It's about time!

Okay so blogging is a drag and I've managed to "forget" or "be too busy" for awhile now, I suppose I'm due. I'm finally on my own for a few days, the last few days here down under, so I have time aplenty to sit in the internet cafe.

After disembarking in Sydney, I spent one night in the city with Nate because we decided we wanted to get tickets to see Messiah at the Sydney Opera House. The 2 other MBs headed out of town about an hour to the mountains to hike, we met them there the next day. The inside of the Opera House was pretty outdated and neither of us were impressed with the concert hall. The show was packed and pretty good as well...Nate was able to translate the lyrics and kinda keep me updated as to what book the verses/lyrics came from. It was my idea of a church/Christmas/global tourism icon/entertainment event all rolled in to one. At intermission we headed to the nearest water front cafe to grab a snack, since neither of us had eaten since breakfast on the ship. We knew we would probably miss a little of the second half but during the first half they had let all the late comers in during a break. Little did we know that there was no break for late comers in the second half (there were no programs to tell us this?) and we were refused entry! They wouldn't budge, even though Nate threw a fit (one of those kind of fits where I leave so I'm not embarrassed). We had paid about $50 a piece for tickets and thought the lack of communication or apology on their part to be very unprofessional. Nate eventually demanded to speak with the theatre manager who's empathy and helpfulness went as far as telling Nate "And now you know!" a few times. Apparently by the time it was over the cops had been called. We left. The Opera House is lucky to still be standing.
The next morning, after consoling ourselves with Dominos pizza and Walk the Line the night before, we took the train to the Blue Mountains and enjoyed some scenery. Tried kangaroo and it was delicious. Apparently the Aussie's are slowly starting to warm up to the idea of marketing it...roo's are plentiful and eat up everything in sight, so no worries there...but their British heritage still has them more inclined to beef. The boys flew out on the 9th, I spent one night in Sydney, then flew up to Cairns, which for the geographically challenged, is about 1000 miles straight up the eastern coast. Its the jumping off point for most tourism activity on the Great Barrier Reef (which is something like 2000 kilometers long) and Cairns is the base town for exploring Australia's only little pocket of rain forest. That being said, its humid and hot and there are way too many crazy critters for my comfort zone! (more later on this)

I flew in just an hour before David so we met and called a hostel shuttle to pick us up. David had been here at the beginning of his trip so he knew a decent hostel to go to and was familiar with the area. We spent 3 days pretty much hanging out and avoiding the sun (since we are both 'gingers')...we were able to book a 3 day dive trip, but not until a few days after we arrived...everything we wanted was booked until then. The beautiful northern beaches here are unswimmable due to crocodiles, but if that was enough of a deterrent, at this time of year the 20 ft long Boxed Jellyfish comes close to shore...."By the time you see it, you will have already been stung and you will have about 3 minutes before you go into cardiac arrest"...So Cairns has remedied that with a wonderful waterfront activities "Promenade"...with walking paths, a FREE huge salt water pool (complete with shaded areas over the water for gingers), a free water park/playground, skatepark, beach volleyball courts, public hibachi style BBQ grills, etc. We attended a class called Reef Teach that taught us all about the different kinds of coral and fish we would be seeing. It was one of the most beneficial and educational parts of my trip and I will recommend it to anyone going diving. Its more fun to know what you're looking at and to know which fish want to sting or bite you.

The dive trip was really fun. We did what they call a Liveaboard...2 nights, 3 days, 10-12 dives. Usually dives cost 60-100 US dollars a piece, but here the trip, including our room and good meals, cost about US 400. We went out on a day trip boat to the reef with other day divers and snorkelers, did 2 dives from that boat (each dive lasts about 30-40 minutes). Then that boat pulls up to the Liveaboard boat and some of us transfer over....we did 2 more dives that day, 4 the next day and 3 the next. It was good for me to do so many cuz I got a lot more comfortable with getting the gear on and off and knowing how to dive so that the current takes you back to the boat by the end (instead of having to swim a marathon or get picked up in the "lazy butt" rescue boat). The visibility and currents didn't really cooperate as well as they could. The reef we were at the first day wasn't that great of coral or fish, but by the 3rd day we got to see a lot of great coral and more fish. We saw a couple of sharks (biggest one maybe 10 ft?), a few sting rays, a couple of turtles, parrotfish, trumpeter fish, trigger fish, clown fish, butterfly fish, surgeon fish, angel fish, grouper, snapper, and fish with cool names like "Sweet Lips". Wish I would have taken my disposable camera on more than one dive, but David had said his didn't turn out well from the first trip. I thought mine turned out okay except for my big finger being in the way.

The morning after we got back, we rented a car and went on a road trip up the coast. David wanted to try out this wakeboarding place where you are pulled around a pond on a cable system. It looked like something the US needs to get, but I was too chicken to try. He had fun though. In the afternoon we went to a Crocodile Park where they take you around this croc enclosure and feed them from the side of the boat...got some cool pics of crocs jumping out of the water. I wanted my picture with a koala and was told incorrectly that I could hold one at this place. Ended up just getting herded through a mob of people who got all to pet the koala. Not satisfied with my koala petting experience. We tried camping near the beach (amongst the frogs, crabs, bats, etc) but we were so hot that we both woke up at 2 am...right before it started to rain. We laughed momentarily, but then David put the rain cover over us, which increased the temperature in the tent by at least 10 degrees. It poured and poured until we gave up and slept in our car, a tiny 2 door Hyundai Getz where we could periodically turn on the A/C. No more camping! The next morning we did a 1.5 hour scenic river cruise and saw a few more smallish crocs...we had the guide and boat to ourselves and were told that if we tried to swim across the river at any point, we'd "get taken". We had learned about other deadly critters such as snakes/pythons...but had been told that in the forest, its not the snakes that will get you but the wild boar. Our guide on the river told us that its not really the boar, though, its the plants. According to him, as I remember it, this area wasn't affected by the last ice age so the flora has had a lot of time to learn how to protect itself. There is the "Stinging tree" which looks harmless with its heartshaped leaves...until you brush up against it and "Contact with the leaves or twigs causes the hollow hairs to penetrate the skin. The sting causes a painful stinging sensation which can last for days or even months and the injured area becomes covered with small red spots joining together to form a red, swollen mass. The sting is known to have killed one human, and it can also kill dogs and horses." Or the "Blind your eye" vine that is filled with pressurized sap that "can cause temporary blindness if it enters the eyes. The sap can also cause skin blisters and irritation." Or the "Wait-awhile" vine with thousands of tiny spikes (if you get hooked you will have to wait-awhile to be unhooked) which requires a hospital visit of morphine and hot wax to remove the needles, resulting in a sensitive scar that may take years to heal. We drove to a few scenic beaches but due to the no-swim status, the hot strong sun and the heat, we didn't stay long. We drove inland to an area of higher elevation known as the tablelands. We were on a hunt to see the duck billed platypus. We decided to stay in a highly recommended historic village called Youngaburra. David saw a platypus for one second, I saw the splash as it dove back under the water. They are very shy, only active a few hours a day and it took more patience then we had to get any more glances. Other wildlife I was on the look out for were kangaroos and cassowaries (ostrich like bird, the country's largest land mammal). There were lots of signs warning of these critters but I only saw fields and fields full of cows and 2 dingos run across the road. Dingos are a native wild dog species. Other wildlife I have seen include fruit bats and Flying Foxes (huge fruit bats).

In Younaburra we lucked out and ended up staying 2 nights at a B&B for same price we'd been paying at the hostel...$30 US a night for 2 people. We got to do laundry for free and had an entire apartment...we got to watch TV and put stuff in a refrigerator as well as listen to a radio (our car didn't have one). We went for a good run, drove about an hour to a coffee plantation, got there as it was closing, tried to spot a platypus, took it easy. At the end of a trip its nice not to have too many goals. David felt that way, since he left this morning. I now have 4 days to feel this way, kinda of a debriefing/reflection period of all the places this trip has led to and how fun it was to share with friends.

Last night David took me out to nice waterfront restaurant and we went to see Four Holidays (we intended to watch Australia but got there early, sat down in Four Holidays and laughed so much we couldn't leave). David and I won't be dating anymore, the distance and time apart was enough to free me from the emotional dependence I had on him and we really just weren't ready to make the decision to combine life agendas (okay I wasn't ready). We were originally planning to go work in Colorado but were both uneasy at showing up with no job so late in the ski season. I had been thinking about going to massage school somewhere and David was willing to follow me to Anchorage (which he never did realize was a dumb idea). So with no option other than making a big compromise and putting a lot of pressure on a young relationship, we ended it. We still managed to have a good time together and he's a great person...for someone else. Those wanting more details will surely have access to them once I get back :).

In the meantime I have been pursuing the massage idea, something I've always wanted to do and could see myself being successful at and enjoying. I found a school in Anchorage that has a night course, 5 nights a week, 5 hours a night and can put you through the program in 5 months. I have contacted the staff and all 3 people I've spoken with have been very nice, flexible and encouraging. I was hesitant because the night class doesn't start until late January and wouldn't finish until late June, making me miss out on a chunk of RCT income, but I was given the option of jumping in with the current night class during their final 2 weeks of courses in January, giving me the advantage of graduating closer to the beginning of June. I am planning to do it, as my gut feeling is telling me everything is working out too easily not to. I will plan to substitute teach as much as I can take, while going to school at nights. I'm pretty excited and ready to get there and get started. I'm also ready to get to my condo, as my renters noticed a few weeks ago that my storage area had been broken into (the lock was torn off but nothing looks missing...heck its not any of my stuff in there except snow tires...the rest is Nick's, Jared's, Kristen's, Jed's, etc ) and I figure it might be time to pay some bills. So I'm going to look for a plane ticket right now and plan to be in Anchorage for the long haul (9 months straight?).