Foster's

Newsflash: No one in Australia drinks Foster's Ale. Foster's in the large corp. that owns much of the beverage industry. But, it is not Australian for beer. Their beer is much, much better.

Travel tip: Don't come here and ask for a Foster's because the bar won't have it, and you just subjected yourself to endless taunting.

Cheers

Every Which Way

Okay, Tasmanians. They are nice. Not quite as cheery as most of the mainlanders, I think that has something to do with the cooler weather, but none the less, relatively pleasant. I have enjoyed my time in their state. It's been a fun exploration and learning experience.

For any of you that know anything about my sense of direction, you know that it is almost non-existent. So, city blocks and directions are sometimes challenging for me. If I don't know my way around via landmarks in a city, I'm pretty much sunk. And sunk I have been for just under a week.

Every Tasmanian that I have asked for directions in the past week has sent me in exactly the opposite direction that I need to be going in. After they told me what to do, I would always take my hand and point it in the direction that they had indicated. I always asked them, "so, I'm headed of that way, right?" I always got the same answer: "Yes!" I would always head off in that direction and find out in short order that I was walking in the exact opposite direction that I needed to be going in.

Thanks, guys. I've been lost about 25% of my time in Tasmania. Life is a highway, hey? Even if you are walking in the wrong direction. :-)

Cheers

Beer! I Love Beer!

I don't really have any profound observations about my travels in Tasmania. It all looks a lot like home, a lot more green and cooler. I had a bad feeling as I got on the ferry to come here, like, I just really shouldn't do it. Rightfully so, the first full 24 hours here were pretty close to the worst in my life. Overbooked hotels, stupid Tasmanians, mixed up reservations, stupid cab drivers. But, I'm over it all now, hopefully.

Launceston made up for Devonport's misfortunes. My second favorite brewery in Oz is in Launceston, it's called James Boag & Sons. They gave the best booze tour I've ever been on! And I liked all of the free beer and cheese they gave me. I made some friends, 3 boys from Queensland, that know their beer!

At the moment, I'm sitting in a hostel called the Pickled Frog in Hobart, TAS, enjoying the free internet and the random company walking by. Just loaned a Belgian 50 cents, and met a German who loved to talk about riesling, almost as much as I do. Tomorrow I'll tour the Cadbury factory, and maybe the Cascade brewery (3rd favorite beer in Oz). The following day, I'm going to try to go to Port Arthur and see me some Tassie Devils! They're being threatened by this weird cancer and wiped out quickly. It seems they've isolate a resistant population, but it's unknown as to whether or not they will win this one.

But, I think I will post my favorite Australian beer list here. Undoubtly, the beer is MUCH better down under. I will say, I think I tasted just about as much beer this first term as wine! What a learning curve! Favorites, little exported to the US, too bad, looks like I'll have to enjoy them for you:

1) Cooper's Original Pale Ale (fermented in bottle...rocking!)
2) James Boag's Premium Lager
3) Cooper's Sparkling Ale
4) Boag's St. George
5) James Boag's Premium Light Lager
6) James Squire Original Amber Ale
7) Boag's Draught

All very good.

I've updated my photos to current, finally. They are here: http://www.webshots.com/user/cnorth84

Enjoy!

Cheers

Girls are Talking

Okay, so, Peter warned me that winemaking was a boy’s game. He said he didn’t “really agree” with the way things were, but that was just how it is. He told me that in like, 2003, and I still remember it to this day. I remember just thinking, “Ha-ha, well, tough shit. This ought to be fun!”

The Finger Lakes are kind of a bad sampling with regard to this phenomenon. Wineries there usually have WOMEN in them. At least one or two as cellar hands or something else. So, there’s always at least a double XX in the room to even things out.

Such is NOT the case in Australia. I walked into the winery at CSU for the first time and I saw 5 cellar staff. Can you guess how many of them were female? Yep. ZERO. Mel is the ONLY girl that works at her winery that doesn’t wear heels to work everyday. Many many wineries here are testosterone party sessions.

There are very few women in the internal Wine Science program at CSU. Two in one year, two in the other year. Not many compared to the number of men. We make up maybe ten percent? We’re an awesome bunch too. One girl, Shell, came back to study internally after completing her vintage early. She is a very well dressed, stylish girl…very feminine. A lovely girl. When I first met her, I had trouble imagining her in boots at a winery. Then she extended her hand and I saw what is currently marring my hands: her fingernails were stained with red wine. If not dipped in the correct chemicals, these stains can hang on for a quite a bit. It struck me as cool that she could live in this dichotomy, essentially. Girly and lovely by night and living in a male dominated world all day. Mel does the same thing…she looks lovely anytime she’s out of the winery, but can hold her own with pumps and hoses, presses and crushers.

So, I’ll undoubtedly living in this dichotomy. But, that’s what we do: we’re women. We wear many hats, and all at the same time….oh, and, we wear them well! Friend, mother, sister, mentor, wife. We do it all.

Winemaking is all about multitasking and time management. Maybe, just maybe, we’re way better at it then the boys, but we’re just beginning to be discovered.


Cheers

12 April

Sometimes, to put things in perspective, people look backward. A year ago, five years ago, ten years ago. What was I doing then? How am I going now? Today’s date hit me like a ton of bricks while I was pumping over red wine at Mel’s winery today (WEEEEEEEE, Love it!). Today is April 12th.

On April 12th, 2006, I woke up, grumpy as all fuck because I had a physics exam that day. My normal routine included waking, rolling over, grabbing my computer, and checking my email. I decided to check my gmail that morning, something I rarely did. That week, I had been having horrible nightmares about these orange wallabies nipping at my feet because I had not heard whether or not I could go to Australia or not. I had job interviews line up for that weekend (Easter), and I was preparing for the worst. I opened my gmail and lo and behold, there was an email from Charles Sturt : Congratulations, Catrina, we’re pleased to offer you admission to the Bac Applied Sci Wine Science/Viticulture…I remember reading it twice then checking my pants to see if I’d wet myself. I did a little hop around my room, then went to pounce on Jen and whispered to her: “I’m going to Australia.” The occupants of Creekside 23 boozed in the greatest glory that night, consuming champagne and Australian wine (Pictured above). One of my favorite days ever. And, I flunked that physics test…who really gives a shit? ☺

And today. April 12, 2007. I woke up in David Wynn’s old place. Not kidding. I was staying with Mel on the property at Mountadam winery, because I’d been working there for the past few days. Mountadam is in the Eden Valley, basically a sub area of the greater Barossa Valley. I woke up early this morning, drank espresso, pumped over fermenting shiraz, cab sauv, merlot, etc. I even spilled about 20 litres of $80+/btl wine all over me. Yes, I now understand the concept of siphon expensively and intimately! I hurt all over, but I’ve had a fabulous three days. With all of the disappointment that came with CSU, I need reminders of why I am on this island, why I am here. A few days of a vintage work and I remember that the winery is home. Soaking wet floors, treacherous metal staircases, squeegees, smelly ferments, bentonite. I wouldn’t give it up for the world, even if it is a dirty job.

Gettysburg. Adelaide. Slightly different. Only one year! It’s all possible people!

The date on this entry will be off because it is April 12th now, but I have no internet! Yes, I am suffering as much as you.

Cheers

Sprinklers

Today, classes ended for the first term of my study in Australia. 7 weeks. That doesn't sound like a whole lot of time, now does it? That's not long enough to make any real change. Not long enough to come a long way.

I was struck with a sudden thought tonight when I was sitting in the lounge with the remaining few of us 385ers who haven't gone home yet. In 7 weeks, I've come a long way. The plane ride was just the beginning of the journey.

I remembered the few tears I shed when I felt the plane flying out of San Francisco leave the ground. I remember thinking, holy shit, I don't really like America, but I am extremely sad to see it go! Most of my tears were shed because of the people I left behind and to the uncertainties I was travelling to.

I then remembered my first day here at CSU. The kangaroo popping it's head out of the bush, my RA swooping in and saving me with a phone card so I could call home. Finally being able to unpack my stuff and realizing that I didn't have any hangers or drawers. And the sprinklers.

CSU works very hard to keep SOME green grass on campus by running sprinklers with used water in them. (Australia is in the middle of huge drought, so, it's NOT fresh water.) The sprinklers are rigged with an underground pipe system, the only visible part is the little black part that sticks up about 3 inches. (Yes, I have fallen ASS OVER TEAKETTLE because of them!) Well, they seemed to ignore the fact that they spray up against the sides of all of the cottages. My first night here, I was alone, and didn't know much about the surrounding area except for the pack of kangaroos that I could hear bouncing by. I had my windows open because it was fucking hot and I tried to go to sleep. Well, the SPRINKLERS were due to come on at some point that evening, and me, not knowing what they were noticed that they sounded a WHOLE LOT like rattlesnakes. So, I figured that there were snakes outside of my window, looking in on me. I barely slept that night. Yea, that was my first night in Wagga. My flatmates really like that story.

But today, as I was saying goodbye to people as they left one by one with hugs and whatnot, I was in awe. How far I'd come at putting my roots here in a few short weeks. I still have my bad days. Sometimes, I can't stand these American hating fuckers, but, they're still my Australian family, living in our Australian home away from home. A place where we make the boys watch Grey's Anatomy with us (I know you love it, Jer Bear) every Sunday, where we drink beers at noon time (Australian beer far out competes American beer, for the record), where we land after a night out and switch off whose job it is to make toasted sandwiches. We yell at one another about dishes. Bitch about flies. Gossip about who screwed ("rooted") who last night. It's remarkable, really. And then there's the wine science people, who I feel like I'm finally in with. Dennis, who thinks I'm the plant sen sai of his classes or Chris, who loves to quiz me on biochemistry. Three months ago, I had an entirely different cast of life characters. Now, I've met all of these people that are making me me, and it's been tough, but I'm not complaining.


...til they start bashing my sea to shining sea. Don't hate us 'cause we're fabulous, Australia. And yes, I still require an American flag for over my bed.

Off to Adelaide to see my favorite Australian (MEL!) for the Easter holiday, then off on some misc Tassie adventures! Can we say...I'm pumped! Three cheers for getting out and seeing the world!

Cheers

AMERICA: FUCK YEA

I need to have a quick little American moment before I run off to grape and wine science. Okay, so, you know how we all search for someone to blame when we're under stress and not happy with ourselves? It's that time of year here at CSU. The term ends Thursday and all of the grumpy procrastinators are out in full pissy force.

Well, I've discovered this week that's common Australian sport to just sit around and rip on everything American when they're all stressed out and freaked that their lazy than thou attitude caught up to them. I have made it clear that they were all fairly free to rip on the US, but just don't do it when a) I'm around or b) when they're not well researched because, well, I usually lay any one's shit out flat about things. Most people in the 50 nifty don't know what's going on in Oz, and most people in Oz don't really know what's going on the States, they actually know very little, they just think the know everything and can thereby comment on it and criticize it.

I can take criticism and bitching. That's what America was built on. It's what we do. I can even take being blamed for things. For example, apparently, the obesity epidemic is all the USs fault. No one else can be held responsible. It's apparently because we put hormones in our meat. Firstly, those two things are almost entirely unrelated. Secondly, Australians don't EAT our meat. Everything here is stamped "Proudly AUSTRALIAN". So, who's fault is it? The obesity epidemic is caused by a single point in a persons body...their ELBOW. It's what brings food to their mouths. The people in my house eat at McDonald's more than I ever had at home, and they want to blame us, me in particular, they seem to like to talk to ME about how HORRIBLE we are for making the world fat. Now, if these people were equipped with any kind of social filters, they may realize that that topic might be a TISCH sensitive for me and they may not constantly yell about it. I never bound and gag them and force them to go to McDonald's with me. Social fucking filter, people. Generalizations never simplify things for anyone else but you, 9 times out of 10, they're hurtful and they will cause other people to not like you so much! But, I can take that. I can roll it off of my shoulders, it's not really a huge deal. :-)

What I can't take is when they started criticizing my customs and culture. I was telling someone about a s'more (they don't have them!), and the fat ranter was like "Well, that's stupid. I'm glad we don't have that or we'd be fatter like all of you Americans." I nearly popped a vein. It's not like I go around BASHING their vegemite, kangaroos, and stupid speech phrases. I saw a bit of red. I can take criticism, but knock it off at customs and traditions. Leave those be and RESPECT. That's one thing I don't tolerate well: DISRESPECT. Fat ranter has lost all of my respect, probably never to regain it again. And I'm still a little sore about that comment.

Another theory. My flatmates think that without the US, the world would be much better off. Do you agree? I mean, really think about that. I'm sure you all can think of a million reasons why and why not. Regardless, I would NEVER come right out and say that to an Australian. I would never be like "Oh, well, I think the world be so much peaceful without Australia." GET real. Come on.

Another one I liked was that Americans were "selfish and stupid". On youtube, there is a video (just query "stupid Americans") of an Australian reporter asking people random simple questions on the streets of the US. The flatmates were most shocked when the people couldn't ID Australia on a map. So, in their eyes, that makes everyone stupid. I mean, everyone. Including me, because, I obviously am unable to locate Australia on a map. And the selfish thing. Don't even get me started. Before all of this had happened, I had been noticing just how selfish most Australians. It's not a selfish thing like in a negative way, they're just all very Aussie-centered. I can't blame them, this is a great place! It's probably due to this that they don't see themselves in the mirror. Self reflect, look at your own habits, then make another judgment. But don't include me in your generalization of "selfish" America.

To finish it off, I got told that when one of my flat mates first met me, I was "lucky" that she didn't "judge me" because I was an American. (And a FAT American...she's the fat ranter.) Her father is an American, yet, she carries this uncommon hatred for us. WTF, mate? Cool it. I responded by saying, "Yea, you are lucky you didn't treat me poorly, because, I'm not the kind of girl you want on your bad side." I thought Australians were supposed to be cool! Whatever happened to "No Worries!" Again, proof that generalizations, whether positive or negative, aren't always true.

But this is true: There are TURDS wherever you. If anyone finds a turd free location, please let me know.


In the mean time, could some please send me an American flag to put up in my bedroom?


Rant Concluded.

Cheers