Local Market

My dad and Annie think I need to get more out of the house so I decided today I would go to the local market. It is about a 10-15 minute walk from where I will be working. (yeah so I more or less got the job if that wasn't already written here somewhere). It's called paddy's market. The bottom floor is a huuuuuuuuuuuge flea market (imagine the picture up top but 12-15 rows more). Tons of Asian stuff. The 1st floor is a mix of factory outlets and eateries. The 2nd floor is factory outlets and the 3rd floor is eateries and arcade.
There were alot of really interesting things there. I want to buy sean a croc hat, made from real croc leather (preferably with teeth). I know I'll have to get other people things but that is one thing that stuck out that I think Sean would really want. I ended up finding a wallet for myself. it was $60. Ironically it was more money than I wanted to put into a wallet but oh well, the last one lasted me 7 years-ish. As the colors fade and the leather has been stretched and stained, its probably time to retire it.
I got a chance to play Street Fighter at the arcade (since they are no arcades back home that have anything worth playing really) and even though the joystick controls were really rough, I whooped some serious butt against random other people.
Classes start tomorrow, it is gonna be so rough its not even funny. I have a feeling like Im not gonna be prepared. I have no idea what to expect, for all I know it could be like Hogwart's School of Magic like from Harry Potter.

Oporto

Expanding my pallet I tried some Oporto after my interview today. The interview went well. Next I will have to do some online orientation and then i will have a trial/training period. It will be in the Darling Harbor, which is a beautiful harbor. It was cloudy today so I didn't take pictures but I will when it is nicer.

The chicken was pretty good, oporto specializes in chicken sandwhiches, wraps, and salads. The very tasty grilled chicken came as two breasts on a sandwhich with little bit of mayo and chilisauce. Yep chicken and chili. Other than that, it wasn't that fantastic of a day, it was pretty wet out. Not alot to see.

Levi

The 18 day old Levi is sick. Levi is Irma's grandson, through her son Lee. He is currently hospitalized. He stopped breathing at one point for 2 minutes. The entire family was rightfully hysterical. Irma is with Lee and his wife Sarita over in Perth. If things get much worse, I imagine that Lorenzo may take a leave from work and go visit.

On a bit of brighter news: A restaurant called "The Meat and Wine Co" called about an interview for tomorrow. It is owned by one of Irma's siblings so she put in a good word. It's near Darling Harbor and it's about a 35 minute bus ride away.

Percy Jaskson

I started reading this series called Percy Jackson and The Olympians. If you recall, a movie was just released. Considering the movie was based on a book and reviews mentioned the movie did not do the book justice I decided (in some of my spare time) I would read them. I've gotten through 2 of 5 books and these are my thoughts:

Unfortunately for the movie, it comes out after the immense success of Harry Potter, and as such, it is more than likely going to be judged by the Potter series. At first it seems a bit harsh to put the book up to Potter's standards but Riordan, the author, copies many ideas that Potter, and books before it, used much better.

Percy is your ordinary, everyday failure of a 6th grader. He gets in fights; he fails his classes; and always seems to be getting himself expelled. His educational failure is attributed to being ADHD and dyslexic, which is a good moral for children: "If you are failing classes then its not your fault!" But actually most children don't find out their father they have never met is actually Poseidon. That's right, the book says that being dyslexic and ADHD is attributed to his brain being hard wired for Ancient Greek and Battle. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure. Being the son of Poseidon he has insanely overpowered water-based abilities. They then go on to tell you that his entire life is more or less a series of lies to try to mask his heritage.

One of the main problems of the series is the lack of decent story telling. Sure the writing is very vivid and captivating, but at the end of book you are left with a "that's it?" feeling. Not a "oh wow! I'd love to read more!" kind of thats-it but rather a "what the heck kind of story was that?!" Throughout the book Percy undergoes trials which is typical of adventure stories, however in Percy's case, the word "trial" is very liberal. Most challenges he near immediately know how to solve and does so without and difficulty. The entire book is just a cake walk for this 6th grader. Foreshadowing is one thing, but its too blatantly obvious when Percy has a trial ahead of himself. He is either walking to a fountain, rain, toilets, river, bridge, water park, another river, the beach, and yet another river. His enemies are too stupid to fight him AWAY from water.

One of the biggest problems I have with the series is that the author is always force-feeding you morals. In the second book, percy gets a retarded half-brother who is a cyclops and a spoon full of "mentally hand-capped does not mean he isn't physically capable and a good friend too!" I near wanted to vomit. Among all of the "America is so great" propaganda, obeying authority, and dad always knows best (even if he never has seen you before you turned 13) I tried very hard not to vomit.

Of course once you get passed all of the bad story telling and unbearable morals, the book IS actually enjoyable. The characters (besides Percy) are more or less believable. The author is very good at description and the books are very easy, fast reads. Is it worth buying? no, not really, but if you have a friend who has a copy and you aren't watching a good tv show then its a decent read.

Art post

This post is an art post. I'm not entirely sure what that means. Perhaps I will post more pictures as I draw them. But this particular picture is part of something I've been working on. I was debating on whether to post it but it turned out alright. The original sketch was a bit messy, It was obvious that I need to get back in to drawing if I can. Fortunately I'm still pretty darn handy at photoshop so minor adjustments the crappy eraser would not allow, I was able to do. Not much is happening lately since I've been mostly at home all week but as you can tell I've been finding ways to keep myself busy.

ps. full size looks a million times better.

New Shoes

So I FINALLY got around to buying a new pair of shoes. I wasn't able to buy a pair in the U.S. before I left because I the amount of money I had didn't make the purchase feel that safe. After going to several shoes stores I finally went to one of those stores that analyze your stride. Apparantly my stride rolls in towards the ankles which is rediculously common. The woman was a very knowledgable salesperson, and I needed shoes, so I ended up buying these Asics. Here is the kicker. The shoes were $209. Yep just like everything else in Aus, shoes were double price also. I am currently looking into methods of mailing something from the U.S. to Australia so I can try to save a bit of money but haven't had fantastic luck yet. If I find a way to mail things here, I'll keep you posted. (hee hee get it? mail? Posted? I kill myself sometimes)

Wicked

I finished Wicked and the AvP campaign. Wicked was very good. Although I felt the ending seemed a bit rushed, the writing was deep and vivid. Wicked is about how the Wicked Witch became known as such. Contrary to her name, she barely new magic. She actually studied life sciences. The witch's name was Elphaba. The story follows her birth, school years, and rise to infamy. The story also delves into how the Wizard of Oz wrested control of the entire kingdom and appointed himself as Emperor, ruling all of Oz with a greedy iron fist for over 40 years, finally leaving only because of fear of a coup de'tat. I won't spoil anything for you. Only that scarcely in the world is there any such thing as good and evil. Labels as such are placed as propaganda to incite hate and prevent humanization of characters.

Is a man who walks into an office and shoots the chairmen of a multinational organization evil? What if I told you that the chairman himself was responsible for entire villages in 3rd world countries burning to the ground in the name of profit and as a result hundreds of people died? Now who is evil?

When you are driving down the road and an extremely inconsiderate driver cuts you off and nearly causes you an accident do you spurn them? What if I told you that studies show that if aggressive driver were out of the picture that more accidents would occur and traffic would be more problematic and slower.

Is such a thing as evil then? Are people capable of evil? To this I would say that children are a perfect example. On one hand they burn ant hills with magnifying glasses, but on the other they grab/steal things from one another with merely the purpose that "I wanted it" and did not truly consider the consequences of their actions. This I would say is not truly evil but merely adolescent ignorance. I guess the key here is perspective.

Chest-Bursting With Love

I bought the new Aliens Vs Predator game; something to help tide me over till class starts. I finished the aliens campaign. The game itself is really fun. A bit spooky at times. Especially if you play as a Marine and you are getting swarmed by aliens. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, though I liked the previous iteration so I hope the game lives up to my hopes.

Speaking of gross thing. A cockroach died in front my room. It pooped everywhere and then just bam, dead. It was gross cause it was still twitching upside down in front of its droppings. It makes me think it just pooped so hard it killed itself. Although I dislike bugs, I don't suddenly break down and cry out for help. I took the flyswatter and carried the bug (at a full arm's length mind you) and flung it outside.

Na na na na na

So aussie's seem to eat ALOT of fruits and vegetables. While chips and biscuits (cookies) are still present, the produce market seems to be much stronger than the U.S.. There are commercials for a variety of produce. One of the more prominent snacks is bananas. The commercial makes the distinction between nonos (candy, soda, and chips) and nanas (bananas). I personally think the lack of chips, biscuits, and lollies (candy) is attributed to the lack of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Junk food would have to be made from more expensive sugar. In other words, junk food costs much more to produce than produce does (especially when adding in the cost of advertising). There is still junk food here but the market is smaller and more niche with sure fire winners like Oreos.

Banana Commercial


Now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say AUS is magic land where everybody is fit.
Australia beats US to title of most obese nation, report finds
Although there is some dispute as of right now to which country gets to claim to be the fattest, Australia does not need Corn Syrup helping them out in any way.

Shopping

So first off, sorry about no blog update yesterday. Very little happened. Of what did happen, it would be easier to add to this blog.
I went to the bank and shopping on Wednesday hoping that my money had been transferred over. It wasn't. So instead I just went window shopping around the mall. Target actually had some nice clothes. Some shorts that I really wanted to buy. When I came back for them on thursday, THEY WERE GONE. Apparently, Thursday evening is "Late Night Shopping". Stores are normally only open til 6 but on thursday they stay open til 9. Since its such a big shopping day, stores spend the day reorganizing stock. All the clothes I wanted got displaced. I even wanted to get some new underwear since Annie tells me you are supposed to get new underwear for the Chinese New Year. (Starting clean I take it)
Well I bought some singlets/A-shirts/Wife-beaters whatever you want to call them. I bought them for when it gets hot but its been disappointingly cool. (about 72 degrees right now).

I bought some shorts at some store called Cotton On. The picture up top is a reversible mask/hat that I found in a surfer/snowboarding shop. The reversible choices are A. a happy KKK member; or B. a sad black person. That is entirely what I interpreted it as.

They had a few other stores also. Big W is a bit like walmart but smaller and clothes also low quality. Myer is like Macy's nice stuff but expensive. Then there were the myriad of little stores that had some semi-interesting things and various prices ranges.

FINALLY

I'm finally enrolled in classes. It took soooo long, but after lots of running around and scavenger hunting for signatures, I'm done. They aren't the original classes I wanted, but they are Robotics, Aviation Evaluation and Design Appraisal, Whiteness Beyond Colour: Identity and Difference, and Communicating. I was to attend some mandatory orientation for the exchange program but almost 2 hours into the meeting there was a 10 minute recess that I used to duck out of the incredibly lame meeting.

Oh oh oh yeah, I just remembered I bought some McD's breakfast that morning as well. I was shocked. Not because the food was different. It was actually entirely the same taste. But it was the menu that shocked me so much. The only had variations of the McMuffin, pancakes, and hasbrowns. No McGriddles, no Bagels, no Biscuits, no breakfast burritos, and no Mc Skillet. Well at least they have those delicious hasbrowns.

Preston's Passing

I mentioned this before but I was waiting for some better photos. Preston passed away on Saturday. He had kidney failure. We all saw it coming. He was slowly becoming less agile. I wanted to dedicate this post to him and his memory. He was close with my dad and step mom. I offered my condolences to them and this is what my dad wrote in response:

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for you message. I really appreciate your words of sympathy. I believe that everyone who knew
Preston, knew that he was a rare individual that touched the heart. I cannot look in a room or outside
on the deck or in the yard without thinking that he is there. It will take some time to get over it. He was
unique and special in the truest sense. As he became old and weak and more dependent on me, so I
became more dependent on him. His needs became my close concerns while his smile and affectionate
eyes became my reward.

At the Vet, we stayed with Preston to pet and hold him as he went to sleep. Then we wrapped him in a
blanket and brought him home. Sean and I excavated a grave in the woods about 4 feet deep, in a spot
that he often went to investigate and would come out covered with sticky seeds. Then Sveta, Sean and I
took his body to this spot on the wooden sled that he previously pulled. We carefully lowered him and
spoke about his virtues, said a prayer, and covered him with soil and a top layer of snow. Sveta and I
lit a candle and stayed for a while. Then, as it became dark, we went home.

There are more pictures of him if you interested:
Hagan Family Album

Happy Valentine's day!

I surprised Annie for Valentine's day. I thought about using 1800flowers.com but I wasn't sure when Annie would be home so I asked Tiffany to drop them off. Annie and I have played several games while skyping back and forth. I have learned not to play scrabble against her because I always lose by a large margin.
The rest of my weekend has been pretty laid back, it's one of those "I'm waiting for A to happen so I can do B and C". I am waiting for tuesday so I can email my professors my transcript and ask for approval for these dumb classes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Chinese Food

Not alot happened on Saturday. I finally beat a game called Psychonauts. It's a hilarious little game but you play the role of a kid going to psychic summer camp. The way you deal with problems in the game is delving into someone's mind and traversing their tangled thought patterns. These scenarios include a Circus, a Theatre, a Dance club, a Settlers of Catan-esque game, even a Tokyo-like city where you are like Godzilla. The writing is very witty, I enjoyed that entire game start to finish.

Today was the first time I ate Chinese food here. I must same I was really impressed by the local restaurant here. The cost was about 18$ average but the cost of living here is double so like $9 US but they had 10% off for take away. Id say it was a real deal then. The food was very rich. I got Szechuan chicken, Jaime got Garlic 'Prawns' (Shrimp), Fae got Sweet and Sour Pork. The food didn't come with rice, so we had to get a side. I just realized as I'm writing this that I didn't use chopsticks. :( I missed an opportunity to play with my food.

Now its just getting rediculous.

I went around campus today trying to collect signatures. Sure, it felt like a bit of a waste of a day (not to mention expensive bus fare) but at least I'm getting some progress on my situation done. Today was about 100 degrees and sunny. Throwing Sun screen on is second nature to everyone here by now. I walked from building to building attempting to collect some signatures to get into some of my classes. I say attempt because it's 1:00pm and 3 faculty heads (who I was told should be here) went home early because it was hot and friday and "blah blah we don't care about students" is all I really heard. I went back to the advisor and she just said to me, "At this point it might be just easier to email them." It took everything not to shoot daggers out of my eyes at her. So now I have to wait until the Purdue system to come back online on Monday to be able to link them my transcript.

On a sad note: my dad informed me that our dog Preston's kidneys are failing and that they will have to put him down on saturday. I asked my dad for some photos so I might be able to post some nice pictures of him because he deserves it. He was the nicest, most caring dog, I've ever EVER seen. He will be missed greatly.

I miss my cheeses!

I tried some typical cheese here. Most cheese is labeled as "tasty" (you can see it behind the black magic marker). I would like to point out that they have deceived me in every sense of the word. It is NOT tasty. It is headache inducing skunky cheese. I miss my beautiful cheddar and mischevious swiss cheese. Monterey jack, how I long for your marbled whites and yellows. I even tried on the wrapped cheese like we have for American Singles. Ick.. it was just a plastic version of the larger block.

Anyhoo, for non-food related news. Mom is helping me out with the wire transfer paperwork and such. UNSW still didn't appologize for screwing me over, however they did say they sent an email that I never got. Oh and they never followed up on the email. But I digress, I have to play scavenger hunt tomorrow for signatures to try and attempt to get these classes that I want.

Speaking of skunky cheese. They don't have skunks here. They have no idea how bad they can smell. I tried to describe it when my dad's dog got sprayed but I don't think it captures the essence of the funk.

Miss Communication

Well wednesday could not have been more of a roller coaster. I woke up early in the morning to get a hold of Purdue to check possible solutions and talk to my bank. The good news is, I may be able to find substitute classes for the ones UNSW failed to inform me weren't offered. I just have to run around campus collecting signatures like an Easter egg hunt. Down side is I won't be able to go until friday.

My bank was being incredibly difficult as well. The woman on the phone (at $.88 a minute mind you until unlimited skype kicked in) told me that the only way to get my money here is to wire transfer it and that I have to recieve a fax from her... What?... I don't have a fax machine in this country! I went to my Aussie bank to se if they can help. The dumb woman had me use my debit card in the atm several times with a stupid look on her face when I told her that my US bank has a withdrawl limit of $210 and that I want to transfer my entire account over. She ignored me and pressed buttons and I got $200 out of the atm minus $3 atm fee and about$10 currency change fee.... What an idiot..

I went skating later briefly to see how the local bike paths are. Holy crap they are hilly. I can do most of it, but every once in a while there is just something too steep or too hard of a turn. I didn't crash but I did get dirt or a bug in my eye. So I had to turn around and skate back and flush out my eye.

Overall its just been a weird day.

ps. the picture is a chinese based water clock from the 1000s. The clock was outside of the mall where the bank was.

My world has just come crumbling down.

Today was tuesday. It started out like any other day so far: birds waking me up at 7:30 am; a bowl of Kellog's Sultana Bran Crunch (sultana = raisin); and a shower. I went off to the MacQuarie mall from earlier and picked up a phone from the network "3". It is a snazzy little beast with wifi and unlimited facebook and skype. I also spoke to the bank and set up an account to transfer money into. The interest rate on savings accounts is somewhere at around 5.5% (gigantic compared to U.S.). I still have yet to transfer the money but I have a number that will make it all very easy.

I felt on top of the world. Like, that I am glad all this karma is paying off from trying to be extra nice to everyone. Then I got to school for registration...

I attended this hour long boring meeting telling me things I've already learned in the few days I've been here. Afterwards I gathered my student info and went to speak with the advisor to ensure that i was enrolled in the correct classes...
I'm not.
Not only was I not enrolled, but they aren't offering ANY of the courses this semester. The course I NEED to graduate. Not only am I not enrolled in these classes but they have known since november that these classes aren't offered and completely neglected to inform me. I'm super pissed right now. I may not be able to graduate on time. I may not be able to get into grad school on time. My entire direction on life just got smacked in the face.


I'm mad.


I'll let you know how it goes when I talk to Purdue tomorrow and try to grovel to get ANY classes that might be able to count.

"University" and "bad chicken"

Irma asked Fae (the host daughter) to show me how to use the bus system and make it to school. Good thing I had a guide because there are so many buses that go so many different ways that it would be easy to get lost. Here is the part where my jaw dropped. A single, one-way, non-transferable ticket cost $5.10. So that means with the 2 buses I would take to school, and the 2 buses I would take home, I would pay $20 A DAY. That is really unsettling. Once I get my student ID card I will be able to purchase week passes at $23 but still that is pretty expensive coming from indiana.

Uni (Aussie's shorten University) is actually kind of nice. It is about 1/2 the size of Purdue's campus but many of the buildings are very close together. It's a very lush campus. I am glad I got to see it a bit before I have to go to the international exchange office on tuesday.
Campus building

We stopped for some lunch, Fae had a grilled chicken sandwich and I had fried. We walked a bit to see Circular Quay (pronounced Key for some odd reason). A crazy aboriginal looking man was playing the digereedoo. But he sounded a lot more like a DJ selling cd's with digeree-accompniment.
Aboriginal

We stopped by the opera house to get some pictures of the inside since Rashika was so interested it what it looked like inside, but it was Asian language tours day so I would've had to pay to go on a tour that I didn't understand.
Bridge
Opera House

On the way back, it started getting pretty hot abd both Fae and I were starting to feel a bit sick. We stopped in a library place that had a model of the city and also escape the heat.
City Model

The ride home was a long way. On the way, Fae threw up on the bus. Fortunately she had a bag to puke into instead of into her purse or on the floor. We met her mom at the MacQuarie mall I previously had pictures of. Fae went to the bathroom to throw up several more times as I helped Irma with the groceries.

Oh and I sneezed for the first time since I got here, which is only notable because I sneeze all the time back home. All in all I hope to have a phone on tuesday or wednesday. It is a bit frusterating not being able to easily get a hold of Annie. But anyone else that would want to call me I suppose is more than welcome to hahaha.

Cityscape and Chocolate store

Irma and Lorenzo (Host mom and dad) took me around town to see some of the sights. Apparently the suburb I live in is called North Ryde and it's about a 1/2 hour to 45 min drive to get to the heart of the city, (pretty reasonable for a big city). They drove me to see the Opera House and the famous Bondi bridge. They pointed out bus locations along the way.
Cityscape
Cityscape

My impressions of the city is that is is very green and architecture is more diverse and some of it much older. A good simile for the city would be to compare it to San Francisco but with much brighter and greener plant life. It's no surprise the flora is so lush considering its rained every day since I got here, including this day. The rain is actually pleasant. It's very warm compared to what I'm used to.

We stopped by the famous Bondi Beach. Although there were many surfers there, the water, I hear, is pretty cold :(. Lunch was a mixture of Fish and Chips and McDonalds. I had a double cheeseburger to compare to back home. The fish was really good because of how fresh it was and the batter was equally tasty. The chips (or french fries) were average. The double cheeseburger threw me off because: first, the beef was not as fatty and greasy; second: the cheese was real cheese and not bland American cheese. It was really tasty, albeit more expensive.
Bondi Beach

We briefly stopped by this small island thing that they shot part of Mission Impossible. It was cool, there were alot of fishermen. The water eroded the limestone away into some interesting formations.
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing

Finally we walked a bit around the marina. Stopped by the restroom, which would've been boring and pointless to mention if it weren't for the crazy pee trough! We stopped by the Lindt chocolate store for biscuits (cookies) and cappucino. There was a really long line to place orders. I took some pictures of some ice-cream sandwich cookies in the window. I thought Annie might like to see them so I took a bunch of pictures.
Stork thingies
Crazy Pee Trough
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches

We walked around a little bit more before having to return. When we got back to the car we found out we parked in a bad parking spot. We got a ticket for $120. They were a bit bummed but were happy they at least got to show me alot about the city.
Spiral fountain
Giant historic anchors

"It puts spring in your step" and "I hate birds"

So this is Kangaroo. My host mom cooked three steaks pieces of it. By the time I ate 2 I was stuffed. The meat itself does not really have much of a flavor. It's very lean (98% or higher) but the texture is pretty good. Just adding some simple salt and pepper mixed with the Roo's own juices make for a tasty meal. It tastes more like lamb and less like beef. It's a bit heartier and more dense but is still very tender.

Birds wake me up everyday at 7 am. The stupid aviary wildlife is noisy as hell. On one hand its calming to hear the sound of nature but when they fly right outside your window and start croaking rather than chirping, I really want to throw a shoe at them. I have yet to see a Kookaburra seeting in the old gum tree, but I'll let you know if he leaves some gum for me.

ITS TRUE!!. THE WATER SPINS THE OTHER WAY!!

Wow. First impressions? Humid and cloudy. I met up with my host family, and Irma (the mom) is a lot shorter than I thought she'd be (like 4'10"). The host family is Philipino, they are Victore's relatives.

As we drove through Sydney, some of the things I noticed:

• The driving lanes are much thinner.
• Driving on the left is really scary especially when you are in the passenger seat.
• Speed bumps are made of metal.
• Round-abouts are really scary for all the above reasons.

I've already been to the mall, which is about as big as circle mall in Indy. It's more like a general shopping center complete with grocery stores than only department stores. They have k-marts and Targets. The weird thing is that there are individual stores for goods like meat, poultry, bread, fruit, etc. They do have a supermarket but the selection pales compared to the specialised stores.

I am eagerly waiting to eat Kangaroo, I will tell you how it is.

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The Flight of the Nomad

I set off about 7:30 am from Purdue headed towards South Bend. After a brief lunch with Sean (my brother), We drove to Chicago where I got finished checking in by 4 pm. I sat down and began to read a book as I watched my flight get pushed back from 6pm to 6:50 and then 7:45. The flight itself was boring and the inflight movie was a very censored version of the "Invention of Lying".

The plane landed at 10:30 in san fran so I had to run to the next flight that was scheduled to take off in about 10 minutes. When I got on I was informed that not only did we have to stop in Hawaii to refuel because the plane was too heavy but we had to wait until they removed about 5000 lbs of fuel or we weren't getting off the ground.

This flight was miserable. Both neighbors on either side of me, reeked of body order. About 3 hours into the flight (6 am eastern) I spilled an entire cup of soda onto my lap. And as I read further into the previously mentioned book it became less and less interesting. The only saving graces were the extra 5 inches of leg room for "Economy Plus" and that one of my neighbors was interesting to talk to.

23 hours of flight time total. I am really not looking forward to the return trip.