Back to Oregon!

We had a retreat in the Glasshouse mountains which are near the Sunshine Coast. Ironically, we didn't see the sunshine once those 3 days. It rained so much and so hard that it flooded the road we to leave on. Thankfully, it had stopped raining the night before we were to leave and one lane of the highway was open. The students spent lots of time studying for their final 2 tests. We also all got caught up on laundry! Lots of it!!! Students cooked our suppers for us and they all did outstanding jobs. We played lots of games: scrabble, cards and checkers. Ryan practiced cracking his whip for hours it seemed! We were bummed we couldn't go hiking and see the gorgoues area, but it was such a great location to be rained it at. We also had an indoor Easter Egg hunt, which was fun! After 3 fun days at the Glasshouse mountain ecolodge, we headed back to Brisbane for a last day of shopping and packing.

Our farewell dinner was at the Greek Club in West End. Lots of hugs and laughs were shared. Bryn and I created a slideshow/movie and Erik wrote a poem. The students created a huge wonderful card for us and gave us a certificate to a Portland restaurant. So generous of them. What a great group of young adults. Amazing.

Below is the poem that Erik wrote.

We had an uneventful flight home with 4 of the students. The rest of the students are still having adventures in New Zealand and beyond! We miss Australia, but it's great to be home. Spring has sprung and it's gorgeous here. All for now, who knows if I'll use this blog again. It's been fun though!

Love,

Carla



My Country by Dorothea McKellar Ode to Oz plagiarized by Erik Nilsen

I love a sunburnt country, I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains, but slip, slap, slop, says Clare,
Of ragged mountain ranges, and don’t you dare tell Maggie
Of droughts and flooding rains. about the “endangered” Koala bear.
I love her far horizons, I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea, I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror – But those darn jelly’s on Heron,
The wide brown land for me! Emma does not love thee.

The stark white ring-barked forests, The Eucalyptus forests,
All tragic to the moon, With their various fire regimes,
The sapphire-misted mountains, At Sapphire laden Rubyvale,
The hot gold hush of noon, Luke found locals can hold their beer it seems.
Green tangle of the brushes The tangle of the tent poles,
Where lithe lianas coil, inciting Alyssa’s laugh,
And orchids deck the tree-tops, Arhea’s bright orange jogging shorts,
And ferns the warm dark soil. Running around Brissy, looking for the right path.

Core of my heart, my country! Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky, The colors of the sandstone,
When, sick at heart, around us more varied than Seth’s hair,
We see the cattle die – The goats of Biloeala,
But then the grey clouds gather, and Theresa’s mechanical bullride there.
And we can bless again Amazing Brook, our Ethiopian Jackaroo,
The drumming of an army, Cracking whips and catching goats,
The steady soaking rain. A closet cowboy, who knew!?

Core of my heart, my country! Jazzy Jo expanded her horizons,
Land of the rainbow gold, substantially, tis true,
For flood and fire and famine she experienced her first Easter egg hunt,
She pays us back threefold. She even found a few!
Over the thirsty paddocks, But what I’ll most remember,
Watch, after many days, inspired to make her project great,
The filmy veil of greenness To a few whacko Aussies
That thickens as we gaze. She’ll be known forever as BloodBeforeCountry88.

An opal-hearted country, An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land – Through which our Tatty ran,
All you who have not loved her, While Shane’s climbing, jumping, swinging,
You will not understand – made us question, is he monkey or a man?
Though earth holds many splendours, Danielle proved she could tackle,
Wherever I may die, both Rugby player and goat,
I know to what brown country and Kendall was organizing,
My homing thoughts will fly. A WhitSunday sailing boat.

Though earth holds many splendors,
And some are seen through chance,
At our corroboree down under,
There is no doubt that Elyse can dance.

We owe our love of country,
to the deadly guidance of Nat, Marta and Rob,
And finally I will quit rhyming
And definitely keep my day job!

Great Barrier Reef

Our 6 days on Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef started with a calm trip over on the catamaran. In years past, many students have become seasick. Most of us took pills to combat that, and we were fine. Because of the prevailing winds and the way the waves are hitting the boat, the trip over is supposed to be much rougher than the trip back to the mainland, so we were lucky for the fine weather! It’s about a 2 hour ride to get to the island.

Since the weather was so good, our leader Rob rearranged the schedule and made sure we made the most of the good weather. We got settled in our accommodations at the Research Station, which is part of the University of Queensland. It is recently re-opened, after a fire that they had there in 2007. It was a very nice facility. We all got issued snorkeling equipment and headed to the beach for practice. Even though we were just near the jetty, we still saw fish and turtles on that first trip.

The next day we went on a reef walk and a 15 minute boat ride to snorkel at the Blue Pools, off the reef. We got to see lots of interesting things that time: black tipped reef sharks, green turtles, many types of coral and numerous kinds and sizes of fish. We spent an hour or so snorkeling. After supper, we went on a night snorkel near the dock. Different types of fish, etc come out at night. We all had glow sticks attached to our wet suits and we each had an underwater torch/flashlight. I’ll admit it was kind of freaky swimming around in the dark. Thankfully, Bryn was my buddy and he let me hold on to him during the snorkel. That way I could relax and look around at the sites instead of worrying that I wasn’t with him. We saw a Wobbegong shark, several turtles, including a huge loggerhead, a lionfish, a huge hermit crab, and a crown of thorns starfish. At one point we gathered near the shipwreck, which is a ship that was purposefully placed near the jetty as protection from waves for the boats as they come in. We all hid our glow sticks and turned off our lights and looked at the bioluminescent zooplankton and jellies in the water. That was cool. We went in two groups and nearly all of those in the second group got stung by jellies or parts of jellies, that were floating in the water. Luckily, the sting wasn’t severe and went away pretty quickly, but still it was a challenge.

The next day we went on a drift snorkel off the reef. They dropped us off at one spot and then we swam to a pick up location. The plan is to go with the tide and the current when you do a drift, but unfortunately it worked out that we were going against it. At one point, Erik looked at Ryan and I, and he said it looked like we weren’t going forward at all. Thankfully, we made it and had fun along the way. We rented an underwater digital video camera that day and Bryn and Erik got some good footage.

Throughout the days we had lectures on poisonous marine life, coral reef/algal reef formation, geology of the island, marine species, and turtles. The one Rob gave on the life cycle of the green turtles was my favorite. They are amazing animals and after the lecture we got to head to the beach and see a nest hatching. We watched about 60 baby turtles crawl up out of the sand and scurry to the ocean. We tried to shoo away the seagulls that invariably snatched up some of the babies. It was the coolest thing to watch these little turtles. They are only about 4 “ long and they know to head straight for the water. The next 2 nights we got to see 3 other hatchings occur. One was on a night that was stormy. It was pouring rain and very windy, but Erik and I were lucky enough to find a hatching. Erik counted 100 babies from that nest. I was standing near the ocean watching them stream into the sea, when I felt a tickle on the back of my sandal. One of the turtles was a little lost, but he eventually made it.

There were 3 days during our visit that were too windy to safely take the boats out for a snorkel, but we still had fun. We went snorkeling along the reef at low tide and it was amazing the variety of fish we saw. We also saw eagle rays, cow tail rays and whip tail rays. Erik and the boys saw a moray eel protruding from the coral. We saw white tailed reef sharks and shovel-nosed sharks. None of these were too big, the largest was about 6 feet long, and they aren’t aggressive. Ryan spotted two sea hares, which are a weird mollusk-type thing. When you hold it, it squirts out purple ink as a defense mechanism. When we saw the first one on our reef walk, our leader, Derek, had us gather around to see this “deadly” thing. Then he proceeded to pick it up and show us the ink. We were all amazed and wondered why he’d do that, if it was deadly. Then we realized he meant “deadly” in the Australian way. That is what they say to mean “cool” or “awesome”!

On the island there is also a resort. We didn’t have too much interaction there, except to buy from their shop. One night we went near the resort and saw about 10 whaler sharks swimming off the beach rock about 100 feet away. Derek said that they are “sharky sharks”, meaning they can get aggressive. We just took pictures of them!

One evening at low tide we played cricket on the beach. Actually, the tide was coming in so we had to move the wicket several times! Some of the outfielders were in the water! There was a full moon that night and it was magical being there!

The weather calmed down a little our last morning on the island so most of the group did one more boat snorkel. Our catamaran ride back was very bumpy with waves splashing up the side of the boat, but thankfully none of us got sick. Rob was right, it’s better going towards the mainland! We all loved our time on the Great Barrier Reef. What an awesome experience.

We had a 7 hour bus ride after the catamaran trip and are now staying at the Glasshouse Mountains EcoLodge for a retreat. It’s a great location, we have the place to ourselves. We are cooking our own meals and the students are studying for their last tests. On Monday here, but Easter back home, we’ll have an Easter Egg Hunt. Fun. Tuesday we head back to Brisbane for a final two days and we all split up on April 16th. I think about 6 students will be on the flight with us back to Portland. The rest are heading to New Zealand, Perth, Figi and more. I can’t believe our time is nearly over. It’s sure been wonderful. Thank you Lewis and Clark and GED for this opportunity for our family. The college students we’ve had the priviledge to be with are outstanding people, “deadly” as the Aussies would say!

The last 2 weeks

We are now on the Great Barrier Reef at Heron Island. It's awesome, but the internet connection
isn't very powerful so I'll just include this email as my next blog. All is well!!!!

Hi family,

I’m sitting in the middle of the bush at a nice campsite at the edge of the
Carnarvon Gorge National Park in Queensland. The campsite is called Takarakka
and we like it very much. It’s right next to a creek where several people have
seen platypus. Ryan saw another one, lucky guy. I guess I’ll have to get up
before 6 tomorrow to see one. They also have flushing toilets and great
showers at this site-we haven’t had that everywhere. We’ve seen pretty faced
wallaby, grey kangaroo, kookaburra, sulfur-crested cockatoo, turtle, cane toads
and apostle birds right at our campsite. This morning, Ryan and I saw a joey
wallaby with its mom. So cute!

The first evening we took a climb up to Boolimba Bluff. It was 3.2 km one way
and mostly straight up. It was really challenging, but we all made it-and it
was worth it. It gave us a view of the gorge and we got to see the type of
growth in a semi-arid eucalyptus forest.

Our students are split up into 2 groups, we’re studying fire ecology and the
social structures of animals. It’s quite interesting. One group of students
studied the ant population around here-Australia has heaps of ants! Yesterday,
Ryan and I spend 5 hours at the National Park watching the kangaroo and wallaby
population to see what we could learn about their social habits. One fun thing
was watching a grey kangaroo who had a pouch that was nearly dragging on the
ground. After awhile, a joey came out and it was so cute. It was about the
size of a cat, but with skinny legs and it wobbled around like a new colt. The
mom must have been trying to wean it or teach it to walk around on its own. She
would contract her pouch and it couldn’t get in. It tried and tried for about
30 minutes while we watched! One time it got behind her and went quickly
around her, like it was trying to sneak up on her.

We have 5 days here. After the students present their research on their ecology
and animal projects we’ll take a long walk up the gorge. There are several
sites with aboriginal carvings. The first one is a 14 km walk and the final
destination of the walk is a 22km walk-round trip. It’s not a steep walk, but
I’m thinking I’ll turn around after the first site. The walk will take from
9:30 a.m.-5p.m. Whew! Rob, our guide, will take ½ the group at a time and
he’ll do the walk two days in a row. He’s in amazing shape and such a fun guy
too. The day we don’t walk, we can go swimming at a rock pool. I hear it’s a
great place. I will also try to send this letter to you. They have the park
store here and it costs $3/15 minutes of internet. I may also do a little
laundry. I don’t quite have enough shorts for this week, it’s been pretty
warm. We’re thankful for the sunshine though, sometimes it can be pretty cold
here and rain too. We’re really hit the weather well during our camping trips.

Our spring break with Pappa and Patricia was awesome! We had a relaxing,
enjoyable time. The condo location was gorgeous and we enjoyed the pool, the
tennis, the fishing, the visiting and the AC. We took one day and went to the
Australia zoo, which was started by Steve Irwin and his parents in the 1970’s.
We got to see lots of crocodiles, which was great. They are starting to bring
in some animals from other continents too, so we watched a great tiger show and
saw a gorgeous cheetah out taking a walk. They don’t have the cheetah exhibit
made yet, but we got to see the keepers walking him. They had a chunk of ice
with sardines in it-like a popsicle for the cheetah.

All the students had a great time on their spring break too. Our first two days
back together were at Rubyvale, which is a small sapphire mining town with 600
permanent residents and another 200 who come in the winter to do the above
ground mining when it’s cooler. It reminded me quite a lot of Virginia City
and the people were so nice there, we met quite a few characters! We all loved
our time there. We got to go down into a mine and use jackhammers and shovels
and search for sapphires. We found one that’s worth about $600. We also got
to watch a miner polish and cut the sapphire. They also included one that he’d
cut in the lottery draw. We found enough sapphires for everyone to have one
that is worth cutting. We drew little Ziploc bags out of Rob’s hat. Arhea won
the $600 sapphire, which was nice, since her birthday was the next day. And
Danielle won the one that was already cut and worth over $200. We got enough
to have 6 cut-so exciting. They are so pretty. It was really a fun part of
our trip.

Well, my computer is losing power so I’d better find an outlet soon. We head to
Biloela next for 2 days to see a working cattle station and ride horses and do
“outback recreation”. Then we head to Heron Island for the Great Barrier Reef.
We’ll have 4 days just taking it easy and the students will take 2 exams at the
Glass house Mountains before we head back to Brisbane for our final 2 days
together. About ½ of us will be heading back to OR, but lots will stay here
and head to Perth, New Zealand and other places. It is strange to think it’s
coming to an end.

We love you all,

Carla



P.S. Well, I tried to send this earlier, but the internet connection was so
bad, we couldn’t send it. So, by the time I send this we’ll be on Heron
Island. I’ll fill you in on a few more things.

I got up at 5:45 a.m. our last day at Carnarvon to see if I could see a
platypus. They are very elusive and hard to see. I didn’t have to set an
alarm as the kookaburras woke us up at 5:45 every day. They were in the trees
around us and would start their laughing to let the other birds know they made
it thru the night and that they were still in their trees! There was a group
of about 30 elementary school children who had also come to the platypus pool.
They sat pretty still for kids, but were fidgeting quite a bit. They stayed
about an hour, but 5 minutes after they left, about 6:55, we saw one. It was
just under the surface of the water, about 20 feet away, but we got a good look
at its shape. Exciting. Then a few of us there, Erik and Ryan and Bryn
included, got to see it again further away in the weeks. I didn’t see it that
time. Erik spent over 7 hours looking for it and saw it 3 times for his
efforts. Many Australians haven’t seen them in the wild. We didn’t even see
them at the zoo or aquarium because they were always hiding. The ranger said
they build dens 30 feet into the creek wall. No wonder we never see them
during the day, unless they are feeding. They eat yabbies, which are crawfish,
and they come to the surface to breathe and chew. Amazing.

Ryan and I did choose to take the shorter walk at Carnarvon. But it was still a
serious hike. We crossed over the creek that goes down the gorge 20 times.
Luckily, the rangers have put nice stepping stones at each crossing. We
learned about lots of plants that the Aboriginal people used for medicine,
food, etc. There is a species of palm that only grows in Carnarvon Gorge and
there are also rare king ferns there. The Aboriginal stencils and carvings
that were at three different sites were very interesting. At one place they
estimate they are from about 3500 years ago and at another they are 12000 years
old. They dig down near the site and do carbon dating on the things they find
there to estimate it. We saw a swamp wallaby on our walk, they are harder to
see and are always on their own. It’s darker with a white tip.

We also saw an echidna and a tawny frogmouth bird. And we heard a yellow belly
glider possum screeching as it was going from tree to tree. They can glide up
to 120m. As we were leaving, we saw many wild emus along side the road.
Probably 25 in total.

Today we are at a cattle station in Biloela-they pronounce it Bill-oh-wee-lah.
We are actually about 45 minutes from the town at Lochenbar station, at a dude
ranch called Kroombit. The owners here have 10,000 acres and 1,000 cattle and
several hundred goats. Their main industry is tourism though. They have bus
loads of backpackers that come here on tours. Tonight there will be 60 youth
from around the world joining us. Fun. Last night we learned how to crack
whips. Nearly everyone got a good crack from their whips. Ryan chose a whip
for his birthday gift so he’s practicing now. We also each had a turn or two
on the mechanical bull. That was a riot! It’s a lot harder to stay on than it
seems. Erik and I stayed on for 1 buck each, or you could say we got bucked off
the first time it moved! One of our students stayed on for 50 bucks. It was so
much fun to try. I thought of Andrew and Kari often and knew they would have
loved to try it.

This morning we all got to ride horses and go on a goat muster. We herded about
300 goats around a huge paddock or pasture and into a pen. That was very cool.
My horse was called Bonnie and she did a good job. It was more fun than just
following behind other horses on a trail walk. We didn’t get to trot or gallop
them, but it was still great. Then we had a little goat rodeo. We also shot a
12 gauge shotgun at clay pigeons. Erik was the best and got 3 out of 5.
Tonight after supper, of roast beef, we’ll watch the backpackers try the bull.
We leave at 7 a.m. tomorrow for Gladstone, where we’ll catch the catamaran for
Heron Island. I hear that most people get seasick on this 3 hour trip. Oh
joy!

Well, I’m afraid this is getting too long, you may not have time to read it.
But since we’ve been away from technology for awhile, I had to get you caught
up on our adventure. I hope you all have a Happy Easter. Love to all,

Carla

Update from the Sunshine Coast

Wow, I thought I'd have all sorts of time during our Spring Break to write in this blog, but not so! I did put more pictures on my picasa album. It's nearly 11 p.m. and we leave at 6 a.m. tomorrow for our next adventure. Last week we were camping at Lamington National Park at O'Reilly's. We learned so many interesting things about rain forests, glow worms, brush turkeys, marsupial carnivore mice and so on. I will try to write more later. We got a heavy storm one day, but otherwise we had awesome weather. Several of the students were sick with colds so that was a bummer. What a gorgeous place though!

Then we met Tore and Patricia in Brisbane on Friday and headed north about an hour to the Sunshine Coast. We're living it up right here at a time share. We've enjoyed the pool and the deck, kayaks and the tennis court and game room. Even more fun was the fishing. Erik bought 2 fishing poles and they fished off the dock numerous times, usually 3 times a day. We had an amazing meal of Bream which they caught. We'll take the poles on to Heron Island.

We also enjoyed a market and the Australia Zoo and especially each other's company. We got to have dinner with Ulla and 3 other Scandinavians. They cooked tuna, sand crab and other amazing things for a lovely evening. Ulla was our cook for Aboriginal camp and will be with us next week too. Yeah!

I must sleep, but wanted to say a quick "HI". We are well. Won't have internet for the next two weeks.

Carla

Last few days in Brisbane

Hi,

It's been raining off and on for the last few days, partly because of cyclone Hamish a few hours north of here. We will be on the Sunshine Coast on March 20th, but by then it should be long gone. We're hoping it doesn't rain on Friday night as we're taking all of the LC students to a Rugby game. Should be fun.

Erik had a great visit in Adelaide with Palmer's, Pappa and Patricia and the boys and I had fun at the Gold Coast. It's a very built up part of Australia with lots of great beaches, skyscrapers, hotels, theme parks and tourists. But we enjoyed it all. We stayed in a nice Marriott within 1/2 a block from the ocean. We were on the 15th of 35 floors. It cost about $65 US. The boys loved playing tennis -on the 5th floor court. They played 3 different times during the day we were there for free. We had sunshine on Sunday when we arrived and we enjoyed the beach at Surfers Paradise. The boys said the waves were huge, so they had fun boogie and body boarding. That night we ate at Hard Rock Cafe and the boys played for 2 hours at a huge video arcade, complete with bowling, bumper cars and mini golf. I'm reading an adventure series called "The Ranger's Apprentice" by an Australian so I was happy to read while they played!

Monday we headed to White Water World. It's perhaps a little smaller than Wet n Wild, but had lots of great rides. I liked it best, but the boys voted for Wet n Wild. Ryan was launching himself on the Blue Ringed Octopus ride and pushed too far, too fast and hit his chin on the water slide. He split it enough that they paid for a taxi to take us to the clinic. The dr sutured it with human glue and steri strips and we were back playing within an hour. Impressive. A fun day-and even though it was cloudy all day, it didn't start to rain until we were almost home. Yeah.

This week we're busy with math, grading, packing, sorting, shopping, more math, and attending the student's presentations. Sunday morning we head out for Lamington Plateau and safari style tents. We'll be with Rob again and learning about rain forests, collecting bugs and mammals and getting up really early to look for birds. It'll be very interesting and fun to be all back together again.

After that week it is Spring Break, which we'll spend on the Sunshine Coast with Pappa and Patricia. Ryan will have his 12 birthday then and we're really looking forward to our visit. The boys will be thrilled to be right on the ocean. No hour long bus rides to get to the surf. Not sure when we'll have internet again, probably in a week. All for now,

Carla

March in Brisbane

March started out very warm. The first day of March is officially autumn here. They don't call it fall because the leaves don't fall off of the trees here! However, it didn't feel like fall or autumn. It was the warmest day they'd had all summer, 35 degrees Celcius, 95 F. We were again thankful for air conditioning in our apartment. Sunday, March 1st we attended church at the Brisbane congregation again. Erik, Ryan and I sang several rounds, which was fun. We had a potluck after church, complete with a pavlova that Todd Houston brought! After church, Bryn, Ryan, Erik and Shane went to a Rugby game. They enjoyed that very much and the Brisbane Reds won.

Saturday, the day before, we got up early and headed via train down to Beenleigh to meet up with our new friend, Jim Ireland. He, his son, Andrew, and granddaughter, Hannah, took us out on their boat to N. Stradbroke Island again. It felt like a different trip from the weekend before when we took the ferry over. This time we went for about 30 minutes down the Logan River, passed a few islands and we were there, no time on open water. We stopped at two spots along the island. The first stop had about a foot wide beach and then a steep sand dune with very fine sand of many colors. We went up and down the dune and swam in the water. Then we went a little further along the island and stopped at another spot with about 3 feet of beach. We had the place to ourselves for our chook(chicken) and bread roll picnic, until 2 goannas came along. We had fun watching them and feeding them scraps. All of a sudden they started fighting, or dancing. They were going at it for over 30 minutes. It was very interesting to watch. They paid no attention to us watching them.

As we headed back, Jim and Andrew showed the boys how to kneeboard and do tricks and then Jim skiied barefoot. He was amazing. Then Bryn and Ryan got to kneeboard, which they learned easily and loved. It was a Saturday in summer, with no wind at all and there was hardly anyone on the water. Since school's back in session most people are busy with school and sports, I guess. It was a perfect day for us. When we got back to Brisbane we headed over to Shane and Luke's homestay home for some swimming in their pool and ping pong/around the world fun. It was great to meet their family.

Brisbane isn't quite as close to the ocean as Sydney so the beaches aren't as accessible, but Tuesday we went to a beach on the river. It's a gorgeous place to relax and cool off. It's like several huge pools, but with sand on the bottom of the pool and sand along the edge so it feels like you're at the beach. That was enjoyable. Brisbane really is a gorgeous city.

Wednesday, we took the boys to Wet n Wild, supposedly Australia's best water theme park. It's about an hour away by train and since we were there on a weekday, the park wasn't busy at all. We loved it and went on many crazy and amazing water rides. What a fun day. On Monday, Bryn, Ryan and I will go to White water world, the other big water park. Then we'll be able to compare and decide which one we think is best!

Friday, the LC students all turned in their papers from their research projects and had their last official lecture. So we invited them over to our place to see the apartment and celebrate. We had Rice Bubbles Treats and other goodies and then went to our park for some climbing and cricket. It was a fun afternoon. Next week the students have 2 tests and also present their research. For the rest of the trip, they will be learning via field study and research at Lamington Plateau, Carnarvon Gorge and Heron Island. That will be interesting, I'm sure. GED sure does a great job with this program, giving us so many varieties of learning opportunities.

Today, Erik headed out early to the airport and flew to Adelaide. He said they didn't even ask for his ID, or make him take his shoes off and Aunty Daphne, Pappa and Patricia met him at the gate. Nice. Also, the price of tickets for domestic travel is quite cheap. I think his ticket was about $70 and he flew quite a ways, about as far as San Francisco or further, from Portland. Tore and Patricia just arrived in Australia a few days ago and are visiting family friends. Erik hasn't seen Aunty Daphne and her kids since he was 12. He'll be able to be there until Monday night.

While he's there, the boys and I are heading to Surfer's Paradise for a night. Tomorrow we'll play in the ocean and then we'll head to White Water World on Monday. Fun!

I hope you like the new layout for my Blog. I changed it, thanks to my nephew Travis' advice. I don't want it to be "boring". I may even figure out how to add photos.

All for now,

Carla

February's nearly gone!

Hi all,

I can't believe that February is nearly gone. As of tomorrow we've been on this adventure for 2 months. We've sure done many wonderful things. We continue to enjoy Brisbane. It rains often, not every day though. And it usually only rains for 30 minutes or so. Several days have been pretty humid, but the temperature is usually in the 80's. The river, rain and size of the city make us think of Portland.

Last weekend we went to N Stradbroke Island, or Straddy. It was a 1 hour ferry ride to it. It's the 2nd largest sand island in the world. Fraser Island is the first. We met a new member of GED who will be with us on our field trips. His name is Rob Elvish, a man full of information, makes learning so interesting. We learned sand island ecology and about mangrove trees. We saw wildlife, plus a perched lake, a window lake, sand dunes of various ages and the rocky outcrop that started the whole island many many years ago. I've written some comments on my photos with more specifics: http://picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

We came back Monday afternoon from Straddy. The boys went and played several hours of cricket in New Farm Park while I did laundry and took a nap!

Tuesday night we saw a play called "White Earth". It's based on a book written by an Australian. It was intense, but good.

Wednesday, several of the students decided to go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We decided to tag along. It was well worth it! There are over 130 koalas there and lots of other Australian wildlife. We got to hold a koala-Hazel was her name! Such fun. We also got to wander among and feed the kangaroo and wallabies. The emus wanted some food too. They are kind of freaky though. We all had an awesome day!

Erik's working late tonight. The students turned in their research paper rough drafts so he's making comments.
We'll attend church this Sunday and sing for the service. Ken R. will be there so it'll be great to see him.

Must get to sleep! Hope all's well with you around the globe.

Carla

Kangaroo point

Just a quick note. There were no lectures today so we decided to check out Riverlife Adventures on Kangaroo Point. It's a part of land along the Brisbane River with 20 meter cliffs. They have lots of choices: rockclimbing and renting bikes and rollerblades. We decided to rent kayaks for 90 minutes and then abseil for 90 minutes. The kayaking was peaceful, so beautiful to see the city that way. The abseiling was intense, but we all did it and enjoyed it so much. Adrian was our trusted instructor. We went up these steep steps to get to the top and then he showed us how to repel down the cliff. Erik went first. He actually should have had an extra twist in his rope because he was sliding the whole way down and unable to stop himself. Made for a quick trip and his glove was sure hot by the end with the friction. Erik went a 2nd time and they got it figured out and he liked that better! Bryn and Ryan soon got the hang of it and went 3 times each. I did it too! Just one though. Can't believe it. It was so hard leaning enough to get over the edge, but once you got over the edge, it was really easy and fun. We're all tired out tonight!
We enjoyed some pizza, the first time we've gone out for pizza in nearly 2 months. It was at Johnny's Pizza-one of our pizzas was Tropical with ham, pineapple, green pepper and prawns! ( I remember we did have Domino's at Jeff and Faye's-that was good too.) All for now.

Brisbane

Hi,

We are now settled in Brisbane. It's a gorgeous big city, similar to Portland. There is a large river that snakes its way thru the city. It's called the Brisbane River. It meanders thru the city more than the Willamette does in Portland. One thing that is great is that there is a ferry system to get people from one side to the other and on down the river. They use speedy catamarans and they call them the city cats. They also have bridges, but not enough for the 2 million people who live here, according to one person we talked to. The city cats are part of the transportation system along with busses and trains. Last night, Erik, the boys and I rode down the river on one and saw the city lit up. It was gorgeous and such a nice evening.

Let me back up and fill you in on what we've been doing since Tiona. The miracle of packing to fit into our smaller rental replacement was that we got rid of some things. We went to Forster and dropped a pile of things off to Salvos-Salvation Army and we mailed a box of things back home. That helped. Erik got more oysters and said they WERE the BEST he's ever eaten. Thanks for the heads up Dad. We ate at a nice cafe, the waiter was an older man who was super nice. I had a sandwich with toast, fried egg, bacon and banana. Believe it or not, it was yummy!

We headed to Tamworth which was about a 5 hour drive. Along the way we stopped at a McDonald's, our first time eating there, but as in the states, they are the main option along the highways. The Aussies call it Maccuhs. Two things we like about Mackers, as we would pronounce it, is that they have free wifi and McCafes. A McCafe is inside a McDonalds and has rollup sandwiches, coffee, teas, and yummy desserts, like cakes and lamingtons. One McCafe I was in in Sydney only had the cafe sandwiches and chicken, you couldn't even get a burger!

As we drove along, Erik spotted our first wild kangaroo. They were out in a farmer's field. We turned around and went back to get a better view. So exciting. As we drove along we saw a gorgeous sunset. The sun was behind some big clouds and I got several pictures that all look unique. That was a fun thing to do as we drove along.

It was so awesome to be with Mem and Norm, they are wonderful people. Their home was very nice. We stayed there in Tamworth for 2 days. We went to a great wildlife park in Gunnedah, about an hour from Tamworth. Mem warned us that it "was run on the smell of an oily rag." But it had lots of Australian animals and birds. We got to go right in near 9 koalas. Some were asleep and others were awake. We got to pet them. There were two who were squabbling at each other, that was interesting to watch. There was also a baby one, which was so cute. It was about a foot long. We also saw kangaroo, a wombat, wallaby, ring tailed possum, dingo, fallow deer, and the ground where an echidna lives. Mem said he'd be burrowed under the ground away from the heat. We also saw lots of birds: several kinds of cockatoos, a wedge tailed eagle, a tawny frogmouth-my favorite, it looked just like a branch of a tree, parrots, lorakeets, emu, ostrich and more. If it wasn't such a hot day, I'll bet we would have stayed even longer. Mom and Dad, I think this is the place you told us about, we loved it.

Wednesday, we headed out with Mem and Norm, for Brisbane. We stopped along the way several times to see gorgeous canyons and waterfalls and rivers, some with water in them and some without. We spotted several kangaroo along the way and also an eagle. We stopped for the night at Ballina in a nice caravan park. The 6 of us stayed in a cabin together, ate a makeshift meal-which was great, swam in the ocean and the pool and played games. It was a fun evening. Thursday we went north to Pimpama where Bryn and Ryan took 3 rides on the ZORB. It's a huge ball, and they add water to it and roll down a large hill. They had a blast and we had fun watching. Mem and Norm went on to visit his sister and we went on in to the city. We stayed in a nice hotel in Brisbane, near GED-Global Education Design, where we were to meet up with the college students the next day.

Friday afternoon all 15 students arrived, during a downpour-another reason Brisbane feels like Portland. They had all had good experiences in different parts of Australia, conducting their research for the Contemporary Australian Studies course. After a bus tour of the city, their homestay families came and collected them and we came to our apartment. It's in a nice section of the city called New Farm. It's a gorgeous apartment, we feel spoiled. It has air conditioning, which is rare for Australians and it has wifi, a washing machine, stocked kitchen, and we love it. It's near a big park and only about 15 minutes walk from 2 city cats.

On Sunday, our friend from back at Graceland and Ann Arbor days, Todd Houston, picked us up and took us to church. Fun to see Todd again. He looks the same as he did 20 years ago, not fair! We met several others who knew of us, at church. Two women have been pen pals with Shirley F and Veryl and several knew Erik's parents. The service and class were very good. One funny thing happened. During the service, a gecko walked across the rostrum. I've never seen that before. After church, Shirley and Dave Judd, Val Shaw and Jim Ireland took us out to lunch and ice cream. We had fish and chips and Baskin Robbins. They showed us around too and we saw some beautiful sites. So nice of them to spend their afternoon with us.

This week Erik and sometimes Bryn have been attending the morning lectures. Today, Erik and the LC students are visiting the parliment building. Parliment isn't in session, but it will be later in our visit and they can visit it again then if they want. Ryan and Bryn have both been working on their math homework, trying to get caught up. It's tricky trying to do it. The boys are taking a break right now and playing cricket in the big park near here. They are also trying out a new boomerang they got. They did well with one that Uncle Mikey had made at the Aboriginal camp, but not sure how this one will work.

This coming weekend we all will be taking a boat over to N Stradbroke Island, or Straddy as the Australians call it. It is completely sand and has mangrove forests that we'll be studying. I hear we need to have lots of mozzy spray (for the mosquitoes).

We're so grateful for this Awesome Australian Adventure.

We're back online

Dear family and friends,

I see that it's been a while since I've written. We've been away from internet, a strange feeling. Bryn did well surfing that last time in Manly. He got up more than 5 times, I hear. Friday, our family went to Coogee beach one last time, the water there is so amazingly blue, green and gorgeous. We had some amazing fish and chips (fries). One of the cafes there is called "Chish and Fips"! We had lots of fun with the waves.

The next day we planned to pack and get ready for our camping trip, but the boys talked Erik into taking them to another beach: Bronte. Maggie went along also, she feels like a big sister to the boys. She's great. The other LC students have been awesome as well. They treat Bryn and Ryan so well, and help them feel part of the group. I’ve been so happy about that! Especially after Andrew and Kari left, I didn’t know how it’d go, but they are an awesome group of people. I hear that the waves at Bronte were great, Erik said the 2nd best after Coogee the day of the King Tide! I stayed home and packed and did laundry as we had to pack up everything to take with us. We said our goodbyes to Arundel house. It was a very good place to stay.

Sunday morning at 9 we loaded up a 20 passenger bus with a trailer and headed to the bush. We were about 2 ½ hours outside of Sydney. The nearest little town was Wiseman’s Ferry. We were in the Dhurag National Park, staying at a Buddhist retreat center. But the leaders of the camp were aboriginal elders, called uncles and aunties. Uncle Wayne and Aunty Jody, a married couple, were in charge of the camp. They are awesome people with so much knowledge, gentleness and compassion. We all fell in love with them! Uncle Wayne’s mom, a sweet, kind Aunty Lorna, and a 16 year old gorgeous fun girl, we called “G” were there as well. Also from further west in New South Wales was a young man, who was an amazing dancer, named Uncle Mikey and another man, so empathetic and kind, named Uncle Rob. We had a Swedish chef, named Ula, who we all loved and we’re fortunate to have her cooking again in Queensland. Derrick, a man from Queensland, a laid back Australian, also joined the camp. Uncle Dalles and Aunty Margaret joined us for a day too. Nat and Marta, leaders of Global Education Design rounded out the participants.

We were roughing it. Outhouses/no electricity/solar powered lights/fire warmed hot water/lots of dust and heat, but extreme beauty all around. They treated the camp as an immersion and thru lots of role playing, yarns (stories), dreaming stories, creating artifacts, etc. we learned much about aboriginal culture, their protocols and some of the struggles they have had to face over the years. We experienced wide ranges of emotions: frustration, joy, laughter, sadness, fatigue, compassion for each other and more. It’s really hard to explain our experience, but just know, overall, it was amazing.

Several of us had to face fears. One girl hates spiders and saw several huge ones called Huntsman spiders. Their bodies are over 2 inches in diameter. I’ll try to upload some photos as soon as possible. One girl hates ants and they have huge bull ants there, about 2 inches in length-many were bitten by them and it hurts bad! Thankfully the pain lessens after about 30 minutes. I, of course, hate snakes. So I was the only one who saw one. I was trying to be brave and headed to the showers one morning by myself and saw a red bellied black snake on the path about 15 feet ahead of me. He slithered off and I went the other way around, after getting Erik to walk with me. I happened to have a black and red shirt on and Aunty Margaret said that I thought I chose the color of my shirt that day myself, but…. I didn’t get a picture of the snake!

We also took a very long hike in the bush, where we got lost and ran out of water and were challenged by the heat and the length of the trip. Thankfully we found our lunch and more water after about 5 ½ hours. And we got to see some aboriginal carvings that were on a huge stone tabletop ridge. So impressive and special. They are between 35,000 and 55,000 years old. Not many have seen them as they are hard to find and behind locked gates.

We learned many songs and dances, Uncle Wayne is very professional at the dancing and singing. It was great fun to learn the songs and we had a big celebration late into the night our last night there, with 5 campfires burning around the circle. After the celebration we ate potatoes, yams, emu, kangaroo and quail that had been roasting in a pit in the ground, yum.

We drove back to Sydney Friday afternoon and got to eat supper with Gwen, Brian, Faye and Jeff at Flying Fajita Sisters, where the chef is from Seattle. Quite yummy, different than Mexican food in Portland. They put beet root and pineapple on the fajitas.

Saturday we rented a car and headed to Tiona, near Forster, Australia. It’s the resort that has been our church’s campground here for many years. It’s an amazing place with the ocean several hundred feet from our cabin and Lake Wallis another hundred feet or so in the other direction. They have a green cathedral, church under the cabbage palm trees and we were able to worship there today overlooking the lake, so wonderful.

We’ve learned a hard lesson though. In Australia, you need to always use the hand brake. We never use it in Portland unless we’re on a steep hill. And you can remove the keys without putting the car in park. (Can we do that in the states?!) We had just unloaded our things at our cabin and Erik went back to the main office to see if they had a fan, our room was pretty hot (thankfully it cooled down beautifully after sunset). He stopped the car in front of the office. It’s nearly a flat surface. Either Erik didn’t put it in park or it popped out of park and it rolled about 20 feet and hit a pole in the nearby playground. We’d had some trouble with the transmission slipping all the way here, but don’t know if that was what happened. 2 kids were playing on the equipment and weren’t hurt or hit or upset by it. Erik felt absolutely awful. It’s taken nearly 24 hours of calls and waiting, but they’d just now come with a new car and a tow truck. Yikes. As first they said that they weren’t going to give us a replacement car, but a nice person at Avis changed their minds. This one is smaller so we will need a miracle of packing to fit everything in. But we are so glad no one was hurt. It’ll cost us $2650 Australia. As I said, Yikes!

We’ve still been able to enjoy the ocean, ping pong, and the pool. In fact, we’re off to the beach again. It’s so nice here with a breeze and the cool ocean you can hop into. It was supposed to be 110 degrees in Sydney yesterday. They are having very bad bush fires in Victoria. 26 people killed already, so sad. Yesterday was the hottest day in February on record for Melbourne-117.

The plan is to drive to Tamworth tomorrow and see Mem and Norm Dudley. I knew them in Bozemen, MT when I was in 4th grade and have met them again more recently as they knew Marge and Tore and visited us in Portland. Then we all will drive to Brisbane as we have to be there by Friday the 13th at 14:00 to meet up with the students. They are all doing their independent research this week in different places around the country.

This has been quite a great adventure, thanks for reading. Email us and let us know how life is where you are: nilsen6@comcast.net

Love,

Carla

Australia Day and such

Well, we ended up going to Manly beach on Saturday and it ended up being 108 degrees near where we stay!! Yikes. We were so glad we were at the ocean, where the water was quite cool. It felt so good. We found that there was a fish and chips restaurant with Air conditioning, not common here. We had a great lunch there before heading to the beach. Oh yeah, and before that I had some amazing chocolate, banana crepes at a place called, "the Bald Guys chocolate" or something like that. Yum.

At the beach they were having a surf carnival, with lots of races going on. Fun to watch, Erik had wanted to see one! There were also lots of strong currents so there was only a small area flagged off for swimming, but that didn't deter us. There was a place to rent surfboards and boogie boards, so Andrew tried surfing again. I thought he did great. He said it was challenging with the currents. Bryn got a strange painful rash on the back of his knees. We don't know what it was, but it went away after about 30 minutes, we're calling it a jelly or a blue bottle! Sounds better than sea lice or some such.

On the way home, Andrew and Bryn really wanted to eat in Newtown at Thai riffic, they had gone there once before. After a train ride and some walking we found it about 9 p.m. It was a great place and amazing food.

Andrew and Kari finished packing and getting ready and left via taxi with Erik about 1 p.m. on Sunday. Sadness! It was so fun to be together here. Erik thought he could easily take a train back here, but it didn't work out well, he ended up in Bondi and it took him over 2 hours to get home, with lots of walking. He got turned around at Town Hall and was going the wrong way for awhile, that doesn't happen often to him, he's great at figuring out where we are. Andrew and Bryn are good at it too.

Andrew and Kari emailed that they slept nearly all of the 19 hours to Chicago, yay for Unisom! They went from 108 degrees here to about 8 degrees in Iowa, what a shock!

Monday was Australia Day, 220 years from when the British landed in Australia. First we went to an aboriginal festival, they weren't celebrating the same thing, but celebrating their survival despite of it. Ryan got to play some footie, Australian rules football with some kids, mostly they were practicing their kicking, fun! And then we went downtown and saw the fireworks and show at Darling Harbour. It was raining, but a warm rain. I think it kept the crowds down some. We enjoyed it and were home before 10.

Yesterday we spent at immigration getting Bryn and Ryan's visas figured out, hopefully all's well now. Whew.

Today, Erik, Shane, Bryn and Ryan went to Manly beach. Bryn rented a surfboard, but I haven't heard how that went. I'm off to see a movie with the students, called Ten Canoes. All for now,

Carla

Friday report

Hi,

First of all, Erik is better. Yeah! His fever finally quit yesterday after 6 days. He's pretty wiped out, but keeping up with the kids and students pretty well. Also, Andrew decided not to stay the extra two weeks. He was bummed, but it would have cost an extra $1000 and that is a bit much. I know Kari's glad to have him with her on the 19+ hour flight to Chicago and on to KC. We will sure miss them here. It's really been such a chance of a lifetime for us to be here as a family. They are such great kids, we are so blessed. Tonight we went to a nice bistro so the kids could try some lamb shanks before they left. I got prawns which were yummy.

Yesterday afternoon we walked down to the Seafood Market, several miles away. It was quite impressive. Think of Pike's market and times it by 6! They had so many varieties of seafood. About 10 varieties of prawns and lots of lobster and the strangest huge giant crabs and blue crab and on and on. We saw a lobster whose body was 2 feet long. Maybe bigger. Erik was practically drooling, he loved it so much. We bought our supper-some rock lobster, banana prawns, and New Zealand green mussle, plus a gorgeous loaf of Damper bread. Erik and I brought the food home to the fridge and worked on paperwork while the kids took the ferry to Manly and played for several hours in the waves. We had a late yummy meal!

Today we left with the group this morning for the Australian Museum. A very interesting museum, I think you would love it if you have time when you're here, Pappa and Patricia. It was air conditioned and had lots of artifacts and samples of the interesting birds and animals in Australia. It also had a great Indigenous Australian exhibit.

This afternoon we spent at the Art Gallery of NSW. It was interesting too. We walked thru the Royal Botanic Gardens, they are gorgeous. We saw a Wollemi pine that was older than the one we saw at our lodge in the Blue Mts and lots of flying fox, huge bats. I mean huge! Their bodies are the size of squirrels.

We did some souvenir shopping and are back at "home" now. The kids are at the park playing cricket, rugby and frisbee. I'm doing laundry and such. Tommorow is their last day here and we plan to head to Coogee beach. It's supposed to be 95.

Hope all's well with you, send me an email and let me know if you're reading. nilsen6@comcast.net I am curious.

Carla

Blue Mountains, etc.

Hi all,

It's been a week since I last wrote, wow time is flying by.  You might think we just sit around with nothing to do, but so far, that hasn't been true.  Although we have had time for a few pinochle games and some Bananograms.  I'll try to hit the highlights of our week.

Last Thursday we did play a Nilsen game of modified cricket.  Fun!  Bryn got me out the first try.  I think he called it a golden goose, or something.  Kari says it's a golden duck!  It was so hot, nearly 100. We thought we'd play a little and then cool off in the pool.  Well it started to rain and cooled everything off, so we didn't swim.  We ate dinner at Flying Fajita Sisters.  The chef is from Seattle and Jeff and Faye know him.  It was a great meal.  They have a "Wall of Pain" which has different hot sauces on it.  You can't even take the ones off the top shelf without first checking with the waitress.  Bryn tried one from the middle shelf, "baboon sauce" and it was hot, he was hurting for a while!

Friday after lectures we went to the Taronga Zoo.  It was amazing, our first look at Australian wildlife except for the cockatoos and cat birds and lorakeets we saw at Jeff and Faye's.   We saw Wallabies, Kangaroos, Koalas (They get such little nutrition from Eucalyptus leaves that they sleep 20 hours a day.), Snakes (I didn't look at them!), Kookaburra, Echidna, and so many more.  There was one animal that grows a flap of skin to protect its babies, it doesn't have a permanent pouch.  They also had lots of other animals.  Erik, Andrew and Ryan went to a talk on spiders and saw them feed the koalas.  They had lions, tigers and bears!  Also, giraffe, elephants, snow leopard, seal, fairy penguins, otters and more.  It was very enjoyable.  We took the ferry to get there, kind of like a harbour cruise every time you take a ferry.    Mom and Dad, we didn't take an official harbour cruise but have been on ferries to 4 different stops so feel we've seen a good amount.  We used your Christmas money to buy entrance to the Aquarium, so thanks again!

Saturday morning we left for the Blue Mountains.  We had a scientist along, Howard, who was so knowledgable about Australia's history and the aboriginal culture, animals and plants and so much more.  It was great learning from him.  He told us about the amazing discovery of the Wollemi pine-in 1994.  They thought it had been extinct for 60 million years.  There are 100 or so trees growing in a remote area of the Blue Mountains  and they have done tissue samples and grown more of the pines and you can buy them from the Botanic Gardens here.  Pretty amazing.  We went to Scenic world and went on a short railroad ride straight down a hill where it used to be a coal mine.  It felt straight down, but was 56% grade, the steepest in the world.  We hiked around the forest and Ryan spotted two lyre birds, they mimic other birds and sounds.  They have a gorgeous tail sort of like a peacock.  We took a gondola back up the mountain and went on another hike and saw all sorts of interesting plants and trees.  Then we went to an ecolodge, a very gorgeous  place with wonderful food and accomodations.

Saturday we went to Jenolan caves and had a 3 hour tour.  It was great.  It reminded me of L&C Caverns in MT, except it was bigger and older (the oldest in the world at 450 million years) and had lots of white crystals.  Very interesting.  We had a picnic afterwards by a little river and some of the students and our 4 jumped off a rock cliff into the water.  As we were walking back, Ryan was a ways ahead of us and he saw a platypus, we could see the bubbles where he'd gone under, they are hard to see, so that was cool.   Saturday night we had pavlova for dessert with passion fruit, kiwi and strawberry.  Yum.  We had a campfire, shared a favorite childhood memory and learned some new songs.  Then we went to a clearing away from the trees and looked at the stars.  They were absolutely gorgeous.  We saw the southern cross and the crab nebula and a very bright, long lasting shooting star.  What a night.

Sunday the students took a 5 km hike down to the Grand Canyon.  Ryan and I stayed back with Erik.  He'd been sick with a fever since Friday night.  We went to a hospital there, Katoombah, and he has a UTI.  The meds haven't knocked it down yet and we were at a hospital here yesterday.  He got a second antibiotic and is marginally better.  He was well enough today to go reef fishing about 5 miles from Sydney.  He and our boys and 5 students rented a fishing boat.  They caught 16 keepers and we had a fish feed tonight.  It was yummy.  They caught a pig fish, a breem and quite a few fat heads.  5 of the 9 got sea sick.  Luckily Bryn and Ryan escaped it.  They got to see dolphins, including a baby one, and fairy penguins.  I'm envious of that!

The gang is at a play right now of Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of a tell tale heart.  Ryan and I decided to hang out here instead.  We're exhausted.

Andrew is trying to work it out so he can stay 2 weeks longer.  It's only $100 to change his ticket and he'd love to be here for the week at the Aboriginal camp.  He'll miss the first 2 weeks of classes, but he feels it'd be worth it.  It's been so good to have he and Kari here with us.  They've become good friends with the LC students, who are such a great group!  Kari's not looking forward to the 19 hour flight by herself, can't blame her.  She leaves on Sunday.

Well I am sure I am leaving out so many great things, but I'm falling asleep.  Check out my pictures, I keep them pretty up to date.  www.picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

All for now,

Carla

  

Beach Fun

Hi,

I've added new photos from our day at the beach so thought I should tell a little about it.  The nearest ocean beach to us is Coogee.  It's also where our friends, Gwen and Brian, live so we'd been to it once before.  It's a great beach.  We rented 2 maxi taxis to get all the students out there together rather than take the buses.  On Tuesday, it had been a King Tide, the highest tide in 20 years, so yesterday it was still pretty high and the waves were immense.  Playing in them could easily knock you over.  I got a pictures of some crazy guys jumping off of the nearby cliffs, although that was a restricted area and they announced over the loud speaker that they couldn't do that.  The beaches are well patrolled, they have certain areas that they watch over, you stay between the yellow and red flags.  Kari saw one blue bottle jellyfish yesterday in the water.  I guess sometimes there are too many of them so you can't swim.  There are great restaurants and shopping right near the beach.  We found a deal.  You had to buy a soda, $4 and then you got a $2 steak and a $2 salad and fries.  So for $8, (about $6 something US) we got a great meal.  Most everyone is a little sunburned today, even though they put on lots of sunscreen, and tired!  It takes a lot out of you dealing with all the sand, sun and waves!  Don't you feel sorry for us!!!  

Today the students and Erik are at lectures until noon.  The boys and I are doing laundry and math and then may head to the mall.  We think we might play cricket this afternoon and then go in the nice pool right across the street from us.  Sounds fun to me!

All for now, must go eat breakfast before they put it away.

Hope all's well there with everyone reading!

Carla

Early morning here in Sydney, Jan 14th

Hi.  Well lots has happened since I last wrote.  Last Thursday, Erik and the boys went to a little par 3 golf course near Jeff and Faye's.  They had fun, but it wasn't a world class golf course.  All part of the adventure.    Friday, we mostly packed, did laundry, shopped at the mall-eating crepes, and visited.  We had take away Chinese food from a place near J&F's.  

Saturday morning, at 7:30 a.m., Erik and Ryan returned the rental car at the airport and were there to greet the LC students.  They didn't have any troubles with their flight or customs and were to Arundel house by about 10 a.m.  They all were pretty tired, but doing well.  (Kendall was the only one not here yet, she arrived here about 10 p.m.) Faye drove the rest of us and all our stuff here-thanks for everything Jeff and Faye.  After a short orientation meeting with our fearless leader, Nat, the students were given $, their first look at the cool plastic Australian bills and the gold $1 and $2 coins.  Breakfast is provided here, but we cook our own lunch and supper.  Or we can easily get take away too.  There are lots of options around here for good food, so many international choices.  Several students ventured downtown to see the harbour, etc.  We didn't have bus passes yet, so they walked a long way!  Erik and the 3 older kids went out in the evening to brave the crowds for the first day of the Sydney festival.  They went to 5 different parks and heard lots of different bands.  Their favorite was one that included amazing pyrotechnics.  Erik said he was the oldest attendee by far!  Ryan and I enjoyed a quiet evening playing scrabble and watching "My Fair Lady".

Sunday we had an interesting bus tour, ending up on Bondi Beach.  We couldn't swim, it was a hard temptation for the kids, so instead we ate lunch.  We had amazing fish and chips and calamari at the beach restaurant.  I like how they cook it all up for you after you order it, and you can choose how you want the fish cooked.  Yum.  Sunday evening, Erik cooked steaks and kangaroo kebabs on the kitchen's huge broiler oven.  The steaks were great and several liked the roo.  It was a little strange for me.  I might try it again, since this had a weird maranade on it.  Seth tried some too and said his tasted like a combination of duck, tuna and beef!

Erik's had a bad cold, but it hasn't slowed him down much.  Kari and I saw "Australia" on Monday.  We'd heard the Australian version had a different ending, but it was the same as in the states.  Enjoyable.  Ryan and Erik saw "A tale of Desperaux".  Ryan and Bryn bought a cricket set and they played a rousing game of that in the park across the street.

Monday was the first day of lectures and I heard they were good.  I was doing laundry, writing postcards, and helping Ryan with his math.  Tuesday we had an Aboriginal woman, Goori, named Margret teach us.  She was very interesting and we all appreciated hearing her beliefs.  We will see her again the week we are with the aunties and uncles at the Aboriginal fields studies camp.  

Yesterday, we ate a lunch of leftovers and then headed down to the Sydney tower.  It's impressive, held steady by 56 cables.  It is 305 M tall, twice as tall as the Harbour bridge and the 25th tallest inhabitable structure in the world.  It's as tall as 60 giraffes and the same height as the Eiffel Tower.  It's 1506 steps would take an average person about 50 minutes to climb, but the record is just under 7 minutes in a race they hold!  We took the double decker elevator!  We saw great views and even found Arundel house and could see, thru the binoculars, laundry on the roof!  We also went on OZ trek, which was ok, but not the greatest entertainment.

However, then we walked down to the Opera house and saw Le Grand Cirque-Aerial dreams.  Wow, what a great show.  They had the most amazing talent from several countries.  They had a very funny ringmaster who at one point blew up this huge balloon.  It was about 6 feet in diameter and he put it on his head and then got in it.   They had a guy on a bike and 9 women got on it and him and were riding around the stage!  One guy put chairs on top of chairs and was balancing on the top of about 12 chairs.  It was such a great show, we hadn't seen one like it before and were so glad to get to see one in the famous Opera house.

Today is a free day, so our plan is to take all the students to the ocean-Coogee beach.  Should be fun.  I'll try to write more often, so each entry isn't so long, but it's tricky to find time to do everything.

Hope all's well back in the states.  It's supposed to hit 37 degrees on Thursday, interestingly enough that translates into 98.6!

Love,

Carla

G'day- January 8th, 2009

Hi,

I have a few minutes before supper so I'll try to write a little.  We are having lots of fun adventures.  Tuesday was a long, fun, amazing day.  We left here by 9 a.m. with Jeff and Faye, taking their van and our little Yaris.  We drove over to Coogee and met up with friends, Gwen and Brian.  Then we all drove across to The Spit, where we parked the cars and started hiking/bushwalking.  Gwen's daughter and 2 granddaughters and their friends also met up with us.  Two of the girls were 5 and they were troopers, it wasn't an easy hike.  It was pretty warm, maybe 85 degrees.  Thankfully, we were often in the shade in the bush.  Here's a slogan that describes Manly-"Seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care".  The walk passed thru bushland and the waterfront suburbs surrounding Manly with great views of the Harbour and the city.  It's surprising to me, considering that Sydney has about 5 million people, how much bush/wilderness there is close by.  The kids loved all the water dragon lizards we saw, over 20.  The longest was about 2 feet long.  Erik and I even saw a skink.  As we went along the trail, we somehow got separated into about 5 groups.  We didn't know there were a few options along the way and for the last 2 hours we were walking in our own groups.  It was a bummer because Erik and I were together and had all our water and both phones.  The kids were together, but not with any Australians and they had all our food.  We all knew to keep following the signs to Manly and all ended up there in the end.  The views were amazing and it was such an adventure.  After we got to Manly our family went thru the Oceanworld aquarium.  All of them, except me, watched a reptile show and we got to see lots of sealife.  Ryan and I got home with Gwen and Claudia and Sabine by taking the ferry.  It was like a harbour tour for only a few dollars.  We could see people on top of the Harbour Bridge as we got near, yikes it would have been hot up there.

After we got back to Gwen's we ate some yummy date cake and then headed to the beach.  It's neat how they have concrete pools at the edge of the beach with ocean water.  My gang didn't swim there, but it makes  a calmer option for some.  The waves were fun and huge and Erik and kids had a blast.  It sure was a great way to cool off.  We headed back to Brian and Gwen's and had take away Thai food.  It was awesome!  So fun to visit with them and meet some of their grandkids.  Gwen met Marge when they were here a few  years ago.  She loved the idea of taking your grandkids on a trip when they turn 10 and they have started that with their 10 grandkids.  I know Mamma would love to know how her idea has been passed on all the way to Australia!  Brian's daughter Sophie and her husband Lars were there and we followed them home since they were heading the same way we were.  As we were following them we saw a Creative Memories sticker on her car! I couldn't believe it!  Bryn said, "they are us".  They have 3 boys and a girl, the dad is Scandinavian and the mom does CM!  I hope to get to talk to her.

I think I'm writing too much, but this is the only journal I'm doing, so you'll have to skim as you like.

We got up early yesterday and the kids took a surf lesson, they had their own teacher.  They all got up, but it was definitely challenging.  The waves aren't as calm as the ones they tried in Hawaii 8 years ago.  And they end more abruptly.  Erik talked the director into renting boards to them today, so they spent another 3 hours at it this morning.  I freaked out a bit, well, a lot, at one point.  They were so far out there, it seemed dangerous to me.  And there weren't many around them if they had any trouble.   So they were good to me and came in closer.  After eating Aussie burgers, complete with egg, beetroot, pineapple, tomato, lettuce, ham and cheese, and some shopping, we found a great resale shop, the boys went to a little par 3 golf course and Kari and I took naps.  Sorry about that sentence-too long!

We got an email today saying that Bryn and Ryan's visas still aren't right and we have to fix it or leave in 28 days.  So I guess we'll be going to immigrations.  

The students arrive on Saturday morning so the next step in our adventure begins.  It's been so great being here with Jeff and Faye.  They have fed us so well and let us use their van and their home is gorgeous with everything we could need.  And the visiting has been great.  I'm sure most of our next accomodations won't  be nearly this wonderful.  Last night we had dinner with Julia, her boyfriend Gary, and Faye's sister in law, Elaine.  We got to have Christmas pudding with custard, ice cream and fruit, quite a great combination.

Love to all,

Carla

PS I'll try to add more photos tonight to http://picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

January 5th, 2009

Hi all,

We are having a great time.  Saturday we picked up Andrew and Kari.  They had spent the night with friends from Graceland.  They'd attended a murder mystery party.  The theme was the 50's and they had fun shopping at St Vincent De Paul, "Vinnies", for their costumers.  After we picked them up we went to the Olympic park.  We played a fun game of mini golf and looked around a little.  Ryan had a Subway sandwich, it was similar except they don't have the oil and vinegar.  The rest of us ate at a Fish and Chips shop and had a great meal.  It was Saturday afternoon about 3 and we had trouble finding an open restaurant.  Lots of people are gone since this is summer vacation for them.  That evening we went to a Lebanese restaurant, where Jeff and Faye have been going for 30 years.  It was very interesting and we all liked almost all of the food!    Gwen and Brian, and J&F's son Tim joined us.

Sunday we spent 4-5 hours at the beach.  It was warm and windy, but we had lots of fun body surfing and boogie boarding in the ocean.  The beaches are great here.  The sun is very strong, I put sun screen on 3 times and am still burned!  Sunday evening we had Domino's Pizza and it was very good.  

Today we took the train down town to Sydney to the Sydney Aquarium.  It was very interesting.  We saw 2 of the 5 dugongs in captivity, quite ugly.  It's hard to believe sailors once thought of them as mermaids, they must have been at sea a long time!  We also saw lots of sharks and a mini blue ringed octopus-about the size of an orange, but the most poisonous octopus alive.  We also saw seahorses and huge sting rays.  

Tomorrow, Gwen and Brian, will take us for a 10 KM walk.  It's a famous, gorgeous walk from the Spit to Manly.  It will take us near a lighthouse and along the water with gorgeous views of Sydney.  It's a famous walk, in all the tour books.  We will be warm though as it will be close to 90 degrees.  So we'll wear our new hats.

Wed morning the kids will have a surfing lesson.  Should be interesting!

Erik's been watching quite a lot of cricket.  Each match is 5 days long and about 6-8 hours a day.  I haven't been able to figure it out, but it's very popular here.

I hear it's snowing again in Portland.  It's quite hard for us to fathom that as this moment!  In fact, I think I'll go take a dip in the pool!  Hope to hear from you.  Just email us at nilsen6@comcast.net

Love,

Carla for Nilsen6

Our first 5 days in Australia!

Hi family and friends,

We are in Australia. It's amazing to us and hard to believe we are really here!!! I realized that I had plans to share my photos with those of you back home, but didn't have a plan to keep a journal. Several of you asked if I had a blog, I thought it was a good idea so here goes! I am hopeful that I will be able to keep up with this during the next four months!

Technology is quite wonderful. It's taken me a little while to figure out how to get my pictures to picasa. My Creative Memories software works best on PC, but Erik's laptop is a Mac, so we added parallel and made it a PC too. So getting the two to cooperate is hard for me to figure out. But I just added photos to my facebook and picasa web album. Check it out at http://picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

Our flight from Portland to SF, CA was uneventful. Getting our bags checked in and all was very calm. It was great. Thanks Linda and Edgar for taking us to the airport. Then when we got to SF they called Bryn and Ryan's names over the speaker. They told us that their visas weren't in the system. We panicked a little. They called Australia and found out that it said that they were only traveling with one parent and they didn't have record of consent from the other. We were never notified about this. After they talked with Australia, they were able to fix the problem. Whew.

We left SF at 11:30 p.m., we waited an hour on the ground for people coming late from Seattle. We had several extra seats next to us, which was wonderful for the 6 of us. Andrew and Kari and Erik took a Unisom and a Melatonin and slept lots. Andrew for over 12 of the 14 hours. I couldn't believe it and to be honest I was a little envious. Kari slept for 11 hours and Erik slept lots too. Bryn only slept about 5 hours and Ryan and I slept a little more than that. The trip wasn't as grueling as I thought. We are a day ahead here, 19 hours ahead of Portland. Since it's only 5 hours different, it isn't too bad as far as jet lag goes.

Jeff and Faye Robinson met us at the airport. Jeff went to Graceland with Erik's parents, Marge and Tore, and they have remained great friends over the years. Jeff and Faye are so generous to host us. It's not easy to have 6 people pile into your home. They have a great home, with beds for all of us, a salt water pool, wireless internet and a park right behind the house. They have been cooking amazing food. For New Year's day yesterday, we had prawns and oysters, and Pavlova for dessert.

We've played in the ocean 3 times, gone to a movie-Bedtime Stories, driven thru the Royal National Park and had a picnic, and gone to the fireworks at the Sydney Harbour. The trek to see the fireworks was "epic" as the kids say. Kari and Andrew headed down to meet up with some Graceland friends for the event. They went at 8 a.m. and got home at 7 a.m. They went on the train and bus and slept a few hours in the park where they were to let the train traffic die down and they walked about 6 miles home. We didn't have quite as long a day, we left at 3:30 p.m. and got home at 2 a.m. We waited on the sidewalk for about 7 hours to see the show. It was quite awesome. There were fireworks off the Harbour Bridge, by the Opera house and off 6 barges in the river and off of skyscrapers behind us.

We are loving being here and are learning some new phrases, etc. Love you all,

Carla J