I finally have internet at home! It got connected on Wednesday…so I can do things like upload pictures and update my blog without having to trek into town and pay to use the internet cafe! Hopefully in the next few days I’ll have quite a few entries as I catch up on events from the last month.

Anyway, just about a month ago, I flew across the country to Brisbane for James’ mother’s birthday, his sister’s 18th birthday, and Mother’s Day. I planned this trip pretty much as soon as I arrived in Perth because I wanted to be there with his family on a special weekend; I thought it would be good just to see friendly faces after a month in Perth, even though it meant having to see James as well. However, about a week before I boarded the Qantas plane heading east, prospects for the weekend started looking much better when James apologized and asked if we could get back together. Again, I’m not going into full detail, but essentially, I said yes and it certainly made the weekend much less awkward!

We didn’t spend a lot of time in Brisbane itself. I landed at about midnight (since I took off right after work at 5.30), so we spent the night there and then drove up to the Sunshine Coast early the next morning. Much of the day was devoted to either being lazy (napping) or getting ready for the barbeque that night. The only interesting events were 1) Kate (James’ sister) and I went to the beach with David (their brother) but didn’t swim (I’d forgotten my swimsuit). It was a beautiful day and great for just sitting, talking, and watching the waves…and 2) we took Kate to the bottle shop so she could legally buy alcohol for the first time..and she didn’t even get IDed! I didn’t get IDed on my 21st either, so I understood her anger

Kate’s BBQ was good fun, as was going out afterwards. I’d never actually been to any clubs on the Sunshine Coast, and I quickly realized why when we were charged $5 at the Wharf Tavern just to get into the bar downstairs…and then another $8 to get upstairs. We didn’t even go downstairs (except to get into the upstairs club) so it seemed a bit of a rip-off for them to charge us for both! Upstairs, it was pretty much a normal club–lots of dancing and hit music–except for the alcohol prices, which seemed more excessive than normal. James and I got a Bundy Draught each–just pre-mixed Bundy and Coke–and they didn’t give us any change out of the $20 I gave them! We knew that the government had just massively increased taxes on pre-mixed drinks (claiming they want to curb binge-drinking) but it was a bit much. We still paid for drinks, since we were there, but it hurt!

Of course, it was just my luck to be on the dance floor when a guy danced up to us and asked “So, where all y’all from?” I knew that he had to be from at least somewhere near Texas because he knew the proper plural for “y’all,” so I wasn’t surprised at all that when I told him I was from Texas, he said, “Oh wow! Me too! I’m from San Antonio!” Turns out that he also worked in oil & gas. I thought this coincidence was really funny at the time, but after having been in Perth for longer, I find that it’s not a coincidence at all. It seems like this town is absolutely swarming with Texans or people that have lived in Houston, since pretty much every company here has a big base there.

We stayed at the club until about 1.30, when Kate’s friend Hazel decided her feet had had enough and was ready to go home. James and I jumped at the chance to go with her and left David to watch Kate and make sure she made it home okay…needless to say, he was very happy with us and looked like a zombie the next morning (although this turned out to be because he was coming down with a bad cold rather than being from a hangover). He missed going to coffee in Mooloolaba for Mother’s Day, where all of the rest of the ”kids” just stared like zombies trying to stay awake!

Overall, I really enjoyed my weekend there and it was great to see faces that I know so well. I’m settling in well to Perth but I still don’t have any people here that I’ve known as long as those on the East Coast. I’ll be heading back over there in a couple weeks, although I won’t be seeing James’ family. Instead, James is picking me up and driving us down to Byron Bay–in New South Wales and about a 2-hour drive south of Brisbane–so I can see Chelsea, one of my best friends from Rice and the only other girl comp sci in our year, who is currently on a month-long graduation trip to Australia. I’m looking forward to it, especially since I’ll get a long weekend so I won’t feel quite so much like I’m hopping off a plane only to get back on another one.

Even though it took me a long time to feel up to updating this blog again, I continued to upload photos, since it’s generally a pretty mindless activity. I’ve finally made it through my entire backlog of New Zealand pictures, meaning that after this post, there will be no more of the scenic beauty of NZ for me to pass on to you (although I could give you my friend James’ Facebook to look at, since he’s taken well over 22,000 photos in his time in NZ!). However, I hope to keep discovering Perth and the surrounding areas in the coming months, so you’ll get entirely too many Australian photos instead.

I know you guys might have been hoping for a conclusion to my previous post. It is in the works, but I thought I’d get these photos up while I was at the internet cafe.

Without further ado, here’s the list of what’s been added/updated (denoted by a ***):

New Zealand
***Queenstown: more from Deer Park Heights & the Remarkables.
***The Milford Track: from days 3 & 4 of the track (with plenty from going over Mackinnon Pass).
Milford Sound from Land: from around Milford Sound township.
Milford Overnight Cruise: from my overnight on the Milford Wanderer in the beautiful fiord of Milford.
The Kepler Track: from my overnight trek onto the Kepler Track, up to Mt. Luxmore & Luxmore Hut and back.
Kayaking Doubtful Sound: from my 5 hours on remote Doubtful Sound and the long (but stunning) trip to/from the sound.
Warbirds over Wanaka: from the biennial warbirds airshow held at Wanaka airfield.
The West Coast Road: from my day-long bus trip between Wanaka and Franz Josef Glacier.
***Franz Ice Climbing & Quad Biking: plenty more shots of me looking stupid trying to climb ice walls and from the Waiho river valley where I went quad biking the next day.
Drive Across Arthur’s Pass: from my day-long bus trip between Franz Josef Glacier and Christchurch.

Australia
Queensland Sunsets: sunset shots from a few different days in Queensland.
Queensland Flowers: currently only shots of some pink hibiscus in James’ mother’s garden, but I’m hoping to add more when I go back sometime.
Queensland Animals: shots of kookaburras and blue-tongued lizards.
My Australian Family: some of my favorite shots from some photos James’ family and I took while I was up the Sunshine Coast.
Apartments in Perth: pictures from my (very fancy) temporary accommodation. None of my current apartment, and those will probably only be available to “friends” on Flickr once I do add them.
Kings Park: the beautiful Kings Park, which was just up the hill from my temporary accommodation. Also, shots of the ANZAC Day dawn service held at the war memorial there.
Scarborough Beach: my first glimpse of the Indian Ocean!
General Perth: where I’ll chuck all my pictures that don’t fit into other sets from Perth. Right now, it’s just fireworks pictures from a display I was lucky enough to see a couple weeks ago.
John Forrest National Park: the “Australian” pictures everyone is waiting to see. These are from a fun BBQ I went to yesterday up in the hills near Perth. Plenty of red dirt, gum trees, kookaburras, and kangaroos!

So I know it’s been a really long time since I’ve updated the blog. I know it seems a bit odd that I could do so well at updating while running myself ragged in New Zealand and then not get anything posted for the month that I’ve been in Australia. It’s been a long, rough month though, and lots of things combined to completely strip me of any will to write. Now that I don’t have an internet connection at home (and won’t until the 13th) it’s made it even more difficult to update, but I’m here, and I’m writing, and I’m getting back on track.

So, over a month ago, I stepped off the Air New Zealand flight onto Australian soil, where I plan to stay at least semi-permanently (my visa is valid for 4 years). I was thrilled to see James at the airport, since it had been quite a while and a lot had happened since I saw him off at Intercontinental in January. We went up to his parents’ on the Sunshine Coast for the weekend, and I was thrilled to see them as well. I feel like I am part of the family after knowing them for nearly three years, and it was great to get a little taste of home after traveling from hostel to hostel for ten weeks in New Zealand. Because of the Mooloolaba triathlon, we ended up going to Maroochydore for our Sunday morning coffee instead; even so, it felt normal and good to be in a routine again (even if it was someone else’s!). James and I went down to the beach at Mooloolaba later on that evening and got to see a beautiful sunset. I was experiencing quite a few emotions then; staring out across the ocean, I was missing New Zealand and the carefree life I led there, since I knew I was going to have to settle down now that I was starting work, but I was so happy just to be back in the country I love with the man I love.

The week in Brisbane was relatively calm. James made a few comments about me wanting to go out and rush around seeing things, but I really didn’t need to; besides the fact that I’ve managed to rush around and see the majority of sites within public transport distance of James’ place, I was tired and just wanted a week of relaxation. I went out and did a few things, like buying a new suitcase so I could get all the junk I sent to James over to Perth and getting my visa label stuck in my passport. The most interesting thing I did was going out with Michelle twice. The first time we met up, we went back to UQ, where I have so many happy memories of studying abroad. We had an afternoon of pizza, cosmopolitans, kookaburras, and talking, and it was great. A few days later, we tried to go eat yum cha at our usual hangout (okay, we’d only been there once, but it felt like our usual hangout at least!) only to find that it was closed…but not to worry, Michelle had a backup plan and we still got to stuff ourselves silly on dim sims and pork buns!

However, on Saturday, everything started crashing down around me. This is my personal blog, I know, but I’m not going to go into a lot of personal details, especially since I refuse to air grievances on such a public forum. Let’s just say that James broke up with me–a week after I arrived in the country that I moved to for him–and it absolutely broke my heart. I felt betrayed and more lonely than I’ve ever been in my life. Needless to say, this isn’t what I needed at all to start my new life in Australia, and it’s made the ensuing weeks incredibly difficult. I’ve been lucky to have amazing support–from my family, my awesome friends, and from James’ family, who have still made me feel like I belong in it despite James’ actions–or else I really don’t know how I’d still be here, since it’s hard not to question why I’m in a place that is nearly 10,000 miles from my family when I moved here for the one person that I trusted in enough to pick up and move across the world for…when he doesn’t want to be with me anyway.

The days following the breakup were rough, but James’ family was amazing and took great care of me. I got to see his mother and father (along with Michelle, who took me in, fed me dinner, and watched So You Think You Can Dance?  with me) on Sunday and his mother again on Monday. On Tuesday, his mother, father, and sister all came to the airport to see me off, so quite a few tears ensued. Stepping onto that plane is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, especially since more than a couple people told me that they wanted me to go to Perth but I could always get back on the plane to the US if I really wanted to. I got on the plane after giving everyone multiple hugs, bawling like I always seem to do when I get on planes in Australia. Within a few hours, my problems had been put in perspective. The man next to me was really friendly and talked to me for quite a while, trying to convince me that everything was going to be okay while giving me lots of advice on how to handle the situation; a few times, he said things that set me off and I ended up in tears once again. Then, I walked to the back of the plane only to see him talking to the flight attendants and visibly upset. He had apparently just been diagnosed with cancer yet he had sat there trying to help me solve my little problems for the first three hours of the flight. He was a really nice guy with a big cloud hanging over his head…so I spent the next few hours telling him how my father had beaten cancer and how he could beat it too. I won’t use your real name, but if you’re out there, I hope you’re fighting and you’ve had some great news. You’ll live to see your children for some time yet!

Well, my lunch break is over and I need to get back to my training. Since I don’t have internet at my new apartment, I might not get the rest of this story posted this weekend (although I’ll probably go to an internet cafe when I go shopping in the city tomorrow). If not, I’ll get it written this weekend and then post it on Monday morning. I am slowly settling in, and I do like the city of Perth, which I’ll elaborate on (and hopefully provide pictures of) soon.