I'm starting an AFL team

Okay, that's not exactly true.  But I did get to go to the launch event of a new AFL team.  I know, right?!  How does that even happen??

My company has been involved with the community in the Western Suburbs of Sydney and became involved in a partnership/sponsorship of this new AFL team.  That being said, the event sort came up last minute and they needed people to go so about five of us from the office were able to make it work on such short notice.

Luckily my first weekend in Sydney I went to an AFL game with my husband, so I at least know a little bit about the game.  I'm no expert by any means, but I actually enjoyed the AFL game (more so than the NRL game we went to) and get the basics of the rules.

The event was at the Olympic Park with several hundred people in attendance.  They broke up the event into 'quarters' as they lead up to the big reveal of the team, the jerseys, and drumroll.... the team name.

The biggest to do about the event is that some young, big deal player who was playing in the NRL had signed with the new team and was at the event that night.  I of course have no idea who this person really is, but when I was on the plane to Melbourne for work the next day, the sports page was plastered with his picture and a full page article about the new team - The Greater Westerns Sydney Giants.  There was a big to do about the name, because apparently 'Giants' is a very "American" team name.  I don't think so, but I guess they do have a team here called the 'Magpies'.... yeah.  We'll just leave it at that.

I wasn't able to get a picture of Isreal (the big deal former NRL player) but I did get him to sign a poster for my husband.  Pretty cool, right?!  Hey, at a minimum it'll be great decoration for the man cave one day.

What a great weekend

After another fun Saturday night at the Fitz, myself, Marc, and Fitzy (no relation to the Fitzroy except for the proximity of his house to the bar) decided to head to Sculptures By the Sea on a Sunday.  It was the last day of the exhibit and it ended up being a gorgeous 80 degree day.  Sculpture By the Sea is an art exhibit of sculptures.... you guessed it... by the sea.  It's along a beautiful stretch of coast and is a few km walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach.

We decided to start in Bronte Beach and grab a bite to eat.  We magically found a decent parking spot, which was amazing given the number of people that were out that day.  This was early/mid November so late spring/early summer here in Sydney.  We'd been getting a lot of rain and the Sydneysiders were ready for some summertime weather.

After a quick bite in the park we strolled up the coast taking in the sculptures along the way.  It's one of the things I find really neat about Sydney - the city is very art friendly and finds really interesting ways to share art with the public.  Besides the fact that the views are breathtaking along the sea, there were some pretty neat sculptures as well.  Now, don't get me wrong, there were definitely a few that I was clearly not cool enough to appreciate, but there were quite a few that I liked as well.  Here are some of my favorites:

Check out that view!  That's  Bondi Beach

And here are a few pictures of the sea:

Now how to end such a lovely, Sunday?  Well, you gotta stop in the Fitz for a cheeky pint, right?!

One of the great things about my apartment is that it's walking distance to The Fitzroy.  We dropped off my car, and had a leisurely walk towards The Old Fitzroy.  The Fitzroy is in the Wooloomooloo area of Sydney.  This is one of the signs along the walk.  It's not the greatest picture,  but I just love this sign....

And that's how you pronounce Wooloomooloo

The other nice thing about the walk is that at this time of year there are these trees with bright purple flowers all over the city.  Fitzy actually took this picture along the walk that day and it's one of my favorites of the day:

And that's that.  A beautiful day, some art, and a pint or two.  What a great weekend.

Team Days

I know I'm really behind, so there's quite a bit to catch up on.  Back in October (I know... October!  Where did the past month and a half go?!) we had team days for work.  If there's one thing that the team here knows how to do, it's getting out of the office and having a little fun.

Although really swamped with work, I was actually pretty excited about the team days.  For one I'm still getting to know everyone so I thought it would be fun to get to spend some time together.  And second, I knew what we were doing for the second day of the event... and it's really good!  But we'll get to that.

The first day was all about team building.  It was really well facilitated and ended up being really fun.  We did some 'speed dating' where we had to spend three minutes talking about the other person - initial thoughts, what we like about them, and what we want to know more of.  It was really interesting to hear everyone's feedback on me, especially being the lone American on the team.  In the afternoon we spent the day outside in Rushcutters Park on a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  We probably looked like crazy people as lots of the activities required at least half of us to be blinded folded (yeah, that was great for my trust and patience issues).  Finally we ended the night with a barbeque in the the hotel.  The food was tasty and we all just relaxed, had a few drinks, and of course Liz and I decided to play matchmaker/love advisor.  Not sure we'll be starting a side business anytime soon, but it was fun for the night.

The big surprise for the team, was that for day two we did a sailing adventure in Sydney Harbour!  How awesome is that?!  I love sailing and I love a good competition.  We arrived at the marina first thing in the morning, split into two teams, then headed out to our sail boats.  Now if you are my husband, you want to know lots of details about the boat: what kind of boat it is, how big it was, blah, blah, blah... You know I don't pay attention to things like that.  The important thing is, it was big enough, warm enough outside and not raining.

Our sailing adventure consisted of a dinghy race (the winner got a 30 second advantage in the sailing race - we did not win this), a type of trivia/navigation challenge, and a sailing race.  We had a really nice skipper, Wendy, who taught us everything we needed to know.  While sailing around the harbour to answer the trivia questions, we were also able to start learning how to sail.  (The rules were that you could not ask your skipper sailing questions during the race portion of the day, only during the trivia portion).  We sailed all through the harbour seeing the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and all of the neat bays and inlets in the harbour.  It was amazing.  I can't believe this was a work day!

Sydney Opera House

We also started practicing our roles that we would have during the race portion.  The challenge was that there was no wind!  There's always a breeze in the Sydney Harbour!  Not today, my friends.  It made it a little slow, but we made it work.  I was on the main sail on the starboard side (sounds so official, right?!)

Okay, I'm not doing anything yet, but I'm about to!

And finally, the race started.  The other team had won the dinghy challenge so they had a 30 second head start.  But that didn't matter... we smoked them!  It was pretty amazing.  We were yelling sailing terms left and right "Tack!" "Main On!"  It was like a movie!

The Winning Team!!

It was great getting some time out of the office and getting to know the team a little better.  And for it being my first time in the Harbour besides on a ferry, I couldn't have asked for a better day.
 

My First Trip to Bundy

Bundaberg Rum is to Australia what Budweiser was to America (until the whole InBev thing at least).  To call it an iconic brand here almost doesn't do it justice.  The distillery was built in 1888 and the rest is Aussie history.  It's especially popular in Queensland where the town of Bundaberg is.

Bundy (I told you everything is shortened to end in a y or ie) is only really sold in Australia, so it's quite exciting as a visitor to finally get to go to the infamous distillery.  My team is doing quite a bit of work with the team in Bundy, so it made sense to take a trip up to meet the team in person.

First of all...everything is far here!  I don't know if the map is just deceiving or if it's because in the US there are so many more towns in between, but it was a lot farther than I thought it was going to be.  I flew from Sydney to Brisbane, then Brisbane to Bundaberg.  Bundy is a smaller town so its a regional jet when flying in from Brisbane.  Over three hours later, I finally arrived at the distillery.

Queensland is north of New South Wales and thus was a lot warmer.  It was much more tropical than I expected and several degrees warmer than when I left Sydney that morning.  (Degrees C, so several degrees actually makes a big difference).  Bundy is quite a popular tourist attraction - there are several public tours daily and also a bondstore that sells products and branded wear.

One of the most fun things about the distillery is the giant bottle of Bundaberg Rum outside of the main building.  It's one of those things that everyone wants to see and get their picture with.  So of course....

After a long hard day's work, I headed to the hotel - which was... at the beach!!  How awesome is that!  Are you kidding me?  It can't really be work when your hotel is a beach resort, right?!  It was quite a nice end of the day to get checked in to the hotel, then head for a walk along the beach.

The hotel was across the street from the beach

As we get closer and closer to summer, I keep trying to strategically plan my next trip to the beach...I mean, Bundy.... for work...

There's No Place Like Home...Or At Least Your Own Apartment

I finally have an apartment!  It took a little longer than expected but I've finally got a place.  The serviced apartment that I was living in was nice, but it was a little 'hotel-ish' and impersonal, so it's nice to have a place that I can get a little settled in.

I had what I'll call an 'interesting' experience with my relo agent... let's just say there were a few things lost in translation.  In the end we worked it out and after 2 days of looking I found the perfect place for me.  I'm right in the heart of Sydney in Sydney CBD across from Hyde Park.

I'm excited to live right downtown.  In Chicago I always lived in neighborhoods, never in the loop or River North, so it's great to get that experience here in Oz.  I'm really central to everything and I can walk, bus or train to pretty much anywhere I want to go on the weekends.  I'm across the street from a train station as well.

The building is really secure which I like and has a parking spot - even better!  The best part is that there is also a pool and a gym.  Bring on Operation Kilo Drop/Project Fiji! (Subject of a later post).

Here are a few pics of the place.  I'm on the 10th floor with a city view.  Not too bad, I say!

A View from the Top!    

Needed: Friends

I made it through my first weekend without my husband okay, but as the next weekend began to creep up on me I realized, I've gotta make some friends.  So what do you do when you're new in town and need to meet some people?  You do what any Chicagoan would do - head to the bar.

A few of my mates from work invited me to hang out with them for the day on Saturday.  We met at what is quickly becoming my new favorite bar The Old Fitzroy.  The original plan was to head to the finger wharf or to Manly for the Jazz Festival.  Unfortunately about 30 minutes after we got to the bar, the skies opened up and it pretty much rained for the rest of the day.  Well, I guess we're going to have to stay here and have a few more drinks, gang.

We had a beer or two then headed to the Swans Club to watch the AFL Grand Final (the Superbowl of AFL).  I realize that except for the beer part that sentence makes no sense to anyone not living in Australia.  All of the sports teams here have clubs that you can become a member of.  At the club you can drink and gamble and of course, watch the game.  The Swannies didn't make the Grand Final but the club was still packed with people watching the game.  For my friends in Chicago, it reminded me a bit of being at Joe's for Sunday Funday.

After the game I was in desperate need of food so we headed across the street to a de-lish pizza place.  The area of town we were in is called Wooloomooloo (I think that's how you spell it).  It's a neat part neighborhood with cool vibe and apparently Russell Crowe lives there.  I'm not a big fan of Russell, but people don't like it when you say that here.  He's a Kiwi by the way, he's not even Australian.

Moving on, things got quite fun once we got to the pizza place.  The pizza was delish (did I mention that  already?) and we were all getting into our prime.  There were a few other people there so the boys began chatting up a few of the ladies.  One of the girls in that group came to sit by me as my friends were hitting on her friends.  In the end, I ended up chatting with the girls and headed to another bar with them for a while.

It was a group of girls that all went to uni together in WA.  Sorry... I'm starting to talk Aussie speak.  "Uni" = university/college; "WA = Western Australia".  They were fun and I needed some new friends, right?!  I hung with them for a bit (don't ask me where I was because I have no idea) then headed back to the Fitz to meet up with the boys again.  It's always fun to end the night where you started it.

The Fitz was quite full at this point, so the rest of the night was filled with meeting some of the regulars and all of the other patrons.  I met some great Aussies that gave me the low down on all of the places I need to visit; some expats from London; and of course some proper Irishmen.  All in all, fun day/night.  Not sure that I have any new friends yet, but at least I'm on my way!

First Weekend without Hubby

It was a great 11 days having my husband with me in Sydney.  Even though I had to started working the Monday after we landed, we were still able to have two full weekends together down under.  It was great for him to get to meet some of my co-workers, see where I was living, and of course sight see all around Sydney.  I had been avoiding thinking of it, but eventually the day came and he had to head back to the states.

The work week went by really quickly as it wasn't much different than when we were living separately in Chicago and Peoria.  But then the weekend rolled around....oh...hmmm....

Okay, obviously I knew that we would have to be apart while I took this assignment but you still always kind of hope that a miracle happens and he magically gets to stay.  No miracle here.  Being alone in Chicago is one thing, being alone 10,000 miles away from my husband, family, and friends is quite another.  Well, I happen to be in one of the most beautiful cities in the world so better make the best of it, right?

Luckily the weather that weekend turned out to be gorgeous.  It was 26 or 27 Celsius on Saturday and Sunday (yeah, i know, whatever the hell that means...it was really warm out).  So I decided to go to the beach.  My husband had gotten the chance to go to Manly during the week while I was working and everyone at work said it's one of the nicest beaches in Sydney.

One of my favorite things about Manly is getting there.  You take a ferry from Circular Quay.  It's a beautiful 30 minute ferry ride and you get to see the Harbor Bridge and Opera House all along the ride.  Arriving at Manly Wharf it's a short walk through a sort of walking zone through shops and restaurants until you get to the beach.  Glorious!

It was one of the warmest days of the year since last summer so it was full of people.  It didn't exactly plan that well so I hopped into one of the beach shops and bought a beach bag and towel.

It was quite a perfect little Saturday.  Just enjoying the sunshine and people watching and a little reading.  For some reason it reminded me of the time that my best friend Jaime and I went to Virginia Beach together.  You'll have to get her to tell you that story.

On Sunday I decided to explore a different part of town.  I walked over to Hyde Park which was only a few blocks from my apartment.  I always love when there's a park in the middle of a city, so I stopped by Starbucks (I know, but hey, I was homesick... and it's not the same anyways - everything's in milliliters) and went over to the park to soak up the sunshine and do a little reading.

The park is broken up into two sections, so after a little reading I strolled up to Hyde Park North, just across the street.  There was a really neat art exhibit.  Every year Sydney does 'Art & About' - a way of showcasing different types of art and artists in interesting and non-typical venues throughout the city.  It was a nice surprise to get to explore some art during a walk through the park.

Feeling the art itch, I walked about 10 minutes or so to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  It was so nice outside that I didn't want to be inside a museum, but it was free so I spent an hour or so wandering through some of the exhibits.  It's on my list to go back and spend some more quality time there.

Not far from the art gallery are the Royal Botanical Gardens.  This might be one of my new favorite places in the city.  Like I said, I love a park in the middle of the city, and this is just beautiful.  I'm sure it's even more breathtaking in the summer as more flowers bloom.  The flowers are gorgeous and there's also a view of the Opera House and the bridge.

I didn't realize how far I had walked until my husband emailed me that he was home and wanted to Skype.  It was late Saturday night for him, so he was just getting home from going out with friends.  I started walking back (okay, I was pretty much running) and 15 minutes later I was huffing and puffing over Skype.

Chris: "Why are you breathing so heavy??"
Me: "I walked really far today"
Chris: "Soooo.....why are you breathing so heavy?"
Me: "I was all the way at Circular Quay when you emailed me, so I pretty much ran home"
Chris: "You ran all that way to talk to me?!"

Of course I did.  It was a tough first weekend, but I had a really nice weekend, enjoyed some sunshine, got in a quick jog, and got to Skype with my husband.  I think I'm going to make it.