WE GOT A PLACE TO LIVE!

So here's one thing I already love about living in Melbourne.. when I let my hair air dry, it dries beautifully straight! Ah I love it! At home my hair would never dry like this. It takes much less time to get ready in the morning!!

Here's one thing that kinda sucks..I have yet to find a good, reasonably priced coffee place. But I'm not giving up hope yet, I just need to do some more searching! 

Yesterday was a good day. Not only because it was my birthday but also because after four days of searching, we landed ourselves an apartment! We were so lucky that we stumbled across an ad online by a lovely lady who was willing to accommodate us. She met us at the apartment we wanted to look at on Monday morning and not only did she tell us everything we needed to know about the apartment and area but also gave us information about where we need to travel and places we need to see! I am so happy to have found Carol because she is really looking after us. The other agents we went to see either wanted thousands of dollars to 'hold' the apartment (which Carol said is highly illegal) or only came to open the door and never said a word. 

The apartment is fully furnished with absolutely everything we need in it right down to hair dryers! She is going to buy us new chairs and other things for our apartment. We will be on the thirteenth floor with a view of Lonsdale Street. We are also in a prime location right downtown next to two really big malls, transportation and basically everything we will need! YAY!!

We also had to go to the Victorian Institute of Teaching for some information on our teaching certificates for here. On the 24th floor of the building is the first time we've been able to see the ocean so far! Hoping to get a closer view very soon! 

 We are so excited to get out of this hostel tomorrow morning and move into our new place! If we get the keys today we will probably go to Big W and the Reject Store (dollar store) to get some bedding and other small items for a place so that it's ready for us tomorrow!

This afternoon we are headed into the city to do an orientation for our teaching jobs! I am looking forward to start working and I'm looking into a part time job on the side for the first bit to help pay for our rent. I just want to see first what my school work load will be first! 

Oh yeah, last night we found this crazy mirror. It kept us amused for at least 10 minutes. The security guard watched us the whole time and suggested we just take the mirror with us. Ha Ha Ha.

CHEERS!

Trains, Trams, Transportation

Yesterday was a long day for us! We started it off with a complimentary breakfast at our hostel. I had toast and figured I better try some Vegemite. I should have put it down after I smelt it, however, I am in Australia and what would I be if I didn't try any Vegemite. I put just a little bit on the corner of my toast and took a bite. ICK! It's not good at all. Its a salty, bitter, yeasty taste that you cannot get out of your mouth quick enough. I felt as if I were on a Fear Factor contest and had to swallow it to win a prize. Although there was no prize, I did swallow it and vowed never to try it again. Ewww.

We needed to get into the city to set up a bank account and look at an apartment. That means we needed to hop on the train and figure it out. It's so great that everyone here is so friendly because we just asked where to go and they tell us exactly what to do. We got a MyKi transportation pass. It was $3.50 to travel on a train, tram or city bus for the entire day! That is a really good price considering an hour pass in Calgary is $3 to ride the train. We will need to look at the monthly passes though because we will be using the transportation frequently. 

Once downtown we opened up bank accounts and met with a realtor who had an apartment to show us! It was about half a step up from the last one and all though he tried to say it was clean, it was not..at all. He also was anxious to get our money which made us walk away from him. We then walked to the mall and began looking up apartments on GumTree (a classified website) and other realtors websites. Being a Saturday, no one answers their phone and there are very short business hours for those businesses that are opened! 

The adventure back out of the city was an adventure. We ended up getting on the wrong train that was taking us in the complete wrong direction! We got off at a stop and used a help desk to ask what train we should be on. He said "Platform 5, its arriving right now, you betta get to it quick!" We saw it coming and ran up the escalator and back down to get across the tracks and made it into the train just as the doors were closing. A few more train swaps later we were back at the hostel where we decided to further search for apartments when we got a phone call back from one of the possible apartments. We hopped back onto a train right away and went to go see it. It was nice, but it wouldn't be available until next Friday! 

We took a long stroll downtown, through Chinatown and other really cool streets. After walking for a long time with tired feet we finally found a restaurant to eat at that was reasonably priced! I had a pomegranate, feta, quinoa mesculin chicken salad. It was delicious!!

By this point (9pm) we were dead tired and ready to get back to the hostel to sleep! However, the trains don't run as frequently so we needed to wait for a train for a long time. We did make it back by 10pm and fell asleep right away. Ahh! 

Today's Australian Phrase: "How ya going?" 

From: San Francisco To: Melbourne

The past two days have been filled with tons of adventure. However, when I think of adventure my mind tends to head for fun and exciting experiences. Our adventure so far has been an exciting adventure in the opposite kind of way.

Wednesday started off really well as we flew from Regina to Calgary and Calgary to San Francisco. Those flights were short and easy. Then came the eight hour wait until our 10:45pm departure to Sydney. We killed time in the airport mainly by eating, charging our phones and soaking up all the free Wi-Fi!

Finally we boarded the plane. I was already so tired and I was asleep before we were even in the air. I woke up just in time for the hot meal and stayed awake long enough to eat it and go back to sleep again. I slept pretty well the whole 15 hour flight except for about three hours. We arrived in Sydney this morning (Friday) at 6:30am. Not only is it weird that we totally never got a Thursday at all but also this sixteen hour time difference is going to be screwing me up a lot! We had an hour until we boadred out next flight to Melbourne, which is where I lucked out getting three seats to myself!!

Each time I'm on a plane I quickly remember how much I appreciate for air travel and how thankful I am that I have been able to travel in the past and continue to travel far and wide! On our landing I was so pumped, filling with happiness and ready to enjoy our first day in out new city! We were actually able to hook up our phones to a network at the airport so we got unlimited data, calling and text on our phones instantly! I am so happy we decided to get that done first.

We taxied to our real estate agents office where we signed some more documents and were handed our keys. She told us its not a bad walk and that we would be able to want to our new apartment. So we did. Uphill. Three blocks. Four bags. We arrive at our apartment, opened the door and instantly felt sick. Now, I don't exactly want to explain in detail what we saw today but just imagine the most filthy, disgusting apartment ever. Yeah. So we left our heavy luggage in the room and walked back to the agency. That conversation ended in negative terms as there apparently wasn't anything she could do to help us out. What really ticks me off is that we started paying for the place on July 24th which meant the apartment should have been cleaned prior to that date regardless.

After many FaceTime calls and conversations back and forth with different people, we found a hostel to stay at in the time being as the original apartment is not fit to stay in at all. We could tell someone had been told about our frustration and trouble as when we went back to collect our luggage there were pillows and linens laying on the beds which meant, someone had gotten into our apartment and that someone expected us to live in that filthy place. Also what scares me is that that filthy place was someone's definition of clean. Yikes! Before we left we documented and took pictures of the apartment so that we can be sure to get our money back!! 

It was heaven to finally have a shower! Something that we had longed for after arriving in Melbourne! We got word once at the hostel that we would get a new realtor and be able to look at a place tomorrow and hopefully be out of this hostel by Tuesday. We have kept our bills for this hostel and cab rides in hopes that someone can reimburse us for the troubles we have gone through.

Anyways, it is time for bed now, even though it is only eight, it has been a long day. We went out and walked around this evening as well. It is quite chilly here as it is only about 8*C today! Ahh! It's been quite the adventure so far.

G'night Mates!

Checklists!

I don't know about you, but for me having a checklist is essential to helping me stay organized. I make checklists for almost everything I do. If I go shopping for groceries or anything else I need, I must make a checklist otherwise I forget 95% of the items I went into the store for. I make checklists of what I need to accomplish in a day, week, month to keep me on task and remembering what all my plans were. I need checklists of what I need to pack when going away or I'm bound to forget something that I will most likely need! 

When I worked at Enbridge I kept a list of things that we needed to do in my pocket at all times.While these tasks may seem a little odd, this was our summer work load for two summers and this trusty book allowed us to keep track of everything we needed to do. The things we had to do multiple times a week couldn't get crossed off simply because they were daily tasks. And, if you are wondering what "sniff some Cherry Bomb" is all about, you haven't lived. There is some gritty hand wash that is called Cherry Bomb that smells amazingly good and we would make it a daily effort to wash our hands with in a breathe in the delicious smell. HA HA. 

In all seriousness though, lists are the be all end all for me. They keep me remembering all the important things. Which, if you haven't figured out by now, I am a fairly forgetful person. 

As I am getting ready to pack up my things and get ready to leave for Australia in 30 days, I have made a super cute checklist to help me stay organized. There are so many things left that I need to accomplish before my departure and this list is helping me remember the important things that are left to do.

 

I wanted to share with everyone this checklist that I made because maybe there are some forgetful people out there like me that need to write everything down and check everything off to feel organized and on top of things. 

Click here to download

Make sure to leave a comment if you download the checklist and tell me what you use checklists for the most!

Little Miss Organized

Now that I am in the process of packing most of my belongings to be stored for a year, I have a lot of work to do because I have A LOT of belongings! 

I've started packing up my craft/work room which holds many papers, folders, teacher files and resources. I originally shoved everything into a big Rubbermaid container and put the lid on. Well, yesterday I thought of something that I needed to take out of said bin and it wasn't pretty. I quickly became overwhelmed at the mess that I have made by tossing everything into the container. So, I looked around for the best ways to organize everything. I found a teacher online who "binder-ized" all of her school stuff and everything had been perfectly labelled and colour coded. Next thing I know I'm off to the store to buy some binders! 

Check out where the Binder-izing Project came from! CLICK HERE!

I downloaded her completely customizable templates for the binders from TeachersPayTeachers. The best part is that I had enough TpT credits to get them for a nice discount! 

Full Customizable Binder-izing Kit

Standard Binder-izing Kit Freebie

I was able to make up 10 perfectly perfect binders within an hour. Everything is completely organized and will be easy to access. I can't wait until I am back here teaching and I will have a beautiful organized system of all my papers and files. This is seriously the best way to store everything and it takes up little space!!  

I love how these can go on a shelf and you can tell EXACTLY what is in each binder! AMAZING!

I'm so excited to have this binder-zing system and will definitely always use it! It's too just brilliant! 

Unlimited Possibilities

Isn't it strange how some things never even seem possible until they happen?  I mean, if you would have asked me five years ago where I'd be today I'm certain I wouldn't have been able to tell you that I would hold a Bachelor of Education degree and be moving to Australia. On the other hand, if you ask me today where I will be in the next five years, or perhaps even in just one year, it's likely the answer would be quite vague. It just goes to show how we have no idea what is in store for us. 

I like to think of my life as a novel, and that each different part of my life is divided into chapters. Anyone who has read a good novel can hardly put it down because the suspense of not knowing what will happen next compels us to read on. The difference between my life and a novel is that I cannot flip ahead and peek into what happens next. Whatever is in store for me, I cannot wait to fill the pages of each chapter with happiness, excitement and love. 

I've got 43 days left until I hop on the plane that takes off to Australia. I have finally got my flights booked and the excitement is starting to kick in although it still doesn't seem possible. When I think back to a year ago when we were in South Africa, it didn't actually kick in that we were really in South Africa until the beginning of our second week there. Strange isn't it? Anyway,  I'm slowly getting things together and getting rid of other things that I no longer need. I'm hoping to fit everything into one suitcase and a carry on. I already know that it's pretty far fetched, I will be the person in the airport with two full sized suitcases, a carry on and a really big personal bag! Ha Ha! 

A huge CONGRATULATIONS extends from me to all my friends who received their degrees last week! All of the hard work, early mornings and caffeine filled nights have paid off! I hope your heart is smiling from your wonderful accomplishment, I know mine is!

Learning Through a Lens

As much as I love my Canon Rebel DSLR camera, I've been neglecting it for quite sometime. I bought it a few years ago for a MEGA good price in a Boxing Day special! I go through spurts where I dabble with it for a while and try to learn the basics of manual shooting. 

I've decided that I really want to learn all there is about this camera and what it can do. I know for certain that I did not buy it to shoot with Auto settings, so it is my goal to learn this camera and all there is about manual shooting. I want to learn all I can so that my camera and I can work as a team in taking creative pictures capturing my life. 

I was sitting out on the steps watching Cooper-man play when I thought I should bring out my camera and take a few pictures of him. I learned how to take pictures in the natural, sunny light of day. I think they turned out well! This one is my favourite! 

Here are some other pictures from a while back that I took that I think are great.  

This picture is from my trip to South Africa. I snapped it while we
were on a night safari as the sun was setting! I love the silhouette!

We were out in the field on a foggy winter day and J was shooting his
SKS. I like this picture because of the fog and that the shell is flying
through the air.

I captured this picture while we were watching the competition
at Spruce Meadows in the International ring last fall.

While looking through the pictures on my camera, I found one that I barely knew existed. It was a picture J and I took near the end of summer last year. What a gem to find!