"The Hardest Part Of Traveling No One Talks About"

I stumbled upon this article on Thought Catalog and it is so spot on. I felt this when I came back from studying abroad in Spain, I felt it a little when I moved back to Nashville from Chicago, and I'm anticipating feeling it whenever we move back to the US. John and I often talk about how we have changed in the short time we have been in Australia. Not big, monumental things, but little things that add up to affect the way we view the world and our role in it. The way we act, react, plan, make decisions, etc. We talk about how it's probably going to be quite different when we move back home...our mindset, our relationships with friends and family (will we have the same friends? will we have outgrown some? will we still have things in common?), the way we raise our kids and the the values we want to instill in in them. The lucky thing is that John and I get to do this together! We get to change and grow individually but also as a unit which is really cool. Because the best thing about being married is YOU GET TO SPEND EVERY SINGLE DAY TOGETHER AND DO EVERYTHING TOGETHER AND ITS SO FUNNNNN!!!!!! Sorry- got a little off topic there.. but have a look at the article here and enjoy!

Did you know?

Did you know that...

*Blockbusters are still alive and kickin' in ole Aussie land. There are over a dozen locations in Sydney alone. Australia doesn't have Netflix or an equivalent, so I guess that's how they are still in business?? Also, illegal downloading is huge here. Australians are among the biggest pirates per capita. The government is supposedly about to crack down on that whole issue, but who knows.

 *Travel agencies are also thriving on this side of the world. I thought that all of those disappeared shortly after the invention of the "internet"... no?

*TV is so bad here. So bad. The news anchors/actors, the content, the studio design.. it's a struggle. Maybe this is directly related to the whole pirating problem??

*It's common to hear old 90s music playing in the background at restaurants and stores. Think Backstreet Boys and Matchbox Twenty.

Come on, Aussies. It's 2014! Let's get up to speed!

Wine and USA USA USA

Last weekend, we joined our Aussie friends for a night in the Hunter Valley---a beautiful wine region about 2 hours north west of Sydney

We combined wine, Christmas in July, and 4th of July all in one weekend and it was DA BOMB! We rented a bus and drove over on Saturday afternoon... hit a few wineries in our ugly Christmas sweaters, and then made dinner and celebrated the 4th of July-- complete with American drinking games in red solo cups and a loud, sparkler-fueled rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner"... Also- we stayed in a renovated old train carriage. Really neat!

 

 

We feel so lucky to have met a great group of Aussies who have taken us in as their own! When we first moved here, we knew no one. Literally- zero people. Hi John.. Hi Annie. That was our friend circle. We have met all of our friends through MeetUps and friends of friends we met at MeetUps. And then the occasional work friend. During the first few months we were here, I honestly wouldn't have had someone to call during an emergency except for John. Now I feel like we have several people-- Aussies and Americans- that we could call up to take us to the airport, watch Rudy if we went out of town, let us stay at their house if we got locked out of our apartment, etc. It feels so good to be part of a community. You take that for granted until you don't have one. It feels good to have friends, people!!!!

Happy Hump Day, yall!

Celebraaaaate good times COME ON

First things first- Happy 4^th of July!

John and I celebrated with a day at work. 

We will continue the celebration this weekend with a trip to the Hunter Valley with friends!

 

Also… Happy Canada Day (a couple days late)!

Who KNEW there were so many Canadians in Australia?? On the way to that celebration, we passed through a "winter wonderland"-- complete with an ice skating rink and Christmas lights. At the end of June. I don't think I'll ever get used to that??

It has actually been quite chilly here. Well... 45 degrees. Which feels so cold!! Where has my Chicago toughness gone??

Sad day for the Wells Duo.. last commute as co-workers!

DID YOU KNOW…

In New South Wales, it is a 3 year process to get a driver’s license? We aren’t getting one- we are fine with our US licenses. Butttt, NSW residents have a Learner License for 1 year starting when they are 16 years old, a Provisional P1 License for a year, a Provisional P2 License for a year, and then they are able to get a full, unrestricted license. For each stage, they have to drive with a big sticker on their car ---“L” , a red “P” or a green “P” ---to let other drivers know their status.

Interesting…. Vedy vedy interesting.

 

Cheers to the weekend, friends!