two thousand nine, you were mighty fine

Though I haven't made an end-of-the-year post in years, I thought 2009 deserved one. It was a really special year full of highs and lows.

2009 High #1: Medical School
Well, I finally made it. I was so ready for medical school by the end of my 3 years of undergrad and now that I'm here it's fantastic (though there are some things about undergrad that I do miss terribly, namely reading and discussing literature). So far it's been incredibly inspiring and refreshing. I really enjoy the people in my class, and the second-years that I've befriended have been such sweethearts. Everyone around me is bright and teeming with this desire to learn and become good doctors that I'm constantly taken aback by their energy. Moreover, my classmates are professional, smart, and most surprisingly of all, very funny! They crack me up all the time. My classes have been going well, and something I've been exceptionally impressed with is the faculty. FINALLY, no more of this never-talk-to-your-science-professor shit from undergrad (c'mon, you mean to tell me you actually had a relationship with your cell bio professor?). The faculty here are really kind and approachable, even being scientists :)

2009 Low #1: Medical School
No kidding when they say that med school is tough. I'm currently recovering from the first half of our neuroscience block, and you wouldn't believe how many times throughout the semester that I've asked myself, "What did I get myself into?" (Hint, it was before every anatomy exam and while studying for HBM.) It's also true that med school isn't for everyone. After going through the first semester, I realize now that it takes just the right combination of smarts, masochism, and untempered and pure fall-over-yourself earnestness, with a dash of obsessive compulsive behavior. I thought I was OCD until I got to medical school and met some of my classmates. My classmates are always ahead, always striving, and always on top of things. It really opened my eyes to just how hard-working people can be, and the truth that I'll probably never be "the best" because there's always going to be someone more anal or someone who just wants it more than me. It's extremely humbling and a good lesson to be learned, I think.

2009 High #2: Australia and New Zealand
Incredible. I had so many once in a lifetime experiences: skydiving, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, white water rafting, rappelling down a 100-foot waterfall in the Blue Mountains, seeing my first Broadway musical, and living in one of the most beautiful, breathtaking cities in the world…Sydney. I interned at a food and travel magazine (so perfectly blissfully random), went to magazine photoshoots, escaped to the beach whenever I pleased, hauled myself to Sydney's most frenetic clubs, and once found myself vomiting pathetically into an Australian McDonald's bathroom toilet (ok, so that was a low).

2009 Low #2: Being away from friends and family
I missed my friends and family immensely when I was away for 5 months. Were it not for the miracles of videochat and cheap international calling cards, I don't know where I would have been! Of course, it didn't help my homesickness that I had The Roommate From Hell for the first four weeks, but luckily that was resolved and my second living situation was so much better with a roommate who was both adorable and funny. (The first roommate was put into a room with someone who was not so welcoming, and I can't say that I felt sorry for her.)

2009 High #3: Reunion with Andrei in the fall
Being apart from Andrei was hard while I was in Australia, New Zealand, and then China. Sometimes I would feel a physical ache being away from him, and every minute we've been together since has been even sweeter. As someone who once firmly rejected long distance relationships, I suddenly find myself thinking it could work with the right person. Which leads me to another low…

2009 Low #3: The looming future
The prospect of not being in the same city as Andrei and all my friends next year is daunting. It's frustrating that I'm firmly set in one place, but I'm not sure where Andrei or my undergrad friends will end up. Or my high school friends, for that matter. It's an unknown, and I hate the unknown.

2009 High #4: Scrubbing into my first surgery
Over the summer I scrubbed into my first surgery, a kidney transplant from a father to son. To see a white lifeless kidney that was detached from a healthy body turn rosy, healthy pink once put into a sick body… wow. Medicine is awesome---literally full of awe.

2009 High #5 (Okay, so there are more highs in this list than lows, and this is another one involving Andrei): our two-year anniversary in NYC
It was an incredibly romantic weekend, and perfect in almost all respects. Having once hated NYC, I have to say that this trip changed my mind and made me almost love NYC. Of course, still would never live there though. Boston is definitely more my type of city.

And to wrap up:

favorite video of the year
not a music video, but my favorite youtube video of the year: http://bit.ly/498Cbe

favorite song of the year
My Will is Good, Port O'Brien

favorite artist of the year
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

favorite movie of the year
Up, no question about it. Pixar movies will always have a place in my heart.

favorite book of the year
A toss up between Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (finally, a book that makes science fun!) and Stieg Larsson's first two books of the Millennium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire (can't help loving adventure/thriller/mystery fiction with good writing for once!!)


Well that's it for 2009. I'm both excited and scared for what the new decade will bring… and where I'll be in another ten years.

andrei's funnier moments

Today I had two humorous conversations with Andrei, one via text and the other via gchat.

#1
Background: I went with my mom to my friend Chris's Mary Kay party (like a Tupperware party but for cosmetics) and we all got makeovers. I texted Andrei about the dramatic eye makeup that Chris's friend practiced on me. He texts back:

"Oh neat.
I bet you looked super sexy.
What was that technique. Smoky eyes?"


#2
Background: I changed my fb picture to a picture of me and Andrei together, which immediately got an "Aww, cute" response of one of my BU friends. I told her that I think it's cheesy, and that I (quote) "die a little every time" (end quote) that I see it on someone else's fb. Of course I tell Andrei about this little exchange.

me: look at my profile piccccc

Andrei: on fb?

me: yeah

i think the pic is dopey

i never have pics with you

Andrei: yes

whatever

you keep that profile pic

i am gonna make mine the same one

itll be the BEST

I think Andrei is dopey. And potentially a closet gay.


In other news, I'm leaving for China at the bright hour of 6AM tomorrow. Will write when I get there, and after jetlag totally kicks my butt YET AGAIN.

we interrupt your reading pleasure with some modern-day romance

Immediately following this post I am posting Day One of my Outback adventures, so please feel free to skip this reallllly long post on Andrei's visit and my parent's visit if you're so inclined. 'Cuz no one but us probably cares about the following :)

***

It was Thursday night, or rather the wee hours of Friday morning, only hours before Andrei's flight was scheduled to touch ground at the Sydney airport, and I was sitting on my couch with no desire to move an inch. Sitting there, I felt immensely thankful my roommate was still on her spring break trip, lest she were to try to rouse me from my nearly comatose state. Like the decent girlfriend I am, I promised Andrei I would be at the airport waiting for him when he arrived at 8AM, but at 3AM I was beginning to weigh just how much I liked the kid (quite a lot) against whether he would still like me if I stood him up in a foreign country (probably not). I hadn't showered since returning from a five-day epic journey through the Australian Outback, my clothes were all covered in a dusty layer of bright red Outback clay (the kind that is impossible to wash out), and all I wanted was a bowl of Cheerios, but unfortunately I had cleaned out the contents of my fridge the week before in preparation for my trip to Alice Springs.

But at that same moment, no doubt Andrei was being woken up every twenty minutes by some peppy flight attendant or being slept on by a morbidly obese man-woman on the 14-hour trans-Pacific flight. I figured there was at least *some* justice in the world.

Somehow I managed to get to bed by 4AM, having finished all the important tasks I had set out to do: washing and hanging up three week's worth of laundry, and plucking my eyebrows in preparation for Andrei's arrival. Looking back on it, none of those activities were really crucial since like most boys, Andrei doesn't care what his girlfriend wears or what condition her eyebrows are in. And people ask me why I don't wear makeup anymore.

At 8AM I was dutifully present at the airport and I was pondering whether it would be cheesy to buy some overpriced flowers/balloons/greeting cards (the greeting cards confused me a bit) when Andrei loped through the international arrivals gate, looking like some morbidly obese man-woman had indeed been using him as a pillow since San Francisco. Just kidding, he was as fresh as a spring daisy. Ok, just kidding, he smelled like he had been on a plane all day, and the second thing he said to me was, "Xu, I don't think I should've eaten all that airplane food."

Despite my sleep deprivation and Andrei's jetlag, we managed to get in a cab and make it back to UniLodge without falling asleep on each other. I was in a great mood to have him here with me in Australia, and Andrei was probably feeling pretty good thinking about all the suckers who were still in class at BU (he left Boston the Wednesday before the start of BU's spring break, effectively skipping all his classes Wed, Thurs, and Fri so that he could arrive in Australia on our Friday).

Upon arriving at UniLodge we showered and left the room around two in the afternoon once our bellies began aching for some Thai food. So we got some on Glebe Point Rd and returned to UniLodge, finally managing to drag ourselves out of bed hours later. That first afternoon I took Andrei around the necessary sights of Sydney (Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour) and instead of cramming in more touristy crap we stopped for beers at a harbour-side bar and watched the sun settle behind the docked sailboats (an A++ decision, and totally in character with the lazy bums that we are).

Posing with the Roo in Darling Harbour

We ate dumplings that night in Chinatown, and checked into the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour, which was about a five minute's walk from Darling Harbour and a 30 second walk to Chinatown (best location EVER for a hotel, I must say). We were bumped up to a bigger room with two queen-sized beds in it, and the clerk at the front desk winked at me and told me that if Andrei were to misbehave, I could always go sleep in the other bed. I gave Andrei a menacing look, and we all had a good laugh over this.

The next morning we took a train to the Blue Mountains and got off at the Blacktown station to visit Featherdale Wildlife Park along the way. This expansive wildlife park is located in the middle of Blacktown's residential area and is only accessible by one bus, which made me wonder what exactly the locals did for fun around there (Aw mom, not the Wildlife Park again!!). Incidentally, George Foreman and Nicholas Cage? have also visited the wildlife park, among other celebrities who got their pictures taken while petting koalas or carefully avoiding the emus. (Seriously, emus are crazy animals. Watch Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs episode on emu farms if you don't believe me.)

Two Koalas Kissing -- way keute!

Me and Koala, who looks more excited?

Andrei as a Kangaroo (a pretty good imitation I must say)

Words can hardly describe how much fun Andrei and I had at Featherdale. We discovered our new favourite animal...the wombat! It looks like the love-child of a bear and a guinea pig, and best of all, it sleeps all day and only gets up to waddle around every few hours. Among other highlights of the wildlife park were the koalas we got to pet and the kangaroos and wallabies we could feed as they hopped lethargically around us. They were so fat and tame, which was probably expected since they munch all day on the ice cream cones and grains that tourists like us were shoving in front of their faces. And they didn't mind us petting them or little kids poking and prodding at them. At one point, to test the pacificity of one kangaroo (and just to be an idiot), Andrei attempted to place his aviator sunglasses on the kangaroo's face, and it definitely LOOKED unamused but didn't make much motion in protest. It was pretty funny, but I don't think I'll be sending the video to PETA any time soon.

Andrei's Kangaroo Experiment

After our animal adventure we rode another train up to Katoomba, the gateway into the Blue Mountains. We were picked up at the train station by the owner of Lurline House, the bed and breakfast where we stayed two nights. It was the most darling B&B, complete with cookies and tea upon arrival, an indescribably fantastic spa tub in the room, and made-to-order breakfasts in the cozy little dining room in the morning. By the time we arrived it was nearly 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In the last few hours of daylight Andrei and I managed to walk down Lurline Street to the Three Sisters and squeeze in a hike along the cliff walks nearby. It was really quite beautiful to watch the sunset and walk back into town.

The two of us at the Three Sisters

Since Katoomba is pretty much a ghost town at night, we ran over to the convenient neighborhood Liquorland and bought some beer and champagne. Then we made a pit stop for bubble bath at the Coles supermarket next door. When we got back to our room we were pretty giddy and thought we were being so romantic with the bubble bath and bubbly. Little did we know that it was industrial-strength bubble bath (or maybe I shouldn't have poured in half the bottle and then turned on the wildly powerful spa-jets). Five minutes later we were submerged under a mountain-sized amount of bubbles, and we spent the next ten minutes heatedly debating on just how to get rid of the bubbles. (Eventually I scooped up the excess bubbles and threw them into the separate shower room, where they remained without diminishing in bubbliness or volume long after we had both gotten out of the tub.)

The next morning Peter drove us to High 'N' Wild, an abseiling and canyoning tour company. Abseiling is synonymous with rappelling, i.e. using a rope and walking/hopping down cliffs. Canyoning is the practice of swimming, jumping, and grappling through narrow, claustrophobia-inducing canyons. Our day-long journey started with abseiling, a short canyoning experience, followed by an abseil down a 100-foot full-force waterfall. It was... quite intense.

At the office, they suited us up in straight-jacket-tight wetsuits and gave us abseiling equipment and helmets and sent us along to rappel down 50-foot cliff faces. Ok, it didn't really happen exactly like... We tried on wetsuits at the office and then stuffed that and all our gear into a waterproof bag. We were given helmets and harnesses for the rappelling. The harnesses wrapped around our butts and cinched at our hips. And of course, my harness was a little big on me so it looked like I had a big black diaper on me the entire time (it's a shame the pictures don't really capture how silly it looked). We were first driven to a five-meter cliff (v. small, about 15 feet tall) and taught how to rappel/abseil down it with ropes strung through our harness. Then we moved onto a taller 15-meter (50 foot) cliff and ordered to get down the cliff with just our ropes and our wits. Needless to say, it was quite the nauseating experience. For one thing, the Blue Mountains is half-covered in mist most of the day, and so looking down at the forest floor, all I could see was a canopy of trees that looked miles away and an eerie fog settling across the leaves. It was something out of a storybook, truly.

Me abseiling down 10-metre cliff

Andrei about to descend a 15-metre cliff

A view from above (notice how far down the trees are... gulp!)

After the amazing morning of abseiling, we broke for lunch. Our tour group consisted of a family of eight Australians, who were all at least 30, and who probably found Andrei and my lovestruck stupor for each other very aggravating. Nevertheless, they were super nice and very informative about Australian culture. Andrei and I picked up all sorts of Australian lingo from them, the most random of all being "bogan." (Go look it up if you're so inclined.) After lunch we climbed down a million flights of stairs to the forest floor and donned our incredibly, achingly tight wetsuits (which were actually rather flattering on second thought). Then we dove right into the bone-chillingly cold canyon water. With our bright yellow helmets on our heads and our waterproof, floating backpacks on our backs, we drifted along the currents of the canyon, stopping ever so often to jump off from rocks into adjoining pools or slide down some natural rock slides covered in thick slimy green moss. It was the adventure of the lifetime, and all the while surrounding us on each side were massively tall canyon rock walls that seemed to envelope us sinisterly. If it weren't for our frequent whooping and screams of delight you would never have known we were there. It was something out of a ghost story, mixed with a dash of National Geographic.

Finally, at the end of the canyoning portion we reached the top of a giant waterfall over 100 feet tall. Our guides calmly set up the ropes and Andrei and I were among the first to rappel down the waterfall. It sounds pretty scary--"Oh hey guess what I rappelled down a waterfall"--and it WAS pretty scary. At one point my rope got too much slack and suddenly I found myself hanging upside-down on one rope in the middle of the rapid-flowing waterfall, with the water rushing down and smashing me in the face continuously. The guides had hinted that it was possible we would end up upside-down if the rope got too loose, but they never mentioned how to correct it--so for a crazy twenty seconds I couldn't think of what to do. I could hear nothing but the water cascading down the rocks and feel nothing but the water hitting my face and getting up my nose. Meanwhile, all I could think was, "Jesus, of all the ways to die, I am going to die from drowning upside down, hanging on a rope in the middle of a waterfall. What a way to go."

Somehow I managed to pull myself up and get right-side-up. From there I got down to the bottom of the waterfall with no more major mishaps. The rocks behind the waterfall were slippery, and every so often my feet would slip out from under me and I would hit the rock, BAM, before I spun around a few times on the rope and renegotiated my feet back into proper position. It was awesome and one of the scariest things I've ever done.... and I probably looked like a total idiot. Once at the bottom of the waterfall I let lots of slack through my rope, and dropped not-so-gracefully into the pool below with a big splash before unbuckling my ropes and swimming to shore. From there I could only see the last half of Andrei's descent, and although he swears that he was just as ungraceful and ungainly as I was coming down, I think he probably abseiled circles around me, so to speak.

We stripped off our wetsuits after getting out of the water and dried off before trudging up literally a thousand stairs to get back up to the van. By the time we got back to the office we were all exhausted and I could barely even swallow the free after-tour beer (both because I was tired and because I am a lightweight. Andrei finished mine, a pattern that will likely continue and lead to his inevitable future alcoholism if he continues to date me).

For dinner, we went to a nearby cafe called Common Ground that is run by a group of modern-day hippies/cult-members (it's hard to draw the line). A group of about thirty adults and their young children live in a commune housed above the cafe, and all the members of the commune work in the cafe, pooling together the money and splitting the labor and profits. I had an amazing barramundi burger washed down with a drink that the teenage girl behind the counter had just created and asked us to try. It tasted exactly like a peanut butter and banana sandwich with a hint of honey--in a milkshake form. It was supremely satisfying and I didn't want to ask what was really in it.

Our walk back to the B&B was really surreal. It was only 9PM as we started heading back, but the entire town of Katoomba was covered in a dense, greyish white fog that muted all the street lights and created a sense of foreboding. The clouds above began releasing fine droplets of water that coated the streets and made the asphalt look slick and shiny like a dark river. My heart was pounding every time I could see a figure in the distance. I would turn to Andrei and ask, "Can we cross the street? That person over there looks like an axe murderer." To which Andrei would always patiently reply, "That's not an axe, that's the guy's umbrella." It was a much longer and cautious journey back to Lurline House, since walking every block felt like being in a horror movie. It was so other-wordly, but by the time we arrived to our room and turned on all the lights, we laughed it off like little kids and forgot all about it.

The next morning we headed back to Sydney so that I could go to class, and then Tuesday morning I started my internship at VE+T and delicious. It was pretty shit timing that Andrei was visiting during my first week at work, but it ended up working out all right in the end. We would hang out at nights and go to restaurants or bars and usually end up back at the hotel room at an embarrassingly early hour like 10 o'clock.

Andrei in front of the QVB, holding his precious bubble tea


Us at the Opera House

Yesterday I asked Andrei what exactly he did those days while I was at work, but all he could really come up with was eating pastries at the Chinese bakery down the street and walking to Newtown a few times just to look around. And reading the newspaper. I can't say this with absolute authority, but based on empirical evidence I think Andrei is going to make a very good old dude one day. In fact, I can already see him turning out to be like my Chinese grandfather, walking down the street--hands clasped behind his back--and slowly waddling to the next cafe or park bench or other old dude hangout.

Epic Shot of Andrei, Sydney Skyline, and the beautiful blue Australian sky from the Manly Ferry

That Saturday I took Andrei to one of the mandatory sights of Sydney: a Sydney beach. We took the ferry over to Manly Beach and it was an exquisitely beautiful ferry ride. By the time we got the beach we were only able to lay out for about 30 minutes before it began to rain and so ducked under awnings and walked around the town of Manly a bit before attempting the coastal walk to Spit Bridge. We only got about twenty minutes away from the town before we sat down on a park bench and enjoyed watching all the dogs and their owners passing by. We decided that the 4 hour walk to Spit Bridge was highly overrated (code for we were too lazy to do it) and so we trudged back to find dinner.

Sunday was Andrei's last day in Sydney, and the day my parents and Kevin arrived. I picked them up at the airport and we all met up in Chinatown for one rousing meal of dim sum. It was utterly delicious, and A+ to Andrei being so chill with my parents. (Sidenote: Since meeting my parents in KC over Thanksgiving, Andrei has began his process of fitting into the Xu family, and it is all-together very cute and disturbing, considering I am only 20 and my parents are already talking about when I'll be popping out babies.)

Having Andrei in Sydney was great, but it was even better to have my family arrive the same day he left. Being away from my family never ceases to make me appreciate them more, and even more so since I've been away across the world for the last three months. I got to stay at their hotels and show them around Sydney when they weren't traveling to Cairns, New Zealand, or the Blue Mountains. Most notably, we had a TON of Chinese food (literally no meal they had in Sydney was NOT in Chinatown), and we walked through the city parks to visit the Art Gallery of NSW, which I had never been to on my own.

I think what surprised me the most about my family's visit was how TALL my brother has grown. Kevin is now officially taller than me, and not just by a hair, but by a noticeable amount. It's seriously depressing, especially since I remember the days when I used to be able to use his head as an arm rest....

Kevin the giant.

Final picture: mom and dad got me and Kevin a cake for our birthday!

jk, this post is not on Uluru (aw shucks)

Sigh. I started writing up the post for my Outback experience... and then realized that it's not just a 30 min. endeavor but more like a 2 hr odyssey to go back and recapture each detail. It's going to take me more than just this bit of time sitting in my Australian lit class and not paying attention (sidenote: when I decided to take a "vacation" to Australia for the semester, my work ethic went on permanent vacation, too).

Instead, despite this being a WEE bit out of order, I'll share with you my 20th birthday celebration. Andrei was here the week of my birthday, and I had all my friends around me and it was really all a girl could ask for:

The night of my birthday I had class 6-8PM, but afterwards we headed off to Newtown (which I think I've written about previously) to go to a restaurant that Andrei had checked out earlier that week, called UrbanBites. I think it's important to note here that Andrei and my friends were entirely responsible for making this a memorable night for me. Andrei truly went above and beyond by planning out the entire evening perfectly: dinner, gifts, cake, and figuring everything out to make it all work! My friends went all out, too (as you'll see in the following pictures).

Also, this is the first time I've attempted to upload a video on blogger, so cross your fingers it works. The part when things go sideways is when Rachel oh-so-gracefully almost drops the camera.

A normal picture of us at dinner....

...followed by a SWEET asian-ified picture of us (also because they tease me for doing this way too often... perhaps they don't understand that it's facetious???)

This is the cake that my friends baked for me in UniLodge's ghetto ovens. I don't think the people at home can understand how touching this is until you've moved to UniLodge and gone to one of their kitchens (it is NOT conducive to cooking). They added Oreos along the side because they all noticed (and very observantly so) that I like carrying around Oreos with me as a snack on long trips. :D I feel like these girls from me backwards and forwards! Special thanks to Becky and Jane! (Also note the v. cute Happy Birthday Beanie Baby knockoff in the back, courtesy of them as well.)

The after-dinner party in the lounge. They had BALLOONS and everything; it was glorious. A short side note to explain the ballooons. It was about 11PM when we had finished eating at UrbanBites and it had been raining all night. I'm in a dress and heels and so me, Andrei, Kelly, Marie and I take a cab back to UniLodge. The other 5 walk back, insisting that they'll be fine. Turns out they chose to walk back because they needed time to blow up the balloons. So imagine that you're just minding your business in Newtown at 11PM at night, and suddenly these 5 girls come running at you... brandishing.... BALLOONS. Which they are blowing up mid-run. And it's pouring outside. I'm told it was a very funny scene.

And finally, all 8 of us together (Andrei is taking the photo) :) It brings a tear to my eye.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the video, as low res as it is--and as usual I look like a total idiot as everyone around me is acting supremely nice. (PS the video took a humongously long time to upload and I probably blew off all of BUSC's internet capabilities just to upload this one measly 32 second video...)

return from the center of the earth (or the center of Oz, at least)

I survived the Outback!  After five days and four nights of being in the middle of Australia's most unlivable area, I've finally returned to civilization (most missed: running water and a real bed).  It's hard to describe how much I loved the Outback, especially Uluru and Kata Tjuta.  It was unlike any place I've ever been to before and I felt so drawn to it.  Well, as much as a person can feel drawn to big giant rocks, anyway.  Mostly, I felt so much in awe the entire time, knowing that everything I was seeing was hundreds of MILLIONS of years old.  And now my shoes are caked in bright red Outback clay that will probably never come out, my body is dead tired, and my mouth is still dry from tramping around in the desert, but I'm here and I'm tired and two minutes from now I am definitely crashing into bed.

But not before I check when Andrei's plane comes in tomorrow morning!!

I can hardly believe that six weeks has already passed and that my friends at BU are having their Spring Break already.  Well, technically Spring Break's not here just yet, but somehow I convinced Andrei to skip class Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to flight out to Sydney early.  Who needs class when you can have perpetual sunshine and beaches?  And what better place to have Spring Break than Down Under?

Long story short, the next week will probably be void of any lengthy posts as I'll be playing the role of the perfect hostess for Andrei.  By next week I'll hope to have posted something--anything--on Melbourne, and soon thereafter I want to write about Uluru and the Outback before I forget all the details.

There'll be some awesome pics that I'll upload, so stay tuned!

xoxo,

Xu

(Final sidenote: I have been watching Gossip Girl Season 1 with friends here and I'm a smidge addicted and rather ashamed of the fact.)

wine, cheese, roses, CLASSY

Okay guys, time for another lengthy post.
Let's divvy it up for your reading ease (and so I don't forget anything):

• Australia Day and Dragon Boat Racing
• Born Ruffians concert
• Wine Tour
• Australian Museum
• Valentine's Day

Australia Day and Dragon Boat Races
Note that Australia Day was January 26th, and note that today is February 20th. So.... yeah. Australia Day is celebrated Jan 26th because that was the day that the first convict ships arrived on the shores of Botany Bay/Sydney Harbour to set up colonies. The Aborigines have aptly named the day "Invasion Day." Yikes, the tension in the air was almost palpable!!
On Australia Day thousands upon thousands of people turned up to The Rocks, an area of Sydney near the bridge and the Opera House. There were tons of outdoor concerts and other events going on--it was a massive celebration of all things Australian.

Australian pride!

Random Chair Sculpture by The Rocks--how cool!

We were tuckered out fast, but look how patriotic!

Later that week as a joint celebration of Chinese New Year's and Australia Day, they held dragon boat racing in Darling Harbour. It was an incredible sight and all the boats were marvelously decorated with flaming reds, greens, and golds.

Dragon boats at the finish line

Born Ruffians concert
I sort of forget whether I went to the Born Ruffians concert or the Wine Tour first, so let's just cover Born Ruffians.

Well, Kelly and I had a little bit of trouble getting over there since we took the wrong bus down George St. instead of Oxford St. BUT! when we finally did get to the Oxford Art Factory, Born Ruffians was just getting on stage. Overall the performance was a little above average; they were energetic but not particularly captivating. The music was decent, with my favorite song being "I Need a Life" because of the catchy (ugh) chorus. The band is from Canada, and it was delicious to hear people talking without an Australian accent for once! I wanted to jump up yelling, "Hey we're from North America too! Whoo Canada!!!"

Also let's talk about how incredibly SCENESTER the kids at the show were. Australian scenester kids are pretty similar to American scenester kids in terms of looks: they're adorned with the exact same plaid, skinny pants, and boots. They wear the same amount of bangles, excessive cat-eye eyeliner, and revel in their piercings. Things are pretty much the same except that Australian scenester kids drink a lot more than kids our age (duh, because it is legal here) and they are less stupid and seem to actually be there to enjoy the music. It was a nice crowd to enjoy Born Ruffians with.

For more pics and stuff of the concert and more, visit Kelly's blog: Make War and Peace Down Under.


Hunter Valley Wine Tour
Okay, the Wine Tour. I realize I haven't really explained why (or HOW) I am taking a wine-tasting class and getting credit for it---pretty much I am awesome, that's all you need to know. It's the first year that the course has been offered in the Sydney program, even though back home in Boston there is a School of Hospitality course about wine-tasting as well. Anyway, this class is a little different because it is about the Australian Wine Industry, with emphasis on the industry. So as part of our class we spent two days in the Hunter Valley, a wine region just two hours north of Sydney. There we went around to several wineries and did tastings and walked around their vineyards.

At each vineyard we walked in to each individual cellar door (whose designs ranged from rustic to ultra-modern) and got about 7 or 8 different samples of wine to try. Trust me, I learned very, very quickly that I had to spit out the tastings rather than swallowing them--after all, my friends weren't in the best state to carry me back onto the bus either. The tastings didn't get me shit-faced (because I would not allow myself to get shit-faced on wine), but they did leave me with a tingling joviality and a terrifically embarrassing Asian glow.

Here are the places we visited (I have kindly hyperlinked you to them):
Tyrrell's
Drayton's
Tempus Two
Peterson's Champagne House
Tamburlaine
Nightingale Wines
Margan

My favorite parts of the weekend:

Amazing Hunter Semillon from Tyrrell's

1. The Semillon wines at Tyrrell's. Semillon has officially become my favorite white wine, and it's what the Hunter Valley region is best known for.

Classy tasting at Tempus Two

2. The lush, beautiful tasting arranged for us at Tempus Two, a new and up-and-coming winery that is all about the marketing and the sales of wine. Their wine labels, unlike the paper labels of most wines, are actually made of pewter. And, their cellar door plays host to AMAZING bands each year. In previous years they have hosted Elton John, The Beach Boys, Santana, and Rod Stewart.

3. Peterson's Champagne house was also lovely, and the cellar door at Margan was probably my favorite of all time because it was like being in a really nice home of a friend's, complete with little modern design pillows and sweet lighting. Tamburlaine Wines was the first and only organic and biodynamic winery we visited, and the whole place was very rustic and you could tell (and smell) the natural fertilizers being used. Finally, the tour through Nightingale Wines really showed us the behind-the-scenes making of wine:

Behind-the-scenes action at Nightingale winery

Overall the trip was a huge hit with me. I increased my knowledge of wine about ten-fold, and now I know which kinds of wines I like to drink and which I don't. Plus, I got some sweet pictures of the vineyards:

Me among the vines

Fountain in the Gardens of the Grand Mercure Hunter Valley Gardens (our SWANK overnight accommodation). Also notice how Matt is a total gay pimp in the picture.

Australian Museum
Okay, I'll keep the last few words on the Australian Museum and Valentine's Day short:

The Australian Museum had great exhibits on Aboriginal art, Australian wildlife, and Australian geology. It was VERY similar to Harvard's Museum of Natural History if you've ever been (except the Australian Museum is much more modernized--I swear some of the stuffed animals in the Harvard museum are older than my grandparents, and they definitely look in desperate need of updating).

The BEST part, hands down, of the Australian Museum was the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 Exhibition. The exhibition showcases the best wildlife shots from professionals (Nat. Geo. photographers, mostly) and amateurs (kids from as young as seven). It was a breathtaking exhibit, and made me seriously lament my point-and-shoot camera skills.

Australian Museum top floor

Valentine's Day
Finally, Valentine's Day. I have the greatest friends here who really went all out for VDay and exchanged flowers, candy, cards, and kisses, etc. etc. everything that makes Valentine's Day special. That night we went to dinner, where I had a chicken schnitzel and Sav Blanc Semillon for dinner, and then we went planning to see He's Just Not That Into You, but that was sold out so instead we saw Rachel Getting Married. I'm still not entirely sure if I liked the movie--it was great acting but not the best VDay movie. Dark stuff. In Melbourne we did eventually see He's Just Not That Into You, but I'll review that in the next post.

Some final pictures from Valentine's Day:

Gerbera Daisy from Becky, the fellow Kansan. I put the daisy in a beautiful bottle of Botrytis Semillon desert wine from Tempus Two.

And of course, roses from the boy, who was ingenious enough to arrange a local florist to deliver them:

Roses 1

Roses 2

And... that's it folks. Next time I'll cover my trip to Melbourne this past weekend, including my helicopter ride over the Great Ocean Road and how I got to see WICKED performed in Melbourne (a total random but extremely enjoyable experience)!

dirty south

On the eve of my departure to Sydney I thought I would recap my trip last week to Memphis, Tennessee. I know what you're thinking. Memphis? What's in Memphis? Barbecue and... Elvis? I had the same reaction, but then again, when I think about it I'm not sure what I would associate with Kansas City. (Barbecue and....... and....... and...).

And so last Monday I bravely traversed the Mason-Dixon Line for the only good reason there is--the love of a boy. Andrei picked me up at the Memphis airport, which I somehow managed to get hopelessly lost in. The only way we eventually found each other was to agree to meet "at the Starbucks." Not bad. (Here, Andrei mumbles something about "directionally challenged" and women, especially Asian women.)

We had lunch at his house with his grandmother, Lelia (beautiful name, no?), and then decided to take a walk with Bassie, Andrei's very cute and slobbery basset hound dog.

Me and the Basset

Bassie liked me immensely, surprising everyone, but I always knew that us bitches would get along. Something that I didn't really understand about dogs until this trip was that they try to eat their own poop (or other dogs' poop) ALL THE TIME. And the dog walker, in this case me, can only pray and struggle to pull the dog AWAY from the poop before it makes contact. Or perhaps it's just Bassie, who has an acutely keen nose and no good taste whatsoever.

The rest of the week's highlights included: gorging ourselves on Memphis BBQ, touring the National Civil Rights Museum, visiting the Memphis Zoo, touring St. Jude Children's Hospital where Andrei's mom works, going to New Years party, and enjoying the perfect 68 degree weather that lasted the entire week I was there.

First, the BBQ: divine. I'm not really sure what this age-long battle between Kansas City BBQ and Memphis BBQ is all about, but it was pretty clear to me that Memphis BBQ is top-notch. We visited Neely's, which has been featured on Food Network and USA Today, and got pulled pork sandwiches with the most delicious coleslaw ever. Sidenote: despite not being technically American, coleslaw is my favorite American food of all time, hands down. Corky's was also excellent, especially those delicious little bread rolls. Finally, we went to Tops BBQ, which was my least favorite by far because the barbecue sauce was sour and a little too funky for my tastes.

We drove downtown the next day to visit the National Civil Rights Museum, which has been built inside the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The museum was SO absolutely detailed and outlined pretty much every single event and person who participated in the centuries-long fight for civil rights, from Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman to Malcom X and MLK Jr. The balcony that MLK Jr. was standing on when he was assassinated is still intact, and they have built a scintillating exhibit across the street in the boarding house where James Earl Ray purportedly shot from. This exhibit included all sorts of conspiracy theories regarding the assassination, and there's nothing I like better than a conspiracy theory.

The Zoo was also pleasant, especially the polar bear and sea lion shows that we attended. The biggest, FATTEST male sea lion in the show was named Andre and weighed in at over 600 lbs. A coincidence, no?

Andre the fatty.

The Memphis Zoo also had two Giant Pandas on exhibit, who were cute but not very giant at all (and to be honest, they did not look very well cared for).

For New Years Andrei and I went to his friend Phoebe's house for a lovely dinner party with other friends and Phoebe's parents. We drank ourselves silly and had yummy cheeses and grapes--an overall superbly classy New Years.

Finally, here are some pictures of me with the Anghelescus:

(Check out the bowtie.)

Also,

The Dialogue
Bassie: You guys are going out?! I want to come too!
Andrei: Olé!

:)