Tasmania Day 4

So, my bus to Burnie was as exciting as any other nonexciting bus ride, though I did notice that Launceston is absolutely riddled with crazy hair colors and piercings.. the mullet manor wasn't just a weird exception. I spent an hour in the library (free) and another in an internet cafe (not free) before taking off to inform you muggles of my travels though first.

At 4pm I rolled in, and waited 20 minutes before the expected white, 12 person creeper van pulled up. Lizzy, the blond 40-something year old lady met me with  smile and wave, and her oldest daughter Annalise sat in the back. I got the low down on the family there, but only put face to name at dinner. 7 year old Joseph, 8 yo Caden, 11 yo Jabus, 11 yo Pearl, 12 yo Tristan, 12 yo Sebastian, and the aforementioned 13 yo Annalise made up the kiddies with Caden, Jabus, and Annalise being Lizzy's actual kids, and the rest foster kids (Pearl, Joseph and Sebastian are siblings). The foster-sibling-triad had been there for 2.5 years, and Tristan for just under a year. They are all adorable.

After stopping for a while so Lizzy could look at a couch (and by a while, I mean long enough for me to develop enough loneliness to break into beauty and the beast songs in a Russian accent) that was being given away, we went home and I was shown to the caravan (what the fuck is a caravan) that I'd be sleeping in. It was next to the cabin where the WWOOFers (Willing workers on organic farms) slept. Though they've had heaps throughout the years, the current three WWOOFers are Peter, a 54 year old from Amsterdam who used to work in night clubs and as a producer, but wanted to get out of the city life, and two Japanese guys who have been there for a month (Kohei and Shota, who are 20 and 25 respectively). Peter's been there since February. Everyone's really cool and funny.

After making my bed, which I must reiterate, electric blankets are the greatest things ever, I went to meet them and hung around the WWOOFer cabin learning about everyone until dinner. Dinner was really bizarre. The seven kids, 3 WWOOFers and I sat around this square table in a little room, food already plated,w file Lizzy and her partner (also, partner was a funny choice of labels I reckon) Ken (who I hadn't met till the next day) sat in another room, on a coach, watching TV. We played the name game and I got all of them in one go. For the rest of the meal, they were pretty shy, finishing up the stir fry and rice. I prodded them with questions as much as I could though. Cake/brownie things made dessert andy the only complaint came from the youngest kids, not wanting to eat their cabbage.

After dinner Petere and I cleaned the dishes from the day, and holy shit, having so many people means so many dishes. crazy. Then I hung out with all the ids (except Joseph who was feeling a little sick and went to bed) and learned about Seb's fascination with Man vs. wild, read an anatomy book describing what has to be the worst possible day every (sneezing to bee sings to burns to ear mosquitos, bad tastes and vomitting, but not before choking), and then realized there was a piano. I played the little I could remember and heard Tristan and Annalise, who were both learning. Caden was learning guitar which was really cute to listen to, though annalise was definitely the star guitarist after learning a bit from previous WWOOFers, and leading the family band to sing along while I videotaped. First they were shy, but I assured them that I have no friends and no one would see the video that should worry them.

At 9pm it was bed time and they all scurried off. The foster kids go to school in Burnie and the others are home schooled. I went back to the WOOFer cabin for some tea and we decide to go exploring so I could get a look around the 50 acre farm and see wallabies, which were considered pests. (In fact, the dog has been used to attack 5 of them.. yikes?) It was muddy, but really fun. I saw 2 horses and heaps of wallabies, bouncing around super fast. They also showed me the "graveyard" where they throw the bones of dead animals. weird. After another cup of tea was finished, I decided to head back to my bed for sleeping time, but only after being warned that if it sounds like people were walking on the caravan, it's actually possums and I shouldn't be worried.... oh and that roosters go off at like 4:30am.

They leave the radio on at night, which probably won't bother me, though it's funny that I could hear it from the caravan. The forecast for the next few days was pretty crappy, so at that point I didn't know what I'd be up to.