I am so full

Oh, holy allah in the sky. Next time someone has the brilliant idea to cook breakfast for dinner, I am not going to eat as much as I did. Quite frankly, I don't think my eating splurge was entirely my fault. I blame the delicious feast spread out on the table of banana/chocolate chip pancakes, hash browns, french toast, scrambled eggs with veggies, freshly squeezed orange and apple juice, bacon, sausage, grapes, apples and strawberries. Really. How does one turn down this food? My stomach has never been in such a happy pain...Corey summed up the evening very well: "I'm so full; what should I eat next?"

Besides the ridiculous consumption of the Australian thanksgiving feast, my life has slowed down quite a bit. There was Easter break: the 7 days of crazy traveling throughout Melbourne and Sydney and then the two weeks of trying to recuperate. I didn't want to blog about my adventures in the two mainland cities just because, honestly, it would take hours and hours to write. But I will try to summarize the highlights of that trip and of my life currently.

Melbourne:

Corey#1, Corey#2, Tess, Mattie and I journeyed to Melbourne super early in the morning. We stayed at a nice hostel in chinatown and explored the city. So much walking! All the time, all we did, was walk. But thankfully, there were no hills in Melbourne. Considering that it was Easter weekend, most of the shops were closed, but the crew and I managed to tour the city's lane-ways (alleys) which were beautifully decorated with graffiti and ventured through many gardens that the city had to offer. We also visited Brighton: a touristy beach cluttered with brightly painted shacks. Each shack was an estimated value of $200,000! A beach shack, a single beach shack (without any bathrooms, rooms, beds...etc.) $200,000! Incredible.

Anyways. The real highlight of that trip was my third day there. It really could have been my best day in Australia ever. This day was the day of yet another surf contest and a footie game. The surf contest was held at Bells beach, a two hour bus drive outside of Melbourne. Mattie, Carmen and I met up and began speed walking to the bus station at 7:45am (talk about dedication). We barely made it on the bus, but we did, and the beach was definitely worth the rush. Bells, a national state park of Australia, is a beach engulfed by massive, orange clayed cliffs. The cliffs plunge into a gully of yellow rocks which are met by crashing ocean waves. This is where the best day of my life began. Mattie, Carmen and I sat on the sandy part of the beach but the waves must have been upset with us, because the tide came in so fast that we had to move before we could actually watch any surf heats. The only room left to sit were on the yellow rocks below the cliffs. Little did we know these rocks were in the direct paths of the pro surfers--the path they took to get to the best waves! One surfer passed us and Carmen and I chatted about how he looked so familiar. He was so close to us he could have tripped over my foot! As he dove with his board into the blue abyss, the announcer of the Bells contest enthusiastically introduced Kelly Slater. That's right world! I watched Kelly shred and eventually win the contest. He is a surfing god!

Following the contest, the girls and I walked up to the city portion of Bells to wander about and who do we bump into but some pro surfers that were at the Marrawah competition a week ago. We got their autographs and they joked how we were stalking them... oops :) So, best day ever check list: watch pro surfing, check; almost kick down the greatest surfer of all time with my flip flopped foot, check; meet real live pro surfers again, check.

We finally made it back to Melbourne at around 6, just in time for a footie game! Mattie was so tired she decided to go home, but Carmen and I just couldn't pass up an opportunity for an Aussie sport. Helplessly lost, Carmen and I found a group of footie fans and asked for directions to the field. A nice older man named Jason invited us to join him and his crew to the game. He led us to the field, introduced us to his friends and proudly explained the sport of footie. Basically, it is a mix of basketball, handball, football, soccer, and rugby...in short shorts. Shorts so short in fact, that the men have to shave their legs. How do I know this? Well that comes later in the best day ever story.

Jason, a 50 some year old construction worker is the definition of Australian Rules Football fan. I could hardly understand what he was saying his accent was so thick and his curses were something from a Manchester United game. He insisted we get some beer and watch and learn. His crew, die hard St. Kilda fans (Go Saints!), never went to their general admission assigned seats. Instead, they stood behind the best seats in the house and watched from the hallway. Jason and his best friend Dave told the security guard that Carmen and I were American and had never seen a footie game before and the security guard led us down to some empty seats in the third row of the stadium! How do I know footie players shave their legs? Because I could have touched them I was sitting so close! They also could hear every curse Dave and Jason threw at them...But, hey, St Kilda won! We defeated whatever blue and white team we played and we sang triumphantly: "Oh when the Saints go marching in!". Dave insisted that he give me his St Kilda's club hat because he loves sharing his life and passions with others, especially foreigners. Those men and their family members and friends were such nice, drunken people. They got us incredible seats, and gave us an incredible experience.

Sydney:

The Sydney part of the vacation was more fast paced than the Melbourne. In Sydney, we walked over the famous bridge, touched the walls of the opera house, walked along the royal botanical gardens, surfed once again in Manly beach and searched unsuccessfully for Passion Pop (a cheap champagne). My highlight of Sydney was the Manly surf day because it was a serious adventure. Tess, the Coreys, Mattie and I were all so tired. Tess and I wanted to go back to the hostel and nap but the Coreys and Mattie insisted on exploring Manly. We found some rocks and cliffs and decided to go climbing. There was a sandstone cave, beautiful vines crawling up rocks, and waves constantly crashing up against the land mass. I was enjoying time by myself, exploring and wandering around these rocks when I hear Mattie cry: "Alie?" Oh no. I turned around and found Mattie with her foot sliced open. I took my water bottle and washed it off but we didnt have any bandages on us. The only choice was to keep walking and make it to the next beach and see if the lifeguards were still there. They weren't. We kept walking to a nearby pub where an old lady thought Tess and I were the coolest people alive; she even told the manager of the pub to give us free drinks. Instead, we settled for four bandaids and some alcohol swabs.

Lost and one man down, we asked some people for directions back to the ferry so we could get back to Sydney. The men we asked sent us on the strangest, scariest path in history. Remember back in the day when I said that the mainland had animals on steroids, waiting around every corner trying to deliberately kill us all? Yea. We all forgot about that. The path we found ourselves taking was a nice beach path through some trees and brush. All was fine until I looked up and noticed the massive spider webs. Dumb and curious, I pointed the webs out to my friends. They all gawked in awe and terror and continued to walk. It only took two more seconds to see that these webs were surrounding the path and in these webs were the biggest, terror inducing, evil-looking spiders I have ever seen. They were huge! At least the huntsman spiders I discovered in my room are far away on the ceiling. These puppies were the size of puppies. Tess and I saw a leaf fall and swore it was a spider pouncing on us, so we sprinted back up the path and found an alternative route to the ferry.

Other than that day, there was one more highlight of Sydney. The day after the spider/foot slicing incident, we all went to a pub and ran into other friends--the girls who went on the Marrawah surf trip with us! We all sat together and listened to some live music. I was asked to dance and the whole crew eventually went down to the dance floor for some funky dance moves even my father and uncles would envy. When we Americans invade a dance floor, we do it with pizazz and creativity which only attracts the attention of the entire pub and gets people up to dance.

So that was my trip! Or, those were the highlights of my trip! Other than those things, I went to an aquarium, walked, napped, walked some more, napped again, read a book, surfed and explored. I am back in Hobart and I have given up metal shop. I am now working on wood shop and it is so much easier. I love it. All you do is cut up wood and glue things together. No missing fingers, hair or other ligaments. Mattie and Carmen went on an adventure this past weekend and Corey, Tess, Bobby and I explored more of Hobart. Bobby's Aunt is in town so we toured her around Salamanca Market. We also went around to the botanical gardens and they were just something else. I know the mainland is well, the mainland, but of all the gardens we visited, this garden takes the cake. It is huge! The roses smelled so good, I wanted to steal some petals and make some perfume the way Baba and I used to when I was little.

But really. Right now, I can hardly focus. I am trying so hard to digest. My stomach is so full. I even purposefully didn't eat much today so I could fit everything in, but that only made me fuller faster. So. Much. Food. I guess I made Sam and Ben proud. Oh my god. If I think about it too much, I may explode. No more Alie adventures, sorry. Instead there will only be pieces of me all over my highest room in the tallest tower bedroom.

On one more note. I think I finally got homesick. I was sure it was bound to happen but I thought it would happen sooner rather than later. Everything lately reminds me of home and sometimes I fantasize sleeping in my bed back in Northridge. Last night, I was half awake, half asleep and I could swear that I heard Sam and Ben outside my room--strange. But then again, the boys who live on my floor are so much like my brothers that it is no surprise I got confused. Alright. I have to go to sleep. My food induced coma is coming on strong and there is no way to avoid it. Talk to you all later!

-Alie