A whole year later.

Well, today was the big one year anniversary!!

[When do we stop being considered Newlyweds??]

We did lots of exciting things and got up way too early. [Now, the plan is to hop into bed with a few episodes of The IT crowd. [You should definitely check out that series. Hilarious.]]

But first, a re-cap.

We spent tons of time in the city! We went to a mall that we have never seen, [Chris even liked it.], went to the Docklands, [I’m pretty sure I got sunburned there], wandered around the city some more, had dinner, and then went to St. Kilda beach to visit the penguins. [Uh huh, I said penguins.] We're going to try and spend every June 12th on a beach. [Even if it's the crummy beach of the man made lake near our house.]

A tree I befriended at the Docklands.

Penguin!

When we got home one of our housemates wrote this on our chalkboard. It's in French so we had him translate it. I cried. Don't worry, the picture is meant to be the author of the poem, not Chris.

Orangina

I've been meaning to mention that everyday, out our bedroom window, I get to stare at the most beautiful orange tree.

That's right, I said orange tree. [When we first got here, I thought it was a lemon tree. When the fruit didn't change colour, I decided it was a lime tree. After cracking a 'lime' open and seeing it's orange insides, I came to the conclusion that these babies were oranges. About a day later the skins started to turn orange, too.]

I'll remind you one more time that right now, on June 11th, it's Winter. And my orange tree has just reached it's prime. No big deal.

This bad boy resides in our backyard, too.

Speaking of oranges, I'm starting to get pretty sick of Fanta. [You know, the orange flavoured soda.] Pretty soon I'll be able to basque in some glory that is Dr. Pepper. Or maybe I'll just enjoy a nice Orangina.

Winter into Summer

Have you ever wondered what Winter in Australia looks like?

A little bit like this...

I would be pretty jealous if I weren't here.

Ok, that's probably not true, considering it's Summer at home.

[And, despite the beautiful flowers coming into bloom, it's dang cold!]

Today marks the end of our second to last week of Uni.
That means after next week we're completely done! [Until August.]

Chris and I both have an assignment due on Monday that we'll slave over tomorrow.

On Sunday we are taking a break from school work to celebrate our one year anniversary.

It's completely amazing [and crazy!] that an entire year has already passed by!

Hope you folks in America are enjoying your Summer!!

Honey Chicken

Hi.

It's been about.... forever, huh?

Today is June 8th, we're leaving on June 28th. That means we have 20 whole days left in the city of Melbourne. Well, in all of Australia actually.

This week is full of final papers and next week is full of final exams. Everyone is busy and a little stressed. The worst part is that when school is over, we'll have one more week in Australia.

Only one more week!!!!

I'm more than excited to go home to family, friends, a job, and summer. But, I'm beyond bummed to have to leave this amazing place.

Everyday, after we've stressed about assignments until our brains explode, we think about all the things we have yet to do and the things we have to do just one more time.

Today, we went to the supermarket. [Because we needed to get stuff for Chicken Parmas.]

Something that we do about once out of every 10 times we go to the supermarket is get take away Chinese.

This place

has the most amazing Honey Chicken you will ever eat.

Just look at it.

Ok, so it might not look that appetizing, but it's delicious. So delicious that we fork out $9.

[On a side note, the lady that works at Eastern Dragon is obsessed with us. She speaks horrible English, thinks we're from California, and wants to give us the recipe for her chicken so we can sell it in America.]

Anyway, today is probably the last time we'll ever eat that Honey Chicken.

We're coming up on the last time we'll do a lot of things while we're here.

So, so bittersweet.

Sydney

Remember when I said everyone went away for Easter Break? Well so did we!!! To Sydney!

Beautiful, yes?

We were some of the people that left on Easter Sunday to start our adventure.

Ya know how traveling is kind of hard? You basically have to pack up your life for however many days, rush to the airport, wait forever, and then live in a grimy place that is nothing like home.

Well, doing all of that sucks a lot more when you don't have a car.

We had to get to the airport like everyone else. Except for the fact that we couldn't just drive there.

First, we got on the tram outside our house. Then we went to the train station. We took a train to another train station, got off and took another train to another station. When we finally got to Southern Cross we were done with trains. From there we had to hop on a shuttle bus that took us to the airport.

[In between all of this was copious amounts of waiting.]

On the tram with our luggage.

While waiting at Southern Cross.

This is the water we drink.
It's made by Coke.

We saw this penny press at the airport.
Naturally, we were intrigued.A penny press??
We're in Australia. There are no pennies here.

Wrong.
That's a lot of pennies.

That's the plane we took.

This is the world saying, 'today is a great day.'

Jet plane.

We arrived in beautiful Sydney in the evening. Since it's turning into Winter the sun is setting earlier and earlier. We managed to check in to our hostel and run over to the Royal Botanical Gardens to get a glimpse of the Opera House just as the sun was setting. After sunset, we wandered around Circular Quay and got up close and personal with the Opera House. We spent a bit of time trying to find dinner and eventually went back to our hostel.

That's the suburb we stayed in.
Wooloomooloo.

At Circular Quay.

We had Baskin Robbins after dinner.
Two nights in a row.

Opera House.

Bridge.

The next day we got up bright and early to celebrate ANZAC [Australia New Zealand Army Corps] Day. Ok, we didn't get up as early as we should have so we missed the dawn service. However, we did make it downtown in time for the parade. After the ANZAC festivities we headed back to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Darling Harbour. There we visited the Maritime Museum. [It was free, and pretty cool.] Not only is there a giant museum, but there are also three ships you can tour. [That costs money, but not that much.] After the museum we wandered around Darling Harbour and had some lunch. Next, we headed back to the city and went to the Sydney Tower. It was a bit less awesome that the Eureka Sky Tower here in Melbourne, but still had some great views. After all of this, it was night time again. We went back to the Opera House and hung around until we were too tired to move.

By far, my most favorite soldier from the ANZAC Day parade.

The parade went on from 9am to 3pm.
Because there are that many soldiers.

On the ferry to Darling Harbour.

A submarine bunk.

We went on that ship.

Battleship.

On a battleship.

Koala.

The bridge from the tower.

The next day we took a short cut to town. It led us to the channel 7 building were they were filming Sunrise. [Equivalent to The Today Show.] We were on national TV, no big deal. After our four seconds of fame we walked around town and then went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Chris went up one of the pylons next to the bridge and had some gorgeous views. [To climb the bridge it costs $298. To climb the pylon it costs $9.50.] After the bridge, we wound up in The Rocks. A pretty amazing part of town. We wandered the shops for a bit and then mosied back towards the Opera House. We had coffee and went back to our hostel a bit early [we both had homework.]

A picture of the TV.
That's me in the background.

And then we went to Ireland.

Touched it.

Reflection in the Opera House.

And then we went home.
Ok, that's not true. We spent an entire day at the airport because we flew on a crappy airline.
Eventually we made it home.