I really want to give a nice full update, but am going to have to give a brief one since there is very much I need to write about and not enough time.
The last week and a half has been very active for me; as far as the 101 goes though ive been relatively lax. Since my last update I have neglected to read a single book or do a single push up since I left Nomads; i bite my nails regularly; and while I have had a few sodas, i maintain that a 24 hour train ride should allow for minor allowances.

From Nomads in the Riverland, I packed up and bussed off to Adelaide where Anne was learning all about jet lag. We did a wine tour of McLaren Vale as Anne and I got rather plastered with Ryan as our driver. From there we flew off to Cairns and scuba dived or dove (anyone knowing the difference would be very helpful) at the great barrier reef. I lied and told them I wasnt a diabetic because i really wanted to do a dive and it was well worth it because I both got to eat fantastic Ice cream before i went down to make sure i wouldnt go low and I got to see some fantastic underwater creatures like a Sea turtle and a 'humphead wrasse' (napoleon fish) which is large and has a fantastic tattoo on its face. One minor underwater sting of some sort and i discovered that vinegar is the best thing for 'neutralizing the burn'.
It was probably 40(over 100) the entire time we were there including the night time, and a the 90% humidity ensured our clothes were constantly coated in sweat.
Anne bought a great didgiridoo with two platypi (though i prefer just saying platypuses) and we lugged it around cairns while taking pictures of the flying foxes which are essentially exactly what they sound like...foxes with wings, except they are actually massive bats that hang from trees and then fly exposing their terrifying wingspan.
From Cairns we went to Alice Springs which despite its moist name is in fact drier than a mormon bachelor party. that metaphor works on two levels because alice springs sits ona river that only flows once every few years due to the lack of water and the fact that it is illegal to sell alcohol outside of about 2 hours a day (though the dry river bed is littered with empty beer cans a broken beer bottles). less humid but slightly hotter, it was here i really discovered the real need for an ozone layer.
Anne and I stayed in a camper for the night at a hostel and woke up early to join 'the rock tours' where we were shoved into a van with 20 other people from ll over the world looking to see Uluru (ayers rock). we saw Kings Canyon which you can see in Priscilla Queen of the dessert where at the endHugo Weaving and Guy Pierce hike in full on 'drag'. It was a fantastic sght to see, luckily anne has an equally fantastic camera to document it since my camera was officially declared dead by the camera doctor with terrible bedside manner who told me 'your screwed, unless you have a bunch of money'.
Kata Tjuta (the olgas) were next and despite waking up at 4am was still an amazing sight. Within sight of Uluru, these 32 or so massive round rock mounds are told to be the result of a mud fight between two ancient aboriginal boys. the 40 degree weather was really a nice touch.
FINALLY i get to say i added to my 101. I got to see Uluru at sunrise. which also adds to my 10 sunrises. ill be honest though, the sunrise wasnt as great as the sunset. the amount of colors coming off of that rock over the period of one hour were absolutely amazing. when i get back home ill try and amend photos to this fandangled bloggeridoo.
This rock is incredible. and by rock i literally mean ROCK. one single rock pushed out of the ground 450 million years ago. it still hasnt set in exactly how awe inspiring that really was. it was a 6 mile walk around its base and the entire thing was one single rock. the large pieces that broke off were bigger than any rock i have ever seen.
What was most fascinating about Uluru was the aboriginal taboos about whats allowed and not allowed for tourists. Certain massive areas of the rock are forbidden for tourists to take photos of, and the reasons you are not allowed to do so are also kept secret. so you just know your not allowed to photograph it (although so many effin germans who clearly understood this still snappedphotos left and right) and you are not really told why you are not allowed to. As far as climbing the immense rock you are told basically that you are allowed to and no one will stop you, but to respect their culture andplease DONT climb the rock. they try and guilt trip you into no climbing the rock, thoguh about 8 people in our group decidd to do it anyway. this is similar to travelling to rome, seeing the popes chair and signs saying 'please do not sit' but pissing on it anyway and taking photos.
Hopefully a more thorough description of this trip can follow, but i dont have the energy or wit to type it all out now.
After a 24 hour train ride back to Adelaide and a week and ahalf of travel in which i had three emails and two voicemails from my mom concerning how she should arrange my funeral bc she was concerned i had been eaten by a spider or land jellyfish... I can say that I complted only one of my 101/1001 list. I did howver have a fan-effin-tastic time travellig around this massive country. And though i dont have much more time here, hopefully ill be able to finish the other tasks that i can only complete while here. For now though, im going to attempt to restart my push-ups and stop biting my nails.

Cristy, type it up and send it to me and ill post a link to it here. good to hear youve started one. get to it!

Fair dinkum.

Near the internet!

Finally getting the chance after a month to get to the damn internet. Friggin outback Australia and their lack of good technology that i have taken for granted for so long.

Let me try and detail what ive accomplished over the past month:

easily managing 100 push ups a day - two sets of 50 and i only sweat about 40 liters by the time im done instead of 100. although the temperature for today is supposed to reach 42 C which is something like 110...

Anne, who is currently in australia as well and will be travelling with me throughout the rest of the country for the next 3 or so weeks swears to me that she has a list all ready to go...so that would mean 2/5, if shes actually got one.

Hopefully this time next week i will have completed my trip to Uluru and seen the sunrise as well as made it to the northern coast of australia in Darwin...of course that relies on things going properly which as i am me, they rarely do.

The Eragon series, which i was lead to believe was a trilogy, turns out to be a quadrilogy. the fact that im still not sure thats even a word is irrelevant. I finished all three books in about a week, they were effin fantastic and i highly recommend them to everyone. Except the fourth and (final) book wont come out for a year or two probably and the wait is intense. no me gusta.

Koyoko has written down my name for me in Japanese, though i found out that apparently that means that there are three different ways to write something in Japanese:Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji...ill try and get more details on what the hell that means when i have alittle more time. long story short, Japanese looks pretty funny.
Also, i have two Korean roomates and i can see if they can help me out on that front.

I can now locate the southern cross rather easily, but that does me little good as you can only see it from the southern hemisphere where i rarely spend much time.

I have been doin a good job at not biting my nails, though when i am trying to test myself on all of the world capitals (im at a 95% rate right now) i find myself biting away. It has not however thrown me into a soda buying depression so im still doin pretty well onthat front.

I was doing pretty well at learning how to properly use my camera...until a few days ago when the lens stopped retracting and no matter what i do cannot fix it. I should have added 'and learn how to properly fix it too' to the list.

SHould have made it read 100 books, becuase since i started the list, ive already 14 books. a list will follow once i have more time on my hands.


Thats all ive gotten done as far as the list goes. I have however been learning to juggle for the simple fact that when picking apricots everyday for a month, i find myself bored and holding things that can be juggled.
This blog wont be a proper one until im back in the states and have stable (free) internet at my disposal. I really wish i could be more descriptive on all of the things i am doing but its tough when i have to get to the library during working hours to be able to type these out. sorry erik that i cant update it more properly as you have so wisely tutored me on the processes involved, but im stuck for a bit.

to fill everyone in on what ive been doing for the past month. everymorning at 5:30 i wake up, pick apricots or peaches, then cut them ( a very sticky ordeal), then drive back to the hostel on the other side of the road which is awesome, then read a book in a day, then sleep early and start again.
new years was awesome as i celebrated it 15 and ahalf hours earlier than everyone else. I also figured out the exact time difference finally. although dont remember much of new years eve besides droppiung myphone in the toilet.

Time to go since the nice tiny old librarian lady is telling me someone else has reserved this computer. I;ll do my best to update again soon since i hopefully will be able to knock off a few more off of my list within a month. sorry if i dont.

thanks to christie also for helping me with the Ukranian for my name.

keep it real, goodonya as it were.