So....back at home, finally! I had a great 5 or 6 months in Australia....it was by far the best semester of my life...not that the others were bad, just that this one was just so damn good.  I met lots of cool people, went out all the time, had tons of fun, saw some amazing things, traveled around a lot, and didn't do as much schoolwork as at rice.  what else could i ask for?

Now i'm back in Scarsdale....er....White Plains, in the new house, which is okay.  I got the shaft with my room, and my bed was even downsized, which was a slap in the face.  Its bullshit i tell you.  I'm only here for a month though, so hopefully when i get back for winter break it'll be all back to normal.  Right now the walls are purple, and the room is just on the whole very gay.  I gotta paint it, but first i need to find some girl to deal with choosing a paint color, cuase i'm bad at that shit.

I know i've been a lazy bastard with this blog.  My outback trip was amazing, i saw a lot of cool rock formations. I'm paying for my connectino now at an internet cafe, so if you want to check out pics, just got to http://www.imageevent.com/viperrepiv/australia/outback

I think that's the correct link.

But anways, right now I'm in Wanaka, New Zealand.  The scenery is unbelivable.  This city...er...town...is right on a massive lake in front of a backdrop of snow capped mountains.  Yesterday I did a glacier hike on the Franz Joseph Glacer a couple hours up the road, which was, of course, incredible.  I did a full day guided hike, and i felt like a real ice climber cause we got ice axes and crampons and boots and everything.  The ice had a turquoise blue tint to it, and we hiked though narrow crevices, tunnels, and along towering walls (all ice, of course).  The glacer is set on a mountain(s) which are covered with temparate rain forest, which is a little strange if you think about it.  One minute you're walking through a rainforest, and the next thing you see is a massive glacier.  It also makes the whole scene look really cool becuase the contrast of the white ice, the black mountains, the green forest, and the blue sky makes it seem like something out of a fantasy book or movie.  Tomorrow I'm going skiing, and i'm psyched.  if they condidtions suck, then i'll just snowboard the next day, becuase I'm not very good and I dont need good conditions.  Okay well maybe i'll update this again later this trip, but if i don't i'll do it when I get back and can post some pictures.

Right now Shelly is visiting (until next friday), and let me tell you, the visit was so needed.  We're having an amazing time together just exploring Sydney and hanging around.  Last night we ate at the Sydney tower restaurant (centerpoint I think it was called).  It's this restaurant that's at the top of this realllly tall tower in the middle of downtown.  The view was incredible and the rotating floor let us see the whole 360 degree panorama of the city.  The atmosphere was a little touristy - at one point the restaurant was invaded by a group of like 40 asian tourists and their crying babies - but that made it more fun cause we had people to make fun of.  The food was good, especially considering it was made/served at the top of a tower, and the wine we got was decent (not that i could really tell though).  We still have a lot of Sydney to see, and i'm looking forward to a kick ass week