Australian country side with my Australian country boy

After breakfast with Rich and giggling about G-bung madness Ben and I headed out to Bright Monday afternoon. The drive was beautiful through aussie country side complete with vineyards and livestock. We got to Bright around dinner time and went into town to find food which ended up being pizza. The place we went to was BYOB and I was more then happy with that, if I ever open a restaurant I'm definitely having it BYOB, such an amazing idea. Ben use to be on fire crew in Bright and had lived in a loft above a shed behind an old couples house, and that was our accommodation for the next two nights. The loft was adorable, right on the river and a great view of the mountains (which are more like big hills compared to oregon.. hehe). For the rest of the night, Ben and I were cute and just listened to the rain and drank beers.. bliss.

The next day was pretty great. Ben's friend Jeff had heard he was showing an American around Bright and decided to be a part of the hosting and took us to mt. cobbler. WOW. It took us a good hour of winding back road's and pot holes, but it was more then worth it when we got there. Mt. Cobbler had about three waterfalls that we gawked at before actually climbing out on them. When we got to the top we could see the whole valley, it was amazing. I felt special, because not many of the locals knew about this place, let alone a traveling American. After cracking a beer and taking in God's beauty we headed home and on the way back I saw my first kangaroo! It's so odd to me that this foreign animal that would be in a zoo at home runs around wild. It would be like a squirrel or deer to someone in the states, just another back yard animal. None the less I didn't hide my tourist excitement and squealed even louder when I saw a joey in the pouch!
That night we went to Ben's friend Sharpy's for dinner which was pickled pork. Yum. He has two son's, 4 and 6. I still can't get over ascents on little kids, it's so cute. It's good to see that Ben has so many good people in his life that go out of their way to spend time with him.
The next day we had tea with the couple that we were staying with. It's known to neighbors and friends that they have tea at 10am every morning and anyone is welcome. Having tea with a bunch of older people put a smile on my face, I definitely want to do something like that when I'm older. After tea we went for coffee with another couple Ben is friends with, a bit closer to our age this time. After that we walked around Bright which is an adorable mountain town. We made a few more drop in's to say hello to of all Ben's fans, we headed to Ben's dad's in Briagalong. The drive was phenomenal. We took a back road to cut some time and of course for the scenery. Australia has had quite a few forest fires in years prior but is in the process of regrowth, the result, indescribable. Funny how something so beautiful came from something so devastating. Nature is amazing in that way and I definitely felt like I was witnessing something bigger then myself. That is what I love about the mountains the most, the feeling of something bigger then you, powerful and alive. Ben stopped a few times so I could take pictures of this prehistoric looking world. Every few miles my surroundings kept changing drastically, not to mention we didn't see any type of civilization for a good few hours, I felt so alone but a good type of alone, alone and at peace. One of the stops we made was a big open field used during the summer to graze cattle. The air was a different level of clean and fresh, and the clouds looked like they were only a few meters above us, such a feeling of being alive I couldn't help but pinch myself and check that I wasn't dreaming of a place so exhilarating.
The ute took quite a beating from all the pot holes, windy turns and mud so Ben and I pulled over by a river to give the breaks a.. well.. break. Ben being as prepared as he is had a blanket and we were something out of a movie, laying by the river and watching the clouds.
A few miles down we stopped at the Dargo bar for a few beers, which is apparently a well known aussie bar. Inside the walls were lined with "stubby holders" which would be our cozie and of course the staple akubra (the aussie cowboy hat). The only trait that through off the aussie vibe was that baseball was on TV, the angels were playing, so I wasn't complaining. An hour down the road, we got to Briagalong, and went in search of food. Ben and I had started to get in a bad habbit of skipping meals because of all the distractions. The aussies love their fish and chips so I was happy to try their version of fish when my stomach was starting to eat itself. My conclusion of aussie fish and chips? Mo's in Newport, OR is better :) but the aussie still do a good job. Ben's dad's house is an adorable farm house complete with a view and the matching dogs. In the states the typical farm dog would be a collie or lab, but in Australia its the kelpie, looks kinda like a blue healer. Everyone was gone at home except Ben's sisters boyfriend Barry or as Ben calls him.. Bazzo. Bazzo is a tall lanky farm boy with the strong aussie ascent and attitude to fit. I finished off a bottle of champagne, we all played some pool, I sooked because the boys kicked my butt. The next day was amazing, LJ had told Ben that horses were basically my life growing up and that riding was something I didn't get to do very often anymore. Conveniently Ben's dad and sister owned horses! After a reassuring conversation to Erin (Ben's sister) that I was more then an experienced rider we got the go ahead. In my experience of riding horses for 15 years all the men that I met that were my age and knew how to ride were major hicks and obviously not being my type. The whole racism and illiterate thing doesn't exactly float my boat. So when Ben started speaking horse lingo and told me he knew how to ride, he instantly went up in my book. The ride was amazing, it rained off and on but it was still warm out which made it kinda romantic.. haha. The horses were great and I was happy Ben let us get some fun in and ran a bit. Swoop being an ex-race horse and Red being a stubborn follower, we had quite the race. I always forget how much I loving riding until I'm actually riding.
That night Ben and I decided to make dinner for Bazzo as a thank you for letting us crash. So being from California we know how to make some damn good tacos so that was my suggestion. On a side note, I have come to realize how much the Mexican culture is intertwined with the American culture. Every American knows basic Spanish words, can name at least 5 Mexican restaurants with in 5 miles and most likely employs one whether it be a house keeper, gardener or construction. So it was shocking to me when tacos wasn't a common meal and that I got a confused look when I said "no bueno". Anyway, it made me smile that my simple taco meal was a hit for Ben and Bazzo, I'll have to make enchiladas next time :)
The trip over all was perfection, good company, amazing sites and even a great surprise in the end with the ponies. And yes, to all of you at home scratching your head about "this Ben guy", pretty uncharacteristic of me to not be sampling the aussie cuisine, its true. We just fit well at the moment and seems to fall into everything I want, so why not? :)

Driving in an upside down world

Driving on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road is hard to cope with.. not to mention I have only driven a manual a few times in my life, so I'm not very good at the whole shifting while trying to remember where I need to be on the road. Lj and I were talking about it, and why do some country's drive on the left and other on the right? Well the truth is, is that the left side was originally dubbed as the correct side to ride a horse on and walk because most people are right hand and could draw out their sword on an on comer if necessary. In the late 1700s, the shift from left to right that took place in countries such as the United States was based on teamsters' use of large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons had no driver’s seat, so a postilion sat on the left rear horse and held his whip in his right hand. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the wheels of oncoming wagons. He did that by driving on the right side of the road. But gues what.. %72 of thr world drives on the right.. so you should just follow the trend Australia and drive on the right side, so I don't have to adjust. Thanks.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

Rough times are meant to amplify the good times in life. I just wish I could believe that fully when those black clouds find their way into my sunny days. I have a tattoo even that is meant to remind me of whats important and whats worth living for. Three hearts on my wrist, a place I see often that stand for live laugh and love.

Well enough philosophy and a bit more Australia :).. I got to play with pretty birds on Saturday on the way to Shaun's grand final. The birds here are really tropical and make funny noises, I enjoyed being a tourist and feeding them.
AFL(Australian Football League) is similar to rugby in my opinion. I'm missing college football season back in the states and I'm a bit sad about that.. So this game was definitely a good enough to hold me over for awhile on missing football back home. Anyway, after the first two quarters I had a pretty good understanding of the game and I didn't mind looking at the boys who obviously have to stay in good shape for the game :). The end of the fourth quarter, they were down by two goals and ended up making three to win the game, quite an amazing first game I would say. Of course the boys had to celebrate their victory, so LJ, Em and I joined them at their club house. LJ and I drank until 3am and ended up getting home at 5am. They have mixed drinks that come in cans, including something called a pulse which is basically vodka and red bull, so those nasty things kept me up very late. It was fun being a novelty and hearing all the stereotypes about American. Everyone is much more laid back and friendly I continue to find, and I have no problem with that.

After sleeping all day on Sunday, we decided on round two at a bar called G bung. Definitely a Portland kinda bar, minus the copious amounts of broken glass everywhere including places it shouldn't be like in my drink. Yea.. I may be suffer from some internal bleeding for the next few days, no worries, Australia has universal health care.. yay! Dream team (Shaun Liz LJ and myself) never not have a good time so it seems and it was yet another good night. I started to feel a out of my element when people at the bar started talking to me.. note to self, aussies sound EXTRA aussie when intoxicated. LJ had to translate most of the time or I would just nod my head and act like I knew what they were saying. They also play this lovely game where you throw change in someone drink and they have to "skull" it. I'm not up to aussie par with drinking, this is true. So I didn't impress many people when it took me a good 5 minutes to "skull" my beer.At the moment I'm smiling about quite a few things, and it feels good. I can't find very many things that I not only like but love about Australia. I think the only thing I will find myself missing will be the mountains and snowboarding.. but winter in the states hasn't come yet. I'll have to block snow report websites from my computer, I might die if this season is as good as last year.

But when in Rome, do like the Romans. So it looks like surfing will have to replace my first true love for now. Australia summer is close enough!

Henry

Australia: finally

After four years of dreaming about coming down under, I’m finally here. My interest for Australia started when I was young with all the unique animals, existing only on that continent. It grew after I met a few aussies and came to learn that there wasn’t an aussie I didn’t like. When I bought this ticket, it was out of spite, anger and frustration going to show that good things can from bad.

Boarding the plane in LA was beyond exciting, I called the people who matter most one last time and I didn’t look back. The 11 hour flight was amazing thanks to a very large ambien cr pill. I slept like a rock for 8 hours straight and woke up with no grogginess. My layover in Fiji went well too, the airport people ushered me through a short cut because I was one of the few that had a continuing flight. I bought a water with a 5 dollar American bill and ended getting back 4.50 Fiji. Nice exchange rate there! The flight from Fiji to Sdyney went well also, I thought it was funny that the fruit that they served us with our meal was all tropical fruit since we had just left Fiji. I got through a majority of 1984 on that flight, finally getting to the good parts of the book. Flying into Sydney I saw the opera house and THAT was something that put a smile on my face. Actually seeing something so famous and monumental with my own eyes was exciting.

So everything was going great..until.. Sydney airport. I had decided at the last second to skip Sydney and go straight to Melbourne to meet up with LJ, so I had to schedule a separate flight. After getting both my bags I went back through the airport to check into my flight with JetStar to Melbounre. When I got to the counter and out my bags on the scale, she said the bags have to be 20kg and mine being a total of 50kg. I said fine, I’ll pay the extra fee, I was surprised they didn’t charge me in LA and it so bound to happen. She got out the calculator (weird I thought) and after a few punches of that she said, “that will be 530 dollars”. WHAT?! How is that possible?? Apparently its 10 dollars A KG that you have extra. Wow. So she pointed me in direction of the storage which I ended up declining because that was outrageous priced as well. So I decided it would be cheaper to throw stuff out then to pay that outrageous fee. So here is this American in the corner of the airport throwing out perfectly good shampoo, shoes, t-shirts etc and putting all my heavy stuff in my backpack to make my bags lighter .This cute Asian girl walked by and I asked her if she wanted my ADORABLE red Steve Maddens (because they weren’t about to go in the trash) and her friend ended up being the same size shoe as me and grateful took them. When I got back to the counter I put my bags up and it totaled to 40kg, perfect! Nope. It was 20kg total, not each!! So I ended up paying 200 dollars to get my fucking clothes to Melbourne. Not happy.

The flight was only an hour and a half and I was more then ready to be there. LJ looked exactly the same and we made quite a seen as we both squealed and jumped on each other at the airport.

LJ, being the thoughtful muffin she is rented a hotel room in Melbourne for two nights, before we headed to Geelong, which is where she lives outside of Melbourne. We quickly got ready and went out to eat at this cute Italian place and paid for it all. We met up with her friends, went bowling and had drinks bought all night! Her friend Liz even brought me vegemite and crackers with my name on it. They were so thoughtful and excited to meet me, it felt good to know that LJ had obviously spoke highly of me to them. We went back to the hotel the first night a bit early, obviously me being tired and expecting to suffer from jet lag with waking up 5 times that night to come. Well let me note I’m the worst when it comes to jet lag, the worst. Even when I went to camp every summer at the east coast it would take me the whole week of staff training to adjust to only a 3 hour difference. Thailand and Europe were obviously worst from that, getting sick both times and always being tired. Well that night I woke up once and slept until 8am. Amazing! That whole next day I wasn’t tired at all, I took a short nap and we ended up going out and everything. I didn’t suffer from jet lag at all!!! It’s honestly a miracle.

The next day LJ and I explored Melbourne which is like.. New York City and Portland had a baby with some Hawaiian roots. I loved it, cafes, art, small restaurants, museums, parks, such a cute city. Lots of culture, clean and old and new buildings just like Portland. The café we ate at also reminded me of Portland with the menu being a bit more gourmet and the décor being modern. At breakfast I learned that coffee doesn’t exist. Only drinks made with espresso which comes in small glass cups, and not your normal porcelain mug, odd.
The rest of the day we walked around, went to a sunday market and enjoyed people watching. We went to the Eureka sky building which is one of the highest buildings in the southern hemisphere. It was quite amazing and a great way to see most of Melbourne. We also went to the art museum and had a good collection including an Andy Warhol. LJ and I shared a sandwich at federation square and threw the extra bread to the birds. We named our favorite seagull Henry, who had quite the talent. He caught the bread where ever we threw it! Haha. After that we went to the "bottle shop" to buy some vodka which was $40 for 700ml which is smaller then our standard bottle (a fifth). I was so shocked, so friends if you want to send me something.. send me alcohol.. haha. LJ and I got ready and met up with her two friends Liz and Shaun and went to the casino where we lost 50 dollars. boo. We met a bunch of boys at the casino who I expected to buy us drinks, but apparently that's uncommon here, I'll have it get use to that.

The next day we headed to Geelong where LJ lives and goes to school. It's a little beach town and a lot smaller then Melbourne. Her house is old and she shares it with two other girls and two fluffy cats. Theres a big back yard with a place to have a garden, which I am very excited about. So far I'm having a hard time going from 95 degree weather to 55 degree weather. Although it's not necessarily cold, its a big change. I love the weather though, it rains for part of the day then its sunny, which makes it very beautiful and crisp. I hadn't seen the rain since I left Oregon, so I was very happy to see it again. Sitting on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road feels extremely awkward as well. It's as though I'm in an upside down world. Even when I wake up in the morning the sounds are different, the birds are more squawky and the cars are more buzzy. All in all, I'm so happy to be here. It's as though LJ and I never left each other and our friendship is still solid and strong. All my worry's have seem to drift away and I haven't thought about home once. It's only been three days and I think I'm already in love with this land of kangaroos.. which I still haven't seen yet.

one way ticket

Right now I'm feeling worried, unsure, scared, hopeful, nervous, annoyed anxious and excited.

I'm worried Australia won't work out the way I want it to, because nothing in my life lately has seemed to do so.

I'm unsure about the people in my life and why I don't seem to relate to most of them anymore

I'm hopeful about the future, about Australia, my love life, and my ultimate dream as becoming a nurse

I'm annoyed with people who don't evaluate themselves and their actions

I'm anxious because its genetic

BUT most of all I'm excited. I'm excited to leave California, to go to a country I have never been to before. To see LJ, a camp friend I haven't seen in two years. To have not have a cell phone. To only have to suit cases full of clothes and essentials. To eat vegemite and to meet new people. To truly be 22 and take adavantage of no commitments and live this life. To leave knowing I have an amazing supportive family and a few good friends at home. To eventually go back to the city I love and start over.

Life sure throws a lot at us. How we deal, is essential. I'll embrace it. Here I come Australia, get ready for me..

family

My cousin Chase, being a nut! We have no idea where he got this.