My Australian Odyssey! 12/28-1/1

I actually wrote quite the trip diary down in Australia and I'll re-type it all here for all of you fine folks at home.  I will break it up by day so here's my first entry from 1/1/10:

Before I left for Australia I said I was going to write everyday.  Of course I haven't but I'm determined to start off 2010 on the right foot.  I'm sitting in a beautiful country home in Buladelah, Australia (pop just a little over 1,000) listening to frogs, crickets and cicadas.  It's the closest I've been to nature in a long while.  The air is humid and still and the grass is still damp from the afternoon rain (my muddy sandals can attest to that!).  It's so peaceful-a far cry from spending New Year's Eve in Sydney but exactly what I needed.

I've never met an Australian I didn't like and that holds true here as well.  Everyone is so friendly and laid back.  I spent the day with Jen's friends and her friend's parents and it was wonderful.  We did nothing but eat and drink and gab.  It was so fun to spend so much time with a new family.  After being in Korea for so long, I've realized how much I miss families.  It's felt so good to feel like I belong again.  I haven't stopped smiling since the plane landed.  Tonight I was sitting and listening and soaking it all in.  I can be in a situation where I can understand the conversations, have a conversation without using small basic words and I don't struggle to understand what people are saying (unless they're using Auslish!) 

And the food.  OMG the food!  Every meal is so amazing and it's funny because if I was back in the US it wouldn't be exciting at all.  But after 4 months in Korea it's like gourmet food.  I've had roast chicken and potatoes, a bunch of tacos, sausages and steak and onions.  I'm in heaven.  I love bulgogi but it doesn't compare to El Paso taco shells and beef!

It's also amazingly green here.  I couldn't stop gasping the first day just seeing green grass and trees.  Winter is tough in Korea, but for a Florida girl, it's probably tough anywhere.

Also-animals!  Australia has loads of them.  I get woken up at dawn everyday by the assortment of cockatoos and kookaburras in the yard.  It's rare to hear birds in Korea and if you're woken up at dawn it's probably from a truck coming down your street advertising something with a megaphone.

We went to Featherdale Wildlife Park on Tuesday and I got to pet kangaroos, koalas and emus and yesterday we went on a bushwalk in Katoomba Nat'l Park.  The trees in the bush smell amazing and fresh and the air is clean.

I'm flying down to Adelaide tomorrow and then onto Port Lincoln on the 2nd.  I'm hoping to explore both cities a bit in between my shark dive.  I'm really excited to see the Australian ocean!