"THIS is a true Adelaide summer,"

they tell me proudly, as they retreat to their darkened air conditioned living rooms and lay comatose on the couch for the better part of the day.

(We are in the 100s this week, happy January!)

January Fail

I would like to take a moment to inform you that I have already failed at my reading plan for the month of January. The month isn't over yet, but as I stopped reading the book I was supposed to finish in January last week, I don't have any hopes of finishing. In fact I was reminded why I was only halfway through, and I can think of many other more boring things I would rather do than finish it.

So, moving on.

I am, however, quite close to finishing one of the other books I'm reading (one of the want-to-read books, vs. the need-to-read books, the latter of which are the focus of said reading plan). "Down Under" by Bill Bryson is fabulous! I love getting the perspective of another American on all the interesting/funny/quirky bits of Aussie culture and history that I've already noticed or heard bits about. And he's already done the research on the background, shares funny obscure stories about historical events, and mixes it all in with his own humorous travelogue. Andrew says I know more about Australian history than he does now (ha), and I also had him in stitches on multiple occasions reading him parts of this book.

[Side question: if you were (or are) a man, how would you feel about having your name in hot pink on a book you've authored?]

Hopefully you'll view January not as a complete failure as I shelve the other book I was supposed to finish and start anew for February with a new book about business side of human trafficking. I view this as work now, and it's good as I've got some things coming up in Feb. that involved teaching/speaking, etc. It will be good to get me back in the swing of things. We can hope, anyway; admittedly I'm a little preoccupied these days!!!!!!! (I'll tell you why soon.) :)

hi

It's been a packed week, already. I did manage to take my suitcase in over the weekend; Andrew drove me by the place (the guy knows every nook and cranny of this city!) one night so I knew where to go the next day. No bank yet because I only have a car a couple days a week, so I'll do that later in the week. Ok.

That's all for now. It's been an eventful week, which I may get around to posting about someday. I just didn't want to leave that woe-is-me post below as a lasting indication of my well-being in Australia. :)

Here is a picture of Andrew, my brother Travis and I on top of the Space Needle for your enjoyment.

foreign country strikes again

Adelaide 2, Kelsey 0

1. Yesterday I endeavored to take my suitcase into the city to get it repaired. It was torn on the flight from Sydney to Adelaide, so the airline is going to pay for its repair; I just need to take it to their specified shop downtown. I was feeling like getting some things done yesterday, so my goal was to drop it off and then meet Andrew at his shop for a coffee during a break at 5-5:30. I wrote down my google map directions and set off on the 40 minute journey.

I'm just going to save you all the grief and tell you that an hour and a half later I was still driving around, way out at the other end of the city, balling my eyes out and cursing this stupid city and its stupid detours due to stupid bike races and stupid food festivals. :) Andrew figured out where I was on a map (the map directory was missing from the car I was driving) and directed me to the shop, where I arrived just as his break was ending. :(

Today he ordered me a GPS navigator. :)

2. I wasn't up to a second suitcase-drop attempt today, so I thought I'd just go over to the bank, 3 blocks away, to open a bank account. I've been meaning to do this and hoped to at least cross one thing off my list. I rushed to make it there before closing, and arrived at 4:45 with documents in hand and high hopes for no more foreign transaction fees.

The bank closed at 4. What kind of hours are 9:30am to 4pm? I think I need to get a job there. Curses again, stupid stupid stupid.

You know when you move to another country, all your energy is spent on just managing a status quo in your emotional existence? So when something, possibly quite minor, happens, it upsets the balance in a major way...

Yeah, I've never experienced that either.

[P.S. For the record, I've been doing quite well, settling in well here, and I actually like it. Yesterday was just one of those days. I've gotten lost before and it was my first time driving into the city to an unknown locale alone, and I was only half certain I would get there, almost expecting something to go wrong. Oh well. One of these days I will return to being a self-sufficient human being.]

it's a boy! :)

We found out a few months ago that I'm going to be an aunty! Well, ok, it's really all about Lindy and Nate, who are due sometime at the beginning of June (she's wearing a 7 month fake belly at a maternity store in the photo). :) Yesterday we got the news that it's a healthy boy! I have my "nephew-in-law" to practice on here until I can lay my hands on my very own nephew next time I make it home. Very excited! :)

miss the most.

Every time I go back to the States, these are my favorite parts. I have a lot to miss while I'm away. It is oh-so-good to refill while I'm home!









So I cheated and a couple of these are old (only 2, can you spot them?), but I had to get as many in there as possible ... So - miss you, love you, see you again soon(ish), and thanks for still being there when I come home, even though I've moved away, and then farther away (sort of). :)

Andrew in America

Lots of cuteness

A couple weeks before we left for the States, Andrew's sister Adele had her first baby, Hunter. We went to visit last night. George, the proud daddy, loves to capture every moment! :)

They let me back in the country.

Janell, me, Andrew, Lindy & Nate in Kirkland, WA

Andrew and I arrived back in Adelaide yesterday after our flights from LA and then Sydney. I got pulled aside in the Sydney airport and questioned about my returning to Oz so quickly after my last departure, but since I still have time on my tourist visa and ITeams is in process with my work visa it's all ok. And apparently we just missed Lance Armstrong in the Adelaide airport yesterday; he arrived last night for the Tour Down Under, which starts here on Sunday night.

It was a fabulous, although quite busy, trip! I have mixed feelings about being back...it's summer here, yet today has greeted me with pouring rain and gloomy skies. I have much to update the blog with from our adventures in Seattle and LA, and hundreds of photos to sort through! We had a great time with family and friends, a not so great time sorting through my storage unit in LA and running bazillions of errands (but thankfully it's DONE!), and many fun adventures like snowboarding/skiing and Disneyland. It is nice to be back and begin to figure out the next steps, and have a bit of downtime to recover from the madness!

Happy new year, by the way, and while I don't really make resolutions as they are pointless and not motivating for me in the least, I thought of one thing I would like to try this year. I have stacks of books on many topics (theology, psychology, women's issues, various topics in spirituality) that I want to have read but haven't yet made the effort to actually read. I'd like to tackle some of these at the very un-ambitious rate of one per month. That's doable, I think, and at the end of the year I will have read 12 books off my shelf and be that much smarter. This month I'm going to finish one I'm halfway through (fitting as we're halfway through the month). I'll tell you all about it.

And finally, I think I might change up the blog this year. Maybe retire this one and start a new one. New themes and labels (for some reason starting fresh with the labels really excites me!); this one has a lot of years and a lot of topics. I'm keeping the formerly-known-as-Greece-blog, to update with ministry stuff, and will continue to use this one (or the new one) for personal things.

Ok I have a lot of crap to unpack! Bye for now. :)

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!