It's Sunday afternoon here, and after a beautiful service at Church180, the girls of The Hill went to lunch at Monkey Monkey Monkey for some bbq prawns (shrimp), stuffed mushrooms, and glorious dipping sauces with ciabatta and other stuff...The title of this blog deserves a little explanation, as Lindsey had excitedly told me about her coffee experience at "Market Market Market" and how we all needed to go back. I then went to a local and suggested that we meet up at this place, only to receive a confused look and a "I think you mean Monkey Monkey Monkey..." Needless to say, I didn't impress him with my knowledge of the area.
Typically we would be outside at the beach around this time, but we are currently banned due to a tsunami watch. Apparently they take tsunamis very seriously. Go figure. :)
We are all gearing up for school to start tomorrow, although not with very much enthusiasm. We rather enjoy our life as it is, but I guess we did come here to "study." With the little extra time that we do have, we have been scheming and plotting our wild spring break in New Zealand. It already is looking like quite the adventure. To sum it up, think of Elyse and I switching off driving a 6-person sleeper bus for 25 hours down the coast of New Zealand, with plenty of stops along the way to see the sights from Lord of the Rings, go skydiving, take the ferry from the North to the South Islands, go bungee jumping (or bungy, as they spell it), check out the amazing beaches, and whatever else falls into our laps. More details to come...
Sun poisoning is still our biggest enemy here..Elyse has been hit with it, and I still have it all over my hands and heels. Persistant itchiness is our current state of being.
We continue to meet new people everyday from all sorts of places. Most of them being Arkansas and Iowa, but hey...at least they are new faces! We also have some local friends at the church who invite us to fun church functions at their houses. It's always a good time...
We still love living together and have indulged in many roommate dinners where we splurge on spaghetti and ice cream.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement, we are learning so many lessons about life, love, independence, trust, and faith. Feel free to ask for more details on those :) The Lord has been so faithful to provide everything that we need. I start seriously working this week (as scary as that is) and covet any sort of pleas to God for a miraculous barista to be born within me. Who knows, crazier things have happened! We love and miss you all....
Funny Lindsey Quote of the Week:
(looking at me in my room...) "Your bed looks like a hospital bed! I meant to tell you that when I woke up this morning and saw it.."
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
To Prosperity!
"To Prosperity" our cheers at every wine tasting.
Saturday we went to Hunter Valley for wine tasting. It included five different vineyards and we also did cheese and chocolate tastings :)
After about the third vineyard, we were feeling good.
Saturday we went to Hunter Valley for wine tasting. It included five different vineyards and we also did cheese and chocolate tastings :)
After about the third vineyard, we were feeling good.
Lets just say the bars over here dont serve "nuts and chicken!!!!" like I claim they do at home.
On Sunday, we all went to Church180 where we met lots of really great people who are very welcoming. We went over to the worship leaders house after church for dominos pizza (their large is our small). It was great to talk to locals and dance to parlez vous franceis.
O WEEK is finally here. Its the week before classes begin and we get to talk to many organizations and get free things such as two sausage sizzle lunches (aka bbq), snow cones, red bull, smirnoff tank tops :) Campus is a pretty far and a hot walk to the train but you can cool off and relax with the bars on campus. We left exhausted but feeling officially like students.
Once we got back to our house, we needed to cool off so we met up with the guys at Bogey Hole. A nice climb around the ledge at sunset led us into a fun blow hole cave of water. We all enjoyed jumping into and being thrown upon the rocks.
Laura had her first driving experience on the left side of the road. As her co-pilot, I could hear her mumbling "keep left" just to make sure we didnt head into on coming traffic. She did a fantastic job. We borrowed the boys car to grab some groceries for the week. As we returned home, we all made quesadillas and the boys grilled out. It was a beautiful and sunshiny day :)
Also, Laura just found out today that she got a job at Bali Corner. Her first day of work is tomorrow as well were not really sure possibly a barista or a waitress. God is answering prayers and supplying us of our needs.
Funny Quote of the Day: from me to Laura..."you look like a salted pretzel!" hmmm ok.
Keep praying.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
It's Registration Wednesday!
Lame, I know. We are all at the student hub registering as fast as our little phalanges and browsers can. We have specific time slots that we have to sign up for our classes and it is a bit of a race to get the tutorials that you want. (Those are like labs.)
Man, we have so much to catch you up on! These past few days have absolutely flown by and we have had so many interesting experiences. On Sunday, our roommates all woke up and went to the 8:00 Eucharist service at the neighboring Christ Church Cathedral. It is an Anglican church that is literally five steps out our door. It is such a beautiful building and the people there are extremely friendly. I think we heard four or five times how nice it was to have "young people" at the church. Apparently they don't see many people under the age of 50 very often. At the very last minute on Sunday night, I decided to go to Church 180, a more contemporary church, with the guys. It was a little bit more what I am used to and I got to talk to the pastor for a while after the service. I think I'm really going to like it there. Afterwards, they had a Switch party, which is for 18-30 year olds. It was pretty much a Valentine's Day dance party. We had a blast, laughing at the funny way that Australians dance and introducing them to some of our sweet moves :)
We learned that the Anglican church was having a pancake night on Tuesday (last night) so we all decided to attend, including five of the boys. We showed up, payed $5, and had the best night we have had yet. It started with a glass of wine and ended with a cup of coffee. (The only way I made it up past 11 last night.) The bishop got up before we ate and said he was going to "embarrass our American friends and thank them for coming." We felt a little overappreciated but it was heaps of fun. (Like my Australian slang?)
So we got a little information before eating about what they exactly mean when they say pancakes, since they announced which meats were being offered. We started with dinner pancakes, which are filled with your choice of a veggie, chicken, beef, or tuna filling. It was different but very good. We were just glad to have real food. Then they had a little dinner entertainment. A man played the piano while this woman named Kim sang and it was probably one of the best short performances I have seen. They were amazing. The food wrapped up with "dessert pancakes," which just means maple syrup, cream, strawberry jam, lemon, and sugar toppings. We obviously liked those a lot. After being legitimately stuffed, we helped them break down the tables and Lindsey mustered up the courage to ask what they were doing with the leftovers. Needless to say, we now have an entire fridge full of pancakes, beef filling, and syrup. We are so spoiled.
Something we have noticed is that everyone's favorite question is "what part of the States are you from?" When we answer, it almost always leads to a conversation about how they like or have been to California and New York. I think they always walk away disappointed that we are from Beverly Hills or something. In fact, a boy that I met on the beach the other day was from Melbourne and after we had that conversation, I mentioned how everyone wished we were from California and he was like "yeah, pretty much." He wasn't my favorite person in the world.
Anyways, this was a little more of an information post than a fun post but we have continued to meet a lot of people. All of our neighbors have moved in and seem really fun. I'm sure we will talk more about them later. I also met two Germans who are studying here and got to play some beach volleyball with them. Hopefully we will settle in with more locals soon. There is a sweet family from Church 180 that may take us surfing on Saturday. Trust me, you will want to read the blog after that :) I'm sure there will be plenty of laughs :) Brandi's face is continuing to heal from her sunburn. We regularly have a laugh about her still limited facial expressions.
We also made it to the Farmer's Market, which was an experience we will have to repeat. We got stuffed off of samples and found some fun local people. As a Valentine's Day date, us roommates went to see the movie Valentine's Day. We learned that students can go to movies on Mondays for $8. That's exciting, since everything else around here costs at least that much.
Yesterday, when I was talking on the phone to the gas and power company, she couldn't understand me because of my "strong accent." Look who's talking, I can hardly understand anybody around here. She guessed that I was Canadian. Not bad, I guess.
Well, that's pretty much everything that you could have possibly wanted to know! The weather is still hot, although they say that it has been unseasonably humid and it should calm down a little bit soon. I hope so, we sweat our little hearts out. We miss everyone at home but are so happy here. Talk to you all soon!
Man, we have so much to catch you up on! These past few days have absolutely flown by and we have had so many interesting experiences. On Sunday, our roommates all woke up and went to the 8:00 Eucharist service at the neighboring Christ Church Cathedral. It is an Anglican church that is literally five steps out our door. It is such a beautiful building and the people there are extremely friendly. I think we heard four or five times how nice it was to have "young people" at the church. Apparently they don't see many people under the age of 50 very often. At the very last minute on Sunday night, I decided to go to Church 180, a more contemporary church, with the guys. It was a little bit more what I am used to and I got to talk to the pastor for a while after the service. I think I'm really going to like it there. Afterwards, they had a Switch party, which is for 18-30 year olds. It was pretty much a Valentine's Day dance party. We had a blast, laughing at the funny way that Australians dance and introducing them to some of our sweet moves :)
We learned that the Anglican church was having a pancake night on Tuesday (last night) so we all decided to attend, including five of the boys. We showed up, payed $5, and had the best night we have had yet. It started with a glass of wine and ended with a cup of coffee. (The only way I made it up past 11 last night.) The bishop got up before we ate and said he was going to "embarrass our American friends and thank them for coming." We felt a little overappreciated but it was heaps of fun. (Like my Australian slang?)
So we got a little information before eating about what they exactly mean when they say pancakes, since they announced which meats were being offered. We started with dinner pancakes, which are filled with your choice of a veggie, chicken, beef, or tuna filling. It was different but very good. We were just glad to have real food. Then they had a little dinner entertainment. A man played the piano while this woman named Kim sang and it was probably one of the best short performances I have seen. They were amazing. The food wrapped up with "dessert pancakes," which just means maple syrup, cream, strawberry jam, lemon, and sugar toppings. We obviously liked those a lot. After being legitimately stuffed, we helped them break down the tables and Lindsey mustered up the courage to ask what they were doing with the leftovers. Needless to say, we now have an entire fridge full of pancakes, beef filling, and syrup. We are so spoiled.
Something we have noticed is that everyone's favorite question is "what part of the States are you from?" When we answer, it almost always leads to a conversation about how they like or have been to California and New York. I think they always walk away disappointed that we are from Beverly Hills or something. In fact, a boy that I met on the beach the other day was from Melbourne and after we had that conversation, I mentioned how everyone wished we were from California and he was like "yeah, pretty much." He wasn't my favorite person in the world.
Anyways, this was a little more of an information post than a fun post but we have continued to meet a lot of people. All of our neighbors have moved in and seem really fun. I'm sure we will talk more about them later. I also met two Germans who are studying here and got to play some beach volleyball with them. Hopefully we will settle in with more locals soon. There is a sweet family from Church 180 that may take us surfing on Saturday. Trust me, you will want to read the blog after that :) I'm sure there will be plenty of laughs :) Brandi's face is continuing to heal from her sunburn. We regularly have a laugh about her still limited facial expressions.
We also made it to the Farmer's Market, which was an experience we will have to repeat. We got stuffed off of samples and found some fun local people. As a Valentine's Day date, us roommates went to see the movie Valentine's Day. We learned that students can go to movies on Mondays for $8. That's exciting, since everything else around here costs at least that much.
Yesterday, when I was talking on the phone to the gas and power company, she couldn't understand me because of my "strong accent." Look who's talking, I can hardly understand anybody around here. She guessed that I was Canadian. Not bad, I guess.
Well, that's pretty much everything that you could have possibly wanted to know! The weather is still hot, although they say that it has been unseasonably humid and it should calm down a little bit soon. I hope so, we sweat our little hearts out. We miss everyone at home but are so happy here. Talk to you all soon!
Friday, February 12, 2010
February 13th
Helloooooo Australia,
It has been a great first few days in Newcastle.
Welcome home Cameron and Caitlin!
We have had amazing weather of about 80 degrees and have been spending most of our time at Newcastle Beach. We have been able to meet up with the guys and it has been really great to see familiar faces :)
We are starting to plan out our classes and for most of us we only have classes Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, which is so great so that we can take trips on the long weekends!
Our house is really awesome and is in a great location, were set up on a hill with a beautiful view from our loft/balcony. We havent posted any pictures yet but you can see a few on our roommates blog www.theozlanders.blogspot.com ... The house is about 3 stories and is right near the beach!
The sun is definately harsher here, our roommate (brandi) has experienced it not so well, her trip to the doctor to get pain killers can explain the damage it can do.
Cam, Cait, Ned, and I are going to Sydney tonight to hang out before they take thier australearn trip up to Cairns.
The food is a lot more expensive than we were expecting but a little healthier and their coffee is way different too! It looks like i will be quitting my addiction :(
We will keep posting soon! Thank you for reading!
The girls!
two other blogs with pictures:
www.nedreynolds.blogspot.com
www.theozlanders.blogspot.com
It has been a great first few days in Newcastle.
Welcome home Cameron and Caitlin!
We have had amazing weather of about 80 degrees and have been spending most of our time at Newcastle Beach. We have been able to meet up with the guys and it has been really great to see familiar faces :)
We are starting to plan out our classes and for most of us we only have classes Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, which is so great so that we can take trips on the long weekends!
Our house is really awesome and is in a great location, were set up on a hill with a beautiful view from our loft/balcony. We havent posted any pictures yet but you can see a few on our roommates blog www.theozlanders.blogspot.com ... The house is about 3 stories and is right near the beach!
The sun is definately harsher here, our roommate (brandi) has experienced it not so well, her trip to the doctor to get pain killers can explain the damage it can do.
Cam, Cait, Ned, and I are going to Sydney tonight to hang out before they take thier australearn trip up to Cairns.
The food is a lot more expensive than we were expecting but a little healthier and their coffee is way different too! It looks like i will be quitting my addiction :(
We will keep posting soon! Thank you for reading!
The girls!
two other blogs with pictures:
www.nedreynolds.blogspot.com
www.theozlanders.blogspot.com
Monday, February 8, 2010
Drumroll please.....
........................we made it!
We got unstuck at GSP and made the 4:20 PM to ATL. This flight in itself was an adventure, as we pathetically had to make a public announcement requesting some kind soul to let us store our bags under his or her seat. Luckily the 3 guys behind us helped us out. While we got on the 4:20, it was delayed until 5:13, giving us an arrival time of 6:12, a mere 28 minutes before our connecting flight was scheduled to leave.
Needless to say, I took off as soon as I could after we landed for the next concourse and barely squeezed through the gates, yelling at them that "Mary Ruff is on her way, don't close the doors!!" So we both made it (just barely!) and we ran into Chris, another one of our friends. From here on out, it was pretty smooth sailing. A fairly quick five hour flight to LA and then we met up with Elyse (my best friend from Ohio). We had about an hour to kill in the airport before we found out that the standby passenger list would be very limited due to lots of heavy baggage. It was a close call, but we made it.
Now I thought this was going to be a 14 hour flight but we boarded that plane at 5:30 PM Aussie time and didn't land until 8:40 AM. It was a long night and I didn't sleep more than 2 or 3 hours but it went fairly quick I guess and Lindsey and I got to sit together. Oh yes, and I also got to sit next to Michelle, a nice Japanese woman who lives in Australia who insisted on watching movies over my shoulder. She was precious, especially while she did bicycle kicks from her seat.
Funny little story from the flight that may make me look like an idiot, but it's still funny enough to share: I thought my TV was broken for the first 12 hours because I tried to watch a movie and the volume didn't work. While Lindsey slept, I set both of our TV's to watch the same movie and plugged into her volume, which was stuck on an extremely loud setting. I held one earbud up to one ear and tried not to cringe at the insanely loud noises. It wasn't until the last hour of the flight that we realized that I had plugged into the wrong TV initially and all of ours did, in fact, work. I had jacked up the volume on mine because my volume was low so when we went to listen to hers, it was stuck on full blast. Whoops...
I can already tell I'm going to have to let Lindsey write these blogs. I write wayyyy too much but I just have so many stories to tell! Everything else has been good...prices are insane for everything, the internet is hardly available. We walked 15 minutes to the Uni Hub, which is where we are right now. We met Brandi, our other roommate, and we love her. And our house is adorable. We have great little rooms and there are 4 levels. (Pictures will be coming sometime soon...)
We are going to the beach either today or tomorrow, depending on how much longer we can keep our eyes open. The views here are breathtaking, even from the balcony off of my room. We live at a place called "The Hill" for a reason...let's just say that we are all going to have the most muscular legs we can imagine by the time we leave. I have never seen so many hills all together. The weather is hot, we don't have air conditioning, but it gets a little cooler at night.
So I guess I will wrap it up now for the sanity of everybody involved. Like I said, you all can enjoy much wittier, concise posts from Lindsey in the future...but who knows, my brain may overflow onto these pages again and you can just sigh and enjoy every nitty gritty detail of our complicated, beautiful, crazy, unpredictable Oz lives. :)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Stuck!!!!!!!
this is our first adventure :) we should be on our flight RIGHT NOW!!!!
no worries, well catch the next one...
Laura and I had a few mishaps on our way up to the gate and possibly before...Who knew you actually had to buy a ticket?! As I am saying goodbye, Laura is at the gate boarding with no ticket...therefore with me being MIA and her having no idea what to do, we missed our flight....But its a beautiful disaster and we get to share our first intense travel experience...i wouldnt want it any other way :) Also, we get to sit in peaceful gsp for longer and we are at our flight ready to go an hour early!
If this is any indication of our journey, this will be one fantastic 5 month adventure!
Goodbye Dear Friends,
Lindsey and Laura
no worries, well catch the next one...
Laura and I had a few mishaps on our way up to the gate and possibly before...Who knew you actually had to buy a ticket?! As I am saying goodbye, Laura is at the gate boarding with no ticket...therefore with me being MIA and her having no idea what to do, we missed our flight....But its a beautiful disaster and we get to share our first intense travel experience...i wouldnt want it any other way :) Also, we get to sit in peaceful gsp for longer and we are at our flight ready to go an hour early!
If this is any indication of our journey, this will be one fantastic 5 month adventure!
Goodbye Dear Friends,
Lindsey and Laura
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