i suck at blogging...

although I really want to all of the time. There are a few barriers that make blogging difficult for me.

1. I have no internet at my house, so I have to blog at the school or some lame-o internet cafe.

2. I have another blog () that takes priority over my personal blog because it is for a school organisation. So when presented with the lovely gift of internet, its like I have to choose one or the other, and of course I have to go with school.

3. That is all.

But anyways, enough of this talk about how I can't blog.

Last week I went to Sydney. Yeah, Sydney. Home of the 2000 something summer Olympics and the symbolic Opera House. And home to the Harbour Bridge, which in my opinion only is popular because it is right next to the Opera House, and it's big. I mean what is so good about a bridge anyways. Ooo0oOo0o Ahhhhh. That sure is a nice bridge. I mean the architecure on that thing is... Who cares...?

Luckily we had some friends back home from APU that were also studying in Australia that decided to study in Sydney. First off, I would like to give them my sincerest apologies to both Harrison and Michele (with one L) for choosing Sydney over the Gold Coast. Just kidding, Sydney is nice for what it is...I guess. Ha.

No, Sydney is great! I just wouldn't want to be there for four, or five, months. For a few reasons (lets start the numbers again!)

1. Sydney is 45 minutes from a beach, at it's closest.

2. Sydney is cold. 20 degrees Celsius on a nice day. What is the Fahrenheit? Look it up if you can't translate it yourself...you lazy and narrow minded American.

3. Sydney is the city. The city is the city, whether it be in New Zealand, Australia or America.

4. Sydney has sharks!

5. Sydney is fast paced. Everyone walks fast, and does everything else fast. Ew.

6. That's all I can think of now.

Will all that Sydney hating going on, if any of you wanted to go to Sydney you would have a great time. I had an amazing time for my week there, which was only supposed to be four days, but turned into a week. And that is a whole thing.

So let us begin our adventures. Starting with...Manly Bay.
Manly Bay is just across the bay from the world famous Bondi Beach, which houses surf competitions, great waves, mediocre weather, and probably the most crowded beach you will ever see.

But not on the day that we were there.


It's funny how we stumbled across Manly Bay. Jen and I were just going to walk around the city to get a feel for it our second night there and we ended up at the Opera House at night. It's beautiful. And while walking to the Opera House for a better view, we stumbled upon 2000 screaming 14 year old girls. Were the Jonas Brothers in town? No, that was so last week. It's the Biebs (Justin Bieber)! You know that 13 year old punk that Usher and J.T. fought over with endorsements whose lips are redder than a stop sign and whose voice is higher than my baby niece? Yeah him. I love that kid. He cracks me up...when I see him on T.V. Anyways, we asked some little spastic girl when he was performing and she told us in like 6 house at like 7:30 am on SUNRISE! Which is like GOOD MORNING AMERICA. O0o0oOo0o! So we decided to camp out. I was a little stoaked to be honest since he is like so damn popular recently. But then thanks to the 2000 more girls taht came after the 2000 or so first girls who camped the night over, some 10 girls got like trampled and ended up going to the hospital. So they had to cancel the events. So great. What do we do now. Its like 4:30 in the morning and we are like a two hour walk away from the house. Uhhh. Stay up and watch the Opera House sunrise! Yeahh. Got some cool pictures. And after the cool pictures we were near the wharf anyways. So we went to go check out the ferries that may be leaving anytime hear 6am in the morning. Sure, enough, Manly Bay! I didn't really know what Manly Bay was but I heard it was someplace cool.

Keep in mind, we have not slept all night and we are now about to hit another adventure to Manly Bay after staying up in like 13 degree Celsius weather, which all of you should know how cold is after looking up 20 degrees...right?

So we jumped on the ferry, and my wallet was a little bit lighter. Lucky me. Turns our Manly is some crackin' place at 7:30 am with EPIC waves. It was like the coolest little town I have been to. We got some awesome bacon and eggs to recharge from the extremely long night and saw all this...


Look RIGHT instead of left...niftyy!


Not the most epic set, but hundreds of surfers!


Bacon and eggs never tasted so good!


Do these seagulls look familiar?


"MINE! MINE! MINE!" (Nemo!)


The main shopping street area



Nice cliff views!


Needless to say, if you want to travel anywhere 45 minutes out of Sydney, you will find some nice views and beachy cities. That is what I personally look for in Australia. But there is a reason that I went to Sydney despite all my bagging. What is going to Australia without experiencing what all the talk is about in Sydney. I mean I can't go to Australia for four months and then miss out on Sydney. Right? Well I didn't and in our experience, Manly was a mission but it was well worth it. We painted pottery at a place like Color Me Mine! and ate at a bunch of cool places, with some awesome shopping and amazing coastal walks. Manly was a great day and an unexpected treasure of Sydney. I'll fill you in on the rest of our AMAZING Sydney trip later since this blog is getting a little too long. Check back in a week. :)

oh the monthy blog...

I guess all of my ever so loyal followers are wondering where my blogs posts have gone. I guess I am just a normal first time blogger. You know the kind of person that gets a blog and for the first month blogs 3-4 times a week out of pure excitement. Then the next month drops to 2 times a week, which is still great might I add. And then by the third month it’s one time a week. Now I am in my fourth month and it’s no times a week. But that is the world of blogging. Sort of like a journal. I flipped through it and I have a month and a half gap in it after loyally writing in it nearly 6 times a week. But now I like to tell myself I am back on track after writing it in two times a week for the past two weeks. In pink pen might I add.

But here is the reason I don’t feel the urge to blog. It is because after living on a new continent for 3 months, I am settled in. I do what I do. I wake up in the morning, either walk down to Miami or just take a few steps outside my doorstep to Burleigh for a nice little surf session. Come back, sit down and watch the travel and living channel as I eat my ever so creative breakfasts. It’s our favourite channel. Andrew Zimmerman with his bizarre foods, Kat Von D with her Tattoo’s , Ami from Miami Ink with his, that hilarious alcoholic guys name of the travel channel or maybe food network that experiences all the cultures, or some horribly produced Australian shows that I can’t take my eyes off of. Hit up school for a bit and then come back home and have a beer, or two, or three, or...ha.

And yeah, the beaches here are unreal. Beautiful would be an understatement. Perfection would almost suffice, but not quite. They got the perfect waves for the long boarders at Crrrrumbin where you don’t even want to ride the whole thing because the paddle back won’t be happening, to the host of the Quicksilver Pro Tour at Coolangatta, the second biggest surf competition in Australia, all within a 25 minute bus ride of me. And those are just the waves. Then we can talk about the most epic sunsets, even though it sets over the hinterland on the east coast, the sky turns literally hot pink, orangy orange, and royal purple on a daily basis. It just depends on where the best view is to see it. Or the squeaky fine white sand which Hawaii rivals. No joke. I could walk in it all day just to be amused by the noise it makes. The shells. The palm trees. The people.

This is normal now. No one likes to blog about normal, but when i think about it, maybe I should. Because my normal is different than your normal, and his normal is different than her normal.

So how about errbody scopes some pictures on the past month all around the Gold Coast.


St. Parties Day. Got Green?


Well of course we have to go to an Irish Pub and drink Guinness...duh. Oh and we won the free hats :)


Jens sister comes down and we go out. Karaoke.


You just got Summer'd


Karaoke...


Even on the cloudy days Burleigh is bonita.


Molly's sisters come down and we play mushroom. The biggest mushroom ever. It took 2 decks of cards.


Since Scott and Jamie always want the no pants party, we compromised with no shirts.


New roommate for Scott and Jamie. And a BUCKET PARTY!


Bucket parties make you dance on the fence.


Currumbin. Bonita.

Perfect sunset pic. Cliche.

once upon a time...

four APU students decided to study abroad in Australia. After a fun-filled first two weeks living in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, the fantastic four met some cool guys at the club. Little did they know they would be hanging out with them every other weekend, either in their hometown in Burleigh, or in Brizzy where the others lived. Their names were the “Egyptian Warrior Jamie”, “Architect Builder Scott”, and their new roommate the “VB drinking-bogan David.”

Their second trip to Brizzy to see their Aussie mates on the 20st of March was one to be remembered. Who knew? This time Jen’s sister who had been visiting for the week tagged along. The fantastic four, which now turned to five woke up early (10 am) to head on out. They took a quick bus to Robina Rail where they were going to transfer to a Brizzy airport train. The first time they went, the trip costed an amazing 15 or so bucks, which was a breakthough after their 28 dollar airport transfer from the Brizzy airport when they first came. But this time it costed only 5 dollars round trip after they got smarter and used their GoCards which allowed for a continuation fee.

Moving on, they made it to Jamie, Scott, and David’s house. When they got their they just relaxed for a couple hours as they had had some long nights before that in Surfer’s Paradise, but this night wasn’t planned to be short either as it was Alisha’s (Jen’s sister) last night in Australia. After making a quick beer run to FirstChoice (a “discount” liquor store) they were ready to play games. Little did the American’s know that Aussies don’t play games when they drink, they just drink. Lame. Alisha was jam packed with games, being a 23 year old, so we were saved. After playing a few games they decided it was time to go out. “The Fringe” was the bar/club of choice tonight. After a few hours dancing Matt and Jen decided to go exploring in the club.

Mistake numero uno. They walked up the stairs a few times without being stopped and continued to scope out the cool bar/club. They had pool takes, a balcony to look out on, and some lounge sofa on the second floor. Matt decided to use the restroom and when he walked back out Jen was being looked over by a security guard. Wondering what was going on, Matt walked over to check and see what was up with Jen and before both of them knew it they were being escorted out of the club.

After being booted out of the club, the only place to go was home. But they didn’t know where home was because they were in Brizzy. No phone, no address, and the only thing that they knew was that they 345 Aspley bus from Roma Street takes them home and that there is a Red Rooster across the street. So they walked down the street and ended up finding a wallet with 20 bucks in it, just enough for a cab ride to Roma Street where the main Transit Centre was and they could find the bus they needed. So they hailed a cab and told it to take them to Roma Street. It dropped them off their, just for them to find out that the Transit Centre isn’t open during the wee hours of the morning. So they just decided that they were going to take a little stroll around Brizzy to try to find a bus stop where the 345 will stop by. Jen was in heels so she had to take them off and walk around barefoot. With respect to Jen walking around barefoot, Matt did the same. The only thing that Jen wanted was to make it back in time to say goodbye to her sister who left at 5 in the morning.

1 hour later, Jen and Matt were officially completely lost in the middle of Brizzy with no reference point to anything. 2 hours later the same thing was happening, except they were double as lost. 3 hours later they were still lost and now Matt has glass in his foot and Jen had tears down her face. Finally accepting the fate that Jen wasn’t going to get to say goodbye to her sister they continued to trek on. 4 hours later of walking around, completely lost without any information as to where they were, they saw their first sign of hope. South Bank, Brisbane’s only man-made beach. So they retraced their steps back that Jamie took them on to Roma Street where they just decided to wait the rest of the night. They finally found Roma Street and were relieved to see something that they knew. It was now open for people to stay in, but they buses weren’t running for another hour and a half. They went to 7-11 to get some snack to hold them over and watched the dark night sky turn light blue as the sun rose around 5:45am.

They took turns taking five minute naps to make up for all the energy they lost during the night walking around and then played some games with the remaining coins from the 20 dollars Matt found earlier that night. Finally the bus came at 6:37 to Aspley and it was over. They got off the bus, opened the house with a key Scott gave Jen and heart Thriller by Michael Jackson being blasted at 7am. They were completely confused as they walked up to the steps to see Nanae and David drinking Red Bulls and talking. The four exchanged stories about how they were lost and they were looking for them and then Matt and Jen decided they are going straight home after the crazy night. They took the train back and knocked out until 7pm that day.

Just another day in the O-Z.

finally feeling...

like I've settled in completely. I got my rhythm down. Nothing really gets in the way anymore. And when something does change, it feels weird. I like it. The past weekend was definitely a good one. Ya Boy SHWAYZE came to town, in fact, came to our favourite nightclub in town and performed an hour long set, introducing a new song.
"Australian girl, I think I found you, I think I found you, Australian girl, I think I love you."
A funny part about concerts in Australia, if they are performing at a nightclub, is they don’t start until around 1am. Little do our American minds know this fact and we are like first over there at 9pm making sure we get in on time, first in line, rushing. When we get to the door, the fat security guard is standing there eating a Kebab, which are freakishly popular here, and nodding his head to our questions since he looks like Alvin and the chipmunks’ fat uncle with his cheeks stuffed. The way he ate that Kebab was if his 300 lbs hadn’t seen a meal in 3 days or something, even though I’m pretty sure I saw the wrapper of his first Kebab at his feet. Setting him aside, we decide to stall at McDonalds with a wonderful Big Mac Meal (our fav!), upsized to a medium for only 50 cents! Making it about the American equivalent of a kid’s meal... Yeah their portions suck over here, which doesn’t explain why Australia is also one of the more obese nations in the world. Especially with their naturally outdoorsy slash active culture. Like last night, I and Jen went out to Al Fresco’s Italian Restaurant, which I thought was Alfredo’s. I end up ordering the largest possible pizza I can order of the menu, and I finished the whole thing. I don’t even eat a lot. Australia needs to get a portion check on their meals.

Anyways, so after that sumo security guard sent us on our way and we ate at McDonalds, we had a full on 400 metre sprint race to the bus stop. No Joke. If you are a driver on the street, this is what you see...
Five happy 20 year olds (yeah I classified myself in that category) walking down the street looking back every few seconds for a bus to come. Then one of them sees one. Mind you all five of these young adults are dressed up in button up shirts and dresses slash heels, depending on their gender of course. Then it’s like a foot just stepped on the ant hill and it’s a mad 400 metre scatter to the nearest bus stop. All five of them break up, the girls ripping off their heels to run while the guys look like white Michael Jordan’s running down the court like it’s the final seconds of game seven of the NBA finals and the Bulls are down by 1 pt. And you think I’m kidding. Luckily our man Scotty wasn’t blessed with Australian running genes and somehow, as we all found out sometime in about the 10 seconds it took him to get to the bus stop, has some Kenyan in him too. It was a glorious moment as he stuck his hand out to flag down the completely packed bus with drunks and druggies loaded in it. The bus ride back was nothing special and we went back to relax for a few hours and then headed back out to the Shwayze concert. We were still able to get literally in the front row of the concert. I gave Cisco a high five and gave Shwayze...eye contact?

It was definitely one of the better nights here and I was singing along with every song. Just stoaked that Nana finally got to see Shwayze, after one failed attempt in San Diego, and I got to see him for my 4th time in Australia! The next day I ran into my marketing buddy, who I think is the female Australian version of me with her likes of Shwayze and Cisco and was telling her how awesome of a time I had in the front row and everything. Then I asked her, “Did you go???!”
Here was her response...

“Matt. Did I go??!? What do you think? You won’t believe this. I was sitting V.I.P. with Cisco and Shwayze the WHOLE night. I met them at Titanium Bar and Shwayze kept buying us shots of Patron. Cisco was IN LOVE with me and he held my hand as we walked from Titanium Bar to Sin City so they could play their set. You know that ‘Australian Girl’ song? Yeah he wrote that FOR ME. He was pointing at me the whole time he was singing it. I kissed him the whole night. He invited me back to his hotel room but I said no. I wasn’t going to be his groupie. He said he respects that.”

And I thought I had a good night...

Welcome to Australia ya’ll.

blog lag...

This morning was a perfect morning. But first let me acknowledge the fact that I haven't blogged in over a week. Maybe close to two. I don't know. But this will be a nice glaze over what happened the past week or two...

Every other Wednesday is great. All my roommates have class at 8 in the morning and I don't until 2 in the afternoon. I say every other Wednesday because the other Wednesday I have a bio lab at 9 in the morning. So today I woke up at 10:30, went to our porch-balcony thing to see the waves and decided that they were pretty perfect for my abilities. 3-5 ft, glassy conditions, peaking for nice rights and lefts even though I push for rights on every wave, and just a perfect day outside. So I threw on my boardies, grabbed my new Noddy 6'5 board shaped right in my hometown, the key, and walked 50 meters to the lovely beach. It was pretty chill, with just a few other surfers out there, and a douchy sponger who kept his distance. After a couple duck dives and nice timing to get out there i was rewarded with one of the better waves of my life. Super pumped i paddled back out and caught a few more. Surfed for an hour in the tropical warm, clear water and called it. Came back, cooked myself a delicious spam omelette and bacon, kind of reminded myself of Hawaii. SPAM. Opened up a note my girlfriend left me this morning, turned on some Olympics and saw Australia get their butts handed to them in the snowboard-cross. Jumped in the shower and headed off just in time to catch the bus and was on my way to school. That’s all i want to do every morning. Pretty simple, relaxed, and chill. Usually Wednesdays are the days that 2204 doesn’t like but i redefined that.

Anyways, to review the past week. Byron Bay, Jupiters Casino, and Valentines Day. Not necessarily in that order, but who cares. Molly’s dad surprised her last weekend by coming to Australia. Nice suprise huh? So of course the roommates milk this surprise for everything it’s worth, which resulted in a free trip to Byron Bay. Byron Bay is in a different state, which i have already been to might i add: New South Wales. The home of Sydney. If you thought that Cooly was beautiful, Byron Bay would knock your socks off? Not really, but i’d say it may have been a level up from Cooly. It was just pure beauty. We went to a lighthouse that stuck out of the bay and had epic surfing on each side of it. There really isn’t much to say about it besides the fact that i could sit there all day and just be completely satisfied basking in the sun and taking in everything around me.

Next was Jupiters Casino. This was something that we waited too long to do. I swear every other Bond student has been there at least once a week and we were just getting out first stab at it. Got all spiffy and headed out with thirty bucks in my pocket, assuming that things could get pretty out of hand over there. It was nice going in to. It felt like a little taste of Vegas, except i was able to participate in any part of it that i wanted to. Jumped on some slot machines, hit up the bar, wanted to try my hand at black jack but probably made a better decision and didn’t. Next time. Came out minus 30 bucks, but only at the price of a few drinks and an hour plus’ fun gambling. It was a classy night.

For Valentines Day i kept it pretty simple, simply because i am not impressed by whoever’s stupid idea it was to create it. I’m not a fan. But since it is Valentines Day, if i don’t do anything i’ll definitely hear it. So i did. Made reservations at Jen’s and my favourite Thai place, Chaingmai Thai i think it is called. I made reservations to sit outside in the lit up seating, but when i went over there to check on my reservation, i wasn’t down. So we settled for a seat indoors, which was still nice. Bought the Jacob’s Creek Three Vines Semillon Sauvignon Blanc wine that we had the night i asked her out and had a romantic candle lit dinner. Duh. It was simple, relaxed, and chill just how it should be.

So to say the least we have had a pretty chill week here. This week shouldn’t be the same though. Tomorrow we are going to Don’s Tavern at Bond at night, something special is supposed to be going down. Friday, hopefully we hit up Broadbeach since i just met this guy who said he can get us into this $20 club for free. Saturday Jamie and Scotty should be coming down from Brisbane. And Sunday ya boy SHWAYZE and CISCO are coming to Surfers Paradise.

“While you hatin’ I’m livin’ it up. I-I-I-I’m livin’ it up.”
Peace.


P.S. Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure we jacked a street sign and a Nando's chicken. Deckin' the apartment out!

good day...

So Thursdays are the beginning of my weekends if y'all don't already know that. So here's how today went. Woke up at 12:30 pm, Nanae was at McDonald's using their internet, Molly is at Bond studying and doing a group project. Jen is at the apartment with me and we don't have anything to do, so we did an intense cleaning. Mopped the floors, did the dishes, cleaned all the trash and took it out, reorganized the living area, and everything else we could have possibly done. So we are all done cleaning and we decide that we want to do SOMETHING. Why not hop on a bus to Coolangatta, this place I've heard rumors about, but nothing special so why not. Here's how it went...


oh the plumerias...


random wild animal park place...


the best australian lollies...


cooly...


typical australia, right when you want a smoothie of course...


just our lovely home...


pure bliss...


they call it the "mile-long ride"...literally...


nandos. duh...


all day...


"gnar gnar"...


bragging rights...


two states in one day? why not...


sunset with the lady...


So the next day, yesterday, we went to Cooly again, because I just can't see waves like that and not ride them. Before we went we picked up a cool $180 short board shaped in Burleigh, so it has a special place in my heart. Booked it over to Cooly and paddled out. I ripped a bit on the short board, but definitely ate water
more than ripped it. Took out the Na Papa long board and rode a "mile-long ride" for real. I took the wave from the top of the bay to the bottom, and rode it for about a minute and a half, dropping in at like 3 different breaks on the same wave. For some reason I see a lot of Australia in my future.

free free free...

Yes it is true. Room 2204 has been blessed by some sort of higher power. This doesn't just happen to anybody. Especially with the prices of normal alcohol over here. If I can find a case (4 x 6 packs) of full strength, acceptable beer for less than 35 dollars, it's a miracle. While me, Jen and Molly were spending the weekend in Brisbane, we got a call from my roommate, screaming.

"GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR I FOUND A 30 PACK OF VB BEER, A 6 PACK OF EXTRA DRY, AND FOUR BOTTLES OF HARD LIQUOR!"

Amazing? The bottles of liquor weren't full, but there was some in there and the beer was at least 60 dollars worth. What did we do to deserve this treatment? I don’t know any of the answers to these questions but I have an idea. Assuming it’s one of our neighbors, possibly one that I may have talked to in the hour that I was locked out of my own apartment the other day, or one that one of my friends talked to when we had a bunch of people over for Australia day. Whatever or whoever it was, thank you.
We seem to be quite well at finding ourselves in these good weird situations that somehow fall upon us, in a way. Such as the random bloke that was staring at me every day from across our little pad in Surfers and follows us to the beach. Kind of creepy but I gave him a chance. He ends up being a super nice guy and drives me and all of our luggage (which is a lot when you live with three girls), to our new home in Burleigh. I couldn’t imagine carrying all of our crap on the bus with us.
Or maybe the time that we met a dude at the club, whose number we ended up getting, who just happens to want to continue his talks with us and ends up offering us a place to stay in Brisbane for the weekend. Which is what we ended up doing this weekend. We took a train from the Gold Coast to Brisbane Friday night with our desination being Scotty’s house. He is a 26 year old architect that is currently working on building a Supreme Court in the middle of Brisbane. Hmmm. When we get there, he picks us up, drives us to his house and starts cooking spaghetti with meat sauce for us. Wow. Busts out two bottles of wine and tells us to help ourselves. Introduces us to his roommates, one whom we already know (oh Andy…) and his third one (Jamie) who just happens to be the Australian version of me. Chilled there all night, played Guitar Hero World Tour and knocked out. Wake up Saturday morning and Scott is at work. So Jamie asks us what we are doing today.
“Nothing…”
He ends up taking us into town, in the middle of Brisbane and shows us around Queen Street, which is the crackin’ street in Brisbane. Also introduces us to this wonderful chicken place called Nando’s. Best chicken ever ya’ll. Some Portuguese style with amazing sauces and bomb chips. We bought him his meal because they are all being just too nice to us so he offers to get us waters. Sure. Comes back with four water bottles, which run for about three bucks a piece over here. We just can’t win in trying to show our thanks to these Aussies. Then after shopping and just kickin’ it in town, we decide to go see a movie. Now this was a real experience. First off, Jamie buys our tickets. 55 bucks... Then the ticket lady asks where we want to sit. When you go to a movie over here you choose your assigned seat. It was exciting. We saw Sherlock Holmes and chose smack dab center seats in the middle of the theatre. I don’t quite understand why we were able to get these awesome seats, or why other people don’t choose them first, but to us oblivious Americans it was definitely a win.
When we get back there is a party going on back at their three story house for Andy who just happens to be moving to Melbourne tomorrow to work. End up socializing with like 20 other Australians who are always intrigued by the pathetic American culture. Most of these people were like 25-30 years old so I felt a bit sophisticated to say the least :)
After the party we end up going out to the club in downtown Brisbane with Jamie, Lian, and Scotty. Of course Jamie buys our cab ride over there and the club is free. He also buys us a round of Jelly Donuts. Ever had one of those? No? Google it. They are amazing. Dance for a few hours up over there and then come back, with Jamie buying the cab ride, once again. Wake up the next morning, take the train back home and I would say there is a micro hurricane going on in the middle of summer. Wow. Go buy some steaks. Jump on the roof and throw ‘em on the barbie. Ever grilled in the rain in the middle of a storm on the roof of a 11 story building? Didn’t think so. It’s definitely an interesting experience. Bring ‘em back into the room and eat a lovely dinner once again. Talk about a good weekend.