a sunny, winter weekend.

This weekend was so incredible. The weather was in the high teens! So like 65-70ish Fahrenheit.(I'm trying to work on using Celsius) We spent it finding cafes, shops and being outdoors as much as possible. 

 Saturday we decided to go to Sydney road and find a fun cafe for lunch. Sydney Rd is a really popular, funky, hippyish road that is about a twenty minute walk from our house! We had a heard about a really fun, trendy cafe and were determined to find it. On the way to where we thought the cafe would be, we came across an American Biker Cafe. It was right across the street from a Harley Davidson shop, of course. Once we failed finding the cafe we wanted, we decided it would be a great idea to go to the biker cafe. It was perfect. The people loved talking to us about America, the food was great and the environment was definitely entertaining. It was a perfect start to the weekend.

 Saturday night the CRU (Lemon Tree House) girls had a Geeks and Freaks party at their house. As Megan said, " Who said you had to grow up when you graduate college?" It was heaps of fun putting together a cheap outfit with things I mainly already owned and then getting to have a huge dance party in the living room. Plus, I got a Australian " bum bag"! Why carry your phone around when it can so conveniently be carried around your waist. Pictured: Nina(the clean freak), Michelle(geek), me(geek) and Megan(freak)

This little bird a Magpie. Megan and I have been fascinated with them since the day we landed. The are really cool looking black and white birds. We discovered this weekend they are the mascot for the #1 Footy team right now, Collingwood. Such a random mascot. In two weekends we will be going to a Geelong Cats (the team we "barrack"  for) vs. Collingwood Magpies game. I can't wait to see how Australia Rules Football (footy) actually works. 

Sunday after church was the perfect day for a picnic by the Yarra. We ate lunch and laid in the sun for a good while. It was been very rainy and cold the last couple of weeks in Melbourne, so the sunny weekend did not go unappreciated. 

Here is the view of the other side of the river. A little part of downtown. 

We also found a fun, Sunday afternoon market downtown. There were tons of local crafts, art work, lotions. etc. I will be going back there as many Sundays as I can. 

This was my favorite thing we saw! Just wanted to share the panda love with everyone. 

A sneak peak inside the tram. Nothing special but a huge part of my everyday life. The big box overpowering the pictures is for Metlink Cards (one of the ways you pay to use public transportation).

And I couldn't end this blog without sharing the public transportation stories from today....

Many of the school I teach at are a few suburbs away so I may take a bus then train then another bus to get there. I always map out exactly how to get to each school and pretty much only know that way. If I ever miss a bus or train that is usually a guarantee I will be a little late to work. Well today, on the train going to my school, the train stops for about ten minutes at the station before my stop. I kinda start to worry but don't let myself get too worked up until I hear, " Passengers this is your captain. This train will not being going any further due to.... There are buses waiting to take everyone to the next stations." Ok, not ideal but at least there are buses right.... Well 45 minutes goes by, I am already about 20 minutes late to work and there is still no bus. So I start asking all of the workers around me what I should do and they all give me different answers so I become flustered and immediately bust out in tears(embarrassing). Well the workers see me crying and start running to look at all the maps to help me. One man finds the best way and takes me to the bus stop. I am still crying as I get on the bus. Luckily the man across from me is nice enough to help me figure out where to get off!... Then tonight we are on a tram and all of a sudden it stops going and we are told the brakes are a jammed and it could be a long wait. After 45 minutes another tram comes to pick us up. This tram goes to stops and then ends up stopping for about 20 minutes for an unknown reason. A very interesting day with transportation. Hopefully, it was a once in a lifetime type of situation. Oh the picture is from the tram tonight. 

We are going to Sydney Sunday- Wednesday! Can't wait to tell everyone all about that adventure. 

Love y'all heaps. 

New Slang:
Fanny pack- Bum Bag ( fanny pack means something dirty here... who knew.)
Skipping Rope- Jump Rope
Barrack- cheer for a team.