Melbourne day 3

Ok ok. I know i really should have written this post ages ago when i actually, you know, was un Melbourne. But better late than never.

I dedicated that day to meeting up with callum and my Dutch friend. They both lived on the beach about a half hour walk from each other, but a good 4 hour walk from me. I didn't really want to waste time or money on public transport so I decided to walk all the way there. It was a good call in the end  because i ended walking through a whole bunch of side streets which were pretty cool
Eventually I reached st. Kilda and met up with Callum and his father. It was good seeing mr. Frew again - he still hasn't lost his grudge against me for a an age of empires game all of us played years ago where I back stabbed him and my other allies to get the win all for myself. Eventually the topic changed from computer games and we resorted to polite small talk. Apparently I act more american than I did 2 years ago.

After taking a trolley to the city we went to the asian beer cafe where we tried Go Ku beer. Just like the tv show it appeared strong but was actually weak and took hours to notice an effect. I hadn't eaten anything all day so I was in the mood for a cheap feed. We waddled on down to an all you can eat Chinese restaurant. Within 5 minutes our table was bombarded with cheap deep friend chinese food. When a waiter approached callum and asked him if he would like more, callum hesitated and the waiter understood and said 'no yet no yet'. Its at that point where my money saving, binge eating, respect lacking instincts kicked in and i grabbed the Waiter and said 'yes yet yes yet. More food more!' Callum will thank me later. The weirdest thing about the restaurant though was that it kept playing weird music. Marvin gaye was on repeat and every 10 minutes they would play happy birthday. I think it was a bug in the software because everyone kept looking around to find the birthday boy/girl with no luck. After the 5th time it played I stood up and clapped at callum making everyone think it was his birthday. He will thank me later. 

To top it off I went to we want to a German pub afterwards to enjoy some wheat beer. A great end to a great trip.... Or at least it would have been if I didn't have to wake up at 3:45 am yo catch my flight and if there want a fire alarm that went off for an hour at 2am. Gurr.

Melbourne day 2

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I started the day by heading to the Fitzroy area in a quest to find the Little creatures brewery. The map I had conveniently cut out well before that area so all I knew was that it was north. The path I took reminded me a whole lot of Frodo travelling through middle earth - except instead of a ring gradually corrupting me, it was as my burning desire for alcohol. Eventually I arrived at the black gate which was the entrance to the brewery. Sadly however, when I stepped into the fiery pits of mt. Doom I realized I had been deceived. It wasn't a brewery but a little creatures diner.  I had a pot of pale ale and stole a free brochure outlining the types of hops and malt they use for their brew - anything that'll give me a competitive advantage with my home brew is worth taking.

I've been pretending all along that I'm a Texan exchange student in Australia. So far I've made a lot friends this way. However I've noticed that I accidentally change my story every time I say it. This really puts me on my toes and I've been adding layer after layer of lies to make up for obvious contradictions. I reckon they might figure out the second I leave Melbourne.

With what was left of the afternoon I went to the markets to see if I could buy some Christmas presents for my family. Sadly however, the markets had very little selection and nothing existed here that I couldn't get in Melbourne.

I also went on a long river walk which turned out to be really cool. Good food, good sun and really friendly people.

I ended up the night by inviting everyone I had met to 'cookie bar'. Its a misleading title because it's not much of a bar, more of an outside beer hall. They also had a pretty large projector which had the potential to play any movie they wanted. Sadly they didn't capitalize on this by playing pacific rim :(. At this point it was just the Irish bloke, 2 Brits from the hostel and myself. After a while though we decided to go to a different bar - 'the Irish tale', you can guess who's idea that was. There we met up with a friend of mine from Texas (Woutijn), two of the dutch girls and a random local who just wanted to be part of the UN meeting.

I know I promised myself I wouldn't be so stingy with money but towels here are like a whole 5 dollars to borrow so I ended up drying myself with a clean shirt of mine.

Melbourne day 1 continued

Melbourne is awesome. The people here are really friendly and social. Most of the people I've met today have been international backpacker's but a few have been genuine melbournians. I ran into a few dutch backpackers on the bus out of the airport who were telling me about their experiences in Australia thus far - I'll be drinking with them tomorrow night for sure. Also while having dinner in a Thai place I met an Irish / Australian bloke who had been living here for quite some time - I'll also be drinking with him tomorrow. The hostel was the most social though because I met so many different people from Europe. One guy who has the bed just below mine has an extremely american accent but is actually from Belgium. While I was drinking with him I tried very hard not to bring up the conversation of beer with him because I knew he would know more. Did you know that monks make beer in Belgium. How badass is that?

In other news I've made it a mission of mine to drink a beer in every pub I n the city. Tomorrow us going to be fun...

Melbourne day 1

I'm currently waiting at the airport for my flight to Melbourne. I've booked my accommodation for 3 nights which means I'll be home on Sunday. Matt Gates was kind enough to drop me off at the airport today which meant I didn't have to catch a super expensive train in. Sadly nothing out of the ordinary has happened worth commenting about - everybody is behaving in that expected ultra independent and successful businessman kind of way.

I plan to meet up with a friend on Friday afternoon. He's a Dutch friend of mine that I made while in Texas. He offered me a place to stay near the beach just a few hours after I booked my 14 bedroom dorm hostel. Its probably for the best that I don't stay in his house though because I kind of want to meet new people which can most easily be done at a hostel.

My excitement for Melbourne is slowly being weighed down by the boring and professional atmosphere of the passengers waiting around me. I kinda wish I was in line longer for the baggage check - but sadly airports have to be efficient. I've noticed one woman who was behind me in the baggage check who was restlessly shuffling to the front of the queue in that 'I've got things to do! Let me through' kind of way - she's now trying to fall asleep in a disturbingly awkward posture just a few seats away from me.

This type of professional impatience ego is something I never want to have. So maybe that is what this trip should be about? Being young wild and free before my soul gets crushed by the weight of a full time job.  Strip clubs here I come!

Explosive performances

Day 442

Despite our best efforts, the cockroaches are winning the war. Myself and a few others banded together to form 'the resistance', but lack of motivation and laziness runs through the ranks too fiercely. In the meanwhile, we've noticed a growing ant population competing for food in the kitchen. This insect civil war might just buy us some time. Rumor has it that a company not too far away has invented a "bug bomb" - a small scale nuclear bomb that would make Hiroshima look like a marshimello fire. If we pool our resources together, we could turn the tide.

In other news, the UNSW e Learning forum YouTube video just got released. This is the video that featured me and 3 other students panelists talk about how Online learning has a part to play in the future of UNSW education. Now before you click on this Hyperlink, I want you to know that I was nervous! There are many scenes of me fidgeting with my thumb ring and watch. There are also many scenes of me absentmindedly staring into the camera like a complete dunce. So please! For my sake, DON'T watch this video with any expectation that I will sound i) intelligent ii) rehearsed or even iii) literate

DO

NOT

WATCH

THIS

VIDEO

WITHOUT

WATCHING

A

VIDEO

OF

YOURSELF

AS

A

4 YEAR OLD

EATING

SPAGHETTI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JL_VerRhD0

Cockroaches, roommates and twins

Day 432.

Cockroaches have taken over the household. Supplies and hygene are at an all time low. We tried spraying the house with "raid", but to no effect. They've already evolved to withstand biological warfare. Also, I'm pretty sure "raid" is just carbonated flavored water. There are so many of them crawling through the kitchen that I can't get a glass of water after midnight anymore without putting shoes on first. A few other brave men and I have taken it upon ourselves to fight back the only way we know how - by using mindless violence. There's a box of tissues by the bench top in the kitchen which has only one purpose - and sadly, it's not for cleaning.

A new roommate moved in today. His name is Harry and he's from England working at the Randwick racecourse as a horse looker afterer. He's pretty cool and super chill. I originally wanted to leave the spot available for a week so that Matt Gates could move in immediately if he wanted to when he came back from China. But splitting 1 weeks rent 5 ways wasn't cool with the other guys so I took a serious stab at the gumtree advertisement. The best part about this arrangement is that Harry has already claimed that he can move out in February if Matt wants to move in.

In other news, I've found my evil genius nemesis at work today. He's pretty much exactly like me, but better in every way imaginable. His name is Gim and he is an Asian mastermind. Here are the some of the ways this guy is exactly like me, but better:
1) He and I were the only undergraduates working for Professor Prusty. Except I took 5 years to graduate and he only took 4.
2) He and I both created online tutorials. Except he created his faster and without coding bugs.
3) I tutored 1 subject last semester. He tutored 3.

It's times like these where I recall back to one of my fathers sayings: "You'll never be the best at anything. But don't worry, because you'll never be the worst either". Thanks Dad.

FuUUuUUuuck I still haven't purchased my beer making kit! Why did I choose the lead up to Christmas as a time to buy my expensive equipment? I think i'll wait till Jan.

Beer

So I went to a party yesterday with the intention of politely (arrogantly) bragging about my new drive to brew my own beer. The first person I happened to sit next to was [This comment has been censored by the Abbot Government. All hail Abbot]. I began with

"Hey man, guess what?"

"whu..?"

"I'M BREWING MY OWN BEER"

"Oh cool man. What type of hops do you plan on using? Are you going to use the standard coopers kit? Or are you going to be creative?"

"Ummm, I don't know yet. I'm still looking for good deals on eBay. I reckon I'll have a batch brewing by next month! You seem to know a little bit about brewing beer. Have you been watching YouTube videos too?"

"Nah man, I've been brewing my own beer for years now. **holds up an unlabeled beer** This is a batch 20."


Before my jaw could hit the floor, another friend of mine, [This comment has been censored by the Abbot Government. All hail Abbot], chimed into the conversation saying:

"Hey guys, d'ya brew your own beer too? The temperature fluctuation has been so bad for my latest batch, eh? I was just telling ____ that I might have to start investing an a isolation chamber"

At that moment [This comment has been censored by the Abbot Government. All hail Abbot] came up to us. He was on the lease for the house and stated talking about how his latest batch hadn't hadn't quite digested all the yeast yet. He then proceeded to walk into the next room and pull about a bunch of full bottles of his home brew.

I suddenly felt ill. I think it was due to all the commercialized unsanitary beer I'd been drinking. I made a few quick goodbyes and left. Since when did brewing your own beer become so mainstream? I wanted to be new and original and stuff. Now i'll be just another alcoholic hobo trying to save money. Fuuuu

On the bright side my new Pikachu vs Squirtle artwork is coming along nicely.