Weekend in Sydney

Seeing that Rachel has already posted her blog about Sydney, I figured I better hurry and post mine as well.  Judy - sorry for not posting sooner. Hopefully I can provide some more details that Rachel overlooked!

To back up a bit for the rest of you:
Around the same time that I decided to move to Australia, my 19 year old cousin, Rachel, also decided to move to Australia.  Secretly I was hoping that she would pick a school in Melbourne, but instead she has decided to attend school (uni) at Macquarie University just outside of Sydney.  Being the wonderful older cousin that I am, I agreed to meet Rachel at the airport when she arrived in Sydney.  (I'm not sure my aunt would have let her on the plane otherwise).  Honestly, I loved being able to be there for Rachel's first Australia experiences and getting to show her some of the things I love about this country!

I didn't let Rachel have much time for jet lag - we had way too much to fit into 3 days!

Saturday:
Rachel arrived mid-morning and she was easy to spot wheeling out her cart full of 4 suitcases.  International arrivals at the Sydney airport is great people watching - I almost missed Rachel coming out as I was busy watching everyone else!
An $80 cab ride later, we arrived at Macquarie University and Rachel got checked in to her apartment (sadly I took no pictures of her apartment). 
To tell you that Saturday was a hot day is an understatement.  IT WAS UNBELIEVABLY HOT.  The cab dropped us off at the administration building and then we had to get all of our bags to Rachel's apartment.  Picture 2 laughing girls dragging 5 suitcases up hill (we didn't want to make two trips).  Sadly getting to Rachel's apartment did not provide any relief from the heat - no air conditioning!!! 
We spent the day going to Ikea and Big W for essentials that Rachel couldn't fit in her suitcase.   Probably not the smartest thing to do on the hottest day EVER, but we were trying to get it all done so we had the rest of the weekend to just enjoy. 
My favorite Rachel quote of the weekend:  After getting off the train on the way to Ikea there were arrows telling us where to go.  On one side there was a sign that said "Way Out" with an arrow to the left and underneath it a sign that said "Shopping Centre" also with an arrow to the left.  Rachel looks at it and says "Is the name of the shopping centre "Way Out?"   (This coming from the girl with a 4.0 in high school).

Saturday evening we headed into the city for Rachel's first view of the harbor bridge and opera house.  I visited Sydney 3 years ago, but I was glad to see that Rachel was as impressed by the views as I had been the first time. 

After exploring a bit (and walking ALOT), we found a restaurant in the Rocks where Rachel could have her first legal drink.  I think she had one sip and nearly fell asleep at the table.  She did good though - I kept her up until midnight on day one.  What a trooper!

Worst experience of the trip - 97 degrees at 4 in the morning (and probably about 112 in the room).  I took 3 showers just to attempt to cool off.  It didn't work.....

Sunday we had planned to go parasailing.  While we were in Mexico in 2006, I promised I would pay for Rachel to go parasailing as her graduation present from high school.  I finally had to pay up - but what a great experience to go parasailing in Sydney! (Much prettier than on any lake in Iowa - no offense!)
Sunday was still very hot so we were both really excited - until we found out that you need to make a booking and they were all full on Sunday.  We spent the rest of the day with my friend Charlotte walking around Darling Harbor and relaxing in her apartment.  Between the time of being at Manly Beach and getting to Charlottes serviced apartment in the city the temperate dropped by about 30 degrees.  I don't even know how that was possible but we were both freezing as we hadn't brought anything but tank tops and shorts.  I tried hard not to complain about the cooler temperatures though.  At least I would be able to sleep!
Sunday we met my friend Phil and his girlfriend at the Bavarian Bier Cafe.  I met Phil on my Contiki trip in Europe in 2004 and also stayed with him when I came to Sydney in 2007.  Phil is the 3rd person I have met up with from our Contiki Europe trip and I can't wait to see more of them (already lined up to see Belinda in March and Annie in May!)
 
Monday Rachel and I finally got to go parasailing.  Sadly it was actually a bit cool (mid-70s) so we weren't as excited about getting wet.  However - we forgot to tell the people that we didn't want to get dunked.  Waving our arms franticaly didn't help either.  Down we went into the water.  The water was actually pretty warm but sadly we still had our clothes on as we weren't planning on getting wet (the only clothes that we had to wear on the hour trip back to Macquarie).  A few parasailing pictures:

Here we go!



Just before nearly giving each other a concussion



We made it!  Who wants to go again?

 Sadly I had to leave Rachel on Monday night and head back to the wonderful world of auditing.  We were able to get Rachel's bank account set up and internet connected but she was on her own for everything else.  I'm happy to report she still seems to be doing okay - as far as I know she hasn't spent her semester's worth of money yet or ended up in a suburb on the wrong side of the city (although I doubt she would tell me).

It was so great spending the weekend with Rachel.  I can't wait until she comes to Melbourne to visit!

Just an update

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post - not for lack of important things to share with the world though!  Before I forget the events of the last few weeks I thought I would give you all an update.

A few fun events:

Kiz discovered an American dinner in Prahan - Misty's Diner. Two weeks ago Kelly, Kiz, Justin, Claire, Trevor, and I all went to Misty's for some American (aka fried) food.  The Aussies got to experience fried mushrooms, buffalo wings, fried pickles, mozzrella sticks, and corn dogs.  And best of all - Coors Light! I'm glad that Claire and Kiz liked it, even though most Aussies say that it "tastes like piss" (their words not mine!)

Kelly, Matt, Amy, and I went to the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.  We saw the men's and women's 3rd round singles.  I can't say I was really into tennis in the past but it was a fun atmosphere and made watching the rest of the Open on TV a lot more fun.

Amy, me, and Federer - BFFs

Random:

• I have 3 Diet Mountain Dew's left.  I have spent lots of time on google trying to find more and Kelly even emailed USA Foods - no luck :(
• I am still loving having furniture and a bed!  I don't think I can ever sleep on an air mattress again.
• We purchased a washing machine and it is being delivered tomorrow.  Apart from putting together our TV stand, our apartment is pretty much complete!
• I am really loving beers at lunch :)
• Thanks to Graham Reekie for showing me http://www.allthedeals.com.au/.  I am officially obsessed and wil probably be broke from all of the "bargains" I think I am getting.  I have made 5 purchases and have yet to use any of them.
• A new season of shows has finally started!
• The debate over what AFL team to cheer for is still going.  I had decided on St. Kilda because that is where I live but have been told on many occasions not to cheer for them.  Many people have said to cheer for a team with the same colors or name as my favorite team at home.  So I can go for Richmond (black and gold) or Hawthorne (the hawks).  Any thoughts on this one would be greatly appreciated!

My battery is about to die and my power cord is on the other side of the room (one of the disadvantages of accidentally ordered a non-wireless modem).  That's all for now.  Another blog coming soon - all about my upcoming weekend in Sydney with my cousin Rachel!!!

The Apartment

We have furniture!!!!!!!

9 weeks after arriving in Australia we finally have furniture in our apartment.  No more sleeping on an air mattress (or getting yelled at while carrying a blown-up air mattress from Matt's aparmtent to our apartment - "yeah, you and your air mattress get out of here!!").  Along with the furniture I am also so happy to have kitchenware, diet mountain dew, and the rest of my shoes! It truly is the little things in life :)

Our furniture was delivered last Monday morning, which conveniently coincided with our first day back at work so that I could ease back into work with only a halfday.  I started opening boxes while the movers were still carrying things in. I wanted to make sure that my Diet Mountain Dew arrived safely.  I immediately texted a picture to Kelly to prove to her that it actually made it.  We are not crazy we just really like our Diet Mountain Dew.  Now that I know it made it through customs I wish I would have shipped about 100 more of them.  Eight each is not going to last very long!

This weekend we went to Ikea to complete our apartment.  We purchased a coffee table, TV stand, and shelves.  The apartment finally looks like home!  We just need a few more pictures on the wall, a bigger TV, and a washing machine and we will be all set.

Here is a picture of the living room:



Notice the sandstone bowl on the coffee table from Kenya- my favorite travel purchase!


As most of you would expect my bed is not made and there are clothes on the floor so no bedroom picture at the moment.  I'll try to post one soon. My "new" headboard looks quite nice (my old headboard spray painted black by my wonderful mama).  There are also lots of pictures to remind me of home!

Of course no apartment would be complete without a few mishaps - here are a few of ours:

• Returning from Fiji I discovered that the carpet in the corner of my bedroom was slightly damp.  A fan did no good drying it out so I called the landlord on Monday morning.  Turns out a pipe had burst in the apartment above me.  Amazingly only a bit of paint on the wall bubbled up and the wet carpet was discoverd before my furniture arrived so nothing was ruined.
• Also upon our return from Fiji we noticed the fridge was making a VERY loud humming sound.  Over the next few days the temperature continued to increase in the fridge until it was not cold at all - although the freezer was still working.  That too eventually died.  We had bought the fridge secondhand so we were nervous we were going to have to buy a new one.  Luckily Kelly contacted the guy we had purchased it from and he came to fix it last night (at 10 pm).
• As I mentioned above we made a few Ikea purchases this weekend - coffee table, TV stand, and shelves -all in black-brown.  We are grown up now and thought we should actually have matching furniture. Our items were delivered Monday morning.  Turns out our TV stand is white and not black-brown.  At Ikea the home delivery counter is after the checkout, which means that we had to wheel our purchase over to home delivery so there is little chance that we can blame this on the Ikea staff.  Although we are going to continue to try.  This is one time that not having a car is pretty annoying as we now have to figure out how to get it back to the store and exchange it.
• We finally got internet set up in the apartment.  We paid $150 for installation (basically a guy coming to the apartment and telling us the internet was already on).  Unfortunately after that we couldn't get the internet to work.  We finally got through to customer service and got the internet connected (we were using the wrong password - even though the directions told us the password was admin! how were we supposed to know?).  I then asked them to help us set up the wireless - since I am POSITIVE that I ordered a wireless modem  Turns out our modem is not wireless so we have to figure out if we can return that as well.

Other than that we love our apartment (although Kelly is dying with only 5 TV channels).  We are planning on having a housewarming party in February so there will be more pictures then.

Other news from the weekend:
Friday night after work I had drinks with my start group.  Good to see everyone after we were all doing our own thing over Christmas break.  It was gorgeous outside and we sat outside at Beer Deluxe in Federation Square - after dinner drinks turning into most of the night drinks. Beer Deluxe has a great burger and fries for only $10.50 - cheap as chips!  And it was the biggest burger ever.

Saturday night Kelly and I went out to eat with some girls from PwC.  We went to Mamasita's - a family-style Mexican restaurant in the city.  I'll admit I was a little skeptical - how good can Mexican food be so far away from Mexico?  I was wrong - It was amazing!  The shrimp taco and mexican truffle quesadilla were my favorite - and the margarita! The food definitely was worth the wait (Amy put our name in at 6 and we got a table around 8:30).  The restaurant actually took our number and we could go somewhere else and get drinks and then they call you shortly before the table is going to be ready. I swear that would never happen in the US!  Way better than standing in line on the stairs leading up to the restaurant like a lot of people were doing.  While we waited for our table we had some drinks at Society on Bourke Street.  Of course the waiter and the owner instantly fell in love with Amy and gave her 9 free drink tickets. 

After dinner we went to Society where Amy's friendliness scored all 7 of us 3 drinks each.  Thanks for that Amy - I need to go out with you more often!

The Start of 2011

Another new experience since moving to Australia - 100+ degrees for New Years Eve!
Most of the bars in Melbourne had really expensive cover charges for NYE and because we had a flight at 9 a.m. on the 1st we didn't really want to spend a lot of money to get in somewhere if we couldn't maximize on our money.  Luckily Emma graciously hosted us all at her apartment before going to see the fireworks at midnight. Emma and Rockey were great hosts (I especially liked the pineapple and cheese!!) and even if some of the beer may have "disappeared" I hope they will still invite most of us back soon :)

Here are a few pictures from the night:

Kelly, Emma, and I



Fireworks over the EY building

Thanks to Kelly I made it home before 4 a.m. and made it to my flight.  Thanks Kel :)

Before we get to Fiji I thought I would take a look back at 2010:

Places Lived:

• Uptown with Rachelle
• Bloomington with Ben and Erin
• Prairie City for 2 weeks
• Serviced apartments in Melbourne for one month
• St. Kilda West AUSTRALIA

 Places Visited

• Waco/San Antonio, TX - I got to see where my friend Katie lives/works in Waco and well as attend the wedding of my friend Danika and her new hubby Troy!  Such a fun wedding - even if I was unprepared for the cold front that hit Texas right when we arrived
• Frederick, MD/Washington DC - Mini Contiki Reunion with Kim and Kelly.  I think I remember all the food we ate the most :)
• Many trips to Iowa to see friends and family - Hopkins family reunion, my cousin Staci's wedding, and young adult retreat at Camp Pine Lake -  to name a few
• Gap Adventures trip to Africa - countries visited: Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya.  Travelled with Kim, Annie, and Bel and met AMAZING people on our trip.  I was lucky enough to meet Justin, Kiz, and Carlee who are all close by to my new home. I love travel friends!
• Seoul, South Korea to visit Amber, Jon, and Lincoln. I want to go back just for the bulgogi hot pot!
• AUSTRALIA!!!! 
• Fiji with Kelly, Matt, and Amy (Keep reading to find out more) - oh shoot we technically didn't arrive here until Jan. 1 but I'm keeping on the list to make it more impressive

New experiences 

• Petting a lion
• Getting a smartphone!
• Spending Christmas away from home :(
• Riding in a helicopter
• Relying solely on public transporation to get around
• Quitting a job (other than those due to school)
• probably many, many more that I am forgetting!

Fiji - the part you have all been waiting for (I'm sure you are all still wondering how we got stranded on an island - yes, we were STRANDED)

We arrived in Fiji on the evening of Jan. 1 and were greeted by rain and overcast skies.  We had seen the forecast was for rain the entire time we were in Fiji so we were a litle prepared for this.   A private transfer took us from the airport to The Pearl Resort on the Pacific Coast - about a 2.5 hour trip.  We got McDonald's on the way and then all fell asleep :)

For someone who is used to staying in hostels, tents, or very cheap hotels, this resort was luxurious!!  We spent 3 days at The Pearl. Luckily the weather forecast was wrong and it was gorgeous the entire time we were here! My time there was spent laying by the pool, reading, sitting at the swim-up pool bar, eating, drinking, and getting a massage!  What a relaxing vacation so far!



The Resort

Happy Hour!

 Next up - Beachcomber Island
Several people had told us to go to Beachcomber Island - also known as the party island.  Not that we are finally off the island none of us can remember who told us to go there.  Beachcomber island is tiny.  There is just one small resort and you could probably walk around the whole island in 10 minutes (I never tried the sand hurt my feet too much).

We got to the island around mid-day and got some lunch and drinks (it is the party island after all).  As I said the island is tiny, we were staying in a 16+ bed dorm and I needed a break from the sun.....so the only logic place to hang out was the bar.  We also played some volleyball a little later which I think led to the destruction of the bottom of my feet.

The party island lived up to its name and even though I lost my sandals and the key to my dorm bed, I would say it was definitely worth it for one night.  At 9:45 we were supposed to leave for Mana Island.  We boarded a small boat with several other people leaving the island.  The small boat was supposed to take us to the ferry that would take us on to Mana Island.  When we got on the small boat we could see the ferry waiting.  But then it just left! Hey -how can it do that!  The driver of our boat didn't seem to concerned.  He just nonchalantly said "that's your boat, maybe it will come back."  But it just kept going!  We went back to Beachcomber and were told that we could get the next ferry at 1:00. Not ideal since we had already checked out of our room, hadn't showered, and were just ready to get off the party island.  But 1:00 didn't sound so bad.  Beachcomber doesn't have any restaurants (breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included in the price and are all one hour long...you don't want to miss it).  There was a small stand that had grilled cheese and hot dogs so I had two grilled cheese sandwiches to tide me over :)
Shortly before 1:00 we were told that there was no ferry coming at 1:00 and we could get the 6:00 ferry.  None of us were too happy although the staff didn't seem to care. After all we were on "Fiji Time."
We did get the 6:00 ferry to Mana - after it nearly drove right past us. 
After reading this description you are all probably still thinking it wasn't that bad - I guess you just had to be there.  Kelly, Matt, and Amy understand my pain :)

Not much to repot about Mana.  The island was a little bigger than Beachcombers but was only one resort.  We stayed in bungalows right on the ocean.  Sadly it did rain the only full day we had at Mana (we lost one day due to being STRANDED on Beachcombers).  Amy and I got our second couple's massage (not sure why they kept putting us in the same room).  This time we got wraps - my first ever.  And another scalp massage....my favorite :)




The view from our porch


We arrived back in Melbourne on late on Jan. 7 and had the weekend to recover before heading back to work.  Overall it was a great trip  - maybe I will start taking relaxing vacations more often!

More Holidays

I think I have officially forgotten than I have a job.  Being employed for 6 weeks and then having vacation for 11 days is really pretty amazing.  Sadly, I have to go back to work tomorrow so I am here to document my vacation fun before the excitement of half year reviews begins.

Grampians
Kelly, Parita, and I went to the Grampians National Park from Dec 28-30.  Parita is a fellow EY-er and was gracious enough to be our chaffeur for 3hour trip to the Halls Gap.  About 2 hours into the trip we encountered the one thing we had been worried about - locusts!! 

The Locusts

It is probably hard to tell from this picture but all those little dots are locusts.  The swarm was huge - it seemed like we couldn't see where it started and ended.  I don't think I have ever encountered locusts before and wasn't really excited about being surrounded by them during the next 3 days.  Luckily, locusts seem to want to avoid you instead of landing on you and the higher we hiked the less locusts there were.

After checking into our cabin at D'Altons in Halls Gap (I wish I had a picture!) we decided to get right to exploring the area.  Our first stop was MacKenzie Falls.  We drove to the MacKenzie Falls carpark and then had a very short hike down to MacKenzie Falls.  It was beautiful!  No matter how many waterfalls I have seen, I am still in awe by them.  We took lots of pictures, dipped our feet in the cold water, and then headed back to the car for another hike.



Me at MacKenzie Falls

Our next stop was the Reed Lookout and a leisurely hike to the Balconies.  From both of these places we had great panoramic views of the Grampians.


Arriving back in Halls Gap we were welcomed by none other than a group of kangaroos!  Kelly spotted the kangaroos as we were pulling into D'Altons and Parita stopped the car for us to snap a few pictures.  After changing and going back into town for dinner we realized that the kangaroos were also in the park in the center of town.  We saw a few kids feeding them so we decided to do the same (leaves of course, there were signs everywhere not to feed the kangaroos human food.)  Here is just one of the MANY pictures we have of the kangaroos.

The next day we ambitiously decided to do the 9.6 km Wonderland Loop hike (rated as medium to hard).  The book we got from the information center said the hike should take us from the center of town to the Venus Baths, the Wonderland Car Park and then up to the Pinnacles and then back down to Halls Gap via a different route to Halls Gap.  After hiking for some time we discovered that we were not getting to the Venus Baths.  As we started meeting people who were coming down the path, I realized that we must have taken the long path.  We were still headed for the Pinnacle but just not in the direction we were supposed to.  This meant our uphill hike was much harder than if we had gone up the other side.  We made it to the Pinnacle and the view was completely worth it!

We made it!

We found the path we should have taken on the way up and headed back to town - stopping at the Venus Baths to cool off for a bit.  Arriving in town we immediately headed for the ice cream shop - the Mango Tango Sundae definitely hit the spot!

Our final outing of the trip was a stop at the Gap Winery.  We tried several wines and then purchased a glass while sitting outside and enjoying the view.  This made me really excited for the Yarra Valley winery tour that I purchased on Scoopon (great website full of Melbourne deals)

Kelly and Parita at the Gap Winery

The rest of the trip consisted of a homemade meal of pasta, salad, and garlic bread; TV; much needed sleep; and the trip back to Melbourne. 

Wow - that blog really wore me out.  I think I better relax and watch TV in preparation for work tomorrow.  Stay tuned for the recap of Fiji soon!

Christmas in Oz

For the first time in my life, I spent Christmas without my family, snow, or chocolate dessert.  Luckily I was surrounded by other people who were in the same position and we definitely made the most of our first Christmas in Australia!

Our office closed and the end of the day on December 23 and we are on break until January 10.  It is just like being in college again and I love it!!  People here are amazed when I tell them that at home we only get one day off for Christmas and one day off for New Years.  Before you get too jealous - I should say that of our 11 days of holidays during this time only 3 of them are public holidays.  The remaining 8 days we have to take as vacation.  But we get more vacation here than at home.  And I am not complaining about being required to take two weeks off.

On Christmas Eve Kelly and I went to the Christmas Eve service at St. Francis in the city.  The service was at 6 in the evening and the city still looked so busy with shoppers and tourist that we didn't think there would be anyone at church.  We were wrong!!!  We arrive about 10 minutes before church started and already there was nowhere to sit.  There were people lined up down each of the side aisles almost all the way to the front of the church.  We were originally standing in the aisle until a few people made additional room and we each got to sit - just not together.  The service was not but did not even come close to competing with the candlelight service at the Prairie City CoB!!!

After church we met up Verena, Valerie, Steph, Graham, Nase, and Thurai for dinner.  We had no idea where to go for dinner as there were many places that were closed for Christmas Eve or they were already full.  We decided on Borsari, an Italian restaurant on Lygon St.  It was delicious.   I would highly recommend the fettucine pappone to anyone in the Melbourne area looking for a good Italian meal in the city.

After dinner we went to Madame Brussels - a bar we had tried to go to earlier in the week for our Secret Santa gift exchange but it was too busy  Kelly and I got in the festive mood and surprised everyone with our Santa hat and reindeer antlers that we had found at the South Melbourne market.  The bar closed not long after we arrived so we headed to The Elephant and the Wheelbarrow for some live music and a little dancing.


Kelly, Steph and I at the Elephant and the Wheelbarrow



Because all of us are used to snow and freezing temperatures on Christmas, we decided we needed to celebrate Christmas with a barbecue.  On Christmas Day Val, Verena, Kelly, and I met up with Graham and Steph at their apartment before heading out for our big barbecue.  Graham and Steph had discovered that there are a lot of free barbecues along the river not far from their apartment.  The only problem was that we had underestimated how many other people would have the same idea.  After walking for about 20 minutes we found an empty picnic table, but no available barbecue. We had plenty of food so we snacked on taco dip, salad, and bread while waiting for a barbecue to free up.  Verena and I struck out several times trying to politely ask people if we could have the barbecue after them.  Finally we convinced Graham to go make friends with some people and he was successful.  I think we definitely overestimated the amount of food that we needed.  After snacking on everything none of us were feeling especially hungry but we cooked up everything we brought anyway - I think mainly because none of us wanted to carry it all back!

 

Our Christmas Feast





Our 2010 Christmas family

Kelly and I were also introduced to a new Christmas tradition: Christmas crackers.  Christmas crackers are a small cardboard tube with a gift inside and wrapped in Christmas paper.  Two people pull on opposite ends of the cracker and the person who ends up with the larger portion gets to keep the present that is inside. 

Val and Kelly pulling their Christmas cracker

On the 27th Kelly, Bre, and I went to the Cricket.  I'm guessing 98% of the people reading this blog don't understand cricket so I won't try to explain it (mostly because I know you don't care but also because I just learned about it in the past few days myself).  The Ashes contest is four test matches between Australia and England played over one month.  That's right - it takes a month to figure out the winner and there is still a chance it can end in a tie. (and people here try to tell me that baseball is boring).  This week is the final test and that day we attended was day 2.  Unfortunately for Australia, day 1 (boxing day) did not go so well.  The first day ended with Australia scoring 98 runs and England scoring 157 runs with no outs.  That means that England got to begin batting on day 2.  We were at the cricket from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. and England was still batting (you have to get 10 outs).

We had really good seats and after lunch when the sun came out it was actually pretty enjoyable.  I think we got more excited about doing the wave and watching trash blow onto the field than we did about the actual game (okay, maybe that was just Bre and I).

Kelly's favorite player Mitchell Johnson (don't you love the sweater vests)

Next up on our holiday itinerary:  Grampians National Park, NYE in Melbourne, and Fiji!

Livin' the Dream

"Livin' the dream"
"Life is good"
"I can't believe this is our life!!!"
These are just a few of the things Kelly and I say to each other almost daily.

A lot has happened since my last blog.   Be prepared – this is a long one!

EY Ball

That’s right…I said ball.  Not party.  Friday Dec. 10 was the annual EY ball.  It was HUGE and very fancy.  Our office has about 1500 people and I based on my estimations there were over 1,000 people there.  It is hard to believe that more people work in my office than the entire population of my hometown. Crazy!

The day before the ball I was at happy hour with the Australia Post audit team and they were all telling me stories about how crazy the ball gets.  The ED (executive director) even told me that “a straight-laced American like me” would not even know what to think (yes, you can all start laughing now).  I was thinking back to the EY Minneapolis Christmas party at the Depot and the Spring Fling at the Graves Hotel and was sure nothing would surprise me.

First of all, people get way more dressed up than for any Christmas party I have ever been too.  Girls left early to get their hair down, guys wore tuxes – the whole nine yards.  Here’s a picture so you get an idea of how fancy it was:

After dinner there was a band…..and a dance floor.  1,000+ EY people on one dance floor.  Most of you are probably thinking of nerdy tax accountants with glasses and pocket protectors.  Instead picture 1,000 people – all of them working for the same company and 50% of whom are under the age of 25.  Insanity!

The only downside to the ball was the beer selection – there were only 3 to choose from and they were not good.  Drinking wine/champagne all night is not a good idea (I have the bruises on my leg to prove it).

Most of my pictures from the ball are of Alexis and Kelly.  It has become a common theme for Alexis to steal my camera.  And he always seems to take pictures of himself and Kelly. 

 I did manage to get a few other pictures in that night:



This was our favorite picture - except it was ruined by a wine glass and a random in the background!





Nase, JJ, and Graham - I think this one pretty much sums up the night.
Graham - I added this one in case your mom is reading this!!!



The ball ended at midnight – but the party didn’t stop there.   There was an EY after party (no we are not still in college although lately it has felt like it).  I think I will stop the stories from the ball now – my mom has probably heard enough.

Christmas Party

Apparently one party in December is not enough.  The Thursday after the ball was the Assurance-wide Christmas party (basically everyone in audit).  The Christmas party was held on the 89^th floor of the Eureka Tower.  The Eureka Tower is the tallest building in the South Hemisphere and the 89^th floor is the top floor (the general public only gets to go to the 89^th floor).

Santa (assurance managing partner) and his elves (other partners) made an appearance at the Christmas party.  For $5 you could get your picture taken with them and the proceeds went to a children’s charity. Someone asked me if any of the partners in Minneapolis would wear spandex and dress up as an elf – I can’t picture it!  I wanted to include the pictures here but we got printed pictures and I haven’t scanned it yet.  Instead here’s a picture of JJ and the ladies at the Christmas party:

Kelly’s funny story:

Kelly wanted to make sure this was included in the blog (trust me it was funnier if you were there).  At the party Kelly and I were standing and talking to a group of people and an RCIP partner came up (RCIP is the group I work in).  This is how the conversation went (I don’t know the exact words but you’ll get the idea):

Partner:  “Hi, I’m TW, I work in the RCIP practice.”

Kelly:   “Oh, do you guys work together?” (meaning me and partner). 

Partner (shaking his head):  no, no

Me:  No, we’ve just met before

The conversation continued for awhile, talking about our holiday plans, etc.  The conversation then came to the fact that Kelly and I were both from the Minneapolis office and knew each other before coming to Australia. 

Partner: If you guys know each other why did you ask if we were together?” (Meaning me and the partner)

Kelly (laughing):  hahahaha, I asked if you guys WORKED together.

Partner (laughing):  That happens all the time.

That happens all the time????  What?  See, I told you it was funnier if you were there.

An update on the apartment

We are still loving our apartment.  We now have a refrigerator, microwave and other small kitchen appliances.  And electricity!!! Now we just need cable, internet, and furniture and we will be al set (I am sitting on the floor right now).

Saturday we went to the market and bought our first decoration:

This is Judy (Sorry Aunt Judy, she is not named after you).  Kelly decided this is Judy from Judy’s Ten Key. Judy is adapting to the Australian lifestyle and has taken to drinking all day instead of helping us with our add checks (footing).  We say Hi to Judy when we come home and make sure we have a drink with her every now and then so she doesn’t feel bad drinking alone.

Your can't tell from this picture just Judy is actual wire, not a picture - the white background is our wall.   I love it!

Kelly and I have not even gotten in a fight yet!  (Of course it helps that Judy is here to make sure we all get along).

Only 3 more days of work until our 2 week holiday!  I hope everyone has a great Christmas!!!  Enjoy the snow – I hope to be sitting on the beach if it would just warm up a little bit!