MY WEEK OF FIRSTS

This past week I travelled to Wagga Wagga, New South Wales (southeast Australia) to visit a mine site for work!  The mine was actually 2 hours away from Wagga Wagga in the country... and with being in the country came a week of many firsts for me.  Some are exciting, some are gross, some are just random but here they are:

MY FIRST TIME... in a propeller plane!

The flight to Wagga Wagga is about one hour from Sydney and the plane to take us there was a large prop plane.  There were still about 50 passengers on the plane, so not small by any means.  However, it was quite loud!  Other than the sound, I didn't think there was much of a difference.

MY FIRST TIME... staying in a motel!

There are literally no hotels in West Wyalong (the town we stayed in), but many many motels.  That's what you get in a mining town I've been told.  I'm sure there are tons of great motels out there... unfortunately the gem we stayed in was not one of them.  The rooms featured spiders falling on my face in the middle of the night, hair and other bugs in the shower, and stained sheets... among other lovely features.  Needless to say, this is not a first that I think I will be repeating!

MY FIRST TIME... seeing a kangaroo!

Sadly, it was in the form of roadkill :( Stay tuned though, I'm on a serious kangaroo hunt!

MY FIRST TIME... at a mine!

I work on mining companies all throughout the year, yet had never been to one before this week.  It was really cool to finally see how it looks in real life and not just as a number on a piece of paper.  It really is truly amazing the scale at which they are operating and something you can't really imagine without seeing first hand.  The staff at site were nice enough to let us go into one of the trucks which goes into the mine, picks up the ore, and drops it off at the mill which is a really cool experience since we got to go right down to the bottom of the pit.  The pit was 300m deep and the water at the bottom is the ground water which is an addition 50m deep!  Can you spot any gold?

The trucks you can see at the bottom there are almost 2 stories tall!

MY FIRST TIME... seeing a poisonous snake!

Australia is known as the country that has the most things that can kill you, in the form of deadly spiders, great white sharks, and snakes (among other things).  Out in the country these things are much more common (aside from the sharks - they obviously stay in the ocean haha) and one of the trucks on the mine site ran over a brown snake.  This is the second most venomous snake in the world and its bite can be fatal to humans.  It was dead when I saw it and I worked up enough courage to hold it because "when will I ever do something like this again?!".  For the faint of heart, skip the picture below!

Yes - that is blood on the floor and snake guts hanging out of the side...

and yes, those are purple steel-toed boots!

MY FIRST TIME... seeing a wild emu!

These suckers run rampant around the mine site.  They were literally everywhere!  They also aren't really the smartest of birds and ended up running straight down the road as our car was driving on it, but it made for a cool shot.

MY FIRST TIME... driving on the other side of the road!

Now, I did not take this lightly.  I watched Steve drive for 2 days to and from site so I knew exactly where I was going and the roads were literally empty both ways so I knew I wouldn't encounter any other traffic.  I managed to stay on the correct side of the road at all times and got us there alive.  I did however turn on the windshield wipers about 10 times instead of the blinker and reach with my right hand to put the car in park/drive which ended with me just hitting the door!

MY FIRST TIME... to SYDNEY!

Since you fly to Wagga Wagga through Sydney, Steve and I decided to spend the weekend exploring Sydney on the way home.  I'm going to dedicate another longer post about this later in the week because we had such an awesome couple of days but here's a sneak peak.

MY FIRST TIME... missing a flight!

Yes... organized Kristy missed a flight.  I had checked our flight times earlier in the week and saw 17:30 (which is obviously 5:30pm) however when I was trying to remember on Sunday when our flight was all I could remember was the 7!  I was fairly confident I was right so we didn't go back to the hostel to double check (and Steve who had checked us in was thinking 7 too).  We carried on about our day and then got to the airport for our flight at 7 only to find out... oops!  Luckily we had corporate fare tickets so they were able to rebook us for only $65 instead of buying a whole other fare (thank you Qantas!).  And we ended up on the 7pm flight anyway ;)

It was an awesome week of firsts, and some hopefully lasts, but I had a great week out in the country and a great time having plenty of new experiences!  I'm sure there will be many more to come over the next few months.

LOVE KRISTY
Ps. I can't believe I've already been here for 4 weeks!
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correction...

I've been informed by my Aussie friends that made an error in the previous post.  I clearly need to correct this ASAP to prevent false aussie slang from hitting Canada:

#3. ARVO -- afternoon

I still stand by my spelling, the R isn't pronounced (at least not in a way I can hear!).

Phew! Glad to have that resolved :P

KRISTY
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THINGS AUSTRALIANS SAY...

I've been here about two and a half weeks so far and starting to get used to the slang and sayings that everyone says around here.  I've even starting using some of the slang in daily conversation, though I still think they are getting used to my Canadian slang.  Aside from short-forming everything (ie. air con, jan, feb) here is my list of the top 10 things I've found Aussies say, study it incase I come home using any of them ;)

1. POST MIX COKE -- fountain pop

2. "I CAN SEE THIS GOING PEAR SHAPED" -- "I could see this turning out poorly"

3. AVO -- afternoon

4. KEEN, as in "ARE YOU KEEN TO GET A COFFEE?" -- want, as in "do you want to get a coffee?"

5. RECKON, as in "I RECKON IT IS WARM OUTSIDE" -- think, as in "i think it is warm outside"

6. ROCK UP, as in "HE ROCKED UP TO WORK AT 10 TODAY" -- showed up, as in "he showed up to work at 10 today"

7. CHEWY -- chewing gum

8. MENTAL, as in "THAT'S MENTAL!" -- crazy, as in "that's crazy!"

9. HELL, as in "THIS IS HELL GOOD" -- very, as in "this is very good"

and last, but not least...

10. MACCAS -- McDonald's (even the McDonald's commercials refer to it as maccas)

and yes, we still do McDonald's Fridays here in Perth!

KRISTY
xoxo

MASQUERADE: PAPER FACES ON PARADE

Last weekend, the PwC Perth Social Club held its annual Ball.  This year's theme was a Masquerade Ball!  It was the first night out (since my very first night!) that I've had in Perth and it was a lot of fun.  My apartment is close to the city and the venue so I had a few people over for some cocktails and appetizers before the party. 

Craig, from work, acted as a pseudo host and brought serving trays, snacks, a blender, and ingredients to make delicious fancy drinks! 

All of the tables and the dance floor was on the stage of a theatre here in Perth, which was really cool and unique. 

I even met a few people from Canada!!

Hope you guys enjoyed seeing pictures from the ball!

Love and miss you all!

KRISTY

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MY GOING AWAY PARTY!

I know it is a little bit late, and backwards in order but I couldn't post anymore about my time here in Perth before sharing the details of my amazing Australian-themed going away party that my parents and sister threw for me.  I am so lucky to have such an awesome and caring family who put so much effort into all of the little details of the day -- it was truly an amazing party and this post is dedicated to them!  I've added descriptions and pictures of all the details from the day below :)

THE AUSSIE DETAILS

The DRINK -- all of the refreshments were native to Australia! white and red wine, and Foster's beer.  My aussie friends would tell me that no one drinks Foster's in Australia, but I recently learned that the same beer is branded under a different name here and is in fact, quite popular!

The DECORATIONS -- family friend Linda Adams provided all of the amazing Aussie decorations including clip-on Koala bears; Australian flags; posters showing tourist attractions throughout the country and drink recipes!

The FOOD -- of course there was "shrimp on the barbie!"

The MUSIC -- a radio station in Perth, streamed over the internet and played throughout the house!

The QUIZ -- the highlight of the party for everyone was the Australian triva quiz that my Dad put together.  All of the guests had to fill out the quiz as soon as they walked in the door, without the aid of cell phones, Google, or each other. 

The answers to the questions are down at the bottom of this post, see how many you get right if you haven't already done it!

The winner of the quiz was Danny with 10/14 correct answers, here's the photo of him with his prize!

And the loser of the quiz was the future lawyer among us, Mike with only 4/10! 

The CAKE -- and of course a cake featuring a kangaroo

THE GUESTS

I want to say "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU" to everyone who was able to come.  I have the best friends in the whole world and I'm missing all of you very much!

It was such a great send-off and I couldn't thank everyone who was involved enough! 

THE ANSWERS -- TRUE! All of the answers are true to make for easy marking for the r-dawg! Tie-breaker answer #1 is "The Dingo Fence" and tie-breaker answer #2 is "The dingo ate my baby!"

LOVE KRISTY

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G'DAY MATES

(just kidding, no one actually says that here!)

Here goes my first real blog post! I've been in Perth for a few days now and am still feeling the effects of jet lag, though it really hasn't been nearly as bad as I was expecting.

MY 36-HOUR FLIGHT PATH

Depart TORONTO: 28 September 2012 12:40

Arrive LOS ANGELES: 28 September 2012 14:55

Time in airport in TORONTO: 3:10

Depart LOS ANGELES: 28 September 2012 22:10

Arrive SYDNEY: 30 September 2012 6:05

Time in airport in LOS ANGELES: 7:15

Depart SYDNEY: 30 September 2012 8:10

Arrive PERTH: 30 September 2012 11:20

Time in airport in SYDNEY: 2:05

Weird fact about my particular flight path: I never experienced Saturday, September 29th.  From leaving Los Angeles I was travelling earlier in September 28th until we hit the International Date Line of the east coast of Asia/Australia.  At that point I ended up immediately in September 30th and continued to travel back in time on this day until I landed in Sydney.  Hope it wasn't too great of a day that I missed :P

TIPS AND TRICKS

For anyone anticipating a long trip like this coming up, or for those of you curious how I survived this (I am still questioning that myself!) here are some of the tips/tricks I used:

a) Sleep deprivation - this may sound counter intuitive, but the only way to make it across the pacific ocean is by sleeping through it. I forced myself to stay awake on the flight from Toronto to LA and during my 7-hour layover in LA. This combined with some of the other tricks below, allowed me to sleep for 10 hours on flight #2. Now, I woke up for the dinner and breakfast meals but other than that it was pretty much a solid nights sleep.

b) Gravol - a big thank you to my bestie Danielle who provided me with Gravol. I took 2 of these as soon as I got on flight #2 and it clearly helped!

c) Eye mask, ear plugs, pillows, and blankets - no one wants to be woken up by seat belt announcements (you aren't getting out of your seat anyway!), shivering (those planes get cold!), or cabin lights!

d) Change of clothes - I brought almost a full change of clothes to put on after flight #2, which helped with the jet lag to start a new day when I landed in Sydney. It felt like a million bucks putting on new socks!

e) Toothbrush and baby wipes - I brushed my teeth 3-4 times over the 36 hours. Whenever I was feeling gross, tired, hungry, thirsty, basically any feeling, I brushed my teeth! And whenever I brushed my teeth I also wiped my face, arms, neck, any bare skin down with baby wipes. Its pretty much the best you can do in the bathroom of an airport to freshen up!

f) Pacing - if I was on solid ground, my bum did not touch a seat. Any time in an airport was spent pacing up and down the terminal, I clearly had enough time to sit while in the air!

g) Lots of entertainment - books, movies, music, all of the above!

Here's a little snapshot of my carry-on baggage with all of the above mentioned included:

MY FIRST 48 HOURS
Now for a short update on my first few days here in Perth. 

I was lucky enough to have my friend Steve (from here) pick me up from the airport and take me to my apartment.  It looks exactly like it did online, only a little bit smaller and is very comfortable.  I will post more pictures in a later post, but here is the picture of the view from my balcony to the pool below:

I managed to stay up until 11pm on Sunday night as a result of a short nap and Steve taking me out to a birthday party. 

Jet lag set in on Monday morning though, I managed to force myself to stay in bed until 7am after dozing in and out of sleep for 3 hours and felt truly awful -- headaches, cranky, nauseous.  I spent the next few hours laying on the couch, watching TV, and drinking tea. 

Luckily that was just what I needed, as I was feeling perfectly fine to hit the beach by noon!

If you look closely there is a small black dot - that's a shark helicopter! They fly along the coast where the beaches are looking for sharks.  If they see one within 500m they sound the alarm and everyone has to come out of the water until they give the "all safe". 

Anyway, thanks for reading my first post!  I'm going to do my best to update at least once a week with things happening down under! 

Love and miss you all
KRISTY
xox