This Week in Sydney!

Imagine walking up and down a rollercoaster like road, for 1km each day. Throw in having to find your way through most places and developing rock hard calves (david beckham, eat your heart out!) from plodding up and down and coming home so exhausted you dont want to wash your face but you have to because this is Australia and global warming makes the sun hotter and therefore you get more sweaty and your face and im so tired.

Alternate this with periods where you are doing absolutely nothing. Just waiting.

And you will get how my week has been. But before I get a little ahead of myself, let's start from the very beginning.

Sleepy Sunday and a Malumanay Monday

I got in Sunday right before lunch. My Auntie Genie picked me up at the airport (see previous post for details) and we went home. I really thought I would fall asleep in the car. Lunch was bacon, egg and bread. (This would later prove to be normal) Apparently most people here have a light lunch and a heavy dinner. What gives? Have they not heard of the inverted pyramid thingy? Breakfast is supposed to be the heaviest meal. I later discovered that although I had been told that this was a healthy family - they are all so fit, its kind of stereotypical outdoorsy australian-esque - however it is apparent that carbohydrates are the center of their eating universe. Ok, now I know carbs aren't evil, but seriously. White bread and pasta almost always, huge meals... but I digress.

After eating I unpacked, took a shower and promptly knocked out. As in I really, really knocked out. The next thing I knew my tita was calling me to go to church. Went to church, had dinner, did some groceries in the rain (it was raining and cold, too) and then I was seriously off to bed. I had to pull out one of the winter blankets because it was really cold. When I arrived they explained to me that there had been a storm, which explains the turbulence, and it rained the afternoon I arrived. I wore a jumper (sweater) to church and my uncle commented that I was the only one he would ever see in a jumper in the summer. :P

I am staying in what is a converted garage. It's been that way since a long time ago, I remember staying in here the first time I ever came to visit, in '95, yup - its been ten years. It has a wardrobe, tv, pc, etc. Its pretty cool actually, and the perfect bachelor pad. Im presuming my cousin will move into this eventually, at least when I get my own place.

The next day I stayed at home, lounged until late then met my cousin Miel to get some necessities. Contrary to expectation, I didnt get a book even if we did meet at Border's. :P We met my cousin Rochelle (Shelley) for a little lunch at Macquarie Center, the nearest mall, which is also near Macquarie University, where Miel went to grad school. Shelley sprained her ankle and was using a rented crutch to get around. She could still drive, though. We had thai food. Since I'd already had enough bread in the house, I only had spring rolls. Shelley left me and Miel to go to the doctor and we went off to Target and Big W, their shoemart esque department store chains to get stuff. It upset me kind of that I spent Aus $100 on toiletries, a bathrobe and other things that I needed. I didnt even get a book or a magazine. Or anything. We parted ways and off I went home.

Taranta Tuesday

The thing about having been here before (latest trip was in Nov 2002) is that everyone presumes that I still remember everything - like which train to get and how to get where. In fairness, I still do - like I knew to take the Hornsby line to Town Hall, that to get to the station you just walk down here, etc. However, there are some parts that are understandably a little fuzzy that need some refreshing, the kind that you hope will get explained and then you get some leisurely time to get there and get a little lost, and its all okay.

I never got the chance to do that.

Straight off, I went to Macquarie with Miel. I walked the wrong direction intially because my cousin said, "just go left and left and left". What she forgot to mention - making me realize that I should have listened to my initial instinct - was that you turn left at the end of the street. Chester, our street is split in two by Norfolk road. When she meant left she meant at the end of the full road after you cross. Which i realized, Thank God, the moment I reached Epping Primary, which is almost to the end of the block before turning back. Then it was back uphill. Everything appears to be perpetually uphill here. So much so that you feel like the settlers who initially came in the 1800s just sort of went, oh its uphill, it doesnt matter... FIGHT! (God, so Celine Lopez, Im sorry) We will conquer this place and make roads and houses and shit no matter how freaking steep these hills are. Okay, so you won already, all right? Unfortunately I am not one of them hardy Australians who are born and bread to walk uphill. I am Asian. Where I come from you dont do mountains unless you're from there. Or a UP Mountaineer. We do flat plains and traffic, those are our talents. Y'all just like to drive really fast bec of them open spaces and guess what, you have more accidents than we do cause you dont know how to drive defensively.

But I digress.

The day after this whole experience, a Tuesday, I had to attend my Daily Arrival Information Session (DAI) for International Students at Uni. Bear in mind two things - 1) I had only been to Uni once before and I went with my cousin Andrew, who is from here and we got lost anyway plus 2) Our main campus is divided into 2 - Camperdown and Darlington, both of which are split by a major road or two. Both are about as big as UP. Knowing that, I planned to leave far in advance. It takes an hour to get to school and I had to be there by 1030 so I figured I'd leave by 830 at the latest. I woke up around 745ish. I left at 930. I was pretty much screwed by many things - the clock that was a bit later, me thinking there was enough time only to find that breakfast while watching the Simpson's wasnt entirely a good idea - but most especially by the fact that when I left I was wearing my house slippers and I forgot my phone so I had to turn back halfway down Chester street. Then Cody, our dog, snuck into my room and I had to force him out. That took a while and I think I may have hurt him a little by pulling his hair - unintentionally! I love my doggie.

So I got to Central Station around 1015 esque. I managed to find my way out and to the bus. Now there is this thing online called 131500.com.au where you can plan your trip. It specifies which train and bus you can take, with times even. So the thingy I printed out said take bus 422 but I was late and it wasnt showing up so I jumped on the next one that said Sydney University - believe me, there are a whole lot - and ended up on Paramatta. Paramatta is on the other side of the Camperdown campus, the opposite side of where I am supposed to go. I sort of began to get that impression on the bus. I asked this nice friendly chinese girl next to me but it turns out she went to UNSW and had no idea where the bus was going, just that it was near the Chinese consulate which was where she was going. So after I asked the driver, he told me to get down at a particular spot and just cut through the campus. I had a mini map thing printed from the internet that showed the building I wanted to go to and the nearest two roads, making it pretty vague if you were coming from anywhere else.

When I got down I went to the parking lot booth and a nice lady gave me a real map (Thank God! Finally!) and pointed me in the right direction. I got there by 11am - after calling Jenny and telling her, Dont tell mommy i got lost! - only to find that they really hadnt started because well, people were still filtering in. And they continued to filter in until after I got there. The session was very helpful, I got a good information packet and I met some people - Leo from Malaysia, taking postgrad IT, Sam (?) from Fiji but living in Thailand bec her dad works for the UN, an undergrad taking either commerce or media, and her friend who was also black but whose name I've forgotten. We went to get our health cards right away and I even had my passport picture taken, as it is required for enrollment - in anticipation I had worn a collared shirt, but apparently here it doesnt matter - and it turned out icky because of the gigantic popped pimple on my chin.

After that I decided I deserved something for all my efforts and exhaustion so I went off to the city. I did the Harbor View & Sydney Opera House view thing, then I walked from Circular Quay to the opera house to eat at a cafe right there. I paid $16 (a little bit pricey but I guess it includes ambiance) for a mini pizza that was good that I didnt even finish. They didnt have takeaway bags so I wrapped the leftovers in napkins and took them home. I then walked down all the way to George St and went into Dymocks, as going to a bookstore always relaxes me. I had to go use the bathroom and they went out of the way to let me use the employees one so I felt hiya and bought a book, even if I didnt mean to as am trying to be frugal. Walked around for a bit after then got on the train for the ride before eventually making my way home on foot, as I discovered would be the norm for the next few days.

I was so hungry by the time I got home I had a slice of pizza. My aunt had put ravioli in the fridge but since I was starving I started heating it up. By the time she got home I was done cooking - ravioli plus sauce from a jar. It tasted pretty good, in fairness even if technically all I did was boil stuff. After a filling dinner and excellent garlic bread, I went to bed, thinking that this was about as tired as I could get. Not.

Whattabout Wednesday and Thursday, too.

On Wednesday I went to school for the International Students Orientation. The agenda, according to the little sheets we received (which i read in advance on the website) was to have a big orientation for everyone in the morning, then "tea" then there was a list of optional seminars that you could attend, with necessary things like: "Library Orientation", "Healthcare Orientation", "Email Orientation" and things that you could sort of live without like the ones for some of the organizations in school. There was apparently a free lunch then off to more seminars and possibly campus tours.

The orientation was set in the Great Hall (See picture below) which was full to the brim with students as it covered both undergraduate and postgraduate. The Vice Chancellor gave a speech, then so did the head of the International Student Services Unit (ISSU) and then the head of the Student Union. After all of that the head of the ISSU decided to do a bit where she would call out a country and then if you were from there you stood up. When she called out China (not counting Hong Kong), half the room stood up. Later on, speaking to a Chinese girl I met (the next day) named Selina, who was doing her bachelors in commerce I asked if Australia was really promoted amongst the Chinese as a place to study. Selina, who did 2 years of secondary school in Melbourne (presumably to be able to qualify for university and/or improve her english, which was pretty good, although with the inevitable accent) replied, "Oh no. We're everywhere." That pretty much sums up the entire International Student experience.

Mine being a tiny little country that doesn't get mentioned except for beaches, Imelda's shoes, and terrorists, it was completely forgotten. She missed a lot of other countries and apologized for her geography. She also asked us to stand up if we were missed and mention what countries we were from. I decided not to bother, because I knew that a) I would be the only Filipino there and b) not that I am not proud to be Pinoy its just that, well, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the typical Pinoy reaction of hiya. Which is so unlike me, as everyone knows. I suppose I was just projecting and reflecting the natural Filipino trait in order to truly be able to represent my country. What-ever!

Ironically, during the morning tea, I suddenly bumped into someone who looked very familiar. "Ikaw yung kashare ko ng table sa airport!" she said. And lo and behold it was the girl I was sitting with while I was whining to everyone about my mango addict experience and smoking away. She was doing almost exactly the same thing, except she was talking to her friends about the luggage she had to remove. Her name was Andee, and she was taking her Masters in Nutrition. And the two of us were the only pinoys there.

After tea, Andee and I went off to the seminars. For the "bibo" effect we sat in the front. And being pinoy we grabbed all the free stuff right away. We did the internet seminar, and the sydney buses seminar and then we did lunch. By lunch time I had so much gas in me I couldnt eat. To top it off, the "lunch" was pika pika with siopao filled with toge (as in siopao with spring roll stuffing) and tiny sandwiches. We had to go eat somewhere else and I couldnt even finish my food. My new friend had to actually hear about my ulcer straight away (usually it takes awhile, like when they offer me ice cream.) Fortunately thanks to some Novalucid, I was back in action so off we were to the "Learning Centre" seminar and the "Sydney Union" seminar (www.usydunion.com, in case anyone is interested) before we headed our seperate ways home.

On Thursday, I skipped the first seminar (Unimates was the original option) and went in -rather late, actually, but enough just to make the info- to the library seminar. Andee went in earlier so that she could check out the stuff at Wentworth (one of the union buildings where all the stuff is - food, banks, travel agent, chemist plus there was a makeshift student centre set up where the different organizations - they call em all clubs & societies here were). Previously we had both joined Unimates, the International Students Organization and we were also interested in hockey, which she found out later did not require any experience. After the library seminar, we went to the SUPRA (postgraduate representatives - parang org ng student council ng masters people) talk. A lot of people attended most likely because there was a free barbecue promised. During that entire speech the guy announced that the barbecue was cancelled, this after giving a long speech - although very informative he was a bit softspoken - on the latest proposed political changes related to education.

After lunch, we did the student services and health care coverage talks before moving on to a campus tour. We met Selina, (previously mentioned) Chinese, taking undergraduate bachelors in commerce, Lani, american, going to be a vet on a five year course, Sacha, dutch, taking her PhD in Physics on a scholarship for about 3 years and this guy whose name I forgot who was taking public health. We walked around the entire campus with our guides, who were all Chinese, half who spoke good English, the other half had thick accents but were still understandable. By the end of it all we had gotten everyone's names and numbers and we promised to meet up at the Student Union Party for International Students that night at around 7.

Since the party was going to start later, I decided to stay in the city and pass the time. Andee invited me over to her house so I went along. First we went to the city and met up with her friend Leo, taking nursing at ACU (Australian Catholic University) at Town Hall Station and then we went to the house that she was renting with her sister in Moroubra. She and her sis shared a room while they had other housemates - a columbian, american, australian and i think one other person. We hung out and watched tv for awhile before getting dressed and heading to the party.

The Union party was okay. They had a bunch of DJs playing and most people were already in groups chatting so we hung out smoking - Andee's last batch of Winston Lights - until Lani and co arrived and we joined their group. We also met Sarah, a Canadian Study Abroad (Exchange) Student. Since we were sitting next to the stage, we were there when the announcer was giving out the raffle prizes, which started off with "Bombay Breezes" - free cocktails at the bar. Since half the people weren't around to claim their prizes , he handed them all over to us so we got free cocktails. One sip of the drink and you could tell it was plain old gin pomelo. After a bit, we decided to go home early. Andee took the bus to Moroubra and I took the bus to Town Hall. In Sydney trains run until the wee hours of the morning and then at a certain point there is a night bus which follows the route of the train and takes people home. Not having much experience in taking the "night bus" I decided not to risk it so I left early, like at around 11 while the rest of them went off to a bar. My auntie picked me up at the station and off I went to bed.

On Bluebottles and The Rest of My Weekend

Friday was the day of the Unimates barbecue. Basically the big thing here in Australia is when everyone decides to throw a party they have a "barbecue" usually outdoors and involves grilling different substances. In my family there is the addition of pasta and some other dishes but in general its salad and sausages. Even the vegetarian kind. So having joined the organization with the intention of meeting people, I made my way to the bus stop in front of uni at 1130am (barely making it) where I met up with Sacha and we took the bus to Coogee with the rest of the students.

We met an Austrian girl (Lalinda?) and a Swedish girl (Viktoria) who were both young. Both of them were in the study abroad program and were aged 23 and 19 respectively. To me they looked older than what I look (which is between 12-18 depending on who you're asking) so i was kind of surprised to find them ranting about how people where they came from always thought they were younger. They were brunette and blonde, respectively and they filled out their bikinis quite nicely (in short, type ni Lance. enough said.) . Since we were starving and the barbecue hadn't even been started up, Sacha, Lalinda and I went to grab a bite to eat. We got some vegetable samosas (both girls are of the belief that the meat in Australia tastes different) and then ended up in Mc Donald's where Sacha got a breakfast youghurt, Lalinda got a salad and I got a quarter pounder with cheese before realizing they had a lean beef version.

While Sacha sunbathed on shore and we waited for the barbecue to be cooked, the Lalinda, Viktoria and I went into the water. The waves were very strong - the flash the world variety, though I am glad to say it wasn't me this time around - and there were very few people in it. It was a bit chilly, though the Europeans said the water was okay, though a bit colder than usual. After a few minutes we stepped out and I felt something stinging on my upper thigh/backside and lo and behold I brushed at it and it was a bluebottle jellyfish. A small one, but a stingy one nonetheless. My bikini bottom absorbed most of the injury but I felt stung on my upper thigh, left hand and yes, my left butt cheek. Off we went to the showers to rinse off and afterwards I made my way to the lifeguard, who in baywatch like form and fashion said, "Oh, stung were you?" (insert Australian accent here) "Well, you just get a bag there and fill it with ice and put it on the affected area".
Me: Its on my ass.
Him: Well, it should hurt for about 40 minutes then it should be allright. (Pause) Let's see that.
I turn around. He peers at the part where the bikini ends at the bottom.
Him: Looks like you got all the stingers out. Just take the ice then.
Me: Thanks.

And so I spent the rest of the luncheon standing up. Thankfully Andee arrived (late) with some cream as she had also been stung some days before. I put some cream on and was all right soon enough. The sausages tasted funny - am going to agree with Europeans on this one. The meat was weird. - so I was glad for that quarter pounder. After lunch Sacha, Andee and two new Chinese friends - Haze and Rachel who were studying Masters in Business and had been in the country for two months already studying English - went around Coogee to do some shopping. I almost bought Havaianas but couldnt decide what color to get while Sacha got some summer clothes since she was still waiting for her stuff to arrive from Holland - all 5 boxes of it. We thought of going to Bondi right after but the bus to the city came first so off we went and I went home, tired sloppy and bluebottled.

That night, my cousins Andrew & Miel invited me out with them and their pinoy barkada. I met them after dinner at Darling Harbor. My one frustration with the group was that it took them forever to decide where to go. We sat about for 20 minutes near the pier waiting for them to decide. Finally I said, lets go to a bar and one of them took me up on it and started walking. Fortunately the rest of them followed. We ended up at Waterfront, a nice, quiet type bar where everyone but me and Miel played billiards - they even did doubles with 2 Australians and lost AUS$10 - and Jericho (who is a friend of all of us cousins here and wonderfully gay as well) and I got really into Buck Shot, where you have this arcade type machine, a shot gun and shoot deer. Each round has 3 deer in it you have to shoot. To make it harder there are does/cows running around in the background. If you hit them this sign goes up that says "You Shot A Cow" and then your turn ends. If you shoot two deer in a row you get a double buck. If you shoot 3, its a grand slam. Then theres a bonus round where you shoot as many of whatever it is - doves, turkey, targets, whatever all based on regions in North America - as you can. Jericho and I didn't get a lot of grand slams but we got most of the girls - except for Miel who kept lamenting over Bambi - to try it and we had fun. This Asian guy then came and practically Grand Slammed the entire thing - except for one instance when he shot a cow.

Later on I took of my shoes - as is normal here at night when you are walking and in heels - and we walked around the harbor taking pictures. When I looked again, one of my shoes was gone. In the resulting parlay - where everyone was blaming the other for the shoe I dropped the camera. Much to my dismay further troubleshooting showed that it would not turn on although we did find the shoe. We all went our seperate ways after, with me & Jericho riding with Simon, who lived in Eastwood, the suburb next to ours. He used to work in Unisys but applied for another job right after his stint with them here ended and now has residency.

The next day, Jericho and I went to see Bride and Prejudice at Macquarie Center. It was such a funny movie, have resolved to get the dvd. Lots of dancing and singing Bollywood style. The guy (Mr. Darcy) was cute too. During the movie texted John as had sudden visions of him dancing, with Ava, Celle, Rina, Rache and myself standing on the balcony making chismis - except in song because this is a bollywood movie - while he uhm made a fool of himself with back up dancers in full regalia. (Go, Sanjay and Tatiana! :P)

After that we ended up in my cousin Miel's flat to watch dvds. Miel had recently just moved to Strathfield with her two friends Yvette and Fat(ima). Fat's sister/s and her family were there and everyone was cooking. After awhile I decided to go as well, I had read the entire Sydney Morning Post (picture the Inquirer on a Sunday and then some) and nothing was happening. Jericho walked me to the station and I went home, ate pancit canton and slept.

Sunday was a very lazy day. I stayed home and was generally bored. I went to church then went home and went to bed! In this entire week I have called: Bloopy, Puput, Tarshy, Maui, and Oliv. I have chatted with numerous people and have no idea how big my phone bill is. In fairness I have only used the card for... school. And it was my card, too!

And that was my first week in Sydney.