Thursday, April 01, 2004

I found out today that my blog has 'comments'. This means that you can leave a comment for every entry. And there has been comments! I just read them!

So I spent the last weekend in a small farming town called Parkes (approx 4hr drive north of Canberra), Jessica's hometown, with Harriet, Phoebe and Isabel. After 4hrs of listening to Australian Idol's runner up, Shannon Knoll (he sounds like
Bryan Addams), we arrived at Jessica's house in the dark (It's hard to see Parkes in the dark.) Her mother indulged on trying to embarrass Jessica and her younger brother while we ate a meal including homecooked pumpkin. We discussed the likelihood of Martin (brother) making sauteed rabbit in his home ec. class. The conclusion: not likely.
That night I shared a futon with Harriet who woke up in the middle of the night to find me holding her hand. I had no clue - though I remember dreaming that Neal came to Australia. At least now I'm certain that I'm a midnight cuddler.
We were eating breakfast the next morning when Jan (Jessica's mother) commented that one of the grasshoppers got caught between the window and the blinds. Harriet (California) and I got out our cameras as we tried to capture it's neon green body. This amused Jan and Jessica.
We headed out to go sightseeing Parkes where Jessica, confused and unsure about what to show us, took us to the various hills to see the cityscape. I climbed the war memorial to get the best picture. We went to the tourist information office where we learned that Parkes has an Annual Elvis Festival every year, and that we just missed this year's. In retrospect, I should've bought a hat for Beth and John! Then I saw farmland.
Jan reserved a banquet hall at the league club for Jessica's birthday. We all had to wear nice clothes for the evening and it was decided that my five-dollar find was the khakis equivalent to a nun's dress. It made Phoebe laugh every time I tried to dance. We had drinks and schnitzel at the hall were the town's photojournalist showed up to document the event for the town paper. Yep, I'm in the news now . . . in my nun dress.
The next morning, hangover Jessica (she just became of age) and the rest of us headed out to see "The Dish". If you've seen the movie with Sam Neil, you'd know that it's this huge radio telescope. I learned that it was built in Parkes for it's open space, low winds and proximity to Sydney. I also saw it move for ten seconds! And the tourist cafe there had very good coffee.
This year Parkes finally got a K-mart. Because this was new to Jessica, we went to see it before we headed back, and I took a picture to mark the occaision.
Those interesting neon green grasshoppers were everywhere on our way home and smaking into the car as loud as a rock (they're almost twice the size of the ones back in
BC). They turn white on the windshield. And once again, Australian Idol's runner up was serenading our trip home. I saw white birds with red bellies on the way, and a shooting star at night. Nothing really happened in Parkes, but I had a great time.

School? This week I've got some weaving, silkscreening and drawing done. We went out to the lake to draw where Chinese tourists were trying to take their picture with us. I found the experience disturbing and uncomfortable especially because they were trying to tell me what to do in Chinese.

No travelling this weekend though, I've got homework to do.
There are good, laidback people here I've been having laughs with. Most people, as the usual case, don't understand my cooky, odd, sometimes not funny humor like you guys do. There have been many awkward silences.
I can't walk anywhere at night here without starring at the southern cross. I'll probably keep looking for it when I come back.
Love you guys,
Sharon

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