A Happier, More Random Post

Hey again. Sorry for posting in the middle of panic last time. It comes and goes. I am not as intensely homesick right at this moment but earlier all I wanted to do was quit the program and jump on a plane back to the states immediately. I have a feeling that this will come and go through a lot of the semester. Thank you so so so so so so much to the people who sent me stuff (I’ll try to reply as fast as I can) and if anyone else wants to send me something on email or facebook or whatever I would really really love to hear from you.

Last night I went to my very first club! It was a lot of fun but it made me miss Beloit parties and especially the people I dance with at school. A lot a lot. Still, dancing made me feel better at least for a while.

This afternoon we went to the classroom and talked for a very very long time about everything that we have to do this semester. At first I started to feel like curling up into a ball and/or hopping the next plane out of here, but it got better when we started talking about the independent study project. I should think it’s intimidating. I have to find an advisor somewhere in Australia who is doing research/willing to help me do research that interests me in my field. So far my only real qualification is it has to be behavioral, and I might do something with conservation (observing reintroduced individuals of endangered species, or how human development affects animals living in the area – like that enormous bat colony living in the middle of a park in Sydney) but I have no idea what kind of opportunities are available. Then I have to figure out where to live and how to feed myself and how to get to and from wherever I’m going, and then comes the actual researching for a month and writing the longest paper ever! It’s supposed to be 20-40 pages. I also have to try to coordinate this so that it can double as my senior manuscript which would make next year a whole lot easier. This should all seem daunting and terrifying and I’m sure it will later but right now I’m really excited about the idea of actually getting to do what I want to do, you know?

In other news, Operation Try New Things is in full swing. Mostly so far it has to do with food. I have decided I am no longer picky and will eat just about anything that is vegetarian. So far it is going pretty well. Tonight I tried a Portuguese place! It was really good. They make a good veggie burger. I did not go so far as to get the spicy sauce, though. Baby steps.

The other thing I did that was super awesome was lick an ant. They have these big creepy green ants here with long legs. When you grab them they secrete an acid that is supposed to make them distasteful to whatever the predator is. Unfortunately for them, humans think they taste delicious! Our teacher told us about this but then when I went down to the bar last night (our hostel has a bar, how awesome is that?) everyone was outside licking ants and they caught one for me. It really was good, it tasted like citrus fruit.

Anyway, tomorrow morning we are heading off to Port Douglas and then the Atherton Tablelands and won’t be back until Friday afternoon (Thursday night for most of you) and that whole time I won’t have internet so I will be missing all of you desperately.

In the meantime, I will leave you with Random Things I Forgot to Mention but Meant to:

- MMy second favorite part about Australia Day, besides the guy who loved Americans, was the people roaming the street screaming “Aussie aussie aussie! Oi oi oi!” They made me happy.

- I I saw Prince William’s motorcade in Sydney. Pretty sweet.

- O One of the people in the program today asked a waiter at lunch for a take-out box to save her food. He laughed at her for a long time. Apparently here a “take-out box” is a coffin here.

- A Apparently I lost more weight than I thought since the summer. This is super great except that I did not budget in my time or money to get more shorts, and they are all too big now.

- T The Great Ocean Road! I will post pictures at some point. It was sooo pretty!

- T They have Target here, but it is fake. They just pay the company to use the logo but it’s a different store.

- T The sun is out right now! Super exciting.

I have to go finish getting ready to go. Have a lovely week! I miss you all.

Why did I think this was a good idea, again?

I'm freaking out. I seriously don't think I can do this. I feel stupid now but I didn't even really consider what the weather was going to be like. There's a bit of sun now, which is fantastic, but it is the wet season. I knew there would be rain, but I didn't really consider what rain all the time was going to be like, especially with the whole lack of sunlight = depression thing. In the meeting today the leader guy (Jack) was going over the next four months and I just sort of sat there thinking "Oh dear god, why did I think I could do this?! Why did I think this was a good idea?! How can I get out of this? If I broke my leg or got bitten by something poisonous would they let me go home? There is no way I can handle four months of this." I'm feeling a little bit better now but I still feel a lot like panicking. Why didn't I just spend a little bit of time thinking about this, you know? I mean, I thought a lot about it but obviously not about the important parts.

Also this internet thing is freaking me out. After a month at home of being on the internet basically all day every day and now I can only be on for a half hour for free, an hour or two if I pay for it, and that is just at this hostel. I have no idea what it will be like at the homestay, and I know it will be less than that on the reef, and none at all in the rainforest, the aboriginal trip, or probably when we go up to the tablelands in a couple of days. I did this for a month over the summer, with no contact except letters and maybe maybe a phone call if I sat very still on a certain rock and for no more than a few minutes most of the time. But for some reason right now it seems unbearable. Not unbearable, just terrifying. I'm coming down from the initial panic. I wonder if this is a normal...

Just as I was typing that one of my roommates came in and told me she was feeling exactly the same way. At least I'm not alone, although I still feel stupid and really REALLY overwhelmed.

Good and bad news: we can go anywhere in Australia for our independent study project. Good in that if it seriously does rain for the next two months I can be somewhere sunny and not terrible for April and part of May. Bad in that I might once again be out on my own away from all the people I am going to get to know here which is a new and yet more terrifying situation. Good in that at the penguin place they said they had student jobs and internships and stuff. Maybe I could work with penguins! Or bats. Or...something in a not-rainy place.

Anyway, I am feeling a little better as I write this but I am still ridiculously homesick/schoolsick. So, if you are reading this (and I really have no idea how many of you do) could you maybe do me a favor and drop me an email or facebook message or...something? I don't care what it is or how long it is or anything, I just need some contact with friends and family so I don't implode. Please and thank you.

Love,

Karis

Leaving on a jet plane...(again)

So I'll update about the Great Ocean Road tour we took two days ago soon, hopefully, but I am about to go to the airport (again! I think I have flown more in the last week than I have in any other year) to get on a flight up to Cairns! I am getting really really excited, actually, which is wonderful. From here on out I don't actually know anything about what my schedule or internet access is going to be like, so I'll update when I can, I guess. Wish me luck! I miss you guys!

More Animals, Homesickness, and Australia Day in Melbourne!

So two days ago was Last Day in Sydney. We went to the Taronga Zoo which is a ferry ride away from the main city. I like ferries a lot. The zoo was pretty cool. Saw some Australian animals I am hoping to see in the wild before the end of my trip but I took pictures just in case. Also some not-Australian animals that were pretty great. But in general it was a pretty low-key day because we've been doing so much lately.

Yesterday we packed up and went to the airport nice and early to fly down to Melbourne in Victoria. We were supposed to have the early afternoon to settle in and then go on a tour but when we got to the hotel they told us the tour company had called and cancelled our tour and wanted us to call back. It turns out that we were the only ones on the later tour and so they moved us to the earlier tour, which started in an hour. Our room at the hotel wasn't ready yet, so we dumped our bags in their safe room, grabbed sweatshirts (because they warned us) and hopped a tram up to the main city to meet the tour bus. Trams here are super confusing, by the way. I think it is entirely possible to ride them your entire life without ever paying because although we bought tickets I have not yet worked out how you are supposed to swipe them. Weird.

Anyway, we made it downtown and needed food. We found this all-vegetarian burger joint called "Lord of the Fries". Awesome. Also, delicious! Their fakechicken was lovely! We ate and walked and finally found where we were supposed to meet our bus. The earlier tour took us to a bunch of places we weren't planning on going, but it was pretty great. First, they took us to this old farm on an island to the South which is apparently the oldest farm in Victoria. They had Highland Cows from Scotland (the original farmers were Scottish) which are adorable! Even more adorable, they had a wallaby pasture kind of thing. They let us in with them to take pictures.

Note the adorable joey in the wallaby's pouch. We also saw a bunch of wild wallabies later on from the bus. Super great. I really enjoy watching animals bounce across the landscape. Nothing better.

Next we went to the Koala Conservation Center. They have a huge area where they keep koalas in a natural environment and they built boardwalks for people to see them, although obviously you're not allowed to touch them. The koalas are totally fearless, they were in trees right next to the boardwalk and while we (and a huge group of people) were standing there taking pictures one climbed down from the tree, onto the railing of the boardwalk, walked along past and around all of us and climbed up a tree on the other side. It literally passed about six inches from me. I resisted the urge to snuggle it very admirably, I feel.

Next, we ate dinner and wandered around some boardwalks along the cliffs. It was beautiful! That whole area - most of the island - is natural habitat for Fairy Penguins. They have burrows all around and so there are boardwalks above them. I saw a few penguins in the burrows, and what I think is a gull chick, and lots of pretty sunset views over the cliffs.

Finally on the tour was the "Penguin Parade". Fairy penguins are the only penguins native to Australia. They're also the smallest penguins in the world, the biggest they get is about 33 cm. Every night on this island they all come back to shore and that was what we came to watch. We sat on bleachers watching the sun set and waiting for the tiny penguins to waddle ashore. I am very glad they warned us about bringing sweatshirts, too because it was very windy and chilly. The penguins came in huge groups and made the most adorable noises! They all stopped right in front of the bleachers, once they had crossed the beach, to preen. We weren't allowed to take pictures of them, which I fully support, but here is what they look like:

On the way back we walked along a boardwalk that the penguins were waddling right alongside or sometimes underneath. I stopped to watch and one went directly under my feet, about six inches away, and started making "peep peep peep" noises. SO CUTE! I watched what looked like a mated pair reuniting (they were preening each other), and I even got to see a parent feeding a couple of fuzzy chicks! As I was watching all the tiny penguins waddling along the sand I looked up and saw a wallaby bounding up the hill. A little later I saw bats flying around and by the time the sun fully set the sky was full of stars much brighter than they are at home. The whole scene was just beautiful and made me so happy to be here. I can't really explain it, but I'm glad I didn't try to take pictures of it, either, because they never would have done it justice. On the way home they played Surf's Up, the animated movie about penguins who surf. It was actually pretty good in a totally predictable animated-movie-about-surfing-penguins kind of way.

I don't know what happened between last night and this morning because I went to sleep feeling all peaceful and happy and I woke up feeling all depressed and homesick. Actually, that's not entirely true. Mostly, I miss Beloit. I think it's because I'm supposed to be away from home this time of year, I had my month at home and then I go away and I'm used to that. I am not used to being away from school and school friends, especially when they are all together. I feel like I have no right to be sad and mopey when I am in such a beautiful place having such a fantastic experience, especially since it has only been a week (well, a month since I saw school people, I suppose), but I can't help it. Hopefully meeting 11 new people in a few days and focusing on trying to make new friends (also all the studying) will help me not feel as sad about not being with my other friends.

Anyway, I tried not to dwell on it. Not on Australia Day! We hopped on the tram (I still don't know how those things work) and were headed downtown when we passed a park filled with people. We hopped off and it was really great! A lot like any "Yay we live here!" celebration in the US. There were about 5 roads lined with super old cars and booths for every culture in Australia and everything from free medical exams (sketchy!) to this weird game called "Flyball" which is essentially a relay race for dogs. Little kids were painting boomerangs and kites and everyone was wearing at least two Australian flags (including me! I got temporary tattoos :D). Australia Day is also Republic Day in India, and there is a huge Indian population here so they had a big concert with lots of Indian music and dance and it was really cool.

We met this guy on the road who freaked out when he found out we were American. Apparently we must move here immediately, because Australia "needs more yanks!" He listed off a whole bunch of (pretty offensive names for) cultural groups they have (the only one I remember is "spaghetti-heads") but they need more "Americanos"! Then he started chanting "USA! USA!" and wandered away with his wife. I love Australians. I don't even think he was drunk!

So, in honor of Australia Day, I offer you this Random Australian Fact:

The Australian Crest has two animals on it, a kangaroo and an emu. It looks like this:

Know why they picked those two animals? Because they are the only two animals that can't go backwards. Dear Australia, you are adorable. I don't know why that makes me so happy (both the fact that there are animals that can't go backwards, and that they thought about that when designing their crest).

Incidentally, I hate Hulu for only being available in the US. :( Will have to find other ways to distract myself. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up suddenly not homesick/schoolsick anymore. In the meantime, I miss you all and I hope you are having a lovely night.

Blue Mountains

Today we woke up early to catch a tour bus to take us up into the Blue Mountains, a beautiful nature reserve area right near Sydney. The bus driver was basically completely what you would expect an Australian who lives out in the bush to be like. People on the tour were from all over the world, Thailand, Sweden, England, and a couple of ridiculous brothers from Poland, etc. They were all fun to talk to, and more fun to listen to. The bus was a big, old, rattle-trap kind of bus with a stick shift. About half the time I felt like it might just give up. On one big hill going up the mountain, we made it almost all the way up when the driver decided to stop and talk to another bus on the way down. When we started up again, we could not get back up. You could smell the clutch burning, so we had to back all the way down the windy mountain road and try again. Also, this was my first experience driving on the wrong side of the road. Every once in a while I would have "Oh my god what are you doing we're all going to die-oh wait no we're supposed to be on this side." moments, but in general it was totally fine.

Bush fires are terrifying. I've never really thought of fire as a serious danger, because Minnesota is basically a marsh. They had one of those "rate the fire risk" signs in Quetico (Canada) last summer and they only had four levels and it was on low. This is what we saw today:

They were putting up "Fire Ban" signs in every town and park we passed all day. Last year a bush fire killed something like 200 people in Melbourne. Luckily today everything was fine, but that is really scary.

On to happier things! We got to the bottom of this valley and we all piled out of the car to look for kangaroos. On the way out the driver said casually "Oh yeah, and watch out for snakes." so then I was paranoid. I am not usually afraid of snakes. I actually really like them and think they are cute, but the ten most poisonous snakes in the world all live in Australia, and I don't know what any of them look like, so I feel this is not an unfounded fear. But I saw no snakes! Instead, I saw this:

A magpie. Which made me think of Maggie and her beautiful drawings and the poem where you're supposed to be able to count magpies and they are omens of certain things. It flew over and joined another one, which makes two! "Two for joy" which turned out to be incredibly apt, because then we found this:

There were three of them, two adults and a joey! It was SO EXCITING!

They let us get pretty close, too! They didn't seem to mind. They were just trying to stay cool in the shade. At first the joey was hiding,

But then it came out and gave me a perfect shot!

I SAW KANGAROOS OH MY GOD!!! It is still really hard to believe that I saw them in the wild. Next hopefully I will see a monotreme and then I will be the happiest little bio major!

So, although that was the highlight of my day, that was not all we did. We also saw lots of beautiful scenery:

And this rock formation called the Three Sisters:

And then took a long walk down into a rainforest in the valley of the Blue Mountains (it didn't seem super rainforesty to me. I suppose when classes actually start up I will learn why it is classified as a rainforest). Anyway, it was pretty:

Then we rode the steepest railway in the world back up to the top and headed towards civilization once more. We stopped by the Olympic Park from 10 years ago, which was pretty cool but hard to take pictures of.

Now I am trying to upload pictures to this and Facebook simultaneously and it is taking about four million years. The internet here is pretty slow. But that's okay. I'm going to do the first installment of:

Words that are Different in Australia

Some of these I was warned about in my touristy books, but I was uncertain about listening to some of the things they said because I worry some of the stuff is crap people just made up to make tourists look stupid (mostly because it is what I would do). But most of them are true so far! For example:

-They call a certain type of lettuce (I don't remember which one) "Rocket"

-Peppers (red and green bell peppers) are "Capsicum" (which I think sounds like medicine)

-Rice Krispies are "Rice Bubbles"

-They use entree correctly! It's supposed to be like an appetizer - but since we use it to mean "main course" now I find it confusing that they use it the way it's supposed to be.

-This I thought was weird - they call fries "Chips" like the British, but then they still call what we call chips "Chips" as far as I can tell. Confusing.

I can't think of any more right now. I will gather more and report back.

Sydney, Days 2 & 3: Definitely a Sunburned Country

Ahh, sunburn. You and I are going to have a fun relationship, I can tell. Normally I don't burn, I just tan. It's nice. Not so in this country, apparently. Probably because I only had two days of spring after long months of cold and dark where I didn't see the sun for days at a time and my skin is not at all used to this (much like The Great Sunburn Incident of Spring Day 2008). But I thought about that! I brought the super extra heavy-duty sunblock stuff Bobby's parents gave me for Christmas! It must not be enough and/or I keep missing spots. Either way, I am much much more colorful than I was a couple of days ago. Totally worth it, though.

Day 2:

I sunburned the backs of my hands. What a ridiculous place to get sunburned! I even thought ahead. In the morning I thought "Wouldn't it be ridiculous to get sunburned hands? I should put sunscreen on them." so I did. And then I went to the bathroom and washed my hands and didn't even think about it. Oops. Stupid hygiene. But it was so worth it! What was I doing when I sunburned my hands, you ask? I was climbing this:

The Sydney Harbor Bridge. Here is another picture of it:

If you look closely at the second picture, about halfway up the first part of the arch you can see a little row of blobs. Those are people climbing. It's AWESOME! This is a huuuge touristy thing to do in Sydney. People told us we would have to book way in advance, so I was nervous when we just walked in yesterday. We asked if there were any available tours that day and the woman told us there was one leaving in about five minutes, and did we want to be on it? Absolutely! It turned out to be a four person group. Me, my mom, and a father and daughter from Denmark. His name was Klaus (which for some reason does not stop amusing me) and hers was Reagan. Danish is fun to listen to.

Also, our climb leader was really great. Her name was Lynsey and she was hilarious. She knows basically everything about the city, mostly ridiculous things, like how "Government House" was built in the exact replica of the MacQuarie's wife's Scottish summer home. The convicts building it told him maybe he should make some changes, because we're in the southern hemisphere now, but he told them to shut up and build his house. So it faces South, instead of North, and is always cold and dank and dreary. She also told us about how when the plague came to the poor area of Sydney the government walled off the whole area and almost burned it down. What stopped them was that the locals managed to stop the spread of plague, by having rat killing competitions. At the end of every day the person with the biggest pile of dead rats would get five quid. This is the sort of history I love! She also showed us where Nicole Kidman lives. We asked her if she had ever taken any celebrities up the bridge (there are tons of pictures all over the headquarters of Pierce Brosnan and people climbing the bridge) and she said once she lead Trent Reznor! Super great. Apparently he's hilarious. My favorite thing, though, was when I told her I was here studying biology she talked about how she'd love to go to the Galapagos someday, "to see all the really freaky creatures there". A little bit I wanted to shake her and ask if she realized where she lives. The platypus, for crying out loud! I mean, lots of others too, but...the platypus! ...Anyway,

We also climbed a freaking huge bridge! It was amazing! The ladders were a bit nerve-wracking, also anytime you could see through what you were walking on, but mostly it was fantastic and the view was spectacular!

They made us dress like that, it was not my fault.

After that, we went to the other major Sydney icon, the Opera House.

The tour was lovely. The guide was named Neville which made me happy. They showed videos about how it was made, and even had one of the architect talking about it, which was all pretty interesting. The outside of it and the theatres are beautiful, but if you ask me a lot of the rest is sort of...depressing. Lots of grey concrete, even when gracefully arching, is still lots of grey concrete. The theatres were fantastic but we were not allowed to take pictures inside them. They have an organ with over 10,000 pipes! I want to play it!

Anyway, lots of walking/climbing so we pretty much went back to our hotel and collapsed. I watched entertaining Australian television. They have a reality show where people compete to see who is the best at throwing dinner parties!

Day 3:

Today was a beautiful day (like all the days so far. Oh summer in January, you are the best thing!) so we set out first by train and then by ferry (Dear Twin Cities, please get public transportation like Sydney! It is fantastic!) to Manly Beach (best thing ever. Everything is better with "manly" in front of it. "Manly Grill" and "Manly Council" (written on public notices) were my favorites, I think). I had seen a brochure which would help me fulfill a lifelong dream: Manly Surf School! So I bought a two-hour lesson and was terrified but also ecstatic! There were a whole bunch of other people, lots from overseas, and it was a calm day, apparently perfect for learning. Paddling was hard and I fell a few times, but eventually this happened:

I made it all the way to shore at least a couple of times! It was SO. MUCH. FUN! When I live by the beach (it will happen, frankly I can't understand why anyone wouldn't!) I will get good at surfing and surf all the time!

Of course, all that fun did come at a price (besides the money I paid them to teach me). Even though I put on the spray stuff and then the cream stuff they gave me, apparently I did not realize what an awkward tanning position you are in for surfing. I sunburned the backs of my legs (which is making sitting in this leather chair super uncomfortable) and my elbows. Ow. Again, though, completely worth it.

Sydney, Day 1! Flight and Australian Nature

So, the flight was ridiculous. That was the biggest plane I have EVER seen! It had two floors (although I never did go up the stairs. Oh well), was SUPER long, and had rows of three seats across on either side and four across down the middle. And it was overbooked.

We sat on the runway for about an hour because apparently there was a balance problem. They kept moving people around to try and fix it. How disconcerting is that, that a few fat people in the wrong part of this ENORMOUS aircraft could cause such a problem? Very. Should not happen. But! we spent that hour talking to the delightful (and slightly drunk) Australian gentleman in our row. He works in IT and was very nice and offered to take us for a local's tour on Sunday if we call him ahead of time. Nice, but sort of weird, so we'll see.

Flight was looooooong. About 15 hours, I think, including the hour we spent on the runway. Mostly I slept (those black mask things you put over your eyes are wonderful!). Or read. And airline food was actually pretty good! At least, the vegetarian meals were. I mean, not restaurant quality, but better than a lot of what they feed us at school, which is pretty sad. FINALLY we reached Australia. It was really really exciting looking down and seeing a whole new continent. I've never left North America and even though I still have to stop and think about it sometimes, I think about here was when it started to sink in:

The plane circled all around the city before it actually descended. It was so cool! Peter (the Australian dude) gave us an air tour. And we got a great view:

Customs was sort of shockingly easy. They didn't x-ray or anything! They asked us some questions and had to look at my hiking boots (apparently it's bad to bring dirt in) and had quarantine sniffer-dogs that were adorable but that was about it. I have a stamp in my passport now! I've had it for two years and it finally has something in it!

The train ride to our hotel was weird. We talked a little to the families going to the zoo or something around us and I felt SO awkward with my weird American accent. That's never happened to me before. Even when I go down south to visit family it's not that odd to have a northern accent, and I even pick up the Southern accent sometimes. But here I feel weird talking to people. The train was cool and we managed to navigate our way to the hotel. After a little decompressing (and figuring out how to use Skype to call people at home, which I can do now!), a wonderful shower, and some food we went out and braved the city.

The money here is so pretty!

Apparently it is made of recycled plastic. Also, they have coins with actual value beyond laundry machines! Both $1 and $2 coins. Anyway, our first stop was here:

And here was where I made my first purchase with Australian money! As we got off the train I heard this ridiculous music. Turns out it was a guy sitting out on the street playing kind of techno-y music in the background with a didgeridoo. And he was selling CDs. I believe this is the perfect welcome to Sydney. I am listening to it right now, actually.

So if you go back up to the aerial view of the Opera House and the bridge, you see that big green space all around it? That is the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was an absolutely beautiful day so we decided to wander around there. And there we encountered: Australian Wildlife!

First Terrifying Giant Spider of the trip! I'm fairly certain this is a St. Andrew's Cross Spider. Low risk, just big and creepy and makes you feel like you are covered in spiders for the rest of the day. Also, this:

Which I'm fairly sure is a noisy miner.

A flock of quite tame sulfur-crested cockatoos:

And we also saw what I believe are spur-winged plovers and white ibises (ibii?). As we were walking I heard a sort of croaky, screechy racket up ahead. I was wondering what made that noise, so we followed the path towards it and discovered this:

All those dangling things? Those are bats. Flying foxes, to be exact. This was just one of the trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of bats altogether. In the middle of a city park. In the middle of the day. BEST. THING. EVER. I took about 700 pictures.

Also did I mention that my new camera is spectacular? Anyway, needless to say Sydney has thoroughly won me over after just one day. That evening I watched some cricket and Australian Rules Football on TV. I cannot figure out the rules to either of them, but they are quite entertaining to watch.

I don't think I'm particularly jet-lagged, which is exciting! I just have a normal person sleep schedule all of a sudden. I fell asleep around 10 last night and woke up at 7-something this morning. Now it's almost 9 and I should probably go get ready for Day 2!

San Francisco

Aloha! I have finally started my travels. Currently I am writing this from a beautiful hotel room in sunny Sydney, but I will get to that later. First: I stopped in San Francisco, and that certainly deserves its own entry.

We stayed in a supersweet hotel room named after ancient greek adventurers and the whole thing was ship-themed. Very appropriate considering it was right on the bay in Fisherman's Wharf.

The view was lovely, too. That, there? That's Alcatraz.

We ate room service and then Rookie and Caitlin came up to see me! How did I manage not to get a picture of/with them?! Tragedy. Anyway, it was really exciting and wonderful to see them. They showed me where the sea lions used to hang out (most of them disappeared, but there were a few! Unfortunately the pictures were really blurry). We wandered all over the city, basically. Through the Italian area and into Chinatown (which I mostly wanted to see because of reading Amy Tan over the summer). We ate at a touristy place, which is a little bit too bad in a place like Chinatown but it was very yummy. Green tea icecream is delicious, who woulda thought? I did, however, get the most disconcerting fortune cookie I think I've ever gotten. "Someone is looking up to you. Don't let that person down." Scary, pressurey fortune cookie. Who looks up to me, anyway?

But anyway. After dinner we went looking for some of the more authentic sort of parts of Chinatown, but most things were closed. It was okay, though, because as we were walking down a dark street with all the shop fronts closed violin music drifted down from an upstairs window, even though they were all dark. It was sort of eerie, but very beautiful. I wish I could have captured it. Instead, I took this picture:

Then we wandered down Jack Kerouac Street (which made me smile) into the more beatnik-y area. There was a fantastic bookstore that I could have spent hours in (we spent a long time there as it was) but I decided I didn't have money or space for more books. We walked and walked and it started to rain and by the end we were all quite wet and cold and my feet hurt but it was totally worth it. I am SO glad I got to spend my last full day in the country with friends, especially friends I hadn't seen in so long with lots of advice about going abroad.

The next day my plane didn't leave until 10:40 pm so my mom and I spent the day touring San Francisco. We rode a double-decker tour bus for most of it. We sat on top even though it was chilly and very windy (but, not nearly as cold as it would have been at home) because we could see much better and get better pictures. We went through Haight-Ashbury, of course,

and saw the Painted Ladies,

(I am a sucker for Victorian architecture), and lots of other stuff that will probably be on Facebook (I took roughly 18935972398 pictures, like I do).

Oh yes, and of course we went to The Mother Ship:

Where they make everything that is delicious. (Although I maintain that if you call something "The Chocolate Building" it should be made out of chocolate. Just saying).

We walked. A lot. To make sure that we were tired and would not die on the 15(ish) hour flight. And then we hung out at the airport for ages. But at least I got to have a drink at the airport bar. We talked to a very nice Australian man who was a teacher, escorting about 40 Australian teenagers who had been in the states for 3 weeks and were going to be on our flight home. 1) Why didn't we get to go to other continents for weeks at a time in highschool? 2) Australian teenagers are just as annoying as American teenagers, but with more endearing accents. Luckily none of them were sitting close to us on the flight.

Thus endeth Karis' adventures in San Francisco, and my last day in the United States. More pictures will probably show up on Facebook. Sorry my blog is superlong. I have a feeling Australia: Day 1! Will not be better, but we'll see, I suppose.

It will be like being in a sauna...for months!

I am getting more excited about the trip the closer it gets. I'll be honest, a large part of that is the fact that I've started checking weather.com for Cairns. Right now it feels 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) hotter there than here. It feels -9 here and 91 there. Last night was even more spectacular, 117 degrees warmer there than here. I am freezing. My feet have not been warm for weeks. This sounds amazing. And the sun will stay out past 5:00! There are also lots of thunderstorms. Lovely, as long as my plane doesn't get delayed. I will still probably get to see the sun more than I do here. I will essentially get summer for 7 months out of this year. Wonderful.

Now how the hell am I supposed to pack for this?