The Big 5-0 (My golden post!)

Hey, this is it guys, the big post number 5-0. I feel like I should have a cake or something. Unfortunately, there is not much of very great import on which I can speak in this particular entry. This past Saturday we spent the day at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, which is like a kind of recreation town that tries to mirror what life was like in a mining town in the 1850's during the Australian gold rush. What's that you say, you didn't realize that Australia had a gold rush too? Well, let me tell you there was an Australian man by the name of Edward Hargraves who ran off to look for gold in California and came back without having had much luck. But he did notice that the climate and the plant life of the two places were rather similar, so he tried to do a little prospecting down here. That was where he got really lucky, and started the first Australian gold rush in about 1854. Good story, eh? Well, Sovereign Hill was actually pretty well done as a historical thing-jigger. The staff all dressed in costume and tried to talk as if they were really back in the 1850's. There was a man who stopped us in the street and asked, "Excuse me, but is that how young women dress in the colonies?" I think we caused quite a scandal, running around in men's denim trousers. We also got to go to a school house, where we had to practice our writing in old style font with pens dipped in inkwells. I think Pete must have been sweet on the teacher, he was asking her how old she was. And Katie, naughty girl that she is, was passing notes in class. The teacher made sure to warn us that there was no laughing or talking in her classroom b/c school is not meant to be fun! We also got to see a guy pour out a gold ingot into a mold, which would have been worth some insane amount like 50,000 dollars. I have to say though, when he pulled that red-hot crucible out of the furnace and started pouring the gold, all I could think of was the forging of the rings of power, it looked exactly the same. Nerd. We got to see British infantry march and fire off a salute to the flag (union jack, of course). The mine tour that we did was actually really interesting, they basically showed us all the reason why it was basically insane to go and work for one of the company mines. You could fall down the shaft of the "safey" elevator and plumet 3000 feet to your death. You could get caught in an explosion, flood or cave in. You could get silicosis from breathing in the quartz dust. Or you could get pneumonia from coming out of the intense heat of the mine to a freezing cold winter temperature. Sound's like a great job, right? Well, at the end of the tour we also had a train ride back out of the mine, which was kitchy but fun. Hope, I have to say that I was thinking about you all day, first from the gold thing ("I only wish that I could have had more gold!") and then this train ride reminded me so much of the Underground, they even had fake plastic guys standing around and a fake explosion/mine cave in thing. Oh Bad Bob, how I miss you, darlin'!

Ummm...yeah, but I almost forgot to tell you the best part. They had this old timey band playing outside of the post office and me and Katie and Diana went over and started bouncing around a bit b/c they were playing a catchy tune. So, I see this little Asian woman out of the corner of my eye and stop dancing, and she starts pulling on my arm, and starts bouncing around like we had been. I got the message. A moment of hesitation, then what the heck, I just started up my little hoedown again. She starts waving to her tour group and they're all taking pictures of us. Katie's laughing at me, but then the woman drags her over for her picture and she plays along too. Soon Diana, Katie and I are all in a picture together with this woman, and when she's done she motions the man in the red sweater who had been taking her picture over and he takes some pictures with us. We're posing like lunatics of course, kicking up our heels with these goofy smiles on our faces. By now we have attracted quite a sizable crowd of Asian tourists, all of whom are snapping pictures. Wow, I don't remember the last time that something so funny and random happened to me! (Cultural question: Why is it that Asian people seem to need to take pictures of everything?)

In addition to photo crazy tourists, they also had this creek where you can actually pan for gold (which the staff puts in every so often, but at least it is real gold). It was funny b/c I could see how easily it could become an addictive behavior for the miners. Like, just one more pan full of dirt, this'll be the one where I strike it rich. It was hard not to get gold fever, especially b/c I seem to have an aptitude for panning.

So there you go, my day basking in the golden glow of Sovereign Hill. I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to this particular excursion, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Wahoobie.