Seriously, Australia is God’s playground. Everywhere else, the animals are cool, but vaguely similar to another animal you know. But what the heck is similar to the platypus? Or the kangaroo? Honestly, I think that when God started planning Australia, he was like, “Hmm…what could I do here? I mean, I have all of these odds and ends parts to various animals, but I want to make something new and exciting. I know….let’s go nuts!” And TA DA! You end up with a country with more things that can kill you than anywhere else; an animal that has a pouch for it’s baby, really heavy tail for balance, and huge back legs that make it jump across the desert at a wicked fast rate; over 700 variations on a single type of tree (I’m looking at you, eucalyptus!); a huge rock (or monolith) in the middle of nowhere; a 1,600 mile long reef system that has some fish found nowhere else in the world; and, to top it all off, a “toothless, venomous, fur-covered, egg-laying, semi-aquatic animal with a ducklike bill, the tail of a beaver, feet that were both webbed and clawed, and a strange orifice called a cloaca, which serves both for reproductive and excretory purposes” (explained by Bill Bryson) that we now call the platypus. Does the platypus sound like a little kid grabbed broken pieces of various animal toys and his mom’s glue and put them together in a crazy creation to anyone else or is that just me?
Hey All.
So, I know I just updated a few days ago, but I wanted to get myself back on track of posting on Monday nights. Please just bear with me.
I started working at the Gold Coast Turf Club on Saturday. That was actually kind of fun. Basically, I just run back and forth from tables to the bar and get lots of drinks for the different tables. There’s a whole separate staff for food. But it was rainy, which wasn’t so fun because then the people couldn’t go outside to watch the races, so moving around became kind of difficult during the races and everyone was standing to try to see the horses. But I still had a good time. Plus, it’s a job, I’m not gonna argue. J
On Sunday, Merle and I skipped church (bad kids, I know) and she took me out to her brother’s house in Laidley. It’s a cute little country town with stores titled things like “The Meat Tavern” and “The Yarn Barn.” (Serious). It’s about two hours from Gold Coast. The town was affected by the flooding, but not terribly—there’s still debris in some places, but they’ve done a very good job of cleaning it up. It is kind of strange seeing in person how high those flood waters were in the “less affected areas” and seeing that it came to my waist. Eek! We also went to a really fun little country pub for lunch (it was her brother’s birthday) and it was so great. Honestly, it fit right in with every family country movie set in the world—picnic tables, Christmas lights, a small rodeo ground, nice people enjoying being together and drinking a few beers (none of this Wild West fighting nonsense), and little kids in cowboy hats and boots. It was grand. So for having a rainy weekend, I still enjoyed myself and Australia.
I also furthered my adventure into Australian Coffee. For anyone who can give a better explanation of this, be my guest, but the Australian coffee menu is surprisingly difficult. And do not accidently use Starbucks terms. It’s bad. Tall, for instance, is not a small. Today, when I ordered a “tall mocha,” the girl apparently didn’t understand my accent and I ended up with a “short mac” or short macchiato, which is a shot of espresso with a half shot of either steamed or cold milk. Honestly, when I tried to drink my accidental coffee order today, I felt like I was having coffee concentrate. Wow. Talk about a buzz. The other difficult to understand ones for me were Long Black, Short Black, and Flat White. Apparently a short black is truly a shot of espresso, so I can’t imagine that vs. what I had today. And Long Blacks are espresso with water, about 1/3 coffee and 2/3 hot water, so it’s the most similar to a regular cup of coffee. Flat whites (my personal favorite) are 1/3 coffee and 2/3 steamed milk. I think I’m in love with them. I add 2 packets of raw sugar to it and it’s heaven in a cup. There is also an affogato, which is another love of mine. This is a shot of espresso over vanilla ice cream. Can you say yum?! Fortunately, there are many other items that are much more common: chai teas, hot chocolates, mochas (if they understand your accent), cappuccinos or “caps”, macchiatos (or long macchiato or “long macs”), and lattes are all what you would expect them to have been. But when I get back, Starbucks will be so much simpler to me. Haha. Speaking of which, there is a Starbucks in Surfers Paradise, I learned today. I’m going to try to avoid it, though, I think, and enjoy the Aussie coffee instead.
And finally, MY PARENTS ARRIVED TODAY!!! I’m so freaking excited. I woke up super early and took the bus out to the airport to surprise them. It was so fun. Plus, Australian airports let you go to the gate, so I was able to wait right by the door to see them. It’s so nice hanging out with them. We explored Surfers Paradise a bit today and I showed them my campus before jet lag attacked and they crashed. So now I’m here, writing to you and doing homework! Haha. I need to do all of my homework for this week and next week so that I can miss classes next week to adventure around Oz with Mom and Dad. Next week is what they call “Amber Alert Week” (I find this a bit confusing when I think of American Amber Alerts) but what they are is a pre-midterm grade to make sure students are where they nee to be to finish the class. So, that’s fun…not. But really, I’m so excited to spend the next two weeks with my parents, I don’t even care about the extra work. And we’re doing so much fun stuff, I’ll be happy I put the work in now when I’m in Sydney next week.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I love hearing from you, so please keep in touch! I have enjoyed the letters, emails, Facebook messages/comments, and skype conversations (I’m talking about you, Ash, Lizzy, and Kaleb!) more than I can ever say. Keep them coming! Love you all!
<3, Leah
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