sydney sightings

after the easter weekend in the wilderness, we headed for sydney, where we stayed with some great friends of ours, jo and magnus. they have just returned to australia after living in london for about 3 years. in fact, we even had the wonderful opportunity to visit them in london last year, and then they also came over to the u.s., so we showed them around baltimore, washington d.c. and new york. they live in an ideal spot in sydney now, a short walk from coogee beach (this is taken from the rooftop deck of their building).


since i only saw a quick glimpse of sydney on my first visit a few months ago, we made a point of going back to the harbor and having a closer look. last time, we walked around the area near the harbor bridge, and saw views of the opera house from there. so this time we started at the ciruclar quay and walked along the opposite side of the promenade to the opera house. it's such an awesome experience to see such major icons of cities up close (i had the same feeling when visiting the eiffel tower in paris!) - you just can't help but snap tons of pictures to try to capture the moment! from there, we went for a quick stroll through the peaceful botanic gardens.














we then took a ferry through the harbor to manly - a touristy area near the north "head" of the harbor (supposedly they used to quarantine people there upon their arrival to prevent the spread of diseases...). the ride through the harbor was equally as enjoyable as our visit to manly, as we passed the kirribilli house (the prime minister's private home, away from canberra), fort denison (was used to protect the harbor and once served as a prison), and watched all the sailboats racing or simply enjoying the beautiful, breezy day. once we got there, we followed the crowd from the harbor to the oh-so-manly(!) beach.














this photo actually has a funny story that goes with it. as we were walking away from the beach, i looked up and saw a message in the sky (a few minutes before taking this) that read, "marry me ange!" we all stopped and stared at it for a minute and i thought, "wait a minute... could that "g" and "e" possibly be another "n" and "a" written badly??" magnus, who was walking on my left and knew what i was thinking, said, "well? aren't you gonna say 'yes'?!" i turned to jason and yelled out an enthusiastic "yes," but quickly realized that it wasn't really intended for me since his enthusiasm didn't really match mine. awwww. we all had a good laugh, but i couldn't help but wonder if the message had actually been seen by this "ange" girl. i'm all in favor of creative proposals and everything, but how much would it have sucked for the guy asking if she had been in the bathroom or something at the time it was written, and missed it?!

well folks, that's it for the trip recap - i have a feeling, that with all the family and friends around sydney, newcastle, and catho, we will be back there again soon, which is good because each time we're there, there's always more that i'd like to do and see!


as for life back in perth, this first semester seems like it's already wrapping up and i have more than enough work to keep me busy through to the beginning of june. we were happy to watch our western force play their 2nd to last match at home last night (another big win) which means the atmosphere there next week will definitely be crazy as the season draws to a close.

country to camping

although it's a bit overdue, i have a few pictures that i haven't had a chance to put up yet from our trip a few weeks ago to sydney and various other places north of there. this first selection is from easter weekend. we met up with jason's mom (& co.) on friday near the little town of gresford - it was a very wet day, but we were still able to get a tour of the farm that they have (they just bought 100 more acres to add to it!) and we met their seven very friendly horses. it was too wet to go riding this time, but hopefully next time, we'll get a chance. the area was absolutely beautiful with its green rolling hills, valleys and rivers. the horses sure seem to love it!

easter saturday brightened up and we checked out the gresford easter fair. it was small town culture at its finest with various stands for bake sales, crafts, local food/wine products and so on. we even entered our names into the cow pie drop contest - whoever's number the cow drops its pie on wins! the billy cart derby races were by far the highlight for everyone to watch. every kid had their own creation, but obviously some worked better than others! the race started at the top of this hill and had to make it down the hill to the flags first (without going off course or tipping!).


from gresford, we drove to pumpkin point and met up with jason's dad's side of the family where all kinds of friends and relatives were gathering to celebrate corynne's (jase's stepmom's) 50th birthday. we had a great party that night complete with lots of great food, drinks and dancing (and only a few minor accidents). the "block" as they call it is a peaceful piece of land on the karuah river, owned by about 5 couples (including jase's dad and corynne). from all the stories i heard over the weekend, they sure do have lots of fun when they're there.

easter sunday was a bit of a shock after the wild night all the grown-ups had, but the kiddies were up at about 4:30am, ready for the easter festivities to start. jason made a delicious easter breakfast for us on the campfire and the kids had a great time doing an egg hunt in the woods. here are j's cousins kids after the hunt, showing their excitement for the number of chocolate eggs they now have! little ruby (front, in pink) collected all the red ones - how cute is that?!

i was well aware that there would perhaps be some wildlife around us at pumpkin point, since it is a very rural area. i don't know if i was quite prepared for a lizard of this size to pay us a visit, though! it's body was about 3 feet long, with a tail just as long! i was told that goannas are pretty common to the "block" and aren't too dangerous, so my curiosity and fascination made me follow this one around for a while until it finally escaped up a tree.

later, we had the opportunity to feed a kookaburra (unfortunately it wasn't sitting in an old gum tree)! i quickly found that it was a pretty picky eater, and would only nibble on fresh fish (as opposed to the stale crackers i initially offered it).

to complete my little australian wildlife safari, i decided to take a walk on our last night there at sunset to see if i would come across any kangaroos. i didn't get a chance to catch any of them on camera (they move so fast!), but i saw several of them when they stopped to look at me, and i heard even more as the ground made a strong thumping sound when they hopped away from me!

as i'm writing this now, i'm nursing a cold that seemed to come out of nowhere this past week. actually, i just finished taking an intensive one-week course on qualititative research methods - when told my mom that they compressed a whole semester's worth of class into a week, she says, "well, no wonder you're sick!" i guess it has been a crazy couple of weeks here. so, i will attempt to get some more pics up here tomorrow from our time in sydney, but for now, it's back to the couch!

good times, good times

weeks seem to be flying by lately! not too much has been going on - pretty much just the usual. i've been staying busy with classes and enjoying getting to know more of the people in them. one of my classmates, meg, that i worked on a presentation with a few weeks ago has been nice enough to invite me out to meet some of her friends lately, and she's also showing me some fun, new spots around perth. as many of you know, girlfriends are really important to me wherever i find myself in the world, so it's great to finally be making some here! jason was in new zealand for a conference last week - he came home pretty wiped out after being forced to spend each night socialising with colleagues til the early hours of morning! i can't say i feel too sorry for him, though - it sounds like he had a good time. we attended another western force match on friday - their 3rd straight win now at home! this week is the final week of class before our two-week study break. jase and i will fly back to sydney this friday and spend easter weekend camping with his dad's side of the family, then we'll have the rest of the week to visit more family and friends in and around sydney. i can't wait!!! have a blessed easter everyone!!

save the roos!

for an animal that truly respresents australia as its icon - featured on the australian coat of arms, on some currency, and used by many australian organizations, such as the airline qantas - i was shocked to hear about this story of roo abuse. i guess ever since i did a shoebox "diorama" on the kangaroo as a 2nd grader, i've been a fan of these furry friends. why would anyone want to hurt them? at least it sounds like the community is combatting the event with a pretty strong response! a lynching - yikes!
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Roo killers spark community outrage
26th March 2007, 7:00 WST

Residents of Preston Beach, near Mandurah, are incensed at the senseless barbarity of hooligans who deliberately mowed down four kangaroos, including a joey, on Saturday night. Peel Supt David Parkinson spent most of yesterday morning with retired police officer John Watson putting down dying kangaroos whose broken bodies were left on the streets of the quiet enclave. He said he had no doubt the kangaroos were deliberately targeted and police were trying to identify a white station wagon used in the attack in the hope of tracking down the offenders. "I had about 15 people come to my house down there...several of the comments were that they would start a vigilante group and that they wanted retribution," Supt Parkinson said. "The community are absolutely livid about it."

Supt Parkinson said he had information that one of the hooligans attacked a kangaroo with a golf club after the animal was struck by a car. "It really is disgraceful," he said. One resident, who did not want to be named, told The West Australian the community was outraged by the crime, saying some of the kangaroos were favourites among residents and were hand-fed and regularly seen lazing around front gardens in the suburb. "They were deliberately run over," one resident said. "It was pretty traumatic...there will be a lynching if the community find out who has done it."
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a walk in the park

i wouldn't be so quick to say that life has been a walk in the park this past week, but it certainly is great that we have found plenty of time to take advantage of the beautiful area in which we're living. the photo here is taken in the botanical garden at king's park, which is one of our favorite places to walk. in the background, you can vaguely see the "federation walkway" that stretches above the treetops of the garden and has amazing views of the river.

as the aussie's say, my course is pretty "full on" right now and i am already forgetting what it's like to have hours of free time on my hands (as was the case a few weeks ago). i volunteered last week with another girl in my educational leadership class to do a presentation this thursday on the theories of educational leadership. we are also looking at how the role of the 'educational leader' has changed over the past 50 years or so. definitely an interesting subject, but a heavy workload for this week. i know it will be good to get this out of the way early, and our professor even said he'd go easy on the first group (that's us) as we haven't learned too much in the class yet, but he also made it very clear that we are setting the bar here, so it better be good! :)

this past weekend we cheered the western force on to win another match against the queensland reds! then on st. patty's day we saw dave hughes, a well-liked aussie comedian, do a show at the historic regal theatre in perth. i was a little worried i wouldn't understand all the jokes through his strong aussie accent, but no worries there - he kept us rolling with laughter straight through the whole show! we had tickets in the 2nd row right in front of him which made for an even better time. luckily, he picked on others around us to poke fun at and we were saved from any embarassment there!

heat wave!

ok, ok. so i think i spoke too soon with my last entry stating that since it's "fall" now, the weather will be cooler and more enjoyable. I was punished for jumping the gun on that and witnessed the following days after i wrote that to have temperatures reaching between 100-108 degrees fahrenheit! (by the way, i just did the conversion now - before that i just knew it was flippin' hot!) i heard on the news that the day it reached 108 was the hottest day on record for perth in march!

this lovely heat wave coincided with my first week of classes! I am taking 4 "units" (or classes) in total this semester, but the schedule is a little different than the traditional full-time load that i was anticipating. 2 of my core units, 'language acquisition' and 'language teaching methodology' are both being taught in "blended" mode, meaning we have a face-to-face tutorial only every other week and then an online tutorial (with a posted report/discussion) the week inbetween on the assigned topic. then i have one regular unit, 'educational leadership' that meets weekly, and the fourth unit, 'qualitative inquiry' (to fulfill a research methods requirement) is only offered in "compressed" mode meaning that it's taught during the second week of our 2-week break in april every day. so that's the courseload for this semester. i think it should keep me busy for a while! keeping with the education theme of my course of study, i think it will be interesting to see which style of class works the best for me.

in other developments, after a long and painful process dealing with the student administration and the uwa campus news & gifts store, i finally received my student fare bus pass last week. i don't even ride the bus that much, but once they started being difficult with me, i declared war and was determined to get one! it is a great deal less than the normal fare and since it's a smartrider card, you don't need to worry about carrying change with you for the bus. today, i even used it to go to the drivers licensing center downtown to get a drivers license. unlike the hours (even days?) usually spent at the mva in maryland (some of you know what i mean here!), i was out of there in less than an hour and should have the license mailed to me within a week! talk about getting all my transportation needs fulfilled all at once! tonight we're off to our 2nd match of the western force vs. new zealand hurricanes. don't know how much support the 'hurricanes' will get tonight - there's a cyclone (george) currently hitting western australia in the north!

an end to summer?

officially, summer has come to a close here in perth and autumn has begun, but i don't really seem to notice any of those same signals i would normally see back home. instead of leaves changing color, some of the trees and brush have just sort of remained a dullish shade of faded green from the dryness. i think things will start to get greener in the winter months (june-august) again. one thing in common with the fall that i know and love is that the days aren't quite so unbearably hot as they were a few weeks ago, but are now pretty much that perfect warm temperature for being outside. after having no rain for quite a few months, thunderstorms have rolled through this past week and the rain has also been a nice change from the solid hot days. we took advantage of the great weather this weekend and spent the afternoon at cottesloe beach yesterday. we also got internet hooked up at home on friday - hooray! - so it should be much easier keeping up with email, etc. my first class at "uni" - language acquisition - finally starts tomorrow! i can't even explain in words how nice it will be to get going with this master's program now, after having all this time off! more updates on that to follow soon...