Going Back To Sydney

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

F111 Jet-Beach flyover

A game that can't be won only played

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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....