"Wild Ames over the water

Headin' north and home again
Bringin' the warm wind from the south
Bringin' the first taste of the spring..."
~John Denver, Wild Montana Skies

Well, that's it. My flight leaves for LA in a couple of hours so I need to scare up some lunch and get myself to the shuttle bus in a few minutes. My camera has made it safely to Sydney and is on its way to Boston, where hopefully it will greet me next weekend, so check back after then for more photos! More detailed descriptions of the tours will be inserted as comments on the photos. I will also be stealing my fellow tourists' photos from Facebook and putting them up as they come, so NZ ones might be a bit later in posting.

The NZ tour was all right. It mostly consisted of being on a bus for eight hours a day on windy mountain roads, and not doing much of anything else. I'm not sure I would have been up for much more this week, what with this cold and all, so it seems to have worked out. After Queenstown we really didn't do much that's worth writing about, though the scenery was gorgeous.

Christchurch, NZ

"I'm losing track of myself
All over time zone lines
And if I daylight save do I jump
Ahead or fall behind?"

~Carbon Leaf, "International Airport" (I thought of this especially when trying to figure out how to call my mom from Sydney after being in Darwin, after daylight savings started, and again trying to get my watch right in Auckland since the plane's handy screen told me something different than the pilot did about local time. But I digress.)

Christchurch reminds me very much of Krakow. I'm staying just off Cathedral Square which, not surprisingly, has a big cathedral in it, just like the town square in Krakow. I exited the hostel, passed a random film screening in the square and headed towards the beautiful sunset, and promptly got lost. I was just exploring though, so it was okay. I managed to find an ATM, dinner (take-away sushi that seemed to have mayonnaise in it? ew) and tomorrow's breakfast and then really couldn't find the square again. So I just retraced my steps. After eating the sushi and watching the film (which turned out to be The Eleventh Hour, interestingly) and a brief dip back at the hostel to drop off breakfast, I reoriented myself and found out I was irritatingly close to both the square and the hostel when I had turned back! But that made it much easier for the second, shorter wandering, so that's good. Christchurch is also very similar to Australia, same brands of many things, same expressions, etc, so it's easy to see how there are very fluid borders between the two.

Hmm, Sydney. Sydney was good. I had a smashing good time staying with my friend Adina. Too many stories to share, but most of the errands got done. Except for the camera - still MIA. When Adina gets it, she will send it on to me... so no photos of NZ for the moment. Fingers crossed for making friends on the tour, which starts tomorrow! The kids on the first tour were so nice, taking photos and being my friends on Facebook so I can snatch them off there once I'm home and share them with you.

I did get up at 4:30 to get the sketcho shuttle to the airport and, instead of sleeping on the plane like a rational human being, I watched Juno :) - so now I'm VERY sleepy and am getting up early again tomorrow, so I say it's officially bedtime! Ooh, but first, trivia! I'm going to give Adina an honorary congrats, since it shows she knows something about American history (she answered it in person :P). The answer was indeed Lewis and Clark - Burke and Wills were infamous ill-fated explorers of Australia's interior.

Ok, new trivia: About how many miles is New Zealand from Australia?
a) 300
b) 800
c) 1400
d) 2000
e) New Zealand is in Australia

Notes from Sydney

I stepped off the plane in Sydney to a cool, dry, refreshing breeze - what a change from Darwin! Ok, let's back up. Dinner Tuesday night was indeed crocodile - it was prepared like chicken fingers and tasted a lot like chicken with a little fishy taste to it, and a little tougher, but good. I enjoyed the second half of the trip a lot, especially once the group shrank and gelled. We were one night in Katherine, where we took a river cruise through the Katherine gorges (saw a live crocodile!), and two nights in Kakadu National Park, where we took another cruise, a hike in the rain to see Aboriginal art, and generally took it easy. Some nights Nicky and I hung out with the girls, some nights we hosted poker night for the boys - it was nice to have a girl friend who would play with the boys with me! Also she is my age, where the other girls are younger and the boys are older.

Anyway, then we were in Darwin for a night, and used it as a base on Wednesday, the final day, for our day trip to Litchfield National Park, which was great. Our first stop was the termite mounds, which frankly gross me out so I'm not going to talk about them. Then we got to do the fun stuff, which was swimming and hiking in waterfalls! We took about an hour and all jumped in the pool. There was actually a really strong current so we had to aim for a rock and grip onto it carefully! But the water was cold and clear and felt great. Then we took a 1km hike around the upper part of the river that feeds the waterfall, then back to the bus. We also stopped at another waterfall but couldn't go in because the water levels were so high that crocodiles had been seen there, though we didn't see any. Then lunch, then back on the bus and to Darwin for the official end of the tour.

Luke and Michelle dropped of Jonas, Jens, Phil and me at the hotel we stayed at the night before and where Jonas, Phil and I were storing our bags until our flights out that night and Jens had booked another night. We puttered around a bit, fiddling with our hastily-packed luggage from the morning and gathering things for the afternoon/evening, then headed out to the internet cafes. I finally wandered back to the hotel around 6:30pm, where Jens let us each use his shower before our final group dinner, which was really nice. The girls begged off early and the rest of us killed time at the club until it was time to leave for the airport. Jonas, Phil and I ordered a cab (ah, small-town Darwin) and made tracks. Jonas' flight was right away but Phil and I were both flying through Brisbane about ten minutes apart, on our way to separate destinations, and we were able to keep each other awake until boarding shortly after 1am.

I arrived in Brisbane with precisely five minutes to kill (waiting in the restroom line) before my connecting flight. The good thing about these tiny airports is that it's very easy to have a connecting flight! The second gate was right after the first, and in Adelaide it was the very same gate and plane. Love it. I also got to watch the sunrise during the landing in Brisbane, which made up for being SO completely out of it after 3 hours' sleep! The flight to Sydney was more turbulent but I really couldn't manage to stay awake long enough to get worked up about most of it! I easily found my pal/hostess, the lovely Miss Adina of Miss Adina's Amateur Chauffeur Service, and we made tracks to her house where we laid out a plan for the day. We tackled some of my errands, with varying degrees of success, and took a ferry ride from Watson's Bay to Circular Quay. Now I am SO ready for bed! Fingers crossed that we'll see my camera tomorrow...! It was a lovely day of exploring and I am looking forward to being up for more tomorrow :)

Up the Track

Yes... with 7 hours of driving per day, you would think we'd see something exciting. Anything, really. What did we see? Lots of kangaroo roadkill. Coupla birds. Termite mounds (seriously - huge and gross). Yep... that's about it. Pretty boring. I did get to ride shotgun/guest DJ a couple of times, and got to talk to Luke, which was fun. It was interesting to watch the countryside change and the trees (and termite mounds) get bigger as we moved into an area with more water.

We stopped one night in the middle of nowhere called Banka Banka for some swag camping and some of the girls made a horror film on their digital camera that they called "The Banka Banka Bloodshed" starring Luke as the Banka Banka Butcher. I also managed to leave my camera behind in one place and it will be sent along to my friend that I'm staying with in Sydney. I'm looking forward to having it back! Needless to say... photos will be delayed... :(

Ok, that's all I have time for. Tonight's dinner is likely going to be crocodile - saw some on the various river cruises we took in the past couple of days! :) One more night in Darwin and then the tour is over and I make my way to Sydney!

Tour 1, Part 1

aka "There once was a tourist who swallowed a fly..."

The flies here are horrendous! They're not lazy like they are in the US - these buggers want water, and they want it NOW and they don't care if they get it from your sweat, your eyes, your ears, your nose, or your mouth. Most of us have pretty quick reflexes but our tour guide, Luke, definitely swallowed one while giving us a talk.

Moving on... We're back in Alice Springs for a couple of nights. The first four days of this tour are a loop between Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Kings Canyon and back to "the Alice", so we actually had five of our fifteen desert us yesterday. I don't have too much time, so I'll just list off the highlights and do details (and photos, and videos) later: Ayers Rock at sunrise and sunset (and learning about its Aboriginal history), a 3.5 hour "walk" (did I mention Luke is crazy?) up to and then around the rim of Kings Canyon, a sunrise hot-air balloon ride (!!!!! my favorite!), Dinky the Singing (and piano-playing) Dingo, sleeping under the stars at Kings Canyon, playing with a python and his lizard friends (I got some good photos of me and the other kids wearing the python!), and cooling off in hotel pools in the afternoon.

I'm a little surprised we haven't seen any wildlife along the side of the road, or from the balloon. Tomorrow we start our killer trek "up the track" (aka the Stuart Highway). With seven hours of driving per day, we're sure to see something, right? Luckily we have been stopping every hour or two to do whatever touristy thing we come across (there's not too much out here but I'm sure we've done it ALL) so it won't be too horrible ;) We're camping out at Banka Banka tomorrow night and then back in civilization at Katherine.

Trivia: Congrats to Deb - the BBC addiction has paid off!
New Trivia: Famous Australians Burke and Wills can be compared to which two famous Americans?
a) Washington and Jefferson
b) Simon and Garfunkel
c) Franklin and Edison
d) Lewis and Clark
e) Ren and Stimpy

Quickie

Hey all, just a quick little post. The only downside to having free internet vouchers is finding a YHA hostel in the city to use them at! Went on a wild goose chase today so I'm resorting to my own hostel on the opposite side of the city, but hopefully will spend some quality time at the YHA tomorrow, uploading photos.

So what are these photos from, anyway? Sunday evening at this hostel in Melbourne, I met a crew of people who were heading for the Great Ocean Road by rental car the next day, and were gracious enough to give me a seat. It was a great trip and we had fun, despite a MASSIVE bout of what my family likes to call "curvy road disease". But all's well that ended well and I got some great photos of a place I had resigned myself to missing out on.

Tuesday one of those new friends and I hit the town: museums, Federation Square, and Botanical Gardens. It was a good day but I walked my feet off! Yesterday (Wednesday) I was on my own (Becca and Deb, I take it ALL back, I prefer being on my own!!! More on that later) and had a good healthy wander about town on my own. I first met up with the kids at the Melbourne office of the company I worked for in Brisbane, and we had lunch. Then I went to the Sofitel Hotel, whose 35th floor ladies' restroom has a pretty good view of the city (random, I know, but it was recommended by a coworker who used to live in Melbourne). I got a tad turned around in the gorgeous Fitzroy Gardens and finally made it back to the hostel.

Today I also headed off on my own and managed to hit St Kilda (was pretty much unimpressed but did have a lovely raspberry and mango sorbet in an attempt to escape the heat for a bit - it was in the upper 30s today - I think that's over 100F) and sadly that's all I can remember right now - internet time's about to be up! Photos soon~

Melbourne

The last day of work on Friday was very nice. They put on a special morning tea, like they have done the past two weeks for other staff members who left, and everyone signed a card. I even got relieved of reception duty for the last half hour so I could join the happy hour early! That definitely put a smile on my face. I brought my camera to work and took photos of the walk to work and of my coworkers, so those will be up... uh... eventually. (Don't hold your breath!)

Saturday, I woke up early and I was up. I just had all these things running through my head to do and couldn't make them shut up, so I just got up and got started. It was a good thing I did too, because I was running around crazy until the party at 3. I had a little get-together in the park where we played cricket and ate cookies and had a little barbecue. Photos from that will also be coming... later.

Finally it was me, Alex, Dan, and Haidee left at the park, and we headed back to the house. Matt rejoined us after his dinner commitment, and Chris dropped by too and we played poker. (I also packed - only took about an hour.) When Chris left, we headed out to one of the local bars in West End and got home late.

Dan took me to the airport in the morning. Brisbane airport is very small. There was no line for security - but that might have also had something to do with the lack of actual security there. No one looked at my boarding pass or ID. I discovered later this is because the riff raff are allowed inside to meet people at the gate! How old-fashioned.

Anyway I'm in Melbourne now, safe and sound, and given the lack of sleep for the past two days it's high time I hit the hay! More later!

"And on, and on, and onto the next one..."

We are about to embark on my least favorite part of traveling: repeating myself. It will get really old by my fourth hostel when I'll have reduced my life story and what brought me to Australia to a thirty second or less soundbite, but it's begun at work already. People stopped by reception all day to inform me that tomorrow is my last day and to enquire whether I was excited or sad or would miss them, and where I was going afterwards. I do realize that it's very sweet of them to be interested in my plans, and actually, repeating them helps them become more concrete and real to me, but I get bored listening to myself recount it all. When they ask if I'm excited, it's usually a chore to say yes like I mean it, but at the same time it helps me refocus on the exciting part of traveling, instead of the stressful bits I get stuck on when dealing with the details.

I am excited, but I'm also nervous. Melbourne doesn't have the same tourist checklist that Sydney does, so I talked to everyone I knew who had been to or lived in Melbourne to get ideas and now I finally feel like I know how I'll fill my time there. I consulted my friend Shana from college who studied abroad there, Coworker Erin and Bookclub Meg who both used to live there, new Sydney-based friends Esben and Adina who have both visited, our Melbourne office colleagues, the New York Times, and my Lonely Planet guidebook. I'll stop by the Melbourne office sometime during that week to say hi and finally put a picture to it in my head, even though I don't know them very well. It will be nice to feel like I have some friends in the city though!

Speaking of the office crew, it was lucky one of them sent around an email about Monday's holiday, because I was going to visit them then! As I explained before, each state decides what holidays it's going to celebrate and when (see "Australian cooking measurements," September 17, 2007 in the blog archive to the right). It turns out that Monday is Labour Day in the great southern state of Victoria, so many an office and, I can only assume, museums and other activities, will be closed.

Next week is a big week for Melbourne: the holiday on Monday and then that weekend they host the Formula 1 Grand Prix. I am a little turned off by it all, as I tried to explain to several Aussies, because of the bevin (car-loving white trash) stigma attached to car racing in the US. However, as it's a big deal to Melbourne, I will take a passing interest , maybe buy a souvenir, and then get the heck outta Dodge! (Ooooh... no pun intended!) It goes Thursday to Sunday and I skip town early Saturday morning. We shall see how it goes... stay tuned!

Kangaroo Point!

Trivia answer: Unfortunately, Rachel, the answer is actually (a), but bonus points for the reasoning out! (Mmm, flecks of coal...) Manchester refers to the section of a department store (or Target, or whatever) that sells linen and towels and things. I learned this the hard way when I tried to buy a new shower curtain for the house and ended up giving the saleslady the look of blankness ;)

New trivia: What is the capital of Australia? (Bonus points if you can name which state/territory it's in!)

Sunday the book group had a barbecue. We were there for probably three hours and talked about the book for maybe 15 minutes, but it was all good fun. Meg and I walked there and then back to her house together, so she could lend me a blanket. March 1 marks the official beginning of fall here, and the weather has changed a bit. It's still hot during the day (well, as hot as it was this summer, which is to say, not so much - it was an extremely unusually cold and rainy summer, so they tell me) but really cool at night. So cool that with my windows closed and winter pajamas on, my sheet was not enough to keep me warm. So Meg lent me a heavy wool blanket and I have been sleeping like a champ!

The barbecue was at Kangaroo Point, which is one of the peninsulas formed naturally by the Brisbane River's winds and twists. I think it's almost directly across the river from the part of downtown where I work. There is also a fairly substantial cliff face (not exactly sure what from) in the park that is very popular with the rock climbers. I took a few photos down there, they're on the "Photos on Picasa" link to the right.

We've also had a couple of people interested in the room, and one came by last night. She's already friends with a few of Alex's friends (that's how she learned about the room - she just dropped in) so I have high hopes. After she finally left, I rounded up the kids and we took off for Ray's mom's restaurant where we had a full-on feast as a little going-away party for me. It was a good time. Here's a photo of us housemates (and Mark, who also happened by last night and got swept up in the group):

L-r: Mark, Mia, Alex, me, Ray, Dan.

Happy Leap Day!

It's sort of too bad that my last two weeks here will be filled with flatmate interviews. For some unknown reason, I need to be involved in the interviewing process, although as I pointed out to Alex, I would probably choose very different people than he would. His rationale is that ultimately the choice is Mia's, since we are looking for a girl to keep the male/female balance (otherwise she'd be fending for herself among four boys!), and if he can't make it to the interview for some reason, Mia needs someone's help in conducting the actual interview as she doesn't feel comfortable enough to do it on her own. I'm irked about the whole process on a number of levels, but it's not that big a deal, really, so I will sigh and get over it.

For some reason, the travel agent has sent me all my info separately - flight info in one email, hostel info in another, tour info in another, etc. And they're all PDFs. So I had a grand time the other night trying to consolidate all of it into one document for easy reference, because otherwise I will get to a city and realize I have no idea what hostel I'm going to or how to get there! It's great fun, really. This is, incidentally, how I realized that I don't have a hostel booked for Melbourne yet!

Yesterday was my supervisor's last day, so tonight we had an extra special happy hour (supposedly we were all going to a bar after but they were still in the office at 6:45, when I started getting hungry and made a beeline for home). One week left!

Visaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Trivia answer: (d) Australia is home to 17 of the 851 World Heritage Sites (see the list here). I will leave Australia having seen four of them (I think).

New trivia: To what does "Manchester" refer, to an Australian?

a) a department store section

b) an ice cream flavor

c) a town in Queensland

d) an ABC (PBS) television show

Visaaaaaaaaahh!

After too much stress, I finally determined that today would be the day I would head down to Immigration and try to sort out my application for a tourist visa. My program recommends that you give the government 2-3 weeks to sort themselves out and approve your visa change. I, of course, dared to be different and marched my manila envelope of papers into their office myself. There were so many variables to take into account and I just hoped that this being the wonderfully laid-back Australia I've come to know and admire, that there would be no snags and all would fall into place my way.

First up was the question of the timing - if I went too early, they could revoke my work visa entirely and leave me up a creek for a couple weeks with no work. If I went too late, they could not grant it in time, leaving me here illegally. They could also ignore my request to work until the end of my visa and give me the travel visa as of today, putting the kabosh on any more work. They could not accept the ATM printout as proof of funds and demand a full-out statement (for which I'd have to stand in line and pay at the bank - argh). They could tell me I needed to present myself at an office or be able to receive something in the mail after March 9, the day I fly out of Brisbane. They could be picky about the fact that I hadn't gotten their name exactly right on the money order and send me away, having wasted $10 on a worthless piece of paper. I could have bungled the application. The line could be a million people long and take all day. The office could have moved. It could not be the right office for my particular question... the list goes on and on.

Miraculously, none of these things happened! It was all smooth sailing. I did get a little anxious waiting in line to get a number, and then waiting for my number to be called, but once I found Cubicle 26 in Cubicleland, the girl was friendly as could be. She told me I could work through next Friday, and that on that day they would email me my new visa information, which I could then print out and keep with me as proof, and that's it! The entire process took about 45 minutes and I sauntered in a whole 15 minutes late to work (I'd called to remind them today was the showdown), which I easily made up at lunch, and was so giddy and relieved the rest of the day! It's amazing how you don't realize how stressed something is making you until it's suddenly resolved and you feel TONS better and happier.

Phew! Now on to the next tasks: finding a new housemate to replace me (Alex and I already collaborated on the ad tonight, and they're ready to be put up on the way to work tomorrow), and make sure all the details are in place for traveling!

The Unfamiliar

Travel plans are finalized! (Or should I say, finalised ;)) A week in Melbourne, then a tour up the "Red Centre" (where Ayers Rock is, among just a couple of other things - it is the outback, after all!), then a couple of days in Sydney before heading to a tour on the south island of New Zealand, then a few days in LA and then home! Phew - makes me tired just thinking about it!

I had borrowed a travel guide to New Zealand from a coworker at "Place B," because, well, he offered, and also because I thought I was going back there. He eventually needed it back and realized I wasn't coming back, which coincided with a meeting he had at our office today. So reluctantly, because my plans were just finalized and I had been waiting to see how much time I would have and where before I looked through it, I finally opened it and skimmed through as much as I could before I had to give it back to him today! It was nice to see him again though and we got a chance to catch up a little.

As the substitute receptionist / mail handler in an international patent law firm, I recently had the occasion to come across mail from the US. For those of you who have limited experience with other countries, it seems to me that almost every one has its own paper size. Australia's is called A4, and it's maybe half an inch longer and just slightly smaller width-wise. For the first time, 8.5x11 looked really bizarre - short and fat, where A4 paper is tall and skinny! It's just such a slight difference both directions, but it's amazing how quickly your eye gets used to it!

US phone numbers are also starting to look a tad short, though that's mostly to do with the fact that they're divided differently, they're the same amount of numbers (12-3456-7890 or 1234-567-890 vs the US's 123-456-7890). The fact that they have different formats for different kinds of numbers threw me at first, too. The first one above is for a regular landline, and the second one is for a mobile (cell phone), which all start with 04 (it's like an area code - it's actually a really good idea to have a way to tell if a number is a cell phone or not - one of many Australian things I wish we would adopt!). If your number fits a pattern another way, you can also read it that way, for example: 07-463-66-88-22. Then there are toll-free numbers, which are only 6 digits! Don't ask me how that works. They're all 13-xxxx (13-56-44 for example).

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way...

Trivia answer: The five stars form the Southern Cross.
Next trivia question: So we've got seven stars on the Australian flag: five are the Southern Cross, one is the Union Jack, and what does the last star represent? (Hint: It has 8 points.)

Last week was a busy one, with book group and then preparing for the camping trip. After much hemming and hawing about whether to leave Friday right after work or Saturday morning. We compromised (mostly because we had decided on Friday and couldn't get our act together - and by "we" I mean "Alex") and left at 8:00 Friday night. With a half-hour pit stop for beer, two-hour drive, half-hour dinner stop and one-hour time change, we got to Byron Bay around midnight in the pouring rain. Thinking this did not bode well for the rest of the weekend, we hemmed and hawed a bit more when we got there about whether to bother setting up the tent or just sleep in the car! Eventually the rain let up a tiny bit so we threw the tent up (5 minutes - must have been a record), crawled inside and passed out.

We had stopped at a gas station to ask directions, partly because we were relying on Alex's stellar memory from the last time he was at the campsite, and partly because we couldn't see a thing in the pouring rain. We asked the gas station attendant when it had started raining and he said, "About a month ago..."! We'd been hearing on the news that northern New South Wales had been pounded with rain recently, to the point of flooding, and yet this had not registered with any of us. Luckily it knocked that off the rest of the time we were there and was absolutely gorgeous the entire time after that. The campsite was about a one-minute walk from the beach, so any time we got too hot we just ran down and jumped in the surf. We also bought a tarp and rope and Alex and Dan rigged it up to stretch from the tree to the car so we had a nice big shady area to lie under in the heat of the day.

Speaking of the Southern Cross, the nights were so clear that we were able to do some star gazing, and I did see it. I couldn't see the fifth star, but I did learn how to find south from it (there are parallel lines and perpendicular lines and intersections... don't ask me to explain it!). We could also see Orion and Casseopia and Pegasus and had a bonfire on the beach and singalongs, and much fun was had by all.

In my opinion, Monday was the best day. We took our time packing up camp (we were supposed to be out by 10am... rolled out about noon) and headed into the town of Byron where we picked up a picnic of fish and chips. After we ate them in the park, we headed out to the lighthouse. Most of my photos (which will be up soon) are from the lighthouse - it's apparently the easternmost point of mainland Australia. You can even take this path down from the lighthouse all the way out to the furthest rocks that go into the water, which the boys did while I waited (more or less) patiently in the shade and listened to the Portuguese and Spanish on either side of me.

On the way down from the lighthouse, we stopped at a very calm beach where it was actually possible to swim and cavort and play around in the very calm waves. It was a perfect way to cool off mid-day before jumping in the car and battling the mildest post-holiday-weekend traffic I've ever seen. Made it home safe and sound around 6pm yesterday and just finished cleaning up the disaster area that was the kitchen :)

The Sound of Silence

Congratulations to Mindy (aka Manisha) for getting the answer right on the nose! There are 8 states, and since no one apparently wants to take a stab at naming them, here they are: Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria, ACT (Capital Territory - very similar to Washington DC), New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. (Ok so technically there are 6 states and 2 territories, oh well.)

New trivia question: Of the seven stars on the Australian flag (including the Union Jack), five form the shape of what? (I'll try to give you guys about a week to get up the nerve to post... remember, you don't need to register anymore in order to post a comment, and you also can't cheat by looking up the answer!)

Yesterday, Dan and I ventured out into the wild world beyond Brissy, aka the Northern Hinterland (they really do call it that!). We had stopped at a lookout place on our adventure to the beach a few weeks ago that was just across the road from a "scenic preserve" so we decided to go back up and check it out. It turned out to be a rainforest (called Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve) and it was beautiful. The walk was less than 2km but we ambled through and it took us about 2 and a half hours. There were lots of families and other assorted really loud people (including one girl on her cell phone, which was completely baffling), but when they were out of earshot it was wonderful and hardly quiet at all. Between the occasional rustling of pademelons (small reddish marsupials in the wallaby/kangaroo family) and the various birdcalls (one sounded like a crying baby!) were the soft sounds of falling leaves, the hum of insects, and the creaking and sighing of trees. I mostly took photos of the trees, since I'm not a good enough birdwatcher to spot them and the pademelons were too quick. The trees were spectacular, though, as you will see. Most of them had vines curling around them, one even to the point that the trunk was growing over around the vine! Some were really big around, a lot looked like many trees growing extremely close together, and a few had fallen down, creating holes in the canopy which let in lots more sunlight than I was expecting to see in a rainforest!

At one point I mentioned to Dan that I'd never been in a rainforest before. About five minutes later when he had registered and digested this information, he said, "But you lived in Guatemala!" I explained to him that the rainforest parts of Guatemala were found in the north, waaaaaaaay the heck away from anywhere, and in a malaria zone. Even had I had the money and inclination to travel around, I still would not have because I didn't have malaria medicine.

It was nice to be quiet for a while and let the world do the talking. Try it sometime! In the meantime, check out the photos on Picasa (album called "Rainforest").

In Which Amy Finally "Gets" Surfing

Family trip to the beach on Sunday! We were up at the crack of 6:30 and out the door by 7:15, which is pretty impressive. Two hours up the coast later, we arrived at King's Beach and piled out of Dan's "new" '91 Mitsubishi Magna. After snagging a prime shady spot on the busy beach, arranging our towels and having a quick sunscreen-drying session, we hit the waves.

A few years ago, when I was in Guatemala, a friend of the family who lives there took me and his daughters to the beach. It is these infrequent trips to the beach that make me realize, not only why these trips are so infrequent, but just how spoiled I was growing up around so much calm water. I don't really do waves. Five minutes in Guatemala's Pacific and it chewed me up and spit me out. It wasn't quite as bad yesterday, but I did still have salt water coming out of my nose at one point and beat a hasty retreat to the shore.

As I sat on the sand, I watched the never-ending, man-eating waves. I also watched all the people who had brought all manner of floating boards and had a revelation of sorts: THIS is where surfing came from. You can only be tossed around so many times before it gets old and you need something else to do. You can't really be under the waves, so why not be on top of them and deal with the waves the easy way? And bango - you have surfing!

Even though we reapplied when we got back to the towels, we were all pretty pink by the time we got home and were able to evaluate the damage in fake light. We were at the beach for maybe three hours, through a couple of wave-fighting sessions, sausages and ice cream, and a little nap, until the sky clouded over and it got cooler. We took the scenic route home, going past the site of the folk festival, which I'd never really seen in daylight. It was beautiful and pictures will be up shortly. Sunburn excepted, it was a lovely day at the beach.

And We're Back!

Trivia Answer

I asked this question because I had a bet going with the housemates about how many people thought the national anthem was "Waltzing Matilda," which the Aussies thought was just preposterous. M wins the prize, the correct answer is "Advance Australia Fair," which makes the restaurant sign below very clever (Tukka is "tucker," the Aussie word for food, spoken with an Aussie accent).

However, I am liking this trivia idea, so here is another one: What region of Australia does the didgeridoo come from?

Mudford

The folk festival was excellent. I never thought I would have so much fun camping. For a week. In the rain. But it was great! It would have been even better if I had actually moved my camp up to where everyone I knew was camping, but oh well. I got a lot of exercise going between the two hills (where the camps were) that were on opposite sides of the "festival village". It really was amazing how this little town sprang up in the middle of nowhere, just for a week. With all the rain, everything was quite muddy. All of the venues were tents and dirt (mud, lake) floors. Eventually you just had to stop caring. I took a few photos and some videos, which I will try to get online soon. I had to restrain myself when it came to buying CDs because they are crazy expensive here, but I did get three that I am very excited about :)

Fantastic Little People

In order to attend for free, I worked in the Operations Center which is the hub of the festival. Anything the venues (stages where artists were performing or bars connected to the stages) needed, they contacted us. Half the time it was for more gravel to fill in their swamps, or other weather-related incidents (like towing out of the mud). We also handled all emergency calls, keeping the caller on the line while dialing "Triple 0" (911) and relaying information between the two. It was exciting to say the least. One of the supervisors described her five-year-old twins as "such fantastic little people" one night as we were trying to fill the rare void left by silent phones. It struck me as such a funny and interesting way to describe one's children that it's still ringing in my head. All the supervisors were great, and my team had a good time. It consisted of Peter who handled the foot traffic and two-way radio requests, and then Georgie and me on the phones in back. Georgie is hilarious - her kids are about my age and she looks like this really sweet lady and then she breaks in with something sassy that someone my age might say. She constantly kept me on my toes and was a lot of fun to work with.

Rainraingoa Way
One of the many clever street names created for the festival - and the most appropriate. The camping areas were better organized than they probably seemed to most campers, but there were little dirt roads with street signs. It was especially crucial for emergencies, to get a tow truck or ambulance to exactly the right spot. At the office we had an ellidex of all the street names and some of them are quite clever. My favorites included Longandwinding Road, Helovesmeinhisblokey Way, Ilovea Parade, etc.

The After-Party

Some friends from the festival who were flying back to Sydney from Brisbane were going to go camping for one more night at a different site, but by the end they decided they had had enough with the camping in the rain. Before they could book a hostel, I checked with my housemates and invited them to stay at our house. I got home on New Year's Day at about 11:30pm, slept for ten hours like a rock in my big-soft-comfy-warm-dry bed, and then woke up to get laundry going and greet the guests. So that day we had a party - those three friends, then Alex's brother, brother's girlfriend and their friend. We got fish and chips and beer and took hot showers and sat around talking and laughing. It was a zoo and so much fun. While I was at work yesterday, the guests all trickled off and I came home to a quiet house and had a lovely relaxed evening.

The Coldest Summer Ever

It is still raining here in Brissie. It apparently rained here the entire time I was gone, and hasn't stopped yet. It is also about 50 degrees which feels COLD. Last night I slept in my winter pajama pants, quilt on the bed, window closed, and was quite cozy. It should be cold and rainy for another week or so, then next weekend sunny. Fingers crossed!

Peanut, peanut butter... (and jelly)

How people think peanut butter is disgusting is beyond me. Leaving aside for a moment that this is a nation of people who eat vegemite like it's going out of style (which is not so much gross as just really really salty) because Dan the Hungarian is grossed out by peanut butter, too. Grossed out - seriously - this is a guy who taste-tests his raw meat (to see if it needs more paprika, no doubt), and suddenly I'm the wacko? Riiiiight. (Though he did donate some celery to me and was so amused by the fact that I went straight to the cupboard and put peanut butter on it that he actually tried it, so I'll give him credit for bravery.)

In other news, my two places of employment have been duking it out for the pleasure of my presence in the new year. Place B was supposed to only have me for December and then give me back to Place A, but I am filling a gap made by a person on vacation and another one who quit and they are slow on the hiring uptake. The agreement they came to in the end was that I would go back to Place B for the rest of the first week of January just to hand things back over to the person who was on vacation, and then I'd go to A for a few weeks, until they run out of things for me to do, then back to B... sounds like a lot of bouncing. We'll see how it goes.

This is all in the midst of making preparations for my big camping trip between "Chrissie" and New Year's. Those of you who know me know I am not big on camping. However, this is a big music festival and a lot of people I know are going, so I think it might be fun. More fun than staying home and being bored out of my mind, anyway. I think I also have found a ride up and back from the festival - if this girl would ever email me back! I'm getting a tad antsy. I'd really rather not have to take enough things for a week of camping with me on a train and then bus.

Ok, I'm off to work at Place B for a couple of hours, then it's Place A's Christmas party and then I don't have to think about either place for a week and a half! Yay :)

To George Street, shall we?

Boy, they sure do like their monarchs here in Australia. Today, walking on Elizabeth St, I passed George St, Albert St, Edward St, and Queen St. There is also a Margaret St somewhere nearby. In Sydney, two of the main drags (they run parallel to each other) are George and Elizabeth. This is in addition to them still celebrating the Queen's Birthday. Yow.

So, the bus plan was not such a good idea. I don't know that it would've been a good idea even if I hadn't been sick, had been able to sleep, and didn't feel like a zombie when I got off the bus this morning. The interesting thing about traveling overnight on a bus, in case you were wondering, is that once the sun rises there's not a *whole* lot you can do about it. The bus did have little curtains, but they were pretty ineffectual. I did take a little nap after I had some lunch, and feel a little less zombie-ish, but I am looking forward to bed tonight - early!

I did meet one of my roommates at the hostel who is a German girl also looking for work. I helped her with her resume a bit today; she's off at some other internet cafe typing it up. I got myself a paper so I can look at housing ads; I'll see if she wants the Help Wanted section.

"How are you going" means how are you doing. Note to self. :)

BRIZ-bin, rhymes with Lisbon

So, after a lot of thought, I've decided to make my way up to Brisbane. I have a job lead up there that sounds pretty for sure, but even if not, I've decided that it sounds like a city that is more my speed than Sydney. I have also learned that it is important to be flexible and even more important to do what feels right to me even if it means going my own way, rather than sticking to what may be comfortable for now but in the end is not fulfilling my needs. There is not much program support in Brisbane, but plenty of people have gone there to work so I'm not worried. I have enjoyed my time in Sydney and am looking forward to coming back as I travel (I'm for sure flying out through Sydney at the end), but it is time to get out and get going on things so I can stop stressing about them! The next and hopefully last big hurdle will be finding a place to live. The other night, I met a girl from Scotland who had lived at a hostel the whole time she was working in Brisbane. Apparently the rates are comparable but I'd rather have an apartment and just a couple of roommates. We'll see.

Anyway, tonight I get on a bus to Brisbane and get there tomorrow mid-morning. It sounds a little ridiculous, I know, it's about 16 hours on a bus, but there were many reasons I decided to do it this way. First of all, if I'm really able to sleep on the bus, it's one less night of accommodation I'll have to book. I also won't have to worry about losing my bag, clearing security, or getting to and from the hostels (the bus stations are very close to both hostels). Finally, it's just plain cheaper.

Then, I'll meet with this lady, Barbara, about the job on Thursday. She's been so helpful and patient with me through all of these struggles (most importantly, I didn't get my cell phone until today, which made our original plan to talk on Monday a bit difficult, especially since she wasn't available when I called from the pay phone), so I'm hopeful.

Oh, one important note about Brisbane: Apparently the whole state of Queensland just elects not to do daylight savings (since it's summer here), so it's an hour earlier there than Sydney. If you're using the world clock (::cough, cough:: Mom) just select Australia: Queensland: Brisbane.

An exciting discovery: my iPod has an alarm feature! Handy, since I managed not to pack an alarm clock. Although someone pointed out that you'd have to hook it up to speakers, but luckily I have them! Just not terribly practical for a hostel.

Monday morning in the big city

Yesterday, I took it easy, partly because I have a sore throat (must've picked it up on the plane - darn it!) and partly because I had to switch hostels mid-morning. I actually really like my new hostel, more on that later. When I did finally venture out, I headed for Darling Harbour, which is basically a big promenade. It was a bit much for me, so then I took a roundabout way of getting to Wentworth Park, which was not terribly exciting, but I did see some of a pickup game of "footy" (soccer). I got a little turned around heading back to pass by Paddy's Market and managed to get there just before their "official" closing time, although people were still buying like crazy when I left at quarter after.

Paddy's Market is the most intense market I've ever been to. Think of a big flea market, but with all Chinese people, all yelling "one dollah one dollah" at you, people everywhere shoving. I'm sure someone was making announcements, probably about the market closing, but you couldn't really hear anything over the din. I had read about Paddy's Market in my guidebook and it said you could buy fresh fruit and veggies there for really cheap. Part of the culture of my new hostel is that there is a huge kitchen and most people buy food at the supermarket to cook there. I managed to get enough veggies for two dinners, plus two apples and a banana, all for about $3 (maybe $3.50 US).

Walking around the city is a little exciting sometimes because it seems like you never know where the cars are going to come from! Seriously, though, it's a good thing they've painted instructions "Look Right" on the crosswalks so you remember to look the correct way for turning traffic. The crosswalk signals are interesting too, they make a funny noise when they change to "walk" (it's a little green man though). I wish you could hear it, it's really odd sounding.

About the new hostel. There is one medium-sized common room, right next to the kitchen which is very open, so it feels all connected. There are tables for eating and lots of sofas, mostly pointed towards the big screen tv. Last night, tons of people gathered down there to make dinner and watch tv. The channel it was on showed a bunch of episodes of Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, but there was also an ad for Maury, on later (oy). Amazing. It just has a much friendlier, more intimate feel than the other, enormous hostel (although this one's name is The Big Hostel, ironically). My dormmates are nicer and generally seem more considerate - I think because they tend to be longer term than the other hostel. All in all, a good switch.

Right now it's Monday morning and I am at the IEP office waiting for orientation to begin. Later I will get my cell phone and call the woman in Brisbane about working there, and go to the bank to open my account. It's supposed to get to about 25C today (about 80F) and it's been mostly gorgeous clear blue skies so far :)