my single mom journey...: adventures down under

Visiting Australia (and even living there) has been one of my dreams for as long as I can remember. I remember completing an interest form to see what different programs Hillsong in Sydney had to offer and how excited I was when I received their huge information packet in the mail about 8 years ago. The idea of attending one of their programs was really intriguing, but just didn't seem like the right path at the time. I later found myself completing a Study Abroad packet in college and listing Sydney as my number one choice. But then I became a mommy and that idea was put on hold. Then, my second year of teaching, I taught a "Holidays Around the World" unit and I distinctly remember teaching about Christmas in Australia and telling my darling first graders that it was one of my dreams to go to Australia and that I would do it one day. When we were getting ready to move overseas to China, someone asked me, "Out of all places, why did you choose China?" And my automatic response was, "God chose China. I would have chosen Australia!" I had no idea how or when, but I was determined to make my Australia dream happen one day. So when the PERFECT opportunity came up, I just had to take it!

Amanda, one of my close friends and super sweet babysitters from college, is currently studying in Melbourne, Australia and invited us to come stay with her! Flying from China, we had a shorter distance to go, paid half the price we would have from The States, had a free place to stay, had an awesome friend to catch up with as well as a wonderful host and tour guide! God's timing was so much better than my own and I am more than grateful we had the opportunity to fulfill my dream to head Down Under!

INTERESTING "FACTS" ABOUT AUSTRALIA (AND MELBOURNE SPECIFICALLY):

People drive and walk on the left side of the road/sidewalk. (I felt like I was constantly dodging or running into people!)
People wear Uggs as house shoes! They don't wear them out. (Funny, I really wanted to take mine since it was winter time and I knew Australia was the home of the Uggs, but they wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and now I'm glad they didn't!)
When using the bathroom, you have the choice to do a "half-flush" or a "full-flush"... giving you the opportunity to save water if you can afford to do so. :)
Candy is called "lollies" and we went to the Lollie Store 3 times!
Australia already had a "Burger King", so when our version of Burger King came into Australia, they had to choose a new name!
Melbourne was awesomely multicultural! I loved the way the city was aligned, how convenient public transportation and walking was and I particularly loved seeing so many different cultures represented with people and places. There were "strips" of culture (like Chinatown)... there was a strip of Italian restaurants and another strip of Greek, and Indian, etc. I really loved that one day we were walking and we saw Chinese people pointing to Emily and saying "hen piao liang" (very beautiful in Chinese). We felt just at home!

DAY 1-AMANDA, MARKET SHOPPING, THE PARK AND HILLSONG

Amanda and Emily
*Notice the distracted look on Emily's face... 90% of her pictures on this trip look like this!

Showing true colors! :)

Shopping at the market for souvenirs... I'm loving this!

Shopping pro

Pickin' up just where they left off 2 years ago!

Amanda, me and Emily

Silly faces!

My little monkey

Emily actually chose not to go to the Kids Class
and slept through the whole service... probably
because she flew in an airplane for 13 hours this day,
but I had to get this picture on our way out as proof
we were there. I was so excited about this!

DAY 2-THE ZOO

This day was a designated holiday because it was the queen's birthday, so we knew the zoo would be busy, but since kids were FREE this day, we decided to brave the zoo anyway! By the way... crowded in Australia is minimal compared to a normal day in China. :) The crowds didn't phase us one bit!

Waiting for the tram with her new Koala coin purse

Amanda and Emily on the tram

The Zoo!

Lazy Lions

The sign said this is a "Brown Bear"... we came to the conclusion
by how slowly he moved around that he was a very OLD brown
bear with grey hair.

Can't remember exactly what these were called, but I'd call them
a Porcupined Warthog... disgusting.

Tapir

GIANT Tortoises... they looked much larger in person!

Gorgeous Giraffe

Bizarre Baboons

Zebra

Me with the koalas in the background

The koalas were my favorite!

Kangaroo!

Fun day at the zoo!

DAY 3-MUSEUM, THE CITY, AND MISTY'S

Dinosaurs!

Emily and Amanda watching a video about dreams.

The Gardens

This was beautiful!

We found the children's corner just as we were heading out!

The River
(Notice I almost always have a "lollie bag" in my hand!)

Sangi (Amanda's friend from Singpore), Me, Emily and Amanda

Emily feeding the ducks some "lollies"

It may seem odd that we opted to go to an American Diner in Australia, but it had been a really long time since I had some true Western food and we were extremely excited about these burgers and shakes at Misty's Diner!

Amanda and James (Amanda's boyfriend)

Me and Emily

Emily's kid's meal in her pink Cadillac

Emily and Misty (the owner) and the cast from Happy Days! :)

DAY 4-ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, ART, CUPCAKES AND COFFEE

St. Paul's Cathedral
(beautiful church!)

Melbourne is a very artsy city and this is just one of many streets with lots of cool murals!

I loved this one!

Emily is just thrilled that we are making her take a picture with The Hulk. :)

Elmo cupcake!

Amanda and Emily with their cupcakes;
tired from a long day of walking!

Whoops... we got locked out of the house and it was raining,
so we went and got coffee and hot chocolate until Amanda's
friend came home with the key!

*Funny story.... Emily and I accidentally locked ourselves out of Amanda's room the night before and there were 6 of us attempting to pick a lock with coat hangers, bobbie pins, paper clips, and "How to Pick a Lock" YouTube videos. After calling a locksmith and deciding we weren't going to pay that ridiculous price, we had to wait a while to get back in, so having it happen 2 days in a row made for good memories. :)

DAY 5-TOUR DOWN GREAT OCEAN ROAD, THE OCEAN, AND PUKE

This day was one of the best and worst days there! Amanda had a class all day, so I booked a non-refundable all day tour (7:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.) down Great Ocean Road---a "must-do" when visiting Melbourne. Emily went to bed with a fever the night before, woke up several times throughout the night saying she was going to throw up, we didn't get more than 3 hours of sleep, she actually did puke 30 minutes before it was time to leave AND she had a 101 fever. We were leaving Australia the next day and I knew I would regret it more if we didn't go than if we did, even though she wasn't feeling well, so at 7:30 a.m., in the pouring rain, we went to the tram and headed to the tour bus.

Once we got there, they told us there weren't enough people going to do the tour we signed up for so the koala viewing and rain forest part of our tour was cancelled. Those were the 2 things I was looking forward to the most. I was really bummed and very tempted to not go, but Emily said she was up for it, so we hopped on the tour bus!

She puked 3 times by 9 a.m., the roads were very curvy and caused motion sickness on top of her already yuckiness, and she couldn't keep the Tylenol or even water down, so her fever was rising and we were getting further away from Melbourne. By 9:30, I was out of puke bags and napkins, had puke down my entire right leg, her jacket was ruined for the day and we had seen nothing but rain. Emily rarely gets sick, and other than her baby days, she's never puked so this was really unusual and horrible timing!

We kept stopping at different sites to get out and see the ocean, but it was really cold, windy, and rainy, and I knew she didn't need to get out in the cold, but I also knew we may never have the chance again. So we agreed to get out, look, snap a picture and get back on the the bus as quickly as we could!

View from the tour bus

Here we go down Great Ocean Road!

Ran out, grabbed a photographer, and ran back to the bus!

Our tour bus

The beautiful road that didn't agree with Emily's stomach

Pour girl is freezing, and that jacket won't be around much longer!

Next, we stopped for lunch, which I was really looking forward to. I had heard it was great and it was included with the tour. Luckily, there was a pharmacy next to the restaurant, so I was able to get Emily some motion sickness medicine which stopped the puking for the rest of the day, thank goodness! Unfortunately, she had no desire to indulge in this yumminess... which if you know Emily and her sweet tooth, you know this is a big deal!