Christmas Eve

Look at that food spread! Cheese perogis. Cabbage perogis. Herring. Fish. Prawns. Potato salad. Cheesecake. Apple cake. JD. Scotch. Mmmmm.

Marty and I went to his grandmother's for Christmas Eve (Babcia in polish) where we dined with cousins, aunts and significant others. There was a lovely, lit Christmas tree and the Christmas Eve program playing on TV in the background. Merry Christmas from Australia!!

Throw another shrimp on the barbie, mate!!

Octopus

Prawns...eww.

Dory Fish

The whole lot..wine included


Tonight I had a real AUSSIE barbecue!! Prawns. (aka shrimp.) Octopus. Squid. Fish. Veggies. It was delicious (see above)!!!!! Marty helped, of course. OK, he did the whole thing. I cleaned the kitchen. No prawns for me..I'm allergic. With the dozens of little creepy eyes staring at me from the bowl..I didn't mind. What a fabulous way to celebrate the holiday season in Australia!

Temp work for the holidays

Military band playing Christmas carols at Central Station


“Welcome to HPM Legrand, Mariah speaking.” Such was the motto of life for about a week in December, as I landed a temp job with an electronic supplier company called HPM. I acted as receptionist, answering phones, diverting calls on a switchboard of 200+, servicing invoices, managing ingoing and outgoing mail and courier services, scanning documents and more. It was for a week and a half before Christmas, right up until Christmas Eve day. I had fun, met tons of people, and maximized my time by distributing my resumes to the HR manager, one of my bosses, and the head of customer service. Hopefully more work becomes available for me in the new year! The job was in Auburn, about an hour away. I took a bus to central station and then a train to Auburn. On the 22nd of December there was a military band at central station playing Christmas carols (see above), and it was quite lovely. I enjoyed my temp work at HPM, and I was especially happy to have full-time work, which translates to more money, honey!

Melbourne Trip #2

ANZ Banking Museum (The Former Melbourne Stock Exchange on Collins Street)


Sydney vs Melbourne: when it comes to Christmas trees, Sydney definitely wins. The one at Martin Place (pictured in an entry below) is NOT plastic and NOT made out of purely electric stars. FYI: Most people prefer one city to the other. Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia, and is said to move at a much slower pace than Sydney. Melbourne has the arts, music, pubs and cafes. Sydney has the harbour, the bridge, the opera house and the night-life. Back in the day, they couldn't decide what the capital should be: Melbourne or Sydney. To resolve the issue, they chose a different city altogether: Canberra. I've been there; it's boring as. (For all you Americans out there, no, there is not an end to the analogy. It's just "boring as" or "sweet as." As what? you ask. NO ONE KNOWS.)


Discovering Melbourne's famous alleys and laneways, where some of the best pubs with live music are hidden


Beautiful view of Melbourne over the Yarra River


View from the restaurant on Tuesday night: a helicopter landing on the Yarra River. Said to be the "upside down river," it basically just carries a lot of mud and silt near the surface and is thus pretty gross to swim in. 242 kilometers long, its upper reservoir provides for much of Melbourne's water supply.


A table full of Yamaha piano teachers! From Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth


The dining room area of our executive apartment :)


Living Room


Glorious Kitchen


Monday morning was an early start. Up at 5 am, flight departed at 7:15. The other Sydney girls and I got to sit together again, and I tried to take a quick snooze on the plane. I was still pretty tired from my long weekend, but managed to shut my eyes for most of the flight. Excitement and songs in my head prevented real sleep from coming my way. “Tiny ants are marching, 1-2-3!” rang in my ears. The flight was delayed about a half an hour, but finally we arrived in Melbourne safe and sound. We were a little bit late to day one of the seminar, but in one piece nonetheless.

All day long, thirteen new Australian music teachers sang about tiny crabs, marched to the tune of elephants, waltzed with bears and imagined aliens landing from above to eery music. We took turns teaching the class, observed our peers and learned from each other. By the end of the day, we WERE three-year olds, calling out randomly or playing wrong notes to emulate a real Music Wonderland classroom.

We finished at 8 pm, and took a cab back to our apartment. It was glorious! They weren’t kidding when they said “executive apartment.” It was pretty spacious, with a huge kitchen, dining room table, living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The four of us were pretty impressed with Yamaha’s effort to accommodate us (see above). It almost made it ok that they didn’t pay for our meals, but not quite.

We had a quick walk around the area, but ended up back home fairly quickly. We were all exhausted—especially me—and I was dead set asleep by 10:30 pm. I slept brilliantly, however, and ended up waking up at 4:20 am raring to go before realising what time it was and going back to sleep. I finally got up around 7, showered, got ready, and the four of us had breakfast right across the road. We cabbed it to Yamaha headquarters, and another fun-filled day of learning/teaching began.

Music Wonderland class consists of 3 ½ to 4 year olds, and Junior Music Class (JMC) is 4-5 year olds. The first two days of the seminar was purely MWO training, and it was all the training we were to get until our first class. By the end of the two days, however, we all had sung or heard the songs at least a dozen times, if not more.

Around 5 pm we all headed down to dinner together, which Yamaha graciously paid for. The restaurant was called Automatic, and it was a pretty good meal. I saved half of mine for lunch the next day, to save money. :) After dinner us Sydney girls really had a good look around Melbourne, walking around trying to find shops that were open. No such luck, but it was an adventure nonetheless. We arrived back at our apartment at around 9 pm, and chilled out for a little bit before climbing into our wonderful, freshly made beds. I wasn’t as tired as I had been the night before, and did a bit of reading. I finished off my latest book, The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Gelty. It wasn’t that great of a book, and I don’t recommend it. Now I’m reading The Interpretor of Malodies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and so far it’s pretty good. It’s a collection of short stories.

My temp agency called me on Tuesday arvo, and found me work for the Christmas season, which is fantastic. I work full time right up until Christmas eve!! I'm excited to be making money :)

Wednesday morning: We checked out of the apartment around 9, had some breakfast, and made our way to Yamaha for one last time in 2009. Wednesday was all about JMC, and a different instructor was leading the way. I enjoyed it much, much more than I thought I would. I mean, I knew I would love it, but I was so stoked about teaching the 3 year olds in Music Wonderland that I figured it would be my favourite class to teach. I was wrong. Yamaha continues to blow me away, and I think that I'll actually enjoy teaching the pre-schoolers more. We sing solfege drills, teach them lyric songs, and give them a fundamental sense of basic musical elements. It's not just putting on a show for the kids and encouraging them to participate; they're expected to participate in the class at this point and are more willing to be dependent from their parents. I could ramble on about Yamaha philosophies and strategies for a while, but I'll spare you (whoever "you" are). The point is..I LOVE IT! I've found my calling. Someday, I WILL open up my own studio. "Miss Mariah's Music." Call now to book your future kids' spots :)

The day was long, but we ended at 5 pm and headed to the airport. Virgin Blue, our airline, had a massive computer crash the night before. As in their entire system went down. Hard to believe for 2009, but it happened, and ALL Virgin Blue travellers had to check in manually. As a result, of course, all the flights were delayed, and the delays were still happening 12 hours later on Wednesday night. We landed around 10:15 pm, and as soon as my head hit the pillow around 11, I was out like a light. Yamaha trip/job/career prospects=great success.

I'm on a Boat

Ferry on the Hawkesbury River


Beautiful view of the Hawkesbury


Me and Marty up top on the deck


The House Boat--rooms on the left and right, living room ahead to the left, kitchen and dining space to the right


You can kiiind of see the outline of how huge this sucker was!


One of hundreds of jellyfish

My weekend was spent on a boat. It was sunny all weekend. There was unlimited food and drinks. Water skiing. Tubing. Some pretty intense games of uno. Poker. Barbies. (That’s “barbeques, for all you silly Americans.) Birthday cake. Beer. Bubbly. Not bad for a weekend in mid-December!

I did, however, get slightly burnt. Just on my back, but it was pretty bad. It kept me off the water skis, to be certain…well, that and the MASSIVE amounts of JELLYFISH that were floundering about in the Hawkesbury River (see above).

We drove out to Wiseman’s Ferry, about an hour northwest of Sydney, on Friday arvo around 5 pm. Traffic was horrid, and we stopped at a drive-through bottle-o on the way for some spirits. (Bottle-o=liquor shop; spirits=liquor). We finally got there around 7 pm, and Jon and Jazz came to fetch us in a motorboat from the dock. The whole weekend was in celebration of Jon’s birthday (Jazz is his wife) and they rented out the houseboat. It was much more spacious than I thought, with beds for all 12 of us. There was a lounge area, a dining area, bathroom, the front and back parts of the boat (where the barbie was) and a huuuuge space up top with a table and chairs. I myself camped out up top on the front of the boat for some sun bathing and relaxing, where my back got the better of me and the Ozzie sun won over sunscreen. FYI, Australia is experiencing the worst heatwave in a century. Remember the bushfires of January? Hopefully they won't come back in 2010! Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. Two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the age of seventy. Scary.

With such intense heat, it's no wonder that a half hour under the Australian sun is like two hours under the American sun. It’s the same sun, but it hits you much harder.

The first time I went to a beach in Australia, down in Wollongong (yes, that’s the real name of a real city in Australia, and no, nobody here giggles when they say it), I was on the beach for no more than forty minutes and got burnt to a crisp--with piles of sunscreen on. My first encounter with the Pacific Ocean took place that same day, and needless to say, I was thoroughly beat up. I grew up splashing playfully in the mild waves of Lake Huron, the baby sister of the Pacific Ocean. In Wollongong, her big brother really let me know who was boss, tossing me around the water like a wet noodle. Up and down I went with the rips and currents, my body sucked in or spat out at its leisure. Salt invaded my mouth, an ingredient not shared with little lakes. Along with the salt, of course, comes sharks. During the coarse of my first two weeks here, there were three shark attacks. One attack was in Bondi (five minutes from me) another shark feasted on a teenager's leg, and still another victim was none other than a Navy diver; his leg was later amputated. If a navy diver can't escape them, what chance do the rest of us have!? As much as I love and adore Australia, my heart will always be with the Great Lakes.

Speaking of sharks, this river is also home to bull-sharks, though we didn’t see any this weekend. What we did see, as I mentioned, were heaps and heaps of jellyfish. Everywhere. Standing at the front or back of the boat, one had to wait only a few seconds before a jellyfish floated by, casually drifting along with its tentacles lagging threateningly behind it. Jenna got stung pretty badly while she was water skiing, as she wasn’t wearing a wetsuit. I myself had a VERY close encounter with one. I had just jumped (admittedly, a few beers deep) from the top deck of the boat into the cool, refreshing water below. It felt fantastic, as the sun had been beaming its cancer-infested rays upon on me all day. As I made my way to the surface, however, I felt something like wet plastic brush up on the side of my face. Of course, I immediately brushed it off and swam towards the boat, terrified. Low and behold, Marty laughed when I finally scrambled up the ladder to safety (there was a current, and despite my swimming, the boat only inched its way closer to me as I kicked). “Jellyfish,” he said. “Right by your face. I would have warned you, but you didn’t give me any time.” Suffice to say, that was my last contact with that river water. Shortly before that, I had gone out on the motor boat and was watching Marty water ski. He didn’t get very far, however, as before he could get a grip on the rope, it got caught on his finger. He signalled us over, and it was swollen, gushing blood, and slightly purple. Strike two was my encounter with the jellyfish, and strike three was Jenna’s rashes. I miss Lake Huron!

But the sunsets were beautiful, the food was delicious and the company was fantastic. There were twelve of us, and by the end of the weekend I had gotten to know most of them pretty well. Living on a boat will do that for people.

By Sunday arvo I was fairly tired, pretty burnt (on my back, at least) and ready for a nap. We cleaned up around noon, headed back to the dock and back home we went. I was asleep in the car within twenty minutes.

Sunday night was a lot of relaxing, in preparation for my big week with Yamaha in Melbourne. I went over my music a few times, and felt more than ready. Confident in every song, I knew that I would blow those Yamaha people away with my preparation work and enthusiastic smile. All my lyrics were down pat, my made-up dance movements well-rehearsed, and my solfege singing more or less on key and ready to teach to the children. Yamaha, bring it on!!

Favourite Blind Assasssin Passages

"When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You're your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too--leave them behind. You don't yet know about the habit they have, of coming back. Time in dreams is frozen. You can never get away from where you've been." p. 485

"Hope throws a smokescreen. Smoke gets in your eyes and so no one is prepared for it, but suddenly it's there, like an out-of-control bonfire--like murder, only multiplied. It's in full spate." p. 565

"How could I have been so ignorant? she thinks. So stupid, so unseeing, so given over to carelessness. But without such ignorance, such carelessness, how could we live? If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next--if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions--you'd be doomed. You'd be as ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to." p. 632

Updike: The King of Descriptive Writing

I rabbit-earred (that's funny, because the main character is named Rabbit) some of my favourite passages in Rabbit at Rest. He is truly the King of Descriptive Writing. Going for pages without dialogue, he puts the reader smack in the middle of the scene he's depicting, revealing colours, smells, feelings and atmospheres as if his reader were blind.

Published in 1990 (taking place in 1989), he saw glimpses of the modern world:
"The number of trim youngist professionals in lightweight suits and tight linen skirts has ballooned. They bask, these young paperpushers, beside the abstract cement fountains, reading The Wall Street Journal with their coats off and neatly folded...the women of this generation especially fascinate Harry; they wear running shoes instead of high hells but their legs are encased in sheer pantyhose...their hips have been pared and hardened by exercise bicycles and those ass-hugging pants that mold around every muscle like electric-colored paint. These women seem visitors from a slimmed-down future where sex is just another exercise and we all live in sealed cubicles and communicate through computers." pp. 228-229

Updike wasn't too far off from today's world, where girls in tight black pants reveal all and social networking and the Internet--communication through computers--is commonplace.

"We are each of us like our little blue planet, hung in black space, upheld by nothing but our mutual reassurances, our loving lies." p. 261

"This row used to end Wilbur Street; development had stopped at a gravel turnaround, and an abandoned gravel quarry made the transition to the mountain's shaggy back side. Now a double row, now quite new, of shingled condominiums, with strangely exaggerated chimneys and gables like houses in a child's storybook, occupies still higher ground. The windows and doors and trim boards of these condos are tinted in pale and playful colors. The plantings and little lawns are still tenuous; last night's downpour washed from the defrosted acres of the mountain reddish mud that has drifted, hardening, all along the fresh curbs and overflowed onto the street's blue-black asphalt. We're using it all up, Harry thinks. The world." p. 323

At a funeral, listening to the minister talk about his mistress, who had died of cancer:
"Harry sits there beside snuffly Janice, thinking of the wanton Thelma he knew, how little she had to do with the woman the minister described; but maybe the minister's Thelma was as real as Harry's. Women are actresses, tuning their part to each little audience." p. 368

Guilty as charged, at times. :)

"Rabbit switches the radio off, hating the sound of the human voice. Vermin. We are noisy vermin, crowding even the air. Better the murmur of the tires, the green road signs looming in the lights and parabolically enlarging and then whisked out of sight like magicians' handkerchieves." p. 434

I closed the book quite satisfied, but still curious about one thing: according to the contents, the book is divided into three sections:

I. FL
II. PA
III. MI

This makes sense, as the novel begins in Florida, where Rabbit and his wife have a condo for the winter, and progresses back to PA, where they live most of the year. But not once in the entirety of its 505 pages did Updike mention the state of Michigan. The characters never went there, never talked about or referred to it. What gives, John?

All in all, however, a great read.

The Worst Photographer :(

My first BENDY BUS!! On the ride home from work Friday

A picture's worth a thousand words...meaning, unfortunately, that I'll just have to give you 1,000 words. I've been terrible about taking pictures this past week (with the exception of the above photo-lame, I know), but I'm resolving to take more this week!

Things have been fairy uneventful since my spell of bad luck. Thursday, work. Friday, work. Applying for jobs during the day, hoping and hoping that I get a call soon. Friday night was a quiet one at home reading. I finished Updike a while ago and have also torn through The Old Man and the Sea. I'm currently tackling The Optimist's Daughter, another book among the Pulitzer Prize for fiction winners. Before I die, I WILL read the entire list!

Yesterday, Saturday, I had work all day again. Then I headed to Darlinghurst for a friend's birthday party. Today, Sunday, was relaxing again. A beautiful day! Not looking forward to work this week, but hoping that things will turn up soon :)

A bit short of 1,000 words, but there's really nothing more to say. This weekend I'm going on a CRUISE for the weekend with Marty! One of his mates is turning 30 and his wife arranged a cruise weekend. Next Monday I'm in Melbourne again, this time for three days (!!) for Yamaha seminars. I've been practicing heaps, singing with karaoke versions of the songs, playing and singing, memorizing body motions as well as solfege arrangements. When the time comes, I'll be ready to kick some Yamaha ass :)

Feeling Down, Down Under

View from Dudley Street in Coogee--don't let it fool you, that was moments before my day spiraled out of control

Usually I try to keep my blog entries cheerful and upbeat, but luck is just not with me this week. At all. It all started yesterday morning when I went to see Chris Ohio in Coogee. I packed up my backpack with laptop and charger (to possibly do some writing/exchanging of ideas over at his place) and put my purse in there, as well. I carried my wallet and phone with me (phone to answer, obviously, and wallet for bus pass) and when the 314 rolled up, I was pleasantly surprised: 1 December, and Christmas is in the air! (It's also the first day of summer in Australia...go figure.) Here's what my bus looked like:


Christmas bus!!


Damn Distracting Decorations....

Obviously, I was pretty excited and happy that I got to ride the Christmas bus. Unfortunately, I got a little bit carried away with admiring the decorations. (And listening in awe to this extremely dumb girl talking on her mobile to one of her friends. She had, by far, THEE ditsiest laugh I've ever heard in my life. She said things like, "Oh my gosh, I thought you said onions! And I was like, ohmygosh, onions aren't that heavy! And you don't even like onions! Hehe!!" It was truly intriguing. Does she have any idea how silly she sounds? My guess is no.) Anyway, I was so distracted by this silly Australian girl and the blow-up Santas and lights all around me that I somehow managed to leave my wallet on the bus. (Yes, ironic that the entire ride to Coogee I was thinking how dumb this girl is, and then I go and do something like that.) How? you ask. How, Mariah, could one be so stupid as to do such a thing? Well, it's called being absent-minded, and I'm great at it. It must have been on the seat next to me, or on my lap and slipped off without me noticing, but when I arrived at Chris Ohio's apartment, I no longer had it with me. I think that I'm so used to having it in my purse, which was in my backpack, and when I carry a backpack I usually keep my wallet inside, so nothing was unusual until I got to Chris'. I was talking about how I could only have a few beers later, because I didn't have much money, and suddenly I was overcome with panic. Of course, that's when I realised what I had stupidly done.

It gets worse. When I had gotten on the bus, I texted Chris that I was on the way. (Perhaps this is the point at which the wallet was set down?) Alas--no go. "Message failed," my phone read, and I realised that I was out of credit. It wasn't a big deal at the time, and I resolved to get more credit when I got to Coogee. But, as soon as my wallet was gone, and I had no phone credit, my day was suddenly looking pretty awful.

It gets worse. Chris and I walked to Coogee to get the number for STA (Sydney Transportation Authority) to try and get my wallet back (Chris has no internet in his apartment) and it starts to rain. HARD. I mean, it was chucking down out there. Luckily, Chris had lent me a jumper (hoodie), so I was able to stay warm, but still. My day was not improving.

It gets worse. We decided to wait around until the 314 bus came back around. We figured it had to eventually, as it only went from Bondi and Coogee, and that it would be EXTREMELY hard to miss.The outside of the bus had been decked out, too. I mean, a Christmas bus. We resolved to run after any such bus we saw. Plus, we knew that Sydney buses drive the same route all day. When it gets to its destination, it just turns around and goes back the other way. No such luck.

Tick...tock...tick...tock. TWO AND A HALF hours went by, and no Christmas bus. Lots of rain, lots of wind, and lots of OTHER buses went by (374, 373, plain and undecorated 314s), but no 314 Christmas bus. We arrived at the bus stop in Coogee (where the 314 ended) around 12:30 and stayed until 3. At one point we saw a decked out bus on the other side of the road, and sprinted after it. Alas, it was a 373 Christmas bus!! But..not MY Christmas bus. No blow-up Santa; a mini-Christmas tree stood in its place. I bet the driver never saw two unhappier people to see a mini-Christmas tree on a public transportation bus.

I'd called the RTA three times (with Chris' phone), and each time they promised to follow up on my wallet case and call me back. Luckily, since it was the Christmas bus, they knew the bus number AND the driver's name (Chris, actually). But apparently the bus I was on was his last shift (of course) and he was not able to be contacted. They have my phone number if it turns up, but I have little hopes. I also filed a report with the New South Wales police, but again--I can only hope. What keeps me going/hoping is the fact that (as you can see above), the bus was filled with lots of old people (as it usually is in the middle of the day). Maybe old people are nicer and more likely to turn it in? Also, I'm hoping that all the Christmas decorations put passengers in a lively, spirited, Christmas-y, GIVING spirit. I hope. Come on, Australians, let your kind and hospitable nature shine through for me!

What exactly was in my wallet? Luckily, I'm pretty poor at the moment (wait, that's not lucky...), so only five dollars in cash was lost. Importantly, however, my USA driver's license is gone, along with my UNSW student ID card. Furthermore, I've lost my health card, credit card, bank card and a few business cards. The credit card was cancelled within minutes, and a new bank card was on the way within an hour. (My bank branch was a few blocks from the bus stop, and in between 314s arriving I ran over and explained what happened. Luckily, I have my bank information stored in my phone, so I was able to take out some cash as well as order a new card.) Unfortunately, I now have no identification. I highly doubt that I'll be able to get a new Michigan license, and a new student ID card will probably cost around $25. This means I have to carry around my passport for ID, and that just has DANGER...BAD IDEA written all over it. I think I can get a "proof of age" card of some sort from NSW (New South Wales), but I have to figure that one out.

Anyway, so I ended up not going to work, in desperate hopes that I could find that 314 Christmas bus and get my wallet back. No such luck, and I still missed work. Of course, I couldn't call them to let them know, as I had no phone credit nor their number. Since I'd called the RTA office with Chris' phone, by the end of the day he was out of credit as well!

Around 4 we gave up and headed back to Chris'. We watched Super Troopers, which made me feel HEAPS better, and walked to Randwick Rugby Club around 7 to meet up with Marty and Dave for steak night. Home, then bed, only to have a restless sleep.

TODAY, Wednesday, started out ok, like yesterday. Still no phone credit, so I couldn't follow up on my wallet. I wrote and read this morning, finished The Old Man and the Sea, and edited my brother's college essay a bit. I worked heaps on my Yamaha music, which made me SUPER happy :) Plus, i got an e-mail from the recruitment agency to which I had interviewed for yesterday morning, and I'm officially registered. That was fantastic news, as all I need now is for a company to need me and for my agency to call! I headed to North Sydney around 2 for work, stopping at a news agency to get a bus pass on the way with the cash I had withdrawn yesterday.

Work was boring, but fine. I took a bus to Randwick to get some groceries after work, and as I was walking out I realised that my bus pass had fallen out my pocket. My back pocket, in jeans. How does that happen? Why me?! Sooo I lost another $8 today from the bus pass that mysteriously fell out of the back pocket of my jeans. Sigh. I'm hoping that my luck will turn VERY VERY soon, and that someone calls me for FULL-TIME WORK very very SOON!

Moral of the blog: Things aren't always as happy as they seem. There are always things going on between the lines of BEACH and YAMAHA and BEAUTIFUL DAY and !!!! I never blog about my personal relationship problems, or when I'm feeling sad or homesick or missing my friends, because I want this to be a reflection of the HAPPY American in Oz. But I've just had such a stream of bad luck lately, and I need to get it off my chest. That being said, I do have many, many things (and people) to be thankful for. Life isn't so bad, no matter how stupid of a thing I do or how much money I can't make or how many things I misplace. I have to keep my head above water, and hope (know) that things will look up for me soon. Because they will!

"Everything will be ok in the end. If everything isn't ok, then it isn't the end."

(Yes, what a silly saying. I remember reading it on someone's AIM profile back in the height of AIM, aka 7th or 8th grade. For some reason, I've always remembered it. It's not a profound Chinese proverb or anything, but it works.)

Oh, and the dude below also made me really happy while I was shopping tonight. An Aussie in Wooly's without shoes on, just hangin' out, buying some bananas, no big deal. Shoes? Too much effort. Does it matter that it's 10 pm at night, and that he is absolutely NOT about to go to the beach? Most definitely not. We're in Australia. Shoes/socks=overrated.



Good night, Australia. (Good morning, America.) Hopefully my next entry will be a happy one!