I am sitting here listening to the rain. Thinking about how it never rains in Australia and how I miss it. The weather here taunts you with rain, almost like that bully who held the action figure in your face only to take it away. I am starting to think this might be the reason there’s a water shortage here. I am writing now because I realized that my time here is almost done, and my time here has gone too fast. Well, it has gone to fast in the slowest way possible. Or maybe it has gone too slow in the fastest way possible. I do know one thing for sure. It is nothing like I expected. I thought I was coming to the land of sea and sand. I thought I was going to be on the beach all day reenacting Bob Marley and only going to class during comedowns but it turns out that that is all propaganda. I am now dealing with the problem that I don’t want the rain to stop but I can hear it slowing down. It is like this huge, vast and crazy country is the 5-year-old child who only takes as much water as is absolutely needed, then whines about it being thirsty all the time. I often wonder if I am that same way. If I have been here and not gotten enough water because I was too hyperactive to drink it. All I know is this, there is no way to come to a country and live like a native while doing all the tourist things that are expected of you. I chose to go native, but that means I do not get to be apart from the real Australia. I get to see the real Oz, cities and small town alike. The places where no one goes anywhere because their real lives are happening where they are. I bur against the saddle when I take too much time to think. Maybe that’s why I have been the worst blog writer ever. I have seen more and done more then I needed to and I have spent this whole trip with this tiny imp on my shoulder. He is a composition of all the people I love and all their desires for me while I am in Australia. There are the loving grandparents who always want what is best for me and are always willing to help. The only problem is I feel like I let them down because they only hear the stories of the weekend in Namboor at the beach, or the many nights at the pub or my death defying leap from a bus overhang. The reason for that is it is not fun to write the stories about me sitting in a plastic chair in my white brick single dorm room in union college, desperately trying to reach the word count of the first of 4 papers that all seem to be due at the same time. I feel them talking to me each time I go out and every time I forget to take a picture or opt to have some Aussie fun rather than study. Also I hear the voice of my mother. Trying so hard to give me everything but placing it in such a way that I can only get to it if I try. She says she expects nothing of me but I know that I expect something of me on her behalf. Then there are my friends who want to hear the stories, so when we all get back to our small little worlds we can compare note and spin yarns that will keep us sane during another year of the same back in the middle of the land of liberty. These voices are in my head and in my heart. Maybe that is why I don’t want the rain to stop. So I can drink it for them. So I can never be thirsty when I think about my six months in the land down under. But in the end the rain will stop. The weather will get hot because it is summer after all and I will get up and go to class like every native OZ student does. Someone once asked me what it was like in Australia and what you get out if it. I think I have an answer now. It will give you as much as you are willing to drink. I know I tried, but in the end I am still whining in my Power Ranger Undroos that I am thirsty. I guess I need to start drinking more…if only to make my mother happy.

Hey everyone,

I am going to start writing more even though school is putting me though the ringer. I have hundreds of stories, but the trick is I am too busy having them to write them down. I can see the finish line, so I will be damned if I am not going to it right. I will make up for last time and I hope you all enjoy it. Can’t wait to talk to you and I am sorry again that I don’t write (See above reason why) See you soon.

Song Of The Post (Nina Simone ~ Ain’t Go No, I Got Life [Nina Simone v Groovefinder Remix])

Hakuna Matata

~William Scot “Grecco” Bray

I’m Grecco and

These are my sins…

1. I have not gone to sleep before 4:00 am in the last three days and every night I have contemplated different ways to become the most infamous exchange student in the history of UQ, and trust you & me, some of my nefarious schemes are not so covered in clothing.
2. Last week, on a Wednesday, at around 8 in the PM, I sat attempting recovery by drinking water from a whiskey bottle. It was the same Dewar’s bottle that I had turned from half-empty to empty-empty at 8:45 that morning. Do not fear loved ones. I am not an alcoholic. In fact compared to most that day, I was a wuss but that is a story for another, less soul exposing blog.
3. Again my plight with academia is with me. It has followed me across the sea and it has again become my existential cross to bear.  My curse is, and this might come as a shock, but I talk more than everyone else in my classes. I maintain that this is not a bad thing because the classes are worth taking but in the eyes of every other student it is a crime because, for some unknown reason, they do not always want to allow themselves to be graced with my wondrous options and comments. Unfathomable.
4. [something I am truly sorry about] I have not written my family in any form of correspondence since I have traveled thousands of Kilometers/Miles from them. By this point they most likely think I am a self absorbed ass or they think I have been eaten by some indigenous OZ creature. I’m not sure which is true, but I’m pretty sure that my vigorous cage fight with a Tasmanian Devil/Koala hybrid that ended in referee stoppage only happened in a dream. So what does that mean to you?
5. I have a hundred plus ideas for what to write about in this blog but I cannot get my skinny butt to sit down and write it because I think blogs are self absorbed and I want to keep my pain inside *Grecco pauses to wipes away a tear and to turn up 30 Seconds to Mars *
6. There is now no doubt in my narrow mind that shoes only make you more uptight. The shoe to fun ratio is always, more shoes: less fun. I am telling you all, like some insomniac, transpacific-communicating Moses, lose the shoes! I have. FOLLOW IN MY LIGHT!!! Now all you will have to worry about is unsnuffed fags.
   
7. All of my showers have been over 4 minutes despite the advisements to the contrary begging me to be quick in my “water/me” time. They are asking me because there is a water shortage in this country and OZ care when they have the potential to die of thirst. I don’t listen to this reasonable request because the water is so class it makes me feel like I am being bathed in angel tears. Ironic, no?
8. I now believe in my heart of hearts that all New Zealanders fornicate with sheep. There is no joke here. After being told this by Aussies so many times it would make Steven Hawkins head explode if he tried to count them, I have come to the conclusion that there is something very unseemly going down on that Island to the west.
9. My OZ accent sounds like someone put a naked Irishmen full of Thorazine in a field and ran over his “family shillelagh” with a tractor. Before for you start to hide your children, I will tell you that my vocal prowess becomes slightly less soul scraping when I have been drinking. Go figure.
10. Finally (and Buddha, please forgive me) I have been contemplating cutting my hair…

What has this country done to me!!!

Oh well. I guess I will have to stick around and find out.

~William Scot “Grecco” Bray

Song of the Post (My Delirium by [New Zealand Artist] LadyHawke) This is a very good song I have discovered while I have been here, take a second and see if you like it as well.

P.S.

Sorry New Zealand, you know I love you.

I am not sure how to start this whole blog thing. I had something quippy but after the first jape it was really nothing. I guess I can post it anyway. You might laugh. I was going to start my first blog entry like this.

“Hello everyone, My name is Grecco and I am a recovering American. I have been clean for three weeks so far. I have been tempted by many things in Australia to revert back to being a American but I have been strong. I have seen the error in my past ways by seeing other students who have not given up their addiction to being American, and how much their lives are merely husks of what they could amount to be. I will never be cured but I have seen the better path thanks to my time down under, beer, and proper sport….”

That was going to be my start. The problem after the first rehab joke it would kind of fall short and it doesn’t really give a indication of who I am or what I want this to be. Can’t have that, so I’m still at a loss on what to write for this first entry. I can give you what I wrote to be approved for a blog. The blog I am writing, for the people that do not know (though god knows how you got to this point without knowing what you are reading, as I imagine you have come to the University of Queensland International Students Blog knowing full well what it is) is a tell all about being a international student in the University of Queensland. So I could give you what I gave the international students office to be given the privilege of sending my dingy of opinion into the vastness that is the ocean of the interweb. God I ramble more then if Robin Williams & Billy Connolly had a furry lovechild. Back to the point. I should show you all what I wrote to get the blogging job in the first place That might work to get my proverbial foot in the door. I will do it. Here it goes. Brace for Impact

“After my 20+ plus hour flight to Brisbane, a flight that left me feeling as if I had spent the duration in a phone booth with an enraged 900 LBS Gorilla, and many days to recuperate, three things dawned upon me about my upcoming semester at U of Q.. First, without Google, I would never be able to tell you what a 900 pound gorilla would weigh in metric (408.23 KILO for those playing the home game). Second, I find I know nothing about the finer difference between Rugby Union and Rugby League, other then they both make American football look as if it was contested by the members of the London Ballet. Third, and this was the most important thing I discovered, everything I thought I knew about Australia was wrong. So that leaves me here for four months. I am a stranger in a strange land where the water doesn’t even flow backwards like I thought because the toilets have to power to half flush. Lord help me… life has never been so fun.”

I thought it was good, and so did they. I hope you do to. Because it is your time I am trying to get and I pray you are going to spend it reading more of my acutely sardonic, spriteish and impactful whimsy. If it wasn’t, remember I will post pretty pictures as well. Like this one.

One Perimeter Hall of the Outdoor Great Court

In truth I do not have a lot to say in this first blog other then the fact that I have a lot of different topics to cover. But they each need their own time. I think I will just spend the rest of my number one blog sharing my basic info and giving you all the joyful plethora of things I (might) write about in the future. I will do it like a Cosmo so you can be really excited… It just occurred to me that sarcasm is really hard to put forth in a blog, Oh well

Name: William Scot “Grecco” Bray

University: DePauw University, Greencastle, IN USA/ University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD AUS

Turn Ons: Intelligence and an ability to resist the urge to punch me in the face

Turn Offs: Large Men named Bubbha, Buford or “Crazy” Pete who follow me into the bathroom and start to quote lines from Deliverance

Hobbies: Not thinking as much as possible… and Billiards

Weekly Habits: One song a week off my ever evolving Australian Playlist

Future Topics for “Some Such Nonsense (Australian/Study-Abroad/Blog Edition):

· The Buildings of U of Q and why I feel like I am in a Dr. Seuss Book.

· Why Orientations just make your life harder.

· The Cost of things and why I may not be able to afford to live

· My Bi-nightly Pilgrimage to my U.S Embassy aka Mr. Deno’s Kebab & Pizza

· Free Poker night at the Redroom and other interactions on campus

· Why I discovered that I drink and play sports with the same ability as someone in a coma

· A explanation of the weekly songs and why I picked them

· Australian Pop Culture and why it is three years behind the states

· Other Stuff!!!

Personal Statement: Thank you all for reading. Come again soon. To my loved one (and anyone else that cares) I am sorry if I do not e-mail enough, life is quite busy. I want you to know I am surviving in my own special way. I also want it to be known that I will try to make this blog worth reading and not just make it a self indulgent trip down Grecco lane (Which will be a trick because that is what most conversations with me are like). Please feel free to email me with any topics you would like me to cover in my blog. It really helps if I know what you would like to read. My email (for this) is GreccoBray@gmail.com. Past that, I got nothing. Wait. That is not true. I got a lot to say. God Help Us All.

Song of the Post (Spirit Boy By Kane)

~William Scot “Grecco” Bray