The Mires Take Sydney Part I

If you've never been to Sydney and can afford to travel, you need to go. Maybe it's because we haven't been in the US and seen a huge city in a while or what, but we do think Sydney is pretty cool. For 2 of the 4 days we were there, it was either cloudy and/or rainy, but that's just the way it is in Australian winter. Shawn's SIFE Conference went well, and as most of you could guess, we loaded up on all of the free snacks made available to us. Someone had to eat it. Hope you enjoy our pictures and we'll include a description with each pic you see here.

Guess who was in town too? Not Russell Crowe or Nicole Kidman but Lady Gaga. Who would have thought that when we went to Sydney, we were not the most important arrivals. Lady Gaga decided to grace Sydneysiders with her lovely, wholesome and very normal presence. She was signing autographs at the Hilton where the SIFE Conference was held. Her fans were all dressed in her famous attire, including the famous Coke cans in her hair. We thought we saw her, but we think we took a pic of a fan dressed like her. Our hearts are so broken!




Shawn posing like Gaga:


Anyway, sorry to subject everyone to that. Now, on with Sydney mates!

Our hotel was near Darling Harbour in the western part of the city. The area has the IMAX Theatre (at one time, the largest in the world), a bunch of restaurants, a fish market, a casino, boat tours, and the National Maritime Museum. It also has a bridge to cross the harbor from one side to the other and is restricted to only pedestrians and a monorail.











There's more. To Be Continued...

6 Month Anniversary

That's right. It's been 6 months since we've arrived in Australia on New Year's Day.

Lately,we've been busy with work and school. Shawn just got through midterms and I've been preparing audit reports to go out to government agencies for the end of financial year (June 30). With that being said, we need a break! In fact, we're going to Sydney this Wednesday, July 13th and will return early Sunday morning. Shawn has a SIFE conference on Thursday and Friday but it's a relaxed schedule so we'll have time to explore. We're really excited and will post lots of pictures after next week!

Here are some pictures of what we've been doing the last 2 weeks outside of school and work. Carnegie Mellon held a bowling social event for students so we've got Shawn and I tearing up the bowling alley...we're normally really good bowlers but we'll blame it on the cold weather that day.









Shawn has given cultural-exchange presentations to roughly 15 different Rotary clubs around Adelaide. Our host club, Adelaide South, invited us to their Change-over Dinner which is when the new officers for the coming year are sworn in.

Here is the past Adelaide South Rotary Club President, Bev, "passing the torch" to the new president, Peter. Bev and her husband have actually been quite good to us since we've arrived in Adelaide.


Now this part is a little different. This game they played is to win a bottle of really nice wine by throwing your coin to land as close to the bottle as possible. I think an older lady won.

Aussie Rules Football Meets American Football

A local Adelaide Aussie Rules Football player was recruited to kick for Wake Forest. We hope it works out for him. If so, he'll be a long way from home!

http://eye-on-recruiting.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26895818/28707287

Winter in Adelaide

So we're not in Russia but we get a bit cold at night during the Adelaide winter. It has yet to reach freezing temperatures but the sun rarely comes out and the wind picks up pretty good. The houses here are not centrally heated or have great insulation. Needless to say, these New Orleanians are cold at night! The 3 best investments we've made this winter have been in an electric blanket, a comforter and a space heater. Then we still sleep with 2 or 3 layers of clothes on! With the cold weather, it has been great eating reds beans and rice on Mondays, warm jambalaya and Shawn just made some awesome chili the other night. The chili flakes and Tabasco sauce really kicked it up a notch! Also, we looked up a recipe that called for zucchini which we've never put in chili before but we figured why not and it turned out really good.





Oh and thanks Mom for the LSU slippers...I'll be wearing them all winter!

How We Celebrated the Queen's Birthday

Since Australia is part of the Commonwealth, it celebrates the Queen's Birthday holiday on the second Monday of June each year so we had the day off. We looked at it as our delayed Memorial Day weekend. We took the Red Beast out for a ride. First, we drove out to Mount Lofty where we hiked about 2 kilometers up to the summit (equates to roughly 1.2 miles). Certainly no Mount Everest but we still rewarded ourselves once we reached the top by toasting her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, with a chocolate chip muffin. We didn't buy 85 candles to go on the muffins though. Then I thought we took pictures of the views from the summit but I guess we botched that one too.





Further along the trip, we passed through a town called Hahndorf where many of the Germans settled two hundred years ago. We got some blackberry and plum jam from a place called Beerenberg's which brings you out to pick strawberries during the spring and summer....maybe we'll go back later in the year to get the full experience. The jam is delicious by the way.

We ended the Queen's Birthday in Victor Harbor which is a popular summer home destination in South Australia. It's also home to 1-foot tall penguins of which you have to pay to see. However, we tried to take a few pictures peering through an electric fence which came out a little fuzzy as you can imagine. No, it wasn't really electric but the guys did get some thorns in their shoes from the thorn bushes planted to hide the penguins' nests. Also, we saw some camels but didn't get camel rides. Apparently they were introduced in Australia some years ago and now there's an overpopulation issue in the outback. Weird, huh?











Shawn was being eaten by the whale-looking rock (he's in the bright red sweatshirt):


Scott was struggling to make it up a rock. This rock had no easy way of getting up on it. I am still amazed by his determination. Shawn gave him a boost but still...I thought we were going to bring him to the hospital before the day was over:








One penguin behind the fence of which you can hardly see:

Australia v. New Zealand Men's Soccer Game

We watched the Australia and New Zealand men's soccer teams play each other one day in Adelaide. Definitely wasn't like we were watching Spain or anybody like that play but we still had fun. Australia is much bigger into its cricket and football than soccer so we'll give them a break. Australia won 3-0.

Northern Territory

Shawn visited Australia's Northern Territory back in early May (while he was growing out his beard - remember that blog?). He ventured out with a group of guys to work with missionaries located in the regions populated by the Aboriginal people, native Australians. Shawn learned a lot about their culture, including the interesting fact that they do not mention a person's name ever again after that person passes away. Erin held down the fort in Adelaide. So here are some pictures from his travels:

From the airplane flying in:




Interesting landscape:
















Devil's Marbles:










Off-roadin' it:


Walking with some Aboriginal children: