I Should Have Told You...

The first semester of my Masters is over, and there is so much that has happened in the past few months that I didn't tell you.

I should have told you about our weekend trip to the Spa Capital of Victoria, Daylesford, a small town about an hour outside of Melbourne that is famous for its mineral springs (key word: mineral. I will return to this point shortly, but suffice to say that I don't think I knew what that meant before going there). Will, Darcy, and I spent a relaxing weekend in a cute little cabin, hanging out at the bath houses that put Daylesford on the map (and getting massages -- well, I did at least!), and going on long hikes through the countryside scattered with mineral springs. We were particularly excited about these hikes, seeing as how there would be clear, refreshing water in strategically located places throughout the walk. Thirst? Totally a non-issue. Coming upon the first of these springs, however, we quickly realized that "mineral" and "clear and refreshing" are not exactly synonyms. Check out the pictorial progression:

So hopeful...

Ahh...

Doh!

Mineral... right... not a fresh mountain stream. More life sulfur-infused urine.

Of considerable more tastiness was the fresh Daylesford-grown produce...


... and the second-best vanilla slice in all of Victoria (it's officially ranked, not just me saying it). Yum!


[Sidenote: we can now officially consider ourselves vanilla slice connoisseurs as we have tasted both the first- and second-ranked slices in Victoria! Score!]

I also should have told you about the visit of our friend Tom. We met Tom in Atlanta playing kickball, and were so happy that he decided to come visit us. He coupled a trip to Melbourne in with an ambitious month-long itinerary throughout the rest of Australia and New Zealand. One of the highlights of the trip was our stay in Yarra Valley at an alpaca farm. The farm was run by a slightly crazy lady (although what would you expect from ladies running alpaca farms?), but Darcy had an absolute blast with her new friends.

Darcy: Are you my mom?
Alpaca: Are you our leader?

Both: *LOVE*

Unfortunately we do not have any pictures with Tom. [Tom, what's up with that? Send me one of us and I'll post it!]

Updated:

The infamous Tom O'Dea!

I should have told you about the very first presentation I had to give for work. I had all of 45 minutes notice before finding out that I would be the one to deliver a talk about Science at Melbourne -- a talk I had never heard before. That was some nice pressure... or character-building. Whatever you want to call it.

I should have told you that our tenants moved out of our house, and we are currently in the process of finding new people to live there. As some of you know, the house experience over the past year has been somewhat of a nightmare, but we have changed property management companies and are excited to get a fresh start. So far we have had some good interest in the house, so hopefully it won't take five months to rent out this time.

I should have told you about the recent visit from our friends Carissa and Taylor, and my work trip to Sydney. Carissa and Taylor (some of our best friends from Vanderbilt) planned their trip to visit us early this year. When I started my job, I found out that I would be making a trip to Sydney on the exact same weekend they would be in town. Instead of getting discouraged, we decided to combine the trips, and it worked out beautifully, if I do say so myself. Although I spent the majority of my time working (someone had to finance this operation!), Will, Carissa, and Taylor got to check out the city (despite the monsoon-like weather half of the time). Sydney is beautiful -- although I still prefer Melbourne.

St. Mary's Cathedral -- it doesn't always look this crazy. There was a light show going on to commemorate 200 years of... something. Can't remember what.

We also visited the Mornington Peninsula, where we tasted some great wine and hung out at the hot springs (like a big naturally-formed hot tub), the Great Ocean Road, and Philip Island to see the little penguins. Again, monsoon-like weather followed us, but we had a good time.

If we were about to get discouraged that we didn't have any other friends lined up to visit us, we need not fear: the night we dropped Carissa and Taylor off at the airport, we got an email from our friends Colin and Kirby saying they had bought tickets to come over Thanksgiving! We will be meeting up with them for a week in New Zealand (our first time!) before they come to Melbourne.

I love that people are actually taking us up on the offer to come visit. Anyone else want to join the bandwagon? All the cool kids are doing it.

I think that pretty much covers, and yet doesn't even do justice to, the activities of the Stones over the past few months. Between the lines above lay Masters papers, presentations to countless schools, weekend university expos, walks in the park, about thirty books (I just passed my 200 mark!), and a variety of other activities--compulsory and not--that have made the past months seem more like weeks.