The Circus of the Sun & The CN Tower

The weekend before last, Allison and I travelled back to Toronto. We had two things on the agenda in particular. The First was to see Cirque du Soleil - Alegria which was pretty incredible. The two girls on the left seem to have no stomach whatsoever and bend in rather scary ways. There were some great synchronised trapezists (if thats the word) and the clowns had a slow yet rather cool story to tell throughout.

Since camera's aren't allowed, here are a few shots off there website:

And the following night we travelled up the tallest free standing structure in the world, for romantic dinner. The picture on the left is the view of the tower from the bottom, and the picture on the right is a picture of the impressive view from up there. The restaurant is 5 star and even offers a rotating view. The floor in the restaurant rotates once every 72 minutes.

Here is a shot of Allison in the restaurant, we got there in the evening so we got to enjoy Toronto in both daylight and at night time. Most of the pictures didn't turn out too well due to the subtle movement of the floor. Also downstairs below the restaurant is the highest glass floor in the world. By the time we saw it, it was dark outside and it wasn't too bad. I think if it had been brighter outside, it would have been much worse to walk on glass 3-400m in the air.

My New Bike

Here is my brand new bike. The folding bike that I had been using was altogether too small for me. And i found out that there was a sale on a Canadian Tire over the weekend (like Big W back in Oz) and bought it! So far I am REALLY happy with it, I no longer have my knees up around my face and the wheels being bigger seem to handle jumping gutters etc much better! YAY!

Not a bad buy, I'd say.

Overlord of Evil

Unfortunetly I was up until about 4 in the morning last night trying to get an evil assignment done. Below is an example of it's evilness. Order the following 19 equations into asymptotic growth. When you are done, please email me the answer.... (Unfortunetly I already handed it in though.)

For the Complete Assignment see: Here

Resident Evil: Apocalypse - Racoon City

Here is Allison and Savannah standing in front of the Toronto City Hall. Its a pretty fancy building almost a bit futuristic you might say. Well i am sure you are asking what this has to do with Resident Evil. For those of you in North America and have seen this movie, you might know that this is where the final battle in the movie occurs. For those of you in Australia where the movie won't be released for another Month. Take heart, the movie is very good and certainly has it's fair share of unnecessary violence and big guns/explosions. (OMG did i just say that?)

Ah, the joy of being in the continent that gets to see the movies first rather than seeing them at the same time on a dodgy internet screener.
(If you don't believe me go here: Resident Evil Website)

The Beach - Saries Home

Saries house is much like any other up her street, the trees are tall, squirrels run everywhere and acorns dint cars like Hail. The neighbourhood that Sarie lives in is quite peaceful and it's no problem to get around. In toronto they have Buses, Street Cars and a great Subway. A big thanks to Sarie for being so kind to us in Toronto, without her, our stay could not nearly have been so enjoyable or comfortable. Especially the breakfasts that she prepared every morning!

As Australians, you don't realise that most houses in Canada have basements, and everyhouse we visted in Toronto had no exception. (Except our townhouses in Waterloo.)

CLV - My Home away from Home

Finally, some pictures of my home on the otherside of the Globe. Here in Waterloo I am staying in Columbia Lake Townhouses, A neat collection of a hundred odd houses for exchange, transfer and Older level students. The houses are all almost identical having four small bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a neat Kitchen and a lounge and Dining Area. For Students, they are quite suitable, and every 2.5 weeks the bathroom/kitchen are "deep" cleaned by cleaning staff. The rooms themselves contain only a bed, a desk and a dresser and really need a little bit more to make it livable. Allisons house is about 10m away, and the shot on the right is from my front door and her house is the one in the distance. Can be a tough walk sometimes ;).

Today is a bright and sunny day coming in close to the end of there summer. The day is about 21 degrees outside and the locals are lapping it up. The area around waterloo is great for biking, unlike brisbane the hills are few and far between. It may get a little interesting when it gets cooler though.

In the distance of the left shot is the CLV north residences, these are for students with familys. In the right shot is a picture of our kitchen, with the stove and the fridge. I tell you the fridge is mighty big.

Behind our house is the Columbia Lake, (hence there name) up until last week the road between us and the lake didnt exist. (Road Works at 7am in the morning rock :S ) On the right is another shot of CLV the houses through the middle is the house that my block is in.

"Phillip's" Folding Bikes

Here is a kind of similar Bike, I will put up the real one soon enough. Its really got small wheels. And with the seat maxed out and the Handle bars maxed out too.

Canadian Exhibition...

This is a Photo from the Canadian National Exhibition! Similar to the Brisbane Ekka. At this time of year Canadians are busy harvesting there crops and Corn is plentiful. So here at the Exhibition they have "Roast" Corn all over the place as you can see in the background of this Photo. They also have Carni Gambling Everywhere which is the "money" joint behind me. There where so many of these that it's almost like being in a Casino.

News... - Woo Hoo

Hello,

Good News, I got a bike.... Except it is very goofy... I am sure Andrew can attest to the goofy ness of fold up bikes. This bike is very similar. It's golden and is of the brand name "Phillips". But it's very small and looks like i stole the bike off of a young kid.

In other news I have bought a Printer... For just $48 dollars. YAY!
And my desk light has been replaced! YAY..
And my room is a mess.

Nonetheless Its getting down to about 10 degrees at night. Although it was 5.7 the other night.

Anyway,
Good bye all, Pictures again soon.

Niagra Falls - One of the Seven Wonders of the World

Here are some shots of Niagra Falls, The one on the left backs on to the main Falls, and the picture on the right is the American Falls (Strangely because it's on their side). Underneath is the Horseshoe Falls fromWaterlevel, Note the tremendous amounts of mist blowing up! (Theres the boat we took!) It's like a torrential Downpour.

Behind the Falls, there is a strong Tourist strip with everything from Casinos, Butterfly houses to Haunted Houses. This is a picture of me in front of Ripleys with the tallest man in the world, Not much further till I'm him. Beside me in the right picture is Noel, Allisons Second Cousin once removed or something.

Here is Allison and I after conquering the Haunted House! Besides that is Noel, Nic and Allison just before we take a 4D adventure ride!

Allisons Family in Canada was really great to us - And there very photogenic too.

Some Photos from around the globe (Or North America at least)

Our Visit to Alcatraz was really exciting, the buildings here are fairly old and there is more history to the island than a mere jail. It was used by the military before it was owned by American Jailing System and after it closed due to high running costs and poor pollution control, it was taken over by Native Indians. They stayed there for about 18months and then they got booted. It finally got given to the San Francisco Nature Parks people who have turned it into a great tourist attraction. The first photo was taken from out boat cruise on the Bay, the second is a replica of the old towers that used to have guards in them 24/7. The next photo is the Prisoner recreation area and the last is a refitted Cell. When it finally closed, the cells even had headphones in them to keep the prisoners Quiet.

This is photos from our cruise, As we headed towards the famous Golden Gate Bridge A huge fog rolled in and we could hardly see the bridge till we were up close. There is also a huge number of seals who live off pier 39. They seem to be quite comfortable, although they are a bit ratty...

Throughout San Fran, there are a number of forms of transport. Whilst we were there, we mainly rode the bus, Street Cars, and the Cable Cars. These cable cars were quite expensive about $3.00 per trip, but we had a week pass which proved very handy. By the end of our time in San Fran we had the Public Transport down pat, so we could avoid all of the homeless people on the street ;). In the second photo as we head down towards the docks, you can see Alcatraz off in the distance. There was some fairly nice scenery there. The city itself left a lot to be desired.

Random Pics

Here is Allison and I in the very cool White Convertible (White Leather Seats) Cadillac. An old Classic!

This is a photo and another landmark. 10 points to anyone who can guess.

Well Friends, It's been a while - From Waterloo, ON

Hey Guys,

I feel that it's about time that I write to you, I have been missing "most" of you a fair bit. Canada is not overly different from Australia, at least not at the moment, (I think that the 1m snow falls could change that in a hurry). The most notable sign of the coming winter I think is the huge snow shovel that lives inside the front door of my house. Since I left Australia, I have generally been pretty flat out.

On Sunday the 22nd of August I took a flight to Los Angeles and then straight onto San Francisco. Many of you know that I have the privilege of flying on Cheap Airline tickets and this paid off in more ways than one for my flight to LA. I actually got upgraded to Business Class as the plane was fairly full and the only seats available were in more comfy seats. Unfortunately though (the really bad part) Allison had to stay in Economy, and there weren't any spare seats in Business. The flight was about 13hrs long and we were wasted by our arrival in LA. Here though my cheap ticket really backfired. Our connecting flight onto San Francisco was Full, that meant that I didn't get on the flight. Allison had to and we were now separated across America with no real means of contact. On top of that since I was now flying American Airlines my Stand by ticket had the lowest priority and I was number 20 on the standby ticket list. After waiting a further 4 hours in the Los Angeles Airport with 5 US dollars and 2 Starbucks, a Burger King and about 2 hotdog stands in the same terminal to entertain me, I managed to get on a plane and finally meet up again with Allison an hour or so later.

San Francisco was interesting, there is some fairly nice scenery there, although the people leave a little bit to be desired. Most of the people we interacted with though were tourists from everywhere so that was OK. If you go, be careful of Bums using any excuse to get money out of you, including singing with bad breath, learn to use the buses that go down almost every street downtown. We also biked across the Golden Gate Bridge which was great as we got out of the city. Oh and we also visited Alcatraz. (there is a need to book about 2 days ahead on weekdays, more on weekends)

From San Fran we flew onto Chicago then straight onto Toronto. In the Chicago airport I had my first American Big Mac and that was pretty much Identical, except that the guy taking my order couldn't understand what I asked for when I ordered. Silly Americans... Arriving in Toronto after an annoying delay we arrived to find half the world waiting for us. My Dads Cousin (I shall call her Aunty) was kind enough to pick us up, unfortunately though she had had someone crash into the back of her car on the way to the airport. Whilst staying with them for a few days we visited the city, went to the Toronto Zoo, saw the Canadian Countryside, OMG it's green (I haven't seen green for a while in Brisbane, certainly not like this...). Tasted several Canadian Beers, although that experiment is still underway... ;) Then we stayed with Allisons Parents Cousin for two nights, and spent a day at the famous Niagara Falls. (See Photos) We took the 'maid of the mist' a boat right up to the bottom of the falls and also saw the nearby sights. You don't really hear it but there is a huge amount of mist up above the falls and the buildings near it are pretty much in eternal Rainfall. (The blue raincoats are given for the boat ride as it gets really wet.) After that we stayed with another of my Dads Cousins, they picked us up in there convertible Ferrari, and then took us out to dinner in their white convertible Cadillac (That's the brown & white photo). Very Sweet... although a cold trip home on the Highway at midnight... With little further ado, I made it to my Residence here on Campus at the University of Waterloo.

My location here happens to be the furtherest possible residence from the Engineering Department and it takes me about 20 minutes to get there from my house. I am staying where most of the Exchange students are staying and in my house (a four bedroom townhouse) I have a German (Sven), a guy from Switzerland (Thomas), and a French Bloke named Aziz. The first two are really friendly and the third guy has been a bit of a recluse so far but he only arrived 2 days ago.

There are French, Swiss, and Germans everywhere where I am staying and there have been regular parties/outings amost every night. Study Started for me today and that was interesting. 3 of my lecturers are Canadians and the fourth is a deaf Man who's rather nuts... (You have to see him to believe me... He talks like most deaf people do, except with almost a French accent... )

Well that's kind of up to date of this end, I would love an update of whats happening in Australia, and whether It's worth me coming home. The Broncos seem to need some support I believe, so any support you guys can offer I am sure would be appreciated. Even if it's nothing more than supporting there sponsor XXXX.

Cheers to you all, Thanks for reading this far...

Phil

P.S.

I have been trying to make a list of all of the differences between Australia and US/Canada, here is what I have come up with so far:

* The best thing, (or strangest) Many of the toilets are automatic, this includes Flushing, Hand Taps, Paper Dispensing and wait for it, Automatic toilet seat cover dispensers.... (It actually puts it on the seat for you...)
* They drive on the Goddamn wrong side of the road... silly bastards...
* Starbucks on every corner in the US, and Tim Hortons on every corner in Canada, (3 on my uni campus... is that too many?)
* I saw the classic U Haul...
* Mac Donald's Ads are the same... don't go OS for them...
* The hotel room in San Fran was tiny, but the TV was huge and had 45 odd channels...
* If you upsize you get a meal for two...
* They offer pretzels instead of Peanuts on the plane... (I will see you soon Boyd)
* The plane life jackets are the seat cushions...
* Wood Grain Coloured Cars
* Ketchup... What the HELL is tomato Sauce?
* Cell Phones (Not mobile phones) that go out of the local area????
* Our fridge is the size of a small car...
* You buy milk in plastic bags because it is more economical
* Nobody drinks more than 1.5% fat milk, unless you include Half and Half which is 18%. What we commonly drink in Australia is known only as Homo Milk... no wonder nobody drinks it... (Homo as in Homogenised... but still)
* Houses are so close together that you wouldn't fit in the gaps between them sometimes..
* Pizzas are more expensive here, $7.99 for a pizza with 1 topping... (What the hell?) The general pizza here is a plane Pepporoni Pizza like that of the Ninja Turtles...
* Coke Buddies come in 591mL bottles... (not really 600mL cokes anymore)
* Cans are generally 355mL and Beer is generally about 341mL
* Wholesales stores plague Canada where you can buy 10Kg of Butter for a margin of the price of a Supermarket... ( I still can't justify it though.. :) )

That's all for now, will try to remember some more...