Chapter 26 - Easter Hols

In which our hero has a nice lie-in .... and also another most welcome discovery ... and chocolate bunnies ...

Greetings, dear reader.  It's been about a week, methinks.  Not too much exciting has happened.

On Wednesday, which is a one hour day every other week (when there's no lab), we finished our lecture early.  My "one hour day" was only 35 mins.  I hung around for a bit, doing some homeworks, etc.  There was a meeting for the Vegetarian Club at 4, which I joined in hopes of improving my veggie skills/knowledge.  Afterwards I'd arranged to meet my friend from Denmark (you remember her, right, from O-Week?)  to go to the night market in Surfer's Paradise.  Turns out we'd slightly miscommunicated and she meant for me not to meet her till after like 7 or something.  So I ended up going 'round her place, in an area called Main Beach, and having some dinner before we went.  It was a very nice area.  Very quiet.  Also apparently very expensive.  There's three of them in the apartment though, so it comes out to something reasonable.  Anyway.  It was nice.  Had a good dinner.  Watched some Arrested Development.  Apparently there's going to be another season soon that will be released all at once on Netflix, because it doesn't matter what order you watch them in.  That'll be fun.  It replaces the movie that's been in the works for like five years though.

So after dinner we headed down to Surfer's Paradise to browse the night market.  It was basically like the stalls at Sunfest, except not as many.  Interesting, though.  There was also several places with foodstuffs, like beef jerky or chocolate thingies, that were doing free samples, so we tried several of those.  There was one with macadamia nut products, and there was some fresh ones that you could crack open and eat.  They were very good.  The nut part was sort of soft, and it tasted kind of like fresh coconut.  Normally I don't like macadamia nuts, I don't think, but this one was good.  Or rather, not so much "don't like" as "can take or leave".  There was one of the chocolate thingies that was dark chocolate and cherry.  That was the best one.  There was also a flavoured popcorn vendor, from which I sampled the Sweet & Salty popcorn, which reminded me of Grandma, because she used to love microwave kettlecorn.

I saw these interesting candles, which I think you should do, Dad.  They'd be far classier than being made in beer cans.  You could get some 99c tea cups from Goodwill.

I also found another of the koala statues.  There was no artist's statement that I could see, as there was with the other one.

Now really, I haven't been in too much of a hurry to see Surfer's Paradise.  It's kind of party central.  Night clubs and tourists and crowds and madness.  This was OK, though.  I think I should go back in the day time to get the full effect.  The only reason I wanted to go was to say I'd been, and also cuz it has a cool name.  After wandering around the market for a bit, we got a 30c ice cream cone at Macca's (that's McDonalds, to those not in the know) and headed home. I got home at like 11:15, I think.  That was Wednesday night.  Thursday is an early day for me -- up at 6.  Needless to say I was quite sleepy.  Thursday night the kids had some friends over, so they occupied each other and I was able to just sit and relax.  Then they wanted to watch a movie, and I don't know if they watched one or two, but I was asleep before it was over.  I was just listening a bit from my room.  The first one was Harry Potter, but after a while it didn't sound like Harry Potter anymore, but it doesn't really matter.

The two friends that were over stayed over night, so there was a big crowd in the morning to discover that THE EASTER BUNNY HAD COME EARLY!  It was very exciting.  I was naturally woken up by the excited loud voices, but by the time I got up and got dressed all the eggs had been found.  Before 7 a.m.  I was still pretty sleepy.  I didn't do too much that day.  Bit of reading and maths review.  Painted my finger and toe nails all different colours.

Tried to do a few on #3, at her request, but most of them got smeared, and some got on her sweater, and a bit on my leg, because she wouldn't sit still to let them dry.  She's only 2, after all.

Anyway.  I'm pretty sure all my chocolate eggs were gone by noon.  Which is OK, because the Easter Bunny came again on Sunday morning, just for me...

On Friday afternoon the munchkins left to be with their dad for the weekend, so it's been very quiet.  I haven't done nearly as much work as I should have, but I have by no means done nothing either.  I think I've organized all the notes on ordinary differential equations, and should be totally on top of it, I just need to do lots of practice.  And I've read a lot about mass spectrometers.

Now, for a brief interval, here's some things I saw at the shops.  Probably K-Mart again.

I don't know what this magical land is that I've stumbled in to.  Must be Narnia, where everything is made of Turkish Delight.

Mmmmm.... Easter eggs ....

A "Where's Wally" Easter Egg Hunt kit.

Now, on Saturday Sarah was off to Bluesfest in Byron Bay, so the house was all mine.  If you'll remember, I was still quite sleepy on Friday, having not rested properly or long enough.  On Saturday I slept till 12.  It was great.  By the time I got up and made some brekkie and whatnot, it was 2:30.  I had a sort of plan to go out to the Easter Vigil in Southport (near my uni) for 6, which meant I had to leave here at 4:30, to get a bus at 4:45, to get to the church at 5:30.  It all went swimmingly.  I walked from Griffith to the church, and it was only 20 mins.  It started with everyone gathering outside, and then after the lighting of the big fire everyone moved inside.  While waiting outside I ran into one of my classmate (the one from O-Week who lives in Southport), and he offered me a lift home afterward, so at the moment my bike is still at the station.  When I got home I watched "Tomorrow, When The War Began", which had started at 8:30, then "Mr. & Mrs. Murder", which is fun, then I was too tired to even read a whole chapter of A Dance With Dragons.

Sunday I was up early-ish.  8:30 I think.  Got some reading done.  Went down to Nana and Grandpa's for a cup of tea with Sarah.  Came back.  More reading.  This was my first time inside their house.  The first thing I saw was the doorstop holding open the front door.  You'll never guess what it was.  So I'll tell you.  It was a cast-iron cricket thing.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it. I was to much in shock, I suppose.  Maybe next time.  They also had some of those brass medallion thingies on leather straps, that I think are part of a horse's harness.  They have about three times as many as Gran and Grandpa did, though.  Made it feel like a proper grandparents house, although they're actually not much older than my parents.

Later on Sarah and her friend and I went out to the Tavern for a drink, and to listen to the band that was playing.  The music part was good, but the singing wasn't so hot.  Bit flat, I think.  Anyway.  Then we got some Vietnamese take away to bring home, which was lovely as always.  Then it was time for Doctor Who! So exciting! I'm so glad it's on here! And on ABC 1, as well, which has no commercials during the show! Don't read the next sentence if you're as sensitive as I am about spoilers.  It was awesome.  After I watched a thing called 'Underground: The Julian Assange Story', about his early life and first arrest for hacking the US Military.  It was very interesting.  You could definitely see where the whole Wikileaks thing came from.  Apparently he knew about Desert Storm before hand, and tried to tell some reporters, but they didn't do anything.  He was only a 17 year old kid at the time.  Like I said, very interesting.

Then there was a thing where David Tennant was talking about Hamlet, and how it seems to speak to every generation, and how it's such a major thing for an actor, and so involving, and he loved it but he'd never do it again.  So naturally I watched it, because it was David Tennant.  Then I was very tired and went to bed.  Well.  Read two chapters then went to bed.

Lastly, there's a classic car show on at the Parklands (across from uni).  I didn't go, but here's some pics of cars I saw while waiting for the bus over the past few days.

Also, here's the broken cricket bat from the other week.  I finally found it.

Also, actually lastly, on Saturday night I locked up the chooks (chickens in Australia speak) because Sarah was away.  I wore some gumboots, and brought a flashlight, and approached very slowly, but there was no snakes.  Which was awesome.

Also, 'hols' means holidays.  I've got a week off school.  It's great. 

Chapter 25 - Loaves and Fishes

In which our hero feeds some fishes (and turtles, and also an eel) with some bits of loaf...

There was a plan for today to do something fun.  It was going to be either Sea World, or this little place with a museum and a pond where you can feed the turtles.  It ended up being the turtles. It was nice.  I made one slice of bread last for probably 20 minutes because I was just pinching off little bits, and the turtles and fishes would come up and take them.  Quite often the turtles would be almost there, and a fish would swoop in and grab the bit of bread.  They're quick little buggers.  Not even a whole slice, because I gave half of it to #2 who had used his up quickly by doing too big of pieces.  Once the bread ran out we went for an explore and found some swings, where I introduced #2 and #3 to the awesomeness of the under dog.  They loved it.

When we got home I did a bit more homework, and soon enough it started thundering.  I know, right? I was starting to think it never thundered here, only down poured.   It does both.  At the same time, even.  How shocking.  Anyway.  I recorded this little video to demonstrate what I mean by "the rain is so loud here," which I mentioned once or twice before.  It's nearly a minute long, though, and the blog doesn't seem to want to post it.  That's OK.  I'll get the point across eventually.  Maybe I'll see if I can cut it down to like 10 or 15 seconds.

Lastly, I think I got burnt again.  I don't understand.  I was wearing sunscreen.  I put some on before we went grocery shopping, then more just before we left for the turtles.  Unless there's something about bug spray messing with sunscreen's effectiveness, cuz I put on some mozzie spray too.  Blurg.

Chapter 24 - It comes in ice cream? I'm getting one!

In which our hero makes a most welcome discovery...

!

I didn't actually buy any.  I might wait for my birthday, or successful exam passing.  I got a thing of vanilla for $2.20, because vanilla goes with pie.  Normally I wouldn't buy vanilla.  Choco all the way, man.

There's also this, which we don't have at home at all.

Cherry ripe is a candy bar thing that's cherry and coconut on the inside and choco on the outside.  Apparently it also comes in ice cream.

Chapter 23 - Snaaaaake! It's a snaaaaaaaaaake! Ohhhh, it's a snaaaaaake!

In which our hero has a close encounter of the snake kind ... 

OK. Now, before you all panic at once, it wasn't actually that close of an encounter.  But the first rule of show business is to draw in the punters, so why not use a bit of exaggeration?

What happened was this.  Last Sunday I got up at like 9ish or 10ish.  The first thing I saw was Sarah and Grandpa heading down the stairs by the deck into the back yard.  I didn't really think much of it.  Carried on with the morning routine.  Then I needed to ask Sarah something, so I went down into the back yard, in my bare feet.  Naturally.  I saw Sarah and Grandpa standing outside the chicken house, one with a shovel and one with a longish 2x4 type thing.  (Actual dimensions may vary.)  So my first thought was, "That looks like a snake situation."  Then Sarah turned around and saw me and said, "Stay there! Very big, very deadly snake!"  So I high-tailed it back to the house.  There is not, I regret to say, a visual aid for this bit of the story.  You'll understand, though, I'm sure, because by the time I actually saw the snake it was a twitchy decapitated mess in a plastic bag.  Apparently it was like 5' long.  Also, it was an eastern brown snake, which is like the second most deadly in the world or something?  Good grief.  Saved again by Grandpa with a shovel.  Just like old times.

Also, in relation to snakes, on Monday the fam came home from grocery shopping, and the munchkins had managed to convince Sarah to buy them lolly snakes.  That's gummy snakes to the rest of the world.  I was going to take a picture of one as the visual aid to my snake story, but I kept forgetting, and now they've all been eaten.

Not to panic, though.  There will be some pictures.  Just be patient.  Or not.  Scroll down now if you want, but good luck finding your place in the text again.  I'll first update on my general state of mind and being.  When last we spoke I was in a bit of a panic.  I've had two weekends in a row with hardly any work getting done.  And now this week I've been sleeping badly, and not long enough, because of all the stuff that's on my mind.  I still haven't done anything about that electromagnetics assignment.  The MATLAB test is over, though, and I think I did well.  I discussed Friday's maths test with the prof, though, and it turns out I got all the questions right.  So that's something.  And I did well again on the tutorial quiz.  And my lab partner and I worked on our electrical machines lab report until midnight last night, and got it done, and submitted today.  I did most of the electrical machines tutorial questions, which were also due today, but didn't actually finish because I ran out of time.  I decided it was better to hand it in on time with one and a half questions missing than late and completed.  Oh well.  Sometimes you just have to accept those kinds of losses.  Also, in relation to maths, the prof was kind enough to give me the year one semester two maths notes so I could refresh about ordinary differential equations.  Which, I can't remember if I mentioned this, but not only has it been 3.5 years since I did any, but the way it's taught here is very different from how I was taught.  So that explains why when the prof got going on them, none of it seemed familiar until he said there was three basic types of solutions, which gave over-damp, under-damp, or critical damp.  It has to do with dampening oscillating movements, such as a building wobbling in an earthquake.  Critical damp is the one you want to achieve, because it's the best chance of the object coming to rest fairly quickly at it's original position.  With under-damp, it'll stop moving eventually, but in like ten years, so the prof said.  That was probably a bit of a joke.  With over-damp, it'll stop moving fairly quickly, but not likely in it's original position.  You'll end up with a sort of Tower of Pisa situation.  If you're dealing with a building, obviously.

Right. So anyways.  All my stupid work for the week is done.  I'm very tired.  I hope I can sleep well, and be well rested finally, and continue to focus tomorrow.

Now the fun stuff.

Here are some windblown palm trees in a parking lot.

Windblown palm trees in a parking lot.

This reminds me.  Here they don't say they're finding a parking spot.  They say they're finding a park.  As in, "Sorry I'm late, sir, but it took me 45 minutes to find a park."

Here is a cool koala that's on campus.  It only appeared in the last couple weeks.  The little artist's statement thingy says that he was going for the camouflage paint jobs they did on ships in WWI and WWII.  I don't remember why.  But it's cool.  Apparently they're popping up everywhere, like the mooses in Toronto.  This is the only one I've seen so far, but I don't really get down to the beach area too much, or at all.  Apparently there's some there.

Kamo-ala.

Here is a construction worker's water jug/cooler/thingy.  You'll have to forgive the profanity.  I thought it was funny.  It reminded me of that time when I wrote "mine" on my Irn Bru, so both Annie and I would know who's it was, and then I went and drank her's by accident.  Good grief.

Here is a shot looking straight up from my study spot on Tuesday.

This whole week was Harmony Week at school.  It was all about multiculturalism and things.  The original information I got said there'd be film screenings, but I kept forgetting to check the online events list because I was so busy, so I basically only saw about ten minutes of the Harmony Day festivities on Tuesday.  There was free poutine being given out by some Canadians, which was fun.  Observe.

And there was also some Chinese dragons.  That was pretty cool. Observe that as well.

I couldn't stay long because I had to scurry off to MATLAB class.  That day there was also a meeting and BBQ for the Griffith University Young Engineers club, (GUYE) (or "gooie" :D).  So I got a free lunch as well as free poutine.  Plus my MATLAB quiz/test thing went well, I think.  After my maths tutorial I went back to see if there was still something going on for Harmony Day, but it was just getting packed up.  They'd been selling t-shirts earlier for a gold coin donation, which I assume means $1 or $2.  I figured I'd get one, because proceeds probably went to future such events.  When I walked up to the girl who was folding them up, though, she said "Want a free t-shirt?", so naturally I accepted.  Now I have an orange t-shirt.  I was just thinking the other day on my lack of orange clothing.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I don't especially like orange.  I don't really own anything purple either.  It was just an observation.

Also, now, in the continuing gallery of foodstuffs, look at this that I spotted in a shop.

"Two scoops of sultanas in a box of sultana bran" Just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

It's interesting.  This isn't like the decadent chocolate chip cookies.  It's properly Kellog's. You can see the logo.  It's just different names of things.  These are the things I find interesting in foreign countries.  Like Frosties in the UK.  Or Sultana Bran here.

Now on Thursday I decided to eat my lunch in the engineering courtyard, which I only discovered on Tuesday because that's where the GUYE BBQ was.  It's nice and quiet, with a picnic table and some benches, and a big sun shade thing, which is not an uncommon sight in those sorts of public spots.  So when I approached the picnic table there was a caterpillar making it's way along one edge.  I decided to sit on the other side so as to not disturb it.  Later, when I went in to my tutorial and set my bag down, I was thoroughly surprised to find a caterpillar on my backpack.  Really quite likely the same one.  I'm just glad I didn't squish it by accident when I was donning/removing my backpack.  So I used my considerable powers of persuasion to convince it to climb onto my finger, and then I carried it out to a bit of leafy branch outside.  That's a very nice thing about here, is 'outside' is never very far away.

Also, just today I believe, they poured some cement around a section of the light rail tracks by the bus stop.  I believe the last picture you saw was on my first day on campus, and it was just two little bits of rail sticking out.  OK, four bits.  Two pairs.

Also, lastly and most excitingly, I got another postcard from Emily of the Arctic.  It's got doggies on it.  And this one was actually from Eureka, whereas the other one, despite it's beauty, was from Yellowknife, I believe.

See? Doggies.  Fluffy snow doggies.

Chapter 22 - Poutine for Dinner

In which our hero eats Canadian food with her Taiwanese friend in Australia ...

... also spiders...

So here we go.  I'm in the sort of denial stage of overwhelmingness.  I had a maths test on Friday, at 6 p.m.  Stupidest time for a test ever.  Except maybe Saturday, but I don't think that's an option.  I think it went well.  I know I got two of three questions right, anyway.  I also got my quiz on Tuesday all right as well.  In the maths lesson on Friday at 3 the prof started "reviewing" ordinary differential equations.  Again, assuming stuff we know.  It sounds awfully familiar, but what he was doing was like totally foreign.  After a while it started to sort of ring some bells.  I'm sure I've done it before.  But it was basically another maths class of panic and frustration and feeling stupid.  Ugh.  Dislike.

And on Thursday in our Electromagnetics tutorial, the prof decided, quite wisely, to go over the first assignment, which is due in week 6.  It's just the end of week 3 now.  Panic.  We're supposed to design a mass spectrometer which will separate molecules into atoms and read how much there is of each, and then determine if they're associated with illicit drugs or explosives or whatever.  It's supposed to be compact enough to fit comfortably in an airport security centre, and with reasonable enough materials that it's not super expensive, but still the best we can get to achieve the objective.  Holy carp.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna fail this one.  (Although I'm just looking at my giant wall planner, and it turns out there's a week of holidays at Easter, which doesn't count in the overall week count, so week 6 is actually farther away than it seems.  I know that's no sort of attitude to have, and no one really wants to be doing assignments on the holidays when there could be lots of chocolate to be eaten, but it's comforting nonetheless.)

Then also there's a MATLAB in-class quiz on Tuesday, which I haven't revised for at all.  And an electromagnetics lab report due Wednesday, and an electrical machines one due Friday.

So what do I do? Grocery shopping, FB, look up movie times, eat poutine, and watch telly.  The last Indiana Jones was on.  They've been doing one per week, every Saturday night.  The kids have been here for Raiders and Last Crusade.  We made them look away at the scary bits.  Also, I tried in vain to explain to #1 what a crusade was.  She didn't quite get it, and I didn't feel like I could explain it all without giving more history of the whole kind of history of Christianity and Romans and Europe and the unfortunately misguided European Christians of the time.  Oh well.  Some day she'll learn it all properly, and say to herself 'Oh, that's what Christine was talking about.'

I did do some of the one lab report, but it was such a sunny day, and despite the kids being away and the house being quiet, I just wasn't in to it.  Not like the first weekend the kids were away, where it was also raining so I had nothing really else to do, and got quite a lot done.  This weekend, not so much.  It's only Saturday though.

So now on to the actual story of the day.  Unfortunately circumstances have prevailed that Wen Ying has decided it's more financially feasible to move from here to a house closer to her new job.  She's leaving tomorrow.  That's another part of the reason I didn't get much done, because we were just sitting and chatting.  First I got up and ate my brekkie.  Honey-nut corn flakes (which are awesome, by the way) and banana.  Then we went out grocery shopping.  Then we came back.  I looked at my lab report for maybe 30 mins, then I was hungry so I did lunch.  This is what I made:

That egg in a ring of pepper thing we've been seeing on that TV commercial.  It nearly worked, but I was using XL eggs, so they spilled over a bit. 

The finished product.  Those crackers are saltines, but here they're just called Premium, made by Nabisco.  (I managed to make the connection because of the Premium Plus ones at home).  Anyway.  They come as two squares together, so if you want normal sized squares you have to break them in half along the perforation.  Like graham crackers.

Then Wen Ying did her lunch, and we sat out on the deck and ate, and talked for a bit.  Then I went back to my room for more homeworks, and then around 4:45 I was feeling a bit peckish again, so I went for some tea and biscuits.  Then a bit more work.  Then Wen Ying came and asked me what my dinner was going to be, and I said I didn't know, and she said she didn't either.  So she put some frozen chips in the oven, and we figured we'd rustle something else up once they were ready.  Then I had a flash of pure genius.  Poutine! We had fries, no cheese curds, but grated will do in a pinch, and gravy mix.  It was great.  The gravy mix wasn't regular brown gravy.  It was called pepper sauce.  But it still tasted like awesome.  And I've converted Wen Ying to it's awesomeness too.  She loved it.

Ca va faire un grand poutine! (Mais il gout come l'awesomenss.)  (I haven't done French in a while.  Can you tell?)

That's when the telly went on, and Indiana Jones was found.  It was the new one, just in case there's any purists who might regard the third one as the last one, and might be confused as to which I'm talking about.  Anyway.  Then it stayed on for the rest of the movie, and another movie after that.  Then it was quarter to midnight, so naturally I went back to work.  Did a bit of the lab report.  Then shower.  Then bed.  Then a bit of blah blah blogging before sleep. 

Now on to the spiders.  Mr. Stripey, who you'll remember from previous chapters, has long since vacated his Abode by the Road.  I think he was only actually there for a few days.  Anyway.  He, or his twin, perhaps, has showed up on campus.  I was doing some last minute studying at one of the picnic tables on Friday evening, and I noticed him over in the trees, just chillin' in the middle of his web.  Naturally I went over and took a picture.  I can't show you, however, because it somehow saved to my phone memory rather than the memory card, so I can't get it off my phone.  Or well.  It's probably blurry anyway.  Today I looked up a guide to Australian spiders, and if I found the right one, then Mr. Stripey is actually a female.  Oops.  Mrs. Stripey, I guess.

Now as the sub heading indicates, this is about plural spiders.  The other one is not nearly so heartwarming a story.  Wen Ying went to bed about half way through Indiana Jones.  During the second movie I was back and forth to the bathroom on a teeth cleaning mission.  I walked back to the telly with some dental floss, and about a minute later I heard an exclamation from Wen Ying, followed by 'Christine! Come here!'.  So over I go.  She points to the ground and says that there's a great big spider.  It was hard to spot at first, because it was semi dark, and the spider was right beside a shag rug.  It was huge.  Like, a small dog.  OK, maybe not.  But still.  Shock and panic.  I tossed Wen Ying a shoe, and the poor fellow unfortunately met his demise.  It was gross, and frightening.  And I hope it never happens again, because Wen Ying won't be here to save me.  It'll be me and the munchkins huddled in a corner, and Sarah dealing with it, I suppose.  Ugh.

Now on an unrelated topic, I've found myself thinking a lot about South Dakota recently.  I very much want to be back there.  I think I'm in withdrawal.  The weather here is hot and sunny, and there's pine trees, and slightly familiar but slightly strange shops and ways of doing things.  Also, Wen Ying's car smells like Grandma's car.  I don't know what's up with that.  But it certainly triggers memories.  Another thing is that Wen Ying mentioned talking with her grandmother, so that made me wish my grandparents were still around.  I wondered if they'd have given me some money for my adventure.  And what they'd think of it.  And I always want to send a postcard to Grandpa Charlie, but I can't, because he's not there.  So I send one to his sister instead, whom I've never even met, but I'm sure we'd get on.  If I keep going I'm going to cry, so I'm going to talk about something else.

First of all, a correction on an earlier post.  I mentioned that I'd seen a road kill 'roo in the median of the highway, and lamented my first kangaroo being on the wrong side of the life/death scale.  Some days later I realized that that was in fact not correct.  I saw those kangaroos on the golf course way back in O-Week or something.  Totally forgot.

Lastly, today's Oz-isms:  tracky-dacks means track pants, and someone who's quite keen about something could be described as 'keen as mustard'.  I like that one.

Chapter 21 - One Month On

In which our hero hits a home run, and also reflects on living in the future for a whole month ...

Yes, gentle reader.  It's been a month exactly.  Both in the sense of February 11 to March 11, and in the sense of exactly four weeks having passed.  Conveniently this year February has decided to co-operate and play nice, and so four weeks is a month by dates as well.  Good old February.

First of all, I'm enjoying myself and doing well.  By the end of my first week I could get down to the shopping centre and train station, on the bus to campus, and back home without getting lost.  I also knew where the bike shop was, and the post office, and had a phone and some mobile internet.  By the end of the second week I could find my way around campus without getting lost, and I'd been up to Brisbane and down to the beach.  By the end of the third week I'd learned all about dot product and cross product and other complicated vector things, and freaked out, and solved the freakout with some all-weekend studying.  By the end of the fourth week I'd learned to play basic cricket, and also smushed more maths into my head.  As they used to say on 'Made In Canada', I think that went well.

It's weird being here.  It's also weird that it's not that weird.  People are still people.  They utter expletives at their computers when they act up, and the kids still have to ask if they can have dessert, and pout when mom says no.

 (Also, just an aside, I just received a post card from the ARCTIC! YAYYYYYY!).  Check it:

Yaaaay! Thanks Emily!

Anyways.  It's weird because it's February/March and it's all warm all over the place.  It's weird having to put on sunscreen everyday because the sun is so intense you can get burned in like half an hour.  It's weird that people drive on the wrong side of the road.  It's weird that it's February/March and it's back to school time.  Today I caught myself feeling that Hallowe'en was approaching, because I was three weeks into the start of school, so naturally it was nearly the end of September.  I suppose this means it's also not my birthday soon either.  What a bummer. 

It's weird trying to figure out when my friends and family will be online for chatting because they're not on the same clock as me.  It's weird that I can so easily just settle in and be in a routine, and it's like everything is normal.  Home. School. Eat. Sleep.  Make a few friends.  Watch telly.  I guess this is the way it goes.  People have to do that or they wouldn't survive, right?  People move far away all the time, to weirdly different cultures, and weirdly different climates.  They adapt, and figure out how things work, and get on with it.  This is a bit of a weird climate, but only in the sense that there's not snow or real coldness.  It hasn't been unbearably hot yet.  Today was really quite pleasant.  (It gets a bit melty when you're riding up the hill with a heavy back pack and a shopping bag hanging off the handle bars at 2:30 p.m., but otherwise it's quite good.)  Nice breeze, sunshine, not too hot.  If everyday was like this it would be paradise.  There's geckos here, which I just found out are what make that clicking noise at night.  I'm pretty sure there's no lizards native to my part of the world at all.  At least, if there is, I've never seen them.  There's no squirrels here, which actually isn't that weird.  The other night I saw a mystery critter run across the road in front of the car.  Wen Ying thought it was a cat, but I'm pretty sure it was a mystery critter.  I told her that at home it would have been a raccoon or a skunk, then had to explain what a skunk was.  As soon as I said they smell bad she knew what I was talking about. 

This isn't really a weirdly bizarre culture either.  There's a few language differences, but overall we're speaking English, so we'd have to try pretty hard to be misunderstood.  There's things like how we're both former English colonies, now members of the Commonwealth.  The money mostly comes in the same denominations, which is great.  Except the $5 bills are purple, and the $10s are blue, and the $20s are red.  The coins that are the size of a dime are worth 5 cents, and the ones the size of a quarter are worth something besides 25 cents.  Probably 10.  There is no 25 cents here.  No pennies either.  Just 5, 10, 20, 50, $1, and $2.  And they don't call them things like we do.  Like nickles, dimes, quarters, loonies, toonies.  Just 5 cents, 10 cents, whatever.  That's fine.  I guess North America is the odd one out on the world stage on that score.  It's just interesting.

Another thing, too, is that the rain here is really loud.  The other day I was in the library at school and I could hear when it started pouring.  Probably something to do with the buildings not being insulated in the same way they are at home, because they don't need to be.  I haven't experiences lightning and thunder yet here.  Wind and torrential downpours doesn't necessarily mean thunderstorm. 

I don't really know what else.  Every once in a while I'm slightly flabbergasted that I'm doing this, and then I start thinking about money, and then stop to avert a panic attack.  (I am perfectly willing to accept donations if there's any kind benefactors out there ... ).  I feel like I had heaps of profound things to say and reflect on, but they've all vacated my brain.

I think that's enough reflecting.  On to the cricket.

This past weekend I didn't get much work done.  The kids were home, and so I got distracted by doing stuff with them.  On Saturday I did a bit of stuff, but then The Last Crusade was on later so we watched that, then I watched another movie after and did laundry.  Sunday we went to see Oz the Great and Powerful, then it was 3:15, then there was some cake, then Sarah asked if I was going to come out and play cricket, and I said that there was work I should be doing, and she exerted her wise grown up influence by saying "Booooriiiiing", so I went out and played cricket, figuring it was part of my cultural education and experience. 

It was fun when I got the hang of it.  We were just using a plastic bat, and at some point Sarah remarked that it was cracked.  Later on I took a swing at the ball, and the bat broke in two.  Oops.  #2 wasn't too impressed, as I'm pretty sure the bat was technically his.  Luckily there was a backup bat, so play continued.  Very early on I hit one onto the roof, but it kindly rolled down onto the trampoline so it was easily retrievable.  Actually, come to think of it, there's a metal roof on this house.  That's probably why the rain is so loud.

The very first time I hit the ball I dropped the bat and started running, but then had to go back for it cuz that's just not cricket.  You're supposed to bring it with you and use it to touch the safe zone by the other wicket thingy.  It's called the crease.  If you step out of it you can be got out.  Luckily our game only lasted for an hour or less, probably, not several days. 

Near the end I was bowling (pitching, sort of) and #1 was batting, and I kept hitting her with the ball because my arm was tired and my aim was going.  I got hit a few times myself by other bowlers, so I guess we can sort of call it even.  I certainly slept well last night. 

I also discovered that The Graham Norton show is on here on Sunday nights.  It's gotta be last week's episode, though, cuz I think it airs on Sunday nights in the UK, and when it's Sunday night here I don't think it's Sunday night there yet.  Oh well.  It was fun.

Lastly, on the bus home, I saw a dude with a surfboard in a surfboard cozy.  Observe.

Surfboard cozy!

OK, now actually lastly, look what I saw at K-Mart.  (I was looking for a new cricket bat.  I couldn't find a toy one, but the real wooden ones were only $6 - $10.)

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?! Made by Australia's Choice.  Fer realz.

Chapter 20 - And Another Thing ...

In which our hero remembers a few things that she forgot to mention earlier ....

I've been forgetting this first one for nearly a month now.  On my very first day Wen Ying made me a sandwich for lunch.  I asked if there was mustard.  She wasn't sure what I was talking about but said I was free to scope out the fridge.  There wasn't any.  I ended up using salad cream or something, which is more a replacement for Miracle Whip than mustard.

Later that day Sarah took me shopping, and I was asking her about it.  I said something like, "Is there just regular yellow mustard here?  And is it like English mustard, or like wimpy American mustard?"  She wasn't sure, cuz she only ever occasionally used Dijon for salad dressings.  (Now just as a disclaimer, calling it "Wimpy American Mustard" is not meant to be a crack at America, or at what we in North America call regular mustard.  It just means it's not nearly as strong as English mustard, which literally brings tears to my eyes and a shudder to my heart.)  (Also, I should say, I very much prefer the wimpy American mustard.  It's all the flavour without the pain.)  Anyways.  We took a gander down the condiments aisle, and I kid you not, this is what we found:

I literally laughed out loud in surprise and amusement.

So naturally I got some, and have enjoyed it on my sandwiches ever since.  Also, just as a little warning/disclaimer/FYI to future wanderers in this magical land, Subway doesn't have regular yellow mustard as a sauce option.  And capsicum means green pepper.  I think I said that earlier, but it's also related to ordering at Subway, so I thought I'd toss it in again.

Here's another thing that happened.  The other day the munchkins came home, and I heard this loud clatter against my door.  (My room is along the path from the garage to the rest of the house).  I later looks out, and realized that #2, who's a young lad of six, had chucked his shoes down right at my door.  I was going to ask him to pick them up, and then it struck me that they looked almost the size of my own shoes.  So I tried one on, and it fit.  Seriously.  My feet are the same size as a six year old boy's.  Well, nearly.  My toes were ever so slightly squished in a way that would be rather uncomfortable over a long period of time.  But still.  Slightly ridiculous, no?  He does have biggish feet for a six year old, though.  And I do have smallish feet for a "grown up".  Not sasquatch feet, like some people.

Anyways.  Friday evening it was dark when I came home.  First time riding the bike at night, but I had my trusty MagLite (Mag-Light?) and flashy back red light, so it was OK.  When I entered the garage, I looked over at the window and there was seriously a gecko doing an impression of Danny Bhoy doing an impression of a gecko.

Danny Bhoy doing an impression of a gecko.

The family was out bowling when I got home, so I carried on with unpacking my back pack and thinking about dinner and watching The Block.  I soon heard a clattering noise at the front screen door, and assumed it was the family coming home.  I thought maybe the kids were trying to come in and the door was locked, as it usually is.  So I went to help them out by unlocking it.  It wasn't kids.  It was a cat.  Trying to get out.  Just to clarify, there's no cats that live in this house.  It was rather shocking.  I ran through the possibilities in my head - was it a random cat that had got in through a forgotten open door?  Had #1 found it and decided it needed a home, despite it having a collar and tags, but now it wanted to escape?  There appeared to be no open doors, though.  And I didn't really think Sarah would allow a stray.  I yelled to Wen Ying that there was a cat, and she was just as surprised as I was.  In it's desperation the poor thing was clambering 2/3 of the way up the screen door in it's attempts to escape.  When I approached it ran like a psycho to the other end of the house, jumped on the table where the hermit crabs live in the play room, jumped half way up the window, caught itself on the venetian blinds, and climbed through them.  I went and opened the back deck door, hoping I could maybe herd it out.  Then I went and opened the blinds, and it was sitting there calmly on the window sill.  I was able to pet it, but when I made an attempt to sort of pick it up or something, it was off again to the front of the house.  I then opened the side door, and went into the craft room to see if I could convince it to come out.  It did, and luckily it noticed the open door and took advantage of it.  Madness.  All I can figure is that it followed me in through the garage door when I came in, and it had only been in the house for a minute or two.  All this time, too, Wen Ying, who laughs in the face of cockroaches and spiders, was hiding in the bathroom because the cat freaked her out so.  It's a good balance, though.  She rescues me from nasty buggies, I deal with random cats/dogs/wombats/other fluffy things.

Chapter 19 – I've Seen Things, I've Seen Them With My Eyes ....

In which our hero sees things, often in disguise .. .

Now I warned you, dear reader, that once classes got going that I'd probably not be posting as often. And yet, it's been just over a week, and you've all been saying “Where's the blog?”. Some of these are valid, as they're Mom and Dad actually wondering how I'm doing, and they don't do FB, so they don't get the little things from there. Some others are certain other people, who shall remain nameless, who've launched wild accusations at my person claiming I've gotten them addicted to my little stories and then cut them off. Well. Those certain other people can go jump off a dock, because I'm pretty sure I've already done more posts than they've done ever, especially when they were off experiencing fun and adventure and really wild things. So there. Blah. (I'm sticking my tongue out at you.)

Here is a chicken that I saw, thinking it might come into my room.  The screen was down, though, so it couldn't.

Anyways. So yes, it has been a while. The last thing I mentioned was having lots of trouble with vectors. They still cause me trouble, but not as much. I'm kind of getting the hang of it. It's all getting double-re-enforced, though, because I'm learning it in electromagnetics, where I'm expected to mostly know what's going on, because it's a year 3 class, and then a day later for the “first time” in maths, where we're not completely expected to know what's going on, because it's a year 2 class. Also, I got the vectors lecture notes from year 1 maths from the book shop, and worked my way through about half of that. It's all going much better.

So I guess I'll go chronologically, from when last we spoke. I spent my Friday evening doing homework, I think. I probably watched The Block while eating dinner, then got to work. I've taken up reading A Dance With Dragons, which is fun. I'll have to be careful to not get too involved, to a point where I do that and not school work. I've also taken to sleeping with my French doors closed, because the rain is just so loud on the awning outside. And the cockatoos make some kind of God-awful racket too. So that means I can have a light on without buggies coming in through the hole in the screen. Which means I can read in bed.

Saturday I slept in, then did homework. Lots of maths. All maths all the time. (It's maths here, not math. And sport, not sports.) It basically rained all day, and I did homework all day, except for the occasional tea break. Then there was some dinner and watching of Game of Thrones. The Blu-Ray player can play things directly off a USB, which is awesome. That might be normal. I have no idea. But it's awesome. I wish my Dad had one of those (*cough* *hint*). I should have mentioned that the munchkins were away at their Dad's all weekend, so it was very quiet. And it was raining, so basically all there was to do was study.

Sunday Wen Ying and Sarah and I went out to Harbour Town for a bit, which is like an outlet mall deal. We just wandered for an hour or so, then came home. Then more studying. Then The Block was on, and Sunday nights is when they do the room reveals, and we find out who won for the week. Last week was the week for the formal lounge, hallway, and storage space. Two teams turned their formal lounge into a third bedroom, and one of them won. This week they're doing the kitchen and laundry. I missed it on Thursday and Friday though. Anyways. A mostly uneventful weekend.  Here are some things I saw at Harbour Town.

One of those generic sort of sporty t-shirts, but it says South Dakota.  How cool is that?  South Dakota hardly ever gets a shout-out. Unless Mt. Rushmore is involved, and even then it's not mentioned really.

Sour Gummy Ears.  It's not that weird, right?  We have those gummy lips, after all.

This is a bubble bath disguised as a frothy fountain.

 

To prepare for electromagnetics on Monday, I decided to copy down the slides that are posted online, rather than print them, so they'd be more in my head. It certainly made me feel more like I knew what was going on. I then found a computer lab and did my online Lab Induction, which is necessary for entry into the lab classes. It took me forever to get the stupid thing printed, though. Apparently it doesn't work off Firefox, only IE or Chrome. Whatever. It worked in the end. I went and did some grocery shopping on the way home at the local shopping centre. Then it was like 5:30 or 6:00 by the time I got home, and I hadn't brought a lunch because I thought I'd be home immediately after class, which ends at 12. So needless to say I was rather hungry, having not eaten since like 10 a.m. Then The Block, then bed. Tuesday is one of my 8 a.m. starts, so I wanted to go to bed early. 

A shot on campus with the sun shining, but the rain clouds looming.  If you recall the earlier pics from the campus tour, I'm standing beside the bike lock-up with the paintings.  I'm also in disguise as a uni student.

 

I woke up at 6:10. The alarm was supposed to go at 6:00. When I looked at it, it indicated that it had gone off. I figured I'd either slept through it, or I'd turned if off in my sleep, which has never ever happened to me ever in my life. So I made my breakfast sandwich to go, and ate part of it on the way, and part of it after my class. Tuesday was Club Sign-On day. I signed up for Griffith University Young Engineers (GUYE), GERMS (something to do with help with resume and cover letter writing), and Griffith University Skeptics and Freethinkers (GUSF). They had a poster of Stephen Fry, so naturally I was drawn to that kiosk. Basically the idea is they sit around and talk about various topics, some controversial, some not, some believable, some not. It sounded interesting, and the membership fee was only $2.

That day I also had two free sub coupons that I'd acquired during O-Week, and that expired that day, so my friend from Denmark and I went down to Subway to cash them in. (Three cheers for free lunch!) Then I got back just about a minute late for my first ever maths tutorial, in which I knew there was going to be a quiz. The problem was, though, see, is I thought it would be at the end. It wasn't. It was at the beginning. And I was late for it. Augh! I was all flustered and discombobulated, and I thought I'd done well, but then when we took it up I realized I'd made really stupid mistakes on all of them. There's no excuse for the integral, which was the first one, where I screwed up the limits. It's always upper limit minus lower limit, but I did the other way 'round. Then the other two were vector things, dot product and cross product, for which my excuse was I was flustered and I'd only ever heard about them for the first time ever the week before. So there we go. First ever academic evaluation of my university career, and it was an epic fail. I'm not too worried about though, because it only contributes something like 1% to my final mark. I'll just do better next time. 

I saw a Burger King disguised as a Hungry Jacks.

I saw an ant-eater disguised as a bird.

It's trolleys, not carts.  In the background there is an elephant disguised as a car. (It's a very good disguise).

 

I did a bit more grocery shopping on the way home, and got some pre-made pizza bases from ALDI, so after a bit of homework I had pizza for dinner. Tasty. Pizza's the best. Speaking of tasty, the cheese I got on my first day is only just about finished. It's called Tasty Cheese. It's kind of cheddary. Maybe like a medium or old. It went on my pizza, along with mushrooms, green pepper (or capsicum, as it's called here), and olives. Best pizza ever. I don't know why people even eat pizza with anything besides those three things on. I guess some people are just weird.

Here is a bit of Australia disguised as South Dakota.  (I see this every day, then I dream I'm in SD sometimes.)  Like I said to someone, there's bits here that look like bits there, which makes me want to be there.  (I miss you guys.)

There's pine trees and also palm trees.  It's a bit confusing. This isn't my house, it's just one that's on the way home from the station.

Both Monday and Tuesday they played episodes of Big Bang Theory right after The Block, and they were ones I'd never seen before, so I watched those. They're a bit behind the broadcast, but it's OK. I don't mind. I'm resigned to the fact that I'll basically have two years of shows to catch up on when I get home.

Wednesday was another late start day. It was also the first day it was not raining in the morning, so I rode my bike down to the station. Unfortunately I encountered my first Aussie road-kill on the way. Not really an even I was looking forward to, not like pavlovas or koalas or something. It was something light brown, with dark rings on it's tail. Larger than a squirrel, but smaller than a raccoon. Maybe a possum, or a bandicoot. Spell check doesn't seem to like bandicoot. Oh well. Anyway. The poor thing was fairly well pancaked, and covered about half of the bike lane I was riding in. The next day I forgot it was there until I nearly rode over it. Minutes later, on the bus, I saw a road-kill roo in the median of the motorway. Blarg. What a day. I was hoping my first kangaroo would be alive and kicking. Well, maybe not kicking, unless it's far away. It must have escaped from the nearby golf course, which advertises golfing with the roos. 

Here are some squirrels disguised as chickens.

 

I had my first ever lab on Wednesday, too, which went heaps better than my first ever quiz. (By “first ever” I mean in uni, not ever in my life). Because it was a lab day I had to wear closed-toed shoes, despite it being the first sunny day in a while. My feet got kinda hot. I wish there was safety sandals. The lab was good fun, though. Both Hugo and Andrew were there to supervise, so we got the thing all set up properly, and then used a probe thingy and a voltmetre to see the lines of voltage moving away from the electrodes in the little tank of water. Then we marked them on a grid. Pretty basic stuff, but interesting. Apparently there's one in the future where we get an electric field metre of some sort and walk around campus measuring the electric fields around things. I'm looking forward to that one.

Here are some very large things of curry powder I saw in an Asian grocery when I returned to Harbour Town on Wednesday arvo. (That means afternoon). (You don't really say the "r", because you say it with an Aussie accent).

Here's some jim-jams I saw at Harbour Town too.  I don't need to explain why this is weird and unique and interesting, do I?

Rissoles! Reminds me of that one episode of "Are You Being Served?" where someone gets food poisoning from the rissoles.  I still don't know what they are though.

Thursday was another early start, and I actually brought a lunch because I was going to be there all day. Thursday evening was the first meeting of the Skeptics and Freethinkers Club. I was very tempted to not go, because I was tired and hungry and was sure I wouldn't belong. But I did. And it was good. There was free beer, because it's subsidized by the Student Guild for club meetings. I was planning to buy my dinner from the UniBar, but they were only selling potato wedges or fries, and also they didn't take cards. So I was quite hungry. I met some nice people though. It was an eclectic crowd. A few people in psychology, one with a bachelor's of IT and working on a masters in secondary education, one guy from marine biology, a couple from engineering. It was interesting. Hard to hear ourselves talk, though, cuz of the music playing. I got that scratchy throat thing that happens when I talk too loud for too long, and eventually just start coughing. Around 7:30, one of the waitresses came around and said if we stayed till 8 there'd be free pizza because the footy was on. Apparently “footy” refers to Aussie rules football as well as rugby league. I watched some of it. Those guys are huge.

Anyway. I decided to take up the marine biology chap on a ride to Helensvale, so we basically stayed for the pizza then left. It was like 9:30 by the time I got home. I was glad, though, and it was fun. Plus, I don't start till 12 on Fridays, so that's alright too.

So Friday I awoke at 7:30 to a reminder text from Sarah that there was no power that day due to maintenance work, so don't close the gate when I leave. I then went back to sleep. I awoke again at 8 to my alarm, which I turned off and promptly went back to sleep. I awoke again at 10:20 to some texts from Vodafone, which was lucky, because there was about 25 minutes until I had to leave for the bus. I'd left by bike at the station the night before because it was dark and rainy, and I just got the marine biology chap to drop me right at the house. So I had to walk. It was another lab day, so I had to wear my shoes again. It was even hotter. I got quite melty on the way down to the station, but I got there on time, and ate brekkie on the way, so it was all good.

New Kit Kat Chunky 3 Choc Mint.  It's mint as.

Now it's Saturday. I slept in again. Then looked at some cake books with the munchkins, then now I'm doing this. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is on later, and we're planning on watching it. At least, we hope to. Sarah hasn't approved yet. Raiders was on two weeks ago and we switched the channel during the bit with the big Nazi and the air plane propeller, just cuz it was a bit gory for kids. They watched the snakes, though, and the skeletons. And there was no reports of night mares, so I guess that's good.

I have lots of work to do, and lots of notes to add to from the online slides. I'm hoping to get all the writing stuff done today, then it can just be math practice tomorrow. Aw, nuts. There's a lab report to do too. Blarg.