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 :)

Long Weekends

Dear USA,

Happy MLK Day!

Love,
Tuesday

I was talking to the other American here at work (the one from Grosse Pointe) today when another attorney informed him that yesterday/today was "some sort of holiday in the US". He said, "Really?" and I chimed in with, "Martin Luther King day, of course!" Oh, how quickly they forget :) It's a little weird not just because it was Tuesday here, but also because this coming weekend is the holiday here, Australia Day (observed Jan. 26 or next working day - in this case Monday). When I was talking to my mom this weekend I mentioned that to her and she asked me if people wish each other a "Happy Australia Day". Alex happened to be passing through the room so I asked him and he laughed at me! In fact, I believe he said something along the lines of, "You're usually too drunk to wish anyone anything." This seems to be the general pattern of an Australian holiday: head to the beach/camping ground, drink too much, and fire up the barbie!

Sunday was also a phenomenon called Big Day Out. There is some controversy among the housemates and co. about whether this used to be held on Australia Day weekend or not, but in any case now it is the weekend before. It is basically a coordinated effort in the big cities across the country to get as many people as sunburned, dehydrated, deafened and happy as possible in one big day of outdoor musical acts. I didn't go (see the rainforest entry :)) but Alex and Ray went and had a great time. Alex was a volunteer, which meant that he wandered around spraying people with water. I'm not sure how effective that was but he seemed happy.

Update: Apparently Big Day Out is not all on one day, but is like a big tour of bands, so each weekend they hit different cities.

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").

New Photos!

Bunya nut excitement is up on the Picasa link to the right. Click on "Photos on Picasa" and select the album "Bunya Nut Night". Enjoy!

'Strayan

At work's happy hour on Friday I got to meet the lovely family of the partner here who got me the job. His wife is very nice and we spent a long time talking. She asked me how my Australian ('Strayan') is coming, and I told her pretty good! In light of that, some anecdotes:

At book group on Thursday, in addition to mispronouncing the bookstore name, I also was trying to spell Carlos Ruiz Zafon's second name to Meg. She kept spelling it "Louis," partly because she couldn't hear me very well and partly, it turned out when another girl "translated" for us, because I kept saying the last letter as "zee" instead of "zed." When they say "zee," I can suddenly hear how it sounds funny - mostly because they giggle as they say it!

Vocabulary lesson

"Chase up" (as opposed to chase down - must be the whole south-of-the-equator thing - also means "follow up on") Ex. I'd like you to chase up an answer to this question.

"Bogan" - white trash. Also Bevin (though that has more of a car-obsession element, I'm told) - this also made the recent election of Kevin Rudd intensely amusing to some, due to the rhyming factor.

Unrelatedly, I have also been asked my opinion on all the election hoopla, often by people I barely know just because they know I'm American, and have given more crash courses in US election procedure than I care to count. Dan the Hungarian asked me why we were having an election now and one in November; that was a fun one. I have found it confuses people to no end that, even if I had a ballot, it wouldn't matter if I voted because of the Democratic response to Michigan's primary. It is a very interesting time to be here - having been here for the Australian election and getting a crash couse in their system, and now having the tables turned.

The house is in a bit of an uproar right now - we roasted Bunya nuts (Alex brought home an entire "cone" and it was quite a project - I took some photos which will be up as soon as my battery charges...) and people kept dropping in: Mark, Chris (who lives here and from whom Dan is subletting, so we're not quite sure how that'll shake out), Joe and his cousin, Ray's girlfriend Greta, and we're all making plans for our camping trip over 'Straya Day (Jan 26). I'm going to go rejoin the "bogan/bevin" discussion I sparked and eat some more Bunya nuts!

Just Kidding - Ray Fixed It!

I think Alex sabotages the Internet connection when he goes away, because this is the second time he's gone away and the second time it's gone out! Anyway, I'm writing this at work while covering reception because it's too distracting to get anything else done, and I will stop at the library on my way home to post it.

Trivia: Since no one took a stab at it, I will tell you anyway. The didgeridoo comes from the Aborigines that live in the nothern region of the country, up near Darwin. If you haven't looked at them yet, there are some photos in the newest sets (Woodford - on the Picasa link) of a Didgeridoo-Making Workshop that was at the festival. Ok, new trivia question: How many states are there in Australia (and can you name them)? (If it makes your brain hurt too much, don't worry - most Aussies don't know the answer off the top of their head, they have to count. Hint: They can count them on two hands.)

Pretty quiet week - just book club last night. We discussed A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers and chose the next book, Praise by Andrew McGahan, because I wanted to read something by an Australian about Australia. In the big bookstore here (the Aussie version of Barnes and Noble), they have a whole section on Australian authors, which I think is a really cool feature. I also pronounced the name of the store (Dymocks) as DIE-mocks, and everyone got the look of confusion and then burst out laughing. "Oh no, what did I do now?" Apparently it's pronounced "dimmicks." We all had a good laugh about that one! That's about all that's going on here.

No dice.

No internet at the house and the library won't let me cut and paste the entry I wrote today! More later... probably after the weekend. Have a good weekend!