Back on the Ranch

I have been home for just over a week now and boy is it strange. The morning after the first night in my own bed in over 7 months I woke up not exactly sure where I was, and completely overwhelmed by how many clothes I had in my closet. It's not that I even have a lot of clothes, but after a backpack full of stained and holey t-shirt, I felt like Paris Hilton. That feeling faded after I watered the bulls and checked my bank account ($6.37 baby!) but still...

I am going to hang around High Prairie at least for the summer, as I have a feeling the geo-gods won't be throwing any jobs down from the heavens until at least September. It's all good though, as I shall embrace the cliche of living in my parents' basement.

This will be the last post on this blog, as it is pretty hard to make dispatches from down under when one is no longer down under, but I promise to alert the masses if decide to go on another random excursion. Right now it is 50/50 between working in Ireland and popping into Europe or circling South America. All I need is $10 000 and I am good to go!

Thanks for reading everyone- knowing someone was on the other end of the line reading all this gibberish was comforting as I meandered around the red continent.

Cheers.

-A.

Departure

I am in the Melbourne airport and my flight leaves in just over an hour. I am slightly pissed because what I thougth was a direct flight is actually connecting in Auckland AND the direct flight which leaves 30min earlier is an A380- the largest commercial plane in the world which has in-cabin wireless and power outlets for your laptop and a bar. Alas, maybe next time.

I slept in the airport last night so I would be sure not to miss my flight and I saved on a night of hostel fees. Little did I know how bloody uncomfortable the Melbourne airport is. Metal chairs and freezing cold, I ended up bunking down between the pinball machines in the arcade area- at least there was carpet there. On the bright side I have a window seat and will be in my own bed in 29 hours. It hasn't really sunk in that I am going back to Canada- the airport is such a strange purgatory, it's hard to think about the real world when you are shuttling between customs desks and navigating the warrens of escalators and duty-free shops. It will probably take a few days to hit me, at which point I will have to think about what the hell I am going to do next. If I don't get a geology job, I am going to save up for a few months and do a working holiday in Ireland. I promised my mom I wouldn't go to South America by myself, so that one will go back on the shelf for a couple years.

-A.

Good Times in Melbourne

I am back from the tropical north and the weather is similar to a brisk October day in Halifax. I really miss the tropics. Diving was amazing, though, and I saw clown fish and angelfish and rays and a porcupine fish, but no turtles, which is a bummer. I think I will definitely be doing that again- I heard Mexico is a good place to go, minus the flu issues of course. I am pretty sure the pressure gave me an ear infection, but I don't care because it was totally worth it.

After my diving course I took a tour of the northern rainforests up by Cape Tribulation. Absolutely stunning. There was a river cruise included where I saw no less than 8 crocodiles along the way, ranging from 40 year old beasts to a little guy about a foot long. I met a cool chick from Britain named Nicola and we hung out for most of the trip and made fun of the noisy American girls in the back. It's nice that us Commonwealth gals have some common ground. It seems that I am meeting all these cool people just as I am leaving. There was another cool chick from Morocco in my hostel who gave me some tips about North African geology companies and said I should check it out. On my last night in Cairns we had some vodka coolers in the lounge and talked about home.

Today is my last full day in Australia and I have been having a blast in Melbourne. I was kind of dreading this bit because I was basically planning to killing time until I go to the airport tomorrow. Instead, I will barely have time to finish all I want to do. On Friday night I got in from the airport at about 6pm which was decent and I grabbed a hostel room right near the train station because I didn't want to walk too far- that was a mistake and I ended up in the nastiest place I have been in since coming to Australia. At 7:30 am I was out of there and walked into the central business district to find something classier. I found a rundown joint north of the markets, but it had a good atmosphere and was only $20 a night. After breakfast at the Queen Victoria Markets (like the Halifax Farmers Market x 10), I spent a good 4 hours touring around the excellent Melbourne Museum. I thought I would treat myself and went in search of a restaurant. Instead, I met two cool gals on the tram and I hung out with them for the rest of the night. including crashing at their hostel because it was too late to walk back to mine and I was too cheap for a taxi. Laura is from New Brunswick and Katie is from Scotland. I was giving them advice on where the tram was headed and they invited me to join them. We had a great italian meal and dessert and after-dinner drinks and just chatted all evening. Once again, more cool people that I am meeting just as I leave. I guess that is what Facebook and email are for, though, right?

-A.

Just Breathe

I went in the deep end today- there are a lot more rules once you are past the 5 meter mark. Like, did you know that if you take a breath at depth and hold it as you ascend, the air will expand in the lower pressure and burst your lungs. One doesn't think about lung bursting as a possibility in day to day life- it's all quite exciting! My absolute favorite was when I managed to achieve neutral buoyancy, which is when you are neither floating up or sinking. Taking small breaths so your full lungs don't push you to the surface like a cork, you can just hang out in the middle of the water- very tranquil and probably the closest I'll ever get to a meditative state. You can hear yourself breathing and everything is both quieter and more amplified at the same time. It is the closest a person can get to the weightlessness of space, while still on earth. Very very cool.

I had a sore throat when I woke up this morning and was rather worried about the medical because they will not let you on the boat if your sinuses are blocked. The pressure in your eardrums doesn't equalize and you can do some serious damage in terms of embolisms and broken ear drums. The dive instructor (from Spruce Grove! How weird is that?) told us a story about his friend who ignored advice not to dive and went down- on his way back up he had a severe pain in his cheek but he kept going up and when he got back on the boat there was a large bubble of flesh in his cheek. He poked at it and it burst, taking a piece of his cheekbone with it. Now he can't dive until he gets his skull fixed with a metal plate. Did I mention I love diving?

It really isn't as dangerous as it sounds. As long as you are not impatient and not a macho idiot, everything runs very smoothly. The whole respirator apparatus makes me feel like Darth Vadar ("You don't know the power of the dark side!"- try saying that underwater). The first rule of diving is remember to breathe. The second rule of diving is remember to breathe. So if I can just remember to breathe, I will be all right. And the instructors are hot! Grrawrr!

-A.

Sink and Swim

I just finished the first day of my scuba diving class and it was unbelievable! The morning was all easy classroom work, but I was terrified I was going to fail the swim test in the afternoon. Us Nelson girls aren't known for our buoyancy. I had to lap the dive pool 6 times, but when he told us that we could do it any style I knew I would be alright. Backstroke is one of the few swimming methods I can manage to flail out. That was all fine and good, but after we finished (I was about a lap and a half behind everyone else) the instructor told us about the second half of the test- treading water for 10 minutes. I never tried for more than 5 minutes and I am pretty sure the last swimming lesson I ever took (Maroon at the High Prairie Pool) only required two minutes. They distracted us by asking us to talk about why we were here so that helped but that last minute was killer. I am really glad I didn't know about that part before I started otherwise I would have totally psyched myself out. Once the swim test was over, the fun began.

We did a bit of familiarization with just mask and snorkel and then got to put on the full gear with buoyancy vest and weight belt and tank and everything else. Just shallow water stuff today and then tomorrow we upgrade to the deep end. After the swim test, this will be easy peasy- and the attractive instructors don't hurt either! :P

-A.

Tropical Paradise

As soon as I got off the plane, I was glad I had decided to come to Cairns. A balmy 27 degrees with a light breeze, it is a lovely change from the creeping autumn that is hitting Sydney. As usual I didn't book a room ahead of time, but stopped at a hostel recommended by my airport shuttle driver. $20 later and I have a four-person dorm room with a view of the ocean and only one roommate. I will sleep here for 3 days while I do the land-based parts of my scuba diving course (classroom and pool stuff) and then on Monday I am off to the outer reef for a couple days to do some serious diving. This time last year I was in Sudbury doing a geology workshop, and now I am diving the Great Barrier Reef- it's funny where you end up sometimes, isn't it? Now to ditch the socks and go for a swim!

-A.

Sydney on a Shoestring

For my last day in Sydney, I decided to pull out all the stops, especially since I managed to sell my car and actually have some cash now. First I took the train downtown then grabbed a connecting bus down to Bondi beach. After a yummy lunch at the shore, I headed back into town and climbed the stairs to the top of the Pylon Lookout on the harbour bridge. You can also do a bridge climb to the top of the steel arch, but the price difference was $9.50 versus $210 for an extra 30m of height. Not a tough call there. To finish off the day I took a ferry out of Circular Quay to Manley on the north-west end of the harbour. The sunset on the opera house with the thumbnail moon overhead was pretty damn sweet and probably my favourite in Sydney. I don't understand folks who spend gobs of money on city tours. For $17 I got a transit pass that covered any train, bus, or ferry in Sydney and had a blast doing it. Including my bridge lookout and lunch, I spent a grand total of $36.50 to see a big chunk of the city- I have a feeling that a day tour would cost a teensy bit more than that.

I think I was able to enjoy myself so much today because I finally have a bit of my life organized for once. Tomorrow I am off to Cairns for a week where I will take a course to get my open water scuba diving certification. I figured, where better to learn to dive than the Great Barrier Reef, hey? The 27 degree weather will be a nice touch as well as autumn is creeping into the southern states and it would be nice to reclaim some of my tan- it disappeared over the last month during all the rain in New Zealand. Next Friday I fly into Melbourne for the weekend to finish off my trip, then on Monday June 8th, I return to the Great White North. Thanks to the beauty of time zones, I will leave Melbourne and arrive in Los Angeles at exactly the same time (10:50)- talk about a short cut! Then it's a mere 3 hour layover until I get on a Westjet direct to good old Edmonton. I don't know what I'm going to do when there are beavers on the nickels again. I haven't been in Canada since November 1, 2008; maybe I'll get culture shock. I'm sure a double-double and a honey crueller from Timmy's will fix me right up though.

-A.