WTF Mate?

It is so cold in Australia right now. It's supposed to be summer and the fruit isn't ripening and at this rate it looks like harvest is never going to happen. I played tennis today and got rained out. In the middle of summer. Come on, Australia.

The Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island

Ryan and I went on vacation this weekend! We took a bus tour along the Great Ocean Road - a highway that stretches from Melbourne to Adelaide built by government employed WWI veterans. We didn't drive the entire stretch of the road, but we covered a good portion of it. We drove about 200km, stopping literally every 20 minutes to see the beaches from a new and different angle. Here is a photo of the 12 Apostles, which is the sightseeing highlight from Day 1:

We were traveling with a pretty eclectic group of primarily Asian tourists and all spent the night together in a house out in Apollo Bay. While trying to entertain ourselves, Ryan challenged a 10 year-old Polish kid to a dance off. He definitely lost:


The second day we went on a nature hike, for which one of the Asian girls refused to get off the bus. Here are some trees:

Then we went and saw some koalas in the wild which wasn't too exciting since they just sleep high up in trees. Here's Ryan being a Koala:

While looking at Koalas, a lot of people started feeding parrots as well. I avoided this due to my averseness to bird poop.


Then my camera died (of course) so I have no photos of us feeding/petting the kangaroos at the petting zoo. We also saw some dingoes, emus, tasmanian devils, and a wombat. Here's a pretty long video of some of the video highlights from the trip:

After that, my video camera died and we saw a lot more kangaroos at the zoo, some wild wallabies, and the penguins coming in at Phillip Island.

When the penguins get in to shore at dusk on Phillip Island, they waddle up to find their little holes they live in and swap places with their mates who are sitting on the eggs and keeping them warm. The penguins have to eat half their weight in fish to stay alive, so they spend entire days at a time fishing. While looking for their homes, they call out to their mates who call back to them and they keep making noise until they waddle into each other. It was pretty adorable. It puts Maura and my penguin documentary to shame.

Overall, the vacation was really nice but incredibly exhausting. Running around trying to see everything on the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island in two days is tough. Especially when you are getting woken up before sunrise to go see koalas. Definitely worth it, but it's nice to be back home where we're allowed to sleep for more than four hours at a time. I also finally reached my goal of seeing a kangaroo/wallaby in the wild!!

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Last Tuesday night, Ryan and I took the train from Lilydale (15 minutes from where we live) into Melbourne to go see Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros at the Forum in Melbourne. I had been looking forward to this concert since before arriving in Australia - my ticket had been folded in my wallet since December. Ryan and I made some German-inspired cocktails for the train ride: chilled white wine and sparkling water since it was so hot out. After arriving in Melbourne, we were en route to the Forum when we met a fellow american: Dallas, from Tennessee. Dallas was also going to the concert, but didn't have any friends with him (I would have been doing the same thing if Ryan hadn't bought a ticket the day before), so we incorporated him into our posse and had a great time hanging out with him all night. Here's a video of the beginning of the concert:

Afterwards, we went down the street to get some beers under the assumption that trains back to Lilydale run late. We were totally wrong. We drunkenly arrived at the train station around 2am and were confused by the janitors everywhere cleaning things. We also couldn't physically get to any trains because there were metal gates blocking off access to the train platforms. And there weren't actually any trains at the station.

So, Ryan and I went outside and immediately hailed a cab. We told the driver we needed to get to Lilydale (about an hour away from Melbourne) and he said it would cost us $100 up-front. I asked if he would do it for $60 and he agreed since he was heading out that way anyway. I took a nice nap in the back of the cab and then Ryan - who was sober at this point - drove us home from Lilydale: getting a crash-course in driving on the wrong side of the road.

I got in bed around 5:15 am. Ryan and I had an amazing night, the concert was one of the best I've ever been to, and we got to hang out with Dallas.

We miss Dallas.

Puppy Mall Day

Ryan and I went to the Eastlands Shopping Center to look for his cell phone. Here are some video high-lights.




Note how the Chocolate Lab puppy kind of looks like "Bitch Stewie" from Family Guy.

PS. Ryan's here so I have someone to hang out with!!

Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day - one of the 5 main national holidays that Australians get off work. I spent it with my boss and his friends who are all from New Zealand, but apparently the way Australia day works is you sit around drinking beer and BBQing while listening to Triple J (the popular indie rock/Australian bands radio station) do their "Hottest 100" countdown of the year, which runs all day. Overall, it was pretty fun and definitely nice to get a day off work in the middle of the week. Even though it totally sounds like a made up holiday to me.

Fact

Recently, in recognition of Wikipedia's 10th anniversary, cnn.com published a list of the top 10 Wiki articles, including a list of common misconceptions. Among other fun, interesting facts (vomitoria were merely entrances, not places people went to vomit, sugar does not make children more hyper, etc.), I learned that water does not swirl in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere (something I was really looking forward to learning more about during my time in Australia) due to the power suction mechanism in toilets.

The other day, as I was emptying a tank, the water swirled down counter-clockwise (or as they say down under, "anti-clockwise") - back home it is always clockwise! Very exciting.

I Reckon

For some reason, Australians and Kiwis love using the word "reckon" - a word I strictly associate with rednecks in the confederate South. Every time someone uses it here, I have to stifle a laugh as I imagine a hick in overalls pointing at roadkill saying things like "I reckon that squirrel is eatable." They use "reckon" here about as frequently as California teenage girls (and myself) use "like." It's been rough.

Where I Live

Now that it's the weekend, I have time to go into town and visit Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander (a really cool local winery/brewery/pizzaria that rejected me for employment about four months ago when I was applying to all the wineries out here) and mooch their free wifi. So, here are some pictures of Noodle (Kate's dog), the sunset out of our bathroom window, and my room:





And here's a video tour of the house, featuring Olive:

Penguin Documentary

More Melbourne

Unfortunately, I started my day by sleeping in until 11am and then going outside only to vomit in a trashcan. Again. I really thought I was getting better. This time, fewer people witnessed it but Maura took a photo. Contact her for further details. I am NOT posting that. Hopefully she won't either. We wandered around all day again which was great and I finally got my bank account and cell phone situation under control. If anyone wants to prank call me/contact me from the US, it's completely free for me and you might be able to get cheaper calling rates via Skype. My number is: 0470 047 003 Knock yourself out. Here are some pictures I took today of some neat things I saw!


Record Shop with lots of cool funk/blues music

Mannequins Galore! (a store that actually exists here and is in competition with several other mannequin distributors - believe it or not)

Cafe




Me at Parliament

Our hostel is getting more multicultural by the minute and I just met a really nice Catalan girl who is on vacation by herself in Australia before going to Brazil for carnival with friends. Maura and I are headed out back to the local hipster neighborhood to see some indie bands for cheap. Hope you all are still enjoying the USA. More to come soon.

Melbourne!

I have arrived safely in Melbourne! After my six hour layover in LAX, Maura showed up to sit next to me on the flight and witness me vomiting in a trashcan while we were waiting in line to board. (Apparently I caught a virus the day before I left for my trip and have been feeling feverish/nauseous/achey which made my flight extra miserable.)

Maura and I are at our hostel and have been wandering around exploring Melbourne all day and found this cool hipster neighborhood - I'm very anti-hipster typically but since these hipsters are foreign they don't bother me. The weather has been perfect - around 75 degrees and clear with a little bit of a breeze. Since it's summer here, it's 8pm and still completely sunny out. I am very content. Here's a blurry (I was trying to be discreet) picture of the inside of a bar we went to for tea (I'm laying off drinking until I feel better):


We went to the grocery store which was much better equipped than the ones I'm used to from Spain, which really puts to rest my concerns of not being able to get enough fruit/food I enjoy/things that aren't comprised mainly of ham. Our hostelmates seem really nice, and there is a free wine and cheese party downstairs in a little bit but since Maura and I are both feeling jetlagged and sick, I think we're going to stay in. Apparently, the Aussies are super into biodynamics and organic products - we saw tons of advertisements for biodynamic flour for sale and this sign in a small Vietnamese-run corner store:


Here are some random pictures I took walking around today:











Hope you all are enjoying winter

Jitters

I leave for Australia in two weeks and I'm starting to get a little bit nervous since I'm going to be essentially in the middle of nowhere surrounded by people I have either never met or only met during a brief interview in a foreign (luckily, english-speaking) country.

While studying abroad in Spain a few years ago, I had a great time but missed out on a lot of aspects of American life/culture (see: Tila Tequila). I was also abroad with other UC students who were all my age and in the same boat. Very little was expected of me. I'm now going to be expected to do work and will be the sole Californian probably in the Yarra Valley.

However, Joe Cocker and INXS are going to be performing at the winery where I am working, so worst-case scenario I get to see some music played by some people who used to be famous!

I'm also very nervous about leaving Daisy with my grandmother un-supervised since recently the dog seems to be incapable of convincing Grammy to let her out so she can go to the bathroom. Additionally, I told Grammy to assert herself as the alpha - if she says "come" and is ignored, she is supposed to grab the dog and bring her over to where she initially made the command. Instead, this happens:

Grammy: Daisy, come.
Daisy: (stares blankly - doesn't move)
Me: Now go grab her. Assert yourself as the alpha.
Grammy: Daisy, look! (holds up treat)
Daisy: (perks up - still doesn't move)
Me: Don't reward bad behavior. That is a bribe.
Grammy: (walks over to Daisy, gives her treat, pets her) What a good girl. Best-us puppus.

I'm going to come back to the house after Australia to find it overrun by dogs and Grammy nowhere to be found.

The Land Down Under

I have officially been offered a job at Rochford Winery in the Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne, Australia and tonight I bought my plane ticket so I'm going! Yay, new adventure time.