Chelsea's Australian Blog

Mardi Gras day! We started somewhat early getting ready for Mardi Gras. The girls upstairs made breakfast and Dana, Rachel, and I headed up there to hang out with them. We decided to leave around 1:30-2pm to get there and save a spot for the parade.

Before I continue, I should probably explain a little bit about Mardi Gras here in Sydney. The big parade is at the end of a two-week festival that is put on/supported by the Gay and Lesbian communities of Australia. The festival began as a political statement and in recent years has been more of just a festival. This year, according to their website, the aim was to make it once again a political statement. The motto was “Nations United” and the parade was to begin at 7:45pm with ‘foreplay’ at 5:30pm.

We got down there around 3ish and wandered over to Oxford Street to find a place to sit. I was surprised at how much room there still was to sit. We ended up sitting on the shady side of the road (thank goodness) in front of the Columbian Hotel, which included a gay bar.

The people next to us were gay and a hoot. They seemed to know everyone. So we popped a squat. We ended up sitting there for about three hours before anything really started happening. We moved the barricade forward, more into the street, and then waited. Then, suddenly, there were very few people pressed in very close. There were probably only five layers of people but during the parade it felt as though the whole universe was pressing me against the barricade.

Something else that may have inhibited my experience was the presence of smokers all around me. I probably smoked two whole cigarettes just from second hand smoke. There were these two girls behind us that would roll one about every ten minutes and with the wind blowing in my direction, I thought I might die of smoke inhalation.

The floats were not that amazing. There were some impressive ones with drag queens in extravagant costumes and the lifeguards of Bondi did a good dance number. Overall, the floats were nothing like what we would normally see in the rose parade or something similar.

I did like how there was a political message and how coordinated it was. There were tons of volunteers and they all had really cool t-shirts that were different colours to tell you exactly what type of volunteer they were.

About an hour and a half into the parade, we decided to leave and start heading home. I have never seen so many people on the streets. We literally had to push through this group of about 150 people on this one sidewalk. I was glad there was a somewhat larger group of us to kind of push through and hold on to. We finally made it away from the parade route and found the QVB (Queen Victoria Building). From here, we knew both where our bus stop was and the McDonalds. We ate dinner at 10pm at McDonalds. I had six chicken McNuggets, small fry, and a 30 cent ice cream cone. It was great!

We then all got on the bus and headed home. I am forever grateful that there is a bus stop right outside of our flat. It makes coming home that much easier. We then got home and ate Oreos and went to bed. One more exciting day in Sydney!

Posted by Chelsea J McLennan at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This blog entry will cover the dates of March 4-5.

Well, Wednesday was an interesting day. It is my long day of class. I started off the day with a nice coffee and workout with Carrie and then got ready for my long day. First was my Australian Media tutorial. I am loving this class! We have so much fun. We talked about establishing the idea of nationhood. We also got into groups for the lead the discussion exercise and I was paired with two people I had met before and we got the first week of presentations. Our topic is Australian Cinema. Problem: I have NEVER seen an Australian movie. Solution: I must watch ten in the next two weeks to be prepared. This is going to be fun!

I decided that I did not want to rush to my music tutorial so I went to the second tutorial of the day, which was an hour later. In the gap, I checked my e-mail and lo and behold I got an interview at Asgard Wealth Management Solutions for 4pm the next day! I was so excited you have no clue! So after I got that all figured out I went to my next tutorial.

This one was for my reading contemporary music class. We listened to three songs and had to guess if they were popular or fine art music. I got them all correct. Then we had a mini debate on the argument posed by fine art/traditional musicologists that popular music is not art. I, unfortunately, got stuck arguing that popular music is not art. It is a very fun class and the professor kind of has a hippie vibe, but not overly earthy.

Next was another one hour break followed by my lovely three hour math class. This time we learned about conditional probability and then we had our first tutorial. I think this is the class I will have the most work for but I hope that the work does not get overly hard. We shall see.

So then I headed back home and we had a little 90’s dance party back in good old Parklands and then I went to bed excited for my interview the next day.

On Thursday I slept in, got my coffee and then got ready for my interview. I decided on my black skirt, my white blouse, and my black heels. I did my hair pulled back into a low ponytail, simple make-up.

Sydney is not a heel-friendly city. I about killed myself ten times walking through the train station and over the cracks in the sidewalks. I must remember to bring flip flops in my bad so I can walk up the hill when I get home.

I ended up leaving a little too early to get to my interview so after I got off the train I had bout 40 minutes to kill. I found 400 George Street and then wandered around. The Stranden (spelling) Building was right next door so I stopped in and looked at some of the Australian shops and sat on a bench to watch people, business men/women and tourists alike, wander through the unique building.

Then it was that fated time to head into the very large office building and enter into my first experience of a corporate interview. You walk into the ground floor and you have the stereotypical security guard. Then there is the high ceiling and the comfy looking couches next to a bistro. Then you hit the two sets of elevators that divide the building into express zones. I take the first set and get in with this guy who had just bought his lunch. He was very nice for an elevator companion.

I got out and enter an office building, complete with reception area and a secretary. Wow. It was gorgeous and completely intimidating. I sat between the boardroom (which was labelled “boardroom”) and the front desk. I had to wait for my interviewers to get out of a meeting and it was the longest five and a half minutes of my life.

Antionette finally met me and brought me into one of their few meeting rooms. She then went on to explain exactly what it is that they do and what events were coming up. Chantelle joined us shortly after. The event production side that they were describing was really exciting. I think I am going to learn a lot about what it means to put on an event on such a large scale (and with so much money at stake). They were super enthusiastic about having an intern and that in turn made me excited.

They asked me the standard questions about what I hoped to learn, my experience, why I chose liberal arts, etc. At the end they said “when can you start” and I said whenever you need me. My first day is this next Thursday.

The only awkward part of this whole experience was the end. There was another meeting scheduled in my interview room at 4:30pm so they had to rush me out and then they stopped right in front of the elevators and I kept trying to shake their hand to say thank you and then walk myself out but that did not really work. Ugh. I am glad they had already offered me the job because I am afraid that my hesitancy might have come across as an inability to take initiative. Anyways, I made it out of the building just fine after that.

I was so ecstatic that I called home right away and told mom and dad and I bought myself some good Australian chocolate for the ride home on the train. The only bad part of the whole day: wearing heels.

Friday was relaxing. I will just say a few words about it because not much happened. Dana and I went to Chatswood to look for the Starbucks there. We got there on the train and we tried to find the Starbucks but couldn’t and so we asked someone about it. They closed. I was very sad to learn this.

We then shopped for a little bit, I got a new shirt and Dana got a dress for the Opera House. I still got coffee but at Gloria Jean’s. By then Kelly and Allison had arrived and we had lunch with them. Lunch was not very good, but hey, we ate. Then I was not feeling well and went home. The next day was Mardi Gras so I wanted to make sure I was well rested.

Posted by Chelsea J McLennan at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I finally missed a few days on my blog. Today is the third of March and you really did not miss much of the past few days. Sunday and Monday were both filled with homework and gym workouts. I did figure out how to print though! All right, it is not that exciting, and it is actually rather archaic the way they print here, but it is still an accomplishment.

Let me explain a little bit about the printing process here. You get on a computer in the library, hit print and whatever settings you want. It then sends the document to the network. You find a networked computer that is hooked up to a computer. You then hit refresh and look for the number of the computer you sent your document from. Then you click on the document you want to print, swipe your card (which you previously put money on), and wait for what seems like hours for your document to print. The printers and computers are somewhat old and it slows down the process like none other. To make matters worse, it costs 11 cents per page, even if you double side it (so essentially double sided printing costs you 22c per page.). I miss my Willamette printing allowance.

Another thing that is kind of weird about the technology on campus is the wireless internet. They only have two wireless networks for the whole campus. One is based in the library and the other one stretches the length of the campus. The main one is so slow it is like pulling teach with two forks. The library network is so much better but you have to be either right outside the library or in it to really get a good connection. It is just so weird for a campus with 30,000 students!

I have been able to talk to Tati, Emma, and Rachael a lot though which has been nice. I am not sure how much of my internet I have used. I look at the statistics on the little box that pops up (I know, descriptive) and I cannot figure it out. I guess when I run out I purchase more!

I have been getting really excited about my Australian Media class. I have really enjoyed the course content so far. I am only worried about the fact that I will be writing about what it means to be Australian as portrayed through the media and I know nothing about what it even means to be an Australian! If I do it correctly though, I think this could actually help me. I have chosen my final essay question:

How does Australian media construct an ‘imagined community’? Is it through content, form of address, or through other means? Illustrate your argument using at least two or three examples.

I think this one will be perfect coming from an American. Of course, there is another question I could answer that pertains to US film critics’ use of the word ‘quirky’ to describe Australian cinema but I think I would have too much of a bias.

I met up with Carrie at the mall because she was having a bad day and we tried Boost Juice. Boost is very similar to Jamba Juice but Jamba is much better. I don’t think I will be going back to Boost.

Class today was fun. The lectures go by really quickly and I went to the RevMaster cycling class after my lectures. I then went home and made my normal dinner, sat down and…SURPRISE!!! An NCIS episode I had not seen before! And that is where and how my day ended.

Posted by Chelsea J McLennan at 02:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)