Australia Day!!

The weekend (1/24 & 1/25) was pretty boring. I didn't do much either day, just some homework. I did also do the Trevor Pub Quiz on that Sunday evening, which is always fun even though our team sucks.

Monday (1/26) was awesome though. It just so happened to be Australia Day so, as you can imagine, all of the Aussie exchange students were looking to party. At 8pm we met up in the flat of two of the Aussies and had a pregame party. Here are some pics:


Left to Right: Lee (Aussie), Dennis, Ruth, Urmie (Aussie), Diego, and Christine (Aussie)


Can't remember the girl on the left's name, but Neena is on the right


Darcy and Urmie (both Aussies) acting like kangaroos


Darcy, Urmie, and Amanda


Left to Right: Jessica and Megan (both Aussies)


Amanda looking like a proper cowgirl


Left to Right: Ann, Urmie, Laura, and Gemma


Dennis' awesome shoes


Yours truly rockin a swim cap


Ruth


Diego and ?


Neena and Me

The party was a blast!! They made some punch which was fantastic and quite intoxicating. After about 2hrs or so we decided it was time to move the party into the bars in town.

Our first stop was WalkAbout, which is an Aussie bar so it was an obvious choice. We ordered round after round and danced to the not-so-dance-friendly music that the DJ was playing. Here are some pictures from WalkAbout:


Lee and ?


Richard who is a local and just so happens to be in my seminar group for a class


Amanda, Urmie, Rosy, and ?


Amanda, Rosy, and ?


Jess


Left to Right: ?, Lee, Neena, Darcy, Alex, Megan, Urmie, Rose, and Richard

After spending about 1.5 hrs at WalkAbout, most of us headed to Elements to finish out the night.

Elements was pretty packed, which made it a lot fun. We hit the dance floor and didn't stop until it was time to leave. Here are some pics:


Richard, Rose, Urmie, and Me


Urmie and Me


Richard and Rose


Urmie

Around 2am Richard, Rose, Urmie, and I caught a taxi back to campus. Back at campus we did our usual stop at Sultan's for some curly fries before crashing. All in all it was one of the best nights I've had since I've been here. The Aussie group is so much fun to hang out with.

Friday Fury

Friday (1/23) started off with frisbee practice at 10am, ugh. After practice I went back and showered up and did some laundry. My afternoon consisted of making some lunch and doing homework. Around 6pm I went down to Trev to hang out with Zoe until her shift ended and to meet up with the group who would be attending Friday Fury with us.

Friday Fury is an event that happens a few times every term. The idea of it is that at 8pm you go around to all the bars on campus and get a drink at each one. When you get a drink at one of the bars you also get some sort of trinket to indicate that you've been there. Then, after collecting the trinkets you catch a bus into town and go to the Sugarhouse where you get free entry. The deal is that you need at least 3 trinkets to get free entry before 11pm and 4 if after midnight.

We started our quest at Trev as you would have guessed. After Trev we decided to go to the nearest bar which was Fylde, which I hadn't been to since my first week. At Fylde we waited for about 20 minutes to get a drink and then sat down to enjoy it. Here are a few pics:


Left to right: Urmie, Rosy, Amanda, and Melissa


Kyle dancing to Queen


Kyle after he took his shirt off in stripper fashion

After Fylde we decided to head up north along the Spine to Bowland. When we got to the Bowland bar it was packed so we went to County which was the next closest bar. County wasn't nearly as packed so we got right to the bar. Much to our dissappointment they had run out of the armbands, but we got a drink anyways. After finishing our drinks we went back to Bowland and worked our way into the crowd in line for the bar. When we got close to the bar we discovered that they too had just run out of armbands only seconds ago. We were pretty annoyed by this because we had now been to 4 bars and only had 2 armbands to show for it which wouldn't get us free entry to the Sugarhouse. We went back to Trevor to regroup and formulate a plan. After a few minutes we decided to just forget about the armbands and go to Sugarhouse and pay to get in instead of wasting a bunch more time heading all the way down to the southwest part of campus. Before heading to Sugarhouse we bought a few bottles of wine from Trevor and downed them in no time. Here is a picture of our group:


The usual suspects plus a group of random girls who were walking by at the time.

With our level of drunkenness improved by the wine we headed out in mass to the underpass to catch a bus into town.

My First Pool Match

Thursday went like most other weekdays. I slept in till time for my seminar, then grabbed a bite to eat on my way. After 3 hours of class it was back to the flat for food and a shower. Those things taken care of, I headed down to Trev to relax for the two hours until my first game as a member of the Furness College pool team. I had a few pints to relax the nerves and then at 6pm it was time for practice. We each played a few games until 6:50 when we headed down to Lonsdale College. Zoe, Martha, and Liam were nice enough to come along for moral support.

The way the match works is each team has 9 players. Each player plays 1 game against a player from the opposing college. Best team score wins. The game is 8-ball. I watched the first two matches, trying to gauge the level of the competition. Then it was my turn.

I chalked up the cue, took a few deep breaths, and started the game off by breaking. The nerves died down as I played and I ended up winning by 4 balls. It felt so good to start out my season with a win, especially after people had been hyping me up as "the secret weapon." The team ended up losing though, which was sad cause some of the games were decided by an accidental pocketing of the 8-ball. After the match we headed back to Trev to finish out the night with a few more pints.

Relaxing

Saturday (1/17) started by heading back onto campus for some lunch. Joe, Urmie, and I all went to Spar, which is a grocery store on campus, to get sandwiches from the deli. Sandwiches in hand we headed back to Urmie's flat and hung out in her kitchenette eating lunch. After lunch I split off back to my flat to check my email and relax for a bit. At 3pm I got changed and headed off for my first ultimate frisbee practice with the Lancaster team.

The practice lasted for 1.5hrs in the main gym of the university sports center. I realized yet again how out of shape I get between frisbee seasons. It was good to get out and do some real physical activity. I met a number of the guys and I think I will fit in well with the team.

After practice I got showered up and ate some dinner. Then, in my usual fashion, I headed down to Trev to have a few pints and hang out with the group. We all decided a night in sounded nice. Zoe was closing the bar that evening so we all ended up hanging out for an extra hour after the rest of the crowd got the boot. It was a really fun and relaxing evening, which is just what I was looking for.

Sunday was pretty much the same. I didn't do a whole lot during the day and then in the afternoon I headed to Trev. I did, however, play some pool against a member of the college pool team that evening. I ended up beating him 4-1 and he invited me to tryout in front of the team captain the following evening.

Monday I went to classes and then went Trev for a bit after eating lunch. I hung around talking with the few people that were there until it was time for my pool team tryout. At 6pm I met up with Brynn, who is the player from the night before, and Jerry, who is the college team captain. I started out by playing Brynn and I beat him 2-0. I then played Jerry and beat him 2-0. After those games I was invited to join the team. I was pretty excited!! After playing pool I went back into the bar and had a few pints with the crew before going back to the flat to crash.

Tuesday was a pretty uneventful day. I just went to class and then Trev in the evening. I know, big surprise right.

Wednesday I had 1 class at noon. After class I met up with some people in Trev and then we went out and passed out leaflets in an effort to draw attention to the situation of the college bars on campus. Basically, the catering association on campus wants to take over the college bars and some of the students have been trying to fight back. I, being a frequent visitor of my local college bar, felt it was important that I help fight for this cause because it holds a special place in my heart just as it does so many others. We passed out leaflets for about an hour and then went back to Trev to warm up and unwind. At 3pm Liam, Urmie, Amanda, Rosy (an Australian student), and I went into town to do some shopping and pickup some groceries.

Our first stop in town was to get Rosy a new watch battery. After that we went to a shop called Top Man so I could finally buy a scarf. Next we headed for JJB Sports so Liam and I could look at pool cues. We didn't have a luck with nice two-piece cues at JJB so we went to another store called Scotts Sports. Liam found what he was hoping for there, but I wasn't quite satisfied with the cue selection. With all of our general purpose shopping out of the way it was time to tackle the monsterous task of true grocery shopping. Up to this point I'd just bought very simple instant meals that I could make when I returned from a night of being wasted.

Sainsbury's is the name of the large grocery store in town. We spent about 45 minutes there and came away with a ton of food. I was so happy to get all that food back to my flat and put it away. I finally felt like I had stuff to eat if I was hungry. Not to mention I needed something to take my focus away from takeaway orders of chips, which are bound to come around and bite me if I keep getting them.

With all my groceries put away I made a little something for dinner and then Zoe was nice enough to shave my head for me. I was pretty happy since my beard was becoming a bit unruly. I showered up to get all the loose hair off and then went down to Trev for another relaxing night. I've really enjoyed 5 straight nights of not going out to a club. Its been good to recharge my batteries for future clubbing adventures.

Sugarhouse Revisited

Friday (1/16) morning was spent recovering from Thursday night. I was too lazy to get up and go to frisbee practice at 10am. I mean honestly, who decides that 10am on a Friday is a good time to practice? Ridiculous if you ask me. Anyways, once I decided it was time to get up I snagged some lunch and did some laundry. Around 4pm I decided to do my usual and head down to Trev. I met up with the usual suspects and relaxed for a while downing pints and catching up on the prior evenings events. Around 8pm I decided to head back to my flat and get showered up, changed, and grab a bite to eat. With all of that accomplished I was back at the bar around 9:30pm. Around 10:30pm we caught the bus into town and headed for the Sugarhouse.

When we got to Sugarhouse the queue was already really long, but thankfully I recognized some fellow international students and we jumped nearly all the way to the front. As we always do we drank and danced the night away until about 2am. Here are some pictures:


Kirky and Sam


Joe and Urmie

Joe, Urmie, Zoe, and I all headed back to Zoe and Joe's flat. We grabbed some takeaway along the way which was delicious. I had chips (fries) and curry sauce, yum!!! When we got back to their flat we watched Step Brothers and ate. By the time the movie was over everyone was really out of it so we crashed there.

The First Week of Classes Continues

Tuesday (1/13) was a pretty uneventful day, I went to class and then to Trev in the evening. On Wednesday there was something called Refreshers Fair which was meant to get people signing up for clubs and societies. I joined the Lancaster ultimate teamed called The Fish. After that I went to class and then Trev in the evening to hang out with everyone. I really love Trev, its not some super fancy upscale bar, its rather a modest looking bar that is teeming with college pride. Here is another picture from Trev:


Matt (Kirky), Martha, and Liam

Zoe was closing that night so I waited for her to finish up and then we went into town and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Thursday (1/15) morning consisted of classes and my usual takeaway sandwich from the Spar grocery store on campus. And in similar fashion since Sunday I wasted time until it was time to go to Trev for the evening. We all met up there again and had a few pints while we waited for it to get late enough to be time to go out. Around 6:45pm we all suited up to catch the bus to Friary, which was having a special that evening called "Quids" which means that there are a lot of drinks on sale for a quid, which is the same as a pound.

At the Friary we all got our drinks and ascended the stairs to the overlooking balcony area. We found a huge booth and settled in for a few good hours of drinking. The group size continued to expand as the night went on due to the appearance of some stragglers. Here are some pictures of us at Friary:


Jack and Sam


Getting some work done at Friary


A view from the balcony


Harry and Zoe


Liam and Chris (Cheese)


Zoe and Jack


Urmie and Me

Around 10:30 the group split in two, with half going to Eleven cause there were live dancing Coyote Ugly girls and the rest of us (Zoe, Urmie, Joe, Jack, and I) went to a club called Elements.

There weren't a ton of people in Elements but we still had a good time. We mostly hung out in the VIP cause a friend of Joe's was DJing. We danced and drank until about 2ish then Urmie and I caught a taxi back to campus and Zoe and Joe went back to their flat in town.

Classes Begin and Toast!

Monday (1/12) classes started, ugh. I had a 10am seminar, which is basically the same as a recitation back home. I also had an Introduction to Finance lecture from 1:00-3:00. I don't think the classes will be too awful, its just tough cause I really don't care about the subjects at all. Anyways, with classes all done I headed back to my flat to pass the time until I headed down to Trev.

At about 7pm I got showered up and changed and met up with the group at Trev. We hung out there until about 11pm when Zoe got off work and then we hopped in a taxi and headed to Toast. Toast is similar to Sugarhouse in that it is 2 main rooms that play different music, however the two styles for Toast are rock/metal and dance/house. There is also a neat little cellar-like room where people can play Nintendo or just hang out. The crowd for the evening was Urmie, Liam, Zoe, Neil, and another US student named Kyle. Here are some pictures:


Left to right: Neil, Kyle, Liam, and Urmie


Urmie, me, and Kyle. Not sure who the other guy is


Urmie and Kyle


Urmie, me, and Kyle

Toast was a lot of fun, but it was DAMN packed. We couldn't dance for more than 2 consecutive minutes without being shoved out of the way. We left Toast around 2:30am and caught a taxi as usual.