could we start again please?

(subject headings: "animal encounters," "food we have eaten," "Peru," "the Bolshevik")

as you may have noticed, i have not blogged in some time.  i had all these delusions that i would write a whole bunch of posts about malaysia, and that i would be able to catch up before the next adventure began.  this of course did not happen.

then my computer crashed and refused to open iPhoto ever again.  but it is unfair to blame my old computer.

so here is an extremely brief recap to get you up to speed ...

1.  malaysia was awesome.  the food is delicious, and if for no other reason i highly recommend going there just so you can eat.  we also saw a whole load of asian temples, and i fulfilled my dream of being attacked by monkeys.  it looked something like this:
















2.  while in malaysia, sampling the most incredible food imaginable, the bolshevik finally proposed to me.  after carrying around an engagement ring for over two months, spanning several continents, on the 3rd to last day of our trip he asked me to marry him.  it looked something like this:

(dramatization)

3.  then in the following seven months i worked as an ESL teacher, went to an international job fair, secured a librarian job in Peru, finished my school media certification, finished my novel, captained a competitive jump rope team (we placed 3rd in the Punk Rope Games!), helped start a union, and planned what i am told was a pretty awesome wedding.  the wedding looked something like this:

















and that's what has happened since i stopped blogging back in november.  so we can just start from there, right?  cool.

so now the bolshevik and i are in a hotel room in Lima ... we just arrived last night and very soon someone will be picking us up and taking us to our apartment.  (the school found us what appears to be an incredible apartment).  then tonight the bolshevik is whisking me away to a secret honeymoon location.  you know how bolsheviks like to whisk people away.

i'm going to see how long i can go before i figure out where we're going.  i am wondering if it's possible to actually board the plane and still not know our destination.  we'll see.

to be continued ... (in a reasonably punctual fashion, i swear)

australia summary

so we headed over to australia to visit my aunt and uncle in melbourne, with the idea that we would then travel all over the land of oz going on zany adventures and looking at huge rocks in the middle of the desert.  however, this did not happen.  due to the exchange rate not being so favorable, the jacked up rugby world cup prices in new zealand, and the general pricy-ness of australia, we decided to ditch said plans and go to south east asia instead.  yup, that's how we roll.

but i couldn't just skip to tales of malaysian adventure without telling you about our fabulous but brief adventures in the land down under.

the bolshevik finally realized his dream of being a professional didgeridoo player and i made friends with a very sociable, and very tall, kangaroo .... just kidding.  well, i guess it's actually not quite that far from the truth ...

tasmanian devils fighting over
a wallaby leg

i think one of my favorite australia activities was the penguin parade, which sadly we were not allowed to take pictures of.  but pretty much, you go to this island where they have lots o' penguins and you sit on these little bleachers and wait for all the penguins to come in from the ocean.  these particular penguins are very small so it's super adorable to watch these foot-tall penguins come over the sand dunes and then waddle over to their nests.  and as it was mating season, we got the rare opportunity to watch two penguins getting it on.  yup, happened right in front of us.  the male penguin flaps his flippers surprisingly fast.  that's what she said?

then the bolshevik and i headed over to tasmania for a couple of days where we frolicked with various wildlife.  i've realized that outside of the u.s. they run fast and loose with the safety rules and will allow tourists to do all sorts of questionably dangerous things.  for example, walk into a big field of kangaroos and feed them without any supervision.  so there i was happily feeding a bunch of little kangaroos when a very large kangaroo snuck up on me from behind and started eating out of my hand from over my shoulder.


we stayed in a little beachy town called bicheno (pronounced "bisheno" not "bitchin'-o") and did a walk along the shore to see a blowhole.  there were many inappropriate comments inspired by the blowhole that i will not repeat here.  but trust me, we covered the gamut of blowhole jokes on our walk.

so that's pretty much a week in australia.  while i'm sad that we won't get to explore the outback or go to the great barrier reef, i think we made the right decision to give up on oceania and venture over to asia.  so next post: awesome malaysian adventures!

a koala and her joey ...
c'mon, you can't have a post
about australia without a koala