One Year Expativersary, An American Living in Sydney

One year ago today we boarded the nasty American Airlines plane, that connected to the amazing Qantas plane, that brought us to our new home in Sydney.

So here's a rundown of our year in a foreign country, a place where the grocery store, sadly, is Woolworths.

The Good:

• The weather rocks.
  
• My kids have little pseudo-Australian accents, or as my four year old says- Australian "accidents".
• I heart cliffs, me likey pretty scenery.
  
• My kids wanna be surfers.
• The Australian dollar keeps rising against the U.S. dollar (a good thing for us-- but not most of you).
• I'm learning a new language-- Australian.
• I've learned how to drive on the other side of the road.
• Every month we see fireworks from our backyard.
• I almost always have canvas bags with me, and barely ever need the plastic ones from stores anymore.
• We recycle a lot more now, otherwise they won't take our rubbish (that's Australian for garbage) away.
• I still love the word "brekkie".
• We're all about taking the ferry for transportation.
  

Things that suck:

• I am convinced all Australian ovens suck.
• People constantly think all Americans are George Bush loving terror fighters.
• Not knowing how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, kilometers to miles, centimeters to inches, milliliters to ounces and sometimes cups... ugh, this is never ending.
• Sausage rolls.
• 40% taxes
• No Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, TJMaxx or Costco stores
• I'm still trying to figure out why they ask me if I have "flybys" at the grocery store-- no freaking clue what they are talking about.
• No Boars Head deli meats.
• Being so far from everyone I know.

I cannot believe I have more positives than negatives here... if I pondered this some more I'm guessing they'd equal out in the end.

Alrighty then, one year down and 2-3 years to go.

The year in photos:


Random excited tourist on a Sydney ferry.


Sometimes fun, somewhat creepy Luna Park.


There's a lot of Australian Post drop boxes.


The inside of the Sydney Opera House main concert room. They almost confiscated my camera.
And I think that's the largest organ in the world going up the entire back wall. That's sounds dirty, see the Opera House is a fun place.


At the Australia Day celebration in Sydney's Hyde Park.


A little slice of Florida in the Gold Coast of Australia. This was taken from the car at about 40mph, I mean about 80kh.


Hmmm, maybe this is Florida? (This really was taken on the way to the airport in the Gold Coast- Australia).


It wouldn't be a year of photos in Sydney without this, right? The view from Royal Botanic Gardens.

Cheers mateys.