Wellington

The marathon/half-marathon wasn't all we did in Wellington, NZ. The night before the big race, D and I went to the rugby match at Westpac Stadium. When we weren't busy hiding from the on-off pouring rain, we waved our awesome free flags for the Wellington Hurricanes and tried our best to learn the rules of rugby.

Bandwagon fan for the losing team..

I already picked my favorite player - obviously the one with the dreads and neon orange shoes (I think he's inside the tackle in that picture).

Post-run, we recovered around the hostel and the nearby area. I did manage to crawl out of bed on Monday morning to check out Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. It was huge and had heaps of information in its interactive exhibits.

This exhibit was called Slice of Heaven, and showed historical, politically hot topics in NZ.

Overall, an awesome trip. I'm so glad I made it to New Zealand again, and I can't wait to go back again soon!

Videos of the Day

In honor of my flying home in about 15 hours, here are two hilarious safety videos that Air New Zealand showed on my flights last weekend.

1:58.25

I ran the HALF Marathon in Wellington, New Zealand last weekend, and I finished just under my goal of two hours!

This is my "I think I'm gonna die" game face, 10 metres from the finish line.

Here's the general timeline of the 21.1 kilometres, or 13.1 miles, aka the longest almost two hours of my life:

0-5k: Yeah the race is starting! I'm so high on adrenaline I don't even care that it's rainy and cold!

5-10.1k: This is too easy. Let's speed up. Finally, the turnaround point. Halfway done party!

10.2-21k: Hell with a headwind.

21k: I can see the timer. Gotta break 2 hours!

Survivors! Look at our cool towels and D's sweet medal. She was hardcore and ran her first full marathon and did AMAZING.

Finishing the Half Marathon definitely makes the Top 10 Best Accomplishments in Audrey's Life list, somewhere between getting the gold medal in the 50 Backstroke (2001 Summer Swim Championships) and becoming President of the United States (2032 elections).

Just a teaser..

Kilometre 2

Junior Year - Check!

My flight from New Zealand landed just in time for me to wait in an almost 2 hour long Customs and Immigration line, grab a bite to eat, and complete my last exam of junior year!

Exams in Australia are a little more official. In addition to stretching the finals period over three weeks, almost 3000 people take their exams all in one venue, at the Royal Exhibition Building (the equivalent of our Convention Centers, I think). The Royal Exhibition Building is about 1 km off campus, in the Carlton Gardens, next to the Melbourne Museum.

A mad dash as the doors open. As if I need more reason to stress right before my exam.

Also, seats are assigned (I found out the hard way). Luckily, my seat for my second exam was right near the entrance (#1118) so I didn't have to go hunting for it.

This is only about 1/8th of the seats in the entire building.

A few other interesting rules:

• 15 minute reading period. You're not allowed to write anything.
• Nothing allowed in the room besides writing utensils (in clear ziploc bags) and clear water bottles. There are giant storage boxes outside for people to put their bags. Preventing cheating, maybe, but really it just adds to the bareness of the entire building.
• No one is allowed to leave in the last fifteen minutes of the exam, but you can leave before that.

A little intimidating, and very freezing, but it's a lot prettier than taking an exam in your classroom or the gym. Exams are still exams, and I'm glad they're over for another six months. Senior year, here I come!

Mythbusters: Attractive People

Myth: Australians are HOT.

A picture's worth a thousand words, but I'd still like to draw your attention to a few key points here.

• Long (sun-bleached) hair
• Extra points for being tied in a ponytail/bun
• Extra extra points for being long enough to tie in a ponytail
• Skinny jeans
• Hipster glasses
• I'm sure they've got flannel in their closet somewhere. It was a warm day, so that's excused.

Nice to meet you, I'm a creeper

Conclusion: True.

Never Grow Up

I had a really great Sunday last weekend. It was like the carefree summer from when you were twelve, plus the independence and self-sufficiency of being twenty. The best of both worlds? I think so.

D and I started with a classy visit to the International Jazz Fest that had been going on all week. We went to a (free) performance at Federation Square, which was mellow and had a great atmosphere. It was a great day, and heaps of people were just hanging out, enjoying the weather and music.

The band was named Kid Life Crisis. I want to be the bassist.

Then we made it down the street to the Arts Centre Street Fair, where we proceeded to buy a few souvs and some deliciously adorable cupcakes. Each cupcake flavor had a short personality description, sort of like a horoscope. My Peppermint Twist cupcake said I was stubborn. Fair enough.

My Lemon Squeeze cupcake was heavenly, but not quite as delicious as my Peppermint Twist one.

The cupcakes reminded us that we were famished. There was construction going on the tram tracks, which was a huge blessing in disguise. We were forced to get off the tram before we were even halfway to our destination and switch to a bus, but we decided to grab a bite to eat first. We found the best, hole-in-the-wall, everyone-dreams-about-it-because-they-see-stuff-like-it-in-the-movies-and-wish-it-was-there-hangout-spot cafe, called Monkey. Can you guess why?

How many monkeys can you spot in this picture?

We sat in this hidden patio in the back, with about 300 different monkey-related decorations and a group of regulars (so jealous). We played a never-ending game of checkers while we ate our mmm-that-hit-the-spot sandwiches.

Are there even real monkeys in Australia?

With full bellies, we headed to our main attraction for the day - Luna Park, an amusement park in St. Kilda. We got unlimited passes and boy, did we make the most of those. With only two hours left until closing, we rode at least twelve of the fifteen or so rides in the entire park.

 

Bumper cars were hilarious. The ride guide actually had to give us directions over the loudspeaker because we were struggling so hard.

I had forgotten how fun theme parks are! We screamed louder than all the kids in the park combined, and I'm pretty sure I haven't laughed that hard since middle school. My abs were sore.

 

In the cage before one of the crazy upside-downers! They're surprisingly not huge on the security thing, we felt like we were falling out our seats the whole time!

Our stomachs were a little queasy after this one, but it was so worth it.

6 o'clock rolled around, and we were forced to leave after squeezing in a private ride on the flying Dumbo elephants. But what night is complete without some more sweets?

Overwhelming, right? Don't even get me started.

We compared at least five different bakeries on the Esplanade, and finally settled on one that had a dark chocolate slice for me and a pavlova for D. The perfect ending to a perfect day.

Mythbusters: Killer Animals

Myth: Australia is home to the greatest number of poisonous animals/insects/reptiles/other creatures.

I have yet to see a single poisonous anything. The only spider I've seen in the past four months was at the Rainforestation Centre (to be fair, its body was the size of my palm). I saw some jelly fish in Sydney, but they weren't about to kill me. And no matter how hard I look, I can't seem to find any poisonous snakes - I guess they're just not popular in the city.

Again, Rainforestation, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't poisonous. Apparently, all the good, dangerous animals are hidden here.

Instead, I've seen heaps of kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, and wombats, the last of which is, by far, my favorite animal here. How life-threatening does this little guy look?

Conclusion: False. I'll believe it when I see it (aka get bitten/stung/die). Until then, Australia has no poisonous animals.

Mythbusters: the Toilet

Myth: The water goes down the other way.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, I've forgotten which way the water goes down in the US, so you'll just have to see for yourself:

[Is this not the prettiest toilet you've ever seen? Courtesy of the Sin City Ladies Lounge at Surfers Paradise, in the Gold Coast. The bathroom also had a thousand mirrors and a computer with Facebook access.]

Thanks a lot, Chile

Who knew that a volcano 10,495 kilometres (6522 miles) away could be such a pain?

The Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile

All Qantas and Virgin Australia flights between Melbourne and New Zealand have been cancelled since early Sunday. I'm booked to fly to Wellington, New Zealand this Friday with Air New Zealand who, for some reason, hasn't cancelled a single one of their flights. Instead, they've chosen to fly their planes lower in the sky to avoid the ash clouds. Lucky me!

(See the WSJ article)

Song of the Day

Australian summers = music festivals, all day err day. I just might have to come back this December..

RHOK on!

  10 smart computer geeks 
           1 clueless American 
+                            18 hours 
1 awesome mobile web application that uses crowd-sourcing to collect post-earthquake data


One of the members of my group took this cool time-lapse video during Day 1 (I'm chilling in the middle table, facing the camera. I don't move much..):

RHOK (pronounced 'rock') stands for Random Hacks of Kindness, and it was a global volunteer event last weekend where a bunch of computer-type people gather at specific locations and spend the weekend designing and creating a computer program/web app/mobile app to save lives and the like. You can find out more at their website: rhok.org.

My group made a mobile webpage where, post-earthquake, users could send their experiences. Because it was designed for mobile use, users' exact locations could be determined, and therefore the information they gave could be pinpointed on a map. The goal of the program was to collect data on the intensity of the earthquake to: 

(1) send to government data centers for research 

(2) alert emergency services about the places that needed the most urgent care 

(3) help people connect with each other to share their awesome earthquake experience (not many earthquakes happen in Australia, so people get pretty excited when they feel the ground shake). 

 

These are our screenshot images from a mostly functioning prototype. I spent most of my time on generating a working form (see the second image in the right column).

Other groups at RHOK Melbourne were focused on fire alert systems, flood warnings, and general emergency evacuation planning.

A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 5

::continued from A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 4::

Wednesday, June 1st

2:05am

(Music stops, creepers abound)

Creep #2: "Do you girls need some help?"

No.

"Are you planning on staying there all night?"

No, we're waiting for a taxi [lie].

"You should watch out, this town gets weird."

...

2:15am

Creep #I-can't-even-keep-count-anymore: "You girls are lucky, because tonight I'm your guardian angel! Here, have this candy."

...

She's got the colors,patterns, and giant sun hat. Get yourself a garbage bag and you could run with the best of the hobos in this town.

2:30am

We should move, or stand up, at least look like we're going somewhere.

('Guardian angel' creep comes back)

Actually, let's just go to the airport, at least there's no creepers there. I'll call a taxi.

2:45am

Don't know where our taxi is..

Real guardian angel: "There's a taxi rank across the street."

2:50am

Taxi driver with beady eyes: "You know the airport isn't going to be open at this hour.."

3:05am

(At MacKay airport)

Wow, I've never seen an empty airport before.

At least there's no creepers here. Let's try the door.

(Locked. We wave at the guy who should be watching the security camera. He ignores us.)

[Confidential conversation about deep and meaningful things.]

3:55am

(Still outside the airport)

Macca's opens in five minutes. We should call another taxi and just wait there until our flight.

Mm chocolate croissant..

4:00am

(Security car pulls up)

Oh Christ, are we going to get kicked out of another place?

We're not even doing anything wrong this time.

(Security guard walks up)

Excuse me, what time does the airport open?

Security guard: (jingles keys) Right now.

Oh thank God!

(Tears of joy and a group celebratory huddle)

Let's go in before he locks the place up again. Oh those couches look nice..

(We each claim a couch and catch some shut-eye)

Those couches were a lot more comfortable than they look, especially at 4am.

5:30am

(Loudspeakers: "Mr. Hamilton, please report to Gate 3. Your plane is ready for departure...")

!@##$%

Good morning.

(Sit around killing time)

9am

(Finally boarding our flight home)

Alright, Tiger Airways, we've made it this far, don't let us down now..

::The End::

A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 4

::continued from A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 3::

Tuesday, May 31st

11:30pm

(Outside Geckos Backpackers' Hostel)

-Sweet, receptionist is gone.

-Alright, let's go!

(Halfway down the hallway, a woman appears.)

-"Who let you in?"

-Our friend, he's outside.

-"You can't come in here. You're not staying here. That door is locked for a reason. Blah blah blah."

-..We just came to look for my cell phone charger in his room..

-"I'm not stupid."

-Fail.

11:45pm

So, uh, now what?

I'm going to hang out outside the Night Owl (convenience store). At least that's 24 hours, so if I scream, someone will have to hear me.

..great.

Wednesday, June 1st

12am

(Settling in on a bench outside the Night Owl)

Well, at least we've got some music from the two clubs on this street.

(Impromptu dance sesh)

12:10am

(After our first trip of many into the Night Owl)

It's been ten minutes and we're still alive.

I'm bored. What time is it?

Let's play the celebrities game..

Home, sweet home.

1:30am

(After one hour of the celebrities game, and twenty minutes of the geography game)

So far so good. No rapes, no murders, no one's even bothered us yet!

2:05am

(Music stops, creepers abound)

Creep #2: "Do you girls need some help?"

No.

"Are you planning on staying there all night?"

No, we're waiting for a taxi [lie].

"You should watch out, this town gets weird."

...

2:15am

Creep #I-can't-even-keep-count-anymore: "You girls are lucky, because tonight I'm your guardian angel! Here, have this candy."

...

::to be continued, in pt 5::

A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 3

::continued from A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 2::

Tuesday, May 31st

6pm

(Getting off the Greyhound from Airlie back to MacKay, where our flight leaves the next morning)

-Let's look around for a hostel or a hotel or something for tonight.

-"Sorry, no vacancy."

-"Sorry, no vacancy."

-"Sorry, no vacancy."

-"We have a few rooms available for $157/night."

-Creep #1: "Hey girls, are you looking for the backpackers'?"

-Yes.

-"It's down that street, it's called Geckos."

-We already tried there, it's full.

-"Well, I have a four bedroom house.."

-Goodbye.

6:30pm

-The other hostel without a phone should be on this street.

-You mean this dark, sketchy one with no lights? Let's go!

-It's this house. (Has no sign and looks like a brothel.)

-Um.. What's Plan C?

7pm

(Eating dinner and stalling, first at Noodle House, then at Hot Wok until closing time)

-Hey, my friends are staying at Geckos. They said a few of us could sleep on the ground in their room and the rest could sleep in their rental car.

-Sweet, let's do it.

9:30pm

(Outside Geckos Backpackers' Hostel)

-The receptionist is still there, we can't sneak in now.

-No worries, let's go chill at the Macca's (McDonald's) for a bit.

10pm

(At Macca's)

-Awesome, it's open 24 hours!

-Sweet! We'll have to order stuff at intervals so they don't kick us out.

-Alright, I'll go get a coffee right now.

-Yeah, and I'll get some chicken in like 30 minutes..

-This is hilarious, we're going to become best friends with the people working here.

-..and then I'm going to get a McFlurrie..

-Do you think I could nap in that corner?

-..and hey look, they've got wings too..

10:30pm

-..mm fresh baked croissant when they're fresh baked at 4am..

11pm

-Wow, it really got empty in here.

11:05pm

-"Girls, we're closed. I'm going to give you five minutes to get out of here."

-But 24 hours..?

-"Only the drive-thru."

-@#$#%!

-Okay, I'll call my friends at the hostel. Let's head over there now, hopefully the receptionist is gone.

It was a shame, we had already made such good progress towards our goal to order everything on the menu in one night.

11:15pm

(On the way to the hostel)

-There's a movie theatre! I bet we could kill a few hours there.

-"Closed."

11:30pm

(Outside Geckos Backpackers' Hostel)

-Sweet, receptionist is gone.

-Alright, let's go!

(Halfway down the hallway, a woman appears.)

-"Who let you in?"

-Our friend, he's outside.

-"You can't come in here. You're not staying here. That door is locked for a reason. Blah blah blah."

-..We just came to look for my cell phone charger in his room..

-"I'm not stupid."

-Fail.

::to be continued, in pt 4::

A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 2

::continued from A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 1::

Sunday, May 29th

11am

[We didn't check out the other hostel. You might be able to guess where this is going and you're probably right, but it isn't a straight and narrow road. Love makes you blind, and we were in love.. with the sun.]

(Lounging at the beach near MacKay airport, waiting for our Greyhound to take us to Airlie)

-Mm the sun feels great!

-Why don't we just stay here Tuesday night?

3pm

(Still at the beach)

-It's getting a little windy. Maybe Tuesday night here isn't a great idea.

-It's less windy on the grass behind the beach. We could be total hobos and camp out there [again, sarcasm]. There's even picnic tables!

Monday, May 30th

-So what's the plan for tomorrow night?

-Nah, don't worry about it, we'll figure something out when we get there.

A place to stay overnight sounds so insignificant when you have a heaping ice cream cone in your face.

Tuesday, May 31st

6pm

(Getting off the Greyhound from Airlie back to MacKay, where our flight leaves the next morning)

-Let's look around for a hostel or a hotel or something for tonight.

-"Sorry, no vacancy."

-"Sorry, no vacancy."

-"Sorry, no vacancy."

-"We have a few rooms available for $157/night."

-Creep #1: "Hey girls, are you looking for the backpackers'?"

-Yes.

-"It's down that street, it's called Geckos."

-We already tried there, it's full.

-"Well, I have a four bedroom house.."

-Goodbye.

6:30pm

-The other hostel without a phone should be on this street.

-You mean this dark, sketchy one with no lights? Let's go!

-It's this house. (Has no sign and looks like a brothel.)

-Um.. What's Plan C?

That's as close as I was willing to get to the "hostel."

::to be continued, in pt 3::

A Series of Unfortunate Events, pt 1

Thursday, May 12th

-So, our flight home is Wednesday (June 1st) morning from MacKay (pronounced mik-EYE), and it takes at least two hours to get to the airport from where we're staying in Airlie. Let's find a hostel in MacKay on Tuesday night.

-Okay, that sounds like a good idea, let's do it.

Friday, May 27th

-Have you booked a hostel yet for Tuesday night?

-No, have you?

-No. We'll do it tomorrow.

Saturday, May 28th

-Hey mate, there's only two hostels in MacKay, and one of them is booked full.

-That sucks. What about the other one?

-Phone doesn't work.

-Weird. They'll probably have space though.

Later that day..

-All the hotels in the area are booked full too.

-I'm sure there'll be something available. Worst case we'll just stay on the streets [haha kidding sarcasm].

-Okay, maybe we can check out that other hostel with the dysfunctional phone when we get there tomorrow, before we head to Airlie.

Sunday, May 29th

[We didn't check out the other hostel. You might be able to guess where this is going and you're probably right, but it isn't a straight and narrow in the least. Love makes you blind, and we were in love.. with the sun.]

11am

(Lounging at the beach near MacKay airport, waiting for our Greyhound to take us to Airlie)

-Mm the sun feels great!

-Why don't we just stay here Tuesday night?

::to be continued, in pt 2::

Beaching at the Whitsundays

Like I said, SWOTVAC means 'vacay' in Australian. A few friends and I went to the Whitsundays for a few super relaxing days in the sun.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

We spent one of the days island-hopping through 3 of the 75 islands that make up the Whitsundays. The skipper of our boat told us that we were "the most interesting group I've had in months." Interpret that how you want.

Aye aye, Captain Audrey!

Just another kanga on the beach, nbd.

Our hostel in Airlie Beach was conveniently located in the same building as the only club in town. Live music followed by club jams - the perfect Sunday night. Monday night's playlist was identical, literally. Good thing Tuesday night was a little more interesting..

School's Out!

[At UniMelbourne, there's a week of reading period (called SWOTVAC) before three weeks of finals. It's pretty bizarre, especially when you have one final per week like me. Most people would be jealous of my well-spaced out exams, especially my friends with Chem, Physics, and Calc back to back, but I reckon this schedule is a drag to my travel plans. I'd much prefer an intense three days of pure hell followed by two and a half weeks of roaming the country.]

Classes ended last Thursday, marking the beginning of SWOTVAC week. A full twelve days of studying before my first exam? Yeah, right. I took advantage of the break to catch up on some local Melbourne cultural activities.

On Friday, I caught the footy at the MCG with a few friends. I was barracking for the Melbourne Demons, but they just couldn't get their act together. My Demons expert made the excuse that almost all of their top players were injured.

I had high hopes at the start of the match.

Anyways, it wasn't a complete disappointment though because in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, Olivia Newton-John performed, and my friends and I were within catching-her-spit distance! What a dream come true.

She performed "You're the One that I Want" with TWO men - Russell Robertson, a former Melbourne player, and Jim Stynes, the Melbourne Football Club President. My heart melted.

Saturday afternoon, D and I caught one of the short film showings at the St. Kilda Film Festival. We saw five of the top 100 short films. The films had nothing in common - between 4 to 30 minutes long, from documentary to sci-fi, comedy to drama. They were all excellent though, and I was inspired to start making my own doc, as well as reignite my skateboarding/longboarding days (okay, so it's debatable whether I actually know how to ride) after watching one of the docs about these sick sk8r bois.

Here's the trailer for Share Path Skate Path:

To wrap up the evening, we made our way to the National Gallery of Victoria, which was celebrating its 150th birthday. We had been learning about Dan Sultan, a contemporary Aboriginal singer, in our Aboriginal Cultural Studies class, so when we heard he was performing (free) at the NGV, we were sold. It didn't hurt that he was young, sings country, and looks quite fine in flannel.

He loved our side of the venue, we made so much eye contact!

Early Sunday morning, we took off for the airport to spend a few days in the glorious sunshine of the Whitsundays. I've got heaps more to say about that soon.

Goodbyes, already?

It's getting to that time: the last week of classes, end of year parties, and lots of goodbyes. I'm definitely glad that I have no more lectures to go to, and I'm looking forward to the "Winter Wonderland" gala tomorrow, but saying goodbye is just not my jam. The way I see it, there's three ways to do it.

1. Exchange contacts and make plans for a visit, whether next week or within the next ten years.

"I'll call you when I go to Europe in 2015!"

2. Procrastinate, and maybe even lie.

"I'm sure I'll see you again before I leave!"

3. Cold-hearted, no strings attached.

"See you never, have a good life!"

I experienced all in one day last week. I knew this was going to happen (post #3), but that didn't make me any more prepared. In the end, though, I think the best way to do it really is number 3. It sucks, but if I learned anything from He's Just Not That Into You, it's that if someone really does want to see you again, they will find a way.