Un'furn'ished Business

Sorry for the cheesy title! I was feeling a little creative!

Ok, so here is my weekly update while Bill is in class! I have noticed a pattern of updating every Tuesday while Bill is gone. We will try to post some between the Tuesdays, so keep checking in on us!

Here is a picture of our beautiful new apartment! It is so clean...ready for us to move in! We are slowly moving out of Phil and Glenis' house, but it is taking us longer than we expected! We just don't want to leave this lovely couple!

As you might have noticed, there is an empty spot where the refrigerator belongs. That hole has yet to be filled - just one of the reasons we aren't officially "moved in!" We are doing some shopping - trying to figure out how we are going to find the items we need (bed, fridge, washing machine, etc.) without spending a fortune!! We will keep you updated on our progress in this area!

This picture below is of Bill, Richard Mason (Caringbah Rotary President), and Phil (our host). Looks like they are working hard, huh!! Actually, this was taken on a very hot Sunday afternoon after they had brought a kitchen-full worth of goods up to our 3rd floor apartment! Good work, Guys!!

Here in this picture are the goods! Below is Cathy Mason (Richard's wife, the First Lady of Caringbah Rotary), and Glenis. Cathy was closing an office for which she had purchased practically an entire kitchen's worth of stuff! Can you believe she is letting us borrow all this for a year! This is yet another example of how great these Australians are! We are so blessed to have met such great people! Thank you, Richard and Cathy!
We will post more pictures as we slowly start to fill our apartment. For now.. it is a work-in-progress!

Bill has had some interesting experiences so far in class, but you will have to wait for him to tell you! He has been working very hard on his classes - fortunately he is taking a Marketing and an Entrepreneurship class to break up all the accounting!

Another blessing that we have to report... I officially have my Australian Work Visa! It came so quickly! I would tell people that I expected it to take about a week to come through and they would just laugh at me! Well.... you'd think I had a friend pulling some strings for me.. it only took a week and a half! I wasn't too far off! Now I am waiting to confirm a new job with another Rotarian who has an IT business. I will give more details when I can confirm that I will be working there! But, I am pretty excited about the opportunity and feel it will be a great learning experience!

Okay.. my last story! Last night we went to our 4th Rotary meeting for the Caringbah club. We really do enjoy this group of people! They have such a great time together! Well, the sergeant for this club is very "cheeky" - he likes to fine people for the funniest things! So, he was fining people for their attire or for their behavior over the weekend or whatever, and he called Bill's name! We both looked at each other - half laughing, half scared! He first complimented us on our ability to almost completely recite the Australian Anthem, and then challenged him to recite our own Anthem! Well... Bill struggled for a second (he was trying to say the words instead of singing them.. they just don't come out as naturally that way!), so they told me to stand up and help him! So, Bill and I stood there, with about 50 Australians watching us closely, and sang the anthem for them! hahaha.. it was very funny! A lot of the crowd seemed to know parts of it as well, so they helped us out, but we must have impressed them - they applauded for our singing! :) There was no time for stage fright!

Thanks for reading! Please send us any questions you might have! Cheers!

Our Address

Here is the address of our new place! We will move in March 25th.

28/1-3 High Street
Caringbah, NSW 2229
Australia

We love opening mail!! (hint, hint!) :)

Meet Phil and Glenis!

I am sure you all have wondered what Phil and Glenis look like... Well, Here they are! Don't they look great! I am just so visual - I figured it would help you get a better idea of what we are doing if you can see who we are with! Phil and Glenis are on a well-deserved holiday at the Gold Coast for this week.
On this past Friday we met up with a friend of my parent's, Jock Cameron. We met for lunch and had a great time getting to meet some of the other people involved in working on the Australian National Prayer Breakfast/ Student Leadership Forum. While we were at lunch, a guy named Peter offered to let us borrow his wife's car (she is out of the country). Of course we said "no," but he kept pressing! So... we set out to see Palm Beach with Bill driving... on the LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD! Ok, so everything about the inside of the car is backwards... the driver sits on the right side, the blinker is on the right side (Bill kept accidentally setting off the windshield wipers on the left!), and you use your left hand to change gears! Fortunately, at least the pedals are the same! Good news: we made it there safely and had a great time exploring! This is a picture of Palm Beach (where they film an Australian sitcom). It was beautiful!
Later that night we joined Jock and Beverly's family for what they call "Game Night." It was great to get to meet more friends! Afterward, Bill drove us all the way back across Sydney to our home - it is about an hour drive!

We have been craving Mexican food (our favorite) and decided on Saturday night that we would go to a local Mexican restaurant. We couldn't wait for some chips and queso! Ohh.. if only we had known! We were pretty disappointed - it is not like the Tex-Mex we are used to! We have seriously contemplated bringing 'On the Border' to Sydney... I really think they would like it! Oh, and Bueno! I am going through withdrawals!

On Sunday we went to a local Baptist Church, within walking distance from our new apartment. We enjoyed meeting new people there over tea and biscuits after the service. (We have tea a LOT of here!) Later that night we went back across Sydney to Jock's house for a Sunday night Fellowship gathering. Below is a picture of Jock playing the piano and his son PJ playing the guitar for some praise and worship. We really had a great time and look forward to spending more time with these fantastic people!

Ok, so I have learned something new about Bill.. I am convinced that when we are old, he is going to be an avid bird watcher! He just can't get enough of these birds! I think I might buy him a pair of binoculars! Ok, just kidding! The birds are fascinating here... much better than we see usually in OK! Below is a picture of Bill trying to lure birds with some bread. He looks so happy!! :)

Here is a close up of the sulfur-crested cockatoos. Just thought you might be interested!

We love the beach!!

So, after Bill's first week of classes we decided that it was time for a holiday!! ... Just kidding (kind of!). Actually, our Rotarian hosts were going on a trip and had arranged for us to come as well! It was a great time! We went to a place called Umina. It is a town just north of the Sydney suburbs. Just around the bend is a beach called Pearl Beach. It is well known for the perfect curved shape of its beach and the tranquility of its water. It was absolutely beautiful! This is us, playing in the water!

Just outside of the holiday house in Umina that we were staying at (thank you, David and Margaret!) was a favorite hang out for birds! The white bird here is a sulfur-crested cockatoo. These birds are EVERYWHERE! They have a little yellow "tuft" at the back of their heads and the underside of their wings is yellow also. There is also a couple of Lorikeets in the picture.. can you see them? They are so colorful and so pretty!
This is at the end of our morning at Pearl Beach. It was a perfect weekend... Very Relaxing and very sunny! We ate LOTS of food, too! Whoever said we wouldn't like Australian food didn't eat at the same places we have! We have enjoyed everything so far!


NOW... for the most exciting news yet....
(drumrolll please!)

We have an apartment! We just found out about two hours ago that we have gotten our favorite apartment! Thank you to everyone that helped us with prayers, emails, and phone calls! We are just so excited - it is the one that mentioned being across the street from the supermarket in Caringbah. We don't have pictures now - we will take pictures for you when we get to move in on the 25th!

I am also going to meet a Rotarian tomorrow at 10 am to discuss possible job opportunities. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to learn what life is like in Australia! We are eager to get involved with a church - I believe we are going to go to Hillsong this weekend! I will definitely write about that experience when it comes!

Thank you for reading.. God Bless and have a great day!

These pictures were all taken at the Symbio Wildlife Gardens from our first week here. We have gotten a few questions about the animals, so we decided we would show you what we have seen so far!

This is the famous Australian Kookaburra. We have only seen these birds in the zoo so far. I took this picture for Rick, Bill's dad. Looks a little skinny, doesn't it? Thought you might like this one! ;)
Isn't he CUTE!! There were two koalas at the zoo - all they did was sleep like this! I don't know how they stay in the trees like that!
This is a type of Parrot - I'm not sure exactly what kind. Isn't it beautiful! It was terribly loud, though!

This is a close-up of an animal that is distinctly Australian: A Wombat! It looks to me like a small bear mixed with a large rat. Sounds cute, huh!










This is a picture of an animal that they find "really cute!" It's a possum (not opossum)! This was just outside their front door, and it scared me because it just sat there at first - it didn't run away like I am used to! You can see that it looks a little bit different from ours.

Week 1 of University of Sydney

Last week was my first week of studies. I have started the Master's of Commerce program, where I will major in Accounting and Entrepreneurship. This program will take me one full year including winter and summer school. I am currently enrolled in four classes - Managerial Accounting, Intermediate Financial Reporting (50% fail rate!!), Marketing Principles, and Foundations of Entrepreneurship.

I found it quite hard being an international student on the first day of class. It was very weird not having my normal core friends or actually any friends at all!! I was very surprised not to find any Australians in my two accounting classes. In my other two classes, there was only a handful of Australians! I found it easy to understand my Australian professors, but difficult to understand my classmates.

I haven't found too many differences in my classes compared to classes in the US. One difference is that the final exam in each of my classes is either 40% or 50% of my grade. I also learned that a bachelor’s degree only takes 3 years in Australia. The difference is that they are not required to take the "basics," if it is unrelated to their major. So they would not take English, Biology, or Humanities if they were a business major.

I have to go to classes again today, so I am sure that I will have more to write soon!

Sunday, 5th of March

Today was a fantastic day! The weather was just gorgeous! Since we had spent a couple of days looking for apartments pretty strenuously, we decided that we would go out for an adventure today! We went down to Circular Quay on the train. This is the area just outside of downtown Sydney and it has lots of great restaurants and little shops in an area called "The Rocks." They also have a huge market during the weekend. We wandered around there for a little while - there was such neat stuff to look at! We found this little look-out type area above a restaurant that had the greatest views of Sydney Harbor.. it was gorgeous! Such vibrant colors!

From there we decided to go to Manly Beach. This beach is one of their most famous - We had to go see why! One of the most popular ways to get there is by taking a Manly Ferry. I took this picture of the Opera House from the boat... This is a view you don't see too often!

We figured most of the crowd would be gone as we were getting there around 3:30 pm... Were we Wrong!! Manly Beach had more people than I had ever seen on one beach before! It was packed! We found a little area to set up camp and tried really hard to look like we belonged there! I think our lack of tan gave us away!

We found a restaurant for dinner that advertised $10 steaks! We were a little skeptical, but the place was packed so we decided to give it a shot. Glad we did!! The food was great and the atmosphere was too. They were showing an Australian soccer match so the crowd was pretty rowdy. Later we made our way back to the ferry and saw this fantastic sunset! It was gorgeous!

Monday, 6th of March

Today was Bill's last official day of holiday, so we spent most of the day at Cronulla Beach! It was a perfect day to start really working on our tans! We realized after a couple of hours that we were really dumb for not bringing sunblock.. we were starting to burn! Of course, all Australians will warn you about their HOT sun.. we knew better! Fortunately there was a really sweet older lady that walked by and noticed us looking at each other's backs and asked if we needed some sun screen! See... the people here are just that nice!! :) We thanked her and decided to keep working on our tans! Bill worked on school readings (he has so much to read!! Even before the first class!) and I finished one of my new favorite books The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters. Later we got ice cream and tried to cool off - it was so hot!

We went to see another apartment around 5. This one was in Caringbah, which is the suburb of Bill's host Rotary Club. The apartment was the nicest one we have seen so far! It had a great balcony overlooking the gardens in the back of the property and was only about 3 years old! It is also right across the street from one of the main grocery stores - Woolworths. You can understand how valuable that would be since we probably won't have a car!! There were about 8 other parties looking at the apartment too, so we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Later that night we attended our second Caringbah Rotary Club meeting. This group is so cheeky ("funny")!! We had a great time and really enjoy meeting all the great Rotarians in this club.

Today, Tuesday, 7th of March

Today was Bill's first day of class! I have talked to him a few times today - he mentioned he was one of two Americans, out of about 35 students, in one of his classes! We will have to update you all again with more details!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

View of City skyline from Watson's Bay
Bondi Beach
The South Head near Watson's Bay
Kangaroos!
Cristin and Bill at Watson's Bay

Tuesday through Wednesday... (Sorry we are so backed up!)

Tuesday was Bill's official day to enroll… fortunately he had figured out what he needed to do on Monday (at the failed attempt!). We spent most of Tuesday morning working out Bill’s schedule and making sure we had everything necessary to enroll. Then we made our first venture into the city on our own! The train takes about 40 minutes to get to the Uni from Gymea (where we are staying now). When we got there, the somewhat torturous enrollment process (from Monday’s experience) went very well on Tuesday, now that we knew what they needed from Bill! We made it through the first two stages quickly, but were met by a line at Stage 3 that lasted over an hour! Apparently the data entry stage was battling computers prone to crashing! Just our luck! Soon we were finished and wandering around campus, admiring the beautiful architecture. (The picture above is of their main building on campus - the grounds were set up for Orientation week... Sorry it is so dark!)

The station closest to the Uni is Redfern... trouble is that area is conflicted with some of the worst crime in Sydney! Don’t worry (Moms!), we won’t be living anywhere near that area!

Wednesday (1/3) morning was an early start. Glenis’ Rotary Club had asked Bill to come to meet people… They will have him back to speak sometime later. They meet at 7 in the morning! The club is small – only with about 20 members present. The group was very friendly. At the end we met two members that moved to Sydney from Alaska – the husband is a retired professor from the Sydney Uni (he and Bill discussed his Master’s classes) and the wife is originally from the East Coast and is an artist. It was great to make some new relationships… Everyone in Australia is so friendly!

Later that day we went to Cronulla beach. It was a little bit cloudy (about 80 degrees) and most of the locals weren’t around. It was a little bit cold – Bill got in the water some, but I just focused on working on my tan. I still don’t have too much progress in that area! (Go figure!) :) On our way home we wandered around the local mall area and found some local real estate agents. We went to see one apartment (way too small!) and made appointments to see more on Friday. Later that night we had a great meal cooked by Glenis of Roast with a fantastic salad (Mom, you would have loved it!). We also had a little taste of home playing in the background... We listened to Michael Buble through dinner! It was a very nice evening!

Saturday to Monday!

Saturday was a day of touring Sydney. Phil drove us around about 1/6 of Sydney- the trip lasted 8 hours! We saw several beaches including the most famous beach in Sydney Bondi Beach. Cristin felt right at home, there was a beach volleyball tournament. Another highlight was the north and south heads of Sydney. The heads are the extensions of land into the ocean separated by water. This is the opening ships use to travel in and out of the Sydney Harbour (picture of South Head above! I swear its not a postcard! - Its amazing, isn't it!). We then walked down to the bay for Fish and Chips. After lunch, we continued our tour to the other side of the harbour. We then travelled through the city down to my university. There are two really impressive sandstone buildings built to look similar to Oxford and Cambridge buildings. Next we went home to get ready for tea (which actually means dinner- pleasant surprise!). We had dinner with the Rotary club president and his wife, Cathy, also a Rotarian. We sat on the back porch for cheese and crackers. You could see a bay and hear the white crested cockatoos. You could also see a few parrots flying around. We were served roast of lamb, corn fed chicken, roasted pumpkin, sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes, and some normal vegetables. The food was very good. They eat a lot of pumpkin, not jack-o-lanterns, but a blue pumpkin like field pumpkins (dad should be able to tell what kind they are). We had a great time. They offered to give us a whole set of dishes and other kitchenware. We were very excited!

Sunday was highlighted by a trip to the local animal park and a barbie. We were able to see the kangaroos, wombats, koalas, many birds, and many lizards. There will be pictures soon! The barbie was with our hosts, their two adult sons, and their families. It was very Australian- steak, kebabs, and sausages. We had a great time... they really treated us like family!

On Monday we went to the "uni" as its called here. I had information sessions most of the day. I also had a failed attempt at enrolling. I was supposed to know all my classes for the entire year. They had student mentors and one adviser for about 70 people. We also had trouble because we didn't have a bank account yet. So we went straight to the bank to get an account and deposit my first payment of the scholarship. We were surprised to find out that we could not draw out any money until the check had gone through, which takes 3 days! That night was also our first Rotary meeting with my host club "Caringbah." There were about 50 members at the meeting. I was called on to give a small speech, halfway through the meeting. I presented the President with a Rotary flag from Muskogee and a lapel pin that was in the shape of Oklahoma that read "Okie from Muskogee." My speech was mainly all personal information about family, background, school, and future goals. They were very attentive and I even managed to get some laughs out of them. We were very surprised to meet a Rotarian with contacts in Muskogee. He had helped set up a Coburn optical business in Sydney. The meeting lasted about two hours. They seemed to have fun together, but they are also very involved with numerous projects. After the meeting we invited on a trip through the Blue Mountains to a town called Mudgee and a trip to a classic car rally!