The best way for you to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.

Friday, November 26th, I worked my first day of my first job in Australia! 

Of course I wish I could be on vaca for a year and NOT work, but since I have to this is a fun place to be!  The restaurant is called Boheme and is located in Melbourne, Australia in an area known as Richmond.  Boheme is only a 15 minute walk to and from and I am enjoying the exercise.  There are many regulars and it is ALWAYS busy!  The menu is quite a bit different than a comparable American restaurant would be.  The good news is I can wear anything I want as long as my hair is back and my shoes are close-toed, the owners are both named Mark (what a silly name :) JK, Dad) and are fun and very involved, and all the girls have been very welcoming and helpful!  The bad news is that there is an array of different yummy desserts that make me crave sweets more than I already do! 

I am the only American working there and sometimes have a hard time with some people's accents, as do they with mine.  A girl I worked with yesterday said very quickly, "I'm gonna pop into the loo."  It took me a second and then I realized she meant she was going to the restroom so I would have our section alone for a minute haha.  Also, I really count on catching people pointing to the menu as they order because Aussies pronounce things VeRy differently. But people in Australia are very similar to home, in that they tend to be very kind, helpful, and friendly :)  One couple even came back today after a couple of hours and said that as they were shopping after brekky (breakfast) they came across a new restaurant that had a 'now hiring' sign since I had mentioned that we were still on the job hunt for Jenni.........how nice, huh!!!  

Well, today was my third day and my feet hurt real bad, but I am glad to be making money.  I work everyday this next week except Monday and have a double on Friday.  Lots of work= lots of money to continue my travels :)  It is surprising how willing one is to trade in their 'back home luxuries' of life in order to be where they want to be at that moment.  I feel grateful to be here, be able to work, and learn things about another culture.  

Happy TuRkEy Day!

November 25, 2010 Thanksgiving Day 

Jenni and I shared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner together on a rainy night in Australia.  Since turkey is not easy to come by here we had two of our favs...pizza and wine!

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.  ~William Arthur Ward

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

On this 25th day of November in the year 2010 I am thankful for many things. It is ironic to say "I am the luckiest girl I know" and actually feel that I AM the luckiest girl I know.  When it comes to friends and family I definitely have the best there is!  

To Jenni, thank you for being my travel partner and confidant.  You have been so supportive and I feel very lucky to have you by my side during this exciting and life changing experience.  We will NOT look back in 30 years and say "I wish I would have traveled."  Thank you for living out your dreams with me.  Thank you.

To all my friends, you know who you are because you are most likely reading this blog.  Thank you for always being there though thick and thin.  Thank you for all the laughs and tears and all the fun. Thanks for putting up with me when I am loud and crazy and just laughing with me instead of at me ;) I can truly say that if I never make another friend that I am perfectly blessed with you all in my life!  Thank you.

To my family, I definitely believe that the man I marry will be lucky to marry into my family!  I am so proud of my family and feel so blessed to have such loving and benevolent people in my life.  Thank you all for your support and generosity while traveling.  I hope you all eat lots of yummy food at Aunt Jeanne's. Enough for you and me! I love you all.  Thank you.

To Kristin and Devin, one of the luckiest days of my life, or as a German guy I met in a hostel in Australia would call it, "destiny", was when I waited on "the cute blonde family" at Hideaway.  I am so grateful to have you in my life and hope that I will have such a loving family as you do one day.  I can't even say "thank you" enough for everything you have done for me and have been there for.  Everything from the fun Vegas trips and "special treats" to the nights of bonding tears and life talks :)  You two are family to me and always will be.   Thank you.

To Noah and Olivia,  you are the sweetest, most thoughtful, funniest, kids and I am so happy that I have been able to be a part of your family.  I miss you both a lot and will always be your "miss Candy"  ;)  If my kids are even half as AwEsOmE as you two are, then I will be the luckiest mommy in the whole world.  I love you two in a circle ;)  Thank you for all the laughs and fun times you have given me.  Thank you.

To my Mom and Dad,  where do I even begin.....To start, Thank you.  I will never be able to show you the thanks that my heart feels.  Mom, you are my angel sent to me from Heaven.  You are my mother and my friend.  I can share stories with you and talk to you as if we were old friends, yet you are the only person who can put me back in my place and guide me in the right direction.  I thank you for that.  Dad, you are my Hero and my best friend.  I look like you, I am stubborn like you, I think cars are not frivolous things like you ;), I love watching movies like you, and I am proud to call you My Dad for so many reasons that I can not express through words.  You two are the hardest workers, yet the most selfless people I have ever known, and I am so proud of you both.  Thank you for molding me in to the young woman I am today.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my loved ones.  I am sending my "thanks" to you from 9,000 miles away from home!

Rudolph the red-nosed Kanga!

A Christmas painting on a store window made me laugh a bit :)

As you all know, I have been on the search for a job.  Well the bad news is that we are foreigners here so we are not the "ideal employees" being that we are travelers and only looking for a job for a short time.  I have handed out several CVs (resumes) and hadn't had much luck....until now!  Jenni and I had an interview today at Hotel Balaclava, which is a pub in St. Kilda not too far from the beach :).  Pat was the man's name who interviewed us and he was very pleasant and assuring and told us he'd call us on Friday.  Then I had a trial set up for 5:00 pm today, Wednesday, at a cool restaurant called Boheme in Richmond.  A trial is where I went in and they showed me the ropes and I was quickly put on my own to see if I could handle it.  Well I did handle it and I was offered the job!  The website of the restaurant I now work at is www.bohemerestaurantbar.com.au so you can check it out.  Boheme is only a 15 minute walk from where we live so that is definitely a plus whereas the Hotel Balaclava is a 30-45 minute tram ride.  Now we are finishing up the hunt for Jenni.  She is interested in a bit more of a chill scene like a cafe or coffee shop.  She brought her CV to a really cute cafe with delicious food just around the corner from where we live today and we can't wait to hear back! I know she will find something awesome and I will keep you posted.  If I am offered that job on Friday as well I will have a tough decision because there are positive and negatives of both. Either way 

I have my first Aussie job! 

There are several things different about Australia from the States, not only in the hospitality industry, but in general.  A few include:  
1.  Carding someone before serving them alcohol is offensive and employers don't want 
     you to ID, which leads me to.....
2.  Legal drinking age is 18
3.  You are paid 15-20 AUD$ per hour for waiting tables vs. $2.16 US, but tips are not 
     compulsory
4.  There are 5, 10, 20, 50, $1, & $2 Australian coins.  Most things ring up with uneven 
     cents so they round, for instance $3.96 would just be $4 and $8.23 would be $8.20
5.  Food and alcohol, along with most everything else, is MUCH more expensive here
     examples: Bottled beer is double the price here in Australia.  apprx.  8 AUD$ per beer
                     Canned sodas and candy bars are 2.50 AUD$.....and the list could go on!
6.  Light switches are upside down
7.  Electrical outlets have to be switched on and off
8.  Aussies drive on the opposite side of the road
9.  Public trams are many Aussies means for transportation
10. In a grocery store it is rare to see a brand or item that we have in the US
11. Sprite is called lemonade and lemonade is called lemon squash
12. Entrees at a restaurant are appetizers and what Americans call Entrees are called 
     "mains" here
13. It is uncommon to have air conditioner 
14. Instead of saying "your welcome", Aussies say "cheers" or "thanks, cheers"
15. Friends are called "mates"  
16. Australian deer have these funny little pouches on their bellies ;)






                  

Down by the Seashore, where life is a little easier

Instead of rubbing it in too much, I won't continue to blog about all the time we spend at the beach.  I will just share some not so beautiful photos ;)

I was laying in the grass underneath my favorite tree in St. Kilda

Jenni and I at St. Kilda Beach

I remember just lying in the grass, staring at the clouds, wondering where they drifted off to after they floated over Oklahoma. I never would have imagined that one day I would follow one of those clouds and find myself in Australia. 

 If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot enjoy the beauty of the sunset.

 This picture shares my feeling of serenity

Jenni and I 

The House With the Purple Fence

On November 19, we found our first place in Australia to call "home".

22 Appleton Street, Australia

walking into the back yard

side view of house

cumquat tree

side porch

backyard garden

Teaching Aussies ShUffLeBoard

On Friday, November 19, we met up with our friend Sacha at her place of work, Kingpin.  Kingpin is an upscale bar/bowling alley in the Crown Casino.  She got off of work at 6:00 p.m. so we went to meet her boss and friends for drinks and bowling!

At Kingpin Sacha introduced us to her boss Ron, who is originally from Buffalo, New York, who was happy to have some Americans on his side when his Aussie buddies start poking fun.  Galen, a bar manager, is a big sarcastic bear of a man and gave me a hard time within the first minute of our introduction.  I loved it though because, little did he know, I like to dish it right back :)  Anthony, the IT guy for the company, was another one of Sacha's friends we met.  Ron and Galen bought us lots of drinks and then we decided to play shuffleboard which is not very common in Australia.  Sacha had NEVER played before!  Thanks Jaimie Nestor for teaching me how to play years ago! So Jenni and I gave the Australians a lesson in shuffleboard :)  

After that we bowled a couple of games.  Bowling is $18 AUD! That is ExPeNsiVe!  Ron payed though and we had a really great time! The coolest part of bowling was that every time you bowl a photo is snapped and put on the screen.  This brought out the kid in all of us ages 24-40! haha.  We were running behind each other making faces or doing silly dances! One guy even mooned behind Jenni!!! By this time there were lots of other employees off the clock bowling with us.  No one knew what was going on until they went to look at the screen after they took their shot and saw whatever the surprise was behind them! haha.  We ended the night with some Mackas (Aussie slang for McDonalds) in the Crown Casino food court and then took a taxi back to our hostel with Sacha.

The night was so much fun!  We met lots of great people and had many laughs!  Sacha is such a nice girl and we are so thankful that we met her at the tram stop days before.  She has been so welcoming and included us in such fun outings!  All of her friends were so great to us and it was as if we were just a part of their "crew" :)  J and I are going back to Kingpin Monday, Nov. 21st, to talk to Ron about getting a job there, so I'll let you know how that goes!

The previous night to this fun Friday night we just hung out at the hostel with our German friends and took it easy knowing that Friday we were on the hunt for a place to rent!  I took a few pics of our German friends so you can put names with faces :)

Lorenz!  We'll keep in touch with this German guy for years to come :) 

Our friend Christian from Germany

Phillipe, Jan, and Valentine: all from Germany

CoffeePalace Hostel in St.Kilda

The CoffeePalace Hostel has been so much fun and we have met awesome people from all over the world, but..........hopefully tomorrow we'll find a HoMe :)

Cheers!

Golfing with RoOs!

On Thursday, November 18, Jenni and I caught up with an old mate, Myles. 

Allie Seidel and I met Myles, Simon, and Trev at ACL Music Festival in 2008.  They all live in Melbourne, Australia and I credit them for my desire to come live in the Land Down Under.  After leaving Austin we talked them into coming to Oklahoma! haha.  They stayed at my one bedroom apartment with Allie and I for 3 nights/4 days.  It was so much fun taking them to places like Electro Lounge and just having them stay with me.  They were awesome and fun and the day they left I swore I would "go to wherever THEY came from :)"

Myles came and picked us up from our Hostel in St. Kilda and drove us out to Yarrambat Park, which is a golf course where you just have to golf with the kangaroos because there are so many on the course!  It was quite hilarious to me, but Myles is used to it so he just laughed at how amused we were by the abundance of roos on a golfcourse.  I was just trying to picture my Dad or the Hideaway guys standing next to a kangaroo while putting. haha I saw, not only my first kangaroo, but my first KaNgA fight which I caught on video!  I can't stop laughing when I watch it.

Jenni and I making friends down under

Just another day on the golf course

I feel like he's being watched.....

Myles trying to talk me into getting closer ;) 

A Kanga and her Joey

A BIG Daddy Kanga

It was quite a long drive out to the golf course and back to the Hawthorne area of Melbourne where we ate at Sri Lanka Restaurant.  Jenni and I loved the drive because, since Myles was driving us, we could really enjoy the beautiful scenery.  Dinner was SpIcY and absolutely delicious! I tried a few new Australian beers....Boags, Crown, and Tiger.  The restaurant Myles took us to was very nice and to top off such an awesome day with an old mate, he pulled a quick one on us and paid the entire tab!  He said, "you were generous to us when we were in the states and now I can return the favor." :)  We plan on meeting up with Simon and Myles on a weekend for a fun night out!  I love that I kept in touch with them through facebook and was able to meet up with Myles during my first week here.  Thank you, Myles, for introducing me to my first KaNgArOo and for a great evening of fun!

Fate and Kite are rhyming words to a German

Bekah was the first person I skyped from Down Under! It was great to see her pretty face and chat with her.  I skyped with my wonderful parents for the first time today!  They couldn't get their speaker to work so I couldn't hear them but they could hear me.  I just talked anyway because they liked hearing some stories, but I felt silly like I was talking to myself.  We are going to try again tomorrow and maybe my mom's IT guy can fix her speaker.   Either way, it was great to see them and laugh a bit.  A cute little asian girl looked at my computer and waved to them and after we hung up she kept yelling in the cafe "bye bye mummy and daddy!"

Last night we drank Goon, a cheap boxed Aussie wine, and played drinking card games with some German, Dutch, Swedish, and French hostel friends.  A part of the game was to make a sentence and then everyone has to make a rhyming sentence.  It is funny to hear what people think rhyme when they say words with such strong accents! For example, Jenni said "fate" and Phillipe, our German friend, rhymed with "kite" haha.  Then we went dancing at a place next door to our hostel with our German and Dutch friends.  It was really fun watching lots of interesting people there dancing in strange ways! haha  Even a couple of transvestites were there announcing limbo contests and such.  I pulled Jenni on stage for a dance contest and she wasn't happy about it at first.....until she almost won! :)

Our tour of Melbourne with a local Aussie

It is now our 5th day in Australia! It has been a bit chilly and rainy and is finally starting to become the more typical WaRm weather today! The sun is shining! On Saturday we went with our German friends and our mate Josh to the casino! I didn't gamble because I am trying to use my money sparingly.  Our $ is worth less than the AUS$ and prices are higher here, so it is a lose-lose right now.  Either way, most of you know I LOVE gambling and casinos so I had fun either way! The Thunder game was playing! What a great game!  Guys kept asking us why we were watching US basketball when there was a cricket game on. haha.  We ended up sitting at a table at the casino next to Nathan Green, a young Australian pro golfer.  The Australian Open just ended in Melbourne and Tiger Woods was staying on the 54th floor of the casino, Crown, that we were at.  My dad will think that's cool :)

On our way home from the casino we met a really nice Aussie girl, Sacha, while waiting for the tram.  She is from here originally but travels to and from New york pursuing her dreams of being on Broadway.  She had the stereotyped Aussie friendliness and asked if she could meet up with us on Sunday to be our tour guide.  Well of course we said YES! We met her outside of her mother's apartment at 1:30 on Sunday afternoon.  She took us to eat thai food for lunch and then we trammed into the city for her very knowledgeable and fun tour!  We saw all of the southbank area in downtown Melbourne and the continent's largest building.  I hate a delicious bananarama sundae! yummy!  She took us to a really big shopping district....which we DID NOT shop! haha.  Very hard for me to not shop, but it sure was fun looking! 

Sacha and me.  I LOVE sweets!

Everything is already decorated for Christmas since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was beautiful! We ended up in China Town in Australia.  Very cool....It was down an ally with restaurants and shops lining it and tons of cute outside tables and such.  We ended our day with a place called Topolinos, a really nice pizza place......don't worry Hideaway, you're still #1 to me!  Sacha took us up to her mom's place to meet her.  Her name is Sybille and we got to watch some local news and visited with her.  They are both so nice and welcoming and Jenni and I are so greatful to have met Sacha at the tram stop.  We are going bowling with Sacha Friday night so I will keep you updated on her! 

The last couple of days have been very chill and we have just been hanging around the hostel and trying to get settled in.  We are on the hunt for an apartment and jobs this week, so hopefully I will have good news soon! The hostel has ended up being a really awesome experience.  It is like living in the dorms in college again.  There are always people from different countries gathered in the main downstairs room or on the rooftop.  Everyone just hangs out, plays guitar, and listens to music.  It is really cool hearing all the different accents and hearing about their home countries.  Most people think Americans are the easiest to understand......except me, sometimes, because I "talk fast"! haha.  I have started to say "my name is Caaaaaandiiiiice."  Most of our friends in the hostel just call me Candy!  Jahn, our German friend, tells everyone my name is Candice Sugar and other Germans laugh.  Apparently that is the proper name of their brown sugar.  Yesterday was very relaxed and we went to the bank and ran a few errands then played frisbee in the park with 5 German guys who we really enjoy hanging out with.

Lorenz, Jan, Me, and Simon

Well, this blog is veeeeeery long because I haven't had internet, but I will try to get on more often and write shorter blogs, so stay tuned for more adventures! 

Cheers

G'day Mates!

G'day mates! My friend Jenni and I arrived in Melbourne, Australia yesterday, November 11th at noon.  We flew from Dallas to LA and then LA to Melbourne......15 straight hours from LA.  I tried to sleep most of the time.  The food on Qantis Airlines was pretty impressive and I hate Mahi Mahi for dinner and a cold breakfast.  Australia is 15 hours ahead of OKC.  Before we left Bekah and Layni threw us an amazing going away party at By George.  Thank you both so much for taking us to Stella and for all the cute decorations!  We couldn't have asked for a more fun and cra cra going away!  Blair, thanks for the sweet treats too! I felt so loved by so many of my AmAzInG friends coming out to celebrate with us! Also, I had an awesome week in Duncan with the fam the week prior to leaving! The truth is "food is love" and I felt REEEEEAAAALLY loved that week! My mom cooked some scrumptious dinners and sent me off right :)  I am so thankful for my BeSt FrIeNd Lauren and her packing skills! I have no idea how she packed all of my stuff in only 2 bags! Thank you to Lauren, Rhonda, Cemby, and P-dizzle for the raincoat because I have needed it everyday! 


We are staying in a hostel in St. Kilda which is less than a 5 minute walk to the ocean.  We have 3 guy roomates.  2 Germans and 1 Canadian.  We have met a few of our roomies' friends, one being Josh who took us to the beach last night.  We grabbed a drink on the way and just sat and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery.  At sundown the penguins come out and it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  We were able to walk right up to them! We are Josh's "chickmates".  We went to bed at a decent hour last night.  It is a bit warm in the hostel but everyone is so nice and welcoming! It's totally out of my comfort zone for those of you who know me well.  But surprisingly I am enjoying the experience :)  They cooked us pancakes for breakfast, more like crepes in Australia, and then we had to wash our own dishes.  Tonight we are having a barbie (barbeque) on the rooftop of our hostel.