadium aka Riggs Field. This is definitely my favorite intramural squad of all-time; probably because our team is so freaking good.

Onward bound

2010-02-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

Even though I can no longer keep a captive audience by recounting trips to Macdonalds in Australia, I have decided to keep the blog going. Something about writing drives me forward and keeps me sharp. You can expect random thoughts, important event summaries, and the typical Andrew nonsense hopefully at least once a week from here on out.

Let's talk shutter island. Greatest movie ever or worst movie ever. I still cannot decide, but I think it really pushed the border of innovative and ridiculous. While a restless South Carolina crowd didn't think much of it, I think I did. For now.
Andrew Update: What's currently new on my iPod. John Mayer, Train, and Third Eye Blind. All three have new CDs out, I've never really liked John Mayer but he's bringing some noise, and you gotta like Train. Why can't you be-by third eye blind is getting it done also. School-I'm writing a paper about economic institutional development during the glorious revolution, and I'm conducting F-tests around the clock. I recently took a one week hiatus from facebook, and I'm thinking about deactivating my account-probably will never happen. I am now a huge Brandon Jennings fan. He's a flashy PG with a flat top what's not to love. MSU basketball is really, really, really pissing me off.
Things I miss about Australia: The people, the ocean, the muffins from bond cafe, the weather, not having class on thursday, and having a gym in my building. Things I don't miss about Australia: My roommate, the food from bond cafe or the bra, Robert Wrathal's macro economics course.
The Olympics are really making me want to play hockey. Team USA hockey is awesome, they are young and physical; they beat people and take names end of story. Chung Suang, the chinese aerialist, has the most swag out of any olympian I've ever seen. The fragmented thoughts continue...Great Olympic sports: Any skiing or snowboarding, men's hockey, biathlon, any sort of cross country skiing, and luge/bobsled. Terrible Olympic sports: Speed skating & Figure Skating (includes the super elton john game of ice dancing).
The Charles Barkley 5 dollar box that rocks commercial is great, the nationwide I need a blue phone commercial is retarded.

Adios.

Homecoming

2009-12-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

I am officially done with exams, and I went out on a stellar performance. It's been a long two weeks, but I came out on top. I am already packed, and all I have to do is go to the beach tomorrow, and stay up all night until my bus leaves for Brisbane at 7am on Sunday. Check out this for an itinerary:

Dec. 20th
-Depart Bond Uni at 7am
- Depart Brisbane a 1205 pm (13hr. flying time)
Dec. 20th- Arrive at Lax at 7am
-Arrive at Santa Ana Airport via shuttle around 11am
-Depart Santa Ana at 120pm
-Arrive Dallas, Texas 615pm
-Depart Dallas, Texas 735 pm
-Arrive Charlotte, NC 1055pm (Still Dec. 20th)
-Arrive Home around 1145pm

*Dec. 20th will be for 40hrs Long
**Phileas Fogg had a better travel itinerary

It's going to be tough to leave Australia. I really enjoy everything here from the people to the beaches, you couldn't ask for much more. I'm looking forward to the day when I can come back, and go to Cairns, the Outback, and New Zealand. Before I left for this trip, my mindset was really focused on challenging myself with a new situation. Clemson was becoming too familiar, and I wasn't taking the next step with my life. As my time in Australia went on, I realized that the situation wasn't really serving as the challenge I thought it would be, but it showed me that I have my life on a good track. So I leave Australia with great memories, optimism about my direction, and in search of my next challenge. Thanks for reading everyone. I hope you've enjoyed reading all this stuff as much as I've enjoyed living it. Later.

Birthday Exam

2009-12-15T00:12:00.000-08:00

A year older, and somehow I don't feel that much wiser than yesterday. The exam went pretty well, but now I'm just exhausted and tired, Not too mention hungry. The real grind begins tomorrow. I'm definitely ready to be done with exams, and come Sunday I think I will be ready to come home. Maybe.

Two Down, Two to Play

2009-12-14T04:58:00.000-08:00

Two exams down, and I have been absolutely going off so far. Good stuff. Now I have my two hardest exams tomorrow and Friday. Friday is going to be epic. Maybe the toughest exam I've ever had. For everyone looking into buying me a 21st birthday gift the bar has been set high. Evan and Ashley got me a dozen krispy kremes as an early present. Good luck trying to top it....Anway I haven't been doing anything except hitting the books hard. I guess I will leave you with my 2009 exam music playlist. Enlighten yourselves:

1. Bullet and a Target by Citizen Cope
2. Street Lights by Kanye West
3. Breakdown by Jack Johnson
4. Remember the Name by Fort Minor
5. Allot by Young Jeezy
6. Bad News by Kanye West
7. Crazy Game of Poker by oar
8. I got It by Gorilla Zoe
9. Why Can't You Be by third eye blind
10. No Matter What by T.I.
11. Welcome to Hearbreak by Kanye West

Update, as of Late

2009-12-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

Study, Study, Study. My first exam is tomorrow followed by monday and tuesday (birthday). With the festivities concluding on friday. I just shaved my head, and I am in total warrior mode. I live at the crossroads of hard work, confidence, and natural ability.

Nothing really to say, except there is a really cool website everyone should check out. www.LetsSayThanks.com I don't know how much hype its getting back home, but pretty much it's a way to send a thank you message to a US soldier which is really cool. I hate talking about politics, but through all the bailouts and stimulus packages I feel like people forget that kids just like me are on the other side of the world in a War. I don't really talk about this much, but I really admire every single US troop, and I have thought countless times that I too should be overseas protecting my country. The least we can do is take 5 minutes out of our day to say thanks.

Aight Everyone stay strong, LATer!

Byron the Third

2009-12-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

The Campsite around 8am Saturday Morning, Check out the wind blowing on the tent and your boy's bronze

There's a crab in the foreground of the pic but its tough to spot-- just in front of the light from the flash

From Left to Right: Jenna, Sarah, Me

Night Time View from the tent

Toilet Seat Shopping, all I'm saying is there was a remote control and an electronic, extendable ______ that _____ _____up your ______. GROSS!!!!

East Coast Remix

2009-12-06T04:45:00.000-08:00

Man Points +10

View from the hang gliding launch pad back towards the beach

Looking down from the lighthouse towards the most eastern point in OZ, see bottom pic

In the town of Byron, Note the Surf Boards on the van in the foreground

Down the cliff leading to the lighthouse, It doesn't get much better

As far east as you can go in Oz without your eyes getting wet, technically illegal to jump off the path and go to this point, but c'mon I couldn't pass this up.

East Coast

2009-12-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

Lighthouse at Byron Bay

This was a hang gliding take-off ramp, the view off it was awesome, to the east was the lighthouse, and west was the coast line.

Byron Bay, Bay

2009-12-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here's the gameplan: Four Bondies (Joe, Lauren, Sarah, Jenna) and Myself get two tents and take a bus to Byron Bay. This is how it played out... Friday Morning started with econ class at 8am, and following that I had breakfast and packed up the trusty North Face for our pending adventure. Side Note: I also pounded down a record six peanut butter sandwiches in one sitting-yikes A little after noon, the crew took the bus to robina to buy a 30 dollar tent from a store called crazy clarks. Foreshadowing....not so much. Anyway Joe and I got into a chat with a salesman in the mall who tried to sell us a 1200 dollar toilet seat cover. All I'm gonna say is that it was disgusting, in a bad way. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. Next, we caught the bus from Robina to the Beach at Burleigh Heads where our charter bus to Byron took off from. I've done some dumb stuff in my day, but my decision to get in a spinning teacup at a kids playground ranks pretty high. I didn't throw up, however, I felt pretty freaking miserable the entire bus ride to Byron which took almost an hour and a half. Blame it on the pea pea pea pea nut butter (must be under 25 to get that joke sorry moms). We arrived in Byron, and it is absolutely awesome. It's a surf town that somehow is exclusively run by people under the age of thirty. We made a trek to the beach to scout out our campsite, and ended up walking around for a while trying to find lockers for our stuff. At about 7ish we indulged in a 5 dollar dinner from a bar that runs deals for backpackers, which given my current life stage was pretty solid. I feel pretty far a way from my Hotel del Coranado and Beef Carpachio lifestyle. Everyone was pretty tired so we didn't stay out too late, and we had to work our way back to the beach to set up our tents. Camping on the beach is pretty awesome, windy, but awesome. If you've ever seen what the wind does to tents on everest it was pretty similar. My general trend of camping trips continued as I got about an hour of sleep, and was well awake at 530am. The girls were still asleep so Joe and I bear grylls'd our way to this look out point about 5 clicks north of base camp. We watched some surfers and then headed back. When we got back to the tent, I just curled up in the fetal position, outside the tent, and slept for a few hours. I was awaken buy some aussie who said to me, "you do know this is a walking entrance to the beach" as he points to our tents blocking the path. Half asleep still, I told him that I didn't know that and thanks for the heads up. Then I layed back down in the sand. When you camp out under the stars on one of the coolest beaches in the world you can't bother to investigate whether or not your tent is blocking some stupid foot path. I think everyone will agree with me on that last one. I woke up from the coma I was in, and we took down the tents and headed back to the locker. Brekky was the next mission, and guys and girls ended up splitting over differences in tastes. When traveling with women its good to take little breaks so you don't end up gouging your eyes out with a tent stake, ya digg? We ended up finding an unbelievable breakfast spot. Byron Bay Organic Doughnuts. They were unreal. I had a chocolate covered doughnut the size of a frisbee, and a chocolate filled one as well. Both dedicated Chappelle fans, Joe and I immediately recognized we had the itis and just sat at our table on the street corner fo about an hour people watching and enjoying the state of utter fullness. The girls informed us that they were taking a cab to the lighthouse, and we decided to walk and meet them there. We hiked about 5 or 6 miles I would say, but we finally made it. Along the way we saw some awesome views of the coast. The lighthouse was very cool. It is actually the most eastern point in all of OZ. We took some pics then headed back into town to get our stuff. Joe, Lauren, and I decided to hit the beach while Sarah and Jenna did some shopping. It was so windy that the waves were really choppy so we wound up sitting in a tidal pool of sorts because it felt like a hot tub...everyone was doing it, not just us. Then I fell asleep, when I woke up lauren was gone, and Joe and I packed up. We stopped for another doughnut on the way back to meet the girls. So good! You don't even realize. We hit up some dinner with the girls, and walked around Byron for a little while. We ended up at a cafe to kill some time, and stay dry from a quick burst of rain. We killed some time, went back to the bus stop and headed home. The bus ride back was much better, I slept and didn't feel like I was going to die. Pretty much the whole trip was perfect. Byron Bay is definitely one of my favorite places on this planet. Aight folks time to watch Clemson, GT. GO TIGERS!!! Later.

December?

2009-12-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe its already December, the time is absolutely cruising by down under. I'm pretty much done with class Friday, then they give us a whole week to study before exams. Right now I'm just trying to make sure that I prepare 100% for my exams, and that I get the most out of the time I have left. This weekend I'm most likely going to Byron Bay which will be awesome. I'm really excited to have some time away from Bond and take in some new scenery. I haven't been doing too much of anything except working out and studying. They had crocodile tonight at the cafeteria which was unreal again. Its challenging Beef Tartare for my favorite food-yup its that good people. I've also been trying to shoot some hoops everyday to get ready for my return to the states. Anyway, I hope everyone likes the new layout, and don't forget to vote on the poll on the bottom left collumn. Be Easy. LAterr!

Catch Up

2009-11-30T03:13:00.000-08:00

So I was sick, and I almost died....not really but I'm sure I had you going right therr. I started to feel better by wednesday which was way too long of a recovery. I thought I would be fine by Sunday, but such is life when you battle the bird flu/SARS without seeing a doctor. I played indoor soccer wednesday to see how much better I was, and I would say about 75%. Thursday was thanksgiving, and I got up early and worked out. By this time I was back to my old self. I went to the beach for a few hours later in the day because my sickness had me looking pasty as all get out. No worries folks I look like obama now. Thursday Night, there was a cookout for the bondies, and I celebrated thanksgiving in a whole new way. So long turkey, sweet potatoes, and all that; hello Crocodile and Kangaroo. Kangaroo isn't bad, but I don't think I would buy it on my own. It's one of those meats that is virtually fat free, and thus has no taste. Croc, on the other hand, is unreal. For some reason after the weekly thursday night out I could not fall asleep. I sat in my bed until it was time to go to my freaking 8 o'clock class. I was hurting so bad so I dug into my bag of desperation and purchased a Mother Energy (Slogan proclaims it has heaps of energy) and an orange juice and mixed them together before class. Problem Solved, I was awake the rest of the day including the 7 hours I spent at Burleigh Heads aka the beach. Definitely the best day I've had at the beach in a while. Bodysurfing Giants, Throwing the pigskin, and tossing the baseball-just a great day. Plus, I snagged a Big Chief Burger on the way to the bus stop. Welcome to the Goodlife. Yesterday I went to the pool for a few hours, and then went to dinner with Evan because I hadn't seen her much over the past week or so. Today, class + studying + workout + class = uneventful. Stay Tuned. LatER

Sick Day

2009-11-20T23:29:00.000-08:00

I'm a little under down under. I think I have bronchitis or something, but no swine its all good I'm feeling better today so I should be fully functional by tomorrow, and I should be resuming full physical activity by monday. My diet of powerade and oranges has been greatly beneficial to my quickly declining meal plan balance so thats good. Other than that, I've just been laying in bed watching band of brothers and checking espn.com every three seconds. Hopefully next week will be a good one...I know it will be. LateR

Gunning For the Top

2009-11-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

I've been loaded down with work this past week folks, but it looks like the worst is behind me. I'm probably going to get a pulitzer or something for my psych paper it was just absolutely moving. Anyway, not much to report on down under except for this epic piece of news. Andrew Abbott has officially eaten vegemite. Boom!!! Vegemite had been hyped as one of the worst creations in the existence of this earth, but I gotta say I thought it belonged more in the average classification. Not bad, but If I ever find myself holding up a 7-11, I don't think I'm cleaning the place out of vegemite. It kind of tastes like salty dirt or something, but not so horrible as that sounds. You'll have to experience it for yourself and let me know what you think. Its been good catching up with the clemson people as of late, hopefully we will be celebrating an ACC championship very soon. MSU hoops still looks sick...Lucas, Summers, The Dancing Bear, Oh Baby. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to put up, but stay patient and I will deliver. Also Big ups to Kara and her NHS spot. What a champion that little kid is. Alright everyone, I hope all is well and I will see you in a month. Assuming I don't stay extra until I get deported. LATEr.

The Good Life

2009-11-15T00:55:00.001-08:00

Surfing is far and away the coolest sport I have ever tried; I think I like the fact that it is such a battle between you and the ocean. So far the ocean is getting the best of me. I really expected it to be easier, but the truth is, it's really difficult. Especially when you have absolutely no clue what the heck your doing out there. On this particular outing I caught a few nice waves, however, I was unable to make it to my feet. Apparently, this is the worst season to surf the gold coast because the arctic swell doesn't come in until the winter which powers the waves. So pretty much I was tossed around like a rag doll for two hours, I still enjoyed every second of being in the water-gotta love it. Saturday was pretty quiet, all things considered, and today was a huge soccer match. We lost 3-1, and eliminated ourselves from playoff contention while I picked up a nice yellow card in the process. I have a fair bit of school work this week to keep me busy, and I plan on getting out in the water a few more times because I'm not leaving this continent until I legitimately surf a big wave. I will miss my flight if I have to...Just kidding. Go Tigers and Spartans!!! Later

You Play to Win the Charity Events

2009-11-13T04:26:00.000-08:00

An epic battle of biblical proportions occurred Tuesday night as Cody and I teamed up for a charity 2-man best ball golf tourny. We had some connections with the event planners, and arranged to square off head to head with Soren and Mikael aka the Danes. The tournement was held at a pretty nice course, and it was at night which was awesome. Needless to say Cody and I were in it to win it. The night played out perfectly, the Danes were scrubs so we cleaned them up all night, and checked into the clubhouse with a legitimate +3 with out handicaps. Cody kept us going off the tee with some bomb drives, and some how I had the flatstick working. I didn't play much at all this summer due to the "Recession" so I wasn't sure how I would do, but I made some great shots. Anyway we thought we had the event in the bag because with our handicaps (Cody-22, Me-25) we carded a minus 3. Well the course lost our card in the process of tallying the results so some gay boy frenchies in boardshorts, and some old guys who claimed they fired a 12 under for nine holes with their handicaps got the hardware. Yea we were pretty pissed, but it was a really fun night. Wednesday night was another charity event on campus, and this time it was dodgeball. Cody, Eric aka Easy E, Pat, and I took to the court and carved up the double elimination tourney reaching the final four with an impressive 6 and 1 record. Unfortunately, we flamed out and took forth. Again we were pretty pissed, but it was another fun night. Thursday was soccer practice, working out, and a pretty enjoyable night even though I ended up sleeping in the common room, and nearly missing my 8am class friday. Viernes, fui a la clase y jugue futsol en el gimansio con mis amigos. Jugue Bonita y tienes que encantar la bonita partida. Espero que su espanol es bueno gente....y no uso la red escribir esto. Mira a mi ahora Calvar!!!! Adios muchachos! LAter.

Sydney Aftermath

2009-11-08T05:48:00.000-08:00

This week was really slow, and honestly that was alright with me. I needed a week to get back into the flow of classes, and to get my routine back. There were also a couple of rainy days that got in the way of surfing, and definitely prompted napping and laziness. I worked out everyday, and got some good studying in though. I also played futsol a few times. Futsol is 4 a side indoor soccer, and is played with a smaller ball. It's fun and a crazy workout. I honestly can't remember back to when Australia didn't feel like home which is kinda wierd, but definitely makes sense. Saturday I had an awesome soccer game where we beat one of the best teams in the Uni tournament. Cody and I also stayed up to watch the Australia v. England Rugby match at 1am. Rugby is pretty interesting, I wouldn't say I'm a die hard fan...it's alright. The highlight of the week was this morning. I reserved a conference room in the MLC with a projection screen, and watched the Clemson FSU game. I really had a great week of just living in Australia despite the absence of any major news. Its a good feeling, but doesn't make for great writing material. I did some random stuff this week like job hunting, class registration, and of course eating, however, nothing there that makes headlines. This coming week should be a good one, Tuesday Night I'm playing in a golf tourney and hopefully the weather will allow for some surfing to take place. From here to for, Keep your Ears to the grindstone...LAter

1000 words x 4

2009-11-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

More Abseiling, this was a 30 ft Face near the 3 sisters Mountain Formation

The second hostel, not too bad but the bed was a little small

Another shot of me and the bridge

My Favorite Pic of All-time

Canyoning Photos

2009-11-01T18:29:00.001-08:00

Empress Falls, Katoomba New South Wales...Site of 115 ft. Abseil

Me in Action on the lower section, About to jump

Me leading the pack on our Bear Grylls Canyon Expedition

Me on the far left, Enjoying the freezing waters of a bottomless pool after jumping off a cliff

Photos101, Pre-requisite: read the entry below

2009-11-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

Katoomba

The Crew

Corky Aka Paul..Note the View

The "Three Sisters", Blue Mountains

The harbor bridge-looking towards luna park

Manly Beach

Andrew, Opera House, Ferry, Nemo

Darling Harbor At Nightfall

The Rocks

Me-Under the Harbor Bridge looking out across the harbor to the Opera House

Aboriginal Dude doin' Work

Sydney Harbor, View from Circular Quay looking at the ferry and the Harbor Bridge

George St. Downtown Sydney

More Historic Sydney

Check that off the List

2009-11-01T05:46:00.000-08:00

Thursday 9am

My journey starts with an early morning bus to the robina rail station. It continues with an over priced train ride to the brisbane airport, and by over priced I mean 22 dollars each way. I'm not going to negative town I swear, but that was pretty frustrating. The train to the airport went smoothly, and Evan, Jaime, and myself skipped right through security. Security is pretty lax for domestic travel in Oz because no one wants to blow up any of their stuff. People just like it here so you don't have to take off your shoes, and thing of cologne doesn't warrant a call to the pentagon. Kinda like the old days...Next we jumped on our Virgin Airlines 737-800 for Sydney. I'm pretty sure the flight set the record for infants on a flight. One in front of my cried the whole way, and one behind me laughed the duration. I thought I was losing my mind a few times. The flight was pretty quick, an hour give or take a few minutes, and we arrived in Sydney without much drama. Queensland doesn't believe in day light savings time which means you are in Sydney (New South Wales) at the same local time as you took off. Sydney Airport was another breeze, and we were off the tarmac and into our shuttle within 10 minutes. The shuttle to the mighty hostel. Our fellow backpackers in the shuttle including some haggard kiwis and unamused Frenchies. Anyway, we arrive at our hostel to find that the place smells like a refugee camp, and is completely decked out in halloween decorations. Oh, did I mention that it was in Chinatown. The place reminded me of an orphanage except instead of kids looking for homes it was europeans looking for meaning and narcotics. The smallest room they had was for four people; Adam the Pole enter from stage left. Yes we had to share a small room with two bunks and nothing else with a Polish kid. Thankfully he didn't want to cut us up into little pieces and eat us. Question time, you are in a hostel on vacation-whats the first thing you do? Answer-You get the heck out of there! We walked from our hotel through some sections of historic Sydney to Circular Quay and Sydney Harbor. Sydney is an awesome city with a great blend of modern and historic architecture. I really enjoyed hiking it to the harbor where we caught a glimpse of the famous harbor bridge and opera house. Both are pretty sweet, and I was happy to cross them off my life to-do list. After taking a butt load of photos; we visited the Rocks which is the first area of Sydney that was built for the KonVicts back in the day. Then we kept going around the perimeter of the city to Darling Harbor. Darling is full of restaurants, clubs, tourist crap, boats, crazy fountains, Olympic tributes, and other junk. It was really cool because the sun had just gone down, and we got a great view of Sydney at night. The end of the day signaled a return to the hostel and checking out some street musicians. Once back at the Hostel we decided to hit the TV room to mingle with our fellow people. I just wanted to befriend people so just in case they decided to go on a spree they would spare me. One girl from Northern Ireland had us cracking up because she was obsessed with America. After a few minutes I discovered that she based everything she knew about America from CSI, Cold Case, and Law and Order. Thats like me saying I love mexico because I watch Sabado Gigante on Univision. Bedtime followed. Ashley arrived in Sydney the next morning; we met up with her at the hostel and headed back to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to manly beach. I would like to say I'd never been so happy to be alive after a nights sleep in my life. The ferry to Manly was about 30 minutes, but we worth it. I got all kinds of great pictures, and the town of Manly was really cool. The was awesome as well, we pretty much spent the day hanging out on the beach and relaxing. We headed back into town around 5pm to meet Cody at Sydney Central Station so we could catch our 7pm train to the mountain town of Katoomba. Traveling with 3 women is absolutely horrendous, yea I said it, half kidding, but I said it nonetheless. Needless to say I was pretty excited to see Cody at the station, and discuss man stuff on the two hour ride through the darkness. We arrived in Katoomba around 9ish, then we checked into our second hostel. This place was way better-we had our own room with a TV and it wasn't in Chi-Town. We decided to pack it in early because we had to get up early for our day of canyoning and abseiling. Saturday morning comes and we are off to the River Deep Mountain High tour office which is a short walk from our Hostel. We arrive to find that our guide is a crazy ginger named corky who could have possibly been the weirdest person in all of OZ. We packed up our bags with rope, helmets, harnesses, and other crap and head into the Blue Mountains. Are morning session was an intro to abseiling where we repelled down 5, 10, and 30 meter cliffs. The cliffs looked out over the famed three sisters rock formation which was awesome. Definitely one of the most picturesque places I've ever been, and the abseiling was awesome. A few hours of abseiling was followed by lunch...the only complete meal I ate the whole trip. Yea I made it through the whole trip on a food budget of less than 3 dollars a day. No lie...I still have no clue how I made it. After lunch we hopped in our suspect van, and drove to another section of the Blue Mountains. We also picked up mountain woman extraordinaire Roberta to assist with our afternoon activities. Saying she was a burly mountain woman would be an understatement. Yea...moving on. We descended into the canyon after about a 30 minute hike. Canyoning is by far the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire life. It is absolutely awesome. Pretty much you slap on a wet suit and helmet; put all your other gear in a dry bag and go through a ridiculous canyon filled with rock jumps, huge boulders, and the most freezing/refreshing water I've ever touched. The trek through the canyon lasts about an hour and concludes with a 115 foot abseil down a waterfall. This waterfall wasn't a joke either-water absolutely pours down the face of it, and you have to repel down it. It was crazy to say the least. Getting down was a bit of a challenge especially when your crack head leprechaun guide gives you zero instructions. Pretty awesome. If you have some time youtube- empress falls blue mountain abseil. You can see videos of professionals going down. They make it look pretty easy, but I can tell you from experience that making it down alive is a victory. We then trekked up the mountain to the van, and headed back to the hostel where we just hung out the rest of night because we were all exhausted from our day. In the morning we took the train back to Sydney central around 10ish. We trolled around Sydney for a while, and ended up in a park playing cards. Subsequently, there was a vegan festival in the park so naturally I started craving steak. Vegans are strange bunch people...Time crawled by, but finally it was time to head back to the airport. A flight, another expensive train ride, and bus got us back to bond. Whoa what a weekend. Night. Later

Going Back To Sydney

2009-10-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I leave the gold coast for the first time to venture into the land of cathy freeman and of course nemo. Yes, I am going to Sydney and the blue mountains for the long weekend. I'm pretty excited because as of now the itinerary holds activities such as going to the harbor bridge, bondie beach, and canyoning in the blue mountains. I will also be staying in my first hostel...man things have fallen a long way from my days of living large at the del coronado and chateau whistler- such is life I suppose. Right now I'm so hungry I would probably punch out a little kid for a happy meal or something. I think I'm going to start packing to take my mind of it, but stay tuned because some grade A blogging should follow my trip. It's going to be my Queens Blvd. of blog entries so be ready. LaTER.

Top Gun

2009-10-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

F111 Jet-Beach flyover

A game that can't be won only played

2009-10-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

Life Recap:

Tuesday:

I went to class, and I talked to people from Clemson pretty much the whole day on the computer which was good. I also worked out and ate a few meals. Tuesday night is normally a big social night in OZ for some reason; so I went out with some people to market square for a while. It was some girls 21st Birthday, but I didn't no her so I was that guy. Sometimes you have to be that guy. As you can tell, Tuesday lived up to the hype of being a day that nothing good happens on until college basketball starts.

Wednesday:

I had 5 hours of class on Wednesday, and I also cranked out 3 hours of Econ work which definitely got the best of me. It also marked the second installment of Res Wars-free pizza and indoor soccer. Unfortunately our team is just ultra suspect, and I got red carded in the second game. It was unjustified, I swear, I mean the kid had it coming.

Thursday:

NO CLASS!!! I started studying for my psychology exam that was looming on Saturday...yea school on Saturday. A concept usually reserved for middle school misfits and Asians. I pretty much just bunkered down in the library like Captain Winters and Co. in Bastogne. Yes, I know that less than 7 people will get that joke. Ron Livingston makes the top ten all-time under rated actors list in my book along with Barry Pepper and Bill Crudup. Just in case you were wondering who three of my top ten, favorite under rated actors were. Moving on, I also had soccer practice on Thursday, it was kinda sloppy but fun as usual. Also the weekly party on campus a go. Imagine if Uni's back home had school owned bars which threw parties once a week where the whole school turned up. It would out gross sham-wow in about 8 and a half minutes. It was a fun night though, Bond is pretty small so no matter where you go you always know tons of people. I called it a night pretty early because......

Friday:

8 o'clock Econ class! How great was that transition by the way. I can only imagine the letdown you suffered after seeing the elipsis, and thought that I was getting up early to accept my unearned Nobel Prize, or how I base jumped off the Q1 tower. Just Class. Class was brutal. 2 Hours of Modeling, Equations, Calculus, and thinking about going to the beach. After class, I snagged some Breaky and hit the beach with 6 or 7 kids from the MD and Jersey. I studied for my Psych exam in between swims. The coolest part of the trip was definitely this fighter jet that kept cruising along the beach at super low altitudes. Maybe 3oo feet above us at the most-it was like an air show. It was actually there for a flyover for the auto race, and it was biding its time by doing maneuvers over the ocean. I got my google on to figure out that the plane was an F111 which is only still flown by the Aussie Airforce. I will try and snag some pictures from someone who had camera that day. Later that night I studied for my psych exam some more with these two girls on my hall from Northeastern. We all just hated on the fact that we had to turn up to school on a saturday.

Saturday:

Exam...I ran that thing like Steve Prefontaine ran the 3-Mile in the day, or better yet like CJ Spiller ran the Canes "D". Message to America: The U is not back, They suck, Stop saying the U is back it's annoying. Maybe you can say that guy from the U is back in prison but thats it. Sorry, its late and when it gets late the tangents become much more frequent. It's referred to in Lightsy as a Wild' Out. After I dominated my exam, I went to the beach again with my fellow saturday schoolers. Unfortunately, it was so windy that just sitting on the beach was pretty miserable. We got back around 2ish, and I had a soccer game at 3. We beat Australia 3-2. A kid score from midfield during the game. It was absolutely insane. I didn't play well at all in the first half, but for some reason I get way too much PT so I played pretty much the whole game and had time to get my game back on track. I pretty much laid low the rest of the night, did some laundry and what not. I was pretty exhausted and in need of some peace and quiet.

Sunday:

Im wrapping this up because I'm about to fall asleep. I watched the Clemson game on ESPN 360 which was awesome...DABO is the man. My boy Kyle Parker is the man. We go way back to Music 210. I also watched the MSU game on freaking gamecast. Why am I a fan of the two most disappointment and heartbreaking prone teams in the History of sports. Someone tell me. I'm sending my kid to So Cal or Texas so he doesn't have feel this sort of heart wrenching. soul bending agony every fall. I'm not even in America, and I still just want to go hide after a brutal spartan loss. Will it ever Stop....Find Out next week on TheDownUndaThunda. Aight I'm out like OJ. LateR.

4 Days of Life...On Tivo

2009-10-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

I left you saturday with me playing a soccer game, and it was one for the ages. 6 weeks of being the happiest person on the planet can leave your emotions a little unbalanced. Life is not void of stress, and no matter how hard you try the stress will manifest itself, even if you are in paradise. So pretty much I unloaded all of it on the German team in the game on saturday, I probably should have been thrown out of the game, but hey what are you going to do. I really haven't had any problems with any groups of people here, but the Germans are just idiots on the soccer field. I haven't seen a bigger group of pansies since, well, ever. Although, at the end of the day I just chalk it up as culture sharing. They showed me that they like to complain, yell at the top of their lungs, and be as soft as possible. I showed them why America won WWII, and of course how to trash talk. I hate to hype my own skills, but here were some of my favorite lines: "Hey how do you say your a p*#sy in german?", "Baldy, I'm not your mother, I'm going to be hitting you all day", "Nice Touch, Girly Man", "I'd give that dive a perfect 10." So naturally, I had a blast! We ended up tying which sucked-Moving on. So the rest of saturday and sunday I spent studying for my first econ exam on monday morning. I even got up at 8 before class to study some more. I walk into the class sit down, pull out my pens and calculator only to find the teacher beginning a lecture. After consulting the girl next to me, I discovered that my exam was next Monday. B- E- A-utiful. I wasted 2 days studying for an exam I didn't have while completely ignoring the exam I had at six because it wasn't going to be anything near my Econ exam. My six o'clock exam was for my Australian geology class, and it was really hard. Every question had to do with some obscure fossil date. I ended up getting a low "B" which is called a "credit" It also means I only have to get a 30 on the final to pass the course. (FYI the grading system is as follows: A "C" is called a Pass, a "B+/A-" is a distinction, and an "A+" is a high distinction.) Most people just got a pass, while a few people picked up credits and distinctions. The grading here is pretty brutal, one kid was excited that he got a 70 on something, and apparently if you get anything around an 85 thats like a perfect score. Monday night, I worked out and recovered from my exam with some online streaming sports center. A man with out sports center is like a man with out lungs. I found a way to get ESPN 360 as well so I should be able to start catching some of the Clemson games. I want to experience as much as the Australian culture as possible, but I'm not giving up on everything back home. It's definitely important to find a middle ground where you can be open to new things while keeping your eye on what is important to you on the home front. I also discovered a pretty sweet place on campus while I was studying. The MLC or Multimedia Learning Center is across from the library, and is kind of an innovative idea. It has a bunch of relaxed, comfortable seating, plasma TV's with PS3s built into them, a laptop bar-no alcohol is served there which is probably against the australian constitution, and state of the art meeting rooms that you can reserve for group work. It's a really cool place to go for group work, or if you want to get out of your room and are not keen on being productive. This weekend is a big race in surfers. I'm not sure if its formula 1 or something like it, but hopefully I will be able to go because I've never been to a road course race, and it looks awesome. Anyway I hope everyone is doing well back stateside..LATER

Aussie Lingo:

Pissed-Drunk

Magget-Super Drunk

Arvo-Afternoon

Windscreen-Windshield

Boots-Cleats

Bringing Your "A" Game, Everyday

2009-10-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Midterms are on the horizon, and I have been doing school work solid all week. It feels really good to have some tangible work to do. Tuesday Night I participated in Res Wars which is an athletic competition where each dorm faces one another in a series of events over the semester. Wednesday was dodgeball, and more importantly, free pizza. That was pretty enjoyable I must say. 3 Pizzas and free T-shirt can never be a part of a bad night. I played a little bit of soccer on thursday, but that was uneventful. Friday was a great day; I went to my class at 8, and then went to the beach with about 10 new people. It's fun to mix it up, and hang out with new people-plus you can never go wrong with a day at the beach after a tough school week. The waves were smaller than usual, however, they were perfect for body surfing. Normally if you catch a wave body surfing you are pretty thrilled, but yesterday we were cruising almost 50 feet. After the beach, I took a sunburn induced nap. The rest of the night consisted of dinner and watching bad boys II. I have a soccer game and plenty of studying to keep me occupied so be easy everyone.

Andrew Doin' Work: A Spike Lee Joint

2009-10-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Midterm week is looming which means I'm studying like a mad man. Yesterday, I spent the day going to class and working on an econ problem set, and today will be the same except I got up early to workout. The last couple of days have been rainy for the first time since I arrived on this continent which is nice because you don't feel as guilty not doing something fun in favor of school work when the weather sucks. I am definitely in school lockdown mode which feels good. Although I know I will be excited to go to Sydney at the conclusion of the chaos. Pretty much my life is in a temporary state of normality. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to go surfing or do something fun in between the studying.

Did you know?

Aboriginal People believe they came from rocks...
I am the king of the Solow Model
My eating skills are legendary in 2 continents now, You give me a cafeteria, and I will out eat all the fattys
I officially have nothing else to write about...LATeR!

Down the Stretch They Come

2009-10-10T04:58:00.000-07:00

I realize that I use to post stuff everyday, but I'm not CNN. I can't run the same story for a month and get away with it. So just be patient and wait for the updates; hopefully bi-weekly at the worst. This week was kinda slow because I had a ton of work to do, but I did book my trip to Sydney which will be at the end of this month. I played soccer a few times, and had the best meal I've had in a while. It was an Indian Feast in market square. By far the best Indian food I've ever had- hands down. Thursday Night, there was the weekly big on-campus party. I went for a little bit-8am Class on Friday keeps me in early most thursdays though. Friday night, Ashley, Evan, Jaime, Cody, and myself went to play mini golf in mermaid beach. Afterwards we met the Danes in surfer's for a little while before heading back. Today was a great day. I woke up at 11 to play soccer which was fun. Always good to start a day with some exercise. I was suppossed to play another game at 1. Thankfully it was cancelled because Cody and I had some big plans. We planned to go to the Gold Coast Turf Club to catch some horse racing. We got there around 2pm which was just after the end of the second race. The race track is pretty cool. The facilities aren't nice like Keeneland, but the view is second to none. The track looks out over all of Surfer's Paradise and Broadbeach. Cody rode his beginner's luck to an 80 dollar day at the track. I, on the other hand, picked up a cool 12 bucks over the course of the six races, with more ups and downs than an episode of House. No worries though, the 12 bucks covered my 10 dollar entry ticket so I had a free day of fun. I was actually in the red until the last race where Cody and I both bet on Red Amigo at 7:1 to win. A hair-raising finish had us going crazy amongst the Bogans and Affluent alike. No I don't feel bad celebrating a 14 dollar victory next to some degenerate that just lost his retirement fund....I really love horse racing so it was a blast. We have plans to return in a few weeks with a big group of people as well which will be fun. Now I'm about to go to bed so that I can get up at 4 am to watch the Denmark v. Sweden WCQ with the fellas. What, I need my sports fix, especially this time of year. Alright people...MIX IT UP...Later

Randomness from the week:

*Anyone find the secret message in the last post

*No Dempsey could spell trouble for Sam's Army....Dont Tread

*Go Tigers and Spartans, Yea I know the Tigs have a Bye

*I want Biscuits and Gravy more than anything

*Australians officially have the best swear word ever...ask me when I get back

*Learning about the arab Culture is pretty interesting. Apparently its common to have road rage fights that end up with both people beating the mess out of each other with their sandals.

*I will be employed by next friday

This is a horse....

The Paddock at the Gold Coast Turf Club, The horse in the back lost me 4 bucks

Cody and I on the Rail

View of the Track and Surfer's Paradise

Surfer's Again, The Q1 Tower is the building on the right-the Biggest on the Gold Coast

I'm Just Saying...

2009-10-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

The last two days have been extremely uneventful. I have yet to have a wasted day in OZ yet, but the last couple days have been composed of doing school work and run of the mill exercising and bball. Two things of note: I booked my Sydney trip today, and yesterday I watched Evan play netball. Sydney is going to be awesome, and Netball is quite possibly the gayest sport ever. I think some guys were watching figure skating and thought, "Man this is just way to man-ish." So the need for the worlds gayest game came to be, and thus netball was created. Watch it on youtube or something...its bad. Also I would like to extend a Happy Birthday wish to both my Aunts KK and Lisa. Yea thats all I got. LaTeR.

A Much Deserved Day of Physical Inactivity

2009-10-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

No soccer, no hiking, no soccer....Just another day in OZ people. Got up, went to class learned about stuff. Came back to the room and skyped with the little sis aka speed racer aka chad aka young stunna and also got to speak with the infamous jersey girl. The highlight of my day was the nap I took. Utterly beautiful if I say so myself. A well deserved sleep feels a lot better than the constant summer-unemployment sleep. Post napum, thats latin for after my nap, I went and snagged a smoothie before me dream time to dust lecture. A class so boring that if you make it through the whole thing without sleeping they give you a medal and/or screen you for speed. Kids fall asleep while drinking redbull in this class-true story. Thankfully I'm a champion and didn't fall asleep. You just have to remember what Lupe said, "One Time, For your Mind" thats my mantra for boring classes and other things deemed to be a waste of time. If you don't get it just forget it, If you do get it embrace it. Back to the real world, dinner then the library for some catch up work. The library is ridiculous. It looks more like a club on the inside than a library. I was skeptical about the prospects of getting anything done in that place, but it turned out alright and I got after it. I also won my fantasy baseball league today... what can I say my fanhood is legendary. (See about Me Section) Alright the day is almost done, and tomorrow should be another great one. Until then keep your ears to the grindstone. LATeR.

*Prestige Worldwide 2008-2009 FBA Champions*

Random Pics

Bond v. Deakin: Battle for 5th

Your 6th Place Bondie Boys Top (Left to Right) Me, Mitch, Iyuma, Jonathan, Jacob, Dayel, Ahmed. Bottom (Left to Right) Pasqual, Andra, Harry, Eivend, Rasheed

The Danes: Thomas aka Mr. No Homo, Lotte, and Nanna, Soren (not pictured)

Camping Photo: Ashley, Cody, Rick James, Kanye West, Elvis, Tupac, Michael Jackson....

Soccer then Jungle

2009-10-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

I am officially sick of soccer. We lost in the quarters then played two more games in the consolation bracket. We ended up in 6th place for the entire tournament which it is what it is. I hate to lose, but we definitely weren't the best side out there. I'll tell you more when I get back, just ask. Soccer ended Friday, and Saturday Morning marked our journey to the Hinterland for a camping trip and hike. Two days, 24 Miles, Steep Elevation, No Sleep, Extreme Heat, Little Water, Great Time. That was the sparknotes version. We got to the trail head in Binna Burra which is at the top of a huge mountain formation that was created by volcanoes millions of year ago. Its pretty awesome, you can look out from the top and see the entire gold coast and the ocean. Anyway, we started at the top and went down a steep grade through jungle and volcanic extrusions to the very bottom of the mountain. Then we walked along a road through the town of Nirumbah and a ton of cattle farms to another mountain. More hiking and pain ensued, don't forget I just played 11 soccer games in a span of 5 days, and finally we reached our camp. We got there around 3 o'clock with nothing to do, but thankfully it gets dark around 6. So we attempted to go to sleep which didn't happen. I need to stop going camping without basic supplies. You know like a sleeping bag and a pillow. Pretty much the rest of the story goes like this we woke up, and went back. When we reached the six thousand foot vertical assault, I pulled away from the team alberto cantador style and powered my way up the mountain like a sherpa on 9 cans of red bull. I ended up finishing thirty minutes ahead of everyone else because everytime I stopped I would realize how much pain I was in so I just didn't stop. On the way back we stopped down the road because a bunch of people were hang gliding a few miles away from the trail head. Definitely something that is cooler up close. We were literally 5 or 6 feet from the guys taking off. We finished the ride home, and I had another soccer game for the Bond World Cup. Pizza Hut and Laziness followed. I'm straight up exhausted people, hopefully some more clever writing will come with more rest. Get Money, LatER

Hang gliding, these guys were crazy, there were about 15 in air at once
If you look at the peak of the triangular mountain in the foreground and go straight up thats where the trail head was.
The walk through Nurimbah on the way to the second mountain/campsite.
You know you miss that face....

In Action

2009-09-30T04:40:00.001-07:00

The picture is kind of small, but its from the Uni Games website so its legit. This is from the Griffith game this morning.

Australian University Games

2009-09-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Day One:

Game 1 Bond v. University of the Sunshine Coast

First Game, I started at Center Back and played the entire match because we are seriously short sided on defense. We went down early, but the team responded well in the second half. Salvaging a 2-2 draw with a team that had been together for a while and played well.

Game 2 Bond v. New England University

Coming off an early morning draw we looked to take three points in the afternoon game. I started at left back and went the full time again, I also got a look at holding mid in the second half. We were not very sharp, and missed a lot of chances. The other side was physically very strong and held off our possession and counter attacks. I had a great look at goal late, but was denied by a great/lucky save. We ended up settling for a 0-0 Draw.

Day Two

Game 3 Bond v. Australian Catholic University

After picking up two draws in day one we need to come out and pick up some points in a big way. I started at left back again, and had my best game overall to this point in the tourney. ACU was somewhat hung over, and probably the weakest side in the field. We absolutely ran them off the field. Six to nothing. I should have scored, but I was taken out from behind inside the six. No love from the ref either seeing as how we were absolutely raping the other team. Anyway it was a great start to the day.

Game 4 Bond v. Murdoch University.

Riding the wave of success, the Bondie Boys throttled Murdoch 4 to 0 in the brutal Australian Heat. I played well again at the left back spot, and went the full match for the fourth straight game. I also played the holding midfield spot at the end of the second half.

Game 5 Bond v. University of Southern Australia

They Forfeited, we take three points. Simple. That also meant that we picked up 9 points on the day with a 10-0 goal differential. Great stuff. We found ourselves in a tie for second out of seven within our group.

Day 3

Game 6 Bond v. Griffith University

The crosstown shoot out that everyone had been anticipating. Number One Griffith against number two, Bond. We came out and conceded two early goals as they showed why they are the team to beat in the tourney. Down three-nil at the half we were unlucky not to score. I played my worst game of the week which was probably due to the fact that we were tactically beaten. They picked apart our offsides trap a number of times. The final score was 3-0 Griffith, and now we were in a fight to make it through to the quarters.

Game 7 Bond v. Deaking University

This was a huge game for us because if we won we would be the second seed in the quarterfinals, and if we lost we would either miss the quarters or advance as the 4th seed and have to play the overall number one. I started at left back and went the full time as usual. We were able to put together a great game and beat one of the best teams in the field 2-0.

Tommorow is the quarterfinals at 8am against University of Western Australia. Hopefully we will be able to advance so that I can miss more class and keep playing soccer. Seriously though, this week has been an absolute blast, but I am exhausted.

Here's a little rundown on the squad:

GK Dayel, Crazy Saudi who screams out "Do not be Afraid!!!" at all opportunities. He is doing well in goal, but has his moments of ultra suspect-ness

RB Mitch, Aussie who plays with a lot of heart, and is the team jokester of sorts

CB Jonathan, Aussie-Team Manager, great leader and great player. Also has super speed.

CB Jacob, Insane Dane, the most serious person I've ever met. Nasty in the Air.

LB Me

LM Pasqual, Laid-Back Swede, looks like he would suck, but is filthy on the outside, Plays great crosses.

RM Fahad, Saudi who use to rock the maryland shuttle (Arlington, VA) and has been to Clemson. Good player with impressive skill on the ball.

CDM Iaumu, Asian Censation who is strong on the ball, and hits sick free-kicks

CAM Andre, Middle East, great vision, plays great deep balls in behind the D.

ST Harry, Middle East, Unbelievable speed and skill. Just a straight up burner.

ST Rasheed, Saudi, The star of the team, great finisher, great skill, scores the majority of the goals.

BN. Eiven, Norweigen Team Captain, normally starts but hurt his knee early in the tourney

BN. Brom, Aussie Midfielder, plays with unbelievable white man hustle which I respect

BN. Ahmed, Saudi, Rasheed's slave, good guy, crazy mustache, decent player

Surfs Up or Not

2009-09-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the first game of the Bond World Cup, and the Mighty UN side lost 3-2 to the Germans in added time. I had to play center back for most of the game because the team has been together for a few semesters and everyone has a place. Not a huge fan of playing D, but it was alright and I didn't get burned. I moved up to midfield in the second half so that was alright. After the game, I watch the AFL grand Final which is like the Super Bowl in OZ. It was pretty cool because Aussies are so passionate about their sports and most importantly there trash talking. The Geerlong Cats outlasted the St. Kilter Saints in a Defensive struggle. Next up was the Bond Revue which was a comedy show put on by BUSA to cap of the end of Bondstock. Australians can heckle like its nobodies business. This is a school event with professor and school officials in attendance, and kids are drinking, cussing, and mooning their way through the whole performance. Gotta give 'em credit, they are flat out insane. The rest of the night was pretty low key because we decided to get up early and go surfing.

You can't really surf in one foot waves....Yea it just doesn't work. So pretty much our day of surfing became a day of relaxing on the beach. I also had a great burger in Burleigh Heads. Two Patties, Canadian Bacon, and Cheese. Pretty solid stuff. I came back around 2 for a University Games Meeting and Team BBQ. I was there for about 2 hours or so, and then came back to take a nap. Side Note: The Danes decided to go to Byron Bay for the weekend so they couldn't lose to us for the second straight week. Get Some!

Heres my schedule for the Uni Games;

Monday

Games at 8am and 12pm in South Port

Tuesday

Three Games, Time TBD in South Port

Wednesday

Two Games, Time TBD in South Port

Thursday

Semifinals

Friday

Finals and Closing Ceremonies

Alright Kids, I got 7 games in three days ahead me so I'm gonna be beat for this week for sure, but Keep doing Work! Later

I'm Bear Grylls...

2009-09-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Bear Grylls Jr. Wading into a Sand Bar, About to kill a Bullshark for dinner with his bare hands
Jungle on the hike of Burleigh National Park
View from the top of the volcanic rock formation, looking down towards Coolangatta

Seeing as how I don't have class on Thurdays I decided it was a great day to Bear Grylls' it. Evan, Vito, and I walked from Bond to the Burleigh Heads National Park which is right next to Burleigh Heads Beach. It was about a 30 minute hike through the suburbs of the gold coast. Burleigh Heads National Park is awesome though. It is a volcanic rock formation that has not been developed right at the end of the beach. You can hike to the top and see all the way to surfer's and coolangatta. There were some awesome views at the top; then we hiked down to the otherside to this inlet where there was a dolphin swimming around and a huge sand bar. I snagged a little piece of volcanic rock as a keepsake. I was hoping to see a crevasse or a glacier so I could get my Bear on, but obviously I had no such luck. We did see some crazy looking turkeys that are everywhere and a few lizards. The wildlife here is pretty interesting because its so much different than home. After an hour or so, we trekked back to campus so we could eat. The rest of the night was uneventful, and I crashed early because I have an 8AM on Fridays.

8AM Rise and Shine. Chocolate Chip Muffin + Red Bull = Success. Class went well, and after that I had a 2 o'clock practice to look forward too. Heads up, If you have a practice in the hot sun do not order a meat pie from the dining hall. It was on par with tater tot bake for the Clemson people reading. Everyone else just use your imagination. Practice was a lot of fun; other than the fact that I was playing with the meat pie in the stomach. No I didn't puke, I'm a Champion. I'm starting to really get on form for the team which is great, and hopefully I will get the start come monday. I'll probably being playing somewhere in midfield, but who knows. We have a team dinner and meeting at a local hotel on Sunday where they will announce the draw for the tourney. Bond v. rival Griffith should be an absolute derby. I'm also going to be playing in the bond world cup. It's a semester long tourney where each week kids play for there country squad. There's a Australian, Middle East, German, Scandanavian, US, Canadian, Latin, and UN team. I'm playing for the UN team because a lot of the guys from the bond team play for them, and they asked me to play with them. Also the US team is supposed to be garbage, so yea, I don't like to lose.

Alright People, Thats all I got for now, but look for some great things to be coming in the next week. I will see you there or I will see you on another time.....LaTEr.

There's a (Dust) storm a brewing

2009-09-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Goals, Goals, Goals

2009-09-23T04:40:00.001-07:00

620AM-wake up time my friends, and yes, that is local time for all you haters. Why you ask? Water Aerobics. I got roped into going with Evan and Ashley, but I gotta say it was a great workout. The 85 year old women also thought it was great. Although I have to say, I don't think the were putting in the same effort I was. Just saying, they were slacking. So then it was shower and 8'clock class. It's a psychology class thats actually pretty good. The professor is old and off his rocker, but its not a powerpoint and takes notes kind of deal so its all golden. I'm not sure if this made it to the US, mom don't freak out, there was a massive dust storm in OZ the last two days. The world was just covered with red dust; I felt like I was an impoverished farmer during the dust bowl for half a second. It was wild, you couldn't see more than 100 feet in front of you at one point. My other two classes were a little boring, such is life. I had soccer training at 5. I scored a sick/lucky goal too. I made a long, overlapping run down the right side and was played through into the six. The ball took a bad hop which I recovered from with a spin-a-rama followed by a pull back. I then megged the keeper for the goal. I'm still loving it if you can't tell. The University Games are going to be held next week. The team has 2 games a day for five straight days, and there are a number of team events. I also get to miss class, university approved excuse for athletics...Clutch. The rest of the night was just volleyball and dinner. I'm not gonna lie my legs are absolutely gassed. I'm looking forward to a beach day before things get crazy monday with footy. News of the day: I scored twelve free packs of australian ramen at a promotional giveaway. Thats twelve extra meals people. Never a wasted day, Never. latER.

Finding My Will Hunting

2009-09-22T04:37:00.000-07:00

I think I actually had a day that was a grind in Australia which kinda sucks, but its all good. I got up at 9 to go to my Australian Geology class. I don't think I've ever been enrolled in a more boring class. Again all good. I got a little lunch before my next class and looked into buying my books. I went to Econ and stayed there forever. Forever, ever, Forever, ever as my boy Andre 3k would say. I made it through that, barely, and then went to workout. The gym was packed, but I was feeling extra motivated so I dominated. Then I went and played ball with Boston Dan for a little while. I also played 3 v. 3 with some asians that didn't speak english. I don't think they were ready for my rucker park, bruce bowen "D" because they were straight soft. Anyway I played ball for a few hours then I went to the 'brary to do my first set of homework in OZ. First Econ Problem, Differential Calculus..uhhhh I definitely deleted that from the Brain as soon as left my Last Calculus final. Lets face it, what knowledge do you need more on a Daily basis: Clemson's basketball stats, how to look both before crossing the street, and kanye lyrics or partial derivatives....So basically I spent 2 hours relearning calculus. I also outlined a few psychology chapters which was cake in comparison to figuring out the chain rule and all that other crap that some people call calculus. Side Note: I actually really enjoy doing calculus because you feel like a champion after cranking out a problem that takes up a whole sheet of paper. What, I like being smart. You probably knew that. Ok. Dinner...Right. I ate with Cody, Evan, Jaime, Ashley, and Susie. We all decided to play some indoor soccer after dinner because clearly I don't play enough footy. Now I'm laying around doing laundry and thinking about getting up at 6 am to workout before my 8 o'clock class. Why not. I'll sleep when I die.

Things I Miss about Home:

College Football

Paws Diner

Clemson People

Things I don't Miss about Home:

The "R" word

Lou Holtz

Sitting at Home Doing Nothing

Cash For Clunkers, stimulus packages, bailouts

Not gonna lie, I could see myself moving to OZ later in life. Its just an awesome place. The people here are so laid back, and having a bad day is just not in the works. When things go bad you just roll with it and say No worries. Gotta love that! LaTER!

Def Comedy Jam

2009-09-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

From Left to Right: Ashley, Jaime, Cody, Me, Lauren, Valerie, Vito

Normal day in OZ: Class, Hunger, Vball, Swim, Sauna, Class, Hunger, Comedy Night. Yea thats right, Bond put on a comedy show to kick off Bondstock. A week of events that culminates in a big concert on campus. The comedians were decent. One of them was the IRL driver Will Power's baby bro. He wasn't the headliner, but I thought he was the best. Another guy did some musical stuff, and the main guy was Tommy Dean or something. He sucked, however, by the time he went on stage everyone was pretty tipsy so he got the most laughs. It was a fun night that took almost three hours. When I got back I watched two episodes of entourage that took me about 3 hours to pirate. Thank Al gore for the internet. Thats about it for the day; I'm kind of exhausted and I don't feel capable of writing anything witty at the moment. I can only crank out so much greatness a month people. You're spoiled....yea I said it. Heres a few pics to make up for my lack of focus tonight. Be Easy America. Later

Redemption

2009-09-20T03:27:00.000-07:00

AFL or Aussie Football is quite an interesting game. I had the pleasure of watching the national semifinals last night with some Australians. It's pretty easy to understand, but I don't know if I really enjoy the game. There isn't much obvious skill or creativity so it's kinda dull if you don't appreciate the little aspects of it. Think baseball without web gems.

Today:

10 AM workout

Nothing to interesting here just working on my fitness as Fergie would say.

1130 AM breakfast with Evan and Boston Dan

Had a nice brunch that didn't fill me up, but enjoyed the conversation. Every other kid from Obamaland is from the North East here.

3 PM Volley Ball with the Danes

The ameriCANS remembered the Alamo, WWII, The Gulf War, and of course that we are best country since ever. We thrived off our nationalistic sense of arrogance and throttled the Danes in volleyball. Misty May Trainer and her girlfriend would have been so proud. I gotta say the Danes are some straight up competitors. They hate to lose. Unfortunately, thats what happens when you play with fire. Just ask Saddam. All the jokes aside, nutella sucks cough cough, V-ball was a lot of fun. We decided that we are going to play every sunday at 3 for the rest of the semester so I will keep you updated on our dominance.

6 PM Dinner

The quality of the food here isn't bad its just not enough. I don't get how these big up rugby kids get full on 1200 calories a day. I hate to complain, but can I seriously get a golden corral or something.

9 PM Fireworks

Its only 846 so I don't know what to say about the fireworks other than I'm about to go to them. That could have been the most uninteresting sentence I have typed since I arrived. Sorry it happens. Even Adam Sandler made Spanglish.

I also wanted to throw out a thank you for everyone who comments on the blog! I really appreciate the fact that people read this stupid thing who aren't related to me. Hope all is well. LatER

CRIKEY!!!

2009-09-19T03:23:00.000-07:00

Today was our first real adventure outside of the Gold Coast. Our trek started at 6am when we caught the bus to the Robina rail station. From Robina, we took a commuter train to Brisbane central station, and switched trains there so we could get to Beerwah where the zoo is. Not any old zoo because believe me I have been to the San Diego Zoo, and I would not get up at 6 for some cookie cutter zoo mess. The Steve Irwin Zoo, Boom! Back to the travel details...It was about a 2 hour train ride, but it was good to see some parts of OZ that weren't perfect like the gold coast. We road through the Glasshouse mountains which were awesome, however, not as awesome as our fellow train passengers. One chick looked exactly like Amy Whinehouse except more strung out, and this other kid, who was self-proclaimed volcanologist, was just getting mocked merciless by our American Gang. The Zoo was pretty Balling because they had these areas where you could just walk around with Kangaroos and Koalas practically unsupervised and take pics and what not. I also saw a huge tiger throw up...sounds gross but it was insane in the membrane. Later in the day we caught the Crocodile show which is led by Steve Irwin's Wife and kids. I also saw a dingo, and unfortunately it didn't steal or eat anyone's baby. The rest of the animal rundown was as follows: Wombats (Ty Hansboroughs Relatives), OZ's deadliest snakes, Emus, Crazy Birds, Tons of Crocs and Gators, Elephants, Otters, and some others that I can't rattle off at the moment. Anyways, the trip back was pretty uneventful and everyone was just hungry/exhausted/smelling of zoo/sick of trains. Overall it was just an awesome trip and a great day. If you ever find yourself in Beerwah, OZ check out the Steve Irwin Zoo.

Beach Day and "D" Day

2009-09-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

No Classes on thursdays are probably going to mean Beach Days the rest of the semester. I know everyone back home is grinding through exams and work, but grinding is overrated. Bronzing is where its at. I wouldn't say I'm george lopez or eric estrada brown jus yet...I'm on my way though. The beach was really relaxing Evan and I just kinda layed around, and then threw the frisbee for a little while. I actually almost randy johnson'd a seagull (If you haven't seen the video where the Unit hits a bird with his heater and it explodes like an atom bomb you may wanna get your google on). Around two-ish we decided to come back and play some more soccer. We ended up playing 4 v. 4 with the numnut asian-ronaldinho from the team practice. Evan and I were on a team with our two friends Cody and Vito (Cody is from OZ and Vito goes to the Citadel). We absolutely slaughtered these kids. At one point, the score was 8 to 1. Whoever says Americans can't play soccer is on crack. It was the most fun I have had playing soccer in a long time because we all just wanted to beat this asian kid so bad. We even had to give them a fifth player after a while because we were beating them Rodney King style. Ike turner was sitting in the corner saying, "Man I've never seen anyone get beat like this." You get it...USA All the WAY! Later on we ate dinner with the Danes and some other kids which was fun.

I didn't have class today, so I woke up early and worked out. Then evan and I snagged a late breaky/ early lunch. Today was club sign up day at Bond, and I signed up for more soccer, indoor soccer, and of course surfing. BUSASA-Bond University Surf And Social Association. It's completely free and they take you to the beach, hook you up with a board, and teach you how to ride giants. I can't wait...That excitement was followed by some skyping and a couple hours at the pool. Man Life is Tough. laTer!

A Photographic Epic

2009-09-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

Soccer Training

2009-09-16T03:07:00.000-07:00

Just finished my first official training session with the Bond Team, and pretty excited about the upcoming season. I'm probably somewhere in the middle of the road as far as skills go, but some of the the kids are just retarded. Most of the guys are pretty cool, and the team definitely has an international flair to it. Kids from Denmark, Japan, China, Iran, South Africa, Norway, Germany, OZ, and of course Clint Dempsey Jr. here repping the USA. One of the Asian kids is pretty gay he thinks he's christiano and doesn't need to pass. For the most part I really like the team. We have a few more training sessions scheduled before the Uni Games. Also the head guys invited me to play indoor with them on monday nights so that should be fun. Overall it just feels good to be on an organized team again. Hopefully we will be able to bring home some hardware as well because as Herm Edwards once said, "You Play to Win the Game." Amen Herm, hope the broadcast booth is treating you well. Stay Fly. LATEr.

Kanye,Class, Etc

2009-09-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Heres my two cents on Kanye. The kid wears sunglasses inside; of course he did what he did. Yea he made himself look like an idiot, but he makes better music than Taylor Swift so I don't care. Kanye > Taylor Swift.

Yesterday, I had my first tutorial and another econ lecture. The way classes work over here is you have one, two-hour lecture per week, and a corresponding tutorial. The tutorial only has about 10 people in it, but the professor leads it instead of a TA or something. It's hard to stay still for two hours thats for sure. I like the system though, the tutorials have been pretty interesting so far. After classes, I took the bus to Robina because I have my first soccer practice today and I was in need of some boots. I have been trying to get some practice in on my own this week so that I will be ready to go...we shall see. What else is new....I'm still hungry. Dinner was a joke again last night. As "Boston Dan" so eloquently put it, "This place is like an amusement park, everything is over priced and under proportioned, but your stuck here so you have to deal with it." My temporary solution to the problem is as follows: Buy a huge tub of peanut butter and stash it in your room, and after every meal come back and just Bear Paw about 4 scoops of it. And yes, it does work, sort of...

Today marked my first 8 o'clock class which normally would have been a nightmare. However, I was the first person to make it to class. Oh Yea my go-getta streak is alive and well. Blah Blah Blah I ate after...(see above and prior entries about eating in OZ)...now I'm gonna take a nap so I can hit soccer training at 100%.

More Randomness for your Minds:

Popsicle = Icy Pole
Jello = Jelly
Jelly = Jam
Cookie = Biscuit
Aboriginal People do not keep time
Kanye Still better than T Swift
Still Hungry
Rematch Against the Danes this Sunday, We Will Win

Stay Thirsty My Friends. LaTER

The Last Day, The First Day

2009-09-13T03:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know what is in the water down here, but I'm absolutely hitting life on all cylinders. It probably has to due with the fact that this summer was so boring that it began this life metamorphasis that has set me into permanent beast mode. I got up today at 7am to workout, and guess what, the gym doesn't even open til 9. So I was the first person in the gym, and yes I did work. Afterwards, I met Evan for breaky, as its called down here, and had another calorie deficient meal. I got the word that there is a krispy kreme in one of the malls near by so I'm probably gonna get five or six dozen doughnuts. That way after every meal that doesn't satisfy my kobyashi-like diet I can pound down a few doughnuts and be right as rain. Being the go-getter that I'm am, I also played Bball after breaky, and found time to scout out where my classes were gonna be held. At 4 o'clock local time I had an epic beach vollyball match with the Danes. The US squad was defeated handedly, but we were completely hustled by the Danes. Thankfully we still have Obama, Petsmart, QVC, and a bunch of other crap that won't make it to their neck of the woods for another few generations. Dinner was uneventful, but later Evan and I trekked to Varsity Lakes to pick up a little snack called a Tim Tam. It is a cookie or biscuit to the locals. Regardless of what it is, its freaking amazing.

The first day of class is upon us, and I have already established myself as the smartest man in OZ. Seriously though, I dominated my first two hour econ lecture this morning. Two hour lectures are pretty long, and Imagine being in a class where the pre-class conversations are held in 10 different languages. I have another class at 4, and I'm probably gonna go workout here in a few minutes. Also someone please fill me in on what happened with my boy Kanye at the VMAs. I heard something like he put taylor swift in her place....Put On People! Later

One Day away from Reality, Sort of...

2009-09-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday marked the last day of pure freedom, which meant no one even noticed that class will be starting monday. Everyone at Bond took a charter bus to Broadbeach for a "beach day" which was pretty cool. I saw an albino student from antarctica or perhaps Siberia, not sure, all I know is that she was the whitest person I have ever seen and then some. She was powdered doughnut white, she was Drew Carey white. Anyway the beach was fun, and we did a lot of swimming and body surfing. Next I found myself having a BBQ with the Danes at their place on the beach. I had a legitimate good meal in OZ, unfortunately, my stomach requires three legitimate meals to be full so I have a ways to go. I had a good time shooting the breeze with the danes though, I'm in the process of teaching them the man points system. Fanny Packs and putting sunscreen on another guys back....BAD. Doing work on the grill while bumping Lupe Fiasco....GOOD. Its a long process. I got up this morning to see that MSU lost to central michigan, Wonderful. Not a great sports week for the Tiger/Spartan Nation. Today should be a relaxing day before class gets going manana. I was gonna go workout, but the gym doesn't open til 9am....Thats all I got for now, Keep on Keeping on. lATeR

2009-09-11T01:32:00.000-07:00

Getting My Johnny Tsunami on at Surfer's...I Love Australia

Time to Grow Up

2009-09-11T01:10:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I have a whole new appreciation for the Danish people, and I don't really get techno clubs. Last Night I met a whole bunch of kids from Denmark, and they changed my opinions of an entire culture and country. They were the anti-christine (wierd foreign exchange student who hated obamaland). They showed me the legendary Bass Arm, and I had to fill them in on the intracracies of the stanky legg. Yea I trade dance moves all the time...NO HOMO. We also went to a rave in surfer's that was by far the craziest night of my life. Techno music is wierd no doubt about it, but it was a cool experience. It sort of this wierd form of dancing where guys and girls dance interchangably, its really european. Also Australians are nucking futs, their drunken singing at 4am was something out of a Man U derby. I got up early and went to varsity lakes to try and watch the tigers do their thing, however, I was unsuccesful so I got it streaming on my laptop. Right after kick-off Evan and I decided to go to robina with her roommate and her friends to get a phone. 100 dollars later I'm back in the 21st century, and it's about time. This afternoon I played bball with some boys from the USA. That was followed by a much deserved shower and nap. Now it looks like I'm off to an outdoor movie under the stars...No Homo. Be Easy Folks, don't let the swine get at ya.

This Chapter Won't be In the book

2009-09-10T00:18:00.000-07:00

Just a day in the life...Woke up around 9am and hit the gym for a much needed workout and to set up my gym membership. Kilograms on weights is just not a good idea, In fact, the metric system is for gay boys...yea I said it world. Later in the day I grabbed some lunch with the roommate, and I found something decent to eat which was grrreeattt. After Lunch, I went out and played soccer with these two guys. One is Australian and the other is actually from the citadel, but we had a good time. It was good to get some work in on the game since I will be a collegiate athlete come next week. Here's some randomness for your mind:

I have yet to see a toilet that spins in reverse, but the toilets have two flush settings. One for number one, and another for that holy crap I just ate paws and schilleter in the same day stomach splintering, change the world mudbutt.
Someone from Connecticut said I had a southern accent....
Candy is referred to as Lollies
I don't have an alarm clock or a phone yet
I officially polished off the trailmix that was responsible for my fun day with the Australian Customs Folks
I need to get a phone
Clemson is going to run the train against GTech
The are two completely different types of Rugby, Rugby League and Rugby Union. I don't really get either of them completely
I may be buying a surfboard this weekend
I got locked in a stairwell the otherday, loads of fun
Australia now knows of the Bo Dow, Big Dawgs stay strong, you know who you are
I got bit by some australian ant...CRIKEY
Australians don't even say shrimp so how could anyone ever come up with shrimp on the barbie.... enlighten yourselves.... prawns on the barbie
The birds outside my window show no mercy
Clint Dempsey scores again, Stanton blows another knee, you can't win them all boy

Alright people be easy, lateR

Myrtle Beach and Beverly Hills had a baby...

2009-09-09T01:17:00.000-07:00

Surfer's Paradise is pretty sweet, there are high rise hotels as far as the eye can see, cool restaurants, stores, and oh yea the ocean right there boom! I'm not gonna lie, its a total tourist city. Everything you could possibly want is right there, from stunner shades to boomerangs you can get it all. Last Night Evan and I rolled through and scoped the whole place out. The highlights were as follows: a store called the condom king, checking out some australian outback head wear, and of course people watching. Today, we woke up to catch some orientation seminar where they showed us pictures of a Bull Shark that was found in the lake right on campus, and gave us the college speech...a time to learn how to learn....a time of self-discovery....a time for me to catch up on some sleep. Afterwards we checked out a BBQ they had at the pool where this kid we met a couple nights ago from the citadel invited us to go to the beach. So we jumped on a bus to Burleigh beach with 20 kids from the house that obama built. Burleigh is much more of a local spot with tons of surfers and local stores. The waves were huge, and me and a couple other guys swam out to where they were breaking. It took about 20 minutes; no joke it was the most intense workout I've had in a while. The rip tide is redonkulous, but it was all worth it to dive through a monster wave. Hopefully, I will be surfing giants with kunu and Johnny Kapahalla any day now. I also got my schedule for the Bond University Soccer team, I have practice 3 times a week so we will see how that goes. It's def gonna be put on for my city time if you know what I'm saying. Well I'm about to grab a shower and head out to get some food because your never full in OZ. Rub Yo Face In It! LATer

Dorm Views... Don't Be Hating!

2009-09-08T04:33:00.001-07:00

If you look out my window to the right you can see the lake and the mountains...pretty awesome. The town of Varsity Lakes is down the road over the bridge about 5 minutes away.

The lake is actually full of fish, I can see them jumping out of the water from my room, and people are always fishing.

Here is the view out my window. Evan's room is the second open window looking from right to left. The gym, university offices, security center, and some other stuff are all in these combined buildings. Just think if Johnstone and the Union were cool instead of looking like south central.

I'm Gelling Like Magellan

2009-09-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

The last couple days have been all about exploring the gold coast. Yesterday i got pretty familiar with the town of robina which is pretty sweet. It has a huge mall that starts out as an open air mall then becomes just a normal mall. It had a bunch of Aussie stores and a bunch of stuff from obamaland as well. I've pretty much decided theres some stuff you can't escape: Macdonalds, Target, The ford motor company, and starbucks. Sidenote, people drive these crazy whips down here that look like ford focus' but instead of a back seat and trunk they have a truck bed. Its like an El camino except newer and gayer. Also Burger King is called Hungary Jacks, which is a sweet name if you ask me, and Macdonald's has triple cheeseburgers. Australia is also on the european portion plan so I haven't been full since i got here. Back to the story, Robina is balling and taking the Bus is pretty easy. I also set up my bank account which was a freakn hastle. I ended up having to withdrawal all my tuition money and carry with me to the receivables office. I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to throw down 3 stacks at this place, but Like Jeezy said, "Yea First Round Draft Pick, Yea I'm A Fricken Baller!" Today has been absolutely awesome. I woke up early and went for a run around campus and down to Varsity Lakes. Afterwards, Evan and I hopped the Bus to broadbeach which is crazy. The waves are huge, at least 7 to 10 feet. We hung out on the beach for a few hours, and I'm pretty sure I may be the tannest Scottish Jew in the history of this earth. Yea my ancestors were straight up pasty...Getting back to Bond was an adventure because the bus system is kinda confusing. Some buses are marked to go places that they don't actually go to. Thats not a rationalization to keep from deducting man points for getting lost either. So it took about an hour and a half, then we went on a short tour of the campus which showed us where the actual classes are held. Following that, We ate our first meal on campus. Heed my warning, If you find yourself in OZ and you are hungry don't order a burger. Whatever they feed the cows down here is beyond me, but the beef is just gross. Now I'm back in the room and I'm about to head to surfer's paradise because our bus pass is good for the whole day. Don't Let the recession get ya down! LaTeR

Going Off the Grid, And Coming Back From the Dead

2009-09-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

Bare with me as we take a little trip to negative town because I swear there will be a happy ending at the end. So 13 hours on a plane, cramped up like an illegal crossing the border in an apple box, just is not very fun lets face it. The flight had its ups and downs. The ups were highlighted by this cool australian lady who sat next to us and gave us a good run down on the Australian way of life. She gained my respect when we first met her, and she said that she was so glad that the people sitting next to her weren't fattys. The In-Flight entertainment was pretty legit to, You get your own LCD screen loaded with all sorts of new movies, tv-shows, and music. So naturally I caught up on some Bear Grylls, Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, The Hangover, and I love you man. Yea, 13 hours is a long time when you don't sleep. I'm not a big proponent of medicating for anything unless I'm really hurting, but on the flight home I'm buyn a smoothie with a box of ambien mashed up in it. The food was ultra suspect on the plane, however, I discover aussie lemonade which is kinda like sprite except way better. The moral of the story is I didn't sleep a wink, and I was not prepared for the day I was about to have. Moving On, I got off the plane in Brisbane which looked like a pretty big and industrialized city from the air, and I got down to the Visa Check point only to find out that my visa didn't match my passport so I had to get that fixed. Then, like a total idiot, I declared that I had food in my bag. So as Evan jeted right through customs, I got the Osama Bin Ladin look a like shake down. Everything I owned was scanned over a stinking bag of trail mix and a few cliff bars. The end result being that the head security official asked me why the trail mix had M&Ms in it, and if that defeated the purpose of TRAIL mix. Next the shuttle company lost my reservation and that was a huge hastle. I finally got out to the shuttle to find out that Evan was gonna get on, but I had to wait for the next one. Which seemed alright, but it turned out that I had to wait it out through the next four. I got into it with the shuttle guy because he was a total idiot. I mean any man in a leather jacket probably deserves a verbal smack down. So i get on the shuttle with the asian invasion, and it seemed like my worst nightmare was becoming a reality. I was stuck on another continent with a bunch of other non-english speaking foreigners separated from evan, and completely hating life! Things started to look up again once I got to Bond. The campus is even better than the pictures, and my room is pretty cool. If I look straight across to the next dorm I can see Evan's dorm. We have been communicating with hand signals and screaming because we have been internet and phone-less. I have yet to get a room mate but I have met people from all over the world which has been pretty cool. We also went to this BarBQ last night where they had Shrimp on the Barbie! SIKE, they had wierd tasting burger patties on white bread with ketchup and onions. Oh yea and they played Matchbox 20s greatest hits the whole time. Rewind, before the barBQ we checked out the town of varsity lakes, its about a 5 minute walk from campus. Its all brand new and has a bunch of restaurants, cafes, and even an IGA. Australia is the wierdest mix of cultures. Theres a huge american influence, but there are a lot of things that seem to be European. And from my personal census, half the population is Asian. Also You group Australian people into 2 very distinct physiological groups. The dichotomy pretty much goes like this: there are a great number of modern professional looking people who seemed polished and sharp, then there is a huge contingent of them that look like the most inbreed hicks on the planet. The look like haggard englishmen and dress like ANdy Milonakis, wierd I know. I found out from this aussie today that they call those austrialians, Bogans. Any way I'm still ultra jet lagged and I cant type anymore so I'll finish this up tommorow. Hope all is well in Obamaland! LAter

Nothing Like a Day of Air Travel

2009-09-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

So far I'm just having a great day, no delays, free vitamin water on both my flights, got a free pair of headphones, and now I'm recharging at the LAX Holiday Inn, and no I haven't seen Chingy. Pretty much just having an uneventful day in terms of craziness which is good. I'm gonna get a nap and a shower in, then I will roll back to the aeropuerto and meet up with Evan. Whoa, College Football Preview is on in the background right now and I forgot how annoying sweet lou holtz is. I mean someone needs to up his meds for real! On the subject of College Football, look for the Tigers to come out strong tomorrow with a dominating win over MTSU. Until next time, Stay Classy.

Today LAX, Tommorrow Van Nuys Part I

2009-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Let the real blogging begin, I'm sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting to head out to the A T L. Then its off to LAX, and at midnight I'll be jumping across the world. Not gonna lie I'm really excited, although, I may change my mind after my 10 hours of sitting in the airport doing absolutely nothing because my freaking headphones died! Anyways I'll be in OZ manana (4 US time). Its entirely possible that I will be getting my Chad "Ochocinco" on for the rest of the day so stay posted for facebook messages, blog entries, tweets, and so on.....LATr

This Is Bond

2009-06-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

Lets Get Ready to Blog???

2009-06-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Aight People, here's the deal I'm going to Australia for the fall semester and my family has been bugging me to find a way to keep in touch. So I'm going to blog it up. I figure if Hillary Duff can do it than I should be able to figure it out. (www.hilaryduffblog.com/ just in case your interested about the next lizzy mcguire flick) In case you don't already know and are really curious, I'm going to Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia. Its on the east coast and is way north of Sydney. I'm leaving on September 4th and I will be coming back to the States on December 19th. I figure I will jot down some of my interesting adventures so that If i don't make a ton of cash over the next twenty years of my existence I can write a novel about surfing and clubbing kangaroos wit some aussies, look out Pulitzer here I come. Seriously I'm going to try and write a lot to keep people updated and feel free to hollar at me whenever. I just got skype and my skype name is abbott1215 in case you wanna get some nice face to face time in next semester. If you don't have facebook or skype, which at this point is probably only my uncle and my grandparents, and you really want to hollar at ya boi my email is aabbott@clemson.edu. I mean facebook really should have exercised some foresight and made it a felony for people who remember the 60's to have an account. Sorry I just had to throw that out there... Other than that I probably won't write anything else until my trip starts....lAter