Au Revoir Australia

Hey Ya’ll, I am coming to you straight from the U S of A as I have, FINALLY, finished with my work for my semester in Australia.

For those of you who didn’t know, I ended up returning home early because of my seemingly endless battle with strep throat, strep throat again (I apparently had the Penicillin resistant strain, I suppose after a hundred years of being around some things have become immune) and Mono. And yes, before you all ask, it was that bad. (Many people find it incredible that I found it necessary to fly home early and, I assure you, it was. I wasn’t going to even come home until my mom threatened me with hiring an Australian nursing service to come to my house and cook meals for me. Plus my department made it super easy for me to complete things at home and email them images to grade from, so that’s what I did. Here are the paintings I created in a period of roughly two weeks in my living room on the floor watching the home and garden channel and food network:

Ok, I WAS going to post pictures of my paintings here, but I have since left the country and do not have access to the files, to be updated later....

Although I left Australia about a month ago now, I feel as if I am just now wrapping up my trip abroad. I am still re-teaching myself to walk on the right (many interesting near collisions in the airport) and eating food besides burgers and sausage. (Seriously, I have totally expanded my food horizons since I got back to barbeque pork and steak, much different) Readjusting ahs not been much of a chore since Northern California where I am right now is very similar to the part of Australia I was in. They are both in drought, both have wine country, both have big open skies and small clumps of trees on brown rolling hills, both have lots of cows (although the cows in California are apparently happier). The main difference is the fact that food is much cheaper and here there are coyotes instead of dingoes. I would say overall that the experience was positive in that I learned a lot about myself and how I feel about The Future, and I definitely enjoyed my time until I got sick, but I am very, very glad that I came home as I still do not feel completely recuperated. Mostly I am just very relieved that it is finally summer vacation and I don’t have to think about school for a while. This is not turning out to be a very conclusive ending to my semester but oh well I suppose this paragraph reflects how convoluted the experience became towards the end.

And now for the latest goings on in my life: I have been visiting Riley and Dennis in Gilroy California since Saturday and it has been like staying in a luxury spa. The house is big and airy with a Tuscan inspired decorating scheme and a pool/hot tub combination out back. We’ve had Pina coladas, played croquet, and eaten at Dennis’ dad’s and stepmom’s house in the course of a few days. (They were a winning combination; he made killer ribs and she made homemade lemonade and the best potato salad EVER. I don’t even like potato salad but she made it with sour cream and lime instead of a bunch of mayo and it was incredible. I am also constantly entertained by Dennis’ two dogs, Jake and Jazz, King Charles spaniels I think and VERY energetic, much like Dennis. On the same level and equally entertaining, Dennis and his sister are the type of siblings that enjoy squabbling to pass the time, not an hour goes by without some sort of music lyric or dance contest and not a night goes by without one good chase around the house. (I was called upon in the music lyric game, but I always forget EVERY idea the minute I am put on the spot, thank God for the Beatles.

I also saw Kung Fu Panda on Sunday and it was AWESOMe! My faith in animated movies and Jack Black (umm, Nacho Libre disappointed me I’m not gonna lie) has been restored! For those of you who have seen it, there is no charge for awesomeness, or attractiveness, for those of you who haven’t, I hope this quote tempts you to go see it.

Today Riley and I are flying up to Seattle to see his sister’s graduation at an apparently ‘hippie’ school which should be an interesting contrast to my own former military southern private school background. (I am sure that wearing plaid skirts builds character on some level) So, I am going from sunny California to a very rainy and 20 degrees cooler northwest in addition to meeting the fam. It should be an entertaining trip to say the least because I get to meet a whole slew of friends and family in a period of less than twenty four hours and all of them are sure to be entertaining.

On Thursday I am headed for London and then directly to Paris to meet with Courtney, I am SO psyched.

My itinerary:

London

Paris

Dublin (Bus tours of northern and southern Ireland)

Edinburgh

London

Geneva

Lyss (to stay with Gaby my friend and ex-nanny, hooray!)

Croatia

Budapest

As you can see it is quite the whirlwind adventure and I am exhausted just looking at it but I will have Courtney and Lena to hang out with at last. When I get back to school next year I will be 21, have my own room in an apartment containing a bar, a basketball court, and ghost oven mitt, AND and inflatable couch. I will be playing Frisbee again AND it will be football season! Life is pretty good, minus mono.

I am off, I might check in with you all a bit while I am abroad but most likely I will just post about it when I get back. Thanks to Holy Shit for the emails about south America, I have not responded for obvious reasons but I can’t wait to have girl talk when we are back in La. You are coming back to LA, right?

Kate Enzenauer, signing off.

PS I am posting this from Paris where Courtney and I are couchsurfing with an awesome host, Sylvain, and his girlfriend Melanie. They have been great and it is so fun to meet people this way as opposed to in a hostel. We have also:
eaten mussels
been instructed in red wine
seen the statue of Nike of Simothrace
cooked tex mex and plantains
listened to the lion sleeps tonight as played and sung by a french brass band

More later...