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.