The Big Banana

Today I was one of the last ones to wake up; everyone else was already in the kitchen, helping prepare a huge breakfast. Gord was cooking up scrambled eggs, Mark was on bacon duty, and Christian was setting the table and getting juice and milk out. I jumped in and started cooking up some toast…pretty hard job eh? It was quite the feast…there was so much food! After a bit, everyone started packing up their stuff to head back to Lismore because they had classes that afternoon. Before they left, Lisa wrote out a Thank You note for all of us to sign for Richard & Sue, thanking them for letting all of us stay over at their house. We took up all of their beds and most of the floor last night and made quite a mess, but most of that was cleaned up after breakfast. Now, the only thing left was the dishes….

Dishes actually were not too bad…with 5 of us still around we were able to clean up the kitchen, dishes, and food quite quickly. Rob, Gord, Christian, Mark & I played Wii for a bit while everyone finished up packing [and the Boys relieved themselves of breakfast] before we hit the road. The Boys also made sure to pack the golf course flags into the car, as a souvenir from the Coffs Harbour course.

We made one last stop at the Big Banana before leaving Coffs Harbour. In Australia there are a lot of “Big” things…such as a Big Apple, Avocado, Beer Can, Tennis Racquet, Cow, Crab…and the list goes on & on. You can check out more at http://www.bigthings.com.au/. There are over 150 Big Things throughout the country, mostly serving as a tourist trap or a good excuse for a road trip. The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour was the first Big Thing built in 1964. Anyways, we made the monumental stop and had our picture taken with the Big Banana.

Our road trip continued for three more long hours back to Lismore, with Christian as our driver. Along the way back we were entertained by Gord’s singing abilities, which actually were not too bad. Finally we made it back to Orion that afternoon and I enjoyed one of the best naps ever! I was so pooped out from the past couple days, I needed a good nap to catch back up.

It was Friday night, which meant it was Poker Night. At 7:00pm everyone was supposed to go over to Lloyd & Mark’s at 21C, throw their $5 in the pot, and try their luck. Lots of people ended up backing out, but we still played a game. Lloyd, Mark, Lisa, Kelly, Hoarey, Tony, Jimmy & I all went in for the Big Bucks, but Lisa ended up taking 2nd and got her money back and Lloydy took 1st and won the $35 that was in the pot. Nuts. Oh well, for my first game and only $5 it went alright. Maybe next time…

I convinced everyone to try playing Dirty Clubs after poker, though it wasn’t easy. A lot of them hadn’t played before and it was a while since I had last played, so telling everyone the rules of the game was a bit of a challenge. While we were trying to get a decent game started someone was talking about their moldy shower and trying to clean it up…I think it was Lisa. Anyways, she was telling Lloyd & Mark about how the caulk around the shower was really gross and she couldn’t get it clean, but they did not hear “caulk.” Instead they heard another word because of our American accents [which is not too pleasant] and were laughing hysterically. Lisa, Kelly, & I were trying to explain what caulk was by saying people use it between tiles and it is all over bathrooms. The Boys thought it was soo funny and kept saying “Just fill it up with caulk.” A bit inappropriate, but nothing new to those boys! We spent quite a bit giggling like girl scouts before heading our own ways back to our apartments.

Just a Quick Note!

Hello Friends!!

You have all probably noticed by now that I have not been putting up too many blogs. Well...I admit that part of it is procrastinating, but This Chick has been pretty busy these last few months. Hopefully they will be coming to you soon! I'm officially home the end of this month (talk to my rents if you are curious about the exact date) after one more week in Australia and another in Thailand to visit the Burrow Family!!

I Love and Miss You All!!

Coffs Harbour Race Day

Whoo Hoo!! Race Day! Today was Coffs Harbour Race Day. In Australia each larger city holds one a year and everyone in the area gets dressed up and goes to the track to bet on horses. Girls wear really nice dresses and the boys wear suit pants, button-up shirts, vests, jackets, and ties. Oh yeah…the ladies usually wear extravagant hats or headpieces with feathers, beads, ribbon, etc. Some of the ones we saw were pretty crazy! Something you would see the “Queen Mother” wear on a daily basis. The day is kinda similar to our college homecomings… a big day out “enjoying yourself” with friends.

We all were up and getting ready around 9:30. Actually, since it usually takes This Chick quite a while to get ready, I hopped in the shower first while the Boys went to get groceries for breakfast…well minus Christian…he hung back at the house with me, Mark’s sister Angela, and her friend Emma. It was pretty amusing…here were us girls sitting in the back of a television repair shop, putting on make-up, and doing our hair while Christian was just talking up a storm(which may have been due to the tapping of the goon box).

About an hour later, everyone had arrived from Lismore and we were all ready to go…well almost. The Boys still had to find a way to bring their flasks in. Somehow I ended up taking one for the team and had a bottle of vodka strapped to my leg...maybe it had something to do with my maxi dress? Our walk to the race track wasn’t too bad. It was a few blocks down, along the golf course, and down to the track. We managed to make it without any problems, though we did take a few stops along the way for drinks, photos, and the restroom (random trees and shrubs).

At last we had made it to the races! I didn’t place any bets, but a few of my friends did. My first time at the horse races and it was pretty fun. The track was really crazy…there were a lot of people out for the big day and it was hard to keep track of all the horses and jockeys. Once we were inside, I made a pit stop in the bathroom to hand over the drinks. Not a very fun experience ripping tape off your leg, but it had to be done. We ended up staying at the track for most of the races.

On the walk home I managed to get lost…on the golf course! I couldn’t remember which way to go back to Mark’s house and thought we went across the course, but apparently we just walked along/through a part of it. It was pretty funny running across the greens, especially when people were out golfing!

When we got back to the house, we hung around for a while and talked to Mark’s parents. Mark, being the gentleman that he is, introduced all of us to Richard & Susan. However, when it was my turn he said, “This is Lacey, you know, like a good pair of undies.” I had never heard that one before! I have to admit that it was pretty funny.

Not really sure what time we got back to the house, but we ended up going out for the night around 6:00 pm…or we tried to. The Maxi Taxi was full so Lisa, Gord, and I ended up waiting for a while for Nicky Dog to bring us out downtown. While we were waiting, we joined The Family for a dinner of stir-fry. Mark’s niece, Chloe, probably thought we were nuts because we kept asking her a bunch of questions.

Finally Nick arrived and brought us out to meet the group at The Coffs Hotel. [Not sure if I explained this before, but “hotels” are usually pubs, not somewhere you can check in for a sleep.] The Coffs Hotel was a pretty fun place, though not many of our friends got in. The security guards at the door could tell who had been out consuming all day and turned a lot of people away. I got in along with Nick, Lisa, Kelly, Arlo & Sarah, Rob, Gord, & Christian so we stayed and danced for a while before leaving for The Plantation to find the rest of the group. As we were leaving The Hotel, security guards carried in tons of Dominos pizza boxes and set them on random tables for everyone to enjoy. It was pretty sweet, especially cause the Boys were talking about getting pizza once we left.

We saw a bunch of our friends as we were leaving, who told us no one was at The Plantation because they didn’t get in so we decided to head back to Mark’s house. There wasn’t enough room in the car so Rob & Christian decided to try to find their way back to the house on their own. Once we got back Mark called to tell us everyone was at the Ex-Services Club so we drove back into town. It was interesting because this place was not a club or a bar; it was a casino. We found everyone and hung around talking for a bit. Nick was being pretty funny…he one his jokes “In Mark’s Letter to the Corinthians” was pretty funny. On the way home, he was telling us that he was trying to be…“What’s the word? Responsible?” by driving us home on a Thursday night when he had to get up the next morning to teach P.E. Back at the house we found Rob & Christian, apparently they had made it home and were snoring safe & sound.

Crazy Eyes!!

Tuesday

Last night I ended up staying up all night, trying to get caught up on a bunch of homework. I actually got a lot of stuff done…surprisingly. There were a few journal entries as well as a commentary on the discussion board for my finance class that had to be done by this morning. Since I had stayed up all night, I had enough time to shower and get ready for the day. For once, I made it to the beginning of my finance lecture (though it was only for the first 45 minutes). My Finance lecture is being co-taught by two instructors; today the more interesting professor was there and everything was easy to understand, unlike the other guy. It sucked that I had to leave lecture early to go to my Outdoor Ed lecture; I was enjoying class!

So on to Outdoor Ed I went, which usually consists of going through the powerpoint slides…kinda a snooze. The day was nothing out of the ordinary; just another Tuesday…until lecture was done. My friends were waiting for me outside the lecture hall and freaked once I finally came out. My eyes were Crazy! My left pupil was HUGE!! And my right pupil was tiny. Neither one was its regular size. When I looked into the light or the sun, they got even worse. I was kinda freaked out because this had never happened before…if anything my pupils have appeared large before, but I think that is just cause I have Big Eyes.

Anyways, after a phone call to my Mother and talking with my friends, I decided it would be a good decision to stop into the Uni Doctor to have a look. I was weary of going…I didn’t think he would know what was going on and didn’t want to skip my Outdoor Ed tute. And $45 later, I was right…he referred me to an eye surgeon right away that afternoon. It took a while trying to find someone to take me…it was about a 15 minute car ride…but finally Sarah ended up taking me. She works in the English language center and left her desk for the day to help me….a really nice lady.

The eye doctor took a while examining my eyes…so I for sure thought I was going blind…but he told me that I was going to live to see tomorrow…literally. Apparently the muscles around my pupils were not working well and though it sounds crazy, a lot of young women have this problem. It usually ends up correcting itself in a few weeks or months, but usually goes away. Thank God. For a moment I was considering looking up the nearest circus, with hopes of being the next main attraction. (My “friends” had a good time with that joke as well!)

While studying abroad, I am covered with international student insurance, which means I have to pay out-of-pocket…but most of the time (depending on the nature of your visit) students are reimbursed, as long as the receipts are kept. The second appointment was not cheap…$120. But Sarah was real nice and took me downtown Lismore to file my claim and get my money back right away. Otherwise it can take up to a couple months to get everything sorted.

After all the drama of the day, I headed home for a sleep. It was a good one too…about 4 hours long…much needed after staying up all night!

Later, after that wonderful nap, Mark came up to 19 to help me pick out a dress. He was going on a journey with the Canadian Boys to Coffs Harbour for Race Day. Everyone gets dressed up and goes to the race track to watch and bet on the horse races. They had asked me, Lisa, & Kelly to go with them, which is why we had to find some Classy Dresses for the Big Day. After I had a dress picked out, we went over to Kelly & Lisa’s to help them as well. After all the Dress Drama was situated, I headed back to 19 for bed. All the commotion from the day was exhausting and though I had an awesome nap earlier, I hit the hay around 9:00!

Wednesday

Today I didn’t get up until 12:30…in the afternoon!! I wasn’t feeling too well…probably early signs of the Swine. I slept in so late that I skipped my morning Perspectives lecture. Whoops! It would not have been that big of a deal [we are not graded on attendance] but we had a guest lecturer that I would have liked to have heard. However, I did make it to the afternoon tutorial, so the whole day was not a waste.

After class was done I headed with the Girls down to the plaza in search of some large hats/headpieces for Race Day. I really wanted to find a big hat decked out with feathers for the Day, but was unsuccessful with that mission. Instead, I picked up some much-needed groceries. Once we were done, we grabbed a taxi back to Orion and started packing for Coffs.

I was leaving tonight with Mark and the Canadian Boys: Rob, Gordon, & Christian. Lisa & Kelly would not be joining us until tomorrow along with Sarah, Arlo & Company. I had to hurry to get all my clothes washed and packed to meet the Boys at 9:00 pm to leave.

It took quite a while to drive there. All 5 of us were packed in the Canadian car along with blankets, pillows, and our bags. It was a cozy ride that lasted about 3 hours. We didn’t arrive in Coffs until midnight. Once there we drove up to a lookout point, which was really cool. Mark pointed out different areas and buildings to us. It looked really cool because the city was lit up and the coast could be seen. Then we made one last stop at the marina before heading to Mark’s parent’s house around 1:00.

Library Cram Session

Sunday was also a relaxing day…slept in a bit…lounged with everyone by the pool…had a sandwich. After the sun went down around 3:30 [keeps getting later…that is awesome!], I ran into Alex & Sandra who were on their way to the Lismore Showgrounds to work for $12/hour. All they had to do was package books, DVDs, and CDs into cardboard boxes. They asked me if I wanted to come along because Cathy wasn’t planning on going anymore. Lisa was going along too.

At first I wasn’t going to, but I knew I had nothing better to do so I joined the group. The company we worked for were in Lismore for 2 weeks, selling copies of books, DVDs and CDs at discount prices. Most items were a bit older, a few relatively new. They go town to town around Australia setting up shop in a large shed, on fairgrounds to sell their items. Their next stop is Rock Hampton. We worked from 4:00 to 10:00 and had a ½ hour break for dinner at 7:00. We hopped in Alex & Sandra’s car and went for food at Mackers. The time actually went by pretty fast and before you knew it we were getting paid $66 for 5 ½ hours of work…pretty awesome!

Monday I tried starting my day off early at 7:30 am, but that mission was unsuccessful. Instead I shot out of bed around 8:30 went for a good run, swung by the international office to check my mail and found a package waiting for me!! I was so excited! It was pretty heavy, so that’s where my run ended. I also found a letter from my Grandma in there as well…Sweet!

After trucking up Orion Hill with my new arrivals, I tore into them once I got into my room. My awesome Mother had sent me a bunch of little things as well as some DVDs, my newly fixed camera, a recipe book, some photos, a Huge bag of red licorice and socks.

My plan for the day was to shut myself into the library to get a bunch of assignments done and caught back up in my finance class. I hurried through a shower and a breakfast of eggs, raspberry toast, and orange/mango juice. Since Mark made dinner Friday night, I returned the favor and brought breakfast over to him. That may have been a bad idea…keep reading…will explain.

Finally I made it to the library around 10:45…not too bad. However, I did not actually step into the building until noon…I called home and chit-chatted with my Mother for quite some time. Monday mornings are usually a good time for me to call home…my empty morning with no classes and they are home on a Sunday night…nice! I made the library my home until 1:00 when I met Lisa & Mark for lunch in the Plaza. As we were heading down from the library, we saw a huge lizard. I was pretty pumped to have my camera with me and actually be able to take my own photos with my own camera! A Bangkok wrap from Wrap City sounded pretty good, though they are always huge and really messy. Oh well. We had a little bit of Mark’s sushi too; it was actually pretty decent.

The 3 of us finished a bunch of errands around campus…grabbed receipts from the bank, checked our mail, and Mark made a doctor’s appointment cause he wasn’t feeling too good…then went back to the library for some study. I managed to crank out a reflection paper for Outdoor Ed and got a bunch of articles read for class as well. The library was getting the best of us so we took a 20 minute break at 5:00, had a muesli bar to reenergize then went back another time for one last round.

Orion was calling us back at 7:30 for dinner and we were beginning to hate the library so we bolted out of there. We came back to mine for pasta, green beans, oranges with yogurt, and orange/mango juice as well as licorice for dessert! During dinner we listened to the new arrival of a Dane Cook CD and it was hilarious. After dishes were done, I locked myself up in my room to finish even more homework and work on my blog. I ended up getting quite a bit of stuff done…a lot of it was small things here & there, but had been on my to-do list for some time. I also went through a few too many cups of coffee and ended up staying up all night…oh well! While I was busy at work on my stuff, Mark called to say the doctor told him he may have Swine Flu. Great. Hopefully that is not the case….I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

James' 22nd Alphabet Party

This Saturday started off really good. I was able to sleep in for a bit and have yogurt & muesli for breakfast…my favorite. Later Mark grabbed me, Kelly & Lisa to head down to The Square for a coffee. It is pretty awesome that there is a Gloria Jean’s in the Square…a little taste of home. We shopped around for vital components to our outfits for the Alphabet Party later that night. It was our friend, James’ 22^nd Birthday Party. He assigned everyone who planned on attending a letter and you had to dress up as something that began with your letter. I was going to be an angel, Lisa a Fairy, Kelly had U so was going to be an umbrella and we decided Mark should be a Pedophile. Lisa & I found wings for our outfits, Kelly found an umbrella, and Mark found a small doll, candy, and had a newspaper to help him be a bit creepier.

We stopped by Cole’s to pick up a few necessity groceries that turned out to be more than necessities. We got lucky and were able to hop on a bus to Orion College for only $1.20. Some of the groceries I picked up were to make a chocolate/peanut butter trail mix. The recipe was from Ford…he had made it when we climbed Mount Warning and it was delicious so I thought I would try it out. It was alright, but the next time I make it I’m gonna use some larger oats. F.Y.I.

Soon it was time to start getting ready. I hopped in the shower, made some avocado, broccoli, and cheese sandwich melts for dinner and grabbed Kelly before heading down to 3 to pick up a black tie for her outfit. She changed her mind from being an umbrella to being Usher/Gangster. It was pretty awesome…she looked like a little gangster in Wellzy’s clothes and shoes…junk grab and all. We went up to grab Lisa & Peta, hung out at 3 for a bit longer playing card games then went over to 15 for the Alphabet Party. It was really fun because a lot of people got into it and dressed up. There were knights, clowns, a pack of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a showgirl, another angel, a Greek goddess, Aphrodite, a rock star, a black cat and many others who I forget, but they were all very good!

We played a few rounds of Flip Cup before heading downtown, wings and all. Dallas drove us down in Peta’s car because he is only 17 [drinking age = 18]. We had a pretty good time dancing at The Standard before heading over to Mary’s. I was afraid we would not get in because after 12 or 12:30 they stop letting people in and it was getting close to that time, but we made it!

While we were standing in line, 2 boys cut in front of us and I started to give them a hard time…one guy was already in, so I said whatever to the second guy and let him go. It was awesome cause once we were in we decided to go up a level to the nightclub inside Mary’s called “The One” and the guy who cut in front of me was going up there as well. Wait a minute…I wasn’t interested…but what was awesome was that he offered to pay for me to get in [$10!] and even bought me a drink. I didn’t talk to him for long though…us girlies headed off for the dance floor…a good escape!

I shared a piece of pizza with Peta before Gord came down to pick us [Rob, Lisa, Kelly, Mark, Peta, Alex and I] up. Being the nice girl that I am, I offered everyone to come back to mine for some really good trail mix, but before the Boys came up top my apartment, it was gone…devoured by Alex, Peta, Lisa, & I…though there wasn’t much to begin with…and it was kinda crummy. So I ended up finding some cheese, ham, and crackers for the Boys to have. Lloyd and Tony ended up joining us for all the fun. I was kinda worried we were being too loud…my roommate Ashley had stayed home and already went to bed & didn’t want to wake her so we went across to Kelly & Tony’s. For some reason Rob was dressed in all white, had a brown suit jacket on and was carrying around a tennis racket. I think he may have changed back into his Alphabet Party getup…guessing he was a tennis star?

Overall, it was a fun night.

Perspectives on Australia

One of my classes, Perspective on Australia, is held on Wednesdays. Basically, we talk about Australia…who is a typical Australian, what are the values & beliefs held by the people, what holidays are celebrated throughout the nation and among the different groups living here. It is difficult trying to define Australia as a whole, mainly because of the conflicting histories of the nation. When James Cook discovered the nation in 1770, he declared it “terra nullis” meaning “empty land.” From that point is when the 2 histories began…that of an Aboriginal and that of a white settler. A brief little insight to our class…sorry it began to turn into a lesson for the day.

Anyways, to get a better understanding of the region around Lismore, called the Rainbow Region we went on a field trip. Friday morning started off a little rough…definitely came too early! We had to be done in front of campus by 9:00 am with a packed lunch. I almost forgot the lunch part…actually I completely forgot about it…good thing Kelly was already on top of it. She packed us a PB & J with a muesli bar for the day.

Before we left campus, I remembered to pay for Outback Trip, the last day to sign up so I had to run to the bank on campus quickly. I should have taken a lot longer and accidentally “missed” the bus because the ride ended up being an hour long…on a Very Windy road with a Pothole every ½ mile. Not a very good experience…especially when I get bus sick from a 5 minute bus ride downtown to The Square. We finally arrived to meet Nan Nicholson at Protestor’s Falls, the site where many people had gathered in 1973 to protest the destruction of the rainforest. The people ended up saving a large chunk of the rainforest and Nan was one of the “hippies” who helped save it.

Though I was relieved once I got off the bus, my stomach wasn’t…it kept doing flip-flops. I thought I was good to go, but as I started walking with everyone to a picnic table saliva filled my mouth…I barely made it to the bathrooms before I hucked it. Not good…I felt like I was still on the bumpy bus. I hoped no one heard me, but definitely knew they all did when they watched me walk back up to meet them. Nuts! Oh yeah…the gum I spit out the night before ended up in my hair…I fell asleep holding it and somehow…not sure…but it ended up nestled in my roots…nice.

After a few saltines and water I started feeling better. We walked along a trail to the Falls, which were amazing. We sat on the rocks while Nan read a passage she had prepared about the Falls and what it meant to her & her family. It was interesting to be sitting in a place where so much mayhem had occurred. We could feel the mist coming down from the waterfall and off the rocks it hit below. I had never seen or been that close to a real waterfall…it was really cool.

The next stop on our trip was to Dharmananda, an intentional community established over 30 years ago on 260 acres of farming land at The Channon. The community consists of 16 adults and 6 children. While Ray Flanagan told us about the community we ate our picnic lunch. Rob, our instructor, had brought along a bunch of bananas, apples, Doritos, and vegetable “pull-apart” breads for us to share, which were really good. After we were finished, Ray gave us a short tour of the Community House, Meditation Room, and huge vegetable gardens before we boarded the bus.

The last stop of our trip was to the village of Nimbin, an iconic site of the 1970s counter-cultural movement in Australia. It is a very interesting little place…a lot of hippies and the center of the movement to end marijuana prohibition. We met with Nigel, a lifelong resident of Nimbin, to go over history and phases Nimbin has gone through. Currently, it is becoming a tourist stop. We broke away to do a self-conducted tour of the village for 45 minutes before meeting back up with Nigel to discuss our observations. The strange thing about Nimbin is how open and accepting people are with drugs. For example, we were all walking into Nimbin when a lady asked us if anyone needed cookies. Pretty sure she wasn’t talking about normal cookies either.

Our field trip ended at 4:00 pm when we were dropped off at Orion College. I was definitely relieved and excited to be done with that bus!! Mark decided to teach me how to cook fettuccini carbanara for dinner, Kelly joined us and we all watched Disaster Movie with Lloyd, Wakana, & Emma. After deciding Lloyd and Wakana were not allowed to pick any more movies out to rent, we were all off to bed.