The holidays are here!?

So, this will probably be my last post for a while, as I'm moving this weekend, which means my internet gets disconnected and it'll take 5 days to get reconnected. And by that point I'll b on my 2 week trip to Cairns, Newcastle, and Sydney for Christmas and New Year's.

I can't believe that Christmas (or Chrissy, as it's called here. They shorten EVERY single word down here.) is actually upon us. It's very odd to hear "White Christmas" or "...chestnuts roasting on an open fire", or "Jack Frost nipping at your nose", when it's nearly 30 degrees outside. (That's 90 degrees F for those of you that aren't used to C yet.)

I mailed off my christmas presents last week, so I don't feel that Christmas-y now. I'm looking forward to my vacation, but I can't really tell that it's the holidays. Which is maybe a good thing - they'll be so different this year that I won't miss home.

Maybe?

Unlikely.

This is what I'll miss the most about Christmas at home:





This year I'm going on vacation with the Ya-Yas - a group of girls (and our token male Jim) who I went to UC San Diego with. These girls are so awesome and I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with them. We climbed Half Dome together in August 2005 and that was too short of a trip. There will be some real catching up happening on this trip.

We are going to Cairns for a week, staying in a 2 bedroom apartment, then to Newcastle to unwind for a couple of days, and then into Sydney to celebrate New Year's Eve in style at the Sydney Opera House. WooHoo! We'll have the best seats for the fireworks show, which are apparently off 'da hook. (please note: I don't normally talk like that, it just seemed appropriate to describe an awesome fireworks show that way.)

It's seriously going to be a UC San Diego reunion - my college boyfriend is also in this hemisphere for the holidays and hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up. We've successfully transitioned to friends, but it'll be strange to see him, it's been at least 5 years since we last saw each other, although we've both had a world of experiences since we were together in college.

Anyway...it should be a fantastic trip, and I'm super excited. Cairns is in North Queensland and is next to the Great Barrier Reef, tropical rainforests, and should be really hot, literally. Although we can't cool off in the ocean because of all the jellyfish this time of year - so we'll be cooling off in the pool. But that's fine by me. Newcastle is north of Sydney and on the coast. And Sydney, is, well Sydney. Home to the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House... the setting of NYE 2006.

I just have to move my apartment, pack for the trip, finish a day and a half of work, and I'm outta here!

The last 3 NYEs I've spent with a large group of Atlanta friends, in different locales around the south - at a cabin in Gatlinburg, TN, a beach mansion in Seasside, FL, and a railroad tycoon's cabin/mansion outside Asheville, NC. I'm definitely going to miss that group this New Year's... I'd love to be with them this year. And last year, before heading up to Asheville, I actually had a NYE party in my house, with close friends that weren't going up to the cabin for various reasons. It was a great celebration of that year.

This is from our year in Seaside, from a bike ride some of us took one afternoon.



Oh dear. I think I've made myself a bit homesick now. :(

To everyone I won't be seeing this holiday season, know that I'm thinking of you and miss you so very much.

I'm going to the...

I can't seem to find the word that I like best to excuse myself to go to the bathroom.

For some reason, "the bathroom" seems too, I don't know, dirty?, to say out loud.
"the restroom" sounds too clinical.
"the loo" makes me feel pretentious, like that Friends episode where Monica and Phoebe's friend moves to London and all of a sudden lives in a flat and has a mobile.

Digression: I actually have called my apartment a flat, my roommate a flatmate, and my cell phone a mobile.

Although aparently I pronounce mobile weirdly - I say it without pronouncing the e, like Mobil (the gas (or petrol) station. [Literally every word I use over here has a different Aussie version. It's crazy. At dinner tonight we had a full conversation about the difference between a napkin and a serviette. Apparently a napkin is the fabric version and anything else is a serviette. WHo knew? I thought they were all napkins.]. Saying mobile in two syllables makes me feel even more pretentious than saying loo. (And it's not mobile like Mobile, Alabama, which is yet a third way to pronounce that word.) I fully realize that it's probably impossible to tell the difference when in writing, but try for me. mobile: mobul (Katie's way), mo-bile (Aussie way), or mo-bill (Mobile, Alabama). Get it?

Back to the task at hand - how to say I'm going to the bathroom (although, apparently, when I'm writing, it's most natural to write bathroom, but it doesn't roll of the tounge like it rolls off the fingertips).

"the toliet" sounds dirty to me too. It's an ugly word. Say it 4 tmes and you'll see what I mean.
"the ladies room" makes me feel like I'm 80 years old.
"the facilities" makes me feel like I'm uncomfortable saying where I'm going and as a result I'm trying to be as straightforward as possible.

And, whereas at home it's the women's bathroom, here it's the ladies room. (unless I'm remembering incorrectly.)

Such a dilemma, I tell you.

Moving again...

I'm moving this weekend.

I'm moving in with my friend Jen, into a 2 bedroom (and 2 bathroom) in the complex next door to mine. I've decided that saving $400 a month was worth packing up all my stuff and moving 300 steps away.

I'll post pictures when I get settled. Again. :)

Does your iPOD define you?

I've been musing about iPODS lately and the personal nature of the music on them.

A friend of mine recently asked for all of her friend's playlists and as I've read through everyone else's I've been hesitant to put a version of a Katie playlist out in the public.

On my road trip to Margaret River last week, my iPOD became the sole source of music and as my 4500 songs were browsed through, I felt my hackles going up... There it was - the most personal refletion of my life, up for viewing. As I listened to the exclamations, "I can't believe ou have THIS song!", " I haven't heard this in YEARS!", I realized that as personal as the music is to me, it's really only one piece of me.

I freely admit that I have music most of the people I know wouldn't listen to, but when I put my iPOD on shuffle it makes me happy. And I rarely have to skip a song, because it's all good to me. It may be the broadest spectrum of music out there, but it's all mine.

And that's what really matters, right?

Freo and Margaret River

I spent last week in Fremantle (Freo) and Margaret River in Western Australia. Freo is just south of Perth, the capital of WA. I was in Freo for a work meeting for three days and then I went on a road trip with 3 friends down to Margaret River for some wine tasting. Western Australia is on the west coast (umm... really?) It was a 4 hour flight from Canberra, not unlike the trip from Atlanta to California. The funy thing is that most people I've met over here haven't made it out to Western Australia... the general attitude seems to be that if they are going to be on a plane for that long, they may as well be going somewhere international. I can see tha point... but to me WA was a destination in and of itself.



It was beautiful! Freo and Cottesloe Beach are very much like San Diego and it's definitely a laid back ocean based place.



After our work meeting in Freo, we got in a car and drove down to Magaret River. The first stop we made in Margaret River was the drive-in bottle shop. Not like the drive-thru in Atlanta... this was a true drive-in, pull in the driveway, the bloke there gets what you want out of the fridges and off you drive, never having left the car. And passengers can drink in the car! I can't tell you how weird it felt to have an open bottle in the car!





We stayed at a place called the Margaret River Beach resort and we were a 10 minute walk from this beach. There was a cafe down there with great coffee and breakfast. On the second morning we got up early and went for a swim in the ocean - the Indian Ocean! A pretty good hangover cure, if I do say so myself.





The wine tasting was great, the day was beautiful and the wine was good - not much more you could ask for.





Some of my favorite images from the week:


The surf at Yallingup Beach


The vineyards at the Watershed Winery


Me and the Indian Ocean


The Western Australia coastline, from Cape Naturaliste

Kangaroo Books

In the care package I got from my sister this week, there was the greatest gift ever!


This is a book published in 1962 by James Flora, called Kangaroo for Christmas. In this book, Kathryn (almost Katie) gets a kangaroo for Christmas from her Uncle Dingo. She names the kangaroo Adelaide and they proceed to hop around town, causing havoc on Christmas Eve. It's such a great story and the illustrations are wonderful.





The other kangaroo book I have is one I've had from when I was a kid, called Katy No-Pocket. This one is about a mother kangaroo who has no pocket to carry her joey. She goes around to all different animals to see how they carry their babies. Of course, none of those methods will work for a kangaroo. She ends up finding a hardware store and an apron with lots of pockets, so she ends up being able to carry around lots of babies.

An evening with the Kangaroos and my Aussie family

Some Views of Canberra

Out my window Friday morning. I can't wait to go up some day!

















Evening sky Saturday night.




















Tuggeranong Valley Sunday evening.

I couldn't have said it better myself

I subscribe to this daily digest - DailyOm (http://www.dailyom.com/) - and sometimes the messages are dead-on. Like yesterday's:



December 1, 2006 - Wherever You Are

Home Is Where The Heart Is

The word “home” has a wide variety of connotations. To some, home is merely a place where basic needs are addressed. To others, home is the foundation from which they draw their strength and tranquility. Still, others view home as a place inexorably linked to family. Yet all these definitions of home imply somewhere we can be ourselves and are totally accepted. There, we feel safe enough to let down our guard, peaceful enough to really relax, and loved enough to want to return day after day. However, these qualities need not be linked to a single space or any space at all. Home is where the heart is and can be the locale you live in, a community you once lived in, or the country where you plan to live someday. Or home can be a feeling you carry inside yourself, wherever you are.

The process of evolution can require you to undergo transformations that uproot you. Moving from place to place can seem to literally divide you from the foundations you have come to depend on. Since your home is so intimately tied to the memories that define you, you may feel that you are losing a vital part of yourself when you leave behind your previous house, city, state, or country. And as it may take some time before you fashion new memories, you may feel homeless even after settling into your new abode. To carry your home with you, you need only become your own foundation. Doing so is merely a matter of staying grounded and centered, and recognizing that the pleasures you enjoyed in one place will still touch your heart in another if you allow them.

Your home can be any space or state of being that fulfills you, provided you are at peace with yourself and your surroundings. A person can feel like home to you, as can seasons and activities. If you feel disconnected from what you once thought of as home, your detachment may be a signal that you are ready to move one. Simply put, you will know you have found your home when both your physical environment and energetic surroundings are in harmony with the individual you are within.