All About Caitlins Visit! :-)

Hi everyone!

I know that is has been awhile since I have updated my blog, but with Caitlin visiting for 10 days and a stressful week of school, I haven't had time to update my blog until now.

Caitlin being here was awesome! She arrived bright and early on Friday morning at 6:30 AM! I couldn't sleep the night before because I was so excited for her to get here and I was also nervous that I was might oversleep and not hear my alarm. I think I got maybe 2 hours of sleep but I wasn't tired in the morning because I was just so excited to see her... and perhaps I was running on adrenaline at that point. Picking her up on the airport was surreal, it was strange having someone from home be in Australia with me but I loved it nonetheless.

We took the ferry back to Manly and checked into her hotel room... which was interesting to say the least. It was nice... just tiny. But it had AC, an extremely comfortable bed, and a TV, 3 things which I lack at the castle. Even though there were about 5 channels that worked, I wasn't complaining. I haven't watched TV for so long. But there were a few things about the hotel room that were strange. For instance, there was a door handle on the outside bathroom door, but not on in the inside. So you would basically have to swing the door to shut it. Also, there were no electrical outlets in the bathroom, so when we would get ready to go out, we would have to plug the hair dryer into an electrical outlet in the kitchen (which was right outside the bathroom), have the bathroom door open and look at the mirror in the bathroom to get ready. It was a strange layout to say the least. However, she had an excellent location. She was right near the Corso and the beach was right next to her hotel. So, all in all, I think that the pros outweighed the cons.

After Caitlin checked in, we headed out to get some brunch because we were STARVING. We went to Inside Out, which has really great breakfast food. Caitlin met my friend Jake at Inside Out, who was are server. Jake happens to be from Michigan but is here in Australia for a few months working. I believe Caitlin's favorite part about brunch was when we were paying for the bill... and she realized that they don't tip here in Australia. She was a happy girl.

After brunch, we went to go shopping to stock up on food & drinks for her to have in her room during her stay. Naturally, our first stop was the liquor store. You could say that we have our priorities straight. Caitlin 21st birthday was on the day she left Australia but since you only have to be 18 to drink, it was her first experience to buy liquor.

She was like a kid in a candy store.

After a hefty selection of liquor and food, we headed back to her hotel to relax for a little bit. The jet lag wasn't bad for Caitlin so we went out into Sydney her first night. Me, Caitlin and some friends from school headed into the Kings Cross area, which is a great night life area. We were meeting up with my friend Matt, who lives there. We went to his apartment, which was awesome. We went out into his backyard and drank for a while before we hit up the clubs. Matt had some of his friends come over as well, so it was a great time to just chill out, relax and meet new people. Luckily, Caitlin isn't shy and clicked with my friends immediately. It was like she had been in Australia with me the entire time.

After a little bit, we went out to this trendy club in Kings Cross called YU. A popular band called Potbellies was supposed to perform that night, but I still don't know if they ever did perform. We were being told by different people what stage they were going to be at and the time they were going to be on stage kept getting delayed. If they did, it must have been around 1:30 or 2:00 AM because they didn't play when we were there. YU was fun, but it was SO CROWDED. The club was really big, but everywhere you went, you had to push through people. We stayed there for an hour or two, but at that point, I was done with drinking and was exhausted from not sleeping the night before. We took a taxi back to Caitlin's hotel and we both passed out immediately. Overall, I think Caitlin had a good first day in Australia.

The second day Caitlin was here we woke up and headed to the beach. It was so nice out... we laid out there for a few hours and soaked in the rays. Afterwards, we went to her hotel to shower and get ready for the Jack Johnson concert! The venue was outdoors and had lawn seating. The Jack Johnson concert was phenomenal!!! He was so good live and has great stage presence!

Afterward the concert, it wasn't too late so we headed over to the Steyne Bar to meet up with some friends. Sean, Michelle, Caitlin and I headed out onto the dance floor for a little bit, which was TOO much fun. Perhaps the best part of the bar was when Sean and Michelle dance to "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson. They were phenomenal... I guess it is just one of those things that you have to see to understand...

Monday was St. Patricks Day. Australia celebrates this holiday, but I wouldn't say to the extent that America does. We started off our day by lounging at the beach and then got ready to go out. Caitlin and I met up with my friend Jake and his roommate at Kelly Bar. As time went by, more people started showing up to celebrate St. Patricks Day. It was fun but different... It felt strange celebrating St Patricks Day in Australia but we made the most of it and still had a good time

On Tuesday, Caitlin, Kelly, Katie and I had tickets to see a comedy show at the Sydney Opera House. The comedian was Wil Anderson, who is popular in Australia but I had never heard of him prior to booking the tickets. Our seats were really good... and by good, I mean front row center!! The opening act picked on us girls because we were from America. It was all in good fun and he was really good! He performs in Manly at a comedy show so I want to go see him again before I leave.

Wil Andersons show was good... but you kind of felt sorry for him during the show. His entire show was based off of how he ended a 7 year relationship with a girl he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life with. He talked about being 26 years old and newly single and how he was going to do things that his ex didn't like to do, talked about being single and dealing with his friends getting married, etc. It was funny the entire way through, but you could tell that he was really struggling with the breakup. All of us walked away from the show and thought that he was funny... but at the same time, we felt sorry for him!

On Friday, Caitlin and I had planned to go on a hot air balloon ride, which we were so excited for!! Unfortunately, due to bad weather in the morning, the hot air balloon ride was cancelled. The voucher is good for six months for you to use, but Caitlin was leaving in 2 days so we wanted to be reimbursed, especially since the tickets cost $300!! I e-mailed the company and they told me that the vouchers are strictly non-refundable but they can be exchanged for other activities the company holds. Two of my friends are interested in sky diving, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can pass off the vouchers onto them, or else I am down $300!!

Saturday was our day trip to the Blue Mountains. Knowing my luck, it was a rainy and foggy day! We had to wake up early because we had to be in Sydney by 8:30 AM. Perhaps one of the highlights of the day was taking the Jet Cat to Sydney. The waves were big and Caitlin treated the ferry ride as if she were riding on a roller coaster. It was hysterical.

When we loaded the bus, our first stop was going to a zoo. It was so much fun! We were able to pet koalas and have our picture taken with them. In an open area of the zoo, there were kangaroos hoping around all over the place. You could give them food and they would eat out of your hand!! They were soooo cute!! I guess it is funny for Australians to see people making a big deal out of Kangaroos because they are overpopulated and have actually become a problem. For us, it would be like tourists making a big deal over seeing a deer.

Our day at the Blue Mountains was just sad. Of all days to go, it was so foggy out that you couldn't see anything. We spent a considerable amount of time in the gift shop just to waste the time before the bus took us back to Sydney. I think my friends and I are going to hop onto a train one weekend to actually see the Blue Mountains again because it is something that I should not pass up while I am here.

On Sunday, Caitlin and I celebrated Easter. Caitlin went to Church in the morning while I went to Church in the evening. But the afternoon was spent by lounging out on the beach and having Caitlin soak up her last rays (It was her last day!!) For Easter, I gave up chocolate so it was amazing to finally eat chocolate again! You never realize that EVERYTHING contains chocolate in it until you can't have it!!

Sunday night, Sam Caitlin and I went to Ribs and Racks to have dinner, which was yummy! Caitlin turned 21 the next day, but since she was leaving, we decided to celebrate a little bit early! It was a fun night but it ended early because lots of people didn't go out because school has been hectic for everyone lately.

Caitlin left early Monday morning. I can't believe that she has already been here. Time went by so quick. Overall, I had such a great time with her and her trip confirmed that we will always be the "better best friends."

So thats my quick review of Caitlins trip... sorry for the lapse of time of posting a blog but I will give you a blog later about my AWESOME weekend SOON!!! Love you all!!!!

Caitlins Making Her Way Down Under!!!

Hello everyone!

In my last blog I wrote about how excited I was for the surfing trip so I guess its best that I start off talking about that.

We left Friday night and headed about 3 hours south to a town called Ulladulla. This trip was sponsored through the school, so I had no idea where we were staying. Honestly, I wasnt expecting much. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my living quarters for the weekend.

We were a group of 13 or so students, but my 2 of my friends and I lucked out to have a CABIN to ourselves. Since we live in a castle, we dont really get the feeling of living in a home, which is something we all miss. But the cabin we stayed in was everything we could ask for and more!

It had a full kitchen with a refrigerator and the freezer had an ice tray!! (In Australia, they dont put ice in your drinks) It really doesnt take much to make me happy...

The cabin also came with a couch and heres the best part, where you could lay down and watch TV!!!!!!!!!!!! I havent watched TV for over a month and I feel like I am cut off and excluded from the world. I pretty much live in a little bubble.

There was a bedroom which contained a queen sized bed with a bureau and another room that contained 3 bunk beds and a closet. The bathroom was in really good condition as well. There was a front porch that you could sit down and look out onto the ocean. It was our little home for the weekend.

We had arrived at night on Friday, so it was too late to go surfing. The group of us got together, ate pizza, drank beers and enjoyed the fact that we were out of Manly and seeing another part of Australia.

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out to the beach to surf! I dont know if I have mentioned this before, but this trip was meant for experienced surfers since the waves were big and challenging.

I was the only one on the trip who has never surfed before.

I knew this going into it, but I figured everyone has to start somewhere and I also viewed it as an opportunity to see another part of Australia. Now Im not going to lie, I got my ass kicked but, I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE!! The waves were huge! It was a struggle merely paddling out into the ocean getting past the waves but I managed to get out there. I was told that was good in itself because some people had trouble and couldnt get past the waves.

The waves were so strong that they easily pushed you when you were on your board. I had to get the timing down when to jump up onto the board, but after a few times, I got the hang of it. I would manage to get up but balancing on the board was hard! I would be up and then fall down after a few seconds. It was difficult and challenging but I loved it nonetheless.

Sunday morning we checked out of Ulladulla and went about a hour north to Green Island. Hard to believe, but Green Island was just as breathtaking as Ulladulla. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky, white sand and the water was so clear that you could see through it. Green Island and Ulladulla are not popular tourist attractions, so it was unbelievable to be at such beautiful beaches that were nearly secluded from everything. Australia truly is the most beautiful place in the world.

This week of school I have actually been busy with school work. I just finished a 9-page paper about Oktoberfest. The formating and layout of papers here is different than what I am used to back home which made it more difficult but I am glad that the paper is over and done with.

Caitlin is currently flying over the Pacific Ocean to visit ME for 10 days!!! I am so excited to have her here! I have planned a bunch of stuff for us to do when she gets here. If she is not too jet lagged, I want to take her out to Kings Cross in Sydney, which is a really popular spot for night life in Sydney. Saturday we are going to the Jack Johnson concert, Monday is St. Patrick's Day, Tuesday we are going to the Sydney Opera House, Friday we are going on a hot air balloon ride, Saturday is a trip to the Blue Mountains and on Sunday, we are celebrating her 21st birthday. Ahhh.... I can't wait! :) I haven't necessarily been homesick, but I have missed friends and family from back home, and I can't wait to have her here with me to share this experience!

I hope everyone is doing well back home. I miss everyone greatly... Talk to you soon!!

Surfs Up!

G’day!

So today is Thursday and I have almost made it through the school week! I am so excited for tomorrow because after class, I leave to go on my surfing trip. We are traveling about 3 hours south to some of the best surfing spots in Australia… I just hope to come back with all my limbs! I am so excited for this trip… Surfing is one of the things I wanted to learn while I am here and I can’t think of anything better than spending an entire weekend dedicated to polishing and refining my surfing skills!!

Classes are going alright. I learned the technique silver service, which isn’t hard once you learn how to do it. The concepts I am learning aren’t hard or mind- stimulating but they spend WAY too much time going over everything. I wish they didn’t take attendance because I would never go to class and turn in my projects and papers when they are due, and I would still pass without difficulty. But since that it not an option, I print out Sudoku puzzles in the computer lab before class to pass the time. I have done so many puzzles that I have surpassed the easy level and am now working on medium level puzzles. God knows where my Sudoku skills will be by the end of the term.

Now I know that Americans have the reputation for being loud and rude, but when it comes etiquette in the classroom, that is hardly the case. In my classes, there are people from all over the world and surprisingly, it is the Australian students who show no respect for their teachers. In every class I have, they are constantly talking when the teaching is talking. And it just isn’t my class, all of my friend’s have said the same thing about Australian students. It get so irritating that they are NEVER QUITE. This girl in my class when up to one of my professors and told him that this boy is never quiet and she can’t concentrate on what he is saying in class because he never shuts up. She said that the Australian boy is being disrespectful to him (the professor) and if he doesn’t do anything about it, then she will. We were all proud of her because someone needed to say it for the benefit of the rest of the class. I can’t understand why Australians are so disrespectful to teachers in the classroom. It’s like they were never taught that when the professor is teaching, you are quiet.

Another downside to my classes is that since they are all 100 level, I am with students who have just started their first term of college, aka 18 year olds. In my EVT 110 class it is the worse, I think I may have to start taking headache medicine before I go to class because I always have a headache while leaving that class.

On Monday, in that class, our professor asked us how Mardi Gras was, and everyone responded “Awesome!” “Great!”, etc… except for the Australian girls. One girl said “Gay Lesbian Mardi Gras is only fun if you are underage” I rolled my eyes and asked her if she was too cool for Mardi Gras now that she can legally drink (You only need to be 18 to drink in Australia). She glared at me for an instant and then turned to her friend to talk about how drunk she got over the weekend. We did another activity in class where we partnered up. One person was a car dealer and another person was the buyer. We had to tell the class what price we settled on and a girl said she settled on only $1000 but promised to give sexual favors.

Give me a break

These are just two examples of stupid things that the younger students do ALL THE TIME. This class lasts two hours, twice a week. I feel like I am back in middle school, that’s how immature they are. It is the longest two hours of my life.

But really, I shouldn’t be complaining. I am in Australia and I do love it here… it’s just the people in my classes could be better. Life is good and I should just be grateful that I am here.

I am off to eat some dinner and then begin a paper. Yuck. Can’t wait to tell everyone about my surfing trip! I'll write in a few days!

More Aussie Lingo:

Syllabus = Scheme of work
Downtown = CBD (Central Business District)
Elevator = Lift
Portapotty = Portaloo
Cell Phone = Mobile
Quick = Wiki
Sweater = Jumper
Swim Suit = Swimmies

I LOVE MARDI GRAS!!!

Hello from Down Under!

This past week has just been amazing. I have grown to love Australia more and more every day. I have formed close friends whom I am sharing this experience with and can't wait to come home to tELL everyone my stories and experiences.

The weather here changes from day to day. You never know what to expect. On Wednesday and Thursday it was raining all day! In the mornings, it is usually cloudy, but by 12, the sun comes out and it gets hot outside. Yet, at night, if you are by the beach, it starts to get a little bit chilly and you will usually have to wear a sweater. I have been told by many Aussies that this is strange weather to be having in Australia at this time of the year. They said that it is cold by their standards and that summer "never came". This is when I respond to how the weather is like where I am from and am just grateful that I am not freezing with snow up to my waist.

In an earlier post, I said that most of my classes are project based. You work on them throughout the term and they are due towards the end of the semester. Well, being the good student that I am, I have been working on multiple projects little by little, so I wouldn't be stressed out a few days before the project was due. When I would save my work, I would save it under the file "My Documents". This past Friday, I was trying to bring up a project I was working on and I couldn't the file anywhere. Turn out to find that you need to save all of your work on an H drive that they have on the computers on my campus. If you save it under "My Documents", once you log off, all of your work is erased. All of the work I have done thus far...GONE!!!!

Now here is the kicker.

On Friday mornings at 8 am, I have my Venue Management class with my dear friend Sean. Anyhoo, Sean tells me that him and Erica bought tickets the night before to see Kathy Griffin in a comedy show later on that night. I love Kathy Griffin! I think that she is hilarious and I habitually watch her show, "My Life on the D List". I was surprised when I found this out because I had no idea that she was in Sydney. When on our break from class, Sean and I go up to the computer lab to see if there are still tickets left, which there was, but it was up on the balcony and him and Erica had floor seats. Sean felt so bad that he said that he would sit by himself and that me and Erica could sit together, but I said that he didn't have to do that. My friend Dana likes her too so I wanted to ask if first if she wanted to go before I bought the tickets anyways. Well, between looking up tickets and talking to Dana, this is when I realize that I have lost all of my work because I didn't save it to my H drive. I ended up not going to the show because 1)Dana couldn't go 2) I didn't want Sean to sit by himself 3)Cost $70 4)I now had to make up a shit ton of work. Basically, that was the major factor for me not to go because I would have sat by myself because I love Kathy that much

So, the next day I talk to Sean and Erica and find out, not suprisingly, that the show was phenomenal and she was hilarious. Then Erica turns over to Sean and is like... "I don't know if we should tell her" Turns out, one row behind Sean and Erica is LANCE BASS FROM NSYNC AND HIS BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!! While Kathy Griffin was in Australia, she was filming for her show and she made a reference to Lance being in the audience and they were filming him directly. Once the show was over, Lance and his boyfriend made a run for it so he wouldn't be hounded by fans for autographs.

Can you believe that? So not only did I miss Kathy Griffin, I missed a chance to meet Lance as well. Instead, I spent the night working on a project that I had already done. Just my luck.

Now here is the better part of me weekend:

Saturday was.... Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras!!!

No matter how much I try to describe how amazing the festival was, words will not do it justice. We took the 12:45 ferry to Circular Quey in Sydney. Once we got off the ferry, we took the train to Central Station, which is when we realized we took the wrong stop and walked much further than we needed to. It didn't bother us too much because we had time to spare and we wanted to enjoy the nice weather and take in the city.

The festival is held on Oxford Street every year and I was lucky to attend the 30th Anniversary! As we entered Oxford Street in the early afternoon, people were already sitting along the streets, guarding their spots for the parade which began at 7:45.


To say the least, yesterday was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The streets weren't too crowded in the early afternoon, but you could still see the occassional drag queen walking down the street. Gay and lesbian couples walked up and down the street, showing affection towards each other and no one stared or made a deal about it whatsoever. It was extremely refreshing to see a culture value each other for who they are, unlike America, who discrimates them for their differences.


As we walked down Oxford Street, we passed a bar called "The Columbian Hotel." It has glass windows in the front looking out onto Oxford Street which were opened up crowded with people, waving their arms telling us to come in! It looked like it had a fun atmosphere so it didn't take much convincing for us to grab a drink.

In the bar, they had videos up all over the place playing the "Top Gayest Songs." Everyone was dancing to songs like "Spice up your Life" by Spice Girls; "Like a Virgin"; Britney Spears songs, etc! Everyone was having a great time and dancing! One of the bartenders was dressed up as a drag queen and another male bartender was wearing a female cop outfit. It was great. Everyone got into the festivities, regardless of ones sexual orientation.

After an hour or two at the bar, we decided to head back up closer to where our friends were on Oxford St. waiting for the parade to start. They had staked out our spots since 2 in the afternoon! By the time we got there, we had about 20 of our friends from ICMS there. We waited about two hours for the parade to start, but decided to pass the time by singing random songs at the top of our lungs. Although, I do have to say, the crowd like it. We were getting requests from people in the parade. Somebody wanted us to sing Pink... I can't explain that one.

Anyways, once the parade began, it was well worth the wait.

It was about a two hour long parade, which was longer than what I had thought. But I enjoyed every minute of it. I was surprised that there were floats from various Churches, such as the Catholic Church and men and women were carrying signs saying "Would God Discriminate?" On top of the float they make it look like the Vatican with a man pretending to be the pope. Controversial, eh?

During the parade, there was a man who held up a sign saying: "This parade is SOO Gay!" I got a good chuckle out of that one. I took the video camera with me and taped parts of the parade and have plenty of pictures displaying the floats! I can't wait to show you all what it was like, you just have to see it to believe it.

Oh, you will also never believe who was walking down in the parade... KATHY GRIFFIN!! So even if I didn't see her show, at least I saw her up close and personal! Her camera crew came right up to my group of friends and started filming us as she passed. I hope that we get onto the show... That would be amazing!

After the parade was over, we went to a bar called "Side Bar". A professor at my school was DJing there... yes, I said professor. He calls himself "DJ SNOWY!" When we got there, DJ Snowy was playing the jams! It was awesome to see my professor there. He got into the celebration of the parade too by wearing a tight flamboyantly pink t-shirt that had "GAY" written over it. We didn't stay there for too long because we wanted to catch the last ferry back to Manly. But overall, the day was phenomenal and I will remember it for the rest of my life!

Anyways, today (Sunday) has been mostly a lazy day. A lot of people have just been recooperating after the parade. My friends and I had planned on being beach bums all day, but when we woke up, it was cloudy. The weather changes quickly here and it turned to be nice and sunny out but Michelle, Dana and I decided to go to a cricket game instead. When we went to Lachlan's birthday party, we met some Aussie boys who play cricket and invited us to see them play. I have seen cricket on TV but haven't had the chance to attend the game and really wanted to go! So I met Michelle and Dana down by the Corso to have lunch and then we were supposed to take the bus over to the cricket match. The game was to go from 1-6. We didn't want to be there for 5 hours so we thought we would go later. Well, we didn't plan it out accordingly and we realized by the time we got there, with the communte of taking the bus and train, we would see only about 1/2 hour of the game, tops. Luckily, Paige and Christian had made it into the finals so they said that we could visit one of those games instead. I liked Cricket when I saw it on TV but would you believe me if told you that players take a tea breaks during the game?

I'm not joking.

No wonder Cricket takes forever. They are munching on crumpets and drinking tea, chatting about life.

But now I have procrastinated all day and am off to do redo the work I have already done for my project :(

Miss you all! Take care!

New Blog!

G’day Mates!!

So it is the end of week 3 and I have finished my second week of class. Classes have been going okay, but they have been really hard to get through. In class, I try to avoid sitting by the window because you get easily distracted looking out at the Pacific Ocean and all you can think about is how much longer until you get out of class so you can enjoy the beautiful weather.

On Wednesday, some girls and I went to our favorite spot in Manly, Insitu. On Wednesdays, they usually have Happy Hour all day, but when we arrived, we noticed that it was closed from 5 – 9 for a private function. So we decided to kill time and walk over to Shark Bar for a drink. Much to our surprise, we found out that the lower level was about to start up a game of Bingo. We all decided to play, but noticed that Australians play Bingo much differently. They give you a piece of paper containing 3 boxes, each box containing 30 boxes within each larger box. The 3 boxes have numbers in each of them, located sporadically while the empty boxes are free spaces. When the guy calls out numbers, the first person to have 1 of their 3 boxes full wins the game. My friend Samantha won and what was her prize? A package containing 6 sausages and 6 pieces of beef. Australia is a pleasant country, yet a strange one as well.

After our Bingo experience, we headed over to Insitu for a little bit. We partook in their Happy Hour and ordered potato wedges. It is common to find potato wedges on an Australian menu and it is not hard to see why because they are simply delicious. On the side, they bring you sweet chili sauce and sour cream. Their sour cream is different here… they whip it, making in lighter and fluffier. Potato wedges + sour cream + sweet chili sauce = DELICIOUSNESS

Anyhoo, after Insitu we headed over to a bar called Stain. Every Wednesday nights it is Karaoke night. I have heard other students telling me about it but I have never been there before. As we headed in, I was surprised by how crowded it became for Karaoke. I had imagined a few tables around the stage listening to people sing, but it was so crowded that you could barely move.

We found some of our friends and were enjoying the night. I start talking to Chad and he told me that he is going to be singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Queen. I told him that I love that song, which is when he replies, “Do you want to sing it with us?” Not giving it a moments thought, I respond with “Of course!” This is when I find out that one of the guys had backed out and they need someone to sing. Now let me state, I have never done Karaoke before in my life. When I saw how crowded it was, I began to second guess my decision but decided that it was too late to back down. About twenty minutes later, I find up that we are about to be on stage. It was Chad, Adriel, Chris and I. As our names were called to come up on stage I started to wonder what I was getting myself into to. However, once we began to sing, all nerves went away. There were at least 40 ICMS students there cheering us on and singing along. I got REALLY into the song and we managed to get the crowd into it as well. It was awesome having everyone cheer us on. Overall, it was a great night.

On Friday night was the Backstreet Boys concert. Let me give you a little bit of information regarding my adolescence. I was that girl who had her bedroom wall covered with BSB posters that you could get from the teeny bopper magazines. Therefore, I was highly anticipating this concert and couldn’t wait for it to start! We had made a sign saying “Flew 2 days, 27 hours from the USA to see BSB in concert!” So… we may have told a little white lie but we wanted to get backstage.

The concert started at 7:30 and we made it to the Acer Arena by 7:00. (Quick fact: The Acer Arena was built in Olympic Park when Sydney was nominated to host the Olympics in 2000). We wanted to get there earlier and tail gate all day because 3 of us had class until 4:30, and then we had to take a ferry and take 2 trains to get to the venue. The venue was crowded by the time we arrived and we were waving our sign above our heads. I noticed that there were no longer any young girls crowding the stage, but women around my age and up. It was a strange sight to see and I felt old.

I went up to numerous security guards asking them if they could get us backstage, but everyone I talked to didn’t have the authority to do so. I asked them if they could get somebody who could… but they basically laughed in my face. But what they didn’t understand was that although we wanted to meet the BSB… they would want to meet us too!! If I know my BSB like I know I do, they love their fans and if they knew we “flew across the world to see them in concert” they would want to meet us. They just didn’t know about us yet. But… no such luck.

So we end up going to find our seats and as we sit down, we notice that we are located on the side of the stage so we are not even able to see the screen! At concerts in the US, if you have bad seats, you can sometimes pay extra money to upgrade your seats. So we talked to a woman and she said that our best option was go back to the ticket window outside the venue and ask if they had any tickets available for upgrade. Much to our dismay, they said that the only tickets available were the ones around where we were seated. So we went back to our seats and tried to make the best out of it. I wasn’t going to let my seating ruin my BSB experience. 5 minutes later, I feel a tap on my shoulder and it was the woman I had talked to earlier. She motioned for my friends and I to gather up our stuff. As we were quickly following her around the arena, she said that she had found some empty seating that nobody has sat at yet, but if they were to come to the seats, we had to return to where we were originally. We told her that was fine and just greatly appreciate her for doing this for us. So we arrived to our new seating area and it was excellent!!!! That woman had hooked it up for us. We were much closer and had an excellent view. It was so nice of her to remember us and help us out.

They started off the concert with “Larger than Life” and “Everyone” which are songs to their fans stating how much they appreciate their fans. We were going nuts and dancing throughout the entire show. They were absolutely amazing in concert. They played all of their hits and their new songs as well! AND they each sang a solo song as well. I never thought I would say this but Howie D got goooood looking. If you don’t believe me, GOOGLE it! They ended the show with “Shape of My Heart”. That concert was pure bliss from the beginning to the end. It was definitely the best pop concert I have ever been to.

Anyways, that it all I will write for now but I will try to write again as soon as possible.

Cheers

Picture Time!!!

So here's whats going on with me...

On Monday’s I only have one class at 2:30 in the afternoon, which was nice because one would think that you could sleep in. Oh no, not here in Australia. Because in Australia, they have a bird called a Cookaburra. The Cookaburra bird is the never failing wake up call for all ICMS students. It emits a loud high-pitched piercing sound over and over again. I have placed my fan right next to my bed so hopefully it will help drown out the noise of those damn birds.

My venue operations class today was, to put it lightly, boring and tedious. We were taught what to look for when you are in charge of picking a venue for an event. This is when we were learned to use our five senses, were explained what our five senses are, and then went tediously through each one to show us how we can use our senses to choose an appropriate venue. I understand that I am taking a 100 level class and it is the second week of class, but really, give me a break.

Now let me state that I love living in Australia, but for the business school I am attending, ICMS is extremely unorganized and is not run properly. So I am going to go off on a little rant:

We were led to believe that we had unlimited Internet during our stay here. What led us to believe this was that they literally put on ICMS advertisements: “Unlimited access to Internet.” Well, much to our dismay, we learned that we have a $40 credit of Internet per month. If you go over $40, then you have to pay money to the school to access the Internet. Their reason for putting up a restriction is because they don’t want students clogging up the Internet by going on Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube. That is why no one has seen pictures from Australia yet because it takes up a lot of credit to download pictures. For instance, if you want to merely 5 pictures, it would take over 20 minutes to download those pictures. Skype also takes up a lot of credit, but that is everyone’s main communication towards home to talk to family and friends. Why would they want to take that away from us when we are so far away?

So Katie, Michelle and I felt it necessary to talk to someone about this. We brought forth the paper that said that we were able to have unlimited access to the Internet. When presented with the paper, they responded that you have access to the Internet at all times, which basically means you can go into the computer lab whenever you want and went further on to tell us we were informed of limited Internet when we were sent out papers informing us about ICMS.

I told them that it was false advertisement to put a statement saying “unlimited access” because no one in the right mind would think of it as accessing a computer lab 24/7. AND we weren’t even informed about the limited internet until after we had been accepted into the college. After much complaining, we were able to receive an extra $20 credit that we can use if we run low any month. I guess that it is better than nothing but I have never heard of a university limiting the amount of time you are able to use the Internet.

On a happier note, the day took a turn for the better when I was informed that I had a package. I went down to receive it and noticed that it was from my brother. I opened the package to find myself with a video camcorder!! I have the best brother ever!! It made me so happy, I can’t wait to record things happening in Australia and show everyone from back home.

That’s about all for now… 3 more days until BSB concert!!!

Cheers