Tasmania Day 1

Waiting at the terminal for me, which I've got to say is one of the greatest feelings when coming off of a plane, only potentially paralleled by the feeling of a new pair of socks, was Paul. I recognized him immediately from the picture on his couchsurfing profile page. He drove me back to his home where he lives with his 18 year old sister Bridget, cat Jet (or otherwise known as cat cat) and mum and dad, who were probably the sweetest most hospitable parents I've ever met. I was welcomed with tea (which sparked the first, 'are you actually American?') as well as homemade jam and toast. I was offered some vegemite but informed them that I've already been attacked with given a spoonful of it (again, 'you sure you're american?').

After using the internet to book buses for my week of travel, and being given an extra sim card to use my phone, we went to pick up Bridget from the friend's house she slept at post post-med exam party. Unlike the stupid different American system of premed undergrad, being essentialy the study of anything vaugely realted to med, followed by a hellish exam and then another fuckton of years of learning before even vaguely being a doctor, here they go straight to med school. It's the hardest section of uni to get into at UTas, but after 4 or 5 years, they're nearly ready (clinical work is a normal part of their courseload, and they go hands-on right awway). Although the parents made fun of Paul for not knowing how to read, while chatting about how many times Bridget had gotten through the Harry Potter books (though it wasn't an obsession since she didn't have dolls or costumes or anything [cough me neither... cough]) he's actually in the engineering school doing electrical engineering.

We went to eaglehawk neck to start, which they hadn't been to in a while. Pies from a local bakery were brought for lunch [I had a scallop pie. it was mean] It was absolutely stunning there, not only a result of the perfect weather. I was my usual far-too-cautious self when it came to balancing on kelpy, steep rocks, but we made quite a trek around looking at weird shells, fossils, and the tesselated pavement (the rocks were naturally split in quadrilateral forms, nearly regularly, which was beatiful and interesting to digest.) We went look-out to look-out, getting to a blowhole (rock set up where water would psurt up through when rushing towards it, due to the natural construction] and to the remarkable cave, which was, well, remarkable. En route we also chowed on some doughnuts taht their dad had picked up for us earlier. Dunno what the filling was, as it was quite different from any doughnut filling I was used to, but I liked it. We passed a town called Dootown which just ahd heaps of homes all named after doo... really just all funny plays on words, like 'what to doo' or 'dr. doolittle.' This fit in quite well with my surprised viewing of heaps of pony poo for sale at the sides of roads [fertilizer, duh].

On our way home we stopped in a coffee shop that they remembered as having a great view and weirdly doubling as an antique shop. Although antiques were no longer sold there (now swapped with a gallary of sorts), and initially mine and Bridget's drinks were confused, my tall black was exactly what I needed to maintain consciousness on the rest of the drive (I had passed out for quite a while on the way there). Rain pourded down as home was reached (quike perfect timing) and after the most refreshing of showers, dinner was served. I couldn't have been more pleased with the lamb roast and veggies. For dessert, we had pavlova which came up earlier in the day as a quintessential Aussie food that I had yet to trie. When prompted, I raised the fact that I had heard it was actually a New Zealand food. War brief duscussion broke out and they insisted it was theirs. I'll have to grant them that though since 1. I had my first one there, and 2. I'm not positive I even liked it. Dessert though was not a fail since I was graced with homemade kiwifruit icecream (from their excessively producing kiwifruit tree in the backyard) and homemade raspberry icecream. Bother were phenomonal (A+, would eat again).

After a brief period of digestion, I headed out with Paul to his mate's house for some Aussie rules footie and beer. This was a whole new sport for me, but the rules were quite simple and the game enjoyable. Everyone was friendly and the questions about New York were fun to field. After not terribly long (some time was wasted early on since we went to the wrong house (dude moved, and didn't say)), we went to another home filled with quite a bit more, and quite a bit more rowdy, company. I tried a fair selection of Tassie brew and the night was great. Twas an eclectic mix including a guy who was their age, worked at pizza hut, and I swear looked prepubescent, as well as a 34 year old gay guy that they had become close with by frequentint the Bubble Tea establishemnt he owned with his partner. Him and his Domo lanyard were my favorite. Between the goofy pink couch and wonderful fireplace, as well as the hilarious banter, the night went well and I passed out immediately on my first couch mattress.

My bus to Bichano (which I finally learned how to pronouch during my stay [bish - ah - no], as well as Launceston [lawn-cess-tun]) was leaving at 11 so I had enough time for a greek yoghurt/banana/muesli breakfast and quick tour of the town, pointing out the floating fish and chips shop where Paul and Bridget had worked at for period of time. I was sent off with a bag full of kiwifruit to snack on and bring to my next couch, and an invitation to return the following Friday for uni festivities (day before break and footie games) and hospitality.