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.