"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