Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Recent Events II
Guess what, I decided to study abroad. AGAIN! Guess the first time wasn't enough to satiate me haha. This time, I'm going to Beijing for 6 weeks exclusively to study Chinese culture and improve my Chinese. I won't be earning credit that will go toward my degree, since I'll have graduated in May. So I suppose this counts as some time off after college before I try to enter the workforce. This program is sponsored by CLERC, the trip lasting from July 4th to August 24th. After the 6 weeks of study at Peking University (PKU) we will be traveling around different places in China including Yunnan, Shangri-La and Shanghai. My friend did this program when she was in high school and from what I've heard, she really enjoyed herself. I'm so excited!! I can't wait!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Back from Outer Space!
I'm back in good ol' cali! My home sweet home. ah *sigh* its good to be home ^^
After my last final, which I tried to finish as soon I got it, I packed my bags, cleaned up my room, (threw away tons of stuff that would make my luggage overweight....) and headed to the airport to cairns with sean!
we took murrays bus, a 3 hour ride to sydney from canberra, (only 15 bucks, hella cheap) and flew from sydney to canberra, another 3ish hours. immediately even before we landed, cairns looked like a tropical paradise =D lush green mountains, water, humid and wet with tons of palm trees lol, ah ^^ perfect for vacation esp right after a final. we checked in to a hostel complete with a small lagoon-ish pool, hammocks and overhead fans in every room. it was pretty hard to fall asleep at night lol it was so hot even tho it's technically winter in australia! that's cause cairns in pretty far north, which brings us real close to the equator, hence its tropical rain forests and warm waters all year round.
the city is kinda dead at night, well at least compared to sydney or something but i guess it wont be fair to compare. they do have a night market but we just strolled along the esplanade- a promenade along the water edge, hehe pretty romantic, "summer"'s balmy air and everyone wearing flip flops and shorts and the sea melts into complete black in the horizon. (it was kinda scary tho lol seemed like the world just ended right there) oh when ur walking down the esplanade, one side is the ocean, and the other is a huge public pool, they call it a lagoon, so seriously, the pool is right there up against the beach!
the only bad thing was that i kept getting lots of nosebleeds every day (i tallied it up and the total number was 9 nosebleeds in 5 days XD yikes!) in my family, im pretty known getting nosebleeds alot but it sure freaked sean out alot!
we only spent really a few days in cairns and i wish we could stay longer, mostly to snorkel some more ^^
the second day, we joined a tour group to visit milla milla falls and other sights south of cairns- mostly lots of waterfalls and rainforests lol. it was alot of fun cause our tour guide was a funny man and kept us entertained and informed at the same time. everyone on the tour were like us in their 20's and traveling around. we went to 2 crater lakes, of which one, most everyone jumped in for a swim (i didnt go in but everyone said the water was really cold! lol) and we also trekked through some rainforest. 
it was really nice and cool in there under the shade ^^ but like 90% of the stuff in there is poisonous XD. then we went to see a gigantic fig tree randomly in the rain forest. basically it towers over overthing else lol and the root system is all u see. its kinda cool finally we went to a series of waterfalls- one is the famous milla milla falls-apparently the most photographed waterfalls in australia, some of us on the tour group went in for a swim again. i didnt but sean did and he said it was completely freezing! lol then we went to a national park and visited some more extremely picturesque waterfalls and a deep gorge which leads to god knows what. we threw a rock down it, it had water with green algae at the bottom and it took 6 seconds for the rock to hit bottom, once it had, it made a hole in the algae and seconds later, the hole would be refilled with algae! crazy! to get to the park, we went up a road that had more than 200+ turns in it. lol needless to say, if you get carsick, im pretty sure you would throw up if u drove on this windy road...
the next day we reported at the pier, bright and early at 8am to check in at the boat to go snorkeling! we drive out 60km out from land, it takes about an hour and a half to get to the site. along the way, we get instructed on what to do, safety stuff and all that. of course the divers get more training and info. the ppl on the ship were pretty nice too and were very helpful. oh and they also give u lunch, cold meat and cold salads, very refreshing after a day swimming in the ocean. a word of advice tho, take their sea sick tablets. its only $1 insurance. sean got preeetty seasick and snorkeling made it worse. so yea. just to be cautious and not jeopardize your day of amazing sightseeing swimming amongst some incredible stuff.
we all got wetsuits, snorkel masks and flippers and me and sean rented waterproof camera and got prescription masks. they took us to two different places out on the reef and gave u more than an hour to swim at ur leisure. it was reeeeallly amazing the first time you see the coral reef. it's so up close and intricate and the water is totally clear- u can see all the way to the bottom- and its a long way to the white sandy bottom. you see all the fish swimming about and eating at the coral- i saw nemo and even a sea turtle! i was so stoked!! lol we had guides in the water to point us in the right direction and tell us if they sighted anything interesting. they even have hand signals to signify shark, nemo, etc fishes. and no there werent any jellyfish around and i heard there was some small sharks but i didnt see them. it was really nice ah...crystal clear water, clear blue skies and the beautiful reef right below you stretching in all directions and fish, large, small and colourful darting about. i absolutely loved it. everyone should have this experience. it's really breathtaking!
it was also exhausting lol esp if u wander off too far. ud be surprised when u finally lift your head up out of the water and find yourself waaay far from your boat! i know that everyone does diving but i have my own personal problems lol but id encourage ppl to go diving! you only really see 10% if u go snorkeling. it's still an amazing 10% that i saw!! you definately wont be dissapointed. it's like swimming in a huge aquarium, cept it's actually really the pacific ocean lol.
the last night in australia, or rather, in a real city we splurged and ate some quality australian steak, also had australian game platter haha- kangarroo, crocodile, emu and barramundi fillet. and we randomly had some czech beer to wash everything down. for dessert, we had pavlova and gelato.
the next day we flew back to sydney and then on to sfo. we spent the night at an airport hotel cause our flights were a good 15 hours apart. our flight back, i sat at the exit row. lol and i had a blast there. i had a priest and a lady, both from sydney sitting in my row. facing us there were also seats for 2 flight attendants and they kept us laughing with good conversation. so, all in all, it wasnt a bad trip back. oh and as we left, we flew right over the sydney opera house and bridge! even the lady next to me was amazed, she'd never seen the sight from up in the plane before!
i had a great time overall studying abroad, especially the traveling bit lol. i have tons of memories and sorry cheriz, i didnt party like an animal cause u kno im not like that but i had lots of fun and ill definitely be going back.
After my last final, which I tried to finish as soon I got it, I packed my bags, cleaned up my room, (threw away tons of stuff that would make my luggage overweight....) and headed to the airport to cairns with sean!
we took murrays bus, a 3 hour ride to sydney from canberra, (only 15 bucks, hella cheap) and flew from sydney to canberra, another 3ish hours. immediately even before we landed, cairns looked like a tropical paradise =D lush green mountains, water, humid and wet with tons of palm trees lol, ah ^^ perfect for vacation esp right after a final. we checked in to a hostel complete with a small lagoon-ish pool, hammocks and overhead fans in every room. it was pretty hard to fall asleep at night lol it was so hot even tho it's technically winter in australia! that's cause cairns in pretty far north, which brings us real close to the equator, hence its tropical rain forests and warm waters all year round.
the city is kinda dead at night, well at least compared to sydney or something but i guess it wont be fair to compare. they do have a night market but we just strolled along the esplanade- a promenade along the water edge, hehe pretty romantic, "summer"'s balmy air and everyone wearing flip flops and shorts and the sea melts into complete black in the horizon. (it was kinda scary tho lol seemed like the world just ended right there) oh when ur walking down the esplanade, one side is the ocean, and the other is a huge public pool, they call it a lagoon, so seriously, the pool is right there up against the beach!the only bad thing was that i kept getting lots of nosebleeds every day (i tallied it up and the total number was 9 nosebleeds in 5 days XD yikes!) in my family, im pretty known getting nosebleeds alot but it sure freaked sean out alot!
we only spent really a few days in cairns and i wish we could stay longer, mostly to snorkel some more ^^
the second day, we joined a tour group to visit milla milla falls and other sights south of cairns- mostly lots of waterfalls and rainforests lol. it was alot of fun cause our tour guide was a funny man and kept us entertained and informed at the same time. everyone on the tour were like us in their 20's and traveling around. we went to 2 crater lakes, of which one, most everyone jumped in for a swim (i didnt go in but everyone said the water was really cold! lol) and we also trekked through some rainforest. 
it was really nice and cool in there under the shade ^^ but like 90% of the stuff in there is poisonous XD. then we went to see a gigantic fig tree randomly in the rain forest. basically it towers over overthing else lol and the root system is all u see. its kinda cool finally we went to a series of waterfalls- one is the famous milla milla falls-apparently the most photographed waterfalls in australia, some of us on the tour group went in for a swim again. i didnt but sean did and he said it was completely freezing! lol then we went to a national park and visited some more extremely picturesque waterfalls and a deep gorge which leads to god knows what. we threw a rock down it, it had water with green algae at the bottom and it took 6 seconds for the rock to hit bottom, once it had, it made a hole in the algae and seconds later, the hole would be refilled with algae! crazy! to get to the park, we went up a road that had more than 200+ turns in it. lol needless to say, if you get carsick, im pretty sure you would throw up if u drove on this windy road...the next day we reported at the pier, bright and early at 8am to check in at the boat to go snorkeling! we drive out 60km out from land, it takes about an hour and a half to get to the site. along the way, we get instructed on what to do, safety stuff and all that. of course the divers get more training and info. the ppl on the ship were pretty nice too and were very helpful. oh and they also give u lunch, cold meat and cold salads, very refreshing after a day swimming in the ocean. a word of advice tho, take their sea sick tablets. its only $1 insurance. sean got preeetty seasick and snorkeling made it worse. so yea. just to be cautious and not jeopardize your day of amazing sightseeing swimming amongst some incredible stuff.
we all got wetsuits, snorkel masks and flippers and me and sean rented waterproof camera and got prescription masks. they took us to two different places out on the reef and gave u more than an hour to swim at ur leisure. it was reeeeallly amazing the first time you see the coral reef. it's so up close and intricate and the water is totally clear- u can see all the way to the bottom- and its a long way to the white sandy bottom. you see all the fish swimming about and eating at the coral- i saw nemo and even a sea turtle! i was so stoked!! lol we had guides in the water to point us in the right direction and tell us if they sighted anything interesting. they even have hand signals to signify shark, nemo, etc fishes. and no there werent any jellyfish around and i heard there was some small sharks but i didnt see them. it was really nice ah...crystal clear water, clear blue skies and the beautiful reef right below you stretching in all directions and fish, large, small and colourful darting about. i absolutely loved it. everyone should have this experience. it's really breathtaking!
it was also exhausting lol esp if u wander off too far. ud be surprised when u finally lift your head up out of the water and find yourself waaay far from your boat! i know that everyone does diving but i have my own personal problems lol but id encourage ppl to go diving! you only really see 10% if u go snorkeling. it's still an amazing 10% that i saw!! you definately wont be dissapointed. it's like swimming in a huge aquarium, cept it's actually really the pacific ocean lol.
the last night in australia, or rather, in a real city we splurged and ate some quality australian steak, also had australian game platter haha- kangarroo, crocodile, emu and barramundi fillet. and we randomly had some czech beer to wash everything down. for dessert, we had pavlova and gelato.the next day we flew back to sydney and then on to sfo. we spent the night at an airport hotel cause our flights were a good 15 hours apart. our flight back, i sat at the exit row. lol and i had a blast there. i had a priest and a lady, both from sydney sitting in my row. facing us there were also seats for 2 flight attendants and they kept us laughing with good conversation. so, all in all, it wasnt a bad trip back. oh and as we left, we flew right over the sydney opera house and bridge! even the lady next to me was amazed, she'd never seen the sight from up in the plane before!
i had a great time overall studying abroad, especially the traveling bit lol. i have tons of memories and sorry cheriz, i didnt party like an animal cause u kno im not like that but i had lots of fun and ill definitely be going back.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Last Day of School!
Today was my last day of instruction! Now for 2 final projects due BEFORE final week....and then finals...-_-
The fruits of my (and my group's) labour: http://ling2022g709.wetpaint.com/ for my Language Planning and Language Policy class. (hopefully it's not locked to private setting) I must admit, it was a really interesting assignment and I enjoyed doing it. It's also worth 40% of the course mark.....we had to do a case study of a country and my group got Vanuatu.
Oh and I also got 68% (which is 2% away from a "D" - D for Distinction!, which is like a A- or something) on my Language in Indigenous Australia essay (worth 30%). That was also really interesting because I chose a cool topic: numbers and counting terminology in Aboriginal languages. It was like 10 pages long. They like it long here >.<
I learnt sooo much here from my classes- about the sociopolitical side of linguistics, about a tiny island country called Vanuatu that I've never even heard of before, about the structure of conversation, about all sorts of topics on Aboriginal languages and some Asian languages (that was in the intensive course) I think got a lot better at researching for essays too and writing them in terms of technicalities.
But if I were given the chance to do it all over again, I would definately do things differently. I would put myself out there more and join student groups and clubs. I would try my luck at getting a research assistant position for a semester, like the studentships here. I would also start those essays earlier lol.
I'm kinda scared thinking about my finals. Basically I have to answer two questions and that is worth 30% or more of my total mark for a single course. TWOO!??? questions?! c'mon!! that's putting ALOT of weight on just a couple of free response answers......*terrified*
well, at least after i turn in my last final, me and sean will be traveling again for a few days before heading back home. we're going to cairns. Basically, that's headquarters for the great barrier reef! i'm so excited!! finally i'll get to snorkel!
The fruits of my (and my group's) labour: http://ling2022g709.wetpaint.com/ for my Language Planning and Language Policy class. (hopefully it's not locked to private setting) I must admit, it was a really interesting assignment and I enjoyed doing it. It's also worth 40% of the course mark.....we had to do a case study of a country and my group got Vanuatu.
Oh and I also got 68% (which is 2% away from a "D" - D for Distinction!, which is like a A- or something) on my Language in Indigenous Australia essay (worth 30%). That was also really interesting because I chose a cool topic: numbers and counting terminology in Aboriginal languages. It was like 10 pages long. They like it long here >.<
I learnt sooo much here from my classes- about the sociopolitical side of linguistics, about a tiny island country called Vanuatu that I've never even heard of before, about the structure of conversation, about all sorts of topics on Aboriginal languages and some Asian languages (that was in the intensive course) I think got a lot better at researching for essays too and writing them in terms of technicalities.
But if I were given the chance to do it all over again, I would definately do things differently. I would put myself out there more and join student groups and clubs. I would try my luck at getting a research assistant position for a semester, like the studentships here. I would also start those essays earlier lol.
I'm kinda scared thinking about my finals. Basically I have to answer two questions and that is worth 30% or more of my total mark for a single course. TWOO!??? questions?! c'mon!! that's putting ALOT of weight on just a couple of free response answers......*terrified*
well, at least after i turn in my last final, me and sean will be traveling again for a few days before heading back home. we're going to cairns. Basically, that's headquarters for the great barrier reef! i'm so excited!! finally i'll get to snorkel!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Update since easter break!
It's been a long time since i last posted, yes. i'm sorry. but my computer was broken even before i went traveling to new zealand. i had to get a new hard drive installed and it cost me $AU245, which includes service fee and the actual new 160GB hard drive. not bad, right? the geek squad at best buy charges more (in US currency at least).
so what have i been doing since vacation? bascially its been really busy. really really busy. between last week and then, i had5 assignments due, 3 of them were essays, of which 2 were 10 or more pages. yikes! yes, yes, thats how it works at universitites here in australia. they enslave you to your microsoft word =( i've still got 2 more projects due and im not even counting final exams!! XD i work so hard here, it doesnt feel like a vacation...
the good thing, at least is that the content of my essays are interesting because the classes im taking are particularily interesting. i mean, youd never find a sociolinguistic or political linguisitic class at berkeley. its so much more old school topics at cal, the basic 4: phonetics, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. you never get beyond those. it gets pretty boring. i was talking to my language planning and langauge politics professor (who likes to single me out because she's from socal and im from norcal) who commented on that, she said the lingusitcs dean here is concerned that the classes offered here covers too wide a spectrum. but its because of this that i chose this uni! the breadth of classes offered! actually interesting ones unlike the ones at cal!
its definitely fall in canberra. the walk down to union court from my dorm is lined with autumn trees and its heartstopping beautiful for a brief couple of weeks when the trees stretching down the walkway is golden yellow, yellow as youve never seen (maybe cept new england haha) and the leaves falling down are like glitter in the breeze. its truly amazing. i like to walk down the centre between the rows of trees to crunch underneath its gold leaves and to surround myself in yellow =] the leaves fall like snow, and they fall so thickly on the ground. you can even make leaf angels, but sean wouldnt let me. boooo =p here's a picture, but it cannot capture the feeling:
they have free comic book day in australia! i didnt know this was an international event! but unfortunately, we missed it. we totally forgot!! ahhh!! but its ok, next year i guess. but i wonder if the free stuff they give out is different...
according to other ppl who dont live at bruce hall, apparently we have the best dorm food, which is utterly laughable because i cannot stand the food here. i mean, id would much MUCH rather take crossroads over bruce food. that, my friends, is how bad it is here. i guess bruce lives up to the sterotypical cafeteria food. because the food is so bad, i fill myself up with fruit. i eat so much fruit here compared to at my apartment. youd think im eating healthier but since i dont eat the bruce everyday (thank god, theres places to eat on campus) i eat ramen instead haha and theres some pretty interesting types of ramen they sell at the asian supermarket....
the upcoming week is the last week of instruction. how time flies... ive got finals exams spread out almost 2 weeks apart so ill be exploring canberra a bit-
i havent been to the national library or the war memorial. they're both on the other side of the lake. speaking of which, i finally went down to the lake. you can rent bikes and ride around the perimeter, you can rent canoes and even those boats that you power by paddling with your feet. when we got there, there were these two black swans. sean is wearing his bruce hall shirt hehe, ive got one too =)
sean has his finals during those two weeks when i got nothing so i cant travel then, i wish i could though. but we want to go to the great barrier reef after all our finals end. thats still a maybe, im still planning for that now that ive got the time.
so what have i been doing since vacation? bascially its been really busy. really really busy. between last week and then, i had5 assignments due, 3 of them were essays, of which 2 were 10 or more pages. yikes! yes, yes, thats how it works at universitites here in australia. they enslave you to your microsoft word =( i've still got 2 more projects due and im not even counting final exams!! XD i work so hard here, it doesnt feel like a vacation...
the good thing, at least is that the content of my essays are interesting because the classes im taking are particularily interesting. i mean, youd never find a sociolinguistic or political linguisitic class at berkeley. its so much more old school topics at cal, the basic 4: phonetics, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. you never get beyond those. it gets pretty boring. i was talking to my language planning and langauge politics professor (who likes to single me out because she's from socal and im from norcal) who commented on that, she said the lingusitcs dean here is concerned that the classes offered here covers too wide a spectrum. but its because of this that i chose this uni! the breadth of classes offered! actually interesting ones unlike the ones at cal!
its definitely fall in canberra. the walk down to union court from my dorm is lined with autumn trees and its heartstopping beautiful for a brief couple of weeks when the trees stretching down the walkway is golden yellow, yellow as youve never seen (maybe cept new england haha) and the leaves falling down are like glitter in the breeze. its truly amazing. i like to walk down the centre between the rows of trees to crunch underneath its gold leaves and to surround myself in yellow =] the leaves fall like snow, and they fall so thickly on the ground. you can even make leaf angels, but sean wouldnt let me. boooo =p here's a picture, but it cannot capture the feeling:
they have free comic book day in australia! i didnt know this was an international event! but unfortunately, we missed it. we totally forgot!! ahhh!! but its ok, next year i guess. but i wonder if the free stuff they give out is different...
according to other ppl who dont live at bruce hall, apparently we have the best dorm food, which is utterly laughable because i cannot stand the food here. i mean, id would much MUCH rather take crossroads over bruce food. that, my friends, is how bad it is here. i guess bruce lives up to the sterotypical cafeteria food. because the food is so bad, i fill myself up with fruit. i eat so much fruit here compared to at my apartment. youd think im eating healthier but since i dont eat the bruce everyday (thank god, theres places to eat on campus) i eat ramen instead haha and theres some pretty interesting types of ramen they sell at the asian supermarket....
the upcoming week is the last week of instruction. how time flies... ive got finals exams spread out almost 2 weeks apart so ill be exploring canberra a bit-
i havent been to the national library or the war memorial. they're both on the other side of the lake. speaking of which, i finally went down to the lake. you can rent bikes and ride around the perimeter, you can rent canoes and even those boats that you power by paddling with your feet. when we got there, there were these two black swans. sean is wearing his bruce hall shirt hehe, ive got one too =)sean has his finals during those two weeks when i got nothing so i cant travel then, i wish i could though. but we want to go to the great barrier reef after all our finals end. thats still a maybe, im still planning for that now that ive got the time.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Easter Break Travels - Auckland
Day 1
well day 1 i suppose was spent traveling from melbourne to auckland, which is detailed in the following post. so here comes day 2 instead:
Day 2
one of the first things we did once we got there was to go the the nearest internet cafe, korean owned of course. seriously, the homepage was korean, all the writing was in korean. google results were in korean! omg... XD we stayed there for a good long time trying to plan out what the heck we wanted to do in auckland. it got really stressful cause it was activity overload. there was so much you could do and we only had a limited amount of time to do it. well, we gave up after a bit and decided to go to the tourist centre to ask for help later. we walked down queen st to downtown and ate lunch. oh we noticed that in new zealand, burgers kings are no longer hungry jack's like it is in australia. they're named burger king again. anyway, we went to that tourist centre where they helped us out immensly. they did everything for us. omg such a relief to have someone else do it for you. like travel agent, but free! yay! we knew that today was the only day that week that was sunny
so we decided to do kayaking last minute right then. they got us booked a kayak trip on waiheke island and thats where we headed next. we bought lunch and ate it on the ferry ride to waiheke island, a good 50 min ride out. the kayak rental place was convienently located next to the ferry terminal and we got taught how to kayak. >.<; 
it was a gorgeous day to seakayak in open water! refreshing and sunny, with green waters under us. a breeze sometimes and if we went out far enough, there would be waves toying our little kayak around. ok, that part was scary. we stayed mostly to the coast haha. oh while trying to land the first time, sean dropped his camera into the saltwater. yea...it died. we did have trouble getting back into the kayak after we landed on a black sandy beach. it was really scary!! we kept getting washed back ashore, the waves were hard and the litle inlet we got ourselves in was dotted with rocks in and sticking out of the water. we paddled hard, wanting to get the hell out of there. our pants got wet heh. we werent expecting to go kayaking and i only had my jeans. (no other clothes wahh..!! my clothes were lost in the bag i forget to get from the bus!) and that is why you wear waterproof shorts wen u go kayaking. we paddled around the island a bit, it didnt seem like 2 hours had past, but it goes by quickly and your muscles tell you to stop. our arms were crusty with white sand but it was actually the saltwater that dried. we dragged ourselves out and ate at the ferry foodcourt, wet pants and all. lol and ferried back to mainland, showered and changed immediately once we got back to the hostel. it was getting dark too. we went back to the korean internet cafe and booked a tour online, staying there at the cafe until 1am XD
Day 3
we got up at 7;30a and ate breakfast, bread and nutella we got from a convienence store nearby. yum. we walked to the coach terminal 15 min away to go to matamata! thats where the LOTR's set of the shire was filmed! it took 3.5 hours to get there....yea...long way out... we went on the hobbiton tourand drove from town into a farm to see the shire!
it was really cool to see all the hobbit houses. well not all. while driving there, the lady told us the history of the farm, and how peter jackson found the place and molded it, and how much effort he put into the place and everything. yes, i am being vague. but it was really cool. paramount studios has very strict guidelines on what we, tourists and everyone else can and cannot do on the premises. the set was suppsed to be temporary and after filming, it was supposed to be all torn down but because of some reason or another, it was saved. only 17 of the 30 or so hobbit houses are still there today. most everything else is gone, like the bridge and the mill and the tree above bags end. but the party tree is there- that is part of the farm and hey, bag's end is still there, theres even a small room built in where we went inside. it has suprisingly high ceilings for such a dinkly front door. there were colored stakes everywhere where certain events happened in the movie, like where gandolf came down the road with his wagon, where mat or perrin said this was the farthest he's been from the shire, where bilbo stood at the tree, the window where gandolf pulled matt/perrin in from outside the house, etc etc etc. tons of this stuff. no wonder the tour went on so long! the only thing was that the swamp is no longer there, and the pretty gardens are gone. the lake is there, its part of the farm like the tree. actually, those two things and the rolling hills there were why peter jackson decided to chose this place for the shire. perfect location. the perfect tree along the perfect lake with the perfect green hills. hehe we took lots of pictures. the guide told us that fans of LOTR actually would dress up as hobbits and have a party, complete with music right in front of the party tree. ppl would cos-play and reenact scenes! crazy... we didnt have those fans on our tour haha, tho it woulda been cool. darn! shoulda brought my hobbit clothes! 
jk jk! after the shire, we went to the nearby sheep shearing farm to see a little lamb sheared right in front of our eyes...the poor thing. then i got myself a milk bottle and hungry lambs got turned loose right in the barn. i was just holding the bottle of milk and a lamb almost ran into me to suckle the bottle. so hungry and so eager. the tour had only say, 15 people and 3 bottles of milk between us. all of a sudden, people were crowded around me, cameras in my face with the lamb nursing the bottle i was holding. the lambs were so cute! there was another one that finished early and was just walking around the barn. he was so soft! hehe so we went back to town and ate a late lunch. the coachbus to go back to auckland was late and it was getting dark. it was a long drive back to auckland and we ate dinner (korean). we went to the cafe again to look at other places we could go.
Day 4
today was cloudy and we just walked around downtown auckland. we window shopped for clothes and got some souvenirs. sean got his camera fixed. we ate lunch at a food court where they had yum cha. finally got my yum cha. it was not bad acutally. oh and there was boba too! quickly's acutally. i didnt know it was international. i was pretty happy. yum cha AND boba?! yes! we went to a internet cafe again, then went back and watched tv, then slept. we basically just chilled.
Day 5
we woke up later today and heard the rain and wind outside the window. gloomy and wet day =( we tried to contact airbus to get my bag back and they said it was found, but at the airport.
a relief off of my mind, though still. since there wasnt much we could do about it, we went to a thermal spring. haha. logical right? =p we took the bus to parakai springs. i wanted to go to another one but this place was cheap. since i didnt have my swimsuit, i had to buy one. i randomly bought one at a nearby opshop(opportunity shop, like salvation army or goodwill but hipper). i was so rushing, got it 15 min before the bus came. haha it was sooo cheap at $6.50 for a top! we took the 1.5 hour bus ride there and the springs was more of a local swimming spot. they had an indoor and outdoor pool where many families were gathered. the really cool thing was they had a giant slide (!!), like one of those you see at waterworld! the only thing was that the water was all hot. even the slides! we got a private spa aka a jacuzzi, also filled with hot thermal water. i got dizzy after a while. but it was really nice to soak in there. so warm....=] and bubbly =) the place definately wasnt a resort, nothing fancy at all. next time, ill treat myself to one of those. we took the bus back and at dinner at a chinese noddle place off of queens. it was soo good cause it almost tasted homemade, like something my mom would cook up. the lady who billed me even spoke to me in canto. do you know how long its been since ive spoken canto?! ah... =] back at the hostel, we did laundry and packed for tomorrow.
Day 6
we woke up early again and got on the 8:30 bus to wellsford. it was 1.5 hour ride and on the next leg, a lady from parakai beach picked us up to go horseback riding!
it took a while to get there, a long and windy road that passed though wide open green pastures with sheep grazing, so much sheep. sooo much sheep. seriously. so picturesque and new zealand hehe. =) we went horse riding on the beach for 2 hours wandering into the sand dunes with native wildlife and bushes. my butt and thighs hurt like hell. omg...i dont know how ppl horseback ride all day! it was a cold and windy day, even more so at the beach. but it was nice still. my 1st time riding on a horse and i was nervous but the guide was friendly and helped me out. the owner's dogs followed us out on our ride. after the 2 painful hours, we got off the horse on very shaky and legs. omg...it hurt to sit! we ate lunch there and discovered the farm a bit more. there was a little cat that we played with. oh and they have so many horses there! the same lady drove us back to town, we fell asleep in the car, so sore and tired. we walked a bit around town, as the ppl at the horse farm told us to walk it off to feel better while waiting for our coachbus to take us back. at the hostel, 
we rang up airbus as someone called about the bag but the work day was over so i would have to wait until the next day. well, we didnt have that long cause our flight leaves at 5;30am. we quickly packed and ate dinner (korean) and took one of the last airbuses to the airport. we got in contact with airbus lost and found again and the guy said he found out a way for me to get my bag. we waited for a park n' ride bus which came around every 15 min all night to bring my bag to me. and i got it back! omg...a week without my clothes and toiltries and i survived (living off sean's stuff)!! now i know that i really can pack light. i didnt need all that stuff that was in my bag all this time! ha...
Day 7
we hung around the airport all night and checked in at 3am for our flight back to sydney, then transfering to canberra. i didn't sleep for 24 hours it seems. oh! oh! the plane ride back was interesting. i felt like we were on the wrong plane cause it was full of south americans. everything was in spanish. the pilot was spanish, all the attendents. the ppl who sat around me, the movies. (well, i set everything to english so i could understand) but the plane actually took us to sydney, and not brazil or something. lol thank god. the explanation: the plane was an affilate of qantas and mostly did flights to and from south america. i think this plane was stopping in new zealand from south america to australia. i watched how to lose a guy in 10 days but didnt have enough time to finish. we arrived in sydney airport which was now familiar to us. we transfered to a domestic flight but didnt make it in time to catch it. there were so many ppl like us that had to transfer and it took too long getting our bags, going thru custons to make it on the plane to canberra. but we took the next one out. it was a really small plane, we had to go on the tarmac and go up steps to get to the plane, didnt use the long hallway that connects you directly into the plane. ppl on the plane were all business suited up, probably politicians, or something ahah since we were going to canberra. we took the taxi back to bruce and i finally fell asleep, having not slept for 24 hours. phew long long day. but id go back to new zealand anytime. that dang island has waay too much stuff packed in there for tourist to do. you can spend half a year traveling around. hmm maybe i should do that... =p
well day 1 i suppose was spent traveling from melbourne to auckland, which is detailed in the following post. so here comes day 2 instead:
Day 2
one of the first things we did once we got there was to go the the nearest internet cafe, korean owned of course. seriously, the homepage was korean, all the writing was in korean. google results were in korean! omg... XD we stayed there for a good long time trying to plan out what the heck we wanted to do in auckland. it got really stressful cause it was activity overload. there was so much you could do and we only had a limited amount of time to do it. well, we gave up after a bit and decided to go to the tourist centre to ask for help later. we walked down queen st to downtown and ate lunch. oh we noticed that in new zealand, burgers kings are no longer hungry jack's like it is in australia. they're named burger king again. anyway, we went to that tourist centre where they helped us out immensly. they did everything for us. omg such a relief to have someone else do it for you. like travel agent, but free! yay! we knew that today was the only day that week that was sunny
so we decided to do kayaking last minute right then. they got us booked a kayak trip on waiheke island and thats where we headed next. we bought lunch and ate it on the ferry ride to waiheke island, a good 50 min ride out. the kayak rental place was convienently located next to the ferry terminal and we got taught how to kayak. >.<; it was a gorgeous day to seakayak in open water! refreshing and sunny, with green waters under us. a breeze sometimes and if we went out far enough, there would be waves toying our little kayak around. ok, that part was scary. we stayed mostly to the coast haha. oh while trying to land the first time, sean dropped his camera into the saltwater. yea...it died. we did have trouble getting back into the kayak after we landed on a black sandy beach. it was really scary!! we kept getting washed back ashore, the waves were hard and the litle inlet we got ourselves in was dotted with rocks in and sticking out of the water. we paddled hard, wanting to get the hell out of there. our pants got wet heh. we werent expecting to go kayaking and i only had my jeans. (no other clothes wahh..!! my clothes were lost in the bag i forget to get from the bus!) and that is why you wear waterproof shorts wen u go kayaking. we paddled around the island a bit, it didnt seem like 2 hours had past, but it goes by quickly and your muscles tell you to stop. our arms were crusty with white sand but it was actually the saltwater that dried. we dragged ourselves out and ate at the ferry foodcourt, wet pants and all. lol and ferried back to mainland, showered and changed immediately once we got back to the hostel. it was getting dark too. we went back to the korean internet cafe and booked a tour online, staying there at the cafe until 1am XDDay 3
we got up at 7;30a and ate breakfast, bread and nutella we got from a convienence store nearby. yum. we walked to the coach terminal 15 min away to go to matamata! thats where the LOTR's set of the shire was filmed! it took 3.5 hours to get there....yea...long way out... we went on the hobbiton tourand drove from town into a farm to see the shire!
it was really cool to see all the hobbit houses. well not all. while driving there, the lady told us the history of the farm, and how peter jackson found the place and molded it, and how much effort he put into the place and everything. yes, i am being vague. but it was really cool. paramount studios has very strict guidelines on what we, tourists and everyone else can and cannot do on the premises. the set was suppsed to be temporary and after filming, it was supposed to be all torn down but because of some reason or another, it was saved. only 17 of the 30 or so hobbit houses are still there today. most everything else is gone, like the bridge and the mill and the tree above bags end. but the party tree is there- that is part of the farm and hey, bag's end is still there, theres even a small room built in where we went inside. it has suprisingly high ceilings for such a dinkly front door. there were colored stakes everywhere where certain events happened in the movie, like where gandolf came down the road with his wagon, where mat or perrin said this was the farthest he's been from the shire, where bilbo stood at the tree, the window where gandolf pulled matt/perrin in from outside the house, etc etc etc. tons of this stuff. no wonder the tour went on so long! the only thing was that the swamp is no longer there, and the pretty gardens are gone. the lake is there, its part of the farm like the tree. actually, those two things and the rolling hills there were why peter jackson decided to chose this place for the shire. perfect location. the perfect tree along the perfect lake with the perfect green hills. hehe we took lots of pictures. the guide told us that fans of LOTR actually would dress up as hobbits and have a party, complete with music right in front of the party tree. ppl would cos-play and reenact scenes! crazy... we didnt have those fans on our tour haha, tho it woulda been cool. darn! shoulda brought my hobbit clothes! 
jk jk! after the shire, we went to the nearby sheep shearing farm to see a little lamb sheared right in front of our eyes...the poor thing. then i got myself a milk bottle and hungry lambs got turned loose right in the barn. i was just holding the bottle of milk and a lamb almost ran into me to suckle the bottle. so hungry and so eager. the tour had only say, 15 people and 3 bottles of milk between us. all of a sudden, people were crowded around me, cameras in my face with the lamb nursing the bottle i was holding. the lambs were so cute! there was another one that finished early and was just walking around the barn. he was so soft! hehe so we went back to town and ate a late lunch. the coachbus to go back to auckland was late and it was getting dark. it was a long drive back to auckland and we ate dinner (korean). we went to the cafe again to look at other places we could go.Day 4
today was cloudy and we just walked around downtown auckland. we window shopped for clothes and got some souvenirs. sean got his camera fixed. we ate lunch at a food court where they had yum cha. finally got my yum cha. it was not bad acutally. oh and there was boba too! quickly's acutally. i didnt know it was international. i was pretty happy. yum cha AND boba?! yes! we went to a internet cafe again, then went back and watched tv, then slept. we basically just chilled.
Day 5
we woke up later today and heard the rain and wind outside the window. gloomy and wet day =( we tried to contact airbus to get my bag back and they said it was found, but at the airport.
a relief off of my mind, though still. since there wasnt much we could do about it, we went to a thermal spring. haha. logical right? =p we took the bus to parakai springs. i wanted to go to another one but this place was cheap. since i didnt have my swimsuit, i had to buy one. i randomly bought one at a nearby opshop(opportunity shop, like salvation army or goodwill but hipper). i was so rushing, got it 15 min before the bus came. haha it was sooo cheap at $6.50 for a top! we took the 1.5 hour bus ride there and the springs was more of a local swimming spot. they had an indoor and outdoor pool where many families were gathered. the really cool thing was they had a giant slide (!!), like one of those you see at waterworld! the only thing was that the water was all hot. even the slides! we got a private spa aka a jacuzzi, also filled with hot thermal water. i got dizzy after a while. but it was really nice to soak in there. so warm....=] and bubbly =) the place definately wasnt a resort, nothing fancy at all. next time, ill treat myself to one of those. we took the bus back and at dinner at a chinese noddle place off of queens. it was soo good cause it almost tasted homemade, like something my mom would cook up. the lady who billed me even spoke to me in canto. do you know how long its been since ive spoken canto?! ah... =] back at the hostel, we did laundry and packed for tomorrow.Day 6
we woke up early again and got on the 8:30 bus to wellsford. it was 1.5 hour ride and on the next leg, a lady from parakai beach picked us up to go horseback riding!
it took a while to get there, a long and windy road that passed though wide open green pastures with sheep grazing, so much sheep. sooo much sheep. seriously. so picturesque and new zealand hehe. =) we went horse riding on the beach for 2 hours wandering into the sand dunes with native wildlife and bushes. my butt and thighs hurt like hell. omg...i dont know how ppl horseback ride all day! it was a cold and windy day, even more so at the beach. but it was nice still. my 1st time riding on a horse and i was nervous but the guide was friendly and helped me out. the owner's dogs followed us out on our ride. after the 2 painful hours, we got off the horse on very shaky and legs. omg...it hurt to sit! we ate lunch there and discovered the farm a bit more. there was a little cat that we played with. oh and they have so many horses there! the same lady drove us back to town, we fell asleep in the car, so sore and tired. we walked a bit around town, as the ppl at the horse farm told us to walk it off to feel better while waiting for our coachbus to take us back. at the hostel, 
we rang up airbus as someone called about the bag but the work day was over so i would have to wait until the next day. well, we didnt have that long cause our flight leaves at 5;30am. we quickly packed and ate dinner (korean) and took one of the last airbuses to the airport. we got in contact with airbus lost and found again and the guy said he found out a way for me to get my bag. we waited for a park n' ride bus which came around every 15 min all night to bring my bag to me. and i got it back! omg...a week without my clothes and toiltries and i survived (living off sean's stuff)!! now i know that i really can pack light. i didnt need all that stuff that was in my bag all this time! ha...Day 7
we hung around the airport all night and checked in at 3am for our flight back to sydney, then transfering to canberra. i didn't sleep for 24 hours it seems. oh! oh! the plane ride back was interesting. i felt like we were on the wrong plane cause it was full of south americans. everything was in spanish. the pilot was spanish, all the attendents. the ppl who sat around me, the movies. (well, i set everything to english so i could understand) but the plane actually took us to sydney, and not brazil or something. lol thank god. the explanation: the plane was an affilate of qantas and mostly did flights to and from south america. i think this plane was stopping in new zealand from south america to australia. i watched how to lose a guy in 10 days but didnt have enough time to finish. we arrived in sydney airport which was now familiar to us. we transfered to a domestic flight but didnt make it in time to catch it. there were so many ppl like us that had to transfer and it took too long getting our bags, going thru custons to make it on the plane to canberra. but we took the next one out. it was a really small plane, we had to go on the tarmac and go up steps to get to the plane, didnt use the long hallway that connects you directly into the plane. ppl on the plane were all business suited up, probably politicians, or something ahah since we were going to canberra. we took the taxi back to bruce and i finally fell asleep, having not slept for 24 hours. phew long long day. but id go back to new zealand anytime. that dang island has waay too much stuff packed in there for tourist to do. you can spend half a year traveling around. hmm maybe i should do that... =p
Friday, April 24, 2009
Easter Break Travels - Melbourne
I just came back from traveling a couple of days ago. My laptop broke and the stupid comps at school wont upload pics onto facebook. (we took alot of pics too) but i can still describe it in words here until we get that fixed =) we went to melbourne for 5 days then to new zealand, auckland for 7.
Day 1
me and sean left canberra early saturday morning and took a taxi to the airport. we got there at 7:30a and the place was completely empty. even our cab driver said it was strange how there were no other cars around. our plane to melbourne was delayed for an hour though. the really cool thing was that they(tiger airways) barely checked our bags, maybe not very legit as the plane ticket was so damn cheap. we had to actually walk down the tarmac to the plane and climb up steep stairs to get inside. have you ever had to do that? i mean, we didn't even had a gate! you just go outside and climb up the plane yourself! and then wen we landed, we didnt even go inside the airport! it was so shady haha it was just a 3 walled room and then a fenced gate where you collected your luggage and off you go. just go out the fenced gate and its the parking lot. we took the skybus shuttle to downtown and from there, got transfered to another shuttle that took us directly to our hostel, victoria hall. the skybus system was beautifully efficient and convienent. the city sure knows how to accomodate travelers. no taxi needed. wonderful. so we checked into our hostel. it was really clean and was newly renovated, walls painted with fun, bright colours. the rooms were nice too, although the people that you share with will make or break the experience. the ppl sean had in his room were rude and inconsiderate but my room had quiet people who minded their own business. everyone got their own little closet.actually, big enough to put a suitcase in, and then some. after we put down our stuff, we walked downtown and found the nearest hungry jack's lol. yes, yes. the tummy dictates us all haha =p oh and our hostel was right across the street from the city gaol (pronounced JAIL...XDD). they even have night tours....spooky... also if this is of interest, the infamous ned kelly was sentenced and hanged there. right across the street from us a hundred years ago. XD aaaanyway... we walked around the city a bit for the rest of the day- chinatown was the closest to us. we walked around
Queen Victoria Market for the 1st time. thats where they sell lots of fresh fruit and veggies along with meat, and clothes, shoes, souvenirs, your basic flea market sorta. it was really really crowded! downtown was really crowded too! i think even more crowded than sydney! later we were told that melbourne has wider streets than sydney because it was made for horse carridges, and not just a temporary settlement. but yea,even at night, the streets were so busy. i wish canberra was like that. we ate at a restaurant at a chinatown arcade and went back to the hostel. 
then we walked around some more, passing through more night life and eventually making our way to the skydeck. it was real pretty up there, seeing the night skyline. there were even fireworks near the 2 stadiums and a little fire show along the harbour. very nice and peaceful.
Day 2
we woke up at 8:30 and ate a sad breakfast of canned sardines (they were good! and cheap!), crackers and museli bars (granola bars). we walked the rest of queen victoria market, that place is huge! we got there early so alot of the vendors were still setting up shop but as we walked along, the place got more and more crowded again, although less people than the day before. probably because it was easter sunday. we ate lunch at the foodcourt there and took the city tour bus (especially made for tourists, the city is very thoughful) that went around the city, the harbour docks, the botanical garden and domain. the bus was really crowded and i sat next to an old shanghainese lady who talked to me in mandarin, making conversation. omg my mandarin is sooo bad now, but i could still talk to her somehow heh. we jumped off the bus at federation square where there was a street performer surrounded by lots of people. we was just juggling fire and such atop a pole he was clinging onto held straight by a few ppl from the crowd. after he was done, we went to the tourist centre and waited a long ass time to book a tour for later in the week, the penguin parade tour. i found the cheapest one at just under $100 per person. we walked back to the hostel from there stopping by the melbourne library,
which was gorgeous. id say it can compete with doe library although this library wasnt as big. the central room had high high ceilings with old desks arranged like rays of the sun from a centre dais. really magnificent. oh free internet. sean was getting regretful that he didnt bring his laptop. in the side rooms, we played a game of chess there haha. sean won -_- then the library was closing so we went back to the hostel to drop off things and went to eat at lygon street with the concentration of italian restaurants. really though, one side of the street were the italian restaurants and the other side were the chinese, japanese, malay, korean haha. they lied when they said it was all italian! but we ate at an italian one that sean chose cause the restaurant had the same name as him. it was a really bad place, dont go there. we ate at those outdoor tables along the sidewalk, but we sat right next to a table of blokes smoking all the while. not pleasant. oh and they dont let you byo unless it's wine. booo. right next to lygon street was the museum and imaxx theatre but all was closed so we walked back to the hostel and we turned in for the night? nope, the cool thing about our hostel is that they had their own little theatre room, huge screen and plush seats. hehe we watched autumn rush and we drank some skyblue too =)
Day 3
sean didnt wake up and i
was mad at him cause he didnt set his alarm. he didnt get much sleep that night cause of the bad ppl in his room drunk and talking loudly. today we went shopping on famous collins and burke street! actually i couldnt find anything to buy so it was really only window shopping. but thats ok, everything was really expensive, all retail stores. we stopped by the block arcade and royal arcade too. then we ate at that same chinese restaurant cause sean really liked their chili sauce. haha. it was a pretty popular restaurant, it was crowded to capacity at every moment. we finished off window shopping and went to imaxx hoping to see watchmen. unfortunately, it wouldnt be showing the days we were free so we watched alien vs monsters instead. in 3-D!! alriiight. hehe then we went back to the hostel haha feeling a little nauseous. the screen was really big O.O 3rd largest in the world or something. then we had dinner at a japanese restaurant where we had our first taste of hot sake. haha and sean burned his tongue a bit. yea, i definately like it more than beer. very fragrant and doesnt burn alot. only if its hot tho, wen it cools down, it tastes bad. along the street, especially around chinatown, theres a few aracade game places, you know, the racing cars and shooting people and ddr. we went there cause sean is always pulled by it and played a few games. each game cost $2 to play! so expensive!!
Day 4
we woke up even earlier this day and went to victoria market, which was very close to our hostel, we realized. we got some fresh fruit. yumyum. it was also the last chance to buy stuff. i got a heat pack, and a dress. haha, of course a dress. im still a sucker for th
at. sean was sad that he couldnt get anything, but it's true that things there were cheap quality. we went back to the hostel where the phillip island tour was picking us up. we were the first ones to get picked up and the bus dropped us off the tour office where we waited for a few more people to join us. total, there were 22 people on the tour plus a little kid. not bad. i still have nightmares about the huge tourgroup to the east coast. (just kidding, phil.) we drove to moonlit sanctuary where dingos, a koala, and many wallabies run free in the wild! just kidding. but there was a little forest trail where wallabies were hiding. we tried to coax them out but only had a little luck. oh the tour guide, bernie, even had an emu pecking/eating out of his hand! scary bird. we had a short lunch there, then off to a winery! 
yeah! i picked this tour out of all the other ones cause this one had the wine tasting hehe. mmm and the wine was good. i could sorta taste the difference between the different wines now, red and white. we even had some fortified wine. and now me and sean are looking everywhere for our favorite: white port. grrrr and we still cant find anywhere that sells it! after this, we finally headed down onto the island where we stopped at wiamia(?) beach. it was nice to see the beach again, sunny and sparkly in all its glory. very windy 
too, the sun was about to be setting soon then. we headed to nookie island, all the way on the western side where we walked along the rugged cliffs, with platforms for the tourists and the sun really was setting now. quite beautiful: water, clouds and sun. and still very windy. finally we drove to the penguin parade site. the bleachers were all full by then and they wouldnt let us even crouch on the remaining ledges (it was wet) so it was either sit there, getting your butt wet or sitting on the sand, closer to the beach, and still getting your bum wet. we sat on the sand, the closest you can get to the penguins and a nice lady gave us a large brochure (waterproof) for us to sit on. everyone waited for the sky to get darker, the floodlits came on and aftera while, the penguins popped out of the surf! ....and dove right back in! then in little groups, they would waddle up to the sand, and all of a sudden, they would race back into the water! a few minutes later, they would come up again and do it all over again haha. they're not very brave, are they? but so cute!! and so small!
we watched this little show until they got brave enought to venture all the way onto the sand, leaving the waters behind and into the bushes, past the bleachers to find their home. there are the smallest penguins in the world, just over a foot tall. very very small and adorable. after a while, the crowd got bored and started to leave (it was pretty cold out there) but you could still see the penguins waddling up the beach and up to their burrow. and if you turned your attention away from the penguins to look up into the sky, you would be breathless. the sky was full of stars, concentrated into a milky white band stretching across the sky. i wasnt the only one walking and bumping into people, face up looking at the sky. so, while i was oogling at the starts, sean steered me throught the crowd haha to go back to warmth and food. it was amazing to finally see the milky way. no light pollution and the sky so dark, with so many sparkling white diamonds there in the milky way, so many you couldnt count. *sigh* =] we were also very hungry, not eating much since we left, our fruit hoard was long gone. we left the island at 9pm and ate at the pizza place. i scarfed down like 5 slices. by the time we got back to melbourne, it was 10:30p and time to turn in for the night, bringing back 2 little stuffed penguin plushies, gifts courtesy of the tour. i definately recommend this tour.
Day 5
we ventured into an asian supermarket to get asian snacks and green tea. it was like $2 for 2 litres! super ridiculously cheap!! oh and we went into the victoria library this time for the exhibit about books. (sean finally gave in and let me go see it. hey, i was excited, the geek i am.) then we went back to the hostel to take a nap, or at least sean did. he moved into my room cause his roommates were so bad. at night, we went out to dinner at a pho place. i was missing my pho. back at the hostel, we chilled and watched 2 movies from the hostel theatre room. we watched sweeny todd, which wasnt as scary the 2nd time you watch it, and we watched the illusionist, which was scary, at least for me. after those two movies, we went to back well past midnight
Day 6
we had to wake up early the next day to check out and take the shuttle bus to the airpot. it was a 3.5 hour planeride to auckland with a really fat guy sitting next to me. you know, one of those people who can just barely fit into their seat. yea. XD but it was a pleasant ride. qantas airlines is really good! they kept us hydrated with popsicles and good food. i mean, what airlines hands out popsicles?!! very nice touch. compared to qantas, united airlines sucks. mostly cause they dont have your own screen to watch movies. qantas does! i bet almost every airlines has it, cept united. i dont want to think about the flight back to sfo with united. *shiver* now that i have experienced qantas. so anyway, we took the airbus shuttle from the airport once we landed which took us near our hostel. and just like that, 2 minutes after we got off, we realized i forgot to take my luggage off the bus. we decided to pursue the matter later, cause we were starving and discovered that the neighborhood our hostel was in was smack in the middle of korean town or something. the restaurants that lined the street was; korean, korean, chinese/korean, korean, korean, korean, japanese/korean, korean. yea...the hostel manager was even korean! and very nice lady too, who advised us how to best track down my duffel bag, with all my clothes and toiletries!! i tried to phone the bus company but my phone eventually died, saying i had no credit left. bullshit. this is what ive learned: vodaphone au =/= vodaphone nz. your vodaphone credit in oz doesnt work in nz, nor does any credit you buy in nz work toward your phone if your sim card is australian. so DO NOT buy vodaphone vouchers in nz. they do not work. i have $40 of vodaphone nz credit if anyone wants it. T.T sigh. well at least our room at the hostel, (called BK hostel) was ok. until at night...... we got a room that overlooked the main street, where the clubs rock their music till late at night. ugh. we walked down the street later the next few days and found that we were in the middle of nightclubs, stripping joints and sex toy shops galore. wonderful. lol the good thing was that we were pretty tired at the end of the day to notice too much the noise at night. oh and our room was the only in the hostel to have our own TV! yes! ...with only 2 channels. >.<;
Day 1
me and sean left canberra early saturday morning and took a taxi to the airport. we got there at 7:30a and the place was completely empty. even our cab driver said it was strange how there were no other cars around. our plane to melbourne was delayed for an hour though. the really cool thing was that they(tiger airways) barely checked our bags, maybe not very legit as the plane ticket was so damn cheap. we had to actually walk down the tarmac to the plane and climb up steep stairs to get inside. have you ever had to do that? i mean, we didn't even had a gate! you just go outside and climb up the plane yourself! and then wen we landed, we didnt even go inside the airport! it was so shady haha it was just a 3 walled room and then a fenced gate where you collected your luggage and off you go. just go out the fenced gate and its the parking lot. we took the skybus shuttle to downtown and from there, got transfered to another shuttle that took us directly to our hostel, victoria hall. the skybus system was beautifully efficient and convienent. the city sure knows how to accomodate travelers. no taxi needed. wonderful. so we checked into our hostel. it was really clean and was newly renovated, walls painted with fun, bright colours. the rooms were nice too, although the people that you share with will make or break the experience. the ppl sean had in his room were rude and inconsiderate but my room had quiet people who minded their own business. everyone got their own little closet.actually, big enough to put a suitcase in, and then some. after we put down our stuff, we walked downtown and found the nearest hungry jack's lol. yes, yes. the tummy dictates us all haha =p oh and our hostel was right across the street from the city gaol (pronounced JAIL...XDD). they even have night tours....spooky... also if this is of interest, the infamous ned kelly was sentenced and hanged there. right across the street from us a hundred years ago. XD aaaanyway... we walked around the city a bit for the rest of the day- chinatown was the closest to us. we walked around
Queen Victoria Market for the 1st time. thats where they sell lots of fresh fruit and veggies along with meat, and clothes, shoes, souvenirs, your basic flea market sorta. it was really really crowded! downtown was really crowded too! i think even more crowded than sydney! later we were told that melbourne has wider streets than sydney because it was made for horse carridges, and not just a temporary settlement. but yea,even at night, the streets were so busy. i wish canberra was like that. we ate at a restaurant at a chinatown arcade and went back to the hostel. 
then we walked around some more, passing through more night life and eventually making our way to the skydeck. it was real pretty up there, seeing the night skyline. there were even fireworks near the 2 stadiums and a little fire show along the harbour. very nice and peaceful.Day 2
we woke up at 8:30 and ate a sad breakfast of canned sardines (they were good! and cheap!), crackers and museli bars (granola bars). we walked the rest of queen victoria market, that place is huge! we got there early so alot of the vendors were still setting up shop but as we walked along, the place got more and more crowded again, although less people than the day before. probably because it was easter sunday. we ate lunch at the foodcourt there and took the city tour bus (especially made for tourists, the city is very thoughful) that went around the city, the harbour docks, the botanical garden and domain. the bus was really crowded and i sat next to an old shanghainese lady who talked to me in mandarin, making conversation. omg my mandarin is sooo bad now, but i could still talk to her somehow heh. we jumped off the bus at federation square where there was a street performer surrounded by lots of people. we was just juggling fire and such atop a pole he was clinging onto held straight by a few ppl from the crowd. after he was done, we went to the tourist centre and waited a long ass time to book a tour for later in the week, the penguin parade tour. i found the cheapest one at just under $100 per person. we walked back to the hostel from there stopping by the melbourne library,
which was gorgeous. id say it can compete with doe library although this library wasnt as big. the central room had high high ceilings with old desks arranged like rays of the sun from a centre dais. really magnificent. oh free internet. sean was getting regretful that he didnt bring his laptop. in the side rooms, we played a game of chess there haha. sean won -_- then the library was closing so we went back to the hostel to drop off things and went to eat at lygon street with the concentration of italian restaurants. really though, one side of the street were the italian restaurants and the other side were the chinese, japanese, malay, korean haha. they lied when they said it was all italian! but we ate at an italian one that sean chose cause the restaurant had the same name as him. it was a really bad place, dont go there. we ate at those outdoor tables along the sidewalk, but we sat right next to a table of blokes smoking all the while. not pleasant. oh and they dont let you byo unless it's wine. booo. right next to lygon street was the museum and imaxx theatre but all was closed so we walked back to the hostel and we turned in for the night? nope, the cool thing about our hostel is that they had their own little theatre room, huge screen and plush seats. hehe we watched autumn rush and we drank some skyblue too =)Day 3
sean didnt wake up and i
was mad at him cause he didnt set his alarm. he didnt get much sleep that night cause of the bad ppl in his room drunk and talking loudly. today we went shopping on famous collins and burke street! actually i couldnt find anything to buy so it was really only window shopping. but thats ok, everything was really expensive, all retail stores. we stopped by the block arcade and royal arcade too. then we ate at that same chinese restaurant cause sean really liked their chili sauce. haha. it was a pretty popular restaurant, it was crowded to capacity at every moment. we finished off window shopping and went to imaxx hoping to see watchmen. unfortunately, it wouldnt be showing the days we were free so we watched alien vs monsters instead. in 3-D!! alriiight. hehe then we went back to the hostel haha feeling a little nauseous. the screen was really big O.O 3rd largest in the world or something. then we had dinner at a japanese restaurant where we had our first taste of hot sake. haha and sean burned his tongue a bit. yea, i definately like it more than beer. very fragrant and doesnt burn alot. only if its hot tho, wen it cools down, it tastes bad. along the street, especially around chinatown, theres a few aracade game places, you know, the racing cars and shooting people and ddr. we went there cause sean is always pulled by it and played a few games. each game cost $2 to play! so expensive!!Day 4
we woke up even earlier this day and went to victoria market, which was very close to our hostel, we realized. we got some fresh fruit. yumyum. it was also the last chance to buy stuff. i got a heat pack, and a dress. haha, of course a dress. im still a sucker for th
at. sean was sad that he couldnt get anything, but it's true that things there were cheap quality. we went back to the hostel where the phillip island tour was picking us up. we were the first ones to get picked up and the bus dropped us off the tour office where we waited for a few more people to join us. total, there were 22 people on the tour plus a little kid. not bad. i still have nightmares about the huge tourgroup to the east coast. (just kidding, phil.) we drove to moonlit sanctuary where dingos, a koala, and many wallabies run free in the wild! just kidding. but there was a little forest trail where wallabies were hiding. we tried to coax them out but only had a little luck. oh the tour guide, bernie, even had an emu pecking/eating out of his hand! scary bird. we had a short lunch there, then off to a winery! 
yeah! i picked this tour out of all the other ones cause this one had the wine tasting hehe. mmm and the wine was good. i could sorta taste the difference between the different wines now, red and white. we even had some fortified wine. and now me and sean are looking everywhere for our favorite: white port. grrrr and we still cant find anywhere that sells it! after this, we finally headed down onto the island where we stopped at wiamia(?) beach. it was nice to see the beach again, sunny and sparkly in all its glory. very windy 
too, the sun was about to be setting soon then. we headed to nookie island, all the way on the western side where we walked along the rugged cliffs, with platforms for the tourists and the sun really was setting now. quite beautiful: water, clouds and sun. and still very windy. finally we drove to the penguin parade site. the bleachers were all full by then and they wouldnt let us even crouch on the remaining ledges (it was wet) so it was either sit there, getting your butt wet or sitting on the sand, closer to the beach, and still getting your bum wet. we sat on the sand, the closest you can get to the penguins and a nice lady gave us a large brochure (waterproof) for us to sit on. everyone waited for the sky to get darker, the floodlits came on and aftera while, the penguins popped out of the surf! ....and dove right back in! then in little groups, they would waddle up to the sand, and all of a sudden, they would race back into the water! a few minutes later, they would come up again and do it all over again haha. they're not very brave, are they? but so cute!! and so small!
we watched this little show until they got brave enought to venture all the way onto the sand, leaving the waters behind and into the bushes, past the bleachers to find their home. there are the smallest penguins in the world, just over a foot tall. very very small and adorable. after a while, the crowd got bored and started to leave (it was pretty cold out there) but you could still see the penguins waddling up the beach and up to their burrow. and if you turned your attention away from the penguins to look up into the sky, you would be breathless. the sky was full of stars, concentrated into a milky white band stretching across the sky. i wasnt the only one walking and bumping into people, face up looking at the sky. so, while i was oogling at the starts, sean steered me throught the crowd haha to go back to warmth and food. it was amazing to finally see the milky way. no light pollution and the sky so dark, with so many sparkling white diamonds there in the milky way, so many you couldnt count. *sigh* =] we were also very hungry, not eating much since we left, our fruit hoard was long gone. we left the island at 9pm and ate at the pizza place. i scarfed down like 5 slices. by the time we got back to melbourne, it was 10:30p and time to turn in for the night, bringing back 2 little stuffed penguin plushies, gifts courtesy of the tour. i definately recommend this tour.Day 5
we ventured into an asian supermarket to get asian snacks and green tea. it was like $2 for 2 litres! super ridiculously cheap!! oh and we went into the victoria library this time for the exhibit about books. (sean finally gave in and let me go see it. hey, i was excited, the geek i am.) then we went back to the hostel to take a nap, or at least sean did. he moved into my room cause his roommates were so bad. at night, we went out to dinner at a pho place. i was missing my pho. back at the hostel, we chilled and watched 2 movies from the hostel theatre room. we watched sweeny todd, which wasnt as scary the 2nd time you watch it, and we watched the illusionist, which was scary, at least for me. after those two movies, we went to back well past midnight
Day 6
we had to wake up early the next day to check out and take the shuttle bus to the airpot. it was a 3.5 hour planeride to auckland with a really fat guy sitting next to me. you know, one of those people who can just barely fit into their seat. yea. XD but it was a pleasant ride. qantas airlines is really good! they kept us hydrated with popsicles and good food. i mean, what airlines hands out popsicles?!! very nice touch. compared to qantas, united airlines sucks. mostly cause they dont have your own screen to watch movies. qantas does! i bet almost every airlines has it, cept united. i dont want to think about the flight back to sfo with united. *shiver* now that i have experienced qantas. so anyway, we took the airbus shuttle from the airport once we landed which took us near our hostel. and just like that, 2 minutes after we got off, we realized i forgot to take my luggage off the bus. we decided to pursue the matter later, cause we were starving and discovered that the neighborhood our hostel was in was smack in the middle of korean town or something. the restaurants that lined the street was; korean, korean, chinese/korean, korean, korean, korean, japanese/korean, korean. yea...the hostel manager was even korean! and very nice lady too, who advised us how to best track down my duffel bag, with all my clothes and toiletries!! i tried to phone the bus company but my phone eventually died, saying i had no credit left. bullshit. this is what ive learned: vodaphone au =/= vodaphone nz. your vodaphone credit in oz doesnt work in nz, nor does any credit you buy in nz work toward your phone if your sim card is australian. so DO NOT buy vodaphone vouchers in nz. they do not work. i have $40 of vodaphone nz credit if anyone wants it. T.T sigh. well at least our room at the hostel, (called BK hostel) was ok. until at night...... we got a room that overlooked the main street, where the clubs rock their music till late at night. ugh. we walked down the street later the next few days and found that we were in the middle of nightclubs, stripping joints and sex toy shops galore. wonderful. lol the good thing was that we were pretty tired at the end of the day to notice too much the noise at night. oh and our room was the only in the hostel to have our own TV! yes! ...with only 2 channels. >.<;
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Pictures galore!
yayy so finally pics? =D yes. that's right. i havent been updating with pictures, but here they are, when i am procrastinating my hw! no haha.. ive been having trouble getting stable internet. ugh its so slow here!! its driving me crazy!!
Earth Hour 2009: Chiefly field on campus, not very exciting, mostly just sausage feast (ie free BBQ hehe, can u see the line on the far left?) and entertainment for 3 hours >.<
Sean's Bio Fieldtrips: He went to Jervis Bay, with its absolutely gorgeous beaches and a huge ass national park that apparently took 3 hours of walking to walk thru in order to actually get to the beach. then there was Kiolia, somewhere along the bay, not as famous as Jervis Bay's beaches. but still pretty darn nice. His last fieldtrip is this w eekend (right now) at the Snowy mountains. The 2nd to last pic is a blue squid ( i think.) he was stepping on them and they made popping noises, he said.
Sean's Bio Fieldtrips: He went to Jervis Bay, with its absolutely gorgeous beaches and a huge ass national park that apparently took 3 hours of walking to walk thru in order to actually get to the beach. then there was Kiolia, somewhere along the bay, not as famous as Jervis Bay's beaches. but still pretty darn nice. His last fieldtrip is this w eekend (right now) at the Snowy mountains. The 2nd to last pic is a blue squid ( i think.) he was stepping on them and they made popping noises, he said.
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