Going to Australia

Going to be in Australia for a little break. Going to visit my brother there for his wedding (yes, he lives in San Francisco, but what can you do?). This reminds me that I'd better get packed and ready. Ironic, isn't it, that I haven't even finished unpacking from the move to the new house, and I've got to get packed again. To be honest, this isn't the way I wanted to see Australia -- I had always wanted to take a month or two, and fly down sometime during their summer, and just putter around, checking out the little continent.


But I suppose this forces me to get out there, because I probably wouldn't have gotten off my lazy ass long enough to buy a Fodor's guide or anything. In any case, it's all pretty surreal, and I haven't yet grasped the notion of a 23 hour flight or a possible run-in with a Koala or something....


Actually, this reminds me of those old salt-flour relief maps we had to do in Grade 4 or 5 of Australia. They were part of the Social Studies program, in which we learned all about Australia and its wind currents, population, and imports/exports...


Also, I keep thinking of those Bugs Bunny cartoons where he kept meeting the Tasmanian Devil. That Australia always looked somewhat Polynesian, with loads of bamboo and thatched-roof huts... and there were elephants and monkeys and other creatures which didn't seem very native to Oz. Wonder if any of the animators of that show had ever been down under.


Now I feel like a Vegemite sandwich... Har.