Oct 2008

So I have almost reached a record 3 months in Aussieland. Many people keep asking, how is Australia? Is it everything you imagined? Well the long and short of it is: yes and no. Ha. There is much to be said...

Sometimes its easy to forget I am on the otherside of the world. The big cars, strip malls, and McDonalds on every corner often makes it feel a lot like home. But digging deeper (or rather looking up), you find there are quite some differences. The mountains for one. The glorious, sky scraping, untouched mountains pertruding from the clouds. Those are quite unique. And the gorgeous beaches with no giant hotel blocking the view also take you to quite a different place.

Then there is the people. They may look like Americans, but don't be fooled. How ya going and g'day mate, aren't exactly American colloquialisms. Overall I have found Australias to be quite a friendly bunch. And they all seem so happy. Most of them live on the beach or very near it (which to me IS exactly why they are happy). Like Costa Rica, everything is "no worries" and if you tell them "have a good day", they don't say "thanks", they say "I will." Guess it's just a given here...

And everything is bigger and brighter in Australia. We are living in the oldest rainforest in the WORLD and these species really make you think they grew up in the stone ages. Moths the size of footballs, lizards as long as a baseball bat, and turkeys who run around like they own the place. I often feel like I'm truly in a movie. A modern day Jurrasic park with big, scary snakes. I dreamt about one the other night, and literally saw one the next night. Scary.

So overall this place is quite lovely. I like it quite a lot. Wouldn't say love, but hey, I've only seen about 1/50th of it. So give me a few months...

love,
Cristina

Well us ladies are going on nearly 3 weeks at Silky Oaks, and I can't say I am all that ecstatic about staying around. It's not a bad life or a hard one either, but my bones are telling me it's time to keep on moving. Australia is one big place!

Kate is coming next week though! Another DC local, I somehow convinced her to leave her job and move to Aussieland for a few months just one week before I left. My friends are soo easily persuaded, how I do love them for that.

Not much else to report except that I am teaching Coconut how to salsa. Fifteen minutes into our first lesson, she declared enthusiastically "I love being Cuban!" haha. So do I...

I will leave you with a little photo tour of our little Silky Oaks Lodge, and some of the wonderful tables we slave daily to properly prepare :-P

love you all!

-Cristina, Caitlin, and Coconut

The girls and I are back to work and just one person short...GABRIELLE! We all woke up very sad the day she left. Where is our fourth?! Where is our guide and our food connossieur?

So la Gabrielle has left us, and us chicas are back to the daily grind. It is wedding season here in Northern Australia, leaving us with lots of all-day, late night, and early morning shifts. But we can not complain. We still live in a beautiful rainforest and now, thankfully, there are 3 of us for card games.

Just two or three more weeks of this, and we will set sail yet again. The tentative plan is to buy a car and drive down the coast. Maybe stopping off at an island or two to work. Such a tough life I know.

More to come soon, when our lives are -ya know- interesting again...

love,
Cristina, Coconut, and Caitlin

p.s. we did however see two tree snakes mating. that was quite cool. I seriously felt like I was in Harry Potter. oh how I love Harry Potter..