Uluru DAY ONE!

We woke up super early. I don't know why. We were supposed to leave at 7 but some of the girls were a little late in getting ready. We left at 7:20 from student housing. We got to David Johnston and his wife's house (principal of my school and his wife teaches a class of mine) at 7:30 and ended up waiting in the van for 40 minutes because that's when they were going to be ready. They had tons of stuff to do before they were ready and we got there way before we were supposed to. It was kind of ridiculous making us leave so early, but whatever.

We got to the airport without a hitch. I LOVE aussie airports. Security was a breeze compared to airports at home. They don't have terrorists, I bet. Didn't take off my shoes even. I did get randomly tested for explosives however, but that was just interesting so I didn't mind. The guy rubbed that thing on my in areas on my body and then scanned it. My character wasn't explosive enough, and we went on.

Some of us were thirsty and DJ (david) belongs to a group that gets special stuff at that airport. So he brought Jenny in as his daughter for "a drink of water" and a super long time later she came out saying she ate a nice breakfast. She brought us apples. We played cards and worked around poor communication to finally meet up with everyone since we didn't see them come out. Eventually we all got seats waiting to board, and DJ told us about the trip. He said Lorna (his secretary) went all out on this trip and used his credit card. It wasn't refundable but he wanted to refund. So we had to. This got me excited since I thought it would be super nice!

The plane ride was smooth enough and the new Indiana Jones movie played during the flight. I watched the good parts in the beginning before falling asleep to my iPod. On touching down we got to this tiny airport and the wave of heat just blew me away. Wow. Probably 100+ degrees. I had pants on. It was death. We got our luggage and rode a shuttle to the resort area.

Checking in took awhile and Cameron and I shared a room of 4 beds (2 bunks). One of us had top and one had bottom. We had to share with 2 random people. We got there and that room is about as big or smaller than my room at the hostel where I've been staying at. The difference is this room held 4 people and mine is just myself. And there was stuff on both of the bottom beds. Weird. So we were told we got bed 3 and 4 (top and bottom of the right of the room) and so I kinda wanted bottom so I ended up moving the stuff off. Cameron went to do stuff and I laid down until he got back. I had no mobile (cell phone) and I was seriously confused about the time. I thought I heard we went forward a half hour. I didn't know how to change my watch though, and Cameron thought we went back a half hour. We were confused. There was a separate building for showers and bathrooms. Blah.

Anyways, I was napping and then the door opened. This meek old man with a strong Aussie accent said, "Wot are ya doin' in ma bed?" but not in a mean-spirited way. I explained to him that we had the side bunks and he said not to worry about it. Then he left. I resumed laying in my bed. Shortly after, a meek old woman with a strong Aussie accent said, "Was ma husband in heah just nah? Did ya tok to him n sort it out?" I said yeah and she asked, "Oh so is it just youuu and your mate then?" I didn't know what to say, so I said yep. She was fine with those answers and left shortly.

I don't remember what happened then but I know Cameron eventually saw their stuff gone. (I assume that when they checked in, they asked for the bottom beds since they were old and didn't want to climb up the ladder, then the resort said sure but did not make a note of it and/or tell us about that...maybe)

We had to catch the bus to take us to the Sounds of Silence dinner under the stars. Cameron and I went to DJ's room at another building (much nicer) at an agreed time. We were gonna meet up with everyone but the girls never showed up. DJ tried to call them and so did Cameron. No answer. Cameron guessed (rightly) that they went swimming. Also, their room was in the same area as ours. And our swimming pool was closed. They went to another building's pool. Luckily they were on the shuttle when we got on, and all was good.

We took a bus ride with a bunch of people and another bus completely besides ours to the middle of nowhere. We walked up a trail and there were chairs set out. Not enough for everyone though. A lot of people were fine with standing and chitchatting though. We took a ton of pics. Champagne was handed out. I took a glass and it was ok. I don't like how bitter it is...so I almost finished mine before getting a Coke instead. Orderves (my misspelling is so bad, I can't find the proper one) were served and I tried them all and liked them all. One was crocodile and one was kangaroo (although I didn't know it at the time) and salmon was another and also a veggie one.

After a little bit we were escorted forward. We were roped off in a trail so that snakes and dangerous thingies couldn't get us. Pretty cool. Walking on we got to the dinner tables. It was still light out. I took pics of the trail and at the tables. We sat down and talked a bunch. Eventually we were told about the buffet style serving and we got our food and a guy playing a didgeridoo played around the tables. He told stories of Aboriginal people and about the outback. The sun eventually set and looking up was amazing. Someone else pointed out stars and told stories of them and how Aboriginals used them in the past. We saw horoscope signs too. Alpha Centauri, the Northern Cross (or was it Southern? I can't remember) and Jupiter and Venus very clearly.

There was an Irish crowd that got a little loud but that wasn't too bad. (Apparently the next night there was a French group and a huge fight started because they were too loud, DJ told us because he heard from the Didge player at the supermarket the morning after) I tried white wine and it was harder to drink than the champagne from before. And a fly made a suicidal dip in it later on, anyways. We had pumpkin soup prior to the meal. It was great when I added salt. I ate kangaroo on a stick, crocodile ceasar salad, fried veggies, a mussel, some fish pasta that I didn't like, lamb, and I can't remember anything else.

We talked at our table a bunch and eventually dessert was opened up. The best brownies ever were there! I also had carrot cake, bread pudding, some other stuff that I forget, and hot chocolate. After that we talked more and went back on the bus. On the ride back, a few camels ran past our bus! Right in front! I saw a glimpse of one! Just a flash though. Awesome! In the wild and everything.

After that, we went to bed. We got back to a Ukranian couple in our room instead of the old people. We hoped they hadn't been replaced. Oh well. These people were younger and nice. I didn't talk to them much, but Cameron did.