I'm laughing at clouds...

Oy! The kids are driving me up the wall! They've been getting sick a lot lately and throwing tantrums left and right. It has not been good. I wish I could say I'll be sorry to leave, but right now I'm ready to say au revoir. But in just two more weeks I'll be done! I will actually miss them (maybe). I will definitely miss the comforts of home. I'm not looking forward to living out of a backpack for 2 months, but c'est la vie. Nathalie is already in New Zealand, living and working on a farm just outside Wellington. She says the country is magnificent, so I'm getting really excited! She found a car rental company that will let us rent for $20/day as well as ditch the car in Picton before getting on the ferry (since it will cost us $210 to cross from the South Island to the North with a car and just $60 a person without) and getting another car when we get off the ferry. Sweet! I think we might also try to do some skiing. The other night, I had a dream that we were in Sydney when it started to snow these crazy huge, fluffy flakes. I was with Nathalie and we decided we wanted to go skiing. So we went shopping for the equipment, but by the time we got everything and got to the mountain (miraculously we ended up in NZ that same day), the day was almost over and we decided it wasn't worth it to buy a lift ticket, so we scrapped the idea. Ever since then I've had a yen to go skiing. I'm not sure if the mountains will be open that early in the winter, but there might be something.

On Friday, I had dinner with Matt in the always cheap, but tasty, Newtown at a Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai restaurant. We hit the jackpot that night for bizarre street entertainment. On our way to dinner, we saw some Hare Krishnas doing a little dancing and singing. On our way back we saw a preview for a burlesque show that's going to be on Oxford Street next week. There were 3 girls in the window of an alternative clothing boutique, wearing satin, Chinese print dresses. They would be absolutely still one moment and then all move to a different position simultaneously. Very creepy. Then, further down the street was a blues guitarist and a didgeradoo player. Very cool. Who needs to pay for entertainment when all you have to do is walk down the street?

More free entertainment today at the Art Gallery of NSW, which showed "Singin' in the Rain." Matt joined me as we are both fans of the movie. It's just such a feel-good, uplifting film. Really funny and clever. Afterwards, we walked through the Domain (the park just outside the Gallery) and came across "Speaker's Corner." I guess it was just like the one in Hyde Park in London (although I'd never been there)...there were a couple of guys on soapboxes, shouting out absolute nonsense. One of them, naturally, was talking about terrorists. But instead of the usual targeting of the Muslims, he was saying it's the Jews who need to be wiped out! I was so taken aback and horrified (not to mention a little frightened) that I started to walk away so I didn't really hear the rest of his "sermon." I think Matt was even more horrified than me though. He asked if I was ok and I really was after the initial shock because who the hell cares what a ranting lunatic has to say anyway? But man, it was pretty scary to hear that shit from someone just a couple of feet in front of you.

Yesterday, Angie had a farewell party at her house because she's entering the Peace Corps in June! She's going to El Salvador. The girl's got cajones, that's for sure. She has no idea what kind of situation she'll be in, whether she'll be living with other volunteers or not, what town she'll be in. All she knows is that she'll be working with local authorities to make the community more "transparent," whatever that means. She's probably the most open-minded individual I've ever met. She has such a breezy, go-with-it attitude that is so refreshing and that I wish everyone could adopt. Anyway, the party was fun even though I didn't know anyone there. One of her friends was visiting from Brisbane and we were talking about the drought here in Australia. I was saying how strange it is for me to come to a country that is so concerned with water conservation, coming from America where we use everything to excess. He said that, yeah we do and then once we run out of something, we start taking it from other countries. As soon as he said it, though, he had this expression like, "Shit! What did I just say?!" and apologized for it. But I laughed at his comment and said yeah, he was right. How can you take offense to something so true?

Meanwhile, I hear gas prices in the States have risen. WTF?!