Maybe it was the high expectations that I had for this trip, or maybe it was just because I didn’t research all of my options before I arrived – Sydney was not my cup of tea.

When did I go?

Thursday, February 25, 2010.  Through Monday, March 1, 2010.

Who did I go with?

Steph and My. They have been mentioned in previous posts. They stayed with me there from February 25 through the 29^th.

How did we get there?

We flew Tiger Airlines and we booked about 3 weeks in advance. It cost $75 roundtrip, without checking a bag. Unfortunately, I needed to pay $50 each way at the airport to check a bag and thus ruined the initial good deal. Well, this was a lesson for me for the rest of my travels.

I had found the good deal using, webjet.com.au but if you book through webjet they charge you a $20 fee. So it is best to take the deal and book on the airline website. An elderly couple recommended this site as the go-to place to find the best flight deals in Australia. It has worked to be the best place to check first, and then go accordingly to avoid the fee. I don’t understand why webjet does add in that extra $20, maybe not all travelers notice the extra fee!

Although I have heard a lot of complaints about Tiger, my experiences with them have always been great. Definitely the best cheap airline I have flown in Australia.

Where did we stay?

Base Backpackers Sydney.

I’ve only stayed at Base in Sydney and in Brisbane. I loved the hostel in Brisbane, but the one in Sydney did not live up to speed. Although it is not the worst hostel I have stayed at, the receptionists were not very friendly and a bit uptight.

We stayed in their highly regarded Sanctuary rooms.

I quoted Base earlier in the semester, for they described this is how they described their sanctuary rooms:

“The Female only SANCTUARY DORM is for ladies who like to be pampered! 4 to 8 bed dorm, clean, modern and comfortable non smoking room comprising a luggage security locker for each person, wireless internet access (surcharge applies), security swipe card access with a 24 hour reception, heating and air-conditioning. The beds have feather pillows and doona and made up with fresh linen. The rooms are featured with full-length mirrors. Hairdryers, hair strengtheners and beauty kits are available for your use on request at reception. Rate is for 1 person in a single bunk bed in the dorm. Fantastic price for that extra bit of luxury in a fantastic location, close to all the action in the heart of Sydney.”

Well, the sanctuary was not like that. They did have some random shampoos and conditioners, but it didn’t even appear to be ours because they were just stacked on the desk as if they belonged to one of the other backpackers in our room.

The room had a comfy bed and nice sheets, but the AC didn’t work that well. The floor looked like it could use a good vacuum. Their description really is a bit outrageous for what it is, but what can you expect for a hostel.

It WAS, however, in the best location possible. It is located right around the corner from St. George ST. where all of the action is.

Overall I’d give this hostel a C+. I did have one particularly bad incident with them while I was leaving, which knocked them from getting a B.

A day before my departure I decided to go ahead and book the shuttle to the airport for $15. When I booked it, the women at the counter wrote down my name and had a receipt of my purchase and a copy of my ticket number. When I checked out, I must have left the paper in the room and it got thrown out. I went back upstairs in an attempt to try and find it. I go back downstairs to explain to the receptionists about the dilemma and they replied coolly, “Oh yes, you’ll just have to buy another ticket.” I didn’t understand why that would be the case since they had written down my information, and asked, “Why would I have to do that if you have it written down in your book?” They told me that because the ticket is not tied to me, I could have sold it to somebody else. I told them that that wasn’t the case and that I didn’t understand their policy. Then they proceed to tell me that it is like buying a shirt a store, if you lose the shirt then it’s your own fault for losing the shirt. Well, really it isn’t the same as losing a shirt. This is a ticket for a seat on a bus. The bus fills up, they wrote down my name in regard to the ticket. They were very rude and handled the situation very poorly. I left the hostel with a very bad taste in my mouth.

Frustrated, I decided to go to a café nearby and call the people who actually drive the shuttle. They told me that it was not a problem, that they did have me down on their list and that I could get on the shuttle without the ticket. This just goes to show you that Base simply was being non-negotiable without a reason.

What did we do?

Thursday night:

It was late so we decided to check out the bar at the hostel. It was called The Scary Canary. A lively place, a lot of fellow backpackers were there

Friday:

My insisted upon going to a Vietnamese restaurant in Star City (the Sydney casino), but before we left she did not know exactly where it was so we spent a good 45 minutes wandering around for it. At the time it was not a lot of fun, but in hindsight it wasn’t that bad. We ended up getting to the restaurant, the name of which escapes me, and of course it was not open yet. So we just sat around the casino waiting for the place to open. It was a bit pricey but the meal I ordered was quiet delicious.

Afterward we met up with Stephanie and we made our way to the Opera House. We did not go for a tour, but just took pictures outside of it. They were too lazy to walk inside with me, but I went in and checked it out. It was beautiful. I wish I would have taken a tour, but I plan on being back someday.  Visiting the Opera House was one of my favorite parts of the trip; it was really cool to see such a monumental sight in real life.

We then took pictures in front of the Sydney Bridge.

Leigh and Kim traveled with the school to Sydney, and because they were on a guided tour they were not able to hang out with us at their leisure. I did meet up with them later in the night; we went to a bar called scubar.

Saturday:

We went shopping and I found a great shirt and pair of shoes for a total of $25. I also bought some souvenirs for my friends and myself. We each bought an Australia jacket for $13 each.

That night we made it our way to a place to indulge in our first experience with eating kangaroo. It was delicious, like steak but more tender.

After dinner it was time to go check out Sydney’s huge GLBT mardi gras celebration. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of Boston Pride. I could not believe how many people were there.

Sunday:

I made my way to Bondi Beach. I really was un-impressed by Australia’s most recognized beach. I guess the beautiful beaches of the Gold Coast have spoiled me, for as far as looks were concerned, it was not very beautiful. There were a lot of cameras on the beach and a good amount of people, I could not figure out what was going on.

After I was done taking pictures, I decided to walk along the shore and finally settle to sit down for a bit under the overcast skies. I could not have been sitting for more than about 5 minutes when my day dreams were suddenly interrupted by the intercom, “Everybody please evacuate the beach, a tsunami will be hitting the shore in about 12 minutes.” I could not believe my ears, and my heart started to beat wildly as my mind was racing. As an American, tsunamis have never been much of a worry for me. Thus, when I heard the intercom I thought I was done for. People did start scurrying off, muttering to each other and looking around. I started to get nervous. I meandered through the crowds to what I decided would be a good altitude to watch and be safe. Along the way I met a woman who had been in the Thailand tsunami, and she summed up her experience as being pure hell. Well, I decided to get my video camera out and said a brief goodbye to mom and dad and my other relatives and friends. Then, I decided to go ahead and film it – I mean CNN would buy this tape afterwards… If I survived, right??   Well, I waited a good hour and nothing happened. So, I shrugged off my CNN debut and made my way through the various beach shops and restaurants. A personal favorite that I crossed was, “Gabby’s Café.” I didn’t remember opening a café in Sydney, but I guess other people do have my name.

Monday:

That was when I had my lovely argument with Base Backpackers. I decided to have breakfast at a café nearby. I spent the day working on the homework I had due on Tuesday and caught my flight at around 3:30 PM.

I don’t understand why Internet is so hard to come by in Australia. The only airport I’ve been to with free Internet was incidentally in Darwin. The rest try to charge you an insane amount like $25 for the hour. Crickey, let’s get a technology update mates!

February 28, 2010 10:40 AM

My, Steph & I parted ways. For I wanted to see Bondi beach and they didn’t really want to check it out. Right now I decided to grab breakfast at a café not too far from the hostel, they have free wifi, something I need to remember for tomorrow.

Because I haven’t decided how I have to spend my last day here exactly. This trip so far has been all right. Sydney itself reminds me of a cleaner version of NYC in terms of being a 24-hour city, but also has hints of Dallas and Boston. I dropped Leigh off at her place at 3 AM last night but you’d never know that it was 3AM. The streets were filled with cars, people walking, people standing around dancing to a guy with a guitar. I’m not sure if this is the real vibe of the city or if it’s just because it’s mardi gras. Tonight I’ll get more of an idea of how it is because I feel like you rally see a city for what it is on a Sunday night. On a Sunday night the city doesn’t have its typical distractions, things are opened for the sake of being opened, so you get to see how long things really are alive for. Tonight I know I’ll get to see how the city is, for what it is.

My friend Sarah, whom I went to high school with and she now goes to Princeton, is in Spain right now. She is studying in Sevilla. We are meeting up May 12^th to begin a European tour. Well, we were talking last night and she was giving me good sound advice, and passed along some advice she has received:  “A friend once told me that if you really want something, you have to be willing to lose it.” I couldn’t agree more with that.

Odds are if you really want something, whatever it is… you have to realize that it probably won’t last. Technology becomes outdated, people change, you grow and your interests vary. How do you know if you want something enough to lose it? I guess most people are afraid of relationships for that very reason, they already know, going into it that odds are they are going to lose it. So why even bother getting attached in the first place? I have my own feelings regarding that, but I’m not interested in getting into that right now. I’m just sharing the random thoughts that are jogging my brain right now.  What Sarah’s friend said to her though, doesn’t necessarily have to have a pessimistic ring to it. It can also mean, if you decided to make a decision to go for something you want, you have to recognize the risks involved with doing that. Taking a chance isn’t always that bad, and it’s good to recognize the chance that you are taking. These thought processes can be very stressful. Personally, one of my favorite adages has always been, “he who hesitates, loses.” Because this has 9 times out of 10 proved to be correct.

Today, I’m trying to get my work done and I have actually been successful. I’ve mostly finished my first cinematography assignment, and I am going to work on studying for the exam I have next Tuesday. Tomorrow I am heading to Sydney with My and Steph.

Sydney is one of the main things I’ve always associated Australia with. I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s like. It’s crazy; to finally see something you’ve spent your whole life imagining what it would be like. In first grade, my dad, my brother and I would play this game where we were given famous pieces of architecture from around the world and we would have to match up the pieces to its city. In first grade I was very impressed and interested in the Sydney Opera House and here I am, 15 years later and I’m finally going to actually see it.

(Written 5:20PM Brisbane Time 2AM Eastern Time)

This video is of Surfer’s Paradise. The closest city to Bond Uni, is Surfers. It takes about 15-30 minutes on the bus, and the bus leaves every 30 minutes or so. Surfers is where all of the clubs are located, and the main extracurricular in the evening tends to be frequenting the clubs in the various clubs in the area. Bond University has a binding contract for the year with The Bedroom and Sin City, where all of the students get free admission and the clubs get unlimited advertising on campus. I have to admit; I’ve gone to the clubs every weekend since I’ve been here, something that I normally do not participate in at home.

My classes are great, and I think I’m going to like them more and more as the weeks go by. This is my schedule:

Tuesday:

8AM – 10AM Cinematography & Lighting Lecture

10AM – 12PM Cine & Lighting Practical

(we work with the cameras and lights, etc)

We’ll be using these beautiful Panasonic HPX’s in this class. They are stunning cameras.

2PM – 4PM Directing Actors Lecture

(This so far seems like it’s going to be my favorite class. The professor is very good and she understands students and varies the way she teaches in order to keep the class engaged and interesting. The class is obviously about the relationship between actor and director, but it’s also about reading people and trying to get people to feel what you want them to feel (if only these techniques worked in real life).

6PM – 9PM Directing Actors Practical

(the professor brings in real actors and we do different exercises with them in a studio)

Thursday:

8AM – 10AM Editing Lecture (I’m learning to edit using Avid. Currently, I only know Final Cut Pro; however, in the industry it’s good to know both.)

10AM – 12PM Australian Cinema Screening / Lecture

(Australian Cinema starts at 9, so I’ve worked out an agreement with my professor to miss the lecture and come for the screening. Afterwards, the professor, and two grad students re-teach me the lecture. In the US something like that never would have worked out. I would have had to pick between the Editing class and Australian Cinema. I was glad I didn’t have to pick because I’m interested in both)

2PM – 3PM Australian Cinema Tutorial

(Every student is required to do a presentation on a film… Mine is on the movie “Getting’ Square” Which is a movie made by a lawyer, and is set in the Gold Coast. I’m going to try and watch it soon, so when I do I’ll let you guys know how it is.)

4PM – 6PM Editing Computer Lab

This photo is a an example of the edit suites that are near the iMac computer lab where we have class.

(We sit down behind the iMac computers and follow along with the instructor. Fortunately, the edit suites are open 24/7. )

I was very surprised when I found out that a.) My classes happened to work out to be only twice a week and b.) That they only meet once a week. It’s very different from the Monday, Weds, Thursday or Tuesday/Friday schedules that I am accustom to at Northeastern University. As of right now, I don’t know how it will be possible to learn as much in a given semester, but we will see. Although I am a hard worker, I’m a bit concerned about the grading system here. Apparently the professors do not give out “High Distinctions.” They are pretty strict with what they give out, but NU curves the grades to be in par with the way we do business. Another observation is how strict the administration at Bond University seems to be. Maybe because it is a smaller school, they are able to keep the students more on a tight leash, but it’s very unappealing. I understand that they are nervous about students doing things they shouldn’t be doing, but there needs to be some level of trust and understanding between the school and the students. It seems that the school is running the students whereas at other institutions I’ve been in the students help run the school. I was also surprised that classes were held on Australia Day. From my understanding, Australia day is like July 4^th. Having classes on July 4^th would be blasphemous in the USA, so like I said, although unaffected, I just was very surprised.

Having class twice a week has a lot of benefits. One of the major ones, of course, is being able to travel Thursday night – Monday night. Already I have booked my flights to Sydney for their big Mardi Gras weekend. Two of my friends and I leave on the 6:30 flight Thursday evening, we are flying Tiger Airways. My roundtrip tickets, and 4 nights in a hostel cost me a total of $205. Now that’s a bargain. The hostel we are staying at is called, Base Backpackers, and we are staying in the sanctuary room, which Base describes as “The Female only SANCTUARY DORM is for ladies who like to be pampered! 4 to 8 bed dorm, clean, modern and comfortable non smoking room comprising a luggage security locker for each person, wireless internet access (surcharge applies), security swipe card access with a 24 hour reception, heating and air-conditioning. The beds have feather pillows and doona and made up with fresh linen. The rooms are featured with full length mirrors. Hairdryers, hair strengtheners and beauty kits are available for your use on request at reception. Rate is for 1 person in a single bunk bed in the dorm. Fantastic price for that extra bit of luxury in a fantastic location, close to all the action in the heart of Sydney.” This cracked me up a bit, because who associates hostel with luxury? Well, I’ll of course, be assessing the situation as to exactly how luxurious this accommodation is.

I haven’t officially made any other travel plans. The great news is that none of my classes have finals, so I am going to have two weeks where I plan on traveling for the entire duration. Places I want to go? Cairns, The Outback, New Zealand and Fiji. Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze all of this in, but the main issue is trying to find reasonably priced airfare. If I do, then of course I’ll be going to all of these places.

Other great news is that I, without even looking for one, found a job. My friend and I were leaving the pool, like I do everyday, and stumbled upon a sign asking for volleyball referees. I immediately walk in, speak to the guy and was hired on the spot to reff beach volleyball games. It’s great, happens every Monday night, at the beach volleyball courts, which is perfectly located right next to my dorm. The pay is good, and it’s from 6-9:40, but I get paid per game. And there are 5 games that are held within those hours. I did it for the first time this past Monday, and it was a lot of fun. It was a seriously nice pick-me-up; for I had been feeling the most homesick I had ever felt in my entire life Thursday-Saturday.

I’m on week 3 and my life in Boston has grown slightly more distant to me with each week that passes. The first two weeks it felt like I was only going to be here for a short vacation, but now I’m starting to realize and accept the fact that I am here for three more months. I’m starting to fully give myself to this place, allowing myself to follow the ways of the culture and accept it as my own. The months before I left, my relationships, my living situation, all were contingent on this trip to Australia. Relationships needed to end, I needed someplace temporary to live, and it was all because of where I am right now. I ask myself if it was worth it, but I don’t think that’s a fair way of looking at it. I need to realize that it’s not about it being worth it, but about realizing that life gets in the way of life at times. Sometimes you want to be able to have everything, but you simply can’t. You have to make choices, and those choices are at times very painful and uncomfortable to make at the time. So, I can’t say that this has been worth it or not worth it, but it certainly has been an experience. I never realized how different standing on the other side of the earth would actually feel.

Gabby Gabriel

Campus Accommodation & Dining Services

Building 10 (Student Court)

14 University Drive

Bond University QLD 4229

Contact No. 6175555000

I think you actually do keep the Contact Number on there.

I was busy running around today. I may be buying a ticket to Sydney  for the weekend of their big Mardi Gras. It’s only $56 round trip…

I’m on the flight to Brisbane.

Going through customs was fun and they were trying to figure out what my iMac was. I told them it was a computer, and then the guy picked it up and said, “Oh it’s a screen!” I didn’t argue, he was partially correct.

Getting off the plane and walking into the airport, was pretty exciting. Mainly because it had been a long time since I had been through customs and going through it makes you realize that you’re entering a foreign country, even if they speak the same language.

On the bus to the next gate, I was alarmed that the driver was driving on the wrong side of the road, and then it dawned on me… the driver is driving on the wrong side of the road, but then I remembered that Australians drive on the opposite sides here, and was happily amused.

At first glance, Australia does not have as many palm trees as I would have imagined, at least I haven’t seen any in Sydney. Instead, the trees look like trees I see in Ohio, or New England. But we’ll see what the trees in Brisbane look like. Some of the girls in my group were loud and obnoxious on the bus; I could see the Australians looking at us: No wonder America has the reputation that it has. If we were in the US, I wouldn’t mind that kind of behavior; it only bothers me when it is fulfilling a stereotype, in another country.

It feels like I’m in a warm climate, everyone has that cheery summer tone and that golden sunny glow. I can’t wait to get my sun on.