Australia

Well, one weekend, a few months ago or something, I went to stay with Mark and Nicki, who live a few doors down from James and Stacey and babies. Though at this point, Mark and Nicki had very little furniture, so I actually slept at James and Stacey's. But spent most of the time with Mark and Nicki. Mark being James' brother and another one of my cousins. I hope everyone is more or less clear on who everyone is, I know there's a lot of them to keep up with.

Anyway, on the Saturday, we picked up some Fish and Chips and had a picnic by the beach. A famous beach, or one my mom likes a lot. Mother's Beach or something like that. Here are a few pictures.

Very pretty. Then on Sunday, we went to have lunch at the Royal Hotel. I couldn't get anymore of it in the picture because if I'd stepped back any further I would have fallen off a cliff. But it was very pretty, so here it is:

We did other things that weekend, including going out to dinner and seeing Chuck and Larry, and visiting Mark's grandmother, and watching Nicki's brother play footy, and going to a pub, and then to a nightclub, which I didn't really enjoy all too much. The latter, I mean. But the rest was awesome fun, I just have no photos.

Another time, the Friday before the Grand Final, I went to see the AFL parade. The AFL being the Australian Football League, being the most popular sport in Victoria. It's different both from soccer and American football, and is around here known mainly as footy. The Grand Final is the championship game and the Friday before they have a massive parade downtown. Here are a bunch of people at the parade who should probably be at work.

I also captured some videos of the parade, mainly to get the team songs, because they were fun! I know videos never seem to work when I embed them, but I think these videos will work. I've figured out that the reason videos weren't working before was because I had set them to private. That would explain why I could see them but no one else could. Very smart of me. Anyway, I've gone back and fixed the old videos I posted. For your viewing convenience, they are located in entries: here, here, and here. Enjoy.

Port Adelaide Power's Team Song

Geelong Cat's Team Song

A Random Snippet of Speech

The Lord Mayor of Melbourne. I like the way he claps.

Finally, another time, a few weeks ago, over spring break, I went to see Phantom of the Opera with Emily at the Princess Theatre. As I was a loser, I totally forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures actually from the day. But I went back later to take pictures. In 20 years, I probably won't remember they were taken a week later, so we can pretend.

The end! For now.

I forget exactly which day this happened, but it was during my school placement, so either the last week in August or the first in September.

I'd just gotten out of school for the day and had taken the 112 tram to Fitzroy Street, where I was waiting to catch the 96 tram to go home.

Here I am!

At the corner of Park and Fitzroy. Waiting for the 96 to St Kilda Beach. Stop number 134. Very nice sign.

There's my tram! Ooh, it's one of the really new, super fancy ones. Get excited!

Here's the inside of my tram. It's pretty empty.

So I began the second leg of my trip home. But when I got off the tram, I thought to myself, "Today is a beautiful day! It really feels like spring! Let's go to the beach and build a sandcastle!"

So off I went.

But it wasn't really THAT warm, so I didn't want to get actually wet or anything, so I didn't go that close to the water. The result was that I was working with only somewhat moist sand. But I think I still built a pretty nifty hill/castle.

Then I thought that I really ought to get a picture of the builder with her wonderful creation. But as there was no one else around, I was forced to try a self-photo. I'm really bad at those. Here are just a few of my attempts.

And that was my sandcastle. Ta-da!

All right, here we go!

Well, first semester I feel like I went on many adventures, and hence had entries like, "Kate goes to the Park/the Beach/Uni/Makes Friends", but this semester I've done less of that. Though some, certainly. But overall, I've found myself more caught up in the day-to-day ness of life. So this entry is going to be more about day-to-day stuff that I've been doing this semester, along with whatever random photos I can find. Ones that are worth posting, but not worth their own post.

Well, for starters, I live somewhere else now! Due to various family drama that I shan't go into here, it was decided that I should relocate, so I've been living with my aunt Pippi in Elwood, which neighbours St. Kilda (where I lived last semester). It's pretty much the same distance from uni, so it's not a big deal in that regard. Though I now take a new tram. The 96! So that's exciting.

Let's see.

Well, lately, I've had a bit of contact lens drama. I threw out my old contacts one night and went to put in new ones the next morning, only to find that my lenses had completely disappeared. As this disappearnce co-incided with Pippi re-organising the bathroom, I assumed she had just put them somewhere else. But she'd gone to Hawaii, so I couldn't exactly ask her. I searched the house, but could find them nowhere. So I've been wearing my glasses for the last week and a half.

So, just a few minutes ago, I was putting away some underwear, in my underwear drawer. And I realised that my bathers weren't there, though I keep them in that drawer too. And I was thinking, oh, I better look for those, I'll need them in Queensland next week. So I was trying to think where they might be, and then I remembered that I hadn't completely unpacked one of my suitcases, I'd left some summer stuff in there. So I dragged that out, opened it up, and sure enough, there were my bathers, a few pairs of sandals, and...my contact lenses!!!

I'm so completely baffled. I haven't opened that suitcase since I got here. Why on earth would Pippi have put them in there? But how else could they have gotten there?!?!!?

Well, at least they are found. But I'm so confused....

In other news, I need new shoes.

I have one pair that I probably wear the most, because they're black flats and go with everything. But this is what they look like these days.

They've actually been like that for about a month and a half. But you really can't tell when you walk. I mean, you can a little, but it's not uncomfortable unless you're walking on rocks or sticks or something.

Well, let's have some more pictures.

Where I live in Elwood is much much closer to the beach. Just 2 blocks away. I also live next to The Canal, which goes right to the ocean.

One day, I was waiting to catch a tram, and I saw this poor puppy, so I took his picture.

Another time a few months ago, my cousin Phillip took me out to have dinner at Taco Bill's. It was my first time having Mexican in Australia. It was very very funny. And not particularly Mexican.

Here is the chip bowl they give you at the beginning. Yes, that's really all they give you. I took the picture before we'd eaten any of them. Tiny! Wrong kind of chips. And no refills.

I ordered an enchilada. It came with a Mexican flag. I laughed a lot.

This is a cafe on campus. I like the sign.

Here's a cool piece of chalk-work that used to be on the ground outside the ERC (the Education faculty's library.)

When I was on placement at school, we brought in a cake on our last day to say thank you. It was really really really good. I took a picture.

One day, while walking home, I saw a big gold man blowing up balloons outside Luna Park. So I took his picture.

Another day, while on the tram in the same vicinity, we passed a man walking his llama down the street. I've since seen the llama twice. But, unfortunately, I've never been quick enough with my camera, so no picture.

At uni, they have a bunch of baby palm trees. Child and teenage palms, perhaps. I thought it was neat how they were little. Maybe it's not neat if you're from somewhere with lots of palms, but being from Tennessee, I thought they were nifty.

The Mexican food at the grocery store. Note what section of the store it's kept it.

Me being cool at the Astor Theatre. Too bad the quality's yuck so you can't really make out my coolness.

This is the largest size drink and fries you can get in Australia. I'd call that a medium, by American standards, do you agree?

The city at night...again bad quality...I was having trouble with my camera for a while.

Some cool people, as seen from my tram. I liked the mohawks, though I didn't get a really good picture of them. But you can see them in the background.

The end for now. More tomorrow!

June 1st in Australia is the first day of winter. I remember that I thought it was a really lovely day, but when I was out and about, most people on the streets had out their jackets and scarfs, and I overheard people complaining about how cold it was. Oh well. Like I said, I thought it was quite a nice day. Here are some pictures I took while waiting for a tram at the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke.

Another day, sometime in June, I don't really know when, I went to my local beach because it's pretty.

There are walking paths along the beach with pictures of people walking, so that you know to walk there (as opposed to bike or roller blade or whatever). But someone made one of them a bit cooler.

And a view of the city from a hill next to the ocean.

The weekend before I left, I attended one of my cousin Nick's footy games. He's number 30. His team just won the Grand Final of his league last week! But here they were back in June.

Finally, in the last week before I came home, I had exams! This is a picture I took when I turned up to my very first one, illustrating the hundreds of people milling around! I took my exams in a room with 2000+ other people. Bit strange, but it worked.

After that, I came home for my winter break! Yay, END OF SEMESTER ONE!

Yay, I am back! Contrary to popular belief, I have not completely forgotten about this and do intend to get fully caught up sometime soonish. So, let's go back to where I left off last time...May! I just hope I remember what I did well enough to tell you all about it. Luckily I have pictures to help jog my memory!

Well, the last weekend in May, André's mother and nan were in town. André has a great love of trains, so he decided to take them to see Puffing Billy, something which I vaguely remember doing when I was little. I went with them, and much fun was had all around.

Puffing Billy leaves from Belgrave, which is about an hour's drive away. So the four of us drove there.

When we got there, before boarding the train, I decided I ought to use the loo, so I went. This is of note only because of what I found inside my toilet stall.

Very lovely illustrations of how to use the toilet. Just in case I'd forgotten how. I hadn't, but they were much appreciated nevertheless.

Here's a picture of me on the platform right before boarding.

Then we were shown to our tables inside the train car. Here we are inside, along with pictures of our pretty table and other people in the car.

Along the way, there were lots of nice views.

And they served us lots of really yummy food!

After an hour or so, we reached our destination: Lakeside Station. It was very pretty. Here are some pictures!

Our train engine.

Me in front of our carriage.

A train coming the other way.

The Lake.

Showing my rebellious side.

Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree...well, in some sort of tree.

Then we headed back. The train ride home back to Belgrave was fairly uneventful, and there are no pictures.

Before heading back into town, we went to check out the William Ricketts Sanctuary. It is a park located near the top of Mt. Dandenong. It's filled with Rickett's Aboriginal sculptures that "are an expression of Rickett's philosophy - that all people need to act as custodians of the natural environment in the same way as Aborigines, the inspiration for much of his work." Here are pictures of just a few of the 92 sculptures in the park - the detail is really incredible!