News November 30, 2007

Most of you who read this (all 3 of you) already know, but for those of you who don’t know, I am pregnant. My due date is July 7 of next year. For the most part I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had any puking (yet) and the worst side effect or symptom I had was some dizziness around the 6th and 7th weeks which has pretty much all passed now. I have to set up an ultrasound for the 12th week which will be around December 18th. We are definitely going to find out the sex of the baby, but I don’t think we can do that until around the 18th week. Obviously our main concern is having a healthy baby, but a healthy GIRL would be the icing on the cake We had the name Logan picked out for a boy, but when we got to the Gold Coast we realized that there is a town north of us called Logan! So that name is out. Its so much harder to find boys names than it is to find girls names.

Mike’s first week of work was this week and it seems like it went pretty well. This weekend’s mission is to find a car and then we’ll probably move out of my nana’s house and into my mum’s unit that we’ll be renting with my sister and her fiance. I had a job interview yesterday and sent out several resumes today for temp office work. One of them was a 3 month contract while the regular girl was on maternity leave. That would actually be perfect. Plus its in a real estate office, and I’ve been thinking about getting my real estate license. The housing market doesn’t suck at all here yet!

Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update and mention the pregnancy since I hadn’t yet, and I’m sure with all my doctors appointments coming up, I’ll be mentioning it a whole lot more. Hope everyone is well!

Settling In November 24, 2007

Has it really been just over a week? It feels like much longer in some ways. We’re still staying at my grandmother’s house, but we’ve got a bed and we’re looking at cars so we can move out to my mum’s condo and live with my sister and her boyfriend. Mike got a job with the Volkswagen dealer on the coast and starts work Monday. I have a job interview on Thursday for a casual position with a golf store, three days a week. It’s a bit further away than I’d hoped, but it could be good for 6 months to save a bit of money. I’m not sure how long we’ll be living in my mum’s unit, rent is cheap, but we will need more space, and our own space, by the middle of next year. Not much else to report on at the moment.

G’Day! November 18, 2007

I know it has been a while, but I have a good excuse in that we have no internet at my nan’s house, plus I’ve been so busy and sleeping crazy hours that I haven’t thought much about the internet. Except for when we need to go somewhere and I want to look up directions, or I want to read friends’ blogs (which I’m not sure I’ll ever catch up on!).

We arrived in Australia just fine. Our flight from Honolulu had the seatbelt sign off the whole way it was that smooth. We actually ended up in an extit row with no seats in front of us so we had plenty of room to stretch, which was very nice. We got through customs easily and got to the domestic terminal for our flight to the Gold Coast. We were delayed taking off, but finally arrived at Coolangatta airport at about 8:50 pm where we were greeted by my mum, dad, both my sisters, one of their boyfriends and my friend of 18 years, Kate. It was a lovely welcoming party!

Thursday I woke up around 4 am (I did that for the first 4 days but today I finally slept until about 7:30!). Thursday we went and opened a bank account, got Aussie cell phones, Mike got his medicare (public healthcare) enrollment taken care of, then we went and got drivers licenses. Apparently me being gone for 11 years has confused the Australian government and they don’t know who I am so they won’t let me do anything! Mike got approved for a bank account much easier than I did, until they found an old account I had 12 years ago. I also couldn’t get my medicare (and still don’t have it yet) because I didn’t have enough proof of who I was and that I had cut ties with the States! Ridiculous!! I guess government run programs all over the world are incompetent.

Other than that frustration, things are going great. The weather is lovely. Mike had a job interview today and was offered the job. He’ll most likely take it since its the only Volkswagen dealer on the coast, otherwise the only other option is an hour away in Brisbane. Still not sure what I’m going to do yet, but we’ll figure it out. First we have to get a bed, a car, and move in with my sister and her boyfriend. We’re going to share the rent on my mum’s unit that she rents out. So that will help us save some money for a while.

That’s about all for now, more soon I promise!

Big Ooops November 12, 2007

It is 11:16 pm here in Honolulu, and I have just woken up from my “nap” I took at 4:30 pm! Big ooops. We had dinner reservations at 6 pm across the street at a steak and seafood restaurant at the Hilton that I think Mike tried to wake me up for but I stirred and didn’t feel good. Then HE fell asleep around 7:30. This is REALLY going to mess us up!

We must have been so tired after getting up at 4 am this morning, wide awake, and deciding to head out to the eastern side of the island to catch the sunrise. But what a great idea! We found a beach at the bottom of some mountains and hung out there. It was absolutely beautiful! We then continued around the island and hiked half way up a mountain and got great views of the beach we had been on as well as a slight view of Molakai. It has been an interesting mixture of cloudy and beautiful here today – the mountains were covered in clouds but in town and by the beach there was not a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.

After lunch at Hard Rock (which I think is what made me sick), we set out for Pearl Harbor. They show a 20 minute long video presentation on what happened back on December 7, 1941, that made me cry. They have actual footage of the USS Arizona as she explodes. Mike commented that he was surprised there were so many Japanese people there. Here’s where I get completely UN PC. They might not all have been Japanese, I think some were Chinese, some maybe Korean. But being at Pearl Harbor, you assume they’re all Japanese. During the introduction, they ask you to be quire and talk in whispers our at the memorial in respect for the more than 1000 navymen who lost their lives and were entombed on her. So the worst part of the experience was when we got out to the Arizona memorial, many of the “Japanese” were so disrespectful. You can imagine how pissed off some Americans were that they were talking, laughing, posing for pictures as if they were on some model shoot.

For me, the whole thing was just sobering. That you can still see much of the boat, and imagine what happened that day, paired with the video they show…I highly recommend everyone go see it. The frustrating part is that the USS Ward was out at sea and actually sunk one of the Japanese Subs that had been sent in first, and radioed it in. Then the start of their 183+ bombers came on to radar screen, and the control was told to not worry about it, because they were expecting a batch of B17 bombers from the US that day, so they assumed they were the planes on the screen. Complete surprise. Just like 9/11.

We are planning to head up to the North Shore tomorrow to catch round 1 of the Reef Hawaiian Pro, the first surfing tournament in the Triple Crown of Surfing. That is if we can get back to sleep and get up tomorrow. We may be out at 5 am again. I wonder what time surfing competitions start…

Aloha November 10, 2007

How many time zones and how many languages have we been around in the last month? I don’t know, too many too remember. I’m not sure what time my body thinks it is now, it is telling me its hungry and tired, but I’m not sure which one is putting up the biggest fight.

Our flight from ATL – PHX and PHX – HNL were both really quite smooth. The only problem was from Phoenix to Honolulu, we were up against a wall and couldn’t recline our seats at ALL so it was uncomfortable and impossible to sleep for the entire flight. The good news was we arrived in PHX about 15 minutes early and Honolulu about 30 minutes early, so that was nice. We picked up our Jeep Wrangler rental and set off in search of our hotel. We found it with hardly any trouble at all, and it is quite nice. I never thought I’d complain that a hotel had too much water pressure in the shower, but boy…I think I’ll have bruises from where the water was hitting me tomorrow. And there’s no way to change it!

Anyway, we are here, safe and sound at the Aqua Palms & Spa in Honolulu, and I think it is about 1:30 am EST (on the 11th), which means it is 4:30 pm (on the 11th) Gold Coast time, and I don’t know what time, here in Hawaii. 8:18 pm on the 10th.  I think 1 of our 2 full days in Hawaii will be spent sleeping. Goodnight!

Jet Lag & My Atlanta Thrashers November 3, 2007

I was just fine heading over to England as far as jet lag goes. Once we got to my friend’s house, we took a nap while she finished up her work day, and I was good to go for the rest of the trip. The return home has not been as easy. I went to sleep between 9 and 10 last night and woke up at 3:30 am. After an hour of tossing and turning, I decided to get up and go into a spare bedroom here at our friends’ house we’re staying at, and catch up on my Brothers & Sisters on abc.com. For the record, I LOVE abc.com and the fact you can watch full episodes of all their shows online! And the best part is that there is only about 1 minute total of commercials.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a nap this afternoon, and we had a gathering beginning at 4:30 pm with several of our local friends. By 8 pm I was ready to go to bed, but knew I had to stick it out as long as possible. I ended up napping on their couch and am a little more awake now, so maybe I can stay up a bit later and sleep a bit later tomorrow. That should shake the lag.

I woke up from my nap on their couch, just in time to see the end of what was a tied game, 4-4, for the Thrashers vs. the Lightning. With 2 minutes left, we scored twice to win 6-4. Just what the boys need, after an 0-6 start this season. I think we are now 5-9 or 6-9. We’re hopefully going to the game Tuesday night. That will be our last Thrashers game for a very long time as we leave the country Saturday. For good. I still can’t believe it and am just really excited to get to Australia. Not looking forward to the 4 more flights it will take to actually get home, but 1 at a time I guess.

Our Last Night November 1, 2007

We’re on our last night of our trip, finally! I feel like I have been gone months, Mike would like to keep going I think. It will be nice to touch down in the US tomorrow afternoon!!!

 Here are some things we’ve noticed about Europe:

• People take their dogs EVERYWHERE. They’re on trains, buses, in restaurants….its awesome!!
• EVERYONE smokes. It is disgusting.
• I have been on more trains, drank more tea, and breathed in more second hand smoke in 3 weeks than my entire 29 years leading up to this trip!
• There is no Starbucks in Italy, they drink REAL coffee in Italia.
• Switzerland really IS expensive. Think expensive, then double it! We just spent $19 on McDonalds.
• Public transport in Europe far outdoes anything any city in the US could ever imagine to do. I could live here and never own a car. Maybe a moped, but never a car.
• Our budget for public toilet use has now exceeded our budget for the first 5 nights in hostels. But hey, they’re clean.

That’s about it for now. We’re off to the hotel to pack and get a good night’s sleep before catching our 9:40 am flight home tomorrow. Adios Europe.