I've just been through my first USA Halloween experience. Halloween this year was on a Wednesday, so therefore Halloween parties started the weekend before and finished the weekend after the 31st. Halloween is massive in America so everyone dresses up and gets really drunk (the latter not being different from any other weekend). The first night was a lot of fun, the second night was ok, but by the third, fourth and fifth night I couldn't really be bothered anymore. It starts to lose it's novelty after you've done it three times in six days. The first night (Friday, w/e before [View Full Entry]

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We just got back last night from our latest road trip. There were eight of us; Four Australians (Tim, Jim, Ged and myself), one Egyptian (Melina), one French (Sophie), one Kiwi (Chris) and one Brit (Hazel). We got in a rented eight seater minivan and headed for the border at about 4pm on Friday arvo. It was a long drive, big props to Ged who drove both ways. We got to Buffalo (New York State, near the border) around 10:30pm. It was really really windy. We went to a pub in the middle of town for dinner. Three of use were [View Full Entry]

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It's been a long week. At the start of this week the new Spring 2008 "Courses Taught in English" at Uppsala brochure came out. Obviously, because it only just came out, I had to base my course selections and approvals on the 2007 brochure. Apparently it's changed. Now the course I wanted (and the only one I can do) is no longer taught in English. Because of my double degree and lack of electives, that course (which in the Swedish semester is a full semester load) was my only hope. I was a little disappointed when I found out, having planned [View Full Entry]

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Hey Guys, Nothing too exciting to report, I've just been hanging out, going to class, going out, doing homework etc... Last night I went to Cirque De Soleil Saltimbanco at the Bryce Jordan centre on campus, which was amazing. This weekend I'm going to a music festival close to State College, playing an open mic night on campus, and of course, watching the AFL grand final with the Aussie contingent plus a few tonight (starts at half past midnight). I'm going for the Cats, partly because they deserve it and partly because I hate Port Adelaide. I've been thinking about my [View Full Entry]

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I Just got back from a weekend in New York. It was incredible. I've got a million photos on Facebook so you'll have to check it out. Here goes: I went with four other internationals: Melina from Cairo (thanks for driving!), Cairo from (guess... Cairo), Tim from Canberra and Hazel from the UK. We hired a car and set off at 3pm on Friday.It took us about 4 hours to get from State College to NYC in the Chevy, which was a surprisingly nice car. We invested in a GPS which had vocal directions and a map on the screen. I [View Full Entry]

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Sorry about the delay, I've been busy, you know how it is. I actually wrote a big long post a couple of days ago and managed to accidentally hit the back key and lose it all before I posted it. I started classes last week. My schedule is pretty bad: I have 8am-4:30pm MWF, Thursday 8am-11am, and Tuesday off. I've been slacking a bit. You know when you have soooo much to do that you decide that ra/ther than making a decision on where to start you just go hang out in the quad with your mates? or go to the [View Full Entry]

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It's all happening now, classes start on Monday. The college students are coming in their thousands, each of them with three truckloads of crap for their dormrooms. I swear they try to fatten up the college students too. The first thing you see when you walk into the dining commons is a wall of cakes and biscuits. The icecream they have in the commons is illegal to sell outside the University because of it's fat content (get 'em young!). They do have a good salad bar though so you can be healthy if you're determined enough (which I am). It's all [View Full Entry]

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I write this from the Paterno Library at PSU. The Library is very (guess what...) big and very useful. There's plenty of quite places to study which is nice because my dorm room is very small and is full of distractions. Paterno is the coach of the Penn State football team here, apparently he is 80+ and slightly "past his prime" but is idolised here because he has coached them for 30 years or something. I went to the Penn State bookstore and there are all these biographies of his. I got a job too; at the Bryce Jordan Centre. It's [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we went to "DC". I got up at 6am and went down to the buses for 6:30am. we were supposed to stop for breakfast at 9am and get to DC at 11am, but we got stuck in this big (there's that word again) traffic jam on the freeway, so we didn't get breakfast and got to DC at midday. Washington DC took the word "big" to a whole new level. Everything was huge. I didn't see a single building that I wouldn't describe as huge. And they were all very grand looking as well. I spent the day with: Timmy [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in the town of State College, Pennsylvania on Tuesday the 14th at 1pm. The first time I walked down the street I had this strong feeling like I was in some bad American college movie. The feeling was compounded by the white kids cruising down the street in their old bombs with big sunglasses, arms hanging out the window and rap music blaring. (Pretty Fly...) I've been very much in "get your shit together" mode over the last week, spent a lot of time downtown shopping and wandering around like the lost tourist that I am. I've also [View Full Entry]

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