Mood:  happy

Today is Australia Day, for those of you that didn't know.

Australia Day is the day in which the Aussies celebrate their creation as a nation.  If you think of the American Independance Day, you are on the right track.

I've heard a few conflicting stories as to what is ACTUALLY being celebrated, though.  Wikipedia tells me that is celebrates the founding of the first colony in Sydney.  It was a penal colony established by England in response to not being able to send them to the Americas any longer (American Revolution stopped that practice).  They celebrated the first Australia Day twenty years later, mostly because they were still alive.

I've also heard that this day commemerates the date in which each of the Aussie States adopted the Aussie Constitution and became a Federation.  It celebrates the creation of Australia as an independant nation.  Personally, I think this one is true.

Kimberly, Jacoby, and I went to the kick-off of the celebration last night, which was a free concert at the Parlament House.  We heard, among other Aussie bands, the Basics, the Veronicas, and a few Country bands that were pretty good!  The best performance was by the Veronicas.  I'm not sure if they are played in the states ort not, but they are all over Aussie radio. 

The other big performer was Lee Kernaghan, who was also named Australian of the Year, due to his efforts at providing aid to the farmers hit hardest by the seven-year drought.  He is a country music singer sounding a lot like anything you would hear on WMZQ, back home.  I really enjoyed his music!

Today we have been invited to a couple of BBQs.  One is at our landlord's house.  The Hoebee's seem to be very nice people and wanted to make sure we had something to do on this important day.  Afterwards, we will go to Bryan and Hiedi's house for a get together in which several of the ACSC students were invited.  This one is sort of the "social ice breaker."

Tonight is fireworks.

Have a great day!

Posted by kisajaja at 7:07 AM CET

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Mood:  happy

Orientation week is over (even for the Aussies) and school has officially begun!  As of Friday, we have started on our first module, called Foundation Studies, in a unit called Critical Thinking and Communication. 

Our first paper was due on Friday, which was a 1,500 word essay on the major lessons learned in our career, our career aspirations (both near- and far-term), and our goals while attending the course.  The assignment was mostly to introduce ourselves to the school staff, but it was also the first chance that the staff had to evaluation our abilty to write.

This is pretty important, because the rules are significantly different between writing in the US and writing in Australia, particularly when dealing with military writing.  Not just the spelling, but also the grammer rules are different in several cases, and even the "structural rules" are different.  For example, the Aussies only put one space after a full-stop (period).  I find it difficult to write in a manner that I KNOW is wrong in my country in order not to lose points in theirs...

We also had an Introduction to Speed Reading class this week which I found interesting.   There is a more in-depth class coming up on the weekend that would be optional for me to take.  I think I'll let that one pass.  - Not that I don't need it, I just feel like an old dog trying to learn a new trick. 

Orientation week (most of last week) went well, and all of the Overseas Course Members (OCMs) mingled with the Aussies.  We are now one big, happy class, waiting for school to kick in in earnest. 

- Ryan -

Posted by kisajaja at 8:53 PM CET

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Mood:  happy

I have officially completed my first week of school...sort of.  Technically, despite my having gone all week, school hasn't started, yet.  If officially starts on Monday...sort of.

Here's why.  The first week of school is an orientation week.  We all get our pictures taken, get broken down into our study groups (syndicates), get our lockers assigned, get a tour of the facilities, etc, etc.  No actual classes take place during this week beyond the admin and control sorts of classes that are designed to teach us what the course will be about.  That is week one.  That is next week.

All of the international students had to go to classes this week as well.  We did all of the same things that will occur next week, but we also got classes on Australian laws, customs, history, government, all of the things that the rest of the class will know very well once they arrive.  We also got a bus tour of Canberra.  Since next week is considered week one, this must be Zero Week!

All in all it was a good one.  We got to meet all of the international students and develop our own friendships before the Australians come into the mix.  The Australian Army is small.  There are only about 25 thousand of them.  To give you some perspective, we have more than that on Fort Bragg, North Carolina on a day to day basis.   You take that number and you count only the Majors, then take only the ones eligible for the course, and then you take only 120 of them and you can see how it is possible that these guys all know each other.  At least this way, the international guys don't feel like they are standing in the middle of someone elses class reunion on day one.

Outside of school, nothing much has happened this week.  Jacoby's school won't start until mid-February, so no news there.  Kimberly took her first drive in Australia while I was in school.  She drove to the Embassy and checked the mail.  It would have been a great trip if we had gotten any.  :)  Anyway, she made it there and back with no issues, so at least we got THAT out of the way.

We have plans to go to the McKaskills house this Saturday evening for a BBQ get together with them and some other friends.  Outside of that, we have some grocery shopping to do and that's about it for the plans.  Looks like a quiet weekend ahead.

Next week:  Week one!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by kisajaja at 7:19 AM CET

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Mood:  a-ok

The next morning, we left for Melbourne around 8:00a, for what would be a three hour drive.  We got to Melbourne around 11:00a, which was way too early to check in, so Kimberly stepped in with the suggestion of going to see St Kilda beach, another area she read about.  It was a nice beach and very near was the small shops and bistros you might expect.  We grabbed lunch, walked the beach for a while, then headed to the hotel.

Now I have to tell you about some of the differences between Australia and the U.S.  The Australian states enjoy much greater autonomy than the American states.  They have their own driving rules and common practices, for instance.  Some states, you have to stop before entering a traffic circle.  Others, you get run over for doing that.  Sometimes pedestrians have the right of way, others not so much.  One of these rules in Melbourne is that if you want to turn right, you do so from the left-most lane.  No joke.  Keep in mind the left-hand driving rules throughout Australia.  At an intersection, if I want to turn right, I pull into the far left lane and sort of merge with the traffic waiting for their light to turn green, although I am perpendicular to them, just waiting to be t-boned.  I’ve just become first in their line.  My light turns red, their light turns green, I now finish my turn and continue to drive.

I didn’t know this.  I just about got us killed a half-dozen times on the way to the motel-suggested parking area.  I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong!  Why can I not turn right?!?  It seems to be upsetting people and I don’t know why!  At one point, a guy in a van yelled at me, “What the hell are you doing, Mate!”  I was relieved!  I thought it was OBVIOUS that I had NO IDEA!

Finally, I said forget this and headed back to the motel and just parked at the closest available lot, which ending up costing $76 to park for less than 24hrs.

After parking, we walked up to the motel, dropped off our stuff, and armed with a few maps, went out to see Melbourne!  We had two venues here, as well.  We wanted to see the Night Market, which takes place at the Queen Victoria market grounds, although the night market is completely different, and we had tickets to see the Old Melbourne Gaol (old way of spelling “Jail”).   The market would start at 5:30p.  The Gaol tour would start at 8:30p.  Until then, we just toured around using both the free Tourist Bus, which drove around an hour loop that basically gave you the lay of the land, and the free City Circle  Tram which looped around the main downtown area of Melbourne.  Both were cool.  The bus was good because of the history and commentary it provided with each of the districts.  The tram was good because the windows rolled down and you could take pictures from it.

 Chinatown

 On the Tram

The market was packed at 5:30p and stayed that way until 7:00p, when we left.  They had all manner of shops, though it was mostly clothes.  We walked back to the hotel (5 blocks) and dropped off our loot, and then headed for the Gaol.

The Gaol Tour

We arrived at the Gaol at 8:00p and joined the other people already waiting for the doors to open.  This is one of the oldest jails in Australia, built in stages, starting in the 1850’s.  It stayed open and used until 1975.  A vast majority (something like 90%) of the executions that took place in Australia, took place at its gallows.  This included, of course, Ned Kelly, an Australian folk hero something like Robin Hood or Jesse James.  I’m sure you can find his story on the internet somewhere, if you are interested.  As for us, I just announced to this group of people that I had no idea who he was and a very nice Australian man told me the whole story!  It was told to me again once we got inside.

Great tour!  It was at night, lit by candles, with a tour guide in character as one of the inmates, and also the executioner, which was apparently common.  He took us from cell to cell telling us about the most famous inmates.  He talked about life in the prison.  He showed us the gallows and explained how they worked.  It was really well done and it was a lot of gruesome sort of fun.

Then it was back to the room to sleep it all off and begin the long journey home.  I’m not going to write about that, simply because nothing of interest happened.  It was long, hot, and uneventful.

Posted by kisajaja at 12:19 PM CET

Updated: Thursday, 10 January 2008 12:34 PM CET

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We woke up and departed the motel heading for Sorrento, a small town that had a ferry that crossed the bay leading to Melbourne.  It kept us from driving up and around Melbourne and gave us a chance to park the car for the 40 minute transit and see the sites on the water. 

This is another one of those things that people say you just gotta do.  You can’t say you’ve seen Australia if you never driven the Great Ocean Road.  Fabulous.  We drove from Torquay down to Cape Otway National Park. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Cape Otway, we lost most of our views of the water as we continued our drive to Peterborough, but the reason was simple.  There are cliffs lining the ocean in this part of Australia.  Since the roads are built a safe distance back, we saw a few hundred meters of grassland, and then nothing.  Just sky.  In a few places, we could park and walk to the cliffs edge and see some spectacular rock formations, each with names like “The Arch,” or “London Bridge.”

The most well known of these formations is called the “12 Apostles.”  Why it’s called that is an amusing story, particularly when you consider that there are only 9 of them.  They used to be called the “Sow and Piglets.”  Nobody visited them.  I mentioned before about how Australians are great at marketing.  They undertook a big campaign to rename the Sow and Piglets to the 12 Apostles.  Tourists came to see them.  The name stuck.  The fact that there are only 9 of them hasn’t slowed them down a bit.

Posted by kisajaja at 12:04 PM CET

Updated: Thursday, 10 January 2008 12:19 PM CET

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First thing in the morning, we headed back to the Conservation Center.  I wanted to see if the seals would be there in the morning.  Sadly, they were still absent (long night, I guess).  But, we were able to drive around along some of the dirt roads along the cliffs and see what things we missed the day before.  These things included some very open and viewable nests, some occupied, which we were able to snap pictures of before heading to the Koala Conservation Center.

This place was pretty cool, but after the Wildlife Wonderland park the day before, it was a little anti-climatic.  We saw lots of Koalas, both in the habitats and in the wild.  We were able to get really close to the koalas, but of course, no touching or feeding.  They had several baby koalas which captured most of our attention.  We didn’t stay all that long, but it was certainly worth the time we took there.

After that was lunch and a round of Miniature Golf on what had to be the toughest course I have ever played.  We also found a chocolate factory which claimed be “the best handmade chocolate in Australia.”  I’ll give them credit.  It was good!  Kimberly and Jacoby both gave me a small bite of theirs.

Then we headed to get an early dinner since the parade would go late.  We found Panhandle TexMex Restaurant Which really did a great job with the food and the decorations.  This place could have come right out of El Paso.  Really, really good!   That reminds me…I told them I’d send them a Texas flag and a stuffed Armadillo (toy, not real) which were the only two things they lacked.

Then it as off to see the Penguins!

The Penguin Parade

The Penguin Parade was awesome.  I mean that to say it was really neat, but it also struck me as being incredible.  These little birds do this every night, bar none.  Hundreds of people watching, street lights, seagull infested beaches, the whole nine-yards.  These little birds pop out of the water and waddle their selves up embankments I couldn’t have walked up and rest for a few hours before heading back out to sea.   It was amazing to watch.

Pictures would have been nice, but it wouldn’t have caught the moment anyway.  This is just something you’ve gotta see.

After we left the viewing stands, we headed up the boardwalk to get back to the parking lot.  All the while, these penguins were still walking up the paths, many of which criss-crossed and lined the boardwalk.  The whole way to the car, it was like we were being escorted by the birds, often well within arms reach.   It is worth noting that I didn’t see any spectator misbehave or try to catch/chase/touch the penguins.

After the Parade, we headed to the room to sleep and get ready for the next day’s drive.

Posted by kisajaja at 11:51 AM CET

Updated: Thursday, 10 January 2008 12:04 PM CET

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Mood:  a-ok

To start things off, we knew we were going to have two “suck days.”   Those days were loosely defined as the days in which we had to drive to, and then from, the Greater Melbourne area.  As such, we had no activities planned for said “Suck Days.” 

So we left at about 5:40a.  The drive would take us about 8 hours to make it to Phillip Island, and it was a long, hot drive.   That being said, we at least saw changes in the terrain and travelled through the Australian Capital Territory, through New South Wales, and into Victoria.  We saw plains, mountains, forests, and beaches all in the same day.

We got there around 1:45p.  Check in at the motel wouldn’t be until after 2:00p, so we went to a place that Kimberly found in her Australia book called Wildlife Wonderland.  As I said before, pictures of animals in zoos is cheating, but this was a free-range sort of petting zoo in which we got to see, feel, feed, and play with kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats, as well as see (but not play with) koalas, dingos, and a crocodile.

After check-in, we decided to explore the Island.  We knew we needed to find the locations of our two venues the next day, we wanted to do some shopping, and eventually, we’d have to find dinner.  It was all way too easy and we got WAY more than I expected.

The two venues were:

1)      The Koala Conservation Center – They were supposed to have several koalas on their grounds, some of them lived there in natural habitats that had a board walk built up around the trees so that you get really close and personal with them.  They called this their “Tree Top Walk.”  Others came and went as they pleased, so you had to keep your eyes peeled in the surrounding tree line.

2)      The Penguin Parade – The Nobbies host one of the larger populations of Ferry Penguins (also called “Little Penguins”) in the world.  Each night, at sunset, all of these little penguins pop up out of the ocean and waddle across the beach to get to their nests, sometimes great distances up extremely rough terrain.  They do this every night.  We had tickets to go sit in the bleachers and watch these little guys do their thing.  Unfortunately, no photography is allowed.  They say the cameras scare the penguins.  I think the cameras scare their resellers, who already have plenty of pictures…  Funny how hundreds of people and streetlights don’t scare these little guys but cameras were verboten, even without flashes…  Either way, no photography at the Penguin Parade.

We wondered out to the Nobbies and found the Conservation Center easily enough.  We wandered around the area taking pictures of the scenery when we noticed that these penguins’ nests were all around us.  Some of them were occupied!  We took several pictures, which were allowed here, and had a great time with the views of the ocean, the penguin spotting, the wind and sunny weather.  All of it was fantastic!  We were supposed to be able to see seals there, too, but they must have taken the day off.

After the Conservation Center, we went out to Cowes, which is the major population area on the Island.  It had all of their souvenir shops and restaurants.  We did our part to support both.  Afterwards we headed back to the motel to recover from the drive and get ready for the next day.

Posted by kisajaja at 11:40 AM CET

Updated: Thursday, 10 January 2008 11:51 AM CET

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Mood:  happy

Tomorrow we leave for our Melbourne trip!  -But we diodn't want to sit around all day today, so....

 Off to Parliment House!  We got there and walked through the building, saw both houses of Parliment, went up on the roof and took some

pictures ("Look kids...Big Ben, Parliment...."). and then realized that the whole thing took about an hour.

THE National Flag of Australia (like the one on top of the Capitol Building in D.C.  This picture was taken on the roof of the Capitol.  Yes, there's grass up there.

These are the houses of Parliment.  On the left is the House, on the right, the Senate.

This is the outward view from the roof, overlooking what we would call our Washington Mall, leading all the way to their War Memorial.  Just behind that is Mount Ainslie.  The white building is the Old Parliment Building, which is now a tourist attraction/museum sort of thing.

Another outward shot from the roof, this picture is of the Russel Complex, which is their Pentagon.  The statue that you see out front is of an Eagle sitting on a high perch.   It was donated to the Australians by the United States. 

So, we went to the National Library to have a look around.  Mostly, it's just a library, but they did have an exhibition on the history of the Cameleers in Australia.  Apparently, Australia relied on Cameleers to get goods across the country before cars and trucks got popular.  After walking through the library and exhibit, we realized that it only took about 45 minutes...

Sorry...No pictures at the library.

So then we decided to go to the National Gallery.  We stayed here for a couploe of hours looking through all of the rooms and hallways.  Whilke we don't have any pictures here, either, (they were not allowed) I will say they this is a neat place.  Now, admittedly, I don't really "get" most art.  This place had some cool stuff!  -And it must have had some high-end stuff too, because there was plenty that left me scratching my head.

So, tomorrow is a driving day.  I promise lots upon our return!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 7:00 AM CET

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Mood:  a-ok

Okay, so we still have two hours to go, but I don't want to stay up and then have to blog, so....

We just got back from the Canberra New Year's celebration which was really well done!  We were out at dinner (we found Chinese Buffet!) and on the way home we realized the celebration was going on, so we parked and went to see what all the fuss was about.  We heard a lady on the main stage that sounded an aweful lot like Suzanne Vega.  She was followed by an old time rock band that sounded like a cross between the Stray Cats and Elvis.  Then we watched the 9:00p fireworks display (New Year's for the kids), which were absolutely fantastic! And then we heard another guy play a few 70s and 80s dance tunes.

It was a really nice evening, but we wanted to get home and watch the Sydney fireworks, and figuring that we'd already seen the 9:00p show, we thought it was time to bolt.  Besides, after two hours, the concrete and bricks we were sitting on were getting sorta hard...

So now we are home.  Two hours to go. 

Happy New Year, everyone!  May it bring joy to us all!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 11:55 AM CET

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Mood:  happy

So, after sitting around for a short while after our walk this morning, we decided to go out and hit a few of the local attractions that we haven't done, yet.

We started off at the National Canberra Exhibition, which is a small museum that tells the history of how Canberra was planned and built, and how they are still not done with it.  It had a cool gift shop, which was made cool by the nature of they we having a 40% sale on their entire stock.  Kimberly and I got new hats and Jacoby got another boomerang.

Yes, Jacoby throws the boomerang.  Yes, they really do come back.  In fact, if we had a video camera rolling, we could have won $10,000 yesterday as Jacoby threw it out there and it came back to him!  - At mid-level!  -Which he didn't catch with his hands!  He swears it hit his leg.  Right.  We were there.  That was $10,000.

Anyway, after the museum, we went to the National Botanical Gardens, which was pretty boring.  Unlike in D.C., the whole thing was outside, so they couldn't keep flowers and such on display.  It was all various types of trees, which honestly all looked the same to me...  There was a cool rainforest section, though, and we took some pictures of that.

 We also saw some cool birds and reptiles wandering though the gardens, as well.

After that, we went to here the Carillon play its bells, but we were a little late.  We heard it from the car on the way in, though.

Posted by kisajaja at 5:33 AM CET

Updated: Saturday, 29 December 2007 5:48 AM CET

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