traditions and trams

So I've learned recently that Halloween is a US custom, and is not nearly as celebrated over here in oz. Well, you can take us out of America, but you can't take America out of us (: We decided last weekend that even though it is mid-spring here, we were going to have a night filled with fall traditions! We carved pumpkins, had some apple cider, and roasted our pumpkin seeds. They were so freakin good!

Here is Bess, Melanie, Sarah, Em, and Abby! I am behind the camera and sweet Michelle wasn't over yet. You might be thinking to yourself.. two pumpkins for 6 girls?? well folks, with the pumpkins being over $20 each (!!!!!!!) we all decided to just chip in a few notes and make it a team effort! 

Everyone, meet Em. She is the first Australian I became friends with when we got here, and she is wonderful. She is an encourager, a truth speaker, a nail polish share-er, and a fellow TV obsessor. She just invited Abby and I to spend Christmas Day with her family, and I could not be more excited about this!! PTL for this girl!

Here are the girls of MelRose! homegirl on the left had never carved a pumpkin before!!! silly chicky

impressed?

yup, I'm sending yall some aussie love!

ok, now fast forward to the middle of the week. 

On Wednesday, the 26th of October, the Queen made a very brief trip to Melbourne. She was here for the opening of the new Royal Children's Hospital, and then she went to Fed Square to meet her fans, had lunch at some important Government building, and was out of the city by 4:00. I knew all of this was happening, and I knew I had work. One might think that I played hooky, or called the agency and said I couldn't work because I wanted to see the Queen. I mean, really, how often does an AMERICAN get to see the QUEEN OF ENGLAND in one of the commonwealth countries?! Not very often people! But I decided to ignore the voice telling me to go see her and just go to work. It was possibly one of the worst days I've had as a sub here, so you can imagine how angry when I left the school. I MISSED THE QUEEN FOR THIS??!?!

Well, on Friday Abby and I decided to go spend the afternoon at a park because we had the day off work and it was gorgeous weather. We have seen the weather be so moody this spring so we knew that we had to take advantage of the nice day before a storm came to ruin the sun like it always does here. We were relaxing on a blanket, and according to some high schoolers "just being some hippies" when we saw the ROYAL TRAM drive by. Immediately we jumped up, even though we had to wait for it to go all the way to the end of the track and back before we could ride it. We didn't mind the wait, and decided that we would risk the $180 fine we could get for riding the tram without our passes. 

Yall, this tram is beautiful! The inside is all brand-spankin-new, and they replaced the tacky adverts with pretty posters welcoming her to our city! 

It was so difficult to contain all of our excitement when we got on the tram. All the other people were just sitting there like it was no big deal! We saw this orange seat, and since the seats are normally green it stood out. We thought..this is it, we are going to sit in the exact same spot where the Queen sat only 48 hours ago! Well it turns out, this is just the 'priority seating' and not where she sat but whatever. So even though I didn't get to see her while she was here, I can still say that I WAS IN THE SAME TRAM THAT THE QUEEN WAS IN!! how many of yall can say that?!?! point-australia! 

peace & love yall