the kortlevers get "kort up" with sporting events.

One of the things we learned upon our arrival in Australia is that Melbourne is the host city for the Australian Open.  For the tennis uninitiated, the Australian Open is one of the 4 tennis grand slam events, with the other 3 being the US Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.  I’ve watched the Australian Open a few times through the years, but never realized it was hosted in Melbourne, so you can imagine my excitement at learning that we would have the opportunity to attend.  After all, tennis was my sport in high school, where I was the proud recipient of back to back sportsmanship awards, and first runner up for the “human backboard” award.

Melbourne really comes alive for special events, and the Australian Open is no exception.  All throughout the city there are banners and flags flying “Get Court Up”, which is the slogan for the Open.  They also offer a free tram from the city to Melbourne Park, and various big screens are setup throughout the city broadcasting the games live.  Probably the best part about the Open is how much pride the locals have at being the home of this annual event, and how everyone takes an interest in the tournament.  They also refer to it as “the tennis”, which is awesome.

Candice and I decided to purchase evening ground passes for Saturday, which allowed us access to everything except the two premier indoor arenas.  So although we wouldn’t get to see Nadal defeat Monfils in Rod Laver Arena, we would still get to see some epic tennis!  We caught the free tram from the city to Melbourne Park, and made our way into the event around 5:30 that evening.  Once inside we met up with our new friend James, and spent the first hour catching up with him, enjoying some food, and watching one of the premier matches on a big screen.  Just as in the city, at Melbourne Park there are giant TVs setup everywhere that show various matches, so no matter where you are in the Park you’ll never miss any of the action.  We also caught up with one of my coworkers, who informed us of a men’s singles match that would be starting up on the nicest outdoor court, so we decided to check it out.

The match turned out to be Kei Nishikori of Japan vs Donald Young of USA, and started off with a really exciting first set.  Young jumped out to a big lead early, and was leading 5 games to 2 in the first set before Nishikori came roaring back to win 5 games straight.  Throughout the comeback, Young became more and more frustrated with himself and with some close line calls by the officials, and it became clear when he lost the first set that the match was already over.  Tennis is a game with a great emphasis on emotional control, and there are some players who are able to maintain control or use their anger to make them better, while others unravel.  Young was unfortunately one of the latter, which led to a quick defeat over the next two sets.  

Nishikori acknowledges the crowd after the game.

It was really exciting to be so close to the action, as I’ve never been to a major tennis event before, and I was surprised at how enthusiastic and supportive the crowd was throughout the match.  At the beginning they were really cheering for both players, but when Young started to unravel almost everyone was getting behind him and trying to encourage him.  It was nice to see such good sportsmanship from the crowd, who cheered great shots from both opponents, and kept up their positive energy and excitement despite being constantly told to be quiet by the head umpire.  We also learned that the “Wave”, which is a staple of sporting events the world over, is for some reason referred to as the “Mexican Wave” by Australians.  Our friend James informed us of this rather interesting fact, and said that like many other Australian expressions, he has no explanation for it.

the "Mexican" wave.

enthusiastic spectators.

As if a tennis grand slam event wasn’t enough sport for one week, we attended a Twenty20 Cricket match with some of my coworkers on Tuesday night.  Boy, Cricket is a confusing game to understand at first, and even after a 3 hour match, I only have a basic grasp of the game.  I can say with relative confidence that I understand the different ways of scoring and the different ways of getting an out, but then it gets a bit muddier.  I still don’t really understand what an “over” is, or how most of the statistics are calculated (or why they matter at all).  In my ignorance, I thought to myself “isn’t it just a matter of who scores the most runs?”  Of course, upon thinking that I realized that if someone were to distill football down to simple thoughts like that, then I would likely bring up a bunch of reasons why there’s so much more to the game than simply the score.  And then I realized that Cricket is the same for the true fans of the sport.

The match we watched was the Hobart Hurricanes (of Tasmania) vs the Melbourne Stars.  Hobart was batting first, and scored 131 runs, which is apparently pretty terrible.  The amount of runs that is considered a good score is still lost on me, but my coworkers assured me that as Hobart only scored 131 we had a pretty easy chance of winning.  And win we did, scoring the last runs on a 4 that should have been an out, but got away from the guy attempting to catch the ball.  I’d say he was an outfielder, if I was to compare the game to baseball, but of course I’ve no idea what his actual position would be.  Maybe he would be a called a 6 line defender, or a 4 line blocker, or more likely something completely different.  All I do know is he couldn’t catch very well.

finally, a sporting event where we *both* have no idea what's going on...

The game was a fun experience, and a nice introduction to Cricket.  They had music playing constantly, there were lots of kids & families, and they shot off fireworks every time the Stars got an out or hit a 4 or a 6.  Speaking of which, a 4 is when the batsman hits the ball and it rolls or bounces over the field boundary (somewhat like the outfield wall in baseball, except it’s at ground level).  A 6 is where the ball is hit and travels through the air over the field boundary before touching the ground (like a homerun).  After the game, they had a pretty impressive fireworks display, and the players signed autographs and threw free goodies into the crowd.

Of course, while all of Australia is celebrating their international Cricket success in continually defeating England, and Melbourne is celebrating the continued excitement and drama of the Australian Open, my home town and my heart are celebrating the Seahawks.  It’s been so hard to not be in Seattle to experience the energy and excitement of the last few weeks, and really frustrating that I haven’t been able to watch any of the games live (they are broadcast on Monday morning when I’m at work).  For the NFC Championship this past week, Candice was able to watch the game on a local channel, and both she and James were kind enough to send me text updates while I was in meetings.  I can’t tell you how good it felt to walk out of my meeting and read this:

From James: “My friend, Seattle are going to the Superbowl!”

From Candice, a picture of the TV with an announcement saying “Seattle Seahawks advance to 2nd Super Bowl in team history.”

Fortunately, I won’t be missing that game.  My vacation request has been approved, and you know I’ll be cheering with all my heart along with the rest of Seattle for us to get that one last win.  Go Hawks!

BK

Candice (and Totoro) cheering on the Hawks!

some random thoughts re: the job search thing.

I guess I should dedicate an entry to a question a lot of family and friends have asked us.

When are you going to have a baby?

Oh wait, not that one. This one:

Is Candice working? 

Is she looking for a job? 

Is she doing anything worthy of existence?

No one has actually asked that last one, although sometimes it totally feels like I'm a waste of space when I'm not on someone's payroll. I am definitely looking for a job, combing through seek.com.au and scouring the neighborhood for cafes that look like they might need help. And oh, writing those terrific cover letters...

A little secret: I don't know what I want to do with my life. I never have, and it feels like I never will. I didn't go to school for any reason except to go to school, but I don't regret it. I'm pretty good at a few things, but once they stop becoming hobbies and start being obligations, I stop enjoying them, and I stop doing them. Which is why I don't sell paintings or t-shirt designs on etsy, or pitch my songs to record labels, because I don't want to lose those passions. I may not know what I want to do with my life, but life goes on, and here I am, living. So in the meantime, I'm doing things that I enjoy for now. Like these:

I'm trying to feel okay about my temporary non-working situation, but at times I get stressed about it. Especially because my partner is working so hard at his job. To his credit, Ben has been very supportive of me, and greatly appreciates the things I've been able to do with my time off, like run errands and figure out the city. But he wants me to be happy, and it's hard being happy when I'm bored and spiraling into a pit of guilt.

Maybe I feel stressed because work is often incorporated into a person's core identity (for example, the question "what do you do?" and the various ways people answer it). Work can be something people take a lot of pride in. Especially in the States, being "busy" is seen as a high self-compliment, particularly when you can't make particular social events, or further develop friendships and relationships due to work. Bonus points for running yourself into the ground and becoming ill - some people see this as a great accomplishment, not having enough time to even take care of the physical body. "You have enough time to attend a birthday party, have coffee with friends, or sleep for 8 hours a night? You must not be working hard enough, if you have the time to take part in such frivolous activity!" There's even a debate over the occupation of "SAHP" - the stay at home parent - due to the strange assumption that these always-on-call mothers and fathers just sit on the couch playing peek-a-boo with their offspring. I mean, really. I can barely take care of a child for five minutes, I can't imagine doing it all day.

It seems like Australia views work in a very different light than many in the US do. Speaking of parenting, mothers here can take up to a year in maternity leave, which is seen as an essential for healthy child development. Vacations in general are also important. Aussies get up to a month of vacation every year, and many are "forced" to take Christmas week off. Ben's work contract even states that if he doesn't use any of his vacation days in two years, they will make him take one - because working without vacation is seen as unhealthy.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I love painting, playing music, journaling, all that. But I like it better when I also have not-as-fun things to do, like create spreadsheets and answer telephones and foam milk for a "cappuccino." The world is full of a lot of things to do, but what I've come to learn over time is that balance is essential.

It's hard to live well if you do too much of one thing. Eat, sleep, drink, work, and yes - even relax. Too much relaxing time stops becoming fun after a while, because there's nothing to compare it to. In my experience, vacations are enjoyed the most when they're well-earned. Free time is best when it's a reward for accomplishing things during not-free time. It's hard to appreciate light without darkness, heat without cold, silence without noise, play without work. 

I will end this with a small disclaimer: these are my experiences and opinions about my own personal work life. I don't mean to upset those who take pride in working all the time, or not working at all - there's a great spectrum of how to live and where priorities lie. If you decide how to spend your time and it truly suits you, that's awesome. Because everyone's balance is different. 

I'm still trying to find mine.

CK

speaking of which...

It's been a few weeks since our last update, mostly because the novelty of living in Australia is starting to fade. We like blogging about "interesting things," and quite frankly, it hasn't really been an interesting month so far. It feels less like we're living in Australia, and more like we're married people living at home. Kinda boring. Ben is back to work, so our joint adventures are few and far between. Here's what we've been up to recently:

- Because Ben was working out of town during the company Christmas party, he was nicely compensated with a movie theater gift card. We used some of it to watch "Frozen," which was super fun. We're still getting the hang of the assigned seating thing - we always describe our preference as "middle, closer to the back but not too far up" but we're never seated quite where we want. Also, by far the best thing about living down under is the fact that they sell amazing drink containers for epic movies. You've already seen my awesome Thor hammer cup, but now I present to you Ben's Gandalf Staff drinking thing:

- Speaking of perks, one of the nice things about our zoo membership is being able to visit an hour before it opens to the public on weekends. This is cool, because a) there aren't as many toddlers running around screaming at the animals, and b) the animals are usually awake, and eating, which is always exciting. We spent last Saturday morning watching turtles and lizards nibbling away at leaves, elephants stuffing their faces with hay, and wild dogs devouring raw chickens - bones and all - about two feet away from us. Terrifying.

- Speaking of eating, Ben asked me to make chili for dinner once, and I failed to taste it before serving. Apparently a teaspoon is different from a tablespoon, especially when it comes to chili powder? Ben tried to be polite about the whole thing, but it was so bad that he turned the air conditioning on and had ice cream for dinner. Over the weekend we tried to fix the chili by adding in a ton of rice and veggies (and no more chili powder), but it's still really hot. :(

- Speaking of hot, it's definitely summertime in Melbourne! At the beginning of the month it was unseasonably chilly, but yesterday it reached 109 degrees fahrenheit, and the rest of the week will follow suit. Coincidentally, the air conditioning at Ben's office is malfunctioning, so the office manager routinely passes out Popsicles. I love hot weather and have tried sitting outside to read and write, but the Docklands area is way too windy to actually do anything relaxing.

sorry guys. you'll have your sweet revenge in july. maybe.

- Speaking of windy, it's practically Little Chicago in our neighbourhood. The forces of wind can make our apartment sound like an airport runway at times. Our building manager puts up signs every week reminding people not to keep anything on their balconies, even barbies*, because anything and everything has been blown away at some point, and usually onto unsuspecting vehicles down below. I suppose this is what happens when you build a bunch of high-rise apartments by a waterfront, but good lord. Going for a run outside in these conditions is not unlike jogging on a treadmill. Really.

- Speaking of running, the Nike club held a fun "resolution run" 6k last week. It was actually kind of a fancy event - they handed out free t-shirts and rented out part of the Melbourne Central mall for the finish line, where we were greeted by tennis athlete Sabine Lisicki. She led the cool-down stretches and talked about her New Years resolutions, and there was free gummy candy and lots of security lurking around. 

Anyway, see? Boring stuff.

CK

*the Australian abbreviation for "barbecue grill," not the anatomically incorrect Mattel figurines... although I'm pretty sure those wouldn't fare too well on the balcony during a windstorm either.

the great ocean road & werribee zoo.

After the Christmas holiday had come and gone, we found ourselves with some free time up until New Year’s Eve and no real idea for how to spend it.  Many of my coworkers had recommended that over the holiday we “hire a car” (because nobody “rents” anything here) and take a trip down the Great Ocean Road.  I did a bit of research into the trip, which looked amazing, and explored different options from car share companies, to car rentals, to guided tours.  As everything is booked up during this holiday season, the best option was for us to book a 1 day tour.  So I made us a reservation for the Monday after Christmas, and we got up early to set off on our grand adventure.

The Great Ocean Road is incredible.  It is a winding, picturesque 2-lane road that begins in the small town of Torquay and runs for 243 km along the southeastern coast of Australia.  I won’t go into all the history of the road, but the short story is that it was built over 13 years by soldiers returning home to Australia after WWI.  The purpose of the road was to connect all the small towns along that stretch of coastline, and upon completion it was dedicated as a war memorial to all the soldiers who lost their lives in WWI, as well as those soldiers who lost their lives in the construction of the road.  It is the longest war memorial in the world.

morning tea.

Along our tour of the Great Ocean Road we stopped for morning tea at Surf Coast, the area’s largest surfing destination, and traversed many small beach towns before arriving at Kennett River, an area that contains one of the few species of Eucalypt that koalas eat.  Candice and I managed to spot 3 koalas during our short time there, as well as a beautiful species of parrot that some of the other tourists were attempting to feed.  Shortly after Kennett River the road leaves the beach behind and climbs into a temperate rainforest within Great Otway National Park.  We went for a short rainforest walk and learned about the history of some of the largest trees in Australia, the Mountain Ash, which can reach a height of up to 100 meters (which for reference is only about 4 meters short of the tallest redwood).  We also saw a giant species of fern tree that can grow up to 15 meters high, and were disgusted to learn about a giant species of carnivorous snail that resides in the rainforest.  Fortunately we didn’t see one of those.

koala-razzi

After our beautiful walk through the forest, we headed back down to the beach and finally arrived at the main attraction – the Twelve Apostles.  As you can see from the photos, the Twelve Apostles are a series of limestone stacks located within Port Campbell National Park.  I could go into a long geological discussion of how they formed and why limestone might be the coolest rock ever (it is responsible for much of the world’s cave formations and the great arches of Utah after all), but I’ll just say that it is breathtaking.  As for the number of stacks, there are only 8 today, and were 9 originally when the area was named.  It was originally named just The Apostles, but became known as the Twelve Apostles after locals started calling it that as they assumed that Apostles was a reference to the twelve apostles in the bible.  Of course as the area is continuing to erode more and more stacks will be formed through time, and someday there may indeed by twelve.

we were not alone.

Our final stop for the day was at London Bridge, which used to be a set of two rock arches that resembled its namesake.  In 1990 one of the arches collapsed and stranded two tourists who were eventually rescued, and now the official listing of the formation is the London Arch (though all the locals and our guide still refer to it as London Bridge).  It was another spectacular view, and a perfect way to end our journey on the Great Ocean Road.  We can’t wait to get back again and spend more time exploring the area, as well as taking a walk down to the beach to get up close to the Apostles, which is one of the things we weren’t able to do on our tour.

After New Year’s, we decided to take advantage of our Zoo membership and take a trip to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.  The main attraction of the zoo is a safari tour, so we headed there first and hopped on a bus for our guided tour through the open savannah.  Throughout the tour we were able to get up close to rhinos, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, bison, antelope, camels, and wild horses.  It was my first time on a safari tour, and was nice to be so close to the animals and see them in a setting that is similar to their natural environment.

After our tour, we made the rounds of the other animals in the zoo (they only have about 10 other animals outside the safari tour), then made our way to the Serval cat presentation.  Candice and I both love cats, and as this was the only way to see the Servals as they aren’t on display, we made sure to get there early and grab a seat.  The presentation consisted of a zoo vet telling us all about the Serval and having it jump and climb to get pieces of meat she would place around the enclosure.  The Serval is the largest of the small cats, is found throughout Africa, and has a very distinct striping pattern on its ears that makes it look like it has eyes on the back of its head.  The show was really intimate as there was nothing separating us from the Serval (except all the small children that it would likely attack first), and we got to see it make some impressive leaps and bounds from tree to tree.

Sadly, I am nearing the end of my 2 week long holiday, and it’s going to be hard to go back to work on Monday.  Most of my time off has been spent relaxing with Candice and making our home together, and it feels so wonderful to be settled in our place after living out of suitcases for so long.  Through Candice’s heartfelt decorating, our collective cooking adventures, and our touching gifts from family, we have made this apartment a home that we love to spend time in.  I know for many people the idea of relaxing and spending much of a 2 week vacation around the house would be torture, but for me it was just what I needed after working so hard over the past year, and especially for the month after we arrived in Melbourne.  Now with the comforts of home, a Zelda game to play, and episodes of Smallville to watch, I feel settled in my life and can truly look forward to this new year and the many adventures it will bring us.

BK

reflections and foreshadowing.

A college classmate of mine once told me that in her homeland of Russia, what you do for the New Year is seen as a foreshadowing of what the coming year will bring. Ever since then, I've often thought of things in this context - nothing taken very seriously, but more as an aid for reflection.

Last NYE, Ben and I spent the final moments of 2012 at a random house party, getting rained on by confetti and lots of cheering. We spent the first day of 2013 running a 5k, meeting up with some of Ben's family and spending time visiting a few of my friends. I'd say it was a pretty fair foreshadowing of the year. The beginning of our marriage was cause for a few fun and random celebratory events; we spent a good amount of time hanging out with our families; I was able to take a few trips to visit some of my close friends around the country; and of course, it was a big recreational running year for us - Ben ran four races this year, and I ran a total of six, including my very first half-marathon. 2013 was full of lots of change for us, from job transitions, marital status... and of course, planetary location. We set quite a few goals throughout the course of the year, and accomplished many of them. It was a year not without hardships, but overall a very fulfilling time in our lives.

yarra park crowds

For NYE 2013, we got to see two fireworks shows. The first was the early celebration at Yarra Park, geared more towards families with young children. There was face-painting, food booths, an obnoxious-sounding television/radio program being blasted at top volume, many people sprawled out on the grassy areas, children running around wielding light-up toys. The fireworks began at 9:30, and afterwards was the inevitable Great Exodus of many people leaving one place at the same time. All busses, trams and trains in Victoria are free on the 31st from 6pm on - which is very nice, but makes for some very chaotic circumstances immediately after large events. The few trams we saw were jam packed full of miserable-looking people, so we opted to travel on foot for the evening. The sidewalks in the CBD were just as crowded as the trams, though, and we learned first-hand that the city really does come alive on New Year's Eve.

early fireworks

chaos.

Melbourne sets off midnight fireworks from a few different locations in the city, one of which was a block away from our apartment. We probably could have seen a bit of the celebration from our living room, but we decided to head to the water for a nice open view of the show. Because the Docklands are on the outskirts of the city, everything was a lot less chaotic than the CBD, but it was still crowded, and the most busy we've ever seen the neighbourhood. It was a beautiful night - warm with a bit of a breeze, but perfect conditions for watching fireworks. We saw several large party boats cruising around the water, and the Melbourne Star ferris wheel was lit up with festive designs. The fireworks at midnight were beautiful and tasteful, and the five-minute walk home was very, very nice.

docklands fireworks at midnight

The weather on New Year's Day was overcast and rainy, so we didn't do much. We went for a short run in the morning, which hopefully foreshadows a year of mobility and health maintenance. We also started a new family tradition of writing letters: one personal letter to ourselves, and one letter to the other people in our family - which at the moment, is just each other. Next New Year's Day, we'll read these letters, and write two more to be read the following year. We'll see if this tradition is actually worth continuing, but I've always liked the idea of letters to future selves. And there's just something special about a handwritten note, especially in this day and age of electronic everything.

We rang in 2014 a day ahead of our friends and families in the States, in the midst of a crowd full of strangers, gazing at fireworks in the backyard of our new home. I have no idea what this new year will bring for us, but I hope it's good stuff. 

So, Happy New Year to all our friends and family around the world. May this year bring you blessings, peace, great memories, and adventure (if that's your sort of thing). Thank you all for your support and encouragement in our journey thus far, for your comments and well-wishes, for keeping up with us through the miles and kilometers.

Let's make this year an awesome one, okay?

CK