St.Peters or Maybe it was St. Patricks Cathedral

This past Sunday I thought I would make a trip to church to ensure that my application for sainthood, someday, wouldn't be tainted by my debaucherous behavior last weekend. I walked into the 11am mass and sat near the front of the church. The choir started singing as normal, the priest walked in, followed by heaps of other people, singing along with the rest of the congregation and waving incense as he strolled by. So far the Catholic masses in Australia are the same as the Catholic masses in America. Then he gets up to the altar and am I am expecting him to say something along the lines of, "Good morning and welcome to St. Pats/Peters Cathedral, today we are celebrating the 32nd Sunday in ordinary time...etc. etc." Instead he starts singing everything he is supposed to be saying, right down to how wonderful he thinks the weather is this morning.

Of course, I'm quickly scrambling through all the pamphlets and books that the ushers gave me trying to find something that could reassure me that I was in fact at a Catholic church. Everything seemed to be Catholic, I just couldn't figure out why he was singing everything. So I thought well maybe that's just how he does the introduction/welcoming piece. Nope wrong again. The 1st reading guy walks up to the podium and guess what....he starts singing from the Book of Job and then the second guy gets up and he starts singing his piece too!

I'm looking around thinking, I swear I really don't think I will be able to sit through an entire gospel and sermon sung by this middle aged priest who sings with some sort of Asian/Australian accent. He gets up to sing the gospel and thankfully by some work of God he doesn't sing his homily! (Thank you Jesus!) I'm sitting there all alone, looking so out of place that I know the whole church is secretly thinking I'm not even Catholic, wearing jeans, not singing along to any of the Latin songs (that everyone appears to know by heart,) and desperately hoping I won't have to sing to the guy behind me when I go to shake his hand. (SIDE NOTE: You all remember my fear of singing alone and how well that goes over - please read this post if you need a reminder)

By the time communion rolls around I have a whole new set of worries setting in - people aren't just lining up as normal in their respective aisles, they are going up to the front and actually kneeling on the ground in front of the altar. I walk up to the front and the guy next to me stops just before we get to the altar. I'm thinking, well I have no idea what the hell is going on here, so I'm just going to wait and see what he does. Well he doesn't move - he doesn't do anything. I wait and wait and there are at least 40 or 50 people behind us, but I'm a first timer and it wasn't clear as to where I was supposed to be going! Finally, after what felt like a good 10 minutes a lady behind me taps me on the shoulder and says, "well are you going to go up there or not?" So I scurry up and kneel on the ground and sure as shit, the guy I was waiting on follows right behind me! (HE WAS WAITING FOR ME!!!!) How embarrassing.

I get back to the pew, kneel down on my little crocheted pillow on the ground and pray to God that there are no other surprises along the way. Mass finally ends after hours upon hours of singing and the priest then invites everyone to meet in the courtyard for refreshments. As everyone walks out I see that the hospitality he is referring to is several bottles of wine and an assortment of cheeses. Perfect! - exactly what I needed after that much singsong so early in the day.

Note to self: next time you are at home, fill out the Holy Spirit Parish comment card and write the following: Please replace weekly coffee and doughnuts with fine Australian wine and cheese, I bet that visitation to weekly mass increases by at least 10%!

Turns out the reason that everything was being sung is not because they are some knock off Catholic religion it's because I was attending High Mass. How the hell was I to know that the High Mass was the one that everything is sang instead of spoke. I think it's safe to say that in the future I will be getting out of bed a bit earlier to attend the 9am normal mass.

Shoes Arrived!!

I finally received my first official package from Fed Ex here in Australia and couldn't be happier. As you all know I am struggling to find any fashion that I like here in Melbourne so having a new pair of heels is amazing!! (Sidenote: I did find a great store down here OJAY that I now love and my life is going on as normal - thank you to all the Melbs girls for your suggestions!)

Anyway I decided to go ahead and purchase the Valentino knock offs made by Paris Hilton for under $100. I was nervous about the sizing because some of the reviews said that they ran a bit small, but when they arrived they couldn't have fit better! So excited to go out this weekend with my new shoes all I need now is a cute little frock and I'll be set to go!

Purchased from Heels.com and used a 30% off coupon from Retailmenot.com which took care of all Intl. shipping costs! PS: whenever ordering anything online be sure to check Retail Me Not because chances are there is at least a free shipping code or some type of percentage off coup!

Well How Much is That?

Each time I go to the grocery store here in Melbourne, I dread trying to purchase any type of meat, produce or fruit. I roam up and down the aisles looking at all the delicious items and think to myself 'Gee I wonder how much all of this stuff costs?' I look at all the signs and cross my fingers that I will be lucky enough to find a sign that reads $/lb not $/kg. I haven't the faintest idea how much a kg of anything is!

Let me give you an example, the other day I purchased a small bag of grapes and when I looked at the receipt it cost me $9 for maybe 30 grapes - that's outta control! And I won't even go near the deli department anymore for fear of being further traumatized by the butcher. Last time I went to see him he asked how much I wanted and I said '5 or 6 slices would be fine and then maybe you can tell me how much of a kg that is?' He looked at me like he wanted to say, ' just take your meat and get your stupid, skinny American @$$ away from my counter,' instead he just laughed at me and thought I was joking.

So if anyone has any suggestions for me that would be great! I don't know how many more times I can go to the store, guess how much I want and then almost vomit on the way out because I paid $13 for 6 slices of completely average deli meat. I am almost tempted to just go purchase a kg of everything in the store, take pictures and then study them over and over so I have a mental image of what a kg looks like in various food forms.

Countries where the metric system is the official standard are shown in green.

(This image was taken from the CIA World Factbook 2006)

Why is it that the US, Myanmar and Liberia are the only ones who won't get on board!

Why Are You Here?

Everywhere I go and with everyone I meet, people seem to continue to ask me this question. Why are you here? Why did you choose Melbourne? What are you going to do?

I'm still not quite sure how to answer that, but I know that it lies somewhere in between this mess of thoughts swirling around:

-I don't have anything holding me back or a good reason to stop me from being here
-I don't have a mortgage or kids or massive amounts of college loans
-I don't have a perfectly clear idea of what type of job or career path I really want to take
-I have already graduated college and am not ready for graduate school quite yet
-I'm not married or ready to be married anytime soon
-I love to travel and don't want to be 70 by the time I get the chance to visit all the places I dream about (heck I suppose I could be dead by 70 and then I would never have gotten the chance)
-Why would I not be here? why not try something a bit out of the ordinary for a year? and worst case scenario I hate it or go broke or get bored and come home. (mom don't worry I'm not going broke and won't be in debt :)

I think that traveling to different places around the world and giving myself the opportunity to experience different cities and cultures is what is best for me right now in my life. I think that living here in Melbourne and seeing how different it is than anything I've ever known back home, has been a huge eye-opening experience for me already. I'm not talking about the difference in the brands that they sell or the clothes that they wear, but about the way they interact as a culture and the way that they see the world on a much bigger platform than we do in the US. It's been strange watching the news about America here in Australia and looking at things from a different perspective. It's amazing how different a place can be when you are on vacation as opposed to when you actually live there.

So somewhere in that hodgepodge of babble is what I'm doing here and as for why I choose Melbourne?

Well when I decided that I was going to move to Australia, Melbourne kept turning up. I had connections there for work, I 'knew' lindsay from our blogs and it seemed to be a cheaper place to live than Sydney (I have no idea if that's actually true, but I'm going to run with it.) So no real concrete reason for that one, but now having been here for almost three weeks I'm glad I'm here because I have met some unbelievable people who I am sure will be life-long friends.

Facebook Etiquette

I like to think that I am fairly savvy within the realms of social networking, but I still am struggling with the idea of de-friending people on Facebook. I would think the only reason to actually go out of your way to de-friend someone would be because that person is bothering you or I don't know, stalking you or something. But today I have been proved wrong. I went to go look at someone's profile and saw that I had been de-friended and I think I am actually a little bit upset about it. What do you ladies and gents think would be appropriate circumstances to de-friend someone? When is it OK to take someone off your list of 'approved' friends??

A Quick Walk Down My Street...

Outside of my house.

I gave a decent effort at trying to sew on a button to my blouse today and was unsuccessful so I brought it to the little man down the street at the Button Hole store. AND Voila! 5 mins later I again had 2 blouses with all 8 buttons attached.

Lemon and Orange trees are everywhere down here and I can't get enough of them!

Homemade Pizzas

I was going to order a pizza for dinner tonight, but I didn't make the minimum amount for delivery so I decided to make them on my own. Rice Cakes, hummus, mozzarella, tomatoes and mixed herbs. One step closer to being Australia's Next Top Chef.

I Have the Best Mom!

I came home today to find my first piece of mail in Australia! It was so exciting to see a letter with a MN address on it that I could hardly wait to get inside to open it. My mom sent me the sweetest card that she had taken around to some of my favorite stores back home and had the sales clerks sign a note to me here in Australia. So fun to see all their messages and made me really miss home for the first time since I've been here!



I'm hoping that the next letter she sends down is accompanied with a package filled with items purchased from each one of these places! :)

Hell Has Frozen Over Down Under

I went shopping all afternoon today to several different shopping centers and boutiques all throughout Melbourne and came home empty handed!! It's safe to say that I have seen every style of shoe available, every sweater and dress ever made and not one of them is even worth a second look. I passed by stores upon stores with sale signs on the windows and clearance racks lining the back walls, which generally for me is a very dangerous thing, yet not one item appealed to me. I was out shopping for a good 4 hours today and the only thing that I purchased was a coffee. The thing that I truly love and am good at does not exist in Melbourne - shopping!

So to make up for an uneventful shopping experience I am opening a bottle of wine and giving myself a mani/pedi in front of the TV.

PS: I was going to buy some new OPI nail polish today too and guess how much they are trying to sell it for.....$22! I just about threw up, $22 for nail polish that I pay $8 for full price in the States - you have got to be joking me! So I passed on the new polish and will be using the one of the few colors that made the journey with me from home.

Shoe Obsession Continues....

Dreaming of owning these Valentino shoes.

But could never justify $900 for shoes (well not right now at least).

I did however find the Paris Hilton knock offs for less than $100.

Unfortunately they are nowhere to be found in Australia :(

Need a Good Recipe ASAP!!

It's my turn to cook something for dinner this week for my 2 roommates and I have the cooking skills of a 2 year old (ie: I can do spaghetti, mac & cheese, burgers, lasagna and that's about it.) Anyone have any good suggestions that aren't too difficult, but maybe seems like I slaved away all day creating it?? No hotdishes or anything of the goolaash nature.

I'm Addicted. Please Don't Judge Me.

It's JCREW Final Sale season and I was looking at all the goodies last week and trying to contain myself. (SIDENOTE: JCREW DOES NOT SHIP TO AUSTRALIA) I made a wish list of items and went through it over and over and thought to myself, 'argh I guess I really don't need these items and it's probably a sign that they don't deliver to Australia and that I should just give my visa card a break.' Well today they came out with another promotion: Take an Additional 20% off the Final Sale prices!! How could I resist a deal like that! That's the price of shipping! So I decided on this ruffle top that I've wanted since it came out last month and got it for the grand total of $22.00!! Granted it's being shipped to MN and I won't be able to wear it until my mom visits sometime around Thanksgiving, but I don't even care I love it so much! And by then it will be summer time here and the weather will be much better for this tee.

Chocolate Dessert and Punch

Since I arrived I think I've eaten at least 15 bags of Tim Tams. They are the best cookies in this entire world and when Safeway put them on sale for $1.30 last week I couldn't resist and purchased 7 bags. When I came home, my roommate Victoria said that she had a Tim Tam cheesecake recipe and offered to whip it up for Hayley and I! Of course it was the tastiest treat ever! I'm quickly discovering that Vic is one of the most amazing cooks in the world and doesn't know how to cook for just one person, so Hayley and I reap the benefits of her deliciousness more often than not.
This past weekend we decided that we were going to have a night in at the house with just us girls. We went to the store and bought $70 worth of junk food (hummus, crakers, a million different kinds of cheeses, crisps, and of course TimTams) and all the fixings for a fruity punch to last all night long. Above is a picture of all the ingredients before hand and below is the colorful drink it produced!


Ok that is all ta ta ladies, I'm off to watch Desperate Housewives from 3 seasons ago and act surprised!

Some Items to Check off the List

Ok now that I feel somewhat settled in Australia, it's time to start hacking away at my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days project. I took a look at it the other day and I have only completed 10 items on the list in the first 75 days so I've picked 5 more items to complete in the next three weeks to get the ball rolling.

38. I want to get the hot air balloon one off the list because I hate looking at it and I happened to stumble across this website the other day that offers tours over Melbourne. So now I have no reason not to. Hopefully I can convince Lindsay or one of my roommates to join me in my basket tour above Melbourne.

19. Learn to cook 5 new recipes that I’ve never tried before. - I'm open to suggestions for this one because my current knowledge is seriously lacking.

52. Host a fancy dinner party. - Lindsay's birthday is coming up and we have yet to have a housewarming party since moving into the new place so I think this is the perfet timing!

61. Throw a surprise party. - Lindsay doesn't want us to do anything for her birthday so I figure this could be a two fer.

87. Learn to sew on a button - I admit it I don't know how to sew on a button! I have 2 blouses right now that need buttons reattached and I keep the buttons in a small little bag until I remember to take them into the cleaners. (yes I've had them in a baggie for the past 2 months and even transported them all the way to Australia just to get them fixed) so this week I'm going to take an online course or find some DIY button sewing blog to help me. Any suggestions or tips would help here as well.

Out to Dinner in Southbank

Sharon (Lindsay's roommate), Me and Lindsay at Nobu

Me eating sushi for the first time in well pretty much ever

Lindsay and her mom - first time she's seen Lindsay in
almost 6 months and travelled all the way from Philly!

View outside the restaurant

Had such a great dinner this evening with even better company! Lindsay's mom is in town from Philly visiting for the first time since she moved here in February. We went to a Japanese sushi restaurant called Nobu that looked over the Yarra River. We enjoyed 8 courses of every different kind of sushi and meat roll known to man. Up until today I was not a sushi fan. I've eaten it once or twice in the past and both times ended it in severe vomiting; so needless to say I have stayed away from the live fish food. I don't like the way sushi feels like it's still alive and squirming around mouth like a little jellyfish or something. BUT because this whole moving to Melbourne thing is all about experiencing new things and going outside the comfort zone I thought why not - everything deserves a second or third chance. AND I'm so happy I did! I now have a whole new set of food that I can start eating and trying when I'm out to eat. So thanks again to the other Yank's mom for such a great time and dinner! They are now off to Hamilton Island and Ayers Rock for the next couple weeks. So to my fellow yanks I hope you have a great time!

Dating Down Under

I went out on my first date the other night since arriving in Australia and let me tell you if this is what I have to look forward to in the gents category, I may be in serious risk of never leaving my house again. Now, I don’t want to be too extreme and say that it was the world’s worst date because there were a few notable points throughout the evening (i.e.: great Italian food and a delicious bottle of wine all to myself), but for the most part it was pretty awful.

I met him at a café one morning, chatted for a while and he asked if I wanted to go to dinner sometime. Thinking, well I did just move here, I don’t know anyone and could use a nice evening out to try some Melbourne cuisine - I accepted. I met him for a round of bowling first, (Apparently he thinks that bowling and movies are what Americans do all the time, so he found it fitting that we do that first?? Random I know.) Then we headed to Terra Rossa, an Italian restaurant in the city. Up until the second round of drinks arrived he seemed a little dorky, but still normal and only semi-irritating. It wasn’t until our meals came that it all went down hill. I’m not going to go into to much detail, but let me just give you a few bullet points of the memorable conversation starters he choose to go with:

- A few years ago I spent 6 months in prison

- I come from a town in the bush that is known for criminals and drugs

- My mother has been married to 5 different men

- In total I have 17 half breed brothers and sisters

- One of my fathers along the way choked my sister unconscious because she took the last avocado

- And after all of those questionable topics, he proceeds to tell me a string of dirty and offensive jokes on the way back to the train station

(AND ALL THE WHILE I'M THINKING "I'M WEARING PEARLS, CASHMERE AND JCREW HEELS - DO I LOOK LIKE THE TYPE OF GIRL WHO APPRECIATES THIS KIND OF BANTER??!!")


Put it this way, I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t allow him to come pick me up for the date and glad that I opted to meet him at the train station. I actually think I lost a bit of sleep last night worried that the jailbird criminal who just took me to dinner was going to commit another offense at my house! From this day forward I now have a heightened level of strict standards to adhere to in the people who I choose to be friends with or date.....


VERY Minimum requirements for future dinner dates:

1. Own or at least rent his own house/apartment

2. Never been in prison

3. Understand that sweatshirts and tennis shoes are not OK date apparel for dinner

4. No prior history of drug use of any kind

5. Doesn't smoke any type of anything

6. Not married or engaged

7. Must hold a bachelors degree or higher

8. Must be able to hold an intelligent conversation

9. Employed full-time


I'm sure there are many more but these are the first that came to mind as the bare minimum.

Need Some Structure in My Life

Back in Chicago I worked full-time during the day and went to school full-time at night. I never had a slow moment and always had somewhere to go or something I had to do. Now that I'm in Melbourne and deciding which job path to take and what to fill my spare time with, I'm struggling a bit.

I know that I just got here and everyone I meet says, 'Whats the rush in finding a set routine? You just arrived! Take a break and enjoy your holiday!' Well I don't know how to do that. And when it comes down to it - I'm not on a holiday, I am trying to make a life here. I feel like I need to have somewhere to go or something to do that is worthwhile to me in the long run. I can only go into the city so many times, eat at the different cafe's and do the all the touristy things that Melbourne has to offer, before I need something more.

I've been researching online and have decided that I am going to enroll in French classes down at the Alliance Francaise de Melbourne. I loved taking French in high school and was able to test out of it in college so I could get through the other courses I needed to graduate. To this day I regret that decision to some extent. I know at that time in my life I was much too busy with work to be fully committed to continuing French at a college level, but to some degree I think that was a very lazy excuse not to go through with it.

I've been here in Australia for just under 2 weeks and I would say that 8 out of every 10 people that I meet think that American's are uneducated and pretty stupid. For example, I was in a cafe the other morning and was minding my own business, enjoying my latte and reading the paper, when I overheard the baristas chatting to another Australian customer. She said that she read a survey that asked more than 5000 Americans to look at a map of the world and see if they could identify what country was incorrectly placed on the map. (The map showed Australia upside down) Apparently the results showed that 70% could not correctly answer the question.

Of course I had to chime in with my American accent and challenge her findings just to keep her on her toes, but in the back of my head I'm thinking could that be true? Could the average American really not be able to discover that on a map? SO in the hopes of proving the 'stupid American' stereo-type wrong I am going to use my free time learning another language.

I know that I won't stay in Australia forever, like some people back home are convinced that I will, and I want to be sure that I'm not limiting myself to possible opportunities because I only speak one language. I have no idea how this will all work out, but I submitted my application this morning and hopefully every Saturday for the next two months, from 9am to 1pm, I will be chattering away trying to learn something new.

Au revoir!

I Made These Almost Entirely On My Own!!

Ok seriously the last time I am ever trying to assemble something on my own. It took me about 8 hours to make both of these before I called Lindsay for help. The dresser has no handles yet because I got mad and threw them out; and the hanging rack more often than not has a lean to the right of about 30 degrees, but other than that I am now OFFICIALLY unpacked and with the exception of my bed frame am situated into my new house. (As soon as I get the bed set up tomorrow I will post some pictures of my place)

American Blogger Meet Up

Yesterday I had the wonderful chance to go and meet another American bloggette right here in Melbourne. Danielle over at America to Australia lives here with her family and is an expat like Linds and I, from New Jersey. As the days pass here in Australia the world seems to get smaller. Every time I turn around there seems to be another blogger from the states living here in Melbourne looking to meet more American expats! It's just so weird to me that Lindsay and I only just met last week for the first time and already feel like we've known eachother for years through our blogs!

Today I finally went to IKEA and bought new bedding, dressers and other bedroom type crap to put into my new house! I've been living with Lindsay since I arrived last week and the other day I was lucky enough to meet two girls from New Zealand who needed a third roommate for their house down the street! I've got the IKEA stuff being delivered tomorrow so hopefully with the help of Lindsay's tool kit and a few bottles of red the two of us can figure out how to assemble it all so I can actually start living in my own house!

I'll keep you updated on how that goes because as you all know I am not very handy when it comes to building anything!

Backtrack a Minute

Me and Anth

Uncle Mark Grandpa

Around the campfire

Another cousins shot

Little Abby

Roberto family gathering wouldn't be the same without a 'cousins' photo

My brother Tommy and Uncle Andy deep frying the wings!!

I forgot to post pictures from the going away party in Minnesota before I left. We had such a perfect day for it and the whole family made it out for one last get together before Anthony and I hopped on the plane.

First Few Days Down Under

I arrived Satruday morning in Melbourne and was so happy to see Lindsay and Caity waiting for me at the airport! It was such a long flight and was good to see somewhat familiar faces when I finally got here. Pretty uneventful flights over and thankfully was able to sleep for a good part of it.

Lindsay and I have spent the last few days running around the city and getting used to everything. She's been here since February so it's been great having my own little tour guide. It is so much different here than I ever imagined it would be and is nothing like anywhere in the states. Yesterday, as we were visiting different neighborhoods to live, it finally sunk in that I have just moved my entire life around the world and I had a bit of an "oh shit what have gotten myself into" type of moment, but as the days pass it gets easier and I'm becoming more comfortable with the city.

Although the one thing that I don't think will ever get easier is the lack of Target Stores here. I mean they have Target stores, but they are nothing like the US - the only thing they have are overpriced crappy clothes. No make-up, no hair stuff, no food, and minimal houseware type things. So I will miss the one stop shop of cheap products, but if that's the worst thing I think I'll be alright.

Otherwise, not a lot has happened since I arrived just getting acclimated to the trains/trams , getting bank accounts and my phones set up, so nothing too out of the ordinary. I'm still waking up at all hours of the night and trying to get on aussie time, but other than that a whole lot of relaxing and living the good life!

Here are a few pictures from the last couple days....

Me on some bridge near the Southbank

Flinders Street Station in the city

Here is a photo of Lindsay for all of you skeptics at home that tried to convince me she was fictitious.

Arrived Down Under

Ok just wanted to update the fam back home in MN that I made it to Australia in one piece and am catching up on much needed sleep. Will be sure to post all about the trip over tomorrow when I'm back amoung the living!