Another installment of Dave looking cold in front of landmarks!

Me looking cold behind the White House. I was amazed that they are still allowing planes to take off and bank really close to the White House and all the important stuff in Washington DC.


Me looking cold in front of the Washington monument. Washington DC reminds me a lot of Canberra. Everything is so planned out in this city. There are a lot of straight lines and planned streets. The washington monument is the centre of a cross made out of the US Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln memorial. Also, no building is allowed to be taller than the Capitol building so it's very low-lying like Canberra. Plus there are all the important gallerys and museums and things like the Supreme Court.


US Capitol


The front of the White House with the 'National Christmas Tree'. It's a tradition that's been going on for around 100 years. There is the main christmas tree which is lit by the President. Then there are 50 small trees, 1 for each state which are decorated by scout groups/ schools etc.


The best thing about Washington is the Smithsonian Institute. It is a collection of about 18 museums, all free to the public (unusual here) with some of the best exhibits in the world. There are museums on everything. This shot is of the legendary Blackbird which is a really cool plane which was so fast it could outrun soviet missiles launched at it! It's housed at the Air and Space Museum. They also had a Concorde from Air France which was great to see in person.


Looking from the Lincoln memorial to the Washington monument.... Lincoln was getting a facelift so I didn't bother to put up the photo of him with scaffolding around him!

NYC Pictures

Kiddies skating at Rockafeller Centre


The Gaetani's house in Averill Park, NY. Isn't it cute? It's so christmassy!


The view from the top of the Empire State Building.... I was amazed by how built up this city was. Sydney would probably fit in the Financial district at the end of Manhatten Island..... about a tenth of the city.


The beautiful Brooklyn Bridge. It's an amazing construction. The views from it are fantastic too!


See what I mean? The financial district of Manhatten Island from the Brooklyn bridge. The twin towers should be standing in the middle of this shot.


Brooklyn, outside Paul's apartment (Lindsay's Uncle), this is exactly what I pictured New York as being like!


NYC hot dog vendor. There are people selling stuff on the street everywhere!

Grand Central Station

Even colder NYC

So I've been to one of the craziest cities ever! It was particularly crazy the day I was there because the MTA (Transit Authority) didn't agree to the pay rises demanded by the workers union which meant that the second day I was in NYC there was a transit strike!! But it was a blessing in disguise because it meant that instead of catching the subway back from Brooklyn where we'd stayed the night before, we got to walk accross the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhatten. But luckily because the strike started the second day, I got to ride on the world famous NY Subway system which is quite good. Apparently 10million or so people ride the subway every day!

I saw a taping of Dave Letterman!! That was great and really interesting. They basically record the show in real time... it's taped a couple of hours before airing but they are such a well-oiled crew that they basically could record it in real time. The song that the band starts at the end of each segment, they play completely through, and by the time they finish the song, the cameras come back on and Dave starts the next segment... It was really an amazing thing to watch. The band was really interesting to see live and it was great to see Paul Shaffer's talent on the keyboards. For those in Australia, the show we saw taped will be aired on Saturday night on channel 9.
We also got to see Jim Carrey being dragged out of Rupert G's 'Hello Deli' as part of a skit that they recorded for Monday nights show.

The second day after walking into Manhatten over the bridge and being interviewed for some sort of tv, I went to rockafeller centre and saw the kiddies skating around in front of the christmas tree. I also walked through Macy's - The biggest store in the world apparently... (The perfume section was probably half the size of Target at Southland!!)

Then I went to the Empire State Building which was great, I got to see the Chrysler Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as Times Square from the tallest building in NYC!

I am now back at Lindsay's in Albany. I might be staying till christmas day because they are having a big party christmas eve here and it sounds fun! They are wonderful people and they have a lovely house in the middle of a forrest. Tomorrow I am going in search of Deer!!

Cold NY State

OMG, the snow is so much fun. Yesterday Lindsay and I flew into Hartford CT and then drove through Massachusetts to NY state near Albany.

The plane ride was amazing, there are so many lights of cities along the way, totally unlike anything in Australia. We landed at a snowed in airport where they plough the runway at regular intervals. little turbulence.

It snowed here yesterday before we came (the reason for our delayed flight, now there is a foot of snow covering everything which is very cool!

I am going to get a coat today, Australian coats just don't cut it here. It was below zero farenheit (0F=-18C) the other day. Last night is was a balmy 20 farenheit (-6C). Apparently there are deer, turkeys and foxes around so I am going to go try and get some photos after we get back from NY. We are going there tomorrow (Monday) and will get back probably Wednesday.

I'll post photos soon!!

Cancelled!

So our plane flight has been cancelled!! yaaayyy! how bloody exciting. So now we leave tomorrow (friday) to fly to NY.

I'm going with my friend Lindsay, who was put in first class by mistake! SCORE! But the lady at American Airlines told me that if there were spare seats available in coach she would be moved at check-in so we decided to get seats in coach together.

It could have been due to the snow that is predicted in NY tonight (Yay snow) but I don't know. It's probably a good thing though because I had so much stuff to do in the next few hours before we were going to leave. Now I can relax overnight and hang out with Craig (Scotland) and Emily (England)

I'll post again from NY!!

Dave Letterman!!

I'm very excited about going to New York tomorrow night. And I won tickets to the Dave Letterman show on Monday!!!!! YAAAYYYY!!! as I cross another thing off the list of things I wanted to do in the USA....

It looks as though Jim Carrey will be on the show which is really cool!! Other than that my room is a huge mess as I try to pack everything I'm sending home into the box I bought. I want to travel as light as possible on the next part of my trip. I'm really looking forward to travelling again and especially getting to NYC. I am going to ice-skate in rockafeller plaza and see the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park, dance on the keyboard at FAO Schwarz...... how much fun!!

Miami Heat!

Miami Heats home stadium, American Airlines Arena. We went to the game between the Denver Nuggets and the Heat.


There were fireballs and lots of dancing. Sorta made you forget what you were doing there!


Denver won the tip-off..... and the game. But is was fun anyway!

Thanks Fielding, you F#ck!

This is exactly why you don't elect one party into a majority position in both houses of parliament.

The only effective Senate in Australia is one which is balanced by the left and right, with independents and minority parties making up the middle ground. In a situation like this, we hear useful debate on major issues before they are voted on. Having a hung parliament which can only be broken by independents and the minority parties means that even if a bad decision results, at least it was debated properly.

The current Senate is useless.... Everyone votes along party lines to the detriment of the public. This is not how a representative parliament is supposed to work. It is ridiculous when 1 person out of an entire chamber crosses the floor to vote with his/her conscience. 1 person. 1 person out of 76 elected officials decided that their party's policy was a bad idea and crossed the floor. What is the point of this? If you are in the minority you might as well not bother turning up to work!

And as for Steve Fielding of the Family First party. I fail to see how cutting universities ability to provide services for their students is going to benefit families. You had the power to do something useful with your position in the Senate (which you only got from preferences) but you wasted it.
I am not upset because of the impact on me, I couldn't care less cos I only have 1 more year at university and I have already benefited immensely from the services that my University has been able to provide with my compulsory contributions. I have had the security of knowing that literally hundreds of services (financial aid, counselling, tutoring, job search help, clubs and societies, and one of the best school newspapers in the country) to name just a few, are available to me. My anger is that people coming out of high school will be denied the same wonderful experience that I have had at my University. I cannot imagine how dry my Uni life would have been without this added colour. Even over here in the States, the home of user-pays, universities still charge fees in order to provide and subsidise activities. This sort of stuff is what makes University such a wonderful and diverse place to be. These services can not be provided with a user pays system....

-Lot's Wife (school newspaper) is a much loved Monash institution, but even it would struggle to survive if they had to charge readers.
-The benefit of counselling is knowing you can turn up whenever you like and see someone for free. If people don't feel like they can just pop in for a visit, they wont.
-Clubs and Societies (the places that add the most vibrancy to the campus) will have to increase their fees to a point where everyone will turn away from them and just turn up to university to go to class and then go home.

The thing which makes me most angry is the Government saying on one hand that they are trying to save us poor students from paying the fee ($441.20 this year), while on the other changing the acronym for HECS to CSP to allow them to decrease funding to universities so that the universities cop all the criticism for raising their fees. This change to the legislation meant that I paid around $1000 more for my studies this year compared to last year. So hip-hooray for the government, thanks to them I am now around $550 worse off per year AND I now have no services from the university! GREAT! Thanks Mr Howard!

I'm sorry to use this as a forum, but I have not been this angry with our representatives since they decided to screw up Iraq.

what's sleep.

I am still awake.... it is 6:27am and me and Sam have pulled an all nighter to finish off our projects for Aero Propulsion. We designed a rocket to take tourists to the Moon, and writing the report took longer than we expected! I'm tired, but I'm afraid if I go to bed I will not wake up in time for the deadline at 11am...... so I'll stay here in the library with Sam and we will mumble meaningless phrases at each other until we fall asleep on each others shoulders! ha!

Meanwhile, one of the library staff is doing his best Austin Powers impersonation by taking 20minutes to maneouver his little cart out of the door. it's exactly like the movie..... errrr crash... errrr crash..... errr crash.

The dining hall opens soon I think, we might go there for breakfast for the first time this semester. We'll be ready at the doors when they open!

that is all..... if you see random letters at the end of this sentance it means I have fallen asleep on my keyboard......

fsjghghegf

It's your birthday!

Happy Birthday Cara!

Annnnnnd.......... we're out.

A gallant Holiday Inn side was disappointingly beaten in a penalty shootout this evening after a 1-1 result at full time.

Star performers were Sam Hill (Scotland) and Steve Treadway (England) who were rock solid at the back. Hakan Svensson (Sweden) was amazing as always and our fantastic keeper Owen (England). Well done lads, jolly good show.... :)

Hi to Clay! I refuse to believe that Santa Rosa can ever be cold.... It was absolutly stunning every day I spent there! I can't wait to come back and visit you Clay!

I'll post properly tomorrow maybe when I am waiting for my washing!

Hello world!

The Holiday Inn intramural team won twice today, putting us into the semi-finals of the University of Miami soccer tournament. We extended our unbeaten run to about 4 games. I scored two (one of which I would love to have a video of cos everyone loved it!) but played slowly in the second game due to the heat that is still around in Miami and the fact that we'd already run ourselves silly in the first game!
We play semi's on Tuesday and possibly the final on Thursday.

We have been invited to go to the Latin Fox Sports Awards tomorrow night.... still want to find out if they'll be in English or Spanish...

Today went for a team celebratory dinner at 'The Cheesecake Factory' which was great food with even better cheesecake! One of the best places I have eaten out in the US.

Thank you to the Whitehouses for my parcel and to my family for sending me stuff! I haven't opened the Whitehouses one cos it isn't christmas yet.... but I might have to before I leave Miami cos otherwise I'll be flying it all over the country. My family sent me natural confectionery company jelly's which was one of the most exciting days ever!! and I got a berty beatle showbag!! what a great day!

Only a few days left in Miami..... I am sad to leave all my new great friends who are too numerous to mention here, but at the same time I can't wait to explore more of the country and travel around the UK and Japan..... I have a feeling I will go to the UK sometime in the future to work and spend time with my friends there!

I am absolutely flat out at the moment, final days of school with tests/projects etc, planning for my trips after this, trying to spend time with everyone I can in the time I have left, maybe going back to Kennedy Space Center this weekend and to the everglades! Plus a few beers I am tipping!

Universal Orlando

Went to Universal Florida in Orlando yesterday! The university organised the trip so it only cost $10 to get all the way to Orlando (4 or 5 hour bus ride!) admission to the park, snacks and ride home! We went to Shrek 4D which was fantastic...... things were leaping out of the screen at us and the seats moved with the film and we got sprayed with stuff when Donkey sneezed on screen!! And when the spiders came into the movie there were jets of air that shot at your legs and were very realistic! It was hilarious! Mum would have hated the spider part! :) The best part was being bounced along behind a frog!!!

I went on the 'Revenge of the Mummy' rollercoaster..... it is an indoor ride mostly in the dark so you can't really see too much of where you're going except for random flashes of light..... The worst part was rolling backwards at the start and when we stopped at a wall.... when it opened Mariano (Mexico) pointed at the track ahead, I tried to see where it went but it was too steep!! it disappeared downwards! argh!
We also went to 'Twister' which was a pretty convincing tornado simulation complete with flying cow and the truck out of the film. Went to Men in Black, where we got spun around in a vehicle and tried to shoot aliens! Back to the Future was a cute ride, like one of those simulators that looks like a monorail carriage, but it looks pretty old now, the graphics were a bit ordinary!


The park had this massive set at the back of New York... Very realistic, until you remember that you are in Florida not the Big Apple. I will try and get the same photo at the real thing!


Madagascar Pengiuns!!! They were great fun and did a rap dance at the end of the day. I will try and post the film I took of them.

The Keys!

I thought a photo next to this destroyed lobster trap would be good, but the better shot was of me struggling back to hard ground. My feet would sink about a foot down before hitting solid ground!


Crocodile Crossing!!


At a mangrove state park on long key.


Looking back from "Little Duck" key which wins the award for best named key!


The old bridge from Bahia-Honda Key.... It used to have a railway on it until the railroad was destroyed in a.... guess what.... hurricane!! in 1935. To not waste the bridge they put a road on it (that is why the road is wider than the support structure underneath it, but the stopped using that as well when they built a new and improved bridge to the right!

Postarama

I feel guilty cos I haven't posted much recently! I have been trying to sort out the rest of my trip.... so now I have a ticket to NY state on the 15th of December where I'm staying with my friend Lindsay. We are going to check out the area and the big apple! yay, hopefully I'll get to Niagra Falls up near the Canadian border. In NYC I hope to see the brooklyn bridge, broadway, times square, dave letterman, central park, the empire state building, ice skate in rockafella plaza, see the big christmas tree, go to 5th Avenue..... I can't wait!

Today we has thanksgiving dinner with all of the international students. It was a great meal with sweet potato, mashed potato, green beans, salad with various dressing, rolls, turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing etc. Not as great as thanksgiving at the Bradley's of course, but not too bad!

Tomorrow night I am going to my friends place for thanksgiving dinner which should be great fun. I will post photo's as soon as I can! Saturday is the last hurricanes football game and Sunday is a trip to Universal in Orlando...... or maybe going to a shooting range with the blokes! hehe

Germany '06 here we come!

YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what a fantastic day for all Australians... I am going to put on my Australian flag fake tattoo's!

Disneyland for Engineers

Us playing at the Kennedy Space Centre - Stacy, Will, Chloe and Me.


In front of the Saturn V, the rocket that took man to the moon. Standing next to it makes you realise how brave these guys were to strap themselves into a cockpit smaller than the cabin of my Corolla sitting on top of these enormous construction filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. In this picture I am touching the tip of that stabiliser, it is a ridiculously large object....


This is the booster stage for the space shuttle.... these are the main thrust to get the shuttle up to high altitude, then they fall into the ocean and are retrieved by the Navy.


Space shuttle


The actual control room for the pre-moon missions..... before they moved to Houston.


The main rocket engine for the Saturn V.... Strap this to the back of your car Nath....


The bridge to the cabin, this is the same walk that Neil Armstrong did on his way to the controls of Apollo 11

Beer Trophy!!

yay for beer trophys!! me and my mate Craig from Scotland. Nathan would be proud! lol

Orlando!

Orlando was lots of fun!! We all went to see 'The Bravery' in downtown Disney which was a great show!! But we weren't allowed to bring cameras which was annoying!! :( We were soooo close too, we could have got great shots!


The medievil times! A great theatre restaraunt which was apparently in cable guy..... Our knight was the red one.... he was a fine knight, gallant and brave, but shit cos he lost.


Me with the King and Queen before the tournament started!


Orlando night sky...


This is amazing... all the brown windows are boarded up!! This is in downtown Miami where the hurricane sucked heaps of windows out of buildings!! Imagine how scary it would have been to discover a lost window on the 30th floor!!


Yaaayyyy Melbourne!! On the way to Orlando!

Big bada boom clarification!

I seem to have worried some people with the pic of the plane getting hit by lightning! To clarify, planes apparently get hit by lightning all the time. Hence they are designed to take the strike without damaging any electrical components. This is due to the outside metal casing being isolated from the inside of the plane where the electrical componentry is....

so don't panic!!!!

My Facebook

Everyone at Miami has a facebook account for chatting and stuff.... check out my profile...

Hangin' around Miami

Me and Nic-Nac, the crazy American!




Dave with a Nurf gun and Pierre, the man who hates everything that's not French!


Everyone was laughing because of the pinky in the air!

Plane go boom

Thanks to sister Rach and brother Johnno for this one, this is a All Nippon Airplane getting hit by lightning in Osaka, where I'm flying into!! yay!

Key West

The southern-most point in the USA, right at the end of Key West.... The hurricane damaged the sign so all that marks the point now is the buoy (pronounced BOY NOT BUUEEIE)


Apparently 'World Famous' it must be cos it says so.... so I obviously had to take a photo!


GET OUT NOW!


The water is even more beautiful in Florida after a hurricane because of the sand and stuff being churned up in the water which does something good with reflection of light to make that awesome turquoise colour. (notice continual use of 'u' in colour...)


Everyone in Key West is so laid back... Mr Cheapee's liquor and stuff!


Us with random people in the 'Green Parrot' the local watering hole.


These people are so resilient. They are persistant and never let the storms wreck their life. They are also the nicest community of people around, so welcoming and everyone here has a smile on their face. Could be something to do with living at the end of a string of islands near the equator.....


We participated in another great American (or Floridian) tradition.... queuing for petrol!
The problem after a hurricane is that while there is plenty of fuel in the underground tanks, no-one has any power to pump it with! This line took at least 1.5hours.... might have been more but we had a fantastic time, we played frisbee and drank some beer while waiting.


We were lucky that we made it to the station. We drove from home to 10km's out of Key Largo with the fuel light on which was really pushing our luck. We pushed the car down the line cos we couldn't be bothered turning the car on every 5minutes to move it. As we came into the station Sam turned the car on to pull up to the pump and we ran out of gas..... as I said, extremely lucky!