Australia Day 2: Stalling Cars and X-Men

Who let me behind the wheel?

Tried to donate blood (plasma) but I was rejected because my veins are too thin :(
Will try again next week, just need to drink 100L of water beforehand to saturate my veins.

Afterwards I practiced driving stick (manual)! Got somewhat decent at it, especially considering that I had to drive on the left side of the road. Had some very embarrassing encounters with other drivers in suburbia as I stalled the car ... multiple times.
Bah, what is this stick shift nonsense. I'm just waiting for Google's self-driving car to make transportation a non-issue.

Fish, beets, asparagus salad!

Went to the Night Markets in Cairns today, didn't even know that they existed and I spent 2 weeks here last summer! Pretty nifty, very reminiscent of Singapore's markets.
Had a California roll in a very hawker-center-esque food court and definitely missed the $3-5 meals found in most of Asia.

Explored the Esplanade a bit more and then went home to watch X-Men. I know I say don't watch TV when you're traveling because that's lame and you can do it at home but it was necessary. X-Men is always necessary.

Lol, great store title

Australia Day 1: International Volleyball and Beer

Marvelous view from my airplane window
(no picture editing). Literally flying through
the heavens. Also I need to go to New Zealand
one  day. 

Landed in Australia around 11am. Man I forgot what humidity feels like. The airport smelled so similar to Singapore - just like air conditioned humidity. I remember around this time last year when I first entered my room in Singapore and it smelled just like the laundry room here, cool but slightly damp.

Unpacked and grocery shopped. Bought something called paw paw (like a yellow papaya, slightly different taste). We proceeded to google the difference between papaya and paw paw and it was pretty darn confusing. Cause there is pawpaw, paw paw, american paw paw, american pawpaw, etc. Essentially it's a papaya-esque fruit.

Then went to play beach volleyball.
That was a lot of fun because we ended up playing with 3 french people, 2 (later 2 more) people from Papua New Guinea, a girl from Japan, me from Belarus/America and two Aussies!

It started raining while we were playing (a warm, humid rain) so we went back home to shower and get ready to go out for the night.

SO EXCITED TO HAVE COCONUT AGAIN

Some Aussie friends came over and we headed out to a very German-esque pub where there was a phenomenal accordion player. Seriously this guy was great.

Back in the game!

I'm back to traveling and back to blogging!

This time I will be spending a total of 7 months abroad. Most of my travels (barring the Philippines and Thailand) serve some educational/professional growth purpose, so feel free to reach out and ask about what I'm doing where (or just periodically check in on my blog).

On the itinerary:

• Australia
• Korea
• Philippines
• China
• Thailand

And yes, packing a suitcase (+ one carry on) for everything from light, tropics-worthy, clothes to business attire for conferences to warm winter gear for the brutal Beijing winters was no easy task.

We'll see how well my current suitcase fares after the 7 months. 

Bring it on Asia.

To see my other blogs:

http://valeriayermakova-asia.blogspot.com
http://valeriayermakova-novelty.blogspot.com