Almost Done Down Under

I'm in another internet booth at the hotel reception area, have just popped in $2, and I have exactly 17 minutes and 1 second left for my internet usage.

The days seem to go fairly fast. It's nearly time to go home. Somehow, being here with my family feels so different from being anywhere else with the travel mates. The keyword is "patience".

Also, it's been raining everyday. On my birthday, yesterday, today, since we landed. To think I thought that I could escape the rainy monsoon season in Singapore. How wrong am I?

Just an update, I'm currently in Brisbane, and there isn't much to do here. We went to the Lone Pine Koala Santuary just now because we trudged through the entire city and found that Chinatown was as dead as ____ (insert famous dead celebrity).

Believe it or not, I've taken the role of tour guide on this trip, since none of the younger siblings seem to know (or want to, for that matter) how to read maps, bus guides, brochers. My younger sister is good at reading brocheres, but only a specific kind. Outlet Shop brochers, that is. Harbour Town, DFO, so on and so on, she pounces on them everytime we get to a new place. As for my brother, he gets the vote for the one most likely to get lost in a new city. My dad is good at navigation, but his command of English is not strong enough, and he ends up laughing at Caucasians for looking like Polar Bears. He says old Caucasians look like Koala Bears. Well, it's a little discriminatory, but for my dad, seeing too many Caucasians in a week has taken its toll on his mental state. (And well, if you look closely, they do sort of share some resemblance.)

And my mum. My mum is classic. She complains that the people in Aussie speaks too fast, and she has trouble catching on. Somehow over the course of the past few days, whatever I said also gets jumbled up and comes out differently. Correcting her is now an event that happens daily.

But you know, it's still good. Family time is good. We haven't gone anywhere together since 2 years ago, and we never get together much since everyone is so busy. Hence, it's good.

I'm gonna be right back before you know it!