Melbourne and things.

September 27, 2013

To be quite honest, I was dreading writing this post. Not that I don't want to tell you or anything, but simply because so many things happened over the past week. Well, might as well start somewhere.

Thursday after my last post, my module class had a trip to Chinatown. Strange, I know. We were guided by a man who is a very prominent figure in the Chinese community in Sydney. He even got to run through Chinatown with the torch during the Sydney Olympics in 2000! Anyway, he led us on a tour of the street and gave us a brief history about Chinatown and the migration of Chinese people to Australia. Before I arrived, I only heard from Brian that Australia was known for being racist against Asians, so I had no idea how crucial the anti-Chinese sentiment was to Australia's development. At the end of the tour, we were treated to dim sum at East Ocean Restaurant. It was okay, but I definitely miss my Flushing dim sum. Can't wait to eat it when I'm home!

On the Friday, my friend, Cara's parents invited us all to dinner at their hotel room. They were staying at World Tower (I think) on the 69th floor. The view was STUNNING. We had a build your own taco dinner, which was really yummy. Reminds me that I want to make fajitas at some point. Anyway, it was a really nice night just chilling and talking with my friends and Cara's family. Later that night, Inez and I also took a dip in the pool on the 61st floor. Such a nice hotel. Must be expensive though.

The next day, a bunch of us went to check out Glebe Market, which is kind of an arts & crafts/thrift shop market. It was alright, but I didn't buy anything. Later that evening, I volunteered at the BEAMS festival, which was an arts festival in the Chippendale area. My shift was extremely boring and I wouldn't do it again, but the festival itself was pretty awesome. There were some really nice art pieces brought to the festival and some cool street art done on walls right before the festival started.

On Sunday morning, my program departed for Melbourne, Victoria. To be honest, I wondered why we were going to Melbourne. Sydney's supposed to be the best city in Australia, right? I soon found out how wrong I was. I loved Melbourne. It was reminiscent of New York's past, though still with the technological capabilities of today. That night, my friends and I grabbed dinner at a Greek restaurant. A bit pricey, but still yummy. We ended the night at Chuckle Bar, which was literally the space between two buildings with some lights strung up. I really liked the atmosphere there. We were exhausted from another long day, so we walked back to the hotel and just relaxed in the room.

Monday was reserved for the Great Ocean Road tour with Go West Tours! We departed early in the morning and made our way to the start. Throughout the day we saw so many beautiful beaches. They were so clean and empty. We also had a glimpse of a couple kangaroos and a few koalas. I managed to get a couple awesome pictures with the help of my zoom lens (muahaha!). Toward the end, we saw the Twelve (or eight) Apostles, the  London Bridge, which did fall down, and the Loch and Gorge. It was quite a sight. Even though I got somewhat motion sick on the bus, it was so worth it to go on the tour, because who knows when the next time I'll have the chance to see them will be! After getting back to the hotel around 10, we were exhausted and called it an early night.

Since we only had three days in Melbourne, Denise, Inez, Laura, Kunchy, and I decided we should get up early and explore. We ended up leaving the hotel around 7(?) and went to the Queen Victoria Market. It was supposedly open since 6am, but the vendors were not even set up by 7:30, so we just went to a cafe for some brekky. Later, we went to lecture and then most of us had academic tours starting at 10:30. The tour I went on focused on the laneways of Melbourne. Way back when, the laneways were originally used for services and sanitation between buildings. Now, they have been transformed into malls, cafes, bars, and canvases for street art.

On this night, we went out to Fitzroy to eat dinner at Naked for Satan, which is a tapas restaurant. It was pretty great because each piece was only a dollar and they had plenty of options. We basically took 1-2 of each for the five of us to share. Our final bill only came out to $6 per person and we were pretty full. Next, we went down the street to check out The Alchemist. It was a quiet bar, but looked really antique. Inez and I shared a passion fruit drink. I forgot what it's called, but it was pretty good. After leaving this bar, we went back to the central business district of Melbourne to check out the Rooftop Bar and then The Croft Institute. The latter is a bar with a mental institution theme. It was pretty cool and slightly weird. Their drinks came with syringes, which was a nice touch. After this, we were starving, so we went to a 24 hour Chinese restaurant that looked a bit sketchy on the outside but fine inside. Shared some food then went back to the hotel and crashed after another long day.

Wednesday was our last day in Melbourne. We got up early to eat brunch at Hardware Societe, which was delicious, and grab coffee at Patricia's, which I wish I could have again. Melbourne is well known for coffee by the way! I had another tour, this time "Taking it to the Street," which was about street art in Melbourne. Their laneways of graffiti and murals are actually the biggest tourist attraction for the city and I can see why. Some of the art was really impressive and there sure was a lot of it. I learned about one artist, Ha Ha, who was legendary for his political stencils and ability to cover an entire bridge in one night without getting caught. Apparently, he dressed as a security guard so if the police came by, he would say that he caught some kid spray painting and they got away. Talk about clever! Anyway, after the tour, I walked the streets a bit, just taking everything in. Laura and Jessica met up with me at the mall for lunch and we killed a few hours before returning to Sydney.

I see why Sydney is where the tourists go, but if I have the option of returning to Australia in the future, I'd definitely want to take a stop at Melbourne. On that note, I should also mention that Melbourne and Sydney have a long standing rivalry, similar to New York and Boston. However, while Melbourne resembles New York, it's personality seems to align more with the Bostonians. They are more relaxed, a bit more friendly, and they are focused much more on their rival than their rival is focused on them. Many in Melbourne mention Sydney, while it seems few in Sydney mention them. Either way, Melbourne was an awesome city with great coffee, and I definitely want to return one day. What I'm not looking forward to? Writing this Melbourne paper, writing my wine paper, and a final for each class...yay. Well, until next time...

Surf Camp!

September 16, 2013

My body hates me after spending the weekend at Seven Mile Beach Gerroa with Surf Camp, but it was one of the most fun experiences I've had so far. I'm still amazed at how the staff at Surf Camp got almost every single person to at least stand on the board.

September 18th, 2013

Okay, let's try this again. I got distracted after writing the first couple sentences of the post.

We left for Surf Camp on Friday night outside the Wake Up Hotel. First of all, it was a bit chilly outside, but we figured it was night time, so that was to be expected. Second, the bus was probably 45 minutes late. We were supposed to depart at 6:30pm and they told us around 7pm that the bus was in bad traffic and would be another 10 or so minutes. We were getting restless, but still excited for the weekend ahead! When the bus finally arrived, we hopped on and took off. About 45 minutes into the ride, we stopped in a small town to buy dinner. I got a cheeseburger and chips (fries) from the place. I have no idea what it was called, but they must have a deal with Surf Camp because over 70 people poured into an otherwise empty restaurant. The burger was pretty good, especially because I was starving, but the chips were DELICIOUS. They were freshly fried so they were still steaming hot, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside--yum! After we ate, we re-boarded the bus and were on our way.

I'm not really sure when we arrived at the parking lot near Surf Camp, but I want to say it was around 10pm. We got out of the bus and realized it was raining! It wasn't fun to walk to the actual camp while cold, wet, and in the dark, but we made it and duck for cover underneath their main congregation area. They gave us a brief orientation and we saw a large spider, which was terrifying. However, they did tell us, if we see a spider bigger than a 50-cent piece, they are harmless--good to know. After that fiasco, we divided up into who we wanted to stay with and were assigned rooms. I roomed with Denise, Kendrea, Kunchy, Mary Ellen, and Georgia. The room was simple; there were three bunk beds and a small heater, which barely warmed the room. We made our beds, went out to brush our teeth, then called it an early night.

The next morning (Saturday), my room was scheduled to have breakfast at 9 and start surfing around 11. Similarly to the night before, it was raining/misting and chilly. After breakfast, we donned our wet suits, which were damp, so I was even colder than I had been before. The group walked about 5 minutes to the beach, where the instructors were waiting for us. Each person grabbed a board and half the group (my half, of course) had to walk down the beach so there would be enough space for everyone to be in the ocean at the same time. The instructors introduced themselves and we learned that they are actually from California. They taught us how to catch a wave and just push up on the board. We went out in the ocean to try this a couple times and surprisingly, the water felt much warmer than the outside air. After a few minutes, we had to return to the beach and learn the different ways of standing up on the board. Once this lesson was done, off to the water we went!

I tried so many times to stand up on the board in that first lesson, but I just kept falling over and over. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. My arms started to feel like jelly from all the paddling and pushing up, that I could barely do those two things anymore, let alone stand on the board. Luckily, it was lunch time, so we walked the boards back to the entrance and went back to camp for lunch. After lunch, we put on the wet suits again, but this time in the hot showers so we wouldn't freeze, and headed back to the beach. This afternoon was pretty much for practicing what we learned in the morning. Of course, I still could not figure out what I was doing wrong and to top it off, the waves were increasingly more violent as time passed. Finally, near the end of the lesson (and getting submerged countess times), the instructor came over to help me figure out what I was doing wrong. As it turns out, my feet were positioned incorrectly. He helped me catch a wave and then I was standing! It was so exciting but also so defeating that I spent all that energy doing it the wrong way. I caught one more wave before it was time to head back to camp.

That night, we ate dinner and then watched a slideshow of pictures and videos from the day's surfing. We had the option of going to a bar, but my friends and I decided we were too exhausted and cold, so instead we just spent some time chatting before we hit the hay.

The next morning, my group was scheduled for the earlier surf lesson, so we were eating breakfast around 7:30 and in the water around 9! Luckily, it was warmer and sunnier than the day before, so we felt better about getting up, though the wet suits were still damp. I thought about the corrections from the day before and actually managed to catch waves and stand on the board all by myself! It was an awesome feeling. Even better, the girl who was photographing us happened to catch me at the right time, so I managed to have a couple pictures of me riding the waves. After our lesson, we returned to camp for lunch and some free time before we left around 4.

All in all it was a pretty exciting weekend. I can't say that I definitely want to go back to Surf Camp, but I'm glad I went and I really want to try surfing again later on. If I don't do it again while I'm in Australia, then I guess I'll have to take a trip to California and catch some waves there. Like I mentioned earlier, I am thoroughly amazed that I managed to stand on the board. As always, I know I write a lot, so thank you for reading! My week is filled with work, so my next post will probably be about my journey to Melbourne. Until next time...

A dugong, sushi, and fermented grapes!

September 9, 2013

Hello again all! My title may sound weird, but once I explain what I've been up to these last couple days, it'll make much more sense. In my last post, I mentioned that I would be away at Hunter Valley tasting wines. I just got back from that adventure around 6:30pm today, but quite a few other things happened between my Wednesday and now.

Just to follow up about that quiz I was reading for last week, I have to say that it was ridiculous! We were given maybe one line from a reading and then a question based on the rest of the sentence, so we basically had to look through all ten readings to figure out what the answer was. The quiz did not test on our comprehension or knowledge of the topic at all, but rather how well we could do ctrl+f without a computer. I managed to find most of the answers, so I think I did fine. But enough on that, the evening and the rest of the weekend was much more fun.

On Thursday nights, most of the BU Sydney program ends up at the Ivy, which is a two story club near Town Hall. Thursday evenings have no cover to get in and have $5 drink specials, which is why everyone heads over there. The upper floor of the club has a really nice pool in the middle and a few bars for people to get drinks. The lower floor has bathrooms, a bar, and a typical dance floor. Each floor has their own DJ. This past Thursday, I went with my usual friends and danced a bit. I don't think clubs are really my thing, mostly because I don't like creepy people (lol), but it was pretty fun. I could see myself sitting by the pool in daytime more than at night. Anyway, it was Laura's birthday on Friday, so we all got to wish her a happy birthday at midnight!

My Friday was spent mostly reading the textbook, doing my paper, and watching TV. Not very exciting, but I like having some low key days, so it was fine for me. I ended the evening trying a Malbec with Laura and Denise for wine journal entry #2.

On Saturday, I worked on my paper for a while and then went to Paddy's Market to pick up some groceries. In the evening, I went to the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. It was so nice! There are so many fish and animals that I've never seen before. For example, the dugong! It's a manatee-like animal that we don't have in the United States. Apparently, it's also a Pokemon, which I didn't know, but Denise and Laura said so. There were several tunnels underneath giant tanks filled with fish, stingrays, sharks, and other sea creatures. It was pretty awesome. Probably the biggest aquarium I can remember, though interesting that it was entirely indoors. After we finished up here, we met Inez and Kendrea at Umi and had belt sushi for $2 per plate! It's their second anniversary, so they have a special for a couple weeks. Another low key night when we got back because we were all leaving for trips the next morning.

I feel like this is a long post, but I hope you all enjoy reading it anyway because it's been a busy busy weekend. On Sunday, my wine class was in the bus by 8:15-8:30am and we departed around 8:45am for Hunter Valley! We arrived at our first stop, Bimbadgen, at around 11am where we tried 10 different wines. We started with a sparkling, then moved onto whites, then reds, then finished with a sweet wine and a dessert wine. This seemed to be the order for most of the wineries we visited this weekend. My favorite Bimbadgen wine was the Moscato. It was very light (and pink!) and smelled and tasted like lychee. I bought a bottle because it was that good! When we finished up here, we headed to lunch. I had a Moroccan Lamb Burger, which was delicious as well.

Our second stop was to Tempus Two. I felt that there was really nothing special about this place, so I don't really have anything to tell you other than we tried 8 wines here (so 18 total). Our third stop was to Tamburlaine, an organic and biodynamic vineyard/winery. They are organic because they don't use any chemicals, which is common knowledge. They are biodynamic because they are a self sufficient farm. Gordon, who leaded the tasting, also talked about how they farm according to the lunar cycle. It sounds a bit out there, and it might be, but he served some pretty good wines that were sold at decent prices. I really enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, so I purchased one of those. As an added bonus, Gordon had his puppy put on a show for us. It was adorable! After this winery, we were at 27 wines.

After our third winery, we went to our hotel and had some downtime before dinner. I taught Laura how to play pool so we did that for a while. Then we dressed up and met everyone else for welcome drinks (28 wines) and enjoyed a yummy dinner paid for by BU (29 wines). I stayed after dinner to just chat with Laura and Paige, which was nice. Laura and I went back to our room around 9:15pm absolutely exhausted. The hotel had the overhead shower head (the circular one that just rains on you), which felt amazing! We watched some Castle (which now Laura wants to watch from the beginning) and called it a night.

This morning, we started off the day with a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. At 9:45am, we departed for our first stop of the morning: Peterson House. This place was PHENOMENAL! We had a sparkling wine tasting, which consisted of whites, reds, ciders, and a dessert wine. First of all, I never knew red wine could be made sparkling. Second, I liked almost every single thing I tried here; the only exception was the sparkling shiraz, but I'm just not a fan of red, so that was no surprise. The wine count is now 38.

The next stop today was Drayton's. If you remember from my last post, Drayton's suffered a terrible accident, but they've since rebuilt their winery and are still going strong. David, who led the tasting, knew all about the wines in the Hunter Valley area and the rest of Australia. He's not a Drayton, but explained to us that the winery is currently in their fifth generation, so it's still family owned and run. We tried 8 different types of wine, including a white port, a rich port, and an aged port (46 wines total). They are best known for their ports, but I wasn't a fan; they were a bit too sweet and too strong for me. However, one of them smelled fantastic because it reminded me of tapioca from bubble tea places!

Our final stop was Tyrrell's. They are the oldest (or almost the oldest depending who you ask apparently) winery in Hunter Valley. Some of their vines are over 130 years old! Apparently there are only 6 vines older than 90(?) in the area and Tyrrell's own 4 of them. This was one of my favorite visits because we were able to tour the winery and see the vineyard, which we didn't do in the last five. I really enjoyed their older Chardonnays because they were so smooth and creamy. When we finally finished up here, it was just past 4pm and time for us to head back to Sydney.

Over the last two days, I have tried 53 different wines! I still have a hard time believing it and I don't plan on drinking any for at least the next few days. I would say longer, but I still have to do my weekly wine journal. I heard a lot from everyone who led our tastings throughout the weekend and I learned a lot about what I enjoy and dislike from tasting a bunch of different wines. It was especially interesting to taste the same variety from different wineries (or even the same winery) because it can be quite different. I still have difficulties identifying specific smells and tastes in the wines, but that's just something that will come with practice. I will conclude my post here. For those of you who read the entire thing, I applaud you. Definitely let me know what you think about anything here or in any other post. Thanks for reading!

Classes in motion

September 4, 2013

Wow! I can't believe how many views I've received on this blog since my last post. I hope you all like what I've written. I've also been able to upload my photos onto Facebook, so go take a look if you'd like.

Anyways, since it's been a few days, I felt I should write another post. However, nothing much has happened since I've mostly been in class or doing work for class, so this entry will be brief.

On Monday, I pretty much just cooked a bit, read a bunch, and headed off to my 5 hour wine class. We talked about the wine making process for reds and whites and briefly touched upon dessert wines. Near the end of class, we watched a film about a tragic accident in the Hunter Valley region. One of the oldest wineries in the area exploded due to flammable liquids accidentally being ignited by flying sparks. Two men perished and one left burned on most of his body, though luckily alive. It was so depressing to watch, yet fascinating at the same time.

Yesterday, I had wine class again, but at 10 in the morning. We had a guest speaker, a winemaker that worked with my teachers back when they owned their winery. The speaker, Michelle, walked us through the wine tasting process. The first set was water which had been flavored with sugar, acid, and vodka (yes, they spiked our water!). I could taste the sugar and the acid, and I knew there was something in the third, but since I never actually drank vodka, I had no idea what that one was. From there, we had 3 white wines, which we later learned were riesling, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay, and then 3 red wines--pinot noir, shiraz, and cabernet sauvignon. We had to describe what we smelled and what we tasted. I don't think I'm any good at that because when people were listing different aromas and flavors, I could not understand where they were getting them from, though Michelle agreed that they were there! Hopefully I get better with time, because at this point, I'm just lost.

Today will be spent reading and preparing for my quiz tomorrow. Then I have to start on my paper for the wine class, which is due next week. This Sunday, my wine class will be departing for Hunter Valley! We will be there through Monday, visiting various wineries and tasting their different wines. It should be a lot of fun; I will let you all know how it goes!

The Blue Mountains are steep!

September 1, 2013

Hello again all. I've had a fun, yet exhausting last couple of days spent exploring. Today is reserved for recuperating, buying groceries, light cooking, and then doing some more of those tiring readings. I also have to do laundry at some point, but I haven't purchased detergent/softener yet--the struggles!

I realized that I have neglected to write about my Color Run here in Sydney! It took place a week ago at Centennial Park. For those of you who don't know what it is, the Color Run is a 5k (3.1mi) that covers you in colored powder at each kilometer. It is untimed, so basically you just run/jog/walk/dance/etc. to the end, where you get a color packet and get to cover all your friends. I attended with a few other people here and it was a lot of fun. I definitely want to do it again back home!

My last post ended on Wednesday afternoon. After class that evening, my floor went out to the Rose Hotel (which is a bar) for bonding. It was pretty nice I guess. I had a beer for the first time, granted it was a light beer. It tasted alright but I don't think beer is something I would really get again if I had the choice. I might try that hard cider that most people really seem to enjoy. After the floor event, a good majority of the people went  to Scary Canary, but I went home to prepare myself for a very early morning to see a sunrise.

On Friday, Denise, Inez, Kunchy, Laura, and I set out to Bondi Beach in hopes of seeing the sun creep into the horizon. However, we somehow did not search the sunrise time properly and left the building late, so we arrived when the sun was already up in the sky. We decided to just stay and enjoy the beach, though people must have thought we were crazy for laying out in the winter! To be honest, while Sydney winter is much much warmer than New York/Boston winter, the morning is by no means warm. We were freezing from the cloud covered sun and the ocean winds. Luckily, it did get warmer later on, though we left around 11:30 to come back and get work done.

For the most part, the afternoon was pretty quiet. At night, we decided to try out Zeta Bar in the Hilton about 20 minutes away. They were supposed to have a tango show thought we didn't get a chance to see it because we arrived too late. After wandering Zeta Bar, Marble Bar, and Glass Wine Bar, the latter two also residing in Hilton, we realized we were a bit young for the crowds at each. Zeta Bar was chic and looked nice so we decided to stay there and try the sangria. It was delicious! However, that might be because it really did not taste like alcohol, though it wasn't too sweet either, so it was quite nice. From what I was told, there was malbec, rum, sprite, and oranges, among other things. After we finished up here, we hopped into a few other bars to see what was going on, though quickly decided to just go home.

Yesterday, Denise, Inez, Kunchy, Laura, Kendrea, and I took a trip out to Katoomba to hike the Blue Mountains. We hopped on the CityRail at little after 7 and arrived at 9:30. We were tired and a bit chilly but nonetheless excited to experience the beautiful sights nature had to offer. We weaved in and out of trees, descended countless steps and climbed up others, hopped over mud puddles, and took hundreds of pictures. At different points of our journey, we'd look out into the view and realize that we had just been in a part of the mountain across the way.

My favorite parts were Katoomba Falls and Leura Cascades, which happened to be several hours and many kilometers away from each other. I also loved the Scenic Railway, which terrified Denise. It is the steepest railway in the world with a 52 degree incline, making us feel like we were going to fall out of our seats. The sights were beautiful and the air was so fresh. The temperature was also perfect for the hike. I honestly have no idea what the distance was of our hike, but it took about 7 hours, after which my legs wanted to give in. The six of us boarded the train back to Sydney tired, but happy with what we managed to accomplish.

As I mentioned before, today is for recuperation. I definitely feel yesterday's activities in my legs, but it was worth it. I wish I could upload all my photos on Facebook, but the wifi just doesn't cooperate. I will try again later or maybe wait until I'm back in the states. Either way, I'm sure there will be more adventures and pictures on the way. Thanks for reading!

P.S. Happy (Australian) Fathers Day, Daddy :D