Merry Christmas from Down Under!

Last week my housemate Katrina and I went to the city to see the big Christmas tree. It is real, which is unusual for a Melbourne Christmas tree (I have no idea where the got it, these trees aren't native to the area). If you look closely, it says 'Melbourne' across the front.

We also saw this amazing display at the town hall. The images projected on the building from across the street.  So cool. 

It doesn't feel much like Christmas here - the days are long and warm and not many houses or shops are decorated. It actually works out well because it keeps me from feeling homesick. My Christmas Eve was fantastic; I had the entire house to myself (all the roomies took off to their parents' for the holidays) and just did as little as possible. For Christmas I'm going to have lunch at my friend Candice's house with her family, it should be nice. Hope you have a great holiday and I look forward to spending my next Christmas (and all following) in Florida!

Street art

One of the things Melbourne is famous for is the street art. In most places graffiti is legal and kept up if it is good. I suppose local artists decide what is 'good' and what should be painted over. When Katrina and I went to see the Christmas tree and town hall we walked down Hoosier Lane to see this cool art.

I also caught this guy working on the newest addition to the street...

Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest

Last week I took a fun trip to Port Douglas, Australia. It is a quiet little beach town about an hour north of Cairns. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip filled with time by the pool, by the beach, out on a boat, and hiking through a rain forest. While in the rain forest I learned a good amount about the indigenous population - how they used the land and some of their cultural practices.

This was the pool at my hostel. It was probably only mid 80s with a nice breeze - perfect weather. 

This is 4-mile beach, the famous beach across the street from my hostel. 

I took a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was BEAUTIFUL. I have underwater pictures as well, but I need to get them developed. 

This is the Port Douglas marina where I picked up my boat for my reef trip. 

Another day I went on a day trip to the Daintree Rainforest. This was on a boat ride across the Daintree river where we were searching for crocodiles. We didn't see any. I'm not surprised, there are boats that go back and forth across this river all day long. 

The landscape was amazing the entire trip - beach, mountains, rivers, everything!

This was one of my favorite pictures. Jellyfish are quite prominent in the area, to the point that swimming isn't allowed in most areas, but just in case you get stung here is some vinegar for you. 

Part of Mossman Gorge, in the rainforest. 

Me in front of the gorge. 

A flower in the rain forest. It just stuck out at me and required a picture!

Shrimp on the barbie

Me in my Crocodile Dundee hat taking care of shrimp and roo on the barbie. 

This weekend I went with my housemates, Katrina and Sebastian, to Sebastian's hometown of Castlemaine. It was a beautiful ride through the bush to get there. While there we stayed with his dad and several people were in town for Sebastian's sister's birthday. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and just made the weekend a relaxing trip away. Friday night we went to a local restaurant/bar and were the only ones there at around 10pm. On Saturday we did a quick walk around the entire town (it's pretty small) and then enjoyed a lunch and some time at the local watering hole. The best part was a barbecue on Saturday night. Sebastian's brother was in charge and the man likes his meat. As such we had chicken (chook), sausage (snags), kangaroo (roo), shrimp (prawns), and a little bit of potato salad. I earned my honorary Australian citizenship by putting shrimp on the barbie. When I did Sebastian's brother said "Melissa, can you please go back and tell everyone in America that we have prawns, not shrimp. We don't even know what shrimp are." So there you have it folks, they are prawns on the barbie. Oh, and the kangaroo was quite delicious. Similar to steak but sweeter. This trip crosses off #12. Eat kangaroo and # 16. Put some shrimp on the barbie (prawns will do) from the Goals for Oz list. 

Of course I found a large tree as well. This is the 'big tree' in Castlemaine - it's a large Elm.

Fancy dress does not mean dress fancy

A few weeks ago my friend Candice from work invited me to a 'Movember' party. 'Movember' is essentially the man equivalent to breast cancer awareness month. Basically, it is meant to heighten awareness about men's health and give men an excuse to grow that mustache (hence the mo) that their partners might otherwise despise. I have no particular affinity for mos or otherwise but it sounded like fun so I said sure. When trying to figure out what to wear this is the conversation that ensued between myself and two friends:

Me: What do I wear?
Candice: Oh, its fancy dress.
Me: Cool, what are you going to wear?
 (in my head): Maybe I can wear that grey dress I brought, I have some nice black shoes...
Kate: I'm going as the Black Swan so a tutu and leotard.
Me: Wait, what?
 (in my head): How is a black tutu fancy dress?

Turns out fancy dress is just another phrase for costume. Glad I found out before going to the party! Men were supposed to grow out their mustache and wear a costume to match. Female dates were supposed to match their man's mo. The rest of us were free to make up any costume. Thanks to Tamar, this was what I wore...

...a giant pink mustache! From left to right this is Tracy, Candice, Ben, me, and Be.

The event was so much fun. There were a ton of people there, probably 300+, and everyone did a great job with their costumes. Several people liked my costume and requested pictures, I happily obliged.  

 

These were a couple of the costumes - a group of  Mona Lisas and a mozilla firefox. 

This was another group of my favorites - the army man won the costume contest and Zach Galifianakis (second from the left; from the movie the Hangover) was a great match. There were several 'Goose' from Top Gun as well (far right). 

It's gonna be a hot one, folks

Just wanted to let you all know how unbelievably warm it was today - 44C. That is 111F! It wasn't so bad while I was at work, in the comforts of an air conditioned facility. When I got home, however, I was reminded that we don't have an air conditioning unit (most houses don't) and my bedroom faces the setting sun. When I asked my roommates how to cope at night they said to take a very cold shower, soak the towel (then ring it out), and lay it over you while you blast a fan.

Good news is it should drop to high 80s tomorrow and then low 70s by Sunday. They weren't kidding about this weird weather!

A 5th grade report on Australia

               

Natalie has been working tirelessly on a report about Australia for her 5th grade gifted class. I'm not sure of the specifications of the assignment but I know she had to write a paper of some length (maybe 5 pages or so), prepare 2 audio/visual aids, and give a presentation. I was so impressed with her work this year (particularly the visual aids) that I wanted to share. Above is one of her art pieces. It is a topographical map of Australia. The different colors represent the height of the land with blue being the lowest. She also added the dingo fence (described below), Lake Eyre, a kangaroo, and me (a little flag at the bottom right). Below is some of the paper. I cut it for brevity. Hopefully I have a future researcher on my hands although I think the current career prospect is equine veterinarian. Great job Natalie!

"Welcome to the land down under where many records have been broken. Learn about many fascinating creatures,  exciting locations and much much more in Australia the land down under!!The largest formation ever made by living creatures is named the Great Barrier Reef.  It is the world’s largest coral formation. It stretches 1,250 miles (2010 kilometers) along the north eastern coast. It consists of 2,500 living creatures!! It is even visible from the moon!!! Another Australian record breaker is Lake  Eyre. It is the lowest point in all of Australia!! It is located in the Outback and because of that it is normally just a dry bed of salt!

     The highest point on Australia is Mount Kosciusko (Coo-sce-usko).  It is 7,310 feet above the nearby pacific.   It is almost the tallest point in the world. Australia consists of 6 states. The largest city is Sydney. That is where Nemo was trapped in a fish tank to be given to a dentist’s daughter. Almost one fifth of Australia’s people live in Sydney.  Australia’s largest harbor is in Sydney.   Also seen in Nemo is the

Sydney’s opera house. Tasmania broke away from Australia  more than 12000 years ago!  It is the island southeast of Australia.  It is wet,  cool, mountainous  and green. Such a beautiful site.

         Hop hop hop goes the Joey…. That’s a baby kangaroo. They spend most of their young lives inside  a warm fuzzy pouch that  their mother provides. They both eat herbs and grass. Kangaroos can leap great distances on powerful hind legs and a big strong tail.Koalas can eat up to 2 pounds of leaves each day. But the eucalypts leaves they eat all their lives, come from one tree.  That means koalas are in danger of extinction. They need help from us but it costs lots of money to put up fences.

        About 20% of Australia’s people were born in another country. About 85% work and live in cities. Slightly more girls live in Australia. This is because girls live longer than men. People living in the Outback, have to use a two way radio to connect to each other.

       The world’s largest fence is in Australia. It is called the dingo fence. It is 3700 miles long. It runs from the southeast corner of Australia to Queensland.  It was built to keep the wild yellowish colored dingoes away. Dingos are small animals that look like a cross from a fox and a dog.  Dingoes hunt and kill sheep.

Although the smart dingoes managed to dig under the fence.

       Scientists believe the oldest living thing, Kings Holly which is located in Tasmania, may be 20,000 years old.  Kings Holly is a giant bush.  It looks like the top of a redwood tree with more leaves!  It is very bushy and there is not another bush that looks like it in the world.The largest rock in the world, Uluru (of – Look – room) is in the Outback. The ancient Australians named it that.  It is one old rock!!

       Australia has a funny nickname.  It is “The Land Down Under”.  It was nicknamed that because it is under the southern hemisphere. Thank you for visiting the land down under, where many records have been broken. We hope you  will visit  again."