Happy Halloween!

Hi everybody. Happy Halloween from Australia! A special thank you to my little buddies Liam & Rowan for sending us a Halloween card - and one that even arrived all the way over here on just the right day! (Nice work, Anastasia :)
I took candy along today for all of my fellow Department of Education Refresher Course mates and I just saw 2 young kiddos dressed up walking down our block, but other than that there wasn't much around to signify that it was Halloween. It was kind of weird.

Your basic update on what we've been up to:
Andy spent last Monday - Thursday in Townsville on a work-related trip. Maybe he'll add some detail at a later date about this.
I had a brief interview with a Casual Relief (aka: substitute) Teaching agency last Tuesday morning, which went very well, and I actually ended up surviving my first day of subbing in both a Grade 6 and a Kindergarten classroom last Friday! It was fairly intimidating, but overall I think it went well, and it was great to get out and working and back in the midst of the energy of a school setting.
I volunteered at a school on Wednesday morning, then made my way to that musical that I wrote about earlier - it was superb! The music, the costumes, the stage props, and the actors were all amazing, and I was lucky to sit by some really friendly women that almost made me feel like my Portland theater girls were right there next to me. I was really struggling for a while that day with the mixed emotions of, "I can't believe I'm here for such an amazing event with nobody that I love" / "If we hadn't made this decision to come, I wouldn't even be experiencing this amazing event." Whew! Good thing I had scheduled a massage for that night to help me feel better :)

We attended our first 'Via WebCam' Party back in Portland on Saturday afternoon for us/ Friday night Portland time. It was marvellous to see so many familiar faces (amongst other things- he he) and to hear so many familiar voices. I was crying when we first got it up and running, but I regained control of my emotions fairly quickly and went on to really enjoy being able to still be a part of the Portland Old Man Frat scene. A big thanks to Jason Brabec for ensuring that it happened, and to everybody that hung in there while the technological difficulities were worked out! Cheers!

I've been attending a 3-day class sponsored by the Department of Education this week, I interviewed at a private girls' school for an assistant teacher position, and I have an interview tomorrow at a camp/outdoor store (similar to REI) that I had applied for in desperation a few weeks back. I've pretty much decided to hold off on applying for any Lead Teacher positions for the 2008 school year - I just do not want to commit to the amount of time I know I would spend in striving to be an excellent teacher my first year here, nor do I want the stress that would come along with it. But we'll see what happens - sometimes you never know where you were meant to be until you're there.

Think I'll end on that thought. Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures and video clips on the previous entry. Have a frightful Halloween! Love and miss you all.

BOO!
Christy

Badger Creek Camping & Healesville Sanctuary Pictures

Wombat!

We learned that koalas sleep approximately 20 hours per day. They are so cool.

Tasmanian Devils

Echidna - the way these guys waddle around is pretty cute.

Andy feeding a kangaroo.

Christy petting a kangaroo for the first time.

Roos!

Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats - Oh My!

Greetings from Australia. So, we survived our first Australian camping excursion, although it wasn't much of a threat - Badger Creek Caravan & Holiday Park is pretty much the Aussie version of many KOA Campgrounds found in the US. We had a nice shady, quiet tent spot next to the stream and spent a gorgeous Saturday afternoon relaxing, sipping white wine, sitting by the pool, walking around the lake, playing ping-pong in the rec. room (ok- Andy beat me, but not by much), playing frisbee at dusk, and listening to all of the interesting and amazing sounds that a new camping environment brings. I must admit - I was a little bit nervous throughout the day about encountering some sort of venemous creature(s) and was taking the necessary precautions, such as poking around on the ground before I would pick up any firewood and keeping my hiking boots on as opposed to wandering around in sandals. I gently reminded my husband to do the same - I think most of the time he was wise and just turned away from my comments, rolled his eyes so that I couldn't see him, and thought to himself, "We're never going to get to go real backpacking over here." :) Maybe someday.

We were up pretty early on Sunday and were at Healesville Sanctuary by 9:45am - the pictures and videos pretty much speak for themselves. It was an incredible experience to see so many new animals - Andy and I both loved it. It was appropriate that it was also the warmest day we've had over here yet- about 31 degrees Celsius/ 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

Andy will be in Townsville for work today - Thursday of this week. I begin volunteering in a 1st/2nd grade classroom at one of the elementary (Primary) schools close to our house on Wednesday, which I am very excited about. I'm also going to Priscilla- Queen of the Desert- The Musical, on Wednesday. (From the first note to the finale, Priscilla is a musical extravaganza featuring classic disco hits including: Don’t Leave Me This Way, I Will Survive, Finally, I Love The Nightlife, Colour My World and Shake Your Groove Thing, all brought to life by the big sound of the live Priscilla band. http://www.priscillathemusical.com/index.php?id=4) How was I to resist? Andy is VERY happy he got out of this one! I only wish my Portland theater girls were here to attend with me!

Hope this finds everyone very well. Hugs to all. Cheers!

Love, Christy

Due to our internet access being "throttled" I'm unable to upload any of the photos or videos right now. I promise to post them as soon as I can - I think we return to regular internet speed on Oct. 26.

Ray & Marcia are on their way to Australia!

A triple cheers to my parents, Ray & Marcia, for they have purchased their flights and will arrive in Melbourne on Thursday, Nov. 29! They will be in the area until Feb. 1st. Along with spending time here with us, they are hoping to embark on a variety of explorations of their own- for some reason they keep mentioning the word 'cruise' over and over again. :)
And there is that one cruise that I've been eyeing for them- the 28-day jaunt that circumnavigates the country...

I guarantee that their arrival will be a joyous one - and probably one overflowing with tears. I am very happy that they will be here to help us celebrate our first Christmas in Australia - so far from home.

So, the next question is...Who's coming at the end of February to help celebrate a true Leap Year? :)

Cheers!

Love, Christy

One-Sided Conversation

Cheers to Jason Brabec for installing Skype within about 10 minutes today!

Sadly, he didn't have a microphone on his computer, so I had the very bizarre experience of sitting and talking in front of our computer while Jason had to type all of his responses back to me and I had to sit and try my best to imagine how great his laugh over in Portland was sounding. Definitely a weird experience- I was even joking with Jason about how not being able to hear him kinda made me feel like I had gone off the deep end over here and was just going ahead with my own imaginative conversations with people back in P-town. :)

So it's Friday morning here. The weekend weather is looking fantastic, and Andy and I are headed to Badger Creek Caravan & Holiday Park on Saturday for our first Australian camping experience, then to Healesville Sanctuary on Sunday for what is guaranteed to be our first sightings of some kangaroos, koalas, dingos, etc! We're very excited! We'll be taking the train from downtown Melbourne for about an hour, then taking a bus for another 40 minutes over to the Sanctuary. From there we'll walk with our camp stuff to the campground (I think only about 1.5 km). It will hopefully be a fun adventure.

Hope you are all well and happy. Happy weekend!

Love, Christy

"Wata!"

G'Day mates! This entry is going to cover a variety of topics - we've had an eventful week and we've lots to share, including some quirky and humorous things about our continued Australian life.

Where to start- guess I'll give you the basic update on what we've been doing. I attended a 2-day First Aid/CPR class on Thursday and Friday of last week. Most of it was the same as in the US, except for that they call their ambulances "Ambos" over here and they don't teach the Heimlich Maneuver, simply b/c not everybody can perform the maneuver safely and/or effectively on every other person. I taught the class what I knew, and then my instructor instructed them that they could never perform this method. We also spent a significant amount of time on the Bites & Stings topic, considering that anything from a jellyfish to a snake to a spider over here can easily and sometimes rather quickly send you into shock, cause your flesh to begin to rot, or simply kill you off. Many of my classmates got quite a kick out of my obvious fear of many of the native critters.

We enjoyed Friday happy hour and dinner out with some of Andy's co-workers at a Belgian Beer Cafe, dangerously within walking distance of our apartment. Saturday morning we took the train a short distance and met up with another of Andy's co-workers, Rosemary, and her husband and daughter. We spent the entire afternoon and early evening with them driving around the Yarra Valley, about 45 minutes outside of Melbourne. This region is well-known for its beautiful views, beautiful wine, and beautiful fresh produce. We visited 4 wineries, sampled delicious wines and cheeses, had a late lunch in Healesville, and came home with some delicious goat's cheese for me and bleu cheese for Andy. Sunday we slept in and woke to a warm and sunny day, so we enjoyed a slow and lazy morning of drinking coffee, reading the paper, and eating pancakes out on our patio in the sun. We finally walked over to Prahran Market (amazing fresh produce, meat, seafood, coffee, flower, wine, etc. market open 5 days/week- and only a 10 minute walk from our apartment! I'm a bit addicted already!) around 1pm and purchased some fresh pumpkin cannelloni and bread. Completed a couple of errands, came home for a quick late lunch, then walked to the park across the street to play Frisbee, nap in the sunshine, and watch (and try to figure out!) a game of cricket. We will definitely need some assistance in figuring out the details of this game, I believe. So that was our weekend. Oh, and we also got to speak with our friends Steve & Marnie for a little bit- :)

I received an email asking about, "the boys and the beer" over here, so I figured there might be more than 1 person interested in these topics. The boys seem about the same, except that the dress appears to be a bit more formal over here. I'm always seeing lots of guys in full suits or looking very stylish in general. I know that Andy has felt a bit of pressure to dress up a bit more for work here than he did in Portland with Intel.
The beer is pretty good, but we were so spoiled in Portland with our endless variety of microbrewery options! We've been exploring the common options, like Victoria Bitter (fairly standard lager), Carlton's Draught (pale lager), and sticking with an old favorite, Stella (Belgian pilsner). I am quite fond of the Belgian Hoegaarden, which I proved just this past Friday night :) The Victorian Microbreweries Showcase is this week at Federation Square, but on Wednesday & Thursday, so I think this provides some insight in how they view their microbrews over here. I'm interested in checking it out. And the beer is expensive- we paid $64 for 2 cases of Victoria Bitter bottles (on sale) one of the weekends that we had a car. Wine seems to be similar to the US, varying in price and quality. I'm drinking as much as I can to provide y'all with as many details as possible :) he he- just kidding. They do sell some funky wine bottles over here which have no label- just the black and white label with the nutritional value info. I'm told this is to save money on labeling, thus allowing me to purchase the bottles at a much cheaper rate. We think they're called Clean Skins, but we haven't quite determined if this is a specific brand, the generic term, or possibly both.

We have seen very little evidence of Halloween over here yet- just a small bit at the craft stores and a few party fliers. We're told they don't really celebrate Halloween over here, but many of Andy's co-workers were very interested in hearing all about the custom of Trick-or-Treating in the US- they didn't know much about it and found it an interesting concept.

This is one of my favorite topics to encounter over here so far-- the way they finish many of their words with the "a" sound and spelling. The title of this blog entry, for example, "Wata!" for water. "Supa" for super, such as the store we visited yesterday, Supa Bargains. "Cuppa" for cup, and my absolute favorite that I saw last week, "Hangova" for hangover, as seen at a coffee shop advertising their, "Hangova Brekky" (breakfast). Andy and I are easily amused, as many of you know, and all we have to do right now to totally crack ourselves up around the apartment is to simply shout out, "Wata!" As an incentive to all of those Portlanders who have yet to get a phone call off to us or their Skype and a microphone hooked up yet: if you call within the next 7 days, I promise to shout this out as many times as you like while we chat! :)

Let's see- what else. My job search continues this week. Andy is traveling to Townsville, way up on the northeastern coast, next week for a few days for work. We're hoping to travel to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island toward the end of November- Andy is attending a work conference, so we're hoping to add another couple of days and do some exploring over there. Andy is thinking about joining an ultimate frisbee spring social league that is starting up next week. We miss Buddy.

OK- enough for today. Hope this finds everybody very well and happy. To my sister-in-law, Michelle, Happy 40th Birthday this week!!!

Cheers!
Love, Christy

New pics on Flickr - be the first on your block to collect all 37!

Some new pics from the last few weeks of moving and enjoying our new location in the city:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8437412@N03/with/1531252243/

A big shout out to the Flynns - I finally got our webcam hooked up and it works great. For those of you who are adventurous with technology, a buddy of our pointed out some free software called oovoo that allows you to do video conference calls for free. You can also use a webcam through the standard Windows Messenger as well (in case you were wondering...).

For those who need a little encouragement to install Skype and call us:
Step 1 - go to this site to download: http://skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/

Step 2 - once you've installed Skype, follow the directions to do a test call to test your mic and what not - it's super easy and it will guide you through all the steps

Step 3 - to add us as a user, do a search for my skype name: andrew.sweany - on the Contacts tab there is a search button on the top if your not prompted to add contacts when you install it.

That's about it - give it a whirl :)

Lastly, I once again have hope for Bears after a triumphant victory over the Pack. Sorry to hear about your loss of $20 Steve - one thing I learned long ago was not to bet for or against the Bears - ever.

Cheers,
Sweany

Bears Beat Packers vs. Christy's Teacher Registration

Hello, loves! Greetings from Australia~

The battle is under way over here today in regards to which event holds more significance in our lives: the fact that the Bears beat Green Bay or the fact that I received my Victorian Institute of Teaching Registration Approval letter in the mail :)

Cheers to my brother, Steve, for being the first person to call us on our Australian landline phone and leave us a message. It was awesome to talk to you and Michelle today.

We had a fairly eventful weekend. Friday night we took it pretty easy around the apartment as I wasn't feeling very well. Saturday morning we were up and off to take possession of yet another rental vehicle- this time a Thrifty Cargo Van. By late afternoon we had collected quite a load: a couch, 2 chairs, a TV, a small desk, a table and 2 chairs bistro set, a portable heater, a portable evaporative air cooler, & 3 plants. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting comfortably at home on Saturday night, watching a movie and eating microwave popcorn. I've posted a couple of pictures of our now furnished apartment above.

Sunday we returned the van to its rightful owners, ate a leisurely breakfast out, and spent most of the rest of the day wandering the city. We walked up Bridge Road, visited Fitzroy Gardens and St. Patrick's Cathedral, explored and snacked at Queen Victoria Market, and finally made our way to Crown Casino for a beer. A quick stop home, and we were off again with Ash, one of Andy's co-workers, on our way to a bar for dinner and to see a friend of his whose band was playing. Our new friend Julia gave us a ride home after the show - I think it is so funny how great a 15-minute car ride home can seem on a Sunday night at 11:30pm when I really thought we'd be taking the 1-hour tram alternative. Andy and I seriously got out of the car and were saying, "That was great. Our first drop-off at our new home!" :)

I had my first Australian doctor appointment this afternoon- nothing wrong, just establishing myself as a patient. It went well, and he seemed genuinely concerned when he asked if I was feeling well emotionally since our arrival, if I was experiencing a lot of homesickness, etc. For all the rest of you that are wondering as well, Andy and I both think that we've been dealing with this issue quite well. I am getting a little bit bored and I am excited about the prospect of now being able to apply for teaching-related jobs with my registration finalized, but overall we've had quite enough going on to keep us busy and we've actually been enjoying a bit of a quieter life. This is not to say that we don't miss many people and things/routines terribly ~ I just find that it does me absolutely no good to dwell upon these feelings for more than a little while. Technology has helped in this area tremendously as well ~ the opportunity to exchange multiple emails, visit friends' blogs, and chat via Skype has helped in not feeling all that far away. If I start to feel too badly, I just locate and study the most recent Sunday newspaper Travel Section and envision all of the beautiful and amazing places Andy and I are going to get to visit during our time living here. :)

I had a great time visiting that Child Care Center that I went to last Friday. I found it to be so much fun listening to little Aussie accents, and I was approached by and introduced to more humans in 2 hours than I had been in 6 weeks. I absolutely love the way young children interact with such honesty and simplicity.

OK- now I'm starting to go a little overboard. I hope this finds all of you very well. We love and miss you all. Cheers!

Christy

What the heck is a bunyip, you ask-

Bunyip (1935)- Artist Unknown

Good evening, mates. Andy was checking out a camping book tonight and was drawn to the section describing Bunyip State Park, 65 km. east of Melbourne. The entry encouraged readers to, "...go bunyip spotting." What the heck is a bunyip, we thought? Being the inquisitive people that we are, we immediately did a Gooogle search on bunyips, located the above picture, and have the following specifics to share (possibly much more than you would ever have thought you yourself might learn about bunyips!):

The bunyip (usually translated as "devil" or "spirit"[1]) is a mythical creature from Australian folklore. Various accounts and explanations of bunyips have been given across Australia since the early days of the colonies. It has also been identified as an animal recorded in Aboriginal mythology, similar to known extinct animals.

Descriptions of bunyips vary wildly. It is usually given as a sort of lake monster. Common features in Aboriginal drawings include a horse-like tail, flippers, and walrus-like tusks or horns. According to legend they are said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes. At night their blood-curdling cries can be heard as they devour any animal that ventures near their abodes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip

Cheers to Bunyips! :)

Christy

Possibly the best version of 'Oops- I Did It Again!'

Even the Australian papers seem to have a daily article about Britney, so no worries regarding keeping posted on her life. :)
Most of you know how I love this song- check out this more chill version that I just heard today- just scroll down a bit and you'll see it under the Studio 4A Performances Section:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1506843

Andy and I are hoping to rent a van this weekend to run around and pick up some furniture that we've agreed to purchase- a couch, 2 chairs, and a corner desk. Ah, the possibility of real furniture in our apartment is very appealing!

I'm going on a 'Professional Tour & Observation' of a Child Care Center tomorrow. I think it will be nice to get out and involve myself with professional activity of some sort.

I've been doing a lot of wandering and taking various trams around the city this week. Andy and I continue to be amazed at our good fortune in finding our apartment in such an amazing area of the city.
My parents have begun suggesting that they might be headed our way as early as mid-December this year, which I think would be wonderful.
We received word that Buddy and Zach have made it to Alaska and are busy getting themselves settled. I definitely give Buddy more credit than I'm sure his dog brain deserves, but I can't help but wonder if he has been thinking, "What the heck is going on?" for the past 6 weeks. :)

Cheers~
Christy

Royal Botanical Gardens video 9-30-07

Here's an intriguing video from the Royal Botanical Gardens ~ Sunday, Sept. 30. We've no idea yet what animal was making that interesting sound.