I'm alive...

Okay- so I know some of you were probably starting to think that Mark had me locked up somewhere or had killed me since it's been so long since my last post, but let's be real here. If he locked me up, who would clean and do the laundry? And even worse, he might actually have to work to pay the bills. If he killed me, then he'd just be stuck with all of my student loan debt; I'm making sure it goes to him as a way of making it in his best interest to keep me around :)

Anyway, I'm alive and I guess you could say doing well, although I've been extremely busy. Because of all of our holidays (and because of Mark's extended holiday), I've tried not to cut my work hours too much when we're in town. That means that I'm working pretty much full time and going to school full time. Oh yeah- I also picked up a little temporary part time gig. How could I turn it down? I'm getting paid almost 100 AUD an hour to run an ethics tutorial to third year medical students. The tutorial is two hours a week for four weeks and requires very little prep time and absolutely no grading. Tutorials are basically discussion sessions; most of the college classes around here have lectures and then tutorials to discuss what was addressed in the lecture. So I'm really just leading a two hour discussion and getting paid a lot of money to do it!

Aside from work and school, I basically eat and sleep. I've been trying to eat three meals a day and get a good seven hours of sleep at night, but sometimes that can be tricky. Really it's not the glamorous life that it once was- but I doubt I'll get any pity for it since I am still living in Australia :)

Aussie Sports

I know, I know, I just had a post the other day, but these things come when I find something particularly amusing or interesting. For the last three days I have been subbing PE. I teach PE at that other school, but those students are hardly what one might consider normal. Anyway, in class today I was teaching (I use that term loosely) a 7th grade soccer lesson and if you were next door you would think there was a division 1 college football game going on. They were screaming at the tops of their lungs rooting on their team. In another class, they were playing basketball, and I think there were more fouls than shots. In yet another class, we played field hockey. One student punched another in the face and I went over thinking I'm gonna have to stop a fight and the one that got punched said "fair dinkum" which basically means it was only fair. Evidently I had missed an earlier punching and they had just carried on the game and the punch I witnessed was retribution, and they were done with it. These two were friends and left class together. The point is, they are rough as hell!
This is why I don't at all understand why they play cricket. Baseball is boring, but this is on another level entirely. Baseball is like watching mixed martial arts compared to cricket. They take naps and tea breaks in cricket... and then call it a sport! The games go on for days. This is not an exaggeration, they actually take 5 days for a proper cricket match. I sincerely believe they made up cricket just to make every other sporting event look exciting. Even golf and bowling are thrill seekig sports compared to this.
I will do my best to explain, the bowler (pitcher) runs from like 20 yards back then does this odd little "bowl" that isn't a throw because you have to keep a straight arm (the kids all make fun of my bowling) at three little sticks then if the batter hits it... he doesn't have to run. He can just stand there. And so it continues for days and days. I could go into more detail but I am getting bored of even writing about it. Plus, I tend to ramble in these posts so we'll leave it at that.

A little slower weekend.

As I meander through my semi-retirement (September is gonna suck). Nichole stays quite busy. So busy in fact, that she has not had time to update the blog. As I hone my Aussie food critic writing ability on this blog she is writing ethics papers towards a master's degree. We say tomato they say tomotto. So, after the big few weeks between Sydney/Brisbane/Tasmania we needed a bit of a break. Actually, Nichole needed a break (I've been on a break for about 8 months now). So, we stayed in Melbs this weekend. Nikki caught up on her sleep on Friday night while I went to a local pub that served boutique beers. Which, while I am on the subject... the Aussies really have no middle ground when it comes to beer. Either they drink VB/Toohey's/etc. (Bud/Miller equivalents) or they drink snobby beer out of a wine glass. Yes, I said wine glass. Beer should drank from a mug or a mason jar, maybe a pilsner glass, but never from a wine glass. I thought I was becoming a snob back in Washington when I moved away from Miller Lite, but this is ridiculous!
Now that was the start of the night. After sampling a few beers I hopped on a tram that took me about halfway home. Apparently after midnight the tram only goes halfway. So, I had to walk another mile or so home. Then I am taking the elevator up and the thing gets stuck! After holding the alarm button down for a while and talking to the emergency guy talking to me, he determined that it would take a mechanic to come down. So, since it was getting pretty late at this point, I thought I might lay back and take a little nap. I woke up an hour later (2:30 am) in the basement with the doors wie open, and no mechanic to be found. So, I just strolled up to the apartment a bit confused and apprehensive of the elevator (not nearly appehensive enough to walk 23 floors).
We also hit a pre-comedy festival show. Got free tickets. It was a good show, and we're hoping to catch some of th main shows.

Mountains, Convicts, and roadkill

That's Tassy for ya'. Starting with the mountains, they were fabulous. It felt a bit like Montana in that everywhere you look in the distance, there were huge peaks in the background. Driving through them was a bit different though. The roads in Australia are nothing like the states. You really appreciate the infrastructure that we have in place when you drive a one lane "interstate" (I'm doing the quote things in the air in that one) with a cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other. Then someone comes from the other side. You pretty much have to come within inches of falling off the cliff while they come within inches of smahing into the rock wall just so that we can let each other pass. Also, I am pretty sure we saw every species of animal alongside the road in Tasmania as well, of course they were pretty much hamburger so it wasn't as fabulous as our Koala sightings. Just for the record, we did not kill any of these animals though. Our kill count still stands at one Kangaroo and that only counts as half because I wasn't driving.
The day we cruised the east coast was a bit of a bummer, the rain really fell so we were unable to do any bushwalking. We just drove up took a picture then headed to the next stop. The weather on Sunday was much better though and gave a the chance to see Port Arthur. This was a 1800's convict settlement that is now a major tourist stop. The setting was stunning. A beautiful little valley with a nice harbour and green fields. It is almost hard to imagine that this was such a nasty place. Nikki contends that I have watched "Oz" and prison movies too much and it probably wasn't as bad as I think. But consider this, there was an island (called "Isle of the Dead") that was no more than 20 yards by 20 yards that buried 1100 people (that is what they have records of). This isn't the ones that were sentenced to death but people that died doing labor, or just died due to crap conditions. Either way, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park.
On Sunday night we stayed at a Girl's house in Hobart that I found on Couchsurfing. In case you haven't heard of it, couchsurfing is a website that connects people that have a place to stay with travellers. I have known about it for a few years and thought it was a great idea, but I really didn't have the guts to do it. For fear they might be weirdos and I would end up staying in some potheads nasty 4 dollar beer stained couch. This couldn't have been further from the truth. The house we stayed in was fantastic. Our host was as friendly and intelligent as could be and served us dinner and wine. There were also two other surfers there (a French-Canadian and a New Yorker) that were teachers so the conversation went on late into the night. What a fun experience!
Our last day, we checked out Australia's oldest brewery (Cascade), then walked around Hobart. Overall, a very fun trip!

WOW!

We sure have been saying that a lot these past few days. First off, the Blue Mountains were breathtaking. It actually irritates me a bit because it is one of those places that just don't translate in to pictures. But, to help I've added a few notes to this picture (Click on it and Zoom way in to see them).

The next picture is of the sky way we took across the huge canyon (over 230 meters high!). The bottom had clear glass that you could see right under your feet. Down in the valley the trees were like something out of Tarzan. They were like ropes, and the animals were all about. Luckily only the mild ones (the Blue Mountains have 8 out of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world)

After the Blue mountains we cruised to the Hunter Valley wine region, where we spent one day hitting the winery and another watching Eric Clapton. Hows about some love for the greatest husband in the world! Okay so that one smooth act doesn't make up for all the other things she puts up with but what the hell I'll take credit when I can. The setting was fantastic, and the show was even better. When he cranked out "Layla", "Cocaine", and "Wonderful Tonight" it was electric. (da na nuhnuhnuhnuh nuh da na nuhnuhnuhnuh) (that was Layla in blog humming).

Yesterday we stayed in Kempsey. Matt (my bro) had some friends he does business with over there and they were about as friendly as can be. I'm pretty sure that if Matt were to grow up in Australia he would be Ben Woods. These guys were true blue Montana boys all the way (Australian versions anyway). Nikki just loved the talk of killing the poor defenseless Kangaroos. We figured if we had a few more days there they'd take me out to shoot a kangaroo and Nikki would take it to the animal sanctuary to save it as soon as I pulled the trigger. Another fun thing about these guys was they actually spoke like Aussies. "We'll go up to me pub and drink some bloody grog mate, my shout... fair dinkum?"

As for today, we cruised up the coast. Stopping along the way for spectacular stops such as a pie shop that served 52 varieties of pies! On a side note, I have officially downgraded microwave burritoes from the top spot on my list of fine delicacies to make room for these glorious creations. On another side note, I think there was an Aussie guy 200 years ago that woke up one morning and knew that Mark Beddes would one day come to Australia see he figured he would create the most ideal food to make my experience special. I mean cheap, greasy, and full of meat that really is something special. We also made a few stops at a few of the "big" things. Australia for some reason makes these ridiculous huge things along the side of the road for tourist attractions. We saw the big banana and the big prawn,
.

The day was finished checking in to a cool little guest house then swimming in the ocean until the sun went down. This little hippie town (Byron Bay) would be a great place to kill a week.

The perfect day...

In the last few weeks I have really come to terms with turning 28 and have even started to embrace it. The fact that I stopped dreading my birthday made it enjoyable, along with the fact that I woke up that morning and hopped on a plane to Sydney after being surprised by Mark with tickets to Eric Clapton (the trip to Sydney was already planned, so it was pure luck that it happened to be at the same time as the concert)! When we arrived in Sydney, we picked up a car and headed west. We had a nice lunch in a cute little cafe in a quaint town outside of Sydney (just my style). Then we took a scenic skyrail, cable car, and railway through the Blue Mountains- the views were absolutely amazing. Afterward we ate dinner at another great little cafe and then enjoyed flat whites (similar to lattes) and carrot cake for dessert. We ended the night with a walk through the town and a drive to the Three Sisters to see them lit up at night. It really was the perfect day :)

Footy season is back

I wanted to mention one thing I forgot on the last blog. Although the greatest game in the world is in the off season, the second best is just firing up. I just came to realize I haven't even mentioned the great sport of footy! That's Aussie for Football. They call our game Gridiron. Footy is genius. It is like somebody took all the suckiness out of soccer and made it exciting. It has all the big catches and almost as many big hits as our beautiful game. The only thing it lacks is the intricacy, of course I could be talking like an ignorant American. the reality is, I explained the basic concept to Nikki last season in about 5 minutes (which is her typical attention span during sports talk) and she picked it up right away. She even went to a few games. I have been trying to explain American footbal to her for ten years... still nothing. And I learn new things about it all the time. What's more, it is totally a Melbourne thing. You are in this city five minutes, and someone asks "what team do you barrack for?" This is Aussie for "who do you root for?" We can't use that term (root) as it reserved for gay sex, but I digress. Another cool thing, is the passion these people have for their teams. Something I can certainly relate to. As for me, I am a Bulldogs supporter. I can't wait to take our guests to this game!

Not too much, but alot going on

If you are reading the blog looking for interesting nuggets about Australia... maybe this post ain't for you. This is more about city life and my 1 year "semi-retirement". The problem is the sub work is pretty dry around this time of year, so all I got is the "special school where I work.

Since I've been back from Christmas, I have worked exactly 24 hours... in 1 month! Actually 12 hours with students. The crazy part is that I still bitch about that amount of time (you would too if you worked where I do). Now I won't kid anybody, for the first few weeks it really bothered me. I was bored out of my mind during the day. I felt like I should be doing something. The silly "mafia wars" facebook game can only eat up so much time. And although 100 rides around the city on the trusty ole 18 speed is good times, one can only discover so many fun little neighborhoods before they start to blend into each other. But then it hit me like an epiphany.... I am not here to work. And then I thought about the social calendar. Last week we went to the Queen Vic night market(http://www.qvm.com.au/snm/snm_home.aspx) on Wednesday, the St Kilda Beach Market (http://www.stkildabeachnightmarket.com.au/) on Thursday, Picnic and wine in Fitzroy gardens (http://www.fitzroygardens.com/) on Friday, then Poker with the Americans on Saturday. At which point I realize... my lovely bride is making cash and brings home food, I make enough to pay the rent. This is fantasticly fantastic. I'm working very little and am always out at night. A bit of change of pace from back home where Iwork all the time and only go out maybe one night a week. Of course, I could be in a good mood, because I don't have to go back to my "special" school for a 2 whole weeks! Anyway, we are gearing up for the Sydney to Brisbane trip so I better get packed. Take care. I mean Cheers! (that's what an Aussie would say(when in Rome...))

p.s. If you'd like a little light reading on my school... here are a few nuggets:

http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=171

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/principal-molested-girls/2008/03/13/1205126111228.html

http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSchurches/Adass%20Israel%20Congregation.htm