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| Air balloons over Melbourne. |
Hello readers!
As everything begins to wind down, I find myself more and
more loath to spend time in front of computer writing. Not because I don’t want
to share, not because I’m not having experiences worth sharing, but because I’m
living each day to its fullest and getting home exhausted with no inspiration
or caffeine to persuade me to write.
But alas, I will try to keep you updated anyway because too
much has happened to let it waste away in my dusty memory.
This week marked the last week of classes? Can you believe
it? Meandering around campus, looking at my classmates and teachers in new ways
because the realization is in the back of my head that I will never see them
again. Haha, it’s always funny when your mind plays tricks on you. It’s like
subconsciously, on the last day of class, whatever class it may be, you mark
every person as it being the last time you will ever see them, so in a
way it’s like you don’t expect them to exist anymore. I know that sounds mean
and calloused, but it’s a subconscious thing so it doesn’t count.
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| Cute bird! |
Anyway, so when you DO end up running into that person again
you go through this strange revelation that this person has come back from
an extraordinary journey or that they suddenly rose from the dead because you were
completely convinced that you would never see them again. Or, this could just
be a weird quirk of mine and I’m rambling again. Regardless, I’ve seen a lot of
miracles this week.
People be risin’ up all over the place!
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| Wilson's Promontory. |
So, apparently the tradition for the end of classes is to go
out to a pub after glass and grab a round of beers. The concept intrigued me
since in the States people just count the minutes until the class is over and
then run for the door hoping they’ll never have the misfortune of being stuck
in a room with the same people and teacher again. Ok, that may be extreme, but
you get the picture.
In our theater class, we all decided to get together in
December, grab some beers, snacks and scripts and have everyone perform their
final pieces so that we can all appreciate everyone’s final work. I think it
sounds like a fine idea.
Well. I say that sounds fun. But that’s in lue of skipping
my last theatre class. Before you judge, just realize, I was at the last free
barbeque with Tom, Shayna and Flo and it was the most beautiful day we had seen
in ages. So of course we all decided to walk in the sunshine down to Savers,
screw around then lie out in dog park with slushies and be bombarded by all
manner of Australian dogs. Why yes, we were quite popular that day. (I saw a
Jack Russell, German Shepherd, Husky, and Westie. I felt at home.)
That night (Monday) everyone went out to Turf (local pub)
and since it was the last week, I decided to join them. It was really fun to
get on the dance floor again, even though I have no clue what I’m doing. The
cool thing about going out is that when you’re with friends, you can get away
with anything because if they’re real friends, they’re not going to judge.
They’ll probably just end up to stupid awkward things with you and you will all
call it a night when you’ve thoroughly embarrassed yourself. Ha.
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| Boardwalk to paradise. |
Anyway, my hat goes off to Tom, Rhi, Flo, Shayna, Aurelien,
David, Alice, Phil, and Daniel for making it fun to be yourself, no matter how
eccentric.
(Oh, and that was a literal statement… my hat kept getting
stolen that night.)
I turned in my final short story draft to be work shopped
this week. You have to realize, the piece was around six pages before. I cut it
down to three and completely changed to focus of the story. They loved it,
Grant actually on board this time. In fact, if I cut the last few sentences
(making it only 2.5 pages) Grant supposed it will be finished, and skillfully
finished at that. Hey, if I can achieve the level of engagement that Tobias
Wolf in Bullet to the Brain in less pages, I’m happy.
My original draft will have to wait.
Oh, and because my draft is so short, I have to write a
second short story. Oops. Better get on that.
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| Looks like I need some new patches... |
I went out to a pub with my short fiction class after the
class ended. It was nice to just buddy around with them and listen to their
conversation. You have to realize, they’re all Australians. There was a whole
discussion on the pros and cons of being vegetarian and its effects on the
economy to my right and conversation on a famous Australian author to my right.
As I had no idea who the author was and wasn’t actively a vegetarian, I didn’t
really have much to contribute to the conversations, but it was humorous to
listen to. Especially the passion that drove each end of the conversation, when
you have a conviction, you will stand for it at all costs, and honestly, that’s
how it should be. If you have a stance, you shouldn’t be afraid to defend it.
After all, there’s has to be reason you stood by it in the first place.
I then told them all farewell and met with Wendy. She is a
vegetarian and made a delicious dinner. I’m not biased I like both veggie and
not veggie meals! Ha. But then again, I’m pretty much a full on foodie (aka
person who loves food.)
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| Blue fairy wren. He's a beaut. |
We watched this weird movie that I honestly would rather not
have seen, but the company was awesome. It was good just to catch up and
realize that there are other international students going through the same
feelings you are. This bittersweet mix of wanting to see your family but hating
the thought of leaving a place as beautiful as Australia is where there are
people you would love to know and interact with for the rest of your life. But
hey, just because you’re not going to be standing beside a person for the rest
of your life, doesn’t mean you can’t keep up a full and healthy ongoing
relationship. At least, that’s what I would like to believe.
Friday I attended my last Biology lecture. Tear. I’m going
to miss doodling animals on my page while listening to interesting facts about
Australian flora and fauna with Aurelien and Sally on either side. Oh well. All
good things must come to an end. Now I just need to catch up on the two
lectures I missed and actually start committing all of that cool information to
my brain. If only my brain did act like a sponge… we’ll see soon enough.
Friday I met up with Shayna, Vera, Nanna and Nanna’s
Australian mate, James. Oh yea, and we planned our trip to Wilson’s Promontory,
which we were going to go to the NEXT day. You can call it procrastinating if
you want. I just call it adventure. |
| Hiking across the beach. |
Anyway, we got together, ran by Woolies (or Safeway as the
Australians call it) and picked up stuff to make pasta salad. YUM. I never
realized cold pasta could be so good. We stuffed it into two large zip lock
bags and into my backpack and called it dinner for the night we would be
camping.
I’m trying to think of how to describe our trip to you with
any cliché words like amazing, beautiful, fulfilling, trip of a lifetime,
becoming one with nature… but I just used them, so there. It was truly one of
my favorite trips I’ve taken since getting here. And if you’ve been following
my blog at all, you’ll realize how big of a statement that is.
I’m not going to lie; I expected the trip to kind of be a
dud because they were calling for snow in the upper ranges of the mountains and
rain. So I imagined hiking around in a raincoat and huddling in a tent in the
midst of a storm. But I was wrong!
We woke up at 6AM piled our stuff into James’ car and headed
out for Wilson’s Prom which is about a 5 hour drive. We had to divvy out all of
the food, sleeping bags, tents and sleeping mats, so by the time we were all
loaded up with all the weight we could manage on our backs, we all looked kind
of funny, but prepared. We set off for the trails. There was so much amazing
scenery, it never rained and since hiking is a sport and ends up warming up
your body temp, it was never cold.  |
| Wombat butt! |
While we were hiking, we got a total surprise when wombats
just happened to casually appear on the sides of the trail. They’re so fat and
cuddly! Some of the cutest creatures we’ve seen since being here. But most of
all they’re just chill. Shayna was the first to go up and touch one. Its only
defense mechanism was to turn its butt to her. Ha. Then James pet it and when I
finally got to it, I brushed its backside before it waddled off into the nearby
underbrush. Haha. They’re so soft. I can’t believe how chill they were with us
petting them. Definitely a highlight of the trip.
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| Right after we clambered up some rocks to get to the trail. |
Then we got to a part of the trail that crossed a place
called squeaky beach. Basically, if you’ve ever experience sliding your feet
across the right type of sand, you will hear a distinct squeak from the
friction. Self explanatory. Anyway, the beach was pretty cool but we were more
distracted by the huge boulder Cliffside that looked like they could be climbed
to reach the other side. So off we go, backpacks as heavy as we are, scrambling
over rocks sides and up mountain sides… it probably wasn’t the safest idea, but
when we clambered up from the rocks and up the Cliffside to find the trail
again, I sure felt accomplished.
We found a couple rock overlooks that were simply stunning,
looking out onto clear water and beach sides.
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| Jane Austen trail. |
We also passed through this corridor of intertwining trees
that were the softest of greens that gave me the distinct feeling that I was in
a Jane Austen novel. I don’t know, that’s the best way I can describe it. With
the sunlight peaking through onto the subtle path you were walking along… I
felt like Jane Austen herself could’ve walked through, letting the leaves touch
her fingers as she contemplated the characters of her next novel. Oh the
stories.
I guess something that caught me off guard while hiking, was
simply how much water you end up drinking. Note to amateur hikers, do not spare
expense when it comes to packing water. The extra weight is worth it. Water
becomes your best friend.
We stopped and snacked in the most exotic of places:
beaches, rocks sides, path crossways sheltered from wind.
Walking along the beaches, it wasn’t uncommon to look down
and see the things that had washed in from the seas. We saw so many mussels and
clams, crabs and sea grasses. Honestly, it reminded me of my biology class. |
| Paradise. |
The cool thing about the hike was simply how many different
types of scenery we passed through. There was this boardwalk that took us
through this grove of trees that emitted the creepiest noise I’ve ever heard.
Close your eyes, and imagine being in a playground with no children or
distraction. Thinking about what a single swing sounds like, the creak of the
chains going back and forth. It’s what the trees sounded like. Ah, so creepy,
it would’ve been the perfect set up for a horror movie if it was filmed at
night.
And finally, after 18km of hiking (11miles) we reached the
Eastern coast. My God. It was breathtaking. I have never, ever been to a beach
that beautiful. I tried to think what it was that made that beach so different,
what made that beach so unique. And a couple things came to me. It seemed so
isolated, so undisturbed by human presence that it was like waking up to a
little piece of mother nature herself, stumbling into her presence. There were
no footsteps, only white sand. No pollution, only turquoise water. No buildings
or construction, only boulders jutting any direction they pleased, only
mountains running right to the sea. It was truly magnificent and I felt
privileged simply standing on the beach.
Of course, then I made a sand angel, which is less graceful,
but hey, I don’t think there was any real damage done. Ha.
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| Awesome stick bug that was bigger than my hand. |
We had lunch there then hiked our way up a hidden trail to
set up camp for the night. And that when I saw it… wait for it….. I SAW A GIANT
STICK BUG!! And not the little ones that are common, but a stick bug that was
bigger than my hand. Oh, he was beautiful. I lay on the ground wondering at the
small creature for a good ten minutes, so amazed at his camouflage (though, he
probably wasn’t doing the best of jobs since his light brown stick color didn’t
exactly match the dark brown of the log he had decided to cross, but hey, he
tried.) It was just breathtaking; to see something I had learned about in class
as being close to extinct. Actually, there is a whole island, (Howard Island)
which is the only place that is working on repopulating the species. SO COOL.
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| Our green tent and breakfast! |
Anyway, after sticking
around for a while, I joined the others and set up the tents. I was really
happy to realize that Skippy’s tent did work after all and that it was a 3
person tent instead of a 2 person tent. And since I got it for free, it was
freaking awesome that it actually worked. And it’s green, my favorite color,
he.
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| I finally got a decent pic. |
We had pasta salad that night, which was delish, and ended
up playing the dice game from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It’s actually
quite addictive. I found out I’m a terrible liar, but that’s not new news. Then
we ate delicious Cadbury chocolate and called it a night. And it didn’t rain! I
was so happy that it was warm that night and we woke up to dry tents. Dry tents
and a chorus of exotic birds. I’ve never been surrounded by so many colorful
feathers. There were parrots, blue fairy wrens, lorikeets, crows, magpies, and
birds I don’t even know the names of. The cheeky buggers. I chased a parrot
around for ten minutes trying to get its picture; it kept waddling away, not
even bothering to fly when I tried to stealthily creep closer to it. Ha. I
prevailed in the end though.
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| After I jumped in the freezing cold water! |
The next morning we spent completely on the beach we’d
discovered the day before. Ah, everyone was of one accord in wanting to live
there. FOREVER. But we had exams and James’ parents actually needed the car…
Anyway, before we left, I decided there was no way I was going to be on such a
picturesque beach and not step a toe in the water. So what did we do? Oh, you
know. Vera, James and I put on swimsuits, counted to three, then sprinted from
the white sand headfirst into the FREEZING cold water. That was probably one of
the best parts of the trip. I felt so free, so excited, so… well, my body was
pretty numb, actually, but in a good way. Haha, Vera and I danced around like
we were three, splashing water everywhere. So refreshing. Then we took off
sprinting down the beach. Geez. Memories enough for a lifetime.
After changing in the tent to clothes that were actually
warm, we decided it was time to tell paradise farewell and head back. We had
another 18 km to go, but in the spirits we were in, it wasn’t a problem. It’s
such a good feeling, hiking. Even if your shoulders are a little sore, and your
feet do have blisters because you didn’t pack hiking boots, you just find your
rhythm and let your feet drum the pulse of the earth. You and nature, nature
and you. Amazing.
So, there was a scary moment of the trip. As we were hiking
back in the complete and full sunshine (we couldn’t have asked for better
weather) there was a little bit of a gap between Shayna and James and the rest
of us. And just after Shayna cleared a spot in the path, I came to a complete
stop and flung my arm out to keep Nanna and Vera from continuing forward. Why
you may ask?
There was a snake.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, a real life Aussie snake, and I
almost stepped on it. In fact, I was so surprised that when I was like, “Oh,
crap!” the snake was started and rose up, as if to come toward us, but then
thought better of it, and continued to quickly cross the path into the
undergrowth on the other side.
So scary. You have to realize, I spend my days leading up to
Australia, reading about all of the poisonous reptiles in Oz, and then visiting
glass cages in Victoria zoos, staring death in the eyes as it slithered around
in a cage. But real life? Heck no. Geez. So happy I was actually looking where
I was stepping haha, because I’m honestly not sure what we would’ve done if
someone was bitten. We were nowhere close to cell service or civilization for
that matter. Oh well.
Oh, yea, not to scare you guys, but I looked the little
buggers up when I got back and this is what I found:
Adventure :)
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| Sunset to end the trip with. |
After that near heart attack, we safely reached the West
coast again, watched a sunset on the beach and piled in the car to go home. We
had to hit the brakes too many times to count for crossing roos, wallabies,
wombats, rabbits and koalas. No, I’m not kidding. And we thought deer were bad.
And that’s all folks. (Well, of course that’s not
everything, but the highlights at least.)
I hope everyone has a good week. Rest assured I will
probably be living in a library for the rest of this week. In fact, I’m in a
library right now, pretending to be productive while actually blogging.
Sigh, I guess it’s back to real life.
Catch you guys soon.
JoMo
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