05/05/03

March

 Star Date 01-03-02

I woke up quite early this morning because one of the gentlemen on the floor was on the phone.  His voice is quite loud, and all I wanted to do is go out and tell him that he didn't need to talk that loud over the phone.

After a breakie of Corn Flakes, I decided to see what I could do about getting my internet hooked up.  I walked over to ITS in Pablo West and had them finally put my user name in the system.  After that I went to the Chisholm College Office and was told to come back on Monday to set up an appointment.  So after 2 weeks I might finally have internet.

After that I went to Northland with Jared to pick up a sleeping bag so we can go camping this weekend.  I picked up a rather nice one, which stuffs itself into a neat little pouch.  It cost me $80 (Australian), but I figure it was worth it for the space it saved over one that rolls up.  Also at Northland I had them fix my phone so that I could send text messages and so that the phone would call me back when I had a voice mail message.  That way I can hear my voice mail messages for free.  That took quite a while to get hooked up because the guys didn't know too much about what they were doing.  It's cool now though, I can send messages for $.22 (Australian) and receive them for free.  We hurried up to catch the 2:40 bus back to campus so that Jared could play basketball at 3.  I decided to go to the computer lab and try and find us a van to rent so that we could go camping.  I also signed up to Vodafone's internet site so that I can send messages to other Vodafone's.  I called 3 places and each time was told that they don't have any 8 person van's available for Saturday and Sunday.  So I decided that there was no chance as us getting one the day before.

I came back and worked on the web site and relaxed for a bit.  I lied down for a nap and after 20 minutes or so Jared and Aaron stopped by to see what I was up to.  We talked about what we would do for tonight and Aaron came up with the idea to go see an IMAX film.  So while they showered I went to check out what times they were playing.  I was distracted for a bit though by the Simpson's which was playing on the common area TV.  I came back to tell them what was going on, but Aaron didn't seem to care much and said he was going to go over to the Eagle Bar to check out what was going on over there.  I wanted to check out the Trivia that was being put on by Chisholm, that Laura had told me about earlier.  I was once again distracted by two Simpson's episodes this time.  Two thirds through the second episode though, Emily and Parini came over and asked if I wanted to go check out the Trivia contest with them.  I did and was placed on a team of about 10 people at one table.  When at the door before coming in though one of the girls was marking hands with numbers to correspond to which table you sat at.  When she tried to mark mine I asked if there were any phosphates in the marker.  She looked at me puzzled and started to try to mark my hand.  I pulled away and said I was allergic.  She said "Well, you'll just have to remember you're number three then."  I said I was just kidding and she marked my hand.  She didn't laugh very much, I think she was a bit pissy.  Either that or she just didn't get it.

We played for a bit and my table did the best intellectually, though we didn't have the lead when I left at intermission.  They had physical activities in which our team did not do well in.  One thing I've noticed at this little game was that the Australian's knew of American and U.S. history, but didn't know very much of their own.  I did have the honor of helping them out on some U.S. questions like "What is the largest state in the United States?"  No, it is not Texas, it's Alaska.

During the intermission Emily, Parini, and I decided to leave.  We walked back and decided to call Jared to see what he was going to do.  He was interested in seeing an IMAX film and so he started to head over.  Parini, Emily, and I just hung out and waited for him to arrive.  I gave Emily the best back massage she has ever had while we were waiting.  I didn't have much time, but it was an Earth moving experience for her I could tell.

Emily wasn't that excited about going to the IMAX film though and gave me her tram ticket.  We couldn't find Aaron anywhere and just decided to head out and go for it.  We left around 9:45 and got their around 10:20.  We arrived at the theatre and purchased tickets, and then we had a little time to run to a service station (gas station) and pick up some supper.  I got a sandwich and some Doritos.  We then came back and watched "Haunted Castle" in 3D.  The effects were cool, but it was a stupid story and lame characters.  In the end, it was more of a 40 minute music video for a band.  The lady told us it would be around an hour long, but 40 minutes is not near an hour long.  It was a waist of money and I am poorly disappointed.

Walking out of the theatre there was a stand to place the 3D headset.  Parini didn't notice this and continued to walk out of the theatre with the headset.  When she tried she set off the alarm.  After that incident she was a little red and took off running out of the place.  I still managed to get a picture of her running though.

We caught the last tram back and saw Katie's friend Mike.  He got off a few stops later though and then we saw, Karin at another stop, but she didn't get on.  While on the tram I noticed a blond girl talking to her friend and looking at me and smiling.  So after talking with Parini and Jared for a while, I started talking to them.  Before I could get 2 sentences out they said "Charlie, right?"  "Uhh, yeah, who the hell are you?"  They turned out to be Veronica's friends who were in town for the past week.  I had just started messaging Veronica over the phone too.  Then Karin got on and started talking to us.  She had been drinking and so we started talking with her.  She got off at the University also and walked with us.

Tomorrow, since we can't go camping, we plan on discovering the city a little better.  Jared wants to get an early start, but I don't think it will happen.

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 Star Date 02-03-02

I woke up at 11 to Jared telling me that about 8 other people wanted to join us in our venture to the city.  He also told me that we were going to meet at 11:30.  I told him that I had just got up and it would be 11:45 when I would be ready.  He agreed and so by the time 11:45 rolled around the only person I saw besides Emily was Aaron.

Speaking of Aaron for a bit, lets talk about what a pain in the ass it is to call his floor.  First of all when I call, someone who doesn't know the first thing about English picks up.  Then I ask for Aaron and they say "nope, not here" right away, I know there is a problem, because they didn't even take the time to look so I say "Aaron" slower this time.  They say "Nope, she's not here."  I say Aaron is a guy.  They say "What?"  I spell "A-a-r-o-n!"  They say "Oh, Aaron, I thought you were looking for Erin spelled with an E."  I say, "What does it matter, they are both pronounced the same way!"  They still don't understand, but somehow after a five minute conversation I get a hold of Aaron and an ulcer.  I want to slap the people who pick up the phone on his floor.

Anyway after I was ready at 11:45 we wait around for another hour because we can't find anyone who is going with us.  So now it's around 12:40 and we wait for 25 minutes for the bus to pick us up.  Once on the bus, which is crowded, my brother Bill calls.  I was talking to him so much that I didn't notice that we almost missed our stop.  I felt a little bad telling him I had to go, but I really did have to go.  Also during the phone conversation with him I missed Aaron laughing at me because all the grandma's in Australia decided to sit near me.

First off the bus we went to Melbourne Museum, which wasn't to great.  You aren't missing out if you don't go, it just seems like they tried to fill up the space they had with stuff.  We finally got back together around 5 outside the museum and went to go eat.  I decided to head for China Town, and who ever was with me was with me and whoever wasn't, wasn't.  Aaron, Ceci, and some others decided to go eat at this great sandwich shop that Ceci found!  It's really cheap too!  It's called Subway!  We had a good laugh after Ceci told us about it.

We ate at a place in China Town called A-1.  I had the Thai style chicken fried rice which was very spicy, but that's what I expected when I ordered Thai.  I ate most of it, but it filled me up sufficiently.

After lunch, er... supper we all met up again in China Town at an Arcade, where Aaron and Nacho were racing each other in a grand prix sort of game.  Nacho got second and Aaron got third, only because Nacho ran Aaron into a wall.

I had read about the Rialto Towers in one of my Australia books and found that some others were interested also.  So we split up again and headed to the Rialto Towers to look out over 55 floors in the tallest building in Melbourne.  It was an amazing sight and soon after we arrived at the top Laura called me back.   I called her before to find out where the jazz concert was going to be.  She told us that it was at the Melbourne Zoo till 9:30.  We decided that since our tickets to the Rialto Tower were good until 11 that night that we could come back after the concert.  We started what turned out to be a long journey and ended up  500 meters from the zoo to find that the concert ended at 9 and was not free, but $11.  It was already 8:10 so we decided it would not be worth it to go.  So instead we met back up with everyone else and headed back into the downtown area.  We found out that Katie and Parini headed to see a movie instead, so we did not see them at all.  Emily, Aaron, Ceci, and I headed to the Rialto Towers once again.  While Jill, Jen, Aadil, and someone else headed to Brunswick Street for a cafe to relax and have coffee.  Once on the Rialto tower this time I got a text message from Veronica saying that Parini, Katie, Heidi and her were at the Hard Rock Cafe and that there was a live band playing.  After our time at the Tower we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe to hook up with them.

It turns out that their "live" band was two people.  One with a guitar and another with just a microphone and they were playing to a karaoke type thingy.

Around 11:30 I started to get tired and decided to head back with Emily, Parini, Katie, and Veronica.  After a few stops on the tram Jill, Jen, and Aadil got on.

I got home around 12:15 and headed to bed shortly after that.

Click to see the photos

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 Star Date 03-03-02

I woke up at 10 once again to doors slamming all over the place.  Can't these people learn to shut their doors quietly.  I ate some breakie and did some work on the web page, but hey I decided that Sunday is a day of rest so I lied down once more for a nap around 12.  Around 12:30 Aaron and Jared came in to tell me they were heading to Northland shopping centre.  I decided that I would like to join them, they generously gave me 10 minutes to get ready.  After a 4 minute shower I had plenty of time to get dressed throw on a hat and brush my teeth.  I was even ready about 1 minute early.  Maybe I should have taken the time to comb my hair.

Once we arrived at the bus stop we learned that the bus we needed wasn't running on Sundays.  That's when we decided to go to the tram stop (about a 10 minute walk).  Once on the tram we asked the driver to tell us where we could get off to go to Northland.  He told us where and it was about a 10 minute walk to the centre.  We stopped at a garage sale, which had nothing worth writing home about.  Before going to the mall we stopped at "J.B. HiFi."  Which is an electronics store with cheap CD's.  I purchased "Fletch" the DVD and three CD's.  They were "Pyromania" by "Def Leppard", "Chuck Berry's Great Hits", and a cheap classical CD.  All the CD's together were under $10 (about $6 USD).  I also noticed they sell old and refurbished computers there so I asked if they had any job openings.  I always get a weird look when I ask this.  They don't understand, but then I ask "do you have any positions open?"  That always brings the same response before they even think about the question, of course "no."  Before going to Northland we stopped at Mackie's and picked up some lunch.  We also treated ourselves once again to some $.40 ice cream cones.  I've said it once, but I'll say it again!  The best kind of cone is one that costs $.40.  Once at the centre we had set our minds on looking for posters and Frisbees.  Does no one put posters on their walls in this country?  I think they call it something else also.  Every time I ask for a poster they look at me funny.  To make a long story and even a longer day short, we didn't find any good Frisbees only the cheap kind that we bought before.  Jared bought one though because the other one is in rough shape.

Despite it being new, Aaron managed to crack it in a matter of minutes.  He promises to buy Jared a new one though, so it will be all better.

After arriving home, I messed around for a little while and then ran into Emily and Parini.  They told me about a movie that was playing in the main building.  Aaron and I joined them to watch that.  It was "Two Hands" with Heath Ledger.  It's an Australian movie which turned out to be quite good besides the poor acting by the female lead.  After that I decided to skip the next movie which was another Australian film called "Chopper" which is about a mobster or something.

I came back to the room and watched "Fletch" and ate some toast with peanut butter on it which is awesome!  Jill walked by when I was making toast and peanut butter and I inspired her to write in her journal.  I am here to inspire people, it's my course in life.  Mr. Inspiration they call me back home, ok so not really!  Today was a good day, did a lot of walking, but nothing to productive.

Star Date 04-03-02

I finished the book called "Fight Club" tonight.  It was excellent and was the perfect amount of different from the movie to keep me reading, yet the movie didn't stray too much from the book.  There are definitely still some excellent quotes from the book.  Not all of them are as horribly negative near the end either.  If you've got a week, I would say splurge and read it.

This morning I woke up at around 10:45 and took a shower and got ready.  I wanted to leave around 12 so that I would have enough time to pick up some books, notebooks, and pens for class.  I ended up leaving around 11:50.  My first class started at one, but I didn't end up getting any of it.  Instead I ran into Nacho and another girl from the surf team.  We went to the Agora and sat around for an hour.  I figured I could borrow a pen and paper from someone in class and start a conversation that way.

Well, from what I can remember from being a freshman is that I definitely wasn't that shy.  I tried to talk to three people in my first class and none of them were very respondent.  Just giving one word answers to any questions I had.  I really hate jaffys here.  They are too uptight, but maybe I shouldn't be in a first year course though either.  The first class I had was Astronomy and Philosophy.  It was alright and it went until 1:50.  I had 10 minutes to find my other class which started at two.  I arrived about 2 minutes late to get a desk which was in the corner, right between two girls awww yeah!  Anyway one was nice enough to let me have a piece of paper.  The other was nice enough to talk to me a little after class because I didn't understand some of the things discussed and also I missed the part where the lecturer explained that 20% of our grade is tutorial attendance.  He said that he gave some kid a C in the class because he never came to a tutorial.  Of course the grading scale here is unbelievably low, for a C all you need is 60%.  What a joke of a scale that is!  That class looks to be difficult, but it is a second or third year philosophy class.  It also looks to be the most interesting of them all though, it's Philosophy of Religion.  I'm most excited about this class and hopefully now that I'm taking classes I'm actually interested in I might actually do the work also.

After that class I came back and ate some lunch, took a nap, and then left for my 6:00 class which was Knowledge, Existence, and Truth.  Also another first year class, but this time I met a girl who was a jaffy, but wasn't as shy as the others.  She had some boots on and a weird skirt though that kind of scares me.  She seems real nice, just young, and doesn't have any idea about how to dress.

After the class I came back and ran into Aaron, Jared, and Emily all in Aaron's room.  We hung out for a bit, played with the Frisbee until Aaron decided to throw it into the moat, and then Jared, Aaron and I went out to the rugby field and watched "Fletch" on my laptop.  It was a great night out and I really can't tell which stars are the southern cross, but I'll figure it out yet.

Back to Diary

 Star Date 05-03-02

Today I woke up around 10:50 and waited until 11:20 for the IT person to come to my room and connect my internet.  When I went to the office, they called the person who was supposed to hook up my internet.  He thought it was a Monday, nope it’s Tuesday.  Anyway around 11:30, 30 minutes after my appointment was, he showed up and started working on it.  When he couldn’t get it to work I suggested it could be my category 5 cable, but he said it wasn’t because the light on my network card was on.  To make a long story short my cable didn’t work and it wasted quite a bit of time.

As I left the webpage to upload, I went outside and sun tanned a little.  When I came back in I worked a little more on the web site until 4:30 and then I took a shower and left to go to Menzies’ Pub Crawl.

Basically all I have to say about the pub crawl is that sucked big time.  They didn’t have half the rules that Chisholm did, and they didn’t enforce the ones they did have.

At one point I was headed to the bathroom when Aaron asks to borrow my camera because he wants to take a picture of something.  Foolishly I let him have it...

Emily, Katie, Parini, and I decided to skip out early.  We headed back around 11:30 with a taxi.  I started to talk to the taxi driver and asked him where he was from.  "Pakistan."  Ok, never mind then, especially since their country is in a dispute with India.

I arrived home and went to bed, after a little while.

See the photos

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 Star Date 06-03-02

Today I woke up at 11 and went to Northland Shopping Centre to get some groceries.  I was down to the last meal so it was a desperate situation.  Once at the bus stop I realized I forgot my backpack which would've helped me carry everything.  I got a lot of things when I was shopping, I spent $60 on groceries ($30 USD).  It was heavy carrying all that stuff, but finally I got it all put away and set to go.

Emily, Parini, and I had plans to go to the beach, and when we ran into Ceci and Nacho at Safeway (a subsidiary of Woolworths) they wanted to come also.  We met at the tram stop at 1:45 and not much later the tram picked us up.  About 5 stops later, two gentlemen came on and said they were security and that they wanted to see everyone's ticket.  Emily did not buy a ticket and had no intention of doing so, but when the gentlemen informed her about a possible $100 ticket she quickly bought one.

After about one hour we arrived in St. Kilda and went to the beach.  It was a bit windy and cool for a day at the beach, but Emily and I braved the elements anyway and went into the water, which wasn't too bad.  We had fun pretending to be Baywatch stars running into the water to save someone.  At 4:45 we left because Emily and I needed to be back at 6 for fencing!  We got back at 6:15 and quickly changed to arrive at 6:30 for fencing.

The footwork was similar to boxing, so it wasn't too hard to pick up.  Then we started to pick up our weapons, which use just your forearm to hold up.  After a while it starts to burn and you get really tired of bending your knees and having your legs in the correct position.  The teachers were alright, but one of them who was doing most of the training was really bad.  They were very kind to us though, but it was a bit overwhelming because they went way to fast when talking about weapon defenses and such.

After words we ran into Aaron who was in the gym next door to us shooting hoops.  Apparently he walked in while we were training and stole my water out of my water bottle.  He wanted me to cook for him, but I didn't feel like it and I went home to eat.  I had a pasta salad which I picked up just this morning.  It was good, then I had two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

After that lots of people stopped by to talk and relax, so I tried to get my web page work done, but it made it impossible.  Tomorrow I have class again and then I don't know what to do with myself.  This weekend starts Moomba Festival in Melbourne!  I think I'll spend the weekend in the city seeing what there is to see and do.

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Star Date 07-03-02

Today I woke up at 10 feeling really tired.  I woke up at 10 because my first class was at 12, but I needed notebooks and folders and things of that nature so I decided to go to the bookstore.  I knew that the time in the line there would take forever so I gave myself an hour to get those things.

I ate the last of my corn flakes with half a banana, but since I really didn't feel like finishing my banana I asked Emily to eat the rest of it.  Later that day though I ate it, and when I talked to Emily later that day she asked if I had ate it and I told her I did.  I don't know why I write about stupid things like that, but I know no one is interested.  I think that I will laugh when I come back to read this thing.

Ok, on with the rest of the day!  So I headed out and made it to the Agora (place on campus with all the shops) and went inside the computer store.  I asked about their prices on certain parts which would complete the piece of crap sitting on my floor.  I've seen computers like the one on my floor sell for $600.00 (Australian).  It's ran through my mind to put one together really quick and then sell it so I can travel on some of the money, but then again I've thought I don't really have the motivation to put it together.  After going quickly through the computer store I headed downstairs to the book store.

Inside the bookstore there was a myriad of people (good word use huh?) running around.  The lines seemed to stretch from here to eternity, and it was an ecstasy of fumbling to look for anything.  I stole that from a poem I read once, but I can't remember the name anymore.  It's probably my favorite poem, it talks about war and how it's not glorious at all.  The title is something "Dulce Decora Est."  I can't remember.

After finding one of the girls from the surf team she helped me find folders and I got in line.  I noticed that the cash line was moving and was shorter than any other line.  Not thinking I had any cash on me I walked out of the store to go to the ATM.  Once in line at the ATM I noticed that I did have money, so I went back to the bookstore and got into the cash line.

I saw some people I knew in the bookstore like that one girl that danced with Aaron during the Chisholm Pub Crawl, but I didn't say much to her.

While in line an attractive girl got in line behind me, and I though of ways to start a conversation.  I had two options open:  1)  Ask for the time (I'd forgotten to put on my watch today), 2)  Make a stupid comment about lines.  I went with option three and decided to see if she would initiate a conversation first, because then if she didn't I could always do it near the front.  It only took her 30 minutes to say something and then we started talking.  There was a sign above us that said something like "GST 8% discount."  She had told me that the government funding was what allowed us to receive that 8% back.  I had said, "well, that's about enough to go get a cone at Mackie's."

Once to the front of the line, with my three pens, three notebooks, and three folders, I paid and then went to put the things in my back pack.  This is where I noticed that I was charged for four folders instead of three.  Those dirty rotten punks!  I wasn't about to get back in line for another 30 minutes to get my $.90 back though, so I left.  While walking around to my next class I noticed that there was a little swap sale going on.  I started to look around, but when I asked for the time I found I had 5 minutes to make it to class.

Once I arrived at the classroom, I noticed everyone sitting outside the door.  This was Philosophy of Religion and I had talked to a girl in here the other day, but now I couldn't remember what she looked like or what her name is.  I figured I'd look at the name in my diary when I got home.  Anyway there was a girl sitting against the wall who had said hello to me when I walked into the hallway, so I figured this was the girl I had talked to so I asked her why no one had gone into the class.  She said that they were waiting for the lecturer.  I've noticed that if there is no lecturer inside the classroom the locals tend to wait outside.  I figured I needed to sit down after waiting in line for 30 minutes so I did.  Just as I started to arrange my things into my new folder I heard the lecturer outside saying that we were moving to a new room.  Thank goodness for that because there were about 30 of us and the size of the room wasn't much bigger than the size of my bedroom back home.

Once inside the new room, the girl I had spoken with in the hallway sat next to me, but I still wasn't sure if this was the girl I had talked to the other day or not.  Anyway, she had Mentos and I had wicked killer breath, so I asked to have one and she let me have it.  They are the fresh maker!

About one minute after that the girl I really did talk to on Monday's class sat down next to me.  I asked her about some of the things we had to look over because it was really complicated and I didn't understand some of the theory to it.

It goes something like this...

1.  Every being is either a dependent being or a self existent being.

2.  It's false that every being is dependent.

3.  Therefore there is a self-existent being.

4.  Therefore there exists a necessary being.

Our homework if you will was: 1) Is proposition one true?  2) Is proposition two true?  3) Does four follow from three?

I understood it when I left the classroom on Monday, but when I went to look at it Wednesday I couldn't understand it from a hole in the wall.

After the class was finished I had started to understand it a little better, but the girl next to me was all lost now.

After class I went to go get a 10 pack of tickets for the bus, tram, and trains in town so that I could save some money when I want to travel.  Once I had that I decided to check out more of the swap market that was going on.  I ran into Jared and Aaron who were just looking around the same as I was.  I had noticed a book that was on Aaron's book list and showed him where it was.  Apparently he save $30 by buying the book there than from the book store.  I also bought a book, since I only brought "Fight Club" with me and I had just finished that.  Emily had loaned me a poetry book, but I don't think I would be able to read it all.  I started, but anytime I read poetry for long periods of time my mind wanders and I don't pay attention to what I'm reading.  That's when I have to go back whole pages to reread what I missed.  I bought a book called "Philosophers Speak For Themselves", which is just some of the main ideas from famous philosophers.  I also purchased a plant to grow in my room.  Hopefully I can keep it alive since I haven't ever been successful at doing so.

Aaron, Jared, and I walked to the Agora and hung out a little there.  There was a band playing, and over 200 people walking around, sitting in the grass, eating, more.  The difference from Whitewater's campus to this one is that there is an actual place designed for people to loaf around.  If Whitewater or any other campus for that matter had something like this I believe the students would act the same.  Maybe not though.  In the agora, people relax, sometimes for hours just sitting around.  I sat for an hour on Monday with a girl who didn't even have classes that day.  I think she just wanted to watch people do their thing.

I was quite warm and decided to head back while Aaron had a meeting with Randa, and Jared had a class.  I went back and put my little flower in the window and tried to figure out how to download mp3's on my computer with Windows XP.  The problem is that I'm behind a proxy server and with Windows XP none of the programs will connect to the main server.

I worked for so long trying to figure that out that, Aaron and Jared showed up after their class and meeting.  I started to copy CD's and then we went out to the courtyard right outside my building and played with the Frisbee.  The same Frisbee that Aaron broke about 10 minutes after buying it.  After five minutes of tossing the Frisbee it broke in half.  We decided to see if we could tape it together with some cheap masking tape I had.  It worked for the first two or three minutes, but then broke again.

We came inside and looked at our options for winter (spring) break.  We decided that we are going to go to Tasmania by a ferry.  We called and purchased our tickets.  On the way there we have a four person cabin with Emily, Aaron, Jared, and I.  For the trip back we have a speed boat which takes us home in about 6 hours.  The trip to Tasmania takes about 12 hours and costs $144 (Australian) and the trip back costs $130 (Australian).  It sounds like a lot of fun, but back packing around  Tasmania is going to be rough.  I need to get an actual backpack that will allow for me to carry my clothes and sleeping bag.  I also need to get some comfortable shoes to walk around in.

It quickly became 6 and time for my last class of the week, Knowledge Existence and Truth, another philosophy class.  On the way I desperately needed gum because I was running a little too late to brush.  I ran into Kristen who loaned me some chewie and I was on my way!  In this classroom it was warm and smelled like the computer labs do at Whitewater.  In whitewater the labs smell of 100 days of people sweating over papers over due and graduation and any of the other things that college students sweat and stink over.  When the girl came in that I had talked to on Monday I had mentioned this and she agreed about the smell.

The lecturer came in and started right in on the lecture.  During the lecture, once again a girl answered her phone in class and started talking for about 30 seconds.  Honestly, if I was the lecturer I would have kick this girl out right away.  I wasn't sure, but I think it could have been the same girl that picked up her phone in class on Monday.  Also in class I noticed a girl who I thought was drinking in class. The bottle looked like one of those wine coolers back home, but it had looked like a mixed drink which they server here and not back home.  I pointed it out to the girl next to me, but she didn't notice it.

I guess it would have made sense for her to be drinking because Thursday nights are the big party night on campus.  The main bar called the "Eagle Bar" usually fills up on this night.  We are honestly talking about 2,000 people!

When I arrived back from class, Gill had stopped by and said that she was heading over to Menzies Bar and that we should come over when we were done with what we were doing.  I also noticed that we where having a floor meeting.  We talked about quiet hours, talking on the phone late at night, cleaning up after ourselves, and many other things that I had preached about when I was a Resident Assistant.  They also talked about an upcoming Cricket game on Sunday and that they would be car pooling us to the field where there would be free kegs for us to drink beer.

I don't think I'll go especially since it starts at 10 in the morning.  Also this is the weekend of the Moomba Festival in Melbourne.

Emily arrived back shortly after our floor meeting.  I had cooked a pizza and was eating it while watching South Park on my laptop.  Shortly after Emily arrived so did Aaron, and we hung out for a while.  We played around on the internet, and looked at hotornot.com where I had placed a picture of Aaron on so we could see what he would score.  Of course we put on a completely goofy picture of him on and when we check he had a 7.6  Later on he checked again and it went to a 7.3  He immediately demanded that we take the picture off.  Upon checking right now (1:17 on Friday afternoon) he has a 6.5 and 137 people have rated him.

Aaron went to take a shower and this is when Jared showed up.  We hung out for a bit and Aaron quickly returned.  After relaxing for 30 minutes we finally decided to head over to Menzies to see what the Canadians (Gill and Jen) were up to.  We decided to walk by the Eagle Bar to see what the line looked like and it was pretty ridicules.  It looked like about an hour wait, which I'm told isn't a bad wait to get in.

Once arriving at Menzies we noticed that the bar was practically empty so we headed up to Jared's room.  While heading up the stairs we ran into Gill and Jen who said that they were partying up on 6th floor in the lounge.  We decided to head up because we heard that Adel was up there too.  When we arrived the only person I knew was Adel and he was drunk.  There were about 7 guys including Jared, Aaron and I and 10 or more girls.  They were all drinking and singing along with the radio.  I felt a bit out of place because I wasn't drinking and I didn't know anyone.  We sat down and played around for about an hour.  One girl was having banana mudslide with milk.  It was alright, but really I don't like any sort of dairy in any of my drinks because I'll get sick.  She offered me a Orange drink with vodka in it.  I said sure and had it, but it was weaker than your grandma I tell you.  Over here and in Europe you can get premixed drinks in cans.  For example you can get a Jim Beam and Coke in a normal soda can.

After all the goofing around the group headed to the Eagle Bar, but Emily and I didn't have our statement of enrollment with us so we headed back to get them.  If we didn't have them, we would have to pay to get in, but since we were students we didn't have to.  While at Chisholm, I got a message from Veronica saying that Parini and her were in the Eagle.  I jumped on my computer and messaged her that we were on the way.  Once inline I noticed Laura was two people ahead of us.  I started talking to her and noticed that she wasn't in line with anyone, so I said that she could come back 2 people and hang out with us.  She said no, and waited in line alone.  Alrighty then, never mind!  "I am Joe's Broken Heart because Tyler dumped me."

Once right inside Pete walked by and said I was underage right in front of the security people.  They looked at me and then looked back at him and cracked a smile.  Seconds after that we ran into Nacho who was completely wasted.  Emily and I couldn't find Jared or Aaron anywhere.  This is when Veronica messaged me on my phone saying "Are you still at Menzies?  Alright well we'll see you here then."  We had looked for them all over so I decided to message "Meet at pool tables now!"  With all the people in there I wasn't about to mess around.

After 10 minutes Veronica showed up and we started talking.  She had found a new house, and a job.  Classes were good, and then we just talked about stupid things for awhile.  Jared came up and asked if we wanted to go dancing and we thought it wouldn't be too bad.  When we got out there they played "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi.  That was awesome, and then for the last song they played "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, that was even better.

We headed home and Emily and I went to see Parini who was also wasted.  We played 10 fingers, which is a game where you say "I've Never" done something and if we have done it then we have to put a finger down.  The first person to have all 10 fingers down loses.  Parini lost!  After that game we just continued to talk.  We talked until 2:30 in the morning and then decided to go to bed.

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Star Date 08-03-02

Today I woke up at 12 to Aaron on the phone.  He tried to prank me saying he was AT&T, but I just hung up.  He called back again and then let me go to bed.

I couldn't sleep so I decided to check my e-mail and I noticed a reoccurring theme.  People ask about my love life, classes, and other such details.  Of course I'm not going to put out on the web how my love life is going here, because it's personal, and because my parents have access to this information.  I'll just say that my love life here is alright and that at this time I'm not really involved because I just got here.

Classes?  Are they different?  Yes, and no.  I really can't answer that one at this time because I've only had two days of classes and haven't had any tutorials yet.  I can't even say what a tutorial is because I haven't had one yet.  As for class, it is similar to first year classes at whitewater.  About 100 or 125 people in a big room listening to a professor talk.  Only the teacher isn't a professor he is a lecturer.  The difference is in the education the person has received, but I'm not to sure what or how big that difference is.

I think that in class is a little more laid back because I've noticed people answer cell phones, drink, and talk in class.  From my point of view so far though, no, class is about the same as ever.

Anyway the day is just beginning and I haven't done anything yet except write in this diary.  I'm going to go out and stat my day!  More later!

Ok, it is now later!  Today, I was supposed to go to the beach with Aaron and Jared, but that never happened because we all woke up way to late.  Instead I hung around the college.  When Emily came in saying that she had gotten her Latrobe card I decided to head up to see if I had any mail.  I didn’t, but I did run into the guy who hooked up my internet connection and he mentioned that he forgot to do something to my computer before he left.  So he came down and fixed it.  While on the way down to my flat I asked him how to fix my computer so that I can download MP3’s and that is when we ran into his friend who did know how to do that.  After 20 or 30 minutes my computer was set up so that I can now download MP3’s.  I am now capable of downloading software, but I already burned up $4.00 in mb downloaded so far.  I think I’ll try to stay away from downloading movies at the moment.

After they were finished, I was convinced to come up to their flat and play Counter Strike for a little bit.  It was fun to finally play for the first time in a long, long time.  He has a very nice system set up and I had never played on such a good computer.  After a little while we gave up and I came back to my flat and decided to download some music for a bit.

A little bit later I found the phone ringing and on the other end Jared was saying that he was going to shower and would be over around 5 or so.  I told him that I haven’t showered yet either and so I showered and waited.  It was about 7 when we were headed to the city to see what the Mambo Festival is all about.  Tonight we were particularly interested in a ballet that was going on in the Sydney Myer Music Bowl.  We jumped on a bus and made it downtown ok.  Once we arrived in the city we were all pretty hungry so some of us ran to Sub Way while the Katie and I ran to Mackie’s.  We all ate outside on the sidewalk and while eating Aaron went and bought some Vodka for us, which we placed in our plastic water bottles since on the web site it said we couldn’t take any glass into the event.  We arrived around 8:10 which it started around 8 so we didn’t miss much.  Upon entry they made me surrender my camera to the security for “copy right” reasons.  When I looked at the web site earlier that day it said I couldn’t bring Audio or Video equipment in.  I assumed video meant video camera.  I was a little worried about my camera, but decided what the hell.  Once inside, we noticed a lot of people were there.  So many that they were in the thousands.  We found ourselves at the way back, where we had to stand to see.  Katie and I lied down and decided to look at the stars for a while.  I really tried to keep my attention on the ballet, but I was a little tired, and lying down looked so comfortable.

It soon became cool, and many of our group wanted to go and find a cafe to relax and get warm at.  I was a little hungry so I decided to leave with the rest of them.  On our way to the river, which is where the festival is, Katie asked me for a piggy back ride.  So as we walked back down I gave her a ride.  Once we had walked a couple of blocks I noticed that my cell phone was missing.  Jared was nice enough to come with me and look for it.  I retraced my steps to find where it might have fallen out.  Once arriving back at the gates to the ballet, I asked the security team if anyone had turned in a phone, but they didn't have one, they even called on the radio to see if anyone had turned one in.  Jared and I went back up to where Katie and I were laying and we didn't find my phone.  I decided to ask the people in front of us who said that a child had found it and given it to a security guard.  When I asked the security guard he asked me what kind of phone it was.  I told him it was a Sagem and he asked what model was it.  I told him I didn't know, but that Jared could call my phone proving it to be mine.  That didn't work because for some reason Jared couldn't ring me up.  So I had him ring Jared.  That worked, but for a while I thought the security guy would never give it up.  He was being a big jerk, I had told him many things about the phone that it had to be mine.  Yet he still wanted to have some other kind of proof.  I was thinking that maybe he was going to keep it if no one came back for it.  If someone turns in a phone to security, wouldn't they tell the rest of their team so that if anyone asks a security person,  it would be returned.

It makes you wonder... are physical possessions worth it even if you deprive some person of them?  I remember when I worked at Klinke Cleaners (Dry Cleaner Service) on Sherman Avenue in Madison.  It was around Christmas time and an old man had come into the store with some pants and shirts.  When he handed over the items to me, I noticed something was in the pocket.  I didn't say anything at the time, but when I went back to tag the items I looked and saw a $20 bill.  My thought process was like this... a)  I could keep the money and it would help my financial status, but how long would that good feeling stay with me, or b)  I could give the money back and that memory would stay with me forever.  I know now that I was right.  Before the old man was able to make it back into his car and leave I was able to catch him.  He was in his van putting on his seat belt when I gave it back to him.  He didn't say much, but he did seem rather surprised and thanked me.  It was cold outside, and I hurried back in.  I must have concentrated on the pile of clothes so much that I didn't notice this man come back into the store.  He wanted to thank me and reward me, but I told him that I was just doing my job.  I also made something up like, the company will not allow me to take a reward for that.  He then started to talk about Christmas and God.  He said that this turn of events had something to do with God and Christmas and how God would look out for him.  It's a silly memory, but that old man was very polite and kind.  He deserved to get his money back for how nice he was.

Anyway I went off the subject as I have been known to do.  When we came back to the group apparently we had missed some big events.  There was a large number of guys trying to get some drunk girls back to their place.  The people in my group tried to tell security to help them out, but they didn't do anything.

As we walked, Veronica had messaged me about 300 times.  Of course I tried to ring her back, but there was a problem with either her phone or mine and we couldn't communicate.  Finally I was able to get through to her and we all met her at the Flinders Street Station.  At the Flinders Street Station there was a man on a loud speaker talking and preaching about Jesus.  Talking about how he had died for our sins, and that Satin was the most powerful angel and now he was on earth.  He said that Jesus was coming back to earth soon and the events of September 11 was proof that the devil was among us.  I believe he was an American because I couldn't hear an accent and he referred to September 11 as September 11.  Of course when it happened in America, it was September 12 here.  I wonder if he had traveled all this way to preach to others, or if he was really a native.

We went to a restaurant on the Yarrah River which was called the Othello, or something.  I ordered a lasagna plate and received it after everyone else had gotten their food.  We also got some weird bread and sausages.  I had thought they were complimentary like the chips at Pedro's.

When we received our bill we had been over charged $8.50 because those complimentary things we got weren't complimentary.  None of us had ordered them, but we ate them.  I decided to confront the waiter on this one, I wanted to get it done right.  I asked him what the item was that was on our bill and he responded the way I thought he would.  That's when I said that none of us had ordered that.  He said, well, someone did.  I said no, no one did.  He said "Well you ate it didn't you?"  I said "Yes, because we thought it was a part of the meal I had ordered."  After that there was along pause where I just looked at him.  I knew that I didn't have to say anything because I had said everything I needed to.  It was not on me to come up with a solution to this matter.  I had in the back of my head that we would offer to pay for half of it, but even before I would think of saying such a thing he said "Well, I'll take it off, but I know someone ordered it."  That's when other members of the group became upset and said "actually no one did."  I even joined them in this, but he played it off like he couldn't hear us.  He was a jerk, and later I found out that he had forgotten parts of our order.  I didn't feel bad about eating that item and not paying for it.  I'm also glad that he wasn't Australian, he was Canadian.

After that we walked back up the river and took the tram home.  While walking to the tram stop, I would pretend I was checking out girls and turn my head while slapping my hand into a pole and pretending I hit my face.  When I did this the first time, one of the Australian kids on the street actually thought I hit my face, and pointed at me and laughed as he passed me.  That's when everyone in my group started to laugh at him.  I think he started to figure out that I really didn't hit my face and got really embarrassed.  Anyway, I'm going to do that trick a lot more now, because I laughed for the longest time.

Once we were waiting for the tram I decided to goof around and take more pictures.  Once on the tram Aaron and Nacho decided to play stupid games like bloody knuckles and others.  I swear those guys are like 12 year old boys when they get together.  It's very entertaining though, and we all had a good laugh when Aaron's hands were all red.  As we were getting off the tram some guy yelled "Remember September 11."  I don't know if he was being a jerk or being nice.  Probably a jerk since he waited till we were getting off to say it.  What a coward...

Made it home ok, and finished my diary for the day and now I'm ready to start tomorrow.  Hopefully we are supposed to go to the market because Jared and Aaron need food and I need Milk and O.J.  Also at the Moomba Festival there are live bands and then later in the night there are fireworks.

See the photos

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 Star Date 09-03-02

Today I woke up at 12 when Jared and Aaron came to get me to go to Northland Shopping Centre with them.  I decided I think not since I got to bed at 6 am.  I got up at 1 though because I was unable to sleep.  I spent the time eating, showering, working on the web page, and reading.  It was quite nice to have some alone time.

The guys arrived back at around 4:30, don't ask me what they shopped for, for 3 hours.  They then came in and we looked over the internet at some travel sites and Aaron checked out some sports scores.  We decided to head out at about 6, making our two hour tram ticket good till 2 am.  We rode the bus into the city and got dropped off half a block away from a kebab shop called "Skewers."  We ordered and then noticed a paper which read "Aussie hero's save 36 American soldiers."  It was basically an article about how Australian troops in choppers helped out 36 pinned American soldiers.

Once we received our food we decided to eat outside.  It only took Aaron 30 seconds to drop his pop and watch the liquid run down the table onto Jared's lap.  Jared knew it was coming and that he couldn't stop it so he just looked at Aaron with a look that would make you laugh so very hard.  As Aaron went in to get another pop, Jared and I cleaned up his mess like we always do.  The meal was very nice considering that though.  After dinner, we decided to hop over to Mackie's and get one of those $.40 cones.  We asked the cashier to "not be shy on the ice cream."  It didn't work, she laid it on as skimpy as they always do.  Once we had gotten our cones we headed over to the south bank and to the festival.  It seems security was cracking down on anyone who even looked like they might cause trouble.

We headed in and watched kids play games, ride rides, and run all over the place.  As we walked around we looked at some stands that were selling necklaces and other things.  I tried on a couple of necklaces, but nothing interested me too much.  At around 8:30 Aaron decided he wanted more ice cream so we headed over to a different part of the river where we were last night.  Once there they decided that the line was too long to get ice cream, so we decided to get some beers and wait for the fireworks which were scheduled to start at 9.  We stood on the higher part of the bank which was paved just as the lower part was.  Around 9 o'clock a ship pulled in with some people on board who were dressed up like they had just come from a dinner party.  Most of the group was standing on the top part of the ship watching the river.  As we all looked a girl who was quite beautiful came to the top part of the ship.  We, as a chorus, said "whoa."  I decided to keep staring because I really didn't care at this point.  When she waved at me I was like "alright."  The only problem was that she looked a little young.  I seem to have that problem that when I start to talk to a girl or something I'll find out that they are way too young for me.  So I decided I wanted to find out how old this girl was and I was taking bets with Aaron and Jared what they thought her age was.  I personally thought she was probably 16, but she could have been 18 for all I know.  As their boat docked and they came off the ship to shore I waved at her and told her to come over.  Well, she saw me wave, but she was too shy to come over.  Throughout the night she kept looking over and coming near us, but whenever I would start to move or say something she would high tale it back to where her family was.  I had just given up after that.

The fireworks weren't too impressive.  There was a ground show which wasn't very visible from where we were standing.  The finally was quite alright though, but nothing to compare to back home.  When they were finished we decided we would like to find a pub and relax a bit.  There was a shopping centre right behind us and the pub there had a dress code.  We were all wearing runners, which they didn't allow.  So we decided to hit up Brunswick street instead.

Aaron and Jared decided to ask a police officer how to get their.  This is how Aaron goes about flagging down a police officer...

"Hey cop, over here!"

Thankfully the police officer didn't hear him.  That probably would have been as bad as my father's screwy Louie story.

This is the screwy Louie story.  Back in my father's day, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, police officers had a nickname, similar as they do now, but it was screwy.  Probably as bad as calling a cop a pig these days.  Also in my fathers high school at the time was a friend of his nicknamed screwy Louie.  You can probably imagine the rest, but if you can't I'll tell the rest of it.  My father was walking down the street one day in good ole downtown Boone, Iowa when he saw his friend screwy Louie.  He decides to yell out across the street at his friend "Hey Screwy" while waving.  A nearby meter maid hears this, looks up, and waves back in his direction.

I hope I told that story correctly otherwise I'll probably hear about it from Dad.

Anyway, yet again I stray from the story...  So the officer didn't hear him say that, but we flagged him down anyway and gave us pretty poor directions on how to get their.  Once on Brunswick Street, we decided to hit up a pub that Jared had gone to before for a Menzies thing.  The bartender behind the bar was quite nice to us and recommended a beer, that was very good.  After finishing the beer we caught the tram home.  Once home Jared and Aaron made puppy chow, and then Veronica and I ate it with them.

My back was a little sore and so I got Veronica, who is a Occupational Therapy major, to give me a back rub.  Wow, she knew what to do, apparently she had been a masseuse at a previous job.  She finished and left, while I went to bed.  Unbeknownst to me, but beknownst to her was that my door was not locked.  I got to bed around 3 and was just to fall asleep at around 4 when I opened my eyes to her standing over me.  I was quite scared, but was tired enough where I didn't have enough energy to care.  She had forgotten something and had come back to get it.  Once she left I quickly locked my door.  That will for surely never happen again!

See the photos

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 Star Date 10-03-02

Today I got to sleep at 4 and woke up at 9:30 to mom and dad ringing me up.  I really didn't say much because I was half asleep.  I wish I could have said more, but I don't think it was physically possible.  They decided to let me go and call back later.  I had told them that I was getting up at 10, so they let me get my 30 minutes of sleep.  When I woke up, I got dressed, gathered everything together, ate breakie and then went and woke up Aaron.  Today we were going to go to the beach, and nothing would stop us.

Veronica, Aaron, Jared and I finally boarded the 250 to Garden City at 11:06.  It took us about one hour and 15 minutes to get there.  From there we walked through the park area near the Melbourne Museum and went to the tram stop.  After about 3 minutes of waiting we caught the 96 to St. Kilda Beach.  Once there we noticed a little sidewalk sale going on.  We didn't look it much over because we had just journeyed for two hours to get to the beach, that and Jared had to take a slash.

Once we got down to the beach we spread out our blanket and got ready to go in the water when Jared says to me.  "Look over my shoulder to the right."

I was so tired I looked left at first, but he said "no, right dude."

Oh, ok, so I looked and to my surprise, the guy with his top of next to us was a girl.  Then I looked around a little harder to notice that there were more than her topless!

There is a heaven and it's called Melbourne's Saint Kilda Beach!

We went into the water for a bit and played Frisbee.  When we came back up Veronica told us that she was going to go buy an audio recorder for her classes.  She left for a bit to go back into the city, we started playing Frisbee with some girls from Lacrosse who were also at the beach about 100 feet down. 

It was great weather to go to the beach also, there was not a cloud in the sky, the temperature was warm, and barely a slight breeze.  Looking up into the sky we noticed a plane that was writing in the sky.  It wasn't anything that made sense though, something like "CHEAP AS CHIPS Cleaning."  We didn't make sense of it and just continued to goof around.

Boats were coming and going causing waves, which we played in like we were children.  After a long time in the water we came back in to the shore and laid out for a bit.  After a short time I became hungry and went and changed.  By this time it had become 5:10 and we packed up our blankets and left to get some ice cream.  We noticed the Lacrosse girls were watching a musical performance at a cafe just inland from where we were.  He was quite good, but he forgot the words to one of the songs he was covering.  From there we and the Lacrosse girls went to get some food at a restaurant, I was not hungry though and just sat.  This is where I noticed that, hey, maybe I should have used some sunscreen.  I got a little red, but not too bad because I had a decent base going.  It's a darker red just because of that base.

We hopped on the tram and rode home, most of us were pretty tuckered out though and relaxed on the way home.  Once home, I talked with Laura about a Hawaiian Party going on Wednesday night.  It costs three dollars and I believe includes food and some WOP.  I also asked about putting on a program called the Century Club.  Basically, the century club is where you take 1 shot of beer every one minute for 100 minutes.  If you make it past sixty then you've done the POWER HOUR, but the real challenge is in the last 40 shots.  Once I made it to 77, but puked.  If you puke, you lose, and can't keep going even if you want to.

She said she would look into it for me, but I think they will not be able to do it because of the puking problem.  After she left, I went and talked to Emily who had been gone camping since Friday afternoon.  She was sick and so her, Parini and I just lied in her bed for a bit.  After a few minutes I realized that I have some things that need to get done before Monday and went to tend to them.

That's it for today, no real deep stuff, I'll save that for philosophy class!

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Star Date 11-03-02

Today I woke up at 11:30 to my alarm.  I woke up and took my time to get organized.  By 12:30 I was ready to go.  I headed out and stopped to find out when my tutorials were.  I found out when one was, but the other I didn't find out because it wasn't posted.  I also had class the whole day, so I had no time to find out until class at 6 that I had missed my tutorial for that class.  Oh well, I'm sure I didn't miss much, seeing that the class didn't go very far today.

I have my completed schedule which looks like I have class or tutorials from 1 to 7, but the class that starts at 1 and the class that starts at 6 both have the same lecturer.  Which is very good since this particular lecturer puts the recording of his lectures online.

On my way from Philosophy of Religion to my Astronomy and Philosophy tutorial I ran into Jared, or should I say Jared ran to me.  I was running late, so he ran to catch up to me.  He told me about flights from Melbourne to Sydney for $144 round trip, which would be an excellent deal.  After my tutorial I came home and looked it up to find nothing like that.

After my lecture at 6 I came home and relaxed for a bit.  Laura came down and talked to me for a short while, but the rest of the time I pissed away reading and doing nothing.

When Aaron came back from studying with Jared we decided to watch "The Last Castle", which was very good.  We used one of the public TV's very late, but one of the CRAC team members was nice enough to let us finish our movie.

After the movie I came back and started to work on a story I had been writing for a while.  I seem to have ADD when I write since I have no idea where I'm going, but that the many ideas in my head seem to keep me from finishing a point.

I know that I haven't written much for the day, but I really didn't have an exciting day.  It was exciting, the fact that I'm in Australia, but nothing extraordinary happened.  Maybe that is a good thing though and maybe I should be glad and hope for another day just as uneventful as this.

I have been thinking of investing in an acoustic guitar with Aaron and tomorrow, I'm going to go look at what they have to offer at some stores.

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Star Date 12-03-02

Today I woke up and got ready to get some work done.  I needed to get my books, rent a car, do laundry and get a new back pack.  I took extra long getting ready today and wasn't walking to the bookstore till 2.  I picked up a couple books for class and headed back.

When I got back I called Murphy's Rental Car and reserved a car for Saturday and Sunday so that 8 of us could go to the Great Ocean Road.  Per person it's only going to cost us $31.20 Australian.  After calling I went down to the bottle shop and purchased a slab of Victoria Bitter for tonight.  While buying beer I questioned them about their delivery policy.  It turns out you can have them deliver So once I had finished with that I started my laundry and went outside to read one of my new books with Emily and Aaron.  Of course I didn't get much reading done, we basically spent the time talking with passerby's and ourselves.

Around 6 we wanted to eat, so we headed to the main building in our college to check out what they had to serve.  I got a stir fry and eat it while watching the Simpsons.  After supper we didn't have much time to change and get ready for Volleyball which started at 7.

Once we arrived at volleyball we started practicing like a real team.  I didn't expect this, I thought we would just goof around and play a little game.  After about 45 minutes of drills we started a game for the next hour.  The leaders of this volleyball group placed all the 7 foot tall professional players on one side and all the scrubs including Aaron and I on the other side.  I thought that it was stupid, and when they stopped to talk to us, Aaron and I left.  It wasn't fun at all, and I wasn't interested in what they were doing.

Aaron and I walked over to Menzies and picked up Jared.  We came over to Chisholm and went outside and started drinking in the courtyard between Emily and My building and Aaron's building.  We started drinking and when Emily and Parini came up we tried to get them to drink with us, but they wouldn't.  After a little while Parini and Aaron were seeing who could skull beers the fastest.  Of course Aaron beat the pants off of her and there was no competition what so ever.

After about 3 bouts they decided to stop and Aaron started feeling ill.  That's when we all sat down and I noticed that part of the concrete was quite warm.  So we all started to sit on them and goof around.  After about an hour of people walking by and us trying to get them to drink with us, Jackson and Sabhoun came and sat down with us.  They also had been drinking and we listened to music on Sabhoun's CD player.  When a R.A. came up to tell us to keep it down because we had gotten complaints, we decided to go to the "Hot Plates".  Which was basically what the warm concrete was, but it was in a different area and much bigger and much warmer.  Aaron, Sabhoun, Jared and I went out their and relaxed for awhile.  Jared was really, really wasted and decided to go home.  Aaron passed out at about 4 and Sabhoun left around 5.  It took me a little while to wake Aaron and walk him home, but once I did, I went straight to bed myself.

See the photos

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Star Date 13-03-02

Today I woke up at 10:40 to Parini banging on the outside door.  I thought about getting up, but then I thought she would be smart enough to knock on my window.  Nope!  She decided to call the hall phone, so I still thought she might be smart enough to knock on my window.  Nope!  She decided to call my cell phone which I mistakenly left on my desk and not on my night stand next to my bed.  I had to get up out of bed to answer, and when I did I almost fell over.  I didn't think I drank that much last night, but I guess I did.

I got up and checked my e-mail, and lounged around since I was a little intoxicated still.  I took my time to get ready so that I could be ready by 12 so that I could go get some Hawaiian clothes for tonight's Hawaiian party.  When 12 rolled around Laura and her friend Alison showed up, Emily and I were happy to go along to Savers.  I was surprised to see that they have a Savers here, I thought it was a small thrift store in Wisconsin.

Laura had her car parked in a fenced in area with barbed wire all around it.  She used her Latrobe card to get in through one of the gates and again used it to open a door to let us out.  She also had "The Club" to protect her car against theft.  I really can't understand all the security since her car wasn't worth stealing in the first place.

We got to savers and I found a Hawaiian shirt right away.  I looked around at the other things they had for sale and that is when I found it!  My leather fight club jacket that I had back home.  This one was the exact same model except it wasn't leather and it was a different color brown.  It was only $8 though so I had to get it.

We went to a nearby mall, but there wasn't much there in terms of Hawaiian stuff, but it was a nice mall, and I want to return there sometime on my own time.  On the walk back to the car I purchased an acoustic guitar for $120 that Aaron and I can share.

By the time 6 rolled around I was way to hungry to wait for the Barbee, so I ate some rammen before I left.  Thank goodness I did because it wasn't till around 7 when I ate because they took their time cooking.

The woppiteauey was really strong and Emily, Parini, and everyone else was drunk real quick.  We all had a good time and Veronica was the best dressed Hawaiian girl.

Around 9:30 we decided to head over to Eagle Bar where we danced and joked around.  Aaron and I decided we would mess around with people by talking just plain gibberish to them.  They would ask us "what" a couple of times and then figure out we weren't' saying anything.

Finally they started kicking people out around 12 and Katie and I decided to walk back.  Once back Emily came in and we started talking.  Katie was tired and so Emily and I were going to walk her back to Menzies when Emily locked her keys in her door.  Luckily for her the R.A. on duty was right outside our door when she called him on his mobile.  He came in and was nice enough to unlock the door for her.  We then walked to Menzies where we woke Jared up and all of us hung out in their kitchen for a bit and then went to Katie's room.  When in Katie's room we noticed that her plant that she had bought was looking quite dead.  I said I would take it home and bring it back to life, but I forgot to grab it before I left.  The flower I bought for my room, which was looking quite bad, is now looking great.  There are new flowers coming in and they look really healthy.

I got to sleep around 3 and had to get up around 11 so I could make it to my 12 o'clock class.

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Star Date 14-03-02

Today I woke up at 11 to make it to my 12 o'clock class, Philosophy of Religion.  I got ready and headed out.  The class lasted 1 hour long and we talked more about arguments for the existence of god.  I came back and wasted the time away until 3.  At 3 I went to my Philosophy of Religion Tutorial.  We sat around and talked about the arguments for God.

We specifically looked at one argument and we had to turn to the person next to us and introduce ourselves.  I did so and we started talking about the argument and we had to come up with a criticism.  I didn't know really what to say, so I just told the guy next to me what I thought about it.  I said that the first and second premises don't make sense together because they contradict.  He started talking very complicated about some other part of the argument.  I had no idea what he was saying because it was way over my head.  When it came time to discuss what we came up with to everyone the teacher started calling off names out of his book.  After a couple people were called out, the guy next to me says he isn't on the list and so I'll have to talk for us.  Of course my name was the next called.  I said that I have never taken a philosophy course in my life so what I say might sound really unintelligent, but here it is.  When I described my criticism the teacher was like "that's a good point!  People don't write much about that point, but I'm going to write it on the board."  The guy next to me who was confusing me said, "ok, just forget everything I just told you."  I was like, "no problem."

After that toot I was really tired so I came home and lied down for a bit.  I woke up at 6:30 and ate some supper.  Around 9, Aaron came back from basketball and Jared came over.  We decided to head to the footie fields where there was an open bar with cheap alcohol.  We drank out there for about an hour and ran into Nacho.  We then went to the Eagle Bar and dance for a bit.  I was feeling tired so Parini and I headed back to the college.  After about five minutes Emily came in and started talking with me.  After another five minutes in walked Parini, Jared, Aaron, and Scott.  We sat around, played guitar, and just hung out till 3.  That's when I went to bed.

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Star Date 15-03-02

Today I woke up at 10:30 to the janitor cleaning the floor and other noises.  People here are so loud in the morning.  It also doesn't help that the door leading outside slams really loud.

I went with Aaron down to try and find a backpacking bag.  I had talked to the girls who came from La Crosse and they had said they got some for $20 at a two dollar store.  They didn't remember the name of the shop, but they said that it was on Smith Street along the 86 tram line.  Aaron and I got off about 3 blocks early because we thought the driver told us this stop was Smith Street.  We went into Mackie's to try and find out how to get to Smith Street and they told us to keep walking for another 10 minutes.  Aaron decided this would be a perfect opportunity to pick up another one of their famous $.40 cones.  Once we were back out on the street we decided to catch a tram the rest of the way to Smith Street.  Once at Smith Street we realized that the tram went along Smith Street and not just by it.  So we looked out the window trying to find this shop, but when I saw a salvation army store we got off.  Not before Aaron could manage to break his cone and drop most of the ice cream on the floor.  This wasn't an empty tram either, it was full of people who saw it.

We got off and amazingly enough I noticed the two dollar store and got the last back pack available and it was $25 not $20.  It's a great back for the money though, it holds a lot of stuff.  After I made that purchase we went to a camping store where Aaron picked up a sleeping bag.  I got a water bottle and a flashlight.

We walked around for a bit and looked into some shops, but eventually headed back to campus.  While on the tram I noticed that I recognized the driver.  Then I thought, he looked like the tram driver we had on the way into the city.  I looked on the ground where we were standing when Aaron dropped his ice cream and sure enough there was a stain on the ground.  We caught the same tram back that we had riding into the city.

Once back I packed for the weekend and just relaxed in my room.

At night we had planned on watching "Hard Ball", but the TV's in the common rooms were taken, so we sat outside for a bit.  I decided to go in and try to sleep, but ended up watching the movie on my own in my room.  I went to bed at around 12:30.

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Star Date 16-03-02

Today I woke up at 7 to my alarm.  Did I sleep?  Was the clock right?  Well maybe 10 more minutes then...

I reset my alarm, but it didn't matter I was awake.  I got up at 7:08 and turned my alarm off, I had set it for 7:14.  I got up and quickly got ready because I noticed there was no milk.  I decided to hurry so I could get some Mackie's breakfast before I had to meet Jared at the tram at 7:45.

Jared was two minutes late, but it didn't matter since the tram came at 7:42 and the next one would only be two minutes.  As we rode down I must say I was a little nervous about driving in the city.  For the past few days I had looked and studied what others did.

We made it to Murphy's Car Rental by 8:30 or so and had got an Automatic Toyota Van which had 8 seats.  It was a newer van, built in 2000 and was quite nice looking.  I had expected to get a Dodge Caravan though, but wasn't disappointed.  We drove back to La Trobe University with no problems and got loaded up and left.  We drove all the way to the great ocean road before stopping for a bit at a light house with an amazing view.  Let me tell you, no picture, no book, no word can describe the great ocean road as well as the actual experience.  If anyone asks you what do you wish you could have done before you died?  The answer should come very easy.  "Drive on the Great Ocean Road."  Make sure you have some pills to make yourself feel ok though because it's easy to get sick from all the curves.

Our first stop was at a light house and it was great.  We took pictures and walked for a little while.  Then we all pilled back into our van and set out for a bit longer.  Our next stop we went to a little beach area that was secluded.  When we got down to the ocean Aaron decided to see how far out on the rocks he could get, but when a wave splashed him he decided to just give up and get wet.  We had fun there for about 20 minutes and set out to go to Lorne for a bit.

Once at Lorne we ate some food and Katie and I decided to go surfing, while Jared shopped, Emily and Aaron decided to see if they could go on some trampolines there.  I surfed for a bit and got up quite a few times.  It was fun, but the water was cold.  The waves were much better than when I went surfing with the surf team.  Around 5 I gave up and went and changed and we all got together at the van around 5:30.  Aaron was talking to some kids who wanted him to buy them alcohol.  Before this though the kids were throwing those orange safety cones on the roof of a public bathroom.  Then they decided to throw a cone over a large fence into a green field that looked like a country club sort of thing.  Aaron yelled to them "Don't do that, My dad owns that place and I'll get in trouble if you do.  They then started in on the alcohol.  They looked around 10 or 11 while they said they were 16.  Yeah right Aaron said, and asked to see their arm pit hair, which I thought was quite funny.

We left and headed through the great ocean road, along the ocean, along the rainforest, past Gibson Steps, past The Twelve Apostles, past Lock Ord Gorge, to a small town near the Lock.  We ate supper, and it was beginning to get quite late.  We had planned on camping on the beach and headed to the Lock Ord Gorge because we thought the tide wouldn't reach us there.  Once we parked in the park we noticed a car coming up behind us in the parking lot.  Before it reached us though I shut down the car and we sat in the dark.  It was a police car, we sat there quite and still.  It left without hesitation and so we decided that Aaron, Jared and I would get out and check out the situation down in the gorge.  We were in the complete dark with very little light from the stars.  We walked around for about 5 minutes trying to find where the entrance and steps down to the gorge were.  Once we found them we walked down and looked around a bit.  We decided to camp on the side where the cave is up against the rock wall to protect us from the wind.

We headed back up to the van which took about 5 minutes because up and down and through the sand was very unproductive.  Once at the van we decided to carry everything down and then let Jared and the girls (Emily, Katie, and Parini) set up the tents while Aaron and I went to find fire wood.  Let me tell you, finding firewood in the dark is a chore and a half.  We didn't find much, but what we found would last for about 2 hours.

While looking for the wood, Aaron and I were a little worried a ranger would stop us and when a car came into the park we decided to hide.  It came in for a bit and then left.

While we made the fire the girls sat in the tent talking and getting warm.  Aaron dug a pit in the sand up against a rock for us to place the wood while Jared and I set up the fire.  It wasn't hard at all to get a fire started, in fact it was harder to get the girls out to sit by the fire than to get it going.

Once around the fire we sat and talked for about an hour and then decided to go to bed.  Aaron stayed up for a bit and cleaned up the fire for us.  During the night I don't know how much actual sleep I got, but I woke up a couple of times.  Once I woke up with wet feet and so I quickly looked out the tent to see if it was the tide come in, but it was only raining and Jared didn't zip the bottom of the door shut.  So I slept with wet feet for the rest of the night.

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Star Date 17-03-02

Today I woke up at 8:30 to Aaron saying "Guy's Wake up."

I woke up!  He said "There's a guy down here, we should probably get going.  We all got up and packed our things up.  It was quite cold out, and the sand made my feet numb as I walked in it barefoot.  I took some pictures and then helped everyone pack their things up.  We made our way to the top side with the girls only a little ways ahead of us.  Once at the top we noticed a man talking to the girls.  He looked like a ranger and I knew that he would at least talk to us.  He asked what we drove and we told him which vehicle was ours.  He said that he would talk to us we had our things put away.  I had hoped he wouldn't ticket us, and just let us off, this being the slow part of the season.  In the end he ticketed us only $80 which we split.  That is the cheapest I've ever been camping for.  It was also the nicest having a beach to ourselves.

We went back to a town which was near by to have breakie.  I had a plate with 2 eggs, 2 pieces of toast and some bacon.  Not the fake bacon that was on Mackie's Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit, no no no, real bacon!  It was nice!

After breakfast we resolved to go to The Twelve Apostles.  It took no more than 10 minutes to get there and we stayed for about 45 minutes.  I took lots of pictures which turned out great, but again, nothing compares to being there.  While there Emily found this little lizard among the brush and once we looked at it, it scurried back in the brush.

Our next stop was at Gibson Steps, where many ships had arrived with no way to make it onto the land because the cliff wall was too high.  Many died here because when the tide came in they had no where to go and drowned.

But anyway, we played Frisbee and swam in the ocean for a bit.  I was standing on the beach playing Frisbee with Jared when a huge wave came and soaked me in my shoes.  I decided to go swimming after that.  Jared, Aaron and I tried to catch waves and ride them into the shore.  It worked too, but the water under the wave would always shoot and twist and drag you on the sand on the beach.  It was loads of fun, and could do it all day long.

After that we decided to head to Mait's Rest, which was a nature trail in a rainforest.  We walked around and that lasted about 15 minutes.

We drove home for awhile and I noticed a sign that said something like falls, so we decided what the hell.  We walked around and took pictures for about an hour and then decided to head home.

Once back in the city we took the car back and then caught a taxi back to campus.

I fell asleep pretty early after that.

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Star Date 18-03-02

Today I woke up at 10:30 and got ready to go.  I had six hours of class in a row.  I went to the agora and picked up some milk and a study book from the bookstore so I could do my homework for class.  I walked back to the college and ate some breakie and did my home work.  On the way to Philosophy and Astronomy I checked the time and placement for my tutorial for Knowledge, Existence, and Truth.  After all the classes I went back and did nothing because I was exhausted.  I called home around 11:30 and then watched some TV with Aaron, Parini, Katie, and Scott.

I'm sorry there isn't much else to say, but it's a Monday!

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Star Date 19-03-02

It's amazing the amount of information you can forget in a weeks time.  I am writing this on the Sunday after and I can't seem to remember a single thing I've done this day.

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 Star Date 20-03-02

Today I woke up around 12 and got ready to go shopping with Jared, who said he would go with me after his class ended which was around 1.  We left at like 1:30 and amazingly got to Northland Shopping Centre by 1:45.  The bus driver must have missed some stops or something because usually it takes about 30 minutes to arrive at the centre.  I purchased a lot of food for not a lot of money.  Meals consisting of pasta and more pasta.  In fact I picked up a lot of those Ramen packs, except they are called something else here.  They cost about the same and taste a little different.  It's still a meal for like $.50 though and that's what makes it the greatest stuff in the world besides Mackie's famous $.40 cones.

We arrived home around 4:30 or so and since I'm writing this on the following Sunday I can't remember much else.

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Star Date 21-03-02

Today I woke up at 11:30 and got ready to go.  I took a shower the night previous so that I could sleep in a little longer.  I went to my first class which started at 12 and then met up with Aaron and Emily who were on their way to the Agora to check out the local dealers who sell things every Thursday.  I walked around and talked with them for a while and ended up reading some of a book for class until 2.  At 2 I had a tutorial for Philosophy of Religion.  This time I didn't get picked on, in fact, he basically talked to us for the whole hour and took questions which was quite nice.  The class doesn't seem to be too bad, just because usually when I take a class I think it will be about something else and isn't.  This class is somewhat sticking to what I thought it might be about, but it deals more with Philosophy than I had hoped.

After the tutorial I headed back to my room for a bit and ate some dinner, which was good 'ole peanut butter and jelly, or as they say here jam.  I guess jelly to them is Jell-o, so if you say peanut butter and jelly, that would be quite disgusting.

Once at my class, Knowledge Existence and Truth, we received our first essay topic.  I'm delighted to find out that it only has to be 750 words and even more so that I have the answer to the question in my notes.  It looks to only take about 30 minutes to write and I'll be good to go.  That class is shaping up to be a joke, but I keep going to see if they'll touch on anything interesting.

After that class I came back to the college to relax a bit.  Aaron had basketball and wanted me to wait for him before we left.  Once he got back we started drinking the last of a slab which was left over from a few weeks ago.  Veronica rang me up wanting to use my computer for homework and so I told her to come on over.  She said she would be right over, I figured I'd be leaving soon anyway.  I was wrong, soon Emily, Alex, and his friend joined us in my room and we started drinking.  Veronica was regretting the fact that she came to use the computer, but we left after around 30 minutes though.  Once at the Eagle I met some new people and after the bar closed went up to Tower 3 and drank with them for a bit.  We got kicked out by the R.A. though (God do I hate R.A.s), and so I headed to get a backrub which I was promised.  I got it and was in bed by 3, which from what I hear is much earlier than Emily, Aaron, or any of those people.

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 Star Date 22-03-02

Today I woke up at 11 and decided I wanted to go to the beach today.  So Aaron, Jared and I packed up and headed out to the beach.  My main mission was to stop by some offices in town and drop off some materials, but that didn't happen because I forgot the directions.  Then my main mission was to get some reading done for class at the beach, but that didn't happen because I forgot my book.  So we decided to play frisbee in the ocean for a bit.  It was a little too cold though and so we played for a while, but then lost our ambition and just laid out.  The tide was extremely low and so the water near the shore was quite a bit warmer than in the deep parts.

Once lying out I borrowed quite an interesting book from Aaron about the Third Reich and Hitler.  In fact it was the same book which I found at the shop near the Agora which was on Aaron's reading list.  I read about 40 pages before we started goofing off with the frisbee again.  By the time we were packing up to leave Parini messaged me "What are you guys doing?"  I messaged back that we were leaving and we would be home in an hour.  By the time we were on the tram it was around 7 and I had told Parini we would be back by 7:30.  Anyway we arrived back around 8 and met up with Emily, Parini, and Parini's friend from home Brooke.  Brooke's father works for United Airlines and so she got to fly to Australia for free for her spring break.

We headed out and Parini wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and so we went.  They ate and we hung out and danced for quite a while and caught the second to last tram back around 12.  Once home we decided to head out to the hot plates and relax for a bit.  We hung out for a while and I can't remember what time I got to bed though.

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Star Date 23-03-02

Today I woke up feeling sick.  I stayed in bed all day, only to get up to eat or work on the computer for about a total of 4 hours.  Finally around 8 or so at night I went to take a shower.  Once I was out of the shower I felt a little better and Emily told me that they were going out, so I decided to join them.

Emily, Katie, Parini, Aaron, Jared, Brooke, and I went to the Crown Casino.  First we went in and ate some food, and then we went into the casino part to drink and gamble.  Myself not having much to gamble made one dollar last as long as I could on the slot machines.  So for the second time in my life I gambled and lost.  My total losses in US currency are $10.60 now.  Considering one Aussie dollar is about $.60 back home.

Parini, Katie and Brooke started to drink heavily just because they felt like it and so they ordered double mixed drinks which were quite expensive as you would think.  After about an hour we decided to head upstairs where there was a disco.  After dancing for a while we decided to head out.  At that time it was 2:45 and Katie, Parini, Brooke, and Aaron decided they wanted to a pub and drink a little more.  The rest of us decided to go home.  It cost us a total of $44 for 6 people.  It was a little more expensive than usual and we all agreed that the taxi driver was the worst we had seen.  I got to bed around 4 and slept with out music on for the first time in a long time.

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Star Date 24-03-02

Today I woke up at 10:30, but feeling sick still laid in bed for a long time.  It was afternoon before I finally got out of bed.  I wasn't feeling to well, but managed to get some things done today.

When Aaron stopped by and asked me to go swimming, I thought "why not" since I wasn't doing anything else.  I figured the chlorine would kill off some of the sickness in me.  It didn't work to well, but at least I got out and did something.  Otherwise all day I stayed in my room or in my bed.  Around 7 I finally cleaned my messy room up a bit and started some homework.  Notice I said started some homework, not finished it.  Well yet anyway.

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Star Date 25-03-02

Today I woke up at 12 or so and stayed in bed for most of the time until around 3 when Aaron got out of class.  We then went to go get things for our trip to Tasmania and the Overland Track.

I guess now is as good of time as any to tell about Autumn break.  On Friday we leave to hop on a ferry to go to Tasmania.  Once on the ferry we have about 14 hours to relax.  We booked a four bed cabin for the four of us to relax in.  Very affordable also, since we are students.  It costs us about $30 (Australian) more to go for the cabin than to go with a big room with lots of beds in it.  The ticket to Tasmania costs about $144 and we will arrive in Davenport Tasmania sometime Saturday morning.  From there, we plan to head out to one of the greatest tracks for hiking in the world which, of course, is called the Overland Track.  From what I read there are mountains and many other things to see on the track which takes around 6 days to hike.  I'm not sure what to bring for food and other things.  I've got my doc's for boots, some gaiters to keep the mud out of my boots, a rain jacket and pants.  I also got a nice hat which will keep the sun off me.  I also bought gloves just in case so that if it gets too cold I can bundle up.  Once at the end of the Overland Track we will be near Hobart which is a town in southern Tasmania.  It's also the home of the Cadbury Egg factory!

Anyway when I arrived home from shopping it was already 6:30.  Of course tonight was a special night as Parini turned 21 on this day.  So we went to the only Mexican restaurant in town.  Why?  Margaritas!  That and a big gosh darn hat!&