An American in Sydney

I wanted to try and do a mid week update so that it wouldn’t be a daunting task to write about a whole week. I know that I’m only beginning to understand Australian culture, but I feel like I’m starting to catch on to all the differences and similarities. There is definitely a lot that I can learn from the people I’ve met so far. I’m really excited to get to know people more. Coming here is kind of like reliving freshman year. Except I feel that I’m bit more mature in some ways.

Last Saturday, I came to school so that I could make sure I could make my way here by myself. On my way I stop at a newsstand and bought a newspaper. It was the biggest paper I’d ever seen. They have a different standard size for paper here. Just one small cultural difference that I’ve learned about since I’ve been here. This is a side note on a difference in Australia. In Australia people have to pay for their Internet by the MB. Which means that access to it is much more limited. So if it takes me a while to responds I’m sorry. Anyways, I made my way successfully to campus and sat around for a while reading my paper and writing my previous post. Eventually I ended up helping a Hannah, an Australian student, with the show she is directing. I got to help make “You Know” playing cards. It was a lot of fun to get to meet some of the drama students here at Wesley. I hope that I’ll be able to make it to see her show. I left school to go to Ross’s daughter’s 21^st birthday part. It was a “fancy dress” party, which meant that everyone had to wear a costume. Greg and I not having brought a costume with us went dressed in Hawaiian shirts. I guess that’s where the old adage comes from “Don’t leave home without a costume”. It was really interesting to experience to see an Australian party. It was a lot more formal than an American 21^st would have been. It is their passage into adult hood and they get the key to the house. The party was more based on hanging out and socializing than playing games, which I feel is more of an American thing to do.

On Sunday Greg and I went into the city to meet Katie, Abby, Krista, and Charlene. Greg and I waited for a while to meet them so we walked around a bit and went to 7/11 and Starbuck. Yes, I know very Australian places to go. The girls met us at Starbucks and we went to a target like place called Cole’s. After that we left the city to head to Parramatta so that we could take the bus to Hillsong. Once there, we killed some time by walking around the bus/train station, which had a mall under it. The bus was absolutely packed. I’d say that my Hillsong experience was so so. There was a lot of cool things about it but overall I really don’t like churches that are that big. Worship was like a big rock show with big LCD panels behind the band and people jumping around. It reminded me a lot of GCC. I’m glad that I went and experienced it but I don’t think I’d want to call it my home church.

On the way home I ended up talking to a guy named Josh from Cairns. He had come to Sydney to study as missions. Originally he had been studying engineering but after going on a missions trip to China he changed his major. It was nice to meet and Australian that was new to Sydney too. When we got off the bus at the Parramatta stop we got onto the L20. We ended up getting off at the wrong stop and proceeded to wander around for 2 hours before we gave up and called a taxi. We were so close to being home. When we paid our taxi fare it was only 9.70 it was like a 5 minute ride home. Getting lost was actually good because we got to explore an area that we might not have other wise.

On Monday I came to school to help Hannah with her show and to meet with a drama prof about Theatre Secondment. I met Melanie and she told me that Hannah had left me a not in her pigeon hole that said that she didn’t need my help because she was able to finish the project. So I went to go and talk to a Drama prof. I got to see Lisa again who is a former drama student who works kind of as a secretary. I forget her exact title. Anyways, I met with Herman who is the head of the drama department here. He told me about my class. It sounds like is going to be really interesting. I’m going to be working with a Japanese lady who works for a company called the Puperoos. (I think that’s how its spelled.) Then he took me over to an audition that was happening for the Easter show. I really wasn’t expecting to go to an audition at all. When I got there they had already started reading the script. So they had me jump in. The auditions were improv scenes, which was the first time that I had done that. I don’t think that I did really well at them. But as theatre normally goes there were only 3 guys including me trying out. That meant that I ended up getting cast in the show as Jake/Judas. I’m really thankful that I was able to get a part. I know that it was prolly only because I was a boy but I’m going to do my best and work hard at it. I’m the only American in the cast so my accent stands out.

I wish my computer would stop dyeing while I’m typing but oh well. This post is long enough anyways.

No Furbies Allowed

I've never written a blog before so I'm not really sure where to begin. Ever since Jeanne and I watched Julia and Julia I have felt slightly inspired to begin writing a blog. I know that mine wont be turned into a movie but that's ok. I'm really excited to get to start writing now that I'm finally here in Australia.

I suppose the title of this post needs some explanation. So much has happened over the past three days that I had a hard time picking what this post should be. I considered 'Twinkle Twinkle" because I listened to that song being sung to a baby for 4 hours on my plane ride for Detroit to L.A. I also considered "The Great Wait" because of the almost 2 days that I spent in the airport before getting to Australia. 14.5 hours on a plane is a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. I'm know I'm glad I don't have to do make a trip like that again anytime soon. "No Furbies Allowed" comes from the safety card on the plane. Among the banned electronic on the plane were Furbies. It seems a little out of date. I cant remember the last time I've seen anyone running around with a Furby, but I suppose it's possible.

Sydney in the summer is a beautiful place. It has been so warm here since we arrived. Thankfully it seems that we missed the super humidity that the have been having here the past couple of weeks. The first day off the plane they kept us really busy to help us get over our jet lag. They took us on a tour of the Wesley. It isn't very big, but its a wonderful campus. There are only about 400 students here so its going to be a close community. After we finished our first day of orientation we went to our home stay. My hosts' name is Ross Fraser. I'm really looking forward to getting to know him. His house boarders a national park. Its so weird waking up in the morning and looking out and seeing parrots instead of pigeons.

On the second day they took us into down town Sydney. We got to do a photo scavenger hunt with the first year Wesley students. There were all sorts of crazy things on the list such has building a human pyramid that looked like the Opera House, ask someone for a stamp, trade a clothing item with a stranger, and ask someone to buy you an ice cream cone from McDonald's. It was a lot of fun to run around down my the wharf. We got to see so many really interesting things like the customs house, the museum of contemporary art, and the opera house.

After we finished the scavenger hunt we boarded onto cruise and we got to go around the harbor and see the city from the water. It was such a great trip. Its one of my favorite things that I've done so far. It was a lot of fun to get to talk to the Australian students and get to know them a little bit. I was really surprised by how many of them were commuting from an hour away. I don't know why i was seeing that this is a commuter school. The end of our trip was quite eventful a man fell into the water who was standing by the opera house. One of the servers jumped in to assist him and the harbor patrol came and pulled them both out. I'm really glad that it ended well. It was a somber end to a really fun day.

The third day of orientation wasn't as exciting has the second day. We went through a bunch of policy type stuff. Nothing particularly eventful happened during our day at the school. After Greg and i went back to our home stay we waited for Ross to come home. (oh yes, my house mate from the ASC his name is Greg Hartnett. I've decided that it must be fate that my roommate's name this year was supposed to be Greg) After he got home he took us over to Carrie's house, which is another home stay close to where I live, and we got hang out with the girls who were staying there for a bit. After we left Carrie's we went to the local and had 5 dollar steaks. They were really good. Greg and I had arranged to meet another home stay group at their house but since we were running a bit late they had already left for the bus stop. Thankfully we found them. We went downtown for a while and walked around. There where so many people walking around. It was kind of like being in New York but the weather is far supirior and the people are much friendlier. We just made the last bus home, and I'm really glad that we did.

Well my computer battery is dieing so i guess that all for today.