February 28, 1998
Subject:  The Land Of Oz

G'day all,

I just spent the last hour or so going through my emails.  I tell you the 
connections here are extremely slow, so I'm only going to send out these 
form emails instead of answering.  But I do really appreciate hearing from you.

Let's see where I left off...

After visiting the Nortel site in Wollongong (the presentation went well and 
I was well received - taken out for lunch), I toured the campus and talked to 
a couple people about the MBA program.  The campus is absolutely beautiful.  
It would be a great place to go to school.  That night I went out for dinner 
and a tour of Wollongong with one of the girls from the office.

The next day, I toured Wollongong with a couple of Dutch people that I met in 
the hostel (yes, I'm going to expense a $15 accommodation).  It's a nice town 
of about 200,000 people.  We bush walked (hiked for you Canadians) around and 
went to the beach. That night I drove back to Sydney, only to find the Hertz 
dealer closed.  I found my way back to Ian's apartment okay.  It's difficult 
when you have to not only find your way around in a strange city, but 
concentrate on NOT driving on the right side of the road.

The next day I went up Centerpoint tower and toured the Royal Botanical 
Gardens.  That night, to my surprise, Savannah showed up in Sydney.  I guess 
that's what the surprise was that she hinted to me in her email.  We've been 
touring together for the past couple days.  Friday night, after work (Ian's), 
we went to the Customs House (a pub) for a few Schooners (not pints) and then 
headed off to the U2 concert.  It was amazing.  We got there about 5 minutes 
before the band went on, which was pretty amazing considering we were an hour 
and a half late.

The next day was Mardi Gras.  It was a very interesting experience.  The 
largest part of the party was a 3 and a half hour parade of Gays, Lesbians, 
and Bisexuals.  It's supposedly the largest of its kind in the world.  There 
were close to 750,000 people there.

Today, I booked my Kiwi Experience tour for New Zealand, which also includes 
a flight between Christchurch and Auckland, so I don't have to worry about 
making my way back up to the North Island.

That's about it for now.

New things I've learned in Australia...

1- If you're talking to a tall Dutch blonde and you decide to invite
   her to tour with you for the day, make sure she doesn't have a
   boyfriend who she wants to tag along.

2- Don't try to hit on anyone on a bus if your friends are sitting
   right behind you.

3- One hundred Xena's concentrated in a small area is not necessarily
   a bad thing (part of the parade).

Take care all and I'll write soon.

Cheers,

Rob