Home sweet Home(Or not)

We've been in Australia for about four weeks now, and many crazy things have happened within that time.
House hunting took up most of it. Normally I LOVE house hunting, but it now feels weird! I never thought we'd ever have to house-hunt again.

After lots of thinking we finally decided on one. It was between a house with a pool and a club house, and one with a balcony. You may think it would be an obvious choice(The one with the pool), but there were some flaws with it. Including the fact that I would have to share a room with someone, the rugs were ugly and there was no back yard because it was taken by the pool and club house. The house we have now has a entire upstairs lounge, I get my own room, there is a giant back yard with a garden and as you know, a balcony.

Most of the houses we saw were pretty gunky, but then finally some nice ones turned up. Unfortunately, I was already completely pooped by the time we found any nice ones. From there we became completely beach crazy!!! It was a fun walk to the beach down through the "Shops" center. There were lots of shops selling Aussie food; such as lamb Shish Kabobs, shrimp and other seafood. We tried the lamb and loved it! After our meal I found out that Aussie food tastes more fresh then American food! I mean I'm sure not ALL of it is as fresh as some American food of course, but in general. :) I thought that the food would be coolest thing that day, but NO we hadn't seen nothing yet. We also saw a store much cooler then food! Well I guess
it was a food store in a way. You'll see in the next post!
The beach. How should I describe it? Well....there's sand, water and waves...it's got me beat! It was SO fun! The beach is the PERFECT place to be! Even if you have a TERRIBLE rash,(like I did) you still don't want to leave! It's so beautiful! Not only that, but the COOLEST sports are played on the water!!! Surfing and most importantly WIND surfing! Where do I start! It's a pretty complicated sport, but worth it! So basically they get the wind surfer in the air which can be pretty dangerous. From what I saw, they had to set it up on the sand which is the hardest part. They had to be really careful not to kill someone with that giant thing! :D Once they've got the wind surfer in the air, they just had to wait for the wind to take them!  But the down side to this, is that they had to go later in the day. I believe that's the city rules. For instance, they have certain areas for surfers, and certain areas for swimmers and body boarders. We were there the whole day and got to see the wind surfers! 

After our adventure, we decided to take a trip to hungry jacks. Hungry jacks is the Australian Burger king and they serve FROZEN cokes. Speaking of Australian differences here are they are: 

1. It's "mackers" instead of McDonalds  

2. Summer break is shorter, but they have more breaks during the year AND the breaks are longer

3. A water melon is called a water malOOn 

4. A cantaloupe is called a rock melon

5. A cart is called a trolley

6. A elevator is called a lift

7. And there are cake shops everywhere! 

And tons of other things! We are just waiting to see more! 
Stay tuned for the next post where we experience the Aussie 4th of July! :D 

A Fancy Palace

When I say,"A fancy palace," I really mean it. We were in for a surprise.

After dinner, we decided since it was still early, that we should do something before we left.
So we sat down in the "lounge" and considered our possibilities. After lots of thinking and convincing, we decided that we should take a walk down to the Grand America to see how "grand" it really was. :) 

We saw a lot of amazing things that night, starting with the fact that it really DID look like a palace! No kidding! There were tens of ballrooms, HUGE doors that must have been at least twenty feet high and a magical courtyard!

I couldn't believe it! Not only that, there were different kinds of shops INSIDE the hotel! There was a toy store that had a giant robot, a giant gum ball machine, a "magic" tunnel, AND much more! 

There was also a salon and a clothing store! While we were exploring the large magical halls filled with grand pianos I was insistent on playing, we found something truly extraordinary. It was a giant gingerbread house. No lies! It was made with real candy and real gingerbread! I bet I cScheduleould live in it! I was truly sad when we had to leave.

Soon morning came. It had brought dread. All the excitement was gone. Reality slipped its way in.

After all the airport drama, we finally made to the plane. We got on the plane and got ready for the life that waited for us in Australia.

Our First Adventure

 "New Year's Eve," I read on my calender as it was the last thing in my empty room. I thought of all the New Year's we had spent here, and I just couldn't believe I wasn't spending this one here. At the time the new year felt like nothing. This was it, this was the adventure we had all planned for. But I didn't want to leave. This is the first home I'd ever made! I didn't feel all that up about leaving. But there was nothing I could do about it. I just had to embrace it, and make the most of it. At first I kept telling myself it was over, but now I know that it's only just begun.

I walked outside and got in the car. I caught one more glance at the house as we drove away.

The house looked so magical with the snow just finishing it's sprinkling upon our red and white gingerbread house. I loved our house. All the memories. Well I just had to make new ones.

We drove through Lander and I tried to capture as much of it as I could.

 Just as it disappeared, the beautiful  view of Red Canyon came into sight:

For the first two hours of the trip I felt empty and alone, but after awhile I started to feel at peace.  

Just as I finished a yellowish hue erupted from the mountains, somewhat like the sunrise. "What's that?" asked T.J.

"That's Salt Lake City, said Mom. 

We kept driving in only to see a large mountain. But then the millions of lights arose like a broken star. It was so amazing and beautiful! Surprising for Salt Lake City huh. ;) "Is this what Sydney will look like?" I asked in a excited tone.

"No. It will be more beautiful," said Mom.

I thought of a city more beautiful, and the peace I felt became excitement. 

"We're really close!" said T.J., "You can see it from here!" We were going to stay at a hotel the day before we left, and it was supposed to be a fancy one. Beautiful lighted trees were lined up next to the hotel to set off a New Year's theme. We drove into the archway and the golden spinney doors were too fancy for one-hundred and nine a night. There were two hotels: The Grand America which was a five diamond hotel, and the Little America where we were staying. "Oh! So this is the Grand America!?" I asked.

 "No, this is the Little America," said mom. "THAT is the grand america." She pointed to a HUGE, VERY well constructed building across the street. It honestly looked like a palace! So........ my mouth gaped opened. ;) 

With bags in my hands I trampled over to the golden doors and entered within. It was amazing. There is no other way to put it. There was a marble floor and a VERY wide, carpeted spiral staircase! It also had several chandeliers all over the plaza that belonged in a palace! "This is going to be a real adventure!" I said.

But this was only our fist adventure out of many.

After we had taken a THOROUGH inspection of the lobby, we headed down to our two rooms. Ana and I were finally NOT sleeping with any of our other family! We felt so grown up. :) It seemed like hours waiting for the parents to come down to dinner, and when they FINALLY came, it was a even longer waiting for the seating.( Fancy huh! :D) 

When dinner was served, it turned out to be more fancy then the whole "seating" thing! After our four course meal, I decided to take a trip to the bathroom. But this was NO bathroom, it was practically a fancy house! It had a entire hallway full of stalls! These weren't smelly icky stalls like the ones you would want to get out of, they were COVERED from the floor to the ceiling with marble! Every stall had it's own door and smelled of lavender! Not only that, but to add to that, there was a entire dressing room! And this was a PUBLIC bathroom! 

Normally I would be WAITING to get out of a bathroom, but I actually WANTED to stay in here! I've  never seen a NICE bathroom!!! "This is one of the fanciest things I've ever seen!" I said to Ana.

But this was nothing compared to what we were about to see!

Find out in the next post!!! :D

 I'll put the photos in after this post. I couldn't find my camera cord. :)