Dogs and Desserts.... There were many of both :)

When we got to El Calafate we spent the rest of the day exploring the town, which had one main street and a lot of dogs. El Calafate is a very interesting town in the way it’s set up. As you drive in from the airport, you’re on a really wide road. The road is actually an old runway from an old airport or some such, so when the snow melts you can see the “runwayness” of it. This road ends at a plateau above the town, and there’s a road that goes around the cliff like edge winding down. It’s not too steep or too high, but there’s a lot of really loose dirt. To walk down into town from up here (our hostel was right at the end of the runway) you could walk right down the edge. Obviously this was not always successful – loose dirt, snow, slush, you get the picture. We also walked up it quite a few times. The winding road was long and dirt anyways.


Our first supper there was eaten at La Lechuza Pizza. (This was our first experience with La Lechuza in El Calafate. They have 3 locations, all different.) We picked some very tasty pizzas, though I don’t remember what they were, and we forgot to take pictures of them. That night, we scheduled a boat trip to see the glaciers, and the guys went to get food so we wouldn’t have to buy food on the boat the next day (Friday the 25th). The only problem with this plan is that my food somehow got lost. They’ve promised me that Jeremy made my lunch and that it went into the box in the fridge, but sometime in there (probably when Steven spilled the box taking it out of the fridge?) my sandwich disappeared. This resulted in Steven buying my lunch on the boat. The glaciers were beautiful, as were the icebergs, and we did get to see the glacier calving off into the lake. That night we partook of La Lechuza #2 - the original La Lechuza, which happened to be a bit fancier than the pizza establishment. Tasty things were eaten here as well.


On Saturday we went around looking for souvenirs and things again, and Jeremy and I ended up walking up to the highest part of town and walking a little bit out there. We randomly decided to eat at La Lechuzita (a La Lechuza with a more relaxed feel, more for families with small children) and found Russ and Steven there as well. It had been sunny and nice for most of the day so far, and we decided to go ice skating that afternoon. The town is right on Lago Argentina , and the ice skating area was on the opposite end of town from our hostel. As we were renting our skates it started raining, and we thought it would just pass. But it didn’t. We wound up being the only idiots out there ice skating in the rain. I will admit this would have been TONS more fun if it either A) hadn’t been raining or B) had been closer to the hostel. Anyways, we went just fine, just being soaked by rain for quite a while, and then Russ and Steven ended up falling down at various times for various reasons (snowball dodging, that sort of thing). I was still up just fine, as was Jeremy, until a little bit later. I don’t know what happened, but I wound up sitting on the ice in a couple inches of freezing cold water in the only pair of sweatpants I had. After this, we turned in our skates and got some of the tasty food next to the lake (chocolate dulce de leche cake for me that was supposed to only be one piece but might have been a quarter of the original cake, some kind of sausages for the guys). The walk back was not a pleasant one. Turns out my feet were NOT wet when we left the rink. They were when we got back. Also leaving the lake we picked up a couple of stray dogs, and the number grew to 5 or 6 before we got back to the hotel. They decided that they should hang around outside the hostel waiting for us for quite some time. That night I went to bed early and the guys went out again to try out the librobar (book bar) that they’d seen.

On Sunday (27th) we took a taxi up to P. Moreno Glacier. It was supposed to take an hour to get there and an hour to get back, but the horrible weather made it take 2 hrs to get there. We didn’t get nearly as much time as we had allowed for, because of this, but that was ok – the weather was still kind of gross and it’s mostly outside. When we got back we had time to watch the Argentina vs. Mexico soccer game (with the Argentines that ran the hostel) which was thoroughly satisfying. When the game was over we took a taxi back to the airport and flew out for Bariloche.

Ushuaia Awesomeness

Well, I’m officially a horrible blogger, especially when I have catching up to do. Hopefully I can get all of that done today, in more than one post for the ease of my readers. :) I’m enjoying being back in the northern hemisphere but missing Argentina. Communicating with people is maybe a little too easy now – none of this “Let’s play charades so we can try to understand each other!” Anyways, right now, I’m sitting outside on the patio with my computer, watching Dudley sitting on Dharma because the ground is hard. Oh, Dudley.


We got to Ushuaia on June 21 without any incidents (except that Jeremy had lost his luggage on the way to Buenos Aires and it had not yet arrived in B.A.) and got moved into our bed and breakfast type place. We had a living room, where the two couches were beds as well, a kitchen, and a bedroom with two twin beds. We even got to make breakfast and various other foods! After getting moved in, we went to check out the town.


We got in somewhere between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, so though places were still open, they were trying to close for siesta. We found an eating establishment that wasn’t closed yet, and the guys were able to get a huge plate of meat. There was actually a window through to the “kitchen,” where they had a very large fire with lots of meat roasting over it. It could have made me ill if I had a weaker stomach. The rest of the day was basically spent getting ourselves oriented in the town – it seems like we did lots of that on this trip, which is cool for us, but not so much for you, Dear Reader.


On the 22nd (a Tuesday) we set up our excursion for the next day (which I’m not going to spoil), and then we grabbed a taxi to take up the hill to a nearby ski resort that was opening in the next couple of days. We hung out at the base, and I petted a dog or two while watching people hike up the bunny hill and board down. We decided to try to find some of the trails on a map (even though these trails are designed for summer hiking), and started hiking up the main slope. We got to one of the higher chalets and stopped to take pictures for a while, then Jeremy and I headed back down, and Russ and Steven went up quite a bit further. That night I was still pretty beat from the 15 hour time difference, so I went to sleep, and Jeremy’s luggage showed up at the airport. They wouldn’t bring it to him, however, so he had to walk to the airport. Russ was kind enough to go with him. (They COULD have taken a taxi… though I do think they took one back.)
This is how I dealt with the cold. It's called "Layered Jenise"



The excursion we had planned for the 23rd (Wednesday) was 4X4, snowshoeing, and dogsledding!!! The 4X4 part of the trip took up most of our time – we got stuck three times and had to get out so they could winch out the Land Rover. It was rather epic. We even drove in a lake, and on the shore of the lake “Oh, snap, there’s a tree on the ‘road’ or usual path we take right next to the lake. I guess we’ll just have to go around it, into the lake.” We did this for a long while, and everyone was quite impressed with the state of our stuckness, except for the last time, when it was just because the ruts were too deep to actually drive in. So we were just chillin there. The snowshoeing was entertaining, and it felt good to get out of the Land Rover and walk for a bit. The boys wound up having a rather extensive snowball fight, and I wound up getting pushed into and covered with snow.The sled dogs are some of the craziest dogs I’ve seen. They’re all super-super thin because they burn so many calories every day, and they all LOVE to run. When they know someone’s taking that sled out they all go crazy, like they’re shouting, “Pick me!!!! Pick ME!!!!”

The last day in Ushuaia was spent shopping for souvenirs and (on Jeremy’s part) working. Later we flew out to El Calafate, our next stop in Patagonia.

And now for the journey TO Argentina...

The morning I left Australia, I had to be up at 4:20. Yeah. Sarah’s flight for Cairns left at 6, and my flight left at 9, but we wanted to be there an hour before hers, and we wanted to leave together. The night before I didn’t go to sleep till late-o’clock either because I “wasn’t tired” – might have been because of the upcoming travel and nerves associated with that. By the time my flight to L.A. left I was rather tired. Then I did the good deed of giving up my seat so a family could sit together – giving up my window seat, moving to a seat in between two very large men. Nice, but large. I didn’t sleep the entire flight. 13.5 hours! By the time I got to L.A. I hadn’t slept in over 20, and if you know my sleeping habits, this is NOT A GOOD THING. I was tired and cranky and confused but managed to get myself to the right place, when I was told by a very mean security person that I “probably wouldn’t be able to check in yet” so I should just “go find a place to sit for a couple of hours” …yeah. They don’t have any comfortable places to sit outside of security at LAX. So I sat on a hard bench for a couple of hours. The nice thing was that I did have my phone and was able to call mom and call Jeremy. Both of which cheered me up. Getting through security went pretty quick and then I was able to sit inside of security for a few more hours. Geesh. Did I mention that at this point I was STARVING and the terminal I was in didn’t have food before security?! Yeah. A bad day was had by all. The flight from L.A. to Mexico City was uneventful but sleepless, and I still have Mexican pesos left from when I bought Starbucks in the airport there (hungry, again…). I did use up some pesos to buy the latest Runner’s World and a couple of packs of gum. The flight from Mexico City to Buenos Aires was also uneventful but this time sleepfull (I slept through breakfast!), but when I finally got through customs in B.A. I started freaking out a little. Jeremy was nowhere to be found. Russ had gotten in the night before, so he was with Steven, and eventually they were supposed to get to the airport to bring us both back, but Jeremy was supposed to get in a few hours before me. This would result in him waiting for me, would it not? Turns out his flight was overbooked and he didn’t come in until Sunday, so I wandered around for a bit and a nice Argentine who hardly spoke any English tried to help. I eventually paid a few pesos and checked my email at a communication kiosk and found out what had happened, and walking out of the kiosk basically ran into Steven. YAY! And we got food. DOUBLE YAY! We went back to the hostel in our reserved bus thingy and I was able to get a bit of sleep. Several hours. When I woke up, we went to a market thingy and shopped around for a while, me not buying anything because of my lack of pesos. This was Saturday, in case you’ve lost track, which you probably have because I lived Friday the 18th twice. It was mediocre to sucky both times. Sunday we got to meeting, but Jeremy showed up about ½ an hour before we left, right in time for breakfast! After meeting we went out for coffee with some of the friends – one of the girls reminded me of Marcela sooooo much!!! After coffee we went to visit Steven’s host mom, as he had stuff he needed to get from her apartment, and after that we changed and went to yet another market. I believe it was a good thing that we went to the markets BEFORE I got to an ATM. Monday morning (the 21st of June) we flew out of B.A. for El Fin Del Mundo – Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost city in the world.

The rest of Argentina shall be coming hopefully before too long... everything is neatly journaled in the form of a calendar and there has been no shortage of adventure... as Jeremy mentioned, maybe it's more helpful to measure things on a scale of "boring to interesting" rather than "good to bad"... I think maybe using both would be the most beneficial to my dear readers, though... Haha!!!

The End of Australia...

So sorry that this is so late in getting posted – Argentina has been full of adventures so we’ve been getting back pretty tired. Also – I know blogging is going to take a lot of time and effort, so I avoid getting around to it when I can. These next blogs WILL be split into parts – I have a journal entry written on the plane ride from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia that covers up to that point, but after that there is no journaling. So up to that point will be a nice meaty full blog and after that point will be a starved blog. Sorry.

Tuesday was spent in Brisbane again, this time visiting the museums and art galleries, thought the most fun was the art museum. The regular museum had an anthology of swimsuits which was pretty amazing, and the art museum had an anthology of hats. After seeing all the hats there was an opportunity to make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. Which we of course did. And then wore while walking around the area. We got a few odd looks, but we’re used to that. We ended up leaving them in a bathroom in one of the museum-y places. After that, we walked around the area of Brisbane that houses the Cultural Center and museums/art gallery and found a bookstore that Sarah had wanted to check out (this was achieved by asking people if they knew where the “warehouse type store with ‘art sale’ and ‘book sale’ signs in the windows” was).

The night was spent at the Englishes again, and in the morning we took the train up to the Gold Coast. Jana picked us up and we met Trudy (one of the girls that lives in the area) for brunch. We ended up going to the beach but not going in the water, then walking down to Surfers’ Paradise from wherever we were, and deciding that we didn’t want to try surfing because the waves looked pathetic and it was chilly. Also it would involve renting wetsuits and boards which seemed just a little too involved at the time. We eventually wandered into a bookstore and wound up asking for a used bookstore, after which we were directed to Broad Beach – another lengthy walk. We found the bookstore by asking random strangers where the used bookstore was. Everyone knew what we were talking about… Dan (one of the guys who lives in the area) came to pick us up and bring us back to Jana – he was the one that was supposed to give us surfing lessons until we changed our minds, though he decided to come and surf anyways – eventually agreeing that the waves were pathetic to nonexistent.

The next morning we flew out to Sydney and got day passes for public transportation around Sydney. The YHA that we stayed in wound up being right in the harbour area which is AWESOME. The YHA was built in an area called “the Rocks” apparently? -and wound up being right on top of an excavation site for the area originally settled by the first people that arrived in Australia – convicts, I think, from England. I should really pay more attention to the history aspect of things when I’m learning about them, so that when I actually attempt to use the information I’m not all, “I think” and “supposedly, I guess?” so yeah. Anyways, the area has a lot of stairs hidden randomly between buildings that you have to use to get places quickly, and some places seem to be only accessible by using the stairs. We were quite confused at first. After getting rid of our bags, we wound up getting food at a little French café (amazing!) and crossing the bridge. It’s big and kind of ugly, but the engineering/architecture seem to be pretty interesting, so of course we enjoyed that. Then we used our transportation passes to take a ferry back across the harbour and see the opera house that way. I’m unsure of how many miles we’d put in by this point that day and over the course of the trip, but my feet were hurting, and my Toms have a hole worn in the toe (now patched with electrical tape). We went back to the French café to have more food and read our books till after dark, then went to see the opera house again at night, this time up close. All in all, the last day in Australia was quite enjoyable and rewarding.

"Let's start a blog for a trip where we will not have a computer, and we will have very scarce internet access!!!"

I know that it's been a while, but as I'm sure I mentioned before, internet access and computer access (put together) is basically non-existent. :( Right now I'm staying with the Enlgishes (Alan, Sharon, Tom, Ebony, and Eloise) who were in Canada for a year several years ago. It's been good to catch up! Now let me catch you up on my happenings, Dear Reader.

Leaving Melbourne was INCREDIBLY sad. The Birds were amazing to stay with and took care of us like their own children... as Beatrice said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." When we first got there (to Melbourne) I couldn't wait to get out of the cold south, but when we did leave, it was too soon! Our last day in Melbourne was spent clearing out the van and our rooms and then we headed in to the city to meet Andrew for lunch before we left. One of my favorite things about Australia: I can walk into any burger joint, big or small, gourmet or ordinary, and order an absolutely fabulous meat free meal. They have lentil patties and veggie patties and awesome burgers. Yeah, I'm impressed. Our flight out of Melbourne was not without it's adventures. It was delayed two hours. And THEN when we got to the Gold Coast and called Chris to come pick us up, he was at the Brisbane airport waiting for us. Oops. So Jana calls Dan to come get us, and he says sure. She calls Chris to say so, and he says, "No, I'm on my way; this will be easier." She says, "OK" and calls Dan back. Then Chris calls and says, "Oh, I'm in stop and go traffic, better let Dan come get you." So Dan came to get us. An hour or two after we arrived at the airport, plopped our luggage down outside, and sat on it like homeless people. As you can tell, hilarity ensued. (Dan is a friend of Jana's, Chris is the guy Jana works for.)

We arrived early Friday morning to the Gold Coast (Clara got some sleep and flew out later Friday morning for home), and Friday night we went to "the girls' place" to hang out with "the girls." These are the girls that Jana lived with for the majority (I think) of her stay in Aussie this year. We went out to eat at a posh restaurant and then went to see a movie. It was a pretty nice night, just relaxing, except for the "spending more than $40 Australian on dinner and a movie per person." Ridiculous, I know. But the seats were really nice... Saturday was Jana's going away party, with the girls and a lot of the young friends in Brisbane/Gold Coast area. It was on a beach, which was nice :) We woke up at 11 and it was supposed to start at 11:30, half hour away. We got there at 12:30. That night everybody went back to the girls' place to hang out. Once again we were late - other people left earlier, but Chris decided we should have a game of hacky sack in the parking lot. Four people, only one of which is actually good at the game. Yeah. And then we had to get food and go to the supermarket before going to the house. Taking "fashionably late" to a whole new level! On Sunday we went to special meetings in Brisbane (we were almost late - does this surprise you?) and they were wonderful. We left halfway through the second meeting to get to the airport on time, though, dragging Chris, Jana, and Jess (ooh! another person to insufficiently introduce you to!) with us. Jess is a friend of Jana's and Sarah's - She and Jana met on an earlier Aussie trip of Jana's, and then Jess came to the states to visit and met Sarah at that time. I think that's how it goes. If not, I'm sure I'll be corrected but I'll leave that here, because it doesn't really matter to you. The flight to Airlie Beach area was without adventure.

And now: Airlie Beach. *sigh* this is SOOOO LONG. I contemplated breaking it up into several smaller blogs, all done today, but decided you could read this in bits and pieces just as well. Though it might be more terrifying :P

We got checked into the YHA in Airlie Beach, got our own 2 bedroom twin bed room. This enabled us to A) not have to put up with strangers walking in at all hours of the night and B) storing our stuff during the day and not worrying about locking it up. It was nice and clean, and we stayed there after the sailing trip as well. (Though the first day I did "trip" over a cockroach... and then it was wiggling there on its back for the longest time, looking pathetic, while we skirted around it.) Once again, supper consisted of an extremely tasty veggie burger. I can't wait to get home and try modifying some of these on my own. Aussie burgers are kind of famous.

[At this point there is an 8 day break in my journaling, where I got lazy and then had to recall everything at once. This may be a little sparse for details for a bit - which you, Dear Reader will rejoice at, I am sure.]

Monday we got checked in for our sailing tour, which was to leave at 1 pm and went to buy ugly bags with no zippers for use on the boat. This kept us from bringing everything we had with along, which was a good thing because of the extreme lack of space on the boat, even in our own cabin. We did get free storage for our backpacks, which was extremely nice. Our cabin space consisted of a bed and a bathroom (which included what they called a "shower" though that could be debatable) and 1 1/2 square feet of floor space. We were very glad to have our own cabin though, because those who didn't slept out in the "dining area/living area/socializing area," the scariest part of which being the "socializing" part. Our skipper was Steve, and our "hostie" was Sarah. There were 10 other passengers on the boat besides us: 5 Irish girls, a German girl, and and English girl (who all came equipped with loud, high pitched voices for the hard of hearing/earplugged!) and Irish couple, and a German boy. The first day, we went for a snorkel in an alright area off of the Whitsunday Islands (which was the point of this sub-trip - to see these islands and do fun things. Like go sailing). We also sat out on the deck and tried to get tans. Tuesday was better for that as we went to Whitehaven Beach - one of the top ten in the world - for a couple of hours. White sand, blue water, hardly any people. Awesome combo. The beach is reached mostly by boat, and those boats have to be smaller and have permits to get into the area - mmmmmm..... :) We now have awesome tans. Hopefully mine will survive Argentina. We got two more snorkels in, both on Tuesday, though Sarah and I (and most of the people) only did the first one, because it was REALLY cold. We saw clown fish and really old clams. The beach and the sailboat were the most awesome parts of that trip. Wednesday was a lazier affair, leaving where we had spent the night later and getting back into Airlie about 10:30AM. We spent the rest of the day walking into and out of shops and chilling at what they call the "lagoon" which isn't a lagoon at all. It's basically a free public pool that all of the backpackers go to, with grass or sand around it instead of cement (but it has a cement bottom). I don't think we took any pictures but it was very pretty and very populated. We also were able to go on a walk/hike outside of Airlie for a bit. Thursday our flight left pretty late so we had till 4:30 in Airlie - Once more, hiking, except for longer, then chilling at the lagoon, working on our tans :)

That night, the Englishes picked us up from the airport, which we were not expecting them to do. It was (is) greatly appreciated. This part of the trip is what I refer to as "Englishes #1" which is before the beach house weekend. Friday we took public transportation - City Cats and buses - out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. (City Cats are which are basically ferries on the river that are frequent and probably even more useful to the commuter than buses.) The sanctuary had all the Aussie animals, plus lectures throughout the day about the various ones. I was planning to name this post "Wallabies, Kangaroos, and Wombats, Oh, My!!!" But then figured I should apologize for my lack of posting. :S We saw those, and Aussie birds of prey, Aussie snakes, a platypus, a crocodile, emus, Tasmanian devils, (no echidnas - their place was being renovated, and they were supposed to be hanging out in the wombat enclosure - hiding, of course.) That night, Jana and Chris came from the Gold Coast to pick us up and continue on to the Sunshine Coast. We were able to coordinate supper (tea) at the Englishes, which was very tasty. Once again, we were late. Noticing a pattern here?

We stayed at what was basically an apartment-type resort in Noosa. We went to the Eumundi Markets on Saturday and walked around there after having brunch with the bunch (sorry haha!), and then sat by the pool and waited for supper to be prepared. Swedish style fondue... Really good, but really really rich. Our fairly large group of people was split up into two groups - Saturday supper and Sunday supper. It seems a lot of the weekend was spent eating. We were part of the Sunday crew, which decided on Japanese food. I'm fairly certain that we had more chocolate and other junk food than actual food in the apartment. And downstairs one of the couples had a deep fryer. YEAH. Steven and Russ would have loved this weekend. Monday we went for a walk around Noosa and then up the boardwalk for a while. We then headed back to Brisbane and got there around 5 PM and had a two hour wait until ROCK CLIMBING!!!

Chris decided to sleep in the car while we walked around the area. I absolutely love that river and how the residents of the city live with it. We all climbed up, except for Chris, who stayed wrapped up in his sleeping bag but did come out of the car. It was pretty terrifying, because this wasn't just a climbing wall made for indoors - it was a legitimate cliff face that runs parallel to the river, but doesn't go right into the river. It was also free. !!! To climb, you have to have gear, but a couple of the guys had the stuff that they let everyone use. It's a pretty organized event for the young friends in Brisbane. :) Monday night we went back with Ebony and Eloise to stay another night with their family. Tuesday, we went into the city with Sharon to go for a walk with the ladies and then spent the day in museums and art galleries and walking around that part of the city. The art museum had a hat exhibit - pure amazingness. All sorts of funky designer hats, and then at the end, you could make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. This happened to be one of the middling things we hit up, so we wore our hats for quite a bit wandering around the city. We were supposed to get back to the Gold Coast tonight, but we're heading up tomorrow morning instead and staying with the Englishes one more night.

If you've read this entire thing, well done! Sorry, that's all you get. Laters!

Here comes the sun!!!

So the sun has finally come out! Which makes us a lot happier! No more rain, no more fog, ...!!! So we finally got to Melbourne, and i finally got a calling card! Friday night we met up with some of the young friends in the area, most of whom Jana already knew. That night Clara and I stayed in a hostel, and Sarah and Jana stayed in the van. Saturday we went to the markets on Victoria Street (amazing fun, though we didn't buy much!) where they sell about everything you can imagine in a tent. We then walked down to the shopping district (Brunswick Street). Future roomie Kelly would love this place! So would Jenn! Saturday night we went out for Thai food with the same group of young people, and we were invited to stay the night with one of the guys (Andrew Bird) and his parents (Beatrice and Alan). Amazing family!!! We are SO THANKFUL to have them to stay with! They have the most adorable dog, Bella, a Poodle/Bichon Frise mix. She's very active and the cutest thing ever. We went to meeting with them on Sunday, of course, and then came back for a pretty big dinner afterwards. Very tasty! We went to gospel meeting (called mission) after that, and the young people came over for pizza.

On Monday, we went back in to Melbourne and Brunswick Street. I got three new scarves and a book to put the pictures from this trip in. Hopefully I will have mine, Sarah's, and Jana's pictures. We got to take the tram and the train to get in and out of the city. We made "tea" (supper) for the Birds because of all they have done for us. I got fresh orange juice. They sell it in three different sizes at that store. mmm... tasty! The green curry we made for supper was also tasty!

Today (Tuesday) we went to Phillip Island and got to see little penguins!!! We went on a walk there, and then went to watch the Penguin Parade. We weren't very impressed with the commercialism of the Island, especially the penguin area. EVERYTHING costs money. Everything was built up, pay extra money to get food and scrappy trinkets. If the money was going to a good cause/preserving the area, sure, but I'm fairly certain that it's not. Though we were glad to see the penguins, we felt that it was rather invasive and rude.

Clara's allergies are clearing up, and we've all come to love Melbourne. We're still looking forward to warmer weather though!

Well, we're here!

So this trip started out with running the Fargo 1/2 marathon - hardest run of my life because I decided not to run more than 9 miles during training. And then decided I should finish it in 2 hours. The pain wasn't really an issue until I got off planes. During my layover in L.A. I walked around a lot to keep from getting sore. I'm better now, and craving a run, though I don't know if that'll happen soon. I've been cooped up in a van for I don't know how many hours...

Sorry it's taken me so long to post. I didn't bring my computer along, so I'm using Clara's (right now, Sarah and I are traveling with Clara and Jana - more details in a bit). Add to that spotty internet access, everything gets just peachy.

Jana is Sarah's cousin, and Clara is a friend of Jana's. Hopefully that's detailed enough for you. :P

The flights were pretty boring. I slept a lot, it seems. Yay for earplugs and a mask! I have decided though that if L.A. is much like LAX, I've seen enough and have no desire to go back. I nearly hyperventilated checking my bag and going through security... However, in the airport I did get to eat California Pizza Kitchen pizza. And I ate it in a sunbeam, which made me happy :) I had an 8 hourish layover there, and forgot my phone until Sarah arrived several hours later with it. I was soooo bored. But when Sarah got there the time went by quite a bit quicker.

Sarah and I got into Sydney Tuesday morning, and Jana was there to pick us up. Customs weren't too difficult to get through, but long. We got a lot of questions about how we knew each other, being an American and a Canadian... We were able to shower soon after and then went for lunch - had a very tasty veggie-lentil burger at some cafe somewhere... my only complaint is that it was lacking in structural integrity.
We left Sydney Wednesday afternoon for the Blue Mountains. It was raining when we arrived in Sydney, raining when we left, and rained while we traveled to the Blue Mountains. We wanted to see the Three Sisters, but the fog made that impossible. We stayed the night in Katoomba at the Katoomba Mountain Lodge, basically a hostel. There we met Daan, pronounced Don, and the girls played card games with him and his friend while I fell asleep on a chair. My hat, at this point, was soaking wet because my shampoo had gotten on it (they were in the same bag while traveling) and I had to rinse it out. Because it was so wet, nothing was drying :( Thursday morning I bought a hat to wear around while we checked out Katoomba. It wasn't raining, for once!!!
Thursday afternoon we left Katoomba and headed for Melbourne. We stopped at some random lake near the coast to sleep - the van we're traveling in has a bed in the back :) Clara is suffering from terrible allergies and the van isn't helping, so she and Jana slept on the roof of the van. So far, I've been waking up far ahead of anyone else, but I think that will change tonight... it's 1am.
Thursday night we saw kangaroos!!!! They're kind of like deer... out at night, waiting to jump in front of your car, eating things that people may rather they didn't eat... We managed to scare them away with our headlights and camera flashes, and Jana and Sarah got really good pictures, while I just got proof. I'm avoiding posting pictures because this is not my computer, and I don't want to go through that irritating process multiple times. I shall do so in abundance when I can use Steve's, though :P

So we're supposed to fly out of Melbourne on the 3rd, go up to the Gold Coast, and then Sarah and I are planning on getting to the outback and going scuba diving. We'll see what happens, and hopefully blogging will be a possibility! I'm in a hostel tonight and should be getting to bed. Nighty night!

Dogs... :)

So I've come to the realization that I'm that creepy/irritating person who will talk to anyone about their pets. Maybe it's a good thing that I'll be gone for the summer and not have them to obsess about.

Yesterday, Molly and I went to Grand Forks to run some errands. It was nice to get away for a day with her... like old times! Today we went to the school to visit Mrs. L. and all of the teachers. There are a lot of new faces that I didn't recognize, in the faculty alone! For those of you who don't know, this is sad because I graduated in a class of 25. My school is TINY.

Later, Mom and I went to the vet to pick up flea, tick, and heartworm meds. When we came in, there was a dog, who JUST SO HAPPENED TO BE A MALE BRINDLE BOXER on the floor. At first I thought he was just sleeping, but it turns out, he was dying. He took his last breaths and finished twitching while we watched. The owner was a tough old Norwegian farmer who tried to be cool about it, but he was sniffing and tearing up. Turns out, the dog was being treated for Lyme disease and had been in for some shots the week before, but wasn't improving, so the man brought him in to see what more they could do (the dog walked in on the leash). They didn't get a chance to try. He was five years old.

This was very distressing to me, as I'm sure you can tell. I don't think it would have been AS bad if he'd not looked so similar to my baby. Since we got Dudley and Dharma, I've looked online at pictures of boxers and I've seen people walking their boxers. Never have I seen one that looks remotely close to either of ours.

When I got home D&D got quite spoiled. Earlier, I had split an apple between them, and if you've ever watched two full grown boxers be hand-fed an apple, it's pretty entertaining. They love it. :P After their four mile run (during which Dharma decided to sprawl in a VERY muddy puddle), they each got an egg, which took them a total of 2 seconds to eat. And then while I was eating my snack (a peanut butter sandwich), they each got a spoonful of peanut butter. All the "people" treats we give them are natural. And, NO, they can NOT have bacon. And yes, they have lost weight since they came to live with us :)

Sorry this is a bit long, but I love my dogs, and I won't see them for about 6 weeks. So you'll have a reprieve! I leave in 3 days!!!!

du jour, NOT du semaine

I just realized that my blog address is "jeniseDUJOUR" and what that means for me. The thought had crossed my mind in the past obviously, but was content to be posting weekly. Maybe I shouldn't commit to daily posts (I feel that would be very mundane) but more than weekly is possible. (That is, if you want me to. If you, Dear Reader, are opposed to hearing from me on a more than weekly basis, please let me know.)

Lately, my life has consisted of packing and de-ticking. The dogs pick up ticks like ...I don't know. We have a little container filled with alcohol and drop the day's ticks into it. It's like woodtick soup when we're done. GROSS. And then of course there's those savvy ones that climb onto the de-tickers so they won't die. Yet. I feel like they're crawling all over me.

For those of you who don't know, my dogs are spoiled. (They're really my parents' dogs, but while I'm home I call them mine.) They even have a "bed" which they do sleep on.


I'm fairly certain that I'm Dudley's favorite (he's the brindle boy... Dharma is the fawn girl). He follows me around and when I'm upstairs he comes to visit. Right now he's sleeping at my feet :)


Yeah, I love these guys. Here's a couple more pictures, just because my dogs are awesome.

Home :)

So, I'm finally home. Finally. I have a week before leaving for Australia, and so many things to do before then! But for now, I will enjoy being here and spending time with the family and the dogs. And having a phone so I can keep in touch with people who aren't here.

As I've been sitting here facebooking and skyping, Dharma has proceeded to eat some rawhide tastiness, growling at anyone who looked like they might interrupt. I would feel like this is super-unhealthy, but she ran at least six miles today, so she deserves a treat. Dudley just went to sleep. I wonder why he's the skinny one? Anyways, I could have gotten home Saturday night, but there were people who I wanted to see and who wanted to see me, so I had to settle with 7 tonight. Add in a run with the dogs (which takes longer than a run with just people) and unloading the car, there hasn't been much time to get things done today. Anyways, I'm making to-do lists for this week and freaking out even more than when I started writing this.

Hopefully there are no typos/hard to understand parts in here. I'm not taking the time to proofread :S

Ciao!

And so it begins...

My first exam of four was today, and I'm really not sure how it went. Literally, no clue whatsoever. (If you are Priscilla and reading this, feel free to add a very distinct "h" in front of "whatsoever"...) I keep wanting to write here, but feel that it's just because I'd like a distraction from studying. I don't want to bore you all with the details and whining of my personal life, because I know if I was a Reader, I may die from irritation. Hopefully this doesn't fall under that description:

A couple days ago (maybe yesterday? They all run together when you spend them doing the same thing) I made (almost) vegan pizza. Almost because I had a little real mozzarella left that got sprinkled over the top. The rest was a tofu-mozzarella that tasted like, well, tofu-mozzarella. Seriously. Tofu in mozzarella. Or mozzarella in tofu? It was a little strange, but manageable. Next experiment, I'm thinking no cheese whatsoever. Any ideas for what to put on it? This last pizza didn't have any "vegebles," which will be rectified next time as well, obviously.

Running has been put on hold this week because of tests and studying, which stinks, I know. Especially since the race is in 2 weeks. Yikes! (Check out www.fargomarathon.com!) But the nice thing about the race being in 2 weeks is that I leave in 2 weeks!!! WHOOP!

Peace out!

Yay!!!

So, today is my birthday (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I've decided to go ahead and do a first post, even though this is supposed to be for my trip this summer. I'm headed home from Texas next Thursday (hopefully... we'll see how that goes!) and leaving for Australia on the 23rd of May. After running a half-marathon on the 22nd. WHOOP! And then going to Argentina on the 18th of June till the 9 of July. Let the adventures begin!!! If I decide to continue to post until I leave, you may hear many uninteresting things, and for that I am sorry.