Land of Oz, Left Behind

I'm in there somewhere...

By the time this is posted I'll probably have been in Bali for a couple of nights, catching up on cheap massages and rice paddies.

I'm leaving Australia this evening.

I’m leaving the land of the Emu and the Southern Cross, where on lucky nights Scorpio and Orion blaze in full glory from opposing horizons. I’m leaving a land of red earth and soul and miniature dragons, where backyard birds consist of cockatoos and parrots and fairy wrens. I’m leaving a land where cars carry two spare tires, where blue on a map doesn’t promise water, where wombats and wallabies raid woks full of food and snow gums hold fast to the earth, yet spiral into the sky in psychedelic beauty.

I've worked in the desert, in climbing paradises, in the alpine, in the jungle and at the beach. I've roamed through blizzards and navigated mountain passes and wandered pristine coastlines. I've played with parrotfish and seals and cursed the sun and shouted over deafening hoards of cicadas.  

I've met some truly incredible people here, compassionate and knowledgable and skillful and full of things to teach me. People who welcomed me as foreign, as the first Jew they've ever met, who found joy in the food I cooked them and showed me "how to be Australian."

I now understand the sentence, "I'll bring a capsicum with the esky this arvo to with me in the ute to the servo across from Maccas in the CBD." I almost recognize wife beaters and booty shorts as legitimate male sporting uniform, played on something that may as well be a grounded Quidditch field.

I've also experienced racism. A lot of racism. I've been told I'm ruining the world because I'm American. I've been shown Nazi salutes by students. I've navigated the world of reconciling after stereotypes thrown in my face by friends who had no idea what they implied.

I've treated snakebites and sprained ankles, blisters and bee stings. I've dealt with athsma and anaphylaxis and behavioral issues beyond my imagination. Through my work I've laughed and cried, been broken and found joy.

I like to hope I've been able to pay forward some small portion of the blessing given to me this year and a half, getting kids out into the bush and teaching them how to care for themselves, take responsibility for themselves, and make good decisions.

I never expected to end up in Australia, and once I landed I stayed almost a year longer than I had planned. I feel like my journey here has given me everything I could have wanted, despite that I've seen less than half the country. It's a happy note from which to move forward.

A trip to Australia is wholly incomplete without a Dangerous Animal Roundup, so the count goes as follows:
     Eastern Brown Snake: 1
     Copperhead: 2
     Red bellied black snake: 1
     White-lipped snake: 1
     Scorpion: 1
     Funnel web spider: 2
     Goanna: 3
     Tassie Tiger Snake: too many to count

And just for kicks, the Cute and Fuzzy Animal Roundup:
     Fairy Penguin: 30
     Emus: 20
     Platypus: 1
     Koalas: bunches
     Cassowary: 4
     Sea turtle: 5
     New Zealand Fur Seal: a whole bunch
     Turbo chicken: 10
     Kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats: everywhere you look
     Echidna: two dozen
     Brush-tailed possum: tons and tons and tons
     Rock Wallaby: 3
     Dingo: 1

     ...and a single, lonely drop bear.