Random Writings On the Wall: O-Week

Starting backwards, since the photos were uploaded that way haha. Forgive me, the writing's a little haphazard as well because of the order of the photos.

Sunday 28th February

Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade at Oxford Street and CBD. Due to download limit, I've only uploaded three pictures...but you get the *picture* I hope.

Some of the floats on display

The only reason I managed to get such a good view was that Marian and I managed to squeeze our way to the front. It was so noisy and crowded; our hands got really tired from holding up our cameras to take pics. Thankfully, the crowd eased a little soon after and we managed to get to the second row; where we had a fantastic close-up. It wasn't all gay pride though; many groups took the opportunity to make their stands on certain issues clear: Taronga Zoo were advertising their "Save the Tiger" campaigns, there were demonstrations on marriage equality etc. But the parts of the parade with the transsexuals and gay men dancing (and almost baring all) were a little disturbing.

(Disclaimer: Please remember that just because I went for this festival does not mean I condone/support these kind of relationships. I just went for the experience. Period)

Saturday 27th February

Duck-Feeding at Victoria Park and Glebe Markets

There are no pictures of the ducks because there weren't any.

But here's Glebe market, a more localized version of Paddy's. It sells some pretty cute trinkets/souvenirs and stuff like second-hand books and clothes. After that, we adjourned to the IH Rooftop for ice-cream :)

Friday 26th March

AMAZING RACE!!!!!

That's all of us! Too small to label though... :(

Basic Stats:-

Team: BLU(E)

Group Leader: Jalal

Others: Lisa, John, Pawel, Edward and Aki

Finished: Second (Team Yellow won)

Distance Ran: 10 KILOMETRES!!!!

OMG. The Amazing Race was so much fun, but it was mega-tiring. I thought I was quite fit, but evidently not fit enough to run 10km!

There was about 30 of us, so we got divided into 5 groups of six: Teams Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Orange.

The rules were quite simple: Cross the finish line first, complete the most number of tasks, finish all the extra challenges and you win. Marks out of a 1000. The IH organizers offered the team that could get a score of 1000/1000 a thousand bucks. Of course they dared to, the possibility of that happening was like 1/1000.

Oh God, things are NEVER that simple.

First stop, we had to run to Sydney Morning Herald stall in the Quad to get a look at today's headlines (additional challenge, more on that later)

1st station: Graffiti Tunnel, University

Task: Spray paint map of Australia, done by Lisa. Unfortunately, our water balloon got popped by Team Yellow meaning that we got marks deducted for that, so the 1000 bucks was out of the question (told you!)

Next stop: Victoria Park

Task: To feed bread to the eels with photographic evidence required. We managed to eventually coax the eels to the surface but the water was super murky, so we only managed a blurry shot.

Along the way, we stopped to take a pic with guards in uniform (additional challenge)

2nd station: BI-LO, Broadway Shopping Centre

Task: Put a condom on a banana to promote safe sex LOL

Walking to UTS

Next stop: UTS

Task: Find out what floor Vertigo newsletter office is located at. Damn UTS people all gave us the wrong answer (they were trying to sabo us!!!!) . Unfortunately, we misunderstood the task a little and thought they were asking us where Vertigo newsletters could be found. Thinking we would sabotage the other teams, we *smartly* stole away the entire stash of Vertigo at one booth and hid the rest.

3rd station: Central Bus Station

Task: Sing Ke$ha's "Tik-Tok". The Chinese tourists there must have thought we were escaped mental patients from the nearby Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Team Blu on their way to Paddy's Market

From back to front clockwise: Pawel, John, Aki, Lisa, Jalal and me :)

Next Stop: Central Rail

Task: Find out the price of an adult economy class ticket to some God-forsaken place. Photographic evidence required.

Next Stop: Paddy's Market

Task: Take a picture of Jalal with a wig. Since we were shoo-ed out of the first shop, we planned a smash and grab raid for the second wig shop. Luckily, we didn't have to do that, we just let Jalal *try* on the wig..unnoticed of course.

Next Station: Chinatown

Task: Yell out "Wo ai dian xin" at the top of our voices

Next Stop: National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour

Task: Decipher the coded flags (they spelt out Australian Maritime Museum)

Next Station: Darling Harbour

Task: Complete a quiz

Next Station: Pitt Street Mall

We actually took the monorail to Pitt Street instead of Pitt Street Mall, meaning we had to charge all the way up a few blocks to Pitt Street Mall; wasting a lot of time and which probably cost us first place. Due to our carelessness in solving the quiz at Darling Harbour and assuming it was Pitt Street, not PSM.

Task: Busk for songs. We sang "Tik-tok" again and the workers showered us with coins to get rid of us

Task: Find out the number of pedestrians crossing Pitt Street everyday (65000)

Next Station: Hyde Park

Task: Do the wheelbarrow around the fountain (bloody tiring)

Next Stop: Martin Place

Task: Find out the sculptor of the statue at the Reserve Bank of Australia

Next station: Circular Quay

Task: Walk to the glass elevators while being tied up with one-leg to each other. Seriously painful.

Last station: Opera House/Finish line. We were a few minutes behind Team Yellow. We had to wait half an hour for Teams Red, Green and Orange to finally show up! Since we came second, we were 100 points behind TY and since we roughly completed the same amount of tasks, we had mathematically no chance to usurp them and had to settle for second.

Additional Challenges:-

1. Take a picture with a bride and groom- Success. We did. Just that they were in a bridal magazine hehe.

2. Finish the crossword in the SMH - Failure. Edward and I got stuck halfway.

3. Stick the headline of the SMH on the forehead of 5 group members - Success

4. Take a picture with someone in uniform - Failure. Josh deducted points because someone's body was incomplete in the photo

5. Take a photo with someone in dreadlocks- Success. Taken at Central.

6. Take a photo with someone playing a musical instrument- Success. The first busker we approached at Paddy's was pretty horrible, but we managed to take a pic with some lady playing the violin in the city.

7. Take a photo with 5 of our group members soaking wet- Success

8. Take a photo of the group doing a human pyramid- Success

9. Take a photo of a glass staircase- Failure. We had no idea where to find glass staircases, apparently there was one at the huge Apple store on George Street.

10. Two members of the opposite sex in the group must swap shirts. - Success. I had smartly brought along a spare shirt, so I gave Jalal my shirt, and he wore Lisa's. Clever huh haha.

11. Keep water balloon intact- As aforementioned, failure.

12. Take a cheesy group photo, winner gets extra 50 points- Failure. Evidently, we weren't la-la enough.

Thursday 25th February

Went for some seminars in the morning I think, and the Coogee to Bondi beach walk was cancelled.

Max Brenner's at Newtown

8 pm- Went to Max Brenner's in Newtown with a whole bunch of IH people. Well, actually only a few of us (Yu Ning, Jenny, Renee, Esther and Marian) ended up at MB's as the majority went to the Irish pub Kelly's to sing karaoke!

That's the chocolate banana frappe up there, which costs $7.60. But well worth it.

Wednesday 24th March

The interior of the pub

Can you spot the crabs? They're really small!

Outside the pub :)
From L to R: Neil, Andy, me and Yu Ning

7 pm- Crab Racing at the 'Friend in Hand' pub at Glebe! It was a little bit stupid because we had to wait like 2 hours just to see 60 hermit crabs race the length of a round table, but it was still pretty good fun just soaking up the atmosphere of a neighbourhood pub. Oh and me and Yu Ning got soaked because they targeted us (we were hiding under the table to avoid getting splashed by the hose. I think they spotted us, and aimed the nozzle at us sheesh)

USU Stalls at the Quad

12-4 pm- USU Stalls at the Quad. There are over 200 clubs here, it's unbelievable. You've got the usual suspects like Commerce Society, Tennis Club, Engineering Society etc to the really unusual such as the Knitting Society, Rubix Square and Puzzles Society to even the Mr. Darcy Appreciation Society. I signed up for the AIME Mentoring Program, Debate Society, SUMS (Sydney Uni Musical Society ie the choir), and Co-op Bookshop membership. There was also SUMSA (Sydney Uni Malaysian Students Society) but I didn't sign up because I wanted to try something different. In between we had a welcome lunch at the Holme Building with all the other residential college freshers.

The Great Hall at St. Andrews

As you can see, St. Andrews has got an awesome campus!

9pm- *Breakfast* at St. Andrews, which was like a total dud. We were given to understand that we were going to have breakfast there, so we trekked ALL THE WAY there, only to listen to a thousand boring speeches by the heads of colleges; and to be told that breakfast, had in fact been cleared away at 8.30 pm. We ended up going to Hoochie Mama's in Newtown for brekkie, and then mana tahu we were locked out of the Great Hall where the Dean was giving a speech because we were too late. But I guess it was pretty cool taking a trip down to see what the other residential colleges are like. St. Andrews' grounds are beautiful, and everything there is so ancient and steeped in tradition. As you can see, the freshies even wear black robes.

Monday was my Faculty Orientation, can't remember what I did on Tuesday haha.

Saturday 20th March

Mardi Gras fair at Victoria Park, a precursor to the parade next week

Sunday 21st March

Day Trip! Went to Manly Beach with some of the peeps from IH. It was pretty cool, well worth the ferry trip and bus fare to go there. We mainly walked the beaches and or just flopped down in the shade, enjoying the sea breeze. Lunch however was stale fish and chips lol.