Two steps forward, one step back...

When we started getting closer to wrapping up this adventure, I was feeling like we were going to take a step back in life. You know- returning to the same house (minus a bed and some other furniture), same jobs (except I'm now teaching 8th grade math- probably not a lot of bioethics to incorporate into that), basically the same life with a lot less stuff (including money). But now I'm realizing, that despite all that, we have so much more. It's amazing everything we've gained from this experience- including weight :)

*We've learned how to establish ourselves in a foreign country and to live in 400 sq. ft., in the middle of a large city, without a car

*We've made friends with a Brit, a handful of Ozzies (including one of the Kiwi-sort), and even some Americans

*Plus- we've learned that even though life goes on for our friends back home, it doesn't mean that they aren't in our thoughts and we aren't in theirs

*We've learned to appreciate our jobs as teachers

*We've experienced nightlife in the middle of the week (and it wasn't even summertime or spring break)

*We've mastered the skills of both press and instant coffee and have an appreciation for them both

*Plus- I can now confidently explain the difference between a long black, short black, flat white, latte, cappuccino, long machiato, short machiato, mocha, etc.

*We've cooked with fresh, locally grown food from the Queen Vic Market and even created meals that we used to get from a jar, box, or frozen food section

*I'm getting pretty good at telling the difference between merlot, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and even distinguishing between the regions of South Australia, Victoria, and New South Whales

*Mark has figured out how to limit his downloads (though I'm sure he can't wait to get back to the US so he doesn't have to do this anymore)

*Plus- I've found an Aussie series to follow (that in itself is an accomplishment given the shows on tv here)

*We no longer think that the Australian, New Zealander, and English accent sound the same

I'm sure that there's so much more that I'm forgetting and even more that I won't realize until I get home. The bottom line is that I no longer feel like I'm returning with less than I started with- and that's a good feeling!

Cheers!

Way the heck Out Back!

After spending a few days in the bush, we moved on to the outback. In case you haven’t heard, Aussies consider anything not in the city to be the bush, and then as soon as any hint of civilization fades away and pure desolation appears you have reached the outback. Friday morning we moved from that last piece of normal human existence into the great beyond. Coming from the beautiful big sky of Montana, I know what a beautiful sky is, and the outback is certainly that. Nichole was about to shove the camera up my backside as I told her again and again to take picture of everything. It started on Friday morning when we drove through the last bits of eucalyptus forests and the fog was all around. It felt a bit like Ichabod Crane was about to come riding out of the shadows. Then the sun came out and burnt off the fog and this amazing desert came alive. The colors were absolutely indescribable. We drove on through the day to Broken Hill dodging kangaroos, emus, sheep, and goats along the highway. Who knew the outback was so full of goats and sheep? After skating into Broken Hill as the sun just snuck away, we put our tired eyes to sleep. They worked hard after discerning real roos from busharoos (bushes we thought looked like kangaroos), stumparoos (tree stumps we thought looked like kangaroos), and manglaroos (dead roos along the highway).
Saturday morning we went for a hike in a place called “the Living Desert”. It was so cool! There were kangaroos all over the place. At the top of the hill were some sculptures. In addition to being a gateway to outback, Broken Hill is also supposed to be a real art hub. The sculptures at the top were very cool and the views were mesmerizing. After that stop we went down the road to Silverton. This is where a ridiculous amount of movies have been filmed, including Mad Max 2 and 3 and Razorback. They even had a replica of the Mad Max car out front. This isn’t as big of deal until you see the place and that there is nothing there but a bar and some abandoned buildings. Why they would choose this place is beyond me. Just beyond the town was a lookout that the views of the desert were so flat you could see the curvature of the Earth. It is so empty there, there aren’t even power lines, just desert for as far as you can see.
We then decided to dodge to roos again and roll on down to a place called White Cliffs. This is a town so far out that they just got power in the 90’s. It is so far out in the desert that they live in caves! We actually stayed in a hotel that was underground in a cave. They mine opals here and then use the mines from the opal digging to hole out a house. It was something to see. The town even had a golf course, but there isn’t any grass out there so they play on the dirt. The greens were just fine silt. And, because it is so hot out there, they only play at night with glow in the dark balls. This makes any town in Eastern Montana look like an absolute metropolis.
On Sunday, we drove all the way back to Melbourne. It was a long drive back, but worth every last kilometer. All said and done we put about 3000 kms on the rental car. I’d say we definitely got our money’s worth out of that thing.

http://www.whereis.com/?id=844F728C85165F

The bush on the way to the Outback

There are some crazy things way out here. The first stop on our grand adventure was a castle. We were cruising out in the general direction of the desert and saw a sign for a tourist destination called Kryal Castle. Nikki, Tom, and Tina all wanted to swing in. I did not. Australia isn't exactly a castle kind of place, so I figured a total tourist trap. I didn't count on this wack-job place.
The lobby was the typical tackiness you would figure; some dude in old medieval clothes and some silly throne looking things. From that point is where it got real creepy. First of all, there was no one there but us, and there was a strange music playing in the background, it was straight out of some slasher flick. They had some applicable things like a wax museum dedicated to torture, which I can understand being, you
know, medieval and all but that is where this place went off the deep end. There was a gun collection, and medical supply collection (complete with wax display of a gyno exam). Then we walk on to find some real strange puppet machines that just shook strangely and played bizarre music.

Around the corner from that was a taxidermy display. The final kook was walking up this tower and finding a demented version of sleeping beauty that had its eyes all burned out. This was the strangest place I have ever been in my life. The cheesiness just oozed out of the joint. After laughing ourselves nearly to death we rolled on down the road.
Next stop was Sovereign hill. This was another cheeseball tourist trap, but this one was cool. It is an Aussie version of an old west miner's camp. What made it cool is that they not only had all the old machinery but it was in use. The huge mining equipment was built in the 1800's and they were still cranking away. Some dude was showing how they melted gold down to form the bars and he did a little show about it. there was another guy that made hard candy like the old days, that was also pretty cool. And because this place was actually a mining camp it was realistic.. unlike the crazy castle. A bit overpriced but definitely worth the look.

Confession time...

Okay, so I've got a little secret, that I wasn't going to share out of sheer embarrassment, but now I will because it turns out not to be as bad as I thought. Here goes- I like instant coffee. I can almost hear the gasps from my friends back home. I know, how can somebody who has spent the last 10 years in the coffee capital and who now works at a coffee shop like instant coffee. Well, the truth is, they drink a lot of the stuff around here. Initially, Mark and I scoffed at the idea of drinking instant coffee. But then we started traveling and realized that if you stay in a hotel and want a cuppa (as they would say around here) in the morning, it's gonna be instant because that's all there is. So, we started drinking the stuff and realized that it's not so bad. Then, a few weeks ago we ran out of coffee grounds at home and decided that instead of buying more and making plunger coffee (French press) in the mornings, we'd just- gasp- buy instant coffee. Now I can almost feel noses being turned up- I know it's bad enough that we drink the stuff, but to buy it too- but remember that we're cheap and instant coffee is cheaper than the grounds.

Anyway- just as I'm developing a taste for instant coffee and starting to think that I might even buy the stuff back home (of course I'd have to go to a very remote store and probably dress in costume and then hide it in the back of our kitchen cupboard)- my mom and Tom show up with Tully's coffee grounds. The taste of freshly brewed Tully's coffee that first morning reminded me of what I'm missing out on in drinking instant coffee. I thoroughly enjoyed every last drop of coffee that morning (actually- I think it was too early to be classified as morning- read Mark's posts if you're not sure what I'm talking about) and turned down a flat white at work because I didn't want to ruin the taste in my mouth.

So- the good news is that I haven't lost my taste for good coffee, I've just developed a taste for sub-par coffee. And let me assure all of you, that when you visit us back home, you can still expect freshly roasted, ground, and brewed coffee, not the instant stuff.

PS- I suppose I should also say that Tully's coffee isn't the only thing that I've enjoyed and sleep isn't the only thing that I've missed out on with my mom and Tom here. It's been a ton of fun taking them around the city, though I think they were a little disappointed at first that I didn't know the name and function of every building. It's also been fun hearing about their adventures on their day trips- in fact they're at Phillip Island waiting for the penguins as I write this. Tomorrow we're heading off to the outback- at least I hope so. We're renting a car and have a tentative idea of where we're headed, but nothing is set in stone, so we're just going to go with the flow. Hopefully we'll have some internet access along the way so we can post some updates.

Cheers!

Busy Weekend

We are getting closer and closer to 8 am wake up time. Tina has figured out how to make it to the kitchen and fire up a pot of coffee without waking me up. Nikki and I have, in turn, learned how to ignore the noises of her moving around us to make coffee in the morning. I’m thinking we may even be able to make it to 8 am by the end of the week!
As for activities, we have been some busy folk. Both Tom and Tina dig Melbourne. I know I mentioned that before, but I can’t stress it enough. Out of all the visitors, they really appreciate the city. We may be on some corner anywhere in the city and Tina will ask “what is the name of that building?” We have been in Melbourne for 11 months... as you could guess; I do not know every building in the area. There are other times Tom may ask a question, such as: “what part of town are we in?” Then wish to God he had not asked the question because I will lay about 30 minutes of drivel on him. He just may kill me by the end of their stay!
On Saturday we hired a car and cruised on over to the Yarra Valley for some wine tasting. Nikki certainly deserved it after finishing her thesis. I drove and the three of them drank... all three had a pretty good buzz going before lunch. At lunch Tom and Tina finally sampled the delectable, delicious, delicacy that is the meat pie. They approved so no one sleeps on the balcony. After lunch, we sampled a few more wineries and cheeseries. As we were driving out of the valley we happened across a helicopter flight and Tom and I had to have a go (Tina was scared and Nikki was too cheap). What a cool ten minutes that was! The poor helicopter pilot couldn’t get a word over the little headphone thing, because I dominated the airwaves with my school girl giggling! It was incredible!
On Sunday, we went to two different art markets. Melbourne has several of them and Nikki loves them. Anyone that has gone shopping with Nikki and her mom should know the pain and fear I was experiencing as the day approached. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that bad. The girls rolled through fairly fast. And to reward them we all gorged ourselves on piles of dessert at the cake shops in St. Kilda, and then followed that up with a lovely pizza dinner on Lygon st. with Tim and Carol. As if there wasn’t enough sugar floating around in everyone’s veins, we had some gelato after dinner and discussed the difference between tipping in Australia (only for exceptional service) and tipping in America (for EVERYTHING!).

Tom and tina on the Tour rotation.

Ok, so far we have worked while Tom and Tina are on the tour bus rotation. They did a city sights tour of Melbourne on Thursday, then came back and proceeded to tell us all sorts of nuggets that we didn't know about Melbourne. They now know way more than we do about this town. Yesterday, they cruised the Great Ocean Road, and found about 8 little towns that they determined they were willing to move to.

Meanwhile, Nikki has been putting the finishing touches on her thesis, being the nerd that she is, she just couldn't let anything by. It had to be perfectly perfect. It came right down to the wire and the only reason it was in on time was my amazing charm to the officeworks gal that had to bind it up. I schmoozed her into moving it ahead of the list and getting it done just in time for me to catch the train out to Nikki's school, and I delivered it with 16 minutes to spare.

Although Nikki and I have worked a bit with these guys in town, we have spent plenty of time together in the morning. tina has been very early to rise. She is very quiet until we roll over or move in any way, then she says: "good, you guys are up!" this is 5 in the morning! Oh well, quality time knows no time zones right?

Teaching again

First off, I must be just a touch off, I quit a job where I spent 3 hours a week in class that paid the rent and then some (Jewish school), and another that pretty much was covered in the simple instructions of "don't talk too loud" and "if anyone comes by act like your working" (substitute teaching)
I gave these up to spend twice as much time with kids, develop lesson plans, order materials, grade work, and maintain a full woodworking shop. The thing to keep in mind on this was that the 3 hours a week was spent with the absolute seeds of the devil, and the other job a monkey could do. Yes, I got a real job for the last month of our Aussie life. When I quit the evil place, I was offered a full time gig at a real school. One where learning takes place and the students don't loathe your very existence. At first, I thought it was silly to take on responsibility like that in the last month, but I was longing to actually teach something and not just roll out a ball blow a whistle and listen to them argue. I am lovin' it! There is something that just can't be explained by watching a kid figure out what you've just explained to him. To physically watch learning take place is really something special. It reminds me why I became a teacher in the first place. Plus, it is good warm-up to going back to a real job.
In other news, Tom and Tina arrived today. I can already tell they are gonna love it. This is the first time they've left the country, and here they are... on the complete other side of the world. I only spent a few hours with them tonight and so far they dig Melbourne. We hit a local pub and had the traditional Melbourne meal of a parma and a pot. For the uninitiated, a parma is an Australiazed version of Chicken Parmesan and a pot is a glass of beer. After the meal I had them try some burger rings, and Tom wasn't a fan. They haven't tried a meat pie yet (I know they've been here 12 hours what's the hold up right?) but I told Tom that if he didn't like those he'd be sleeping on the balcony. Tomorrow they will take a Melbourne city sights tour while we are at work and then Nikki Marie will take them over to the Queen Vic Market. I'm hoping they bring home some steaks!

One down, two to go- or is it two down, one to go...

Just a quick update (that's about all I ever have time for these days)- I finished my thesis, though I'm waiting to submit it until I hear back from my supervisor, but I still have a take home exam and another essay before I'm completely finished with school. The exam is due next Wednesday and the essay a couple weeks later. We also have our third and final set of visitors coming next week. My mom and Tom get in next Wednesday and are here for almost two weeks. After having Cara and Nick and Saggy and Rachel here, we've become somewhat of expert tour guides (at least we like to think so). While we've done the typical Melbourne scene with all of them, we've also done something different with each. With Cara and Nick we went to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef, with Saggy and Rachel it was Sydney and the Sydney Opera House, and with my mom and Tom it'll be the outback. I'm definitely looking forward to their visit, though I'm a little worried about my essay since I haven't even started it and it's due the day after they leave. Thank goodness for day tours I guess :)