Fickle Spring

As long as I can remember, I haven’t been able to decide which season I liked more: Spring or Fall. Speaking purely about the nature of the season’s nature, I enjoy the cool warmth and new growth of Spring, and the warm chill and turning colors of Fall. I like that perfect temperature that is warmer than winter, but cooler than spring.

I could spend the rest of this blog telling you in what ways I think this correlates with the things that I think are me. And you likely know by now, that would be easy for me to do. But that is not what I want to speak on now. I guess I should not be surprised how different an Australian Spring is, but this lack of spring is exactly what I want to comment on. Yes, I am going to while away an hour or so talking to you about the weather.

There really is no spring here. Admittedly, this is not the typical Australian spring, but even as atypical as it is, I think it is fair to say that what the Aussie calls spring, is very different from what I do. The weather recently has been very fickle. One Monday a few weeks ago, it went from high 80s to low 60s in a matter of about 3 hours! A week or so after that, we went through a heat wave that was the worst Australia has seen that early in the season for quite a few years. For about 10 days the temperature stayed above 35 degrees C (95F), and on more than one occasion it reached over 40 degrees C (104F). At one point, I saw the temperature (not the forecast, but the actual temperature that I was walking along the street through) was 43C (109F).

This heat is a dry heat. Generally speaking, I think a dry heat more comfortable than a humid heat, but I have never experienced a dry heat like that. I was going for a short errand down Rundle Mall. I stepped into the corridor into a furnace, but stepping out onto the street was worse. It also happened to be a windy day, so when I turned the corner of the ally I stepped into a wind tunnel that must surely be similar to the experience of walking in the Sahara. The wind was so dry that I felt my skin lose all moisture within 30 seconds of stepping outside.

Moving on, the heat wave was followed by a few clear blue days in low 30s. The day Laura left then turned into yet another stage: cold and rainy. The temperature was in the mid to low 20s again and it rained on and off for the rest of the weekend. It was actually pretty good timing for bad weather, if you ask me. The first few days after my exams were over were good days to just blah-out, just laying around in the apartment watching rented DVDs.

Anyway, the sky is blue, and although it is a bit cold to go to the beach, I expect it will warm up soon. I’m not a big fan of this spring. The temperature and weather have fluctuated too much. But I think the biggest reason for my dislike of this spring was the lack of what I consider a true winter. The winter was too warm for spring to feel THAT much different. And for whatever reason, I have not noticed the new growth as much as I usually do. But on the bright side, I only have to wait another 5 months before my next spring!

Cheers!

Doneski

Today saw the first Qantas Casualty. The first of us fortunate four has sprouted wings and is in the air at this moment on her first leg of a three legged journey back home. Within 12 hours of starting our final exam, Laura got the heck out of Dodge.

Alex’s parents will be arriving here in a week or so and they stay around here for a little before doing some traveling before going back to the States, and Ryan leaves around the same time as Alex to enjoy Sydney for a few days before returning to the States. Ernest, Ryan and my roommate, leaves for home on Dec. 1st. Starting on December 2nd I will have all of Adelaide to myself. I look forward to it, and also wonder how I’ll distract myself enough to not notice the loneliness of the situation…

So I am officially done classes and have a large 47 day holiday to enjoy before my next class (which will be at Clemson). Yesterday the four of us had our final exam: Quantity Surveying. I wasn’t feeling too confident going into it, and I think that is a big portion of why I don’t feel that confident about how I did on the exam. I calculated beforehand that if I got a zero on the exam, I would still have a 50 in the class, and unless I’m mistaken, a 50% is a passing grade, and since only my credit transfers back to Clemson, I was guaranteed to pass the course. It was reassuring to know that I was not pressured to do well, but I’m not the kind of person to purposefully neglect my studies like I would have been if I didn’t study.

The exam itself was quite the experience! The first of our two exams was administered by our teacher in that course for the four of us exclusively (our teacher was helping us consolidate more time to see Australia/allow for a sooner flight home). However, the exam we took yesterday was administered in the usual Adelaide manner: at the Adelaide Showgrounds, and in our specific case at 6:30pm.

So first off, you had to check your bag and were not allowed to take in your cell phone. Then about 500-800 students crowded into a large room set up for the occasion. The room was broken into blocks and you sat in a certain section according to what class you were taking an exam in. I don’t know why it makes sense to do it this way, but in this manner there were probably 5-8 courses being examined at the same time, while probably 3 people per seating section patrolled the area to limit the amount of cheating possible.

Before starting this SAT-esk ordeal, we laughed out loud as the attendants of each section, in airline style, pointed out the nearest fire exit, and orders such as “please move quickly and silently to your block and take a seat” in that passive-aggressive, female voice played over the loud speakers. 2 hours of prison-like patrolled silent sitting later, we issued out of the exit and made our way to the pub. A quick drink as a double celebration (the end of exams, and the last time the four of us will be together at least until we return to Clemson for classes) finished the eventful day.

-Cheers!

Christmas Pageant

So I’m sitting on the coach watching Tiger play in the Australian Masters Golf Tournament and have decided that Aussies obsess over Tiger even more than we do back in the States. I think it is because of his popularity that his presence considerably boosts the tournament turnout and brings a significant impact on the Melbourne economy. What better time to write than now.

Yesterday, the 14th of November, was the Christmas Pageant day. 250,000 people from the area came into the Adelaide CBD (“Downtown” as I would call it back in the states) and lined the 3.3 Km rout of roads taken by the 63 floats, 15 bands, 9 walking sets, 10 dance groups, 1 DJ, and 3 choirs, with over 200 clowns interspersed throughout the parade.

To help prevent heat related health issues, there was a lot of water stations and First Aid stations that provided some free water, fans, and fruit. My favorite strategy they used was this tanker truck full of water that drove the route. It passed by about 10 minutes before the parade itself.

Not so much this float, but there were some floats I felt were a little disturbing.

I am a strong believer of the Thanksgiving rule as far as Christmas is concerned (well, I must admit that when at home for Thanksgiving, it is very difficult to resist turning on some Christmas music while preparing the house and food for the Thanksgiving Dinner), and yet it was pretty fun to see this parade. It was a very new experience for me as well. I don’t remember going to a Christmas parade in person before, so that was a first. But what was more interesting to me, was the whole idea of celebrating a holiday that I have always experience during winter, in the summer.

I found it interesting that a majority of the performing bands were Scottish/Irish in style. I now wonder if there is a high concentration of immigrants from those areas here as compared to British immigrants.

I don't know if it is technically offensive for me to have taken this photo, but there was a small group of Aboriginals (or of Aboriginal decent) present.

Adelaide is just starting to come out of a heat wave that is the hottest for November that it has seen before. For over a week, the temperature has been over 34 C (93 F), and several days during this heat wave, the temperature has broken 40 C (104 F). However, despite this difference in temperature, Christmas decorations here are not that much different from what I’m used to. Fake holly branches, Christmas trees, Santa in a heavy winter suit, sleighs, and lots of wrapped presents. It is very odd experiencing these “normal” decorations and spirit of the holiday… while my calves get sun burnt as I watch the parade.

It seems Elvis was here too.

Although the snail wasn't THAT impressive to me...

I REALLY enjoyed that they included a "slime" trial behind it by spraying a little water underneath it.

Later I caught some more rays, enjoying the heat wave within walking distance of St. Vincent Gulf. Finished the day with a visit to a pub. Laura is the first of the four of us returning to the States. Our two exams are on the 17th and 19th, and Laura is flying from here on the 20th. This being her last weekend here, she was in the mood to dance, and all four of us liked the idea of going for one last pub visit together. It was a very good day.

After this float, there were two short columns with small groups that allowed each religious group to be represented. It was a nice gesture, but to me it was a little annoying that each religion's culture was represented...ie they didn't have a float for each religion, just a group of 10-20 people walking behind the Nativity float.

And of course Father Christmas finished the show.

Cheers!

Photos: Random + Botanical Gardens

So for those of you who like looking at photos (either for the subject of my photos or because I take the most awesomest photos ever), here are my favorite from my visit to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens earlier today.

Funny story: there is a house under all that green!

A story I haven't written about is once concerning a night time visit to the roof tops of Adelaide. During the whole hot water fiasco, I climbed the ladder to the roof one afternoon while there were some men working on the hot water. I asked the man I met up there (I was still on the ladder, looking out through the hatch entrance while he was standing on the roof) about how much longer we could expect to be without hot water. He told me it would be back on that evening, but he was wrong. It didn't come back on until two days later.

But later that evening, when we were beginning to suspect that he was wrong, I decided that I might be able to find out for myself. When I had asked the man, he showed me the exhaust of the heaters and felt for the exhaust to prove to me that they were running. They seemed to be running then, but they werent around 11pm when I checked for myself. They had left the latch unlocked, so like the responsible adolescent male I am, I climbed up and was soon followed by Ryan and Earnest. We got some fun photos, then retired back to the apartment to finish our assignment due the next day.