Samurai, Magnetic Island, and Gravel Cuts

Hey everyone! Who-da adda? (this is the phonetic spelling for "How are you?" in Swedish). Well... we're down to four more days and I can't believe it. We've been gone so long! I have a lot to write, so let's get on with it. We went sailing in the Whitsundays on a boat called "Samurai". Luckily, I did not get seasick, but that was not the worst part. We had been told that "Samurai" would be a higher end boat, and therefore not a partier boat. Wrong. I was apprehensive about the sailing even before we were on the boat. The captain asked us many times if we had enough alcohol for two nights. He said, "We go pretty hard during the day, but we go harder at night." Whatever that means. All I know is that on the last night, I could barely sleep because everyone was playing a very loud drinking game. It consisted of a leader shouting and people shouting back. Not too pleasant. Also not pleasant, Bretton and I had to share a bed that was only slightly larger than a single bed. That gets pretty hot and claustrophobic. Okay... complaining aside, it was amazing. We went to Whitehaven Beach. White sand and serene water, it was gorgeous. We also went snorkeling a few times. Note to everyone, do not have your head in the water for a fish feed. You will get hit and nipped by many fish. It is kind of alarming, actually. Then... we went to Townsville for one night. I went to church early in the morning and found a piano to practice on later in the week. I then found another piano at the tail end of another church service, on which I practiced until they closed. Then... I found another piano. I was able to practice quietly during the Korean service. It was really cool though, after the service, I practiced a little longer, then packed my backpack to leave. Then a lady tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to stay for lunch with them. It was so sweet. I had a traditional Korean dinner, apparently they really like spicy food. I took too much chili sauce, as usual, and learned my lesson. Then we left for Magnetic Island. What to say about it? I love Magnetic Island. It is so great to be in a tropical climate. Everything is so green and lush. Maybe a little humid at times, but amazing. I have now learned that bread must be refrigerated up here. Once you have seen yellow mold (seriously, the colour of bile), you will never leave your bread out again. We started our dive course the day after we got there. The instructor gave us our books and said, "Read the first three chapters." More than half the book. We read and read and read. All day. Then we had a small lesson and went in the pool to try breathing underwater. Surprisingly, Bretton and I both did completely okay. I studied for the rest of the night, reading the remainder of the book. The next day, we had some more lessons and then wrote our multiple choice test. Luckily, I passed with 100%! That was nice. Then we had some more pool time and learned some skills. I barely slept that night, we were going in the ocean the next day. After two dives, I felt much better. We had some extra time that day, so we went on a small rainforest walk with some Dutch guys. For the final day, we went diving twice in the morning. Then were CERTIFIED! Yes! So awesome. Not so awesome though, I had been so nervous about hitting the coral with my fins that I used up over half my oxygen on the first dive. That's right, 120 Bar (the average new diver will use 80 Bar on a dive). Oh well. Then we went on two free dives. The free dives, in short, sucked. The visibility was terrible and I had major buoyancy issues. Meaning, that I spent most of the time floating up on the surface and trying to get back down. The waves made me a little nauseous, but have no fear, this is not a repeat of my first snorkeling attempt. I did not get sick. I attribute my buoyancy issues to the strong current on the surface. Our instructor later told us that people usually do not master their buoyancy until diving around twenty times. That made me feel better. After finishing, I was relieved to not have to carry that load again. A scuba tank and weight belt come out to be quite heavy. My backpack felt amazingly light the next day, when we were leaving for Townsville. I was able to return to one of the churches and practice the next day. Then we went to Mission Beach. There is actually no town centre, I'm not really sure where the actual Mission Beach is. I think it's just a county, or something. Well... that night Bretton and I had bought some wine as celebration for getting our dive cards. What we failed to note is that mugs of wine are much larger than glasses of wine. Even more, salad is not a good base for drinking. Anyways, long story short, we were not exactly walking in straight lines after drinking. After vacating the hostel to go for a walk, Bretton decided to run a bit. Yeah... not such a good idea when you have no sense of balance. Well... she ran into me and I fell onto the gravel road. My leg is quite cut up. Note: I am not blaming Bretton completely for this, it was also my fault for drinking too much in the first place. I will not go into depth, but I will never drink that much again. We both suffered terribly the next day. Also, note to Moms (Bretton's and mine), "Please don't freak out! As I just said, it was truly terrible and neither of us have any wish to drink again. It will not happen again." Today, we have walked about 15 km in the rainforest. It is so beautiful. It's pretty hot, but I love it here. We're headed to Dunk Island tomorrow to do some more walking, then Cairns the next day. I may be wrong, but the next time you will hear from me, I will probably be home in Canada. I can't wait. See all of you soon! Plus... I'll post some pictures when I get home.

Nudity, Churches, and Fraser Island

I know that has been a while. But we've been really busy. Officially, today, we only have two weeks left. I'll get right into it. Well... we were in Byron Bay last time I posted. The last day, we did this lighthouse walk thing and saw some dolphins, it was really beautiful. But... we ran into a man wearing a very small towel while walking uphill. So... I saw everything and am thoroughly traumatized for the experience. Then we headed to Surfers Paradise. We met two English girls and went to the beach. You would think a place called Surfers Paradise would have a good beach. While swimming, you were being tossed around and pulled out by the rip. It wasn't so much fun as you spend most of the time trying to stay afloat. Oh well. On the way back, we saw two guys streaking. I saw three guys naked in one day, that is definitely a first. That night, everyone was going on a pub crawl. Being eighteen, apparently we have no excuse not for going. To avoid the constant questioning, we went on a walk. I wanted to go to church the next day and we found one. While walking past, someone in the church saw us and opened the door. He invited us to go to this "Women's Night". We did and had a lot of fun. Everyone was nice, there was live music. And there was chocolate everything. We were very excited to go to church the next day. I don't know how to say it, but the church was not what we expected. I wasn't comfortable with the way they were worshiping. It felt different. Long story short, we ended up leaving in the middle of the service. Not exactly my plan for Palm Sunday, but oh well. We went to Brisbane that day. Brisbane is our kind of city. Not too big, not that rowdy of a nightlife. I went to the Conservatorium and was able to practice piano there, so that was good. We just did a whole lot of wandering around in Brisbane. I forgot to mention that within the first ten minutes of being in Brisbane, we met a stripper who was staying at our hostel. Yeah... that's definitely a first. It made for a slightly awkward conversation. Then we headed out to the Australia Zoo for one day. It was really cool, lots of animals. I think it really made me realize the impact Steve Irwin had on the world. It was great. Noosa was next. We walked in the National Park and checked out the town, we were only there for one day. Then we took a bus to Hervey Bay. It was three hours late, which was not so much fun. Upon arrival to Hervey Bay (11:00PM), I figured we had been sitting for too long. I made an executive decision that we would walk to the hostel, not call the shuttle bus. I knew it would be about 3km, so I didn't tell Bretton. Well... we got a little lost and ended up getting picked up by the bus while it was driving past. I got shouted at by the driver who apparently had woken up to pick us up and was in a bad mood. I tried to not retaliate, thinking that that would be the best method. Early in the morning, we got up to arrange our Fraser Island trip. After getting equipped with camping equipment and a four wheel drive jeep/camper van, we made hurried trip to the grocery store, then took the barge across. Driving on sand is a different experience altogether. It starts out fun until you realize how far you still have to drive. It is very bumpy and you get to know the people in your vehicle very well. Being prone to car sickness, the three days of driving was not the best experience of my life, but fun at times. We went to Lake Wabby and walked on sand dunes. There is something so peaceful about walking on sand forever. So quiet. You cannot drive in saltwater, so you have to watch the tides. You also cannot drive in the dark. As the tide was coming in, we jumped on the first campsite we could find. We quickly discovered that our tents were pretty sketchy. I think they were probably donated by the army, when they were finished with them. With only four pegs and a stick in the middle to hold it up, they were not too stable. We threw tarps on top to waterproof them. I ate a wet burger in the rain and climbed into my tent covered in sand that night. Since it gets dark at 6:00 here, we were all in bed before 9:00. Bretton and I saw a dingo, that was pretty cool. I woke up with sand covering my whole body, there was sand in my mouth. Gross. The next day we somehow got a flat tire. The only boy in our group did not know how to change it. We found someone to do it for us, so all was well. This day we were unable to get to Indian Head and the Champagne Pools due to high tide, so we went swimming in Boomerang Lake instead. For those who have not heard of it, it is a lake full of reeds. The water is red and not refreshing in any way. Our camp that night was a bit better, we had pasta that night. We also learned that washing the dishes in the ocean doesn't work so well. Bretton and I went for a late night swim in the ocean. We stayed in for a while, until I started getting worried about tiger sharks, which are in the ocean surrounding Fraser Island. The last day, we went swimming in Lake Mackenzie. The nicest, clearest water I have ever been in. It was amazing. The people on our tour were awesome, it couldn't have been better, minus the high maintenance man. Personally, when I am camping, I don't shave or really need a mirror. It's just about being outdoors for a few days. You might dirty, but that's part of the experience. While we were watching the guy change our tire, making sure we knew how to change it, the one guy in our group was staring at his reflection in the rear view mirror. Yeah. Anyways, I could go on for a while, but I still have a lot to write, so I'll get on with it. After returning to Hervey Bay, we hung out with a girl we met on our tour for a few days. She is Dutch and eighteen as well. It was nice to meet someone like us again. I was beginning to think we were the only non-drinkers on the East Coast. We watched "The Boat that Rocked", which is now definitely in my top ten movies. We also made really nice supper. It was sad to say good-bye. I'm sure that if she were going North too, we would have travelled with her, but that's how it goes. Now we're in Airlie Beach, waiting to go on our sail boat, "Samurai". Two full days on a boat, it should be gorgeous. And, I was just declared fit to dive, so all should be well with that. I had to pay to practice the piano yesterday. That sucked. Especially because I had walked for over an hour in the rain to get there. I have some very, very sad new. At 1:32 PM, April15, 2009, in Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, I have lost a friend very dear to me. She was always there, whether I was happy, depressed, or angry. She's gotten through some pretty tough times. I've known her since 2006. With great sorrow, I bring you the news of the death of my Creative Zen Microphoto, 8GB. Cause of death: water damage. I am beginning to think that all this talk about Australia being in a drought is crap. I walked through rain up to my calves to get to that music store! It will be hard to replace her, but I am grateful that I will return with enough money to buy a new music player. No I-Pod for me, though. Anyways, I hope next time I write, I will be in better spirits. This death must be mourned. To the sea I go.

Church->Sand Dunes->Wine Tours->Floods

Hey all. Things are not bad here. I'll get right into it. We took a courtesy bus to the Hillsong Church. There were all of these French coloured women on the bus. They sang French songs on the way. It was really nice, I remember a song mentioning (in French) how Jesus est devant, derriere, autour, dans les main, and dans mon couer. Church was just as amazing. The music was insane and the people were very nice. After, we met up with a girl who I've known for probably twelve years. We had a nice visit, then we took the train to Newcastle. Our reason for going was Port Stephens, which apparently has the biggest sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. We took a bus to get there and missed our stop completely. After sitting on the bus for over three hours and circling the island until we returned, we finally found the sand dunes. I don't know how to explain it, but they were amazingly beautiful. So much sand, all white and so soft. We climbed up and walked around. Not long after we saw some storm clouds approaching. We made a run for it. Rain was coming soon. So we hid in a farmer's barn for about twenty minutes, waiting for the rain to let up. We were forced to leave when the farmer returned, but the rain had subsided by then, so we walked out, dry. The next day, we went on a wine tour in Hunter Valley. I just love the look of vineyards, the rows and rows of grapes growing, it's so beautiful. We learned a bit about the growing of grapes, the seasons, and about wine. It did not take me long to realize that I hate dessert wines and port. Seriously disgusting. I don't know why anyone drinks it. There was a breathalyzer at the first winery. Legal driving limit here is 0.050. I am proud to say I was at 0.043. Bretton, on the other hand, was at 0.064. I will have you know that we drank significantly less at the rest of the wineries as we were feeling tipsy before 11:00. We visited some cheese factories as well and a fudge place, which was stingy with its fudge (I only got two samples. What the heck!). In total, we visited five wineries. By the end of the day, I was repulsed by wine and anything containing alcohol. I suppose excess will do that to you. I have not drank since and still have no desire to. The next day, we planned to go to Port Macquarie (pronounced Ma-cori). The bus was in the afternoon, so I found a piano at a University. Everyone was new there, so I got in unnoticed. It was cool to listen to all of the other students practice. Quite impressive actually. Then we caught the bus. I forgot to mention that it was raining the day before. We had heard about flooding in Coff's Harbour. When we were driving, it was pouring! I could see flooding at the side of road, visibility was poor, and the roads were slick. I started getting really worried, it seemed pretty dangerous. But we made it. Still kind of scared, we decided to jump on the first bus we could get past Coff's Harbour, worried that we could stranded. We recently met two girls that were stranded in Coff's Harbour. Their hostel was flooded and there was water up past their knees. Definitely happy that we avoided that, but that meant a 4:00 AM bus. It was not as bad as you would think. We woke up at 3:00. Here's the part the got me scared. This girl, half asleep I think, said, "Oh my gosh, everything is covered in bed bugs." I froze and started shaking. I have heard horror stories about bed bugs and freaked out! We now have confirmed that the girl's accusations were false, but nonetheless, strong words. I am now newly cautious about bed bugs. Now we're in Byron Bay. For those who don't know, Byron Bay is a favorite of every traveler and resident of Australia. Everyone loves it. It is known for it's beach and surf. Well... we are on our fifth day of rain. I don't know about you, but we don't really go to the beach in the rain. There's not much else to do here. We read magazines in the library yesterday, I practiced piano today, we booked some travel stuff, and have been catching up with family. I'm pretty bummed out that this is our experience of Byron, but I still think it's a nice place. Oh well. We're off to Surfer's Paradise tomorrow. If we're lucky, maybe the rain will stop following us. I'm being optimistic. I hear that the snow is melting and that the sun is out sometimes. The rain is still coming down here, but the sun did make a brief appearance. But all is well. We ate meat last night and supper only cost $2.50 each, so we're still well on budget. Anyways, that's all I have to say. I'm going to go put on my rain jacket and tough it out. 'Til next time.

Scleri... what?

Hey all. Last time I wrote we were in Canberra staying with Claudia and Roger. Well, I am sad to say that we are there no longer- we had a really great time with them. We went to Sydney. At first thought, one would think, "Sydney? Wow, that must have been amazing! It's supposed to be one of the top cities in the world." Yeah... I regretfully inform you that we didn't really like Sydney that much. I will start by saying that an opinion of a place is based on many factors. Such as who you meet, where you go, what district you stay in, and what your hostel is like. So, understandibly, everyone who goes to a place will have a different experience and therefore different opinions. Well... we got into Sydney and it was around 8:00. We found our hostel pretty easily and it seemed okay. It was not. Prepare yourselves for a lot of complaining- I will try to keep it to a limit. The hostel had accidentally booked us in a boy's dorm, which could be okay, but the room was stinky and incredibly hot. We tried to switch, with no luck. The kitchen had only two burners for cooking, the hostel held over 200 people. How can you cook with only that? And the showers were pretty questionable. We left for the night, not returning until it was time to sleep- we didn't want to go back. Luckily, another girl was working and offered to let us switch to a double room for the same price. The room was still hot, but much better. Over the next couple of days, we wandered around Sydney. It was nice that there were a lot of buskers all over the city, so you could stop and watch music from time to time. I was able to find a church, where I practiced twice on a white grand piano. The harbour bridge was pretty cool and the waterfront was beautiful. I don't know exactly why, but it just didn't feel good. The air felt really dirty and it was pretty humid. At about five million (I think) people, the city is pretty full of people, it's hard to get away from them. I've been having trouble with my left eye for about two months now and finally decided to go see a doctor about it. After waiting for a bit, the doctor was quick to diagnose Scleritis. I know, what a weird word- I had never heard it before. It's an inflammation of the sclera (the white part of the eye) and I was prescribed eye drops. So... I've been putting up with my stupid eye for two months only to find out that it is an easily fixed problem, just with eye drops? That was slightly annoying, I guess sometimes I do wait too long to see the doctor- at my own expense I guess. The damage was $90, I should've invented some medical problems just to get full use out of the doctor. That night, we were wandering around the streets and walked by the Apple Store. They were having a free concert- a girl called "Sia" was performing. Weirdly enough, I had actually heard of "Sia" and listened to some of her stuff on the internet. To see her was really amazing and so unexpected. We got in at the same time as the VIPs for some reason, so everyone around us was asking us how we got in. Whatever. The concert was really good, she has a great voice and the band was awesome. It consisted of drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and CELLO! That made it so much better, I think. Anyways, we decided that we wanted to go to a show at the Sydney Opera House. The cheapest tickets available were standing tickets. I didn't even know that they sold them- just like in Elizabethan times. We didn't have any nice clothes to wear, so I wore jeans and my cleanest shirt- plus my ever present glasses. I considered wearing my hiking boots to avoid sore feet, but wore my flip-flops instead (because who wears hikers to an opera anyway?). We lucked out and got some unoccupied seats, much to our relief. Anyways, the opera was good, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk". It was pretty light- a funny opera if you will. But it was hard to focus on just the opera. There was so much to see and hear. The singing was amazing, the words were on a screen just above the stage (as it can be hard to understand sometimes). But there was acting as well. The pit band was phenomenal! Sometimes I found myself just listening to them, not the singers. But they also had some tubas and a trumpet in one of the upper box seats. The would play from time to time, maybe to show a sense of urgency or importance? Either way, it was something else to pay attention to. We were at the very back, so you could see all the people as well. I enjoyed the opera, but found it hard to sit still for three hours. Nonetheless, now we can say that we went to an opera at Sydney opera house. Relieved to finally be out of Sydney, we took the train to the Blue Mountains to a place called Katoomba. It is a nice little place with many used bookstores and bakeries. We just looked around the first day. I traded in a book I didn't want for "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. My Mom and sister (Farron) always have told me that it's too sad for me to read, but I think I'm old enough now. So far so good anyways. Today we went on a walk to these rock formations called "Ruined Castle". By just looking at them, you can understand the origin of the name. It was very foggy in the morning, you could see only about ten metres in front. But it cleared up in the afternoon, just in time for our good viewpoint. The walk was not too bad, minus the many steps to get up and down into the valley. We were gone for about a total of seven hours, so we're pretty tired now. A bit more hiking tomorrow and we're off to dreaded Sydney again in the afternoon. But for only one night. We'll hopefully be able to meet up with an old friend and go to the Hillsong Church (for an apparently live recording session!). All is well, we're still eating healthy (pizza made with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, pitas, ham, and cheese for supper). So... I'll talk to you all soon! Sleep well.

Fairy Penguins, Sound Relief, and the Snowy Mountains

I apologize in advance for my writing, this is probably one of my worst written blog entries. I'm in a bit of a hurry, you see. Wow, these few days have absolutely flown by. We went to see the fairy penguins at Phillip Island and it was awesome! Sometimes they have to moult their feathers, get a new coat. To do this, they have to sit for about 17 days. So they have to gain a lot of weight to make this possible. Some of the penguins that came up were so fat they could barely walk, I mean waddle. It was hilarious! Some would waddle, then fall on their face, waddle, then fall on their face. After so many falls, some would stay down for a little while, as some sort of recovery I think. It was pretty funny. Bretton told me later, but we were watching this one penguin, making fun of how fat is was and how it could barely make it up to its nest. Apparently this larger lady walked by and scowled at us while we were talking. Oops. We had hitched a ride out there and had to get back to Cowes. We managed to get a couple to drive us back. They seemed nice at first, but it made for a super awkward car-ride. I tried to keep the conversation going, but they weren't really that talkative. Somehow I got talking about hairless cats and I just couldn't stop. Bretton didn't even help. When I paused to think of a different subject, she asked, "Where did you hear about those cats?" Just digging me deeper into the hole. Thanks a lot Bretton. As I mentioned before, we were going to Sound Relief at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). There's not much to say other than it was completely amazing... and wet. It rained for the whole day. But apparently that doesn't happen much in Melbourne, so it was a good thing. We went with an Aussie girl we met at Uluru, Julie. It was good to have an Aussie perspective for the day, some things that happened were confusing. I'll go into more detail later. I had my first meat pie with "sauce" (tomato sauce). It really wasn't bad, in fact, I think I kind of liked it. Then we went to the concert. Jet opened. It was amazing! They played all of the songs that everyone wanted to play and sounded awesome. The next act was this seventeen year old girl, Gabriella Cilmi. Although she is in the top forty, she had an interesting style and quite the voice for her age. Then... Kings of Leon. I would love to say that they were amazing. They were pretty good. I just felt like they weren't giving it their all. Yeah, they performed late the night before and had a performance later that day, so I guess I understand. It may have also been the place we were. Did I mention that we got floor tickets? The best place to be. We had gradually been making our way to the front, trying not to be too pushy. But we met a barrier as the Kings of Leon started. We were stuck by these really tall guys who had terrible, loud singing voices. Even better, they knew all of the words to every song Kings of Leon sung. I was struggling to hear the lead singer's voice over their singing. Overall, the Kings of Leon were good, but slightly disappointing. The following act was Paul Kelly, this older gentleman who is from Australia. It was just him and his guitar. It was great, his voice was pretty powerful and he was singing about things that mattered. Next... Augie March. They are a pretty well-know Aussie band, but they sounded Irish to me (maybe I'm crazy). They were not bad. Next was a hip hop group called Bliss N Eso. They were really good, but I was really hungry and tired by this time. It was so bad that the bass somehow sent waves of nausea through me. After they finished, we went and got some food and sat down. It's amazing how tired you can get from just standing and watching music. In my defense, we had been standing for about five hours by that point. We sat for a while, listening to Kasey Chambers, Shane Nicholson, and Liam Finn. Suddenly, the sun came through the clouds. It stopped raining. Part of Crowded House came on stage and sang a song about the weather. It was a perfect moment. And then they played "Hey Now". Words cannot describe that moment. It was just a moment of perfection (Wow this is starting to sound really corny, sorry.). The weather, the music, the crowd. Then it was time for Jack Johnson. I know I've commented before that he is too calm, but live, it is just perfect. No, it was not an upbeat performance, but it was just right, somehow. We sat while Wolfmother played. Then Kylie Minogue came up and sang the Australian National Anthem. It was pretty powerful, the whole crowd was singing along. We weren't sure what was going on, but Julie explained it later. It was cool. Then there was an announcement from Prince William and Prince Harry, that was interesting too. Then we saw Toni Colette, an Australian actress! And then we say Tony Hawk! So many people! There was also this special performance in Sydney of Coldplay playing with John something. The Australians are very patriotic, there are so many unofficial National Anthems. While he was singing, everyone was singing along as well. It was confusing, but refreshing to see a country with so much pride. Very enjoyable. Then a band called Hunters and Collectors played, they weren't bad. But the best acts, by far, were Split Enz and Midnight Oil. They were truly amazing. I didn't know all of the songs, but they put on a really good show. The lead singer of Midnight Oil is actually the Environment Minister of Australia. It was hilarious, he's a pretty strange dancer. Throughout the day, they played clips from the other concert in Sydney. So I got to see all of the bands over there, including Eskimo Joe, the Presets, and Coldplay! After the concert, we were exhausted and went back to the hostel to sleep. It was an amazing day though, I won't forget any of it, I think. Then we headed to Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains. As we were waiting for the school bus (the only way to get there) at 6:30 in the morning, we realized it was actually cold. Quite cold in fact. I was wearing shorts and sandals and it was 4C! We were out there for over an hour too! Once we got to Thredbo, we were greeted by a really nice hostel owner and really liked the small town. We wanted to summit Mount Kosciusko, the highest mountain in all of Australia. It also is one of the Seven Summits in the world. Most people take the chairlift half-way up, but we, as usual, were too cheap. We walked the 5 km uphill. It was quite a climb and we were pretty tired when we got to the top, but we kept on going. I forgot to mention that it was really cold in the morning again, there was frost on the ground! Once we made it to the summit, it felt so good. The not so good thing was that both Bretton and I were thinking, "One summit down, six to go." Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I'll never accomplish that goal, but wouldn't that be amazing? We opted to take the chairlift down and nobody asked for lift tickets luckily. Anyways, now we're in Canberra. We're staying with my Auntie Liz's sister, Claudia. We met her grandson yesterday, he's about sixteen months old and very energetic. It's been great to be in someone's home again. They have a record player and some classic records. I listened to music for most of last night: Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, and The Fifth Dimension, it was a lot of fun. We're going around to see some of the sights of Canberra today, probably some museums and Parliament buildings, we'll see. But it's great to be here and everything is going well. Sorry for talking about the concert so much, it was just pretty amazing. I've been reading a lot lately and finished "The Kite Runner" and am now reading "Into Thin Air". I forgot how much I loved it. And Bretton is getting into the "Twilight" series now. She read the second book in just over a day. Great, hey? I hope all is well with everyone. Talk to you soon.

Labour Day? Oh the irony.

Hey all, it hasn't been long, but it feels like forever- so much has happened. We were in Melbourne for a while, it's a pretty cool city. I found a piano in this Scottish Church that I was able to practice on for a few days, so that was good. As I said before, we got jobs working at a carnival. More specifically, the "Boomba Water Festival". The name sounds so harmless, but names are often deceiving, especially in this case. When we were waiting to find out our jobs, we all agreed that food would be a better place to work, versus with the games. I don't know about you, but working in a booth, shouting out to people to play your game, does not sound like my idea of a good time. So when she asked if people had any food experience, I immediately stepped forward. Then she asked if anyone knew how to make coffee. Well, I've worked at Starbucks, so I raised my hand. I was separated from everyone and was placed in a booth with two other people I had never met. One was a lady who worked at carnivals on the weekend for extra money. The other was my supervisor, a man with greasy hair who went by the name "Damo" (short for Damien). I quickly realized that I had never made Aussie coffee. They have some weird drinks called flat whites, long blacks, and short blacks. I learned how to make those, but to make matters worse, no one calls the drinks by their actual names. A flat white is often called a "white coffee" and a long black is often called a "black coffee". People just looked at me stupidly when I asked them what they meant. Thus far, I have not had too much trouble understanding the Australian accent, but this weekend was a test of my comprehension. They speak so quickly! I really struggled to understand many people and they, again, looked at me like I was stupid. Giving change was another issue. The Australian two dollar coin is smaller than the one dollar coin. To me, that is the reverse of what it should be. I must have given so many people too much or too little change, out of confusion and business. Our booth also served pancakes, cinnamon donuts, jam donuts (I accidentally called them jelly donuts many times, to be corrected by every single person.), and milkshakes. I felt that I could do pretty much everything necessary, but another person was added to the booth. Some other girls nicknamed him "Scotty-too-hotty". He was not hot, completely the opposite, but he really thought he had it going on. His family is a carnie family. His mother, a lady who looked exactly like a witch, produced nine kids. They all work at the carnival. It is truly terrible. Scotty and Damo would somehow team up against me and I somehow ended up doing all of the work. I cleaned up after them all of the time. On the second day, I was poked with a pancake flipper and shouted at in front of customers for apparently using the cash register wrong. The whole weekend consisted of constant insults, doing other people's work, and getting shouted at. I did not just allow this to happen, I stood up for myself countless times, just to get slammed down again with the seniority card. In my work experience so far, I have never been argumentative with supervisors or gotten shouted at. On Sunday night, Damo told me that it seemed like I didn't know much about anything. On Monday, after I finished cleaning the outside of the booth, I found gloves and a garbage bag waiting for me outside of the kitchen. Scotty poked his head out, "Before you come in, can you please empty the garbage?" Whatever, big deal, right? Dead wrong. I emptied the garbage that was bagless into a garbage bag. I emptied half of it and became so angry that I stopped and went into the booth. I told Damo that I had done half of my work and it was someone else's turn. He laughed. "Do you have a problem doing work?" I responded, much angrier this time, "It's not about doing the work. I have no problem working. But I have a problem with doing this work. This is not my job description. I feel like I'm always doing your work, and Scott's work. I'm doing more than my job. I've done half of my work. How about Scott does the rest?", I thought that summarized it pretty well. "Scott is serving." "Well, I've served before, I can do it while he finishes the job." "No, you are doing your job. Do you want me to go get your boss and tell him that you aren't working? That you are refusing to do your job?" I have never sworn under my breath, but that weekend was full of cursing at everyone and everything. I finished the terrible job, only to have my suspicions later confirmed that the job was actually assigned to Scott. I know that I cannot fully explain everything that happened, but that job was one of the biggest hits to my spirit that I have ever felt. It emotionally and physically hurt me. Emotions aside, the sanitation in the place was completely questionable. Steamed milk sat out for hours, only to be reheated when it needed to be used. I never saw anyone wash their hands, Damo regularly touched his hair, smoked, and blew his nose. You know the phrase, "When in Rome, do as Romans do." I served a milkshake after I pulled a hair out of it (terrible, I know!). I really tried to slack off, not to do work, but whenever I was idling, I was assigned work. I missed fireworks three nights in a row because I had to serve customers. That is something I never want for myself. To be too busy doing other things to enjoy fireworks, or just life in general. It made me sad. They were good fireworks too. On the last day, I had a moment of clarity. I was missing the fireworks, there was so much sound all around me, but I heard something. The Moonlight Sonata was playing somewhere in the distance. I heard every note. I don't really know how to explain it, but it was a moment where I remembered that I did not deserve the treatment that I was receiving, that I am better than all of this. Maybe it just provided necessary escape from what I was doing, but it meant a lot to me. We need those moments. I was paid fairly and promptly fell asleep as soon as I got off of work. Break had been hard to come by. I worked ten hours with only a thirty minute break, six hours into my shift. Starvation had been a common feeling. Now that I am done, I am relieved. We are now in Phillip Island. It is great to see the ocean again. I missed it. Last night, as celebration for finishing our terrible jobs, we got a bottle of wine and pizza. We tried to eat it on the beach. There were so many seagulls. There is a Seinfeld episode where Jerry says, "I thought we had a deal with the birds." He was meaning that they stay away from you and you stay away from them. I thought sea gulls would give me space. Let me eat my pizza. No. A seagull jumped on my pizza, I threw it a few metres (in surprise). All of the seagulls ate the slice of pizza in less than twenty seconds. It was amazing, but made me angry. We moved off of the beach and the seagulls followed us. I became quite paranoid about seagulls coming for my pizza. I inhaled the rest of my meal. To top it off, our wine was terrible! Too sweet. We really need to do some research to find out what kind we would like. Returning to the hostel, both of us slept eleven hours last night. I still feel exhausted, but am half-way to my recovery. We saw some koala bears today! It was really cool, they really blend in with the trees, so you have to really look to see them. Anyways, Phillip Island is nice, we're going to go see blue penguins tomorrow night. Then back to Melbourne for Sound Relief! I'm so excited! It was 30C, things are good, I had ice cream today. Ice cream should not be a seasonal thing in Canada, really. Talk to everyone soon!

The Kindness of Strangers

Okay, so I know it's been over two weeks. Trust me, no one suffers but myself. I now have to remember everything that happened and not explain it in too much detail, as not to overdo it like my last blog. Last time I wrote we were in the Grampians. It was beautiful. We did all of the possible hikes you could do without a car. The owner of our hostel was one of the most hospitable people I've ever met, he would help you with anything. By anything I mean anything. I asked him if he knew if there was piano in Halls Gap for me to practice on and he phoned up his friend who owned a restaurant and set up a practice time for me. It was crazy! I practiced there two nights, then ventured a little out of town and found an "upscale" (for Halls Gap) restaurant with a baby grand piano. I inquired about practicing and after quite a few calls and claims that I couldn't play due to 'insurance reasons', I was able to play. It was very nice, I practiced an hour before the restaurant opened and then played for almost two hours with customers there. It was really good for me to perform for people, I really enjoyed it. I did it two nights in a row. On the last night, they gave me a bottle of wine as thanks, it was pretty cool. Pay in alcohol? We had a really nice room at our hostel with a sliding door or screen to close it. On the second last night, we were walking towards our room and I had this slight feeling that I should tell Bretton to watch out for the door. Deciding to see what would happen, she walked right into it, earning quite a bump on her head. I said to the ladies nearby, "If you can believe, no alcohol has been consumed tonight." Well... the next night, the same thing happened, although I believe it was more colossal of a hit. Alcohol was consumed that night, thank goodness, but I definitely believe Bretton had a bit of hit to her pride and we all had a pretty good laugh over it. The next day we went to Warrnambool. We had been promised a $50 motel room as the Backpackers was outside of town. Upon arrival, the hotel room was gone. We went off of my guidebook for other accomodation. Both of the buildings that we had looked for were demolished. It was about 7 PM by that time, we had to find a room fast. Walking around town, we started talking to these two Australian guys. When they found out we had no place to stay, they phoned up the owner of the townhouse that they were staying in and, somehow, negotiated the price of a room down to $60 from $160! The room was amazing! We stayed up as late as we could for maximum enjoyment, then later found a room above a pub for longer term accommodation. After Warrnambool, we headed to Port Campbell. Some places sound good in a guidebook, but really aren't that good. That is Port Campbell. It is tiny! We went to the Twelve Apostles at sunset and it was beautiful. The next day, we hitched a ride out the the 'Gibson Steps', a beautiful beach. Then we walked to the Twelve Apostles, then to Loch and Gorge. We did all of the walks at Loch and Gorge. People began to notice that had been to every tourist attraction, but walked the whole way. It was pretty funny, I think most of them thought we were crazy. Well... it was quite warm, but I decided I wanted to walk back to town. We had walked about 15 Km that day already, but once I get an idea in my head, I stick to it. Half-way back, we're both feeling quite tired. To my complete relief, some people pulled over and offered us a ride. Thank goodness! The next day, we were headed to Apollo Bay. We waited and waited for the bus. It did not arrive. We were informed that the bus route had been cancelled due to high bushfire risk. There had been a campsite in the bush where the fire hadn't completely gone out. We would be stuck in Port Campbell. But... these really nice people gave us a ride, the whole hour and a half to Apollo Bay, and refused money! It was truly amazing. It was really nice out that day, so we went to the beach. I didn't even get a sunburn and we had an awesome time! We also found out that if you stay up late enough, you can get internet for free, after the owners go to bed. I know this may be wrong, but I paid what I thought it was worth ($1). The next day it rained, so we did a walk to a viewpoint, then read for the rest of the day. We headed to Geelong next. It was definitely not worth the stop. We browsed stores and went to a movie and decided to only stay one day. I tried to stay away from our hostel for as long as possible, it wasn't very clean and our roommate was loud. There was a band playing downstairs called "The Houses". They were pretty cool. Then we took the train to Melbourne. At last. I love it already and I've only been here a few days. We've just been doing a lot of walking and looking around, there is so much to see. I had a piano lesson with University Graduate, that was very helpful. Our hostel has free breakfast and an extra amazing breakfast on Tuesdays! We're talking toast, cereal, meat, and fruit! I slept in a bit, but Bretton saved me some meat. She saved me too much meat and I felt super self-conscious eating my large serving of meat and cereal. I'm happy I got the meat, but it just felt like everyone was looking at me and thinking, "What a pig." (But I was eating pig, so maybe that's not the best word, cow maybe?) But, I have two really exciting things to say. Firstly, we are probably going to this amazing concert called "Sound Relief". All of the proceeds are supposed to go towards bushfire relief. We're going to see Jack Johnson, Jet, and Kings of Leon!!! I'm pretty psyched and I hope that we got the tickets. Secondly, both Bretton and I now have jobs! It's great. We're going to be working for four days of this Moomba Water Festival thing in Melbourne. All we had to do was show up, put our names down of a piece of paper, and agree to return on Friday at 5 PM. Nobody asked for a work visa, but I'm still psyched. It might be bad work, but we now have an excuse to spend even more time in Melbourne. Anyways, I've got to go, we're hitting the night market nearby. I also really need to go on a walk. There was free pasta and salad tonight. Needless to say, I ate too much. Anyways, I hope all is well. It's raining here.