Month: March 2006

some statistics

ohmygod update

okay, shame on me about blogging so shamelessly about all the insects and things i’ve seen. about 5 minutes after i pressed “post”, a huntsman crawled out to the ceiling of my bedroom. most. paranoid. feeling. ever. it was a small one – only 7cms in diameter (about same size as a smoke alarm), but i hid under my blanket the entire time oleg was trying to get it. the part that i missed, thankfully, is that after oleg missed the huntsman (not thankfully), it jumped down onto the window sill. it even might’ve went on the bed. its too freaking fast. anyway, after i saw how it squeezed itself completely flat into the crack of the windowsill, i crawled out of bed and far away, until oleg flicked it outside.

lessons:
– no more windows open. ever.
– those things are fast.
– and they can be very small when they want to be. PARANOIA BZZZZZ.

good night! … i hope.

oh yeah. photographs from last 2 parties, and, well, the huntsman.
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university

weeks in sydney: 4
week of classes: 3rd
number of classes i’m taking: 4
number of exams i’ll have: 2
number of textbooks i need to buy: 2
number of textbooks bought: 1

enterntainment

number of times i went to the movies: 2
days off in the week i have: 1 (but almost 3 if i leave after 12pm on friday and skip the tutorial on tuesday)
cost of parking ticket on our first day in sydney: 175$

internet

cost of internet that i get from university: 4.4c/meg (that’s $50 for each gigabyte)

how much have i spent in the first 3 weeks despite not *downloading anything other than pages* (not even photographs): you don’t want to know. or rather my parents shouldn’t know :p

cost of wireless modem that we bought to get away from that: $70
cost of wireless router to connect to the modem to share the internet: $40
cost of monthly plan at 12gig, 512kbps download, 128kbps upload: $90
cost per person: $10 for lesley ann, $40 for me and $40 for oleg
do we actually get that speed? only for australian websites, and even then not always.
is it still worth it? hell yes.

insects

section 1: bites

number of bites on my left arm: 16
number of bites on my left leg: 5
number of bites on my right leg: 0
number of bites on my right arm: 3
is it bed bugs? unlikely, couldn’t find any traces. looks like mosquito bites.

section 2: spiders

number of spiders seen: a lot
number of significant spiders seen: 1, a huntsman in our bathroom. (visualize: i’m walking in without contacts, put my contacts in, look up and see this reflection in the mirror.)

section 3: cockroaches

last night, on the way to the movies, how many times i jumped from my own shadow (thinking its a cockroach or some huge crawly animal): about 70
last night, on the way from the movies, how many times i jumped from my own shadow: 0
last night, on the way from the movies, cockroaches seen: 4
(biggest one was about 6cms long. right next to my foot.)
did i jump? yes.

food

amount of times i made bread from skratch: three!
carrot cake: once, and very very good
oladushki: twice, also very very good
ate honey mustard chips: endless. very VERY good
drinking: water, lots of awesome juice, green tea
coffee: once (at home)
cappuccino: 5 times. it is amazing here.

my room

things on the wall: only 3 4, all 3 are calendars (hesi’s, ansel adams, and UNSW’s). can’t find posters! aaargh. and sometimes a huntsman.
pillows: 2
lamps: 2
spiders: 0 (so far). funnily i typed that 5 minutes before a huntsman crawled in. make that 1.

new zealand index

myself 01 – jan 19: new zealand trip, flight there
02 – jan 20: due north
03 – jan 21: island in the sun
04 – jan 22: everything in this garden is lovely
05 – jan 23: rotorua – the fumes are chocking me
06 – jan 24: rotorua to national park with stop at thermal wonderland
07 – jan 25: whole day at national park
08 – jan 26: national park to wellington
09 – jan 27: trip to the south island
10 – jan 28: kaikoura to geraldine – long drives and changing cars
11 – jan 29: geraldine to twizel, the day hike that killed us
aoraki12 – jan 30: sunrise over mountains (twizel to all day bay)
13 – jan 31: all day bay to dunedin, penguinds and internet
14 – feb 1: dunedin to fjordland
15 – feb 2: milford sound sea kayaking
16 – feb 3: full of doubtful sounds
17 – feb 4: fjords to queenstown
18 – feb 5: queenstown to wanaka
19 – feb 6: whole day in wanaka
20 – feb 7: wanaka to haast
21 – feb 8: haast to frans joseph
22 – feb 9: at frans joseph
23 – feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika
24 – feb 11: hokitika to arthur’s pass
25 – feb 12: arthur’s pass to christchurch (day at christchurch)
26 – feb 13: flight back

night under the stars, movies and the rain

the night that tim left australia, sydney had a movie festival of short films. one of our new friends’ friends actually worked on one of the films as a producer and sound manager (or something like that), a lot of the people went there early during the day to catch a spot, kevin, elen and i joined the rest later during in day, when the crowd was bursting the park to the seams.

as the sun was setting down, the weather seemed to become worse, and when it started raining lightly the announcers finally stopped pimping sony and other supporters and announced that the screening of the winning 16 short films will now begin. the movie that our friend produced had to go last.
8 movies later there was a break in the festivities for people to stretch, and that’s when i shot these photographs.

the movies were cute, funny, poignant, weird, interesting, different, and all of them were under 7 minutes, and included the theme of this years fest – bubbles – in some shape or form. we saw a lot of bubblegum popping.

when the second half of the event was coming to a draw (we were about 3-4 movies away from the end), the rain started pouring harder and harder until elen, oleg and i decided to leave, as we were becoming soaking wet – everything, down to our wallets, and all that we had with us. earlier, newspapers covered us, but at this point after 30 seconds of this rain, this monsoon, they would fall apart.

as we were leaving the park (with the beginning of the torrent of other people as well), they actually stopped the event before our friend’s movie played anyway. thus, we ended up not missing it. (the guy actually brought the dvd to our apartment later, so the end was a happy one, mostly. they didn’t win any of the awards).

the walk and the ride home was entertaining. on the way to the bus stop there were people dancing in the fountains near the park, giving up all hope of staying dry and getting soaked by both the rain torrents from above, and the fountain water. strong streams of rain water were flowing underneath our feet (very unhygienic :) ), and this completely soaking wet crowd of happy, young people was squeezing their way towards the bus stop.

after some difficulty (the bus drivers here are incredibly stubborn and will not pick you up, in pouring rain, 3 meters away from the bus stop, when you’re next bus is 15 minutes away. bastard.), we got on the bus, which was full of aforementioned young happy wet people. and here perhaps the most awesome scene of the entire day occured – the back of the bus started to sing.

first the singing was repetitive bon jovi “oooh we’re half way theeeeere, oooo–oohhh, living on a prayer…” after a few times of repeating that cuplet along with some more words, the crowd got a bit tired. a few minutes later a voice called out from the back – “thank you everyone, the back of the bus will be here until thursday!”. i was thinking all this time that they should sing something like a *whole* song, so i called out “do you take requests?”. some laughter followed, and a random hidden voice called out from the back “what did you have in mind?”. “queen!”

a pause followed, and then a very awesome thing happened.

they, and then i, and then the rest of the bus started singing the bohemian rhapsody. if you know the song (and you should), it is sung in multiple voices, which made this all the more awesome as the different voices all were acted out by different people in proper succession. we sung the entire song, and incredibly in tune (for a bus, it was magnificent). we finished exactly as our party was exiting the bus, and i shouted out “thank you!”, to which i got a reply of “we’ve got our first fan!”

the entire experience was reminicent of the fish scene in finding nemo (hmm okay should be more specific with regards to which fish scene – the one with many fish forming signs and symbols for dora and nemo’s dad to follow), where a conversation was held between an individual and a single entity composed of many singular units.

i think that a singing bus should be mandatory. once a week, have people gather at a pub, and then depart on a certain route, prepared to sing songs together.

second last new zealand update batch

i have only 2 days left to write about (and a little – the day of departure where we left at like 5 am), but i decided that i’ll put up the last few days that i’ve already written anyway.

the weekend here went awesomely – i spent another full day at the beach, almost bought a dress, and realized i can now carry 7 kg worth of groceries for about 25 minutes.

enjoy the entries!

for photographs start here and end when you get bored :)

23 – feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika

the day began with the bad news that my bag still has not arrived. after some phoning the YHA in haast, it turned out that my bag is still in haast as of this morning. wtf mate… it was sitting there for a whole day? argh!!!

anyway, the choices were put as follows:

  • for an extra charge get the bag delivered to the glacier today (what i especially don’t get is that it was supposed to arrive *YESTERDAY*. okay, maybe same-day is impossible, so then *TODAY*. but if i did not pay, when in the world would it get here?! like 10 days after i leave new zealand? i don’t get it AT ALL. cause the guy who i spoke to initially definitely understood that i was leaving this place in 2 days) after 1pm. when after 1pm? no one knows.
  • for a doubly extra charge get it sent to hokitika, where it might – might – get by tonight.
  • leave it in haast and waste 4 hours driving there and back to pick it up.

    after some hesitating and deliberating i decided to wait here and try getting it here. if it doesn’t come today then i will leave my chirstchurch address (the hostel), and try to get it delivered there asap. argh. i miss my toothbrush, glasses, shampoo… FLIP FLOPS! dang it.

    the nice thing about this town is that its so small, and the gas station attendant is doubling as the post office guy, and the hostel owner actually knows him (in the sense that she said “oh he’s a nice guy, you can talk to him and give him your cell number). after talking to the post office guy, further positive information came along – he said that the package should get here by 1:30pm. so, for now we’re hanging out in the hostel. it is 11:26am – we had breakfast, and at this point anja is reviewing photographs on oleg’s computer, and i decided to blog. i am 8 days behind!

    some hours later…

    so, upon spending the next 2 and a half hours blogging, at 1:30 (half an hour after the approximate 1pm deadline) i went to the post office/friendly local gas station/mobil. unfortunately, the guy said “another half an hour”, and i demurely went back (having bought an ice cream to celebrate the shiny blue skies and warm weather and to cheer myself up in general) to the hostel.

    some minutes later…

    20 minutes later a postal truck pulled into the hostel with a MAGICAL SINGLE PACKAGE in his hands! yup! my bag has ACTUALLY FOUND ME. apparently this whole concept of “mailing” “stuff” is not entirely flawed.

    in joy and celebration we have jetted out of the hostel on the road to hokitika, which has been described as the jade capital of new zealand (and possibly THE WORLD, although i’m not sure). another waterfall of flyers describing things and places as “the best kept secret in new zealand” has accompanied the visit to this town. remind me to not really trust new zealand with secrets, as they tend to publish them in official visitor guides.

    hokitika also greeted us with rain, and thus we have decided to hang out at the very posh, very large, very cool looking hostel, with a very calm and friendly australian sheepdog, sid. (funny that i can remember dogs’ names but not people’s…) here i’ve found a book by grisham, “the broker”, which addicted me right away. around 11:30pm the realization that i just won’t finish it (and i can’t take it cause the hostel libraries work on the principle of take-one-leave-one), so i went to sleep in our 3(people)-for-1(room). anja hasn’t been able to find a place in that hostel, but they very nicely made her a bed on a mattress on the floor, and other than that was a bunk bed, leading to generally cozy accomodations.

    • 22 – feb 9: at frans joseph

    our cozy group of three – anja, oleg and myself – have all booked ourselves some day trips for the day at the glacier.

    the craziest trip was booked by oleg – ice climbing. this is when climb a chunk of ice using boots with very sharp points, and a pair of axes. the safety is a top rope that’s hooked to you, and a guide belaying you. of course, i think that’s the reasonable part – the part that is very UNreasonable, is the part where they gotta start at 7:45am.

    the next craziest trip was booked by anja – a full day (8 hour) walk on the glacier, with 6 hours spent on the ice, and start time at 8:15am. walking on the glacier entails putting on special shoes with spikes in them (“ice talons”), and then following the guide around the glacier using paths that are created especially for you.

    and my calm trip was the 3/4 day trip, which is longer than the half-day trip, but not as grueling as the full day trip. to quote from the brochure “with lots of photographic opportunity” – so given how tired and under the weather i’ve been feeling, i decided to take this “opportunity”. the fact that there were two starting times – 7:45 (right…) and 10:30

    thus, my morning was fairly calm – given how usually at 10:30 we have to be packed and out for 30 minutes, and the only thing i had to do was dress, eat breakfast, buy a bottle of water and be there.

    on that note: dress.

    basically, the choice of wear on the glacier is something that dries quickly on the bottom, and 4 warm layers on the top. well, the warm layers part wasn’t tough, because i was pretty prepared on that aspect . but the quick dry pants wer an issue, cause i only had 2 pairs of pants (pyjama, and cotton brown ones). i also had 3/4 length pants, which in hindsight is what i should’ve worn despite them not being quick dry (jeans and cotton), and lastly i also got a pair of shorts. like, summer shorts. which is what i was told to wear on the glacier.

    while being slightly sceptical, we do what we gotta do, so in shorts and 3 layers (it was a very sunny warm day) i went off, making it about 3 minutes before our group of 26 people has launched.

    after outfitting us into super waterproof jackets and big boots (you don’t wear your own shoes cause you will be outfitted with the afore mentioned ice talons, i.e. a big set of spikes attached to the foot) off we went on a bus ride to the bottom of the glacier. of course the bottom of the glacier is really about an hour’s walk from the parking lot (with ice talons in a bag, and i took my wide angle (attached) and kit lens for the polarizer filter, cause i had no clue how shooting all that bright white snow will work out, and 1.25 liter water bottom). so, that was a nice, brisk start to the day.

    at the bottom we’ve split into +adventurous and -adventurous groups, where i went for the slower paced -adventurous. in the end we covered pretty similar terrains, and given all the stuff i was carrying and my generally not-the-best shape, i was pretty happy with my choice.

    the hike up the glacier’s face was fast paced and tired us all out quickly. later on, in the evening, oleg remarked that the initial climb was tough for him as well. after that initial push, the adventure began.

    the advertising said that we’d feel “refreshingly surprised at the sense of your own achivement”. that was indeed true, as we have spent an insane amount of time climbing into, out of, and going over cracks and crevices in the ice. at one point, the friendly old british man (who, together with his wife, has already been on an iceberg in the canadian rockies), asked me after we went through a particularly long, narrow, twisty, ice passage – “so, are your legs quick-dry?”. apparently they were, as they rarely felt cold, and my biggest concert through the hike was when should i stop and shoot, and when should i hug the camera and squeeze. since everything went well with only positive remarks from the well equipped guide (“how are the papparazi doing back there?” when me, and another british couple, where the guy was also shooting with a DSLR, started lagging a bit behind)
    anyway, the evening was spent with some food, some rest, some spa, some beers, and oleg and me aching from the excersize. oleg was totally aching, where as i was totally aching mostly in lower body. anja was totally fine from her experience. :)

    i advice looking towards the photographs for the way it looks. but, lessons learned for today:

    • glaciers are made out of ice
    • ice is cold
    • therefore, glaciers are cold (sometimes)
    • bringing the thin, light, synthetic pad that my dad gave me made me the only person who sat in warmth ON the iceberg during lunch
    • ice melts. making squeezing through crevices possible.
    • those spikes on the bottom of our shoes saved us many times today
    • climbing through big ice cracks and hiking over big chunks of ice feels like climbing within an icecube, but cooler
    • glaciers are made out of big ice cracks and big chunks of ice
    • therefore, glaciers are cool (always)

    21: feb 8: haast to frans joseph.

    upon departing haast, we sleepily stumbled into the car and left towards the next exciting thing – the glaciers. the trip towards the glaciers was punctuated with naps (for me), a few stops at pretty roadside locations (waterfalls and rainforests), and the realization that i forgot a whole bag of stuff in haast about 2 hours into the 4 hour drive. we decided that i’d call them and ask them to send it forward to glaciers with someone else who’s staying there, as haast is mostly and essentially a stopover for people going to the glaciers from wanaka.

    the excitement of the day was delivered in a form of a root into which we “crashed” (i.e. a road kinda jammed into). the car was fine, and after a car servicing station deflated the wheel and took out the wood, oleg (the driver) was fine too. :)

    the evening was magnificently peaceful, with a lovely sunset over surrounding mountains, and a game of chess. i played some random guy, one out of many chess players who seem to gather there daily. i lost, 1-2 (we played 3 games). in the first game i had a very elegant mate, but in the last one he completely annihilated me.

    the next day we all had big adventures awaiting us, so we went to sleep fairly early.

    20 – feb 7: wanaka to haast

    in the morning of leaving wanaka, we have picked up another travel companion. a german girl of 20 years old, named anja (yes, anja, like the russian name! so cool.) she will travel with us to the glaciers (through haast, where she has found a dorm bed in a nearby hostel). in terms of general travel it makes our car arrangement different – all my bags are in the backseat now (as they are the smallest, who’d thunk that), anja is sitting in the front, and i sit at the back with my laptop. this is perfect because i don’t have to keep up a conversation with anyone :D and i end up falling asleep A LOT. which is great cause i constantly feel like i’m lacking sleep.

    so the drive to haast was punctuated with a few stops at pretty places (waterfalls and such), and that’s pretty much it. in haast we picked up food, and since i still felt tired and kinda sick (lightheaded), anja and oleg went to explore the local forests, and i stayed in the huge, open concept 2 floor YHA hostel. which actually SUCKED cause their oven didn’t really work from the first time, and they had a pronounced lack of dishes, in my opinion.

    anyway, the day was not very exciting (overcast and grey too), but that’s exactly what i needed. the photographs anja and oleg brought back (they both have drebel 350d, hers is silver) are verrrry pretty, but i felt SO tired that i don’t regret that i stayed in one place, and had a day off.

    evening dinner was pasta with ground beef and tomato sauce. the YHA hot plates sucked, and we never did end up eactly figuring out how they work, but everything got somehow cooked, and was made into a pretty tasty dinner.

    i blogged some in the evening, and slept painfully with my burns, and very loud rain and wind throughout the entire night.

    valentines in sydney

    posting stuff i had written earlier. 

     

    valentine’s day has surrounded us from the start, with appropriate “life” shows on the television. then off to the e-card office to get our student ids, and off to the orientation we went.

    since you didn’t have to be at the orientation, i’ll save you the 95% boredom, and let you know of the 5% fun:

  • the security guy made a nice and informative presentation of the dangers on and around campus, and also of the services provided by security. he also was pleasantly self mocking, raising many a laughs from the crowd
  • the part when they were talking about size of australia, the guy asked if anyone is from canada, and a weighty part of the audience cheered. i was the only one to cheer AND clap, thus some remembering i’m from canada
  • of course when he said china right afterwards i heard toronto so i cheered again, which brought some confusion, making some people believe i have some connection to china.
  • and when a little later he asked if anyone is from russia and i was the only one in the entire 200 person room (oleg’s approximation) who went “YEAH!” and raised my hand, made most people to remember me as russian

    • a lot of canadians went as exchange students to this university. some statistics about who i’ve met today:

  • 50% of met were from canada
  • 5% from design, 30% from mining degrees, 50% of other engineering/cs, 15% business
  • 4 mcgill, 1 schulich (3rd year, says he knows of our hesi), +1 u of t, 4 queens
  • i saw 7 french girls, 1 canadian/russian girl (the only other russian speaking person AFAIK), again,

    the day after the orientation bbq was spent running errands, failing at setting up internet (for a few reasons that i figured out later in the evening with oleg), buying some sushi rolls for dinner out of self spoilage, and then a very pleasant evening of blogging, and watching olympics on the tv.

    among other pieces of knowledge gathered today, was that our illusionary roomates (i.e. the ones who are not to be seen yet) are in new zealand until the 18th (day before tim arrives), and they are party animals, and the flat is essentially a big hangout house for most of the time.

    after having some wine, sleep is scheduled to happen in 10 minutes, at 1am. tomorrow’s orientation starts at 9:30am.