4 Month Mark

I have been in Australia for 4 months as of yesterday.  The cars look like they are driving on the correct side of the road.  I don't feel self conscience about having an American accent.  I can barley notice the Aussie accent.  I eat at least one meat pie a week.  I drink a coffee a day.  And now I have to go back to America and get used to another way of life…again! I think the transition will be fairly easy, but it will be a change.  I am going to miss Australia's colored plastic money.  It looks like a monopoly bank every time someone opens a cash register; I love it.  When I am back in America I am going to be so confused with dollar bills and all green!!! Now that I solidly drove a manual car, in a busy city, on the wrong side of the road, Nart is going to seem so….American.  Driving him will be a piece of cake, once I remember that we drive on the right side of the road in America.  

Australia has been a lot of fun.  I am so glad that I did this and was lucky enough to have this opportunity.  I met so many great people in Tanunda and at St. Hallett.  And saying those goodbyes was the hardest thing of this trip.  At first I thought the hardest thing was saying bye to my family and friends before I even got here, but I was wrong.  The chances of me seeing all the people I have met here again are pretty small.  I will do my best to see them, but you never know.  Thankfully, that part is done.  I have said my goodbyes and I am so antsy to get to see everyone at home again! I don't think I realized how much I missed them until I realized how excited I was to see them.  

Rental Car

Yea, I rented a car. I have now one upped Will in the adult department. I even got a manual car to make things interesting, because driving on the left side of the road in a biggish city I am not familiar with is not challenging enough.  

I am an idiot and did not take a picture of the car, but it was a blue, 2 door Toyota Yaris.  I looked like a P.I.M.P. in it, and felt like a P.I.M.P. in it.  I got to shift all day long.  I was not perfect though.  I stalled a couple times and burned out the clutch a few times too…of course only when other people *cough* boys *cough* were in the car. I don't know why, but I get so nervous in a manual car when boys are there too. I feel that they know how to drive better than me so I freak out and do things like stall.  

My GPS slash phone in Australia

But, in the end I was able to return the car good as it came. No more or less dings in it than I started with.  

I shouldn't tell people this but I was also able to navigate my way from South Brisbane to the Airport by myself.  The challenging thing about this is that the car, as I mentioned earlier, was a manual and I was using my cell phone for it's GPS.  Shifting with one hand, holding the GPS in the other, steering with the other…wait.  I only have two hands.  It was talent.  

College Abroad…

It is the same as college at home.  People skip classes, go to classes, party on week days, hang out and do nothing, go out and do something…college.  Being with a bunch of college kids has made me miss college so much! On Tuesday we went to a place with half off waffles (I LOVE waffles).  On Wednesday we went to a place that had 25 cent chicken wings.  It is deals galore around college campuses! Also the Uni that Jason goes to has a bar on campus.  I wish we had that in college.  Lucky bastards.

We also went out on Wednesday night, like drinking out.  College students in all countries know how to party and basically all have the same drinking games.  Something new for me was to get to the bars we took public transit.  In SLO that never happened haha.  

Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

SUNNY!! The weather has been shit for the past few days and luckily, the day we went to the beach is they day the sun decided to shine! I got a little color again to prepare for summer back in California.  

Brisbane

The "Fake Beach"

 Jason took Renee and I on a walking tour of Brisbane Tuesday.  He has been the BEST host, it is ridiculous.  He took time out of his day to show us the city.  We walked in South Bank, took a ferry, and walked around his uni, Queensland University of Technology.  The campus was awesome! Their library has an interactive touch screen thing in the middle.  There are computers for people to use everywhere in it too.  It made me want to study again.  Then we walked on Queens Street which is the main street of Brisbane.  He took us to this place that has amazing Kebabs.  Then we went to some museum.  Pretty typical museum, but definitely not a waste of time.  It was just an all around good solid day.  We joked about how this is practice for when his parents come to visit, so he benefited too.

Cool interactive screen

Brisbane

Byron Bay

We should have seen it coming...

Byron Bay is known as a hippie town.  There are a lot of beach bums and weed there.  I didn't light up or beach bum around but I did get caught in a rain storm.

Renee and I just wondered around the little town and ended up walking on the beach and watching some surfers.  The sky was cloudy but we didn't think to bring an umbrella or any form of cover.  We were about a 10 minute walk from any true shelter when the clouds decided to pour.  Luckily there was a little tree area along the beach that protected us from the majority of the rain for about 5 minutes, but we were still getting a little wet.  We did not see any break in the rain in the near future so we toughed it out and walked the 10 minutes to shelter.  I got SOAKED.  the front side of me was drenched while the back half of me was dry.  I looked like an idiot but I will never see any of those people again.  

Sydney Take 1/Renee

Big city Sydney.  Renee and I took an overnight bus from Melbourne to Sydney.  It was 12 hours of trying to get comfortable and not block the aisle, no fun.  But we survived and found our hostel in Sydney to realize that despite us not having much sleep there was now a full day to waste away.  

What to do…what to do. 

We took a free walking tour of the city.  It was 3 hours and a lot of walking but did get us familiar with what was around and could help us plan what we wanted to do next.  

Unorigionally, we took the cheesy pictures with the Sydney Opera House and the bridge opposite that.  Then we just meandered some more.  Pretty unprepared tourists.  

Honestly I think I am losing motivation on writing what I do because I have not done anything terribly exciting or noteworthy.  BUT don't get me wrong, I am having a blast.  With just all the meandering and hanging out with people I am having fun.  Renee and I ended up being really solid travel buddies.  We never hung out in college and after hanging out a week straight we discovered we are SUPER similar.  We think the same things.  There was a sign "Bathurst" and I was looking at it thinking do you say Bath-urst or Bat-hurst.  Unknowingly, I said this out loud and Renee looked at me and said "I was just wondering the same thing!"  That was just one moment but this kept happening throughout our travels.  We would say the same jokes, remember things at the same time…it was weird.  

And how could I forget, we met up with Andrea!!! I was so happy to be able to see someone from St. Hallett after having the saddest goodbye with Brooke the day before.  

Casino Royale

Brooke, Fallon, Renee and I decided to have a nice night out in Melbourne.  We went to dinner on the river and had an epicly difficult meal.  They gave us a free appetizer because it was taking so long to cook our food.  I ordered a beer and they brought me wine.  Then when the food finally came out, Brooke's steak was not even cooked.  Like no where close to medium rare…like it was cold on the inside.  

Then we wondered to the casino.  Brooke and Fallon had never been before so we thought it was a good idea to sit and have drinks then go do a little gambling.  We noticed at the bar some guy who was alone in a blue shirt and a white hat but thought nothing of it.  Then, when we went to a table to gamble the same guy was lurking around behind us.  We walked over to another area and the same guy followed us to that area…sketchy.  Renee and I had taken notice at this point and were not sure on what to do.  Do we confront him? Tell security? Try to lose him? So we wanted to make sure this guy was creeping for real and went to yet another room which was down an escalator and around a few corners.  Again, he was lurking behind us while we were teaching Brooke and Fallon roulette.  This was the line.  We had to do something and we were seriously scared.  If he wanted to hit on any of us why hadn't he?  And he kept pacing around and talking to himself…creepy.  Renee and I devised a plan to go to a bar and when ordering a drink to ask the bar tender what to do about the situation.  On our way to the bar we ended up having to exit the casino BUT Brooke was sipping on her scotch on the rocks so we couldn't exit.  This was a weird debacle now.  We are stuck at a door with a man following us.  The man was coming closer and then decided to exit in our debacle of Brooke finishing her drink.  I was right by a security guard and quickly told him the situation.  The security guard ran to get a better look at the guy and walkie talked to the other security guards to not let him in again.  Granted, we took a cab home.

Melbourne

I really like this city.  It is unique.  There are cute little nooks and cranes that have cool bars and or cafes.  We went to meet Renee at a bar and she warned me it was down an alley.  I said confidently, yea that is ok we can handle it.  We get to this alley that has graffiti all over it and is pretty dark.  I kept walking down and you had to turn left but around that turn was just more graffiti, a nasty smell, and another blind corner.  At this point I was a little skeptical.  Where is Renee leading us?  Brooke was so not down to continue down this path and bailed out to the main street.  I creeped up to the next turn and looked down a longer alley that had more graffiti and some lights but no people and I could not see a door.  At this point I said "Nope…" and followed Brooke's lead.  Renee called me and said she would meet us outside the bar.  The alley was was actually not sketchy, and there was a bar at the end which was lab themed.  They had syringes in their drinks and lab tables in the bathroom.  Another bar we went to was a roof top bar.  It was classy feeling to be up on top of a building looking at Melbourne.

I didn't really get to learn much about the history of Melbourne, but lets face it, it is relatively young.  All I remember is that it wanted to be the capital of Australia and failed.  Well, not failed, but it didn't happen (damn Sydney).  The capital is some rando town Canberra in-between Sydney and Melbourne.

Top Deck Tour: Day 1

Brooke, her friend Fallon, and I booked a trip with Top Deck from Adelaide to Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road.  The tour started today, May 5th, at 6:15 am.  That is early, and even earlier when you had gone out to the bars the night before.  Fallon and Brooke didn't get back to the hotel until 4 am, so had only an hour or so of sleep.  I was lucky and had more sleep but did not feel too hot on the morning either.  Luckily, the bus driver is super nice and chill and just joked around about us being hung over.

So the first day has the most driving (nap time).  We drove for about 2 hours to the border of South Australia and Victoria. Fun fact: I am not sure what the actual story is, but I guess there have been disputes on where the border should be and South Australia lost land because of it. 

Next, we drove some more and did a bush walk.  We walked up to a great view point.  

We then drove more and did another walk down to McKenzie Falls.  We walked down a lot of steps and then had to walk back up…my booty was sooorrreee.  But the gorgeous waterfall was worth it.  

Then we went to a lookout point for sunset…another great sunset.  

Finally the day ended at a hotel with a good BBQ.  Long day, and now finally some rest!!

My Last Day

I truly had so much fun at St. Hallett.  Everyone had their own quirk and I will miss that.  After the other interns left I thought I was not going to have as much fun because the winery would be so empty and quiet, but I was wrong.  I still had a lot of fun with who was left.  

I am going to miss Bec a lot.  She was my lab manager.  We worked together 50 hours a week during vintage.  To work with someone that much and manage to not get on each others nerves is pretty awesome.  We would always have our coffee making breaks in the morning, sing to the radio that was turned up really loud, and gossip about whatever we could.  I will also miss Batesy who I was not able to work with too much, but when I did we had a lot of fun.  She was so friendly and her humor was awesome.  I would not always get what she was saying but my lack of understanding made it that much funnier in the end.  

Being in the lab, I did interact with the winemakers a bunch.  I would either be getting samples, doing some copper or acid trials, or analyzing wines for them. Shelley, moreorless the white winemaker, was always fun to chat with.  And her kid was ADORABLE.  Kat, the assistant winemaker, would come into the lab and chat too.  But she was also the lab manager before she became the assistant winemaker so she would also help us when shit got confusing and help "suss" it out.  Toby would always have us getting a bunch of samples for tastings or bleedings.  I didn't mind at all.  He was funny during vintage because most days you would see him walking around with wine all over his face.  It makes sense that the wine was on his mouth but sometimes you would see some splatters on his forehead or his cheek.  Brooke and I had fun laughing at that; like should we tell him, should we just let it go, and how the hell did that happen? Lastly, there was Jez.  He is the winemaker that let Carissa, Brooke and I stomp the grapes with our feet.  I interacted with him the most.  He is seriously the coolest person.  He would bring the lab lollies every now and again. I would give him crusher sample results.  It was a good relationship.  I will miss running around to find him, or trying to catch him as he biked past the lab to ask him a question or tell him something.  It was a constant game of catch the Jez.   

Oh St. Hallett.  I will miss you.  

Baggage

I am a great packer.  Yes, I am tooting my own horn.  Seriously, I came over to Australia with 2 suitcases, a carry on and a backpack.  "Heaps" of stuff.  I don't remember what the weight of everything was, but lets just say, I over packed.  I did wear everything I brought, but some was unnecessary.  In the end I wore some stuff just to make me feel that I brought it for a reason.  

I am going on a bus trip to Melbourne with Brooke and there are luggage restrictions.  You are only allowed a 70x50x25cm suitcase with a max of 15 kilos.  These numbers do NOT match up with the bags I brought.  Que insta freak out.  What the hell was I supposed to do with my extra 30ish kilos of shit? 

Well, I decided to ship a suitcase home.  Thanks to my dear William, I found a shipper that would come to Tanunda, pick up my luggage, and then deliver it in America.  Perfect! Nothing is perfect.  On the pick up day the picker uppers were scheduled to come between 9 and 12.  I called at 2:30 and they said it would be around 4.  4 hours late!? Seriously!? What do you know, at 4:45, they were still not here.  Annoying.  Thankfully St. Hallett is awesome and they are going to help me ship it out while I am traveling around.  So though, there was a hiccup in the plan, I have faith it will work out.  

Back to my awesome packing skills.  I fit 25 kilos of clothes into my big blue bag…without using the expander.  Yea.  I'm awesome.  And somehow I gained a few things while here (sweatshirt, 2 dresses, work boots) but fit my stuff into a smaller space.  I don't know how that works physically, but I did it. Boom, roasted.  

We will see if my bragging is worth it though.  I still haven't started my travels and my suitcase has still not been shipped.  So my confidence could plummet quick if shit starts to go wrong.  

Clare Wine Tasting

I work in the Barossa Valley, but that is not the only winemaking region in Australia.  Sure you knew that.  A few notable regions around here are the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and Clare.  The girls that I live with are always in Clare, may it be to go out or to play netball, so they took me to wine taste there.  

We started at Oleary's.  They had a 2013 Sauv Blanc already bottled and released…they released it the Thursday before easter.  Mind you, they picked those grapes in February, fermented the wine, filtered it, and bottled it.  Just wham bam thank you ma'am.  I was amazed.  And surprisingly it was good.  A little metallic right now, but that could be due to it being so young.  It will be great in a few months.  

Next was Annie's Lane.  Their famous wine is the Copper Trail.  I don't remember anything that really stood out which could be a good thing because nothing was revolting but also nothing was special. 

We stopped by Skillogalee for the sake of Sophie.  She applied for a cellar door position there and wanted to scope out the scene.  It is a very homey type tasting room.  You are literally in a kitchen.  All the wines are out on the table in the middle of the cozy kitchen and you just ask the pourer to pour what you want.  It was very laid back.  I remember I liked their gewurztraminer.  

Lunch, or more like dinner lunch, was at Stonebridge.  They had some good wines there, but even better was their pizza.  And even better than that was their dessert pizza!!!! NOM.COM!

Heaven

Last stop was Knappstein.  I was the one who chose this because St. Hallett holds some of their wine.  I have done many-a sulfurs on their Cab Merlot.  Their wine was also good, but what I liked the best was their beer.  It was a lager and it was kind of fruity and citrusy; Very refreshing after a long day of wine tasting.  

Netball

Since I have been here, I kept hearing about this game "Netball".  People tried to explain it to me but it made no sense.  I played basketball against girls that were netball players so I had a clue about how the game was played because of they way they played basketball, a lot of passing.  

I decided I had to see this mysterious game before I left Australia, and since this was my last weekend in the Barossa, I NEEDED to see it! Luckily, Sophie, my housemate's sister, plays netball for Blyth Snowtown and I got to go watch her play.  

Before I go into the minimal detail of netball that I understand, I would like to explain how these netball teams work.  A lot of towns around the areas have teams.  They not only have netball teams (for girls) but football teams for the blokes out there.  You don't have to play for your home town either.  Sophie lives in Kapunda, but plays for a town that is closer to Clare (an hour north of Kapunda).  And the teams, being competitive and all, are also a big social thing.  The netball girls date the footy guy, some are married and have babies and everything.  They all do not go out on Friday nights because they all play Saturday and support each other whilst not playing.  Then Saturday is the big day to go out and either celebrate a win, or drink away sorrows from a loss.  It is a really fun and social thing to have in these small towns.  

Back to netball.  There are 7 girls on the court; Goal Keeper, Goal Defense, Goal Shooter, Goal Attack, Wing Defense, Wing Attack and Center.  Each position has different rules as the where they can go on the court.  Some can go all around the court but not into the goal circle.  Other positions have to stay within a certain third, or two thirds of the court.  Truly, I need a diagram to show you how it all works. And this is also why I needed to see the game to really understand.  Anyway, you are not allowed to move when you have the ball, you can only bounce pass or chest pass to another player.  You can only shoot at the basket (with no backboard…weird) when you are in the goal circle.  It is also considered a "non contact" sport, but there is HEAPS of contact.  

Sophie's team ended up winning 35-30! Go Sophie!! O yea, and they wear dresses/skirts and don't have numbers but their positions on their jersey dresses.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.howtoplaynetball.com/resources/netball%2520court.png&imgrefurl=http://www.howtoplaynetball.com/netball-positions.php&h=563&w=1065&sz=58&tbnid=LhkLKwSli6WrMM:&tbnh=64&tbnw=122&zoom=1&usg=__L2kiL6b0Nw5l2FbMlLeLGwALccg=&docid=q7_WNTD04DusRM&sa=X&ei=YMCAUY_hEcLTrQeQuYGYBA&ved=0CDMQ9QEwAA&dur=152

That link is a court where all the players are...

Anzac Day: "Lest We Forget"

ANZAC Day is a public holiday in Australia that is similar to our Memorial Day in America.  It celebrates, or remembers, the day that the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) showed up at the beached in Gallipoli, Turkey, and got massacred.  They were out numbered and not prepared for what happened.  This year was the 98th anniversary of this sad day.  The Aussies say that on April 25th, 1915 the Anzac Spirit was born.  This "spirit" is what keeps the Australian army motivated and going.  

Most places in Australia do a Dawn Service on Anzac Day, at dawn (6:15 in Tanunda).  A LOT of people show up.  It is amazing the people that will wake up that early on their day off.  I did it so see what this day was all about, but they do it to pay respect to the diggers (soldiers) that lost their lives during war, "Lest We Forget".  Hearing Australians ideas on war is interesting.  They have never gone to war as a country.  Australia always goes as an ally, to help another country. Australians have lost their lives at battles that are not even theirs.  They see themselves as a friend that helps friends when they are in need.  

After this service, there is a "Gun Fire Breakfast".  I did not go to it, but it has bacon and eggs and other food…I don't know.  Biscuits, jam and coffee with rum is the classic way to go, according to some TV show I was watching.   

Another fun fact for this day is a gambling game that is illegal in Australia is legal on this day, Two-Up.  You bet on flipping coins, either two heads or two tails.  If you bet right, you get the other parties money.  If the coins land on a head and a tail you just re-flip them.  Oh Australians and their gambling.  

A Day in the Life

For the past 3 months, I have been basically doing the same thing every single day.  I make it sound mundane, but I have enjoyed all 3 months of it.

The morning walk to the main street

First off I wake up.  During vintage the wake up hour was absurdly early (4:00 am) but outside of the busy time it is around 6:00 to 6:30 am.  Since I don't have a car, I get picked up by coworkers.  Most days it was Quentin in his Snap Test Tag van.  One time it was the winemaker Toby, which I was nervous about since winemakers are intimidating, but it was cool (he made me coffee).  Quentin would have me walk out to the main street (100+ yards/meters).  When we started work at 5am I did not like this.  That 100 meters in the dark was scary and then waiting for some odd minutes (because as vintage went he got later and later) was cold and scary.  Now it is light out (yet not warm) when I get picked up so I don't mind waiting at the street.

Always waiting for Quentin...

The drive to work takes us straight through the heart of Tanunda, right by Foodland, the pubs, and the bottle shop.  St. Hallett is not too far from those.  I have actually ran to St. Hallett to visit the arvo shift a couple times, 3.6ish miles, therefore not far.  

At work, we all drop off our food in the kitchen, and go our own ways.  The cellar crew goes to the cellar desk to have Greg tell them what to do.  I go to the lab, put my work boots on, and wait for Bec to tell me what to do.  Sometimes I calibrate, other times I start to sample right away.  

The work day is hard to put into a pattern.  During vintage we would have juice samples, grape samples, press samples, racking samples…a lot of samples.  Now there are more samples dealing with sulfur levels, malic/RS/VA levels, copper trials, acid trials and post bottling analysis.  We always have the music on in the lab, preferably on blast but not always, sometimes people need to talk on the phone or think.  The winemakers come in and out of the lab: checking the analysis book, saying hi, giving us lollies (the usual).  Often we are searching for the winemakers to give them "urgent" analysis.  It is always fun to see Jez biking by when I need to tell him something and running out to catch him.

Quentin finally arrives

The day wraps up by putting all of our equipment away and to rest.  A lot of times I get a ride back to Tanunda with Brooke (not Quentin) and go to one of two cafes with internet.  She would let me drive her car sometimes too! I don't have internet at home so this is my only way to connect to the outer world: I update my blog and Facebook, email important people, maybe video chat with Will.    Both cafes know me now.  Once I got hooked up with a free salad! 

The cafes close about 5 and I walk home.  I pass Foodland on the way and either pick up some groceries or don't.  A few times I stopped at the Tanunda Bakery and treated myself to a sweet or bread.  The walk is about 2 kilometers so I get to listen to my iPod and try not to sing out loud for 20ish minutes.  

My street :)

When I get home there is always the search for my key in my backpack.  Sometimes I find it and use the front door, other times I give up and use a window to get in.  And because I don't have internet to distract me from productivity, I usually go for a run around the area.  Sometimes I will run towards Nuri, sometimes around a dirt road, rarely towards St. Hallett.  I have improved my long distance running thanks to this habit.  I can run 4 miles in a little over half an hour!! Yay me.  

The rest of my day is just dinner and sleep really.  During harvest I really didn't have that much time after work it seemed.  If I got home around 5, I would run and workout till 6, take a shower, make some dinner and all of a sudden it was 7:30 and my bed time was 8.  Simple yet productive afternoons.  

I am sure if I had a car my days would be a little different.  I wouldn't have to walk in the dark, wait in the cold, or be stranded in the Barossa.  Honestly though, I don't mind that much.  I think I am experiencing a true country life style.  

Cellar Day!

Overhead Lines

I had the day off on Monday and Tuesday.  In this past month I have not had a full work week, so I am running out of ideas to entertain myself.  Since I did go to college for winemaking, I want to learn how to do things in the cellar.  Sooo, on my day off, I went to work.  But instead of working in the lab, I was a cellar rat for a day.  

Greg, the cellar master, had me working with Quentin, the Frenchie.  He was my teacher for the day, I was his shadow.  Our first task, red ferment baume round.  Quentin looked at me, "I don't know how to do that."  But, since I am a lab person, baume rounds are my thang.  Fail on learning something, I became teacher for the first task!!! But everything after that consisted of things I did not know. 

The Chiller

We had to set up lines to cool a tank (stop a fermentation) then we had to set up lines to heat another tank for despatch.  I guess you have to bottle wine at something around 18 degrees celsius, and it started around 14 degrees.  Dragging around the hoses is a bit more difficult than it looks.  Also looking for connections is a bitch.  The connections on the hoses and such are either female or male so you have to make sure they line up correctly.  There are some "double female" and "double male" connections to help out with this situation.  From the stories I heard from the cellar casuals, finding the double females and double males was a close to impossible task during the heart of vintage.  

With the heating and cooling, I learned how to navigate the over head pipes from the tank farm to the cellar to the cooling/heating unit to the red wine area.  They seemed intimidating at first, but after a little bit of thinking, they make sense and are very simple.  

The Heater.

I also got to transfer some malolactic culture to some red ferments using a flow meter.  (NOTE: Things like the "flowmeter" and "sulphotometer" were words that I heard the cellar people saying and never knew what they looked like until I actually worked in the cellar.  It was nice to put an object to a name.)  I had to even use the walkie talkie to communicate (bad ass)!

I also did the super fun task of cleaning a tank.  I set up lines for the tankers coming in the following day.  I even had a blonde moment (which I guess was the theme for the vintage) and accidentally set up a transfer half on one tank and half on another tank…whoops.   

Working in the cellar also made me miss the cellar people more once they left.  I now understand more of their jokes and mistakes and frustrations.  Good times, good times.  

The Tank Farm

Last Day Shenanigans

The first hour or two of our last day all together was productive.  Anytime after that was spent goofing around.  Literally no productivity, other than bonding more with people that are about to leave (sad face).  

The cellar casuals got sent down to "garden" aka pull out sticks and play with them.  There was sword fighting, attempted baseball, and even jousting.  Just things to pass the time, nothing to do with wine.  At one point I was in a water fight with the Kims.  There was a pull up competition, which I definitely won….not.  I think one thing in life is that I will never be able to do a pull up.  It has been my weak spot since elementary school.  

Naturally we had photoshoots to document the last day together…

Don't mess with me Kim.

Brooke and Quentin

I may have cheated.

The last standing interns.

Action shot.

Yet another K.K.K. moment.

Sun!

Barrel shed? 

Jousting for the queen.

A bowl fitting for royalty.   

I am going to miss these people a lot.  I did not cry saying bye to man Kim (he left Friday mid day) but when I left work, I was so close to tears because I knew the end was near.  "The end was near"…that sounds like the world is ending or something, but it is just that the vintage is really over.  I had so much fun with these people the last 3 months.  I laughed so much everyday with and at everyone.  My parents can vouch for me, I was really happy at St. Hallett.  So I think the almost tears were from the idea that this really happy time is coming to an end.  I was on a big high, and now I am coming back to reality.  Don't get me wrong, I am still happy. 

Another thing is that I am staying another month without some of my closest friends.  Being left is way harder than being the one to leave.  But I am coping alright.  I now have things to look forward to like traveling in 2 weeks around Australia and going home to see my family and friends!  

The Show Down

Lets start with this.  There are some abbreviations that are the same in America and Australia that throw me off.  One, ABC.  It is not the American Broadcasting Company, it is the Australian Broadcasting Company.  Then there is AFV, not America but Australian's Funniest Home Videos.  Lastly there is AFL, the Australian Football League.  

Australian football (or footy) is not like American football.  They don't wear pads, they don't stop when someone gets tackled, and they play in an oval.  The first time I saw it TV I thought it was madness and there was no rhyme or reason to it.  O was I wrong.  I actually get the game now, and like it…a lot.  Each quarter (there are 4) is 30 minutes long.  They count up on the clock and I don't think it ever stops, kind of like soccer.  The way you score is to kick or punch the ball through the posts at the end of the field.  There are 4 posts and the gap in the middle is worth 6 points if you kick it through.  The two on the sides is only one point if you kick it through.  Then if you punch it throughout the posts it is only one point no matter which posts you go through.  You can only pass to your teammates by kicking or "hand passing" the ball.  Hand passing is basically punching the ball to them.  There are a lot more rules that are hard to explain unless there is a game going on, but hopefully you get some gist of what is going on…maybe.  

It would not be a footy game without beer and a meat pie. Nom.

The match we got to go to was the Port Adelaide Power vs the Adelaide Crows.  This would be an equivalent Giants vs Dodgers game.  They call it the Show Down.  Port fans are known for being "Farrel" as an Aussie would say it, or just bad.  They try to fight with other people all the time and are just dirty.  So all my Aussie friends told me to root for the Crows who are blue, red and yellow.  Once at the stadium I kept seeing all these people in San Jose Sharks colors.  Port Adelaide has Sharks colors…I was almost torn because my mind says to root for teal.  

In the stadium they had a table where people were placing bets.  This is something I do not see everyday at a Sharks or Giants game.  The guy who took us, Hayden, asked if Carissa and I wanted to bet just to make things exciting.  But honestly we would not even know where to begin.  Like what is a normal score for a footy game?  How hard is it to get points?  Who is the better team? So instead Carissa and I just bet with each other on what team would win.  She dubbed the Crows so fast (even though she accidentally wore Port colors) so I had to semi root for Port the rest of the day.  

Those are the "goal" posts.

The game started super quick; there was no anthem or anything, just a ball getting bounced into the air and the boys were off tackling each other and doing what footy boys do.  About a minute or two into it, Port scored a goal (6 points!).  YAY!…? I only rooted because of the bet, not because of anything else.  

The first quarter went super fast.  The second quarter also flew by, and at this point the Crows were kicking some serious ass.  The bet was looking like it was going into Carissa's favor, which we both really wanted because I don't like supporting evil teams. But then, somehow, Port came back.  It became a really exciting game.  It technically was a Port home game, even though they share the same stadium (like the Lakers and Clippers), so the crowed was getting super into it.  All the Port fans started waving their signs and cheering a lot louder; They kept chanting "Power", they started to talk shit to the Crows fans.  It was fun.  And though I secretly wanted the Crows to win, it was nice to see a comeback.  Port tied it up at the end of the 3rd quarter 85-85 after being down like 25ish points.  

One quarter to go.  Port with the momentum.  What was going to happen?!?!

The Crows basically rolled over and died.  It was sad.  Port went with the momentum and stuffed it the the Crows faces.  I was a little upset that Port won, a little happy to see the home fans be so happy, and a little relieved that I won a bet.  In the end I had a great time at the game. I am very happy I was able to find a way to get there.

Winner!

The guy that was nice enough to take Carissa and I to the game, Hayden, also decided that we needed to see more Aussie things.  So after the game he took us to North Adelaide and we had an AB pack.  AB stands for abortion.  Sorry if that offends anyone, but it gets its name from how it looks.  It is french fries with meat, garlic sauce, sweet chili sauce and tomato sauce (ketchup) on top.  So so so nom.  It is apparently a good drunchie food and on weekend nights all the drunk people are scarfing them down.

We got back to Tanunda about 11 and I forgot my phone in Hayden's car.  FAIL.  I have no way of contacting people now and it is my day off! Extra fail. O well. The fun weekend makes up for my blondeness in forgetting my phone.

O yea...and I think footy should come to America.  It would be better than American Football...sorry not sorry.

Unexpected Great Day

(pictures to be posted later...)

[Note: This was the most unexpected productive day ever.  And when I say productive I don't mean that I had a list of things to do and got to check them off, but everything I did do seemed purposeful and worth it.  There was no wasted time.]

Saturday, after the End of Vintage party, I woke up expecting to have a slow day, fighting of a hang over.  To my surprise, there was no hang over to be had! Yea, I have some unidentified party bruises, but nothing that could stop me from doing things.  I decided to walk to Nuri to hang out with Carissa; there really is not much else to do with out a car.  

We decided to go get lunch at the Chicken Shop.  I was not that hungry so I just got a Coke.  And let me tell you that the Cokes here are shit.  They lose their fizz within 5 minutes of opening.  I have had it from a can and a bottle, and both have been rather disappointing.  They need some more DCO2 (dissolved carbon dioxide) for sure.  Anyway, in small town fashion, we ran into a fellow coworker of ours, Justin.  We chatted about the night before, putting together bits and pieces of events and details; always fun to do after a big night.  

Next, Carissa and I decided to go to Foodland, because one lunch was just not going to suffice.  More like I did get hungry and I didn't want anything from the Chicken Shop.  Over at Foodland we ran into another coworker of ours, Rose (small town).  She was not able to make it to the party, so we just filled her in on some events: lawn balls, dancing and karaoke.  we tried not to make the party sound too fun so she was not upset that she didn't get to go…so we stuck to talking about lawn balls.  So not a fun sport…very slow…very very very slow.

I ended up getting a smoothy (nommmage) and we headed back home.  But first I wanted to stop into the sports store and look for a ball.  I miss playing sports and every time there is a ball around I try to rally with it or just throw it around.  So, though I should have bought this 3 months ago when I got here, I bought a volleyball!! It is a super cheap volleyball but it gets the job done.  I have barely stopped setting it around since I got it.  

Once back at Carissa's we decided to watch a movie.  She somehow has a copy of "The Silver Linings Playbook" with Bradley Cooper.  How can one say no to a movie with Bradley Cooper in it? For the first 3/4 of the movie, I was confused.  The two main characters are basically crazy but not thaaatt crazy.  I don't know.  But in the end I did like the movie a lot and felt it was not a waste of time.  

Next, we decided to go pick up our bikes from Bec's house.  A couple weeks ago when we tried to bike to Angaston and ended up getting stranded because Carissa's bike tire popped, Bec's boyfriend, Hilly, picked up our bikes and stored them and their house.  FINALLY, we decided to retrieve them.  It was fun too because this was another coworker that we could reminisce about the night with. We got her stories, she got ours, good gossip time.  

Now, with bikes at our disposal, we went on an adventure and biked down a back road just to try and get a good view of the sun setting.  The sky was too cloudy to have a magnificent sunset but it was still really nice.  It was not too cold or too hot and we just leisurely biked along the road.  To make mattered even better we found on the road a sign that just said "BAROSSA" in big yellow letters.  Literally painted on the road.  Photo OP! We set our bikes aside and took a bunch of pictures with this word.  It is the little things that excite us the most I guess because we felt we had found gold!

The sun had set now and so we had to start heading home so we would not get in trouble for not having headlights on our bikes.  We did not quite time that right, because we hopped off our bikes a little bit away from Foodland, and walked.  What we did do right was accidentally run into an old car parade of some sort.  There were like 20 Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs rolling down the street, honking and waving at people.  The cars looked so cool! They looked super roomy too, like way more comfy than some cars today.  

At this point, Carissa and I decided that this was a really solid day.  Nothing was planned but everything was great! We ran into people we knew and things that we really wanted to see (but did know until we saw it).  On a sad note, this was the last Saturday for Carissa in the Barossa.  She leaves next week!!!!!! How did this time go so fast?!?!?!?

End of Vintage Party

These past few weekends have been filled with g
reat activities.  There is no better way to end the string of fun events with a huge party with all your coworkers.  I have always heard crazy things about end of vintage parties but all the ones I have been to disappoint.  And by disappoint, I mean I expected too much.  I have had fun at all of them, but nothing crazy.  So for St. Hallett I went in not expecting much.  We did get to dress up because it was prom themed.  I tried to go 80s punk-esque but it didn't look as ridiculous as planned.  I looked normal.  Thankfully other people went all out and looked fantastic in their thrift shop dresses.  

The first event of the day was Lawn Balls.  It is kind of like Bocci Ball or Batonque (french and spelling?) but the balls are bigger and weighted on one side.  This means that when you roll the ball it veers one way.  This adds a whole new challenge to the game, but not much excitement.  It was fun to be drinking beers and hanging out with everyone but the game was so slow!! The slower you rolled the ball the more the ball would curve and if you threw it too hard it would end up in the gutter so slow was the way to go… SLLOOOWWW. And I think I have a little less interest in it because I was not very good.  I am not good at bowling, and not good at lawn balls, I just don't have the skill to roll balls to set areas.  I like to throw or hit them, not roll.  Fortunately, my team was fun, it was man Kim, Kat and me (K.K.K….whoops).  Fun did not equal wins. O well.  We still think we are bad asses.

Failed Jumping Picture...We Are Still Awesome.

Next stop, St. Hallett! We got to hang out outside with hors d'oeuvres; some sushi rolls and cold rolls made by yours truly Brooke and myself.  There was also champagne and punch going
around.  Someone brought out a footie ball and a soccer ball…I instantly went and played with it.  I am not very good as soccer but I was way better at it than lawn balls.  We just juggled the ball in a circle for what might have been an hour or so.  The boys were getting sweaty.  Peoples clothes were ripping from being so into it.  I loved it! Like I keep saying, I love sports.  I was so happy to just be handling a ball of some sort, it didn't have to be a volleyball.  I was also happy with my executive decision to wear spandex under my dress.  This allowed for me to do as I pleased and not worry about showing any goods, if you know what I'm saying.  

Prom King and Queen!

The sun did set, and we could no see the ball anymore so we called it quits.  It was now time for dinner so I was not too upset that I couldn't play soccer anymore.  There were tables set up for everyone and it truly did remind be of a prom, a small prom.  Also, Shelley and Jez dressed up as teachers so that was even more of a factor making it feel like prom.  They had to make sure we kept room for Jesus.  We even had a Prom Queen and King.  Girl Kim and Quentin were the lucky winners of this, and they rightfully won it.  They looked the most thrift shop prom out of all the interns.

After dinner there was dancing.  We had a jukebox which doubled as a karaoke machine.  And once you have had a bit of wine and beer in you, the karaoke machine always seems like a good idea.  We were singing and dancing the night away!! I didn't leave the party until about 2.  I had so much fun with everyone.  It is bittersweet in a way though because it is one of the last hoorays.  Everyone except Brooke, Andrea and I are done this Friday.  They all leave Saturday the 20th! I am going to miss them so much and I like to say that I will see them again someday but you never know.  Everyone is scattered so far around the world that the chances are slim to see them.  Hopefully we have made strong enough friendships were we do try and visit each other in our homes. 

The Winemakers Told Her To! 

Oooo Boys....

Good Ol' Beau

Getting Into The Karaoke

That Helium Brought So Much Entertainment