Busted foot/War Museum

Here's an update on the busted foot drama: So... the first time I went to the doctor I was told that they could not find a fracture and they sent me home with crutches and told me to come back in a week if I still had pain. Then, two days later I received a call from the hospital telling me that they may have found a fracture and that I should go back in a few days if I was still having pain to get more x-rays. So, I went back to the hospital on Monday, they did not take more x-rays but immediately put me in a temporary cast and referred me to a specialist. I saw the specialist on Tuesday and as soon as he looked at my x-rays he said "Wow... that's weird!" Those words were not exactly what I was hoping to hear. Apparently, I fractured the head of my first metatarsal which is basically the joint between my foot and big toe. There is a muscle and a tendon that attach at that point and I guess when I fell I landed on the top part of my foot first and then the bottom. This action caused the muscle and tendon to pull my bone apart. Yeah... I thought it was pretty cool. Anyway, the specialist determined that I needed a cast for the next three weeks. (I apologize for the offensive language on my cast in the pic... there was nothing I could do). I am super bummed out now because this means that I have to miss this weekend's International Office Surf Camp and I will be in a cast for almost all of midterm break. But, on the plus side, I no longer need crutches! Yay!

But anyway, on Sunday before I got my first cast, Joe, Jaret and I went to the Australian War Memorial Museum. It was a pretty cool place. However, I must say that if you need to choose between the British War Memorial Museum in London and the Aussie Museum, don't bother with the Aussie Museum. The British one is way better. That being said, this museum had its high points. For example, it was free! Also there was one super cool display/show thingy. I dunno what one should call it. Anyway, you walk into this mock cockpit of a WWII bomber and there is a screen in front of you that shows you a bunch of pilots getting instructions to bomb the crap out of the Japs. (It was actual footage from the war so it wasn't exactly very politically correct). So the pilots hop into their planes and start them up. The floor starts shaking as your "plane" "takes off". Then there is a screen in the floor that opens up and shows bombs dropping and exploding and you hear your "crew" getting ready and dropping your bomb. Then they go land and the floor stops shaking and the show is over. It was really cool.
Also there were tonnes of these really artistic dioramas of battles, a huge Lancaster, and the hall of Memorial where their Unknown Soldier is buried was amazingly beautiful.

But other than that it was very "look, don't touch" and kinda boring. And my arms were killing me from dragging myself around on crutches all day. I fell asleep at 9pm that night.

Adventures in Bungonia Gorge

Where do I even start about this weekend? Well, I guess I should say I went canyoning at Bungonia Gorge about 2 hours from Canberra with the UC Outdoors Club. We left Friday night so we could head out early Saturday morning because we had 10 hours of canyoning ahead of us. For those of you who don’t know what canyoning is, it is a crazy activity where you hike down into a canyon and then walk/climb along the bottom on the giant rocks along a creek. At several points along the way you will come across waterfalls where you will have to abseil (aka rappel) down to the bottom. It really is an incredible activity unless of course you encounter problems because once you go down the first waterfall you have to go all the way to the other end of the canyon before you can get out. Let me explain to you some of the problems you can encounter. First of all, rain. Rain is bad because it makes all the rocks slippery. Next, there is a high risk of falling; not when abseiling but when climbing over slippery rocks. Finally, there it the risk of rock slides. I encountered all of these problems this weekend.

First abseil

As soon as we got into the canyon it began to pour rain on us, which slowed our progress considerably. Then, immediately after the first abseil we were trying to find a safe way to get around some huge rocks and I slipped and slid down the side of a rock then fell a couple metres onto some more rocks. I landed pretty hard on my right foot and banged up my knee pretty good but I survived with no broken bones (I went to the hospital today and they told me so). My foot is seriously sprained though and I’ll be on crutches for the next few days.

After falling

So, after I fell I didn’t really feel too much pain but after about half an hour more climbing I didn’t think I could go on my foot hurt so bad. Once we got to the next abseil they put a tensor on my foot, gave me some drugs and we ate some lunch and I was feeling considerably better. But then, we heard the sound of a small rock slide. We looked up and saw the rocks falling quite a ways away and didn’t think too much of it because we had seen a couple mini rock slides earlier. But this one didn’t stop like we anticipated. All of a sudden some rocks hit right next to where we were sitting and as everyone else scrambled to get out of the way I got hit in the shoulder with a cantaloupe sized rock. I think it was more shocking than actually painful. I was pretty angry with my luck and was ready to pack it in for the day but as I said earlier, once you go down the first waterfall you’re in it for the long haul. So now I have a small cut and a big bruise on my shoulder to add to my injury inventory. So we kept going and went down the second abseil which was 50m down a beautiful waterfall into the water below. It was breathtakingly beautiful. My spirits were considerably improved after surviving the abseil (at the top I was sure I was going to die) and my foot and shoulder were feeling good. I’m still not sure if I stopped hurting because of the first aid or if mentally I didn’t allow myself to hurt because I knew I had no choice but to keep going until the bitter end.


Second abseil; Third abseil (I'm the one about halfway down)

Anyway, after the third and final abseil it began to get dark. The rain had slowed us down so much that we still had at least 3 hours before we would be out of the canyon and it was already nearly 7pm. By 8:30 it was totally black. So now not only was it wet and slippery but it was dark too. At 12:09 am, 15 hours of canyoning and several miracles later, we finally arrived at the car. I have never been in so much pain and so incredibly proud of myself as I was at that moment. On Sunday, instead of more canyoning, we decided to go to the pub to reflect on our ordeal over a good brew. I think in about a week this will all be very funny.

Racecourse Beach Weekend

This weekend was the most fun I've had here in a while. 14 of my friends (5 Americans, 8 Canadians, and 1 Aussie) took a road trip down past Bateman's Bay to a place called Bawley Point and stayed at Racecourse Beach campground. It was amazing! We got there pretty late after getting lost a few times so no one was around to check in. There were no other campers to be seen so we just pitched our tents on a grassy patch near the pool and beach and away from the cabins so we wouldn't disturb anyone, and figured they would just make us move in the morning if we weren't allowed to camp there. After setting up camp, we went down to the beach to test the water and have a look at the surf. I had to keep telling myself that it was real; that I was actually on the beach in Australia, feeling the waves wash over my feet under the moonlight. When we went back to the campsite we noticed we weren't alone. Several possums had discovered us and Jaret had a jolly-good time chasing them around for probably half an hour. The next morning we got a late start and a lady from the campground informed us that we were not on a campsite but let us stay there anyway. I think she just didn't want us to be near the other campers being loud and obnoxious all through the night.

We went to get brunch at a little strip mall sort of thing down the road and came across a little surf shop. Some people went in to see about renting a surfboard. The guy there usually only rents his boards out to people to test them before buying them so he didn't really know what to charge us. He asked what we thought and Lindsay said free would be nice. About 5 mins later they came out of the shop, surfboard in hand and didn't pay a dime! I couldn't believe it. This is the kind of kick-ass people you meet when you get away from touristy places where all they want to do is rip off stupid foreigners. We then headed back to the beach to catch some waves and some sun. I think everyone got a bit of a sunburn that day. But wow was it ever fun. Before supper Jaret and I decided we needed more food so Joe let me drive his car to the store. It was the craziest thing I've ever done. It was like learning to drive all over again but boy was it fun. We had a big BBQ for supper where a kookaburra came to visit and then went back to the beach and made a very illegal campfire in the sand. Don't worry, we were very careful to not set the place on fire and we never found very much wood so the fire never got very big. On the way to the beach we happened to look up into the sky and saw the most amazing blanket of stars I have ever seen in my whole life!!! I felt like I was inside the Milky Way, I even saw the Southern Cross. We had to stop to lie down in the sand for a while and just stare in awe at the beauty. It was an amazing night.

The next morning we got in a little more fun in the sun before we had to head back to boring old Canberra. I seriously considered staying behind.

Go Brumbies!

Yesterday 5 of us Canucks and one honourary Canadian Jake from New York went to check out some real Aussie culture at a pro rugby match. It was great fun. We got seats in the front row right on the try line (like the goal line for those unfamiliar with rugby). I was so excited to be so close to the action but it really made me miss playing. It was a Super 14 match (teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) The Canberra Brumbies were playing against the Bulls from South Africa. The Brumbies got their butts kicked 19-7 in front of 15 000 fans but we still had a super good time. I hope I'll get the chance to go to a couple more games.

Today was national Clean Up Australia Day so Cindy and I went out with 24 other people from ressies (a pretty piss poor turnout) and cleaned up all the crap people have been throwing off balconies, out of cars,or just dropping on the ground. My rez, Arscott House was definitely the worst. We've now had our balconies locked because of all the beer bottles and other junk drunken jerks have been throwing off of them. It makes me so angry. But anyway, it felt good to give a little back to the land I'm visiting.

Tut Tut It Looks Like Rain

Yesterday we had a crazy thunderstorm. Often in the evenings here it will be cloudy and thundering with a bit of lightning but it never amounts to much. However, yesterday was crazy. A bunch of us were sitting in the green room watching a movie minding our own business not paying any attention to the rumbles of thunder and the flashes of lightning outside. It then started to rain a little and then we got one of those freak lightning bolts accompanied simultaneously by a deafening crash of thunder. The fire alarm went off immediately and everyone had to evacuate. Almost as soon as everyone was outside it began to pour. It rained so hard you would be completely soaked to the bone in about 5 seconds. Of course everyone had left their windows open and one side of the building got pummelled with rain and many poor souls had to sleep in wet beds or had wet computers. Thankfully, my room was on the opposite side of the building. After checking the water damage in my room, I went back to the green room to see if anyone was still there. When I walked in I saw that the ceiling had collapsed right over where we had been sitting and the room was half flooded. 10 minutes later the rain had stopped and you could see the stars. Crazy! So much for that drought I keep hearing about.

Pics

I've now finally had some spare time and added pics to all my posts so check 'em out!

Time to hit the books

Jake, Jaret, Joe and Adam in rez; Joe, Jaret, Cindy and Jay on the beach; our humble lodging; Joe and Cindy at BBQ; cool barn in country

So I’ve now begun my second week of classes here. It seems that they will be pretty cool. Only two of my classes have final exams so that is a bonus. It was a big mess last tuesday cuz I found out that I couldn’t get senior credit for my two Indigenous Studies classes because, even though they are 2nd year classes, they don’t have prerequisites. I was told that only classes with prerequisites could transfer back as senior credits. I was really disappointed because I was really looking forward to learning about Indigenous Australians. So Wednesday morning Jaret and I went down to the international studies office and changed a bunch of our classes. I am now taking Literary Studies 5 (Shakespeare), Discourse and Culture, Language, Cultures and Communication, and Culture, Identity and Postcoloniality. I’m actually really excited about my new classes, they sound very interesting. And the best part is I don’t have classes on Friday. Hooray for long weekends!

I have a post office box here now if anyone wants to send me anything (*wink wink nudge nudge*). The address is:
Dionne Wilkinson
LPO Box 5379
University of Canberra
Bruce, ACT 2617
Australia

This weekend a bunch of us piled into Joe’s car and went to Bateman’s Bay (thanks for pointing out the typo, Sue) to hit the beach. It was super fun. We left Friday about 11 and got there around 2. The beaches weren’t great as far as waves go but they were incredibly beautiful. In the early evening we found the local YHA (youth hostel) and got an 8-share caravan/room for the 5 of us. It was a little dodgy but they had a BBQ area out front and a little pool. So we cooked up some supper, had some beer and went for a swim. It was a great evening. Jaret taught Joe how to shotgun a beer and Joe taught Jaret how to drive on the left side of the road… not in that order of course but just as scary. On Saturday we went to South Durras where the waves were huge (but not too huge) and the water was freezing and it rained for a bit. We played in the waves, saw some dolphins and then reluctantly headed back to Canberra in the afternoon. Overall it was a fantastic weekend.

On Saturday night we celebrated Cindy’s birthday at an Irish pub downtown. We had tonnes of fun; I think it’s one of the only places in town where you can buy an actual pint. So after a weekend of fun it’s time to finally hit the books.