Culture + Tasman Sea =)

Well well well it has been awhile eh? I do not even know where to start so I will jump to the good stuff! This last weekend my Oz mum took my roomies and I on a road trip to her parents house. The whole trip was so much fun. We left at 7 (friggen) am on Friday and our first stop was this market called "trash and treasure". It is where all these business from Sydney come together and sell the most random stuff... sinks, clothes, art, fruit, instruments.... you get the idea - but super cheap. I got 3 shirts for 9 dollars and apparently they have super cheap wet suits which I may go back and look in to =) However its hours of operation are 5am to noon. If any of you know how much of a night owl I am this may be a problem! After that we got to drive through the Sydney Olympic park, which was pretty cool. I don't really remember watching the Olympics when they were there, I was young, but it was still awesome, and massive!!! After that we drove south along the coast to Kaima where there is a blow hole and awesome rocks leading out it the beautiful ocean.
As we were out on these rocks exploring we were discussing how many different poisonous creatures there are in Australia and how when we are going out on rocks we should probably pay attention to the signs we pass without looking at twice just in case they are home to come poisonous swooping bird who preys on unsuspecting Americans or something. Crazy I know, but you can never be too careful here!
Obviously we were being very careful =) From the left to right we have Kat, me, Meg, and Marissa. We get along well, it is pretty wonderful. Anyway after Kaima we drove to this little town in the hills, I forget the name, but it was artsy with lots of little restaurants and shops. Gail introduced us to the Australian delicacy of meat pies.... which come to find out is like a chicken pot pie, but better. They are super big on them over here, its great. I had a chicken curry pie in case you were wondering, and I think you were! Mmm! After that we stopped at this beach where Kangaroos roam free. Because it was sort of toasty they made there way into the shaded area, which is odd because basically it is a mobile home park. I guess the people who live there just let the kangaroos coexist with them. It is really cool because you drive through to the beach and you just see roos hopping through the mobile homes or just chilling in the sun. They are so soft and wonderful. I made a new best friend and saw one with a baby in its pouch =)



































Anywho the next stop was her parents house. They live in a town on the south coast called Ulladulla. Their home is on a cliff, the back of it looking out onto the Tasman Sea. The view is absolutely stunning.And this was the view from the back. I am pretty much dying to live somewhere like this some day. Waking up to that view every morning would never get old!
When we arrived we chatted with the parents for
awhile about our majors and some Aussie/American
differences such as "the tall poppy syndrome." Just in case you do not know what that is and are wondering it is what Aussies call it when Americans, or anyone really, gets the "I am better than everyone" attitude. It is how they describe a lot of Americans, which I think is legitimate. Their humor tends to be really sarcastic and "biting" as they describe it, basically to keep everyone on the same level. They don't like to stand out from anyone else, weather that be a show of money by having a nice car, home or cloths, and even with names. They will give everyone nicknames ending in "o" or "azza" it is kinda cool. So after our cultural chat the four of us girls went down to the beach. Definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. The water is so clear and turquoise, and the sand is so soft and fine and the color of cookie dough. It is beautiful! And the water was no where near as cold as it is back home, obviously. I wish I would have worn a swim suit, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the water =)













We finished the evening with a nice dinner at her parents country club. The next morning we ate our body weight in breakfast food and took one last walk on the beach before starting our trip home. It was definitely way too short of a trip and we are all dying to go back. For our journey back Gail decided to take us through the mountains on one of the windiest up and down hill adventure I have ever been on. Let me tell you being in the back seat of a car driving on the opposite side of the road on a friggen cliff with buses flying past you.... well it is an adventure to say the least. But it was all worth it when she took us to Yarrunga Valley where there is a look out point and waterfall into the most beautiful valley I have ever seen.
The picture does it absolutely no justice but it at least conveys an idea. Needless to say this was pretty much the best road trip ever. Coming back was hard, but this week has been fun. I have constantly been getting made fun of for my lack of ability to say Australian words. I was trying to get taught to say "Yobba" which is a red neck but for some reason is came out "Yoburt" alas I finally have a nick name, haha. Oh dear. We had a couple girls from school over for dinner last night and talked about some of the strangest things. However we learned that what our prof has been telling us is true.... Aussies don't see themselves as having much of a culture. I think that is crazy because they definitely do. But being that their country has only really been here about 200 years (weird!!!) they don't think there has been much time to develop one. Also they find their history rather dull (I disagree) and find it weird that we eat peanut butter on anything other than a pb&j sandwich. Also, they really don't use dryers, they like to hang their clothes outside to dry, which I think is kinda cool unless you are in a hurry. Lets see - to go is called take away, if you ask someone where the "rest room" is they will give you a very weird look so you have to ask for the "toilet", instead of saying something like "very very very cool" or something to an extended degree they will say cool as, or sweet as, or mad as... definitely with the accent does not sound at all like "as" =) That is all the fun cultural differences I can think of to share with you for now, so I will leave you with this sweet picture I took at the beach. Who would have known all those little shell guys do so much crawling around?