The Summer of Snow

Hey all,
Long time no read! I've been settling in here in Ottawa- crashing at my bffs house for a few weeks after spending a week at home with my parents. They had the lucky job of nursing me back to health after sinus sickness of some type and extreme jetlag. They say you need a day for every hour of time difference, and that puts me at 16 days! I have been back in Canada for 2 weeks now, and am loving every minute of it. I can't remember who it was that said "you can't go home again" but they were utterly wrong. 
The week at my parents place I was a bump on a log and just watched movies, HGTV (my favourite) and read tons of children's novels- mainly the Chronicles of Narnia series. After you have been force fed academic jargin for 5 months you really want something easy to read and page turning and I have enjoyed them immensely. 
Then I headed up to Ottawa to visit with my old friends. I was so incredibly nervous on the train I thought I was going to throw up on my bffs shoes when he picked me up from the train station. What if I had changed and didn't know it? What if my friends changed? Did anyone even notice my absense anymore? And there's the little self conscious monster that reminds me I've put on 10 pounds worth of cider and wine around my middle that even new jeans can't hide. Sigh... life's so hard sometimes.
Thankfully, the transition back to Canadian life has been amazingly smooth. I have visited with old friends in the same old places and it's like I've never left- minus I have many stories to catch up on. But still, I have to re read my blog posts to remind me why I even left this place. 
Oh right- the point of the title of this post. I was here for a week and it snowed!! This is Australian summer (35 C - 45 C), and I chose to return to the comforts of giant boots, unstylish but warm jackets and runny noses. I wouldn't change it for the world. How can people even feel like christmas without these things!?!
As usual though, the snow has not stayed, but I have no doubt it will return, and I can't wait!
Here are some pictures I took downtown last year. I'll probably post some more once I take more recent ones :) 

The Parliament Buildings all lit up for Christmas

Me in front where you can see the bushes with lights

The city and Rideau Canal behind me

Last Hurrah

I just realised that I didn't post any photos from my goodbye party. I know that I'll be returning to Melbourne, but several of my friends were only here for a semester, which is really a shame. I have no idea when I will see these people again :(
We all met at E55, my favourite pub in the city, and then moved on to the Swagger Hiphop night. It was a blast! I'm going to miss these people very much. 

Canadian Soil

I made it to Canada at 1am Canada time this morning. It was a very long day, took 31 hours from when I left my Melbourne house to when I got to my parents place. My plane got delayed another hour on top of the 3 hours it was already delayed. The original plane had a fuel leak. The new plane had 2 flat tires they had to fill up. 
Then I missed my second plane to Toronto from LA because I had to go through American customs, which was stupid because I was only passing through the airport. When I got to the counter to check in for my second flight they lady told me I was on standby because the flight was over booked! If I wasn't put on that flight then I had to wait 6 more hours and get in at 5am Canada time. I was really worried, so I begged the flight attendant to put me on the plane. They finally agreed. THEN that plane was delayed an hour. It was a terribly long day. I was so tired that when I saw my parents at the airport I just burst into tears! They thought something was wrong with me, but I was just so relieved that I finally made it.


Today I've had the lovely experience of travel sickness to deal with- but who cares because my momma is taking cae of me (clearly the best part about being at home). I'll spend a week here with my parents before I head up to Kingston to visit my brother and then on to Ottawa to reunite with my friends and my BFF. This promises to be an exciting month at home, where I'll have nothing to do but visit with people and play tourist in my home towns.


That's all for now *cough cough*
I'll write again once I do something more exciting than defeat jet lag

Packing- Again!

So here, I am, writing another post about packing- didn't I just write one of these?!?!


Going back to Canada tomorrow morning after what is sure to be an amazing send off tonight. I can't believe how fast the time has gone, although I guess it always seems that way in retrospect. The first month I got here I was busy, but homesick and stuck in culture shock. Now it seems so strange that I'll be going back to Canada for a while. I suppose this whole year is just one large transition with highs and lows.
I learned a lot and I had a great time though. I met people from all over the world, and saw a lot of it too. 


I've also gained a greater appreciation for Canada now that I have lived somewhere else. It takes the cake. 


And now it's time to travel back in time instead of forward. I arrive in Toronto at 7:40pm, Sunday, Nov. 13th. BUT I leave Australia at 11:20am, Sunday Nov. 13th. I assure you, it's not an 8 hour plane ride. 14 hours and 20 minutes to LA, and then a 6 hour layover where I will probably eat and read my way through time. Then finally, a short 4 and a half hour plane ride from LA to Toronto. And there you have it!
I'm not sure if I'll continue blogging too much being at home- not that I think Canada is any less exciting. But we'll see what kind of thoughts I have to throw at you.
Thanks to everyone who read along with me for this journey :)
G'day Mate!

Not Goodbye

So with four sleeps to go til I head back home to Canada, I find myself in a bit of a problem. I have come to the sudden realisation that not only can my new friends NOT fit into my suitcase, but also that most of them will not be returning for next semester, as they were on exchange.
This has made me very sad. I have met some truly amazing people here. I have grown quite attached to them, and now I don't know what to do without them! I never imagined that leaving Australia would be difficult, after all, I had family and friends to return to post adventure. These people we not part of my plan!
What do you do when you realise that you were so excited to go home, but that means leaving?

Phillip Island- Wallabies and Little Penguins

When I first knew I was coming to Australia I googled "Melbourne Tourism" to see what I could do in the area. The first thing that came up was Phillip Island where there are many touristy destinations, farms, conservations areas and zoos. The highlights that I saw were Churchill Farm, specialising in sheep shearing and the Penguin Parade (which I discovered was the second largest attraction in Australia! 2000 people attend EACH DAY). 

Germany and I booked our last tour together as I was going to fly out in just over a week and we wanted to have a roommate bonding memory to go with Great Ocean Road.

The first stop on our tour was to the Moonlit Wildlife Sanctuary. Here they had a lot of animals in pens, like wombats, dingos and a tasmanian devil. However, there was also an amazing trail that you could walk down with wallaby food and feed the wallabies that roamed around. Wallabies are just smaller members of the kangaroo family. They are soooo cute! As we are in the middle of Australian spring, there were lots of mommas with babies in their pouches. This was the highlight of my life feeding the little guys

It's hard to see but there are two here, these ones are full size wallabies

feeding a momma with a baby in her pouch

Germany and I feeding the momma

Next we went to Churchill farms, which is a farm specialising in sheep shearing. Apparently a good farmer will shear up to 150 sheep per day! Each sheeps fur is worth over $2. The amount of physical effort it takes to shear this many sheep is the equivalent to running a marathon, every single day!

Half naked sheep. They sit very still though and don't make a sound

This is apparently a comfy way for the sheep to sit. This one didn't seem to mind at all.

This cow had just given birth to a calf. I had to take this picture for my dad. When I was little everytime we passed a field of cows while driving, whoever saw the first cow had to yell out "MY COWS!" and that's how you win. Therefore, this is my cow- hence the pointing.

After the beautiful farm we went to a koala wildlife reserve. I've seen a million koalas by now, but they are just so cute I never get sick of them. Besides, this time I got to see a baby :)

The baby is to the left and above the mother in the tree. It's sleeping standing up! click on the photo to see if in larger form

This sign was amazing, clearly for dumb tourists: do not touch, yell at, shake the tree, or smoke near koalas.

Next we were off to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory. They had a tour but it cost $12 and all I wanted to do was eat some of the stuff, so we opted out, but, I got a dark mint chocolate bar and it was the best I'd ever tasted.

Finally, we drove to "The Nobbies" which are these mini islands across from the Mornington Peninsula that Australian fur seals and little penguins live on. The seals here don't eat penguins, their main predators for both are great white sharks.

On that lovely note, it was a beautiful sunset. We ate dinner, looked around at the scenery and then off to the Little Penguin Parade. This parade is when all the penguins come in from being fishing at sea for up to four days. They come back to go home to their burrows they've created in volcanic rock. They are only 30cm tall! I wasn't allow to take photos because it blinds the poor little guys, but I have some from the sydney zoo in previous posts, they are the same animal. It is amazing to see something so small travel so far. 

Germany and I at The Nobbies

Beautiful sunset

We came across this swamp wallaby on the way to the penguins- the perfect time for a postcard like photo

This is the penguins beach. On the left you see stand of people awaiting their arrival. We were soon amongst them.

This trip was amazing. I can't say much more than that.

5 days til Canada

Dressing Up Down Under

Whew! I'm all done! My exam went very well and I handed in my last paper today. Now it's time to relax for a bit.. and pack. 
So here is a post about a few things I've done recently back in Melbourne. As you all know, Halloween was last week. However, as you may not know, Halloween is not popular AT ALL in Australia. How did I find this out? On public transit into the city to meet up with a few friends at the bar. 
Now I'm a big fan of "go big or go home" so I went all out with my Frankenstein costume. Like so: 

Let's just say, I got a lot of awkward stares on the train, and was only too happy to get into the American Bar the Kodiak Club on Brunswick St. It was decorated nicely and I had some great friends inside.

New Orleans, Danish, and myself (Danish dressed as a Canadian)

Some other friends as "the three blind mice"

My frankenstein legs

Then I was out again on Friday night at the Wild Things Fundraiser for the protection of Australian Forests. Recently in Sydney a large forest fire was started by kids with cigarettes. They are often destroyed due to the heat. Besides the cause, the best part of the night was being able to dress up! They had great bands (like the WooHoo Revue I saw at the Northcote Festival), massages, facepaint and Henna tattoos as well. 

My "mother nature" costume, made of dollar store objects, and my henna tattoo

An amazing singer/band that I have yet to find the name of.

Me and Germnay, the Zebra for a night

Full costume

The WooHoo Revue

It was a lot less embarassing going downtown with Germany so that was better than Halloween. But oh well, sometimes you have to dress funny and just not care!

Exam Time!

I will probably not be posting too much between now and Monday as that is when my first and only exam is scheduled. After that I am smooth sailing. 
To deal with my absence, here are some photos to describe my feelings towards exams, and what I will do after my exams. 
These images are taken from my favourite blog hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com. If you like dark and situational humour, then you will also adore this blog.
Enjoy!

The cycle of studying for every student- ever. 

This will be my reaction after I hand in my exam, delirious with information, fatigue, and fast food intake

What I will do after my exam

Blue Mountains Tour- Sydney

Our second full day in Sydney the girls and I decided to do a Blue Mountains day tour, as we heard that was the equivalent of Melbourne's Great Ocean Road. The tour wasn't as amazing as GOR in my opinion, but I didnt get to check a few things of my Australian To Do list. First we went to the Featherdale wildlife park:

This is a wombat, they are an adorable cross between a pig and a bear. I love them :)

A fancy looking bird

shhhh Koala is sleeping

Believe it or not these are birds. I never found out their name but I thought they were cute in a strange and unusal way

Kissing the koala, he was very soft

Feeding the tiniest kangaroo I could see, he licked the feed right out of my hand

An Australian Grey Kangaroo- the kind we saw out in the field on our Great Ocean Road trip

The barking owl- I was actually looking for a dog before I realise that this thing was "woofing" at me

Little Penguins, native to Australia (that is actually their name)

Albino peacock

Albino kangaroo

The Dingo that did not eat your baby

Crocodile- massive, massive crocodile!

If anyone is a Disney fan, this is a Goanna, like Joanna from The Rescuers Down Under movie

Next our tour headed to a lookout point in the Blue Mountains. The blue haze is caused by the combination of heat and the Eucalyptus trees in the area. 

This point is called The Three Sisters after the rock formation you can see behind me. The indigenous legend is that a man turned his three daughters to stone trying to protect them from a Bunyip (a mythical dog like creature, and also the name of the tour company we went to GOR with). Then the father lost his magic bone and could never return the girls back to their human form.

For lunch we stopped at the Katoomba golf and country club. It was really beautiful, but no time to play 9.

The world's steepest railway. It used to be the mine shaft cart, and when the mine closed down it became a tourist attraction.

It was super steep!

Reenacting our fear

Some wild adventures on the scenic walk through the coal mine and forest

Our tour finished with a tour of the Sydney Olympic park. It was a massive place but very cool to see where history was made

I really enjoyed the tour, but the definite highlight was being able to touch a koala and feed a kangaroo, I felt very Australian!