Australia Pic of the Week

A beautiful scene of flowers as the sun sets on the South Bank area of Brisbane, Australia. October 14, 2002.

The sun sets on the city of Brisbane. I took this picture from the City Cat boat - great public transportation on the Brisbane River.

Tuesday, October 15, 2002

I made it! I'm here in beautiful Brisbane, Australia at the University of Queensland. Queensland is the sunshine state - and not undeservingly. The weather so far has reminded me of Florida (the US's sunshine state). I'm sitting here in Greg's room at St. Leo's College listening to some Brian Regan (a stand-up comedian) before sleep. Today was a good day! Before lunch, we were tuned into the computer watching the developments in game five of the NLCS (Major League Baseball playoffs). We loaded a page on ESPN.com that refreshed every sixty seconds during the playoff game between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. We both were pulling for Bonds and the Giants who had a 3-1 lead in the series. And they won! We were so excited going to lunch that the teams we have been wanting to win have made it to the World Series!

I'm sorry I wasn't able to get this update up sooner, but I didn't think I would be able to connect up to the internet connection here until Richard, one of Greg's friends from Malaysia and a fellow Apple enthusiast, set me up to go online! I'm quite thankful to be online finally. I arrived in Brisbane in the late afternoon of Friday, October 11. After making my way through customs and buying a bottle of gin for the guy who Greg got to pick me up, I met up with Greg and came to his college where I met lots of his international friends (along with some Aussies). His one friend, Sunny from Dubai (originally from India), cooked a genuine, Indian meal for a big group of us. It was excellent! The occasion was Damien's 22nd birthday party. After dinner, we hung around and had some drinks before heading out to the city for the rest of the night. It was lots of fun, but quite tiring to stay up until about 5am after losing three hours on the flight over! We went to a dance club which was really cool (and crowded), then we stopped at McDonald's for a late snack on our way back to campus.

Taken just moments after the sunset photo above, Greg and I stand near the front of the City Cat boat after a refreshing day swimming at South Bank in Brisbane on the evening of October 14, 2002.

By now, however, I'm pretty much adjusted to the time difference. It's so nice to have good, sunny, summery weather for a change. It's so nice to go to sleep with the window open or the fan on. Yesterday (Monday) we even went swimming in the city. We went to the South Bank area of Brisbane where there's this manmade beach and lots of other cool stuff to see. We had a great time having splashing battles and throwing sand. I went with Greg and five of his other friends from the college. It was quite relaxing. It was also fun just riding to South Bank. Along with the other common forms of public transportation like buses and taxis, Brisbane has a transportation service that transports passengers by boat on the Brisbane River. It was also fairly reasonably priced.

On Sunday, I met up with Caroline and went to church with her. The church was Grace Bible Church - the same as my church in Dunedin! The service there was good, and later in the day, I went along with Caroline to a Christian Fellowship led by a guy from Tennessee! The message there was timely as well. After that, Caroline, Greg, and I went out for a drink a few blocks away. It was so refreshing to see some familiar faces and reminisce about days gone by at Dickinson. Being in a residence hall again with Greg has almost made me feel like I'm back at Dickinson! But I am quickly reminded of the fact that I'm in Australia man!

It's nice to finally be done with lectures! But I'm not at all looking forward to final exams. My first one is a week and a half away on the Friday two days after I return to New Zealand. I haven't done much studying here yet, but I really do plan to get some quality time in tomorrow, which is Greg's busy day. I'm also planning to catch up with Hanni sometime soon. I stopped by her room when I went out with Greg and Caroline on Sunday night, but she wasn't there.

I'm also learning to play more and more Harrod & Funck stuff! It's ever so exciting! I finally learned the song Carolina on Sunday afternoon! I probably play it too much. Oh well, that's the only way you get better though I suppose.

~ben

On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 back in Dunedin, I went with many other Butler students to a genuine,
Maori/Pacific Islander dance extravaganza! I didn't want to use the flash, so that's why it turned out so
blurry in all the action, but I rather like the way it looks!