I don't like hunters

so here I am, working in my office, typing away on my computer, when something catches my eye... a GIANT SPIDER crawling up the wall.

now, after working in the woods for over a year, i've become a little desensitized towards spiders. but those are american spiders. i'm in australia. australian spiders scare me. because most of them will kill me.

so what do i do? i jump up and run down the hall to find a big strong australian man to save me.

what do i find? no one.

it's after 6pm, so mostly everyone is gone.

i come back to my office, and that little bugger is now hiding. i can't be expected to work while a giant spider is watching me.

so now what? i stand on my chair in the middle of the room, of course

eventually the spider showed 'herself' again on my wall and at this time a nice older female student was walking down the hallway, so i jump off the chair and stand in the doorway and she looks startled to see me cowering there and then i just say 'spider'.

she says 'im sorry? is there a spider in there?'

so i show it to her and she says 'oh, no worries, that's just a hunstman. it's not deadly' (side note: i wikipedia'd 'hunstman spider' and they had this tid-bit of information: Huntsman spiders are not deadly to humans. They do bite, but the victim will suffer only minor swelling and localised pain, and will recover in a day or two.) (no thanks)

then she said 'well, you have 2 options. you can work with it while it darts around and eats the flies, or i can take it outside for you'

ARE YOU CRAZY? take it outside!

so she put it in a container and took it away for me.

now here are some pics of my little huntsman friend:

Abbreve This!

Talk about your mother of all abbreviations.

Australians don't say 'thank you' or 'thanks' they say 'ta'.

that's it.

just 'ta'.

Sarcasm is the language of the devil

i never got this 'complaint' last year, but for some reason it's been coming up a lot lately:

apparently Australians think Americans have no sense of humor. and by that, they don't think we understand sarcasm.

why. on. earth.

what a weird stereotype.

'oh, she's american, she doesn't have a sense of humor. i can't continue talking to her' (yes, that was actually said to me last friday) (and he wasn't being sarcastic) (just a jerk) (a really funny jerk) (that was sarcasm)

however, i was just given this 'compliment':
me: i don't understand why australians think americans don't get sarcasm. i'm one of the most sarcastic people i know'
my friend: 'yeah, i've noticed you're not bad at it'

thanks?




and here are some more Australian sayings... maybe we say them in America... but i certainly haven't heard them before:

'stacking it': falling. 'it was so embarassing, i was walking down the hall and i just stacked it'

'rock up': to walk up to, to arrive. 'i rocked up to class like 30 minutes late', 'he just rocked up to me, can you believe it?'

cadbury: alcohol lightweight. 'i've had 2 beers and i'm drunk' - 'what a cadbury'

seppo: Australian army slang for American. short for 'septic tank'. i've made a new friend in the Australian army, and he calls me seppo. all. the. time. i think i'm offended?

Portugal? Well, gonna live it up in ol' South America, aren't we, Michael? *

i just noticed the map hanging on the wall next to my desk.

i thought: 'hey, let's check out africa'
then i thought: 'was africa always this skinny?'
then: 'when was uruguay in africa?'

THEN i realized it was South America.

this map has Australia in the middle of it.

so now South America is on the right hand side of the map, while Africa is way over on the left.



it doesn't look right.


*"Arrested Development" is awesome.

No no, let ME hold YOUR hand, sir.

I just met with my advisor. We haven't met or talked in about 2 months. He doesn't seem too worried by this.

let me tell you something about my advisor. he's a walking encyclopedia. he learned to fluently speak french in less than a month. he's brilliant. so brilliant i don't think he's mentally present at all times. he kinda floats through the day, perhaps performing difficult mathematical equations in his head, or constantly comparing Homo ergaster specimen KNM-WT 15000's nuchal plane to that of Homo habilis Sk 847. Something I'm sure we all spend many hours a day pondering. I think he's too busy being brilliant to see what's actually happening in front of him, in reality.

I bring in my outline and timeline (the dates i've set up to have each chapter finished by and blardy blar blar). I nervously hand them to my advisor. He sees how neatly and organized they are typed up.

Him: "oh, that looks just fine"
me: (expecting him to have something substantial to say about what's actually written on the paper....) "well, do you think my chapters look ok? organized well? in a good layout? they cover all the areas? do i need more?"
Him: "well, i guess, but i don't really know what your chapters are"
me: "well they're written out there on the outline"
Him: (pleasantly surprised) "oh, so they are!"

he reads over them.

Him: "It's Cladistic Analysis. Not Cladistics Analysis"
me: "oh yeah, sorry about that typo"

pause

me: "sooo.... what do you think of the outline? do you think the chapters are ok?'
Him: "oh yes, oh yes, they're fine"
me: "well what about the timeline? i lose about 3 weeks at the end of November and the beginning of December because I'm moving back to the states and my sister's getting married"
Him: "oh a wedding! how nice"
me: "yes... so... I'm trying to have most of my chapters written before then, so I can just be doing idle editing during all that chaos"
Him: "it'll be winter there, right? how nice"
me: "yes, she's having a winter wedding. so right after the wedding, that's when I'll write my introduction and conclusion"
Him: "oh yes, that's fine"
me: "and I'll just e-mail them to you, since I won't be here"
Him: "oh yes, that's fine"
me: "and every time i finish a chapter, I'll rush it over to you so you can edit it for me for the following week"
Him: "oh that's a good idea"
me: and then i'll take your hand and help you cross the street
Him: oh yes, that's fine

ok, that last part didn't happen, but that's pretty much how i felt.

don't get me wrong. he knows all the answers to all my problems, and is always willing to help, it's just with my personality... i need someone demanding work from me every week, giving me certain deadlines, yelling at me when i don't have something done, instilling me with fear of what will happen if i fail. but instead, i get a lovely, calm, happy-to-be-alive grandpa.

well, here grandpa, give me your hand, let's cross the street.










and another thing:
they call electricians "sparkies"
and carpenters "chippies"

Uh oh!

My australian friends just found my blog!

damn you, google.

i have done THIS before, but not THAT

so we've started a 'veggie patch' here at my dorm. they cleared out a pretty sizeable area in one of our courtyards for us to grow organic vegetables and herbs.
today was our first 'event' where we had to move a giant pile of compost onto the plot. this consisted of shoveling it into a wheelbarrow, pushing this wheelbarrow up and around this crazy ramp, then dumping it and spreading it over the plot. so i of course volunteered to shovel.

now due to my archaeology days, i honed in on my digging talents and i never thought they would really come in handy... except for the time i dug a hole to find a leaky pipe for my parent's pool. but let me tell you... my shoveling skills are apparently awesome... and noticeable.

i got multiple compliments.
"wow, you're really good at shoveling"
"have you done this before?"
"your aim is amazing"
"how do you shovel so quickly?"
"you look so natural holding a shovel"

so there you go ladies and gentlemen. those 18 months of digging, filling holes, and moving dirt piles has gotten me respect.

now let's see if any vegetables will grow out of that giant amount of compost.

on another note!!
i've joined my dorm's netball team. Netball.. well.. it's like ultimate frisbee meets basketball.
it's 7 on 7, usually seen as a ladies sport, and you have a ball that resembles a soccer ball. anyway, you throw/pass it to your teammates, and once you get the ball, you can't move. no dribbling, no walking. so you catch it, and pass it off immediately.
OH! and there are zones. the court is split up into thirds. and the end thirds have semi-circles cut into them, much smaller than a basketball key, and this is the shooting area. and each position is restricted to certain areas.
my potential position, Wing Defense... i can only go in to 2 of the thirds, and not into either semi-circle.
anyway, you also have to stand 3 feet away from the opposite team. it is a non-contact sport.
ALSO! you wear little skirts like tennis skirts!
ALSO! there is no backboard! it's a pole with a hoop

it is a crazy sport, but we've had 1 practice and it was loads of fun. i just like team sports. and i like that i'm not expected to run the whole court.
other positions are called:
goal keeper
goal attack
wing attack
goal shooter
and center, of course

anyway, we have 2 more practices this week and my butt is so sore it hurts to sit. our 'coach' made us do lunges across the court. ouchies.

Day 13: Wednesday, March 26th

we wake up at 6am and my sister finishes gathering the last little bits to take home with her and my friend I. takes us to the airport. it was too early in the morning for J. to take us.

we get there in plenty of time and we sit down at the 1, count 'em 1, cafe the Canberra airport has to offer. i forget what we had, but i bet it was good, and probably mostly juice and coffee.

the three of us had a great little conversation for about 30 mins. I. talked about how pretentious Melbourne is. He gave them a special hand movement, like a hip 'come hither' movement that means "I'm from Melbourne. Look at all the cafes we have. Let's go shopping. I'm so much better than you".

and then that was it! we sent my sister through security (they didn't even bomb test her! b.s.! i get bomb tested everytime because they have nothing else to do because they never have anyone flying!) and she was off for what i'm sure was an extremely enjoyable 30 hour trip. at least she wasn't coughing up a lung anymore.


i know i was waaaayyy lame with the 2nd half of these posts! but look! i finished! and my sister and i had a great time, lots of pictures, lots of laughs, some we don't remember why we laughed, but it was there, and now we have moved on with our lives.

she's currently sick again. what is wrong with you??

and i'm currently researching at 1am in the common room of my dorm.
i have a presentation due on monday. at least i understand what is expected of me. only took my advisor 3 months to finally tell me what i'm supposed to have been doing.

a lot sure has been happening... i think. ANZAC day came and went. the bars are full at 11am on ANZAC day. it's a fun day. i started knitting again. i've started 2 scarves. one is pink and white with skinny little needles, and one is an orange mesh with huge needles. and i just learned the purl stitch and i can now make pretty designs.

my sister and i enlisted the help of our grandmother when we were in highschool to help us learn how to knit. we boought ourselves those 'learn how to' kits that Michael's makes for 8 year olds. i apparently had natural talent. my sister... well, i don't want to be rude but i think that marked one of the first times i could do something better than my sister. yeah, my knitting skills were just that good, well hers were just that bad. i never finished any knitting project, surprise surprise, but i promise i will with these scarves!
i'm gonna learn how to knit beanies, and headbands, and other easy items.

the university had a campus wide Band Night. each dorm was to enter one band into the competition. our dorm got a 2 days notice before a 2 week holiday, leaving them 1 week after holidays to practice. so with 1 actual practice under their belts, 5 of my good friends took the stage, and they rocked it. now i understand why it's cool to date someone in a band. we didn't win the competition, but we also didn't get booed off the stage, which was what we were all expecting. and i made shirts. you know i did. and they were awesome. our 'general manager' (i.e. head boss) of our dorm is named Peter Warrington... so what did the band name itself? The Peter Warrington Symphonic Powerhouse. obviously.

we all learned a new card game: 500. apparently it' sthe national card game of australia! it's basically a 4 person card game along the same lines of: hearts, spades, bridge, set back (or what was it you called that game mother? step back? step up?), arizona pitch, and the like. it's fun, addictive, competitive, and keeps us awake until 4am.

nothing else too crazy. for a month i had a great gym routine going on. i lost 10 lbs in a month! but then i got sick. today's the first day i'm actually well again. so i haven't gone in a week. BUT! since i've gone vegan again, i'm trying to be extra healthy, and 'people' say when you're sick, it's not good to rely on over the counter meds, so i went med-free. and if you know me and my immune system, usually the safest thing is to start popping all the pills i can get, but i conquered the illness with vitamins, water, soup, and sleep. i was pretty stoked.
and going vegan has been great. dairy really is satan's gift to us.

i guess that's about it! i should get back to my research. i have 5 books laid out in front of me, guess it's time to read.

Day 12: Tuesday, March 25th

we wake up at 5:30 am. we call in to hot air balloon company to check the weather report and status of flight... and WHAT?!?! IT'S CANCELLED? oh yes my friends. sure, australia's in the middle of a drought. sure it hasn't rained in canberra for the past 2 weeks. but today, today when we want to fly amongst the clouds... it is a rainy forecast.
so we went back to sleep. until 9.

we woke up, showered, and called the zoo asking if you were allowed to hold a koala. the one australian animal my sister has yet to see. apparently there is a law that in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) (the state within Canberra lies) one cannot hold a koala. even Beyonce once got refused. so instead we thought we'd spend the rainy day patronizing all the museums.
we first took a taxi to the National Museum of Australia. i had been there once before. in my first week in Australia back in Feb of 2007 with my mother, but I figured i could stand it once more.

the museum sure is confusing, with it's layout. first of all, it has some sort of skateboarding loop-d-loop art sculpture at the entrance. it's tacky, and big, and red. the museum itself is ok. they have a stuffed platypus. and a huge nugget of gold. and i'm sure there was lots more.

so after we saw what there was to see, and browsed the gift shop, we took the bus to the City Civic Centre. and mind you... it is pooooouring.

we hit up 2 souvenir stores. oh yes parents, you have something very nice coming your way. then we ate at a little italian restaurant i've walked by many times but never stopped in at before. it wasn't too bad. i found out later one of my pretty good friends worked there all last year. i don't pay attention much to other people's lives.

next we sorta figured out the bus schedule and hopped on one to take us to the museum/old parliament district.

i made us get off the bus one stop too early, but this then gave us time to walk 4 blocks in the downpour. my sister loved it, i'm sure.

we arrived at the Canberra Art Gallery and even though we explored it for what seemed like 2 hours, we discovered we only saw half of it. this place was huge. but by this time our legs were aching, we were soaking, and thought it was time to head home.

we grabbed our coats and bags from the bag-check man... who stuffed them in a cubby and hung our coats on top of each other... so thank goodness there was no drying of the items was possible.

we exited the building... and were both very confused on where the closest bus stop was. we found an abandoned one. and stood for a few seconds wondering what direction we should go in... when we saw a bus pulling up to a stop around the corner. so we ran. ran fast. in the ran. we rain ran.

AND THEN when we tried to purchase our bus ticket from the bus driver he offered us the bargain student price, which every other bus driver had failed to mention! we could have saved about 5 bucks!!

so we returned home, showered, and hung out for a bit. and that's when the clouds disappeared and the weather was beautiful.

we went out with my friend J for dinner at Wagamama. it made my sister very happy. she even got to buy an Australian Wagamama shirt!

and i've found it tradition here in canberra, that when a guest comes to visit, they must be taken to Mount Ainsley. i've been there a few times now. and i guess it's nice. you get a view over the entire city... and its suburbs. i guess the way the War Memorial and Parliament are lit at night, it is very nice to see. but really folks, that's all there is to see of canberra from atop a mount. anyway, we went at J's behest and my sister got to see canberra lit up at night.
then we returned back to my dorm and it was movie nite! all of my friends and plenty of others had gathered in the common room to watch 'cool runnings'. my friends D and I came over to talk to us in the back, and something funny was said so my sister and i laughed our very infamous quiet laughs, when we got unanimously shushed.. and my sister replied rather loudly with "what? this movie's really funny!!" which made me bust out a guffaw and i angered the crowd even more. while my friends wanted to take my sister out for a drink, we had plans of packing and sleeping. which we followed through on.

we did have to wake up at 6am for her early flight, so we knew sleep was the best choice.

i do have a few pics from today's entry, but i'm on my office computer and not my laptop, so i'll have to upload those pictures later. and one is of my sister singing at the bus stop. she did it more than once.

Day 11: Monday, March 24th

(i posted twice tonite because i've been way behind and we didn't do much on Day 10)

we woke up, rested, packed, and "explored Airlie Beach again!". which really meant we got our bagels and cream cheese, read, and sat out by the lagoon waiting for our bus to take us to the airport. a very expensive bus. i finished my book "The last Juror" and returned it for 4 bucks to the book trading store. niiice.
we caught our bus, along with a couple other backpackers, and a barefoot homeless man who "snuck" on. the bus eventually dropped him off a few stops later because he didn't have a ticket.
we got to the tiny tiny 2-gate airport which has departing guests sit outside. we found some shaded seats and read some more.

we arrived in Brisbane for our layover on the way to Canberra and found more pizza to eat. seriously, all they know how to make vegetarian is cheese. my sister tried a chocolate bar called 'cherry ripe' and thought it was gross. we realized we're going to get in late to Canberra (and anytime after 5pm mostly everything is closed) so i'm frantically texting friends trying to find someone to go get us wagamama so we can have it for dinner (for the 3rd time).

we arrived in Canberra at about 9:30 i believe, got our bags, and our taxi, and got to my dorm room. i wrote down that we laughed, but i don't know why.
Since it was a holiday weekend Wagamama 'ran out of food' so my friend R couldn't fulfill our dreams, but he did buy us pasta, pasta sauce, and vegetables, so that was our dinner. and it was yums.
as we walked to my room, my friend J had been hiding and she jumped out and i screamed like a girl. a loud adult girl.
my sister and i had our dinner, watched 'the west wing', checked e-mail, and passed out.

another exciting non-stop day for us girls! we like our cheese and our sleep.

we have to wake up tomorrow at 5:30am for hot air ballooning! so no late-nite partying for us!

Day 10: Sunday, March 23rd

we woke up at a reasonable hour and checked out and had our bags hang out in the luggage area while we enjoyed our morning on the beach. we started off by signing up for tube rides. we only had to wait an hour or so, so we read on the beach in the meantime. then it was time to get tubed. we were stupid and didn't have the person in the boat watching us to make sure we didn't die take pictures of us... but we won't forget it! we sat in blow-up tubes and were attached by rope to a back of a speed boat. then we were taken on a crazy ride around the harbor area for about 15 minutes. our butts vibrated a lot. but we didn't fall out! and we laughed and screamed a lot and bumped into each other that made each other go flying across the jet boat waves. it was totally awesome. then we kayaked a bit and had lunch. a veggie burger with fries. mmm.

we got on the ferry that was to take us back to Airlie Beach. we made it back to mainland just in time before it started to pour. we got our bus from shute harbor to airlie beach where the crazy old bus driver said we couldn't board, but apparently he was just being old and gross and flirting. i never find those jokes funny. like i'm supposed to know you are kidding, arse.

we got dropped right off in front of our hostel, our check in went fine, and we were pointed in the direction of our room. it was definitely at least a 5 minutes walk across the hostel grounds.

the room was nice with a tv, a rather large kitchen area, and a fairly big bathroom (with a BRIGHT YELLOW toilet).

we placed our stuff out to dry on our balcony, but it was raining, so that didn't really work. we eventually trekked off in said rain and of course found a pizza place and had more cheese. we were surrounded by dozens of backpackers drinking pitchers of beer, but my sister and i had our pizza and pasta and water. on our way back to the hostel we stopped in a few souvenir stores but didn't find anything too exciting. we then spent the rest of our nite in our hostel watching kitchen nightmares and reading.

and that was pretty much our day. we are still burnt.

Day 9: Saturday, March 22nd

Today was our day of leisure! we started off the morning by applying new layers of aloe followed by sunscreen. at about 9am we went to go read in the shade. laying in hammocks and under thatched umbrellas. we wanted to enjoy the beach, but our skin couldn't handle more sun exposure :(

BUT a baby wallaby came out to join us! he was just hopping around, munching on leaves, right in the middle of the action, and was adorable. my sister was afraid if she got too close he'd jump away, but he hung out long enough for us to take probably 300 pictures of him. and the ugly bush turkeys. and those crazy long-legged birds.

we went to the cafe for lunch, and every vegetarian item maily consisted of cheese. we settled for nachos, and felt way gross afterwards. even tho they were slightly better than those of the tex mex restaurant in Airlie Beach, they were still odd.

we then played some ping-pong and then it was time for the daily 4:45 bird feeding!

we went over to find a small group of people smearing some sort of oatmeal substance on their hands and dozens of rainbow-colored birds (i don't do well with identification of birds) chomping away. my sister got right in the middle of it and soon she had her own bird posse clamping on her arms and nibbling of her hands... and resting on her head. one lady got bird poop on her shoulder. it was funny. then we saw an adult wallaby!

the island, Long Island, boasts of multiple nature walks, so we thought we should do something active (other than ping-pong) and we chose the path named Humpy Point. we saw it was getting darker, but it was only a 600 meter walk, so we thought we'd be ok. we were both wearing sandals and some areas of the "track" was muddy, but we made it through. and we saw another wallaby! we got to the end... and it was just... a dead end. no amazing view, no photo op, just a dead end of a wall of some rocks... and if you tried hard you could look through the trees to see a neighboring island... but that was about it. we turned back and then the sun started to go down. and it got dark. very very dark. and we were in some fairly thick "bush". but we finally got back and no scary bush animal attacked us! hooray!

so now it was dinner time, and we returned to the cafe to order some of the pizza they have on their menu... but they don't do pizza for dinner! say whaaa?? so we had more nachos. barfola.

and we sat next to a group of middle-aged women out on the patio area who thought it was funny to feed those long legged birds. even though those birds were annoying, and loud, and fairly aggressive, these stupid women kept feeding them until the cafe worker came out and tried to shoo the birds away. those women were stupid. and loud. and tacky.

then we went to bed early and didn't move while we let the aloe vera work its magic.

Look, a hiatus!

Hey guys, sorry for not writing in about 3 days, but you know how the weekend goes. and then how mondays go! i've been up since 3:30am. 3:30 on a monday! and now it's 11:30 and i'm falling asleep as i write this. i just wanted you to know i'm alive and i'll start to finish up the trip details tomorrow night!! i'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats. i hope your desk chairs don't have wheels, or else you're gonna fall right off.

Day 8: Friday, March 21st

can you believe it? we are more than halfway through our trip. it's gone by pretty quickly. but here we are in Airlie Beach ready for our day at sea.

we woke up at 5:50am. we had to get up early, and the garbage men in the alley helped us with that.

so we woke up, packed, and checked out of our hostel and walked to the bus stop about a block down the main road. our bus was due at 7:10. right now it was about 6:50. there was a cafe down the street, perhaps a 1.5 minute walk, that was to open at 7am and they were serving BAGELS AND CREAM CHEESE on the menu! i don't think you understand how excited i was. i haven't had a bagel EVER in australia. they just don't eat them. and since we found out this cafe had them, it's all i could think about. so i send my sister down to the cafe to buy our bagels and she comes back at 6:57. the worker at Harry's Corner Cafe said they wouldn't be ready for another 10 minutes. so at 7:01 i decided to go back. we were gonna get our bagels, dangit.

they happily took my order at 7:03. but apparently it takes 9 minutes to toast a bagel and spread cream cheese on it. when the bus came at 7:10 my sister was a bit worried because i wasn't back. at 7:12 i appeared down the road and my sister waved at me frantically signing i should hurry. at first i thought she was just waving, as if i forgot where she was or something. then i realized what was happening. i sprint down the street (and frighten the bejeezus out of a girl turning the corner because she was greeted by me running at her).

so i make it to the bus, which ends up sitting there for another good 4 minutes. and as my sister and i take our first bite out of the heavenly bagels, the bus driver turns around and says no food allowed. oh man. what a tease!

anyway, the bus finally takes off (and by bus, i totally mean short bus) and it was probably a ride that lasted a minute and 40 seconds around a corner. but we checked in there with the yacht sailing people and we had a few minutes to hang out until the boat was to set sail. so we got to eat our bagels. and they were amazing. we also bought an underwater camera. more on that later.

so... i guess i didn't mention: but the plan for today was sail around on a huge catamaran (called The Camira) (supposedly a $4 million boat) and then end up at Long Island, where we would be staying for the next 2 nites. it was going to take us around 3 or 4 islands, all on top of the great barrier reef.

so we boarded our boat, along with 40 other people? i'm not good at estimating. and sat next to 2 british girls. who were pretty dumb and annoying. back on mainland they smoked right in front of this sign that said "no smoking". anyway, one girl had huge boobs. like, they looked painfully big. they were pulling at her skin. but she was proud of them. and anyway, the girls were pretty rude also. but the big boobed girl, as we set out, we were all laying around begining our journey and all of a sudden a HUGE wave popped up and she got completely soaked. we all laughed pretty heartily.

so off we were. we put on sun screen, started to relax, and then it was time to suit up for snorkeling! hooray! snorkeling to see the great barrier reef!

we got our awesome sting ray suits on, got our snorkel masks and snorkel (kid sized mind you) (we apparently have kid size faces) and got on the dinghy that took us close to an island, jumped out of the boat, and there we were. snorkeling. in cloudy water. (due to the recent amount of rain, the water was very cloudy) we coulnd't see anything. and by that i mean, i could hardly see my sister underwater when she was about a foot in front of me. so that was lame, but since we had our underwater camera, we had fun trying to take pictures of eachother. something my sister is not apparently good at. she almost drowned a few times trying to multitask in the water, so i can't wait to see what those pictures look like.

anyway, after that our next stop was the Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. a beautiful white-sanded beach with beautiful blue water.

our first move: play in the waves. which we did for a good 15 minutes, acting like 8 year old girls, but it was fun. then we played a little volleyball and then we built sand castles. beautiful sand castles, moat and all.

we all boarded the catamaran again and it was lunch time! and they had vegetarian patties for us! they also had rolls and cheese. mmm.. cheese roll sandwich.

as it turns out... even tho we re-applied our sun tan lotion about 2 or 3 times, we got FRIED on Whitehaven Beach. but we wouldn't realize the severity of it until later.

so after lunch we spent the next few hours sailing around.

then we came across this place. do you see what it looks like??

a monkey! but now i think they refer to it as homer simpson island.

they dropped us off at Daydream Island where we caught a ferry that was to take us to Long Island. first we went to the other side of Day Dream Island (which had bowling lanes, a billiard bar, and a huge outdoor movie screen!) (Day Dream Island looked awesome) (awesomely fun).

then we had to stop by South Molle Island, then back to damn Day Dream Island then finally got dropped off at Long Island.

as soon as we got there a staff member was feeding fishes off the dock and they were beautiful and huge. batfishes i think?

anyways, we checked in, and we were directed to the back of the island... where the poor backpackers are kept. anyway, we got to our room, dropped off our stuff and went to the main resort area for dinner. it was a buffet and it was good. we had corn on the cob, steamed vegetables, pasta, and dessert!

then we returned to our room and that's when we realized our tender our skin was. my sister ended up with an awesome burn on the tops of her feet and hands, and my shoulders were so red, they were almost purple. we were in so much pain. we poured aloe vera on ourselves and just laid in our beds not moving. my sister then picked up my newly bought book (The Last Juror... because i finished my other book) and she read the first chapter out loud while i laid there trying not think about my burning skin. my sister's feat were actually radiating heat.

anyway, tomorrow is our first day where we have no set agenda, and we are excited. i think we might even sleep in until 8am!! and our plan is to lay on the beach, and read, and sleep and eat. hopefully our skin will feel better tomorrow. damn you whitehaven beach!

Day 7: Thursday, March 20th

today's was one of my sister's entries and i don't remember all the details she left out, ahem, but we'll see how it goes...

this morning we woke up at 7 due to loud noises from the hallway. we showered, in gross showers, and my sister didn't have a lockable door in the shared bathroom. she had a curtain. she was afraid of being found. but she wasn't.

so we checked out, left our bags in storage, and went off to spend a few morning hours in the city of Brisbane before we had to catch the train to the airport.

we started off by walking to the river and walking across the bridge to the other side. the other side was pretty empty of inviting civilization. we were both hungry, and thought it'd be easy to find a cafe, we were afterall in the 'museum district'. after walking many blocks, we found a nice, fairly posh cafe. our waitress began acting like she was happy to serve us. then after giving us our menus, she didn't talk to us, or even look at us for at least 20 minutes. she would walk by us and keep on going. then we finally yelled out 'we are ready to eat' and she took our order, then went to the bathroom.
the people at the table next to us were having wine with their breakfast. it was about 9:30.

we got our pancakes and waffles, both of which came with ice cream and it was a bit weird, but delish. then we went back across the river to city hall, where my sister read about a free exhibit about the history of mental institutions in the area. it was fine. it filled our time.

we got our train and got to the airport, this time almost 2 hours before our flight was set to depart. once we landed in Proserpine (an airport with 2 gates) we didn't know what to do. we finally asked a man with a badge how to get to the main road in Airlie beach and he said we could hop on a limo for 15 bucks each. so we said yes. and we rode in a limo with 2 other boys... who did not want to be our friends.

we checked in with the travel agent there who had all our vouchers for our Whitsunday Island trip for the next 4 days then found our hostel across the street (which used to be a motel).

this town is very much a young surfer scene. hundreds of backpackers and dozens of hostels all attached to the "Most Happenin' Bar" in town. many of which had live bands, girls nite, and wet t-shirt contests.

we settled in to our nice and fairly large private room with private bath and headed out into the city... the "city" which is mainly a mile long on one road. we walked it and now we are sitting on some grass in between a lagoon and the ocean reading waiting for time to pass so we can go eat dinner! TEX-MEX!

yes, we found a tex-mex restaurant and thought we had to try it. now, of course we knew it was going to be bad, but this was a bit silly. my sister says it was horrible. i say it was edible... but the service ruined the evening for me.

we waited over 50 minutes for our dinner after we ordered while we saw 2 other tables being served before us... 2 tables that arrived after us. 2 tables of huge parties. my sister and i ordered nachos and quesadillas. that's pretty much melted cheese. how could they not melt cheese on 2 plates but they could make 5 orders of fajitas and 7 other orders for those other tables??

we asked our waiter where our food was. he asked what we ordered. he said it was coming right out. it was another 10ish minutes. they must have lost our order and made it right then and there. in the meantime the drink server girl was on the ball. we had a jug full of strawberry margaritas and they tasted like dirty water.

after we got our food, we wrote a very detailed review on their feedback slip. my sister drew a picture of what Good Nachos look like and what Bad Nachos (their nachos) look like.

Good Nachos: Cheese, beans, chips. (in that order)
Bad Airlie Beach Tex-Mex Nachos: Corn, cheese, chips, beans. (yes, in that order)

corn on corn chips? my sister's reply: can i get some popcorn with that? and some corn syrup? thanks.

at least when we returned to our hostel, Kitchen Nightmares was on again. so good.

while we have music and noise coming from both the front and back of our hostel (due to neighboring backpacker bars) we will eventually get to sleep.

by the way: some anecdotes i have forgotten:

from our outback tour group.. the belgium father (who was funny and nice) was telling a story about having to keep their luggage at a hostel in the "locket" room. awww.

one nite in the outback my sister was sitting around with the 2 swiss girls and that awesome american girl. the swiss girls were asking what "awful" means since "awe" means good. allison the american replied "awful means bad unless you mean like you have an awful lot of something". my sister, being the intellectual that she is, chimed in with "actually, an interesting fact is that when the word "awful" was first invented, it meant 'good', but overtime it took on the definition of the opposite meaning.'
this was met with silence and blank stares. my sister realized that she is so used to talking to brilliant people all day, she might not always know how to contribute to conversations with an average person. or with the swiss.

Day 6: Wednesday, March 19th

today has definitely been our day of the biggest let downs so far.

we did get to sleep in until 8, even though i woke up at 5am anyway and had trouble getting back to bed. we woke up, i watched morning kids' cartoons, my sister showered, we got to repack and completely reorganize and then we checked out successfully.
since we had a few hours to kill before our flight out we put our luggage in the hostel luggage room (an orange shed) and walked out to the town.
Allison, our american tour group friend, had claimed she went to the kangaroo rescue center in Alice Springs just 5 days earlier and got to feed milk to a baby kangaroo. one of the tour guides also mentioned this rescue center and said we should go. my sister asked a front desk last night where it was and she claimed it had closed, but when i asked a different front desk girl this morning she said it was just 10 mins down the road. so off we went to hold baby 'roos.

we followed the front desk lady's directions (turn right at the KFC) and we found no such 'roo center. we walked down the main road, saw a YWCA, a hospital, and the "Hospital Lawns". i asked a passer-by and her response was "oh, i know it's somewhere, but i don't know where".
this town is literally 7 streets wide.
so we kept looking and found a reptile center. come and pet a snake! i asked the guy at the desk and he said it had closed down. what on earth.

so we headed back to our hostel. as we entered the front parking lot we saw Jane and her tour guide friend. she asked what happened to us last nite! we asked what happened to her last nite! she said she came by our room around 8:30. but we were already walking down sketch road to get our greasy pizza :( if only we had stayed 3 more minutes. oh well. but at least we weren't left behind on purpose!

so anyway, my sister and i waited in the lobby until our airport shuttle came. we read, checked e-mail and realized the bus was 10 minutes late. it was to arrive at 11:15 (our flight was at 12:25). (we were told we'd have plenty of time and not to worry about cutting it close). the bus arrived at 11:28.
we got to the airport at 11:40 and was greeting by a long line at the Qantas desk.
at 11:43 we hadn't moved an inch (or a centimeter). there were at least 15 people in front of us. my sister walked up to one of the 3 Qantas employees and expressed concern about not making our 12:25 flight to Sydney, and he rudely explained that everyone in line was in the same position and to get back in the line. (how would he know what flight everyone was getting on?)
there was a shorter "business class" line next to us, so i hobbled over there (remember, this whole time my sister and i are wearing huge backpacks, at least 25 lbs each. the bags were bigger than us) and stood behind 3 "business" men. when i got up to the desk at 11:58 the man gladly helped me. my sister came over and we got our boarding tickets at 12:07. boarding had started 2 minutes ago.
now, this might not sound as nerve racking to anyone else, but growing up with my family, if you aren't at the airport at least 2 hours early with boarding tickets in hand, and at the gate at least an hour early, then your whole body should be overcome with fear and palms should be sweating. it's what we do.
so we now have 18 minutes until the plane literally takes off.
we go through security, and one of our bags gets flagged. the lady took it off the machine and just placed it next to her. she didn't signal to us or to another worker. she just left it on the floor. my sister and I impatiently looked on until i said 'i'm sorry, that's my bag, is something wrong?' and she replied 'i need it to be checked'. they had 1 bag checker on duty and she was having problems with a bag belonging to an elderly couple. she brought the elderly couple bag over to be re-x-rayed, and the x-ray lady still said there was a problem. we watched the woman take the elderly bag over, research it, then replace it back on the machine. still not satisfactory. i was about to scream that we needed our bag until some other lady walked over to take charge of our backpack. finally.
meanwhile my sister walked to our gate to check the status and said there was a long line of people boarding so we should have some time. the lady checked our bag saying the x-ray lady spotted a knife.
a knife?! a knife. why on earth would we have a knife.
know what is was? our danged butter knife we bought in alice springs to cut our cheese for our picnic. the lady extracted the knife from the bag like it was a sharp meat knife murder weapon. we gave our apologies and grabbed our bag and sprinted away. our flight was going to be 3 hours so i stopped to grab some chippies. my sister is freaking out saying 'we have to go! no one's at the gate!" and while paying for the chips i said "just go tell them!". pretty helpful answer.
we got our snacks, got to the gate, and found our seats. it was 12:21. amazing.
however, we had a middle and a window seat and the aisle seat was already filled by a woman. we walked over and said 'oh, we're in here!" and she looked at me, then looked back at her book. we stood there a bit confused and i said 'oh.. well.. no? oh... so should i just... oh ... ok' then i proceeded to climb over here. my butt right in her book. my sister followed, and we just bust out laughing. from relief, from awkwardness, and from the stupid australians that are over -cocky with their 'no worries, no worries' WHY YES! we had worries! you made us board at 12:21 for our 12:25 flight! we were damn worried. because if we had missed it, it would have been another 24 hours in pov Alice Springs. no thank you, mate.

so here we are in brisbane! we made our connection in Sydney just fine.
BY THE WAY, there is a 1 hour time difference between Brisbane and Sydney (and looking at map one would wonder why) but there is an hour and A HALF time difference between Sydney and The Outback. A HALF HOUR TIME DIFFERENCE?

anyway, we got our bags, our $24 train tickets to central station and found our New Orleans inspired hostel. after dealing with the dumb blonde girl at the front counter (are you staying for 1 night? you already paid for 1 night, so are you just staying 1 night? so are you departing tomorrow? you are only staying for 1 night?) (that was no exaggeration.) we finally got our room key.
after tying to use the self-service elevator that refused to open for my sister we took the stairs to the 4th floor, backpacks and all. after dropping off our stuff, we head out for dinner and explored brisbane at 7:30pm.

we found a busy outdoor mall. my sister remarked it looked like japan. ?.
then she actually shrieked and grabbed my arm when she saw a sign for Wagamama. one of her most beloved restaurants that she can't eat at in the states.
we first walked the length of the shopping area, stopped in a couple tourist stores then returned to Wagamama and had a great dinner.

we then spent over an hour trying to figure out the bus time table to the Koala Sanctuary we heard about. yes, it was open, and yes we were going to be able to hold koalas!! but then we found out we didn't have enough time before our flight tomorrow. :( no baby 'roos and no baby koalas. horrible day.

so off to our room where my sister decided what we would do in the morning. looking at the Brisbane city map my sister saw there was a museum district across the river and said we should go sightsee and see the clock tower and a museum in city hall. sounds like plenty will be filling our morning!

it's now 11:14pm. my sister has passed out and i'm turning off the lights. drunk people are milling in the hallway.

by the way, another time my sister made me go the wrong way: finding the baggage claim in the Brisbane airport. i read the sign that said "baggage claim ahead". she saw some escalators and decided that was where we should go. we went down, and nope, nothing. so we u-turned and went right back up again. followed the actual signs and found the baggage claim that way. the right way. my way.

sorry there weren't any pictures posted here... but we had nothing to photograph that day, except us tired in the train station and pissed off in the airport. it was a lame and nerve-(w)racking day. but the beds in our hostel were fairly comfortable so that was good enough for us.

Day 5: Tuesday, March 18th

we both slept very well in our tents that had electricty with a fan and a lamp. my watch alarm kept going off at 4am, but we were getting up at 5 anyway, so oh well.

when we did wake up and get out of our tents, the stars were still out in all their glory and the milky way was big and bright.

so now we're off to walk through King's Canyon.

we had the option of a 3 hour walk or a 1 hour walk.

my sister and i were kinda getting tired of all this outback nonsense, so we chose the 1 hour walk and everyone else went on the 3 hour walk.

the first part of the 3 hour walk is called "Heart Attack Hill". it's so steep and high that there are 3 break areas along the way and i guess it causes heart attacks.

my sister and i did the first 1/3, and that was good enough for us.

we left our group and my sister and i went to head out for our 1 hour creek walk that goes through part of the canyon, whereas the 3 hour walk you go to the top and walk the rim of the canyon, walk down in it, then walk out of it again.

our creek walk was just fine. we climbed rocks, hugged trees, saw crazy bugs:

and took lots and lots of pictures.

then after our walk we went and read and napped on some picnic benches and waited for the rest of our group to meet up with us.

once they arrived, we went back to that resort that wasn't ours and used their picnic table and pool again. we ate our veggie burgers and that was where we ended our Outback trip! we hopped on a different tour bus that took us to Alice Springs (a 5 hour drive) while our original tour group had another night out there going to McDonell's Range or something? maybe it was McDonald's Farm.

Anyway, we were very ready to be finished. it was beautiful and educational and we were certainly happy we did it... but 3 days of hundreds of flies, of 100 degree weather, and of non-stop cultural walks around rocks... we were ready for something a bit different.

and we didn't find much in Alice Springs.

we had to spend a night there since there are a limited number of flights out of that city that is in the middle of nowhere. our tour bus dropped us off right in front of our hostel and we made plans with the tour guides and the group we just joined to meet up for dinner at 8pm.

oh, and on the bus ride home, i had to pee for the last 2 hours.

we got our room, i got to pee, and the room was huge. it was a "private family" room that had 3 twin beds and a full bed. my sister immediately grabbed the big bed. thanks. but we had a tv, clean sheets, ac, a private bathroom, and a couch.

i showered, my sister did laundry, then we sat down to watch "The Moment of Truth". is that what it is called? where contestants are asked "embarassing" questions while hooked up to a lie detector and we're all supposed to care about their lives. it's a horrible show. this one guy, well he said he had, yes, stolen from a business and let someone else take the blame. and when the machine said he was telling the truth, the audience cheered cause he didn't lie. but also.. he was a thief. do you cheer for that?

so then he wanted to explain himself: he was a teenager perhaps, and working at a concession stand and he was either over-charging people for hot dogs or charging people for things when they were free and keeping the extra money. and then the boss confronted the workers and said there was a thief among them, and he knew who it was, and then he pointed to a different guy. charlie took the fall for truth-telling guy!. and the audience laughed! what a funny anecdote! charlie's in jail, but i'm glad you explained yourself! now we'll clap even harder for you.

so, it was 7:55 and time to start to walk to the restaurant and we saw one of the tour guides in the lobby (Jane) and she was ironing some clothes and said they were running late and they would come by our room in 10 minutes to get us when they left so we could all walk over together.

so we went back to our room and at 8:13 realized no one had come by to get us yet, so we went out to the lobby. and no sign of jane or the other tour guide. we sat and waited til 8:27. and finally decided we had been left. what losers we are!

we were starving so we walked the 3 blocks to a pizza place for dinner. we put our order in, then thought we should find some forks and stuff at the neighboring k-mart. i knew we should have walked down the main road. you know, the big road with street lights on it, but my sister thought we could get through the back. so in the darkness of the night, through a scary and very poor town we walked down an alley, and then another alley, then finally got to the front of a closed k-mart. my sister insists i 'ran' during part of the darker and sketchier areas of her detour, but i was being alert and walking quickly because i didn't want to get attacked by the drunk man walking towards us. so we went back to the pizza shop and waited for at least 30 more minutes for our pizza and pasta. the employees kept leaving the store and not returning. eventually it was like one 15 year old kid doing everything.

well we got our food, headed back to the hostel, and found an elderly man practicing his violin, and a girl practicing for what seemed like ribbon dancing gymnastics in the front. we quickly walked by to go to our room to be normal and had a pizza party while watching 'kitchen nightmares' with gordon ramsey which is an awesome show.

then watched some horrible australia soap opera-like show: "life begins".

the son wanted to be in a boy band, but then he froze on stage. the mom was thinking of going to europe with another man. and employees were fighting over customers in a travel agent office. my sister loved it.

tomorrow we get to sleep in until 8am!! and we are soo excited. and i'm sure our pizza was better than that silly ole' restaurant with the tour group anyway!

Day 4: Monday, March 17th

happy st. patty's today! we celebrated by waking up at 5am.

my sister took a morning trip to the restroom and when she walked in, all the sinks were being used by middle-aged asian women. my sister was confused. did she go to the wrong bathroom?

so we made it to uluru at sunrise... oh, and saw it at 'twilight':















oh, and yesterday we saw this:
















anyway, we saw the sun rise over the big rock and it changed colors again. more
reds and oranges. but the FLIES! oh man, i haven't mentioned the flies. the flies are a force to be reckoned with in the outback. my sister and i kept tying sweaters and bandanas around our faces to act as a fly/mosquito net. and yes, they were there at sunrise. we actually waited a bit outside the truck watching the sunrise and the flies were so bad we watched the rest of it from inside the car. it was nice inside there.

then our tour guide said we had the option to climb Uluru or walk around the base of it. however, the Aboriginals really don't want people to climb up to the top of Uluru, because it's such a big part of many of their sacred rituals and history that even tho the Aboriginals can't tell us not to climb it, they really don't want us to, so none of us did.

when the Government decided to give the rock back to the Aboriginals or say that the Uluru/Kata Tjuta area was now a national park, in the deal they made with the Aboriginals, they said that they wanted to keep the Uluru Climb legal because they thought it they got ride of it, tourism would slow down. so even though this rock means a whole bunch to the native people of the land, and they had to have their land 'granted' back to them, and they don't want people climbing it because it takes away from their sacred traditions, the government said 'nope, we want money, so we will let people trample all over your big rock'.

so don't climb it.

but you can walk around it. and man... no matter what side you see this thing from... it's still a big rock. it was at least a 2 hour walk... just to walk around this thing. we were pretty done looking at the outback about 1/3 of the way into the walk... but we completed it, and we touched it. we were allowed, don't worry.

then after the 'base walk' we had another darn walk. this was a more guided walk to a certain part of the base of Uluru where we learned about the types of activities and ceremonies that used to go on there. like here:


that's Wave Cave. yep, it's carved into the base of uluru. story goes: it was made by a giant mole that was lonely and wanted the Mala people to stay and live there. i'm not lying.

well, the Mala people didn't live there, but they used it as part of the process for boys becoming men. boys in small groups would sit there alone for weeks and weeks in order to become men in their society. then there's this long story about an evil spirit being sent over to Uluru when the Mala people were in the middle of several ceremonies at the rock and the Mala people ran away and left 4 of their boys in the wave cave... and they waited forever... and now they are part of the cave. see those 'bumps' (2 1/2 in this photo)... well, there are 4 in the cave, and those are supposed to be the 4 boys left behind.


in conclusion, the rock is big, and red, and big.


then we had lunchies and my sister's entry for today was "at lunch we decided we didn't like the other American in the group because she talks TOO MUCH and we DON'T CARE. then we had popsicles."

next up was a 4 hour car ride to King's Canyon. it wasn't too bad. my sister and i played gin, slept, and at all the rest stops we visited, each had different Australian animals. so we got lots of pictures of camels and kangaroos and later emus.

when we first got to the King's Canyon area, we stopped at a different resort... a place we eren't going to stay at, but we used their picnic tables and pool. i still don't know why. and after i got pulled into the pool by our tour guide, we were able to take nice showers there.

then we were off to our actual camping area... which was up this large hill and down a long bumpy dirt road. AND we saw a dingo. a real live wild dingo. and it was not eating a baby.















when we got to our camp area we put some chairs in the center, and we all talked a bit and shared photos from the trip thus far waiting for dinner to be cooked.

oh, and we learned what everyone calls McDonald's in their home country

America: Mickey D's
Australia: Macka's
Switzerland: Mack's
Belgium: Mickey's

the dinner was good and my sister and i headed to bed while everyone else slept in sleeping bags outside to sleep under the stars. oh, we saw the Southern Cross and Orion's belt, and we could see a satellite passing overhead because the sky was so clear.

walking around rocks make us tired.

Day 3: Sunday, March 16th

so we left Sydney really early, so early that people were coming home (incredily drunk, loud, and annoying) when we were trying to check out. they also almost broke the 1 elevator in the hostel. if you stand in the doorway of an elevator, the doors won't close. thought it was a simple thing to understand, but apparently not always.

so we got the train (at the train station "30 meters" from our hostel), and it was sketchy. the stations and platforms were almost empty, except for creepy guys... and us. then we had to switch trains at central station, but our train wasn't running. so we had to find our way through a maze of halls and stairs to find this magical bus that took us to the airport.

when we got off, all the other airport-destined bus-riders started walking to the same terminal as i started walking to another terminal. you see, there was this sign that said our flight number was in terminal 2, my sister said we should follow the group of people to terminal 1 because they must know what they were doing. we get to terminal 1, and our plane is leaving out of terminal 2. please note, this is just the beginning of situations to follow where my sister did not listen to me, and i was in fact right all along.

so, we got our plane out to Uluru (Ayer's Rock). i slept for most of the 3 hour trip and my sister got sucked into the in-flight movie: August Rush. she knew it was gonna be bad. she knew she hadn't already seen it for a reason. yet she decided to plug her headphones in and watch. and from what i heard, it was terrible.

we found our free shuttle to the Ayer's Rock Resort area. we had a few hours to kill before our tour bus was coming to pick us up, so we found a little grocery store and bought stuff for lunch, some awesome aussie outback hats, and playing cards. but not normal playing cards, JUMBO CARDS. and 1 butter knife. for our cheese. so we had ourselves a lil picnic

we still had an hour or so to wait and we layed down for a bit in one of the lobbies of one of the hotels with other waiting tourists. and they had on a lot of ugly clothes. which my sister talked about loudly, claiming everyone around didn't speak english so it didn't matter.

our Safari Tour 4WD finally came and we were taken to our campsite

to meet up with the rest of our tour group. there were 2 nice girls from Sweden, 1 guy from Tahiti, a mom and dad with their teenage son from Belgium, and an annoying american girl from California. she told grrrrrrrrrrreat stories. ("i have a friend who calls me when he's drunk. no really, it's funny. he leaves me these messages that i can't understand. it's because he's drunk!...... i should call him")

it was too hot to do the scheduled Valley of the Winds walk, so we did a shorter walk through Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). (a neighboring tourist rock site of Uluru)

we took lots of pictures. a lot.

then back to Uluru for the sunset. the tour group provided snacks and champagne. my sister and i had our own bowl of cheese. the other cheese was on a meat platter. we had a meat-free cheese bowl. and it was good. but we saw Uluru at sunset and it was beautiful, the rock really does seem to change colors. well, not like to green and fuschia, but more like orange, to red, to brown, to black.... because the sun has set.

on the drive back to our campsite our tour guide played YMCA, Car Wash, Macarena, Grease Lightning, and etc and my sister and i showed the rest of the group how to get down with their bad selves. or, we just danced in the car and they all rolled their eyes.

then we showered and passed out!!

We have to wake up tomorrow at 5am to beat the sun so we can see uluru at sunrise. must see uluru at all times apparently. we must.

Day 2: Saturday, March 15th

so i didn't wait for my sister for too long at the sydney airport. she came through customs at about 10:40 and we went straight to the train station to get our one-way tickets to the city to our hostel.

my sister coughed most of the way home on the train, looking very ill, sweating, but still alive and in 1 piece.

our hostel directions said they were located 30 meters from the train station. so after walking in the wrong direction for 4 blocks, we finally asked a Hilton hotel valet guy where the "Star Bar" was, knowing it was close to our hostel.

after walking several blocks in the right direction (much more than just 30 little meters) we found our "street". which was more of an alley really. we were greeted by a slow and easily confused front desk guy. it took him a while to get things going. in the meantime, we heard another guest happily tell another guy "yeah man! tomorrow i move to the 3rd floor! i'm moving on up! i'm back again!". i think these guys have stayed here for a while.

my sister and i eventually got our key (on the 1st floor. far away from the emphatic guest). and were told we could come back down "if we wanted to" to get our linens and towels. why yes, we do thank you.

my sister showered, and i made the beds. we watched 'beverly hills cop" and took a quick run out to a convenience store to get some juice, water, and crackers. we returned home, next to a neighboring restaurant where the menu was written in "asian" to quickly fall asleep.

my sister coughed during most of the night and i had a bad dream about fighting in a war and watching a friend get shot in the chest in slo-mo that made me wake up choking on air.

@ about 5am someone cleaned the bathrooms very loudly. and since the walls are thin, you can definitely hear when anyone enters or exits their room. the night was a bit rough.

but we got up at 9:30, took our time getting ready for the day, and headed out a bit after 10.

we walked to Hyde Park. my sister took some pics, we saw the hyde park fountain, and then headed towards Circular Quay (the harbour). we walked by the ferry docks, saw some Aboriginals playing the didgeridoo, and walked along until we reached the Opera House. my sister was feeling a bit faint so we sat down, took some pics, then found a little italian cafe on the harbor and had a margherita pizza, garlic bread, and some really bad sugary cranberry juice.

my sister judged the passer-bys as "hot, hot mess, tranny, tranny mess, fierce" and so on. most were tranny messes. except for the elderly ladies. they were mainly fierce.

so next we were off to ride the ferry around the "inner harbour". while waiting for our ferry we made the best purchase of our lives. we found awesome "Rock Star style" sunglasses which of course we rocked on our harbour bridge climb.

on our ferry ride we saw luna park, goat island, darling harbour, the maritime museum, and then returned back to circular quay.



next we walked over to The Rocks to find the sydney harbour bridge climb headquarters. on the way we saw Bendy Em's street show of contortionistic amazement! she did crazy things with her body and as a finale, she stuffed herself in a 16" box on a small scaffold. the audience assistant she chose to help her she nicknamed "Boo".

we stopped by the information office to find maps, a restroom, air conditioning, and 15 minutes of cheap internet access. we walked by street vendors selling corn, jewelry, australian pennies, "space art", shark teeth, and etc. my sister didn't want any of it. what the hell?

so on to the the sydney harbour bridge climb:
from start to end, took a little over 3 hours, but i think it was worth it.

the waiting area had a silent promo video on loop where my sister generously added the dialogue "i love suits. BRIDGES! i love suits"

then our whole climb group passed an alochol breath test. then we all got our suits on, locked up our valuables, then got our climbing gear clipped on.

we did an indoor "simulation" (just like a real bridge!) to make sure we could all climb stairs.

we got headsets, my sister got some personally delivered water since she was dying of a cough, and we headed on out.

we were 2nd and 3rd in line behind a very nice young UK girl. she was heading over to New Zealand for her sister's wedding.

our tour guide was very nice and the whole experience was awesome.

hard to believe we were on top of a bridge, over 40 stories high.

on the way down, my sister's and my legs were shaking and my heels were in pain for hours afterwards, but we made it.

supposedly we burned 800 calories, but all i know is we got a lot of sun exposure.
it was fun.

we bought pictures they took of us on top of the bridge and we hurried off to Wagamama which we knew was one block away from our hostel for some good din-din.

on our way out from the bridge climb headquarters, my sister heard a man speaking to his wife about their own bridge climb pictures: "why do you always have to put your hand on my gut?!"

it's now 9:30pm and we are in our bunkbeds watching "terminator 2: judgment day"

tomorrow we wake up at 5:30am for our 8:15am flight to Uluru. hooray!!

The Trip Begins!

my sister went home this morning after a busy and exciting trip around australia. however, we kept a diary of our trip throughout the whole adventure, so i thought i would, day by day, post each entry here.

so for the next 12ish days, i'll have a brand new post! so here it comes!!

DAY 1 Friday, March 14th
My sister is arriving tonite. since she had to move her arrival date, she comes in a day earlier. today i just spent tying up some loose ends, relaxing, and of course cleaning. since my sister will be seeing my dorm room at the end of the trip, i thought i should tidy up, at least a little bit. as usual, my room looks like a tornado came through here, so i tried to neaten it as much as possible. i even vacuumed!

now i'm at the canberra airport waitng for my plane to leave to sydney. my flight is running 5 mins late, and before i left, i checked Flightstats.com and my sister's flight left 41 mins late and 35 minutes behind schedule. so while i arrive at 9:05, she'll arrive at 10.
oh, and i was bomb tested, again, at the canberra airport. i get asked every single time. oh, and the airport calls itself an international one, even tho 'currently' there are no incoming or outgoing international flight, so how can it pull that off??
anyway, i'm always bomb tested at this airport because there's never anyone in the security line and so the bomb testers must get bored and take anyone that comes through.

so now i'm in sydney. i'm waiting in the arrivals greeting area. it's 9:50 and my sister's flight is due at 10:07. the original arrival time was 9:20pm.

however, on my canberra flight, with all the empty seats in the whole dang plane, the one next to me was filled. filled by a 19 year old boy named Conor.
overly zealous to talk to me, i humored him for a bit at first, but then we both finally resigned ourselves to our books.

however... the conversation was interesting. i learned he was discharged from the army for doing coke.
conor: 'i was kicked out of the army for doing cocaine'
me (being deaf): kicked out from where?
conor: COKE
me: no no, kicked out of what?
conor: COCAINE!!
me: no, what were you kicked out of?
conor: COOOOOOOOOKE
me: ok, start that sentence all over
conor: i was kicked out of the army...
me: THAT! that was what i wanted to know.

so after yelling 'cocaine' out multiple times, i decided i didn't want to talk to him anymore.
oh, but his brother is straight-edge and wants to be a cop so they don't get along.
and he also interrupted his own brotherly-love story to tell me i had beautiful eyes.

i'm glad i had a book.

to be continued....

*SPOILER ALERT*
my sister arrived safely.

Never On Time

Well, this trip my sister and I are taking is starting off just swell.

i've been sick for a week.
she awoke today (wednesday) to a fever.
she thought she was leaving saturday.
i thought she was arriving on saturday.
American Airlines can't write an itinerary correctly.

therefor(e?), we had a bit of a panic today.

her flight, in fact, was to arrive on monday.
pushing out itinerary back by 2 days.
leaving us $3,000 dollars in the hole, considering the flights, tour packages, and hostel payments were all non-refundable.

what to do... what to do...

after 40 frantic minutes of brainstorming, and talking to the travel agent, and using all my phone credit on international calls to my sister...

she ended up just changing her departure date in order to get to australia in time to start my pre-planned, pre-paid itinerary.

instead of her having 55 hours to pack and prepare, she now had 8. and still a fever.

but it's ok now! i think. she's on her way.
i'll be getting a good night's sleep. she'll be getting a good 17 hours in the air. and then we'll meet and start our adventure!

here we come australia!

Thank You Canberra

My sister is coming to visit!
and i have quite an itinerary set out for us.

We begin with 1 day in sydney where we are going to "climb the bridge". the harbour bridge. and we're going straight to the top!

then we're off to the Red Center. we're going to see Uluru (Ayer's Rock), King's Canyon, and some Olgas? Don't know, but heard it's pretty. And we'll be "camping" in the actual outback.

next we have a stop over in Brisbane. I'm sure we'll find something to do there.

Then off to the Great Barrier Reef for 4 days! Relaxation, sun, swimming, and sailing.. and the reef!

Lastly we'll come to Canberra and go hot air ballooning! and she can meet my friends!

I'm so excited!

however... i'm sick. my immune system hates me and i woke up 2 days ago feeling horrible. i've been popping pills, juice, and soup and sleeping in between. oh, and overdosing on West Wing.

i'm going to will myself to be better by saturday when my adventure begins with my sister.

buuuut, today is Canberra Day! Yes, an actual government-approved Australian holiday. I think we're supposed to sit around and discuss why we love canberra. My friends are having a "barbie" (bbq) in an hour or so. i'll probably be napping. because there's only one way to say thank you to Canberra: grill up some kangaroo and sausages. we love you canberra, so we will eat your meat.

i did however do dishes and laundry today. So I would like to thank Canberra for the running water and electricity so i can keep tabs on my hygiene.

and i hope all the folks playing along at home pay homage to Canberra in his or her own way.
for example you could:
have bloody hot weather.
take measurements in metres.
say "bloke" a heap.
pretend you care about the Queen.
take your temperature in celsius then try to convert that to fahrenheit to realize you have a slight temperature.... maybe.
refuse to use the penny.
and much much more.

let me know how it's goes!

Don't Eat the Veggie Balls

yes, i do have an office. it's a room i share with 2 other post-grad students. 1 i knew from last year, so it should be fun. i have a window that overlooks a courtyard. i have a computer. internet. lockable filing cabinets. shelving. and spider webs.

so the guys here have started a cricket team for our dorm to compete in intra-hall sports. just games against the other dorms here. sunday was their first game. and it was awesome. they lost. but that's ok. a bunch of us went out there for support, and it was great actually watching a cricket game. yeah, it was about 103 degrees. but we had grapes, and water, and gossip magazines, and music, and towels to lay down on, and sure, we watched some of the cricket game here and there.
there's still plenty about the game i don't understand: no bowls, extra bowls, leg before wickets, the random yelling the players do, and strategy as a whole really. but there were some great plays out there, and even tho they lost by about 70 runs, it was fun. and it lasted 6 hours.
however, when the defensive team does get someone on the other team out, everyone on the field runs to the middle screaming and jumping and they all high-five. it's awesome. that's how they even do it professionally.
the best part: a few of my friends got the sunglass tan on their faces. now we call them raccoon and possum. i got away with some red shins. not too bad.

now things are finally getting back to normal. everyone has started classes again and i'm basically just reading here and there and visiting my office every once and a while. i did manage to lose my camera battery and my debit card in one evening. and i didn't use either that nite... interesting... but i've already sent off to have both replaced.

i don't have much to report... except i'm going a little crazy trying to plan the trip for when my sister visits in just 2 weeks!! i want to see Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef... but i think these packaged trips are gonna cost us quite a bit. my plan: go into the travel agency geared toward students and have them plan it all out for me. i don't like making decisions.

i did however make some Veggie Balls from a recipe book i got for xmas just for microwaveable vegetarian recipes... and they were quite gross. tonite i'm making some stuffed squash. i hope it's better.

The Master of Masters

So seriously, everyone should go to Australia to "earn" their Master's.

i arrived friday afternoon. undergrad classes started monday.
i e-mailed the secretary of graduate programs on monday morning.
her reply: 'oh wow! you arrived the same day undergrad classes started! how convenient!" as if she expected me later. when the hell does this thesis business start?
but anyway, i dropped by her office and i got some paperwork and a key to my own office!
and by own office i mean: a sizeable room that i share with 2 other master's students. but i'm supplied my own computer in there. and we have a window. that's huge.
then i e-mailed my professor/advisor about um... you know... my thesis topic and you know... how to write a thesis and we met today: for 9 minutes.
he told me:
oh yes, good topic, here, these are some journals to read, and perhaps some books you might want to read. so, perhaps check in with me in about 2 weeks.
meaning... my homework: read a lot and tell me how it's going in about a month.

getting a master's in australia is awesome.

i have an office, a computer, no direct responsibilites. which some think is very dangerous for me. but at least i like my topic so i'm actually interested in reading about it. not as much as intersted as i am in finishing stephen colbert's "i am america (and so can you!)" which is hilarious.

but it's all pretty awesome.

but i'm back! and things are great. i'm seeing all my old friends. i think last year i just left on a bad note which made me hesitant to return but now that i'm here, i've remembered how great some of these kids are.

but uh.. there are a lot of americans this year! i've already met 3 new americans! i'm not so unique anymore. but i'm obviously the raddest american they've seen.

on a different note:
in america (to my knowledge) our bed sizes go: twin, full, queen, king
in australia they go: single, double, queen, king
which caused my friend and i a lot of grief arguing earlier :) she couldn't understand why a 'twin' would be called a 'twin' if it was made for one person to sleep in. i kinda agree with her.

but now i'm back to the land of chips (not french fries), mate (not buddy), tomato sauce (not ketchup), long black (not coffee), and etc.

i didn't think i would miss it, but i secretly think i have.

by the way, listen to:
"bleeding love" by leona lewis
"love song" by sara bareilles

today my schedule was as thus:
9am woke up and showered
9:30 watched "Psych"
10:30 met up with the lady that gave me my office key
11:00 watched the red carpet at the oscars
12:00 some lunchies
12:30 outside reading colbert
1:30 cards with friends in the common room
2:00 nap
3:00 met up with friend at a campus bar
3:45 meeting with advisor
4:00 met up at bar with friends again
4:30-9:00 hung out in the courtyard/common room playing cards and talking
9:30 dinner
11:00 played pool in common room
12:30 wrote blog

it was an awesome day. i like not having classes :) and the weather is AMAZING!

don't worry parents, i'll do work! tomorrow! i'll be reading :)

love and miss you!!!

Coming to America, in sandals

So one of my Australian friends is holidaying in New York City for a few weeks. and now she's experiencing a culture shock all of her own!

one of my favorite stories of her trip so far is...

it's snowing in new york city. and she starting chatting up a federal police officer outside a bank. i suppose they were talking about winter attire, and my friend starts going off with:
"back at home, all i wear are thongs. i wear thongs everywhere. day and nite, no matter the weather, all i wear are thongs"

and then it hit her:

in america: thong means underwear
in australia: it means flip-flops

looooove it!

Elections for Giants

most of my friends in australia are very very interested in following the presidential elections. it's weird. i've never really cared about another country's leader. but that's because i live in an american bubble. i'm a very sad person, i know. but here are all my australian friends rooting for their respective favorites!
one is even rooting for romney to win. he is/was an avid bush supporter.
some like obama.
most are for hillary. just because of bill. they don't know hillary, or her politics, they just remember bill.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again, i really don't think america will elect hillary.

buuuuuuuuuuut, this is a pretty awesome video done by will.i.am and his friends in support of obama:
http://www.dipdive.com/

i've had it on repeat in the background for the past 30 minutes now.

ANYWAY
i head out to LA tomorrow! for a few days worth of fun with some old friends :)
i haven't done any packing or cleaning, or any preparation at all
shh... don't tell my parents


i was just in austin to see some old friends (which was awesome!) and for the superbowl.... and this has got to be the first time any NFL fans have rooted for another team in its division.
practically the entire NFC east fan-base, from eagles to cowboys to redskins, were rooting for the giants.
it was amazing.

patriots and your fans... if you weren't such jerks, i would have stayed loyal. but you turned into a giant group of asshats early on in this season and i refuse to support asshats. 18-1.
18 wins, but one GIANT loss.
huzzah!

btw, David Tyree is going to be on the Ellen show this friday. (feb 8th)

and, "Grandma's Boy" was not funny.

Cleveland was warm

I WENT TO NEW HAMPSHIRE! over the break

and it was amazing:

gingerbread men
holiday party
veronica mars
walked in 3 feet of snow
annnnnnnnnnnd

hung out with a Kitty in a Sweater!!

My, how times have changed

After talking with a friend about our 'blogs' i went back and read the first 4 or 5 posts i ever wrote. and wow, it's so weird looking back almost a year later. i was so new, and ignorant of australia, and fresh, and untainted, and so optimistic! i definitely think i lead you guys on in my blogs. i wasn't ever unhappy or scared, just.. well, not comfortable for a while in australia. even after i made some good friends, i still realized i'm a texas girl, through and through. and even now, everyone asks me if i'm excited about going back. and frankly, i'm not.

here's why:
all my friends are 18-19. which means they all have the maturity level of an 18 year old, some are still at 13 years old. so this means drama, drama, drama. which i inevitably got roped into at the end of the year, and it was horrible. being ostracized, horrible gossip, rumors, back-stabbing, horrible. and it was all over NOTHING. and i eventually looked up in a conversation and said 'i'm 24, i'm not doing this anymore' and walked away. and although several of my friendships ended on weird terms, and we've "made up" via facebook... i think going back to that environment will just start all that drama again.
a few of my acquaintances have moved out of the dorm to other housing. which is fine. but... i think i'm just a curmudgeon. i don't want to make small talk, i don't want to make new friends, i don't want to keep trying. i'm perfectly content with my circle of friends, mainly in the states, and i'm tired of not being myself in front of others because i've only just met them. and now i have to do it all over again because there's gonna be a lot of new people in my dorm. but perhaps, starting with a lot of new people will be the best thing that can happen considering the way things ended in november
i do have some solid friendships over there, certainly with J, but i like my american friends! i am a curmudgeon. no doubt about it.
i have to start my thesis. 30,000 words on a topic i don't know much about or really know how to go about it. very very daunting.
i'm lazy. i'm a lazy person and this holiday hasn't helped that at all. i sleep in, i go to bed late, i watch tv all the time, i don't do school things, i don't wake up early to greet the day. and i have to change all that for my thesis year

buuuuuuuuuuuut! there are amazing things about going back
the land. the traveling. i get my own office in the school of archaeology to research and write in! the friends there i do miss and care for. and of course, learning and growing... blar blar blar :)

but it is weird thinking a whole year went by in australia. i don't regret anything, and i think traveling is the best thing anyone can do for themselves.

buuuuuuuuuuut! i still have a month left and i'm excited about what's to come!
i'm going to LA in a week and i still have time to soak up the laziness.

and btw, the superbowl... eli vs. brady? ugh. what a bitchfest.


and i do believe my time here was well spent
lots of family time
rhode island and christmas
various trips to austin
cowboys-packers game. (i saw favre play!)
stars game
my cat peaches
hitchcock movies marathon
finally saw Gone With the Wind.
saw juno twice.
golfed in Wimberley (thanks H & J!)
my sister's wedding planning and shopping
got my maid of honor dress
scrabulous
saw Lucy, an australopithecus afarensis, the evolutionary "missing link"
went to a live auction
MET MARION BARBER!
got a ritalin prescription
much much more
and of course saw looooooooooooooots of friends

and i just love home and i just love texas.


man, what an unfunny and sappy blog. do i still have any readers?? i don't blame ya if you're gone!

it was weird returning to the states. once i landed in LAX, it was strange how the feel you got from the people around you was just one of annoyance and hatred for life. where in sydney the people are joyous and friendly. you can undoubtedly feel the difference.
it was weird driving. and sometimes i'd freak out thinking i was on the wrong side of the road.
i've used words like 'bloody' and 'bloke' and 'i wanted to see what he was on about' and didn't think twice about it, til i got funny looks
i do like cultural changes, but man, i like being home.

and i truly believe i'll have a lot to write about this year. because i'll be finding anything in the world to distract me from thesis research and i'm sure i'll get bored of facebook eventually

and gosh darnit IASA!! where are you?!?! i've called your cell, i've myspaced you, and you've commented on here before, so CALL ME!!!!


so times have changed, and life is gonna get crazy all over again, but i'm gonna enjoy every last one of these days i have left before i go back.

and please! COME VISIT ME IN AUSTRALIA!! i won't be on a strict schedule!

my sister is visiting in march? may? and it's gonna be amazing. i don't have all the details yet but i want to squeeze in as much as possible:
sydney, capitol building, great barrier reef, uluru, bushwalking, and of course the PATH TO MORDOR!! :)


just think... that could be your itinerary!!