Everything in Australia is expensive. Too bad the American dollar is so weak at the moment. Since I eat a lot, most of my examples will have to be food specific...a simple Vitamin Water which I could find at Giant Eagle for $1 is between $3.50-$4 here. A small bottle of coke is around $2.50. Packs of gum are also around $2. The McDonald's value meal is in the $2 range (I'm really embarassed and sorry that I know this). It's impossible to find any coffee under $3. Gas has also hit an all time high hovering around $6/gallon. Sigh.
P.S. I'm watching That 70's Show. Who is the new guy (he bugs me) and what happened to Eric? Oh that reminds me about tv shows. I spent a lot of time watching tv with my mom, esp NCIS, House and Numbers. They're so behind with our shows. I had seen most of their current episodes even though I watched them 4 months earlier in the states.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Sunday April 20
We went to the beach in the morning to check the surf, it was grey, cloudy, wet and chilly. The waves were no good. We decided to check out the Noosa Farmer's Market. There were lots of booths with fresh produce and freshly baked/cooked goodies. Unfortunately it started pouring down rain so we ran from tent to tent. We were pretty successful in that we ate churros, german sausages on rolls and a banana crepe. Later in the evening we went to the Noosa Marina with James' father and stepmom for drinks, fish & chips and live entertainment.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Saturday
Chelsea, James and I went to Nambour to check out the Giant Pineapple. Chelsea and James bought giant bubble gum eggs and kept complaining about how much their jaws and temples hurt. I had no sympathy :)
Week of April 14
So I'm officially finished with work :) Hee hee...I got a good week in and the projects I was working on are completed. It was once again perfect timing because my friend Chelsea came into town Monday. We've been able to spend the week exploring Noosa and the surrouding areas. We've gone to the beach, went to some markets and spent time hiking in a few parks/trails. One night this week James brought me flowers home just because. Yay! They're the prettiest color!
Weekend---April 12-13
It was a relaxing weekend. We took a drive to Sunshine Beach and enjoyed the view. On Sunday we had some drinks along the river bank.
Thursday
Thursday we decided to bowl a few games. I didn't do too shabby :) Dad, you would be proud :)
New Job
Ok I'm trying not to pick up any bad habits at work. The design process here is a bit different from what I'm used to...let's just say it's kinda bad :) Sorry, but I'm going to switch to designspeak for a sec...so the firm works mainly in Quark Express and Freehand. Two programs which are basically extinct in the states. Let's see if I can pull out my dusty knowledge about these antiquated programs. My boss has also been after a designer right out of school that has been working at a copy shop. She was working on Wednesday so I had a chance to talk with her for a bit. She said that everyone wants to work at this firm and my boss is basically cleaning up the Sunshine Coast, picking up all the good design jobs. She then continued to tell me that she's not used to working on Mac's and that she mainly uses Corel Draw, so she needs to try to learn other programs. Hmmm...
Saturday, April 19, 2008
New Job
Monday April 14--today was my first day at work. I got the job at the design firm where I interviewed last week. It was perfect timing considering Kate and Tina were now gone. The work is really simple and mindless, which is perfect. I'm basically just making edits to projects that have aready been started. Looks like I'll be full time this entire week. When I got home from work on Monday James had bought me beautiful flowers and made me a delicious Thai dinner as congratulations on my first day of work in OZ!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Mt. Cooroora
Sunday April 13, continued... Since it was getting late, we decided to try climbing part of a mountain that actually had marked trails. We made our way halfway up Mt. Cooroora and then headed back down before the sun set. We bought some food at the grocery and had a nice bbq for dinner. Kate was picked up at 3:30am by a shuttle that would take her to the Brisbane airport. Her flight back to Japan was at 8am. Tina took the bus back to Brisbane at 4:20pm. It was sad to see the girls go :( but we had such a wonderful time!
Mt. Cooroy
We attempted to climb Mt. Cooroy. There weren't any marked trails and just dirt roads. The Jeep got stuck in the muddy/grassy trail which didn't even look like a trail at all. We aborted the mission and vowed to try again another day.
Saturday - Noosa
Kate, Tina, James, his father and I went to the beach to surf & relax and then shared a delicious breakfast together.
Friday-Noosa
We arrived back at James' and proceeded to cook dinner. Noodles, veggies and tofu (chicken for Tina and myself). When James got home from work we took his boat out and got ice cream. It was a cold evening! It's kinda sad that I am freezing in 67 degree weather. Sigh... :)
Thursday/Friday
We spent Thursday exploring Hervey Bay. We walked on the beach and checked out the little shops that ran along the beach. Tina fell in love with the little pup that lived at our hostel...Dora. Below is a cafe where we ate breakfast. Kate was craving pancakes b/c she can't get them in Japan. YUM! Friday we headed back to Noosa.
Fraser Island
Final stop on the tour was Lake Mackenzie. It was the most beautiful place I have seen. The water was so blue, clear and refreshing. It's a fresh water lake and the sand is so fine you can use it to exfoliate your skin.
Fraser Island
Eli Creek. Before going on the tour we were told to wear comfortable walking shoes. I wore my runners, everyone else wore flip flops...lol. Tina had her tevas on so she waded through the creek. Kate and I watched from the boardwalk above...
Fraser Island
We got picked up for our tour at 7am. We took a ferry over to Fraser Island and rode in a giant 4WD bus around the island.
Tuesday
Back to backpacking... Tina, Kate and I stayed at a nice backpacker in Hervey Bay. We actually got our own room and it had a tv and dvd player. We were backpacking in style :) Today we booked a day tour to Fraser Island. Here we are enjoying a large salad. I've been eating way too much red meat...I feel like I need to detox.
Tuesday
Kate and Tina are in Hervey Bay right now. They left Monday, March 31. I wasn't sure if I should go with them or not b/c I wanted to see if I got the job. I figured I didn't care and drove 2.5 hours north of Noosa to meet them.
Sunday / Monday
SUNDAY: On the way back from the zoo we saw the most amazing sunset. The sky was so red. That evening we celebrated James' birthday. His actual birthday was Monday, but everyone was leaving on Monday. He requested a roast and chocolate cake. It was such a DELICIOUS meal!
MONDAY: Tina and Kate didn't leave until 4:20pm today, so we spent part of the day at the beach. It's also James' birthday. We ended up getting pizza and watching a movie later that evening :)
Thursday, April 10, 2008
The Australian Zoo
Some of the different animals we saw. Wombats (so cute!), tasmanian devil (here it is Dad!), and of course Koalas!!!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The Australian Zoo
Major highlights: feeding and petting Wallabies (they are SO SOFT!) and touching a koala! We were only supposed to touch their backs, but I rubbed it's belly and James pulled its ears (he got reprimanded, i was sneaky!).
The Australian Zoo
After lunch we went to the petting zoo. You could buy small bags of food so you can feed the animals. Afterwards we took the Croc Hunter Mobile for a spin.
The Australian Zoo
Yesssssssss I'm a bit behind with blogging. Two weekends ago (March 29th) Kate, Tina, Trudy, Mick, James, Mick's brother and wife and I took a trip to the Australian Zoo. It was SO MUCH FUN. Why? B/C they actually let you touch most of the animals. The whole theme is that if you get to touch the animals you'll fall in love with them and then you'll want to save them. Not sure about all that :) So here we posed with a giant Croc and we got to feed elephants! The keeper fed the elephant to show us how it's done, he had leftover fruit on his hands after so he LICKED HIS FINGERS. He looked up and said, "oh there's elephant snot on there!" He the proceeded to LICK HIS HANDS AGAIN. I almost got sick. Happy thoughts happy thoughts...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Sunset on the way back from Kondalilla National Park
These pictures aren't even close to doing justice to the actual sunset...
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Kondalilla National Park
On Saturday we took a trip to Kondalila National Park to walk to the waterfalls. Because of all the rain the day before there were a lot of leeches on the swampy trail. I found 5-6 on me. Everyone got them. You could feel a slight cold wet feeling when they were on your legs.
Happy Birthday Tina, Kate and James!
On Friday Kate and Tina came back to stay at James' home. Tina's birthday was March 19, Kate's is today (Friday), and James' is March 31. We celebrated all of their special days today. James wanted to get 31 + 31 + 26 candles (combination of all their ages) I decided that 48 would be plenty. Mick cooked another one of his delcious meals. I've been so spoiled by his fabulous cooking!
Buderim Ginger Factory
Tina and Kate spent the day shopping, so Trudy, Mick, James and I were thinking of hiking to some waterfalls near Maleny. We got a late start and it started pouring down rain so we decided to save the waterfalls for another day and took a detour to the Ginger Factory instead. There was a train tour of the area and information about the production of ginger and all the different products made with this special ingredient. Unfortunately we missed the last train. Instead we took a "boat ride" that told a story of a gingerbread man traveling around the world. James explained it best when he said it was a low budget production. It was worth some good laughs. They also took a picture of us on the boat and I was in the middle of a blink with my mouth open. When we got off the boat, the lady in charge through it would be great fun to zoom in on my face and place my photo on all the monitors at the beginning and end of the ride. I wasn't happy :)
Noosa-Thursday
Tina and Kate are back from their camping trip. James and I met up with them at their hostel for a few drinks. Later that night I got a text from Tina. I was nervous that something was wrong since it was past 1:30am. Turns out in their 4 person dorm room, one of their roommates decided to bring a guy home and they started doing the nasty in the room. Kate got up, yelled at them and told them to get out. Tina was texting me to say she was so glad Kate said something b/c she was in the bunk above the couple and she didn't want to say anything. The girl couldn't understand why Kate was so upset and asked her where they were supposed to go. Kate said, "I don't know, just get out of here!"
Eumundi/Nambour
On Wednesday/Thursday Tina and Kate went camping and canoeing in the Great Sandy National Park (same place where James and I went camping a few weekends ago). Trudy, Mick and I went to the Eumundi Markets. Eumundi is about 30-45 minutes away from Noosa. There were so many booths with local artists selling paintings, local crafts, food, beverages, and anything else you could imagine. There was so much to see it was a bit overwhelming and it was also REALLY hot. After going to the markets we stopped in Nambour so James' parents could pick up his secret birthday present. Next stop was the giant pineapple.
Noosa-Tuesday
I forgot to mention that I finally got serious about finding work in Noosa. I had an interview today (3/25) at a small design firm. There are two designers and the work looked better than most places I had researched. The interview went really well and the owner was really impressed with my work. I should hear back from her next week!
Noosa
Today is a national holiday, so James had the day off. We took Tina and Kate for a walk through the Noosa National Park. We saw a Koala!
Happy Easter
The easter bunny came to Noosa. After this weekend I no longer had any cravings for chocolate. It was a very nice easter. We had a delicious roast with James, Trudy, Mick and my dear friends Kate and Tina. I also got to phone my parents so I was happy :)
Maleny
Happy Belated Easter! On Easter Sunday James, his mom (Trudy) and his stepdad (Mick) and I went to Maleny for the day. There were So many people out this nice Easter Sunday. All the little shops, cafes, and galleries were open for the day. We left late in the afternoon to welcome Tina back and to greet Kate who is visiting from Japan.
Rainbow Beach
Rainbow Beach is absolutely beautiful. The water was so clear and blue and the waves weren't too strong. I tried surfing for the second time and I stood up. Great fun! Can't wait to go again!
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