I Wouldn't Call it Homesick But...

I know, I know.

It's been about a month and a half or something since I've taken the time to update this with what's been going on.

I have what I consider to be a couple decent reasons:
1 - I haven't really been up to much outside of the work/social life/staying alive realm
2 - I've been generally kind of bummed out about some things I sort of miss and can't put them into definitive or entertaining, blog post-worthy phrases

THIS DOESN'T MEAN I WANT TO MOVE AGAIN, so just get that idea out of your head right now before I get into this! ;)

Moving this time was definitely a different experience for me. When I left Ohio, I was so damn happy to get out of there I didn't (and haven't!) looked back since. Most of my good friends had moved away, I had goals to leave there forever and it is generally somewhere I'm not too thrilled to go back to.

I consider Charlotte to be my first real home - it's the first place I made true friends with similar interests (not people I just hung out with because we happened to work at the same place or go to school together). I felt like I truly made it to where I wanted there and really loved it. I just didn't want to stay there because of the limitations that come with living in a smaller city in the US nowhere near the coast (or really anywhere else that matter).

There are just certain things about being somewhere familiar that are very comforting - unfortunately, when you move to the other side of the planet, you kinda lose pretty much all of that! I would love to do any of the following right now (please keep in mind it's winter here and I am going crazy from it getting dark at 5pm and being inside all the time!!):

• Go on the Plaza Midwood Tuesday Night Ride and chat it up with two of my closest friends all night.
• Walk to Wooden Robot Brewery and drink $5 beers all day with friends (oh - and actually having friends to text to hang out on the weekends is pretty sweet too).
• Play sand volleyball at VBGB with my friends I used to work with there.
• Go to an electronic music show at the Fillmore that I can walk to from my apartment and get in for free because I used to bartend for the security people.
• WALK TO WORK. BUT SERIOUSLY, THOUGH.
• Know where the hell specific items are in the grocery store without having to walk around like three times like a clueless idiot.
• Know how to get effing anywhere without using my phone. 
• Not to be basic, but Trader Joe's was a way nicer grocery store than the ones here.
• PUMPKIN BEER.
• Fried pickles, Chick-fil-a, glorious Southern Food, etc. Also, if you live close to a Chipotle please go for me and eat a mountain of guac. The Mexican here is basically non existent. :'(
• Music festivals!!

Sorry if it seems like I'm bitching, but I miss all of the above and a whole lot more - and it's going to be a minute before I can enjoy any of it again (if ever!). Positive upbeat people need to vent/complain sometimes too! 

I'll post something better soon, but I'll leave you all with some cool memories I had from Charlotte:

Seriously, if we were friends at all there, I miss and love you guys all so much. 

<3

Until next time (I'll be back to my chipper self, I swear).

-L

Footy!

Well we are fully in winter now so it seems reasonable to dawn a tank top and some short shorts and go run around outside.  Thats right, I've picked up a new sport and it's called footy.  In order to properly tell this story I'm going to have to take you back a couple months.  Back in mid April I decided that I wanted to give footy a go, so I started looking to see if there were any clubs near our house.  I was in luck, there are 3 teams that call Albert Park home.  So I sent each of them an email expressing my interest and only one got back to me.  The club was the South Melbourne District Football Club.  They said "come on down and give it a go", so I did.  I showed up to the Tuesday night training session with a brand new pair of footy boots and no idea what the fuck I was doing/getting into.  I learned very quickly that its not very easy to kick this stupid ball and that even though I'm in pretty good physical shape, I was by far at the back of the pack.  I had greatly underestimated the game that I showed up to play, but I was not discouraged.  I showed up to every training session (Tuesday and Thursdays) eager to learn, improve, and almost puke my guts out from exhaustion.  Bruises, muscle pain, general aches, these have been the norm for me now for almost two months and honestly I wouldn't have it any other way.

So what is footy?  Well its short for Australian Rules Football but it would be easier to call it Australian No-Rules Football.  It truly is a game that you learn what you can't do rather than what you can do.  I think of it like a combination of American football, hockey, and soccer.  There are no pads, no helmets, brutal tackles, fast pace play, and lots of running.  Its said that some midfielders run a marathon every game.  Its Australias biggest professional sport and Melbourne is home to 10 professional teams.  It has an absolutely massive following and attendance to some of the games at the MCG reach upwards of 95,000 people.  Thats college football numbers in the states.

MCG - Richmond vs Essendon

Etihad Stadium - Richmond vs Western

I have now been playing for just over 2 months and have actually played in 5 league games.  I'm still learning and improving my skills but I have made great strides at a quick pace.  Most of my teammates have been playing since they were about 10 years old.  To put that into perspective, imagine someone trying to play baseball on a league team who has never thrown a ball.  I am actually quite astounded at how nurturing and supportive my team has been of me.  They don't look at is as "this kid sucks, has no idea what he's doing" but rather they help me learn from my mistakes and truly want me to become a better player and bring value to the team.  So for the moment I have hung up the hockey skates and dawned a pair of neon green footy boots at least until the season ends in mid September.

It's May; an Overdue Update

So it's been another month and a half and I'm going to try to get better at updates. We moved almost over a month ago and just got internet this week recently, so no more excuses! (As a side note, I'd like  to point out I started the first three paragraphs of this post last week and got sidetracked by Netflix.. oops!)

Our excellent luck has continued (haha), our moving experience was a struggle to say the least. We thought we had set up the electric to come on the day we moved in, but it turns out that was not the case. A huge difference here is the way businesses operate for holidays - in the states, you can pretty easily find places that are open even on Christmas, and here EVERYTHING, including major power companies closes for Easter, which is a four day holiday weekend here. So we had moved into a really nice apartment with absolutely no power for five days. It is also getting dark around 6pm since daylight savings just happened, so getting all our stuff organized took a bit longer than we expected. Luckily, we had a couple friends invite us to an Easter wine festival in the country, so that was a nice way to escape our unexpected predicament.

Regis' styling Easter outfit

My friend Kat and I on Easter

Furnishing our place hasn't been super easy since we don't have a car. We've basically been making runs to IKEA or Kmart via public transport, then Ubering home with as much stuff as we can fit into a stranger's car, then repeating. It'd be funny if Uber wasn't so expensive! It's also hard to have to re-buy EVERYTHING again. I've had to make random runs to the store to get once-off things I forgot we used, but our house is basically functioning like our old one now. Every three or so days, I'll think of something stupid I have to go buy to cook something, but it's definitely much better than squatting in someone else's house and we feel like we have a home now! I'll add pictures next time, since we still have a bit of unpacking left to do.

To add to my last post about housing, another big difference with housing here here is heat/air conditioning. Even though it doesn't get THAT cold here (I would say around 40-45 Fahrenheit), the heat here doesn't really get our place warm enough since it's just a wall heater. This has resulted in me getting sick twice now, which is pretty annoying. I actually called off work today because I woke up with an awful sore throat and body pains. But enough bitching from me, on to the fun stuff!

So, what exactly have we been up to? It's now autumn here, so we aren't down at St Kilda every weekend like we were a couple months ago, which I miss. We did head down there a few weeks ago just to walk on the beach and we saw another penguin!

Fairy Penguin!

We also went to an AFL (Australian Rules Football) game with one of my co-workers recently. I don't really know how to describe that, so I'll let Regis cover that is his next post since he's started playing in a recreational league recently. I will say that we have begun supporting rivaling teams though, haha.

AFL Game! (Western Bulldogs vs Richmond Tigers)

I'd also like to mention here that work culture is pretty different - it's quite acceptable to get drinks with people you work with, even if they are managers, etc. I think from what I've experienced, people are more than willing to do pretty late drinks nights with coworkers, which to me is quite odd compared to what I was used to in NC. I don't think I actually hung out with coworkers outside of work more than once or twice from my old office job. It's been nice actually being able to make work friends!

Other than that, we have been going out with friends, trying to recover some of our moving costs by having more low key stay-at-home weekends, cooking with fresh food from the Queen Victoria Market and brewing our beer! Lots of work, working out, and running errands in between, so not too much out of the ordinary for us.

The bottling process from the last batch

The final result!

The last batch, which was our first we have ever made, was a pretty big success. I wouldn't say it was exactly like Wooden Robot Brewery's version of my favorite beer, but it definitely had a nice coffee/vanilla flavor and was very drinkable for the weather we've been having. I think we're only down to a few more in the fridge, so we started another batch over the weekend. This one will be a pale wheat ale (sort of similar to Bell's Oberon), but brewed with about 12 pounds of oranges (the rinds and the juice from them!). It's been an interesting process for sure. I think it's a really interesting hobby since we both enjoy cooking so much. I've also spent a lot of time bartending, so I am a drink perfectionist by nature at this point. Regis is just particular about everything, so he's been a genius with figuring out how exactly to do all the minuscule things that can really affect the beer's taste. It's a very time consuming process, but it's worthwhile and something I think we will both stick with for a long time.

Regis and Scott in action

Adding the good stuff!

I don't really have much else to add here, but I wanted to add a comical bit to the end about food. My mom jokes around with me sometimes about Outback Steakhouse having "real" Australian food and I wanted to post some stuff I've had that is pretty typical here, since people here don't eat Bloomin' Onions all day. To be honest, I didn't really know what people ate here before I was here, either!
Pretty much the most common foods I've noticed restaurants having here are: fish and chips, pizza, burgers, parmas, and some kind of meat pie. There are obviously tons of options at any given restaurant, so apologies to the internet warriors that might feel like correcting me if I missed something :)

I've realized it's basically a given here that any restaurant food we get here is made with more quality and fresh ingredients. Seriously, SO GOOD. But anyways. Parmas are a typical bar food here. Think sort of like a Chicken Parmesan but the chicken is served on a bed of chips and salad instead of pasta.  There is usually also some kind of sketchy appalling meat hidden under the cheese that I usually pick out and give to Regis. It was a weird dish to get used to at first, and there are actually restaurants that serve nothing but Parmas! There are all kinds of varieties, such as Mexican, Italian, Spicy, you get the picture. Meat pies are pretty delicious too and are also usually served with some kind of chip mountain. So there you have it! Australian dishes 101. Sorry if this has been a hastily and poorly-written post (I blame my cold meds) but I'll at least leave you with some yummy pictures of food. Goodnight from the other side of the world!

-L

A chicken pie (and of course, chips)

Approximately 3X more parma than I can eat

2.5 Months In: Some Updates

Hey guys!!

I was making breakfast this morning and realized I haven't updated this thing in forever! I've survived exactly four weeks of my new job as of Friday and it's been good. The stuff I'm learning is finally starting to stick, I have started with client work and I've even made some work friends. Not bad!

At the end of my second week, they had a morning tea for me and gifted me an entire bag of Australian goodies I've never heard of or tried, which was super nice! All the candy is great (minus the Cherry Ripes, I don't like coconut flakes!) and the existence of Tim Tams is going to basically going to completely destroy my diet. Haha. Also, I'm terrified of Vegemite. No one I've asked can definitively tell me what it is, so it's a NOPE for me.

TIM TAMS. <3

We haven't been up to much outside of work and getting back on a schedule that doesn't involve drinking beers and going to the beach every day (sounds terrible, right?). We went to the Australian Grand Prix last weekend, which was pretty awesome and WE FOUND OUR OWN PLACE FINALLY!

It's the perfect distance between the beach and the city, and has a huge balcony. It'll be a nice change from our condo in Charlotte; it's on the second floor vs. the 30th, and there's a pool on the roof of the building! Check out the views!

Motivation for Visitors? 

I'm honestly thrilled we found somewhere - the apartment/real estate process here is completely different than what we are used to, and to be blunt, is a total pain in the ass. It's insanely competitive and there are tons of weird rules:

• You have to go through a specific website to look for apartment availability
• Once you find places you're interested in, you have to book an 'inspection'. The inspections are at set, often very inconvenient times (think weekday mornings or afternoons when normal people work) and they're only 10-15 minutes long. If you show up late because the public transport is never on time, you're out of luck
• The market is so competitive, you can't request your own time to show up. Sometimes 10 people can show up at a single inspection, so if you want the place, you have to put in an application ASAP
• You put in an application; your application has to contain basically everything about yourself and like five references
• A normal sized apartment anywhere around the city is 2,000 - 3,000 a month, and the rent is quoted as weekly vs. monthly - you also have to pay two months of rent to secure the apartment if you want it. I am SO glad we saved up a lot of money before we moved!
• If someone else offers to pay more (it actually happens a lot), you're out of luck and have to start the process over

Sounds super fun, right? Unless we end up hating the place, I'm not trying to move any time soon!

We have started to get some real fall weather, which is kind of refreshing and also gave me a good reason to go shopping - both of us pretty much only brought summer stuff with us since we could only check a couple of bags each. Compared to Charlotte, the shopping and fashion here is AMAZING. There are tons of shops everywhere, and they actually cater to people with different styles. Charlotte had zero retail in the city and if you don't like dainty, florally crap in easter colors, then you have to do all of your shopping online. I got some really cute, locally-designed stuff that I love and I'm so happy I can go back to wearing 90% black clothing!

I really love living in a bigger city - it's really cool being able to experience different foods and cultures. People here really embrace diversity. I'm sure there are still racist redneck-type people (unfortunately they're everywhere), but from my experience thus far, people are much more laid back about the blend of cultures. Graffiti is also legal in certain places in the city, making for really neat pictures. There are tons of little hidden places in the laneways, some of the coolest bars we have been to in them are basically impossible to find without Google!

Hosier Lane Street Art

This weekend, we didn't do anything too crazy - we saw the Lego Batman movie and tried a new restaurant. Today, we're going to Hofbrauhaus in the city because Regis is fiending for a pretzel and a giant beer. April should be a good month, since Easter is a 4 day weekend. We don't really celebrate religious holidays, but hardly anyone in Australia seems like they do, so we're going to a wine festival with some friends. Also, Regis' birthday is coming up! Someone, help me with some ideas?

Yarra Valley Wine Region

Last Beach Day of the Season

Until next time.

-L

What Regis has been up to

Believe it or not, since we moved here we haven't been on vacation the whole time.  Most of the posts so far have been about short little road trips and what not but that has only made up about 1% of our time here so far.  With Laci starting work this week, I thought it would be fun to show you how I have been spending a good amount of my time.  FULL DISCLOSURE: This is going to be quite nerdy.

To most people the idea of not working for over 3 months seems like a dream.  I can't believe I'm saying this but I cannot wait to start working.  I am actually jealous of Laci being at work right now.  You might be thinking, "didn't you accept a job a month ago".  You would be right, but HR being HR has still yet to process my offer and thus I won't start work until Monday the 13th at the earliest.  

So in my vast amount of free time I have been doing the usual things like running, long boarding on the beach esplanade, going out with friends and so on.  Thats not what I'm going to discuss in this post.  What I am going to talk about are the various projects I have taken up due to my boredom and just the fact that as an engineer I get pleasure from engineering shit.  So far I have taken on two large projects;

1) Designing and building a Sim Racing Rig

2) Brewing Beer

To those of you unfamiliar with a Sim Racing Rig its basically a cockpit you sit in with all the normal vehicle controls to play racing games.  You can buy pre made ones, but wheres the fun in that.  For mine I have designed my own steering wheel with a 4.3 in lcd display in it, a fully modular 80/20 aluminum chassis that is fully adjustable and flat packable.  The wheel base, the thing that provides force feedback will be an industrial grade servo motor capable of producing 32Nm of torque (Has the potential to break children's wrists).  And lastly a custom built pc to run it all. 

This project is in its infancy as it is quite large and expensive,  two things that I cannot deal with at the moment but I have some screenshots for those of you who give a shit.

                           

Here is a video of the dash in action when it is all finished

The second project is almost complete.  Beer here is quite expensive, so I have decided to start brewing my own beer.  I have all the required equipment now and the ingredients for my first batch arrived the other day.  The first beer I am going to make is going to be a clone of Wooden Robots "Good Morning Vietnam" which is a vanilla coffee blonde ale.  This just so happens to be Laci's favorite beer from Charlotte.  I plan to make this project its own post but the steps behind it are pretty straight forward.  

  1) heat water

  2) put grain in and wait 1 hour

  3) remove grain

  4) boil water & add hops

  5) cool water

  6) add yeast

  7) wait 2 weeks

  8) bottle

  9) wait 2 more weeks

10) drink

Like I said, I plan to document this process start to finish, so be looking for that post in about a months time.

Im sure the next post will be more of the same from Laci, i.e. cool photos of stuff and things and probably something about her first week of work.  

Check back soonish,

Regis

Laci is Employed; A Celebratory Road Trip Ensues

As of a week ago today, I’m officially employed! So, clearly a celebration was in order for my final week of unemployment, and since Regis should be starting his new position soon as well. This week is also the last official week of summer (the first day of fall here was the first), so with the amazing sunny weather, we decided to re-do the Great Ocean Road. We did a little tour when we were here last year but had cold, rainy weather. It was much more enjoyable this time around. Thanks to Scott for letting us borrow his car! :)

Before I get into that, I’m pretty excited to land a job! I actually started interviewing with this company while we were still in Charlotte – the first time they called me was a little awkward; it was 1am my time because they didn’t realize I hadn’t moved over yet, but we moved past that and I think it will be a pretty good fit for me! I’ll be doing communications and project work for a financial communications company. Is it my dream job? Probably not, but I will have 6 weeks of paid time off per year and it will give me great project management experience. It’s also a huge step in the right direction for me in the fact that my degree will be of somewhat good use since it's in my field - I can sort of justify my huge amount of student loan debt. Haha. To be honest, other than being a travel writer, photographer, or bartender on an island somewhere, I don’t really have a dream job anyway.

So, our road trip! The Great Ocean Road is a 243-kilometer-long road on the Southeastern coast of Australia in Victoria. It starts in Torquay, which is an internationally-renowned location for surfing, and ends in Allansford. For the entire stretch, there are gorgeous views of the forest, the Great Otway National Park, beaches, and windy roads. Regis loves driving on fun roads and I like looking at everything, so it works out pretty well for both of us. There are cute beach towns and breathtaking landmarks every so often, so it's a pretty fun weekend trip. 

Torquay Beach

We started out by driving from the city to Torquay, which takes about an hour and a half. We stayed there overnight in an Airbnb I found the day before (yay, tax return money!). Our parents think we are nuts for staying in random peoples' houses while they're home, but it's pretty interesting and also great if you're on a budget! The host made us breakfast and everything, and it was a really close walk to the beach and restaurants in the area. We ate more seafood than I have ever consumed at a time that evening. It was glorious.

<3

The next morning, we packed up and headed out. We stopped in Apollo Bay for some lunch and a little shopping. We went to a cool little brewpub for lunch and walked around on the beach there, which is really beautiful. We didn't do as much exploring as we could have last year since it was absolutely freezing and we were ill-prepared for the weather, so this was really nice.

Apollo Bay

After that, we continued driving and decided to stop at a wildlife park along the road for some kangaroo and koalas! I was pretty disappointed there weren't any koalas, since the animal sanctuary last year didn't have them either, but there was no shortage of cute animals! We got to hang out with some goats, sheep and wallabies in a petting area, and there were other ones outside of there too. I fed some goats and got chased after by an intimidating emu. Emus terrify me and this one was no joke! He scared me so much I dropped the bag of animal food I was carrying around, then he proceeded to eat all of it. What a jerk!

After that, we drove along the road and checked out a few of the amazing landmarks. We skipped the 12 Apostles, mainly because we saw them last year and because there were about 10 tour buses full of people there that we didn't feel like dealing with. Since we live so close, this trip will probably be a more regular thing for us, so we aren't worried about missing out! We checked out the London Bridge and Bay of Martyrs this time around - two landmarks we missed out on last time since we were in more of a hurry. They did not disappoint - these photos hardly do them justice! We hung out on the beach for awhile and watched some very brave paddle boarders before packing up and driving back to Lorne, where we stayed for the night. 

London Bridge

Bay of Martyrs

We had planned our final day to be our chill beach day, but it was pretty overcast, so after we had some breakfast, we headed to Erskine Falls, which is right outside of Lorne. This was the second waterfall I have ever seen in person and it was so amazing. In our typical fashion, we ignored the "do not climb over the fence" signs so I could get a better photo! 

Erskine Falls

After that, we stopped at a winery before heading home. Victoria, along with many other parts of Australia, is extremely well known for producing great wines. I actually know nothing about wine, other than the fact I like white wine and Regis likes red wine, so going to wineries and doing tastings is pretty fun and informational for both of us. I also had my first spider encounter while exploring the vineyard!

Ugh. :(

All in all, it was a great way to spend some of our last few days of unemployment. I start my new job on Monday and Regis is starting the week after. We probably won't have much time off before the end of the year. Hopefully this inspires a few of our friends to visit! :)

-L