So many new experiences!!!

Have you ever seen a make-shift surf board ozzie buffet? We hadn't either!! So this story begins in September of last year when I bought Bill and I surfing lessons as a wedding gift to him. Little did I know that this place, advertised as "45 minutes from Sydney," would be 5 minutes from our new home! With as many beaches as they have over here (HEAPS!!), the odds that I would pick Cronulla were so small! It is crazy how little things like that happen, eh!

So, as you can see by the looks of our "surf van," this was a first class group... The car was full, so the second instructor had to ride on the top of the van! Not only that, he had to hold an extra surf board up there with him! And... the ride was not smooth - we rode through sand dunes before the beach - definitely what I would call "rough off-roading!" Poor guy! No worries though... he acted like it was no big deal!

As for the surfing - let's just say that we aren't planning on quitting our day jobs. We weren't exactly "graceful" when it came to surfing, although we were able to stand up and ride some waves! It was a great experience - very memorable! My arms are still sore! :)


This is just another picture of the beautiful campus of Sydney Uni. Isn't it great! Bill had his first test on Saturday, so I spent most of the day wandering around the Glebe Markets. After his test, we took a bus to meet our new Chinese friends. They had promised to introduce us to "real" Chinese food, so they took us to Chinatown (go figure!). Andy and Harrison both brought me gifts - gift giving is a strong part of their culture. The picture below is us at the end of the night - Cecil, Andy, Harrison and us. Or Chen Bojing, Liu Kan, and Yao Hongguang. They taught us a lot of Chinese words (that I had to write down to remember) and showed us true Chinese hospitality.


Today, Julie and Rohan and their daughters (Annabelle and Elizabeth) took us to lunch in a great small town called "Berry." We enjoyed getting to see the beautiful coastline near the highway. Also, we enjoyed some true Ozzie burgers! Have we mentioned that even McDonalds serves beetroot on their burgers? Somehow I had always managed to avoid beets at Thanksgiving dinner, but I have actually started to enjoy eating it - on hamburgers! I know... how odd! If you come you will definitely try some! Below is a picture of a blow-hole that we stopped at on our way home. It was very cool! This is Annabelle, one of the smartest 11 year olds I have ever met! She is helping to teach me common Australian phrases... and the proper way of saying them! Thanks to Annabelle I am starting to sound Australian!! (Not really - I still sound VERY American and get teased for it often!) :)

Easter Sunday

Our first Easter together was great. We had an exciting and eventful day. Our day started with Richard and Cathy popping in to deliver more goods for our apartment! They brought us bedside tables, a computer desk, a couple of plants, a fan and a PORTABLE AC. We were also given some Ozzie Easter treats! We enjoyed a bag full of chocolate Easter eggs from Rowan and Julie and a chocolate bilby (instead of a rabbit!) from Richard and Cathy.

We met a couple of my friends from the Uni for church on Easter morning. They were students from China who had never been to church. This was hard for us to imagine. Apparently, most of my Chinese friends were a little confused about the idea of Easter, because I received several questions about it during the week. The only churches they had seen were on American movies. So we had a good time and were able to explain some of our beliefs to them. We went for coffee after church and learned a lot about China! For example, when they are born, they are automatically 1 year old. Maddux would already be 17 months old!

We then went to join our new family - the Hayes’ - for lunch. We had a fantastic time with them. This part of our day was really helpful because were able to enjoy the family atmosphere to keep us from missing home too much.

After lunch we caught a train into Darling Harbour, for a FREE Rebecca St. James concert put on by Hillsong Church. We didn’t know a whole lot about her but both of us really enjoyed the music. She apparently grew up in Sydney attending Hillsong. The service reminded me a lot of Falls Creek - very up beat, inspirational and a completely young crowd. We had to laugh every time the mentioned the word church. They would say “Hi everyone! Welcome to chuch in the beautiful Dawling Habour.” The typos were intentional this time! This is how the Australians sound to us.

Also, on Monday we went to the famous Taronga Zoo. It is a zoo located right on the harbour. They offered $5 tickets to college students and their friends. This must have been the busiest day of the year with the day after Easter being a public holiday, everyone was off work. We got to see more of the famous Australian animals. Plus, we were able to get really close to the tigers and lions!

Kangeroos Running Wild in the Streets!

Welcome to Hill End! We spent last Sunday with Richard and Cathy at a Bed Breakfast owned by Cathy's friend, Sue. My title of this blog is a little misleading. If there is one fact that the rotarians and other Australians want me to pass along to my American friends it is that they do NOT have kangeroos running loose on their streets, only in Hill End can you find that!!!! This is equivalent of them saying "everyone in Oklahoma rides a horse and lives in a teepee." The kangeroos are very similar to our deer in Oklahoma. Probably the only time to see them is early in the morning or just before sunset. It is also dangerous to drive down the country roads at this time. We counted 4 dead on the side of the road on our way to Hill End!

The highlight of our roo watching came when we watched 2 male kangeroos box! This is actually quite normal to see. They were standing on their hind legs taking shots at each other like they were boxing. They also jumped in the air, putting all their weight on their tails, and kicked at each other with their hind legs. Very exciting! Unfortunately, every picture we took of this turned out completely black! Sorry! This is the B & B were we stayed. It was as relaxing as it looks! It was built in the 1890's during the gold rush. Here is the webpage - you should check it out! http://users.bigpond.com/hillendbandb/ The community was booming during those days but as you can see times have changed. Today, there are only about 200 people left in the town. It makes Webbers Falls look like a metropolis!


This is one of several churches that Cristin photographed. She got some really neat shots. You can't see it from here, but the gate read "11th Commandment: Please shut the gate."

There was a group of gold miners staying at the Bed and Breakfast with us. They invited us out to take a look around where they were drilling. He showed us this sample. You can't see it but there is a tiny speck of gold inside the red circle. We could barely see it, but now we can say we've been gold mining. Too bad we didn't find any we could take home!

All in all, our Mudgee trip was a great experience and we enjoyed every second of it! Thank you to Caringbah Rotary for setting up such great adventures! Also, a big thanks to Richard and Cathy for letting us tag along!

Wine Country

We spent Saturday morning touring the Simon Gilbert vineyard in Mudgee. They have about 100 acres of grapes at this vineyard.
Here we are listening to a "wine enthusiast" tell us all about how the grapes are grown. Even though we didn't take notes we will do our best to tell you about them! The vines take about 4-5 to produce grapes, but can produce grapes for nearly 50 years! He explained that they were grown on a hill because grapes like view. We spent the entire day visiting different vineyards and tasting wines. Overall, we went to 5 vineyards. The rotary club rented a double decker bus to show us around. There were about 30 people in total. We won't tell all of the stories because the rotarians have a running joke that they will set up a retaliation website for anything we put on here!

We had lunch at a small cafe in Mudgee. Notice the flag that is being flown outside! They had U.S. flag flying right next to the Australian flag. We haven't seen many of these here! So of course we enjoyed our lunch. It was all very nice until the appetizer (which is an entree in Australia- confusing!!) that included bread with olive oil, herbs, and slices of cheese. The reason for it not being very good was that the cheese was not cheese, but it was butter and no one mentioned this to me!

After a long a hard day of sipping wine and looking at grapes, we did as all great rotarians around the world do....we treated ourselves to a feast! The picture is the lamb we had for dinner - it was fantastic! ( Hubbard, I think it was a Montadale!) Overall, we had a great time in Mudgee. It was fun to get know more of the rotarians and their families.

The Beautiful Blue Mountains

Aren't the Blue Mountains beautiful! You can see why they are called what they are... they are literally blue! The mountains get their name from the release of oil from the eucalyptus trees which create a blue haze. These mountains are Australia's equivalent to our Grand Canyon.

Last weekend we took a fantastic trip up through the Blue Mountains to a little town called Mudgee. On our way there, Richard and Cathy Mason (President and First Lady of Caringbah Rotary) took us through the mountains showing us many of the highlights along the way. Our first stop was a little town called Leura. It was very charming! We stopped here for lunch where Bill and I both enjoyed a HUGE bowl of pumpkin soup! It was very good!! Bill also made a huge discovery - we have a new favorite drink! It is called an Iced Chocolate and is very much like a chocolate shake, although they serve it to you as ice cream, milk, and chocolate syrup. You can stir it up if you want, or just eat it like that! If you come see us we'll take you to get one!! Trust me, it is worth the plane ride over here!! :)

Below is a picture of the "Three Sisters." This rock formation is the most popular landmark of the Blue Mountains and gets its name from an Aboriginal legend where a dad turned his 3 beautiful daughters into stone to protect them from enemies but died before he could reverse the spell.

We later took a train down the mountain (see below). Now... this might sound kind of typical, but this train when STRAIGHT DOWN! We literally were going straight down the side of the mountain. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any good pictures to show you! They all turned out blurry! Anyway, that was very cool - and a fun way to get to the bottom! Once at the bottom we walked around the base of the mountain - it was very cool and damp! To go back up we took a cable car and enjoyed great views of the Three Sisters and the beautiful mountains!

Here is another picture of us with the Three Sisters. We are posing with Barbara, a Rotary Exchange student from Austria. We enjoyed getting to know her better on this fun trip!
Ok, and here is the classic picture - me and Bill wearing the typical Aussie hat! Very Crocodile Dundee!! (we are going to hear it from Rotary for that comment!) :)

After our time at the Three Sisters we went to a place in the National Park called Govett's Leap. This lookout is arguably one of the best views of the Blue Mountains. They are just fantastic! From there we started the last leg of our journey to Mudgee, arriving there just in time for dinner! We met a group from Rotary that was already there and enjoyed a VERY Aussie barbeque - steaks and sausages (tons of them!) and lots of veggies and salads. It was def. a feast by the campfire! We had a great night and officially decided that we liked Mudgee so far!

We have a lot more to post, we just thought we would break it up a little! This was only Friday! We still have Saturday through Monday to go!!

Sorry No Pictures Steve!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay between posts. We have been slowed by a lack of internet in our new apartment - we should get it any day now! Speaking of our apartment - we officially moved in on Sunday night! We bought a fridge and bed, so we are set. We were also given a kitchen table to use for the year by Kerry a Rotarian. Our bed and kitchen table actually match - same rod iron design! Isn't that great?? Have you ever heard of someone matching their bed to their kitchen table? We couldn't believe it. Getting the apartment set up has been difficult because we usually have to coordinate our schedules with the seller and whomever we can get to move it for us. At this point, Peter Lewis another Rotarian has been helping us move everything. We are so grateful for his help! We will soon be collecting a lounge (or couch). Cristin also tells me I will be at the mall waiting for the doors to open tomorrow morning for a TV on sale for $129. We are also looking for cheap bicycles to explore the Sutherland Shire - Peter is drawing us a map of all the great look out points! Apparently Cristin has a future in telemarketing. When she called on some of the rotarians for help, 3 or 4 thought she was a telemarkter. It took her about 5 minutes on the phone a few times to convince them she wasn't selling anything! But unfortunately she was unable to convince Sid, he just hung up on her!!! It is now a running joke with the club and Sid was fined by the sergeant for his behavior!

As far as uni goes, everything is starting to kick into gear. Group projects are taking shape each of my classes. In my Entrepreneurship class, I am working on a project to help develop a honey project for a group of Aboriginal blokes in Canteen Creek (Central Australia definitely in the bush). We had a videoconference with them a couple of weeks ago. They had to travel about 300 km to do this (180 on a gravel road!). They broke down only once on the trip. The conference was very eye opening. Apparently, the entire community is on welfare. The only business in town is a grocery store partly managed by the government. The welfare payments are going to be decreasing in the future so we are trying to help them set up a business. The difficult part will be that they have no idea how much honey is there or what to even do with it. They just know that there are bees in the area and they can collect the honey in a billy can. The conference had many communication barriers as all of the students asking questions were international. Plus, the guys were very shy and would hardly even speak. I think this will be a great learning experience to share with everyone, especially the Rotary clubs when I am invited to speak.

Last weekend, we went down to Wollongong for the Rotary District conference. At the conference, we heard from a great line of speakers (I can't remember their names b/c I'm at uni!). We heard a lady who talked about her Aboriginal business. She talked about her husband’s misfortunes as he was taken from his family by the government to essentially turn him into an English person. This was the idea at the time for saving the aboriginal community - take them out of their culture and bring them up with the Caucasian kids. However, her husband was later able to find his birth mother and rediscover his culture. Their art business is known worldwide - they created the design of the paintings on Qantas aeroplanes. Other presenters talked on the subject of the Muslim community in Australia. One speaker gave a background on their beliefs in great detail. Another was Muslim woman who grew up in Australia. She told of her hardships trying to assimilate with the other kids and why she decided to don the veil at age 21.

We were also able to meet the other Ambassadorial scholars in Australia, including an OU grad from Lawton. From a couple of their stories, we learned again that we were very fortunate to have our great hosts (Phil and Glenis) and a great host club. It was very evident that our host club is very involved at the district level.

This is all I have for now because class starts soon!

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!

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!