Thursday, August 9, 2007

i saw a UFO but nobody believes me...

i'm pretty awful at this thing. pretty awful because i have been telling myself to write in it ALL WEEK long and i have had time to write in it all week long and i just didn't. so today, i make a vow to write at least every three days. i shall do it. i shall be successful. i promise.

so the title of this post comes from this awesome Aussie Song "UFO" by Sneaky Sound System. Download it. its awesome. maybe this is a good point to delve into the wonderful world of aussie dance and song. well, music wise they are very into american music but they are equally into the european and their own aussie sound as well. as you may already know, the electronic/house/trance/techno scene has taken over the european and thus also the australian dance scene. so when you go out anywhere...be prepared to dance. be prepared to dance hard. now dont you worry, i have definitely spent enough time "under my umbrella-brella-brella" and i have definitely bought enough "drankss" and they are by no means behind in the american music scene either...i've also never felt "stronger" but you would also be surprised of all the american songs that I have never heard of that are crazy popular here...ie the good charlotte song - "i dont want to be in love" (download it too. its great). so, yes. they love to dance in this country. its actually very amusing when you are out at any pub (which are all equipped with dance floors), that you are continually reminded of Dane Cook's "I just want to Dance" sketch. because here, guys actually do get in circles and dance around with each other and they are most definitely straight. its just a different culture. they dont grind here (which i think I talked about in a previous post), they just go crazy with you and their fellow male friends just like girls do back in the states. its pretty awesome. however, due to this insane dancing comes insanely smelling and sweaty people, so thats never any fun...but you learn to deal. aussies dance very hard and very faced paced. even if the song is slow, their legs are moving a mile a minute. its kinda strange because their upper bodies don't move nearly as much in comparison...its interesting. I think its something that i am going to have to video clip and post it because its definitely something to see. well, i'll leave that for now and get on with whats been up with me for the past week.

so last weekend, we didnt end up going to the aquarium but we went to brunswick street in richmond (one of many suburbs of melbourne). brunswick street was pretty sweet...its one of those crazy cultural streets that melbourne is known for...full of clubs, restaurants, cafes, boutiques, stores..etc. so it was a nice little walk to get there and an enjoyable walk down the street as well. we only got halfway down the street (thats popular around here because their streets have sooo much stuff and go on for quite a while). so that was saturday in a nutshell. sunday was pretty much of the same. we had sunday night dinner for the second week in a row with the IES Family and everyone was able to make it and it was a success so that was awesome. its nice to spend some quality time with familiar faces.

this week was our third week of classes and i cant believe how fast its going already. classes are good but i definitely already have some papers that are slowly creeping up on me so i shall get on top of those this weekend. its been a pretty uneventful week just filled with class, rowing and working out in general (which has been very successful, might i add). i think we have all definitely hit our groove now, so going out everynight isn't necessary to have fun. we actually did go out monday night to the turf club which is the bar/club next door and it is the place to be on monday nights. so that was fun...especially since i had to walk all of 40 feet to get back to my room. sweet, i know. it was good to see some old friends from melbourne welcome that you don't really run into on campus. i guess that is another big difference here compared to GW. at GW, i can count on running into at least 3 or 4 people i know at any point walking outside throughout the course of the day, but here...you're lucky if you run into 1 person despite being on campus for 6 hours. i definitely think that is when you begin to feel the 40,000 people of the school. you always see new faces. ALWAYS.

some more interesting differences between the states and aussie land is that australia is behind in terms of TV and movies. they are just finishing season 3 of greys and lost to get the jist of the difference...but it is the same for most of their shows such as House and Law & Order: SVU. oh yea, and we have 5 channels. 5. its awesome...but thats cable here. you dont really find many places with much more than that. but the good thing is that among those 5 channels...my favorite shows are included such as greys, house, and Law & order:SVU and CSI. im praying that Traveler and Brothers & Sisters come here so hopefully God will answer that one. yes, and movies...pretty behind. oh, dont worry..the big ones come out on time...or at least Harry Potter and The Simpsons did but Live Free or Die Hard has yet to come out and Hairspray doesn't come out until october...so freetvonline.com has become our best friend. and one complaint about "the man" is the whole zoning system on DVD's. look it up. i'm too lazy to explain it...haha.

so, this weekend looks to be promising. we're going to puggs tonight which should be a lot of fun because MUSEX! (Melbourne Uni Student Exchange) is sponsoring the night so everyone from melbourne welcome should be there...im excited. tomorrow, we're going on another field trip...to where has yet to be determined but I made a huge list of things to do in melbourne (im a loser, i know) so we have numerous things to chose from. its supposed to rain on saturday, so we're 85% sure that we're going to go to the aquarium. for real this time. oh and SUNDAY, i think im going to a rugby game! at olympic park! woohoo! i know, be jealous. envy me. you should...but yes, i love this place and im having the time of my life (despite the actual work that I am doing for uni). until next time...cheers mate!


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