"The First 48"

As far as I'm concerned, United Airlines deserves a gold star, a gatorade, or perhaps even a Nobel Prize. They managed to take me from Minneapolis to Phoenix to Kona to Los Angeles to Sydney to Melbourne: safely, on time, and with luggage in tact. Upon arrival in Melbourne we were taken to the Miami Hotel. Contrary to what their own self-image seems to be telling them, this is not, in fact, a "hotel." My roommate, Maddie, and I were shown to a 4x4 room and, don't worry, the bathrooms are down the hall, to be shared with ALL of the patrons. She is from Minneapolis so we quickly ran down the list of our favorite restaurants in Uptown and the go-to stores at Mall of America. On Tuesday night, Maddie and I, along with our new friends Kara (from Loyola), Kelly (from Colorado), and Ellen (from San Francisco) went to pizza near our ho(s)tel and enjoyed uncovering the small world connections that link all of us together. We relished the summer twilight and then headed "home" to crash.

Wednesday morning we drove two hours to Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road (think of the ESPN flashes of ocean that were shown during the Australian Open....that promptly became my reality). We pulled into Eumeralla Scout Camp and had a few jokes about becoming boy scouts during orientation. Although I did not get the chance to properly relive the glory of my Halloween costume, we did have quite a few adventures. Our afternoon surf-lessons were part terrifying and part the-best-thing-that-I've-ever-done. We spent, oh, a good five minutes on the shore and they threw us into the storming waves. It was a cloudy, foggy day and our wetsuits kept us comfortable as we nervously struggled to find the comfortable transition between hopping on the board with "chicken wing" arms to attempting to gain an upright stance, like a "hood ornament" (our wacky instructor enjoyed his analogies, that's for sure). I got rocked a few times by some big waves but we all emerged content with our newfound surfing skills.

After leaving the beach, we side tracked the bus route to see Bells Beach, the home of scenes from the movie Point Break. We also stumbled upon a field of kangaroos-they are quite adorable and quite abundant-I'm wondering if the thrill of seeing them will ever go away. Glad to be back at camp, we chowed on lasagna and bread and went to sleep petrified of Huntsman spiders that we'd seen lurking. Our fears were revived early in the morning when we woke to a cabin mate leaping out of bed, a Huntsman the size of my fist lingering all too closely on the curtain of her window. We quickly packed and got OUT of there-We spent our morning on a ropes course and had a blast leaping from ropes and climbing through tires and balancing on beams.

We're newly arrived again at the Miami "Hotel," showering and enjoying a spider-free existence. Once this thunderstorm subsides, we're off in search of a reasonably priced dinner and I'm sure we'll crash early again. Tomorrow holds meetings and cell-phone purchase. Well, in true Aussie fashion, g'day mates.