Christmas surprise

Well, where to start!? I actually starting writing this post about 2 weeks ago when I first arrived in Memphis and yet here I am, 2 weeks later back in Oz. So I guess i'll catch you up :)

About a month ago, after American Thanksgiving my dad emailed me and basically said...I want to fly you home for Christmas to surprise your mom. We miss you and Christmas just won't be the same without you. And my response was...what?! and then there were some tears involved. Let me preface by saying, I love my family and of course I would love nothing more than to be able to spend Christmas with them...but when you've gotten settled into your new home and life in another country and had already prepared yourself to be away from your family at Christmas, it was just a big curve ball that I wasn't expecting. So after a week of secret phone calls to my dad, me making a pro and cons list, and getting advice from my friends and family in oz I finally decided I would go "home" for Christmas. I say "home" like that because lets face it my definition of home has drastically changed over the last several months and although I grew up in Memphis, I don't consider that my home anymore, its where my parents live.

So after tearful goodbyes in Oz, Delta canceling my flights out of Sydney, more tears (thank you Delta), 20,000 free frequent flyer miles (again, thank you Delta), 2 long and 1 not so long flights, slept 2 nights on a plane, visited airports in LA, Atlanta, and Memphis and all together 32 hours of traveling (that was only suppose to be 18 hours) I arrived in Germantown to surprise my mom and yes, it was totally worth it :)

To say the least I think I was actually only "home" for about 12 days but with travel time I was away about 2 weeks. It was a whirlwind trip. I got to spend a day in Little Rock, catching up with my friends and coworkers there. We had family arrive from out of town to spend Christmas with us. And of course I got to visit with friends and family in Memphis. It was a good trip, a long ways to go for such a short amount of time but it was great to spend Christmas with my family.

Thankfully my trip back to Oz was less eventful that my trip there, the only really bad thing was the entertainment system on the plane was broken so for our entire 14 hours and 55 minute flight we didn't get to watch any movies. I'm not going to lie, I was seriously hoping that would turn the plane back to LA and get it fixed but no. Next time I'm taking movies to watch on my laptop! When I did arrive in Sydney I was going through Customs and Immigration and I got pulled aside because there was a "problem" with my visa...I immediately starting thinking, "oh no, they are not going to let me in the country and put my back on that stupid plane with no movies right back to LA"...thankfully it was just my middle name missing from my paperwork, which for some reason they didn't catch it when I arrived again in August.

And here I am, home again in Oz. Its good to be back. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind and a tad overwhelming but i'm ready to get back into a routine and ring in the new year :) Lots to do today...mostly trying to stay awake, unpacking etc but i'll post again soon with some Christmas pictures :)

Thanksgiving

I wasn't really sure how I would feel this past week with being away from my family for Thanksgiving but all in all things went really well. I guess its never easy being separated from family on holidays but you just have to adjust and realize that the holidays will be different but different isn't always bad, just different. This Thanksgiving was different, thats for sure. For my first time ever, I was not at the lake house celebrating with my family but thankfully was able to still be apart of their thanksgiving via Skype.

Obviously, Aussies do not celebrate Thanksgiving but since there are many Americans here my cousin organized a Thanksgiving lunch for after church. Their young adults group has done this for several years now and I was really thankful to be apart of it. We got together Saturday night and did lots of cooking of all the Thanksgiving favorites: sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc. Earlier in the week when we were working on the menu we were at the store and discovered turkeys here are super expensive! I believe we saw a TINY 2 kilo (4.4 lbs) turkey that would maybe feed 10 people that cost $45. That was not going to work out so great since we had 30 people who planned on coming for lunch. So my cousins started talking about other options for our meat, sausages, chicken, etc. I'm not going to lie I was pouting a little and Aussies just don't understand...it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a turkey! My cousin was trying to keep it a surprise from me that a friend of hers who is a great cook was making the turkey, well she couldn't keep it a secret anymore and ended up telling me at the grocery store while we were shopping. I was so excited! I got to spend day with some family and friends, enjoyed some turkey, pumpkin pie, sweet tea and I even downloaded the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Even though I missed being with my family back home it was a pretty perfect Thanksgiving.

I have so much to be thankful for this year. The short list....i'm thankful for this little adventure in Australia and new beginnings.

good intentions

I'm starting to slack on my updates. I really do have good intentions of keeping it up to date and if I updated it every time I thought about it there would be a ton of posts. Its the thought that counts, right? The last few weeks have been really good. I'm usually not too busy during the week but once the weekend hits its crazy busy around here. The last few weekends we've spent a lot of time cooking. I'm pretty sure i've "logged" more cooking hours since i've been in Australia than I have most of my adult life. Lets just say grilling a piece of chicken and heating up veggies does not count as cooking. Two weekends ago they had a formal dinner at church so Mel and I and some girls from church spent about 2 days cooking for that. Then this past weekend a group of students from Oklahoma Christian were visiting the Central Coast so we did some cooking for them. And i'm pretty sure there will be a lot of cooking this weekend since we're celebrating American Thanksgiving on Sunday.

Two weekends ago we visited Norah Head Lighthouse which is about 30-40 minutes away from here. It was a spot I had on my list that I wanted to visit after coming back to Australia. It was the perfect day to be there, the sun was shining and it felt almost like summer! The lighthouse was beautiful, you could walk around it and then down to the beach and rock pools. I'm pretty sure every time we go anywhere near the ocean I get excited and say how much I love it. I can't help it! In my entire life the closest i've ever lived to the beach was maybe 9 hours. I'm thankful to live in such a beautiful place.

Like I mentioned earlier this past weekend there was a group of students here from Oklahoma Christian University visiting the Gosford area. They are apart of the study abroad program called Pac Rim, they've been traveling around studying the last few months and are in Australia for the last few weeks of their trip. Friday we all went to the Reptile park and I finally got to pet/see a kangaroo! Saturday was a beach day followed by a big dinner at the Browns house and Sunday we had a bbq after church and then all went to the Central Coast Mariners game. It was a fun, but busy weekend. It was nice to spend the weekend with them and I think I got my "American" fix to hold me over for a while. I kept thinking though after spending the weekend with them that I feel so old! I remember my days at Harding like they were yesterday and being around them I kept thinking, I feel like that was just me. It was...just several years ago! Oh well, I can't complain because life after college has been great but sometimes I miss those days carefree college days.

I got my first package from home last week. I'm not going to lie, its was maybe the highlight of my week. There is just something about getting a little bit of love from home...even if it comes in the form of hair color, candy corn and a cute black dress :)

My cousins started to put of their Christmas tree yesterday. Its just weird. It shouldn't be that big of a surprise because the shops here have had Christmas decorations up and Christmas music playing for weeks. I just can't wrap my head around it yet that its almost December and almost summer and i'm still wearing little sun dresses. I'm just so used to a winter Christmas, I guess. Thanksgiving is this week, which I just can't believe. This was always my favorite week when I was teaching because it was our first few days out of school and usually much needed. I've been very thankful my homesick days are becoming less and less. I talked a few weeks ago with another American girl living here and she said around 3-6 months was hardest for her. I was thinking things have been easier for me, but who knows maybe I'll hit the 3-6 month slump, too. I'm sure with the holidays getting closer it will start to hit home a bit. As much as a I miss and love my family and friends, I'm loving my new life here. I think its taken me a while to let myself be comfortable, learn to enjoy and come to love my new life here because that makes it more real that i've started over here and my "old" life in Little Rock is really over. And its hard talking to people from home and missing them but being happy about being here, I guess there just comes a time when you start to find that balance that its ok to miss people but continue to live your life. Who knows if that makes sense...but I do think its helped with the whole "homesick" thing.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks. One day i'll figure out how to make my computer happy with blogger and be able to put up more pictures with captions etc, but that day is not today...

twenty six

Its official, as of last Saturday i'm closer to thirty than twenty. In all honesty it doesn't feel any different...at least not yet :) I will say its hard being so far away from my friends and family on birthdays, weddings, etc but thankfully my family here made my birthday a wonderful day full of surprises! Most of the day was planned and kept secret from me and I will say these Aussies sure do know how to keep a secret. I tried and tried to get it out of them but they wouldn't spill the beans. I did know that we were going out for brunch that morning with the whole family and then out again later that night but that was all I knew. We had brunch at a little cafe right by the water at Terrigal, one of the pretty beaches close by. It was actually a cloudy, cold day but I could care less because I love, love being at the beach. The rest of the day was fun and laid back. We went to Erina and did some shopping, had coffee club then went back to Mel and Dan's to watch a movie. Later that night we got dressed up and headed out to my other surprise which was drinks and the Lord Ashley Lounge at Terrigal. I couldn't have imagined a better 26th birthday and i'm so thankful for my family here who planned a fun day for me.

Twenty five was a great year, full of big changes etc so i'm kind of excited to see what twenty six holds...I have a feeling its going to be a good year :)

I've been trying to add some pictures from this weekend but for some reason blogger and my computer can't "find" my recent uploads. But some are posted on facebook, so that will have to do for now.

trick or treat?

I couldn't help but write a post about Halloween or more like the lack there of in Australia. I've never been one of those people who decks my house out for halloween or gets super excited about dressing up but i'm not going to lie, I did kind of miss all the excitement this year. Actually, to be honest I missed all the halloween excitement from school. The last few years with my kiddos we would make cute bats out of egg cartons, learn halloween poems, carve a pumpkin together...well, Ms. Wenner did the pumpkin carving, but you get the idea :)

Halloween here is not a big deal, what so ever. There are hardily any halloween decorations up at the shops, no candy corn and a pumpkin will cost you about $20. I was over at Mel and Dan's house Sunday night and I think we had maybe 4 groups of trick or treaters, maybe 15 kids total. We did however make a quick appearance at a halloween party Saturday night, Elisha and I dressed up as a lady bug and a bumble bee.

working girl

I know I have a lot to catch up on the last week or so, but we're going to backtrack and start with Tuesday :) I got a phone call last week from Randstad Education to come in for an interview. I headed to Sydney early Tuesday morning for my interview, which went well and i'm officially employed again! I'm still kind of surprised it was kind of a whirlwind day to say the least. Randstad Education is pretty much an employment agency, they contract out casual teachers for jobs. It could be short term, long term etc. So its still "casual" work but then again thats all i'm really allowed to do under my visa and its a job with a paycheck, so i'm not complaining! Of all days for me to get a job, Tuesday was pretty much perfect. The 26th was exactly 2 months that i've been in Australia. I'm so thankful and excited for this new job and it really is another reminder that God's timing is always perfect. I was watching a show last night and one of the ladies mentioned this quote: "We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us." -Joseph Campbell
I love that quote and have found more and more over the last few months that it is so true. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would move half way around the world and even more so move half way around the world and not have a plan! I'm a planner, i'm organized, and yes sometimes i'm even a little ocd. But if there has been anything i've learned through my experiences in the last few months is that God's plan is always better than mine. I've given up my entire life in the US to move here, its been a huge leap of faith but God has and will continue to provided for me. And on the days when I get overwhelmed or homesick i'm thankful for the people God has put in my life here that remind me that He will always take care of me.

Besides getting a job, it was a fun day in Sydney! I love living on Central Coast because its so laid back, but I love that the city is only a train ride away. I also love that i'm learning my way around, how to use the trains etc. I'm feeling more and more like I actually belong and less like a tourist. I was walking around Circular Quay and one of the cruise ships was parked in the harbor right across from the Opera House. There were so many tourist walking around, taking pictures, looking at maps and it just made me smile. I met up for lunch with Dan, who is my cousin in laws, brother in law...is that confusing enough? lol...I just consider all of the Browns, Mowdays and Wenner's my family here. We had a yummy lunch at a corner pub, I did a little window shopping and then headed back to the Central Coast.

Last week my cousins were on holiday in Queensland so I got to spend the week at her parents house. It was a really good week, its always nice to have a change in scenery. I got to tag along with Scott a few times for work. He had to drive up north to Port Stephens to look at some properties. It makes for a fun little day trip. There is not a lot to do up there by any means but we did find a good little cafe to get a coffee and some lunch. I love getting to see more of Australia. The more time I spend here the more I love it.

photo op

So, I'm not actually driving yet...but i've been trying to pay close attention to the rules of the road when being a passenger. For the most part i've found most of the rules from the US are the same here, except I'm pretty sure you can't make a left on a red, which for us would be a right on a red. But thats beside the point. A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with my cousins about rules of the road here and they said something about stopping for ducks crossing the road because here ducks have the right of way. I don't really remember the conversation exactly but I remember something about ducks and thought, "huh, thats weird." Yesterday we had just left the shops and were heading home and up ahead at an intersection I saw 2 rather large ducks just hanging out in the cross walk. I was riding with my cousin in laws parents, Deb and Kev, and they started telling me about the duck law. I think its just crazy! Not to say that in the states we would run over ducks or anything but its actually a law here! And yes, every single car stopped and waited patiently until the ducks finished crossing the road. It would have been a great photo, if I had my camera out.

I went away this weekend with my cousin in laws family to Myuna Bay. Its about an hour north of here. Their church was having a family retreat weekend. It was a lot of fun, very laid back and relaxing. I love getting to see more of Australia, its such a beautiful place! I was not near as good as I should have been about taking photos this weekend, but I did get a few.