Mini-Post

Hello all! In an effort to appease the masses, here are a couple of pictures from our cruise and New Zealand. We are back in Melbourne and attempting a return to a somewhat structured life. My parents leave this Friday morning, and we'll definitely have more posted soon. Cheers!

Love, Christy

Dec. 25-31, 2007 photos and update

Hello everyone. Hoping this finds 2008 off to a fantastic start for everybody! Vacation continues to rule our lives with Ray & Marcia here. Here's a brief breakdown of what we've been up to, which will help explain some of the pictures within the slideshow above:
Dec. 25 - Christmas Day! We enjoyed a breakfast feast prepared by Andy, and then continued to indulge all day, with spurts of opening gifts mixed in here and there. It was a gorgeous day, so warm in fact that the men carved the ham outside on the back porch to make more space in our little apartment kitchen. Our friend Ash joined us for the majority of the day - this being his 2nd Christmas celebration experience - adding much humor, knowledge, champagne, Indian food, & love to our day.
Dec. 26 - Boxing Day - We attended the Australia vs. India Cricket Test Match (Day 1) at the hallowed Melbourne Cricket Ground. Again, Ash joined us and tutored all of us in the basics & intricacies of the game. We were there all day - 10am to 6pm - amongst a crowd of about 67,000. I feel proud that I can now watch a cricket match and know what is going on!
Dec. 27 - 29 - We picked up a rental car and headed out of town to drive along the Great Ocean Road. Saw many sights and breathtaking scenery. Nearly lost Ray & Marcia to carsickness our first afternoon, but they made a strong recovery. Spent our first night in the small town of Colac. Continued our drive along the coast the next day, stopping for a visit at Cheese World, and making our way up to the town of Halls Gap within Grampians National Park. Again, impressive scenery that we will certainly visit again. Our hotel this second night had many wild kangaroos and 2 emus just roaming the grounds, and we actually saw some kangaroo boxing!!! I am not kidding! We sat outside watching the sunset, watching the kangaroos, taking in our surroundings, and questioning the reality of it all. It was really stunning. We spent Dec. 29 visiting the Brambuk National Park & Cultural Centre, learning about the history of the area and the Aboriginals that have lived here for thousands of years. That afternoon we visited a few lookout areas and hiked to McKenzie Falls. Throughout this entire trip, it felt great to leave the city behind & get back out into nature, and to begin to see more of this country in which we live.
Dec. 30 - We BBQ'd at our friends Rosemary & Jung's home. We enjoyed a massive meat fest, shared many good drinks and laughs, and listened as Jung told us his story about fleeing Vietnam when he was 17 years old. I found myself sitting there, looking around, looking at my parents & Andy, taking in our environment, and again being amazed at the unbelieveable reality of the situation. Stories such as Jung's make our complaints about the hardships of moving abroad seem absolutely ridiculous and petty, and I am thankful for this enlightenment.
Dec. 31 - Melbourne recorded the hottest New Year's Eve day on record, topping off at just over 41 degrees Celsius, which equates to about 106 degrees Fahrenheit. We spent a few hours at South Melbourne Beach (Andy and I mostly sat in the shade) and then returned home to prepare for our big night out in the city. Our New Year's Eve Yarra River Cruise could not have been a more perfect way to celebrate the new year.
Jan. 1 - We declared a day off and stayed in our air-conditioned bedroom until nearly 3pm, before finally making our way out to the couch, with just enough motivation to order a bunch of Thai food to be delivered. The outside temperature cooled by about 10 degrees, which finally made it bearable to open the doors and move around the apartment a bit. It was an awesomely lazy day.

So, that's about it I guess. Andy is working 3 days this week, I've a job interview on Friday morning, we'll be spending Saturday in Geelong, and then flying to Sydney early Sunday morning. We will be in Sydney until Wednesday, board the cruise ship that day, and return to Melbourne from Auckland, New Zealand on January 23. Delays in blog postings are extremely likely throughout the month of January :)

Again, Cheers to the New Year! Thanks to everyone who made the special effort to ship us Christmas packages and letters - I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it felt to receive items from "home." Your thoughtfulness is so appreciated.

Be well-
Love, Christy

Happy New Year from Melbourne!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Andy & Christy, Ray & Marcia!

In 1897, Francis P. Church, an editorial writer at the now defunct New York newspaper The Sun, received a letter from a girl called Virginia, questioning the existence of Father Christmas. Here is her letter and his famous reply:

Dear Editor,

I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon

Dear Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.

They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little.

In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.

There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus? You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.

Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside the curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all the world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10 times 10 thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

On a lighter note, here are some Aussie-style lyrics to the classic Jingle Bells:

Dashing through the bush

in a rusty Holden ute

kicking up the dust

esky in the boot

Kelpie by my side

singing Christmas songs

It's summer-time and I am in

my singlet, shorts & thongs

Oh, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Jingle all the way

Christmas in Australia

on a scorching summer's day.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Christmas-time is beaut

Oh, what fun it is to ride

in a rusty Holden ute

Engine's getting hot

dodge the kangaroos

swaggy climbs aboard

he is welcome too.

All the family is there

sitting by the pool

Christmas Day, the Aussie Way

By the barbecue!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Love, Christy & Andy

Various Pictures since Ray & Marcia's arrival

Hi everyone. Finally I am getting around to posting some pictures - good thing it's been raining for a few days, providing us with the opportunity to sit around the house a bit and take it easy.





Andy is officially on vacation as of Thursday at 5pm. We all celebrated by having EggBake for breakfast on Friday, followed by 90 minute Thai Massages, followed by afternoon tea. Ray & Andy then picked up a variety case of wine on their way home, so we continued to celebrate and live the luxurious life by popping open a bottle of Sparkling Shiraz. So, we are all doing just fine over here - don't worry about us.

The only minor hitch in our week was that we had a few rain downpour episodes here in Melbourne, which revealed a hidden bonus about our classic apartment: our kitchen window serves not only as a window, but also as a small interior waterfall, and the cupboards above our stove serve as an additional water feature. :) :(
We will see how this situation resolves itself in the coming weeks.

Enjoy the pictures, and we'll post again soon. Safe travels to everyone, everywhere, as you head off in all directions to spend the Holidays with those you love and cherish. We are thinking of you all, we are missing some of our Christmas traditions, but we are celebrating some old and new traditions as well. Cheers!

Love, Christy

MaSweany cookies pass inspection into Australia!

Hello, Hello everyone! My apologies for the long delay in blog posting; I've been busy hanging out with my parents :) We are having a fantastic time - the weather has been gorgeous, we've done a lot of walking & sightseeing, ridden a lot of trams, trains, & buses, eaten more than our share of good food, planned an incredible getaway for January, talked & laughed, laughed & talked, sneezed & blown our noses a lot, and installed a window air conditioner unit in my and Andy's bedroom. I am quite sure this installation is entirely against our apartment building policy, considering that we had to remove a pane of glass and slightly 'alter' (aka: carve away about 1/8 of an inch of wood) the wood window frame to get the unit to fit through, but hey, it was my dad's idea, and the incredible relief of sleeping in an air conditioned room last night and in the nights to come will definitely make up for the loss on our apartment deposit that is nearly guaranteed. We all think our work looks quite professional and will only lead to raising the value of the apartment, if only the owners will just keep an open mind about our alterations.
he he

Our 1st Christmas package from America arrived this week from Deb & Larry Sweany. The MaSweany cookies passed Australian Post quarantine checks, much to our relief and 'bites-of-MaSweany-cookies-straight-from-SD' bliss. They also sent 2 boxes of Fruity Pebbles for Andy and a South Dakota t-shirt and hat for us to represent SD while we are down here. Thanks so much, Deb & Larry!

It is with overflowing excitement that I tell you about our January getaway that we have planned! Andy and I and my parents fly to Sydney on January 6th, where we'll stay until the 9th. We've scheduled a Blue Mountains day trip, and also purchased tickets to see the Spanish Harlem Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House! On the
9th, we board a Princess cruise ship, and will spend the next 12 days on a New Zealand cruise, docking in Melbourne, Hobart (Tasmania), Fjordland National Park, Dunedin, Christchurch, Tauranga, and finally Auckland, New Zealand on January
21st. We'll spend 2 days in Auckland, and fly back to Melbourne on January
23rd. Every time I think about this trip, I pretty much want to start jumping up and down!

So, as our morning news puts it - only 10 more sleeps until Christmas. I continue to feel like I am not in any month in particular, but rather living out some dream/not-quite-real life. I think the combination of time, working, continuing to feel more settled, and having my parents here has helped in lessening my sadness about missing home, family, & friends. I feel like I've gone over an invisible hump, where when I think about home and family and friends, I'm not quite as sad as I was there for the first couple of months. I'm finding that I'm more excited and happy about our time here, a feeling that for a while I had to almost keep repeating to myself as one of the main reasons we had come. Andy and I had a 'cleansing' conversation with my parents last weekend, recapping that last busy month in Portland; packing, organizing, partying, being exhausted, crying, leaving, and then our first 6 weeks here in Melbourne and everything that that involved. It was weird to talk about it, knowing that it wasn't that long ago, but also feeling like it has been much longer than 4 months. Anyway, it is hard to describe in writing, but I am happy, and I feel like the original ideas & adventures that were the foundation for our wanting to live abroad are again revealing themselves. Thank goodness!


The pictures are of us with our SD gear and goodies, and also a shot of our mantle as we get ready for Christmas. We'll post another slideshow of photos soon of more pictures of my parents' visit so far.

Happy Holiday season to all! Be well.

Love, Christy

What I learned on my trip to Adelaide by Andy Sweany

Hi boys and girls,
I took a trip to Adelaide (in the state of South Australia) for a computer conference last Wed. to Friday and stayed in the nearby beach town of Glenelg Friday and Saturday night. Here are a few things I learned:



1. Don't believe everything that you hear - Adelaide is a fun city with a happening night life (anyplace does if you try hard enough)

2. Australians cannot understand me when I order a water but they can always understand me when I order a beer

3. When you stay at a hostel with a big beer company's logo on the sign, it will sound like Mardi Gras outside when you try to go to sleep at 10pm on a Friday night

4. I am too old to stay at a hostel, even when I have a private room

5. Wildlife never ceases to amaze me, and seeing dolphins swim underwater is incredible

6. Beer will always help you make friends with total strangers (see first and last pictures)

7. No matter how much sunscreen I wear here, I will undoubtedly get sunburned (also see last picture)


Cheers mates,
Sweany