Maybe the grossest thing I've seen since I've been here.

Well guys and gals, cats and kittens, it is the eve of the first ever Herring Rd. Block party. Our measly interpretation of the infamous Mifflin St. Block Party back home. Let me tell you I am excited, I can't tell you the last Friday night I stayed in. However while staying in, I decided to take a shower, now I've been noticing that my drain doesn't seem to be working quite right. There must be a clog somewhere. So mid-shower I decide to fiddle with it and what you see before you is what happened. I have never seen anything like it in my life, I tried to get it to pay rent but it just ignored me. Needless to say I didn't touch it, and i might just deal with the slow drain.

Nut up or Shutup

Well consider New Zealand conquered. I just got back from a week in Queenstown on the beautiful South Island. Of all the places I've been in my entire life, I think that New Zealand has been my favourite. I set out on my adventure with 3 fellow Badgers-RJ, Matt and Phil. Those three are roommates and had just spent a week driving up the East Coast together, so it took a little bit to get me into the swing of things.

Saturday-Our trip started with a very rushed trip to the Airport, I don't think in my adult life I've had a stress free journey to an airport, I always seem to be late or rushed or something. If you can picture 4 hungover dudes sprinting through from the McDonalds in the Sydney airport so we could board in time, you've got a pretty rough outline of how this whole experience began. A relatively short flight landed us in gorgeous Queenstown on Saturday afternoon. Upon arrival at the airport, we realized that we in fact had not made a single accommodation arrangement, or travel from the airport into Queenstown. I wish I could say that we had wanted to rough it like true backpackers, but fact of the matter is that between the 4 of us we all had kinda just said 'fuck it' i hope it works out. It did indeed work out, taking the bus into Queenstown and finding a local hostel worked out great. We meet up with a friend of ours and got some awesome pizza at a local hotspot called Winnies. If you are ever in Queenstown stop into Winnies for a Tui's Blonde and a large Montenara Pizza--literally one of the best things I've eaten while abroad.

Sunday-We all woke up a little worse for the wear, but excited to explore the city and plan our trip. The morning started with watching about 4 hours of the Masters, we were all cheering for Anthony Kim. We booked a few adventures in the morning and took a gondola up a huge hill that overlooked the city. At the top of this hill they had built a luge course. Not a true ice luge or even a street luge. It was basically plastic carts that you sat in and went down this huge twisty course. Now had i done this by myself it wouldn't have been that fun because it wasn't the course or the carts that made it fun. It was five 21 year old guys on these carts making an absolute mess of this course. We got yelled at every time because we broke every rule I think, but it was so much. There were a few cuts and some bruises and one flip, but other than that we were pretty legit.

Monday-Monday was kind of a transition day, we hung out for most of the morning and then picked up our rental car in the afternoon. We started our drive for the Franz Josef Glacier at around 2. The roadtrip was awesome, mostly because I drove most of the way through the most amazing scenery I've ever seen. Also because I got to drive on the left side of the road! We got into Franz Josef at around 8 or 830 and tucked in for the night because we knew tomorrow would be a long day on the glacier.

Tuesday-Today was the infamous glacier hike. We woke up early and headed to the guide station to check in. We had signed up for a full day hike as opposed for a half day hike, however when we got there they told us the full day hike had been canceled and we could either reschedule or do the half day. Because of our tight schedule we had to do the half day hike which was a tad disappointing but such is life. The half day hike was still fun, except that it poured the whole time, they gave us rain jackets and rain pants but it didn't matter, we were soaked to the bone. We finished up the hike and got dried up and back on the road by about 4PM and started the long drive back to Queenstown. The drive home was super fun and a wild night followed in back at our hostel.

Wednesday-Another quasi chill day. We by chance ran into another friend of ours and decided to play some frisbee golf or as its known in the biz as 'frolf'. That was a blast and we got to see some more scenery. After the frolf we went up the gondola again to show our friend the luge and hilarity ensued. I think had we gone down once more, we would have been kicked off the mountain. That afternoon we got a 'Fergburger'-a Queenstown must. It was so big, I suppose it wasn't too special just enormous.

Thursday-Adventure day. RJ and I had booked a 'Queenstown Combo' which put tons of fun activities together in one day. The morning started out with whitewater rafting which was less than spectacular but still fun because RJ and I literally made jokes the whole time. Everyone loved us. When they were splitting up the groups for boats the lead guide said that they might have to split up groups traveling together, he said not to worry he wouldn't split up married couples, old couples, or girls. RJ and I started laughing and RJ looked at me and said 'we don't have a chance' and sure enough the guy looked at us and said 'guys i'm going to be honest I'll try and make it happen but I'm going to pair you up last'. We ended up being in the same boat but it was just funny how it went down. I almost forgot, we took a helicopter ride to the boat landing, that was really really cool, flying through the mountains and down close to the water. After rafting we took a jetboat ride which was so sweet. It was basically these huge red boats that flew up and down the shotover river at like 80Km/hour and did 360 degree spins. They drove right up next to these rock walls and it looked they were literally inches away from smashing into the rock. The day finished with bungy jumping at the Nevis site. It is the second tallest bungy in the world and it was awesome. The bungy was probably the coolest thing i've ever done. I went first out of our group and I had such a mental block that I wasn't really even scared. I didn't get scared until i watched RJ jump-I didn't realize how far he fell and I thought he was going to die. Crazy that the fear didn't kick in until after i went. What a rush.

Friday-Friday was skydiving day. This was the second coolest thing that I did behind bungy. A totally different sensation than bungy because you don't make a decision to jump out of the plane, you're more pushed as opposed to bungy where you are the one who jumps. But still amazing nonetheless. Very cold and hard to breathe, however I can't complain too much RJ jumped in just his boxers and got a video of it...nuts. I couldn't believe it, but you only live once right? After so much adrenaline, we all just crashed in the afternoon.

Saturday-We got up and frolfed again this morning and then got on a plane home. What a crazy awesome trip. Again its so nice to be 'home' in my own bed, but if i have decided that if i was ever going to move to another country it would be New Zealand, it was so beautiful and untouched my pictures don't even do it justice.

We're not a gay couple...thats my brother.

Well well well. Home again for a quick breather and it is nice except for the lack of food at my apartment. Peter left this morning and it was so great to have him and the duty free liquor. I picked him up at the airport Monday morning and from there vacation began. We dropped some stuff at our hostel in downtown Sydney and starting hitting the sights. We saw the Opera House and Darling Harbor and Pitt St and Chinatown, man oh man did we do some walking and our feet felt it. As Peter would say 'My dogs are barking'. After a long day of sightseeing we got a quick shower, a quick vodka tonic and got some dinner at a local pizza shop. Peter called it an early night while I nursed $6 pitchers watching college basketball. Day two was much of the same, we walked to Surry Hills, a really neat neighbourhood in Sydney and ate lunch at an amazing little cafe named Four Ate Five. If you ever go try the Banana, Honey and Cinnamon milkshake--to die for.

We caught our plane to Cairns Tuesday evening and just crashed once we got to our hostel. The next day I was able to get a hold of some friends of mine and the six of us hit up Hartleys Croc Adventure. It was pretty cool, we saw a ton of crocs and some snakes. Peter even got called up on stage to hold a huge snake--he loved it. The man said it was random but I think its because he looked the ULTIMATE tourist.

Day two in Cairns we headed North to Cape Tribualtion, it was cool but it rained all day so we weren't able to swim in the Mossamon Gorge or see any of the sights really, which was a bummer but thats traveling right? We stayed that night in Cape Trib at a really quaint little place called Crocadylus Village and it was super cool. It was effectively in the rainforest, and the food was amazing. Our second day in Cape Trib we went sea kayaking and that was a blast. Our guide Griff (Peter called him Reef the whole time) was an amazing individual to say the least. You could write books on this man--speaks like 15 languages, didn't go to college, opens kayaking companies around the world, dated a woman in the Thai Mafia, owns/operates a safehouse in Burma for young girls raped by the Burmese Army--are you kidding me? I try and recycle and this dudes is opening safehouses. We were able to see some great wildlife and I won't write about it, but ask me sometime about the Dingo we found.

After heading back to Cairns and our hostel that evening, we just spent that night and the next day chilling. Hit up the casino and won some major change, had a great breakfast and did a beer tasting!

The next day we had whitewater rafting on the Tully River, and let me tell you it was amazing! Some rate the Tully in the top five rivers in the world for rafting, I rate it as the best. We had a really cool guide, as some Germans got on our raft the guide said 'I hope you brought your sense of humor' and the Germans looked and said stone faced 'What is sense of humor?' I looked around and said to myself 'Now its a party'.

Our last day in Cairns we spent fishing in the Cairns Estuary, it was pretty cool- we saw a real croc in the wild. The only bummer was that we didn't catch a damn thing however the three 6 year old girls on our boat couldn't put their pole in the water without bringing something in. How bunk is that? We didn't even have a case of beer.

After an eventful trip in Cairns we headed to Brisbane to spend some time with Peter's friend Laura, she was great and her mom was even better! We got to sleep in a real bed and do some washing. We had some amazing fresh prawns and chips for lunch and then headed to the CBD to check out Brissy. We got a few pints downtown and headed back to Laura's for a little Aussie BBQ. It was an early night because we got up the next morning and headed to Surfers Paradise for a little R&R. Nothing a day at the beach can't fix. We got some amazing seafood and had a great night of dancing! We followed this all up with a midnight swim and some rest. The next day i had to catch a plane back to Sydney but not before stopping at Yatala Pies--a Gold Coast staple.

The beautiful Hunter Valley!

Tim is on the right, Keith our tour guide is the one who you think looks like a tour guide

Trying to look as tourist as possible!--Our last wine tasting

Just a taste of our sophomoric antics

Looked like a good place for a prom picture!

So we just got back from a long day in Wine Country--Hunter Valley. Not too far from Sydney, about a 2 hour drive. We booked with a tour company and it was 7 of us with 5 other travelers. Let me say, I bet they hated us the first 3 hours of the trip. It was 8 in the morning, most of us were hungover-some still buzzed, and we were the typical loud, crewed college kids that you pray aren't on your trip to wine country.

We visited 4 winerys and had wine tastings at all of them. The tastings were included with the trip and we had the cellar to ourselves. Once everyone had a bit of wine in them, the loud, crewed college kids weren't so bad and the group actually starting coming together. The adults realized that it was pretty funny to make drunk college kid jokes and we thought they were funny too. For an example, throughout the first wine tasting RJ was chewing gum! When we got to the second one our server was a tad insulted and asked if he'd had it in all day, which he replied 'well yeah, no wonder all those wines kinda tasted the same!' I proceeded to ask the server if she had any wine that would pair well with Trident White.

One guy we meet liked us from the beginning, his name was Tim. Tim is a financial adviser from Napa Valley who has winery clients. Lets just say that Tim was the man, from the get go he was making bets on which one of us would have to be carried, and boldly proclaiming to anyone who would listen that he was our chaperon. At one winery he told the servers that he was our professor and we were on a field trip, from then on he was known as 'The Professor'. The Professor actually imparted us with some great wine knowledge, and some what I would call 'man knowledge' he was loving it, living vicariously though us.

Some other cool places we visited included the Blue Tongue Brewery where we had lunch and did a flight of beers. We also stopped at a place called the 'Smelly Cheese Shop' where we had some cheese tastings and let me tell you, it was amazing. We had some great blue cheese and some amazing feta. The feta wasn't the crumbly feta that you're used to in the states, it was more liquid and was infused with anything from pesto to red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. We also stopped at a chocolate shop and had some fudge, but I was less enamored with the sweets shop than anything else.

All in all it was a great day and I think i learned some cool stuff about Australian wine. I was bummed we didn't get to tour any of the wine making process, but free glasses of wine is good enough i suppose. I don't claim to have the pallet of a wine connoisseur (read Dr. Bres) but I can for sure tell the difference between a white and red!

Melbourne....pronounced Mel-Bin

Luke Feldman the professional cricketer

A view from the Skydeck
Big pimpin, plus they are reversible

B-Ridge in the Bootleg Terminal

Well I'm finally recovering from my recent weekend trip to Melbourne! My travel companions on this excursion were RJ, Kalli and Bridgit, and we were able to meet up with some of our friends Leah, Meaghan, Jonah and Sydney. We flew in Thursday afternoon and came home Sunday morning at 0650! Needless to say, Sunday was pretty rough; hangovers are hard when you just don't sleep.

So we got into Melbourne at about 4:30 PM and caught the Skybus shuttle into the city. It was pretty simple which is nice because we literally got off the plane and said, 'shit, how do we get downtown?' The airline that we flew was called Tiger Airways, and let me tell you it was a piece of junk! They don't even have a designated terminal at the Melbourne Airport, we literally got off and walked into what looked like a holding pen for detainees. It was a parking lot that was surrounded in chain link fence.

We stayed at a hostel called Nomads Melbourne and all in all it was a great hostel. We were able to meet up with some friends who had gone down the previous day so of the ten beds in the hostel, our group used 6. Our first night we went to a local Italian place and got some really good pizza, then we explored a little and hit up the hostel bar and then a few local pubs. The beer is real cheap if you know where to look, we were able to get $10 jugs (pitchers) which is unheard of in OZ.

The next morning we decided to hit up the Queen Victoria Market for some breakfast and souvenir shopping. RJ and I bought matching Kimono's and wore them around all day. We got a few stares and one man came up and said we had better be getting paid to wear them. Later in the afternoon we walked down to see the real heart of Melbourne. I forget what it was called but it had tons of shops and boutiques. RJ and I were following a bunch of girls which was nice, but shopping really isn't our thing so we just took it all in. We had lunch at a great cafe where I had the best BLT ever. After a long day we went back to the hostel to relax and celebrate our friend Kalli's 21st birthday.

Back at the hostel, we were taking bets on how long Kalli would make it and the over/under was 10PM. Lets just say the under won by a landslide! So she had a rough night but the rest of us had a great time checking out the Eureka Skydeck which is the Southern Hemispheres highest viewing deck, Melbourne looks amazing at night, but my one critique was that around the viewing deck they had set up what looked like binoculars, they were not binoculars they were kaleidoscopes which made seeing every thing even harder. The joke we made was "too easy to see Melbourne, trying looking through a kaleidoscope". We were hungry and decided to stop for a quick bite at McDonalds, not good I know, but the cheapest thing besides a burger was $10 garlic bread. Next we walked around to some local pubs/clubs which all the ladies we were with had no trouble getting into, but RJ and i were denied from every single one! We finally found a great local pub and tucked in for the night.

Saturday morning was rough, but we all got up and tried to plan out our day. The first thing we wanted to do was rent a car but thankfully we decided against it. Instead we took a tram to the cricket pitch and watched a cricket game. It was really cool, very relaxed and laid back. A friend we were with was talking to one of the fielders and got his number and later that night we meet up with Luke Feldman and the rest of his cricket team. It was pretty cool.

We stayed up all night partying with the cricket team and then headed back to the hostel to grab out stuff and head to the airport. The check in at Tiger Airways is just as bootleg as the baggage claim and it was made worse by the fact that we were all hungry, it was 5:30 and we hadn't slept a wink. Lets just say Sunday was a mess but we made it home to Sydney safe and sound! Another trip in the books. Peter comes in a week and I'm excited for our quickly approaching trip to the Great Barrier Reef and Brisbane!

What a weekend!

Well I stayed in Sydney this weekend and had what you might call a relaxing couple days. Thursday night was the Uni Bar Toga party which was a good time, my first ever Toga Party and I have to come to Australia to have it! I was pretty slow getting up on Friday morning but I did make it out of bed and decided to meet my friend Aaron at the beach. Another buddy of mine RJ decided to join me.

RJ and I never made it to the beach, we ended up just spending the day exploring Sydney, we checked out Darling Harbour, the Sydney Tower Space Needle thing and Chinatown. The funniest part of the whole day was how we got utterly and completely lost. Our only initial goal was to see Chinatown, but it took about 4 hours of walking in a giant circle to find it. Little did we know that we were literally one block away from the get go. While in Chinatown we walked past a vendor selling BBQ Meat, looking into the stand we saw squares of meat about 3 inches by 3 inches and about as flat as cardboard. It just looked too interesting to pass up so we went and ordered. They asked if we wanted beef or pork, I ordered beef and RJ ordered pork, but I really don't think it mattered because they took the meat from the same pile. It was interesting, but a little harrowing because let me just say it probably wasn't FDA approved.

That night we decided to meet some friends at a Rugby League game, the Waratahs versus the Lions. For those of you who dont know a Waratah is a huge flower, the stadium was awesome and there weren't a whole lot of people so for a $16 ticket we snuck down to the very front. Very cool.

On Saturday afternoon I walked over to another local field to watch some friends of mine play on the Uni Rugby team, all my friends were American and I was really excited to watch them get crushed by these huge Australians, however they rode pine the whole game, didn't get to play once. Oh well it was fun to watch the other guys play!

Up and Away!

Well, I've finally booked my two biggest trips. I'm traveling with Peter to Cairns/Brisbane for about a week, and then I fly home, rest for a day and turn around to head to Queenstown New Zealand for another week. I'm banking on both of them being the trip of a lifetime!

Hit the frog and toady!

I just got back from a weekend escape to the Blue Mountains and it was fantastic! I went with 7 other friends and we stayed at a local hostel. It was nice because the hostel had 8 beds and we had 8 people, a perfect fit. We left Friday afternoon and barely caught the train, we had to run on without a ticket, we actually left a friend behind which was sad but there will be other trips. Katoomba is the city in the Blue Mountains we stayed at and it is about a 2 hour train ride from Sydney. Upon arrival we sampled the local cuisine (burgers and chips) and hit up the corner pub for Trivia. Unfortunately we got last place, and i also only matched 3 of 15 numbers in my first KENO experience. But it was all good because a friend of mine Sydney won a raffle for a free case of beer!

Day two started out with a big Aussie brecky and some hiking through the beautiful Blue Mountains. It was very picturesque and a good workout. We saw the 3 sisters which is a huge rock formation and is kinda the main attraction. Towards the end of our day we were standing next to a huge waterfall looking down and I caught a glimpse of a girl who looked naked. I looked harder and i realized that she in fact was naked with another naked girl taking pictures under the waterfall. Nothing sexual or dirty, but they seemed oblivious to like the heaps of people watching them. After about ten minutes they noticed that they were the center of attention,freaked out and put their clothes on. All in all I think it was one of the highlights of the trip!

We decided to get some Thai food that night and I had a great Massaman Lamb Curry, I love curry. We then got rowdy at the local club that night. Everyone in my party had meet a girl/guy except for me so I ended up rolling with some 30 year old Aussie dude who introduced me to a bunch of nurses, it was weird i was the youngest one in the conversation and the only American, needless to say neither party was interested.

We got up this morning and decided to take the long, hungover trip back to Sydney, all in all a great trip. Thank you linesmen, thank you ball boys.

yep its just about time for Gay Pride Mardi Gras

Well, I think I've fully recovered from Gay Pride Mardi Gras..no no not that I was that drunk, I've just never seen that many speedo's and drag queens in my life! It was a blast though and if i wasn't already before, I have become avid supporter of gay rights.

The morning started out just as any others have, a shower, some toast and a goon bag (4 liter bag of cheap wine). We got downtown at probably 2 PM and had some lunch at the local Hungry Jacks (read Burger King) and looked for a place to watch the parade. Already at about 3PM people were lining up to get a good spot. I don't regret waiting for 4 hours for the parade to start, but in hindsight once you've seen about 5 gay floats, you've kind of seen them all. I think a lot of pain and consternation could have been saved had we not been determined to have the best spot for the entire 3 and a half hour ordeal. But you only live once right and the waiting wasn't all bad because as you can probably imagine the people watching was phenomenal.

The parade ended and we got a slice of za and a 1.5 liter bottle of water and I turned in for the night. School starts up again tomorrow, I can't believe its week two of school and I've only had class for two days, I don't have any books yet so right now I'm just kinda flying by the seat of my pants! Have a good Saturday night!

Greetings from downunder! Just hopped out of the shower and am thinking about making some food! The food I've been eating is pretty standard, a lot of toast, PB&J, pasta when i get around to it and fresh fruit of course. The fruit here is a little more expensive, but I've been able to try some curious new fruits such as passionfruit which I must say is delicious. Had some great sushi today, but we all agreed that what made the sushi good wasn't the preparation but the fact that the ingredients were probably so fresh. How can you fuck up fresh fish in Australia??

Last night there was a huge party at the U-Bar, which is the University Bar. It was crazy, they turned the whole student union into basically a rave with 2 DJ's, a bar, food stands. It was legit but a lot of d-bags and long lines for beer. Tonight we're either thinking of heading downtown to a neighbourhood called New Town?? I think thats right. But there is a big push to stay in tonight because tomorrow morning is the Gay Pride Marti Gras parade, which is basically a day of drinking and naked men...purrrfect. Don't worry, I'll take pictures.

I joined a local gym and its pretty dang cool. It is basically a place where old Australian men play squash and they decided to throw some tredmills and free weights in a corner but its super quiet. I went the other day at noon and I was literally the only person there which was nice because I didn't have to feel weird about flexing in front of the mirror. One thing that did really goof me up was that everything was in Kgs and Kilometers ha so i had no idea how far I ran and how much i could lift.

Well I must get dressed and grab a bite to eat. I'm still working on a sign off so bear with me. Peace homes!

wow, what a whirlwind! My first day of class and its orientation week here at Uni. Tons of people tons of free stuff, lots of clubs to join just a rush of shit to do! I have my very first class in about a half hour and I'm really excited. the whole day would be a lot more comfortable if it weren't 91 degrees right now. What a scorcher. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to stay awake during my first lecture. Onward and upward!

Had a chill day today, got some groceries and supplies. This is the last night out before the semester actually starts so I figure I'll head to the city. Down to Kings Cross to be specific. I'm a little nervous that my lack of style will result in my expulsion from clubs/pubs! Oh well we shall see and can adjust from there. Wish me luck!

Its been awhile, but so much to do! Yesterday i checked out Bondi Beach and i absolutely loved it. However i must say that I'm a little partial to Manly Beach and the atmosphere there. Either way though they are both excellent. I've been doing a lot of orientation stuff and just simply trying to get by. I got my class schedule the other day and it looks like i have class on Monday and Tuesday, which leaves a big chunk of free time where I can either A)be productive or B)waste time at the beach. Its a pretty tough choice. Everything is going well here though and the weather is to die for! My only complaint is the noisy birds in the morning, but i guess thats the price you pay.

Surf Camp

Wow, I just got back from Surf Camp, and it was amazing. Sorry no pictures because it rained the whole time and i didn't want to break my camera. I now have meet 3 of 4 roommates. A Badger, a Wolverine and a dude from Pennsylvania. Everyone seems very nice and we should get a long well. It has rained here in Australia constantly but next weeks weather looks nice. Tomorrow I'm planning on heading to Sydney to look at surf shops to price out some used boards. I am totally hooked on surfing, it is so much fun! Oh well I need to shower because I really haven't showered the past weekend. Onward and upward!

Home Sweet Australia

I finally made it down under, after sprinting through LAX to make my connection, a 14 hour plane ride, a few housing miscues and one really sweltering day! I'm living in a 5 bedroom apartment however I'm the only one here yet. Its going to be Real World Sydney when all these jokers start showing up. So after moving all my stuff in, I decided to take a walk around campus. I found a HUGE mall that had to have at least 15 sushi places and maybe 10 noodles places. I did see a Mcdonald's but i settled on the beef and chips Gyro Tornado. I found a grocery store and picked up some essentials...bread, peanut butter, rice, 4 Liters of red wine. 4 liters of Red Wine is $10 while a case of beer is $45, and yes I looked for the $7.99 1.75 of terrible vodka and it doesn't exist. Looks like I'll have to come back a wino. Oh well its pretty quiet here, I haven't really seen any other students but lets see what the night has in store.

Well, my first post, thus it begins! I'm all packed up and ready to go. I worry that i brought too much stuff--a duffel and a hiking backpack. Right now i'm just worried about the weather. Hopefully i can get out of Minneapolis, there is supposed to be a winter storm warning for tomorrow night. Oh well, lets just hope for the best!