We made a ginger bread house!

'Tis the Season

Christmas in summer.

I'm not sure this is a concept I could get used to.  Don't get me wrong...I am definitely not complaining about being able to lay out on December 25th, but it's just weird.  And here's the other thought I'm having - how do they get through winter?  It kind of sucks that they have summer and Christmas all at the same time.  I feel like it's nice having something to look forward to every 6 months.  

OK, but enough about that, we have other way more important things to talk about.  Namely - NEW ZEALAND!!!!  

I'm not on my computer right now, so I can't upload any pics, but I can give you the DL (that means down-low for my older readers) on what happened during our trip.

So Thursday we worked a full 8 hour day, just like real adults, then got in a cab to head to the airport for our much needed break.   After a bit of an ordeal getting checked in (they made us wait in line to check in....then go in another line to check our visas/passports....then get back in line to finish checking in) and having to talk to a wanna-be-CSI-FBI-investigator at customs in Christchurch, NZ (she had to get to the bottom of our weekend vacation.... apparently they're cracking down on people coming into New Zealand to extend their visas) - we finally arrived.  Was that too many parentheses for one sentence?

We got a cab to our hotel room, which we booked through a travel agent.  The hotel we were staying in was called "Hotel So" and was supposed to be the "new, chic Christchurch hotel".  Ok, it's 1 am when we arrive, we are exhausted and the 2 rooms we arrive to are.....wait for it.....sex chambers.  Yes, that's right.  A weird, funky, disgusting, degrading sex chamber type room.  Ok - now I'm being dramatic....but it really was weird.  We got two rooms for the four of us and while we thought it was going to be your typical Marriot type hotel, we were mistaken.  There was one full size (if that) bed and a glass wall separating the "bathroom".  These rooms were smaller than our dormrooms freshman year.  They had "mood" lighting underneath the beds and in the shower.  Legitimate blue, purple, green and red lights that you could turn on.  And the tv had mood channels to watch including a burning fire-place,  the waves of an ocean, and a waterfall.  I'm sure I have gone on too long about our rooms - but it really freaked us out....so I think it's worth mentioning.  It was disturbing.  But it kind of made us appreciate our cockroach ridden house back in Coogee where we all have our own bed and we cannot flip a switch and turn our apartment into a scene from a low-budget porno.

Other than our room - New Zealand was so great! Let's add some more explanation marks.  !!!!!!  It was great!!!!  

The first day we were there, Friday, we walked around Christchurch trying to get a feel for the city.  Then, one of Megan's friends from CU, Jimmy, who is studying abroad there and who has a car, drove us around and took us to some really cool sites.....including the pier (which I will post pictures of tomorrow) and the beach.  We also scheduled some other activities for the week.  That night - we went out.  One of the bars we went to was called the "Yellow Cross" which was in a courtyard of a bunch of bars.  It had a bit of a European style to this area.  And, just as Catholic school girls rebel against their title, so does this city.  This bar was decked out in religious garb - the bathroom stalls were confessionals - and the beers had names such as "Popes Pilsner" and the "Virgin Lager".  

The next day, me and Brigid were supposed to go skydiving - but when we called to confirm in the morning they told us it was too windy and rescheduled us for Sunday.  Megan and Kelsey went on a winery tour out in the country.  While they were gone, Brig and I explored some more....going to the Art Museum and paddle boating down the Avon River.  That night, we all met up again with Jimmy and went through the botanical gardens.

On Sunday, we once again got cancelled for skydiving, so we just got a refund.  That was a bummer.  So Jimmy picked us all up and we drove about 2 hours north to a town called Kaikora.  This was one of the coolest places I have ever been.  The mountains went directly into the ocean.  It was so frickin beautiful.  When we got back to Christchurch, Jimmy made us a fantastic dinner of salmon and sticky rice.  And for desert, we had Squiggles - a delicious cookie native to New Zealand.

Monday was the cherry on top of our vacation ice cream sundae.  We went horse back riding through the mountains.  I don't even know how to articulate in words how awesome this experience was.  A farmer man picked us up from our hotel at 8 am and took us to his farm about an hour away.  We then rode for about 2 hours through the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. There were sheep everywhere and a river running through the mountains.  It was kind of terrifying at first because I don't remember the last time I rode a horse.  My horse, Monty, used to be a racehorse, so he reallllllly wanted to go fast the entire time.  But I learned that riding a horse is about confidence and once Monty learned who was boss, he stopped trying to pull any funny business.  Halfway through our ride, on top of a mountain, we had coffee, tea, and biscuits with the farmer and his wife.  It seriously felt like we were in a movie.  

After our adventure, we had to go to the airport :( and head back to reality and another week of work. 

Oh, and about our visas - we didn't get them extended because we found out it takes up to 21 days for the application to be processed!  So, we knew there was no chance of them being approved in the 2 business days we were there.  So we're just going to work until our current work visa expires and then get a travel visa.

On Friday night, we went to "Carols in the Domain" which was a televised event in the botanical gardens in Sydney.  Literally every Australian celeb was there performing Christmas Carols for 3 hours and we got to watch it all happen.  The winner of Australian Idol, Stan Walker, sang - which was the highlight of the night because we all have big crushes on him.  We tried to find him after the performance, but were unsuccessful.  

Brigid and I have the week off of work - so more adventures are to come.  

I'm going to try to update my blog more - and I know I say that every time, but this time I mean it, dammit!  The last month or 2 have been pretty lame because all we do is work.  But now that we're about to start traveling, we will definitely have more to talk about.  

Ok, I love you all.  Merry Christmas!!!  Actually, I shouldn't say that yet.  It's still 5 days away. You'll be hearing from me before that.

  

Random Pics

Here's a pic of Bondi Beach for all of those in Iowa bearing a blizzard right now :)



Kelsey laying out next to the painting I bought yesterday.



Christmas Carols!

A big tree in Darling Harbor.


The opera house at night.

Thanksgiving Photos

These are working backwards....above is the view from the hotel room Belen's parents got us to cook in. It was nice sleeping in a place not infested by cockroaches.
Sad, but true.


Taryn making the salad (oh all of these pictures are action shots - you'll feel like you were there with us).


Brigid and Rory warming up for dinner.



Hey Belen.

Lookin good....as per usual.


Cooking or cleaning....usual motherly stuff.


Our feast! I'm feeling thankful all over again.

For Diana

Hi everyone. It's me, Mallory. And I came down to the internet cafe with the sole purpose being to update my blog (well that, and to download the new episode of How I Met your Mother). And I just realized I didn't even put all of the newest photos from my camera onto my computer, so I'll have to come back tomorrow to catch you up all the way on our lives right now (and if not tomorrow, then two weeks from tomorrow).

Let's start with Kelsey's birthday which is what the picture above is from. The next day her parents arrived in Australia, which was awesome. The Collins Family stayed in Coogee for a week, then to New Zealand for a week.




Every night, Terri and Pat Collins blessed our stomachs with the best meals I have ever had (minus the kangaroo pictured above....not that it wasn't prepared well, it's just not good meat. AND we found out at work today that most Australians haven't ever had it. God we are such tourists).


The last night they were here, they prepared a huge picnic of appetizers and at it down at the beach. Seriously - I cannot stress how amazing the food I had that week was.



On Sunday, we headed to Hunter Valley for some wine and cheese tasting. It turned out that it was the hottest day we have had thus far (about 105 degrees). The wine was fantastic and Pat taught me a thing or two about fermentation (did I spell that right?) Apparently, mold on grapes makes the wine sweeter. Who knew? And I got kinda tipsy and bought two bottles....one for Thanksgiving (which we thoroughly enjoyed) and one is being saved for Christmas.





On the way back from wine tasting, the air conditioning in our van broke. Me and Emmy (or Emmy and I....whatever) were sitting next to the windows and felt like a furnace was blowing on us. Seriously, let's get a group drunk, then make them sweat like they have never before. Our body limits were definitely tested and when we finally got back to Coogee and regular temperatures, we all had cankles and swollen toes like you wouldn't believe.




This is just a pic of a Chick in a Box.

In New Zealand, the Collins fam went bungee jumping and skydiving. We booked our trip to New Zealand for December 10th, so hopefully we will have similar luck with the wild adventures.

I have pics of Thanksgiving, but not on my computer....so that will just have to wait for the next update. I'll be back soon.

Ok, I get it. I suck at blogging. I'm sorry.

But (I've said it once and I'll say it again) now that we're old women, we don't do much. Once we start traveling, I'm sure I'll have more interesting things to say.

Kelsey turned 23 yesterday. We went out in Sydney on Friday night where we were all called "Sepos" (a derogatory term for Americans.....yanks, tanks, septic tanks, sepos....apparently that's the connection). We've had a plan to change Australian's view of Americans while we are here....apparently it didn't work on the guy who called us that. Saturday and Sunday were our first sunny days in a while, so we definitely hit up the beach. Don't worry though, we used SPF. Australia is missing it's ozone layer.

Kelsey's parents and brother got to town yesterday as well, so we had a big cookout at the house they are renting for the week. Kangaroo was definitely on the menu. I'm amazed they were able to stay awake until 11 pm because the day we arrived in Sydney we were asleep by 6 pm.

Our biggest concern right now is trying to extend our visa. We have to leave the country to do so....but we're running out of time and flights are getting sort of expensive. We should have just gotten a 12 month visa to begin with.

Ok, that's about all I've got. What have you guys been up to??

First of all, let me apologize for my severe lack of posting recently. I actually have no been on the internet for a week and a half (except being able to check my e-mail at work). This is the longest I have ever been without and I'm just as upset about this as you are. What's sad is that I really don't have much to catch anyone up on....but I guess there's a few things.

Halloween was this past weekend and it was pretty fun. It's not really a big holiday here, but there were quite a few people dressed up anyways. We decided that the easiest thing to do was to repeat our costume from last year and be the 3 blind mice. We went to a pool bar in Sydney and I felt like I was in Entourage or something.

Yesterday was the Melbourne cup....which is kind of like the Super Bowl of horseraces and the entire country celebrates it. We, unfortunately, had to work (something about responsibility....). But we did bet on horses at work (they call betting a "sweepstake") and got to watch the race on our break and eat a lot of great snack food. My horse, Gallions Reach, lost. Which you totally new was going to happen because a.) the name doesn't make sense and b.) the horse is from New Zealand (those damn kiwis). Our boss ended up winning the big bet (totally rigged). I'm still pretty bitter....there goes $5 I'll never see again. Megan had to bartend after work, so Brig, Kels and I decided to go for a drink at her bar. She works at a place right near Darling Harbour, so we got to see all the girls dressed up wearing big hats and feathers in their hair. It was pretty awesome but we were pissed that we didn't get to join in the festivities. However, yesterday was apparently the hottest November day in 5 years so it was pretty miserable. Especially trying to sleep because our apartment is on the top floor. We are probably going to have to invest in a fan or this summer is going to suck.

That is literally all I have to update you about. We are old women who go to bed early so we can be up by 6 am.

But tomorrow, the 5th is Jenni Braden's 23rd Birthday and the 7th is Trisha Humlick's! Woo!

Ok, I promise I'm trying to get a life so I have more to talk about.

Sorry that it's been a while since my last update. Cortney has been bragging to me about how many more posts she has....but the thing is, I don't have internet at my house. So every time we want to get online we have to go to a cafe because Australians don't understand what the big deal is about the internet.

We worked our first full 40 hour week and it was actually kind of awesome....that is after we got paid on Friday. Plus, since all 4 of us are now on the same schedule, it's kind of really fun at work. The other upside of our work is the swag we have been getting. Our company does personalized stuff for little kids (like books, toys, towels, labels, pretty much anything you could dream of as a child) and any time things get messed up and the people send it back.....we can take it. So far, Brig has gotten a Searlett (supposed to be Scarlett) towel, I have Laruen and Makaylla, and Kelsey has scored a Pheobe cutlery set and mug.

Yesterday, Brigid and Megan had to work, so me and Kelsey bbq-ed with the other girls and guys. I tried Kangaroo. It was actually not that bad....but it was tough for me to eat because I kept thinking about what I was eating. That's also why I couldn't try whale when I was in Norway. They're just too cute to eat.

Otherwise, I don't have much of an update. Halloween is next weekend, which is making us really miss Boulder because it's not really a holiday here. We will obviously dress up anyway - so any costume ideas would be great. Especially if it would work for 4 people.

A big ol' update

What up? I know it's been a while since my last update - but I had a pretty productive weekend and haven't been on the internet in days. So I have much to share with you all (kind of). Brig & I had a successful week getting up at 6 am every day to go to work....but we actually kind of love our job because we can just listen to our iPods all day and type in info to a computer and get paid pretty well to do so. Megan & Kelsey got hired at the same place too!!! They are doing customer service, so basically just taking people's orders over the phone. I think it's going to be a little overwhelming for everyone else to have all of us working in the same place.....but it's going to be awesome. I'm pretty excited. Plus, now we will never be late for work since there are 4 of us who have to wake up. But, I feel sad and kind of like an underachiever because the other girls all have other jobs.


Thursday night, after work, the girls met us in Sydney to go to a Noodle Festival in Sydney. It was just a huge food fest with a bunch of stands of Asian food, art, booze, and fun. We ate a ton...I have more pics to include of all our different courses, but I figured it would be kind of obnoxious to post them all....so one will have to do.



After the food festival, we went back to the hotel that Erin's dad got for us for the night. It was the Shangri-La which is a big chain throughout this region. When we got there, we went up to the 36th floor bar and got the "money table" which had a perfect view over looking the city and the opera house. When we opened up the menu....we saw something called "Martini on the Rock" which literally cost $10,000. Pretty crazy. Needless to say, we could only afford one drink. Then we went to bed....which was fantastic to be in a clean environment for a change.



Friday night we went out with our friend, Bonnie's, sister and her friend. Above is a pic of us at World Bar in Sydney. There was an indie rock festival happening, which we didn't know about, so the bar was jam packed with a bunch of emo kids. Two of the guys we were with almost didn't get in because they "weren't following dress code". They were told that next time, they need to have on tighter jeans, converse shoes, and a band t-shirt. It was pretty funny.


Saturday, Erin, Taryn, Natayla, Ryan, Tyler (who are here visitng), and I took their awesome rental van to a beach about 45 minutes away. It was huge and really pretty, but it was kind of a cold windy day. Ryan tried to surf, which is funny because he can't swim or surf. I thought the life guards were going to have to save him.


This is the van we took - the back says "Marriage is an attempt to turn a night owl into a homing pigeon". We got some stares while we were driving.


This is Erin and I at the beach.

Today we are going to the biggest IMAX theater in the world to watch a 3D movie entitled Under the Sea. Pretty Excited.

Ok that's all I have for now. Did you guys love how the pics went along with my story line today?

New Job

The call center was a pretty shitty gig...so I've moved on to a new venue called "data entry". Although this transition was not necessarily voluntary (yes, I got fired from the call center for not meeting my targets....sorry $42 a month is a lot to ask of people and everyone said 'no' to me), I am thankful.

I was in the midst of jobhunting yesterday, while Brigid was simultaneously quitting her job at the call center she was working at, when I received a phone call from a woman saying "you start tomorrow at 8:30, bring your friend Brigid with you....we have two positions to fill". That was one of the greatest phone calls I have ever received. It's a pretty stress-free position (which is about as opposite as possible from having to call a bunch of angry Aussies who are sick of you asking for more f-ing money) but it is full time which I'm probably not going to love. But I guess I need to get used to it because apparently that's what I'm going to have to do from here on out.

Cortney Kesselman has officially moved to Chile and began her own blog (cough, cough, copycat, cough, cough) and has taken to her forum to challenge me to a blog-off. So Coney - if you're reading this.....know that it is on. (www.notagringa.blogspot.com)

We are working hard for the internet at our house but our landlord, SP (remember him?) doesn't understand the concept of Wi-Fi so the 8 of us are taking matters into our own hands. However, we had a set back yesterday when the "phone jack" in our apartment turned out to be something that is completely not a phone jack....

Oh - and I'm hearing some nasty rumors that the Hawkeyes are good at football this year? Is this true? What is going on with the Buffs or Cyclones??? Or the Bears??? Update me! I'm not in the loop over here - I have no internet and 5 channels on the TV.

Brig and I
Kelsey and Megan checkin out the view


Me and Emmy!
All of the girls. Back Row: Erin, Emmy, Natalya, Me. Front Row: Belen, Taryn, Megan, Brigid, Kelsey

Kelsey!!
Brigid, Taryn, Erin, Megan and Kels


I keep getting beef from you people via my facebook wall about my lack of blog updates. But we do not have internet at our house and so when I go to internet cafe I only have about 2 hours to do all the things I want to do online (aka - check facebook, my e-mail, perezhilton, and download the new episodes of HIMYM (How I met Your Mother)). So you can see how my scarce internet time does not lend to me updating my blog every day. But I am taking a vow from this moment on to do better and to fill you in on the things I'm doing on a more regular basis.

Megan's birthday was Saturday night so we had an appetizer party with all 9 girls at our apartment. Kelsey and Brigid slaved away in the Kitchen all day, while Erin and I took Megan out shopping to keep her away from the apartment so they could decorate and cook. We had spinach artichoke dip, bacon wrapped dates, bruchetta (or as Ted Mosby would say.....some Bruchett with fresh motzerell). Pretty awesome. We all pitched in to get her an iPod shuffle because she lost her iPod long ago. She was pretty excited about that. After eating A LOT and drinking some chapmagne, we headed into the city. However, due to our advanced age....we only made it out until 12:30. But overall, the night was really fun.

Yesterday was Megan and my first day of work at the call center. It was kind of stressful and I am never going to be mean to a telemarketer again (even though I am a telefundraiser, not a telemarketer). But the day went by pretty quick, plus we get 10 minute breaks every hour. So in a 6 hour shift, we get an hour break. Pretty bomb. Brigid also started work at Sydney Water trying to sell the entire city water conservation products.

We had a fairly productive weekend in Sydney. Since Brig had to bartend on Saturday and Sunday nights, the rest of us went out in the city both nights. Sunday was also the NRL Final (Rugby League...not that it matters, but it was broadcasted live in the US for the first time this year on Spike and most likely at 3 am). It made us nostalgic for CU game days because there was drunk rugby fans getting rowdy at 9 am for a 5 pm game. For those who are curious: Melbourne beat Parramatta.

Erin Healy (Megan's friend from CU) is coming to visit us on Thursday and is staying for 2 weeks. We are pretty stoked to have a visitor! Plus, Megan's 23rd Birthday is on Saturday....so hopefully, with our first paychecks in the bank, we can afford a bitchin night out in Sydney. The other four CU girls who are currently living in Bondi are moving into the apartment across the hall from us tomorrow. This is going to be a big week.

We are already over this whole "working" thing and want to start our travel plans for greater Australia/Southeast Asia. Any suggestions? Please comment! I want this to become a more interactive blog.

I got a job!

I am employed! And it is about time because my bank account is looking pretty meager.

I am working at a company called 2evolve which does fundraising for NGOs like Amnesty International, UNHCR (the Refugee Fund), and some other great organizations. So even though it's a call center, it's pretty legit and I can definitely put it on my resume when I get home (something I was not quite expecting to be able to do with the job I got here). Megan got the job at the bar and is looking for another job...she's interviewing at 2evolve today which she is totally going to get. Then Emmy, Megan and I will all work together.

So now we are all employed which is a fantastic feeling. I have never been so relieved.

The charges went through on Kelsey's card so now we can see where the perp spent all of her money. Half of the charges were for taxis. He opened a $300 bar tab. And spent another $500 at none other than good ol' Ed Hardy. Go figure. Hopefully between all the places he spent money, some security camera will have a clear picture of him.

I think I'm going to go lay out now....rough life, I know.

Oh and if you get the chance - you should wish Erin Dose a happy 26th birthday!!!!

Trouble in Paradise

Well, we have run into our first real problem.

On Friday night we went out (for our 3rd time since being here). We started out in Bondi, then came back to Coogee and went out at the hotel right by our house. It was a pretty fun night....nothing too wild. The next afternoon, Kelsey and Brigid realized that they were missing some of their credit cards. Megan and I went out to get dinner and stopped by the internet cafe to check up on the girls' accounts. Kelsey's checking account said zero. Someone had pick-pocketed the girls and went on a wild shopping spree. They spent all of the money in Kelsey's checking account and charged some on Brigid's credit card.

What is most surprising is that our experience so far is that people are pretty strict in stores about checking the signature and ID....so I'm not really sure how the person got away with it.

We have a pretty good idea of who it is (or at least we think we can narrow it down) and hopefully when the charges go through and show the places the money was spent, we can check security tapes and figure it out. And hopefully the banks will reimburse them for all their lost money. The girls went to the police station today to file a report, so hopefully he is caught soon.

But the good news is that both Brigid and Kelsey got the jobs at the Palace Hotel in Coogee about two blocks from our house! Megan has a trial run at a bar in Sydney on Tuesday and I have an interview in the city on Tuesday also. So hopefully we are all employed soon!

I don't have much to post about....but I feel like it's time for an update.

We watched the news all day on the day of the dust storm and found out that it is not a normal occurrence, like we had originally believed. Apparently, this only happens once every 70 years. I kind of just thought it was a weird sunrise and since it was 6 am, we were too lazy to get up and take pictures (which I'm pretty pissed about). But about 8 different news channels said that it was like waking up on Mars. So I guess I'll just take their word for it.

We discovered a RedBox to rent movies from. Which was great because otherwise we were going to have to pay a $50 membership fee to the video store in town...something I was not prepared to do. So we rented New In Town last night. Good flick. (Did I just blog about a movie we rented? We really need to get lives.)

Brigid has her trial run as a bartender tonight and Kelsey had a trial run as a waitress during the day. So hopefully they both get those jobs so they can support me while I go on not having a job. But I have heard back from a few places....so hopefully something works out.

We also learned the joy that is $2 steak night on Wednesdays and $1 burgers on Thursdays. So we will be regulars at those places.

I forgot to write about the class we had to take for 6 hours one day last week. It's called the RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) and you have to take the class in order to work in the food or bar industry here. We spent 6 hours learning about how to tell if someone is intoxicated. It's called we went to college. We got it. But they have a big drinking problem here and are taking strides to control it (let's hope the US doesn't jump on this trend). They have drastically increased the price of alcohol (a 30 rack of beer costs $40 - at home it costs $15) and made some other laws that bars now have to follow (like kicking people out if they show 2 of the 4 signs of intoxication). I'm not sure it's working though because we're getting down to the Rugby League finals and I haven't seen a sober fan yet.

We are planning some activities for the week - so expect better posts/pictures to come. I know, you're totally excited, huh?

Dust Storm/Red Sky

I woke up at 6 am and looked out my window and saw a red sky. Kelsey and I's window was open and our room was covered in a thin sheet of dust. Apparently, we are in the middle of a "dust storm". I'm not sure if this is normal....but from what I hear, the weather is acting crazy everywhere today. 103 degrees with rolling blackouts in Danville and it's snowing in Boulder. I think it's safe to say we can blame El Nino.

Things are looking up on the job front. Brigid has a trial run as a bartender on Saturday night. She's pretty nervous - but I feel like it might be easier to bartend here than in the US. All they have is beer, which we know how to pour, and pre-made mixed drinks. So it ain't no thang. And we might be packing boxes of wine for 17 dollars an hour for a couple days. I think this is a sign of more things to come.

Otherwise, I don't have much of an update. I think we're going to stay inside today....the wind is crazy.

Still no job

Update: We still don't have jobs. We've been looking and haven't had any luck. But today is Monday and I'm giving myself until Friday to get one because that is when I run out of money.

We haven't really found any attractive men. We have found a bunch of 19 year olds. I now appreciate the 21 year old drinking age because then the minimum age at bars is much more appropriate for us. We went out on Saturday night and I chatted up three sophomores in college....one of whom was a spitting image of McLovin'. Hopefully when we find jobs, we make friends with people our own age and kill two birds with one stone.

And our final issue at the moment: we met our neighbors across the hall. They are two Irish men. One of them says, "how are you guys living here? It's so gross. We couldn't even deal with it so we found a new place to live." Let's just think about how depressing this is. First of all, they are guys and second, they're Irish and even they think our apartment is uninhabitable. We had started to convince ourselves it wasn't that bad until we had this conversation.

So thinks are looking gloomy in the lives of Mallory, Brigid, Megan and Kelsey.... but I guess we can't complain too much because we still have beautiful scenery.