new zealand epic fail

Two things I failed to do in the last 10 days:

Update this blog, and skydive! Well, the second wasn't entirely my fault. Weather was bad in Taupo (a deliciously infuriating combination of clouds, wind, and quickly fading daylight). But no worries, as they say in these parts!! I'll try to skydive over the glaciers in Frans Josef or maybe outside Queenstown some time this week when I'm in the South Island. And I'll definitely bungy-jump!!!

As for the wrap-up of the North Island, I'm still working out the photos and will grace you with them when I get back to the US! This is code for: I am exhausted from traveling non-stop for a week and I'm ready to catch up on the episodes of LOST I've missed :)

I've leave you with this youtube video of one of the crazy-ass things I've done so far, which was invented in New Zealand. It's called Zorbing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isRlb9dIJRA

(For more info also visit the trusty Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorbing.)

uluru part two

Day Two --- KINGS CANYON

We were picked up ridiculously early by our tour guide, Dan, who drove the five of us and about ten others to the middle of the Outback. The first day we visited Kings Canyon, which was created thousands of years ago from a tiny crack in the rock that eventually became the canyon it is today. The visit to Kings Canyon was blisteringly hot and bright. You won't understand until you've experienced it, but the Outback sun is terrifying. I wouldn't want to be exposed to the Outback sun for more than a few hours, and I can understand now why all the animals in the Outback only come out at night.

Today's Predicted Temperature Range... It was HOTT with two T's.

After a few hours at Kings Canyon and a near-heat-exhaustion experience for me, we hopped back on to the van and kept driving through the Outback desert. For miles upon miles there was absolutely nothing out the window except red desert and short, scraggly shrubs growing by the edge of the road. It was an altogether deserted and alien place--like stepping foot onto a Mars that just happened to have a bit of vegetation. Surreal.

A few hours away from Kings Canyon we FINALLY saw Uluru:

...
...
...

Just kidding! That's not Uluru---it's FOOL-uru! Commonly mistaken for Uluru, FOOL-uru (aka Mt Connor) is actually a mountain, not a monolith like Uluru (don't ask me the difference--I still don't quite understand. As far as I can understand, Uluru is one giant chunk of pure rock, whereas mountains are made up of dirt, rock, and other organic matter.)
ANYWAY, so FOOL-uru. Not Uluru. FOOL-uru. (This pun made laugh for perhaps five minutes straight, and then chuckle until we arrived at our campsite. HEY--when you're in the middle of nowhere with nothing to entertain you but lots of red dirt and your dying ipod, you would get a kick out of FOOL-uru, too.)

After another few hours of driving we arrived at our campsite.

Proudly holding up one of my firewood contributions.

The campsite was literally in the middle of nowhere--no electricity or running water or sign of civilization nearby. We had twenty minutes to gather as much firewood as we could before the sun set and we lost our light, hence the picture above.

But you're probably also wondering about the net that I'm wearing over my face. Wait--did I fail to mention this to you earlier?? Oh yes, right. So there are MILLIONS of flies in the Outback. Buzzing, whizzing, germy, great big black flies that stick to your body and land on your shirt to suck the sweat off of your profusely sweating body because there are no other sources of moisture available. There are no lakes, streams, creeks--NO water, ANYWHERE. (There was water when we were there, but more on that later.) So the flies take to human visitors, attempting every two seconds to dart into our open mouths. As Dan, our tour guide, explained, there is so little shade in the Outback that the flies get excited by the prospects of spending a few seconds in someone's mouth--JUST TO GET OUT OF THE SUN. THIS PLACE IS INSANE, I TELL YA!

Our insanely beautiful campfire.

The Outback at Night (currently my desktop background!)

That night we all ate delicious stew out of a big communal pot and slept under the stars in "swags," which are big heavy-duty canvas sleeping bags that you can fit a thin mattress and sleeping bag into. We looked like a couple of sacks of potatoes lying on the ground. Lying in our swags, we looked up at the millions of stars in the sky and debated whether there were more stars in the universe or more grains of sand on Earth. The stars were all crystal clear and perfectly luminous. It made me miss the days of the old (i.e. hundreds of years ago) when man could still camp out and see the stars from anywhere on Earth. As we fell asleep we watched shooting stars dart across the sky. One piece of advice our tour guide Dan gave us: If you do see a shooting star, don't call out because by the time you do, the shooting star will have disappeared and your friends will be pissed! And so under the stars we slept.

....And here's when the story gets really really GOOD...
...
...
...

A few hours later (how long, I'm not sure since I had no light available)...

I suddenly wake up feeling like there are thousands of tiny pricks of fire and ice on my skin. I literally feel like my entire body is being licked by tiny, individual flames, and it HURTS like a mother!!! Lying in my swag I am thinking I have gone CRAZY--what else could explain why I was feeling like millions of bugs were crawling on me when everyone else around me was sleeping soundly in their swags?

I jump up out of my sleeping bag and swag and run over to the van, where there are some flashlights. I am wearing only soffe shorts and a thin cami. I grab a flashlight, turn it on, and shine it on my body (probably waking up two or three people in the process). And what do I see? I see a bunch of tiny little ant-like bugs crawling all over me. They're small and black and rapidly scrambling all over my body. Now, unlike some, I am NOT a girl to be freaked out by bugs, so my first reaction was to think that I was just being INSANE or half-asleep for thinking that these little harmless-looking ant-like bugs could be causing me so much pain. It literally felt like my skin was being assaulted by tiny darts. It couldn't POSSIBLY be the bugs. So what do I do? I brush off the bugs I can see and I go back to my swag to try to get back to sleep.

Literally THIRTY SECONDS later I am back to standing up over my swag and freaking out. The crawling/itching/pinching feeling hasn't stopped and it's more tortuous than ever. I dash over to where our guide Dan is sleeping and I wake him up gestapo-style with a flashlight in his face.

"Dan... I think there are some, like, bugs or something that are crawling all over me..."
He turns over, and without even looking at the bugs on me, he goes, "Oh yeah, that'd be the termites."

.... the TERMITES? There is no fucking wood out here in the Outback!!!

"Uh Dan, termites?"
"Yeah, they probably think you're wood and they'll just take a bite out of you to check." He chuckles. ...HE CHUCKLES.

"Uh... okay HOW DO I MAKE IT STOP?"
"Move your swag a few meters away and spray some of this bug spray around your swag."

I do move my swag and within ten minutes I feel the crawling painful pricks on my skin subside. I have obviously moved out of the prime termite territory. I toss and turn and try to go back to sleep. It's hard because the feeling of all those termites biting at me is a sensation I can't forget easily--even writing this today, nearly 6 weeks later, I still feel the sharpness of that CRAZY pain. It's an unimaginable sensation that I would wish only upon my worst enemies.

I try going back to sleep, but at this point it is hardly worthwhile. We have to up in two hours anyway. I am just drifting off into sleep when suddenly I see my friend Lisa a few meters away standing up over her swag, performing the exact same stunned dance that I was doing earlier. She is brushing her arms and legs, stamping around her swag, and looking around in disbelief. She has got termites.

As a wizened expert in termite matters, I matter-of-factly tell her that they are termites and nothing to be worried about. She looks at me like I am out of my fucking MIND. Like me, she can't comprehend how tiny termites can be causing her so much pain. I tell her to move her swag, and she moves closer to me and away from prime termite territory. We both try to sleep some more.

Less than two hours later at around 4AM we are woken up by Dan. We need to get packed and have breakfast and start the day before the Outback's lethal sun rises and makes the heat unbearable.

I move back over to my pile of stuff that I left in the middle of the night and see two of my other friends still huddled in their sleeping bags. Turns out that they ALSO felt the termites, but not knowing what to do, they just scrunched up tighter in their sleeping bags, hoping that the termites wouldn't get in. Of course, the termites DID get in, and the two girls spent the entire night sweltering within their sleeping bags and trapped in a confined space with a bunch of termites.

Turns out the rest of our camp also experienced the termites, and most people didn't understand what was going on. The didn't understand that they were being devoured by these tiny menacing bugs. Everyone else but me and Lisa just tried to sleep through it (meaning that most of our camp got no sleep that night).

Also turns out that the termites were out in so many numbers that night because they felt a huge storm coming on that day. Termites can somehow sense when a big rainstorm is going to occur, so they were out to reinforce their nests or whatever it is that termites live in.

And turns out the termites were right. That morning we had a monstrous amount of rainfall that drenched us to the very bone while we were climbing across Kata Tjuta.

But that's a story for next time.

END DAY TWO.

it's thursday and i've got nothin'

So it's Thursday and I've got nothin'.
No pics uploaded from Oz Day, no stories about Fraser Island... yet.

Sorry peeps, I'll try tomorrow/Saturday.

Sidenote: Tonight I'm going to a concert in Sydney (Paddington to be exact). Check it out: Born Ruffians.
I have medium-high expectations.


Correction: the concert was in Darlinghurst at the Oxford Art Factory. Paddington and Darlinghurst are adjacent to one another, whoops!

return from a traveling coma

Hey all, I just got back this morning from a four-day trip to Fraser Island and there are pictures and stories to look over, cull, and then write up. My goal is... Thursday? Who knows.

Just wanting to pop in and announce that I haven't died.

PS: I am in the computer lab and eating a bowl of Uncle Ben's Instant Rice (2 min. in the microwave and it's cooked!) and it is DELICIOUS. Or, I may be biased because I haven't had a grain of rice touch my lips in over two weeks. Probably the longest rice withdrawal OF MY LIFE. I've gotta do something about this.

PPS: I have also been introduced to the writings of Tucker Max this weekend, and I have entirely mixed feelings that one blog post probably won't be able to cover. Any one else heard of him??? If so, DISCUSS.

plane rides, orientation, the harbour, oh my!

Hi all,

It's still early in the game but I already feel like I've neglected people back home! Where are Xu's facebook pictures, you rave. Where are Xu's personalized emails that cover her amazing adventures?! Well, all of that is complicated by the fact that installing internet in the room costs approx. $40AUD/month for the most basic service (and goes up to $150AUD/mo. for better service), and that the only other place for free internet is the BU Sydney Centre which is only three blocks away but not open during the weekends. So.
I realize that this is my first real post since I arrived here Wednesday, and I have about five day's worth of events to catch you up on----bear with me.

I left the house at 7:30AM on Monday (central time), but didn't arrive in Sydney until around 3PM on Tuesday (still central time). So more than THIRTY-SIX HOURS in transit from Kansas City to Denver, from Denver to San Fran, from San Fran to Auckland, and finally from Auckland to Sydney.

My Departure from Home

What's more, by the time we got to Sydney it was their Wednesday. Somehow, crossing the International Date Line, we lost an entire day--there it went, sucked into some oblivion regulated by mathematical calculations and cosmic logic beyond me.

The Air New Zealand flight was top-class and there were more than 100 movies to choose from (now that's what I call awesome.) It was around a 12.5 hour flight just to Auckland, and during that time I managed to watch "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (did not like it, would not recommend unless you dig predictable emo wanderings around NYC) and "3:10 to Youma" (loved it, would recommend if you think Westerns kick butt, which they do). I only managed to catch a few hours of sleep on the flight since the flight attendants came around every few hours with rather decent airplane food, and best of all, free alcohol! I did not know that this was the case for many international flights, despite having taken them to China every other summer, but while flying over international waters, everyone can drink! And unlike the crappy American airline variety, there's no five buck charge for alcohol--it's all free and for the taking. There were cocktails, shots, wine (red and white), and New Zealand beers to be had. When I couldn't decide which beer I wanted with my meal, the male flight attendant laughed and pushed both on me, saying, "Try them both, and let me know what you think!!!" From that moment I knew I would like the people here. (Of course, in a display of light-weightedness, I only managed to drink about 1/3 of just one can, leaving the rest to my very eager seatmate.)

There was a short stopover in Auckland before another 3.5 hour flight to Sydney, and once we got there we were all so relieved (and jetlagged). We arrived around lunch time in Sydney, dropped off our stuff, grabbed some food, and headed off to an entire day's worth of orientation activities planned for us for the SOLE PURPOSE of keeping us awake and forcing us to get over our jetlag quicker. Boy, that afternoon there were probably many, many, many important things said about safety measures, school schedules, etc.... but I missed all of them in my DELIRIOUS HAZE of jetlag. Later that night we had a welcome barbecue dinner on the rooftop of our hotel/dorm, and I could barely appreciate the gorgeous views because I was so tired.

The gorgeous view atop the roof. Sorry! The sun was setting so it's dark!

The hotel/dorm we're staying in is called UniLodge, and it is swank. I share a room with one other girl, and we have a small living room, sink, bathroom, desk, sofa, dining table, and TV downstairs, while the two beds and dressers are upstairs. When I say "upstairs/downstairs" you are probably thinking that there are actually stairs. Well, there are stairs, but it's a very very scary, narrow spiral staircase from the bottom floor to the loft sleeping area. I'm not sure that those descriptions make sense, but needless to say it is DIFFICULT getting from upstairs to downstairs without the fear of falling. One of the girls in my program, Marie, insists on walking down the stairs backwards for fear that she's too top-heavy and will fall forward (Marie is v. busty, you know). The digs here are more like a hotel room than a dorm, evidenced by the people who check in downstairs for only a few days at a time. There are kitchens on each floor, and, sidnote: last night me and a group of friends tried to cook without much in the way of pots, pans, etc. Can you say, epic fail?

So, Wednesday passed, and Thursday was met with more orientation sessions and a pizza party at night. After the pizza, a group of friends and I walked a short distance over to University of Sydney, which looks like a mix of Hogwarts and Princeton. It. Was. Gorgeous. So long, Boston University, here I come Sydney Uni! For one thing, they actually have a campus (so unimaginable to BU students). For another thing, it blows any American college campus out of the water. What's more, apparently college is practically FREE for everyone here. Well, there's a nominal charge for tuition, but compared to 40 thou a year I would say nominal is good.

Sydney Uni.

During the daytime on Friday there was more orientation and exploration of our immediate environment. UniLodge and the BU Sydney Centre (from here on out affectionately abbreviated "BUSC") are very close to Broadway Shopping Centre, which is this entirely huge mall/grocery store complex that houses fresh produce on the very bottom floor, and Calvin Klein and fcuk. on the very top floor. Also, there's a Target and a Kmart inside. A little sad that Australia just bent over and let American superstores like that come in. But, it happens.

On the way to downtown Sydney; Broadway Street.

Friday night we walked thirty minutes to Cockle Bay and boarded an afternoon harbour cruise from Darling Harbour as part of the orientation finale for the BU abroad program. On the cruise we saw many of the most famous sights of Sydney, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Rocks, and of course, the Sydney Opera House. I'm not sure how I can explain the magic of the harbour cruise with enough wordage to paint you an accurate picture of the wonder I felt, but I'll try. We watched the sunset against the Sydney Opera House, and it was divine.

Sydney Opera House

From all the pictures, I imagined the Opera House to be this HUMONGOUS piece of architecture, but from the water it looked quite modest. I have yet to see it from land, where I'm sure it will dwarf me, but from the water it appeared entirely humble and tranquil. Only at sunset was I blinded by how intensely magnificent the structure looked. Even though the sun was setting, there were still hundreds upon hundreds of tiny sailboats in the harbour area, and plenty of gulls flying above. Several couples were taking wedding pictures on the garden-laden peninsulas that jutted out into the harbour waters, and from the boat we could see people climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge (quite a feat I am told).

Sydney Harbour Bridge in the distance. This picture does it no justice: it is MASSIVE. My hair sucks in this picture.

After staying up on the top deck for nearly an hour and getting chilly from the ocean breezes, we shivered our way downstairs to gorge ourselves on free food, including these delicious sweet potatoes and very pleasing baguettes. The cruise consisted of entirely students in the BU Sydney Program, which numbers at 125, and I can only imagine how much money the program paid to take all of us on this 3-hour long cruise. Plus, we got FREE DRINKS on the cruise, absolutely making my day (and my next headache-filled morning). I downed around three glasses of champagne, which is more than I have drank in one sitting since probably freshman year of college. Needless to say, by the time I deboarded the ship I was a little woozy in the head. Augh, lightweight!

This is after my FIRST glass of wine. Hence the "one."

It didn't help that afterwards we went bar-hopping around the Darling Harbour area, or that we downed $8AUD shots like we were three times our size. We went to Bungalow 8, The Loft, and Cargo Bar, three of the biggest and rowdiest bars/clubs on the waterfront.

So: explanation for this photo. At The Loft there were these girls who were part of an organization petitioning against stricter bar rules, such as lockouts after 2AM and 10 minute timeouts every hour , etc. You can find out more about it here: DON'T PUNISH US. Anyhow, long story short I took a picture with one of their signs as part of the protest, and eventually I think I'll make it to the photo gallery.

Me and the girls at Bungalow 8.

Me, after second round of drinks. Hence the "two."

My favorite of the bars was Bungalow 8 because it was immensely relaxed and quiet enough for conversation, and my least favorite was Cargo Bar, where a bunch of Americans (myself included) danced awkwardly to INCREDIBLY LOUD pop hits of JT, Britney, and the Australian Kylie Minogue. Of course, all the Australians stood at the sidelines watching us make fools of ourselves, and pretty soon thereafter I joined the sidelines to watch my American buddies CONTINUE make fools of themselves. Somehow we managed to catch a cab home, and believe you me, a crappy twin bed never felt better to me than that night when I got back to my room.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. Saturday and Sunday we went to the markets and Bondi Beach, respectively, but there's too much to say on those trips and probably not enough space left in the post. I'll be sure to write back soon (say, tomorrow or the day after).

Til then, with much love from Down Under,
Xu

herro

herro everyone this is xu here
i am messing around with the layout and quickly realizing my complete ineptitude for anything html-related
epic fail