Emmy Wish List

Ok, ok. I can't help myself, really. When you are as big a fan of TV as I am, the Emmy awards are a big deal. (If you are reading this to learn anything about Australia, skip to the end, where I will discuss Aussie TV.)

The following are my picks for who I want to win. Not who I think will win. I don’t really know enough about most of the drama categories, though.

Outstanding Drama Series
“Mad Men”

Outstanding Comedy Series
“30 Rock”

Lead Actor in a Drama
Gabriel Byrne – “In Treatment”

Lead Actress in a Drama
Elisabeth Moss – “Mad Men”

Lead Actor in a Comedy
Alec Baldwin – “30 Rock”

Lead Actress in a Comedy
I want a tie between:
Sarah Silverman – “The Sarah Silverman Program”
Mary-Louise Parker – “Weeds”
And Tina Fey – “30 Rock”
Honestly, the only way I won't be happy with who wins this is if Julia Louis-Dreyfus wins.

Supporting Actor in a Drama
No Idea on this one. I don’t really care that much.

Supporting Actress in a Drama
Hope Davis – “In Treatment” – I haven’t been able to watch season 2 yet. But apparently, she is the best thing about it.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy
Neil Patrick Harris – “How I Met Your Mother”

Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Jane Krakowski – “30 Rock”

Other Categories I care about:

Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
Tina Fey as Governor Sarah Palin – “Saturday Night Live”

Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Jon Hamm - “30 Rock”

Variety, Music, or Comedy Special
Kathy Griffin: She’ll Cut a Bitch

Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live Action Entertainment Programs (A new category this year... which seems to have been created especially to honor the "show" I want to win)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Outstanding Reality Program
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List


Overall, the thing I am most excited about is the nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series. I really do think that they are the best 7 comedies on TV right now, which isn't always the case. Sure, "Entourage" isn't firing on all cylinders, but it is still a good show. (The nominees are: "How I Met Your Mother" "Entourage" "Weeds" "30 Rock" "Flight of the Conchords" "Family Guy" and "The Office")

Now I am watching Australian TV, though. I haven't been able to find anything really worth watching... with two exceptions: "Cooks" and "MasterChef" (Maybe the obsession with writing about food continues...) "Cooks" is a little drama show about this group of friends that all work in kitchens as, well, cooks. A few work in a really nice restaurant, a few in a run down place. But it is actually pretty decent. I only saw two episodes, but I was drawn in. And as for "MasterChef" - it is a cooking competition show where the winner publishes his or her own cookbook at the end (or I think that is the prize). And the whole country is obsessed with it. They are down to the final two... and the finale is on Sunday (one day after I leave.) I hope Julie wins.

Ok the end.

Last Day in Sydney

Well, today is my last full day in Sydney. So I am spending it writing this blog post and sitting in the Apple store once more. I have to check out of my hostel at 10 AM. My flight doesn't leave until 8 PM (and arrives three hours EARLIER... at 4:30 PM LA time. I will probably spend the day revisiting my favorite places. Like the park.
As for right now: I am looking at the Emmy Nominations... and I am pleased. I won't bore you with what I think of them now, because the people that read this probably don't care what I think of them. Haha. I'll wait till my readership has thinned to the faithful few. Ok... off to enjoy my last day.

Spongebob and Harry Potter

I forgot my camera yesterday, which was extremely unfortunate because I saw a celebrity. The Sydney Aquarium was playing special host to none other than Spongebob Squarepants. I really wanted to take a picture with him, too. Then I would be Tatum’s favorite for sure. Nevertheless, the aquarium was interesting. They had underwater viewing areas where you could walk through a glass tunnel to see stingrays and sharks. They would swim right above you. They were huge. One of the stingrays looked like it could have eaten Steve Irwin and still had room left over to finish off every other famous Australian.
I also visited a Chinese garden, which was pretty cool. They had little signs everywhere explaining why things were planted where they were planted. And why the waterfall led straight into the Lake of Brightness (or something like that). It was only $3.00 Australian. Which means it was really only $2.34 American. Well worth it.
Now, I know I talk about food a lot. But yesterday I went back to the place where I got the schnitzel sandwich (think: very, very thin chicken fried steak on bread). It is so good, so I wanted to wait until I got to the park to enjoy it. So I was boarding the train holding my sandwich much in the same way that I would hold a baby (which probably says more about how I would hold a baby than how I was holding the sandwich) and . . . well, that story isn’t going anywhere, really. Suffice it to say: that sandwich was good.
So I saw the sixth Harry Potter movie. I’ll just say I was disappointed. The acting was much better. The score was infinitely better. It just felt very clunky, like we were feeling around in the dark for the storylines. I like Quidditch as much as anyone else, but it could have been cut. And I wish they had spent less time on scenes that weren’t in the book and delved deeper into things that actually happened. It was probably my least favorite movie so far. I don’t feel like they gave us all the information we will need to get through the next two movies. (For example, at the end of the sixth book, Harry knows what most of the Horcruxes are. He knows Voldemort’s snake is one. He knows about Hufflepuff’s cup, too. And the ring had already been destroyed by Dumbledore, which I am not sure it was in the movie.) Now we have to waste time in the other movies discovering those things. I know every English major in the world says it . . . but I am certain that every fan of the books will be with me on this one: The book was so much better. Not even comparable, really. OK, enough about Harry Potter.
Just two-ish more days until I am back in the United States.

Food and Bondi

I think, as a general rule, the food of a country gets worse the further it is from the country of its origin. (The one exception being Italian food, which was undoubtedly perfected in New York City. Not Italy.) So it should be no surprise to anyone that Australia has a lot of bad food, seeing as it is so far from everything. Word to the wise: Do not, I repeat, do not try to eat Mexican food in Australia. It was not recognizable as Mexican food in any way. I have never tasted worse Mexican food in my life. And I am counting each and every time I have ever eaten at Taco Bueno. Even the margarita was terrible.
Australia is, though, blessed with a good selection of Asian cuisine. The Thai food I had the other day was blistering hot (translation: good). And the kebabs (though they do no compare to the ones in England) were also good. The sandwiches are great, including this bagel-wich place I have now visited twice. However, my favorite food item I have found so far was merely sitting on a shelf in the grocery store. Lemon tarts. They are little lemon pies that taste so good. Judging by the area they were placed in the store, however, I doubt many people share my love. More for me, I guess.
The beach was fantastic. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Let me put that in perspective: I have been all over the Caribbean, seen both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. . . and this was the best place I have ever been. Plus, it was a public beach in the middle of winter! There were lots of people surfing (more on that in a minute) and just playing around on the beach. There were cliffs on each side of the beach, where the waves would crash just like they were from some movie. And the waves were huge. Biggest waves I have ever seen in my life. Loud, rolling waves. It was really cool.
Back to the surfers. I am convinced that surfing is mostly just waiting for the perfect wave. 95% of the time, the surfers just sat out there on their boards, looking like they were about to attempt to actually surf. Most of them never did. I am convinced they just wanted to look cool in their wet suits carrying their boards down the street. (Mission accomplished, I guess.)
Harry Potter tomorrow. Can't wait.

The Tallest Building in the Southern Hemisphere

I found out today that Sydney Tower is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. So, naturally that was enough of an incentive to go to the top. There was a great view of the whole city and I finally understood how everything connected. Too bad I didn’t decide to do that last week, because I probably wouldn’t have gotten lost so many times. (Still probably a few times, though.) After going to the observation deck, you went back downstairs to “Oztrek!” (I added the !)

Sidebar: Australians love to abbreviate Australia as “Oz.” It must be very confusing for the children when they watch the 1939 classic film “The Wizard of Oz.”

Anyway – Oztrek was like one of the more boring rides at Epcot (Think: That Ellen dinosaur ride, but not funny.) You go in, sit down, put on some headphones (which have English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. I switched back and forth a few times. Very interesting.) And you watch this little show. Then, the theater rotates and you watch another (repeated 3 times.) Then you trek (He said it!) over to a larger room, where you sit in moving seat (think: the Six Flags Spongebob Ride) and travel through parts of Oztrailya (I saw it spelled like that somewhere.) It was. . . free with admission to the observation deck.

For Americans, the success of international travel can be measured by one factor: how many times you have pretended to be Canadian. I haven’t had to lie about it, but I have mastered the art of the unintelligible accent. Just add bits and pieces of accents from all over the world and no one will be able to tell where you are from. (I’ve been asked if I was from Boston or Ireland. No joke.) No one in Australia is too big on America. Any time I have talked about the flight, I have been asked how long it would take to fly from Sydney (or Auckland) to Canada. Everyone in Australia wants to go to Canada. Let them make their own mistakes, I guess. After all, when they get all disappointed, the US is right there below it, waiting to deny access with our complicated immigration laws.

Odd difference I’ve noticed: When Australians say a date, they do not say “July Twelfth.” They say “July Twelve.” Also, their quotation marks are our single quotes (‘). For example, when writing, they would write:

Hermione said, ‘Harry, I don’t think we should do that. Remember what Dumbledore always said, “Eat plenty of cheese,” are you listening?’

Don’t try to find that passage in any of the books, by the way. Speaking of Harry Potter, I have decided to make a big day of the 15^th, when I will see HP6 in IMAX. The IMAX Theater is located in Darling Harbour, home of the Australian Aquarium and Wildlife Park. There are lots of shops and stuff, so I think I will go down there and stay all day until I get to see the movie. Looking forward to it.

Manly

Funny title for a post, eh? Well, I titled it that because there is a small suburb/city here called that. And it has an excellent beach. Fun facts I learned today at Manly: If you are going to visit the beach in Sydney in July, you need to wear a good jacket and some shorts. (If you try to walk through the surf with your jeans rolled up, the bottom-most part will get wet. And when you roll them down, you will have rings of dark spots down the lower part of your calves. It isn't a bad look, actually.)
Speaking of bad looks, today I saw a family that was very experimental with their hair. They had two children. The little boy had a faux-hawk. And the little girl had a mullet.
Other than that, the beach was great. There were lots of people surfing, which was fun to watch (especially when they fell). I have now waded in both sides of the Pacific Ocean (it looks very similar from the back, if you were wondering.)
I have taken to going to the Apple Store every day to use the Internet. That is where I am sitting right now. The only problem is: no matter how many times I come here, I always get lost on the way. I wander down the wrong streets for 45 minutes and finally get fed up and try to figure out how to get back to the hostel. That is always when I find it. (Note to self: it is on the corner of George and. . . another street. It is on George Street.)
Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a small crowd walking down the street? And when you are in that crowd, do you ever have some extremely funny thought and burst out laughing? Well, that has been happening a lot lately. (I'm not complaining. After all, I think I'm hilarious.) The Sydneysiders probably think I am crazy, though.
OK. That's all for now.

Opera and Olympics

The opera was… very good. Mostly thanks to the other people who had standing room tickets. I met two Californians and two Kiwis (that is, people from New Zealand). We were all at the Opera House very early in the morning and we stood in line for about an hour and talked. The Californians were from north of Santa Barbara. The Kiwis were from Auckland. We all showed up at the performance wearing comfortable clothes and shoes, but after the first act, the usher found us all seats separately. We still met up during the intermissions (which they call intervals) to talk about the performance.
So… opera isn’t all it is cracked up to be. I think I might have enjoyed it more had the production been in English. . . but then I guess it wouldn’t be an opera. Let’s just say I would probably prefer the Elton John version of Aida over the Verdi version. But the production was really really cool. All the sets were lowered in from above the stage and most of them turned when the cast would push them. The singing was impressive. But it was still opera.
Today I went over to the Olympic complex. I saw the stadium where they had the opening and closing ceremonies. They still have the cauldron where the torch was. Except now it is a giant fountain with all the names of the Olympians who medaled in the games on gold, silver and bronze plaques. Including former Lady Raider and native of Brownfield, Texas, Sheryl Swoopes.
It was very cool, but it was also very far away. It took about 45 minutes on the train to get there. Then when I got there, it was raining. So I stood under a little shed thing for about 30 minutes. The cauldron thing was the highlight. Everything else has changed in the last ten years. They changed most of the Olympic park to a wildlife and wetlands preserve that isn’t open to the public. (I am guessing those were for the sports like shooting and stuff… which could be easily converted.) I walked to the aquatic center, where it costs $5 to take a swim. (Which is pretty reasonable, I guess.)
I ate a kebab today. It wasn’t anything like the ones I ate in Oxford. The ones in Oxford were better. It has been raining a lot, but it is ok because I got a pass to use the busses, trains, and ferries. So I don’t have to walk everywhere. Hmm.. I guess that is it. Tomorrow I think I will either go to Manly or Bondi Beach (where I will not be surfing.)

The Birds

Now, some people may not know that I have had previous experiences with vicious birds. When I was in Oxford, I was sitting on the window ledge on the second floor (looking at a sunset, actually) and a pigeon flew straight at me and nearly made me fall two floors down onto some concrete steps.

Well, I got up early to go down to the Opera House with hopes of securing a standing room ticket for tonight’s opening night of “Aida.” (I got lost in the subway system.) When I got there at 7:30, I expected a line of people to already have started forming. But there was no one in sight. So I decided to walk down on a little pier while I was on the phone with my mom. That is when it happened. One of those “Mine! Mine! Mine!” birds from Finding Nemo decided that I was in his territory. It flew straight at me, squawking or shrieking or making whatever sound you want to call it. I ducked, now yelling into the phone that a bird was attacking me. THEN IT CAME BACK FOR MORE! It flew straight at me again. This time we made eye contact and he meant business.
I got off the pier. The only consolation was that no one was around to see it because I had over estimated the zealousness of Sydney Opera viewers.

But the story continued again today when I got to the zoo. There was a rather large section of the zoo dedicated to farm animals. I felt like it was my job to walk around that part of the zoo with a superior attitude (seeing as I once raised pigs). So I was confidently and smugly striding towards the exit of that area. That is when the emu showed up. It walked straight at me. Again, eye contact. Then it GROWLED. An emu growled at me. I found another exit to that area and decided to stick to the more exotic animals. (There was a less dramatic incident with a parakeet in an aviary, too.)

So I am taking this opportunity to officially apologize to all birds. I do not know what I have done to offend your kind, but apparently there is some sort of bird contract out for my life. Please leave me alone.

The rest of the zoo was very, very cool. It turns out that the koala experience thing was basically $20 to get a picture of you near a koala. Lame. But I did get to see the koalas very close. It was a really well designed zoo. It was very easy to see all the animals and you were able to get very close to most of them. In the platypus pool aviary (where the parakeet attacked me) there was also a wallaby just wandering around. Lions, sea lions, a pygmy hippo—this zoo had it all. I enjoyed the Australian animals (no one else seemed very interested. I guess they are used to them. They were swarming around the farm animals, though.) It was too cold today for the two-day-old elephant to come out, though. I walked around for about six hours and I never got bored or ran out of things to see. (I did double back to look at the kangaroos and koalas again, though.)

Pictures on Facebook soon, I hope. All I need is to find a reliable Internet connection.

Mundane Monday

Deal or No Deal is just as addicting in Australia. Except it is BETTER! The cases are held by the family of the person who is playing and the family member has to guess what they have in their case before they open it. (I am not sure what happens if they get it right.) The big drawback is that they aren’t playing for $1,000,000. They are playing for $200,000. Poor Australians and their silly (comparative) poverty.

So today I sat in Hyde Park… Wait. Someone just guessed their case correctly and won $500. Cool. Well, I sat in the park and took the math section of a GRE. It isn’t looking pretty. I need to take some sort of review course or something because… well, hopeless seems like a bit of an overreaction… 28.5% is the percent correct. (But I wouldn’t take my word for it, obviously.)

Well, today I also watched the Australian equivalent of the Today Show. Think: hour 4 of the Today Show…. All morning. One segment was just a woman reading horoscopes (try that, Kathy Lee). They had a bunch of “news” and then like a two-minute segment where they covered real news and sports. 2 minutes for world events, but an hour about Katie Holmes and whether or not she looks sick in the photo of her attending the musical Jersey Boys in Melbourne. (She did look sick, though.)

Tomorrow I plan on getting up early to try to get a standing room ticket to “Aida.” I need to be at the Opera House by about 7:30, I think. After I get the ticket (if there is still one available0 I am going to go to the Toronga Zoo (and maybe hold a koala). Full day.

Sunday

Today’s blog post will be written in chapters. Mostly for my own amusement.

Chapter 1: Free Pancake Breakfast

Every Sunday morning at this hostel, they serve unlimited free pancakes. They were free and worth every single penny. Have you ever eaten fluffy paper? Well, then. You know what I am talking about. (Hint: syrup helps minimally, but will make them edible.) Luckily for me, every other day of the week, this hostel serves a non-pancake breakfast (free) that consists of toast, jam, and etcetera. It is hard to mess up toast. I hope.

Chapter 2: The Amazing Sandwich

I have long held the belief that you cannot get a decent sandwich in the United States. Well, I have found another country (besides the UK) where decent sandwiches can be bought. Today, I walked down to the area near the Opera House and bought a schnitzel sandwich. (Think: a chicken fried steak-esque meat on bread(!)) Oh, right. It was also made into a panini! Plus it was big enough for two meals! (I stuffed the second half in my pocket wrapped up. I am eating it as I write this, actually.)

Chapter 3: Spontaneous Broadway

The show I attended in the Sydney Opera House was hilarious. Everyone wrote down song title suggestions and dropped them in a bucket on the way in. (Well, not everyone. I didn’t write one.) Then, the four actors sifted through them and presented ideas for a musical based on the song title. The eventual winning song was “Get Out of Facebook and Get Into My Space.” The team of four actors made up an entire musical (which lasted about 30 minutes) called “Searching for Love” about a woman who finds love over the Internet.
As for standing room for “Aida”: I asked and they have 10 tickets that they will sell at 9 AM on the day of the performance. The doors open at 8:30, though. And people will be lined up outside. So I have three chances to get tickets before I leave. First chance is the seventh.

Chapter 4: Walking across the Harbor Bridge

I walked across the Harbor Bridge. Wow. This was a short chapter.

Chapter 5: Fun Facts

The most abundant American symbol found on foreign t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats: The New York Yankees sign.

I met some people from Texas today. Unfortunately, I only knew they were from Texas because they were ALL wearing some form of UT attire. I only talked to them long enough to comment about the winter weather and insult their clothing. (Which I definitely did.)

In other news, I am definitely coming home on July 18th instead of August 7th. At which point, I will be riding back to Texas with Daniel, Jon, and Rachel.

This week: At some point I am going to go to the Zoo.

P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

Today was uber-productive. (So productive, that my geek side is shining through and I am using words like “uber.”)

First things first: I moved to a new hostel. The other one was decent; however, I found out quickly that I could not handle living in the same room as five(!) other people. Strangers. And they were strange, too. I am pretty sure one of the girls lived there and cleaned the hostel so she could have free rent. The other people all seemed to be friends with her. (One other girl (who had a cough. . . all night) was also in the room. And she was good friends with Nick, a guy who was there. Nick? Rick? Alan? I don’t know. It was some generic thing like that. Anyway, I woke up to their (rather intense) make-out session.) So I checked out of there and moved about a block away to a new hostel where I have my own room. MUCH better.

I walked downtown and found Sydney City Center. (For those who studied abroad: think Oxford City Center with malls and a food court. All of it on steroids.) (For those who didn’t study abroad: go to Oxford, find city center, then imagine it on steroids.)

I bought some sunglasses (I left mine on a different continent.) from a funny little Asian market. Then I ate at a Nando’s (Something I hadn’t done since Oxford). It is Portuguese, I think. But in all reality, I just ate a chicken wrap. It was delicious. So I hiked back to the hostel. Then I took a walk towards the Sydney Opera House.

I ended up on the wrong side of a harbor. Which meant that I had a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It also meant I couldn’t visit the box office and see if I could watch any performances. So I made it my mission to get to the Opera House. It took me about an hour and a half, but I finally figured it out. And I need to remember how I did it because I am going back tomorrow to watch a show! It is called “Spontaneous Broadway” and the performers improvise a musical based on song title suggestions from the audience. It is in one of the smaller playhouses, but it is still pretty cool. They are also staging “Aida” on the big Opera stage. Too bad they are all sold out. BUT the woman at the box office said that they have a line for standing room. Apparently, it starts early in the morning, around 9AM. I am seriously considering going and standing in line all day to see it. That might be one of the things that is worth it.

Hmm. . . what else? I only get one hour of free Wifi per day at the new hostel (at the old place I had to pay, so this is an improvement.) And I found a café that supposedly has free WiFi. Also, McDonald’s has free WiFi at all the locations here, as long as you are a customer. I assume I will be buying something there, despite the fact that many people won’t be able to believe that I ate at McDonald’s while I was in Australia.

Tomorrow: Opera House Performance! We'll see what else. The zoo is pretty expensive, but looks cool. (They have an exhibit where you can hold koalas. So that's probably going to happen. Maybe not tomorrow, but sometime.)

Sorry there's no pictures on here. My internet can't handle the uploads at the moment.

To Sydney

Well, I made it to Sydney. I am currently sitting in the common room of the hostel watching a Miley Cyrus music video. So obviously, life is pretty good.
Airplane: I got three seats to myself. Watched Vicki Christina Barcelona. Not a Woody Allen fan, to be honest. But Penelope Cruz was good.
I only bought one hour of Internet. It was $3. I need to find a free WiFi spot. That is on the agenda for tomorrow. When I got to the airport, I had a helluva time trying to call the hostel to pick me up. Let's just say I ended up buying a cell phone in the Sydney Airport. Consequently, you now have the option of calling me. (I am not sure what the charges would be. But I assume it would charge my pre-paid account. But it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to dial out. So don't take my word for it.) Oh... the number is: (31)0406162257. I need to write that down or something.
The hostel is pretty nice. Lots of stairs. Rooftop terrace thing. Clean rooms. Clean bathrooms. We'll see what happens tonight.
The music videos go back and forth between hardcore Aussie rap. . . and Miley Cyrus. So weird. I can't tell which one sounds more gruff. No. Wait. Miley.
Ok. Tomorrow... umm.. I'll still be here.