Australia Hits

Opens Wednesday 26 November

A romantic action-adventure, Australia centers on an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a ranch in far Northern Australia. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn driver (Hugh Jackman), only to still face bombing by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier. (From South Bank Cinema)

One day, I watched the News about the storm on TV, and to my surprise, I found that Nicole Kidman as well as Hugh Jackman walked on the red carpet in Sydney. Actully, they were here to promote the new movie, "Australia," so there was a premiere in Sydney. In virtue of this film, the programme started to introdue the landscapes in the scenes, such as Home Valley Station, Bowen, Darwin etc.

Hugh Jackman is suitable for this charater because he's Austrlian. I'm not sure whether he lives in Sydney or not, but his father's company is beside Sydney Opera House. He had introduced some views and stores in Sydney through the interview before.

I can't wait to see this moive which describes an epic and romantic action adventure, set in Australia.

Horrible Storms

(The picture above is from ABC News.)

There has been a lot of storms since last Sunday night, and these horrible storms have seriously hit Brisbane repeatedly. It's hard to imagine when the stoms have gone because the weather is always fine during the day, but stoms come in the evening with much lightning, noisy thunder as well as heavy rain and ferocious winds. I think that the storms here are similar to strongest typhoons in Taiwan, and they seem like that plenty of typhoons come every day even though cause too much disaster.

(The video above was filmed from my backyard.)

Now, I want to talk about my experience of the horrile storm on Wednesday night. I awakened before dawn when the furious storm hit my house strongly. I could hear windy downpours clearly; consequently, I felt too frightened to be asleep. I suddenly thought that my English teacher told me to be careful with the storm as a result of the dangerous situation that the roof would be blown way. For that reason, I waked up immediately to check all the windows as well as doors in the house. After I did all I would do, I came back to my room and tried to sleep once more. Nevertheless, the worst of all happened. It rained INSIDE. I couldn't believe what I saw was that the rain was leaking in large drops through the roof. I wanted to tell my landlord, but it was so late that I didn't know it was polite to wake him up. Therefore, I just found a rag to prevent the rain from falling to my bed, and I prayed that the storm would cease soon.

Despite of the fact that I couln't remember when I was asleep again, I was very pleased to see the sunshine when getting up. Thanks God to protect me from harm.

Start my life in Brisbane

I live in Brisbane where a city belongs to Queensland, Australia now, but I was in Taipei two weeks ago. Everything for me is fresh and exciting when I look around Brisbane City. There are some differences from Taiwan and Australia. First of all, people in Australia drive on the right as well as the traffic here is much more strange than in Taiwan. Although I haven't adjusted the traffic rules, drivers here are friendly and nice to wait pedestrians to cross the road first then turn. I'm not sure if they have the rule to punish for without waiting pedestrians before turning like that in Taiwan. However, people here always drive very fast, so I felt excited on my first time of taking the bus from Brisbane Airport. It seems that drivers in OZ doesn't be severely punished for speeding.

Besides, the weather in Brisbane is so unusal that I felt too hot few days ago, but I feel very wet and cold these days. It appears that I was in summer yesterday then I am in the winter now! How weird the weather is! No wonder it is easy to get cold if you don't adapt the condition. As a result, my landlord told me that it seldom rains in Brisbane so that I' d better not waste water and take a shower in 4 minutes. But, there are a lot of rain these days I live in Brisbane, so it means that I'm so lucky to experience the unpridictable weather.

Third, the houses in Queensland is very unique as well as beautiful, so I love them at first sight. This common residential building is called them Queenslander architecture which is always contructed of mostly wood. Also, Queensladers are identifiable by large verandas and large double door, and they are designed to increase air-flow throughout the houses by the way of large doors and windows; therefore, there is no air-condition in the house I rent now, because it's not suitable for much hotter summer. If the temperature is too high to stay at home, it will rain later.

To sum up, the aspects above show cultural differences between Taiwan and Australia, and I'm so glad to spend my one year experiencing the life in OZ. I really feel that it is a big adventure and worth enjoying everything I have tried. Before arriving here, I was a bit of nervous but now I believe that everything will be fine as long as I make the most effort.