no news is good news, i promise

The less I blog, the more you know I'm out and about having fun... or just at least out and about. ;) The Christmas party season is upon us and Jordon's has been pretty busy accordingly. Today was my first full day off in two weeks (my paycheck better reflect that!) and I realized it has been just as long since I last wrote you. AND I forgot to tell you how I spent Thanksgiving! So that first...

Plans sorta fell through for a 617 Thanksgiving (or so I thought...) so I was a bit bummed out about that. A mate from work has an American housemate and had invited all the Americans at Jordon's over to his place for a celebration. Allie, Jordan, Brittany and I went and ended up having a BLAST! I made the broccoli rice casserole that I love and brought it along. Good thing too because all the other girls brought desserts (which are always appreciated!). The guys got a turkey and it was spot-on. Wow, it was really delicious! We also had mashed potatoes and rolls, so we were missing some important elements, but it was wonderful anyway to be around friends and celebrate the holiday. We drank wine and had good conversations and it was an all-around very pleasant evening!

Since then I've been working and hanging out a lot. I have decided to move out of the 617 and into a place that is closer to work (hard to imagine, but it's true!) and a bit cheaper. I haven't met my new roommate, but the other guys in the apartment seem really cool. I move on Monday so after that I'll be able to tell you more. Packing up all of the things (mostly new dresses...) I've accumulated already will be interesting. How have I gathered so much STUFF?

I've also joined the Ian Thorpe Aquatic and Fitness Center and could literally spend all day there I love it so much. It is absolutely the best place to work out! I haven't even spent any time in the pool/sauna yet so I'm really excited about doing that soon. I went to a yoga class today and it was okay (the first thing I haven't LOVED about the place... it was only okay) but I still feel so much better now that I'm more active. Not like my job isn't enough of a work out. Dang, for real, being in hospitality is hard on your body. My legs are almost always dead by the end of a shift and my arms are definitely stronger than before I started. At least when it's busy you don't realize how tough it is physically.

As far as travel plans go... I bought my return ticket home! I'll be flying back to Austin on May 25! Just in time to have a blow-out combined birthday/coming home party, yeah? You're invited. :) Besides that, I've signed up for an environmental conservation program for two weeks in Thailand where I'll get dive certified and I will participate in reef checks and cleaning up the beach, etc. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing every day yet, but it will be for two weeks in April. After that I'll probably travel around Cambodia (maybe volunteer in an orphanage there for a week or two?) and Laos. Most of March I will be in New Zealand (hopefully with Allie and Clark!). That's as far as I've gotten, but I think February will be for around Australia and maybe some more of that in May before I come home. I just hope I can fit it all in/pay for everything! Ugh, side note there: my credit card got used online by someone other than myself and I've been dealing with that for the past couple of days. Lame. It's made even more complicated by the fact that I'm in a totally different time zone. At least I had internet and can check the status of things like that. I'm fully thankful for that.

Today I listened to a podcast from the Austin Stone and it was about honoring the sabbath and it totally hit home with me since I've been working so much lately. I'm going to try my best from now on to have a day where I devote the whole day to honoring my physical and spiritual rest. If you want to listen to the podcast too it can be found here: http://austinstone.org/resources/sermons/ It's the November 1 one.

Hope y'all aren't too cold there in winter! The weather here is not as hot as you'd think most days. I don't think it can really make up its mind. One day will be cloudy and chilly (today, my day off, of course) and the next will be hot and sunny and a perfect beach day (usually saturdays when I work a double). And now I just realized how boring I am talking about the weather... I'm going to go have crepes with my French roommate now, Nutella and all. ;) LOVE YOU!

update!

Sorry that is has been so long since I've blogged! I really didn't come up with a good excuse, so I'm not going to try anymore. Deepest apologies, but get ready! This will be a nice update. :)

Mom and Teresa's Visit

I am SO glad they got a chance to come to Sydney to visit me and see my life here! They arrived and we spent that day walking around and (for them) getting oriented to the city. I showed them where I work and Darling Harbour, Sydney Harbour, the royal botanic gardens, the bridge and opera house, etc. We did a lot of walking and a lot of taking the 555 free bus! My favorite day was probably when we went to Watson's Bay and had lunch at Doyle's right on the beach. It. Was. PERFECT. I couldn't get over how good the food was and how nice the place was and how great it was to have a bit of family around me! They got a chance to visit the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains while I was working and they really enjoyed that. We also got to do some nice shopping in the QVB, Galleries Victoria, and The Rocks Market. I'm really glad that they got to meet a lot of my friends here when we got lunch at Blackbirds. Mom only embarrassed me a little bit with a few pictures... haha! The worst part was once they left (on Thanksgiving day!) I got quite homesick and missed things from back home. I've gotten over it a bit, but it's still really hard to be so far away during this time of year. Thing are so different here (hot for one!) and it definitely isn't the Christmas-time feel I'm used to. BUUTTT, I will only have this opportunity to spend December in Australia once probably, so I'm going to enjoy it. :)

Work

Things are good at work still. We've been getting busier now since it's summer (today is officially the first day of summer in Australia!). I'm behind the bar/cocktail waitress all the time now, so I am learning how to make cocktails and coffees and it's been slightly stressful, but mostly fun. The people there are still amazing and I have had very few shifts that I didn't at least somewhat enjoy because of them. :) Once I learn a bit more, I will make you guys some awesome cocktails once I come home! I did work a function last Friday night at the bar next door that is owned by the same company called Watershed and it was really fun! It was a Moulin Rouge-themed 21st birthday party and it was so cool! The room looked amazing and the people were all dressed up. It was a nice break to the monotony of the same old restaurant. :)

Home

The 617 has been losing/gaining some new members lately. The Belgium guys have flown back home, Sam leaves tomorrow, Allie and Victoria are moving next week, and by the end of December I don't even know who will be left! My love Manon is leaving to travel with her family on December 21 and I think I am going to start looking now for a new place since no one can replace her in my room (or in my heart). I think I'd enjoy my own room for a while, but we'll see what I can find. I want to stay close to work and maybe gain a bit of air con, but again, we'll see... I haven't gotten to spend much time with the new people that have moved in, but the English guys in the next room are cool. My work schedule just doesn't match up with everyone else's it seems so I don't hang out with everyone as much.

Travel!

I've been spending a lot of my time lately thinking about my travel plans. I can work at Jordon's until around March 10 if I want to, but I don't know if I want to stay that long. Things here are much more expensive than I guess I thought at first, so I need the money to travel so I might stick out the full 6 months. I want to do the east coast of Aussie land FOR SURE and that will probably end up happening by myself (which I'm okay with). New Zealand is happening as well, and Allie and Clark bought the same pass as I did, so we are going to try to go together sometime in March, but we need to sit down and pick dates, buy flights, etc. I also want to see the western side of Australia, but I might not have enough time/money to get over there. South East Asia is in my plans also. I realize I'm going to be spending a lot of time and money traveling in a few months and I'm really excited. I want to get organized and start setting some things in stone soon, so I'll let you know! :)

Random

My computer's hard drive is full and I had to buy a new external hard drive. It's being shipped to my parent's house and then to me, so once I get it I can finally start updating pictures again. I saw my first movie here in Australia! It was.... New Moon. Should I be embarrassed? Because I'm not. It was alright, I liked it better than the first one, but not earth-shattering good. I've spent my last three mornings at the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center fitness room thanks to Allie's pass and have loved every second of it! I had no idea how badly I needed some physical fitness in my life, but now I know and knowing is half the battle. I am thinking about adding some swimming laps to my workout, but that's still a bit intimidating for me. I need a new book to read if anyone has any suggestions (or wants to mail me a cheap one from half priced books... things are seriously so expensive here!).

Love you all and I hope you're having wonderful holiday seasons back home! :)