Going home

Today I played a  game of hungry hungry hippo. I'm not sure the almost 2-yr old understood the concept. It was hilarious.

This morning we went to Ikea. Part of me is really thankful that I don't live closer to one at home because then I would have no money. The other part of me wishes I had my own home so I would have a place to put all the amazing things I could buy at a store like that.

No trip to California is complete without going to the beach at least once. So we did, and it was a little chilly. My niece loved it, though.

Tomorrow I got home to New Jersey. I'm excited and yet I'm having a hard time believing it's been 8 weeks already.

California Dreaming

This has not been a productive jet lag. For the first couple days in California, I kept calculating in my head what time it was in Australia. I'm hoping I'm just about over it.

I love visiting my sister. Not only is she hilarious but so are her kids. Oh my word, they just say the funniest things. And they have a mild obsession with Mexican food...

...which I love.

There are very few things I missed while I was overseas, two of these being iced tea and Mexican food. I haven't had any iced tea yet, but I've had Mexican thrice (we need to use "thrice" more often - it's great). Of course, one of those times was Pollo Loco, so that might not count, but the other two times were legit.

I missed Thanksgiving, too, which my sister deemed completely unacceptable. So what did we have on Thursday? Turkey, mashed taters, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, cottage cheese, and sweet pickles (because no family meal is complete without cottage cheese and pickles - seriously). Mmmm, delicious.

Saturday we went paddleboarding! (Yes, it took me until I got back to the States to do any sort of water activity). It was wonderful. We went with a couple of friends, and though it wasn't all that warm, we had a really good time. And I didn't fall in! There were a few times when I got awfully close, but somehow I managed to not lose my balance.

One of the times I almost lost it was when a bird popped up out of nowhere. One moment there was no bird, the next BAM! Black and white bird just a couple feet away. The pelicans were also really cool. They did a lot of splashing about as they hunted fish. I was fascinated, and also a little concerned they were going to poop on me as they flew overhead.

Sunday night we walked around Balboa Island to look at all the Christmas lights. The weather was absolutely lovely and the houses are just beautiful. Well, most are beautiful. Some look like this:

This house may not be beautiful, but it was definitely impressive. The guy who owned the house came over and talked to us for a couple minutes. He even gave us a business card, which was specifically for his Christmas decorations. That's what dedication looks like, friends.

That's all for now. Good night!

No Flux Capacitor Necessary

Yesterday was the longest day of my life. Not because anything bad happened, but because when flying back to the States from Australia, the day really does go on for about 43 hours. 

After my time in Nevertire, I went back to Sydney for a couple days. It was a nice relaxing time. I took the train into the city and wandered around a bit, did some souvenir shopping, ate some ice cream, saw a man with a seagull perched on his head. Good times. 

Then I took a train to Wagga Wagga, which is about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. I really only stopped there because of that and because it's named Wagga Wagga. I have this unfortunate thing that often happens in which when I'm only in a city/town for one full day, it usually rains. It definitely rained in Wagga. I waited for it to stop then walked around the town. It's a nice little town, but everything closes super early on Saturday. Even stores in the mall were closed at 4pm (it's even Christmas shopping season!) So there wasn't much for me to do.

My last stop was Melbourne  (or more accurately, Sandringham, south of Melbourne). I had a lovely time chatting up with people there. I even went for a bike ride, which made me realize a few things. 1) I'm out of shape 2) I don't like the idea of getting stuck far from shelter in the rain (because it was looking pretty ominous). But that's okay, because I got a lot of sorting of pictures done. I did not take all that many photos this trip. I think I was too busy actually experiencing stuff.

I flew out yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) at 2pm-ish. I'm not really sure of the time since the plane was late. I arrived at 11:30am-ish in California. Still Tuesday. I'm visiting my sister for a week in here in Cali, and I got to finally meet my nephew. He's adorable. 

And that brings me up to date. Thank you so much to everyone who made my trip awesome! Seriously, I would have had a lot less fun without you. 

Here are some pictures for you:

The Melbourne Aquarium has a fantastic penguin exhibit with a couple different species of penguins. I stood there for a while watching them steal each others' stones for their nests.

Merino sheep in the shearing shed waiting to be shorn. I don't think they were looking forward to the experience.

Koala crossing! I did not see any koalas crossing the road, but just knowing they were someone in the forest around me was very exciting.

I failed to get a picture of the lightning, but it was very exciting. Also, the beach was made entirely of colorful stones closer to the water, which I enjoyed.

Sydney Opera House. Sorry there is not contrast between it and the sky. It was rather cloudy that day. Pretty cool place though (even though I did not go in bathrooms, which I hear are amazing)

This is my noble steed. I spent a lot of time of this bike, finding and rounding up sheep, chasing kangaroos and just riding around doing random tasks. The board on the back is for the dogs to ride on. 

This is the view from the plane. So much open space, it's amazing. And in case you are wondering, emus tend to run from planes. 

A Nice MLT

I had a very Miracle Max kind of moment the other day while eating my first ever mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. And cheese, because few sandwiches are complete without cheese.

Oh, and I'm no longer in the middle of nowhere. While going to the bus stop to leave said place, I noticed a sign (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of) which said:

Nevertire: Population 103.

That's right, folks, one hundred three people live in Nevertire, New South Wales, Australia.

Anyway, overall it was very interesting and mostly fun. I admit, there were a couple things that were not fun. The first being the overabundance of ants. One of the gates into the property happened to close over the middle of a GIANT ant hill ("giant" applying to both the ants and their home). You know that scene in Indiana Jones (the most recent one - if you haven't seen it, good on you) in which the person gets overtaken by all the ants and it's pretty creepy? Or, if you haven't seen that particular cinematic masterpiece (sarcasm sign) perhaps you have seen The Mummy where the person gets eaten alive by scarabs.

It was kind of like that, only I didn't die. Seriously though, I did not like it. I had to stand over the hole from whence they poured while fumbling with the padlock to the gate. And everyone knows when there is a threat of being eaten alive by insects, it's never easy to get the lock on the chain.

The other was the evening when I couldn't get the dog to cooperate and because of that the sheep were very confused and I was very frustrated to the point of yelling and there may have been tears involved (it was late and I was tired and hungry). I was feeling pretty bad about it until Jack the Englishman mentioned the same exact thing happened to him and he went off screaming at the dog, too. Failing at being a shepherd is much less depressing knowing I'm not alone.

Oh, and speaking of Jack the Englishman, he was staying with the son of the people I was helping. He helped out with the wheat and sheep sometimes, so we ended up working together occasionally. Somehow between on the laughing and making fun of each other for the way we talked, we got something done. I don't even think we broke anything! It was really nice having someone closer to my own age to hang out with some times. And to share frustrating stories about sheep.

I just went back to look at what I've told you about where I was and realized it's not much. This is me and Kevin in his plane! So cool. I wish there was enough free air space in New Jersey for me to get an ultra light. I also wish there were emus in our fields that I could chase with the plane. That would make for a good time.

Where I am right now (which is Sydney) is not too hot, but Nevertire the last few days I was there was beastly hot (upper nineties/100). I got a pretty nice farmers tan, even while applying SPF 50 twice a day. Well, on my arms at least. I think I only wore shorts a couple times (riding a motorbike through harvested canola fields while wearing shorts is painful).

The family was super great and they have ice cream almost every night after dinner, which immediately raises my opinion of them. Australians in general have been pretty cool.

Now I have to figure out how I'm spending my last few days here. It's crazy to think it's almost over. It's also crazy to think of how cold it is at home. I'm going to freeze.

Bound, bound, bound, and rebound.

If you drive to the middle of nowhere Australia and then drive another hour, that's where I am. It's very peaceful out here, and the sunsets and stars are absolutely breathtaking.

I'm currently on a farm that's about 10,000 acres. That's really big. They have some cows, a bunch of sheep, wheat, canola, and cotton.

And motorbikes!

Since they are way more practical on the flat landscape and big terrain than horses, they use motorbikes (or as we Americans like to say, "dirtbikes") for all of the rounding up of sheep. It's pretty fun.

Along with riding a bike again, I've learned some other things. Like how to cut off a sheep's tail (literally cutting it off, not just banding it), though I haven't actually done it. I just watched. There was something sort of disturbing about the blood squirting from where the tail once was. It reminded me of a bad slasher film.

I've also learned how to "drench" sheep, how to mark them, how to drive a stick shift with my left hand (which actually feels way more natural than the right hand - go figure).

Oh, and how to efficiently catch frogs that hang out in my bathroom at night. That's always a treat.

Another great thing about this place is the wildlife! Seriously, I saw about 100 kangaroos today, and that's after I chased a bunch on a motorbike yesterday. They are fast! There are also a lot of wild pigs around. I sampled some of the meat from one of their legs. It was pretty good. I've also seen lizards, snakes, spiders, foxes, and various insects.

I should probably stop hogging the computer.

Good on ya

The Sydney Opera House is not white. This sort of blew my mind, since in all the pictures it looks white. It's more of a cream color.

Crazy, I know.

Adelaide was super fun (thanks Caragh!) and beautiful. From there I took a flight to Sydney. Most of it was normal, minus the small detail of them not once asking for identification. I thought that was a bit odd. Less odd and more awesome, though, was me getting three seats to myself, which meant that instead of having an aisle seat, I got to sit by the window and see the coastline, some land, and then more coastline. Absolutely stunning.

My sister-in-law's sister, Lauren, lives in Sydney, so I'm currently staying with her. It's been very nice and the food has been delicious. She took me to see the Opera House (along with the harbor) and the beach. It's really strange being used to things like pigeons and seagulls and then seeing these guys around.

Today I went into the city with Lauren's neighbor. She has the philosophy, "a stranger is only a friend you haven't met yet." She's hilarious. Also, we were walking around the neighborhood last night and it went like this -

Lady: Oh, let's walk over here. That tree has spiders and I know you don't like spiders.
Me (in my head): true, but how do you know that? I just met you..
Lady: Americans don't like spiders, which is funny to me. We have these big ones (makes the circumference with hands - too giant)
Me: Ew, yeah, I'm not a fan of spiders.
Lady: These ones are harmless though. They fall from the trees in December, so I guess you'll miss that, dear.
Me: Bummer.

We went to the aquarium. I think I need to do an official aquarium tour of the world, because I love them. It's funny, since I don't like fish. Well, I don't like to touch them or eat them or know they are in the water with me. Behind glass is perfect.

We also wandered around Darling Harbour. They love ice cream and gelato here, of which I wholeheartedly approve, and since I like to blend in to whatever country I happen to be in, I decided to get some.

Tomorrow, at a time that is way too early, I head off to a farm in Nevertire, which is past Dubbo and pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which means phone service is limited and internet even more so. So if you don't hear anything from me, that's probably why.

Goodday Mate!

Yesterday I got to hold a koala, and it didn't even try to eat me!

I'm currently in Adelaide (at least for the next 18 hours) and so far it's been fantastic. After a nice, uneventful bus ride from Mt Gambier, I arrived here on Friday afternoon. I'm staying with a girl that I met in Carlisle, England.

Saturday we went to some wineries. Adelaide is known for it's surrounding wine region, and there are definitely a lot of wineries.

Yesterday we went to Gorge Wildlife Conservatory (or something close to that name). They weren't doing any more koala holdings for the day because of the heat (yay heat!) but Caragh used to work there, so the owner was kind enough to still let me hold one. It basically just chilled in my arms for five minutes, not moving much at all.

I also got to pet some kangaroos and wallabies. When there is a joey in the pouch with its feet sticking out instead of its head, it looks kind of bizarre.

The beach here is beautiful. Some high school looking kids were jumping off the pier into the clear blue water and it looked like so much fun. Unfortunately, we did not bring swimming-appropriate clothing so we had to settle for wading up to our knees. The water was a little chilly, but mostly great and seriously, so beautiful.

Today we went to see some waterfalls and then back to the beach. This beach, however, didn't have much sand but rather really pretty rocks - lots of different colors and all layered in colors. A thunderstorm was rolling in over the ocean so we watched that for a while before decided that it was starting to surround us and getting precariously close. It's still rumbling outside.

Tomorrow I head out to Sydney.