I ate a Roo......

That's right....I had a Kangaroo Fillet for dinner tonight. Poor Skippy, I know. It was REALLY good. It was very lean, and tasted a lot like Venison. I highly recommend it if you come to visit me here :) Here is a picture of my lovely meal!!

Another beautiful weekend in Melbourne!!

This past weekend I spent enjoying the city of Melbourne. I did some walking around, checking out different areas of the city I hadn't seen and just enjoying not working!!!! It has been VERY busy at work the past few weeks, so I was happy to sleep in and not log into the computer!!! I went to the Melbourne Aquarium which is right on the bank of the Yarra River. It had a lot of great things. Here are a few pictures from my visit.

This is the outside of the Aquarium. Pretty basic :)

The Penguins. They are so cute!!!!

This area is the "Fish Bowl". It was a large open area where the tank went all around. They had a lot of Rays, Snapper, Sharks and even a Turtle. Here is one of the Rays swimming around.

This is one of the larger sharks. Apparently they named him Mitchell. Jen, I thought of you :)

I went at the perfect time. They had 2 divers go and feed the sharks and rays. Here is one of the Rays being feed.

Finally one of the Sharks came in for some food. It was hard to get a picture of them, as they snatched the food really quickly!!!

It was a really great day. It made me want to go diving soon!!!!!

The Great Ocean Road

Yesterday, Christine and I took a tour down the Great Ocean Road. It was truly magnificent. The Great Ocean road is a 250 km stretch of road the goes long the coast of the Southern Ocean. We stopped at Bells Beach, which is the famous surfing beach. The waves were not that high, because it is winter here, but there were quite a few surfers out there. Here is a picture of me in front of Bells Beach.

We drove along the coast and stopped and different lookouts. This next area is called Gibson Steps. I didn't actually go down the 70

steps to the beach for 2 main reasons:

1. From the picture, I'm sure you can tell how windy it is. I tried to wear a hat, and it kept blowing off. It was BITTER cold and way too windy.

2. As we were pulling up to this stop, the driver says, and I quote "If you go down to the beach, be very very very careful. Rouge waves are known to come up on this beach up to 40 ft. high. Just be careful how far out you go"

I told you they are real!

After lunch at a place called Apollo Bay and a drive through the rain forest, we made it to the Twelve Apostles. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and the pictures I took do not do it justice. What's very sad is that in the recent years the structures have been eroding into the sea. Just 2 weeks ago, the arch on the London Bridge fell into the sea. The picture below is the beginning of the formations, and you can see how the weather wasn't cooperating too well.

As we made it a little further down the road, the skies cleared up and it was even more spectacular. I am very glad I went on the tour, because the tour guide was able to share a lot of information about the area. I am going to go back in the summer time with my own car so I can spend as much time as I want.

If you want to see better pictures, go to http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/

I tried Vegemite......

I tried Vegemite.

Spreading it on the cracker

Tasting the Vegemite on a cracker.

Being Disgusted by the Vegemite and cracker

I'm pretty sure Vegemite was worse than beans. And everyone knows that is huge. HA!!!

Things I find funny about Australia.

Even though Australia is very much like the US, they still have a different culture and say, do and have things that are different than I am used to. Here is 1 prime example. In the grocery store cereal isle, all of the cereal has different names. Here is the best one. I hope it makes you giggle like it did me :)

FINALLY over the jet lag!!!

I will say it took almost a full week for me to fully get over the jet lag. I thought I was fine, but I was getting sleepy a lot earlier than usual and waking up around 4 AM every morning. I think I am pretty much on Australia time now :)

Work has been very busy. They didn't waste anytime getting us up to speed and entrenched in the project. Here is a picture of me outside the office on my lunch break enjoying the sun!!

This past weekend I checked out the City of Melbourne with one of my co-workers from the US, Christine. We took the tourist shuttle, which is a free service, to the area of town called the Docklands. It is one of the newer parts of towns and has a lot of shops and restaurants. It had a really great view of the city, and the arena where they play AFL Football. I'm still trying to figure out all the rules of AFL football. It seems like a cross between soccer and football, but they score all the time and at least one person ends up bloody. Here is a pic of the Docklands.

After the Docklands, we took the City Circle Tram, which is another free service, over the the Queen Victoria Market. This is a huge market that had anything you could think of; tacky souvenirs, food, clothes, jewelry. I ended up buying 2 rings and of course some tacky souvenirs. I couldn't come here and not buy a boomerang magnet!!! It was a very interesting place, and I didn't get to see nearly as much of it as I wanted too. It's open all the time, so I can go back anytime. Here are a few pics of the place:

Sunday's plan was to go to the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Salvador Dali exhibit. On our way, we ran across the Sunday Art Market. It was along the river banks in Southgate. To be in this market, you had to of made whatever you are selling. This market is every Sunday and had everything from photographs, scarves, cakes, painting and even live performances. It is amazing to see what some people can make with their own hands.

After the market, we went to the National Gallery, but didn't make it into the Dali exhibit. By the time we got there, we were tired from 2 days of being tourists, and the exhibit will be here until October. It was a beautiful art gallery that had paintings from all over the world.

Overall, it was a great first weekend. Plans are still pending for this coming weekend, but I think it will be another good one!! Many more pictures to come :)

Welcome to Melbourne

So my first full day in Melbourne is coming to a close. Not feeling too much jet lag and I am loving the city. Day 1 at work was a success. I met most of the people I will be working with and they are all very nice. That is the IBM people at least. The office is in the part of town known as Southgate. It is right on the Yarra River. Nothing too much to report today since it was all work work work, but here are a few pictures I took on my way home from work.

The picture above is of a restaurant in Federation Square. I had to be all touristy and take a picture of the city name :)

This is view of Melbourne from the Princes Bridge. It's a pretty nice walk back to the hotel at night!

Here is the IBM office I am working in. We are on the 28th floor so we have a pretty good view of the River and the Southbank area (I took this one on the way into work)

Here I am with my tennis shoes in the rain at Federation Square. It was a lot busier in the morning, and I'm sure there would be a ton more people out if it hadn't been raining. Day 1 is done, and I am looking forward to this weekend so I can check out more of the city!!!