I dragged up early from bed today to call my family for Thanksgiving. My mom, who is easily impressed, couldn’t believe I was actually in Australia, because I “sound so clear!” God bless her. She was shocked to hear about my grocery shopping trip where I found a normal-sized turkey costing $90AU. She got one of the same size for $4.59.

I found out my furnace has apparently gone out, which sucks immensely. My dad began the conversation with a hearty, “G’day, mate!” to which I had to disappoint him by telling him that no one hear really says that. He wondered why I sounded so awful, and it was funny to hear his reaction when I told him I was still in bed. I think it was around 3p there.

Jen and I made the hour-long trek out to Healesville, where they keep an animal sanctuary. In the span of two hours I stood right next to kangaroos, learned that koala bears aren’t very cute in person, pet a wombat, and took pictures of echidnas. Although galahs are still my favorite Australian bird, kookaburras sound the coolest - they seriously sound like they’re laughing.

The excitement of the day was the Birds of Prey exhibition. Three huge and spectacular birds were flown about to show us how they catch their prey and eat it. They swooped in so incredibly close to our heads that I actually ducked. One of the birds was the largest raptor in Australia. Wow. They aren’t kidding about it being huge.

Following the trip to Healesville Sanctuary, we drove up the road a bit to DeBortoli Winery and had an incredible lunch overlooking the vineyards. The Yarra Valley is home to several massive wineries, and we chose a great one visit.

Once lunch was over, we went to the wine cellar and had a private wine tasting. It was most educational. We tried everything from Riesling to buttery Chardonnay to Cabernet Rose to Cab Sav. My personal favorite was the Port, and I snagged a bottle for myself. That’s the weirdest drink I’ve had, and I enjoyed just having the taste in my mouth and the smell in my nose for a while after I’d tasted it.

The weather was incredibly beautiful, and we were sunburned and tired after the trip to DeBortoli. Neither of us wanted to make the hour-plus drive to her parents’ house, but it was either that or stay in with the kangaroos! Ha. So off we went, one of us drunk and one of us sober.

One thing I’ve learned about Jen is that she follows the rules. This is pretty cool for someone who’s constantly bending them. With Jen, there’s no throwing cigarette butts out the car window, there’s no speeding on the roads, and we cross at crosswalks. Not that she’s some stick-in-the-mud goody-two-shoes, but she does what’s right, and I applaud that. What was funny, though, is that it was easy to tell when she became tired, bored, and frustrated with the drive. Suddenly we were taking hairpin turns on country roads at 110k/hr.

Luckily we arrived in one piece at her parents’, played with her dog Sebastian and her cat Ginger, and ate a lovely meal of curried sausage and salad. Then, bed!

Eyes crossed from the sun,

michelle