city2sea, hot air balloons, and other spring adventures.

Year #2 is off to a great start! We've done some cool stuff lately. Here's a little recap:

The City2Sea Race

City2Sea is a 14k race from the CBD (the "city") to St. Kilda (the "sea"). It's part of a fun "City2" series in Australia (Perth and Sydney each have a City2Surf, while Brisbane holds an annual City2South). I registered for City2Sea half a year ago, thinking it would be a nice short(er) distance to run after last month's full marathon. Somewhere between my registration and the day of the race, it got bumped up to a 15k - a whole extra kilometre for the same price! Or, a reason to grumble in despair when running past the 14k mark.

Anyway, I also decided to enter a contest by Adidas and an Australian store called The Iconic, and ended up winning clothes and two free entries to the race! Ben doesn't run much, so I registered him for the 5k, but things got mixed up and he ended up getting registered for the 15k instead. Despite the confusion, he was allowed to run the shorter distance (but didn't get an official time), and ran his very first Australian race, yay! Since it was my first 15k, I had no time goals, and was very happy to finish at a pace close to my first half marathon.

same medal, even though I ran three times his distance. how unfair! haha

The weather was pretty horrid for the Spring season: cold wind, blowing the rain in all directions (much worse than the RunMelbourne half or the Melbourne Marathon, and those were during the Winter months!). At one point during the 15k there was a "misting tent" set up in the middle of the course, spraying gentle streams of cold water on runners, as November weather can often be pretty hot. But because it was pouring outside, people were actually running through the misting station... to keep warm and dry. Whatever works, I guess. And at least when you're running, you're warm: I felt awful for the brave volunteers who had to stand out in the storm, handing out water and cheering us on - but despite the conditions they were all still incredibly friendly and helpful throughout the course.

Also, we got a ton of stuff. Clothes, shoes, gear... and Ben's Adidas shoes actually fit him! This is like the Holy Grail of clothing for Ben - we've dedicated entire afternoons to finding him suitable socks and shoes, to no avail. So, an overall victory!

this is probably worth hundreds of AUD. thanks, The Iconic and Adidas!

We Finally Got a November 18 This Year

To make up for last year (when we skipped my birthday completely for our little international relocation), Ben decided to go all out for my 29th birthday - and surprised me with a hot air balloon ride over Melbourne! It was absolutely wonderful.

Ben took the entire day off, so we got to hang out in the city, exploring and enjoying some yummy food, including authentic New York-style bagels in a little laneway cafe, and delicious gelato in the Docklands neighbourhood.

birthday cards from the fam.

So far, year #29 has been pretty awesome. Thanks to Ben for making it romantic and memorable, and to all the friends and family for the nice texts and messages!

The Night Noodle Markets

The Night Noodle Markets are pretty awesome: two weeks of delicious Asian food stands set up all over Birrarung Marr park. There are a ton of options, from dumplings, desserts, dim sum, stir-fry, and of course noodles. We went twice. So yummy.

this lucky cat would be an amazing holiday lawn ornament.

arriving super early = guaranteed table!

Being More "Social"

Now that Ben's office is finally in the heart of the city, it's easier to meet up and grab some food after work. We had a chance to visit the Victoria Night Market, which offers cuisine from many different cultures and countries. Ben, of course, headed right for the Philly Cheesesteak vendor.

We've also been doing a few more "social" activities, such as hanging out with new friends around the city. We've been able to meet up with some of my awesome Uni classmates, and have gone out a few times with a really fun couple that Ben sat next to during his plane ride to Seattle earlier this year. (Basically, we've spent thousands of dollars making new friends, haha.) It's been really fun getting to know more locals, and with summer approaching, hopefully we'll get to do some fun activities in the sunshine with our new friends!

To celebrate our first year in Melbourne, we decided to revisit the neighbourhood we first lived in, Kew. We had brunch at Percy's Aeroplane Cafe (where I had my very first Melbournian latte a year ago!), walked around the botanic gardens, and reflected on how far we've come thus far.

back to where we started from.

Movies

Melbourne is home to the third-largest IMAX screen in the world, so we thought it would be a great place to check out Interstellar, the new Christopher Nolan film. We LOVED it. I couldn't stop reading articles about it afterwards. I had horrible/exciting nightmares about it for a week. And I can't wait to see it again! But maybe when it becomes the cheap movie of the week, or hits the $1 rental box.

our online ticket. we sure do miss Seattle's $13 IMAX tickets...

We also saw Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1, which I attended in all my fan-girl glory. We really enjoyed it (despite the whole two-part nonsense - just make a long epic movie, guys), and we're really anticipating/dreading Pt. 2 next year! 

shameless fan, Katniss-side-braid and all.

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family in the States! I made some yummy stuff for dinner, and then we destroyed each other playing Super Smash Bros. Happy turkey day indeed.

green bean casserole, stuffing, salmon. and cherry coke is a rare delicacy here. no joke.

CK

they don't make American Thanksgiving cards down under, so I had to make my own this year! :)

the (mel)bourne identity: one year in australia

It's officially been one year since our big move to Melbourne, Australia! It feels like just yesterday that we said goodbye to our friends and families, but it also feels like many years have passed at the same time.

Some of my classes this semester focused a lot on arguments about defining journalism - but these same arguments are applicable to other areas of life, and the general ways we identify ourselves. If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that identity is always shifting, and we are never the same exact people we were even a year ago.

Moving to Melbourne has given us both a chance to re-evaluate our identities. When we first arrived in Australia, we were newlyweds and excited expats, eager for the chance to start our marriage with an overseas adventure.

One year later, our identities have shifted a little - we're now world travellers, partners, in our early 30's (well, one of us). Ben is now very familiar with traveling throughout Victoria and New South Wales, having spent six months on the road working in various small towns - and has now transitioned to working in a downtown high-rise office only a few blocks away from my University. I am now a graduate student and a marathoner, two things I hadn't even dreamed of becoming when we left the States.

We still miss our families and friends dearly, and it hasn't been easy getting settled here. But it's been an incredible journey so far, and we've done so much more than we ever imagined we would.

Here are some of our favourite memories and travels from our first year in Australia:

• Raymond Island
• Geelong
• the Grand Prix
• Gundagai, Wagga Wagga and Canberra
• Lakes Entrance
• the Buchan Caves
• Mount Gambier
• the Great Ocean Road
• Grampians National Park
• Cape Bridgewater
• Portland

There are still many places we'd like to see while we're here, and a few more goals to accomplish yet. We're not sure what the second year of our Australian life will have in store for us - but if it's anything like our first year, we're definitely looking forward to it.

CK

albury and wodonga.

We recently had a chance to visit the cities of Albury and Wodonga for a day. Ben had some work to do in Albury, and I came along for the car ride and the chance to explore a new part of Australia. 

Around 300+ kilometres from Melbourne, Albury and Wodonga are twin cities separated by the Murray river. Albury is technically in New South Wales, while Wodonga is part of Victoria.

Albury CBD

The weather was gorgeous and warm during the time of our visit, which was perfect for exploring many of the area's beautiful parks and trails. After a few months of intense reading and academic writing, spending a day wandering around some amazing areas was exactly what I needed.

Fromholtz park is pretty gorgeous.

a tree full of birds.

beautiful walking/biking trail

Albury Botanic Gardens

hotel under repair.

I mostly spent time exploring Albury, but I did have some fun checking out the border of Wodonga.

across the border.

On the way home, Ben and I checked out Huon Hill, which has a nice 360 degree lookout of the surrounding towns, which also include Lake Hume, Mt. Bogong, Mt. Feathertop, Kiewa, and Bonegilla.

I highly recommend Albury for people who love nature and beautiful views. But there's definitely more to do in the area, and it would be nice to see more of Wodonga, next time perhaps.

It was also fun to be on the road again, exploring new places and doing the tourist thing. I really do love our little Australian road trips.

CK

spring in melbourne.

Spring is finally here! We've been getting more sunshine and blue skies, and warmer weather, although it's not very consistent - some days get up to 80 degrees fahrenheit, other days it's in the 60's. And also, there's more wind - if that's even possible. For some reason, nobody really talks about how windy it gets here. So, take it from me: Melbourne is WINDY. Year-round. 

Here are some random Spring pictures from around town:

Halloween was pretty uneventful for us. I'm sure there were all sorts of fun activities to do around Melbourne, but we're lazy old people, so we stayed in and watched Donnie Darko to celebrate. 

our local grocery store got all decked out for the holiday...

Spring is a time for some pretty big sporting events here, such as the AFL Finals. We still have no idea how to follow Footy, but we decided to visit Federation Square to see the crowd of people gathered in front of the outdoor screen.

huge crowd watching the AFL Finals on the big screen at Fed Square

November 4th was Melbourne Cup Day - a horse racing event known as "the race that stops the nation." Beginning in the mid 1800's in the midst of the gold rush, the event attracted thousands of people from all over Australia and is now an annual public holiday in Victoria, normally held on the first Tuesday of every November. The holiday seems quite controversial nowadays (like most holidays I suppose), due to protests of animal cruelty. We didn't attend the race, but decided to check out the Cup parade in the CBD the day before. We saw lots of previous winning horses, jockeys and their families riding on cars, local celebrities, and even a rousing dance number from the musical "Newsies."

Melbourne Cup parade

A few months ago, I won some free tickets to see an exhibit at the State Library of Victoria. "Victor Hugo: Les Miserables - From Page to Stage" featured the life story of Victor Hugo and his writing, various artwork inspired by the time period and events of Les Miserables, and the history of its various screen and stage adaptations, including Boublil and Schonberg's broadway musical. I've been a huge fan of the musical for years, so it was a lot of fun for me to see the costumes, photos, and posters from productions from around the world. It's pretty incredible how a story about such a specific historical event has touched so many people from different backgrounds. Nice job, Hugo.

"Les Miserables - From Page to Stage" exhibition at the State Library of Victoria

the inside of the State Library of Victoria is pretty cool

Anyway, that's all for now!

CK