DISGUSTING?!

Australians. Crack. Me. Up. They're known for being one of the most laid back countries, in fact, this reputation precedes them globally. They, in theory, shouldn't ever worry about anything. There motto is "No worries, mate."

But, the truth is, it's true, they don't freak out about the big stuff. You know, life decisions and the like...things that a person SHOULD freak out about, they have a very laxadazical (sp?) attitude about. But, about STUPID things, they freak out. Today, in my pinot seminar, the woman sitting next to me was being a real irritable kid all day. When one of the last speakers was speaking, the poor old guy didn't have his presentation loaded onto the screen. So, they had to go get one of the Conference Centre tech guys to load it. In the meantime, he started talking about what he had researched. This lady next to me started like chucking all of her stuff into her bag and start talking REALLY loudly about how "disgusting" this was. Disgusting!? DISGUSTING!? That's not exactly the word that I would use for it.

So, we Americans freak out about everything, but, probably not about the poor man loading his PPT presentation. Who's better off? I can tell you who's funnier, that's for sure!

Cheers

Opa!

A week or so ago now, I went home with one of my favorite Australians, Marissa, to stay with her family for a few nights after our biochem final finished. The plan was to go "to the snow" so that she and her sister could do some skiing. I don't ski (obvi), but I went along really just to prove to myself that there was snow in Australia. (There is, really.)

In any case, it was nice to be with a family again. Twentysomethings make a nice temporary family, but there's something comforting about being around someone else's Mom and Dad, Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents that makes you feel, in a strange way, closer to your own. Marissa's grandfather, whom they call Opa, so that is what I know him as, is quite possibly the cutest Australian I've seen! He's an older guy, and he lives in White Cliffs, NSW. White Cliffs is about as outback as it gets. As Marissa explained it to me, they don't actually have a hospital or doctors there, the doctors fly in once a week. (Strange concept for an industrialized nation, no?) What happens mostly in White Cliffs is opal mining. The above photo is a picture of the opal mines taken from the air. (I have a postcard if you want to see.) It gets up to 50 degrees C (well over 100 F) in here in the summer time, "in the shade!", according to Opa. Opa never wears anything on his feet but thongs, and he is wrinkly and sunburned all the time because of the heat. He's not fussed by the heat at all, he said, he reckons that it doesn't really matter to him how hot it is (!). In Albury, where I was, he was most uncomfortable because he had to wear a shirt, socks, and shoes on account of the cold. He had even fallen ill when he was in the cold, poor guy. He was born in Germany, but came to Australia over 50 yrs ago as a tradesmen, and now mines opals as a retirement project (?!). He had this special German liquor made from distilled hot peppers (don't remember what it was called), but he calls it his cold medicine. I had a bit of a cough at the time as well, so he suggested that I try it as well. It was good stuff, and it did take away my cough with just one shot! He was really remarkable. I got an invite to go up to White Cliffs and mine opals with him along with an opal to take home with me, and I fully intend on taking him up on it.

This may well be my last entry from Australia, but I hope it's not. I'm currently in Adelaide at the Australian Wine Industre Technical Conference enjoying my last week in Oz. I am essentially homeless, as I have vacated my room in Wagga and my bags are living at Marissa and Declan's place. Homeless! I am taking a night off from the pub tonight, I'll let my winery boys handle that tonight. Good conference so far...lots of wine dorks in one place. :-P

Anyway, I'm nearly out of internet credit, so I will be heading.

Cheers

Speaker used this quote today, really liked it:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"

--Mary Oliver, the summer day

Old Man

He's mad at me in this picture! Hehe!

I am VERY sorry that I haven't been in blog touch lately. I have been a bit busy with residential schools (they really SUCK, btw) and I just haven't felt like blogging lately. I know I'll kick myself for not blogging the past month as I am less than a month from leaving, but, I often kick myself for less.

For those of you who were unaware, my Casey, my old man and very best friend, died in late June. I got the call from Mom on a Saturday night here while I was in Sydney. It's been a rough few weeks for me, and it will be even rougher when I get home and realize that my bestest bud isn't there to greet me. My house and room and bed and sweater drawer will have an strange emptiness to them, I know it all ready. I'm sure he's happier, he's in better place where he can be young and vibrant, and it's assured that I wont dress him in my doll clothes, put him in my baby buggy, and wheel him up to grandmas. I can't believe he'll never look up at me again or rub his cold wet nose on my hand in search of a pet. I feel monsterously guilty for not being there with him, especially considering that he was there for me every time I cried for, oh, about 17 years, and I went off, knowing damn well that he'd need me in his darkest hour while I was away. I can't believe I wasn't there for him. Good thing Mom was. I hope he knew that I still loved him.

Other than that, life as been moving on at a pretty average pace. I had an outstanding birthday, made that way by a few people that I didn't know really cared! I really couldn't have asked for more, especially considering that I was expecting to spend the day alone.

Other than that, I've been doing res schools. The first was 6 days of straight tasting. Which sounds glamourous, but it's actually not as glam as you would think. This may sound completely ridiculous, but it reasonably difficult to taste that much wine in a day. Your senses just tire, and you get sick of it. I know I know, my life is clearly hard. I got to taste wine for 8 hrs a day for 6 days straight. Now, the fates are repaying me, and I'm doing 8 hr blocks of biochemistry labs. You cannot deny that THAT doesn't sound fun.

But, I return to the states in just over 2 weeks. I am having incredibly mixed emotions about it. I am excited to see the people that I miss and love, but I feel like I'm leaving something incredible behind. Didn't I just feel like this?!

Well, Alison, there you have it. I hope I have entertained you for a few moments. :-)

Cheers
Catrina

Bird Brain with Pics

Bird Mania:



Clearly, lots of birds.

It was this lady's idea!

Yes, Hello. Notice the crumbs on my shoulder. Very nice.


Christy is clearly scared. I gave her a scotch biscuit and she gave the whole damn thing to one lucky bird.


I was watching all of the others. Clearly I was disturbing this one's snack. Christy has the pictures of the ones hanging out on my back pocket. So, when she rattles her dags and sends those along, I will post them.

Cheers

Bird Brain

Christy and I were rambling around Circular Quay and the Rocks today and on our way through the royal botanical garden, we stopped because we saw a big pack of Sulfur crested cockatoos.

Colorful tropical birds that you've only ever seen in pet shops are common place here. As a matter of fact, they commonly wake you up at 4 am with they're constant squaking. Cockatoos are fairly large birds, I'm sure you've seen them. They're parrot sized and then some! But, I commonly see them on the side of the road here. Along with colorful galahs, lorikeets, rosellas, magpies...I see them everyday and not in cages...FAR OUT.

Anyway, the detour to the botanical gardens ended amusingly. (Is that word?) I decided it would be a good idea to pull some of the biscuits that I had in my bag to convince these birds to come land on me for a photo op. (When am I going to be able to so easily convince a non-caged cockatoo to sit on my shoulder, really?) So, I pull out a scotch biscuit (mmmmm, arnotts) and suddenly, I had a very good friend on my shoulder. Not many pieces of scotch biscuit later, I had several friends. I had friends on my shoulders, back, and even one trying to eat my hair. And, I even had one hanging on for dear like to my back pocket...effectively executing a sort of ass grab of sorts. It was really quite the experience. And I do have pictures, but no means to upload them at the moment. Soon enough...check back!

So, if you're ever wondering...yes, sulfur crested cockatoos like scotch biscuits. If you don't want company hanging onto your ass, don't let them know you have food in your bag!


Cheers

Busy Business

All right, as promised, I'll now give a little bit of a summary of what has come to pass in the last two months or so.

As soon as I got back from Tasmania, I started hunting for a job. Every single person in Wagga Wagga NSW has my resume. I spent weeks chasing people down, using all of my phone minutes on local calls, begging people to hire me with no avail. What the problem was...I suspect I will never know. All I knew was that I didn't have enough money to stay here and pay for next semester, let alone the following years. I knew I had to figure something out...and pretty fucking fast.

So, one day, during a tasting class for wine and grape science (it was red wines...with the Pinot Noir that tasted like Shiraz! G'Damned Australians!), I was walking to the toilet and nearly killed myself slipping on a piece of paper. I picked it up in a huff and took a look at it. It was a job ad for an internship in Oregon. I remember immediately thinking "Holy shit, I can go home. And work in a winery. And best yet, I'll be PAID!" On a whim, expecting no results, I applied for the internship. On a whim, also expecting no results, I surfed winejobs.com to see if there were other vintage internships available. Turns out...they're everywhere! I applied only for west coast internships: if I was going back to the states, I was doing so no where near my home. This adventure has to continue.

The next hurdle to clear was with CSU. I wanted to know if I could study by distance (DE) even though I wouldn't be able to do residential schools in September. I need to stay in school for health insurance reasons and because if I don't, I know I will struggle to ever go back again. So, I chatted with my pal Chris and he told me that I could most likely continue to take subjects by distance ed (DE) and do things onshore in the States.

So I waited. Was I going to get anything? An internship? Within two weeks, I had three offers on the table, each of them better than the other in some respects, but each worse than the other in some respects. I ended up choosing an internship in a place called Quincy, WA. Near Seattle! I need to be there in the beginning of September, and it looks as though Mom and I will be driving the CRV cross country. Woop woop!

I don't know if it's the right decision, but I know I am poor as all hell. Who knows! I'm just ramblin', tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can! (Points if you can name the song and artist!) I plan to come back to Australia after the 1st of 2008. When I'm at home, I'm going to begin applying for other jobs here and getting my visa switched to a working visa (much more complicated than it sounds!). I'll be back!

So, yea, a month and some change left under the southern cross, then onward!

That is the very annotated and short version of what has been going on. Now you are up to speed!

I LOVE SARA MARIAN

The woman pictured with me above is my personal hero. Not only did she send me Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but she is also helping me keep my teeth clean....BECAUSE SHE SENT ME TOOTHPASTE!!! :-D Fantastic. SMS, as the Aussies put it, You're a LEGEND!

Thank you! :-D

And yes, I am wearing pink saran wrap and she is dressed as playboy bunny. We're THAT special. :-)

Cheers Big Ears