Happenings Down Under

I'm alive! I know it has been about a month since I have blogged. It has been on my to do list I promise! I know you are all just dying for me to dish on all the happenings in Australia this past month. So here it goes!

Sydney weather

Conserving water and time by taking a shower in the street on the walk home from work.

Running in dirty puddles

I have come to realize that the weather in Australia is as bipolar as a kid at Christmas. It can't decide what weather forecast it wants to be just like the kid can't decide on which toy it wants to play with first. Solution: pick everything and play with it for a few hours before switching to something new...Shesh. Whether there are thunderstorms, wind storms, dust storms, flash floods, or just the perfect sunny day, I am pleased to experience all types of weather Australia has to offer. Speaking of weather, when it is nice my friends and I try to take advantage of it.

My favorite, Hyde Park

Kim, we are at the Hyde Park Barracks Museum

Kim and I went to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum and wandered around. It was designed by convict architect Francis Greenway between 1818-1819. It was originally built to house convict men and women. Walking around the courtyard I felt like a convict..I admit, I was tempted to take a pebble from the courtyard and not tell anyone about it.

Other exciting news, I went to the Blue Mountains again. Or as my friend Cecile likes to call them, the Blue 'Canyons'. She says they are not real mountains like the ones in Europe. I believe her. We had a shaky start to our trip which was supposed to begin at the train station at 800am to catch the 813 train to Blackheath. However, there was some confusion on the time as Cecile thought that when I said 813am I was saying 830am. This resulted in us sprinting to Central Station at 810 (we both realized that we misunderstood the other). I was telling her to hurry and that we needed to leave to catch the train and was confused as to why she was taking her time while she was confused as to why I was so frantic that we get to the train station immediately. 

Luckily we made it on time and could sleep the rest of the one and a half hour train ride. When we finally reached Blackheath we set off in what we thought was the right direction. I had quickly written the trail directions (or summarized short hand directions) on the back of a paper bag and eyeballed a rough sketch of the trail map since I am an artist and all. We got lost. Luckily we asked a nice park goer for directions and he kindly took us to the trail head. Since my illegible directions were so accurate we got lost but had a good time seeing the sights and climbing a lot of lovely stairs! In the end we came out at a car park about 30minutes drive from Blackheath and a kind woman gave us a ride back to town. It was a fun adventure to say the least!

Sleepy train ride

Cecile loves to rock climb!

I can say I have walked through the Australian Grand Canyon!

Sure, I'll walk through the dark cave first. Thanks Cecile! Boy was I glad that I didn't bring a flashlight.

Tree climbing!

More Exciting news! Thanksgiving that's what! Yes I had Thanksgiving dinner here in Australia. Kim and I cooked a ton of food for our friends. We had mashed potatoes, garlic grilled green beans, sugared carrots, bread rolls, baked yam with marshmallows, sausage hot dogs as opposed to the overpriced turkey, corn on the cob, and yummy wine! For dessert we made baked apples with brown sugar and cinnamon. Not all typical Thanksgiving items but we tried to at least stay with "American" themed dishes. We basically ate ourselves into a food coma and we lazed around the rest of the night just talking. 

Kim was hungry for mashed potatoes. She wanted them asap!

Cecile, Kim and I

Food!!!!!

Everyone except for Laura

All that food made us pretty tired so the next day Kim, Cecile and I decided that relaxing on the beach is the perfect cure for a food coma. We traveled an hour and a half to Palm Beach (one of the Northern beaches) to find some privacy and quiet for a nice day at the beach. The waves were pretty strong there but the atmosphere up North was relaxed. We walked along the beach and found some jelly fish larger than our heads! 

I am having a great time in Australia so far and cannot believe that I will be home in a months time! Some random notes about living in Australia. Lines are called queues, the term 'far out' is used all the time, vegemite is gross, McDonalds is referred to as Mackers, and all the television shows are old reruns of American shows. I hope all is well back in the States! I miss everyone <3