Catching Up

In all of the excitement of the last couple weeks there are some events and observations that have been left out so I'll catch everybody up to date.

When we were still in Canada we went spelunking in some really cool caves near the Spirit Spheres. There were the 4 of us, our guide Laura and another young couple that came in our group. Getting to the caves was harder than anything we had to do inside of them! We had to hike up a really steep hill to get to the entrance of the first cave we went into. Everyone was huffing and puffing by the time we got to the top. Our guide showed us some of the signs for how to spot where caves are likely to be on the way up.

The first cave we went in was the biggest and most open of the 3 we explored. In order to get in we all had to climb through a 2x2ft metal door and down a ladder with about 15 steps. Once inside we all went deeper and Laura showed us some cool rock formations and explained how stalactites and stalagmites are formed. She also explained how people can stain them just by touching the surface and we weren't allowed to touch any of the calcite in this cave. Once we went deeper into the cave we all turned out our head lamps and experienced absolute darkness. Its the darkest place in the universe, there are many places equally as dark but none darker. Absolutely no light could reach to where we were. Turns out you do have a kind of sixth sense because your brain still "sees" your hand when you wave it in front of your face in the dark.

After that we left that cave and went down the hill to 2 smaller caves that involved more climbing and squeezing through cracks. We got to climb up a waterfall in the cave and we all had to fit through some pretty narrow holes. There were a few times where you look at the hole you're supposed to fit through and you're like uh-uh, my butt is not fitting through that hole. But then you wiggle and suck in and make it through and see some really neat stuff on the other side.

There are some pictures of the caves up on picasa that you can take a look at.

Some funny/interesting observations here in Melbourne.

Hungry Jacks. This is a local fast food chain that is the Burger King of Australia. BK actually owns it and their logo looks just like the Burger King logo just with Hungry Jacks inside the bun instead. The one we went into had a flock of birds inside munching on fries left behind. It might have been my imagination but I think they looked a little fat.

Burgers in Australia - I've had 2 now and on each one it has come with an egg and "bacon" the bacon here is different, its kind of in between real bacon and Canadian bacon. It tastes pretty good but if I can't get some nice crunchy bacon here at some point I'm going to come home early. As for the egg on the burger I still haven't made up my mind, its not bad but I don't think its really necessary.

Some sayings - How you going? = How are you doing?
no worries = no problem or you're welcome depending on the context
to stay or take away? = for here or to go?
they like to add Es to the end of things too, breaky for breakfast, bikee gangs instead of biker (I still can't think of a bikee gang as intimidating in the least, it sounds like they're riding tricycles)

They love American television here! From the Daily Show to American Idol and everything in between can be found here. The only all Australian shows I've seen are the talk shows and soap operas.

Speaking of entertainment, we were wandering around last Saturday and ended up in Melbourne Central which is this mall with a gigantic domed ceiling with an old building going straight up the dome. They also have a movie theater in there and we went to see Monsters vs Aliens. The movie was pretty good, the unusual thing though is that they give you assigned seats! We're at the counter buying our tickets and the guy asks us where we'd like to sit. It was actually pretty nice, we didn't have to worry about being inside the second the theater opened up but I could see how it would be annoying in a full movie.

Melbourne is famous for its arcades, but not the video game kind. There are many alleyways between buildings that are full of cafes and little shops and only open to foot traffic.

That's all for now.