Wednesday, September 30, 2009
new post soon.
YO update coming soon... just got back from an amazing weekend in Perth, Western Australia and I am itching to tell all about it. However I'm sick as a dog, which no doubt relates directly to said weekend, so bed and recovery come first. Check back in a day or two!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Blog 3: The End of the Beginning?
Hi everyone. It appears that it's been an entire two months since I have last blogged so I figured it's high time that I got back on that train. The only excuse I have is that I've been busy putting time into making friendships and settling into the community. As many of you have already noticed, I also finally got around to posting a bunch of pictures on Facebook. You can view them, even if you aren't a member of the site, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2234464&id=5612955&l=674337973c
This past Sunday was the final match of the Great Southern Football League regular season. It was at our home field, and for some reason I seem to play better at home so I was excited to play. I played all 80 minutes of the Reserves game, as usual, and was tiredly waiting around for the League players to run out of the locker room when my friend Josh came up to me and said "I think you're playing League today." "Hmm shouldn't someone have told me earlier?" I thought. He went and double checked and indeed I did make the list for the A Grade team. I rushed into the locker room mid-coach's speech. I was happy to finally be in the lineup with all of my friends and the guys I have been practicing with for the past three months. I started out on the bench, and was glad to have the opportunity to rest as I was still exhausted from running and hitting for 80 minutes with no break. However, as the quarters clicked by with no change I realized that I was pretty much put on the team out of pity. In the break before the final quarter I was told my time had come. I think the coach just had the intention of leaving me in for a little bit while another player rested. I went in with a "balls to the wall" mentality and played my tired legs off. Not that anyone reading this will know, but I had several nice marks, a bunch of disposals, and at least one assist. Needless to say they left me in for the length of the quarter. As I trotted off the field I was greeted with many "great jobs" and even the coach said "Damn we should have brought you up sooner!" They were preaching to the choir on that one! It confirmed what I had thought all along; although my skills aren't on par with the big boys, I'm athletic enough to contribute in a well-defined role, as opposed to Reserves where it was basically everyone for themselves. In the end though, I was super tired from playing in back to back games but it was amazing to not only be finally called up but to have played so well in my first League game. I was getting a bit jaded with Aussie rules football but this was a great way to cap off the season. I'll be glad to let my ever present injuries heal now.
Things are changing at work. In the fruit and veg department we had two people leave, which catapulted me from fourth on the ladder to second in command for a small period of time. Then a man and his wife were hired, each with allegedly 20+ years of experience in F&V so it was back down to the bottom for me. For awhile I was literally chopping every vegetable and bagging every piece of fruit myself. The new guy is a real piece of work though, as he came in expecting to usurp the top spot from my manager, who has "only" 8 years of experience. On his very first day he was spouting off slimy comments such as "when i'm in charge things will change" and "do things his way for now but know it won't be that way for long". Now that he realizes his rise to power isn't happening anytime soon, he has ceased communication with the manager. Very mature. Of course you all want to know how this affects the dear author. With more than enough collective experience in the department, I now get to spread my wings in other directions. On Wednesdays I work in the Dairy department and on Fridays I work out on the floor with the Shop Manager. I don't mind it though, it's nice to have some variety from the monotony of produce prep. There has been lots of turnover in the other departments as well so there are many new faces around. Unfortunately the new hires are all older people. No disrespect to my wiser readers, but I miss seeing the cute checkout chicks.
Now for the part you've all been waiting for, the quick anecdotes!
>I'm drinking 2-3 cups of tea per day. It's easy when your morning break is labeled "Tea Break"
>I won $32.40 at the Pub betting on a dog race. I only bet because I had $3 and wanted another beer, so I placed three one dollar bets. Kyle 1 gambling 0.
>I went to see Transformers 2 twice. Like I said, we live in a small town... which brings me to my next point: You know you live in a farm town when you get in your car to drive home after work and you see a gaggle of toddlers walking/riding past on a pony.
>We went hunting awhile back but didn't get any kills. We went out to a farm because the overpopulated kangaroos break cattle fences. I rather enjoyed stalking around in the bush on the edge of the paddock as twilight approached; just a man with his gun, alone in a wild and strange place. It was also cool that on my right was what reminded me of the English countryside (or at least what I imagined it to be) with little babbling brooks among matted grasses and small stony hills and on my left was full on Aussie eucalyptus forest. Often I heard the soft thump-thump of an otherwise silent Roo jumping through the bush but didn't see one until, of course, I stopped to take a leak and put my gun down. Figures.
>One day at work I was unloading a stack of banana boxes from a metal push cart. When I lifted the final box from the bottom I noticed a menacing and very poisonous Red-Backed spider sitting on the cart right next to where my fingers had been. Just a day in the life.
>Speaking of work, I hate to disappoint those who thought IGA was connected to the IGAs at home, but I just found out that it stands for "Independent Grocers of Australia"
>Also speaking of work, the head of the Dairy is an avid movie watcher, and since most movies come from the US, every day he comes to work with questions about America for me. One particularly humorous exchange was about prom.
Nick: "Hey so what's the deal with prom? Does everyone do that?"
Kyle: "Yeah every high school has prom. It's just a big dance in the spring that the upperclassmen go to."
Nick: "And prom court. The American football guy is always the king... the quarterback?"
Kyle: "Ha not always but yeah there's usually football players on it"
Nick: "And the quarterback always dates the cheerleader. I bet that was you wasn't it"
Kyle: "nahh I was just a wide receiver and I wasn't prom king. Hahaha I did date a cheerleader though."
Nick: "That's so AWESOME. Football player dates cheerleader.. That's so American!"
Kyle: lol
>Also, many many Australians think there are 52 US states. And it's not as if they think Puerto Rico is a state, in fact no one has any idea PR is a part of the US. No, for whatever reason, they think Hawaii was the 52nd state.
>In July a group of us made the 4.5 hr trek up to Perth to celebrate Josh's 21st birthday. We even rented a stretch Hummer limo and dressed up in coats and ties to arrive in style. This was a great weekend because it marked the turning point in my social life here, as the many hours spent recounting hilarious stories from the night (most of which are too college to be discussed here) cemented several friendships.
>One perk of working in F&V is that I've been able to sample a great variety of odd, mostly tropical fruits. Look em up on Wikipedia for more info. I've tried passion fruit (hard outer shell; sweet, tart pulp with seeds that look like tadpole eggs), persimmons (looks like an orange apple, it is very astringent), lychee (from Thailand, it is very sweet and Asian-y. This probably isn't P.C., but it was somehow infused with like that smell you get in most Chinese restaurants), tangelos (cross between orange and grapefruit, not that exciting), papaya (actually not very good), champagne melon (watermelon with bright yellow flesh), mangosteen (a superfruit with extremely high antioxidant levels), and the strangest of all, a blood orange which tasted and looked like a regular orange except for the unavoidable fact that the flesh was dark purple with dark red, blood colored juice. I dripped some on my shirt and it looked as if I had committed murder.
>Thank you so much to those who have sent me letters and pictures. Pen pals are awesome.
>This past weekend Brent, Andrew, and I went up to Perth for a gathering of American footy players. There are 5 of us playing footy in the Southwest and the head of development wanted to bring us all together for an AFL (pro) game before our respective seasons ended. After being interviewed by a TV reporter and filmed kicking around an Australian football and passing an American football, as well as what seemed like an unnecessary number of takes of us merely walking across a park, we got to watch West Coast Eagles go through pregame drills in their private warm up drills before standing on the field as they ran out for their game vs the North Melbourne Kangaroos (how original, eh?). We then got box seats in the 40,000 seat stadium and enjoyed an exciting game. Oh and the night before I got to visit with two friends from my former dorm at ND who are studying this semester at UWA, which was great.
Whew, that's about it for now. I guess a lot has happened these last two months after all. In closing, I must say it's hard to believe that school is starting back up again, a fact that I am reminded of with a daily barrage of "omg i love Notre Dame, so happy to be back with all of my best friends" type of status updates on Facebook. I am sad to not be there in the thick of things anymore but at the same time I think the pain is fading. Graduation can only be described as a bad breakup; with time and separation, the sense of loss is slowly healing. I surely miss campus and my friends a lot, and am very jealous of those who still have time left, but already my time as a collegian seems like another lifetime. This can only be a good thing.
This past Sunday was the final match of the Great Southern Football League regular season. It was at our home field, and for some reason I seem to play better at home so I was excited to play. I played all 80 minutes of the Reserves game, as usual, and was tiredly waiting around for the League players to run out of the locker room when my friend Josh came up to me and said "I think you're playing League today." "Hmm shouldn't someone have told me earlier?" I thought. He went and double checked and indeed I did make the list for the A Grade team. I rushed into the locker room mid-coach's speech. I was happy to finally be in the lineup with all of my friends and the guys I have been practicing with for the past three months. I started out on the bench, and was glad to have the opportunity to rest as I was still exhausted from running and hitting for 80 minutes with no break. However, as the quarters clicked by with no change I realized that I was pretty much put on the team out of pity. In the break before the final quarter I was told my time had come. I think the coach just had the intention of leaving me in for a little bit while another player rested. I went in with a "balls to the wall" mentality and played my tired legs off. Not that anyone reading this will know, but I had several nice marks, a bunch of disposals, and at least one assist. Needless to say they left me in for the length of the quarter. As I trotted off the field I was greeted with many "great jobs" and even the coach said "Damn we should have brought you up sooner!" They were preaching to the choir on that one! It confirmed what I had thought all along; although my skills aren't on par with the big boys, I'm athletic enough to contribute in a well-defined role, as opposed to Reserves where it was basically everyone for themselves. In the end though, I was super tired from playing in back to back games but it was amazing to not only be finally called up but to have played so well in my first League game. I was getting a bit jaded with Aussie rules football but this was a great way to cap off the season. I'll be glad to let my ever present injuries heal now.
Things are changing at work. In the fruit and veg department we had two people leave, which catapulted me from fourth on the ladder to second in command for a small period of time. Then a man and his wife were hired, each with allegedly 20+ years of experience in F&V so it was back down to the bottom for me. For awhile I was literally chopping every vegetable and bagging every piece of fruit myself. The new guy is a real piece of work though, as he came in expecting to usurp the top spot from my manager, who has "only" 8 years of experience. On his very first day he was spouting off slimy comments such as "when i'm in charge things will change" and "do things his way for now but know it won't be that way for long". Now that he realizes his rise to power isn't happening anytime soon, he has ceased communication with the manager. Very mature. Of course you all want to know how this affects the dear author. With more than enough collective experience in the department, I now get to spread my wings in other directions. On Wednesdays I work in the Dairy department and on Fridays I work out on the floor with the Shop Manager. I don't mind it though, it's nice to have some variety from the monotony of produce prep. There has been lots of turnover in the other departments as well so there are many new faces around. Unfortunately the new hires are all older people. No disrespect to my wiser readers, but I miss seeing the cute checkout chicks.
Now for the part you've all been waiting for, the quick anecdotes!
>I'm drinking 2-3 cups of tea per day. It's easy when your morning break is labeled "Tea Break"
>I won $32.40 at the Pub betting on a dog race. I only bet because I had $3 and wanted another beer, so I placed three one dollar bets. Kyle 1 gambling 0.
>I went to see Transformers 2 twice. Like I said, we live in a small town... which brings me to my next point: You know you live in a farm town when you get in your car to drive home after work and you see a gaggle of toddlers walking/riding past on a pony.
>We went hunting awhile back but didn't get any kills. We went out to a farm because the overpopulated kangaroos break cattle fences. I rather enjoyed stalking around in the bush on the edge of the paddock as twilight approached; just a man with his gun, alone in a wild and strange place. It was also cool that on my right was what reminded me of the English countryside (or at least what I imagined it to be) with little babbling brooks among matted grasses and small stony hills and on my left was full on Aussie eucalyptus forest. Often I heard the soft thump-thump of an otherwise silent Roo jumping through the bush but didn't see one until, of course, I stopped to take a leak and put my gun down. Figures.
>One day at work I was unloading a stack of banana boxes from a metal push cart. When I lifted the final box from the bottom I noticed a menacing and very poisonous Red-Backed spider sitting on the cart right next to where my fingers had been. Just a day in the life.
>Speaking of work, I hate to disappoint those who thought IGA was connected to the IGAs at home, but I just found out that it stands for "Independent Grocers of Australia"
>Also speaking of work, the head of the Dairy is an avid movie watcher, and since most movies come from the US, every day he comes to work with questions about America for me. One particularly humorous exchange was about prom.
Nick: "Hey so what's the deal with prom? Does everyone do that?"
Kyle: "Yeah every high school has prom. It's just a big dance in the spring that the upperclassmen go to."
Nick: "And prom court. The American football guy is always the king... the quarterback?"
Kyle: "Ha not always but yeah there's usually football players on it"
Nick: "And the quarterback always dates the cheerleader. I bet that was you wasn't it"
Kyle: "nahh I was just a wide receiver and I wasn't prom king. Hahaha I did date a cheerleader though."
Nick: "That's so AWESOME. Football player dates cheerleader.. That's so American!"
Kyle: lol
>Also, many many Australians think there are 52 US states. And it's not as if they think Puerto Rico is a state, in fact no one has any idea PR is a part of the US. No, for whatever reason, they think Hawaii was the 52nd state.
>In July a group of us made the 4.5 hr trek up to Perth to celebrate Josh's 21st birthday. We even rented a stretch Hummer limo and dressed up in coats and ties to arrive in style. This was a great weekend because it marked the turning point in my social life here, as the many hours spent recounting hilarious stories from the night (most of which are too college to be discussed here) cemented several friendships.
>One perk of working in F&V is that I've been able to sample a great variety of odd, mostly tropical fruits. Look em up on Wikipedia for more info. I've tried passion fruit (hard outer shell; sweet, tart pulp with seeds that look like tadpole eggs), persimmons (looks like an orange apple, it is very astringent), lychee (from Thailand, it is very sweet and Asian-y. This probably isn't P.C., but it was somehow infused with like that smell you get in most Chinese restaurants), tangelos (cross between orange and grapefruit, not that exciting), papaya (actually not very good), champagne melon (watermelon with bright yellow flesh), mangosteen (a superfruit with extremely high antioxidant levels), and the strangest of all, a blood orange which tasted and looked like a regular orange except for the unavoidable fact that the flesh was dark purple with dark red, blood colored juice. I dripped some on my shirt and it looked as if I had committed murder.
>Thank you so much to those who have sent me letters and pictures. Pen pals are awesome.
>This past weekend Brent, Andrew, and I went up to Perth for a gathering of American footy players. There are 5 of us playing footy in the Southwest and the head of development wanted to bring us all together for an AFL (pro) game before our respective seasons ended. After being interviewed by a TV reporter and filmed kicking around an Australian football and passing an American football, as well as what seemed like an unnecessary number of takes of us merely walking across a park, we got to watch West Coast Eagles go through pregame drills in their private warm up drills before standing on the field as they ran out for their game vs the North Melbourne Kangaroos (how original, eh?). We then got box seats in the 40,000 seat stadium and enjoyed an exciting game. Oh and the night before I got to visit with two friends from my former dorm at ND who are studying this semester at UWA, which was great.
Whew, that's about it for now. I guess a lot has happened these last two months after all. In closing, I must say it's hard to believe that school is starting back up again, a fact that I am reminded of with a daily barrage of "omg i love Notre Dame, so happy to be back with all of my best friends" type of status updates on Facebook. I am sad to not be there in the thick of things anymore but at the same time I think the pain is fading. Graduation can only be described as a bad breakup; with time and separation, the sense of loss is slowly healing. I surely miss campus and my friends a lot, and am very jealous of those who still have time left, but already my time as a collegian seems like another lifetime. This can only be a good thing.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Blog 2
Heyo everybody.. Sorry for the hold up. I've been struggling with getting pictures uploaded in the format I want.
I've played in three footy games now and we've lost all three horribly. I'm still on the reserves team, which is frustrating because everyone on the team plays selfishly and refuses to get back on defense (especially aggravating when one is playing defense and is confronted with a 7 on 2 situation). The league team isn't doing much better and have lost all their games since I've been here as well. Oh well, I can't really say my skills warrant a promotion to the top level yet, as I'm still figuring everything out. Training remains quite difficult... for instance the other day we ran 10 laps around the track for warm up, a 4K. That's 2.5 miles, in case you were wondering. I'm waiting for the time when running a crapload will not be so hard but I guess I'm still out of shape!
Weeks are fairly mundane; work everyday usually 8am-5pm with footy practice on tuesday and thursday nights with a game on saturday or sunday afternoons. Since it's winter it's dark by 5pm so we can't really do anything after work except come home and watch tv, which is usually fine by me because I'm usually tired from work or training. It will be so nice when the weather gets warmer and it stays light longer. I think there will be a lot more to do then, such as take advantage of the fact that we live next to the water.
Weather has been pretty dismal, it rains every day without fail. Even if the day starts out sunny and promising it will be raining by late afternoon. The rain patterns are kind of weird, it either rains in half hour spurts and then gets sunny or else we get torrential downpours all day. It also hails a lot. Oh well, at least it's not snowing (even though it is a chilly).
Yesterday, Saturday, was a pretty good day. I woke up to a text from my friend Josh and met him for breakfast at a cafe in town. Ham and cheese croissant was dece but the chai vanilla latte was phenomenal. Then went down to the pub so he could place a bet on one of the horse races. That's right, gambling is legal in Australia and officially licensed bookies are as common as shoe stores. Aussies love betting; in fact, Josh also was doing instant lotto tickets at breakfast, or "scratchies." At the pub, there were about 6 older men watching the races and betting while enjoying beers. It was 11am. All in all though, the sports betting seems pretty harmless even though I didn't place any bets (too stingy). Next, we drove over to the footy oval to watch the Denmark women's team play. I was expecting to see a pretty sloppy game but we were both surprised by some of the skill exhibited by a few of the girls. After that Josh, Damo, Brent, and I drove out to Albany to watch our Colts team play (again, the colts is the U-18 footy team) because Josh coaches them. Brent and I then hung around Albany because we were going to go to the one nightclub that night, and it was pointless to drive 45 minutes back home beforehand. We stopped in an electronics store and purchased a wireless router, which I installed today. Having wireless is soo nice. Anyways we grabbed a case of beer and had a nice dinner at a BYO restaurant before going over to Jamie's place. He plays on our footy team b/c he's originally from Denmark but lives in Albany now. We had some predrinks and walked down to the nightclub. It is literally the only club in the entire south west part of the state.. the next closest ones would be 5 hours away up in Perth. It was a pretty good time but I spent too much money. Supposedly the place was voted worst night club in all of Australia but it didn't seem too bad to me. A year of Finnies and Fever will do that to someone.
Interesting parts from the last 3 weeks:
>The one time we went to the beach it ended up being too cold to get in so instead we explored Elephant Rocks and Greens Pool, which has good snorkeling when the weather gets warmer.
>There was a huge rainbow outside our front door the other day which was cool, until I realized that this is standard because as I said earlier, it usually rains and then gets sunny. Rainbow count is now at 7. If I didn't work indoors I'm positive I'd see one every day.
>I learned every member of AC/DC is from Australia. One is even from Fremantle.
>We sell Ratatouille at IGA. It's in with the potato salads and cole slaw in the deli. It looks like vegetables in marina sauce but I could be wrong. Hopefully no rats.
> I was talking to a girl about her trip to Seattle and asked her what she thought about our money. I was expecting something about how its boring and not very colorful (aussie money looks like monopoly money) or something about how dumb pennies are (the lowest australian coin is a 5 cent piece). Instead, she commented on how dirty it is. She said it was gross and she felt like washing her hands every time she handled it. You were right Mom!
>Josh, Brent, another kid named Sean and myself went fishing at the Wilson Inlet and the Denmark River last weekend but didn't get a single bite. Bummer.
> I got an unexpected letter from a friend in the US, which was really great. What is it about snail mail that is so satisfying?
>We made a huge batch of cole slaw from scratch the other night. Half a head of regular cabbage, half head of red cabbage, a few carrots and a onion. Miracle whip, vinegar, some olive oil, and a bunch of pepper. It was fun... In the post graduate world, you gotta get your kicks wherever you can.
Bed time.
Green's Pool
Good view
Elephant Rocks. The middle three or so are supposed to look like a group of elephants from behind
En route to fishing destination
Wilson Inlet on winter day
Good view x 2
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
First Week (back) in Australia
-click pictures to expand-
View of water from the kitchen
the crib
mean streets of downtown Denmark.. right down the hill from our house, 2 minute drive)
place of employment (again, 2 min drive from house)
downtown again. i love how the sun makes the skyscrapers sparkle
Denmark (a shop on this row is actually where I am posting this from right now)
Forest on edge of town
Neat trail
Wilson Inlet
Denmark River, feeds into inlet
Ocean beach from lookout
sunset at ocean beach
(Edit: wrote this monday but am posting thursday... the internet at home stinks!)
Am currently sitting on our back porch in Denmark, WA with a view of the water a ways off, it’s sunny today and very nice. It is going into winter here but today just may be nice enough to make my first trip to the beach. Otherwise it’s pretty chilly in the mornings and at night but jeans and a sweatshirt are generally all I need. The worst part is that it starts getting dark between 5-5:30 which really bums me out because the days were just getting longer back home and now it’s hard to get out and do stuff in the dark. Anyways I’ve been in Australia for a week now (wow is that all?) so I guess it’s time to get everyone caught up to speed on what’s been happening. I’ll give a blow by blow account of each day because it was the first week but after this post I’ll just talk about important and interesting things.
I left the Wednesday after Graduation, so it was definitely a whirlwind trying to unpack the past four years of collegiate life and then turn around and repack everything I would need to live on the other side of the world for a whole year in the span of basically two days. Flew from Dayton to Chicago to LA to Sydney (14 hour flight) to Perth (5 hour flight), leaving on a Wednesday afternoon and arriving on a Friday afternoon. It was quite a trek but overall uneventful, which is usually a good sign when traveling. This was definitely my easiest trans-Pacific flight so far, as I slept for what had to be about 8 hours, meaning after a few movies I had arrived in Sydney.
In the Perth airport I was met by Tony Fairhead, the man in charge of the footy training program I participated in when studying in Fremantle last year and the guy most responsible for getting me over here. We took the scenic route rather than the highway from the airport to Freo where he lives. We drove right along the swan river past downtown and the bell tower, down past Cottesloe beach and hotel, right along the train route and across the infamous bridge over river down by the freo port (no comments please, Shannon). It turns out Tony lives in the top floor of an apartment building literally across the street from NDAU. If graduation and senior week was previously my most surreal experience, it definitely took the cake to be back in Freo, retracing my steps of a year ago. The rest of Friday went as follows: lunch with Tony and a few others at Roma on the end of High Street, having a few beers down at the South Freo Football Club, eating at Waggamamma (recently put in next to Sweet Lips), and meeting up with Mackenzie--a girl I worked with at Reckers--and being introduced to the new Port Lodgers before retiring to Tony’s incredible pad for an early bedtime.
Saturday I went back to Port Lodge to catch up with Tom Staudt an O’Neill junior who lived in 3B with me and who was the first underclassmen I met my soph year. Tom and I and a few other junior domers got dinner at Pizza on High for the all you can eat pizza and pasta, which was great because I actually never made it there before. Then just like old times we pounded goon in Plodge before going to Newport. It was good to be back but just really not the same. I realized that so much of my wonderful experience last year was due to the great group of people I was there with.
Sunday I got up early and Tony took me to Cottesloe to meet up with Andrew Werner, an American that came over with Brent to play footy in Mt Barker, a small town just north of Denmark. We drove the 5 hours down to Albany so he could play in his game and I met up with Sarah, the owner of the house where I am now living. She’s the daughter of owners of the IGAs in Albany and Denmark and a manager of them. I grabbed the car and followed her on the 30-40 minute drive to Denmark. I should mention that Brent Mergen, the American who is doing the same thing as I and my roommate who has been here since the beginning of the season in March, had to return to America for his grandpa’s funeral right when I left the states so when I moved in down here I had a week in the house by myself. The house was very nice but I just went in and passed out right away in my new bed as I was exhausted.
Monday I met up with Sarah and was introduced to all the people down at the IGA but didn’t have to work yet so I decided to explore rather than sit around. I walked around my neighborhood and the tiny downtown area and took pictures. I stumbled upon a nature trail at the edge of town and went on about a 2 mile hike through a really cool eucalyptus forest where I saw lots of colorful parrots and some kookaburrahs. The trail dead ended at the Wilson Inlet which was cool. I got back to my car in town and was still feeling adventurous even thought it was getting late in the afternoon so I went for a drive and found Ocean Beach, which obviously was the actual ocean rather than the inlet (look Denmark up on google earth if you want to understand the layout). I saw some surfers down in the water even though it was rather chilly. I stuck around for awhile waiting for the sunset and was treated to a good one. That night two of the guys from the footy team, Josh and Damien (aka Damo), came over to meet me and they seemed like really fun guys.
Tuesday was my first day of work. I work 7-5, with an hour lunch break and 15 minutes for "morning tea", in the Fruit and Veg department at Supa IGA. The work is fairly mundane, consisting of cutting, wrapping, bagging, and pricing fruit in the back and stocking the shelves out in the store for 8 hours a day. It would be pretty boring but I work with some very chill guys who I enjoy working and talking with. That night was my first practice, or "training", down at the oval. It was at 6pm but was already pitch black by then so it was under the lights. Apparently Tuesday is the hard conditioning day because it kicked my butt.. we ran 6 200s and two 400s in addition to all the running in the drills. I did pretty poorly because it had been so long since I touched a footy ball. After training I went to Josh and Damo’s--which is apparently right across the meadow across the street from me--for a little to hang out.
Wednesday after work I went down to the oval to "have a kick" since I was so rusty but there were a lot of people there, so instead I decided to explore more and drove on another road which winded through the country and eventually became unpaved. It was a really cool drive; a dirt road with huge shady trees on the side of the road looking over vast fields full of wild kangaroos and forests. It was dusk, which is when the roos come out, so I saw hundreds of them. I turned back when it started getting real dark because I was scared of getting lost and potentially running over a roo, which happens quite often. I went to Josh and Damo’s for Chinese and a movie. The Chinese wasn’t anything like the stuff back home (no General Tso’s chicken), it seemed more like the Indonesian/Malaysian stuff I’d get back in Freo. Just goes to show you that neither country has authentic Chinese, just food tailored to the local population.
Thursday was pretty uneventful, I set up my bank account at lunch time so I can get my cheddar and had the second footy training. I did better, the skills are slowly coming back. The cool thing about this training was that there were kangaroos on the field! Of course I was excited but no one else cared since they’re just like deer here. After Thursday trainings people come down the club house for cheap burgers and beers so I had some of each since everyone else was. It was kind of funny to me, because as an American all I wanted after a strenuous practice was a Gatorade and maybe a cold shower but instead we were having greasy burgers and sucking down cold beers. Questionable, but hey, when in Rome…
Friday I made my first attempt at cooking, sautéing some roast beef and veggies in soy sauce, garlic, chilis, and random seasonings I found in the cupboard and eating it with rice. It was decent but needed some more flavor. I also learned that a little bit of rice makes a lot of rice so I had way too much rice. Later I went to Josh and Damo’s for drinks, met a few more Aussies there, and actually finally met Brent as he unexpectedly got a ride home from the Perth Airport that night. We then went to "the tav" (tavern), one of two bars in town, where there was a band. Everything closes at 12 here (yuck) so everyone came back to our place for awhile. A rando girl asked if she could have some bread and before I knew it she had turned the entire brand new loaf into toast with vegemite. I thought maybe under the influence Vegemite would taste better but it was still disgusting. Also, I was mad she took the whole loaf without informing me.
Saturday was pretty much a wasted day. Brent and I spent most of the day lazing around watching footy games before finally getting our S together and going down to have a kick at the Oval in the late afternoon. Hilariously, when we got back there was a loaf of bread on the front doorstep, in repayment. We went out to a sick party at this weird shantytown-type place outside of town that night. Apparently a bunch of alternative, hippie type ppl live there but let younger people party there whenever. Josh, Damo and some other footy guys have a band and were playing so we watched them but since we had a game the next day Brent and I didn’t drink and were both real tired so we went home early.
Sunday (yesterday) was my first footy game. It was up in Mt. Barker so we had to drove there. Oddly enough everyone has to pay admission, even players, so it was $6.50 for me to play. Strange. Anyways there are always three games: Colts (under 17), Ressies (Reserves), and League (the top level). Brent and I both played ressies (he because he had been gone for a week and a half and I because it was my first game ever). I did alright, caught most balls kicked to me, but handballing or kicking it off after catching it was a bit tougher. Also tough was just knowing where to be at all times as it is such a free flowing game. Oh well, these game-awareness type things will hopefully come with more experience. The worst part was just running so much.. I need to get in shape if I’m gonna make it through four 20 minute quarters of straight running. Anyways we won (I scored a point but missed the 6 point goal) but the league team lost. I guess Denmark and Mt Barker were tied for last place in the 5 team league so losing to the Bulls was not a good thing. Oh yeah, we’re called the Magpies and uniforms are white and black striped. After driving back home we went to the tav for the traditional post-game awards and dinner. Club members vote on the best players and the top three get small monetary prizes. Many of the guys kept drinking but all I could think about was icing down my aching body and going to sleep so I did just that.
Today, Monday, is Foundation Day, a state holiday celebrating the date Western Australia became a state so everyone is off work. It is unseasonably warm so we’re probably going to go down to the beach in a bit.
I apologize for the long post but again, now that I will be settling into a routine life of work and football I won’t have as much to write about. Leave comments!
View of water from the kitchen
the crib
mean streets of downtown Denmark.. right down the hill from our house, 2 minute drive)
place of employment (again, 2 min drive from house)
downtown again. i love how the sun makes the skyscrapers sparkle
Denmark (a shop on this row is actually where I am posting this from right now)
Forest on edge of town
Neat trail
Wilson Inlet
Denmark River, feeds into inlet
Ocean beach from lookout
sunset at ocean beach
(Edit: wrote this monday but am posting thursday... the internet at home stinks!)
Am currently sitting on our back porch in Denmark, WA with a view of the water a ways off, it’s sunny today and very nice. It is going into winter here but today just may be nice enough to make my first trip to the beach. Otherwise it’s pretty chilly in the mornings and at night but jeans and a sweatshirt are generally all I need. The worst part is that it starts getting dark between 5-5:30 which really bums me out because the days were just getting longer back home and now it’s hard to get out and do stuff in the dark. Anyways I’ve been in Australia for a week now (wow is that all?) so I guess it’s time to get everyone caught up to speed on what’s been happening. I’ll give a blow by blow account of each day because it was the first week but after this post I’ll just talk about important and interesting things.
I left the Wednesday after Graduation, so it was definitely a whirlwind trying to unpack the past four years of collegiate life and then turn around and repack everything I would need to live on the other side of the world for a whole year in the span of basically two days. Flew from Dayton to Chicago to LA to Sydney (14 hour flight) to Perth (5 hour flight), leaving on a Wednesday afternoon and arriving on a Friday afternoon. It was quite a trek but overall uneventful, which is usually a good sign when traveling. This was definitely my easiest trans-Pacific flight so far, as I slept for what had to be about 8 hours, meaning after a few movies I had arrived in Sydney.
In the Perth airport I was met by Tony Fairhead, the man in charge of the footy training program I participated in when studying in Fremantle last year and the guy most responsible for getting me over here. We took the scenic route rather than the highway from the airport to Freo where he lives. We drove right along the swan river past downtown and the bell tower, down past Cottesloe beach and hotel, right along the train route and across the infamous bridge over river down by the freo port (no comments please, Shannon). It turns out Tony lives in the top floor of an apartment building literally across the street from NDAU. If graduation and senior week was previously my most surreal experience, it definitely took the cake to be back in Freo, retracing my steps of a year ago. The rest of Friday went as follows: lunch with Tony and a few others at Roma on the end of High Street, having a few beers down at the South Freo Football Club, eating at Waggamamma (recently put in next to Sweet Lips), and meeting up with Mackenzie--a girl I worked with at Reckers--and being introduced to the new Port Lodgers before retiring to Tony’s incredible pad for an early bedtime.
Saturday I went back to Port Lodge to catch up with Tom Staudt an O’Neill junior who lived in 3B with me and who was the first underclassmen I met my soph year. Tom and I and a few other junior domers got dinner at Pizza on High for the all you can eat pizza and pasta, which was great because I actually never made it there before. Then just like old times we pounded goon in Plodge before going to Newport. It was good to be back but just really not the same. I realized that so much of my wonderful experience last year was due to the great group of people I was there with.
Sunday I got up early and Tony took me to Cottesloe to meet up with Andrew Werner, an American that came over with Brent to play footy in Mt Barker, a small town just north of Denmark. We drove the 5 hours down to Albany so he could play in his game and I met up with Sarah, the owner of the house where I am now living. She’s the daughter of owners of the IGAs in Albany and Denmark and a manager of them. I grabbed the car and followed her on the 30-40 minute drive to Denmark. I should mention that Brent Mergen, the American who is doing the same thing as I and my roommate who has been here since the beginning of the season in March, had to return to America for his grandpa’s funeral right when I left the states so when I moved in down here I had a week in the house by myself. The house was very nice but I just went in and passed out right away in my new bed as I was exhausted.
Monday I met up with Sarah and was introduced to all the people down at the IGA but didn’t have to work yet so I decided to explore rather than sit around. I walked around my neighborhood and the tiny downtown area and took pictures. I stumbled upon a nature trail at the edge of town and went on about a 2 mile hike through a really cool eucalyptus forest where I saw lots of colorful parrots and some kookaburrahs. The trail dead ended at the Wilson Inlet which was cool. I got back to my car in town and was still feeling adventurous even thought it was getting late in the afternoon so I went for a drive and found Ocean Beach, which obviously was the actual ocean rather than the inlet (look Denmark up on google earth if you want to understand the layout). I saw some surfers down in the water even though it was rather chilly. I stuck around for awhile waiting for the sunset and was treated to a good one. That night two of the guys from the footy team, Josh and Damien (aka Damo), came over to meet me and they seemed like really fun guys.
Tuesday was my first day of work. I work 7-5, with an hour lunch break and 15 minutes for "morning tea", in the Fruit and Veg department at Supa IGA. The work is fairly mundane, consisting of cutting, wrapping, bagging, and pricing fruit in the back and stocking the shelves out in the store for 8 hours a day. It would be pretty boring but I work with some very chill guys who I enjoy working and talking with. That night was my first practice, or "training", down at the oval. It was at 6pm but was already pitch black by then so it was under the lights. Apparently Tuesday is the hard conditioning day because it kicked my butt.. we ran 6 200s and two 400s in addition to all the running in the drills. I did pretty poorly because it had been so long since I touched a footy ball. After training I went to Josh and Damo’s--which is apparently right across the meadow across the street from me--for a little to hang out.
Wednesday after work I went down to the oval to "have a kick" since I was so rusty but there were a lot of people there, so instead I decided to explore more and drove on another road which winded through the country and eventually became unpaved. It was a really cool drive; a dirt road with huge shady trees on the side of the road looking over vast fields full of wild kangaroos and forests. It was dusk, which is when the roos come out, so I saw hundreds of them. I turned back when it started getting real dark because I was scared of getting lost and potentially running over a roo, which happens quite often. I went to Josh and Damo’s for Chinese and a movie. The Chinese wasn’t anything like the stuff back home (no General Tso’s chicken), it seemed more like the Indonesian/Malaysian stuff I’d get back in Freo. Just goes to show you that neither country has authentic Chinese, just food tailored to the local population.
Thursday was pretty uneventful, I set up my bank account at lunch time so I can get my cheddar and had the second footy training. I did better, the skills are slowly coming back. The cool thing about this training was that there were kangaroos on the field! Of course I was excited but no one else cared since they’re just like deer here. After Thursday trainings people come down the club house for cheap burgers and beers so I had some of each since everyone else was. It was kind of funny to me, because as an American all I wanted after a strenuous practice was a Gatorade and maybe a cold shower but instead we were having greasy burgers and sucking down cold beers. Questionable, but hey, when in Rome…
Friday I made my first attempt at cooking, sautéing some roast beef and veggies in soy sauce, garlic, chilis, and random seasonings I found in the cupboard and eating it with rice. It was decent but needed some more flavor. I also learned that a little bit of rice makes a lot of rice so I had way too much rice. Later I went to Josh and Damo’s for drinks, met a few more Aussies there, and actually finally met Brent as he unexpectedly got a ride home from the Perth Airport that night. We then went to "the tav" (tavern), one of two bars in town, where there was a band. Everything closes at 12 here (yuck) so everyone came back to our place for awhile. A rando girl asked if she could have some bread and before I knew it she had turned the entire brand new loaf into toast with vegemite. I thought maybe under the influence Vegemite would taste better but it was still disgusting. Also, I was mad she took the whole loaf without informing me.
Saturday was pretty much a wasted day. Brent and I spent most of the day lazing around watching footy games before finally getting our S together and going down to have a kick at the Oval in the late afternoon. Hilariously, when we got back there was a loaf of bread on the front doorstep, in repayment. We went out to a sick party at this weird shantytown-type place outside of town that night. Apparently a bunch of alternative, hippie type ppl live there but let younger people party there whenever. Josh, Damo and some other footy guys have a band and were playing so we watched them but since we had a game the next day Brent and I didn’t drink and were both real tired so we went home early.
Sunday (yesterday) was my first footy game. It was up in Mt. Barker so we had to drove there. Oddly enough everyone has to pay admission, even players, so it was $6.50 for me to play. Strange. Anyways there are always three games: Colts (under 17), Ressies (Reserves), and League (the top level). Brent and I both played ressies (he because he had been gone for a week and a half and I because it was my first game ever). I did alright, caught most balls kicked to me, but handballing or kicking it off after catching it was a bit tougher. Also tough was just knowing where to be at all times as it is such a free flowing game. Oh well, these game-awareness type things will hopefully come with more experience. The worst part was just running so much.. I need to get in shape if I’m gonna make it through four 20 minute quarters of straight running. Anyways we won (I scored a point but missed the 6 point goal) but the league team lost. I guess Denmark and Mt Barker were tied for last place in the 5 team league so losing to the Bulls was not a good thing. Oh yeah, we’re called the Magpies and uniforms are white and black striped. After driving back home we went to the tav for the traditional post-game awards and dinner. Club members vote on the best players and the top three get small monetary prizes. Many of the guys kept drinking but all I could think about was icing down my aching body and going to sleep so I did just that.
Today, Monday, is Foundation Day, a state holiday celebrating the date Western Australia became a state so everyone is off work. It is unseasonably warm so we’re probably going to go down to the beach in a bit.
I apologize for the long post but again, now that I will be settling into a routine life of work and football I won’t have as much to write about. Leave comments!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Whale
here are pictures of the minke whale i saw on the Great Barrier Reef, as mentioned in the post below
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Trip Home 1: Goodbye Freo, Hello Cairns
dockers vs. north melbourne kangaroos
swan valley wine tour
Well here i am at 849 Britton Ave and its time to wrap up this bloggage. On my way home i traveled for a little over a week, going to the great barrier reef and sydney. but first here is a summary of my fun and busy yet bittersweet last week in freo:
-at some point my friend chris and i were interviewed for an article on our exploits with the yankaroos footy program we were in, since we took the most active roles in coordinating practices and such. if you havent read it yet here it is: http://www.nd.edu.au/news/fremantle/yankeroos_learn_aussie_rules.shtml
--friday we went out in freo one last time, hitting all of our favorite spots; bar orient for reggae night and shannon's birthday, Newport for the hard rock girls band, and then Metros for one last time at a typical aussie dance club.
--saturday chris and i got free tickets to another Dockers game from Tony the head of the Yankaroos program in thanks for putting in all the work we did throughout the semester. it was my 4th AFL game and we finally got to see a Dockers victory, only their 2nd on the year. that night we went to northbridge (perth's bar district) one last time, actually went to Mustang Bar, an American themed bar, that we had never been to before but it was still a good time and full of aussies. i walked back to the train by myself and took some pics of all our favorite night spots.
--sunday got up early and went on a wine tour of the swan valley with eddie, trish, and kate. it was rainy and chilly but we were in a bus so it was a really good time and we all learned a lot about wine, which we knew nothing about although we had been drinking lots of it since being in australia. if you were unaware, australia is very well known for its wines, being on par with california and italy; the swan river is the one that goes through perth and freo so not surprisingly the swan valley wine region is only about 20 minutes outside of the city. we went to 5 wineries i think and got to sample about 6-9 wines at each place. the first place, sandalford, was founded in 1840! the coolest thing there was that they had a $90 bottle of port and we went in a store room full of barrels of this port. there was $40,000 worth of the port in each barrel so all together the room was worth over $3 million! all the vineyards had really old grape vines, some being over 60 yrs old. we also got to go to a brewery and a chocolate factory.
-throughout the week the goodbyes had to begin; people began leaving wednesday i think. also i had to knock out my final 3 exams (2 the previous week), one each tuesday, wednesday, and friday.
-wednesday i went into Perth to have one last lunch with sara by her work, it was weird knowing we would probably never see each other again. later on everyone went to Orient for one last karaoke night (which happened every wed). it was great as usual, and us four guys from Port Lodge got to sing the last song. We belted out Piano man and all the 50 or so other study abroad kids put their arms around each other and sang along. it was a good way to go out.
-at some point my friend chris and i were interviewed for an article on our exploits with the yankaroos footy program we were in, since we took the most active roles in coordinating practices and such. if you havent read it yet here it is: http://www.nd.edu.au/news/fremantle/yankeroos_learn_aussie_rules.shtml
--friday we went out in freo one last time, hitting all of our favorite spots; bar orient for reggae night and shannon's birthday, Newport for the hard rock girls band, and then Metros for one last time at a typical aussie dance club.
--saturday chris and i got free tickets to another Dockers game from Tony the head of the Yankaroos program in thanks for putting in all the work we did throughout the semester. it was my 4th AFL game and we finally got to see a Dockers victory, only their 2nd on the year. that night we went to northbridge (perth's bar district) one last time, actually went to Mustang Bar, an American themed bar, that we had never been to before but it was still a good time and full of aussies. i walked back to the train by myself and took some pics of all our favorite night spots.
--sunday got up early and went on a wine tour of the swan valley with eddie, trish, and kate. it was rainy and chilly but we were in a bus so it was a really good time and we all learned a lot about wine, which we knew nothing about although we had been drinking lots of it since being in australia. if you were unaware, australia is very well known for its wines, being on par with california and italy; the swan river is the one that goes through perth and freo so not surprisingly the swan valley wine region is only about 20 minutes outside of the city. we went to 5 wineries i think and got to sample about 6-9 wines at each place. the first place, sandalford, was founded in 1840! the coolest thing there was that they had a $90 bottle of port and we went in a store room full of barrels of this port. there was $40,000 worth of the port in each barrel so all together the room was worth over $3 million! all the vineyards had really old grape vines, some being over 60 yrs old. we also got to go to a brewery and a chocolate factory.
-throughout the week the goodbyes had to begin; people began leaving wednesday i think. also i had to knock out my final 3 exams (2 the previous week), one each tuesday, wednesday, and friday.
-wednesday i went into Perth to have one last lunch with sara by her work, it was weird knowing we would probably never see each other again. later on everyone went to Orient for one last karaoke night (which happened every wed). it was great as usual, and us four guys from Port Lodge got to sing the last song. We belted out Piano man and all the 50 or so other study abroad kids put their arms around each other and sang along. it was a good way to go out.
so finally we can get to the bit about traveling, i realize i've written a lot already so i will try and leave out the useless details that i usually include in these blogs. anyways after my last exam friday afternoon i packed up, had a great spaghetti dinner cooked by my friend ashley in the P&O (other dorm), said bye to all the kids over there, then grabbed my bags to leave Port Lodge. a few of us were all taking the shuttle together and as they had been doing throughout the week, everyone gathered at the door to see us off. it was sad to go but it was cool to know that i had made so many new friends over the semester. tears were even shed but haha they were not by me or for me. flew out of Perth that night, watching the Perth-area lights fade away, replaced by the blackness of the outback was a moment full of meloncholy. arrived in Cairns 5am or so, Julie, Mandy and I got to the hostel around 8:30 after waiting for a shuttle (ok so maybe i will include useless details). walked around Cairns. its pronounced Cannes, same as the town in france. it is on the east coast and in far north of the state of Queensland. it was pretty small but it really just used as a staging ground for tours of the great barrier. great warm weather even though it was winter (close to the equator) after being in the more southern Perth on the west coast. we walked under trees full of hundreds of big fruit bats, which was neat cuz they were awake and climing around the tops of the trees.went to info center for a map and advice, rented a car, and headed up to the Daintree Rainforest around 12pm. The Daintree Rainforest is a World Heritage-listed natural site, is home to the highest concentration of ancient plant species in the world, and is the oldest rainforest on earth at over 135 million years old. the drive up into the rainforest took us along a beautiful road; alternating between steep rainforest and sheer cliffs on our left and the ocean on our right, it was just awesome. it reminded me of a prettier/more exotic drive along the california coast even though i had never been to california at that point. we had a few mix CDs of the Australian music that we liked and listened to them, together the drive and the music made the three of us really happy and excited for our travels, as opposed to sad about leaving WA. we stopped off at a lookout to enjoy the view further and saw people hang gliding pushing off the cliff.. looked crazy dangerous. we finally got up into the actual rainforest and took a short hike to Mossman Gorge. we saw brush turkeys and a neon blue butterfly along the way. the gorge was cool, there was a river with a lot of huge rocks, it kind of reminded me of big rivers in the Smokey Mountains. so harkening back to vacations down there i got the girls to join me in some creek-hopping. we got in at this wide, still part where it was about 8-10 feet deep. the water was freezing cold just like the smokeys but you got used to it. i swam upstream to some rapids, climbed over some rocks and got to a part that was kind of like a slide. it looked kinda dangerous and the girls were to scared but i jumped in and was wooshed downstream. it was great i did a few more times after battling my way back upstream and got mandy to do it too. we drove further north and soon the canopy enveloped the road. we crossed the Daintree River on a ferry, apparently there are two 10 foot crocs that live in that area but we didnt see them. got to another lookout, this time looking out across the whole rainforest to the ocean. our last stop was at a fruit ice cream stand that made its own ice cream from its own home grown fruit, it was really good we got 4 flavors in 1 cup: coconut, black sapote, yellow sapote, and wattleseed, all tropical fruits. i drove back to the hostel in Cairns after that, about a 2 hour drive as the sun set, after dinner i went to bed early.
the next phase of the Cairns trip, our 3 day snorkeling cruise of the Great Barrier Reef, began with a 6:10 pick up from our hostel. there were 30 people on the cruise and surprisingly they were all scuba divers. there were also about 6 crew members so the boat was at capacity. we 3 were the only snorkelers but it didnt matter as we ended up seeing all the same stuff as them. it took 3 hours for the boat to get out to the reef, a VERY rough ride but we slept since we were exhausted. we did three dives a day, and were also fed 3 delicious meals by a chef. the first day we didnt see any of the big cool animals but i realized how huge the reef was.. the great barrier is the world's largets coral reef system, comprised of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands over an area of 133,000 sq miles. at the Ningaloo Reef we hit up over easter break back in march you could always see the bottom and you would just snorkel around coral formations no bigger than the size of a room. Here the coral stretched in every direction as far as you could see, and often as we crossed the chasm of open ocean between the boat and the reef the floor was too deep to see and the coral formations would rise out of the depths, who knows how many stories tall. the fish and coral were incredible but like i said we didnt see any of the big animals everyone comes to see. it was interesting to note that the biggest fish congregated underneath the boat, probably waiting for food scraps.
the second day our wakeup call came at 7:30am and we got into the water at a new dive site soon after, on our 3 dives that day we saw 2 sea turtles (got to swim with and all around one) and a stingray. we also got to lay out a bit that day, as it finally got a bit sunny. most of the rest of the time it was cloudy and really windy and a bit chilly. that night the girls taught me how to play rummy which was fun.
our third and final day on the reef started super early in order to fit 3 dives in before the journey back. we were in the water by 6:30 with the sun low on the horizon. our first dive of that day we saw a small white tipped reef shark, no more that 3 feet long. we had just gotten back on the boat and dried off and warmed up when we were informed that a whale had been spotted. so we jumped right back in and got to see a minke whale up close and personal, which was definitely the highlight of the cruise. all 30 of us were in the water holding on to a rope with just masks and snorkels on, and it would swim past us, back out into the depths, then back. it kept circling around us for a long time investigating, only about 30 feet away or so. it even swam right underneath us once. it looked exactly like a humpback whale but was only about 12 feet long--minkes are a smaller whale species. still it was awesome to be able to swim with a whale; one of the guys back at the dive shop said he has been working at Pro Dives for 8 years and diving his whole life and has never seen a whale. our last dive was a good one too.. the coral at that site was the most colorful and varied yet. we also saw another shark, which was surprisingly being chased by a larger fish, and saw the biggest fish we had seen yet, this 4 ft long parrot fish with a large boney protrusion on its head. it looked really old and moved really slow, so it looked like it was from the dinosaur times. on our way back in to the boat we also saw a line of 7 squid, i chased them and they changed all sorts of colors but never broke their perfect linear formation. after that it was another bumby 3 hour boat ride back into Cairns and they took us in a van over to the airport for free after we picked up our luggage from the dive shop.
-river in the Daintree close to where we got in
-mossman gorge
-great barrier reef, notice the wave break three miles out from land
-sunset on the great barrier
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)