Every Wednesday, there is an open air market at the end of the Queen Street Mall. Tents are set up with fresh fruits, vegetables, pastries, sugar-coated nuts, hummus and dips, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. I wandered around last Wednesday with a couple other au pairs and we snacked on free samples all afternoon while our kids were in school. Every fruit stand had free samples of fresh slices. We tasted pineapple, pears, apples. We snacked on candied macadamia nuts. We had foods we'd never tried or seen before, and we ate lunch on the steps across the street in the sunshine.

Fresh pineapples

Handmade Turkish bowls

Turkish jewelry, etc.

Yesterday, Sophie and I set off to explore the Glass House Mountains after dropping our kids at St. Paul's. The Glass House Mountains are a series of mountain peaks made from the cores of extinct volcanoes just north of Brisbane. They were named by Lieutenant  James Cook in 1770 because of their resemblance to the glass furnaces in his hometown of Yorkshire, England. Today, the mountains have great spiritual significance to the aboriginal people of Australia. Sophie and I drove to the scenic lookout to take some photos and then hiked a bit on Mt. Tibrogaran. We weren't prepared for full-out mountain climbing in our jeans and flip-flops, but it was still awesome to hike through the woods. After walking only several meters in, being surrounded by trees, we were enveloped into complete silence. I haven't experienced anything like it since I've been here, and I immediately felt so calm and at peace in the midst of nature. I will definitely be heading back there sometime soon.

Glass House Mountains 

P.S. Today I experienced a "first" that I never thought I would have in Australia... I pumped gas for the first time in my life! I know it's pretty pathetic since I'm 22 years old and have been driving for years, but I'm a spoiled Jersey girl! I probably shouldn't tell anyone this, but it's pretty funny so... I failed at my first attempt to fill up the tank last night. Christian got out of the car to help me and neither of us could even figure out how to open the gas tank, so we jumped back in the car in a panic and raced home, so humiliated in our failed attempt. We went back to the service station on our way to school this morning, and this time we successfully pumped our own gas. I think everyone has their blonde moments every once in awhile!