Lately

I have been staying with my sister. Which is cool, I get along pretty well with her roommates, especially Mark. I have been introducing him to Mystery Science Theater, Tim and Eric and other greatness. Speaking of MST3K, I was browsing a pawn shop the other day and they had MST3K vol. 4 on dvd for $15, I think I will pick that up today. It has Space Mutiny which is a favorite. I would love to get the one with Time Chasers.

I do more than just go to pawn shops. Yesterday I went to the botanical gardens with this German girl Madi I know from couchsurfing.com. She is great fun. Anyway we almost wussed out because it started raining buckets, but then it cleared up. The weather in this town is so unpradictable! I didn't wear a jacket or anything because it was bright and wonderful when I left the house, then it started raining on and off. Anyway, it cleared up so we walked to the gardens. They are really well made! It is more of like a arboretum than a garden, lots of trees and trails. While there we saw some cool little lizzards (by little I mean about half a meter long) and some kangaroos. We joked that the poor kangaroos must be so fuckin sick of tourists always taking their picture. So, as we progressed through the gardens it started raining again, harder than before. We got tottaly soaked, and took shelter in the visitor's center and waited about 5 minutes til the rain passed. It was alright though, warm rain really and a warm day. I ended up being mostly dry by the time we walked back to the city.

spot the roos

I took the bus home, and it was the 5:30 bus so it was packed with people going home from work. The bus gets on the freeway, and there is a motorcyle with 'L plates' (learner plates) next to us. Well the guy drove into the side of a car, then bounced off it right infront of the bus. Miraculously the guy managed to keep his bike upright. Well the bus driver had to slam on his breaks (going highway speed) and people standing fell over and shit. I was standing as well, but coincadentaly I was holding the bars with both hands because I was doing imaginary pull-ups to pass the time. Anyway, no one was hurt! But the bus, motorcycle and car all pulled onto the median and exchaned info. The bus driver casually asked if everyone was ok, and everyone goes "aw yeah" "no worries" and so on in such an australian way.

After that I went and had dinner and tried new beers. The woman who made dinner was something of a beer drinker and wanted me to drink some proper Aussie beers. There are a couple craft beer breweries down here who do "bottle fermentation" which is something done in home brew as well. Basically you put sugar in the bottle, allowing it to ferment further. That way the beer you drink is fresher, since it fermented more recently, and therefore you don't have to comprimise flavor with preservatives. It is fascinating to me.

Currently I am watching this weather channel, with a map of Australia and the clouds over it, the colors are photonegative though, it is kind of trippy. Then it switches over to weather cameras around the world, a lot in Europe, showing snow on the ground and buildings. The whole time classical music is playing. It feels like a Kubrick movie. It just showed Seattle actually. I am doing this because Carly woke me up early to see a gang-gang cockatoo outside, aparently they are rare in this area. They are grey with a pink head. Anyway, they were gone by the time I got outside.

I am getting used to Australia. It is a really neat contry and I like the people a lot. If it stayed this warm all year I wouldn't go back to America. Haha. I guess I have been here for 3 weeks now. I need to get my arse down to Melbourne and start heading up the coast. I will wait til I get my tax file number so if a job oppertunity comes along I can snag it up. Thats all for now, I will put some photos up on facebook.

Write me an e-mail or facebook message and tell me how you have been!