Look what's in your backyard?

They call Australia the lucky country.  I kinda think the forgotten country is more appropriate.  It's like we are in a weird time warp down here.  All the media from the outside world is at least a month behind and usually more.  It's 2012 and I can speak with my mom real time over the internet.  Why is everything behind? It's not like they have to put it on a ship and send it down here anymore.  I really think the rest of the world does not give this country enough credit.  One company that does is Apple.  They own this country.  The prices actually compare with what they are in the US so maybe Australians are just used to paying more for better products? Anyway, they are everywhere and as an Apple fan I like it.

Bondi Beach

I took the bus out to Bondi Beach on Thursday.  Very cool to have beaches this close.  Amazing water and amazing people watching.  I didn't stay long as my pasty whiteness needs a little time to adjust to this stronger sun.  But I did get to meet the cast of "Bondi Shore".  They were the nice, young studs and girls sunbathing in front of me and I swear you could change the accents, put them in Jersey and boom, instant Jersey Shore.  GTL is everywhere is guess.

On Friday, I went to the Australian Museum.  It's actually pretty incredible.  They have a really great exhibit on loan from Russia all about Alexander the Great.  But the real exciting thing for me was the rest of museum. They have the most amazing collection of rocks and minerals! It fills two huge rooms.  It includes this amazing find that I can't believe everyone in the world doesn't know about it.  Maybe they do and I'm the one left out.  Anyway, scientists found fossil stromatolites in Western Australia and they dated them to be 3.5 billion years old. That's the oldest record of life on Earth if you are counting.  And you can actually go to Shark Bay in Western Australia and see living stromatolites that have been trapped in pools of water.  Crazy!  I would love to do this but considering that it's about 4000km away I was glad to be fascinated with the exhibits at the Australian museum.

Australians also have this cheeky way of explaining all of the things that can kill you in this country.  When we first decided that we were actually going through with this move I began researching Australia online.  Basically, I found 100 websites telling me all of the things that could kill me once I was there.  Oh joy! Spiders, snakes, whatever I'm sure they are probably exaggerated, right?


Huntsman Spider, don't worry they don't attack humans and eat cockroaches!

I make it to the "Dangerous Australia" part of the museum and they happily explain and show all of the snakes, spiders, sharks, jellyfish and crocodiles that are deadly and menacing and living in Australia.  But it's not like they are in my backyard.  Then I get to the "look what's in your backyard!" part of the exhibit.  Oh joy!  Huntsman spiders and Funnel Web spiders are creepy, crawly and scary, yikes!  But they are quick to tell you that it's been years since anyone has actually died. AND you can count on one hand the amount of people that die in Australia from all of these creatures combined.  Glad to know that. I'm sure those people were glad to hear that too.

I'm sitting here on Monday afternoon watching Sunday night football.  Kinda fun but once again, why can't I watch Nashville yet?