Living it up at Cockatrice Farm

Hi all! Sorry for the long lag...I haven't had internet access since I got to the farm. I've been so busy and we don't get internet everyday. We're kinda restricted now since the guys dowloaded some movies and our hosts got a huge bill in the mail! That was before I arrived. I am trying to write on a french keyboard (Pat, one of the french wwoofers is nice enough to let me use his laptop). This keyboard has the letter keys in the wrong spots! So this is very difficult for me to write. Please bear with me. Let's start from Tues when I left for the farm from Sydney....

On Tues Dec 9, I took the suburban train from Sydney to Goulburn; a town ~3 hrs south of Sydney. (Before leaving Sydney, I had a meat pie with peas, mash and gravy on it. It's lean beef pie with green peas, mashed potatoes and gravy piled onto the pie). As for the train ride....luckily, I met a nice elderly lady named Nettie from Holland who now lives in Oz. She told me to sit in the front car of the train because at one of the stops, they detach half the train and only the first half continues on whereas, the second half stays. I would've been stranded if she didn't tell me! The conductor does announce this but you really can't hear anything over the intercom. When I got to Goulburn station, Rhys (one of the wwoof hosts) was there to pick me up. We stopped to pick up pizza since Tuesdays are pizza nights. Back at the farm (about 15 min from town), I met Allison (Rhys significant other) and the 2 french wwoofers Pat and Nicky. Allison was so happy to have another female in the house and she taught me to sew some stuff as practice. I'll be making banners later on.

Wed Dec 10, Nicky showed me around the property and how to feed the animals. There are chickens (a rooster who makes noise at 5 am each morning, silkies who are strange looking, and regular ones), ducks with ducklings, geese (one of them was decapitated by a fox 2 days before), other weird looking geese (one named Nicky who tries to go in the house....Nicky the french guy bought that one), a baby horse named Rev and a female coming soon. There's also Cara, the ultra friendly black Lab who follows us around. She loves getting dirty and she reeks. My first task was painting the white in the flowers on a fence that will be used for medieval festivals. The fence is purple with white flowers. I will be putting 4 layers of paint over the next few days.

Thurs Dec 11, I fed animals, painted more and removed some weeds called Tussex: they are yellow hairy looking grass. Pat and I went out to remove these with a tool that looks like a hoe on one end and a spike on the other. We had to hack into the ground and remove the Tussex from the roots. It's hard work! We only have to weed 1 hr per day. We work 4 hrs per day in 2 shifts. We take a break from 12 to 3pm so that we're out of the sun. So great Rhys and Allison care about our well-being!

Fri Dec 12, I woke up early around 7am because Rhys and Allison wanted to bring me to Canberra, the country's capital. They work there so they dropped me off on their way to work. I got some breakfast at a cafe called Coffee@Helen's....I ordered a mocha and the BEST french toast with maple syrup I ever had! The french toast wasn't overfried and I could taste the egg in it. Yum! I then took a hop-on hop-off tour bus around Canberra since the streets are so loopy and confusing. It was a rainy day so I didn' t see too much. I visited the War Memorial, Parliament, and the National Museum. I learned in Parliament that all EXIT signs must be green...it's illegal otherwise. However, they did pass a special law so that the Senate can have red EXIT signs. The public can also sit in on a Parliamentary debate to hear the colourful things that the politicians sling at each other. After work, Rhys and Allison took me to a glass blowing place but unfortunately, it was quiet that day so I didn't see much going on. We also went for some yummy chocolates in Canberra before heading back home.

Sat Dec 13, Rhys and Allison went to Sydney to visit Allison's family so us wwoofers were left alone at the farm. I did another coat of paint on the white flowers and then the guys and I watched some DVDs. We saw I am Legend, he Will Smith movie.

Sun Dec 14, I painted the fence in the horse paddock a blue colour (it was rusted red). It was so windy that paint blew all over me. It was tough getting that off until Rhys came home with some turpentine for us. Great...now I have tiny blue spots on my brand new windbreaker. It's been windy and cold here lately.

Mon Dec 15, this morning I awoke to see that the chickens had escaped! Nicky helped me round them up. Later on, I found a straggler chicken and I caught it to put it back in its coop. My first caught chicken!!!! The guys went to work today so I continued painting the fence blue in the horse paddock. Just now, Rhys' new horse came and I showed the man where to put the horse. She's in the field next to the baby boy horse so that they can get to know each other through the fence. This one is one of those worker horses with the big hooves (Clydesdales?). Cara the dog is next to me snoozing....she snores a bit, it's so cute.

Oh by the way, Cockatrice Farm.....a cockatrice is a beast with the head of a chicken and the body of a dragon. I don't know if it's a medieval mythical animal or it was made up by Rys and Allison.

Leaving Sydney!

I'm finally leaving the busy city of Sydney and going to a farm to WWOOF! I cannot wait to get to a more peaceful setting. I will be staying with a couple who have some rare breed animals (I don't know which), organic garden, and medieval crafts. I will get a chance to learn how to make metal armour, woodworking, sewing clothes, banners, etc. Really cool. If it all goes well with the people, I may stay there for at least 2 weeks. I don't know what the internet situation will be like there so you may not hear from me in a while. However, if I do have internet access I will definitely make contact! As you all know, I'm an internet addict.

My train leaves in about 4 hrs and the ride is about 3-4 hrs long. I'm going south of Sydney...my goal is to eventually end up in Melbourne area for a bit.

See you all later and thanks for reading!

Socializing and Bank Stuff

Last night I went on an outing with the IEP group. We went to the Glenmore Hotel for some drinks and food. I had 2 beers and fries...hmmm, very healthy. I met more Germans (a couple) and finally some other North Americans. I met 2 girls from Florida, 1 from Texas, and 1 from Toronto. The Americans I've met are here on the 4-month visa because they can use as many of those as they want whereas, the 1 year visa can only be used once. One girl from FL is working at a high end Italian restaurant at Hyde Park. The pay isn't the best but she gets to eat yummy food and watch people play the huge chess game in the park. She told us that we can get ice cream cones from McD's for only 30 cents! All the McD's here look like high end restaurants with nice decor and beautiful displays of pastries. Apparently, McD's in Europe are similar.  On our way back to the hostel, we dropped into the McD's for an ice cream on a windy cold night.

This morning, I woke up to find none of the bathrooms had toilet paper. Ugh. But alas, I went into the guy's bathroom and stole their only roll. Hahaha. Sorry guys. I can't wait to go to my WWOOF thing next week and do medieval crafts! Yay!

I'm going to visit Hyde Park today to see the huge chess game and the Botanic Gardens to see the large bats in the trees.  Tomorrow, I will be going to the famous Bondi Beach with 2 of my roomates (a Korean, and a Swiss). I turns out that girl who didn't really talk is Swiss. I got to talk to her last night and she's very friendly. I think a lot of people want to talk but are too shy because english isn't their first language.

I picked up my bank card today! Yay! Now I can leave Sydney! This city is too chaotic like NYC...I need peace. I heard that Melbourne is really cool. Apparently, Sydney is like Toronto (busy city), Melbourne is like Montreal (cobblestones, beautiful, cool, amazing.....biased, am I?), and Canberra is like Ottawa (BORING). I will see and let you know if this is true!

By the way, if you guys need to wire transfer money it can be a pain if you don't know what to do (because the bank people don't know either). I called the general number and I was told to either do it automatically on the phone with my phone code OR call my branch during their hours. Since I don't have my code on me, I decided to call my branch between 12:30am-9am Sydney time (9:30am-5pm EST). I got up early to call and my branch tells me I cannot do it through them. I had to fax a request. Arrrgh. So I faxed it and now hopefully everything works out.

Exploring Sydney

Well, I thought I wasn't going to have any roomates last night at the hostel until around 9pm. I was so excited to have company! In walked 2 young German girls (21 yrs old -- my, I feel old!) who seem to be best friends. I've met a lot of Germans traveling around the world. They are quite friendly...one is more outgoing than the other. About half and hour later, our 4th occupant arrived. She is also a youngin'...she is from France and she is quite timid. I will have to practice my french with her...I just have to get over my fear. It'll be a good way for us to talk since there's a bit of a language barrier.

My aunt was right -- food, including chinese food, in Sydney is expensive!!! I cannot believe it. Last night, I bought a small curry meat pie (with tomato sauce, aka ketchup, on it), small bottle of apple juice, and a large chocolate chip cookie for $8.20! Small bottles of water or juice will cost you ~$3! I guess I'll have to go back to the good ol' days of Ramen noodles. I really can't wait to get out of Sydney and go to the suburbs where things are cheaper and I can work. That won't be for a little while since I have to get some things taken care of in the city first.

So today is Saturday and I am sitting in an internet cafe that costs only $1/hr. I am in King's Cross and it is a dodgy part of town. Apparently, it's compared to soho in NYC but I don't see it. Maybe there are hip people who live here but there are also a lot of bums and perverts. I just walked down one street where every other store was a strip joint or adult place. I can see some cool stores in the mix too but I wouldn't want to be here at night.

I did find a cheap lunch today at a food court. $5 for any thai dish. I bought the broad noodle dish that I love...ate half and keeping the other half for supper. Hmm, maybe not since I'm getting hungry again.

I also passed through Hyde Park today, which is a big park in the city. It's sort of like Central Park. There was a decorated Christmas tree amongst a bunch of palm trees. How strange, eh? The weather here is nice and comfortable for summer. It's been a bit erratic where it'll be nice and sunny one moment then grey, windy and rainy the next. I've been wearing pants and a t-shirt with my windbreaker. That's how the weather is here.

There are a lot of people in Sydney. When the light is green, hoards of people will descend across the street in a tightly packed group. People are all over the place...it's like NY in that way. I've also noticed a lot of asians here. They all have that asian style way of dressing.

Oh yes, and about crossing the street: there are also letterings painted on the curb telling pedestrians to "look left" too. It all depends on the intersection. It's so confusing to cross the street. Don't worry, I've been looking BOTH ways when crossing. I'm just more aware of the right side now more than before.

Cheers!

In Sydney Safe and Sound!

I arrived in Sydney about 2 hrs ago (it is 2:30pm on Friday) and I am now in the IEP office using the internet (IEP = International Exchange Program). These guys are great! They will brief me on things in an orientation on Monday. I will learn about cell phones, accommodations, jobs, etc. What a great support system away from home.

The city feels like the size of Montreal....I guess after being in New York City for so long, every big city seems small to me. One thing I must consciously keep in mind is to LOOK RIGHT when crossing the street! They drive on the left side over here. There are even large white lettering painted next to the curb reminding pedestrians to look right. I actually almost got hit by a car today (hey, there was no warning at that street). 

Alright, I have to go take care of some things before they close at 5pm.