I dare you

To turn your oven up to 114 (45 C) degrees Fahrenheit and stick your arm (or, if you're really game, as much as your body as you can, preferably including your head) in it. Really, go do it. I dared you. I'll even pause to give you time.

How does that feel? Well, for all of you who chickened out on me and didn't do it, it sucks. The last week has been between 107 (41 C) and 114 (45 C) degrees Fahrenheit. . . The first day sucks, the second isn't so bad, then by the third you're used to it. Apparently your blood thins out. . .but who believes that stuff??? I reckon it's just the fact that you've come to terms with the fact that you are NEVER going to escape the heat. Even when you enter an air conditioned building, it's still between 93 (32 C) and 98 (35 C) degrees Fahrenheit. . . but it feels SOOO good compared to outside. One day we decided to go to Jakarra's pool to escape the heat, Gabbs had this awesome underwater camera, we had some fun. . .Look at our faces :)

L to R we have Gabby, Kate, Zoe and me.

And this is the funniest photo ever. . . but brace yourself, it's not G rated :) For some reason my mates have a thing with randomly mooning the camera every time that we try to take group photos. Last time it was Lucy when we were doing those jump photos on the beach in Robe. This time it was Jakarra. And it was bloody brilliant. . .

L to R we have Gabby, Ashlee, me and Jakarra's bum (fanny, eh Lucy?? :) )

And this is just an extremely attractive photo of Kato (aussie nickname for Kate, they like to put an 'O' on the end of things. . . freaks)

And here's one of Lucy

Just so all you yankees know what kind of crowd I'm hangin with, hooligans who like to moon people :) and so I can complain about the heat :)

Dylan Agnew

Also known as Dylbrau, Dylbrauni, Dylba, Ranga, Armadlyo, The Dylmeister and Boris. Dylan is ridiculously tall, gangly, smart, horribly un-photogenic, and, sad to say, my next host brother :) He enjoys long walks on the beach :) sport, bushwalking, reading nerdy books and wishes he were a pirate AARRGGG ME MATEY!!! Most importantly, he wishes he had two heads because anyone crazy enough to want to live in Tassie MUST wish they had two heads. . . Happy Dylbrau? :)

**(Spoken fast like the side effects for some drug) This is more of an inside joke than anything, so for the rest of you, please ignore it. . . That and I have a slight concussion so I'm a bit delusional. . .

What's crack-a-lackin :)

Ya know what's amazing? Rotary. They do the most amazing job with Exchange students. There is so much support for us and they do so many great things around the world. We are actually doing bake sales and what not to earn money for TWO shelter box's. A shelter box is a box that is full of supplies for people that have recently been involved in a natural disaster or just a disaster of some kind. One box can house like 500 people or something amazing like that. Coming on this exchange has actually inspired me to join the Peace Core. Wow, I know. And they are all volunteers which makes it that much more impressive. During the last week, Rotary did another amazing thing, they exhausted 13 foreigners :) All of the exchange students in the district got together and went on a trip around the District called the Mini Safari. We drove down the Great Ocean Road and spent the nights with Host families in different towns. The whole thing started in Bordertown where Sego (France) lives. There they held and "International Dinner" where the exchange students cooked food from each country and served it to all that came. It was a huge success. It earned all the money we needed for the first Shelter Box and allowed us to start working towards a second. Then we spent two nights in Mount Gambier, one in Portland, four in Warrnambool and one in Geelong. However, I was in Tasmania for till the 17 and did not join till the 18, the second day in Mount Gambier. Each Rotary club having a million fun things planned for us along the way. By the end of it, we were sleep deprived but on a huge high. Spending time with Exchange students is one of the best things EVER.

On the day that I joined the Mini Safari, we went paint balling. Which is pretty much the best thing ever. It hurts like hell, but is fun as. You get to wear these awesome masks and these cameo jumpsuit. This is me and Luce (Germany) in our gear, well part of it. ..we didn't have the suits fully on cause it was WAY to hot. Today it's meant to get up to 41 degrees C (roughly 115 F). I'm gonna melt. I got hit a few times. Once on the inside of the thigh, that left a massive welt, and once on my other leg. The damage was not nearly so bad :) I had a blast. There's just something about sweating from places you didn't even know you could and shooting people. . . haha

That same day, we went out for tea at an Italian joint. I shared a pizza with Johanna (Germany) This is just a hilarious photo of Camila (Brazil) as she was waiting for her food. It came about five minutes after everyone else had finished eating their's. . . Good times :)

Our next stop was Portland. That was a good one. We went sand surfing. Which was pretty much the most awesome thing ever, except paint balling that is :) There was this massive sand dune that we all climbed up and just stood on the top of cause we knew that if we went back down, we weren't coming back up. We stayed up there for a few hours and sang songs, did the macerana, and just chilled looking at the ocean.

The next thing we did in Portland was go to the beach. The waves were a decent size and we attempted body surfing, but most of us just failed miserably. Then we went on a Seal tour. We saw heaps and heaps of seals. And riding in the boat was SOO much fun cause it bounced over the waves. CRAZY!! This is me and Sego (France). Thought the photo captured the moment perfectly :)

Our next stop would be Warrnambool (not sure how to spell that one. . .) We were to spent four days here. On the bus ride from Portland to Warrnambool, we stopped at this slide. We then gave the two Rotarians traveling with us all 13 cameras and posed for this amazing photograph. I love exchange students!!!

The next morning, we went shopping. Sego was VERY excited about this. She's French and got dumped in a town with 3000 people and not so much as a proper surf shop. . . .Poor thing :) Charolett (Sweden) and I went to the 2$ shop (that's a good example of the different costs here. USA has 1$ shops, AUS has 2$ shops) and bought these dorky head bands that said Aussie Aussie Aussie on them, cause that was our thing. Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! :) Do you get the thing with Tassie now?? Anywho. . .

That same day was Camila's (Brazil) 18th Birthday. We went out for tea at a Pizza joint and got party hats. Then we went to the pictures and watched "Yes Man" with Jim Carry. I love him :)

Okay, so from left to right we have. . .Naoto (Japan), Sego (France), Meoko (Japan), Amanda (Brazil), Nick (Wyoming USA), Annie (Finnland), Luca (Germany), Johanna (Germany), Channie (Denmark), Camila (Brazil), Kevin (Switzerland), Charolett (Sweden) and Me (USA. . .duh).

Earlier that same day we attended the Warrnambool Rotary Club meeting. Because it was Camila's Birthday, Amanda who is also from Brazil taught us all to sing "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese. So at the meeting we sang it to her in English and Portuguese. As the exchange students, we got to take over the meeting. I got to be President and run the meeting. Good Fun that was. Apparently I've gotten half decent at public speaking, I have confidence :) or so one of the members said. . .
The next day we were meant to go to a shooting range and shoot pistols and clay targets. BUT. . . it was a total fire ban day so we couldn't so much as moe our lawn. . .Instead we went fishing in the ocean. We went down to this really pretty rocky spot, where you stood on a submerged rock shelf and fished off that. It was windy like you would never believe and it actually ended up raining. . . on a total fire ban day. . . This is Channie (Denmark)

That night we had a pool party and watched "Happy Feet", which is Australian by the way :) This is me, Luca (Germany) and Charolett (Sweden).

The next day we went down the Great Ocean Road and went sight seeing. We spent a bit of time in Port Campbell before continuing on to the Twelve Apostles. This is the second time I've done the Great Ocean Road trip, but it was a completely different experience with the Exchange Students. We just have so much fun together. This is me and Charolett (who you should have learned by now is from Sweden) :)

That night we played Tennis and walked around this market thing. It was there that I was talking to this booth owner and he didn't believe me when I told him I was from the US of A. He thought I was an Aussie. I can sound very Australia if you catch me saying the right sentence :) This is me, Channie (Denmark), and Luca (Germany). Don't we look cool :)

So for this entire trip we had a song. We taught each other to words and every time we were together we would sing it. Sometimes 5 times a day. The words go "We are one, but we are many. And from all the lands on earth we come. We share a dream, and sing with one voice! I am, you are, we are Australian!!" Pretty much our group in a nut shell. And I had a video of some of us singing it on the beach, but I couldn't get it to load. . .

Yesterday was Australia Day. January 26th celebrates the day Australia was settled by the British. Australia is still a commonwealth under The Queen of England. I was surprised to learn that. I got up at 5:30 AM so I could go help my Rotary club serve Breakky. Mostly I just watched the ceremony thought. They had some local singers sing patriotic songs like "Home among the Gum Trees", "I am Australian" (that's the song I was talking about), and "Beneath the Southern Skies". Then we had a Flag Raising Ceremony while singing the National Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", which I can actually sing most of now :) Then we had three people become Citizens. One from England, one from Thailand and one from Afghanistan. Very Australian. The Scouts rose the flag. I went to a Barbi at my mates place and spent the day hangin with them.

Oh, and as a side note. It was 41 degrees Celsius today, that's roughly 108 degrees Fahrenheit. And I'm not talking about it being 108 in the car park (parking lot) I mean on the grassy field (cept all the grass is dead. . .), the car park is about 111 :). Every time you step out of an air conditioned building it feels like you've stepped into an oven and closed the door behind you. You sweat from places you never thought you could, like the corners of your eyes. And all you can think about is how hot you are. You can feel the heat of the Bitumen through the soles of you shoes and are seriously concerned about them melting. It sucks. But it's all part of the Aussie experience. And now when someone says it's "hot" back home, well, they have no idea. . .and tomorrow it's meant to be 43 AKA 110 on the grassy field. . .

Tassie, Tassie, Tassie! Oy, Oy, Oy!

If you're an Aussie, you know the reference. Cept Tassie's different, down here, they've all got two heads. Or four arms. Or six eyes. So I suppose it isn't the same thing. . .Okay, I'll stop confusing all my American readers now. The mainlanders like to take the piss out of Tassie, apparently they're all mutants down here. So yes, I've been the lucky-ist exchange student in the world and I have spent the last 8 days with the Agnew family in Tassie, A.K.A. THIS

part of the pancake. Eh Britt :) To get here, we took the "Spirit of Tasmania". Which really has nothing to do with Tasmania cause it's BIG, Tassie is VERY VERY VERY small, it is also RED and Tassie is VERY VERY VERY GREEN, not to mention WET. Hence the reason I got so muddy when we went bushwalking. Yes, we spent the first four days in the bush. Got off that BIG, RED boat and headed straight for that GREEN bush :) Cheesy I know. . .Anywho, this is a map of Tasmania, you can't really see it cause there's some dumb Yank standing in front of it, but you get the gist.




Now to shock and awe you with some of the scenery of the Cradle Mountain Lake St. Clair National Park in northern/Central Tasmania. This is a photo of one of the forest we walked through, Ryan (15 year old son) deemed it the Faghorn Forest, just like in the Lord of the Rings (NERD!) We walked roughly 10 k's (by my calculations, which are probably wrong, that's about 6 miles)into a hut where we stayed four nights. And when I say hut, by no means is it a shack, it's a big building with wooden bunks, picnic tables and counters for all of our bush cooking, it sleeps 60 when it needs to.


The second day we climbed Mount Ossa. It's the tallest mountain in Tasmania. I was bragging about this to Nic Crouch and all he said to me was "you're from Colorado and you're proud of climbing a mountain" He's right, it was a lame 5,000 feet. But it was a hell of a climb and because all the other mountains in Tasmania are even more pathetic, you could see EVERYTHING.



AND I was clever enough to use the panoramic setting on my camera so you folks back home could revel in it's beauty too :) Aren't so thoughtful?


The next day Di (Mum) and I were so sore (and it was kinda sorta snowing) we just spent the day sitting around the hut playing cards with another family. It's funny cause I've been in Australia for less than 6 months and I've seen it snow twice. Once driving through Ballarat (which has, on more than one occasion, been explained to me as a 'cold, miserable place' sorry Lachie) And then again on this bushwalking trip. This is Mount Ossa from a distance with snow on it, in January. A.K.A mid summer here in Oz. Yes, that's how far south Tasmania is.


This was another moment of genius, yay for panoramic photos!!! This was the view from the front porch of the hut. That is Mount Oakley, to climb this we would have had to wade through waste deep mud. So, being the brave soles that we are, we skipped that one :)



Okay, so after four days of hills that seemed they'd never end, 20 kilos on our backs, sleeping on wooden planks, mud mud and more mud, and eating Ryan's famous instant pudding, we headed for Hobart. The first day we went to the famous Salamanca Markets, they are similar to the Farmers markets in Durango except it's warm enough for it to happen all year round down here but only on Saturdays. I was very lucky in that our first day in Hobart happened to be a Saturday . . .Day number two, we headed up the top of Mount Wellington and took in the sights. See all that water down there? They call that a river. What a load of poppycock. As far as I'm concerned, it's a lake with open ends. But the view was marvelous.



Kay, never mind, you can't really see the water. But IF you could, you'd see that it was a large expanse of water with bits of land floating around in the middle of it and buildings on either side. AKA a lake. Or the outlet to the southern Ocean. . .what ever floats your boat :) Which, by the way, I went swimming in today. One of the most southern parts of Tasmania in fact, in the Southern Ocean where there's nothing between you and Antarctica. Yes, I live in Colorado and I'm proud of swimming in cold water :)


Yesterday we made a visit to Port Arthur, one of the best known convict sights in Australia. As you could probably guess, it's ancient and therefore slowly crumbling into the earth. But it was historical and I learned a lot. The idea behind these convict settlements was actually kind of decent. They intended to teach all the offenders trades and send them off to Hobart to become citizens. It was more of a 'correctional facility' than a prison. I also discovered that instead of flogging (whipping) they took to solitary confinement as a form of punishments. The men and women (yes, women were kept here too, as well as young boys) who misbehaved would be put into a singular cell, let out for one hour a day to exercise and forbidden to use their voices except to sing hymns in church. But even in Church, they were divided. There was a stall for each prisoner so all that they could see was the minister. I remember seeing this very room in an informational video I watched once upon a time and to actually be there was something different. That room was probably my favorite part. As you can tell by the enormous grin on my face, although I could hardly say you'd be that happy after 4 months of solitary confinement. . .

Three days of Sunshine and the wonderful city of Melbroune

So I was contemplating not posting today, cause I dont' want to get back into that nasty habit of posting every three days but then I though if I don't do it now, I'll never do it. Cuase of Tasie and just lack of time in the near future. I'm gonna be really busy from now till the end of January. I've got two big trips planned. Tasmani for ten days then the Mini Safari with Rotary along the Great Ocean Road for 6. Then School starts two days later. . .I've been in Melbourne for the last three days. On the first day I went shopping, on the lookout for some shorts. I melt in pants. .. got a pair for ten bucks, SCORE!! Yesterday Jacqulyn and I went to Queen Victoria Markets where I picked up a few things to send home. . .happy late xmas guys, cept I won't be sending them till Feb cause that's the next time I'm near any one post office for a porlonged period of time. Yesterday I also went to see Australia with Asha. That was quite an adventer. We were meant to go to the 4:30 showing in Cheltenham but we missed that and there was only one seat left anyways. So we ended up driving an hour to Knox (took so long cause we got lost) and seeing the 7:30 movie which cose me 14 Aussie dollars. . .But it was the most amazing movie ever!! And I've been waiting to see it since I saw the advertisement thing in Feb back home. I remember thinking, Hey I'm actually gonna be IN the country when that comes out. Anyways. .. Today Jacqulyn and I are going to the famouse Luna Park in St. Kilda. I've been once before but I just stood out the front a took a photo cause it was August and they weren't open. But today I'm actually GOING to the park :) Then at 9 pm I get to hop on a massive boat and set sail for Tasie. I'll be speding ten days there with a family from Rotary. 5 days bushwalking and then a few days in Hobart and a few in Mt. Field National park. While I'm in Hobart I might go sailing, I know people :) I'm pretty stoked.

Every time I go to the Queen Vic Markets, I take a photo in front of this sign. I've got three of these photos now.

This is the inside of the bakery and butcher bit of the markets. There's this place that sells these things called Bourek's, they're magical :)


Asha has this mustasch on the mirror of her car. We thought it would be amazing if we took a photo. And DAMN STRAIGHT! Best idea ever! :)

New Years

WOOOOO!!!!!!!! Two posts in one night!!!!!!!! YAY for Ariel, she's depriving herself of sleep you you lot!!! :)

Anywho. . . This one's about New Years. Which was yesterday, yesterday was 2008. That's strange to think about. . . I can remember sitting on my couch in Durango, Colorado thinking that 2008 was my year, it would be the year that I went to Australia and became something. And now I'm here, in Australia, becoming something, having the time of my life and thinking about life back home in Durango, Colorado. Another one of those "WOW" moments. You have alot of those when you're on exchange. . . .I spent New years in a place called Howqua with some friends of my Host Family. We had the Cole Family (Don, Jenny, Ellie, Asha, Britt), Kate and here mum Bev, Annie and Martian, Pete and Amilia, Jacqulyn and Adam, Karen and Andrew, Deb and Dan and . . .Me! We were there from the night of the 28th till today (1/1/09) empasis on the 09 bit :) We basically spent the entire time lazyin around the camp fire and swimmin in the river, you have no idea how good it felt to swim in freash water after ten days of the Southern Ocean. . . Ths first morning we had pancakes for Breaky. Britt and Ellie made this masterpiece, bet you can't guess what it is!!!


One of the days we went for a walk down to Frys Hut. A run down shack that people stay in when they bring cattel through the mountains. This is me with the river. Isn't that mop of hair sexy??

This is another one of those photos where you hold the camera as far out in front of your faces and blindly aim, taking your own picture. I promised Britt I'd put it on my blog :) So here ya go Britt

This is Ellie and Britt at Tunnel Bend. They're twins, just like me and Hayley. Ellie has one leg and won a Silver and two Bronz's at the Paraolympics in Bejing for swimming. Britt is heavily into shooting and the Army. This is them infront of the tunnel that Ellie and I walked through, the water is about knee deep and some days, if you're lucky, you'll find bats in there :)


This is me with Ellie's medals. I thought it was pretty cool.


This is me sawing wood. I mistakenly volunteered to help Britt out. . .BAD IDEA!! I was getting good at being useless! :)


So on New Years, we sat around the fire listening to music and dancin. Then we lit Sparklers. This is the last photo of me in 2008 :) When the clock stroke twelve, people yelled and gave hugs and kisses. Then asked you how old you would turn this year. That's the only major difference I noticed.

Then. . . because I was feeling so brave :) . . .I convinced two others to come skinny dippin with me. Well, not real skinny dippin cause we still had our bras and undies on, but I say it counts :) Martian and Jenny joined me and on the count of three we jumped. Twas fun. Definitly a New Years I wont forget, skinny dipping in January without getting hypothermia :) Ahhhh, what a memory. And Mum, yes. This is a photo of me in my undies on the internet for the whole world to see :)

P.S. Ignore the date down the bottom cause it really was January by then my camera just hadn't changed the date thingy :) Happy New Year!! Hope it's a good one!

An Aussie Xmas

So it's New Years Day, 2009 baby!! I'm in Frankston (near melb) staying the night at Britt's house before I head off to Jacqulyn's (host sis) place to pass some time between now and Tasie. I just spent xmas on the beach. It was amazing. I couldnt' get over the fact that it was DECEMBER and I was in the ocean. It's mind boggling. It didn't feel at all like Christmas mostly because no one here in Oz decorates. . .but also cause it's hot. The thing I missed most was the atmosphere of a Colorado Xmas. There's just something about being in a warm house with the tree lit up while it's freezing and snowy outside. But it was good anyways. The beach was beautiful. Much like the ones you see in the Cruise Ship adds, calm and greeny-blue and clear as clear can be. We left Nazza on the 18 of December and spent a few days in Warrnambool hangin about the beach then we drove along the Great Ocean Road a couple hundred K's and set up cam at Apollo Bay for Xmas. While I was in Warrnambool I caught up with Channie from Denmark, we spent a few hours boogie boarding. She is living in Warrnambool for her exchagne and until I took her out, she had never been in the Ocean. . .SHOCKIN!!!

This is our tree, Andrew stole it off the side of the Road :) Then we planted it in a bucket of sand and called it good. Now that's an Aussie Xmas :) haha



I learned how to boogie board on this trip, it's the easy version of surfing. Takes much less effort :) AKA it's the Aussie wayCept then Karen and Andrew went and got me Surfing lessons for Xmas, what wonderful people they are :) It was just as hard as everyone says it's gonna be, I nose dived several times and got many facefulls of salt water but by then I had been swimming in the ocean for nearly a week so I was used to the sting. Apparently the Sruf Instructers were flirting with me like mad. . .I however was completly oblivious to all of it and just splashed them back, thinking it was innocent. . .I managed to stand up a few times but it was after the board had stopped moving. . . I did get up on my knees several times and now I can say I've been surfing. . .In december :)


This is me and Jacqulyn's Sand Man. We didn't have any snow so I improvised :) Isnt' she lovely?
This is me on Xmas, my family sent me a magical package full of American goodies. Including lots of lacey undies and Reeces Peanutbutter Cups and home made party mix and fudge and more chocolate and Hayley even went to one of those 'make your own teddy' shops and made me a Koala. I was happy as a clam :) Oh! And they sent me my awesome xmas hat!! It's a santa hat that's got a spring on the top instead of that floppy red bit :)

This is me on Xmas day. Jacqulyn, me and Duncan went down the beach planning on boogie boarding with the flippers cause they propelled you so you could catch more waves, but the surf was flat as flat can be. . . so we just floated around in the water and caught some rays. Jacq and I thought this photo was bloody brilliant :)