From shorts and t-shirts to woolly jumpers

Cold, but not terribly. And there are flowers in bloom, even daisies. Black (aka green) tomatoes are still in season, and almost all produce is local (including pineapple and coconut). This is Sydney in winter!

Luke at the produce market yesterday...

daisies in winter

We arrived in the Brisbane Airport, with its spotless international terminal, to a grand surprise: Australia has a new prime minister, and it is a woman. The first female prime minister took office as we were flying over the Pacific ocean, and in the Airport, we read all about it.

What is amazing, and possibly impossible in the US, is that Julia Gillard is unmarried, and her boyfriend will be the world's "first boyfriend," or in Australian, "first bloke." Born in Wales, Gillard's upward movement in Australia gives me hope -- you don't have to be born here in order to become prime minister.

From Brisbane we took a quick flight to Sydney, that stayed close to the ground. The landscape altered dramatically from southern Queensland, where it was hilly, rocky, and tended to be dry and sandy, to southern New South Wales, which was green, filled with trees and much less rocky. We landed beautifully into Botany Bay, where Captain Cook first landed...

Here is a view of Sydney from the airplane. You can see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

We were greeted by a mild wintery day, with grey clouds and an arch of blue in the sky.

the harbour bridge

driving on the bridge, on the left side

At Luke's parents' home, the first thing I saw was a large spider hanging right outside the living room window.

And in the early morning, I woke to the loud, boisterous, silly sounds of a kookaburra. It was much more than I'd expected: very musical, but also thorny. You can find the kookaburra sound here.

Learning A New Language

When asked why I am going to Australia for a year, I jokingly respond: "in order to learn a new language." And of course I try to say this with as good an Australian accent as possible (I have been practicing very hard). But now, as I begin preparing myself for a year in Sydney, I wonder whether there is more to my joke ... what new language will I learn in this apparently familiar, but also significantly different context?

Over the Christmas holiday 2007-2008, I traveled to Australia for the first time. Though most of my one-month stay was spent in Sydney, I was also lucky enough to travel up the eastern seacoast, from Sydney all the way to the Woodford Folk Festival, near Brisbane. En route we stopped in some of the most beautiful places I've been: Bellingen, with its rain forests, and Byron Bay, the eastern-most point of Australia and the most magnificent beach I've seen. Along the way, I also witnessed Australian country towns, not unlike places I've been before, with large, bland malls and coffee served in plastic cups.

But this time, I will be in Australia for a year -- thirteen months to be precise -- spending most of my time in Sydney, with some vague plans for travel. For example, I'd really like to go to Uluru, the rock at the center of Australia and a sacred place for the natives of Australia. I would like to see the stars from the Australian desert, which has the best visibility on earth. And, I would like to return to the Woodford Folk Festival, for another five days of celebration, laughter and really amazing coffee (Australians are known for being picky about their coffee). But mostly, I would like to see what it is like to live in Australia (Sydney, really) and relate my adventures, routine or extraordinary, and tell the stories of the people I meet on this journey.