Back to work

Yesterday, I went to a local library to speak to a group of “youth.” I’d volunteered in January for a random weekend in March and it finally came due.

In Morocco, “youth” meant people up to age 40, assuming they weren’t married, so based on that, I was expecting a slightly older crew, and, seeing as how the topic was “Culture of America” (however I wanted to interpret that), I figured there’d be some knowledge of English.

Upon officially being tasked with the gig, my age range shot and narrowed down to “elementary school age” – 6 to 12 or so. But as it turned out, they meant kids primarily 4-9 or so, with one outlier who could not have been older than 2. Oh, and their parents.

It was so bizarre and I’ve no idea if it went over well for them, but I had a blast. After chatting with a few people for ideas, I settled on an animal presentation, highlighting critters found in America. (Some were in Canada and South America, too, and some similar species were found in other parts of the world, but all that I chose were biggies in the U.S.)

I did another PowerPoint – I love that stuff – and had three slides for each of 15 animals: one for photos, one for three facts and one that had a map where they lived in America as well as a “fun fact.”

I split them into three groups of five and had games planned to review the species: charades, a quiz game and the thing where you put the name on your head and then try to guess based on yes or no questions you ask your team. Well, that’s not going to happen with a 4-year-old. That part turned out to be a debacle so I wound up just shouting out questions and letting the kids scream out the answers.

I got A LOT of questions, which as cool but I am no expert in all the critters I talked about. Um...do brown recluse spiders have webs? I said no. And I said that prairie dogs eat meat, which, upon retrospect, is probably really wrong. I figured they'd never remember anyway. But they do know what to do in case they run into a rattlesnake - stand completely still until it goes away. (I remember this from a sign in a national park in Arizona. What it said was something like, "If you are lucky enough to see a rattlesnake, step back and enjoy." Yeah, right.)

They also wanted to know about the eating habits of wolves, like what the alpha male ate. Well, I read a book on that and it's fascinating. Each wolf in the pack has a different role and, when the pack makes a kill, each wolf eats a certain part of the kill and what they eat pertains to what they need for their role in the pack. It's really deep, and these kids were little! HOW do you explain that?

They got into the “what do they eat?” thing and I had no idea. But unofficially, skunks eat animals smaller than them and possums eat plants. What kind of plant, they wanted to know. The kind with leaves, I stressed. Tell me I can’t think on my feet.

It really was a lot of fun and I would do it again. Apparently, this library – which is solely a kids’ library, kind of cool – is trying to establish this program with a lot of the consulates and I got to be the first. I feel I set the bar high. The kids had a really good time, and so did I. I mean, I went WAY overboard in my presentation, but they liked the pictures. I’d to the same presentation – Animal Olympics and all – to a slightly older audience with no qualms whatsoever.

And now it’s Sunday and I’ve been back into work to supervise a contractor job and to try and fight our Sharepoint site, which is a weird Microsoft program that’s kind of an online filing system. I really don’t like it because it’s hard to make useful. Anyway, I went in thinking I’d have four hours to catch up while I did that and then the contractors arrived late and took an early lunch and I really didn’t have that much time.

Now what I have to do is get a grip on my annual evaluation, which is just a nightmare. No one likes to do these thing and they’re just a pain in the butt. But my department has 40 due between now and June 1 and since I get to project manage them all through, it’s in my best interest to get mine underway and out of the way as soon as possible or I run out of time dealing with it. 

Throwing in some more Melbourne photos. I just loved the beach. I’m not sure if I am a beach or mountain person. There’s got to be some place that has them both. That’s where I want to go.

The little hole in the dirt was a penguin next. He or she was home at the time, but wouldn’t pose for a photo. That was the only opportunity I had to photograph one because we couldn’t once it got dark.

The birds were unreal to see in the wild. They were just in this random park in Melbourne, seriously. I heard this “cawing” and looked up and saw these lovebirds. It was hard to shoot them – I really need a better camera. Later, in Sydney, I saw some cockatoos just hanging out.

I don’t know what happened to the starfish, but he must have been really slow, because he was completely dried out. I think I saw three on the rocks where this was.

The model thing was in the art gallery. I forget what it was called, but it was something about a reflection. It’s a hanging installation of a model of a temple. The model is built in 14 pieces. It’s essentially seven different buildings, then the complete reflection of those buildings. It really was pretty phenomenal.

Did I mention the music was fabulous? It was like being thrown back into the 1980s. I really heard "Stuck With You" and "Jessie's Girl" on the radio (and visited Springfield Park in Sydney, although that might have been a coincidence).

 Oh, and I tasted Vegemite. It was vile.

Up, Down and Over in Australia

Back from R&R! And although it really is good to be back, I had a blast.

I mistimed by visit to Melbourne. Had no clue the Grand Prix was there that weekend, but it really wasn’t so bad. I heard the cars practicing and doing the qualifying (or whatever it’s called) and got to watch the fighter planes practicing for whatever it is that they do.

Don't we all?

That was quite cool, actually. Very Top Gun-ish. As I was walking along the beach, I could hear the roar of a plane – you could hear it WAY before you could see the thing – and then he’d come into sight, doing all kinds of maneuvers, like a kid would do with a model plane. Up, down, in circles, upside down and everything, until he just shot up and disappeared. I guess he came down later, but I never saw that part.

My first impression of Australia, though, was first of all, it was more sun than I’ve seen in a LONG time (and I’m back to polluted skies now) and second, that a lot of people smoke.  A lot of people smoke here, too, but I don’t notice it. There, in both Melbourne and Sydney, there were just smokers everywhere.

Another thing in general that I appreciated – so very Western! – was the availability of drinking water. They brought it to you at meals! Had water fountains everywhere! Oh, I’ve missed that, just as I’ve missed clean public toilets with … wait for it … toilet paper!

Oh yeah, I enjoyed the little things.

I had a lot of highlights in my 10 days in Australia. The whole trip kind of crept up on me. I was there about as long as I was in Alaska when I went there, and I did as much adventurous stuff, but the difference was, that time I had it all mapped out and booked everything in advance.

Best golf course sign ever.

This time around, I had two things planned – the penguin trip and a double shore dive – but everything else was spur-of-the-moment. And by this I mean I was on web site one evening that said “Dive with Sharks!” and the next afternoon that’s what I did.

Yep. I dove with sharks. This was after my double shore dive, and I think I was endangered more on that than with the sharks! I’d gone to Manly – a half-hour ferry ride from Sydney – and gone diving in the morning. On our second dive, the guide brought us up a LONG way away from where we were supposed to be. We could see the shore, but it was quite a ways. We started swimming, and I had a hard time for a couple of reasons. The biggest, or so I thought, was that the wetsuit I was wearing was too tight at my neck and I could only breathe comfortably if I was completely horizontal in the water. Well, if you’re diving and need to swim, it’s more efficient if you do it on your back. And since you’re wearing an inflated BCD – the breathing thing – you cannot be completely horizontal.

So there I was, trying to kick my feet and having to hold two fingers at my collar to pull the neck thing out so I could breathe. And I just didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. I finally told the instructor that I was really tired. She came back, took a look and said, “When did you lose a fin?” And that’s when I figured out why I was making zero progress – in the initial kicking, I must have kicked off a flipper, but I never saw or felt it.

Obligatory Opera House photo

Since you can’t really swim with one fine and zero would have been futile, the guide had to tow me. It was kind of embarrassing, but there just wasn’t anything I could do. And the guide was really embarrassed, too, because basically it was her initial screwup. But no harm, no foul. I lived to dive with sharks later that day.

But realistically, that, too, was tame. The sharks looked quite killer, but they – Grey Nurse sharks – aren’t designed for attacking humans. God made them to be able to stab little fish, not big things. So it was perfectly safe, and it took place not in the open water but in this giant Living Seas-type sanctuary/aquarium thing that held about a kajillion gallons.

The drill was you go in, kind of flop over a tunnel (seriously, it’s like walking in outer space – very hard to do), walk to the shark tank, then pull yourself up on the tunnel thing and just hang there as they did their thing. They took a max of four people at a time, but when I went, it was just me and this woman from Sweden, whose boyfriend was too scared to do it. He stayed in the tunnel (the thing where visitors to the sanctuary walked through to see the underwater world) and took pictures of her the whole time.

Had to stay here. Had my name written all over it.

We didn’t even use fins on that one, just the booties. It wasn’t so much as “diving with sharks” as it was “walking under water and hanging out as they swim by.” But it was very cool. As it turned out, the sharks, while fascinating, weren’t even my favorite part. They had these giant stingrays – we’re talking over three square feet – but also three big ol’ sea turtles. As I was leaving the shark tank and going back over the tunnel to exit, one of those guys smashed into me. That was my highlight – being hammered by a loggerhead.

Previously, I’d seen the penguins while in Melbourne, so the dives – all three of them – were additional critter highlights. The penguins, recommended by Laurie, were pretty awesome. It’s a sun-goes-down thing, when these little guys – called Little Penguins, previously known as Fairy Penguins – come out of the ocean and into their little nests. You’d see one surfacing, then a wave would roll in and they’d multiply, like Children of the Corn. You couldn’t photograph them, but they also had a few at the Living Seas-type place and I got some shots of those guys. I really need a better camera.

Can you see the joey?

So the diving was the “down” part. The “up” was another spur-of-the-moment thing when I decided to jump off an airplane. I’d thought about skydiving before but hadn’t had the opportunity. I’ve said before that I’d like to do it, although bungee jumping holds no interest to me. I enjoy the scenery, and you can’t do that bungee jumping. Skydiving seemed like a good way to get another perspective on God’s handiwork.

With that in mind, I was fine with it. I had a false start when the skydive place and the travel agent I went through mis-communicated between themselves and had me going a different day than they told me, but the day of was flawless. Beautiful weather, no wind.

It was kind of like waiting around at a track meet. There were 14 of us jumping and only two fit in the plane at a time.(This was tandem, so by that I mean two jumpers and two instructors at a time in the plane.) There was a lot of waiting around, even initially. As it turned out, I was the first in the group of 14 to go (me and a girl from Singapore whose husband was a wimp) and the first out of the plane.

Me, post-jump

Oddly, I was never at any point worried about it. I was actually a little anxious that I wasn’t concerned about it, but I couldn’t muster up anything. I kept thinking, “Gee, I should really feel like I’m going to wet myself, but I don’t.” And I told my instructor guy I was reserving the right to freak out at the last minute, but it never kicked in. I was perfectly calm the whole time. It wasn’t some kind of adrenaline rush like I thought it would be. It was completely chill and relaxing.

I even liked the little plane on the way up, although the four of us were basically sitting in the trunk of a car. The pilot had a seat, but the two pairs of jumpers were just sitting on the floor. I kept thinking panic would set in, but even once I was harnessed to the instructor and he said there were almost three miles left, at the three-mile signal put on the goggles and at the two-mile he’d open the door and at the one we’d step off, I figured I’d start having heart palpitations. But no.

It was gorgeous, though. The freefall didn’t even feel like falling – I was expecting something like the Toy Soldiers thing at Disney or the Free Fall thing at Six Flags or whatever – but it’s just this wind rushing by you so that you can’t hear anything. Then there’s a jerk – my back hurt the next day – as the chute opens and then you’re just gaping at the awesomeness of it all. And then it’s over. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

I saved the bridge walk for the last day. Honestly, I was more hesitant to walk the 1,400 steps up the Sydney Harbor Bridge than to jump off an airplane, but it was incredibly tame. I think I pictured steeper steps and a lot of hiking, like I did at Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan. But this was just walking up a gradual incline with a lot of stops on the way so that you could bask in 360-degree views of Sydney Harbor, which I loved. In one little port – just one of many – I counted over 100 boats.

So my R&R was a complete success. The Linley House, my one lodging splurge, was awesome, with it being my first encounter with another Linley and me being the proprietors’ first Linley in the flesh.

I met up with a colleague in Melbourne and had a great time with her. We had a couple great lunches and then caught a movie. (And I saw another one while I was in Sydney, and watched “Nightcrawler” on the plane, so I’m down to three in my Netflix queue.)

Ate at Margaritaville’s. Never been there before and didn’t know there was on there but enjoyed it in Leila’s honor. I had fish and chips a total of three times, but was too full to have dessert with the Margaritaville meal, even though it was $14.95 Key Lime pie.

Melbourne, in particular, had phenomenal places to eat. I mean, you name it, they had a restaurant catering to it. My colleague and I discussed this at length. She asked if I knew this one type of street food from Taiwan – a chicken breast that’s pummeled flat and served on a stick – and I’d indeed had it. She said there was a restaurant there specializing in it. Seriously, this random street food from Taiwan, and there it is in Melbourne.

Anyway, I just had a great time all around. Now it’s back to work tomorrow, though I went in today and cleared out 450 emails (I’d unsubscribed to a listserv to cut back on the emails and am so glad I did.) So tomorrow it’s back to reality, but I am ready for it.

The trip between trips

I really just got home from Manila/Hong Kong and Frankfurt/Paris and my R&R starts next week in Melbourne/Sydney. If I were a normal person, I would have taken this weekend to recoup, but no. A couple of friends went to Macau and asked me to tag along, so I did.
 

We’re just back and I’m totally sick with a cold, but ah well. My plan is to get the clothes out of the washer, take a shower and just crash.

This was the second time I’ve been to Macau, and we did a different part than before. It was more Portugual-y than the first area, though not by much. The egg tarts were pretty awesome. We got six for 50 Macau pataca (and have a lot of fun saying “pataca” and even though all three of us loved them, we opted to give our second to a sweet lady who was begging outside the store. She gave us a sincere toothless smile in appreciation, and it was totally worth it.

The influence of Portugal is still strong in Macau, down to the religion. The churches and cathedral in mainland China are few, far between and not open to locals. 

Macau had a few, and we went to one and happened to get there right as mass was starting, so we went. It seemed tacky to try to photograph the inside while we were worshiping so I didn’t, but it really was pretty inside. It was yellow with a mint green ceiling. The stained glass – which was minimal – was the same shade of green and a shade of lavender. Taken together, it reminded me – in a good way – of those after-dinner mints. Very simple and very beautiful. 

The photo of the church here is a different one than the one I went in, in a separate part of Macau. I loved the dock, too. I just have a thing for boats and water, I know. I photograph them a lot. I really liked the juxtaposition of the little boat with the City of Dreams and Hard Rock in the background.

So now I have to figure out how to pack for Australia, and perhaps do a little planning for that, too. What I have right now is places to stay, an overnight bus from Melbourne to Sydney, reservations for penguin-watching and diving on two days. That’s it. I have no earthly idea what I will do the rest of the time. 

I need to plan, but I’ve been so ridiculously busy. As in, last week, I’d glance at my watch and realize there were only five minutes left in the workday or that lunch was half over and I hadn’t realize it had begun.

There are two days in this work week for me, and I have a big deadline, a doctor’s appointment and God knows what else. My busy season will be in full swing upon my return, too, so I need to tie up whatever is outstanding before I get out of town.

One loose end I’d like to tie up is an outstanding partial order from Walmart.  My order got mucked up the other day. It's still kinda funny. I've previously ordered a bunch of grocery items and then one bath item -- a loofah -- and, if you've ever ordered from a place that has food/no food items, you probably know they ship those separately.

The loofah came shipped in this box about twice the size of a shoebox. That was all that was in the box. Everything else had been food. The thing wasn't that big, but didn't fit in an envelope. I guess it was the next size up.

But right after I got back from Manila, I got another box that topped it. I placed a big order and part's still outstanding, so I was expecting that. Katie in the mailroom laughed when she gave me the box, asking if I'd gotten another sponge and joking that it was air because it was so light. We aren't allowed to open mail in the office, so I took it home and opened it.

It was air. All that was in there was about seven of those little air packets. No packing slip. So I emailed them -- they really good at getting back -- and suggested that maybe it was supposed to be the outstanding part of my order. They said no, my order hadn't been shipped yet. I was like, uh .... then why did you send me air? I didn’t get a response to that email and instead got a “the rest of your order has shipped” note. 

So yeah, kinda funny.  I just want the rest of the order to come in. I’d like to delete that email.

I keep a “spam” email address where all stuff like that goes, and right now, that account is full of emails. Beyond the Walmart correspondence, I have all upcoming travel stuff. Just the Australia trip alone is enough to clog an inbox (somehow, despite such few plans) but I also have Nepal, Burma and Zhengzhou. I’m ready for the R&R just so I can delete some of the stuff!