More Melbourne pics for your viewing enjoyment

Hi boys and girls,

I've added some more pictures of our travels around Melbourne to our existing Australia photo set on Flickr (the link below should take you right there). Another trip to the city last weekend reminded me what a fascinating city Melbourne is and the fact that it's a 'real' big city (like Seattle), not a pretend one (like Portland). The Portlanders will know what I'm talking about.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8437412@N03/sets/72157601794987955/

For those wondering about Buddy: I talked to Zach Halstead yesterday morning and he is getting ready for his road trip to Alaska. From Eugene, OR to his new place it is 2600 miles, so him and Buddy will have lots of time to bond :) However, the trip will be worth it - the place in Alaska basically has it's own trout lake and is surrounded by wilderness. The people renting the other portion of Zach's house have a 3 yr black lab so Buddy will have a partner in crime as well. All in all, Zach, Spike and Buddy are all going to love it.

Bon voyage Zach and Buddy - here's to new adventures all around!

Our Address

Andrew & Christy Sweany
3/14 Park St.
South Yarra- Victoria 3141
Australia

In case you need reminders of how to get ahold of us via our mobiles:
Andy's number is 043 051 0801
Christy's number is 043 051 0802

We've both upgraded our phones to include additional international minutes with the US. We're hoping to have our home internet set-up shortly after we move this Friday, so then we can begin using Skype.

We had a pleasant weekend- spent a bit of time on Friday walking around the area of our new apartment. Stopped for a celebratory Stella and snack. Visited an Irish Pub and felt more at home than we have since leaving Portland. Hhmmm...wonder why? :)
Saturday we trekked to a new part of the city and purchased Andy's bike, which we have already nicknamed 'Rusty.' Visited the local home improvement store to have additional sets of apartment keys made. Our for pizza and rented our first movie, which we watched on our computer. Sunday we biked and took the train downtown to Federation Square- met up with one of Andy's co-workers and a friend of his- saw a movie at the Australian Center for the Moving Image, followed by a couple of beers and snacks at a riverside bar and restaurant. I was really feeling like home then, because it was rather nasty weather and rainy, and still we kept sitting outside enjoying good beer, conversation, and views of the river.

Hope all is well. xoxoxo

Christy

Empty Apartment Pictures

Hi everybody. We signed the lease and got the keys for our apartment yesterday- here's some pics. We're not really moving in until next Friday- they are still doing some painting over there in the next week. The kitchen (particularly the stove and oven) leaves a little to be desired, but what can you do? I think the bedroom opening onto a little front patio makes up for the kitchen. It is an exciting location and we are more than ready to move down there. I'll send out the official address as soon as I double-check to make sure I am writing it correctly!Today we are off to try to find a bike for Andy, followed by some fridge and mattress shopping if we get around to it. Happy weekend! xoxoxo Love, Christy and Andy

Dare I write that we have an apartment?

Hi everybody. I hate to push our luck too much, but the meeting to hand over our deposit and first month's rent is scheduled for 2pm tomorrow, so I feel pretty confident in announcing that we have secured an apartment for ourselves for the next 12 months- Hooray! What a relief. I was beginning to feel a bit panicky with our move-out date quickly approaching on Sept. 21. We thought we had one lined up over the weekend, and then found out on Tuesday morning that there had been some sort of "miscommunication" at the rental office as to who was in charge of that account- one agent offered the place to us, another agent offered it to another couple. So as of Tuesday at 11am, we decided to start over and search both furnished and unfurnished apartments. We found that most of the furnished places were quite small, and you were really paying quite a bit for things that, in the long run, would be cheaper to just go ahead and buy and own ourselves for the next 2 years. I'm talking very necessary things here, like a mattress and a refrigerator. Weird- from what I'm told and from what I've seen, many apartments over here don't normally come with a fridge. Who knew?! The place we'll be moving into next Friday is an unfurnished 1 bedroom apartment located in the South Yarra area of town. It is a great location- we've got a tram running right down our street, the South Yarra train station a 10-minute walk away, parks at both ends of our block (the Royal Botanical Gardens happens to be one of them!), the bay a short distance away, and tons of shops and restaurants all within walking distance. So I guess Andy and I will be out looking at refrigerators and mattresses this weekend. We are excited to get moved and start making our own place an actual home for ourselves. Here's a picture of the building- our place will be the top floor on the left.

We're hoping to catch a Footy game downtown on Saturday night. The start of the NFL season prior to us locating a pub at which to watch the games has almost been too much for Andy to take :)

We ate our first Kangaroo on Tuesday night- Kanga Bangas- pretty much like hot dogs, but not very flavorful. After we ate, Andy admitted that he felt a bit bad eating kangaroo.

President Bush was over here in Sydney last week for the APEC conference- it was interesting to watch and read the news, and to see how the country of Australia prepared for and talked about him and his visit. I'll leave it at that on that topic.

Hope all is well with everyone. It has been another up and down emotional week for us, but we've been listening to a lot of Todd Snider's song, "I'm Just Happy to be Here at All" to remind us of the important things. Worst case scenario, we live in a sweet hotel for a week :)

Cheers!
Christy

First Friday Pub Visit Video (hopefully!)

Hi everybody. This was from last Friday- just now figuring out how to try to upload it to share. Enjoy. An extra "Cheers!" to the Daby family from us today- congratulations, Jon & Shana! Welcome to little Wilson Daby xoxoxoxo

Christy

Rebuilding

From You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe:
For he had learned some of the things that every man must find out for himself, and he had found out about them as one has to find out- through error and through trial, through fantasy and illusion, through falsehood and his own damn foolishness, through being mistaken and wrong and an idiot and egotistical and aspiring and hopeful and believing and confused.

So, this little quote really hit home for me earlier this morning as I read it. All over here continues to go well, but I feel like the reality of this move is really starting to sink in. I had a bit of a discouraging day out looking for apartments yesterday. Wasn't I just saying like 2 weeks ago how excited I was to get out there and see all kinds of different options for living again??? Amazing how taking public transportation and walking around a large city equipped with a map book, only to arrive at a rather dingy apartment, followed by another dingy apartment 2 hours later can so quickly get old and discouraging. On the bright side, however, at least there is a wonderful public transportation system available in this city, at least Andy and I had the foresight to invest in a detailed Melbourne map book our second day in town, at least we have the money for a deposit and rent as soon as I find that perfect place that I just know is out there waiting for me to come see it......maybe tomorrow. Oh, and wait- actually, we don't have the money because it is impossible to transfer money to yourself from your own United States bank accounts to your own Australian bank accounts without physically being in the US to sign to wire the money. This is a detail that would have been exceedingly helpful to know prior to both Andy and I boarding that very large plane taking us from LA to Melbourne. For future reference for all of you :)

Before we left, we had the discussion/joke a few times with various people about how our 2 years over here would probably be like one long vacation. Let me just tell y'all- we are definitely not on vacation! More precisely, I feel like we are attempting to rebuild huge chunks of our lives over here- establishing Australian credit, considering leasing a car, trying to find somewhere to live, starting and looking for new jobs, estimating how much we think we should spend on rent, etc. As I joked with my mom on the phone earlier this morning, I do none of those things while on vacation!!! I haven't even interviewed for any jobs over here yet, and I'm already looking forward to my first Australian vacation :)

Here's a few recent funny/weird things that have happened to us:
*We went to see The Bourne Ultimatum movie on Saturday night- the movie theater we went to had assigned seating. Amusing to us that the back 3 rows are entirely full, but every other seat in the place is open. I wonder- do people ever revolt once the movie has started and move seats??
*You have to pay for ketchup at most of the places we've eaten so far! The first time I went to get some off the counter and came back to the table, Andy asked me if I had paid for that. I said no, was I supposed to? He said he thought so- I went back in and asked the guy working- he laughed it off and told me to go ahead and take it. But sure enough, I had to pay $1.00 for some at the fish and chips place we ate at on Saturday night.
*There are meat butcher shops (yes, plural) at the mall!
*The bacon is really, really good! Bill Bryson was right.

Ok- enough for today. Cheers!

Christy

Some pics from week #1

Here's some pictures from the past week. Sorry for the short message but my computer is running out of juice :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8437412@N03/sets/72157601794987955/