Australian Adventures

Leaving on a jet plane...

2007-01-25T13:27:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! Melissa here, Amy asked me to post on her blog because she didn't get time to. She is now flying to New Zealand after a few airport dramas (like having TOO MUCH STUFF!).

So I really don't know what I am meant to write...on Tuesday night we had a small going away party for Amy. (Should I meantion everyone who came.....I don't know! Blogging is hard. I'll just put some pictures)

Here are some people who were at the party. From the left: Peter, James, Matt, Melissa, Amy, Steph, Laura and Amelia. Chris was there too. We basically watched DVD's of Amy's photos all night. Haha, it was fun.

On Wednesday (A.K.A Amys last full day) Cheryl, Melissa and Amy went to St Kilda, walked along the pier and ate ice cream (for a change) But the monumental occassion of the day was that we got a civilised picture of Amy and Melissa!! Here it is!!

And there is a picture of Melissa, Cheryl and Amy.

To conclude, a giant, some what scary face...(its an amusement park, and its the picture below :P)
Bye bye, Amy. Miss you already. The house feels empty... :(

A Cow

2007-01-24T00:16:00.000+11:00

Here's a cow! We saw it, and couldn't resist taking a photo. Hahaha.

There was a little girl who kept walking up and touching the cow, and Melissa kept mooing. The little girl, at one point in time, told her mom that "That cow over there is really scary!!" She then proceeded to come back over to the cow again. And Melissa mooed again. It was really funny :)

How many kids can you fit in a tree?

2007-01-24T00:08:00.000+11:00

Clever title for the post, huh? Chris came up with it :)

We couldn't resist ourselves. Here we are, chilling out in the tree ;)

Heh. Here are Chris and I!

I like this picture, but it came out a little bit blurry. That's okay, though... it's still a good photo :)

Ah! The rosellas. Okay, so there were a bunch of birds flying around... and I saw some actually land on people's shoulders. A couple of kids were holding bird food in their hands, and the birds were eating out of their hands... so I was excited when a man offered me some bird food :) And then, the birds came. Very quickly, too!

They're pretty, aren't they? I was a little scratched up on my arms, because the rosellas had somewhat sharp claws, but I don't really care. I had fun holding them.

Return to Healesville

2007-01-23T23:59:00.000+11:00

Today, Matt, Melissa, Cheryl and I met up with Lynne and the kids in Healesville, in a place called Badger Creek. We ate lunch there, then took a walk on the trails that went through the forest. It was a nice day :)

Here we all are, hanging out on a bridge. Woohoo!!!

I like this photo :) That's Laura with me, by the way. (We're still on the bridge.)

Watch out, Chris might punch you. I always knew he was a little crazy... (just kidding, Chris.) Apparently, the leeches liked Chris and Matt (and Melissa). They each found one on their legs. I was wearing pants and shoes, so I didn't need to really think about them. (Hooray!!) But we didn't worry about them very much (the leeches, I mean). They came off easily, and it really wasn't a big deal. Still, I'm glad that I wore pants and shoes :D

Let's have a collective "Awwwwwww....."

More faces... basically, just goofy pictures.

2007-01-23T23:52:00.000+11:00

After I finished packing, Melissa and I just chilled out on the couch and goofed around a little bit. The following pictures are the results of our endeavors to be spontaneous. (Which means that we're just being silly ;P)

I think we both blinked during this photo. Haha.

Ahh, priceless. Heh.

The best chocolate shakes in the WORLD

2007-01-23T23:44:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, Monday, we (meaning Matt, Melissa, Cheryl and I) went to Warrandyte to a place called "Thyme on the Terrace." It's this cute little restaurant, that just so happens to have awesome food... we've been there three times during my stay :) Foccacias rock.

Here is a picture of THE BEST CHOCOLATE SHAKE IN THE WORLD. (Mwahahaha.) They are soooooooooo good!!!! I wish I could take them home with me. Mmmmmmmmmmmm...............

And here I am, drinking the best chocolate shake IN THE WORLD. Again, hahaha. They are just soooo good!!!!!

After lunch, we came back home. I packed both of my suitcases :( They are both very, very overweight. (Oy...) I'm kind of worried about it, but... we'll see what happens.

More of church, and some faces as well.

2007-01-23T23:37:00.000+11:00

Okay, so I took my camera with me again this past Sunday. Here is a good picture of my YSA class.

Here I am, with one of my sunday school teachers :) Attractive, no?

And here are her daughters. Hahaha. Elise and Rebeccah.

...And here is the ward choir. (Well, most of them, at least.)

I went to the Melbourne temple on Friday. It was definitely a beautiful, beautiful place :) I'm so grateful that I was able to go.

Saying good-bye was very, very tough. I'm going to miss all of these people so much!

Church Photos

2007-01-16T11:46:00.000+11:00

So, it's about time that I started posting pictures of my sunday school class, isn't it?

Well, my class is made up of a bunch of YSA's. That was new to me, considering that we don't have a class like that in our ward back home--because there really aren't many YSA's. So, this has been a neat experience.

I can't name everyone in the picture ,_, There were a few visitors, and a couple of people are new to the class, so I don't really know their names. Sorry about that.

This is Elise, our sunday school teacher's daughter. She's very, very nice :)

And this is Erin. Melissa and I met her on my first sunday, and she's pretty much helped me with everything church-wise. I'm going to especially miss these two girls, Elise and Erin. They're great girls.

I'm not sure if I posted a picture of the temple yet, but here are two of them. I like the second one better, but that's just my preference :)

My sunday school teacher told me that he'd call the temple this week and set up an appointment for everyone to do baptisms and confirmations either Wednesday or Friday morning. I'm so excited!

It's so pretty!

Karaoke on a Saturday Night

2007-01-16T11:40:00.000+11:00

Saturday night, we all (minus Scott) went to the Harris' for dinner. Chris and Laura have a game called "Sing Star" for the Playstation 2, and so we played that for a while. I just have a few shots of us all singing karaoke.

I think this song was "Murder on the Dance Floor," but I'm not completely sure.

This one was "Livin la Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin. Hahaha.

And here is Melissa's reaction to pretty much everything...

Haha. After dinner, Laura and I played around on her family's keyboard. Laura didn't know that a picture was being taken, I don't think :)

Rooftops and Williamstown

2007-01-16T11:36:00.000+11:00

So when I was taking pictures from the observation deck of the Rialto, I saw tennis courts and didn't think much about it. Then I realized... they were on the roofs of buildings!

This looked more like a children's playground than anything else. I still think it's cool that it was on the top of a building, though.

Oh! Across this bay is Williamstown. Cool, huh?

The Rialto Tower

2007-01-16T11:23:00.000+11:00

Saturday, Rob took Cheryl, Melissa, Matt and I to the Rialto in the city. It is the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere. At the Rialto, there's an observation deck--that's where we went! Melissa took a picture of me with the city in the background.

The observation deck was on the... 55th floor of the tower, 253 meters above the city. That's pretty high up! As a result, I was able to get some really nice pictures of Melbourne.

In the post titled "Williamstown," I talked about the Sandridge Bridge. Well, here is how that same bridge looks from the observation deck of the Rialto Tower.

If I were to keep going in this direction across the water, I'd eventually end up in Tasmania. Cool, no?

A Carriage Ride, Gold Panning, and Jumping

2007-01-16T11:04:00.000+11:00

So it was a very hot day... and we took a ride in a carriage, like the ones in all of the cowboy movies. So fun!

Here are Melissa and Cheryl!

This is a picture of the carriage that we rode in. The ride was fairly short, but it was nice to see a lot of things without having to walk there :P Haha.

After the ride in the carriage, Melissa and I went panning for gold while Cheryl went into one of the shops to buy something for a friend. We had a fun time. I found a very small rock (more like a pebble) that looked like parts of it might have been painted gold, but that was pretty much it. Well, whatever the case was, Melissa and I were glad to just take off our shoes and go wading in the stream. That felt so good!
So here's Melissa, goofing off as usual :)

Here is Melissa, pretending that she found gold. Hahaha. You can see Cheryl, too :)

When we left Sovereign Hill, Melissa and I decided to go for a swim in the pool by our cottage. However, we found this jumping pillow along the way... ;)

We couldn't resist. It was a lot of fun :)

We went back to Sovereign Hill at around 9 that night, to go to a special program that they had. It was a lights and sounds show explaining the Eureka Rebellion, where a series of events led the gold miners to rise up against the British (sound familiar?). Eventually, the miners/diggers were massacred early in the morning by the British police force. It was a fantastic show, and I was very surprised to learn, after it was over, that it had lasted almost 2 hours. It was very, very nice, and I really enjoyed being at Sovereign Hill.

Ballarat and Sovereign Hill

2007-01-16T10:52:00.000+11:00

Last Thursday morning, Melissa, Cheryl and I went on an overnight trip to the city of Ballarat, a place where there was a huge gold rush in the 1850s. It was an awesome place! Here is the cottage that we stayed at.

We went to Sovereign Hill, which is a cool place where the people that work there dress up in the gold rush period clothing, and the entire area was made to look as though it were a town built in the 1850's. It was really cool! Melissa and I actually had our picture taken here--we dressed up in period clothing as well. It was so fun!!

As I said before, the people that work at Sovereign Hill dress up and go about their lives as though they lived in the period. These men were singing and playing instruments, so I took a picture of them. Haha.

There were a lot of little shops at Sovereign Hill, each one different. Here's the inside of one of them.

I just thought this photo was funny because you have the people in period dress, and then Melissa. Haha.

Thursday at Ballarat was HOT. Someone said that it was 42 degrees, which translates to 107.6 degrees fahrenheit. Dude, that's hot!! We still had fun, though. It was just... really, really warm.

A Huntsman, and the Exhibition Building

2007-01-11T00:57:00.000+11:00

Wow, it's 1 AM. Oy, I'm tired! Okay, I'll just finish up here.

This is a Huntsman Spider. Apparently they don't really bite people, but they're big and hairy and just... big. So not fun. They're about as big as my camera. Luckily--knock on wood--I haven't seen one of these inside the house or the car. I don't know what I'd do if I did. *the shuddering occurs*

When we came home from Phillip Island, it was past midnight. A big spider was sitting on the door, waiting for us--Cheryl thinks it was this one. She whacked it with her flip-flop, and then Melissa squashed it under her shoe when it hadn't died. We were all too tired to really care about it much, though.

The Exhibition Building, which was right next to the museum, is in this photo. I liked this building, simply because it has that certain British, old-fashioned and yet regal feel to it. I thought it was pretty :)

Here we all are--Roger took the photo, so that he wouldn't have to be in it. Haha.

The museum was a lot of fun :) I like to hang out with Laura and Chris, so that was an added bonus. We sat in a park after we left the museum (that's where we are in the photo). It was a really nice day.

Tomorrow, Cheryl, Melissa and I are going to Ballarat. There's a place there called Sovereign Hill that we're going to visit. I'm excited to go! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures.

Good night, everyone~! 14 days until I get back on the plane.

Day at the Museum

2007-01-11T00:31:00.000+11:00

There's a movie coming out called "Night at the Museum" that looks pretty interesting. Anyway, that was so not my point...

Today, Cheryl and I went to the Melbourne Museum with Roger, Lynne and the kids (Melissa was at Matt's house). The museum was neat--we started out with a forest exhibit. We were walking around in the forest, and we found a skink--a real, live one. Pretty cool, dude! It was really close to the path that we were walking on, and so I got a good photo of it :)

On to some stuffed animals.

These were actual animals that had been stuffed after they died--here is a kangaroo at it's full height. It was probably about six feet tall. I wouldn't want to be chased by one of these--that would hurt if it caught me! (Kangaroos tend to attack, you see.)

So this is the kind of penguin that I was talking about in my last post. They're really small, and cute :) This one is stuffed, of course.

Here, we have a blue-ringed octopus. These are deadly. As in if you touch them, you'll die if you don't get to a hospital fast enough. They're really small. They look pretty cool, though. Too bad they're venemous, hmm?

Oh, and I got to see dinosaur bones! That excited me. Haha. (Just because I don't remember ever seeing dinosaur bones in a museum before.) I wouldn't want to be in the way of the dinosaur that's crawling down the steps. No, no, no! I am so glad that dinosaurs aren't alive today--I mean, I wouldn't want to be dinner for one! (But they're still pretty fascinating to learn about.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention... yesterday, when we were driving to see the Penguin Parade, we saw a wallaby on the side of the road! It ran away when Melissa tried to get a picture of it, though. Oh well. It was so cool!!

Phillip Island

2007-01-11T00:04:00.000+11:00

This past Tuesday, Cheryl, Melissa and I went to Phillip Island. We met up with Cheryl's brother Ross and his family (from Christmas), and we all--including some of Judy's relatives--went to Woolamai Beach. It was an awesome beach.

This picture was meant to be of the flags, not of the people (I don't know who they are). The lifeguards on the beach move the flags along as the currents and tides change, to show people where it's safe to swim. Cheryl said that since they started using the flags, nobody that's been swimming between them has drowned. It's a great method.

Here are a few of the lifeguards. I think there were six. Anyway, it was pretty awesome. I didn't take as many pictures as I would normally, simply because Melissa and I (and Cheryl, too!) went "swimming" (that means wading in waist-deep and letting the waves push us around), and we also used a couple of boogie boards. It was really fun!

We went back to the house that Ross and Judy and their family rented for the week, and had dinner with them. There was a loud noise of birds chirping, and I managed to take a few photos of these Ghalas. They were doing acrobatics on the telephone wires--hanging upside-down, or simply by their beaks and whatnot. It was fun to watch them. (Click on the photo and it will get bigger.)

After we left Ross and Judy, we went to see the Penguine Parade.

Okay, this takes a little bit of explaining.

First off, I didn't take pictures of the penguins, because that wasn't allowed. (Otherwise, I would have.)

On this particular beach that we drove to, these Tiny Penguins (that's their official name, although everyone calls them Fairy Penguins) walk off of the beach at sunrise, and come out of the ocean at sunset (which is when we came to watch them). The penguins are blue-ish, and about 33 centimeters tall--that's just over one foot. They're really small.

Anyway, this became a huge tourist attraction when more attention was given to it. To help you understand, I shall say this: we made sure to leave Ross and Judy's at about 7, so that we would have a parking spot. The people that sat to the left of us were French, the people that sat to the right of us were Chinese, and the people that sat in front of us were Japanese. Others that we noticed were from Indonesia and other distant places. People literally come from all over the world, and watch these penguins come out of the ocean and waddle up to their burrows.

The penguins started coming up at around 9 o'clock, and we watched them until after 10. It was so cool! They started coming up in groups of 7 or 8 to start with, and towards the end they came out in groups of 15-20. It was awesome to watch them scurry up the beach, trying to avoid seagulls--the birds tried to scare them and make them run back into the ocean, with hopes that the penguins would up-chuck the fish that they caught so that the seagulls could get a free meal. I remember one group in particular that was comprised of, perhaps, 15 or so penguins. They made it halfway up the beach then got scared by a seagull, turned around and ran back for the water.

Yes. So anyway, this is us goofing off and wasting time while we waited for the penguins to come. Here are Melissa and Cheryl:

And here are Melissa and I. The beach that the penguins walked up is in the background.

The place was packed with people who came to see the penguins. It was kind of cool, but really noisy :P However, we did get to see some of the penguins up really closely. It was awesome!

More Beach

2007-01-10T23:52:00.000+11:00

So Chris decided to climb the rock... and then Laura did, too :) Here is Laura, pretending to be her brother. (Haha, Laura.)

Just for a scale... this is how it looked with my camera not on zoom.

And here I am. I managed to put sunscreen everywhere.... except my neck ,_, As a result of my forgetfulness, my skin is currently peeling around my neck because of sunburn. Well, at least it wasn't worse :P And it feels alright anyway. I've been extra careful to remember to put on that sunscreen!

I searched through the rock pools, and I found some tiny starfish (4 of them, to be exact) and about a billion snails. And some red anemones. We had a fun time at the beach--eventually, we all (minus Cheryl and Lynne) went into the water and got totally soaked. That was awesome :)

Bushranger's Bay

2007-01-10T23:38:00.000+11:00

On Friday, I went to the beach with Melissa, Cheryl, Roger and Lynne and the kids, and Matt and his sister Steph. We went to one of the Harris' favorite beaches, which I do believe was called Bushranger's Beach. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) (Edit: It's Bushranger's Bay, not beach.)

To get to this particular beach, we had to walk through the bush about 2.6 kilometers, which translates to... about 1.5 miles. It was a long walk for a really hot day, and the flies were absolutely crazy. It was pretty scenery though, and I could see how it'd be a pleasant walk if it wasn't in the 90s :)

Anyway, here's a picture of the path. Melissa and Steph are in front, and I managed to get Chris in the photo as well.

This beach was really rocky, but I had a lot of fun looking at all of the little rock pools that were there. The massive rock in this picture was pretty awesome to look at, too. You can see a bunch of the tide pools here.

There was a great view on the beach :) I really liked taking pictures.

Here are Laura and Chris, walking on rock. There wasn't sand right there--it was all rock. And it was pretty cool, too.

Chris climbed one of the big rocks, like in the second picture of this post. Here he is, "holding it up."

Tower and Trolleys

2007-01-10T23:24:00.000+11:00

As promised, here is that picture of the tower we climbed. I count... 8 flights of stairs :) The view was great, though!

After the "tower adventure," we all drove to Healesville (the place where I saw the koalas and kangaroos the first time around). The Harris' and I went for a ride on the trolley that they had there. It was a great ride :) Here are Laura and Roger.

And here's Chris!

The trolley went through a tunnel--it was a lot cooler in the tunnel than it was outside. (Wednesday was a warm day, you see.) This tunnel was made in the late 1800s, and the trolley driver thinks that the tunnel itself is 7 bricks thick (or something along those lines). That would take a long time to build!

((The side of Chris' head is in the picture.))

The trolley ride was probably about 30 minutes long, I think. Laura was kind enough to take a picture with me :) It was fun!

Next post: Bushranger's Beach

Rainforests and Towers

2007-01-10T23:05:00.000+11:00

So last Wednesday, Melissa, Cheryl and I met up with Roger, Lynne, Laura and Christopher at Warburton. We went for a walk into an old growth rainforest--it was great!

This is a picture of a structure that we all stood on, so that we were about level with the tree canopies...

And this is the view from the top of that structure. (I think we have established that Amy has something of a liking for tree ferns, hmm?) Some of these ferns were HUGE! It was awesome!

We went to a different place and climbed up a tower (I'll upload a picture of it in the next post), and this was the view from the top. In the distance is Mt. Dandenong--it's on the left side of the picture, and is pretty much the furthest land mass that the camera captured. (You can see it very well in the photo.)

Here are Laura and Chris, hanging out on top of the tower. They're awesome kids :)

And here are Lynne and Roger. I think this is a good picture of them.

Next post: Towers and Trolleys.

Williamstown

2007-01-02T18:51:00.000+11:00

This last Saturday, Cheryl took me into the city to go on a boat across the bay to Williamstown. (Melissa was sick, and she really didn't want to go.) I took some nice pictures from the boat on the return trip; on the trip to Williamstown, the boat's windows wouldn't open--and therefore, all of my pictures would've had a glare in them. (We caught a different boat on the way home, you see.)

Williamstown was a quaint little place to visit. It was a really nice trip! Cheryl and I walked around and just enjoyed the day :) We had some gelati, too, which was pretty awesome.

Anyway, I should explain the pictures. This first one is a scene of the city. In a recent post titled "Bush Fires," I talked about how some days were smoky. Saturday was one of those days (it wasn't very bad, though); Cheryl reckons that the smoke came from fires that are burning deep in the bush. Anyway, you can kind of get a glimpse as to what I mean when I say that a day was "smoky."

This is what the underside of a bridge looks like, just in case you've never seen one before :) I liked the old-fashioned European feel of this bridge.

This bridge is the Sandridge bridge. There are figures standing on top of it; they represent the different people from different countries that come to Australia. (Australia has a very diverse population.) It was pretty neat to look at.

Here's one of the figures up close. The pink things in it spun when the wind blew. It looked pretty cool!

Here are Cheryl and I (not a very good picture, I admit). We were inside the boat at the time of this photo.

Warburton

2007-01-02T18:38:00.000+11:00

Ah!!! I just found out that I'm coming back to Warburton tomorrow!!!!!! :D YAY!!!!!!!!!!! That makes me happy :)

OKAY. Anyway...

The wednesday after Christmas, Melissa, Cheryl and I went for a drive to a place called Warburton. Haha. It kind of reminded me of Seaside, only minus the ocean. (Meaning that it was a cute, small town.) We went for a walk along the Yarra River, which goes through the middle of Melbourne. I took some great pictures of the scenery.

And, for your enjoyment... ducks! There were no shortage of ducks. Haha.

Here are some more shots of the pretty scenery. It was really peaceful to walk around here :)

Talk about ferns... look at all of them!

I don't know if you can see the picture really well, or if you remember my third or fourth post... but I'm almost positive that these trees were what I was looking at when I was flying from Sydney to Melbourne. They're gorgeous :)

Christmas Night, and a Possum

2007-01-02T12:11:00.000+11:00

Christmas night, we went to Lynne and Roger's house for dinner and a family get-together. Lynne is in the middle of this picture; I should get a better picture of her...

There were a few family friends, as well as some cousins that I'd never met before. (This means that there were a lot of names for me to remember, and I have forgotten them since last Monday :P)

Here are Laura and Christopher, passing out presents to everyone. I gave Lynne and Roger's family an Oregon calendar; pretty standard, I know, but I wanted them to have something from my home :) Laura and Chris got a LOT of candy from my family.

Here are Rob and Scott. They look like they're enjoying themselves, no? ;)

Here's Roger! I think it's funny that I have a better picture of him than I do Lynne, simply because I've spent more time with Lynne. Go figure :)

Laura took me on a tour of their backyard. High up in one of the trees was a wooden dog house-looking structure. She told me that possums could be found there. So I stood on the tips of my toes and tried to aim my camera just right, and... voila! Here is an Australian possum:

Matt Santa

2007-01-02T12:06:00.000+11:00

Okay, so I said in an earlier post that Matt dressed up like Santa. Well... now I have pictures to show off! :)

Melissa had a little too much fun with this Santa stuff... haha.

And here we are, taking a picture with Santa Clause! :D Hooray! About the fairy wings... Matt told us to come to his house dressed "Christmassy," but we didn't really have anything "Christmassy" to wear. So we dressed up like angels. (Note the halos.) And that was totally not what he meant. Haha. Oh well!

This is Matt's sister, Steph. She's quite cute, and she snorts when she laughs ;) I wonder if she'll ever read this... hehe.

Christmas Eve

2007-01-02T11:53:00.000+11:00

Okay, so here are some pictures of our happenings on Christmas Eve, while at Matt's house.

Firstly, we have Matt's brother James. James and his friend Chris were mixing random ingredients into their drinks, then downing them as quickly as they could. It was amusing to watch. They put powdered citric acid, lemon juice, jelly mix (jelly is the equivalent of Jello), and I think soda in this round. That's why James' face is all messed up :P Haha.

Matt, Melissa and I also played... Jenga! Oh, a fun game. Melissa took the next couple of pictures. (And yes, I'm wearing fairy wings. I'll explain that in the next post.)

Oh, bummer... Matt made the tower fall :P Heh. Melissa was the only one who DIDN'T make a tower fall. And she'd never played before! Hah. I guess she's just really good at it :)

And, here we have Melissa. Matt kept trying to make her laugh, so that her hands would move and cause the tower to crumble. Fun!

These people are John and Tina, Matt's parents. They're nice people :) I like them. Tina made chicken wings and also made a special marinade for them... they were so good! But her marinade is a secret recipe, apparently ;) Hmm....

December 23rd

2007-01-02T11:30:00.000+11:00

So, I've finally decided to post pictures of Christmas :P Sorry it took so long.

I'll begin with the Saturday before Christmas. We, meaning all of the Taylors plus Matt and I, went to Cheryl's brother Ross' house. (And now, this is where pictures of Cheryl finally start to emerge!)

Matt took a picture of all of us, and here it is! From left to right, starting in the back row: James [Judy and Ross' son], Judy [Ross' wife], Cheryl, me, Rob, Ross. In the front row: Melissa, Pop (Cheryl's dad), Scott (Melissa's brother), Elise (James' sister), and Nan (Cheryl's mom).

Melissa stole my camera and took a picture of everyone at the table (we ate lunch together).

Here are Cheryl and Ross. I can't remember what they were talking about, but they were doing some funny things... *haha*

Here's James. He thinks he's hot stuff :D Hahaha. He's 12 years old.

And, last but not least, here are Elise and Scott. Elise is 7 years old, and Scott just turned 21.

We had a lot of fun, and I took a lot of pictures :)

Next post: Christmas Eve!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-01-01T13:37:00.000+11:00

Mwahaha. I speak to you from the future~!!

I hope you all have a safe and fun New Year! (And be safe and have fun during your celebrations, as well.) My celebrations consisted of glow sticks, candles, a lot of orange soda, and dancing to songs like "Kung Fu Fighting," or whatever the actual title may be.

The countdown begins. 24 days until I'm on the plane back home! :/ <--That means I'm sad and happy at the same time. It's a confusing emotion.

I will post, possibly later today, pictures of what I've been doing. Hehe.

I love you all! Happy New Year!

~Amy

PS Michael Buble ROCKS.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2006-12-27T22:21:00.000+11:00

Okay. So, this is a few days late. Sorry, we've been really busy.

Firstly, I shall say this:

Currently, it is summer in Australia. That being said, know that it is supposed to be in the 80s to the 100s right now.

This Christmas was the coldest one in Australia's recorded history :) There was snow on the mountains, and it has rained so much the past few days that the fires have pretty much fizzled out. We've all been wearing sweaters and scarves over here! Today's high was 18 degrees, which translates to about 64 degrees F. That's the HIGH.

AND, we were lucky; the rain landed in just the right areas, so that it was captured. There's still a drought, don't get me wrong--it's just really good news that it's rained. It's been fantastic.

On to Christmas...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We were super busy!

Saturday, Christmas Eve Eve (haha), we all went over to Cheryl's brother Ross' house. He and his wife Judy have two kids, Ellie and James, and we just had a bunch of fun. I don't have my pictures ready right now, but I'll post a couple of Christmas soon :)

Sunday, Christmas Eve, I went to church in the morning. A little while after I came back, Melissa and I went to Matt's house to have dinner and celebrate Christmas with them a little bit. Matt dressed up like Santa, because Melissa and I had said that we hadn't been able to get our pictures taken with Santa Clause. So, we took pictures with Matt Santa instead :)

Afterwards, Matt came back home with Melissa and I, and we had a small get-together with one of Cheryl's friends.

Sunday night, Matt and I went with Melissa and Cheryl to their church for midnight mass. It was a nice service, and we didn't get home until around 1:30 in the morning (after dropping Matt off, of course). Haha. We were exhausted.

Monday morning, my mom called at 8 o'clock!!! ,_, It was nice to talk to my family, but it was sooooo early. Melissa tried to wake me up, and Cheryl eventually came into our room and turned on the lights, then jumped on Melissa's bed and handed me the phone. I must've sounded funny :P

Anyway, I'd better get going. I'll post something before New Year's, and I'll see about getting some pictures up :) But, before I go...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Bush Fires

2006-12-22T12:23:00.000+11:00

I thought I'd take this time to post and talk a little bit about the fires going on over here.

Firstly, they're not near Melbourne. The fires are north of us. Yes, a lot of Victoria is currently on fire, but Melbourne isn't close to them. However, on days when the wind comes from the north, we will wake up with a lot of smoke in the air. I've had maybe 6 or 7 days when you could see and smell the smoke in the air. It dries out your throat, and I can't wear my contacts on those days because they stick to my eyes. Today isn't one of those days.

The wind is blowing really badly, which can't be good for the fires. There isn't any rain, which is also not a good thing. Melbourne is going to go into stage 3 water restrictions starting January 1st; that means that you can't wash your car (except your windows and mirrors with a wet rag), and you can't water your garden even with a bucket (among other restrictions). We've all been taking less than 4 minute showers, and Cheryl even puts a bucket in the shower with her, to catch whatever extra water may fall into it. She uses that to water her garden.

Last fast sunday, all of the LDS members across Australia fasted and prayed for rain. Please help us down here. We need the rain terribly. Experts are saying that this is the worst drought in history, and we're hoping that this summer won't turn into Australia's worst bush fire season as well. So far only one person has died from the fires, which is something to be incredibly grateful for.

This weekend is supposed to be cool; Christmas is actually predicted to be 18 degrees, so about 64 degrees F. We're praying and hoping for rain. Please pray with us. The people over here not only need it, but so do the animals.

If you'd like to read more about the fires, I've got a couple of links:

Written December 16th:
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/
Display_news.aspsection=World_
News&subsection=Rest+of+the+
World&month=December2006
&file=World_News2006121771830.xml

Written December 18th:
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=
1881612006

I'm sorry that this post isn't very kid friendly. I just wanted to say that I'm not so close to the fires that you have to worry about me. Melbourne is down at the bottom of Australia, and it would be difficult for the fires to get to us. You don't need to worry about us; we'll be alright.

Please pray for rain for Australia, though. Who knows? It could happen. 3 Nephi 27:28-29. I love you all, and I'll see you in just over one month! :)

Cake Decorating and School

2006-12-20T16:21:00.000+11:00

So, at Lynne's second school, she helps a boy named Mitch. This is a picture of him... and he's decorating a cake.

Mitch is a sweet boy :) He's very clever, and it was interesting to hear him speak with an American accent! He's not American, and neither is his family; in fact, he's never left Australia. Lynne said that she asked him about it once, and he replied with, "I just watch too much TV, Mrs. Harris." :D I played chess with him after he finished his cake. He's a very cool kid.

Did I mention that Mitch's class was decorating cakes? Well, they were. They turned out really well, too :) It was fun. My job, even though I don't really do the whole "decorating of cakes" thing, was to make sure that the kids were holding their bags right. So the next couple of pictures are of me, showing the kids how to hold their frosting bags without the back ends of the bags "exploding" and making a mess. (Because I can do that much, at least.)

Here is a picture of almost all of the cakes that the students made. They look pretty good, don't they? The kids brought their own decorations; the only thing that was given to them was white icing. Some of the kids brought Santas or marshmallows or candy canes or colored icing, etc. It was fun to see them getting so creative and having a blast :)

By the way, the cakes were actually fruitcake. They were covered with marzapan, I think, and then the kids decorated on top of the marzapan (which was as hard as a rock). Fruitcakes coated in marzapan can last for years.

Amy and the Python

2006-12-20T15:35:00.000+11:00

So I'm going to go back into the past for a while here. Hehe.

The Monday before last (so the Monday before the Zoo trip), I went to school with Melissa's cousins Laura and Christopher. The reason it took me so long to talk about this, is because I wanted to post pictures, and Lynne (Melissa's aunt) is the one who took the pictures with her camera. She ended up e-mailing them to Cheryl, and so now I have school pictures to share! :D

The first classroom I went into was Laura's. Oh, did I mention that I was show-and-tell? Hahaha. This picture is of me, Laura, and a few of her classmates. The boy in the left of the picture is one of Lynne's students. Lynne works at two schools; at the first one, she helps students learn to read if they're having difficulty in their classes (so they have more attention, because there's only a few kids in the room at the same time). At the second school, she works as a teacher's aide with a boy named Mitch.

Anyway, this is us:

I went to Christopher's class after Laura's, and I was show-and-tell there, as well :P Heh. It is very strange to be the subject of show-and-tell. But, it was pretty fun! In both classes, kids asked me if I'd been to Disneyland or Disneyworld, if I'd been to Las Vegas, and if it was cold in Oregon. Haha. In Laura's class, I found out that Santa comes to Australia on Christmas day, just before everyone wakes up. He comes on Christmas Eve for us, doesn't he? ;) Dude, that guy is pretty awesome.

This is Chris, presenting me to his class (and posing for the camera):

I went with Lynne to her second school, and some of the kids decided to come and wish us off. Laura is on the far left, and Chris is on the far right. When children go outside, it's a school rule for them to wear a hat (so that they don't get sunburned). I brought a hat too, because it's a school rule, but I didn't end up wearing it until lunch break at Lynne's other school when we were outside, watching the kids and making sure they didn't get hurt and whatnot.

At Lynne's second school, she showed me around a little bit. One of the science teachers has a python in her classroom, and this is a picture of it.

And now here I am, holding the python. Bwahahaha.

I should mention that this was a children's python that has been handled very often, so it wasn't as though it was going to bite me or anything. Haha. Lynne said that the science teacher tends to hide the snake in her sleeves and just lets it slither around her arms (while she teaches, sometimes). When I held it, it wanted to go into the front pocket of my sweater. That was fun.

All the same, I still think it sounds cool to say, "Amy held a python!" Hahaha.

Technical Difficulties

2006-12-18T14:31:00.000+11:00

Hey, all.

I have to get going, so I'm going to make this quick.

The computer at the Taylor's has decided to die as of yesterday, so it might be a while before I'm able to post anything. I do have stuff to post, though; I just don't want anyone to think that I've forgotten about this blog or that I don't love you guys anymore :P Hahaha.

I'm at the library right now and my session's just about up (Melissa and I split 45 minutes), and I still have a few things to do. I'll post as soon as I can!

Talk to you soon,

~Amy

A wise monkey, a couple of Zebras, and a Memory

2006-12-14T13:01:00.000+11:00

Okay, so I debated about taking a picture of this monkey, because my camera was absolutely miserable and dying, but I'm glad that I did. He looks infinitely wise, don't you think?

A zebra! Only if you live here, you say "zeh-brah" instead of "zee-brah." I do believe that if you click these pictures, they get bigger. I wanted you to be able to see the stripes really well on the zebras.

There's a second zebra in this picture, though you can't see it very well. The one that you can see, however, seems like it's looking right at me! Cool!

Here's both of the zebras. I do believe that there was food in this area, and that's why their heads are bowed. I think they're gorgeous. And who could forget the giraffes in the background again? ;)

A memory of the past. Cheryl said that she remembers going to the zoo as a child, and seeing all of the animals in cages like this one. She also said that she remembered feeding some of the animals peanuts.

It's definitely better that the animals have actual grass and such to walk on, and actual nature to live among. I can't imagine a poor animal being locked in something like this for its entire life.

So, there we have it... our trip to the Royal Melbourne Zoo! It was fantastic. I loved it :)

Seals, a Tiger, Tree Kangaroos, and some Turtles :)

2006-12-14T12:55:00.000+11:00

Yeah, yeah. We have seals in the ocean. Blah, blah, blah.

They were being fed, and were therefore doing tricks in order to get food. So I took some great pictures of them.

Haha. It's a slide!

A tiger! She was pacing, because her mate was taken out of the habitat momentarily for one reason or another. This picture gets bigger if you click on it, so you can see the cool stripes on the tiger.

Tree Kangaroos! I think their faces look like kangaroos, but Cheryl thinks their faces look kind of like koalas. I guess it would work both ways, because I can see the koala resemblance as well. Interesting, no? Check out their long tails!

Just because this is a cool picture...

Turtles~!

Red Pandas and Rock Wallabies

2006-12-14T12:49:00.000+11:00

So, technically, this was the first animal that I saw. Hehe. A red panda! They kind of look like raccoons.

You can see the stripes on this red panda's tail. That made me think that it resembled a raccoon even more.

Awww... isn't it cute?? Asleep...

Rock Wallabies! This was about as close as I could get to them. Aren't they cute?

An Ostrich!!

2006-12-14T12:42:00.000+11:00

It looks different than an emu, and it does really funny things with its head. It's an Ostrich! An ostrich! There was an ostrich at the zoo!

Hahaha. I was a little excited to take pictures. And it helped that I unintentionally happened to be standing right in front of a small water pool, so the ostrich walked right towards me!

Back to what I said about doing funny things with its neck... look at this big bird!

It's drinking out of the water pool, which is why you can't really see its head currently.

The last picture of the ostrich. It was definitely awesome to see this animal! Oh, and I forgot... you can see giraffes in the background :) Those animals are really, really TALL!! (That's a "Thank you, Captain Obvious" moment.)

Orangutans!

2006-12-14T12:36:00.000+11:00

I know that we have orangutans at our zoo also, but I decided to post them here anyway.

I think they're fascinating animals. They're very, very intelligent.

This orangutan walked right up to this child, and smiled. I don't know if orangutans know what it means to smile, but it looked like it smiled anyway :)

The same orangutan walked over to the opposite side, where a young woman was taking pictures of it with a professional camera. He went right over to her and looked straight into the lens. Then he decided that he would stay over there for a while and look at the people, because he reached over into a basket and grabbed a bunch of hay, then sat on it.

I know that's not the best quality picture, but it was amazing to watch him walk around. They're awesome animals!

Meerkats!

2006-12-14T12:27:00.000+11:00

Meerkats are cool and I'd never seen one before, aside from on the television. They're very smart!

Here's the first one. It's keeping a lookout for potential enemies.

Here's a couple of them. The one in the first picture is still standing on the log, so these are two different ones.

It looks like they decided to sleep, doesn't it? ;)

Finally, here's a picture of the three meerkats. The other two are at the bottom of the photo; I know that I didn't do a very good job of centering it, but it was unintentional to get all three in the same photo.

Meerkats are cool, no?

Kangaroos, and nameless lizards

2006-12-14T12:11:00.000+11:00

Woohoo! I was able to walk up to this kangaroo, without it fleeing. Don't touch them, though. They wouldn't like that. I was happy that I finally was able to get a good picture of a kangaroo... and there's another one in the background, too!

Okay, so it was a cool day this time. And yet, this kangaroo still felt that it was necessary to be lazy. Haha. Oh well.

Here's a lizard! Because lizards are cool!

This picture turned out kinda dark, but you can see the lizard better if you click on the picture. This one'll get bigger... in fact, I think all of these pictures in this post will get bigger.

I had to post this, just because it's a good picture :) You can see the scaliness of this lizard.

An Emu and a Giant Tortoise

2006-12-14T12:04:00.000+11:00

I'm posting this picture, because this emu was pretty close to me. In fact, it was making me nervous, because it looked kind of agitated, so I snapped the picture and then Cheryl, Melissa and I walked away :P None of us felt like getting chased by an emu.

Here's an animal that I'd never seen before, aside from on television. A Giant Tortoise! This one is around 200 years old, can you believe it?? There were three others with him that I saw, but he was the only one that was walking around. These pictures will get bigger if you click on them.

I think it's cool to see how leathery their skin looks. And yes, he is eating grass in this picture.

Apparently, that grass didn't taste very good. Either that, or he just didn't feel like eating anymore :) He walked away, and yes, he still has a piece of grass hanging out of his mouth.

It's amazing how old they get isn't it? I mean, he's 200 and he's still walking around!

Elephants! Yes, I know that they are at our zoo, too.

2006-12-14T11:50:00.000+11:00

Okay, okay. I took pictures of elephants. I took them, because they are SO AWESOME! I mean, they were walking around! And playing! And they are cute!

Here's a couple of them. They're both young ones :) They came from Asia. Cheryl said that they were rescued from bad living conditions, where they were kept just for people to do whatever they wanted with them :( Poor things. They looked really happy here, though.

And then, one of them decided to take a bath! I like the curve of its trunk. I saw another elephant up close, and its trunk looked so powerful. It was pretty amazing!

The elephant's friend decided to join it in the bath.

Another elephant came up (there were four in the same place, you can see them all in this picture). This new elephant sucked up water into its trunk, then squirted the two in the bath. He did it repeatedly, it was fun to watch :)

Then one of the trainers had this brilliant idea. He took one of the elephants and got it to suck up water into its trunk, then he led it over to the audience, AKA me and a bunch of other people, and got the elephant to try and squirt us with the water. Hahaha. It didn't reach, though... which I'm happy about :) It was really fun to watch them!

Crocodile, Dusky Moorhen, and an Echidna :)

2006-12-14T11:45:00.000+11:00

A crocodile! Possibly a better photo than the ones that I posted last time, possibly not. At any rate, this one was a lot bigger than the last ones. They look cool, but I wouldn't want to hug it.

AHA. So, the official name of this bird is a "Dusky Moorhen." It's cocking its head at me :)

Echidnas are cute. This one is a better picture than the others that I posted; you can see its head and face a little bit better. I think they're cute.

Butterflies. Yes, I know that we have them, too.

2006-12-13T22:44:00.000+11:00

Okay, okay. So I know that we have butterflies in America. However, I just got some really good photos of the pretty, fluttery things, so I decided to post them because they're pretty :) I'm pretty sure that all of these will get bigger if you click on them.

This one was big. And pretty. And it didn't fly away, which made it easy to photograph. It almost looks as though it's body was painted yellow, doesn't it?

Here's me with the butterfly in the picture above. I'm not touching it, though... I took care not to touch the butterflies, even though they landed on me occasionally :) (You don't touch the butterflies, because certain cells on their wings will die, which causes the butterfly to die faster.)

Ooh... a small brown and white one.

Butterflies on a plate! I really like how this one turned out.

Thank you to Eva and Katie for the wonderful camera! It takes fabulous photos!

I'm going to have to post more tomorrow, seeing as how it's nearly 11 pm. Oh well, I can do that ;) Good night for now!

Nameless birds, a blue frog, and a BASILISK

2006-12-13T22:35:00.000+11:00

Okay. So this isn't the greatest picture, because my camera's flash kinda reflected off of the plastic in front of the bird cage, but... the bird was pretty. This one will get bigger if you click on it, because I wanted to make sure that you saw the colors of its feathers.

Some more nameless birds. They just looked cool :) And a couple of birds that I know! There are two cockatiels sitting on a branch towards the bottom of this picture.

A Blue Tree Frog, if I remember its name correctly. It's pretty! But I wouldn't touch it, because it's poisonous. You would die if you tried to eat it. So, the moral of this story is: If it's a pretty frog, RUN AWAY! Or just don't touch it ;)

And, if you're a Harry Potter fan such as myself... (*cough, cough*) Here is an actual real-life Basilisk! Hahaha.

The red in the photo is due to the fact that my camera was dying. I didn't have time to go through the menu and turn the flash off before my camera would turn off, so I just covered up the flash with my fingers and snapped a picture, and then watched as my camera died :( Oh well. I think it looks kind of cool, anyway.

Here's another one. Again, same story with the red.

In alphabetical order...

2006-12-13T22:27:00.000+11:00

Normally I would post these animals up here in either the order in which we saw them, or in an order which I think is coolest. However... certain events have lead me to post animals in alphabetical order (because the computer did it that way, and I don't feel like moving things around).

SO....

These are African Wild Dogs. There were four of them, but for some reason I only have pictures of two of them. Hmm. Oh well, they're really pretty :)

Cheryl kept threatening to feed me to these dogs. Gee whiz.

It was a cooler day than it has been... (around 24 degrees, which is... in the 70s.) It was 106 degrees on Sunday. I am SO glad that the church had air conditioning ;)

Yes. Anyway, I said it was a cooler day, because the animals were actually moving. Hahaha. This one seemed pretty happy to simply stay put, though. Oh well.

The Royal Melbourne Zoo

2006-12-13T22:15:00.000+11:00

This is the town center.

...Yeah. Only not. Hahaha. On Tuesday, Cheryl took Melissa and I to the zoo! It was great :) I took around 200 pictures... and I have about 50 of them to post here >.<>

You might be able to click on some of these pictures, and you'll get a bigger version of them. When I resized the pictures, I made them smaller; however, some of the pictures were gorgeous and I wanted to be able to show you how beautiful they were, so I made them small enough to be able to upload, but large enough to get a detailed look. (AKA If you click on the pictures, sometimes you'll get a bigger view of whatever I took a picture of.) Mmyes.

Okay, so this is me and my camera. I was about to shut my eyes :P

Next post: Wildlife. Haha.

Random fact about Melissa...

2006-12-10T19:33:00.000+11:00

MELISSA LOVES KEVIN COSTNER.

Hahaha. That's a fun joke.

We went and saw The Santa Clause 3 at the theater... it was great!!! I loved it, eh? (If you've seen the movie, you'll understand ^.-)

Santa at Myer... and Melissa :)

2006-12-10T19:25:00.000+11:00

I had to take a picture of this sign, just because of all of the Santa-related things that were on it. It was advertising for the 5th floor of the Myer store, which was totally dedicated to everything Santa and Christmas. It was pretty awesome :) Kids could ride on the Santa Express, and everything else that is on this sign. (We didn't do any of this, because all of the lines were WAAAAAAY too long. And I think we were too tall to ride the Santa Express, anyway.)

The bottom of the sign...

And Melissa just HAD to make sure that she wasn't too short to ride the Santa Express. Even though it would've taken forever to get through the queue. Oh well. And we were still too tall.

Oh, DUDE! I forgot to mention!!! The boxes where they place their outgoing mail (special ones, I mean) have different slots where kids post their letters to Santa! Awesome, no?? I'll have to take a picture of one of those, too.

Cityventure!

2006-12-10T19:14:00.000+11:00

Last Thursday, Melissa and a couple of her friends and I went into the CITY! You see, we live in the suburbs, and it takes about 40 minutes to get to the city via train.

A lot of the buildings in the city had a cool European feel to them. It was kind of neat to see an old-styled building amidst new ones. A nice surprise, though :)

This is Amelia and I. We also went with Michelle.

The city was decorated for Christmas... everywhere. There were Christmas trees, Christmas music, lights, and general decorations ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was stinking awesome!!! Anyway, here are some stars that were hanging from wires. They were everywhere.

There's a store called Myer over here, it's kind of like Nordstrom. Anyway, they have a bunch of windows that they decorate, and people line up to see what's in the windows. So, we went too :) This year, the windows told a story about a wombat that wanted to be in the Christmas Nativity Play... but he was unfit for all of the parts :( It was an awfully cute story; here's a picture of the wombat dressed as one of the wise men.

MELISSA IS ANNOYING ME. Hahahaha.

More of the Sanctuary

2006-12-02T18:29:00.000+11:00

The Aboriginal people must have been around my height, because I could walk right underneath these arches comfortably; but anyone a little bit taller than me would hit their heads if they didn't bend over. Here's one of those arches.

This is me, hanging out in an arch that was a little bit taller than the one in the first picture. I'm just being goofy :)

Lastly, in the visitor's center, there was a portrait of Ricketts and some of his sculptures. I'm pretty sure that I actually took pictures of almost all of the statues that are depicted in the painting.

William Ricketts died in 1993, when he was 94 years old. I looked up the information, and he spent 59 years working in the Dandenong Mountains, presumably working on his sculptures; there are 92 of them. Cheryl said that she went to the Sanctuary before she had children, and she remembered seeing Ricketts working there. That would be very, very interesting.

This was definitely a place that I'd suggest going to, if you get the chance. I loved it.

William Ricketts Sanctuary

2006-12-02T18:07:00.000+11:00

Melissa spent the day with Matt and his family on Monday, so Cheryl and I went up into the Dandenong Mountains, to a sanctuary of Aboriginal culture.

When Christopher Columbus came to America, he saw that there were already people living there; we call them Indians or Native Americans. When people came to Australia, there were already people living there, too! So the people that lived in Australia before it was discovered are called Aboriginies. The place that I went was in the forest, and there were a bunch of beautiful statues that were made to look like the Aboriginal people.

This is the entrance to the trails that went through the sanctuary.

The forest was FULL of gorgeous sculptures; I took a lot of pictures of various ones. A whole bunch of the sculptures depicted one particular man, who came with the name of Pmara Kuttata. I'm guessing that the Aboriginies considered him to be a holy figure. Also, in a lot of the statues, there was a possum. I'm guessing that, as the cat was a sacred animal to the Egyptians, the possum was sacred to the Aboriginies. At any rate, here is Pmara Kuttata with a possum--notice where the possum is coming from.

Here's Pmara Kuttata again--he's watching you!

There must have been around 100 statues. They were all created by a man named William Ricketts, who felt that the Aboriginal people had tapped into something special. He appreciated their unity with nature, and he spent what would have to have been a good chunk of his life (considering how many sculptures there were), honoring those people. In a lot of the statues, there were a few Aboriginal people and a white man among them--I can only assume the white man is depicting Ricketts himself.

Along with statues, there were signs. Here's one of them:

It was beautiful. I have so many wonderful pictures, but I'm choosing to share some of the ones that impacted me the most. There'll be more in the next post.

What would Australia be without some people? ;)

2006-12-01T16:16:00.000+11:00

Here are a couple pictures... I have a bazillion, but I decided to post two :) The first one is dedicated to my mom. The snake was doing tricks for me, mom!

Finally, it was the end of the day. We had a TON of fun. This was definitely a great place to go :)

What would Australia be without some Crocodiles?

2006-12-01T16:10:00.000+11:00

So they weren't huge crocs... but we saw some little ones. They are truly masters of disguise. It was kind of difficult to spot the little things, because they blended in so well! Nevertheless, here are a couple of crocodiles.

The crocodiles were in a tank... and both of them kept the tops of their heads above the water. Kind of creepy, but they are really amazing animals.

And, just for a special little treat... some turtles. They swim pretty fast! You can see Melissa and Cheryl's reflections in the tank.

Echidnas and a Tasmanian Devil

2006-12-01T15:55:00.000+11:00

Hi, all. Sorry that it's taken me so long to update... I've had problems with the computer and uploading pictures :P Anyway, I'm here to continue with the Sanctuary experience, then I'll go onto something new.

These two pictures are Echidnas. They kind of look like hedgehogs or porcupines, but they're much nicer than porcupines.

Echidnas have a long nose, that helps them to eat ants and other insects (like an anteater). Along with the platypus, echidnas are also mammals that lay eggs. When an echidna is frightened, it curls up into a ball so that it won't be hurt--I mean, look at those spikes! I wouldn't want to pick on one of those if it was in defense mode.

Here is a Tasmanian Devil. They're actually really lazy animals, but apparently they make the worst screeching noises when they want to. They are carnivorous, which means that they eat meat instead of plants.

He didn't move, but I took a picture at a different angle. Silly little thing :)

Two lazy animals: Wallabies and Wombats

2006-11-25T12:30:00.000+11:00

Yes, it was a warm day. I say that once again, because... the wallabies, like the kangaroos, didn't move. Much. Nevertheless, here are the wallabies!

There are two wallabies in the following two pictures, that moved. Can you tell which ones they are?

Wallabies are a smaller version of kangaroos. I like them; they're cute :)

Aha! Wombats!

These ones didn't move at all. Hehe.

This one didn't move, either :P Oh well.

Wombats like to walk around slowly, and mind their own business; as a result, a lot of them cause road accidents. Wombats are really thick animals, though; I guess you could compare them to deer in terms of car accidents. It would be a nasty wreck to hit a wombat.

Rainbow Birds, Brolgas, and a Quoll

2006-11-25T12:12:00.000+11:00

Okay, okay. So, this first picture has a couple of birds in it, with rainbow feathers. I do believe that they are Rainbow Lorikeets; I couldn't get closer to them than this, considering that there was a big glass wall in my way :( So, it's kind of hard to find them. But, they were gorgeous.

Here are some Brolgas! They are white birds with a pink/orange spot on their heads. They're really pretty, and very nice to look at.

In the bottom of the picture and towards the left, there's an Ibis. Ignore that for now; I have a picture of an Ibis to share later :)

I like this picture. You can see the brolga's pink/orange spot, in contrast to its white feathers. I also like the fact that the brolga was wading in the water.

A Quoll looks kind of like a humungous ferret, to me. This one was running around its cage like crazy, and was staring intently at something in these photos. I don't know what it was staring at, though.

Pelicans and a Water Hen

2006-11-25T12:04:00.000+11:00

Well, we were walking past a lake, when... wait a minute!! There's a pelican swimming over there!!! Take a picture, take a picture!!!

So I took a picture :)

Then Cheryl pointed out to me... there's a bunch of them on my right! So I took a picture of them, too.

I can't believe my luck. I turned back to my left again, to find that the pelican in the first picture was coming closer to us. It posed for me, and I took this last picture. Pelicans sure are beautiful birds!

Last week, I posted a picture of a black bird with a red head... I couldn't remember the name of it! It is a water hen :) Just thought you'd like to know that.

A Ghala, a Platypus, and a Black Swan

2006-11-25T11:48:00.000+11:00

I saw this little bird, and decided that it was pretty and needed to have its picture taken :) It's a Ghala; its head is pink, its chest is red, and its wings are gray. It's a cute little bird.

A PLATYPUS! Heehee. I took a bunch of pictures of this platypus; he posed for me! Hehe. This one turned out to be the best of those pictures, though... even though it looks like a blob. I think a platypus is my new favorite animal. They're really cool! And they're really cute; you can't see that in this picture but, when they're dry, they're fuzzy little creatures.

Some facts about the Platypus:

A platypus is a nocturnal animal. That means that the platypus sleeps during the day, and is awake during the night. I was able to get a picture of this platypus when it was awake, because the room that it was in was really, reeeeaaaally dark; so the platypus thought it was night time, and was wide awake!

Also, a platypus is an animal that lays eggs. This is kind of a strange thing, because a platypus is a mammal; and mammals don't lay eggs. Reptiles, like snakes and lizards, lay eggs.

Ahh... the Black Swan. This one was funny; we opened a gate to go inside and see more animals, and this swan walked right up to us. Heh. Melissa was afraid it was going to bite her :P It didn't. It just walked right by us. Can you believe how long its neck is??

Lazy Kangaroos!

2006-11-25T11:41:00.000+11:00

So, here are the kangaroos! Well... they're not standing up or hopping around, but... they're still kangaroos! It was a warm day, and they were all lounging around. I didn't see one of them move, I don't think. Hehe. Oh well, at least I was able to see them!

This is the nearest that I was able to get to them. So, here's a lazy kangaroo up close!

And, just for good measure... here are some more of them! Heh. If I see a kangaroo in the wild sometime, then I'll definitely post a picture of it. I have officially decided to carry my camera around with me everywhere.

Actual Koalas!

2006-11-25T11:26:00.000+11:00

Real koalas!!! They were in several spots in the sanctuary, but I took my best pictures with this one. His name is Djembe (don't ask me how to pronounce that, because I haven't the slightest idea), and he is adorable.

Koalas like to eat eucalyptus leaves, which make them really sleepy. I was so excited when Djembe decided to go for a walk, and even more excited when I saw that I had a really good photo of him! And I wasn't the only excited one... there was a horde of Japanese female tourists who all started shouting, "Cute!!! It's so cute!!! It's moving!! Look, look, it's moving!!" That was definitely funny.

Djembe decided to move into the shade. Who can blame him? It was a little warm yesterday. He probably decided to go to sleep... all of the other koalas at the sanctuary were already sleeping.

Did you know? It costs about $5,000 to feed one koala for one year. Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, and the sanctuary had no shortage of those... however, koalas eat other foods, too! It gets to be really expensive to have a koala. Too bad, though... they're really cute!

Dingoes!

2006-11-25T11:14:00.000+11:00

A dingo... looks like a dog ;) They're beautiful; their fur is a gorgeous orange color. These particular dingoes were howling at something, and it was pretty cool to watch them. In a book that Cheryl gave to me from the sanctuary, it says that dingoes "can be kept together easily as pairs but not larger groups as adult males tend to fight with other males, and adult females with other females." It also says that dingoes eat other animals, but they will also eat soft fruits. Interesting, no?

Now they're both in the picture, howling at something unknown. Could be that they were a little agitated at all the noise from the many, MANY elementary school kids that were running around all over the place. Who knows? Maybe they just wanted to show off.

One more picture of the dingoes. They were so beautiful!

Emu! Cool!

2006-11-25T11:01:00.000+11:00

Emu!!! It's an Emu!!! And it came super close to us. I mean, there was a fence in the way, but I was still surprised that it came right up to the fence :) Cheryl told me that these things would be awfully nasty to come across in the wild. Maybe they like to chase people? Haha. That reminds me of a movie that I saw a long time ago, where the main character was chased around an island by an Emu. I can't remember the name of the movie, though...

No, I don't know what the Emu was eating in the next picture. It looks like leaves, though. Do Emus even eat leaves??

I like this Emu. It posed for me quite nicely :) There were more Emus with it in the same place... I think maybe 5 more or so... but none of them were as close as this one. It was awesome!!

Healesville Sanctuary

2006-11-25T10:42:00.000+11:00

Cheryl, Melissa, Matt [Melissa's boyfriend] and I went to an animal sanctuary yesterday. It was GREAT! In fact, it was so great, that I took 190 pictures. Don't worry; I will not be putting all of them up here. Haha. I'm going to post pictures of a bunch of the different animals we saw, though. It was AWESOME, and I got some fabulous pictures.

When we entered the sanctuary, we went directly to a "Birds of Prey" show that started shortly after we arrived. It was really fun! The bird in this first picture is... either a Whistling Kite or a Peregrine Falcon. Heh. You know, I'm pretty sure it's a Peregrine Falcon.

This next bird is an owl. What kind of owl, you ask? Hmm...

Hehe. Okay, this is definitely a post that I'm going to edit :P

Last Day of School

2006-11-23T15:37:00.000+11:00

Melissa had her last day of school on Wednesday. Now she's into her summer vacation!

Anyway, I went with her for her last day. And, me being the funny person that I am, I wore one of her uniforms. Aren't I beautiful? ;) I wore it mostly because I wanted to, and also partly because if I hadn't... I would've stuck out like a sore thumb. Hehe. A sea of purple, and a random girl wearing normal clothes, who talks differently than everyone else. If I'm going to be stared at, I want it to be because I'm stunningly beautiful :)

Mmyes. Anyway, her last day of school is pretty much like our first day of school :p We went to the classes that she's going to be taking this next year, and her teachers gave out their syllabus and described the course. Not to mention, they gave out a lot of homework for the students to do over the vacation. Melissa has to read 6 books and write responses to them, read half of a text book, and some other things. Dude, it wouldn't be very much fun to be a senior in high school over here.

This is Melissa, being funny at lunch time.

ALSO!!! Before I forget, I just wanted to say to the people who've been commenting on my posts: I've been replying to your comments. It's kind of a pathetic way to reply, but it's what I can figure out right now... So, if you've written on my blog, I've probably replied to you! Just look up the post that you commented on, and my reply will be on the same page as yours.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I miss you! <3

The Ride Home

2006-11-19T16:58:00.000+11:00

On the way back to the station we came from, we passed over a bridge. It was really awesome! I'd assume that we passed over the same bridge on the way to the lake, but I was probably too busy looking at the pretty trees to pay attention to much else. These two pictures are of the train crossing the bridge...

Melissa and I decided to hang out of the train. These are our shoeless feet, hanging off of the bridge! (Yes, I have Tigger socks.) And we were perfectly safe, just in case you're wondering. The windows that we hung out of had bars across them to hang on to/prevent people from falling out of the train. You can see the bars in the first and second pictures of this post.

A view from the bridge of the vegitation below. There's a small creek running through the middle of the picture.

The Lake

2006-11-19T16:34:00.000+11:00

We got off of the train at a place called Emerald Lake Park. The lake was really pretty :) We ate lunch at one of the tables there. It was a gorgeous day.

This tree fern is the same kind that the Taylors have in their back yard; however, these ones are taller, meaning that they're older. The Taylor's tree fern is around 30 years old, so... imagine how old these ones must be! The lake is in the background of this photo, too.

Here I go again, taking pictures of various things. I liked this bird, though, and there were a lot of them, so... I decided to take its picture. It has a red head; you can't really see that here. It looked neat. (Behind it is a duck.)

Melissa, being silly like always, declared that this shack she's standing in front of used to be her family's house. Haha, Melissa.

Did I get lucky or what?!? I got a picture of a kookaburra! It randomly flew up and posed for me. I have a few pictures of it up this close, and I think this one turned out to be the best of those. I was amazed that it didn't fly away... of course, after I took a couple of pictures and started walking away, it left. Melissa also took a couple pictures of it. Pretty amazing, no?

Mostly gum trees

2006-11-19T15:57:00.000+11:00

The forest that we went through had TONS of gum trees in it. This is a picture of what I think is the prettiest gum tree, the Ghost Gum. I love how pale it is :) It's pretty.

I took a picture of the gum trees' branches, just because gum trees have pretty leaves. I like how the picture turned out, but... you can't see detail on the leaves. The top right corner of the picture is the train window.

More gum trees :) I don't know why this one was taken at such an odd angle. Oh well, I still like it.

There was a break in the trees, and it opened up to the picture below. So pretty... It seemed that no matter how far off you looked, there was still green. Beautiful.

Train Ride

2006-11-19T15:37:00.000+11:00

Cheryl took Melissa and I on a train ride through the forest on Saturday. It was absolutely gorgeous! I'll put some pictures up in the next post of the pretty greenery. The train was called the "Puffing Billy." Interesting name, but fantastic ride.

One of the cool things about this train ride, was that it was perfectly acceptable to sit on the rail of the windows (there was no glass), and just "hang out." So fun!!! You can see people hanging out in these pictures. The first is of the front of the train, and the second is of the back of the train. It was SO FUN!

Melissa and I were goofing off and taking pictures of our feet constantly. Here's one of them.

At one of the stops that the train made, Melissa and I hopped out and Cheryl took a picture of us, acting goofy underneath a sign. We were having too much fun :)

More palm trees... and random things.

2006-11-14T16:35:00.000+11:00

This is their money!!! It's all different colors, and so cool!!! They have a $2 coin, too. I think that's pretty neat. Matt complains about our money, because you have to look at the numbers on the bills to actually see how much they're worth. Here, you can just look at the color of the bill. :) He's definitely a strange boy.

Melissa, posing in front of the flagless mailbox. Heehee. I want to take a picture of the postman, too. They ride bikes!!! I was explaining to Melissa's friends about the flags on our mailboxes, and they were amazed. Hahaha.

I bet you've never seen Australian orange juice before!!! Mwahahaha. I'm taking pictures of really strange things, can you tell? ;)

More palm trees! Okay, so I think we've established the fact that I love palm trees. Hahaha. Behind the palm trees is the parking lot to the mall called Eastland. They have a grocery store inside of the mall! Weird, isn't it??

Ferns that kinda look like palm trees and, also included in this post, koalas

2006-11-14T16:24:00.000+11:00

This fern is in the Taylor's backyard :) (That's Melissa's family name.) Melbourne really is green, I love it! It's so pretty!!

I explained this a while ago but on Thursday, some of Melissa's extended family came to visit. (Her cousin Laura's family.) They gave me a koala :) It's so cute! And yes, it's wearing a santa hat.

Oh, and I have to explain something... Koalas are koalas, not koala bears. They are not bears, and it drives everyone over here crazy when people call them "koala bears." So here's the lesson: Don't call them koala bears! :P There Melissa, I wrote it for you. Mwahaha.

Party, party, party!

2006-11-14T15:53:00.000+11:00

Some of Melissa's friends (at the party on Saturday). From left to right: Vlad (Tanya's boyfriend), Tanya, Sarah, and Amelia.

This Carrie and her little sister Margot. They moved to Australia from Georgia a while ago. It was nice to talk to someone who sounded like me :) Melissa and I actually ate lunch with Carrie today.

...Melissa being weird (like always) :P

The girl I'm jumping with is named Laura. She's the girl who is so fascinated when I talk to her. It's funny :) She's awfully cute.

More party people! From left to right: Matt (Melissa's boyfriend), me, Daniel, and Rhiannon. I can't remember what we were talking about... could've been mailboxes. Haha.

Fairy Bread

2006-11-14T15:40:00.000+11:00

Melissa had a party for me on Saturday :) It was supposed to be a surprise, but Melissa's friend Peter accidentally spilled the beans to me on Thursday. Oh well, it was super fun! This is a picture of me eating something that they call "Fairy Bread." It's basically a piece of bread with butter and sprinkles on top >.< It tastes funny. Below that is another picture of fairy bread.

Pictures! Continued...

2006-11-14T15:35:00.000+11:00

Yay! I'm happy that people are replying to my posts!! :) If you want to respond, but don't know how... you click on the icon of a pencil that's at the bottom of any of my posts. It's next to an icon that looks like an envelope with an arrow on it.

Melissa, Cheryl, and I went to a restaurant for lunch on Friday. A cockatoo flew up and decided to join us. Isn't he pretty? :)

Photos! The beginning...

2006-11-14T11:41:00.000+11:00

Okay, so I've tried posting pictures up here repeatedly, but Blogger keeps going crazy with them. Therefore, I shall post them one by one :) Yay!!! Only not. Oh well.

This is Melissa and I, at the airport, just after I walked through the Customs gate. I pretty much look like a mess, no? :D

Flight Details

2006-11-10T08:58:00.000+11:00

Okay, so I wrote some things down while I was on the airplane(s). I wish to post them here. (By the way, THANK YOU so much to everyone who wrote in my journal! It's AWESOME!!) Note: I fixed the comments :p You no longer have to create a Blogger account to comment on one of my posts. Sorry about that, I guess I forgot to do it earlier *shrug* Also, I changed my time zone. Haha, you people are going to be like... "She's writing from the future!!" Because I am. Hahaha.

Alright. So, flight numero uno was 2.5 hours long. It was dark outside, but LA looked SO AWESOME when we flew over it! Dude, that city is huge!! It was all lit up and beautiful :)

November 8, 2006 (This flight was about 14 hours)

((Snippet from Journal))

I'm writing this in the dark, seeing as how I can't figure out how to turn on the light in the plane. It's about 7:30 AM in Portland, and the flight crew is starting to prepare breakfast. I'm still full from the pasta they fed me a few hours ago (at about 1 AM).

People are beginning to wake up; I probably slept for 5 hours, maybe longer than that. I just finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; I didn't see the beginning of it, because I was sleeping, but I watched most of it. That movie is awesome!! The first movie they showed was called something like "A Prarie Home Companion," (the only person I remember being in it was Lindsay Lohan) but it was boring and I fell asleep during it.

I boarded this airplane at about 1o PM, and I haven't stood up once. I think my legs will die from being cramped; however, I don't need to get up, so I'll remain seated for the time being. (I have a window seat, and the people next to me are sleeping.) I really wish that we were in Sydney now.

I think I'm going to try sleeping again. I don't want to look like the living dead when I make it to Melbourne, after all!

November 9, 2006

Okay, I can see now.

Yes, the last time I wrote was only a few hours ago. Our plane crossed the Date Line, so now it's officially the 9th for me. It's kind of funny, and slightly confusing to me, to know that my November 8th was only about 8.5 hours long. Haha.

I've slept around 8 or 9 hours on this plane trip, and now I'm awake--of course, the fact that it's about 11 AM in Portland right now might also have something to do with that. I watched the sun come up over here--it was about 10 o'clock in Portland, so 5 AM in Sydney/Melbourne. It was gorgeous. I don't really know how to describe it; it was almost like looking out the window and watching a rainbow grow steadily larger. As the rainbow grew, it started to paint the clouds with lighter versions of the same colors. Absolutely beautiful. Before the sun rose, I had been looking out at the stars in the sky. I do believe that I was looking mostly at the part of the constellation Hydra that you can only see in the southern hemisphere. The tip of it, when you connect the dots incorrectly, kind of looks like an inverted "big dipper." Okay, enough astronomy rant.

We are traveling at 35,000 feet up in the air, and at about 555 miles per hour. For any kids who may be reading this, that means that I am up sooooo high in the sky, that my plane would look like a dot--if you could see it at all--if I flew right over you. As for 555 miles per hour... Imagine a car ride where it takes you about 30 minutes to get somewhere; to me, that car ride would be more like 2-3 minutes.

Kate would laugh at this... I'm listening to music on the airplane--alternative rock/pop/hip hop stuff--and they just played a Jesse McCartney song >.< ((I don't really like him, but I almost started laughing when it started playing. It's kind of a joke between Kate and I.))

I'm looking out of my window, and I can see two layers of clouds; underneath those layers is the ocean. It's magnificent, but I'm more excited to see it turn into land :) It should only be 2 hours at most before I get to see Sydney--then it's just 3 hours until I get to Melbourne!

I still haven't stood up. My legs are getting used to being cramped now... is that a bad thing?? Hahaha.

The flight crew is serving breakfast. Yes, I was mistaken before--they served lunch a few hours ago. Interesting, no? Lunch at 7:30 in the morning, then breakfast afterwards. Hmm. I get to choose between pancakes and a cheese omelette... neither of which really sound good right now. Oh well, pancakes it is!

I'll write more later. Have a great day! I hope I get there soon...

Later That Same Day

Our plane stopped in Sydney, and everyone had to get off and go through security. It took me a long time to walk around the airport and find the right gate, but in the end I still ended up waiting for a while before my pane started boarding. The airport was funny, because I asked people for directions to my gate and I didn't remember to expect them to talk differently than I. My mind almost stopped functioning when they began talking, and then it started back up again when it registered that yes, I was in Australia. People talk differently than I'm used to. Heh.

I spent the entire flight between Sydney and Melbourne staring out of the window at the ground below. That flight was only slightly more than an hour, but the land was BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't figure out if the land was covered in trees or bushes, because they looked bigger than bushes but not like any tree I've ever seen. (Yes, they were trees.) We passed over a lot of random little towns.

Anyway, when I got to Melbourne, I had to go through Customs. (To the kids: that's where the people from the country you're visiting makes sure that you're legal to come into their country, and that you aren't bringing anything bad with you.) The security guards scared me, just because they looked scary, but they were actually nice. Customs went really fast, to my surprise--the only long thing about it, was the part where I waited for my luggage to appear on the carousel. Then I walked outside of the Customs area, and... there was Melissa! I shall later post a picture of the sign she made me. It's awesome.

They took me to their house, and then to the grocery store. I found something called "Lamingtons" when I was helping load the groceries into the cart (or "trolley"). They're like... cake covered in chocolate and coconut shavings. I will also later post a picture of those. And I get to try sultanas. Um... I'll explain what those are, when I actually figure that out. Cheryl, Melissa's mom (or "mum"), kept threatening to feed me snake for dinner. (As a joke, of course. It was funny.)

We went back to their house after that, and I unpacked my bags. Melissa's neighbors came over, and I met them. Then Melissa's aunt, uncle and their two kids came over, and I also got to meet them. Apparently, Melissa's cousin was anxious to meet me, to find out what a real live American looks like. (-insert laugh-) She almost died when I started talking, too. It was really funny. I gave her some Sees candy (sugar sticks) and Melissa gave her some of the 500 Tootsie Rolls that I brought (they don't have them here). She almost died again. American candies (or "lollies")!!!! Hahaha. I look forward to seeing her and her brother again.

I went to bed at 8 o'clock here, which is about 1 AM in Portland. Then I woke up at 6 AM here, wich is 11 AM in Portland. Hmm. I went back to sleep and woke up at 8 AM, then gave up. Haha.

I'm going to sign off now, so that I can eat some breakfast with Melissa before she goes to take her Business exam (it's the end of the school year for her). Then I'm going to exchange my money--theirs is neat, because it's all cool colors! I will have to take a picture of that, too. Haha.

Anyway, bye! I'll definitely write more later :)

It's rainy outside.

2006-11-08T12:21:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! I'm about to get on my flight, after enjoying a nice dinner at Wendys. (At the airport.) I looove those chocolate frosties! Haha.

Anyway, just thought I'd pop in and say something. I'm so excited that I could... probably jump through the roof, if I had super powers like that. I'm excited, and sad at the same time, to be leaving my friends and family. However, I'll be back soon enough!

I need to leave now. I'll write more later!

~Amy

First Post!

2006-11-01T11:10:00.000+11:00

Aha! You have stumbled upon Amy's Australia Blog! Lucky you!

Well, seeing as how I'm not in Australia just yet... This blog will be under construction. I've decided to format my page, using my MAD code editing skills. (They're pretty pathetic, but editing blogs is somewhat easy.)

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is just to show people what I'm doing while I'm over there! Gee whiz, just because I'm going to be gone for 3 months doesn't mean that I want to lose contact with people!

I am going to make it so that, if you wish to respond to anything I might write, you can do so without creating your own Blogger account. (See? I think of these things! :D) You KNOW that I'd love to hear about everyone in good old Oregon while I'm away! I'm going to miss everyone sooooo much, especially all the kids I babysit!! I'm scared to leave, because I'm afraid they're all going to grow up while I'm away!

...Yes. I think I've posted enough for now. It's off to editing the page I go!!

Be warned: This blog may look ugly for a while. I'm hoping that it'll turn out to be pretty, though. I plan to put a map of Australia in the background :)

Cya!

~Amy