So How is Annie Doing?

So it's been 46 days since I left home if you're counting from Rochester or just 35 if you're counting from my departure from California (I completely lost March 28 in there!!). And time has never flown by so fast for me.  Like at breakneck speed.  I know I have done and seen a lot, but the time has still flown.  So maybe it's time for a check in with how I'm really doing and what I have learned about myself as a traveler.

I already knew that I take on a certain "mentality" whenever I leave home.  Whether it's just a weekend trip to visit my sister or a new city for a weekend with friends or an entire week vacation somewhere, I go into "vacation mode" which is defined by two things: poor eating habits and poor spending habits.

I not only tend to eat dessert first when I know I'm on vacation, but I tend to eat it multiple times a day too!  This is usually not a problem (and probably why I allow it to happen) when the trip is under 2 weeks in length.  My body can recover easily enough.  But even in California, before Australia, I started to try to prepare myself that "Annie, this is your life.  This is NOT a vacation.  6 months is a long time.  Keep practicing yoga.  Keep eating healthy.  And stick to your budget!"  Unfortunately I am finding it very difficult to adhere to that mantra.  It also doesn't help that I was introduced to Tim Tams my first week here and they have been on sale at the grocery store here for two or three weeks straight.  And it also doesn't help that I seem to always go to the grocery store hungry and the bakery is typically near the front of the store.  My family can vouch that I have incredibly strong willpower and as a kid I was always the one with the remaining Halloween candy come December and despite a passionate love for ice cream (I just had the yummiest lavender ice cream yesterday!) I am never the one finishing the ice cream cartons in the house!  I do have willpower... I just seem to lose it every time I'm on vacation.  Gelato several times a week, junk food purchases at the grocery (that never happened in Tampa!) and bad decisions at meal times because who wants to pay $17 for a garden salad when I could eat yummy fettuccine primavera for the same price!  So I am just not sure at this point if my body will recover from 6 months of this... Eeek!

Just 3 of the reasons why I am gaining weight on this trip!  The mint chocolate is also amazing!

And the sticking to the budget thing... Again, my wallet can also recover easily enough from a weekend or week long trip (that's the nice thing when you have steady income!!)  Though you might expect me to be saving money by CouchSurfing the majority of the time, in my experience with trips in the US I suspect I have actually spent more on those vacations than if I had been sharing a hotel room with a friend.  Again, it's the mentality that clicks on that says "money doesn't matter, I'm on vacation!" and I end up buying drinks, dinner, dessert, cab rides, etc as a way to say thank you.  I suppose I can't put a price tag on meeting an awesome person or people and spending a great weekend together just as friends all while knowing that it's because of a mutual trust and belief in a better world that has brought us together.  It is just the best feeling and it's something to which I am likely addicted.  Still, I'm actually fairly embarrassed at how much money I've spent on some past trips because I do take pride in being more of a "saver".  So at this point I am eyeing my budget and am slightly concerned that if I don't curb things a wee bit, I won't find I can have as much fun in Europe.  A very sad thought indeed.  Also, (mom you didn't hear this from me) I would love to have extra money leftover to actually make it to SE Asia come the fall too.  We will see if I am not too weary come September, but it sure would be great if money wasn't the reason keeping me from going  in October/November.  (More to come later, but it seems everyone I have met has been and well, since you need more than 2 weeks to do it and I don't like the idea of quitting my job again to go, 2012 might be the year to do it.  Plus it is sooo cheap and can you imagine drinking fresh fruit juice and eating yummy Thai food every day?!?)

So one goal of this trip was to practice yoga every day and I am quite disappointed to say that I have not been able to uphold that.   It's not as easy as I had hoped to find the time every day which is totally my fault as I decided I wanted to see so much in such a short time whereas everyone I meet has committed 4-12 months to just the east coast of Australia!  I tend to be spending only two days in some places that I learn others devote 2 weeks to.  However, I do still sneak in a bit of yoga here and there.  And I must say I am impressed with how quickly I am progressing with several arm balancing poses with just the tiniest bit of core work.  I went to a Muay Thai kickboxing class with a CS host here and when I just couldn't punch, kick, sit-up, and push up anymore, I just went into navasana or boat pose on the mat to build my core in a more gentle fashion.  :)  My body could certainly use more stretching time as a backpacker's life (that's what they call travelers) isn't always the most comfortable, but I am still practicing several times a week.

I've been using the MindBody app on my iPad to locate studios and classes, but it is too often the case that the cities where I'm staying near lots of studios are the same cities with too many other things vying for my time.  Then in the quieter towns when I have time to devote to practice I learn I am 10km from the closest studio.  Consistent bummer.

I am also finding "me time" here and there despite all the adventure.  I save some time each day usually at the end of the day for meditating or journaling, but sometimes it is just on a quiet train ride or in a park on a bench when I have some solitude.

However, I believe that one "stressor" I feel looming over my head is my lack of preparation and planning for the European portion of my travels which actually begins in less than 4 weeks!  I cannot seem to find enough time to devote to this.  I have spent maybe 5-6 hours total on it in the last 6 weeks, maybe.  I need to get on it in New Zealand somehow!

And speaking of finding the time for personal goals and needs, some of you may know that I had a travel partner for the first part of my Australian journey.  I had been in contact with a 23 year old from Denver just a few weeks before leaving the US and we were talking about traveling together since she was arriving in Melbourne only 5 days after me.  We had a terrific time together for a week and a half, but I was finding it difficult to devote time each day to my own personal priorities.  So though it was a very difficult decision for me, I asked her if we could go separate ways in Sydney and while I miss her, I know I made the right decision for myself.

So while it may not seem I am taking the best care of myself perhaps diet-wise, I am still trying in these other ways.   However, with regards to sleep, my body is just not cooperating.  I cannot seem to get enough sleep because my body keeps waking me up at an early hour as though I was still on a work schedule!  No matter when I go to bed, be it 11pm or 3am, my body is going to wake me up around 7.  Mila can attest that in California I was still waking up between 6:30 and 7:30 every morning and that unfortunately has just not changed like I had hoped it would!  Is this a part of growing older??  Why can't I sleep in anymore?

Another small stressor is the unreliable access to the internet.  This certainly has been a factor in the Europe planning as a couple times I thought I had a bit of time for some research only to find out there wasn't WiFi where I was told it was.  But the good news is that I did buy a Droid in Sydney with global capabilities and that has been enormously helpful!  It's just a smartphone, but it lets me keep up with email all day so I don't have to deal with that at the end of the day when something else about my travels might be more pressing.  And the maps and GPS are just a lifesaver!

Which reminds me of life before this Droid and the many challenges I had.  I was using a normal cell phone at first, a Motorola Razor from my brother and sister in law, as all of my old cell phones from Verizon would not work abroad.  I'm not sure how I forgot to share this because it did cause a bit of stress for one week in Melbourne, but try as I did I could not get that phone to charge in Australia!  I charged it in NY and then one more time in California so I would have a completely full battery upon arrival (thank goodness I did!) but once in Australia it did not want to accept any charger.  I took it to a couple electronic shops to try new chargers.  I tried voltage adapters.  I tried friends' outlet converters in case something was wrong with mine (although my converter was working fine for the iPad, camera, etc.)  It would recognize it was plugged in usually, but it would just show "unable to charge" on screen.  Thank goodness I had brought along my car charger that works with my GoPro videocamera (thinking ahead to how there would be 6 hour car journeys in New Zealand with photo stops every quarter mile) as that matched the type of charger the Razor needed and I discovered that for whatever reason the phone was willing to accept a charge from a car battery.  So picture me carrying around my car charger everywhere, truly everywhere I went, just in case there was a 5 minute drive anywhere where I could ask to borrow some car juice.  Driving to dinner, "do you mind if I plug in my phone?"  "Oh we're going to the beach?  Now is that a drive or a walk from here?" The Great Ocean Road was really just the Great Opportunity for Re-charging.  And that went on until Sydney.  Day One in Sydney had me perusing ads for used HTC Droid phones.  I shouldn't be surprised though.  It is just Murphy's Law and I am not the first to have technology issues abroad while traveling.  I am learning to live beautifully with uncertainty (as Pema would say!), but right now I am kicking myself for mailing home my car charger for my U.S. Verizon droid back at LAX before my flight as that matches my new droid here.  And that would be handy to have in NZ I bet. Silly, silly phones.

And only one more thing to write about technology-wise (unless you want another tale of the disappointing iPad, which by the way, I have met other travelers who went the iPad route too for their travels only to buy a MacBook Air for its keyboard and greater storage capacity a month into their trip!)  But my GoPro Hero video camera became dysfunctional at the end of Melbourne and I have been without it for more than two weeks.  I have logged three different support cases with GoPro while traveling and they're lovely people wanting to help and empathetically listen and are very responsive, but it seems it just cannot be fixed with a firmware update or battery reset.  They want me to mail it back to them in the states for a warranty repair so it looks like I am heading to the beautiful countryside of New Zealand for bungee jumping and hot air ballooning without my videocamera :(

On a more positive note, I have truly been meeting new people nonstop - travelers and locals alike. Australians are ridiculously friendly and really very talkative!  And meeting so many other travelers made it very easy to plan my Australia trip on the fly.   Everyone I met was either going north like me or heading south and had already been to where I'm heading.  Solidly good and free advice!   "Too easy!" as they say here!

And on a random note, laundry has been rather easy to do here so it's looking like I brought about 25 pairs of underwear too many :)  I am also really looking forward to getting to swap out my clothes for the summer come the end of May.  After only 6 weeks of the same outfits I find I am bored.  Even my pictures are starting to look the same, no?

And lastly, one thing that has really kept me going and always, always, always brightens my cloudy days is when I receive emails from friends and family.  I do miss you all and some days I miss you A LOT and getting emails from you make me instantly happy!  You know who you are if you have been sending them!  Please don't stop!!  I love them!!

Catch you later in New Zealand!  I will now be 16 hours ahead of the East coast and 19 hours ahead of California.

Walking around Brisbane.  On the Goodwill Pedestrian Bridge.

Australia Highlights Part 2

Australia treated me very, very well and I am very sad to be leaving, but I've known New Zealand was coming for awhile and my excitement to finally arrive there has been growing simultaneously!  (However, it will be about 30-40 degrees colder so it's a bit harder to get excited for that!)

Here's just a bit of a rundown of the highlights for the second half of Australia:

Sydney:  I was warned that I would not like it as much as Melbourne and that turned out to be very true, but it has (beautiful!) beaches and I was lucky to meet some of its nicest people so I still had a good 5 days there.

Darling Harbour at Night... Dancing with the Swan Fountain behind me :)

--Going out dancing both weekend nights with two different great guys who knew how to dance!  It was really sooo much fun and a nice break from playing tourist... felt like just a weekend on the town with friends!

--A friend of a friend from Melbourne (apparently Michael Bloomberg's right hand man in Australia!) took me out my second night to the north beaches and showed me just the most awesome spot where you have the view of the entire skyline all to yourself!  Granted the reason you have it all to yourself is because it's about a 20-25 minute trail walk in the dark under only moonlight.  It was definitely worth it though and we were surprised with a few fireworks going off over the water/harbour completely unexpectedly!

Huy and I viewing the Sydney Skyline at night

--Finding a Bikram yoga studio where I did an unlimited week pass for "traveler's/visitors" ... it felt good to sweat and get back into Bikram!

--buying a Droid smartphone!  Two weeks without one in Melbourne was more difficult than I expected it to be, so first on the agenda in Sydney was finding a smartphone!

--the beaches!  I prefer Melbourne still, but Bondi Beach earned its reputation and I suppose is the jewel of Sydney along with the Opera House... It is beautiful!  A beautiful way to spend a day, or two, or three!  I was loving the sunshine in Sydney!

 

the Blue Mountains:  Just what I expected!  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!  I'd say it's the "green" version of the Grand Canyon.

--A deal was struck my first night there while we dined on the best German dumplings and discussed other great comfort foods.  We agreed if I made banana bread French toast the next day I would be treated to homemade profiteroles for dessert.  My host used to be a pastry chef and he was offering to teach me how to make one of my favorite desserts!!  They turned out amazing and I got to enjoy the leftovers for breakfast!

 

Piping profiteroles!

--Getting to sample a large number of Australian wines -- wine is very, very cheap here unlike everything else!

--Climbing (or should I say, first descending and then climbing) about one-third of the Giant Stairway (weather and timing got in the way of finishing it!  It's fall here and the sun starts setting close to 5pm!)

Byron Bay/Surfers Paradise/Coffs Harbor:  I was told Byron Bay is the place where two days turns into two weeks which turns into two months until you end up never leaving.  So therefore I was very excited leaving Sydney to get to Byron, but unfortunately I ended up with only one day of good weather there with rain forecasted for the entire next week, so I didn't stay as long as I thought I would and started chasing the sunshine up the coast.

Coffs Harbour

--Finding so many venues for live music in Byron Bay!  I listened to some great Australian cover bands (though they were covering American music :) acoustic MGMT = really awesome!) and went to my host's friend's band the second night in a proper concert format!

--Byron Bay attracts a lot of younger travelers and besides being known for its sprawling coast of beaches, it's known for its nightlife so I was out again past my bedtime dancing the nights away again!

--Pretty immediately upon arrival and on the one sunny day there, my host whisked me (and other friends of his) off to an amazing spot in the mountains/forest outside town where we spent the afternoon jumping off waterfalls!  Very unexpected, but what a thrill!  I hadn't jumped off cliffs since the gorges in Ithaca at school!  (next up though:  jumping off bridges in New Zealand bungee-style!)

Waterfall Jumping!

--I made a day trip to Springbrook National Park further inland from Surfer's Paradise (the largest "city" on the Gold Coast) and it was just spectacular!  We did a long loop walk that took us by several giant waterfalls where you could literally walk through or behind some of them!  (photos of walking behind them on my friend's camera still!) and the walk ended with another thrill.  Just when we were almost back to the "carpark" (parking lot :) and we weren't paying attention so much to the trail, we came across an 8 or 9 foot long python crossing our path!  The girl walking farthest in front, Alana, had grown up in Indonesia and was deathly afraid of snakes because she's known people who have died from bites.  So when she first saw the snake she just turned back and started running towards us not saying a word, but only shrieking!  The three of us assumed someone or thing was chasing her, but had no idea it was a snake.  It blended in so well to the trail that even after she sprinted by us screaming we still weren't clear what the danger was.  We finally saw and had to wait a good while (much farther back since it apparently has a large strike zone) for it to pass by.  I think it had already eaten its big meal for the day because it was moving very slowly so it hopefully wasn't interested in us!

Springbrook National Park

It was such a beautiful trail!

One of the waterfalls you have to walk behind

Ale and I by one of the waterfalls

The giant python on our path!!

--Participating in a "Beats and BBQ" drum circle in Burleigh Heads on the beach.  My host knew pretty much everyone in town and had organized a gathering one Sunday evening for about 30+ people to have a BBQ (again, I found a veggie burger!) on the beach where we could dance, drum, and even play with some fire (some friends were practicing their fire twirling).

--My awesome host again had a friend that was DJing at one club on the Saturday night so again a giant group of friends went out to support him and dance til dawn again!  (he didn't even start until 2:45am!)

Brisbane & the Sunshine Coast: Chasing the sunshine and more laidback life further north and lowering my chance of missing my flight, I headed to Brisbane.  I was really excited to just be back to a big city again (it had been almost a full week since Sydney) where there are more things to do in case of rain!

--In Brisbane I ended up staying with a group of three guys in their earlier-twenties-than-me (23 and 24yo) who had known each other since elementary/primary school.  They were a lot of fun to stay with and as Wednesday the 25th was ANZAC day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps day - a national public holiday - EVERYTHING is closed) they threw a Running of the Bulls party on Tuesday.  I must say I felt like I was in college again.  (though I felt old!)

--I was invited to come and stay with a couple in Dicky Beach on the Sunshine Coast, but due to work conflicts I ended up just meeting Matthew and we enjoyed a lovely few days together.  It was "off the beaten traveler's path" and I'd never heard of the town or knew anything about what to do there, but when I received the invitation, I immediately knew it was just what I needed!  Three days at the beach without another tourist or traveler in sight was just a dream!  Matthew is also a big TV fan and had nearly every TV show available for me to watch so I actually stayed in (and stayed up late!) catching up on the last 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy... it was such a treat I must say!  Add in a resort style bathroom complete with jacuzzi tub, towel warmer, and waterfall showerhead and I was just in heaven.  I was actually sad I had to leave and be a "traveler" again!

--Surfing!  Finally!  It took more than 3 weeks for the weather, waves, and waiting for the right teacher to align, but I finally got to surf!  And I stood up!  The water was perfect and surfing first thing in the morning was a new feeling for me.  I loved feeling like we had the entire ocean to ourselves (because we kind of did for as far as we could see for the start of our surf) and even more I loved the feeling of accomplishment when you're leaving and heading back home for a shower at 9am and you already know you've done something awesome for the day!  I will definitely need to get back to doing morning yoga and morning bike rides when I get back to the US.

--My first morning in Brisbane I wandered over to South Bank and into a visitor's center to look for a better map.  What I found was way better - a small pamphlet advertising drop in meditations and classes on a range of Buddhism topics and I was in luck!  There was one starting in 45 minutes just about 10 blocks away!  So not having a clear plan for my day anyways and with the sky looking more threatening than I like, I made a beeline for the class/meditation and found just what I needed for the day. 

And a few general highlights from across the country:

--I've been amazed at how easy it's been to find rides everywhere I'm going.  I only took my first Greyhound bus just two days ago!

--The people in Australia are either incredibly friendly or I have been picking just the most awesome hosts.  Well I know the latter is true; I have been staying with truly the best hosts in every city! 

Which leads me to the list of the "not-so-highlights"

--Saying goodbye to everyone I have met is just the worst.  It's even harder than when my CouchSurfers say goodbye to me in Tampa and I thought that was hard.  Not knowing exactly when or if you'll ever see new friends again is very difficult

--Saying goodbye to Australia.  But I'm making my peace with it.. I know I'm coming back one day... there's soo much more to do and see!

--So buying my droid was a highlight, but finding out that when it was reset it became relocked to a different cell network in Australia (I was told it was unlocked) was definitely a problem.  I had already paid cash and the seller was leaving for Canada the next day and I felt stranded and defeated!  I was feeling it was a big waste of money and not sure I should try buying a used one again (new smartphones here without a contract are also in the $400-$600 range and I had ruled those out!) However, that night I was having dinner with friends of my friends in Melbourne and one of them turned out to be a professional hacker!  He took the phone overnight and gave it back to me unlocked with the Master Pin written down in case it ever became relocked in Europe or something.  (another highlight in disguise!!)

--Being rained out of seeing Fraser Island.  To do a tour of Fraser Island (which includes driving a 4 wheel drive jeep on a 75 mile beach, seeing what is a World Heritage Site, camping on a beach under the stars, swimming in Lake MacKenzie and experiencing its skin benefits and seeing the Champagne Pools) was one of my expected highlights and one of the reasons I kept "moving north" more quickly than I liked.  So arriving and finding out that rain was in the forecast for the next 4 days straight was the biggest bummer.  Bigger than big.  But again, just another reason why I know I will be back!

--finding out that Surfers Paradise is NOT a surfing paradise!  I was fine leaving Byron Bay early because I thought a paradise was waiting for me in Surfers.  Ha, that's what you get when you don't do your research!  Surfers Paradise is really anything but that!  It is the most commercialized and developed city on the Gold Coast and is FULL of tourists!  It is full of skyscrapers, but they are all just condo/time share/resorts.  I found the only things to do there were shop and lay on the beach because most days the rip was too strong and the beaches were closed to swimmers and surfers :(

The Blue Mountains

Starting the Descent of the Wentworth Falls Trail

At the top before the climb (Rhoda on the left from the UK and Simon from Munich)

The barefoot climbers - apparently the best way to climb AND experience life!

only one of more than a dozen waterfalls on this part of the trail

truly walking on cliff ledges!

you have to duck under giant rock ledges for parts of the trail too!

one of many, many views along the top circuit

just part of the trail!

the view from about one-third of the way down

Christian and I

quicksand!  or at least quick mud!  the barefoot trailblazers went all in!

Posing at the edge...yikes!

Face painted with aborigine yellow mud

the view from the top!

posing with the self timer at the end of the hike

The 3 Sisters in the blue fog just before sunrise

Getting ready to descend the Giant Stairway

There are crazy tree root formations all over Australia!

 

Looking really hard to see the sunrise through the clouds and fog!

So this is overdue, but I wanted to make sure I put up photos!  

I didn't get to do much research on the Blue Mountains back in the US before adding it as a "must do" priority on my trip nor did I find the time here in Australia to look more into it, so I'm not sure if this claim has been made already in guide books and what not, but to me the Blue Mountains are truly the green version of the Grand Canyon.  I pictured mountains actually, when really it's just a canyon...all hikes start by going down first and then back up.

I got to spend two great days in the Blue Mountains with a most awesome host and his semi-permanent "roommates" (one was from the UK and another from Munich).  I now know that these are a part of the "Great Dividing Range" mountain range that runs along the East Coast of Australia and this part is just a 2 hour drive or train ride outside of Sydney.  And if I recall they are named the Blue Mountains because of the blue haze from the Eucalyptus trees. On my agenda here were seeing the Three Sisters, climbing the Giant Stairway, and doing a canopy walk.  Again, very minimal research that went something like this: "Giant staircase? Where?"  I just knew I wanted to climb it!

Unfortunately, this was the first instance where the weather really affected my plans (mind you, this was 20 days into my time in Australia so this was hard for me to get upset about).  The first day though had fantastic weather and so upon my morning arrival to Katoomba (the name of the town) I was whisked on a crazy hike (I mean, tramp) into the "canyon" and back up it!  It was a breakneck pace, but also very spectacular with the gorgeous weather!  My host says he does this hike every weekend and he does it/did it barefoot.  

That night the fog rolled in and we stayed in drinking bottles and bottles of Australian wine, but still woke up early the next day with plans of watching the sunrise at Echo Point.  The only problem was that the cloud cover was a bit thick and we hadn't actually checked what time sunrise was so we stood around wondering and waiting "was that it?" because we couldn't quite tell at 6:30-7am if the sun was truly up yet!  This was followed by going back home to sleep and then waking up again to find it was raining.  Fortunately, the rain stopped just long enough for me to make my way to the Giant Stairway and 3 Sisters where I got to descend (and then climb back up) more than one-third of it (I counted 320 stairs of the 861 on the way back up!)  So you know, this staircase isn't your normal, American-built staircase.  Perhaps they don't need to worry about lawsuits here or Australians really are as adventurous as they say, because these stairs are STEEP!  But there wasn't time to do it all as I needed to get back home to make that night's dinner or should I say breakfast... I made banana bread french toast and profiteroles for dessert!

It was a great two days and certainly another giant highlight of the trip!

In a land far, far away

They still use the same names as the U.S. :)  So while my family is far away, I still see reminders almost daily of you all :)  I haven't always been able to snap a photo, but here are some of the ones I have gotten to grab!

Final Random Musings on Australia

This is the last one of these because I'm leaving Australia in only 5 days :( and I'm sure I will have more to say about the idiosyncrasies of New Zealand soon enough!

So yes it is wicked expensive here, but I forgot to mention one of the reasons why.  The minimum wage from what I've been told is $16.80 AUD an hour.  However, I've met a number of bartenders who have told me they make $25 an hour (which might explain why they seem to have zero motivation to serve at any reasonable speed behind the bar here... they ain't workin' on tips!) and even more when they work on Saturdays and Sundays.  Fruit pickers and field jobs can make $20 an hour or more (which is why so many backpackers stick around to earn money).  And a guy working on the grounds (maintenance?) of a private school here was happy to share that he makes $30 an hour.  And not a single day of college required for these positions.  Trade jobs make even more.  (And like I said, without shame, Australians talk VERY freely about money, salaries, pay rates, etc.)  I met a 23 year old from the UK who came over to Australia solely to work here so he could more quickly earn enough money to buy a house back home because even with the conversion of his money back into GBP he will still come out way ahead of their 6-8 GBP an hour wages.

ALL stores close super early here.  To the point where Australians have told me it actually does make it difficult to shop.  Many in the city close at 5 pm.  5pm.  Imagine if you wanted to take a stroll down any one of the avenues in Manhattan and do some browsing after work one day, but couldn't because they were all closed.  Actually as I type this, I guess this explains why I've heard that online shopping is HUGE here.  Everyone uses eBay and Amazon.  Though they told me this is because they can get items cheaper even once international shipping is included.  (see: Australia is expensive post)  But I suppose it could be because stores are never open!!  A host told me that by law stores in Brisbane used to have to be closed on Sundays up until only 8 years ago.  And if you're curious this applies to shopping malls too.  Malls close at 5pm every day except for Thursday evenings when they stay open until 9pm.  I learned this first hand in both Melbourne and the Gold Coast and I assume it's the same in Sydney and Brisbane.

Side note: Grocery stores are most commonly found in shopping malls here.  Imagine a Wegmans in Eastview Mall.  Or imagine a Publix in International Mall.  Very strange!  But there is some logic... they pull sooo many people into these malls.  Even me.  And I did not come to Australia to shop.  I swear :)

These next two will certainly contradict each other, but so be it.  My observation has been personally that Australians are fitter than fit!  I've seen them race up mountain sides, speed bike around town, and go for 10K runs immediately after shutting down their work computers.  And I've generally observed fewer overweight people than in the U.S.  However, I have now heard from two different people that Australia is now the most obese country!  They have somehow surpassed America?  I will need to look for online verification of this when I get back or maybe one of you can just wikipedia it for me :)

If you didn't already know this, American music, TV, and movies are everywhere here.  I can recognize 95% of the DVD titles on any of my hosts' shelves (and I'm pretty sure the other 5% are stupid American action/horror movies I don't know anyways) and I can talk to them about all of the TV shows they watch.  Well, that's not entirely true ... many watch way more shows than I do!  (I even heard a Buddhist nun make a reference to The Voice in a drop-in class I took in Brisbane.)  But I do recognize all of the music played in bars and clubs.  In fact I have seen a number of cover bands perform here and they are playing covers of Weezer, Third Eye Blind, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and MGMT.  Fortunately I was introduced to one amazing Australian artist - Matt Corby.  Look him up.  He is unreal.  In fact, here is a video for your listening pleasure:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbsqHiaJjyc&feature=youtube_gdata_player 

I can't believe I haven't mentioned Australian slang yet.  It's mostly easy enough to pick up, but one of the funniest ones to me is "wanker" for which no one has really given me a definition.  I assume it means someone who masterbates and is used in place of "idiot" or "douchebag" I believe.  My other favorite "slang" took me several days to hear correctly.  Everyone (and I do mean every Australian I have met) talks in half similes.  As in they add "-as" to the end of every adjective without ever finishing the comparison.  As in "hot as" or "easy as" or "cheap as" all as exclamations.  Well, to me, the Australian accent sounds more like "ass" so for the longest time I thought people were, for example, saying "sweet ass" to me when I would do something like agree on a restaurant choice (where they would usher me to the car saying "sweet ass"!)  or exclaiming "hot ass" when we would walk outside and discover how warm it had become!  "Full on" is another thing they say meaning "totally" or "for real" or "hardcore"...used in a sentence, "They are dating like full on" or "It's full on raining." Another term for redneck is "bogan" and these folk all live in the hot and humid Queensland territory (perhaps, our Arkansas or Mississippi?... zing!).  "Stuffed" equates to totally drunk.  And to "root for" a certain team or player implies you have had sex with the said team or player! 

I do alright recognizing familiar stores and restaurants here in Oz..  They have Safeway here though it has a different logo/signage and isn't too prevalent.  Same with Target.  The logo and name design is not all in red, but has black in it too.  Funny story with Burger King as "Burger King" is technically operating in Australia, but because a tiny burger joint in Sydney called Burger King copyrighted the name first, Burger King is called Hungry Jacks here.  Same exact logo though!  7 Eleven's are everywhere... wayyy more so than in the US.  McDonald's is here of course, but is nicknamed "Macca's."  KFC and Dominos are commonly seen too.  And yea, Subway is actually EVERYWHERE.  I've seen the women's chain gym Curves a few times, Cartridge World, GNC, Body Shop, H&R Block and a few others too.  One thing I am shocked about though is that there are virtually no familiar clothing chains.  Not a single Gap, Abercrombie, H&M, etc.  Every clothing store I pass is an unfamiliar one.  I'm a little surprised because this certainly wasn't the case in Europe.

Interesting "fact" (again, I only heard this from one host): Trees lose their leaves in Sydney in the fall, but not in Melbourne.  There are no native deciduous tree species around Melbourne... only ones that were transplanted.

Australia got rid of the penny maybe 20 years ago.  So they do this thing on your receipt called "rounding" (no explanation needed I assume).  The funny thing here is really just that in a situation like this, what is the point of saying a shirt costs $9.99 when you will actually and literally be charged $10 for it?!  There is no saving that one cent to help justify making that purchase! Because the other thing is that it's pretty nearly a cash only society.  This was quite shocking to me.  I estimate more than 70% of restaraunts I've been to are cash only and the ones that accept EFTPOS as they say for debit/credit, always have a $10 or $14 minimum.  Ecuador was 99% cash only I remember, but that at least made a bit more sense to me.  Australians have just not taken to the credit cards like Americans.  I wonder, how do they build their credit ratings or what happens when a 25 year old wants a loan for a house?

And well speaking of credit ratings and money... Gambling is a problem in Australia.  It is very much legal and they have slot machines (they call them "Pokeys" here) in every single bar, small town hotel, and even music venues.  Ironically then in every bathroom stall there are posters letting you know that is you have a gambling problem that there is a number you can call.  I've learned that there is a new technology called "pre commitment" technology where you have to register at the beginning of a night how much you're willing to lose and then you're held to that value.  However, the lobbyists for the pokey machine industry and gambling establishment ran a giant fear campaign and got that voted down.  I guess America isn't the only country with lobbyists F'in it all up.

And speaking of lobbyists and politics, Australians are quite involved and educated about their own government ongoings as well as those in the U.S.!  Voting is compulsory here (with fines and then eventual loss of your driving license if you don't pay the fines) so that might have something to do with it although I did meet a person who felt that the mandatory voting law was the worst thing ever because it just means that you have every idiot and their neighbor casting an ignorant vote based on slanderous  campaign ads.  (I do not doubt that.)  But I have met a large number of Australians who do follow the happenings in their Parliament and I even got to sit down with 3 housemates who all regularly watch a weekly political talk show called Q&A. And like I said, they know more about US politics than probably most Americans.  They know our Speaker of the House by name (do you?), they know in what years certain events happened in our political arena, they are more current on U.S. happenings than I have been in the last 4 weeks, and really much, much more!  They watch what goes on between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. and they all say they can't stand American politics.  Ha!  Can you blame them?

Drug use seems to be fairly pervasive.  Even the hard stuff.  It doesn't matter that it's all more expensive here too (I've heard this contributes to most of the violence in cities too).  Other travelers I have met have commented on this to me too.  I've heard a number of stories and it really kind of turns me off to Australians I must say.

On a related note, I have received three different invitations from locals in their 20s and 30s to three different 'bush doofs' (spelling unsure, but rhymes with goof) while here in Australia. What is a 'bush doof' you may ask? :)  Why, it is an event wayyyy out in the bush (i.e. countryside/woods/sticks/fields/a good deal away from civilization) where trance-techno music is played (hence the doof, for the onomatopoeia word for the sound the repeating heavy bass line follows, i.e. doof-doof-doof-doof-doof-doof).  It goes on all night and there's dancing and lots of drugs.  I equate them to an outdoor rave and maybe it's just me, but they seem to be very, very common in many different circles.  And if you're wondering, I turned down all 3 invites.  My travel schedule and plans didn't align well and I was afraid of the bug bites I would get :)

Kony 2012.  It was a big deal here.  Was it in the US too?  I am still regularly seeing posters up everywhere.  And a number of hosts of mine even participated themselves.

I don't much care for the dating culture in Sydney.  I have been told that girls truly do break off relationships once they determine that a guy doesn't "earn enough money" and they will even verbalize this as the reason.  They are after "stability" and a comfortable life.  This may have to do with the fact that these girls might not be going to university or whatnot, but it seems independent women are hard to come by.  Further, girls in Sydney ALWAYS wait for the guy to approach in a bar.  I was told that girls NEVER make the first move.  This therefore means that guys do need to have a certain amount of "game" and on one night I did enjoy having the opportunity to watch my houseful of male hosts and their friends show off their said "game".  I was both impressed and unimpressed at the same time if you can imagine.  Fortunately, this dating scene apparently only applies in Sydney which is commonly recognized as the most superficial of all the Australian cities.

I have received a bit of an education on the Australian cattle industry. Apparently due to the fact that Australian cattle are grass fed for 90% of their lives and they only receive corn feed pretty much right before they are slaughtered, Australian steak is apparently way better than American steak.  Yet America seems to have the larger reputation for steak.  (Please note I am not encouraging anyone to eat more steak or to take a trans-Pacific flight to Oz just for the sake of trying it!  I just found this to be interesting.)

And if you also didn't know, the game of rugby is huge here.  I have also received a bit of an education on the difference between Rugby Union and Rugby League as well as Aussie Rules Football (which is only popular in Melbourne).  I've also met two professional players.  That's how massive it is.  Literally every town has their own team and twice players have been the roommates of people I've met (non CS people).  It's a really, really athletic sport (endurance of running in soccer + strength for tackling in football) so I give it props for that, but I'm not really sure I care much for the game.

And continuing on with what else I've learned, there is a good reason for the tight quarantine laws here.  As an island Australia has actually been isolated from diseases like rabies.  It just doesn't exist here.  Same with a lot of agriculture "pests" and therefore Australia doesn't need to use nearly as many pesticides in their fields.  They want to keep it that way so they keep strict quarantine laws.  They have learned their lesson apparently after allowing the formal introduction of the cane toad into their country.  Apparently farms were having trouble many many years ago with a certain kind of bug and the idea was proposed and executed to bring in cane toads from the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii that keep away the same bug from Hawaiian fields.  Well that turned out to be a disaster with this incredibly poisonous frog wreaking havoc on populations of native Australian animals.  So they do mean business with their quarantine.  I heard a story about a famous blind circus performer not being able to return to Australia after performing in Canada with his amazingly talented seeing-eye dog because his dog would have to be kept in quarantine for 6 months.  And well without any continued training for those 6 months the dog would forget everything and the man would not risk that so he has just never returned. I joked that well, if it were the President's dog I bet an exception would be made, and everyone at the table flat out said "No, there are no exceptions."  Yikes!

[And side note: I hear that I will have to have every single pair of my footwear hosed down at New Zealand customs because they too are worried about me bringing in dirt/soil/organisms/who knows what into their delicate ecosystem too.]

I think this will be my last "did you know tidbit", but did you know that it seems China has quite the large economic relationship with Australia?  I did not for one.  Apparently, China is HUGELY dependent on Australia for all of its mining resources - metals and coal.  Coal is the largest export of Queensland (the territory in which Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns are all a part) and it all goes to China.  (I think this is the main reason why Australia has largely gone untouched with the recession and their economy is doing well except for maybe their retail section.)  This came up as the US wants to build a military base near Darwin and there were some Australians thinking this was a bad idea because in this day and age, Australia might have more to gain from its relationship with China than with the U.S.  True story.  However, the flip side to that argument is that China is SOOOO dependent on Australia for its own country's basic needs that Australia could pretty much do whatever it wanted and China would still have no choice, but to keep buying its coal.

And I'm realizing now that I didn't really post anything about Sydney other than throwing up photos, so I will just quickly say that Sydney to me felt like a combination of San Francisco or San Diego with all of its hills (some were steeper than the steepest in SF!) and its very, very gay friendliness + Manhattan Beach (in L.A.) with the feel of its beaches + a bit of Manhattan (NYC) in its CBD, though it all felt much young and newer.  It was just certainly a "darker" CBD than Melbourne's due to the much higher quantity and  heights of its buildings/skyscrapers.

Lastly, to leave you with a rather interesting, travel-related fact I have heard from at least 6 or 7 people here (again, un-fact checked, but 6 or 7 people in different cities is... well, yea, not very reliable still! but hey, go check yourself!) that apparently only 18% of Americans have a passport.  Australians are all very puzzled by this as travel seems to be the biggest thing that all Australians have in common!  They all travel!  Regularly!  I don't think I've met an Australian that hasn't been to the U.S. at least once (most have been 2 or 3 times) and I've been told that it's the water cooler equivalent of talking about the baseball game on TV last night... they all talk and share about their holiday destinations, past and future.  They are a nation of travelers!

Well wow, this turned out to be much more rambling and much longer than I realized.  I suppose it's good because it will need to hold you over!  I hear WiFi is going to be harder to come by in New Zealand.  More to come soon though!

Just for Fun

So something has kept me from deleting these photos, yet it's safe to say they won't be seeing much "light of day" in the coming years.... But this will change that now!!  No explanations needed hopefully :)