Melbourne pics!

And, as the Sydney pictures were well liked - by popular demand - Melbourne pics :-). Again - I took 275 pictures down there and uploaded 183 to Snapfish, so email me if you want to see more than just these :-). Wonderful photos, if I do say so myself!


First off, an icon of the city - Flinders Street Station - the main railway station. Right down on the river :-).


I just liked this building - it's the old "Public Bath" house. If you see the black signs - left says "women" and right says "men" :-).


In Phoebe and Nick's neighborhood, but really all over because Melbourne is in the state of Victoria, Victorian house. See all the fruu-fruu scallops? Pretty!


Me, on a windy day on the Shrine of Remembrance (war memorial) overlooking the river and city. Suns in the wrong place :-).


Pretty picture of city across the Yarra River:


Phoebe will kill me for this, but here's a picture of Phoebe and Nick in Melbourne Central - a mall and train station :-). It's Friday night - time to celebrate shops being open!


To show a normal picture of Phoebe (albeit pregnant :-)), here's her and I with spears - on the edge of the Yarra river that goes through Melbourne.


Neat picture that night of river and back of Flinders Street Station with lights. This is the night I went to the Australian play, and we got an awesome Italian risotto dinner.


On the Great Ocean Road! The main icon are the 12 apostles - limestone rock formations coming out of the sea - although there are only 7 or so left. Although the sun is setting (sorta the wrong place), I liked this picture :-).


More majestic apostles:


Me, and another rock formation on the Great Ocean Road - London Bridge which is now separated from land :-).


And last, but certainly not least - one of my favorite signs on the road :-). The Great Ocean road is frequently driven by tourists who aren't from around here. How funny!


Too bad I couldn't get the "kangaroo around" sign photograph :-).

Well, that's it folks for now. Enjoy the pictures! I'm not traveling again for a few more weeks, although there are always pictures of homey Canberra.

Sydney pics

Here are pictures of my Sydney adventures. I took over 400 and put 275 of those on Snapfish, so email me if you want to see more!

All but 1 of our State of Origin Rugby Game crew. Blue is for the New South Whales team!


The iconic Sydney opera house!


The awesome Sydney Harbor Bridge.


Both the bridge and opera house as seen from the Botanical Gardens.


Downtown Sydney!


At the majestic Blue Mountains, hiking! The iconic rock formation - Three Sisters.


Neat waterfall in the rainforests of Blue Mountains


Gorgeous Bronte Beach - Sydney is known for beaches :-).


Kept running up the coast, and got to the famous Bondi Beach. Beautiful sunny day!


And coming back down the coast - the beautiful beaches and inlets.


And the part you all wanted to see - Australian animals! Me petting soft, sweet Lucky, the koala:


My favorite - the wombats! Ah, so cute.


Getting huggy with the roo :-).


That was my adventure in Sydney! Soon I will share Melbourne pics with you. And I'll have to tell you about going to a film festival last night, but... not right now. Right now I'm in a funk and want to just stay that way. So, cheers for now.

Taking a squiz, Aboriginal children, and Baroomba Rocks!

[Note to reader - check out my very long previous post on all my travels to Sydney and Melbourne! Pictures to come later...]

So, a few things I learned from my time with Nick and Phoebe. Everything is expensive here. Books - paperback books - are like $30 here where they are $7 at home. Appliances are super expensive - a nice vaccuum in the states that is say $500 is like 3-4 times that here. It's crazy. Most food here is grown locally - they try to only sell things locally grown. Apparently a hurricane destroyed a very large crop of bananas 2-3 years back, and bananas were so expensive, people just didn't eat them for a year :-). There were news reports of them being stolen from fruit trucks! How funny :-). One odd thing is almost all toilets (and they don't say bathroom here - just "where's the toilet?") have 2 buttons on the back. One for 1/2 flush and one for full - you can guess when to use them :-). And some new words that I learned - fanny here actually means a girl's private parts. And I told you "rooting" like cheering for a team actually means having sex. So Phoebe when she first got here said "I'm just rooting around in my fanny pack trying to find something" and Nick bust out laughing :-). Bingle is a small accident. Anyone, even strangers, can be called "mate". I told you about "Good on ya" and "No worries". "Ta" is a short form of thanks. "Hooning" is apparently driving crazily - weaving in and out of traffic. I love this one - "squiz" - "taking a squiz" means looking around - like checking out a store. Awesome, eh? :-). And I'm "keen" on travel, I "reckon" :-). Little different turns of phrase for words. I told you about capsicums, and rocket is the word for arugula here. Very entertaining :-).

So - the rest of the week - Met my friend Nancy after work on Friday to watch another Australian movie at her place - "Rabbit Proof Fence". It's about the 1930s Australian government project to "help" the Aborigines - basically they took half-caste (half white) kids from their Aboriginal parents and shipped them to a home where they were raised to be good white kids - going to church, only speaking English, forgetting their Aboriginal roots. And then they are encouraged to marry white to breed out the Aborigine, or dark skin, out of them. Can you believe this? The Aborigines basically had no rights... Scary. So anyway, this particular story is about a girl who was taken to this camp with her cousin and younger sister, and they ran away and walked 1200 miles back to where she grew up - avoiding trackers and people searching for them the whole way. Amazing story. Neat :-). And Nancy and I caught up some and showed each other pictures of our adventures :-).

Saturday afternoon Nancy and I were picked up by Steve and we went hiking down south! Steve's Dad (who's birthday it was) joined us as well as Steve's 4 year old son Kyler. We all hiked up a mountain - Barroomba Rocks! It said the hike was 2.5km round trip, but it felt longer - look over an hour and a half. But of course we had a photo shoot at the top :-). Nancy loved playing with Steve's kids, and I loved talking history and ancestry and living in different countries with Steve's Dad who's an economist/statistician. He's lived in Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Philipinnes at least. And Steve's hiked around the base of Everest and runs everyday, so I talk about outdoor adventures with him. Great fun :-). Good company, good conversation. We were really impressed with Kyler who hiked the whole way by himself on his little legs! So it was great fun. We hiked in the shade of this mountain - actually saw dusts of frost on plants. And then got to the top and had a great sunny view of green valleys below and Canberra in the distance. And there were huge boulders at the top - apparently it's a great climbing area. So it was great. We took many pictures with the view in the background - almost every combination of people :-). And had snacks - Steve had made his Dad a very decadent dense chocolate cake, so we had that :-). And fruit. Yum. Apparently fruit cake is loved here - they use it as their cake for special occassions - every weddings! They think it's tasty... interesting. So by the time we got back to the car, the sun had gone down, and we drove back in the dark. I made myself some rissoles for dinner - sort of mini balls of meat - like hamburgers - but rolled with some vegies and breadcrumbs usually. Made them in the grill :-). Today (Sunday) was a lazy day - and rainy day too. Nice to be able to have lazy days! I did walk around the mall for a couple of hours - that was fun.

Another week starts tomorrow - and I get to be in Canberra, home, for weeks. Yay!

Going Woop Woop - Sydney and Melbourne

Long post :-). Pictures to follow...

So, I'm sorry it's been so long since I blogged. I get caught up in travel, in life, in Australia and then blogging seems overwhelming. I need to learn to blog in short bursts :-). But - I have to update you on my travels! To the great cities of this country - well, the main 2. And I didn't actually go Woop Woop - I just like the saying - it means traveling out to the middle of nowhere :-). And at the end I will tell you which I liked better :-). And then - my favorite - coming home to Canberra. I <3 Canberra :-).

So - to Sydney. I rode Murray's bus there Wednesday afternoon. Not bad - 3 hours 15 minutes, and I slept most of that :-). We got out on the side of a street and I had no idea where I was. Actually it was Central - the main train station, but it took me awhile to figure out where buses were so I could ride to my friends place near UNSW (Uni New South Whales). So, I finally got my bus which took about 40 minutes, then we walked up a hill to her apartment which took 10. Then I dropped my stuff in her place - without heat!! - and met her German roomates and we left again to go back to Central to meet the rest of the gang to take a train out to the State of the Union Rugby Union game. So this was out in the ANZ stadium - a huge stadium built for the Olympics. Sat over 80,000 people and it was almost full for the game. And this game was neat - sort of like the All-Star game - New South Whales (one state) versus Queensland (another). See below for an elaboration on the states/geography of Australia :-). So, NSW's color was blue, and Queensland was maroon. We were cheering (not rooting - it's a bad word) for NSW. It was a cold night, but it was fun - the fans were CRAZY and very spirited. I got rugby union explained to me - their field goals are only worth 1, and their "tries" are worth 4 - like our touchdowns. It's hard to get a try. They don't have downs, they just have 5 tackles to make it down the field. No padding on the guys again :-). It was interesting, but unfortunately our team lost, and I thought AFL was more fun to watch. So, then we took the train back to Central, then the bus back to Kingsford (everything here is identified by the neighborhood). On the bus back home we struck up a conversation with a guy on the bus. Well, even though this young gentleman was dating an American, he made an off-hand comment that he never wanted to go there because Americans are racist (given the whole African American slavery debauchle). They another crazy man on the bus chimed in, ranting about how evil Americans are - totally racist because we brought slaves to our country to work our land. And not only that - we poison the whole world's culture with our Paris Hilton and our breast implants - I guess our superficiality - and because we are a leading Western rich country - these evils just propagate all over the world and it's our fault. So yeah - I had nothing to say, but sorry guys - apparently we are evil...

Some geography history: Australia has 5 states and 2 territories. States: NSW (Sydney), Queensland (where Great Barrier Reef is), Victoria (where Melbourne is), South Australia (where Adelaide is), and West Australia (where Perth is). I live in a territory - Australian Capital Territory or ACT - like our Washington DC because Canberra is the capital. The other territory is where Darwin is - North Territory. Don't ask me why North is a territory and not a state.

So, Thursday - I went to UNSW to give a talk to the Computer Science department and the government computer industry/research lab called NICTA. Met my mentor Steve who came up for the day from Canberra. It went well! Was well attended even though it was only announced the day before... And again - got a lot of interest from lots of different research areas (embedded systems, compression, etc.). I work in memory management, but it was actually more interesting to give this talk to people in CS but outside my area I think... Anyway... It was fun to network and talk to people, and they took us to a yummy Indonesian restaurant for lunch. I got Beef Rendang I believe - and they put egg in everything... Then we parted, and my mentor had a few hours, so we took a bus up to Circular Quay (pronounced Key) - the main area of Sydney. This area is past Central, so another 40 minute bus ride :-). It was a nice sunny day, so we had fun walking around, seeing the Opera House (of course) and the big bridge and The Rocks area in general. It was cute. There were aborigines playing digeridoos and street performers out... We got gelato on the key by the ferries :-). Then I took another bus (40 minutes) to Newtown - another area of Sydney where a friend from the program lived (all the people I hung out with in Sydney are other scientists that got this NSF award - all Americans, but from all over the US). So it was known for having a ton of restaurants, so I met my friend Melissa and we went to a N. African restaurant - pretty tasty. Mild spices. Got lamb :-). And then we needed to cross town to meet our friends at a pub trivia night... So we took a train back to Central, then a bus way out to their place - another 40 minutes. Are we seeing a pattern? :-). Anyway... finally made it out there, and pub trivia night was fun. There was a 90s trivia category while I was there - mostly being American doesn't hurt too much :-). And met a neat Canadian there who was a friend of a friend from the program (who I was staying with - Kristen). Anyway, then finally took 2 more buses home to Kingsford - I think this took like an hour and a half with waiting for buses at night... So didn't get home until after 11pm.

Friday... my day to walk around Sydney and explore by mysefl! This is how I like to see a new city - just walk all over. I get sick of museums :-). And of course - it was raining. Pretty much all day. Not hard, but slightly miserable. So I stayed at Kristen's house for awhile that morning, but finally made it out and took bus back into center of town. Walked around Hyde Park, lots of Catholic Cathedrals, Town Hall, Queen Victoria Building, a memorial to soldiers called Martin Place, State Theatre, saw Sydney Tower, and Strand Arcade - an old beautiful thin, multi-level mall. These arcades are neat :-). I think I got some chocolate - awesome chocolate shops here :-). I got some Pide for lunch - basically flat Turkish bread wrapped around with a thin layer inside of filling - I got spinach - like a calzone/pizza. Tasty :-). Then kept walking - past the old neat buildings - Barracks Museums, the old Mint, Sydney Hospital, Parliament House, and the State Library. Then into the Botanical Garden which was small, but cool. And then out to Mrs. Macquaries Chair - where she used to like to watch the Harbor. Good views of the city and the Opera House from here. Then walked back around to Circular Quay in the rain, and took a free ferry (free!) out to an art exhibit on Cockatoo Island. So, the ferry ride itself was cool - about 20-25 minutes. Cockatoo Island was weird - where they used to build military ships, it look like old abandoned warehouses with scrap metal everywhere. And the art there was very random - some film, some drawings, some random sheets hanging from the rafters, some light shining through glass to project weird images on the walls. Interesting... Then ferried back, and took bus all the way back 40 minutes to Kingsford to pick up my suitcase and head to my other friend's place for a 4th of July BBQ! Instead of figuring out taking 2 more buses to their place - I broke down and called a cab. It was only like 5K away... Anyway, finally got to the BBQ and had fun with the Americans! A ton of us from the program gathered, and we had hamburgers, hotdogs, Doritoes, brownies, corn, potato slices, shrimp on the barby :-). It was fun. We drank a bunch - I went on an alcohol run. But these friends were right by the beach, but far from EVERYTHING else. Their neighborhood was called Clovelly. 3 people from the program were sharing a 2 bedroom appt of a UNSW professor who was away. So, it was nice to be with friends again, not have to just hang out by myself. And see familiar faces. And actually a friend of an Austin friend is living in Sydney and she showed up at the party and it was fun to meet her! Her name is Susannah. So after the night's party, I (and a bunch of the others) crashed there. And about 4.5 hours later - my alarm went off :-).

Saturday - to the Blue Mountains! These are out of Sydney. Me and 2 of the people from the program - Samantha and Chris - made it up after the party and went together. We bused to Central (again 40 minutes, and we missed 1 bus, so had to wait 20+ minutes for the next), and then waited 50 minutes for the next train out to Katoomba. The train ride took 2 hours :-). Love my theme... But we had good conversation, and I slept some. And then - Katoomba! A tiny little town. We caught a quick bus to the edge of the mountain - where a beautiful lookout showed us the neat rock formation - the 3 sisters. We were above the clouds :-). And saw rolling green hills and mountains beyond - very pretty. So, then we started hiking! The train itself was sorta muddy because it had been raining, but that day was nice - I even got hot in my layers. We saw beautiful vistas, neat birds, waterfalls. We hiked down into a rainforest which was neat. Sat in a shallow cave to eat our lunch - I got a sandwich with capsicums in it (what they call peppers - just like red and green). So, we finally hiked to the bottom of the rainforest and came upon the steepest railway in the world! 52 degrees - and we decided to take it up the mountain. And boy was it scary! It was scary enough that we were basically facing down as we went backwards up, but then we went through a cave and it was black! Definitely a thrill :-). Then we were at the top! We would've had to wait quite a while for the next bus, so we walked the couple miles back to Katoomba. And then we had just missed our train back to the city, so had to wait 50 minutes for the next, so stopped in a cute cafe in the town and got coffee and hot chocolate and shared a maple crepe with ice cream and wedges (big fries - they say chips) with chili sauce. Very indulgent :-). Then, the long 2 hour train ride home! My friends were going to another AFL game, and I didn't want to go, so I met friend Nancy (she lives in Canberra with me and was up for the weekend) for dinner. But we both then bussed from Central out to Bondi (another 30 minutes or so) to meet Susannah and a friend of hers at a Thai restaurant they recommended. It was all tasty, and Susannah and her friend were all into the fashion and the money of Sydney. Susannah works for Google here. They brought wine to dinner (most restaurants are BYO), and Susannah just picked a bunch of dishes for all of us to share. So nice, after a busy day. Then Nancy went home and I joined Susannah and her friend going to a party of their mutual friend in Bondi. It was very strange - the theme of the party was also 4th of July (many Americans), and it was themed also as an American frat party - so there were people in togas and other random costumes like Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Wonderwoman. Odd. So I talked to some random people there - an Irish girl, a neat guy who had spent a bunch of time in Australia, but was from Austin, and a really nice Australian guy. Talked about travel with the last 2 - got some neat New Zealand recommendations. And talked about music with the last guy - told him about Ryan's band :-). So, it was an interesting party by the end. And left a little after 11 because I was tired :-). Took a cab home because again, it was a short distance, but would've taken many buses to get home.

Sunday of Sydney... Sorry this is so verbose! Got to sleep in a bit which was very welcome :-). Then Nancy and I got up to run along the beautiful beaches of Sydney. And thankfully this was a BEAUTIFUL day - very sunny. I actually had to take off my long-sleeved shirt because I was HOT! Very nice :-). It was GORGEOUS. There was a nice track along the ocean - first we had to pass a large old cemetary, but then just kept passing beautiful beaches and coves. Ran passed nice Bronte beach, and then after a couple of other smaller places, to the famous beautiful Bondi beach! Both these big beaches had this curious thing at the side - a lap pool, but it got filled at high tide with the ocean as it washed over the concrete barrier. Very interesting. Looked fun. So after running about 4 miles, stopped and took tons of pictures in the sunny day. Nancy and I took off shoes and put our feet in the sand and in the water. It actually wasn't too bad - I heard it was around 68 degrees, so like Barton Springs :-). There were surfers in wetsuits in the water, but everyone else was just hanging out on the beach - playing frisbee and the like. I could see this place being very crowded in the summer. So we walked back taking beautiful pictures and talking - it's nice to have a close friend here in Australia - Nancy is the 21-year-old from Connecticut, and we've gotten pretty close. So - we finally got home, cleaned and packed up, and I took ALL of my stuff - suitcase and backpack with me on the bus back into the city (45 minutes again). Met friend Melissa at Circular Quay and got a quick lunch. Then stopped quickly by a neat festival there - the Aroma Festival! Chocolate, coffee, tea and spices :-). Very cool, but very crowded. Then Melissa and I left to go to Featherdale - a zoo type place where you can pet the animals. They said it takes 40 minutes to get out there from the city, and we took trains, and of course it took over an hour and a half - ugh. So we got there only 15 minutes before it closed. I ran through to see it in time - it was dusk, too. Even though time was tight it was great fun! I petted Lucky the koala - so cute. And hugged and feed kangaroos - even saw one with a baby in the pouch! And petted emus and cute wombats - my favorite. Saw echidnea, penguins, dingos, bats, wallabies. Think I saw a tasmanian devil. So, very cool! Finally had to get out of the park - it was dark. And rode the long train ride (although it look only an hour to get back) to the city. Had an hour before my bus back to Canberra, so Melissa and I grabbed some quick Vietnamese noodles. It was fun :-). Then ran to make the bus - and sat next to an interesting guy on the way back. We talked a bunch - he was interested in forestry and rangering. Had lived in a ton of places - loved Tasmania. So many people have recommended that place to me - if I had more time, I'd probably try to go there. Anyway, he was nice - we talked about Canberra some too. Then I passed out and sleep for awhile - was very tired from Sydney :-).

So: impressions of Sydney. It WAS warmer than Canberra which was nice. Obviously from what I talked about you can tell that transportation was something that I did a lot and took most of my time, which frustrated the hell out of me. But at least there was public transport I guess. I really liked having friends to hang out with, but didn't know them that well. But at least didn't do much by myself :-). Nice to have a group, and we all are coming from the same point of view. But I felt like I should be hanging out with more locals to really feel the more Australian mannerisms and viewpoints and local hangouts. But yeah. Liked Sydney, but was slightly exhausted afterwards and actually got a cold coming back to Canberra. Sydney is a big, sprawling, busy city. It's beautiful, but was hard to get to know with my short time there.

So, I was back in Canberra for 2 days, and then Wednesday morning flew to Melbourne!! Yes, I know - I'm crazy. But I did take it easier there, and staying with friends from home, so it was a different experience. I stayed with Nick and Phoebe - Phoebe is 8 months pregnant. Phoebe grew up in Austin and did her PhD in Comp Sci Education, so we get along great :-). She's actually part of the reason I moved to Austin for school. And she met Nick who is from Melbourne (pronounced Melbin) but was doing a post-doc with my advisor at UT. They fell in love and Phoebe moved down here a couple of years ago :-). So they are very cutesy and coupley. But they treated me divinely! Oh my God awesome hosts. Nick picked me up from the airport in a CAR! Took me to their awesome pencil house (long and skinny), and showed me to the cat-free guest room with a very comfortable bed. Said to help myself to everything in the house. They bought me a weekly public transport ticket that let me use all trams and trains and buses in the city which were very convenient. They lived a couple minutes walk from 1 tram, and 10 minutes walk from another tram and a train. All of these went to the city center which was small and contained. Nick road the train into the city with me - teaching me the system, walked me down the main street and bought me Pho - a Vietnamese noodle soup - for lunch. Then gave me a Lonely Planet book with a suggested walking tour of Melbourne and said he'd meet me in a couple of hours and we'd tram home together. Everything was made a lot more easy! It was a sunny nice day in Melbourne. I did my walking tour around the big Swanston street. Saw the big library, Flinders Street Station - the main train station, an old pub with the Chloe painting in it (naked woman), Federation Square, more big Cathedrals, Town Hall, Chinatown, tiny little alleys full of cafes and cute shops, more old beautiful arcades, many old Victorian buildings with scalloped exteriors, Chinatown, Regent Theatre, Parliament house. I walked through a couple of parks - one with a memorial to JFK. Interesting... And one with Cook's House in it. Anyway, I walked all around and it was fun :-). Took a tram to meet Nick at Uni Melbourne, and passed the old bath house building which was neat. And then we went home and I saw Phoebe! The reunion was awesome - someone from home, and someone who had known me for more than a month :-). We talked and talked - all about all the weird things that you get used to in Australia - differences from the states. She had had a BBQ - Texas style - the weekend before and was annoyed that even the cuts of meat were different down here! And we had the vocabulary comparisons. I think Phoebe liked seeing someone from home :-). And we talked about Austin, and grad school, and life, and their upcoming baby (it's a girl). Oh it was fun :-). Nick made us homemade pesto over pasta for dinner with a salad - awesome! And it was just a relaxing night.

Thursday in Melbourne - I went to give a talk at the Uni. See a theme here :-)? Nick works for NICTA - that government lab - in Melbourne, so he arranged the talk for me. It was like the one in Sydney - diverse crowd, lots of good feedback, it went well, was well attended :-). Fun! I'm getting good at this talk - have given it enough times now :-). And then we went to a Malaysian place for lunch called The Garage which was fun. Then I took off - had to go to the city (close to the Uni), to get a ticket for a theatre show I was going to see. Only one available was for Saturday, so more on that later. And then went up to Brunswick street to walk around, as recommended by Nick. It was neat! A funky, alternative street with tons of shops, restaurants, bars. Would be great for nightlife. And by alternative - I mean it's the place where people with tattoos and weird piercings hang out - the skaters and such. I went into a book store there, and all books seemed to be about taboos - sex, anti-God, going against society's norms :-). And of course they had offensive shirts for sale and comics on teh wall too. Fun times. Went into some cute jewelry shops, a funky gift shop, and a really cool tea shop, but didn't really buy anything. Did finally stop for a coffee and some freshly made churros! Neat street :-). Then walked back to the Uni, met Nick, and we trammed home together. Phoebe came home later and Nick made us some fabulous Ratatouille and cous cous for dinner :-). They cool a lot - awesome, eh?! And that night we watched a romantic comedy movie they had that was cool - "Playing by Heart" with a lot of good actors. Made me miss Ryan, miss being home.

Friday in Melbourne... I slept in a bit in the morning, and stayed at home for the morning. Was tired from full days out :-). Did Kung Fu in their back yard - to the amazement of their 2 cats :-). Did some work, then left to take the tram down to meet Phoebe at her work for lunch. It was casual Friday :-). Phoebe is 2nd in command at her office, and good at what she does - her office processes all Uni applications for the state of Victoria. So, anyway, I met some of her neat work people there, and we got tasty Indian food from around the corner. We talked about AFL a bunch :-). It was good to see Phoebe in her element. And then she walked me up the hill to the very close Shrine of Remembrance and next door - the Botanical Garden. Guess I hit those gardens in every city :-). The Shrine is again a memorial to soldiers who lost lives in war - every city is big on having these things. It was neat, and had great views of the city :-). And I was tired, but walked all around there and ALL around the large botanical garden taking pictures. It was there I bought my first very cute present for my new nephew :-). So proud! So, walked around hte gardens - mostly wandering, taking flower pictures and taking my time. It was peaceful. Finally walked out and saw the tower of the governor's residence (I think). And walked along their big Yarra River for awhile - btw, have seen a lot of neat skateboard parks here. Walked along the south side of the river back close to Flinders Street Station - it was dusk and there were pretty views. Walked around South Gate - big mall area, and there were outdoor performers there too. Finally called Nick and met him in the city and waited around a bit until Phoebe could join us. We walked around - Friday night shops are actually open past 5! So everyone is out and about. Apparently Friday nigth is shopping night and Saturday is date night here :-). So we went to Phoebe's favorite book store, and a movie store, and then to a very nice Greek restaurant for dinner. I got some yummy Mousaka, and tried Nick's lamb shwarma, and we got some dipping sauces with good bread too. Nick and Phoebe wouldn't let me pay for any meals! I really tried. Finally bought them dessert this night, but that's all they'd let me do :-). We got gelato on the way back to the house. We watched a movie when we got home, but I only made it through the first 40 minutes and fell asleep :-). Traveling is tiring!

Saturday - Phoebe and Nick didn't have to work! I actually got up before them, though, and went out for a run around their neighborhood and down close to the zoo. Then had a sorta relaxing morning, and finally left the house midday to tram down to the huge Queen Victoria Market!! It spans blocks and blocks. A huge section of it is food, fruits, vegies, meats, cheeses, breads - all cheap and good quality! Then there's a wares section with a lot of kitsch as Nick put it :-). I got some opal (mined in Australia) earrings for myself here, and some souvenirs for family too :-). And Phoebe just loved a cute baby outfit with little bears on it, so I got that secretly for her (she had a baby shower the next day). Then we walked in the super-cold overcast day (no rain) to the city and went to a Japanese/Korean place for lunch. Again, I couldn't pay. Then we wandered around the city for a bit until we were supposed to go to a footie (AFL) game. Phoebe had never been, and Nick's brother said we could just get in for free 4th quarter. So we asked and they said no, sadly. Melbourne is known for being crazy about their AFL, so we were sad. Apparently the way to do it is just to walk in - not ask :-). But anyway - we just walked along the river and went to South Bank again instead. We went in the very swanky mall this time and looked at cool shops. I especially liked the glass shop - as Phoebe did. We got some hot chocolates to fill time before our dinner reservation at a very nice Italian restaurant with a view of the river. I got a glass of white wine which was tasty. This meal was about richness - risotto was this restaurant's specialty :-). And Nick and Phoebe got a sort of fried mozzarella appetizer. Decadence! And then, of course, we went downstairs for some dessert - Phoebe and Nick shared cheese cake and I got a small apple crumble which was only ok. It had sultanas in it - like raisins. Then they walked me over to my play! It was very close... And I saw the play "Scarlet O'Hara in the Crimson Parrot". So, it was a play written by an Australian playwright - yes, I know that's the main person from Gone with the Wind. The play was about this girl in Melbourne who daydreams non-stop about old romance movies from the 40s and 50s. The main actress was a famous big Australian actress who's done a show on Broadway in the US and acted in London too. Anyway, it was cute - another romantic comedy about this girl that works as a waitress at the Crimson Parrot - a restaurant, is in her mid 30s and hasn't dated in awhile. She lives with her Mom who puts a lot of pressure on her to get married and have kids, and her mind is always on these movies and not real life. And she's entirely clumsy :-). But of course, without her noticing, she falls in love at the restaurant with a regular customer. So it was cute. And then, I trained home late at night! Nick and Phoebe didn't come because they had already seen the play...

Sunday! Slept in a lot :-). Got up late, and then finally around noon Phoebe and I took off to go to the city to an art festival that is down there every Sunday - more fancy than the market. It was neat to look at all the art pieces and homemade goods - some wooden. Beautiful stuff. I wish I lived here - I would've bought more neat stuff! But we walked through fast, and grabbed lunch while down here, and had fun. Then we trammed it back to hurry to Phoebe's afternoon baby shower! We drove to her friend's house with Nick's mum for the baby shower - Nick had to go to the pub with all the guys, and the shower only had all the girls :-). All of Nick's friends from Uni and their sig others - sorry, partners :-). Of course all these people had known each other for a decade at least, and had been with their partners that long. But they were all really neat ladies and I had fun hanging out with them. And Phoebe made a pecan pie for the occasion, and another made a very awesome carrot cake. So no shortage of good food :-). Apparently, tho, baby showers down here are rare, so Phoebe and I were the only ones that had been to them before! So we had to tell everyone how they went. But it was great! Phoebe opened a ton of very cute baby clothes. And even though she said no pink, there were very cute pink things too :-). And after drinking some champagne, we played Scategories - given a letter, list all girl's baby names starting with that letter. It was sorta hard. O was one letter... And a 2nd round was baby paraphenalia with a letter. Phoebe ended up winning, and the prize was a bottle of wine, so she couldn't even drink it! :-). So we hung out all afternoon, and after awhile, all the male partners came back from the pub - apparently they played ping pong (table tennis) for hours. Some were pretty drunk :-). And then we hung out some more! Ebony and James who lived there make a pork roast with potatoes and salad for everyone who was left... Very tasty. Apparently they crisp the skin in the grill (broiler) and love that. But they make fun of American bacon :-). Anyway, it was nice - then we finally took off around 9 I think and went home. It was a lovely day :-). Phoebe made some small tacos at home - she had made her own refried beans and her own salsa because she missed Mexican food here :-). Not much of that here, but awesome Asian as you've probably noticed!

So - Monday - I promise I'm almost done! Last day in Melbourne - or actually out of the city. I took a day trip on a bus out to the Great Ocean Road - along the southern coast of Australia (not all the way to Adelaide). And this day was a beautiful sunny day - very nice. I had to get up around 6 to get down to our city pick up point on time, and then of course the bus was late. There were only 12 of us on the tour - 11 girls :-). I be-friended 2 girls - one from Canada and one from Dublin. Very nice. 4 other women were from China (mother-daughter pairs), and 3 younger girls were from Germany. Then a couple from Italy who barely spoke English :-). Well, we drove. That was basically the day. After driving an hour (I slept), we stopped at an Aborigine Culture House outside Geelong. Then drove along the Ocean - saw Bell's Beach - apparently famous for surfing. Then saw the arch that marks the start of the Great Ocean Road - it was built by WWI veterans who needed jobs. They got 2 shillings to build this whole road out of shovels and picks! So we drove and drove and saw beaches and pretty coasts and surfing towns. We turned off at this random pull out and got out and saw koalas in the wild - actually moving, not sleeping! That was neat - wish my camera had more zoom :-). We stopped for a very quick lunch in a small town. Then we took a short walk in a rainforest with beautiful big trees and bit frawns. Very cool. Then we stopped quickly in Apollo Bay for coffee, then to see the 12 Apostles! They are these beautiful rock formations just off the coastal cliffs. There are only 7 left because they are made of limestone. But very majestic and beautiful :-). Then we went a bit down the road and saw the Loch Ard Gorge - a natural pretty inlet - cliffs forming a small inclosure around a very pretty beach. And there were neat cave-like openings at the back of the beach. And then right around sunset we got to the end of the big attractions - London Bridge - another rock formation right off of cliffs. Very pretty. Apparently this bridge used to actually be connected via another rock bridge to the mainland, but only around 10 years ago it fell! It stranded 2 tourists out on the rock and they had to be helicoptered off :-). How funny! No one was hurt. So we drove through the dark to a small town not on the coast called Colac. Our dinner options were McDonalds, KFC, and a noodle house. Guess what I picked :-). No, I'm not attached to THOSE American roots. And then a 2 hour bus ride back home in the dark. The saving grace - the bus driver gave us handheld PS2 to watch movies on! I watched "Priscilla Queen of the Desert". Apparently a sort of classic - set in Australia. With Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith and Head Elf Elrond) being cross-dressing transvesite singing performers! Hilarious :-). They drive across Australia's outback in a big pink bus. Very odd, but entertaining. And finally, back to Melbourne at 9:30ish. It was a nice day, but mostly in a bus. And I feel like the day would've been a lot more fun if we had a good guide. Our guide -Steve - was a rail-thin, tatooed guy with a weathered face and big nose. And he was a curmudgeon! Just grumpy and said little and worried about time. Yelled at us when we were late, and made us run back to the bus when he honked the horn. And only gave us 15 minutes at most stops to take pictures and run back. Didn't tell us much about the area either, which I thought would've been the benefit of the tour. He did give us "lollies" or "mintys" (because Aussies cute-sify everything with y's or o's) periodically. And actually I talked to him after it got dark (I was in the front) about buses hitting kangaroos (there were warning signs around), and how there was snow here last week, and about New Zealand - apparently where he was from. So, it wasn't all bad, but a long bus-y day. Took a train back to Nick and Phoebes from the city, and got up early the next morning to say goodbye to them and fly back to Canberra!

Overall impressions of Melbourne - smaller city center, more accessible, easier to get a handle on, and more networked public transport than Sydney (although that could be where I stayed). Mellower city, good food, good artsy stuff. And of course the hospitality of Nick and Phoebe, and just hanging out with friends, made my trip :-). It was very fun. Melbourne was also warmer than Canberra, but not as warm as Sydney. Gets colder air from the south. And I did see the bay where the ocean was, but Melbourne isn't really as known for beaches as Sydney...

So, can you guess after all that which I liked better? :-). Yes, Melbourne :-). Most people (unless you were born in Sydney) seem to agree with me. It is a bit chiller than Sydney.

Anyway, I had a great time on my travels and would've have changed them for anything! But by God it was so good to get home! Even though I came back to very cold Canberra (although I mostly skipped the coldest week of winter), God was it nice to be back in a calmer mode - to actually sleep in my own bed and sit at a desk all day - so nice! :-). Funny how that works :-). I was just tired - how odd after so many days of going from 8am-midnight :-). And was glad to have time to myself. And back on regular exercise, although walking all around cities is pretty good :-). But to be honest I was also excited to get back to work - I'm at an exciting point in my research, so it's fun :-). And I'm thinking lately that that's why I like Canberra so much... it's quiet. And it's a big park - I was nostalgic for my bike ride here - seeing my favorite little corners around the lake - because it's MINE. And here I'm home - I don't have to be a tourist everyday :-). I like my sleepy little town where there's nothing to do :-). Maybe it's part of getting older. Anyway, it's nice to be home. I've had a pretty quiet rest of my week - mostly working. Doing some laundry and grocery shopping. Nice to be back to normal, everyday things! And talking to Ryan everyday - always fun :-). I do miss him! I'll put my post about funny Australian things and the rest of this week in Canberra in the next blog - stay tuned!

My awesome nephew!

Ok, I realize I haven't blogged in awhile, and I have a billion things to tell you about last week, Sydney, and now being in Melbourne. But they will have to wait, because there is more pressing news. I want to shout it from the roof tops and I can't tell you how hard it is being so far away from the fam with a weird time difference. But I am a new aunt!! My brother's wife had the baby - the huge baby - and his name is Hazen Alexander Bedke after my Grandpa. Makes me want to cry. Check out their pictures!

http://schmedke.smugmug.com/gallery/5379112_XezaP#329474005_UFL5L

He was 9 lbs. 10 oz and 21 inches - chunker :-) - born on July 9th. I already love him, and I'm just such a proud aunt. I can't wait to get on webcam next week. Seeing my brother holding his son - wow, so priceless. Especially considering he said he'd never have kids :-). Love you Matt!

G'day from Melbourne...
P.S. Let me just tell you this news, and staying with a very pregnant couple in Melbourne makes me yearn for home and family.

Walkabout Weekend

[NOTE to readers: check out the previous post for more pictures - I did that this morning as well!]

OK, so about this weekend - I had a great time - mostly hiking around Canberra. I love this city! I will tell this story via more pictures :-).

I hiked up to Mt. Ainslie behind my house. But first, I went to the War Memorial which is a fantastic museum here. I didn't spend a lot of time here, but I know Bruce would've loved it. We Americans really are ignorant of the Australians roll in major wars - WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc!
So, inside the War Memorial with tomb of unknown soldier:


Then, while hiking, I saw a beautiful parrot - they are all over here:


At the top - great views of Canberra, the planned city. That is Lake Burley-Griffin. See the 2 main bridges over it? That is my running route - around that part of the lake :-).


Here you can see the rest of Canberra - the lake I bike around, the Central area, ANU, etc. See the mountain with the distinctive tower on top? Stay tuned - that's where I hiked Sunday:


So, I had a great hike! I had a picnic at the top (while being harrassed by birds). Cheese and crackers - yum. And beetroot! It's very popular here (as are Indian and Chinese foods - many Asian things). But yes - bright red beetroot - awesome as a hummus-like dip.

Views of the beautiful War Memorial and down the drive from that, the Parliament House. The main axis of Canberra :-):
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Now, Sunday - at the Botanical Gardens where I met Steve and family for lunch. At the gradens, they have a ton of native Australian plants - from rainforests to deserts! Here's 2 common ones - the Watl:


And the Banksia named for a famous botanist on the 1st boat over - on Cook's boat. There are loads of different kinds of both watl and banksia plants.


Post gardens, I decide to hike for more views of Canberra - can't get enough :-).
That is where I'm hiking to - the Telestra Tower on Black Mountain - lots of cell phone and radio things up there.


Me, in the wind, on the tower viewing beautiful Canberra :-).


Nice view of Canberra from other place - see my running route around the bridges again?


And again - main part of Canberra with city center, ANU, and Mt. Ainslie where I hiked yesterday in the background! See the white line at the very right part of Mt. Ainslie where it comes down to the city? That's the War Memorial - I live close to that, between that and the city center.


So, a great Sunday as well. I had an adventure coming down the mountain. Well, the adventure was at the bottom - they had locked the gate back into the Botanical Garden where I had hiked up from! It was close to 5pm - everything shuts down. So, I had to hike back down to the road and 1/2 hour back to the front of the Botanical Garden, which was locked and had a huge gate up! Oh no - my bike was locked in, and me on the outside. Luckily there were 2 nice blokes drinking beer at the gate - cafe workers. They tracked down the person with the key, and let me rescue my bike :-). Fun times! Then Sunday night (as Saturday night) was working, making dinner, and Sunday - fun fun doing laundry. And a bit of hanging out with Chinese roommate Jet. He's nice. Funny Chinese-Australian accent because he's been here for years :-).

So, I had a great weekend! And now it's Monday, and I need to get work done. Wednesday I leave for a long weekend in Sydney! I have a Rubgy League game to go to on Wednesday night, then Thursday will be at U New South Whales to give a talk. Then a weekend of exploring Sydney with Saturday being a day of hiking in the Blue Mountains. And of course, 4th of July parties with my American friends from the program. Can't wait! Cheers...

Canberra Pictures!

So now that I'm at work and have wonderful internet again - as requested - pictures! These are from last weekend - will do another post from this weekend.

Here is where I live:


Here we are hiking in the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve outside of Canberra. This is my mentor Steve and his 2 kids Saskia and Kyler.



Roos!


Me and emus - these and kangaroos are on the country coat of arms here.


At Australian football game! It's not like American football - you actually kick the ball.



At the football game - eating meat pies and cheering for Sydney Swans (their color is red).


Fun times :-).

Cockatoos, Rainbows, and Beer, Oh My

So I meant to post this on Thursday, but here goes. The short version: Wednesday night I went out to dinner and BEER with my new FRIENDS which caused me to be very bleary-eyed during my Thursday morning run, where I saw a beautiful RAINBOW over the lake and close to home, a flock of COCKATOOS :-).

So more details - I've been getting work done this week, which has been good. I still feel like I should be more productive, but it's going well! I have been making dinner at home and stopping at the grocery store on the way home every few days which is nice. Wednesday, 2 friends and I decided to meet up and go to dinner. So one is a guy from the program who's been my roommate for the last week - name's Micah and he's cool. A world traveler, so we have tons to talk about. He's getting his PhD at Colorado in Computational Biology, but he has a CS background. Other is Nancy - a 21 year old not in our program, but here on an internship - a senior at a college in Connecticut interested in psychological, especially with kids. So we decided to be adventurous and bus up to a difference Canberra neighborhood (where none of us had been) and try a Chinese restaurant called Jimmy's that was recommended to us. So we had fun! We got a bunch of dishes and shared them - a peppery beef dish, a chicken dish, a seafood medley dish (with shrimp, white fish, squid and scallops and snow peas), and Chinese broccoli. Everything was really tasty! And we had some interesting conversations - about travel, about water activities (Nancy rows and Micah scubas), about grad school, about American individualism. No shortage of conversation :-). It was fun! Nancy is still young from my perspective - just learning to drink and all. But she's a cool chick. We went to Wig and Pen - a Microbrew beer pub after dinner that was recommended to me. I loved it! Nice atmosphere and I got a chocolate elderberry stout which was dessert for sure! We continued our lively conversation and Micah ended up treating us to dinner, and a 2nd round of drinks (which we didn't want). So I don't know the % alcohol of my beer, but it must've been strong because I was definitely feeling it on our chilly walk home that night! But I felt happy - I was hanging out, checking out Canberra, and had friends :-).

Thursday morning, however, was painful becuase of Wednesday night. So I didn't go to bed until 1am (we got home earlier because Canberra shuts down early, but I was being self-destructive here). Anyway, I had a phone meeting with my US collaborators at 7! So dehydrated and bleary-eyed, I got up for the meeting, which went well. I contemplated going back to bed, but was awake, so just went for my 8K run around the lake... Well, it was TOUGH that morning. Sure it was windy, but really the problem was me :-). I had to walk a stretch, but I made it even with dehydration and not feeling the best. But what saved me - above me there were blue skies, but to the east and west were very dark scary clouds. So when I rounded the 2nd bridge over the lake and came back on the north path, I saw a beautiful rainbow appear. Made me just smile :-). And just in a mini park behind my house I saw a huge flock of cockatoos! Literally like 30. I was complaining to Steve that I never saw them - they see them as like pigeons - nuisances - they are all over ANU. But I was happy to see them! Unfortunately didn't get a picture. So even though I felt like a snail during the run, I actually made good time home.

So let me just say I like going to work here. I get up at 7:30 every morning, and do some kind of exercise before work. Then I get in by around 10. When all 3 of us (Steve, my mentor, and Daniel his grad student) are in, we go for awesome coffee across the street - sometimes grab a delicious muffin too. Then lunch is at 1 - Thursday we got gyros from the union and Fridays the guys always go to a sushi place on campus. Steve is right next door and pops in to see if I need help - without micromanaging. So, it's a nice atmosphere! And everyone is friendly. The building shuts down at 5 - you have to have a key to get OUT of the building too! And around then, or 5:30 is when Steve goes home. I've been staying more like till 6:30 or 7, but that's really late here (everyone else has gone home way earlier). But I like the good internet at work :-). So, it's a nice routine! Thursday I actually gave a talk to our department about my work - basically the talk I gave at the conference a couple of weeks ago. Even though no one else does my kind of research, it went really well - I got a lot of good questions (people were actually thinking about the work and all), and it was fun! I feel more and more confident every time I do this.

So Friday morning, got up and swimming was the exercise! I talked to Nancy who loves to swim, and we met at the nice Olympic pool just down from my house at 8 to swim. Swam close to an hour, and it was awesome! 50m pool, so a long longer than I'm used to, but nice facility. And the water feels warm (which makes me feel slow), but it's winter, so it's nice that it's warm. I mean the pool itself is inside a bubble, so it's heated, but yeah.

So, good week! Although I have to say for some reason Friday I got lonely. There's a couple of things about being here... For some reason everything reminds me of someone. I get reminded of the people I love all the time. Eating pepper reminds me of Ryan :-). Seeing Steve's kids reminds me of my sister's kids. Swimming reminds me of Maria, and running of Christine. Eating dates reminds me of Negin. So many little things! Eating gyros and going to the market last weekend - that was Mom for sure. So, anyway, I'm just saying - I can't some being reminded of all of you. And even if I don't live in the same town as you - I miss you! My friend Maria told me that's a sign of loneliness, and maybe it is. I feel a bit sad now because Daniel and Nancy are in Sydney for the weekend. Micah and I went to a neat movie last night, though, so I feel sorta social :-). We saw Mongol - the movie about Ghengis Khan. And I have my new roommate Jet who moved in. I'm going to go hike in a bit, and meet Steve at the Botanical Gardens tomorrow for lunch with his family. So there are things. But I find that Canberra itself is a city to live in. It's not like New York where I'm bouncing from activity to activity, or where it's known that there are 1000 things going on right now. I am not a tourist here - I live here. Which is what I prefer. But, without my people - I get lonely just living isolated from everything.

But there are things to look forward to - I leave for a long weekend in Sydney on Wednesday myself. And the following week/weekend will be in Melbourne. So more adventures are on the way! No worries :-).

Nomad once again

Periodically I get excited about travel - about wonderous places to see, about adventures yet to be had, histories and cultures to discover. I was so not in that itchy "need-to-travel" state when I left for Australia to be honest. I wanted to be home. New York hadn't worn off yet. But, apparently being here has peaked it again - my wanderlust :-). I have a conversation or 2 with people about their travels, and I can't wait to go there myself! Exploration! So here's where I really want to go (because making lists excites me):

Mongolia - just had conversation about this place with people over "cake time" - sounds fascinating in its remotely
Egypt - history - need I say more?
Bali - my cousin went here and I am just fascinated with their shadow puppets. Will try to go there while I'm down here :-).
India - eventually - it'll be difficult to go here, but it's a must
Israel - so much history here, too, and an interesting part of the world
Turkey - awesome wares and food/drinks!
Eastern Europe - really need to go to Prague and Vienna, and I've love to see Bucharest and other cities (maybe Belgrade?) around there :-).
Ireland/Scotland/Stonehenge - I'd love to see this part of the world - so green!
Casablanca, Morocco maybe? You can guess why :-)
Central America - Belize (awesome scuba), Costa Rica, maybe Panama, Guatemala, etc.

Ok, that's my current list. Of course there are other possibilities, but these are highest right now. And sometime I'll probably have to break down and see Japan and all that too. But we'll see.

So if you are interested in any of this - tell me and sign up to go with me! I'm available anytime - especially if companions volunteer :-).
Yay nomadic life!

Good on ya - settling in to Canberra

Hey all - My first few days living in Canberra have been wonderful - at least after I have been able to settle in. So much to process! I will try to share some...

So I had 1 more day of orientation which went well. We went to the National Museum of Australia in the afternoon (very neat architecture) and had a very exuberant guide tell show us through the "Native Australian" and aboriginal exhibits which were awesome! I really am intrigued by that part of history here. They have been here apparently for like 60,000 years. And their customs were very impressive. An interesting and adaptive people! Especially with their fishing, headdresses, possum furs, boomerangs, tools, etc. Beautiful art. Then we walked about a bit, and had our farewell with the orientation with drinks. Went to a pretty good Thai place, then to the Uni pub for some night entertainment. But we went home early - 9:30 ish. Maybe it's the fact that the sun goes down at 5 or everything closes early, but there's not much to do here at night!

So the next day the group left, and I got picked up by Steve to go drop bags at my new apartment! So nice to actually have a stable place to stay - a place to unpack suitcases. Went to work the rest of the day, then met up with a guy in the program who's my roommate for the first week (until his housing opens up), and we walked around and went to decent Malaysian food. Then got some groceries (only place open past 5 or 6pm in the very proximate mall) on the way home.

Friday was awesome - I went on my first long bike ride in Canberra! So yes, it was chilly and rainy, but it was beautiful! I said this place is like a big park, and I rode down to the lake (past the famous War Memorial), and then entirely around the huge lake - all around the city and Parliament buildings, then out west through forests and dams were you don't see much but nature! It was a long, but wonderful ride. But I had to keep reminding myself - stay to the left! Although it is scarier when you are trying to cross roads then when you are just on a nice track :-). Over 23K later, I was able to come back home! Felt great :-). On the walk to school, I tried to find a mobile phone which was very frustrating and I had no luck. But then at work, my mentor had an old mobile phone with minutes on it to give me, so yay! And plus he set me up with internet at home - bought me the modem and everything. He's been great to me... Funny things here - receiving calls on the mobile is free, and texting is way more common. Calling a cell phone is more expensive than calling a land line. Also on the internet - I have a 3GB per month plan meaning that you pay per MB! So I'm conscience of how much time I'm on. But I do now have Skype - my name is "JennBSartor" so I encourage you all to get that if you want to talk to me. Anyway... Friday night went to sushi dinner with Steve (mentor) and family which was nice. He has 3 small children so they dominate the interaction. But we did a sushi train which was fun for them! And I thought of you, Mind. Then did some errands on the way home - went to "Big W" - Walmart without the stigma :-).

Saturday woke up and did some Kung Fu which was very nice. Then got ready and went out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve - a 45 minute drive from Canberra. Weird to be in the "drivers seat" - I felt very close to the left curb and kept wanting to adjust mirrors :-). But beautiful countryside. Although we saw (still) a ton of the fire damaged area from the HUGE devastating Jan 2003 fire. And we passed some astronomy and space stations. So, I saw the 2 animals on the coat of arms in the wild - the kangaroo and the emu!!! So neat. We tried to see koalas on our hike, but they were hard to see. Then we went to a park and had a picnic lunch of sausages and all. So tasty! Did I mention how awesome Steve's been to me? So, came back to the city, and was feeling down so I went across the street for a walk in the mall. Even on Saturday everything closed at 5! But I did do some more food shopping to make some tasty omelets for dinner - my first cooking experience in my new apartment. Oh yeah - did I mention my 2 balconies and the built-in electric blankets on the bed? So awesome!

So today - went for an 8K run - again around the lake which I love. Went over the 2 main bridges in the city that form a triangle where the apex is Parliament. Good run. And one of my favorite new Australian sayings is "Good on ya" - which is what Steve said when I told him I did the run (one he used to do all the time). Fun times. Then I rode down to meet Steve for AFL - the Football game between Sydney Swans and Melbourne Demons. But first, on his recommendation, stopped by the neat Glassworks building and Old Bus Depot Markets on the way! Neat to see them blowing glass, although I've seen it before. And hte Markets were fun - I tasted a lot of awesome foods - they love curries and chilis and hot sauces and sweet dips and dates and figs and the like! And some fudge too. We don't seem to have Turkish Delight in the states, do we? And had some really awesome Chili Wine! Mostly to be sipped, but fun :-). And there were artsy/crafty booths that I wandered through - fun, but I didn't buy anything. Then I met up with the big gang, and went to the football game! The stadium was huge, but the game was low-key. The sorta didn't care about searchign my bag, and everything was pretty informal. You could bring in anything but glass (food, anything). So, Steve brought us a bunch of small meat pies which apparently are an Australian favorite! And some chili chocolate for dessert - yum. But the game itself - we all were routing for the red Sydney Swans (cheering - routing means having sex with apparently). The game is really fast-paced and high scoring. Altho there's tackling, that isn't the main thing - people just move the ball from person to person fast and run a lot. You can volley-ball hit to each other or kick, and goals are made by kicking through big tall polls. But Sydney won in the end with over 100 points (goals are either 6 or 1 point, so they scored a lot!) to around 70 for Melbourne :-). So it was fun. Everyone was allowed on the field afterwards to run around and kids brought their footballs to kick them around. So, it was great! And Steve's friends were all very nice. Another saying I love is "no worries" - they say that all the time (maybe I apologize a lot). So I biked home over 3 miles back! I do love this city :-). We decided it's not as exciting as Sydney or Melbourne, but it's a good place to live.

So, general thoughts - I love having a home where I can be comfortable - I really need that. I need exercise too, of course :-). The weather here - I'm getting used to it. Friday was rainy and Steve said that was abnormal because it's dry here. When the sun's out during the day, the afternoons are quite nice and feel pretty warm, but it's chilly in the morning, and pretty darn chilly after the sun goes down. Aussies LOVE LOVE their sprots. We have about 10 TV stations, and 5 of them at all times are showing some sport - cricket, AFL, Rugby Union, Rugby League, tennis, etc! There are birds here everywhere - parrots, kookaburra, cockatoo, swans, magpies. They are beautiful.

OK, I think I've written enough. I'll put some pictures up maybe tomorrow when my internet is not limited :-). G'day! Goodnight to y'all actually :-).