vedana.net

Sydney

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore..." Double-entendre there, first off I'm posting from Oz. Second, as soon as I arrived at Dhamma Bhumi they said, "There've been a few snakes around, so be careful." Snakes!?!? I just spent 9 months in NZ, where there ARE NO SNAKES! And here I am in the Australian bush, where the most poisonous snakes in the world are! As well as incredibly-poisonous spiders, several of which dwell in most of the rooms there at the Center! Then we went on a short bush walk and saw a kangaroo bounding by.

Fast-forward to the present, I'm in Sydney right now and it ROCKS; I haven't picked up on this level of buzz in a city since I was in Wellington two months ago. I'm staying with one of the co-founders of RGB, who I met at Dhamma Bhumi last weekend. And lucky for me, the folks living in the flat below this one have an Airport online. (grin)

It's totally surreal being here, thanks to the presence of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House, one of which is essentially always visible from downtown. Yesterday (my first full day here) we had spectacular weather and I went to the Zoo via a harbor ferry ride. The view was stunning, this city is gorgeous! Then I spent the afternoon wandering around The Rocks and stumbled upon the David Egan exhibit, wicked. In the evening I caught "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (hilarious Mexican film!) then headed to The Basement to meet a friend for some supposedly low-key live music. Instead, we were surprised with a few compressed sets by the originally-scheduled bands followed by a rock 'n roll extravaganza featuring Jeff Baxter from the Doobie Brothers! We didn't get out of there until 1am, after seeing 5 of Australia's most famous rock stars all jamming out on stage. Of course, I had no idea who any of them were, but one of the Ozzies there with us was smiling ear to ear in disbelief the whole time! Evidently these guys had all the big hits back in the '70s.

It turns out it was the benefit show for the Farmhand Drought Relief project; Australia is currently having one of its worst droughts ever, and this concert was to raise money to help out the farmers.

More soon, it's way past my bed-time...