Victoria Bush Fires

Hi Everyone!

Its been a long time since my last post and I thought I was well overdue to write another one. I feel very settled in Perth, which is one of the reasons I haven't written in so long. As I get used to a general routine, it seems funny to write about my everyday experiences. Yet with that said, each day I feel like I do something new and if nothing else, I'm in AUSTRALIA which is crazy and exciting in and of itself.

Anyway, one of the things I wanted to write about are the huge forest fires (called "Bush Fires here) going on in Australia right now. A lot of you have written to make sure I'm ok, but no worries, I'm nowhere near them. Nonetheless, it is incredible to be here during this time and I thought I'd share some of the unique experiences I've seen as the country has been going through such a tragedy.

The fires themselves have been going on in the state called Victoria- which is on the other side of the country as I am in the state called West Australia (original I know). From what I've heard, police think the fires were set by arsonists. To me, it is just so unbelievable that lighting a small fire can have such a damaging effect- and to do so purposefully makes me speechless with anger.

Just to go on a related tangent, about two or three weeks ago an arsonist set fire to King's park in Perth. This is a beautiful national park located just outside the city and hundreds of acres of land were destroyed. I remember that all day you could smell the smoke in the city and you could even see the smoke billowing up all the way at my house, which is a ten minute drive from the city. 

In relation to the fires in Victoria, this fire was relatively nothing and extremely small, but it helped give me the tiniest perspective of what is going on. It's funny how in the U.S.  we worry about hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. But at least in the midwest, fires aren't as large of a concern. In Australia, the weather is so hot and the ground is so dry in the summer that fire is a huge concern. Victoria was going through a huge heat wave and everyone was particularly nervous about fires, but I don't think anyone could have imagined the effects would be come so severe and uncontrollable. 

With all this said, something I found so powerful was how the entire country really got together to provide help for everyone in Victoria. Whenever I turned on TV, every channel was devoted to the bush fire coverage.  When I walked down the street there were people with collection boxes on every corner. One of the major grocery stores even took an entire day's profits and donated them to the "Victoria Bush Fire Appeal". I of course made sure to shop that day :)

I remember during 911, Katrina and other American tragedies how the entire country seemed to come together. In some ways it's sad that it takes something so horrible for this to occur, but on the other hand, it's always so memorable. In this case, it was and still is just  incredible to feel the unity of a country of which I am still so new to.

On a happier note, I am still loving everything about Australia and sometimes I think about how crazy it is that I'm actually here! I've met so many people and made so many friends that I'm starting to realize just how hard it will be for me to leave in just five weeks. I actually just went grape picking with some people in the community today. They pick the grapes and then crush them into wine just in time to let them sit and then be ready for passover! I helped the Millners pick grapes and then we went pack to the house and " destemmed" them which was a tedious but fun process. The kids were so into it which made it all the more enjoyable. But the best part.... was CRUSHING the grapes. We decided to forego the press idea and instead chose to crush all the grapes by hand! Granted it probably took 5 times as long, but it was so satisfying to put your fingers into the all the grapes and squish them into juice! (ha- its the little things in life) After that, we put the juice into a big container, added sugar and now... we wait. While the wine wont be ready for another 6 weeks, the Millners gave me a bottle to take back with me so ill be excited to taste it in april and see how it turned out :)

Anyway, I have a million other stories and adventures to tell, but those will have to wait until my next post- which I promise will be soon.

Until then, I hope everyone is doing well and will talk to you all soon. I miss you and send my love!

Tamar

Albany, Australia

Well...all I can say is I've been keeping myself VERY busy over the past few weeks and my time here is going by faster than I could have imagined. I've been meeting so many people and my days fly by so that before I know it, it's already the weekend! Work is still going well, the weather is still incredible and the community is as great as ever. But what made this past week stand out so much was a trip I took down south to Albany, Australia this past weekend.

The Millner family- who I've written about before, were planning a trip to Albany and the cabin they rented had an extra bed so they invited me to come along. I was so excited about the invitation because it's hard traveling alone- especially without a car and it was so great to join them. The timing worked out perfectly because this past Monday was "Australia Day" so I had the day off work. I'm not sure what the purpose of the holiday is or why it was established, but basically it's a time for everyone to enjoy the day and there are fantastic fireworks around the country. I took off work on Friday and Tuesday as well so I was able to take a 5 day vacation, which was a lot of time to see some of the amazing sights. 

We drove down to Albany on Friday- it took about 6 hours and then settled into the cabin and had a really nice Shabbat dinner. The funny part was that the place we were staying at was a Baptist youth camp that the camping group was renting for the week. (The Millners are part of an organization called The Australian Bush Walkers Society that meets annually with a group of families to do hikes etc in the area.) Saturday was very relaxed and we spent a lot of time on the beach. Since I couldn't take pictures, you'll have to trust me that it was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! There were grassy cliffs surrounding the beach and the water was so blue! There were islands spotting the whole coast and some really unique rock formations along the coastline. It was such a relaxing day and was the perfect way to start the vacation. On Sunday, we took a day trip to the "Valley of the Giants" to see the HUGE tingle trees. This was one of the main reasons I had wanted to go to Albany so I was excited that we made it there. After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at the trees and I couldn't believe how big they were! Apparently they are about 20 meters around and a couple hundred meters tall. To put that into perspective, a few of the bases of the trunks and been burned in fires and were hollowed out and the inside was easily big enough to be a large bedroom! There were hundreds of these trees and we were able to go on the "Treetop walk" which is set up on these metal ramps that go up to the canopy of the trees. It is actually kind of  scary going up as the wind is blowing and shaking the whole structure, but it was such an incredible experience to look down at the ground below at such a height and get a perspective of just how tall the trees really are. The Millners' kids were a little nervous on the walk, but I was so impressed with them when they made it to the top and we all realized just how high up we were. 

The next day was probably the most full of the entire trip and everything was so worthwhile and memorable. We woke up early and Judd and Yona (who is 5) and I all got into the Millner's 4-wheel drive car to do some "4 wheel driving". I'd never done anything like this and had no idea what to expect. We ended up going to a place called Cape Howe National Park and it is completely inaccessible to almost anyone unless you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. And even then, it's SUCH a bumpy and curvy drive it was hard to manage. By the time we made it to the beach, I couldn't believe what was in front of me. I've never seen waves so big in my entire life and the sheer power of the water crashing against the sand was absolutely amazing! We stayed on the beach for a short while, but we were slightly concerned about making it back to the camp since the entire drive back was uphill and the first part was on really soft sand. It turned out to be a good thing we left when we did because we had no idea just how hard it would be to get back up that first hill. My adrenaline was racing as we tried to make it up the sand, but even when we released some of the air in our tires and had a huge amount of momentum, we found ourselves reaching about halfway up the hill before the car lost momentum and fell back down. This must have happened at least 5 times and we were nervous about making it back home, but luckily there were some locals who had just come to the beach and they helped us out. There were some other cars ahead of us and it was crazy that they were also getting stuck just like us and we were all struggling to make it up to the top. By the time we finally made it, our adrenaline was going pumping and we still couldn't believe we did it. We were feeling really daring by then and we passed a big mud "puddle" that we somehow thought we could drive through. Instead of the alternate road right next to it, we drove straight through the mud and of course got bogged in. We were completely stuck, but at that point it was just so ridiculous that we couldn't help but laugh. A car behind us came and pulled us out with a snatch strap, but not before Yona decided to jump in the mud and get completely covered. We were all cracking up and joked that he looked like an aboriginal since he was so completely covered. 

After all that, by the time we got back to the cabin, it was only 1:30 and we still had the whole day ahead of us. We drove to a place called Torndirrup National Park which is famous for the "blow holes" on the cliffs edge. When we pulled up to the parking lot, already there was a spectacular view. The ocean was again amazing and the waves were even bigger than the last time. The blow holes are at the southern most tip of Western Australia which is why the waves were so powerful. Over time, the water formed these tunnels through the cliff edge so that when really powerful waves hit the cliff, huge rushes of water are pushed through the holes so that ocean spray bursts up into the air. It's so cool to wait for a big wave to come and then hear the crashing sound as it hits the cliff and a few seconds later water comes shooting out in front of you. In the same area, just further along the coastline was a space called "The Gap" where again, the water had carved these huge features out of the rock. There was this inlet created by the water and we stood at the top looking hundreds of meters down at the water. There was a natural made bridge of rocks in the inlet which had also been carved from the water. Each of these features were so individually unique, but because they were both together in the condensed space, they were all the more impressive!

Anyway, by the time we got home that evening I was absolutely exhausted. I had to fight to keep my eyes open and before long, I was sound asleep. The next morning I woke up early to catch the bus back to Perth. The Millner's were staying on until the end of the week, but I had to get back to work. After all the adventures, the bus ride was pretty uneventful, but was a great opportunity to catch up on my sleep and take a "vacation from my vacation." I had such an amazing time and I'm so glad I was able to go with the Millner's on the trip. I feel like one of the main reason I wanted to come to Australia was to explore and the sights that are so different from the U.S. While the touring with Joel was spectacular, I'm glad I was also able to see some of Western Australia as well and I really feel that I am making the most of my trip here. 

I still can't believe I'm almost halfway done with my stay in Australia and time just flies by everyday. I've been looking at some other exciting places in Western Australia and I hope to visit them before I go. I'll keep you updated on my adventures!! 

Even after all this is written, there's so much more to say, but I will keep it short. Today was my birthday and even though I am far away from my friends at home, it's been such a nice day and I'm just so happy to be here. 

Anyway, that's all for now, but I plan on going sandboarding (like snowboarding, but in the sand) next Sunday so I'm sure I'll have much more to tell you about in the coming weeks. Hope you are all doing well and as always, I miss you so much!

Can't wait to hear how you're doing!

Tamar

My first week in Perth

After being in Perth for about a week and a half now, I have finally gotten a feel for the city and thought it was about time I wrote about the community, my apartment and of course, my job. While it has only been 10 days, I feel like so much has happened while I've been here that it's hard to decide where to begin.

Joel and I said goodbye and while he headed back to the states, I flew on to Perth where I was picked up from the airport from the Millner family. I got in touch with the family through a connection from one of Joel's friends and even though It's only been a week, I feel like they're my new family here and they've done so much to make me feel welcome and comfortable in the community. They have three kids and I love love to play with them. In any case, they picked me up from the airport and took me to their home for dinner because I didn't have any food in my new apartment yet. After a really nice meal, they took me to my new apartment. I was kind of nervous about what the place would be like because I had never seen it, but it's absolutely perfect. I have a huge amount of space and the house is only a few years old so it has all new amenities and is fully furnished with a kosher kitchen so it has everything I need. The apartment is on the property of another Jewish family. (They call it a "granny flat" here) and they too have been so welcoming and inviting. They even have a poll which they let me use and the view from my "flat" is beautiful with bright flowers and palm trees.

Since I arrived on a Thursday night, Carol Millner offered to take me grocery shopping the next day, which turned out to be one of the biggest helps because buying kosher food here is extremely difficult. There are hardly any hechsers and the only way to know if something is kosher is by looking each product up in a little book. It would have taken me hours to figure it all out by myself, but she showed me a lot of the brands I could buy and gave me a basis so I could shop in the future.

For Friday night dinner I went to one of the synagogues in the area, which turned out to be so nice. It's relatively small and the people are so warm. I had dinner with the Silberstein family (The people I am renting the apartment from) and it was a nice opportunity to meet them them better. I had Saturday lunch with the Millners and then they took me to someone's house where a lot of the young community were were having lunch so I was able to meet more people in the area around my age. I continually think about how lucky I was to get in touch with these families who have really helped define my overall experience and have immediately made me feel so comfortable in not just a new city, but in a new continent, hemisphere and culture! It makes me realize just how incredible it is to have a community that will welcome you wherever you go.

Since the first week, I have met with the Millner's quite often- they even took me to a place called Lake Lischenaultia which was absolutely beautiful and I had such a fun time with the kids playing in the water and kayaking around the lake. I have yet to see the famous beaches of Perth, but it's only the first week and I'm hoping to try to make it over there next Sunday.

But of course it's not just the community that I want to write about (although they are clearly a huge part of my experience). I started work last Monday and things are going really well. I was nervous about having to learn an entirely new computer program from the one I'm familiar with, but even after the first two days I felt I had a pretty good handle on it and everyone in the office is so helpful so there's always someone around if I have any questions. The thing that really got me confused was the fact that they use metric units instead of the imperial scale. I had completely overlooked this fact and my sense of scale was so completely confused when I first got there and I had no idea how big or small things were in millimeters in relation to feet and inches. I've since taken to keeping a conversion calculator open on my computer screen, but in general I'm starting to adjust. I have to say, I'm even happy sometimes when I encounter these "unique" dificulties because I can't help but to think how much it is really helping and broadening my general skills for when I graduate. My boss is really great and tries to give me different projects that cover a variety of experience. Right now I'm working on an office redesign they are doing for their firm. It's nothing big, but I'm the only person working on the project which is slightly daunting to say the least. Some of the pieces for the design are coming on Friday and my boss suggested I come in on Sunday and work with him and one of the other interns to physically build some of the pieces. While on the one hand it uses some of my Sunday, I really appreciate the emphasis he puts on not just sitting in front of a computer all day and designing on a screen. By physically working with the material you can get such a better understanding of the design and I'm actually pretty excited to work on it on Sunday for more experience.

As I mentioned before, people in Australia are really friendly. They are also really big talkers and definitely give me a run for my money. The other day, my coworker wanted to show me something for "15 minutes". An hour and a half later I finally made it back to my desk to continue my work. This happens maybe 3 or 4 times a week with one person or another and while it may not be the most productive of situations, it's nice to get to know the people in my office. Tomorrow evening one of my coworkers even offered to pick me up and go with him and his family to the only set of "hills" in Perth (it being a VERY flat city) so that I can take a look at the whole city and night and enjoy the view. He is also hosting an international exchange student at his home, so he was planning on taking her anyway and offered to take me along which I'm really happy about.

Anyway, I just got back from a barbeque where I met a lot of people who live in my area so I'm really hoping to get to know them better and hang out again. Everything is going so well for me right now (if you couldn't tell), but the only issue I'm having is that there is a very slow internet connection in my apartment so I can't use Skype to call people and keep in touch. These blog entries are the best way for me to keep in touch with everyone at the moment so don't be offended if I can't get a hold of you directly since it's so hard for me to get online at the moment. I'm hoping to get it figured out in the next couple of days, but as it always seems to be with computers, it's taking a lot longer than expected. I can't wait to call everyone or even just send individual emails, but until then, I really love reading your comments and hope the blog is a good way to let you know what I'm up to.

Hopefully I will talk to you all soon and hope everyone is staying warm ( I know I am!) Miss you all so much!!

Tamar

Travelling in Australia

As many of you many know, before starting my job in Perth, I decided to spend some time touring in Australia with Joel so that I could see more of the country than just one city. Geographically, Perth is on the west coast of Australia whereas almost all of the other major cities are located on the east coast. Because the distance between the two about the distance from New York to A, I figured this would be one of my only chances to see the east coast during my time here. Spending the time with Joel and seeing all the fantastic sights in Australia was absolutely amazing so I figured I'd give you a recap of some of the places we went to and some of the experiences we had.

Joel and I were both a little nervous about arriving in Brisbane without a cell phone, food, place to stay and not to mention the fact that we would need to drive the rental car on the other side of the road. But immediately after we landed we were able to find all of the above within about half an hour and survived our first adventure in the car. We took all of this as a good omen and it gave us some assurance that we wouldn't be totally over our heads during the coming weeks.

The next couple of days were absolutely perfect. While the temperature was a sweltering 95 degrees most of the time, we hiked and walked through a huge variety of national parks. We started at a place called Carnarvon Gorge where we were welcome by about 3 kangaroos and at least 10 wallabies (little kangaroos). This was to be the beginning of some of the most beautiful forests, rivers, mountains and oceans I'd ever seen. We ended up spending Shabbat on a small island off the coast called Great Keppel Island. We kind of stumbled upon it in our ever-handy guidebook and made reservations not realizing just how cool of a place we were going to. It turns out, the entire island is run on generators and only 70 people at a time can be on the island. We saw some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen and even better, there was hardly anyone there so we got one of the most unique island experiences without the major tourism. The only downside were the mosquitos and the crazy hot sun. After getting burnt, I realized just how strong the sun is in Australia. It's crazy that I get burnt even when I'm outside for half an hour and now I end up putting sunscreen on every day.

We continued on our trip and saw some more amazing sights at Fitch Hatton Gorge and then Eungulla National Park. Eungulla is known to be a great spot for seeing platypus and even though we didn't come at "prime platypus hours" Joel and I were stubborn and waited and waited until we FINALLY saw one.

The next day turned out to be one o our favorites. Cape Hillsboro National Park had some of the most amazing views that we would see over the entire trip. Joel and I later agreed it was one of the best places we'd visited. The bright blue ocean views with the beach and rocks were absolutely gorgeous. After stopping for ice cream (one of my other favorite parts of the day) we continued on to Conway National Park. Although Joel will tell you I was very grumpy because of the heat and the steep uphill climbing, it turned out to be a nice hike and the view at the top was pretty spectacular.

After again referring to our guidebook- which over the course of the trip became our bible, we stopped at Paluma Range National Park and then onto a completely remote area called Undarra. We ended up staying in a converted railways car and it was definitely a cool and unique experience. But what made Undarra so cool, and why we travelled 2 hours out of our way, were the lava tubes created millions of years ago by volcanic lava flow through the area. We signed up for the tour on Christmas day which turned out to be such good luck as no one else was at the park and we ended up getting an almost entirely private tour with just 6 other people on the tour and at the resort overall!

We finally made our way to Cairns, which was our ultimate destination point before turning the car around and doing the long treck back to Brisbane. Cairns is known to be one of the hotspots for snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and we definitely wanted to make sure we were able to do that before leaving Australia. The biggest shocker for us was to suddenly find ourselves in a huge touristy city surrounded by so many people. After spending the last week and a half almost entirely by ourselves in remote areas of Australia, being in civilization again felt pretty weird. It was all worth it by the time we went snorkeling and saw some of the most beautiful and biggest fish I've ever seen. We even saw a shark swimming around which was really exciting for us.

Everyone in Australia has been so nice. A perfect example of this was a couple we met on the boat while we were snorkeling. They ended up having a waterproof camera and took pictures of us snorkeling and of some of the really cool fish. They emailed the pictures to us and even gave me their information because they sometimes come to Perth and invited me to go snorkeling with them on their boat if ever I want.

While there were so many other exciting things in Cairns, we eventually had to leave and Sunday morning we got back in the car and headed for a place called Barron Falls. The falls are some of the biggest in Australia with water coming over the cliffs in torrents. I can only attest to this from pictures however, because we ended up going during the dry season in Australia and while they were still pretty incredible, there was only a trickle compared to what the falls can sometimes look like in July and August. We continued driving that day to a place called Wallaman falls. I was pretty excited for this sight because it is the largest drop of any waterfall in Australia. It was absolutely incredible! Joel and I took so many pictures, but even then it was hard to get the entire waterfall to fit in the camera view because it was so big.

After everything we saw on our vacation, it was hard to believe we only had two days left of our trip and we needed those days to make the drive back to Brisbane to catch our flights. Nonetheless, we made a few stops along the way at the Capricorn caves, Caloundra, a few incredible lookouts, and finally, the Glasshouse mountains. There are around 12 or 13 mountains in the area and they are incredible to look at. They are actually considered very holy to the aboriginal people, which is why there were only 3 select mountains we were allowed to climb. We ended up hiking on of the mountains called Mt. Tiburgargan (or something like that) and it turned out to be such a perfect final hike. The views at the top were spectacular and even the heat was almost bearable compared to some of the others we'd had.

When we finally made it back into the car and made the final treck back to Brisbane, we had part of the afternoon and the rest of the evening to repack, relax and get ready for our separate trips to the airport the next morning. And of course we couldn't forget it being New Year's Eve on top of everything. There ended up being a fireworks show on the riverfront and there were a ton of people out which made for a really nice last evening.

Anyway, our trip had to end finally and Joel flew back to the States while I made my way on to Perth. I know this first blog post was exceptionally long and I congratulate you if you made it all the way through. There were just so many incredible sights and I feel like I only touched on some of the amazing things we saw and did. Either way, hopefully the next posts won't be as long as I settle myself into Perth and get into an everyday schedule. While it is slightly nerve racking to be here on my own, I'm already meeting some great people and really hope to make myself part of the community in Perth.

Well, that's all for now, I miss you all and will keep you updated on my adventures.

Talk to you all soon!