There's No Place Like Oz

Tsk, Tsk

2011-02-11T17:46:00.002+08:00

Hello blog. Hello ridiculously snowy northern hemisphere. Here in Australia we do not feel your pain, we only feel heat and refreshing breezes. On our dinner table are crayfish picked straight off the murky ocean floor by a mate of Josh's and succulent, sweet blue crab. Yum! The weekends have been filled with body surfing at the beach - sometimes with painful and scabby-kneed results. Josh finds it funny when the wave idly tosses me onto the shore and all he can see is my legs flailing helplessly in the air. He always waits to make sure my head resurfaces, laughing all the while, no doubt. I make my retreat, stumbling, defeated back to the safety of our dry towels and wonder if maybe I'm getting too old for body surfing and how long it will take to get all the sand out of my swimsuit and bodily orifices. The air is filled with dragonflies drifting aloft on the evening sea breeze as the sun casts it's warm glow across the Indian Ocean in a final farewell to another day then quickly and quietly sinks below the horizon as if to say, "See you tomorrow. Goodnight." Then it's off to start the day over again in another part of the world.

Missouri is in our hearts and minds for more than one reason. We watched True Grit last night and Josh said it made him want to go back to the States because some of the scenes reminded him of my parents backyard. Nostalgia certainly set in for me while watching the movie. Not only were the scenes familiar, but I was reminded of my grandpa George, who, my mother often remarked as I was growing up, loved western movies. I thought he would've liked True Grit. Coincidentally, today I got a letter from Texas. It was from my aunt, not the Texas ranger from the movie. It brought glad tidings and pictures of a soon-to-be new family addition - my cousin's son. Which brings me back to Missouri. A baby was born this week in Boone County. Welcome to the world Carissa Lee! Then, of course, there's the snowfall which has blanketed so much of the United States in recent weeks. Photos of my parents snow-plowed driveway and crisp, white lawn play on repeat as my screensaver at work. I keep hoping the more I watch the screensaver slideshow that the feeling of icy, cold snow will wash over me and save me from the oppressive summer heat. That, combined with the chilly air-conditioning at work, might actually be working.

My gin and tonic is working its magic. Hello weekend. Here I come!

Last weekend recap

2011-01-13T20:06:00.014+08:00

This is what I did on the weekend --}

I sat on my balcony enjoying the morning sea breeze and my new bistro table and chair set that we got for Christmas from Josh's sister.

And I did this ... BEFORE

and AFTER. Aren't you loving the retro 70s wall tile and non-matching vanity?

And this... BEFORE

...AFTER - I bet you couldn't tell there was a table runner on this table before.

BEFORE... these are low fat mind you...

...AFTER - nothing a little gym time couldn't fix. This was me tonight after my first night back at Body Balance looking more frazzled than balanced.

Finally, something cute and fun - this was my Christmas wrapping paper.

Dont' you love the koalas hanging from the Christmas ornaments? I felt like such a foreigner when I bought it, but also completely triumphant at the coolness that I found it.

There's so much catching up to do and photos to show that I didn't have either the time or patience to put any more photos up tonight.

Valentine's Day. What's that?

2011-01-11T20:23:00.008+08:00

I was looking at one of my favorite web sites tonight, Etsy.com, and noticed a link for Valentine's Day gifts. And I paused, then I clicked and clicked some more to find more links to other Valentine's gift compilations. Then I thought to myself "Valentine's Day... what's that?" Followed by another thought to myself, "did I really just think that?" then I realized I haven't experienced a hyped up commercialized Valentine's Day in a very long time. I mean, it has been almost a year since the last Valentine's Day and I seemed to forget in the meantime that Valentine's Day existed at all. Until tonight. When I saw the link. And I got a little sad because the clerk at the grocery store was hanging up a display of Easter egg chocolates the other day while another clerk exclaimed that they couldn't be hanging Easter stuff out yet because it's not for a couple of months. There wasn't even the slightest mention of Valentine's Day. There were no red, pink and white displays or roses or teddy bears or heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. There was nothing. It was forgotten. Or left uncelebrated because it is a trivial holiday that American cardmakers have over commercialized to capitalize on yet another relatively insignificant holiday.

But still, how could I, an American to the core, forget this most loving holiday of all holidays? Shame on me.

Now, down to business. It's 10 days into the new year and I have finally gotten back to the blog armed with photos and a strategy. I got this great idea from a friend - thanks, Gina! - to keep my blog up to date. I will take a photo of something from each day and post it to my blog with a blurb/anecdote of something that I did or learned or happened to me that day.

A few of life's little moments from the past few months that have stuck with me :

I met a baby who's middle name was Possum
My desk at work wreaked of patchouli when I got back from vacation and I still catch a whiff of it now and again
The other week when I visited a house for work the owner told me her husband left in September. I thought she meant he left for work and she and her two young sons were moving to join him when she explained her husband had a mid-life crises, bought a sports car, and told her he needed his space. She had these two adorable little boys and the older one, who was four-years-old, insisted they stand in the doorway and wave to me as I drove away. What kind of person walks away from that? Argh!

Lying in the cool grass under the shade of a Norfolk Island Pine in King's Park with my man on my birthday

Below are a series of photos that begin with some local Christmas light displays. It may have been hot, but some people still get into the spirit of the season... National Lampoon style.

The one at the right made the front page of the newspaper the week before Christmas. The display comprised a leaning Tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower and Sydney Harbour Bridge over the driveway. Donations were collected to raise funds for a local charity.

The house at the right is by the beach. It's big. These people are just rich.

Tomorrow, see what I got up to on the weekend!

Packing... again

2010-05-30T16:27:00.002+08:00

Hello. I'm back again. I can't stay away from the blogosphere or Perth. Just when I thought I'd had enough of blogging something new and exciting happened and brought me back here to my blog. I've been back in Perth for only three weeks and I'm already packing my bags again and moving on. On to a new job, new city, new life... at least for the next eight or nine months. Tonight I am off to the moderately sized seaside town of Bunbury to start a new job as the Real Estate Writer for the Southwest Times newspaper. It was pretty serendipitous that this job was advertised in the Perth newspaper the day I was returning to Oz. My loving and ever eager bf came across the job advertisment as he was already on the lookout for a job on my behalf prior to my arrival. It was the perfect thing and one of the first things he mentioned when I got off the plane. When the call came that I got an interview we literally jumped for joy. It was the 'big break' that I have been waiting to happen.

But with any new and exciting situation comes a handful of changes. Change that I am not looking forward to. I HATE change! I've never been good at handling change and already my nerves and emotions are rising to the surface. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't having to handle the first week in a strange city at a new job on my own. On top of that I have to find a rental house to live in within the week. The company only puts me up for a week in a hotel. I know, I'm such a baby. But having some familiar company would make the process 110% better. My loving bf is staying in Perth to finish his uni exams this week and travelling two hours each way just isn't going to work. I'll have to go at it alone. I guess it's nothing a little beer can't cure... hopefully.

An hommage to Melbourne Cup Day

2009-11-03T12:32:00.003+08:00

Hello all! It is Melbourne Cup Day today in Oz. It's known as "the race that stops the nation" because most Aussie's will be tuned into the racing events throughout the day. From their office cubicles they will be watching it on their computers or listening to it on their radios. Some will take longs lunches or the afternoon off to watch the races at a pub and place their bets on their favorite horse. I, on the other hand, will be doing other things with my time. I partook in the event last year. The horse I bet on came in 2nd or 3rd. It's not only a sporting event, but a fashion one too. Big hats and fancy frocks are what it's all about for the ladies, mostly young women. The papers will be posting race results alongside photos of the young women in all their finery as if it were a red carpet event. As an hommage to MCD, I am inclined to post a list of a few of my favorite things about Australia:

Electronic bill pay, also known commercially as Bpay. This is the ingenious all electronic way to pay bills in Australia that everyone uses. So convenient and no paper trail!
EFTPOS. Another ingenious electronic banking development, eftpos is an ATM card that also works to pay at stores not just to withdrawal cash from ATMs. People haven't used checks in Oz for years (unless you own a business).
Paying less than $60 for four tops from Target, but that's just an I Love Target thing.
Getting paid a 'living' wage. I can work as a PART-TIME receptionist/ waitress and actually support myself off my earned income.
Mailboxes. I realized how conveniently designed the mailboxes were in Oz. They simply have slots that the mail is put into. The 'posties' don't have to spend time opening and closing the box to put the mail inside. I was thoroughly appreciating this fact yesterday as I was taking outdoor furniture flyers around the neighborhood for a friend yesterday and putting them into mailboxes.
As always, the weather. Can't leave this one off the list. You will hear no complaints about the weather from me these days as it has fined up nicely and the sun is almost always shining.
The men. This one was SM's suggestion. Seriously, I think Australia produces some of the finest looking dads in the world. In other words, there are some serious DILFs living in this part of the world.

There you have it. I'll leave you to it as I go out and enjoy this beautiful day... {still looking forward to spending Christmas in cold Missouri!}

Dear Julie Powell... and 2 seconds of spring is simply not enough

2009-10-27T10:57:00.010+08:00

I'm back. I lost a bit of focus in the last few months. I started a receptionist job about six months ago and have continued waitressing on weekends at the French restaurant. Once I took the reception position (at a hotel) I took a hiatus from my job hunt and my blogging. I had hit a wall, but only a temporary one. My blogging spark was reignited yesterday by a wonderful movie I saw called Julie & Julia.

The movie Julie & Julia is based on 'two true stories'. One story is of a young woman named Julie Powell (Amy Adams) who is working in an unfufilling job and feels lost with her life and ambitions (that has me written all over it). The other story is of a young Julia Child (Meryl Streep, who could be better?) who also felt unfulfilled in her role as a houswife to an American diplomat while living in Paris in the 1950's and is trying to find SOOOMEthing to do with her time. Throughout the movie it feels as though the two ladies are living parallel lives, however, Julie Powell's life converges with Julia Child's as she embarks on a year-long quest to cook all of the recipes in Julia's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and writing about it in a blog. It was quirky and tender and so relatable for me as an aspiring writer who blogs. At one point in the movie Julie tells her adoring husband that Julia Child saved her because she was 'drowning' before her blog became a hit. I knew exactly what she meant.

I came home and promptly looked up Julie Powell's blog. Upon Googling her name it came up with her current blog called What Could Happen? Julie's original blog about her cooking quest was nowhere to be found and having been posted during 2002 it is probably lost somewhere in the vastness of the blogosphere by now. I read her current blog anyway. In the blog Julie writes about the triumphs of her book becoming a movie and the 'surreality' and glamour of the press surrounding the movie. She is charming, innocent, and refreshenly real... just like her character in the movie. She's just your average girl-next-door who has gotten really, really, lucky. If you are female GO SEE IT as soon as you can!

Dear Julie Powell,

I wish I were you.

Sincerely,
Kirsten Haydu

My other topic of today is springtime. My favorite season, but a very short-lived one here in Oz. I've been taking walks around the neighborhood and smelling the lovely flowers as their perfume drifts upon the afternoon breezes. I've never known a place with a more fragrent spring. Probably the best part about Perth in the spring is the smell of flowers everywhere, even driving down the highway with your windows down you smell flowers. It's amazing. It makes me want to stay in Perth... but then spring is gone as soon as it comes. Within a few weeks it seems like the weather has turned hot and sultry. Or it's cool and windy. The weather is fickle and can't make up it's mind what it wants to do. Should I leave the doona on the bed a few more weeks or put it away? I've taken a few photos of the flowers in my garden to try and savor spring a little longer. Everyone has roses in Perth so it was no surprise when we moved into this house that there are eight gorgeous rose bushes along the white picket fence at the front of our lawn. Here are a few of the roses:

And an illegally transplanted wild Kangaroo Paw flower that as you can see is evidence of how quickly the spring passes. It is already fading away. The colors when they first bloom are a magnificent ruby red and emerald green, now merely a washed out red and dingy green.

And in my blogging absence I have also been crafting a Mizzou scarf for my friend Gina's birthday.

It's been one of those days... or weeks... or months

2009-07-15T18:49:00.009+08:00

Today I was making a mental list of all the things that have frustrated me lately. My cooking skills, for example, are at an all time low. This could be because I'm under pressure to cook a decent meal for someone other than myself now or it could just be that our oven needs to be serviced because it's not heating up properly. Yesterday, I whipped up some nachos for dinner. Chosen for its relatively easy preparation, one would expect a good outcome. I used a taco seasoning recipe from a friends blog, but due to a lack of measuring spoons I guessed at the spice measurements using regular utensils then proceeded to spoon two large tablespoonfuls of the taco seasoning into the meat. BIG MISTAKE! It was so spicy hot that we could barely eat it. I had obviously mismeasured the cayenne pepper and probably didn't put enough of the other spices into the mixture to offset it's spiciness. I had also decided it would be good to whip up some homemade guacamole. It was ok, but a little on the garlicky side which SM kept emphasizing. I had to run out to the shop to buy more tortilla chips and sour cream to offset the spiciness so SM could finish eating his dinner. As SM just verbally volunteered, "I didn't mind the taste, but my bum did."

Aside from my cooking misadventures, I've also had trouble starting my new knitting project: socks. Socks are complicated to knit. They require the use of four knitting needles instead of the usual two. I found an online knitting tutorial to walk me through the steps of knitting socks - great... but before I even get started I have to knit a swatch to check my gauge so my socks don't turn out too big or too small. That's where the trouble is. I've knitted several swatches and have not found the right sized knitting needles to achieve the right gauge yet... and I'm getting sick of knitting swatches. I just want to get started on my socks already! Finally, I think I've found the right size needles I need for one of the pairs of socks, but I can't locate the size needles I need in any stores. So I'll be ordering them online and that may take a week or more to get them sent to me and I need to have them finished to mail to the States in a few short weeks!!!

Last on my list of frustrations is the internet. We've only had our internet set up for about a week and I'm already angry with it. We can't seem to set up a wireless home network on the service we've had installed. It's one of those things where no one seems to have a solution for you that doesn't involve spending more money to get what you want. I spent most of my day off trying to solve this problem and still haven't found a solution.

On a high note, the weather the past few days has been beautiful and I managed to get outside to enjoy it yesterday. SM and I hiked to the summit of Greenmount - the hill we live at the base of. We walked about 5 kms up the hill and back. The view from the top was gorgeous and you could see for miles. Looking out we could see the airport and city....

... and our neighborhood (our house would be somewhere in the far left of the photo).

Greenmount was very aptly named as everything was really green and there was a beautiful trickling freshwater stream which SM had a drink out of.

I've also finished a few of my first knitting projects. The scarf for Charity's birthday....

... and daisy kerchiefs for her three little girls.

I was so happy when she emailed me to say how much she liked them. I knew I had chosen the right person to send my first knitting projects to.

Farm livin is the life for me!

2009-05-25T11:44:00.004+08:00

Aussie word of the day: cheeky = ornary, mischievous. I think most people have heard this used in British TV/ movies as in "That cheeky bugger!"

Happy Birthday to Dad and Teagan! I'm taking a short pause out of my recent projects and job searching to tell you how my May has gone. Basically, I have been getting into the thick of farm life. After coming back to Perth, SM convinced me that I should get up early in the mornings to help he and his mum with some of the farm chores. I thought this was a good way to burn some calories while getting a good early start to my days so I happily agreed. For a few weeks we would get up around 6:30 a.m. and take trays of grassy looking barley from the fodder shed where they grow and store the barley. We chuck the squares of densely rooted barley onto the bed of the ute until it is piled nice and high, then it is distributed around the cow pastures. The cows LOVE this stuff... and the horses too.

After helping load the barley, I would walk the miniature ponies, Muffin and Murphy, down to their paddock. This is my favorite thing to do because Muffin and Murphy each have their own unique personalities. I would then walk back to the cow pasture to watch the cow babies being tormented by Fia, SM's mum's Lasa Apso {yip-yip, lap-dog}. The calves are very curious about Fia and sometimes follow her around the paddock as she runs between cow patties eating the cow poo and leftover bits of barley. Eventually, I got to ride around the paddocks with SM and his mum to distribute the barley. Then one day a new baby bull had to be castrated and tagged. I got out of the ute for this as SM took the calf down and the mom cow looked on in dazed, bewilderment as she chewed on her barley. After a while the mom cow hardly took notice of what was going on with her calf even as the calf starting mooing despairingly. That calf was a tough little fighter and struggled a lot in the process of being tagged, so I had to throw my whole body weight on it by laying across it's kicking back legs as SM held a firm grip on it's head and front legs. SM's mum thought the sight of me throwing myself across the little calf was funny.

Saturday, in preparation of doing a little photo shoot to post to this blog of the cows and me holding a new calf that was about to be tagged, drama ensued. We went down to the paddock in the afternoon while the cows were milling about not doing much of anything. Fia followed us and started tormenting the cows. The cows were quite alarmed by the little dogs presence and her being so close to their calves. They started mooing and walking towards her, then SM grabbed the bull calf that needed tagging. The mom cow, already upset by the dog, really starting giving hell when she noticed SM was holding her calf down. This did not bode well. Fia was running around SM and the calf and causing more excitement than necessary with the cows and the mom cow. Drooling and wild-eyed, the mom cow mooed excessively in desperation while circling SM and the calf. It looked like a very threatening situation to a small town girl like me who has never been so up close and personal with cows in all her life. SM had to let the calf go.

SM's mum got the dog away from the cows and went to get the ute. As she drove the ute into the paddock and SM went to grab the calf a second time to put it into the bed of the ute to tag it, another cow came running at me. I was walking up toward the fenceline to get away from the mob of cows that was coming toward the ute when I looked behind me and saw this great, big, brown, lug of a cow charging at me. I started running and got away while SM had a chuckle to himself at my stupidity. See, what I didn't know was that this cow that was running at me is one of the gentlest ones they have and probably she was running at me because she thought I had food as the ute is often an indicator of barley. At the time, however, with all the drama that was going on with the calf, I thought it was an angry mama cow coming to get me! Despite all this excitement, I didn't get any photos because my camera batteries were flat. Hopefully, the next calf will be mine and I will have photos to show.

And that has been the extent of my farmlife adventures so far. However, there is only a little more time for SM and I here on the farm as we will be moving into his new house in three weeks. We are looking forward to having our own place, but it won't be ours alone for long as we will be renting out some of the rooms. Paint and housewares are high on the list of priorities lately.

I'm still looking for jobs without much success. I've applied to around 10-15 jobs a week. I'm still working at my two hosptiality jobs and enjoying them both and the free time they allow me to look for other jobs. But looking for jobs unsuccessfully has been getting me down as one would expect which is why I began a free HTML/ webpage development course - I think I mentioned this in my last blog - and I have also started knitting. These two projects keep me distracted and entertained whilst being fruitful and lifting my spirits from the job searching doldrums. Last week I recommenced the long forgotten skill of knitting I learned in middle school. I have recently read a few cute, girly novels that emphasize the resurgence knitting has made in the last few years and I was inspired by these novels. The novels follow the young female characters lives whilst intertwining the knitting concept with the characters bonds. Young women around the US have taken to the needles and yarn once more and it has become quite the trend! A few weekends ago I joined SM's mum at the Perth Craft and Quilt Fair where I found the Stitch 'n Bitch knitting handbook and promptly bought it. This was serious! Since cracking the book open for the first time on Tuesday I've hardly been able to put the book or my knitting down.

Here is a look at the first six inches of my very first scarf done in garter stitch {and Chiefs colors}. I've already bought yarn and humongous fat needles to make a chunky garter stitch scarf too! One lucky reader will be getting the chunky one for her birthday {and no, it's not you mom!}

The winter weather has finally set in and the wet has begun. Aussies say there are two seasons in Australia - the wet and the dry. Couldn't be more accurate. It's time to put the doona on the bed. We are all doning our jumpers and uggies and we are dependent on the fire in the wood burning stove to warm the house. My foot is getting better... finally! I found out I have a stress fracture and now get to wear a stylish, little, black, medical bootie a la Gina's blue one she had after bunyon surgery... or was it black too? Anyhoo, that's all the news from Aussie land. Hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day "long weekend" as they say here in Oz.

Boo hoo! Sore foot, downtrodden heart, and other maladies

2009-05-07T16:38:00.002+08:00

My Editor-in-Chief aka Dad is commissioning me to get a move on and blog something or else... I'm fired? Autumn is arriving in Perth. The cool, crisp air drifts among the gumtrees that shroud the Darlington Range which make up the Perth Hills. It greets us in the morning, filling our lungs with almost painful freshness and it creeps into our beds via sneaky drafts at night. But the flannel sheets and velveteen blankets are out and the ugg boots and pj pants are on as this familiar chill hints at things to come. It is only a warning for now because the days, shorter as they may grow, are still gorgeous and the weather is unseasonably warm. This time last year I was taking surfing lessons in unpleasantly windy, drizzly conditions. Tonight, as I write this, the sun is setting in warm, theatrical delight over Scarborough Beach, putting on a show for onlookers at the terraced lawn of Cottesloe Civic Center, bathing the clouds in a red and purple glow as it sinks behind Rottnest Island into the Indian Ocean.

My foot is wrapped in a tubular shaped ace bandage. Ah! Relief at last. As I made my way home to Missouri a few weeks ago, I had a stopover in New Zealand that left a lasting and wonderful impression of Auckland on me. Not only will I remember the cozy, quaint, New Englandness of Devonport in Auckland, the amazing city views from Mount Victoria, the Maori cultural exhibit and dances at the Auckland Museum and the desire I was left with to return someday, but my short time in New Zealand also left a pain in my right foot that has lasted almost six weeks! I don't even remember what it felt like to walk normally without any pain until today. Thank you ace bandage.

As for my heart, there is no bandage that can cure what ails it. Let's just say leaving Missouri at the start of a beautiful spring with two sobbing parents regretfully sending me back to Australia was the least favorite part of my trip home. I had such a good time being home and seeing all my friends that I almost regretted my return to Australia too. In addition, I have begun my job search again, both here and in the States. It is always a daunting and disheartening task. I have applied for temp work, admin, bank teller, magazine sub-editor, and finally, tomorrow afternoon I have an interview for a temporary part-time office assistant position which would make me a glorified receptionist. On the upside, the draw card for me at this job is that it is with a publication and I will be working with journalists, so it could be just the break I have been looking for. If anything, I will have a steady income even if it's only for short time and more money in the bank than what I am currently bringing in with my two hospitality jobs. I will keep you posted on this turn of events.

I also signed on for a "free" online HTML course today to learn how to design and create web pages. The more jobs I research the more I realize I want to work in the online environment, perhaps as an online content editor, producer, analyst, etc. My Masters thesis afterall was blogging - an as yet undefined journalistic product of the World Wide Web. It's in my bones. As for this "free" course I'm starting, I'm still waiting for the hitch. We'll see what tomorrow brings! See you then!

Bali Hai is calling

2009-02-17T14:49:00.004+09:00

There are two ways to describe Bali, Indonesia. One way to describe it is as the ideal one that you see in travel brochures and commercials beckoning you to a paradise of 5-star resorts with infinity pools whose sparkling waters look as though they flow straight into the ocean. A Bali where Palm-tree sanctuaries surround a beautiful beach and crystal clear ocean waters. This is what the travel agents sell you, but it is not the Bali I met.

If you go to Bali buy the expensive accomodation package at a 5-star resort with a welcome massage and the ocean view because it would probably only cost you a few hours wages to stay there for a week anyway. One thing to be said for Bali is that it is cheap, but you also get what you pay for. Our little mini-luxury vacation only cost $US500 for flights and eight nights at the modest, but clean and resort-like Dewi Sri cottages. A pint of beer was about three dollars and a decent meal cost around five or six.

The Dewi Sri was tucked away in a back street off the busy, club-filled Legian Street giving it a cozy, nestled appeal that you wouldn't have had at a flash, luxurious resort on the beach. There was a small security gate and 24-7 guards, but unlike at the bigger resorts, the security guards didn't have little sticks with mirrors on the ends of them to sweep under every taxi that drove up despite the fact that Dewi Sri was only a few metres from the site of the 2002 Bali Bombings. The staff at the Dewi Sri were as warm and welcoming as could be expected at the open air reception desk and a security lock box was available upon request. Honestly, what more could you ask for in a place where you didn't know who to trust? Everyone is just trying to make a buck even if it involves framing innocent tourists for drug-smuggling and snatching humans from their beds to sell them as slaves on the black market. However, we still hesitated to put our valuables in a lock box the other staff could get access to.

The strong smell of floral and sandalwood incense hung in the humid air helping to mask the scent of sewage rotting in the gutters as well as acting as an offering to the Gods. Tiny tourist shops lined the streets and allies, every nook and cranny filled with hand-carved wood figures, sarongs, sundresses, t-shirts, canvas bags and purses, glass mosaic bowls and platters, jewellry, pirated DVDs, and sandals. One of the most popular wood carvings being penis shaped bottle openers and incense holders. One shop after another were all selling the same wares. If you couldn't get it for a good price at one place just go next door. From the minute we walked out of the hotel in the morning we were greeted by a constant barrage of enticements as we walked along the streets and allies. Women and men sat on the steps to their shops calling out to you, "I give you cheap plice," "Come in, have look!" "Hello dahling, you pretty girl." After the first day it became exhausting walking down the street saying "no, thank you," to every shop owner you walked past and we never felt relief from it until we were back in the quiet confines of our hotel.

Happy Australia Day! I'm off to Bali!!!

2009-01-26T14:00:00.005+09:00

Aussie word of the day: prang = (car) wreck/ accident. "I hope I don't have a prang driving Josh's car."

Aussie phrase of the day: cotton on = catch on/ caught on. "He's cottoned on to the joke."

Today I am celebrating my second Australia Day and SM's birthday for whom I'm making a, hopefully, very delicious banana cream cheesecake... actually, it's more because I wanted to try the new recipe than because it's his birthday. This morning we were awoken by SM's dad at 8a.m. to join his parents and the neighbors for an Australia Day breakfast picnic by the lake. I meant to take a photo of Lake Leschenaultia but forgot my camera as usual. We had a family picnic there at Christmas as well. It's a beautiful little spot nestled in the wooded Chidlow area and it doesn't have snakes or snapping turtles so it's a great place to go for a swim. SM and I swam there several times over the Christmas holiday to try and keep the holiday pounds off, but he decided he was too unfit to keep at it - and I was kicking his butt. This time last year I was partying on the deck of my friend Grethe's posh city pad overlooking the Swan River and watching the Skyworks display. A rare opportunity since it is one of those incredibly busy events that people have to practically camp overnight on the river foreshore to get a decent spot.

This year I'm having yet another exciting opportunity on Australia Day... I'm going to Bali. Bali is a common Australian travel spot. It's only 6 hours by plane and in the same time zone as Perth. I'm looking forward to 9 days of hot, sweltering bliss... and maybe a bungy jump as well... it's all 'up in the air' (haha, pun intended). I'm hoping to indulge myself in lots of amazing seafood, fresh tropical fruit salads, a massage or two and loads of cheap shopping. While I am there I will apply for my Work and Holiday Visa so that I can stay and work in Australia for another year. I'm still looking for that elusive new job, the job of my dreams. In the meantime, I've applied to several different temp positions until I find what I'm looking for or a more ideal opportunity presents itself.

I also sold my car this week. SM was glad to help me unburden the load onto one of his co-workers - a desperate Irish guy so eager to get his hands on a cheap set of wheels he paid $300 more than what I bought it for and probably would have paid more. Now I'm driving SM's manual drive Toyota Camry. I've finally got the hang of shifting, but am still sometimes killing it at stoplights.

Here's to sipping Mai Tai's on the beach - or whatever fancy cocktails they make in Bali!

Going home... for now

2009-01-06T17:39:00.003+09:00

April isn't very far away and as the months have been flying by, it's really just around the corner. I'm coming home for a few weeks at the beginning of April and am really looking forward to all the sweet sounds, smells and sights of Missouri in the spring. A few things I'm looking forward to are:

Mojitos on the patio at Houlihan's
Church with Dad on Sunday morning
Sunday brunch at Country Kitchen
The fresh way the air smells after it rains
Endless amounts of chips and salsa at ANY Mexican restaurant
A weekend trip to Osage Beach outlet mall with my mom

What are you looking forward to most about the spring?

Where have I been, Hyden?

2009-01-06T17:38:00.007+09:00

The last stop on our quick road trip was the tiny town of Hyden, a few hours jaunt up the Brookton Highway where a few of WA's famous land formations sit at the base of a hill. Hyden is home to Wave Rock, aptly named for it's unique wave shape. It it also the home of a lesser known rock formation called Hippo's Yawn, again aptly named for its obvious shape. Both are bewildering sites to see, but of course have plausible reasons for the way they were formed over years of weather and water erosion.

We stopped for the night at the Wave Rock Resort. The resort was within walking distance of both Wave Rock and Hippo's Yawn and allowed us the frightening prospect of encountering one of Australia's infamously poisonous and deadly slithering reptiles. We walked the one kilometre track through the bush to Wave Rock where the flies were much more of a threat than any other creature could be. They attacked with vigor like wild, divebombing, kamikaze pilots into our facial orrifaces. I desperately needed my fly net from my trip up north, but was without that luxurious protection this time.

The granite cliff formation of Wave Rock rises 15 metres up and stretches 110 metres long. Mineral deposits contribute to its unique coloring and crystals collected from the rock are amongst some of the oldest found in Australia. The rock itself is over 60 million years old.

Just down the walking track from Wave Rock and shrouded in gum trees was the gaping mouth of a rock Hippopotamus head which was Hippo's Yawn. It was another site to behold. I had the eerie sensation of its mighty stone jaws clamping down on me and swallowing me whole when I stood within its cavernous walls.

The Aboriginal Dreamtime lore of nearby Mulka's Cave also lends an eerieness to the Wave Rock/ Hyden area. Mulka was the illegal son of a woman who fell in love with a man with whom marriage was forbidden according to Aboriginal law. As a result of this woman and man breaking the law Mulka was born with crossed eyes which prevented him from properly aiming a spear and becoming a successful hunter. Frustrated, Mulka turned to hunting and eating children and became the terror of the district. He lived in a cave where the imprints of his hands can still be seen today. When Mulka was confronted by his mother for his anti-social behavior he killed her. This disgraced Mulka further so he fled his cave and was later captured, speared to death and his body left for the ants as he did not deserve a proper burial. This legend served as a grim warning for those who broke Aborginal law.

Of the three accomodations we had on our trip Wave Rock Resort was my favorite for all the amenities it provided us. Debbie and I shared a two room cabin with four beds, a TV, kitchenette, BBQ, and private bath. The reception office was also a general store where we could buy mosquito repellent, cereal and other various sundries as well as some souvenirs. The resort also consisted of a caravan park full of campers and elderly couples doing the "drive around Australia" thing. There was also a very clean outdoor pool that looked refreshing and cool. After our little bush walk and site-seeing a dip in the pool sounded a treat. However, the sun had sunken into the horizon and the fact that the pool was mostly in shade during the day made its inviting waters anything but pleasurable. It was more like taking a dip in an ice cold pond, but we stuck it out and swam around to warm ourselves up.

It was the end of a nice, scenic trip around the central and south central parts of Western Australia. We had one beautiful bottle of sparkling wine (champagne) left to enjoy while we savoured the last day of a memorable trip over grilled steak and salad on the tiny front verandah of our little cabin.

Dog statue at random dog cemetary

on the the side of the road.

[drive back to Perth]

FINALLY... the end of the Kalgoorlie, Esperence trip

2009-01-06T10:13:00.012+09:00

So where were we... ah yes, the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie - the largest gold mine in the southern hemisphere. Note: Australia claims a lot of the biggest things in the southern hemisphere. We drove up to the Super Pit lookout where you could see down into the pit. It was definitely large and deep. The Super Pit is in my opinion the Grand Canyon of mines. The dump trucks and utes going up and down the sides of the mine with their heavy loads looked like little toy trucks. After seeing how narrow the roads going up and down the sides of the mine were I decided maybe being a dump truck driver wasn't such a good idea after all and Debbie agreed with me.

After feeling like a peon standing next to giant truck tires and a massive shovel that showed how big the mining equipment was we moved on down the road to Esperence. We stopped briefly for some lunch at the halfway point between Kalgoorlie and Esperence in a town called Norseman. Looking at a map of the area there is a town en route from Kal to Norseman called Higginsville, which is also the name of a town about 30 miles north of my hometown. The trips between our destinations were becoming shorter now after the longest stretch which was from Perth to Kalgoorlie. I figured it is about the same distance from Perth to Kalgoorlie as it is to drive from Kansas City to Omaha, Nebraska.

We pulled into Esperence in the late afternoon and checked into the Blue Waters Lodge - a hostel that overlooks the bay and our accomodation for the next two nights. We settled in then found a pizza place to get a cheap dinner. Debbie and I shared a bottle of red wine with our pizza dinners at a picnic table across the road from the bay and discussed our current relationships, our post-Master's degree lives, what our futures would hold and where life would take us in the next year. After this deep and meaningful conversation it was time to lighten up the mood and find some nightlife to lift our spirits. Unforutnately, there weren't many options. The Pier Hotel seemed to be the one and only place to go on a weekend night, but at least there was kareoke which Debbie talked me into doing.

Travelling on a tight budget meant I would take all the freebies I could get and I got a free drink if I kareoked... so I did. Debbie was under the false impression that I am a good singer - she once heard me jokingly belt out the Star Spangled Banner and thought it was really good, ugh - so she encouraged me to have a go at the kareoke. Besides getting a free drink, the only thing kareoking would achieve was proving Debbie wrong about my singing skills. Despite a year of voice lessons and years of choir training in high school, my vocal talents are limited to classical music, not rock 'n roll. I would never make a good rock star. I also never seem to pick the right songs for my vocal range. I started out with John Denver's Country Road, but it was too low for me to sing and in an attempt to redeem my singing status I thought I would try something a little higher and more fun to sing... like Cindy Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I think the kareoke lady actually cut off the end of that song just to get it over with - yeah, it was a painful experience for everyone involved. Luckily I wasn't in America because I would probably have gotten booed off stage. But the good-natured people of Australia were kind enough to look away and silently swig their beers to dull the pain caused by my tortured vocal chords. It made the evening more enjoyable and go by quicker anyway.

The next day Debbie and I drove out to Cape Le Grand National Park about a 30 minute drive from Esperence to have a look at some of Esperence's notorious white sand beaches. According to one online source Esperence is the oasis at the western end of the Nullarbor Plain - a 100,000 square mile desert made up of a limestone plateau that stretches across the southern half of Australia. Once you've been through the desert plains Esperence is a tropical oasis. The beaches of Cape Le Grand were definitely beautiful and there were many to explore, but we only visited three:

Hellfire Bay...

...Lucky Bay...

...and Le Grand Beach where we sipped champagne on the gorgeous white sand beach and soaked up the afternoon sun and relaxing atmosphere.

We toasted to the end of the semester and to new beginnings. Families and groups of young friends from the beachside caravan park joined us in enjoying the beautiful day on the beach. I spotted a pod of dolphins gliding in graceful, sweeping arcs across the surface of the sparkling ocean water just off the beach. I watched the calming movements of these gentle sea mammals as they were catching their lunch while Debbie recorded our travels in her journal. The sky was cloudless, the weather was warm and a mild breeze blew. The cheerful, melodious strains of the laughter of children playing nearby completed the perfect scene. Life was good and we were grateful.

Just before the sun went down we returned to Hellfire Bay to BBQ some sausages for afternoon tea. Then made our way back to the city of Esperence and the Pier Hotel for a quiet, light, salad bar supper and a bowl of soup. The next day we had breakfast at a local cafe and visited a few shops then headed out of town to Hyden, our last stop on the trip.

A Christmas in Oz

2008-12-25T15:21:00.006+09:00

You give pressies (presents) for Chrissy (Christmas) in Oz. I'm finally coming off my blogging hiatus to bring you this blog on my second Christmas in Oz. Alas, I have been inspired by the Christmas spirit to write . In 2004, I spent Christmas with my former Baby Banz boss and his wife and kids eating prawns and crayfish by the beach in the searing afternoon heat. This Christmas in Oz was another version of a traditional Australian Christmas and much more my style. SM's grandparents, sister and brother-in-law and their three kids all came to Chidlow to celebrate family style in the Perth hills. Twelve people in all gathered around the dinner table last night for the Christmas Eve feast. After stuffing ourselves with quiche, roast chicken, cold salads, and rolls the neighbors came around for drinks and a chat. The kids had their dessert of ice cream in waffle cones and the house came alive with the excitement and anticipation that one remembers so fondly from the Christmas Eves of ones youth. The children prepared for Father Christmas by placing cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer outside the front door. Mysteriously, some of the cookies had disappeared from the plate when SM's mom went to check on the goodies later.

This morning I woke to sunshine and 60 degree temperatures, by the afternoon it reached close to 90. SM was awoken by his brother asking for his help with some huge, cumbersome gift that needing shifting into the living room. The gift was his mother's new brown leather lounge suite. I got up and plodded drowsily into the lounge looking for signs of eagerly awaiting children ready to pounce on their gifts. Oddly, the kids were quietly seated at the breakfast table busying themselves with their new craft projects that their parents had wisely set aside for them to work on first thing in the morning while they waited for the rest of us to wake up and have their breakfast. By the time I had finished my brekkie and waited another hour or so for everyone to gather around the tree I was beginning to feel a bit anxious to get on with unwrapping the gifts. I wasn't sure how many gifts I would end up with other than the one from SM, but I was really happy to simply see what everyone else got and gave each other. I was glad, however, to receive some very thoughtful and much appreciated gifts from SM's parents, grandparents and sister's family. My presents were a pair of pink pajamas, a bottle of rose-scented body lotion, a movie gift card (for me and SM) and a new lavender colored Motorola Razor cell phone and book shop gift card from SM. As much as I loved all my gifts, my gift to SM took the cake. I bought him a helicopter flying lesson which he had talked of getting himself some time ago, but he had decided against it when he found out how much it cost. I was so excited to give it to him not only because it cost me the better part of one weeks pay, but because I knew the look on his face alone would be more than worth the cost. See, it is more about the giving than the receiving and I certainly got the reaction I had been waiting for when he realized what it was. Everyone else was amazed as well. I susupected SM was the envy of the other men who all kept talking about it and wanted to look at the details on the gift packet that described the lesson.

SM's nephew acted out the part of Father Christmas by wearing the red Santa cap and passing the gifts around. Once all the gifts had been unwrapped, I cranked up the iTunes with some holiday music and the women started their cooking escapades. Meanwhile, the kids played with their new toys and the men drank a few cold ones and chatted on the patio. Since the arrival of Josh's family there has been a table tennis marathon and the kids got a trampoline from Santa that was set up in Josh's parent's lawn. I had a go at doing some cheerleader jumps on it for a bit of morning excercise.

The dinner was another feast even bigger than the one on Christmas Eve. The table was set and adorned with sparkling glitter, silver garland, confetti poppers, and Christmas crackers with prizes and colored tissue paper crowns inside - a throwback to old English tradition that many Australians still practice at Christmastime. Everyone waited to eat until everyone was seated and the Christmas crackers were popped. To pop the crackers we crossed our arms and held on to each others crackers making a chain around the table. Everyone pulled them open at the same time causing an explosion of popping noises and spilling toys and colorful tissue paper crowns onto the table. Next everyone popped their confetti poppers at the same time sending ribbons of tiny tissue streamers flying around the table. It was all really quite festive.

After this ceremonious opening of crackers and poppers we finally dug into our meals. Most of us wore our tissue paper crowns throughout the meal except a couple of the guys, including SM, whose heads are too big to wear them. The Christmas dinner consisted of roast pork, leftover roast chicken, ham, prawns with cocktail and tartar sauces, pasta salad, roast pumpkin, spinach and feta salad, roast veggies, and a Southwestern Pull Apart Bread that I made - a holiday tradition from my home. Despite there not being any turkey on the menu to make us drowsy, most of us still had "a bit of a lie down" after dinner. I still haven't taken my nap, but motivation is key to blogging so I must do it while the moment is ripe.

Tomorrow is Boxing Day - a big piss-up while watching the cricket on TV. My friend Grethe is back from Norway for a few weeks over the holidays to visit her boyfriend who is still living here. Therefore, I will be spending my Boxing Day in the poshy part of town at a party at Grethe's boyfriend's chic East Perth digs from which I also watched the fireworks display over the river on Australia Day earlier this year. I'll try to remember to take my camera and lots of photos. The day after that is my birthday - 29, eeks!!! Over the next three days I will attempt to make up for my blogging slackishness over the last two months by keeping you abreast of all the holiday activities and celebrations by blogging three consecutive days in a row!

Merry Christmas to all and to all... a goodnight ;)

(Christmas sunset over Childow)

Kalgoorlie Day 2

2008-11-30T20:11:00.013+09:00

Have a look at the last Kalgoorlie blog post to see some new photos!

The second day in Kalgoorlie consisted of visits to the Mining Hall of Fame, WA Museum and the Super Pit. Although I was keen to take a tour of one of Kalgoorlie's seven active brothels, we were really there to see the mining and it took priority. We first went to the WA mining museum and I spent loads on souvenirs before we even had a look around! Basically, it was a tall steel mining structure built as a town lookout and to commemorate the mining pioneers.

We walked around the town a little while longer and found the statue of Paddy Hannan, the Irishman who first found the gold in Kalgoorlie in 1893 which sparked a gold rush and mining industry that is still going strong.

Here Debbie is getting a drink from the water fountain coming out of his watering can.

At the Mining Hall of Fame which looks like a mining ghost town and was Kalgoorlie's first gold mine we panned for gold as we waited to go on an underground tour of a real mine shaft. The shorts I was wearing were sliding down and my butt-crack was exposed, but I didn't care, I was going to strike it rich! This bit of butt-crack exposure may actually have helped get me some gold. Two older men that were working on the site were standing nearby as I was panning and saw me (with my plumber's crack) struggling with my panning technique. One of them came over and took over my efforts to show me how it was done. He then found me two tiny pieces of gold and explained to us the different forms of gold there are.

Actually, flecks of gold are brought down from the Super Pit each day and emptied into the three water holes where we were panning so tourists can have a try panning for gold, so there really wasn't a chance I would score a big nugget. Instead I bought my unrefined gold nuggets in earring form at the souvenir shop.

We also took a tour of the underground mine shafts that were used to mine the area for gold. The tour guide was a rough looking older man, years younger than my dad, but who looked years older. He had worked in these very mines for several years and had obviously been doing the tour guide job several times a day for quite some time. Although he was a wealth of knowledge, he seemed weary of retelling the story so many times. He spoke really fast and in a monotone so it was unfortunately hard to glean any information from the diatribe that spilled from his thickly-accented words.

We rode 20 feet down into the mine shaft packed into this little metal box elevator like a can of sardines. Only about five adults could fit snugly into the elevator. The tour lasted about 45 minutes and showed the hardships of working in such conditions.

Walls were propped up with wooden support posts that would buckle under the weight of the shifting rock and the slightest slip of the mining tools could bring one of these "hanging" walls crashing in on the men mining between them.

The machines used to mine the walls were also extremely loud. They were basically jack hammers on supports so they can sit sideways drilling into the wall. When the tour guide turned one on to show us what it sounded like the noise was almost excruciating to listen to in such an enclosed space. It's a wonder anyone who worked there for a long period of time would still have their hearing left!

So far Kalgoorlie had proved far more interesting and lively a place to visit than both Debbie and I had anticipated and I could have stayed to do another day of site-seeing and visit a brothel, but we had more places to go. Our last stop in on our way out of Kalgoorlie was the Super Pit gold mine.

Wonders of WA's Southwest (Sow-west)

2008-11-24T08:55:00.010+09:00

Aussie word of the day: dunny = toilet; therefore dunny paper = toilet paper.

Monday, November 3rd, 2008: I submitted my thesis. I was happy to have it submitted, but now am anxiously awaiting my mark. It felt so good to have it done after a whole year of study and research on blogging.

Friday, November 7th, 2008: Debbie submitted her thesis and we rolled out of ECU's car park at about 10:30am. In the style of Thelma & Louise (except without the convertible), we hightailed it outta there and headed straight for the hills - the Perth Hills! Beyond the Perth Hills is the beginning of the great abyss of the Wheatbelt and beyond that - where we were headed - the scrub-filled Goldfields, home of the world's largest gold mining pit or Super Pit, the most alcohol consumed in WA, and seven brothels - two of which offer tours.

Kalgoorlie (Kal by the locals): After a quick 600 km (360 mile) stretch of a drive we rolled into Kalgoorlie at about 5:30 Friday night on our black steeds - I mean in our rented black Hyundai i30 - looking for a few cold ones and a place to rest our heads for the night. Debbie was determined to get there in less time than the 7 hours and 50 minutes Google Maps had estimated it would take and we managed to make it in about 7. Debbie likened Kalgoorlie to the old mining town at Paris's Disneyland... in other words it was surreal. You could just imagine the whistle of the old west as a tumble weed rolled across the road and two cowboy's got ready to shoot it out in the main street. The streets were orginally made extra wide for the long-ago used camel trains to be able to turn around in and they were once also paved in fool's gold before locals found out real gold could be extracted from fool's gold and feverishly tore the streets up to get in on the riches. Kalgoorlie is one of two prolific telluride (fool's gold) sites in the world, the other being Boulder, Colorado.

We checked out a few of the local hostels for acommodation. They were filled with fly-in, fly-out mine workers. Shoe racks near the lobby entrance lined with mud-caked work boots gave this away. At another hostel we walked into the lounge/ dining area in search of the receptionist and found ourselves the objects of much wonderment. The young men in their early to mid-twenties slowly averted their gazes from the television show they were glued to and gaped at us with forks poised over their dinner plates with looks of bewilderment as we asked where the receptionist was. Either they didn't understand English or they hadn't seen such clean, wholesome-looking young women in a long time... my guess was the latter. After that entertaining search, we landed at the York Hotel, a lovely old-timey hotel in the heart of the town... and with no trace of mine workers or their work boots.

The York Hotel ran a lively pub scene in the evenings, but had a charming alley courtyard and served free continental breakfast in the stately dining room in the morning. Debbie and I shared a tidy little twin room - a room with two twin beds - with a shared bathroom down the hall. There was also a slightly slanting balcony above the hotels covered entrance which overlooked the main street. Here we relaxed with a few Coronas after our long drive and watched the sun go down over the Spinifex and salt bushes of the scrub-filled horizon. For an old historic hotel, it had everything we were looking for in budget acommodation.

After getting settled in and toasting over a few beers on the hotel's balcony, our night began with dinner and drinks at a nice restaurant down the main street from our hotel called The Blue Monkey. It was on the pricier side, but had a nice atmosphere and good food. Then we stopped into Judd's on the way back to our hotel. There was live music, a young crowd and a massive men to women ratio! There was probably 5 guys to every girl and didn't the ladies know it. We sipped our beers and people watched for a while as the band played one enjoyable cover song after another. Debbie observed that the club style of dress that the people wore in Kal was much more casual than the type of dress you see at the clubs in Perth, noting that the girls looked like they were trying too hard and not quite getting it. What can you say? They're bogans (white trash Aussies)! At least they tried to look nice.

After Judd's we went in search of a "skimpy" bar where the barmaids wear next to nothing, but to no avail. A recent magazine article about the women who work in the mines said that Kalgoorlie is trying to clean up it's "skimpy" act and regulating the skimpies to have the women wear less revealing clothing such as sexy nighties instead of just bra and panties. This was what we found - nothing like the skimpy I went to with SM in Dampier. We settled on returning to the nightlife in the York Hotel, where it would be easiest to crawl off to bed should we become inebriated. Back at the York a glorified kareoke duo - guy on guitar and girl singer with pre-recorded music playing in the background - attempted to entertain the drunken crowd. We met a local miner who "lived" at the hotel on his time off from the mine. I thought it was really sad, a perfectly attractive guy making a good living but litereally living in a hotel in his downtime. What kind of lifestyle is that? The life of a mine worker.

The next day we set off to explore the Mining Hall of Fame and Museum's.

Three cheers for Obama!!!

2008-11-05T13:50:00.003+09:00

Hip-hip-horray, hip-hip-horray, hip-hip-horray!!!!!!

Thought you would all like to share in my excitement of the winner of the election. I was watching the tallies updating every two minutes on MSN for a while this morning, not to mention the election was being followed by the Australian news channels as well, so it was safe to step away to get some books at the library for a few hours. It was on the TV in the library lobby when I arrived there too! When I came back the majority of votes were in. I might actually celebrate with some bubbly tonight.

How do you guys feel about the new president?

Pix of the hair

2008-11-03T18:34:00.008+09:00

Here it is - the blog you have all been waiting for. The one with my hair pictures! Now that I've had my hair cut a week and have seen these photos, I think I liked the way my long hair looked better. *Sniff* Oh well, it grows back, but I'm not going to color it for a while and let the natural color grow out, so hopefully it will get a lot healthier. It's actually stacked in shorter layers in the back and longer at the sides and front, but it's hard to tell in these photos. I also think the color has started to fade a bit as I spent the day at the beach on Sunday.

P.S. I also felt better as a blonde.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

2008-10-29T11:27:00.004+09:00

I should've taken my camera with me to the salon when I got my hair cut yesterday, but, as with most photo worthy moments, I didn't have it with me. A before and after would have been great! But it was a 'hairy' sort of day to begin with and my afternoon was a bit chaotic. As usual, I overcommited myself and undermanaged my time, therefore, chaos ensued.

I started out working a two-hour tea and coffee shift in the city at 7 a.m. It's always nice to get a good early start to the day, so I felt pretty good about the morning. From work I walked a few blocks had breakfast at a cafe (bacon and egg toastie, orange juice, latte) then to TAFE (jr. college) to be an extra in a video production for Gail who studies video production at WAAPA, the arts college on ECU's campus. I was a waitress. Very apropo as I had just come from my job and was already adorned in my waiting attire. From there I walked home around noon. On my walk home I noticed my fingernails were breaking and tearing and looking rather ragged, so I decided it was time for a mani. I haven't had one since I was home in June and I was getting my hair cut in the afternoon, so I decided it would be a day of beauty and I should go all out as a reward for my hard work on my thesis this week.

This is where the day starts to go wrong. I got to the manicurist a little later than I should have because I had been immersed with email when I got back from the city. I thought the mani wouldn't take more than 45 minutes or so, but I must have gotten the most talkative lady in the shop, so the mani lasted an hour! It was good though and she did a nice, thourough job. This little bit of time mismanagement made me half an hour late for my much anticipated hair appointment. Then the hair appointment ended up lasting two hours, which then made me over an hour late for an evening work commitment (I was doing a favor by filling in for someone at the last minute so they were understanding). What a day, I tell ya!

So here's the goods on my hair, which you won't get to see photos of until the weekend because I am utterly swamped with work and finishing my thesis. But I just have to tell you all about it because it was the most delightful salon treatment I have ever had!

What started out costing me $180 for hair color, cut, wash and style ended up costing me only $125. This is an exceptional price for a haircut and color in Perth. Trust me! This is why I only get my hair cut when I come home - then again that costs me the price of an airline ticket from Australia and travel time. I got a flyer in the mail last week for a promo at this place called Spoilt, so I called and cancelled my other appointment and probably got 10x the treatment I would've at the other place. I really did get spoiled! When you get there, they let you choose from a selection of coffee, tea, water or soft drink on a beverage menu. You can enjoy your drink while getting your hair done. I got a cup of peppermint tea that came with it's own little teapot and a little biscuit and some water with lemon and they serve champagne on nights when they are open late! As a part of the promo package I also got a deep conditioning treatment and scalp and back massage that included some aromatic lavender. While I was waiting for my hair color to set I was put under a "heater" not a dryer chair. The heater was rolled over to my chair and had a circle shaped metal ring with a built in heating element through it that slowly rotated in a halo fashion around the back and top of my head. High class! So the "spare" $50 I saved from that experience bought me a bottle of salon color care shampoo and paid for the manicure I got prior to that! I was very pleased with the experience, price for the experience (compared to what I would've paid for nothing like it), and the haircut and color!

I hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather there, while I bask in the warm Australian sun here!

I sprung into Spring in the Valley but crawled home

2008-10-12T15:27:00.008+08:00

Aussie word of the day: plaits = braids. I guess this isn't really slang, it's actually formal British English and the Australian language is full of that.

OMG! I think this is the first time I have posted two days in a row! Well, I had a great day yesterday and I couldn't wait to share it with you guys.

Spring has sprung in the Valley - This weekend Perth celebrated "Spring in the Valley", an annual spring winery event tailored around the wineries and breweries in the Swan Valley, just outside of Perth to the north of the city. As you may have guessed, there are several wine regions around Australia and the Swan Valley and Margaret River are the two main ones in Western Australia. If you remember, I also attended a wine fest in MR earlier this year with SM. However, SITV is a big piss-up as they say here in Oz. This means you pay $15 to get a sexy, fluorescent green, paper wristband to ride a hop-on hop-off bus to all of the wineries/ breweries you want in the Swan Valley. Basically, it's a GIANT, miles-long, pub crawl... which also means it's polluted with Perth's 20-somethings.

There were large groups of people who hired personal buses and vans to take them around. Some people pulled out all the stops in their fancy frocks, others wore scanty club wear, while some groups came in themed costumes. We saw everything from neon-colored 80s Flashdance attire and Christmas elves to bumble bees and 1920s flappers. Don't ask me what it is about Australians and their love of theme parties that they can't even go to an event without showing up dressed as an action figure or cartoon character. I guess when you live in a country that doesn't offer much more than kangaroos and red dust you have to come up with some way to entertain yourself. I'll admit it made things more interesting and one girl was having her hens "do" at the event - that's what the bachelorette party's t-shirts read, "Sara's Hens 'Do'". The weird thing about Hens (implying that women cackle like chickens) parties is that the male equivalent or bachelor party is called a Studs night/ party. Since when did chickens and horses mate? Why isn't it called the Rooster night or a Mare's party? Things that make you go hmmm... I think I'll just stick to the classic American names - bachelor/ bachelorette - that way at least there aren't any unfair animal comparisons.

But I digress, our party of six dressed smartly in semi-casual spring apparel: jeans, sleeveless shirts, cardigans, sultry sundresses, and sandals. Or for the one guy in the group - khaki cargo shorts and a striped, cotton, button-down shirt. Don't we look like a stylish bunch. Here we are getting our "taste" on at Little River winery. L-R my four Dutch friends: Debbie, Elina, (in back) Brent and Fleur and the lone Norwegian, Ida front and center in floral print.

We only made it to two wineries in the course of a few hours. As the afternoon wore on each of the venues became more and more packed and the breweries had huge queues. We waited half an hour to get into Ambrook Winery, where it was one in one out entry. One guy kept coming over to the fence and "feeding" us sips of his wine because he felt sorry for us having to wait to get in.

We enjoyed our day of slow inebriation as we polished off a few bottles of vino and ate bratwurst while sitting in the grass listening to live music in the late afternoon sun at Ambrook Winery.

We thought we would beat the rush and leave a little early to get a bus back into Midland and catch a train into the city from there. We stood at the bus stop, watching as one bus after another passed us by, too full of people already to pick up any others. This winery was unfortunately one of the last stops along the route, so, of course it was a lost cause to get a ride back. So we walked...

and we walked...

and we walked some more... on the road to Guilford.

It was probably only 5 miles into Guilford, but God, it seemed to take forever and there wasn't a sidewalk half the way. Halfway along our trek me and my girlfriends got that unfortunate urge to use the restroom and without a toilet in site. Finally, we made it to a servo/ convenience store only to find out that they didn't have public restrooms! After much cajoling we convinced the kids (seriously, they looked about 12 and 14) to let us use their private restroom if we bought something and by telling them that no one would find out.

This is a view of the Swan River in Guildford. It was the first time for any of us to walk across it - most of the time you are driving across it. We got to Guilford train station just in time to catch the train back into the city and, thankfully, get to sit down. When we got back to the city, we were all hungry from walking and grabbed a bite at the 50s diner-style Moon Cafe (more walking), where I indulged in a caramel latte and strawberrry pizza. We then continued our intoxication at a post-party at Brent and Elina's house in West Perth (walking again) where I relived my earlier college days playing drinking games and cards. I learned to play Texas Hold-Em, but only won one hand. Guess I'll just have to practice with my brother sometime. At midnight, Debbie and I called it quits. We had been drinking for nearly twelve hours... eek! Walking again, we dragged our sorry asses, with me hiccuping all the way, a few more blocks to our house. These boots are made for walking, but my flat sandals aren't and my feet were in blisters by the time we made it home at half past midnight :( I think I will give them a good foot scrub and some cream in a bit.

New housemates - The house is filled with the smell of cooked meat, some delicious-smelling concoction the new Iranian couple made. Muhammed and Marian moved in on Friday when one of the Korean guys moved out. They are nice, but hard to talk to and they don't appear to be Muslim, not that it matters, but I'm sure you would all be wondering. He studies accounting at TAFE and she seems to be a housewife, which would now make her a roomwife. She told me an Iranian recipe today - spinach, yogurt, garlic, salt, and pepper makes a nice sauce for meat dishes. She also said that in Iran only Friday is considered the weekend. People and children go to work and school six days a week from 7a.m. until 4p.m. Saturday through Thursday. It's the most interesting thing I've ever learned from anyone I've lived with in Oz.

The Malvern Star - SOLD I sold my bike today. The old Aussie icon Malvern Star went to the caring hands of my friend Anne who will probably get a lot more use out of it than I have in the last year. The money from that sale will pay for my groceries this week or maybe go towards a much-needed and long-awaited haircut. Stay posted for pics of that - I think it's time for something drastic. I haven't had much work in the last few weeks, but feel that it's not something to stress about because I need all the time I can get to work on my thesis and another essay over these last THREE weeks of the semester. I will be working again this week, but have been lucky to have a little income from things like the sale of this bike and a medical refund from an exam I had done a month ago. Also I am getting fit for the summer. I just joined a pilates class for 10 sessions and have been swimming and walking/ jogging as well. I just need to stop drinking like I did this weekend and I will be sweet! The day Debbie and I turn our completed theses in we are getting in the car straight after and literally heading off into the sunset. We are taking a celebratory road trip to Esperence (beautiful beaches and surfing) and Kalgoorlie (gold mining), two towns south and southeast of Perth. Then it's back to Europe, family, Christmas and Ruairi for Debbie and my life turns into a great big ?

My memoir - One thing I am planning on is writing my memoir: My first 30 years and some unexpected secrets from a smalltown girl! What do you think of the title? My brother (and his big ideas again) planted the seed a few years ago at Thanksgiving. I can remember the very moment he suggested it. He was reclining in my mother's armchair in the living room while watching football and preparing for his pre-Thanksgiving dinner nap. Little did I know the reason behind his suggestion at the time and perhaps I still haven't quite figured out how or why he came up with it, but I suppose he perceived that I have had my share of the seedy and scandalous for a smalltown girl. The second suggestion came today over a late night (for her) instant messenger chat with a good college friend of mine. She simply told me I could write a book and that was all it took to convince me that it's meant to be. I could write a whole chapter on the misadventures I had with her.

There's also my whole experience in Australia. How and why exactly did I end up here, not only in Australia, but at this point in my life? Maybe I will finally truthfully fill in the blank and answer these questions. Curious? Maybe you are someone who thinks you know, but do you really? What would I say? How would I say it? How far am I willing to go? How much am I willing to spill and who will I take through the journey with me? Wouldn't a lot of people (I won't say everyone because I can see Teagan objecting to this, although she knows most of my secrets), especially my family, be interested in the secrets I'm harboring about my life? Isn't that why people read memoirs anyway? There are plenty of memoirs out there about little known people who simply have interesting stories to tell about their lives. For instance, one of my favorite bloggers and an inspiration for my own memoir, Christine Coppa, is publishing her memoir Rattled! about getting knocked up which is due out in April 09, but is already available on Amazon.com. I would love to release some of my issues out on paper and having people read it would cleanse my soul, removing the dirt and filth from the early chapters in my life while validating and establishing my career as a writer! It makes perfect sense. Maybe that was my brother's point all along!? How am I just seeing it now?

Pop Rocks and home-owning clocks

2008-10-10T16:57:00.007+08:00

Aussie word of the day: frieze = wallpaper border. That was just something random that popped into my head on this morning's walk.

Something else that popped up today that I found entertaining was a link on one of my favorite blogs to an interesting recipe for Pop Rocks Chocolate Cake! But good luck getting ahold of some of the once popular candy - it has been out of commission since the mid-80's, which I honestly can't believe. You can, however, still buy Pop Rocks on eBay - go figure! Did you all hear about that house that some girl bought in... was it Michigan.. on eBay!?! I think she paid less than $2 for it and is planning on reselling it. Have you seen a pic of it? It's a shambles and looks like it's located in the ghetto. Good luck to her and her $2 house!

Speaking of houses, my home-owning clock (rather than my biological clock) is tick-tick-ticking away. I practically drool over furniture ads, I always have a peek at the property pages in the newspaper and I longingly admire the houses that are on the market in my neighborhood. Most of the houses in my neighborhood are selling for upwards of AU$800,000 (more than half a mil U.S. dollars) for modest 3-bedroom, 1-car unenclosed garage homes with tiny yards. I would ask my devoted readers if anyone else has the burgeoning desire to have a... HOUSE (not a baby), but most of you, I believe by now, are or are soon to be happy home owners. In fact, some of you are even on home #2... and three and four for some of the older folks. I guess that sort of comes along with marriage, because not only are most of you home-owners, but most of you are also married. Not that I believe, by any means, that I have to have a husband to buy a house unlike my brother who once told me when I told him I wanted to buy a house, "wait til you get married for that." If that wasn't one of the most pseudo-sexist comments I think that ever intentionally came out of his mouth. What it really showed me was his naive sense of financial investment - thank goodness his wife holds the purse strings. Most people know that property investment is one of the best things a person can do with their money. A house is almost always going to increase it's value.

On the (Australian) news the other night it was reported that a young girl had won millions of dollars and when the reporter went around asking similarly aged (early 20s) Australian uni students what they would do with that kind of money most of them said buy a house. Of course, who wouldn't do that if you had millions to spend, but I think buying a house was actually one of the furthest things from my mind at that age. Props to my bro for his insightfulness because I think in my early 20s I was more concerned with finding a boyfriend and getting married before buying a house. After being around some financially savvy minds for a few years at Baby Banz, I think I got my mind on the right financial track (I also realized I was living beyond my means, got control of my credit card debt, and created a budget for myself). Well, as I'm staring down turning 29, I have the boyfriend, but marriage is still a long way off, I'm just hoping the home-owning isn't.

The Pilbara buzz: Installment 2

2008-10-02T16:31:00.012+08:00

Now that you've all read the first segment of my Pilbara journey and ogled over all the wonderful photos, here is the second part....

We drove into Dampier via Karratha on Monday afternoon. SM couldn't wait... for what I'm not sure, but here we were in the industrial capital of the Pilbara, perhaps even the industrial capital of Western Australia. Dampier boasts of being the highest export port in all of Australia. I'm not sure how many tons of iron ore are shipped from Dampier every day, but there were three large steamers waiting in port the last day we were there, half sunken down into the water from the weight of their loads.

The first day, we stopped into the visitors center in Karratha to check if we would be able to go out sailing during the week. At first it was uncertain because we had to have six people to go out. A few others joined and we were set to go sailing on Wednesday. In the meantime, we thought we might hire a dinghy, unfortunately we had to have a boat license to drive it, so that didn't work out. We checked into the Dampier Mermaid Hotel/ Motel - it really was both a hotel and motel, I think because hotels are generally pubs and motels are where you stay. It was certainly not flash 5-star accommodation. No, it would be more like 2, maaaybe 3 stars at best, but it was clean and had pleasant staff and a nice little pool. It also had a lovely view overlooking the harbour and some palm trees along the shore, but the majority of the guests were "fly in" workers for the surrounding industrial facilities. Sometimes I felt like we got stared at because we were the only tourists staying there even though we were driving a work ute like the rest of them. One lady that went on the sailboat with us even said they had tried getting a room somewhere that didn't take tourists, the hotel only accommodated workers.

The first few days we bummed around Dampier exploring nearby Hearson Cove, Burrup Peninsula, and Point Samson for good snorkeling and fishing spots. I thought I might even try my hand at crabbing, so we went back to Hearson Cove at dusk, fishing net in hand in hopes of finding some crabs along the shoreline - no luck :( The snorkelling didn't fare well either as the water was too rough and murky, so we tried a little fishing, but SM ended up fly bitten from the sand flies. So we settled on a little swimming and saw a sea turtle pop his head up briefly on the beach in Point Samson. That was the height of my excitement the first few days.

Burrup Penninsula didn't offer much more than a large liquid ammonia plant that produces 760,000 tons of liquid ammonia a year all of which is exported. The plant is the biggest Indian investment in Australia and the young Indian tycoon who owns it is building a mansion mini version of the Taj Mahal in one of the wealthiest suburbs in Perth.

There is also the salt industry which produces 4.2 million tons of salt annually and is primarily used by chemical industries, only 20% is used for food processing and human consumption. It is for this reason that the neighboring town of Karratha seems to be experiencing significant growth with housing subdivisions popping up all around the town. The photo at the left are some of the salt resevoirs along the highway going into Dampier with a 2.5 kilometer long train in the background. The sea water has evaporated leaving a sparkling layer of salt to be harvested.

We also drove through the town of Wickham because SM's nephew had played their t-ball team in the tournament on the weekend, so we thought we'd have a look. Pretty standard Leeton-Chilhowee-Holden (for you Warrensburgians to compare to) sized town.

Finally, Wednesday rolled around and we were ready to do some sailing and serious snorkeling! Our skipper, Brad, was a white haired ex-army man who looked at little like Kenny Rogers and sounded like him too. He took us and three other couples out around Dampier Archipelago. Along the way he told lots of stories and shared his extensive knowledge on the history of the area. Dampier was named for William Dampier, a real pirate from the Caribbean who explored the area... a long time ago. William recorded in his journal that the area was only good for minerals and set on his way. It wasn't until about 40 years ago that Dampier began as a port, so it took all this time for someone to exploit the mineral resources William Dampier had found available in the Pilbara.

As we sailed out to Mallus Island we came across two huge manta rays swimming near one of the islands and feeding on the floating flotsam that had gotten churned up from the ocean floor. It's mouth is the large white oval shape you see near the waters surface. The tips of their big wing-like bodies looked like shark fins as they broke the surface of the water. They were really beautiful to watch.

We arrived at Mallus Island where there were several beach shacks nestled on top of the dunes. Skipper Brad said the saddest thing about the industry was that people were rich in wealth, but socially poor. They work long days and hardly get much time off to spend at the beach shacks they bought to enjoy. When we stopped at Mallus Island for lunch we got to enjoy a bit of snorkeling around the coral reefs which were wonderful and full of brightly colored fish, sea cucumbers, spikey black ball things, and huge clams that I played with by waving my hand across the top of them so they would quickly snap shut.

We also had a look at some of the whaling pots that were left on the beach from the American whalers hundreds of years ago. There is still whale bone all around the area from when the whalers would melt down the whale blubber into oil in the big pots.

On the way back from the islands we had sailed past Sam's Island named for Sam, a Serbian guy that had come to Dampier and built a small castle home on the island. He also planted the palm trees on the island and moved hundreds of rocks in order to make a beach. When Sam died the Dampier community had a big funeral on the local sporting grounds for him then buried him atop his island. It was an amazing day all around and the best one we had while in Dampier. The next day we headed out to Port Hedland, our last stop on the trip.

We took our time getting to Port Hedland as it was only a few hours from Dampier, so we stopped at the heritage town of Cossack which used to be the main port used for the pearling industry back in the late 1800's. Cossack had a life span of less than 50 years as the pearling industry moved north, cyclone devastation to the area wiped out many of the remaining buildings that had been there, and the harbour clogged with silt which restricted access for larger shipping vessels. A few buildings are left standing there today like the old gaol, police barracks, post office, courthouse and mercantile store. We also stopped at a roadhouse in Whim Creek, also the site of mining operations, to look at a tree where SM had received one of his many childhood scars and we met a friendly cockatoo in the aviary there who let us pet him through the fence.

Port Hedland is where SM grew up, so when we got into town he drove me around South Hedland a little community outside of PH where he lived and showed me the house he grew up in and told me stories about his childhood there. That was the day of his dad's birthday so we stayed at the yard and celebrated with him. The yard is where his dad's company keeps their exploration equipment, bull dozers, loaders, and donger's - mobile units with bedrooms, bathrooms and office space. At one point I went to the toilet and heard some chirping coming from inside. I thought it was only some crickets, but when I got inside this is what I saw.

These beautifully colored tree frogs live in the toilet's tank. When I first came in there were two sitting on top, but one had gotten scared and crawled back into the toilet tank for safety. I was really tickled by them being there. SM's dad said that frogs are a sign of a healthy environment. Good to know.

I don't know what it is about toilets lately, but when I got home, I found this sign posted above the toilet in our bathroom. (photo coming later)

The next day SM drove me into PH for a look around and to have some lunch. I rather liked PH for a small town and that's as far as my trip took me. I hopped on a plane in PH around one o'clock last Friday afternoon and headed back to the grit and grime of city life and the hardships of thesis writing.

The Pilbara

2008-09-29T19:27:00.004+08:00

Aussie word of the day: chuffed = British slang used by Aussies meaning delighted; pleased; satisfied. My boyfriend said to me the other day, "my dad is going to be chuffed about his birthday cake."

Yes, we celebrated SM's dad's birthday with him in Port Hedland last Thursday, which was also Gina's birthday. Unfortunately, my cell phone reception wasn't the best in the Pilbara so I gave up after a few times calling to wish her a happy one and left her birthday wishes on the answering machine instead. SM's dad said it was the biggest birthday he'd had in a long time and it was only the three of us. We celebrated with a store bought chocoloate mud cake topped with two candles in the shape of a six and a four, a lotto ticket, Chinese take-away (carry-out), two bottles of red wine and some chocoloate covered peanuts. It was really sweet that we could spend it with him and it kind of gave us something to do on our last night in Western Australia's northwest.

So here's my story about the Pilbara... There once was a vast place called the Pilbara with scrub covered hillsides some might call small mountains. Although rich in mineral resources like salt and iron ore and full of overworked yet well paid miners, drillers, geo's (geologists) and dozer drivers (my man), the Pilbara isn't the most beautiful place in the world save for a few hidden treasures that I got to enjoy on my week of holiday. I arrived on Friday night in Parburdoo just as the sun was beginning to settle into the hilly horizon. The plane was a regular sized aircraft, but it only had one landing strip to land on. As we taxied down the runway I noticed a small steel shed-like building by the side of the runway. It was surrounded by several white work ute's (utility trucks) with tall orange flags attached to their front bumpers that wiggled and waved with the slightest breeze almost as if welcoming the airplane's travellers. I thought the shed with its many ute's must be the maintenance building for the airport. But as the plane made it to the end of the runway and began to turn around I realized that the shed was the airport! Unfortunately, I didn't want to look like too much of a tourist getting off the plane as most of the people there had come for work so I didn't get a picture of the airport and I regretted it later.

We dismebarked down stairs straight onto the tarmac and proceeded through a gate in the chain link fence that separated the runway from the airport and parking lot. On the other side of the fence we waited for our luggage to be unloaded and brought around on the luggage carts. The first thing I noticed as I stepped from the plane was the smell of the air - it was fresh like springtime, which it is now, but some of the freshest air I've ever smelled. The second thing I noticed was that my boyfriend was not there! I stood around waiting with the rest of the arrivals occasionally looking around for SM and feeling a bit silly because it was obvious I was meeting someone who wasn't there. I was just hoping I wouldn't be stranded in the outback! After about 10 minutes or so I saw his truck pull into the parking lot - LV69 in neon yellow across the door. His dad's thinks the 69 is a joke... nobody else really finds it funny, but I think SM is a little embarressed by it and he's going to hate me for blogging about it. Sorry babe! :p

Tom Price was the first stop on our journey. Tom Price is known as a modern mining town, unfortunately, no one seems to know why it was named after Tom Price or who he was and the tourism sites offer little insight either. However, TP is where SM's sister and her family live. Her husband is a blaster (?), they're the ones that get to blow up the ground with big sticks of dynamite which I guess allows for easier drilling of the hard iron ore rock. The town is nestled at the base of Mount Nameless and is situated only a few k's (km's) from Karrijini National Park where we enjoyed a morning of site-seeing and skinny dipping - just joking, but I did go swimming in my knickers and tank top.

We climbed down the steep stone steps into Dale's Gorge where lots of tourists had already begun gathering for their morning dip in the tepid waters of Fern Pool and Fortescue Falls. For some reason I had thought it would be a quiet, serene and unsuspecting sanctuary where few people would go, so I didn't bring my bathers, but I was soon proven wrong. Oh well, into the water I went in my underwear and white camisole top. It was more than worth it. I felt like a hippie, I was communing with nature. I didn't know the tourists there, would probably never see them again and didn't care if they saw me for two minutes in my wet undies. Fern Pool was my favorite and the first place we went when we got to the bottom of the gorge. It had two beautiful waterfalls streaming down over a rock ledge into the blue-green water. The water temp was just right and perfectly refreshing. Although slippery, the rocks below the ledge where the waterfalls were was the perfect place to sit and bask in nature's serenity. Our quiet spot under the waterfalls didn't last long as we were soon overtaken by a group of young German backpackers who were eager to test out a broken rope swing that was hanging from a nearby tree. We languished in the cool milky waters for a while longer before moving on, soaking up a few rays of sun that were breaking through the tree branches and dappling the water with their light. We then went back down stream to Fortescue Falls, the site of a most amazing happening!

When I first arrived in WA I received an email from someone that showed a photo of a 14 meter python hanging down a rock ledge and pulling a kangaroo out of the water with it's mouth (at right). Look closely at where the snakes body is all along the rock ledge to the right of where it's hanging. The photo was reportedly taken in WA, so I promptly forwarded it around to many of my family and friends to see. This same photo is on display at the Karrijini Nat'l Park visitors center because it was taken in Karrijini at what I'm sure was Fortescure Falls, the very place where SM and I went swimming. Again, I missed out on a valuable photo op to show everyone the ledge in which the python would have been hanging.

At left is a photo looking down on Fortescue Falls from the top of the gorge. The dot in the middle of the water is a raft with tourists laying on it. It was a looong rocky walk down. The snake would have been on the rock wall near the pool at the left of the photo.

Besides getting to visit these beautiful places in Karrijini, we also spent a morning four-wheeling it to the top of Mount Nameless (at left) where the only way to the top is on foot or by 4WD - lucky us we had the 4WD.

From the top you could see for miles. Me and my man and a view of Tom Price from the top of Mt Nameless.

You could see across the mining operations of the Hamersley ranges to Karrijini and look down over the whole town of Tom Price. I think the funnest part about that was the rugged track getting up and down the mountain. It was so bumpy my head would get tossed from side to side. I felt like a rag doll and it made me laugh. We also watched SM's nephew's t-ball tournament - they didn't win, but better luck next time. It was still enjoyable to watch something resembling American baseball and to do something family oriented. We relaxed in SM's sister's swimming pool and enjoyed a delicious barbeque prepared by SM's brother-in-law's brother and his wife. After meeting and hanging out with SM's fam, we headed out to Dampier. SM couldn't wait. On our way to Dampier, SM told me we wouldn't see much on the road other than a few dead kangaroo's or some stray cattle. Well, I was not to be disappointed. We didn't see any kangaroo's or stray cattle, but we did see...

a huge goanna lizard or 'bunga', as the Aboriginals call it, crossing the road. Unfortunately, by the time we stopped so I could get out and take this photo he had already crossed into the camoflauging scrub on the side of the road. He was about two feet long. SM told me not to get too close because they pack a nasty bite.

We also saw a hawk with a long snake in it's grip flying just above the road and these GIANT termite mounds were everywhere.

and best of all... this guy!

From a distance this modern-day camel drawn buggy looked like a stalled car on the road because it was going so slow. Then as we approached it I thought they were horses, but better yet, it was this guy and his camel drawn carriage. What a trip! Along the way we also saw several trains transporting iron ore to the coast. The trains are typically around two and a half kilometres long (about a mile) or 200+ coaches. You didn't want to get stuck at a railroad crossing with one of those.

SM had visited Dampier once before when he was in grade school and I think he might have remembered it a bit differently. Of course, when you're a kid everything's an adventure and you can make fun even when there isn't any... and that's just about what you would have to do in Dampier. Dampier, like anywhere else in the Pilbara is full of industry. It serves as an industrial port where Rio Tinto exports its iron ore to China. There's also a salt mining industry surrounding the area and an ammonia plant on the nearby Burrup Penninsula. Paradise? No. But we had a good time anyway. Stay tuned for the next installment of my week away in the Pilbara... coming soon and photos too!

It's a good day

2008-09-18T12:27:00.003+08:00

Despite the howling winds and miserable rain outside, it is a good day. So far today I have found out that I don't have my thesis meeting with my advisor tomorrow which means I can change my flights and go on holiday a day early *squeals!* (I guess I just threw my priorities out the window), I also got a message back from a friend in KC who works at Hallmark and says there is a communications coordinator position available, plus she's got friends in the PR industry that she can get in touch with on my behalf. I'm also working tonight for the first time in over a week so I will have a little cash in the bank when I get back from my vacation. I'm a happy girl!

Study break

2008-09-12T20:55:00.004+08:00

Aussie word of the day: bird = nickname for a girl/ chick. "My boyfriend watched a movie with a bloke and some bird the other night."

I've just spent the last two and a half days with my ass glued to my desk chair, staring intently at my computer screen as I typed away on an essay about a communication theorist (who isn't really one if you ask me). The essay was actually due last week - oops! Last Friday was my friend Debbie's birthday party and one of the girls at the party is in the same class with me. When the girl asked me if I turned the essay in the response went something like this: "What essay?" Then "Shit! Was that due today!?!?" Yeah! Big uh-oh, so typical of me. I wish I was better organized. Only 5 more weeks.. that's right, 5.. then I don't have to worry about this crap anymore. So after I hit the send button on my student email account today that officially submitted this quasi-masterpiece to my lecturer, I hit up the video store for some oldie but goodie movies and a bag of 'mixed' M&M's (my fave) to get me through this rainy weekend. On my ecclectic list of movies to watch are The Flamingo Kid, Thelma & Louise, Capote, Blow, and Shattered Glass - a recommendation by a fellow journalism student, it is a movie about... wait for it... journalism. I know you're just thrilled, but it can't be all fun and games. I still have to act like I'm studying, even if it's only watching a movie about the subject I am studying.

The Flamingo Kid is an 80's flick staring a very young and very hot Matt Dillon. The movie takes place at a swanky beach club on Long Island in the summer of '63 where Dillon works as a cabana boy - can't get any hotter than that! But wait, all those songs from the 60's that they played in the movie made me a little nostalgic of my younger years when my parents and I would listen to the same oldies tunes on the car radio. It took me back to a time when I was in pigtails, wearing Strawberry Shortcake t-shirts and thick gum-soled shoes - mom claims they were the height of fashion. I wasn't a child of the 60's, but they were probably some of the most volatile years in American history and of which probably carry a few important memories for my parents inlcuding their marriage in 1967. Whatever sentimental importance the 60's held for my parents they certainly imposed on us kids by exposing us to the music of 'their day'. I know most of you are not as far from home as I am, but does it ever make you want to go running home to mom and dads place when you hear an old familiar song on a movie, TV or radio?

Other things that are making me a little homesick right now are more of my friends are getting married. Besides the wedding I was in this past July, my cousin and three other friends have or are tying the matrimonial knot. In about six weeks one of my best friends from college is marrying a guy I introduced her to (on my birthday) and Gina and her husband, whose wedding I was in in July just bought their first house together *squeal*! Soon they might be giving a housewarming party and then at Christmas a sweater party - so fun! and I will miss all of these things. If I was there, I wouldn't miss them for the world.

Life moves quickly, but seems to stand still at the same time. These are big developments and changes in our lives, but once they happen things slow down and when you visit with your friends or talk on the phone, it seems like nothing has changed at all. Maybe there's a few extra little people crawling around at their feet or your friend is suddenly starting to sport a baby bump. Maybe it's a marriage, a new house, job, or a move across the ocean that changes us, changes our lives. Despite the changes and the distance that comes between you and your friends and family both physically and emotionally, the ties are probably the strongest that they'll ever be. The ability to stay in touch and maintain your relationships throughout life's major changes is the truest test of the strength in those bonds.

Things I will miss about Perth

2008-09-01T21:25:00.001+08:00

Hi again. Yes, it's me and I'm still alive and thriving in the great land of Oz. I dropped off the radar there for a few weeks and didn't even realize that I had completely stopped blogging! I thought about it on many occasions - in fact, I always think about writing when I'm taking my walks in the park. I have a favorite place I go for excercise called Hyde Park just a few blocks south of my house. It's a big beautiful park with lush mixed gardens where you can find English flora and deciduous trees (yay!) budding and blooming in their seasonal splendor amongst the leafy palm trees and tropical plants that never seem to shed their leaves or lose their color. The deciduous trees - I don't know what kind they are - surround two great big ponds in the center of the park and shade the walking path that encircles the ponds. One of my favorite parts of the park are the giant Morton Bay Fig trees with their far reaching branches that stretch for what seems like miles and their massive roots that grow out of the ground and make climbing around on them fun. My other favorite part of the park are the baby ducks and swans that have recently hatched and look like big water bugs scuttling around the top of the water behind their parents.

Today I actually had to stop and let a duck family scurry across the path in front of me. I watched them approach in haste, one adult duck and three babies, in a hurry to reach their watery destination and perhaps their lunch. As they ran towards me and the footpath, their little webbed feet eagerly slapping the grass, I realized these little ducklings and their duck parent were quite determined to get to the water and nothing was going to stop them. If I hadn't stopped in my tracks when their feet hit the pavement, they may very well have run straight into me. Every time I go for a walk there I find things that I should take pictures of, but I never take my camera.

On weekends when the weather is fine the park is filled with families and groups of friends barbequeing and young couples picnicing, taking leisurely strolls, or just laying about in the grass. Aside from this little oasis I have started noting the other things I will miss about Perth, among them are the beach, the ocean, and being able to see the Milky Way and all the other trillions of stars visable in the southern hemisphere.

I moved into a new room this weekend; same house, different room. My French housemates moved out - Yay! and I took one of their rooms. This room is twice as big as the shoebox sized one I was in before. It lacks a few minor amenities of the other room, but has plenty of storage space for all my things. I made a few IKEA purchases to cozy it up a bit more, it's just too bad I will only get to enjoy it for a few more months.

I also participated in City to Surf this weekend with my friend Gail and the Curvetts - a group of 30 or so Curves gym members. City to Surf is one of Perth's largest fundraising events each year and it topped out with 37,000 participants this year. We walked 12k (7 miles) which literally stretched from the start line in the city to the finish line in a park near the beach. Gail and I achieved our goal of arriving at the finish line under two hours by just 30 seconds and that's because we decided to jog in the last minute. Although we felt quite accomplished in the end, we were sore, tired and hungry and our feet ached with blisters. I only wish I was fit enough to have run it - NOTTT!!!

After my walk this morning, I spent the afternoon leisurely. I shopped and met up with my friend Pierre for coffee and more shopping in the city - he helped me pick out a sexy cologne and fun printed tee for the BF. Hope all of you spent your Labor Day weekend soaking up the last bits of summer... mine is only beginning!

Here and there and back again

2008-08-07T11:30:00.000+08:00

Hello beautiful people! I was away from the blogosphere for a few weeks as most of you know and probably even saw me over these last few weeks because I went home during the school break to be in Gina's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, with the most beautiful summer weather and it all took place on a picturesque island near Camden, Maine.

Here's some little photo snippets. Feel free to oooh and awww, the photographers did a fantastic job! The theme was nautical, navy and yellow were the colors, and of course, we had steak and lobster dinner after the wedding.

I thought Gina made the most stunning bride, with the perfect hair and gorgeous dress, she looked like she walked off the pages of a bridal magazine.

I left the 'burg just days before my 10 year high school class reunion *sigh*. But Gina's Warrensburg wedding reception was last weekend and that sounded more like the place to reunite with some old faces... but I missed that one as well.

With mom and dad along for the big plane ride back to Australia, we arrived in Melbourne on 17 July. The jet lag didn't seem too bad. We slept most of it off with a few hours of sleep when we got to Melbourne. The first day we took two bus tours - a city sites morning tour and an afternoon tour to Phillip Island to see the "Penguin Parade". Every evening around dusk off the coast of Phillip Island come the penguins waddling out of the Southern Ocean in packs of eight or more. It was quite a site to see the penguins waddling their way up the beach to their nests. Sometimes it takes them three or four hours to find their nests in the dark and when they do what a ruckus they make! They get all excited and start squawking like crazy. The penguins were probably the highlight of the Melbourne trip for me.

The next day we took a bus tour of the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles, but our bus broke down when we stopped for lunch at Apollo Bay, about a third of the way through the tour. About three hours later we were picked up by another tour bus and taken the rest of the way to the Twelve Apostles, which we could barely see because the sun had already mostly gone down by then. We saw lots of koalas in the wild on this tour and stopped along the way to snap shots of their sleeping gray blobs of fur in the high branches of the eucalyptus trees. Three bus tours in two days was exhausting and an extra day was needed to enjoy the city sites, museums and shopping... but that was an extra day we didn't have.

Onto Perth we went where I showed my parents the local sites. We visited the Perth Mint, art museum, the Old Goal, and King's Park. They met SM and his mom - she made a lovely dinner for us at her home in The Hills one night. I drove them down the ocean road to see all the gorgeous beaches, to Guildford and the Margaret River Chocolate Factory and one particularly wet and rainy afternoon we visited the Aquarium of Western Australia at Hilary's Boat Harbour. Later we enjoyed a hot lunch at Dome cafe where they met my friend Gail, who is also from the States, and we did a little souvenir shopping.

After a few days in Perth - because that's all you really need to see it all - we drove down to Margaret River to see a different part of WA. We stopped along the way. In Pinjarra we had coffee at the biggest bakery in the west, then at the Harvey Dam we stopped to have a picnic lunch, but it had started raining so we ate at a cafe in the town of Harvey instead. At Busselton we stopped to see the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere and also got a taste of the sun setting over the Indian Ocean.

We stayed two nights at a cozy guest house in Marg. River and spent most of our time driving around the Western Australian countryside exploring the shops, wineries, and galleries, and we had a traditional Aussie "barbie" for lunch in a park just before the rain started again. On the second day we headed back to Perth via Mandurah where we stopped for lunch and Fremantle where we stopped to do some site-seeing of the Freo Prison, Maritime Museum, markets and to have a dinner of fish 'n chips. Man, were those fish 'n chips good! The next day mom and dad flew to Sydney to continue their Aussie travels and I started back to uni and was in desperate need of a week of sleep! All is well now though, I'm rested up and feeling good again.

I'm nearing the end of week two of my final semester at ECU. My class load is light, as in, I only go to class every other week and I have started back to work with the catering company. My days usually consist of me getting up and helping myself to two cups of instant coffee and brekkie while checking and responding to emails then reading my favorite blogs before I go for some excercise (a walk to and around the park). When I get back from my walk, I officially start my academic day, which lasts for about two to four hours of online research and/ or textbook reading. Sound fun? Not really. Tonight I'm starting swimming with Aussi Masters swim club - a suggestion by a girl I met in a swim class last semester.

I have already started contemplating my next steps for when I finish uni. For instance, more travel is on the menu, but where and when and how will I afford it are questions that come to mind. Hopefully, I will have those answers in the next week or so when I get my Aussie tax refund and student loan check... a lot depends on the money. Then I can start making plans. Next up after travelling is getting back to reality. Getting a job! Getting a car (probably my moms) and to start saving for my first house - eek!

Goodbye Perth... for now

2008-06-22T17:49:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Singlet = tank top, "The girl was wearing a singlet to workout in."

I haven't really said much about my return home... again. As you know from one of my first posts of the year, I witnessed the engagement of one of my best friends on New Year's Eve in Sydney. That friend is getting married over 4th of July weekend and I am flying home to be one of her bridesmaids. I leave tonight, in about 6 hours and 15 minutes to be exact - my dad got me counting down the final hours and minutes. By the time you read this, I will probably be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean or I might already be back in Missouri.

It's always bittersweet leaving Perth, I'm not really sure why because I've never felt that way about leaving Kansas City. Maybe it's because I don't have any roots here and it's feels a little like I'm leaving for good each time I go back to the States. Or maybe it's because I feel like I'm leaving a little part of myself behind when I go. I get anxious and feel like I'm walking around in a daze. I'm unmotivated to pack. It's as though I want to be in Perth and at home in the States at the same time. I don't want to go, but I know I can't stay.

In six months I'm finished with my master's degree. My good friend Debbie has already arranged her flight home for December 2 and says it feels strange to nearly be finished and already know when she's leaving for good. The last year has really flown, and although I'm ready to be finished with my studies and eager to move on to the next chapter in my life, I want to hang on to this time and place. In an attempt to hang on to my life in Oz for a little while longer, I plan to extend my stay until my student visa expires in March 2009. My boyfriend has played a large part in that decision by suggesting that I move to the mine site he is working at to be closer to him. This will also give me the opportunity to really live in and experience the Outback as the mines are located in the northern part of Western Australia which is made up primarily of desert and bushland. It will also allow me to save up some much needed money to travel and pay back some of the hefty student loan debt I have acquired. Mining is a huge industry in WA at the moment and it's good money, even if you are just doing cleaning at the campsite. I will probably go for an admin position, save some money, then travel around the Pacific - New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii - on my way home next March.

For the trip home I have stuffed my bags with a few goodies for the wedding: gourmet chocolate truffles from the Swan Valley, bottles of red and white Australian wines, and the real treat - soft, ivory-colored pashmina scarves for the bridesmaids! A little Australian decadence for the celebration! As I check my bags one last time and zip my trusty, well-travelled, red suitcase, I bid you all adieu and g'day. See you soon!

Cold June rain

2008-06-11T12:34:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Yarn = story or conversation, "We had a good yarn," or "The magazine had some good yarns."

Firstly, I am sorry about my extended departure from the blogosphere. I took a little more time away than probably necessary. I was REALLY enjoying having so much free time again. Well, that free time is turning quickly into boredom as it does when you are stuck inside almost all day every day. My fellow midwesterners know what a cold November rain is like, well that is what an Aussie winter in WA is like - constant cold November rain. I can't get out of the house again today because of the rain, although it is actually warmer outside the house than in it.

My semester ended two weeks ago, then the BF was in town, so I was doing the dedicated girlfriend thing. My friend Gail turned 25 so we celebrated her birthday and my end of the semester with a sushi dinner and drinks a few Friday's ago. Last weekend was a Hawaiian themed birthday party at her house. The Aussie's love their theme parties. While all the Aussies turned up in tropical apparel, short shorts, Hawaiian shirts, tropical print sundresses, one couple even came in their wet suits - very clever - Gail I did the smart winter thing and wore jeans, sweatshirts and leis. All the Aussies were grumbing about why someone would throw a Hawaiian theme party in June - haha! We had to tell them the temperature in the northern hemisphere in June is quite appropriate for a tropical theme.

I've also been working a lot and trying to cram some extra cash in my pockets before coming home. I've been reading and watching movies, which I didn't get to do a lot of during my busy semester. I've also started catching up on some much needed exercise and have started dieting as well. Now I am off to IKEA - my fave! with Debbie to buy a frying pan and maybe a wedding gift for Gina!

Another day, another article

2008-05-23T17:02:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Fringe = bangs, "I got a fringe when I had my hair cut."
Aussie phrase of the day: Have a sticky beak = to have a look or a peek at something, "Have a sticky beak of the menu." - this is one of my work supervisor's favorite phrases to use, usually when she wants us to review the menu for the function we are working.

It's the end of the second to the last week of the semester for me - Hallelujah! I can finally start to the see the light, but it's not over just yet. In the last two weeks my ass has been glued to my desk chair almost nonstop and it has probably grown increasingly flat from doing so. I have interviewed a circus ringmaster, Burmese refugee, and an Australian bobsledder. All made for interesting stories, two of which I would love to get published... but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, they have to be marked for a grade, then I can see where to take it from there.

Next week, I turn in an article on the cancer survivor whom I mentioned in a previous post and my thesis proposal. With bated breath and bitten fingernails, I will wait to see how it all goes. This semester has been hell - or at least the last few weeks of it - and I can't wait for it to be over. I can't wait to be boarding a plane to freedom (aka the USA) and the sanctity of my parents home which awaits me. Their house is beginning to seem like an oasis of rest and relaxation... and home cooked meals to die for.

I'm also looking forward to summertime at home as the climate in Perth turns sour with rainy winter weather. In the summer, I couldn't get cool enough in my house and now I can't get warm! Don't forget there's not central heating and cooling system - not even in newer homes. Most people rely on space heaters and electric blankets to keep them warm in the winter; some houses might even have a wood-fired stove or fireplace, but it is not that common. My landlady does not approve of space heaters in our bedrooms and she believes electric blankets are dangerous as well. That means I have to pile on the clothing and huddle around the one space heater we DO have which is in the lounge room (living room). It actually warms the room up really well, but when I bundle into bed at night, my tootsies and my nose are cold and my teeth are chattering as I dream of central heating in the houses back home. Yes, we Americans are quite lucky and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm going out for a beer with Debbie tonight to reward ourselves for all the hard work and effort we have put into our studies over the last few weeks. To all of you out there, goodnight and God Bless!

Of Jackasses and Mammoths

2008-05-12T17:25:00.000+08:00

I'm taking a little break from blogging this week as the semester winds down with a flurry of assignments, presentations, and my thesis proposal. However, our resident (left-wing) political pundit is paying a visit.

Here is what he had to say after I recently accused him of becoming Republican after he criticized having Truman's birthday as a state workers holiday. Ummm, you had the day off, right?

How do you figure [I'm turning Republican]? I'm not the one poisoning the world with the quarter pounder with cheese and the Bart Simpson "Eat my Shorts" T-shirt. All I'm saying is that we have policed the world through war, political and pop-culture. I'm happy as a midwesterner...not too egotisical, but mainstream enough to understand the political climate of the world without having to watch two minutes of the NBC nightly news (p.s. I REALLY miss Tom Brokaw).

The problem with American politics is that we spend too much time doing the UN's job without taking care of our own problems. The infastructure is falling apart because of the outsourcing of jobs, interest rates, poor foreign relations, and environmental issues (prices at the pump have risen to an all-time high $3.57/gallon). These are all things that the elephant's do not understand...However, lets keep fighting in Iraq...splendid. Ted Kennedy once used the word quagmire to describe Vietnam..however...this time we are not fighting over Karl Marx's theory on socialism...we are fighting over oil.

Cop that (as the Aussie's would say)! I hope you enjoyed his view... if not, leave a comment on the comment board and I'll be sure to pass it on to him. Have a great week everyone!

6 weeks and counting till I'm back in the States!

Travels down river and Roo Stew too!

2008-05-08T16:18:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Beanie = stocking cap, "he wore his beanie this morning because it was cold."

Thank you Daddy Editor, I made the changes to last weeks blog as requested. I've had a pretty cruisey (Aussie for easy-going, laid back) week and enjoyed SM's visit. We headed down to Margaret River, a popular tourist town known for its wine region about 3 hours south of Perth, on Friday afternoon. Last weekend was their wine festival, where you could buy tickets for $15 a person to get into the outdoor festival and taste the wines from 23 area wineries. That's A LOT of wineries, especially because that number didn't include ALL the wineries from the region. There were plenty that didn't participate in the event, but the wineries that were there were very good with several wines available for tasting!

We also took a wine tour bus around to six other wineries in the area who did not have stalls at the festival and tasted various gourmet cheeses, meats and, of course, more wine. By 5:30pm, when the festival was kicking drunken patrons out and closing it's doors, I was more than ready to go and have a nice long nap. Instead, we ate some dinner to absorb the wine in our bellies and tried to sober up a little. Finally, we made it back to the beachside resort where were staying and fell promptly to sleep at 8:30pm.

The next morning, surfing was on the agenda, but far from our thoughts as our heads pounded with the throbbing reminder of the events from the day before. We decided to skip surfing and instead treated ourselves to a light gourment breakfast at the cafe next door. The day was overcast so we didn't do too much until the evening when we joined SM's grandparents for a home-cooked meal at their place in Busselton, a nearby resort town.

Margaret River is full of cafes, pubs, art galleries, and unique boutiques as well as being surrounded by area wineries. Although Marg. River is reminiscent of California's Napa Valley - a place I had the pleasure of visiting on my travels home last December - it lacks the vastness and breathtaking views and valley's of Napa. I'm taking my parents to Marg. River when they come to visit Perth in July and I'm already looking forward to going back and taking in more of the local arts and shopping in the area.

The rest of the time spent with SM on his week off was relaxing as expected. On one of his last night's here we visited his parents at their home in 'the hills'. It's always calming to drive out to the 'country' and away from the busy city life. I met his dad for the first time, who tried to impress me by shooting a roo in their paddock (pasture, field). He cut the tail off for me to make into a stew - what else could I do but politely accept it. Although I've eaten kangroo meat before and like it very much, I've never actually cooked it myself. So Roo Stew it was for dinner last night. SM used my mom's beef 'n veg soup recipe as a guide and it honestly turned out great! We slow cooked the tail all day so the meat would fall off the 'bone' resulting in a shredded beef effect instead of chunks of meat. I tried to help cook it, but SM wouldn't have it. He's always cooking for me. We ate it with garlic bread... per mom's veg soup recipe, and red wine. Delish!

Now, I would have loved to taken photos of me faking a bite into the hairy roo tail (before skinned) or of the yummy stew it made, but I still haven't gotten my hands on a camera yet. All the photos I have for this week are of me and my friends during our surfing lessons a few weeks ago.

Here we are in the photo at the right, standing in front of our beginner boards with our instructor in the full wet suit at the end. I'm standing second from the left.

At the left, Anne and I struggle to turn our boards into the surf as Debbie attempts to stand.

Rain, rain, go away

2008-04-30T18:28:00.000+08:00

I really don't have time to blog, but I'll do it anyway because it's just not good journalism to leave your readers waiting. Blogging is hard to do. It requires a good deal of creativity to make the day in the life of an average person sound interesting. It takes a far greater amount of creative energy to come up with ways of making such a standard existance sound extraordinary and worth reading about on a regular basis. I don't envy my favorite Glamour bloggers who are required to write daily, but I guess if I was getting paid to blog, I wouldn't mind so much.

It would be untrue to say that I haven't had a rather unusual day today. It has been such an unusual day that it doesn't take much creativity to make what I am about to say about my day interesting. It has been raining off and on for the last few days and today the rain would have fit its heavy mood.

A slight burden rested on my shoulders when my day began at 6:30 this morning. I was getting ready to pick up my friend to drive her to a women's clinic to get an abortion. As I drove to pick her up I thought about the questions I had to ask in an interview I was conducting with a breast cancer survivor in the afternoon... yes, the mood of the day was heavy indeed.

Sadly, it wasn't the first friend I have known to have an abortion and it wasn't the first time I have helped a friend out who was getting one, but as I write this I sincerely hope it is the last time I will have to deal with either.

The waiting room at the clinic was clean and comfortable; my friend later reported the staff was very kind and caring, but there were several girls in the waiting room with us and a whole different group of girls waiting when I came back later to pick her up. One girl was several weeks along and showing. She was the 'kind' of girl you would expect to see in an abortion clinic with it's negative, taboo image. The girl was dressed in all black with greasy hair, twitchy gestures and a nervous laugh. My friend sat next to the girl during the prep and later told me that the girl seemed to be cracked out on some drug, probably heroin because the girl was talking about using needles. It was the girl's fourth abortion and she had four kids at home. She was definitely the kind of girl who shouldn't be having children at all and clearly couldn't keep her head straight long enough to stop getting pregnant.

I felt bad for my friend as she walked out of the clinic wobbly from the anesthesia. Unlike the other girl, my friend would have made a great mom; will make a great mom one day. It was just inconvenient timing - as bad as that sounds and the child would have been fatherless. She's regrettful that she wasn't more cautious and has vowed to abstain from sex because of this ordeal. She just never expected to be 'that' girl - but then again, who does?

There was also a couple in the clinic - I'm presuming he wasn't her brother - that looked wholesome and good and maybe even capable of raising and supporting a child. I couldn't help but wonder why they were there... they looked so 'normal'. One of my favorite Glamour blogs, Storked!, is about single-motherhood. The mother who writes the blog is a hip, 27 year-old, New Jersian who obviously makes a decent living writing for Glamour and freelancing. She gets no financial support from her son's father and legally wrote him out of her son's life when he decided he wanted no part of fatherdom. It happens. Single-motherdom is becoming less and less taboo and some financially independent moms are even stepping out on a limb, like Storked! blogger Chrissy Coppa, and permanently writing off the soon-to-be-estranged-anyway 'Baby Daddy'. It certainly takes feminism to a new level. That's not to say these women wanted their baby's to grow up without a father - my friend may have made a different decision if she was still with the guy or even if he had wanted to keep it. Some may argue it's unfair to the child to be raised without both parents, but some of these single moms may say what's unfair is not giving that child half a chance at life and the mom is then left to struggle with the memory of what might have been.

The breast cancer survivor's interview was surprisingly positive as far as those kinds of things go. She's in remission and credits her positive outlook for her recovery. It was honestly one of the best interviews I've done and at one point we both became a bit teary. Her tears came from personal experience and mine from the memory of what it was like for my mom. Like an abortion, the memory and knowledge of having had cancer stays with a person for some time. At the end of the interview, I remembered what Julia Roberts (or some female celebrity) once said to Barbara Walters in an interview, "I'm wasn't going to cry, I wasn't going to let you make make me cry." I guess Walters has been to known to bring her interviewees to tears and since I made my interviewee cry, I thought, I've made it in the journalism world. I've been defined as a true journalist.

One final up note: my troubled day will end with peace and harmony restored tonight when SM gets back to town. He's on the "fly-in" leg of his return as I write this. Look for my blog next week about the fabulous weekend we are going to have in Margaret River - wining, dining, and... ugh! more surfing... and maybe a few photos *wink, wink*

Back in the saddle again

2008-04-17T07:50:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: nick = to take or steal something, "They nicked my bag!" or "Can I nick your pen for a second?"

Okay, okay, so I'm a day later than I told you I would write, but who's counting - Dad?!?! Phew! These last few weeks have really had be bogged down in my studies and the new guy I'm seeing, aka Shoulder Muncher (SM), was home for a week so I had to devote some time to him as well. Yes, I'm seeing the guy who I so passionately complained about in a previous post. Although, I met and dated a few other guys after my traumatic night with him, he somehow perservered with several phone calls of which I did not answer. He had just about given up all hope and was going to stop calling me when I finally caved and answered one of his calls. To my surprise, he turned out to be a really awesome person and has since worked his way into my life which I honestly couldn't be happier for. He's a really wonderful, intelligent, sweet, and loving person.

SM works in the mines in the north of WA which is around 1000 miles away... so I now have myself a nice comfy long distance relationship... just the way I like it. SM is away for 3 weeks and back for 1... this is what is called "fly in, fly out." It's good because the majority of my time is spent focussed on my studies and work while he is away. He is also a country boy. Why I flew halfway around the world to find me one of these, I don't know because they're a dime a dozen in Missouri, but I find my familiarity and appreciation of the country complements his country boy ways... and maybe it's part of his appeal as well. It reminds me of my home.

So enough about SM, how about a little Surfin' USA?!?! I hit the salty ocean waters this week for some serious surfing action... no that's not me in the photo - I WISH! Today is the fourth day of a five day surfing course I'm taking. Yesterday, there were some big-ass waves, but towards the end of the lesson I was attacking them with avengence. So far I've only managed to stand up on the board and not very consistently. Surfing definitely requires tons of practice! Everyday I'm a little more sore than the last; my body aches all over, and I have sand and salt coming out of my ears and eyeballs - literally! But it's a great workout and a lot of fun! I recommend trying it.

I'll leave you with a few pics from the 'V' Festival concert I went to a few weekends ago. The bands included Smashing Pumpkins, Duran, Duran, Queens of the Stoneage (the best!), Modest Mouse and some lesser known Australian bands. The pic at the right is of Modest Mouse.

Here I am hangin' with my buddies, Ruairi (Rory) and Thieke (Tyka). Neither is SM.

Pictures courtesy of my friend Debbie. My camera is broken, donezo, kaput, so I will be limited as to how many photos I will be able to supply for a few weeks until I can get ahold of a loaner.

Blogged down again

2008-04-11T13:21:00.000+08:00

Ok, guys... I promise, promise, promise there will be a great new blog post coming on Tuesday! I've been going to concerts, dating, studying and working and I'm spread really thin right now. School break is next week and I've got heaps of assignments to turn in before I can enjoy the much deserved break. I'm also taking a surfing course during the break. As you may have seen in the news recently a guy was killed/ eaten by a shark while boogie-boarding off the east coast of Australia. I'm crossing my fingers I have better luck staying alive - EEK!!!

Due to my disregard for time management, I've also been trying to rake in some dough by working four days in a row. So even though I am thoroughly mentally exhausted at this point, I must keep pressing on until it is all under wraps, then I can spend some much needed quality time with you, my readers. Until then, syonara!

Daylight Savings; Armageddon for Perthians

2008-03-31T08:37:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: whinge = complain, "Everyone is whinging about Daylight Savings."

Daylight Savings time is causing upheaval in Perth. The radio dj's are taking a phone poll on how people feel about it and many of them aren't having it. It's the second year in a three year trial for daylight savings here in Perth and I think the people most against it are the ones who simply don't like change. In March 2009, Perthians will get to vote on whether or not to keep daylight savings ongoing or not.

When I first visited Perth in December 2004 the sun came up at a ridiculously early hour - somewhere around 5 a.m. on Christmas Day! I remember thinking, "What the hell is going on?" Yeah, it was summer, but the sun should NOT, I repeat NOT, be up before 6 a.m. if you ask me. By the way Perthians are reacting to daylight savings, you would think someone told them they could never eat Vegimite again - which I don't think is such a bad idea!

It's raining today for the first time in over a month - yay! Last weekend was low-key, I just enjoyed a bit of jazz and opera with some friends at WAPAA in the Park on Saturday night. It was a concert put on by the Western Australia Performing Arts Acadamy which is part of ECU's campus and features some very talented young musicians and singers. WAPAA is also known for it's broadcast journalism, dance and drama departments. Former WAPAA drama students include Hugh Jackman and the late Heath Ledger.

My weeks are getting busier and busier with uni assignments, but relief is in sight. Mid-semester break is right around the corner and I'm looking forward to it like never before! I'm considering taking a surfing course over the break. I just hope the weather holds out for a few more weeks before getting too cold to enjoy a little surfing. Hope you are all reading and enjoying 3rd Degree!

Giving You the 3rd Degree!

2008-03-22T12:21:00.000+09:00

As if you didn't already have something better to do but sit around reading my weekly musings about life in Oz, but now I'm going to throw another bit o' online literature at you that will scintillate and stimulate and supplement your burgeoning online reading addiction. It will show you how I spend my time during those long hours spent away from the blogosphere and is the result of this fabulous education I am getting. It is called 3rd Degree. It's the online magazine written and produced by yours truly along with 30 or so other aspiring journalists in my Print 2 journalism class. It's the love of my life and bane of my existence all rolled into one happy package.

I love writing for 3rd Degree. It makes me feel like my education and thousands of hard earned dollars spent (and mounting student debt) is all worthwhile. It makes me feel like a professional journalist and reaffirms my desire to pursue this degree in the first place. The best part isn't even the writing. The best part is that I get to edit. I have the power to inspect and improve the stories of other people. To cut and paste and perfect! I just want to hold my sword in the air and call myself She-ra, Princess of Power!!! But it is also a very serious role of which I take VERY seriously... sword and all. The 3rd Degree site went live today. Subscribe - it's FREE! Just click on the Hyperlink above (where it says 3rd Degree in orange) or this link http://3degree.ecu.edu.au/volumes/2008/01/01/and be among the first to view the new edition. I hope you all have a look and enjoy my stories and those of my classmates... ahem, fellow journalists.

St. Patty's Day reprieve; Easter

2008-03-22T10:44:00.000+09:00

Aussie words of the day: Oy! = Hey!, "Oy, what are you doing?"; Hey = What? "Hey?" or used at the end of a sentence like 'eh?' "You don't see that around here much, hey?"

Um, what cosmic force pushed St. Pat's and Easter so close together this year? Whatever the reason is that they are back to back holidays this year, I am thankful for. I've just barely recovered from my St. Pat's Day celebrating when Easter comes around the corner with a long weekend in store to help out with a post-St. Pat's Day pick-me-up. That's right. I was out celebrating good ole St. Patty's Day with the local Irishmen/ women and some Aussie's that were just looking for a good time.

My friends and I went to an Irish pub in Northbridge called Rosie O'Grady's. The smells of traditional Irish fare of potatoes, cabbage, and sausages wafted down from the restaurant upstairs as we jigged the evening away Irish style - donned in green and swigging pints of Guinness and Kilkenny Irish beer while listening to a live Irish band. Half the pub must've been Irish as a chorus of voices rose up from the crowd singing along to some of the traditional Irish tunes the band played. It was really touching and raucous all at the same time.

Prior to St. Pat's, I had a pretty 'raucous' time at the wedding I worked at on the weekend. It was a beautiful country affair set on a farm in a town four hours north of Perth. The lawns were neatly manicured for the special occasion and glass jars with candles swung from the tree branches adding to the rustic feel of the event. After the wedding had died down and the tables were cleared, the catering staff was invited by the bride to party with the guests into the wee hours of the morning. Let's just say we paid for the fun we had that night on the long ride home the next day.

Yesterday was Good Friday. A strange hush fell over the city of Perth like none before. It can be a dull city on the best of days, but yesterday was extraordinarily quiet. Barely a car drove by on the street, nor was there the usual subtle hustle and bustle of activity. Not a single shop was open, except for the video store. I couldn't believe such a non-religious country would so religiously observe this odd pre-Easter holiday that even in America's own Bible Belt slips by without hardly a sideways glance. I devoutly ate my Good Friday dinner of seafood pasta at Gail's - both of us being good Catholic girls, you know - as we kicked back and watched a few DVD's to celebrate this quiet day in our own quiet way.

Today I am working yet another wedding at the beautiful Cottesloe Civic Center and tomorrow I'm enjoying what Australian's call a Sunday Session which entails drinking off Saturday's hangover - also referred to as Hair of the Dog. (Only in Australia would they be drinking at the pub on Easter.) Although, my Sunday Session will come without Hair of the Dog as I won't be drinking tonight... good news I'm sure, to all of you who might be thinking, at this point, that I'm headed straight for rehab. I swear I don't drink as much as my blogs portray, I just don't tell you about all the serious sober times when I'm studying because they are not as interesting.

This leads me to my next topic: What exactly am I doing in the hours between working and having all this fun? The answer is and should be... STUDYING!... and writing my ass off. This is where I will sign off and enter Post N0. 2 for today... Giving You the 3rd Degree!

I am closing with a few photos of my favorite sculptures from this week's beach sculpture exhibit at Cottesloe Beach. This swirly one is interesting because it looks different from every angle.

This monster/ clown face is cool because the lines of the sculpture perfectly frame my friend, Anne, in the background.

This steel one looks like the skeleton of a boat washed up on the shore.

These disks are meant to look like saw blades slicing through the sand like something out of a horror flick, but from another angle look like shark fins.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Addendum

2008-03-14T18:42:00.000+09:00

Just a note on yesterday's dating discussion and to any men reading the blog of which I am sure there are VERY few, in fact I am pretty sure my brother doesn't even read it. In his recent Glamour post, Men vs. Boys, author and blogger, Brian Alexander says "this is what it means to be a man with a woman: Be a gentleman. Be honest. Give as much as you get." That's all! It's a really simple philosophy. It is one men should live by and women should set their standards by - I am!

The trials and tribulations of dating and work

2008-03-13T21:02:00.000+09:00

Aussie word of the day: dag, daggy = junkie, crappy, bad, "I drive a daggy car."

The week has flown since the last blog and I didn't realize how long it's been. Obviously, it has been a busy one for me, full of work and uni and a little fun on the side. That's Charlie the crab peeking out from his spot among the edibles in my mini fridge. I picked him up on the weekend at the Mandurah Crab Festival and made a delicious little chicken and crab marsala out of him. Yum-O!

I've had a few reality checks over the last week that caused me to pause, breath deeply, reflect, and get some feedback from a few friends. For one thing, I worked in a fairly autonomous position for five years before coming back to school. I hadn't given much thought as to how I would adjust to working in a non-office job with condescending supervisors... that are also younger than me. It hadn't occurred to me how I would handle getting reprimanded by said supervisors.

Last weekend was my first experience being reprimanded, which I handled in the best way I knew how - passively and subordinately. Having been a manager/ supervisor myself not so long ago, this seemed like the respectful thing to do. But upon reflection of the situation and the choice of words used by my supervisor, I started to feel quite dejected and angry that the supervisor spoke to me that way and that I didn't say anything. I had my share of degrading verbal lashings at my last job (the one in the States) and don't want to have to put up with it anymore. But the question I ended up asking myself and that I now ask YOU, my faithful readers, is at what point do you speak up and say something to the supervisor? Do you just suck it up, bend over, and say, "thank you sir, may I have another?" Where do you draw the line between biting the hand that feeds you and standing up for yourself? I have to admit, it seems like a pretty gray area.

On a more upbeat and slightly humorous note, the trials of dating are much more entertaining, but equally frustrating. I don't usually comment on my dating status/ somewhat non-existant love life, but the sudden and tragic removal of a favorite dating blogger of mine from Glamour magazine's blog site has brought the dating writer out of me. I've dated a few guys since being in Australia and my hopeful heart is always on the lookout, but kissing frogs is getting old fast for this princess.

I broke my rule this week of not dating guys I meet at bars... and reaffirmed the reason I don't. I met a guy last Friday night at a favorite hang-out of mine, gave him my number, and by Tuesday had a date for that night. He met up with me at the bar we met at on Friday night for a trivia competition and drinks with some of my friends. The trivia competition was fun, the drinks tasty, but his company left much to be desired. I could hardly distract him from kissing my shoulder. He wouldn't stop! By the end of the evening, he was even making jokes about making a date with my shoulder. Maybe I should have worn a shirt with sleeves.

I decided to re-think my philosophy on dating, which currently seems to be falling just short of desperate. I try not to judge a book by it's cover, I keep an open mind and don't neglect any possibilities, despite where I may meet them, but my filtering system is badly in need of repair. I can't seem to pick the good guys from the weird, the insecure, or the rebounding ones. What happened to my red flag radar? Maybe I never had one. My sister-n-law says I'm naive about guys, I used to tell her I was only playing dumb, but I'm beginning to think that was an understatement.

I'm away on the weekend for work, road tripping with the catering team. We are getting shipped 4 hours north of Perth for a wedding. It should be a good one... I'm posting a few pics of last weekend's wedding at one of our regular wedding venues, the Cottesloe Civic Center.

Love being single - no worries, mate!

Diss dating, but I don't want to end up a lonely, miserable and sexless old hag.

Amazing, amusing and Ow! My sore feet

2008-03-04T20:19:00.000+09:00

Aussie phrase of the day: Muckin' around = messing around/ joking around, "I'm just muckin around, mate!"

In Australian news: two men survived a ship wreck off the eastern seaboard, one of which swam 10 hours to shore; a fugitive Chinese man from Australia was captured by some Chinese students in Atlanta, Georgia by pulling his pants down around his ankles and tying his arms behind his back with his own belt; teachers protested for a wage increase in Perth last Thursday leaving many kids without school to flock to the beaches and pools; and housing prices and the cost of living continues to soar. This is a crazy place I live in - a teacher's protest!?! Whoever heard of such a thing? Only in Australia! These are just a few of the more amazing and amusing pieces of news in last weeks newpapers.

In my world, my feet are throbbing and semi-swollen from working two weddings on the weekend. One wedding was sheer chaos - bridezilla, sloppy drunks and all, while the other wedding was gorgeously appointed, the people respectful (even when drunk), the speeches were a perfect combination of touching and humorous, the MC was hilarious, and everything ran as smooth as silk pie. My feet on the other hand didn't know the difference and begged to be rubbed on Sunday night when I rolled into bed at half past 2 in the morning. I forget what it's like working in hospitality, but I am learning some new drink recipes - fancy a Lychee Martini anyone? I'm not allowed to drink on the job, but they smelled and looked delish! I'll post some pics from the job next time. In the meantime, stay warm and well and have a great week!

This weeks Loves and Disses:

Love Thai sweet chilli sauce - it's the new ketchup!

Diss standing and walking around a function room for 9 hours straight! My poor tootsies :(

If I had A/C...

2008-02-27T12:53:00.000+09:00

Aussie word of the day: stubbie = bottle of beer, "Put the stubbie's in the esky." And don't forget your stubbie holder a.k.a. coolie cup, beer koozie, etc.

When I say A/C, I'm not talking about the first letters of Acca Dacca, as the much adored AC-DC is commonly referred to over here, I mean ice cold, hard blowing, central cooling. If I had A/C I would crank it down to 30 degrees farenheit so all my sweat beads would freeze into icicles. There's enough sweat pooling in the curve of my lower back to form an ice block big enough to chill a case of beer (called a slab in Oz). Oh, if I had A/C :(

We had a really good couple of days in the 80's last week, some people were even calling the weather... cold!?! Then the temp's rose back above 100, ugh! That means walking around in your bra and shorts and hitting the beach again where we spend the majority of the time standing in the ocean because it's too hot to do anything else.

I have a few minutes before going to play squash to write a brief update on my Aussie existence. Squash is like raquetball, but I think the ball is smaller and has less bounce, which makes it a little more challenging than raquetball. It's a lot of fun and best of all it's a great workout!

I am sitting here in my room eating cold pasta, sipping an iced coffee, and listening to The Fine Young Cannibals, sweet! Remember them? I love this radio station, it plays the most random mix of rock music. Most of the songs remind me of my childhood days at the skating rink. Songs like, I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight or I Hate Everything About You. LOVE it! Earlier, when I was driving home from work I heard them play Bob Seger's We've Got Tonight, which made me think of my brother sitting in the car next to me, cranking the radio up and feabily attempting to croon along and every once in a while nudging me to sing along too. He's such a song junkie.

Classes started this week, which makes me really happy because I was starting to think about coming home a lot. Not that I really want to, but all the charm and excitement of living in a new place and meeting new people has sort of worn off... so the only thing I really have to look forward to is uni starting. It was also a REALLY long break! Then I heard Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio the other day and I was 18 again, cruising down a two-lane, country blacktop in the passenger seat of my best friends '66 Chevy pickup with my feet on the dash and the wind in my hair. *Sniff* Haha, that sounds like a country song.

I've come to the conclusion that when you are living away from your home and country, you really need to dedicate a full uninterupted year to living abroad. No coming home every six months even if it feels like you should or you need to. My friends who returned to their respective countries after last semester are now homesick for Perth. It's a year away before I have to return home and I am already planning stop-overs in New Zealand and Hawaii on my way back... or perhaps Bali and Thailand - the shopping is supposed to be great there!

I am beginning a new series I would like to call the Loves and Disses of Perth.

Love - that sun-kissed glow. I've had heaps of comments on how tan I am. That's me, Debbie, and Fleur on the weekend. I'm glowing so much, I'm shiny!

Diss - melanoma. I'm among the few sun lovers in Australia because I noticed that not many people are sporting "the glow." I guess when the Australian government is pounding the word melanoma into your brain every day with stomach-turning tv ads, bus banners and billboards you wouldn't venture out into the sun much either. Melanoma is a serious reality people and the proof is in Australia - WEAR SUNSCREEN! (even in the winter)

Love - beautiful, sunny weather and cloudless skies.

Diss - heat so stifling it feels like you live in a raging inferno.

I'm posting a few photos of my new house in the last blog and closing with a photo of my $500 beauty, a.k.a. the Shaggin Wagon, for your entertainment.

In the words of a former roommate and Conan O'Brien fan, Keep Cool My Babies!

The heat of the moment

2008-02-11T18:34:00.000+09:00

Aussie word of the day: Esky = cooler, "Don't forget to bring the esky to the beach!"

What do you do when you are bored and broke in Perth? Go to the beach and make new friends that can get you into the cinema for free.

I have moved three times in the last month and am happy to report I am finally settled into my new humble abode. I am sharing a house in North Perth with four other girls, one of whom is my good friend, Debbie. It's an older home, English cottage style, with rose bushes lining the walkway, high ceilings and stained glass around the front door. There is no a/c, but I at least have a small wall-mounted fan that oscillates, but doesn't do much except blow the hot air around the upper half of the room. I also now have two TV's, a DVD player, my own sink and a mini fridge. I am happy and could very possibly never leave my room, although I am a little uncomfortable at night because it is so warm.

I am currently in search of employment... this is why I am currently broke. Besides the fact that I don't have a job, I just paid one months bond (deposit) and two weeks rent on my new place and have paid $125 for fuel in the last three weeks and didn't fill the tank once. I'm hopefully starting work with a local catering company this Friday, but the schedule is not steady, so I am still hoping for another job to come through.

Besides this minor financial setback, I am still enjoying myself by going to the beach and volunteering for orientation at uni. I also made a new friend who also volunteers and works at the cinema so can get me into the movies for free! How good is that?!?!? The movies are usually $10-$15 here, so I am elated! I just need to meet more people like her that can get me freebies. Valentine's Day will be me and Gail and a $2 DVD... hope everyone has a good one! XOXO

Oh, yeah... it's f-ing HOT here!

Wonderfully steamy Cairns

2008-01-29T14:23:00.000+09:00

Cairns was a hot steamy place. The kind of place with warning signs at the beach that say Beware Crocodiles and Snakes... or was it sharks. A place where you walk out of your air-conditioned room and immediately start profusely sweating. It was the wet season afterall and it is in the rainforest, so what else would you expect other than heaps of wet rainy weather. There was a plus side to the overcast skies and that was that the heat was a little more bearable. I can only imagine the humidity if it was sunny!

The first day we were in Cairns we went scuba diving again, this time on the outer part of the Great Barrier Reef. The conditions unfortunately were not the best for diving so we were sorely disappointed in the diving experience. The water was so choppy going out to the reef that the boat/ dive crew were encouraging people to either re-book the tour for a later day or take motion sickness pills. I was lucky enough not to be affected by the crashing motion of the boat and did not have to take motion sickness pills either. However, while we were diving the water was fairly murky and the coral not as grand as at the inner reef where we dove near Hamilton Island. We also didn't see quite the amount of sea life/ cool fish as at Hamilton Island.

The second day we went on a white-water rafting voyage down the Tully River. That's me in the middle on the left. Since it had been raining for days the river was up which meant better rapids! I had been white-water rafting before in Colorado, but it was nothing like this. There is a rapids scale of 1 - 6, 6 being the most dangerous rapids and we were rafting a level 4. It made for an intense ride and you felt a great deal of triumph when you made it through the rapids unscathed and still in your boat. Still we weren't able to make it the whole way down the river without getting dumped. We had nearly made it through the last turn in a set of rapids paddling our hearts out as the guide yelled, "GO, GO, GO!" with such urgency in his voice you just knew it was all over, we were done for. Before I knew what was happening, over we went into the cold rushing waters of the Tully River. As I was flying backwards into the water, something hard hit the bridge of my nose, a paddle or someone's head, I wasn't sure, but it left my nose bruised and swollen for days afterwards. Tipping the raft was a huge adrenaline rush though and it wouldn't have been as exciting a trip if we hadn't experienced it.

The next day I left Cairns to head back to Perth as my friends headed on a tour of the rainforest. I was so sad to be ending my travels and had a great time over those two weeks. Last weekend we celebrated Australia Day at my friends flat overlooking the Swan River where the Skyworks (fireworks) were held. It was pretty much the same as our Independence Day, full of family events, fireworks, and parties.

Blogged Down

2008-01-23T13:41:00.000+09:00

Aussie word of the day: bathers = bathing suit.

Hi again friends and family.. I was hoping to blog more often, but have been "blogged down" - thanks for the term Dad! Since I've been back in Perth I have been pretty busy getting a place, a car and a new job. I have scored 2 out of 3 so far and am still looking for a job. Things fell through with the old job when I got back so.. here I go again.

So anyway, back to the sunny beaches of gorgeous Hamilton Island. It was a picture perfect paradise. I've never been to the Bahamas, but Hamilton Island was how I imagine the Bahamas or Virgin Islands to be - pristine aqua blue water, lush green hilly islands, beautiful white sand beaches. Hamilton Island is a resort so there are no cars, just golf carts and resort buses to get around the island. It's also quite expensive, so not really for the budget traveller. Above is a view from our hotel room looking over Catseye bay. There were tons of tropical parakeets and cockatoos and at night, gigantic bats the size of crows, would fill the air. The bats, my friends and I thought, must be the reason there were no mosquitoes or black flies on the island.

The first day, we went diving on the inner reef of the Great Barrier Reef. The day was gorgeous, the water clear. We saw towers of coral and reef sharks and other fun marine life. Sadly though, I was more fascinated by the view of the GBR from the airplane. There's nothing like looking down on the GBR from above... it's really awe-inspiring and you can't help but stare at it. The rest of the time in Hamilton Island we relaxed by the pool sipping cocktails from the swim-up bar or cruising out to Whitehaven Beach, which is reported as one of the world's most beautiful beaches. Whitehaven Beach is made of pure white silica sand that squeaks when you walk on it. The only disappointing thing about visiting Whitehaven Beach (which you could only get to by boat) was that you couldn't really swim in the ocean without wearing a protective lycra suit because of the Irukandji jellyfish and you couldn't go into the bush near the beach because of the snakes. Your only real option was either bake for two hours in the sunshine or take a walk down the beach.

Overall, Hamilton Island was one of the most beautiful places we went on our trip - but also the most expensive. I hope to go back someday to visit the northern end of the Whitsunday's Islands, Hamilton Island is in the southern part of the group of islands. After Hamilton Island, we headed over to Cairns, the last leg of our two week adventure.

Stunning Sydney

2008-01-14T13:35:00.000+09:00

Aussie word of the day: torch = flashlight.

Sydney was stunning. Of course there were throngs of people visiting for the New Year's Eve holiday, but despite the abundance of people the lines to get into places were still reasonably short and the streets were uncrowded. After the big New Year's Eve night - did I mention it was surreal being in Sydney on New Year's? - we began our site seeing at the Opera House. This was an interesting tour, mostly historically based on the design and development of the building and the amount of time and money it took to build. The Opera House is comprised of two main stages; the Opera House or theatre, which is housed in the smaller of the two buildings that make up the Opera House and the larger of the two buildings which hosts music concerts, generally of the classical genre. Of course, there are more theatres/ stages housed within the Opera House than just the two main stages, one of which is used as the site for which the whole fireworks display on New Year's Eve is controlled via computers.

Our next tour was on a harbour cruise around Sydney Harbour which provided much relaxation, morning tea, and a glance at some of the wealthiest real estate in Sydney including Nicole Kidman's and Russell Crowe's harbourside digs. Then it was on to the great Bridge Climb! A nerve wracking experience when looking up at the groups of people climbing up the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but after much preparation that included full body windsuits, climbing gear, and a climb simulator, we were on our way to the top! It turned out not to be as scary as it looked from below. At the top, we stood 440 feet above the water and had amazing views of the city and harbour, which made it well worth the climb.

At night we dined in The Rocks, one of the oldest areas in Sydney that runs adjacent to the wharf. Quaint eateries and boutiques are nestled among the souvenir shops in The Rocks where you can choose from a variety of dining options. We had German schnitzel and spatzel and beer and ate gourmet wood-fired pizza.

Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the world famous Bondi Beach or local favorite, Manly Beach, as they were closed due to rough tides from the weather. I can easily say that the few short days we were in Sydney were not enough, but an amazing time it was nonetheless. Finally, my luggage arrived the day before we left Sydney... just in time for the Whitsunday Islands.

Move over 2007, here comes 2008!

2008-01-11T16:28:00.000+09:00

To think I was having nightmares 8 years ago about the beginning of the new century. Back in '99, as a college freshmen, I was terrified that Armageddon was just around the corner. Thankfully, none of my nightmares came true and we are still alive and two weeks into 2008! Looking back, not a lot has changed for me from the beginning of the century to now. I am still single and back at uni. I really hope that eight years from now I am looking back at '07 from a different place in my life - not single and not in uni. To those of you who have been part of the last eight years of my life, thank you for a being a part of it and I hope the next 8 years prove even better!

The beginning of my new year almost didnt happen at all - literally! I nearly lost the 31st of December to the great abyss of the international dateline, where a day is lost every time you travel from the U.S. to Australia, but is gained back when you travel from Australia to the U.S. Due to the hectic holiday travel season and bad weather in certain parts of the U.S., I almost didn't see the New Year come in. Luckily, after much frustration and suspense and a re-routed flight itnerary, I finally arrived in Sydney a day later than originally scheduled, but just in time for New Year's Eve. Unfortunately, when I got to Sydney my travel woes did not end. I did not have any luggage other than my carry-on bags which meant no New Year's Eve party duds. Qantas did pay me $100 for my temporarily lost luggage which I used to buy something semi-suitable for the New Year's Eve festivities.

With a new dress from Target that somewhat resembled a black trash bag, but was really comfortable and my two friends by my side, we rang in the New Year in Sydney in style . It was a truly amazing New Year's Eve and I can say with great confidence that it was the best one I've had so far. We ate a delicious 5 course meal in a restaurant that had a spectacular view overlooking the harbour and a yacht parked next to it that Sting was staying in. At the stroke of midnight with the fireworks exploding in the sky above the Syndey Harbour Bridge, my friends got engaged. It was very momentous and I got to take all the pictures of the event, my friend's face captured forever in a look of shock and awe, then crying on her new fiance's shoulder.

Now I have arrived back in Perth with blistered feet, a bruised body and a slightly swollen face (from a white-water rafting incident that I will write more about later). As I am using the limited and costly internet at my hostel at the moment I will keep this post short and sweet. I'm going to be posting more blogs each day about the rest of my first two weeks back in Australia and hopefully some pix as well, so stay tuned.

Basketball in the bush and driving Rusty

2007-11-19T21:16:00.000+09:00

Aussie phrase of the day: Bloody oath! = Damn straight!, Seriously!, I swear!, or It's the truth! There sure are a lot of expressions for convincing someone of the truth.

I went to a basketball game last weekend. A NBA sort of basketball game between the Perth Wildcats and the Wollongong somethings... This was a very interesting event that began by parking in the bush outside the arena. This involved walking through tall grass, weeds and trees on a sand track that opened into a grassy parking area. Only in Australia! Just before halftime I helped myself to a dinner of nachos which were actually very nice, they were a little more like restaurant nachos than the fake liquid cheese ones we have at our sporting events. They actually had meat, sour cream, cheese, salsa and ... peas? Yes, peas. I don't exactly know why they were in the mix, but Australians obviously think Mexican's make nachos with peas or that for some reason they are really good on nachos or maybe they just needed to round out the four food groups by adding something green to the mix. Anyway, different... in a good way!

The basketball game was an experience that sadly resembled more of a college level of basketball. It was held in a small gym that was only a little bigger than my high school gym and was joined with a regular fitness facility where people were pumping weights while a pro-basketball game was going on essentially in the other room. The dancers I would admit were pretty good and had all the makings of L.A. Lakers girls, but there were no cheerleaders on the sidelines, hell, there was no room on the sidelines for cheerleaders! There was an MC/ commentator guy that also served as the cheerleader, waving his arms up and down periodically while chanting a cheer to get the crowd pumped up. Amazingly it worked! Every so often they would play a tiger-like growl over the loudspeaker, the very same tiger growl played at my high school sporting events, and the same "Eye of the Tiger" anthem so commonly used at high school and college sporting events whose mascot is a wild cat. It makes me happy to think these people have no idea how we do it in the States, otherwise, they might be all but a little disappointed that their beloved sport doesn't have quite the showy makings of a pro basketball game in the States in our giant sized sports arenas. I was humored and touched at the same time by the quaintness of it. Of course, I am told the basketball was much more popular up until the 1990's as it was nearly the only professional sport in Western Australia. Then with the introduction of other more popular sports, such as Aussie rules football came the demise of the once popular sport of basketball. They even had to change season's from winter to summer because they couldn't compete with the popularity of the AFL.

I also had the opportunity to drive again last weekend. I haven't driven in months and didn't realize how much I missed it until I got behind the wheel of my friend's '84 Ford. It was a $400 car and showing every bit of it's age, including some major rust going on all over it! Thus, the car has been dubbed Rusty... also named after the popular brand of surf apparel. Rusty has no power stearing and sometimes she doesn't go into gear like she should, but Rusty and I became friends quickly and we took to the streets of Perth without a hitch. I was a natural at driving on the "wrong" side of the road. I couldn't believe how well I did considering how badly I had attempted driving in Oz in previous years. Anyway, it really made me want a Rusty of my own when I get back to Australia in January.

Now I must go study for my exam tomorrow and I will be seeing some of you very soon!

Perfectly Busy

2007-11-08T10:19:00.000+09:00

Aussie phrase of the day: spat the dummy = yelled, "He spat the dummy."

I must have so much energy to write lately because I am free! Free of the odious tasks of writing uni papers. Not so much free in terms of time, though. So what have I been doing since returning from my trip last weekend, since I have talked of little else since I have been back. Besides uploading photos and blogging every night, I'm actually quite busy with work. Everyone seems to be really interested in my job, so I will try to elaborate. I work about 20 hours a week (the max I am allowed on my student visa) over a period of three days as a receptionist at Ford & Doonan Air Conditioning, a fairly large company with various branches around Perth. I work in the back office of a showroom with several cheery salesmen. The showroom consists of several models of ducted air conditioning systems. The air-cons in Australia are a little different to those we have at home. The don't just have a large box with a fan outside their houses, but they also consist of a wall-mounted unit inside the house as well. At this point it all gets a little complicated to explain why there is an indoor unit as well as the outdoor unit, but it has something to do with recycling of air. The job is pretty unglamorous and consists mainly of clerical duties such as answering and directing phone calls, collecting and sorting the mail, ordering office supplies, and entering data.

As mundane as it sounds, I actually really enjoy what I am doing and the people I work with. Maybe it's merely the fact that I am making money and it feels good to know that I am going to be able to stave off my mounting debts, but I look forward to going to work and I always feel good when I am there. Every time I go in it is busier than the time before and the spirits are high among my colleagues. There's a happy comraderie that I miss from the early days at Baby Banz. I am perfectly busy.

I am also beginning to pack up my room. It's only two weeks until I am home! I can't believe how fast these few months have gone. This weekend I went to the beach and got my first sunburn, but only a little here and there and on my eyelids. Never in my life have I gotten sunburned on my eyelids! It's been around 100 degrees the last few days and I'm trying to get by without a fan until I get back in January. I don't know how I'm going to bear this kind of heat for the next few months! I hope the next place I live has an A/C! I'm going to be really happy to get back to some cooler weather.

Monkey Mia take 3 and 4

2007-11-07T23:12:00.000+09:00

Aussie phrase of the day: stuff it up = screw it up, "I hope she doesn't stuff it up," or on a not-so-nice note you could tell someone to "get stuffed."

The morning of the third day was much anticipated by everyone. Monkey Mia was the ultimate part of the trip, the climax of the story, the reason for coming in the first place. It was all about the dolphins! The famous dolphin feeding was done several times each morning at Monkey Mia, the first one at 7:30am. You can't touch or swim with the dolphins and much to the dismay and disappointment of several people, especially one little girl who cried and cried when the dolphins swam away after the feeding, only a select few people, chosen at random from the crowd, were allowed to feed one of the five dolphins. I was NOT one of the chosen ones, but being so close to them was pretty special in itself. The dolphins were very friendly and playful and had names like Nicky, Shock, and Piccolo. They were identifiable by the markings on their fins, which weren't so easy to find if you didn't know what to look for. One of them was noticeably pregnant and looking quite bulgey. For a half an hour you stand up to your knees in the water hoping that you will be lucky enough to get brushed by a curious swimming dolphin or will be one of the chosen ones to feed them. It was a good 30 minutes that I am very happy to have had despite the fact that I didn't get to feed the dolphin. When else in my life would I get the chance to get so close to a dolphin?

We had a few hours to burn before heading off for another day of adventure in the outback, so I joined my Swiss German friends and my favorite Frenchmen to share some scones with cream and jam and a cappuccino at the seaside restuarant. We finally packed into the Beach Bus again and were off to Ocean Park of Shark Bay where we saw some fantastic marine life up close and personal. We toured a series of aquatic tanks where Loggerhead sea turtles, sting rays, crayfish (rock lobster) and other varieties of fish swam. Of course, the highlight of the tour was the shark lagoon, which was really an inground pool/ pond that is built to resemble a natural ocean setting containing ocean water that is pumped in by a windmill from the nearby bay. The sharks were small, reasonably harmless reef sharks. The largest and most dangerous shark in the tank was the Tiger Shark, given it's name for the dark stripes along it's gray body. Despite the sign warning of danger as you enter the lagoon area, the tour guide calmly assured us if you fell into the water, the sharks would cower in a corner of the lagoon until you had made it safely out of their environment. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time imagining a shark cowering in a corner. That's like saying a lion would hide behind a rock if you were standing in the desert of Africa. I think not. Well, I wouldn't want to try it anyway and why would you post a danger sign if there wasn't really any danger? Hmmm.

We made our way out of Shark Bay and back to the Great Northern Highway, which isn't so great as it is only two lanes most of the way and surrounded by bush and desert. However, we were headed toward a truly amazing sight; the oldest living organism on the planet, the reason for life - literally. I had a great appreciation for this creation because if it weren't for the stromatolites, as they are called, the world, essentially, would never have existed. They don't look too spectacular, but again I couldn't help but feel grateful for these bulbous gray forms that were growing in clumps along the shore. The stromatolites formed 3.5 billions years ago and for 2 billions years they were the only sign of life on earth; these large, lumpy, asphalt-looking rocks. During their first 2 billions years on earth the stomatolites created lots of oxygen via algaelike microorganisms that live on their surface and raised the oxygen level by 20 percent, allowing for the creation of other lifeforms, such as you and me! Pretty major stuff for such mediocre looking things and pretty amazing that they still exist today!

After the stromatolite experience we walked down a sandy path to an old telegraph station and museum. I read about this place in my Bill Bryson book, In a Sunburned Country, and was eager to explore it. I didn't actually get to go into the telegraph station, but it bears a legendary story of a linesman who once fixed a telegraph line naked... and there's a picture to prove it in the museum. Instead, I opted to visit the neighboring cafe/ gift shop, which boasted, on a rustic sign hanging outside, that it was air-conditioned and that appealled to me more at that moment than a photo of a naked linesman. But I was lucky enough to enjoy the photo anyway, in postcard form. Several slots in the postcard rack inside the gift shop were reserved for the image of the naked linesman standing at the top of his ladder. It's only a discreet shot of his backside, but very exciting to see what Bryson described in his book. I had to buy one.

We were on the road again after a quick lunch at a picnic area near the telegraph station. We travelled back toward the coast to find our humble abode for the evening. The scenery had changed slightly as we drove further south toward Perth. It was oddly reminiscent of... home. It was America's midwest! It was almost like I had gone to sleep and woken up back in Missouri during a dry season. There were rolling hillsides, tree-lined wheat fields and grazing cattle. There were windmills and country homes every couple of miles. WA or MO, I wasn't sure anymore. Then we reached the coast. Oh, no... we're definitely not in Kansas anymore. We were staying at a hostel overlooking the ocean. Another dip in the ocean, another glorious sunset, even better than the last. Then stargazing!

Cleggy took us down to the beach after dinner to show us some constellations. He explained the star signs or zodiacs and where they were in the sky. Scorpio sits just on the horizon as it is the sign for October to November, thus the sun sets into Scorpio until mid-November when the star sign changes to Sagittarius. Cleggy pointed out Capricorn - that's me! - Aries and Pisces, the Milky Way, and two much smaller galaxies that looked like little smudges in the clear night sky. It was a very fun and memorable astronomy lesson.

The next day started with the usual bowl of corn flakes, toast with jam, and cup of coffee. We didn't linger long before we were back on the road to Perth. The last day and it would be bound to go just as fast as the other three had. It was a fairly uneventful rest of the way home, with short stops for lunch in Geraldton and a leg stretch and ice cream at the Billabong roadhouse again. We pulled into Perth with daylight to spare. You can see by my many musings over the 4 Day Monkey Mia Safari - as it was called in the brochure - it was a relaxing, yet... colorful trip. From the sunsets and sandy beaches to the personalities of the people I met, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and hope you enjoyed the ride, via my blog, as well. This small bit of travel has left me with the travel itch to see more of Australia. I can't wait for Sydney in December!

Monkey Mia Part 2

2007-11-07T21:24:00.000+09:00

Aussie phrase of the day: pulling the piss = teasing or giving a hard time, "I'm just pulling the piss, mate."

Every day begins with a healthy slathering of sunblock to all exposed areas of the body. Surprisingly everyone on the tour was very conscientious of wearing ample amounts of the gooey white stuff, thus encouraging me to do the same. Even if we were going to be cooped up for the better part of the day in the tour bus, everyone put it on, first thing in the morning. And so that was how we started day numero dos to Monkey Mia. I'm sure by now you are wondering if and when we are going to actually get to this desert oasis with the funny name. All in good time, my friends, all in good time. As our tour guide liked to remind us throughout this mini adventure, we were now on Western Australian time, that is that WA also stands for Wait Awhile.

First stop on this day's drive was the picturesque rocky coastline of WA and Nature's Bridge, another rock formed bridge similar to the one I saw in Albany, but not as close up or spectacular. Then it was on to Kalbarri National Park's Murchison Gorge, where we visited Nature's Window. We drove for miles across a rutted, sandy, washboard road before coming to our destination. The flies were out in force again, but this time everyone was protected with fly nets... except for two Chinese girls who complained the most out of everyone about the flies, but didn't want the fly nets because it would mess up their pictures. "Stupeed, girls!" The Belgian guy exclaimed in the best French accent I've ever heard. The Belgian managed to complain about most things, yet I liked him right away. He was everything you would expect of a typical Frenchmen, whiney and arrogant, always looking smug and displeased with a furrowed brow and curled lip, like he just smelled something really bad. He was always ready and willing to let you know what he thought, even if it was only to say, "Speak English, you Swiss Germans. So f-ing rude!" He would even tell off inanimate objects, like the window screen that fell out at the beach resort. Even his laugh was on the maniacal side and the way he pronounced kangaroo sounded like he was saying Congo. For a whole day I kept wondering why he was so excited about eating Congo meat... and what the hell was Congo meat anyway?

We arrived to the Nature's Window area, which reminded me of a much shallower version of the Grand Canyon, and trekked through the dusty, rocky terrain in flip flops and fly nets to see yet another natural rock wonder. As you can see in the photo, Nature's Window is a rock formation carefully situated on a clifftop overlooking a dried up river bed. Pretty exciting stuff, eh? It's pretty enough to take a picture, but as to whether anyone really cared how it got there, I doubt. It was a whole 10 minutes to walk to the rock structure, take a photo, and walk back to the picnic area on the summit where we started. Lunch was sandwiches which were to be prepared expeditiously before the flies could eat all the lunch meat, lettuce and tomatoes. Cleggy cleverly and strategically placed a piece of ham at the end of the picnic table to divert the flies away from the rest of the food for ease of the sandwich making process. Sure enough, within seconds, sixty or so flies had covered the piece of ham in a crawling black mass. As soon as your sandwich was made, you wrapped it in a brown paper bag - TO GO.

From there we drove for several more hours until we reached Shell Beach, which is exactly that, a beach made up of millions of tiny white shells, not a drop of sand could be found. The most amazing part of it was how far the beach extended. There was probably two-thirds of a mile of beach spreading out into the water. After a stroll across the shallow shell shorline and a few photos, we were on our way again. Finally, we arrived at the cozy and welcoming Monkey Mia Beach Resort just hours before a sunset that would be too beautiful to miss. We settled into the charming resort with hours to spare. We enjoyed a swim in the ocean, then watched as the sun settled over Shark Bay (photo). It was the first sunset we got to watch, but it wouldn't be the last. As evening quickly wrapped us in it's blanket of stars everyone was reluctant to leave the peacful beach. There are more stars in the southern skies over Australia than I have ever seen in any sky before. I could've fallen asleep right there on the beach watching the shooting stars while the warm ocean breeze blew over me, b t eventually I crept off to bed because the best part was yet to come...

Monkey Mia Day 1

2007-11-07T18:41:00.000+09:00

Aussie word of the day: bickie, short for biscuit = cookie, "Eating bickie's for brekky can make you sick."

As you may be catching on, Aussie slang is one of a kind. I've never known anything quite like it and before you know it, you end up with sentences like this one: "In the arvo last Chrissy the relos rocked up for a barbie, some bevvies and a few snags. After a bit of a Bex and a lie down we opened the pressies, scoffed all the chockies, bickies and lollies. Then we drained a few tinnies and Mum did her block after Dad and Steve had a barney and a bit of biffo." Ask me to interpret and it may take a few minutes, but the whole point is, Aussie slang is clearly it's own language and the poor folks learning to speak English in this country... well, good luck to 'em is all I can say. It's a bit of a mystery even for us native English speakers. I actually had lengthy conversations with some Swiss Germans, a Spaniard, and a Belgian last weekend on my tour to Monkey Mia about how hard they are finding it to learn English in Australia. I told them they should have learned English in America, at least we speak slower than Australians. But then again, I am biased.

We headed off on the first day of our little jaunt up the coast of Western Australia into the northern countryside and then the outback in a little blue bus called the Beach Bus. Fourteen foreigners, mostly Swiss German, and myself, the only American and native English speaker other than the tour guide, would be smushed together in this cozy little bus for four days. We were guided by the amiable, but sometimes strange tour guide, Cleggy, who turned out to be as equally knowledgable about astronomy as he was about the bush country of WA. His knowledge of astronomy lead to a wonderful lesson in stargazing on the final night of the trip, but more on that later. Cleggy is a self-proclaimed free-spirited nomad who simply loves to travel. He has been working as a tour guide for 8 years, but admitted that coming on 32 it's getting time to settle down a bit and plant some roots. Yeah, right, is all I could think. Hasn't anyone told him free birds don't like to be caged?

We were off to the Pinnacles to get lost in the desert. After a few hours of driving we stopped at a roadhouse called Billabong to stretch our legs and grab some nibbly's for the road. Stepping outside the bus, you could already feel the temperature had risen 10 or more degrees in only a few short hours. This was the same thing that happened driving south to Albany in September. Only a few hours outside the city and the temps had drastically changed. Soon we would be baking in the sweltering sun of the Pinnacles desert and infested with black flies.

We didn't actually get lost in the desert, but that's kind of how you feel when you turn off the highway onto a vast, sandy track that you can barely tell is supposed to be a path for tourists to drive on. It was definitely off-roading in the most literal sense and a dune buggy would have been more appropriate. The Pinnacles, as you can see in the photo above, are a natural wonder. Their creation began like all things natural and wonderful; during prehistoric times. Also, like many natural wonders they were formed by an aging process involving layers of stone being built up over time then eroded by water until you have the limestone pillars you see today. Some are pointy like mountains and others a little more phallic looking, but all are astonishing to look at.

After the Pinnacles, we took a brief lunch break at Jurien Bay (photo), where the black flies were aggressive, as one tour member described and relentless. It gives me goose bumps just thinking of the way they swarmed us, landing anywhere and everywhere on a person's body. The tour guide tried persuading everyone to take a dip in the beautiful blue waters of the bay, but, unfortunately, everyone was so miserable and distracted by the flies that they just wanted to get back in the protection of the bus and go. By day two, nearly everyone had purchased fly nets before going insane. Having your face protected from the flies seemed to make them landing on the rest of your body okay and the tour was a little more enjoyable. We loaded onto the bus and continued travelling on to a farm where we would be staying for the night in a 6 bedroom bungalow. We were fed a hearty homestyle meal and settled into the relaxing evening.

At some point in the middle of the night I woke up to go to the bathroom, which meant I had to go outside... in the dark... on an unfamiliar farm in bush country where wild things like giant poisonous snakes and rabid dingoes are hunting for stray animals and whatever else might be lurking around.. like me! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! This was all of a sudden reminiscent of a time at girl scout camp when I had the same fear of walking to the latrine in the middle of the night by myself. However, I'm pretty sure the dangers in the woods of Missouri aren't quite comprable to those of the outback in Australia. But I had no choice, it was risk my life or wet myself. I'm glad I decided to go with the first option. As I opened the door to walk into the dark abyss what to my wondering eyes should appear peeking just above the horizon directly in front of me was the Southern Cross, the star formation found on the Australian flag. Until this very trip I didn't even know it was an actual constellation in the sky, so I was, at once, astounded and thrilled and feeling quite lucky to witness this, especially because I am no expert in astronomy and it is usually not so easy to discern one star configuration from another. But there it was, a magical moment indeed. That magical moment was short-lived, however, as my astonishment quickly dissolved into fear because the Southern Cross actually sits upside down in the sky at this time of year and you know upside down crosses usually equate with evil, boogeymen, demons and such. Here I go again. So I quickly turned and scurried toward the toilets and then back to bed without so much as a hoot owl beckoning in the dark.

Restless

2007-10-30T20:20:00.000+09:00

Aussie phrase of the day: Spot on = exactly right, "You're spot on!"

I just finished a bowl of really unenjoyable ramen noodles and some toast with peanut butter... remind you of college? I was trying to watch a movie I downloaded on iTunes yesterday, but I wasn't really into it so I checked my fave blogs on Glamour.com and decided that's what I should do... instead of writing the feature article that's due in class tomorrow. No worries, I got an extension. I've written myself nearly to death. Every day I've been staring at my computer screen for hours on end, typing away til my fingers nearly bleed, my butt and back ache and my eyes are blurry. I'm sorry I haven't had more interesting things going on in my life and in Oz and that I've been so damn whiney in my recent blogs. The bottom line is I'm here to get my Master's degree and eventually that was going to start taking over. The first month or so I felt like I was walking around with a heady glow, like I was in a fairy tale and life was finally getting started for me. There was so much to do and see and friends to make. It was all very exciting and fast. That's what they (school counsellors) call the 'honeymoon' period. That honeymoon seems like ages ago now.

This weekend will be new and exciting and will have a few pics to go along with it! I'm going to a place called Monkey Mia. It's several miles north of Perth and I've wanted to go there since my first visit to Australia... mostly to feed the dolphins, which I hope to do this weekend! It will be nice to get away again and couldn't come at a better time... the end of my semester! I can't wait to tell you all about it!

The end

2007-10-25T17:54:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: rubbish bin = trash can, it's pretty self-explanatory, instead of trash can you just say rubbish bin.

Except for daylight savings starting this weekend here in Perth and the beginning of summer, everything else is coming to an end. It is the end of October and almost the end of the year. The end of the semester is in sight (just two more weeks!), the end of my scuba certification course, the end of the 30's for one friend! Happy BIG 4-0, by the way! The end sounds so sad, so tragic, but why should it? The end is also the beginning for new things and sometimes brings a little relief and freedom with it, like quitting my job and coming to Perth. The end means the beginning of something else, something new. It is the sound of hope and renewal, like springtime or fall. The trees must shed their leaves in the fall to welcome the vibrant new green ones in the spring and everyone forgets that those trees were so stark and bare for the last few months. It is the end of being single for my friend Sarah who got engaged in Niagara Falls last weekend and also the end of being pregnant for my friend Teagan who welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world last week. But most people would look at Sarah and Teagan and only see the beginning of something new, a new marriage and, in both cases, a new life. And right about now it is starting to look like the end of our nice weather as the clouds roll in over Perth.

The thing I am most excited about ending aside from the semester, is my scuba course which has taken me over a month to complete with all the bad weather and crazy scheduling. Today, was my first ocean dive! I really enjoyed it and saw some really great things. We visited a dive trail in Rockingham, 30 minutes south of Perth. The dive trail consisted of a string of sunken boats and airplanes connected by a rope. The boats and planes are not side by side, but spread out over a few metres of ocean floor about 20-30 feet apart. The sunken boats and planes are covered in all forms of sealife, from marine plants and coral to various types of fish. We mostly saw smaller fish today. I petted a real life seahorse, which was pregnant, held sand dollars and touched star fish and other interesting things. It was really amazing seeing those things alive in the ocean instead of dried up and dead. I could've stayed down there all day. Of course, that may have had more to do with my inability to get out of the water without falling down and once you are down, there isn't much hope for getting back up. In the shallower water along the shoreline, my legs were like jelly and I couldn't catch my balance to bring myself back up with the weight of the scuba gear holding me down and all the waves crashing against me. It was pretty embaressing, but luckily I did make it back to my feet before the guys had to drag me to the beach. I also had trouble getting my fins on in the water, but by the end of the day I was a natural *cough*. So now that it is nearly the end of my scuba certification, I will have the freedom of scuba diving anywhere in the world! Next stop, The Great Barrier Reef! See how good The End can be?!?! The underwater world is my oyster.. haha!

It was also the end of my loss of appetite from the stress I've been having over the last week and a half. So what could be better when you feel like eating again than KFC! Good ole American Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is actually the first time since I arrived here to eat American fast food, but it was damn good! Tomorrow is another ocean dive, this time off a boat. Today was a shore dive where you walk into and out of the water. Then tomorrow night there is an American style Halloween party on campus... Saturday is a day of exploring Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth, followed by... the gay pride parade. It wasn't my idea, but who knows.. it might be fun! That's why gay people are called gay right.. because they are always happy and fun! Besides that, my gay American pal, Charlie, is hosting the Halloween party Friday night. It's a weekend of gaydom!

The End

To stay or to go?

2007-10-20T19:03:00.000+08:00

Aussie phrase of the day: Rocked up to = got to (like walked up to), "My friends and I rocked up to the party about 7 o'clock." or "I rocked up to work late."

That is the question. I just found out today that two of my good friends that are here on exchange might be staying at ECU to get their masters degrees as well. They are German and the education system in Germany sounds like shit from what they have told me. I am really excited to hear that they might stay because then our circle of friends won't be broken after all! Not that I am against making new friends, but it's so nice when you can keep your friends around a while once you have made such a good connection with them. The only problem is that it is a lot of money for them to stay and go to school here and Germany doesn't offer federal school loans.

As you all know, I am coming back to the States for a month over the holidays. I am ready to go home and run away from my assignments and the stresses of my life here in Oz. I am excited to see everyone again, especially Teagan's new baby girl, Danna Kate, and my long lost pal, Sarah, who moved to Ohio two months before I left for Australia. But as ready and excited as I am to go home, I am also starting to remember why I left the beloved 'burg in the first place. I was purely bored having never experienced much life outside of the great midwest state of Missouri. Everyone I meet here asks me where I am from in the States. They probably expect something really exciting like a well-known city like New York or LA, or at least a state they have heard of, like Texas or Florida. Alas, they always wait with a look of anticipation for an explanation when I say Missouri. I just say, "it's right in the middle.. lots of fields and cows." I guess I should tell them I live near the B-2 bomber.

So I'm not really sure what I should do with all my time in Missouri. One particular friend here keeps asking me if I am still going home and what I am going to do there for a month. Of course, my family and friends are there and who better to celebrate the holidays with than your loved ones. Do you have a better suggestion, my friend? But recently it has occurred to me that maybe my friend is right to wonder what I will be doing at home for a month because I have started wondering myself. I can do most of my catching up with friends and get my fill of American home-cooking within a few weeks. I can talk to family on the phone at normal hours of the day where we are on the same day on a phone instead of the computer, but I don't have a car to drive, a cell phone number, or a job in Warrensburg. That is when fear strikes my heart.. and it occurs to me that when you leave home for any significant amount of time, returning to the place you used to call home will never be the same. It will never be the place it was when you were growing up or going to college, where you had friends to hang out with and keep you entertained. Returning will always be pleasureable but only temporary. Having a taste of another place leaves me forever changed and with a knowledge that I will never return home to stay. I am already restless to come back to the city and my life here in Perth.

Hellfire and damnation

2007-10-13T17:20:00.000+08:00

Aussie phrase of the day: chuck a sickie = to call in sick to work, "I am thinking of chucking a sickie on Monday."

The weeks are growing progressively busier as I attempt to juggle my new schedule of work and school. I finally got a job last week as a receptionist for an air conditioning company. I need new work clothes and a foot massage (ideas for X-mas presents!) and a fan for my room. Today was about 94 degrees, a huge jump from the mild 70 degree weather we've been having. I'm hot and I can't concentrate and I've had the worst day! For one thing I would have loved to have gone to the beach, but I have two assignments due Tuesday. So I tried to focus on my studies... but then I had two panic attacks in a row. I realized that I have work on Monday, but have already scheduled two meetings that day for school, one in the morning and one in the afternoon that can't be rescheduled. I tried to think of how I could cram it all in, but I just don't think I can do it. I'm going to have to call my new boss and tell him that I can't come to work on Monday now, but hopefully he will understand. Then when I started getting down to the business of my homework, I realized I've lost my USB! It had a lot of important stuff on it, including the info for one of my assignments due Tuesday. So I spent a good part of my afternoon trying to track it down with no luck. I finally had one of the girls from my class send the info to me because I had luckily saved it to her USB as well and now I am ready to begin studying again... at 5pm :(

Last night was a lot better than today. The Dutchies, another American girl and I went to the Perth Glory soccer match (is that better mom?!). We had free tickets so we went for the helluva it. It got pretty cool when the sun went down so we decided we needed to find some hot chocolate to warm us up after the game. You might be wondering how we could be drinking hot chocolate one minute and dying of heat the next, but that's the weather here in Perth - screaming hot during the day, cold at night. We went to a new place in Northbridge called The Moon Cafe. Off the beaten path of the other bars in Northbridge, The Moon Cafe offers a tranquil, bohemian/ 50's diner theme and serves meals until early morning. Always good for those after bar munchies. We shared nachos and a delicious strawberry dessert pizza and tried every kind of flavored hot drink they served, from caramel white hot chocolate to a frangelico flavored latte and went home with very full tummies. We even made friends with a cabbie who let 6 of us cram into his cab, then told us if we were stopped by the cops that we had to tell them we forced him to take all of us, then he gave us his number and told us to call him next time we were out.

I hope everyone is enjoying their comfortably cool fall weather and is having a wonderful weekend!

When it rains it pours

2007-10-04T18:50:00.000+08:00

Aussie phrase of the day: "How ya going?" = "How are you? " or "What's up?"

I feel like the week should be over already, but there's still one more day.. for me that is. Well, if I was a little bit bored last week, the last two days have certainly made up for it. I am volunteering with the Multicultural week activities at "uni", which, unfortunately are mainly enjoyed only by the international students. I'm sure it was much the same when I was an undergrad in the States. The multicultural week was not something the non-international students got involved with even though it is open for everyone to attend. Now I am wishing I was more into it when I was an undergrad - international student or not. It's a lot of fun!

Yesterday was a viewing of a documentary by a fellow ECU student on Kenya, followed by a sausage sizzle, a very popular type of BBQ here in Australia. Basically, a sausage sizzle consists of grilling up a bunch of sausages, usually beef sausages, but ours were chicken and lamb. You eat them in a "roll" (bun) sometimes with grilled onions and/ or tomato sauce (ketchup), BBQ or sweet chilli sauce. However, I am told that sauces are not highly regarded here in Oz, thus the reason they charge 40-60 cents a packet! And free refills on drinks.. forget about it! Sausages in Oz are the equivalent of hot dogs in the States - better tasting, but just as bad for you. So if you are having a friend over to your house you might say to them, "we'll just have a sausage sizzle at my place."

Today the multicultural activity consisted of a festival with various booths for trying int'l cuisine and other cultural wares such as my new Henna tattoo in the photo. The black part is the Henna, which is a mixture of crushed henna herb and oil that is painted on with a tiny brush. The Henna dries then flakes off leaving an orangey-golden stain that lasts 6-10 days, which is longer than my spray painted kangaroo lasted! Spray paint and Henna tattoo's.. what next? A real one? Only time will tell.. (ooo, mom is not going to like that one.) There was also dancing and music performances from all over the world. My favorites were the African dancing, Irish music, aaannd I played the drum in a Brazilian drum band - think Rio de Janeiro meets Mardi Gras with whistles and crazy beats! I rocked!

Tomorrow and the next day will be filled with more multicultural events and by Sunday I will be ready for a big nap! At some point I have to catch up with my friends this weekend, especially my friend, Ina, who lost an uncle and a close friend last weekend, one to cancer, the other in a car accident in Italy. One of my biggest fears of being so far away from home is that something terrible will happen to my loved ones and I won't be there or can't get back to the States. So everyone BE SAFE.. for me.. and everyone else in your life!

I am also posting a pic of me and Gail, my American friend from Maryland/ Delaware. This was taken on Monday from a bridge in King's Park that overlooks the Swan River. Now I am going to go chow down on some sushi with my housemate and neighbors who are always eating at ridiculously late hours of the day. Ciao!

Back to the grind

2007-10-02T14:11:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: capsicum = bell pepper, "I'm going to put some red capsicum in my salad."

It's back to school this week, which I am a little grateful for. I wasn't really that busy last week, but I hit up King's Park Friday and Monday for the wildflower festival. There is a yummy little cafe there that serves the best carmel latte and scones with cream and jam and offers a spectacular view of the city and Swan River. Friday night I went on a river cruise with Gail's field hockey team, which was a lot of fun. We had drinks and a barbie on the boat. Saturday I went to the beach and the ballet, then relaxed again on Sunday. I also downloaded the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy on iTunes. Looks like another good season for the Grey's doctors.

There are only a few more weeks of school. One of my classes ends at the end of October and I will be finished with all my classes in mid-November, just in time for Thanksgiving! I am undecided about coming home a week earlier than planned to get an extra holiday into the break. I guess it depends on my job status. Well, that's all for now. Sorry I don't have more exciting news, more next time!

The boredom blues

2007-09-27T14:37:00.000+08:00

Aussie phrase of the day: full-on = busy, intense, "My weekend was full-on" or "that girl is really full-on."

My weekend may have been full-on and Tuesday when I had three interviews, but the rest of this week has been a wash. I couldn't plan anything because the forecast was grim and rainy, but then the days would turn out fine. Today was supposed to be nice, but instead it has rained. You think the weathermen in the States are bad!!! I don't even think the weathermen/ women are meterologists. The people who give you the forecast on TV are there to look cute and read the forecast to you.. that's it! No training in weather whatsoever, just broadcast journalists. Trust me, I had one as a guest lecturer in one of my journalism classes.. she's just a pretty face, with nice hair, and cute clothes and half the guys want to date her.

So I got a few job offers this week, which I've declined. I was so desperate a few weeks ago and now that the calls are coming in I'm being picky. I have two more interviews next week, one of which I'm sure I will get. One of which I REALLY want because it is a non-profit housing organization. I've been interested in non-profit agencies since I was an undergrad getting my PR degree. It's something I think I can put my whole heart into since I also like helping people and have worked with Habitat for Humanity before. Maybe it will open the doors to where I really want to end up. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

I'm posting some photos of some wonderful things that I received this week from home. One is a card from my mom and the other is a beautiful picture frame from my friend Sarah that I just received today. Both the card and picture frame were handmade... just for me! How lucky am I? I have such loving and devoted friends and family that I had to share their handcrafted gifts with everyone! Sarah's frame also came beautifully wrapped in layers of colorful tissue, gift wrap, and bubble wrap.. it was like opening one of those Russian dolls! It also had a musical card with it. I felt like it was my birthday. Thank you mom and Sarah for your thoughtfulness. Your card and frame were true pick-me-ups this week!

On a final note: Everyone should read In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. It is a funny book about Australia that is written not only to entertain, but also talks about the different cities, regions and culture in Australia. I haven't read it yet, but it has been recommended to me by several people from around the world. My mom is reading it right now and says it makes you laugh out loud.

Among the fields of gold

2007-09-24T16:17:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: nappi = diaper, "The baby's nappi is wet."

There was no ocean diving last week due to inclimate weather that wasn't so inclimate, that was just the instructor's excuse not to go out. The weather last week was beautiful and perfect for diving, but oh well. Perhaps this weekend! Instead, Gail and I visited the zoo. It was much the same as any zoo and I've already petted the roo's and koala's, so was not nearly as enamored by them as I was before. The ferry ride across the Swan River to get to the zoo in South Perth was much more entertaining with a spectacular view of the city (see photo) and relaxing as well.

Spring has literally sprung south of the equator. There are wildflowers galore spreading their colorful glory across WA. As I rode the tour bus south of Perth this weekend to Albany the fields were blanketed in a bounty of golden spring wildflowers... I'm not sure Sting was talking about WA's golden fields of canola flowers when he wrote the song Fields of Gold, but it definately applies. Between the fields of gold were fields of sheep grazing in the morning sun, some wearing a full coat of wool and some newly shorn. The fields were reminiscent of home divided by tree lines and dusty (out)backroads. Only 2 hours south of the city and the weather was already cooler with a brisk sea breeze blowing inland from the Southern Ocean. The air was fresh and crisp like a perfect autumn day. There are also wild calla lillies, their leafy bushes growing along creekbeds and in the local gardens. This is a true delight for someone from America who has to pay a lot for a bouquet of the elegent white flowers.

On our way to Albany we stopped at a beach for lunch, then travelled up the hilly region to a lookout point for a panoramic view of Albany and the bay. Next stop was the Natural bridge and The Gap, a rocky area where millions of years ago Australia was once connected to Antarctica and is now somewhat reminiscent of the coast of Ireland (according to my Irish friend, Rory), with its rocky and green cliffs. We stayed the night in a hostel in Albany. It was my first experience in a hostel and will not be my last. It was pleasant enough, with shared rooms, toilets and showers. They even fed us dinner, which is unusual, according to my hostelling friends. There were 4 beds or 2 bunkbeds to a room. I shared a room with Debbie and Rory and a Pakistani guy named Rafik (Rafeek). At first I joked that Rafik would cut my throat in the night because I was American, but before the night was over we had made friends with him as we enjoyed a few microbrews at the local pub with the other people on our tour.

The next day we headed back to Perth with a stop at the Tree Top Walk. The Tree Top Walk involves a metal semi-suspended bridge that climbs and weaves among the tall Tingle trees. The highest point on the bridge was 40 metres or 132 feet high. Despite the fact that the bridge was made of metal and only semi-suspended it was still swaying and the boys were purposely rocking it more. I carefully braced myself on the narrow bridge while trying to hurry along as I struggled with a sudden fear of heights and an uncomfortable case of vertigo. I made it safely back to the bottom without throwing up or crashing hundreds of feet to the forest floor.

This week is semester break, but many people are putting in extra study time or working on projects that are due next week. The weather is also rainy again, so I may not do much this week aside from continuing my job search. I will email more photos to everyone as there were too many to post on the blog.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

2007-09-17T19:41:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Tea = dinner, "What would you like for tea?"

Hello again, my faithful friends... it's been an extremely busy few weeks and I am finally getting some time to relax and write a little. Springtime in Oz is not impressing me much, there has still been little sunshine since I got here 2 months ago. Yesterday and today we were a little lucky and got to glimpse some sunshine, but the rain came back today.

I finally got some money last week so I could afford to enjoy the weekend catching up with friends and going to a bar in Subi. That's me and Debbie in the photo. Also pictured is me in my wet suit at scuba diving training this weekend. The safety training we went through yesterday in the pool nearly killed me, not to mention I was diving with a hangover from the night before - not recommended. I kept getting severe leg cramps in my calves and was a little freaked out at first.. it felt really unnatural and clausterphobic breathing entirely on a regulator. After we got adjusted to the gear and breathing aparatus, we equalized the pressure in our ears and went through a variety of safety procedures. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day. I'm looking forward to the regular diving we will do this week.. if the weather holds out.

I'm still looking for a job and honestly can't believe I haven't gotten one yet! I've applied to over 10 places, mostly admin. I'm going to start hitting up the cafes this week. The semester break is nearly here and I am more than ready for it! Just me, the sun, sand and ocean!

This weekend I am going south to the historic coastal town of Albany, where the trees grow tall and Western Australia's roots run deep. According to the Albany tourism Web site Albany is the site of the first European settlement in Western Australia and is steeped in early Western Australian maritime history. I know there is a ship wreck there that divers can explore, but I will not be diving it this weekend. So look for the Albany blog to come!

I will blog again this week after my under water adventures Thursday and Friday just to let you know that I didn't get eaten by a shark.

Almost home..

2007-09-04T20:31:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Brekky = short for breakfast. A tv ad for Hungry Jack's (Burger King) the other day advertised "Brekky starting at 6 a.m."

G'day my warm weathered friends! Six weeks in and mid-term is nearly here (sigh). I'm busting to do some more travelling although I won't be if I don't get some money fast! This is the quest of the week.. I know you've all heard it before, but I swear this will be my last week without a job. I'm finally feeling the strain of no income and it isn't pretty... especially for my friends who have been kind enough to take pity on my (literally) poor soul.

Where did my money go? See above photo. A nice big piece of mud cake warmed up with ice cream and a capuccino, $10. My favorite Australian beer, Crown Lager (with the gold label), $7. Being a poor uni student who pretends she has more money than she does, priceless :) You can best tell this by the humongous, yet incredibly fake cz cocktail ring on the right hand. The photo was taken by my one and only American friend, Gail, last Friday when we were dining at The Brass Monkey, a favorite pub'n grub spot in Northbridge. I felt like having one last hoorah before I officially couldn't afford to eat this way anymore. We then hit up a hip and trendy new nightclub called The Saint in Scarborough (Scar-brah) Beach. More pix to follow. I couldn't afford the cab ride home so I stayed with Gail so she could give me a ride back in the morning. I will be repaying her with an all-you-can-eat sushi night in the city.

Saturday was my friend, Debbie's birthday where I stuffed myself silly with appetizers and snacks in anticipation of running out of food at home... you know, like animals that hibernate and eat shitloads in the off season. Don't worry, I'm not ballooning up.. yet. I'm still going to the gym and when I do run out of food, I can live off all the fat I stored up for days! Yesterday, was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm.. you know what that means! Hit the beach! I still didn't think the water would be warm enough, but it probably was and next time I will get in.

I can't believe I've been here nearly 2 months now and the reality of the end of term is bittersweet. Although, I will get to go home to see all my loved ones at the end of November - the weekend after Thanksgiving to be exact and will stay through Christmas and my b-day, some of my good friends who are only here on exchange will be gone when I get back and I will be left to seek out the company of new friends. I will also miss half the Australian summer, the better half, while I'm back in the States and will return when the temps are well above 100 degrees Farenheit.

Upon returning to Australia Dec. 30 with my dear friends Gina and her boyfriend Jolly (Chris), we will tour the eastern States (east coast by American terminology), and dive the Great Barrier Reef before I officially return to Perth to commence.. another 6 weeks of school holidays.. yeah!!! That's 3 months off between semesters! When I return to Perth in January there will be plenty to do before classes begin again. I will be settling into a new abode, preferrably a flat with new roommates.. not that I don't like the ones I have now. Maybe I will get a better job or at least some "work experience" to get into the field of journalism. Perhaps I will buy a car, a much desired entity amongst those of us who are just plain fed up on spending half their lives waiting on buses, trains, and cabs or subjecting ourselves to riding a bike to the liquor store to pick up some beer for the weekend and putting it in the cute little basket on the back. My friend, Debbie, who will be here the same duration as I am, bought an '84 Ford hatchback for AUD$400, which is like $300 American.. HA! It's a little rust-spotted, but it runs and that's all us poor uni students care about!

So I will see most of you wonderful readers in a few short months. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Labor Day!

Environmental tip of the week

2007-08-30T12:44:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: feral = wild, unruly person, sometimes used to describe children, "Look at the little ferals playing."

Hello everyone! Just enjoying a little cold spell here in Perth at the moment before the springtime settles in over the next few weeks bringing lots of hot weather with it.

As Australia is a VERY environmentally conscious country and America is becoming more so each year, I thought it would be relevant to heed the advice of those who know what it's all about. My new Australian environmental contributor is bringing us a most useful green tip this week.

1. Buy a box of the glad zip lock bags

2. When you buy meat from the supermarket it nearly always needs to be repackaged for freezing so split the meat into appropriate zip lock bags and freeze.

3. When you want to have the meat for dinner remove the meat from the bag and place in fridge on a plate.

4. Promptly put the bag straight back into the freezer. This bag can then be used over and over again.

I have been using the same bunch of zip lock bags for over a year and all is good. Saves you money and the environment…

How's that guys? Four simple steps and you are off to a greener planet! Cheers!

Malvern Star

2007-08-26T16:16:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: mince = ground beef, a la the mince meat pie, which are very popular to eat in Oz.

I have attached a picture of the original Malvern Star bicycle circa 1970's. This photo was found on eBay as these original Malvern Star bikes are now vintage collector's items. This is the same brand as the bike I now own. The following is a little bit about this Australian invented bicycle brought to you courtesy of my Australian contributor, The Prock.

In 1902 Tom Finnigan began Malvern Star in Glenferrie Road, Malvern, a leafy inner east suburb of Melbourne, Australia. From it's early beginnings Malvern Star set about delivering a range of bicycles built to the highest standards. Malvern Star has created its' own history with the first ever Australian to ride the Tour de France, Sir Hubert Opperman, doing so aboard a Malvern Star, and later going on to win the famous Paris-Brest-Paris race in France and in doing so setting a new record time for the event. Many years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics the Australian Team Pursuit aboard what were considered standard track bicycles beat the much favoured USA Team riding the latest in bicycle technology, carbon fibre.

In addition to the Malvern Star, some of Australia's better known inventions include such things as the Hills Hoist, a square rotating clothesline with a crank for "hoisting" the laundry up; boxed wine, technically referred to as a wine cask; latex gloves and the notepad.

Such is Life

2007-08-22T15:34:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: push bike or pushy = bicycle, "I rode my pushy to work."

The title of this blog, Such is Life, was originally coined by notorious Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly right before he was hung. He was the Australian Jesse James.

FINALLY! a moment to write, but only a stolen moment. As a few of my dedicated readers pointed out to me, I haven't posted a blog in a while, so I am taking some time out of my very full week to let you all know that I am still alive, but just. My brain is overwhelmed and overworked with reading textbooks and handouts and preparing assignments and writing academic blogs. I like being back at school, but no one said the fun would last forever. The nitty gritty part of school life has commenced.

My big achievement in the last week, however, was not school related. I bought a bike last weekend (see photo). The task of shopping for a used bike I quickly learned to loathe, but was finally blessed in finding one with gears that didn't slip and handle bars that didn't melt to your hand as you gripped them. After I bought my girly purple bike I celebrated by going to the beach with my friends. That's me (above) at Cottesloe beach. People flocked to the beach Saturday for a chance to get some sun and enjoy the "unusually" warm weather.. 80 degrees, unusual for this time of year. Sunday the weather was back to shit again, but I braved the rains and ventured to the Subiaco markets for some cheap, but delicious fresh produce and buttery croissants. Despite the rainy weather, half of Perth decided to go to the markets that day as well. It was nearly impossible to squeeze through the throngs of market-goers, all vying for the best and cheapest produce around.

After my bike purchase, I decided I should forgo my weekly pub/ club visit as my money is quickly dwindling. The purse strings get a little tighter as each week passes without a job under my belt. Getting a job will be my next major achievement, although I've heard and witnessed it is not hard to get one. There's currently an employee shortage in Perth due to the mining boom in the northern part of the state. I found out this morning at my aqua aerobics class that they pay $45 per hour for aerobics instructors! I'm considering getting certified for aqua aerobics as well as lifeguard certification.. lifeguards make $25 an hour. What kind of job do you think I should get? Something casual like a waitress or sales associate at a clothing store? Or should I look for something more suited to my career, like entry level or clerical for a newspaper/ magazine?

Yum-O!

2007-08-12T21:16:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Chook = chicken, "I bought a large chook at the shop." Not used as "I had a chook sandwich."

Mmm..mmm. Tonight was the perfect ending to a pretty good weekend. My roommates and I cooked up a damn good meal of dishes spanning the globe (see photos). From sauteed Chinese broccoli to African mushrooms and super spicy vegetarian Curry, we were six very stuffed and happy people when all was finished.

My weekend got started with a trip to the opera last night to see Rigoletto. My friend had scored two tickets to the dress rehearsal show, and since I've never been to the opera, I went out of curiosity. I was happy to see that they had the lyrics in English on screens on either side of the stage and the setting was very modern, not the old fashioned type of opera with the big flouncy victorian dresses and wigs. The stage rotated to each scene revealing elaborate two-story sets and there was a song in the opera that everyone knows, but obviously I can't sing it for you in writing. After finishing at the opera, we went for drinks at a few nearby bars and before I knew it the night turned into morning and I rolled into my apartment at nearly 6am.

Needless to say, I didn't get up until noon today and did the usual Sunday stuff, mostly laundry, cleaning (inspection tomorrow) and cooking for tonights meal. Life is good...

One of those days

2007-08-08T21:18:00.000+08:00

Aussie word for the day: Poofter = homosexual male, "He's cute, but he's a poofter."

We've all had 'em, bad days.. this is the first week when things are starting to not seem so good. I even cried a little. I looked for bikes on Monday and came up with nothing. Three bikes and none of them were good... frustration! It was so easy to buy a used TV, but a used bike, noooo! Monday night was good! I let off a little frustration by partying with my roommates for my roommate Frankie's birthday. We had 20 or so people over to our unit for drinks and nibbly's (snacks). Alcohol, food, and friends makes it all better.

Today, however, is another story. I couldn't get into the bathroom this morning because one of my roommates was in there every time I went to use it, I missed my fitness workshop at the gym, which I had to make an appointment for, because I forgot to turn my alarm clock on, then sat in an empty classroom for 20 minutes for my class to start and realized when I looked at my watch that my alarm clock had been reset an hour ahead of time, so I was an hour early for my class and could've made it to the fitness workshop afterall. I left the classroom and came back an hour later at the correct time only to find out that I shouldn't be enrolled in that class at all because it is a thesis prep course that only 2nd semester students should be taking. Aaaargh!!! So I spent the next 2 hours sorting out which class to add in it's place and then withdrawing from the thesis course.

After my day, I was in desperate need of a drink, instead I just ate some really fattening food. Everyone here says they've gained weight when they've travelled here before. I think that's the way it is anywhere you go, so look forward to some really fat photos of me to come. Just joking, I'm really hoping the gym will prevent that from happening.

Here comes the Sun!!!

2007-08-04T13:03:00.001+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Trackies or tracky dacks = track pants, sweatpants, "I'm going to wear my trackies to the gym." (that one's for you, B)

You all know that song in the blog title, right? It's an oldie. That was my motto yesterday because we actually had a full day of sun! For those of you at home in the States who are enjoying the thrill of long sunny summer days may not understand the joy I felt having a warm sunny day. Although, it's kind of like coming into spring after a long hard winter. So what else would you do but go to the beach! Even if the water is still too cold to swim in you can walk around by the beach, enjoy a nice healthy lunch with an ocean view while the sun warms you and the breeze blows in your hair, which is exactly what I did. This is what I love about Australia. Day's like yesterday and today, which is also turning out quite nicely, cloudless and perfect. So I just asked myself, "Why the hell am I still inside, not even out of my pajamas?"

It's been a lazy start to my Saturday. I got out of bed around 11am, fixed myself some coffee and Sultana Bran and started reading my emails, which always turns into hours of reading and responding. I do love hearing from everyone, so keep them coming! It's been keeping me from getting too homesick. Then I got caught up on a month's worth of my favorite Glamour blogs, Storked! (this one is especially good for my prego friends, Katie, Teg or new mums, Maria) and Alyssacentric (this one is actually written by a hot guy in Cali about dating). I highly recommend them to all who like a light, fun read. They give me inspiration for blogging. I also updated my iTunes so I can download the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy in the fall. Although they have Grey's here, American TV shows are a season behind.

So back to life in Oz.. I spent the day watching the brave surfers at Scarborough Beach, anticipating my own surfing ambition. Hopefully, when it's warmer I won't have to wear the silly wet suit that makes you look like a Sea Lion to the sharks that swarm the vast waters of the Indian Ocean. I'm so sorry I didn't get a beach pic, but there will be many more beach photo ops to come! Then I took a trip by train with some of the other ECU international students to Fremantle (Freo), a port an hour south of Perth, where we walked around the markets, ate a yummy pizza dinner (oh, the smell was divine!) and journeyed to the Fremantle Prison for a late-night tour (see photo). The tour is a bit haunted-house-esque. They provide you with tiny torches/ torchlights (flashlights) and guide you through darkened hallways, chambers, and prison yards, while giving you the history of the infamous prison and it's devilish inmates.. some stories funny, some a bit eerie, and a bit of haunting lore mixed in for fun. My favorite part of the tour was the gallows, where 40 men and one woman had been hung from a heavy beam for severe crimes, the last one hung in 1964. The prison officers were nice enough to give those sentenced to the gallows some brandy 30 minutes before hanging to sooth their nerves.

Tonight I am going "south of the river" to a cocktail party in St. James. Everyone have a great weekend, bottoms up!

Minneapolis mayhem

2007-08-02T21:40:00.000+08:00

I heard the news this morning in my Radio Journalism class about the Minneapolis bridge collapsing. I'm so out of touch with the US news right now, it's like I'm living in a bubble. I have to start watching and reading more news as a requirement for many of my journalism classes, but it's pretty bad when an Australian knows about a devastating event in my home country before I do. So I got online tonight and watched the segments on MSNBC and became pretty emotional about the whole thing. They kept mentioning the kids on the school buses and it really broke my heart. I hope there are very few fatalities. It was strange being so moved by this event b/c I think if I heard about this in the states I would have taken it more lightly, sad to say. I think being so far removed from the states changes the way you perceive a major event/ catastrophe in your homeland such as this.. even though it wasn't my city/ town, it might as well have been and it could have been my brother, cousin, parent coming home from work or a shopping trip.

Blog, blog, blog

2007-08-01T21:03:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Mark = grade, "I hope to get good marks this semester at uni (short for university.)"

Hi guys! Gonna keep it semi-short and sweet tonight as I still have to write a blog as a part of my class assignment for Media Law and it is due by midnight tonight. I'm going to be the blogging queen, since we have to blog about our text readings every week for the whole semester.

Obviously, classes have commenced this week and I am surprised at how busy I have been. At first I thought my course load was pretty light.. class only 3 days a week with Mondays and Fridays off, but I am finding out quickly that those classes take up a great amount of time, not only in class but on assignments as well. Also, I have some classes with exams and some without, but as you may have guessed the ones without exams involve A LOT of homework.

So I couldn't post a blog without the fun stuff, right? As you can tell by the cute and cuddly picture of me and the kangaroo, I have been experiencing some of the wildlife here in Oz and some of the "wild life" as well, refer to the first picture of me and some friends at the Mustang on the weekend. We visited Caversham Wildlife Park last Saturday where we got to pet the koala's and kangaroos. Then Saturday night a bunch of ECU students got together to hang out at my friend Grethe's penthouse apartment in one of the nicer suburbs in Perth, followed by a nice, looong walk to Northbridge where we stood in line for 30 minutes to get into the Mustang. I had a better time at the beginning of the night than towards the end, but all in all, a good bit of fun!

In closing, does anyone have any good ideas for a graduate thesis topic? If so, please advise asap! Ciao!

From fires to footy

2007-07-27T20:27:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Crook = to feel ill, sick; "He's been crook all week."

I'm hibernating in my room tonight after a full morning of housing orientation. I know that doesn't sound like a very thrilling experience, but let me tell you, I will never die in a fire after the fire safety seminar we had. I even got to put out a small controlled fire with an ABE extinguisher (that's powder form) which are typically used to put out 4 classes of fires; wood/ paper, combustible liquids, flammable gases, and electrical. The classes of fires are identified by letters A-F and there are 6 types of extinguishers, but I won't go into that. If you really want to know just ask me in an email and I'll be happy to share my new fire safety wisdom with you.

After the enthralling fire safety demonstration, the housing office provided us with a "sausage sizzle" basically a cookout where they cook skinny bratwurst-like hotdogs, very yummy! This afternoon the rains came in with a vengence, which makes for the perfect night of watching some good old, classic Aussie rules football on TV. I'm still not a committed sports watcher, but it is interesting watching a sport that is so different from anything in the States. Actually, I would like to know what my sports-nut brother would make of it. From what I can tell Aussie rules is pretty similar to rugby, but I could be wrong. Justin, start looking at flights for next year's rugby season.. that's this time next year!

I watched some of the funniest television ever last night, a show called The Footy Show, footy being short for football (they shorten everything here). I honestly didn't think I would like it because it's a show based on a sport and the humor is different to Americans, but SOOO FUNNY!!! It's somewhere between Dave Letterman and a football pre-game show. And some of the stuff they allow on TV here would make Americans blush. They just don't care! When I was watching a morning television show yesterday, one of the hosts made a reference to balls.. those kind of balls. It's a family show! And TV commercials for Jim Beam with lipstick lezzos (lesbians).. all I could say was WOW! Bevan tells me they have an FCC here, but I'm not sure what those commissioners do all day.

Knackered, but officially enroled (with one 'L')

2007-07-26T17:11:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Knackered = tired, "I'm feeling a bit knackered from staying out late last night."

Hi all! I have been a bit slack on the blogging the last few days due to shear laziness. Unfortunately, there hasn't been anything amazing to write about as the orientation activities have died down and campus has been pretty quiet.

Yesterday, I officially enroled (that's the way they spell it here) in my courses for the semester and am pleasantly suprised at how light the load seems. I am only attending classes Tuesday-Thursday and only have morning class on Thursday. Even so, there will be little down time once I get a part-time job and use my mornings to work.

Last night, I got to enjoy a little off-campus time with some new friends at the Grapeskin, a trendy little cocktail bar in Northbridge and then a comedy show at The Brass Monkey, where I got to hear the Australian perspective of Americans from one comedienne. It's always interesting to see it from the other side. After meeting some other American students last Saturday at the student welcome party, I can definately see it from the other side. The Americans at the party were the ass-slapping, hooping and hollering ones.. except me:) You definately notice it more when you aren't in America with other loud, ass-slapping people.

So you may be wondering why I posted a picture of cereal on the blog. Well, I saw this at the shop (store) and thought it was funny because I instantly recognized the Raisin Bran box, but what is this, Sultana? In Australia raisins are called sultanas. Betcha couldn't live another day without knowing that. But I do think the raisins are bigger and tastier than the raisins in Raisin Bran, so maybe Sultana's are better.

Brrr, shiver

2007-07-23T17:51:00.000+08:00

Aussie word of the day: Cuddle = hug, usage: "May I have a kiss and a cuddle?" or "May I have a hug and kiss?"

Saturday the Great Race was postponed due to the weather.. it's been nothing but cold and miserable and rainy. It rains for about 10-15 minutes every hour every day. So instead of the Great Race we had a "cultural" tour in downtown Perth. This included the State Library which is 4 stories tall and contains resource materials only, nothing can be checked out; the art gallery, where they are currently featuring an Egyptian exhibit from the Louvre; and the Western Australian History Museum, where we had a fascinating whirlwind tour of the early years of Australian settlers. All were really good, but it gives me something to go back and see since we really sped through everything. We had lunch at a local community center, then took a train to Subiaco (Subee for short) where we visited the markets. I think the Fremantle markets are much better myself. Subiaco is also where the two local football teams play. We then returned to campus tired and cold. I took a nap, then hung out at my neighbors flat until it was time to leave for the bar in Northbridge. I made it home unscathed at around 1:30am, but was left with a massive headache/ hangover yesterday. I think I underestimated the strength of their beer.. Ouch! Thus, I did not get out of bed until noon yesterday. Took a quick walk around the campus, sat in a park eating my lunch of cheeseballs and Vanilla Coke, then returned to my room and surfed the internet and made my blog, which I hope you are enjoying.

I am planning on buying a TV this week. I think I've about had it with the dead quiet of my flat and my antisocial flatmates, so I found a used TV in the Quokka, also known as the classifieds. For you Warrensburgian's this is eqivalent to The Star Advertiser that comes out on Wednesday's, except the Quokka comes out on Thursdays. Another goal this week is to get a bike. It's a 20 minute walk into the city, which isn't bad and I could use the excercise, so I might venture that way tomorrow, but a bike will definately come in handy too.

Hello from Oz!

2007-07-22T15:55:00.000+08:00

When Dorothy proclaimed to Toto, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto" she definately wasn't speaking of this Oz.. and I think it's a little hard to get here by tornado.. and I haven't killed any witches - yet. Actually, I have been trying to aclimate to the weather much to my dismay as I was convinced there would be no problems adjusting to 50 degree weather when our winters are usually in the 30s. But low and behold, I'm FREEZING! Among many things Australians are weird about, they are weird about their heating and cooling systems. Luckily, I have such an oddity as a heater in my tiny, institutional shell of a bedroom, which I have used every day that I have been here.

I live in a 6 bedroom "flat" (see photo, mine is the upper right) with 3 guys and 2 other girls. Think MTV's The Real World only no one really talks to one another because we're all foreign and by foreign I mean not Australian. We all kind of slink around the apartment, quietly avoiding much interaction with each other. Titus is from So. Africa and listens to Afrian tribal music that sounds much like "In the Jungle", maybe I should try out my best "aweemaway" for him. Andrea (Awn-dray-ah) is on exchange from Chile and is the only one I've really talked to much. I forgot what is was like living with other people and it's kind of annoying hearing almost everything that goes on in the apartment.

We've been in orientation for a draining 2 days, but I've met a lot of people. The ones I am most astonished by are the Norwegians and Swedes because they sound like Americans when they speak. I met Joakim (Ya-kim). With his natty dreads pushed back by a head band and a tattoo of his idol Bob Marley on his ankle, I was sure he would tell me he was from Seattle or San Francisco, but his response given in perfect American English was Stockhom, Sweden! The concensus from these internationals are that they watch a lot of American TV, thus the near perfect American speech. They also have names like Kristen (from Norway) and Debbie (from Holland). Shouldn't they be Helga or Svetlana?

I am learning very quickly that lecturers and tutors are your teachers and professors rarely teach, but spend most of their time doing research! Classes/ lectures are given in a lecture theatre. The grading scale is also different with an HD (high distinction) as your highest grade and N (not very good) as your lowest grade. You also call your teachers by their first names instead of their last unless otherwise noted. And by today's experience during orientation, it's ok to have your cell phone on and with you during class. Not only were there several student cell phones ringing during the orientation lecture, but the one doing the most ringing, and I mean every 5 or 10 minutes, was the lecturers phone! For god's sake woman, put it on silent or vibrate! Something.. so that the rest of us can concentrate on the importance of the lecture. Call me old fashioned, but when the teacher's phone is going off more than the students' phones, there's a problem.

I'm off tomorrow on the Great Race, a spin off the Amazing Race, but around Perth City. Then there is a Welcome Week party at a bar in a nearby suburb and hopefully I will get a little bit of R & R on Sunday. I'm also looking into taking a diving course and surfing lessons! More on that later.