Lady Oaks

HA this is more of a joke now then a blog but anyway. My dumbass forgot to take my camera with me the one day so many awesome things happen.

So in Caloundra there is this event called Horse Races. They close schools and offices just so people can go. Now I'm thinking to myself what could be so great about horse races. And people explain to me that it's just an excuse to get dolled up and drunk. I am now more interested in these Horse Races

So I find out about the Races maybe a couple days before today and I debate with myself whether or not I should go. (I have no money left and I need to save every penny so I can eat and drink goon) So the night before the races, yesterday, I go grocery shopping and I buy some goon :(. I go out and hang around Varsity and just have a good night getting drunk. I go back to my place and I pass out not expecting to do anything but assignments the next day, today. I wake up and the suns out and it's pretty quiet at Varsity. The first thing I think is that I've already wasted most of the day because I drank to much last night. So I get up brush my teeth and what not open my bathroom window just to feel how cold it is outside and surprisingly enough there's actually beautiful weather. I am now more bummed because I just wasted a really really good day on sleeping :(. So I look at my watch to see what time it is. OMG it's 8:00 in the morning. I am never awake let alone up this early on a Friday. So I chill on my bed check out Facebook and what not, debating on whether or not I should go back to sleep and wake up at a little more reasonable time. Now keep in mind I've still pretty much made up my mind about the Races. I didn't wanna go and spend money I didn't have.

9:30am hits and the music starts. Oh the good ol' light side music. At this point I've built up a pretty strong tolerance for it. I here people having fun and partying but I say to myself, "Self, don't even look outside it will only depress you even more." (On the account of I have no monies) So I put on my head phones and try not to think about how much fun I'm missing.

11:00am hits, still in my room just chillin on my bed. The music is still playing, but that's not unusual for this side of Varsity.

Finally 12:00pm hits and I finally leave my room. I know I'm pretty much a loser. I walk out to the living room and what do I see from my balcony window. Everyone from Varsity out on the volleyball court dressed up and drinking. I tell myself, "Self, you're going to the Races." I go back in my room and I put something fancy on, I head out side and go to hangout with everybody. So by this point there is amazingly beautiful weather, heaps of girls looking pretty damn good, and beers and wine everywhere. I'm feeling pumped.

So we head out to the front gate. People are complimenting me on how I look, I give them compliments back and everyone is just super fly. We're waiting for a cab and while we're outside some girls walk up to me and were talking and just loving life. Some where in the conversation we start talking about how we're getting there. One of the girls has a car, but of course she's too drunk to drive. I on the other hand am too poor to be drunk. It's a match made in heaven. The only problem is that I don't feel to good about driving on the other side of the road. I also just met this girl and I'm pretty sure she doesn't want me crashing her car because of that. So we're back to waiting for a cab.

Some time goes by and people start finding other sober soldiers to drive them to the Races. Now the time is around 12:30 or 1:00 and everyone is pretty drunk. Luckily my good man Travis has a car and my other good friend Sarah isn't going to the Races. So our bright idea is to get her to drive his car to the Races and drop us off. We all pile in his car and head off. It's me, Valentin, Manny, Travis, and Sarah.

About an half hour later and a u-turn we make it to Lady Oak's. There are heaps of cars and people all walking to the gates. Luckily, Australia is so precocious they do a breathalyzer test on every driver coming into the event. Good on ya M8. Sarah thinks that she might blow over because she was drinking the night before, I tell her not likely. So she does her best at the test and she passes wooooo. BUT (yes of course there is a very big but) Travis' car has an expired registration sticker on the front wind shield. The cop notices and asks about it.

20min later, we are stuck at the breathalyzer station and can't go into the Races. Travis is on the phone with his dad trying to sort the whole thing and we are just gazing at the horses and loving life, for the most part. After the cop gets done his whole macho shpeel he hands Travis a $250 AUD ticket and tells Sarah that she needs to go straight back to Varsity and no where else. He also hands her a ticket too but no fine. Thank God

Finally we are on our way to the gates. Back to that good feeling mood and so excited to go and have some fun. We get in there and every single guy is either in a button down shirt or a suit and all the women have on fancy dresses, heels, and the biggest sun hats I have ever seen. It was amazing, the best thing that I have done in a long while. The platforms were so big and there were people gambling and drinking and smoking and just having a good time. I felt like I was in movie. So we go in get some beers and start looking at the Races.

Little did I know this event is not for watching the horses. They came out maybe once every hour. So in total I saw about 4 or 5 races. This event is just a great excuse to get dressed up and go drinking. The best idea EVER. The sun is shining, everyone is smiling, and people are in just a good mood. By this time it's maybe 2:20 or later. We walk around and check the place out and I start seeing people I know from Varsity. It was like O week all over again but everyone was dressed up. So pretty much the whole day we just sit around looking super fly with not a care in the world and getting drunk just because. It was an amazing amount of fun. I love the Races.

So it's around 3:30 maybe and we here music, good music, and we see a crowd of people jumping up and down. So we go to the crowd and it's pretty much a concert. I had no idea that there would be live music, let alone a concert at the Races. The group that went on were The Potbelleez. They are pretty good and the music was fantastic. So now were partying and still having a good time and still dressed up. God I love getting dressed up.

They do a couple songs and then there's another race. Some more songs and another race, this goes on for maybe another hour. I'm am having the time of my life. So after the partying is done we head out and catch a ride home. The day is done and everyone is pretty tired. I chill around Varsity until 2:00am and then I go back to my place and write this blog. I am so glad that I got to experience this. I love my life and I love Australia. I never wanna leave.

So this weekend I went to Fraser Island and it was pretty amazing. I went with 4 other Germans and we had a blast. The tour guide was pretty awesome, manly because he is in the same field as me. We talked about how frustrating it is to be taught by terrible teachers and how hard that shit gets when you really get in depth.

Anyway, the whole trip pretty memorable, mostly because I recorded everything. Well almost everything. I had about 2 hours of footage to watch. But most of it was on trees. The food was great and I met heaps of new people. I'm actually hanging out with the Nick, the guide, this weekend...no homo. His bday is on the 10th and mine is of course the 12th. So we said HEY! why not just celebrate them together in Brissy (Bribane). I'm going there this weekend and staying Saturday till Sunday. This will be the second time I've stayed in a Hostel so wish me luck.

Tuesday Week 6

Trying my best to keep up with some sort of documentation but no luck. I'm still recording heaps but not everyday. My days just aren't that interesting and my cameras battery isn't that great. I am excited to say that I went to the Zoo last weekend and this weekend I'm going to Frasier Island. The zoo was amazing, I literally laid next to a Kangaroo it was magical. I got to hold a Koala and it pooped in my hand, that wasn't as magical but still exciting. Can't wait to go to Frasier though I hope the weather gets better.

As far as classes goes I turned in 2 assignments so far. Haven't gotten any grades back but I feel pretty good about them. My website looked awesome and I was very happy with the outcome. But on an even better note the best thing ever happened to me today though. So I thought my 3D assignment was due today but it's actually due Friday at 4pm. So instead of sleeping I pulled an all nighter to get it done :D. That's not even the good part though. I unfortunately didn't get it done but I did get almost all the texture finished and I started fixing up some cameras for the animation.
Ok this is the good part. When I showed Graeme (my tutor) what I had worked on so far the first words out his mouth were, "O that looks like an HD to me!" I was shocked :0. I honestly didn't think that I would get anywhere close to HD (pretty much an A+) I was literally just trying to keep up with the rest of the people in the class. They are so fucking good it makes me cry :'D. i wanted to celebrate right there in class but I didn't wanna look like an American lol. So I waited until I got back to my room and went crazy. I'm so pumped to know that even in another country I can kick ass. Not to brag or anything, but I put in a shit ton of work so I'm proud of myself.

it's things like this that make me wanna record everything so I can relive those moments over and over again. God I love Australia.

If you would like to see what I did you can check it out at my art blog sambassart.blogspot.com. I'll post up progress shots periodically so I have something to do.

Better Late Then Never i guess.

So I realize I haven't really updated this since I left. I didn't plan on having this be my main way of documenting my trip but shit happens. I won't go into to too much detail but I will say that I wish I was better informed about the internet situation here. I've never heard, or even imagined, that internet would be paid like a phone bill. The deal is you pay by the minute pretty much. Uploading and Downloading takes extra costs and not to mention there is no WiFi at my apartment. The uni isn't too much better either. It's either too slow to even get on google.com or it just doesn't work entirely.

Nevertheless I'm still having a great time and meeting heaps of new people. I don't regret any decision I made in choosing this place.

I wish the videos had worked out but it seems that that isn't possible now. I'm going to try and do something every week that just shows the life of a study abroad student and what I'm doing. I'll hopefully start that next week. I'll be editing and recording and then by the end of the week I'll put a little video together and post it. It shouldn't take too much internet up I hope. Other then that there's really nothing else to report. I will probably post on this now daily since it is my only way of truly documenting everything.

Here's a little snippet of what I've been doing with my time here. Kinda learned how to surf.

Day -01

Tomorrow is the last day I will be in these United States. I'm not to bummed about it since I will be on the beach.

I got to try out snowboarding for the first time. I was a natural of course, actually I had really great teachers. My awesome friends!! I got all banged up and sore but I'm not complaining. Check out the badass footage we got at my youtube channel, SamBassAustralia.

I played a nasty trick on my mom though. I told her I got in an accident and was sent to the hospital. I got my friend Andrew to call her and explain what happened. She freaked out and now I think she's pretty pissed at me. I feel kinda bad, but I explained to her that I'm not that stupid to go and put my self in impossible situations. I always make sure I'm comfortable and safe. Now I do like to take risks and have lots of fun so I try my best to find a happy medium. I trust myself completely and I hope my mom does to.

She raised me to the best of her ability and I think she did a pretty damn good job. I love you mom. Now I just gotta say all this to her face before I leave. Wish me luck and I'll check back in and let you know how it went.

Day -02

So I'm debating if I wanna keep this up everyday. Ever since I started my video blog I don't really have much to say in this blog. And most people don't read this, they'd rather just watch the videos, it's more entertaining. So I think I might Change this to a weekly thing. Once a week I'll put something up with pictures and stuff.

Other then that I'm still super excited to get everything ready to go. I'm officially ready to leave the States. If you do read this more then the videos then let me know and I'll do my best to keep this one going if not then I will unfortunately have to let this little creation go.

Day -03

I'm back home PACKING. It's coming along well I'm making some very grown up decisions, it's a little stressful. I don't know if I have to much to say since most of my day is in the video, but now I'm sort of freaking out because every time I go away for long periods of time I've noticed that I usually forget something or something goes wrong. I know I shouldn't think like that and I should keep a positive open mind about things but to be totally honest I am now officially nervous. I didn't think that this would happen this early but it did and now that I am packing its getting worse.

I do have Wednesday to look forward to which is great. I'm really excited to go snowboarding. It's the first time I've ever done it, which is a great way to start a trip like this. Always trying knew things. Well I gotta stay positive and keep packing. Wish me luck.