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Posts Tagged ‘australia’

Sydney Opera House

Monday, August 8th, 2011

For those who know me well, I’m a travel junkie. I’d rather go exploring than to, let’s say, buy furniture. My friends know. Remember the bean bags and giant stuffed animals Julie and I used as pseudo chairs?

Anyway, we’re currently in Australia. The weather is crisp. The meat pies are delicious. Even though the currency exchange is terrible for Americans, I’m still having a ball.

In our quest to learn about other cultures and histories, we decided to visit Sydney’s iconic Opera House. It was breathtaking. And if you know of its history…even more wow.

Our guided tour was awesome! Aside from learning about its history and unfathomable architecture, we got to sit in on some behind-the-scenes practice sessions. There were ballets for an aboriginal dance performance, opera for Of Mice and Men, and an orchestra playing a piece. It was like a sampler platter!

Ciao,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. Australia’s food portions are significantly smaller. I think I like it.

Tags: australia, sydney opera house
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Meat Pies

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

I can now advocate and tell Americans: don’t be afraid of a meat pie.

I had heard about these little things in America and thought, NO SORRY, fruit goes in pies, not meat (well, maybe with the exception of a chicken pot pie).

Anyway, on my first day in the city, I got out of a train station and was surrounded by meat pies. Meat pie mania! Every little sandwich shop and coffee place offered them. So I braced myself and ordered a beef minced meat pie.

The girl behind the counter suggested I buy the extra tomato sauce (you mean ketchup, lady?) and I was thinking, hell why not, I’m about to eat a BEEF PIE.

I picked up my little single serving pie and nestled into a station table as everyone else hurried around me to catch the train.

It was certainly a “moment” for me. Here I was, in the midst of Australian culture, isolated in my aura of concentration among the busy people around me. I didn’t care.

It was just me and my pie.

I got my knife and fork and out of habit, carefully cut myself a triangular slice of the pie (keep in mind this thing was about 5 inches in diameter, I don’t know what I was doing), squeezed on some fancy ketchup, and nervously consumed it.

It was good.

It was savory and salty and the crust was so flaky and buttery.
I repeated the process – cut a triangular piece, add a dollop of ketchup, and consume – until I was done. I continued on in my experience for about 10 minutes until every little bit was gone and I was thinking about maybe getting another.

That was when some dude plopped down next to me with his own pie. He ripped the packet of tomato sauce, squeezed it all in the middle of the pie, picked up the pie and folded it like a taco, and downed it in 4 bites. Talk about making my experience look cheap.

I realize that I’ve written a very long post on meat pies and I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Sorry about that! LOL.

Sending some love from the land down under,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. I have yet to figure out whether their meat pie portions are for a snack or a meal.

Tags: australia
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Hello Australia!

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Hi Everyone,

Sorry. I’ve been MIA for a while! Things have been busy, but I’ve got lots of cool stuff to post.

I’m sort of a travel junkie and my current hobby has brought me to Australia. Yes, that’s right… the land down under, but not the Thunder Down Under because that’s a Vegas show where…well you can guess. There’s lots of thunder.

Right now, at this very moment, I’m blogging from a Starbucks. And believe me, it was hard to find! There were only 4 locations that came up in the Sydney city area…all I could think was, pardon? Did I hear that right?

I’ve been here for a few days (in AU, not Starbucks) and already have collected some invaluable experiences and life lessons:

People here yield for pedestrians…they don’t try to race them over.

I’m embarrassed to say, I felt bad for how much drivers were yielding for me. I’ve been trained to expect a flattened toe if I thought I had the right of way in Los Angeles.

So, instead I tried to yield for these Aussie drivers, and it went on back and forth for a couple of hand waves before I just gave up and crossed. Whoa.

I am constantly running up to the driver side of cars expecting a passenger seat.

Everything looks like it’s on the wrong side! I freak out when we’re on the road…I try to advise people who drive me to WAIT!!!! And to NOT TURN HERE!!! Heh.

I am constantly standing and walking on the wrong side of the street, thinking that all these people who keep cutting around me must be in some massive hurry.

I once blocked a long escalator with my stand-on-the-right American-ways… picture me, going up the escalator on the right side, minding my own beeswax. I turn around and EVERYONE else is standing on the left. Hm…that’s certainly enough societal pressure to tell me there’s something wrong with this picture.

But, these Australians were so nice… no one even called me out on it. Maybe they’re used to Americans acting aloof…especially when it comes to international politics.

Havoc

Anyway, throughout my train ride adventures, I stopped off at Cabramatta. It’s sort of a Chinatown, but not the official one. I thought to myself that this would be a good spot to begin my havoc.