Whats a Canberra?
Last week Jason answered that very question for me.
A Canberra is a city, the national capital of Australia in fact. Is is about 270 km south west of Sydney and about 1 1/2 Wollongongs in size. We found a little hotel in the centre of town...Canberra is one of the worst designed cities for getting around in ever. Try to find a petrol sation and you wind up at parliment, try to find a parking lot and circle parliament, try to find the national measuem and ,yup, end up at parliment. It wasnt even until last day we actually went there. Instead we went to the national museum. which was nice for a foreigner but Jason loathed with a searing passion. That is until you get him to talk about the exhibits he liked..., the next day though we went to the war memorial which was a much better museum. Did you know that WWII started in 1939 not 1941? Well yea probably but it was still intersting to see conflicts protrayed from the Australian/English view. Though Aus is yet to have its own war. They try to use the attmpted seige of Gallipoli as a substitute but they were only there because the crown said they should so while showing great courage and comradeship it just doesnt create a cohesive Aussie effort or identity the way the Revolutionary war of American Civil war do. this is why the war memorial could be better than the Australian national museum, it had a solid topic, wars, while depicting being 'Australian' is much more difficult to figure out. we also went to the parliment house. We got a tour and got to sit in the public areas of there seneat and house of congress. same deal as the states except that congress is more powerful as the initiate discusions while the senate just fine tunes them. There was a copy of the 13th centry Manga Carta there as well at herbarium drawings from the first expoloration trips. We also met Jason's friend Luke while there. He works as sort of patent lawyer for the public service and is the most like the 208ers. at Uni he actually tried to get good grades, and went to class and that sort of thing. Its great to hear stories of how horrible and undergrad Jason was. the booze, the attempts at women, the extraordinary lazziness. I can see traces of it now but he really has changed. I see why his family is skeptical that an over-achevier like me sees anything in him.
Micheal's (jason's brother) 21st birthday was on the 21st. I met most of their extended family and ate much cake. Also VB, Victoria Bitter, is now my favorite cheapish Australian beer. They were all very sociable and by the end even the teenage boys thought i was fairly cool. Then Micheal was off to a second party with his friends rather than aging relatives and their clueless offspring. I went to sleep fairly early as I had a great adventure planned for the next day...
SCUBA DIVING!!!
after my dive instructor in Tampa failed to think of any diving around Sydney i was skeptical there was anything good there. A google search lead me too Abyss Diving in Botany Bay. They run free shore dives every weekend. I singed up for one and hired my eqipment there. Two dive instructors and five random people dove. I was the only chick and the youngest, better than the other way around 999 times out of 1000. So i chatted with the other divers. One was an Irish software engineer, one a Pom on holiday and two were locals, the other didnt join in. So we drove out the the dive spot and whap! there was a seal pearched on the shore! to get in i was told to dive between two large rocks while waves were already nearly knocking me over. fuck if i'm going to look like a pansey though so on the first swell i took my dive and it was constant wonder after that. The visibility was astonishing! I could see the floor 30 ft below me crystal clear and even from the surface the richness of the environment was evident. once below the spounges, corals and tunicates on one boulder could have entralled me for the hour but the dive master quickly found a weedy sea dragon and from there it just got better! Three species of sharks, countless wrases of all colours and this ancheint cuttle fish which was very curious about my floro yellow snorkel. he swam around my head and came inches from my mask. It was near the length of my forearm and as wide as my thigh. The port jackson shark let me with in feet of its darling face and the purple crusted rocks were littered with soft corals shaped as fans, bowls and delicate wings. I wanted to stop and look at every little fish which swam by, so few of which i could name, but to look at one creature for long was to miss a dozen others.
back at the surface we breaked for lunch and discussed what we had seen. They were all confused by my knowladge of Aussie birds and plants which was fun. When the soup and vegimite were finshied it was back under the waves for another bought of ecological rapture. More cuttle fish and schools of striped dimonds with parrot fish half my size darting past. even the exit was exciting as i was torn between saving my hands from cuts on the rocks and urchins or continuing to get knocked around by the incoming tide. A few of us got on too well to end the day with a divers farewell so off two the pub! I was shouted two beers and encouraged to do more diving with them but alas, i'm a broke student with very little time remaining down under. The younger diver instructor gave me a ride home, durring which we failed to get lost. I have his address and e-mail so I can send him cheesy florida post cards.
Yesterday was another lovely day with jason exploring down town sydney, focused around the contemprty art museum. We called it a nigh after watching 'Idle Hands' with his brother.
Mang, I'm having some great times up ins!
A Canberra is a city, the national capital of Australia in fact. Is is about 270 km south west of Sydney and about 1 1/2 Wollongongs in size. We found a little hotel in the centre of town...Canberra is one of the worst designed cities for getting around in ever. Try to find a petrol sation and you wind up at parliment, try to find a parking lot and circle parliament, try to find the national measuem and ,yup, end up at parliment. It wasnt even until last day we actually went there. Instead we went to the national museum. which was nice for a foreigner but Jason loathed with a searing passion. That is until you get him to talk about the exhibits he liked..., the next day though we went to the war memorial which was a much better museum. Did you know that WWII started in 1939 not 1941? Well yea probably but it was still intersting to see conflicts protrayed from the Australian/English view. Though Aus is yet to have its own war. They try to use the attmpted seige of Gallipoli as a substitute but they were only there because the crown said they should so while showing great courage and comradeship it just doesnt create a cohesive Aussie effort or identity the way the Revolutionary war of American Civil war do. this is why the war memorial could be better than the Australian national museum, it had a solid topic, wars, while depicting being 'Australian' is much more difficult to figure out. we also went to the parliment house. We got a tour and got to sit in the public areas of there seneat and house of congress. same deal as the states except that congress is more powerful as the initiate discusions while the senate just fine tunes them. There was a copy of the 13th centry Manga Carta there as well at herbarium drawings from the first expoloration trips. We also met Jason's friend Luke while there. He works as sort of patent lawyer for the public service and is the most like the 208ers. at Uni he actually tried to get good grades, and went to class and that sort of thing. Its great to hear stories of how horrible and undergrad Jason was. the booze, the attempts at women, the extraordinary lazziness. I can see traces of it now but he really has changed. I see why his family is skeptical that an over-achevier like me sees anything in him.
Micheal's (jason's brother) 21st birthday was on the 21st. I met most of their extended family and ate much cake. Also VB, Victoria Bitter, is now my favorite cheapish Australian beer. They were all very sociable and by the end even the teenage boys thought i was fairly cool. Then Micheal was off to a second party with his friends rather than aging relatives and their clueless offspring. I went to sleep fairly early as I had a great adventure planned for the next day...
SCUBA DIVING!!!
after my dive instructor in Tampa failed to think of any diving around Sydney i was skeptical there was anything good there. A google search lead me too Abyss Diving in Botany Bay. They run free shore dives every weekend. I singed up for one and hired my eqipment there. Two dive instructors and five random people dove. I was the only chick and the youngest, better than the other way around 999 times out of 1000. So i chatted with the other divers. One was an Irish software engineer, one a Pom on holiday and two were locals, the other didnt join in. So we drove out the the dive spot and whap! there was a seal pearched on the shore! to get in i was told to dive between two large rocks while waves were already nearly knocking me over. fuck if i'm going to look like a pansey though so on the first swell i took my dive and it was constant wonder after that. The visibility was astonishing! I could see the floor 30 ft below me crystal clear and even from the surface the richness of the environment was evident. once below the spounges, corals and tunicates on one boulder could have entralled me for the hour but the dive master quickly found a weedy sea dragon and from there it just got better! Three species of sharks, countless wrases of all colours and this ancheint cuttle fish which was very curious about my floro yellow snorkel. he swam around my head and came inches from my mask. It was near the length of my forearm and as wide as my thigh. The port jackson shark let me with in feet of its darling face and the purple crusted rocks were littered with soft corals shaped as fans, bowls and delicate wings. I wanted to stop and look at every little fish which swam by, so few of which i could name, but to look at one creature for long was to miss a dozen others.
back at the surface we breaked for lunch and discussed what we had seen. They were all confused by my knowladge of Aussie birds and plants which was fun. When the soup and vegimite were finshied it was back under the waves for another bought of ecological rapture. More cuttle fish and schools of striped dimonds with parrot fish half my size darting past. even the exit was exciting as i was torn between saving my hands from cuts on the rocks and urchins or continuing to get knocked around by the incoming tide. A few of us got on too well to end the day with a divers farewell so off two the pub! I was shouted two beers and encouraged to do more diving with them but alas, i'm a broke student with very little time remaining down under. The younger diver instructor gave me a ride home, durring which we failed to get lost. I have his address and e-mail so I can send him cheesy florida post cards.
Yesterday was another lovely day with jason exploring down town sydney, focused around the contemprty art museum. We called it a nigh after watching 'Idle Hands' with his brother.
Mang, I'm having some great times up ins!