Broken Computer :(

Sorry friends and family..I can update you all on my life and have some sweet posts once I fix my computer. Hopefully it's soon so I can fill you all in. To sum things up, I probably won't be coming home ;) It's pretty great here.
Cheers!
Jayme

2/5, 2/6 Weekend Madness

2/5 Saturday
We slept in and wasted a good chunk of the morning doing who knows what in our tiny apartment. When we finally got up the motivation to go for a quick run it was about 12:30...we will never run at 12:30 again...right in the middle of the day. After Shar, Caty and I took another adventure on the tram to spend a little time (once again) at the beach. We just can't get enough of it! Caty brought her sweet horse towel (that we couldn't stop laughing about) and we ended up laying right where they road by with camel rides. Shar went to try and get close so I could take a picture and the camel literally looked at me and smiled! haha!

In the evening we met up with some people Caty works with and proceeded to hit the town later in the evening. We took a train from her friends house back into the cities. Probably one of the best train rides ever...we ended up sprinting to the train stop because we thought we were really late...we waited about 1o minutes for it once we got there. Pretty hilarious. Caty got stuck behind while everyone went through the rolly gates. Your supposed to slide your ticket and it will let you roll by but hers got denied. They ended up letting her through though because "she was American"...I'm not sure if thats a good or bad thing but pretty funny on the other side of the gate! We went to a couple places..one called the London and the other RSQ (Red Square). The bouncer called my Minnesota ID McLovin..for those adults reading it's from a movie ;) It just so happens that we live smack dab in the middle of the city which is just a convenient walk home...litterally across the street hah! Our new friends are really nice...and everyone looks after everyone when you go out as a group so that's really nice. When we were finally all danced out...we were practically falling asleep standing up so we figured thats a good queue to go home. Our friends walked us home...(aka across the street) hah. Us 3 girls get inside to find a broken elevator with a scanner that doesn't work with your key.. so we end up having a nice chat reminiscing about the night on the lobby floor by the elevators waiting for the working elevator to give us a ride up..did I mention it was 4am, things don't close at 2 here haha! It then turned into..."Guys, my feet are black"-me "OOOuuch, I just pulled skin off of my blister"-Caty "Hey do you guys want a snack"-Shar (of course) "Seriously, I don't think you understand, my feet are black"-Me To sum things up...Adelaide is getting better each day.
Cheers,
Jayme

2/6 Sunday
I gave most of the morning to the night before, but we had a pretty funny early afternoon talking about the crazy things that happened the night before. We thought a good cure would be..of course...the beach. Lynda offered to take us and we spent a good 4 or 5 hours cooking up a good tan :) The sun and I are officially on good terms. It's supposed to get up in the high 90s this week (aka high 30's and low 40's here...we're still getting used to the conversions) Later in the evening we tried to go watch the sunset by the beach but took the tram to late...note to self, remember there are sweet sunsets but leave before 830. There will be lots of sunsets to come so we just made the best of it and walked around. It's weird, they're "going out" nights are Saturday and Sunday. We figured one crazy night was enough. Back to the "grind" (if I can even call it that) tomorrow.
Cheers,
Jayme

2/3, 2/4, 2/5--mixture of days

2/3
We’re finally getting into a regular schedule these days and familiarizing ourselves with the area pretty good. It’s actually quite simple…and set up nicely. Instead of wondering around the town aimlessly, we’re now aware of where we are in regards to everything. Shar always a little more then myself, I seem to be absent minded a bit more. We also have a nice little regular schedule going. Although we’ve had trouble staying up past 11 still! Isn’t that crazy??! A week later and our bodies are still adjusting to the time difference. It's nice we live by the river where there are paths to run all along, Shar keeps saying she didn't know she was signing up for "boot camp with Jayme"...and she's mad that "I won't let her get fat" ;)

We have been really good at not going out to eat and spending a lot of money. Instead we’re making all of our meals and bringing a lunch with us everyday to work. Our new favorite past time during our lunch is to go to Rundle Mall (which is sort of like a strip mall outside--similar to Arbor Lakes but smaller) and people watch. There is always interesting people walking by and it's super busy! By now its about our 3rd day of work--still doing office work stuff but they said we're going to soon get involved with the specific programs the Special Olympics do for the athletes and their families.

We brought our beach stuff to work today and of course it was rainy and humid...just our luck...We have operation we need a tan going on these days. We no longer want to be the whitest ones in Australia. So instead we walked around being tourists and taking pictures. They have black swans here!

2/4
Nothing crazy has been happening. Work is getting better, we're having specific projects that we feel like we're actually contributing as opposed to making copies and scanning. We wanted to go to the beach again but it was cloudy again! WE decided we would just go and try it out. WE got there and it was not only cold and not sunny there were TURBO WINDS! Sweet. We're in a fight with the sun. So we walked around Glenelg (the beach area) for a bit where there are a bunch of shops.

2/5
(Thursday)Today is our friday and we finished this huge media binder we were working on at work. It's kind of hard to explain but we also got to design a booklet for the Healthy Athletes Program. It was a good day at work and we got an "early mark".
Later that night, after debating for an hour where to eat, we went out to eat at some Chinese Restaurant, it was pretty good. Shar and I shared there house wine special and it was soooo good!! After we had to direct our way home...Shar is literally like a walking GPS. We met some new friends, and went to a bar called Austral. We actually had a blast and are enjoying meeting new people! It's been a little difficult meeting friends, we work with all older people and the night life during the week isn't too crazy. So operation get a tan and meet new friends has officially been started.

2/6
Friday so far has been my favorite day, talked to some friends on Skype (ehem Tanya made it certain that I gave a shout out to her in my blog...here it is!!) and got caught up with life a bit, and rollerbladed for an hour or so down by the river!
I also got a hair cut! I have been in desperate need of one for a couple of months and this no blow dryer/straightner action hasn't been the best for it (we couldn't bring any because the outlets can't support the volts and it will blow up, so we didn't bother bringing any).
It also was officially sunny!! We had a date with the sun and we're friends again! It was still quite windy by the beach but it was a great day and we met a few more friends. We then went out on the town and stayed up past 11, our bodies have officially adjusted. Funny thing...apparently we got home an hour later than the fire alarm and everyone had to evacuate the building. Glad I wasn't there.
Basically our week consisted of walking, walking, tram, beach, walking, walking, meeting friends, taking pictures, loving Australia
Cheers,
Jayme

2/1 and 2/2: Working and Walking

2/1
Today was our first day of work—it went good and everyone is really nice. There’s no one really our age around so we were a little bummed about that but it’s ok. We did mostly office stuff, and reading up on materials about the Special Olympics. Jenny (our supervisor) just said it’ll be low key for the first week so we can familiarize ourselves with the SO games. It’s a 10 minute walks and we bring our cute little lunch bags we bought.
Nothing too crazy happens besides debating whether to buy internet for 50$ a month, share it, or what?? We realized McDonalds internet was oober slow…we can’t skype or even check email. Literally my computer died before I could check my email it was so slow! We’re spoiled in the US with free wi-fi everywhere…Shars best quote “if I don’t get internet soon I’m going to blow this place up!!” haha!! Here they have pay as you go phones and pay as you go internet, weird. And for all those Target lovers, it is not the same…it’s expensive and not up to par ;) Back to the internet subject, AustraLearn said we could get internet for 30$, we soon realized we could get “beginner” internet for 30$ meaning, you can maybe check your email if you have 2 hours to wait for it to load. No thanks. I’m not too stressed about it though…but the other girls across the hall we’re having a meltdown. Quite entertaining if you ask me. Who cares. We’re in Australia.

Cheers,
Jayme

2/2

Day 2 of work went a lot quicker. We had a few crazy mindless projects to do but made the time go fast. Our plan was to go to the beach after work—we even brought our beach stuff to work so we could hop on the tram. Just our luck, it ended up being cloudy and rainy, which apparently is really weird at this time. Nothing to crazy is happening these days…not like the Great Barrier Reef. We’re really just trying to walk as much as possible and familiarize ourselves with the area. Lots of walking, lots of maps and I have no sense of direction. Shar really gets a kick out of it.

Cheers,
Jayme

1/31 Getting Settled

Today we went running by the river that’s basically in our front yard…it was still a shock to be in such warm weather! It felt so good to be able to move my legs and get some exercise without feeling so nauseous. That jet lag is awful! Shars key for some reason stopped working and we live on the 11^th floor (you have to swipe your card in order for it to let you go to your floor). The lift (aka elevator) has a mind of its own! We had an interesting ride up and down, up and down, until someone came on to swipe their card so we could get to our floor. The stairs lock behind you and there is now way to go anywhere but down to the ground level!
Lynda picked us up and she’s great! We sent her on a little chase to find us because we told her the wrong street..woops! We went to a store called Sam’s to get some cheap things for our place. Then we went to the market…you get your produce, meet, bread and other at 4 different places (all within close proximity). She’s also letting us use her blow dryer and straightner…my hair has been without one of those things for the past week and it’s got a mind of its own. I’ve stopped trying to control it at this point. She dropped us off and we just chilled out and bummed around town for a bit—we live walking distance to Rundle Mall so it’s really nice. We’re basically in walking/tram distance from everything. We’re smack in the middle of the city.
Later that evening Lynda came back with her two girls. They’re in 10^th and 11^th grade and think we talk funny! It was really fun visiting with them…good thing they did too because for some reason from Cairns to Adelaide there is a 30 minute gain in time! We would have been late to our first day of work! We keep getting tired super super early at night…still not used to the time change. It’s moms birthday here…happy birthday!

Cheers,

Jayme

1/30 Finally in Adelaide!

We left at 4am for our plane and I was really anxious to get to Adelaide. I couldn’t sleep and got sucked into watching a documentary of Christian the Lion on the plane! Cutest story ever, just sayin. Anyways once we finally got into Adelaide some nice taxi driver man was holding a sign for us. He pretty much gave us a personal tour on our way in. We pull up to our place UniLodge, which to be honest they really exaggerate and photoshoped the pictures online a bit haha! But no worries this place will do for a couple months! We get to the front door and no one is at the front desk. Here’s me and Shar with all of our bags so close to being at our home away from home and locked out! Someone ends up letting us in. So now we’re in the lobby dumbfounded for about 5 minutes. Eventually some lady comes and gives us our key’s…gives us the run down and basically if we lose our key…it’s expensive (which I may or may not have a problem with losing things). That’s what I got out of that conversation cause I was focusing on the fact that I was in Australia!! She brings us to our apartment/dorm with a few more rules, it’s two little bedrooms, a desk, twin bed, a bathroom and a tiny kitchen. Basically right as the door closes behind the lady we put our suits on and head out the door to the beach!!

We’re not exactly sure how to get there but we know the tram picks us up right by our house (our taxi driver told us). So we go sprinting across traffic to catch this tram that we have no idea where it is going. Shar is yelling behind me “we can’t just get on moving things that we don’t know where they go?!!” Next thing we know we’re on this jam packed tram, bug eyed, trying to figure out which way we’re heading…to the beach or far far way? There are definitely some interesting people on this thing though, and the boys here have hair done that looks like the guy from dragon ball-z (basically spiked straight up and crazy with straight bangs). As these minutes pass we have mini debates about whether to get off and collect ourselves or just keep going and go with the flow—some nice girl ends up explaining to us that we’re going the right way. WOOHOO!! We eventually find ourselves standing next to this nice elderly couple who start chatting with us and offer us their seats once they get off…they were just giving us tips here and there..soo cute! The lady then asks for our names and said she would prey for us to have safe travels—I about lost it on the tram with tears haha! So 20 minutes later we end up on this beautiful white sand beach, with a billion shops and beautiful people. We’re for sure the whitest people there..ew. I’m going to have to work on that. It’s gorgeous and 90 with NO humidity! The water is this bright aqua blue that’s barely describable with words. We lasted about 45 minutes in the scorching sun haha it’s ridiculously strong and feels like it’s only beating down on you! We walk around a bit and hop back on the tram, 100% more confident and feel proud that we made it around our 1^st day, scoping out everything and taking notes on our way home (dorky I know).
We soon realize it’s a lot harder to get internet around here and discovered that McDonalds has it for free. Everywhere else is like 2.00$ for 20 minutes!? One of my professors, Dr. Tornabene gave us a contact, her name is Lynda she lives here in Adelaide. The only way to get a hold of her is to check our email, which we haven’t since we left. We finally got a hold of her and she’s taking us around tomorrow to get some necessities.

Cheers,

Jayme