"There really aren't enough adjectives to accurately describe the beauty of Kangaroo Island. In fact, words can almost spoil the moment. Even photos don't do this wildly gorgeous destination justice". Isaac Bober, Symmetry, Australia.
When driving in Australia, the advice given is as follows: "Try to avoid driving at dawn and dusk and for the first couple of hours after it gets dark where animals live as this is when the animals move around a lot more to feed. If the locals tell you to be off the road before dark - I recommend you take their advice! "
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This past Saturday, Anelle and I went to a German settlement located in the Adelaide Hills. It took us around 50 minutes on the bus. One of the great aspects about living in the city center is that we can easily get a bus, tram, or train anywhere in Adelaide. It’s nice to be able to take a free tram from the north side of the city to the south…and air conditioned might I add! Really makes a difference on those sunny and hot SA days.
Anyways, back to our bus ride into Hahndorf. We heard a lot of good things about it from Adelaidians… or is it Adelayans? Adelians? Adelaideons? I don’t know. We heard a lot of good things from the LOCALS! Moving along. I love German beer and it’s located in the Hills so lots of wine too (Anelle is sold!). The plan was simple. Let's spend the entire day eating and drinking in Hahndorf. We arrived just in time for lunch and our first stop was The German Arms Hotel, which was built in 1839 and was one of the first hotels in South Australia. We saw the size of the plates coming out so we knew we could simply share something. We ordered a German hot dog with two schooners of beer. We devoured the hot dog and washed it down with some Franziskaner Weissbier. Good stuff! 2014 was a big BIG year! A year filled with planning two major events; our wedding and our move to Australia. In the middle of everything we celebrated some of our closest friend's marriages, my graduation, babies being born, and engagements. We even managed to find some time to travel to Edinburgh, London, Bath, and Bristol. 2014 was filled with weddings and wedding planning and somewhere in there I managed to finish my Master's degree. Check out some of our highlights over the last year below! We kicked off 2014 celebrating Ashley and Adrian's wedding. Anelle was the maid of honer and cousins with the groom Adrian, so it made it a little more special. Shortly after that we took a trip to Scotland for Jamie and Emily's weddings. We spent some time in Edinburgh before the wedding and then spent Valentines in Bath and two days in London before coming home. I was an usher (groomsman) for the wedding. Met a lot of amazing people, drank, danced, and played in the snow while celebrating J and Em's beautiful wedding. After a quick start to 2014 with weddings in January and February, we concentrated on planning our wedding and the move to Australia. But before that, one of my best and oldest friends Mike got engaged and asked me to be one of his groomsmen. Very excited for him and hope to make it back in June for the wedding. Look at this picture and try to tell me Mike and Heather aren't cool! I graduated in June and celebrated my 30th Bday at the beginning of July. I celebrated my bday with a simple dinner outing with my family and Anelle. After sweating my ass off during graduation, I celebrated with my family and soon to be in laws. Never thought I would pursue grad school but I found a profession that I love and am passionate about so it's good to have that done. Then came OUR WEDDING!! Everything turned out amazing!! Will never be able to thank our family enough. Not going to write about it much...just check out the vid :) Leading up to the wedding was also incredible. Anelle went to Vegas with the girls and I went camping in Zion with the guys. Remember that time we got "sick" on a Friday, jumped on a plane, and went to Bristol, England for the weekend? No? Ya, neither do I! ;-) ANYWAYS, a few weeks after our wedding, we flew to Bristol to celebrate Matt and Cam's beautiful wedding. We wish we could have spent more time in town with everyone, but happy to say we made it and drank, danced, and celebrated all night long. A month or two later, we announced our Oz move. Making a move like this has a mix of emotions. Some fear, anxiety, excitement, etc. No, this isn't a permanent move but it's a decision that could and probably will have an important impact on us for the rest of our lives. Whether we stay for only 1 year or if we're able to stay 2, 3, 4, or 5 years. Throughout our planning, I thought a lot about what our parents and grandparents have gone through establishing themselves. We could only imagine what it would be like to immigrate somewhere. Leaving everything you know for the chance of something better. Our plans are not anywhere near that level but similar in some aspects. My thoughts sounded something like this, "Our grandparents did it and they probably had way less resources and support. They did it under difficult circumstances and probably really had to grind at times. I know I've heard stories from my Mom about eating 'tacos de frijoles y queso' and we are over here having slices of apple and cheese with crackers and a glass of wine as we wind down...the struggle is real! Haha. And now look at what our grandparents accomplished and how it's translated over to their children and grandchildren. What we are doing is much simpler than all that so we should be able to land on our feet. And if we can't make it happen...then we simply come back home." And that's pretty much the mindset we've had. Before we left, Anelle and I visited her grandparents and I had the opportunity to have a great conversation with her grandfather...well, it was more like him telling me about his move to the States and me listening. His stories were confirming. It was great to hear and it gave me confidence in us before leaving. He didn't spill any life secrets to happiness or anything like that. To be honest, his advice wasn't even something I didn't already know. The point is, he shared his story. He shared difficulties and how they came out of it..."take care of your wife, and she'll take care of you." It's that simple! I knew Anelle and I would have to lean on each other to make it work. It's simple and so far, he's 100% right. So here we are, almost 3 months to the day living in Adelaide, Australia. Anelle has a job, I've been working a casual retail position while trying to land a University position (I've had 3 interviews but haven't been fortunate enough to land one), we have a tiny studio in the middle of the city with a great view, we've made a few friends, and we are taking care of each other trying to make a dream a reality. Three months and what have we done you ask? We've stuck to exploring the small city of Adelaide, the beaches and the nearby bush land. I am excited that we've booked our first getaway later this month (I'll have a different post on this later). Take a look! It's now 2015!! Never been much for making new year resolutions but I do have some things that I want to work on. For instance, this blog! I've never done anything like this so I really want to stay on top of it and make it work. I picked up a camera before moving to Oz so I definitely want to get out and see what I can capture behind a lens. And finally, I NEED and WILL work on my flexibility. Literally, I need to make stretching and mix in some yoga as part of my gym regiment.
Stay tuned and please feel free to comment and share because we would love to hear from everyone :) |
AuthorHusband & Wife. One with an addiction to cheese and wine, the other with donuts and beer. It's a good thing we both enjoy the outdoors and the gym as much as we do! Follow us while we make a lifetime of memories while trying to avoid all the animals that can kill us In A Sunburned Country. Archives
December 2015
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