So, my last post was pretty short because it was pretty late, but I just wanted to share some pictures and stuff from when my mom was here! She had been looking forward to come here for quite some time and even before we moved here, started following a bunch of Australian tourism sites on Instagram. She really wanted to see wildlife and focus on outdoors stuff, like going to the beach. Easy! We actually spent the majority of her trip outside of staying in our apartment - we live quite close to the city and it can be noisy and crowded. Probably a culture shock for anyone coming from Ohio! We went to the Mornington Peninsula, specifically Rosebud and Rye, and also went to Phillip Island for a couple days. Phillip Island is really famous for it's fairy penguin population, and you can sit on the beach on any given evening to watch the penguins pop out of the ocean and head back to their land-based homes for the night. It's pretty cute! We got some pretty excellent beach days in too.
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| On board the Arthur's Seat Eagle cable car |
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| Arthur's Seat, Victoria |
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| On the Beach in Rosebud! |
We really had such a great time on this trip. When we got back to the city, we spent a lot of time at my pool just catching up, and I also took her to Fairfield where we used to live for the day. We got lunch at a Vietnamese place I really like, then went kayaking. Vietnamese food isn't really a thing anywhere I used to live in the states, but it has become one of my favorite types of food to eat - my mom usually doesn't try new things but eventually caved to my request, haha. What a good sport! I think my mom's favorite part of the day was finding a rope swing on the side of the Yarra River. We both swung into the river a few times - I did so pretty reluctantly knowing how many snakes are around the area! Turns out the river has quite a few poisonous tiger snakes in it - one of which ended up in the CBD right after my mom went home! Terrifying.
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| Lunch in Fairfield |
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| Kayaking on the Yarra |
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| Probably like 20 snakes are hidden in this photo :( |
When she left, I was honestly pretty bummed for a while - it is weird being away from home so long (it's been about 4 and a half years since I left Ohio) and then seeing family. I honestly think I will get better quality visits in with family since they will obviously come for longer visits since it's such a long flight. We only saw people for 2-3 days at a time in Charlotte maybe once or twice a year. With that being said, it's also hard to know when the next time we will see anyone since it's such a large commitment to come here, both financially and time wise.
It's sort of a struggle I have had on and off since I left; you feel pretty guilty at times for being so far away from people you care about. However if I would have stayed in Ohio, I don't think I would be successful or happy, so it's just something to deal with, I guess. I have other friends here and all over the place that have moved from pretty far away and I think it's a common theme. There is a quote that comes to mind from a book I really like, Tiny Beautiful Things, "I'll never know and neither will you of the life you don't choose. We'll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was beautiful and important and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn't carry us. There's nothing to do but salute it from the shore."
Living here is very fulfilling in a lot of ways - but it still gets lonely!
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| Regis' favorite old/new hobby |
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| South Melbourne Market, one of my favorite places |
Anyway, for other updates, we are working on eventually finding a different apartment - ours is over a pretty main road, plus it's a bit expensive. We've both been researching more seriously and have found we can get a nicer place for less money - so the next place we live will hopefully be somewhere we can stay for a while. We ended up where we are because we were in a hurry, so now that we have time, it'll be a lot easier.
Regis is leaving tomorrow morning for some mining town in WA - his trip was supposed to be six days and now it's about two weeks total. Neither one of us are happy about that, hopefully Regis gets another job at some point that he's happy with. I've been doing a lot of training at mine, which has been good. We really haven't been up to much else - Easter is coming up, so I think after that is out of the way we are going to do some kind of health kick! Hopefully the next entry on here is some kind of update from Regis or maybe a fun recipe from me.
See ya later!
-L
