Sydney Day 84

Wow 84 DAYS! It's been 8 days since my last post adn I"ve done so much! First off MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! Being a jew, I'd have to say this years christmas experience was by far my weirdest! I was supposed to work on Christmas eve but then I recieved a call from someone and when I picked up they said "Budman!" and I was like "Yes...". "This is George from work. Have the night off!". So that was great. I had no plans though and since Steph was feeling homesick that day I decided to cook for both of us. I made a mean tuna pasta bake. Basically I mixed noodles, tune adn sauce in a baking pan and put grated cheese on top and slapped it into the oven. It came out great. Afterwards, I met up with some friends and went to a FOAM party. It was basically circle with garbage bags on the floor and a giant foam cannon splashing people. We had so much fun. It ended at 12am which was great since I had to work on christmas day at 9am. What do I care, I don't celebrate it and I got 40$ an hour! I worked from 9am until 5pm that day and afterwards the Chef suprized us with a giant meal! There was pasta, chicken, turkey, potatoes. You name it! I had 3 plates. After eating so much I got invited to my coworker's Blair's house party. Someone from work gave me a lift on her scooter. It' swas my frist time and I held on so tight my hands hurt. The party was small but great. I got to hang out with the locals, all great people and just talked about anything. The next day, boxing day, I decided I had enough of going out but it turned out it was this great guy who worked with me, Matt, his last night in Austrlia. We all got invited to this great club called Y.U. I loved it! It was just great music and dancing all night long. Everyone there was just having a good time. Finally, monday I took it easy and yesturday, my day off, I went to see Blade Trinity. It was a good movie, no tthe best, but good. I love Ryan Reynolds. He was Amazing in it!

I work the rest o9f this week, including New Years Eve and New Years day btu I"m sure that won't stop me from having fun and great stories to tell about.

Happy New years EVERYONE!

Sydney Day 76

Yesturday was a big exciting day for me. Being my day off, I spent the morning sleeping in and then ended up at another BBQ at Coogee Beach held by IEP. The weather was nicer and there were more people this time. After the beach I went to Bondi beach to visit my relatives for dinner. The whole family was there and we had a huge meal. They are was too kind. It was great. After dinner I got invited to see the movie SAW. So yes, I saw Saw (hehe). I was interesting. It is really kool and a bit graphic but it's not really scary or suspensful. The movie poster says "Best Suspencful Thriller since Seven (movie with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) but it just doesn't compare.

I just uploaded some new pics:
First Coogee Beach BBQ

Jordan's - The Restaurant I'm working At
(actually that's just pictures of one third of the restaurant!)

The Killers Concert (Best Seen if You Zoomd IN!)

Finally Pictures showing how much fun I am having with all my co-workers at various parties!
(and yes I'm doing that mouth thing again... I can't help it!)

Sydney Day 74

Saturday night I saw The Killers! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the band, they are the group who made that song "Somebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in february of last year...". The show was awesome but i would have liked if the band was just a bit more enrgetic on stage. They played really well and had a great set but they didn't sem too enthusiastic in what they were doing. I went to the show with the brits - Mark, Dan and James. Unfortunately because I bought my tickets at a different time then them, we were in different places of the auditorium. The place was set up as follows:

Ther was a street entrance into the theate known as the Enmore. Onc inside, is a foyer where they sold drinks and merchendise. Formt her were 2 doors that led into the theatre itself which was plit into a seated area and infront of that a dancefloor and then the stage.

The brits had tickets for the dancefloor and were up close. My ticket was for the FOYER! In between the 2 doors that lead into the theatre is a giant open window (basically a big whole in the wall) where I had to stand at to see the band. At first i was pissed off but then realized it wasn't that bad since I was level witht the stage in terms of seeing and I got to lean on the wall so my legs didn't hurt too much form standing for 2 hours.

After the show we headed to a bar called the Marlborough Hotel. It's owned by the same people who own Jordans so i was able to get a 10% discount on drinks for all my friends.

Last night I worked for 5 hours and then went to house party! It was the first official house party where it wasn't only people i knew form work and it was great to meet new people. Unfortunately it wasn't realy a lot of fun, so all the work people i knew and i headed out to the KIngs Cross. We eded up at the place called EMpire. it was a lot of fun. I stayed out pretty late that my buddy Blair from work lat me crash at his place. This morning we got up and he had to head to work so I walked back towards my house and then decided to come to IEP to check my e-mail and update this blog. I have to say that Blair is a real awesome guy and he is one of the few true Australians i have made friends with ebsides just other travellers. The first time i met him he didn't like me so much because he thought I was american but when I corrected him, we've become pretty good friends since.

I work almost evrday this week, including christmas day but I don't care because:
a)I'm Jewish
b)I'll get paid 40$ an hour
c) I only have to work during the day and I got the night off to do what I want.

Well Happy Holiday Everyone!

Sydney Day 70

It's only been 5 days since the last post but I feel like a lot of small things have happened:

The 2 Koreans I live with have both moved out and been replaced with, wait for it..., 2 more Koreans! we had a guy move in named Indy. He worked crazy hours and whenever he would be home during the day, e'd just fall asleep on the table, the floor, tanding up, etc. He only stayed 1 week and then ended up having to move to Perth suddenly for some reason. He is now replaced with the first female Korean we have by the name of Juni. The other Korean is this really hyper guy named Brian. When I introduced myself to him, it took him a while to get my name:

Josh - "Hi what was your name again?"
Brian - "Brian, what is yours?"
Josh - "Josh"
Brian - "Jashoo?"
Josh - "No, Josh"
Brian - "Oh! Jashoo!!"
Josh - " No.... Josh, Josh"
Brian (confused) - "Jashoo or Jorsha?"
Stephanie (from the kitchen) - "JOSH!"
Brian(still confused) - "Josh?"
Josh and Stephanie " YES!"

Last sunday I went out with people from work and we ende dup bar hopping. the end of the night I went to CHEERS! I was excited to find a Cheers in Australia, but unfortunatley it sucked! I got a kool picturre of the logo though so that was good.

I finally paid off the rest of my bus ticket, so here is my tentative plan:
Jan 14th Finish work
Jan 15th Fly to Adelaide
Jan 16th Hop on the Oz Experience Bus
Jan 16th - Jan 19th Take a tour along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne
Jan 19th Get off the bus and livein Melbouire for a couple of months.

In other news, I've been working 3 double shifts in a row at work. I'm getting tired from it (right now 2 down and 1 more to go today). I'll total about 31 hours in 4 days, for me thats a lot. it all pays off though because tomorrow night is the Killers show! I can't wait!

Also, lastnight after work I went to Star City, the casino in Sydney. It was ok. I gambled 10$ and ended up with 12$! I won 2$!!!! I also did kareoke at a bar and sang "Everybody Needs Somebody" from the blues Brothers Soundtrack and it was great!

Last but not least, I bought another CD. the best of Groove Armada. It's aweseome! I had to buy it actually. The way my roomates made the christmas gift exchange was they all chose somethign that was valued 30$ and bought it themselves. then the other 3 of us were to pay for it by paying that person each 10$. However, if persons A,B and C pay D 10$ and B,C and D pay A 10$, and C,D and A pay B 10$, etc. then all we're doing is exchanging money. So in the long run, to be even everyone had to buy themselves a 30$ gift, but since the other 3 screwed up and BOUGHT me a 20$ gift I had to go out and spend 10 mor dollars to make it even. And since they paid for the 20$ gift I had to pay each of them back 6$! It makes absolutely no sense but it does...

Sydney Day 65

Wow I've been here about 2 months! ! more month to go in Sydney adn then I'm going to start travelling. I've almost made enough money to buy my bus ticket for the tour I want to take - Oz Experience.
Today I'm sick and I got the night off work to rest so I'll make this post short.
Havn't done much but work lately. it's chanukah, Happy Chanukah! My roomates got me a gift. They bought the sequal to the book I"m reading, Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind. I'm currently reading Wizard's First Rule by him. It's an awesome book.

Next week I"m going to go see The Killers live in concert so excited for that.

Last week I was supposed to dress up as Santa Claus for a special breakfast work was hlding for it's associates but the owners hired a real life santa without telling my boss. This guy looked like santa but it was freaky. he had 2 hot women knwon as his 'little helpers'. I swear this guy looked like he'd come from a raunchy porno that would be titled "Debbie Does Santa" or something.

Also, I bought the 2 CD compilation of Pearl Jam's Greatest hits. If you like Pearl Jam then you MUST buy this! It's great. One Cd is all their fast stuff and one is all their slow stuff.

Last but not least, I found out today that the youngest child in a family is known as the 'treasure' for Koreans, haha.

Syney Day 59

I have finally had some time to relax a little after working so much. Last week I worked 40+ hours in 5 days and this week my schedule has been a bit more relaxing although now I need the money and want more hours. I'm not complaining though because it's going ot get really busy soona dn with a lot of people quiting to travel so close to christmas time it'll leave more shifts open for me to have. Next week I have to work at 7am for a special breakfast the restaurant it holding.
Yesturday I went to a BBQ at Coogee beach and met a whole bunch of kool people. The weather wasn't the best but I had a lot of fun. I had to leave early though for work where I got nailed a bit by my managers. First I got introubel for not shaving (it was only 1 day and I completely forgot! We all make mistakes!) and later on I got nailed for wearing black socks (my black socks were in the wash!) but it's ok I wasn't in too much trouble.
Today is my day off so I went with some friend to Maroubra beach. First day in a while I really got to relax. It was quite windy at the beach but I just lied down on the sand and relaxed and even slept a little. It felt SO GOOD! I've been to 7 different beaches so far! Tonight i"m meeting up with the brits again and we're going to check out an area called Newtown. It's basically the University ghetto so that should be fun to check out. I can't party too hard though since I need to get up for work tomorrow. I'm working all day. at 12pm until about 4pm and then I'm back at 6pm until about 10pm.
Well it's dinner time now so I better go home and cook.

Sydney Day 56

Ok after a few days of tinkering, I finally put up some new pics. Unfortunately I had to delete all the other photos. My website hols a max of 25megs and I exceeded the limit. So here is what is up now:

Bondi Beach and Sculptures By The Sea - pics of when I walked along the costal walkweay and saw all these magnificent sculptures being exhibited.

Shaved Head - pics of when I shaved my head to raise money for breast cancer. I liked the look so much, I'm now keeping my hear short. I even bought an electric razor to keep it short.

Surf Camp - pics of me surfing! Now you'll know why I was nicknamed goggles!

Miscellaneous - I got a few more miscellaneous pics to check out.

Enjoy!

Sydney Day 53

It's been a week since I last updated. Nothing happened to me, I've just been working a lot.
I never ended up going on that coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee because the weather was crap - rainy and cold. Instead I went home and cooked cheese latkes. I was printing up recipes for Hanukah and when I mention how i couldn't wait to try them out, a friend of mine told me to just make them now, so I went home and did. My roomates really enjoyed them. When hanukah comes around I'll make potato latkes. I was thinking about getting or making amenorah for hanukah so I could light the candles for the holiday but I found out when I was cooking the latkes and saw smoke in the apartment from my frying that there are NO smoke alarms in the aprtment! So scratch the candle idea... Hopedully I'll find somewhere I can hang out and light the candles at least one night although with work, getting a snight off is going to be tough with christmas coming and all.
This week I worked wednesday until sunday for a total of 40 hours! Thursday I worked 9am until 11pm with a 1 hour break and saturday I worked 12pm until about 10pm. I havn't had time to relax at all except for a beer or 2 after work but suring the day it's mostly been wake up, get dressed, eat and go to work. Tonight is my last night on my working spree and thankfully I got tomorrow off work. Unfortunately though, on my day off I have to go to a mandatory meeting at work at 4pm. It's supposed to be about 42 degrees tomorrow and would have been perfect for the beach but i won't have enough time to go.
Aside from work, I saw Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason and I had dinner with my russian relatives. It was nice to have been invited for dinner and they tried to fatten me up. I ate for almost an hour! I'm still as skinney as usual though but now i have a lot less hair. I"m sporting the ever so popular shaved head look now for the summer and i plan on keeping it up so I bought myuself a nice electric shaver for my head.
Time is up on the computer but will update again possibly tomorrow. I want to put up photos but I'm having arelaly hard time since I have SO many! Those wil be up soon, eventually!

Sydney Day 46

Last Thursday I did my first full double shift at work and it was ridiculous! I started work at 9am and took a break at 3pm. After a quick nap, shower and dinner, went back to work at 6pm and finished at 12:30am. It wasn't bad though. I quite enjoyed the evening shift. A lot of people I enjoy working with were with me that night and we had to sing happy birthday to 4 people in a row! It's always exciting when we sing happy birthday because we try to get everyone together and then we sing really loudly and here after you sing you go "Hip hip Hooray!", but I"m not sure why. I was told it has something to do with the queen or something.

Friday during the day I got all my stuff ready for my surf trip! It was really crappy weather in the city, rainy and cold. I met up with James at the meeting spot and once everyone gathered we ended up on this small surf bus and drove to the beach. We stayed in a beach area called Seven Mile Beach. We slept in tiny cabins with bunk beds which was the 'surf camp'. That night we got a lift to a tiny pub, chilled and called it an early night. Saturday morning we all got up at 7:30, had a quick breakfast and got ready to surf! I was given a wet suit and a 9 foot long surf board. We walked to the beach and was taught how to lie on the board and how to stabd up. I picked it up pretty fast and was able to ride the waves. We surfed for 2 hours, went back for lunch and a quick nap and then headed back to the each for another 2 hours. At night we all went to the only lively pub in the area. It was a fisherman's club and there were a lot of senior people there drinking. It's so tiny the area that the place closed at 12am. That night was fun, we got to get to know everyone on the trip. For the first time, the majority of people there were canadian! They seemed like kool guys. Because when I surfed I had to wear these prescription goggles in order to see, my nickname became Goggles and one girl insited on calling me Robin (from Batman and Robin). The next day was the same thing. Two 2 hour lessons of surf with lunch in between. The weather was a lot nicer than the first day. The first day was overcast and cold. The second day was sunny and nice. I got the hang of standing on the board and also even a little bit of turning. I was told by the head instructor I was one of the best people there amongst the other beginners. I felt great until I hear him say the same thing to someone else but I did think I was a bit better and staying up then most people. It's not hard to surf if you have balance. I have tons of amzing/funny photos to prove I can surf and promise to put hem online shortly.

I have a growing collection of pics now. I've taken about 350 pics not including the surf trip. I bought a photo CD from the surf camp with about 70 pics of me and about 20 pics of miscellaneous stuff taken over the weekend so I'm almost at 500 pics since I got here. I have them all on CD so I promise to upload them onto my photo website soon.

I got today and tomorrow off work which is great since I'm so sore from the surf trip. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach with IEP. It also includes a 2$ BBQ lunch so hopefully the weather will be nice enough to go.

Sydney Day 41

Wow I have done SO much since my last post so this may be a long one.
Last Wednesday I was invited by my british friends to go to their place and eat pizza. We were 6 of us and split in to buy 4 pizzas, costing me only 5$! it was great! First time I ate pizza since moving to Australia. Afterwards I went to that Toga party! It was a lot of fun. For 10$ I got a free toga (a.k.a. bed sheet) and all you can drink beer and 'special' punch. Afterwards we all headed to a bar called Scubar and were allowed to enter wearing our togas!

I worked the next night and then headed over to my new favorite hangout - Sidebar. I thought there was a party there with people from IEP, the resource center that I go to for help and free internet, etc. but I made a mistake and it's actually tomorrow (not last week). Anyways, I got to see that real cool manager again. he told me the "wall of fame" will be up soon and he introduced him to a real kool girl from Denmark who hangs out there every other day. I also got another free beer so I think I'm going to try and make Sidebar my australian version of Biftek although I never got free beer at Biftek but I always had a good time when I was (most of the time due to Sam's drunken antics, hehe).

From last friday until last sunday there was a backpacker exposition held at town hall. I went on friday and looked around. I got so much free brochures about all these great palces to visit. There are SO many things you can see and do in Australia! I doubt I'll be able to see a fraction of all the stuff in just 1 year but I'm going to try my best! I still have to sit down and go through everything but I have an idea of where I want to go and what I want to see. Basically I'm thinking of moving to Melbourne next and after a couple of months head up the east coast to Cairns stoping along the way at various places with a big stop in probably Brisbane where I'd like to live for a short time as well.

On Saturday I went back to Bondi Beach and I took a walk from Bondi all the way to Tanarama Beach. It's just beaches after beaches here in Australia! The walk was awesome and the views were incredible! Also along the way was a special sculpture exhibit of allkinds of wacky and kooky things. I went nuts and took as many pictures as I could before my camera died. I promise to post them up very soon.

Sunday I made my way back to the backpacker expo to get more information on Victoria and Melbourne. In the process I walked by a booth just as someone said "who wants free stuff??" to which I immediately raised my hand. Next thing I know it I was in an air guitar contest. I had to compete against 2 other guys and air guitar to Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl. I ended up wining the contest and got a few free t-shirts and a DVD of a famous soap opera called Neighbours. Turns out the show is almost 20 years old and it's where Kylie Minogue started her career. Too bad I don't have a DVD player to watch it on but I'll eventually mail it back home to Canada where hopefully it will be safe waiting for me when I return home next year (hopefully!hehe). Afterwards, I was still looking for a booth on Melbourne and Victoria when I walked by a booth that was collecting money for breast cancer. The catch was to also get your head shaved, so, needing a haricut, I gave 10$, and got my head shaved on size 3 razor which isn't that short. The people doing it were professional hairdressers so at least they made me look clean cut and not just chop off all my hair. She cleaned my neck and trimmed the sides a bit with scissors so it looked just a like a nice decent short haircut (Note: I'm writing these details for my mom to not freak out, hehe). I also took a few pictures. For shaving my head I got entered in a draw and since only 2 other people shaved there head, I had a 1 in 3 chance to win... and I did. I won 50$ so that was a really lucky day I had.

Monday I was supposed to have the day off but I was asked to come in special because they needed an extra person. During the day, though, I went and bought a new pair of headphones since my 5$ headphones I bought in Montreal broke after a month. I also bought 2 CDs - the new Green Day album American Idiot and the soundtrack to one of my favorite movies of all time, the Blues Brothers (GO SEE THAT MOVIE IF YOU HAVN"T YET! the Original 1981 verson not the 2000 remake!) They have a bunch of CD shops where everything is 10$ except brand new chart toppers which re 20$ but those were on sale for 15$ so itr was relativley cheap for the 2 CDs. The Green Day album is quite good and I agree with what some critics are saying that it is just as good as their smash hit Dookie.

Yesturday was a really long day. I just did a lot of errands. My bag broke, so I had to get that fixed and then I was looking around the whole city for a strap for my glasses. I am going on a surf trip this weekend and I needed something to helpo keep my glasses on my face while i"m surfing or else i"ll be a blind surfer. I had no luck but instead found a pair of goggles that had perscription lenses. They are stylish and now I ca surf AND see! After shopping, I headed home and had some friends over for a barbecue on the roof! The brits and Tim from IEP came over for some hamburgers and beer, it was a lot of fun. The brits and i then went to se a movie at the IMAX theatre. Im sure I was told by someone that it was the largest IMAX screen in the world but it didn't look any different than the one in Montreal. On top of that, the movie we saw sucked SO BADLY! It was this 3D movie called Haunted Castle. The poster just said "Haunted Castle, Enter if you DARE!" I was even scared to go see it when I saw in small print "Warning: Horror theme and mild violence". What it should have said was "Warning: do not see this if you are above the age of 10". It was just this completely computer graphic movie. It lasted about 45 minutes. The story was basically about this guy who inherits his mothers castle and when he gets there thigns start to come alive (not scary) and then Satan appears and offers the guy a deal to be a rock star but first tells hims to walk around. When he walks around we see what he sees. Not one thing in it was scary and it was basically like one of those rides you go on in Disney world where the camera follows a path and the seats jerk and move when something happens in the movie except the seats didn't move. The main character was a human superimosed on the computer graphics. the guy looked 25 but when the voice over of his character spoke, it sounded like a 15 year old kid with pimples and glasses. the corniest part was when the main character, Johnny, is told to go see a show by Satan in this special thatre and as he's about to go in, his mothers spirit shows up and says "Don't go in there! It's horrible!". Inside was a band of mechanical monkeys playing really awful music while a ball and chain moved and one by one broke them into scraps of metal. SO scray NOT.

So this weekend I'm going on a "Learn to Surf" trip with IEP. It's a sweet deal. For 200$ we go down south about an hour or two away from Sydney and get 8 2-hour lessons over 2 days. The transportation, food, accomidation and equipment is all included. Plus once we return to Sydney there is a party with free pizza and beer. James, one of the brits, is going as well. It should be a blast!

I proise to update when I return from my small trip and will have more pictures up soon!

Sydney Day 34

I was all excited for today and I woke up feeling shitty! I think I may be getting sick again. Stephanie has a cold and sleeping in the same room (NOTE for those getting all excited: room, not BED!) doesn't help me any bit.

The Powerhouse museum was pretty cool. I got a 4$ discount off for being a member of VIP Backpackers so that was cool. In the museum I saw a bunch of fun science things I got to touch and play with. The funniest moment had to have been finding a moth in the ancient rug exhibit. I notified the front desk and after explaining that moths EAT rugs, THEN they stopped looking at me funny and said they'd 'look into it'.

Yesturday I was suppoed to work from 12pm until around 4pm and then 6:30pm until late but i got sent home at 12:05pm because the managers asked too many employees to come at one. They needed maybe 3 of us and we were 7! So I ended up chilling all day and then went to work at 6:30pm. There was a special function involving 400 McDonalds managers from all over the world. There was a convention nearby involving 4000 employees and we were one of the restaurant in teh area that had taken them on. The actual resturant was closed and it was a pretty easy night I also finished at 11:00 instead of 12:00am like I normally do.

Today I met my aunt Ellen from Canada for lunch! She's actually from Australia and lived in Canada for almost 40 years. She's in town visiting her brother so it was great to have a chance and hang out with her. She was too kind and treated me to lunch at a fancy seafood restaurant in Darling Harbour and then we took the Monorail (Monorail! Whats that name? Monorail!, said it again! MONORAIL!!!) for a short ride so she could switch to the necessary train to get back to where she was staying. It was really nice to sit down and talk for a couple of hours.

Tonight is that crazy toga party. Thankfully it's early so if I need to I'll call it an early night. I always wanted to go to a toga party and Im not going to miss out!!!

Sydney Day 32

On Friday I did end up going to a museum. I checked out the Australian Museum. I had to rush it a bit to get to worko n time but it was a great museum. It had a section on skeletons, birds, insects, animals in general, dinosaurs, minerals and evolution. There was also a short part on aboriginal history but I had no time to check it out. I took lots of pictures but I'll have to upload them another time.

It finally happened. I dropped something at work. It wasn't SO bad though. I didn't drop a whole tray of food, just one dish. It was only the 'live lobster dish'... the 180$ dish... but it was actually place on 2 plates and one of the halves just slid off the plate... in clear view of the customer... He was okay with it since the chef made another half for him to eat and he even asked me if I had to pay for it and was happy to hear I didn't have to (thank god!) so at least he was a good sport. Accidents happen! Just more than usual when it involes me.... hehehe.

I have today off and was all excited to go to the beach and take a walk on one of the paths to another beach (Bondi to Coogee) but the weather is crap again! I happened to bump into Mark, one of the british people I've been hanging out with so we;ve decided to hit up another museum, the Power House museum.

This week isn't so bad since I got today off, work all day tomorrow and then got wednesday night off to go to an all you can drink TOGA PARTY! for only 10$ and they supply the toga! Hopefully it'll be like the scene from one of my favorite movies, Animal House! Toga! Toga!

Sydney Day 29

I've been here almost a month! I'm not feeling that homesick. Obviously I miss a lot of things back home but I've been calling home a lot and speaking to friends back home and it reallly makes me feel good and feels almost like I never left. On the other hand I'm also very welcomed when I meet new people. When people find out I'm canadian they get happy and when I mention I'm from Montreal, those that know about it, love that I"m from there and say it's an awesome city, to which I ensure them that they are right.
The saga with my halloween costume continues. I am now a legend in this bar called Side Bar. The manager who liked me so much told me to come in again. When I showed up he gave me a free beer, took a photo of me holding my, I mean my former, Optimus Prime helmet and then asked me to write a note. He then told me he's going to Blow up the photo, and put that, the note and my cotume on a "Wall of Fame" which he is going to start doing from now on. So, if you're ever in Sydney, go to George St and Pitt St and check out my photo!
I never thought knowing French would come in hand while being in Australia, but I was wrong. The other night, a group of tourists from Frnace were eating int eh restaurant and the were having a hard time communicating with the waiter. I came up and started to help out and they were suprised to hear someone talking French. It was fun to practice a little.
Today the weather is really crappy outside again so I'm going to try and hit up a museum before I have to head over to work.
Yesturday I went to a flea market and bought a pair of Speakers with my German roomate. Now we have music in the apartment! Too bad not everyone's taste of music in the apartment is the same. The Germans are really into techno dance beats and I'm not. but we're sharing them since we shared the price on the speakers. I'll live with it.

Sydney day 26

I forgot to mention in the last update that I got together with my relatives that live in Australia. It is a man and women who are much older than me, Jenny and Micheal. The woman and I are second generation cousins. My Grandfather and her Grandfather ( I believe) were brothers. They moved to Australia from Russia and have been leavin ghere for many years. The took me out for dinner with their whole family. Jenny's 2 daughters, 3 grandchildren and sister and brother in law also came along. It was nice to meet them all. We went out for chinese food and it was delicious. The funniest thing was that Jenny, being very traditional, asked me if I would like to sleep over since I lived quite a distance from them and it would have been tough to drive me home. Her daughter Diana offered to drive me and it was settled but Jenny kept insiting I sleep over. Finally, after Diana convinced her that is really was ok that she drive me home, Jenny turns to me and says "It's ok, whatever you want to do Josh.... You can sleep over if you want" heheh! In the end I got a lift home. We agreed to stay in touch and I will be giving them a call sometime soon.

Last night was Halloween! It kicked ass! By far the most fun I've had so far on halloween. At 4:45 I suited up as Optimus Prime and walked to the harbour where the boat for the cruise was leaving. My roomate Stephanie walked with me to laugh at me and see everyone's reaction, seeing some guy dressed in cardboard during late afternoon. As I passed by, cars were honking at me! Finaly at the dock, there were others dressed up just as crazy as I was. Three brits came dressed as Nazi's! They spend 200$ each to buy authentic uniforms from an army shop. They had hats and even arm bans with Swatzikas. It was quite scary actually but fun nonetheless. There were a lot of zombies, witches and pirates. Everyone love dmy costume. On the boat was all you can eat meat and all you can drink pop, wine and beer. Once inside the boat I had to take off the head of the costume ebcause the roof was too low and I was too tall. Eventualy I just walked around with my knees bent. Everyone kept tapping me on the shoulder saying that I had the coolest costume they had ever seen and wanteds a photo with me. I was tempted to start charging 5$ because it was just getting so out of hand! Once the boat hit shore again we went to a bar called Side Bar. Inside, same thing, everyone loved my costume. Once i got to hot to wear it all the time i let others try it out. I was so popular strangers were buying me drinks. Towards the end someone came up to me and said it was the coolest costume he had ever seen and wanted to buy me a drink. He returned with this GIGANTIC mug filled with beer. It must have been a litre of beer. I spent an hour drinking it. It turned out that the guy actually worked there (he could possibly have been the manager or owner) and he asked me if I could donate the costume to their "wall of fame". I agreed since I didnt need it anymore. In return, he let me keep the mug and he game wthis awesome white sun visor that has their logo across the front and says Sydney Australia across the side. Fun was had by all!

As I promised... PICTURES!

Halloween

Other pics

Enjoy!

Sydney Day 21

Ok, it's been a few days since I"ve updated my blog so here goes. NOt much too exciting has happened in the last 10 days. I got sick and had a cold but I ended up buying these pills with zinc, echinechea and vitamin C and they seemed to have work. My cold only last 3 or 4 days and it wasn't so bad. I still went to work. I worked 4 days last week and I work another 4 days this week, starting with tonight. I ended up doing a lot of walking the last few days and I don't know how it stared but I got a really bad pain in my foot when I walk. I was worried I wouldn't be able to work but it's getting better and on top of that I informed my boss yesturday that I can't walk a lot and he said it was fine to still coem in and work. I can do a lot of stuff int eh back without needing to walk a lot.

Speaking of work, last saturday was a guy form work's birthday. We all went up after work to the bar above the restaurant. Since I learnt evryone I work with's name and most of the people in the bar were people i work with, it felt just like back home. AFter a week I Was in a bar and i knew almost evryone there! It's great to fel welcomed. THe peopl I work with are awesome! I actually can't wait to work tonight since with the crappy weather and my foot, I"ve been inside mostly all week.

ONe of the Korean guys I live with left and was replaced with a new one. THis new guys name is Tony. He sems really kool and I can't see any of us having a problem with him. BEsides he sems to leave early and come home late so I hardly seem him anyways. THe apartment is really clean now. We moved our food from one cupboard to another to avoid the cockroches and I even sealed up some cracks I found with tape. It seems to have worked. Apperntly our toster cuaght on fire and the landlord got us a brand spanking new one! It's great since the old one was rusted and dirty and this one is nice and clean.

THe only other thing I've ben doing is getting ready for halloween. IT's not celebrated here as much as it is in Canada and USA but I"m going ot be going on a all you can eat and drink boat cruise and it's promoting dress up. Those of you who know me well, know that I go crazy for halloween being I was the incredible hulk 2 years ago and a ghostbuster last year (winning best costume at a party!). This year I decided I"m going to go as a transformer! It's looking awesome. I made a head and a body straight out of cardboard and tape. I almost gave up but my roomate Otto came and gave me advice and saved me from using a really big and bulk box as a body for one that was much smaller and easier to move around in. HE's a great guy and we joked around all last night. If my costuem doesn't work out, I"m going to go as a "naked guy with a Corona box", but so far it's looking that i"ll be OPtimus Prime.

I Also started to see some of the things I Want to see while in the city'. I went to Hyde PArk to take more pictures and evn saw this GReat Synogogue. It was huge but invetwen 2 buildings so it semd out of place. I couldn't go inside but I got a nice picture of the outside.

I finally got my pics on a PC! But i forgot the password to my friend's FTP site (Dustin, please e-mail me that info!). Pictures in the next week I promise!

Sydney Day 11

The weather has gotten a bit better today but it's really humid now. The next few days there is a chance of thunder showers. Boo! On top of that I caught a cold. I'm feeling sluggish but I still want to go to work because I JUST started working there. I bought these 'all natural' pills that have echinechia, zinc and vitamin C and they seem to be helping.

So I am officially working at Jordan's, a seafood restaurant. All I do is bring food to tables. It's quite easy and a relaxed environment. It's a pretty high class restaurant though. I have a uniform and I need to shave before EVERY shift. I came in having not shaved for 2 days and the general manager (a real prick, I'm told), gave me a disposable razor and sent me to the back to shave. Since I did it dry, I ended up cutting myself all over the place, but for some reason, a little stuble looks a lot worse then a lot of blood. The people i work with are really fun and they go out for drinks sometimes after the shifts. We get a deal at te bar above, owned by the smae people and sometimes the nice manager, George, an American, gives us free drinks from the bar of the restaurant itself.

I decided against working at the sports bar because no one informed me it was a TRANCE CLUB at night! I worked 5 hours, didn't get paid and hated every minute of it. They told me that thre forst 3 hours was training and any extra time i work i get paid for. I worked from 11pm to 3am and when I asked for a break the manager sent me home saing i did well and will be on the hoster next week. i tols here no thanks and she never mentioned anything about how i would get my 2 hours work of pay. For the amount it wasn't worth it so I just left. Later on, I found out it was illegal to not pay me at all. According to the law, you work, you get paid. There is no "trainin" period. Oh well, I didn't like the place anyways.

I moved into the fully loaded apartment I mentioned. I know live 5 minutes away from my work so it's great. I like where I live. The people I live with are friendly and we really started to clean it up because som eof it has been let go and got quite dirty. I've also been cooking a lot and love it. No more KD. I've made pasta, tuna, chcken stir fry, hamburgers, and more.

Last night I went to see Shawn of The Dead. I loved it. It's funy and really graphic at the same time. It's not completely a comedy but seeing how the main characters discover that there are zombies walking the streets is Hilarious!

I've been inside in front of this computer for 2 hours now and if I spill over even a minute I'll have to pay for another full hour so keep posted and
I'm sure Ill have more to write about once I'm felling better and going out more.

Also, pictures soon I PROMISE!

Sydney Day 10

Weather wise the past few days have been crappy. It's been cold and rainy comparable to November weather in Montreal. I wanted to write a bit of an update but I'm getting kicked off for someone else tosuet eh PC. I'll update later.

Sydney Day 7 (Week 1)

Wow! It's already been 1 week! Time seems to be going slow since I've done so much already. Ysturday was a very productive day. I went job hunting again in the morning. I walked around an area called Darling Harbour (Think Old Port of Montreal) and handed CVs to every place I thought i could work at. A seafood restaurant called Jordan's was interested in me and will let me do a training shift tonight as a "foodie". Basically I bring food to tables. I'm officially a waiter's assisant's assistant. The restaurant is huge and has lots of positions so it seems like a good place for promotion if I work hard enough, that's what the manager told me. Plus the bartender is Canadian from Vancouver and he seemed like a nice guy. Aside from that, on th eotherside of the Harbour, a bar called One World sport, will try me out as a "glassie" (Australian's tend to like to add 'ie' to the end of every word). Basically I just have to pick up dirty beer glasses and check out the bathroom. I was told though, that they may train me on the bar on slow nights if all goes well so that's exciting. I'd be happy if I could work at both and gain experience in both regimes.

I also went to check out 2 apartments yesturday and 1 today. One of them has great potential. It's in a nice ares, VERY close to the Harbour (great if I get those jobs). The specks include a pool, sauna, gym, bbq on the roof, balcony, my own room to share with Stephanie, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. All for a very inexpensive price for here. There is also a post office and supermarket nearby. I said I'd think about it but unless i find something better, which so far I havn't, I'll probably take it. Staphine really liked it too so I'll have to figure it out with her soon.

Last night I entered in a "stand up comedy contest". It was at a pub that never done it before. I was the only official guy interested in it. Everyone else just jumped on last second and had nothing funny to say. I on the other hand wrote stuff the night before and also had nothing funy to day. In fact I was horrible, but for being the worst one, I won a free t-shirt and 2 beers! Who say's it sucks to be a loser? I was also told i can give it another shot if i really want, so maybe i'll actually take some time and practice a bit and write some funny jokes before attempting it again.

The weather is starting to really warm up. yesturday was a record breaker of 38 degrees celcius. Highest for Sydney EVER.

Well I better get going, only a few hours till I have to got to work.

Sydney Day 6

Sunday I went to Manly beach with a few people. It was really nice and sunny that day. Wee had to take the ferry there. It was this HUGE boat! The beeach itself was beautiful. There are a lot of shops nearby. there was even a breakdancing show done by a couple of guys from the Bronx, New York. For lunch I had Shish Taouk in a pita (chicken pita), except here it's called Chicken Kebab and most places that sell it sell pizza as well. After the beach I headed to the hostel, extended my stay until thursday and then made dinner. I had pasta with tuna and a special cheese and garlic crean sauce. Mmm Mmmm! After dinner I did laundry for the first time! I didn't shrink anything btu wasted a few bucks. It casts 3$ for a wash and 3$ for a dry 9I know- expensive). So I washed my stuff, put them in the dryer, put in my money and leave. One hour later, I come back open it up and my clothes are sill wet! So I put in more money adn then realized there was a START button! In any case, I didn't shrink anything. I also had to changes rooms. At first I thought that I was getting kicked out because of a group that was coming in and they ran out of room in the hostel. However, in reality, I hadn't have read the notice properly and I was just asked to move rooms. My new room is SO much smaller but the people i share with are nice.

I also ended up buying a cell phone since I needed a number that people could contact me at. The plans here are great! It's only 70$ for the phone but a 30$ credit included. It's completely pay as you go here and it doesn't cost me a penny if you call me - only outgoing calls. And, if I call someone else who owns a phone by the same company, its also free!

Yesturday I started job hunting. At first I didn't havethe right clothes so I went out and bought a new belt, white buttoned shirt and a nice blue tie that matched my bag! I made 40 copies of my CV, made a few calls and then hit the streets. I got rid of about 10 CVs and had 2 interviews. An italian restaurant in the Rocks (think old Montreal) was considering hiring me for 5 nights a week. The pay didn't sound so good but he claims his place makes 1400$ in tips a night. I don't know how many ways thats split by, though, but if it's just amoung 3 or 4 guys, thats pretty good. If everyone gets a cut, including the janitor... thats's bad.

Today I extended my stay again in the hostel until monday morning. I had to go to a special certified course in order to obtian a piece of paper necessary for m to work in a restaurant. They are VERY strict here with alchol laws and sinc emany restaurants sell alcohol here, I"m required ot take the course. It'snot cheap though! It cost me 70$ I've spent so much money just to set my self up in order to MAKE money. It's like i"m going backwards! I also started apartment hunting and Stephanie, the canadian from the plane, has agreed to share a place with me since it's impossible to find a single roomed apartment for an afordable price. She's very nice and everything shoudl be fine, unless she snores!

I have an interview tomorrow and a meeting for an apartment on thrsday so I'm still pretty busy this week. Also I plan on job hunting again tomorrow afternoon. this is SO exciting!

Anyways I'm hungry so I'm off to make rice and chicken soup for super. I've become a real iron chef! (shakes head from right to left...)

Sydney Day 3

Last night I signed up at the hostel for this bus right to a bar for a disco party. It was free and I got 1 free drink and two 2 for 1 vouchers so that was enjoyable. I also met a bunch of cool people. I met 2 irish and 2 scottish guys and we just joked around last night and had fun together. I also saw a girl wearing a bright white t-shirt with red letters that said Canada, so I went up to her and asked "SO what part of Canada are you from?". To which she replied "Germany". She actually came to visit Montreal some tiem earlier and bought th eshirt as a souvernir. I still talked to her nonetheless because she was quite nice. Today I walked around with this Canadian, Stephanie, to Darling Harbour. it's basically a dock with a lot to do including a few museums and an aquarium. I have a free voucher to the aquarium and hope to use it sometime in the future. I went into a musem for free and on display they had a boat made out of beer cans! It was really kool. For some reason it made me thing of Sam. Afterwards, Stephanie, the 2 scotts from the night before and I went to Bondi beach. Very beautiful but unfortunatley windy and cold. Tomorrow, I'm heading down to another beach, Manly, with an Irish guy and some others who I met at the hostel and th eparty last night. I extended my stay at the hostel until next thurday. They squeezed me in since they are expecting a big group of americans soon. I have to check out of 1 room and then check back in into another. Today I had a "look at me I'm totally a tourist" moment. I was trying to find a restaurant and was looking in my guide book in the street wearing my Canada hat. Then these guys stopped and asked me if I needed help. I really didn't but then we started talking about the Darkness since I was wearing my Darkness t-shirt. For some reason it made me think of Sam, hehe.
I took this weekend off to have some fun but my cash flow is slowly disintegrating so come monday I'm going ot have to put an effort into finding a job.
Well, I got invited to go out to a pub tonight and thought I'd check it out for a little while, so I better get going.

Budman in Sydney

It's only been 2 days and so much has happened. I arrived in Sydney
yesturday morning at 6:30am. Te plane ride was long but I survived it.
I met someone on the plane who is also here with SWAP and is on the
smae floor as me at the youth hostel. We decided to ban together and
walk around for a few hours. I walked through the Royal Botanical
Gardens and saw real live bats in the trees. I also got to see the
Sydeny Opera house from afar and will hopefully go back another day
and get a closer look. After seeing the Sydney harbour bridge, I ended
heading to the IEP resource center. It's very nice here. All the staff
is very helpful and there is free internet which is how I am able to
this e-mail. At ngiht I actually went out to an organized 'pub meet'
at a bar called Australian Hotel and met a few people. I ended up
calling it a night at 10pm where one of the people i have to share the
room with was a woman working in the army stationed in Afghanistan. I
knew better than to talk about that and just spoke mostly about
Australia with her. This morning I got up and ended up back at the
resource center where I had an orientation. So far I've got my CV
fixed up and I'm most likely going to try and find a job as a waiter.
I have no idea where I would prefer to work but I was given areas I
should walk around to look for a job so I'll check them out. I'm also
tempted to try looking for jobs by the beaches. Apperently it's really
fun living there and I have to look into it but maybe it'll be cheaper
since it's about 20 minutes from downtown.
I also have to look for a place to live but until I have a job or a
better idea of my surroundings, I'm going to wait. I heard that if I
extend my stay at the youth hostel I am in for 1 week and say that I'm
with IEP, I'll get a discount rate for 120$ for the week (oppose to
the normal 210$) so I'm highly considering that since it's in the
middle of all the areas that I want to look for a job.
Tonight I decided I'm going out on an organized trip with the youth
hostel (it's free!) and then take it easy on the weekend (they suggest
we do so) and come monday morning, search hard for a job. They say if
I spend a good 2 hours every morning for a short while I'm bound to
find something fast.
Well I better go, my time on the computer is running short.

Vancouver (Cont'd)

After a well needed 11 hours of sleep I had a pretty big day ahead of me in the city of Vancouver. I spent the morning walking around this huge park called Stanley Park. I walked along Coal Harbour and I got to see the Lion's Gate Bridge, the younger sibling to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. By afternoon I met up with my cousin and we went for all you can eat sushi. Yum! Afterwards we went to sunset beach where we chilled and digested our lunch. It was pretty amazing being able to see the Pacific Ocean and say that in 2 days I'm going ot be seeing it from the OTHER side! Like Jim Morrison says, I'm going to "break on through to the other side"! After chiling, we rented "A Man on Fire" and ate pizza back at his place. I called it an early night since I was still tired from the time difference.
This morning I woke up and took a ferry over to Grandville Island. On the island I met up with a friend from McGill and ate lunch together and walked around this nice little area called Market Place. Afterwards, I ferried back 'home' and have just been resting, couting down the time for the big flight. In less then an hour I'll be on my way to the airport where I'll be flying for 6 and a half hours to Honolulu with an hour break and then the long haul of 10 hours to Sydney! I can't wait to get there, too bad there's this big thing in the middle called the Pacific Ocean that I have to cross in order to get there.
More updates to come and maybe even some pictures!

Chapter 1: Vancouver

The flight into Vancouver was about 5 and a half hours. it wasn't so bad actually. I ended up sitting next to some guy who just spoke with me most of the way. I slept for about 20 minutes so I'm pretty out of it right now. When I got off the plane, I picked up my bag and headed for the exit. Outside, my Cousin Richard was waiting for me in his old school pickup truck to which we drove down to his appartment downtown listening to Public Enemy! His apartment is SWEET. You can see Cole Harbour and the bay. The view is beautiful. He's right by Stanley Park which I'm hoping to check out in the 2 days that I am here. We just got back from some shopping and are about to fire up the barbecue! Man I'm starving!

The Adventure Begins!

So I'm actually going to do this! No chickening out now. It's 7am and I'm all ready to leave for the airport. I wasn't too sleepy last night and had about 4 hours of half decent sleep. Everything is packed and ready to go. Next stop: My dad's car. Then the airport and THEN Vancouver (for those who don't know, that's in British Colombia...). It's a 5 and a half hour plane ride. I have a bunch of stuff to do on the plane (draw, play with gimp, read, etc.) but I'm hoping I just fall asleep.
Well, my mom is calling me so that means one thing: time to go.

WOW!

Mini Post:
This weekend I was outside at an improv workshop. The workshop was a lot of fun and I even got a few laughs. Afterwars, when it was done, a group of about 10 people came running up to us and started all talking at once. All I gathered was they were from Concordia doing a scavenger hunt and then needed a picture of someone getting kissed or something. I don't know what got into me but I said I would do it. I thought they meant a kiss on the cheek but the next thing I know it some girls mouth is in mine and I got tongue flying everywhere! I though it was a funny moment that would make up a funny story until all of my friends started to bug me about it all night, hehe. Once person called it a rape kiss or kiss raped, can't remember which.
Well just goes to show what kind of adventures I have.

Labour Day weekend of Labour

During Labour Day weekend, a week after being in LA my dad and I drove down to Toronto to meet up with my mom and help her help my brother and his wife settle into their new apartment. Their new place is beautiful and HUGE! The drive down was fun because I got to do all the driving for the first time. I also got to choose the music because my dad slept most of the time. One we hit Toronto I was set because I got to listen to Toronto's The Edge 102.1, the equivalent of my favortie radio station, 99.9 The Buzz. Once I got to my brother's place, the inside was turned upside down. Everything that happened that weekend came from a typical comedy about moving into a new place. Apperently my brother installed all of these shelves with a oat rack attached to them in all the closets but when he put clothes on them, they just ripped off the walls. The I had to help him reinstall them better. once we were done this we installed a cabinet he made up himself with some more shelving. While holding the side, a shelf fell and landed on my head. I rushed to the kitchen and put an ice pack on my head. My brother didn't even ask if I was okay, he just yelled at me instead so I was pretty mad. My mood changed later on, though, when I found out my brother hid his money and his passport in the dishwasher (don't ask) so no one would steal it and a long comes my mom to try and test to see if the dishwasher works. Let's just say his money was wet. That made my weekend, hehe. The weekend was okay otherwise but it was a lot of work. At least I helped my brother out. Monday came and we ended back in Montreal.

California 3

I titled this post California 3 because I spent almost 3 hours last time writting California 2 but never finished it and I just discoevered its gone! So since I don't want to redo that here is the rest of my trip abbridged:
In LA I met up with my Aunt and Uncle and we were all in the same hotel - The McIntyre Building! Actually it was called Hollywood Brentwood Bel Air but it shared a resemblance to the medical building at McGill. The second day in LA my parents, my aunt and uncle and myself took a tour around the city. We went to Venice Beach where we saw the famous Muscle Beach gym and the famous basketball courts where White Men Can't Jump was filmed. We then toured by celebrity homes where I saw Leonardo Dicaprio!!!!!......s driveway. Then we saw some famous clubs like the Viper Room, owned by Johnny Depp, where River Phoenix OD'd. We drove on the highway where Speed was filmed and then reached the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I also got to see the Chinese Theatre, with all of the cement prints in front of it, as well as the famous Kodak Theatre where the Academy Awards are held. The last spot on the touir was a lookout spot to see the Hollywood sign. Apperently it was really just an advertisement for a real estate compagny called Hollywoodland but sometime in the 60's, a land slide happened and the LAND letters got destroyed. Now the sign is owned by the city and people donate money to keep the letters in top shape. Hugh Hefner pays money every year to make sure the H is ok.
The next day my parent, aunt and uncle and I did our own touring of Santa Monica Beach. We went along the famous pier and I got to see the beach. Afterwards we went to a really nice street called Third Promenade. It was a cobblestone street with all sorts of performers. I got to see an amazing breakdancing show, there was a belly dancer and even a guy trying to escape from a straight jacket.
Our final day in LA we had a family wedding, the reason we came to LA. It was a very nice affair.
If anyone is interested, all the pictures I took of my trip are found here:
San Fransicso Pics
Drive to San Luis Obispo Pics
Los Angeles Pics
I enjoyed the trip very much (except the plane ride, my head almost exploded on the way home!) but its good to be back home!

Budman in California

OK! Apollogies for taking so long to update my blog! I've been away and now I'm back... for a little while, hehe.

From August 22nd to August 29th I was on vacation with my parents. My mom's cousin's daughter, Tamar, was getting married. My parents and I have never met her but my mom's cousin and his wife came to my brother's wedding last year (if you're lost, don't worry so am I), so to return the favour we decided to go to this wedding. To make a vaction out of it, we flew to San Francisco first and stayed there for 3 days.

The first day we didnt do much but check into our hotel. The hotel itself was nice but the area we were in really stank, literally. There were homeless people all over the place, talking to themselves and asking for money for booze. The streets were dirty and cluttered with garbage. It looked like a zombie flick. At night we met up with my cousin Joshua (Tamar's brother) who happened to live in Berkeley where he goes to school.

The next day my parents and I decided to walk from our hotel to Fisherman's Wharf. On the way, we passed by Union Square (the equivalent to Times Square),went through China Town, where we found a jewish restaurant (huh?!?!) and saw some really interesting buildings. These included a building chaped like a pyramid, a tower of some kind, and the church where Marylin Monroe married Joe DiMagio!! WOH!!!! Okay it's not really THAT exciting...now THIS is exciting!!! Once at the Wharf (couldn't resist), we walked along Pier 39. At the pier there was this kool aquarium, where see lots of kool fish. It was really kool because we got to walk underneath the water on a moving sidewalk and see the fish from above and to the sides. Also on the pier was a Hard Rock Cafe and a restaurant called Bubba Gump (like from Forest Gump). Also on the pier was an area infested with sea lions. Boy they were smelly! After leaving the pier, along the wharf was a wax museum where in the front were two statues of Madonna and Britney Spears. It looks JUST LIKE THEM (Shaking head from left to right). And what kind of trip is it withought some Hooters? Once we were down seeing the wharf, we decided to go back to the hotel by cable car. They are the only city that still uses them in the world (I think). They work by having cables that run undergroung, like a ski lift and the car has a clamp that grips the cable to be pulled up the hill (that's also Alcatraz in the photo) or releases it to stop moving. That night we went back and ate at a restaurant called The Stinking Rose - A Garlic Restaurant. The food was great and EVERYTHING had garlic in it.

The next day, we met up with my cousin Joshua again and droe down to Sanoma Valley - The Wine Country. We stopped at a couple of wineries and had a few drinks. One of the wineries was HUGE!!!! After the wineries, we drove accross the Golden Gate Bridge and headed over to Stanford University. We drove in through Palm Drive. The campus is HUGE! You can fit McGill AND Concordia inside it. They even had a display of statues by the famous sculpter Rodin. It was there that I stumbled into... THE GATES OF HELL!!! Upon returning from hell, I came accross a giant church located in the middle of campus. It was a donation to Mr Stanford from Mrs. Stanford. It had this incredible painting on the front of it. Upon further inspection, it wasn't even a painting, but a mosaic! We finished the long day off with some cheesecake and then I somehow fell back in time.

The following morning we left San Fransisco and headed towards LA. We drove along the coast. It was beautiful. We stopped in Carmelle for lunch, which is the town that Clint Eastwood used to be mayor of. Finally we made it to our stopover destination St Luis Obispo where we stayed at a motel called The Sands. It was very nice there and they gave you 2 free movies to watch in your room. I picked X2 knowing my parents would LOVE IT!!! (once again, shaking head left and right...)

We got up bright and early, drove 4 more hours and ended up in LOS ANGELES!!! Where we stayed at the McItyre Building!!! Er... I mean the Holiday INN Brentwood Belair.. they look the same to me. Maybe because they're both round...

In LA we met up with my aunt and uncle who stayed at the same hotel as us. That night we all went to the dinner party for the couple to be. I twas nice to see family I never met or haven't seen in a long time.

Day two in LA, we took a bus tour around the city. We went all over:
The first stop on the tour was Venice Beach. There was this awesome Jim Morrison mural. Of course there is the beach itself, but on the beach is the famous Muscle Beach Gym.

Okay it's late and I'm tired! To satisfy those who wanted an update, I'm going to post this now and continue the rest. So tune in next time! Same Blog Time, Same Blog Place!

This won't promote viloence...No... Not at all.....

Mini Post: I just discovered this game called Def Jam - Fight for NY. It's so retarded! You get to pick your favorite rapper and kick the chit out of people in a fight. Choices I recognized were Busta Rhymes and Ludacris. It makes it lok like they are super human beings. I'm sure this won't be the start of a rappers war in New York... Nope... not at all...

Summer is Coming to an END!

Well, it's the end of August. School is starting soon. At least I'm no longer a student (Yay! no more studying!), but I'll still be working (boo! I have to be a grown up now!). I cleared out of the apartment already. Took down the decorations from the party I had in June. Emptied out all the left over food I bought. Took my clothes and belongings. Washed the blood off the walls. The place looks just like new. I got good use out of that apartment, especially the bed (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Thank you Andrew for giving me a chance to party hardy like a normal person who lives downtown! I finally got to experience downtown living!

Next up: Going to L.A. - I'll write all about it when I get back! Later!

Is Budman The New Mascot for Michelan?

I've been out of commision since wednesday. I got my wisdom teeth pulled out. Two of them were impacted (lying sideways under my gums) so the doctor had to drill at them to break them up and make it easier to remove. I wasn't given a general anastetic. Imstead, my dentist gave me a sedative to make me feel 'happy'. The whole thing went relly quick in my mind. It felt like 5 minutes to get the first 2 teeth out and I remember glancing at my watch and realizing an hour had passed. Then I remember the dentist telling me that I was a really good patient and I remember laughing a lot. Shortly after he said I was a good patient, he said maybe 5 or 6 times to open my mouth because I was starting to fall asleep. Finally, when it was done, my mom showed up and I was brought into a room and had to lie down. The dentist then explained what I have to do to my mouth now that the procedure was over. I don't remember a thing he told me, and apperently, acording ot my mom, I told her I felt like I was stoned. Luckily, I was given a card telling me what to do. I had to put ice on my face to reduce the swelling that would happen, drink 10 glasses of water a day and tince my mouth 10 times a day with salt water. I was also given antibiotics and pain killers. I havn't needed to take many of the pain killers but on the couple of occasions that I did, I totally passed out at one point subsequent to taking them. I havn't had much pain over the past few days and the swelling has gone down, but for fun I documented the progress of my face getting bloated. Since I'm skinney, it doesn't look that bad, and one of my friends told me that now I look "normal". I still like my face the way it was... I havn't done much since I've been home and off work except rest, watch a few movies on t.v. and play Leisure Suit Larry games! Remember those? They were a series of games where you are a dirty old man who gets lots of hot women. The game itself is an adventure/puzzle game where you walk around and have to click on things and find items in order to continue the story and reach the end. Thursday I need to see the dentist again and hopefully by then I'll be good as new and will start drinking again thursday night!

Hawaiin Party!

Firday Night I was at a Hawaiin House Party held at my friend Emily's appartment. It was a lot of fun. My plan was to go to an ice cream birthday party prior to this party but I wanted to make some leighs for the party and it took me such a ridiculously long time that I had no chance in going to both parties since they were at opposite ends of downtown. Once I did get there, my leighs were so tangled up I threw them away although I managed to salvage two of them and gave them to Glen and my friend Susan got to were them. They were just styrofoam animals I bought and tied to string. Also in the same pic, you can see how Glen went totally ALL OUT (!) and wore a skirt!.. I mean sarong... (still looks like a skirt to me...).There happened to be a bunch of people there from chemistry and others I didn't know. After a couple of hours, Joe had shown up and finally Sam and his buddy from Colorado who I remember being called Brown. That's when things started to get wild. At one point Sam decided to have a chugging contest with Ray. It was a tough battle, but Sam lost (and no he's not a midget, he was just all over the place). He was okay, though. He took the loss in a good spirit. The party started to die down until I busted out some Led Zepplin and a whole bunch of us were singing tunes until 3am. After listening to the album about twice over, it was time to go. Good times had by all! Especially Sam!

Josh and Norm Go to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Last Wednesday I saw Harold and Kumar go to White Castle with my buddy Norm (and others) on Wednesday and it was HILARIOUS. It's your typical stoner movie with the plot being a simple trip turning into an adventure with crazy events happening one after another. I totally recommend it. Afterwards, Norm and I wanted to check out with kool sounding event at a place called Saphir. The ad said World's Worst Music/One Hit Wonders playing all night. So we went to check it out. The place was dead. There was some great old music I hadn't heard for a while, but none-the-less EMPTY! We played pool for a couple of hours and then left. Right above Saphir is this Hardcore Heavy Metal Biker Bar. I walked up there by accident when looing for Saphir and this girl all in black came to the door to welcome us and I just told her "I'm lost" and walked back down quickly before one of them could try sucking my blood or use me as a human sacrifice.

Bunny Ears

My buddy Norm just sent me this and it made me laugh. As quoted by him:

FEEL THE WRATH OF THE BUNNY EARS!!! MWUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Big Budman Turned 70!

Last night we held a suprise birthday party for my father in honour of his 70th birthday. We made arrangements at Bifteque (the steak house not Biftek, the bar) and invited about 20 friends and family. Boy did we have him fooled. Turned out that I got a card in the mail a while back which entitled me to a free bottle of wine for my birthday (July 26th) which was valid any day during the month. Since I never used it, we used the excuse of it being the last day we can use to get my dad interested in going to the restaurant. My brother Mark and his wife Connie (on the left) even came in from Toronto using the excuse that they came in due to the long weekend that they have in Toronto this weekend. Without him knowing, the others were already there waiting in the basement where all the banquet rooms are located. Once we go there, we weren't sure how we can lure him to go downstairs so my mom told me to go "check on the reservation" in the front. I get there and I'm coming up with a plan to have th ereception call our name and direct us downstairs. Little did I know that while I was coming up with a nice plan, my mom, brother and sister in law decided to just bring him downstairs without even waiting for me to return. So I hear my dad was really suprised but I wasn't actually there to see the look on his face. We had a nice meal and then decided to open the gifts. My dad has a younger brother and two younger sisters. The brother lives here in Montreal with is girlfriend, one sister is in Toronto and the other one is in Conneticut.The sister from Conneticut came up for the weekend with her boyfriend but the one from Toronto couldn't make it. Instead she ended up writing a hilarious poem describing my dad perfectly and instructed me to it read to the others because everyone thinks I'm the comedian in the family. He got a lot of other nice gifts that included some clothes, a gift certificate to The Bay and even a bottle of Armerretto. I ended up buying my dad an 11 piece bar kit which included a stainless steel shaker, a drainer, an ice bucket, corkscrew, etc. By far, the coolest gift was what my Aunt Shirley from Conneticut made up. She went and bought a Scabble board game and glued on the letter to spell out words related to my father, like things he enjoys and people's names invovled in his life. She even threw in a coffee table to place it on. All in all it was a wonderful affair, we all had fun and I'm glad that my dad enjoyed it!

Guys + Beer + Strip Club - Fiancee = Strip Club

Last night a bunch of us went out for my friend and former instrumental analysis TA, Stuart MacDonald. He graduated from chem two years ago and I hadn't seen him since. I kew him for a ocuple of years at McGill not knowing that I had asked out his sister while I attended Vanier College two years prior to meeting him. I had a crush on this girl during my second year of cegep and decided to call her up and ask her out. Turned out a friend of mine beat me to it by 2 hours (he also called her up and asked her out). Then 2 years later I see this girl in the chem building. When I asked her why she was there she replied "I'm here to see my brother" and then she walked up to Stuart, so that was really weird when it happened. Anyways, back to bachelor parties and naked women...So a bunch of us were at Sam's apartment getting loaded and then we hit a strip club. Not Club Super Sexe, one of the most famous clubs in Montreal, but a place right next door, owned by the same people, called Super Contact! Once inside and 85$ later, we got our buddy Stuart on the stage with 2 strippers (who were both clothed). They took off his shirt and shorts and then made him go on all fours. Then one sat on his back and pulled down his undies so we saw his ass. After riding him like a horse for a few minutes they made him lie down on the stage and pulled off his boxers completely. Then they smacked his but cheeks several times with a belt. It was hilarious. Finally, when it was over, he had no shame at all and stood up completely naked. So we basically paid 85$ to see Stuarts wee wee. All the guys in the club stopped cheering at this point and covered their eyes "Ahh a naked MAN! I'm not gay! I'm NOT GAY!" (No one actually said that but I'm sure a few people were thinking it. It then took us a while to leave because as we were about to leave, we'd find a reason to stay longer like waiting for someone to finish their beer or something like that. Finally, Stuart made the call of leaving by running out of the club in a hurry with us chasing after him and then witnessing him basically puke the distance of a block. He was still good for more apperently because we hit up Peel Pub for a GIANT pitcher of beer (4L for 40$). All in all it was a great night.

Budman Sings The Darkness!

A while back I wrote how I went to a kareoke bar called Vocals and sang "I believe in a thing called love" by The Darkness. Well it turns out someone videotaped it with their camera or phone-camera and sent me a copy of it today. You can't see anything but you can hear my beautiful voice. Just block your ears near the end, I'll admit it gets pretty painful. Many thanks to Dustin for giving me space on his ftp to host this movie. So enjoy and remember to believe in a thing called L-O-V-E!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today was my birthday! Yay! I turned 23! I didn't do anything super special because I ended up getting super drunk on friday. Instead, today I just took it easy. At work we usually shut down at 3:30 and gather around and drink tea. It's a tradition that when it's your birthday, you supply the cake. I ended up bringing raspberry pie for everyone from Rockaberry. Rockaberry is the coffee/pie place I used to work at before attending McGill. Their pies are amazing, especially their apple pie, but their service sucks. I don't even like raspberry but I figured why not make others happy. After work I went to Ben and Jerry's with my friend Nadine and she treated me to a milk shake. I got chocolate chip cookie dough. It was so good. AFterwards, I met up with some family. It turns out one of my cousins who lives in Stanford, Conneticut, participated in the Iron Man triathalon race this past weekend. He placed 300 out of 1800 participants. Since he, his wife and baby girl were so close to Montreal, they came to visit and in turn we had a tiny cousins reunion. It was fun because it happened to fall on my birthday. We went to one of my cousin's house and ordered pizza. It was good to see everyone again. Afterwards, you guessed it, my brother took me to Ben and Jerry's and treated me to ice cream. Seems that ice cream is a popular present these days. I didn't get anything out of the ordinary for my birthday except money but I don't expect anything anyways. Just having fun with my friends and family is all I ask for.
The craziest story I have related to my birthday has got to be the fact that I was born Sunday, July 26th, 1981 at 6:45 am. 1 year exactly on Sunday, July 25th, 1982 at 6:45 am my grandfather (mother's father) was pronounced dead (he was ill). My mom has always believed that I was born in time to replace him since his time was coming short (because he was old, not that he deserved to die or anything...). Well, I guess it just goes down from here with age...

Budman Returns

It's been almost a full month since I've last updated my blog. My computer was out of commission but one of my computer savy friends spruced it up and I can now continue and make the best blog ever (and complete Bryan's life - thanks for showing so much interest in my blog Bryan!)

So what have I done in the past month you ask? The answer: PLENTY. I may go into more details later but here is a sum of my newest adventures:
In the end of June I saw The Darkness. It was by far one of the best concerts I have seen. They really rocked. The lead singer, Justin Hawkins wore the craziest jumpsuits! The coolest part of the show was when all of a sudden he disappears from the stage and the bassist starts pointing to the crowd. When I looked to the right, Justin Hawkins was propped on a few bouncers' shoulders, walking through the croawd while playing a guitar solo. My buddy Sam almost fainted from so much joy (he was really clutching his chest).

The craziness of the concert spills into my next story. After the show I bought a t-shirt as a souvenir and so did Glen and Sam (making it the 3rd Darkness shirt he now owns) and of course the next day at work, we were all sporting the same shirt. After a concert like that there is nothing else you could wear! That night I was walking around Crescent street because I wasn't tired, checking to see if there was anyone I knew hanging out at one of the bars. I couldn't find anyone but so many people kept stopping me, screaming "THE DARKNESS! WOOO!". Just as I gave up and was walking home, I got picked up by three chicks. They stopped me to ask how the show was and then brought me to Hurley's Irish Pub for a beer. Turns out 2 of them are from Ireland living here for the summer. They got their work visas through a program called SWAP - Students Working Abroad Program. Every wednesday at Peel Pub, others on the program come out to meet people and have a good time. Through that, I've meet more girls from Scotland, Czech Republique and Germany. I've also gone out with the same people a few times. We since went to a salsa club - Cactus, Jello Bar and club 737. I still go every wednesday and party with them. It's great.

I was supposed to get my wisdom teeth removed on July 16th but because I got sick (probably from too much partying), I had to get it moved to august 11th. Can't wait to get it over with.

I've also come to discover that I have one of the chillest lab research jobs ever. Dr. Gray, my supervisor is one fo the nicest people I have ever met and is super relaxed. There is a french exchange student working for us for the summer and her project involves looking at why trees twist (they really do - lookt at old ones expecially) so Dr. Gray decided to take the whold lab group went on field trip to the Botanical Gardens? How cool is that? There some really kool bonzai plants and flowers. Everything was kool until we ran into a plant monster! But he was going to hurt us, he was really tired and was just looking for his bed (flower and bed, flower bed - wah wah wah...).

The last exciting thing I did in the past month was go out for my birthday which is tomorrow! I'll be a whopping 23. I went to Biftek with a binch of people to celebrate. It was a great time. About 25 of my friends showed up, some I haven't seen in a really long time. I was wise, I didn't have any beer... I had tons of shots instead. I only threw up once and still went back for another shot. I even played my best game of pool for the summer so far even though I couldn't see straight, it was so freaky!.

The next day I spent the day sitting in the sun at my supervisors cottage, riding on 3 hours of sleep. It was very relaxing. That night I went to see John Pinette. He is a comedian and was hilarious. Some of you might recognize him as the fat guy who's car was being stolen while Jerry Seinfeld and Co pointed and laughed at him, causing themselves to get thrown into jail during the last episode of Seinfeld.

As for today, I got my PC back. It's running great! I also streaked my hair red. It's running great! And I updated my blog. It's running great!

So keep coming back for I plan to start updating my blog more often. "Until next time - same Blog time same Blog channel". NANANANANA BUDMAN!

HOLY CRAP!!!

As some of you might know from my latest MSN nicknames, my computer is fucked up! I can't print, click on links that use javascript. Long story short, I can't update my blog at home. I need to reinstall windows. I happen to have enough time to use the computer at work to write this entry. So fellow fans of my blog, keep checking back on my blog and hopefully I'll have it updated again in the next couple of weeks! Don't lose sleep over this, the adventures of Budman shall return!

WHAT THE....?!?!

Ultra Freaky Ass Mini Post: All day yesturday there was a spot on my arm that was very itchy, possibly from a bug bite. When I got home my mom told me to go look in the top drawer in the bathroom to look for something to relief me of the icthing sensation. I open the drawer, start looking around, moving things and finally, WAY in the back, hidden behind other stuff, like my parents' toothbrushes and things, I discovered a giant tube of KY Jelly. This really freaked me out because I know my parents aren't hosting girl on girl wrestling matches in a kiddie pool filled with lubricant (à la Old School). I'm pretty sure the plumbing on my parents don't work anymore but with viagara and similar dugs these days, who knows... Please God, tell me I'm wrong!

International Producer

Last night I had one hell of a time. After work, I met up with some people and played ultimate frisbee for about an hour. It was a lot of fun. Once we were done, I headed over to the Fringe Fest, the alternative theater festival that is held every year. The show I went to see was called Pilk's Madhouse. It was supposed to be a comedy and was pegged as being "Monty Python meets Quentin Tarantino". All in all the show was fucked up but none-the-less funny and I still recommend it, especially if you go stoned.

After the show I ended up at the apartment, made Kraft Dinner for supper and then recieved a phone call from my buddy Sam. He invited me out for a nice relaxing evening of drinking beer at some bar on St. Laurent since there the street is all closed off for the St. Laurent Street Sale until sunday. We ended up meeting up with another good friend of mine, Joe, and went to two bars that night - Miami and Biftek. At Miami I ran into my buddy Greg and a bunch of his friends. Then after a few pitchers of beer, headed over to Biftek. The thing that made the night so enjoyable (and possibly nights to come) is the rumor that Sam created all of a sudden then last time I went out with him. He's concocted this story that I'm not just Joshua Budman, but in fact Joshua Budman: The International Producer of Ambient Trance Music. Originally, I didn't know what I produced, Same was just introducing me to people by saying "You don't know Joshua Budman, the INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER?" Finally someone asked what I produced. My first answer was porn, but that didn't go over very well, so it finally evolved into ambient trance music. That makes as much sense as does Cold Fussion since ambient music is laid back and slow while trance is up beat and fast. Anyways, I'm beginning to enjoy the faux title a bit too much. On the way home after the bars last night I ran into some random people and on e of them thought I was someone else. I told them they were mistaking me for someone else and her friends also agreed (they were all stoned by the way) but then I said "Don't you know who I am? I'm Joshua Budman, the international producer of ambient trance hip-hop" and one of them was all "really??". I said "no I'm just kidding." Then the lost interest in me so I left and went home. I think I'm going to keep this thing going on for while, you never know where it can lead me. So people, keep your eyes open for my latest production to hit the underground section at the local music stores in the near future.

Becoming One with my Feminine Side?

After being bugged by my friend Madeline (a.k.a Mad-Dog) for several days, I allowed her to do my nails. I didn't have the guts to let her do my finger nails but at least with my toes, I can cover them up with socks. She did them very creatively and made a special pattern or symbol on each toe. On my right foot she did a spider web, a spider, a flower and two creative designs while on my left foot she did sparkles, a clover, a creative looking B and two more creative patterns. I think it's kind of cool. My mom on the other hand does not. She came in my room and started to complain how messy my room is when all of a sudden she stopped talking. I turned to see why and all I see is her looking down at my toes and then at me. Immediately my mom says "what did yo do to your toes?!?! Scrape it off!!". I didn't think she'd care. Boy was I ever wrong. She was all "what happened?!?!". "My friend wanted to paoint my nails so I let her". Then my mom adds "You better not be turning gay!!! Or else!!" I don't know what's worse, thinking I'm gay because I have nail polish on my toe nails or the fact she threatened me to never become gay. For a good five minutes my mom just couldn't understand why I let someone paint my nails. I'm almost certain she thought I was kidnapped and forced to get it done because she kept acting like I've been subjected to some sort of crime or something. She also gave the typical "wait until your father see's this!". Good thing my father doesn't pay attention to most things because he walked in and out of my room several times and didn't mention a word. Then my mom came back in my room to put away my laundry just as I was taking the pictures of my toes. She looked at me, said "Joshua, you're embarrasing", and walked out.
My mom is pissed.

What a funny coincidence, but when I got home from the gym I ended up watching a movie on the digital TV we get. Out of all the movies to watch the same day I get my nails done for the first time, of course I had to end up watching Sorority Boys. Big laughs it aint, but I found it quite amusing. Basically, three guys get framed of stealing from the frat house they are part of known as KOK. They soon realize inside the frat is a tape that could have evidence that they are innocent. Their plan is then to infultrate the house by showing up as women which of course backfires, leaving them hopeless infront of a sorority. The rest of the movie is just how they live in the sorority and become more feminine while also trying to get the tape from the frat house. At one point two of the guys dressed as girls get into a fight and start yielding dildos they find like swords. The main chick even starts to fall in love with the main guy who's pretending to be a chick and all of sudden she's all lesbo, meanwhile she can't stand the guy when he's really a guy. In the end, the guy admits to being a guy and not a girl and after a brief moment of being pissed, the main chick eventually goes for the guy. This isn't the first time I've seen this. Does this really work? Well thankfully my mom only saw me with painted nails and not in women's underwear.