Australians like Texas Accents. (Warning: VERY LONG POST)

Jet lag is worse than being kicked by a kangaroo. I have come to this conclusion not by being kicked by a kangaroo but rater by experiencing jet lag to its fullest. How do I know this then? Well I’ve seen kangaroos and I have seen their feet which leads me to wonder if I would trade in the feeling of jet lag for the sensation of being bitten by a kangaroo. I might change my mind if for some reason a kangaroo ever actually decides to be so kind as to bite me but for now I’m going to go with that. I usually do not write such strange things in a blog post nor do I really think of such things on a regular basis. However, I think I’ll go ahead and blame it on jet lag. In fact, I’ll go ahead and blame every crazy thing I’ve done these past few days on the awful, awe-inspiring feeling of jet lag.

I have attempted more than half a dozen times to get into the drivers seat when someone takes me for a drive. (Aussies drive on the left side and therefore the steering wheel is on the right side) I have also let out a high pitched yell and covered my face when my friend proceeded to drive on the left side of the road. Why did I do this? Um….jet lag? Less than 24 hours after arriving to Australia I was asked to say a few words in front of the whole church. Everyone was sitting in silent anticipation waiting for the American to say something thought provoking. Um… did I mention I was jet lagged? I actually ended up rambling on to the congregation about how I lived in Louisiana for many years (this had nothing to do with what I was supposed to talk about). I believe I used the phase “I’m really excited to be here” about 13 times during my talk. Right before I was called to talk I had to leave the congregation because of a spontaneous coughing fit. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the last time I had a crazy coughing fit. I also did it on the first day of classes. Yep, jet lag.

The other day I decided to take a train home from the camp that I went to for a week (very good camp btw). Granted I have never used the train before as transportation system but it did seem to be a good idea at the time. It wasn’t. Long story short I took the wrong train, ended up in some random town that had graffiti all over the walls, all the while carrying a 45 pound bag on my back and accidentally knocking over anyone crazy enough to get in my way. But a few hours later I was safely back in the home that I was supposed to be in. In the end it was a good experience for me because it taught me how to get around and rely on myself. Jet lag? Um…yep sure. I also attempted to tell my youth minister and his family a joke from America. Note here that the same meaning applies for the slang term “crabs” in America as well as in Australia (do I really have to explain further?). I’m sure everyone knows this joke. Why don’t crabs share? Because they are shellfish! Well that’s not exactly how I said it. Nope. I proceeded to ask the youth pastor “why don’t we share crabs here?” Jet lag!!! Unfortunately, I’m only able to milk the excuse of jet lag for so long. By the time my next post comes along I would have already recovered and would then have to be fully accountable for my actions. But Well I suppose I can always use the justification of “oh that’s just what we do in America” for every single embarrassing thing that I end up saying or doing. Eventually though they are bound to figure out that most of the stuff I do is just because I’m Hannah Wagley.

Since I’m an observer I have found some random tidbits of knowledge during my first week here that I hope you find interesting:

~ Australians are tough, Texans are wimpy. Not really but I have found this to be true when it comes to warming houses in the winter. It is so cold everywhere I go (it’s winter here now). Australians don’t really heat their house very much. I don’t believe many houses have central heating. In fact the normal temperature in most houses is around 50-58 F. This is nuts! And they leave windows and doors open all the time! It’s winter here! Winter!

~ Don’t get excited (like I did) when you weigh yourself on a scale and find the number is 53. This is not pounds! It’s kilograms. Australians also use KJ instead of calories, litters instead of gallons; centimeters instead of inches (ask someone how tall they are. It’s in centimeters!), kilometers instead of miles, and probably most importantly, Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. So again, don’t get excited like I did when you see the speed limit is 100.

~ When someone says “would you like to have tea at my house tonight” this means that they have invited you for supper. Not tea. When someone says “we didn’t get any morning tea” this means that they missed breakfast. However, when someone says “lets have a cup of tea” (which they do quite often) then this means lets have a cup of tea. But sometimes this means lets have a snack and no tea is ever actually served. Very confusing.

~Iced tea is unheard of. Chicken fried steak is unheard of. Fried catfish is unheard of! Ahhhhh! No one that I have talked to yet has ever actually heard of fried okra or even okra for that matter.

~ I’ve never seen so many cyclists and runners in my life. These people are crazy. I live close to the beach and at certain times of the day cars can hardly get past the cyclists on the roads. They are everywhere! I love it.


~ Australians seem to drink from the tiniest cups I’ve ever seen. During a meal I’ll get up several times just to refill my cup. For the most part, Australians don’t really drink with their meals. There’s been many meals that I’ve had were I was dying of thirst and there didn’t seem to be any cups or liquid around.

~ Apparently it rarely rains where I live. And the city of Melbourne doesn’t have many water reservoirs. This means they have very little water to spare. It is strongly suggested by the government that we can only have three minute showers. I’ve noticed how people here go to great lengths to conserve the water. I’ve never seen so many dirty cars. My host family will take the water from the bathtub they used via bucket and put it in their garden. I have yet to see a sprinkler in the yard. Hmmm….maybe this explains why they have such small cups?

~ Australians don’t tip (for the most part). Not even in restaurants. Most waiters make more than $15 an hour so it’s not necessary. This is the way to go!

~ “How did you go? or “How are you going” This was a confusing phrase b/c it wasn’t used in the context I was familiar with. When Aussies say this it means “how did you do?” or “how are you”

~ If you meet a girl in Australia there’s a 50% chance that her name is Kate. Well I’m exaggerating quite a bit but I’ve never met so many girls named Kate (Kat, Katharine, Katy, etc…) than I ever have before.

~Austrian coffee is so much better than American coffee. I’m a bit of a coffee addict and much to my extreme delight I have found that Australian coffee shop coffee is much better tasting than American coffee. However, when they make coffee within their houses it is much different and worse than drip coffee in America. Everyone does powder coffee instead of the real stuff from coffee machines.

~ Australians love Texas accents! I thought they might.


I love Australia and the differences in culture. Australians are some of the nicest, friendliest people you will ever come across. I look forward to my time here and writing about everything I have learned and observed.

I’M GOING TO LIVE IN AUSTRALIA!

I have this life list. On it are a few things that I would like to do before I die. It might be more appropriate to call it my bucket list but life sounds much less morbid. I just realized this, but since I have turned 21 I have been able to accomplish four of those life list goals. In the span of a year I have (in order) biked across America, ran a marathon, graduated college, and now I’m going to go live in another country. Australia! I can’t wait to see what my 22nd year brings. Man I must say God is good.

Life is crazy. I think that my initial Bike and Build “Sea to Sea” blog title was much more fitting than I would have ever thought. I leave to go to Australia today. Today! I’ll stay and work in Melbourne, Australia for a year as a youth ministry intern. I’ll also attend college there and study Bible classes. I’m pretty excited but also fairly nervous. I’m sure there will be plenty of ups and downs along the way (leaving certain people) but I’m ready to ride both. I’ve always been one for adventure so I think that this experience will be as my grandma would say “right up my ally”.

So I’m going to use this blog to cover my times and experiences while I’m in Australia. I’ll do my best to keep it interesting. My goal is to update once a week but there will be times when I write more than that. I just felt that this was the best way to share with my family and friends of my time in Australia. To be honest, I think this blog will be anything but boring if I just keep doing what I do. For those who know me well (or at all) then you know exactly what I mean. For those who don’t, um… I tend to make um… “ditzy” (I hate that word) mistakes especially when it comes to navigating myself through a big city. I’ve lived in a small town my entire life. It’s safe to say that my big city navigating skills are a kin to Barney on the Andy Griffith Show. Great. I’m coming from a town of 2,000 people and moving to a city of 4 million! C’mon this is the girl who has a whole post dedicated to getting lost in Dallas for 2 hours, barely making it to her Peace Corps interview, and then accidentally winding up in the HOV lane on the way back while wondering if that was the lane for blind people (see previous post). Um yep I’ll have plenty of stories to tell. Besides doing stuff like that from time to time just makes life more interesting, right? Well I’m sure my next post will be from the great land of Australia so stay tuned. I've got a 20 hour plane ride to get through and I barely slept a wink last night. Joy.

P.S: For those who were wondering, I did finally get accepted to the Peace Corps but have declined. They wanted me to go to Namibia. I felt that right now Australia was the best place for me to be.

NEAT FACT: I have grown up in the small town of Frankston, Texas most of my life. There is only one other town named Frankston in the entire world. And do you know where that would be located? Four miles down the road from me in Australia! The irony is crazy. I go half way around the world and still end up being only a few miles from the name of my town.

City Streets make me weep

Here’s an update on my life: So, it looks like there’s a high possibility that I’m going into the Peace Corps. I went for the interview yesterday (more on that later) and got my nomination today. For those who do not know, a nomination means that my recruiter found a spot for me in a certain region of the country that needs my skills. I’ve been told that I’ll be sent to sub-Saharan Africa to (country unknown for now) and the date of my departure is around mid-July. Although my exact job isn’t know yet, it will require biology skills that I’ve developed through majoring in biology. Of course, the dates, region, and job are tentative as of right now but there is a high possibility that I will be sent to do this. So really whether I get the volunteer position or not mainly depends if I get cleared medically and how fast I do this. So what’s next?: the intense and selective medical clearance. Their picky about who they select because they want to make sure that you’re healthy enough to live in a devolving country for two years and be able to survive getting sick many times over (it’ll happen). It’s know to be extremely time consuming. Yet it comes at a great time in the semester because I’ll have a month off for Christmas break soon to work on it. And to be honest I’m not too worried about getting medically cleared. C’mon I just biked across the country. I can handle it.

This next part will either make you laugh or make you think I’m the biggest idiot in the world. Or both. I think the actual job interview itself went well. I was pretty nervous this week because I’ve never been in such an intensive interview before. My past “interviews” went something like this: “You want to work here? You look normal. Ok cool you’re hired.” The PC interview lasted 1hr and 45 minutes and was more intense than I’m used to. But I didn’t get worked up and answered the questions well. Unfortunately, the job interview was the least stressful part of my day. The act of getting there made me want to shoot myself in the foot. I never have nor will I ever live in a city. Ever. It was estimated to be a 4 hour drive but I left 6 hours ahead of time just in case something happened. And something happed. Actually a lot of somethings happened. Of course I took a wrong turn and was completely lost. But no worries b/c I had hours to find the place. After a lot of yelling, close calls, dumb one way streets, and cursing of road signs, I finally found the address. And kept going. And going. Because where does one find parking in this place? A mile later I finally found parking in some sketchy part of town and then high-tailed it in my business suit and high heels through the ghetto…… ignoring the stares. Naturally I couldn’t find the building I was supposed to be in but after asking random people I finally found it. 5 minutes until interview time. I set off the security alarms. I ran into random people. I found the office! 1 minute until interview time. 1 minute! Never have I used the phrase “in the nick of time” and meant it more than I do now. As I was signing in the interviewer came to get me. To think if I had just one more red light I would have been late. Getting back home was easy compared to getting there. I just ended up in the car pool lane. No clue how I got there. I had no idea what the “hov” lane was. A lane for blind people? All I knew is I wasn’t supposed to be there due to the many car honks I received by those stuck in rush hour. After frantically calling my dad and asking what “hov” meant I then gratefully found an exit and escaped ticket free. What a day. But at least I can laugh about it (hysterically) which is one of the main traits they look for in the Peace Corps. Ability to laugh in tough situations. Maybe I’m meant for it after all.

In other news I’m starting my official marathon training on Monday because our last cross country race is tomorrow. I guess running cross country the past few months gives me a great base for starting. I think I’ll essentially just slowly double what I’ve been doing so I have enough endurance to finish. That’s my goal, to finish. Not to get an amazing time but to cross the finish line in one piece and mentally sane. And I think wanting to be mentally sane is pushing it. Ok maybe I’ll just hope to be in one piece. The more I think about it being slightly insane is a requirement if you want to run a marathon. Sane people wouldn’t really attempt to run 26.2 miles.

Update

The whole marathon training thing isn’t going so well because apparently you actually have to run in order to train. The first two weeks of practice I injured my back (SI joint) from overuse and am now slowing trying to get back (no pun intended). One hypothesis from the Athletic trainer is that I might have gotten my back out of line from being hunched over all summer on a bike. Go figure. Ironically, I’m back to road biking but only after I convinced the Athletic trainers that I would rather dip my hand in hot, boiling lava than ride a stationary bike for recovery.
Spending 7 + hours a day biking across the country really gives one time to think. Some of that time was spent thinking about what I am going to do after graduation. After talking to others on the trip and researching it, I’m seriously considering the peace core as my next step. Why not? I’m young, adventures, and able to adjust to uncomfortable situations quite comfortably. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do so I should just go for it. I’m almost finished with my application and if all works out then I could very well be overseas at this time next year.
This past weekend I went and visited Jeff Hunt, a real good bike friend from this summer. He’s from Oregon but his grandma has some relatives down in Missouri so he got “convinced” (funny story how this convincing took place actually) to take her down to visit his all his non-relatives. The weekend was spent with much catching up, much fun, and many old people. Good times.
Other than that I haven’t had time for much else. With 6 am practices, 18hrs of classes (that rhymes), and work, I’ve hardly been able to breath.

Roxanne you don’t have to put on that red dress tonight

It’s been quite an interesting experience trying to adjust to the “real world” after 2.5 months of doing nothing but biking and of course building. No sleeping on thermorests, no reaching into a Bike and Build community food dish with just my hands, no second lunches, no nice cool weather, and most certainly no peeing on the side of the road. Just today I was driving in my car when I came on a green light that was going to turn red. Before I thought about it I yelled “stopping” and did the appropriate hand signals that a cyclist does to warn the bikers behind him/her that they are stopping. Oh boy.

One realization that I’ve had from biking across America is how strong my sense of adventure really is. Before beginning this 3,800 miles trek across the country I thought that I would do this one crazy thing, become satisfied, and therefore go back to the normal everyday life. The opposite happened. I realized how much I love doing out of the ordinary, eccentric things like this. They make life way more interesting. So what’s next? Graduate. How unconventional (ha!). But what I decided to do next is to start training for the Austin marathon that will take place in February. Besides I miss the out of breath, tiring, sweat dripping, hardcore sport that long distance running is and I’m excited to suffer like that again. So I guess I’ll blog here from time to time about that if anyone is interested. Also………

Top 12 Things I’ve learned from Doing Bike and Build:

1.) What don’t kill you will only make you stronger……. even if you think you might die (Nebraska).
2.) How happy one can be with so few material possessions. I spent most of my summer living out of a bag that I might normally take for a two day journey, sleeping on a thermorest, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day, taking cold showers at times (if there is one at all. Sometimes it might just be a hose), having 3 changes of clothes, sometimes sleeping under the stars, and not having a car! But it was the best summer of my life.
3.) Peanut butter is great on almost anything. Included but not limited to: bread (wow!), eggs, apples, sausage, strawberry pound cake, pineapple shortcake, gummy bears, bananas, pickles, carrots, peanuts, trail mix, cereal, yogurt, and peanut butter cookies.
4.) Peanut butter most certainly does not go on: deli meat, oranges, grapes, and avocadoes.
5.) The wind sucks so much (or should I say blows)
6.) Do not trust Jeff Hunt. Practical jokes are his forte and mine is apparently receiving them.
7.) Do not pass gas in the van.
8.) Most people you meet along the way are extremely nice and generous.
9.) Some are not
10.) One can become awfully close to 30 people over the course of the summer and it is strange when they are all of a sudden gone.
11.) And finally: Do not sleep between Barbra and Mark. It is loud.
12.) Roxanne never puts on a red dress. Only a red light. Oops.

Hey Seattle

The last post was just way to glomy and didn't really catch the essence of how I feel and what went on. I really can't explain to anyone just how amazing it felt to be running into the pacific coast with my full bike clothes still on. It must have been a site to innocent by standards when 31 bikers in matching attire rode up to the ocean, dropped all bikes on the beach, and ran screaming at the top of their lungs into the icy, frigged waters of Seattle. When we got into the water we then preceded to hug/dunk everyone in site several times over. Of course I forgot to take off my helmet before going into the water so this was even more of a site. At least I remembered to take out my cell phone and camera because not everyone did (sorry Marty and Sophia!) The build up of this actual event wasn't even enough to prepare me for the amazing reality of what actually happened. Many of the rider's friends and family came to cheer us on and watch the entertaining site of all of us plunging into the water. We certainly didn't let them down. I even had the "bright" idea to ride my bike into the salty water. Bad idea. This extremely impulsive decision might have cost me my bike. Afterwards I was told that my whole bike might rust due to the sand and salt water. I cleaned it up right away and now I can only hope for the best.

Aside from the bike accident and telling everyone goodbye, these past few days have been the best and most fun days I've ever had in my life. Sadly this makes leaving Bike and Build so much more difficult. We celebrated my 21st birthday a few days ago which had to have been my favorite birthday ever. Can you say Karaoke? Oh yeah! We had the final banquet on the beach as the sun was setting over the Seattle skyline. I've honestly felt like the last few days have been some amazing dream. The fact that I've gotten here with just a bike still hasn't sunk in. It's going to be so crazy trying to adjust to everyday, normal life. Beds! Hot showers! Fried Food! Yes! I went to explore Seattle today with a few other friends. Seattle is probably one of my favorite big cities I've ever been in (aside from the fact that it rains a lot). The views are amazing and everything is easy to get to. I couldn't see myself living in a big city like this though. I'm a small town girl and will most likely always be one. Well got to go and get my 4 hours of sleep so I can be well rested for a full and exhausting day of travling. Ha! Lack of sleep is the only drawback of these awesome past few days. Check back in for my next and most likely final post that is soon to come. It will sum up th whole trip

Silence

Oh boy here it goes. I'll try not to be too sappy but it was so sad leaving people after spending every waking hour with them for the past 2.5 months. I've just had to say almost 29 different goodbyes to everyone on the trip with each one getting progressively harder and harder to do. I'm typing this in a silent room at our final host site b/c most everyone has already left. In typical Hannah Wagley fashion I decided to take my time and leave A.L.A.P. (as late as possible). So as it goes I'm one of the last Bike and Builders here. And it's sad. Real sad. For the last few days I've been thinking what it is that I will miss most about this trip. I wasn't sure at the time. Would it be waking up 45 minutes too early to the sound of do-do-du-do-du-du-do because somebody forgot to turn of the stupid alarm? Heck no. Maybe it will be fighting over food like a pack of hungry wolves? Nope. What about taking cold "showers" with the water hose while trying to suppress the natural screams that one tends to do when they have negative whatever degree water running down the pants. Naw. "I'm from Texas ya'll" so that's not how I roll. And now, only when I sit in this strangely silent room writing this, do I actually realize what it is that I will truly miss the most about Bike and Build. Noise. Plain and simple. The natural, unavoidable noise that 31 people make when staying in such close corridors, the noise that at times gets way to annoying even for earplugs, and the noise that typically consists of much worry free and oddly contages laughter. Oh yeah this is way too sappy. The irony is that the peace and quite that I have craved from time to time is finally here and all I want now is some more noise. I guess I could just sing to myself but that's just not the same. I'll consider myself fortunate that I've been able to spend 2.5 months biking across the whole country with some of the most amazing, craziest, and goofiest people that I've ever met in my life