Let’s get right into it this time! Then I’ll have to catch up on this past week and such later. Today I’m headed to Tasmania for 5 days with 8 others, so that should be good.
So, Tuesday started with the Uluru sunrise tour. We ate lunch, relaxed, and I got to lay out by the pool awhile which was wonderful. Then we had to be on our way again though. We had an afternoon outing to Kata Tjuta. That was a bit further drive than Uluru so we got to hear a little more about the Aboriginals there and such. Our guide was pretty cool on this tour, a little crazy. She was very informative though. She talked some about they way the people used to live on this land, how they got around, what they hunted and how they slept, and how they interacted with each other. There weren’t as many stories about Kata Tjuta, it is mostly a sacred men’s site. They haven’t revealed very much about it because a lot of the initiations go on there and other things that are very spiritual they aren’t prepared to share. So most of the stories we heard were about white man coming out there and “discovering” the rocks. They were named The Olgas by white man. I forgot all of that story, but I remember it was very difficult to get to these rocks from the direction they came because the salt lakes, I think namely Lake Amadeus. It took them a few different tries to get across or around or something. Then from Kata Tjuta they could see Uluru off in the distance when they climbed up. I started to stop writing as much down at this point in the trip, so I probably won’t be as detailed from here on out as I don’t remember as much! Probably better for all of you though, to not have me go on and on about every little thing! We stopped at a viewing spot a little ways away to take some pictures. Our guide also told us about the desert oak trees that are everywhere out there. There are a lot of young ones that are just real small and the leaves are just real close to the tree. They don’t mature until they hit the tap or something down below and that way they can get water from it and grow even bigger and spread out their leaves. They were really pretty actually, and like everything else at the moment were quite green, a beautiful contrast to the red dirt. We left from there to head in right next to the rocks. We stopped at a place around the other side, that wasn’t so sacred, called Walpa Gorge. Here we got out and took a bit of a hike up into the gorge to see it. That was pretty cool. The rocks were huge! We went between the tallest one of the “domes” as they call them, Mt. Olga, and another one. They just went straight up and had awesome looking faces. There were little holes and caves at different spots, and along the path there were big stones that were made up of little stones if that makes any sense. The path was uneven rocks just like what those balls of stones were made of. There was one little creek along the way. It was just gorgeous, and in between the domes the sun kept changing as it was later afternoon so the rock colors above us were changing depending on if the sun hit it or not. So we got the end and it was quite gorgeous. Looking both ways, either the slit between the two domes, or the large opening back where we came from with the bright sun and wonderful blue sky. You could see all the rays coming from behind the clouds, it was very nice. Then we just turned around and headed back. It was a very nice hike, pretty short and really easy, it felt good. I talked to the guide a little on the way back. I told her I was studying in Geelong and she said she was from a little town between Geelong and Melbourne, but I haven’t heard of it. I talked to her a little about some movies I’d watched depicting Australian life, mostly The Castle just because I loved it so much, it was hilarious. I told her I refused to watch Wolf Creek before I came and she said she refuses to watch it because she lives out there! It’s a movie based on something that happened, about a guy killing people he helped stranded on a road in the middle of the desert. Scary! There were a couple little kids in our group, one in particular added some entertainment for sure. He talked and talked and talked, and was very confident and outgoing. He had a hat on that said Jellyman, like from Finding Nemo, so our guide called him Jellyman the whole time, it was cute. We came back to the bus and the sun was going to be setting soon so we then headed over a little further away again to the sunset viewing area. The sunset was happening opposite Kata Tjuta rather than behind it. Our guide set up some “bubbly and nibblies” for us. We had sparkling wine and some tasty bread with oil and vinegar dipping sauce and then some other stuff to dip that into, spices or something. It was really good, I ate sort of a lot of it! It’s so wonderful to sip on some bubbly and watch the sunset, really it feels like some sort of paradise. Anyway, that was another spectacular sunset for us. The domes changed colors so many different times and it was brilliant. The sunset behind with a few clouds was also magnificent. Really vibrant and incredible. After it had pretty much gone down we packed up and headed back to the resort. The last of it was setting as we drove off and we were driving as the blue dusk turned into black. So we saw sunset, dusk, black, black, dawn, sunrise, sun up, sunset, dusk, black all in a row and it was totally amazing! It made for a couple long days, but it was really incredible. When we got back to the resort we had to go over to the backpacker’s place to get some dinner since it was the only thing open that late. That made it very packed as well, so we had to wait awhile, and just got some sandwiches and burgers, but it was good. Then it was crash time again.
Wednesday we ordered room service breakfast because it was cheaper than anything else really! We got a meal that came with a little of everything, like a complimentary breakfast buffet sort of. Mom and I then headed out on an adventure to the lookout point in the middle of the whole resort area. There’s a little dune out there and from the top you can see Uluru really well and Kata Tjuta off in the distance a ways. It was pretty cool. There are a couple paths out in the middle there so we took the wrong one and got a little lost in the bush, I got scratched by the “grass” out there, it’s like needles I’m not even joking. But we got to see some snake tracks where they slithered, and some little tracks of some sort. It was cool. We had to check out at 10 which was sort of annoying because then we just had to sit and wait in the lobby for awhile before the shuttle came to take us to the airport. Then once we got to the airport we had to wait a little bit before getting on the plane. It was cool to walk out to the plane and up the stairs though. I had a whole side to myself, all three seats, so I got to sit by a window which was nice. There was also another movie and a nice sandwich for lunch. The movie was Freedom Writers and really a good movie, based on a true story and pretty inspirational. We got into Cairns, which was cool to see everything and fly over the ocean before landing. We got picked up again and taken to our hotel in Palm Cove about 20 minutes away. It was really nice, I loved the town of Palm Cove, all along the Esplanade and everything. It was gorgeous and felt very resort like, very relaxed. Our room was amazing, more like an apartment! It just added to the whole feel of the place, like you were truly on vacation you know. We just walked along the esplanade looking for a place for dinner and ended up at the restaurant right next to our hotel. It was very delicious, I had some veal tortellini that was amazing. We just went back to the room again and called it a night. I spent a lot of these empty nights showing Mom all my pictures on my computer I’d taken so far since I’ve been here! And that was Wednesday, mostly just a travelling day but it happens.
Thursday just so happened to be one of the most amazing days of my life I think! I experienced the Great Barrier Reef! It truly was incredible. You know it’s going to be wonderful of course, but you can’t imagine it until you get in there. I just went snorkelling, not diving, but I was pretty much in awe the whole time. Not only is it gorgeous and the fish are amazing, but just the fact of what it is and how it works, the natural beauty and wonder of it. The coral just grows and dies and regenerates, and there is so much LIFE down there, in general. It’s amazing to see so much life in one spot, very inspiring, makes you think and wonder. The coral itself really wasn’t that colourful, as they told us is normal because there are little creatures that grab on and live on the coral that make it brown. The first colors to leave are orange, yellow and red, and that seemed to be the case. We saw mostly the brown, but there was also blues, greens and purples in there. Some were very vibrant and it was all just beautiful. We got up early again and headed into Cairns to leave on the Ocean Spirit catamaran. It took a couple hours to get out to the reef, and we were moving fairly fast! When we left land it looked pretty dreary and the water wasn’t too pretty. The further out we got, the more the water turned prettier blues and became clear. They served us biscuits (cookies) and coffee and showed a slide show to help them talk a little about the reef and the creatures that lived there. That was interesting, it’s nice to learn a little about what you’re doing and seeing on top of just being there. When we arrived at Michealmas Cay we dropped anchor and everyone got ready to do their respective activities. Our first one was a trip in the glass bottom boat! This was pretty amazing, our first view of the real reef! And now I leave you in suspense!! I have to catch the bus to the airport for Tassie now!!
You all have a wonderful week, think of me. Remember I care about you and miss you! I’ll continue my exciting adventures when I get home and there will be even more to catch up on! Your quotes:
Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway ~John Wayne
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin ~Mother Teresa
Love, Alissa
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Easter Break Part Dos
G’day all!! I’m going to continue with my Easter break story instead of do my homework right now, a better alternative. It was an absolutely perfect day outside yesterday, and today it’s a little rainy. It’s a good rainy though, I’m enjoying it, plus it helps because there is a lot for me to be doing and I don’t need to be tempted to spend my day lazing around outside! Assignments are starting to have to be done and I feel a little behind in my classes since I missed some when I was sick. I know I shouldn’t stress since I only have to pass and that won’t be a problem, but you know that I can’t just accept that, even in Australia I feel like I have to do well! Anyway, pretty boring week, school, hanging out, the usual. I finally got to talk to Mark yesterday which was nice! I’m glad tax season is over. I got a wonderful package in the mail from Mrs. Nordstrom from church with a hand knit hat!! Now I can keep warm as it is starting to get pretty chilly out. And I was surprised with yet another card from my wonderful Grandma! That’s always exciting. Hint, hint. Last night Nick made a roast that was delicious and much better than pb&j or soup! Time is going by fairly quickly here and it’s making me sad. I can’t imagine leaving this place even though I am starting to really miss some things about home, namely you people. It’s weird to feel so much love and attachment to both places that are so different and OH SO far away! It’s a good thing though. Okay, on with the show!
So, I stopped before Monday. This is when the real excitement and wonder starts! Monday morning we had to get up super early to get to the airport on time for our flight to Ayer’s Rock. We had just a bit of delay but it wasn’t bad at all. The plane ride itself was pretty good. They showed the movie The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and other people I don’t remember. It was cute, a RoCo, of course I liked it! They gave us pretty good sandwiches to eat as well. It was pretty exciting to watch the landscape change below us as well. We went from the city, out to the mountains and farmlands. Then it started to look more like desert, and then it got to be red! It was very very red. And we saw some big salt lakes as well which looked pretty cool. When we finally got there, just a little before landing I got to see Uluru AND Kata Tjuta from the sky!! That was pretty cool. I saw this vast red desert with some small vegetation and then boom there are these huge rocks out of nowhere! They looked pretty impressive honestly. Anyway, it was a tiny little airport and we got off the airplane from the back down stairs! I know, real exciting, but I thought so because I’ve never done that! There was just one baggage claim inside, one check in place with a few stalls, and one big waiting room for departures and that’s it! We got our stuff and headed out to the bus that was taking us to our hotel. Everything there is in the Ayer’s Rock Resort, it has all the hotels and campgrounds and stores and such in a circle in there and was only about 10 minutes from the airport. We were at the Desert Gardens Hotel but didn’t yet have a room. So we sat around the resort and relaxed waiting. When we got our room we relaxed more and got ready for the evening since the bus was coming to get us at 6. The Sounds of Silence dinner was that first night. The bus took us out to this sand dune about 20 minutes from the resort. We drove past a college, and a couple other buildings, like maybe the water treatment place, and were on a red dirt road most of the way that was quite bumpy. Anyway, the sun was setting and was quite nice when we arrived at our sand dune. We walked up the path to the top, I was the leader of the group, where a guy greeted us with a glass of sparkling wine! It was quite tasty. And wonderful to sip while watching the sunset in the desert. It was gorgeous. I found that I really like the desert, I think it’s beautiful! At least here. It helped that they had just got most of their rain for the year as well. There was actually a lot of green everywhere. There was much more vegetation than I was expecting and it was pretty. With the red dirt/sand it made everything look prettier as well I think. Most of our view was Kata Tjuta, as it was closer and the sun was right behind it. You could still see Uluru off in the distance as well however. They were generous with the bubbly, though I only had a glass, and served some appetizers up there as well. I had the crocodile one and some kangaroo. I liked the kangaroo, but the crocodile was a little weird. Honestly, there are very few people who eat either here, it’s just kind of cool to try something different. So they kept us up on top for awhile, to drink the bubbly, eat the food, and take lots of pictures through most of the sunset. After awhile the sun was almost gone and they had us walk down the other side of the dune to where our dinner was set up. The sunset went through many different colors and there were some clouds to reflect the color that were just gorgeous. So we headed down and picked out our tables. They were all set with white tablecloths and candle centerpieces. There was a buffet line set up with our dinner cooking, that’s strange to see in the middle of the desert! Our table was closest to the rock, so nothing to block our view. The other people at our table were Liz, Deidre, and Liz from different parts of the UK. They were here for one of their son’s wedding and then just travelled around awhile. There was also Sarah and Sam, a very cute young couple. She was from Sydney and he was a Kiwi, from New Zealand. All of them were very nice and we had some great conversation through the evening about everything. It was interesting to have the US, UK and Australia all represented there and see the different views and such, I loved it. Sarah had a fascination with Kansas ever since she was little so that was funny. We saw the first star out and it was really bright, so we all made a wish - you know star bright star light, first star I see tonight. Slowly, more and more stars started to show up as the sun went further down and dusk turned to darkness. There was a little bit of cloud cover but you could still see about everything. It was amazing, I couldn’t stop watching the sky, and the impending darkness beyond our little set up! After a bit of talking and drinking wine, which again was very tasty, they read a poem to start the night and we had a minute of silence to really listen to the silence of the desert around us. It was incredible, really, it’s so hard to get anywhere to hear it that silent with all the night creatures buzzing and such. They started the dinner by serving us all pumpkin and herb soup with bread, I’ve noticed a lot of pumpkin soup in the supermarket and never thought it looked too good. This was delicious though! Then they called us up table by table to get our food from the buffet. It was spectacular food! There was crocodile caesar salad, pasta salad, a Dijon potato salad, chicken skewers, kangaroo steak, roasted bacon potatoes, lemon barramundi, and some beef. I tried a little of everything although I didn’t know what all I was eating when we got back to the table because it was so dark! I think that also means I had to have eaten a few bugs, there were moths and other bugs all around us and we couldn’t tell if they got in our food. I did have a grasshopper hop into my glass of wine, though! Luckily I had white wine so I could see and get it out, Liz had some red wine and couldn’t tell when she thought something bounced in there. So we ate our main course and conversed and had a great time. There was a didgeridoo player performing while we ate. That really is an awesome instrument. It sounds so cool, and especially in the silence out in the desert. He was white, and said that he was playing instead of an Aboriginal because in that part of the country, that group doesn’t play the instrument traditionally. After dinner, a guy came out to talk to us about the stars. By this time it was complete blackness beyond our tables and there were billions of stars out. I never even knew this many stars existed!! It was absolutely incredible, one of the things I had most been looking forward to my entire time here, and truly one of the most amazing things I’ve seen yet. I love the sky, and to actually be able to see it all was amazing! They were so clear and there were so many that you could see all the little ones and make out full constellations and everything. The entire Milky Way was visible, I’ve never seen it. That was awesome! There were even a few thin clouds around, and we still saw this much. There were a few planets out that were really bright as well, I think Venus was the first one we could see and the brightest, of course since women are from there! I loved it and couldn’t stop looking above me. Our astrologer told us all about the different constellations and how you could find directions from a few of the different constellations, namely the Southern Cross which is on the Australian flag. He also told us many stories from the Aboriginals about how the constellations got there. One very shortened one was this man had a boat and wanted to keep it safe where nobody could steal it so it stuck it up in the sky, and that’s the Milky Way. There was a lot more to it, little details and such, but that was mainly it. I videotaped a lot of the talking, and I tried taking pictures of the sky, a few of them actually turned out, I got many visible spots without a tripod! After our talk they served dessert - my favorite part of the meal!! I tried most all of it, it was delicious. There was fresh fruit, a chocolate brownie with I think white, milk and dark chocolate in it, chocolate espresso lava cake, a bread pudding with cinnamon and fruit and then another kind of cake that I didn’t try. Oh, it was so amazing. We had a little more time for wine, conversation and star gazing before our bus interrupted the desert noises to take us back where we promptly fell asleep. It was truly an amazing night! I thought we could see a lot stars just here on campus, out there was spectacular!
Tuesday! After our long night we then had to wake up at 5:15 the next morning to be picked up at our hotel at 6 for the sunrise Uluru tour. That was difficult. Though completely worth it. It was really amazing to watch the entire sunset one night, and wake up the next morning to see the entire sunrise - complete light to dusk to complete dark, and then complete dark to dawn to complete light. We even watched the complete sunset again on Tuesday! Anyway, so we get picked up in a small bus with about 20 people and drive out to the sunrise lookout spot. On our way the tour guide told us different stories from the Aborigine people of the region called the Anangu people. There were stories of how Uluru came to be the way it is now at different spots, and she pointed out a few sacred spots on the rock that are mostly crevices or caves. Some are women’s sites and some are men’s sites, where strictly only one or the other can go. One of these stories was the Mala story, I‘ll try to tell right it in a shortened version. The Mala men all went up the rock to have one of their ceremonies. They were approached by some other men inviting them to their place or something, and the Mala men said hey thanks a lot, we would, but you know Law says we can’t leave once we start a ceremony until it’s complete, so sorry but next time. Well these other men were upset they didn’t accept the invitation, so they sent the Demon Devil Dingo Dog after the Mala men. One of them saw the dog coming and told everyone hey we need to run! They didn’t believe for awhile until they saw it themselves and it was close. So they took off running away in fear. The eldest was behind the rest of them as he was slower and wanted to make sure his men were safe. The Demon Devil Dingo Dog got a hold of him and threw him up against the rock, and to this day you can see his face imprint in the rock. It’s a profile, facing the direction his men were running away to safety. So by the time we heard all this we had arrived at the sunrise viewing spot and the sun was well on it’s way to rising. There were tons of tour busses and people there. It sort of detracted from it all, but what can you do. It was still awesome both to see the sunrise on its own, and to watch the color on the rock change the whole time. It went from sort of dull to this real orange, and then to a vibrant red, and when the sun was behind a cloud it was more a dull burnt color. It was really cool to see it change in just an instant and take on a totally different character. Anyway, we got some hot chocolate and muffins and such while we watched the sun creep its way up higher into the sky. Once most of the coaches had left the car park our guide took us over to a patch of red dirt and gave us an explanation of the geology of the rock. It was really interesting. Apparently hundreds of millions of years ago there was this mountain range, and it had two main rivers running down it. One was really fast and deposited fine particles in an alluvial fan at the base, while the other moved more slowly depositing bigger rocks and such at the bottom in an alluvial fan. So then a big inland ocean formed and covered everything up, so all that was deposited there was compacted really good. Then that dried up and another mountain range formed so that the compacted deposited stuff was between the two mountain ranges. Well they caused a whole lot of pressure there and trapped heat, so all this deposit was being cooked basically, and eventually the one that was formed of small particles just buckled at a 90 degree angle. This was Uluru. Today, we only see the top part of that, so there is a lot more below the surface and to one direction of it, like an L, we see the top part of the bottom part of the L, if that makes any sense. So the different layers of sediment are really vertical. Sorry if that’s confusing or hard to picture, it was a little confusing with her there telling us and drawing it in the dirt. The other alluvial fan composed of bigger sediments turned into Kata Tjuta across the way, and it was just twisted and turned and formed into a different structure rather than buckling. So it looks completely different because of the way it’s eroded and what it is composed of. It was really interesting to hear all that, and to know it happened over millions of years. That’s something! So we had our little lesson and were on our way for more of a tour around the rock. We headed around the side and she pointed out more sacred spots, they don’t want you taking pictures of these or going near them if you’re walking around the base since there is so much spiritual meaning to them. Pretty cool stuff. As we drove around she started telling us the story of Kuniya, a snake, who lived over at one of the sacred spots and kept her eggs under her, you can see all this in the rock. She took her eggs around her neck and went around to the other side to visit a friend because she heard her nephew was killed and wanted to see what happened. Well we couldn’t be told the rest of the story until we got to the next spot. The Anangu can only tell stories where they took place, so if something finished up in South Australia, they have to go there to tell it. So we drove around and got to another spot where we could get out and walk around. We went close to the rock and walked in to see a watering hole. First we stopped at a spot to touch the rock, and she pointed out part of it sounded hollow if you tapped on it, I think that was just from the erosion and stuff leaving an empty spot and then rock covering it up again or something. So she started telling us the rest of the Kuniya story, she came over to this spot and the guy wouldn’t tell her what happened to her nephew, saying it was men’s business and women shouldn’t get involved. I don’t remember all of the story or details or anything, if you’re interested, I have it in a booklet. But he kept refusing to tell her and she got more and more angry and they fought, she camped out over there to pester him to tell her. In the end, she struck him with her stick or something, and killed him on accident. She had only meant to hurt him, but did much worse. You can see his two battle scars on the rock, one has white coming out of it, tears, and the other has red, his blood. It’s really there, too. And right below that spot is where Kuniya rests to this day, so if he ever comes back to life she’s ready. You can see her curled up in the rock as well. Right under Kuniya is a little cave type area we went to. This was where we saw a bunch of paintings, years and years of paintings over each other. It’s really interesting. They say nobody knows what the symbols mean except the teacher and the child being taught. This was where the elders brought the children to teach them children’s stories. We can only be told children’s stories as well as we are not initiated into the group, we are not men and women since we haven’t gone through proper lessons and ceremonies and such. So they teach things slowly, when the child is ready, and more is exposed as you get older and then you can teach it when you become an elder. They only teach orally, nothing is written down except these paintings. They look to the elders for their Law, which the Anangu people call Tjukapa. It’s quite interesting, I loved hearing more about their culture. It’s also neat because that is just this group for this area, and every “country” within Australia is different in some ways. Anyway, back to the cave. We know what some of the symbols can stand for in general, and red always means danger or very important. A sad part about this wall was you could tell the paintings lower down were wiped away and not visible anymore. In the 70s when they started using the rock for tourism, they wanted to get better pictures, so they came by and splashed water on the wall to see the paintings better and take good pictures, so now we have some great photos of those paintings, but can no longer see them on the rock. Also, up on the ceiling there are lots of dots, like stars, and every culture has always had stories about the skies and the constellations and they did too, and taught it to the children. So that was cool. Then we went to see the main watering hole in the whole area. It looked like a little tiny pond but was apparently enough for the year. It collected at the bottom of this crevice type thing in the rock. There was a smaller pool up higher for when they got desperate, but it was dangerous to get to. It was a pretty area. From there you could see one of the spots Kuniya had been. From the white man’s perspective, the first guy to “discover” Uluru named this watering hole Maggie Springs, after the girl he was going to marry when he got home after his expedition. Then he called the rock Ayer’s Rock after her father, a politician back home. Turns out, he was gone for so long everyone thought he was dead, so Maggie married someone else and moved on. This devastated him and it’s said he left his heart at Maggie Springs, and up in the rock you can see this cut out that looks exactly like a perfect heart!! So we walked back to the bus and drove around back to the other side, to see the path to climb up to the top. This is very disrespectful to the Anangu people. They encourage you to not climb, though you can still do it. For them, this rock is a very spiritual thing to them, and especially along the path you climb, that is the path the Mala men took up to their ceremony, so it’s a very sacred part. They don’t want you there. Also, it is very dangerous. It’s closed if it gets too windy or too hot. There isn’t any clear cut path and a lot of people don’t prepare themselves properly. You need lots and lots of water to do this or you’ll be dehydrated. Also, good shoes are important, and you need to be in good shape to begin with. There have been quite a few deaths recorded on the rock, I think 30 some odd. Another problem is people will chase after their hat or camera or something when it blows away or falls and they just fall off the rock, that’s the most common problem. How horrible! One guy the most recent to be a problem, required a rescue from the top of the rock. This is bad because it takes a few hours, it’s hard to land a helicopter up there, it’s damaging to the rock, and it costs the person getting rescued thousands of dollars. He went up there with 1 litre of water for him, his wife and his two small children under 10. And he wore crocs, plastic shoes, and they started melting because the rock gets so hot, so he wrapped his feet in his shirt and continued up. They were all severely dehydrated at the top, not good. He was an aussie too, so he should have known everything he needed to do. Anyway, it’s quite dangerous as well as against the Anangu people’s wishes. Another reason it’s sad for the Anangu is if you do die, they make the park close the climb for a week or something so that they can mourn your death. They think it’s very sad and even though they don’t know you, and you were doing something they disapprove, they take that week to go through ceremonies and stuff to mourn your loss. How sad is that?! Plus, you can very visibly see the damage it’s doing to the rock itself, that whole path is clearly white now. So she told us all about that and we headed out a ways to the culture center. We couldn’t take photos there because it was run by the Anangu and they wanted to share their story with you and respect that or something. It was pretty interesting, it had more stories about the area and how their Law works and what the women and men traditionally did and stuff. There was more general info on the different Aboriginal groups through the whole country and stuff, it was good. Our final stop of the morning was one last photo op spot a little further away from Uluru. On the road right before we pulled off our guide spotted a Western Brown snake!! This is one of the most venomous snakes out there. And this one particularly was even more venomous as it was a baby, apparently they can’t control their venom as much. She stopped and got out and showed us where it was, while we sat safely on board! She wanted to keep it from getting run over but couldn’t get too close to it. So she tried throwing rocks to scare it and then took a big branch from the bush and sort of nudged it off the road. That was a little cool, a snake! Really all the only other wildlife we saw was birds everywhere, and bugs. The kangaroos and emus and such are all nocturnal to help with the heat of the desert, so we didn’t see them. Okay, after all that we headed back to the hotel and crashed! I think we got back at 10 or 11, already a long day! We had lunch in the market center of the resort and just relaxed for awhile.
Phew. I’m tired, are you yet?! I think I’ll call it quite for this post, give you a rest and keep you waiting in anticipation for more. I keep getting distracted, this is hard to write all this out, and it takes forever!! I’ll get there though, hopefully I’ll be caught up before too much exciting stuff happens to me in the present! We’re only on Tuesday….we can get through this together though! Okay, hope you’ve enjoyed more of my exciting adventures, you’re still in good health and good spirits. Please let me know how you’re going, I care and I’d like to know! I’m hanging in, still enjoying this wonderful country and all it offers me, although unfortunately I’m having to actually think about school some now. Here are your quotes for the day:
“Lots of people limit their possibilities by giving up easily. Never tell yourself this is too much for me. It's no use. I can't go on. If you do you're licked, and by your own thinking too. Keep believing and keep on keeping on.” Norman Vincent Peale
“Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could.” Barbara De Angelis
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” Benjamin Franklin
Love always, Alissa
So, I stopped before Monday. This is when the real excitement and wonder starts! Monday morning we had to get up super early to get to the airport on time for our flight to Ayer’s Rock. We had just a bit of delay but it wasn’t bad at all. The plane ride itself was pretty good. They showed the movie The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and other people I don’t remember. It was cute, a RoCo, of course I liked it! They gave us pretty good sandwiches to eat as well. It was pretty exciting to watch the landscape change below us as well. We went from the city, out to the mountains and farmlands. Then it started to look more like desert, and then it got to be red! It was very very red. And we saw some big salt lakes as well which looked pretty cool. When we finally got there, just a little before landing I got to see Uluru AND Kata Tjuta from the sky!! That was pretty cool. I saw this vast red desert with some small vegetation and then boom there are these huge rocks out of nowhere! They looked pretty impressive honestly. Anyway, it was a tiny little airport and we got off the airplane from the back down stairs! I know, real exciting, but I thought so because I’ve never done that! There was just one baggage claim inside, one check in place with a few stalls, and one big waiting room for departures and that’s it! We got our stuff and headed out to the bus that was taking us to our hotel. Everything there is in the Ayer’s Rock Resort, it has all the hotels and campgrounds and stores and such in a circle in there and was only about 10 minutes from the airport. We were at the Desert Gardens Hotel but didn’t yet have a room. So we sat around the resort and relaxed waiting. When we got our room we relaxed more and got ready for the evening since the bus was coming to get us at 6. The Sounds of Silence dinner was that first night. The bus took us out to this sand dune about 20 minutes from the resort. We drove past a college, and a couple other buildings, like maybe the water treatment place, and were on a red dirt road most of the way that was quite bumpy. Anyway, the sun was setting and was quite nice when we arrived at our sand dune. We walked up the path to the top, I was the leader of the group, where a guy greeted us with a glass of sparkling wine! It was quite tasty. And wonderful to sip while watching the sunset in the desert. It was gorgeous. I found that I really like the desert, I think it’s beautiful! At least here. It helped that they had just got most of their rain for the year as well. There was actually a lot of green everywhere. There was much more vegetation than I was expecting and it was pretty. With the red dirt/sand it made everything look prettier as well I think. Most of our view was Kata Tjuta, as it was closer and the sun was right behind it. You could still see Uluru off in the distance as well however. They were generous with the bubbly, though I only had a glass, and served some appetizers up there as well. I had the crocodile one and some kangaroo. I liked the kangaroo, but the crocodile was a little weird. Honestly, there are very few people who eat either here, it’s just kind of cool to try something different. So they kept us up on top for awhile, to drink the bubbly, eat the food, and take lots of pictures through most of the sunset. After awhile the sun was almost gone and they had us walk down the other side of the dune to where our dinner was set up. The sunset went through many different colors and there were some clouds to reflect the color that were just gorgeous. So we headed down and picked out our tables. They were all set with white tablecloths and candle centerpieces. There was a buffet line set up with our dinner cooking, that’s strange to see in the middle of the desert! Our table was closest to the rock, so nothing to block our view. The other people at our table were Liz, Deidre, and Liz from different parts of the UK. They were here for one of their son’s wedding and then just travelled around awhile. There was also Sarah and Sam, a very cute young couple. She was from Sydney and he was a Kiwi, from New Zealand. All of them were very nice and we had some great conversation through the evening about everything. It was interesting to have the US, UK and Australia all represented there and see the different views and such, I loved it. Sarah had a fascination with Kansas ever since she was little so that was funny. We saw the first star out and it was really bright, so we all made a wish - you know star bright star light, first star I see tonight. Slowly, more and more stars started to show up as the sun went further down and dusk turned to darkness. There was a little bit of cloud cover but you could still see about everything. It was amazing, I couldn’t stop watching the sky, and the impending darkness beyond our little set up! After a bit of talking and drinking wine, which again was very tasty, they read a poem to start the night and we had a minute of silence to really listen to the silence of the desert around us. It was incredible, really, it’s so hard to get anywhere to hear it that silent with all the night creatures buzzing and such. They started the dinner by serving us all pumpkin and herb soup with bread, I’ve noticed a lot of pumpkin soup in the supermarket and never thought it looked too good. This was delicious though! Then they called us up table by table to get our food from the buffet. It was spectacular food! There was crocodile caesar salad, pasta salad, a Dijon potato salad, chicken skewers, kangaroo steak, roasted bacon potatoes, lemon barramundi, and some beef. I tried a little of everything although I didn’t know what all I was eating when we got back to the table because it was so dark! I think that also means I had to have eaten a few bugs, there were moths and other bugs all around us and we couldn’t tell if they got in our food. I did have a grasshopper hop into my glass of wine, though! Luckily I had white wine so I could see and get it out, Liz had some red wine and couldn’t tell when she thought something bounced in there. So we ate our main course and conversed and had a great time. There was a didgeridoo player performing while we ate. That really is an awesome instrument. It sounds so cool, and especially in the silence out in the desert. He was white, and said that he was playing instead of an Aboriginal because in that part of the country, that group doesn’t play the instrument traditionally. After dinner, a guy came out to talk to us about the stars. By this time it was complete blackness beyond our tables and there were billions of stars out. I never even knew this many stars existed!! It was absolutely incredible, one of the things I had most been looking forward to my entire time here, and truly one of the most amazing things I’ve seen yet. I love the sky, and to actually be able to see it all was amazing! They were so clear and there were so many that you could see all the little ones and make out full constellations and everything. The entire Milky Way was visible, I’ve never seen it. That was awesome! There were even a few thin clouds around, and we still saw this much. There were a few planets out that were really bright as well, I think Venus was the first one we could see and the brightest, of course since women are from there! I loved it and couldn’t stop looking above me. Our astrologer told us all about the different constellations and how you could find directions from a few of the different constellations, namely the Southern Cross which is on the Australian flag. He also told us many stories from the Aboriginals about how the constellations got there. One very shortened one was this man had a boat and wanted to keep it safe where nobody could steal it so it stuck it up in the sky, and that’s the Milky Way. There was a lot more to it, little details and such, but that was mainly it. I videotaped a lot of the talking, and I tried taking pictures of the sky, a few of them actually turned out, I got many visible spots without a tripod! After our talk they served dessert - my favorite part of the meal!! I tried most all of it, it was delicious. There was fresh fruit, a chocolate brownie with I think white, milk and dark chocolate in it, chocolate espresso lava cake, a bread pudding with cinnamon and fruit and then another kind of cake that I didn’t try. Oh, it was so amazing. We had a little more time for wine, conversation and star gazing before our bus interrupted the desert noises to take us back where we promptly fell asleep. It was truly an amazing night! I thought we could see a lot stars just here on campus, out there was spectacular!
Tuesday! After our long night we then had to wake up at 5:15 the next morning to be picked up at our hotel at 6 for the sunrise Uluru tour. That was difficult. Though completely worth it. It was really amazing to watch the entire sunset one night, and wake up the next morning to see the entire sunrise - complete light to dusk to complete dark, and then complete dark to dawn to complete light. We even watched the complete sunset again on Tuesday! Anyway, so we get picked up in a small bus with about 20 people and drive out to the sunrise lookout spot. On our way the tour guide told us different stories from the Aborigine people of the region called the Anangu people. There were stories of how Uluru came to be the way it is now at different spots, and she pointed out a few sacred spots on the rock that are mostly crevices or caves. Some are women’s sites and some are men’s sites, where strictly only one or the other can go. One of these stories was the Mala story, I‘ll try to tell right it in a shortened version. The Mala men all went up the rock to have one of their ceremonies. They were approached by some other men inviting them to their place or something, and the Mala men said hey thanks a lot, we would, but you know Law says we can’t leave once we start a ceremony until it’s complete, so sorry but next time. Well these other men were upset they didn’t accept the invitation, so they sent the Demon Devil Dingo Dog after the Mala men. One of them saw the dog coming and told everyone hey we need to run! They didn’t believe for awhile until they saw it themselves and it was close. So they took off running away in fear. The eldest was behind the rest of them as he was slower and wanted to make sure his men were safe. The Demon Devil Dingo Dog got a hold of him and threw him up against the rock, and to this day you can see his face imprint in the rock. It’s a profile, facing the direction his men were running away to safety. So by the time we heard all this we had arrived at the sunrise viewing spot and the sun was well on it’s way to rising. There were tons of tour busses and people there. It sort of detracted from it all, but what can you do. It was still awesome both to see the sunrise on its own, and to watch the color on the rock change the whole time. It went from sort of dull to this real orange, and then to a vibrant red, and when the sun was behind a cloud it was more a dull burnt color. It was really cool to see it change in just an instant and take on a totally different character. Anyway, we got some hot chocolate and muffins and such while we watched the sun creep its way up higher into the sky. Once most of the coaches had left the car park our guide took us over to a patch of red dirt and gave us an explanation of the geology of the rock. It was really interesting. Apparently hundreds of millions of years ago there was this mountain range, and it had two main rivers running down it. One was really fast and deposited fine particles in an alluvial fan at the base, while the other moved more slowly depositing bigger rocks and such at the bottom in an alluvial fan. So then a big inland ocean formed and covered everything up, so all that was deposited there was compacted really good. Then that dried up and another mountain range formed so that the compacted deposited stuff was between the two mountain ranges. Well they caused a whole lot of pressure there and trapped heat, so all this deposit was being cooked basically, and eventually the one that was formed of small particles just buckled at a 90 degree angle. This was Uluru. Today, we only see the top part of that, so there is a lot more below the surface and to one direction of it, like an L, we see the top part of the bottom part of the L, if that makes any sense. So the different layers of sediment are really vertical. Sorry if that’s confusing or hard to picture, it was a little confusing with her there telling us and drawing it in the dirt. The other alluvial fan composed of bigger sediments turned into Kata Tjuta across the way, and it was just twisted and turned and formed into a different structure rather than buckling. So it looks completely different because of the way it’s eroded and what it is composed of. It was really interesting to hear all that, and to know it happened over millions of years. That’s something! So we had our little lesson and were on our way for more of a tour around the rock. We headed around the side and she pointed out more sacred spots, they don’t want you taking pictures of these or going near them if you’re walking around the base since there is so much spiritual meaning to them. Pretty cool stuff. As we drove around she started telling us the story of Kuniya, a snake, who lived over at one of the sacred spots and kept her eggs under her, you can see all this in the rock. She took her eggs around her neck and went around to the other side to visit a friend because she heard her nephew was killed and wanted to see what happened. Well we couldn’t be told the rest of the story until we got to the next spot. The Anangu can only tell stories where they took place, so if something finished up in South Australia, they have to go there to tell it. So we drove around and got to another spot where we could get out and walk around. We went close to the rock and walked in to see a watering hole. First we stopped at a spot to touch the rock, and she pointed out part of it sounded hollow if you tapped on it, I think that was just from the erosion and stuff leaving an empty spot and then rock covering it up again or something. So she started telling us the rest of the Kuniya story, she came over to this spot and the guy wouldn’t tell her what happened to her nephew, saying it was men’s business and women shouldn’t get involved. I don’t remember all of the story or details or anything, if you’re interested, I have it in a booklet. But he kept refusing to tell her and she got more and more angry and they fought, she camped out over there to pester him to tell her. In the end, she struck him with her stick or something, and killed him on accident. She had only meant to hurt him, but did much worse. You can see his two battle scars on the rock, one has white coming out of it, tears, and the other has red, his blood. It’s really there, too. And right below that spot is where Kuniya rests to this day, so if he ever comes back to life she’s ready. You can see her curled up in the rock as well. Right under Kuniya is a little cave type area we went to. This was where we saw a bunch of paintings, years and years of paintings over each other. It’s really interesting. They say nobody knows what the symbols mean except the teacher and the child being taught. This was where the elders brought the children to teach them children’s stories. We can only be told children’s stories as well as we are not initiated into the group, we are not men and women since we haven’t gone through proper lessons and ceremonies and such. So they teach things slowly, when the child is ready, and more is exposed as you get older and then you can teach it when you become an elder. They only teach orally, nothing is written down except these paintings. They look to the elders for their Law, which the Anangu people call Tjukapa. It’s quite interesting, I loved hearing more about their culture. It’s also neat because that is just this group for this area, and every “country” within Australia is different in some ways. Anyway, back to the cave. We know what some of the symbols can stand for in general, and red always means danger or very important. A sad part about this wall was you could tell the paintings lower down were wiped away and not visible anymore. In the 70s when they started using the rock for tourism, they wanted to get better pictures, so they came by and splashed water on the wall to see the paintings better and take good pictures, so now we have some great photos of those paintings, but can no longer see them on the rock. Also, up on the ceiling there are lots of dots, like stars, and every culture has always had stories about the skies and the constellations and they did too, and taught it to the children. So that was cool. Then we went to see the main watering hole in the whole area. It looked like a little tiny pond but was apparently enough for the year. It collected at the bottom of this crevice type thing in the rock. There was a smaller pool up higher for when they got desperate, but it was dangerous to get to. It was a pretty area. From there you could see one of the spots Kuniya had been. From the white man’s perspective, the first guy to “discover” Uluru named this watering hole Maggie Springs, after the girl he was going to marry when he got home after his expedition. Then he called the rock Ayer’s Rock after her father, a politician back home. Turns out, he was gone for so long everyone thought he was dead, so Maggie married someone else and moved on. This devastated him and it’s said he left his heart at Maggie Springs, and up in the rock you can see this cut out that looks exactly like a perfect heart!! So we walked back to the bus and drove around back to the other side, to see the path to climb up to the top. This is very disrespectful to the Anangu people. They encourage you to not climb, though you can still do it. For them, this rock is a very spiritual thing to them, and especially along the path you climb, that is the path the Mala men took up to their ceremony, so it’s a very sacred part. They don’t want you there. Also, it is very dangerous. It’s closed if it gets too windy or too hot. There isn’t any clear cut path and a lot of people don’t prepare themselves properly. You need lots and lots of water to do this or you’ll be dehydrated. Also, good shoes are important, and you need to be in good shape to begin with. There have been quite a few deaths recorded on the rock, I think 30 some odd. Another problem is people will chase after their hat or camera or something when it blows away or falls and they just fall off the rock, that’s the most common problem. How horrible! One guy the most recent to be a problem, required a rescue from the top of the rock. This is bad because it takes a few hours, it’s hard to land a helicopter up there, it’s damaging to the rock, and it costs the person getting rescued thousands of dollars. He went up there with 1 litre of water for him, his wife and his two small children under 10. And he wore crocs, plastic shoes, and they started melting because the rock gets so hot, so he wrapped his feet in his shirt and continued up. They were all severely dehydrated at the top, not good. He was an aussie too, so he should have known everything he needed to do. Anyway, it’s quite dangerous as well as against the Anangu people’s wishes. Another reason it’s sad for the Anangu is if you do die, they make the park close the climb for a week or something so that they can mourn your death. They think it’s very sad and even though they don’t know you, and you were doing something they disapprove, they take that week to go through ceremonies and stuff to mourn your loss. How sad is that?! Plus, you can very visibly see the damage it’s doing to the rock itself, that whole path is clearly white now. So she told us all about that and we headed out a ways to the culture center. We couldn’t take photos there because it was run by the Anangu and they wanted to share their story with you and respect that or something. It was pretty interesting, it had more stories about the area and how their Law works and what the women and men traditionally did and stuff. There was more general info on the different Aboriginal groups through the whole country and stuff, it was good. Our final stop of the morning was one last photo op spot a little further away from Uluru. On the road right before we pulled off our guide spotted a Western Brown snake!! This is one of the most venomous snakes out there. And this one particularly was even more venomous as it was a baby, apparently they can’t control their venom as much. She stopped and got out and showed us where it was, while we sat safely on board! She wanted to keep it from getting run over but couldn’t get too close to it. So she tried throwing rocks to scare it and then took a big branch from the bush and sort of nudged it off the road. That was a little cool, a snake! Really all the only other wildlife we saw was birds everywhere, and bugs. The kangaroos and emus and such are all nocturnal to help with the heat of the desert, so we didn’t see them. Okay, after all that we headed back to the hotel and crashed! I think we got back at 10 or 11, already a long day! We had lunch in the market center of the resort and just relaxed for awhile.
Phew. I’m tired, are you yet?! I think I’ll call it quite for this post, give you a rest and keep you waiting in anticipation for more. I keep getting distracted, this is hard to write all this out, and it takes forever!! I’ll get there though, hopefully I’ll be caught up before too much exciting stuff happens to me in the present! We’re only on Tuesday….we can get through this together though! Okay, hope you’ve enjoyed more of my exciting adventures, you’re still in good health and good spirits. Please let me know how you’re going, I care and I’d like to know! I’m hanging in, still enjoying this wonderful country and all it offers me, although unfortunately I’m having to actually think about school some now. Here are your quotes for the day:
“Lots of people limit their possibilities by giving up easily. Never tell yourself this is too much for me. It's no use. I can't go on. If you do you're licked, and by your own thinking too. Keep believing and keep on keeping on.” Norman Vincent Peale
“Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could.” Barbara De Angelis
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” Benjamin Franklin
Love always, Alissa
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Easter Break Part Uno
Wow! It’s been awhile! I must say I think it will take me a couple instalments here to get everything down. I can’t type that much and I’m sure you don’t want to read that much! It’s been a pretty great couple of weeks. Although I must admit I’m really starting to truly miss all of you. Yeah I’ve missed you, but not bad, now I’m wishing I could see you, although I kind of don’t want to leave this place. I love Australia and all that it is, truly and honestly. I can’t stop reminding myself how insane and incredible this is. I never could have imagined all that I’ve gone through the past couple months. It’s such a short time period for so much to happen. I think I’m already a changed person and can’t imagine what it will be like coming home. It feels weird that this is the only communication I have with a lot of you, that this is being a part of each other’s life, it’s nothing in comparison to being home. Anyway, I’ll get on with my story.
First, I’ll briefly talk about my week before Easter. It wasn’t too eventful, I was still trying to get over my ear infection and cold. I got to talk to Jess some which was really wonderful. I worked at getting my schedule figured out for next semester back home and that took some work, but I got it to work alright. I got some weird rash thing on my neck, looked a bit like a spider bite at first, one spot got really swollen and red, there were about 3 to start with. The next day there were about 10 spots. So I went to the nurse, also because I still wasn’t feeling too well, and she got me an appointment on Thursday with the doctor. He made me mad because he told me I wasn’t sick anymore and I really felt bad still. Also, he said he thought my spots were pimples! They weren’t at all!! It itched and spread and swelled up. But whatever, it went away after about 5 days, I’m not sure what it was, and my cold left in a couple days too so it’s all good. I had a presentation to do in my Australia Today class on Thursday, so I worked a little on that all week and did fine with it. Then I got my hair cut on Thursday night in time for break, I needed it though. It turned out really well, I love it. We watched a couple Australian movies that week as well, The Castle and The Dish. Both were really good, The Castle was really hilarious, dry humor, great. The Dish was based on a true story how Australia had the dish that caught video from Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, interesting! I recommend them. One night that week I got into a couple arguments with people and won. I was quite proud of myself for winning, it doesn’t often happen. The first was with Kwangu from Zimbabwe, he didn’t believe in love, it doesn’t exist to him. I am the complete opposite. So I made some good points, and he said, okay, yeah, you’re right. He still didn’t believe it could exist for us though, although I got him thinking about that too, we’re all different, who says there’s a certain age you can feel it? Anyway, the point is I got him to change his thoughts! Then the other one was about putting the toilet seat down. I’m pretty sure I won that one too, no matter what the guys said! That’s about all the exciting news from that week. We got Good Friday off so that’s when my break started!!!
Easter Break!! We’ll see how far I get this time and then I’ll pick up and continue in a later post. So Good Friday is a public holiday here and I forgot that, so I had to wait longer than I thought for the bus into town and the train into Melbourne. I got there later in the morning than I thought but it was alright, I met Mom at our hotel. We went to eat some lunch right away at a pizza place by out hotel. Then we headed over to the Aquarium! That was exciting. We saw all sorts of animals - crabs, seahorses, sea dragons, turtles, spiders, starfish, big fish, sea snakes, sting rays, sharks, and much more! There was this huge aquarium, I think they said it was the biggest in Australia, and there were three tunnels you could walk through so the fish were all right above you and around you. It was incredible. There were the biggest sting rays ever in there and they said the curved glass made them look even smaller than they really are! The sharks were pretty awesome as well. Mom and I went on a simulator ride there as well, it wasn’t that neat except for the whole “roller coaster” aspect of it. It felt like you were on one, but the graphics and story was pretty bad, going underwater and stuff. Anyway, that was fun. Then Mom and I went on a walk down across the Yarra River and down the South Bank by the Crown and over to Federation Square. It’s really nice down there, I like it. We looked at a bunch of the cafes there as well, not much else was open in town because of Good Friday. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped to get some wine and Cruisers(my favorite drink here) and some fries from Lord Of The Fries, apparently the best fries you’ll ever eat. Mom wanted a little happy hour before dinner! So that’s what we did. The fries were tasty, but I don’t know about their claim, although I was a big fan of the name of the place! Anyway, we had our happy hour and decided what to do for dinner. We finally decided to go back down to the South Bank and eat at this one café we saw that sounded good. It was called Cervo and was right on the river, and at night the trees along the big walkway there were all lit up and the city lit up in front of us, it was a really cool little place. And the food was quite tasty! We stopped in the Crown Casino complex, in the mall, to get some ice cream for the walk back. Then it was sort of rest and relax and bed time, sort of boring, but every night sort of turned into this! I guess that’s good since we had to wake up early most the time.
Saturday we got up early and were on the hunt for donuts, but surprisingly the donut shop wasn’t open yet!! I was shocked and disappointed as I was thoroughly looking forward to one. We settled for McDonalds and walked over to Southern Cross station to catch an early train to Geelong!!! I was very excited to show off my home, as I am in love with it! We went to the bus station when we got in, but the next bus didn’t come for awhile, so we went to the mall to get a glimpse of “real” aussie life, not just the tourist stuff. Plus I wanted to buy some meds for my cold from the chemist! But I did show off Target and the supermarket in the mall. Then we went back to the bus stop and rode the bus to Deakin! We headed to my unit so I could show it off. I also needed to get ready and finish my packing for our trip. Then I gave a quick tour of the campus and hoped to make even more people fall in love with my uni here, it is quite wonderful. Then we caught the bus again and headed back into town for the day. We walked down to the waterfront right away and went to the Watershed Café for lunch. I hadn’t ever been there, it was quite delicious. I had fish and chips, the best yet! Fish and chips is by far my new favorite meal and I will miss the shops a lot when I come home. Then we continued walking along the waterfront area on the bay. It is gorgeous down there and the best part of town by far if you ask me, or most others. Mom and I went in to the Botanical Gardens as well. There was a lot dead since I’d been there, but a few things bloomed that I hadn’t seen! That was nice, I like it up there by Eastern Beach. So then we headed back into the middle of town and instead of waiting an hour for a bus we called a cab to go back to Deakin to pick up my suitcase. We did that and then had a little while before the next bus came. So I went to see my friend Nick who stayed here over break and just went on a few fishing charters. Mom got to meet him and was very excited. I hope he didn’t get too scared! Just kidding Mom! So back into town again one last time, then we walked over to the train station to catch the train back to Melbourne. It was pretty packed at first, but at every stop more and more people got on, all in their Geelong Cats outfits. That is our AFL (footy) team here, with blue and white stripes. Anyway, it was absolutely packed by the time we got to Melbourne!! Then everyone hurried off at once, it was crazy, a little scary actually! There were so many people, they were all going to the game at Telstra stadium in Melbourne I guess. That was pretty cool, although overwhelming trying to get through the crowd with my big huge heavy suitcase! Anyway, we got back to the hotel and had to decide on dinner. We just got some pizza, and I got Subway. I turned on a different footy game to watch, I actually like it quite a bit, though I don’t totally understand it yet. We did a lot of walking so it made for a relaxing night. Mom did some searching for a church for Easter the next morning. That was about it. That night I didn’t sleep too well and woke up feeling sick to my stomach. It wasn’t very good and I’m not totally sure why I felt so sick, but I was fine in the morning so I guess it wasn’t a big deal.
Easter morning we slept in a little bit and decided to go the St. Michael’s Uniting Church on Collins St. Mom and I got ready and walked over there looking pretty in our Easter outfits. It was nice to be with at least one family member and still go to church on Easter, it wasn’t totally like I was around the world! The service was really quite nice. It was strange because they had their little rituals that we didn’t really know what was going on. They turned off all the lights but a spotlight on the minister when he gave his sermon, and he gave it from high up on this separate part of the alter. But he gave a very nice sermon. It was a little strange not having any communion, but the service was still an hour and half. They had fellows which I didn’t really understand, and this staff - that was a bit different, and the hymns were different than I‘ve ever heard. I enjoyed it all though. Plus, the church was absolutely gorgeous! It was this old stone church with a steeple and bells ringing to start and finish, and cloisters(is that what it’s called?) outside around the side. There were two levels and beautiful stained glass windows. So we walked back and the Easter bunny had come and found me! Wow, how amazing. It was great to get some chocolate and coins, very exciting. We got ready and headed out to the Melbourne Zoo for the day! We took the tram out there. It was pretty good, but really a zoo is a zoo pretty much. They really didn’t have very many Australian animals, that was interesting. But then again I’ve seen a lot of them already. One they did have that I hadn’t seen were platypus, they were pretty cool! We got to see them feeding the tigers which was awesome. The mama was hungry! And she had three cubs that were quite adorable. The bears were pretty cool, they had giraffes and ostrich and a few monkeys and a big aviary. Another part I really liked was all the big cats, although not all of them were out. They are all so cool, I love them and wish I could take one home! There were also little penguins and seals and big turtles and a tree kangaroo, those are weird. It was fairly exciting overall. When we got back to the hotel we couldn’t decide on dinner so we just went back down to South Bank and the Crown casino complex, because again since it was Easter not much was open. We wandered around for quite a bit and ended up just eating in the food court, but it was honestly a really nice one. Then we walked back and relaxed and went to bed, see a pattern in the nights?
So I think I’ll end here for now, I know this wasn’t much, but I got a start. I’m tired and getting delusional and think that means I must need to get some sleep! There is much more to come, be excited! Honestly, this part of the trip wasn’t too exciting for me, I’ve been to Melbourne and all and could do that stuff anytime I’m here. It was still nice to show off my home here and finally get to spend some time with Mom!! But the wonderful, amazing, incredible, best part comes in the next post or two!!! Okay, giddy = too tired! Make me go. Now. I hope you all are well and this finds you in good health, good spirits, and good company. I miss you all and wish the best for you for today, right here and now. Before I forget, I’ll leave you with more quotes. Leave me comments if you want to make my day!
“Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” Michael Jordan
“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” Napoleon Hill
LOVE, Alissa
First, I’ll briefly talk about my week before Easter. It wasn’t too eventful, I was still trying to get over my ear infection and cold. I got to talk to Jess some which was really wonderful. I worked at getting my schedule figured out for next semester back home and that took some work, but I got it to work alright. I got some weird rash thing on my neck, looked a bit like a spider bite at first, one spot got really swollen and red, there were about 3 to start with. The next day there were about 10 spots. So I went to the nurse, also because I still wasn’t feeling too well, and she got me an appointment on Thursday with the doctor. He made me mad because he told me I wasn’t sick anymore and I really felt bad still. Also, he said he thought my spots were pimples! They weren’t at all!! It itched and spread and swelled up. But whatever, it went away after about 5 days, I’m not sure what it was, and my cold left in a couple days too so it’s all good. I had a presentation to do in my Australia Today class on Thursday, so I worked a little on that all week and did fine with it. Then I got my hair cut on Thursday night in time for break, I needed it though. It turned out really well, I love it. We watched a couple Australian movies that week as well, The Castle and The Dish. Both were really good, The Castle was really hilarious, dry humor, great. The Dish was based on a true story how Australia had the dish that caught video from Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, interesting! I recommend them. One night that week I got into a couple arguments with people and won. I was quite proud of myself for winning, it doesn’t often happen. The first was with Kwangu from Zimbabwe, he didn’t believe in love, it doesn’t exist to him. I am the complete opposite. So I made some good points, and he said, okay, yeah, you’re right. He still didn’t believe it could exist for us though, although I got him thinking about that too, we’re all different, who says there’s a certain age you can feel it? Anyway, the point is I got him to change his thoughts! Then the other one was about putting the toilet seat down. I’m pretty sure I won that one too, no matter what the guys said! That’s about all the exciting news from that week. We got Good Friday off so that’s when my break started!!!
Easter Break!! We’ll see how far I get this time and then I’ll pick up and continue in a later post. So Good Friday is a public holiday here and I forgot that, so I had to wait longer than I thought for the bus into town and the train into Melbourne. I got there later in the morning than I thought but it was alright, I met Mom at our hotel. We went to eat some lunch right away at a pizza place by out hotel. Then we headed over to the Aquarium! That was exciting. We saw all sorts of animals - crabs, seahorses, sea dragons, turtles, spiders, starfish, big fish, sea snakes, sting rays, sharks, and much more! There was this huge aquarium, I think they said it was the biggest in Australia, and there were three tunnels you could walk through so the fish were all right above you and around you. It was incredible. There were the biggest sting rays ever in there and they said the curved glass made them look even smaller than they really are! The sharks were pretty awesome as well. Mom and I went on a simulator ride there as well, it wasn’t that neat except for the whole “roller coaster” aspect of it. It felt like you were on one, but the graphics and story was pretty bad, going underwater and stuff. Anyway, that was fun. Then Mom and I went on a walk down across the Yarra River and down the South Bank by the Crown and over to Federation Square. It’s really nice down there, I like it. We looked at a bunch of the cafes there as well, not much else was open in town because of Good Friday. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped to get some wine and Cruisers(my favorite drink here) and some fries from Lord Of The Fries, apparently the best fries you’ll ever eat. Mom wanted a little happy hour before dinner! So that’s what we did. The fries were tasty, but I don’t know about their claim, although I was a big fan of the name of the place! Anyway, we had our happy hour and decided what to do for dinner. We finally decided to go back down to the South Bank and eat at this one café we saw that sounded good. It was called Cervo and was right on the river, and at night the trees along the big walkway there were all lit up and the city lit up in front of us, it was a really cool little place. And the food was quite tasty! We stopped in the Crown Casino complex, in the mall, to get some ice cream for the walk back. Then it was sort of rest and relax and bed time, sort of boring, but every night sort of turned into this! I guess that’s good since we had to wake up early most the time.
Saturday we got up early and were on the hunt for donuts, but surprisingly the donut shop wasn’t open yet!! I was shocked and disappointed as I was thoroughly looking forward to one. We settled for McDonalds and walked over to Southern Cross station to catch an early train to Geelong!!! I was very excited to show off my home, as I am in love with it! We went to the bus station when we got in, but the next bus didn’t come for awhile, so we went to the mall to get a glimpse of “real” aussie life, not just the tourist stuff. Plus I wanted to buy some meds for my cold from the chemist! But I did show off Target and the supermarket in the mall. Then we went back to the bus stop and rode the bus to Deakin! We headed to my unit so I could show it off. I also needed to get ready and finish my packing for our trip. Then I gave a quick tour of the campus and hoped to make even more people fall in love with my uni here, it is quite wonderful. Then we caught the bus again and headed back into town for the day. We walked down to the waterfront right away and went to the Watershed Café for lunch. I hadn’t ever been there, it was quite delicious. I had fish and chips, the best yet! Fish and chips is by far my new favorite meal and I will miss the shops a lot when I come home. Then we continued walking along the waterfront area on the bay. It is gorgeous down there and the best part of town by far if you ask me, or most others. Mom and I went in to the Botanical Gardens as well. There was a lot dead since I’d been there, but a few things bloomed that I hadn’t seen! That was nice, I like it up there by Eastern Beach. So then we headed back into the middle of town and instead of waiting an hour for a bus we called a cab to go back to Deakin to pick up my suitcase. We did that and then had a little while before the next bus came. So I went to see my friend Nick who stayed here over break and just went on a few fishing charters. Mom got to meet him and was very excited. I hope he didn’t get too scared! Just kidding Mom! So back into town again one last time, then we walked over to the train station to catch the train back to Melbourne. It was pretty packed at first, but at every stop more and more people got on, all in their Geelong Cats outfits. That is our AFL (footy) team here, with blue and white stripes. Anyway, it was absolutely packed by the time we got to Melbourne!! Then everyone hurried off at once, it was crazy, a little scary actually! There were so many people, they were all going to the game at Telstra stadium in Melbourne I guess. That was pretty cool, although overwhelming trying to get through the crowd with my big huge heavy suitcase! Anyway, we got back to the hotel and had to decide on dinner. We just got some pizza, and I got Subway. I turned on a different footy game to watch, I actually like it quite a bit, though I don’t totally understand it yet. We did a lot of walking so it made for a relaxing night. Mom did some searching for a church for Easter the next morning. That was about it. That night I didn’t sleep too well and woke up feeling sick to my stomach. It wasn’t very good and I’m not totally sure why I felt so sick, but I was fine in the morning so I guess it wasn’t a big deal.
Easter morning we slept in a little bit and decided to go the St. Michael’s Uniting Church on Collins St. Mom and I got ready and walked over there looking pretty in our Easter outfits. It was nice to be with at least one family member and still go to church on Easter, it wasn’t totally like I was around the world! The service was really quite nice. It was strange because they had their little rituals that we didn’t really know what was going on. They turned off all the lights but a spotlight on the minister when he gave his sermon, and he gave it from high up on this separate part of the alter. But he gave a very nice sermon. It was a little strange not having any communion, but the service was still an hour and half. They had fellows which I didn’t really understand, and this staff - that was a bit different, and the hymns were different than I‘ve ever heard. I enjoyed it all though. Plus, the church was absolutely gorgeous! It was this old stone church with a steeple and bells ringing to start and finish, and cloisters(is that what it’s called?) outside around the side. There were two levels and beautiful stained glass windows. So we walked back and the Easter bunny had come and found me! Wow, how amazing. It was great to get some chocolate and coins, very exciting. We got ready and headed out to the Melbourne Zoo for the day! We took the tram out there. It was pretty good, but really a zoo is a zoo pretty much. They really didn’t have very many Australian animals, that was interesting. But then again I’ve seen a lot of them already. One they did have that I hadn’t seen were platypus, they were pretty cool! We got to see them feeding the tigers which was awesome. The mama was hungry! And she had three cubs that were quite adorable. The bears were pretty cool, they had giraffes and ostrich and a few monkeys and a big aviary. Another part I really liked was all the big cats, although not all of them were out. They are all so cool, I love them and wish I could take one home! There were also little penguins and seals and big turtles and a tree kangaroo, those are weird. It was fairly exciting overall. When we got back to the hotel we couldn’t decide on dinner so we just went back down to South Bank and the Crown casino complex, because again since it was Easter not much was open. We wandered around for quite a bit and ended up just eating in the food court, but it was honestly a really nice one. Then we walked back and relaxed and went to bed, see a pattern in the nights?
So I think I’ll end here for now, I know this wasn’t much, but I got a start. I’m tired and getting delusional and think that means I must need to get some sleep! There is much more to come, be excited! Honestly, this part of the trip wasn’t too exciting for me, I’ve been to Melbourne and all and could do that stuff anytime I’m here. It was still nice to show off my home here and finally get to spend some time with Mom!! But the wonderful, amazing, incredible, best part comes in the next post or two!!! Okay, giddy = too tired! Make me go. Now. I hope you all are well and this finds you in good health, good spirits, and good company. I miss you all and wish the best for you for today, right here and now. Before I forget, I’ll leave you with more quotes. Leave me comments if you want to make my day!
“Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” Michael Jordan
“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” Napoleon Hill
LOVE, Alissa
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