Christmas in Oz

Hello and Happy New Year!

It is New Year's Eve here already and I have a few moments to catch up on some blogging. We had our first Christmas in Australia this year and it was great. It is hard to be away from family during the holidays but we have some great friends who helped fill up our holiday with fun and comraderie. Thank goodness for friends, they are truly a blessing in our lives!

Like I have said before...Aussies take their holidays seriously! In the US, since Christmas fell on a Sunday, it means that many people did not really get a holiday and may have been back at work on Monday...well, not here. Christmas and Boxing Day (the day after) are both national holidays and since one fell on a weekend, Christmas was recognized as a holiday on Monday and Boxing Day on Tuesday so most people had a 4 day weekend.

Christmas Eve in the US always seemed to me like it was when most people started their Christmas celebrations. Here, stores are open normal hours on Christmas Eve, I've been told it is after the British tradition of waiting until Christmas Eve to buy presents. We were driving home at 6pm on Christmas Eve and plenty of places were still open. In the US, they would have closed at noon if they had opened at all. Since Boxing Day is a holiday here, the big sales did not start until Tuesday here.

We started our festivities with some friends for Christmas Eve lunch. Here is Kiri's lovely table. While the final preparations for lunch were being made, she had out appetizers for people to nibble on. We had crustini with Boccocini cheese, basil, and sun dried tomatoes, dips and crackers, and a little icing covered cookie that has some name like kufrfrernoodle or something. Kiri will have to post the actual name in the comments section because I have no idea what they were called. I am assuming they were German?

For dessert...which I did not get a picture of, we had traditional European fare...Christmas pudding (British), mince pie (British), and panatone (Italian). I should have gotten pictures! Sorry!

So, pictured below...left to right is...punch or cordial, the cookie thing, a rosemary and olive wreath (which was just for decoration and Kiri kept telling us this...I guess she was afraid we would pick up a piece of Rosemary and gnaw on it!), and the crustinis made by Abbey.

Here is the lovely table...notice each place has a round silver and white thing? These are very popular here, they are called crackers and you pull them apart and they pop and there is a joke (lame joke), a crown (all colors) and a prize in each one.

Here is one that has been pulled and he is wearing his crown and showing you he got a little pen as his prize. To demonstrate the lame joke...here is one of them..."What do you call a horse in his pyjamas (pajamas)? A zebra."

I admit it is not funny...I'm not even sure it makes sense! Oh well! Aussie humor, maybe?

Remember it is summer here...and most houses do not have a/c...so it was warm! This is demonstrated here by my dewey countenance...okay, let's just call it sweaty!

This is Christmas morning...it is good to know that the Tonka truck is alive and well here in Australia...Santa delivered one!

And one of my gifts was a new fascinator...here is a picture of it...it is gorgeous but I haven't quite figured out the best way to wear it yet. After opening presents, we headed up to church because I was playing the piano prelude and also singing in the choir.

For Christmas linner...that is the meal that comes mid afternoon between lunch and dinner...we had over a group of 6 missionaries from our church. These 6 young men are all actually in our ward...we have 6 full time missionaries in our ward...and they are always busy!

Starting bottom left...Elder Chen (from China), Elder Gao (China), Elder Stafford (Brisbane, Australia), Elder Henare (New Zealand), Elder Mok (Alabama, USA), and Elder Lambertson (California, USA).

We had a fajita feast and it was really great! The non-Americans were a little leery of them at first but once we explained everything, they dug in! (Except for Elder Gao, he has had fajitas with us before so he is a Chinese fajita eating pro!) For dessert we had Texas Sheet Cake and Sticky Date pudding. Sticky Date Pudding is a favorite among Aussies and it is really more of a cake than a pudding, at least in American terms. It was a 9 inch round cake with a sauce you put on it. Aussies love their puddings!

I spent a lot of time on the computer skyping with my family. We actually have still not had Christmas with them, we are having it tomorrow because of a bought with the stomach flu of my sister's family...so Christmas will officially end with us tomorrow morning as I skype with them as they open presents and celebrate!

Christmas away from family can be hard but we had many friends who made us feel special and spent time with us so it was a fulfilling and happy holiday. I am so grateful for the friends we have made here, I cannot imagine how much harder this adventure would be without them!

Happy New Year!

Heather

A burger with the lot

Hi folks...

Whew, it has been a busy few weeks but I have made it to the end of my first semester teaching and the end of my first year as a PhD student. It has been a busy year with lots of new adventures but it has been really good. I have my formal defence of my research proposal a week from Thursday and will be glad when that is done and approved and I can move on into heavy research!

I have been told by my Aussie friends that I needed to try a hamburger the way Aussies eat their hamburgers. I was a little skeptical at first because of one key ingredient....beets! Or, as the Aussies call it, beetroot. What you say? Yes, they really do put beets on their burgers! In fact, they can hardly fathom having one without it. I personally, would rather have pickles, but Aussies don't have hamburger pickles, the little thin sliced pickles perfect for a burger...it is a sad tale, I know!

Anyway, this is what you do to have a real Aussie burger. You go to a diner or burger joint...this is what the one we went to looked like. It is a little hole in the wall kind of place that serves Fish & Chips and burgers.

You go to the counter and you say "I want a burger with the lot, please" (because we want to be polite and all) although the Aussies would probably say something like "Hi Mate, can I get a burger with the lot? Ta, mate." (Ta means thanks)

Then you wait a while, while they construct this burger. Forgive me, the picture below is about 2 bites into it because I forgot to take a picture of this huge thing.

What is on it, you ask? Let's see if I can remember...lettuce, tomatoes, beef, beets, a fried egg, Aussie bacon (which is kind of like Canadian bacon, I miss American bacon, but I digress), pineapple, barbeque sauce, and fried onions.

It pretty much starts to disintegrate as soon as you eat it from all the juices and such and Aussies say that it is a regular occasion to have beet juice running down your arm....nice.

This is what mine became after trying to keep it together...a big pile of what once was an Aussie burger.

All in all, it wasn't bad, it was pretty good. It doesn't replace my favorite American burger from some place like The Chicken Oil or even Whataburger....but it was good! Next time, I think I will hold the beets!

G'day!

Heather

The Tea Party

Yesterday I went to a tea party. This tea party was in honor of my friend, Bonnie, who is getting married next month. It was held out at her family farm about an hour outside of town. Her farm was a lovely place with rolling hills and a beautiful veranda where the tea party was held along with gorgeous views and lovely surroundings.
There were about about 20 people there and we all brought a plate of food. We started with the savory food, which included deviled eggs, egg sandwiches, mini-quiches, spinach dip in bread bowls and my chicken salad cups. To drink you had your choice of punch or champagne (don’t worry, the tea comes later). The punch was served in long stemmed glasses with little fruit kebabs in them….very pretty, such a nice touch.

After the savory course then we went to the tea course, here you had your choice of the above mentioned drinks or a variety of herbal and regular teas served in all sorts of lovely and delicate little tea cups and saucers. It was such a pretty setting with all the cute tea pots.

Then, it was time to dress up! They had borrowed a smattering of dresses, jewelry, and gorgeous hats and fascinators from the local theatre company…and I mean really pretty hats and fascinators, they were all so pretty. We all played dress up…some added hats and gloves, others added gowns and jewelry…it was really fun to watch. Then, we all had our tea party names, which are derived from the name of your first pet and your current city. So, add Lady to your pets name and if your pet’s name was Fluffy and you lived in Wollongong, you would say you were Lady Fluffy of Wollongong. It was really quite cute. We took pictures and laughed and had a really fun time.

After pictures, it was dessert time! We had quite a spread of desserts…more than we could have eaten in probably 2 tea parties…but they all looked really good. We had scones with jam and cream (my favorite), petit fors, custards, cakes, slices, brownies, rocky road, chocolate dipped strawberries and much more. It was really a sugar delight!
After dessert, then we played a game where you tried to toss the tea bag into a tea pot and if you got it in, you got a prize. We found that tea bags aren’t heavy so they are easily carried in the wind and that most of us are not very accurate at tossing into the tea pot. The winners were awarded kitchen gadgets for prizes and it was quite fun.

The rest of the time was spent chatting and drinking and eating more delectables from the dessert table. It was such a girlie time and really fun. It was a perfect afternoon and we all wish Bonnie the very best in her upcoming wedding…of course we are hoping that there are lots more things to celebrate so that we can all be invited back for another tea party soon!

I took a ton of pictures, so here they are:

This is Bonnie with her darling mother and sisters, the hostesses.

This is the photo of all the university ladies. We all go to school or work at the university with Bonnie.
Michelle, going down the slide looking glamorous. Helen waiting to go next.
Helen's turn.
The corner of the dessert table...the scones, jam, and cream were my favorite!
The beautiful bride Bonnie after playing dress up.

Some of the ladies after the dress up fun.
Bonnie and her friend.

Michelle posing in her fab hat.
Me and my hat that matched perfectly...plus the jewelry...it is like they knew what I would wear!
Helen and Steph after dressing up....looking lovely ladies!
Michelle, Stacy, Maree, and Helen...ready to have some tea.
Bonnie again...gorgeous!
The tea tables...
They had frames with lovely old pictures of women and old advertisements and such with gloves and other cute things scattered all over.
The tea pots.
This area was off to the side but I loved the little fabric pennant string that they made and decorated with...so cute. Behind this you can see a lovely gazebo with purple flowers growing and draping over the sides...so beautiful.

The tea party...the weather was beautiful!
Michelle and her tea cup.
Stephanie with a pretty smile chatting away with the girls.
My chicken salad baskets...phyllo dough cups with my mother's famous tea room salad (from when they owned a tea room) with little flower spoons I made. I was so pleased with how it turned out.
The other end of the table...
Truly a grand day! So fun and memorable, thanks Bonnie for a lovely day out in the country!

Watch me go

Helllllloooo my lovlies....

Okay it is Monday morning here and I am out the gate and raring to go for a new semester at school! Since I am teaching this semester, I am excited for that new adventure and hope my students can understand Texan because my version of an Aussie accent is just ridiculous.

I am trying to get back into my an exercise routine. For someone who used to get up at 5:15 every morning and go to boot camp, my life lately has been quite sedimentary and I can feel it...and I don't like it. So, since I am still dealing with my heel injury, I had started to ride the stationary bike to try to stretch it back out and hope to eventually be running again soon.

A group of friends and I went to a women's conference this weekend called "Time Out For Women" sponsored by Deseret Books. It was an exceptional conference and it was just what I needed...it was a bucket filling kind of weekend and I feel rejuvenated and ready to take on this semester and to get back in the routine of exercising. Since it is winter here, I admit that I can come up with a lot of excuses not to exercise...like the sun is only up from 7am-4:45pm and by the time I get home it is pitch dark...or like there is a chance of rain so I can't ride the stationary bike (in my living room)...yep, that one makes sense?!? Anyway, no more excuses...the time is now...it is time to become who I want to be...physically...emotionally...intellectually...there is no time like the present!

So, what are you waiting for? Do something to make yourself stretch (physically or intellectually or emotionally)...do something to make yourself better...do something good for your life!

Be good...be beautiful...and seek out the power within!

Heather

Ramblings and random thoughts...

HOWDY!

I haven't blogged in a few weeks so I thought I would go ahead and try to blog even though I don't have any amazing pictures or anything really exciting to post. I just thought I would share some thoughts. Oh wait! I do have a picture....see below....

It is winter here in Oz and the tree in front of my house has bloomed...it is a poinsettia tree...yes! A TREE! They grow here all over the place! So, if you take that poinsettia plant that you get at Christmas time and plant it and take care of it, you too could have this tree. It is what poinsettia plants aspire to be!

We are now beginning the 2nd half of the school year. It is weird to be in July and be half way through school....heck, it is weird to be in school in July! We have been here 6 months now and the time has flown by. We feel settled and know our way around the area and feel at home in our environment. We have had a string of really rainy days lately and I have tried to send it to Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas and all the other drought ridden areas but I seem to have not been totally successful.

The winters here are really fairly mild, the temperature is in the mid 50's (F) most the time during the day and then it goes into the 40s at night. The only problem here is that most houses do not have central heat, so the temp outside is the same (if not colder) inside. We do at least have a heater/fireplace that keeps our living room nice and warm and we have space heaters for other rooms. It does make it really hard to get out of bed when the room temperature is in the 50s. Needless to say, we have lots of blankets on our beds!

We are getting better and better about understanding people here and only occasionally have to ask them what the heck they are talking about. For instance, the other day a friend of mine offered me something pronounced like noo-ga. Noo-ga, I ask? She looks at me like I am crazy and says it again and then points to the box. Oh, nougat! We mentioned to her that there is a 't' on the end of that word and she said that you don't pronounce it. I said "It's French, you do pronounce it!" then my clever husband asked her to pronounce the word 'fillet' as in a fillet Mignon and she of course said fill-et with a 't'...so then...nougat/fillet not t and a t? Hence the problem...speaking Aussie is really difficult because of this reason...I think they make it up as they go and then everyone Aussie just follows along! It is a tricky system, but one that we are learning.

We are adapting to some of the 'Aussie-isms' that we like. For instance, instead of saying 'thanks!', the Aussie's say 'Ta' as in la la la la la la la. I guess thanks was just too much effort so ta it is. We love it and say it all the time. In fact, Aaron has even started his own version of 'your welcome', he now says 'wa' instead. The Aussie's also welcome (and say goodbye to) close friends with a kiss on the cheek, I think that is lovely as well. A napkin is called a serviette and we say that so people know what we are asking for and if you try to tell someone you want your food 'to go' then they look at you like you are speaking another language so we are used to saying 'take away' instead. Sweatshirts here are called sloppy joe's, and we think that is really funny so we call them that all the time. It makes me picture someone wearing a sandwich with ground beef and sauce all over them. Sweaters are jumpers.

There are a few things over here that we really like, like Lemon Squash. It is similar to what Americans would call lemonade but it is made with carbonation and it is slightly more tart. Cheddar cheese here is called tasty cheese, and it is quite tasty and we buy it all the time...although I would love a good Monterrey Jack. Chocolate here is just plain better...its got more of the really good actual chocolate and cream and it is divine....divine. The yogart (spelled yoghurt here) is really nice, it is more of a Greek style and is creamy and yum...and pronounced yah-guhrt.

I drive around Oz pretty frequently now and am used to the whole other side of the road and other side of the car steering wheel thing. Cars here are smaller than in the US and you hardly ever see big trucks or SUVs...which they would call utes. Someone told me that they have a place in Australia like Texas, is it called Queensland, which is another state here in Oz so I will have to make a trip up to the Texas of Australia!

My studies are moving along and I feel like I am always learning and growing which is a lovely and sometimes painful experience as I realize I am not as good at some things as I had hoped! But, this life is a journey and this is a new and challenging one and I truly love it! Really, if you have thought about going back to school or if you feel like you are in a rut, I would encourage you to try to re-invent yourself and stretch yourself to try to learn something new. It can open up a whole new world (in my case...literally!) to you and really can be an amazing journey.

School starts at the uni (university) next week and I am teaching 3 sections of Tourism Marketing. Classes here are a little different than the U.S. system, so I am not the main lecturer but a sub-lecturer. We have a main lecturer who does just that, one big lecture that could have 100-800 students in the class, then they break that class into sections and I teach 3 of those sections which would have more student participation and grading and such. I am excited about teaching and looking forward to another new experience.

If I had to sum up my Aussie perception so far, I would say that the people are very friendly, the technology is mediocre, and the service is crap. Now, for my shops that are by my house, the service is just fine and friendly, but once you get into the malls, there is not much of a service component at all. There is also not as much efficiency here which I think is caused by the mediocre technology infrastructure. We joke that we live in about 1997 as far as technology is concerned and many of the Aussies agree, especially the techies. The government is working on passing a law to put broadband all across the country, but I am not sure I will see the fruits of that in the next few years. It is expensive to live here as well but you get used to it and just work around it. Many Aussies order from the UK or US because the selection is so much better and usually a better price even with the shipping costs. I think the quality of products is also much better because the selection is so great. In the US you might have 20 selections and here you might have 3.

With all that being said, it is truly a lovely place and the people are warm and friendly. I find that there is a very strong bond to culture here. In the US, it seems that people move there from other places and they try to fit into the American dream and become American, which is great and patriotic. Here, there is not as much patriotism, so the cultures seem to stay a little more close to their native culture which makes for a rich blend of wonderful people from all over the world. There are very strong cultural communities here and clubs and organizations that bond people by their culture. It is beautiful...and the food is fun to try too!

All in all, we still love it and have learned a lot about ourselves and others. We have also made some fabulous friends, who help us learn all these Aussie-isms and laugh as we try to figure out this thing we call life.

Hope you have a great one!

Heather

The movies

G'day to y'all! I hope you are having a spectacular week so far!

This past weekend a bunch of girlfriends and I went to the movies. This is my first movie theatre experience here in Oz so I thought I would share.

First off, the rating system is different here. For instance, some movies that are rated R in the US are not rated R here. I am not sure if the movies are any different or if the rating system is just different.

From what I can tell, these are the basic guidelines for movies here...

G - General (all ages)

PG - Parental Guidance (pre-teen and teen, so this will vary a little but most kids between 7 or 8 to 13 will be fine watching the movie)

M - Mature recommended, 15 + is recommended but younger can attend, usually these movies you wouldn't really go below a 13 or 14.

MA - Mature Audience 15+ a must unless with an adult

R - Restricted to 18+ only regardless

The movie theatre experience was different in general. First, when we got there at 8:00pm on a Friday night, it was basically empty.

Then, the tickets have assigned seats on them and you are supposed to sit in those seats. Now, if not very many are in the theatre, I am under the impression that you can sit where ever, but some people came in and sat down and then an usher came in and told them to leave, so I guess they knew those seats were supposed to be empty. The theatre itself was wide and very clean with nice comfy chairs.

We went up to the concession stand and bought our movie tickets and our concessions. The movie tickets were $15.50 each, so you have to REALLY want to go to a movie, much less take a date!

The concessions offers many of the same things that we would have in the US. Here are some pictures.

I like the "Candy Bar". This is a wall full of all sorts of candy (or lollies as the Aussies would say). You purchase a cup for $5.50 or $7.50 for large and then you can fill it with any of the lollies in all these little bins.

Concessions prices for popcorn and such were high, just like in the US. We paid $19 for the #1 combo which was 2 drinks, 2 chocolate dipped cones (they call them chock tops), and a popcorn. All good.

Picture of a choc top!

Here is the group I went with, I am taking the picture. We had out choice of the Bridemaids poster or the Smurfs, so we chose Bridemaids.

It was a fun night...and an expensive one...but a great night out with the girls!

In the minority

Last night I went to a women's meeting up at my church. Everyone within about a 45 minute area was invited and it was a great evening of good speakers and good food! As I was sitting there listening to the speakers, I was looking around at all these lovely women who were there. I would say that about 75% of them were beautiful Polynesian women, many who had flowers in their hair. I was definitely in the minority as far as skin tone goes! However, who really cares about skin color? I had so much in common with these women that these beautiful different skin colors were hardly important. We were all there, united in trying to be better people, to be better women and mothers. To love each other and help each other through hard times. To be anchors to our families when the winds and storms of the world are blowing around us. We are Christian women trying to better ourselves and be more Christlike...even when it is really hard. We are women who fail but who dust ourselves off and try again.

We were there to learn, to feel uplifted, and to share in the sisterhood that is womanhood. Our paths are all different, we come from different corners of the world, and we all have different trials...but we were united in trying to do what is right and to "try a little harder to be a little better (-Gordon B. Hinkley)."

It was a good night.

:)

After the speakers, we had supper...which here means the small meal/snack after you eat dinner. So, just so you know, here is how the eating schedule goes as far as I can tell...

Breakfast

Morning tea

Lunch

Afternoon tea

Dinner

Supper

In other words...we eat at everything! Last night for supper, they had set out for us cakes, cut up vegetables and gherkin dip (not sure what this is but it was tasty), sausage rolls, mini hot dog wieners (I think that is what they were, hot dogs here have a red casing) ,crackers, sliced fruit, soup (your choice of pumpkin or chicken...pumpkin soup is really popular here and there are 8 million varieties), and rolls. It was yummy!

You may find it weird that on Father's Day (in the USA) we had a women's meeting at church, but here in Australia, Father's day is later in the year, I think in October. So, happy Father's day to all the great U.S. dad's out there like mine!

Hope you have a great week!

Heather