Moo, Canberra, Coast
Groovin' the Moo exceeded my expectations. Although we didn't arrive til it grew dark, we didn't miss much in my opinion. On arrival we listened to some great rapping by an all female DJ group at the King Street Hotel tent, then it was off to The Presets (very, very cool music), where the crowd was heaps hyped up. Heccas! It was all young people at the venue, almost everyone was under 25 and the energy was crazy. Sneaky Sound System played in the then extremely packed King Street Tent - I couldn't move, literally. And it was so hot, I felt I was almost going to faint. Luckily that didn't happen and again, a very outstanding performance, melding right into Silverchair playing on the stage outside. At that point I was very tired, covered in sweat, my clothes soaked, so I didn't mosh (not that I would've anyway), but it was so special to see this iconic Novocastrian band live and in person. About 7,000 attended the concert, which isn't heaps compared to some, and thus I was able to get close to the artists.
On Mother's Day I ventured up to Tea Gardens, near Nelson's Bay in the Port Stephens area, to visit my host-grandmother, and we did a bit of 4WDing on the sand dunes in Daisy Daihatsu, the little red Japanese late-1970s 4WD my host family keeps up on the coast. It was a very pleasant day indeed.
The weekend after my host parents took me to Canberra to see the Nationa's Capital, and it was a very cool weekend. The temperature change in Canberra was much like the autumn we get in the U.S. climate I live in there, with the leaves falling off the trees, and a little 'nip' of the wind - definitely described as COLD, at least by night. Although I had heard that Canberra is b-o-r-i-n-g, after spending a weekend there, I find quite the opposite. Sure, it doesn't have the vibe of Sydney, but then again Canberra is under 350,000 people large, and I think it does very well on the food, entertainment, city vibe spectrum. People are out on the weekends - a good thing, and there is of course a lot of money in the city, it being an international government centre of Australia. Its a planned city, literally, with symmetry in large amounts, great roads, and a neat collection of embassies near the new Parliament house, the icon of Canberra.
We took a tour of the new Parliament house, went to the Australian War Memorial (a very large and interesting centre), Telstra Tower, and the National Museum of Australia, cataloguing Australian culture (as well as indigenous culture) in a very impressive and large, somewhat interactive museum. If it was on America, I would have been horrendously bored and perhaps physically ill from the patriotism, but since it was very well presented, and I still am quite a keen learner on Australia, enjoyable it was.
Then on Tuesday I went to the Sydney CBD to do a bit of shopping - pretty unexciting. But my friend from the Phillipines who was on exchange in my district in the States is coming to Sydney tomorrow to visit her uncle for a few months, and I'm looking forward to catching up with her soon!
Finally, this weekend was spent at the holiday house in Hawk's Nest (near Tea Gardens, which is near Nelson's Bay). We were blessed with some gorgeous weather; not unbearably hot, not cold, with a nice refreshing breeze checking the cloud free sky and white hot sun. I can describe this so vividly because I spent the majority of the weekend on the beach fishing. And I caught....wait for it....one fish. Uno. YER! About two seconds after I caught it I threw it back in the water and that was that. Luckily my host dad had way more luck, bringing in about 12 brim and one big flathead whilst he was spearfishing/snorkeling. With the batteries recharged, I am home today and trying to get my life together to tackle the finale of my Australian adventure. On Saturday the big trip begins, rise and shine 7:15 a.m. departure (!). Then my parents get here, do their thing, which I must help organise pretty much in the next 96 hours, they leave, I have like 6 days after that to say my goodbyes and cry. On 7/7/07, the LiveEarth concert is being held (check it out liveearth.org), and I'm out on the 9th. How incredibly sad it all is. This Thursday is my last day of school.
I need to get some warm clothes and walking shoes to take on the trip. Random.
This concludes my blog entry for today.
Car|
On Mother's Day I ventured up to Tea Gardens, near Nelson's Bay in the Port Stephens area, to visit my host-grandmother, and we did a bit of 4WDing on the sand dunes in Daisy Daihatsu, the little red Japanese late-1970s 4WD my host family keeps up on the coast. It was a very pleasant day indeed.
The weekend after my host parents took me to Canberra to see the Nationa's Capital, and it was a very cool weekend. The temperature change in Canberra was much like the autumn we get in the U.S. climate I live in there, with the leaves falling off the trees, and a little 'nip' of the wind - definitely described as COLD, at least by night. Although I had heard that Canberra is b-o-r-i-n-g, after spending a weekend there, I find quite the opposite. Sure, it doesn't have the vibe of Sydney, but then again Canberra is under 350,000 people large, and I think it does very well on the food, entertainment, city vibe spectrum. People are out on the weekends - a good thing, and there is of course a lot of money in the city, it being an international government centre of Australia. Its a planned city, literally, with symmetry in large amounts, great roads, and a neat collection of embassies near the new Parliament house, the icon of Canberra.
We took a tour of the new Parliament house, went to the Australian War Memorial (a very large and interesting centre), Telstra Tower, and the National Museum of Australia, cataloguing Australian culture (as well as indigenous culture) in a very impressive and large, somewhat interactive museum. If it was on America, I would have been horrendously bored and perhaps physically ill from the patriotism, but since it was very well presented, and I still am quite a keen learner on Australia, enjoyable it was.
Then on Tuesday I went to the Sydney CBD to do a bit of shopping - pretty unexciting. But my friend from the Phillipines who was on exchange in my district in the States is coming to Sydney tomorrow to visit her uncle for a few months, and I'm looking forward to catching up with her soon!
Finally, this weekend was spent at the holiday house in Hawk's Nest (near Tea Gardens, which is near Nelson's Bay). We were blessed with some gorgeous weather; not unbearably hot, not cold, with a nice refreshing breeze checking the cloud free sky and white hot sun. I can describe this so vividly because I spent the majority of the weekend on the beach fishing. And I caught....wait for it....one fish. Uno. YER! About two seconds after I caught it I threw it back in the water and that was that. Luckily my host dad had way more luck, bringing in about 12 brim and one big flathead whilst he was spearfishing/snorkeling. With the batteries recharged, I am home today and trying to get my life together to tackle the finale of my Australian adventure. On Saturday the big trip begins, rise and shine 7:15 a.m. departure (!). Then my parents get here, do their thing, which I must help organise pretty much in the next 96 hours, they leave, I have like 6 days after that to say my goodbyes and cry. On 7/7/07, the LiveEarth concert is being held (check it out liveearth.org), and I'm out on the 9th. How incredibly sad it all is. This Thursday is my last day of school.
I need to get some warm clothes and walking shoes to take on the trip. Random.
This concludes my blog entry for today.
Car|
posted by Carl at 8:09 PM
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