It continues..

Sooo, since my last entry I haven’t done any further travelling, but rather experienced more here in Wilmington. We went to another college basketball game – we lost again – but the following game they played (which we didn't go to, they won – so that might be saying something . . )

Pretty blurry, but couldn't upload the original as it was too big

Last sunday a group of 20+ of us went out to dinner to see how good the Aussie Outback Steakhouse was – and to throw down a Tooheys New (or a VB for the Penrith westies) – only to arrive, scope out the beer list to see that the only beer listed under ‘Australia’ was Fosters – which can hardly even be found in Australia!! But on a positive note, they found some Boags out back and my steak was pretty gooood – Medium raaaaaare

Tuesday night I went out with some American friends to watch a Hockey game at a sports bar - Carolina Hurricanes (GO CANES!!) vs Pittsburgh Penguins. The bar we were at got mentioned in the broadcast as the place to be if you were a Canes fan, so I was right in the heat of things! This was the first game of Hockey I had ever fully watched – it is mental! An American mate tried explaining everything to me but I kept getting distracted when the players would break out into a fight and it was allowed to happen until one of them hit the deck. Unreal sport!! Hopefully going to a live game late Feb! Sadly the Canes lost in a shoot out. I must be a sports bad omen. 

Friday night involved heading down town for the first time to a bar where some upcoming/indie bands were playing. It proved to be an interesting night, with the first act consisting of a bloke who danced around and yelled to the crowd as if he was performing at Big Day Out (instead he had a crowd of about 80), also when you closed your eyes and listened, he sounded like a chick, then there was the token black guy to stand behind the decks and rap a verse or two every 2^nd song, and then the standard boring drummer who sits there and doesn’t say anything – the highlight of their act came when they played their final song where they performed a dance routine which would have given the Spice Girls a run for their money. Following this was an atrocious duo who basically forced us to leave. This also caused us to come across the greatest sandwich restaurant ever (Jimmy John’s) so all was not wasted.

Out at Brickhouse

Saturday night started interestingly for me, the boys told me to hurry up and get to campus to have some pre-drinks with them before heading down town again. So not having much time to get my shit together, and having no time to cook food (actually, no food to cook really), I took college eating habits to a whole new level by eating dry rice, swallowing it down with a bit of water, in the hope that it would be able to line my stomach and absorb the beers to come. Good news is: it worked, bad news is: my stomach was sore for 2 days! Nevertheless, I got to campus to join the boys, to find them playing ‘Pong’ on the Atari game system. I took control, dominated the field, and with the help of a couple of glitches, smashed Nicko 11-0, resulting in him having to do a nudie run outside around the college – great start to the night.

An amazing piece of technology

Last night we went out to a Japanese Steak House for Brendan Sing’s (Fellow Aussie from Perth) birthday. The Americans had warned us that it was quite expensive. We soon found out that they don’t know what expensive is when for $25 we got an entrée of soup and prawns, then for the main: about a kilo of rice each, noodles, teriyaki chicken and 3 beers!! Not to mention an incredible show by the chef who set the BBQ on fire and entertained us by throwing all the prawn tails and leftovers onto our friends on another table.

Pretty impressive snap for an iPhone if I may say so myself

Our main man

This was what was leftover from my plate alone

Today was the most amazing day in terms of weather so far. It was about 22, so we all donned the shorts, shirts and thongs and lapped up some sun. We headed down towards the beach to a bottle shop we’d been told stocked some Aussie beers – found out they only sold Coopers or James Boags, so we ordered in some cases of Boags for our Aussie Day party we are having at a local bar in town. However we are starting our celebrations here on the 25^th so as to listen to the Hottest 100. Should be unreal. Then the 27^th is my birthday and we’re doing a river cruise and heading out – so if you haven’t yet sent me a present it’s okay, I’ll accept late arrivals ;) . Anyway, this bottleshop claims to have over 100 different types of beer so, being such a nice day, we thought we'd get one and sit outside in the sun. We decided to go for beers with the best names/labels - bad mistake - all 6 of us hated our beers, the best scored a 2.5/5. On the plus side, we now have 6 bottles/cans of beer with funny names.

Bitter American 1/5, Second Wind 2/5, Stone Levitation 1/5, Hop Wallop 1/5, Horn Dog .2/5 (not a typo, there is a point in front of that 2 - I picked a winner), Sunny Haze 2.5/5

Whilst here we came up with a beer rating scale (out of 5)

A beer with a rating of

0-1 means you can barely finish it, and pride is the only thing pushing you

1-2 means you can handle a maximum of 1 of these beers

2-3 means you would drink it only if it was free

3-4 means you would buy it only if it were on sale

4-5 you're enjoying life

5 - Winning - you will pay whatever amount for another one

6 - Is the equivalent of rating a girl a 10 - so pretty much near impossible. In the case of a beer, to receive a 6, not only does it have to have the taste of a 5, but the company and atmosphere whilst consuming this beer has to be second to none. My hopes for a 6 aren't too high hanging round these Penrith boys so much. haha.

Steveo, Dean, Nath, Nicko, Jimmy

Other interesting things that have happened.....

-The Penrith boys bought a 7 seater van. It’s actually pretty unreal. So I’m looking forward to some road trips ahead with them. 

We just need to get heaps of lollipops and kids toys to complete it

-Swedes don’t know how to lock up bikes. Christian borrowed Jimmy’s bike and when ‘locking’ it, tied the chain around the spokes, only to come back and find out that someone had kicked in the spokes and knicked off with the bike!

- Never consider spewing in a cab it will send you more broke than if you were to do it in Australia

We are still waiting for the first victim

- Chinglish is just as good here as it is at home

We delivery. But no deliver on Sunday

- I HAVE actually attended ALL classes and they are going well so far ;)

That’s it for now. I’ll hopefully have more interesting stories for the next one. And also all those people who thought I wouldn’t ever write another post (Mum!) - in the most polite way possible - I've proved you wrong ;)

Hope all is well. Party hard on Aussie day, have a beer or 11 for me!!

x

p.s. I have an American number, and if you have the latest iPhone software, then its free to message with iMessage +1 910-547-1196 - alternatively: Viber and Whatsapp are still linked to my Aussie number

The first week

Hey all, 

So instead of writing a heap of emails I thought this would be easier. If you don't care what I'm up to then you need to stop being jealous.

So I was lucky enough to be flying over with Stuart Flinn, so we met in the airport, had a feed with my fam, then casually cruised through customs, to then realise we had about 20 minutes until our plane left. We needed to get to gate 65 - a long way away. So we started to panic a bit and start sprinting, we got called over the loudspeaker along with 5 or so other people, and then the two of us got called again, full name, seat number, over the loudspeaker - one minute later and we wouldn't have been let on the plane. So we found our seats apologised to the people either side of us for being sweaty messes, and as soon as we could, we got some beers to calm the adrenalin - so that was an interesting start to the trip!!

We arrived in LA at 10am on Thursday the 5th, and were picked up by my good friend Glo, who I met on contiki in 08! We then got straight into some sight seeing, heading down to Venice beach - where LMFAO filmes 'sexy and I know it', so that was pretty cool. And we were laughing at the number of 'prescription weed' places, where they basically prescribe weed if you're 'in pain' and by that i mean, if you have a sore finger you can basically get it - one of the blokes who tried to get us to come into his shop was using the catch phrase "Feeling crappy? Let the Doctor make you happy" ! Needless to say we didn't buy anything! And instead sat down for a typical American meal!

We then went to Santa Monica Pier, it's pretty amazing - heaps of movies have scenes there, Ironman, Mr Bean movie, and Forrest Gump - there is even a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant there! Then that night went out for dinner and then died of tiredness back at Glo's.

Friday we went to Hollywood and did the Walk of Fame and went to Madame Tussauds which was great fun, we then went to Universal Studios City Walk – and got in for free because Glo is a great bullshit artist, and then we went and got cheap drinks from her friend who just got promoted to manager of one of the restaurants. 

Then  that night Flinny and I went to a basketball game - LA Lakers v Golden State Warriors. We then bought Lakers foam pointy hands to get into the spirit of things, and found our seats in the nosebleed section where we feared for our lives if we tried to move from our seats. Lakers won 97-90, and because they won and kept GSW under 100 points, everyone got vouchers for two free tacos!!

We then met up with Glo again to head to shmancy rooftop bar in the city, so we had to get changed in a car park, then headed to "The Standard" - the views were amazing and the Long Island Ice Teas were going down a treat. 

We then went to the fast food place to make use of our taco vouchers and I pulled the accent and got some free curly fries, then just casually walked behind the counter and preteneded to pour drinks and take orders, I then gave the chick a hug and told her she was my favourite fast food server - she loved it haha

Then on Saturday we went to Laguna Beach, had a beer at a rooftop bar overlooking the sun setting on the ocean – was amazing!! and that night travelled back in time in Glo's house where her dad collects and builds Knights and armour so we tried it all on and you can check out some of the pics and her mum is an amazing Harpist - played at Ozzy Osbourns party and Rod Stewarts party!!

               

So I thank Glo for being an amazing tour guide and host and her lovely parents for their wonderful hospitality!!

Then had to get up at 5am sunday morning to get to the airport to then head over to Uni -  Wilmington. Had another close call in the airport but worked out all good and I made it!! Got picked up at the airport, then dropped at my apartment. I’m living off campus where Eben Smith lived last year, so as to avoid sharing a shitty room with a random and dealing with not really being able to drink due to the students who are under21, and the nazi RA’s who report people for drinking underage or just drinking in the vicinity of an underage person!! So my apartment (Wilshire Landing Apartments) is awesome. It’s a 3 share, I get a queen bed, ensuite, and walk in wardrobe!! And currently only one roomy, a top American bloke named Matt.

Eben also put me in touch with a few people, so the first night I went out to a bar with 5 great girls who also live in the apartment complex – Bossin. Haha.

I had two days of orientation at the uni, where I met all the other international students. A great bunch of people, a heap of Aussies (including a great group of 4 mates from Uni of Western Sydney), some poms, sweds and others. The annoying thing is that some of them are under21 so can’t really get on the beers with us – there are some bars that let U21’s in, but they can’t drink still . . so that’s kinda shit

Out at Buffalo Wild Wings sports bar

Nicko, Jimmy and Nath - 3 of the UWS blokes

Rich (USA), Cody(USA), Steve (the 4th UWS bloke)

A heap of the internationals out at Fibbers Bar where they allow the U21's

I’ve had each of my classes so far, and the lecturers/tutors seem pretty good. I’m taking four marketing courses. Everything is so cheap here in comparison, especially the alcohol, so we’ve been out 5/7 nights. Bars with $1 cans of Budweiser, $3.75 coronas and then one place serves long necks in a brown paper bag – all class, I felt like I was in Penrith or something. Oh and, I thought it was only in South Park - but one of my teachers literally says 'mmmkaay' - and averages out to say about 7 a minute - I wish I didn't notice this in my first lesson, now I'm not going to listen to anything he says!

Cameron Hall - The building I have all my classes in - And if you want to see how massive the whole uni is: Campus Map

Went to a college basketball game, we lost though :(, oh and I forgot to mention, Wilmington has big film studios, it’s where One Tree Hill was filmed – they used our Uni’s basketball court for the show and stuff, and Iron Man 3 is about to be filmed here, which is the biggest film they’ve had here.

Other than that. I’m meeting a lot of people – yes, including Americans! – played beer pong, been to a house party and invited to more, and yeah life is good thus far.

Hope all is well in your lives

x

feel free to send me care packages or come and visit!! ;)

4019 Wilshire Boulevard

Unit 307 Bedroom B

Wilmington

North Carolina

28403