Tasty Tidbits

So we thought we would post some tasty finds we have found thus far:

1. Coopers Brewery Extra Strong Stout - Billy's new favorite beer. One bottle packs the equivalent of 2 drinks and yet, it is more delicious than all american beers. It's like dessert! (Note, kersti's favorite is Crown's lager - which is just lovely and doesn't pack the punch of cooper's.)

2. Violet Crumble - say it with an english or australian accent, and it sounds even betta. This fine candy bar is chocolate covered honeycomb which is not to be missed. We did try the violet crumble flavored gelato, but I assure you, it is not the same, and not worth eating, no matter how hungry you are.

3. Turkish Delight - this is my (kersti) new found staple... I have been sneaking bites here and there, and have taken to biting off just part of a square, and putting it back in the box, to make it appear to billy, that I have not eaten as many. Now there are many variations of this... but I'm talking about a homemade version from the local deli, that is rose flavored with chunks of almonds inside. It's so damn good that I can't stop thinking about it...

4. Puffies - Soo good! These are puff balls with vanilla custard injected into them... nice!

5. Rocket - A type of green that is zesty and oh so flavorful, or should I write, flavourful now? It's terrific... maybe part of the mustard family. I just feel so healthy eating it!

So you might have noticed that our top four new favorites make up only the beer and candy food groups. Don't worry, we eat protein and vegetables too, they just aren't as noteworthy. We did try a meat pie... it was good. Now...

Foods to AVOID

-1. Pizza Marinara - it was covered in miscellaneous seafood... squid, anchovies, muscles, etc... with a little cheese and tomato sauce. Totally gross. And at that same dinner, we realized that ordering the house wine in Australia, is a baaaad idea.

-2. Mayonnaise with mustard in it.

-3. Yo-Yo's - bland, borderline old, shortbread cookies with cream between the two rounds. (look's like a yo-yo). Gross.

That's all for now!

Kersti's Classes

Why are we here? The question many of you have asked... I'm here to earn a master's degree in "environment" - unfortunately the diploma will be somewhat vague. But I will focus on a specific area, as yet undetermined. I'm leaning towards focusing on development so that I could ease into residential development, or even be a consultant for regional/urban planners... but we'll see. Things will evolve, no doubt. Here's a rundown of my classes for this term....

1. Sustainability Policy and Management (intensive, taught over weekends).... mainly lectures about the various challenges Australia faces in creating a sustainable society. Big group work component... my group so far is great. There are 4 australians (they have loads of local knowledge and actual skills & experience in resource management), a forester from Pakistan, and two asians (one chemical engineer - not sure what the other does because she has been silent). I bring zero skills to the group, but that's where I can apply the free rider principle... (just kidding.)

2. Environmental Impact Assessment... (monday nights) this begins tomorrow! I'll learn about everything that goes into making EIAs, critiquing them and loads more.

3. Fundamentals of GIS... (tuesday nights, with a practical on wednesday nights) Everything I want to know about using geographic information systems... vital in mapping resources to understand areas, and perfect as visuals when you want to get your point across.

4. Understanding Development... (thursday late afternoons) Past and current themes of development... why, how, etc... wonderful for me to use as I work towards developing sustainable communities or work with urban/regional planners.

Next term... "Community Natural Resource Management"; "Sustainable Water Resources Management"; "Managing Change"; "Trans-disciplinary thinking and learning" (a required one)

Vindalooooo

So tonight, after a long weekend of classes and a wild game of tennis with Billy, I decided that I would cook dinner and relax. We had fresh chicken so I made chicken vindaloo with a pre-made simmer sauce I found at safeway. It took a while... and I was fairly excited to sit down and eat it. That's when the fun began. The package had read "hot", but it said to just add more coconut milk to cool it down, which I had done. Billy and I soon realized that the coconut milk had not had the desired affect. It was still blazing hot. Poor billy felt some sort of guilt, since I had selected it since it's his favorite indian dish and spent all that time cooking, so he kept saying how delicious it was, while of course taking breaks to breathe fire. Anyway, I don't want to mislead you and say that there was an happy end to this tragic story... well, in a way, it was happy because my mouth did eventually cool down with the aid of plain rice drenched in coconut milk, and yogurt. But we had about a pound of leftovers which we put in the freezer because it seemed just awful to throw it all away. Billy said, "I'm going to need a lot of encouragement to eat that again." So here's another incentive for those who are thinking about visiting.... we have a delightful meal for you, ready to be defrosted at a moment's notice!

Pictures

Here's Billy, so happy... on a beach, under the sun, with pistachios and water.... what more could he want? To his credit, he just had an awful sandwich. We bought mayonnaise, but it turns out, they put a little extra zing into the normally bland spread... it had a mixture of mustard and other acidic ingredients that just made it foul. Luckily, we have since found mayo without those additives! Maybe that is why he's not smiling in the picture... he wasn't sure he was going to find good mayo on this continent.

For a few more pictures of our drive down the coast... see: http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/

We hope to take some more pictures soon! We used our video camera so much that we forgot to take photos! And we weren't allowed to take pictures of the Penguin Parade on Phillips Island (the poor little guys can't adjust to bright light).... and we didn't bring our camera into the limestone caves... generally, we did a very poor job of documenting the trip! Oh well... we'll try harder next time.

Koalas!

The Koala Conservation Park on Phillips Island (just 1.5 hours outside Melbourne) was fantastic... loads of koalas sleeping in the trees, and one was out and about, and not afraid of us being close to him. Also at the park were kangaroos and some fantastic birds enjoying the tasty eucalyptus and ground cover. Too bad koalas don't want to cuddle... they look so snuggly! -- Later that day we watched the Penguin Parade -- the fairy penguins march nightly from the beach up to their little huts in the sand. It was fantastic! And before we left, we watched "March of the Penguins" in our hotel room, which made it even more exciting.

Melbourne!

We are settling into our new home in the so far, delightful city of "Melbun". Our apartment is taking shape... we seem to have almost everything we need. Frankly, I don't want anything more because it is too hard to go shopping in the city! Carrying a vacuum cleaner, box fan, 2 lamps and a roller cart full of assorted stuff on the trams during rush hour gets old, fast. We bought a blue canvas roller bag thing that we take to the grocery store so we can wheel our stuff back. They are very common so that makes me feel less silly.

We hope that soon we will receive the boxes of stuff we left from home. These Aussies like to make it difficult to ship your old clothes and used towels and sheets. (Like the resell value on that stuff is high, anyway?!) But thank you mom and dad, for helping with that!!

One day we'll get decoration of some kind for the walls.. or maybe we can say that bare off-white walls are very "in" and hip for our generation. We will gladly accept any submissions for our walls... if you mail us a picture, we'll make sure it gets a prominant hanging spot!

Today was Club Day! Billy and I went down to see about joining the different sports clubs. It's diferent down here... rather than paying for teams and clubs through tuition, it's an a la carte style... pay for what you do. So you have to join the clubs, etc... we've joined the sports centre (gym, pool, classes, etc) and we're considering heavily the Sailing&Windsurfing Club, the Women's Soccer Club, the Tennis Club, the track team and the Women's Cricket Club! I'm thinking this might be my one and only chance to be on a cricket team... maybe I should seize the opportunity.... anyone know how to play?

We took an aerobics class accidentally the other day... we thought it was a class that did NOT include complicated choreography and routines, but... it DID include it. As you can imagine, we were clearly standouts in the crowd... when they were going up, we were going down, and when they were going left, we were going right.... it was quite funny, and by laughing all the time, I worked out my abs.

They offer trips for international students, so we're looking into which trips work for us... so far, TASMANIA is the leader... it's a 4 or 7 day hiking trip and it just looks like a fantatic time. And with local knowledge and about 10-15 other people, I think it would be a great way to explore Taz, or Tazzy, as they say. It's the week before finals, so I just have to make sure I'm up on my studies! Another trip we're going to do is kayaking in the Yarra river in town here... should be lovely. Also, they have one-day surfing trips.

But the kicker to all these fun clubs and trips is that I HAVE CLASS FROM 9am-6pm ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS! Well, it's not that bad, just for the first 4 weeks of the term, and then that class is over (so that will help come finals time, I'll only have 3 classes for which to prepare.)

Big news on the employment front... doctor billy is soon to be professor billy! Yes, yes, he'll be teaching Astronomy to undergrads at La Trobe University. It's one-day a week, which is great so that he can earn a little money while finishing up those extra papers at Stanford.

So here are some useful tidbits....

From the west coast, we are 5 hours behind, the day ahead... and from the east coast, 8 hours behind, the day ahead. Once we hit daylight savings, I'm sure this will change as we "fall back" and you "spring forward".

It's been quite hot here - summer for sure - and we're hoping to enjoy at least another month of it before we return to winter.

Hokay, that's all for now!