Merry Christmas from Sydney!

I wasn't fully sure what to expect for our first Christmas Down Under. I anticipated a few things: sunny weather, good food, lots of skyping, and maybe a little homesickness. We had all of that but sunny weather! On the unanticipated side, I think we may have added a few new traditions to our usual Christmas plans!

We kicked off Christmas on Christmas Eve when I got home from work. Christmas Eve isn't a holiday here, but the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, is. So I got home from a hot office (the air con was broken) on an 85-degree day ready to party!

Toby happily made us a lasagna casserole for dinner.

And it turned out delicious!

While he prepped our dinner, I got our Christmas campout ready. This is one of our standings traditions where we camp out in the living room on Christmas Eve and watch Christmas movies all night.

This year we only had to move the mattress about 10 feet to get it into campout position, but we were not deterred!

We had a lovely night of watching our classic Christmas movies (like Elf!). There were good intentions of going to the midnight carol-sing at a nearby church, but rain and sleep dissuaded us.

On Christmas morning, I got up and put together a coffee cake, and we opened gifts while it baked. Our families were wonderfully generous to us and made sure we had plenty of fun things to open.

Santa knew that Toby wanted U.S. Cheetos for Christmas!

A cool photo mobile, complete with prints to hang on it from my wonderful BIL & SIL!

Toby also scored some Mac & cheese

Christmas PJs from my MIL!

A weird sci-fi show from my parents

Photo books of Australia from my lovely cousin Megan

Toby, ever the willing tourist, recognized some places we've been and is pleased

We also got some ornaments, which I think added some legitimacy to our tree.

A bottle of smuggled Buffalo Trace and Toby's happiness is complete!

After breakfast, we did some crackers. I bought some at the store a few weeks ago as part of my effort to give us an authentic Australian Christmas. It was my first time ever doing them and I loved it! It's getting added to the Toby & Christine Christmas traditions! I hadn't even realized that these were still a "thing" - I kind of thought it was an old English tradition that had died out. I'm so glad that's not the case!

We both got cute little jokes, a toy, and a paper crown.

Modeling our cracker crowns AND new PJs!

The best part of our day was getting to see some family & friends for a few minutes on Skype.

And the rest of the day went something like this: watch Harry Potter, nap, eat a snack, and repeat. The weather was abysmal - it rained all day, which totally ruined my plans of going to the beach for a "real" Aussie Christmas. (Toby seemed alright with the revised plan though!) It was OK though, because our cozy apartment Christmas was lovely in its own way.

We closed out the day with some Mac & Cheese from Santa.

Mmmm... Processed cheese from America!

I also had bought some Christmas desserts from the store. Australian Christmases are noticeably English (like with the crackers), especially the desserts. Christmas puddings and mince meat pies flooded the stores in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I haven't had either of these before, so I thought we should try both.

I completely hated both of these (Toby liked the mince pies). I don't think we're missing anything by leaving these of our American Christmas menus. =) But it was a fun way to close out our Australian Christmas!

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Saturday afternoon ramble

Saturday was a beautiful day: sunny but not oppressively hot. While Toby caught up on some much-needed game time with friends, I went out for a walk.

I stayed on our side of the harbor and wandered east toward Neutral Bay.

I passed this ancient business, which looks like it hasn't changed in 100 years.

Came across Milsons Park, which had some beautiful flowers in bloom.

When I got to Neutral Bay, I found a nice secluded walkway along the shore.

It was getting pretty warm by this time, so I decided to head back toward home. Luckily, I found a bit of shade on the way back.

I passed some kids (ok, maybe they were my age) having a good ole Australian Saturday.

I got back into the northern villages where the sidewalks are just attached to the hills as best as they can be.

And before I knew it, I was back to home base.

Bonus pics

These pictures are from an after-dinner walk we took on Tuesday. We went west in North Sydney and had great views of the sunset.

 

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A very social week

With the holidays coming up, we've been included in some social activities and celebrations. Yay!

Wednesday

On Wednesay, our friend Scott generously offered to pick Toby up and take him on his monthly comic book shop run. They managed to squeeze in lunch at an Indian place, too. But first, Scott took Toby by Bunnings, which is the Australia equivelant to Lowes. Toby said it was just like being in a Lowes in the U.S., except for all the "No Junk Mail" stickers and tiny cooktops.

He also scored some dirt for our lime tree, which had been languishing in its starter pot since we picked it up. It's looking much happier now.

Late Wednesday night I traveled out to the airport to meet Megan. She had a 12-hour layover in Sydney on her way back to the States, so she stayed with us. She had managed to travel with only 2 suitcases and a backpack, but each of the suitcases seemed to weigh a solid ton. I think we provided a lot of free entertainment to the other train passengers as we wrestled them from platform to train and generally fell over and into each other.

In the morning, we went out for one last Australian brekky before she headed to the airport.

Then she (wisely) decided to have a cab take her and her bags to the airport. It was so great to see her before she left! I'll miss knowing she's in the same country!

Thursday

On Thursday I went out after work for karaoke for a friend's birthday. The karaoke was at a Japanese restaurant and it was like no karaoke place I've seen or heard of before. Rather than one big room where you sing in front of everyone, individual parties can reserve private rooms. You order food and drinks from a touchscreen, and then they are delivered to your room. You use another computer screen to key in the songlist. Very high tech!

There were about 15 people in our room and 2 microphones, so everyone got plenty of chances to sing. We also did some group songs on the really powerful ballads like "Living on a Prayer" and "Gangnam Style" - you know, the classics!

There are no pictures that will be shared from this activity!

Friday

Friday was Christmas drinks at work. Lots of people brought their families to see the new office and generally kick off the holidays with free drinks.

First though, we did a countdown so we'd know when the world ended.

8 minutes to go!

Toby came in to see the new office and meet some of the people he's heard so much about. I think he was generally in disgust at how many of the cool quirks in the office are wasted on me - all the nerdy conference room names that I don't get and such.

After Toby's tour, we headed up to the party room, which was all decorated.

There was also a lot of food, much of it Australian Christmas food, like mince meat pies and such.

Some of the kiddos that were there discovered the candy bins. This guy was going nuts in there - I'm glad I wasn't the one who would have to try and get him to bed in a few hours!

We stayed for a few hours, having drinks and mingling. Toby really liked my workmates and the office, and it was overall a great time getting to know some people better!

Sunday

On Sunday evening, we had dinner company! I've been hesitant to invite people to our apartment since it's so small and we don't really have seating for more than two people, serving dishes for food, or anything on the walls to look at. But, this particular couple, Esther and Andres, just moved here from Spain, so they know exactly what it's like! In fact, they said they thought their place is a little smaller than ours, something I thought was impossible.

 

Anyway, we had a lovely evening with them. Esther and I talked about work, and Toby and Andres talked about soccer. Of course, we all had things to say about the peculiarities we've noticed since moving here, things we miss from home, and all those ex-pat type things. They liked dinner, I think, and learned a new word when I served cobbler for dessert. =)

 

I was so busy having a good time that I forgot to take any pictures, even of the amazing quiche Toby made. It was nice to spend time with people who have been having many of the same experiences we have. Not only that, but they are really lovely people, so it was an absolutely perfect way to close out the weekend and kick-off Christmas Eve.

 

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Adventures in grocery shopping

Since all the stores here have very random hours next week for Christmas, or are shut down altogether, we decided to make one big grocery trip on Saturday to get everything we'll need for the week. I figured it was a good time to capture one of the many mundane tasks that is just different enough here to keep us on our toes.

The two closest stores to our apartment are in North Sydney. They are stores we have in the U.S. (IGA and Aldi), but nothing like their American counterparts.

We start off our grocery trip with a walk up to North Sydney.

It's about a 10 minute walk along nice, quiet streets. Luckily, it's uphill on the way to the store but downhill when we come back with our groceries.

The grocery stores are very small compared to American stores. The IGA we go to has about 6 aisles that are probably 40 feet long. The Aldi is even smaller. This means that there are some things the stores just don't sell. For example, grocery stores don't carry many hygiene products like soap, shampoo, etc. You have to go to a separate store for those kinds of things. More often though, the smaller stores mean that there is just less selection and nothing is sold in bulk. For example, rather than 8 different brands of mushroom soup to choose from, you can pick from 2 or maybe even just 1. This can make grocery shopping simpler because rather than having to choose between a bunch of varieties of an item, you just take what you can get!

Since the stores are small, most people just carry a basket. There are big rolly baskets which you can carry or roll/drag. I always drag it. =)

At Aldi, you can use grocery carts but you have to leave a deposit so you don't make off with their very fine carts.

One of our biggest challenges comes when we buy produce. Everything is priced by kilograms or grams, so we are never quite sure whether we'll be paying a solid fortune for some fruit or if we're getting a bargain!

You might think that we'd get better about guesstimating prices by this time, but sadly I have not. It's a surprise at the cash register every time!

The produce selection is also a little different than back home. There are lots of mangoes and lychees. (And, of course, the ubiquitous pumpkin, AKA butternut squash.)

Another weird thing about the produce section is that there are no baby carrots! I used to eat those like crazy at home, but somehow this doesn't look as appetizing:

Mexican food is pretty scarce in Sydney. So when we're in the mood for Mexican, we make it ourselves. The Mexican section in the stores is pretty small, but the only thing we haven't been able to find is black beans (canned or dry). Who knew black beans would be such a commodity??

Looks a lot like home.

The stores also have some interesting vegetarian options. One of our first weeks we found this "nutmeat" in a can. We, of course, had to buy it and see what in the world this was. It turned out to be kind of a paste made out of some nuts and other protein-y foods. We've gotten by without it since then. =)

Looks scrumptious!

The one area of the store that Australians don't scrimp on is the tea section. This is a big tea country, so you can find pretty much any kind of tea you want there.

So much tea!

The other thing you're assured of having a great selection of is chocolate, which is great news for me! There are varieties of Lindt bars and truffles that I've never even heard of, and TONS of choices! On the downside, it's pretty expensive, so I don't take advantage of it very often.

Just a small display at the end of the aisle. Much more in the main part of the store!

Paying for groceries presents its own challenges. The stores are just not designed for big grocery trips like Americans like to make. The checkout counters are small - they really only fit a small basket. When I use a big rolly basket, I never know quite what to do with it, so I just balance it up there too.

Basically, there's no counter space, so you end up just wedging your grocery into what space is there and let the cashiers figure out how to scan them and get them into bags. Usually they put the bags on the floor and put the groceries in them there.

After that, all that's left is to tote the groceries home until the next trip!

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