Here is a video about the farm I worked on in Australia: (in three parts)
-A reality show about people with disabilities came to the farm and asked to record their stay there. The show aired in New Zealand and gives a you a pretty good idea of what the area looked like and some of the people I worked with!

SEO Contest

Hey yo,

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Take a look,
Do It!

SEO Contest

This contest decides a grade on an assignment. I have to have my website http://zompiredracularius.spruz.com/ show up high in the rankings on Google search. This happens when other people link to the website from their pages.

I'm linking to it so that I can raise my page rank. If you feel like linking to it as well...please do. It will only help me. :-)



http://zompiredracularius.spruz.com

WOOHOO!!! The count down has begun. 3 days from now I leave and am back in the USA on August 29th at 8:08pm in Minneapolis. Whew...time is short.

For the last week I've spent time with friends and volunteered some more. I worked with a bunch of "older" ladies the other day. It was an absolute gossip fest. After that I went on a tour of Sydney and fixed one of the ladies computers. For this I received a pair of silken, Australian flag, boxer shorts. I'm not really sure how to feel about this. I think I like it.

Yesterday I called 68 people as part of a follow up process for a forum happening in Canberra. It was awesome...I pretty much rocked hard.

I'm about to go on a souvenir shopping tour...should be a trip.

Wish me luck as I go to barter with the merchants of Sydney!

So I've realized that the lamest posts are the ones that start of by apologizing for not posting. Thus I am not apologizing for not posting for two weeks. I am regretting the decision to wait this long as I now have to try to remember what I did during that time...and not have it take up a ridiculous amount of reading time...oh the trials of my life.

I bought a plane ticket for Sydney from Cairns the day before it was leaving for $260, the bus ticket would have cost $455, recieved a book about working dog stories from Vicki, Frank, and Kathy(again, beautiful people), got to Sydney at 10pm, took a train to Lindfield and made myself at home. This was last Tuesday. Since then I have done almost nothing save for going to the Blue Mountains and seeing the Three Sisters which was pretty cool. I also went to the Jenolan Caves, which were awesome, and saw 'Public Enemies' on the equivalent of an IMAX theater screen that they call the 'Edge' here. The expected reaction to seeing this mega-cool movie on a ginormous screen was pure elation. My spirits were dampened, however, when the movie began to play and was only normal size, leaving many unused portions of aforementioned monstrosity. I persevered and sat through the spectacle pleasantly surprised that they really showed what a bad person John Dillinger was. He was crazy...

I am currently at Rising Generations finishing up my first day of volunteer work with them. I folded, stuffed, labeled, stamped, and sealed over three hundred envelopes today, along with doing some cutting and organizing. For lunch we went to Joe's Kebabs, a Lebanese establishment, and spent the hour or so sweating the chilli off of my toung. Being raised on potatoes where the most spice we had was salt and pepper doesn't help when trying to down some of the most pungent peppers this world has to offer. I do believe that I spent more time waiting for my taste buds to reawaken than I did consuming what they told me was edible...I have yet to verify this contestable fact.

In less than two weeks time I will be back stateside and will look forward to seeing you all again. Don't let it be so long before I hear from you or I start to wonder if you're ok all the way on the other side of the ocean...seriously! :-)

Last time I posted I commented on my feeling light headed and dizzy. I would like to announce that this feeling has fled like money from my bank account while I've been in Cairns although in the interim I thought I might have Swine Flu, thanks mom, and when I had ruled that out, that I might have some type of expanded lung disease or the bends. Fortunately for me, my joints, and my lungs I do not have any of those things. I was tired and dehydrated, as originally thought, and am now feeling %100! Ok, maybe not %100, but at least %83.

Today I traveled to the Daintree Rainforest on a day trip. This was led by Vlad, our rather disgusting tour guide. I met two more Americans on the trip. I'm beginning to understand the rest of the world's dislike for us. I have not met an American on this trip who was, what I like to think of as, normal. They have all been rude, tasteless, and impatient. For a country that thrives on welcoming foreigners to our shores, we do not put on a very good face when visiting their countries. This is not to say that all of the other people I have met have been accommodating and friendly. The English, in particular, have been pretty on par with Americans. The other European countries are all pretty on par with each other and Australians have been representative of what I believe America to actually be like. They are a little more trusting and friendly once you get to know them but have a similar superficial attitude towards people. Anyway, I digress. The rainforest was brilliant. There were more shades of green than I knew existed and the intimidating plant matter met all of my expectations. We did not see any waterfalls which was dissapointing but the rapids we visited were nice. The mountain stream was dutifully clear and the mangroves we walked through had many interesting ways of living in water...as you would expect. My favorite was the "snorkel" root system.

When I returned to my hostel I continued my battle to convince them that they have shorted me on a night of accommodation. You see, when I went on the dive trip, I reserved a night for when I got back. The very kind lady, who remembers my name when I go in to the office, said something to the effect of, "Would you like to pay us now so that we have your metaphorical important parts in a vice?" and I of course responded, "I would love to give you my credit card information so that I can not possibly back out of this deal even if I wanted to." or something like that. I don't remember the exact wording so you'll have to forgive me. That was however the gist of it. When I returned I discovered, to my consternation, that I had not "paid" for a night and that I owed them money. I had to pay as I needed a place to sleep and also somewhere to hold my belongings so that I could listen to slightly innapropriate jokes from Vlad. How else was I going to be slightly offended? Tonight the desk provided me with a list of all of the things I have paid for in the last week, of which the night in question was not one. Now let me assure you that this has all been done with a surface politeness that you expect to see in a good midwestern town in true Minnesota nice fashion. We have never gotten tense and have always "assumed" that we are the party in error. This could not be further from the truth. I quite distinctly remember the conversation wherein the kind lady with a knack for names procured my unconditional commitment to stay for another night with them upon my return. She quite distinctly does not. Since I obviously don't hang on to payment slips and have no way to track my payments online, due to a delay of an alarming amount of days and a currency exchange, I have no evidence and seem to be caught between a rock and a hard, poky, spiny, dark, and wet place. Really it's the equivalent of a rock and a cave floor at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They do, after all, already have my money. The agreement was unconditional. I hereby admit defeat.

In a happier vein, I am leaving Cairns tomorrow to go to Atherton where Vicky, daughter of Frank and Kathy, is going to generously provide me with a place to stay for a little while. She even offered her house as a residence for me while she vacations at the end of this week. That is entirely too much trust for me and I am taken aback at her willingness to entrust all of her worldly belongings to a complete stranger but alas, this is the charm of the Australian people.

I have decided that Cairns is a boring resort town that has nothing to really offer itself unless your main pastime is to not remember your past times. This would be followed by a day of rest, not on the beach due to crocodiles, and then repeated. Thankfully my mother filled all of our vacations with too many things for me to be happy merely relaxing in paradise. I need horrible airplane museums and decrepit old women to walk me through planetariums in order to be truly happy. I want to visit the zoo everywhere I go despite the fact that they all have the same four animals, a penguin with no real ice, an elephant that is retired from Barnum and Bailey's, a tired looking monkey, and a tiger that paces back and forth just waiting for his chance to rain punishment on any human foolish enough to go in there unprotected. It is these things that I want and that Cairns can not provide. I will thus head south after my stint in Atherton and hopefully spend the rest of my time with those people I met when I first got here and who greeted me and gently inducted me in to the Australian way of life. Now I just have to let them know that...

Just got back from the dive trip...saw a squid, shark, a hunting lion fish, stingray, stuck my hand in a giant clam, and pet a green turtle. I went 30 meters below the surface and saw an egg stay together after the shell was broken. I went on a night div, saw sleeping turtles, and swallowed a ridiculous amount of sea water.

After two days of our instructor working on us, I decided that I really should buy a mask and snorkel. Then after another two days of him working on us I decided that I really did need to be able to go to 30m instead of just 18m! Then after the video guy worked us over I decided that I REALLY did NEED to buy a video of the trip!!! I've been nickel and dimed the whole trip and the worst part is I knew it and let it happen anyway...I'm lame.

My skin is now falling off and I feel continually water logged. My legs are tired and my ankles have blisters on them. My balance is off now that I' back on land, I'm dehydrated from being in salt water and breathing canned air, and I feel like I should be rocking back and forth. I think I'm hooked...(pun intended)

Turns out they pronounce and spell Aluminum differently here. Aluminium(Al-you-mini-umm) is the word of choice.

I'm now sitting at McDonald's again listening to perhaps the worst street musician to cruise the auto lanes in any city in any civilized country to date. He's like a bad Bob Dylan with a sparkley hat, feather, and without...skill. Same monotone singing voice and all. He has added a rhythm section(an egg shaker) and a respectable harmonica...ok I was wrong. The harmonica player is not respectable...I spoke too soon. At least it's comical. ;)

Off to look for a job...for a week...right.

30 hours on a bus with no air conditioning later I am in Cairns. I spent the first day looking around the town. I went in to an aboriginal art shop and knocked down a display of hand carved and painted boomerangs, purchased two things out of guilt, signed up for a dive course that cost me 700 dollars, purchased goggles, a snorkel, and a head strap thing for another 150, spent two days in a pool, smell like chlorine, met Bob, am sitting at the McDonalds on the internet...with a stranger, and am going on a boat tomorrow to complete 9 dives in 3 days at depths of 18 meters and one time to 30 meters.(this is 90 feet for us)

I can now, theoretically, SCUBA dive. I also know that I could theoretically lose my air at a depth of about 60 feet and can do nothing but dump my extra weight and breathe out on my way to the surface. This will assuredly result in the Bends where Nitrogen bubbles will come out of my blood and collect in joints thus causing me to scrunch up in pain...horrible pain. If I don't breath out then the gas in my lungs will expand and escape my lungs possibly getting lodged in my brain and killing me. I could also, theoretically, not have anything bad happen to me and spend 3 wonderful days seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world. Let's go with the second option.

Bob is a man I met tonight at dinner who is here in Australia for the third time...bird watching. We discussed the coldest weather we've ever been in and seen, where we are going, where we've been, and what we are doing here. Bob is from New Mexico and won't go back to South Africa because "three big Zulus stepped out from behind a car, sandwiched him, and pointed an automatic gun in his face and told him to leave as quickly as possible."(that last little bit was paraphrased)

I've eaten more peanut butter and honey in the last week than I did in 4th grade...and that was a lot. I'm staying at JJ's Backpackers which costs me 24 dollars a night for room and free breakfast and dinner. Dinner is provided by a place called the Woolshed which gives us free food, expecting us to drink in excess...I do not participate in the optional alcohol purchase. I think the Woolshed used to actually be a woolshed...kinda cool. Last night I witnessed the international goldfish racing championships. This is conducted by placing two goldfish in parallel troughs and then letting their "jockeys," who purchased the chance to be a jockey through an auction and are really just people with straws, blow bubbles behind the fish to convince the fish to go in a given direction. Ireland destroyed the competition and the USA lost to Canada in a stirring performance after annihilating an earlier opponent. The winning "jockey" won a free bungy jump...cheers to Ireland.

The mullet is popular in Cairns. I guess it makes sense...business up front...party in the back. I am personally disturbed.

I am playing a game where I stare people down who are walking by and I see who has more guts based on who makes eye contact longer. I win most of the time because I actually am aware of the game. Plus, they are moving so sometimes I get the added benefit of seeing them stumble after foolishly trying to challenge me. They are then forced to break contact and I win. I did lose once...he was a worthy opponent.

The beaches would be nice here...but there are salt water crocodiles...who will kill you...and stinger jellyfish...who will kill you. This results in ironic "lagoons," we call them pools, in the middle of town, in paradise.

Australians like to do things differently than normal people. They drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. Bed linen is called Manchester. Everyone is a mate and college is high school with upper education being university. (I like the mate thing and now movies look strange because they are driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. Life is relative.)

I am slowly learning to do live translations and speak the language...you know, English...it's a work in progress.

Thank you for the words of encouragement, jokes, and just words in general. It's nice to know that people read this thing. :)

I've given up being a wayward cowboy and am now on to become a beach bum. My hair is growing and I believe at the minimum length required to step foot on a beach in North Australia. I plan to attack Cairns, pronounced Care-nz not Canes despite the Australian's inability to pronouce the letter 'R', with the force of the North and leave them wondering how a country boy from North Dakota could possibly be such a natural at SCUBA diving. My one concern is what will happen to my face when I get a tan with a goatee and then shave it off when I get back to America. Look for one of the strangest "farmers tans" to come out of Australia in the last decade soon.

I am currently staying with some friends of the family, Kathryn and Frank, of Toowoomba. They are beautiful people and have welcomed me with open arms. While here I've visited a Japanese Garden and been to the Cobb and Co. Museum. Today after my visit to the home of horse and buggies that is the museum, I had my first Lamington and my first Double Sasperilla softdrink. After drinking that black licorice in a bottle I travelled to the post office and discovered that to send less than one Kg of stuff consisting of two books, a cd of pictures, and a computer lock home it will cost me 23 dollars and change. I opted to send that stuff and leave a chain, some velcro, and a poncho here. Leaving the stuff you don't want is a good way to thank you right? I've discovered that Toowoomba is a large place. It is my belief that I've done more walking in these two days than in all of my time spent as a bull chaser/feeder. It is, fortunately, more flat. Appreciate life's little blessings I suppose.

Finally, it was brought to my attention today that this neat little idea of taking pictures with a cowboy figurine might have taken a turn for the pathetic. I was struck with the problem of explaining how it was that I took pictures in one of those frames where all you see is your face and some other body today as Bully and I switched 'bodies'. I realized that the picture of me setting up the camera to delay the shot and then rushing behind the wooden cutout with a ceramic figurine like some lunatic with an imaginary friend might just cause some people to pause. Thankfully those who witnessed the debacle went on their way with no comment. I have no doubt, however, that I was the topic of people's conversation this afternoon. Maybe not for long, but I definitely made the the discussion board and that is something to cherish.

Think about the last time you know strangers talked about you in an odd way and smile because it didn't hurt you any and it brightened someone else's day. Wish me luck down under in down under as I learn to breath canned air. Cheers!

ps: I found my fingerless gloves. Thanks for worrying...

Everyone is gone, I have no plans, and it’s a little scary. I’ve found that it doesn’t happen very often in my life that I have absolutely zero idea about where I’m going next. I know what that says about my personality. I’m a control freak and I probably need to let go, a little, once in a while. That being said, I am very uncomfortable with the idea that tomorrow might come and I won’t have a plan to deal with anything other than “we’ll see how this works out.” As of now, here’s what I know:
1. Tomorrow will result in me not knowing anyone in Tamworth
2. I do not currently have a destination
3. I do not currently have a job
4. I do not currently have enough money to fund the rest of my 1.5 months in Australia
5. I do want to continue working as a Jackeroo
6. I would prefer to do so in the North on a large station
7. This is difficult because Jackeroos do this as a living and I am doing this as a summer job
8. The fact that nothing is open on the weekends is inconvenient
9. The fact that nothing is open at night is inconvenient
10. I always land on my feet, a little worse for the wear, smelling like the proverbial rose.

That last point is important because if this were not the case, I might have much more reason to “freak out” as the kids say these days.

Now for an update as it has been a while since I’ve been allowed to interact with you civilized folks in the real world. This last week marked the end of many things. It marked the end of my first job in Australia, the last time I would see my five friends the bulls, and probably the last time I will teach someone else how to ride a horse. It also marked the beginning of some great things. I now have a person in Norway that has offered me a good time should I ever get there and seems like a really good guy. I learned my first Norwegian. “Jeg skal knuse deg!”(pronounced: yai skull knooseh die) means “I will crush you!” I finally feel as if I have some accomplishment when it comes to horse riding and this is the first time I can remember being kind of excited about lack of direction in my life…shocking isn’t it?

The last horse I rode was named Matrix. She is the most dominant horse in the herd and it shows. There is not a moment when she is not trying to own you or another horse. She is also extremely responsive and well trained. She was a pleasure to ride and work with, once you got past that nasty habit of biting, and is now represented in a bracelet I had made of the horse’s I’ve ridden tail hair. It’s pretty cool if I do say so myself…and I do.

Most of the scars I’ve made since going to the farm are now fully healed and mark the places where I proved I can really work…or that I’m just not that adept at working with my hands. Whatever way you look at it, it’s nice to be whole once again and I plan on staying that way for a while…not that one ever plans to lop off a finger. I am however short a few items and long on some others. In my haste to pack yesterday I forgot my dress belt, a pair of fingerless gloves, and a jacket. You might ask, “why do you want a dress belt on a farm, what do you need fingerless gloves for, and which jacket?” or you might not. The point is I wanted them with me and now they are not…with me. I also need to send some things home. It turns out that after you’ve read books, you don’t want to carry them around with you for the rest of the trip…weird. I am also still stuck with a bobble-head moose and two shot glasses that are supposed to be presents but are currently dead weight. Aye aye aye…woe is me. Serves me right I suppose…that’s what I get for thinking that anyone but a Minnesotan would want a moose bobble-head. Maybe I’ll pawn it for food money…

I hope that this post finds those of you who read it well and wish me luck as I embark on a diet of McDonalds and peanut butter and jelly.
Peace out,
Nicko

So I helped my bosses ex-wife move from one town to another. During the process, his ex-wife’s stepson let out the most rancid, horrifying, hair-curling, fetid smell any human has ever been exposed to…at the age of eleven. The Australian Government is currently investigating the incident to discover if the boy can be charged with ‘Terroristic Activities’ and Queen Elizabeth just officially revoked the Crown’s tie with their former penal colony. Big Timbo commented on the odor saying, “He shat himself” and “I think he dropped his guts.” This writer has never before, and hopes never will again, been exposed to a sensual overload of this magnitude. It is my sincerest wish that the boy is cured of whatever ails him and this world is rid of that kind of biological warfare.

In other news, I have purchased an oilskin to assist me in my daily fight against nature, have grown a goatee, and am bit by bit developing a stain on my hands from working with fire pit ash, grease, cow shit and the inability to wash them adequately. I will now officially look like an Australian Jackeroo.
I am currently sitting in the local mall with free wireless access.(even better than the library) I knew that I hauled this laptop across the ocean for a reason. It is the first time I’ve had internet access in two weeks and the last time I will have access for another two weeks. This is because the schedule is strange for the few weeks due to the break that happens in July. I just completed an “Advanced Natural Horsemanship” school and will have two more “Jackeroo” schools before I’m done. My horse’s name is Booligal, is much, much, bigger than me, and knows it. We are slowly developing respect for each other and he is teaching me just how little I actually know about working with horses. He is also teaching me about how to work with horses. I have not received a bite or a swift kick in the pants from him yet but this is more from quick reflexes and vigilance than lack of effort on his part. Every time he puts his ears back I am to yell and if that doesn’t work, hit him hard or really yank on his bridle or halter. I feel as though any muscle I’ve gained here is more from that than anything else. It is happening less so this is a positive sign.

We’ve gone to another team penning competition which was cool. It is quite literally like watching an artist at work when Tim is on horseback. It seems as though he and his horse are more connected than anyone else there could ever be. I guess that’s what happens when you spend the last 40 years working closely with the animals. I also discovered that my stirrups have been too short and this is a big reason why I couldn’t keep my feet in them when Booligal would trot or canter. I still flop around like a fish out of water but at least I don’t stand as much of a chance of falling off sideways.

Tonight I am going to two movies. First I am going to “The Voyage That Shook the World” and then to “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Both are about evolution so I think they will complement each other nicely. For anyone who happened to be on a bus this last spring break, here’s to you. I’ll be thinking of you regardless of your specific affiliation or destination.

As I sit here in the wonderful library with FREE internet access, thank you tax payer dollars, I reflect on my past week.

I once again attended the Jackeroo School where I was supposed to teach other people to do things I can't do.

I successfully "galloped" which it turns out is only a fast canter.

I was told, by a student, not to tell her how to do things and to not look at her husband.

I then witnessed their subsequent decision to have a divorce which took place after a very childish argument about who was a worse person.

I am getting used to not showering every day.

I ate two double cheeseburgers and a large fry from "Mackers" last night and it was awesome. The large cups are the size of our mediums and you have to pay for refills which was not awesome.

If I buy a hat and bring it to the Jackeroo School it will have bull testicles put in it. I do not know how to handle this situation.

It turns out that I am only going to be at the school until the middle of July and then I will have to find another place to go. Hmmm...

I wake, every morning, to the lovely sounds of "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" by Big and Rich. Listen to the song and you will understand why it never gets old to listen to two grown men sing "DUM-DE-DE-DUM, DE-DE-DUM-DE-DE-DUM, DE-DAA-DAAAAADUM-DE-DE-DUM, DE-DE-DUM-DE-DE-DUM, DE-DAA-DAA-DAA-DAA-DAAAA!" before you hear anything else that day.

I hope that you have taken care of yourselves and that your summers are all the best ever...
cheers,
Nick

So I got a job

I'm now at the library in Tamworth because I got a job at the Jackeroo School I attended and don't have internet access there...yep

It was pretty sweet. The people I met this week were hysterical. Tom, Fergus, and Ali were from Scotland and all re-f'ing-diculous. Someday I'll go visit them. They promised to put me up and show me a good time...sweet. We had a great week, learning to ride horses, herd sheep and cattle, fence, do pasture improvement, and care for tack and now I'm going to teach other people how to do it. HAHA! ...right

I took my stitches out last Wednesday...that hurt. The intern that put them in made them really tight so when I went to pull them out, they had started to be taken over by skin...not cool intern. We all have to learn, but next time maybe not on me. The plus side is that it's healing fine and I think will be back to normal in a couple weeks. YAY!

In other news, since I'll only have access to the world once a week, I'll be updating here to let you all know I'm still alive. I hope all of your summer travels have gone off without a hitch and I will see you on the flip side.

ps: my horses name was Sticker and I've named my stolen picture idea. His name is Tiny "Blue-Eye" Marron.

It's been kind of a rush the past couple of days. Two hostels and now I'm in Tamworth about to go in to the bush. The train from Sydney to Tamworth took me through some of the most amazing country I've ever seen. We went through what looked like oyster farms, don't quote me on that, prairie like home, foothills like in Colorado, scrub land like Mexico, and mountains like you would expect in some Brazilian rainforest.

I also had a conversation with a retired lawyer/debt collector/bus driver named Shirley who was half sweet grandmother type and half spit fire. If you know my mom, imagine her in 20 years. She informed that I was a "naughty lad" for not having seen my own country before seeing another but that it was fine as long as I fixed the situation when I go home. I agreed that I was ok with that deal and we moved on. She was orginally from New Zealand, has two children, and informed me that they wanted her there but she wanted to be in Sydney...so there. She also let me know that whenever she wondered if she should go to the opera in Sydney she would ask herself the question "Am I worth it?" The answer is always "yes."

The fact that I'm going in to the bush means I won't have e-mail or internet access or access to my mobile until after next Friday. I wish those of you who read this blog, and those of you who don't though you'll never know it, the best and I'll let you all know how it goes next weekend. Good luck with all that you're doing and I'll look forward to letting you know what a Jackeroo actually does! :-)

I'm going to start with a story. That story is about a little boy we all know...and some of us love. For the sake of privacy, let's call that little boy Nick. Now Nick is just like most little boys and wanted to help his buddies around the house. It was getting on towards supper time and Nick asked if there was anything he could do to help prepare dinner as he was also very hungry. Again, for the sake of privacy, let's call Nick's friends Marty, Yelf, and Adam. Marty is a consultant for IBM and apparently a pretty good cook, Yelf is a mine engineer and does a great job of blowing things up, and Adam is an ambulance driver who isn't home yet.

In response to Nick's question about helping out Marty looks to Nick and says "Yeah, can you cut the carrots to put in the stir fry?" "Of course." says Nick. "Carrots are easy peasy." Nick first peels the carrot. He then picks up the carrot and knife and begins to split the carrot in to little bits suitable for a stir fry. He knows from Boy Scouts that you don't cut toward your hand. He even thinks this as he cuts toward his hand.

"What happens to his hand?" you ask. Well let me tell you. Nick's knife slips and dives right in to his hand. He cuts his thumb and thinks that it's fine and he'll just put some super glue on it and sleep it off. Adam, the amublance driver, comes home and says "No." Adam takes Nick to the hospital where three hours later, Nick has been roughed up by the local doctors, was the subject of an intern's first attempts at treating a human being, recieved four stitches, and now owes Adam $100. Mind you, this is all after Nick has promised the fellas in the house an American Breakfast this morning.

After 5 hours of sleep Nick gets up, cooks breakfast for five people, does the dishes, watches a great Australian film called "Kenny," calls America and informs his credit card company that he is not a little old lady in Australia spending all of Nick's money, gets a prescription for a medication with codeine, buys lots of bandages and tape, and heads home. He then watches "Transporter 2," an ok film, and finishes up his day visiting with friends and attending a very cool meetings for Rising Generations.

Now I want you to all disperse and discuss what we can learn from little Nick's story...go on...disperse. Come back with 5 things to share with the rest of the class.

Taronga Zoo

I don't know why I thought anything should have changed in the last 3 years...everything was good right up until the ferry. True to form I thought to myself, "it can't be that the ferry is actually on time and is coming in 10 minutes. No, it must be early...yeah, that's it." Due to this line of thought I got on the wrong ferry and ended up in Manly. This was not entirely bad as the ride to Manly yielded some great photos. The negative-nancy portion of my personality must point out however that because I then missed the ride back to Circular Quay, my original wharf, and the trip between Manly and Circular Quay is minimum 1/2 hour, and even after I got back to Circular Quay, I would miss my ferry to Taronga Zoo which would put me back another 1/2 hour, plus the original travel time of the ferry from Circular Quay to Taronga would add another 15 minutes, it would have taken me over 2 hours to correct this mistake via ferry. It was after a lengthy argument with myself that I decided to chance the busses and take an alternative route to the zoo.

I walked to my first stop and low and behold, there were parrots in the trees above me. This is where the lesser known "cup-is-half-full" portion of my personality feels the need to point out that if I hadn't taken the wrong ferry and then missed the ferry to correct that first mistake, I would have never been able to see real live parrots in the "wild" as it were. They kept dropping fruit out of the tree and on to the ground surrounding, and the roof of, the bus stop. It was kind of what I would imagine an animal reenactment of D-day would look like with the parrots being the Germans and humans being the Allied Forces. The Allies were doing their level best to avoid the bombings but could make no ground as far as dislodging the Natzi Birds.

After the confrontation between aerial forces and ground forces, I moved on to my fight to find my way to the zoo. I asked the first bus-driver and he informed me that I would need to transfer and that it would be easy. Luckily, this time, he was right. I made it to the zoo, in a much more reasonable 40 minutes, without further incident and when I approached the ticket counter I was asked if I was a student. I said, "well yes but I can't prove it." and the kind lady said, "well I'll give you %10 for coming on the bus." I thanked her and moved in to my viewing of animals.

Overall the Sydney Zoo lived up to its reputation with well setup exhibits and realistic environments for the animals to live in. The best part of the afternoon was by far the "Free Flight Bird Show." It began with many birds just flying in and landing where they wanted. Then a trainer came out and gave the organized portion of the event. There was a part in the middle where she lost an owl and was unable to go on for a bit because she didn't want 2 birds of prey battling in front of children. The crowd expressed its dissapointment, the older demographic for more sadistic reasons, and started to break up. Luckily they were able to locate and recapture the owl and go on with the show. They finished up with a massive eagle that swooped over people's heads with centimeters to spare. It caused old and young to see through the eyes of a child, which is something that happens far to infrequently, and we were all told to remember our feathered friends in our everyday lives.

I'll finish up with a similar message. Visit your local zoo, aquarium, or museum. There really are some very cool things these institutions are doing that are relevant to us all and they continue to go underutilized. Take a day, you're not that busy, and do something that makes you feel like a kid...it's worth it. :)

Cheers,

Sooooo, I realize I'm new to this whole blogging experience. Please bear with me as I figure it out.

10am, I'm going to the Taronga zoo today. The rumor on the street is that it's one of the best zoos in the world. It has some of the best facilities as far as trying to create a habitat instead of just concrete. This means however, that I have to find my way there via public transport. For those of you who remember my first ventures into the twin cities area, you know that this could get fun.

Dinner last night was awesome. Lace made some Thai dish with garlic bread. We sat around and talked about religion and our beliefs. We talked about some really deep things like if we were able to know when we would die or our odds of having a disease. The answer was universally no. These guys seem to know so much about their faith and their thoughts on life. It's evident these conversations happen a lot. The flip side is that there is also just light banter. Joking followed by laughter is not uncommon and it's a really cool atmosphere they've created.

Off to the zoo...here's hoping I have some luck today!

Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium

Wowzers! The aquarium was phenomenal. I was able to literally look up at sharks and dugongs, huge manta rays and giant sucker fish, and was able to see a real live platypus. The animals themselves were amazing and awe inspiring. I was also able to see a show where they fed a 21 year old female, salt-water, crocodile rats from the end of a grandma-style, "I can't reach it" stick. They opened a crack and the croc sank deeper in to the water. They opened the door fully and the croc charged out of the water. Fortunately the worker had a shield, like the ones the riot-police have, made of plexi-glass and two handles. This wasn't this guy's first rodeo if you know what I mean. He was looking away and the croc lunged for his face. He didn't even flinch! He just raised the shield a little further and continued on like nothing had happened. After they explained a little about the crocs, a girl came out with the rats and the croc must have done a straight up +6 foot leap to get it.(no big deal)

The sharks were also the bomb-diggity. They must have been over 7.5 feet long and were massively round. The biggest ones could have definitely eaten a small child without making smaller "pieces" if you will.(I will) They weren't even great whites! They were "just" grey nurses...whatever. They're ok I guess.

Gotta shoot off, dinner is almost ready...we're making food tonight. We'll finally see what kind of cook Lace is! :)

Inaugural Post

Hello all,

Nick here across the ocean in the wonderful city of Sydney, Australia. It's been a great few days...we are currently 15 hours ahead of you all in the states. That means it's almost 10am on the 25th and still 7pm on the 24th where you all are.

A quick update before I go to my orientation here...the flight over is rough. For those of you who have never spent a significant amount of time in one seat(about 14 hours worth), it gets a little on the long side. On the plus side, I was able to watch a lot of Discovery Channel and started watching that one movie that's almost like Pursuit of Happiness.(I got bored and went to sleep) The meals were a little like middle school when they can get you because you don't have another choice...there were three of them and you were appreciative every time. You knew that if you denied one you would regret it later.

When I arrived I was met by Handsome Rob, one of Greg Tehvens friends, and we went for coffee where he told me about some of the faux pas I could make over here. There are a few which I will have to detail later...

Gotta go, the orientation is about to start. Have to know about where I'm at! Wish me luck and I'll post again soon.