Par-tay

The past couple of days have been pretty much a non-stop party.

Yesterday I got to watch my brother and his friends do their radio show on the campus radio station. It was fun to experience and kind of gave me an interest in the radio business. We'll see how long that actually lasts.

We then went to some pub not too far away from the University and just ended up getting a few drinks and some food. One of my Bro's friends suggested that we just grab some more alcohol and go back to campus and watch TV. Wow, it's like they are reading my mind sometimes. So the adventure began with trying to find a suitable bottle store which sold good stuff, plus a grocery store to buy some munchy type things. We gathered our materials and headed back to the common room at the University to watch some TV. It seemed that a lot of other people had the same idea. We had quite the party going on in the common room on Friday and it ended up being more fun then I had thought it would be. I was able to get a chance to talk with some of the other people that live in the same rez as my brother. I was lucky enough to talk with a very cute Norwegian girl for an hour or so, and in that time I still didn't catch her name. I've also met one of the nicest and most talkative person ever. His name is Derek and he always has a crazy story to tell or has 10 questions lined up to ask you. Silence is not an option with that man. He's pretty taken with the sport of fencing and went so far as to show me how the basics are done. An interesting sport it is. It got pretty late and Derek and I cleaned up the common room as everyone else went to bed. I didn't notice how much I actually had to drink until I had to get up and move. Good night over all.

Today was fantastic. My brother and his friends, John and Meg took me into the city to explore. I first got the experience a bit of the Queen Victoria Market. It was closing up shop for the day (it closes very early on Saturdays apparently) but it was a good enough taste that I feel that I have to go back another day and experience it fully. We then grabbed lunch and poked into every interesting shop as we aimlessly wandered from street side to street side. The guys wanted to see some viewing of a new art movie called "The Control Room". We worked our way up to the theatre that showed it and bought some tickets. We then had some time to blow before the movie so we walked down another street which is filled with restaurants from every country. A guy will stand outside each place and as you walk by they will talk to you to try and make you go in and eat. They'll offer things like discounted meals or even free dessert. It was nice to have someone who was talking to me on the street have something to offer me for once, instead of it being a bum just wanting any spare change. We then headed back to the theatre and watched the Control Room. The movie was spectacular. It's about the news network Al Jazeera (the Arab equivalent to CNN) and how they covered the Iraq war. It was much more worth the watch then anything Michael Moore could have done. After the movie had ended I had an elderly lady approach me and ask me if I was American (she must have heard me and John talking before the movie started) and asked me about my views on the movie and the points it makes. I had to disappoint her by explaining that I'm Canadian, but I still made my views heard.

Onward to the pub! We started a search for a friendly and not so busy pub to have a drink at. We found one which was down an alley way. I felt uneasy about this alley way stuff, but it seems it's quite a common thing in Melbourne. They aren't scary Alleys like we have back home, but instead have shops lined all the way down them. At the bar the bartender asked me where I was from. When I replied "Canada" her next question was "What's your hockey team?" I told her it was the flames and she told me she was a Canucks fan. We had a small chat about hockey until the bar got busy and I had to let her get back to work. Always nice to hear that the triumphs of hockey have reached all the way to the southern hemisphere. After some drinks we went in a desperate search for food which just ended up being a few slices of pizza. At this point I wanted to go home, but Meg insisted on showing me the Crown, which is apparently the biggest Casino in the southern Hemisphere and it's placed right by the Yarra river. It's an amazing building. It has a hotel, shops, restaurants and finally the casino all under one roof. It looks like it does quite well considering how busy it was in there. We then just walked along the river side until it was time to head back to the tram station to head home.

The highlight of the evening was finding a road called Batman Avenue. It's pronounced slightly differently then the super hero, but I thought it was very amusing. There is also a Batman park. We need more streets and parks named after super heroes. They'd be way easier to remember for directions. So far so good in Oz.