willieandsam

I’ll let Sam do his own report of the trip (if he ever wakes up, kid can sleep like a damn grizzly bear). Anyways, Thailand was a magical experience. If you’ve been dead or haven’t checked facebook recently you will have missed some of my exploits on the trip. I can’t really do it justice in a blog post (and my family reads this) but it really was the best week of my life for so many reasons. I met some amazing people, saw some incredible sites, and as cliche as it is to say, I truly felt like I learned a great deal about myself as a person. Between the sweat (its HOT there), burns (not going to explain this one yet), scorpions (yeah I ate a few) and laughs, I truly feel blessed to have gone on such a spectacular and eye opening journey.

Being back in Bondi is bittersweet. I miss thailand like crazy, but ten days was certainly enough and its good to be able to drink tap water again. Will always remember the past ten days and am just thankful to have gotten so much out of that short amount of time. Traveling is really an incredible thing and is something that I will need to make time for in the future. As they say ‘lifes to short’…. It really is, but rather than dwell on that most dismal of human facts we just have to make the most of it while were still here.

That about sums it up for now. I have plenty of stories to tell so feel free to ask away, some of them are more fit for the internet than others so I will leave this section blank for now.

‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened…’ – Dr. Seuss

– Willie

Tomorrow we’re going to Thailand

Hello boys and girls.

It’s very late here and we have a flight to Thailand in 10 hours so I’m gonna keep this short.

The last week has been solid. Here’s a couple places Willie and I visited: the beaver (great canadian pub that televises march madness), unbelievable korean bbq restaurant, australia-oman soccer game, BBQ at boyer’s house, Usydney, the Casino, the hospital, THE club. Almost in that order but definitely switch the last two.

We also both got haircuts. Mine’s a 10 Gevertz’s is a 6.

Happy Passover to all the chosen people reading this.

Talk to you guys in 10 days, stay safe out there.

Game Day

So I realize that we have inundated you guys with an absolute smorgasbord of blogs as of late. This should be seen as a good thing. Probably the nicest thing I have ever done for each of you respectively. Anyways, its 7 am here and I have just slept for as long as I have in the past 6 years. A combination of feeling extraordinarily well rested, bored, and frustrated from my “sputtering” (read: non-existant) NCAA streams, I have decided to bless all of you with a little game I like to call “guess our official positions based on the pictures”. I need to work on the name a bit, but here are the basic rules. As Sam mentioned, we have official titles down here. It’s very necessary, like breathing. Nothing can get done without bureaucracy. There is no formal hierarchy, but I’ll let you guys guess who makes the majority of decisions. I’m going to give a series of pictures for each person and you have to guess the title based on the pictures.

Example:

The answer here would be “Fireman”. Picture one was of fire, and picture two was of Oklahoma State Head Football Coach Mike Gundy. He’s a man, he’s 40. Fire+Man = Fireman.

Ok so lets play for real.

Gevertz:

and

Dailey:

and

Alexander:

and

Answers:

Gevertz= Social Chair and Energy Specialist

Dailey= Food Guru and Chief Spy

Beaser = Neighbor Coordination and Head Potato

How’d you do? Post your results in the comments.

– W.G.

Mrs. Mary Esposito!

Had such an impact on this blog in the past 24 hours that I thought she needed a formal introduction. Rare public sighting of Sister Esposito.

Inspiration?

My colleague’s previous post, while touching, failed to raise some interesting points about the moral character of one Mary Esposito. Is the perpetrator of a hit and run involving a school bus full of children really a good role model for America’s youth? One can blame the frequent and relentless elder abuse that Ms. Esposito experiences on a daily basis for her transgressions, but, in the end the simple fact remains that our heroes should not need us to make excuses to them.

Let’s move on to the food.

Since day 1 in Australia people have started to refer to me as the food guru. It started off as a casual thing, just a small group of locals showing their respect, but the comments have become pretty ubiquitous recently and it’s a title that I no longer take lightly. I am the food guru.

In Bondi Beach, we have a small circuit of places we hit up pretty regularly.
First of all, Hungry Jacks–which is Burger King–has TWOFOR TUESDAYS where they offer 2 for 1 deals on burgers. Unfortunately, we missed most of February where the sandwich applied to the Whopper. In March, the sandwich of choice is the Bacon Cheeseburger which leaves a little bit to be desired. 5 dollars for 2 big burgers is about as good of a deal as you can get down here though, so we try not to miss this on Tuesdays.

Another staple has been fish and chips from Bondi Seafood. Nothing fancy going on here; just solid fish and chips for 10.80.

There’s a chinese place that only Willie knows the name of that we’ve been to twice now and thoroughly enjoyed both experiences. For about 16 dollars each we can get two big dishes of pretty good Chinese food. The only drawback is the overzealous bartender there whose passion for Chinese food packaging is rivaled only by his curiosity for drink prices in New York.

There are two restaurants right underneath our apartment which each do their job and do it well. One is an Italian restaurant named Gelbison’s that Willie never shuts up about. It’s food is only slightly above average so I think it’s the waitress that keeps him coming back. The obsession is Charlie Day-esque. I’m not sure what the name of the other place is, but it’s a small cafe that has suberb $9 steak sandwiches and $11 breakfast sandwiches.

I’ve saved the best for last here with the Sao Paulo chicken sandwich from Fogo. It’s a 10. $8.50 for the sandwich, 12 for fries and a drink. Relentless on the taste buds. I’ve had it about 5 times so far, Gevertz plays second fiddle at 4, and Beaser hasn’t gone near the place. Which brings me to an important topic… Beaser’s food choices.

Quick story: Day 2 in Australia, Nousse takes us to a fantastic Japanese food restaurant. A menu full of delicious raw fish and tender meats available to us. Beaser chooses to order pickled vegetables and a small bowl of rice. It looked and tasted as disgusting as it sounds; the finest cuisine in the world available and he chooses a small bowl of damp cauliflower.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list of our food consumption down here. We’ve gotten some good meals up in Syndey, gone to a couple good Italian delis in Bondi (Watson you shoulda seen the fresh mootZERELL), and eaten enough egg sandwiches and PB and Js to pretend we’re not actually spending too much money down here.

I’m going to end this blog with my two proudest moments as food guru:

Story 1: after a long round of golf, Gevertz Nousse and I were absolutely starving and stuck in traffic on the trip back to Bondi. At a red light, we see two guys with a pizza box handing out pamphlets for a restaurant. And free slices of pizza. We yell to the guy with the pizza box that we’re very hungry and would be keen on some pizza and he rushes across two lanes of traffic and throws the entire box of pizza into my hands. Best moment of the trip so far.

Number 2: Gevertz, Alexander and I went to the mall for some munchies and a 3D viewing of OZ (Gevertz touched on this experience in his last post). As we’re wandering around the food court, we happen upon a Chinese place that has a plate of spring rolls and dumpling-type things out on its counter. The following exchange takes place:

Willie: “Are these free samples?”

Chinese Employee: “No…take them all”

Willie: “What? I can just take all of them?”

C.E.: “Yes. Take them all and be free my sweet prince.”

Only the last line there has been embellished.

The aftermath:

A random boat picture to anyone questioning our opulence:

Shout out Fat E, Shout out Gucci

God is love,

Rev Run

Inspiration

Inspiration: the most elusive of concepts; it is a hard word to define and even a harder objective to achieve. Sometimes it comes from the most fleeting and unlikely of sources, mere abstractions that are forgotten as soon as they are seen and only leave the faintest of imprints on the subconscious. Thankfully in the beautiful Bondi Beach inspiration comes from more obvious examples: the shimmering blue of the ocean sparkling under a magnificently bright sun, daredevils on surfboards carving up majestic waves in the distance, or the breathtaking views from the beachwalk to Coogee. Despite these facts, it was inspiration from an abstraction that was able to get this blog back up on its feet. Alleviating my recent bout with bloggers block was none other than a conversation I was recently engaged in with our good friend Benjamin “BIg Shot” Cabranes. Big Shot is more of an idea than an actual human being and his passionate – nay obsessive – following of our exploits down under is what I needed to remind me that there are bigger things in life that lying on the beach and that there are those out there literally clinging to our every sentence.

wheres my major update

im on break and am bored

and need a willieandsam update

mary demands it

i demand it

the people demand it

To say I was jolted into a sudden awareness of my recent shortcomings was an understatement to say the least. I couldn’t let Big Shot’s ancient Italian housekeeper Mary down – a lady who by all accounts is worthy of a place not short of the pantheon of Roman Gods. The fact that I have never had any communication with Mary did not matter, I was now a man on a mission. The following blog is the product of Mary’s love; nothing more, nothing less.

Relaxing in what is probably the best beach attire in all of Bondi (possibly in the Southern Hemisphere)

We last left you after the weekend of future and the yacht. Besides an update on Game of Thrones being accessible down here (not really sure why it wouldn’t be, this is a first world country afterall, but I was excited at the time) and a confusing message to Josh Lyvers there has been nothing written since that update.

Josh Lyvers: Man, Myth, Legend

The crux of the matter is that last week did not have the most exciting start. We spent the first four days battling with the bout of cabin fever we had been stricken with living out the remainder of our stay in 27 sir thomas mitchell. The place, as I have previously commented, was reasonable enough, but the open floor plan of the basement probably left us in too close of a proximity of each other truth be told. Nonetheless we made it out alive and can only thank our VERY FRENCH caretaker Rafael, and the lovely and constantly bespectacled Sue for making our time down their manageable. We spent one of our last nights on a mission to check out the Westfield Mall in Bondi Junction in order to tour the plethora of asian dining options and catch a 9 oclock showing of Oz: The Great and Powerful. Food was top notch, especially the Burrito I got from Guzman Y Gomez (Australia’s rip-off of chipotle; not quite as good but nothing to complain about). All I can really say about the movie was that it was confused. It was as if the director just took as many weird and crazy genres, actors, cgi effects, musical scores and just threw them together in a drunken stupor. Definitely did not live up to expectations nor the brilliance of the 1939 Judy Garland version. However, I really felt as if I got my moneys worth thanks to an amusing doppelganger (in both personality and appearance).

Jack Freeman in Action

Finley the flying monkey butler rocking some fresh shades

On Thursday I was given the opportunity to go to training with my friend Mark’s soccer team, Mosman FC, which left me in a state of exhaustion on the eve of our big move in the next day. Waking up early on Friday, in order to clean the absolute mess we had made in the basement (I should say the absolute mess Sam and I had made as I’m not sure Beaser is actually capable of producing a mess – though he is clearly capable of damaging property, but that is a story for another blog) and meet our Real Estate Agent, the ever generous Karen ‘Chippy’ Mcleod to give us a tour of our new place. The pictures of the apartment online did not really do it justice. It is a spacious and luxurious three bedroom apartment, with a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and dining room, and an incredible view of a frighteningly accessible beach. It is truly a privilege to be living here, although it does come with the crashing realization that I am absolutely peaking in terms of living accommodations for the foreseeable future. We decided to make the (only slightly) irresponsible decision of throwing a housewarming party the night we moved in. It went surprisingly well with no damage done besides a curiously missing bathroom lock (*ahem* beaser *ahem*) and a friendly reminder from our neighbors to keep it down. Probably had about 50 people show up as the night went on which was a good way to start things off. The rest of the weekend was an absolute whirlwind as St. Patricks day festivities took their grip on our young hearts and minds. St. Patricks day is really as ridiculously wonderful as holidays get for 20-something year old kids, and despite the gross over-indulgence that can be exhibited is something that the world can only thank the Irish for (thank you irish). This should be enough for now, more to come soon, including a live video look of our apartment in the very near future. Again, thank you to Big Shot and Mary for making this all possible.

Goose-fra-ba,

Willie

Lyvers

Massive update coming soon.

WE HAVE TRACTION

GAME OF THRONES PREMIERE IS APRIL FIRST, THERE IS NO BIG DELAY DUE TO INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS, YOU CAN ALL BREATHE EASY

Future, yachting, and can we do this every weekend?

By Friday afternoon the residents of 27 Sir Thomas Mitchell Road (STMR) were exhausted from a long week of class. Our hour of class on Monday and 45 minutes on Wednesday had left us mentally and physically exhausted to the point where Willie and I were both daydreaming about Murray Dry, Colander, and 20 degree weather. We decided to forget about our problems for the weekend though, and try to party like it’s Homecoming back at Middlebury.

Saturday was Future, a huge music festival down here at the Randwick Race Track (horses not cars). We woke up early and headed to campus, right across from the race track. By 2, we were all headed to the festival with our worries of the previous day forgotten. Here’s a breakdown of the acts we saw: Ellie Goulding, FUN, Psy (absolutely killed it), Steve Aoki (gave us a shout out), Madeon (hell of a DJ for a 12 year old french boy, and “probably [willie’s] favorite set of the morning.” The morning being 6 pm, apparently), Dizzee Rascall, Hardwell (actually killed it), and finally Avicii. The sun was down for the last two acts and as a rookie to the EDM festival i’ve never experienced anything like it. We all had an unbelievable time. I’m letting Willie speak for himself there because he was separated from the group around 5 with a dead phone and an open mind. We all made it out alive despite lighter wallets, sore shoulders, and one ruined pair of very average Adidas sneakers that Gevertz was irrationally upset about. Also, if liz.mcgloughlan@hotmail.com is reading this, williewillieg93 is anxiously awaiting your email.

This morning, we woke up early again for a day out on Boyer’s yacht. The 27 STMR boys were still paying the price for all of the previous day’s fun, so it was more of a relax and recover trip with captain Boyer rather than a captain Morgan Nousse-fest. Maybe next time… We had a nice view of the city and of some amazing water acrobatics. Other than that, the boat was about as nice as most 50 foot yachts.

Things are pretty quiet right now at 27 STMR. This is our last week at our humble abode before we step things up and move into our beachside palace (which reminds me, gevertz recruited a live band for the march 15 Launcher). We’re all looking forward to catching up on sleep this week and trying not to let the potatoes get us down.

Keep it fiendish.