First WWOOF: 10 days of retired living with Jo and Rosh

A beautiful country property in Burra, 50 minutes outside of the country’s capital of Canberra, is where I spent my very first Willing Workers on Organic Farms experience. Jo and Rosh were a lovely retired British couple living on a good piece of land with Lola the Ridgeback, Chado the Pekingese, 9 chooks (hens) and three cows they were babysitting for a friend. Our days went something like this:

8:00 am: wake up for tea and breakfast of fruit and toast

9:00 am (but usually more like 9:30): start working on stacking firewood or weeding

Midmorning: break for a cold drink

Back to work until 12:30 or 1:00 and then a lovely sandwich lunch

After lunch was a siesta for a minimum of two hours ended with afternoon tea and bickies

4:00 pm: ride the mower to clear one of the 5 paddies (fields)

6:30 pm: watch the news with a glass of red wine, cheese and crackers

8:00 pm: dinner

They even found time to drop me at a few sights in Canberra while they were running errands there, so I saw the War Memorial museum, plus the new and old Parliament buildings. As a bonus, Matt Clarke, a very good friend from high school, met up with me on one of these little excursions and we got a quick chance to catch up. Otherwise my quiet time was spent listening to the Magpies sing, the Galahs cry, Chado snore and some wonderful classical music recordings, as Jo is an opera lover. In addition, my siestas and evenings were spent reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time. In the end I left feeling very proper and very British

WWOOFing

My last couple of days in Sydney were very nice. I tried to walk from Bondi Beach down to Cogee (a very popular coastal path) but it started to rain on me so decided half way that it was OK to just go back and get ready for my night at the opera. I walked myself down to the opera house in the drizzle with just enough time to have a glass of wine before being seated. The house and stage were actually a lot smaller then I thought they would be, but that could be because I was sitting in the front row. I thought I was going to be in the front row of the balcony, but no. Front row. I was starring at the orchestra and I know they could see me because I kept having inadvertent eye contact with the first violinist. Crazy. Wonderful.

Saturday I took a tour of the Hunt River Valley which is a wine country a few hours North of Sydney. I heard about the tour through MeetUp.com. Great web site for any city in the world. Ending up really enjoying the day with Sam, a guy trying to start up this little tour business, and a few Aussie girls and a German. We had a really nice time. We started at a wild life preserve where kangaroos just jumped right up to you. Touched a koala too. Also, emus and wallabies abounded. I fell in love with a vineyard called Hanging Tree and if you see the pictures you'll know why.
-first cultural fun fact: the girls were telling me that rabbits have a bad rap in Australia for being feral, so they are trying to get rid of the Easter bunny and have an Easter bilby instead. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bilby
They even make chocolates in the shape of bilbies instead of rabbits.

I'm now an hour outside of Canberra, the capital of Australia, with my first WWOOFing stay. A lovely retired couple is letting me stay and eat for free as long as I help them around the grounds. It's not really a farm as much as a beautiful country home. I'll be weeding and riding the lawn mower and things like that. Today we cleaned out the garage in the rain. Very nice people and really great food. Can't believe I'm not paying for this.

So far, so good.

Sydney = Awesome

The first thing I did when I got here (after showering) was walk down to the harbor. The whole time I was thinking how much this city reminds me of Chicago, plus they have sweet accents. It's perfect. I'm really loving walking around, sitting outside the opera house, laying in the Royal Botanical Garden (my new favorite place on earth) and staring at the ocean. I've had a lot of quiet time wondering around and loved every second of it, plus meeting interesting people along the way. European travelers have such a different mind set than we do. I tell people I'm going to be here for about two months I think and they all reply with "Well, that's a bit short, but you can do it." These people are crazy!

I'm really looking forward to seeing Traviata at the opera house tomorrow and a group tour package on Saturday that will take me to a wildlife sanctuary and wine tasting. Sunday takes me on a bus three hours south to Canbeera where I will be picked up for my first WWOOF stop. So excited!

A side note for all you Seoul savvy readers: I typed this while sitting in a Tom N Toms drinking a $7 blueberry smoothie surrounded by Koreans. Go figure. =)

This is it....

18 months and 104 posts later I'm out of here. For good this time. Hard to believe.

I'm usually pretty good with good-byes and endings. I'm ready. It's time. But, nonetheless, I'm a little nostalgic when saying goodbye to all the wonderful people who have become part of my life since I've been here. This goodbye does not really have to be forever my friends.

I leave here to embark on yet another first for me. Extended solo travel looms ahead. As I run around Australia with no real plan or end in sight I hope to continue communication here when I can. Should be yet another eye opening experience of self-discovery...or just a good time.

작별 인사 서울. 그게 현실이야.
Jagbyeol insa Seoul. Geuge hyeonsil-iya.
Goodbye Seoul. It's been real.

My Last "Meet Up"

Sweet things I did this weekend at the Yong Pyong ski resort:

• Skiing for the first time in about 15 years...I'm still not very good at it
• Jimjilbong twice
• Norebong
• Bowling
• Slept in sweet train sleeper car type bunk beds
• Water park including sweet indoor slides, a lazy river with crazy waves in it, a pool dedicated to a wide variety of jet messaging chairs and multiple outdoor hot tubes in a variety of different colors. We also got to rent some sweet swim suites and had to buy a swim cap. We all looked pretty hot.
  

Good times with good people all for under $200,000 won. You just can't bet that.

Never Say Never

The ultimate example of last minute major changes that happen around here:

Megan Reddy is coming back to KC after being "gone forever" for only 1 month due to a the bunk replacement teacher they hired for Apple Class. She is only staying for 3 weeks, but that's perfect for me, as I am leaving at the same time. I don't think I have ever been this excited.

Sweet-uh.

Let's go to the mall and see the fish!

I have finally made my way over to the aquarium in COEX Mall. I had the option to go with the school the first day arrived, but decided that the chance to sleep late and come in after the field trip made more sense. Man....that feels like it happened 5 years ago.....

Growing up near the Shed Aquarium, I didn't think I would find an aquarium in a mall impressive, but then I also wasn't thinking about the fact that this is largest mall in Korea either. It was pretty sweet. It way very large and had an interesting array of fish, displays and other seemingly random animals such as bats and hedgehogs. My favorite room had many inventive tank displays such as a toilet bowl, washing machine and my personal favorite a computer in a glass box with an aqurium desktop on and then actual fish swimming around it. The place is also famous for it's two headed turtle and shark tanks that have a tunnel walk way where the sharks swim over you. I give it a rousing two thumbs up.