Road Trip to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians - Halls Gap

My friends Mark and Mike decided to plan a weekend trip to the Great Ocean Road and then up to the Grampians - Halls Gap this weekend so 10 of us embarked on a road trip in two rental cars starting on Friday. Since you have to be 21 to drive a rental car in Australia, me and my friends Chris and Becca were the drivers. However, Becca was absolutely terrified of driving the cars (the Aussies drive on the left and their wheels are on the right - essentially everything is opposite!) and began hyper ventilating on just the drive from the rental car place to RMIT village, I was the one to drive one car and Chris drove the other.

We set out around 5 pm from Melbourne and journeyed along the Great Ocean Road, seeing koalas and beautiful ocean scenery, getting to our destination in Apollo Bay around 9 pm that night. After getting some chow, we enjoyed the breath-taking stars on the beach. It was so clear that we could see the Milky Way! It was very cool to look at because a lot of the constellations, including Orion, were upside down! That night we stayed in a YHA hostel in Apollo Bay, which was a very nicely accomodated and clean hostel.

In the morning, we got up to be able to leave at 8 am. I went to eat breakfast in the kitchen, and managed to meet a nice woman who had just gotten back from working in Antartica for several months. She said that about 30% of the people there are scientists and the others are carpenters who work on the base. She was a part of the carpentry team and said that since their flights home fly through Australia, New Zealand, or Hawaii, they are able to stop off and travel on their way home, which is what she was doing. She also said there were these birds who had managed to distinguish which type of food they had on their trays and would dive bomb the trays in order to get to the food. A good way to mess with people around there, she said, was to stick a muffin in the hood of someone, who would then get dive bombed by the birds!

After breakfast, we set out on the Great Ocean Road. After about an hour, we got to the Twelve Apostles, which is one of the most famous stops on the road. They were beautiful! Don't worry, I'll have pictures up soon! We then went to Loch Ard Gorge and explored around there and another stop after that! Then we went to Port Campbell, where we got lunch. I ordered a hamburger, but honestly, I can tell you that was NOT a hamburger. I don't know what it was, but it tasted more like a veggie burger than a hamburger. Sigh. Oh well.

We then proceeded to sunbathe for a couple of hours on the beautiful beach at Port Campbell. It was funny, there was a surfing club at the beach and a bunch of little kids that were a part of it were having a sand castle making contest. They had an announcer and everything for it!

After our sunbathing (the guys were more into it than the girls...), we set off to the Grampians - Halls Gap. Because of the flooding, however, we had to take an incredibly long detour in order to get to Halls Gap. It was fun, though, because we saw wild emu and wallabies on the way!

When we finally got to Halls Gap, we checked in to the YHA hostel there and once again found somewhere to eat (pizza again! we were going to buy food and cook it in order to save money, but the grocery store was closed by the time we got there).

In the morning, we got up, found a bakery to get breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, and set off on a hike. The weather wasn't the best, it was a bit cloudy and misting out, but it was still beautiful! There was a mini waterfall and then when we got near the top, the last part of it was climbing on boulders - my favorite!

After the hike, we set off on the drive back to Melbourne. The only mishap of driving that I had was when I tried to turn right when we were in the city of Melbourne. It is quite difficult to turn right! I was very close to getting hit by a tram/car/hitting some pedestrians, but I successfully maneuvered the situation and everyone was safe! Phew! All in all, it was a fun weekend! Pictures are soon to come!

O-week Pictures

RMIT Village O-week Carnival Red bull Billy cart racing

my turn!

Richard was pushing and I was "driving"!

yay we won!

The crowd on top of the car park

We're number one!

mini golf

bouncy house and cotton candy!

Lauren and me

Chris, Mike, Joe, George, Christian, and Mark

Hannah, Lily, Tessa, and Colleen

Christian, Chris, Joe, and George

Mike, Lauren, George, and Paddy

MCG

Our tour guide Rodger (all the tour guides wore those jackets and matching ties!)

This is where the batters (and their families) sit when they aren't batting

Batting cage

view of Melbourne Central from MCG

This is where they had the Australian Open!

The teams warming up

Zach, Kate, ummmm (shoot I feel bad I forget her name...), Will, and Ahmed

the cricket match!

Orientation Week

So the past week has been orientation week, or o-week as it's called here, at both Melbourne Uni and RMIT Village, which is where I live. So I have been balancing going to meetings and club sign ups for the uni with the rmit village orientation (which had more fun things to do haha). On Monday at RMIT, they had a welcome meeting and gave us back packs and t-shirts, and then had a village carnival on the roof of the car park complete with billy cart racing, a bouncy house, mini golf, cotton candy, and a dunk tank (pics to come!) Then later that night, there was a hi-lighter party at Turf's Club, which is right next to the village. We wore our free t-shirts and brought hi-lighters and wrote our names and drew pictures on each others shirts; it was fun!

Tuesday was a tour of the university, as well as a free bbq and lots of tables set up advertising travel agencies and such. The sausages here are pretty much equivalent to our hot dogs. I'm not sure what their hot dogs are... also they don't have burgers made out of beef. I'm not sure what it is... some sort of mystery meat I think!

Wednesday was more fun, as a group of us from RMIT Village went on a tour of the MCG, or Melbourne Cricket Ground. We were shown around by a tour guide named Rodger, but unfortunately weren't able to go into the locker rooms because there was a cricket match later that day. We were able to go into the members-only floor and get into the cricket match for free so we could watch it!

Thursday was spent attempting to sign up for the MUSEX (Melbourne University Student Exchange or something like that) surf trip that is next weekend, but alas we were too late and didn't get tickets. Boo. There is a surfing club, a wakeboarding club,  and a mountaineering club though, which take trips that give you discounts and the like, so hopefully I can join those and go on some trips with them!

Friday I spent trying to figure out how to add/drop a class because there was a conflict in my schedule. Not too exciting there. They succeeded in dropping a class, but haven't added the other one yet. Hmm... will have to check on that tomorrow (the first day of school! yikes!) so far I am in Australian Wildlife Biology, Australia Now, and Blue Planet - Intro to Marine Environments, all classes that I wanted to take! I have also signed up for Aboriginal Women and Coloniality, so hopefully I can take that class too. Then Friday afternoon we set off on our great weekend road trip adventure! More to come on that after I get pics of o-week up!

St. Kilda

Luna Park's clown entrance

Sage, Lauren, Me, Jamie, Katie, Ali, and Mickey

Sage, Alex, and Lauren

Me, Katie, and Jamie

Starfish!

Ali and Katie

The rain started coming in...

Funny Airplane Food Labels

On the airplane on the ride in (I know this is a bit late but I keep forgetting to write this and I think it's funny enough to share) all the food wrappers had funny descriptions as follows:

The Tray Mat - A perilous task without praise. Any takers? We think, when they were handing out jobs, the Tray Mat was out to lunch. Talk about responsibility without reward. Just lie there and be a heat shield for the tray and don't let any food slip, ok? Food gets praised, tray gets thanked, everyone's happy, right? Wrong. What about the Tray Mat in between, taking the heat, keeping it tight?

So now we'd like to give the Tray Mat what it's wanted all along. A simple thank you. Without it, we'd have piping hot plates slipping all over shiny plastic food trays. It's reliable and trustworthy and we thank it. No, you know what, screw it, we love it man.

Pepper - Never as popular as salt, but pepper don't do popularity contests.

Salt - Pinch of salt. Salt of the Earth. All with a grain of salt. I've heard it all before.

Sugar - One teaspoon - Why isn't it a coffee spoon? Fortunately our hot beverage don't discriminate.

Napkin or tissue?
Blow your nose - tissue.
Wipe your mouth - napkin.
Wipe a tear - tissue.
Wipe your hands - napkin.
Stuff it up your sleeve for later - tissue.
Dab a ketchup stain - napkin.
Remove make up - tissue.
Clean a spill - napkin.
Clean your ear - tissue.
On your lap - napkin.
In your pocket - tissue.
Jot a phone number - napkin.
Write a song - napkin.
Write a love song - tissue.

Aussie Lingo

Ta! - Thank you!
Arvo - afternoon
How's it going? - How are you?
Barbie - barbecue
Bring a plate - bring food to share
BYO - bring your own
Aussie rules - Australian Football League (mix between soccer and football)
Barrack for - support a team
      ****Don't say "root for" because "root" in Aussie lingo is equivalent to sex!
Aggro - aggravated
Bathers/togs - swimwear
Beaut - great
Bloke - man/guy
Bloody - used to emphasize the following word
Bludger - someone who is lazy
Bogan - unsophisticated person; similar to trailer trash
Brekkie - breakfast
Budgie smugglers - speedos (tight swimwear for men)
Bugger - mild curse word
Cark it - to die
Chips - potato crisps
Chook - chicken
Come off it - expression of disbelief
Crikey - goodness; fancy that
Dag - a funny/dorky person
Dead ringer - identical
Down under - Australia
Dunny - toilet
Fair dinkum - truthful
G'day - hello
Goon - boxed wine
Jam - jelly; preserves
Jelly - jello
Knackered - very tired
Lollies - candy
Mate - good friend; term of endearment
No worries- that's ok
She'll be right - it will be ok
Sheila - woman
Shout - to buy a round of drinks at the pub
Streuth - similar to crikey
Stubby - 375 mL beer bottle
Tassie - Tasmania
Tea - dinner
The outback - Australian desert
Thongs - flip flops; not underwear!
Tim tams - Australia's finest chocolate biscuit <-- they're really good!
Tomato sauce - ketchup
True blue - patriotic
Vegemite - a really gross spread similar to peanut butter but made out of soy sauce and mushed up vegetables... yuck.

Another thing that you wouldn't think about is when you say thank you to an Australian, they'll reply with "That's ok." Which is really strange and disorienting to hear because I expect a "no problem," or a "you're welcome" and associate "that's ok" with having done something wrong and saying sorry and the person you apologize to will then say "that's ok."

Pictures of Melbourne Welcome

Scavenger Hunt during Melbourne Welcome

Funny store name

"Act out the name of one of Grill'd's sandwiches" "Hot Mama"

Picture with a Big W employee

Picture with random shoppers

Shanghai Dumpling sign

Picture with a busker (someone who plays music on the street for money)

Picture with the statues at the end of Bourke Street

Picture behind the counter of a store (this is Krispy Kremes)

Flinder's, the train station

"town mouse" "country mouse"

This one's for you, Dad.

Air guitar on the stage of Federation Square

The Yarra River

Sculpture by the art building

Find one show playing in February

Picture by the clocks in Flinder's.

Picture on the train platform

Picture on the wicked steep escalator (it was illegal to take pix here... shhhh)

Picture at the train platform in Melbourne Central.

Find something at the Asian grocer for under $1

Picture with a policeman

Surfing at Ocean Grove!

Bring it on waves

Mermaid friends

Melbourne Welcome group

Fish and chips!!!

"Allison Young"

Queen Victoria's Market (and Jamie)

Queens College, University of Melbourne

Host group (L-R): Host - Kathleen, Tessa, Christina

Stacy and James

Cricket

Melbourne Zoo

Bongos

Kangaroos!!!

Emu!

Koalas

Kookaburra

Have to be quiet going in to see the platypuses! (platypi?)

The giant tortoises were going at it, if you catch my drift

St. Kilda Festival

Right.

Katie, Chris, Juan, Mickey, Mike, and Lisa

Jamie, Hannah, and Katie

Lotte and Hannah

Mickey, David, and Juan

Melbourne Museum, simulating a dream

yikes

Phar Lap - the actual legendary horse. They taxidermied (?) him.

Walking back from the zoo

Really swollen ankles form my sunburn.

yay.

There's the Eureka Skydeck!

Cool restaurant under the bridge. I'll have to check it out. But the river kind of smells...

300 meters up!

Alex

Me, myself, and I

Cool graffiti in what they call a "laneway"

Our host group all dressed up for our formal dinner!

The Dining Hall

Place settings

This wine was really good! ;)

yummy pork!

Tessa and Alex

Kathleen and Sage (and the crazy candle)

Pavlova for dessert!

David and Mickey

Another host group

Ali, me, and Jamie

Socializing in the tower lecture room before the club.

They like wine in Australia

Jamie, Mike, and Ali

Me, Jamie, and Mike

Ali and Jamie

Walking to the club

The club!