Canberra -- Australia's Capital

Well, I just got back from a 4 day trip to Canberra -- who actually knew this was Australia's capital? We departed bright and early Thursday morning (after a late night of drinking -- note to self, not good idea) at 7:30am. After about a 4 hour coach ride we arrived at Australia's Parliament House. This is an amazing place especially the way that it was built. The site where they wanted to build the new building was on top of a little hill and all but one architect wanted to build a grand building on top of the hill. The winner decided that the hill should be removed, the building built, and then the dirt placed back around. They wanted to allow the citizens the opportunity to stand on top of the government and overlook them instead of the other way around. Up until Sept. 11, you could actually enter the building by walking up the front, standing above one of the two chambers, and then taking an elevator down. But now you must enter on the ground floor level with the chambers (notice the chambers are not elevated at all). After departing the Parliament House, we went to the Frech Embassy which was OK but nothing too impressive.

We started Friday off not as early this time (8:40) and went to the National Zoo. This was probably one of my favorite times. Never thought that I would enjoy a zoo again but I did get to feed some of the animals (giraffe and tiger) as well as play with a dingo and hold a snake. I decided that I am going to have a dingo when I get older. I mean they are so friendly (except maybe to rabbits), not to mention, they don't give off an odor like other dogs so you never have the dog smell. Somehow I became addicted to watching this monkey mess around. I stood in the same spot and watched it for about 20 minutes -- I need one of those too. From there, we went to the Botanic Gardens. What fun! Next we went to CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization). This was alright. It is where most non medical research happens in Australia -- well, there are actually 20-30 of these places around Australia doing scientific things. After here, we went to the Mexican Embassy. Talk about a nothing place. There was basically no security here other than the gate surrounding the building. I mean at least the French Embassy had key cards and such to access most parts but the inside of this Embassy looked like an office. Just movable walls dividing up the areas and no guards.

Saturday came a little later with a 9:30 start and a departure to the Australia National Museum. This was interesting as it gave me a better understanding of what this nation is about. Although I know very little about its history, this did help. And just like White man was mean to the Native Americans, white man has been mean to the Aboriginal people of Australia. We then went to the National Gallery. I still wonder how somethings are considered art. I mean there was a thing on the floor that had a bunch of rocks lined up in rows and then there was a white canvas hanging on the wall. I mean white, WOW, that must have been hard to complete. At least the one next to it was white but also had a curve to it. Now that is Art!!

Sunday Morning came early once again with an 8:30 departure. We got to visit the Australian War Memorial and Museum. This was an amazing place to see all the things that Australia has been involved with while only being a county for 106 years. After the war memorial we went to the Old Bus Depot which is just a market place and had lunch as well as time to spend looking at what was offered for sell. There were some cool things but I didn't buy anything because of having to get it home. Finally we departed about 1:15 and got back to Sydney about 6. Good trip.

One of the amazing things about the city is that it is a "planned city" and one of the things is there is a straight line that runs from the past to the future. It starts at the War memorial, follows a path to the Old Parliament House and if you open the middle doors, it runs straight through the building and on up to New Parliament House. This building also has the ability to open all the middle doors so you can see straight through and at the back of the house is where bills are given the Royal Approval from the Queen which will determine the future of Australia. So with all the doors open, you can stand at the back of New Parliament and see into the past through Old Parliament and to the War Memorial or the other way around.

Now I just have a couple more days of class before I depart for Fiji early Thursday morning!!

To see more pictures go to these links:
http://richmond.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030519&l=d1441&id=15803950
http://richmond.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030520&l=caa5a&id=15803950

Update

Not much has been going on here lately. On Saturday night I went to an Australian Football League game which is Aussie Rules football. I actually really liked this game once I understood what was going on. It is fast paced and I am surprised that this isn't in the US yet. This game was played at the old Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Swans ended up winning the game with 100,000+ people there watching. Pretty cool to see all the old Olympic venues there together.
Just this evening, some friends and I decided to plan a trip to Fiji for the end of the month. The original plan was to go from Thursday to Monday but that ended up changing going from early Thursday morning and not getting back until late Wednesday night...who would have thought? But it ended up actually being cheaper to stay longer because the cost of the flight dropped $200 and the cost of the room only increased around $100 total per person so it was a plus. We are trying to get as many people as possible to go so we can get a 2 or 3 bedroom suite.
As far as school, I had a presentation yesterday that I think went pretty well and have another one tomorrow that hopefully goes well, but we spent most of the time today planning the trip instead of working on the actual presentation. It will all be good. As my uncle says, "life is more important than school" and this is going to be a great experience.

Tis all.

Weekend Recap

Not much really happened this weekend. Wednesday night I went out to a bar known as The Ranch. It is about a 25 minute walk but the provide a free shuttle so we always take advantage of that. Thursday I did absolutely nada. Just stayed in and took it easy. There is always a huge party at the bar on campus but I have yet to make it to any of them.
Friday I went to a class that I now have on Thursdays but I believe that I will keep attending the later class because it only have around 20 people in it compared to the Thursday class which has 60 or so. Friday night just hung around the apartments and waited on girls from Melbourne to come down and visit for the weekend. They finally got here around 11 and we just hung out and drank.
Saturday had about as much production as Thursday, but I did get my laundry done! Saturday night we celebrated a girls 20th birthday ending up downtown. The highlight of the night was eating a chicken wrap thing. They sheared the chicken off this big log and wrapped it with lettuce, grilled onion, tomatoes, and BBQ sauce. Simple AMAZING, although probably not healthy.
Sunday finally showed up at the ripe hour of 9:30 so working on 6 hours of sleep I managed to make it to the mall for lunch and ended up watching the Simpsons Movie. It was alright, but not really the greatest thing that others are making it out to be. I would give it 3 stars or so, but I would give the movie theater 5 Stars easy. This place was amazing. Had nice, wide comfortable seats with a high backrest and plenty of leg room but it was the first time that I have ever been assigned my seat at a movie. And just for good measure, if you wanted to make an event out of it, they had a cocktail lounge where you could order some food or if you felt the need to be drinking while seeing the movie, go ahead, there is a full bar. Now it is Sunday night and I am attempting to read some of my assignments. I'm on Page 8 and I need to get to Page 17. We shall see. It will be an early night for me.
I decided to attend the Global Leadership Symposium in Canberra for 4 days (Aug. 16-19) and still haven't really decided on Spring break yet. There is a chance for a 9 night cruise but I'm not really interested in the places where is stops (haven't heard of most of them) and there is a chance to go on a 17 east coast adventure which includes White Water Rafting, Sky Diving over the Great Barrier Reef, Diving the Reef, a Jungle Swing, Maxi Yacht Sailing, 4WD Fraser Island Safari, River Kayaking along with other events. Seems like it would be the best buy for my money.

Classes

Well, almost made it through my first week of class. Only have one more 3 hour lecture tomorrow -- Hopefully after tomorrow the professor will allow me to come to the class that meets today so that I won't have to have class on Friday, or at least she will let me come on Thursdays when I have something planned for the weekend. The classes don't seem like they will be too bad except for the one that I have today might be the hardest since it is a 300 lever course but I will make i, hopefully. The first class that I attended was History and I couldn't believe that I was in a class with 200 students. Something that I am not used to at all and don't really seem to like but hopefully the tutorial will be better. But then on Tuesday, I went to OB where there was close to 400 students in the class. WOW. But it calmed down yesterday with a little under 50 in my Econ class. Seems like the higher the level, the lower the number of students. Another thing that I can't believe is that students just walk in 30 minutes late like it is nothing and even get up 30 minutes early and walk out. One person left a 2 hour lecture with 50 minutes remaining. And they record all lectures and put them on the web for download so it seems as if they encourage you not to go to class?
Here is my schedule:
Monday:
10-11: World History since 1945
12-1: History (Tutorial)
1-2: OB (Tutorial)
4-6: Organisational Behaviour

Tuesday:
1-2: World History Since 1945

Wednesday:
3-5: Labour Economics
5-6: Economics (Tutorial)

Thursday:
12-3: Cross Cultural Management

Tutorials are just smaller class sizes to ask questions and do presentations.

**I was able to make the change into the Thursday class so now I don't have class Fridays.

Opera House Night #1

Last night I attended my first show at the Sydney Opera House with 9 friends. We attended the 75 minute production of "Major Bang Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Dirty Bomb". Now let me tell you, I was throughly disappointed, not in the play itself which I thought was amusing although it didn't have a point to it, but rather in the Opera House itself. Luck have it, we chose to attend a play that was being show in the smallest theatre in the entire building. This place might have had room for 300 people and there were probably 150 there, not to mention the interior of the theatre was very bland. I think my high school auditorium is nicer. Although the play only had 2 actors, they did a good job of playing all the different parts. We already decided that we will have to return to see a production in the Concert Hall so we can get the complete experience of the building.
Afterwards, we went to grab some dinner at this surprisingly nice restaurant that is open 24 hours -- Since the play didn't end until 10:30 we needed a place like this. We all figured that we were getting used to Australia when we started to think that the prices weren't too bad, even with it costing $2.30 to add cheese to a burger that already cost $16. But along with a beer for $6.50, the bill wasn't too bad and tip/tax are already included in the price in the menu so you know exactly what you have to pay. With such a big dinner, we all decided to come back to campus without hitting up the bars. It was already 12 by that time so we would have had to leave a bar around 2 to catch the last bus home. Just didn't seem worth it and we were all tired. Good night none the less.
Today I did absolutely nothing other that sit around and take a 4 hour nap this afternoon. First Australian class in 13 hours......

First Night in Sydney

Well, I finally made it down to Sydney for the first time since I have been here. As expected, it was a great time to see how people live around here. There was Rugby on every TV and no one that I was with really understood it at all but being such a big sport here, I figure I will eventually learn. The community where I am staying offered a deal where they would take us downtown at 8 and bring us back at 2 for only $5. This is a good deal for the 30 minute ride considering it is about $6 each way if you take the public bus. We moved from Pub to Pub attempting to find the best deals on drinks. That really worked out well since each place that we went a beer was $6 and going for mixed drinks was crazy. It was $10 for a vodka and Red Bull and $20 for a double shot although the sign said cocktails were only $5, we just couldn't figure out which one was so cheap (I think it was Sex on the Beach). Might have been worth it but, come on, what guy is going to drink that? We moved on to an Irish Pub which had some great throwback music playing, I mean Spice Girls was blasting when we walked in. I liked this place because you could get a liter for $18 but for some reason they were not selling them so I had to settle for a half-liter @ $9.50. Doesn't seem like a good deal to me. I think that we found the best deal on Beer at what we believed to be a gay bar but nothing to back that up with. For $5, we got a beer that supposedly that was equal to 2 beers so that was a good find.
Finally around 1, we decided to go hunt for some food to top off the night. After walking 5 blocks we found a McDonald's. Now for expenses, the 10 piece nugget meal at home is about $5.50 but not hear, it is going to cost you $7. Oh, and did I mention that you only get 6 nuggets? So we all settled for the Quarter Pounder mean that was also $7, but it tasted like home. (Is that even a good thing? Still not healthy.)

Yesterday (Friday), I spent the early afternoon getting approved for classes that I want to take. I finally decided that I will be taking Organizational Beahviour (Australians spell weird), Labour Economics, Cross Cultural Management, and World History since 1945 - An Australian Perspective. So I have 2-100 level classes, 1-200, and 1-300 meaning if I decided to drop one, you can say bye-bye to Cross Cultural Management -- although this might be needed since I decided to double major and add Business Administration with a Management Concentration to my Accounting Major. All this work better be worth it!

Don't think much else has happened. Start classes on Monday -- Whooo!!

Peace Out.

First Week

Well, I have been here for about a week now and have amazingly accomplished nothing. I left from Cincinnati around 1pm on July 18 only to have a 9 hour layover in LA and not leave there until after 11:30pm on the 18th. After a 14 hour flight, I arrived in Sydney at 6:05am on July 20, so therefore I never had the privilege to experience Thursday, July 19, 2007. Talk about a long flight.
When I finally arrived at MacQuarie University Village, I started to meet my 4 roommates throughout the day. There is a man from Asia who I rarely see, a woman from Australia and 2 women from India (I believe). I think that I have done well so far in that I can remember all but one of their names.
I would have to say that the weirdest part is the 14 hour time difference and not having much connection to the US because everyone is usually sleeping while I am enjoying life down under. A lot of people went on pre-orientation trips. After spending the first 2-3 days going to bed at 5pm and waking up at 3am, I think that I finally have myself on a positive sleep schedule although I am still waking up at 7am even without a job. So I have spent my extra sleeping hours watching Weeds, Season 2 and Jericho, Season 1 (both are amazing shows).
Today I spent the mid-afternoon attempting to travel to North Sydney to meet the only connection that I have in the area only to be told both people were away for the week. Wasn't all that bad of a trip though since it kinda taught me how to use the Bus system. I am willing to bet that missing my return stop and having to change buses and ride for an extra 20 minutes wasn't all that bad. I just need to find what bus I can take that will pick me up and drop me off right in front of my apartment.
The fun is about to start as the rest of the normal students return to campus throughout the weekend and the parties start to get going, not to mention I start class on Monday (July 30).
If you want to contact me feel free: AOL & Skype-jordancmcghee; email-jordan.mcghee@richmond.edu; and for those who don't care about costs (it is free for me) cell- 61-0404-41-6865
I'll see how well I do keeping this up to date and adding some pictures from around the area. Cheers!