Australia #2

Hi guys,

you may call yourself the elite clique who receives my very special australia-mail.

I've been in Australia for about 130 hours now, and snap has there been alot of stuff happening already. Let me summarize the weather for all of you in the cold: 35 degrees, sunshine and a mild breeze. But let me tell you about how my trip went so far:

I departed from Germany on wednesday last week, being a bit worried, whether China Airlines would be anywhere near the standard I was hoping to have on my 36 hour flight (okay okay, it had a break of around 17 hours). I was positively surprised when I got onto the plane, and sure, that I'd enjoy the flight. Flew to Taipeh, had a bit of sleep here and there, watched a few movies (Irongrid Gang is quite good (features XZibit) and The Departed is awesome) and generally rather enjoyed my flight. In Taipeh I had to, like I already mentioned, wait 17 hours, to depart to Brisbane. You wont believe how easy it is to sleep in the middle of a huge airport with only foreigners around and lots of them actually around, talking all sorts of weird gibberish. You get used to it, and have sweet dreams of Microsoft Office (Or atleast I did so). The flight to brisbane, though, was pretty bad. I had a blanket on me and I was freezing anyway, and I had basically no chance to get some sleep, as the plane was stuffed with people. No stretching out your legs on a second chair right next to you. Thing is, I was gonna arrive at 9 in the morning, which meant I HAD to stay up for another 12 hours atleast. Turns out it is rather easy to do, because there is no chance, that you sleep in such steamy hot weather. I was welcomed by my hostmum and hostsister and got my bags (30 minutes of wait because of some problem with the luggage) and left to my new home. The rest of the day was really nothing special. Just stay awake, and tell the story of your scar on your arm over and over.

The next day (Saturday) we had planned to have a BBQ in the afternoon, and then leave for the Valley, which apparently is the best place to party in Brisbane. But before all that, I had to clean up my drumming skills for a little jamming session with my hostbrother Jona and his best mate (see, I'm half Australian already, only by using the word mate :) ) Mikesh. Pretty fun.
So then was the BBQ, more people to get to know, more telling the story of my scar on my arm, and some fine ladies, woohoo :). After the BBQ, we started getting ready. 20 people, ready to party, and boy was I stunned, when I saw the Valley. I mean jesus, in Germany we'd call that place redlight district. Can you have any more girls with less clothes on? Not that I didn't like it, especially as most were quite drunk, but daaaaamn. I got back down to earth when we were standing at the entrance of the first nightclub, when the 'security guy' said that my shoes didn't fit the dresscode, and thus I'd not be allowed in. I mean what the hell, who the hell looks for shoes in a dark nightclub with drunk people. On to the next club with yucky techno music and overpriced drinks (whole valley had that, and apparently any australian partying place does). A jack Daniels and a vodka-red bull later we went on to the next club, where we faced a similar scenario as in the first club... being underdressed. We all decided to go to a bar sort-of-thing and hang out there, play pool, and enjoy their rather cheap (well compared to other bars in Brisbane) beer. And boy I tell you, one of the girls with us, Zoe, she's got a funky tongue, if you know what I mean *wink*.
Get home at 5 am, wake up at 9, because you cant stand the heat anymore - gawd that sucks bad.

Waking up, talking to my hostmum, hearing the story about how she passed out on the toilet during the night, hitting her head bad, and nearly biting a good piece of her tongue off when hitting the ground - scary. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were really nothign special, my hostmum left to Tasmania for some sort of excursion.

Then the night from Tuesday, I all of a sudden wake up, look at the clock and see that it's like 2 am. I lay there, and all of a sudden a car comes up, stops right near the house, and someone gets out and starts talking. And I'm like, what the hell is going on. So I get up on my arms to take a look out of my window, and see a car standing there, reading the letters 'AMBULANCE' and I'm like 'Right, the Ambulance, of course' and get back into bed, and then taking a thought, and going 'wait, what?!? what the hell does an ambulance do right next to the house!', until I remembered that my hostdad has had problems with his stomache in the evening, so I think I should probably not get up, to not stand in the way, and ask questions later. You gotta know, my hostdad was in hospital for liver cancer only have a year ago, so I was quite afraid, that it was something bad, especially as my hostmum was away for like another week. Turns out he had bad stomachache and kept throwing up.
We visited him today, and it's not really better yet, so I hope he'll improve over the next few days.

In about a week and a half I am ridin' in the north to start my job as lemonpicker, and I hope to raise some good money doing it.

I keep you all posted.
Love and kisses to all of you, cuddles go to all the girls ;)

So long,
Franz