Kangaroos, and Wombats, and Devils, oh my!

The Wildlife Park at Mole Creek was absolutely amazing. The pictures speak for themselves, really. We patted wombats, watched Tassie Devils fights and play, and we hung out with kangaroos for nearly an hour. The animals were all so used to people so they weren't even afraid of us. Wombats are pretty much the cutest little fat things ever. They are closely related to the koala. Unfortunately, there were no koalas at this wildlife park. Koalas do not live in Tasmania, but the park used to have them. Unfortunately it died just a week before we got there from liver failure.

Devils have their names for a reason and we weren't allowed to actually interact with them. But just watching them was pretty awesome anyways.

This cockatoo was pretty cool because it said "Hello," and it said it in an Aussie accent. Obviously, because that's how it hears it's keepers speaking.

The grand finale of the day was definitely the kangaroos. They were Eastern Grey Kangaroos. The one in the picture with me and Becca above was a joey, so he's just a baby, maybe 5 months old. His mum didn't even care that we were petting him. She just layed around being lazy... which is pretty much all roos do. Locals call them huge pests, but they are still pretty amazing in my book.

Total Fail... Sorry

So apparently I am bloody awful in keeping the blog up to date, seeing as I haven't updated in ummm 2 months. I'm usually not very good at these things. I fall out of date and then I think it's too late to get back to it. Plus I have school work and the last thing I feel like doing after writing an essay, on the historical avant-garde and how contemporary theatre practitioners may or may not live up to the same standards, is write more. However, there are people at home and at Clark who want to read about my journey and it would be nice to have on record for posterity. Since one huge, long, massive post would be ridiculous, I'll do a bunch of shorter posts with pictures, in chronological order of when they occurred over the last 2 months. Luckily I have kept a fairly decent photojournal of my trip so filling in the gaps with descriptions won't be too difficult.

OKAY. HERE WE GO.
DAY TRIP NUMBER 2: "Food Road"

We took a little road trip up the west coast of the Tamar River from Launceston to Devonport. Along the way there was a Raspberry farm. Unfortunately it was winter, so there were no fresh raspberries. But! There were chocolate covered raspberries and raspberry jams and raspberry wines and spirits to sample. My accomplices on this trip were Becca, Chelsea, Heidi, and Kiara:

After the Raspberry farm, about 20K down the road, there was the Ashgrove Cheese Company. Which is a dairy that makes fine Tasmanian cheeses. Out the front, there are a bunch of painted cow statues, much like the ones they had in Boston a few years back. They were painted by members of the community. Inside, they had a round display table with about 30 different types of cheeses to sample.

The next stop was another few K's down the road: the Chocolate Factory! It was very very yum, again with many free samples. They had pretty much every chocolate you could imagine. And they had glass windows that looked into the factory so you could see how it was made. The coolest thing they had was a 2 foot tall chocolate replica of the Luna Park entrance, which is an amusement park with one location in Melbourne and one in Sydney. I saw the real thing up close in Melbourne, and it was actually a fairly good representation.

The highway we were on led directly to Devonport, which is a small seaside city in the north of Tasmania. We drove through and went to the beach. We were the only ones there because it was early August and that is the dead of winter. Still, I would not be deterred, and I would not miss my chance to get into the Bass Strait, so I took off my shoes and waded up to my ankles. The water was maybe 34 Degrees F.

But even though it wasn't a nice day for a swim it was still a beautiful beach and we had fun just walking along and enjoying the sunshine. It rains a lot in Tasmania during the winters so every day of sunlight is a small blessing.

On the way home we stopped at the Cherry Shed, which was pretty much just like the raspberry farm, except everything was made with cherries instead of raspberries. Again, just as it was not raspberry or swimming season, it was not cherry season. All in all, the day was a success. We tasted local foods and enjoyed the beautiful rolling countryside.

Cataract Gorge

I finally saw a wallaby!!! In the wild. At the Cataract Gorge yesterday. It was unbelievably cute and it wasn't afraid of people because it lives at a busy park so we got really close. Unfortunately not close enough to pet him and/or hug him. Or her. I cannot identify the sex of a wallaby from 15 feet away. It was hands-down the highlight of the trip, which is saying a lot because there were heaps of amazing things about the gorge.

Okay, now that I got that exciting bit out of the way I'll go back to the beginning. Ahem. Early yesterday afternoon Chelsea (American Exchange Student. Yes, there are two American Exchange Students named Chelsea), Noelle (Bermudan International Student studying here full time), Darcie (Actual Australian), and I went to Cataract Gorge. We took the bus into the city and then walked for over a half hour up a ridiculously steep hill to get there.

It was absolutely gorgeous. The gorge was formed ages ago by an earthquake and now there's a basin in the center of it all. We rode on a chairlift from one side to the other and then we walked around the paths a bit. The chairlift was a bit scary because we were really high up over water and rocks and the safety bars didn't latch, they just rested across you. There were peacocks everywhere, just hanging out waiting for people to feed them. They aren't native to Australia but for some reason they brought them to live in the gorge. We had drinks at a little outside cafe in the woods.

And before you assume that we were drinking in the middle of the day, I will inform you that I had a cup of tea, Chelsea had hot chocolate, and the other girls had milkshakes. Then we rode the lift back to the other side and walked across the suspension bridge. From there we walked on the path along the river back to the city. We felt really stupid because it was a much easier and much shorter walk than the way we came. Oh well, it was part of the adventure. We took the bus home and stopped at something called a milkbar for dinner. It was actually just a convenience store that sells takeaway (takeout) food like fried seafood and burgers. I have no clue why its called a milkbar. Most of the drinks they had there were sodas. After walking all afternoon the fish and chips were awesome.

Other highlights of the week include the Accommodation Services Winter Formal Dinner on Wednesday and my performance on Multicultural Day on Thursday night. The dinner was really good. It wasn't really formal, just semi formal, and it was just held int the dining hall but the was pork and chicken roasts and tons of delicious vegetables. There was chocolate mousse for dessert. It was totally worth the $5. There were 8 people at my table: 5 people from my dorm, three other Americans and me. It was a ton of fun. The Americans were all awarded little koalas because we have only been here a short time and already we have become very active in the accommodation services events. Its probably because they really don't have any clubs or student groups on campus like they do at home so there aren't a ton of events to go to on campus.


On Thursday I played keyboard and sang American songs at the international festival thing. My set list was The War Criminal Rises and Speaks by Okkervil River, Delilah by the Dresden Dolls, Silver Lining by Rilo Kiley, and Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. I made a few minor mistakes towards the end because it was held outside at night and my fingers were starting to freeze. Its very hard to play piano when your fingers aren't completely flexible. Also, you'll notice that there is a gentleman holding up my music. I didn't have it memorized and I assumed there would be a music stand attached to the piano, but there wasn't. So one of the sound/lighting guys, Andre, volunteered to hold my music. He was a doll. Chelsea took some videos of me playing which I'll upload to YouTube for your listening pleasure, but in case you absolutely cannot wait, I'll post a little teaser clip of one of the songs.

In other news, I complained enough that there were no recycling bins in the residence halls to the advisers that they finally got us some! I just kept saying that a little bit of my soul dies every time I have to throw a bottle or can in the trash. Thanks, Clark, for making me a militant recycler. I have been appointed queen of recycling of block 8. I will be spearheading the campaign to get all the residents to use the bins and not just throw away all their cans, bottles, marked plastics, and cardboard. I feel like I have actually made a difference here and its only been a few weeks.

I haven't done much of anything today. Sundays are particularly lowkey here. Mostly people recovering from the weekend. And they need it. A big group of us went out to the club last night and it was awesome but I only made it until about 1:30am and then I took a cab home with two other girls who live in my building. Some of the others stayed out until 5am. How they can stay out that late, I have no idea.

Tomorrow I have job interview at Subway so I hope that goes well. I can work up to 20 hours a week on my visa and I could definitely use the money and it would be nice to have something else to do, seeing as there are no clubs to join. I'll post whether or not I get the job. That's about all for now! Thanks for reading!

Hello from Tassie!

Well I've been here in Tassie for 2 weeks now and I really am feeling settled in. I'm living on campus in Block 8 of Investigator Hall which is located at the Australian Maritime College (AMC), which is connected to the main Uni campus. Is a realy fun place to live because its 48 single rooms with one big common room and one bit kitchen. Its like Wright Hall in that there’s always someone around to hang out with and its really easy to meet everyone. Its winter here, but it feels like late October in Worcester. There are actually some flowers still blooming. The Tasmanians think it’s unbearably frigid but for me it really isn't. Still, I'll be happy when spring comes and it doesn't get dark so early and I can go without my jacket. The only wildlife I've seen are birds and possums. So no, I haven't seen a kangaroo, wallaby, Tasmanian devil, quoll, platypus, or koala. I certainly will post when I do. I am looking forward to it. I think there's a zoo/wildlife reserve about 20 minutes from here that I'll go visit soon.

Classes! I actually am going to school down here. Here's the rundown of my "units" as they call them:

Devised Performance: This is a theatre class I have with 3 other students during which we have to devise a performance (obvs). We have to come up with a concept, write the script, direct it, act in it, and perform it for an audience. We have to do all of our own tech as well. It should be a good experience. My group is most likely going to be doing a eerie piece about the ghosts and spirits in Launceston, especially in the theatres. We're obviously still in the planning stages, but we hope to perform in one of the old churches or theatres or along a stop on the Launceston Ghost Tours.

The Avant-Garde and the Necessity of the New: This is a really interesting class in which we focus on the Avant-Garde movements in theatre that started in the 1890's and continued through the 1960's. The plays are crazy and the playwrights that wrote them are even crazier. It will be really interesting to see how these dramatic, shocking works of theatre have shaped contemporary performances. The final paper is on whether or not we believe if the Avant-Garde is still alive today or if we can no longer shock today's audiences. Only 2 classes in, I do not have an opinion yet. Luckily I have over 3 months before the paper's due.

Theatre Skills 3: This is an acting skills class. The first few weeks we're working on the International Phonetic Alphabet and learning accents. We're doing Proper British, Cockney, Standard American, and General American. I've got 2 down already. Haha. So I'll be focusing on the British ones. I hope to hone my Australian accent skills, too. After we get the accents down we'll move on to scene work. My partner and I are going to be working on a section from Sarah Daniels' Ripen Our Darkness. I really like it so far.

Writing Short Fiction: This class is a series of seminars and workshops throughout the semester; it doesn't meet regularly at the same time each week. It is very self-directed between classes as we are to be working on a 2,500 word short story. I've got a few ideas kicking around in my head for my story but I haven’t actually started writing it yet. The first draft isn’t even due until the last week in August so I’ve got some time. I really appreciate knowing all my assignments for the semester from the first week. It gives me a little more control over how I will organize my time. At Clark, we know when the assignments will be due from the first day of class, but we might not actually receive the actual prompt for the assignment until later.

The campus here is really nice: an interesting mix of old and modern. Unfortunately, the Academy for the Arts, where all the Theatre classes are, is located 12 minutes away at another branch of the campus. Luckily I know two people who live in my building who also have classes at that campus so they give me lifts in the morning. I have to take the city bus home in the afternoon, but I don’t mind the afternoon bus nearly as much as the morning bus. I have to leave unnecessarily early and I always fear I’ll miss the bus and it only runs through campus every half hour. I usually don’t have any reason to be rushing back home in the afternoon so other than waiting for the bus to come (it’s always late) it isn’t so bad.

Everyone here is so incredibly nice. They are warm and welcoming and have really done wonders to make me feel at home and accepted by the group. And the two other American exchange student girls are really fun and are like a little bit of home, even though I didn’t know them before I got here. I think we’re all traveling together during the first week of September for semester break. We are going to Melbourne, Sydney, and the Great Barrier Reef I believe.

Life is so easy-going here. There are only a couple student organizations on campus and they really aren’t active. Everyone just hangs out and enjoys each other’s company. We aren’t overscheduled. We go out on the weekends. Or we don’t. Life is fluid and calm. It’s really a nice change of pace for me… especially since I am the queen of over-scheduling. I am trying to find a job though, to take up a little more time (10-20 hours a week) and to make a little extra spending money. I’ve got an interview at the Subway up the street on Monday. They called me within 24hrs of me turning in the application, and since I have experience at Subway, I am feeling optimistic. If I don’t get the job, I will explore other options.

I haven’t been feeling homesick at all yet. Skype really is wonderful (username: chelsea_long). I mostly miss my car, because depending on public transport and the mercy of others is really annoying because I am used to being so independent. I also miss Mina. Kitties aren’t so cuddly over Skype. Although, he did walk across Nicole’s laptop keyboard last week and accidentally called me on Skype. Unfortunately I wasn’t at my computer at the time.

Australian TV is a bit strange but I’m enjoying it. Most of the shows are American, and some British. The only Australian-produced TV is dramas, some reality TV, and talk shows. The humor is different but it’s a nice change.

Tomorrow night is the winter formal dinner that Accommodation Services is putting on. It’s really not that formal, just dressy casual. But they’re serving a 3 course dinner for $5 so you really can’t go wrong with that. Most people in my building are going so it should be a good time. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to do something fun and exciting. If its nice weather, maybe I’ll go see some animals or walk in the gorge.

Well I’m signing off now, more updates soon!

En Route Part 2: Melbourne Airport

Hi all!
Hopefully there's more than one of you reading it... as of now Dad's the only official follower (Hi Dad!). I am feeling a lot less chipper than the last time I wrote. I left my house to begin this journey at 1pm on 4 July EST. I believe it is now 5am on 6 July EST. That is 30 hours of travel. My final flight from Melbourne (Correct Pronunciation: MEL-Bun) to Launceston (Pronounced LAWN-Sess-Ton) has been delayed an hour. I'm lucky this is my first delay and it really will not have any effects on another flight. I feel bad for the person who the school sent to pick me up at the airport, but there really is nothing I can do about it. I'm sure there is some sort of board in Launceston that says the flight is delayed. Hopefully they won't leave without me. I don't have the energy to figure out how to get a cab.

SO what has happened since my last blog? I landed in Los Angeles. I checked in and all that good stuff. The security guy was saying how awfully cold it was down in Tasmania this time of year. At first I was scared because I really didn't think it would get that cold. I was reminded that this man lives in LA when he told me it was "really cold. Like San Francisco." I told him I'm from Boston. He quoted Ernest Hemingway saying "the coldest night I ever spent was a summer night in San Francisco." I was surprised that an airport security guard knew Hemingway quotes off the top of his head. Maybe he was an English major in college. Its hard to find a career in English, you know.

Flight from LA was an overnight to Auckland, New Zealand. The jet was HUGE. It was a 474 and it had something like 70 rows that were 9 across each. It even had an upstairs. I had the middle seat, but I was lucky enough to be in the first row of coach, and I had tons of extra leg room. I could stretch my legs out all the way sitting in my chair. The guy sitting to my right slept half the time and read half the time and didn't eat a single thing for the entire 12 hour flight. The guy sitting to my left became my buddy and we chatted on and off the whole flight. He is a 30-something software engineer from Hobart who owns a 40 foot sailboat. He gave me his card and told me if I was ever in the area I should bring a friend along and he'd take us out sailing on the Hobart Harbor on his boat. I said I'd email him. I still need to do some research before I jump on the boat of a relative stranger. It wouldn't be until it got nicer out anyways.

Eventually the plane landed. I didn't get to really see anything of New Zealand except what I could see from the airport terminal, but it still looked really pretty. I bought a shot glass to commemorate the joyous 5 hours I spent hanging around the airport. Who knows if I'll ever get back to Kiwiland? I hope I do though... it looks really beautiful and all of the people I encountered were very lovely. I also drank a lot of coffee, smoked duty-free cigarettes on the smokers deck, and enjoyed a half hour shoulder massage that only cost me $17 in USD. Wicked good deal after sleeping on a plane in coach.

Flight to Melbourne was longer than I expected (4 hours) but it was pretty good except for the bit of turbulence we hit for a couple minutes. I made another friend. This was a younger guy... a few years older from me. We talked for a few hours but I never even got his name. Good conversation though, and it made the time go by more quickly. Especially since it was a wicked ghetto plane that didn't even have tv monitors in the headrests.

All of my luggage made it to Melbourne. I saw when I had to recheck it after customs. Customs was a breeze. I had to fill out a little slip and tell them that I didn't bring any seeds or nuts or plants into the country. Their sniffer dog was some sort of beagle. Way too cute to be a drug sniffer dog. I think his job was to just sniff out contraband vegetation.

I've been sitting in this airport for hours and I am deliriously tired. This post probably makes no sense at all, but I think it makes it more authentic: true blogging after two days of travel. Will blog more when I get settled in my room and I sleep. Love! Cheers!

En Route Part 1: Aboard Virgin America

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my blog! This is my first blog but seeing as I will be spending the next four and a half months in Australia, it seems like a pretty good time to start one. I am currently underway. My Transcontinental flight from Boston to Los Angeles has wireless internet and an outlet for my laptop cord. The WiFi cost me $12.95 but seeing as I will be on this plane for 6 hours and I can ensure that my computer will not die after an hour and a half, I consider it worth it for internet access at approximately $2.16 an hour. I've decided Virgin definitely the "cool" airline.

LIVE TIME UPDATE: Not so cool. My outlet decided to stop working. I'm not entertained.
UPDATE: Moved Seats. Think I'm in another one with a broken outlet.
UPDATE: The really nice kid next me isn't using his and is letting me use his outlet. Power Crisis avoided.

Traveling at 533mph, with 1852 Miles to go (as of 6:28EST) Currently somewhere between Cincinnati and Columbus. Google Maps lets you track exactly where you are, your progress, the altitude and temperature (-41 degrees F this high up!!!). Technology is amazing, isn't it?

Where was I? Oh, right, the "cool airline." Well, the cabin feels like the cross between some modern nightclub and the inside of an ipod. Each seat has a touchscreen tv through which you can order food and drinks, watch tv and movies, play games, and soon you will be able to surf the internet and chat with other passengers. The staff is very helpful , friendly and kind (they let me switch seats just so I could plug in my laptop!) Assuming the rest of the flight is as great as it is right now, I will definitely be flying Virgin again.

When I get to LAX I'll have about 3 hours to kill before I get on my Qantas flight to Melbourne. I met some Australians at Logan at the bag-weighing station and they said that Qantas is the best and that I will love flying with them. Since they are Australians who apparently travel a good amount, I'm sure they know what they're talking about. Hopefully it will be good because regardless I'll be stuck on that plane for 12 hours. Luckily, the plane leaves at 11:30pm LA time, which will feel like 2:30am Boston time so I suspect I'll be able to sleep through a good portion of the flight. I'm hoping I will be able to sleep for at least 8 hours, ultimately aiming for 10-12 hours. Wouldn't that just be wonderful? Fall asleep in LA and wake up in Australia. Like a dream.

I guess it hasn't really hit me yet that I won't be able to go home whenever I want. I almost started crying when Mum started crying at the airport, but I'm not sad. I'm nervous and excited. Plus, with the connectivity of modern society, the fam is only a Skype away. By the way, if you're reading this and you feel like Skyping, my username is chelsea_long. Hit me up. And for up-to-the-minute updates on my life, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/starsforyoursky. I'm really getting into Twitter these days, and I'd appreciate it!

Across the aisle from me are these two guys and their 5-month old baby. The baby is unbelievably adorable. Probably in the Top 10 cutest babies I've ever seen. Definitely in the Top 25. I want to cuddle him, but I doubt his parents would approve. They really seem like a wonderful little family: that baby seems so loved and cared for and happy. It drives me crazy and makes me very sad that there are people in this world that disapprove of them. That there are people who would want to keep these parents from having a child at all.

Okay, Okay, I probably shouldn't delve into social issues on my first entry. I don't want to scare everyone away right off the bat. Its like being on a first date and talking about why you and your ex husband got married in Vegas and the circumstances leading to the messy divorce. Too much too, too soon.

I'm very much looking forward to this trip. Its completely unlike anything I've ever done before. I've never been abroad anywhere, less the 4 day, 10th grade music department trip to Montreal, Canada. The longest flight I've ever been on is the 2.5 hour flight from Boston to Orlando. And since I've been going to college 40 minutes from home, I think the longest I've ever stayed away from home is like 3 weeks. Usually I end up going home for one thing or another every 2 weeks. That will not be an option from Tasmania.

UPDATE: Have passed Saint Louis, MO. 1564 miles to go. This is also my first time West of the Mississippi River!

Speaking of Tasmania, a lot of people have been asking how I came to pick the University of Tasmania as my Study Abroad Destination. Well, to be perfectly honest I didn't know anything at all about Tasmania before all this started. I thought I wanted to go to England or Scotland. But when I went to the Study Abroad office the lovely Adrianne Van Gils told me about the new program being offered in Tasmania. When I found out that Tasmania was an island state of Australia I was very intrigued. When I found out that I would be the first and only Clark student going to the Launceston campus of UTas, I was even more intrigued. When I was told that UTas had the best theatre department out of all of the schools offered through Clark I was thrilled. And when I realized that I probably will never have another chance to go to Australia again in my life, I was sold. I mean, its almost impossible to take a vacation to Australia. The airfare itself is greater than most people pay for the entire week away. It takes over a day to get there, and because they are 14 hours in time difference, the jet lag is awful. If you go for a week, or even 2, by the time you get there and get over your jet lag, it's time to turn around and come home. Which takes another couple days for travel and readjusting. Alternatively, taking a vacation to Europe is much easier and more realistic. There is a far greater chance that I will be able to travel to Europe in the course of the rest of my life than it is that I will get to go to Australia. So that's how I chose UTas. And with everything new that I learn about it I love it more. I absolutely cannot wait to get there.

UPDATE: 1,436 Miles to go. Definitely more than halfway there. Approaching upon Kansas City.

Amazing the power of Technology in action: I use the touch screen tv to select the beverage I want (soda, juice, coffee and tea are complimentary but I could order something else if I preferred and I wanted to pay) and not five minutes later a flight attendant brings me my hot tea with sugar and lemon and my cranberry-apple juice. No human interaction required except for saying "thank you" to the pleasant young man who delivered the drinks. Unfortunately I'm sure a lot of Americans forget to even say that much. Meanwhile, I am able to surf the internet, blog, watch tv shows on Hulu, Twitter, listen to Pandora. And on my touchscreen tv I am able to monitor the plane's progress via Google maps. I can't believe there was a day not too long ago when the only thing to do on a plane was sleep or read. Well I can believe it. But I'm glad that's no longer the case.

Well, this just about concludes my first blog entry. More to come! Soon! I Promise.