Floor Night Out: Geckopost

Woh, so apparently I am alive!

Sorry for not posting in a while but Forrest has been doing such a good job that I figured you wouldn't really need me to report the same thing.

So in Baxter there is some emphasis on floor unity and to facilitate this each floor gets funds to do a "floor night out".  This basically consists of a free meal at a restaurant as opposed to just eating the same dinning hall food that you get every day. (which is good because that food can get really repetitive)

My floor night out was yesterday (Monday) and consisted of us walking to a "mexican" restaurant down the street where we got all you can eat tacos and fajitas.  Also we brought red wine (not goon thank god) and they mixed it into sangria which was actually done pretty well.  The food was alright but it would never have passed muster in NM. (kind of bland but at least better than the dinning hall's attempt at "Mexican" which is just ground beef and hard taco shells)

That's about all I have to say about that.

Gecko: out.

Men at Work

Hello again, from the land of skin cancer and sharks. I have been swamped with work over the last week (I had that assignment due; for anyone curious the Algorithms were Quicksort, Quicksort w/ Median-of-Three Partitioning, Bubblesort, and Bublesort w/ Early Exit). Unfortunately for all of you, this means I did not have time to post. But fear not gentle reader, for I have returned to the keys and am ready to give you another all too brief glimpse into the world of the Australian exchange student!

My relations in the North have asked me to discuss the weather, so I guess I will start with that. Right now, it is a balmy 27 degrees (Celsius mind you) and clear. The sun is out, and I was sitting outside on the lawn reading earlier. Don't let that fool you though; this is probably the warmest it has been since I got here. We probably have another 2 weeks or so until we can expect weather like this on a regular basis.

I think there is some sort of graduation going on today, as I have seen a number of Asian students in cap and gown with their families taking pictures on the main walk. I think it might be a special one for the international students, as I heard nothing about it until today, there seemed to not be very many of them, and it is the end of August. In any case, it is a nice day for it.

Since I have been here, I think it has rained 3 times, and while all of them got up to a pretty steady pour, I don’t remember any of them producing thunder. Of course, that could have more to do with my insensitivity to the stuff after growing up in north Florida than the actual absence of it.

When we first arrived, it was cold enough at night to warrant the use of both the comforter and extra wool blanket provided for us, but it has been about 2 weeks since I last used the blanket on anything but my feet. In fact, I am beginning to think about requisitioning a fan from the Baxter Study Abroad quartermaster.

I would like to add a final disclaimer on the weather before everyone packs all their Earthly belongings and heads south: this is the winter. Remember how I mentioned this is the land of skin cancer at the top? There is a reason for that. That hole in the ozone layer you hear environmentalists griping about is situated due up of Australia. It is just something to keep in mind.

I have also realised I have not discussed that most Australian of condiments yet. I am speaking of course, about vegemite. For the uninitiated, vegemite is a spread made from excess brewery yeast, some sort of random vegetables, and a few spices. Australians spread it on toast, and that is about it. It is also utterly disgusting. If you mixed about a gallon of salt with petrol and slug ooze, I think you could probably approximate the experience. During O-weekend our leaders made everyone of the international students eat a pack. One kid spewed on only his second lick.

I think that is why no one outside of Australia likes it. If you ever watch an actually Australian use the stuff, they will scrape it incredibly thin on a piece of toast, and then load butter on top of it. I tried it once more using this method, and if I did not still have the memory of the stuff jammed up the back of my nostrils (it sticks with you), I recon I would have actually liked it. They never tell you it is supposed to be eaten that way though, so even when it is not being forced down in mouthfuls the uninitiated will spread it to thick. If they would add some instruction on the packets, I think they could get a lot more foreigners interested in the stuff.

I am almost done with In a Sunburned Country, so I might write about my preliminary impressions next week. Or I might write about my class schedule. Or I might write about Baxter. Or who knows, I may write about all three or none of them. I guess you will just have to stop by to find out.

Wino Tour

Hello again from the University of New South Wales, whose mascot is not a whale because that would be too easy. It is now week 4, and I have my first assignment in my data structures and algorithms class. For anyone interested, I have to distinguish between 4 different random sorting algorithms by inputting different data arrays and timing the results. If anyone has any ridiculously clever ideas about it, email me. I will be sure to credit you.

But that isn’t why you are here. As you may or may not be aware, my brother and I joined our college last Sunday on a tour of the Hunter Valley, AKA Wine Country. Through strength of will I managed to force myself to go against my nature and actually bring my camera. Shocking, I know. I even left the protective Styrofoam it came packaged in back in my room.

Anyway, the day started as we all filed on the bus the college hired for the trip. It was a nice bus, comfortable. We had a television with which we watched Old School on the way there and some other movie on the way back. Apparently it is against the law in Australia to not wear a seatbelt on one of these, as every time I have got on one here the driver tells us. (Side note: that picture was actually taken at the end of the night. It is winter here, but it isn’t that dark at 8) This brought us to our first stop at about 10:30:

If you have heard of McGuigan, get used to it. We really only managed to hit up the big boys, as we were too large a group for the smaller places. I have been told I need to go back on my own to try some of them, and I probably will if the opportunity arises.

When we got there they led us into the back past a big line of barrels (which I suspect were there for show) to a long bar furnished with tiny glasses, breadsticks, and a vase I suspect was intended for spitting (give us a break, we are poor college kids… why else do you think we are going on a wine tour?).
At each location I also made sure to try and keep notes in my pocket notepad on which wines we tried and what I thought of them. McGuigan Cellars was my first time trying a lot of the different wines we would be tasting throughout the tour, so I don’t how much weight I would put into my opinion. The wines here were the B/L Chardonnay, Night Harvest SSB, V/S Gewurztraminer (my favorite and of course the most expensive of thy first taste of dessert wine, with a P/R Botrytis Semillon. We then capped it off with an item he wasn’t evene whites), B/L Red Blend, Genus 4 Shiraz (Eric’s favorite here I think), and a Noon Harvest Merlot. I also got m supposed to offer for tasting, the Tawny Port.

Here is Eric drinking what I believe to be the Tawny Port (and three other Seppos in the background-from the left Jamie, Sean, and Sidharth). If I learned nothing else on this tour I learned this:

I LOVE TAWNY PORT.

Tawny Port is a fortified wine. But it is so much more than that. It is the reason for life itself. This is the pinnacle of all human achievement. The most important invention of all time is not the wheel, not fire, and not the digital watch. It is Tawny Port. I just thought I would get that out of the way. Next on our tour:

God I need a haircut. Anyway, Lindemans. We got here around 11:30 and they tucked us into a backroom with two rows of benches and what I believe was a wine making museum.

It was a nice looking place with a few interesting looking pieces, but we weren’t here to learn about the winery’s history, that’s what Wikipedia is for (check it yourself, I have limited internet access). We were here to drink wine.

See that one on the end in the box? That is the Port. It is DELICIOUS if I have not already stressed that enough. At Lindemans they gave us a full size glass and a nice gent (that bag of flesh standing by the bottles, a pleasant fellow whose name has escaped me) came around and alternately offered us about a thimbleful of wine and crackers with a nice sharp cheese. Yes dad, I ate good cheese, and I actually liked it. Hopefully you have the aspirin nearby to help abate the inevitable heart attack. Here we received the Reserve Sparkling Wine, Hunter Valley Reserve Fidelio, Semillon, the Sparkling Red, Reserve Cabernet Merlot (both of the Twin’s favorite of the normal wines here), a Shiraz, and of course the Aged Tawny.

Sparkling Red is apparently an Australian thing. It is exactly how it sounds, a sparkling red wine. It is served cold, and is apparently associated with Christmas. I found it to be decent, and Eric didn’t much care for it (but he isn’t a fan of sparkling wines).

At the Lindeman store, aside from the wine and the name reminding Eric to tell me to watch Heroes (which I finally did and loved) they also featured tasting for fudge and olive oil.

If Eric’s giant noggin were not in the way, you could see the large crowd begging for pieces of fudge. They were delicious, but when is fudge not? The olive oils were not quite as popular, so I was able to get a better picture of them.

Of course, their relative unpopularity probably had more to do with the fact the bread you used to dip in them ran out after about 20 seconds, as evidenced by the bowl of crumbs in the center. The oils were good too, and if I actually lived here I would have probably picked up a bottle of the lime. Next we had lunch. It was a highly standard affair involving a cheese pizza, a subway, and maybe a high speed chase through a shopping mall. Nothing really important. Time to move to our next stop at 2 at:

I know it says it is a wine school, but this winery was by far my least favorite of the bunch. Sure, we got a tour that involved a room full of giant metal fermenting tanks, a room with barrels full of aging wine, and a barren (it is winter) row of vines. But the wine itself was sparing and mediocre. We got only four types: the Oakey Creek Semillon, Gorge Wooded Chardonnay, Hele-Barry Shiraz, and the Broke Fordwich Cabernet Sauvigon. They were all decent, but none were spectacular. However, I don’t for a second believe the winery was the reason we came here.

Say hello to the beer paddle from the adjoining Blue Tongue Brewery. From the right to the left we have Alcoholic Ginger Beer, Premium Lager, Nobby’s Premium Light, Traditional Pilsener, Premium Draught, and Premium Black Ale. They are all delicious. To top it off, when you returned the paddle, you got a free middy of whichever you liked best.

If you can’t tell already by the color, Eric and I both picked the Black Ale. This was my first one, and I must say it is definitely my beer. I need to try Guinness at some point. From here we were herded back onto the bus for one last stop at:

Most everyone really liked the Wyndham Estate. I don’t think anyone could speak with certainty about whether or not we actually liked any of the wines we tried there afterward, let alone try and give you a reason why, but we liked the place. They didn’t serve you a half a mouthful of wine each time here. They poured a whole glass. Not only that, but I at least didn’t really see any pallet cleansers to munch on, so by the end they all started mixing in my mouth. To top it all off, it was the end of the day, and anyone who said they were not a bit tipsy would be a bald faced liar. I have a list of the wines we drank, but I don’t think it is complete or a hundred percent accurate, so I wont include it here. I do remember trying a sparkling shiraz, but other than that (and the port of course… yum) they all have kind of mingled together in my mind.

The Wyndham Estate also featured these fellas. Well, maybe not featured, but they wandered by anyway. They were pretty cool.

Anyway, that is wine country. Join us next week when I make another update on a subject yet to be determined, but possibly Australian weather! Oh, and remember, if you need to contact me, please email me at my UNSW email address. Thanks!

It is STUDY abroad after all

Well, classes have started. I am right now at the end of week 2. For the curious, I am taking Physics 1b (transfers as Physics 2), a C course called Data Structures and Algorithms, Drawing, and Australia, which is an Aboriginal Studies/Australian cultural identity course. I am most assuredly not taking the semester off and going surfing every day. So far I like each of my courses; the lecturers all seem engaged at least. I am not too sure how comfortable I am with the weighting system for grades here though. 50% riding on one test seems a bit much to me. As long as I wasn't lied to when I was told Tech doesn't try and calculate the grades from here into my transcript, I think I will be fine.

I am living in Baxter college (as is my brother, who should post since I gave him access- nudge nudge). I have to say, if you are studying abroad at UNSW, this is the way to do it. Not only do you get thrown in with a bunch of Australians instead of just other study abroad students, you also never have to worry about the bus to get to class. On top of that, they have tons of activities you can participate in which they subsidize part of the payment for. For example, tomorrow I am going on a winery tour. It cost me $15 Aus for the trip. The study abroad office organized a trip almost exactly like that one which happened today. The price? $99 Aus. Go Baxter!

Well, I need to get some sleep. By the way, if anyone has any suggestions about what I should write about, feel free to leave them in the comments section. I would love to know what you want to hear about.