A Second Birthday in Australia

Only three more weeks until I leave for the US! Gosh, the time is going by SO fast. I’m excited to be going home, but I’m really going to miss this place and the friends I’ve made. But enough about that for now!

This week I got to witness an Australian tradition: sheep shearing. One of my friends, Amber, is married to a sheep sheared, so she invited me out to the woolshed where he was working one day. I had an idea what to expect after going to the Naracoorte Sheep’s Back Museum with Sarah, but it was great to see everything live. Inside the shed were lots of wooly sheep waiting in a pen to be sheered. I watched as Lachlan, Amber’s husband, and the other sheerer grabbed a sheep out of the pen and dragged it to the sheering station, where they proceeded to pin the sheep with their legs and shave its thick wool off. They worked quite fast and finished an entire sheep in probably three minutes or less. Amber told me that the really good shearers can do 800 or more sheep per day. That’s almost two sheep a minute! After the wool was shaved off (in one piece) a girl came by and collected it and took it to the sorting table, where a man picked out the bad pieces. He then took the wool to a press where it was compacted into large blocks. By the time the shearers had done five or six sheep they were drenched in sweat, and it wasn’t a hot day. Amber said that shearers expend as much energy as a marathon runner. I can see why!

 Sheep waiting to be shorn. 

 Lachlan in action.

 Almost done!

 Naked sheep post-shearing.

 The whole process.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was my 24^th birthday. I don’t really feel any older. This was my second birthday in Australia, and I spent part of it on the phone to the immigration department (who I called after I was told that 406 visa applications take two to three months to process. They told me they would expedite my visa application and I should have a decision by the end of the week), part if it relaxing and watching Supernatural, and part of it with good friends. In the evening I met up with Amber at one of the two Thai restaurants in town for my birthday dinner. With everything going on this past week, I had completely forgotten to invite other people, so I thought it would just be her and me. However, a few minutes after sitting down, Jinhwa walked in and came up to us. I was really surprised because I didn’t think she and Amber knew each other. Jinhwa joined us and Amber explained that when I had told her I had forgotten to invite my other friends, she had called the caves and talked to some of the guides about coming out for my dinner. I was really touched that she had done that. It was so special to spend my birthday evening with two good friends. We all got the same thing (Pad See Eew, very similar to Pad Thai) and thoroughly enjoyed it. When the restaurant closed at 9:00, we headed to the Naracoorte Hotel for a few drinks and to continue our conversation. It was a wonderful way to spend my second birthday in a foreign country.

On another good note, I’ve found someone to buy my car! They’ve agreed to wait until I leave to actually buy it, so I don’t have to go without a car for the last few weeks. Things are starting to wrap up here!