Howdy!  I don't really have anything exciting to report, I'm afraid.  It's definitely feeling like winter.  It's been really cold and rainy, but the sun manages to peek out every once in a while and Mom is shipping me some of my winter clothes as we speak.  

We've just passed mid-term time so I've been pretty busy lately.  I had a big project to present, along with three performances.  I'm glad all of that's over with (and my heart goes out to all of my American friends who are taking their finals right now)!  

Here are a couple of random things that I found to be different.  Instead of Burger King, the Australian marketing name is "Hungry Jack's."  Don't ask me why the changed it, I have no idea.  

I've been reading some Australian books, which really helps my Aussie spelling.  There are some obvious words that I know are different, like 'harbour' instead of 'harbor' and 'specialise' instead of 'specialize.'  But every once in a while, a sneaky word will crop up.  My favorite is the Australian spelling for 'pajamas'--'pyjamas'!  

And this next photo is for all of you Harry Potter fans out there.  The British/Australian version not only has different artwork; it also has a different title for the first book!  It's 'Philospher's Stone' instead of 'Sorcerer's Stone.'  I've also seen the movie over here, and they just exchange the scene for another one whenever the '____ stone' is mentioned!

I've been craving Mexican food like crazy since I've been here, but I just haven't been brave enough to try it until the other night.  It wasn't really close to being real Mexican food, but it wasn't bad after I got over the initial shock of receiving my burrito with white rice and black beans!  (For those of you Australians who read this, Mexican rice and pinto beans are the usual fare.)

That's it for now, but I'll post again soon.  Cheers!

Mom's visit!

My mom (or 'Mum' as the Australians say) came to visit me this week! We did all sorts of cool things. I believe we might have walked across the entire city. I think mom's favorite place was the Royal Botanical Gardens (which is good, because it's right next to the Conservatorium and that's where she went when I had to go to class). We also made it out to Manley Beach, Bondi Beach, Chinatown, the Opera House, the Rocks, Darling Harbour (Australian spelling here) and the Blue Mountains (not to mention plenty of shops!) and plenty more. I turned 21 while she was here, so we went shopping and out to dinner. It was really nice to have her here, and I can't wait until the whole family comes in July (excluding Ashley, who is a dork and has her silly-but-necessary board exams, and Jason who will busy farming). Here are a few pics from this week:



Mom got a kick out of the Didgeridoo player (sitting on the ground to the right) at Circular Quay. It's actually a pretty complicated instrument. You buzz into the mouthpiece and use your tongue and voicebox to manipulate the sound to imitate animals or nature. All of this is done while circular breathing! (This is a pretty difficult technique! The idea is that you store some air in your cheeks and push the air out of your mouth while breathing in through your nose. This way the sound doesn't stop. Try it--it's pretty hard. You can experiment by blowing bubbles in a glass of water through a straw. You'll know if you're getting the hang of it when you can keep the bubbles going. It's even harder on an instrument because a didgeridoo is a lot bigger than a straw!)




Here's Mom and I on the ferry going over to Manley. That's the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in the background.




Here is Mom in the main Quadrangle at the main Sydney Uni campus. It's very Harry Potter-esque. Sometimes at noon, the clock bells will play the main theme of the Harry Potter music!















This is in the Blue Mountains, which is a mountain range just West of Sydney. It only takes two hours to get there by trains, so we just made a quick day trip of it. The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue tint they have from a distance. The blue effect is created when the light hits the oil emitted from the eucalyptus leaves. There were tons beautiful waterfalls and cliffs and the flora and fauna were really cool!