What is the plural of Platypus?

I saw a kangaroo today!! Woohoo!! I can finally scratch that one off the list. Christine, Halley, Sarah and I went to the Healesville Sanctuary, which is a wildlife park in the Yarra Valley (wine country) an hour outside Melbourne. It's a pristine establishment and is supposed to be THE place to see all the cool Australian animals, such as: kangaroos, dingos, emus, wombats, tasmanian devils, platypus, in their natural habitat.

It almost didn't happen for a number of different reasons. The first and foremost being the pub crawl we executed the night before. After a many hours of drinking, rounded off with pizza at 12:30 AM and then a long walk home, we woke up well after the alarm and, needless to say, were not feeling too chipper. Dooh!

So, it was 8:45 and the bus was leaving from the La Trobe University campus at 9:45. That would be fine if not for the fact that it takes about an hour to get there! Dooh!

We hop out the door and get on the first tram which will take us to the second tram (crappy commute to La Trobe but that's another story). Everything is looking fine. We'll just ride the few blocks to Bourke Street, get off, take the number 86 to Bundoora and we're on our way. Wrong! It just so happens that the number 86 tracks in that area are under construction this weekend. Dooh!

At this point we knew the 86 had to be running somewhere on the line so we embarked on a brisk walk to find out exactly where this might be (while I silently wished I had read yesterday's paper which probably announced this construction in huge letters). 15 minutes and many blocks later we finally find a working portion of the 86 tram line. As we are standing there waiting for the next Tram to come we all have a moment to notice the state of our tired, disheveled, unshowered selves and decide to try not to think about it. A little lip balm, some cheap perfume (for the ladies of course) and we're on our way.

We finally get on a moving tram and take the long ride to Bundoora. We hop off the tram about five minutes past the bus departure and have a ten minute walk ahead of us. Dooh!

By the time we are a short distance away it is almost twenty minutes past the departure time and we are convinced we have missed the bus. We are casually walking and discussing our alternative plans when what do we see as we take the last corner (?) but the buses sitting there waiting for us! Sweet!! We hobbled on bored and slumped into the seats for the trek out to the park. Whew(!), we're exhausted already but our day had just begun.

We had a really wonderful time of which I won't drag you through all the details. All I will say for now is that the Sanctuary ended up being really beautiful, peaceful, relaxing and informative. I will post some pictures in the next couple of days with a few descriptions.

As usual, I found that it's always better to drag my butt out of the house for a good time no matter how tired I feel. If I hadn't gone I most likely would have watched a lot of tv and continued to feel tired. Thank you to my roomates for the motivation.

Ok, see you next post.

Eric

Journey to Australia: Phase One - Visiting Matt in L.A.

This is Matt Grace. Matt likes long walks on the beach, friends, exploring abandoned mines, petting four-legged furry friends, adventure, smiling and climbing public art. He's always a blast to hang around so I keep coming around to do just that whenever I get the chance.

On Christine and my first leg of the trip to Australia we stopped by to see our friend Matt at his home in Winnetka, CA, just outside L.A. While there we, saw the menagerie he calls home(between he and his roommates I think there's two cats, one dog, two turtles, a large iguana and some fishies(spelt like that on purpose)), met some of the roommates, took a drive up the Pacific Coat Highway, saw Rodeo Drive and the La Brea Tar Pits (the later not being much to see really), visited Santa Monica Pier walked along Santa Monica and Venice beaches(the later being, a.k.a. - Muscle Beach) at sunset, wondered what the black stuff along the surf was, found out later that it's a tar based substance that stuck to our bare feet, didn't want to come off, got all over Matt's bathtub and stained our feet for a few days, drove a rental convertible and ate out at a couple of really good breakfast establishments. Matt also let me take his motorcycle out for a spin or two. All this while soaking in the ever-present California sun. All-in-all it was a great start to a long journey. We miss Matt and hope he can come to Australia to visit us during out one year stay.

My first blog entry.

Ok, welcome to my first blog entry EVER!! I would like to thank Halley for being my inspiration and making me realize how easy it can be. Only five minutes of relatively pain-free information entry and here I am typing away................in Melbourne, Australia!! I am so happy to be here. For me, being in Melbourne represents a much needed change of attitude and lifestyle. For the past few years I've had the unshakable feeling of being on a career path to a humdrum future. I need to shake things up a bit so what better way than to jet to the other side of the world to advance my schooling while seeing some sights along the way? Two years ago, going to graduate school seemed an impossibilty. However, thanks to a little inspiration from watching my girlfriend Christine search for a school, I realized I would never know if I didn't try. So I applied.....yada, yada, yada and now I am here attending a top ranked school, on the verge of soaking up a ton of knowledge and hopefully meeting some great and inspiring people. For the first time in a while I feel excited about the present (and future). My main goals are to kick ass in school, get involved with as much as I am able while keeping the first goal intact, seeing as much of Australia as possible, writing blog entries and having fun!! Stay tuned and I will keep you up to date on said fun and my and my roomate's (Christine, Halley and Sarah) adventures here in Melbourne, Australia. Toodles.-Eric