Wine, Wine, and more Wine. Did I mention Wine?

This past Sunday, me and my friends Katie, Laura and Casto took a wine tour of the Yarra Valley. I woke up early to do a little bit of homework, since I knew I would be unable to do so when I returned from the wine tour. Casto and I left UniLodge and walked down to Federation Square where we met up with Laura and Katie. The bus was already waiting for us, though it didn't say the name of the tour company on it, so we didn't know, and we were standing at the corner waiting. Katie's phone rang, and I looked over to the bus and saw a man on the phone standing near the van... and I realized it was the guy calling Katie. Both David (the driver) and Katie realized this, and we had a laugh and hopped in the van.

I sat up in the front seat and had a nice chat with David, the driver. We spoke about all sorts of things- the US, my studies, his family. He actually just moved to Australia from Kenya, a year ago, with his wife and two children. That's right! A white Kenyan. He said in Kenya there are about 100,000 white people to about 30 million total citizens. Talk about being a minority. The drive to the Yarra Valley was about an hour - hour and a half. It was quite enjoyable and beautiful with the mountains surrounding the valley. The people in the van got very situated with each other, and I felt a bit left out being all the way in the front, but I was able to sit in the back later on, which was great.

The Yarra Valley

We visited 4 wineries on our tour. The first winery was De Bortoli Winery. This is one of Australia's largest wine exporter. They handpick about 75% of the grapes and are all organic and do not use any pesticides. We started our sampling, with perfectly measured tastes. At first, we thought we could only taste the ones they offered us, but soon we found the menu and were told we could ask to try any of them. We ended up trying probably 15-20 wines. Of course, we began to lose track. A quick glance at the watch, assured us, that we were in fact alcoholics: 1130am. And already tipsy.

Casto, Laura, Katie and I with our first sample of wine- Completely sober!

After some fun photographs, we hopped back in the van and headed to our next destination. With everyone loosened up, the talking and laughing in the van began to increase. I sat in the back and started talking to our new friends: a family originally from Scotland, but living in Australia now. Stephen, who is 23, moved to Australia when he was 3 years old, so he is basically Australia. His Mum, Linda and her sister Kathleen, who would be around my parents age were on the tour, as well as their friend Sandra, and Christopher, who was basically family of theirs visiting from Scotland.

Cheers!

We arrived at the second winery, Train Trak. We explored the grounds a little bit, and found out that they were not picking grapes this year. It has been a rough year for them economically, as a micro-winery, and they decided it would be more economical not to pick the grapes. After some sampling of several wines (at least 7) we were ready for lunch. By this time, we were all friendly with each other, and took several group shots.

Group shot #1

Wine is very much an ice breaker, and before I knew it, I felt like we had all known each other for ages. There were also 2 girls from Australia on our tour, and they were really sweet too, though not as wild as the Scots! We headed into the beautiful dining room which had an amazing view looking out to the valley and vineyards. The food was just as amazing as the view. To start, they poured us all a full glass of wine. Uh oh, this was going to definitely push me over to the edge.. of drunkness. The meal started with some warm bread and anti-pasta. Main course were 3 different pizzas which we all shared. The first pizza was a 3 cheese, the second was a tomato, basil and prawn (I took the prawn off, yuck), and the last pizza, my favourite, was sausage. We ended the meal with coffee, but I didn't have any, and instead asked for more wine. My offer was declined, since our table had used up their 4 bottles of complimentary wine. I was sad, but it was for the best.

Everyone at Lunch

By this time, everyone was sufficiently full and drunk and we hopped back in the van after David hurried us along. Poor David, having to deal with a bunch of drunk people. The ride from Train Trak winery to Yering Station was absolutely hilarious. We were all singing to the radio and dancing in our seats and being crazy. I literally felt like I had known the Scots for ages. It was an absolute ball... you'd have to be there to understand.

Stephen Dancing, while the van is in motion..

We got to Yering Station, which had a tremendous view....but don't ask me for any history, because I do not remember. We tried several more wines and Katie and I noticed a guy in a shirt that said I ___ NY. It looked like a skateboard where the ___ was... but we didn't understand it. So we went to talk to them. Turns out they were from Australia, and he had never been to NY. But it was a fun conversation, drunken on our parts. Then we had a photo shoot in which we all passed around an enormous bottle of wine and posed in a cowboy hat.

The bottle is bigger than I am!

After David coaxed us into the van, we headed to the 4th and last winery. On the way there, the Scots opened a bottle of wine and passed it around the van... and we all took turns chugging. It was absolutely hilarious.. and so very illegal. But we were all having a good time. The last winery was Chandon. They seemed to specialize in sparkling wines. After a tour around the grounds, and being told off by a tour guide (Stephen's fault cause he tried to do a handstand against the wall but promptly fell over), we finally got to the tasting room. Stephen and I went up to the tasting bar and had a few tries to decide which we wanted to our complimentary glass of wine to be. We decided on the Sparkling Cuerve Riche, a sweet, delicious wine. I ended up buying a bottle to give to my parents when they arrive tomorrow, for 31 dollars. While the group of us sat and drank our Sparkling wine out of plastic cups (thank goodness), that is when we all realized just how intoxicated we were. First, Stephen spilled his wine on Katie and in her hair. We decided we needed to go outside, since we were basically making fools of ourselves and went running around the grassy area. Not sure whose idea it was, but Stephen began picking us up one-handily, and he took turns on each of us. I was mesmerized.

I am obviously highly amused by Stephen's ability to pick Laura and I up!

Soon, it was time to go, and it took ages for us to get back to the van. After some falling over on the grass, we all made it back to the van. David was so amazing for being patient. The Scots bought some more wine, and we passed around 2 bottles and sang more songs, such as "You Are My Sunshine" and other tunes on the radio. It was an absolute shit show. At a toliet stop, Stephen hung out the window, ripped his shirt off, and we all posed with our heads sticking out the window. Don't ask.

One of the funniest moments of the whole day

We arrived back in Melbourne at who knows what time. We said bye to our new friends, in hopes to see them again, and stumbled up Swanston Street. Katie, Casto, Laura and I stopped at McDonalds to get 50 cent cones... and it was a complete blur.

We allegedly got 50 cent cones?

Casto and I ended up being too lazy to walk back, so we Trammed it... had some dinner, and my grand idea was to go to the library, since my internet wasn't working in my room, and I was apparently anxious about getting homework done. Casto and I staggered to the library... and tried to configure my internet. We actually got it to work.. though I don't know how. After who knows how long, I turned to him and said, "We need to get the fuck out of here".

This photographs sums up the Bus ride

And that was my day. Hopped into bed early, around 11, and went straight to sleep.
What a wild day in the Yarra Valley. It was so much fun, especially since we met Stephen and his family. A day to never forget.... or remember.

And if you would really like to get a better idea of how amazing this day was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LxjjhOFNqk

The Great Ocean Road

So this took me a few days to get around to do it.. but, here goes!

Today, Sunday the 21st, Steven and I took a trip down the Great Ocean Road. It was absolutely incredible. It was an early Sunday for us, but we woke up at 7 and were waiting out front of UniLodge by 730 for our tour guide Bryan to pick us up. We went with the tour company A Tour With a Difference- run by a family- Grace and her husband, Bryan, and her son, who I think is also named Bryan. Anyway, we got picked up, and were on the tour with 2 people from Asia, 2 lesbians from Sydney who were totally awesome, a woman from California who was here on business who was really sweet, 2 women from Queensland, and a couple from Las Vegas, who were a bit irritating and way too American for me.

Steven and I at the entrance to the Great Ocean Road

The sun hadn't risen yet as we drove through the city and we saw some hot air balloons in the morning sky! It reminded me of when I went hot air ballooning in Arizona when I was younger, and having to wake up around 330am or 4m to go ballooning. It made me want to go again, in Australia. It took a little over an hour to get to our first spot, where we had breakfast. Breakfast for the day was crackers with Vegemite, and Lamingtons, which are like a spongy chocolate cake with coconut rolled on the outside. I also had some tea, since I was getting sick, and my throat was very scratchy and my voice was going. I stuffed my face with Lamingtons.. having 3 or 4. And a few crackers with some vegemite on it. I have to say, that stuff is growing on me.. it is great in small quantities... just not spoonfuls (which I actually ate once in New Zealand to prove a point- that Americans can handle it...)

Biscuits and Vegemite & Lamingtons for Breaky! Steven is enjoying his tea!

It was still quite chilly, but the sun was starting to get higher in the sky, and it felt nice with the cool breeze. Steven and I had a look around the gorgeous beach, ate our food, and then hopped in the van. After breakfast, we drove down the road to Bell’s Beach. Just as we got to Bell's beach Bryan pointed a field out to us that has kangaroos in it, a lot. Unfortunately there were none that day! Bell’s beach is where a famous surfing competition is held each year over Easter, so some parts were restricted and we only stayed for about 15 minutes. Enough time to get some nice photos.

Sun still Rising over the Beach at Breakfast

After these 2 short stops, we finally set out for the Great Ocean Road. We stopped at a lighthouse, which was picture perfect, with a little bit of red at the top. It reminded me of Rhode Island, I guess lighthouses do. As we drove more, Bryan handed out some lollies. They were SO delicious and were very soothing on my scratchy throat… We had many stops along the road throughout the morning, and Steven and I hopped in, but it was so nice to be able to see SO many things along the way.

Steven at the Lighthouse

After we saw some wild koalas in the trees, we ended up in a cute little beach town. We had a brief rain shower but it quickly cleared up, thank goodness. Steven and I opted not to do the lunch they provided, per suggestion by Katie, and we were happy we brought our own food. I had some left over pasta, and that wasn't enough so I got a delicious zucchini and cheese soup. It was a huge bowl and was served with some delicious herb bread. Steven got some fish and chips and we sat outside. We had a few minutes left, so we went down to the beach and got a beautiful view down the coastline and even could see the lighthouse we had visited earlier!

Wild Koala sleeping in the trees

After lunch, we drove some more and ended up in a temperate rainforest. At this point, Bryan stayed back in the car, and his wife Grace, or Mama Grace as Katie calls her, gave us a tour through the rainforest. This rainforest gets the most rain in all of Victoria. I ran into Tanya Sabharwal and Amanda McCarthy, who were visiting Nikita in Australia- and I had hung out with them in Melbourne Friday and Saturday. We had a feeling we would meet up somewhere along the way because we knew we were doing different tours of the Great Ocean Road.

Me, Tanya, and Amanda randomly meeting in the rainforest!

We kept on driving, and we ended at some of the best well known spots along the Great Ocean Road known as the Gibson steps, the 12 apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, and London Bridge. Steven and I enjoyed the Gibson steps the most. We walked down several steps and got to this huge secluded beach with enormous cliffs in the backdrop. We ran along the sand, and put our feet in the water. It was surprisingly warm, even the the air was cold it was so refreshing. We played around like little kids for a while, running away from the waves. We both agreed we could have spent the whole day there.

The best place along the Great Ocean Road

Next we went to the Twelve Apostles. All of these are huge limestone cliff formations, both on shore and out in the middle of the water, that have been shaped by the waves over the years. The formations were unbelievable. There aren't Twelve Apostles, like the name suggests. In fact, throughout the years, several have disintegrated into the ocean. Ran into Tanya and Amanda again! Stalkers, HAHA, just kidding!

Steven and I at the Twelve Apostles

Only a few minutes down the road was the Loch Ard Gorge, which was my second favorite stop on the trip. It was like a paradise, surrounded by cliffs. Steven and I posed for a photo, and we didn't realize how close we were to the water and we ended up getting soaked up to our knees- Steven more- so than I. It was breathtaking. We also saw an awesome rock formation known as the Razorback, and Steven and I saw a super huge Ant on the ground. I also saw a man that looked like my grandpa.

Me at Loch Ard

Our last stop of the day was the London Bridge. According to Katie Souza's blog: "The London bridge used to be a two-span bridge, but the section that connected it to land actually collapsed in 1990. Crazy story: there was a young couple on it when it started collapsing, and they had just enough time to run to the other side, where they were stuck and had to wait for a helicopter to rescue them! I think it would be crazy to see something like that crumbling down. Luckily the couple was not hurt at all but people aren’t allowed to explore any of the formations anymore, they have lots of paths leading to safe viewing areas". Thanks Katie! I am too lazy sometimes.

What remains of London Bridge

We stopped for dinner in another beach town where Steven and I had yummy salami, sun-dried tomato, olive, and pesto, paninis. Then we all hopped in the van and had our two and a half hour drive home. We arrived a little after 9, and we were the first drop off. I fell asleep for about 30 minutes in the car on the way home, listening to Muse, I was exhausted. Steven and I shared my ipod headphones, and it was really nice. It was so much fun being able to share this amazing experience with him. Unfortunately, I was starting not to feel good. My adrenaline that had been pushing me through the day had worn out. I was so lucky that my sickness held off- because I felt amazing the entire day, but when I got home, I had a fever, and was sick all day the next day.

The Great Ocean Road was a truly amazing experience, once which I will take with me wherever I go. Such beauty cannot be mimicked anywhere. I feel truly lucky to have been able to see everything I saw today.

Along the Great Ocean Road, it truly is Paradise...

Operation... kill Courtney's computer!

Tribute to my Old Dell Inspiron 1520... *cue the sad music*

What remains... 2007-2010.

Today I was sick and stayed in bed all day. I wanted to go to Uni, but I couldn't drag my sick feverish self out of bed. Not to mention that I almost fainted as I lost my vision for about 5 minutes. Was not too fun, and therefore my friend Stuart summoned me to stay in bed all day. Since I was afraid to be alone for a little while after my nearly fainting episode, Stuart stayed in my room for a while, and I decided to let him take apart my old, broken computer, piece by piece and show me what the inside looked like, and what kind of work goes into a computer.

First he took out the RAM and other stuff, and removed the bottom plate off the computer, removed the screen... and then things went from there. He pulled plastic apart and wires out and broke my computer down to the core components. It was a very entertaining thing to watch (and made me a little sad to really be saying goodbye to the computer I loved for 3 years)... and the interior of a computer is so cool looking and it all seems so complex. It was so awesome watching him take it apart, and I couldn't help but take some photos after it was pulled apart...

I forgot to take a before photo, but here is what it looked like before:

This here is the motherboard and is the root of all evil.. well, at least, it was the part that died on me and caused me to have to buy a new computer.

Here are the various chips and such, such as the CPU & Ram

Metal and plastic framing that Stuart pulled apart in order to open up the computer and the screen.

Here is the screen, and keyboard and all the other various wires and such.

The amount of screws that had to be removed in order for this to take place...

And that is all. My old dell is no more. It will (sort of) be missed.

R.I.P Old Dell

The best thing about Australia is...

....The McDonalds 50 cent soft serve cones!

My breakfast this morning...seriously.

Okay, so of course that's not the BEST thing about Australia, but I have to say that it's a pretty awesome thing. What I need to explain to you, though, is this:

In Australia, nothing costs a dollar. And I mean nothing. You know how in the states cans of soda cost a dollar? Chips are 99 cents. A dollar goes a long way... but not in Australia. Here, soda costs 2 or 3 dollars. Bottles of water are 3 or 4. You know how theres a dollar menu at McDonalds? Yeah, that doesn't exist here; not even close. Movies are 15-18 dollars. Not to mention alcohol- a bottle of vodka at home I can buy for $15- but in Australia I get the same thing for $40. No joke. A 24 pack of beer is about $40-50 depending on what it is. And no, the conversion rate does nothing. Right now, the USD to AUD is about .90 to 1.

So when I found out about soft serve ice cream for 50 cents, I was exceedingly happy. All I had to do was take out one of the Aussie 50 cent pieces, and pay. Easy and simple, and the result is something delicious, creamy and tasty. McDonalds here, also, isn't a shithole like it is back in the US. Here they have McCafes, which have basically kicked Starbucks out of the market. Starbucks barely exists here.

Anyway, after I had my 50 cent cone at McDonalds, I was in a super great mood, and went to wait for my friends in front of the Library called the State Library of Victoria. There is a beautiful grassy lawn where people sunbathe in the day and smoke cigarettes... so I went and lay down in the grass and made sure I was away from any smokers. It was a gorgeous day out and I relaxed for about an hour.

State Library of Victoria

View from the Library of Swanston Street

Once my friends arrived, we hopped on the tram and headed to St. Kilda's beach, which takes about 20-30 minutes to get to. It's a nice beach, for a local beach, and I read my book (Super Freakeconomics, I know- I'm a loser). It was super relaxing, and I got a nice little "tan" and a little burn. Right near St. Kilda's beach there is a little amusement park called "Luna Park" and the entrance to it scares me and is pretty cool at the same time, so I decided to take a photo...

Luna Park

All in all it was a great day. Tomorrow I am going on an all day tour along the Great Ocean Road. I am super excited... and will definitely be updating soon...

New Computer, finally! And a REAL update...

After 3 long weeks of being computerless due to a breaking motherboard in my old computer, I am now back with a brand new computer! So much to update on, and once this update is done, I hope to regularly update my blog...

Anyway, it is week 3 of Uni, and so far things are great. It's a lot different than Uni back home. Workload has been minimal, thus far. I think things will pick up in April.

I've been doing lots of awesome stuff in my down time- exploring the city, shopping, eating delicious food (Chinese food and other Asian cuisine is so good). Went to the aquarium with Holly and Steve, which was so neat and beautiful. It was like no aquarium I have been to before. Got to
see so many tropical fish.

Melbourne Aquarium

I also got to go to a taping of Australia's got talent over the weekend. It was about 4 hours of watching people audition. There were some amazing people- such as a son and father guitarist duo, a 18 year old Malaysian dancer, and a trapeze artist. There were some not so good ones, such as an Irish dancing group, a singing woman.... All in all it was really fun. And it was free!

Over the weekend I went to the Evermore concert, a New Zealand band which I love. There I met some girls who go to Melbourne Uni as well, and they were so sweet. We got some photos together, and also met Peter, the keyboardist/guitarist. We have plans to go out to lunch, the girls and I. It will be fun!

Earlier this week, I went to see the musical Jersey Boys, which was wonderful! I'm so happy I got to see it- and we got student tickets, so it was super cheap, a nice break from NYC theatre prices.

The weekend before that, my friend Katie and I went to the Moomba festival, where we got stuck in a torrential storm of hail, rain, wind and thunder.

Calm before the storm

Since I am too lazy to write up that whole day, here is an entry from my friend Katie's blog all about our day:
"We head down to the fair, which was really awesome. There was tons of food and all the carnival games where you can win giant stuffed animals. We sat down for a few minutes to watch some waterskiing competitions, and as we sat the sky overhead got darker and darker.

We noticed on our maps that the cultural and more sporting events were taking place on the other side of the river, so we went toward the bridge to head that way. While crossing the bridge, the sky started turning green, giving the city skyline a beautiful but somewhat eerie glow. I took two pictures literally within a minute of each other and you can see how much darker the sky got.

After crossing the bridge, Courtney suggested we hang out by it, since it looked like a pretty bad storm was about to open up. Seconds later the first pieces of hail fell, and we ran under the bridge to take cover. We were lucky that we were so close, many other people joined us, but they were farther from the bridge and soaking wet by the time they got there. The visibility quickly turned from bad to zero, and we watched as the city skyline disappeared altogether and the only thing we could see was the hail dropping into the Yarra River.

Everyone was squishing in under the bridge to stay out of the mist that was being blown around. We got a little wet but compared to everyone else under the bridge we must have looked waterproof because we were overall pretty dry.

I look awfully white and AWFUL in this photo... compared to the darkness behind me.

The couple next to us was pulling hail stones out of their baby carriage, I don’t know how far away from the bridge they were originally but the hail seemed to have gotten in all the pockets of their stroller. Another very prepared mom was changing her kids into spare clothes that she had packed for them and handing out gummy worms. (Everyone knows that gummy worms fix everything!) She even gave Courtney and me each a gummy worm, which was much appreciated because I did start to get a little hungry. We were under the bridge for close to an hour and a half, because after the hail finally stopped it was raining really hard. Eventually we got out the umbrella I luckily had in my purse and decided to take our chances. Upon getting to Flinders Street Station, we saw piles of hail on the roads as well as the flash flooding that explained why there were so many emergency sirens all around the city. Crossing the street we picked what seemed to be the shallowest part of the road, which still left us in water past our ankles.

It was by far the craziest storm I’ve ever been outside for, but I was lucky to be so close to the bridge, because a lot of people were reported to have cuts and bruises from the hail. Also, the rain and hail caused leaks in the roof of the Southern Cross train station, as well as more severe flooding in other parts of town. As for Courtney and me, we ended up in a café down a little alley that she knew about (laneways! Yay!) We got bruschetta and hot chocolate, our little break before we each trekked home to dry off. Since then the weather has been off and on. Today, I was looking longingly out the window at the sunshine while I was in class, but 20 minutes later I had my umbrella blown inside out on my way home. In some ways the rain is good -- the city is in a drought and I need an excuse to stay inside and get some of my readings done. All the same, I hope it stays sunny for the rest of today and tonight, because it’s the last night of Moomba and I want to see the fireworks!"

End Katie's blog entry. Thanks for that, by the way, you saved me a lot of time ;)

I also got to go to my first AFL, or Footy game! It was so neat. People here don't really like American football, and now I know why. American football is so incredibly slow.. always stop and go. Footie is constantly moving. The clock doesn't even stop when they go out of bounds. When my friend Andrew and I went to the Footie game, we both knew absolutely none of the rules. We quickly began figuring them out, and taking guesses.

Our guesses were either confirmed or denied and we finally got most of the rules down, just from observing! For example, there are 3 kinds of goals in footie. 1 point, 6 points and 9 points. It's a really interesting scoring system. After deciding to root for the Western Bulldogs over the Adelaide Power, we got into it and were screaming by the 4th quarter. The end was so close, but 'our' team ended up winning!

Drinking legally at the Footie game!

That is all for today. More blog entries to come regularly! Time to update older entries and write about my trip before I got to Melbourne.

Melbourne Uni!

Wow, what a blast the past few weeks in Melbourne have been.

I've done so much stuff and have settled in really well. I feel really comfortable here in Australia.

Uni started 2 days ago. It is SO different from the US. Firstly, you call Professors by their first name. No Mr or Professor. Just Graham, for example. It seems to be really casual here. The Professors make jokes and are really interesting- for example, one of the Professors today was talking about how the Australian government cannot rely on the Australian population to procreate to expand the population by 2050.. but she suggested we can all try anyway. Pretty hilarious.

Uni Melbourne Campus

Classes are enjoyable, and it's nice that for once I actually look forward to going to class. I've already learned a lot about Australian history and it is really unique. Australia is a very secular country, which I really like. Religion and God is not mentioned in conversation and rarely politicians mention God. Sports players dont thank God for their talent. Once, a sports player thanked God and the entire stadium went quiet and people looked at him like a crazy person. I like the secularism here, because I believe religion should be a more private thing and separation of church and state is a must. It is a very different mentality than in the US, and I prefer it here.

What else is new with me? Hrmm...well my computer died, and I had a fever, all within 24 hours. That was a rough thing, but I ordered a new computer and my fever got better within 36 hours.

I've met amazing people here- Americans, Brits, Aussies... and many Europeans. I really have no idea how I am going to be able to leave in 4 months. I don't want to think about it.

Anyway, that's my short update. Have a class in about 30 minutes... I promise my blog will start getting interesting once I have my own computer back and such.