I'M ON HOLIDAY!!

Well hello again. For those of you who might have thought that I was attacked and eaten by a koala, I’m sorry. I’m still alive and kicking, but the last few weeks have been pretty low-key so I haven’t had much to tell you. But nooooow, we are on holiday!!!! Australia schools are on a year-round schedule so we have a few breaks throughout the year and our first one started this weekend!!! We are going to spend the next two weeks exploring and doing touristy stuff in and around Melbourne so be expecting lots of updates from this little chicki!

We kicked off our holiday with a girls-night-in. Pink champagne and footy (:

Melbourne has SO many festivals. I think there is always a festival of some sort going on. This is part of the fringe festival that highlights part of the independent arts community around the city. We were able to tie this flag to the bamboo pole. We talked to the artist, and I don't remember exactly what he was saying...something about how people get so passionate about flags, but what is the difference between your country's flag and a white flag, because when you strip everything from the flag you are passionate about isn't it just a plain white cloth? Weird, I know. But it was fun to be a part of his project!

We were at a pub eating lunch and watching the footy match on Saturday afternoon, when we see a man outside in a wedding dress. He was dressed up for his “bucks party” which is the same things as our bachelor party. Naturally, we went outside and took a picture with him! It is part of the tradition that the bachelor has to make a certain amount of money by the end of the night and the rest of the guys at the party decide how much money, and how he has to make it. I'm sure that makes for some interesting stories..

I fell in love with Melbourne a little bit more on Saturday. They have laneways which are little alleyways filled with cafes and little shops. They just come out of now where and if you don’t know they are there you can skip right over them. There are also a few alleyways that attract people because of their graffiti. I think graffiti can be such a beautiful form of expression, so I was loving this. On top of this graffiti in this alley were hundreds of pictures taken in other countries. We took our sweet time walking through this alley looking at the pictures and admiring the graffiti.  

proof that we have friends in Melbourne (:

Sunday afternoon at a pub listening to live music..mmmmm!

Monday afternoon we went to Brighton Beach, which is known for all of its brightly colored "beach boxes". I LOVED all the bright colors!! 

So there you go team. I'm still alive and still loving life!

point - America

Well, we have been here for just over 7 weeks now, and while I am still loving it here..actually I more-than-love it, I just don't know the appropriate word to use...anyway, being away from home for 7 weeks is a long time. It wasn't so bad when I lived in Chicago or Santa Cruz for three months because I still had access to the same things, but since being here I have accumulated a list of things I miss about the land of the free and the home of the brave:

A DRYER! Yall, don't take these things for granted! Having to set your clothes out on a drying rack takes so much effort and usually a solid two days to get your clothes dry..and if you leave them out on the clothes line for too long they start to smell like outside. woof. Not to mention, the stiffness and the wrinkles. I don't even want a fancy top-of-the-line dryer..I'd take the janky hand-me-down one from the Estroden. Thanks.

FRO YO! Specifically Spoonful. Abby and I found a place here and spend way to much money on some sub-par froyo. If only it were possible to have some shipped over here..

WEST TEXAS SUNSETS. Being able to see from horizon to horizon while the sky looks like it is on fire is a sight that can't be beat. We have great sunsets here, but all the dang buildings block the view.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL! GOOOOOOOOO TECH!

PEANUT BUTTER CHIPS! If you know me, then you know this is a staple item for me every time I go to the grocery store. I think I would go through a bag a week at home. They are the perfect little snack, and unfortunately they can't be found in the land down under. bummmmerrrr

DAYS WITH NO RAIN! Part of me feels bad complaining about the large amounts of rain we get when I know that Texas is being burned to a crisp, but out of the 50ish days we have been here I would guess that it has rained at least 20. I have come to the realization that I can scratch Seattle off my 'places I want to live' list because I could not handle this cold, miserable rain year round. 

SALAD BARS! Gosh, the things I would do for a good salad.

SINGING! I love singing in my car, especially with the windows down, and obviously that isn't an option for me down here. So instead I sing quietly at tram stops when I'm alone (: 

CENTRAL HEATING! I'm normally such a hot-natured person and don't mind the cold, but on days like today, when it is hardly 45 degrees outside and rains all day long there is nothing I want to do more than crawl up on the couch with the heater turned on and watch a movie. Unfortunately, we have no couch to cuddle on, no heater to properly warm up the house, and no dvd player for movies. PTL for my bed, my electric blanket, and my computer to watch Pearl Harbor. 

So there it is. My little list of ways that America is winning. Congratulations USA.

I will say that Australia is making a big deal out of September 11. I never realized how much that day effected the rest of the world, so it has been neat to hear a totally different perspective from that day. Most Australians can tell you exactly what they were doing when they found out, and even the kids that were born after the attacks know about the significance of September 11. I'll give you a point for that one, Australia. Keep it up

Cheers yall

My address...

I just realized that I haven't given yall my address! Don't forget about me when you're addressing your Christmas cards this year! 


Megan Cotter
58c Melville Road
Brunswick West, Victoria 3055
Australia


Snail mail is appreciated too (:

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Sayyy what???!?! Father’s day in the beginning of September??! That’s right folks, all sorts of things are backwards down here and that means that today, September 4, is Australian Father’s Day.

So here’s to you dad! Thanks for being you, and putting up with me and loving me for the past 24 years. I would give you a "howdja" but just one Cotter typing it out isn't nearly as effective as 33 Cotters singing it, so I'm not even going to go down that road. I know you aren’t Australian, but I feel like an Australian now, which means that I’m allowed to celebrate you today! 

I love you dad! Keep on rockin!

my first footy game

Well we crossed another thing off our friend's "top ten thing to do in Melbourne" list. We went to a footy game! Australian Rules Football is the closest thing you can get to college football here, and since we are missing out on that this was a good way to slightly satisfy that craving. There were no frat guys yelling obscenities at the footy game, instead there were middle aged men who were obnoxiously passionate, and acted like they were still in college. There was no band to get the crowd pumped, and no high-fives any time a team scored, but boy do these aussies love their footy teams.

The footy field is an oval, and since we had absolutely no idea what was going on for the majority of the game, it looked like pure chaos. We learned that you cannot throw the ball, you can only do this weird thing that looks like you’re under-hand serving it or kick it. If you are running with the ball, you have to bounce it every seven steps. The amount of control they have over the ball while doing that is incredibly impressive. There are four goal posts, so sometimes you get 6 points and sometimes you only get one. The outfits the guys wear are skimpy little shorts and tank tops, but these guys are ATH-LETES!! They are all tall and lean, but solid muscle. I wish yall could have seen how high they were able to jump..I was blown away.

I did the most Australian thing you could do at the game… I ate a Meat Pie. These things are so popular here but look absolutely disgusting, so naturally it took a ton of convincing for me to try it. I was told that you CANNOT get the full footy experience unless you get a meat pie at the game. My friend Em agreed to buy me chocolate if I got one so I could get the bad taste out of my mouth if I didn’t like it. After only 6 weeks of friendship, she already knows the way straight to my heart (: It tasted like brisket inside a pot pie. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but I couldn’t finish the whole thing. 

The game we went to was the last round before finals start, and it was between the top two teams in the league! Geelong dominated Collingwood. GO CATS! The grand final is at the start of October, and apparently if you don't have tickets you go down to Federation Square with the rest of Melbourne to watch the game on some outdoor screens they have. It is most likely going to be Collingwood and Geelong in the finals, and if the game looks like it did last night then Geelong will for sure take home the title! 

go. fight. win. break.

& WRECK EM