Got my shot back!!

For a long time I have been playing on a women's basketball team which plays down in the CBD on Wednesday nights. With classes it was really hard to make it down there in addition to the 1 hour spent on the bus there and back so for this season I am the super sub.

In exchange I have started playing on a co-ed team on Sundays. I've only played two games so far but the pace is a bit more like what I'm used to and today I GOT MY SHOT BACK!! For those who play sports you will understand this feeling - everything just clicked, the motion came back to me, the shots started going in, and the team started passing me the ball!! It was fantastic.

The leagues here are a bit more formal and they have proper uniforms... my number is #23 and I am also giving the possibly boost of confidence simply because of the number. :)

So tonight I am letting myself celebrate by watching a bit of TV... I'm also in the end of my session so this is the most celebrating I can do right now, but will do more if I still have my shot next week. :)

Lauren's New Blog!!

I'm sure most of you have heard me brag about any one of my amazing nieces or my nephew... and while some may find it annoying I really don't care because they're that cool! Lauren, the oldest of my nieces, has just started college in Eastern Washington at a small college called Whitworth. She's loving it and having a blast. Of course, as with all the women in the family, she is beautiful, amazing, ambitious and all the good things you can think of - PLUS now she has a blog!! Yes, for most of you this won't be too exciting, but for me and the family it's another way to keep in touch.

The site is: http://isgonnabealright.blogspot.com/

For those who don't know her here is a picture of her so you can have an idea of who she is. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

As I mark another US holiday abroad I realise that this is probably the one thing that I miss most about living away from home. We are going to have an orphans Thanksgiving with some other Yankies, but its just not the same. There is just something about being with family, watching football, and of course Dad making the first batch of Chex mix, that you can't replace with any amount of good friends and wine.

With that saidI am thankful for the time I have spent here, and hopefully will be able to extend for a while (just not too long). So just to share a couple of them:

1. I know it sounds dorky but I am thankful for Skype and blogging - it allows me to share all my experiences and stay connected with all of those who are unfortunately on the other side of the globe.
2. The new friends I've made. Coming into this experience I knew I would gain a new group for friends, but I never anticipated them to be this fantastic. This isn't just the people I go to school with, but also my flatmates and people I have met outside of school.
3. The chance to explore Australia. I have seen new animals (above and below water), been to some of the most beautiful places, discovered new passions, and seen only a portion of this very large continent.

These are three things that I am happy for and I am looking forward to extending this list once I have graduated and can take a breath and enjoy life again.

love and miss you all!!

Wine Club - aka justifiable reason to drink :)

So a group of the exchange students have organised to have a weekly wine tasting. As I usually have basketball on Wednesday and previously work on Thursday and Friday I have not yet been able to come. This week however, with starting my new job (more info to come on another post) I was able to make it on Thursday and offered to host. Now one thing I've learned about myself while living in Australia is that I love to host events. Whether it's organising the school events or cooking for a group of friends - I like it.

Each week the group selects a different type of wine then they each rank them on a scale of 1-10. One of the guys is then compiling all the information and will have a 10 favorites w/ one of each kind. This week it was sparking wines. So the hostess in me though of strawberries. :) We shared 6 bottles between 11 of us and ha da great time.

Now I'm trying to figure out if we can or if we want to rally more people in the class for a culminating night of the favorites... as I'm new to the group I'll leave it up to them, but could easily try to pull something together. :)

Movember

November in Australia marks a month of men wearing scruffy faces for charity. The deal is that guys will grow a mustaches or a "mo" and people will donate to motivate him to shave it off... Now as you can imagine the guys end up looking like truckers, porn stars, or sex offenders - but when else do they have a justifiable reason to look like complete idiots. :)

Personally this doesn't really affect me as I don't have to deal with kissing or looking at the guys wearing this more than what I see in class so it's mainly an entertainment factor. In a way it's sort of like Susan G Komen but for men and more of a fun thing. I think it should spread to the US, but am not sure if the guys there are as willing to make fools of themselves as the men down here... To give you an idea of what this entails here is a picture of a couple of the guys in my class looking like they're posing for a Sears catalog - if I get some close ups I'll post them to give you a better feel.

Introducing the world to Snickerdoodles!

This weekend we had a BBQ for the mid-session party and I asked that everyone bring a dish from their home country. Now I must admit I struggled a bit because most American dishes are what you find abroad... with the exception of our casseroles and Apple Pie (which I'm pretty sure we hijacked from someone else). So I went back to the good old things that I 1)know how to make, and 2) thought would go well.

In the end I made guacamole and my Mom's Mexican casserole, then added a twist with snickerdoodles. Now I didn't know this was so much of an American thing, but then again you learn something new every day. Of course to the American's they were obvious and a reminder of home, but everyone else was pleasantly surprised and the cookies were a hit. Now I just need to find out how to make a certain desert one of the other girls made which was a combination of a meringue and tart - it was to die for!!