–By Karin

Four out of five of us got back on Tuesday night (Katie is spending a couple of weeks in Sydney before returning to the US). It’s great to be back home…I love knowing where everything is. I’m still a little disoriented about what day of the week it is (and even what month it is, to tell the truth). It’s still possible to participate in early voting and I thought about going today, but I feel like I’m still too out of it and jetlagged to do so.

Last night, I started showing my husband the 1138 photos I took on the trip and he begged me for a break after the first two hundred or so. I did go ahead and put some of the photos up on flickr and I thought I’d post a link here…Karin’s Australia 2008 Photo Set.

The trip was truly an unforgettable experience and I’m very grateful to have had the chance to see and do everything that we did.

–By Karin

Yesterday morning at brekkie (breakfast) I was offered marmalade for my toast and I found myself wondering, “Hmm, is there any vegemite available instead?”

“Oh, do you like vegemite then?” asked Jean Smith, latest host.

“Well, not enough to really buy it on purpose or anything like that, but enough to eat it if it’s available.”

Choosing vegemite over something considerably more normal…Australia is certainly getting under my skin.

Hello, blog readers! It’s Karin. Sorry I haven’t been blogging much but I haven’t been on the computer much. Sometimes I haven’t had great computer access, sometimes I’ve just been too busy bush dancing or visiting penguins. I do keep thinking of great blog posts and hopefully will catch up eventually.

When we were in Mt Gambier, Susan and Carrie and I started up a list of frequently asked questions during the trip. I can’t remember all of them offhand, but here are a few…maybe some of the others can help me remember the rest.

• So, have you tried vegemite yet?
• Did you know that South Australia is the driest state in the driest land?
• How long have you been/will you be in Australia?
• What airline did you fly on?
• White or red (wine)?
• Been to any wineries yet?
• Did you know that Adelaide is a planned city?
• Did you know that South Australians weren’t convicts?
• Is your voting compulsory like ours?
• Who’s going to win your election?
• So where is South Carolina anyway?
• How many people live in your state/city?
• (How much) have you gained weight on the trip?
• Are you married?
• Would you like to hear more about limestone/granite?

Wednesday October 8, 2008

We got up and had breakfast, then walked around and looked at kangaroos.  Mungo National Park is as beautiful and wild in the morning as it is at night.  We all got back on the van around ten and traveled back down the roughest road in the world into the civilized world.  On the way back, we saw several emus and even some males with tiny baby emus.  In the emu world, the female lays the egg and the male sits on it until it hatches.  He then protects the young until they mature.

We arrived in Wentworth around 11:00 walked through the Rotary Club sponsored Wentworth museum.  It was a good museum and really a tribute to Ferguson tractors which helped cities in the 1950’s build levees to hold back the floods.  We then purchased meat pies (the Aussie version of fast food) and sat at the convergence of the Murray and the Darling and ate them.

We traveled back to Mildura to prepare for our presentation.  The presentation was in a winery and we had a tour of the winery and then proceeded to eat what Jeremy called “slow food.”   It was served in courses and was brought out very “slow.”  It was very tasty.  Vegetables and leg of lamb.  Our presentation was well received but we were pretty tired having started the day in a shearer’s hut in Mungo National Park.

Thursday October 9, 2008

Jeremy loaded us into the van and we loaded our luggage into the trailer and took off for Renmark.  We went by Woodsie’s Gem Shop on the way where everyone partook.  We arrived in Renmark for lunch and met Michael Cook and Bruce Richardson.  I had a pie floater for lunch.  This is a meat pie floating in pea soup with ketchup on it.  Quite good—gives you indigestion (gas).

After we were interviewed and had pictures taken by a reporter from the Murray Pioneer, we traveled on to Berri where we were dropped off at our host families and had dinner.

Friday October 10, 2008

Around 9:00 we assembled and went to the Banrock Station.  This is a wetlands regeneration project done by a winery.  They contribute 10% of their profits in several countries to regenerating wetlands.  We walked in the hot Australian sun and saw some beautiful birds and waterfowl.  There were areas where they had an extensive fence that was rabbit-proof.  The difference in the vegetation where the rabbits could not go was quite interesting.

We then had lunch at Lake Bonney which is a lake that has high salinity and is drying up.  We walked around in the water before lunch and enjoyed the serenity.  After lunch we went to another winery.  But this one was huge.  It was the Hardy Winery and is large scale.  Bruce Richardson told us he worked there 29 years.

That evening we went to Tom Price’s remote cattle station where we had a bush dinner of grilled leg of lamb, lamb sausage, and chicken.  Great food and wine.  We drove through the bus to the billabong to see a beautiful sunset.  Excellent pictures of trees in the twilight.  After dinner Tom, Karen and I rode into the bus again to see kangaroos and rabbits.  Great Aussie evening.

Saturday October 11, 2008

Today we got on a houseboat and traveled down the River Murray to Loxton to an historic village.  It was quite relaxing.  The houseboat had three bedrooms, a den, a kitchen, and was ably driven by Michael Cook.  We saw beautiful pelicans and tons of Galahs.  These are cockatoo type birds that are white with a brilliant red breast. 

Susan dropped her sunglasses (sunnies) in the water and so I scored some points with the team by attempting to get to the bottom of the river to retrieve them.  I was unsuccessful, but I wanted to go in anyway.  It was cold.  After we docked the boat around 2:30, we toured Lock 3 along the River Murray.  Locks are built along the river too hold water for irrigation and water use upstream.  Australia is known as the driest continent on the earth.

Evening meeting was well attended and went well.  We had so many questions about politics and such that at 9:00 I had to cut it off and thank them for their attention.  District Governor Peter Shipp and I discussed the challenge of getting 20 and 30 year olds interested in Rotary.  He said that Rotary International set up 200 pilot Rotary clubs around the world about three years ago to explore ways to attract younger members.  I need to find out more about this. 

I got a chance to talk to Peter Shipp about our accommodations at Mount Gambier.  We are supposed to have free time there and we were originally told we would be staying in Motel rooms.  A motel room would allow us to really chill—do nothing.  In a home, there is this constant pressure to talk.  Shipp said that the host homes were unchangeable, but that the Rotarians had been instructed to leave us alone and take us where we wanted to go.

Sunday October 12

We met at Bruce Richardson’s house and drove two and a half hours to the Barossa Valley to eat lunch with the Morialta people.  We had a fabulous lunch at this swanky looking winery.  It had a look of glass and had views of the mountains and vineyards.  It turns out Bruce had a part in designing it.  After lunch Katie gave me a haircut in the parking lot as we were leaving.  Everyone laughed about the haircut but I needed it.

Peter Meyer drove Susan and I back to Morialta.  Peter and his wife Emiko have two dogs, a blue healer named Jessie and a border collie named Tippy.  Great dogs.  We went swimming in his pool and then went to a dog park near their house which had about forty dogs running all over the place.  None of them were fighting.  One little poodle got scared and started to fight but the other thirty-nine dogs just chilled out.  Later they ordered egg plant and shrimp pizzas.  We ate them and I went to bed.

Monday October 13

The team met at Haigh’s Chocolate factory for a tour.  Very good tour, the tourguide was knowledgeable and knew how to give a tour.  Don’t belabor, have visuals (she had cacoa seeds and pods, and chocolates), and move it along.

We then went to the Botanic Gardens in downtown Adelaide.  We ended up with a luncheon at the Botanical Gardens restaurant. Lunch was great and then we traveled over to Penfold’s Winery for a winery tour.

When I got to Peter’s he took me out in his 1988 Porsche 944 which has been lowered and made race ready.  It has a roll cage and racing seats.  It was very hard to get into.   I must say the man can drive and the car can corner.

We then gave a very good presentation to a packed crowd at the Athelstone Football club.  There were so many people they had to bring in extra chairs and tables.

Tuesday October 14, 2008

Peter and I went bike riding over to another bloke’s house.  It was nine kilometers over and nine back.  That’s really only about twelve miles total but I enjoyed it.

Peter then took me to the University of Adelaide where I met with Brian Castro to discuss creative writing.  He said I should just write and see where it takes me.  He gave me his creative writing curriculum book which was great.  I went into the library and read it until Peter picked me up.  I went back to his house and crashed for a couple of hours. 

That night we went to a smorgasbord restaurant and had a great meal.

Wednesday October 15, 2008

We went to South Australian Parliament (state government) where a Parliament Member gave us a tour.  Excellent information.  Then we went on a tour of the Adelaide town hall. Then we had lunch at the Art Gallery.  When I got to my host home I crashed and then went for a walk.  Then we went to the dog park and later had stir fry and seaweed.

We have now been in Australia for 21 days.  We have been on 26 tours of:

wildlife parks (3), wineries (5) cheese factories (1), chocolate factories (2), government offices (2), various museums and attractions (4) , botanical gardens (2), technology businesses (1), fruit packaging (2), towns (1), locks (2), and a lookout tower (1).  We have packed up and moved every four days and are now staying with our fifth family.  We have been done five very good GSE presentations.  We have participated in six parties with great Australians.

Saturday October 18,

Jerry drove me to Mt. Gambier and dropped me off.  I walked around Mt. Gambier lakes and ate lunch by myself at a Subway in the downtown area.  I then saw that Jerry’s neighbor had purchased Cool Hand Luke and Hud and had them there at the house,  I watched “Cool Hand Luke” by myself. 

Great movie.  Great rest.

We all went to a barbecue and told jokes and toasted the Mt. Gambier Rotarians for being great hosts.

Sunday October 19, 2008

I got up and went to the District Conference church service.  OK but not great.  We did our presentation and it went very well.  Many people laughed.  Several said they loved Carrie.  After a great lunch at the race track, I got in the car with a Rotary Club of Goolwa couple and we drove the five and a half hours to Victor Harbor.  I enjoyed their company.

I am now staying with a pretty cool couple who live in downtown Victor Harbor.  They have three Shihtuzs.

Several Australians I have spoken with have helped me with learning the language.  Here is a brief translation chart.   There are many more words and phrases.

Monday October 20, 2008

We all met at 9:00 and were taken to some of the most gorgeous overlooks in the Victor Harbor area.  The scenes truly look like something from a fairy tale.  Beautiful green pastures and hills bordered by a brilliant blue ocean.  Antartica is 3800 miles away!!

We went to a house where a man restored old cars.  He had a 1928 Chevrolet, several Vauxhalls, a Plymouth Valiant, two Morrises, and several other beautiful antique cars.  He also had about ten antique motorcycles.  I asked him if he knew of anyone who had a 1910 Locomobile and he did not.   My father sold his Locomobile to a man from Australia about ten years ago.

We then went to the Whale Center and the Victor Harbor Council Center where Roy (my host) gave us a tour and fed us lunch.  After lunch we went to Granite Island via a horse drawn tram.  Beautiful island.  We then went to an Alpaca Farm where we saw 180 Alpacas who were world champions.  The farm is completely self-sufficient.  It uses solar power to generate electricity and uses rainwater for its water.

After dinner we went to Granite Island again and saw ferry penguins, Australian opossums, and river rats.  Wonderful experience.  We even saw two penguins get into a fight.

After one of our presentations about North Carolina, Michael Cook from Berri told me that our possums (or opossums, to be more accurate) are kind of “funny-looking” and that Australian possums are “quite cute.” I had the chance tonight to compare them. I’ll let the blog readers decide which version wins the title of cutest.

First, here’s what (o)possums in North Carolina tend to look like:

OK, with the babies and everything, that is pretty cute. Usually I just see them dead on the roadside, which is decidedly less cute.

Now, here are a couple of Australian possums:

My latest hosts, Rod and Lyn Sparks, took me to a special Mt Gambier sinkhole where the possums hang out waiting for food handouts from humans. Here’s the obligatory picture that proves that I was actually there with the critters:

As if this wasn’t already enough fun, a few minutes later we ran into Katie and her host family. Our plans to have a photo of me, Katie, and possums all in one photo did not bear fruit, but here’s Katie and her latest furry little friend:

Check out all that great limestone in the background!

-By Carrie

One of the toughest parts of this trip has been the constant exposure to good wines and food.  I am thinking we will have the gout when we get home – our bodies responding to the lack of American junk food and diet coke.  Here we are at the Penfolds Winery – and let me tell you, this experience was almost torture.  We had to sample about ten different wines – one of which was considered very rare and quite expensive.  My pallette went into culture shock with the Penfolds Bin 389 – I may never be able to drink cheap wine again.

In this next pciture, we almost caused an international incident when Gary decided to get his haircut in the parking lot of a rather popular winery.  Katie – ever ready with the scissors – decided that Gary’s hair was at a level of “unkemptness” that was bringing the whole team down.  Please note the Japanese tourists in the backgroud wondering what the hell the crazy Americans were up to.

Before we actually got to Australia, I remember thinking, “gosh, I hope we get to see some vineyards and wineries.” That wish has now come true…and then some. Everywhere we  go, we drive by vineyards and we’ve been to many winery tours and tastings. Each one is a little different…for instance, at Berri Estates, we had the chance to see how wine gets shipped in a big “bladder” inside a shipping container. My inner 12-year-old loved that it was called a bladder.

We’re all a bit behind on blogging at the moment, but I did want to report that Team Leader Gary has now consumed a pie floater. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this culinary concept, it’s a meat pie floating in pea soup. I’m doubtful that there will be a repeat experience. (We’ve all become fans of Farmer’s Union Iced Coffee, though, which is also pictured.) This was at Nigel’s Riverview Cafe in Renmark. Nigel amused us with stories about wallet-stealing pelicans, and we later named a crawfish after him.  (At least, it was some kind of non-poisonous crawfish-like creature who got invited to an outdoor dinner party and barely lived to tell the tale.)

Nigel the crawfish thing.

Today is Carrie Stone’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Carrie! You ARE a rock star!

Thank you, Dawnna Lewis for getting me the password and login.  I wrote the previous post but logged in with Karin Abell’s information so it shows that she is the author. 

Saturday September 27

The plane ride that never ended. We just rode and rode. The entire flight experience is more than 30 hours.

Get on plane in Raleigh (it was late) about 2:30 pm

Raleigh to New York=1.5 hours

Layover in New York-4 hours

New York to LA-6 hours

Stop in LA to refuel-1.5 hours

Get back on plane in LA at 3:30 am

LA to Sydney-14 hours

Walk around Sydney airport like a zombie-2 hours

Sydney to Adelaide-2 hours

Total travel and layover time-31 hours. Grueling. On the fourteen-hour leg of the trip, I sat with a pleasant gentleman who had an Australian accent. We spoke very little because of the grueling nature of the trip and the fact that we were comatose or semi-comatose about half the time. Once I asked him if he had been on this flight before and he said “many times.” I remarked that it was arduous and he said “you know, that’s on purpose, it’s too keep you people out.” I later learned he was a cinematographer who had done work with National Geographic and other magazines. He lived in Tyree, which is four hours north of Sydney.

When we arrived in Adelaide, it was 11:30 am Saturday morning September 27. What happened to Friday? Crossing the International Dateline takes a day out of your life. We will get that day back in a month when we return.

Our first hurdle, Qantas lost two of Katie’s three bags. Everyone assured her they would be found. But she angry and weary. The bags were returned to her the next day.

Saturday afternoon with Alan and Pam Deverell.

My first host family was a very pleasant couple who live in Mitcham, SA. A suburb of Adelaide. I first had lunch at their house. This was two apple s and bread with fresh avocado. We then watched on TV a few minutes of the Australia rules football super bowl. Similar to rugby, no pads, very rough. I was clueless. Then we drove to Adelaide, went to a beautiful botanical garden and rode through Adelaide. Dinner was vegetable pies and salad. A quick look at TV, email to Linda and then to bed at 8:30. I slept 11 hours until 7:30 am.

Sunday September 28. For breakfast we had a bowl full of millet, with bananas, apples, and fresh squeezed orange juice. They have an orange tree in the backyard. Because SA is the driest state in the driest country in the world, Alan and Pam save all the water they can. Alan has set up an 11,000-liter tank in his back yard that gets its water from the roof. The tank is almost 75% full because of winter rains. It will be used to water his garden.

The group assembled in Hahnsdorf, a little German town for Sunday lunch. There was never any mention of church, no blessings, nothing. This is sad and disturbing to me.

The GSE team then went with our host families to Hans Heyden’s art studio called The Cedars. His art work was beautiful and the scenery with the eucalyptus trees (they call them gum trees) was exquisite.

We then went to Cleland Wildlife Park where we petted Koalas, kangaroos, and saw Dingos. Pretty neat. On the way home, the Deverells took me by an area where wild koalas are sometimes seen. We saw two in the trees.

The teams then went to a pizza place for dinner.

Tuesday September 30, 2008

A wonderful tour of Carrick Hill English manor house and grounds in the morning. The director of the place was Richard Heathcote, President of the Brownhill Rotary Club and an Englishman. The Australians call UK natives “poms” or “bloody poms” or “pommy bastards.” The weather was fabulous and Richard was a charming and humorous host. He served us a fabulous lunch in the outdoors amongst the exquisite garden plants.

Olive farm and two Winery tours in the afternoon. Our first presentation went well and we had good questions and some silly ones. Good questions about tobacco, climate, silly question about the opossum being Irish. The Rotary president, Richard, is more of a game show host than I am.  Banner exchange was funny—all the Presidents of the seven clubs forgot their banners. No problem—they got plenty from us.

Wednesday October 1

The team assembled at the Adelaide Botanical gardens at 10:00 where we were handed over to the next area within District 9520. We said our good byes and took pictures and met Barry Coddle who had a rented van and a Rotary trailer to keep our luggage.

Our second presentation went extremely well. Again the technology and the laid back attitude of the Okinparinga club almost did us in, but we prevailed. They had drinks before the meeting, drinks during the meeting, and after. Happy crowd. Questions we got were about the literacy rate of NC, the population of the state, and what is a calico cat. Many people came up to me after the meeting to say that they had enjoyed the presentation.

Thursday October 2

Dennis Butler picked me up in his 1980 Mercedes 320 SEL and we drove into Adelaide to the South Australia Writer’s Center. The center was quite inspirational and gave me some good ideas about the writing process and completing my book. I had lunch with them and then Dennis took back. We talked cars just about the entire time. He will soon be president of the local Mercedes Benz club and with that he gets a free trip to Stuttgart, Germany to tour the Mercedes factory.

When we got back to my host family’s house, he did the most curious thing. Instead of just dropping me off and leaving he sat with Sandy Hughes and her 16 month old grandson and the edge of the sandbox and we just chatted for 30 minutes. Very nice to be that relaxed.

A fabulous meal of leg of lamb with John and Sandy’s daughter and son-in-law. Good conversation, much laughter.

Friday October 3, 2008

We toured a chocolate factory (could not find Willy Wonka) and a cheese factory.  Then we toured the Mount Lofty Botanical Gardens and had lunch there. Then we went to an apple processing plant. Across the street from the plant was a lawn ball (lawn bowling) “stadium.” It seems that every Saturday each town assembles at the these places to compete, drink tea, and drink wine and beer. Sometimes people assemble on Saturdays in Smithfield to drive to Wal-Mart. I like the lawn ball option better.

The team then went to a pub where we looked at the FOX news coverage of the Sarah Palin-Joe Biden debate.

We then met with the Mayor of the Adelaide Hills council. He had coffee and cookies for us and we sat for about an hour and talked about his role and the differences and similarities between North Carolina and Australia. We talked about industry, attitudes about alcohol, sports and the universities, and so on. It was quite stimulating. Then the neatest thing happened. A family from Sri Lanka came in and it turned out that they were getting ready to gain citizenship in Australia. We were invited to watch the ceremony, which was very touching. It was moving to hear them pledge their allegiance to their new country. We shook their hands and took pictures.

The evening activity was a social activity at Dennis Butler’s home. We toured his beautiful gardens and his home and he cooked chicken and pizza for us. Everyone had a great time.

Saturday October 4, 2008

In the morning, a trip to the wildlife park which was incredible. The place specializes in albino kangaroos and there were many. The cool thing is that an albino female would have a brown baby in her pouch and vice versa. We were able to hold a male koala named Charley. I purchased several boomerangs and a great kangaroo scrotum pouch.

We then drove about thirty minutes to the National Car Museum. Many cool cars but yours truly was running out of gas. A quick trip later to the Bierhaus restaurant for lunch and then back to the Hughes home for a nap. I slept for two hours at the Hughes home. Hallelujah!

Progressive dinner at three different homes—good fun and laughter. I told stories about Schultz, the family dashund who passed away several years ago.

Sunday October 5, 2008

Breakfast at the winery of an Onkaparinga Rotarian. All the Rotarians cooked us breakfast and the President spoke about what a great time we had had. I also spoke and then we hugged and left for Loxton and Mildura. Oh, Yes we had to have wine with breakfast…a special mulled wine.

We drove for 2.5 hours to Loxton and then had lunch at the most curious place. It is a club owned by the people of Loxton. It had several nice dining rooms a restaurant, a bar, and a casino. We met Jody and Noleen from the Mildura club and they drove us the rest of the way to Mildura. We arrived at Glen Hornsby home and sat and drank wine and talked. Our host families came and we had home made pizza and kangaroo burgers on the grill. What a wonderful home. It had a wrap around porch with a tennis court in the front yard and grape vineyards all around it. I stood back as the sun set in the west and said, “This is my vision of Australia.” One of the prettiest sunsets over the wide open spaces of the Aussie land. The Hornsby children were delightful. Hannah, twenty years old, had just come home from a stay in Norway. Grace, seventeen, was a great piano player, and Henry, age 13, was a good tennis player. They were very comfortable in all types of conversation with adults.

My host was Jeremy Seward, a college professor, who put me up at his abode in a youth hostel room. I got my own bathroom and TV!

Monday October 6, 2008

I went to a writer group meeting today. Very inspiring and very fun. Jeremy and I then went to a great Chinese restaurant. Delicious!

Tuesday October 7, 2008

Morning we went to the Chaffey Brothers restored homestead on the River Murray. The Chaffey brothers came to Australia from Canada in the late 1800’s and introduced “modern” irrigation methods which revolutionized Ausssie agriculture. We then went to Trentham winery and tasted wine. The winery is on the River Murray in the Wentworth area. I struck up a conversation with two couples who had rented houseboats and were camping along the river. Each houseboat had three bedrooms. Cool.

We then went to a deli restaurant and had lunch. It was really nice because Jeremy left us alone and we were able to talk and process about the previous day and etcetera. Everyone seems to be hanging in.

About 2:00 in the afternoon, we left for Mungo National Park. About a third of the way into it, the pavement quit and we rode on dirt roads into the edge of the outback. Some of the dirt road was so rough that our brains felt like they were going to shake out.

We got there at 4:00 and went on a guided tour of the “Great Walls of China.” This is named because from a distance it looks like a wall but it is really small hills rising up from an ancient lake bed. Our tourguide was an aborigine. The pictures will tell it all. Some parts of it you felt like you were on the moon. We also saw about 20 grey and red kangaroos and had a fabulous afternoon. Prior to dinner we had wine (big surprise) and walked out and looked at more kangaroos. Then the sunset was beautiful, however, the Glen Hornsby sunset was prettier.

–By Karin

Warning: This is the part of the GSE trip where we’ve accomplished new levels of silliness.

Katie brought a big book of Mad Libs along on our trip, and there have been various times when we’ve amused ourselves with it. (Note to future GSE Teams: I highly recommend bringing along something like Mad Libs for those moments in transit during the GSE trip.)

For those who are unfamiliar with Mad Libs, these are stories or dialogues where some of the words have been taken out. The person writing the Mad Lib will ask others for suggested words, giving only the part of speech and not any other information. If a member of the current team suddenly/randomly asks you for a noun or an adjective, a Mad Lib might be in progress.

On Tuesday, we drove out to World Heritage site Mungo National Park and the ride was starting to seem long. I thought to myself that it would be a great opportunity to do a Mad Lib, but I didn’t have the book with me. I did, however, have my trip itinerary with me, so I made up a Mad Lib out of that. The story we created is below…words in bold were supplied by the participants. (Again, they had no idea what the topic of the text was.)

“Rotary District 9520 covers part of four bumpy states of Australia. There are at present 56 Rotary nostrils, with a total membership of approximately 1600 Rotarians. The district is dependent to a gut-wrenching extent on the pushy economy with some frivolous industry in country towns, but most of the red kangaroos, bulls, and hot dogs are centered in Adelaide. Large irrigated areas long the River Murray produce quality lightbulbs, meatpies, grapes, and extensive dairying. Wines produced are of perilous quality and of various styles.”

(Hopefully I have not offended anyone with any of the information above. Nothing in the previous paragraph should be considered definitive information on District 9520.)

Henry Hornsby was a major contributor to the Mad Libs.

Before and during dinner, we completed another Mad Lib:

“Discover the Murray

The Murray is a river whose pouch encompasses sassy beauty, sluggish heritage and history, and amazing tourism and effervescent cardiologists. It has a world-class wine stripper. The Murray creates a natural Bacardi between New South Wales and Victoria.

On the Murray, paddle steamers were baked to carry wool, wallpaper, and other cats from town to town. Millions of nosehairs rely on the Murray as a source of hockey pucks for bulbous and industrial use, and it plays an intravenous part in Australia’s offspinner.

A shocking range of maidens can be found choking in the Murray River basin, including emus, kangaroos, desert flies, black swans, and phalanges. To moonwalk the diversity of the Murray is truly prickly. It will bake your soul. Enjoy your Murray spaghetti.“

Yesterday afternoon we went to Mungo National Park, a chain of dried lakes, about an hour and a half from Mulderia, over dirt roads (and rather bumpy in the van!)  http://www.visitnsw.com/Mungo_National_Park_P629.aspx

I (Susan) rode behind the van in a truck with my host “mom”, Brenda, so avoided the bumpy ride until on the way back home.

The views at Mungo were vast and almost as far as the eye could see.

We spent the night at the park, staying in rooms with bunk beds, with 5-6 people per room.  It was a bit like camping, only with a full kitchen and warm beds (and showers, if anyone wanted to brave the cold morning!)

We saw more kangaroos and emus while in the park, as well as the drive in and out, only they were obviously wild ones this time.  We haven’t quite gotten enough of the kangaroos yet, especially the idea of just seeing them alongside the road as we drive past.

A few days ago, we visited Gorge Wildlife Park and had another opportunity for some face-to-face time with kangaroos and other Australian animals. One big difference between Gorge and Cleland Park was that they had tons of albino kangaroos and wallabies. The other big difference was that we saw lots and lots of joeys at Gorge Wildlife Park (and hadn’t seen any at Cleland). It was really quite touching to see the moms and the joeys interact. Check out the legs sticking out of the pouch on the kangaroo above!

Being at Cleland Wildlife Park felt a little bit like being at a big kangaroo frat party, whereas with all the baby animals, Gorge Wildlife Park felt like a cool marsupial mom’s group.

I especially loved it when the joeys had shy moments like the one pictured above.

We are currently staying in the Murray Riverland area, about five hours away from our last location. On our first night in Mildura, we went to a lovely outdoor dinner at the home of Glen and Brenda Hornsby. One really special thing that they did for us was to offer our first experience tasting kangaroo. (I of course abstained!) The kangaroo was in the form of burgers, which usually have a lot of the same toppings as in the US but they also add beets as a topping. Here are Katie and Gary having a taste:

One team member mentioned being able to still taste the kangaroo the following morning, so apparently it’s the sort of thing that still stays with you.

Just to go full circle with things, on the drive back to my host family’s home, I had my first chance to see kangaroos out and about. Though I’ve taken something like 100 photos of marsupials so far, I hadn’t seen any kangaroos in a non-conservation park setting. It’s so fun to watch how they move, but was much too dark for photos.

–By Karin

We had an interesting surprise on October 3. During a reception with Bill Cooksley, the mayor of Adelaide Hills, we had the opportunity to see a family of four from Sri Lanka become Australians. They were in their last step of the citizenship process, which involves reading the oath of citizenship and then having the official (in this case the mayor) sign off on and hand over the certificate of citizenship. Right afterwards, we were at a wonderful outdoor dinner and most people mentioned that they’d never actually observed someone go through this process.

For me, issues of citizenship are always interesting. Part of this is the nature of my work–everyone I work with is from another country originally and our students are quite a variety of immigration situations. But also, I’ve spent time dealing with immigration authorities in Charlotte, North Carolina since I’m married to a “snowback” (that’s a joking term my husband Adam and I use in reference to his being Canadian). I know that citizenship is a long process and I loved being able to observe the last stage, which I imagine is the fun part of it. When I was glancing at the Australian citizenship certificates, I also thought about the time that Adam and I found his grandmother’s American citizenship certificate when were going through his grandmother’s papers on a recent visit. This really was one of the unexpected highlights of the trip so far.

Incidentally, when we first met the mayor, he mentioned that he’d been looking up information about North Carolina with the help of “Mr. Google.” So for the past few days, we’ve been amusing ourselves by always saying “Mr. Google” when we refer to google. By the way, it’s quite touching that people have often taken the time to learn about North Carolina (and in some cases, about us) beforehand and it’s good that Mr. Google is there to help in that process.