Missing Fall

This is what it looks like where I live right now.

For those people who don't know, the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere are complete opposites when it comes to seasons. So right now, it is Spring here. Plus, where I live it is never really Fall. I live in a state that is essentially the same climate as Florida where the seasons are comprised of warm, warmer and warmest. To say I miss actual seasons is the biggest understatement of the century. I practically yearn for seasons. During 'winter' I would just pretend it was colder outside so I could actually wear wintery outfits. I'd say things like 'brrr it is cold tonight' and 'ah the air is so crisp' in hopes of tricking my mind into actually thinking it is winter weather. Nevermind the fact that it was June/July/August  and all my mind could really think of was summer (I will never get used to that). .

It is killing me seeing everyone and their mom (literally) obsess over pumpkin everything! I find myself longing for cool weather, riding boots, sweaters, pumpkin patches and good ole American Halloween.

What I miss dearly:

And finally, but certainly not even remotely the least, CLEMSON FOOTBALL:

Don't even get me started on fall outfits and college football or I will just spiral into a lack of sweater/tailgating induced depression!

Are you suffering from a lack of fall? What are your favorite things about fall?

Awards and Waterfalls

Feb 9 - Front door - Well, I didn't take a picture of a front door because all the ones I encountered during the day were so boring. So instead, I went the cheesey route and took this picture at my boyfriend's award ceremony for his super awesome grades. He ended up going back to school a couple years ago and he has done so well and I'm so proud of him! Going back to school can be so hard. So this is just showing "opening the front door" to new opportunities!

Feb 10 - Self portrait - took this during the ride to our little getaway today! 

And just wanted to share some of the sights from today...

Viva Mexico!

Yea, I Google mapped directions from Mexico City to here. Just to illustrate how far away I am from Mexico. No, I don’t know kilometers either or what that is in miles. And why do I care about how far I am from Mexico do you ask? Two words: MEXICAN FOOD!

I love, love, love Mexican food. I am not exaggerating when I say I eat Mexican food on a weekly basis at home. In Atlanta, Mexican restaurants are about as common as a Starbucks. I’m also not even lying when I say on my high school graduation trip to Italy, I made my parents go to a Mexican restaurant one night because my craving was so bad. (Sidebar: it was so freaking good). Also, Mr. Aussie and I were talking the other day about Mexican food and realized that when we were in the US I took him to more Mexican restaurants than anything else. What can I say? I’m obsessed. But luckily, he’s now one of the few Australians to actually know what yummy Mexican food is.

I love Australia, but one downfall is the fact that it’s so far away from Mexico – very little Mexican food! I had tried Mexican here twice before Friday night and both times I was extremely dissatisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I am not judging on authenticity (I mean, we’re REALLY far from Mexico). If anything is as good as the proverbial Atlanta Mexican restaurant, I’d be happy. So, on Friday night, Mr. Aussie and I decided to try a Mexican restaurant here that we heard was pretty good. Holy Mexican jumping beans, it was! It wasn’t the best I ever had, but it was still pretty legit. I got a picture of it on my Blackberry, sorry about the quality. My only complaint was that the enchiladas didn’t have enchilada sauce on them. Just a bunch of cheese. But the tasty beef inside made it ok! The refried beans were DELISH and the rice was so yummy. So happy I found a Mexican restaurant!

 

I really wish I got a picture of the décor. It was HORRIBLE. About as tacky as you can get, worse than the restaurants at home that do the cheesy “Mexican” décor. A lot of the hangings on the wall actually looked more like Navajo Native American to me than Aztec. But whatever. And the waiter pronounced it “Kway-so”. It’s ok, I let it go. Oh, and to Mr. Aussie’s disappointment, there were no fajitas on the menu. So not perfect, but damn good enough to feed my cravings! 

Is there any cuisine that you just die for? Share my love of Mexican?

Melbourne Cup Carnival

OK so I have an Aussie bucket list which I have mentioned before. One of my friends asked me if that means I am going to die in Australia so I want to get things done before that. Errrr…hopefully not. By Australia bucket list, I just mean that there’s a list of things I want to do in Australia before I move back to the US of A. So the “kicking of the bucket” is the move. The list grows nearly everyday but I’ll only really talk about the major ones. 

Melbourne Cup is a major one.

Amercain (heck yea) won in 2010

It happens every November and, don’t hate me, but in my opinion it’s bigger than the Kentucky Derby. The celebrations go for a few days and the whole country literally stops for the race day. I know it’s a public holiday in the state of Victoria (where Melbourne is) and I think everyone else just kind of hopes they can get off work for it. Nevertheless, there’s parties the ENTIRE week of it so you can always catch at least one. Then, to make it even better, the fashion for it is phenomenal. Needless to say, I am dying to attend it one day. 

Please, I wanna wear one too.

What’s an event you are dying to go to?

Going Bananas

About 8 months ago there was this cyclone named Yasi that slammed against the state of Queensland in Australia. Cyclones happen, the damage wasn’t horrendous like many other natural disasters of this year, but it did wipe out the bananas. So, prices SKY ROCKETED. This was bad news bears for the farmers and the consumers like me who LOVE bananas.
So I am going to give you some of the things I love to do with bananas:

1. Just eat them as they are.

2. Banana bread. Love this recipe from Smitten Kitchen
                   
3. Banana and peanut butter sandwiches.

4. Banoffee Pie. Actually, I just realized where the name comes from because it’s BANanas and toFFEE. Ooooohhh. Anyways, I want to learn how to make it, they are AMAZING. Never even heard of it until I came to Aus, so I found an Australian recipe here
          
This might seem odd to have a post on something like bananas, but try going MONTHS without eating something you love and normally eat on a regular basis. It get’s to ya!
Is there anything special you make with bananas? I am always looking for new food ideas.

Bucket List - Aussie Style

I've been in Australia for awhile now but I haven't seen everything I want to see here. So I've created a Bucket List for Australia.

Uluru

Twelve Apostles

Daintree Rainforest

Kakadu National park

Horizontal Waterfalls

Fraser Island (plus the Whitsunday Islands)

 Bungee Jump off Sydney Harbour Bridge

Honestly there's quite a good bit more but thought I'd leave it at this for now. I luckily already crossed off a few like the Great Barrier Reef and I am going to get a couple more knocked off the list in the next few months. I am beyond excited! I wish I could be traveling on the regular but my law school lifestyle totally holds that back, stupid education. Why can't someone just give me money to travel around and live the "bohemian lifestyle"?

What is on your bucket list?

Settled in

I have been in Aussieland for a little over a week now. The beginning was such a vacation, spending time in Cairns and going scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef!! Then came down to Adelaide where it is pretttyyyy cold. It's starting to warm up, but I wish it would warm up faster!

The internship is going pretty well, just do a lot of desk work.

I have met people, one is a girl from College of Charleston so it's great to have another American girl my age wanting to travel and go places.

Adelaide is a neat city. It's pretty small, but it has a lot of a charm and there are some fun things to do. Today, we left the city and went out to the suburbs to the beach. It was too cold to sunbathe or anything like that, but it was nice to be out there and walk around.

We're hoping to plan to go to Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, and the Adeliade Hills (vineyards, national parks, animals)very soon!! All would be amazing. I just want to hold a Koala and play with a Kangaroo!!

That's all for now, I'll post more soon!