***************************************************************************** 2005-09-01 (Thursday) Ellen Moore: Living and Working in Korea. We presented our case study on Korea today, highlighting the cultural differences in Korea and the Western countries, and the impact of these cultural conflicts in a case study about Ellen Moore. ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-31 (Wednesday) Unitouch Finals. I'm happy to announce that our team, Endura, won the FINALS for Grade B Mixed Unitouch! Woohoo! The score against the Pink Team was 5-4, and we were heavily the underdog. We won these great trophy mugs that have Unitouch logo and a 1st place! "Good pressure" is my favorite saying in Unitouch. Anytime the other team fouls up and drops the ball, we cheer on our team by giving a loud &'good pressure' scream! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-30 (Tuesday) High Fliers Market Research. I am the University Manager of High Fliers Market Research, meaning I am managing 30+ student interviewers for conducting surveys for The Australian (the big newspaper of the country) regarding post-graduation plans of undergraduates at the University of Queensland. Basically, my target goal is to have my team interview a total of over 600 interviews! Crazy, huh? In six weeks time, The Australian is going to have a big article about what students plan to do post-graduation. Looking forward to the results. ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-29 (Monday) No More Coins - Pay Parking Meters by Mobile Phone. In Entrepreneurship, we have to come up with a clever business plan; and what Sam, Bill and I propose to do is to do away with coins and notes, and enable consumers to pay for parking meters by a quick dial from their mobile phones. We'll target the Gold Coast for the initial market, but first we have to see if any of the carriers have already jumped on this ingenious idea! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-28 (Sunday) QLD Roars – Soccer comes to Brisbane! The first A-League Professional Soccer team in Brisbane, called the Queensland Roars, played their first home game at SunCorp Stadium. As Masa and Annie are huge Soccer fans, they have season tickets, and met the whole team after the game (which was a 2-0 score!) Go Roars! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-27 (Saturday) Happy Birthday Riggaz! Steve Rigby (aka Riggers, Riggaz, Rigdo) turned 23 on the 23rd and we celebrated with a heated hool pool party in the middle of winter. It took an entire gas tank ($70 bucks!) to heat our pool, but he said it was niiiice and warm! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-26 (Friday) Catch up with Howard & Lorraine; Broncos vs Roosters Howard and Lorraine came back from their three-plus months of holiday! Let me tell you, Australians really know how to do it right when it comes to holidays and taking time off to enjoy oneself. Their itinerary was from Brisbane to Montpellier, France to Corsica to Greek Islands (super cruiseliner) to New York to Ommish Country (Pennsylvania) to Canada and back home to Brissy. Phew! Also, I worked at the Broncos game tonight in the Corporate Boxes and one of my boxes was the Cha Cha Char restaurant; apparently fine dining in Brisbane. One of the interesting characters I met was Lutzy, who is apparently from the morning show of Nova, the 106.9 radio station here in Brisbane. No clues if this guy was pulling my chain, but he apparently said he is keen on hosting and producing an Aussie version of The Man Show ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-25 (Thursday) Hurricane Katrina. So, I just read online in the news, that Hurricane Katrina striked Florida between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds. It looks pretty bad, and I can only imagine that gas prices are going to shoot even further. It is unbelievable that they are over $70/barrel! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-24 (Wednesday) Unitouch semifinals. I have taken a long hiatus from my Endura Unitouch team, but joined up with them again for the semifinals this Wednesday, and we won!! We are in the finals next week! YIPPEE! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-23 (Tuesday) Wine Belles. Annie had a few good girlfriends over tonight, and they are aptly named The Wine Belles. Everyone was accomplished in their own right: Katherine (lovely son), Colleen (her own label of clothing), Pam (Qantas flight attendant), Yvonne (in nursing school), and of course Annie. I hope to have this many good friend who enjoy good food, good wine, and good company when I am more settled! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-22 (Monday) Hypermarkets in India. In my Supply Chains class, we are analyzing a new type of supermarket that is in India: Giant hypermarkets are the big-box model, where the distribution warehouse and the end consumer retailing supermarket is located in the same location. Not only does the hypermarket provide better quality, better logistics, and better selection of products, the prices are roughly 10-15% lower for their private label brand and the other prices are 2-10% lower than the retail price. The hypermarket in India is unique because it is not a wholesaler that sells in bulk or only focuses on one retail industry (e.g., electronic), but a family shopping experience that offers everything including food, fun, games, and shopping. ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-21 (Sunday) Back from New Zealand! Here is the recap from Matus (yes, yes, another guest journalist). First of all, let me mention to you all, that if you are planning to travel NZ, camper is the way to go, in fact,, I don't see any other way. The country is so big, and so little populated, that it is really nice to have the convenience to just stop at any corner of the road and enjoy the beauty wherever you are, rather then being tide down to hotels and cities... It is expensive in the summer, but pretty reasonable in the winter, especially if you got someone to share the cost with... A house on wheels is a good way to put it, not only allows you to have a roof above your head but also allows you to live in style... microwave, oven, and stove are all in place to allow for some mean cooking (believe me, it was gourmet eating every day!!!) The only missing part was a shower... but you can believe that we have found a way to solve that problem for free.... we have basically become experts in crashing the holiday parks, for some electricity which gave us heat in the camper over night, well and the well needed showers. About every second or third night we have sneaked in after closing and left before opening, ... after all, we did not have the extra cash to afford those services at $10 to $20 per person... I arrived in Christchurch of the South Island, and drove down to Queenstown, where we spent three days, hiking and skiing. It was amazing, got really lucky with the weather almost every day... The first day hiked to an elevation of almost 2500 meters for some spectacular views of the entire mountain ranges, then second day drove along the Queenstown Lake to Glenorchy for another hike, well and then the third day finally got the feel of the NZ slopes at the Remarkables. Although the snow situation was really poor this year (worst winter in years...) it was not as bas as expected, once we found some off piste shoots. The snow was great (since it dumped the two day before), but the range of options was still unfortunately limited cause of the rocky base... but still fun. Queenstown we have also found our second home, the Queenstown Lodge that we crashed every night for some hot tub and sauna time, while overlooking the lake and the city. It was awesome....not to mention that we were pretty much the only ones there... (just like private spa... ) If you happen to be in Queenstown someday, don¡¯t forget to check it out... :) Unfortunately three days was all that our time permitted, we could have easily stayed for another three days, although it was good that we had to leave considering that the local authorities had caught us camping in unauthorized areas two out of the three nights.... luckily, we managed not to get a fine.... (for some reason they are really strict there, and you are only allowed to park and sleep at a holiday park, or be more then 15km out of the city limits....) Back on the road again, we headed towards Wanaka, (our most favorite place in NZ) where we spend another day, and planed to ski again, but the weather was once again pretty bad up in the mountains, Disappointed however we still found enough stuff to do... From there through the mountains back to the west coast and up to Fox Glacier, where I almost managed to flip the camper. This being already the second incident with the car, after I already have backed it up into a road sign, when I missed to see the sign on the side of the camper... This time, I took a wrong turn, then wanted to turn around, however as I approached the shoulder of the gravel road, the wet soil just slid away from underneath my tires making me slip into the ditch with the front wheel almost a meter deep. In shock we exited the car, hoping that the weight loss will not cause the car to flip sideways into the ditch.. There was nothing left to do, but to start walking to the next town, which fortunately turned out to be only 5km further down the road. So totally soaked, (it was the rain storm of the century... ) we finally tracked down a tow truck that was able to still get us out the same night (now almost 11pm) ... for the cost of $50.. got really lucky there... and back then was thinking that there is nothing else that can go wrong with the car... but was wrong again..... anyhow, so the next day we spend in the region, going on a glacier hike, and some other short walks for some spectacular scenery especially from the Mateson Lake that offers great mirror image views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman... . Then back up to Picton to get on the ferry and off to Wellington. There we were able to meet up with Cindi's friend Vic, who is working on the production of the new King Kong movie, and gave us some amazing previews of the work he has done... Get ready for this one guys... it will be amazing movie...Vic not only treated us with that, but also allowed us visiting his incredible house overlooking Miramar. We couldn’t stay the night, though, because we were off toward National Park Village, a 4 hour drive north to do the Tongariro Crossing, (17km hike with 1900 elevation and a glacier saddle..). We got lucky, it was a blue sky day, and we were able to do the whole crossing. It was spectacular....and we met some awesome French froggies that were so nice and drove us back to our starting point! The only negative thing was a flat tire that we had as we returned back to the car, (now the third incident in the camper van!) Thinking there would be nothing to it.... I soon realized that we have another project on our hands, the tire was blown and the rim bent... (then I remembered how I hit a big rock on the way up, which must have caused the damage...) The only solution was to get a new tire, put that on the bend rim and then put the bent rim as a spare tire... So the next day, we rolled into a tire place and got working on it. Luckily the rim was able to be hammered out, and we decided to buy a used tire and place that as the spare.... (by now we are thinking that there is no way we are getting our $5000 bond back... not to mention, that the next morning, to top it all off, Alyssa put down a hot pot on the carpet of the Camper, burning a beautiful circular mark into it....)?:) Then, we drove up to Taupo...the region of geysers and hot springs where we have stopped for some dips into the hot-water running streams...and experienced the rolling green hills full of sheep and cows... (there is 12 sheep per person in NZ, and NZ population is 4 million, so do the math yourself... just crazy..) Really enjoyed Taupo, which has become our favorite location on North Island)..and then back to Auckland, where we had a grand tour of the airport! Back to Brissy for me, and off to China for Alyssa and Matus! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-20 (Saturday) Drove to Rotarua - fix flat tire; Rotarua Markets; Kairau Hot Springs Park. Drive to Auckland...fly back to Brisbane! 2005-08-19 (Friday) Drive to Tongariro National Park Crossing - a 17km hike, met these great French people to drive us back to our starting point, had a flat tire, fixed it to our spare, drove to Taupo, dinner at Lake Taupo, shower at the random hostel, sleep in Taupo. 2005-08-18 (Thursday) Hope Point Lookout breakfast, pictures at Marlborough Sound, Interislander Ferry (Picton to Wellington), Wellington Waterfront, Weta Digital with Vic - King Kong, Visit to Vic House, drive north to near Kaktahi (overnight on the side of the road). 2005-08-17 (Wednesday) Morning at Lake Matheson, walk to Fox Glacier, hike around Lake Matteson--views of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook, Drive past Franz Josef Glacier, Drive on West Coast - Motokieke Rocks near Greymouth, Punakaiki pancake rocks (these layers were formed about 30 million years ago on the ocean floor of marine organisms into limestone rock that have now been subjected to wind and waves, the putai (seaspray) blowholes. Sunset and dinner and Spaight Beer, Penguin siting attempt, Overnight at Hope Point Lookout. 2005-08-16 (Tuesday) A pancake breakfast was in order (a la Alyssa) and I made an apple muesli bake. A lovely morning in Wanaka, followed by a fruitful shopping trip--we got new beanies! They were awesome--black, with the words New Zealand written on them. They were so cool that I got five of them for Christmas gifts. Next, we were on to Puzzleworld, where they had the craziest bathroom ever! And then to Fox Glacier..unfortunately, we had a little bit of a problem. Rain+low visibility+wrong turn+two tires in a bog at 9 pm=uh oh! We walked to the Fox Glacier township (about 1 kilometer), was towed out by the lovely Clark Johson, and were even able to have our "very short walk" to see the glow worms. The sign was hilarious--it said that the glow worm walk closed at 11 pm, when it was just an open walk. After a stressful about-to-tip-over-the-camper-and-lose-$5000-bond, we relaxed at the Fox Glacier RV Park. 2005-08-15 (Monday) Again, we were woken up by the Queenstown patrol with another stern warning (thank goodness, no fines!) We headed off to Ski Slopes at the Remarkables (aka Remarks). Skiing was so fun, but there were only 3 lifts! Unbelievable. Matus and I took a few more runs, and were greeted by Alyssa and some delicious apple brie jam sandwiches. I am telling you-- we ate so well this trip! We headed to our fave spot--the sauna/hot tub and the lovely drying room. We even dined on deeelicious steaks that evening! We checked internet for the first time, and then headed to Wanaka. We overnighted at an RV park.. and it was my first time to experience the heater and electricity! 2005-08-14 (Sunday) Off another hike this morning to Mt Alfred/Auri--a wet wet wet hike that stopped having any trail markers about 2 hours up. So, we turned around and headed down the slippery (snow was melting) path to the see the cute lambs (one escaped and was frantically looking to get back in). We discovered the find of the trip--a fantastic lodge with hot tub, laundry facilities, and a massive kitchen, Queenstown Lodge. We dined on onion soup, tuna/broccliflour/pasta bake, and slept by the beach. 2005-08-13 (Saturday) After getting a nice wake-up call from the Queenstown patrol for illegally camping, we headed on an incredible hike called the Ben Lommond Hike...through snow! On the way down, we took the Gondola down, and had dinner overlooking the town (oxtail soup+pasta, cheesey pasta, falafel stuffed peppers). 2005-08-12 (Friday) French toast in the morning, to Geraldine, saw emus, to lake Tekapo with a cool church, Lake Pukaki (a super pretty blue lake), through Twizel, saw merino sheep, went to the fruit store and bought broccliflour, to Queenstown. We overnighted in Queenstown at the library parking lot, after making a massive batch of no-bake cookies! 2005-08-11 (Thursday) Off to New Zealand! I am taking a week off and headed to the beautiful mountains of New Zealand. We'll be traveling by campervan to both the South and North Island I will have a full recap of the home of the Lord of the Rings when I get back! I arrived in Christchurch, met matus and alyssa at the airport. Then, we drove south to Rangitata, and slept overnight with the sheep!***************************************************************************** 2005-08-10 (Wednesday) ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-09 (Tuesday) ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-08 (Monday) ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-07 (Sunday) Rotary Volunteering ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-06 (Saturday) ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-05 (Friday) BSPA BBQ and Dinner at Lesley. Sam & I attended the BSPA BBQ (the post-graduate group on campus for the UQ Business school). We met at the balcony of the on campus bar, the Red Room, and mingled/chatted with quite a few fellow business post-grads. After, we hopped over to International House, where Lesley was whipping up tasty pumpkin curry soup and Becca made her no-bake cookies again. Another night of cackling and fun with the girls! ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-04 (Thursday) Roy Morgan Market Research Orientation. I attended orientation for a market research job witiih Roy Morgan…basically, I am going to have a flexible schedule and go door-to-door in trying to get people to answer questionairres for secondary market research. The questions are primarilyi qualitative, asking opinions and experiences about their habits. I am a little hesitant the response rate and calling upon strangers, but they have said that Australians are much nicer than Americans in this regard. ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-03 (Wednesday) Moving out of Orchard and to Sherwood, I moved out of the treehouse today, and into Annie's home in Sherwood. She is such a lovely person, so gracious and kind, and invited me to stay in her home with her 12-year old son Masa. I am excited and feel so lucky to be part of another family in Australia. ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-02 (Tuesday) Matus leaves for NZ. Matus left for his four month trip around the world with his host sister Alyssa, and his first stop is New Zealand. I’m going to join him for a week in NZ for a little skiing and hopefully visiting some Lord of the Rings sites, Milford sound, and maybe even seeing an old family friend from CA, Vic, who is currently working on King Kong in Wellington. ***************************************************************************** 2005-08-01 (Monday) Mt. Coot-tha Rotary Club. I attended the Mt. Coot-tha Rotary Club meeting tonight after a long hiatus from my winter travels, and became re-acquainted with the club’s goings on. I am going to volunteer this Sunday with the club and working on re-establishing the Rotaract Club of Brisbane West. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-31 (Sunday) Ambassadorial Scholar Seminar & Italian Bon Voyage. Tonight, we had a mandatory Ambassadorial Scholar Seminar, where we met/introduced ourselves to the rest of the scholars and had a productive exchange of knowledge on various topics, such as ways to network and suggestions on how to meet the requirements of speaking at various clubs. After the seminar, Ruth, Babsy and Chris made a homemade Italian lasagna dinner for another bon voyage for Matus. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-30 (Saturday) Camping & Sunrise at Mt. Warning. Masa’s 12th birthday was July 29th, so we organized a camping and hiking trip to Mt. Warning to see the sunrise. Mt. Warning, or “Wollumbin” as it is called by the Bundjalung Aboriginal people, is the first place that you can see the sunrise in all of Australia!! Interesting fact: Mount Warning is actually a remnant of an ancient volcano. We filled a camper bus with seven 7th grade BBC boys, and we all (including Annie, Matus and I) donned lovely pointy colored party hats and were on our way to Tweed Heads in NSW. We arrived at the Mt. Warning campsite in the afternoon and set up the largest tent ever! it was meant to sleep eight, but there were two separate rooms, and easily would sleep 12! I made a big pot of beef stew for dinner, and we sat by the campfire and roasted marshmallows. *An interesting aside: the marshmallows in Australia are different than those in the States. They are all flavored (including strawberry and banana flavors) and come in a variety of colors. I actually miss the plain white marshmallows--which are the best for making Smores (another American invention that has interesting not made its way over here to Australia yet!) Anyway, we retired early, because we all woke up at 2:40 am and set off to hike Mt. Warning so we could arrive to the top for sunrise. In a record pace of two hours, the 9 of us made it to the top, and munched on PB&J and Nutella sandwiches while sipping on hot chocolate and coffee, as we watched the sunrise. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-29 (Friday) Bon Voyage Dinner. We returned from a day at Surfers & Harbour Town (where I bought an awesome wet suit top for only $50 AUD!), for a bon voyage dinner for Matus at the treehouse. I made a silverbeet salad and a huge pot of veg/chicken stirfry, Becca came over with her famous no-bake cookies, her friends brought wine from the Barossa Valley (James Busby 2001 Reisling), Sam brought ingredients and Sarah came with her map-drawing skills. Overall, an enjoyable last night for Matus! ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-28 (Thursday) Surfers Paradise. Matus and I took a mini-vacation to Surfers Paradise and stayed at the Marriott Surfers Paradise, which was awesome. We brought my homeade Sangria from last night and enjoyed the beach, sun and shops of Surfers. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-27 (Wednesday) Lamb Shank with Danny. Tonight, we had a visitor from Sydney, Danny, a professor by day and an artist by night. Annie made a lovely lamb shank and a lemon soufflé and we discussed the “proper” Aussie way to dine: Knife in right hand with pointing finger on top. Fork turned upside down on the left hand with pointing finger on top. In no way is it acceptable (if you are following the etiquette rules) should you turn your fork around. And to think that Americans cut with the knife in the right hand, but the knife down and then switch the fork to the right hand to eat. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-26 (Tuesday) First day of IML Chinese course. The IML Chinese classes are set up a little differently than the undergraduate Chinese classes that I took last semester because they are not split into two classes: Speaking & Listening, and Reading & Writing. We will see how it goes, but it looks as if they are not really focused on writing characters, and only on pinyin. What a shame. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-25 (Monday) Semester 2 Starts: TIMS 7301, IBUS 7316. Lunch in the city. Today is my first day of uni again! This semester, I am taking Entrepreneurship & New Ventures, International Supply Chains, Services Marketing and Doing Business in Asia. Also, I am taking Mandarin Chinese with the Institute of Modern Languages. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-24 (Sunday) Touch Rugby with the Singstocks, Fabulous Four. My last day of vacation! I relaxed, played a bit of touch rugby (Masa, Matus, and I versus Amelia, Owen, and Eric Singstocks). Then, we saw the new action movie, Fabulous Four, and dined on yet another lemon soufflé a la Annie. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-23 (Saturday) Brisbane. Masa’s soccer game, Southbank, CBD, Cook Asian. Today is the Vargas last day, so we did a bit of Brisbane sightseeing. First, we attended Masa’s soccer game in Taringa, walked through the stalls and beach at Southbank, and shopped at the CBD for a few last minute gifts. Then, I went home and made an Asian feast: fresh prawn spring rolls with peanut sauce, lions head with napa cabbage, spicy beef and vegetable noodle stir fry, and egg drop soup. After dinner, Annie made a wonderful lemon soufflé with whipped cream from scratch! Yummy. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-22 (Friday) Lamington National Park. Back up and going again, we woke up at 5:15 am to head off to Lamington National Park. There, we hiked the 5K Treetop trail and then another 15K trail through the waterfalls and rainforest! Then, we ventured through Surfers Paradise, and then home to Brissy! ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-21 (Thursday) Unwinding, unpacking in Brisbane. After a full month of travel, and celebrations the night before, I needed a day to catch up, unwind, unpack, and enjoy Brisbane. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-20 (Wednesday) Graduation Ceremonies and Celebrations. Matus, Michael, Cameron, and Ruth graduated with their Masters today! Congratulations! We celebrated in the after-tent with wine, champers, and munchies! That evening, the Vargas made an authentic Slovakian dinner: roast (pork and beef), potato salad, purple cabbage (kapusto), and dilled potatoes. For dessert, we had a pineapple cream cake and two fruit-covered cream tart cakes. Yum! After, we met up with a few more celebrations at the Regatta for a full evening! ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-19 (Tuesday) Winter Holiday Recap: I just returned from my winter holidays! I am now a certified scuba diver, saw George the huge mawri wrasse, a stinger ray, a giant purple clam, a barracuda, Christmas trees, nudibranches, cleaning station of parrotfish, and of course lots of pretty colors, fishies, and coral of the Great Barrier Reef. Also, I have now officially seen kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, a cassowary (a giant bird with a reptilian beak and legs), wild swine, termite mounds and cattle crossings in the outback (aka “the bush” or “woop woop”, or “back o’ bourke”). I’ve also sailed through the Whitsunday Islands on a catamaran, seen the beautiful city of Sydney, and hiked the Blue Mountains. ***************************************************************************** Here was the full itinerary: Sydney June 26 – July 3 Cairns July 3 – July 11 Cooktown, Daintree Rainforest – July 12 The “Outback” – July 12-15 Whitsunday Islands – July 16-19 Back to Brisbane July 20, 5 am. ***************************************************************************** WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS – JULY 17-19 2005-07-19 (Tuesday) Whitsundays. Today was the last day on the boat, as we sailed to Caves Cook to Hook Island. I did my second dive here and my buddy Gemma and I saw so many awesome things in our own 45 minute dive. We saw nudibranch, a huge giant clam (dark velvety purple color), big sweetlips fish, huge Maori wrasse, shrimp goby, barracuda, damsel fish, purple Christmas tree coral, bluestreak cleaner wrasse, and parrotfish! After we sailed back to Airline, we quickly hopped in the car for our long journey back to Brisbane. We arrived in Brisbane at 5 am, and were back up at 9 am for Matus’ graduation ceremony! ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-18 (Monday) Whitsundays. We woke up the next morning to music blaring on the boat and breakfast being cooked up. From Tongue Bay, we hopped over to Whitehaven Beach—an amazing white sands beach that stretches 9 km. We could see the entire beach from the Hill Inlet Lookout. It was nice to get off the boat to solid ground for a while. That afternoon, we re-boarded the boat and sailed to Blue Pearl Bay on the back side of Heyman Island. Heyman is THE ritziest island of the Whitsundays (meaning, most expensive), so it was pretty cool that we were able to snorkel at Blue Pearl Bay at Heyman. Snorkeling, we saw a really awesome stingray that just lined the beach side. After, we headed to Bear Point on Hook Island for our overnight. ***************************************************************************** 2005-07-17 (Sunday) Whitsundays. We departed Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach on the Whitsundays Tallarook Mollo. We sailed through the Whitsunday Passage to Dumbbell Island. I had my first dive (freedive) at Dumbbell. Visibility was not the greatest—maybe 5 meters, but I saw some cool things, including a yellowtail fusilier. After spending some time at Dumbbell Island, we sailed to Tongue Bay (where the turtles all like to hang out!) and we had our first overnight on the boat there! ***************************************************************************** OUTBACK, COOKTOWN, CAPE TRIP, COBBOLD GORGE, TOWNSVILLE July 12 - 16 2005-07-16 (Saturday) Drive up to Cairns, down to Airlie. Camp at Airlie Beach. 2005-07-15 (Friday) Camp at Etty Beach (cassowary sighting) 2005-07-14 (Thursday) Cobbold Gorge. Camp on Station in Outback: bonfire, smores! 2005-07-13 (Wednesday) Toward Outback. Camp at Picnic Grounds 2005-07-12 (Tuesday) Cape Tribulation, Black Rock Mountain, Up to Cooktown, Camp at Myalli Beach ***************************************************************************** CAIRNS July 3 – July 11 2005-07-11 (Monday) Palm Cove beach, dinner with Donald Nuckel at Barnacle Bills 2005-07-10 (Sunday) Day of Tropical Wine Tasting and Coffee Tasting Shannonvale Winery: Black Sapote; Murdering Point Dry Pinnacle Passionfruit Wine; Cairns Tropical Winery: Mango, Chili Lime Coconut, Walnut & Coffee Liquor; Pacific Blue Winery: Lime Rush, Plum Crazy. Sam leaves, Vargas arrive, and Audrey leaves 2005-07-09 (Saturday) The Boulders at Bulimba, Josephine Falls, Atherton Tablelands, Millaa Millaa Falls, Zillie Falls, Ellys__ Falls, Lake Eacham 2005-07-08 (Friday) Rusty’s Market, Shopping day! 2005-07-07 (Thursday) Day 4 of Scuba Certification. We are officially certified scuba divers! Today, we took the Supercat to South Hasting and back to Saxons. Coincidentally, Lesley and Cherry were on our boat out to the reef as well! Tonight, we celebrated our new skill as scuba divers with fellow divers Katia (German 19-yr old gal), the Mighty Jimbo (from Newport Beach, CA) and Tessa (from Holland) at the Woolshed. 2005-07-06 (Wednesday) Day 3 of Scuba Certification. We took the Supercat boat out to North Hasting and to Saxon – both part of the Outer Barrier Reef. 2005-07-05 (Tuesday) Day 2 of Scuba Certification: more pool and theory in Cairns. Tomorrow, we’re headed out to the reef. 2005-07-04 (Monday) Scuba Dive Course with Down Under Dive. Day 1 of our Scuba Diving Certification Course. Our instructors for pool and theory were Paulie (aka the lion tamer) and Bennnnnnnn. Happy Fourth of July! More silverbeet salad and soup! 2005-07-03 (Sunday) Flight to Cairns! Rusty’s fruit and vegetable market, YHA hostel, Silverbeet salad and soup! ***************************************************************************** SYDNEY June 26 – July 3 2005-07-02 (Saturday) Blue Mountains, Sydney Symphony concert at Darling Harbor, Italian dinner 2005-07-01 (Friday) Bondi Beach, meet Annie, Opera House Tour, King Cross bar for dinner, Darling Harbor Pier 62 drinks 2005-06-30 (Thursday) Torrential downpour in Sydney! Move to the Olympic Hotel, walk through Queen Victoria Mall, meet Matus’ parents, lunch with Annie at Quay West, nap through rain, cook dinner at Annies, Oxford Street bar 2005-06-29 (Wednesday) Olympic Park, Manly Beach, fish n’ chips, hot tub 2005-06-28 (Tuesday) Audrey arrives! Sydney Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour, Aboriginal Digeridoo Show, Chinatown, hot tub/sauna 2005-06-27 (Monday) City sights: Aboriginal Art Museums, NSW Art Gallery, Hyed Park, Sydney Museum, Botanical Gardens (bats!), cute Italian place on Stanley for homemade Italian pasta, and up to the Tower 2005-06-26 (Sunday) Arrive Sydney! Matus and I flew into Sydney on a bright and early 7 am flight (after a late-night celebration of the end of finals) and checked into the Marriot Circular Quay. We meandered through the street market at The Rocks, and picked up a few Aussie souvenirs, including a bright red Australia sweatshirt. Chinatown ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-21 (Tuesday) to 2005-06-25 (Saturday). With two down, and two more to go…more studying for finals! Friday, 2005-06-24: Marketing Final Wednesday, 2005-06-22: International Marketing Final ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-20 (Monday): Guest Speaker at Rotary Club of Brisbane. I spoke at the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Brisbane today! ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-19 (Sunday) Day off! I need a day off from studying, so I’m not looking at books today. Yippee! ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-18 (Saturday) Broncos Game. I worked the Corporate suite again today at the Broncos game! Yay, I need the dinero! ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-14 (Tuesday to 2005-06-17 (Friday). It’s been a week of Finals studying with nothing interesting to say… 2005-06-16 (Thursday) Globalization Final 2005-06-18 (Saturday) Operating International Business Final ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-13 (Monday) Queens Birthday Holiday – Mr. & Mrs. Smith I took most of the day off, as it IS the Queens Birthday. Yes, they have a holiday for the Queen of England here in Australia. I celebrated by watching an American movie – Mr. & Mrs. Smith (with Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie). An entertaining way to give my brain (which has turned into a vegetable with all this reading/studying) a nice break, but was not overly impressed by the flick. But, the movie made me realize that I have been missing my favorite TV series (and only show I watch) – Alias, that is currently on Season 4 in the States, but has not yet come here to Australia! ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-06 (Monday) 2005-06-12 (Sunday) SWOTVAC week They have this thing called SWOTVAC here in Australia, which is a week before the two-weeks of final examinations. Its purpose is twofold: 1) SWOT – assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Yep, just like analyzing a business for a marketing plan; 2) and VAC – a week-long vacation. Unfortunately, for me, mine was more of the “SWOT” and less of the “VAC”, as I have four final examinations coming up, all worth 60% of my final mark. And, since I’ve been swamped with group assignments, mid-terms, and exploring Australia, I have a lot of catching up to do. I did have a few breaks during this week: ***************************************************************************** **2005-06-11 (Saturday) Dinner at Sarah’s: Sarah made a lovely veg curry and banana/oat/honey dessert-like thing. Scrumptilicious as always. A good break for me from the books hearing about Sarah’s first trip to India sitting on the plane next to a rabid man! Yikes. ***************************************************************************** **2005-06-09 (Thursday) Fortitude Valley Rotary Club meeting: I was invited by Geoff Street for another meeting at the Fortitude Valley Club. We dined on the best meat pie ever while listening to the guest speaker from the Smith Family, another great non-profit service organization. ***************************************************************************** **2005-06-06 (Monday) Rotary-filled Day (lunch with Geoff, Mt. Coot-tha Mtg) Today, I had lunch with Geoff Street at the new shopping complex on Queen Street! That evening, I attended my own Rotary club meeting at Mt. Coot-tha where I learned about fossicking and finding gems, jewels, and stones all over Australia! ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-05 (Sunday) Matus’ Birthday Bash “Think Pink” Party! We headed to Nudgee Junior College where the Indooroopilly Farmers Market is held bi-weekly! The fruits, vegetables, seafood, breads, coffees that they have here are organic, farm-fresh and delicious! Tonight was Matus’ Birthday Bash, appropriately themed “Think Pink”! We cruised over to the Paddington shops to check out if there were any fun crazy costumes, and lunched at the Organic grocer café (yum.. I had pumpkin, eggplant, feta, chicken spinach salad!) That night, we celebrated Matus’ 25th birthday with friends and family at the Think Pink party at the Dunalister! ***************************************************************************** 2005-06-04 (Saturday) Climbing Tibergargan, Rainforest, Birthday Dinner. We drove back up to the Glass House Mountains again, but this time to tackle Tibergargan. The mountain is the steepest mountain and I was really scared that I would fall! But, eventually, we made it to the top and celebrated with an apple (that’s all we remembered to bring up there)! Afterwards, we drove up a few more kilometers, and found a secluded rainforest park, which had amazing twisty trees and was wet, damp and dark! That night, we zipped home because I was cooking Matus a Chinese meal for his birthday: lion’s head with cabbage and schezwan eggplant! Yum! ******************************************************* 2005-06-03 (Friday) Glass House Mountains – Climbing Beerwah Rent-a-Bomb! Yep, that’s the name of the place that we rented a tiny blue Toyota Corolla, that was missing a seat cushion in the drivers seat, lacked automatic steering, and had one channel in its knob-controlled radio. Matus and I drove to the Glass House Mountains in this great blue bomb, and climbed up Beerwah—the tallest of all of the Glass House Mountains. It was just like rock climbing… but without ropes! We were planning on camping out there, but since it rained, we went home and watched Meet the Fockers with Annie and Masa instead. ******************************************************* 2005-06-02 (Thursday) Last Day of Classes! I cannot believe that my first semester here in Australia is already over. I attended my last class today, and celebrated with a little bit of window shopping in the city. First, I rewarded myself with a tasty ice cream cone at Hungry Jack, Australia’s version of Burger King, costing me a whopping $0.30! I didn’t buy anything except a black Volcom cap. Now, I’m a proper Aussie with some surf gear. Tonight, I went to celebrate with a few fellow students from International House at the Fringe Bar in the Valley. ******************************************************* 2005-06-01 (Wednesday) Tsinghua University I have heard from Tsinghua University, and they have said that I can apply to their uni as an advanced student and attend the IMBA classes they have offered. There are only five acceptances of this special “advanced student” so I hope that I will be able to receive it! ******************************************************* 2005-05-31 (Tuesday) Another evening of Rove Live I watched my first episode of the “OC” tonight with Sarah’s housemate Katie, as I waited for Lesley and Sarah to return on the safety bus. We feasted on tasty stirfry and granny smith apples! ******************************************************* 2005-05-30 (Monday) Michelle Goward I met with Michelle Goward, my academic advisor, and we have submitted the information to the Director of Studies for approval for taking courses at TsingHua university and receiving credit towards my Masters degree at University of Queensland. I hope this all works out! ******************************************************* 2005-05-29 (Sunday) Darra Grocery Store I just found this awesome Vietnamese grocery complex in Darra.. they have tons of fresh fruit and vegetables. And they have great little specialty items, like kim chee! ******************************************************* 2005-05-28 (Saturday) Corporate Suite at Broncos vs. Rabbitohs I worked the corporate suites again at the Broncos game… yippee! ******************************************************* 2005-05-27 (Friday) Dinner with Ruth/Chris; South American Party Ruth came over to make fantastic barramundi dinner tonight, and we followed up the great feast with some latin dancing at the south American party! ******************************************************* 2005-05-26 (Thursday) Marketing Plan for St. Luke’s An all-day, all-night task of working on our marketing plan for St. Luke’s Nursing Service. Writing a marketing plan for a non-profit is an additional challenge, but is really interesting! ******************************************************* 2005-05-25 (Wednesday) State of Origin Game – Go Queensland! The State of Origin Game of Queensland versus New South Wales is the biggest rivalry and rugby league game of the season. I worked the In Goal North Club at the game, and also relieved a few corporate suite workers. A lot of moving around tonight. ******************************************************* 2005-05-24 (Tuesday) Group Meetings The past few weeks, my days have been filled with group meeting for our group projects. I enjoy working in teams, except I don’t like meeting all the time and wasting time. Efficiency is the key! ******************************************************* 2005-05-23 (Monday) Mt. Coot-tha Rotary Club Meeting A young Rover spoke as our guest speaker today at the Mt. Coot-tha meeting. I’m hoping to get the Rovers involved with Rotaract as well! ******************************************************* 2005-05-22 (Sunday) Women’s Mandarin League Speech Competition Shui yao bao hu shou shang de di qiu? That was my topic for my speech competition this Sunday: Who will Protect the Globe? After writing my speech in English, then translating it into Chinese via the dictionary, and then trying to memorize words I had never heard of, I was supposed to speak into a microphone in front of an entire auditorium of eager Chinese parents and judges. YIKES! I wasn’t supposed to bring anything up with me (no palm card, as they called here), but since there was no way I would be able to be remember everything, I went the safe route and took my sheets with me. It was only that morning that I had started to go through the speech, and when I arrived at the competition, Shirley (Liu lao shi) cut even more out of my speech. The speech competition was waaay out in Sunnybank (Brisbane’s version of Asian super-complexes like those in Houston’s Chinatown or Dallas Chinatown, or what they have all over in Cupertino.) I sat through the entire competition of “non-native” speakers (basically everyone from my class), and watched one sheila, Frankie, win 3rd place in her age group. Go girl. Then, it was my turn! It was very odd because I don’t typically get “stage-fright” or “nervous” when speaking in public. However, gave my speech, my nerves felt supertense and those three-minutes felt like an eternity! Phew.. I’m glad that’s over with. I’m glad I had the opportunity to participate in the competition, to practice speaking Mandarin in public, and to explore a new area of town. ******************************************************* 2005-05-21 (Saturday) Doomben Horse Racing/Greek Festival So, Saturday was off to the races at one of the largest horse-race competitions, Carlton Draught 10,000. The big purse for one of the races was a whopping $435,000! Now, I’d sure like to be that jockey who won that. I learned that to go to the races, you must get dressed up fancy-shmancy…I was decked out in all of Annie’s awesome clothes: a creamy poofy hat, a glitzy/glam cardigan top, brown tank, and tan skirt. My regular guest journalist Sarah wrote about the day … Saturday I dressed up and went to the Doomben horse races. Australia is crazy about its races, and locals really do stick feathers in their hair and get dressed to the nines to people watch and drink cocktails in the noon-day sun. On my way to the train, I was trying to think of the significant scenes involving horse races. I came up with 1) My Fair Lady featuring the lovely Audrey Hepburn, 2) Pretty Woman which somehow made turning tricks into a Cinderella story, and 3) Mary Poppins and a come-alive carousel. All of these I concluded to be slightly disturbing images, and, after attending a horse race myself, very misleading. For one, I don't remember Eliza Doolittle watching the races next to a bachelorette party accessorized in cowboy hats and underwear on the outside of their clothes. Nor did Dick VanDyke lose his composure and fall from his candy-stripe horse, even though it detached itself from the carousel to bob up and down, rather gayly, in a meadow. At Doomben, on the other hand, an Australian jockey catapulted from his saddle and the medics had to rush over to make sure the little mini-man hadn't cracked one of his mini-ribs. Moreover, Richard Gere led me to believe that there might actually be a science in betting. I, however, chose the jockey jersey that I found most aesthetically appealing (no on the brown and pink quadrants, yes to the red and black checkers), and it should go on record that I had equally poor results as those who claimed method to their madness. All in all, it was good fun. I wore black and white in honor of Ms. Hepburn's horse race outing that debuted her humongo feathered hat and perfected elocution of "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain", which, just to endear myself to my fellow race-watchers, I sang in operatic effort between heats. Afterwards I went to a Greek festival and witnessed the longest zorba dance-line in the world. It was almost as consuming as the baklava... ******************************************************* 2005-05-20 (Friday) Treehouse Dinner with the Pickerings/Dominguez Friday night, I had the Pickerings and Dominguez family (my two host Rotarian counselors) over to my house to meet my housemates. On the menu tonight was: beef and broccoli, country vegetables with sweet and sour sauce, egg drop soup, and a marinated roast chicken. Cooking for ten is not too easy, but luckily Liz Dominguez brought tasty nibblers and Lorraine made her delicious pavlova. Overall, a hearty meal with great company. ******************************************************* 2005-05-19 (Thursday) Star Wars & Hail in Brisbane! Yes, you read that right! It hailed in Brisbane.. I think a first in an extremely long time. It was insanity.. so, what did we do? We got out of the hail and went to opening night of Star Wars 3: Return of the Sith…to get you in the mood, here are a few memorable sounds warrrrrrrrrrrrrraghghgh (my chewbacca impression) oooom-paaaa, ooooom-paaaa (master vader breathing) beep urp eep blip bim (R2-D2 saying here is Sarah’s journal describing our night)… Last night out of nowhere there was a massive hail storm. It was totally sunny and nice out, then all of the sudden colossal clouds came rolling in. Within minutes the sky was completely dark, and great smokey cloud tenacles started hurling ice cube-sized hail stones at my neighborhood. Katie, my housemate, had about a three second warning to get her knickers off the clothesline before they were pelted into shreds. I, being the Curious George that I am, wondered just how hard hail stones fall. It should go on record that on a scale of Cheap-Trims shampoo to Chinese head massage-cum-scalp torture, getting bludgeoned by hail stones falls closer to the latter. While I can't claim to have suffered actual swelling or welts, it was altogether an unpleasant sensation. And now I know. And as if a hail storm wasn't excitement enough, I also went to see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith last night. My review: 3/5 stars. Best line of the movie: Scene: Jedi council is deep in thought. Democracy is failing; super evil Chancellor has sent only slightly less evil henchmen to attack friendly neighboring planets. Jedi Verdict and best moment of the 2 1/2 hours: 'We'll send Yoda with a battalion of clones to reinforce the Wookies on Shiek.' Tell me that George Lucas doesn't deserve every accolade sung in his honor. Although Ewan McGregor made up for the poor acting of the kid who played Anakin, I maintain that Lucas could have made better use of Obi Won's skills. Namely, in between light saber zip-zap-wann-wooshing, a nice vaudevillian song and dance medley a la 'Come What May' would have upped the performance by at least half a star. Christopher Lee, who looks a lot like Mr. Burns, should any of you like to make note when you see the movie, is a fantastic villain. Revenge of the Sith also highlighted that it's important for dark-siders to be not only mean, ugly and twisted, but also sick. Literally sick. Darth McMeaness's sidekick was a very large, un-nice part-android-part insect creature that had apparently spent his larva days in a coal mine; he appeared to be suffering some version of black lung. Every step he took was accompanied by a round of emphysema-ish hacking. I actually felt like Obi Won was doing him a favor my zapping him to smithereens with a laser gun. More glory than packing him off to a nursing home full of other decrepit fellow bug-bots, I tell you. Other notable notes was some major a$$-kicking Matrix moves by Yoda, who, to take on the Sith, has given up his Fransiscan robes in favor of some cute little hippy-hemp looking midget britches. HHHrrrmmmm. Made for the runway, Master Yoda is. Despite that it was slow at times, The Sith had the same effect on me as all the other Star Wars movies. I leave the theater lamenting my lack of Jedi skills and wishing I had a light saber. ******************************************************* 2005-05-18 (Wednesday) Globalizing all Night long While the subject heading may be potentially interesting, it wasn’t an eventful evening at all. Sam, Matus, Michael, and I partied the night away in the library, working on our Globalization paper. Now, how’s that for a crazy late night? ******************************************************* 2005-05-17 (Tuesday) Yoga We had a newbie come to my yoga class this morning, so that was exciting. I am also excited to pass on the yoga love.. in fact, we’re doing a yoga demonstration in the Great Court on Thursday that will be on the grass during lunchtime. That will be interesting!

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