The Ginger One: AUSTRALIA!

Hello from Canberra! I had never heard of this city before this trip, but it is basically like the Washington, D.C. of Australia (but smaller and quieter and prettier)--about 3 hours south of Sydney and a bit inland. Raf is doing some research at the ANU, so I tagged along for a couple of weeks...We will be mostly staying here in Canberra, but it has been lovely, to say the least. The people are incredibly friendly and I have been really enjoying walking all around the city, popping into all the little shops, and most of all grocery shopping. Finding new food in a new country is my favorite thing to do. I have found it to be fairly similar to British food... I also volunteered as a prep cook at the University's Food Co-op, which was great. I spent a couple of hours chopping, and got a delicious (and free) vegetarian lunch the following day! I have made friends at the amazing bakery near our apartment (picture soon) and a new friend (Rebecca! :) who owns an adorable clothing shop nearby called Fang Clothing. Last Saturday we spent the day with our host, Bob, and his family. He took us to a tower overlooking the entire city and surrounding countryside and then to the botanical gardens before heading back to his house for yummy lunch and dinner. The following are photos from that day spent out and about...Oh, and I must say the wildlife here is pretty much knocking me out--the birds alone are so amazing to me--parrots, cockatoos, the elusive Kookaburra, all flying around and squawking their heads off...outside our apartment sounds like a tropical bird paradise every morning. Oh! And when we were walking around the gardens we stumbled upon a group of KANGAROOS just chillin', looking at us like "yeah? what?". It was pretty exciting! Although to the natives it is probably about as exciting as seeing deer is to us...Anyway, more to come...