Christmas 2011

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Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere

We’re 5 days away from Christmas.  In Seattle, as in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the halls are decked, trees are donned with silver bells and the weather outside is frightful.  The mood, we hope, is merry and bright.

Today, in this backwater we call home, we’re enjoying a different 26°.  Ours is of the Celsius nature (78° F for those not following along…), with a touch of heavy humidity thicker than Northwest snow…we’re damp, sweating and replacing the potential of frostbite is the sever risk of sunburn by neglecting to apply sunscreen prior to taking out the garbage or fetching the mail between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm.

With this in mind, now imagine Christmas trees with snow glistening and tiny lights hung with care.  Picture good ol’ Saint Nick, with his rosy cheeks, hyperventilating and cursed with heat stroke in every little shopping mall, in every little town.  This country decorates the centre of town, streets glow with lights and even Starbucks serves up its best Christmas Roast Coffee (complete with the red cups and ornaments for sale).

We live in a world of suspended disbelief – a temporary insanity to carry on a global tradition in the spirit of holiday cheer!  Our insanity is boundless…a country with no snow in winter, dreams of a white Christmas in the middle of summer.  Window sills are frosted with latex paints, stockings hung to corrugated brick façade, and midgets are employed with great fervor.

But reality sets in with the realization that our A/C unit is an apt stand-in for a fireplace mantel…and our friends in LA, Austin, or those who’ve travelled to the Sun for Christmas, all know what we’re talking about…Christmas in the heat, isn’t about fake snow, plastic trees, and twinkling lights.

Christmas this year, in the Southern Hemisphere of our backwater, is about something different, and all together the same.  Christmas will be spent with one another, celebrating our new lives, our new marriage and with a little luck a few of the friends we’ve made along with way! 

While we shall miss our family and auld acquaintances shall be brought to mind…you’ll find us this Christmas on the beach, catching a wave and devising new traditions more suitable to this neck of the woods. 

(And you can bet, we’ll see a Christmas movie or two, just for the A/C!)

Merry Christmas – Happy New Year!

DK & AM

Photographic Window

Sun! It's study time at the dog park!

So, I guess by now you’ve realized that we are not daily bloggers…ok we’re not even really weekly bloggers, but we are trying. Between work, school (very time consuming for all) and figuring out/enjoying life down under we are keeping pretty busy! Keep checking back – I am sure sometimes we’ll do better than others!

Pictures tell such a great story and since you all know how much I LOVE taking pictures I thought this blog post would try to give you a photographic window into our adventures.

Surfer's Paradise

When we were living in downtown Surfer’s Paradise we did an urban hike around the area and I had the chance to take a ton of photos of the area. Surfer’s has some unique high-rise buildings, amazing beaches and a lot of canals and islands. It’s pretty awesome to wander around here. We hear that exploring some of the less urban beach towns will be pretty amazing, but we’ll have to wait for a break to spread our wings. 

Lorikeet (AKA Lories)

Speaking of wings, one of the more noticeable things here are the birds – from the minute you walk outside you hear them – it’s pretty cool. In some areas, especially at dawn or dusk, it can almost be deafening. When you get the chance to see them it’s pretty incredible, especially since they are exotic and much more colorful than the birds we would see at home. To be honest, I have never been all that into birds in the past, but here I’ve started trying to catch photos of them and will continue to add to my "Bird Album" (hopefully not creepy) as I catch more. Mom – this one’s for you! Birds are a tough subject, so the photos are not my best, but you get the idea.

Painted Power Box

Another thing I have been “collecting” photos of are the painted power boxes. Yet another feature of Gold Coast – who knows maybe in all of Australia, but we haven’t been had the chance to explore too far yet, is the fact that they paint these cool murals on all the street side power boxes. Again this is another album I’ll be adding to as I “collect” more.

Hippster Library

People were asking about photos of Griffith Uni so I have taken a few to give you the idea. Campus is very lush – almost tropical with lots of trees and foliage. We also have what DS & EP have come to affectionately call our “hippster library”. As part of an MBA international student team building activity, we went to the Outback Spectacular which turned out to be a little less than spectacular, so don't worry, we won't subject you to it when you visit. The trained horses and getting to know our fellow MBA friends was by far the best part of this event. They didn't allow photos inside so I can't help you there, but they did give us all these lovely hats to wear throughout the show.

Outback Spectacular

A few big developments here – we have internet in our home (capped, but here) and DK and I recently got ourselves some wheels – this has been HUGE for exploring and shopping!  However, with the price of fuel, we still plan to rock the bikes as much as possible. I have a great route worked out from home to work to school and DK, my awesome hubby, meets me at school with food and any heavy class related items so I don’t have to haul it around everywhere. Awesome!

Ladies Night with Erica

Also, happening around the same time as our new car and internet, our fourth (and final) roomie just arrived! Whoohoo! Miss Erica is here and we’re stoked! It’s nice to have another girl around. The boys took off to a poker party recently and she was my date to an Outdoor Club dinner where we tried "Bay Bugs" for the first time – fun and delish! We’ve also had a rockin’ time at IKEA (her first visit to IKEA, ever!) adding some “color” to our very white and sterile home.  To assist in breaking up the white, Erica imported some fun magnets to which we’ve added some new mail…. pls keep the mail coming - we LOVE it! General “around the town” photos for August can also be found in this album.

BBQ with our new friends!

Making friends has likely been the most fun new development for all of us. We have met a crew of fellow MBA & IMBA students, DS joined Griffith baseball and we joined the Gold Coast Outdoor Meetup group – which introduced all of us to another contingent of awesome peeps, and we’ve come to hang out quite a bit with our new friends, Fernando and Luzma, a couple from Ecuador (Fernando is in our program). They treated us to a FANTASTIC BBQ at their place after David threw down an amazing lasagna for their visit to our place. Looks like the best food in this country is made at home!

Broadbeach

In an effort to further enjoy our surroundings, we hit the Broadbeach Jazz Festival and saw the Zappa/Bjork Big Band which turned out to be incredible. David and I followed it up with some pretty darn good Indian (although, not quite Maharaja).  If I can get some video of this up, I will! Another major event for us was taking surf lessons. Without a waterproof camera the best we have are the silly, (yes we were those people) on land practice photos. Needless to say we are hooked! Picking up boards and underwater camera soon - more to come!

We also just recently hit up the Brisbane Festival – RiverFire event. It was Brizzie day and they have one of the more amazing firework shows we’ve ever seen. Not only are the fireworks 20 minutes long, but they include laser light, and the fireworks are over the river and lit off the tops of the surrounding buildings. Fernando and Luzma joined DK and I for the short rode trip to the big city. Can’t wait to go back and explore Brizzie! 

That's all for now! For those technically challenged, all the photos are part of "linked" albums (above) so feel free to click on the links and check out the full albums if you're interested. 

RiverFire in Brizzie

Things...

Since moving to a new place automatically starts the game of "what's different", DK created these lists to loop all of you in.


Things we miss -

* Spicy Food!  Everything here is bland…

* Trader Joe’s Tofu Corndogs (Speaks for it self)

* Peppered Bacon, like they serve in America (NOT Ham)

* Black Beans!  (Trust me, they don’t exist here…not dried or canned…nada!)

* Paul Newman’s Pizza (no offense Bill, we miss Squirrel pizza even more, but that's way out of the realm of possibility for us here)

* Salsa (Seriously, we can only find El Paso in a jar, nothing fresh)

* Cilantro (its Coriander here, but only comes in ‘fresh herbs’ packs – very expensive)

* Rainier Beer or any Beer with Hops (seriously, all the beer here tastes almost the same) AM jumping in here - really Rainier?? Geesh! Give me a Manny's or Lucille...

* Tequila (Patrón is $140 Aussie - needless to say we gave it up. Anyone visiting best bring the duty free!)

* Starbucks – or decent coffee, readily available (only 2 Starbs in the entire Gold Coast)

* The Colbert Report (cause the internet sucks here and its too expensive to download)

* Breakfast at Café Press

* Lunch at Le Pichet

* Dinner at Flying Squirrel
* Dinner at Maharaja & Buddha with CTH & HTH 

* The Farm House with BV and KF and all of our friends

* Soft Q-tips…seriously, all we’ve found are poor substitutes for sticks ;)

* Banana’s!  We have them here, but the floods last year wiped out the crops, so Bananas are as much as $4.50 to $7/lbs or $9.90 to $14/kg Yikes, that’s crazy expensive! (Side note, Banana’s are so expensive here that we discuss them in every economics class because of farmer subsides, supply and demand…we’re giving Bananas to our Economics professor next week…)

Things we don’t miss –

* Traffic  - Rush hour on the West Seattle Bridge, I-5 and 520 (here we have poorly timed stoplights instead)

* Seattle Politics – which is almost like traffic
* 45+ minute commute (DK works from hm & AM bikes 25 min or drives 10-15min & school is about 15-20 on bike or a few min by car)

* Sports - The Mariners

* American Politics ;)

* Seattle Weather – the rain

New Things we love -

* Starburst Gummies – ‘nough said

* Jazt Crackers – imagine Ritz crackers with black pepper!

* Grain Waves – think Sun Chips but thicker…

* Lots of good red wine…too many to name

* Lamb – yummy, take me out to the BBQs!

* Waking up with Sun – everyday!

* Our winter is nicer than Seattle Summer (sorry guys…)

* Not working 50 hours / week

* We LOVE riding our bikes EVERYWHERE
* SURFING

~DK

At Long Last

Ok, Ok – so we haven’t updated the blog in a little while. Things got a little crazy with a big move and the start of school and work.  That and the internet hasn’t been easy to come by – working on it!

Welcome Home!

Side note on the Internet here – gone are the American days of “unlimited wi-fi” or “unlimited data”. Internet here comes at a cost and with a set limit of data available. Overage charges are not something you want to deal with (as my friend Alissa G can attest). Seeing as we are in grad school (think research), two of us work from home (DK & DS) and we all want to be in touch with friends and family at home (photos, blog, skype) we went big with a 500 Gig plan and instead of overage charges our internet speed will drop to the snail pace of 128kbps… let’s hope to never see that! Even at school, we have internet accounts that come with set usage limits and charge for overage. Prior to the big move, we all picked up portable wi-fi devices based on cell service – not super speedy and low data limit, but helps us limp along and use internet on the go. It’s what we are relying on until the household internet is set up.

 

THE HOME

But I digress! The BIG NEWS is that we have a house! I’ll send address via email so let us know if you want it. Thanks to all of you who sent up prayers, talked to Buddha and/or crossed your fingers! Whew! It was a huge relief to find a pet friendly home. It also meant getting Mr. Eko back in our lives again and that was something both David and I struggling with – missed that guy so much!

The "Couch Nest" - No bed :(

We spent some of our lead up time prior to move shopping for the basic necessities (wow – talk about starting from scratch). We hit up IKEA, Amart, Harvey Normans, Target, etc.  Much to our dismay we discovered that here you provide your own washer, dryer and fridge when renting a place – talk about unexpected expense. Not to worry, we discovered an outlet where we could purchase floor model appliances at a discount – yeah! Sticker shock everywhere for most things – including IKEA, but we did manage to pick up some much needed kitchen supplies and a bedroom set (our attempt to get it all into a small Getz rental car was interesting, but we did it).  The only problem we encountered was that our mattress wasn’t delivered from Amart until two days AFTER we moved in, so the first night in our new home David and I slept on the floor – ugh! And, the second night our couches had arrived so we made them into a nest and slept there. Oh the adventure! Happy to say, we now sleep soundly.

Mr. Eko loves his new backyard!

A bit about the homestead – it is in a new neighborhood which means the house is also new. It’s clean (this became super important after seeing some of the other rental properties in our search), has three bedrooms (come visit), two bathrooms (crucial for 4 adults), a huge garage, a nice open living area/kitchen and a small backyard. The other big benefit of the new digs is the proximity to a large play area/field/community BBQ (the latter we’ve already used often, and will continue to until we are able to buy our own). We are also a few short blocks from a huge green belt area so Mr. Eko is getting lots of play time which makes life at home much easier! I tired dog is a good dog ;)

Neighborhood BBQ

THE COMMUTE

The Park (Our House is on the left)

Probably the biggest drawback to the homestead is that we are totally in suburbia (although it is a nice quiet neighborhood) and we live at the top of a giant, in your face, hill! Being as we are bike commuters/bus riders (very limited system here)/walkers this can be a bit of a challenge. Right now, for example, I am biking about 12-13 miles RT for work (unless I make a wrong turn and add two more miles – yeah, done that) and then about 6-7 RT for school plus any stops or side trips along the way. I am going to be in some seriously awesome shape soon, but right now I have never been more exhausted!  Wow!

Nearby Green Belt

In the end, I think we will all have to succumb to the reality that we need a car to really enjoy where we live – DK & AM are thinking of a truck (more practical for dog, shopping, surf boards, etc), but I know DS has his sights on a Land Rover. We still plan to bike commute as much as possible (fuel is $$ here), but it will allow us more options for weekend getaways and bad weather.  Right now we rent a car when we need it, but that is too expensive to do forever.

SCHOOL STARTED

School has started for DK, DS & me! The first day of school was Monday, July 25 (this was also the first day of work for me). I have to say, so far, I am very impressed with my classes and my. DK and I have the same core classes (Marketing Management, Accounting for Mangers, Corporate Finance and Business Economics) for the MBA program. DS has two classes with us (Accounting and Econ) and two on his own for the IMBA program.  I have to say I am a bit nervous as three of the four subjects are out of my wheelhouse, but the instructor for accounting eased my mind and so far I love econ – super interesting! Corporate Finance on the other hand feels like it’s being taught in another language, but it’s probably the class DK loves the most. Hope we can help each other out.

WORKING WORLD

The fun never ends as I also started work on Monday. So far, I love the job and the team. Wyndham welcomed me back in the fold with a part-time Marketing Coordinator position.  I am working a bit with Travel, the publications, the mobile web app and the resort guide –some of which I am very familiar and some things brand new. At first I was set to work 4 days/week, but after doing the regular commute (8:30-1:30 M-Th), then going to class (6-9 M-Th) I was exhausted and not really getting much time for study. My supervisor and I spoke and she suggested I do three days a week and possibly start later so I can ride straight to school instead of all the back and forth. We are still tweaking things, but I think this will be a great alternative plan and give me an extra day to study.

THE END

Sunset on our street.

So, this was a “catch-up” moment in our blog and some insight into our day-to-day, but likely not nearly as interesting as it could be and way too long. We’ll try to do a better job keeping things updated more frequently, more concise and certainly more entertaining.  

Cheers!

AM

PS. More photos here!

PPS. You are correct, I do not know HTML so our formatting sucks! Sorry! Best I could do with the tools I have. Maybe I'll figure it out sometime soon.

Our Aussi Philosophy – Give it a Try!

Selecting the Perfect Kangaroo Steak

So as we make our way down here, we have developed a “Give it a Try” philosophy that is at the very least keeping things entertaining. A few things we have tried (all the healthy things of course):

- Kangaroo & Lamb Steak BBQ – All about the ‘barbie’ here!  Kangaroo was similar to steak, but slightly different – "surprisingly tender and succulent and f***ing delicious" (to use DS's words). DK is still working out the best way to cook it. Lamb steaks on the BBQ - Awesome! We've never BBQ'd it before and lamb is a fav of the DK & the AM.

- Beer – Been trying to discover our favs! I’m in the VB camp, DK is staying stong with XXXX Gold (AKA barbwire) and DS has become a fan of St. Arnou Pale. Although, not to worry, we are continuing research on this so we will be fully prepared for visitors in true Aussi style.

- Wine – This is another one that goes hand in hand with the beer scene here. Been trying some good Shiraz and Cab blends as well as a few of the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Our favorite so far is the Evans and Tate, but again the research continues (yes, a tough job, but we are on it!).

- Potato chips – Still working on this one (we really don't eat a lot of chips, but fun to try new flavors). Corn chips are harder to come by, so there goes AM’s chips and salsa fix. They can (and have been) found, but are a little expensive and so far, only in the big grocery stores. We did discover that the BBQ flavor is really some sort of curry – umm interesting, but we're not big fans!

- Candy –  DK’s fav taste test experience and he did it up with a smorgasbord of chocolate fun.  Picnic (sorta bland chocolate covered wafer thing), Chokito (with crunchy balls - decent), Summer Roll (weird combo – imagine inside nugat and caramel and outside chocolate and coconut – it was like crossing an almond joy and snickers) and Dinosaur Gummies (not quite right- the orange is best).  All in all, I think we’d all take a snickers bar or gummy smurfs over this lot, but again, we’ll keep researching!

- Fast food – We saw a sign that looked suspiciously like Burger King, only to be named Hungry Jack… No 'royalty' hamburgers allowed here – the BK has been rebranded the HJ, but not to worry the Whopper can still be found.  In light of the “try anything” mentality, DK ordered the “Aussi Burger” which came complete with a fried egg and a beet. Yup, I said a beet! All the burgers here come with one.  DK thinks you should stick with the regular Whopper unless you really like eggs and beets on your burger. Another common fast food place is the Red Rooster, which DS has found to be his fav – OR NOT… but I’ll let him tell you all about that – basically after his stories, DK and I have decided not to bother trying that one.

- Fruit – Love the pineapple, kiwi, and mini bananas that we now get to enjoy. On a side note - got some tangerine looking things and they were soooo not awesome! Very earthy and weird. So bad, they are still sitting in the fruit bowl…  

Other random things –   

- I saw the most awesome sign (see photo) in the campus bathroom during orientation. Having lived in China, I can truly appreciate the need for this! Ha! We are at a school with a large international program, so perhaps this is necessary... Our work is cut out for us as we continue explore our new home. Not everything is of the unhealthy variety either – those just seem to be the most entertaining! We'll keep up the research and keep you posted. 

Released at last! Mr. Eko’s Sydney to GC Trip

Family Photo!

After 32 days away from us, Mr. Eko cleared quarantine! Whoohoo!

He's in! Barely..

DK and I boarded the plane for a whirlwind Sydney trip at 8:50 am on Tuesday, 12 July. Following our short flight (just over an hour), we grabbed a rental car and made a run for the quarantine facility in hopes of arriving before their 12pm lunch break closure – no problem, we made it by 11:30am!!

At long last - reunited! He was super excited, and as you can imagine, so were we! I think I even got a bit teary eyed.  It took a bit (and a borrowed screw driver) to dismantle his kennel so that it would fit in our super tiny Getz rental car. We managed to get the kennel split in half and in the car after folding seats and doing a bit of push and pull. Kudos to DK on that one! After lining the bottom with toys and bedding, it became Mr. Eko’s seat for the long haul drive home (11+ hours).

View from the Road

For those who were contemplating arriving in Sydney and then “driving up the coast” to visit us – don’t waste the vacation day unless you plan to pull out to the little coastal towns along the way. The highway is essentially a long drive on an inland highway surrounded by forest (most of the time) with very little in the way of scenic views. Internal flights are cheap and well worth the time saved.  However, for our purposes, this straightforward highway was a perfect and essentially direct route to home.

Sunrise at the Beach

 

David and I got a lot of practice driving on the left and took several breaks to play with the Mr.! We were essentially driving straight through the night so we eventually had to stop for a bit to sleep in the car at a rest area around 2 or 3am. At about 4am, we drove the remaining hour or so to the Gold Coast to make sunrise at the beach. Mr. Eko found himself spread between the two of us in the front seat as we cuddled him up while watching the spectacular sunrise! Once the sun was up, it was time for puppy play and a coffee.

No Photo Shop - Spectacular Sunrise!

The homecoming is bittersweet as we are currently without a permanent home and are staying (on an employee rate) in a non-pet friendly hotel. We tried everything we could think of to avoid this, but had to have Mr. Eko go into another kennel situation. Fortunately, it seems like a good spot – 10 acres, other dogs to play with and we can visit, but it is causing us a lot of angst. Please keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, anything - that we get pet friendly housing soon!!!

72+ hours in... Life on the Gold Coast - DK

View from the elevator!

Hello, DK here. So, today is a small recap of what we’ve seen, accomplished and still have yet to do!  Don’t let the errands, frantic running around, or chaotic race to find housing lead you to believe that we’re not absolutely amazed by Gold Coast!  This place rocks! 

Graffiti Artists at Festival

The first 72 hours have been nothing short of a roller coaster – we began at 8 am, hauling our bags and bikes from a van and trailer.  Our driver dropped us off at our hotel, situated 2 blocks off Surfer’s Paradise beach.  The beach stretches for miles to the north and south.  It’s white sand and post card waves.  Shortly after we arrived, we loaded up a taxi and headed out to the nearest bike shop.  There they assembled our bikes and gave us a quick rundown on the traffic rules – no free left turns, and riding on these roads isn’t exactly for the faint of heart…

With bikes – or “push bikes” as they say here – we travelled about town, crisscrossing the city to begin checking out a few houses and apartments.  It took a little doing, but soon we got used to riding on the left…good practice for driving.  The first few places we looked at were cute, but soon taken…yes, we’ve lost out on about four properties now.

The highs and lows of looking at houses to rent has caused a little anxiety among the household, but now that we’re all nearly recovered from jet leg our spirits are good!  We dropped off four applications today (Saturday) and then took a little time to check out the University campus.  We’ve selectively applied to houses that will allow us to ride to class, while also trying to find a place close to the beach!  We should hear by Monday if we qualify for any of these places…otherwise its back to searching for new properties and a juggling act with the dog!

Following the practical errands – house hunting and mobile phone shopping – we toured Surfer’s Paradise.  Today Surfer’s Paradise hosted a street festival.  DS was busy greeting local artists, and AM was quite happy to snap photo’s of graffiti artists.  It was a good scene, sunny weather and a nice way to wrap up a long day of running around.

Tomorrow is a quiet day...we plan to all work out, run the beach and then barbeque for lunch.  We’re all hoping to have a little more sleep, and a little less running around.  But for less than four days in the country, AM has very promising job prospects (she interviewed Friday!) and I’ve started planning with my company on a contract job.  If all goes well, by next week we’ll be employed, we’ll have an address, and ready for graduate school on the Gold Coast!
Cheers!
DK

Sunset from the balcony!