Week 18:

Another week. Another trip. Another Rotary meeting. And another football loss.

Sounds exciting, right? Life down under is nothing but exciting!

I finally finished my first semester. No one should ever go to school in June. I don't care if it's Winter here. It's just wrong. (This goes for our med school friends, too. They can't stand learning in June either.) Ah, well, it's done, and I got to celebrate on Thursday by speaking at my eighth Rotary club. It was a funny little club in a town called Yea about 2 hours north of Melbourne (Claire drove me & Karl went to practice). They were very lively and gracious, expect for this one man. The first rude Rotarian I've ever met. Thank God Claire sat by him and not me b/c I would have hit him. It's one thing to make comparisons between countries, but it is an entirely other thing to make sweeping, critical generalizations. I thought he was going to be insightful b/c he started talking to me by saying that Aussies tend to generalize Americans by what they see on tv, but then he turned around and generalized Americans based on the farmers he worked with in Kansas and Oklahoma. Just guessing, they weren't the essence of America either.

Enough ranting. I continued celebrating the end of the semester by traveling to Adelaide for a girl's weekend with Claire, Chris (my first friend here), and one ofher friends, Emily. While Adelaide is the closest big city to Melbourne, it isn't close to us. My sister Erin thought we could visit Adelaide while her and Marshall visit us b/c it's close, but it's actually like saying Bowling Green and Tallahassee are close. Most people don't realize that Australia is just about the same size as the US. So, the point is that we definitely flew to Adelaide. It supposedly has over 1 million people living there, but we called it the Silent City b/c it was so quiet and empty! On Saturday, we took a ferry to Kangaroo Island which is supposedly one of the most beautiful islands in the world to see wild life. Too bad it was a monsoon all day, so we didn't see many animals. We did get about 10 feet away from sea lions and seals though. They were adorable! We also went to see these Remarkable Rocks, and they were quite remarkable! I'll be posting some remarkable pictures of the remarkable rocks tomorrow, remarkably. We ended the day by traveling back to Adelaide via the ferry. It was the scariest trip I've ever taken. The ferry was over 4 stories tall, and the tidal waves were splashing onto the top floor. The electricity kept flashing on and off, and I didn't know where the life jackets were. The trip was supposed to take 45 minutes, but this time it took over an hour and by the end of the trip over 90 percent of the passengers were puking. Claire lasted almost five minutes, and then proceeded to throw up for the remainder of the trip. She has a bruise on her elbow from gripping the table in front of her. Ten minutes in, Emily wiped out trying to walk to the back of the boat where she threw up. I almost made it. Land was in sight, but I just couldn't hold on any longer. The smell and site of puking and the constant thrasing of the boat became too much for my poor little stomach. So, five minutes before we landed I lost it. I emptied my stomach and two minutes later we landed. It was horrible. The next time I see a ferry, it will be way too soon! We finished up our trip by going on a day long tour of the Barossa Wine Valley. Just what we needed after a night of ferry riding.

While I was gone, Karl planned another trip (in between being miserable without me, of course.) In September, we're going to the Red Center. We'll take a train to Adelaide and then on to Alice Springs to see Ayers Rock. Then, we drive through to the top of the country to Darwin. Then, we'll fly home! It's going to be me, Karl, Carol (as always), and our Japanese friend, Hiromi. We're excited! Our next planning adventure will be for Ashley and Harper if they ever email me with the exact dates they're coming.....

Okay time to finish things up.

WORD OF THE WEEK

We don't really know how to spell this word, but neither do the Australians. It's another word for arse: coit. Karl learned this word at practice tonight. The example sentence was "shove it up your coit, mate". Isn't that lovely? Thought ya'll would enjoy it.

Britt

P.S. Next week's blog will be really short and early (Tuesday) b/c we leave for the Down Under Bowl next Wednesday. We'll be gone for a couple of weeks!