Dec. 27th Monday

The past couple of days I have been spending time in Angus’ hometown called Bowral.  It was pretty cool to get out of the city for a bit.  Angus explained to his dad that Bowral is somewhat like Thousand Oaks.  I beg to differ because Bowral has way more of a country scene to it and is way more beautiful than Thousand Oaks.  A lot of the houses there had a huge amount of property.  They all had huge backyards with a lot of trees.  I think it’s close to Thousand Oaks in a sense that it is not that big of a city but right by a huge city.

Anyway, right when we got in to his hometown, I met his family.  He has triplet sisters and some pretty cool parents.  I brought them a couple bottle of wines that I bought from a bottle shop.  Right when we walked into his house his father offered us some beers and to go outside to have some talks.  His mom and dad are pretty rad. 

After that, I went to a local bar in Bowral to grab a few beers with Angus and his friends.  The rules are that if anyone is caught drunk driving, speeding, or get any citation during the Holidays then the fine doubles.  So a lot of people are safe about driving around the Holidays.  The pub was pretty cool.  I met a lot of his friends and Angus did a lot of catching up with old friends.  Christmas Eve is really big out in Bowral because everyone comes home and catches up at the pubs.  By the 11 pm I had to scream to talk to anyone because the crowd there was huge.  There wasn’t even any music playing and I was outside most of the time talking to people or pretty much yelling at everyone when I was speaking.

I remember buying a round of beers for some friends, and when I came out this guy pointed at me into my chest smiling and said, “You!  What?  Ha.  Why?”  I just laughed and pointed back at him.  I told Angus and his friends what just happened and they said that the guy probably isn’t used to seeing Asians in this pub.  Then we drank some more and had a spliff.  We passed out kind of early so we wouldn’t be so tired for Christmas Day.

I woke up around 8 am for Christmas and Angus parents made a huge breakfast for all of us.  They made eggs with veggies, fruit, croissants, bacon, and cereal.  It was too much but so good.  Then they opened presents or the present opening happened before we ate.  I already forgot.  Anyway, they all opened presents and they had a gift waiting for me which was pretty cool.  They got me a hat (which is awesome because I left my LA hat in my mom’s car), a coozie (that thing you put your beer cans or bottle in so it doesn’t get water everywhere), and Christmas nougat pudding.  I’ve never had nougat pudding before but it’s pretty good.  I was really surprised because I really didn’t expect or want anything from them except a place to stay at night.  I thanked them over and over again.

When we had some downtime before we had to go out again, I asked Angus if I could test drive his car.  He agreed and took me down some streets.  It’s weird enough to drive on the other side of the road, but he also has a stick shift.  It wasn’t really hard to convert the stick shift over from the other side.  The clicker for the signals are on the opposite side as well, so I turned on his windshield wipers on a few times.  He gave me a good pointer on how to remember to stay on the left side when I’m making turns that helped him when he was driving in the states.  That is to make sure that your body is always towards the middle of the lane no matter what.  Those words of wisdom helped me so I didn’t have to think as much when I drove the rest of the way.

After getting some driving lessons in, we all went to his grandparent’s house to have lunch.  We had prawns, fruit, and wraps.  When I saw the prawns, I was kind of stunned on how to eat them because they weren’t shelled at all.  I took a look at Angus and then caught on pretty quick.  You have to rip their heads off and then peel back the rest of their shell.  I’ve never had to do that before, but it was fine and quite fun to be honest.  These prawns were so amazing.  It was too fresh if that word could be used to describe how good they were.  I don’t know what the difference is between prawns and shrimp, or if they just call shrimp differently here, but it was really good. 

During lunch, they had these things called bon-bons or bond-bonds that we played with.  It kind of looks like the middle of a paper towel roll wrapped up with fringes hanging off each end.  Well, what you do is one person grabs one end and the other person grabs the other end.  Both people pull and it makes a popping noise.  One person will come away with the middle part and it has a little toy, a cheap crown hat, and a joke inside of it.  I’ve never seen such a thing.  I don’t know if people do that in the States at all.  They were all amazed when I told them that I never ate prawns when they weren’t shelled, never had nougat pudding, and never heard of bon-bons.  His grandfather, in the middle of a discussion I was having with one of Angus’ sisters, interrupted me and said that I had a great smile.  Everyone stopped and said that Grandpa loves good smiles.  I guess that made me feel more at ease with Angus’ family.  I never felt unease since his grandfather offered me a beer right when I got into their house.  I saw some pretty cool peacock’s in their front yard and on their roof, which reminded me of my grandparent’s house since they have peacock’s roaming around their yards and roofs as well.  Then I went to the beaches with Angus and his sisters.  The beaches in Australia beat the States by a ton.  The sand and water are beyond gorgeous.

Then we went to Angus’ Aunt and Uncle’s house for dinner.  They must have had about 30 people there.  I met a lot of great people and had a lot of good conversations.  They were all there with open arms and a lot to talk about.  They had so much to eat and his grandfather made a great speech before we ate.  It really made me think how thankful we really are for what we have.  He mentioned my name and embarrassed me saying that I should be thankful that the States and Australia have similar rights and freedom.  Everyone was amazing and the food was great as usual. 

One of Angus’ sisters found a huge bug outside and brought it inside.  Angus started to play with it and throw it on people.  This little bugger started to bite people and everyone was laughing.  Then he threw it on me, and I kept it cool until it started to go up my shirt towards my neck.  Then I freaked out and shook it off.  This old man started to laugh at me and said, “Oh, what?  Is the American afraid of a little old bug!?”  Then I engaged into a conversation with him.  He’s a funny guy.  They all are.  He told me how he loves to offend Americans, Germans, Britains, French- I then cut him off and said that the French don’t count because they are too easy to offend.  He laughed and agreed. 

We started to talk about traveling, and he told me his last trip to England.  He started to go on and say that he loves meeting real locals because it’s so easy to find out what to do from them and where to go because everyone has a pride thing.  He told me that after befriending everyone in this pub, he starts to tell everyone that there’s nothing to see here and that he’s seen enough.  Then the locals came to him and started to tell him where to go.  He motions with his hands that he got out his pen and pad and started to write things down.  Then he proceeds to tell me that I really don’t need a guide book to tell me where to go.  The locals will give you enough information. 

After the mingling and cleaning up, we went back to sleep off the booze and food.  On the way home one of Angus’ sister’s said that it was the best Christmas she had.  I replied to her saying that it was the best Aussie Christmas that I have ever had.  And then she said, “No, it was the best you’ve ever had!”

 I guess it was since I have only celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, and I spent every Christmas just at home watching marathons with my dad and eating Chinese food which I really did miss this year.  I feel like I haven’t done the “Twilight Zone”/”Three Stooges” marathon plus Chinese food in a long time.

The next morning, one of Angus’ sisters, dad, and I went to a lake nearby for water skiing and wakeboarding.  Angus is pretty good out there.  I have never been, and I gave it almost 2 dozen tries that day.  His dad told me before I went out that this stuff doesn’t happen overnight.  Damn straight it doesn’t!  I got up a few times towards the end but fell right down.  I think I kept my legs too straight to get up.  Anyway, I didn’t realize how tired my muscles were until I tried to climb back into the boat.  It was one of the hardest things to do.  Then Angus’ sister was up.  She took out a solo ski thing and tore it up.  Then we cruised around the lake for a while and went back home.  I had my first meat pie on the way back home.  It was so delicious.  I got the mushroom and steak one.  It’s basically like a chicken pot pie but with different types of meat that you can choose from.

There’s heaps more I want to talk about but am tired of writing.  Everything is going so great, and I feel grateful for what I have.  This trip really makes me feel like I’m doing something right and can’t complain one bit.  I’ve got a trip up to the Gold Coast coming up soon and then a festival that I’m hitting up as well on New Year’s Day called, Field Day.  Justice is headlining, and it should be pretty sick.