Aussie Land

Okay, now a little insight into our Mormon culture. Every Mormon 'returned missionary' (meaning he served a mission for 2 years, and has returned) has a dream of re-visiting the place where he served his mission for our church...

For Tim, as some of you know, that was Aussie Land-- and almost 10 years ago. I've unpacked three boomerangs from his mission in Australia with each move we've had.

They have been to our first place/hole in Provo, Utah (can't beat $250 a month, even if the landlord broke-in unannounced to paint the cabinets flourecent orange while his wife was recovering from childbirth).

The boomerangs have been to Hawaii where Tim did his MBA program, and I got my PHT (putting husband through) working my tail off. And compensating for any working by laying my whitie legs on the beach.

They've even been to NYC, where Tim and interned for Citigroup and I worked for JP Morgan Chase (now before you go thinking I am one smart cookie, I only assisted the JPMC recuiters, and you'd be amazed at what a temp agency can find).

Next to our little apartment, our first one where everything within it's walls was ours and not sub-letted from a retired lady on vacation (mauve/dusty blue combo was cute the first time through) or the bachelor (bright red leather sofas and surround sound were nice; and I got to liking drinking OJ out of shot glasses and milk out of beer jugs?). Plus moving into our own place meant unpacking wedding presents that had been waiting a year at Tim's parents house.

Then finally the tree little boomerangs made it to our first little starter home in Castle Rock. They were on display in a window at the top of the staircase above the desk. My neighbor across the street, Nicole, even called once to see what those weird things in the window were.

And after waiting a long three months for our sea shipment of stuff to come from the US when we got here to China, I unpacked to see those boomerangs yet again.

So it was exciting for me to follow them to their land this time...

Here's some pictures I took of Tim's old mission stompin' grounds.


I knew he'd be embarrassed if I told him curb was spelled wrong. I knew there would be a whole country embarrassed if I corrected their other spellings like 'favourite or colour'. Okay, okay, a little pompous American humor.

I take this picture everywhere we go as a family. It seems.

This was supposed to be cheesy noodles. Hmmm...

The sweet Aussies call french fries "chips".

And here's a sight I haven't seen for over a year now! LDS missionaries. As you know, China doesn't allow proselytising missionaries at this time.

And just for being the superheros they are, I had to get a picture with them.

Here's Tim giving Hunter the low-down on all the places he remembered. Yes, that's black socks with white high-tops. But look at those calves. Man oh man.

Such a pretty building. It says bank of Australia, but check out the corner fixture...

... lol!

Burger King in Australia is "Hungry Jacks" in respect for the title of "king".

A dragon dance as we came in to the China town portion of Sydney.

Did you know Sydney has the largest China town in the world outside of China itself? Bigger than NY or SanFran.

The drum part was fascinating. The students all moved to it's beat.

Lame picture, I know. But I loved how there was this old tree that was cracking and they'd painted it's cracks with gold. So creative.

There's it's top.

I loved all of the pretty colonial buildings in Sydney. It just felt so historic. Do you see Hunter in his Aussie hat to the left?

Man if I could remember the name of this Chinese instrument. But it was cute to hear this man play Jingle Bells at the end of January on his chinese instrument. There's Hunter's hat.

There he goes. Don't you love to look at the people standing in the background of pictures. It's like they see a camera and they freeze.

This statue guy was just too cool to pass up. Hunter and I stared at him all day. Some teenagers were relentless in trying to get him to break character, but he stayed in PERFECT character. Heath, I think I found one of your distant relatives.

One flavor (or shall I say flavour) the US could add to their selection: black currant. YUM. Anytime I got, I'd order my drink this flavor. I was surprised at how different it could taste each time. It was like the flavor drinks are named when they can't quite pinpoint any other fruit taste to it. Much like the cent of hotel shampoo. Come on, 'lemon grass herb'. Yet lemon grass herb fragrance smells different at each hotel, sometimes like palmolive. LOL!! BTW, I have liked each of the smells. But be real with me now, next time you see this scent, tell me if the Marriot version smells like root beer to you too.

To prove I was actually on this vacation.

Hunter was Mr. Piggy Back this trip. We did lots of walking and sweating. And he and I made a great team.

Over all, it was clean and incredibly beautiful. If I were the boomerang, I'd wanna come back too.