Hi Friends and Family!

This is our new website so we can keep in touch with you all! We will be adding pictures regularly so you will always have something interesting to see! Please send us emails and pictures... we don't want to miss out on too much!

So far we just absolutely adore Sydney! It is fantastic - so much to see and do! We just can't get over the fact that this is our new home for the next year! This could get very long if I try to write out all that we have done in the past 5 days - I will write in segments so you don't die from reading exhaustion!! :)

Day of Arrival -
Friday, Feb. 24th at 10 am

We were greeted by our Rotarian Host with a big smile! He recognized us right away from a picture we had sent earlier, and we saw his Rotary polo! It was so comforting to have a friend waiting for us! We also met the local Rotary President, Richard. They helped us with our luggage and took us to our Host's house in the Sydney suburb of Gymea. Our hosts are fantastic - they treat us like family!

Friday during the day we walked around a little shopping area in Gymea. It is very quaint - lots of little fresh fruit markets and cafes. This is where we experienced a true ozzie classic - meatpies! They were great! We also were excited to try one of our favorite things in the US - a Milkshake! Unfortunately, we were severly disappointed! "Milkshakes" in Australia are milk mixed with flavor... just like Chocolate Milk! I had ordered a strawberry milkshake, so I ended up drinking Strawberry Milk! YUCK! I don't know how I liked those when I was little! Bill was thrilled to hear on the radio one of his new favorite ozzie sayings "a few kangaroos loose in the paddock" in a local shop! We started laughing out loud!

Later that night we went to the Golf Club with Phil (Glenis, his wife, was in New Zealand until Sunday). We got to meet some of the locals and had a really great time. Phil is very into sports (lucky for Bill!), so we came back and watched Sydney play Melbourne in basketball. It didn't quite compare to watching the cowboys, but I am afraid Bill will go through withdrawals if we don't watch some form of basketball! This will just have to do!