In Australia and New Zealand, the time period around Christmas and New Years is referred to as the Silly Season. It's mostly due to the increase in parties and the propensity to drink more. I think that it's a great phrase, especially in this part of the world because it's summer here so there are more b.b.q's, picnics, beach-time, outdoor activities in general and long evenings. I think that it makes you way more likely to go out and enjoy the season and the time off around the holidays because the weather is nice (though it can be really hot) and you're not bundled up, trying to avoid snow and ice.
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| Flowers by my new apartment |
Since it's not quite Silly Season yet, this post will be more looking back at the craziness that was November for me. I started off the month by moving into a new apartment. It's a cute, one-bedroom, third floor walk-up. Not ideal for moving stuff into but as least I have a view other than a brick wall. I was able to find a place that came with both a fridge (no BYOF for me!) and a washing machine. It ended up taking me a month (yes, a whole month) to get the internet working in my apartment, hence the lateness of this post. If you ever want the full story, let me know. Needless to say, it was a royal pain and I spent a lot of time on the phone with my internet provider.
Ross came over in mid-November and we spent a decent amount of time at Ikea furnishing the new place. The last place where I was living with a housemate was furnished, so I had no furniture when I moved. My former housemate let me borrow an air mattress though so at least I didn't have to sleep on the floor until Ross showed up to help me pick out and then assemble a bunch of Ikea stuff. At this point I don't even want to think of how much I've spent at Ikea, setting up various apartments around the US and now in Oz. I think that the real takeaway point here is that Ross and I move a lot. At some point we will settle down, I swear. Or at least I assume that we will.
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| Harry Potter with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra |
Ross was in Melbourne over Remembrance Day (11 Nov) so we made a special trip to the Shrine of Remembrance as they were celebrating the centenary of the end of WWI. I don't think that most Americans appreciate how devastating WWI was for the ANZAC's (Australia New Zealand Army Corps). The British basically sent them wherever they didn't want to send their own troops and subsequently, a lot of the ANZACs were slaughtered. Every town in Australia and New Zealand has a memorial to the troops lost during WWI, and often during WWII as well, with the names and ranks of all of the fallen listed. It is very sobering to see.
The display at the Shrine of Remembrance for Remembrance Day was incredible. The pictures below show the text that encircled the Shrine. The words and garland are composed entirely of hand knit poppies. I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many poppies there were and how much time and love went into creating them. I don't have any Kiwi or Aussie ancestors but I was moved to tears.
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| Close up of the words |
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| Poppies |
A couple days after Ross went back to New Zealand, I flew to the US to spend Thanksgiving with my family. It was the first time that I'd been back to the US since we moved abroad in June 2016. During that time, my parents sold the house where I grew up in Boulder, CO and moved to Lawrence, KS to live closer to my brother and sister-in-law, who own a house there. Lawrence is a really cute university town and it was great to see my family. Though it was rather surreal to see all of the furniture and stuff that I grew up with in a house that I didn't know.
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| Naka |
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| Nell |
When we moved abroad, Ross and I had to leave our two cats (see above) with my parents, so it was fabulous to see our kitties again. One of them didn't seem to care that I was there (Nell) but the other one slept with me every night (Naka) and was on my lap whenever I sat down. In addition to spending a lot of good, quality time with my family, I was also able to see my best friend who lives in Kansas City and go to a lecture by Neil Gaiman (one of my fav authors) with my sister-in-law. After (too) much good food and conversations, it was time to leave.
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| Naka and Nell (I took a lot of pictures of our cats.) |
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| Pie time! |
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| The Taylor men carving the turkey. |
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| Nell |
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| Naka and my awesome p.j. pants |
On the flight back to Australia, I had the dubious honor of completing the longest flight that I've ever done when I got to spent just under 16 hours in a plane flying from LAX direct to Melbourne. It was pretty terrible. On the way to the US, I had transferred planes in Sydney, so it was 'only' a 14.5 hour flight to LAX. Anyway, it was way too much time in planes for a week in the US. The next time that I go back to the US, it's going to be for at least two weeks. I had finally started to get used to the time difference in Kansas and then it was time to head back to Oz.
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| Random coral reef some where in the Pacific. |
I had a pretty rough week and some change when I got back to Melbourne from the US. In addition to being incredibly jet lagged and stressed about some big reports at work, I was also incredibly lonely. Ross is still in New Zealand so I wasn't coming home to anyone and I don't think that I had actually realized exactly how much I miss my family and friends (and how easy everything is in the US) until I went back. My coworkers in Melbourne were great and really supportive until I got my feet back under me. So it's great knowing that I have that support network here. Ross and I still aren't sure how much longer we're going to be abroad past the end of my current visa (Dec 2019) but we've decided that if we do stay abroad longer, we definitely need to visit the US more often, maybe once a year, just to see family and friends.
I hope that this finds you all well and enjoying the holidays. Spend time with your family and friends and, if I know them, given them an extra hug from me. The next time that I post, Ross will be living in Melbourne with me, so I'm pretty excited about that. I haven't started counting down the hours yet, but I might soon. : )
All the best until next time!
