2017

First off, hello! It's been a little while hasn't it? 

I think my every other year curse is finally broken. It seems like for the past few years I've been on a cycle of good year followed by bad year followed by good year and so on. Dare I say it, 2016 and 2017 were absolutely incredible!

A lot of pretty amazing things happened this year. From seeing what seemed like a thousand music shows, to climbing trips, to traveling domestically and abroad, 2017 was incredible. 

After getting back from Australia (technically that was at the end of 2016), I started working at Planet Granite again and got a semi "real person" job as PG Portland's Marketing and Events Coordinator as well as becoming a supervisor and a few other "upgrades." I absolutely love my new job and it's been going very well. Plus, the earliest I normally go to work is 11am and I set a lot of my own hours. It's pretty hard to beat that.

In March, my buddies Brandon, Logan, and I drove roughly 12.5 hours down to Bishop, California for a week long bouldering trip which ended up being probably my favorite climbing trip I've ever been on. I also got to see/climb with one of my favorite people, Kyle, who had moved to California in January but was able to meet up with us for the week.

Bishop

Bouldering is hard

A few weeks after getting back from California, I had a quite the crazy time. I went to Las Vegas and played around for a few days, including a day trip to the Grand Canyon. After that, I headed to Fort Collins and ate/drank my way through the old college town. I also made it down to Denver for a day to see a bunch of old college friends which was great. I flew back to Portland to work for a few days and then went up to Seattle with my buddy Mitch to see Deadmau5 which was hands down the best show I've ever been to. Cross that one off the bucket list. After being back in Portland, a few days later I drove back up to Seattle then bussed it to Vancouver, BC followed by flying to Los Angeles after that. Phew! Good times.

Deadmau5!

Grand Canyon

Some months later in July, I somehow ended back down in Australia! Yet again, massive thanks to Aunt Cindi for the flight hookup! It was a pretty mellow trip but great to catch up with people I hadn't seen in almost a year. As corny as it sounds, I had a bit of a realization regarding certain people after getting back which, although a bit disheartening, was needed. Hopefully I can make it back in 2018 at some point.

Fast forward to October, I achieved full on adult status by moving out of the parent's place. I'm now living in NE Portland with 2 awesome roommates and a dog and am absolutely loving it.

Also in October, Brandon, Logan, and I did a Smith trip and met up with Kyle again which, although too short, was great as always. 

At the end of October, I went up to Canada for the second time in 2017 with my friend Kara to see Deadmau5 yet again. Twice in one year? I'm perfectly okay with that. 

Come December, Kyle, Brandon, Brandon's friend Tommy, and I went down to Red Rocks just outside of Vegas for a week to climb and have all the fun. And have all the fun we did. We even got to seem some old friends that had moved to Florida earlier in the year. I love those guys so much and appreciate them like none other. Can't wait for our next trip which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later.

Love these guys

So although the world turned into a bit of a pit this past year, on a personal level, I'm doing very very well. I hope everyone learned from and enjoyed 2017 as much as I did. 

Here's to 2018! Already excited for the first few months as some of my favorite Aussies are coming to visit in January and February.

Happy New Year!

Good times with great friends

Good times with great friends

Good times with great friends

Good times with great friends

That's all for now. Bye.

The Best New Travel App?

Unless you live under a rock or didn't grow up in the 90's, you likely heard about/downloaded the Pokemon Go app this past week, officially fulfilling all of your childhood dreams.

As a massive Pokemon fan, I was quite excited when the game was released in Australia.  If you don't know, the app has you walk around in the real world collecting virtual items at certain locations and catching Pokemon that randomly appear, all via your smartphone.

The actual Pokemon part of the game is fun but one of the real highlights is collecting the items.  All items are in locations of interest around the city, many of which I wasn't even aware of existed until now.  I've seen so many new murals, sculptures, and historic buildings this week purely because of the app.  At some of the bigger locations, brief info is given about the landmark as well. 

This has also been great for me since the winter weather makes it very easy to stick around the house all day. I now have great motivation to walk around and discover more of the city and seeing how this game is strangely addicting, it's been happening a lot lately.  If you want to become a Pokemon master, you have to make sacrifices and trudge through the cold/rain.

Found this mural a few nights ago about 2 minutes from my house.  Had no idea it was there until now.

Entrance to the Himeji Gardens, also right by my house.

Himeji Gardens

Himeji Gardens

Himeji Gardens

Himeji Gardens

Granted I've only used Pokemon Go in Adelaide but once it's released worldwide, this will be a fantastic way to find hidden spots in cities around the world and a great way to satisfy those annoying travel hipsters who want to "avoid the tourist spots" and "do what the locals do."  The only potential issue would be if you don't have a wireless or data connection but in big cities, that shouldn't be too big of a problem.  That and the app drains phone battery like none other.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Sausage Sizzle

So I learned something new this week that has made me love this country even more than I already do.

Saturday marked election day here in Australia.  Yeah sure, new members of the Senate and the House of Representatives were elected which is important and all but that pales in comparison to the real star of the day: the sausage sizzle.

Apparently it's a thing here that after you vote, you eat a barbecued, or "sizzled," sausage because, you know, why wouldn't you?  There are hundreds if not thousands of sausage sizzle booths that pop up near voting sites for an after polling snack.

According to Wikipedia:

A typical Sausage Sizzle takes place in a covered area. Often underneath a collapsible gazebo, volunteers prepare the barbecued sausages or 'snags'. These are served on a single slice of (typically) white bread, with optional grilled onions and the customer's choice of sauces, generally tomato, mustard, or barbecue. Chilled soft drink cans and bottled water are often also available at the counter. All ingredients are usually purchased as cheaply as possible, or donated from local sponsors such as butchers, bakers or supermarkets.

Not sure where your nearest sausage sizzle is?  Not to worry.  Google made a map that shows where you can go to tuck in.

Thanks Google, Snagvotes, and Democracy Sausage

My favorite headline this week was "While political parties fight voter apathy, internet companies are targeting what Australians really want: election day sausage sizzles."

Australia may have just clinched my "greatest country in the world" award with this one.

Oh yeah and this will be posted on the 4th of July here so happy birthday 'Murica!  Friday was my official one year anniversary of arriving in Australia for the first time.  I can't believe that was a year ago.  Time really does fly. 

That's all for now.  Bye.

Hahndorf

So a bit of a quick update:

I finally made it to the nightclub I used to work at last weekend.  It was actually really fun!  I found it a bit hilarious I only saw one person I recognized from when I worked there because of their incredibly high turnover rate.  It was a great night.

A few days later after watching the newest Game of Thrones, Liam and I headed down to Hahndorf, a small, German influenced town in the Adelaide Hills.  Although not nearly as extreme as Leavenworth in Washington, it had a bit of the same feel.  We got some "German" food and walked around the main road a bit before going on a drive through the hills.  We stopped at one of the many wineries in the area but the tasting room had already closed.

In the Hills

Good news/bad news my work schedule changed a bit but it's allowed me to see two of Vlad's footy games which are always fun to watch.  I should be able to go to most of them now which is exciting.

In other news, it's been raining buckets lately.  I love rain (except when I have to leave the house).  Just thought you should know.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Half Way Done

As of Friday, I have been in Australia for 6 months now which means I am half way done with this crazy, wonderful experience.   Actually, I'm a little more than half way because I'll need to leave earlier than my visa expiry date since I'll be doing standby flights again (just in case I can't get on a flight right away).  How it's already been 6 months, I have no idea.  Time has gone so fast since being over here and I really hope it starts to slow down a bit because I am nowhere near wanting to leave. 

I realize I've taken hardly any pictures while I've been here.  A big reason is me still having my ancient phone with a horrible camera and it's not worth taking photos that end up looking like the vision of a person who wears bifocals.  The good news is I'll be able to use my actual US phone in less than a month which is incredibly exciting for multiple reasons, one of which being more pictures.  I was going to walk around today and take pictures but had to cover someone at work so instead I'm posting pictures of Hannah, Maggie, and Lexee from Portland because we chatted this week and I can.

Nose bleed in 3...2...1...

I've been doing more research into going to the Great Barrier Reef.  I think I've picked a company to go swimming with so now need to figure out flights/accommodation.  I was originally going to stay in Cairns but might be headed down to Port Douglas instead.  It's looking like I might make it over there at the end of July.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Cheap Airfare "Hack"

I've said it numerous times on this blog: Airfare is one of the most expensive things about travelling.  Because of this, people are always trying to figure out a way to score cheaper airplane tickets.  

Some of the most common money saving tips people give are to book tickets: 

• at a certain time of day
• on certain days of the week 
• buying 2 one way flights instead of a return
• after clearing your browser history/cookies/cache
• after masking your IP address to make it seem like you live in another country

To put it short and simple, all of these aren't true/worth the hassle.

I decided to do a little bit of...let's call it a scientific inquiry...about the last airfare "hack" on the above list. In case you aren't familiar with it, there is a theory that if you can change the IP address of your computer so it shows you're from a different country than you actually are, you'll get cheaper airfare.  The reasoning behind this is that it's believed people who live in wealthier countries are charged more since they could hypothetically afford it.  For example, if you make your computer show you're from Malawi, the poorest country in the world, the airline won't charge you as much even if you're sitting in your mansion in Luxembourg.

I've been thinking a little more recently about heading to Cairns in Queensland to go swimming at the Great Barrier Reef.  For fun, I wanted to see if I could actually get cheaper flights by changing my location.  Before I did the search, I cleared my history, cache, cookies, and everything else you can delete on an internet browser. I also went into Chrome's "incognito" mode to help even more.

I then did the control search using Skyscanner, hypothetically flying from Adelaide to Cairns on some random dates in July.

The cheapest return flights were for $431 AUD.

I then repeated the whole process of clearing everything on my browser and going incognito.  This time I used an extension on Chrome to mask my IP address which would trick any website into thinking I was from a different country.  I first chose the USA.

After changing the currency back to AUD, identical results came up.  Return flights for $431 on the same dates as the original search.

Next up I did the same process yet again but changed my location to the United Kingdom.

Once again, $431 AUD.

Repeated again with Singapore.

Same result. 

And finally with the Netherlands.

Yet again, the same thing.

Now if I really wanted to look into this more, I would have paid for the more advanced version of the Chrome extension to appear to be from some much poorer places but I'm trying to save money to buy a flight, not spend it. Based on this short little experiment, it's pretty clear that changing your location doesn't make a difference.  Because I had nothing to do last night, I tried this a few more times using different locations and got the same results.

That said, there is some truth to this myth.  There are stories about people pulling this off, mainly using Chile as their home location.  However, when they go to check in at the airport, there is a red flag on their ticket saying they paid much less than they should have.  Meaning while this trick will occasionally work if you get really lucky, it will have been a waste of time when you get to the airport and have to make up the fare difference (which would likely cost you more than if you had bought the ticket normally at the time of purchase).

Myth busted.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Tipping in the USA

This one's for the Aussies.

Being a foreigner in Australia, I get asked a fair few questions about how things work in the US. One of the most popular questions involves tipping.  There is no tipping in Australia.  Growing up with it, tipping is not something I think about whilst in the states; it's just something you do.  It wasn't until my last year of university when I went out with people from Australia and saw they really had no idea how much money to leave/when they should do so that I realized tipping really is a confusing thing.  

To start things off, yes, tipping is expected in a lot of situations in the United States.  There is no formal penalty for not leaving a tip but it's highly frowned upon and you will for sure be hated by the person who provided you the service.  You'll also appear really cheap.  If you're not going to tip, you should not be going to a place where tipping is customary. Being from a different country is not an excuse to forgo tipping.

Where/who are you supposed to tip
The general rule is anyone who provides you a direct service should be tipped. 

Who/common places where you tip:

• Servers at sit-down restaurants
• Bartenders
• Bellhops
• Taxi drivers
• Shuttle Drivers
• Guides (tour, outdoor, etc.)
• Tattoo artists
• Food delivery drivers
• Movers

Who/common places where you do not tip:

• Fast food/coffee/take away (there may be a jar that says "tips" which you can drop spare coins into but it's definitely not expected)
• Fuel pump attendants (only a New Jersey and Oregon thing)
• Grocery/retail stores
• Package deliveries

Who/common places where you could tip but don't "have to":

• Hairdressers
• Housekeeping at hotels
• Repairman
• Postman (during the holidays)

How much do are you supposed to tip?  

This really depends on the service provided to you.  Since restaurants are the most common, let's use them as an example.

What seem to be the most accepted guidelines for tip amounts are:

Incredibly exceptional service: 20% of the total bill 

Good service: 15% of the total bill

Not good service: 10% of the total bill

Terrible service: the only time it's sort of acceptable to not leave anything (some people will leave $0.01 as a bit of a slap in the face)

It's customary at bars to tip $1 per drink.  If it's a fancy cocktail, $2.

*Pro-tip: To figure out 20%, double the bill total and move the decimal over 1 place to the left.  Adjust from there.

How do you leave the tip?  

If you're paying with card, the receipt will have a line where you write in how much you want to give the server or there will be an option on the screen if no receipt is printed (e.g. iPad point of sale).  You then add the tip amount with the bill amount and write the total.  If paying in cash, there are 2 ways.  You can give the server an amount greater than the bill and tell them to "keep the change" or you can leave the tip on the table after the server has processed your payment.

What's the deal with tipping?  

Why has this become the norm in the states?  Well unfortunately the main reason is a lot of people don't get paid enough money to live and these employees rely on tips to buy food and pay rent for the month.  In some states, servers are paid roughly $2-3 per hour.  If they don't get tips, there is no chance they could make any sort of living wage. There's a law that says if these people don't make at least minimum wage in tips per hour, the employer must meet the federal minimum wage.  However, apparently if a boss has to do that, they often times will punish an employee by cutting their future shifts.  How this system is legal, I have no idea.

- - - - -

Game of Thrones season 6 starts tomorrow.  Get psyched.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Eating and Drinking Adelaide

I've had the chance to go to a lot of different restaurants/bars over the last two weeks and I've got nothing else to write about so let's do a little recap:

Last week Liam invited me for a bit of a Sunday session at this place called The Alma.  It's about 45 seconds walk away from my old house but I never made it over when I was living in the area.  The people watching was great and as the afternoon started to become evening, it got even better.

Afterwards we headed into town and chowed down on some delicious Chinese food near the Central Markets/Chinatown followed by fancy dessert at St. Louis.  We ended the night with a classy glass of red wine at Mother Vine.  Happy birthday, Liam.

Fast forward to this week, I met up with my workmate Sam at the Schnithouse where we partook in a few pints. The Hofbrauhaus pint glasses were a nice throwback to Germany but almost nothing can match the beer in Munich.

A little while later we walked next door to Brklyn which was having it's opening night and where my friend Kieran works.  Kieran made us up some delicious drinks and good times were had.  The whole place is an awesome concept with a deli, radio station, and soon to be open barbershop all on the same floor as the bar. 

On Saturday, I got up nice and early and headed up to Bonython Park to work at the first ever Nutella Palooza. Scroll got invited to be a vendor at what the organizers called "Australia's first Nutella festival."  The day started off fairly relaxed as we were getting prepped but once the gates opened, a horde of people came pouring into the park.  We were making ice cream not stop for the entire 8 hours and by the end we were all ready to collapse.  People apparently waited in our line for over 45 minutes (which, of course, is worth it).  One thing I read said there were over 20,000 people who attended so it was a bit hectic. The festival was only a one day thing and since we were so busy I never got the chance to walk around (or take pictures) but it seemed like a good time.  

I was wearing a CSU shirt on the tram back to my house and these two girls asked if I went there.  I said I graduated a few years ago and they told me they were in Adelaide on exchange from CSU.  Small world.  Go Rams.

That's all for now.  Bye.

And completely random side note:  I just noticed that the little notifications icon on Facebook here shows Australia/Asia instead of North/South America.  Figured I should share.

Life in Australia

Alright, I'll be honest.  I was saving this post for a lot later but forgot to write something for this week and had already started on this so you're getting it now.

I've been living in Australia for almost 5 months now and throughout that time have noticed some interesting things about everyday life.  Seeing as I've lived roughly 23 years in the US, obviously my comparisons are mainly to life there.

The Interesting:

• Alcohol here is expensive.  Whereas in the States you will 100% be saving money if you drink at your house, going out for a drink in Australia can cost about the same as it would to drink at home. Alcohol is highly taxed here which means the prices are substantially higher.  It's slightly confusing but here is an article from a few years ago that sums up the taxes nicely.
• You know when you see those special price tags at the grocery store that say "2 for $10?"  In the States, if you only buy one of those items, it will be $5.  In Australia, you only get the discount if you buy both. Get only one and it will be $6-7.
• Most rent payments in Australia occur every week as opposed to once a month.
• Payday is not on a set day (i.e. the 15th and 30th).  It's up to the employer when/how often employees get paid.  At my first job I got paid weekly and at the current it's every fortnight.
• Granted I've only had 2 jobs but I have yet to do a job interview in Australia.  Job trials seem to be more the norm (at least in the service industry).  Trial shifts are used to assess if the person is capable enough to do the job. These can either be paid or unpaid (although most are supposed to be paid).
• As opposed to paying every month, most utilities here are paid every 3 months.
• At least at the jobs I've had, clocking in/out of work is done by recording on paper versus an electronic system (although I know people who do use an electronic system).
• Stores and restaurants tend to close pretty early (at least in Adelaide).  It is rare to see a place open past 9. That said, bars and clubs stay open until at least 3am if not much later.
• I remember this from when I was here in July and working at the club, the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis is played a lot late at night at clubs.
• The only place to get alcohol is a bottle-o.  Grocery stores/servos do not sell it.
• Hardly anyone uses a tumble dryer for clothes.  I've actually only seen one house that owns a dryer.  Most people line/hang dry their clothes.
• I've gotten more used to it but 18 year olds are legally allowed to drink.
• Traffic cameras are everywhere.  Many are permanent fixtures but there are also portable speed cameras all over the place and they all actually work. 
• Labor laws.  There's a bunch of workers rights laws but they don't seem to be monitored/enforced that well.  A former coworker of mine who had previously worked at a very well known company said she got paid about $10/hour which is about half of the national minimum wage.  

The Good:

• Voting in Australia is compulsory; citizens are required to vote or they face a fine.
• All part and full time jobs put money into what is known as a super fund.  From my understanding, this is essentially a retirement fund.  The employer pays percentage (in addition to normal wages) into an individuals super account.  At age 65, an individual can access their retirement fund.  This means people are saving for retirement starting with their first part time job.
• Cigarette packs here have horrifying images on them in an attempt to prevent smoking.  Not sure if this works very well because it seems like a fair amount of people smoke but it is a nice addition.
• Most things banking wise here are very simple.  Transferring money to someone's account can happen almost instantly.  Paying with a card is incredibly fast using features like PayWave.
• Gumtree is Australia's version of Craigslist and it works very well.  Although I've only used Craigslist a few times, it always seems to be full of scams/people who flake out. People on Gumtree actually respond quickly and are legit (for the most part).
• People are normally incredibly polite.  Even when upset, most still have manors.  It's actually a little hard for me to take angry people seriously because of this.
• This is not Australia wide but is practiced in Adelaide.  For transit tickets, they have peak and off peak times.  Peak times are standard commuting hours and Saturdays. Off peak is everything else. Travelling on public transit during off peak is incredibly cheap.  The regular adult fare is $1.91 off peak and that gets you unlimited rides for 2 hours.
• A fair few bars have events known as "Sunday Sessions" which are basically just another excuse to go out on a Sunday afternoon.
• Self service checkouts at supermarkets are fast.  In the US, every time you scan something that annoying woman says "please place the item in the bag" and then pauses for what feels like an eternity.  Australian's don't have time for that and self checkout is way smoother.
• Wages here are amazing.  I did a post related to this a few weeks ago.  

A wild emu from last week

The Not So Nice:

• This is probably a thing that happens everywhere but I've noticed it more here.  Bars and clubs over serve alcohol a lot.  Almost every time I go out I see someone who is noticeably intoxicated and yet they're still being served.  Once while I was working at the club I had to get a security guard to help a guy leave since he was pretty much passing out standing up.  The security guard had passed by the person about 20 seconds prior.
• At least in Adelaide, people are horrible at walking on sidewalks.  I absolutely love living here and most the people are great but I just want to scream every time I'm walking somewhere.  There will always be someone walking in the middle of the sidewalk who then goes from one side to the other just as you're trying to pass them. Then there's the groups of 2+ people who somehow manage to take up the entire sidewalk leaving no passing room and maintain the pace of a snail.
• Flies.  Oh dear God the flies.  Yes, there are the normal houseflies which are annoying but then there are the bush flies.  Bush flies could possibly be more annoying than mosquitoes.  These little flies go straight for your face and will not stop.  You swat them away, they come back 2 seconds later.  And they always go for the face. Apparently trying to swat them away is called the "Aussie Salute."

- - - - -

Not a whole lot new going on but some quick updates from the past week:

• I'm absolutely loving my new place.  The location is great, the house is nice, and my housemates are awesome.
• Had a work party on Monday which was both fun and hilarious.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Speed Bump

It's pretty amazing how things have fallen into place since getting to Australia.  Granted I have worked quite hard to make these things fall into said place but there's also been some luck involved. I made it to Australia flying standby on my first try, got a job that paid just enough to afford staying at a hostel, got to move out of the hostel into a wonderfully located/priced house, found a great job with amazing people and got to quit the other job, and the list goes on.  That said, I've hit a bit of a bump in the road.

The lease of the house I'm currently in is over on the 28th of March.  It didn't seem like a huge problem since the plan was to simply renew it.  Unfortunately, we got a call about a week and a half ago that the actual owner of the house doesn't want to rent it out anymore. The house is a duplex and it sounds like our neighbor is being forced out as well (we're wondering if the owner sold the land and is going to demolish the house).  So that means I am once again on a house hunt.

This time it's a little trickier.  I work nights a lot and obviously need a way to get home after closing. Almost every bus here stops running around midnight and I don't get off until roughly 12:15.  I'm trying to find a place that's walking distance to work (or short biking distance), in my price range, and in a decent part of the city but there's not a whole lot of options right now.

I thought I had found something this past week.  Emailed the guy and he was quick to respond.  Went later that day to check the apartment out but he never showed up and stopped answering emails.  That was strange. There's a place I have my eye on but the website it's listed on doesn't let you message the person for the first 14 days unless you pay to be a premium member.  Not going to do that but will keep checking to see when the 14 days are up.

So yeah that sucks.  This house I'm in was pretty perfect but oh well.  Here's hoping I can find something soon. In other news, this was the last week of the Fringe with it's official end date on the 14th.  The Clipsal 500 was last weekend which is essentially a race for V8 cars on the east side of the city.  Glad that didn't last too long since I could hear the cars from my house.  Bogans galore as well.  What else?  Oh yeah I finally saw Deadpool and it was fantastic.

Royal Croquet Club

Food booths

That's all for now.  Bye.

24

It was inevitable.  I have now entered the mid twenties.  I got to celebrate a day early this year seeing as March 2nd in the US is March 3rd in Australia.

Part one of birthday celebration happened last week on Saturday.  After spending some time at my place and eating delicious food, Vlad and I headed into town and went on quite the bar crawl.

Only picture I had of the night.  Sorry, Vlad.

Wednesday, my actual birthday, was very relaxed and a great day.  I got to spend time with everyone I wanted to see (that don't live 9000 miles away) and have some nice chats.  Liam, Vlad, and I started by getting food at Nordburger which is very similar to Little Big Burger in Portland.  After a few card games back at my house we headed into town for some ice cream and beers.  Charlotte and her housemate Destiny met up with us a bit later.  Liam had to head home since he worked the next day but the rest of us walked back to my place, made chicken quesadillas, and quietly laughed until pretty late into the night.  It was such a fun day and one of the best birthdays to date.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Taking on the Fringe

The past 2 weeks I've been able to see a few Fringe shows.  There are half price tickets available for certain shows that day so I was able to score cheap entry to both on my days off from work.

The first I saw was a play called Shadow People.  A psychological horror, the play followed different groups of people whose stories intertwined throughout the show.  The basic premise was people would see a "shadow person" in their peripherals and the shadow would start to make the person go crazy before eventually taking them.  Those not afflicted were convinced the "crazy" people are suffering from PTSD as there is a war going on and some of those affected are soldiers.

The show was entertaining but portraying horror in live theater is not the easiest thing to do. When someone would see a shadow person, an actor covered in black would come onto the stage but some of the creepiness was taken away by being able to see the person walk out. They should have used the fog machine a bit more to hide the entrances but other than that, the play was good.

This week I went and saw The History of the World from Now.  The show followed 5 people who survived an unknown apocalypse where 99% of the world's population vanished.  The "play looks at humanity’s rapidly developing relationship with technology and asks how we would cope if all our accessories were suddenly lost." 

There was a fair amount of dark humor in the dialogue which I always find amusing and the acting was solid. Overall, another entertaining show.

Unrelated to the Fringe, I saw Zoolander 2 a few days ago.  I went in with low expectations since there was no way they were going to match the greatness of the first.  Unfortunately it was even worse than expected. Although I laughed maybe twice, the movie was over saturated with celebrity cameos in almost every scene, recycled jokes from the first movie, and a plot that changed every half hour.  Pretty disappointing.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Australia 101

Prior to a few years ago, I really didn't know much about Australia except it was originally filled with convicts from England and a bunch of kangaroos.  Talking to people (mainly from the states) has shocked me about how little people know of Australia.  Granted, at least in my 13 years of public school and 4 years of university, I was never taught about the land down under in class and people in the states hardly get any Australian media that's not riddled with Australian stereotypes.  So in hopes of enlightening some people (including myself because I got to learn more about the country's history in writing this), I present to you Australia 101.

First things first.  Australia is big.  It's roughly the same size as the mainland United States (although in regards to population, much smaller).  Australia is made up of 6 states: Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, and Tasmania.  There are also 2 territories within the mainland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory but these are often treated as states.  It would take about 40 hours to drive nonstop from Sydney (New South Wales) to Perth (Western Australia).  Similar to the US, each state has its own set of laws but also adhere to a national standard as well.

Almost everyone lives on the perimeter of the country.  The middle of Australia tends to be a pretty big desert (The Outback) which makes living a bit hard.  The biggest city is Sydney with a population over 4.8 million. Melbourne (Victoria) is not far behind with roughly 4.4 million. Brisbane (Queensland) has about 2.2 million, Perth with 2 million, and good ol' Adelaide (South Australia) with 1.3 million.

The currency in Australia is the Australian Dollar (AUD).  Coins come in $.05, $.10, $.20, $.50, $1, and $2.  A $.01 piece is not needed since all pricing is rounded (if something costs $5.99, you pay $6).  Notes come in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.  Each note has a distinct color/size which makes identifying amounts very easy.  Notes are made of a polymer plastic which makes them pretty much indestructible.  They can't be ripped and could easily survive a dip in the ocean.

$20 and $5 notes on top and $.05, $.20, $.50, and $2 coin below

So how did Australia come to be?  After the United States gave the boot to Britain, the English needed a new place to send convicts.  Lucky for them, British sailor James Cook had found/claimed a pretty large island a few years prior in 1770.  In 1788, the first fleet of ships carried over 1500 convicts to present day Sydney.  It wasn't until 1790 that people willfully immigrated to the place now known as Australia.  Fun fact, South Australia is the only modern state where convicts were never sent.

In 1901, Australia became an independent nation after Britain said the people were allowed to govern themselves.

In terms of government structure, Australia is both a constitutional monarchy as well as a representative democracy.  There are 3 "arms" of the government: legislature (aka Parliament), executive (Australian Government), and judiciary,  Parliament is elected by "the people" every 4 years.  Voting is compulsory and failure to do so results in a fine.  Parliament is made up of 2 Houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate.  The leader of the political party that has the most seats in the House of Representatives after an election becomes the Prime Minister, or the head of the government.

So what's the deal with The Queen?  As a constitutional monarchy, The Queen of the UK acts as the head of state (known as The Queen of Australia when in Australia).  However, she doesn't really have political impact besides acting as a symbol.  "The Queen is represented in Australia at the federal level by a Governor-General. He or she is appointed by The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia and is completely independent of the British Government."

A pretty well known topic about Australia is the Aborigines.  The Aboriginals are the indigenous people of Australia who were here long before the British arrived.  I still don't quite get the relationship between them and European Australians but it sounds fairly similar to that of Native Americans and European Americans. The new arrivals to Australia didn't treat the Indigenous people very nicely.  Disease and a number of other things brought from Europe took a pretty big toll on the native population.  Long story short, there are still Aboriginal communities around Australia and the modern government offers help and assistance as restitution (this is pretty controversial).

This doesn't really have any relevance but that's a wild koala.

Now that you know a little more about Australian geography and history, let's talk about some common myths.

Myth # 1: Everything will kill you
While there is some truth to every myth, not everything in Australia is going to kill you.  Yes, there are some incredibly dangerous animals/insects but they tend to have very little human interaction.  Apparently more people die from falling off a horse each year than by getting eaten.

Myth # 2: Sydney is the capital of Australia
No.  Sydney is NOT the capital.  Stop saying that.  The capital of Australia is Canberra.  

Myth # 3: It's always summer
This depends on where you are.  Darwin (Northern Territory) does pretty much have year round summer but Adelaide, for example, gets the seasons.  During the summer here it averages about 30°C (86°F) but can have multiple days in the 40s (100°+ F).  Winter time averages around 16°C (60°F) with rain a common occurrence.  At night during the winter, it can actually get pretty cold.

Myth # 4: Kangaroos are everywhere
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you're in a big city, you're not going to see a kangaroo roaming the streets.  I have yet to see a wild kangaroo but have heard they are common as you get more inland.  Actually, one of the top reasons for tourist death is people driving too fast at night in the Outback and smashing into a kangaroo.

Myth # 5: Major cities are the equivalent of the Outback
Believe it or not Australia is one of the most developed countries in the world.  Unless you are actually in the Outback, a city is just like any other modern day city.  Roads are paved, people drive cars, there are skyscrapers, khaki bushwhacking attire is not the norm, etc.

Questions, comments, concerns?  Hope you learned a thing or two about Australia.  I also really hope the info I put in here is correct.

That's all for now.  Bye.

In case you don't believe me, here are some sources: 
http://goo.gl/gEYc3Q
https://goo.gl/UzDsrX
http://goo.gl/vhpC1
http://goo.gl/yNjlik
https://goo.gl/aFnSHG