Steak, Sausages and State of Origin!

With my time in Oz quickly coming to an end and my bank account being very empty, I have resorted to strictly cheap/free means of entertaining myself.  I just spent a very extended weekend in Sydney because I had no reason not to, including lots of cheap/free things, like wandering through Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens.  We took a trip to Paddy's Markets in Chinatown, where I bought a cheap messenger bag and generally enjoyed walking around and looking at what the shops had to offer.

Actually, there was a lot of general wandering since that tends to be a very free thing to do, and when you're wandering with a friend, it's a great was to pass time while still enjoying being in Australia.  Not that sitting around and watching movies is not a great free thing to do, too.  There has been a LOT of that, these days.  Another way to have memorable experiences is to miss your bus back home by just a couple minutes, with the next bus being four and a half hours later, although that does not come highly recommended.  I happened to manage such a feat, but since I really have nothing going on, it wasn't tragic, but just meant I got to wander a bit more.

Anyway, I got back (late-ish) Tuesday night, then Wednesday night was State of Origin, a National Rugby League game of Superbowl magnitude to League fans.  Rugby League is mostly followed by people in Queensland and New South Wales, so State of Origin is a three-game series where the two states face off, last night begin the first match.  Then, to make it a true Australian experience, we had steaks and sausages grilling for dinner.

I'm not the biggest sports enthusiast as it is, so my friends were obviously more excited about it that I was, but I did watch a lot of the game, and appreciated it.  I think I like rugby a bit more than American football-- the action is constant, none of the start and stop nonsense that usually makes me loose interest after the first quarter.  It was a fun evening with good friends :)

School's out for summer!... winter.... whatever

I had my last Australian class on Thursday and, by some lovely twist of fate, I have no final exams!  So last week I turned in a final paper and two final projects, then spent this weekend writing one more final paper to wrap it all up, and I just turned it in!  I am FREE!!!!!!!!

...now what?

My flight was booked for a bit after the end of finals, June 8, and my bank account is screaming for me to stop spending money, so it looks like I'll be passing away the time in Canberra.  There are plenty of things here that I never got around to doing, so it's definitely not a bad thing.

It is a bit strange--I remember the beginning of the semester when I filled out my schedule and May seemed so far away, but now I am finished with the University of Canberra.  It seems like such a short stint.  I have just a few more weeks here, and then I will be back in Tennessee for the summer.

May is here, and I feel like I should have spring fever and be itching to be outside, but instead I'm wearing sweaters and cuddling under blankets with hot tea watching movies.  The leaves are falling off the trees and shorts are never a good idea if you're walking out of the apartment... but at the same time, I'm seeing friends' pictures of frolicking in spring grass and camping, and I get confused at to what I'm supposed to be feeling.

I'm choosing to not look at my calendar any more because I don't want to know how few days I have left here, but when the time does come around, the cold is probably what will be getting me on the airplane.  And, of course, getting to see my family again.  I do love you guys.

Coming of Age in Australia

This week was my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is the last week of classes, so everyone is really feeling the pressure of impending deadlines and ferocious assessments, but my *wonderful* housemates and neighbors all took some time off to get together to celebrate my 21st :)  I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty much the best folks ever.  It's no secret that I've missed having Mexican restaurants on every corner that we default to about once a week, so they treated me by driving out about 20 minutes away to a decent Mexican joint.... OOOOOh it was good to have refried beans and enchiladas again!

This semester has really been amazing, and that has a lot to do with the fact that the people I live with are so great!  From the beginning, they have made my roommate (Nikki, another exchange student from North Carolina) and myself feel loved and like a part of the group.  There is NEVER a dull moment, and there is always someone around to help with procrastination, which is the most important thing for friends to do.

Here's the crew!  In the above picture is my housemate Alex, myself, roommate Nikki, neighbors Bri, Jess, Delfina, Jovi, housemates Amy and Edwin, neighbors Nicole and Ella, housemate Kyle and neighbor Aaron, with the picture being taken by another neighbor, Huw.  We're all in the same building and are in and out of each others' houses all the time.  Fun, fun times always abound.

Above are some of the guys, Aaron, Edwin, Huw and Alex.  They keep things interesting, that's for sure.

After a very satisfying dinner, we went back home for an Australian dessert-- Pavlova!  It's basically just meringue in cake form, which is ridiculously sugary and DELICIOUS!  The edges get crusty, which is the best part.  It was lovely.

Then, as if I do not consume altogether too much sugar as it is, I was given EVERY FLAVOR OF TIMTAMS!!!!  My friends know exactly how much of a fatty I am :)  I'm going to come back to Tennessee fat and happy and extremely depressed about having to leave all of these amazing friends.  They're the best! 

Groovin the MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

In addition to it being Mothers' Day ( I <3 you Momma!!)  Last Sunday was the Groovin the Moo music festival in Canberra!!  Groovin the Moo is a travelling festival that goes around to a few rural-ish cities, bringing big names to folks outside of the major capitols, groovin the "moo," as in having to set up the stages next to cow paddocks (tehe).  Canberra somehow managed to get on the roster-- it's not THAT small of a city... but it's not huge.  And there WERE pastures surrounding the stages... but anyway.

The festival was actually held on campus, making it super convenient!  It was a beautiful autumn day, perfect for being out of doors listening to awesome music.  The shows started at 10:30 a.m. and went until 10:30 that evening, so it was definitely a day packed full with awesomeness.  

The lineup consisted of a lot of Australian bands, with a couple thrown in from the US, UK and one from Norway, including:  AC Slater, Architecture In Helsinki, Art Vs Science, The Aston Shuffle, Birds of Tokyo, Bliss n Eso, Cut Copy, Darwin Deez (USA), Datarock (NOR), Drapht, The Drums (USA), The Go! Team (UK), Gotye, Gyroscope, The Holidays, Horrorshow, House Of Pain (USA), The Jezabels, Nina Las Vegas (triple j), Sampology (AV/ DJ Set), Tim & Jean, UNKLE Live (UK), Washington and The Wombats (UK).

Yeah, so before I came to Australia, I had actually heard of none of the bands that were there, but my amazing housemates have been introducing me to the better ones over the course of the semester so that I was able to fully appreciate the concerts!  It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!!!!!!!!!!!  The performances were split up over three stages, so there was always at least one, often two, shows going.   I was told that it sold out at 15,000 tickets, and then 500 more were sold on the day of the festival.  Needless to day, it was PACKED, but that's part of the festival atmosphere.

 

It was warm during the day, but it IS getting close to winter, so after the sun went down the temperatures crashed to a bit below freezing... but the later shows were packed and lively, so as long as you were squished into the crowd, it was warm and toasty.  DEFINITELY a great experience!!

   

Just for kicks, here are some of my favorite songs from my favorite bands of the festival! 

(except live is more along the lines of lasers and strobe lights enough to set anyone off into a fit of seizures)

Lord of the Rings, Sydney Opera House Style.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in January when I was in the state of limbo where all of my friends were back at school but I was sitting around at home waiting to catch a plane, I decided to look at what would be at the Sydney Opera House while I was on the continent.  It just so happened that there was something REALLY cool scheduled for my birthday weekend, so I got Charlie on board and we got tickets for something four months in advance (completely unlike the procrastinating, spontaneous college kids we are).

This weekend, the time finally came around to make the trip to Sydney for an Opera House date!  What was the amazing show worthy of such premeditation?  A showing of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  The catch-- the music for the entire movie being performed live on stage by the Sydney Symphony, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and the Sydney Children's Choir.  Needless to say, it was mind-blowing.

Here's the view from our seats on the very back row (since we're poor university students and all).  They told us that we couldn't take pictures, but I've never been that great at doing what is expected of me... so you get a sneaky peak.  Fun Fact: (according to Wikipedia) "The Sydney Opera House Grand Organ is the world's largest mechanical tracker-action pipe organ."  It was really big and I'm sure it sounds amazing-- another time.    

Now, I'm ruined.  Even with the best sound system, nothing will ever compare to watching the movie with the live musical performance.  It was especially awesome for Charlie because he just went to New Zealand and was able to see lots of places where the movie was filmed, but we can't all be that cool.  We had a *lovely* time :)