The overland tour (1)
Feb 18th
I arrived Wagga Wagga _on time_ -- not quite a usual occasion for Australian railway! Old friend Ashley was waiting me at the platform. We had not met each other for almost five years, great changes of her, and we did enjoy talking with each other.
Wagga Wagga is a tiny town, not bigger than the SYSU campus in the Higher Education Mega Center in Guangzhou, but seems it's an important station in the Sydney-Melbourne railway. Ashley guided me into the only shopping mall ("nearly all the citizens would visit here") and had coffee together. Then Ashley had to go up to work and she asked me to stay in her own house.
Later, when Ashley got back from work, her uncle came and drove me to the his house, and I would stay there with Ashley and her uncle's family on that night. Her cousins, Angela and Kamen, were Australian citizens and could not speak madarin Chinese, while their dog Prince was too warm welcome that it seems he would eat up my trousers if he had chance. ("he's possible to do so," Ashley laughed, "one my trousers was ruined in such way")
After a satisfying dinner, Ashley and I enjoyed our chatting so much that we did not go to bed until 3 a.m. By the way, she arranged the bed so I could look up to the sky when I was on the bed, thus I could spot the Southern Cross -- nice girl.
On the second day, her uncle and aunt and herself drove me to take a brief look of the Sunday market and the town. Wagga Wagga is small but everything is ready for a easy life, this is also a "classic" Australian life which is very different from that of China/Asia.
The tour at Wagga Wagga was so pleased that I was sorry to leave. The XPT train to Melbourne had delay for half an hour ("usual occasions," Ashley noted), so I have half an hour more with Ashley. We had endless topic but the train arrived at last. Ashley gave me an "Australian" hug, "dunno how long it would be until the next time we meet." Yep, as an immigrant, Ashley and I are on different tracks now. Very soon we will be a few dozen thousands kilometers from each other and continue our lifes in different -- ways.
[[Image:Other/080218a.jpg|550|Together with Ashley at the Wagga Wagga railway station]]
Visiting Opera House, Sydney Bridge, and so on
Feb 16th
On 15th I nearly stay at home for a whole day, help on upgrading grandpa's computer, play with Claw (the cat). In the afternoon I visit cousin Sean's school and am able to have an overview of an Australian middle school. Large area of grasses and it seems the students do not have much homeworks to care, most of them were playing on the ground. Many Asian faces there.
In the evening, uncle Zhuang and aunt drove me to the downtown area. I observed a fantastic sunset at the top of the Sydney Tower (well mostly the guys up there are Chinese visitors). Then we went to the Opera House area, the sky was prefectably clear but I did not see the Southern Cross.
Since 16th I've began the overland travel. I've take a 6-hour railway ride to Wagga Wagga, a tiny town to the south boundary of New South Wales, to visit Ashley Chan (Chen Juebin), a former classmate of mine. Now I'm at her house.
Ashley have to do part-time job this afternoon and evening and we do not have much time to talk and look around the Wagga City, so I changed the schedule and decided to stay at Wagga Wagga for another 12 hours. Ashley will drive me to look around of the town in tomorrow morning, and I'll take the XPT train at 1:28 p.m. towards Melbourne to visit Mr. Mattiazzo, an amatuer astronomer which have interests on asteroids and comets, same as me.
I'll get a whole day to visit the downtown area of Melbourne on Monday too. Stay tuned for updates.
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