rolicking and roadtripping

I think that getting home from a trip is almost as fun as being on the trip; for a couple hours, you get to sort through pictures and reminisce about all the cool things you were doing just yesterday, and don't yet have to worry too much about "real life" things. It's like that Dido, "Sand in My Shoes" song...

Two weeks away it feels like the world should've changed
But I'm home now
And things still look the same
I think I'll leave it to tomorrow till unpack
Try to forget for one more night
That I'm back in my flat on the road
Where the cars never stop going through the night
To real life where I can't watch sunset
I don't have time

Ah, lyrics. Part of the fun of sorting pictures is then getting to write blog posts about them; and believe me, between Picasa, Facebook, Blogger, LJ, and eventually, my own scrapbook--these pictures get combed over a lot. Probably good though, as the collection gets smaller and smaller every time.

Anyway--as you can tell, we've made it back safe and sound from our Byron Bay road trip! It was lots of fun, a lot of driving, but good food, good friends, good music, beaches, and wineries will make up for just about anything. We left here early Saturday morning to pick up Sarah from the airport, however, her flight out of Cairns was delayed due to cyclonic weather. We didn't actually get on the road to Byron Bay until about 1:30 pm, and drove straight until about 10:30. Of course, we were so well organized and knew exactly where we were going (not), but things worked out and we got to the Arts Factory (recommended to us by Ignacio & co.) and our tent up in short order. How Luke and I figured out our large and weird tent with only one flashlight and after having been awake since 8 am, I'm not too sure, but hey... not complaining!

Our second day, we drove a little ways out to Nimbin, Australia's hippy capital. I felt like I was in Nelson, really, just a little more intense. It was a really cute little town though, with some nice markets and cafes and the like... the drive was gorgeous too. :) That afternoon we spent at the beach, we had some yummy sausages for dinner at the campground, and then enjoyed our free drink at the Arts Factory's bar and went downtown to do some dancing. The next day, we relaxed a bit in the morning and did some shopping (postcards, new bathing suit for Ola, me spotting a good Supre sale, you know), and then drove that afternoon to Port Macquarie. Found that campground, set up the tent quickly again, and found ourselves some pizza downtown for dinner--while Byron Bay was buzzing pretty much every night due to schoolies week (aka, all the school kids who are 18 go partying somewhere to celebrate graduation), Port Macquarie was really quiet, much as small towns tend to be on a Monday night. (Whodathunk, really.) Our third day was spent at the beach for the morning, followed by a more leisurely drive down to the Central Coast. We stopped at the Innes Lake Winery close to Port Mac, and a little bit later at Bago Vineyards. Next summer, we are so doing a wine tasting trip in the Okanagan!

Our last night was spent at Pearl Beach at Luke's grandparents' vacation house there. It's a cute little thing, much like Jeremy's place at Oberon, and it was nice at that point to have a TV with movies and a real bed (and our lovely bottles of wine from earlier in the day!). We got some beach time in today, followed by a quick drive back into Sydney so I could meet Jeremy and his parents to see Miss Saigon. (Which was amazing. I definitely cried at the end.) Busy few days? Heck yes. Awesome few days? Duh!

Now, for some photos. As normal, this is just a handful; all 50 can be found in their respective Google Album.

clear skies, open road, and good tunes! road trip time!


an early pit stop


enjoying our first cuppa at the Arts Factory


a lizard of some sort that were around in a couple places... I'm surprised the bush turkeys didn't try to eat them!


oh, Nimbin...


on our way to the beach!


beachy beach time in Byron


a group shot at Innes Lake Winery


cheers!


the ladies :)


kangaroos along the way... this is Australia, afterall!




Luke's family's place, "Bure Marau"


Pearl Beach (or part of it)


Sydney this afternoon... always so beautiful!

aussie in aussieland

Jeremy's sister gave birth to a very healthy baby boy, now named Lukas Riley. Woohoo!

Just a couple photos from earlier in the month when we went to a rower's get together at Luke's house... for once, we were hanging out with Australians!

millionth and one photo like this...


talking with one of Luke's very good friends over Skype, as he's currently in Harvard!


the crew! Alex, Ola, Adam, Tom, Abby, & Alisa


Jeremy and I before going to the movies last Tuesday... yes we're excited for Hairspray!


some fellow exchange students we ran into on the bus--Anna, Israel, and Claus


photo million and two...


photo million and three... we really do love Darling Harbour :)

I just realized that all my photos from November are pretty much just people. I'll make a point to get more landscape photos over the next couple weeks... of campus, of Sydney, and of our trips! Oh the things to look forward to...

babies!

Eeek! Jeremy was just informed that his sister, Phoebe, is in labour with her second baby as we speak. He's driving down tomorrow morning to Canberra to take care of Dylan, and to be the first Medlock to welcome the new baby into the world. I've got my bets that it's a girl, as Phoebe said she was carrying it differently when we were at Oberon... but then again, I wouldn't be surprised if they said it was a boy. Guess I'm not very good at guessing. ;)

Keep your thoughts with Phoebe, the baby, Brian, and Dylan. Jeremy's parents are just about to get on their plane home, too... oh the suspense! And strangely, this is the first time that I've been informed that someone I know is in labour with their baby. Craaaa-zy!

hello november!

Well, this November certainly looks different from last. I like the difference, though. I think I'll blog a bit more later, for now I kind of just feel like putting up photos. And randomly--I miss scrapbooking, a lot, which is unsurprising considering how much I did in 2 months before coming overseas. The funny thing too is that scrapbooking supplies at Big W are so cheap in comparison to stuff back home, even at WalMart. I can't buy cool paper for fear of it getting squished on the way home, but I may invest in some good stickers.

Yup. That was blog-worthy. :)

Macquarie lawns


now that there are actually leaves on the trees, our campus is very pretty and shady!


a cloudy day at Manly


a very yummy Aussie ice cream that Luke got for us!


sunset at Manly Wharf


Ernie came for a visit!


a pretty awesome lightning storm a while ago--the sky was green in some places, and it was almost night even though it was the afternoon. I was standing near an electrical pole for a while, until I realized that wasn't such a good idea when there aren't any mountains to draw away the lightning. heh.


but, it cleared up again :)


Ian, my roomie, lookin' cool


Ed and Ash, also my roommates (well, Ed may as well be), cooking dinner in typical fashion


the girls, all dressed up for a night on the town!


tired and on our way home from said night on the town




les garcons... Luke, Mat, Ian, Johnson


moi & Luke, before dressing up for Halloween! more photos to come...

through a new lens

Well, I went and did it--bought myself a new camera. Everyone please say hello to my brand new, Pentax Optio E40, 8.1 megapixels, which works beautifully and almost exactly the same as my old Pentax, just better. It was relatively cheap, too--$172 AUD, which transfers over to a slim $153 CAD. Exchange rates are my friend--and it's rather nice that the American dollar is about on par (or less than!) the Canadian. Or at least, it was on Saturday.

October has been a lovely month so far, with beautiful weather and plenty of opportunities for getting out and about in Sydney. Between Thanksgiving, the Red Kite evening, and some beach days, I'm a happy and relaxed girl. Yet again I was talking with Alaina and Ashton on Skype last night, and they've been dealing with all sorts of annoying French debacles; Alaina's trying to get her paperwork sorted out (between visas and citizenship and the French loving their procedures, she's not a happy girl), their power has been off for the last 12 days and it's 10 C and autumn there, and Ashton sounds like he's still learning the language and trying to find a job that he likes. They sound busy, stressed, and a bit defeated--but then again, they've got rail passes for all of Europe and holidays coming up, so they'll pull out of it soon, and it helps that they're newlyweds and living together for the first time. Anyway--in comparison, I'm wonderfully relaxed and at peace with the world. Have I ever mentioned that I <3 Sydney?

Another thing that makes Sydney special is that the people here are here because they want to be, and they wouldn't want to be anywhere else. (Exceptions for folks retiring to Brisbane or Gold Coast or something, but no one in Sydney really wishes that they were in Melbourne or Perth, because really... Melbourne? Perth? Yeah...) This might be a city of 4 million people, but it's all within reach--or not, if you don't want it to be. Most of downtown Sydney is within walking distance of itself, but the suburbs are spread out and separated by so many little national parks that finding a place of one's own isn't difficult at all.

It sounds like I'm convincing myself to live here. I might be--this is a wonderful country. But we'll leave these decisions for later... for now, some photos, some stories. :)

the first photo on my new camera!


Julian, Anne, and Sarah outside at the Ranch


Sarah and Andres had a bet based around a swimming race--Andres lost, Sarah got to shave his head... hehe


Luke and I went on an adventure to the northern beaches, and took a ferry out to the Central Coast--what a beautiful, beautiful area! there aren't any more pictures from the rest of the day simply because I was too entranced to remember to take them. aw.


the beginning of the Red Kite Fundraiser--Jessie (Jeremy's neighbour, coworker, and school friend) and I were Jeremy's entourage, as Phoebe was too pregnant to come...


the ladies!


Jem and I


inside at the fundraiser--this is at the Sydney Convention Centre (aka a 2 minute walk from Jeremy's), and was also where APEC was held. I had to look at the carpet and go, "OMG Stephen Harper was here!" and then remind myself that I have, in fact, been to the Canadian Parliament, and that plenty of interesting people have been there, too.


Jessie and I inside...


the trio! our table was right at the very front--we were the "High Flyers" for quiz night


Merrick and Craig, asking the first round of quiz questions--Merrick is a well-known radio personality, and Craig is on a popular ABC TV show, "The Chaser," which is the Aussie equivalent of the Royal Canadian Air Farce... only funnier. =D they were the ones that made that fake motorcade to get into APEC, actually.


I was overwhelmed by trying to imagine what kind of planning and fundraising it took just to get the gala to this scale. providing dinner for 700 of Sydney's top corporate representatives? whoo...


Jeremy, giving his speech! he told his story about having cancer, and how Red Kite helped him and his family through it--I was so impressed! he's developed some wonderful public speaking skills, that boy. :)


I had to sneak around and get some cool angles...


Jem with Merrick and Craig... who were really very friendly. we (he) made lots of connections!


I was really there, I swear...


us with Craig...


demonstrating Alan's "LA Red Carpet" smile--don't we look like we're having the time of our lives? LOL


dead tired after a good 5 hours of schmoozing... but we met some newscasters and producers from the top media stations in Sydney (hea-ven for a media student like me), invites for rides in traffic helicopters (note the dark haired guy in the photo above, he's the traffic reporter for Channel 10), promises for tickets to see the Chaser in studio and maybe get backstage, and an invitation to go backstage at Channel 10 when they're doing the news... repeat after me: HECK. YES. the fundraiser was a complete success, too: Red Kite raised $360,000 to support families and children going through cancer.


the next day, Tsehaye and Ola came downtown and we meandered about and took some random photos. fun fun. ;)