Category: Australia Life (2005-2006)

Tonight, as I was surfing for pictures of a characature of Bush’s face, I stumbled across the Bushism site. What’s a Bushism you might ask? Well, go to Wikipedia and find out! The term is so widespread that USA Today even used it in their article titled: New ‘Bushism’ born at bill signing — where they write, “President Bush offered up a new entry for his catalog of “Bushisms” on Thursday, declaring that his administration will “never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people.” If you go to a site like this, you’ll love how time simply flies by as you read what the president of the most powerful nation in the world is quoted saying–in his native tongue! I also found a site that has all the Bushisms translated in Japanese–this for me was hilarious, as the way they explain why his sentences are oh so wrong kept me laughing out loud for hours. It’s fun for all ages, so go ahead and try it!

I can’t believe that I am pushing into finals week soon! I have finished my intensive Brand Management course, though there is still a lot of individual and group work required for the grade. This month has been the most stressful month as all the group work and such, as groups tend to work, wait until the last minute. Two of my groups have been horrible to work with, but I’ve also made some really good friends from some of them as well. So, I guess it all evens out. Next semester I will be a little more careful of where I sit the first day! I have finals on Nov 10th, 15th, and 17th, so I will be studying hard for the beginning of November. Hawaii won’t be here soon enough! I can’t wait to have the coursework and grade behind me and know that I did ok.

Tonight I started my first night of tutoring two Japanese children in English. I took the train to North Sydney, which is such a fantastic ride–the train goes across the Harbour Bridge and you see beautiful Sydney, the Opera House perched out on the waterfront, Luna Park… it’s great. Once the mom opened the front door, I started to speak in Japanese, and the mom whispered, no Japanese! Then the girl walked by and in Japanese said, ‘he can speak Japanese!’ So, we then convinced her I couldn’t because I would make a blank stare throughout the chat about me not being able to speak and eventually she believed me. The two girls were nice and could understand English pretty well. It was funny though, because when they don’t understand, they whisper to each other in Japanese saying, ‘does he mean such and such?’ and I have to act like I can’t understand them. It’s funny in my mind. Anyhow, I’m glad I got a couple of students, and hopefully this will lead to more.

Lately I’ve been having to do a lot of research for a Business Communications class about bias in the media–surrounding natural/national disasters. As I was reading this article about Pakistan’s latest earthquake tragedy, I just wonder how long the US can keep sending ‘cash’ to aide other countries before we just run out of our own. And, I couldn’t help but laugh when Bush is quoted saying that many Americans will “be asking for God’s blessings on the people of Pakistan.” How would Americans react if when the Hurricane Katrina took out New Orleans, that we received blessings from Allah via the people in Pakistan. What ever happened to the separation of church and state, where Bush should be saying, we will pray for the people in Pakistan, instead of specifying that only the Christian Americans will be asking for blessings–while ignoring all the other denomiations within US borders that are sending their blessings as well.

So during class today, we were watching a presentation by a fellow classmate named Dan. Dan started talking about a brand of rowing boats because he did rowing a while back. As he started talking about the prices and such, it seemed like he was pretty good. So at the end of the presentation, the teacher asked, so are you any good? He said, well yah, I guess so, I have a couple of silver medals from the Olympics. We all clapped and were pretty impressed that here, sitting amongst us in Brand Management, was a 2000 Sydney Olympics Silver Medalist!

Now, I’ve uploaded all the photos to my server so, enjoy looking at the fun times! For all the friends that I made, any requests for higher res photos for print are welcome. Thanks to all of you who made my trip so much fun! Click here and go to Whitsundays under Australia.

Tonight, I had my first get together for cards and games. I had a good turn out, with 8 of us there. We had the emmy’s on, snacks, drinks, and played Hearts til late. We had a great time, and I can’t wait to do it again!

There was a photography competition at USyd this month, so I submitted some images to be shown. All 9 were selected to be shown. Since I’ve never had a showing of my work before, I didn’t really know what all went into it. Anyhow, I left class early to go to the opening function, in which I was quite happy that I had so many supporters. Paula, Sarah, her boyfriend Ben, my two flatmates, and two other friends David and Julius all came to take a peek at my work. What was so interesting and fun, was to see other people coming and taking actual time to look at each picture in detail, and then smile and talk about it. After about a half hour, the announcer came on to tell the winners who they were, and unfortunately, I didn’t get any mention. But, what was rewarding enough was a couple that came out of the blue who found I was the photographer of those works and said, ‘We thought you had it in the bag by far–we’re really surprised.’ So, just that comment made it all worth while, plus the fact that so many people came to support my work being shown. Thanks everyone!

Today my friend Corbin and I headed for Bondi Beach to see the Wind Festival. This is the day that everyone brings out kites, both professional and for kids, and flies them along the beach. We saw some really interesting colourful kites, but the wind wasn’t extremely strong, so a lot of them weren’t in the skies for very long. The pictures can be seen at my images site. The day was nice and warm and we just enjoyed relaxing in the sand getting some sun.

This is so strange. Just in the past 3 days, I have heard from 3 separate people that they have seen my twin (geographically impossible that it’s the same). My friend Ian said that he saw my twin in San Francisco, and Joi, my twin (from the back) in Oakland, and then my Mom & Dad in Chattanooga (my profile and mannerisms). I know of this phenomenon because I’ve seen people that I think look exactly like someone else I know, but what I’d like to know is in this day of technological advances why someone can’t take a picture and let me see too! Or, do I really want to?? :)