A Down Under Weekend

After my Friday excursion, I definitely felt like I needed the weekend.  I made the mistake of agreeing to go on another year 9 excursion -- not a good idea!  Fortunately, Gregoire went on the trip too, so he was a bit of a saving grace for the day.  I just really don't like 14 year olds.  Gregoire called this group "not very intelligent" and one of the teachers referred to them as "disgraceful creatures."  I happen to agree with both of them.  The day wasn't all that bad, though -- we went to the Kuitpo Forest, a recreational forest plantation just south of the city.  It was pretty cool to see the combination of native trees with American pine trees.  I was definitely confused though when I was walking through an American-style forest and a kangaroo went hopping by!  

On Saturday, I planned to meet Danni in the city to go to the movies with her family and then spend the night at their house.  I left for the city around noon and figured I would take the grand tour and check out every corner of the city.  It's a pretty simple square-mile layout, with five squares and parklands all around.  I wanted to make sure that I took pictures of everything so that I'd remember all my Adelaide adventures.  I must have looked such a tourist -- my Australia sweatshirt, my giant Red Sox backpack, and my camera snapping photos every 10 feet.  It was a lot of fun though -- I checked out every square, had lunch in the park, and just enjoyed the beautiful winter day (which means 62 degrees and sunny).  

Danni picked me up around 4, and we went to a local coffee shop before heading to her house, where I had my first Australian iced coffee.  It was a bit like a Frappe from McDonalds -- definitely different than American iced coffee!  They think our iced coffee is junk, but I much prefer ours to theirs; the Australian stuff is too milky.  We made our way to her house to pick up her husband and daughter, and then went out to dinner at Fasta Pasta and to the move theater to see Cars 2.  It was a pretty good movie (I love Tow Mater -- it was good to hear Larry the Cable Guy again!) and cool to go to the movies in Australia -- it felt very American.

Today, we journeyed up into the Adelaide Hills and took a tour around.  It's a beautiful area, and only a half hour outside the city.  It feels like a whole nother world there -- rolling hills and vineyards, all surrounded by Australian bushland.  I reached my goal of taking a picture with a Kangaroo Crossing sign (and an Echidna Crossing -- just the Koala Crossing to go!), and even saw a kangaroo hopping along the side of the road.  We went to Gumeracha to see the world's largest rocking horse, a 60 foot tall wooden rocking horse that you can climb up to the top of -- it was really cool!  We went to the "Whispering Wall" too; it's a 300 foot dam where you can stand on one end and listen to someone talking on the other -- really bizarre, but very cool.  I stood on one end and Danni and her daughter Teigan were on the other -- I could barely see them but heard them perfectly.  We drove up into the Barossa Valley afterwards, and saw some of the small towns and vineyards.  A great area!

It would be interesting if it started rocking!

I wanted to go climb those hills!

I only felt a bit of a fool, posing with a road sign...

Well, I'm about to start my second-to-last week at Blackfriars tomorrow -- hard to imagine that I have such a short time left!  I'll be sure to make the most of it though!