Operation Hubby Drop 2010

In case you can't tell I've been missing my hubby just a bit since I've landed here in Sydney. I've had a great time but it's always more special when you have someone to share it with. Even though I had my quick trip back to the states for Thanksgiving I was still pretty anxious to get Olson back over to Sydney for a few weeks.

It always annoyed me those people that are like "my husband is SO amazing! blah, blah, blah.."  Well, SPOILER ALERT!  I have become one of those people.  Because (you guessed it) my husband is SO amazing!  Annoying but true.  He took 2.5 weeks of of work so we could spend Christmas and New Years together.  Awesome.  

Part of the reason I was so excited for Olson to get here was obviously I wanted to see him, but now that I've been in Sydney for a while I wanted show off my new city.  When he was last here we had no idea what we were doing or where we were going, so I was excited to show him all of my favorite haunts and spots throughout the city.  

One of the first big things to share was my amazing driving skills.  Laugh all you want, but you try driving on the opposite side of the road.  It goes against literally everything you've ever learned in your entire life.  And to top it all off, in Australia, the turn signal and the windshield wipers are switched so you're constantly turning on your wipers instead of your turn signal.  So having been here for a while I was quite excited to show off my vastly improved driving skills.  I can even do roundabouts!  The piece de resistance was my parking job.  The carpark (Aussie for parking garage) in my building is super tight so to make it easier, I reverse into my parking spot.  What up!  Who is this girl?!  I don't even back into a spot in America.  If there's one thing I've learned in Australia that's it.  Nice work, Pam.  Nice work.  

Anyway, I had a ton of stuff planned for the trip which I'll write about in a separate post, but I had one big surprise for Chris when he arrived: a sailing trip in Sydney Harbour.  Anyone that knows my husband knows that he is obsessed with all things boats.  We have a powerboat at home on the river, but a sailboat in the harbour isn't too shabby.  

I planned a 'Morning Adventure Cruise' for us with the same sailing company we used for my work team outing.  We headed over to Rushcutter's Bay checked in and waited anxiously to meet our skipper.  

While we're waiting for our skipper to get the boat ready for us, my husband is literally floating through the marina as he starts spouting off marina and boat facts like some sort of marine Rain Man.  This is going to be a great day.  

Our skipper was Nick.  He was this cool older guy who clearly just did the skipper thing for fun because he likes sailing.  The day started with clear blue skies and a slight breeze so once we got out of the slip, he let Chris drive the boat.  I don't think I've ever seen him that happy... except for maybe our wedding day.  

The wind really picked up and it actually got to a point where it wasn't safe for us to have the sails up, so we just kept the motor on and motored throughout the harbour checking out all of the sites - the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Fort Denison, and all of the beautiful coves and beaches.  Nick, our skipper, knew quite abit about the real estate market and gave all of the inside scoop on some of the huge waterfront homes in the harbour.  We got all the dirt on the well to do Sydneysiders!

The cruise was for two hours and it went fast and slow all at the same time.  It was fun to just sit back and watch Chris drive the boat and soak up all the marine-ness that he could, asking about all of the marinas and boats and sailboats and races.  He was in hog-heaven.  The only problem was that this was only his second day in Sydney.  Uh-oh... how I am going to top this??  Luckily, we were heading to Fiji the next day....   

The Work Christmas Party

When I think of Christmas the first things that come to mind are Christmas trees, carols, snow, Santa... you get the idea. So as the work Christmas party approached, that's what I had in mind, minus the snow of course. Well they do things a little differently down under. Apparently when they think of Christmas the first thing that comes to mind is costume party. In America we call that Halloween, but hey, who am I to judge?

Each year for the work Christmas party there is a theme and people go all out for it. This years theme was 'Nautical'. Brilliant! That's right up my alley. The funny thing is, last Halloween me and my girlfriend Nicole dressed up as sailors for Halloween. Unfortunately that costume is currently buried somewhere in my storage unit.

Now, what does nautical have to do with Christmas, you ask? That is a very good question. The answer is, absolutely nothing. But hey, it's Sydney, it's summertime and it's hot, so you just go with it.

Since Halloween isn't really a big deal here (I had no idea that Halloween was such an 'American' thing until I moved here) I was pretty excited to get a costume for a costume/Christmas party. The party was right after I got back from the states for Thanksgiving so I didn't really have much time to pull a creative costume together. And by not much time I mean I bought an outfit the morning of the party. It all came together at the end and I was sailor/captain of sorts.

The party was in Sydney CBD at a bar with a large outdoor space so a majority of the party was outside. The weather was great and it started in the evening so it wasn't too hot. It was so much fun seeing everybody I worked with in all of their creative outfits. The theme 'nautical' is pretty loose so there was everything from pirates, sailors, mermaids, Captain Jack Sparrow, and even Sponge Bob.

At this point I've been in Sydney for about four months. It was amazing to see how many people I really have connected with from both offices and how I've really made this my temporary home. It was a great party, in true Pam fashion I buzzed about and chatted the night away. The company had an after party planned for us at another bar so we all flowed over there to dance, dance, dance!

The night went by in a blink, and I enjoyed every minute of it! Just the beginning of my Aussie Christmas experience.

My two favorite Irishmen gearing up for the party

We salute you!

Happy Halloween!  Oh wait... I mean Merry Christmas!

   

The Best Thanksgiving Ever

My husband and I grossly underestimated how hard it would be to be apart for six months.  We've never lived together and mostly just saw each other on the weekends, so we figured it wouldn't be that hard.  WRONG!  Not only am I 10,000 miles away, I'm also 17 hours ahead so there's never really a great time to talk and we're barely ever even in the same day.

I  also never realized what a big deal Thanksgiving was in the states until I was in another country without my family.  I've spent several Thanksgivings overseas but with my family and lots of other Americans.  It's totally our 'kick off' into the holiday season.  I think I also like Thanksgiving because everyone across the country celebrates Thanksgiving.  It's not like Christmas which is a religious holiday.  So I was desparately missing my husband, as well as missing the festive holiday spirit of Thanksgiving, (I'm sorry, but it's just wrong to be 85 degrees in November) so I bit the bullet and bought a ticket home to spend Thanksgiving with my husband.

I hadn't planned on coming home and didn't have a ton of vacation left so I only actually ended up being home for about six days when you take into account the travel time.  The jet lag was pretty tough, but it was totally worth every minute.

Chris and I have sort of started a mini tradition to spend Thanksgiving together in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  His parents have a condo there and it's really relaxing in the off season.  We're always on the go so it's one of the few places that actually helps us both to relax.  I left Sydney the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so with the time difference I landed on Wednesday at O'Hare.  I actually missed my connection at LAX, but they had already booked me on the next flight which left an hour later so I only landed about an hour or so later than I had planned.  I was so nervous about potential weather delays that I had about 15 backup plans for getting to Illinois or Missouri.

I've never in my life been so excited about flying to Chicago O'Hare!  It was like a movie - a dramatic embrace at baggage claim!  24 hours of flight time and over 10 weeks since I had last seen my husband and I was here!

We hopped in the car and I proceeded to tell Chris every single detail of my life over the past 10 weeks.  What can I say - I missed him!  And I like to talk.

We had a quick and very fruitful 'stopover' in Lexington, IL where we looked at a house and put in an offer, but more on that later.

It was about an eight hour drive down to the Ozarks, so we chatted, caught up on life, talked about our potential new house and just enjoyed finally getting to talk in person.

I've mentioned before how everyone's been asking me what I miss and I didn't think I've missed much, but being home I realized how much I have been missing.  It's not really one thing in particular, just all of the little things that are so American that you don't really think about.  Chris was fully prepared for my visit and had lots of fun things planned so I could soak up as much Americana as possible in my short visit.  The best of course was our Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a perfect Pam and Olson turkey dinner and my husband even surprised me by bringing 2 sets of our china that we had gotten for wedding presents.  Keeper!

Now that's how you do Thanksgiving!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, mostly just watching a ton of TV (oh, American TV how I've missed you!), movies, and drinking crappy American light beer - delicious!

Mmmm....Coors Light!

It went way too fast, but I soaked up every waking second.  And to top it all off we got a call from our realtor on Thanksgiving day that our offer was accepted on the house!  Best Thanksgiving Ever.

Movember

I would be remiss if I didn't mention "Movember".... that, and I should probably explain all of the creepy mustaches in my pictures.

Every November all across the country Aussies participate in Movember.  There are 'Mo Bros' and not to be left out 'Mo Sistas'.  So what is Movember you ask?!  It's pretty self explanatory, but basically men around the country grow a mustache for the entire month.  While it initially sounds just kind of gross and silly (I'm thinking Hawks playoff beards... you know who you are), it's actually for charity.  Movember is meant to raise awareness about men's health and prostate cancer in particular.  So each year, thousands of Aussies grow out their mo's and raise money in the process.

Fitzy and Marc... Look at those mo's!

It's a great cause and a really fun way to participate, but by the end of the month it pretty much feels like the office has turned into either A) 1976 or B) a porno movie filmed in 1976.  It's amazing how much a mo can change someone's look... and not necessarily for the better.  So unless you're over the age of 60, my dad, or Tom Selleck, you should not have a mustache.  I'm just sayin'.

At least it's for charity, right?!