Difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo

G'day mate! How's it going mate? Ive been practicing my local speak lately. And after going out last night with my friend I picked up a bunch of new phrases and terms I want to start using both here and in the states. I'm sure I'll be adding more throughout this trip, but there are so many colloquialisms I don't know if I'll be able to keep track of them all!

That really has nothing to do with today's adventures mates. Today we got to see many different animals. First were the koalas. Not the koala bears as some people call them. They were really good at hiding up in the trees and were pretty hard to spot some of the time. While we were busy looking for them up in the trees we had to keep looking down too because there were wallabies abound. Which brings me to the title of this post, combining my love of the language here and a fact not many Aussies even know. The difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo is mainly the size. There could be another reason or two, but the biggest reason is the size.

Then we saw the coolest part of the day: the little penguins. That's their real, non-scientific name. No pictures were allowed because their eyesight is so important and oftentimes language and technological incompetence (I.e. not knowing how to turn a flash off on a camera) caused them to ban all photography. Anyways, we sat really close to the beach at sunset and waited for the penguins to swim up on shore and head to their burrows. It was fascinating and fun to watch hundreds of little guys waddle their way home.

Not only did we see this amazing feat, but the stars were incredible on Phillip Island. I was surprised at the amount of stars we could see, even though in the airport I learned that you can see the most stars in the outback out of anywhere in the entire world. I got to see constellations I had never seen before (the Southern Cross) and saw the "south star" which always points south. Then the coolest thing I thought was seeing the Milky Way. It wasn't extremely visible, but it was definitely still there.

After our penguin adventure we ate at a small restaurant where I ordered what our guide told us was the stereotypical favorite meal of male Australians: chicken parmigiana. Let me tell you mate, it was delicious! I'm surprised that we haven't seen many fat people here, but the amount of exercising is impressive and explains why most people are skinny here.

I hope we don't have a mess of it while we travel around the country, but from what I've heard it shouldn't be too tough flying here. Until next time, cheers mate!

Melbourne

For a first stop in Australia I think this has been a great city. After landing and leaving luggage at the hotel my parents and I walked around a bit. Found a cool bridge which leads to a train station and Fed Square.

After we walked around awhile we found a restaurant and bar. Since we we had landed at 8:30 in the morning and couldn't go to sleep or else we'd never adapt to the time shift here we sat down and had an Australian beer (or two or three). From there we went to a very cool place: the ACMI.

The ACMI or the Australian Center for Moving Images. Basically it was a movie museum and it was awesome! Instead of having only Australian cinema history it had history of cinema and technology from the world. A lot of the information was stuff I learned in classes, but it was still really cool to see.

There was a huge interactive part of the ACMI too. You could become a shadow monster on a screen, make your own flip book, and even act out a scene similar to Trinity in the opening of The Matrix, all while being filmed by cameras 360 degrees around you. There was a cool spinning contraption that had a bunch of figures on it and when a strobe light was added it all looked animated. And there was a three walled screen which emphasized the importance of the combinations of sound and film. It was all very cool!

Tuesday was a fun day as well! We took a tour of the city first. I was expecting it to be a small group, but it was just us and a guide in a van so it was a lot cooler then I thought it would be. We went to Queen Victoria Market, drove on the annual Grand Prix track, saw the old Olympic Stadium from 1956, which holds the ARL (Australian Rules Football League) championship every year. It used to occur in September, but because of the addition of two more teams, it is pushed back to October now. Then we stopped for coffee and cake and it was delicious!

From there we just walked around to visit the places we had seen on the tour. Walking around cities may not sound too exciting, but it's always fun. We waited for a city circle tram, which we rode around the city until we found places to stop. Simple, but entertaining.

Then we ate dinner. I'm still waiting to eat kangaroo in Sydney, so I haven't been trying much new food. However on our tour I did try Vegemite. As our guide said if you don't try it before a certain age most people hate it. I really didn't think it was terrible and am planning to bring some back to the States.

After dinner I met up with a friend who lives in Melbourne. He and I met in New Orleans last year when he was traveling in a group of 52 Australians all across the country. He was on a Contiki tour with a bunch of Aussies who didn't know each other. It was random how we met, and cool to catch up with him in his home city. This time wasn't as wild as the time we met. Instead we went up to a SkyDeck on the tallest building in Melbourne and he gave me a tour of the lit-up city from up there. It was magnificent. Then we went into Crown Casino and sat for a few hours drinking Australian beer and swapping stories from the last year and our lives. It was a ton of fun and I'm glad he came out and met up with me. He tried to get the others from his trip to come out too, but they all had work or Uni early this morning. And since Sydney is so close (around an hour long flight) he might rustle a group from there to meet up with us because he might take a trip to Sydney to get me out to a few clubs there. If it happens it'd be awesome if it doesn't that's cool too. It was just fun catching up with him.

I learned that a lot of Aussies think that everything is cheap. Just remember that. I found it weird and surprising, but we've got lots of good priced things, from alcohol to cell phone plans. Just an interesting fact.

Today is the day I get to see penguins and koalas in their natural habitat and up close and personal. It's going to be quite an experience! I can't wait!