Postcard Livin’
Somehow I let a month slip by in Australia without posting on my blog. It must be all the distractions, mostly hanging out and catching up with Cristina, one of my close friends from home. I’ll try my best to start at the beginning…
After a long stay in the Saigon airport I began to feel pretty ill. Luckily, I got a seat on the plane with two empty ones beside it. I was horizontal and asleep before the plane took off and woke up only one hour away from Sydney. Clearly, it was a good flight!
From Sydney I headed straight north to Port Stevens, Nelson Bay, to meet up with Cris and her boyfriend Justin. They have an amazing apartment overlooking the ocean and a few small mountains. I spent my first week in Australia exploring the bay, checking out the beach and a few viewpoints. It’s a little like living in a postcard!
Between the short walks down to the beach I began to put a demo reel together to show off my work to potential employers. You can check it out here: http://vimeo.com/33757281
With the arrival of Christmas I got to meet a lot of Cris’ friends and surrogate family. I was really happy to see that she’s managed to surround herself with really great people. On Christmas morning I got my very first official present from Santa: Furry Friends Chocolate! This amazing present, actually from Justin, was a bunch of chocolate shaped like Australian animals. Biology and chocolate?! Love it!
After lunch with Justin’s mom, the rest of Christmas was spent up the coast with Justin’s dad in Port Macquarie. We made a tourist trip out of it and visited the Koala hospital and the Flying Fox infested Nature Reserve. Justin’s dad Glenn used to guide people through the reserve and knew a lot about the environment. The Flying Foxes were huge!
Of course any trip in Australia would not be complete without the ‘mandatory’ stops along the coast to check the surf. Justin surfed at every stop we made. In Crescent Head the waves seemed pretty big due to the remnants of a cyclone that had hit further north. In Crowdy Head, further south, the waves were small enough for surf lessons! After two days of lessons I managed to stand up on the board three times! Unfortunately I managed to flash the kids on the beach and Justin much more frequently!
In Crowdy Head we stayed with Cris’ surrogate family, the Browns. They are a really lovely family and completely welcomed me. Aside from attempting to surf, our time in Crowdy was spent much like cottage days- putting together puzzles and eating. The food was different though, fresh local prawns bought by the kilo! We made a killer prawn salad based on Wendy Brown’s recipe. 
We got back ‘home’ just in time for New Year’s Eve. We watched the fireworks on the water and then hung out with some of Justin and Cristina’s friends. My first day of 2012 was spent (in chronological order) swimming in the perfect blue ocean, eating banana pancakes on the balcony and then returning to the beach! Like I said, I’ve been living in a postcard!
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