I’ve been thinking a lot about how to put into words how it feels to be here, doing what I’m doing. To be honest, I still have no idea. I don’t feel like this is “real life.” Technically I’m working in Australia, but it doesn’t feel like a job at all. It feels like I’m on vacation – a permanent vacation because who knows when it will end? This weekend I went on a little vacation within a vacation (“vacation inception” as my friend Kelsey described it). Three friends – Kelsey, Tessa, and Jen – and I packed up my jeep to the brim on Saturday morning and set off on a road trip up to the Sunshine Coast. We drove straight up a single-lane highway for three hours and finally reached Rainbow Beach, named because of its different colors of sand – black, white, and every shade of brown, swirled together like a rainbow.

Tessa, Jen, Kelsey and me at Carlo Sandblow

One of our goals for the weekend was to go sand boarding – which is kind of like sledding, only you’re in the sand – so on our way up we pulled over and “borrowed” a For Sale sign out of a front yard to use as our sled. Before hitting the beach, we drove up to the Carlo Sandblow, a huge sand mass that overlooks Rainbow Beach. When we stepped out onto the sandblow, there was sand in literally every direction for what seemed like miles (excuse me, kilometers). It formed a sort of half pipe, so we climbed up the side, hopped on our sign, and sand boarded face first, eating sand all along the way. After getting sand in every crevice of our bodies, we hiked down the sandblow where we reached a cliff with the most amazing views I have ever seen. To the right was Double Island Point, where heaps of people drive along the beach to camp, and all in front of me was beach and the bluest water. The girls and I played in the sand all afternoon and after getting tired and dirty, we collapsed on the edge of the cliff and stared out, taking in this magnificent view.

Tessa sand boarding

Carlo Sandblow and Rainbow Beach

Carlo Sandblow and Rainbow Beach

After a quick walk along Rainbow Beach and a dip in the water, we headed back down the coast a little ways to Noosa, a really popular little beach town on the Sunshine Coast. We checked into our hostel and hit up a few of the local bars that night, and the next day we woke up bright and early and headed straight for the beach. Noosa’s beaches are beautiful with sand so fine that it squeaks underneath your feet when you walk on it and water that is crystal clear so you can see little fish swimming around your feet.  We laid on our towels, soaking in the sunshine and listening to the music playing at the surf club behind us. Every now and then we’d take a break to walk around town to get gelato or smoothies and window shop at all the cute little beach stores. After several hours, we said goodbye to paradise, hopped back in the car and drove home to Brisbane – all along the coast, with the beaches in view and the sunset ahead.

Noosa

Yesterday I went to the mall and wandered through David Jones, which is the equivalent to something like Macy's, and from the moment I walked in, I could hear the faint ringing of bells. I followed the sound through the aisles and eventually found myself standing in front of a large display for Christmas - trees, lights, ornaments, Santa Clauses and nutcrackers... in August! At home we follow the progression of autumn into winter with three major holidays. As the air becomes crisp and the leaves begin to change, stores fill with pumpkins, candy, spider webs, and witch hats for Halloween, and the second trick-or-treating is over, we start preparing for Thanksgiving. We stuff our faces with turkey and pie, and you can always count on waking up the next morning to find Christmas carols on the radio on your way to a Black Friday shopping spree.

In Australia, Halloween is unheard of, and Thanksgiving is an American holiday - so I guess they have no choice but to jump right in to Christmas here. I don't know what's crazier: the fact that the stores all have Christmas displays already, or that I actually bought a handful of Aussie Christmas ornaments in August.

Deck the halls

Although I have yet to perfect the Aussie accent, I've definitely started to pick up on some of the lingo down under. I've been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in my twenty two years, and I've learned that one of the hardest things to deal with overseas is the language barrier. I wasn't all too nervous coming to Australia because hey, they speak English here, don't they? I guess you could say that, but sometimes it feels like I'm surrounded by a whole different language because of the Aussie slang. Lucky for me, I've been picking it up quickly - I'm well on my way to speaking Australian!

First things first - when you're learning to speak any language, you've got to know the alphabet. In Aus, it goes something like this:

abcdefg'haych'ijklmnopqrstuvwxy&'zed'

And here's a list of some of the words I've heard quite frequently that have made their way into my everyday vocabulary - it might be hard to switch back when (if) I get back home!

Australian - American

Arvo - Afternoon

Bloke - Man

Boot - Trunk

Bottle shop - Liquor store

Brekkie - Breakfast

Capsicum - Bell pepper

Car park - Parking lot

Chemist - Pharmacy
Chips - Fries

Entre - Appetizer

Fairy floss - Cotton candy

Footy - Football/rugby

Fringe - Bangs

G'day - Hello

Heaps - A lot

Hungry Jacks - Burger King

Jelly - Jello

Joggers - Sneakers

Jumper - Sweatshirt/jacket

Keen - Like

Lead - Leash

Lemonade - Sprite

Lollies - Candy

Love heart - Heart

Mate - Friend

Maths - Math
Mum - Mom

No worries - You're welcome

Pash - Make out

Popper - Juice box
Potato gems - Tater tots

Plait - Braid

Pyjamas - Pajamas

Reckon - Think

Runners - Sneakers

Sheila - Woman
Sultana - Raisin
Sun bake - Sun bathe

Sunnies - Sunglasses

Swimmers - Swim suit

Tea - Dinner

Thongs - Flip flops

Togs - Swim suit (only used in Brissy)
Toilet - Bathroom
Uni - College

Everyone says you have this moment when you first lay eyes on the Opera House – it finally hits you that you’re on the other side of the world. That moment came for me this weekend when my taxi pulled up to the Sydney Harbour last Friday. There was something breathtaking about finding myself standing in front of this Australian icon I’ve seen a million times in pictures and on TV. This time it was up close and personal, surreal. For the first time, I felt incredibly far from home.

Tea and the Opera House

I arrived in Sydney with my host family the night before, and the short drive through the city from the airport to our hotel in Chinatown made me feel like I’d been thrown into any old city that could have been anywhere in the world. But there was much more to Sydney than the average bustling city streets. The weekend was jam packed full of fun and sightseeing. In our first day alone, I saw so much. After walking around the Sydney Harbour and Opera House, Christian and I set off for our own adventure – to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It takes a lot of guts to climb almost 1400 stairs, 134 meters high above the city while trains and cars rattle the bridge you’re connected to by a skimpy harness. Honestly, I could not have been more thrilled. After dressing in our bridge-climbing-onesies with walkie talkies and all sorts of gear around our waists, Christian and I ran straight to the front of our tour group to get harnessed in. And then we started climbing. We climbed stairs and ladders, stopped to take several pictures along the way, and made it to the top to see the most beautiful view of the city.

Christian and I on top of the world

After the Bridge Climb, we met the rest of my host family and jumped on a ferry to Luna Park. Luna Park is a carnival in Sydney, really similar to Coney Island in New York, filled with rides, games, and food stands for chips (fries) and fairy floss (cotton candy). We acted like big silly kids, taking Tea and Christian on the ferris wheel, merry-go-round, bumper cars and roller coasters until dark.

View of the city from Luna Park at night

The next couple of days in Sydney were much more relaxed. I wandered around the city on my own a bit during a much-needed break from the kids. I walked over and sat in the sunshine in Hyde Park, which my host mom Suzanne compared to Central Park, but was maybe a one-hundredth of the size. I wandered over to Darling Harbour to walk by the water and the boats, and made my way back to the Queen Victoria building. Later on, I joined the family for a trip to the Taronga Zoo where we saw giraffes and elephants and got to pet pigs and chooks. On our last day, we drove around to Sydney’s beautiful beaches.

Darling Harbour

Aboriginal friends

Giraffes in the city 

Bondi Beach

Sydney beaches

I had a wonderful time exploring Sydney. I'm so lucky to be with a family who is so incredibly happy to tour me around the country with them. It was a hectic weekend, and lots of fun, but I sure am glad to be back home in Brissy!

Something I love about being in Australia is meeting people who have adventurous spirits like mine. Of course I miss my family and friends at home, but something I've realized is that I can't really picture any of them doing something like this. When I told people I was moving across the world to live for a year in a foreign country where I knew no one, they could not stop telling my how brave and lucky I was, and how jealous they were of my adventure ahead. But as jealous as they claim to be, when I think of most of my friends back at home, I doubt they would ever truly enjoy and embrace an experience like this. I reckon they'd be too scared. I suppose people were right when they said I was brave, because doing what I'm doing takes guts - but honestly, I could never imagine myself not being here. I have met so many girls who feel exactly the same way. They have adventurous spirits and want to see the world, and they aren't afraid of breaking away and doing something different. I've found it's especially easy to bond with other American girls because our culture is so absorbed in living a rat race - travel doesn't usually take precedence over establishing a career - so being here is so unexpected of us. I am happy to say that I'm starting to make some solid friendships. Just the other day I lounged by the pool with some girls and we planned our first real trip here in Australia. Flights are booked, hostel is reserved - we're going to Cairns!

Anyone can do something like this... even you!

It’s kind of funny how we au pairs go about meeting people down under. We’re all a part of this Facebook group for nannies in Brisbane and girls post on it every day trying to get together to meet new people. We’ll post our suburbs to find girls in our area, and we’ll share our time off to find travel buddies. This weekend, one of the girls suggested a good old Aussie barbeque for her birthday, and all the nannies flocked to Southbank’s Picnic Island. Just beyond the beach is Picnic Island, which is pretty much just a park with BBQ’s all around to grill our burgers and sausages. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day and about 30 girls from all around the world showed up to meet, eat some food, make some friends, and enjoy our days off of work. I was able to meet some really sweet girls who live around me, and a few of us have already started planning some trips to Melbourne and the Great Barrier Reef!

Nannies BBQ at Picnic Island

After the BBQ, I spent the day wandering around Southbank’s markets with a couple girls, and then my friend Kelsey and I went to our first AFL game – Aussie footy! We went to the Gabba with some Australian friends to sip on beers and cheer on the Lions. It was a long, late night, but we had heaps of fun in our new city.

Dave, Kelsey, me and Benny at the Lions game

Recently I’ve started making a bucket list, things I want to do at some point in my lifetime. Things like visiting every continent, every United State, swimming with dolphins, writing a book, riding elephants and getting a tattoo (I’ve recently accomplished the last two). I’ve decided to knock off the very first item that has been there for ages and really isn’t that difficult to accomplish: learn how to play the guitar. I have always had this burning desire to be talented with music, but I’ve never even attempted because I’ve been intimidated at having to work hard to sound good. But right now I’m at a place in my life where I feel like I can do anything, and with so much free time on my hands I’ve decided I have more than enough to dedicate to learning. So today I bought my very first guitar. I’ve been sitting around practicing chords and attempting to learn my very first song. Christian and Tea are extremely jealous – they’re already begging their mom for guitars, drums, and ukuleles so that we can start a band. Say hello to the Hockridge Family!

Brisbane always has random sun showers, which can be annoying when you're walking around the city without your gum boots and umbrella. But today it resulted in this awesome rainbow whose end landed in our backyard. The kids are still searching for the pot of gold!