I don't understand cricket

We awoke this morning to find our clothes nearly dry. Time to check out the workout facilities, which until now, we've only looked at and that doesn't count. I run on the treadmill, while watching cricket, a game I am hopelessly unable to grasp. I know there's a wicket and a pitch, but what these things do or mean, I haven't a clue. Once we see the nice pool in our building, Chris and I agree that we are both eager to ease back into swimming, something we did competitively growing up. With those Bondi beach bods around every corner, now's the time to get back into aquatic shape. After lunch, we head out in search of swimsuits and gear and end up in David Jones, the huge department store in Sydney. I manage to get an athletic (read, unattractive) Speedo which I promise myself I will do many laps in. There is an amazing food emporium in the lower level of David Jones and we agre that this is much more exciting than swimsuit shopping. We taste bits of pate and cheese and end up bringing home a nice spread of things for dinner. For dinner we sit out on our balcony, sipping wine, eating cheese (among other delectable things) and reading. My idea of a perfect evening!

Laundry creativity

This morning we decide to head out for a run through the Rocks and suddenly stumbe upon the Rocks Market, a block-long crafts market that runs every Saturday along George Street. There are lots of kitchy souvenirs, but also some authentic and unique things. But we are broke so we just look. We walk back home, and with our apartment necessities now in place, we realize we need food. I head out looking for Cole's, the local grocery chain, and after an hour of circling, finally find it hidden below street level at King and George Street. Again, everything is expensive, but I try to ease the burden by buying local produce like mangoes and kiwis (they have become a favorite) and steering clear of things like $8.00 pomegranates. I sweat my way back home, my backpack full of staples for our kitchen. When I open the door to our apartment, I find our clothes strewn all over the place in interesting (quite creative) places. Turns out our dryer is not working, so Chris has gotten resourceful and strewn our wet clothes all over the apartment in very interesting places. He's proud of himself and so am I. Trying to find places to hang wet laundry is quite a difficult task, especially when you only have 8 hangers. In the evening, we decide to head down to the wharfs in search of a restaurant called Firefly. We do find it, but it's closed because the owners are on holiday. Figures. We end up having a great time at this local pub, the Australia, where we get adventurous and indulge in delicious emu pizza and kangaroo salad. When in Rome!

This is going to be expensive

We got up this morning and were instantly aware that there are many things we need for our apartment, all of which cost money. We're not talking $2.50 for garbage bags, we're talking $12.75 for a bottle of shampoo. I kid you not. This city is EXPENSIVE. We decide to head to Woolworth's, the best place to find homewares, but first we stop at the Town Hall for a special children's organ concert that is free to the public. It features talented organists from all over Australia, most of whom are under 15. The organ itself is amazing and the concert was well worth it, even for someone like me, who considers organ music somewhat funereal. Afterwards, we are invited for a tour of the Town Hall - sounds interesting! Three hours later, we are in the basement, while our guide drones on (in an accent I cannot understand) about the resident ghost, and the tour shows no sign of stopping. I'm the only one that seems antsy, while apparently everyone else thinks that 4-hour, snail-paced tours of a government building is riveting. We duck out when the group heads to the next location, and walk across the street to Woolworth's. Wow. Everything is grossly expensive, and I feel the quality is lacking, but there is nothing we can do because we need this stuff. We load up on pillow cases, towels, clothes hangers and the like, and I feel everyone is moving soooo slowly, blocking the aisles, comparing body lotions like they were prescription drugs. I guess we're just not used to the pace of life here yet. We catch a cab home because our stuff is too heavy to carry and are pleased to have knocked a few things off our list. Later in the evening we head to the Harbour View Hotel for drinks and dinner. It is an amazing view of the Harbour Bridge, and we see dozens of Bridge Walkers in gray jumpsuits, scaling the arch. Turns out this is a Sydney must, so we look into it. $200 a pop. We'll wait on that.

Tired but time to explore!

Once in our cute little 8th floor apartment on Kent Street, we decide it's time to head out for some lunch (or is it a midnight snack?) and explore our little area of the city, called the Rocks. We've heard good things about the Lord Nelson, supposedly the oldest bar in Sydney, so decide to saunter down for a beer, pizza and people watching. It's a bit overcast, but the temperature is a wonderful 70 degrees. People are swarming all over, even though it's a work day, and everyone seems in great spirits. We soon find out that everyone takes this week between Christmas and New Years off, so don't bother showing up for work. The Aussies are on holiday. After lunch, we decide to stroll through the Rocks, the first-settled area of this city. We walk along a road that is carved through solid rock, the Argyle Cut, supposedly created with only a chisel and hammer! The post-beer sleepies kick in, so we head back home. 3 hours later, our supposed power nap turns into an all-afternoon snoozefest. We CANNOT get up. Finally, around 8:00 we drag ourselves out in search of more food (of course), and decide to check out beautiful Darling Harbour, about a 10 minute walk from our place. Conscious that our cash flow is limited, we opt for sharing the ploughman's plate. The food comes and we stare at the itty bitty roll of bread, 4 pieces of salami, 6 olives and 2 cheese triangles. We're gonna be broke soon.

We're on our way

Well, we successfully left Chicago after a flurry of late-night Christmas Eve revelry with our new favorite neighbors, Shaun and Carissa. A raucous 2:00 a.m. game of Silver Strike Bowling followed the next morning by a no-holds-barred breakfast extravaganza with the Finns, capped off the bizarre, but spectacular Christmas celebration. We managed to successfully drain the pipes in our house, and after losing and then finding my phone and house keys (a very tense 15 minutes) while our cab awaited, we managed to tumble into the back seat with our 200 lbs of luggage and get to the airport in one piece. The flight to San Fransisco was rough and I feared for the 15+ hour flight ahead of us, but once we got on the plane to Sydney and managed to worm our grubby way into business class (thanks, Nancy!) we were in great spirits! The 21-hour total flight took it's toll, but we arrived on the 27th full of energy to be in our new home city.