My first Rugby match

Last night I attended the Brisbane Broncos vs. Melbourne Storm Rugby League game.  I am definitely a new fan!  Melbourne won by one try (try=touchdown).  It is quite a bit different than our football, which Aussies call "gridiron".  It is fast paced.  No timeouts.  One guy from the Storm split his head and a trainer bandaged him up on the field, without anyone ever stopping the game.  They wear no protective gear or cups.  They get 6 tackles per run and can only pass the ball backwards.  I wanted to chant "Boomer......Sooner" on my way out, but refrained ;)

9 days until Europe!

The BIG news........

For those of you who don't know I am taking a vacation from my vacation!

European Vacation countdown..................10 days!

I am flying out of Australia May 17th.  I will arrive in Paris and stay about a week.  I see shopping and Champagne in my future ;)  Then, May 27th Brett and I will go to a wedding in Brussels, Belgium.  From there we have a flight booked to Kiev, Ukraine to visit some friends of Brett's.  We will then work our way from East to West, making our way to Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and wherever else the wind takes us.   The rest of the story of Europe will be plan as we go so I am sure there will be some exciting stories to come!  I will be in Europe for 2 months before returning to Australia mid-July.  I am so excited I want to keep doing the Sarah Jessica Parker squeal from Sex and the City!  

Weekends at the beach

I am still loving being an Aupair in Brissy!  I have the ideal work schedule of only working one day a week giving me the freedom to take trips on the weekends.

I met a French Aupair, Helene, who has become a good going out buddy.  On Easter weekend Helene, Mylene (her friend visiting from France), and I went to the Gold Coast!  It was fantastic!  Our first day we went to DreamWorld.  We acted like kids and had a great time riding the roller coasters in the rain.  

Mylene and I being rained on in line for a roller coaster

Rainbow over DreamWorld

Saturday was a beach day.  The water was clear and we swam and jumped waves for hours.  We stayed at a Hostel called Trekkers.  It was small, but welcoming.  The man that worked the front's wife and daughter came in on Sunday morning and brought everyone staying at the hostel homemade Easter treats!  How sweet!  The 'Frenchies' and I did a "big night out" with our hostel after spending the day at the beach.  This consisted of getting on a party bus with people from 6 other hostels.  We went to 4 different clubs/bars and got a free drink of choice at each.  We were given glow sticks and cowboy hats which became great dancing tools later in the night.  

Helene, Mylene, and I at Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast

Big Night OuT!

Drinking wine from hostel mugs 

Guess which egg is mine. ;)

I stayed at the Gold Coast for 2 nights and came back in time for Easter lunch with the family I am living with.  They are Greek and so I got to experience a bit of their culture.  A few differences for me were eating lamb, homemade Greek bisquits (cookies), and playing a Greek egg game......All the eggs are died red and everyone, in a circle, hits each other's eggs.  Whoever's egg is uncracked at the end wins.  I WON! I also came home to a great surprise from the Easter Bunny!  He found me all the way in Australia.....although he replaced my chocolate bunnies with a chocolate bilby and a chocolate wombat! 

The Bilby and the Wombat

Happy Easter to You....and Me!

Finding reese's in Australia..........$13.75

Finding Dr. Pepper in Australia............$2.50

Easter Bliss in the form of 2 pounds gained..........Priceless

Breaking the ice.....and luckily not the household appliances

I have moved to Brisbane to be a nanny for a lovely family with 2 boys age 4 and 6.  I met the mum, on an au pair website where she and I both had profiles, several months ago.  We have kept in touch for over 6 months and the timing has finally worked out for the both of us.  I had a bad experience in finding a job in Airlie and she had a bad experience with her last au pair.  Perfect for me!  The mum picked Jenni and I up from the Brisbane airport and I have lived in their beautiful home ever since.

Ok, so that is the update, but please brace yourself for what comes next......

Mind you I have several years experience in being a nanny and have yet to have too many stories to tell of "things gone wrong".  Also those of you who know me well know that I am good at laughing things off and it takes a lot for me to actually feel "embarrassed".  I may feel silly at times but only "embarrassed" a couple of times that I can recall.

Well here it goes: The tale of March 24th, 2011.  The family let my friend and myself stay for no cost in hopes that it will work out, after meeting, for me to be their au pair.  That was very kind, and trusting, of them and they put us up in a beautiful room and we ate all our meals here, let alone the fact that they picked us up from the airport after our late night flight arrived.  In return, as a "thank you", I decided that, even though I was to do drop off and pick of the kids Thursday, I was not expected to do any of the light housework until the following week but I would do it anyways.  We all know that it is common sense, if you are staying in someone's home, that if the dishwasher is full.....you start it.  So I did.

There are several things different about Australia then from the States.  Some I expected, some things less different than I had anticipated, and some things unexpectedly different considering it is the country closest, in similarities, to our own.  So one thing I have learned over the last five months is never assume anything.  


After searching the kitchen, the pantry, the laundry room, any storage closets I came across, and consulting in Jenni we (I) decided that liquid detergent must be what Aussies use in their dishwasher unlike the powder or pellets we use.  When in Rome, eh?!  I'm sure you can all guess where this story is going....yup....it ends with me walking downstairs to a kitchen full of mid calf high bubbles (right out of a movie) and the mum mopping it up with a smile on her face.  Despite the smile I am sure she was thinking "what in the hell have I got myself into?!"

Now we laugh about it because everything has gone perfectly since for 2 1/2 weeks.  I am very happy with the arrangements and the family and they are very happy with me.  I could have died of embarrassment that day, but in a way it was a good way to break the ice :)

The good, the bad, and the SnOrKeLiNg

I have so much catching up to do.  We'll start from where we left off.......Airlie Beach.  Airlie Beach was bitter sweet for Jenni and I.  We went with intentions to live there and work for 2 months.  Things didn't quite go as planned but I believe worked out for the best in the end.

The positives of Airlie Beach:
1.  Meeting Anthony and Michelle, our roommates for 2 weeks, who were both so kind and became great friends of ours.....I already miss them both!
2.  Renting from John, who I met through the couchsurfing website, who was so generous to Jenni and I and took me sailing and snorkeling in the Whitsunday Islands my last full day in Airlie.
3.  Meeting people who were couchsurfers at John's house from all over the world.  I met 3 of the only 300,000 people from Iceland.  

Couchsurfers from Spain cooked us a delicious Spanish tortilla!

4.  Spending time at Cedar Creek Falls floating around on our $3.00 kiddie floaties while Anthony sprayed us with his $4.00 water shooter.....(we stopped at a Dollar Sense on our way to the waterfall and spent our money wisely, as you can tell)
5.  Having a 2 week vacation in a beautiful town and having the opportunity to snorkel and sail twice!

My bad luck in Airlie included:
1.  After arrival in Airlie Beach I immediately felt sick.  It felt like the common cold and must have been caused by the severe weather change from Melbourne.  My nose was so runny I slept with two wads of tissue shoved up my nose.  It grossed Jenni out, but it just wouldn't stop running!
2.  We were unable to find jobs because it was off season for the small town and there were not enough tourists to keep many of the small businesses fully staffed.  Therefore I started to run low on funds.
3.  A couple of days into living in Airlie the most ironic and frustrating thing happened... Both Jenni and I experienced very similar computer problems.  Within only hours from one another both mine and Jenni's new Macbook Pros would power on and the computer screen would stay black.  We concluded that it had to have been caused by moisture in the air.  It poured rain off and on our first 3 days in Airlie and was very humid.  During that time, we continued to leave our bedroom windows open.  Moisture must have gotten into the computers and caused the vision boards to act up.  Jenni's computer fixed itself after several hours with the IT guy and a couple of days.  Mine on the other hand did not.  Hints why I am so behind on my blogging.  It made me realize that my computer is a very important part of life while traveling.
4.  I slipped and fell on the street.

Regardless of my "Airlie bad luck streak";  we did one of the most amazing things I will ever do!  SNORKELED in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.  We got very lucky and happened to come across a 2 for 1 deal on a snorkel trip that included all our gear and stinger suits, breakfast, lunch, and a full day at the reef.  Lucky us!

Jenni and I had never snorkeled before and both were a bit nervous.  I had to "practice" breathing into the mask and snorkel outside of the water before jumping in.  Jenni fully understood because she knows it makes me anxious being asthmatic and feeling like I am constricted.  The lady waiting for us to jump in looked at me like I was a crazy person practicing snorkeling! haha.  It paid off in the end though because once I got the art of breathing through my mouth only you couldn't get me to lift my head out of the water.  It was so surreal.  The beauty of the reef and the exotic fish full of vibrant colors.  

From October/November until May is known as "stinger season".  This is because two potentially life threatening animals, the Box Jelly fish and the Irukandji, are present at many of the beaches of coastal Australia.  Hints the awesome 80's stinger suits Jenni and I wore while snorkeling!  We gave the fish a run for their money.......

My second sailing/snorkeling experience was with John on his 40 foot catamaran.  He took me, 2 Germans, and 1 Italian.  They were all 3 couchsurfers.  

Whitsunday Islands

We came across a cruise ship

We sailed a couple of hours out to the Whitsunday Islands.  We anchored down in between a couple of the islands after sailing up to a waterfall and finding a good area of the reef to snorkel.  My stinger suit wasn't quite as bright, but I still looked pretty fancy in my snorkel get-up!  

On the way back in from the islands I sat on the top of the boat and watched the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen.  We came across some big waves and it was pitch black outside surrounded by nothing but water for miles.  It was such an interesting feeling of pure bliss while I enjoyed the boat rocking in the waves and a bit of wonder of what is in the water right below you deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Sunset.  Whitsunday Islands.  March, 22, 2011.

Cedar Creek Falls

Our first day in Airlie Beach was so much fun!  Our roommate Anthony hired (what Aussies call 'rented') a car and drove us out to Cedar Creek Falls.  It is a beautiful Waterfall only a 15 minute drive from the house we are staying at.  Anthony introduced us to a famous Queensland beer called XXXX Bitter.  I called it Quad X even though Aussies call it 4 X Bitters.  He thought it was funny though and I now catch him saying Quad X too.  

Anthony had to coach me into swimming through the waterfall because I was so nervous!  I think it was the combined fear of not knowing the depth of the water, the pressure of the actual waterfall, how thick the fall was, and if I could even breath once I got behind the waterfall.  So Anthony went first and I held on to the rocks debating......finally I DID IT!  It was so amazing once I was behind the waterfall.  The water was coming down over the rocks so it was like breathing while standing full faced under the shower.  I swam back under after a couple of minutes but it was definitely an experience of a lifetime!

Cedar Creek Falls

Jenni and I.  We are NOT skinny dipping even though it appears we are in this photo.

Anthony and I before we took the plunge!