I'll no longer be planking

Because, apparently, the new cool thing to do is this:

It's called OWLING - and in my *expert* opinion it's not nearly as cool as planking but I guess my opinion doesn't count.

I Googled 'owling' and these are some of the funniest images that came up.

See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

~ FroBuzz ~

I am the Queen

of packing.

Self-proclaimed.

But seriously, I would challenge anyone to beat me in packing two tons of stuff into two large suitcases. I'll win. **Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for how much the suitcases weigh when I'm through. They'll probably be heavy. You've been warned.**

I showed off my packing skills to my mama when I was preparing to come back to Australia a few weeks ago.

Everything in the above six pictures had to fit into one large suitcase, one medium suitcase, one small roller carry-on and a computer bag/personal item.

I succeeded in getting almost everything in - and I'll explain a few quick tips on how to do so.

Roll your clothes - this saves bookoo room. You can fit 5 pair of pants in to half the space if they're rolled. Added bonus: you can better see what you've packed if it's folded and not stacked.

Fill shoes/boots with items. I usually use socks but since I was bringing back goodies for my hubsy I decided to put spice jars in my tennies...

and Jell-O and gravy mix in my boots.

This is my favorite recent purchase. A pretty turquoise bag from Ripcurl that Hyatt bought me while we were in Cairns. It's got so many books, movies, papers and mags in it, among various technological devices, that it weighed about 25 pounds.

I put pliable materials between layers of clothing. This suitcase held all my jeans, research papers, all of the pictured food and some more shoes and boots.

Almost of the stuff made its way back to Australia. I had to leave some of the things from the first picture (Victoria's Secret body spray, extra bottle of hairspray, bottle of Dolce & Gabbana light blue) and some of the food from the third picture behind (Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce) because they were sending me way over the weight limit.

Hyatt was thrilled to get about 10 lbs of candy, a ton of Crystal Light, his favorite kind of Hamburger Helper (stroganoff) and mac n' cheese. I think he may have been happier to see all his goodies than he was to see me!

Until next time,

~ FroBuzz ~

What I learned today...

We recently got our bond back from our previous landlord. You know, the landlord of the ML? To get caught up read this, this and this. I'll wait.

Ok - back to business. So after a long drawn out process of rescheduling the 'court' date about 3 different times, we got approximately $950 back. That's about $750 less than we wanted but at least the issue is resolved and we're through.

The reimbursement checks came to Hyatt and I. Since we don't have the same last name (yet) they had to send half of the money to me and half to Hyatt. The only problem is that they addressed the check to Brandi Frobose. I have a couple of issues with this:

1 - That's not my name.
2 - If the reason for splitting it up is that we don't have the same last name, then why does the check I received say Brandi Frobose? Stupid.
3 - It's extremely difficult to deposit a check made out to Brandi Frobose into an account held by Brandi Buzzard. See the issue?

I made the 30 minute walking trek to the bank, which was rougher than usual because while I was in the states I reverted back to my lazy American self and drove everywhere, and finally got the issue sorted out thanks to the lovely staff at The Bank of Melbourne.

In closing, I've learned that you can do one of the following things if you're ever in my situation:
 A - don't move to another country 3.5 weeks after you get married unless you can magically fast track the name changing process on your visa and passport

-OR-

B - wait to get married until you get back from said country.

C - Confirm with authorities your name before the checks are issued

D - Make friends with a friendly bank teller named Darin who will vouch that you are Brandi Frobose (even though you're really not) and will deposit the check anyway.

I chose to follow through with option D.

Have a great day!

Until next time,

~ FroBuzz ~

Great Barrier Reef Trip #2

Most people don't get to see the Great Barrier Reef in their lifetime and this can be attributed to several things:
1 - Australia is way the hell far away from any other landmass except Antartica and Indonesia. There's a lot of water between us and the states, check it.

2. Most people aren't too keen on swimming with the fishes - ya know, da big ones.  We didn't see any sharks while snorkeling but we did see a few smaller ones while scuba diving. The big ones gotta eat something. Small sharks = dinner for big sharks.

3. It's bloody expensive to get across all that water.

4. They don't have the travel bug and are content to stay on their home continent - which is totally fine. There are many times that I wish I was on my home continent.

5. Did I mention it's a helluva long way over here?!

So, very blessed to have taken back to back trips to the GBR. This time it was with Lenny, Candace and Jenny.  We didn't roadtrip this time but rather flew there and back so that we had more time in paradise.

Our room deluxe huge suite was flippin awesome - look.

I"m not kidding when I say paradise. Look at all the cool stuff we did while we were up there:

Went to the oldest rainforest on the planet - The Daintree Rainforest. We took a monorail to get there (I'm petrified of suspended heights) and a somewhat antique railway to get down.

Jenny and I were very excited to hold koalas - it was the highlight of our day!

We also went on a snorkeling/scuba trip. This was our ship

Catching some rays

Lots and lots of fish.

Perhaps one of the most spectacular sites during their visit were the things we saw on the Great Ocean Road.  The London Bride, 12 Apostles (there are only really 6 or 7), koalas in trees, a gorgeous lighthouse and sunset over the ocean.

All in all - wonderful trip. So glad we got to see our friend if only for a short time.

Another post tomorrow - promise!

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Catching up from July

Hola! Wait, wrong country.

I'm back from my wondrous adventures in Kansas, Canada, Ohio and North Dakota. Yeah, I get around.....the world.

So, back in July, I promised updates on our trip with Andy, Mandy and Kristen and the pictures from our trip with Lenny, Candace and Jenny. I'm going to do that all.... right now. But really fast and in less detail because I have a lot I want to blog about in the upcoming days and as usual, when I have something to talk about, I'm generally swamped.

As I was saying, A,M and K visited and we left off in Sydney where I was planking and your brain exploded. Caught up? Great.

After Sydney we went to Tamworth and saw friends Daniel and Kate (who we met on our honeymoon in Fiji) and a giant golden guitar (Tamworth is the country music capital of Australia)

 then to Lamington National Park where went hiking, checked out a waterfall and watched the sun rise at about 6 am

gorgeous, huh?

 In front of the waterfall. It was a long way down.

Andy and his massive hiking stick.

Then it was off to Rockhampton to meet some beef producers. Many thanks to the Lawrie family for hosting us and treating us like royalty!

Quite the sight to see so many eared cattle (Brahman influence)!

A good looking group and check out my shirt (K-State I <3 Beef)!

They use camels to keep watch over their cattle. That's neat!

 Finally, we landed in Airlie Beach.....where we had a blast!

Andy made a new friend

Andy, Hyatt and the martian triplets went snorkeling.

And the view was amazing.

We returned back to Melbourne 9 days after we left - tired and broke (er, more broke) - but we had the time of our lives.

I know I promised to post about Candace, Jenny and Lenny but it's late and I'm tired and honestly, I need to live up to my goal of posting 1/day for a whole month (#98) and to do that I can't stuff 3 weeks time into one post. So you'll have to wait.

See you on the flip side!

Until next time,

~ Brandi ~

Canberra Part 2

Readers,

Just to follow up on my previous post regarding my trip to Canberra, Australia's capital city. I must say that although alot of Aussies wondered why I would bother going to Canberra when told I was going there, I thought it was a nice town and really pretty. It was randomly created as a neutral city between Melbourne and Sydney, so perhaps thats where some of the negative sentiment comes in.

But I should get back to our program while there. After a good first day of tours and meetings, we followed that up with a second day of, well, tours and meetings. We spent a good portion of the day discussing things that are different about Australia than the US (A good history lesson was involved revolving around how no revolution against England took place here). We also were briefed on how to go about things with banking, visas, housing etc as most of my fellow scholars had newly arrived. If only Brandi and I had come in August, we could've learned alot of this stuff the easy way instead of a trial by fire which we chose to be subjected to.

The highlight of my day was the afternoon where we got to go see the Australian War Memorial, a tribute to their armed forces who had served with Britain as far back as the Boer War in South Africa. This was a memorial/museum and it was as big or bigger than any military museum I've been to in the US, with intricate diaramas and full-size planes etc within the confines of the building. I really military history, and its exciting to see how wars were fought and percieved in other countries because it gives you a whole new perspective. World War I was a major highlight of the museum, as Aussies see their role in WWI as a kind of "birth of a nation" moment as they had gained their independence from Britain just a few years before war broke out. One of my favorite pictures was the one I've shown below as it was part of the "British Empire in 1890" and I like to point out that the big chunk of North America not highlighted in red may have had something to do with us.

Following a great afternoon at the War Memorial, we had a formal dinner and presentation for all of the Fulbright Scholars at a lovely restaurant called "The Boathouse on the Lake". We talked, ate a nice steak dinner, and were recognized for our achievements by Fulbright Staff and honored guests such as the US Ambassador and two Australian Senators. The night was capped off by an amazing performance on the harp by Kristen Keyches, a 2010 Scholar based in Canberra. We wrapped up our sessions on Friday morning, before taking a trip down to the Canberra Glassworks, where another 2010 Scholar is studying as a glass artist. This facility was amazing, as it had been refurbished from the original coal-fired power plant that provided electric to the city after it was formed in 1917. We had a great tour and got to see some glass being worked and melted into a beautiful vase (in the picture below). Afterwards, Scholar Matt Perez had arranged for us to get to make our own glass "artwork". Some of us have more artistic talent than others, with myself falling into the others category. I decided to keep it simple and make a tribute piece to my residence in the US and my lovely wife's home state of Kansas.

All in all, we had a great trip, made some new friends and got a glimpse of some Aussie history. I wish I had stayed for an extra day or two to see some more museums, but as I have pigs currently on feed at Dookie, I had to get back to take care of the little guys.

Enjoy,
Hyatt

Canberra: A Meeting Place

Readers,

I recently had the opporunity to travel to Australia's capital city, Canberra, for 3 days for a Fulbright Enrichment Program. This was an awesome, albeit short trip, where we got to meet and visit with other U.S. Fulbright Scholars stationed around Australia. There are about 12 other Fulbrighters here from the U.S. right now, and their research areas cover every end of the spectrum. For example, one Senior Scholar is bringing Shakespearean Theatre into prisons as a form of rehabilitation, while another is looking at potential trade barriers to US apples in Australia.

Most of the scholars got a real kick out of my research, the effects of an immunological alternative to castration in pigs. I don't think I stopped talking the entire time, which doesn't say much for me as Brandi can attest, however it was amazing how interested everyone was to learn about pigs, meat and agriculture. My generation is one that is yearning to learn more about their food, how it is produced and where it comes from. This can make them vulnerable to propaganda from animal rights groups, but it was amazing to me how interested they were in what I do. Being the talkative person I am, I was happy to oblige.
The first day we had the privilege of traveling to the U.S. Embassy to meet Ambassador Bleich and his wife and have morning tea. The embassy is beautifully done in Virginia colonial style, and the Ambassador and his wife were gracious hosts.

In the afternoon, we went to visit the Australian Parliament and meet the Prime Minister. Upon arrival, we had a nice tour of the building and a description of the symbolism that was worked into the construction of the Parliament building. It was amazing to me how thought out the whole process was. After the tour, we had to 'cloak' all of our belongings, including cameras, cell phones and such. They collect all of these from people going to watch Parliament in session because they claim, "It's to keep you from being able to throw things at them," which should give you a good perspective of how well-liked this Parliament is currently.

All of us US Scholars got a real delight out of watching this session of Parliament, as it was basically political damning of the other party whenever someone got up to speak. I can honestly say about 75% of what was said would have been considered slander in the US, but nobody ever accused the Aussies of not speaking their mind. The session was capped off by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, staging a walk-out with her party after refusing to answer a question posed by the minority party!

Afterwards, we had a chance to get a quick picture with Julia, who is currently under a lot of pressure from the Australian public for her new carbon tax initiative as well as many other current issues.

We spent the rest of the day going over things we need to know as Fulbrighters, as the majority of the scholars were recent arrivals from the 2011 group. During this time, I was wishing I had been there last year to hear these things upon my arrival in Australia and not having to figure them out the hard way! After dinner, we all imbibed in a little bit of the amazing yet relatively cheap Aussie wine, including the fan favorite "Passion Pop". Below is a picture of myself and Lee Pearson, fellow scholar, showing off the hotel's list of items for purchase, which included $7.00 "Just in Case" condoms.

I could go on for pages, but I think I'll end here and come back in a few days to talk about the last two days of our trip to Canberra, which means "meeting place" in the local Aboriginal language.

Cheers,

Hyatt