Mix Up

Not a whole lot going on this week. It's suppose to be Orientation week at UQ but for graduate students that means there is nothing going on. I guess they know you've been in school before and don't really need an introduction on how to study, take notes, ect.

Last weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night I kind of met my house mate, Christine, in the city at a bar called the Pig and Whistle. Except she was at one and I was at the other one, as there are two within about a 15 minute walk from each other. Needless to say we finally met up at the right one and met a few of her friends from work and we went to an art gallery a little out of town.

On the way I happened to lose my cell phone in the cab we were in. After calling the cab company they were able to track down who had it and made arrangements to get it back.

After the art showing we walked down to The Valley or Fortitude Valley which is the red light district / bar / night club / Chinatown area. The place were were going to eat at was completely packed and had this going on in front of the restaurant.




Not knowing the Chinese calendar we didn't realize it was the beginning of the Chinese New Year and we were in China town. There were about 4 of these going on at the same time at different restaurants within a half a kilometer of each other. There were drums, fireworks, dragons, and lettuce hanging from the doorway like mistletoe. The dragons would reach up and eat the lettuce then go back inside?????? Not sure the significance but it was very cool.

We got into the restaurant next door and had some dinner. It was very weird because I was in Australia eating at a Chinese place drinking New Zealand beer. Kind of cool to have all the different cultures mixed up all in one place. But I did get to speak some Mandarin to the servers, courtesy of YanZhang's from my lab in SLC, which they were throughly entertained by. The food was good and the beer was pretty good as well, but I still like the Aussie beer better.

After dinner we walked a half block to a bar called Rick's Place and they had a live band playing that was Green Day / My Chemical Romance like. The place was 1/2 packed with Emo/Punk kids and I think I was probably one of the oldest people there. But they were pretty good and a lot of fun.

After the band did about 5 songs the place emptied out in a matter of minutes and everyone but band a few other people were there. We decided to leave after a while and meet up with the cabbie that had my phone. We got a ride back home with him and he gave me my phone back which was very nice of him to do. And the night ended as being a great time. Good company, food, beer, music, beer, so I couldn't ask for a better time.

Saturday didn't do anything and just chilled out at home, did some laundry and a whole lot of nothing.

Here are the pictures from the Kissteria concert and the wrestling show I went to a couple of weeks ago. Bradley would have loved it. They tried to get people down in front of the band but it took about 4 songs until a few little kids got up there close. I'm sure Bradley would have been down there in a second. A lot of fun and very entertaining.




Have a good week and enjoy the freezing weather back in the States!!!
Later,

Brandon