Here is the thing I find most enjoyable about Australia; EVERYONE travels. Belinda and Ross, my host family, have been to France, Rome, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand... the list goes on. I was chatting with some gentlemen yesterday and they’re talking about how maybe we take a weekend trip to the Barrier Reef. Mara, my cooperating teacher (CT), recommended I take a trip over to Kakadu one of these weekends and Amy’s host family suggested that on our week vacation hopping on a plane up to Bali is reasonable. So I think I will do this, all of this!
The way that the school is set up is that there are four ten week terms. Term one and term two as well as term three and four are separated by week long breaks and there is a two (?) week break halfway. So I am just starting week 8 tomorrow and then after week 10 Amy and I are planning on heading up to Bali for 4 days, we found cheap flights and a great deal on a 4 day housing package. So it looks like Bali here I come!
Besides that I have to say the thing I probably like least is how expensive it is here! Goodness! (which I got teased quite profusely for saying yesterday, apparently only old “Mums” say that, not 20-somethings). Amy and I headed to downtown Darwin for the day yesterday. But first I must back up...
Friday after school let out, I came home and went for a nice jog around the neighborhood... I mean what better way to get to know where you’re living! Each day I take a different route. After I got home Belinda got home from work and suggested we head downtown for a few drinks. I must say Australian wine is FANTASTIC, and it doesn’t hurt to be drinking it on an outdoor veranda on the coast. The pictures wont do it justice, but the dock was really cool and there were some amazing boats. Another thing.. they don’t tip in Australia. You actually typically get really poor service and the waiters are paid, quite well I might add, so you do not tip. Which is alright because a typical dinner is around $20 a plate but can be upwards of $40 or $50 for some of the nicer fish or steak plates. So Belinda and I enjoyed a nice glass of wine before coming back home for dinner and a relaxing night in with more wine and a movie.
The view of the boats
Australian wine and view :)
This is the rest of the restaurant view
And down the other side of the dock
Saturday we woke up and headed down to the street market. What a fascinating place! There was an aboriginal band that was playing and chanting for a little while and lining the streets (and when I say lining there was no semblance of an actual line whatsoever) were all these food carts, aboriginal art carts, shoe carts, jewelry stands, and TONS of fresh fruit and vegetable tents. There was anything and everything. I of course (stupidly) forgot my camera in my other bag, but they head down every Saturday morning so I will have to take photos next weekend.
After the market Amy and her host family Rose and Bernie came and picked me up and they kindly dropped us off in downtown Darwin for the day. We walked around (and did the toursity thing) to buy post cards, cellular phone plans, and of course take in a bit of the local product. First we stopped at a coffee shop, where I, again, ordered an Iced Coffee. This time there was ICE CREAM in it!!
Oh it was quite fantastic, however now I have no clue what I’m going to get when I order Iced Coffee here. Belinda and Ross reckon that I need to order and “Iced Long Shot” if I want the typical American iced black coffee. We’ll give that a shot next time and who knows what I’ll end up with! :)
Amy and I walked around the city, visited a few historical sites (entirely on purpose as you all know my fantastic sense of direction :))
Town Hall Ruins (duh :))
The story behind the ruins
The view from the walkway we had to take to get down to the Wharf
(you can see the Wharf in the distance of the background)
Because of the Crocs they have this wave pool to play in
More views from our walkway
Another view of the wharf and the city below it
Oh and there are pubs everywhere! We enjoyed a different Australian made beverage at each stop, so that we’d find what we liked. We also ran into some of the local team AFL players at the first pub we visited. They were kind enough to entertain us with stories and tips about what to do while in Darwin as well as what to be careful of. Apparently if you go out to a pub you need to be very mindful of your beverage when around a lot of people because there have been some problems as of late in Australia with drinks getting spiked. The guys also invited us out to their Grand Finale Championship game next Saturday, so Amy and I figure with how big the sport is here, and how often our students talk about it, we’ll try to make it out to our first (and most likely only, at least for a while) AFL game. Should be interesting!
As a side note, back to the expensive topic. While chatting with these guys the one started talking about how the AFL payed for his housing, which is good because the apartment he had in downtown Darwin runs at $800 A WEEK. It is incredibly! Apparently most places are $500 a week, you can sometimes find cheaper! Well lets just say I shut my mouth quite quickly about how I was wishing my rent would be cheaper in the U.S. when I get home!
Today is now Sunday, it’s been a great day! Went for a jog, had a little swim in the pool here and then Lorraine, my “uni” (university) professor was going to take me on a bike ride to show me around town. However, it looks like we might have a big storm rolling in. Oh, and today I tried vegemite and I have to say it isn’t all that bad! The trick is you eat it on toast put a layer of butter on first and then a really REALLY thing layer of vegemite over the top. It has a yeasty-salty kind of flavor. I can’t say I want to eat it everyday, but I would say it doesn’t deserve it’s stigma.
Time to finish up a lesson before tomorrow! G’day mates!
Oh and I promise more pictures soon!! I can only upload so many at once as it takes a loong time :)
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