The Great Sydney Dust Storm

Me with my hair all crazy. It has been windy ever since...the Sydney Dust Storm! pictured below.

So Gabe, a Fulbrighter in Canberra, spent the night last Tuesday the 21st, that's right, the DAY BEFORE THE DUST STORM. He was on his way home to America for a mini-vacation and needed somewhere to stay, so I left the key out for him Tuesday afternoon while I went to class and did a presentation. (Which went rather poorly, due to extreme lack of class participation or, even, class attendance). It started THUNDERING and POURING RAIN in the last five minutes of class, so on the ten-minute sprint to the bus stop I got soaked. Gabe couldn’t have had better timing because I managed to dash from my bus stop to the closest pub, and Gabe brought my raincoat and some umbrellas so it was all good. Had a headache, and Gabe was tired too. We were both asleep by 10 with the wind howling outside. Little did I know this would be the beginning of a week-long headache, and a week-long cold, windy snap…winds ten to twenty knots, highs of twenty Celsius, and the infernal headache…

Woke up at dawn on Wednesday morning and the sky was RED--the entire world was bathed in orange-reddish light. I thought it was the Apocalypse but then I saw a businessman march by on his way to the bus stop, and I figured if the buses are still running, the Rapture hasn't come. I went back to sleep. The sun burned off the red haze, eventually, but it was a weird morning and since then—a week ago—the birds have been blowing sideways.

And yes, Gabe and I missed the memo (apparently the tv was telling people DON'T GO OUT BECAUSE YOU WILL BREATHE IN THE DUST AND DIE OF RED LUNG DISEASE or something like that) hence the nice walk down to the beach. And pretty photos. Enjoy!