Strike a Pose...

Have been pretty busy with school over the past few weeks, not much fun stuff going on.  In addition I have had a pretty bad cold over the past two weeks, that finally subsided a few days ago!  Now I'm feeling much better and will get back to having more fun here!

Sunday 21st August - Thursday 25th August
I was kept pretty busy being sick and doing some hardcore studying.  I did manage to keep playing soccer in moderation though, thank goodness or I would've gone crazy!  On Thursday I played again with the Mauritians in Monash Sport's (the fitness centre) Thursday futsal league.  We won 11-1 and I even scored an amazing goal which really made the other team angry but showed the guys that I can play decently against bad teams.  Overall that was probably the high point of my week :)!

Friday 26th August
Got up 'early' for Fridays (10am) because I don't have class.  Went down to campus to turn in an assignment (on time!) and then went over to Monash Sport to play futsal (indoor soccer with a smaller ball - size 4 I think) for the afternoon.  It was pretty fun, I scored a couple good goals, but it's weird because the guys always clap and cheer when I score like are surprised I can shoot.  I would be embarrassed after 15 years of playing if I couldn't score an occasional goal. After playing for a couple hours I took a break to get some food and wait for people to play soccer on the resident halls pitch. Was a bit tired so it was pretty bad, but I didn't really have anything better to do with my afternoon. I ducked out early and got ready to have dinner and go into the city with some friends from my hall.  We had pizza from a nearby pizza restaurant (Monash Pizza - creative name, I know), and then we grabbed a taxi to go into the city to a pub called Rooftop Bar (which is in fact on top of a building).  It was a fun night and I got to know some of the people I live around a bit better.

Saturday 27th August
Spent the day relaxing and chatting with people on my floor.  In the afternoon I went over to a soccer friend's house for another BBQ (they really like getting people together to eat loads of food or 'heaps' of food as they say it) with a lot of the guys I play soccer with and their respective girlfriends and female friends. It was pretty fun and we ended the evening playing 'Singstar' and that x-box connect dancing game (which I am horrible at - not sure if I can keep a beat).

Sunday 28th August
Played soccer per usual, finished up assignments due on Monday, and then went to go see 'Green Lantern' with some soccer guys and their girlfriends. It was an interesting movie I suppose, but definitely not the best superhero/action flick I've ever seen.  Maybe 'Green Lantern 2' will be better?  Nah, probably not.

Monday 29th August - Thursday 1st September
Spent the week working on assignments and catching up on my studies in preparation for a trip to Broken Hill (a small mining town in the 'outback'). It was a lot of work to get it all done before we left, but I successfully turned in all my assignments early! I of course continued to play soccer any night anyone else was willing to play (usually Wednesdays and Thursdays). Also visited Tommy at the rehab clinic - he's doing really well, starting to participate in activities to get him walking again.  After visiting Tommy I returned to campus for a futsal game - we won 4 or 5 - 2, not too bad, although we were a lot better than the other team (and I should have scored a couple of times... but missed....).

BROKEN HILL TRIP

Friday 2nd September
I had to get up super early (7am) to catch the 8am tour bus for a 5 day trip to Broken Hill.  Unfortunately when we went to pick up other students from another campus a couple french guys had slept through their alarms and weren't waiting for pick-up.  In light of this we had to wait a half hour for them to get to the bus.  It wasn't too bad though - I mostly just slept then!  Our first stop was at a service station on the north side of Melbourne.  It had lovely choices of food for breakfast - McDonalds, KFC, and Subway.  Nothing like KFC to start the morning out right - just kidding I just had a muffin from the coffee shop there instead!  We then hopped back on the bus and drove for a couple hours until we got to a small town called Charlton.  It was a really small town, probably only a few blocks!  We had lunch which was comprised of pretty soggy sandwiches and doughnuts, which was a bit disappointing.

Charlton stop!

After the stop we again got back on the bus for a few hour drive to Mildura.  On the way we watched an Australian film with Heath Ledger in it called 'Two Hands.'  It was a bit of a strange movie, or maybe just not what I was expecting, nevertheless it was interesting and kept me from sleeping all the time on the bus! We then stopped in Mildura at the 'Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club League' for dinner.  There we got a full meal - salad, rolls, and chicken schnitzel with vegetables.  It was a decent meal, better than McDonald's or soggy sandwiches. I got back on the bus after and settled in for the three hour drive from Mildura to Broken Hill.  On the way we watched 'Mad Max', which is an Australia movie starring Mel Gibson, which apparently was his breakout role.  It was an ok movie, all about a future where there are oil shortages and bandits who steal oil from the good people. Check it out if you want to see some cool old school explosions and young Mel Gibson!  After the film we watched an Australian serie called 'Summer Heights High'.  It is all about a public school in Australia that has some interesting characters - I'm not a huge fan of reality t.v. though so I wasn't really interested in watching it. We finally arrived in Broken Hill around 9:30pm Broken Hill time.  The only catch is that Broken Hill is a half hour behind Melbourne time - so it was really around 10pm. There was some reason for why it was this way, but I can't remember! Upon our arrival we were given room keys to our hotel rooms at the West Darling Motor Hotel (well just the American students - all the Europeans stayed at another hotel). The hotel was a pretty interesting place - looked like it may have been the scene of a few horror flicks in the past, but I'd rather not think of it that way! On the positive side there was a $2 beer tasting in the bar at the hotel so that was nice I suppose.

This is the hallway of the West Darling Hotel... creepy?

Saturday 3rd September
Woke up early again for a continental breakfast of toast, cereal and orange juice.  It wasn't too bad, but not the best breakfast I've ever had. We then jumped on the bus for a tour of Broken Hill from one of the locals. He lived in Broken Hill his whole life and was a former miner.

Our tour guide!

Broken Hill is actually a pretty sizeable town for being in the middle of nowhere!

Some girls from the UK and me on a lookout over Broken Hill.

 After the tour we went to the Royal Flight Doctors station.  There we got to see a video about all the services they provide and see the hangar with all of the planes.  It is really a cool service, they provide medical and dental attention to people all across the outback by airplane.  It's amazing how many people's lives they can save that way!

After that we were given an hour to find somewhere to eat in the town - didn't really have enough time to go to some of the little cafes so we quick grabbed some Subway (I feel terrible eating from American chains here - it just seems so wrong). Then it was back on the bus to go to an old abandoned silver mine outside of the town called 'Day Dream Silver Mine'.  We first go an above ground tour and then headed into the depths of the mine!  It was cool, although the ceilings were a bit low for me!

The road on the drive to the mine!

Cool tree by the mine - and my effort to make an artistic photo out of it!

Inside the mine - these signs made me feel really safe.

After the mine we went to the 'Outback Sculpture Park' to hike up a sizeable hill to watch the sunset and have some snacks.  It was an absolutely stunning sunset, my photos don't even do it justice!

After the sunset we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner (which was at our were probably the best part of the whole meal - fresh fruit is rather expensive here so I tend not to buy a lot of it. After dinner we went over to a place called 'The Musicians Club' for kareoke.  I didn't participate in the singing, but I still enjoyed listening to the very talent singers that were there.  It was also a competition - $50 prize for the top three singers, and two dutch girls on our trip won with a rendition of Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On.'  Overall it was a fun night, and ended on a high note with everyone on our trip getting on stage to 'sing' Don McClean's 'American Pie'.

Sunday 4th September
Another early wake up call followed by a continental breakfast, but I can't complain too much because I did have a lot of fun on the trip!  We drove to the 'Historic Silverton Ghost Town' and had some time to explore at our leisure (there wasn't all that much there so it didn't take too long).  There were a few ruins. a Mad Max museum, and a number of cool art galleries.

An amazing art gallery by the Artist in Residence - John Dynon!

After exploring the town we drove a short way to have camel rides!  Yes, I know you are all asking, "Are there really camels in Australia????" and the answer would be 'YES'!  Back in the day someone though it would be a great idea to bring camels from Asia and let them hangout in Australia.  I think there is something like 10 million camels in the outback now.  I guess it makes sense that they can survive there though, it is pretty much a red desert.  The camel rides were fun, but a bit weird, I think I much prefer horseback riding. 

Janna and me on a camel (the 2nd one if you don't remember what I look like - I am wearing blue, with my hair up).

We then went to the 'Eldee Sheep Station' for lunch.  It is a small hotel/bed and breakfast for travelers in the outback and a sheep farm.  Lunch was pretty good, hamburgers with plenty of extras (lettuce, cheese, bacon, etc.), fries and soda.  After lunch we walked over to the small building that they shear sheep in and got to see the guy that works there shear three sheep.  It was a pretty interesting process: he had to first pretty much wrestle the sheep and get it's legs to carry it, then began shearing the sheep and holding it down at the same time.  It was pretty amazing he kept all the wool in one big piece and managed to get it done in only a few minutes.

An old truck at the Eldee Sheep Station!

Once the sheep were all sheared we drove to a dry riverbed to go on a hike to see some ruins of some old homesteads from some families that lived there about 100 years ago.  It was pretty amazing how well made the houses were, although some of the families' stories were sad.  One family of 5 all died of typhoid ('The Black Plague') and were all buried in a small gravesite by their house.  We also got to see a real live scar tree - which is a tree that has had a section of bark cut out by the indigenous people that used to live there to make bowls, canoes, and other things.

After the hour and a half walk we went back to Eldee Station for a tea time snack - juice, muffins and cake.  It was quite delicious and definitely necessary after walking around for so long in the hot sun.  Once I finished up my snack I started the long bush hike to some tall hills/ small mountains near the station to watch the sunrise.  It took a half hour to get up them, and there weren't any paths, but I made it just in time to see the gorgeous sunset - it was even better than the last one!

After the glorious sunset we had dinner - steak with salad, pasta salad, and potatoes!  It was quite good, although the bugs did get really bad after the sunset - I had to eat fast to avoid ingesting too many bugs!

 Then we had a giant bonfire and dessert - apple/raspberry crumble with ice cream and more chocolate cake.  It was quite delicious and for some reason they gave me both a slice of apple crumble and raspberry crumble (needless to say I was quite full as a result!).  We then hopped back on the buses and returned to our hotel in Broken Hill.  I was completely exhausted and more than ready to sleep after a nice shower.

Monday 5th September

6AM wake up call, was a rough morning because I was still exhausted from all the hiking the day before.  I grabbed breakfast and got on the bus for a 4 1/2 hour drive to Lake Mungo Park (which is 1 1/2 hours away from Mildura - the place we stopped on the way to Broken Hill).  The ride was long and bumpy but I made it there ok and I got a little bit of sleep (thankfully). On the way there I also sat next to a guy from France named Thomas, it was nice to talk to someone new and get to know them a bit better (made the drive go a bit faster).  Upon our arrival at Lake Mungo Park we had lunch - sandwiches with chips and water.  Probably the best sandwich I had on the trip, so I was quite happy. We then had a guided tour of the Lunette Sand Dunes at the park by an Aboriginal Custodian (who was actually really interesting - he carried around a painted guitar and sang us some songs).  It was cool to learn about how the lake had dried up thousands of years ago, but that at one point in time many people lived by the lake and saw some of the remains of their fires in the sand dunes. We also go to learn about some edible plants/fruits in the outback - although I'm not sure if the fruits are large enough to actually keep you alive if you get stranded in the outback.

Immediately following the tour we had tea time (but without any tea or drinks...) that consisted of muffins, doughnuts and cookies.  It was nice, but I don't really think I needed to eat anything - oh well, I'm supposed to eat a lot on vacation, right? We then had a goodbye song from the tour guided and then boarded the buses to head back to Mildura for dinner.  Unfortunately we didn't stick around for the sunset which was gorgeous, although I did get to take a few pictures of it out the bus windows.

After a nice shower we went to Pizza Cafe for unlimited pasta and pizza for dinner.  It was quite good, and I had my first slice of pizza with pumpkin on it - maybe a bit peculiar but nevertheless good. Following dinner we went next door to the Mildura Brewery Pub to relax and have a drink.  It was a really cool place, but I unfortunately forgot my camera, so no pictues of it :(.  It was nice to sit and talk to some new people and watch a bit of the U.S. Open (I had completely forgotten that it was going on right now!).

Tuesday 6th September
Finally got to sleep in - didn't have to get up until 9AM!  We left our hotel at 10AM to leave for a surprise activity which turned out to be wine tasting at a local winery in Mildura.  It was interesting to learn about how wine was made, and see some of the old equipment used to make wine. It was also pretty fun to try out a bunch of different kinds of wine (needless to say I am no wine expert, so it was nice to hear all of the different names finally!).

After the wine tasting we went back into the city of Mildura for lunch before starting the long journey back to Melbourne. There were a couple of nice shops (clothes shops) in Mildura, but I didn't really have enough time or money to really buy anything (although it was still nice to stop and look). On the way back we watched a number of movies: "The Adventures of Prisilla: Queen of the Desert", "Death at a Funeral" and "Mad Max 2" which were all just interesting enough to keep me from sleeping the whole way back (don't worry I did some readings for class as well!).  We also stopped in a small town, Wichyproof for a bathroom break, and Bendigo for dinner.  Thankfully the trip wasn't as long as the way there - we left around 1:30pm and made it back to campus by around 10pm. Overall it was a really fun trip - perhaps a bit tiring, but I am definitely happy that I had the opportunity to go!

NOTE:  The title of this blog post comes from an Australian song (G'day G'day by Rob Fairbairn) that we listened to pretty much every time we were on the bus! Check it out if you're bored!