Gratitude at Uluru Rock

 I forgot to post an update from Uluru/Ayers Rock, Australia.

For those of you not in the know about internationally famous spiritual monoliths, Uluru (or it’s post-colonial name, Ayers Rock) is one of the world’s largest naturally formed monoliths. It holds great value for the indigenous native people of the region.

The sights and natural beauty we have encountered along this journey has been truly remarkable. I could never pin point the most beautiful sight. Was it the sunrise over Ayers rock? The helicopter trip over the Great Barrier Reef? Or maybe it is the jealous face you are pulling as you realize I’m basically just bragging now and you will never experience a life of adventure quite like mine. Who can say which is the most spectacular?

In all seriousness though, I cannot describe the happiness and gratitude I have for being given the opportunity to live a life of travel and adventure.

My dad decided to stop blogging after our family history tour of Eastern Europe, and I see his reasoning now. There is a certain sense of humility that I really, really fail to portray when I post tales of our extravagant adventures.

As you can probably tell, most of my posts are humorous, which undercuts the arrogance of the whole journey a bit. But I do want to take a step back and express my gratitude to my family for affording me this luxury. I hope you can live somewhat vicariously through my posts. And if not, well, I truly send my deepest apologies (I am typing that in a tone that is only partially sarcastic).

With love from Uluru, Australia,

Rivi

The GOP Convention

We watched it on mute while packing our bags. It was significantly better when we didn't have to hear the words coming out of their mouths.

We had to leave before hearing Melania Trump speak, but we ended up getting the full rundown the next morning. Apparently, some of her words were directly taken from a speech given previously by Michelle Obama. 

I wrote a Facebook post about it:

With love from Uluru, Australia,

Rivi 

What do you mean I'm not a zoologist? I have all the Koala-fications!!

Things That Happen When Traveling with a Second Grade Teacher

Things That Happen When Traveling with a Second Grade Teacher (Part 1)

For those of you not in the know, Marci/my mom is an elementary school teacher.You can take the teacher out of second grade but you can't take the second grade out of the teacher...

1. She will smile too widely in all the photos.

  

2. She will make you take dreadfully adorkable photos.

3. She will get overly excited about choo choo train rides in the park.

4. But most importantly, she will take her elementary school work on her vacation. 

This is Flat Stanley.

Flat Stanley is some kind of second grade craft project. Or English project. Maybe science? I think he was in a book. Maybe I should start listening... Oh well...

Here he is by the train:

Here he is on the train (yes, apparently we needed a new photo while seated):

Here he is at a chocolate museum:

Here he is chilling with a sign for psychiatric medications:

Here he is photobombing a perfectly good photo of the sisters:

I've got my eye on you Stanley-- I see you stealing this show. I can crush you. (Honestly, that's not super impressive because flat stanley is just a piece of paper with some colored pencil) But I will crush you. 

With Love from Sydney, Australia,

Rivi (and the Dollinger family) (and flat Stanley)

Adorkable Sisters

Is it windy today?

Feels pretty windy today.

In progress

A little update on how things are moving along down under...

Blog: We've been here three days and this is my first post. So, not great.

Knitting: Finishing up a shawl that I started before we left.

Exercise: Both parents thoroughly enjoy embarrassing the heck out of Shayna and me by doing a terrible jig when their FitBits hit 10,000 steps. We do a lot of walking, and it's really great that we are getting so much walking and exploring and sightseeing in. I still believe the running man dance is an unnecessary bonus. 

TV Show binge watching: Australian Netflix is WAY better than American Netflix. So many great movies! I mean, I just watched How I Met Your Mother reruns. But still, the potential for quality viewing is pretty great. 

SimCity: Level 16, and I finally can afford sewage for my residents! Yes, I know I have better things to do with my time. Shut up.

Adventures: We've been doing some pretty awesome stuff. More on that soon.

With love from Sydney, Australia,

Rivi (and the Dollinger family)

Why not?

Rivi here, with the latest installment of "Dollinger Summer Travels as told through creative writing and obscure internet jokes". We shall just call it the summer blog.

No, I did not tell anyone I was doing this. Nor did I plan on doing this. But then the day of our first flight arrived so I though, why not?

There's lots of reasons I could have chosen to document this summer's trip (Australia and New Zealand, for those of you not in the know). It's good to practice my non fiction writing, as well as my humor writing. It's really special to have something to look back on in a digital archive (Shoutout to Professor Juhasz and my MCSI fellowship opportunity). Maybe I could use parts of this blog in a future writing portfolio. Maybe I just like captioning historical artifacts.

But in the end, I just decided: Why not?

With love from San Rafael,

Rivi
(Rebecca Dollinger)