2005-08-23

And time goes by...so slowly...

Australia was a really good time, although leaving Amanda wasn't. She got all teary at the airport, and the trauma of leaving her and seeing her like that made me make a couple of mistakes going through customs at the Brisbane airport. Everything turned out okay, though. The flight back was fine and I caught the trains back to Mobara okay. Howard White picked me up at the station.

Well, so about the vacation…Amanda and I were on the same flight over, although it was a weird “code-share” thing so officially she flew with Qantas and I flew with Japan Airlines although it was the same plane. We got in on Friday (8/5) and we had a sort of "brunch" with Amanda's mom and Kimberley, one of Amanda's friends who's going to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. Kimberley was in New Zealand for a conference with her work and came in maybe half an hour after we did. After brunch we went ring shopping. I got Amanda a ring right after I proposed, but since it was in Japan and neither of us could understand what was going on we both agreed it’d be better not to buy an expensive ring there. So ring shopping was on the agenda for this vacation. We checked some of the shops in the mall where we ate, and to my surprise we found something in the second store we checked. We both really liked the ring and it was within my budget.

Went to church at the place where Amanda's family goes. There was some big pathfinder/youth campout, though, so the place was mostly deserted. The preacher was the associate/youth pastor, who's from Croatia or one of them Slavic countries. He speaks with an accent but was easy for me to understand. It was actually a very good sermon, he spoke out of Nehemiah which was really hard-core since I don’t know that I’ve heard anyone preach from Nehemiah before. Later that night we went out to a movie and had good non-alcoholic SDA drinks with some of Amanda's and her sister's friends from church.

The next day, we (Amanda, her sister Angela, and I) went up north to Rockhampton, which is the town where Amanda grew up. It's a good 8 hour drive north of Brisbane. The town is the center of the Australian beef industry and the Tropic of Capricorn runs through it. Amanda's grandmother is in a retirement living facility in a beach town called Yeppoon maybe half an hour out of Rockhampton so we stayed in a motel/hotel thing there and paid her some visits. The area around Yeppoon reminds me somewhat of Kailua--not so much in the looks of the place (significantly less green), but the smallish coastal town feel reminded me of "home". I tried Fish & Chips for the first time there. This place right on the beach had it, we went there, and they gave us probably 10 pounds of chips! It was really good, but there was no way we could finish it all. We stayed around Yeppoon/Rockhampton for three days and then headed 4 hours south to a place called Hervey Bay. Angela had gotten a whale-watching expedition organized. It was really spectacular. I think they were the same kind of whales we saw when we went out on Christmas a couple years ago in Honolulu, but these whales got right up next to the boat and were staring back at us. A really fun experience.

We arrived back in Brisbane on Wed. night. We didn't do a lot else the next few days, partially because we were recovering from the long trip north and gearing up for the engagement party on Sunday. Amanda ran around on Friday getting a new outfit for the party and getting her hair color changed. It's now a sort of auburn. We also had to pick up the cake.

The party was really nice. I think they invited around 60 people and maybe 50 were able to attend. LOTS of family members--both Amanda's parents come from good-sized families, I think both of them have 3-4 brothers/sisters. Amanda had friends there from her work and church. I was really nervous and was hiding out in her room until the party began, but it became easier and I ended up having a really good time with people. Some of them even commented on how they liked listening to my exotic accent! Towards the end they brought the cake out, Amanda's folks both gave speeches and then they asked ME to give a speech in front of all these people I hadn't met before that day. I kinda rambled on about how great it was to meet everyone and how wonderful Amanda is, and people really liked what I had to say. Amanda told me later that everyone was really impressed, which of course was a good thing.

The next week we did touristy sorts of things around Brisbane. I ate more steak there than I have in my entire LIFE. I got something called a Tex-Mex combo at one steakhouse, which you see is funny because I went to Australia to eat American-style steak. Also, there’s a restaurant in America called “Outback Steakhouse” which is supposedly Australian-style cooking but is an American establishment through and through. Then there's this thing called the Ekka, which is like a really huge state fair in American terms. They've got your rides and gimmicky "win a big stuffed animal" games, livestock/craft/food competitions and outrageously unhealthy food, although they call it different stuff. Fairy Floss = cotton candy, dagwood dogs = corn dogs. They also had a big show in the evening with a motocross exhibition, stunt driving and a blonde female HUMAN CANNONBALL from America. That was fun since I've never seen a human cannonball before.

Oh, we got some details fleshed out for the wedding too. The service is going to be held at a little Baptist church that's RIGHT on the beach--I mean you turn around from the church door and go across the street and you're on the beach. I was all excited because the church looks like some little country church and it's all quaint and keen and stuff.

Then on Wednesday we did what I was hoping to do ever since I started planning this trip to Australia--we went to the Australia zoo, the home of Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin! The zoo is REALLY well-kept, the staff are all really friendly and helpful, and I saw some animals I've never seen before like wombats and tasmanian devils. I got to hold a koala and we have a big high-quality photo of the event, although Amanda and I swapped photos so I have the one of her. There's also a thing where you can walk around and feed kangaroos and such. So that was nifty. I got souvenirs for people and might even get around to sending them before I end up back in America next year. The following morning we went to the airport and now I'm back in Japan, trying to stay busy and running up a big ol' phone bill.

Exotic (Non-American) Food Count:
Sag Paneer curry
Pad Thai noodles
Dagwood Dog
Fairy Floss
Nutmeat lasagna
Australian steak
Pavlova
Lamington
Fish n’ Chips
Weet-bix