This will probably be the penultimate post because I have so little time left and so little motivation to post more frequently! Hope you enjoy it! Apologies that it has been so long since the last one!
Quick Hits
- Ripper is a word that Aussies might use to in the place of something like "awesome" in Americanese. Example: I'm off to uni for 12 straight hours! Ripper! (used sarcastically in this sense)
- Two of my friends used phrases that I don't think are very common among Aussies, but I'll include them anyway because I found them humorous. The first was when one burst into the room and excitedly asked us, "What's the crack?" Silence...because we were all confused. And then my other friend, who's a little quicker on the draw, replied, "Oh, so like what's the hippy haps?"
- I think if I were a super villain I would be Mr. Freeze from Batman's universe. This is largely due to the fact that in this country, it's customary to travel on the left side of whatever: the road, sidewalk, staircase. This creates many awkward situations because whenever I'm on a collision course, which is often, I go right out of habit and they go to their left out of habit, and then they're confused because I'm still coming at them and they freeze. It happens every time. I have the innate ability to make people stop going where they want to go. I am powerful and mighty. I don't fear Batman whatsoever.
Not sure what's going on here...
- One of the reasons that I decided to come to Australia was that I was under the very false impression that the sun never stopped shining here and that all was glorious and pleasant weather wise. When I tell this to people from Melbourne they laugh in my face because apparently Melbourne is the Ithaca of Australia. It is renowned for "four seasons in one day" but recently we've just been experiencing the season of pure, unadulterated crap all day.
- I've picked up another job! The first one is serving in the dining hall. This one is doing groundskeeping work! It's a lot of fun because I use power tools and get outside and sit on a zipply little ride-on mower. People get a little sad that I wake them up with my obnoxiously noisy and persistent groundskeeping though. All I can say is that it hurts me more than you and hope they buy that.
- If someone feels that someone else should be widely regarded as an admirable human being he might call that person a legend. Example, "Thanks for the autograph Kevin Garnett! You're a legend! Please don't eat me!"
- another way to express your admiration for someone is to call him/her a "top bloke/chick"
In a conversation about someone's relationship with her twin: "Do you ever forget which one you are?" --Will P.
Randomly, or perhaps in light of something I was saying about my background, "Are you quite Asian?" --Sarah S.
ANZAC Day and Yarra Cruise
ANZAC Day is a memorial day of sorts for the military from Australia and New Zealand who have given their lives in service of their countries. I think it originated as a way to memorialize the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers who fought the Ottomans at Gallipoli in WWI, but it turns into a general day of remembrance in practice.
This year for ANZAC Day Queen's had it's first ever service (before now I think university regulations have hindered services at the colleges). It was held at 7am out on the front lawn and the weather was suitably somber (raining buckets) as we huddled together under our umbrellas and the tiny little tent where the college chaplain told us a story and gave a speech. I forget what the message was but the story was about a guy from Queen's who fought at Gallipoli I think. He was a seminary guy or something and greatly admired by his men. He took a bullet to the chest but was saved by his bible. In the next month or so, however, he was killed in the line of duty. However many years later, I also forget this detail, someone found the Bible with the hole shot through it and returned it to Queen's or something.
One of the fantastic things about ANZAC Day, besides taking time to remember those who have given their lives in service of their country and besides the fact that lectures are all canceled for the day, is ANZAC Day Cookies (or biscuits in Aussie language)! The dining hall just kept cranking them out and we just kept knocking em back. They're tender little oat and coconut kind of deals and they are super delicious.
Along with the ANZAC celebration came another big Queen's event, the annual Yarra River Cruise! Basically a costume party on a boat. The theme this year was SPACE! So naturally, I went with the Space Jam Bugs Bunny costume. My friend Nikesh went as His Airness, Mr. Michael Jordan, and two other guys went as the blue alien from the Monstars. We looked dumb.
Another Queen's tradition for the "Booze Cruise" is that every time the boat passes under a bridge we're all supposed to either scull, spew, or score. I don't think we held too tightly to that though.
All in all, a fun night!
This year for ANZAC Day Queen's had it's first ever service (before now I think university regulations have hindered services at the colleges). It was held at 7am out on the front lawn and the weather was suitably somber (raining buckets) as we huddled together under our umbrellas and the tiny little tent where the college chaplain told us a story and gave a speech. I forget what the message was but the story was about a guy from Queen's who fought at Gallipoli I think. He was a seminary guy or something and greatly admired by his men. He took a bullet to the chest but was saved by his bible. In the next month or so, however, he was killed in the line of duty. However many years later, I also forget this detail, someone found the Bible with the hole shot through it and returned it to Queen's or something.
One of the fantastic things about ANZAC Day, besides taking time to remember those who have given their lives in service of their country and besides the fact that lectures are all canceled for the day, is ANZAC Day Cookies (or biscuits in Aussie language)! The dining hall just kept cranking them out and we just kept knocking em back. They're tender little oat and coconut kind of deals and they are super delicious.
Along with the ANZAC celebration came another big Queen's event, the annual Yarra River Cruise! Basically a costume party on a boat. The theme this year was SPACE! So naturally, I went with the Space Jam Bugs Bunny costume. My friend Nikesh went as His Airness, Mr. Michael Jordan, and two other guys went as the blue alien from the Monstars. We looked dumb.
Another Queen's tradition for the "Booze Cruise" is that every time the boat passes under a bridge we're all supposed to either scull, spew, or score. I don't think we held too tightly to that though.
All in all, a fun night!
KFC LAD'S NIGHT
Some time ago, there existed a group of young men (lads) with nothing to do and money and time to spend. The night was young, and they dove headfirst into repetitive games of Halo that also involved drinking. One of the young men, whose Halo prowess was unmatched in its poor quality, grew bored. Before long these daring individuals headed out into the world to spread their wings and drink alcohol in a different setting! Unbeknownst to them, however, all the pubs in town were closed (I think it was Easter or something?).
The new destination became KFC, and the crown jewel of the evening became stealing a light bulb from one of the overhanging lamps, for some reason. As fate would have it, the lads also ran into some random guy from an Australian reality talent show called X-Factor named Declan, out to buy chicken for his moms.
One shattered light bulb and a few unearthed signposts later, the gentlemen made their way back to Queen's and retired for the evening.
The new destination became KFC, and the crown jewel of the evening became stealing a light bulb from one of the overhanging lamps, for some reason. As fate would have it, the lads also ran into some random guy from an Australian reality talent show called X-Factor named Declan, out to buy chicken for his moms.
One shattered light bulb and a few unearthed signposts later, the gentlemen made their way back to Queen's and retired for the evening.
Don't think he won? No idea
Goose
Just wanted to take some space to give a shout out! My friend Goose (real name: "Gus") is a really wonderful guy, super nice and a great friend, but had a really bad accident where he ended up falling out of the fourth level window of our building somehow. Miraculously, his fall was broken by one of the trees in the garden, and he's well on the path to recovery now! If you're reading, Goose, thanks for making me feel welcome here at Queen's and always having a nice thing to say to everyone around! Wish you all the best in your recovery!
The Fattest Night on Earth
Every so often, my friend, Emma the American, and I try to catch dinner at some fancy restaurant to see what Melbourne has to offer. The latest in the series was a visit to Cumulus, a chic little place tucked away in a corner somewhere. It was a great night because after my daring orders of beef tongue and kimchee soft shell crab, I was still supes hungry. Before the night was done, I had consumed a Hungry Jack's (Burger King) burger or two and half of a massive eclair. It was the fattest night on earth.
Tasty
The Revue
One of the awesome things about many Queeners is how incredibly artistically talented they are! The Revue was a celebration of just that fact, and I was absolutely blown away by the performances of the young men and women that walk the halls of this goofy place! It was a long time ago, but my favorite performances were "Come Together," a few face-melting solos from three amazingly talented girls, and a performance of a bit from Monty Python.
Behold!
Behold!
Rugby: Bulls vs Rebels
My friend from Melbourne Uni Christian Union invited me to a Super 15 rugby game between the Melbourne Rebels and South Africa's Blue Bulls! It was really awesome and it made me 1. realize how much I miss playing and 2. realize how little we all knew about playing...
The game was PHYSICAL as heck and when people went down they just send medics to check them out and kept playing the game right over them! It was nuts! The Bulls had a much more sophisticated back-line (there was a play where the fly half kicked the ball all the way out to his wing, which is nuts) but the Rebels had a really tough pack and they just pounded the ball down the middle off consecutive rucks. They had a hyooooge number 8 too and a really nifty flyhalf.
Wouldn't argue with this guy...
Kurtley Beale was a menace out there!
Of course the Bulls won, AFL is bigger than rugby in Victoria by far, but it was a super game and I sat with my friend's group of South African church friends which was definitely a cool experience! Afrikaans is unlike any language I've ever heard before. They certainly love their rugby!
The game was PHYSICAL as heck and when people went down they just send medics to check them out and kept playing the game right over them! It was nuts! The Bulls had a much more sophisticated back-line (there was a play where the fly half kicked the ball all the way out to his wing, which is nuts) but the Rebels had a really tough pack and they just pounded the ball down the middle off consecutive rucks. They had a hyooooge number 8 too and a really nifty flyhalf.
Wouldn't argue with this guy...
Kurtley Beale was a menace out there!
Anything Goes
Every year the Melbourne Uni res colleges come together and put on a musical production. This year's was Anything Goes and, man, it was one of the best performances I've ever seen! Really well acted and funny and the leading lady was a Queener and she blew the roof off! It was such a good performance and made even better by the fact that half the cast and crew were from Queen's!
Check it out! http://fon.com.au/photography/anythinggoes/ (website by Queen's staffer Ben Fon)
Check it out! http://fon.com.au/photography/anythinggoes/ (website by Queen's staffer Ben Fon)
Red Bull Beat Suite
A few weeks ago, my friend convinced me to attend an Aloe Blacc concert with him (I didn't take much convincing) at the Victorian College of the Arts south of the river. We had no idea what was in store though! The show was actually a collaboration performance between the Australian Youth Orchestra, a number of renowned DJs from Australia and New Zealand, and some really impressive individual performers like Aloe Blacc, Ryan Ritchie, and Ladi6.
Not only was the venue absolutely stunning, the blend of the different synthesizers and vocals and strings brought out a completely unique and fresh sound. It was really, really, really cool. As much as I dislike the idea of energy drinks, it seems like Red Bull does do some very interesting and meaningful work!
The highlight of highlights was definitely the first part though. After two or three minutes of this spacey kind of white noise, one of the DJs dropped a really strong beat and the whole orchestra came in really heavy and everyone in the audience went nuts!
Definitely a memorable experience!
I don't know what this does but it's cool: http://beatsuite.redbull.com.au/#/Home
Not only was the venue absolutely stunning, the blend of the different synthesizers and vocals and strings brought out a completely unique and fresh sound. It was really, really, really cool. As much as I dislike the idea of energy drinks, it seems like Red Bull does do some very interesting and meaningful work!
The Melbourne Recital Center
Ryan Ritchie's bit sticks out in my mind as does a part where Ladi6 recorded a bunch of different loops of her own vocals right in front of us and just kept adding more and more layers until it was like a whole host of voices was coming at us. This dude DJ Perplex was also insane. The highlight of highlights was definitely the first part though. After two or three minutes of this spacey kind of white noise, one of the DJs dropped a really strong beat and the whole orchestra came in really heavy and everyone in the audience went nuts!
Definitely a memorable experience!
I don't know what this does but it's cool: http://beatsuite.redbull.com.au/#/Home
Rowing Day
Rowing Day is the biggest sporting day of the first semester! We all got up mega-early and started drinking for some reason. Then we all walked down to the river and sat around for a while waiting for the regatta to start. The four oldest colleges on the crescent (Newman, Ormond, Trinity and Queen's) are the ones that take Rowing Day the most seriously, and generally have the strongest boats. The rest of the colleges don't really care that much. So while the Queen's teams had been training for at least a month in preparation, some colleges had just assembled their first VIII that week.
Queen's has a really strong history of winning the races, but this year Ormond College, the biggest and most hated on the crescent, opened up their non-residential program really wide and brought in a huge pool of rowers. So these people didn't live at Ormond but they were allowed to compete for it specifically in rowing. This unfortunately meant that Ormond swept the regatta and Queen's had to content itself with three second place finishes and one third place.
Although the weather had been incredible the majority of the morning, by the time the races were up it was raining buckets. We had a quick BBQ on the riverbank and then it was off to a pub crawl! A pair of party buses shuttled us between various pubs around Melbourne and after all was said and done we went back to Queen's for some sandwiches and had a big old turn!
Me and Kat "the Mad Bear" Drutschinin (someone has courteously written "Tim Tam" on my forehead and given me some eye shadow here)
Good times.
Queen's Ball
The last big thing that I should update you all on is the Queen's Ball! Every self-respecting college on the crescent throws together one smashing, all-out, black-out party each year, and Queen's is nothing if not self-respecting! I think this is where the majority of the Student Club's funds go.
This year, the college had a Casablanca themed ball (I'm not sure how that played out though beyond the promo-video and the posters), and it was widely regarded as one of the best balls ever balled!
I had a wonderful time chilling with my friend and birthday boy Scott and the table of ragamuffins he assembled last minute and boogeying down to the tunes of performers that I really wasn't paying attention to. The food was excellent and the beer wasn't bad at all!
The down-side to having 500 drunk and raving college kids was that the security was pretty intent on chaos-control, so they were throwing people out left and right. My friend was dumped outside for having a drink on the dance floor and others were booted for being perceived as too drunk or rowdy. Tough break to be removed from something you shelled out almost $90 for so ruthlessly.
Queen's has a really strong history of winning the races, but this year Ormond College, the biggest and most hated on the crescent, opened up their non-residential program really wide and brought in a huge pool of rowers. So these people didn't live at Ormond but they were allowed to compete for it specifically in rowing. This unfortunately meant that Ormond swept the regatta and Queen's had to content itself with three second place finishes and one third place.
Although the weather had been incredible the majority of the morning, by the time the races were up it was raining buckets. We had a quick BBQ on the riverbank and then it was off to a pub crawl! A pair of party buses shuttled us between various pubs around Melbourne and after all was said and done we went back to Queen's for some sandwiches and had a big old turn!
Me and Kat "the Mad Bear" Drutschinin (someone has courteously written "Tim Tam" on my forehead and given me some eye shadow here)
Good times.
Queen's Ball
The last big thing that I should update you all on is the Queen's Ball! Every self-respecting college on the crescent throws together one smashing, all-out, black-out party each year, and Queen's is nothing if not self-respecting! I think this is where the majority of the Student Club's funds go.
This year, the college had a Casablanca themed ball (I'm not sure how that played out though beyond the promo-video and the posters), and it was widely regarded as one of the best balls ever balled!
I had a wonderful time chilling with my friend and birthday boy Scott and the table of ragamuffins he assembled last minute and boogeying down to the tunes of performers that I really wasn't paying attention to. The food was excellent and the beer wasn't bad at all!
The down-side to having 500 drunk and raving college kids was that the security was pretty intent on chaos-control, so they were throwing people out left and right. My friend was dumped outside for having a drink on the dance floor and others were booted for being perceived as too drunk or rowdy. Tough break to be removed from something you shelled out almost $90 for so ruthlessly.
Pre Ball with the Lower South East Corridor!
More Pre Ball
The Twin German Towers and my Boston Brother
The Incomparable Niki Scott
More good times.
Academics
Just a final update on the academic side of it all: by now I've finished with all my lectures, tutorials and assessments. Finals period here at Melbourne is insanely long, three or four weeks with a week of pure study, so people aren't too too stressed usually.
I had four essays to turn in in a period of about seven days so it was really rough for me. I disappeared. Two assignments ended up getting in late (China in Transition and Global Health, Security and Sustainability) but hopefully the damage won't be too bad on my final mark. My China assessment took a 3% hit but my GHSS took a 10% deduction.
Overall, I felt that my classes were pretty beneficial this semester. My favorite was probably Sustainable Development followed closely by Global Health, Security and Sustainability.
Really looking forward to making my way back to Cornell, where a new major awaits me (Environmental Science and Sustainability) with much more sensible requirements (no second semester of physics!).
Travel and Summer Plans
Super finally, an update on travel and summer plans. I had intended to bump around for the last few weeks I have free here but it didn't really work out so well. Instead, I'll try to work as much as possible in the garden and the dining hall, do some volunteer work, maybe take an MMA class or two (I've been wanting to check out one of the local gyms!) and generally make the most of my time remaining here at Queen's and in Melbourne!
I'm leaving Melbourne on 6/22 and landing in Boston on 6/23. The next day I'll be headed up to Burlington, VT to attend a six day leadership in sustainable food systems workshop, which I've very excited about, and then I'll be headed back to Boston on the 29th. After a day at home, I'll once again be packing up, this time for Ithaca, NY where I'll be spending the rest of my summer working for my adviser in her Garden-based Learning (GBL) program conducting interviews and surveys of local GBL practitioners (I think) and preparing myself for my final year at Cornell!
Very excited for what God has in store for me in the coming weeks and months!
Thanks for reading guys! Hope that you are all well and excited to reunite with people soon!
Just a final update on the academic side of it all: by now I've finished with all my lectures, tutorials and assessments. Finals period here at Melbourne is insanely long, three or four weeks with a week of pure study, so people aren't too too stressed usually.
I had four essays to turn in in a period of about seven days so it was really rough for me. I disappeared. Two assignments ended up getting in late (China in Transition and Global Health, Security and Sustainability) but hopefully the damage won't be too bad on my final mark. My China assessment took a 3% hit but my GHSS took a 10% deduction.
Overall, I felt that my classes were pretty beneficial this semester. My favorite was probably Sustainable Development followed closely by Global Health, Security and Sustainability.
Really looking forward to making my way back to Cornell, where a new major awaits me (Environmental Science and Sustainability) with much more sensible requirements (no second semester of physics!).
Travel and Summer Plans
Super finally, an update on travel and summer plans. I had intended to bump around for the last few weeks I have free here but it didn't really work out so well. Instead, I'll try to work as much as possible in the garden and the dining hall, do some volunteer work, maybe take an MMA class or two (I've been wanting to check out one of the local gyms!) and generally make the most of my time remaining here at Queen's and in Melbourne!
I'm leaving Melbourne on 6/22 and landing in Boston on 6/23. The next day I'll be headed up to Burlington, VT to attend a six day leadership in sustainable food systems workshop, which I've very excited about, and then I'll be headed back to Boston on the 29th. After a day at home, I'll once again be packing up, this time for Ithaca, NY where I'll be spending the rest of my summer working for my adviser in her Garden-based Learning (GBL) program conducting interviews and surveys of local GBL practitioners (I think) and preparing myself for my final year at Cornell!
Very excited for what God has in store for me in the coming weeks and months!
Thanks for reading guys! Hope that you are all well and excited to reunite with people soon!
