On the Road Again : Bootin' out Down the GOR

So two of my lab mates are leaving soon which led to a last minute and impromptu two day trip down the great ocean road and to Grampians. Great Ocean road is one of the most scenic roads in the world and very popular among tourists. The Grampians is a national park about 2-3 hours outside of Melbourne. I think the pictures can do the explanation. Here are some but I posted the whole album up here or on fb soon:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JeffSpencerD/GreatOceanExports?feat=directlink




    Start of Great Ocean Road Trek

   

     Called the 12 Apostles although only 8-9 still standing.

   

     Start of Grampians National Park

    Top of Mackenzie falls

   

     So I've been here roughly 7 months and the first kangoroos I'd seen. They're heaps of them farther out. Pretty much like deer.

   



Also a group shot from Thanksgiving:

Another of Chelsea Beach Near Melbs:

Jorts, Jorts, and more Jorts

So it's been ages since I posted on here last but I've been super busy with school. Considering it's summer here exams are finishing up this week and all the coursework students are about to start summer break (aka. holidays) so the campus is becoming pretty quiet.

Although they watch and learn about American culture through television, our style just didn't make it through as Jorts, yes let me repeat Jorts, are in style here. I first saw this jorts phenom on the first really nice day here where it was hot enough everyone was wearing shorts. I passed three normal looking guys all wearing jorts. I couldn't help but notice and do a double, no probably triple take and chuckle a bit. Since I have seen heaps of people wearing jorts and this is normal and accepted. I know hard to believe but it's true.

Other Australian style notes would have to be short shorts for summer. I think that is pretty well known that guys here wear really short and tight fitting shorts. The winter style is pretty similar to Europeans where dark and neutral colors reign supreme. Just as short-tight shorts they wear very, very tight pants. Those that know Kyle Schnurbusch that isn't anything on some of the guys pants here but you get the picture. So go out and buy a pair of skinny black jeans before you jump across the pond.

Well, off to go get me some jorts :)

Summers A Comin'

So I often have ideas but then when I actually go to write it seems like I forgot all of them but for starters I need to basically add this on to the post from last time because for the first time in current Australian Football League (AFL) history (used to be called Victorian Football League until about 50-60 years ago) the Grand Final ended in a draw. In the event of a draw, be ready for one of the most unique sports rules of all time. The match is replayed the following week. I don't know that I've ever seen both teams in such distress and the interviews of the captains where they were literally speechless. They had no idea what they planned on telling their 'mates' back in the locker room. This was a huge money maker for AFL and the network covering it here but I have a feeling a modification of this rule might come in affect as 'footy' becomes the most popular sport in Australia.

So everyone assumes it's the summer here but the weather here is still like Spring and some days are 70s to 80s but some days are still in the low 60s. The days that are nice now are beautiful but I have a feeling that this is going to last briefly for like 2 months and then it's going to get unbearably hot at times. Last year there was one day that was 119F. The weather here fluctuates a lot so a heat wave apparently may come through for a couple days and then the temps will drop back down to reasonable levels.

Ps. I feel you get converted into a culture when you start reacting and thinking the way they do instead of converting from what you know. Here they use celsius like essentially nearly the rest of the world. I actually think in Celsius now and had to convert back and think what it'd be in Farenheit which I did the complete opposite when I first got here because I had no idea temperatures in Celsius. This has happened in all areas though because I now naturally look right first when crossing the road and walk on the left on sidewalks, etc...

For those that don't know I'm researching modeling the auditory pathways and actually started another blog to impart the knowledge obtained from doing the research process to others. This isn't on my research because that you publish but essentially the tools and process applicable to any researcher. I got the idea because people in my lab had questions about switching to Linux/Ubuntu and decided it was the best way to introduce people without answering the same question five times. So really not relevant to most reading this blog but check it out here if you desire: http://aresearchtoolbox.blogspot.com/. If anyone is particualarly interested in my research, I can send you some documents via e-mail or I may be able to post them on here soon.

I have no pictures right now because I spilled on my computer a couple days ago and am waiting until Monday when I get what I need to fix it :( so I plan on posting some soon. The last two weeks they had this festival here called the Fringe Festival which had a ton of up and comers in all areas of entertaining from comedy to plays to music and performances every night at venues across the city. I went to the Humpday Jam which featured musical comedians ranging from SNL type skits, Tenacious D esque, and Flight of the Conchords wannabes. The host was pretty good but my favorite performance had to be two guys singing about his sweet Margarita. How he loves it when he wakes up with her on his chest because he's always ready for some more. The pizza that is. Also saw a comedian one night thats performance was fear and laughing. It was so, so but introduced me to the absurd rule here that was just passed in Melbourne that gives police the right to stop anyone, anywhere in Victoria (State Melbourne is in) and search them on the spot. Although he did get some pretty good jokes off of this so maybe it has some good.

I have added my address and number on the left of this blog. The US number is a google number so it will ring through to me if I am logged into google or I get SMS or voice messages immediately via e-mail on my phone so you can give me a shout sometime :). Even if I'm not on hopefully I can give you a call right back but no gurantees.

Footy vs American Football

So Friday for lunch I walked into the lounge and turned on the tv to see what was on. To my surprise the first NFL game of the year was playing. This shouldn't have been that shocking as I'm in a fantasy football league and drafted nearly two weeks earlier but it still was because you don't hear any stories/analysis on America sports over here. So the sports / going ons really just slip my mind. Also the fact it was on at 12 noon on a Friday is just a tad bit weird and the fact they were playing American football on Aussie tv too. The next person that came into the lounge happened to be an Australian girl so I asked if they had ever seen American football. The extent of her knowledge which is typical of Australians maybe most in the world outside America is what they see from American television which basically boils down to them knowing it's big guys with a lot of pads.

Over here they play what's called "footy" or the Australian Football League. In Victoria, it's the most popular sport far ahead of both rugby and cricket. It is spreading to the other states as more teams are added each year. There are major differences between the two. The biggest difference probably come from a couple things:

• it's an oval field that's 170m long
• the ball is moved forward primarily by kicking
• they don't wear pads
• if a clean catch is made it's called a mark which results in a free kick if wanted or you can just keep playing
• two sets of goal posts (the inners are 6pts if kicked through or 1pt if it hits the ground or a player; the outers are always 1pt if it goes through)
• it's extremely fast paced game where the ball is constantly moving similar to say basketball (with the final scores actually typically being from 60-120).

Explaining it without watching a game is really hard but that should give some idea. As our NFL season is starting the AFL over here is just ending with the semifinals coming up next weekend.

Cheers

Spicy Capsicum In, Hommus Out

So recently I might have fallen in love with Capsicum and spicy Capsicum has to be a direct gift from god. If you haven't tasted it you should probably give it a go because it'll be worth your while.

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted but I guess time flies. So I've moved into my place and have two roommates Derrick and Denise. Both of them just recently graduated from Melbourne University and are working here. Derrick is from Singapore and an architect. Denise is an arts major that did her undergrad over here but is originally from the states but doesn't want to go back anytime soon so is trying to get permanent residency status.

Finally, I've really settled in because moving in and starting school at the same time made things extremely hectic. You don't realize the hassle of even getting things like a desk chair for your room without a car. Lack of time/motivation doesn't help either but after three weeks there I've got everything I need I think. I guess some pics of the place below. It's no penthouse apartment but it's where I call home:

My room

Kitchen

Living Room

 Back to Back Patio

Igor's Pad (Really Derricks but I like to call it that because it's in the attic. They were repairing something in his room so most the stuff moved to the side.)

Path To:

Room:
School has been going well after the initial indirection. My research aim is modeling the auditory pathways. Since it's a research position, I don't have to take classes here and really just take classes if there going to help your research or need to learn something for your research. My professor teaches informal classes in a range of subjects once a week that our optional to attend. If you do take classes as a research student, they are just pass fail and no grades are attached.

Also, after cs'ing (couchsurfing - couchsurfing.org) for so long I put my pad up as soon as I moved in to host people and got a request pretty much asap as somebody was comning in the next day and sent me a request. I don't really have is much time now but still have hosted people sporadically as my roommates are down with it.

My first cs'ers:

A picture of my favorite park in Melbourne; it's right next to the CBD:


Ode to my mates for letting me cs for so long:

Some Australian bands to check out if you haven't heard them:
Bag Raiders - Shooting Stars
Youth Group - Forever Young
The Cat Empire - The Chariot


Pat Kilgore told me about this so if you want e-mails whenever any blog is updated it does so. Just follow directions below:

1)Go to:

www.feedmyinbox.com

2)In feed box copy:
http://jspencerd.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

3)

Put your email in the email box.

4)

Confirm the subscription and you're done!

It's free up to 5 feeds.

Cheers,

Jeff

A Long Overdue Update

It's been awhile since I posted but I've been busy so this is long overdue and I don' t even know where to start. But first off the shot above is of Port Melbourne and the pier is absolutely awesome to go to on a clear day. Unfortunately, I don't live that close to the port but can't wait to head there in the summer.

Oh yeah, I finally found a place to live. It took a bit of searching but I found a place 4 blocks from the Uni so like 10 minute walk maybe and 10 minutes to brunswick st and Lygon st. Brunswick is a popular area to go out and has tons of bars / live music venues. Lygon st. is the Italian district and has just heaps of cafes where they haggle you on week days to come in with free desserts or glasses of wine for free with dinner. Then like a 10 minute tram to the city so a real good location. The only downside is the landlord. The other girl living there currently already told me that she's crazy. I had that feeling so for those that knew Mrs. Yang. It could be round 2. I can only hope she walks in to one of our rooms with the background set as tub girl because one of the funnier things I've ever seen.

Once I had found an apartment I decided I needed to get a bed and some furniture so I used there
version of craigslist which is called gumtree to look for moving sales. Basically where people are moving abroad and just dumping everything for cheap. I ended up getting there really late in the day when it was starting to rain. The girl said she was about to take it to St. Vincent's down the street which is a charity shop so I could take whatever I wanted. So I got a Queen bed and rollable bases. They supposedly were really nice because her boyfriend delivered beds and worked at a bed company. Also a desk, side table, and other misc. furniture. She had heaps of womens clothes / shoes but left them behind as I had no use but she was sad to let them go. So loaded the stuff in a mates van and was off with all the furniture I needed for my room as it already has built in cupboards.

Two weeks ago orientation started at the university. As a postgrad student there are hardly any Caucasians, and oddly enough even less Australians. I really wasn't that shocked by it and kind of expected it but some of the others were kind of surprised. There are literally people from all over the world that come for postgrad studies at the Uni and even a large amount of undergrads too which is cool.

This last week I started school which has been a very disorganized process so far. First off, I had met with my professor the week before this week and he had no idea I was even coming. He said my e-mail was the first he'd heard of it and he was like I assume you have funding. So I was kind of shocked to hear that at first but other than that I seemed to get along great, but the disorganized nature of the school didn't end there. On Monday I started my research and it took over half the day to get a place to call home for awhile. Basically, I learned there system is centralized with more decisions made by the school/government than individual professors so a lot of times until you start enrollment the University handles most the decisions because their the ones that hand out the funding. Graduate research students can start on any day of the year so also makes it difficult for professors because you can accept the offer and not start for 9 months. Anyway, all is well now and I'm settled in at the Uni although getting back to the real world from over a year of traveling kind of sucks.

I am looking forward to moving into my place on Saturday/Sunday of this week. Then towards the end of August they have a week called Prosh Week (once a year) at the Uni which is basically a week of drunken debauchery and games that I wish we had during undergrad. From some of the activities I heard that go on it would never be allowed in the states but sounds like a blast. Don't know that'll participate as literally it's like Tuesday to Saturday full of activities everyday into the wee of the night but maybe one or two. The 24 hour scavenger hunt extravaganza sounds pretty legit. Extra points are awarded at all times for being the most ridic. so heard it gets crazy so will at least be funny to watch some of it. Also there is a postgrad booze cruise soon down the river where the theme is heroes and villains. The first thing that came to mind is the ambiguously gay duo and already have a mate that's down so as long as the tickets don't sell out to fast I'll post some pics.

P.S. I've brought 3 man to Australia for those that were concerned. I feel no matter where I play that game I laugh to the extreme:

Until Next Time,

Stay Classy

I LOST THE GAME

Settling Down

So I've been here for a little over a week now and am starting to get settled down although still trying to see as much of the city as possible. With that, I've figured out the areas I want to live and have begun house hunting or I should say interviewing. As I want to live in a shared house for reasonable living costs and not knowing many people you have to go on inspections as they call them. Really most places interview people for  like a week and then pick one they want to live with. As I've just started I haven't heard back but I've met some that were really nice places with cool people so I'm hoping to move in this week. Also, most people here want or are looking for split male/female houses or at least the ones I have looked at so far which was different.

Other than house hunting I've been spending my time hanging out with other couch surfers / the house mates. There has been people from Sweden to Madagascar (yes, a guy slept here from Madagascar) with some girls coming from Taiwan in couple days. I've been here the longest and nearly feel as a flatmate as I've set up a shelf with all my clothes on it and usually end up introducing new people to the house if they show up on weekdays. With superiority comes the choice of your sleeping spot which closest to the heater on the best mat obvi reigns supreme. To get an idea of the sleeping arrangements here is a pic (with me on the far end right next to the fireplace in addition to all the other people):

Also, here is a pic of two of the mates that live in the house on the right and then below it the other one taking on some goon (somehow for once in my life I wasn't making a face, weird):

Also I made it down to St. Kilda which is the closest beach to the city like 15 minutes from the CBD, also to the Tim Burton exhibit currently being held in Melbourne which had this really cool light room, down Brunswick St. which is one of the main fashion streets here where two of the girls I was with managed to find some great outfits, and lastly grabbed a drink at pump house (an ode to all the time I spent at pump haus in College):

Also just realized I should share my first driving experience in Aussie. I would have never volunteered in the states to drive but I was rather overly excited to get to try out driving in Australia. Although it was a manual 15 passenger van that didn't have power steering, all went smoothly besides the first 30 seconds where I was driving on the wrong side of the road with everyone screaming at my profusely as I was writing there death warrants. After the median split I cut back over and all was well as I only had to make one turn and it was a left. When your driving on the left side of the road it's rather easy to do that. A pick of the parked van and my first successful driving trip:

Cheers from Aussie Land

Three days of Lessons in Australian Culture

Been here for what feels like an eternity yet was a mere three days and I have learned some much about Australian culture. To start the plan flight really wasn't as bad as I thought. The 18 hours for some reason went by faster than my 8 hour trip to Europe. I arrived off the plan into their dead of winter wearing flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt; I wasn't cold a bit. The temperature outside was 60F and sunny although this was unusual the absolute low here in the winter is 32F with ave. temps around 45F. Once arriving to the couchsurfing house nobody was home but the door was unlocked and the place looked as bad as a college frat house. An interesting first sighting to Australia but I ended up just heading out for the day to take care of setting up my phone and a bank account

The first night I was introduced to goon. Basically, it's a 4L bag-o-wine and the cheapest thing to drink down under. Alcohol and beer is literally twice as expensive as the states so any travelers should probably max out on the 2.25L limit at duty free. Even though I don't smoke, packs of cigarettes are $14 which I believe is also ridiculously expensive.

Another very interesting topic I was introduced to here was dumpster diving. The people I'm staying with and other couch surfers across the city literally dumpster dive for food and vegetables. I ate with a couch surfer Olly last night that has 0 dollars in his name. He's Vegan and has been traveling for 2 1/2 years couch surfing; and literally lives off dumpster diving and other organizations that give away waste so it's not dumped. We went dumpster diving and then cooked up a delicious meal consisting of fruit salad and a vegetable dish. Although I'm not planning on it being a daily occurrence like it is for him, I'm not saying I won't do it.

Other things to note:
1. Excessive use of the word brilliant for anything meaning you like it. For example, "this pizza is brilliant.".
2. They call Macdonals: Mackers.
3. No one heats there houses so at night and early morning it can get cold.
4. They have chia Obama pets.
5. Many others that I just can't think of right now.

Keep it Real,
Jeff

All packed and ready to roll...

Made it to LA with I hope everything after a hectic week as I was packing and preparing for a life move. Amazingly, I was pretty much packed 24 hours ahead of time, which would be a first for those that know me as I usually am lucky to start packing 1 hour before lift off. So this meant one last trip out in stl on a party bus for a friends birthday:

and grabbing lunch on Saturday:

Then I took a night flight out to LA and for those that haven't been out to LA it's beautiful and the humidity isn't suffocating like Stl so I'm hoping the humidity down under is pretty tame. Since it was such a beuatiful day, Sunday we spent time exploring and had a little beach action:

Tuesday night I depart to down under where after an 18 hour flight with a layover in New Zealand I'll arrive at 9am Thursday morning. I'll be staying with some random 22 year olds couch from couchsurfing.org until I find a permanent residence.

Best wishes America, I'm out for awhile.

One Week Till Lift Off...

So this past week after seeing some of my best friends for the last time in awhile, and realizing the amazing experiences/travels I've had over the last year. The thought of a blog crept into my mind. It's not something I would usually do but as I've kept up with a friend of mines in Morocco in the peace corps, Cara, I realized it seems the easiest way to keep in touch and reminds me of the journal I kept from Europe.

Well, back to packing the first suitcase which is actually more of a struggle than I thought but for completely opposite reasons. I feel like I don't have enough Winter clothes to fill it up to 50lbs and I brought all my snow skiing gear. Now I'm just trying to get it full because I still have a carry-on and another 50lbs suitcase to boot.