J&K's smiling faces

Here are a few more pics from our adventures! 

This is the view from our hotel room.

Here is the first koala we saw!  (Unfortunately it was in the Wildlife Center and not on the main streets of Sydney.)

Jen trying to be an Australian reptile.

Kari sitting on the most dangerous bird in Oz.  (Well, a fake one anyway.)

J&K in our Aussie hats and boomerangs!

K&J in kangaroo and koala ears.

The Anzac Bridge

K&J at Darling Harbour

Jen at Bondi Beach

J&K in Pyrmont with a view of North Sydney.

J&K on a night out at the Argyle.  

K in front of a fountain in Hyde Park

Australian Idol @ the Opera House

The two finalists performing.  (The one on the screen was the winner.)

J&K in the crowd!

The hat I wish I was wearing to the Midtown Santa Pub Crawl! 

We found a home!!

FINALLY!!  We found a cute apartment a few days ago and signed a 6 month lease today.  We would have been able to move in today, but due to the large down payment they need since we are currently unemployed, we have to transfer money from our American accounts into our new Australian bank accounts.  It takes a few days for international transferring, so we won't be able to move in until Friday.  It's unfortunate we have to wait so long, but at least we know the end to hotels is in sight!  

Our new address is:

7/110 Cascade Street

Paddington, NSW 2021

Australia

So now the job hunting process gets our full focus.  Jen and I both have meetings with people tomorrow so hopefully we'll both be employed before too long.  I'm meeting with a recruiter and Jen has an interview at a flower shop to see if she's interested in going back in time when she was a florist before her graphic design days.  

We've continued to explore different parts of the city and meet more people.  (Oddly enough we keep meeting people from PA including a girl from my hometown!)  Last night we walked to the Opera House because we knew they were filming the live finale of Australian Idol and we were shocked at how easy it was for us to get in for free.  We thought there would be a lot more people there but maybe the show doesn't quite have the following it has in the US (or maybe all the teenie boppers weren't allowed out on a Sunday night).  

It was filmed outside on a stage they put up just for the show and even though it was drizzling a little bit, they still had lots of fireworks which was cool.  We got to see all of the top 12 contestants perform together and of course the final two guys performed as well.  The runner up from 2006, Jessica Mauboy made a special appearance and she actually has become quite popular and has a song out now (Running Back) that she sings w/ Flo Rida.  It was pretty cool to be there even though we didn't know anything about the two finalists but it's something we can add to our list of things we've done!  

Lots of love to everyone!

xoxo

K&J

Sydney Update

We've been in Sydney for a week now and are definitely getting to know the city pretty well. We've been walking A LOT as we hunt for a place to live and check out the different neighborhoods. It's pretty stressful to find a place here right now and it doesn't help that the apt/house hunting situation is very different from the US. They typically go to real estate agents just to rent a place and open houses are only on Saturdays and they are literally 20 min windows of time to view a place w/ a bunch of other people checking out the unit at the same time. It makes for a busy Sat trying to get from one place to another knowing you only have 20 min to view a place! We checked out a few places yesterday but nothing struck our fancy. Some of the units are furnished which makes it very convenient even though we don't always have the same taste as the owners! We would be willing to purchase cheap furnishings for places that are bare, but we came to the realization that none of them have fridges which definitely poses a problem. So it's back to looking at furnished places...

We've been staying at a Holiday Inn in a good location which we found on Priceline.com for a great price. Since we are checking out tomorrow we did another search on Priceline and we are now booked at a 4 star Marriott for $70 a night! Not sure how we lucked out on that one... It's also in a great location so we are pretty pumped about that. It's nice to know we will be in the same spot for another full week and have a maid to come make our beds. =) Now if only we can find something a little more permanent with a kitchen!

On Thursday we went to the Sydney Wildlife World and saw some native Australian creatures. Jen was excited to finally see real live kangaroos, koalas, wombats, echidnas, etc! On Friday we went to one of the beaches to check out that part of town. It was a gorgeous beach so we are looking forward to going back when we can actually relax on the beach and enjoy the day.

We checked out the nightlife on Thurs and Sat and found some cool bars to hang out in. We can't wait to meet more locals and find out about other cool places to go.

I was going to post more a few more pics but the computer isn't cooperating at the moment so you will have to wait a little longer to see our smiling faces again!

Back to the house hunting...
xoxo,
K&J

A few more pics

 

 

Fiji Pics

Here are a few pics of us in Fiji. Try not to be too jealous!

This is in the airport after our 10 hour flight. We thought we were traveling lightly...

Here's the cutest little local kid who escorted us on the boat ride to the small island of Walu Beach. Behind him was our welcoming committee.

Jen was determined to open a coconut and drink the milk...

Too bad it wasn't as good as she was hoping!

Here is a pic of our own little bure (hut). I took this while standing on the edge of the beach... that's how close we were!

Jen with a beautiful sunset.

There were hammock everywhere which was great!

This was the view from our bure!

We've arrived in Sydney!

After getting things squared away with thinking we were on a different flight, we departed Fiji at 9AM on Sat morning. We arrived in Sydney 4.5 hours later and we breezed right through customs and immigration in record time. I knew we were off to a great start when the immigration officer asked what we were going to get into on our trip and I replied "lots of trouble!" and his response was "that's just what I wanted to hear!" You know you're in a laid back country when the immigration officer is encouraging trouble from 2 young American girls! =)

We checked into the hostel and had to resort back to elementary school and decide who was going to get the top of the bunk bed. (Which turns out to be the loudest, sqeakiest bed ever!) We are very much looking forward to finding a place of our own with big girl beds, dressers, closets, and bathrooms that aren't shared with an entire floor. But for two free nights, we can manage.

We then set off to tour the city for a few hours and get a bite to eat. We walked over to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and were able to see people walking across the top of the bridge, which we hope to do soon. We met some people in Fiji who said it was definitely worth doing, so at some point in the next few weeks I'm sure you will be reading about it!

We were quite exhasuted after getting up so early and we are still dealing with time changes, so we climbed into our bunk beds before 8PM. What a wild Sat night in Sydney! We slept close to 11 hours which is so rare for both us of, yet much needed.

It's gorgeous outside so we can't wait to be in the warm sun and enjoy the day. It's great being back in civilization and feel human again. We didn't wear makeup or use hairdryers for 5 days and we certainly didn't see any highrise buildings!!

xoxo,
K&J

5 Days in Fiji

BULA!! (Hello/Welcome in Fijian)
Here is the first attempt at a blog for our upcoming adventures. Brace yourselves- This first entry covers five days on the islands!

We arrived in Fiji after a drama-filled flight from LA: an elderly lady sitting behind us had a heart attack which caused an emergency landing in Hawaii. Jen and I moved from our seats to avoid the smell of vomit and were then seated in first class for the remainder of the flight. (Can't complain about that!) We hated that it was in such a bizarre and unfortunate circumstance, but we were grateful for the additional attention, extra leg room, and celeb spoting of Nick Lachey! (We had spotted John Legend earlier in the day at brunch in LA!)

After the 10+hour flight to Fiji on Nov 1 we took a 2 hour ferry ride to the island of Malolo where we stayed at Walu Beach Resort. We were two of 6 people staying at the resort so we really felt like we were the only people on the whole island and it almost seemed like we owned the place. There were hammocks, white sand, palm trees, and aqua water galore. Can you imagine anything better?? We can only hope that our pictures do it justice. We rested, relaxed, swam, snorkeled, kayaked, and sun bathed. It was great!! The scenery was definitely not what we were used to in Atlanta!

After three days on our "own" island, we took the ferry back to the mainland. We checked into a hostel that didn't have anything close to the views we became accustomed to (but it did have some nasty critters) but at least it was close to the airport for our flight to Oz. After we arrived at the hostel, we booked a half day trip for a hike through the mountains to a waterfall and mud pool, which included lunch. If only we had known what lunch was going to entail.... We had to sit on the floor of a shack in the middle of nowhere and eat off of plastic plates from the Rainforest Cafe (who knew!) with plastic silverware (that I'm sure they reuse) and rabid dogs sticking their heads in the doorways which don't actually have doors. (Did I mention the mainlands aren't quite as resort-like as the private islands?) We picked at our food pretending to enjoy it in our "cleanly" surroundings and were eager to move on to the rest of the tour.

We hiked through the mountains and saw some fruit plants/trees and other natural surroundings (cows?) that were pretty cool and we eventually found our way to a waterfall. The whole time we were getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes even after we applied multiple layers of bug repellent, but we were troopers and eventually made our way back to the starting point where we were met by locals who then took us to to the thermal mud baths. It was a little scary at first, but once we got in and felt the mud ooze between our toes, we couldn't help but enjoy it. We covered ourselves from head to toe for a few pics, which hopefully we'll be able to post soon. After the hot mud, it was on to even hotter temperatures in the natural hot springs. And when they say hot, they mean HOT!!! It felt like a kettle that we stepped into. We eventually got used to the temperatures just long enough to rinse most of the mud off. (Though there was still plenty found in our bathing suits, ears, finger nails, etc. later!)

Yesterday we went on an all-day boat cruise that went to "Mystery Island" where we went scuba diving. We saw some cool fish including sting rays among MANY other fish which we have no clue what they're called. But we did find Nemo!! Unfortunately we got a little rained on, but it was the only poor weather we saw in 5 days and it was for less than an hour so we really can't complain. (Especially since we are WAY more tan then most of you back in the states.) =)

We leave for Sydney today which unfortunately (majorly unfortunate) I looked at the wrong time on the plane ticket and we have mutiple hours to spare here at the airport. My first major travel faux pas and I owe Jen big time!!!!
Wish us luck on our journey to Oz and all the unkowns that lay ahead of us. Stay tuned for more updates on our blog!

xoxo,
Kari & Jen