Transported Into Applesauce

Dream: Ron, Sean, Andie, Jesse, myself. Walking along a fairly secluded river, very green and kinda soggy. We pass a group of people that are dismantling a car, salvaging parts. Carry on walking, get to a bend in the river, find something that looks like a giant dumpster. This is apparently what we were looking for. Mike is already there, and he and Ron start going through the stuff in this container, pulling out what we want. Most of the stuff seems to be old, but pre-packaged, food. Lots of bread. They pull out loaf after loaf of pre-packaged bread, discard some loaves that are yucky, and throw the good ones to myself and Sean. Jesse and Andie have scrabbled around finding wooden planks and something we can use for wheels, and have erected a rudimentary transport system for the bread. Sean and I stack the loaves on this wheely thing, and we all start to walk the bread back up the river until we get into town. Scene change: Ron has short hair, but a rat tail thing in the back that's up like a ponytail. We are in the city, trying to get into a bar to get a drink, but we spent too much time with the bread and all the bars are closed. Our last option is to go to a bar where Ron works, he thinks he may be able to get us in tha back. We go there with the bread, but the lady is just finishing cleaning up the place and won't let us in. End.

Tasmania: Alyssa is going to Tasmania!! Jesse and I have our last final on December 1, and we are flying from Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania on December 2. We'll be there for a week, and are going to rent a car and just travel around and see all there is to see! Plane back is December 9. Round trip ticket = $150. Not too shabby, eh?

Party: Went to a party! I don't do this often, as everyone knows. Kinda lame that way. But last night was a pirate themed goodbye party for all the international students. Tickets were $10, and you get two 'free' drinks. Manuel, Jesse, Silke and myself wandered around Sydney for a while, had a pizza and a bottle of wine, nice views of Darling Harbour and the opera house. Showed up at the party place a couple of hours late, in time for the real party to start. We were there from about 10 til about 2, when the last bus left for home. Soooo much fun! Blaring music and dancing til your feet hurt. And lots of guys and girls that don't really know each other practically getting it on on the dance floor. I still do not favor beer, so happily occupied myself with vodka and cranberry and vodka and lime. I wore a tie to the party (I was a well dressed pirate), and it was used as a hook for people to grab me with an pull me around. I had lots of different dancing partners, and names weren't needed because I had a string around my neck! Convenient, question mark? Our group generally consisted of the original 4 of us, the Mexican boys, Bonnie, a couple girls that remain nameless, and Patrick and Steve, the two guys from the bushwalk a couple weeks ago. It was good to see them again. Pat danced with us most of the night, and I greatly enjoyed his company. Steve, I think, enjoys being hot and takes advantage of that to go find all the ladies. I saw him a few times, and we were dancing in the general vicinity of one another. I got a thumbs up a couple times and some winks. (Guys, what does this mean??) Caught the bus home, in bed by 4 this morning. Woohoo!

Canyon: Oh man. Jealousy would ensue if I actually had pictures of this canyon. Luckily for you guys, it was a wet canyon, and I don't have dry bag, so I couldn't take my camera. Michael, Al, Martina and I went to Rocky Creek canyon last week. It was a 6 hour slog through a sandstone canyon filled with freezing water. No rope work, but the water was deep enough that we were swimming in some parts. A couple of places the only way down was to stand on some rocks and hurl yourself off the rocks into the pool below (hoping it's deep enough...) The sides of the slot canyon part were overgrown with ferns and greenery of all sorts, and the light filtered down from the top... it was one of the funnest things I've ever done. The girls had a good time, I think. They were a little unprepared for the physically demanding aspects of the trip. Martina fell through some deadwood at one stage, and got all scraped up. She later did a faceplant into the dirt and wore a mask the rest of the journey. Al had bad luck with her shins, and managed to find all of the fallen logs in the water when we were swimming by running into them. We stopped for lunch a the end of the canyon proper, and paused for a bite to eat before commencing with the climb out of the canyon. The first bit of the climb out was about 1 km long patch of steep as hell ground, so overgrown you really couldn't see anything. Michael told us the start for this climb was over this 5 foot boulder, cause everything else was too crowded. So the girls and I moved over to this boulder and were trying to figure out how to get up it, cause there's no handholds or footholds, and the start is actually from about a foot of water. Al and Martina give half-hearted attempts, and then stand back, intimidated. Not to be undone, I actually manage to get my foot on the top of this boulder. My leg is about on the same level with my neck, now. But there is nothing to grab onto to pull myself over the top, so I lean over and try use my busom as a point of contact for hauling my rear onto this rock. (Sorry, minimally graphic for the uninitiated.) It actually works. Yay for being extremely flexible an having the chest to perform this amazing acrobatic feat! By this point, the girls are laughing ridiculously in the tone of laughter that says 'like hell I'm gonna be able to do that!'. Michael is standing back laughing in general because he lied! After watching me spend 10 minutes doing this, and getting stuck, and making progress an inch at a time, he leads the girls around the bend where they manage to scrabble up a bank under some trees. It was during this episode that I pulled a hamstring. Soreness ensued for several days. I am ok now. Thanks for asking.

Love!