Yet Another Strange & Amazing Aussie Animal

Now, we all know that Australia is full of a range of animals that are both unique and odd. There are the obvious things such as the koala and kangaroo. Then there are the spiders, snakes, jellyfish and various other things that can kill you. But I think I have found the animal that takes the cake for strange/fascinating/just plain odd... it's the Lyre Bird.

This bird mimics all the sounds it hears in the forests of Southern Australia... so that obviously includes the other birds and animals. What makes it so strange is that this bird also mimics the human noises it hears... so in its orchestra are camera shutters, car alarms and even chain saws! When I first heard about this I figured it would be similar sounds - but watch this clip and you'll be able to understand why this I think this is so amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

Extreme Sadness...

So I knew that I was going to take a hit with the exchange rate being a lot worse now than when my loans were quoted... but never did I expect it to be this bad. Without airing my financial woes let me put it in this context.

Loans Quoted: $.85 USD = $1 AUD
$8.50 USD = $10.00 AUD

Today: $.95 USD = $1 AUD
$9.50 USD = $10.00 AUD


Ugh is the best way to describe my feelings today. Tomorrow I begin to hunt for a part-time job on a serious basis. :(

Man I'm looking forward to having an income again!!

14Ks Run/Dodge...

Today was the city to surf run which was 14Ks of beautiful scenery and great running. The only problem was that our group was 'the back of the pack,' and it literally was the back of the pack. Considering there were 70,000 people running you can imagine how packed it was. I think I spent more time dodging in and out of the crowd of walkers than actually running... very frustrating! But I FINISHED!!! I must also thank Kirby (my sister) and my Dad - read on to find out how.

When I was little I would always go watch my sisters play sports. With Kirby it was the cross country meets at Carmichael, Yakima, then later in Seattle. Jodie was tennis matches in Pasco, Yakima, and other various places. Being young and rambunctious little kid I remembered Kirby's events more because I was able to run around and do more... with tennis I usually just ended up getting in trouble or skinning my knees. In addition to having tons of memories I always used to try to run with my Dad as he would encourage Kirby on the uphill and downhill parts. (My Dad was a pretty stellar runner himself.) For the uphills it was things like "attack the hill" and downhill it was more about using the hill to relax. And now to add relevance to this story...

Today's run included an infamous hill called heartbreak hill... as I was dodging people I heard the 'attach the hill' in my mind to help motivate. Then the downhills I was almost laughing at the others who were struggling and, while my knees might not agree, I found it very relaxing.

I didn't run the entire thing (there was a bad experience with stomach cramping and dizziness somewhere around 5K) but I would say I ran at least 12-13 K, which is WAY more than any other run I've done. The times aren't in but I will post the results when I get them... for now I just hope I will be able to walk tomorrow.

Now the question is if I'll keep up the training and stay in shape....

Salvation in Drugs

OK so I know the title of this blog will raise some eyebrows... but they are all legal drugs. Before I get into the basis of my salvation I must give some context.

A while back I wrote about how I am training for a 14 kilometer run. Training pretty much stopped when school work became so busy I hardly had time to shower let alone run. So this week I have been ramping up my efforts in a feeble attempt to get in shape - the run in tomorrow. I had mapped out a plan to run 5K Saturday, 7K on Monday, 10K on Wednesday and another 10K on Friday. Everything was going well and on Wednesday I ended up running 7K but then made up for it with a 40 minute basketball game w/ no substitutes.

Friday morning I woke up with back spasms which made it very hard to sit in certain positions, bend over, twist, or do anything that required my lower back to move... I spend the day laying in bed working on my laptop in a very odd position in the hopes of my back getting better. Alas today I am not in as much pain but it still hurts. Now comes the drugs....

Back in the days of good old RHS my coaches would always carry a little jar of this balm called Tiger Balm. Now this is a 'natural' version of icey hot but only did the hot part. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw they have Tiger Balm here. Today I have been liberally applying far more than the recommended amount and this combined with one Advil liquid cap has made it so I can actually function without looking like I have a large stick inserted in certain orifices.

Tomorrows run will be a different story. My plan is to take a couple Advil, apply the balm liberally, and walk the uphills (which there are a couple doosies). We'll see if I'm able to move on Monday though...

ABBA Invasion

I'm not sure how big the movie Mama Mia is in the states... and to be honest its not that big here. However, I went with my flat mates to see it and have not been able to escape ABBA since.

The more time I spend in the world I find how sheltered I was to so many things. Now this may be a good thing to be sheltered from... will leave it to you. However until recently I didn't know who ABBA was, or that they had an entire Broadway show made from their songs. Crazy...

Now for the movie, Meryl looked amazing for her age, but Pierce on the other hand. I think I winced every time he started singing - it was that bad. For my family members who had to suffer through my singing on road trips, I am a better singer than him... just to put it into perspective.

To make matters even worse there are now commercials on TV for Ultimate ABBA and I haven't been able to get their songs out of my head. I seriously thing I've gone slightly insane.

If you haven't seen it and are an ABBA fan - go... if you aren't save yourself the time and wait till it comes out on DVD. And you might want to stay away from tin foil......

Driving on the Wrong (Australian) Side of the road....

I have no driven on the wrong (British) side of the road... in a manual and have survived. Now considering it's probably been a good 3-4 years since I've driving a manual and the gear shift is on the left hand side - which means I was shifting with my left hand - I consider this a great accomplishment! To make things easier it was at midnight so there was nobody on the road and the car wasn't large.

My greatest fear in driving over here is the spacial difference. Compared to the states where our streets are wide enough for four cars and you slow down when you have to squeeze between two cars- the margin for error here is infinitely smaller. To make it worse, the car was parked in a tiny ally way so to get out I had to navigate out of the ally. In the end all mirrors were intact and I only had on major miscalculation when turning left for the first time - when I promptly hit the curb.

Aside from that the only other thing was the confusing fact that the signals are on the right side of the wheel not the left, so I turned the windshield wipers on every time I went to turn the blinker on.

So my advice for anyone who comes here and plans to drive is to keep the following in mind:
1. The drive should always be closest to oncoming traffic.
2. The blinkers (or signals) are by the window.

The Invation of the Pilgrims

I am not sure if the US news has covered the events of the Pope recently... but he's been in Sydney. This brought on an invasion of around 150,000 pilgrims from all over the world. Now, when most of us hear "from all over the world" we assume there is a good representation from the major countries. Not the case here. Literally there were people walking around with flags I have never seen before. Then there were the larger groups of Germans, French, Mexicans, Canadians, and of course Americans.

Sydney had something like 500 road closures over the weekend, and I was for all intensive purposes marooned in my neighborhood as the pope gave mass about two blocks from where I live. This also meant I was woken up at 7 AM on Sunday with the singing pilgrims on their way to mass - needless to say I wasn't very impressed.

Even more interestingly, they weren't the strictest of religious followers. One statistic said that 70% of the pilgrims would lose their virginity this weekend. Brothels had a 10% discount on 'sales and services.' The kicker is that the group which was staying in the residence hall of our school left a nice present of 6+ bottles of wine, 2 32 pack cases of beer, and various other beverages (all empty) in the lounge area of the school.

For those that are curious, I did not go see the Pope.