November, 2003

Posted on 25th @ 5:51pm @ Melanies House

Today we went to the school where Melanie used to work. Wasnt too bad, met a few of the other teachers and stuff. Got a few questions about Australia – that sort of thing. Also met some of her old students as well – all i can say is that they are sooo american… its cool

The school was just like in the movies… students dancing around and singing and racing cars and.. oh hang on…im thinking of Grease here… dammit… nah, in a way it was kinda like that show that used to be on the ABC – Degrassi High.. thats the one. Lockers, Students dressed in plain clothes, etc etc… There was even a security guy there! Sure is a change form the high school i went to – good ol Inverell High

One thing that seemed weird was the amount of girls at school that had kids with them… yep… seems they have some kind of program where young girls (and boys i guess *shrugs*) take their kids to school with them. They go to the same classes and everything except that have a kid following them around. Weird… cant see the point in that really… and its gotta be somewhat boring for the kid.. and how much work could the girl/mum really get done at school while also trying to look after a child… hrmmmm Melanie says it used to be done as a kind of deterrent for the other girls but i couldnt help noticing the amount of attention they girls with kids seemed to get… dont think its a real deterrent… *shrugs* “oh wow a cute little kid… thats sooo cute.. i want one to play with”

At around 3, we left. Stopped off at some shops on the way back. Had a look in PetCo, a cool pet shop. They had really neat animals like colorful frogs, lizards, snakes, big birds etc etc. Pretty cool and they where all in heated areas so they where moving around and stuff. Over here you can get a cool colorful frog for about $7 US, and you can get a snake for around $60 US, and you can get a colorful mackawl (spelling?) bird for around $1500 US, that shop had pretty much everything – except i couldnt find any puppies.. *shrugs* Place sells weird colorful frogs but doesnt have any puppies…

Left there and headed back to the car via a good ol american liquor store. Melanie had such a hard day at school that she needed one of those tiny bottles of baileys…

And that brings me to now, Sitting in the upstairs room typing away. Going to go to CostCo when Melanies mum gets home. Might go by the computer place thats near there too.. im still looking for a 1287mb memory stick for my camera.

righto… thats it..

Posted on 25th @ 10:01am @ Melanies House

OK, more pictures!

Added a few more to the ones of snow when we went to Cheney – now got a photo of ‘Elm Street’ and also a picture of the Coeur de’ Lene – fancy big name for a lake/ocean at Idaho.

Go here for those.

Also… Picture taken when up the Space Needle. Not that many – its only the city. Oh well.

Go here for those.

And thats it so far.

Posted on 25th @ 9am @ Melanies house.

Righto, yesterday we went into Seattle to go round a few of the touristy places. Drove in and parked and then walked to the Seattle Centre place.

First off was food – gotta have a good feed before getting into the walking. Found a good place thats sells fish and chips. Wasnt too good. I even had tartare sauce on it. For some reason sauces seem to taste betetr over here *shrugs*

From there we went to the space needle – the big poibntly thing that seattle is known for. Paid the $12.50 and joined the line. The space needle viewing deck is about 550 feet above the ground. Getting up involves taking a elevator ride to the top. The cool thing is that the elevators face outwards so as you go up you can see outside – very cool.

At the top we walked around – a cool thing is that you can actually go outside and walk around. Wasnt too cold so we did a few laps around. Took some pictures which ill put up here as well at some stage.

Did some voyeruing using the high powered binoculars but seems noone was getting undressed

There is a restuarant at the top of the space needle as well that actually rotates around! Apaprently it does one revolution per hour. Apparently its free to go up IF you eat something at the restuarant – might have to look into that.

After that we wondered around inside – read a few interesting facts about the space needle etc etc. Then got in line to take the elevator down. At the bottom we are directed out towards the souveniers. I was keen on getting some till i saw the price – $10 US for a pen! woah nelly!. I soon passed on that. But i did use the machine that squished a penny and stamps a seattle thing on it – that will do me.

From there we went round and watched a 3D imax movie – Santa Vs the Snowman. Kiddie type of show but i really only was interested in the cool 3D look. Matrix revolutions is also showing om the normal IMAX – so im really considering going to that.

A quick monorail ride over the streets of the downtown area brought us to a few shops and stuff. We walked down to the public markets and had a look around. Melanie informed me that a ‘Public Markets’ sign that was habging up was in a scene in the movie ‘Sleepless in Seattle’. Probably wouldn have made more sense if i had seen that movie

Anyhow – the markets where starting to close up when we got there. Lots of stuff though – fresh seafood, jewelery, flowers, arty crafty stuff etc etc. Melanie got some donuts – the dude was cleaning up so she got a BIG bag of then for only $2!

Wandered around some more – went to another book shop, and a techy toys type shop then headed back to the place where the monorail leaves from. On the way bacdk we stopped by a Rtie-Aid – basically a chemist, and i actually managed to find a stubbie cooler for Jason! Bloody miracle considering we had been to every souvenier place and noone had them!

Looked round the shops back at the monorial station. Broswed in an Electronics boutique – saw a few games that i wouldnt mind getting, im jsut not sure if they are that much cheaper. *shrugs*

Left there and went upstairs to the toilets – the food up there idnt look too apealing so we decided to go to the spagetti factory again. Walked about 3ish blocks and it was all good. I had the lasagne this time – very very rich!

From there it was a brisk 3 block walk back to the car *shiver* then melanie drove us back home to her place.
Thats about it – not a bad day in all. Didnt get around to seeing the aquarium, or the science center, but maybe we will get back there at some stage. Also didnt get a chance to drop by Augustinas either!, but we will get there…eventually

Today Melanie has to get her fingerprints done for her teaching stuff, and i think we are going to the school she used to teach at – could be interesting.

Also – wednesday we are going to the boeing air museum. The Concorde is there!!! and its open to only members at the moment. Just so happens Melanies grandfather is a member (not what you know…) So im looking forward to that!

Righto. I think im done for the moment – stay tuned for photos!

Posted on 23rd @ 6:53pm @ Melanies house in Federal Way

So Melanie and I just got back to her place after being in Cheney all week. Hrmmm let me see…. Friday night we went into Spokane again – had a look round a big mall there. One thing ive noticed about american malls is that they have a LOT of clothes shops. Anyway – it was ok, we wewnt to a really cool bookshop and puzzle shop as well. After that we went to Red Robin for tea. Food was excellent and i got a little bowl of free icecream cause it was my birthday.
American food places are pretty cool, most of them have unlimited refils of softdrink, and some have bottomless fries which is cool as well. You get so full – sometimes it hurts.

It was sooooo cold. Below freezing with snow / ice everywhere.

When we got home, Scott (the fella that owns the place we where staying at) and Heidi where at the house. They had both driven there that arvo. We all had a bit of a chat and then slept.

Saturday (yesterday) we got up and went for a drive again. This time we went to the next state – Idaho. It was about 20mins drive past Spokane. There wasnt that much there really. Went to this bay type thing near the water – took some pictures and video then left. Too cold to stay outside for too long.

One the way back we stopped off at a factory outlet mall type thing. Found an excellent bookshop with rerally cheap books! Picked up the ‘Learning Cocoa’ and ‘Learning Carbon’ books from oreilly for about $30 AUD TOTAL!, retail they sell for about $50 AUD EACH! BARGAIN!

Drove back to spokane and stopped in at franks diner. Its a small diner place that is built inside an old railway carriage – very neat little place. The food was great too. American servings of food are SOOOO big!

After that we went back to Scotts place and watched a dvd then went for a drive to get food. Went back to the mexican restuarant that we had gone earlier with the people from the uni. Food was good once again. Scott is really funny. One the way back home we stopped off to grab an icicle to eat – i had tried one earlier off a car that was bad (silly me), anyway this new one was HUGE and it tasted alright.

Got home and had a shower. Melanie went to bed and i went downstairs to watch a dvd with Scott. He showed me a few of his guns. Its legal over here for people to have guns. We then started watching a movie but Scott fell asleep and i was a bit sleepy too so i went to bed.

Woke up this morning and packed up the stuff. Ended up leaving at around 11am. Drive was good. It doesnt seem that long over here to drive. I guess becuase most of the it on the freeway with the speed limit set at 75 miles per hour. Plus there is no Kangaroos to worry about

Stopped of at another factory outlet mall on the way and i scored myself a new pair of shoes! The Nike factory outlet store was amazing. Shoes where cheap!. I ended up paying around $50 AUD for a pair of Nike cross trainers. Probably cost anywhere from $80 – $100 AUD back home… another bargain!

Left there and headed back to Melanies place. Thats about it.

The week down at Cheney was great!. Had a look around at lots of stuff, got to play in snow! So may things.

Ive got some more pictures to put up here. Probably do that later tonight or tomorrow.

Posted on 21st @ 10:48am @ EWU Library – Cheney

Its my birthday in America today!

So we walked home yesterday in the snow, Its not actually that cold walking around in the snow when there is no breeze. When we got home we had to go get somthing to eat so we ended up going to Taco Time – basically a fastfood place like KFC / pIzza hut, but they sell mexican stuff like tacos and burritos. Not too bad.

When we got home it was still snowing! So i had to have a bit of a play. I made myself a little snowman!

Its only small, but its still a snowman! woohoo! making snowmen is HARD!, as i was told (and found out) its not just a matter of pushing all the snow together. What ya gotta do is squish a little ball of it together then roll it around and around the snow. It compacts itself on and after a while the ball gets bigger and bigger!

The place we are staying at also has this little slope out the front so i did a big of sliding down that – its soooo much fun. I thought about my cousins – Nathan and Grant while i was being silly in the snow – i think they would love it!

So i mucked around for a bit – melanie took some photos and some video of me which is cool. After making my snowman he fell apart so i ate him The snow is really light and fluffy – eating it is cold but it doesnt taste bad or anything.

After that i went inside and had a shower and slept. Woke up this morning and it had snowed all night! There is about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground!, If i walk on it my whole foot gets covered! The road it just ice – you can pretty much slide along it and im guessing it would be hard to drive on.

Im not sure if the snow will stay around today or not, the sun is out but the internet says the temperature here is 16 degrees Fahreinheit (spelling?). 32 degrees F = 0 degrees celcius, so its still pretty cold. Its weird for me that the sun is out and its still that cold… *shrugs*

So yeah… snow is cool!

righto – Pictures are here.

Just went outside for a walk and its snowing!

Pictures here. The last 5 on that page!

Woohoo! walking in snow is cool! its real soft and fluffy, sliding down ramps is cool too!… my hands got cold but after a while they jsut get numb and its all good

righto, Melanie jsut came back, time to walk home in the snow!

Posted on 20th @ 2:19pm

Once again – more piccies here

First one is of the space needle in seattle that i snapped quickly as we drove past – more of it will come when i go back there at some stage.

Then there is one of my head…. dont ask me whats going on with my eyes in that picture… tired maybe?

Two cool pictures of a river we crossed on the way to Cheney.

A picture of the steps looking out form the uni library.

And finally two piccies of the little squirrells

Posted on 20th @ 2:06pm @ EWU Library

Just back from having some lunch at the Uni food place here. Was basically like the typical lunch type dealio you see in the movies – grab a tray, serve yourself etc etc.
Sitting down to eat i believe i saw/heard my first true American Jock in his natural environment. It was kinda funny – in a way all the typical sterotypes where true. A lot of the talk sounded like Bill from Bill and Teds Excellent adventure – “dood” this and “dood” that and a few “woahs” trown in for good measure.

I jsut sat there quietly eating my deep friend fish and chips.

Finished up and went outside watching squirrels. Im wondering how many squirrels die of heart attacks. They seem like really nervous and jumpy animals *shrugs* or maybe its just me.

Also tried finding a public phone to ring home but was unsucessful.

righto, might go try and setup my mailing list again…

Posted on 20th @ 10:31am @ EWU Library

Its my birthday today! – well in Australia anyway. Ill have to call home at some stage. Here in America its my birthday tomorrow.

Ok, heres a picture of one of the squirrels i saw

Its not too good, from a bad angle. Ill try to get a betetr one or two today sometime.

Posted on 20th @ 10:20am – Cheney

Well after my blog from yesterday seems to have vanished – ill write up a new entry that includes the stuff from yesterday.

ok – Currently Melanie and I are in Cheney. Its about 5-6 hours away (ive got no idea which direction – maybe east?) from her parents place. Melanie went to the uni here, Eastern Washington University, and has come back to see a few people and give a talk. We drove here last Tuesday after picking up a key to the place we are staying off one of her friends. I saw snow for the first time during the drive!. We go over this ‘pass’ type thing that is fairly high and there was snow on the side of the road. We couldnt stop so i havnt been able to touch it or eat any yet

Yesterday (Wednesday) we went to the uni for the first time. Melanie visited all the people she used to know and we went out for Mexican food at lunch with some of the people from the Maths department. Food was good. I saw a squirrel as well! There are heaps of them at the uni here, running round full of energy. I took some photos which ill put up here eventually. In the afternoon we went for a drive to Spokane – its about 10miles away (not that far) and we walked around a mall there. After that we went to the old spagetti factory and had really yummy spagetti – very tasty.

It was raining yesterday which sucked. Today is clear but its damn cold!, ive never been so cold in my life. Luckily Melanies parents let me borrow some winter clothes, since i dont have that many coming from tropical Queensland.

Melanie has her talk today. At the moment she is having a meeting with someone she knows form the Maths department about her thesis stuff. Im sitting in the warm library using the wireless internet.

The place we are staying at is about a block or so from the uni, which is good. We walk her after getting bundled up in lots of clothes. There is potholes in the road that have frozen over – its cool. As yet there is no snow here. Apparently it snows – but i dont know if it will while we are here for the next few days.

Thats about it. Im annoyed that my last few posts have gone – but oh well. Im not sure what ill do for the rest of the day. Sit around using the internet i guess. There is a student union type building that sells food and stuff so ill probably wander over there at some stage. Melanie doesnt know when / if she will have lunch so ill go exploring (i.e. getting lost) when i get hungry.

righto, im going to investigate why my last few entries dissapeared.

Where have my last few posts gone? dammit…

Few more pics form the last few days here.

Posted 16th @ 7:11pm

Today (Sunday) was pretty cool as well. After getting home late saturday form the comedy i slet in till about 9:30ish. Got up and got dressed. Didnt eat any breakfast cause we where all going to eat with the rest of the family for lunch.

Sooooo, we headed off for lunch. Drove to Seattle to a place to eat ‘Dim Sum’ – thats how you say it but im not sure if thats how its spelt. Met Melanies grandparents (from her fahters side) and also her uncles/aunties/cousins from his fathers side as well. They are all really nice people.

The Dim Sum is hard to explain, its basically just little dishes of everything, people roll around the place with all different kinds on carts and you jsut greab what you want. Melanies grandparents sat at our table and basically choose the food as it went past. There was lots of really nice food, it was really really good

After eating we all said goodbye, and headed off in the car. We gave Melanies brother a lift back to his dorm at the University of Washington.

Then had a look round the little Univerisity village type thing. I went and had a drool at the apple store there and also had a look in the bookshops and stuff.

After that we headed back but stopped in at some malls on the way. They are really really big! A person could spend days walking around in them.

We spent about 1.5 hours and then headed home. The traffic was heavy cause there had been a football game on in seattle that had ended, but we got back ok.

righto, gotta go! Tea is ready! Ill probably add more later.

Posted on 16th @ 7:06pm

Melanies cousins came over saturday to get baby sat for a few hours. They are only young and spent most of the time playing with toys or getting chased around by melanies dad.
Saturday night we went for a drive to Redmond (the city where microsoft is located). Melanie arranged to meet up with some friends. It took about 45mins to drive from Melanies place to her friend Chip’s place. Chip works at microsoft – but ill get into that in a sec.

So we got to Chips and then headed out for somthing to eat. We went to a place called “cucina cucina”, which is an italian restaurant (cucina means kitchen in italian apprently). We had to wait about 30mins for a table, but that was cool we hung out at the bar. I had a coke, melanie had a water and Chip had some weird kinda peach magurita. We finished the drinks and it was time to eat. The table we sat at was covered with butchers paper and had crayons for people to draw on while they wait – pretty neat idea.

So Melanie got Chip to draw a little heirarchy chart of where he works in Microsoft. Turns out he works in the section that handles the speak techniologies, natural langauge processing etc for WIndows 2005 (Longhorn). He is the boss of 5 other people and their job is to put all the code from their section together and build it – then put that up on the main windows section server so the other teams can link against it etc etc etc

Anyhow – we got our food. I ordered the Liguine with chicken, was too shabby either. Melanie and Chip organised the whole ‘tipping’ thing – cause ive got no idea about that. We all ate, and chatted some more and then paid and left.

We then headed round to a comedy club – cant remember the name of it dammit… Anyway, we met up with some more of Melanies friends. They all basically worked at Microsoft. The comedians where really good. The african american dude talked really fast and i had trouble understanding him, the headliner for the night was some dude i hadnt hard of but he had been on the tonight show with Jay Leno and he was really funny.

Comedy finished and most people left, Melanie and Me and Chris (one of the microsofties) hang around. Chris is a pretty cool dude. We chatteed for a while before the place started closing up so we left. Drove back to Melanies place and went to bed.

All in all it was a pretty good day. Driving to Redmond at night was neat, lots of lights and stuff. It looks cool driving along the highways with lots of cars at night, all you see is a river of back lights in front of you and a river of headlights on the left hand side.

Posted on 15th @ 12:08am American time.

Just back from going to the cinema. We drove for about 10-15mins to get there, its right next door to the ’super mall’ which is also known in this household as the ’stupid mall’

The place was HUGE!, 17 cinemas in the one building!. Cost $7 US to get in, kinda funny cause it costs $7 australian to get into the cinema in Rockhampton. Ya gotta walk up and talk to the glass though, seems every person that is serving anything over here is behind a big sheet of glass and they either have small holes so you can hear or a microphone. *shrugs* Beats getting shot though i spose.. *not that happens over here mum – im perfectly safe – no need to worry*

Walked around the mall before we went to the movies, found a shop called “nothing over $1″ which is basically jsut your typical crazy clarks in australia. Anyhow – bought 4 postcards for $1, that ended up costing $1.08 cause they add tax on after the marked price. So i guess the shop should really be called “nothing over $1 + tax”, $1 american is ok for 4 postcards though… right?

Earlier today, we went driving. Melanie has to get her fingerprints done for some american teacher thing *shrugs*, anyway, we went to this police station and stood in line behind two other people. The first chick was making a bit of a scene cause she wanted to see her sons police record, they told her that her son was 24 and therefore she could not see them. She went on to explain that her daughter works at the police station and had read his record and told her she had to go down and ask then about it *reading someones record that is not part of offical business is of cause illegal* She said she knoew about his drug use and alcohol use and his abuse but there was somthing worse. Apparently her husband had done a ciotizens arrest on their own son cause he was going nuts… woah…. anyway..
The next dude was nooking in his driving test or somthing like that – so that wasnt too eventful, the lady behind the counter knew him by first name though – so he msut of been a regular *shrugs* Only in America..

Now… melanie steps up, wanting to get her finger prints done.. and the nice lady behind the counter informs her that she has to make an appointment… yup make an appointment to get her fingerprints done – a 10min job max. *sigh* Wont be long and youll be lining up and making appointments to go to the toilet.

After that we went to frys, but i wrote about that in the previous entry. Things are a bit mixed up but ya get that.

Ok, time to go eat my ‘Tiger Tail’ which im informed is a twinkie with red raspberry stripes. Time to become a true american… *shrugs*

Posted on 14th @ 5:30ish in America

Ok, picture page has been updated.. go here

If you dont see the new pictrures – try refreshing the page.

Theres one of me and melanie that reinyn took at the thai place we went to eat. Then there is Melanie and Reinyn standing near Reinyns car – and yes Reinyn IS that tall and melanie IS that short.

The few after that are at a park type place we went for a walk. Melanie has her big black coat on cause although it looks sunny its actually pretty chilly. The last two at the moment are from Reinyns place and his kick arse home theature system. He has a big projector and its really sweet.

OK, thats it for the moment.

Posted 14th @ 4:44pm In America

Went to frys today. Its a HUGE electronics store. Its got everything a geek could ever want and more. Hardware, software, dvds, books etc etc etc. I could spend an eternity there thats for sure.

Melanie went to a few places and got some food she was craving for that she cant get in Australia. *shrugs*

I almost bought a 128mb memory stick for my new camera, but resisted the urge. Plus it wasnt that much cheaper. Ill hold out a bit.

Melanie is busy organising trips back to her old uni and stuff. I talked to my supervisor and he gave me some ideas on stuff to look up while im over here.

Its somewhat cloudy here today, sprinkled a bit but so far not that much rain. Its predicted to rain the next 4 days or so. Typical weather around here at this time im told.

I found a good FTP program to upload my pictures so stay tuned for more pictures sooner or later.

Posted on 14th @ 4:42pm in America

Took these the other day at the capitol building and some little lake thing we went. Its not that many pictures but im still sorting a few out.

Ive taken the mailing list down. For some reason i couldnt send emails to it. Ive emailed the people who run the server im useing and ill see what they say. Hopefully it will be fixed soon and ill start the list again. Until then ill jsut post here.

Went for a drive today to visit Reinyn, one of melanies friends. He lives down in Olympia. Sitting on the right side of the car with no steering wheel is kinda weird, but not that hard to get used to. Its a bit scary turning corners and stuff cause it feels like we are going to run into someone – or maybe thats jsut me.

Went and saw the capitol building, took a photo of it which i will link to when i get it online. Also went and had a look at some parky type places which was cool too. Ate nice thai food for lunch with Reinyn. We got a little off track driving back, but managed to find our way.

I had american macaroni and cheese for tea tonight – wasnt too bad. I also mananged to get the wirless ionternet working as well on my powerbook. For some silly reason i have to type the password in as hex values for it to work. *shrugs* Oh well.

Ok, im going to play around with the photos i took today. I need to streamline the process of uploading them and everything.