Nick in China

I am a "foreign expert"

2006-09-19T21:20:00.000+08:00

Since I last wrote I have moved house - this time to my permanent apartment on the campus of Henan Uni of Technology, I have started some duties as a teacher (giving spoken English exams to students who failed the first time), I have visited Beijing, and have even found time to star in 2 commercials for Henan TV.

New apartment

My new apartment is great - it is about 80 square metres, 2 bedrooms, a toilet that flushes (everything!), even a kitchen. I have a TV, DVD player, double bed, and its right in the the most convenient part of campus, next to the cafeterias and not far from where I will be teaching. The University has been doing everything they can to take care of us - business cards, bank accounts, flight reimbursements...I have heard a lot of horror stories from other teachers whose schools break contract conditions, don't pay on time (if at all) and provide terrible accommodation so I feel lucky to have avoided all that.

Living room

Bedroom

Kitchen - which I'm sure will never be used

Started my teaching duties

My actual students are right now doing their obligatory military training (at 5am every day I am awoken with 一!，二!，三!，四! blaring through my window) - and won't start actual class until next week. But I was asked to give some oral English exams to second year students who failed their first test. All I had to do was read them a topic ("talk about your favourite animal") and they need to talk for 2 minutes - sounds easy if you've been learning English for 10 years right？ Wrong - these kids failed first time for a reason! "I'm sorry, I don't understand 'animal', can I have a new topic?" "Are you serious?　This is the easiest one I have!!" Yes this was seriously what one of the students said to me. They are bad, but I'm a nice guy so I only failed 1 of them who stood there for 2 minutes and didn't say a word - how can you give a passing grade for that??? His topic was to describe his best friend!

First year students lined for their military training

The main administration building of the campus

Chinese teacher's residences opposite the campus

The North gate of the campus which is inconveniently closed for most of the day, meaing a steady stream of students (and foreign teachers) climbing over it

Basketball seems to be one of the favourite sports

TV commercials

Apart from being an extremely generous spoken English examiner, I have also starred recently in 2 commercials for Henan TV's new 'rural' channel as a "foreign expert" - though what I'm an expert in I'm not sure, any Westerner in a suit could do the same job as me. All I need to do is talk in English for 20 minutes about absolute rubbish while a bunch of old men look at me, nodding and clapping their hands. I just hope they dub over what I said with something meaningful! But anyway, 20 minutes gets me about the same amount of money as the average graduate wage in some places, so bring it on.

Beijing

Last weekend I visited Beijing. Massive expressways, manicured gardens, brand new buildings on a scale you can't imagine, luxury cars and department stores, billboards, etc etc... and a lot more foreigners than Zhengzhou. I arrived last Friday and met Anna who is staying with her German friend Caroline in a modest 2 bedroom apartment in the West part of the city.

With Anna and Caroline

My room for the weekend - camera stolen for this photo!

Friday night we went to Hohai, a lake surrounded by bars filled with tourists, and met up with Mish from uni and her friend, a guy from Yale who is also studying at BLCU (language and culture university) with Mish. Saturday we woke early to go look at Chairman Mao's body - a lot of Chinese people seem to worship Mao - my knowledge of him comes mostly from Jung Chang's book "Wild Swans", which describes the horrors of the Cultural Revolution and Mao's other cleansing campaigns, which in total killed some 70 million of his own people. After his death, Deng Xiaoping proclaimed that Mao was "70% right and 30% wrong" and this remians the official Party line. Anyway politics aside, it was a little creppy looking at the real body of a man that died 30 years ago - although it was more than likely a model on loan from Madamme Tussauds!

After that we went to Tiananmen Square and walked towards the Forbidden City. I was expecting to be stunned by the size of the square - it is 100 acres in size and in 1949 the CCP had some 1 million soldiers on parade in it. When I saw it though it was big yes, but so many people, and various Olympic displays and flower gardens seemed to divide it up and it didn't feel quite as big as I expected. Anyway it took us 20 minutes to walk from one end of it to the other, where you find the famous poster of Mao and the entry to the Forbidden City.

The Chairmain Mao Mausoleum at the West end of Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

Anna and I in front of the National Museum, at the south end of Tiananmen Square

Some of the Olympics mascots in the Square

Being patriotic in front of the Mao poster and the entry to the Forbidden City

Forbidden City entrance - didn't actually go inside because we were hungry!!

After the Forbidden City we headed to Wangfujing (famous shopping street) to search out the famous Duck restaursnt Quanjude to have our obligatory Beijing duck, which despite all the hype did taste really good, although cost 200yuan which is about 100 times more than I'm used to spending on food!.

They cut the duck at your table which is pretty cool

Inside the famous Quanjude restaurant where a bunch of famous politicians have dined before

Wangfujing shopping street

One of the department stores in Wangfujing - everyone says Beijing is a historical city but most of what I saw could have been built in the past 15 years

After that we hopped onto the subway to a market to stock up on cheap ripoff clothes. The subway is ridiculously crowded as you would expect, and the Chinese people don't seem to understand the concept of letting people off before you start pushing to get on. Anyway, the second train we caught this guy was pushing up against me, and being fairly competitive, I wasn't prepared to let him get on the train before me. It ends up he was pushing up against me to get his hand in my pocket to take my wallet, which I only realised once I was on the train, and noticing he wasn't and that my pocket was feeling light, I only then realised what had happened. Stupid! Anyway it had around 1000 yuan and 2 bank cards so not the end of the world - travel insurance better pay me!

The subway station where my wallet was stolen!

We nevertheless did a lot of shopping at the clothes market (lucky I had more money hidden elsewhere) - a lot of bargaining (basic rule is divide by 10 whatever they say). Sunday we went to the police station to file a police report so I could claim travel insurance - you would think this is a fairly simple process but they seemed to be pretty confused by the request and it took us more than 3 hours to get a small piece of paper - all in Chinese of course so I will need to get it translated for the insurance claim!

Inside the police station waiting for them to figure out how to write a police report

That afternoon we went back to the market and did some more shopping - over the 2 days I think I spent about 400 yuan and got 4 shirts, a jumper, 4 pairs of cufflinks and a pair of timerland sandals. Not bad!

I promised my Chinese friends I would write some Chinese on my blog so here my Chiense version of my Beijing trip.

上星期我去北京了，我是坐火车去的，这个星期一回来。从郑州到北京坐火车大概七个半小时。我觉得北京是一个很特别的地方。我一到北京就跟朋友见面。她跟朋友住在城市西边。我们先吃饭，然后去后海的酒吧喝酒。后海的酒吧里外国人很多，中国人不太多。北京的外国人比郑州多，所以我在北京不太特别。北京的天气不冷也不热，大概有二十五度。星期六和星期日，我去北京很有名的地方旅行(我参观了北京的名胜古迹)。先去毛主席纪念堂，然后去天安门广场。天安门广场很大，参观的人很多。我们走路去故宫，里边很漂亮。突然我们很饿，就去王府井的全聚德饭店吃北京烤鸭。北京烤鸭做得很好吃，可是比较贵。

吃完午饭，我们就去秀水街买衣服。北京秀水街的东西比郑州便宜（别的地方都比郑州贵！）。我们跟服务员讲价。她们先说“三百块”，我说：“真得太贵了。我给你三十块！”她们说：“不可能！但是，因为你的中文说得很好，我给你朋友的价钱，两百块怎么样？”“我说，还是太贵了。这件衣服不是真的！给你三十块！” 要是他说“不可能”，我说，“好的，我不要，谢谢”他总是说“OKOK, 五十块，好吗？”我说，“三十块。拜拜。”有时候他说“OK 三十块”，有时候说“四十块”我觉得价钱都很便宜，所以我买了很多衣服。

我们回家的时候，在地铁里人很多，也很拥挤。我上车的时候，一个男孩儿偷了我的钱包。我很郁闷！我的钱包里有一千块钱，还有两张银行卡，还有健身房卡和澳大利亚驾照。我们得去派出所报案，三个小时以后我们才报完案！吃一堑，长一智！以后再起北京，我一定会小心自己的钱包。

星期一早上，北京的交通真的很挤，我去得太晚了，没有赶上火车。我又很郁闷。我先退票，然后买新的火车票。星期一晚上才回家！我在北京的周末虽然有一些不开心，但是很有意思。要是有机会的话，我打算再去北京。

Anyway I am back in Zhengzhou now but would like to go to Beijing again because I didn't get to see a lot of the sites I wanted to. This week is a 1 week National Day holiday and next week I will start actually teaching! Will update again after I meet all my students.

Partying it up China style

2006-08-21T14:40:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the long delay in updating - my access to Internet has been pretty restricted and even now it is painfully slow to do anything. I have been busy since my last update - studying, exploring, partying, moving house... I was supposed to start teaching last Monday but that has been pushed back to October because my students are all first years and have a month's compulsory military training before they start classes. No complaints about that!

Despite the fact that I am doing no work for them yet, Henan University of Technology has moved me into a hotel and is paying me which is nice. I much prefer where I am living now, it is much closer to the centre of the city and the area is quite nice, a lot of students, restaurants and shops around. I am studying around 15 hours of formal Chinese lessons each week with my tutor, who was one of my teachers out at Zhengzhou University. She is excellent - very strict, and gives me a lot of homework. I also have a fairly steady stream of Zhengzhou University students coming to visit me to practise English and help me with Chinese so I am keeping busy. Most Friday or Saturday nights I head to one of the crazy nightclubs in Zhengzhou with some other foreigners - some of then studying Chinese at Zhengzhou University and some of them other teachers from Henan University of Technology. Our favourite club so far is called 'Babybody' - we are treated pretty well there - probably because we spend a lot of money, but it keeps us going back.

I could make a lot of money here as a model or DJ. I have been offered 1000 yuan for 2 hours modelling and 2500 yuan for a 3 hour DJ set - both I have declined because firstly I don't trust that they will pay me and secondly I came to China neither to DJ or model and I don't really feel like my photo showing up in random magazines or bus shelters in the city like some of the other foreigners here. But it is a lot of money - the average graduate wage here is around 500-1000 yuan per month, and most of the students seem to manage on close to 300 per month, A$50. It is possible - the food is very cheap and their accomodation while pretty uncomfortable (8 people to a room, no aircon or TV, shared bathrooms), is very cheap - around 600 yuan for a year. If you want to you can buy clothes at a market for 10-15 yuan for a t-shirt.

Having said all that there are a lot of people with a lot of money in this city. In the east part of the city, close to a lot of the nightclubs, there are some very swanky new apartments, and a lot of Audis, BMWs and Mercs driving around. The large department stores in downtown have prices similar to Myer/DJs and they are always swarming with people.

OK enough rambling, here are some photos:

Zhengzhou University - class, friends, food...

Anna with Lin laoshi who is now my tutor

After the Russians left it was just Anna and I in the class

John (from Cameroon), Anna and I with a couple of English major students - Lucy and Randy

In the Shitang with Lisa, Randy and Lucy

Lisa with her koala

We went to a Dan's house (a Chinese friend) for dinner - Anna trying to help out in the kitchen

Toasting with Chinese "bai jiu"- white alcohol - which tastes pretty bad!

With Anna, Dan and John at a restaurant near campus - eating our favourites gongbao jiding (Kungpao chicken), fanqie chaodan (tomatoes with fried egg) and tieban niurou (sizzling beef with vegetables)

Some of the more typical northern-chinese dishes in the Shitang

Whole bunch of Chinese students watching China get thrashed by Greece at the basketball championships

John playing soccer with some other foreigners (against Chinese - of course we won)

John at the campus store stocking up on 2yuan beers

One of the crazy Koreans smoking on the balcony

Babybody pics

John, Anna and I outside "Dennis"- one of the department stores we like because it has a restaurant inside where you can get real Spaghetti!

Dan, Anna and John at the restaurant

At Babybody - John and I with random Chinese guy

Anna & Dan's cousin (who actually lives in Adelaide, visiting China for the summer)

Two of our Korean friends Heather and Christie (I gave them those names because the Chinese names are too hard to remember)

Our hostess Sarah (We call her "cazy girl") who always gets us the best table and seems to be in a perpetual state of drunkness

Crazy girl with Toby (Aussie) and David (Scottish - can't understand a word he says ) - both English teachers

With one of the KTV (karaoke) managers and Paul, one of the Koreans - our nights often end up at KTV until the early (and sometimes late) hours of the morning

Sarah with Ullbech who is from Krygistan (sp?) - he is 16 years old, can't speak any Chinese and only came here because his mother wants him to learn (he hates most things about China!)

With Korean guy and crazy girl on the dancefloor

All of us foreign students at Zhengzhou University

Korean with John and random Chinese guy

Babybody inside - pretty swanky

Paul with one of the other managers we are friends with

Farewell to Anna
Anna, my Greek friend has left us for Beijing. We are hoping to go up there in the next couple of weeks to visit

John, Anna and Dan at the train platform

Anna with cute kid in her 'soft sleeper' (second class) train carriage

OK there ends another instalment. For the many people that have sent me emails, I am sorry that I haven't gotten back to you - I will try to in the next day or so. Bye for now.

Photos Instalment 1

2006-08-01T09:59:00.000+08:00

I have been in Zhengzhou for almost 2 weeks now and am starting to get used to life here. There aren't too many other foreigners now that the Russians have left, though there are some Korean students who are also here studying Chinese that I have made friends with - they can't speak much English so we get by in broken Mandarin. At the moment I prefer it to hanging out with Chinese students who speak too fast for me to understand anything! The Koreans also like drinking which is an extremely cheap pastime here - a 750ml bottle of beer costs 2 yuan (about 30c). It is pretty tasteless but at that price nobody is complaining.

Last weekend was busy - on Saturday I was taken to lunch by my Sydney Mandarin tutor's mum and her friends. Before some of the other guests arrived, nobody there could speak English so I made use of the waitress' limited translating abilities for a while. She ended up giving me a tour of the (massive) restaurant much to the amusement and giggling of the other waitresses. With the rest of the guests came a 19 year old girl that could speak English quite well and was very keen to practice with me. The food was sensational and despite having some difficulties with communicating I had a great time - my hosts have been extremely welcoming and tolerant in my limited language abilities!

Mayhem is the best word to describe the roads here. There variety of vehicles is vast - bicycles, mopeds, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, cars, tractors, buses and trucks all sharing the same limited space. Often they don't stick to lane markings, and usually all drive pretty slow which is a good thing because at any moment another vehicle could lunge at you from any direction. There is not much respect for any of the rules - cars will cut you off, turn right in front of you and red lights are frequently ignored. It's great fun to watch and every taxi trip so far has been a thrill!!

The state of the environment here is quite poor and most of the Chinese are willing to admit it. I haven't seen blue sky and there is a smell in the air that is inescapable. My dormitory window is permanently shut and the air conditioner hasn't been turned off since I arrived - in a way I am contributing to the environmental problems that much China are experiencing, but the one night I tried to open the window I woke up in a sweat and not being able to breathe, so air conditioning is back on for good. Having said this I am impressed with the cleanliness of the streets both at the university and downtown. Many of the roads are wide boulevards with trees stretched over them, and there is a lot of life below - the sidewalks aren't too littered and there is no graffiti at all. There are people and vehicles everywhere and in many ways it is less depressing than the car-ridden lifeless highways of Sydney.

I have been watching a bit of TV in my spare time. The 1 English channel is fairly boring - they repeat the same 5 shows every day and it's pretty much just news and business shows ("attracting foreign investment to China" type stuff). Some of the Chinese channels are great - there are numerous Idol style competitions, my favourite is a "family idol" show where a whole family (usually 3 people!) get up and sing and dance together - the kids are usually really young and put in a lot of effort - and its hilarious to watch. At the end of each show only 1 family progresses through so inevitably there are a lot of tears from parents and child when they get kicked off.

The advertisements are also fun to watch - there is a huge amount of Olympics propoganda (ads that say "just 730 days to go" and TV shows that test student's English abilities to become international ambassadors) - I am worried they may be getting excited a little too early. Then there are the many many commercials for products that apparently can shrink your waist line, boost your height or grow your clevage just by taking a pill or attaching a bizzare vibrating machine to your body. Many of these ads show a Western doctor in a white labcoat to legitimise the products' scientific effectiveness - hilarious to watch. I'm told that the government has banned these ads but they still are shown pretty frequently!

I have finally got around to taking some photos. I haven't been very selective with what I uploaded so apologies in advance for it taking a while to load.

University

Outside the Shitang (cafeteria) where I eat every day

One of the other Shitangs - apparently cheaper than mine (30c a meal instead of 50c??) but the food is apparently not as good

Bicycle parking outside the Shitang

Ladies hand weeding the grass

One of the roads through campus

Some of the apartments the Chinese students live in

More apartments...

More apartments...

Apartments with clothes hanging out - there are no dryers!

One of the main roads through campus

Can anyone can enlighten me about these troops of red-hat wearing youths?

An old biycle dumping ground

Basketball courts - always packed

The man made lake separating the student accommodation with some teaching buildings

Another shot of the lake

Campus scenary - they have put a lot of effort into landscaping

Chinglish everywhere - one of the 'don't step on the grass' signs

The administrative building that greets you at the main entrance - everything here is on a massive scale

The gates of the university (you can see the administrative building in the background)

Campus surrounds

The tuk-tuks waiting outside the university

The road running by the university - it is in the middle of a hi-tech development zone

One of the large office buildings in the around surrounding campus

Aside from office buildings the area is quite rural - plantations like this are dotted between the university and office buildings

Just down the road from campus - a few shops with a heap of people just mulling outside

Down the road from campus

This market is also close to campus

This is what they call a bar - a bunch of outdoor seating with some BBQ outlets scattered around - gets pretty busy most nights and is a pretty cool place to hang out

The hi-tech development zone has some pretty nifty, and underutilised, infrastructure - I have never seen more than 1 or 2 cars on this road

Views from the cab going downtown

Gas power plant fairly close to campus

Not unusual to see a pedestrian walking casually along the freeway!

Goodbye Russians

Outside of class I didn't spend much time with the Russians - they all much prefer to talk in Russian and it's pretty intimidating! This is Anna (Greek) on the left, with 2 of the Russian girls and I.

All the Russian students with Huang laoshi our teacher in the middle

The bus taking them to the train station where they had to endure a 20-something hour train trip to Beijing and on to Irkusk where they live (north of Mongolia in Siberia)

OK - that's it for now. I hope you are all well!

Arrived in Zhengzhou

2006-07-26T11:12:00.000+08:00

2 weeks late, a trip to Canberra (and some minor car damage - sorry mum!), and many arguments with the embassy, I finally received my "Z" working visa and have arrived in China. My flight to Guangzhou was long and boring. China Southern has no English reading material, played the same movie 4 times in a row ("Le Coeur des Hommes" - very strange watching a French movie dubbed into Chinese with Chinglish subtitles), so I entertained myself by talking in half Chinese half English with the 50 year old woman sitting next to me, listening to my backlog of ChinesePod podcasts and sleeping.

I stayed overnight in Guangzhou in the China Southern hotel which was inconveniently located about an hours drive from the airport, apparently near downtown. Guangzhou is hot and humid, and despite the fact that the hotel room was probably no bigger than 4m x 4m, the air conditioner seemed to have a lot of trouble keeping the temperature less than 30 degrees all night. I ate dinner at KFC (no comment - I was tired and not ready to face a Chinese menu) - this was an interesting experience because the restaurant was about 17 times bigger than any KFC I have ever seen and it was full, at 9pm, of people scoffing down chicken which is even greasier and more disgusting than you get at home.

The next morning we took the bus back to the airport and boarded my plane to Zhengzhou. On it I met a couple of Zhengzhou locals who have been studying in Sydney - probably the only 2 other English on the plane (most of them seemed fascinated that a Westerner would even be going to Zhengzhou). I was collected by the Director of External Relations at Henan University of Technology (where I will be teaching from September) and he took me to Zhengzhou University, where I am now studying.

At Zhengzhou University I am staying in the Liuxuesheng Sushe (foreign students accommodation). The apartment I was promised was to be 2-bedroom (translate 2 beds in 1 room), have a Western toilet (true, though not Western enough to be able to process toilet paper - this has to be placed in the bin after being used - yes that's right), a TV and DVD player (no DVD player, but I have no DVDs anyway) and air conditioned (delivered on that). Nevertheless it is extremely cheap, quite comfortable and very conveniently located on campus so I am content with it for now.

I arrived on Sunday and only ventured out of my room twice: once to eat lunch at the Shitang (students cafeteria) and once to buy some groceries. The Shitang is a fascinating place. The food I have never seen before in my life, and is very hard to describe. A lot of it looks like something you wouldn't dream of eating, but mostly tastes very good. Quite salty, sometimes spicey, but all the time extroadinarily cheap. I have had 8 meals so far in the Shitang, and this has cost me in total about 30 yuan (divide by 6). A bowel of soup is 0.2 yuan!! The second time I left my apartment was to buy groceries - armed with my Chinese phrase book and dictionary. NOBODY in Zhengzhou speaks English. Even the simplest thing like buying toilet paper or soap is a challenge. I say the word for soap, they take me to laundry detergent, I ask how much a phone card is and they give me the extended version - not a word of which I understand. I just end up pointing and hoping what I end up with is right.

I started classes on Monday, 2 weeks after the rest of the class started (still pissed at the Embassy!). The classes are conducted only in Mandarin and the teachers, despite claiming to have studied English for 10 years, know amazingly few English words. My Chinese is better than their English, and I have studied for 6 months. Anyway its good practise. The rest of the class is Russian students and 1 Greek girl who speaks good English. They are all very nice but the Russians speak little or no English, and jabber in Russian through a lot of the class. The Greek girl I get along with well, though she seems to dislike a lot of things about China and Chinese people ("They eat like pigs") and I sometimes wonder how she will cope for the next 6 months she will be here.

The class is at quite a good level for me despite having missed 2 weeks, though my reading and writing need a lot of improvement. We have classes every day, morning and afternoon, and I have been spending every other hour of every day learning characters and trying (mostly pretty poorly) to learn to write them. I have been watching a bit of TV (only 1 English channel out of 62 channels, but I have been trying to avoid that one) and just walking around the campus looking around. The campus is massive and although it is summer holidays there are still a lot of people around. I will venture out with my camera soon and post up some photos.

Anyway, it is time to go back to studying. I have purchased a mobile phone so if you feel like calling me pls email for the number. I hope you are all well!

Farewell party photos

2006-07-02T17:14:00.000+08:00

A big thanks to everyone who was able to make it down last Friday for my farewell drinks. I had a great night (helped along by a few cocktails) and it was great to catch up with people I haven't seen for a while. Here are some photos my professional photographer Cynth snapped on the night.

Me with Cynth

Matty (trying) to look suave at the entry

School buddies - Duncan, Chath, Nuwan and Belinda

Matty & Nish - congrats on the engagement! Can't wait for next year

Car and half of dicky - congrats also on the engagement! So sorry I can't make it =(

Luke and Gosia

Tim (wtf??) & Cho

Jub - congrats on the new job mate

Em, Phyl, JY, and Ruse powerbrokers Tez, Cynth, Jax

Solon & Nick J - looking forward to the "UBS Trading Challenge" guys

Jess, Matty, JY & I

Phyl (GO GERMANY!), Ali, me and Jono

Amanda and Matt (sorry I can't make your drinks mundi, but have a great time in Canada)

UNSW crew - Anna, Warren, Doug, Stella

Rathborne, Amy, Rina and friends

Dom & Ali - hope to catch up in China!

Dom, Udai, Ning

Jen and Elvis - long time no see guys thanks for coming down

Holmsey and Soph from UBS

Jayde & Tom

UBS present and future - Soph, Jono, Holmsey, Gordo, Udai

Hamburg buddies - Zina, Ish (manish), Dawnie (DLAM), and Anna

Eliza, Ish, Amanda, Zina & Dawnie

Emma, my sister Claire and her boyfriend Angus

Jayde & I and celebrity appearance from Elise!

Cynth thanks again for being photographer - I don't think there have ever been so many photos of me without my eyes closed, my eyes red, or me generally looking extremely drunk. Appreciate it!

I still plan to leave next Saturday for China but the chances are slimming since I am still waiting for my invitiation letter from China so I can get my visa. I hope to update this with photos and goings on once I arrive, so be sure to check back.

Bringing it back to life....

2006-06-07T13:14:00.000+08:00

I am again leaving Sydney for a while - this time into a slightly more daunting place, Zhengzhou city in central China. For a city of 6.5 million people, Lonely Planet devotes startlingly few pages to Zhengzhou in their 1000 page China guide, meaning it is either a gem that no foreigner has discovered, or a manufacturing and agriculture centre with nothing of any tourist interest. I suspect it is the latter. Nevertheless, I am seeking a 'genuine' China experience, away from the masses of foreign students and teachers that stream into Beijing and Shanghai each year to learn Mandarin, so Zhengzhou should be perfect for that.

Anyway, stand by for photos and posts after I leave. And if you are really bored and would like to know more about where I am going, search for Zhengzhou on www.pbase.com - this website might provide some insight into the smog-filled city I will be spending the next 7 months of my life.

European Summer...

2005-07-29T15:40:00.000+08:00

First Stop, Wales

Talk about a change from New York, this Welsh town called Hay on Wye has the most bookshops I have ever seen. And they had a book festival on while we were there too. Very nice.

Stonehenge (From the road, we were too cheap to go in)

Crazy Contiki...
I forgot to take pictures in Amsterdam(I wonder why?) So the first pics are from Austria...

Mathausen concentration camp, freaky stuff

Vienna

Viennese Coffee

The SCHNAPPS museum in Vienna, though most purchases were ABSINTH!!

Some of the contiki crew at the Hapsburg's summer residence - Shonbrun palace

Venice!

Gondola driver in Venice

The canals are literally the streets - here is the entrance to this house

Birthday dinner in Rome

Rome

Colosseum

In the Italiam Forum - here they are digging down to Rome's past, already at the 3rd layer underground, now they are digging deeper. Apparently when they were sick of the city they would just fill it in and start over. amazing!

Vatican - St Peter's square

Have a look at the picture on the wall - the symbol of rome is 2 dudes sucking on the teets of a cow.

Was very hung over in Florence so no photos. Dunno what this is but it looks nice

Lucerne, Switzerland. Nice change after dirty italy - Switzerland is real clean. Went hiking in the Jungfrau, but unfortunately had misplaced my camera so no photos...

On the bus, me and Akiko from Japan

Christie and Dylan (ozzies!)

Kate and Jill from Pennsylvania

Nancy getting wrapped in toilet paper...

France

Mona lisa

Views of Paris from "La Tour Eiffel"

Versailles Palace

My friend Claire (right) who lives in Paris, and her two friends, at a picnic before the Fete de la Musique

Claire's family who kindly gave me a room for a week

Back to Versailles (really wanted to go rowing...)

A bunker on a beach in the North of France (left there since WWII)

French Beach

Now down to the South - this is on a boat in Sete, where I stayed with the family of Alex, who we hosted in our place a few years back

This is Sete from the hill

The family lives right on the beach, in a lovely house also next to the vineyards which they manage

From Sete to Lyon, this is Marie's family who I stayed with for a week - Marie I met in Vancouver

French countryside around Lyon

Germany
From Lyon to Hamburg for the law Summer School program - unfortunately I took NO photos at all in Hamburg, due only to laziness.... but we had a free weekend and I visited some family friends in Luneburg... here are some photos

Town of Luneburg, seen from the top of the water tower

The staircase coming down the water tower was lined with a photographic exhibition of Africa - really amazing!

Jan, the 14 year old kid who showed me round the town, had awesome english given he only learnt for 2 years!

Freaky stuff - here is a photo from when my Mum visited the same house in 1979!!

The family that hosted me - how cute is the little kid?

On a boat from the former west to east germany (the Elbe river)

We visited a watchtower and fence which used to divide west and east germany - and where the guards used to stand and shoot anyone who was trying to escape the East.

Here is Jan escaping from the West INTO the East. Wrong way, buddy.

A town in the former east germany - really run down! Turns out lots of people left and never came back after 1990

Not checkpoint charlie, but checkpoint Harry!

Well that's all my photos. I visited Bangkok on the way home too but was too preoccupied with shopping to take any snaps. Hope to catch up with everyone soon and hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed the travelling. I had an amazing time, made some great friends and can't wait to get out of Sydney again!

Probably no point checking back here again as I don't like this blog site one bit. So....

BYE!

NEW YORK CITY

2005-07-29T15:30:00.000+08:00

Times Square

...by day

...and by night (or is it really night??)

Central Park

Fifth Avenue

..famous toystore

5th & Madison Ave

Maybach, just parked on the curbside, with a security guard watching it (car is worth around a million dollars)

A Rolls outside an Upper East Side (5th Ave) Hotel

Trump's 5th Ave tower

UBS Tower, just around the corner on Park Avenue

Other sights

Ground Zero

Brooklyn Bridge

What's that ?? $350 fine for horn honking?? (top right corner)

Wall St/ NYSE

UN General Assembly

The Statue

Where else is there a reward for finding ppl that shoot cops?? (and is advertised on a bus shelter)?

NYC was AMAZING, I want to go back already.

Next post is EUROPE

Toronto, Niagara, Philadelphia, Washington.....

2005-07-29T14:57:00.000+08:00

Toronto

View from the top of CN Tower (apparently the tallest freestanding structure in the world)

Lying at the top of CN Tower!

Wayne Gretsky is like the don bradman of ice hockey... retired but his Pub/Cafe thing is Pumping!

Toronto is amazing - it has this MASSIVE underground city which connects like 15 buildings and 5 train stations - and continuous shopping. I guess they need it in winter when its negative 30 degrees

Niagara Falls

This is the "magic bus" we took there

Right opposite the falls is the most appalling of overdeveloped, crappy amusement parks and cheesy attractions - friggin Americans!!

This is the best food you can get in Niagara falls

This is apparently the biggest whirlpool in the world, just downstream from the falls

Washington DC

A Couple of views of the Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial

Lincoln Memorial - anyone remember Year 12 "speeches" class?

Roosevelt Memorial - I really liked some of these quotes, especially when you look at them in the context of the Bush administration

Vietnam War Memorial

Arlington Cemetary - the official US Military cemetary

Do these really need a caption?

And check the next post for NYC!!

Vancouver, Tofino, Banff, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa.....

2005-05-24T13:27:00.000+08:00

I have been to more cities than you can count on two hands since I last posted. I have also finished exams, gotten my results back, said goodbye to all my friends in Vancouver and started my crazy 3 months of travel. I have so many stories to tell, but for now here are some photos...

Last days in Vancouver - Grouse Mountain
Finally looked at some of the sites in Vancouver...

The Grouse Grind - 1km elevation over 2km of track!! Extremely tiring, and didn't even come close to the 20 minute world record (in fact it took us an hour and a half)

The views from the top were worth it though... MAN vancouver is nice.

We took the gondola down, thank goodness we made it...

Stopped by Kitsilano beach on the way back, sure isn't Bondi but still very peaceful...

Last days in Vancouver - Cycling in Stanley Park

Cycling around Stanley Park gives great views of downtown Vancouver

Jose being a smartass managed to break off the chain..

Goodbye UBC!!

This was the actual sunset from my window on the my last night at gage. Man will I miss this place!

Sushi with the girls across the hall on our last night

...then some poker with the roommates

Gage Towers after everyone has moved out! How sad they rent these rooms for $30 a night over summer

Picked up my pitiful paycheck, so here is a photo of where I worked!

Spent my last few days at Fairview (another residence) after getting kicked out of gage... had to stick around for U2 and MAROON 5!! Both concerts were amazing!!!

Onto the Rockies
Rina and I rented a car and made the long drive over to Banff and Jasper after the concerts. The scenery was just incredible... You can't believe your eyes. Here is a selection...

Lake Louise

We climbed up this mountain!

Goodbye Vancouver, Hello Eastern Canada - Montreal
I loved Montreal, though its hard to believe its the same country as Vancouver. Truly a Bilingual city, it had a fascinating mix of European and American culture. Nightlife especially was incredible!!

Some of the buildings in Old Montreal

The "English Residences" up Mont Real (Mount Real)

Our somewhat shitty hostel, outdoor shower and all. Great people though!

McGill University was very impressive

Anyone speak English? - Quebec City
Quebec city maxes you wonder why the separatists haven't had their way in any of their numerous referendums. Its not Canada at all! Beautiful city though, and the only walled city in North America.

City Wall

Quebec Parliament

Ottawa, National Capital
Back into English speaking territory...finally!

Ottawa was in the middle of a tulip festival. I don't like flowers but these seemed photo worthy...

Supreme Court, a lot smaller than I expected

Parliament, which was in session with some Sponsorship scandal that's threatening to cause an election - damn corruption meant we couldn't take a tour!

Crazy American Anti-Abortion Protestors

...and Falun Dafa presentations, all on the lawn of Parliament. Love a free country (see Washington DC next post. hehe...)

Tribute to Canada's hockey obsession

The PM's residence. A good hour walk from Parliament - not really worth it! Bring on Kirribilli house I say.

Quirky hostel put us in the "Australia" room. Aww....

And since Ottawa I have been to Toronto, Niagara, Washington DC, Philadelphia and am now in NEW YORK CITY - the without a doubt best city in the world. I have more photos but might take a few days. KEEP CHECKING!

Anyway, missing everyone at home a lot, but pretty busy not thinking too much about home!

Check back soon...

Nick

Arts County Fair aftermath - what a disaster... (and some random photos)

2005-04-10T03:28:00.000+08:00

Arts County Fair

Yesterday was the last day of class, and the annual Arts County Fair was held at Thunderbird stadium. The biggest drinking fest on the UBC calendar - I was woken up (after a a big night before) at 9am by the screams and cheers of drunken college students wandering the campus, and my neighbour's exceedingly loud music. We proceeded to eat some beer pancakes, drink Sangria and head over to the pre-ACF party at Fairview. Walking through campus I don't think I have ever seen so many drunk people in my life. At Fairview I found Rina already hurling in the bathroom and many other people getting quickly hammered.

We went to the stadium at around 2.30 and stayed till the end at 8. The leading bands were both Canadian - Matthew Good and Ka-os. Ka-os has a kinda hip hop feel, and in true Canadian style didn't hold back on the "F**k George Bush" and "smoke weed" lines. The mosh pit for Matthew Good was brutal - overriding stench of pot, drunk people collapsing, way too much pushing, shoving and male nudity. I guess 30,000 exceedingly drunk/high people all in one place is gonna cause some trouble.

We weren't meant to bring cameras into the stadium so you'll have to believe me on that, but coming back to my apartment and the mess I found there (including hurl all over the bathroom), inspired me to take some photos as evidence of the kind of grot I have been living in for the past 3 months (these photos are not that much worse than the normal Thursday/Saturday/Sunday morning party aftermath).

Seattle Photos
I promised some Seattle photos so here they are...

The "don't use a gun" bus ads - yes, we are in America...

Seattle Tower - didn't go up here because it was rainy and cloudy.

Our hostel was just 2 blocks up from the Pike Place market - which sold an amazing range of seafood, jams, produce, and other stuff - it was pretty impressive

We weren't allowed cameras in the EMP (Experience Music Project), except for this massive tower of guitars. So here is the only photo I took there:

Despite having an exceedingly large number of cars, the transport in downtown Seattle was pretty impressive (and free for all in a surprisingly generous area). The main feature is this underground bus tunnel which runs from one end of downtown to the other. How much it is used I'm not sure, because we were only there on a weekend, but it warranted a photo nonetheless.

The Seattle Sonics basketball game was the highlight, here are some photos...

Seattle is famous for its music and not just Grunge apparently - the Seattle Symphony plays regularly in this very impressive Theatre in the middle of downtown. I thought the words written on the side were pretty characteristic of Seattle so I took a photo...

Whistler in early March
It seems unfair to complain about the horrible Whistler weather conditions in Feb/March now, considering there has been over 150cms of snow in the past couple of weeks there. The worse season for 20 years seems to be over and the powder is back, but here are some memories from March.

OK well exams start next Thursday so I doubt I'll have much of interest to post for the next couple of weeks, but I will be doing some travel after the 23rd so check back then for some photos.

Later

-Nick

"Use a gun... do extra time. Don't use a gun."

2005-03-30T16:55:00.000+08:00

Well, Happy Easter everybody - hope you all enjoyed the long weekend.

Last Thursday I went to Whistler which, thank goodness, finally received some snow - 86cms of it in 3 days. It was a welcome change - 2 weekends before the mountains were bare up to the midstation. It was much more encouraging to see some white this trip.

On Saturday went to Seattle - caught the bus down at 9am and didn't arrive in downtown Seattle until 3pm, blame overcautious border security and extremely bad American freeway traffic for the delays. (Note it took us 1.5 hours to get through the border. We were all fingerprinted, photographed, interrogated. Coming back into Canada took 10 minutes... "Where do you live?" "UBC". "OK have a nice day")

But Seattle is a pretty cool city. Dirty, yes. Unsafe, relatively. Too many cars - for sure. The transit downtown though was relatively good - free in the entire downtown area, but the only people that seem to use it are old people and blacks. An advertisement in the bus amused me: "Use a gun. Do Extra Time. Don't use a gun" - as if to say, if you're going to kill someone, please - use a knife, use your fist, even drown them - but just don't use a gun.

Seattle Centre is a tourist precinct off the end of downtown whic houses among other things the EMP, Experience Music Project and SFM, Science Fiction Museum. Both were excellent - at the EMP you could spend a whole day, looking through the history of "northwest" music (home of Nirvana and the entire grunge movement), the Bob Dylan exhibit, make your own music - and even record it and star in your own music video. Rina and I spent a while in a studio honing down our guitar and drum skills. I swear I'm buying a drum kit when I get back home.

Sunday night went to see Washington play Seattle in basketball at Key Arena. Basketball is huge in the States and this was a great game, with Seattle losing by just 1 point... the crowd is great, though extremely partisan. There are cheerleaders, dancers, blimps, and yes lots of hot dogs, pretzels and Bud (which tastes a lot like piss).

The nightlife in Seattle is great - on Saturday night we went to a Jazz bar and drank Martinis, on Sunday we went to the opening of a quasi-hip hop club in trendy Capitol Hill... the sound is a lot more raw in Seattle than Vancouver which is great, the DJs experiment a lot more and the crowd is really chilled. Cabbed it down to a Breaks club which was hosting a DJ comp - this was really great, stuck around there till the early hours. Unlike in Canada you can smoke in clubs in the US, so this reminded me a lot of Sydney.

Did some shopping - much better in Seattle than Vancouver. Cheaper prices, massive malls and department stores - hey, it's America after all. Then arrived back in Vancouver on Monday night and back to the reality of several assignments, exams and presentations due over the next few weeks.

I have photos of Seattle & Whistler to post, but haven't had time yet to shrink them down to blogspot size, so I will get to that soon.

Email me people, I will reply eventually and I really like hearing from you even if I don't acknowledge that for a while.

Until next time (hopefully soon)

-Nick

Long overdue update

2005-03-09T10:24:00.000+08:00

Clearly my comittment to update this blog site weekly has all but failed - so for those who expend the effort to check this more often than I do, I apologise.

Frequent skiing, regular partying, crappy wages and living with pot-heads aside, life is somewhat more normal than it was when I first arrived. I have managed to fill most days with fairly significant amounts of productive activity... Mondays consist of class, 2 hours of work, class, a winetasting course in the evening, and an hour of (free!) French tuition from a friend... Tuesdays class, the traditional bi-weekly lunch with some of the other exchange students, more class, then Salsa in the evening.... Wednesdays class, work, class then often out in the evening (Au Bar - $2 high balls!), Thursdays and Fridays much of the same... then the weekend, skiing, partying, and a bit of work here and there.

I seem to get a lot more stuff for free here than I do at home. $20 per month for unlimited transit use. The gym and pool are both free (at certain times of day - $2 per visit at other times). Completely free, high speed, wireless internet all over campus, absolutely no download restrictions (apparently Canada is the only place where MP3 downloading has been deemed officially legal). Free food - apparently the residents association at Gage believes it necessary to spend their annual budget on pancakes, ice cream, pizza and whatever else they can justify under the them of promoting interaction between residents.

Travel plans - well, I suddenly realised the other day that despite my frequent trips to Whistler, I haven't really seen much of Canada yet. So here is the plan:

Easter: trip to Vancouver Island, including the BC Capital Victoria, and the picturesque town of Tofino.

After finals: Seattle, San Francisco and possible LA/Vegas

Then back in Vancouver to see U2 and Maroon 5. Then to NY, as a base for a trip to Boston, Toronto, Niagra Falls (from the Canadian side, of course), Montreal, Quebec City, and possible down to Chicago.

Possible side trip to Mexico from NY - although not sure about this yet.

Then June off to London, Paris, Lyon, Spain, Switzerland and to Hamburg for Winter school in July. And back home in August!

Apologies to those who don't really care, but I havent told my parents all this yet!! So if anyone else has any suggestions on things not to miss, please feel free to comment.

OK and lastly, thanks to everyone who emails me. I am equally as bad with replying to emails as I am with updating this site (my oldest emailing desperately deserving a reply is from 26th January), but stick with me, I will get to it!!

Enjoy 4th year ppl, don't work too hard or stress too much, steer clear of Macquarie fields and write me a comment or email!

Later,

-Nick

5 full days of skiing @ Whistler

2005-02-17T03:06:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

OK for those who bother checking this, sorry I haven't updated it sooner... I had a few midterms last week, and since Friday I've been skiing every day @ Whistler! Anyway I have a few photos from Whistler to put up now - the views were amazing and the weather fantastic (although still not enough snow!) so enjoy....

Oh and OK, I'll put the captions underneath the photos now =P

Day 1

Here I am looking to the Whistler Mtn peak from the top of the Big Red lift

Rina looking down into the valley from the same place

The Roundhouse at the top of the Whistler Gondola. It takes around 30 minutes to get up here (this place is HUGE!) and as season pass holders we get 50% off all the food!

Looking over to Blackcomb Mtn from the Roundhouse

Traversing along the green runs from the Roundhouse down. I skiid with Rina on the first day so we stuck to the easy stuff

Again looking down into the valley...

The traversing here is great, always surrounded by trees on the lower mountain - although a bit too flat in parts

Having lunch @ the Roundhouse outdoors - what a day!

Top of the Harmony chairlift at Little Whistler Peak

Skiing down the Burnt Stew Trail from Little peak

View down from the Burnt Stew Trail

Same again

Day 2

The next morning - 4cm of snow overnight! this is looking down the road from the UBC lodge where we stayed... the place is kinda a hole, the beds are uncomfortable and its noisy and light, but hey - $18 a night is pretty cheap

FOG!! Skiing through this really sux - can't see a thing

View from the lift going up

OK this is amazing, when you go up the lift you literally go through the clouds and all you can see below you is a blanket of cloud - one of the most amazing things ever

Another view of the new snow from the lift

Top of the t-bars on Whistler - couldn't go down the blue run because they were training for the Olympics (Vancouver 2010)

Going up the Peak lift on Whistler

Whistler PEAK!! Very cold up here

Looking down from the peak....

Valley view from peak

Day 5

OK so no photos on day 3 or 4, but these nights I stayed at the Fireside lodge - only $30 a night for the luxury of dark rooms, a comfortable bed and quiet before midnight

Looking down the Saddle from Whistler peak

Same...

I skiid with Joseph, one of the Mexicans on day 5 - the others were too slow! We didn't shy away from trying to kill ourselves either - this was a black run down from the peak

I don't really know where the above 3 are from, I know its looking down Whistler, I know the runs were hard (tried a double black here too) and we got extremely sore feet coming down here

After exploring Whistler for almost 4 days we decided Blackcomb might be a goer, this is a view down from the Excelerator lift from the base, you can see what kinda bad season they are having!

Joseph the mexican dude...hardcore boarder!

Our most ambitious run yet, and probably one of the hardest at the whole resort - this double black bowl was icey, extremely steep but heck...

This run is called "spanky's ladder"

This is the view from the top of the Jersey Cream bowl on Blackcomb

"Proposal Point" lol....

Are we crazy?????

After this we checked out the Nintendo terrain parks, tried some jumps, hurt our asses bigtime, then Joseph tried out the half pipe....

OK so that's it for the Whistler/Blackcomb pictures. I was only meant to go up for 3 days but it turned into 5, I couldn't go home! Have definitely improved my skiing a lot.

Some goings on before midterms
So you would think on the weekend before midterms I would be studying.... but no, on Friday night there was a massive party at Fairview, and then we woke up the next morning to try to buy U2 tickets at 9.30am. Thought we missed out but then a few days later I got an email telling me that I had gotten 8 tickets, 25 rows back, right in front of the stage!! I don't even like U2 that much but everyone else is so excited, and it made the front page of the paper that they sold out so quick, so I feel obliged to be excited as well...

Anyway, so after we got the tickets, we're sitting around watching soccer and at around 2pm we decided it would be a good time to start playing a Mexican shot game...so between about 10 ppl we finished off close to 5 bottles of spirits, got extremely drunk and took lots of photos... all of which are too unsuitable to put on the web...sorry!

OK that's all. Cyas

Nick

Nude beach!

2005-02-01T15:31:00.000+08:00

So, I met these 2 Canadian girls at the Whistler lodge a couple of weekends ago, Steph and Tina... anywho, turns out Steph is a German genius and had a spare copy of the german textbook I was too cheap to buy. So we met today for a coffee and so I could grab the book, at the time I had every intention of going to german class at 4... but the sun was out (yes thats twice in a week!) and I had yet to visit the famous beach just off UBC, so we decided to skip class and take a walk down there. Grabbed my camera so heres some photos

Some campus shots...

Found a couple of interesting buildings on campus on the way... this is the First Nations (Aborigines) house of learning:

The Museum of Anthropology:

...and the totem poles, a big North American Indian thing, just outside the museum...

...a squirrel, you see these wandering round all the time! one even came into rinas house at fairview while we were doing groupwork....

The rosegarden at the northernmost tip of campus, no roses yet!

The Chan centre for Performing Arts (the cool round building on the left, apparently it has great acoustics) and the law building on the right you can see as well...

...a 'monkey tree' (whatever that is - steph and tina found it interesting!)

...this thing you stand on in the main mall, its hard to describe but when you stand up on it and speak your voice gets a weird echo... not sure what causes it, any suggestions?

...and another view of the Gage apartments, the complex where I live (mine is the South tower, the one on the right of this photo)

...and one of the St Andrew's Residences - Walker House!!

Wreck Beach

So anyway, UBC is built on a peninsula which means there are a few beaches around it, the most famous being Wreck beach since its a nude beach!

Unfortunately the path we intended going down was closed...probably because the snow and rain had torn it apart so much

So we took down a slightly more adventurous route...

As you get down towards the beach, no nude people thank goodness (since they're supposed to be only old men anyway), although a whole bunch of... hippies? anyway, digging something, playing guitar, maybe smoking weed?...

Definitely not the beaches we're used to... although you can't see great mountains from ours... here are some of the views anyway...

Here are steph and tina... love the blue belt huh!

Took a real path back up, damn tiring though! Have to become better friends with the gym here...

Basketball

OK and this doesn't really fit anywhere else, but on Friday last week I went to a basketball game between the UBC Thunderbirds and the Uni of Victoria (the capital of British Columbia). The game went into double overtime, so it was great to watch, but we lost in the end =( But yeh its just like the movies, dancers - cheerleaders - mascots - big crowds, was great fun! Rest of my photos sucked so here are some cheerleaders...we were sitting on the visitors side so only got a rear view of them!

S'it for now

Nick

Photos photos photos....

2005-01-29T06:32:00.000+08:00

I go out a lot but never take my camera. When I do I go a bit crazy with it... here is the result from yesterday and last night!

First, some weather

They get the strangest fogs here - one minute you see it coming over the ocean, the next you can't see anything! These photos are literally taken 30 seconds apart.

More dorm photos

I took some photos of our quad (apartment) and my roommates.... This is Zanyar (Z for short. And thats Zeee not Zed):

Luke and Dylan... looking a bit gay...

Peanut Butter Cups - this things are GREAT!

Our quad from the outside... yeh a bit boring...

Ahad with his car:

First, dinner

A group of us - Rina (UNSW), Daniel & Claudia (Mexico) and myself spent Wednesday night doing an assignment which was due on Thursday. YES that's right - I missed Australia Day at Whistler because I didn't know it was due till Tuesday!!! Very disappointing, but nevertheless... we decided to go out for dinner on Thursday, not planning a big night...

Dylan came as well and first stop was Rina's house at Fairview... here is Rina & Dylan:

We wanted Thai so went to a place in Point Grey called Thai Spicy. Well, we thought it was Thai but the menu only had Vietnamese food on it! Who calls a Viet restaurant Thai Spicy! The food was good though...here I am with Dylan enjoying the noodles:

..and Claudia and her friend Ana Sofia:

Maybe a couple of beers?

We were gonna go home after dinner but hey, a beer or 2 is OK right? So we headed downtown...the bus trip was fun... Dylan being a moron:

...and Daniel talking to his "Baguette" in Mehico - awwww....

So anyway, we ordered a jug. The another. Then another. Claudia's roommate Ana Lauder met us... she reckons shes not indian...but full blooded mexican...judge for yourself, here she is with Anna Sofia:

Here is Claudia with Daniel:

... and me, Rina and Dylan getting progressively drunker...

Well, I guess we don't really have class tomorrow...

... things started to get crazier... I told Ana lauder not to smoke because she would die young and never have babies... but she did anyway. And so did I. oops...

...what a moron!....

Next stop, Hooters!

Missed the last bus, doh, guess we'll stay downtown...

And next stop... its 3am by now... Claudia and Ana's downtown apartment to party on and maybe sleep... judge for yourself... this is Claudia and Ana...

Caught!...

No they actually weren't doing anything, just enjoying Notting Hill a bit too much.

The next morning - SUN!!!

You get a bit excited about blue sky when its been raining for 2 weeks.

Inappropriate Stuff

No its not what you were thinking... these photos are offensive and rude so be warned!

They have a store here called Roots. That in itself is not that funny but when you open a kids specialty store...

...thats just inappropriate.

And I'm sure these guys' business has gone down a bit recently...

And lastly, Ahad's dorm door, a gentle self motivational reminder to go to class...

OK that's it for now. Can you believe I took so many photos in 1 day? Anyhow, might sleep now in preparation for another crazy mexican party tonight!

Cyas All

Please stop raining....

2005-01-24T03:54:00.000+08:00

OK when I signed up for Vancouver I didn't think it would rain this much! It has been continuous since last Saturday... all the snow has melted away and the the white campus has become a muddy, puddly dreary mess.

And here is the forecast for the next week

I would be OK with it if it was snowing at Whistler. But they are having the worst season since 1976! Its 8 degrees in the village and its RAINING on most of the mountain. Half the lifts aren't even open and they are offering half price off all food to try to get ppl to still go there. And I have a SEASON PASS!

OK enough complaining. What have I been doing for the past week? Well, I have started doing some uni work (!!) Not too much, but hey I still have to pass.
Monday went to Koerners, a pub on campus which has a weekly band competition, a guy from Mexico called Jorge got up and sang and dedicated it to all the exchange students.

Tuesday salsa again - about 100 ppl showed up and we had to start from scratch again... grr... roommate Dylan came there since they need more guys and he sucked... oh well... I think I'm getting better.

Wednesday PIT NIGHT, that's the main pub on campus. Lined up for an hour after pre-drinking session at my place. Finally got in by paying the bouncers $10 each, this is a normal practise!

Thursday went downtown for Jenna and Tash's bday (2 other exchange students) - BIG night which started with a Mexican drinking party (lots of Tequila) and ended with eating way too much 93c/slice pizza. Yes I am getting fat.

Friday the Belgians made hash cake! Yes interesting... $40 worth of weed in a $2.50 packet cake mix. Really didn't taste good. Tried a piece, probably a bit large, it definitely worked - that stuff takes about an hour to have any affect though, so glad I didn't try two

Bought some speakers off Ebay... sick of the laptop ones... $8.50 seemed like a good price and West Vancouver seemed close, I was wrong - took almost an hour and a half to get there. Speakers are good though, now I can impose my music on my housemates!

Last night a French/Aussie/Mexican party at Fairview - was again huge, until we got kicked out by the Res Advisers at 1am - why are they so tight ??? Came back here and played poker till 5am...

Tomorrow starting French lessons with Marie, and Daniel the mexican dude is coming too... offered to pay her but she refused.

Going to Whistler on Wednesday for AUSTRALIA DAY (Party starts at 9am!). Bib from UNSW bought an Aussie flag bikini and is getting excited about prancing around the snow in it. Well if its 8 degrees I guess she won't get too cold... Not going to bother bringing skis, maybe a piece of cardboard so we can go drunken tobogganing =)

OK well I have to go do washing, shopping and cleaning now. ugh. Happy Birthday mum - gift is in the mail

Cya ppl

PHOTOS

2005-01-17T05:13:00.000+08:00

OK I finally have had the time to put these photos up. Enjoy!

Campus

This is the Gage apartment towers, one of the residences on campus. My apartment is on the 8th floor of the South tower which is the one on the left:

Here is a view from my bedroom window before the snow started. My apartment faces North so this view shows English Bay with the mountains behind:

If I look to the North East I can see the North Shore of Vancouver and onto Cypress Mountain, where you can ski only half an hour from downtown!:

Here if the view from my window after the snow. And don't ask about the red car - I don't know why it has no snow on it!:

This is the main library mall on a weekend with the Buchanan Arts building on the left:

The campus has two libraries, the main library which is a grand old building currently undergoing renovations. It has a massive clock tower in front:

The other library is the Koerner library. It is newer and supposed to look like an open book. I can't see it...

The north end of campus looks out onto the Strait of Georgia and toward Bowen Island and Vancouver Island. There is a rose garden just behind me but its covered in snow!:

International House (where I take the Salsa class):

The Commerce classes are in the Angus building:

This is a very grand building off the main mall - I don't know whats in it, perhaps Chemistry?

My Apartment - South 8C

My roommates like to smoke. Here is a table with some of the accessories - the tall things are called sheesha. You suck flavoured tobacco through a tube. They say its harmless but I just googled to get the spelling and apparently 1 sheesha is equivalent to 18 cigarettes. I am yet to try it!

This is a bud buster. Its actually a coffee grinder but not many Vancouverites use it for coffee... figure the rest out yourself...

Dylan (one of my roommates) and I prefer to stick to alcohol... this is Dylan's grog collection.... I am yet to build mine...

Here is an ad for a frat party I found in our tower. Clearly I'm not welcome but $5 for all you can drink...! Damn...

People

Here is a picture of Dylan one of my roommates and a friend of his Kim, who is a dancer =)

The next few photos are from our Japanese dinner for Rina's 21st. This first one is me with Nash, one of the Mexican girls:

Here is Rina (from UNSW) and Daniel from Mexico:

Me with French girl Margo who lives opposite me in Gage:

Marie (from France), Rina and Nash - roommates from Fairview, another of the residences

VEGEMITE!!

I bought some Vegemite in Sydney airport before I left, thinking I wouldn't be able to buy it here - look what I found in Safeway (shelf completely full!)

I have given it to most of my roommates as a deal for trying some weed. They hated it and I felt nothing! Here is Daniel and Nash trying some Vegemite:

Whistler

Here are a couple of photos from my first day at Whistler last weekend. I went again this weekend but stupidly left my camera battery in the charger. So these photos are just from the Village and are not all that good - stay tuned for more!

Snow cock

OK I left these sexually explicit photos for the bottom so you don't have to scroll down =). With all the snow on campus a 'snow cock' competition amoungst the college kids started happening - this is one we found (and destroyed) on the carpark rooftop

Oops:

Isn't this the ugliest snowman you have every seen?

OK that's it for a pretty long post. Hope you enjoyed the photos and stay tuned for more!

I am no good at Salsa

2005-01-12T15:55:00.000+08:00

Tonight I went to a Salsa class at International House. Unfortunately I made the mistake of paying for the whole term upfront so I will have to suffer through it for the next 12 weeks! Nah I lie, it was pretty good. And there are about equal guys and girls which means I don't have to dance with other guys (they do in the intermediate class!) And most of the girls are Mexican, European or Australian so its all good.

When I got back most of my roommates were 'blazin' (smoking weed). When they came in from the balcony they were their usual high selves (ie laughing uncontrollably, getting random hallucinations, thinking way too much and getting really hungry) so I thought the only good thing to do was to make them a vegemite sandwich. It was so hilarious!! One guy spat it out in disgust and said "I can't believe you can eat this stuff, it tastes like beer and I hate beer!". I'm like dude, if only it DID taste like beer.

Getting close to working out the photos, just gotta make them smaller (and then take some!)

Later

WHISTLER!!

2005-01-11T14:51:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone,

A quick note to let you all know that I went to Whistler yesterday! It was AWESOME. For anyone who has skiid in Aus, imagine Thredbo, multiply it by about 4 in terms of size, and you're getting close. Long runs, soft snow, everything is so huge and so awesome. I took a lesson in the afternoon - it was for 2 hours and cost $79, pretty pricey. Everything there is so expensive, like the food- I bought a hot dog for lunch for $6 plus tax.

There's seriously Australians at Whistler than Canadians. No joke - I bought poles from an Australian in Can-Ski, had my skiis adjusted by an Australian in one of the rental shops, bought a drink from an Australian at the bar.... it's scary, I feel like I'm back home.

I have the UBC Whistler Lodge booked for next Friday and the Friday after that so I will have many more Whistler stories to come. The bad news is, the temperature was -15 in the Village and -30 up the top of the mountain and as a result I have gotten pretty sick... I spent most of the day in bed today, though was OK enough to go out for dinner for an Aussie friend's 21st tonight. ($12.50 for all you can eat Japanese)

Tomorrow I have class, and in the evening we are all going to Salsa dancing class. Yeh, I had to be talked into it, but my partner is this Mexican girl who looks a bit like Penelope Cruz (but better), so I didn't need too much convincing.

Nothing much else to tell you except I have enabled comments on this site at the request of many people so make sure you post some! If I don't get any comments I'm just gonna disable it again!!

Hope you're all enjoying the summer. If only we could get one day of sun here... sigh...

Later

Nick

Snow, Pot and Homeless people

2005-01-07T17:09:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

It snowed in Vancouver today!! I got home at 3am from a night out with a whole bunch of exchange students (mostly Australian, Mexican and Dutch) and slept through to around midday today, and when I opened my blinds the uni was covered in a layer of white. It was so cool especially since Vancouver hardly ever gets snow. Apparently last time it snowed they cancelled all classes and the uni shut down, but this was a light fall so no such luck!

There are so many homeless people in this city. I think because its the only part of Canada that isn't minus temperatures most days, they all congregate here. And they aren't like the ones in Sydney who just sleep in alleys, these guys follow you and harass you and swear at you if you don't give them anything. It's kinda scary. It's also strange because the rest of the city is so clean and organised.

There is a lot of pot here. The police don't seem to care at all - they have a beach on campus called Wreck beach (its a nude beach in the summer), and you just walk down to it and there's guys everywhere selling weed. I thought I was unlucky with my roomates, but now I realise its normal. And plus my roommates are pretty cool - 2 of them are from Bangladesh but have been here for 3 years, and the other 3 are Canadian. Only one of them is a non smoker. Also the guys from Bangladesh ordered 4 huge bottles of 60% European absinth off the net for $210. I haven't tried it yet but apparently the stuff causes severe hallucinations. Awesome.

The classes here are pretty cool. The profs are all really good so far, and the material looks good also. I'm taking corporate finance, institutional portfolio management, international law and corporate transactions. The assessments are similar to home - CP, exams and essays. Aside from my 2 comm and 2 laws subjects I'm also taking beginners German which will be interesting.

I got a phone today - the rates are pretty cheap, just called home for 1.4c per minute which was awesome. I'm hoping to go to Whistler for the first time this weekend but need to organise the bus, gear and accommodation. Really pumped though to start using the season pass! And there's been some great snow falling there so should be really soft and powdery.

Anyway, that will do for now. Email me if you wanna know more. Hope the Sydney weather isn't too hot!

Cyas

Nick

I've Arrived!

2005-01-04T03:13:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone,

Well I've now arrived and am settled into my apartment at the University of BC in Vancouver. My 14 hour flight arrived Saturday morning and was pretty bad - crying babies, turbulence, although I sat next to a friendly Canadian traveller who had lots of advice, and gave me the email address of her 21 year old neice who 'likes to party'. Excellent.

The weather here is COLD! It doesn't snow much in Vancouver but they get a frost every night so each morning all the trees and grass is white. The temperature during the day is around 0-5 degrees and the sun comes out so it's not too bad.

My apartment is on the 8th floor, and the University is built on a point of land surrounded by water, with the snow capped mountains of Vancouver Island on the other side, so my view is pretty amazing. Ill take some photos when I can be bothered. I have only met 1 of my other 5 housemates. He is Canadian, from Victoria (the capital city of British Columbia). He's pretty cool - an Arts major who is really into politics, the environment, etc. He used to live in the first & second year dorms last semester, and warned me that there might be a few girls coming in and out here. Well I met the first one yesterday - 6 foot tall, blonde, volleyball player - definitely welcome here.

Two of the other roommatare apparently smoke pot about 6 times a day and our furniture and carpet is covered in these black spots. Don't know what makes them yet but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with weed. There are bits of weed all over one table, and a coffee grinder which apparently they use if they are too lazy to cut up the grass. Apparently everyone in Vancouver smokes pot ('at least 75% of people on campus').

I took the bus downtown on my first day. The city is cleaner than Sydney, the drivers are more curteous, the public transport is faster, cleaner, more frequent and more environmentally friendly (runs on electricity and the whole of BC is powered by hydro). Most stores are cheaper than in Aus, but not by as much as I thought. You have to add 7% GST and 7% PST to everything you buy which means the price tags are all wrong and you end up with thousands of 1c pieces that you dont want.

There are 47 TV channels to choose from, and the apartments guide says "sorry we don’t allow additional channel subscriptions - I'm not quite sure what could me missing?? There are about 4 channels that 24/7 just sell stuff you don't need, and at least 3 channels that seem to only play the Simpsons.

I'm going downtown again today with the other Aussie students here to look for a cell phone, so I better leave it there. Email me with what is going on at home, but please don't mention the weather, beach or anything where warmth is involved!

Will take some photos of campus and update soonish.

Nick

First Post

2004-11-13T10:22:00.000+08:00

Hey ppl,

Everyone knows I'm firmly against blogs, xanga, posting photos on the net (especially of me) but I've given in and greated my own site. Not so I can ramble on about the parties I've been to or what I did today (not that there's anything wrong with that) but so I can tell you ppl about my travels around Canada, USA, and Europe. I'm not going for a month and a half but hell, its exam time right now and I'm bored.

I bought a season pass to Whistler this week. 350 bucks and its usually $1600!! I cant wait. Also tried to change my Dorm from the first year dorms to the third year dorms... although hmm, don't have to cook at the first year ones...

This is a view from 2003 season as Whistler. The snow is only 1 hour from my uni. AWESOME!!

Anyway Litigation 2 is calling.!

Nick