Crowders in a Sunburned Country

9.2.10

Australia Day!

Australia Day, 26 January, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788. This is a big holiday for Australians everyone gets the day off of work to hang out with friends and family, have bbq's, and drink lots of beer. It's similar to the Fourth of July in the states.

One of the big things to do on Australia Day is to play "Two-Up". "Two-Up" is Australia's national game, however it is illegal to play. You may only play this game on public holidays. Any other time of the year you can be ticketed for playing.

Here is how you play:

smooth area of 3 metres diameter is used with any number of players participating. Here's a few terminology used in the game:


KIP       : Piece of wood on which the pennies (coins) are placed for spinning
RINGER    : Person in charge of the game
SPINNER   : Player spinning the coins
COCKATOO  : Keeps a lookout for the "Law" aka Police !

The RINGER will call for the "SPINNER" who will place a bet with the "BOXER". When this is set, side bets may be made, for either Heads or Tails. The "RINGER" will then call "Come in Spinner", the "SPINNER" will then walk into the centre of the RING and tosses the coins upwards.

If the coins land with 2 Heads facing UP, it is called "HEADS". 2 Tails is called "TAILED THEM", and when one of each is showing, then it is "ODDS". The coins must be tossed until a result is obtained.

The game is for the "SPINNER" to spin as many pairs of "HEADS" as possible. When 2 Tails are showing, the "SPINNER" passes the "KIP" to another person.The modern game is now played with three coins thus giving a quicker result i.e. 2 HEADS or 2 TAILS.

We would have loved to give this game a whirl but unfortunately I had a big test coming up and had to study. (Next Australia Day will be trying the "Two-up") So we did the next best thing, we went to a park!

Richie loved it because he could go bouldering

The Eliminator

and I loved it because I could be outside studying

We brought a picnic with us!! Richie loved the peach!

Carnival Spiritual

So one of our main goals while in Sydney is to hit up as many cultural events as possible. So after the Sydney Fest we kept the ball rolling with a show that was just down the street. Its a worldwide traveling show that is based off of southern Indian traditions. We saw some sword spinning, crazy dancers, and some ridiculous drumming show... all wrapped up with some meditation chants by swami maharaja. It was a bit hipped out with a ton of white people wishing they were Indian but hey whatever floats your boat. The pictures were hard to get with a point and shoot and no flash.

A little taste of America

Our friend Micah came to visit and stayed in Hotel de los Crowders aka the plush futon mattress we have under our bed loft. Originally I was suppose to go visit Micah and another friend Jeff down in Melbourne last week. They were there to compete for team USA is a surf lifesaving comp but I got a job assisting and it fell through. Luckily Micah came by Sydney for a couple days. In Sarah's international student handbook it says its good to surround yourself with your own countrymen when you are feeling down. Thanks for the comfort Micah.

MTV Cribs

So we have our setup all fine tuned now. It took a while to find a flat but this one seems to be perfect. Yes, its a little small but a fully furnished (bed, 2 desks, 2 chairs, microwave, bar fridge) , free shared washer/dryer, all utilities included flat for $240 a week is a rare find in this town. Check it out!!!

20.1.10

Sydney Festival

This is a 2 week long festival that peaks on Australia Day of course. "Festival First Night" drew more than 200,000 for a day of theatre, music and art shows. We saw an amazing display for indian music and the largest crowd Ive ever been in for Al Greens first australian performance EVER.... they love Soul down here I guess.

19.1.10

Royal Botanical Gardens

The Royal Botanical Gardens are quite a sight. I first saw them with Bobbo back a couple years ago on our way to New Zealand. So Sarah adn I took an afternoon stroll to "get out of the city". The Gardens were originally teh sight of the first garden for the origianl colony that settled here. Considering the first group of 1000 people to the pinal colony had no gardening experince it didnt do too well.

Now its the shit. you can see tons of different wildlife including hundreds of bird species.

The greatest thing about this park is the signs. They invite you to walk on the grass, sing to the birds, and hug the trees.

They have large trees here.

It is sandwiched between the eastern part of downtown and the harbor

A Kookaburra.... not sitting in an old gumtree

18.1.10

Culture Shock!!!!

On the surface Australia seems to be just like america but with a funny accent and an obsession with cricket. In fact, it is completely different. I thought the easiest way to portray this would be a "what the f*%k...." list, full of the things we have learned in the past couple weeks.

When looking for pancakes and hashbrowns we stumbled upon a place that sells another kind of breakfast combo. hotdog, donut, and coffee for $4.50

People still love their Utes. aka el caminos or car trucks.

When there is a holiday people take a month or more off.

They have an official "Lambassator" with a tv ad campaign making sure you eat lamb on Australia Day, the most important day of the year.

They love holidays here, so dont expect to get anything done during the month of January.

Trains are easy, buses are hard

When eating a a restaurant and you see fried black fungus on the menu, no worries its just your regular ol mushrooms. yummmmmmm.

Don't be fooled by the look of Hungry Jacks, its just Burger King in disguise.

So much for Subway's 5 dollar foot long song. They are $7 here. I tried to sing the song... nobody got it, they just stared at the weird american and said..... Toasted of not??

When you order chips you get a fatty tray of french fries.

If you can walk into a building dont be fooled, it may cost money to get out..... NO JOKE!! $16.50 to
be exact.

If you have a chronic runny nose... no worries mate. ALL restaurants here skimp on napkin costs and just use tissues.

At the Uni (thats what they call college) you get 6mb of internet per day. It lasts about 3 minutes if you browse like an american.

Apple somehow tricked thousands of people into buying iPhones without being able to use the internet on them.

"In general Australia is where America was 30 years ago" - the IT guy at the Uni.

If you dont like organic and you dont like conventional, once again no worries they have "in the middle bananas" and they are marked with red wax. Im still not quite sure what "in the middle" means and neither does the man working the produce department. but hey they have them.

The grocery store has a dog food section full of better meat than what we eat. Ashlin would be in heaven.

Well thats it for now. im sure I will have a 2nd edition post for this.....

17.1.10

Down by the beach.... boooyeeee

Since we have been here its been non stop logistical setup. Finding a flat, immigration office, visa troubles, international student office, commonwealth bank account setup, cell phone service, public transport options, finding a job, connecting internet, et cetera. In between those days we have tried to fit in some beach time. Its summer, everyone is on holiday. when your on holiday you go to the beach here. The craziest thing is I've pretty much grown up in the sun and I've NEVER EVER EVER seen a sun like this. Its suuper powerful and burns you raw in less than an hour. everyone wears 30+ screen everyday and they are serious about it too. There are billboard, bus banners, and canvassers everywhere promoting the 5 ways to protect thanks to the Aussie government. Also you see a lot of scare tactic ads telling you you WILL die if you go out without sunscreen. one last note is according to the governments campaign.... "Who ever said a tan was cool?". They make it cool to wear sunscreen, I mean when you see the spinner bowler for the aussie cricket team lathered in zinc for the 5 day long test match again Pakistan it makes you want to put a stick on when you are sitting inside, at night time. OK enough of that.

We started at the most famous beach and worked backward in order. Bondi, Manly, Coogee, Maroubra, all have been touristy city beaches. Still cool though.

Bondi is cool but its a little crowded for my tastes.

Bondi has some cool tide pools you can swim in. 25 passes for $95 aus dollars. Not bad. We are going to get a pass one day. Bondi is about 30 minutes from us on public transport .

Coogee has a nice beach but this is a better view. The sea cliffs are amazing here. Right under this cliff is an area called the baths that has a beautiful natural tide pool and cliff jumping.

In order to get to Manly you have to take the ferry. its a amazing 45 min ride with views in all directions.

This is a saturday on Manly. Not quite like St john.

Maroubra Beach, its huuuuge and a little less popular. that waves were massive this day so all the swimmers had to stick to a little flagged area in the center.

16.1.10

The Move...a general overview

So, its been ridiculously hectic moving overseas. We still don't have our own internet which has kept us from blogging the past couple weeks. We are still committed to doing this thing. So just to catch up, here is a general overview in pictures to give you an idea of what has happen.