May 2007

Hey Guys

well another quick update for you all. We arrived safe and sound in Brisbane yesterday morning at about 11:15am. Hit up a McD's, and then headed off on the long ass trek to find our hostel. Ok so it wasnt a long ass trek, it just felt that way carrying all our luggage. Let me tell you, its not fun. It was only about 10 mins away, but most of it was seriously up hill. Not cool!

Anyway, we were supposed to be booked into a place called Banana Benders here in Brisbane. The reason we booked with them was because there are 6 of us and they said they could fit us all in the same room, which we thought was pretty damn cool. Well, we showed up more than an hour before our check in time, only to be told there had been a mistake. Turns out there was no 6 bed dorm available, and we could all stay in the hostel together, but we'd have 2 in one room, 3 in another, and one person would be on there own. But hey since the dude at the desk was oh so nice, he would arrange to have a single mattress brought in to the 3 bed dorm so that one person could sleep on the floor. Oh right, and the price had gone up to $150 / week. No thanks! We booked one night and headed off in search of greener pastures. Being that we are in the central district of the city, there are plenty of hostels within walking distance of each other. We ended up booking cheaper at a place called Cloud 9, in an 8 man dorm. But at least we are all together, and we have an ensuite bathroom! yes no strangers walking in on me in the shower! Sweet.

Anyway, Brisbane's weather is pretty great, and what I've seen of it so far is alright... but all in all, I dont know if I'll spend too much time here. The girls are really itching to get jobs, since they are all low on funds. In fact, Helen and Sam started at their friend's Bar today, and Michelle and Erika dropped off resumes at some temp agencies. But me... well I don't want to work in an office. I've thought about looking into cafe or coffee shop work for a bit, but most places want to know you are going to be some place for at least 2 months, and I'm just not prepared to commit that much time to a place I don't even like that much. I really dont want to be rude and bugger off on my own or anything, but at the same time I know there are plenty of fruit picking opportunities for the solo traveller up in Bundaberg. and I could always meet the girls up there. I just have to figure out what I want to do first. I really dont want to end up in a new city all alone again, but we'll see. It would also mean having to do Hervey Bay and Fraser island alone.

On the plus side though, Simon and TK are here, so we have an even larger group to go out with tonight (hopefully) and Cloud 9 has its own bar, so we wont have to go out a long distance. Hostel bars are always cheap too which is another bonus. After the last week in Surfers though, I'm officially on a budget. We are all buying food at the local supermarket to cut down costs. the only crappy part? you have to rent dishes at the new hostel But since we will be there for a whole week at least its not a big deal.

The last night in Surfers was fun. We had an awesome (if expensive) dinner at the hard Rock cafe, and then headed off to meet Rob and Dylan and some of their friends for a quick beer at an Irish Bar. It was supposed to be ladys night at this bar called the Shack, so we headed back to our hostel to get ready (as in pre drink and re dress) before going out. Dylan came out with us, but Rob and the rest went to a house party some place in Surfers and we didn't feel like going to find them. Turned out there, there was no Ladies night at the shack, and instead we ended up at a place called the monkey cage, where we had the whole club to ourselves. It was great! the bar tender, Johno I think was his name, was also the DJ, and he kept asking Helen and I for requests. Combine that with $4 daquiris and $2.90 beer, and we had a great night

well for now, I've uploaded the few photos I took in Surfers, and now I'm off to go shopping and think about applying for a job. Its Friday night here, and I'm hoping Simon will come out with helen and I, even if everyone else wants to stay in. I'll let you guys know what I decide

In the mean time, as usual I'll leave you with this, I've seen more 7-11s in Brisbane than I have Kangaroos in all of Australia!

Ps. Mom, check your home email please, I need my resume
Grandma - mail is on its way to you I miss you!
Dad & Aggie : I miss you guys! take care and give Sam a hug for me. I'll call you guys later

Love
Amy

Hey guys

well nothing really interesting to relate right now, but I thought I'd update since I"m in a new town and all.

I left Byron Bay on Monday afternoon to rejoin with Helen, Sam, & Michelle in Brisbane. So far, its been pretty awsome They managed to get me booked into their room, and we've spent our time exploring the shopping districts of Surfers Paradise and seeing some of the clubs out here.

Surfers has an awsome location, and a gorgeous beach! too bad its very um...tourist. There are high rise hotels, tacky souvenir shops on every corner, and alot of very in your face things. They even have Hollywood esque theme parks here including Movie World, Dream World, and um Wet and Wild I think. None of them are really interesting to me.

We did run across something that looked like a bunch of fun yesterday though. You know how in California they have that Mideavil Times dinner thing, well here they have something similar: Dracula's Castle! IT looked like it would be a blast! you get to have dinner and its like a cabaret show or something, so wether that means its like a play, or what I dont know. But from the looks of the brochure even the wait staff is in character. Helen Sam and I really wanted to do it, but it was $74, and the other girls were indifferent. It sucks not having money some times. Oh well

we've opted to go the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner instead That should be cool. We popped in this morning to make reservations and saw just a bit of the memorabilia that they have hanging on the walls. Lots of pictures to come i'm sure.

We move on to Brisbane tomorrow.
I'm a little sad that I wont have much time here, but at the same time Im glad. This place could be a serious money trap. The clubs are expensive and you have to pay cover to get in. PLus most things here are overpriced as they usually are in tourist towns. Unfortunately though, the whale watching season starts in 2 days here, and the tours are really cheap. Looks like I'll have to wait till farther up the coast for that sort of thing. I'm really looking forward to having travelling companions. Helen & the rest are letting me tag along for a little while There are going to be 6 of us booked into a room in Brisbane. Its a good thing we are getting our own 6 bed dorm. For those wondering, I'll be staying at Banana Benders Hostel for the first week in Bris by the way.

Other than that, I've been trying to meet back up with Rob and Dylan for the last few days to no avail, which makes me a little sad as well, since I didnt get to say a propper goodbye And Ive been seriously debating getting a tattoo. I know exactly what I want and where, its just a matter of pricing, and ... well guts. Helen wants to get her tounge pierced, so I said Id go with her when we got to Bris. She has friends there who know the city really well, so we'll get some opinions of reputable places to go.

well I guess thats it for now, there really isnt much more to say, check my face book for new photos though, I might add the few that I took while here to it. Otherwise, I'll catch ya all in Brisbane!

Love
Amy

Hey guys!

Wow am I in need of a de-tox or what. Eeesh! Surf Camp is over now, and I'm really sad. I made some great friends with the other helpers, and to a lesser extent with some of the boys out there too. So lets see ... where to start....

I think the last time I wrote I was in Sydney for a weekend thingy. Well now I'm back in Byron Bay, and almost totally alone (again!) which is a bit of a depressing thought, but on the plus side, I"m heading up to Surfers Paradise to meet up with Helen and some of the other girls from Surf Camp to pick up some fruit picking work and head up the coast to where its warmer. The last few nights at camp were soooo cold! Sofia and I were freezing out there, and we both come from cold climates! (Sofia is from Sweden) but the weather is lovely in Byron, even if the beaches aren't as nice as where I've been.

For those wondering, Surf Camp is basically 3 hrs north of Sydney in an area called the Great Lakes. We are about a 20 min drive from a little town called Bullahdella, which makes Bowden look like a raging city. It has a cafe, and a grocery store, and um ... a butcher ... and um.... .... yeah thats about it. I went there a couple times with Vicki (my boss from surf camp). Oh right, you know how in Canada people have those little dear statues or what ever on their front lawns? They look all bronzed and what not... well they dont have dear here... they have ... yes you guessed it Kangaroos! This dude had a Bronzed Kangaroo statue on his front lawn. I just about died of laughter. Vicki thought I had gone nuts!
Speaking of nuts, I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned Ben the extremely gay surf instructor. (his nick name in Pornz. dont ask) well, he wasnt working when I was down there, but he was hanging around the camp for a free lift down to the snow season. Anyway, I love the guy, but hes a bit of a basket case. Helen, Sofia and I were on the bus back from the beach when Ducat got this call and he started laughing so hard he had to pull off to the side of the road. Turns out, Ben has a few phobias. One being red necks, and another being wild dogs. So Ben goes out biking in his tiny little short shorts and cropped tank top. Sees a truck go by, and starts freaking out thinking these red necks are going to rape him or something, so he starts peddling like mad, and ends up missing the turn into Camp and winds up at Frank the handy man's place. (Frank has about 12 dogs that are a little less than domestic) So while hes looking over his shoulder, the dogs all started barking and poor Ben is lost, thinking hes being chased by red necks and now hes got a pack of wild dogs on his heels (doesnt help that there was a cow killed by some actual wild dogs a week or so before) so instead of being a man, he ditches the bike and scurries 20 feet up the nearest tree! (keep in mind the dogs he heard are locked behind a gate and are no where really near him anyway) So now Ben is up a tree in short shorts and a cropped tank, thinking there are red necks and dogs after him, and what does he do? he starts trying to send Vicki telepathic messages to come pick him up. He was lucky Sharon (the cleaning lady) came by after about a 1/2 hr. Now if you know Ben thats funny as hell, if not it might be a little scary. Rest assured, hes just over the top, not full on looney bin crazy. I miss that guy. He was really really fun.

Lets see what else, there have been tons of fun stories of people and punters I've met at surf camp, and retelling all of them would take forever! Besides, the antics of the drunk are usually only amusing if you've been there So I'll spare you guys for now. If I think of anything else though, rest assured it will go up here.

Ok there is one drunken story that is fresh in my mind so I'll put it up here. The group of punters that I came North with are a tiny bit on the creepy side. I'm not saying everyone who goes through Surf Camp is gorgeous, but well ... you'd have to have low standards for the most part with this particular group. (really low) Anyway, there was one guy who was from France (yes we called him Frenchie) and he was a little more creepy than the rest because he couldnt speak english very well at all, so if he wanted something at the bar he'd just stare at you until you figured out what he wanted. So on the 2nd last night at camp, he got really really drunk, and started taking a million and one photos of Sofia and I, we were getting really creeped out, and then the guy comes behind the bar and starts trying to kiss us! Now, Grommet and a couple of the guys can get away with that because we know them, but some random really creepy Frenchie?! Hell no. We told him to piss off and left the bar to the boys. Frenchie wasnt so bad after we left camp though, he was slightly less creepy... until he was assigned to Sofia and I's dorm last night >.< that was not cool.

We got into Byron last night, and pulled the usual farewell party, except it was bigger than usual, since its the last tour here. Sofia and Ducat had to go back to Surf Camp, but RobBob and Dylan are still here, so at least I'm not totally alone yet. Gonna meet up with them later ( I hope they don't want to party again tonight, I don't think my liver can handle it) Right, talking about the tour, Anyway, Steve-O (the driver of our lovely big blue bus) is done for the season, and has been gone for the last 2 weeks. Thats left us with these little mini buses (coasters) to take our tours north with. Its not too bad ... until you have 21 punters (there are only 21 seats) and 4 surf instructors, and 3 helpers to fit on to a bus. Grommet drove the Troopie up half way with us, but he had to turn around and go back to camp yesterday for the weekend tour. That meant that we had a 21 seater bus with um 26 people on it. So Illegal! I spent a 5 hr trek to Byron Bay on the floor with about um 2 sq feet of space to myself. The only solution to that kind of discomfort? Alcohol of course! Sofia picked up a box of goon, and I broke out the Wild Turkeys and Strongbow. Now we don't have Wild Turkey back in Canada, but its Bourbon and cola. Things here are measured in standard drinks per serving. So like um beer is 1, Rum and coke is 1.4 ... and Wild Turkeys are 2.4 No one told me that. (I think they didn't on purpose too actually) so by the first toilet stop I was trashed. It made the ride much more fun! I got to talk to one of the punters who was reading a book and could understand words over 2 syllables, though I imagine it was hard to understand me at that point anyway I think the most fun had to be all the police on the road last night. Poor Ducat was freaking out. If we had been pulled over he would have likely lost his license and been fined...Heavily.

Oh yeah, yesterday was the last day on the beach for me, (well with Surf camp anyway) so I grabbed a board, and was determined to hit a few waves with Ducat and Grommet. The best part? I actually caught one all on my own! I was soooo happy you wouldn't believe it. The only shitty thing it that about 2.5 seconds after I stood up, I crashed into Ducat and took him out. He hadn't expected me to get on the wave, what a vote of confidence eh?
We always have a surfing competition on the last day of the tours, and this tour was no exception. There were quite a few competent surfers on the tour, so it was fun to watch, though I think the antics of Ducat and Grommet were even more fun. They started playing full contact surfing. At one point Grommet full on lept off his board to tackle Ducat (we are talking a flying leap) another time Ducat got off his board to grapple with Grommet on his. Though I think the most cold blooded sabotage was when one of the punters took a page out of the boys' book and full on threw his board at another of the punters who had just managed to get on a wave. That or when Grommet took out Sofia on her first and only wave of the day. he just surfed straight into her and pushed his board into her legs. Poor girl all in all it was a really great tour, which was good because I was afraid that it would suck.

Well I think I need to go write some postcards, call some family members and um ... eat something ... maybe. SO I'll leave you guys with this:

What they say about the water draining the wrong way ... its totally true! I found that out while filling water jugs at camp after a night of heavy drinking. Staring at water that spins the wrong way when you're feeling like that ... you dont forget that kind of thing. Stupid, but what do you want? really ....

Ciao! Love you all
Amy

Hey guys

well I'm in Sydney for a short visit so I stopped at a cafe for a few mins with Helen and Sarah (Helen works at Surf Camp and Sarah is a Punter who is coming back to work with us next season)

Anyway, I'll give you a brief rundown of my trip to Surf camp. The night before I left, a bunch of us that were left over from my tour went and met up with the crew again at Cheeky Monkey's. Ali, Lucy, Julia and I got more than a little tipsy before going, just to make it that much more fun. Anyway we headed up to the restaraunt where they go every week and found out that Zack, RobBob and Dylon had come up on the tour that was cool, except poor RobBob buggered his knee while playing soccer. It was swollen so bad it was gross. But his buddies grabbed a shopping cart to wheel him around town in all night. It was funny. It was slave auction night at Cheekies, and the girls and I won ourselves the only male on the auction block he came with a $50 bar tab, and a half hour of indentured service. We didnt really make use of him though, except when the girls just kept ordering drinks and stacked up a massive $97 tab! then pissed off without paying! Lucky for us that our "slave" worked for the bar and smoothed things over. The night wore on, with much dancing, and many a sad goodbye for me. Robbie the sweet Scottsman was heading back to New Zealand soon, the girls were going up the coast to Surfers, and I dont really know what Rory was doing, but I do know I'll likely never see any of them again. We partied hard, and had alot of fun, and grabbed the bus back to the hostel, where a very very drunk Manchester was waiting for me. Poor Sarah, she was going to be on her own for a day, and wasnt handling it very well. She drank way too much, but lucky for her the girls in our room were really sweet and took care of her till I got there. I felt bad because she was still passed out when I went to catch the bus the next day, I'll probably meet up with her and Charlene again in Cairns though, so thats no too bad.

I nearly had a panic attack waiting for the bus on Saturday morning because Steve-O was late! and I had no idea where to meet the bus at. All was well though, I managed to get on the bus ok, and grab some breakfast. Turns out there were only 4 people on the tour! so we had this huge 40 man coach with all of 9 people on it. It was here that I met a new Sarah, and three of the craziest english people I've ever encountered, the twins Oli and Dan, and their friend Shawn. They were a little hard to take at first, but when you get used to them, they arent too bad. Since we had so few people we decided to skip the night at Wei Wei, and go straight to surf camp. Poor RobBob managed to hobble onto the bus with his messed up knee, and get settled in, and we were off. we drove to um .. Red Cliffs I think, to surf, only to find out there were almost literally no waves, so most of the first day was spent getting dumped by white wash and sunbathing on the beach. I think it was Dylon who did most of the teaching the first day, which was cool, since hes so funny and helpful. RobBob and Zack were sleeping off their hangovers in the shade of the big blue bus. I helped Steve-O set up lunch, and we decided to drive straight to Surf Camp. It was a very very long bus ride, and everyone was really tired by the time we got in. In their usual style, the guys went off and did their own thing, leaving the rest of us to flounder around and figure out what to do on our own. Turns out that the girls (helpers) were staying at the HIllHouse, which is where I stayed on my tour, so it was a nice little walk with a large back pack to get to my lodging. I got settled in though, and headed back to the Cabana to help out. It was a funish night, despite being dead tired. I met Helen again (she was a helper on my tour) Simon, TK, Vicki (my boss), Sam, Michelle (from Edmonton!) Shanon, and Sophia. Turns out Saturday was a bit of a party because Kev, the owner of the camp, was out with some friends and a bunch of the other instructors were also up for the weekend. The rest of the night was spent on drink, so I wont bother to go into it. Nothing that great happened until it was bed time anyway. Helen was so drunk she was all but passed out. Kev ended up having to carry her to the car and drive her back to the Hill House, where she got stuck in the bathroom for a bit before crawling into her bed. Simon walked me up to the house, and climbed into Helen's bed, I dont remember why. Sam had other plans though, and threatened him with Castration if he didnt get off Helen's bed since she was going to need it very shortly .... so instead he slid off her bed and under mine! In the mean time, Helen had come back and was laughing so hard at Simon being under my bed that she just crawled off hers and undermine with Simon ... I promptly switched to the top bunk for the night. IT was hilarious! Sunday night, all our weekend crew had gone, and it was just the 4 punters from the southbound crew and all the helpers hanging out at the Cabana. Now that was a weird night! The crazy English boys bought so much alcohol it was gross. They had Ducat doing flaming Sambucca shots, and beer bongs all night. At one point, Oli disappeared with Sarah, only to come back 20mins later in one of her dresses! It was hilarious! at some point in the night he lost his boxers as well, which made things infinatly more disturbing. I think at some point they started a mosh pit in the cabana, and Simon passed out on the freezer. I went to bed shortly there after. The best part was the next morning, Oli was still wearing the dress. We stopped at a shop quickly the next day, and in his hung over state, he spent $50 on a hot pink rashie. See the photos under Surf camp week 1 on my face book

The next day we got up early as usual to clean and set up for the day before heading off to the beach with Ducat and Moonie and the punters. Ducat took the punters in the coaster (small bus) and Moonie took the helpers in the death-trap Troopy. (the back door doesnt close right, there is a hole in the exhaust pipe that spews Carbon monoxide into the windows, and there are only benches to sit on. I'll get a picture on Friday when I go back. Anyway, we headed down to the beach and Moonie was nice enough to help me catch a couple waves I didn't even wipe out that much. It was cool. Most of the days were actually spent like this for the first week. Get up, make lunches, and clean, head to the beach. Surf / Swim / sun bathe, get lunch ready, and continue with what ever we were doing before. Its kind of all blended together now, but I do remember it was alot of fun. Helen came out to the beach and we hung out with Sarah (she was the only girl on her tour, so she wanted company) and eventually I think we managed to convince her to come back and work with us in December for Christmas.

Yesterday, all the crews had left, so it was only the 4 people from the 5 day southbound tour left, so Helen, Sophia, Shanon, and myself headed to the beach with the punters and Ducat. We hit the Light House beach, which is known a little for its rips, and mostly for its cool swells. The waves weren't very large, but they were big enough. It was really really shallow though, so surfing meant being battered a lot. Helen and I decided to go swimming instead. I should mention here that the boys had already been into the vodka, and Helen into the goon and it wasn't even noon yet! In short, the guys didn't do much surfing, so Ducat had a nice easy day. Lucky guy.

Right, so I was mentioning about rips. I had my first experience of being caught in one yesterday ... it was not cool at all, but also a little funny. Helen and I were messing around body surfing and stuff when we got caught in it. but we didn't notice until we looked at the land and realized how far out we were. Helen wasn't worried but I was a little freaked, so we started swimming, but couldn't make any headway at all! Let me tell you what a freaky experience that is, when you are paddling as hard as you can and you cant get any closer to shore. If you do get caught in a rip, you should swim horizontally across the shore until you get out, so we started doing that. We found out later that we would have swam into the deepest and fastest part of the rip if we continued on our way. Lucky for us Ducat and Shanon saw us from the shore and yelled at us to swim the other way. That could have sucked big time. After that little experience we were both exhausted by the time we had swam far enough out of the rip to get back to shore, we just collapsed on the beach for a while. And then the dolphins came! We saw them swimming in the shallows, and one bumped a surfer, it was funny. Especially since I was standing on the shore watching with Shanon and she freaked out thinking they were sharks. We saw them again a little while later, surfing in the waves. It was so cool. Ducat was out in the water with Oli, they were so close they could have touched them if they had wanted to. I was so jealous! Shanon and I set up lunch, and we all chilled on the beach (and I do mean chilled, it was cold!) and thats when Helen and I decided we wanted to follow this particularly hilarious group of punters to Sydney We got back to camp and made a mad dash to the HIll House to gather enough stuff for the weekend before running full tilt back to the Cabana to clean up so Vicki would let us go.

Well, now we are in Sydney, we spent the night at Maze hostel. Helen and I went and got trashed with Ducat and the boys, but Sarah stayed in because she's doing a bridge climb today. We headed to the good old Sidebar again and hung out there for a while. Helen kept doing jaggerbombs to keep herself awake so by the time the guys got there, she was really trashed. Eventually Ducat decided we should hit a different club, so he took us on a nice little jaunt to some place aptly named Scary Canary. Helen and I grabbed drinks and headed to the dance floor, where some creep tried to grind with us while we were dancing. We got fed up with it so we turned around to find the guys ... only to discover ... we'd been ditched! We were so pissed it was actually funny. We were swearing at the top of our lungs while we tried to figure out where the hell we were at 2am. Eventually we got a taxi back to the hostel, but the driver had no idea where our hostel was, so we told him to take us to Central station. Turns out our hostel was less than a block away >.< we got dropped off right infront of it by accident. After finding ourselves again, we promptly went and got lost all over again looking for pizza. We took it back to our hostel and chowed down while making embarassing texts to people. all in all, it was a fun night. We dicovered in the morning that it was an accident that we got left at the bar. The guys were too drunk and didnt realize that we werent there. Now we are off to Bondi to go shopping. I'll be in contact again soon I head north in about 2 weeks. Its going too fast!!!!

Ciao!
Amy

Hey guys!

Well awsome news! A couple days ago I finally got ahold of the lady at the Surf Camp .... and as of Saturday morning, I'm headed out there to work for the rest of the season!!! Yay I was sooo happy I was litterally jumping for joy. I just have to drag my lazy ass with my back pack down to the main bus stop for 8am on Saturday morning and let the driver know that I'm comming down to work for em. I'm really nervous about it though. If something happens and I cant get on, I'll be royally screwed, since all the accomidation here is booked, and just to get an extra night at my current hostel I have to switch rooms tomorrow morning. What a pain >.< but if Steve-O is still driving, I think I'll be good. I think he liked me anyway.

I'm really enjoying Byron Bay out here. Its a very small beach town, only one main street, and you can walk the perimiter of the whole town in maybe an hour max. If Sundre had been like this, I might have seriously been tempted to move out there. Its really chilled out, and relaxed here. You dont feel like you should be rushing to do anything in particular, you can just hang out, stroll the streets and do what you want all day. Its a nice feeling.

I've spent the last few days relaxing, and chilling on the Beach. Last night was Nick and Laura's last night though so we went for a nice long beach walk and discovered a really tiny "Point break" (surfing term) where some beginners were honing there skills, and our first live crab was seen along here too. We climbed some seriously sharp rocks, and found a nice secluded beach for a bit before it got cold and we headed back. I'll have to upload those photos. Despite alot of the OzIntro crew still being in residence here in Byron, I've found I enjoy hanging out with the Surf crew alot more. Lucy, Robbie, Rory, Ali, Julia, Laura, Nick and a few others have been hanging out here, and with the exception of Nick & Laura, the rest of us are all here until Saturday when we split off and go our seperate ways. I'll be sad to see them go, they've been good friends and loads of fun to hang out with its nice to know a group of travellers who dont want to get "off their face" every day to have fun. Laura showed me a little shop where you can buy shell pendants. She bought a really nice abalone one, and I got a whitish one with a wave pattern on it. I've decided it will be my reminder of the surfing crew. How cheesy is that? heheheh I think Lucy and I were going to shop for some friendship bracelets anyway in town today. I also need to pay for my OzExperience bus pass today. what fun. I'm spending way too much money out here.

Oh right, so I guess I could take some time to tell you guys about where I've been staying. I havent gotten any photos yet, Ive been a little sick, but I'm staying at a lovely place called the Arts Factory. Its basically a hippie commune turned lucrative accomidation business. its about a 10 min walk from the center of town, set on a 5acre rainforest reserve with its own bar / lounge / cafe / restaraunt / library / cinema / pool / volley ball courts / camping ground .... basically everything you could want except a fruit vendor and bottle shop. (thats what they call Liquor stores out here, bottle shops.) its really cool. All the dorms are around the pool, and there are teepees and long houses that you can stay in too. There are also specialty rooms like the Hippy Bus (you litterally stay on a hippie bus) and the Love Shack ... which I've never actually seen the doors open to ... thats probably a good thing.

All the rooms are painted up with nifty designs. My current dorm is addorned with Sun patterns on the main wall and in all the corners. The rooms are small, but all in all, not too bad.

From what I gather, the arts factory started out as a commune and just kind of grew into a place for travellers to stay. There is so much to do though, its hardly like a hostel at all! Just today for example, there are yoga classes at 10, reiki or what ever at 12, salsa dancing and capoeira in the evening, a live DJ at the bar, and movies playing at the cinema. Yesterday, I went on a bushwalk with the most eccentric Aussie I've evermet. I should mention here that because of my horrible cold / cough, I've lost my voice entirely. I woke up yesterday and seriously couldnt even make a squeak. It sucked! All my friends made fun of me all day but it was funny. Anyway,right, the bush walk. So this guy named Cockatoo Paul does a couple things around the hostel during the weektime. He takes groups out to the reserve around the hostel and shows them how to use assorted plants for one thing. So I joined up with his tour yesterday. He showed us how to use a certain tree as insect repellent, how to identifty and get fruictos from certain flowers, and how to get water from a tree. He also showed us how to make bush toilet paper. Though he warned us very seriously about using the wrong part of this particular bark. It was umm how did he put it ... oh right "John Wayne toilet paper, rough as all hell and wont take shit off anyone" If I could have, I would have laughed really loud at that. As it was I managed a squeak, which resulted in my being called hoarse face for the rest of the evening >.< As we went out of the hostel proper and into the parking lot, Cockatoo decided it was time to learn to throw a spear. For some strange reason I vounteered. So now I have a photo of my holding a traditional aboriginee spear about to throw it. The good news was, my aim was good, but my power sucked. He threw the spear like 50 feet ... mine ... maybe 10 and instead of arcing and sticking in the ground it just kind of skittered along. ... Oh well it was fun. The walk might have been better had I actually been able to talk to the people around me, but thats alright. It was still cool. Afterwards, we headed to the hostel bar for a free glass of wine (horrible boxed wine I might add) and I grabbed a table in preparation for Cockatoo's evening musical show. Some of you guys will remember Dan-the-one-man-Band from Eua Claire ... well Cockatoo really puts him to shame. He writes all his own songs, and he uses a Didjeredoo, kazoo, guitar, maraccas, at least 6 drums, a tamborine, high hat, and um some piece of piping that he uses like a "didje" (the short term for Didjeredoo) It was an awsome show, and afterwards he was really trying to plug his CD. I'd have been tempted to buy it if A) it wasnt $20, and B) I had a CD player ...
A couple of things of note about Cockatoo ... hes a bushman with a cockatoo. He drives alot, spends most of his time on the road, and likes it that way. He also sells Road Kill jewlery... and no, its not just a name. He seriously collects the bones of dead animals that he passes on the road, bleaches and cleans them and uses them to make things with. ew. He was selling it this morning, and tried to convince me to buy a pair of Makoshark teeth earings. If it werent for the fact they were real teeth, I might have bought them. He assured me the guy he bought em from was "green" and used the whole shark, but all the same, I just cant condone that kind of thing. Some of his opals were cool though, and the Kangaroo teeth. If that hadnt been so expensive, I'd have bought one of the pendants, but I need to concentrate on more important things ... like food.

well anyway, I've gotta go and hit the bank and such, so I'll leave you guys with some amusing things again. If you are ever here remember they have no idea what Bandaids are, they are called Plastics, PLasters or Plasties here. try whispering to a lady at the pharmecy (because you cant talk) that you want bandaids and see the look on her face. It was hilarious. I'd also like to take a moment to lament on a couple of things. namely, no one out here has ever heard of NyQuil!!!!! I asked like 5 different people including a pharmacy tech and got nothing but blank looks. They also do not carry Advil liquid strength, any brand of feminine products that Im used to, or solid deoderant. Oh yeah, and all the English smell the same. They use this disgusting Aerosol spray deoderant that stinks up the room every morning and leaves me gaging it sucks, but they think that people in Canada must stink. Until I point out its too cold for us to sweat. Damn Poms Anyway, Ciao for now guys, This will likely be my last post for a while, since there is no internet out at Surf Camp. If I do come into Byron though, I'll do my damndest to grab a computer and update, but its likely going to be about a month till you hear from me again. So Dont worry! For my family, I will be keeping my cell phone charged and full of mins incase you guys need to get ahold of me, and I'm sure there is a land line there as well that I can use. I'll find out on Monday when I get back there

"cheers" as the English say, and I love you guys and Miss you tons! Mom, give my cat extra cuddles, Dad, well give Aggy and Sam and extra hug and kiss, and everyone else um. I dunno, do something and think of me. As for me, I'll toast to you guys with a Carona in hand when Im back on the road with the surf guys.

Cheers!
Amy