the greatest place on earth

I found my new favourite place in the world. I didn't think I could love a city more than I loved Chicago, but as soon as I saw the Sydney Harbor I was hooked. Yall, this place is absolutely gorgeous! 

Obviously, there is the Sydney Harbor, but this city offers so much more than just the pretty view! Monday, Abby and I rented bikes and spent all day riding around the city and seeing all of the sights. We rode our bikes over the harbor bridge (!!!!!!!) and then by the Prime Minister and Governor General's house. These are the two authority figures right under the Queen, and they only had 2 security guards outside their house! We were shocked. It just proves that the "no worries" attitude is everywhere. Then we rode our bikes by Luna Park which might be the sketchiest looking theme park I've ever seen. You enter through a giant clown's mouth. I'm not real sure why some people find that appealing. We rode back over the bridge, and to a warf for lunch. They are about to expand their downtown, but they haven't started constructing any buildings yet, so right now there is just a concrete slab that follows the water so we were able to ride along that. Then we went to Darling Harbor which was so adorable. Tons of restaurants and cafes lining the water. We rode our bikes through China Town, and then all through the botanic gardens which were absolutely beautiful. 

It had the perfect lookout so that you can see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. I think this was my favourite part of the ride. It was all so green and there were people being active, and sitting on the grass having picnics. Then we rode over to the Sydney Opera House. We went inside, but got kicked out after a few minutes because the lady didn't realize the door was unlocked. oops. but at least we can save we've been inside...for free.

After we returned our bikes, I enjoyed two of my favorite things: 

Ice cream and the view. 

After our 6 hour bike ride, we went to our conference, and then Abby and I went back to Darling Harbor for dinner. It had a great atmosphere. Live music and people sitting all along the harbor. 

Tuesday we went to Olympic Park and spent a few hours exploring out there. It was so neat and made me want to go to every city that has hosted the olympics to see what they have done. We spent some more time in the Habor, went out to Manley Beach, then to our conference and to a pub afterwards.

It was an excellent trip that was entirely too short. I know for a fact that Sydney has not seen the last of me. I don't know if I'll have time to go back there this year, but at some point in my life I will go back. 

so until we meet again..Sydney, I love you.

a house is not a home...

So many things could be filled in at the end of that sentence. Lauren, I remember you getting a sign saying "a house is not a home without a baylor bear". Well let me just tell you that my house here has no baylor bear and we are still managing to make it work and have a blast. My new goal for myself is to have a piece of restored furniture in every house I live in for the rest of my life. So for now while I'm still a poor, recent college grad I'm going to say, "a house is not a home until you find a free piece of furniture on the side of the road, take it home and paint it!" Here is my before and after. I'm not loving it yet, but I think it will grow on me. I'm not afraid of bold colors and it definitely adds a lot to the room with such plain walls.

We have learned that it's not normal for people to pick things up off the side of the road. WHAT?!?!? Over half of our house is furnished with things found on the side of the road! At first it was just the Australians saying its not normal, so we thought maybe its an American thing to do? But after talking to the Americans here, we learned that we are the only ones who are okay with all of this. But we don't care, if it gets us free stuff we are all for it!

Abby and I are going to Sydney in 8 days! We can't wait to finally start traveling and experiencing the world!

love ya heaps!

feels like home to me

Melbourne Cricket Ground where all the footy games are played. In September we are going to the Collingworth vs. Geelong footy game. They are the top two ranked teams in the AFL. We are officially Geelong fans.. GO CATS!

To welcome Melanie to the city, all of the girls went out for the night. This is in a hotel that supposedly has one of the best night time views of the city.

Three weeks in and we finally try Vegemite! Mom, you were wrong I actually like it! We've been told that people use it wrong. They tend to use it as a spread and apply it thicker like peanut butter, instead of a thin layer like butter. I didn't taste much flavor, its just salty.

WE GOT TO FILL OUT THE CENSUS!! I can say that this is the first time I've had to check 'other' for place of birth.

Yall, TimTams are incredible. I read about them on here on Lullaby Lubbock and was looking forward to trying them before I even left the country. If you ever see them in the States, buy them immediately! I've heard that they are available in the Spring time at Kroger and Target. I can already tell that I'm going to crave them after I leave Australia. 

Well, when you don't have a dryer and its rainy outside your clothes have to sit in your room to dry. We are going to try making our own laundry detergent since its about $30 here for a small box of the powder stuff, and we might have to splurge and buy fabric softener if we can't make that for ourselves.

Work has been going good. I have been back to the same school a few times, and it is fun to have the students recognize me when I walk onto campus. Its entertaining to hear the different things that the students know about America, and the questions they have. One student asked if all of our restaurants are 5-star, and another asked me America has "black cops" but after asking him to clarify I realized that he was asking if we had the video game "black ops". The accents get tricky sometimes!

the big move

WE HAVE A HOUSE IN AUSTRALIA!!! AND WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! 

Here we are with Sarah, our Australian roommate. We just signed out lease and our realtor, Joel took the picture for us. This sweet man prints us a map every time we see him because we always have to go somewhere right after. 

Since our house is only a block or two up the road from where we were staying, we just wheeled our suitcases home. We realized what a blessing it was that our baggage didn't make it to Australia on time with us and was delivered a day after we arrived, because there is no way we could have carried everything alone. This is only half of it...

We had to go into the city buy stuff for our rooms and accidently got off on the wrong tram stop, but we found Bourke Street!! We love it! There are so many cute shops, tons of people, and street performers! 

**not pictured from our moving day:

-walking a mattress, and three kitchen chairs to our house. We passed a handful of cafes along the way all with outdoor seating, so we gave the customers quite a show.

-taking a five minute drive in a small SUV with the backdoor open, a bed frame hanging out, and a rope tied around the spare tire on the back to prevent the door from swinging open.

-finding a HUGE wardrobe on the side of the road, and strapping it to the roof of the car, only to realize that we couldn't open the doors because we strapped it down through the windows. We all had to climb in through the windows

-finding a mattress and driving home with it sitting on, but not strapped on the roof. All of us were hanging out the windows holding it down. 

So after we got settled in, Abby and I decided to go out to eat to celebrate. We walked to the bus stop, checked when the bus will come. "Friday at 8:30. Thats a 30 minute wait but we can do it". 45 minutes go by, and we look at the time table again only to realize that it was SATURDAY and the bus stopped running at 6. WHOOPS! 

It's all about the memories..right??!

working girl

To celebrate our last weekend before work, we went to a Winter Festival at a local primary school! These are our friends here!

We saw a TRIPLE rainbow! Thats right, a triple rainbow. You can only see two here but it was so pretty!

Here is my welcome package from anzuk. They gave us a water bottle, a pencil bag, a backpack, a folder, a street map, and a hat that we have to wear whenever we are outside during terms 1 and 2. 

Work this week has been fun, but so different than I expected. The schools are not the same as they are in America. They clump their grades, or levels, together, so there isn't much instruction time because while the students might be learning about the same topic, they are all learning different things about that one topic. Also, "damn" "shit" and "hell" aren't bad words here. It was shocking to hear a little 6 year old say 'damn it' when I told her she had to wait a little bit to use the toilet.

Here we are! The students here call teachers by their first names which I'm still getting used to. The aussies can't say "megan" so they call me "mEEgan". My fifth grade science teacher called me mEEgan, and I would not have hated it so much back then if I knew that he was preparing me for this adventure. When a little kid with aussie accents says it, it is just so dang cute!

Our sweet friend, Em, made us her favorite dinner tonight! happy two weeks in Australia to us!

We are moving into MelRose Place on Saturday, and we could not be more excited! We are almost certain that we are getting a 4th roommate. She is a girl from Vanderbilt who is coming here to do research and was involved with CRU during uni. She got connected with one of the stinters here, and she sent us her way. She gets here August 11, and we can't wait to meet her.




HEAPS OF LOVE!