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Aussie Expats Update – Some Pre-Christmas Adventures!
Hello world! It’s TWO sleeps until Christmas: TWO! How time flies and how crazy it is to think that soon the jolly fat man will be bringing joy and gifts to everyone. Exciting times. It’s been some time since I posted; I decided last week that there hadn’t been enough happening to write an update post, especially as I was also trying (and failing, it turned out) to get ahead with uni so I’d have less to do this week while James is off work. Yet, despite our silence, we actually have been doing things (yes, I’m proud). Last week was mostly focused on trying to get through uni and…
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Aussie Expats Update – The Long Slide into Holidays!
Happy Friday people everywhere! As we slowly slip and slide our way down the final path into the break (James is off from the 17th), it seems that the days are far too long, and the mornings far too cold, for continuing to do anything more than hibernate, drink eggnog and eat fatty meals like oxtail stew and braised beef short ribs. Sadly, until the break, we’re stuck with early morning PT sessions for James… Though I really can’t complain because my brain has been creating some strange and fascinating things in my early morning free-writing sessions. For those of you who’ve been waiting and chewing their fingernails to the…
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Aussie Expats Update – Writing Wins & December Socialising
Friiiiiiday! AND December, the month of Santa, chocolate, eggnog, presents, a brief stint of holidays for both James and I (which is a serious change from Aus, where our long break is over Christmas) and maybe a white Christmas (come on Oklahoma, you can do it!). Needless to say, I’m excited. Part of that could be to do with the fact that I’ve submitted my Ancient History assignment (after a real struggle!) and I’m feeling a little more on top of my study—I had to pay the piper this week after our frivolities in Kansas last week—and we put up our tree together yesterday. Okay, okay, it doesn’t sound like…
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Aussie Expats Update – Seeing some more of the USA!
Happy Friday everyone! I hope Thanksgiving (for the Americans amongst us) was a day of family, friends and food for all concerned: we were lucky enough to get invited over to a friend’s house for the afternoon/evening and thoroughly enjoyed both the excellent company and some amazing food (thank you Anne and Paul!). I feel that I’ve been remiss in not posting regularly over the past two weeks, but I’ve been feeling a little flat and uninspired from a writing point of view. We were also travelling this week and the time just seemed to vanish, so hopefully I’ll be able to find my groove again next week. While I…
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Aussie Expats Update – Archery Adventures, Food Bank & Fantastic Beasts
Everybody, How, on earth, is it Friday again?? Don’t get me wrong, Fridays are awesome (although, one might argue, somewhat less so if you’re not actually working and therefore you don’t deserve to celebrate Fridays as much—and thus you also probably should be continuing to write/study over the weekend anyway), but right now it feels like the year is disappearing. Days and weeks and even months are vanishing like delicious, multicoloured gobstopper rings, and soon it’ll be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then NYE… and then 2016 will end. I’m looking forward to doing a ‘2016 Recap’ post prior to that point, because this one has been a bit of a doozy…
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Aussie Expats Update – Projects New and Old, and Babysitting!
Happy Friday everyone! Remembrance Day (the Australian version of Veteran’s Day, for any Americans who are confused by that term) was yesterday back home, but since it’s the 11th here, it means a chance to think about what armed servicemen and servicewomen have sacrificed for their countries and their loved ones. Especially for us, that’s pretty important—in a world rent by conflict, it’s vital that we remember what the cost of peace and democracy here, and what responsibilities we each individually have to make the world a better, safer and more accepting place in order to honour those who have fought for, and protected, our way of life. But it…
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Aussie Expats Update – America, Five Months In
Five months, human beings. We have been living in America for FIVE MONTHS. I’ll lay it out straight for you: I’m not feeling very warm towards America right now. By that I mean, I’m feeling pretty cold. The reason? This morning, I took a friend into hospital early in the day. For reference, she’s about three or four years older than me and also for your information, I’m pretty hungry: which as anyone knows, is dangerous ground. Anyway, we get into prep and I’m just sitting off to the side, doing some work, when one of the nurses goes to me—“Oh, so are you Mumma?” OH MY EFFING GOD: NO. …
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Aussie Expats Update – Our First Halloween Party!
Well peoples, It’s been a bit of a mishmash week. Getting back into uni again for Trimester 3 has seen me chasing my tail a bit (and I only did one other blog post this week: what a sissy!), and James is working his butt off to finish his last essay for his Masters, plus we’ve recently started a new training program in the gym involving a lot of (very, VERY) basic bodyweight movements… And I’m fried. It’s really hard work, but also pretty cool. That being said, if I can’t do the splits, a full static handstand and a couple of other seriously epic things in the next week or so, I’m going to…
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Aussie Expats Update – Domestician Extraordinaire!
Happy Friday everyone! Before we get caught up in the exciting whirlwind of talking about my recent adventures (stay calm, they’re honestly not really that exciting of late—sorry), I’d like to first let you all know that I’m well aware ‘domestician’ isn’t actually a word. But that being said, I really do feel like my efforts last week deserve some kind of special, completely-made-up-for-the-occasion-word to mark how much time I spent in the damn kitchen. James and I probably didn’t really discuss in depth how much we were going to do for this BBQ; I mean both of us forgot about it until about Tuesday, which was probably a sign that…
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Aussie Expats Update – Uni Break Fridays!!
Helllloooooo beautiful people! I know, I know… I didn’t put up a blog post last Friday. Oops. I’m sorry, but it’s a complex iss—ok, to be honest, it’s not that complex. Having (officially) finished Trimester 2 of uni on Thursday with my political ideologies exam done and dusted, I wasn’t overly keen to do very much. Plus, I made the mistake (or brilliant decision) to pick up a new book after my exam and I powered through it… Then the sequel over the weekend. If you haven’t read Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling, I highly recommend it: it was an awesome read that (obviously!) I struggled to put…
