It reached 46.4 degrees Celsius today here in Melbourne. The governor stated yesterday that today was going to be a bad day, and encouraged everyone to stay at home unless absolutely necessary to be out and about. Andy and I obliged by sleeping late, moving the computer into the bedroom, turning the bedroom AC on, napping, and watching I think 5 episodes of Entourage.
We kept joking, "Hey, the governor said to stay home."
Tonight we're headed out to dinner with a couple that recently moved to our South Yarra neighborhood from DC. I met the gentleman last week one day at the shop, as he just sounded too American for me not to ask where he was from. It is an interesting position to find myself in - last year around this time, we were having dinner with a couple from the US who had been here nearly 2 years that were preparing to move back, and we were the new ones to Australia. I remember feeling kinda jealous that they were so close to going home. Now here we are on the flip side of that, and we've started thinking about how some things we love to do here in Melbourne are now on countdown. So many 'lasters.'
OH! I nearly forgot - a huge "Welcome to our World" to little Tyson Senske!!! We can't wait to meet you, Tyson! Our thoughts are with you, Travis & Val!
Cheers!
Love, Christy
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Do you know what a quokka is? & The biggest leprechaun you've ever seen!
Hi everybody - Happy February!
All here is good. Melbourne experienced a record-breaking heat wave last week, recording temps as high as 45.1 degrees Celsius (that's about 113 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday. Luckily, we were on a 5-day trip to explore Western Australia - we somehow managed to fly out of Melbourne on the day the heat wave started & fly back into Melbourne on the day it ended. We weren't sad to miss it. Instead, we spent a day exploring the city of Perth, 2 days exploring Rottnest Island, and a day exploring the Perth harbour suburb of Fremantle.
Rottnest Island is a small (11 x 4.5 km) island just 19kms off the west coast of Australia. There are no cars allowed on the island, so most people are either leisurely walking or biking around, which is refreshing. And it is stunningly gorgeous - whomever counts these sorts of things declares that there are 63 beaches and 20 bays, all on this tiny little island that you can bike around in about 3 hours! Which we did on rental bikes and with rented snorkel gear for 1 day - it was really great! But, the island is also a little weird. For starters, it was an Aboriginal Prison for many years, and many of today's accommodation options are old military cottages and barracks. In addition to that, and just when Andy and I had started thinking we had seen nearly everything that Australia has to offer, the island is home to an estimated 8,000-12,000 quokkas. Do you know what a quokka is? Well, we now do, so let me tell you - a quokka is a small marsupial, which has the appearance of an itty-bitty kangaroo, or an extremely large rat, depending on how you look at it. Also let me tell you that Rottnest translates to "Rat's Nest," the name given to the island by Dutch explorers way back in the day. So, check them out in our pictures and you can decide for yourself. After 2 days on this island, Andy and I both agreed, "That was pretty cool, but also very weird." Sometimes I think this could be the blanket statement for our entire time in Australia in general.
From there we took the ferry back to the mainland and spent our last night in WA at an Irish Pub, even going so far as to spend the night in one of the pub's heritage rooms right upstairs, and right next to possibly the biggest leprechaun in the entire world. It was a memorable night to say the least! Here's some recent pictures:
Now we're home, we're working (Andy's in the red for paid-time-off at work), & we're pretty busy getting organized for Stacy's upcoming visit and our departure from Melbourne. Here's a brief rundown of some upcoming big dates:
*Stacy's here Feb. 14-23. We'll be in Melbourne, Cairns, & Sydney all within 8 days!
*We move out of our apartment here in Melbourne on March 8.
*We'll be in New Zealand March 9-30. We're booked to do 2 pretty excellent backpack trips, so we're kinda "in training" right now in preparation.
*We'll be back in Melbourne March 30-April 4.
*We'll be in Honolulu April 4-10.
*We'll land in Portland April 10! We plan to spend about a week reorganizing and repacking in Portland.
*We'll spend about 3 weeks driving to Anchorage and back to reunite with Buddy and hang out with friends in Anchorage.
*We gain access to our house in Portland on May 12, so hope to be back in Portland (permanently!) right around that time.
Somewhere in there we're expecting the arrival of a little Senske and a little Sweany (niece or nephew Sweany) which we're very excited to hear news about.
So, this is probably one of the last few Sweany Australia Thoughts and Happenings entries. From here it will be NZ, HI, and AK if everything goes as planned.
In closing this entry, I'd like to share the following experience. Andy and I attended an all-day music festival called Big Day Out here in Melbourne on Jan. 26. We saw a ton of great music, met some great people, and even threw in a Bungee-Shot ride at the end of the night! Neil Young was the headlining act, and as he sang the song Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere that night, you could find Andy and I glancing at each other and smiling, both thinking about home, even in the midst of such an amazing scene, in another very amazing country. Read the lyrics and then listen to a version of the song if you like - I think you'll find that the lyrics could not be more perfect for our situation down here:
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
I think I'd like to go
back home
And take it easy
There's a woman that
I'd like to get to know
Living there
Everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here
I gotta get away
from this day-to-day
running around,
Everybody knows
this is nowhere.
Everybody, everybody knows
Everybody knows.
Every time I think about
back home
It's cool and breezy
I wish that I could be there
right now
Just passing time.
Everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here
I gotta get away
from this day-to-day
running around,
Everybody knows
this is nowhere.
Everybody, everybody knows
Everybody knows.
Cheers! Love and miss you all.
Love, Christy
p.s. How's that for weak, Steve F.? :)
All here is good. Melbourne experienced a record-breaking heat wave last week, recording temps as high as 45.1 degrees Celsius (that's about 113 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday. Luckily, we were on a 5-day trip to explore Western Australia - we somehow managed to fly out of Melbourne on the day the heat wave started & fly back into Melbourne on the day it ended. We weren't sad to miss it. Instead, we spent a day exploring the city of Perth, 2 days exploring Rottnest Island, and a day exploring the Perth harbour suburb of Fremantle.
Rottnest Island is a small (11 x 4.5 km) island just 19kms off the west coast of Australia. There are no cars allowed on the island, so most people are either leisurely walking or biking around, which is refreshing. And it is stunningly gorgeous - whomever counts these sorts of things declares that there are 63 beaches and 20 bays, all on this tiny little island that you can bike around in about 3 hours! Which we did on rental bikes and with rented snorkel gear for 1 day - it was really great! But, the island is also a little weird. For starters, it was an Aboriginal Prison for many years, and many of today's accommodation options are old military cottages and barracks. In addition to that, and just when Andy and I had started thinking we had seen nearly everything that Australia has to offer, the island is home to an estimated 8,000-12,000 quokkas. Do you know what a quokka is? Well, we now do, so let me tell you - a quokka is a small marsupial, which has the appearance of an itty-bitty kangaroo, or an extremely large rat, depending on how you look at it. Also let me tell you that Rottnest translates to "Rat's Nest," the name given to the island by Dutch explorers way back in the day. So, check them out in our pictures and you can decide for yourself. After 2 days on this island, Andy and I both agreed, "That was pretty cool, but also very weird." Sometimes I think this could be the blanket statement for our entire time in Australia in general.
From there we took the ferry back to the mainland and spent our last night in WA at an Irish Pub, even going so far as to spend the night in one of the pub's heritage rooms right upstairs, and right next to possibly the biggest leprechaun in the entire world. It was a memorable night to say the least! Here's some recent pictures:
Now we're home, we're working (Andy's in the red for paid-time-off at work), & we're pretty busy getting organized for Stacy's upcoming visit and our departure from Melbourne. Here's a brief rundown of some upcoming big dates:
*Stacy's here Feb. 14-23. We'll be in Melbourne, Cairns, & Sydney all within 8 days!
*We move out of our apartment here in Melbourne on March 8.
*We'll be in New Zealand March 9-30. We're booked to do 2 pretty excellent backpack trips, so we're kinda "in training" right now in preparation.
*We'll be back in Melbourne March 30-April 4.
*We'll be in Honolulu April 4-10.
*We'll land in Portland April 10! We plan to spend about a week reorganizing and repacking in Portland.
*We'll spend about 3 weeks driving to Anchorage and back to reunite with Buddy and hang out with friends in Anchorage.
*We gain access to our house in Portland on May 12, so hope to be back in Portland (permanently!) right around that time.
Somewhere in there we're expecting the arrival of a little Senske and a little Sweany (niece or nephew Sweany) which we're very excited to hear news about.
So, this is probably one of the last few Sweany Australia Thoughts and Happenings entries. From here it will be NZ, HI, and AK if everything goes as planned.
In closing this entry, I'd like to share the following experience. Andy and I attended an all-day music festival called Big Day Out here in Melbourne on Jan. 26. We saw a ton of great music, met some great people, and even threw in a Bungee-Shot ride at the end of the night! Neil Young was the headlining act, and as he sang the song Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere that night, you could find Andy and I glancing at each other and smiling, both thinking about home, even in the midst of such an amazing scene, in another very amazing country. Read the lyrics and then listen to a version of the song if you like - I think you'll find that the lyrics could not be more perfect for our situation down here:
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
I think I'd like to go
back home
And take it easy
There's a woman that
I'd like to get to know
Living there
Everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here
I gotta get away
from this day-to-day
running around,
Everybody knows
this is nowhere.
Everybody, everybody knows
Everybody knows.
Every time I think about
back home
It's cool and breezy
I wish that I could be there
right now
Just passing time.
Everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here
I gotta get away
from this day-to-day
running around,
Everybody knows
this is nowhere.
Everybody, everybody knows
Everybody knows.
Cheers! Love and miss you all.
Love, Christy
p.s. How's that for weak, Steve F.? :)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Inauguration
Happy President Barack Obama Inauguration Day to all!
Andy & I look forward to moving home to our country with Barack Obama as our President.
Cheers!
Love, Christy
Andy & I look forward to moving home to our country with Barack Obama as our President.
Cheers!
Love, Christy
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Happy 2009!
Hello everyone - Happy New Year! Here's a little video to get us all in the mood:
Lots to catch up on, but I'll leave most of it to the photo slideshows. Andy and I had a fabulous Christmas vacation, which we spent in the city of Adelaide, touring the Barossa Valley wine region, and on Kangaroo Island, all of which are part of the state of South Australia. In 1-week's time we managed to stay in a hotel, a lighthouse hut, a private beach house, and a beach hostel. We saw amazing rock formations, colonies of fur seals, views from the top of Cape Borda Lighthouse, and a nighttime cannon firing! Here's that video (it's mostly dark and quiet, but wait for the end!):
Here's our Christmas getaway pictures:
We had a 1-day vacation catch-up day, and then Steve, Michelle, & Cami arrived right on time here in Melbourne on Dec. 28! The following 2 weeks were a whirlwind of travel (by numerous taxis, rental cars, planes, trains, boats, buses, monorails, and trams) filled with plans & pies, lists & laughs, reservations & 'roos, (okay - I'll stop with the clever alliteration, but only because I can't think of a 'w' word to go with wine)...New Year's Eve in Sydney, zoos, aquariums, tree-top walks, beaches, food, wine, cricket, and just a little bit of vomit - poor Cami's travels kinda caught up with her for a couple of days in Sydney, but she made a strong recovery. It was spectacular traveling and experiencing more of Australia with more family!
We are getting more and more excited for our permanent return to the US here in the next couple of months. We have moved our return flights via Honolulu up a month to April 4, and have decided to spend about a week in Hawaii, get organized in Portland for a few days, get Andy's truck and ourselves ready, and drive to Alaska to reunite with Buddy. I can't wait! More details as the dates get closer. We are also looking forward to another family guest next month - Andy's cousin Stacy is coming from Sioux Falls for a visit! The next couple of months are going to go very quick, I think, and Andy and I and Buddy will find ourselves back in our home before we know it.
Hope you are all well and surviving what we have heard has been quite the winter, especially in the Pacific Northwest. More soon-
Cheers!
Love, Christy
Lots to catch up on, but I'll leave most of it to the photo slideshows. Andy and I had a fabulous Christmas vacation, which we spent in the city of Adelaide, touring the Barossa Valley wine region, and on Kangaroo Island, all of which are part of the state of South Australia. In 1-week's time we managed to stay in a hotel, a lighthouse hut, a private beach house, and a beach hostel. We saw amazing rock formations, colonies of fur seals, views from the top of Cape Borda Lighthouse, and a nighttime cannon firing! Here's that video (it's mostly dark and quiet, but wait for the end!):
Here's our Christmas getaway pictures:
We had a 1-day vacation catch-up day, and then Steve, Michelle, & Cami arrived right on time here in Melbourne on Dec. 28! The following 2 weeks were a whirlwind of travel (by numerous taxis, rental cars, planes, trains, boats, buses, monorails, and trams) filled with plans & pies, lists & laughs, reservations & 'roos, (okay - I'll stop with the clever alliteration, but only because I can't think of a 'w' word to go with wine)...New Year's Eve in Sydney, zoos, aquariums, tree-top walks, beaches, food, wine, cricket, and just a little bit of vomit - poor Cami's travels kinda caught up with her for a couple of days in Sydney, but she made a strong recovery. It was spectacular traveling and experiencing more of Australia with more family!
We are getting more and more excited for our permanent return to the US here in the next couple of months. We have moved our return flights via Honolulu up a month to April 4, and have decided to spend about a week in Hawaii, get organized in Portland for a few days, get Andy's truck and ourselves ready, and drive to Alaska to reunite with Buddy. I can't wait! More details as the dates get closer. We are also looking forward to another family guest next month - Andy's cousin Stacy is coming from Sioux Falls for a visit! The next couple of months are going to go very quick, I think, and Andy and I and Buddy will find ourselves back in our home before we know it.
Hope you are all well and surviving what we have heard has been quite the winter, especially in the Pacific Northwest. More soon-
Cheers!
Love, Christy
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Happy Holidays!
Hi everyone - Happy Holiday season! Hope this finds everyone very well, and enjoying all that snow we hear has been covering massive portions of the US. Even the Oregon coast and Portland - hooray for snow in Portland! Just a few pictures to share from Thanksgiving, a recent camp trip here in Victoria, and our tropical-style (and free from the park across the street) Christmas tree.
Life in Melbourne is good. We continue to have spring showers and coolish temps, and you can just tell that everyone is ready for summer to hit full blast. People are tired of their BBQs being rained out. Andy and I leave this Saturday for our 7-day Christmas trip to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island is reportedly one of the best locations in Australia for viewing wildlife in its natural habitat, so we're looking forward to celebrating Christmas with each other and some kangaroos, koalas, emus, echidnas, sea lions, seals, & fairy penguins. We return to Melbourne on Dec. 27th, just in time for my brother Steve, his wife Michelle, and my niece Cami to land in Melbourne on Dec. 28th! They will be here visiting until Jan. 11th, so we will certainly be busy and loving having family back in town. New Year's Eve will find us in Sydney, so if you're watching the fireworks on TV, be sure to keep a keen eye out for us - we'll be waving from one of the many boats floating around Sydney Harbour.
Now that it is mid-December, our time in Australia seems to be diminishing rather quickly. November was fairly quiet for us, and, for me, the month really seemed to drag along, which kept making our departure in May sure seem a long way off. And missing out on Thanksgiving was tough for me this year. It was an interesting difference - last year it was pretty fun just seeing if we could find all of the proper ingredients for eating a Thanksgiving feast; this year there was no challenge to it, so it didn't seem that fun at all. I was sure crabby on that Friday over here/Thanksgiving US time. Really crabby. My crabbiness was cured, however, when we enjoyed a family Thanksgiving feast with our friend, David, and his 2 children that Saturday. David has lived in Australia for around 10 years, but is originally from Onawa, IA, which is about 30 miles from Sioux City, where I grew up. He also graduated from South Dakota State University, which is where Andy and I both went to college. He and Andy tracked each other down on Facebook as SDSU alumnus. So, what fun we had sitting here in Melbourne, chatting about all of these familiar regions from our lives. I had thought it might be kinda awkward to spend the day at his home, not knowing him very well at all, but it ended up feeling very peaceful, and 'homey' and comforting. And it certainly didn't hurt that he had gone to the USA Foods Store over here and purchased cans of Libby's Pumpkin and baked multiple pumpkin pies - what a treat!!! Words simply cannot describe how awesome those pies tasted!
I also owe a thank you to my good friend Jon Daby. While in my crabby funk on Thanksgiving, I was complaining to him about not being home for the holiday, and said something along the lines of, "May just can't get here quick enough." He immediately told me some advice that he had gotten from his parents: simply, Don't Wish Time Away. And when he first said it, I was kinda defensive and thought, "I'm not wishing time away." But as those words sat with me for the next few hours, I finally came to the conclusion that I actually was kinda wishing time away, which was really quite a horrible conclusion for me to admit to myself. I find at times that I am so ready to return home that I neglect a lot of the amazing things and people right here in front of me. So, again, my thanks to my good friend, Jon, for his powerful advice. I really needed to hear it.
May we all revel in all that we are blessed with this Holiday season.
Love, Christy
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
President-elect Obama, Melbourne Cup, & Becoming Gypsies?
Hi everyone. Hope you are all well.
One week later, and I am now more able to put into words what it was like watching from Australia as Obama became the US President-elect. I believe Andy and I were like many other Obama supporters in that we were hesitant to talk too much about his chances of winning leading up to the election, feeling so strongly that any other option was going to be such a poor direction for the United States, but remaining unconvinced that he would actually capture the support he needed. I very much respected McCain's concession speech. And then to watch Obama's speech was just stunning - Andy and I were amazed as we watched this historic event unfold, and then it suddenly hit us that we were really missing out on possibly one of the biggest events that will take place in our lives, in our home country, and we were on the other side of the world, watching from afar. At the time, this realization made me quite sad. Throughout the past week, however, I've come to believe that I would never have felt such a strong connection with this event had I been living my 'regular' life in Portland. Like so many other things throughout our time here, I believe it took being away to lead me to appreciate this on a scale that didn't even exist in my heart or consciousness before leaving the US. I hope for wisdom, safety, patience, and peace for Barack Obama & his family, and for all citizens of the world, as we continue to move forward in all of our lives.
Well, I think that is enough of being super-serious for today! Glad to have that off my chest! So, I couldn't really write too much about Obama's victory last Wednesday because, as we all know, Wednesday follows Tuesday, and Tuesday here in Melbourne last week was dedicated to Melbourne Cup, also known as, "The Race That Stops A Nation!" To give you a hint of the scale of how grand this event is: Melbourne Cup Day is a State Holiday here in Victoria. Last year at this time, Andy and I were slightly intimidated by this event - the horses, the fashion, the champagne, the hats... But not this year - this year we rocked it! We were lucky to attend the festivities with our yankee friends Spencer & Hillary, and we made quite a few new friends throughout the day as the sun continued to shine, the horses continued to run, and the champagne and chardonnay continued to flow. I had so much fun that the running joke at our house this week goes something like this: "Christy had so much fun that she danced almost the whole way home!" We didn't win big, but we had a fantastic time ticking another classic Melbourne activity off of our list of 'Things to Do.'
Speaking of which, our list of Melbourne 'Things to Do' seems to be dwindling. It seems that now that our departure date of May 7, 2009, is set, we both continue to grow anxious to get going and feel slightly bored with living out our last couple of months here in Melbourne. Which leads me back to the title of this blog entry and the question of becoming gypsies. A surprisingly larger than anticipated Australian Tax return (let's hope I did it online correctly!), combined with the previously mentioned 'slightly bored' feelings, and new feelings of, "Hey, let's not pay rent our last 2 months here and spend it somewhere else," have all helped in resurrecting our ideas of spending our last couple of months abroad traveling full-time. Our current dreams include Thailand, Bhutan, and driving a huge chunk of the west coast of Australia. So, we'll keep you posted. This decision was agreed upon at about 2:30am last Friday night following our Obama Victory Party - probably not the best time to make dodgy life decisions, but there's already a stack of Lonely Planet books on the mantle, so we'll see where we end up in March & April. As always, the invitation for anyone to join us in our worldwide travel adventures is there.
Enjoy the pictures of Melbourne Cup day - Cheers!
Love, Christy
One week later, and I am now more able to put into words what it was like watching from Australia as Obama became the US President-elect. I believe Andy and I were like many other Obama supporters in that we were hesitant to talk too much about his chances of winning leading up to the election, feeling so strongly that any other option was going to be such a poor direction for the United States, but remaining unconvinced that he would actually capture the support he needed. I very much respected McCain's concession speech. And then to watch Obama's speech was just stunning - Andy and I were amazed as we watched this historic event unfold, and then it suddenly hit us that we were really missing out on possibly one of the biggest events that will take place in our lives, in our home country, and we were on the other side of the world, watching from afar. At the time, this realization made me quite sad. Throughout the past week, however, I've come to believe that I would never have felt such a strong connection with this event had I been living my 'regular' life in Portland. Like so many other things throughout our time here, I believe it took being away to lead me to appreciate this on a scale that didn't even exist in my heart or consciousness before leaving the US. I hope for wisdom, safety, patience, and peace for Barack Obama & his family, and for all citizens of the world, as we continue to move forward in all of our lives.
Well, I think that is enough of being super-serious for today! Glad to have that off my chest! So, I couldn't really write too much about Obama's victory last Wednesday because, as we all know, Wednesday follows Tuesday, and Tuesday here in Melbourne last week was dedicated to Melbourne Cup, also known as, "The Race That Stops A Nation!" To give you a hint of the scale of how grand this event is: Melbourne Cup Day is a State Holiday here in Victoria. Last year at this time, Andy and I were slightly intimidated by this event - the horses, the fashion, the champagne, the hats... But not this year - this year we rocked it! We were lucky to attend the festivities with our yankee friends Spencer & Hillary, and we made quite a few new friends throughout the day as the sun continued to shine, the horses continued to run, and the champagne and chardonnay continued to flow. I had so much fun that the running joke at our house this week goes something like this: "Christy had so much fun that she danced almost the whole way home!" We didn't win big, but we had a fantastic time ticking another classic Melbourne activity off of our list of 'Things to Do.'
Speaking of which, our list of Melbourne 'Things to Do' seems to be dwindling. It seems that now that our departure date of May 7, 2009, is set, we both continue to grow anxious to get going and feel slightly bored with living out our last couple of months here in Melbourne. Which leads me back to the title of this blog entry and the question of becoming gypsies. A surprisingly larger than anticipated Australian Tax return (let's hope I did it online correctly!), combined with the previously mentioned 'slightly bored' feelings, and new feelings of, "Hey, let's not pay rent our last 2 months here and spend it somewhere else," have all helped in resurrecting our ideas of spending our last couple of months abroad traveling full-time. Our current dreams include Thailand, Bhutan, and driving a huge chunk of the west coast of Australia. So, we'll keep you posted. This decision was agreed upon at about 2:30am last Friday night following our Obama Victory Party - probably not the best time to make dodgy life decisions, but there's already a stack of Lonely Planet books on the mantle, so we'll see where we end up in March & April. As always, the invitation for anyone to join us in our worldwide travel adventures is there.
Enjoy the pictures of Melbourne Cup day - Cheers!
Love, Christy
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama
Words cannot describe what it has been like for us today to watch the results of the US Presidential Election unfold from afar. I have never been more proud to be an American citizen. Cheers to our amazing country!
Christy
Christy
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