Davis Down Under

I was getting use to the wonderful food and drink down under. It had flavor and variety. Here, you get fries with it. I’d kill for a tall, cold glass of squash right now. I’m already tired of beef. It is interesting how my perceptions of Australia are remaining close to my heart and dreams. Why did that country touch my heart so? Perhaps it was the friendly people, or the jaw-dropping scenery. I also if it was the fact that I didn’t have to show up at work any worry about locator maps, too. Regardless, I hope I can go back one day.

Now the fun part begins. I took more than 1,000 photos down under. It will be fun making a DVD, scrapbook and Flash slide show from them. I’m already using some as wallpaper, especially my Lennox Head sunrise.

I suppose I could have shot more video, recorded more audio, done more fancier Web pages whileI was down there. But I wanted to EXPERIENCE and LIVE, not be very production oriented. What’s the use of being on one of the nicest beaches in the world if your nose is buried in html code?

Speaking of which, I put on my sandals the other day. They still had sand in them.

I leave a little disappointed, for the country is so vast that there was neither time nor money to visit the Outback, Ayer’s Rock, Sydney, or the Great Barrier Reef. I did not want to spend my time traveling. This was a good call, for I found the joys of the beach and the Pacific Ocean quite intoxicating and difficult to tear away from.

Perhaps one day, I’ll return and set out on even grander adventure. Or even retire to Lennox Head, that small village by the sea. One can dream.

I’m wonder if in the days ahead — as I cope with the chaos and politics of working at the newspaper — my memories of this Australia and its friendly people might fade.

I hope not.

As my friends down here would remind me,

No worries, mate.

— Scott Davis
signing off from down under,
and finally headed home.

A brief weekend photo gallery is up. I took more than 280 photos over the weekend, and need time to sort them out (I guess that’s what a trans-Pacific flight can be used for).

The photos go with the posts below. I’m still working on integrating them directly into the posts.

www.digitaldaleville.com/Weekend/index.html

There is sad news from home. Scoop, my male parakeet, has died. He was fifteen years old, which made him really grumpy. I bought him at Woolworth’s in Ithaca, New York, way back in 1993. Since then, he had journeyed with me to several new residences. He saw a lot of the country from his cage in the backseat of my car. This included a trip to Reno and back home three years later.

It is kind of ironic I am visiting the land where his ancestors come from. The budgie is native to the Australian outback. Here in the tropical section, lorikeets are wild. I’ve shared my toast with them on several sunny mornings out on the deck.

I’m sure Scoop would have approved. He liked toast.

In Muncie, a trendy spot to eat is the Outback Steak House (real Aussies would never wait for 3 hours to eat unless there was a tea to break the wait up). This was, of course, the subject of much ribbing from friends and family before I left. No, I told them, I don’t think Aussies eat at the Outback every day. I did suggest that Aussies probably have American steak houses down under.

Well, we pulled into a Lonestar on the Gold Coast at 5 p.m. and I knew something was immediately wrong. The parking lot was virtually empty. There were a few diners, but nowhere near the crowd that is typical on a Sunday back home. It shows how desperate we Hoosiers are for good food.

Despite being relatively empty (Aussies eat late), it still took a long time to get waited on. I suspect poor service is part of the franchise’s mission, since it has haunted me on every visit to the chain. The menu was typical American, with some variations of the stuff back home. I ordered a burger, hoping that it my quest for a decent burger was about to end.

Stephen ordered the ribs, since American-style ribs are rare down under. The salads arrived just right before the main course. The Aussies looked kind of lost slugging around American dishes. The portions were small by U.S. standards, although the wait staff swore that the Aussie Lonestars were known for their big portions. The food was tasty, but I only got one Pepsi and we had to ask for some water with our meal. The drinks were brought with straws, which Stephen noted was another American idiosyncrasy.

There are several other differences from the U.S. when dining down under. For one, tipping in Australia is not necessary. Prices are slightly higher to compensate for this. Sometimes there is a charge for service on public holidays in tourist areas. Food establishments can generally be grouped into small bistro and takeaways (carry out) and sit-down dining. The sit-down dining usually requires some advance booking, especially in the popular tourist areas. Because of the tropical climate, restaurants often setup additional chairs for sidewalk dining. Restaurants can either be licensed or BYO. If they are licensed, they can sell alcohol, but usually at a 120 percent markup. BYO places don’t serve alcohol, but customers can bring their own.

On the way back from Lennox head, my tour guide and I stopped at the Curribum Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s one of the oldest animal sanctuaries in Australia. We spent the day viewing koalas, Tasmania devils, roos, crocs, and birds. Tragedy struck when I was getting my picture taken with a baby croc. The litter fellar decided he had enough, and took a big dump. You’ve not lived until you’ve been covered in croc crap. The locals said it would bring me good luck. The croc crap reminded me suspiciously of vegemite, however. And I wondered if Aussie were putting the world on by bottling croc crap and spreading it on toast. Crikey! Before leaving, both Stephen and I were able to feed the wild lorikeets that roam the area. This is quite the tourist draw for folks. People get covered in lorikeet (and lorikeet crap) as they hold up dishes with a milky sweet liquid for the birds to feed on. There are thousands of lorikeets.

Morning is exercise time for the people of Lennox Head. Many were out walking their dogs. One group had nine Scottish terriers. The path back to the cabin, which is about 20 feet, leads through vegetation and brush. Pine trees and bottle-brush plants provide a wind barrier against the sea. The area is filled with birds feasting on the nectar from the bottle-brush plants. Most of them are lorikeets, a colorful small type of parrot.

A sea eagle would occasionally startle them, and they would flee further inland. The eagle was building a nest in one of the taller trees.

I have some video of the area and the sunrise here.

Greetings from Byron Bay, the eastern most point of Australia.

I spent the night at Lake Ainsworth, the Sport and Recreation camp where the BSU students stay during their semester Asutralian program. The camp is great, and just off a freshwater lake. The director of the camp is being very gracious. I slept to the sound of the surf. I woke up to the sound of exotic birds chirping (a change from the greyhounds barking back home). And my cabin was just about fifteen feet from the beach, so I wandered down there. Lennox Head is a small village, nesteled against the coast and surrounded by rolling farmland and countryside. The town is thriving, but as of yet not overly-developed like so many coastal towns. Stephen and I are a nice dinner at a food place just by the sea. Morning on the beach was delight between the sun, surf and the sand. Folks were walking their dogs, and some horses trotted by. The sand is very silky; the softest I’ve ever felt.

My day began early at 4:45 a.m. I had booked an all-day tour to Fraser Island last week. It was going to be a long day. Fraser Island is a World Heritage Park, and the largest sand island in the world. The company I chose was Fraser Island Adventure Tours The company is Eco certified, meaning it was friendly to the environment. I chose a great day to go. There weren’t many people (and no kids or screaming babies) and the day’s weather was perfect. For $139 Aussie, I got picked up from the house (by the owner of the company) and taken to several spots, and served morning and afternoon teas and a great lunch. Quite a bargain.

We rode in Mitsubushi 4x4 coaches that were air-conditioned and had big windows. The truck was a beast, and plowed through the soft sand with skill.

Normally, there are 3 to 4 trucks on the trip, but this time we had one truck with 13 people. So it was a small group, which was fantastic. Our tour guide, Andrew, was well-versed in the history, flora and fauna of the island. He was also a dang-good 4WD driver. Most of the routes were along the beach or sandy inland tracks. Four-wheeling! There is nothing like zooming down a beach in a 4WD with the waves crashing on the shore just outside the window.

One of the main stops on the trip was Lake Mackenzie, which is one of the purest lakes I’ve ever seen. White sand and tall trees surround it. We spent about one hour there before lunch. Once again, I found myself wishing I had brought my iPod along. The lake — which can normally be very crowded — had about 200 people around it. The sand was very fine, and the water was fresh and unpolluted. It also was at the same Ph level as human skin. Although I did bring my swimming shorts, I only waded in. I did want to scare the locals with my hairy North American tan.

Did I mention we saw two dingoes? That is a rarity.

Check out my photo gallery here

Stephen and I spent some time at the Big Pineapple. It’s a pineapple plantation, which also has an animal sancturary and rain forest. It takes two years for a pineapple to grow. But we were able to taste some sweet, fresh pineapple. Best I ever had. In addition to growing pineapples, the farm also grows macadamia nuts. I’ll post pictures soon of the visit. I fed the roos and kangas and snapped a few pix of the koalas. We finished the visit off with a macadamia nut sundae. Whip cream, macadamia nuts, ice cream, caramel sauce. Yummy. I am eating my way through Australia. Considering this continent has a lot of stuff that wants to eat me (sharks, dingoes, snakes), it’s only fitting.

I started Saturday with a tasty drink at Starbucks on the beach. My choice of poison was warm apple cider with whip cream and caramel added to it. It has become one of my favorite drinks down here. It was really nice to sip a tasty drink, read the newspapers, and watch the waves crashing into the shore. Did I mention there was a cool Pacific breeze? Hate me now? Good.

After a brunch at the Alexandria Headlands surf club and a quick walk on the beach, Stephen dropped me off at the Australia Zoo. The Zoo is the world-famous home of Steve Irwin of Crocodile Hunter fame. It’s the top tourist attraction in Queensland (excluding the Pacific Ocean).

I spent about four hours at the Zoo, wandering around, viewing Aussie weird animals. Wombats. Dingoes. Roos. Crocs. Wallabies. Koalas. The Zoo wasn’t overly crowded, even though it was a sunny Sunday. There were quite a few people at the Croc show. However, it was quite easy to see the animals and the walkways weren’t as crowded as the Indianapolis Zoo on the weekends. The Zoo is quite large, but easy to get around in.

The main part of the Zoo is the Croceseum, which is a huge modern amphitheater sponsored by Animal Planet. I started there, watching puny humans feed large crocodiles. Luckily, it didn’t end in tragedy. I still don’t trust those crocodiles.

All the facilities in the park are quite modern and very clean, and it was comfortable to spend the afternoon there. The Zoo also included a nice food court and gift shops, where I spent way too much money.

I never saw Steve the Croc hunter, although it was rumored he was on site. I did get to feed roos and touch koalas. I was struck by how much a koala looks like Yoda. Only less green. The koalas and roos didn’t seemed to mind being manhandled by tourists. The entire Zoo is set up for education and animal interaction. It is also slickly packaged. I almost scored a trip to the koala hospital, but an emergency cancelled the tour.

I spent some major time in the small town of Buderim. Stephen was at a wine tasting, so I hung out in the main business area. It was about a mile of small shops on a hill. I’m beginning to see a pattern to small towns in Australia, at least in Queensland. They have a thriving downtown. Stores usually have modern decorations and are well kept. Signage and advertising are not garish. There’s usually a pizza shop, several clothing stores, post office, grocery store, newsstand, and several cafes. The largest retailers are the grocery stores. Little plazas filled with tables connect the stores. People love to eat and drink outside in this country. I suspect many small towns would be like this in America if they were in better climates and Wal-Mart and the suburban mall hadn’t been created. Aussies rarely build bypasses.

Buderim has three American icons: Pizza Hut, Dominoes and a Blockbuster. I wandered into the Blockbuster, quite curious about what was in there. The majority of the films were American, of course. Even after the local stores were closed (the sidewalks in all these town roll up around 5 p.m.), people were beating a path to the pizza stores. Little kids were running to Blockbuster. Parents were trudging dutifully behind them.

One of the highlights of my trip has been the opportunity to see (on Australia Broadcast System) the first episode of the new Doctor Who series coming from England. It hasn’t hit the states yet, so I was stoked! In the first episode Rose, the Doctor (who has regenerated again) fights the Autons in modern day London and gains a new companion. The show was pretty good, and crsiply directed. Specifical effects were decent, and the new actor playing the Doctor was having a good time.

Friday’s night dinner was takeway (what we call carry out). Stephen and I stopped at a Fish and Chips place along the river, and I ordered the battered sav. It is a saveloy, but breaded and deep fried. Better than a corn dog. Way better! Chips are what we call french fries. The chips I’ve had down here are much better than American fries. They got nothing on our cheeseburgers, though.

Stephen and I attended the 12:04 a.m. showing of Revenge of the Sith. It was pretty cool. A lot of Aussies showed up for the premiere. The film itself was quite good, with a nice story, well-developed characterizations and great special effects. It was good to see Yoda unleash a can of whoop-ass on the Sith. I’m sure the film will do big biz back in the states and break some records.

Most stores close around 5 and 6 p.m., including grocery stores. I hear stores used to close at noon on Saturday, too, but there’s less of that. Stores close early because those who work at night are entitled to time and a half, even if it is there regular shift. Hmm. I wonder what are the chances of Gannett implementing that policy?

The trend of blogging really hasn’t reached Oz yet. Students were quite interested in the blogging phenom when I gave a guest lecture in Stephen’s class on Wednesday. I related the rise of blogging in America, how mainstream media is scared of it, and how bloggers unraveled Dan Rather and CBS news. I also demonstrated my own blog, and the concept of RSS (news readers).

I spoke to two audiences Wednesday about visual journalism, newspaper infographics and blogging. Apparently, this is a newspaper graphics are a novel concept for down under. The newspapers here — while colorful and full of pictures — do not use very many graphics. It is rare to see a locator map or small chart. Wire graphics are not used very much. The only paper that does use graphics is the Australian (Rupert Murdoch’s paper) and they often combine factoids with illustrations quite nicely for dominate art. However, there isn’t a lot of entry points (breakouts, smaller maps, etc) in the rest of the paper. In all the Aussie papers, however, the weather maps put us to shame. They are some of the most elaborate ones I have ever seen.

I had a bit of a slow day today, staying mostly on the deck of the place where I am staying and listening to my ipod. I feed the birds, too, including two colorful parots that dropped by for a bite of my toast.

I took it easy because I stayed up late the night before and caught the showing of the Star Wars film. It was superb, one of the best movies I’ve seen in 5 years. I plan on seeing it again ocne I’m state side.

FYI: For those of you that send e-mails to aussiedavis@vtext.com, releaize that it can’t support many words. I can only receive about a sentence or two.

And now for some misc thots:

Let’s make lots of money
Aussies have no pennies. They have dollar and two dollar coins. The coins can get quite heavy if you do a lot of shopping. Most people here use their debit or credit cards. Roos are on the 50 cent and dollar coin, An Aborigine is on the $2. A platypus is on the 5 cent coin. Queen Elizabeth is on most coins. The bills are made of plastic and contain an acetate see-through watermark.

The typical Aussie toilet has two buttons on it to flush. They seem to do the same thing, but I’m really afraid to ask what the difference is. Mooloolaba has a nice restroom on the beach, called loo with a view. Basically, everything is clean here, very clean. Urinals (actually, they are like metal walls and you step on a metal grate aka pee in a trough) and toilets are usually seperated from the washing area. Pretty civilized if you ask me.

Hi gang;
I’m just a blogging fool. The lecture at the uni went fine. The students were interested in what a graphics editor does (the concept is unheard of down here). I also talked about visual storytelling and the design of small places. They were wowed by my PlayStation Portable, which doesn’t hit the shores here until Sept. Afterwards, the prof bought me lunch and I talked with her and her husband for a pleasant coversation. It was so late, Stephen and I decided to skip the Zoo for now but will return later.

We headed to the mall and bought advance tickets for the first Star Wars show. That’s right, for me, it’s less than 24 hours away. The first showing is 12:04 a.m. Thursday morning. Cool, eh? I knew jumping that international dateline would come in handy.

Hi all;

Currently at the uni typing this. Getting ready to give a lecture on graphics editing, then I’m off to the Australian Zoo. It’s Steve Irwin’s place (Croc Hunter fame). I keep struggling with some of the technology. I’m going to try to find a koala.

Geek speak ahead -> I was able to plug into the uni network, but it uses proxies. Ugh. I finally figured out how to get e-mail and configure FireFox Web browser to access sites. But I still don’t have FTP access.

The photo gallery is ready to go, I just need to upload somehow! I’ll write more soon.

And of course, it’s sunny and 75 here in paradise. and the roos are grazing on the campus.

my cell does work. 1-260-417-9788 will get me.
I think my voice mail is working again.

and you can send me messages vial e-mail to
aussiedavis(at)vtext.com
replace the (at) with @

I got a little sunburned yesterday.
stoopid tropical sun! oy!

Hi gang;

I’m back at it again, trying to get some photos up. I’m currently sitting at a Starbucks typing on my iBook. When I look up from my screen, I see the beach and the Pacific. It’s quite calm today and the crowds have lessened from yesterday. The temp is, once again, sunny and in the 70s. What a life. Today’s agenda includes a trip to Underwater World, a aquarium here in Malooboola, and perhaps some lunch at the Boards head. Prawns are nice, but I must get a Australian cheeseburger soon. I’ve been munching on steak sandwiches. The seafood down here is awesome, but too bad it’s not my cup of tea.

I spent the day hanging out at Maloolooba beach. The esplande(?) is a lot of coffee shops, icre cream shops and what not with pretty seadside cafe seating. I grabbed a fruit smoothie and leafed through Australian papers. I’ll have more to post about Aussie papers tomorrow.
Until then, stay tuned!

Oh, and I also visited the Underwater Aquarium saw stingrays and other sea critters like sharks. Pretty cool. And wet.

Good thing I checked my checking account balance online this morning. Somehow, Sprint messed up my phone bill. I attempted to pay all my bills in advance before travelling, and normally my phone bill is around $89. But it looks like $809 was deducted from my checking account. BASTARDS! Needless to say, I am now on a tight budget. Luckily I have a few credit cards and some cash. Yikes!

Y’all going to have to wait a little longer on the photos, folks, sorry. My battery in the iBook died. I gotta recharge and create the photo gallery tonight. Hopefully I can upload tomorrow. I’m using a free program called gallerie.

I’m writing from a newly opened Internet cafe call Urban Mailbox. The rates are much cheaper than the stupid Starbucks coffee shop. Plus, half of the place uses the new iMacs!
Suhweet! And they are loading Skype on here, too. I haven’ tried that yet, but I will.

Finally, I don’t know what’s up with my cell phone. Folks at Verizon Wireless are looking into it. I can call out, but when you attempt to call me, you get a message that I’m now a Vodaphone network member and you need to replace the first four digits when dialing. Of course, they don’t say with what. Y’all might try 260-417-9788 and let me know if you figure it out.

I’m writing from an Internet Cafe just off the beach in Mooloolaba, Australia. Yes, I know that’s a lot of “o”s and “l”s, but what the heck. it’s still a very pretty place. The beach is along one side of the road, and the promenade is on the other side of the road. It’s a bit like Miami. Trendy coffee and food shops, real estate offices and clothing shops make up the promenade. Stephen and I have dropped by to walk the bach. Currently is 70 and Sunny. There’s a Starbucks here, so I’ll be able to bring my laptop and upload photos perhaps by Monday. In the meantime, lets these text posts tantlize you. And feel free to post comments. I’ll try to read them and respond if time.

Saturday, May 14
The weather was quite pleasant, sunny and in the 70s. Stephen and I had set our sights on Gympie, a town north of the Sunshine Coast. We invited a visiting scholar along. Rose is from China, and teaches English at the uni. Her English is better than some of the folks back home.

We made a stop on the Eumundi market on the way. The market was in the middle of a small town (which reminded me a little of Metamora). It was basically a flea market, without the NASCAR, Avon, Beannie Babies and Coca-cola crap. The focus was on fruit and area-made goods. Several vendors offered macadamia nuts (an Aussie export), and I picked up some items for home and a custard apple.

Gympie
Stephen, Rose and I planned to eat at a restaurant Kingston House. Initially, we had trouble finding it, so we stopped at a chemists and I asked for direction. I got a weird look, and was told the restaurant was next door. Kingston House was a large colonial house, much like what was built during the early years of colonization. The food was high class, and it was here that I had my first official Aussie dessert, Pavlova. Pavlova was an interesting confection consisting of a meringue covered in crème and bits of fruit.

The Gympie museum was interesting, and focused much on the gold-mining history of the area. The museum was centered on the first mine shaft. Several historical buildings were also on the premises and contained artifacts. It looked like the citizens of Gympie has emptied out their attics.

From Gympie, we traveled to Tin Can Bay, which is a small town on an inlet. On the way, the highway cut through a commercial pine tree forest. We arrived at Tin Can Bay around sunset. The main part of the town is a low peninsula with a large parking area for vehicles with trailers. A small café and yacht club huddles against the shoreline. The beaches were sandy and the tide was out. We ate at the yacht club, with Stephen and Rose sharing a Neptune Basket (lots of fried sea-food thingies) and me having the roast.

Getting there
The highways in Australia are pretty interesting, even when you ignore the fact that everyone is driving on the wrong side of road and the measurements are in the metric system. For one, they use a lot of roundabouts. The major highway, Bruce Highway, is often only one lane in each direction. The infrastructure has not kept pace with the population explosion. The roundabout system works because they aren’t many semis that use the highway.

Friday May 13, 2005
I started the day by visiting the largest mall on the Sunshine Coast. It’s in the town of Maroochydore. That’s probably not even spelled correctly, but in a county that has a town named Wagga Wagga what do you expect?

The mall was large with two airy levels. Inside it, I could have been anywhere in America. The traditional American icons were present: K-Mart, Target, Starbucks, McDonald’s, EB games. Even if the stores had different names, they still looked like they could belong in any mall in the U.S. There were several book and music stores. The mall was built around one of the rivers, and in fact it spanned the river. The architecture was more sophisticated than a traditional mall. Skylights allowed ample light in, and the building had many large exits and outside cafes.

It’s easy to make a comparison between the Sunshine Coast (which includes Maroochydore) and the Florida coast. Tourists and retires mingle on the beach and the shops. There are high-rise apartment buildings, trendy tourist shops and strip malls down a main highway. The beach is on the other side. Everything is very clean. Rarely will you find litter, chewing gum on sidewalks and cigarette butts scattered on the ground.

I did some small amount of shopping at the mall. It took me some time to decipher the waist sizes for sweat pants (everything is on the metric system here). I also bought a small side pack to tote my stuff around in,

Noosa
From the Sunshine Plaza, Stephen picked me up and we head north to Noosa.
Noosa is the richest part of the Sunshine Coast (think Carmel in California). Luckily, it wasn’t very crowded, and parking was relatively easy. Within ten minutes of walking through the shops, I had purchased an Aussie hat to keep the Sun from killing me.

We snagged lunch at a café along the main drag. The Sierra café claimed to have the best coffee in Noosa. Stephen really enjoyed the coffee, and it looked pretty good to this non-coffee drinker.

It was a short walk to the Noosa beach. The beach wasn’t very crowded. The first thing I noticed — besides the stunning view and the large waves crashing inland — was that the sand is very white and fine. It was comfortable walking in it. My de-facto tour guide and I walked along the beach some ways and then exited and returned along the main strip.

On the way back, we stopped for a pie. Pies in Aussie — much like in England — are not desserts but meat pies. The closest America equivalent would be a pot pie. The pie I had — bacon, steak and cheese — was great. But there is an art to eating one, and I found myself doomed to experience a horrible pie accident and the pastry broke apart, scattering bacon, cheese and steak everywhere.

Noosa heads
Noosa Heads National Park is a rain-forest situated on the high-part of the Noosa peninsula. It overlooks the beach. We trekked back on a few trails looking for Koalas but found none. They must have been asleep. Koalas are nocturnal. The scenery was spectacular, though, with sheer cliffs dropping into the ocean.

Surf club
Before leaving, we stopped off for drinks at the surf club. Each major area on the coast has a surf club. The clubs evolved from the all-volunteer lifeguards, and traditionally you must be a member to order alcohol or eat at the restaurant. Most of the clubs, however, welcome visitors with the caveat that you must sign in. We found a seat on the patio overlooking the beach and watched some storm clouds roll by.

Pub squash
Stephen bought me an Aussie type of drink at the surf club, which I know have fallen in love with. It’s called pub squash. Pub squash is similar to lemonade, only stronger and fizzier. It might also have a dash of lime in it, for the taste is pretty refreshing.

On the way back from Noosa, we stopped in Nambour, a small town further inland. We both attended a screening of Hotel Rwanda, the Oscar nominated film about the civil war in Rwanda. The screening was a fundraiser for Amnesty International.

Thursday, May 12, 2005
Time for provisions. Stephen and I went grocery shopping. We pulled into Woolworth’s (called Woolies) just not far from the uni. I suspect the Woolworth’s is related to the British and American chain, but I don’t know that for sure. Woolies was a typical supermarket store, and quite busy. It could have been lifted right out of the suburbs of America, only the brand names had changed. There was also a large seafood section, and the collection of food stuffs seem to be more diversified. Stephen was helpful in pointing out and explaining several Australia grocery favorites. I snagged a bag of milk bottles, which are a creamy Aussie confection (think gummy bears in the shape of milk bottles that taste like cream).

I popped into the pharmacy next door for some medicine for my stuffy nose. In Oz, the stores are called Chemists. All of the medicines are kept behind the counter; only toiletries are kept on the floor. There were several people working behind the counter and one was nice to help me with my sore throat. My American accent is a dead giveaway.

Arrival

Call me Mr. Jet Lag.

My journey to down under began Monday at 1 p.m. I flew from Indianapolis to Chicago to Los Angeles to Auckland to Brisbane. In total, I’ve spent 20 hours in a piece to tin cruising 500mph at 36,000 feet. Many people hate flying because of the fear of crashing. Me,I just hate the hassle. The hassle of boarding, waiting in lines, and being scrunched up like cattle. And I hate small restrooms. The domestic flights were American Airline cattle cars. At least the Qantas flights had more class. I scored three meals and saw several movies. They gave me a snack pack, and a comfort pack that include an eye mask, toothbruish and socks! I got very little sleep on the plane, though, because it was hard to find a comfy position. And ultimately, my luggage got misplaced.

Qantas was gracious, and gave me $100 clothing allowance. I wonder how much new underwear that can buy. The airline located my bag two hours later, but still let me keep the money. What a nice company. No worries, mate.

My first impressions of Australia: Friendly people, nice environment. In many respects, it’s like a mirror image of America. But it’s the positive image, not the evil Mr. Spock with goatee mirror image. Brisbane is a modern city (and a hell of a lot cleaner than Indianapolis) with lots of towering skyscrapers and nice pedestrian access. There’s a beach downtown! The main highway north to the Sunshine coast is a freeway dotted with exits, Shell stations and McDonald’s (although people are driving on the wrong side of the road). Australia has K-Marts and Targets. Since there was very little food in the pantry (grocery day is Thursday), I ordered a pizza (delivery) from Dominoes.

Weather was overcast and it rained a little on my trip from Brisbane.

The house I’m staying in is really nice – and it overlooks a river. It’s located in an upper-class neighborhood (think about a house along Geist Reservoir and you get the picture). I’ll post pictures soon. The windows are open, and all manners of exotic birds (parrots, kookaburros?) are squawking outside. Scoop and Gabby have nothing on these birds. Yowza! Other than that, it’s perfectly quiet out here. No railroad, no cars speeding past, and certainly no greyhounds yapping in the backyard. And the whole place smells like eucalyptus. Stephen tells me there are sharks in the river at dawn and dusk,

Internet access is dialup here at the house, so I gotta either using a WiFi hotspot or bum some bandwidth off the university where Stephen works.

There’s a Starbucks less than a half a mile away, so I might try there.

In addition to Stephen (my friend) and Terry (house owner), two ladies were also staying at the house (it is a big house) and we talked a lot about cultural differences, politics, geography over a cuppa (I’m learning to love tea). Michelle and Bev are in town for a workshop on how to educate aborgine children.

I’m definately being immersed. I had chilli last night, but it was a different sort of chilli made with crab meet (caught from the creek) and prawns. It was very hot, and I’m sure my body will regret it soon. Tonight we try Tibetian food. I might long for a good burger, soon.

It amazes me how much Oz is like America. They have American TV shows and love Law and Order and CSI. I’ve watched the local news, then watched M.A.S.H. and The Simpsons right after. Australia society has a large, working middle class in a consumer-driven culture. The local news is formatted much like our own (LIVE! LOCAL! AND LATE BREAKING!), although the on-screen over the should graphics were kind of weird. The commercials were also like ours, for house furnishings and department stores, etc.

I did get a taste of a popular TV show last night called MacLeoads Daughters. Think of it like Gillmore Girls in the Outback. A mom and her daughters are running a farm in the bush, (rural country), and much soap opera antics happen. But it’s a pretty popular drama on their TV.

Hello all and greetings from the Sunshine Coast in Australia … where it is raining. Much of the Australia is facing a drought (including this area), but it’s been raining for two weeks. It should clear up by Sunday, but we’ll have gale force winds before then. Whee! I’m writing from the University of the Sunshine Coast, where ‘roos graze on the campus. It’s kind of wild to walk to the library and see the ‘roos just having lunch.

Internet access is kind of spotty, so I have to snag in where ever I can. I’ll be checking e-mail and posting sporadically. I hope to get some pictures up soon.