4/12/09 Scuba Liz

Carol and I just got done with our SSI Dive Course. It. Was. Amazing. We had a great instructor. Her name is Mel. She was super laid back and all that fun Australian stuff. Carol and I went in on Sunday and started our two day class. We had to learn how to breath under water. Which I found out it is a lot harder that just "put the regulator in your mouth and breath". It's more of a mind thing. After a minute under (just in the shallow part of the pool) water then your brain kinda panics and you try to surface for air. Luckily, Carol and I got over that after about 10 minutes. We we taught all of the things you need to know. Like not to surface too fast, how to change your mask under water, how to retrieve the regulator, how to save a buddy, we even took off our gear. We lucked out by having a small group. It was just a German girl, Carol and I. So we got all the one on one attention and didn't have to fight for space in the pool. It was very nice.

Enough about that... Diving the Great Barrier Reef.

Carol and I went on a day boat called the Sunkist to get to the boat we were staying overnight on. The weather was amazing. It was calm and sunny. We sun bathed on the front of the boat for a bit. It's really a tough life that I live. Haha. Mel was showing us different things like the water currents which we were quick to say "The EAC!" (East Australian Current). She said a lot of people who watch Finding Nemo know a lot more about stuff like that. Thanks, Pixar!

The water was gorgeous. It was a clear blue to where you can see the fish from the boat. We saw lots of flying fish above the surface too. We saw a white tip reef shark about two meters long.

We went on a night dive too. That was very cool. It was scary at first to hop into pitch black water. But after we descended it was okay. Limited visibility makes me less scared. Cause if there was a shark about to eat us, I wouldn't see it until it was too late. I find comfort in that in some weird way. Denial is good. We saw an epileptic shark (something like that) that either tenses up or thrashes around if you grab hold of it. I didn't try. We saw baby cuttlefish and parrot fish sleeping in caves.

It was all very fun. I felt like Ariel. Carol and I did our certified dive and got it recorded. Everyone will have to watch it. It was a lot of fun. Everyone should at least snorkel the Great Barrier. I am so proud to have done one of my bucketlist items. Diving the Great Barrier Reef was the one thing I have always wanted to do before I die. Whoo hoo. Check that off my list.

But it was very great. I plan on diving all the time now.

Carol and I are just on our way of traveling down to Sydney. We are in Mission Beach at the moment. I will try to update more.

Take care!

25/11/09 Before I left Mogowra Station

So I am nearly finished with my 8 week stint at a station. I am not supposed to be on the Internet for my own pleasure... but the kids can be quite rude so I feel like it justifies it.I turned out to be in Normanton rather than Kurumba. I am on a million acre station. We muster weaners. (baby cows weaning off of theirmothers). I just teach the kids. I help out on the weekends with the cattle.Other then the kids themselves, I have grown to like it out here.Don’t get me wrong, I plan on having a mob (Aussie slang) of fun when I get back to towns and cities. But in the 8 weeks here I have gone from missing and wanting to be back home to enjoying the fact that I am growing as a person. Things I do at this station amaze the workers as well as myself. When I get bored and my co-workers are not back yet I go out to the horses and pet them. I don’t know if you recall American Liz being terrified of just being near horses. I have even helped out with moving chucks of a bull to use as bait. The workers kept telling me “Just think about it like you are cooking steak” which I replied “I don’t cook steak!!” So that was very strange for me to just cart around bull meat into a big bucket. Gross. I have found out that I’m one of those people who can suck it up and do the job that needs to be done. A lot of stuff that involves getting dirty and sweaty I do now. Not often... but enough.
So on November 2nd there is a Melbourne Cup Day which I think would be like the Kentucky Derby type thing were we all took the day off work just to drink and celebrate. We got to go to Kurumba and so I have now seen the Gulf of Carpentaria. I guess the girls get all dolled up and some of the men wear their nice clothes.. I had to borrow a co-worker’s dress because mine got bleach on it... but I guess I dolled up so nicely that I was nominated in the Best Dressed competition. I don’t think my outfit was rockin... but I guess I looked nice enough to earn a free bottle of wine! So that was a lot offun. We started drinking at ooooooh.. 10 am-ish. Australians really know how to drink. So do the Irish, which a lot of them are over here working. So I am constantly the lightweight of the drinkers. Everyone laughs at me cause I turn beet red. I guess some things about me are funny in every country. Haha.Today I was excited to drink my instant Starbucks coffee that the Van Tassels were nice enough to send me. It even started raining so I was super happy. It was a nice cool rain but in warm weather. It was like two of my worlds coming together. I am pretty happy at this moment. I realized too, that as I get older, I enjoy my life more. There are some young people here and I am so glad to be closer to 25 than be 16or 20 again. So that is fun to figure out too. I have become that nagging older woman who is like “when you get older you will realize that what you think is smart now, may not be the case as you get to my age!”Even though these kids drive me a bit batty I realized I have a good impact on them. The little boy told me I am the best “city teacher” he has ever had. He has also shown a bit more manners. A bit.
Can’t wait to meet up with Carol and get certified to dive! Miss you guys! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Eat some extra food for me!