The Redcoats are Coming!

So now I'm in England and it's adorable!!

I landed on friday morning and spend my first weekend with my friend H and her fiance R. Now H & R met while H and I were traveling through Australia! Then she moved to england to be with him and now they're getting married! How cute is that!?! We had a terrific weekend and although we were all disappointed by England's terrible showing in the soccer, I managed to stay up til the end and sleep through the night....jet lag? Not this girl!

On Saturday we went for a lovely English drive through villages that look like Harry Potter could have stepped out of the door. It took me a while to enjoy it, because a regular road in England is the size of an itty-bitty side street, and the English drive like they're on the bloody autobahn! To be honest it's terrifying, then you remember that nobody wants to crash the car and you loosen up a bit! After life in the sunburnt land of oz the green of england is unbelievably refreshing! It's something you don't notice that you're missing. But my first glimpse of green had me feeling thirsty for more! Apparently it's been raining heaps in England (I hear it does that) but I've had beautiful sunny days so far-lucky lucky me!

On Saturday night we had a bit of an Australia reunion, as the mate R had traveled through oz with came out for drinks....oi was I in trouble! Two shots down and I realized I was screwed! We yanks just can't really hang when the English want to drink...even after three years in oz I was in over my head! After a long fun night came the painful morning =(

Luckily I'm a bloody mary master - J and I sucked one down and felt much better! We were able to have a leisurely morning - which I love - and then I hopped a coach (bus) to Reading (think redding) to meet up with Mike - hurray!

xx

home again home again =)

I really have to say I had the best visit home. Although, to be fair it was way too short!

I'd like to preface by saying I'm so sorry if I didn't say goodbye and even sorrier if we didn't get to meet up. My time was super scheduled and I had a very. important. wedding one weekend which made it tricky to see everyone. Chances are, if you're reading this, I really wanted to see you and I'm sorry =(

It's not you it's me.

For those of you I skipped town on, I'm also incredibly sorry. I have a hard time with goodbyes these days...so sometimes it's easier to avoid them...look for a postcard coming your way =)

Oh but DC how I love you! I had a really amazing few weeks, from the other out of town guests (thanks Kate and Kris) to the wonderful meals/drinks with friends....I don't have the words. Suffice it to say I love you all.

My first weekend back but was big blur between a huge Saturday night and then a BBQ on Sunday I felt like a giant lush all weekend! The BBQ was fun and it was even more fun bc people brought kids =) I love kids. I especially love my friend's kids....especially when I can give them back when they start crying! haha

My weeks were filled with lunches/dinners with friends. I'm really happy I was able to spend more time with my momma this trip =) We got to go to a bit of theater and had some great chats which was special. I can't tell you all how well Mom and I get along now that we're on opposite sides of the planet!

The wedding weekend extravaganza has got to be one of the best weekends in memory! Not only was one of my favs marrying a guy I'd known for 10 years, but their awesome families went out of the way to make sure everyone had a good time. Don't believe me? The mother of the bride gave us (the bridal suite) THREE HANDLES OF LIQUOR to ensure our levity and oh did it work!

Although I was definitely ready to see Mike (it'd been 3 weeks!) I was super sad to leave. I had an awesome last day...I got to meet a friend's baby - coincidently this baby has the same name as the future daughter of yours truly - and I spent most of the day with the best best a girl could have =)

DC you must know that although I chose to live away you and yours are always in my heart....I love you guys!

xxx

Better Late than Never!

Well seeing as how I'm traveling I decided I'd better do with some regular writing again =) I've been taking notes, so hopefully I'll get everything in.

I left Melbourne on 25 May and flew the long way round (through abu dhabi-it's on the Saudi peninsula look it up! ) Now, before you go judging me for going 'the long way', you should know that the planes were brand new, the food was better, AND I could charge my iphone from my seat! Oh yeah, and the flight was cheaper plus I arrived in Chicago sans jet lag. An all around score I'd say! In fact, I'm not above a little plug, as long as Etihad Airlines remains cheaper than the rest I'm happy to fly an extra 10 hours in comfort...did I mention I avoided customs at LAX?? Bonus Round for me!

Chicago was fantastic as always. Not only did I get to see my oldest and dearest friend, I got to meet her son, my nephew Grant =) I love him. I wish I could post pictures, but I didn't get my act in gear and upload before I left emerica...so we'll all have to wait on that. lociento

Chicago in summer has got to be one of the best cities around, as Liz (a childhood buddy I caught up with in chi-town) claims, the winters keep the real estate prices down which is why most people don't know how amazing it really is....I wouldn't really know about the winters as I avoid the north like the plague come snow season!

We enjoyed booze filled dinners on the deck. Booze filled dinners on the boat. Booze filled dinners....I think you get the point! My point is that for the first time ever I drank more than Cat-not Bill, never Bill :-p. You have to understand, Bill especially has relished in getting me drunk ever since I was a wee lass-something about him filling in my only child neglect or something....anyways, since they had a baby on board it was a one woman show and let me tell you, it was a good one!

In all seriousness though, all you out there should absolutely go to Chicago and take a boat on a lake! Hands down my favorite thing to do in Chicago summer as long as I'm with my favorite Chicagoans....is that what you're called?? For the first season ever I was present for the boat's first dip. Even more spectacularly I was witness to baby's first boat ride =) He loved it until the motion of the ocean knocked him out! tee-hehe

Cat's parents are my father's oldest friends, so catching up with them is always incredibly special. Her father especially has memories of my dad that no one else does, so dinner with Cat's parents was a major highlight.

As much as I love everything in chicago, baby Grant is my new chi-town love. My last day there we took him to baby music class-he was rapt! As was I-haha. There was singing and dancing and instruments and scarves....bubbles at the end whats not to love??

ONTO STAGE TWO!

After a craaaaaaazy week of teaching non stop I am finally home!

I have realized a few important things in the last seven days. Firstly, I love not having to drive everywhere! This past week, when I've had to drive everywhere! I've really really hated it! I've been commuting 2 hours a day...ick!

I've also reaffirmed that I would never ever live in queensland....compared to Melbourne, its just a bit boring....that said I love to visit, especially to see the girls =)

Most importantly, I've realized that I really really love teaching esl. It's fun and it's engaging. If I want to plan an awesome lesson I can, if I don't there's heaps of material on the interwebs I can use....what more can you ask for. Plus, the average english teacher works about 20-30 hours a week and makes more than I'm making now! ker-ching!

It's a really good feeling to finally be here and have found something I enjoy and I'm good at....next up: the job hunt begins!!

prac day 2

Class was great! As expected. Although, the laid back causal style of the gold coast would definitely NOT fly in melbs. We spent a good 15 minutes talking about drugs and drug laws and how stupid they are. In a language class. But, as long as the students are speaking English, what more can you ask for? Haha
I taught a 1 hour conversation class on my first full day! Eek….I was totally thrown into it. One of the teachers had made an appoitment and there was no one else to do it, when they asked if I wanted to I couldn’t really say no. It was awesome though! It went really well. I gave the students a topic, they discussed it in groups for about 20-25 mintues and then we debated it as a class for another 25-30 minutes….conversation class…check!
Tonight I had another looooong class…it’s 4 hours! I planned for 2 hours of it. I think I over did it a bit, although I’d rather challenge the students then have them be bored. To unwind at the end I had them listen to Let it Be I had created a sheet with the lyrics, taken a few words out in each stanza and then they had to listen for the words. They all knew the song, so it wasn’t too hard, but just hard enough =) Busy busy day two =)
xx

the prac...day 1

Arriving in queensland its hard to believe I’m in the same country. Where I’ve come from its cold and rainy….clearly winter. But here its gentle and warm(er) not as warm as I was hoping, but obviously tropical.
Tiger Airways is THE cheap carrier in Australia and I got cheap flights….of course the planes were old and the concourse barely attached to the airport, but that is the price I didn’t pay. I was running late had no idea where the terminal was and ended up running halfway across tullimarine (Melbourne airport) to find terminal four, a nice phrase for the shack that houses tiger in Melbourne. I barely made it…last one allowed to check in for the flight. Honestly, for a borderline shoddy establishment, they sure do keep tight to their timetables!
After a cramped sleep on the plane (I always sleep on planes, its really the only acceptable way to pass the time as far as I’m concerned) I landed on the goldcoast. Also known as bris-vegas to aussies everywhere, I can only assume because of the overweight population, excess of temptation, and cheap and cheesy shopping everywhere.
I’ve rented a car for the week because there is virtually no public transportation here. Its quite weird to have a car. I don’t have a car in melbs and don’t want a car in mebs, we in fact, rent out our car space for $60 a week and its fabulous! The problem, as some of you may remember from the madness that was Gena in America last year, I’m not really used to being a driver anymore. I’m fine actually driving, probably safer because I pay much more attention driving than I ever did before. The problems usually arise after happy hour when someone asks “hey Gena, how are you getting home?” My general answer is “TRAM!” because where I live, I can always take the tram home and its safe no matter how much I’ve had to drink because I’m not driving. When I’m not at home, especially when I have driven this usually creates a BIG problem. Over the winter/summer when I was in NoVa, several times I forgot I had driven to the bar and had to a) take a cab home and b) ask my step-father/some other friend to drive me back in the morning to pick up said vehicile….ouch. tres embarrassing. Luckily for me, I’m on an anti-biotic so that shouldn’t be a big problem this time around.
I digress, so I get my car and the fancy gps I’ve decided to rent along with it (for $3.50/day!!) and am on my way. Since I haven’t really had a car for the past 2.5 years I have very little experience with gps, so as much as I love the idea of it, I kind of distrust it too (the robots are taking over!) My fears proved well founded when within 10 minutes of leaving the airport I was in New South Wales. The next state. I had driven across state line. THIS WAS NOT RIGHT. I am positive that the gold coast and surfers paradise are in queensland, the sunshine state! That’s where I needed to be. It turns out the gps did know best and NSW was just a detour to northern motorway. Huh, who would’ve thought? Go south to get north, leave the state to get to another city within it? TOM-TOM (that’s the gps, mom) sure had a funny idea about “fastest route”. But soon enough I found myself to be thrilled with TOM-TOM. It really knew what it was doing and how to get me around….sweeeeeet. Pretty soon I found myself talking to it, “great job TOM-TOM. Thanks for that TOM-Tom. Not sure where in NSW I’d be without you TOM-TOM.” Then I got concerned. Is that normal? Is it ok to talk to your gps? I figure it must be, because you can’t really have the music too loud or else you won’t be able to hear it. You can’t drive with the windows down (which lets be honest, is the best part) because it drowns out TOM-TOM’s voice, so what else am I supposed to do?
Soon enough I got back into the swing of being a driver and was pleased to discover that driving a stick is indeed like riding a bike….you can never forget. Wvertime I rent a car here I request a manual, but generally as soon as I open my mouth to say “thank you” they assume that:
American + female = can’t drive stick…argh. But not this time around, the fine establishment I’ve rented from, cut price car rentals (its all in the name isn’t it?) did indeed give me a stick and soon enough I was racing off lights with the best of them!
Vroom vroom = FUN!
Long story long, I made it! Hooray! I’m sitting on the camps now as I type this, under a gazebo watching horses walk past surrounded by the squawking of birds (hey! It can’t all be pleasant). The language school shares grounds with a horse riding academy. I’m wearing flip-flops and sitting outside. Didn’t exactly picture this when I woke up in rainly dreary melbs this morning. I’m a lucky one alright!

xx

brrrr

This has been the coldest week of my life in melbourne and I'm not too happy about it.
I've reviewed my previous post where I described my feelings about a week in queensland as 'mixed'....well I'm over it. I'm thrilled to be going to the warm sunshine for 7 days. Anything to get me out of the cold....brrrr