FPA: Days 12, 13, 14 & 15 ... and Places We Eat At

Once again, not too much excitement going on here.

Tuesday, we met at AFAC in the morning with our advisors and our liasion Rob.  He gave us even MORE people to contact (great ...) so now our list of people is still growing.  Wednesday, we stayed in the office and worked most of the day, as we will today (Friday).  Thursday, we had an interview with the CEO of AFAC Naomi Brown.  It went pretty well and we're going to discuss it more with Rob on Monday.  Over the past week, I've been doing most of the research in the socioeconomic area of our project along with working on the database.  John has been writing up the warning tones section, Kemal is working on technology and Potts has been rewriting our methodology.  Nothing too exciting.

Night time has been pretty slow too.  Tuesday night, Potts and I went out to eat and then we hung out in the girl's room for a while because John went out to eat (will explain later). Wednesday, we went down to the tennis court on the seventh floor and played tennis for a little while.  Ten of us then met about going to Tasmania.  We are still working on getting everything all straightened out for that, but currently we have our cars at least (Mitsubishi Lancers, it's the only thing they would give us).

We're still working on places to stay and what to see.  Thursday night, we were REALLY bored and Chris, John and I decided to go to the top of our building.  Unfortunately, the elevators will only go to our floors so we walked up the stairs from the 12th floor to the 38th floor.  The view from up there was amazing.  Then we walked around outside for a little while and tried to find new things that we haven't seen yet.

Back to when I talked about when John went out to eat Tuesday, our advisors are doing group "dinners" with us.  They broke all 26 of us into three groups and on Tuesday, they pick one group and bring us out to dinner with them and their wives.  John and Kemal went last week and they had Italian.  I'm going this coming Tuesday and I guess we're going to have Vietnamese, which should be interesting.  It's going to be me, Chris, Jairo (one of the people stuck in San Fran with us), Brandon (one of my roommates), Sally, Rachel, Renda, Dan and Corinna.  Very interesting group.  Should be fun though.

Ok, now for fun stuff.  I've been thinking and I've noticed that I haven't really been keeping track of what I've been eating out here so I'm going to do a quick run-down of the places that we eat at while we've been here:

-Hungry Jacks - It's basically Burger King but with a different name.  When you go there, they automatically assume you want a Coke with your meal and that you want regular size unless you specify.  Also, "salads" means lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions and "relishes" are tomato sauce (ketchup) and mayo.  Therefore, since I like everything plain, I need to ask for burgers, "without salads and relishes" as opposed to "plain".

-Licks - This is a little gelato place across the street from the library.  Geltao is basically ice cream except less creamy and more flavorful.  They also have shakes and smoothies.

-Grill'd - Probably my favorite place on this list.  They give you GIANT burgers and supposedly, they are healthy.  You can also get hot chips (fries) that they make right in front of you, as in they aren't frozen and thrown into a fryer.  I went there last night and I think I'm going again tonight.

-Rose Garden - This is a really small Chinese restaurant down the street but they give you so much food.  I usually get beef and vegetables with egg noodles.  You also eat with chopsticks, so now I'm an "expert" at that too.

-*Some Pizza Place* - Ok, I forgot the name of this place, but they have the best pizza around, and that's a huge compliment coming from me.  They are about 4 or 5 blocks away.

-"Giant Pancake Place" - Also another place I can't remember the name of.  They are two blocks down the street and they are pretty much like a 99's-type of place.  They also have the HUGEST pancakes I have ever seen.  I ordered one and couldn't finish it.

-Dumpling King - This is a Chinese food restaurant in Box Hill where we work.  A few people from our office brought us there last Friday and it was pretty good.  I still prefer Rose Garden though.

-Box Hill Mall Food Court - I didn't feel like writing about each place we've eaten at in the food court so I'll just list them off.  There's a Subway, which is self-explanitory.  They also have a McDonalds.  Donut King is pretty much like a Dunkin Donuts.  Italiano has pasta and pizza, but it's pretty expensive.  There are two Chinese food places: Oriental Hut and Asian Delicious.  Finally, Snappers is seafood, so I usually get fich and chips there.

I think that's everywhere.  I pretty much go out to eat every night now, since the only things I buy at the grocery store is milk and Tim Tams.  Oh well, it's good food.

-Tim