The Red Beast!

We may be getting fat again. That's because we decided to invest in a red Ferrari while living here. All of that digging in the gold mines near Melbourne has finally paid off.








No, not really. We did see a Ferrari on the road today though. In reality, we were super fortunate to get a car lent to us last Sunday by a family who go to our church. Their son will be living overseas for a while and thought we may like to borrow his car for possibly the rest of the time we're living here. Driving on the other side is certainly a challenge initially as your blinkers, wipers, lights and parking stick are all on the opposite side of what you're use to. I (Erin) went for a test drive under Shawn's patient supervision today and managed to turn the wipers on instead of the left turn signal only twice during the very long one-mile trip. I'll do better next time and Shawn's already an old pro after Week One! Now, check out our new wheels which we have proudly nicknamed, "The Red Beast!":

Adelaide Botanic Gardens

We went to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens yesterday and thought we would share a few photos. It was a little cool out there because the sun decided to hide (remember it's fall here). We were able to see some of the trees that change colors in the fall.

Our first kookaburra sighting in Australia! Kind of cute in its own little way. We didn't hear its infamous laugh, however.

Some Food Prices

When we went to the grocery one day, we decided to take a few pics of food prices. This was a bit humorous trying to take pictures inconspicuously. Here are a few random pictures of price tags on the items we buy back in the great USA for WAY cheaper. Since Australia uses the metric system, many of the produce is measured in kilograms which is approximately 2.2 pounds per kilogram.

To be fair to the bananas, the Queensland flooding this past December/January has wiped out a lot of the supply so prices have been jacked up since. However, you cannot convince us that they should be jacked up this high. Needless to say, we're missing out on some good potassium.



Notice that these prices are "slashed" from astronomically expensive to just painfully expensive.



Look at how expensive the Tabasco sauce is which we all know is made a few hours away from New Orleans in Avery Island, Louisiana.



And for all you Coke lovers out there, the following may not be suitable without being seated in a stable chair.



So go to your local grocery and give the manager a big kiss for us!

Buh-Bye Beard

Remember that one SNL skit that David Spade is the flight attendant who hurries all of the passengers off of the plane by saying "buh-bye" whenever someone tried to ask a question or prolong their presence on the plane after landing? Well, I felt that way when Shawn got home from his Alice Springs trip with an axe-murderer beard. His classmates from Pakistan would call him "Pakistan!" Enough said there. He had been growing out a beard since before the Great Ocean Road/Melbourne trip (Easter weekend). So by the time May 10th rolled around, the beard had to go "buh-bye."

As you can see, the guilty party:


Then the painful shave:




Of course, stupid me. I forgot to take a picture after the beard was gone. Oh, well. Stay tuned for future pictures without the beard and buh-bye for now!

Melbourne

After we drove along the Great Ocean Road in 2 days, we finally made it to Melbourne. It is a larger city than Adelaide and has more things to do but don't tell the Adelaidians we said that because they can't stand Melbournians! So, once Shawn swallowed hard after paying our $12 electronic toll along a very short stretch of road, we were doing OK. We were very fortunate to park the car for free because of the Easter weekend. Supposedly, it was free. Anyway, we stayed at a really nice Westin in which we rescued Scott and Justin from staying in a sketchy hostel. Oh, and once again, the food was so-so. 2 interesting facts: Melbourne is the fashion capital of Australia and Melbourne has the 2nd largest population of Greeks in the world after Athens. Now, enjoy these pictures:





Parliament House:


Streetcar named Desire or actually Shawn:

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road. Wow, what can we say? It was incredible! Just to give you an idea of what we're talking about, the Great Ocean Road runs along the coast of South Australia and Victoria (between Adelaide and Melbourne) on the Southern Ocean. Yes, we are not that far away from Antarctica, at least closer than when we were in the US. We embarked on this journey during our long Easter weekend with two other guys, Scott and Justin, both from the Boston area. In Aussie land, we had Good Friday, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday off...unbelievable. So we travelled the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne and back Thursday night - Monday afternoon.



First, we do have to show a random picture of Scott indulging in a rather large burger and a latte at 10 in the morning. That was a running joke throughout the trip.



The water is pretty rough out there, and in fact, countless shipwrecks have occurred along the coast during the time in which the world was racing to discover new land. The famous British Captain James Cook made his way along these waters but of course he survived. Since we travelled in April (fall weather in this part of the world), it was a little bit colder and extremely windy! Beautiful rock formations including the famous "12 Apostles" (but we think it's down to 6 now) are ever present along the road. Enjoy the pictures!









The "Arch":


Our "Duh!" Moment:








The "12 Apostles" or 6 or whatever:


One of our many "Almost Blew Away Into The Ocean" moments:






Scott with his lovely Aussie ladies:


In Torquay, the surf capital of Australia:

A Very Aussie Day

Ok. Ok. It's been a while since we've posted a blog. I promise that we're making up for it now. On the Saturday before Easter weekend, we attended an Aussie wedding and an Aussie Rules Football game. So, it was a very Aussie day.

This wedding seemed pretty similar to weddings back home except this one had an "afternoon tea" following the ceremony. Basically, everyone who was invited via Facebook was invited to afternoon tea and the real guests were invited to the reception at the country club. Yes, even the Aussies use the heck out of Facebook.




The Aussie Rules Football ("Footy") game was interesting to say the least. The field is in the shape of an oval and is really huge. Our pictures do not do it justice. The players are very fit but those short shorts really take away from their masculinity. We had no idea what was going on but we had fun hanging out with Shawn's classmates. They made us laugh even when we're trying to take a picture. Oh, those Carnegie Mellon kids!