Melbourne Day 11

Since my last post I started getting settled in the city. I have moved hostels. I went from a large expensive one to a much smaller, quiter and cheaper hostel. Plus, I convinced the friends I made at the old place to come with me and on top of that, my british friends that I made in Sydney are also staying there until the end of this week. Also, I met these four canadian girls from Saskatoon who are also staying in the same room as my british friends.

Besides the move, I've spent all this past week looking for a job. I'll admit it hasn't been easy but finally today I got two interviews lined up for monday and tuesday. The jobs are to be a sandwich hand and a kitchen hand. Nothing exotic but it's something and both are not too far from the hostel. Also, January 26th was Australia day! I ended going to a busking competition and saw some real funny street performers and some talented magicians and jugglers. At night I saw a great fireworks display and took a free boat ride on the Yarra River.

Now back to the details of my trip!
By the end of the second day of the trip we made it to the beginning on of the great ocean road. It sure was great, with all these crazy rock formations and beautiful views of the ocean. Our first stop was at the Bay of Islands. It had this huge rock cliff face and all around were these 'island' formations. Next, we ended up at the Bay of Martyrs. We walked along the beach and found all kinds of things washed up on the beach. The waves were really cool and we just had a lot of fun goofing around. We even found a blow fish on the beach. At first it looked dead but then we noticed it was still breathing. Firie tried pushing it back in to the water but on the way back to the bus we saw it again on the sand but this time upside down. R.I.P fishy! After the Bay of Martyrs we went to check out London Bridge. The story behond the name is that up until 1990, it was just a long path with two archways underneath it but in 1990, the one closer more inland collapsed, leaving it as it looks today, hence the name London Bridge (London Bridge is falling down...). When it happened, everyone ran off before they were stuck on the rock except a couple that looked happy in love. Well, apperently, the news helicopters came and filmed them stuck on the rock and turns out that the man was having an affair and his wife saw him and his girlfriend on national television! Our next stop was the Archway followed by the Loch Ard Gorge. It was named so after a boat in 1878 crashed, killing 54 people. There were two survivors, a young woman and the first mate of the ship, who ended up at the Gorge. It's a wonder how they got out, the place is HUGE! There were helpful signs stating that you can balace on waves and that there are portals in the water!

I still got more to talk about but I'll stop here since I'm getting sleepy. I promise really soon more pictures!

Melbourne Day 5

That's right! I'm currently in Melbourne. WARNING: I have a LOT to say about what I've done in the past couple of weeks so this is going to be a LONG one. There are also lots and lots of PICTURES!!! Please note, I have to keep deleting old ones to put up newer ones so in the future, the links may not lead you to anywhere. Here goes:

I had my last shift at Jordon's on January 14th at 9am. It was a nice last shift. Not too busy and I got to enjoy myself one last time. After work, I went to the apartment to finish packing and then made my way to Cohi Bar to meet up with everyone from work for one last time. So many people came up to say goodbye, it was really something. Even George, one of my managers, made an effort to come and buy me a drink even though he still had work to do in the restaurant. He even gave me this super duper reference letter to help me find a job elsewhere in Australia!

The next morning, after having about 4 hours of sleep, I got up at 6:30am and made my way to the airport. After a 2 hour flight I landed in Adelaide. Adelaide is west of Sydney in the state of South Australia. I was only staying in Adelaide for one day so I just walked around for a bit. I ended up at the Adelaide Zoo. I quite liked it and got to see a lot of Australian animals as well as other anumals from around the world. You can see the pictures by clicking HERE!
After the zoo, I went to the hostel I was staying in called My Place. It was a nice little place and every guest was German except me.

The next morning I jumped on the tour I had payed for and started to make my way to Melbourne. It was a three day tour from Adelaide to Melbourne. I had originally booked with a company called Oz Experience, where youhop on a giant coach bus and travel with tons of other people. Well, it turns out there is not a big demands for a trip between Adelaide and Melbourne, so Oz Experience sold that leg of the journey to a smaller company called Adveture Tours Australia. We were on a smaller bus instead and the groups was only 13 people. The small group made it a lot of fun, actually. I was the only North American let alone Canadian. The others were from Switzerland, Belgium, England, Denmark, Germany and Holland. Two girls from Switzerland and one from Belgium happen to be french speaking so I spoke french with the for 3 days! I'm a little rusty but it was a lot of fun trying to practice my french.

In three days, I saw and did so much, it was just too much fun. I have a lot of photos to show so I'm going to change the format I normally have set up to see photos. For those of you who do not know, just click on the highlighted, underlined words and the photos will pop up (mom and dad I'm looking at you here).

The drivers nick name was Firie. He used to be a fireman and took a break from it to do these tours. Our first stop was a short one at Bordertown. Basically, it was a town halfway between Adelaide and the South Australi/Victoria border. We got off the bus to see a small jail cell that got converted into a bathroom stall. Also, the orginal police station was still around and it was so small that a large bakery was biult around it.

Afterwards, we stopped briefly at the Bordertown Wildlife Park and saw WHITE Kangaroos! Apperently in 1980 a guy found a white kangaroo in the wild. Kangaroos are normally not white so he took the kangaroo and sent it to his sister in Bordertown who owned an animal reserve. In 1984, they successfully breeded another white Kangaroo and now they have a whole park filled with them!

Next was a quick stop at Pink Lake. The water is pink because the lake is filled with the Alga plant that produced Keratine which leaves a film of pink on the surface of the lake. Really cool!


After a bit of a drive we finally came into view of The Grampians, a chain of jagged mountains. We then climbed up one of the mountains known as Hollow Mountain. The climb was well worth it because the views from the top were phenominal. Click HERE!

After a quick encounter of almost hitting a Kangaroo!!......sign.... we ended up at McKenzie Falls. This was followed by a trip to Reids Lookout where we got to see Wahtook Lake and then a short walk to a rock formation known as The Balconies. I also got to see a wallabie (small kangaroo) in the wild! The night ended by staying over in a tiny hostel in Hals Gap.

The second started early with another walk through mountains. We went through the Mt Williams Range where I got to see The Grand Canyon, Silent Street and at the top of the mountain, the Pinnacle. Click HERE! to see the view from the Pinnacle.

I still have a lot I want to say but it's a beatiful day outside and this is taking a lot longer then I had expected. I'll give all of you a while to sink all of this in and in my next post I'll write and show pictures about all the really awesome things I saw on the GREAT OCEAN ROAD!

Sydney Day 98

Only 4 more days in Sydney! Saturday morning I'll be on a plane to Adelaide. I already confirmed everything and I'm all set. Tonight is my second to last shift at work and I officially finish on friday. For my last week, it's been pretty relaxing. I only had to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday of this week and on Friday I have a mornign shift so I don't need ot work until midnight of anything.

Last night I went over for dinner at my relatives for one last time before I leave Sydney. They truley are great people and even though I called themon monday, they didn't think twice on inviting me out for dinner the very next day, no questions asked! I will miss them but I will be back in Sydney at least 2 more times before I go back home to Canada.

Last night after dinner, I went to my new temporary home and found a few cockroahces underneath my bundle of clothes so out of reaction, I vleaned off my bed and made sure there were none there and then went through ALL my clothes. Once I saw they were bug free, I packed everything back into my bag and then I moved aroundthe tingsin the room to find the hidden cockroches. I killed about 5 of them and 1 got away. I then took tape and paper towels and sealed any holes I found and this big grate in the wall. I even sealed the bottom of the door so none can come in from the hallway. Afterwards I was on my bed and saw the one I missed crawling on my sleeping bag! I made so much noise banging on the floor to kill them and moving th ebed that I woke up the person sleeping underneath me... oops! I did a double check before sleeping and the coast was clear. I put a trap under the bed and today I noticed some dead cockroches so it seems to be working since I think they hide under the bed. I've decided I"m going to skip the kitchen form now on and just eat out because yesturday when I bought some spray and used it in the kitchen, instead of killing the few I saw crawling on the sink, I ended up freaking them out and then tons of them started coming out from the walls and cracks and were just EVERYWHERE! Well at least I know what to avoid for when I'm looking for a place in the future. It's just terrible that the people who live there just don't care anymore and are not doing anythign about it. Thankfully I'm only there for 3 more days.

Sydney Day 96

Yesturday my lease at my apartment was up and I moved into my friends place. He lives on the adjacent street from my old place so the walk was short. As soon as I walked in, before I could even take off my bag, one of the guys hands me a beer and says "welcome!". After having the tour of the place, I learnt quite quickly that it's a typical student joint, similar to any place I've seen in the McGill Ghetto. Beer bottles on the floor, pizza boxes in the kitchen, novelty posters like "Crew Only Beyound This Point" located on the bathroom door, and of course, stolen street signs. The kitchen is pretty dirty but the room I'm staying in is extremely clean, big, and even has a patio. Last night I slept on teh couch but tonight i'll get the bed since, Mark, the guy who invited me to stay is going ot be in Tazmania for the rest of the week. Hey, at least I have a bed and I/m not paying alot of money for it. It's still only 5 minutes form work and thats what's great about it.

It's quite sad what has happened with the Tsunami and all that but it's great to hear that Australia is really helping out. Red Cross alone donated 64 million $'s and there must be over 100 million from all of Australian combined. Even though it wasn't my decision, I even donated some money to the Tsunami victims. As I mentioned ebfore, I had a great time on New Years eve, well, it turns out a lot of alcohol went missing form the bar at work that night and the genral manager decided to bust everyone who had a drink. I never knew the rule for staff drinks was 1 beer and having had 3 beers, I got in tourble for it, so as punishemnt, the general manager donated my tips, which must have been at LEAST 100$ to some charity. It sucks but things happen and at least in turn it's for a good cause. I hope everything works out in all those countries int eh coming months.

Finally, since my last post, I went to Many beacha nd tried surfing again. This time I was horrible. I didn't have my goggles because it was all last minute. The water seemed a bit more rough and instead of surfing I felt liek I just got beaten up by the surfboard.I had so many bruises and cuts. On top of that some girl in a bikini laughed at me for falling off my board. Don't worry though, it's not going to stop me from trying it again in the future.

As promised, more pics:

Christmas and New Years Eve

Pauls Final Night at Jordans

Sydney Day 89

Happy New Years Everyone!

Since my last post, I've basically been working and getting myself organized for whats to come. Oh yeah, and also having fun!

On New years eve I had to work. I ended up working until 2am but it was a lot of fun and I also got to see the Darling Harbour fireworks quite up close. Since all the customers got up to watch them, the managers didn't mind if we took a 10 minute break to watch as well. After work I ended up at a bar and two house parties. The last party, George, the most awesome manager I've ever had for a boss in a restaurant, even showed up even though he had to work at 12pm on New Years Day. By 6am I called it quits. New Years day itself, all I did was sleep in until 3pm, chatted with family back home on the phone and went to work at 5pm.

Thats basically all that I did for celebration. Aside from that, I booked a place in Melbourne to stay for the first week when I arrive. Also, I fixed my apartment problem and someone from work offered me a spare room in his apartment for the last week I'm in Sydney. It's comepletely bare but I know someoner else from work who will lend me an air matress so thats not too bad. it's better than paying 170$ to stay in a hostel and heeps better than the 240$ I'd have to pay if I stayed in my place that final week.

Speaking about my place, I'm glad that I'm getting out when I am because it's just getting too crazy in there. Currently we have THREE lorean girls in the living room bringing our total to 9 people in one place! One of them has to sleep on the floor!

Anyways, may everyone have a great year ahead of them. I'm going to put up more pictures very soon and even a movie of the fireworks I took with my camera.

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!