Happy belated 22nd Birthday to ME!!! :) The birthday weekend was a great success! A big thanks to everyone who sent their love via cards, gifts, flowers, or skype!! I'm glad that everyone across the pond has not forgotten about me! The entire week & weekend was great, so I couldn't have asked for anything better for a better 22nd in Sydney! Friday I went to the Taronga Zoo with my roommate Michaela, which was really fun. The weather was sooo nice and the sun was out (resulting in some not-so-nice tan lines). The zoo was really cool and you it overlooked the entire city, which was really pretty. Friday night was Michaela's going away party - all her friends from school came to our apartment and we rocked out to Spice Girls & Backstreet Boys ... read more

I can't believe I am about to start my 2nd semester here... where did summer go?? Ah, where did the 1st semester even go!?! The past couple weeks have been pretty uneventful. I started back at work at the before/after school program I was at last semester. It's good to have a job again... that was the first time I haven't been working, basically since I was 15! I just found out that, since we now have an assistant manager, or second person in charge, which we didn't have last semester, our hours are getting cut. So now I'm only going to get 2, maybe 3, shifts a week. So that's only 6-9 hours a week, which won't help me survive in this expensive city. So now I have to find a 2nd job that fits ... read more

So everyone is freezing back home... well, here in Sydney, we are MELTING!! It has been ridiculously hot here, not that I can complain, but WOW, I don't think I've ever felt heat like this before!! Yesterday I was out walking around the city and dripping sweat - the sun was so hot, it was really humid, AND there was a warm breeze. Did I mention that the temperature was also climbing about 100 degrees?? Ouch! Last Monday to Wednesday, Andy and I decided to do a couple days away from the city and go camping. I haven't been camping in about 8 or 9 years, so I was pretty excited. We drove about 3 hours north of Sydney and our campsite was out in the woods. Like, camping back home you have campsites and stuff... ... read more

Happy 2009, Everyone!!!!! Hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve and that 2009 is off to a great start for all of you!! My friend Erin, a girl from school at Iowa, got here Wednesday morning. So Andy and I picked her up from the airport and had a big, delicious breakfast at Pancake on the Rocks. Then we sat out by the Opera House for about an hour soaking up the sun. After that, Erin and I did about a 3 or 4 hours walking tour around the city and it was hottttt... probably about 90 and sunny! So we got ready, had a couple bottles of yummy champagne, and started walking down towards the harbour at 9pm and saw the kids fireworks off the bridge, which were cool. Then we went to ... read more

Guess it's time for an update!! Getting excited for Christmas has been really hard without snow, cold, real Christmas trees, presents, cookies etc etc... but overall, I decided I don't mind because I have started to get my tan back and that is much better than a white Christmas :) I have been so busy since school let out, i can't believe I have already been done for almost 4 weeks! About 2 weeks ago Andy and I went to Tasmania for 4 days. I was excited to get away and do some outdoorsy stuff, but I ended up getting Strep throat the weekend before... and then it also rained every day we were there. We ended up watching a lot of movies and spending a lot of time in this pretty park across from our ... read more