Australia: Part 2

Since my last post I've had some pretty great experiences, I really do love this place. I always knew that Australia had some great wildlife but I didn't fully realize it until being down here and hearing about everything they have. Did you know there is a huge population of exotic birds down here. I think Australia has the most parakeets anywhere in the world, also there are cockatoos everywhere, it is so cool to see them flying through the trees. My friend down here said they get dozens in their yard some mornings. Fantastic!

Sunday was a great, relaxing day. I was able to spend the entire day with an old mission friend of mine, Alex Booth. He and his wife have been super hospitable this last week, they've made the trip so much better. I went to church with them and then hung out with them and their families the rest of the day as well as all day Monday. I am happy to report that the Church is the same here in Australia, although I did discover they are doing their tithing settlements right now as opposed to at the end of the year; I was super surprised when I found that out. A couple other things about Church, a guy in the ward gave a great talk in sacrament meeting, then afterward the bishop got up to talk and he informed the congregation that he had asked the brother to speak right before sacrament meeting started, no actually the guy volunteered to speak when he heard that the people who were supposed to speak didn't come. I was super impressed with him, not only for volunteering and giving a solid talk, but for not calling the Bishop out for giving him such short notice. It was very refreshing to not hear someone say, "when I was getting ready for bed last night the First Counselor called me ....", I'm glad he just gave the talk and didn't call unnecessary attention to himself, (I have been guilty of that at times and need to do better). In Gospel doctrine (taught by the same guy actually) I learned the story about Jonathan and his armor bearer found in 1 Samuel 14:6-15. What an amazing story of faith and courage, I am slightly embarrassed that I didn't remember that story. Monday was a great day; I went to the Healsville Sanctuary, it is essentially a zoo with only animals native to Australia. I saw some pretty cool animals; it was here that I started to realize the amazing heritage of wildlife that


Australia has. Some of the animals that I saw are:

Tasmanian Devils (way smaller than I thought, and a marsupial, meaning they carry their young in pouches like kangaroos, their gestation period is 3 weeks, wouldn't that be nice. But then the baby grows in the pouch for another couple months before it comes out.)
Platypus (I couldn't get a good picture of this because the cages were so dark seeing how they are nocturnal animals)
Kangaroo (these animals were so overfed, the workers would hand out pieces of carrots to anyone who wanted to feed the kangaroos, but those animals were so full that they couldn't care less about eating a piece of carrot.)

Emus (not that big of a deal for me because we used to raise them)
Brown Snake (most venomous in the world, but rather plain looking so I didn't post a picture of it)

Shingleback lizard (the tail looks like the head)
Frilled neck lizard (possibly the coolest lizard ever, and super expensive to buy in the States, hundreds of dollars)

Wombat (I didn't get a good picture of this)

Koalas

Echidna (I had no idea what these were until Monday)

Lyre bird ( a pheasant looking bird, it can mimic almost any sound, including drills, cars starting, etc. The pic I got wasn't all that great.)

Tree monitor (Alex said on campouts they would chase these lizards, and they aren't small, maybe six feet long, Australia has more monitor lizard species than the rest of the world combined.)

Bearded Dragon (I didn't take a picture of one because seeing one in a cage isn't a big deal because I had one for a while, but that they are wild in Australia is awesome)

Dingoes (a lot smaller than I expected, they walked two of them right by me, when I asked if I could pet them the trainer said I wouldn't want to because they had just been rolling in wombat manure, like I would let that stop me from petting a dingo. Unfortunately she kept walking really fast and didn't let me give a rebuttal.)
The area we visited that day was quite beautiful, it is called Yarra Valley. It is known for its wineries, not very appealing to me but the scenery was fantastic. Below is just a sampling of the area.
It was a great day, and a great thing about it was it was a national holiday here in Australia (the Queen's birthday) so I got an extra day off this year. My boss didn't realize there was a three-day weekend between the two weeks he planned on having me here, all well.

More to come, I love it here but I have never been more excited to come home from a trip, I miss my wife so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so (I think you get the picture) bad.

Australia: Week 1

I will give a general update of how things have been here so far.
My first morning I woke up at around 4:30, but the clock in my hotel room was off by more than an hour so I thought it was 5:30. I left for work at what I thought was 7 but actually 6, when I got to work there was no one at the office yet and almost nobody on the street.I had to wait about an hour and a half before I could get into the office to start working, not the best start to the week.

For most of the week I have just been waking up early (around 1, then 2, then 3, then 5 every morning), working then going home.
I have been getting pretty good at navigating from my apartment to work and back, and I also feel pretty confident with driving on the opposite side of the road. It is fun to see people's reactions when they find out I've never driven on the left side of the road until this week. They are always surprised that I am driving, but impressed that I've picked it up so fast, at least that's impression I get but I could be totally misreading them.

Last night I met up with an old mission buddy and his family. I drove out to his house, about 30 minutes outside of the city, and had dinner with them. It was so nice to have home cooked food again. After dinner we went to an Aussie rules football game, known as simply the AFL here. I was really fun for me but not as much for Alex, my friend. They team he roots for was playing a much worse team but ended up getting crushed in a huge upset. But it was fun watching the game, the field is huge and there are a ton of guys on the field at the same time. If I try to explain the game in this post I'll just ramble on and I probably won't be very clear anyway, so just enjoy a couple of these video clips. Oh, I also learned the rules to Cricket, that's an interesting game.Also yesterday I visited a couple buildings in the city, including the aquarium. It was pretty small but the main attraction is a huge aquarium with sharks, snappers, and huge sting rays. Divers go in and feed the fish a couple times a day and create huge feeding frenzies with hundreds of fish, it's pretty cool.

Today, I went driving on the Great Ocean Road. A beautiful drive that goes on for hours, I only went on a small portion because of my time restraints.

I went swimming in the ocean despite it being super cold, I couldn't pass up a chance to swim off the coast of Australia. I was really hesitant until I saw some local teenagers going to swim without wet suits. So I hung out with them, getting pounded by the huge waves, and freezing in the water (and rain).

I also saw a couple wild koalas. There was a car pulled off the side of the road with its occupants taking pictures of something so I stopped to see what the hubbub was about. Sure enough there was a koala really close to the side of the road, I saw her climb down a tree, walk on the ground and up another tree. I was super happy to see it. Seeing animals in zoos and seeing them in the wild just feels different.

That's all for now. Enjoy the pics.
Here are a couple video clips of Aussie rules football.

I come from a land down under.

I am in Australia! My company sent me to Australia to do some internal audit-type stuff. I am super excited to be here; I am looking forward to really doing well on this business trip to further show my worth to the company in hopes that I will get great compensation (a raise) and more chances to travel. The only bad thing about this trip is my wife can't be with me because she is 8 months pregnant. Everything that I do here will be done with a tinge of regret because my wife won't be with me. I am also very concerned about the baby coming early. I will be praying for the baby to be patient and I won't mind if readers of this blog do the same. I am very grateful to have great family close by to take care of Staci while I am gone.

The time difference will make chatting with my wife over skype a little interesting, the plan is to talk during my lunch and her evenings. I will be a day ahead of her. Looking at the clock on my laptop, it should be Sunday afternoon at 2:49, but here it is Monday morning at 6:49. Hopefully I will get over jet lag fairly quickly.

Wish me luck, but more importantly wish my sweet wife luck.

Oh by the way, I will be in Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, for two weeks.

You may think I don't look that great in this pic, I had just gotten off a 14 hour plane ride with only standing up once; my feet and legs are still swollen from the trip. When I told Staci, she really got a kick out of it, I now have a tiny idea of one of the many things she is going through being pregnant.

Happy Birthday

29 years

My “Jamony” turned 29 yesterday (I remember those days)

We celebrated by having a few friends over for Calzone’s.  We all had a good time sitting outside on our patio enjoying the warmth of the day.

Make a Wish!

Doesn’t he look good in this picture?  I think So!

(Don’t mind my belly with flour all over it)

 

Present time:  Jamon got Avitar that he was supposed to open over Memorial Day weekend so we could watch it at his parents house on the big screen.  With my memory these days that didn’t happen.  He’ll now have to watch it on our little 42” screen, bummer. 

He also got some fun magnet toys that he couldn’t get enough of at my niece Addison’s Birthday party.  Come over and let him show you how cool they are.

He also got a point and shoot camera.  He needs it for his upcoming adventures.  Look for future posts about these adventures.

Jamon is so great.  He did so much to help me get ready for his own party.  Next year I promise I will do it all!

Love you so much Jamon.  Thanks for stepping up everyday to make my day a little better!  I just think you are the BEST!!