Barossa Valley/Off to the Outback!

It’s a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Adelaide and I just finished my last big assignment before mid-semester break!

It was a great weekend… Thursday we celebrated Oliver’s birthday. (My first friend in Adelaide who I met the evening of my arrival!) It was a BBQ and everyone was supposed to bring something, so Nina and I made homemade pasta salad at my place. We decided not to go by a recipe, so we just kind of threw it together. Fortunately, it turned out amazing and we had a lot of fun in the process.

There was plenty of meat to go around. An Australian BBQ around here basically consists of any kind of sausage with bread and tomato sauce. The food was great.. the company was great.. and everyone had a great time.

After eating, we gave Oliver his present, which we had all pitched in for. It was a bottle of good whisky and a couple nice cigars. Both are luxuries for us here, because of the high expense of tobacco and liquor.

Afterwards we went out for a beer or 2 at a nearby pub called The Duke, which has good specials on Thursdays.

Friday I met up with Doris and Caroline for ice cream on Rundle Mall then that evening went over to Nana’s for a girl’s night. Nana, Nina, Katrin, Doris, Caroline, and I watched Black Swan and ate 3 different kinds of popcorn. Had to go to bed early that night because Saturday morning we had a breakfast planned before the wine tour.

Me, Nina, Katrin, and Nana

Champagne breakfast

Saturday was the big day of the weekend. ESN had organized a wine tour of Barossa Valley. We met early Saturday morning for a champagne breakfast. It was a gorgeous day!  After a big breakfast of eggs, ham, baked beans, fruit, and orange juice and champagne, we all piled onto 2 different buses and began the 1 ½ hour drive to Barossa Valley.

The first one we visited was called Richmond Grove. A lady there gave us a short tour and then a tasting of their wine. Barossa Valley is full of wineries, so we got back on the van for just a 5-minute drive to the next one, Chateau Dorrien.

The tasting here was my favorite of the four, mainly because the lady was very friendly and asked us questions about what we liked and what we wanted to try. It was less structured than the others I guess, and I liked that.

She said that they refused to export any wine or even sell to any local stores. They were a very small winery and she said they didn’t produce enough wine to fill that demand. If you wanted their wine, you had to come to their winery!

I was baffled by this… maybe being from America, it seemed strange for a business not to expand expand expand.. grow.. and make as much money as possible. I had a lot of respect for the small winery. Also, instead of just tasting wine, we got to try port and mead as well. My favorite was the white port, but the mead was also a favorite. The lady warmed it up for us and it had cinnamon flavors and other spices. It tasted like autumn to me. I will definitely have that again.

After leaving this winery, we were all very tired. It was just noon and the wine in our systems, plus waking up so early, left us dragging.

The third winery, Wolf Blass, was beautiful, but met with slightly less enthusiasm.

After a few tastings, we all wandered out into the sunshine and laid in the grass for a bit.

Lunch in Tanunda

By then it was lunch time, also included in the tour, and we went to a local pub in Tanunda for schnitzel burgers.

Jacob's Creek

After lunch we hit Jacob’s Creek, one of the most famous wineries in the area. It was BEAUTIFUL there, and the tasting was a lot of fun. It was a great trip!

This week has been good. Finishing up all my school work and trying to get all my shopping done before my big trip Saturday! Really can’t believe in 2 days I’ll be leaving to spend 2 ½ road tripping and camping in the Outback. Really hard to imagine. It will be a huge, new experience for me… without a cell phone and a laptop… far from cities and fast food restaurants… far from my own bed, bathroom, and kitchen… Like, I’ll actually be sleeping in a TENT!!!

On our hike to Mount Lofty

Well, just for half the time. I guess some nights we are staying in a hostel and a lodge as well. Still, big change from the high-maintenance life I’m used to. It’ll be good for me I think.

Till then, I still have some shopping to do… hiking boots, sleeping bag, hat, insect repellant… all that outdoorsy stuff. Also, enjoying this beautiful weather!! And spending time with my friends I won’t see for a couple weeks. There are 5 of us going on the tour together… Caroline (Montreal), Doris (France), Emma (Netherlands), Marc (Montreal), and I. Plus the 15 or so others also going on the tour, whom we don’t know. I’m sure everyone we meet on the trip will be very interesting. Looking forward to that! Also really excited to see the REAL Australia!!! I am gonna be taking SO many pictures, I already know.

Anyways, this afternoon Caroline and I will go to Aussie Disposals to get our camping gear.. then this evening all the internationals are planning to go out to a karaoke bar. I’m sure it will be a very interesting karaoke night with mostly German, Dutch, and French people! Something I wouldn’t want to miss!

Tomorrow is Friday, and I will have to pack and be in bed early. Saturday morning the van will pick me up at 6:15 at the Stanford Hotel. Then, we’ll be on our way to the Outback! And I will be WITHOUT my laptop!!! Crazy. Hopefully throughout the trip, some of the small towns we will stop in along the way may have internet cafes. That way I’m not completely disconnected from the world, and will be able to shoot an email to my family to say I’m alive and everything is going well. I plan on journaling also during the trip, that way I can remember everything and will be able to blog about my experiences when I return.

A wild adventure through the Australian Outback lies ahead of me! Wish me luck!

http://www.adventuretours.com.au/south-australia/adelaide-to-darwin-safari

1 Week Till Mid-Semester Break!

Things are going great! School is busy as ever… this week my big project was a presentation in my anthro class. I spent all week preparing for it and was really nervous about standing in front of class giving a presentation. It ended up going well though. Now I am starting on a 2000-word essay due next week also for my anthro class.

It is the end of our 8^th week at Uni. Next week is our last week of school before mid-semester break!!! (basically spring break here). We’ll have 2 weeks off school and I’ll be going with my friends Caroline, Doris, Emma, and Marc on a road trip adventure tour from Adelaide up to Darwin through the outback.

It will be a huge adventure for me… 2 weeks of camping, hiking, and being low-maintenance. I won’t have my phone, my laptop… But it will be fantastic. Between 20 and 24 young adults from all over the world, road tripping it across the Outback. Once again, the link for the trip description: http://www.adventuretours.com.au/south-australia/adelaide-to-darwin-safari

Soon I will need to go shopping for some hiking boots, a sleeping bag, and a big backpack that will hold all I will need for 2 weeks! Can’t believe there’s just one week between this insane adventure and me!

Anyways, it will be nice to have a break from school. And to really get out and explore Australia, somewhere other than Adelaide.

Nina and I on the bus going to the Royal Adelaide Show

This was another long week and I’m glad its come to an end. The weather is warming up fast! Today the high is 24 degrees! (upper 70’s I think) Its nice to be able to wear shorts and flip flops again. This morning I slept in a little because my 1 seminar on Thursdays is from 3-5. Also, I was up late last night because Doris had another crepe-making night! I was at Uni by noon and met up with Nina, Doris, Thomas, and Heiner for lunch. We enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine and warmth. Nana and I have found the most amazing salad bar right across from Uni called Sumo Salads. We are now members of the Sumo-Salad group and go there at least twice a week for our wonderful salads.

Me, Nina, Katrin, and Nana!

Sand sculpture at the Royal Adelaide show

This weekend looks like it will be a great one! This evening Oliver is having a birthday celebration at The Village. We’ll be BBQing and drinking goon. According to the invite, guys are supposed to provide the meat, and girls are supposed to bring salads. Nina and I will meet up this afternoon at Coles to buy some ingredients and we will make homemade pasta salad at my place to take to the BBQ. (Why does it seem that everything we do centers around food?) No wonder I’m gaining weight here!

Tomorrow (Friday) I will probably try to get some school work done during the day, then in the evening will be meeting up with Nina, Nana, and Doris for dinner at an Italian restaurant. (Nina has been really missing good Italian food, so we decided it was time we get her some real Italian!) We have to be up early Saturday morning, so we’ll have a movie night that night at Nana, Thomas, & Heiner’s place to watch Black Swan then will get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Wine sampling!

Saturday is our big wine tour in Barossa Valley with ESN! They will provide a champagne breakfast at 8am then we will take a bus out to the wine region! Visits to 4 different wineries are included as well as a pub lunch at the Tanunda Club and a tour guide! It lasts all day and should be a fantastic time.

Show bags!

Anyhow, everything has been going so great lately. I’ve been able to skype with my family more often, I’ve been keeping up with my schoolwork AND doing a good quality job on the assignments, I have a functional and smooth routine, I’ve been having heaps of fun, and, most importantly, I’ve been spending time with some truly wonderful, genuine friends who I just can’t get enough of. I have finally reached the point that I trust them all and am comfortable enough to really be myself with them. Its been completely rewarding. Though really opening myself up was tough, it was really the best possible thing I could’ve done. Any loneliness I felt before is utterly gone. I have a family here.

Next week, as I said, is our last week before mid-semester break! I’m sure it will be busy as we wrap up the first part of the semester.

Update

9 weeks and 2 days I've been here in Adelaide. Over 2 months.


I felt as though I should give an update, even though there's really not much for me to update about. The past few weeks not much has been going on because people have been so busy with school. Especially last week. And not just for me, but for all my friends as well. During the week no one has the time to hang out or do anything, so we now mostly only see each other on the weekends. I can honestly say I have never spent so much time at a library. I am literally there everyday during the week. I usually get my coffee in the morning from Aroma Cafe and then head over to either the Uni Library or the State Library if I don't have class. Everyday I have a break at 1 and usually meet up with Nana and/or Nina and/or Caroline for lunch. Since the weathers been warmer, we've taken to going to the David Jones cafeteria across the street and taking our meals to go so we can eat down by the river and enjoy the sunshine for an hour or so.


Over the weekend we usually have some event organized by the Uni clubs or else one of the Internationals will throw some kind of house party in the evenings. This past weekend Thursday night we celebrated my friend Markus' birthday, Friday we had a pub crawl with the German Club, and Saturday night our friends Valentine, Raphael, and Vanessa had a BBQ at their house on South Terrace. I am up early every morning during the week and in bed early each night. Its nice to be able to relax some on the weekends and have a good time with my friends.


As I've said before, its been quite an adjustment for me. First of all, the work load is more intense than back home. Another big adjustment is the realization that I'm not on holiday... that I'm actually HERE to study. Though I knew this, actually changing my lifestyle from enjoying Australia to spending most of my time studying, was not easy. And yet, in the past week or so, I really feel as though I've adjusted well. This weekend I had to prepare an essay and debate argument for my Philosophy course for Monday (yesterday) and today I had to begin my 2000-word essay due on Thursday reviewing the book Never Let Me Go for my Passions lit class. We are to choose an emotion expressed in the novel and explain its affect on society. The story, Never Let Me Go, is about a group of clones raised in a boarding school together and, eventually, put in a group home with other clones to live in until they are ready to begin their "donations". The protagonist, Kathy, one of the clones, tells the story from her perspective, and explains what its like growing up knowing someday you will begin donating your vital organs one at a time until your "completion", or death. She ends up falling in love with one of the guys in the boarding school named Tommy, but, of course, there is little they can do about their love.


One of the most interesting parts of the story is that the clones never fight for their lives. They are made aware of their fate when they are children and all seem to accept it. None of them ever run away, argue with the "guardians", or see anything terrible about their situation. I suppose it could be their lack of exposure to the outside world and any other way of life... but still, it is very frustrating for the reader, who just wants them to rebel and fight for the life that they deserve.


It is a pretty depressing book to read.


Anyhow, the emotion I chose to single out in the novel was 'hope', mainly because I find it is significant in the tale because of the fact that the group of 'clones', who feel just like normal people... who can feel pain, love, hate, joy, and sorrow... live lives without HOPE. And how that is just so hard to imagine for regular people, who are constantly hoping for better things... a better future. People always have hope. They need it, to some degree.


Well, that's what my paper is about. We have to reference the novel, of course, and also use 3 other scholarly sources to refer to. I was at Uni by 10am this morning and worked on my paper from then till 4pm, with an hour lunch break from 1-2 with Rene, Nana, Nate, and Magne. I made some good progress, but now I'm tired and brain-dead.


Also, learned this afternoon that I'll be moving into another town-home here at the Village, which I am NOT happy about. When we first arrived back in July they told my roommates and I that we would be put in temporary housing, due to the fact that management had overbooked the town-homes. They assured us it would only be for a week or so. Over 2 months later and they are now informing us that our "permanent" accommodation is now ready.


Really?


I'll be packing all of my stuff up and moving 2 town-homes down, to townhouse 12, this weekend.


Anyways, I will feel much better Thursday after I get this essay turned in. Over the weekend I need to start on my presentation for my Anthro class next week. I'll have to stand in front of the class and present for ten minutes. I'm mortified. This weekend should be fun though. The Uni is putting on another International Student Party Friday evening themed 'White Party'. We have to, apparently, wear all white because they'll have black lights all over the place. Saturday the German Club is putting on "Septemberfest", Uni of Adelaide's version of Oktoberfest, with genuine German beer and German food like Bratwursts, Weisswursts, Vienna sausages, and Brezels. Who knew that in Australia I would be exposed to so much German culture??  It should be a good time.


Keeping busy... missing my family and friends... looking forward to mid-semester break!