Almost time to go...

We leave in the morning (Friday) for Seattle! It's been a year and I can't wait. Because of the time zones, our Christmas Eve will be 42.5 hours long, complete with 3 flights and 25 hours of traveling. That is pretty gnarly; we are going to be a barrel of laughs when we arrive mid-day, definitely ready to party that night. ;)

Twelve Apostles

I have no idea why these rock formations have acquired the name "Twelve Apostles," especially since there were ever only nine, and two have fallen. So there are seven. Yet, I give you, the Twelve Apostles on Australia's southwest coast...

Post #800

Wow, that is a milestone.

Today I am stuck at home with a stress fractured foot. :( But here is where I was yesterday:I will post more photos very soon. There are also some on Facebook.

Remember when I first moved to Greece and was wondering what new food I would start liking there? I started liking tomatoes after eating them daily for two months in Costa Rica, and watermelon after 6 weeks in Turkey as a regular summer breakfast. I pondered whether it could be cucumbers, which I don't particularly prefer, or coffee, which is just the nastiest taste on the planet.

Well, yesterday Andrew and I had a long drive in the car and I was thinking about food. (Shocking.) It suddenly struck me what new food item I can't get enough of after my two years in Greece:Oh my goodness, I love BEETS!

Who knows how I started eating them in Greece, but the ones I got at the supermarket there were so good, so I started having them in salads, sandwiches, and looking up other new recipes. Admittedly, I don't think I ever didn't like beets, but I just didn't grow up eating them, so I never knew.

Here in Australia, they use "beetroot" in all KINDS of dishes - it's glorious! I can't get yellow mustard in my sandwich at Subway, but I can get beets.

My distaste for cucumbers has softened somewhat; I now eat them in my Greek salads disguised with feta, but I'm sorry to say, we've gotten nowhere with coffee. Blech.

What new food shall it be in Australia? Andrew's vote is capsicum, or peppers, which is a strong taste to me that I just don't like at all, but he loves them. We'll see.

P.S. happy birthday sister!

birthday phad thai

Last week, this boy had a birthday. We made some Thai food - green curry and phad thai, yum! - and I made an apple crumble for dessert, his favorite. An odd combination, but sometimes our favorites don't go together. :)

I used some recipes from the cooking class I had in Bangkok last year. Here's the one for Phad Thai (courtesy of the Silom Thai cooking school):

PHAD THAI
(easy and so good! This serves just 1-2, so I quadrupled it, which changes the measurements a bit, but it's very forgiving so just go to taste on most things.)

Ingredients:
100 grams of rice noodles - presoak in warm water until soft, drain
5 medium sized prawns
2 TBS vegetable oil
1/4 cup chive or green onion, cut into small pieces
1 TBS palm sugar or brown sugar
2 tsp fish sauce (or for vegetarian, use soy sauce)
1 egg
1/2 cup raw bean sprouts (or cabbage)
1 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS minced shallot
1/3 cup extra firm tofu, cut in 1 cm strips
1 TBS tamarind paste (or white vinegar)
1 TBS picked white radish, finely chopped (if you can find it, at an Asian market. Dried also works)
1 TBS ground roasted peanut or cashew
1 pinch red chili powder
1/2 lime

Preparation:
1. In a wok or large sauce pan, heat the oil over low heat, add garlic and shallot and fry until fragrant.
2. Add prawns, tofu, beansprouts, onions/chives, stir until prawns are cooked.
3. Crack the egg straight into the wok, stir rapidly until it becomes cooked and scrambled.
4. Add noodles and season with fish sauce, sugar, tamarind paste and pickled white radish. Mix everything together. Keep frying.
5. When the noodles become softened and translucent, remove from heat.
6. Top with ground peanuts and chili powder. Season to taste. Squeeze the lime over the noodles.
Yum! (Photo from my cooking class)

Thanks for asking.

Today, running an errand for Andrew at the hardware store:

Me: "Hi, I'm looking for drop sheets."
Hardware store guy: "Over here...clear or blue?"
Me: "Clear, please."
HSG: "We only have blue."
Me: " ... I guess I'll take the blue, then."

From 100 degrees to...

We had a few 100+ degree days this week. It's not fair - I just had this in Greece! :) It's ok, though, I've had a good mild spring and plenty of rain here. Today we had a sudden downpour and some flash flooding, very exciting! It really reminded me of Greece where the downpours turn the streets into raging rivers. Ah, memories.
Today it dropped from 32 degrees (about 90F) to 22 (about 70F) in an hour, and the torrential storm hit quite rapidly. We had to take several detours to get home because of flooded roads. Even though summer started December 1, I guess it's not quite ready to make its appearance yet!

Victor

Rick and Beth went on holiday last week to a nearby beach town, Victor Harbor. They invited us down, so Andrew and I drove down for a quick 24 hour break this week. Last night his sister, in typical Aussie fashion (shortening every word possible), asked us "How was Victor?" "Who's Victor?" I thought, until I realized what she meant. Victor Harbor is MUCH too long to say in a sentence. What was I thinking?

Anyway, we had a beautiful day down there; it was too cold for swimming (although the past two days here in Adelaide have been scorching hot!), so we wandered around the little town and surrounding areas, had a coffee and a picnic lunch, played on a playground we found (why not), and had another coffee with R & B after their bike ride.

What is it?

new habits die hard

I picked up a couple bad habits in Greece, like staying up too late (comes with the job - and the culture). Seeing as how it's currently 1 am, that one has stuck around. :(

Another bad habit is one that I just noticed Sunday. I knew I did it, but I realized that it has quite unfortunately carried over to Australia. In the car on the way home from church on Sunday, Andrew asked what I thought of the sermon. "It was fine," I answered. Truthfully? I had no idea. He asked me about some specific points and saw right through my generic responses ... I wasn't even listening to the message.

After two years of sitting through Greek services and meetings and artfully tuning out that which I did not understand, it is going to take some retraining of the brain to focus and actually listen to a sermon! No longer do I have a good excuse to use the time to think through my week's workout schedule or whether I should go back and buy that dress that I saw on sale a few days ago. It's in English now!

Don't get me wrong - I WANT to listen! There have been a few really good ones that have actually held my attention in the last couple months. But in general my attention span for anyone speaking in front of a group probably doesn't exceed 5 minutes at the moment. After that, I just can't help it! No matter how hard I try and focus, the wandering begins. Blame it on the Greeks who natter on incomprehensibly (to me, anyway) for three times the necessary time duration. Or blame it on my laziness. Whatever.

Bad missionary.

(I should have made a "bad missionary" label for this blog years ago - I would have so many awesome entries by now.)

happy Thanksgiving, mate

I had Thanksgiving today. Since it's Australia, people have to work on Thursday (!), so it wasn't going to work to have a big dinner that day. It's amazing how many people we could have invited - everyone was curious and wanted to celebrate American Thanksgiving! But we weren't really up to cooking for 40 people, so we kept it to about 12 (plus a couple kids): Andrew's family, the family I live with, and a couple other friends.
So I've been cooking for two days, and everything turned out so good! I've never done the whole dinner myself before. Andrew helped all day today and was great with the meat, and I had help with the desserts too. We had:
~turkey
~a leg of lamb
~garlic mashed potatoes
~green bean casserole (this recipe is amazing, I have made it a few times now)
~stuffing
~yams - with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, with marshmallows on top (the Aussies couldn't get over that. We do eat strange things.)
~green salad
~steamed veggies
~rolls
The turkey was the best I have ever had in my life! We used an oven bag, and I made a "rub" to pour over it and under the skin that I think did the trick ... blend in a food processor:
4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 tsp chopped fresh thyme
4 tsp minced onion
4 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper (or a bit more)
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c white wine
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Seriously, the most moist and tasty turkey I've ever had. Made for really good gravy too.

So have I mentioned I live with a pastry chef? Jean, the daughter of Rick and Beth (who are letting me take over their spare bedroom for a few months), was up for the challenge of making pumpkin pie, even though she'd never tasted it. Actually I have yet to meet an Aussie who's had pumpkin as a sweet dessert; it's always a savory dish here. Took them awhile to get their minds around it and all wanted to give it a try.Jean made two pumpkin pies, an amazing apple and mulberry pie, her special fudge brownies, and mini pecan tarts!!

It was a really nice time with new friends; everyone seemed to enjoy it (even the pumpkin pie). :) Andrew's mom kept giving me these funny looks - she'd raise her eyebrows like she was surprised or impressed as she commented on each dish. Haha - perhaps I am satisfactory for her son. ;) He worked really hard to make today special for me. Everyone was stuffed full, which I suppose makes it feel even more like Thanksgiving, even though we had the air conditioner at full blast as my laundry dried instantaneously in the hot sun outside.

And the best part: leftovers! :)

I sometimes use it in regular speech

This is my favorite sign in Adelaide. It's on the window of a shop owned by a (very lovely) Chinese family a couple doors down from Andrew's shop, so I see it regularly. It makes perfect sense when you say it out loud - as I do, every single time I pass by. Try it!

Thanks, guys

I'm not a fan of American imperialism or anything, but I have to say that this sight makes my heart feel warm and fuzzy. It happened in Greece, and it's happening here in Adelaide, South Australia as well: an increased supply of fresh and frozen turkeys toward Thanksgiving week.

Now Australian supermarkets are amping up their Christmas supplies, so it's quite likely that the increased turkeys are a result of impending Christmas dinners, but I'm choosing to take it as an acknowledgment that we exist and are celebrating a very important holiday next week. That was definitely the case in Greece, as Greeks don't really cook turkeys and there are a lot of expats in Athens, and I am going to say "Thanks!" to the Aussies too, for making me feel welcome. ;)

We're doing our best to put together some kind of Thanksgiving dinner here - none of Andrew's friends have celebrated an American Thanksgiving and are quite keen to do so! It's becoming a challenge to find a date that works for all, so we'll see if it works, but in any case I plan to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner at some point - my first turkey, and definitely the first time I'm going to be cooking everything myself...!!! I'll gladly accept any tips or favorite recipes...

Don't look now...

They were the words I had been dreading... "Don't look now, but there's a spider on your wall."

Ugh. I've been waiting in semi-paranoia to be attacked any day now by a foot-long spider, so Andrew's words caused me to freeze before I turned around to survey the monster hovering over my bed across the room.

Thankfully, it wasn't as big as the one I showed you the other day, but not the kind of thing you want anywhere near you while you sleep!

Andrew left the room for a second, undoubtedly to get the biggest shoe he could find, or maybe a giant encyclopedia or some other enormous object worthy of smashing the living daylights out of my intruder. What a man, I was thinking; he steps right into action to save me from the big gross hairy spider!! And he came back with ... a cup.

So I watched as he fished a suitable piece of paper out of a stack on my floor (ahem, to be filed), trapped the thing against the wall with the cup and slid the paper in there. He took it all the way out to the backyard, much to the excitement of the possessed family dog, Sam, and let it go in the garden.

I suppose I should think it's good that his first instinct is to set free rather than to kill (like mine). I just think it's rather hilarious that while I'm wondering how we are going to smash it without smearing it all over the wall, he is considering the necessary glass size and paper thickness to effectively release the thing to have a long peaceful life in the great outdoors. That option just doesn't even occur to me - I'll kill it every time, spider, cockroach, millipede (one of which I found in my bed the other day), whatever.

Well, maybe not a foot long spider ... I'm not sure WHAT I would do with that!?

P.S. Aussie mozzies can eat you THROUGH YOUR JEANS!!

6 weeks!?

I arrived back in Adelaide yesterday. It was a glorious warm spring day, which was so wonderful after weeks of rain and changing weather on my travels. We ran some errands - IKEA, Office Works, etc. and relaxed. Last night we had a lovely barbecue on the patio at Andrew's house with his housemates. I'm learning quickly about the Aussie mozzies (mosquitos) and wondering if I'm going to have to bathe in insect repellant each afternoon!? But, it was a lovely evening with citronella candles, yummy homemade burgers and wine. :)

I realized this morning that I get to be here for 6+ weeks, until we leave Christmas Eve for the States ... and that that is the longest stretch I have been in one place in 2010 without traveling. Oh my! Perhaps that is why I feel such relief to settle in, unpack, and have a normal life for a little while. I'm not complaining about the great traveling and ministry opportunities I've had, but it can get quite draining too!

So here is my big SIGH of relief and settling...... :)

I've found my calling

It's to save the Australians from eternal grammatical condemnation.I am manning a booth and doing a workshop at a missons conference in Canberra today ... get a proof reader, people!!!

"I knew you were American because of your teeth."

Chalk one up for the nazi American Dental Association!

It's been a busy week. It doesn't stop until I'm on my flight back to Adelaide on Tuesday morning! Andrew has been in Sydney for a couple of days too, for work, so it's been nice to catch up over dinner and hot chocolate in the evenings. The neighborhood we're staying in has heaps of great Thai restaurants so we've been having our fill! He left tonight and I'm off tomorrow as well for the weekend, for a missions conference and to speak in another church (and a bush walk!).

During a Skype meeting yesterday I felt the thrill of possibilities with what we're trying to do here (re: an ITeams Australia anti-trafficking ministry). Admittedly, it's one of the first times I've felt that since this whole thing began. I think it's in part to news of some potential teammates - makes me realize just how much I was NOT feeling inspired to do this on my own. Monday night, back in Sydney, we're having an important meeting with several interested people to attempt to set some vision and see "who wants in" ... I feel like a lot is resting on this and I'm feeling hopeful for the first time.

Earlier I was browsing some photos and found this from Greece:
I miss my friends - but was encouraged tonight as I had a coffee date with a couple new girlfriends here. :) Now off to bed - first time before midnight all week!

a post

I have jet lag. Sydney is a half hour ahead of Adelaide...so that is a completely ridiculous statement, but I'm going with it. I'm tired.

I flew into Sydney yesterday afternoon, was picked up and driven two hours north to Newcastle. This is Annette's home town! She's the Aussie that joined the Nea Zoi staff in Athens this summer. I got to have dinner with her family last night, stay with her parents, and speak at her church this morning. Took the bus back to Sydney this afternoon, and ready for meetings and things to start tomorrow.

It was fun to speak there ... they are doing a missions month, so it was perfect timing. I shared about what's going on in Athens and some stories of some of the girls. It was a good opportunity for them to hear specifics and see photos of what she's doing. (You can see some photos here if you want!)

After church I had lunch with her parents and her best friend Michelle and Michelle's fiance - fish and chips on the beach, complete with a bite of a deep fried Mars Bar! I am pretty sure that was the foulest thing I had ever tasted...not a flavor I desire to have anywhere near my mouth ever again. (Except the chocolate was good; I licked it out of my piece.) :)I was talking to someone the other day who was a missionary in Africa. Like, she lived in a hut and did her laundry in a barrel and cooked over a fire. That is just a whole different level of missionary. I lived in a city with grocery stores and I had electricity and my biggest hardships were not being able to flush my toilet paper and not having a clothes dryer. :) I told her, admiringly, that I could never do what she did. I'm a total crap missionary in comparison. But then she said, "Well, I could never do what you do."

Oh. Ok. To each his own. I work in the sex industry...I guess that's not really normal either. It's cool that we are all equipped for different service. We each have different gifts and can handle different things. The way different parts of the body should work!

Speaking of which, the other day Andrew introduced me to an older couple, some friends of the family, and said "This is Kelsey. She works in brothels." Sweeet. Thanks honey.

sorry in advance

Yesterday I bundled up, knowing it gets cold by the afternoon and the evenings are still downright chilly. I'm collecting Andrew's sweatshirts and socks that he's had to loan me because I left my house unprepared. Well, yesterday, I was prepared! But, yesterday it was 31 degrees - almost 90. My long sleeves and extra layers were completely unnecessary, and the night was one of those glorious warm summer nights.

Today it's raining.

So goes springtime in Australia. You have to pack your whole wardrobe for an Aussie spring, I'm told. Good thing I have five suitcases worth of clothing. ;)

Here is a new Australian (or warm climate) creature that I learned about the other night when Andrew had one on his car. Apparently they are harmless and people don't mind them running around the house at all. I find this to be quite unsettling.









Ready? Are you sure?








The Huntsman spider ... aka the "giant crab spider." It can grow up to 10 inches in some areas!
I hope you are enjoying learning about the Australian culture! Sweet dreams! ;)

this and that

Hi, I don't have much to say. I'm in Adelaide this week...sorting through suitcases, going to spin (cycling) classes at the gym, hanging out with Andrew... I could stay here. :) But it's back to Sydney on Saturday, for the second half of the whirlwind - ten more days of speaking, events and meetings.

It's trying to be spring; the mornings are warm and sunny and then the clouds and cool winds come by the afternoon. All the shops have their Christmas decorations out this week; it's weird to think that Christmas will be a summer holiday this year! (Well, until Christmas Eve - then it's to Seattle. But at least for the season leading up it will be getting hotter.)

I've commandeered Andrew's guitar and had a brief lesson today from his brother in law. I really miss playing and can't believe I led worship once upon a time - that would be frightening these days. I'm excited to work on it again.

Also there are great places to hike in the Adelaide Hills, with great views at the top and sometimes a kangaroo or two along the way. I've quit running, I think (finally); my last run was in September here ... so I'll have to press hard into the cycling and hiking. After years of deteriorating knees I am finally taking the doctor's advice (5 years later) and quitting. I think. It's an odd feeling and I miss the flexibility and just the feeling of it, but I'd like to be able to walk in 20 years. I had been holding onto the dream of just one more triathlon - even in Greece I looked into doing one - but maybe it's not meant to be. I know I don't sound very convincing, and I've tried to quit before, but I think it's for good this time. We'll see. ;)

Here I will leave you with a picture of a kangaroo I saw the other day:
Mmmm.

What should I call my newsletter? Also, pesto is a very dangerous substance.

I am working on my monthly update letter. What should I call it? Like "The Sydney Scoop!" or "Aussie Update" or something much more catchy. (But not "Kangaroo Krack-Up," which was Janell's suggestion.) I don't even know if there's a real job for me here yet, but clearly this is an important aspect of my ministry! ;) Suggestions???

Andrew finally got my stuff out of Adelaide customs yesterday. Took a whole week; they ended up charging me tax on some items that was 4x what the items were worth, throwing in a whole load of additional charges, and taking my Knorr pesto sauce mix packets. You know the powder kind that you mix with milk and olive oil? So yummy. And also, clearly, a hazard to the whole country of Australia. They were "seized for destruction." Who knew powdered pesto was such a dangerous contaminant! Thank goodness, they saved us all.

hi Mom

I am here...briefly. My first three weeks here look like this:

Melbourne > Adelaide > Sydney > Brisbane > Adelaide > Newcastle > Sydney > Canberra > Cooma > Adelaide

Tomorrow doing a workshop on trafficking at a Bible college in Sydney. Another event and many meetings in Brisbane. Then more speaking, churches, more events, and lots and lots of meetings.

My unaccompanied luggage that arrived in time for me on Tuesday is still being detained by the Port of Adelaide customs, I sure am loving them right now. So I leave tomorrow for Sydney and Brisbane with the same suitcase of clothes I kept for my last week in Greece! Ha.

For now I'm staying with a family from Andrew's church while in Adelaide; they are gracious hosts and hosting me free of charge for the next couple months. Wish I had a few more days to settle and kick the jet lag (got here last night), but off I go...

Deep breaths

goodbyes

I'm leaving tomorrow. For a whole new life, basically. Ok, bye.

Where did the time go?

Miss them already...

I have two full days left in Athens. Tomorrow is my goodbye party, Monday I'll tie up some last minute loose ends, and Tuesday I fly.

Even though it's been a quick transition and the past few weeks have flown by, I feel like I've had the time I need for good closure with friends, work, etc. I've felt twinges of sadness here and there, knowing I'll miss this place (and especially these people), but I'm ready. Some GREAT friends have helped me with the packing and cleaning, and since I am leaving my furniture for the couple who will be moving in next month, it's a pretty easy move logistically.

I'm trying to mentally prepare myself to go through the process all over again of learning my new surroundings and making friends. I was prepared when I came to Greece; I'm feeling a little less ambitious about it this time. It will be nice having Andrew there; here's to hoping I don't drive him crazy with my temporary dependence. ;)

Anyway, somehow weeks have turned into days and suddenly I'm staring my departure in the face. I alternate between confidence, freaking out, and excitement, and sometimes it's a little too much so I completely ignore it all. :) It works for me. I'll hit the ground running there with IT stuff, so it may be November before I can sit and process and make decisions. Stay tuned, I guess ... that's what I'm doing!

...and what I'm most looking forward to

These are the things that are going to make me feel right at home in the next few months!

English! - there might be an accent and they might say funny things, but I'll take it. Shopping in English, church in English, eavesdropping in English, instruction manuals in English, customer service in English...THANK YOU!!!!!

Driving - even if it's on the wrong side of the road. It means I am free to come and go as I please. I am not at the mercy of striking transportation workers, I don't have to carry 12 bags of groceries on the long walk home, and I can leave the perimeters of the city center WHENEVER I WANT!

Real grocery stores - big, beautiful, and almost anything I want. I can't even imagine.

English - it's a really big deal.

Restaurant variety - Thai, Indian, attempted Mexican, even Greek if I need it ... I want it all!!

And, well...
:)

Rent a friend?

A friend posted this article ("Is a rented friend a real friend?") on his blog about a website where you can "rent" friends. I eagerly checked it out, wondering if this could be an option for me in Australia.

Um, just kidding! What a strange - and depressing! - way to have to meet people! How bizarre.

3, 2, 1, blastoff

Ready for shipment! 2010

I've got a week to go, but my stuff does not! Stacie came over a few times this week and I am indebted to her for life as she basically packed all my belongings for me. Haha. I did help. :) Thank the Lord for friends who love packing and organizing! Two days and we knocked it out; tomorrow these babies are headed south.

Greece-bound, 2008

I came to Greece two years ago with three suitcases plus a carry on and a backpack (see photo). I'm leaving with five suitcases and the backpack. No matter how much stuff you get rid of, it still seems to grow!

Speaking of getting rid of, all my other belongings are sorted and designated as 1) pack (in my one remaining suitcase), 2) give away, or 3) throw away. Two (skinny) girls came and took most of the clothes I got rid of (YAY for being able to clothe my friends and YAY for my clothes fitting skinny people!). (Hopefully my clothes will still fit ME after this last week of eating all my favorite foods!) The throwaways have been thrown, the give aways are being given, and my worldly possessions are dwindling...until we meet again.

Top 10 things I'll miss about Greece

Since everyone keeps asking, and "my friends" doesn't seem to satisfy as an answer ...

10. constant excitement - You're always on your toes here, with strikes, demonstrations, and just a general unconventional way of going about things. Never a dull moment! (And, on second thought, I really won't miss this at all.) :)
9. language - Greek is hard. But there is something satisfying about learning and being able to communicate in another language that you never get to experience as a tourist.

8. periptera - I will miss these kiosks!

7. sandal man - There is this guy in Plaka from whom I buy these great Greek-made sandals. They aren't the most flashy, but they're made for lots of walking and they have gotten me and my bad feet through two summers. There is definitely a price to pay (usually in the form of nasty attempted kisses), so I suppose it's not the sandal man that I'll miss, but the sandals themselves!
6. fresh produce - Who doesn't love the weekly neighborhood λαϊκή (farmer's market)?
5. close proximity to Europe and elsewhere - In less than two weeks I'll be located at the bottom of the earth. Really wishing I could have gotten to more of the amazing cultural destinations that Europe (and beyond!) has to offer while I was so close, but so thankful for those I saw!
4. public transportation - Visiting other cities I've paid $4 or more to ride the metro, trains, and buses. In Athens, 1 euro will get you 90 minutes on any combination of the metro, buses, and trams. Since I live centrally, getting around is really easy here. Even when I can't get to my destination by public transportation, a taxi usually isn't more than 3-5 euros wherever I need to go.

3. Greek food and the taverna experience - I love sitting in a Greek restaurant (taverna) with a group of friends, ordering the familiar dishes, and sharing everything family-style. This doesn't always fly everywhere you go. The combination of the great food and the ambiance and being with friends is one of the things I'll miss the most.
2. beach & islands - I think this is self explanatory! Though my job isn't pretty, I tried to escape to the beach or a close by island on free weekends to get out of the city. I discovered that I love swimming in the warm Mediterranean! What a blessing to live in a country with such beautiful places.

1. my friends. They will still top the list. I have old ones, and I will make new ones, but these ones have shared much and been the highlight of my two years here.