Road Trippin AUS

I have always loved road trips (although I am sure my mom would disagree).  So I guess I will be more specific: I love all the road trips that are in my cognizant memory.  My friend Liz and I (from Berkeley) made road tripping from LA to Berkeley an amazing and exciting 7 hour experience.  We would often sing songs at the top of our lungs, have meaningful conversations and eat lots of bad foods.  After all, that is what road trips are all about! Right?

Last weekend, by the amazing and sort of ridiculous tradition of Australians’ celebrating the Queen of England’s birthday, Todd had a four-day weekend.  We tossed around lots of ideas but finally settled on a four day road trip with no real destination or plans; we just headed south.  Ahhh yes, I forgot to mention this and I know Todd was extremely excited about this part of the weekend and would be devastated if I left it out: Friday night we went rock climbing.  Yes on real rocks, yes with all the proper safety equipment and yes it was hard.  It wasn’t so much the height that really got to me but the fact that hauling my 60 kilo frame up a wall is hard on my arms and legs and reaching the top once was quite enough.  Of course I forgot to look out once I reached the top which is really a shame because we were at Kangaroo Point and the Brisbane river and city lights were glistening behind me.  Oh well, next time! By the way, Todd was scared too ;-P

Back to the drawing board, Saturday morning Todd and I intended to leave around 12 but after heaps of errands and chores around the house we finally hit the road at 5… when it was already dark… We both joked about how we should just sleep at his place that night and leave instead the next morning but trucked on to Ballina, a beachside town near Byron Bay (south of where I live, known as one of the most famous beaches in Australia, kinda reminds me of Santa Cruz for all you Americans…).  We shelled out and paid for a patch of grass in a caravan park for the night and grilled hamburgers topped with hummus, lettuce, beets, tomato etc.  The next day we decided that paying for grass in the middle of a town is very silly and downloaded a very helpful iphone app on Todd’s phone which showed us National Park campsites ($10 a person at most).  We followed this for the next two nights and stayed in two beautiful places.  Sunday morning we drove inland towards Wollomombi waterfall, the highest waterfall in Australia.  We stayed Sunday night right near the falls and at a freezing 1,400 meters above sea level that night.  We were not prepared for the cold or the rain that kept us company all weekend but we managed fine with wood fires and bedtimes of 7:30, which kept us warm in the tent :) 

The next morning we ingeniously packed up the inside of the tent with the fly still standing so that our tent would still be dry for the next night (my brilliant idea ;)) and then headed to the falls.  After admiring them for 5 min or so we decided that it was way too cold, and let’s be honest: we were way too lazy, to walk down closer to the falls and we headed to Coffs Harbor.  This is where Guy (my house mate) is from and the location of the Big Banana (Australian businesses have a fetish for large fiberglass figures, but heck they are good marketing!).  After walking up mutton bird island (where they go to lay eggs) we headed out of Coffs and towards home.  We stayed our last night at Station Creek which was a park that we had completely to ourselves.  We made another big “boom” fire (as Roman says) and Todd introduced me to another Australian tradition: Jaffles.  You take two pieces of bread, butter them and put them butter side down on the jaffle iron (kinda like a waffle iron).  They you place cheese and ham or egg on the bread and put it straight in the fire.  It was amazing.  Gooey cheese and toasted, slightly burnt bread, perfect camping food! (although smores are still better ;) )

Todd and I wandered through some small towns and shops on the way back North and observed the road trippin rules: singing, bad food, and meaningful conversations.  Amazingly, he isn’t tired of me yet! Ha ha :)  It was an incredibly perfect weekend and even the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits!


More pieces through pictures: 

We stopped at this "scottish" town- basically a normal small town with scottish themed telephone poles and banners up and down the main street.  Cute idea! Heck, it encouraged us to stop! 

Todd packing up the tent from the inside out while it rained (second night) 

Our picturesque campground from the 3rd night 

Coff's Harbor 

Beautiful rock pools/ tide pools right by the beach 

Map of our trip courtesy of Todd :) 

Survival of the Fittest

Here it is! My project that consumed my life for the past few months :) Click HERE and it will take you to the Google Docs version.  It is not the best quality/ formatting so if you want me to send you a real copy over email just let me know! Also, please don't point out errors, I don't want it to be like a movie that was just released and then given bad reviews.  My movie is in the theatres and there is no turning back! If you do see errors, pat yourselves on the back because you are smarter than I! :) ha ha
More stuff to come on my amazing road trip to Coff's Harbor with Todd!

And per request from Aunt Cheryl, here is a picture of those huge sand dunes from Morton :)

Slice of paradise just a hop, skip and a jump away :)

 There is a little island directly east of Brisbane called Morton Island.  My adventure crew had never checked it out before because it is fairly expensive to get to and a few of us are on fairly tight budgets so we have never given this place “a go” before (that’s some Australian phrasing for ya ;) ).  In order to help celebrate my recently earned freedom; Al, his new girlfriend (Katelyn), Todd, Roman, some of Todd’s friends from work and I headed to Morton on Friday morning for some 4 wheeling, snorkeling in shipwrecks (amazing), surfing, and LOADS of yummy food.  Morton was absolutely gorgeous.  It mirrored most of the beautiful beaches here: white sand, crystal clear blue water, prehistoric looking shrubbery, blue endless sky etc.  I think the close proximity to Brisbane made the experience even more unreal.  At one point we climbed up these HUGE and I mean HUGE sand dunes.  Huge to the point where we would reach the top of one only to find an even bigger one towering behind.  As we stood on the top of the tallest one we could see Brisbane’s sky scrappers silhouetted.  It was fun to wiggle my toes in soft, white sand while looking out at civilization. 

4 wheeling is a new favorite hobby of mine.  I know it is probably not the best for the environment but at least these tracks are not paved and so don’t require more damage by construction workers coming in and stomping around while pouring asphalt.  We are always sure to drive on the tracks and it is really fun to go traipsing around the bush in Todd’s Toyota Hillux.  I kinda feel like a mix of Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and it is SO much better than the rides at Disneyland. 

I am really going to miss these trips when I go home.  I have such an incredible (but small, ha ha) group of friends here and I am going to miss hanging around the campfire with them; swapping stories, comparing food, playing cards, competing for shooting star sightings.  I am constantly bugging them about coming to visit so I hope they take me up on the offer!

Here are some pics from this weekend:

Sunset from the first campsite

Our second campsite guarded by two Toyota Hilluxs ;)

Todd and I after snorkelling :) 

Roman and I :) note his broken arm- he just wrapped it 10 times and snorkelled anyways!! crazy :) 

Morton seen from the lighthouse 

Beautiful Australian beaches... just the best! 

And just like that, the stress melts away!

My mind has been a ball of stress since I last wrote and I am just starting to massage it all away! It is pretty darn amazing.  Last Thursday, when I turned my paper in, I didn’t feel relief.  I wasn’t overjoyed and I was honestly still experiencing post-turn it in anxiety.  Now I am finally beginning to relax and I have sooo many of you to thank for allowing me to reach this new Zen place ;)

Mom, Sally, Grandma Sherry, Becky, Todd, thank you SOOO much for reading through my countless drafts and keeping me sane.  I could not have done it without you all!! 

Poor Todd had to witness my stressed out self for the first time.  Mom is completely used to my freak outs and one day when I called her crying she said, “I have been waiting for this, surprised it hadn’t happened before..” ha ha thanks mom :)   But she knows me! Me and my bipolar stress fits.  Todd dealt with it admirably and brought me flowers that are on steroids or something as they are still beautiful a week and a half later (no joke- and they are still fresh! Not the dried version that will soon be their fate). 

Through it all I managed to still have fun and squeeze in an AFL game in Brisbane and some other assorted activities (like starting and almost finishing the first 3 seasons of dexter- only 12 episodes each ;) ). 

If anyone is interested in slogging through 75 pages of thoughts on marketing, distribution and exhibition in the film/ tv industry you can find my paper on google docs but I will attach the link in the next post (it is still being approved/processed through google).  

First Draft Completed… Kinda :)

The beast that has been dominating my life is almost dead! As of today I have another 8 weekdays/ working days until my paper is due.  That count is leaving out weekends which I have been reserving for fun and I am also planning on turning the paper in a day early because the day the paper is due, Todd, Al, his new girlfriend, some other mates from Todd’s work and I are headed up to Moreton Island (near Brisbane) for a weekend of camping, snorkeling, hiking etc :) 

My paper has turned out better than I expected despite the fact that the marketing/ film industry is drastically changing right now and so I read about something every day that I want to include in my paper.  This issue translates to my paper as I am currently 400 words away from the word limit and I have yet to add in an intro, conclusion or review of sources.  I am sure that I will have to edit a ton but I have a strange fetish for editing so here comes the fun part! I have actually really enjoyed writing this paper and everything I have learned has made me really excited for the changes that are occurring in the industry.  Marketers and Hollywood studios are realizing that in order to survive, they have to cater products to specific demographics again.  This is a tactic that has been used before but then forgotten for the past 30 years or so with the saturation of blockbusters in the market and their hope that these movies would just appeal to everyone.  Anywhoo if anyone wants to read it, now or when it is in its final draft just let me know! Btw, brief overview in case you have NO idea what I am talking about: my dissertation is a review of the changes in marketing/ distribution/ exhibition in the Hollywood TV/ movie industry with specific focus on the 1920s/ 30s and the present.  It’s more interesting than it sounds, I promise! Ha ha

In other news, my constant search for new recipes has led to an amazing new routine.  Every day at 5 (sometimes earlier) I stop my work for the day and start to cook dinner.  This has given me a deadline each day to work towards, pushing me harder and giving Todd and I (or whomever I am cooking for) a nice reward! I love this cooking time.  I love looking at a recipe and choosing not to follow it, or following some aspects of it, or (in rare cases) following it to a T.  One of my most recent ventures I did follow very specifically (well kinda) because it required making a pie crust.  Actually, I didn’t follow it very well at all because I was making it gluten free but I did follow it as close as possible!  This slightly stressful/ nerve-wracking  recipe turned into an amazing butternut pumpkin and caramelized onion galette.  I found the recipe at smitten kitchen; (another variation on my part; pumpkin instead of squash because of availability issues) which I highly recommend y’all visit.  Super amazing stuff and fairly easy to make.  The pastry did turn out a little funky because of the gluten-freeness (not in taste, just in look) but the entire thing was really really good.  It is funny because I am always watching Todd’s face very carefully to see if he likes it or not and this was a definite success.  Poor Todd, my constant guinea pig, although I haven’t killed him yet! 

Mom and Jan come in 44 days and we have quite an adventure planned! Our travels include Melbourne, Tassie, Sydney and Airlie Beach (great barrier reef) and I can’t wait to explore new areas and show off places I have already been.  I can tell already that they last 2 ½ months are going to fly by WAY too quick :(

The problem with homework and having other things to do besides this blog is that I forget important things that I wanted to talk about.   All in favor of me skipping schoolwork so I can just focus on writing? Mmk :)
Becky was here in the month of Monday holidays.  Half of the Mondays we had off because of public holidays and one of those days was Anzac Day.  Since I am so used to quoting sources at this point because of my paper I will plug Wikipedia and state that “Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.” (don’t worry, I usually reference my works properly and I don’t use Wikipedia :) ) 

There are many traditions on Anzac Day including playing two-up at all pubs, surf clubs etc and dawn services.  Originally, Todd, Becky and I were planning on bike riding down to Currumbin for the supposedly best and biggest dawn service on the coast.  It started at 5am or so and we would have had to be up at 3 in order to bike the 13K.  Well the night before we got a little crazy and were playing cards with some of Todd’s friends, Stef and Kristy, so we ended up deciding to sleep more that 3 ½ hours and we drove down to Coolie (Coolangata) for the service instead.  This is the city I have mentioned many times (where the airport is, good surfing, Al’s place etc).  

The Anzac Day dawn service was extremely impressive.  It was set against a bay leading into the ocean and throughout the service we watched the sun rise as speakers discussed the bravery of the Diggers (slang term for Australian and New Zealand soldiers) and the other soldiers still fighting today.  Dawn services occur all over Australia (there were 3 happening between Mermaid Beach and Coolie where we went) and they all contain the following elements: introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, the playing of "The Last Post", a minute of silence, "Reveille", and the playing of both New Zealand and Australian national anthems.  As we discussed later, Becky and I stood there linked arm and arm both thought about how respectful and well done the service was.  There was no more than 150 people and we were all linked together in this incredible spot to pay tribute to fallen soldiers.  I have never experienced something so simple and considerate in relation to Veterans Day in the states.  I would say my only experience that comes close is during Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) at Hillel, all 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust are remembered as their name is read aloud in a continuous cycle that often lasts for 28 hours or so.  In any case, standing there watching the Anzac Day dawn service unfold made me think about what an incredible country I have been living in the past year and how much I will miss elements of it when I go home.  

Of course Australians cannot have a remembrance day or a holiday in general without some extra hubbub at the local pub.  For Anzac Day the key event is a game called two-up, the simplest form of gambling ever.  The game is played as so: one person calls out an amount they are betting such as $5.00 on heads and then someone else in the pub that is standing around in the circle will take that bet and say $5.00 on tails.  The spinner (the person flipping the coins) flips three coins in the air and best 2 out of 3 wins that round.  Nothing more complicated than that! Of course one can lose a lot of money very quickly this way (not that gambling in general is a big money maker).  This game is only played on Anzac Day in remembrance of the Diggers as they played this game to pass the time in the trenches.  We didn’t actually play any two-up as we ended up going water skiing later that day and then passing out early because of our crazy card session the night before ;) but it was really fun to learn about another unique Australian tradition. 

Ps. Happy Mother’s Day to all you special women out there! :) 

Long overdue updates!

Time definitely speeds up when you want it to slow down… the whole idea that minutes and seconds are a finite  measurement is all BS I say! Everything seems to speed up as I approach deadlines: my paper, going home, more visitors (which is the best part of that list).  The end of Becky’s stay was absolutely marvelous.  We had a good mix of study time and play time and managed to knock off nearly everything on the list of things that Becky wanted to do.  We went and pet a kangaroo and she held a koala, made Mexican food, ate TOO MUCH Mexican food, made and devoured golden syrup dumplings, went to Burleigh Heads, ate some Smiths Crisps (best potato chips around), ate steak, went to Byron Bay, made curried carrot soup (inspired by this soup we had in New Zealand) and last but not least, made and ate a ton of oatmeal cookies! My goodness I had no idea that our list was basically comprised of food… well we ate and conquered and are all the happier for it! :)  It was wonderful to have such an incredible friend experience my life here with me for a whole month.  We didn’t even get tired of each other one little bit and I promise we are still friends (in fact we talked today).  Becky is such a kind person and my friends really loved having her around.  I think they didn’t want her to leave just as much as me! The final week or so Becky started a list of differentiations in object names/ phrases between American English and Australian English and I am going to “borrow” her list, add to it, and post it at the end of this blog. 

It is weird to think of this chapter of my life closing soon.  I have met some incredible people and I hope that I will stay connected with some of them as I move back.  I remember that when I left some of my friends warned me that I was going to meet all these amazing people and then have to say good bye to them.   Therefore, the friendship/ effort wouldn’t be worth it but I have learned that sometimes the best friendships are formed when there is so much more at stake.  Come on, who wants to life to be easy, right?

In other news… I can now officially say that Todd is certifiably insane.  Two days ago we walked some of the Kokoda Challenge track that he completed last year.  For those who don’t remember/know, the Kokoda Challenge is a 96K hiking race in which the competitors walk the 96K track in one go, no sleeping.  It took Todd and his team 28 hours and I remember that last year when he returned from this insanity, he looked like death… ha ha.  Well on Monday Todd and I walked 13K of that track and I was feeling ok by the end but definitely ready to go home and eat and go to bed.  I have no idea how he managed to walk those mountains for 28 hours!  I have already had so much respect for his athleticism and slight craziness but now that I have walked a few miles in his shoes, I have to say that I will never be as crazy as him : )