The Day Before School

When I left off, I was about to visit the house which still had an available room. I did, and it was somewhat different than what I had expected. It’s a house that’s owned by a middle-aged woman that has her own piano teaching school and has been inviting international students into her house for many years. The house is a bit off the beaten path, but it’s very nice and clean inside. Just the way she likes it. Most of the other residents are about my age, maybe a bit older. I was introduced to a girl from Seattle that’s attending medical school, an Indonesian guy that is studying classical piano, the 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 guinea pigs. I was also told that a Japanese-American from Manhattan lives there and that the woman, Alice, was looking for a European person to fill the last room.

She showed me around the house and the front porch, and all I could think was that this house was somehow very familiar and very strange to me at the same time. Anyways, we talked for a bit on the back porch and then she told me all the rules of the house, of which there are many. Everybody has a day of the week in which they clean the kitchen and mop the floor plus another chore that needs to be done on the weekend. She understands that people have people have different ideas of what is considered “clean”, but she is quite adamant about having the house completely spotless. “If I find a hair in the bathroom, it’s completely unacceptable.” So, logically, I agreed to live there. She admitted that I looked well dressed and that I was a good conversationalist. Then she asked if I had played any musical instruments, and I told her that I had played the piano and the trumpet. “Well why didn’t you say so!” Basically, anybody that has every played the piano in their lifetime is a friend of hers. She then went on to tell me about her students and about how her daughter lives down the street with an English bloke who is an excellent chef.

Before dragging on too long, I asked about specifics for paying rent or signing paperwork. She told me not to worry about that since I would be paying her in cash or check and she would be giving me a receipt. This was a big relief for me, since renting a room or a house in Australia is very serious business. Every single detail needs to be looked over carefully before signing a lease otherwise people will take advantage of you as soon as they possibly can. There’s even a branch of the government, called the RTA, which protects the lessors and the renters from being ripped off. Well, getting cash is not an easy thing for me to do, especially 6 weeks of rent (2 weeks up front, plus 4 weeks for the security deposit). So, I decided to open a bank account, which wouldn’t happen until Monday, when the banks were open again. I decided that I would move in once I at least had a bank account.

I had found a place to live and then on top of that I found my bags had arrived at my friend’s apartment when I returned. Then I opened one up and found that my toothpaste had spilled onto a few of my shirts and jacket. Oh well, I didn’t have to wear the same pair of pants and shoes that I had been for almost 5 days now.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I walked to campus, got a few things out of the way, ate lunch, and met up with the other UW guys. They had heard about a park where the sand volleyball club was meeting for an all-day event. After a lot more walking, we found the park and a guy recognized us as being “not from around here”. They offered us a beer and told us that they had a mini tournament going on, but that we could play on the back court. So we met a few people and played volleyball for about 2 hours. Meanwhile, the weather was very slowly changing from a slight drizzle to a downpour. Most everyone there had a car except for us. So the guy who was running the place offered us the rest of the beer in the keg if we helped clean up at the end. We happily agreed. The take-down took a while and we got pretty wet. But we also got 3-4 beers each, plus a sausage out of it. This guy and the other woman were really cool people. The guy told some really funny stories and the woman gave great advice about places to go for weekend trips. We ended up taking a cab back to the other guys’ place at around 8pm. Within an hour, we were all asleep. So, I picked up my stuff, told one of them I was leaving, and headed off to the apartment where my suitcases were. On the way there, it rained. Again.

Trying To Get Situated

Have you ever been to the Mitchell Park Domes? Yeah, it’s kinda like the rainforest exhibit here, except more sunny and breezy. The trees look the same, the air feels and smells the same, and it’s hilly everywhere you go. Just a thought
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Today is Friday, I arrived on Wednesday, and left on Monday. Still wearing the same clothes and I still haven’t got a hold of my luggage. I’ve made so many calls and checked in at the front desk of my hostel so frequently that most people have come to know me by name. Even the people in the airport ask me if my name is Neal when I say that I’m calling about lost luggage for Brisbane. Last night, I got word that the Brisbane airport may have one bag and they asked for a description for confirmation. They claimed to have one that belonged to me and offered to deliver it in the morning. Best news I had heard so far on this trip. But I still needed to find a place to live and my phone had run out of pre-paid minutes. A friend let me use her phone and I began calling the different people who had posted rooms on the UQ rentals website. One of the rooms that I was interested in answered and offered to meet me last night.

I went to the room, which turned out to be an apartment, and it didn’t have any furnishings in the bedroom. The people seemed nice, but it wouldn’t be an easy place for me to move into. By the time I left, it was 10:45 pm and I needed to take the bus back downtown. As I waited by the bus stop, I started to hear all these strange noises and saw leaves and branches falling down around me. A walked around the surrounding area and realized that there was a very active population of bats in the area. Big ones, too. When the flew across the street, I would guess they had a 2.5 - 3 foot wingspan. They really freaked me out though. All habitable land is covered by houses, roads, trees, and bushes. So every 20 seconds or so, the bats would start screeching and breaking small branches. They’re probably harmless but it sounded as if they were going to jump out of the bushes at any moment and attack. Either way I got home safely thanks to the extremely reliable bus system they have set up here.

This morning I checked out of the hostel, gave them my phone number in case they caught wind of my bags, and headed off to campus to attend two mandatory presentations. One of them was actually important, but they were both boring. Afterwards, I went back to the accommodations office and started putting my search into high gear. I began calling almost everyone on the list, beginning with the most updated listing. Most people had already filled the rooms or weren’t available to answer my call. As a last ditch effort, I sent a text message to a place which I had called last night and was rejected. They have a very diverse group of people, including two Americans, an Aussie, a Japanese person, and an Indonesian. It’s a great place to live on paper and they apparently still need a roommate as of today. Shortly after sending the text message, I received a call from the person on the list asking me more questions about myself and agreed to let me come by the house later tonight. I’ll do my best to impress them and hopefully they agree to let me stay. But for now, I will be trying to get a hold of my friends and ask them for a change of clothes.

A Day of Firsts

Upon arrival in Brisbane, I was promptly picked up by a very pleasant UQ driver and taken to my hostel in the CBD (Central Business District a.k.a. “downtown”). The weather was fairly comparable to a humid day at the end of August, so I decided to unload as much clothing and baggage as possible. Unfortunately, I had only a pair of pants to wear and lots of walking to do. The good news was that the food court 1 block away had free internet.

I logged on and made a desperate attempt to get a hold of the other UW students via facebook that I knew were already in Brisbane. I didn’t have any AUD cash since my I forgot to call the bank ahead of time and my card wouldn’t work at the ATMs. I exchanged some USD for AUD at a money exchange booth and then consulted the booklet I was given by the UQ driver on how to get to the school from my hostel. The directions were quite clear and I was able to find the bus stop that I needed. It was about a 15 minute bus right from downtown to UQ, which wasn’t too bad. They have a lot of busses around here and the fare was only $1.35 with a student discount.

My first impressions of the UQ campus were definitely not what I expected them to be. The only pictures I had seen were from Google Maps and everything looked empty and arid. It was not the case when I stepped off the bus. It was very green, full of people, and humid. I began to follow the signs, hoping to find some sort of office to assist me. I knew that I had missed some orientation sessions and I wanted to find out if there were more. I soon found myself walking through this great big semi-circular quad where students were playing frisbee, eating lunch, and sitting in the grass. Around the outside walkway, tents were erected and set in behind columns promoting the various student orgs. I came to learn that this even was called Market Day. Everyone was having a good time, handing out posters and baggies, playing music, and trying to recruit all the newcomers. I passed on through the quad (aka The Great Court) and found the office I was looking for. They gave me a packet of events for this week and told me that I need to attend to important sessions on Friday morning. From there I got my student ID and a Go card which is used for the bus system and the CityCat (catamaran). Then, as I was exploring more of the campus, I ran into the other UW kids by chance. They told me where they had purchased their phones, where they were planning to live, and how they had come about finding that place. Heading their advice, I went to the accommodation office to begin my own search. I picked about 5 places that I thought would work for me and decided to give them a call once I purchased a phone. I eventually ran into the UW kids again and we travelled back downtown together.
I went back to my hostel room, which luckily didn’t smell like molding wet shoe anymore, and had a chance to meet the other roommates. Three were from Germany and had met each other in Brisbane. They are either working or backpacking, but none of them are in school. Two were from West Washington University and had finished an active plate tectonics short course in New Zealand and were spending some extra time in Australia. It was nice to talk to some other Americans, especially ones who had been down under for a few weeks already. I left there to meet the UW kids for dinner and a few drinks. It was at this point I realized that I had been awake for almost two whole days and I wasn’t feeling an ounce of jet lag. I guess all that practice I was doing at home really paid off.

My initial reactions to the city are that it’s very crowded and things are more expensive than I was expecting. The special at Subway is $7 footlongs, which doesn’t seem as catchy. Plus it reminds me of the Dr. Seuss character than had more fingers on one hand than the other. The McDonald’s next to my hostel has burger meals for as much as $9.50. Hungry Jack (the australian Burger King) is the same. I hope these prices only hold true for this busy downtown food court, but I’m afraid that food is an all-around more expensive commodity. I also haven’t seen any grossly obese people around here. Not to say that they are health nuts, since just about every 3rd person smokes. Behind my hostel is the Queen Street Mall which is fairly large assembly of shops and food places. The streets are for pedestrians and some of the buildings are multi-level malls that we are familiar with in the states. It’s a place that has people eating and socializing from dawn to dusk, and then some.

I think I’ll be getting in the habit of putting up pictures. Soon I won’t have as much time to write, so it will be quicker to just see for yourself.

Cheers.

Sydney Airport

The flight went really well. Two meals, some interesting things to watch on the TV, an elderly woman from Minneapolis on my right, an empty seat on my left, and my laptop helped make for an enjoyable 14.5 hour flight. While we were descending to the runway, I looked across 5 people and saw a beautiful view. The Harbor Bridge over the water and the Sydney Opera House just behind it. I was finally in Australia, but the trip wasn’t over.

After passing customs, I realized that I didn’t know where my bags were, their final destination, nor which flight would get me from Sydney to Brisbane. A man at the baggage claim filed a report and told me that my bags would likely arrive in Brisbane a day after I arrive. Then a woman sent me to the United offices (out, left right, straight, up the lift, and down the hall), where I received a FIM (Flight Interruption Manifest) which was redeemable at the Qantas domestic desk in the far corner of the airport. I checked in and did security again and then waited in this tiny room. Once the room started to fill up, they checked our boarding passes and loaded us onto Qantas busses. The busses weaved in and out of the tarmac and then around the outside to Qantas hangars. Once I found my gate, a fellow passenger let me use his phone so that I could inform the UQ accommodation services my new arrival time.

When it was all said and done, I arrived in Brisbane from Milwaukee at 11:30 am after 29 hours of travel time. Didn’t seem so bad now that I think about it. But I really need a shower and clean clothes.

Crisis Averted

Today started exactly the way it was supposed to; definitely a first for me. I finished packing, made deposits at the bank, had a nice drive down to O’Hare with my Mom, passed check-in and security utilizing both my speed and agility, and was waiting at my gate 2 hours before boarding. And then things started to go awry.

The incoming flight was about 30 minutes late. Not a big deal. We boarded the plane with the usual impatient bumping and elbowing. Then, after everyone was seated and carry-ons were stowed, we waited for another 30 minutes. The captain announced, “This is your captain… sorry for the wait… blah blah… paperwork issue.” This was promptly followed by sighs, moans, and an elderly man walking to the cockpit from the back of the plane. A stewardess follows and they get off. 25 minutes later, “A passenger is being treated for medical issues on the walk-way. Paramedics have been called and are treating him as we speak. However, we are unable to retract the walkway until he has been stabilized. Believe it or not, we want to talk off as badly as you do.” Chuckles. Sneers. It’s 6:50 by the time we take-off. A far cry from the 5:20 that was printed on the ticket.

Now I’m getting nervous. I step into LAX soil at 9:02 pm PST, and I recall than my Air New Zealand connection leaves at 9:15. I have no idea where I am, or where I’m supposed to be. I run down the hall behind an acquaintance that’s trying to catch another international connection to Hong Kong, but lose him and ask for directions to ANZ. “Go out the doors, all the way to the end of the ‘zone’, take the ‘A’ bus to terminal 2.” Got it. I get to ANZ check-in at 9:20 and all the lights are off. Nobody’s home. A TSA agent tells me to use the ANZ phone on the wall. I do and reach an agent after a few minutes. She tells me that I indeed missed the flight, that I have been rescheduled for the same flight 24 hrs later, and need to go back to United since they are responsible and they should put me up for the night. So back to the ‘A’ bus and Terminal 7. The people at United unwillingly admit that it was their mistake and try to pull strings for me and my luggage. Click. Click. Click. “Can I see your passport?” Click. Click. I interrupt to tell them that I don’t care which flight or which carrier. I just want to get there ASAP. He looks at me and says, “C’mon let’s go. They’re not going to like this, but it’s worth a try. We’re going to catch the 10:20 flight to Sydney.” It was 10:01. So in true Home alone style, we run to security and cut to the front of the line. Meanwhile, a woman is calling my name over the PA every 2 minutes for boarding. Once we were clear, I sprinted to the gate where people saw me running and waved me in.

Now I’m on the plane and sweating, hoping that nothing fell out of my pockets. The flight attendant tells me that there is overhead storage near the front. I stow my bags there and take one of the open seats. I didn’t know what the flight number was, when it was supposed to arrive, where my bags were headed, but I was on the plane and I would in Brisbane 24 hours earlier than I was previously anticipating. Crisis averted.

USA vs. Canada

Phenomenal game tonight in men's hockey. 5 - 3, USA over Canada. I can only hope they can carry it through the rest of the tournament. U-S-A All The Way

D - 5

Five more days now until Go Time and things are pretty much the same as there were three days ago. I've done a bit more packing and crossed off more things from my checklists, but watching the Olympics has occupied most of my time. For some reason, focusing my attention on sporting events with international participation hasn't been a good distraction from thinking about this trip. So, in an effort to vent my anticipation, I decided to go ahead and start a blog of my semester abroad... over a week before it began.

I haven't got much Australian-specific material at this point, so try and bear with me. Time management and communication are two issues that may pose a challenge for me, so I'm making a preemptive strike. I would like to update this blog as often as I can and Skype with people on a somewhat regular basis. Brisbane is in the UTC +10 time zone and CST is UTC -6 which makes Brisbane 16 hours ahead of Milwaukee/Madison. Assuming a "normal" awake/asleep pattern, it would be better for real-time communication to occur at night CST and in the morning in Brisbane. My Skype name is nh3456 and my e-mail is haas.neal@gmail.com if you want to contact me. I'm not sure what my living situation will be like until after I arrive, so it's hard to say what the internet connection situation will be like, or how busy my schedule will be. I'll keep you posted.

You can probably find a lot of info about Brisbane on the internet, but here is a quick overview:

3rd largest Aussie city @ ~2 million ppl (1. Sydney, 2. Melbourne)

The Brisbane River snakes right through the middle, making for an interesting commuter dynamic

Temp: Avg. high - 78 F Avg. low - 60 F

Rainfall: ~37 in./year (about the same as Milwaukee)

University of Queensland was ranked 41st in the world by UK's Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings (UW ranked 61st)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane for your convenience

I've signed up for all the classes that I will need to graduate for when I return in July, which is a big relief. It took a little while to get things sorted out, but it all fell into place nicely. Those classes are Electronic Circuits, Introduction to Control Systems, Popular Music: Elvis to Madonna, and Analysis of Scientific Data (Statistics). I'm excited to learn in a different classroom setting, especially one in a different country. Frankly, right now I'd be excited to be in a classroom anywhere! Monday can't come soon enough.

D - 8

First off, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Secondly, one week remains until it's time for me to be carried off the Wisconsin frozen tundra to Australia: The Land Down Under.

It's amazing to think that I will travel half-way across the world (9,689 mi) in 25 hours travel time with no substantial exertion on my part. Science rules, once again. The plan is to drive down to O'Hare next week Monday to catch my flight at 5:30 pm, layover at LAX, layover again in Aukland, and then arrive in Brisbane at 9:55 am on Wednesday the 24th. Sounds simple enough, right?

8 days seems so long to me right now, but I'm sure it will go by quickly. I've still go things to do; eat, watch movies, pack, wait, and then wait some more. Life is hard these days, what can I say? I've done the SCUBA training, filed my taxes, enrolled for my classes (I got all the one's that I needed!), contacted the US State's department, contacted my credit card company, arranged for UQ to pick me up at the airport, completed all the forms for UW, and made copies of important documents (passport, prescriptions, birth certificate). Am I missing anything?