Port Stephens

Well, Thursday evening after work, I knew my time in Aussie was growing short. Taking a sick day off the day before really got me thinking about the whole thing. I mean, I'll be sad when I leave, but I'm really starting to get that same feeling I get towards the end of my abroad (i.e. long distance) vacays. That feeling that I'm really missing my family, friends, and handsome beau. I'm also missing little things like my own car, cheap prices, and Americana in general. I love Australia, but nothing beats home sweet home (even if my bedroom at home is still messier than a tornado alley trailer park after a twister). The next few weeks will be jam-packed, exciting, and bittersweet... but that's life, right? Time to go into a new chapter of my life. When I come back to school, I'll be a part-time student (one class a week) with hopes that some dental school out there will see how special I am and accept me. I mean, my bachelor's degree is... *gulp* … over. I need to stop thinking about this before my head bursts.

In any case, on Thursday, with time growing short, I wanted to make my way to a show at the Opera House. I saw that there were $44 cheap tickets to the Barber of Seville at the Opera House. After work, I high-tailed it across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay. The seat wasn't great, but the show was amazing. I mean the highest priced ticket is $285, so it better be good. Truly, it was something to tick off of my life goals . I could have also seen either Carmen (sad ending) or Madama Butterfly (also a sad ending), but I chose the comedic Barber of Seville. And I loved the costuming, music, voices, and I realized how much I missed performing. All in all, great fun, great price.

Friday I had to work (boo), but actually, it was cool. Lisa contacted her friend, a sales representative from Henry Schein (the giant dental product corporation) named Caroline, who would let us shadow her for the day. She showed us the giant factory (which is like 1/10th of the size of its American counterpart), and it was a two minute jog from my apartment (small world, huh?). After the tour, we visited a few dentists who are her friends. The first dentist we visited runs the Australian Institute of Dental Implants in Balmain. I believe his name was Dr. Christopher Ho. His practice was very minimalist in design, but chic. After that, we went out to visit Dr. Caroline Nguyen in Five Dock. She just opened shop a week ago, and she has only one surgery. Best of luck to her because she has a cute personality. Lastly, we visited Dr. Darryl Moses, who was absolutely fantastic. He looks a little older than fifty, and he's the sort of general dentists that I want to be. He has done continuing education his whole career and so epitomizes “general dentist”. He does a bit of period, endo, ortho, prostho, and does a lot with tissue regeneration and TMJ. Dental x-rays are switching to CT type radiographs, and he had the latest technology for the benefit of the patient. Here's the kicker, his prices are ridiculously affordable, too! This guy is a truly great, trustworthy,honest dentist practicing in a patient-oriented style. I love it. He had a special machine to view the mandible and temporal mandibular joint to view the exact cause of TMJ pain with great efficacy. He has a machine that speeds up tissue regeneration

and healing to half the time it would normally take. He has CT radiographs!! I admire his continuing education in pursuit of becoming a better educated and informed dentist for his and his patient's benefit. Also, each dentist I met gave me their card saying if I came back some day to stop by. I might be able to work here a few months (and get paid!) after school, which could be a really awesome opportunity since I adore this country (even more than Europe). In any case, Caroline was wonderful and so kind. Poor Rhea wasn't feeling well and was in the middle of being ill, but she was a trooper and came. Rhea's a great girl, but I certainly don't envy that she's beginning the application process.

After that whole thing, Caroline dropped me off at Darling Harbour to meet up with Karen Petersen and a few of the gang at the Aquarium. Seriously, a cool place. Dewgong, sharks, rays, finding nemo, coral, and a whole slough of wet critters. My camera died, so I'll have to post the videos I took eventually.

After that, I found a silver and opal pendant that matched my opal ring, and from now on, no more shopping. I went home and packed. At 7:00 pm, I hopped a bus with about 30 people to Port Stephens. It was a 2.5 hour drive, and when I got there, I unpacked a bit and settle for bed.

Today, I woke up, made coffee and oatmeal with brown sugar, packed a bag, and went out to the bus at 8:45 a.m. We went to a shark and stingray encounter. I was wearing a wetsuit and exposure gloves the first time I went in. The sharks and rays nibbled at my butt!! It was too funny. :D I thought we were running out of time, so after feeding the aminals, I changed out of the wetsuit. Soon I learned I didn't have to change, but I put on rubber waders and hopped back in. This time I wasn't wearing gloves and could feel the texture of the sharks (mostly nurse sharks). The best way to describe it is that sharks feel like a wet, slightly abrasive basketball while rays feel like a silky smooth, mucous-y slick surface. I'm weird and love sharks and rays and thought they were adorable! There were some 9 foot long sharks, too.

After that, we went to the Burribi Beach and went sand-boarding. The dunes looked straight out of Egyptian desert. We took a ridiculous four-wheel drive bumpy bus ride to a dune. We had boards that looked like really large plastic skateboards without bearings or wheels. The worst part was the long hike up these sand mountains and the wind was blowing sand everywhere. My hair looked like it was going prematurely grey because of the amount of sand the wind blew. I have sand in places I never thought sand could go. Not funny. But really, the sand boarding was really fun. Got some cool pics, but I don't have great internet so I'll load them Monday.

After stopping along the water (where we had to swim at our own risk due to it being Great White Shark season). Yes, I said Great White season. Port Stephens is a notorious shark bite hotspot... In any case, we rinsed off as best as we could, and headed to Anna Bay for a dolphin/whale watching cruise. It's always dolphin season, and we watched them them the whole time since they followed the boat. We even saw a humpback whale even though the season for those begins in May. So ridiculously cool. They lowered a net into the water and we sat in it as the dolphins swam around us. It started drizzling though and getting cold and windy. We went back to hotel. I shampood my hair twice (and I'm still having sand fall out of my hair).

We hit a local brewery tour called Murray's Brewery and Winery. They showed us where they brewed beer and bottled wine. There was a small wedding there, too (so cute and a good idea [that was an obvious hint to my loving, handsome boyfriend Kyle]). We had a wine and beer tasting along with dinner. I finally had good Austrlian pizza (It took 7 weeks to find it...). After a few hours, we came back, and I'm here to tell you all about it.

Tomorrow is a day for wine tastings in the famous Hunter Valley wine region of Australia, so it will be fun!! I'll tell you more about it in a few days.

Love, Stephanie

Oh, and one more thing, Bundaburg Ginger Beer is amazing. It's non-alcoholic, super ginger-y ginger ale. Amazing. And great for a tummy ache because ginger is good at that (but not as effective as a mum rubbing tummy ache). Together, I think the ginger beer and Mum combination could forever banish tummy aches.