The Tennis

Wednesday night we went to 'The Tennis' otherwise known as The Australian Open. (We still haven't figured out why they call it 'the tennis' and not just 'tennis'. They'll say, "We're going to the tennis tonight.") The Australian Open is one of the four grand slam tennis tournaments along with the US Open, Wimbeldon and the French Open. It is a tennis competition with 128 women and 128 men vying for the grand prize of $1.3 million each for the top male and female tennis players.

Melbourne is crazy about sports. Heaps of people go to these games, it's all over TV and advertisements throughout the city and even in store windows. Everyone here seems to support the tennis. So, at the advice of MANY Aussie's, we bought at $20 grounds pass ticket for admission after 530pm on Wednesday; this night, the games went until 10pm (last night, Saturday, the game started at 12am and went 5 sets). It was a great experience and since we were there, we've been following along watching more matches on TV. At Wednesday night's games, there were swarms of people, lots of vendors, excitement, 20 plus courts and lots of switching our heads back and forth to follow the tennis ball going from one side of the court to the other.

We've attached a picture of one of the matches we saw with a view of the city behind.

Hope you're all doing well and next time you're near one of the grand slam events, you should definitely go see 'the tennis.'

Cheers!

View of the CDB

You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Did we foget to tell you Steve had a run-in with the law?

It's a simulation at Old Melbourne Gaol.

37 Days and Counting

So, we've been here 37 days already! Time really flies.
I'll try to update this more often, but I'll reacap the last 37 days for you:

We arrived December 10th and started that day to look for an apartment--you all know how I need to get things done. Steve met his coworkers the next day and I bought cell phones for us and we opened a bank account. Two days and we're already starting to settle in. Wednesday, 12/12/07, our things get stolen from our hotel room. As it turns out, we're still realizing things that have been stolen even though it's weeks later. To date, we had stolen (although all on 12/12/07) Steve's work computer, two cell phones, international adapter, Steve's jeans, my fossil watch, Steve's prescription safety glasses (not sure what someone is going to do with prescription glasses) and both of our ipods. It was crushing, but we survived and thank goodness that's all that happened.

The remainder of that week we spent time looking at the 19 apartments we were interested in and settled on our current location right in the CBD (Central Business District) and signed our lease on December 17th. We're right in the heart of the city and city life is fantastic!

This is a long recap, sorry.

From then, we got ready for xmas, bought a tree, presents, settled into our apartment with furniture, pots and pans, everything. It's amazing how much you stuff you realize you need.

We've done sightseeing. The aquarium; a beach town; the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail); lots of walking around the city; frequented the Queen Vic market-lots of vendors and fresh produce and great cheeses, wine, bakeries, etc; the Melbourne Zoo; saw a Romeo and Juliet play in the Royal Botanic Gardens; visited surrounding suburbs with lots of shops and cafes. We've been to a ton of restaurants and shops.

We also settled into normalcy a little, checking out the theater seeing Phantom of the Opera and seeing a local band, going to the movies, I joined a gym; we finally got internet and a phone in our apartment! We spent xmas eve and New Year's Eve in the city, they're also having things to do in the city.

We've also been hanging out with a girl I went to college with at La Salle, it's so nice to know someone here.

So we're keeping quite busy. Steve has been going to work, about a 10 minute train ride; and I've been searching hard for a job. Two interviews today!

We're having a lot of fun and trying to pack in as much as possible while we're here.

We miss you all a ton and hope you might visit!

I'll write more often so you're not bombarded with these long blogs!
~Kate and Steve