10 Weird things about Aussie Land, Part 2

1) Take-away food not Take-out
2) Cheese Toastie instead of Grilled Cheese, it's like that in UK too
3) I'm pretty sure "doggy bag" is never used
4) Beers come in sizes: middy, schooner, pint, jug
5) A B C D E F G "Haych" I J K....
6) jacket for anything that has a zipper and jumper for anything that's warm
7) dodgy, where McGill uses "sketchy" or "ghetto"
8) "tea" can mean anything from just tea, to dinner, or even going out for drinks
9) Aussie foods include: lamingtons, damper, anzac biscuits, pavlova, anything with macadamias 10) biscuits mean cookies, but say "bickies" instead

Australian Race Day

Australian Race Day is April 7th, which means that the Royal Randwick Racecourse will be swarming with race horses and fancy dressed ladies in a week and a half from now. I've seen advertisements for it: it's like from the movie My Fair Lady, where the men wear neutral coloured suits and the women wear elegant, fancy dresses with stupendous hats. Definitely not an event I have something to wear to. It would be quite amazing to see actually, and I can't wait to take a peak when that day comes.

Horseracing or racing in general is pretty popular around here. I get the see the racecourse every morning and every night, to and from school. Since the big race is in less than 2 weeks, practice is needed for the horses/jockeys. If you wake up early enough, say around 7h30, like when I was going to school for my monday class at 8 am, I saw lots of jockeys and their beautiful horses practising, running around the track. Of course, from where I live, it's not the best view around and the horses are probably the size of bees when I look at them from here, but all the same it's an awesome sight.

It may be because my sister, Audrey, loves horses. I grew up with her around, and my parents and I were trained by her to spot every horse that crosses our life paths. I indeed had to take a picture of the horse-crossing sign near uni, and of the policemen on horseback in The Rocks. It's just something I do automatically without thinking, just like a dog automatically barks to the door when he needs to take a leak. Trained! But I am not mad at this at all. Seeing the horses run made me feel a sort of happiness of freedom... it's not that easy to explain a feeling, but it was definitely good. The kind of feeling maybe, that you'd feel in a large field in the sun and with a warm wind blowing in your hair, a sort of euphoria.

I honestly wasn't prepared to find myself in such a state of happiness as I watched the horses gallop along the racecourse, not incredibly fast, but with a good pace, getting a feel for the track. I do say thanks to Audrey, because I don't think I'd have been so happy to see horses.

But it's not just that... I guess seeing horses, and not being able to point them out as usual to her, isn't normal. Sometimes, I do think about home, but not so much in a missing sense, but of a pride sense. Because I love my family, and I do want to share certain things with them. But the fact that I can experience these joys, regardless of if my family is with me, still makes me feel incredibly lucky and happy. I love Australia!

My CanaDad visits Sydney!

G'Day

Hmm i know I haven't updated in a while. Sorry, I've just been busy, you know, having the best time of my life!

So MAME (McGill Association of Mechanical Engineering) has elected a new committee, including me! Woo hoo! I'm so glad. Tanya helped me out a lot so thanks!!! Here's what she reported:

MAME student council 2007-08:
President: Derek
VP Internal: ME!!!
VP External: Eddy
VP Communications: Marco
VP Finance: Tanya
VP Academic: Catherine
U4 rep: Julia
U3 rep: ?
U2 rep: ?

Awesome!!! That means I get to organize Mech wine and cheese and Mech Banquet! Hey, actually friday was Mech Banquet this year! I'm really excited to see pictures. I already saw some pics from Volunteer Banquet, but to be quite honest, it didn't look like THAT much fun. Of course, it's because Cat and I weren't there! haha.

Speaking of photos, I updated lots of my albums on http://karensb.myphotoalbum.com so check it out as soon as you can! Updates include:

new albums:
-Melbourne
-CanaDad visits
-Bondi and the Coastal walk
-Other Contiki people's Contiki Pictures

updates:
- in and around Fiji
-out and about in Sydney
- living in sydney
- what we did when catherine came to sydney

So on thursday, there was the MechEng pub crawl, which is actually like our (mcgill eng-type) bar tours, but with less people than at frosh. its about 5 bars and spend an hour or so at each. I really wanted to go, because I should really make some friends in Mech, but I also had my roomate's, Bo, birthday celebration dinner. She's 25 but she says 15... She's actually very immature sometimes, in a good way. And other times she looks totally innocent, and unexpectedly says something completely opposite to innocent, very wild: Shocking! hehe, yup she's awesome, so I had to attend. We had rice paper rolls (real vietnamese spring rolls) nobody is vietnamese though.

Hey, come to think of it, I never really told you who my roommates were! So there's Bo, 25 y old, doing Law, Korean, studied undergrad at canberra i think???unless that's Li....???, went on exchange to China. Second, there's Nitya: i don't know how old but her bday is next week (24 maybe?) , I think she's doing a postgrad degree in creative writing. She's from India and is vegetarian. Next, we have Li, chinese girl, very cute and sweet. Her bday is in May, I don't know how old she is though, and I don't know what she studies. maybe she's the one from canberra. Li loves meat :) And lastly we have Judy, chinese, has a bf. Bday in July (the 3rd) and i don't know what she studies... I don't really know her because most of the time she's not home, or in her room with the door shut, and kind of reserved too. But all my roomates are really nice. I get along the best with Nitya and Bo. :)

So then after that, Joelle and I joined the Mech pub crawl. Actually I joined up with them at the beginning , around 4h30pm, just so I could get the info and get the main guy's number (very good looking mech eng student, but taken) I had a couple of beers with them before heading to Bo's bday dinner. So when we met up with them later, around 10h30 pm, there were lots of guys. I suppose that's mech for you! well there were some girls but they were not mech. I'm pretty sure I was the only mech girl there. We went to Bar Ace, they have 3$ drinks until 11pm, but quickly went to Scruffy Murphys. The guys were really drunk, and one dropped a glass so they got kicked out. Scruffy Murphy's is an irish pub. It reminded Joelle a lot of Hurley's in Montreal, and it kind of reminded me also, and a bit of McKibbon's too, but so not as awesome as McKibbins lol! It had a band playing on the main level, then downstairs there was a dance floor with radio-type music. Actually a lot of my favorite tunes... I enjoyed the music a lot, but it took me a while to start dancing, because I was shy in front of all those guys, especially since one of them was constantly monitoring my dancing levels... kind of creepy actually. He was weird. Fun night!

Friday was a packed day! Joelle and I went shopping at Bondi Junction, then we went to Bondi ("Bond-eye") beach. We were supposed to meet up with these guys Matt and Luke, but they probably just went surfing on their own, since they didn't call and didn't pick up the phone. Anyways, we left the beach around 5h30 and decided to walk to Coogee ("Could-gee")along the Coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. It's about a 2 hour walk, but it was lovely. New pictures on myphotoalbum.com

Then I had a Tim Tam party with her, eating Tim Tams, for a while. Then I went to see Jonas' new apartment. Got home pretty late, long day.

Jonas is swedish, also on exchange to UNSW for one semester, and he's teaching me some swedish!! haha i now know more than just "ikea" hahaha

I'm thinking of buying a UNSW hoodie. The one I like is about 55$, dark grey, says "UNSW University of New South Wales". Ideally, I'd like it to say, "UNSW University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia", but none of them say that :/ I think I'll get it.

So on friday night, actually saturday morning, I spoke on msn with a couple of friends for a while, including erik. It was fun talking to him, I kind of miss him! Anyways, we talked until very late (early) then he got Skype and that was a lot of fun!! hehe Skype is definitely a good idea. I already called the Mals via Skype.

I went to bed sooooo lateeeee!!!!! and in consequence I slept until noon, though my dad came to sydney around 8 am. I didn't even realize he messaged me! I finally got up out of bed and met up with him. We went to lunch in the Rocks area, after a nice walk around there. We ate at some german place. It was pretty good. It's weird not to tip in a restaurant. I had a sort of german pizza and a raspberry smoothie, and my dad had a german breakfast and a beer. After that, we wanted to go to the zoo, but it was already pretty late, so instead we went on a harbour cruise, which included coffee and cake. It was very nice. Then we went back to the hotel. He's staying at the Radisson in the city - it's so nice there! It's really central (on Pitt near Martin Place)/. There's a pool and a spa and Joelle and I are going to go take advantage of the situation at some point in time! hahaha We had supper at an italian restaurant called Casa di Nico in Darling Harbour. yummy, but expensive!!

Hej då
that's swedish for bye

Little weird things, so different

See #5

1) most students I've met at UNSW are doing a double degree.
2) It's "Mr. Sheen" here, as opposed to our "Mr. Clean" cleaning product
3) Hungry Jacks is a fast food place with the same symbol as Burger King
4) Thickshake describes Milkshakes/smoothies
5) They have canned or bottled rum and coke, bourbon and coke, whiskey and coke, vodka and coke. Everywhere.
6) They spell it "tyre" those things on a car
7) a car has a bonnet and a boot, in Canada it's the hood and the trunk
8) everything is abbreviated to something ending with a "ie" sound "surfie" even though it's the same number as letters as "surfer"
9) Slice... that's cake in a pan, cut into squares. it's not slice of... just slice.
10) rhetorical questions followed by an answer containing "heaps". e.g.:
Aussie 1: How good is this slice!?!
Aussie 2: Heaps good!!
11) I heard a guy say "skooers" for skewers
12) this is not really related, but I also heard people talk about "impotency". it's impotence.
13) Ok something that really bugs me: there are elections next weekend, so there are loads of campaigns, not to vote for someone, but AGAINST!?! What the? that's so not the point of elections!!!
14) saying "ta" or "cheers" instead of thank you. Maybe I should start saying that...

Melb'n

This picture: Phillip Island Seal Rock at sunset

I just got back 2 hours ago from Melbourne. It was an overnight bus and I hardly got any sleep done.Maybe 3 hours out of 11? We got back around 6h30 am and I figured I should go to my 8 am class since I was awake anyways. I was passing out in class from being so tired so I had to get myself a coffee just to wake me up. at the coffee place during our class break, I met this guy (named Andrew) from Sydney, in Aerospace eng, he was kind of cute, but more importantly, when I told him my name he said, " I heard about you" then when I gave him a curious look as to how, he said something along the lines of "well, not a lot of girls in this class, so you get noticed pretty quickly" :) ahh that's cool, nice to know I've been noticed by some cute aussies in mech :)

I just faxed McGill with my classes, hopefully I'm going to get all my transfer credits. I wonder when I'll know!

Melbourne was awesome. Oh the Friday, we had this tiny tram tour of the city, which was cool but wasn't long, then Cath and I went on a Day trip to Phillip Island. We stopped at a winery on the way and had some wine tasting. I didn't really like them that much - I'm a bit picky - but the port wine was good. After that I had a bit of a buzz to that was fun :) Then we went to a petting zoo place (i think it was called Maru) where we touched a wombat, fed kangaroos, taught a sort of parrot to say "hello" (we like to think it didn't know it beforehand) and saw a bunch of other animals like koalas, Tasmanian devils, emu, wallabys, alpacas, a croc, etc. Lots of fun. Then off to Phillip island where we saw the penguin parade. they were a lot smaller than i expected, but also so much closer! they walked all the way up to the tourist center and we saw them so close to us! Too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures.

On Saturday, we had a day trip to the Great Ocean Road. the weather was amazing and the views too! wow. Soon I'll put my pics up! That was st patty's day so at night Cath and I and a few of her girlfriends we out and drank a lot but i had so much fun

On Sunday, I woke up at noon, hungover. Oh I slept at Cath's place. We went shopping around the city. It's really nice. Trams are cool. I like the little alleyways and the cafes and the sushi. Bought a shirt and some shorts. Fun! That day was the F1 but even though I would have liked to go, I chose to spend the day with Cath. later, at the hostel, with our group, we had a BBQ on the roof (yummy) then it was off to Sydney.

My dad is coming to Sydney this weekend from the 24th to the 29th, because he's actually working in Dubai for a bit and he's made his way back home to pass through Australia. I was actually planning on going to Hunter Valley on the 24th for the day. it's a winery just outside of Sydney. I want to go, and my dad says I should since he'll have been on an overnight plane from Dubai and he'll want to rest that day, but I don't know if I should. Ideally he'd come with me. I'll have to check if there are trips on other weekends.

I booked my plane ticket to Tasmania during easter break. Land in Launceston and leave from Hobart. I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do there. Cath said she booked the tasmania trip at melbourne during the week off right before exams, and she said for 4 days its less than 400$, but I can't find any trips for that cheap. I'm in Tasmania for 1 week. I kind of want to go to Cradle mountain and Wineglass bay, they seem really nice. I'm going with Cyrus (he's in mech, on exchange to U of Sydney) but we haven't really talked about it much. he's going to melbourne first and i dont even know when he's getting to tasmania, but he'll arrive at devonport from an overnight ferry.

Some of Johnny Talks Contiki pics

Photoshopped picture of the Contiki Group that Johnny Talks made including Eva, Crystal, Michelle and Heather.But what about Benny?? Oh and it says Antonietta but its Antoinetta.
Here without everyone's name.
The picture of all the guys.. Awww
Claire, John, Sandy at Mrs Macquarie's Chair
John and Stuart

Aww I miss these people! One of the best trips on my life!!

Life Update that I just sent to everybody and his monkey

Hi all

How ya goin'? ...as they say here all the time. My roomie once replied "...well... by bus..." but this actually means "how's in going?" in Canadian.

Two weekends ago, Catherine came to Melbourne for the weekend. I already put some photos up on my photoalbum website (http://karensb.myphotoalbum.com) for you to check out. It was a really fun time. A main activity on the weekend was the Mardi Gras parade on March 3rd. It's supposedly the biggest Gay Pride parade in the world and someone told me it's the second most anticipated parade after the one in Rio. It was indeed spectacular and really entertaining, but I wouldnt see it twice. Rio does seem like the kind of parade you'd see again. My friend Joelle and a couple of her friends were actually in the parade (for the Green party - elections are comming up in a week or two). There were choreographed dancing and songs and mini shows. There were also fireworks during 2 intervals. We got a lot of free things, well mostly candy actually.

The parade happened on Oxford street. This street is really long and has a lot of restaurants, clubs, bars, shops, specialty stores. A lot of shops and things on that street give off a gay pride feel every day. The busses that take us to "the City" ( you can't say "downtown" without getting a funny look) go along Oxford street so we get to see a lot of the crazy named stores in that area.

The next day, there was a lot of indecision going on about what we should do, but eventually, we just decided to go to Bondi beach. It's a really crowded beach and I think one of the landmarks in Sydney that tourists just have to go see. A lot of locals don't really like going to Bondi because of its tourist-filled atmosphere, but really, it's exciting to see how many different cultures all come together in one area. As you sit on the beach, you hear several different languages around you, or at least different accents. It's a really nice spot. It started to drizzle a little bit around sunset, and a lot of people left the beach. Bondi, as you can see on postcards or from the two times I've been there, is always crowded. At this time, still some people remained on the beach, but it seemed very deserted. A rare event!

On the friday before, we went on a little bar tour of the area called The Rocks. Well, sure it was a tour to experience the different bars to drink or party at but it was a fun way to discover the area. Oh there was this place that offered a sort of beer, called Beez Weez or something very similar. It tasted really like honey. Yummy actually. So yes, the Rocks. It's the first area of Sydney, I think, so most of the buildings in that area date back to the 1800s. It's a really nice area, when you think about architecture and streets. Actually Catherine and I spent our day around there for Australia Day (January 26th). It's the area where the Harbour Bridge (called the "coathanger" for locals) begins. I have yet to go walk across the bridge.

I have a long list of things I want to do in Sydney. I have the guidebook for Sydney that Catherine bought me for Xmas, which is really good, and one that I picked up for free at the airport, and they both name so many places, it's really hard to find time to go to all of them. I've already gone to a couple of the places so far, so that's good. Well, Cath and I did a lot of tourist trap visiting during our week here in January (Opera House, Aquarium, Wildlife World (this is like the Montreal Biodome), The Rocks, a harbour cruise during Australia Day, Circular Quay, Kings Cross neighborhood - although dodgy at night, etc). But suprisingly enough, I've been to more than double that amount of places but I still feel like I've barely visited anything.

I've been doing a lot of fun things lately So I've been keeping busy. I've been going to parties and meeting new people and going new places. I went to Manly beach last saturday. It's in the North shore of Sydney, and really beautiful. My friend and I got there around 4 pm so we were there quite late, and the ferry ride (20 minutes) was nice. We walked up and down the beach, with a secondary purpose of findinf our friends. That night, we ended up having a barbie (BBQ) at a little beach beside Manly beach called Shelley beach. It was very nice there. We had good food and had lots of fun. Most people there were swedish (I'd say 12 out of 18) so hard to understand sometimes (I'm actually learning some - I can count to ten and say some basic words, but with an incorrect accent). After, a guy who is in one of my classes was having a house party at his place in Manly. We went there for a bit. It was super roomy and had an amazing view of Manly beach. However, travelling to uni (that's what they say when talking about university) takes 1h30. I had to leave to catch the last ferry home. Almost missed it but no, I caught it on time!

On Sunday, the International Student Services (ISS for short) organized a picnic at Centennial Park. That was a lot of fun. I made my yummy taco salad (big hit) and we played games like passing around an American Football (because Aussie footy is completely different), touch footy (which is actually touch rugby i think), lots of frisbee (i love frisbee), and then some board games (there's this one called Taboo where you're supposed to make the your team guess a word without saying some words listed that you'd think of instantly. For example the word is "birthday" but you're not allowed to say words like "born, cake, balloons, candles". It's a really fun game. Anyways I love board games). So I left around 4h30 and I was supposed to start studying for a quiz I had today, but I kind of wasted my time doing anything but studying, because it's a weird thought to have to study in Australia, but I eventually got around to it. The quiz went alright.

Now this weekend, I'm going to Melbourne!!!!!!! I've heard so many good things about Melbourne so I'm really excited! I know that Catherine loves it and I'm sure I will too! It's smaller than Sydney and supposedly the same size as Montreal and almost the same. Melbourne has trams (I was so excited when I saw a tram in Sydney, that runs along Hay street in Chinatown). I booked the trip with a company called www.colourfultrips.com that a couple of my friends are going on. However, they told me that the trip was booked. In fact, it's the accomodation that was full, but not the bus. So since I have a place to stay in Melbourne, that is, at Cath's place, I can stay there instead. So the trip costs 300 instead of 380 because I arranged my own accommodation! I leave on thursday night and arrive on Friday morning. Friday will be a penguin day trip to phillip Island (a must-see), but this is extra expenses. Then on Saturday is the Great Ocean Road, including the 12 apostles (actually there are only 9 left standing, 3 died). I'm really excited for that; it's included in the cost. Then on sunday is a free day, where actually there is the Formula One going on. So that means the city will be buzzing just as Montreal does when it's the Grand Prix. I won't go to the show, but I'm sure I'll hear it, just like we do back home in Nuns Island. I hope this it is okay for me to go, I charged it on the credit card. I'm very, very excited!!

So that's it for now, I hope you enjoyed my long email.

Cheers! (another Aussie common saying)

Karen

PS I'm also considering the purchase of a new camera complete with flash...

Contiki memories

JOHN WILLIAMS - Home Among The Gum Trees

I've been around the world a couple of times or maybe more
I've seen the sights I've had delights, on every foreign shore
But when me mates all ask me the place that I adore
I tell them right away

Give me a home amongst the gum trees
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo
A clothes line out the back, verandah out the front,
and a old rocking chair.

You can see me in the kitchen cooking up a roast
or Vegemite on toast, just you and me, a cup of tea,
And later on we'll settle down and mull up on the porch,
and watch the possums play.

Give me a home among the gum trees
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo,
a clothes line out the back, verandah out the front
and an old rocking chair.

There's a Safeway up the corner,
and a Woolies up the street
a brand new place they've opened up where they regulate the heat
but I'd trade them all tomorrow for a simple bush retreat,
where the kookaburras call.

Give me a home among the gum trees
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo
a clothes line out the back, verandah out the front
and an old rocking chair

Some people like their houses with fences all around
others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground
But me, I like the bush, you know with rabbits running round,
and a pumpkin vine out the back

Give me a home among the gum trees,
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo
a clothes line out the back, verandah out the front
and an old rocking chair (Rpt chorus)


BEN LEE - Into the Dark

Feelin' Better Since I surrendered
You can't Climb'Till you're ready to fall
You're not a land mineYou're not a gold mine
No you're not mine at all

So tell me baby
Can you hear me?
I sent a message out into the dark
It's a mystery
When you're near me
I've gotta find my way to your heart

I learnt my lesson
First impressions
More often right than wrong
It's not a slow dance
This modern romance
Feels like we've already waited too long

Don't worry baby 'bout how it should be
I sent a message out into the dark
I'd rather talk to you
About how it could be
I've gotta find my way to your heart

Instrumental

I was one of those
Breathing tornadoes
But now I live at the eye of the storm
And it's all faded
Then since the separation
Since I let your love keep me warm

You tell me baby
That you can feel me
I sent a message out into the dark
When I kiss you
That's the real me
I've gotta find my way to your heart

So tell me baby
Can you hear me
I sent a message out into the dark
It's a mystery
When you're near me
I've gotta find my way to your heart
I've gotta find my way to your heart
I've gotta find my way to your heart

I'm sick

A post I never ended up posting... here it is. I'm still sick by the way. It's probably because coming from Canada, you expect warm weather, so you don't wear as much as locals, then it gets a bit cold and you're stuck without a coat. However, compared to local students, international students actually get to go home and change: we live closer. locals live somewhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours away. In the latter case, they drive to school. A lot of local students drive to school ... oops I mean "uni". And also the reason why I haven't met that many Aussies - they go home right after uni because they live so far away. So yes, here's the "I'm sick" post from last week. Oh sweet! it actually did post as March 6th (i'm writing this on March 13th).

After Narrabeen Lakes, on the monday after we came back, it was the first day of school. Since I was late for school that morning, because of an 8 am class, I just ran to school wearing just a t-shirt, a small skirt and flip flops. That day, though, it rained. So I had to walk home in that, and I was freezing. That's what I got for not waking up early, but also because I met this guy David in my Mech classes, plus my friends Lara, Teresa and Luis (Spain) told me to join the circus club. It was outside in the rain and I was sooo cold. I met a nice guy there though, Gary. Though now, I don't really remember him, since I haven't seen him since then. So when I walked my 20 minutes home then, it was rainy and windy = cold. However, it turns out it could have been worse because right after I got home, it started to really pour.

But after that, a few days later, I got a sore throat, and for the last week or so, I've been extremely stuffy. I have a stuffy or runny nose, it's also stuffy in my breathing pipe. I sneeze a lot and cough sometimes too (both dry and wet coughs). I was supposed to get rid of a cold when I left Montreal, but so much for that - I already have another cold!

Australian Mailing Address and Phone number

Karen Bailey
Unit 25/ 1 Cowper Street
Randwick
NSW 2031
Australia

Mobile Phone number:
Dialled internationally: +614 05 940 410
Dialled locally: 0405 940 410

Nutella = bad

Buying Nutella was definitely a bad idea. I can't stop eating it. It just tastes so much better in Australia. Maybe it's because I haven't had any for a very long time. It's true. Usually at home we finish the Nutella really quick, but I haven't had any in a while. Plus, we didn't get Ferrero Rocher chocolates this year at Christmas (I was disappointed). It's okay though, I had to give away my chocolates to friends/family anyways. Like Eli got a chocolate box from me because I wasn't going to eat it. She thought I actually got her a gift... nope! haha

So yeah I'm eating Nutella now. I had rice for supper (with butter and salt, yum) (I also had a late lunch; I'm not anorexic) so I needed a little something sweet. It's 10h30 pm now. I'm eating the Nutella out of the jar, using a chopstick, hoping it would let me eat less than usual, but that didnt really work because I still ate a lot.

Did I speak about milk yet? regular milk happens to be like the 3% kind. I find it really sweet. I have to buy "lite milk", which is either 1.2% or 2% depending on the brand. Then there's skim. I'm going to get milk.

Lates

Thou shalt not expect to find things as they are at home for thou hast left home to find things different.

March 1, 2007

Bats: They're everywhere. I went to Trop Fest 2 weeks ago and as the day turned to night, bats emerged and they were flying overheard in such a population that I've never seen before. Where I live, at Mulwaree Apartments, in the evening, you'll often see bats flying overhead; some big black creature that's bigger than a bird that makes you wonder what in the world it was. Well it's a bat. And they're everywhere. Bats own the city. Praise the Bat Lord. *giggle*

Pedestrians are Gods. No no no... Not at all like Montreal. If you're an Aussie going on Exchange to Montreal, well not only do you have to get used to looking left first instead of right, you also need to try not getting run over. When there's a pedestrian crossing, by law in a car, you HAVE to stop if there's a person waiting to cross. In Montreal, ok so downtown there isn't that many pedestrian crossings where there are no street lights or stop signs, but somewhere in a neighborhood where people live (like NDG or Nuns Island), drivers don't like to stop. They just keep on going and assume you'll cross when there's a lack of cars. If there are lots of cars going fast, all the cars will keep on going fast and keep driving because if you stop, you might get honked at or something. Seriously. In Montreal, pedestrians aren't really respected. Here, in Australia, and in a huge city like Sydney, drivers stop when there's a pedestrian trying to cross. Even sometimes when there isn't even a pedestrian crossing. They're just nicer here. Even when Montreal is 3.7 million people and Sydney is 4.2 million. When I hesitate before crossing here, I'm the one who's weird. Awesome!

Mardi Gras: this week. It's also Gay and Lesbian Pride festival going on for the last month or so. Mardi Gras Parade is HUGE in Sydney. Everyone gets a stop on a terrasse on Oxford Street and the parade starts at 7h30 pm. People get Mardi Gras costumes and stuff like that. Cat is coming this weekend and it's going to be awesome!!

Jeff told me to look at the night skies, see what kind of constellations there are. I've seen O'Rion complete with belt and sword (first time on Australia Day), but I really should look into what the other constellations are. You can really see them on some nights. The light pollution really isn't as bad as some places in Montreal. Anyways, I know that from my home here compared to back in Canada, I see more constellations here.

You know the song Love Don't Let Me Go? Well I really like it (the music video has awesome dance moves). Anyways, what I've noticed sooo many times in clubs here, when that song comes on, people are line dancing to it! That totally ruins it! How did they come up to make it a "country" opportunity?? Weird!

Nutella: Damn it, I gave in and now I can't stop eating it... Nutella is sooo good!!!