formal attire

i just wanted to show everyone what i look like in my formal gown. twice a week we have formal dinners at john's where we have to dress up and wear this gowns. with a room full of people in these gowns we def look like a cult or something, but now i'm used to it. it's something like out of harry potter. hope you enjoy!!!

and thanks for commenting those of you who do. i love it!!!

love means nothing in tennis

so i've joined the tennis team at john's and today was our first match. we lost. i lost. but i did the best on the team. i lost 2-6, 4-6. so not horrible. i did a lot better than i thought i was going to do. when i first started warming up with my opponent my legs were shaking so much i didn't think i remembered how to move. thankfully that didn't last too long. she was a very good player. i was ranked third out of 6 girls on our team so that was pretty cool too. tomorrow i play and then on monday i play too. so hopefully i will continually get better. it was a lot of fun though to get out and run around and it was GOREGOUS day outside, i still can't believe that it's winter here. that's just crazy. i'll keep you updated.

go eels!!!

last weekend i went to my first professional rugby game. it was very cool and very exciting. it was a rugby league game (there is also such a thing as rugby union, but i'm not sure of the differences, it's just that the rules are different). the stadium was PACKED. it was crazy. when something good happened the crowd went nuts, of course i had no idea because i'm still not sure of all the rules but it was a lot of fun. we were sitting right in the middle of the fans, some tiger fans to one side and one eels fans to the other, so it didn't matter which team was doing well, everyone around was going crazy. very cool. it's always nice to go to professional games to see the players in real life to see how crazy huge they are and to see the nicely groomed field. it was a really cool place. the stadium reminded me of the nest from the olympics. and the best part was that my tickets were free because it was a field trip for class, good deal.

get my tan on

this past weekend was spent at the beach. the weather here is gorgeous! it was hot enough this weekend to lay out on the beach both days and actually get a tan and go in the water. the water was freezing but after a while you got used to it! on saturday i had a field trip for one of my classes to watch a netball game (it's like basketball for girls but you can't move when you have the ball). the netball game was in a town called marouba and the beach was within a 15 minute walk. so i spent about 2 hours that day at the beach. got some lunch and walked around for a bit. the first two pics are of marouba. the last three are of coogee beach. another famous beach in australia. i think everyone from john's went to the beach that day. apparently sunday set a record for being the hottest ever for this time of winter. it was great. we got to the beach at around 11am and left around 4pm. it was a great way to spend a sunday. it's amazing how i can already go to the beach. i'm sure there will be many future visits to the beach once it's REALLY warm out. on the way home i was lucky enough to get a ride home from someone else that lived in john's. it was funny because he drives the same car as me. it made me miss my little red car. but it was a really cool experience. they drive on the other side of the road, and on the other side of the car. it was scary at times, because i thought the cars were going to crash, but it was really cool. i hope i don't get too used to people driving on the other side of the road....

where did all the time go?

as of two days ago, i have officially been in australia for a month. absolutely crazy. i only have a little over three months left. and while that might seem like a lot, i know it's going to fly by. but i think that i've done a lot, as my blog would show. so i don't feel like i'm not utilizing my time here. i just have to keep it up. it's still so amazing, and i'm still meeting new people and learning the aussie way. it's always so much fun. class work is picking up now, but i really like all the classes i'm taking. especially the physical education class i'm taking. it's exactly what i want to do. we've learned how to expertly demonstrate basic skills, how to play different games, how to set up a lesson plan, etc. it's really exciting. i'm also on the tennis team now for john's so i have that to look forward to in the up coming weeks. that should be a lot of fun. definitely having a blast out here. who wants to come and visit?!?!?!?

auntie!!!!!

it has happened! it's arrived! it's finally here! no more waiting, no more anticipation. no reason to fear. now we can all relax. it's here, it's here, it's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my niece has been born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

omg omg omg omg omg omg!!! i can't believe it!! and here i am all the way in australian!!! i haven't even met her yet but i miss her already! when i come back the first thing i'm doing is hoping on a plane to new mexico to see the little rascal. and yes a girl! just what this family needed!!! i'll teach her how to throw a softball, alex can teach her how to dance, amy can teach her that lisa smells, lisa can teach her about animals, sarah can teach her how to knit, elizabeth can teach her about the latest technology, we've all got a little something for her!!!! yay mommy michele. i love you and miss you so much!!! i'm glad everything went well!! and i can't wait to see how baby lucy and her play together!!! so cute!

i've been trying out names for myself: i think i like auntie faf the best but if you have any other suggestions please let me know!!!

yay!!!!!!!!!!

and the winner is....

last weekend i got my first chance to really take part in an australian sport. it was intense, came down the wire, sweat dripping everywhere... lawn bowling. it's basically like bacci ball and one of the most incredibly boring sports. i went on a field trip with my class and the next closer person to our age was about 70 years old. it's sort of fun, for the first like 7 throws, but after that you just kind of get the point. but it was cool that we got to go to a real place to try it out and perfect our throws. definitely a good experience. it's actually quite comeptitive here, and while it's usually for people who are older, the competitors are getting younger and younger, around 18 years old. you can find it all over the place. it's very interesting because i think that in america we consider something like bacci ball a game rather than a sport, something you would play in the backyard at a family gathering (in fact i think this family has done that a few times) not something that's watched by the whole country on tv. quite interesting. and yes that is the opera house in the background of the first picture. that's what the lawn bowling place looked out onto.

nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye!

well softball season is officially over. it lasted all of two weeks. they do sports around here a little differently: not so competitive, not specialized, more just for fun. with that being said, the fans here for their rugby and cricket teams are INTENSE to say the least. but anyways, the john's softball team was not very good. we finished 4th......out of 5 teams. so unfortunately i wasn't able to help them out a whole lot, but it was a lot of fun and i got back into shape for softball and i met a lot of new, interesting people. i played first base, which was definitely different for me. but they needed someone who could actually catch the ball! i was also the back up pitcher, but thank god i didn't ever have to go in. the boys that come to watch the games heckel the other team to no end, and they tend to target the pitcher! ah! so all in all it was a lot of fun. for spring break i'll be going up to the gold coast and playing softball there for the week. so i'll get a little more time to practice. that should be a lot of fun. last year sydney uni won for softball so we're going for the gold for the second year in a row. i'm playing in what is known as the uni games. all the universities in australia come together and each other their sports competes. it should be a ton of fun! (pics from softball are coming, the internet didn't want to work before)

"tackle, tackle"

i just got back from watching my first ever live rugby game. well i was only there for the last 40 minutes but it was pretty intense. it was john's vs another college here. apparently we stink. we lost like 43 to 29 which is a pretty big deal. but man rugby is insane. it's like football but without any padding and without any stopping. i would never sign my son or daughter up for this sport. they bash into each other and on the way down they step on each other. it's absolutely crazy. i'm surprised no one had to go to the hospital. and the rules are crazy too. you can just punt it whenever you want, for throw in type things you lift someone into the air, once your tackled you try to get the ball out of the huddle and to another team member. it's all crazy. definitely a lot of fun but it made us americans seem like we played wimpy sports. and not to say that football and lacrosse and ice hockey, which are all very tough sports, are whimpy but imagine playing all those sports without all the padding. nuts. just nuts.

welcome to.....

sydney tower

look out!

oh darling, look at the harbor

moon jellyfish
manatee (or as they call them dungaroo)
nemo at his home
sea turtle
darling harbor by night

i just want to start off by saying that these pictures aren't great. my camera is really old and i was also taking pictures through glass. so sorry about that.

this past weekend, on the behalf of mike's strong recommendation, i went to the sydney aquarium. it was AWESOME! i did not think i would enjoy it as much as i did. it was crazy. esp. the parts where there was a huge aquarium above you and you got to walk through tunnels underneath all the animals. so like a huge shark and a huge manatee are just swimming above your head. it was crazy. also, as you can see from one picture, spongebob squarepants has invaded the sydney aquarium. he was everywhere! all the kids didn't care about the fish, they just wanted to take pictures of spongebob. quite funny. it was so cool. not only did i go to the aquarium but it's in darling harbor so i also got a tour of the harbor. (again pictures aren't great but i did my best). the harbor is beautiful. and we were actually lucky because there's been a week long boat show there so all the boats looked so pretty in the water. apparently there usually aren't any boats and you can just see straight across the harbor, but for me it was cool to see all the boats. it's absolutely beautiful. i love being a tourist here and taking a thousand pictures. it's so funny.