And it's strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky are next to mountains anyways

Hello!

Warning: This e-mail is going to be pretty long, so get comfortable. On the plus side, there will be lots of pictures to go with it!!

I'll start off by filling you in on my trip to the Sydney Jewish Museum located in none other than Sydney's redlight district. Needless to say, it was a good thing I went during the day. The museum was fairly small, but really nicely designed. Some fun facts include: Australia, second to Israel, accepted the largest number of Jews after the Holocaust per capita. Among the first boat of convicts sent to do time in Australia, 11 were Jewish and eventually became bankers and shopkeepers, of course ;-). One of Australia's finest generals, Gen. Monash, was Jewish, and in Melbourne there is a university named after him. We creamed them in uni games....I guess Jews really aren't athletes. Hehe. I bought a fair amount of things at the gift shop- hey gota support fellow Jews! All in all, the musem was really incredible. I'm hoping to check out the Great Synagogue in the next week or so.

Well, my big trip was touring the west coast of Tasmania, which I just got back from tonight. A lot of Americans don't really think to check out Tasmania, it seems. I knew I wanted to do something else before I left, and I didn't get to see the Great Ocean Road, so I thought a trip to Tasmania would be awesome. Originally I was supposed to go with three other girls, all of which bailed AT the booking agency. I was pretty upset, but then decided I wanted to see Tasmania regardless if I went alone. So I booked the trip and a few days before, a friend of mine said she'd like to go, so I had a travel mate. I left last Friday and flew into Launceston. All of Tasmania was about 500,000 people, so it's pretty tiny- mostly farms. I guess it's similar to New Zealand, which I'll see for myself in a few weeks. We stayed at this really sketchy hostel that night. The guy was no where to be found, and then when we found him he gave us a key to the wrong room, and we really freaked out the girls in there. I don't blame them. After spending the night in probably bed bug-ridden sheets, we ventured off in the Under Down Under tour bus, with our guide, Tony.

We first went to Cradle Mountain National Park, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Cradle Mountain, can you guess? Looks like a cradle, and it sits above this huge lake called Dove Lake. Kendra and I decided the two reccommended trails were far too easy for us athletic folks, so we decided on the hard trail. It should say that hard really means rock climbing. We thought the first set of rock stairs were tiring, and then we got to areas where we were literally rock climbing. Eventually we got to a sign that told us to go a weird direction to get to the parking lot; it pointed us away from the lot, so we decided to keep going around the lake. We eventually were climbing directly upward and found ourselves in the cradle. It was absolutely stunning, but a little unnerving, considering there were no signs that we should've been there besides a few metal poles. We had to get back to the parking lot no later than 7 20 for the bus, and since we had no cell service, we started to get a little concerned about making it back in time since we weren't sure if the trail was ever going to back down! Finally, after nearly being mauled to death by a bird that wouldn't leave me alone so I ended up sprinting down somerocks holding onto a metal chain, we found a sign that pointed toward the car park. But the sign said 1.45 hours so we had a ways to go. Upon running out of watr, we found a stream and I felt like Bambi drinking out of it, but it was delicious. Way better than the tap I drink in my apartment. We then entered the rainforest, but luckily it was all downhill. We kept going and met an older couple (who we later meet again), and FINALLY after nearly collapsing, we made it to the end!

Well, our hike was over, but we had missed our tour guide so we had to find the other parking lot with the shuttle bus, which meant more walking. It was getting to be dusk, so we saw tons of wallabies (small kangaroos) and wombats chiling along the road. It was pretty amazing. They were fairly tame too. We walked for awhile, but still no sign of our van. Eventually a car pulled up and it was the old couple who offered us a ride. They dropped us off at this lodge where we ate steak dinners. It was expensive and not that great, but we were starving and scarfed it down in a matter of minutes. I learned the way NOT to open ketchup (tomato sauce as it's called here) after spraying it all over my T-shirt. (Pam, it's the Australia one you gave me...gota bleach that baby out). The whole restaurant got a laugh at me. After dinner, we had to continue walking, but luckily our tour guide was genuinely concerned we hadn't come back yet and came looking for us and picked us up on the side of the road. We felt bad we worried him, but we said if we weren't back by 9 to worry (of course, that was in jest since we didn't think we'd be gone that long). Apparently he told the other people on our tour that he looked for us, couldn't find us, and decided we could easily be replaced by other Americans (we were the only Americans). They believed him. We passed out from exhaustion.

The next day we headed to Montezuma Falls in the rainforest. It was a 3-hour walk, but didn't have hills so that was good since we were recovering from Cradle Mountain. There was a big suspension bridge, which I crossed, twice, but practically cried the whole way. It was pretty scary. The waterfalls were beautiful, but due to acid, we couldn't touch it. Nice. Later on, we stopped at the Henty Sand dunes, which were dunes at least 30 meters (90 feet) high. Some kid sprinted down them and tripped, smashed into a sandbank and broke his collar bone. I thought he broke his back. After that, I walked down...slowly. We had to take him to a medical center...poor kid. We also Ocean Beach, along the west coast, which is the start of the longest stretch of ocean in the world. The next time you see land is South America. It's pretty crazy. The western beaches are pretty desolate, and kind of eerie, but beautiful. The water is brown because of the tanen (also in tea) which runs off the rivers.

That night we stayed at some nice cabins- tiny but very comfortable. The last day of the tour consisted of a few more rainforest walks with waterfalls, and hiked up to this great lookout over the Franklin River. Throughout the trip we passed through some tiny towns- literally nothing was going on, since they used to be mining towns, but all the stuff was used up. By the end of the third day, I was beat. I don't know how people do 5-day or weeklong tours. I was exhausted. We crashed at this hostel in Hobart after I had my first fish and chips experience. Not too bad until I saw the blue fish skin and couldn't eat anymore. We got up early this morning and went to Claremont, about an hour outside Hobart for a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, the world's second largest Cadbury factory outside England. (We also stopped by a smaller chocolate factory near Launceston where they had a plethora of samples.) We had to wear hairnets and we walked through all the processing machines. I felt like I was in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but unfortunately there was no Johnny Depp. It smelled like heaven, and I was so sad to see the throw out huge trays of chocolate which touched the ground. Five second rule? I guess not when you're serving to millions upon millions of people. We got some freee mini bars and a package of chocolates at the end. I bought some "less than perfect" discounted bars for my roommates. My stomach hurt from my samples so I passed on chocolate for me. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Hobart and eventually falling asleep in a park until we had to catch the bus to the airport. The flights were OK, but I was tired and the chocolate was still churning in my lactarded stomach so that was annoying. Now, back in Sydney, I have two exams before heading off to New Zealand and Fiji and then home! I'll be home in 24 days, which is crazy.

Until then, enjoy your winter while Sydney is just warming up!

Love,
Heather

I think I'm going to have some issues leaving Australia

Hey everyone,

I'll be home in just a little more than a month, and it's starting to freak me out. I'm excited to get home and see people, but Australia is definitely somewhere I'd like to stay. Despite the weather not really turning out in our favor, things are going well, and now that classes and papers are done, it's almost smooth sailing. I have two exams spread out over the next two weeks before I can officially be halfway through my junior year.

About that surf lesson I mentioned...I didn't do too badly. I got up twice, which is more than most people can do. Granted, I didn't stay up for very long, but maybe next time. I wore a wetsuit, which was great since the water is still pretty cold in Sydney. My friend Kendra took me and told me to avoid the bluebottle jellyfish, which I saw all along the beach. Once I got that fear out of my head, I enjoyed the water, although the waves tired me out due to the fact I'm not a strong swimmer and even the smallest waves are taller than me. I was extremely sore afterwards, but it was a great full-body workout. Good thing I can do all those pushups!

I went on my kayaking trip in Watson's Bay, which was pretty spectacular. The flies are pretty awful, but once we got into the water they left us alone. My friend Sarah, from high school, and I partnered up in a two-person kayak. I guess I'm renown for being strong because my roommates always ask me to open the jars and bottles, and Sarah asked for me to be in the back to be the power steerer. We went pretty well, I reckon. We kayaked almost to Manly, which is part of Sydney's northern beaches. Along the way we saw an old, pretty wrinkly naked man walking along some rocks. We giggled and then realized it was a nude beach. Haha. We kayaked a bit further to the entrance to the Tasman Sea. This was pretty surreal because it looked like a drop off; it was just a small opening and then wide, vast sea. Kind of eerie, really. Then we kayaked into various other bays with some incredible houses that apparently go for $10 million. We even saw Paul Hogan's Sydney House. (Speaking of houses, I've seen the 'Real World: Sydney' house in Darling Harbour; Paul I thought that might interest you.) I took the ferry back to Circular Quay, which was faster and way better than the bus.

Halloween in Australia isn't as big as it is at home, but I found some ways to celebrate. My ultimate team and I planned a bit of a Halloween party and then ventured off to this club, which was hosting a party with live music. I went as Peter Pan. My costume was pretty awesome considering I'm not my mother and can't sew and I was on a bit of a budget. I'll attach a picture. I did get some of my mom's creativity genes though and everyone loved my costume. The party was great, and there were some good costumes. I didn't go out on Halloween though. I got dressed to go out and then decided I'd watch Ghostbusters and study for an exam, which I think I dominated.

Last night was our big, formal Frisbee dinner. We all got dressed up and ate at this Nepalese restaurant. We had our own private room upstairs, and we sat on pillows on the floor. I was a bit skeptical about trying Nepalese food, but it turned out to be pretty good. Unfortunately we didn't get much for our $25, so that was a disappointment. My friend Waz and I were in charge of making and giving out awards to everyone, and that was a lot of fun. I was in charge of making the awards for the boys. My award was "Best Costume of the Year," with regard to my ridiculous outfit at one of the uni games party. After dinner we went into the city for some good ole karaoke. The place we went to had absolutely no ventilation and was seriously 100 degrees. Eventually we didn't even bother trying to wipe off the sweat anymore because everything just became drenched. I sang some tunes, "I Will Survive" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" were my spotlight moments.

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to some of my friends last night in a hurry because it was raining and we were hailing cabs. I wish I had had more time to say my goodbyes considering I may never see these guys again.

I'm headed off to Tasmania on Friday for a three-day tour and then in Hobart I'm going on a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. It turns out I'll be traveling with someone afterall. Originally some friends bailed, but it turns out my friend Kendra just booked the trip as well. I'm pretty excited.

That's about all the news from down under.

Cheers,
Heather

6 days till classes, 46 days til home

Hi everyone,

Good news! I finished the majority of my work for the semester. I had three 2000 word papers due within seven days of each other and a presentation. I have one more written assignment due next week, but that shouldn't be terribly hard considering the presentation has most of our material. I have two finals (for the same class but with different lecturers...it's an awful class) and an in-class exam and a take-home exam. We'll see how studying goes with those...

The weather is great, and the beaches are finally hoppin. I've found it harder and harder to go to class living right next to the beach, however I only have six days of class left, so I can't really justify skipping anymore. The other day the university held the biggest Sydney party for university-age people called Oktoberfest. Unfortunately I didn't have any German gear, but it was good anyway. I went with some kids from my team, and if it weren't for the two tallest guys around, Frank who's 6'7 and Waz who's 6'4 with a cool hat, I would have spent my entire night looking for my friends. It was held in the uni bar, and there were like four different tents of different music and food and drinks. It was ridiculously loud so most of the night was spent texting people to tell them where you were trying to dance among the hundreds of sweaty, beer-laden students. I had a few friends crash at my place, and one of them had his car on campus. I took the liberty of driving home, which I did extremely well. Not only did I drive on the left side of the road, the stick shift was also on the left, yet the gears were in the same place so it was all backwards and crazy. But we made it home.

I've been watching the Red Sox (cross fingers for tonight's game) at a sports bar down the street. The staff has come to know me, and everytime they see me there they ask how the Red Sox are doing. It's stressful, and kind of a bummer to watch alone since there's no one to high five. My roommates are Yankees fans and one of them is also a Rockies fan and I get extremely annoyed when she talks trash, but I can't do it back...yet. Two more games...come onnnnn Sox!

Today my friends and I barbecued on the beach and tye-dyed T-shirts. I invited my ultimate coach and we threw around for more than an hour. My friends were amazed at how long we could throw and not get bored. One of my roommates said I was really good. Yeah, I'm a pro at playing catch. My friend Kendra has been wanting to take me on a surf lesson for ages so I'm going to head over to Bondi, a great surfing beach apparently, on Tuesday and rent a board and a wetsuit. I have a fair amount of upper body strength so we'll see how it goes.

Next week I'm taking an exam for an editing internship I've applied for for next summer. Let's hope for the best!! I'm also looking into a tour of Tasmania in early November before exams...during study week. Haha. It's a three-day outdoorsy tour, which should be really cool. We need to get on the booking though.

Nothing much else is going on. It's been a quiet few weeks with all my work, but I can't believe I'll be home in 46 days! I have my course registration for next spring coming up, and I've also found housing for senior year, which is a bit stressful to do abroad. Wow, senior housing. It flies by.

Cheers,
Heather

To add to your Australian dictionary:

sunnies: sunglasses
stubby: beer bottle
good on ya: good job
singlet: tank top
bottleshop: liquor store

Funny tidbit:
A friend ordered mayonaise "on the side." The waitress gave her a funny look and came back with mayonaise smeared around the edge of the burger.

Australia's Boston: Melbourne

Oye!

What a surprise...another e-mail from Down Under so quickly! I will admit that while I love informing the masses about my Aussie travels, this e-mail won't get sent unless I do it right now, as the next two weeks are going to be utterly brutal. To my surprise, I actually have papers and work to do. It's like I'm down here for school or something... I have three large papers (2000 words and up) and a big presentation due this week and next, and the following week I have to hand in the written presentation, and I'm also in the midst of applying for to two big internships for next summer, with deadlines quickly approaching. The stress levels are reaching high altitudes right now, and those of you who know what kind of student I am, I tend to stress out. Although, I will admit, I've become somewhat lax when it comes to classes and reading as of recent. It's Australia's fault.

Anyway, I just got back from Melbourne, Victoria this morning. I was visiting my friend Jackie who's studying there. It was quite a journey getting there last Thursday, as I was still relatively sick and had little to no strength. But I pressed on. I flew into Avalon which is about an hour outside of the city. It was cheaper to fly there, but it turns out the $50 I saved on a flight I spent in commute to and from the airport. You live. You learn. I got in Thursday night and Jackie and I met up with some of her friends and walked around Lygon Street, which for those of you Syracuse folk, it's similar to Marshall Street but a bit bigger. Jackie lives on campus in a college called Trinity. Melbourne University is different than UNSW in the sense that a college isn't a dorm, but a little community. All in all there are about 12 colleges which house MU students. Jackie is in the most expensive and most prestigious, but unfortunately her experience has been sub par. When she visited me in Sydney I cooked her a homecooked meal since she said her college's food was horrible. She was right. It made Crane Lake Camp food seem like Camp JORI food. Not only that, you have to pay for lunch on the weekdays and you can only eat at certain times. We had some sketchy hamburgers and I stayed away from the meat which was either lamb or pork- no one really knew. I also stayed away from the eggs which looked like Fisher Price's kitchen set for a three year old.

On Friday we headed into the city and found as much free stuff as we could. We checked out the National Gallery of Victoria, which was pretty cool. Though I think the Museum of Modern Art in Brisbane was cooler. We saw some sculptures and there was a clothing display, which we thought would be really neat, but it was disappointing. We checked out this alley way which is basically a designated area for graffiti. It was really cool and a bit overwhelming. Some of the stuff Jackie wanted to show me had already been painted over. It was funny there was all this graffiti since in Brisbane, Adam and I talked about graffiti as art and checked out a book about "Banksy." He has some very cool work. Adam also sent me an e-mail of things to do in Melbourne, one of which was to find Chloe. We checked out this bar called Young and Jackson's, where Chloe is. She's more than one hundred years old!! Unfortunately, you'll have to meet Chloe yourself, as I can't tell you who she actually is.

When Jackie had class I stayed in the city and wandered around. I was trying to find some cool little alley ways to get lost in and find small shops, but I failed. I did, however, find the Immigration Museum, which was free with a student ID. I wasn't there for too long, but I learned a bit about immigration to Australia. I liked the kids' section the most since you could lay down in the bunk beds in the sea vessel model. Some little kid stared me down for awhile. I told him we could share. I met up with Jackie at the Victoria Markets. Unfortunately they were almost ready to close so we didn't get to see too much, but we did taste a bunch of cheese and finally settled on aged Gouda and ate almost the whole chunk with some water crackers. It was delicious. It was even more delicious since we didn't have a knife and the only thing we could find was a spork. That was my idea.

Once the markets closed we headed back to Trinity, which I should mention, looks like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Plus, Monday through Thursday the residents have to wear formal robes to dinner, which look exactly like Harry Potter robes, and there's even a head table. It's crazy! We had that sketchy barbecue for dinner and then we downloaded some movies to watch. Jackie is part of this campus network in which you can share movies and music, so the possibilities were almost endless. Pan's Labyrinth didn't have subtitles; I could understand the Spanish, but not quickly enough to translate to Jackie. We ended up watching Pulp Fiction, as I had to educate her about the origins of Fox Force 7. While I may have changed a bit down under, I still fell asleep in the middle of the movie. But to be fair, so did Jackie.

On Saturday we hoped to rent a car and drive along the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostles, well 8 now. But the car rental place had a minimum of three days and we didn't want to pay $150 for only seeing the road one day. I hope I can get down there to see the Apostles before more of them fall. We also tried getting a tour of the Carlton Draught Brewery, but for some odd reason it's not open on the weekends. Do they expect working people to leave their jobs to drink beer all day? Frustrating. Instead, we checked out the Eureka Tower. We paid some money to see the 360 degree observation tower, which overlooked all of Melbourne. And then we went to The Edge. Being afraid of heights, I expected to collaspe to my knees and crawl out, but I did surprisginly well. We got into this box which extended out from the building and then after some corny soundtrack of glass breaking, the floor came away and the floor was all glass. It was scary enough that I didn't let go of the bar, but not terrifying. For ten bucks it was cool.

After that we headed to the Victoria ANZAC (Australia, New Zealand Army Core memorial) Memorial. (See pictures) It was a nice building and we took part in a memorial service. It had some cool history and from the balcony there was a great view of the city.

We did a bit of shopping before heading back for another mysterious dinner. Instead of partying all night (since I don't do that) we started to watch Children of Men (amazing) until it got cut off since the person we were downloading it from didn't download the whole thing. So we resorted to Office Space. I left early this morning, and luckily my cold is better enough that I didn't cry landing due to severe eye pains like I did on the way there.

And now I am done procrastinating and ready to start my massive amounts of work. You won't hear from me until it's done. So about two weeks. But after that it's almost smooth sailing. I'll be home in just less than eight weeks. Wow.

Until next time, here's to you, you're true blue,
Heather

Uni games is by far, the best thing since sliced bread

Hello all!

I have not fallen off the face of Australia. I just got back from what maybe the best 10 days EVER. I don't even really know where to begin, so Ireckon I should start at the very beginning, a very good place tostart...(continue singing if you so desire)

Uni games this year was at the Gold Coast in Surfer's Paradise, which isabout an hour south of Brisbane in the state of Queensland. Uni games is anationwide university sports competition with sports ranging from soccer to rugby to ultimate to badminton. I drove up with some of my teammates. Sincethe day we left fell on Yom Kippur I fasted the drive up to Coff's Harbour and listened to Yom Kippur prayers on my iPod, which miraculously my friendhappened to have. It was pretty terrible since we kept stopping for snacks,but I made it up to Coff's where I broke fast with a candy bar and then wegot some dinner at a pub. I had chicken stirfry, but unfortunately could hardly eat it since fasting had shrunk my stomach.

We stayed at a trailer park in a mini caravan. It wasn't much better thancamping other than the fact that it was raining, so we stayed dry. I smelleda bit dodgy though considering it wasn't the cleanest of places. We did afood shop together and that was entertaining. I rode on the back of atrolley (shopping cart) up and down aisles and then we sat on the minimerry-go-round and my buddy Mrinal may or may not have broken the seat. Needless to say, we hurried out of the supermarket very quickly.

Upon leaving Coff's, we passed a giant banana, which read "Big Banana" on it. Clearly, I took a picture. I took a picture of everything. We tossed a disc around this farm and poor Famous Damous had to get the Frisbee from some cows- he looked petrified. And then we got in trouble since we were on private property. We drove some more and missed the exit to Byron Bay, but we did make a pit stop upon entering Queensland and threw on the beach. Then we drove to Surfer's Paradise, where we were staying in apartment. The apartments were incredible. They overlooked the beach and all you had to do was walk out the front door and cross the street to get to the water. I went for a swim once and it was great. I was mentally exhausted from the waves though. It's pretty tiring.

We were at the fields from like 8-5 and then weall wanted dinner so we didn't beach much. The one sunny part of the day wehad off from games I slept and by the time I wanted to go to the beach, itwas time to cleat up for the quarter finals.We played a total of 12 games. The ladies had one sub, and since myhamstring is injured, we really had no subs. I played the first five gameshard and then the trainer (we became the best of friends) told me if I wantto play in the semi finals, I needed to rest and then he'd tape me. So Iwent in for a few points here and there when the girls needed subs. It wasreally more mentally challenging than physically challenging since my mindwanted to play despite my injury. My coach and teammates yelled at me fromthe sidelines not to run- to save myself for the big games, but it was hard.

During one game, my girl was cutting in the endzone for a score. I decided Iwanted to get a lay out D on her. It was pretty sweet; I'll give myselfthat. I sprinted as much as I could on a bum leg and made a beautiful lay. Iwish someone had taken a picture. My friend Abra was sitting on the sidelinethere and said I was about three feet in the air and was angled upward(something only really good guys do and girls almost never) and d'd the discright as she was closing her hands. I was pretty stoked- as it was right onthe endzone line. And then my coach called a time out and told me to call aninjury and sit on the side. But I got primetime player of the day for it.We won the quarter finals pretty easily, but unfortunately something wentamiss for the semi finals, which were on Friday.

We played University ofQueensland, and we really should have won. I think we had a tough timepulling ourselves together and playing with flow. I think individually,everyone played well, but as a team we had a missing link. The score waspretty close though- 12-9 was the final. It really hurt. Abra and I had agood cry together afterwards. Me because I was the last person with the discand turned it to give UQ final possession and Abra because it was last unigames and he had turned it several times on the endzone line. It hurt a lot,but we got amped up to play for 3/4 place. We played a Victorian team, andour coach got us sooo pumped up. He got into the middle of our huddle andstarted shaking a can of Victorian Bitter (pretty cheap beer). I thought hewas going to shot gun it, but no. He open it up and sprayed it on all of us,saying that the team we were about to play is as crappy as this beer.Needless to say, I've never been more pumped for a game or a race oranything before. We crushed Monash 15-6 or something. Bronze felt good, butit stung a bit knowing we should have been in the finals.

The party scene at Surfer's is pretty crazy. It's kind of like a toned downLas Vegas, but only toned down in the sense that there isn't thisridiculously gaudy architecture. Everynight uni games had a different venuefor the party. Most of them were good except the last one, which apparentlya Frisbee kid had all the ultimate people go there, which was cool but itwas really sketchy. If you weren't ultimate, you were either white trash,goth or thug. Each night was also a theme. The one night I decided to dressup (all white), I was given my primetime player of the day award, which wasmy team got to dress me up in anything except white. I was in the mostridiculous getup EVER. It was pretty classic though. A few random peopleasked for a picture with me. It was a good time. The last night we wore ourmedals, which felt really great. A very proud moment.

Along with the partyscene comes with various ultimate shenanigans. For example, Kangaroo (thoughit has become 'Kenga') Court puts trials on for those who have donesomething stupid/gullible/ridiculous, but also good. Our captain, Waz, wasthe judge, but everyone got a say in the punishment and the person on trialwas allowed a defense. One night, the first night, actually I was courtedfor setting of Waz's car alarm. My punishment was I had to try to set off analarm and make a big scene. I couldn't believe that I couldn't find ONE carthat had an alarm. That was disappointing. That's the gist of Kenga Court.

We also have all sorts of buddy challenges and rookie challenges. One of myteammate's rookie challenge since he's the UNSW ultimate president (he'slike 30 something), was to give a speech during the awards ceremony, writtenby Abra and Waz, who are two characters on the team. Charlie passed withflying colors. It was quite a laugh.

Once the tournament was over, my team headed back to Sydney, but I took atrain about an hour north to Brisbane, where Pam's friend Adam lives. Myfriend from Syracuse is also studying up there so I stayed at her apartment.I got up there and it got really really hot; it's a good thing it wasn'tthat hot during the tournament. We would have died.

I went to Adam'ssister's house to meet a fairly large number of family members. I met asister, a brother, two in-laws, his parents, a cousin and three of hisnieces and nephews. We watched the AFL Grand Final (Australian RulesFootball Super Bowl), and Geelong (out of Victoria) wont by like 160 points,so it wasn't terribly exciting. His nieces and nephews are adorable, andtook a liking to me because I read them books. From there we got dinner inthe Valley (and it's not anywhere near California's Valley...just theopposite). We had Chinese food and then rushed to this play called The Club,which coincidentally was about the AFL and the players beginning to be likeAmerican and play for money, not the love of the game. It was really funnyand it's worth renting the movie.

On Sunday we walked all around Brisbane. We went to the markets, which wehave in Sydney as well. It's basically just small, overly priced stuff, butwe did get three packages of strawberries for six bucks and then ate themthroughout the day. We took the City Cat, which is a water taxi, up and downthe Brisbane River and stopped at a pub for lunch and to people watch. Itried chips (French fries) with gravy...quite good actually. After that wewent to South Bank to a modern art gallery. Normally I'm not an art person,but there was some really cool stuff and Adam and I had some pretty in-depthconversations about the pieces. After that we walked around a bit throughthis archway of flowers. Pam- I've been told to pass along a message:"Aren't these beautiful?"

Once we parted ways, I met up with Sarah and a fewof her teammates (who beat us in the semis) for some delicious Subway andthen to a pub to watch part of the National Rugby League final. At least Ithink it was league..it could have been union. Whichever the world cup isNOT. We got bored of that pretty quickly and headed back to Sarah's to watchTop Gun. I must say I've seen the movie a billion times but never all theway through due to conversations, boredom and getting distracted.

Yesterday Sarah joined me and Adam to the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's zoo).The stupid bus driver wouldn't wait for us as we were getting out tickets sowe hung out at a pub/casino until the train came. It was a long commute andit was so hot out. The zoo was pretty cool. It was mostly geared towardyounger kids, but it was Steve Irwin's zoo! We saw a fair amount ofcrocodiles. We fed some kangaroos who were pretty inactive. We also fed anelephant..kind of nasty and drooly. There were some nice memorials aroundthe zoo, and some great pictures of Steve and his family. Apparently hisdaughter, Bindi, was walking around somewhere. I bought a sweet wristbandbracelet that says "Crikey." That was kind of a necessity.

The way back fromthe zoo took forever. We hurried into the city to try to find thislecture/slideshow about this guy who climbed Everest and the like. We werejust on time and after banging on the front of the closed mountaineerbuilding, we found a back entrance. It was really cool and interesting. Whypeople risk their lives and die for climbing a sheet of ice is beyond me.Throughout the show though, my cold developed more and more so flying homethis morning was brutal.

Currently I'm drinking lots of tea since I'm leaving for Melbourne onThursday to visit a friend from home who's studying there. It was a reallycrazy and amazing week. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's boundto happen with 10 days of ultimate-related activities. After playing unigames, any other ultimate won't be nearly as fun. I've improved a fair bitthough, so that's good.

I'll be home in just a bit more than two months. I can't believe it'sOctober already. Absolutely ridiculous!! If you've gotten this far in thee-mail, pat yourselves on the back. I just wrote for quite awhile.

Cheers
Heather

to add to your dictionary:

get amongst it- get with it/go with the flow
have a go- have a turn
brekkie- breakfast
French fries- McDonald's fries (all others are chips)
Maccas- McDonald's
deks- pants/underweardekking- pantsing someone
hectic- crazy (not busy crazy, just crazy)

Happy New Year from Down Under!

L'shanah Tova!

I've been celebrating Rosh Hashana down under, and it's been quite nice. Last night a bunch of us went to our friend's apartment for a potluck dinner. My apartment was in charge of the desserts; I found a dairy-free coffee cake and some meringue cookies. Rachel made corn flake and honey chicken and we also had avocado salad, and one guy even made a kugel. I lit candles and we said the shecheiyanu (a prayer for experiencing something new and being grateful). It was a really great evening.

I went to the temple across the street from my apartment for services, and I'm going to go again tomorrow. It's a modern-orthodox temple, so all the girls sat up in the balcony. I was very surprised and kind of appalled at the conversation noise level going on throughout the entire service. We could kind of hear the prayers, but come the Torah service, you couldn't hear a single thing. The rabbi kept shushing people but no one cared. I was really upset at how disrespectful the congregation was, especially because we all took the time to make sure we were quiet and dressed appropriately. I was glad I went, and I'll go again tomorrow and for Kol Nidre during Yom Kippur, but it's upsetting. At least when I goof around with Evan, Rachel and Nolan we're quiet. In a little bit I'm going this really beautiful cliff on the water for Tashlicht, which is the service for throwing away your sins by throwing bread into running water. And tonight my roommate's and I are going to my roommate, Abby's cousin's for dinner. Apparently we're having chopped liver, so I might eat secretly before we leave.

I've been not so great about going to class last week and this week. Last week I was just not in the mood to go to class and then wait three hours until practice, since my tutorial which usually breaks up at three-hour break was cancelled. And then yesterday our washer broke while all my stuff was soaking wet so I had to wring everything out and then I electricuted myself so by that point I wasn't going to make it to my 2pm lecture. I was ready to go to my 4 pm class, but my roommates asked if I wanted to join them on the beach instead, and since I was going leave my 5 pm class early for our Rosh Hashana dinner I didn't go at all. And then I didn't go to class today since it's a holiday. oops. I did, however, finish a 2500 word paper four days early. Since I didn't go to last week's lecture I didn't get the memo that the deadline was extended, which turned out to be good since I handed it in and was done with it.

Nothing terribly exciting is going on at the moment. I've been here nearly two months, and I'll be home in less than three. A week from tomorrow is spring break, if you can believe it. I'm driving up to the Gold Coast (12-hour drive) for uni games- I think I mentioned that. After the tournament, I'm visiting Pam's friend, Adam in Brisbane before flying home. After spring break there are four weeks of classes and then I think I have only one exam during exam period. I can't believe how fast everything is going by! You're lucky I'm coming home at all, as I would not have any problem living here. Well I guess I'd miss a few people...

Stay tuned for tales of spring break in the next couple of weeks!

Cheers,
Heather

Australian Hospitality

For the most part, it seems Australians enjoy the company of Americans. That's not to say we don't hear an occasional stereotypical joke, but usually it's all in good fun. However, at the APEC conference last week, Australians had a right to poke fun at Americans, and even I quietly hung my head in a bit of shame.

At this year's world leader's conference held in Sydney, President Bush made an appearance. His friendship with Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, fueled angry sentiments from Australians, and most Americans were not looking forward to Bush's visit. In Bush's opening speech he greeted "Austrians" and thanked Sydney for inviting him to "OPEC." I'm sorry, but that isn't OK.

While I was in a cab, the driver correctly assumed I was American, and proceeded to say the rainy weather will go away when Bush leaves. Regardless of my sentiments toward our country's leadership, I felt uncomfortable with those comments because a) I am in another country b) A bit more extreme, I don't know how this man feels about me being an American. I also experienced similar comments at a doctor's office. While Bush isn't well-liked by many people, I still feel the need to stand by my country.

I didn't attend the protests, after being warned by the study abroad office to stay away from the Sydney. However, I did see pictures from the rallies, and saw too many American flags being burned. I know it goes on, even in our home country, but it was unnerving to be somewhere outside of my comfort zone and see that hateful sentiment toward my country.

Other than APEC weekend, I haven't felt any uncomfort for being an American in Australia, though even if I did, there's nothing I can really do since the second I open my mouth...it screams "Yank."