Fieldtrips and wine tasting

Crooked River Winery

Wow - I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post. Everyone says time flies when you abroad but it didn't hit me until this weekend. It's funny to hear about everyone returning to school back in the US when we've been in class for a month now and mid-session exams are coming up. It's also crazy to think that we have 4 weeks until spring break and then only another 4 weeks until the session's over. It also made me realize how little I've done in exploring Australia. But for what I have learnt/seen I will tell you about now...

One classy crew if you ask me!

It's strange the differences in schools here is; at first it seems so similar to back home, but as times go on subtle differences arise. It makes me realize how much I take advantage of back in the US. One such difference is with clubs. There are 20,000 students here, there are 33,000 at CU. That's a big difference, but UOW is still a big school. I assumed that there would be heaps of clubs - interest clubs, clubs for different majors, sports clubs, language clubs, etc., but we found out that there are really that many. I was hoping to join lots of different types of clubs to meet more Aussies, but after the club fair it looks like I'm going to have to change my strategies a bit. One reason could be that a lot of people commute to Uni. Because of that they are only at Uni two or three days a week so it would make it hard to be dedicated to a club.

I did find one club that was interesting and I joined. It's called PINC - professional industry networking club. It's a networking club for all majors, but for women only. I figured it would be interesting to see the professional side of things from a different perspective. I met a lot of Aussies there, but there were also a lot of international students too. They are putting on careers workshops, resume workshops and having professional women come talk about their industry and working in it. I'm excited to get to know more people and learn about the professional Australia.

Running across the Gerringong highway...

One really exciting thing that happened last week was the Census. I thought it was really cool that all us international kids are going to be recorded as living in Australia the day the Census was taken. Some of the questions they asked though were very strange. There was a lot of questions on if you take care of someone that cannot take care of themselves, or if someone was taking care of you. There were questions about how often you clean your house and if you got paid for doing it. The religion question was the one that I was really surprised at - they had a list of about nine religions, including Buddhism and Scientology, but they didn't have Judaism. So it was maybe the strangest, but most exciting Census I've ever filled out.

Fun fact - about 50% of koalas carry chlamydia.

Ok, so I don't like ice cream. Everyone thinks it's weird but it tastes like milk to me. But we have Magnum ice creams at our Caf and everyone was getting them because they have this deal right now that 1 in 6 is a winner for a free Magnum. Everyone was getting them and were saying how delicious they were so I figured I needed to get one. I still don't like ice cream but the chocolate is so delicious that covers the ice cream, especially the almond ones. I've probably gotten about 10...but I just won my 3rd one today! Bad news is that they started carrying them in the US...

Chicken by Crooked River

It's great having a roommate from Australia because she tells us things that we might not necessarily pick up. She told us that Australians are very lazy - not the picture that I had in my head before coming over here. A lot of the laziness can be seen in the language. Everything is abbreviated to end in an O or I/Y. I thought it was just how they talked but they honestly shorten EVERYTHING! For example, Salvation Army is Salvos (it's even how they write it on the sign), Nick turns into Nicko, "yeah, alright" (or something along those lines) is "righto". I'm going to start making a list and I'll make a whole list of Aussie lingo.







The nightlife here is another very different scene than back in the US. We went on a "pub crawl" on Friday, except that it wasn't a pub crawl at all - it was more like club hopping. It's strange because the drinking age is 18 here, so there are buses (called Party Buses) that come and pick you up from Campus to bring you downtown to the clubs. Drinks are so expensive that it's not really worth getting drinks there, they're also much smaller than back in the US. So people drink in on Campus. If you were caught drinking in the dorms it was not a slap on the wrist, here as long as you have less than 9 people in the room and aren't playing drinking games you can drink as much as you like, be as loud as you like and it's no problem.

But anyway, onto the good stuff, but still keeping the drinking theme. Last Friday we went on a spur of the moment adventure to a winery. Spur of the moment adventures are by far the best and we had so much fun.

[Sorry about that gap - my computer crashed and lost the rest of the blog and then things got hectic!]

My roommate told me I had 5 minutes to change before leaving for the bus...I was on the phone with the Spaceship people (sneak peak for Spring Break plans!) and didn't really know what was going on. But a group of us got together, jumped on the bus and headed to I-House where our friend Mel lives and where the North Gong train station is. Mel said she heard of a winery in Gerringong and we all just went along for the ride. 

Walking along the highway in Gerringong

We took the first train to Kiama, where we switched to a single track line to Gerringong. We got off at a tiny little train station and there seemed to be nothing around us. Thankfully, there was a lady waiting for a train so we asked her for directions to the winery (we didn't even know what it was called). Turns out we had to walk along the side of the road, with no sidewalk and then along a highway, again with no sidewalk. I'm pretty sure walking along a highway is one of the things they tell you NOT to do when study abroad. We all made it safely, even after running across the highway - don't worry, it was only a 2-lane highway! 

My new favorite tree

The vineyard was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Kent with the rolling hills and the sun shining down on a little town on the other side of the hill. That's where I first saw my tree; a beautiful big tree with no leaves, only red flowers. I have no idea what it's called and I don't know if it doesn't have leaves because it's winter or if that's just the way it is. I think it could be a 'flame tree' but I'm not sure. We took some pictures for a while before heading up the steep road to the main house for our wine tasting session.

When we first walked into the Crooked River Winery there was no one in site and it was completely quiet. However, a lady shortly walked out and seemed a little surprised to see so many of us; there were 9 of us. But she happily introduced herself and started us off with the wines. I've never been very much of a wine taster and thought they pretty much all tasted the same or at least very similar. 

Crooked River Wines

First, we started off with a rose. It was what I thought most wines tasted like, but then we really got into it. We learnt how and why you swirl your glass – on the table with your fingers on the base of the glass. This mixes it while keeping it cool. If you put your hand on the part of the glass where the wine is, it heats it up. The lady then gave us each some white wine which she explained when would be appropriate to drink and with what kind of food to have it with. From there we went up, trying sweet white wines which you can pair with pork (and that was delicious) to some more subtle whites which you can drink with anything. They were delicious and I could really taste the differences with every different wine. After trying about 4 whites, we moved on to the reds. I learnt that I’m not a big fan of red wine, they’re a lot stronger and have a more bitter taste that I wasn’t that fond of. But they were still pretty good.

Deliciousness in a bottle!

She saved the best till last though; port. I’ve never had port before so I had no idea what to expect, but wow, it was delicious! The first we had was a sweet port which was just delicious – a little stronger than I was expecting though (18% alcohol!)! She explained that it’s really good if you put it in the freezer so it gets icy and then you mix it with lemonade! I never wished I’d had a freezer so badly before! Finally, we got to the last one; chocolate port. This was made for Baba and I wish I could have got some to send back, but I’ll just have to try and describe it even though it won’t even start to bring it justice. I wasn’t too sure of it at first when I was looking at it in the glass. I thought it might be kind of thick not really taste like chocolate, but with the first taste my tastebuds exploded. It was thin and cool, and the taste of chocolate was immediate. Delicious, creamy milk chocolate with a little hint of alcohol. Yum! The best part about it was that the taste of chocolate stayed in your mouth for a while after. What you’re supposed to do with it is make a ‘port float’ and put a scoop of ice cream in your glass. I think I would prefer a glass just by itself; it didn’t need anything else.

Can you tell we're tourists?

We took a picture outside and said goodbye, promising we would back again and begun our walk back to the train station. We braved the highway making it back safely, even stopping to take an extremely touristy picture in front of the Gerringong sign. By this time though it was quite late and after drinking a fair amount of wine and port we needed some food, so we stopped in Kiama where we had to change trains. It was a nice little town and little did I know, but I would be right back there the next day. We had a nice Italian meal and headed home. That’s my definition of a successful day.

Kiama

I’m taking a class called ‘rural and urban social geography’. I honestly have no idea what we’re actually supposed to be learning in this class because we seem to be learning all about the Australian dairy farming industry. We got an early start and headed to a dairy farm where we learnt all about the effects of the 2000 milk deregulation in Australia and the impact it had on the farmers. We then headed to an old coop building in the Jamberoo Valley to listen to some ‘tree changers’ people that had moved from the city to a more rural area of Australia to pursue farming and a change of lifestyle. There are also ‘sea changers’ who move out to the cities along the coast. There is a theme to this class but it seems to be all over the place, because we then went into Kiama to survey the shops. I still have no idea how that tied into anything. After some lunch in town, we went back to see another dairy farmer where I learnt that milk is one of the only food products that doesn’t have any preservatives in it. The main point I took from the whole fieldtrip though was if you’re in Australia BUY BRANDED MILK!! Woolies and Coles are buying their own processors and it’s hurting local dairy farmers.

For our second fieldtrip we talked to some people who grew fruits and vegetables, one family sold their food commercially in their own store, and the other family use it as their primary source of food. Farmers markets are so prevalent in the US that it’s weird to think they’re not as popular throughout the rest of the world. It’s another thing that I realize I take for granted back home. After talking to those families we went into Wollondilly in the Picton area to have lunch and take another survey of the shops. Since it’s a small town we had some extra time on our hands so we went to play a little game of touch footie (NRL rules). It’s easy to listen to and understand the rules, but when it comes to actually playing it’s a lot harder to remember everything! Such as not throwing the ball forward, it’s such instinct that it’s hard to get out of the habit. It was a lot of fun though and definitely something I want to do ahead. It also made the fieldtrip as a whole heaps more fun.

Dragons vs. Roosters

The next day we went to another Dragons game. This time was even more fun though because we’ve gotten to know one of the guys that plays for them. The more we go and watch, the more it makes sense and the more fun the games are. Next step is going to a Union game (another sneak peak for Spring Break…kind of). They have completely different rules though, so we might have to take a crash course to understand everything that’s going on!!

Some things I’ve learnt this week…Tim Tams are sold in the US! They’re sold as ‘Arnotts Originals’ at Target and World Market! I can’t believe nobody told me this before!! But I’ve had to take myself off the Tim Tam bandwagon because it got a little out of control. There’s just something about then that’s addicting and once you open the pack, there’s no stopping you until they’re all gone! On a completely different note, going back to the lazy Aussie lingo, they call Americas ‘sepos’. ‘Sepo’ is short for septic tank because Americans are all full of poop. I think it’s kind of funny, some people take offence to it though. 

Beach weather in winter.

Fairy Meadow  Beach

Even though it's the middle of winter here right now, we've had some amazing weather. It's been beautiful, sunny and warm for the past week. It's been so nice that everyday after Uni we've been going to the beach and laying out in the beautiful Australian sun. For me, the water is a bit too cold, but there are always heaps of people swimming and if you're there at the right time of day when the surf is good, there are surfers too. I never really thought of myself as a beach person, and I have absolutely no problem living in Boulder where the closest thing we have to the beach is the Res, but sitting or laying out there on your towel with a book is so relaxing and it makes it so easy to hang out at the beach for hours. It does get warm enough that going in the water up to your shins is perfect and wonderfully refreshing. I finally signed up for surf camp yesterday, so come September (when surf camp is) I'll be joining the surfers at Fairy Meadow beach, hopefully.

Dragons vs. Rabbitohs

Last Sunday we went to a St. George's Illawarra Dragons rugby league game. As we were waiting for the game to start they were playing music which isn't different than anywhere else, but they kept playing "The Saints are Coming". And once the game finally started the crowd was cheering for the "saints". I was really confused because we were watching the Illawarra Dragons so why would they be cheering for the "saints". Turns out that their sponsor, St. George Bank, is a huge part of the Dragons. Go figure. Anyway, I didn't really know what was going on, but eventually the game became easier to understand. It was so much fun; the sun was shining, we were sitting in a great spot on the "standing hill" and it was a really exciting game.

WIN Stadium

WIN Stadium (where the Dragons play) is pretty small so you have a really great view pretty much wherever you sit, but we were right in the middle. Even though the game was great and the Dragons were up at half time, the South Sydney Rabbitohs got the lead and won the game. No worries though, the Dragons are really good and already made it to the NRL cup. The rest of the weekend was filled with beach activities; frisbee, reading and just relaxing.

On one of the cooler days at Fairy Meadow Beach

Tutes (tutorials) started this week, and it's weird to see so many new faces. Turns out people really don't go to lectures, but roll is taken in tutes and you have to attend to pass the class. Lectures are not mandatory and often times students can't even go because of overlapping timetables. People often alternate which lecture they go to if they can make it, miss an hour to go to their tute, or simply get the notes online if they can't make it at all. Since this is a regular occurrence in class, professors often record their lectures and put it online. Group projects and the case study method are uses here so it's similar to CU in that regard. But we'll find out soon how similar the formatting and content specifications are soon.

View from the top of Mt. Keira

This past Saturday I finally made it up Mt. Keira. We had a nice big group of 10 of us and we all went for a nice bushwalk. I didn't realize that bushwalking is the exact same thing as hiking. It seems so much more adventurous and exotic, but it's the same as good ol' hiking. I was expecting the bushwalk to be really similar to hiking Chautuaqua - I was pretty wrong. At first there's a lot of man made wooden steps that make it easier to climb, but oh my gosh - they seemed never ending. It was a great butt workout but they seemed to go up the whole mountain. Finally we got to a bench where we had to make a decision.

Another view from the top

Take the long easy route or take the more direct, more challenging and more adventurous route. Obviously, we took the adventurous route. It started becoming more and more interesting with wildlife all around us. It felt like we could have been in the jungle anywhere in the world; we could just have easily been in an Amazonian rainforest. At one point we needed to use our hands to pull ourselves up over rocks with little streams of running water cascading down to tiny waterfalls (really tiny waterfalls - more like water trickling down rock). It was hard work but definitely worth it. The view at the top was breathtaking. We could see all of Wollongong and the ocean that stretches forever. It was so big I couldn't even capture a fraction of it on my camera (turns out I had the wrong lens with the big zoom - next time I'll get some more impressive pictures). Once you get to the very top there's a lookout area. There are two ways of getting to the peak of Mt. Keira; the fun, exciting way (the bushwalk) and the other way (driving up a nice paved road). So when you get to the peak there are lots of people, cars and a nice restaurant. But because it's a nice area to come in the evenings there's a big metal fence keeping the jungle away from the lookout point.

Wedding locks

There are lots of gold padlocks on the fence which is look really cool. They're for people that come up to Mt. Keira to get married (or have just gotten married), they attach the lock and throw away the key, never to be found; a symbol of their lasting marriage. It's a really cool little ritual and makes looking out to Wollongong really interesting. While we were up at the peak we took a lot of goofy touristy pictures before heading down. We went straight down the way we came up...in 26 minutes. It was a great tricep workout.

Lookout at the top of Mt. Keira

This past week hasn't been very exciting - partially because the weather was so nice that we were at the beach a lot, because tutes started but also because we're starting to plan trips. I'm going to surf camp the second weekend in September and I am so excited!!! For spring break we're going to New Zealand and then for study break we're trying to organize Thailand. In between we also want to discover Australia so we're trying to figure out when and where we can go. I never realized how hard it is to sit down and plan trips. Everyone has different schedules, places they want to go and things they want to do that it's hard to make a plan that satisfies everyone. But sitting down and trying to figure everything out made us realize how much we really do need to start getting our butts into gear to plan the vacations. Also the fact that we all get so excited doesn't help us get plans made.

Model of the Five Islands

Everyday on the bus we pass a fruit market and because all we can get at the caf is apples and oranges, it was so hard to go past this fruit market everyday and not go. But we finally went and it was amazing! Fruit is so cheap and looks so bright and fresh and juicy! Being fruit deprived for almost 3 weeks now has not been easy but it was hard to not go crazy and buy heaps of fruit and veggies because we don't have a fridge. But I did get some delicious apples, oranges, kiwis and carrots. I'm still looking for peaches and nectarines, but no luck so far. All the fruit is from Australia and New Zealand. Another fruit I'll be craving when I get back to the US is bananas. Because of a cyclone that hit wherever the bananas are grown, bananas are $15/kilo. They don't import most fruit and vegetables because of their strict contamination laws, so that means no bananas for us!

Being tourists!

More that I've learnt about Australia is that they have very strict adoption laws. Surrogacy is illegal, so people often go to the US for a while to use surrogate mothers because to adopt a child in Australia usually takes about 10 years before you can get a child. I guess because adoption is so common in the US, but it was weird to think that adoption laws are so different here. The more I'm here and the more I learn about Australia the more I can see the differences between Australia and the US. As I learn more, I will tell you more. But for now that's it!