Australia

Ok, so I got back from Australia yesterday. I went there because i was jealous my parents didn't invite me to Australia so I bought tickets to visit my friend Koop, whom I've known since 2002.

Australia was very nice, but maybe I should just say Melbourne, because I didn't go outside the Melbourne area. For a ~10 day trip, it was quite enough, though. I saw many interesting things!

You can check out my pics here- http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/Australia%202009/

So the first day we didn't really do much of anything. It was the only time we went out to eat with him mom and dad because usually his mom cooked us "tea"(dinner) pretty much every evening. She is an awesome cook... and actually that's her profession!

I believe it was the next day that we went to the Melbourne museum. I met his friend Sonia who was really nice and cute : ). We went to see this Pompeii exhibit(I'm a huge Pompeii nut actually...) and even though it was swarming with school kids, it was pretty cool. We also wandered through the rest of the museum. I got to learn about "Phar-Lap", this giant horse from Melbourne who won a ton of races back in the early 30s and then died when coming to America. We ended up walking a ton in the city to find this cafe but then didn't find it.

The next day, with his parents and other friend Martina, we went to this Australian animals santuary where we saw just about all the awesome Australian animals. My favorite was the Tasmanian devil! I also got to pet and feed kangaroos. The ones I pet were really small ones. I wouldn't have got near them had they been the giant 6 foot ones that are really aggressive and randomly do bad things such as this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XhNeKkJ3zk&feature=related (this video is pretty damn funny). Also there was this emu there that was really funny because it was really attracted to humans and tried to "court" this zoo keeper who was in its habitat. It made this growling-like sound at me and I was really scared because I didn't see it coming at me and the fence was really short, so I thought it was going to attack me or something XD;.

The next day we went on "Puffing Billy", this old-style train that ran through the rainforest.The track had some really nice views, though it was cold on the train. The terminal was this pond with some pretty birds.

The next day all we did was go to the flea market where I did the rest of my souvenir shopping. Oh, and there were some large tanks at the location and I climbed on one and got a pic. It was raining that day, so it was slippery. Though that time I forgot my camera, so it's the one pic I don't have.

The next day his parents took us on a drive along the coast... actually along the "Mornington Penninsula". Their ocean is a lot cooler. First, you can swim in it, and it is also a much nicer color than ours. So I took some pics, walked this gank-plank thing, and begged to climb on this giant rock thing, but his mom would absolutely not permit it : (.

Then we spent 4 hours or so at his sisters house. They had this baby. I kind of said that I don't like small children and then felt bad because I didn't want her to take it the wrong way. So even though I, and many other people wouldn't take it the wrong way, she did and didn't like me. I forgot to bring entertainment so I browsed through her picture books of Australia and she was pissed of that I didn't ask her permission to look through them. Though I did ask her baby if I could play with his drawy-thing and he said "YEP". As far as I know, she didn't bitch about me drawing on it. She seems a bit bitchy, but she made us cake, and so that's all I really care about. i dont' care that she didn't like me. It's probably going to be the last time I tell a mother that I don't like small children though. Everytime they visit with the baby (every week) Koop is the designated entertainer and must run around with the kid for as long as the visit is. If he's not, the baby tantrums and Koop is blamed for it. That is so annoying. i would never put up with shit like that, but Koop is a very nice person who hates conflict and does as he's told a lot of the time. I'm opposite. I'm bitchy, independant, and hate being told what to do.

It might have been the same day when we went to the "milk bar" (like quicky mart) in the neighborhood. I then had the most bizarre experience I've ever had in a store. It went something like this.

Store owner: *walks up to us talking about something or other* Can I help you?
Koop: We're just browsing.
Owner: Bowsing? What bowsing?
Koop: Just looking around.
Owner: Well, you can't look. You go outside to look. We very busy now.
Me: Yeah right! There is no one in the store!
Owner: You go outside if you look.
Me: What an asshole!
Koop: I know, see if I shop here anymore!

Man, seriously what an asshole. I can't believe that he doesn't allow loitering. I also hope that he understood what 'asshole' means. And it's funny because another asian woman that day treated me quite rudely too when I had to buy a phone card since Koop's computer broke.


The next day (have to start all the paragraphs with it!) we went to Sovereign Hills, which is this recreated Gold Mining town (kind of similar to Colonial Williamsburg if any of you have been there) that existed during their gold rush of 1852. We went into a recreated mine and learned about the mining process. It was pretty fun looking around the town. All of the workers were dressed in traditional clothing and some of the women looked absolutely stunning. I even asked if the women in those days dressed so colorfully, and the lady said yes they did because they wanted to stand out from the plainness of the town. You could also pan for gold there and they throw gold flakes out into the stream every day for you to find. This was Koop's 4th time of being there, and he found gold this time. He found 2 flakes and was very excited so bought a souvenir bottle for the flakes he found. hehe. I wasn't interested in panning and I was more interested in making mudpies with the shovels.

The next day we went on this 2.5 kilometer(I think one way? I don't really remember if it's round trip or not... but it did take us quite a while) walk up this small mountain through the rain forest. It was pretty easy for me since we went at a slow pace, but then we found out that there no longer was a view at the top because they didn't feel like clearing the rainforest. Oh well, it still felt pretty good making it all the way up. Down was hard for me, though. It's really easy to trip while going down, especially if your legs are starting to give out >_>. So I did this thing where I used both arms to help swing myself down and ended up pulling this rib-muscle place on both sides and it REALLY hurt the next day. It's almost 100 percent better now, though. Typically muscle pain for me lasts about 3 days.

The next day, I asked to go to the planetarium and see the southern night sky, being the astronomy buff that I am. The planetarium was at a kids museum and even though I didn't want to see it, we had some time to kill before the planetarium show. We saw a show narrated by Harrison Ford about life on other worlds and it was very boring for me because literally none of the information from the show was new for me at all. Then there was the highlight of that day which was a short presentation about what to see in the night sky on that day. I learned a bit about the southern cross. The goal was to take me up to that same mountain we climbed so I could check some constellations out, but I was really tired and I didn't want to go. We ended up hugging for the rest of the night instead.

His parents were really nice and really nice to me. His mom seems kind of opinionated, so I'm sure she has some "opinions" about me, like his sister, but I think she's really funny and nice XD. His dad is especially very kind. It was really nice of her to cook dinner every night because I really loved her cooking. They also got me 3 boxes of Australia macademian nut chocolates.

I learned quite a bit of "Australian" while I was there. Most of the words are probably what they use in Britain, but my personal new favorite is "blokey". It means "butch" in Australian. We were watching Project Runway Australia and Koop said that about one of the women on the show. I couldn't stop laughing. Also, his dad speaks with quite a thick accent(Koop does not) so one time I asked him what he'd say if he walked in with us hugging and he put on his best impression of his dad and said "WHAT'S ALL THIS THEN." And for some reaon, I couldn't stop laughing about that the entire rest of the time I was there. I can be way too giggly. What's ironic is that he did walk into us doing that very shortly after I asked what'd he say if he walked in. Actually, he ended up not even mentioning the incident, but I'm glad he didn't say "what's all this then" because he'd probably be mad if I started uncontrollably laughing.

Man Koop got me in trouble for giggling more than once. Another time, some cousin he didn't like came in and chatted with her parents for a while. At the time his mom was making a bunch of cookies, so she sent the cousin home like 10 of them or so. Then Koop said quietly something like "I bet she's going to eat them all herself today" and for some reason that was hilarious. then he said " That has to be one of the rudest things I've ever said", and that made me laugh more. His mom was pissed off because she though we were laughing at her >_>;.

I probably have a bit more to say, but I'm so tired now and not in the mood for writing anymore. I may post more later.