Catch Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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