Hi friends! I split the rest of my trip into two posts. I didn't capture all of the touristy things to do in Melbourne here since I've been there quite a few times, so I linked some of my previous Melbourne posts to help give you a better idea of the city if you don't know very much about it.

 I've only been to three of Australia's big cities (Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney). I enjoy them all for different reasons, but Melbourne is the star in my opinion. There is so much to do there, and the streets are always full of people. Unlike Sydney, however, it's very easy to get around. I could see myself living there. 

During my time in Melbourne this time around, Al was at work Monday through Friday. He could usually get out of work earlier than 5, but I still had to find ways to entertain myself during the day. My exercise discipline was waning since we went to Port Vincent, but I still did it for a few of those days. I also went out and explored. 

One of those days, I walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens and could not believe that I was standing in the middle of a city. I felt like I was in a rain forest instead.  

I also went to the Shrine of Remembrance. I've only ever driven past it, and I always wanted to walk over and get a better view of this magnificent war memorial. 

This is the astonishing view from Alastair's apartment. From where he lives, it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the city. His apartment is also down the street from a tram stop and also very close to a train stop. 

Below is the business centre(/center) in his apartment building. I thought these desk/chair things were very interesting! I promised my friend Kate I'd get a picture in one. 

Here's an educational fact about Australian cities (and something that Australians might find interesting about American cities): In Australian cities, the name of the city only applies to the business district (Australians call it the Central Business District, or the CBD). Imagine, for instance, if Chicago only applied to the Loop. I can't relate it to any other big city, but I'm sure that you get the idea. 
Any part of the city that you would consider to be a neighborhood, such as Lincoln Park in Chicago or Chelsea in New York City, is considered to be a separate suburb in Australia. 
From the Australian point of view, imagine if South Yarra in Melbourne or Darling Harbour in Sydney were "neighborhoods" of the city and not suburbs. Anybody in those neighborhoods would have a Melbourne address. 
It's interesting how it works in other countries, isn't it?

This weekend was one of the most entertaining weekends that I have had in a long time. I started out by shadowing an intensive care dietitian at my dad's hospital on Friday morning. I plan on shadowing a few different types of registered dietitians, but I really enjoyed the experience in intensive care. I think that I can handle the hospital very well. I don't get queasy from seeing blood or very sick people. I think that I got that from my dad! Intensive care may be a field that I will consider pursuing. 

After the hospital, I spent some time at home before I packed an overnight bag and made my way to the city with Libby. We went to my brother Jon's apartment where I fed her, fed myself, and took a cab to Nicole's apartment before the big event of the evening: the Australian Rules Football Grand Final!

If you don't know about Australian Rules Football, then look at the end of this recent post. I posted all of my links from last year that explain a little bit about the sport and the teams. 

The sold-out event was at the Brownstone Tavern & Grill in Chicago, and it was hosted by  the Chicago Australian Football Association. The entire bar was reserved for the game, so you couldn't get in there without a ticket. It cost $20 to get in the door, which also included a raffle ticket for an assortment of wine, cash prizes (up to $500) or a round-trip Qantas ticket to Australia (which I sadly did not win). 

The crowd was a nice mix of Americans, Aussies and other counties that wanted to get in on the excitement. At times, I really believed that I was back in Australia. It made me so happy. I was even happier at the end of the night, because the Geelong Cats won the game!

Nicole and I made a lot of friends on Friday night. We were in the bar from 10 pm (the game started a little after 11) until 2 am, so it was bound to happen. We even made a friend wearing a Collingwood jersey.  Shocker. 

Nicole stayed out the entire night, even though she woke up at 4:40 am to go to work on Friday morning. What a trooper! 

I was so happy that I ended up buying tickets and going. As long as I'm in Chicago, I'm watching the game with these guys! 

By the way, I said, "Gooooo the Cats!" in my title for the reason that Australians use that expression. Americans would say, "Go Cats!", but not Australians. They add the "THE" in there. I just adore it. It's always THE footy. Or THE cricket. Of course, I picked it up while I was over there. I don't say it when I'm with Americans these days, but I'm sure that I would if I was talking with Australians. I certainly did it on Friday!

On Saturday, I drove to the suburbs in the early part of the afternoon and went to my friend Kate and her boyfriend Dan's new apartment. They moved everything in there in the morning, and they were organizing their things. I helped them all afternoon and then I went home and changed for dinner. 

I went to Cooper's Hawk with my parents and their friends Patti and Ken (who are just as cool, if not cooler, than people my age). I started out with a spatini, which is (from the menu) cucumber-infused Effen Vodka, coconut water and fresh-squeezed citrus juices.

For an appetizer, we all shared the Thai Chicken Flatbread.

 Rotisserie chicken, cashew sauce, mozzarella, roasted cashews and chopped cilantro drizzled with peanut vinaigrette. I was not expecting it to be as good as it was. It was spectacular. 

We also ate pretzel bread with whipped butter. 

I got the jambalaya for my main dish. I've gotten it before and wished that I had gotten something else, so I'm not sure why I got it again. It's very good, but I don't like big quantities of shrimp or Andouille sausage. They have a huge menu, so I'll make sure to get something different next time. 

Patti got the crab cakes,which came with mustard sauce, potatoes and sauteed garlic spinach. Their crab cakes are great. She was nice enough to let me try some. 

My mom got her barbecue chicken salad, which is always good. I ate most of the crunchy onion rings.  

My dad got sliders. Yum. The only dish I didn't photograph was Ken's! He got chicken and said it was very good. 

I also drank wine and champagne, so I was surprised that I was holding up okay today. I had a great time last night, but that's to be expected when you hang out with Patti and Ken!

After working on my chemistry homework today, I joined my parents and the pups at the dog park. 

This dog was so cute. I have a cute picture of him playing with Mickey, but I can't get it to load for some reason. Apparently, it's too big. Wahh. 

The beautiful and spacious dog park

I sat in the back with the puppers on the way home. We had a little photo shoot. Mickey didn't want to participate, so I had to snap a photo when he wasn't expecting it. Perhaps he runs away from the camera because he knows that I'm going to post his pictures on the internet. 

Riggles and Cody

A happy Cody

A happy upright Cody

For dinner, we had a white Hawaiian fish (sorry, can't remember the name and I don't feel like running downstairs and asking my dad when he's also probably asleep)

and a chicken and spinach casserole. Hooray for being creative with leftovers!

I'm going to do more chemistry homework and then I'm putting myself to sleep! Have a great night!

Hello friends! I want you to give every Jewish person you know a big hug or a pat on the back and wish them a happy new year. They will know what you are talking about, even if you do not! Did you know that Jews get two new years? We get our "Christian" new year on January 1st, and we get our Jewish new year around this time of year. We call it Rosh Hashanah (which translates to "head of the year"). 

While many of us bring in the January New Year with a massive hangover from a few too many sherbets, Rosh Hashana is usually a combination of temple, family gatherings and very sweet food. One staple food for the holiday is challah. It's a bread that is sometimes braided and other times looks like a big fat spiral (see below). It's a moderately sweet bread, and it should be ripped apart rather than cut apart with a knife. That's the tradition. 

Our raisin challah is for our guests tomorrow, so I'm leaving it in the plastic wrap until then. 

Tonight is Rosh Hashanah Eve. When I was younger, we ate a very early dinner and then went to temple for a few hours. We'd then wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, and go back to temple. Missing school was never an issue for me. There were so many Jewish people at my school that classes were cancelled. The non-Jews LOVED us. 

We don't belong to a temple anymore, so we have other options. We can pay an arm and a leg to go to services at a temple where we are not members, or we can observe the eve of the New Year at home. Tonight, we did the latter. 

We made spinach cheese casserole and pasta for dinner. The spinach dish is very easy to make. It's some frozen and drained spinach...

...with cottage cheese...

..and shredded cheddar...

...and flour and eggs. Actually, my mom added eggs the other 56783 times that she made this. Tonight, she forgot them. 

It came out of the over lookin all purdy, but the consistency was more like creamed spinach than a casserole. It still tasted great! It gave Boston Market's creamed spinach a run for its money. Plus, it's not all cream and crap like Boston Market. It won't give you a coronary. 

My dad cooked up a big batch of cheese ravioli with veggies. 

Creamed spinach casserole and ravioli!

Looks aside, I still could have eaten several plates of the spinach. I got a practical lesson of the importance of eggs in recipes, though. Eggs go into recipes for a reason! Not just to keep the chicken people in business...

Of course, there are vegan alternatives. 

Somewhere around 8 pm, we cleaned up our dishes and did a mini service at our kitchen table. My dad is a whiz at Hebrew, so he was the "leader" of the service. It was nice. It was over in 25 minutes, and I wore my pajamas. It was the shortest and most comfortable Rosh Hashanah Eve service of my life.  

'Aight mates, just because I'm in America now, it doesn't mean that I can't get all excited about the grand final. This year, Collingwood is playing Geelong in Melbourne. If you want to know more about Australian Rules Football, check out some of my old posts from last year. I also explain (with no feelings held back) how I feel about Collingwood. I do NOT want this team to win again!

Go GEELONG!!!!

I'm watching the game on Friday night with the Chicago Footy Club. Click on the link for more info!

Footy Posts:

Australian Rules Football
Footy Barbie
Grand Final Part One
Ouch

Even though I am back in Adelaide safe and sound, I still have a few recaps that I have to do. I would have finished all of them sooner since I have been back for over a week, but our internet has been out the whole time! For a blogger or anybody else who relies heavily on wire-ability, this is very inconvenient. Alastair is able to use his phone as a modem, but it can get expensive if we use too much data. Hence,  less blogging!


Here is a photo-friendly recap of me out with some of my friends in Chicago. I was lucky to spend time with my girls, although it still wasn't enough time. I also didn't get to see everybody who I wanted to see! One of my Saturday nights home, though, I went to Kirkwood (the same as the Indiana University bar) in the Lakeview area of the city. 

I found someone's hair extensions of the floor in the bathroom. I guess there are worse things I could have found on the floor. 

I missed out on photo ops with some very important people, including my longtime friend Andi who let me stay at her apartment that night. Still, I had such a great time with my girls. Unfortunately, I don't have many girl friends in Adelaide. It's made me appreciate my friends that I have at home even more. They are the best!

Here are some more updates since I left America:

• I got my perfect seat on the flight home. It was an aisle seat in the middle rows, and the seats next to me were empty. I was also the last row before the bathrooms, so I could lean my seat all the way back without feeling guilty or having to bring it upright during meals
  
• I slept twelve hours during the flight
• When I woke up, I learned that all of the toilets on the plane broke except for one. We were almost diverted to Brisbane, but they managed to fix a few of them. 
• The day before my flight, I requested an Oriental vegetarian meal. I told you all last time how I thought the meat was inedible, so I decided to go vego this time. There were so many vegetarian options to choose from, but I finally decided on Oriental. Grains and veggies sounded nice. I ended up getting a tofu and vegetable stir fry for dinner (I was so tired that I didn't eat it) and some strange hot cereal with spices that was sort of okay. All in all, I didn't feel sick at all from eating anything, so I think I will request special meals from now on. Sorry that I didn't take any photos. They would have been helpful!
• I arrived in Australia on the second day of a five-day weekend. There was Good Friday, then Saturday and Sunday, then Anzac Day was Monday and Tuesday was an extra day for Easter. In a normal year, Australia gets a holiday for Easter (Easter Monday), but it was on the same day as Anzac Day this year. 
• My bag got lost going from Melbourne to Adelaide. Long story, but it had something do with the fact that some lady working for the domestic terminal at Qantas would not let me get in line to get a new tag on my bag so that somebody would know to put my bag on the plane to Adelaide. Luckily, my bag came to my apartment a few hours later. 
• Despite sleeping on the plane for 12 hours (we took off at 11:30 pm Los Angeles time, so my body wanted to go to sleep anyway), I napped when I got home for four hours. I then couldn't stay awake past 8 pm, so I slept for another twelve hours. I have now been in Australia for a week, and this is the first time I have been able to stay awake past the 8:30-9:30 range. Please note that I love sleeping, so perhaps I've subconsciously been thinking of excuses to sleep for ridiculously long amounts of time. 
• I am FINALLY driving a manual car! I practiced over the long weekend, and I now drive it to work. Alastair has a work car for an indefinite amount of time, so I drive his car. I have only stalled it once in the past week of driving it. I am a champion. 
• I made new discoveries about my leg "injury". I injured my sartorius muscle; not my IT band. My mom took me to her personal trainer, who specializes in injuries, at her gym. She poked and prodded at my leg for a while. When she pressed down on my inner thigh area, it was excruciating. I never felt even half that amount of pain when I went to that physiotherapist in Adelaide. I learned that the irritation on the other side of my leg came from inflammation in my sartorius. My mom's trainer gave me stretches and exercises to strengthen it up, so hopefully it will finally get better!
• I came home from work yesterday and watched the Royal Wedding live from beginning to end. Australia had it good with the time difference. 

More recaps to come over the next few days!

Many Americans who live in America are talking all about signs of spring. Oh lah-dee-dah-dee-dah. So while they are all skipping around in their skirts and pigtails while the sun smiles down on them, I want to tell you about the signs of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

Today, it looked something like this: 

As I walked from the deli to pick up the newspaper to my office this morning, the rain was nearly horizontal. I had to hold my umbrella in front of me to prevent the rain from going right in my face. It was extremely unpleasant. 
Other signs of winter include:

-the sun comes up later every morning

-it is cooling down. Today, it was a high of 20 degrees (68 degrees F). Guys, it was FREEZING. Don't you tell me any differently. I had to turn on the heater in the lunchroom this afternoon. It was 35 degrees in Perth today (95 F). Not fair. 

These two factors combined, it is much harder to get out of bed in the morning. I'm sleeping more soundly, and it feels like the middle of the night when my alarm goes off. This is making me feel disoriented. I had to have two cups of black tea today (instead of my normal one cup). 

If those factors weren't enough to convince you that winter is on its way, here is the only proof you will ever need:

FOOTY SEASON STARTS TOMORROW!!! Get ready for short shorts and a whole lot of man-on-man pileups. 

GO CROWS! GO ST KILDA! DON'T GO COLLINGWOOD!

Today, I am proud of myself for a few reasons. First, I only ate HALF of my gnocchi last night. I brought the other half for lunch today, and I packed some broccoli to make it more filling. This is a big accomplishment for me, because I usually polish off a whole packet of gnocchi in one meal. It tastes great, but it's twice as many servings as I need. By immediately spooning half of the cooked dish into tupperware for the next day, I am saving myself a lot of extra calories AND money by turning one huge meal into two. 

I also did a load of laundry. Actually, we do the washing on most days, but it seemed like a good time for a picture. Like a lot of Aussies, we don't own a dryer. Even if we did own one, we wouldn't use it very much. We save so much money on our electricity bill by hanging our clothes outside. We're fortunate to have a private  courtyard in the back, which makes it perfect for a clothing rack. 

Thirdly, I made HEALTHY mashed potatoes. Actually, they're not mashed potatoes at all. It's mashed cauliflower, but it looks like potatoes. It doesn't taste exactly the same, but it's very similar. They're not quite as starchy. I got my inspiration from April's blog. 

Exercise-wise, I went on a hill run after work. There is a huge hill behind the Adelaide Oval that looks short, but it is very painful to run up. I was literally gasping for air when I got to the top, but I kept running. Then, I did it again. 

On a side note, I'll have to take photos from the top of the hill. There is a beautiful view of the city from up there. 

I also planned a circuit workout for tomorrow morning. I first made a list of all of the muscles I want to work, then I made a list of exercises I could do to work them. 

I then made another list of exercises I plan on doing with a "station" number next to them. Station 1 is for an elastic band, station 2 is for body weight or other exercises such as squats or lunges without weights and station 3 is for hand weights. I'll do each exercise for 90 seconds with quick breaks in between for water or moving in between "stations". It's all set up in my living room for 6 am. 

I've never made a list before doing a workout before (I usually just do whatever I feel like), so I hope this motivates me to work harder. We shall see!

Those are the reasons that I'm proud!

I also want to say that one of my coworkers was in Japan when the earthquake struck on Friday. I was sure that his plane was going to be delayed, but he ended up coming in at  his scheduled time on Sunday. He was on a brewery tour at the time (of all the places), and he was able to get out of the building safely. He told us all about how the ground was trembling nonstop and about the aftershocks for the rest of his time there. It sounded like it was terrifying, but at least he's back here unscathed. Many people were not that lucky. 

Time for sleep now! If I stay up too late, then I'll never wake up early for my workout. 

Feast your eyes on my iPhone photos from the past few weeks that I have taken but not uploaded! WARNING: These are completely random. 

Photo one: This is an iced coffee. Apparently, if you get an iced coffee in Australia and don't elaborate on how you want it, you end up with a cup of coffee with milk and ice cream. It tastes good, but I think it was too heavy to consume when all I wanted was cold black coffee. I should remember that for next time.

Photo two: I ordered falafel from the snack shop last week for lunch. It was scrumptious. 

Photo three: We bought this couch for about $350. It was a bargain, considering it was relatively new and originally cost over $1,000. We found it on Gumtree, and I inspected it with one of my coworkers (the seller lived down the street from my office) before we sealed the deal. We were never able to have a big couch in the shoe box that we left, so we are elated to have something so big and comfortable in our new place. 

Photo four: There was a full moon on Saturday night. It was picture-perfect until I snapped it with my iPhone camera. Honestly, though, how often do cameras actually do justice?

Photo five: This is a Peter Alexander shopping bag. Peter Alexander is an Aussie pajamas store that caters directly to me (execept I can't really afford anything in there). Everything there is pink and decorated with dogs. I especially love this bag, because the dog's face looks like my darling dog Mickey (with a pink bow). I parted with the bag on Sunday, so I said goodbye with a picture. 

Photo six: I found flowers that I swear I have never seen before. 

Photo seven: The sky was such a beautiful shade of blue today, that I had to make more than just a mental picture of it while I was on my lunchtime walk. 

Before I go, here is a link to before and after photos from Christchurch. I've been following the coverage all day. It is an absolute nightmare (at least 75 people are dead), but at least there are many people who have been rescued from the rubble. 

Have a great day, blog friends!