Powerhouse Museum

Feb 26th

Madoc proving he knows where his country is located on a map

Went to the Powerhouse Museum on Harris Street with Chad, Zach, and Madoc. It consists of a big warehouse that used to literally be a powerhouse. The designer of the museum deliberately made it so that you get lost within the museum's exhibits. It was really difficult to navigate to a specific exhibit because many walkways just end.

Madoc, Zach, and Chad, deciphering

Many exhibits were interactive. One particularly cool one had you smell synthetic aromas and try to pick out the real smell of a sample set of food. This is really interesting to me because I unfortunately know that much of our food's smell is now synthetically made (McDonald's burgers not the least of which). Some other exhibits: let you try chocolate, had you pick out the correct surgery procedures, simulated what it was like to be in zero-G, and let you mix your own fireworks and simulate the explosion.

Tubes of synthetic smells, which one is real lemon extract?

My favourite interactive exhibit was one where you verse a robot in a game of 'who can press buttons quickest as they light up'. The robot always wins. He also danced with some particularly funny disco moves.

Motoman, interactive bot

Needless to say the museum was world class. It's in my top 5 museums that I've ever been to, and if you know me at all then you know that is quite the bold statement, as I've been to a lot of museums across the globe. Best of all it only cost AUS 5 to get into. This is a must do in Sydney.

Funny 80s Australian AIDS education cartoon

Keep it level!


Jono De Costa

P.S. There was also old arcade machines with Dig Dug, Galaga, and Pacman on them. We spent way too much time playing those games today.

Dancing musical bearsSome important inventor , whose name I should probably remember, comes back to life

Wicked in Oz

Feb 24th

Ozmopolitan

I saw Wicked today and it was wicked good. The plot lays out an intricate and operatic set of tragedies nonexistent in the original story. It is darker in nature, one character even gets hung up and beaten in a field. The story turns everything on its side with the wicked witch, the protagonist, actually being a purveyor of justice. The tragedy is that she does naught but positive for Oz and everyone hates her for it. A totalitarian regime labels her falsely evil because she is their opposition.Me and Michele

My favourite song is called "No Good Deed". It talks about the wicked witch and how no matter what good she does she seems punished by it; she is ready to give up, but to do good is in her nature, and she is cursed by this.

Possible Spoilers: Link

The set changes were so elaborate. none of the special effects came off as cheesy. The only negative mention about the play is the ending. It ends happily, unlike the original story. I enjoy happy endings, but for the story to come full circle the story must end badly to retain its meaning.


Keep it level!


Jono De Costa

P.S. Hearing the line "There's something wrong in Oz" takes on new meaning here.

Under the sea

Feb 23rd

Butterflies are scarier than they look

Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World! Me and Michele got a double deal for both. It ended up costing about 20 for each one.

Wildlife World is no Taronga Zoo, but it is still quite impressive for an exhibit on Darling Harbour. It is mostly Australian animals, but that's what makes it exciting. Over 80% of Australian wildlife is endemic, so I have never seen many of the creatures at any zoo before.

Rex

Did you know that the world's deadliest spider is the Sydney Funnel Web Spider. Guess where it is found? Wildlife world also has the largest crocodile in captivity within New South Wales. This crocodile, called rex, is about 15 feet long, and has a nasty habit of eating other crocodiles if they live in the same exhibit as him.

At the end of the Wildlife World was a butterfly sanctuary where we could be right with the butterflies.
Sydney Aquarium is the coolest aquarium I've ever been to. It's got a lot of native Australian water creatures, like the platypus and dugong. I got to go inside and below the water in glass enclosures to see friendly dugongs and vicious sharks. It was quite magical.

Dugong, inspiration for the mermaid

Keep it level!


Jono De Costa

Shark above me in the enclosure

The Opera

Feb 22nd

Zach, Michele, and me

Took a bus to Circular Quay then walked to the Sydney Opera House. It's massive! It's story is also rather opera-esque.

The plans to build it almost never came into fruition, because the design was rejected, but construction eventually began. It took many years to figure out how to make the shells. Jorn Utzon almost conceited defeat, because he thought the shells impossible to create, but a clever designer realized you could just break a part a sphere to create the shells.

Between the shells

Towards the end of construction Utzon was thrown out of his seat as architecture, because he was going over budget. The Opera House was supposed to initially cost only 7 million but by the time it was finished it cost over 100 million to make! Utzon returned to Denmark and died never seeing his finished masterpiece.

Lots and lots of stairs

The inside of the Opera House consists of buildings within a building. The theatres and concert halls were constructed within the shell. They were effectively built from the outside in.

The view of the water itself is gorgeous from the inside, a far cry from the usual downtown situated venues.


Keep it level!


Jono De Costa

Antiquities, Chivalry, and friendship

Feb 21st

Real preserved mummy at the Nicholson Museum

Started out the day very late, but it ended up being a very productive day. The first thing I did was go to the Nicholson Museum within the Quadrangle at the University of Sydney. It holds the largest collection of ancient artifacts in Australia, not that that is saying much, because it still was not all too big. It had some intriguing exhibits though, and it was free to get in, so no complaints.

The crowded grounds of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gra Festival

I then went straight away to the Gay Mardi Gras Festival in Victoria Park. It was CRAZY how many people were there! Gay and straight, young and old, even tons of families. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Australia is generally less ignorant than much of America about differences such as this.

The Chinese Garden

Not content with what I had already done, I ended up visiting the Chinese Garden of Friendship, one of the largest of its kind outside of China. It was beautifully designed with bamboo, traditional Chinese buildings and walkways, as well as rocks shaped like animals. At no one point can you see all the garden. It even had marvelous flowing waterfalls and a big central pond with fish swimming through.

Animal shaped rocks in the Chinese Garden

The final notable thing I did was visit Paddy's Market, a humongous indoor market that stretches forever and includes wares of all kinds. I will certainly come back for souvenirs down the road.

Waterfall at the Chinese Garden

I was introduced to Australian hip hop. It's actually pretty good! Very American/Jamaican influenced it appears. I've been listening to Hilltop Hoods all day. Not bad in the least bit.

Fish at the Chinese Garden

This song is particularly good: The Hard Road

Keep it level!

Jono De Costa

Me and Zach, Chinese Garden

Australian marketing is a wee bit straightforward

Back On the King

Feb 20th

Cricket's really popular here

The famous Glebe Market ran today on the other side of campus and down Glebe Street. It was rather upper-class for a market, most of the items were for women and were not actually cheap.

King's street, I live at SUV, and tonight I went to Kuleto's Cocktail bar (in the central area) and Bank Hotel (off the map)

At night, I went out on King Street with the two Zachs, and a few of the Aussies I've been hanging out with. They dance significantly less dirty than Americans here. They actually dance instead of just getting it on on the dance floor. Finally, actual dancing! One Aussie, named Simon, is an elaborate pianist. He played one of his own made up jazz songs, and it was riveting. His band is playing this week near Bondi Beach, and I might go and see him.

Keep it level!


Jonathan De Costa (AKA Jono)

beaches and stripos

Feb 19th

Opera House from the ferry

The harbour cruise took us right by the bay yesterday, but the rest of the day was relatively uneventful.

Harbour Bridge from the ferry

Today was much different, I took a ferry from Circular Quay (pronounced 'key') to Manly. Manly beach had some of the softest sand I've ever encountered. The waves were ridiculously big though. I made the mistake of going in with my sunglasses on, and they got swept away. My back tanned up incredibly when I was on the beach. It may have even burnt a bit unfortunately, because the sun beats strong here with less ozone protecting you.

Manly Beach

On the return we ran into a little country music festival. I like the general vibe of Manly. It's supposed to be less crowded than Bondi, and there was actually room to move about.

Later on in the night I met up with my new found Australian friends through Xan. I hung out in Xan's room for awhile with some other Americans. One of them asked all the Australians in the room if they had ever heard of Honey and bees. So I was kind of making fun of him, but all in good fun. I noticed Xan had an xbox 360 and I kept on surprisingly going "Wait? You have video games?!" all night. Apparently, I should introduce myself as Jono while I am here.

They showed me Kings Cross (the red light district). It actually was much more hopping than Kings Street in Newtown. Tons of crowded bars, and several sleazy strip clubs (stripos) as well. Xan knew some guy names Jason at one of the bars, so we got some free drinks, and pizzas. It was nice being shown which were the best places to go in the district.

I went right by the famous coca-cola sign several times in the night, which is the largest billboard in the southern hemisphere.

Keep it level!


Jonathan De Costa

Darling Harbour

Feb 17th

Sydney Tower!

Walking tour of Darling Harbour. We went right by the biggest IMAX in the world and the Chinese Garden as well. The tour ended at Cargo Bar, a bar that overlooks the water on the harbour. At the bar, we received complimentary drinks. Not too bad of a bar, but I'll stick to the ones on King Street and Oxford St. probably, as they attract more college aged attendees.

Harbour Bridge from the Sydney Tower

After Cargo Bar, Zach and I headed to Sydney Tower and went to the top. What a panarama! The Opera House and Harbour Bridge were right below and St. Mary's Cathedral could be seen on one side. I recognised the University of Sydney Camperdown/Darlington campus that I am residing at in the close distance. On the ground floor of Sydney Tower we went on Oztrek, a virtual ride through Oz. What a waste of time. It showed all these sights that we should see in Australia, but it was accompanied by annoying jerky motions, not entertaining at all.

St Mary's Cathedral from Sydney Tower

Chinatown is even cooler at twilight. I got me some bubble tea A.K.A. milk tea.

Bats, friendliest creatures on earth, taken by Zach

Harbour cruise tomorrow!

Reflecting pool in front of St Mary's

St Mary's up close

Keep it level!


Jonathan De Costa

Chinatown

Feb 16th

The entry to Chinatown at night

Finished up enrolment at Usyd and finally headed towards the Central Business District. It's only a 30 minute walk to the CBD! I ran into a bunch of famous things including the Powerhouse Museum, St Mary's Cathedral, Chinatown and George St. Chinatown is really classy compared to Boston's and much larger.

View of some of the city from the ground

Keep it level!


Jonathan De Costa

Welcome to Uni

Feb 15th

The Main Quadrangle

Woke up for orientation early, and walked over to campus. The campus is very walkable! It takes a maximum of ten minutes to get anywhere on campus. We started off in the great hall in the most stunning building. It looks just like something out of Hogwarts from Harry Potter!

Outside Sydney University's Great Hall

In one lecture we got to pet dingos! This is probably the only time I'll ever get to pet one, as they are wild animals, and native only to Australia. I went over to visit friends at St. John's college. They have quite a nice building complex as well.

In the night I befriended some Aussies, and hung out with them for a bit. They seem pretty cool. They were very inquisitive about American culture. They proclaimed themselves to be wannabe musos (musicians). They thought I was the first nice American they had met in a while, and in typical Oz style they nicknamed me Jono.

Keep it level!


Jono De Costa

Finally in Sydney

Feb 14th

My flat

Flew out to Sydney and took a group coach to Sydney University Village. The complex is rather charming with a main gathering area, a convenience store, and a bar. My room is bigger than my normal dorm room, and is on the 4th floor. It has a larger bed and it's own private bathroom, so not bad.

King Street is literally at my doorstep! It is comparable to a Harvard Square trendy college area, only it extends about 2 km. There are a ton of trendy bars and restaurants lining the street.

I walked a 15 minute walk to Broadway, another street lined with shops, and bought some kitchenware at Kmart. I ended up putting everything in a shopping trolley and taking it home. The trolleys don't go straight forward, they kind of go sideways down the road.

The walk to broadway was all along Syd U. It is the oldest university in Australia and certainly shows a colonial architectural influence to back it up.

Later in the night I went to an Irish pub and got a schooner of Carlton beer (very good). A schooner is what they call about 20 fl oz of beer, so the mid-ranged size below a pint. Australians seem so relaxed. I love this city so far! They have no problem stopping and chatting.

Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of cockroaches around....

Keep it level!


Jonathan De Costa

Melbourne A.K.A. Mel"ben"

Feb 13th

Australian flag in a laneway

We finally drove into Melbourne! We had to wait until 2 PM to get checked into Mantra on the Park. So we walked around the arcade and laneways as they call them. We found a good cheap wireless phone service, so I got a cell phone now. Melbourne is so English influenced with lots of walkways and cafes on side streets.

Aboriginal protest (or Abo as the Aussies call 'em),
looking closely you can see a few of them wearing aboriginal flag colors, black and red with a yellow circle

While walking around we ran into a aboriginal protest. They are a very poor group (actually made up of over 200 different abo 'countries') in such a rich nation. They are the poorest group in general of any 1st world country. They tend to live in housing projects more often and have drinking problems. This is a reason a lot of the Aussies flat out despise them. Prime Minister Rudd said sorry to the aboriginals finally in 2008, the first apology given from a politician to them ever. The day is now known as Sorry Day.

Vagrants in my penthouse

It turns out the place I am staying at is on the 17th story and is basically a penthouse. The entire 1st floor is a living room, features surround sound, and a wonderful balcony! We had way too many guests tonight and things got out of hand, so I left. Stuff like this gives Americans a bad name.

The View from my balcony, notice the cars driving on the left

Turns out most bars wont accept you in thongs and shorts (that's flip flops and shorts in America), so I didn't get into any clubs tonight.

Tomorrow I fly to my new home, a studio apartment.

Keep it level!


Jonathan De Costa

St. Kilda and Sorrento

Feb 12th

Me and my new friend Yvanka from Sri Lanka Sorrento Beach.
Look at how the ocean hits the rock and falls below where we are standing!

We spent the first half of the day in orientation learning a few different things about Australia. I noticed the toilets have two flush options, light switches turn down to go on, wine is good and cheap where as liquor is super expensive, fanny means vagina here (so fanny pack is funny to Australians), Australians tend to shorten a lot of words (convo for conversation, brekky for breakfast, preso for presentation), heaps of *fill in blank* is a big expression and so isn't good on you, and there are some humongous bugs here!

Overlook of Sorrento beach

For lunch we went to town and ate at a Chinese place. Chinese food is very similar to America. I'm starting to drink wine with most meals already, mostly because Australian wine truly tops American wine by far.

Sorrento Beach

After Chinese we walked to the beach. It was beautiful, with Cliffs along the water and water splashing against rock. To end the day we took a cruise out to the bay. Heaps of dolphins swam along the side of the boat. I've never seen them so close in their natural habitat. We got to eat fish 'n chips while roaming about, and we also saw a bunch of seals!

Look closely and you'll see a dolphin's fin in the middle left.
They got even closer to the boat but they moved too quick for a good photo.

Keep it level!

Jonathan De CostaSeals in the bay.