Happy Presidents Day!!

Last Saturday our friend's Jeremy and Amanda picked Adsy and I up to go to a bar for drinks.  While driving to the bar we passed Coogee beach where we spent new years eve.  I was sitting in the back of the car looking out the window and spacing out. Then I saw it. The American flag hanging in all of it's glory from a hut on the beach.  It took me longer than it should have to register that the American flag was out of place. Then I saw them, blue and red everywhere.  Solo cups*! What I was looking at was clearly a American party on the beach.

I'm guessing they were celebrating President's day because that is the only holiday I could think of and it was the following Monday (today). When we got to the bar all of our friends that were there kept coming up to me and saying things like "did you see your people on the beach? why aren't you with them?" "what is the deal with those red and blue cups?" If only I could have jumped out of the car to party with the Americans and drink out of those wonderful solo cups! But I didn't so I'll never know what they were celebrating or if they were celebrating anything at all other than the fact that they are American. Oh well, next time!

Maybe from now on if there is ever an American holiday coming up I'll make sure to be at the beach so I do not miss any of the celebrations.

P.S. I have heard that Australians throw "American" themed parties which I find funny because that is a random theme for a party.

*They don't have solo cups here or at least I have never seen them. Someone must have imported them.

Night Swim!

Down the beach (where I was walking yesterday) there is a rock pool built into the side of the ocean where the water meets the rocks.  It is a really cool public pool where people can swim laps, without having to worry about getting sucked out to sea (or eaten by a shark). With Adsy's hurt knee he is not able to do sports of any kind and that has been bumming him out. Last night I suggested we go for a swim at the pool. I figured it would help him to do something active in the ocean, but also start to strengthen his knee before surgery. 

Once we got there I was kicking myself for suggesting it because the water was pretty cold, but once I got in it felt really nice.  It was a lot of fun too, because even though you are in a pool you are still in the ocean.  The waves crash down and the current pulls you so it is a really good work out.  We were only in there for about 15 minuets and afterwards I was exhausted.

Adsy brought his camera and snapped a few photos of our time there.  It was pretty dark by this point so the photos may be hard to see clearly.



I am sitting on a rock looking past the pool at the ocean. The pool is pretty shallow therefore no diving.

The rock pool with the ocean beyond the little wall.  There is a chain on the wall that people like to hold on to and let the waves crash on them. 



Pretty sky!

 I think after the surgery we will be spending more time here. However, since we'll be getting into winter by that point I don't know how much time I'll be spending in the pool. For now though, the pool made for a nice Thursday night!

A morning walk to the beach

I must say how proud I am of myself for how much I have been blogging after such a long time of not doing it. I know my avid readers a.k.a. my dad must also appreciate the daily updates of my currently boring life.  I should not say boring because I know my life is far from boring, I'm just bored so the word is on my mind.  Maybe it is because of the boredom that I have been so good about blogging.  

However, I now have caught up on all of the important and interesting things I have been doing since I got back to Australia and now have nothing to post about.  One friend told me to come up with a list of Australian stereotypes and start to prove/disprove each one with a blog post.  All I need are some good Australian stereotypes. Not sure Adsy would like this project, but it could be a bit funny.

Since I didn't have much to say today, for your enjoyment I decided to go for a nice little walk down to the beach and take some pictures.  A reader, a.k.a my dad, made sure to let me know that my blog is much more interesting with pictures, and I agree with him.  Who wants to sit and read a bunch of words? 

Mapping my journey from the apartment to the beach.

If you look closely the box thing is painted like a rubix cube 

Next time I think I need to be sure and find some 'Bra boys' to include in my blog.  I still have yet to see them, but I was told it is because I don't know what I am looking for. That post to appear soon!

Is your knee really that important?

So it is official.  Adsy has to have surgery on his knee.  Many of you may not know, but he tore his ACL a couple of weeks ago playing indoor soccer.  Stupid indoor soccer.  We play on a team with some other friends once a week, and  I really should not include myself in the "we" aspect of the team as I am more of an alternate to my friend Mel who hates playing.  Unfortunately though I was there when Adsy went down, literally.

It was like any other night at indoor except we were playing the black team.  I hate the black team.  For what ever reason I imagine them as black spiders that just make you angry. Weird I know, but they are mean, and do not play friendly.  There is another team that plays the same, and between the two teams it makes playing a friendly game of indoor soccer out of the question and no fun.  Both teams take it entirely too seriously and look what happens someone gets hurt.

Like I said on the night we were playing the black team they were doing their usual thing of playing really hard.  Even I hurt my ankle that night.  Adsy and some guy were running after the ball and they some how collided with each other. Adsy went down and stayed down.  He says he heard his knee click and felt the knee cap move to the side.  Not good.

The next day he went to see the physio, but with his knee so swollen the physio could only tell him to come back in a few days.  When Adsy went back a few days later the physio told him he would probably have to have surgery. The physio did give Adsy some exercises to help strengthen his knee and keep him from damaging it further.

Yesterday, Adsy went to the orthopedic surgeon who officially told him that yes, surgery was the only option. So where do we go from here? Next week Adsy has another appointment for a MRI to double check he does not have more damage other than a torn ACL.  Then he gets put on the waiting list for the free government health care.  The government health care system allows him to get the surgery for free which is great because Adsy does not have private health insurance. The only problem is that it is a waiting list which means we will have no idea when the surgery will be.  The doctor told Adsy it will probably be in three or fourth months time.

Anyway, so that is the update on his knee for those of you who have not heard about it.  I'll be sure to keep you updated as we go through the process of fixing Adsy's knee. 

I'll say it again, stupid indoor soccer and that spidery black team. Needless to say our indoor soccer career is over. I will say though Adsy is pretty upset about the status of his knee.  What this means for him is no surfing, snowboarding, or active sports involving his knee.  He is pretty bummed out about it.

Happy Valentine's day!

I find it funny because as I am writing this post I realize it is no longer Valentine's day here, but since my blog is on Texas time it is still appropriate to write about.
Adsy and I had a great Valentine's evening with each other.  First Adsy came home from work and surprised me with pretty flowers and an awesome cactus.  The cactus was especially funny, because I no joke almost bought the same one for him.  There is a florist down the street from where we live, and obviously where Adsy got the flowers and cactus. I passed by it yesterday and saw the cactus, I picked it up and thought about getting it for Adsy because I thought it was cool and different. Then I changed my mind thinking I could go back later and get it for him. So when Adsy walked into the room and handed me the same cactus I died laughing.  Looks like we were meant to have a cactus in our lives.

Pretty flowers and cactus!

The cactus that was meant to come live with us.

Ever since Adsy got his iPhone he has been obsessed with it, therefore I gave him a Valentine's card with a gift card to the itunes App store inside.  Now he can buy more apps and be more obsessed with that phone.

To continue our Valentine's day celebration Adsy took me to a Croatian restaurant called Balkan.  OMG was it good.  Adsy and I were both trying to contain ourselves from licking our plates it was that good.  Needless to say we were stuffed when we walked out of there.  We tried to go for a little walk after dinner to walk our food off, but then we soon realized we were too full for that and walked as far as we could to the car. 

A sweet kiss from my Valentine!

It was an excellent Valentine's day and I am so lucky to have Adsy to share it with.  I'm looking forward to many more happy days with him. Happy Valentine's day to everyone!

Climbing on (fake) rocks

Adsy took me rock climbing right after I got back from the States.  I had never been before and it was a lot of fun, but also really hard.  Seeing as I don't have any upper body strength it was especially hard. 

I did pretty well and got up to the top on a couple of the climbs.  The last one however, I was so tired by the end that I couldn't do it and had to come down.  Here are two pictures Adsy took of me to document the day.



Ready to climb! P.S. You can see where Adsy kept slapping me on the back with the chalk on his hands.

It doesn't look like it, but I am totally struggling at this point.  I couldn't find a good rock to put my foot on. I kept missing and got so frustrated that I finally gave up. 

Too bad Adsy hurt his knee and cannot rock climb for a while.  It was a lot of fun and I would love to go back and give it another try.

Summer in Sydney

What is summer in Sydney like? Well, if you live in an apartment with no A/C like I do its miserable.

I always thought Texas was horrible in summer when you would go outside and be instantly sweating only to step into a building and freeze because they have the A/C blasting. Reminds me of the only time I took a class during the summer while at UT.  I'm pretty sure I got a cold that summer because my body couldn't handle the extreme change of walking outside in 100 degree heat and then settling into a classroom that was cooled down to 50 degrees.

Anyways, like I said I thought Texas in summer was miserable, then I moved to Sydney  Most of the time I don't notice I don't A/C or central heat until it gets really hot or really cold.  Last week it was really hot.

The temperature last week was over a hundred every day for about 7 days.  The only things I had to help cool me down during this time was one fan and cold showers.  I basically took three cold showers a day and then sat in front of the fan.  We also ate a lot of cold things like ice cream.  Still the heat raged on. 

The heat gave me insomnia.  For several nights in a row I would lay in bed awake because it was too hot and stuffy to get comfortable, even with the fan.  I started taking tea towels, running them under cold water, putting them in the freezer, and then covering myself with them to try and help me sleep.  They helped a little.  One night Adsy woke up to me crying.  I have never been homesick for something like I was for my parents house and the luxurious feel of cold air blowing on me. 

Luckily the heat wave passed and it has since cooled down to manageable temperatures.  It is still a bit hot, but at least I can sleep at night without having to cover myself with a frozen tea towel.  Now I get to look forward to when it gets really cold and I have to go back to my hot water bottles!

Big Day Out/Australia Day 2011!!

Australia Day is the country's national holiday and is celebrated on January 26th.  The date commemorates the arrival of the first fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland. (Wikipedia)

How did we celebrate Australia day? We went to the Big Day Out music festival! Let me tell you it was a big day out.  We left around 9am to get out to the Sydney showgrounds over by the Olympic Park, and did not get home until about 1am.  Not only was it a long day, but it also was extremely hot. 

Some of the bands we saw were: The Vines, Dead Letter Circus, Lupe Fiasco, Die Antwoord, Deftones, Birds of Tokyo, Crystal Castles, Wolfmother, SIA, LCD Soundsystem, Tool, and MIA. So yes, as you can see it was a big day out!!

On the train headed out to Olympic Park!

Our friends Heath and Sarah.

I was told that to prove my true Aussieness I had to smash a can by jumping on it. As you can see I am a pro and Adsy is a pro at capturing things at the right moment.  Pretty awesome picture if I do say so myself!

There was a ferris wheel at one of the stages and we watched Die Antwoord while riding on it. We also watched two 16 year olds sitting across from us on the ferris wheel makeout. Awkward.

Don't wear a giant hamburger on your shirt if you don't want someone to take a bite. 

Adsy found this huge button which reads "Proudly Australian".  I wore it for pretty much the rest of the day.

Foreigners celebrating Australia Day. The two Scottish guys, an American, and a French ballerina.

A little tired from my big day out. I just couldn't get in to Tool like Adsy could.

A smile on my face for the last act of the day, MIA.  I think my smile is really saying "it's almost over and I get to take a shower soon"!

To put it into context for you Americans, Australia day is celebrated the same way we celebrate the 4th of July, with a lot of Australian flags, colors, and BBQs. The only thing they are missing are the firework stands lining the highways. It will be fun to show Adsy how America celebrates its independence with an awesome 4th of July celebration!!

Sawtell

In January, Adam and I along with two other couples rented a beach house in Sawtell.  Sawtell is about a 7 hour drive North of Sydney near Coffs Harbour.  The timing of our trip was a little tricky because it was during the time when all of the Queensland flooding was happening.  Luckily, even though we were driving towards the flooding we were still no where near it so it didn't effect our trip.

The trip was relaxing, but also filled with fun things like days at the beach, a carnival (actually the carnival was not so fun), horseback riding, watching movies, eating out, and enjoying good friends company.

Below are a few pictures from our trip. Enjoy!

Sawtell beach from the Sawtell lookout. The house we stayed in is along that first street.



This picture was taken before the first ride started. If only I had an after picture to show you. We were all so sick afterwards that I literally went behind a tent because I thought I was going to throw up.  The carnival was a $30 all you can ride thing to raise money for the QLD floods. I went on a total of two rides out of the 10 there, and those two were a huge mistake. We all decided that we are too old for carnival rides after this night.



At least to make us feel better from being sick the boys won each girl a prize!

Group shot of us at the beach! Adsy makes great use of his pole cam.

Sea monster!

Coffs Harbour grows a lot of bananas. How do they celebrate this? They erect a giant banana for tourists to take their picture with. Yeah, we are suckers for a touristy photo.

Hermit crabs! Two seconds after this photo was taken one of them stabbed me and I threw them up in the air and back in the water where they belong.

Good thing I used to ride horses when I was younger.  This guy almost knocked me off as he went over to try and bite another horse.

Best friends!!

Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

Sorry it has been so long since I have made a post on my blog.  I actually have been experiencing some technical difficulties lately that have still yet to get fixed.  I'm at the point that I think I may just have to start over, because the computer genius that I am I have no idea how to fix it.

So what have I been up to the last month since I have been back? Not much. Lets just say I have spent a lot of time hanging out. 

We did go on a week long vacation with some friends up the coast to a lovely place called Sawtell. We had a great and relaxing time there. Pictures to come from that trip.

Adam and I had a hot and sweaty time at a music festival called Big Day Out. Pictures to come from that day.

Adam hurt his knee the other week playing indoor soccer and now will probably have to have surgery.  Not good. 

I woke up crying the other night because it was so freaking hot in this un-air conditioned apartment. Awesome. (This may have to be another blog post)

I found these two moth things mating on Adsy's pajama pants. I accidentally touched them while I was taking Adsy's clothes off the line. Uhhhhhhh

Later in the day I invited my friends Mel and Amanda to come over and look at my awesome find.

I haven't been totally bored since I got back but, I must say that I am really looking forward to school starting back up in two weeks. Looking for a part time job is also in my near future.

I apologize again for the long hiatus from blogging.  Please let me know if anyone has any trouble seeing my posts! I hope you have enjoyed the quick update.