Beach at Royal National Park with Michelle and Sarah

Photos from Royal National Park

Royal National Park

How ya goin' mates?

Rain, rain, and more rain. This has been the general state of the weather here in Hurstville, AU. But because of the rain, we saw our fourth rainbow this morning. The rain is much needed here as we are in the midst of a drought and the trees are looking a lot happier.
This morning we took our first trip to the Royal National Park, in spite of a torrential downpour. Our tour guide was Michelle Heldon and she did a fantastic job of driving us through the park on some steep and windy roads. We stopped at Garie Lookout and viewed some awesome cliffs near the ocean. The waves were big and bright blue and we saw some brave surfers riding the freezing water. We then drove down to the beach which was covered with blue "jellies" which Michelle said to watch out for because they will sting you. By the end of this month the water should be warm enough for swimming, without a wetsuit. Check out our video for some live coverage.
"Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree." True story! We saw our first kookaburra today sitting on a phoneline. We also saw an Australian rarity: the Lyre Bird. Michelle told us that most people don't get the chance to see these, so we were luckybirds, haha. The Lyre bird mimics any sound it hears, for instance a car horn, so ornithologists don't know what its natural call is. Another bird we see everyday out our back window, where we have a birdfeeder, is a very small and colorful parrot. They will supposedly eat straight out of your hand, but we haven't attempted that yet. We have also seen some white cockatoos. They are beautiful.
Tonight there is a Friday Social at the church. Margaret Heldon told us to expect about 14 people. Tonights activity is watching a movie on Helen Keller's life instead of a doctrinal class. In spite of the fact that there is no permanent pastor here, the society still makes an effort to gather and enjoy a night together apart from every Sunday. We volunteered to make some guacamole and strawberry shortcake for the event. Yummo! Everything turned out perfect which has us relieved since it for the entire congregation. We wouldn't want them to think that Americans can't cook.
Today was a national holiday because of APEC and the fact that half of Sydney is fenced off. Every morning on the news there is a segment about President Bush and how many bodyguards he has, and an important section about the young star, our own Zac Efron here in Sydney promoting the international release of his new movie Hairspray.
We are eagerly looking forward to our first full weekend in Australia and a break in the rain so we can play some tennis. It is great to help out the society here and to feel useful. There are lots of time consuming jobs for us to do and it is great to know that because we can do them we are freeing up others' time. We are also having a ton of fun on the side.
Shout out time:
#1 To Mary McQueen for the fantastic recipe.
#2 To our supportive families. We think of you everyday.
#3 To Michelle Heldon. You are our favorite guide.

Enjoy the videos and photos.
Reporting live from Australia,
Carling and Sarah

Daily Life September 5th

G'day Mates!

Ta da! Our jet-lag is finally finished! Wow. It took longer than we expected. We were finally able to stay up later than 8:30 and sleep in longer than 6am.

We are really settling into a groove here in Hurstville. We did our first solo train ride with no problems and are learning how to navigate the town. Yesterday was our first day of official work for the society. Our task was to organize the Sunday School closets. It needed some serious love. We sorted through crayons, markers, tape, lessons, art supplies and paper. It wasn't too hard, just took some time. Luckily we have had plenty of experience with this type of work before so we were fully equiped to tackle the problem.

After working, we headed back to the manse and made some lunch realizing that our food supply was running low. We were excited for our first trip to the grocery store. Loading up our backpacks, we headed out the door towards Hurstville where Coles supermaket is located inside the shopping mall. We found the store, no problems, filled up our cart, and stuffed our backpacks full. One thing we've noticed is that Australians don't have regular mac'n cheese, they just have EasyMac. They also don't keep their eggs in the fridge, they just store them on the shelf.

It was a long haul back to the manse with all our groceries. They were quite heavy. For those of you who live in Bryn Athyn, we had to hike up a hill similar to Sleepy Hollow. Yikes!!

For dinner, we met the Murray Heldons in the city. This meant taking the train ALONE. We had been given a phone in case of emergencies, but unfortunately during the only emergency we had, it cut out. We were meant to get off at Town Hall, but by accident got off one stop early. We couldn't find any signs, so we naiively assumed that this was our stop. But as we stood just outside the train doors, we heard the overhead speakers saying, "Next stop, Town Hall." Panicking, we jumped back on the train as the loudspeaker said, "Stand clear, doors closing." Let's just say, we were lucky.

Once we finally reached Town Hall, we were met by Murray and Lori Heldon who walked us to Seoul-ria, a Korean Restaurant downtown Sydney. There was lots of traffic because of APEC. We met up there with Murray and Lori's daughter Naomi and their niece Angela. Naomi, knowing some Korean, ordered a delicious array of food for everyone. On the corner of the table is a button that rings a bell for the waitress so you don't have to wait long which was great because we were starving (note to self: don't go to the grocery store when really hungry!). The food was delicious. And there was nothing too scary.

After dinner, we split up and went off with Angela to purchase some gelato. That was also delicious. Then we met up with Angela's twin sister Michelle and took the train back together sharing some great laughs on the way. These girls are energetic and so much fun. They are great friends and we have felt comfortable with them since we met.

The past few days the weather has been extremely changeable. One minute the sun is shining, the next it is pouring rain. While at Margaret Heldon's for dinner on Tuesday, we witnessed the most beautiful rainbow. The colors were so bright and we could see where it touched the ground on both sides. Minutes later, another rainbow arched its way along this one, making a perfect double rainbow. Sarah and I had never seen anything like this. Margaret said that they often see rainbows with all six colors and with a full arch. Very different from the little sundogs we see in the US. On Wednesday we saw another rainbow which wasn't as impressive, but still quite lovely.

We now have a few shoutouts to our faithful blog readers.

#1 The ninth and tenth graders at KNCS. Study hard!

#2 Mr. B. for being the first to comment on our blog. Thank you!

#3 To Tony Griffin the R.A. Go Phillies! Make friends with the freshmen.

#4 To Jace Odhner. Stay happy and go on a bike ride.

Check back later for more updates.

We love you all,

Sarah and Carling

Panoramic View of Sydney

Youth Hostel In Sydney

First Trip to Syndey

Our first trip into the beautiful city of Sydney began on the train. We bought a roundtrip ticket for $5. Our escort was Jeffrey Heldon, who, out of the goodness of his heart, guided us two uncitified Americans around this city.

We walked to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and saw only a fraction of the artwork it had to offer. One piece had about 100 bats hanging upsidedown on a clothesline. Their wings were decorated in the Aboriginal style that uses lots of small painted dots. We will definitely be going back to the museum to see what other pieces it has.

Our next stop was to visit Jeff's older sister, Naomi, who manages a youth hostel for travelling backpackers. There we went up the 'lift' and onto the roof. From the top of the building we could see the Sydney Tower, which used to be in the center of the city. The Sydney tower looks similar to the CN Tower in Toronto, CA. They both have revolving restaurants at the top, and hopefully we will make a visit.

Naomi gave us some maps and directed us to some highlights of the city via the TRAVELATOR (this is really just a long moving walkway seen in airports, just with an intense name). This deposited us in the heart of Sydney where we took a long stroll towards the Opera House. As we walked we soaked in the sights and sounds of Australia, particularly noticing their fashions, FYI: boys are really into skinny jeans and artistic hairdos.

As we drew closer to the Opera House we noticed high metal fences lining the sidewalks. These are in place because of APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Coorporation), and the world leaders it is bringing together, including George Bush who is arriving today. The president's visit is causing some protesting because of his views on the war. It is interesting to be an American in Australia during this time. When Carling went to buy water downtown, the cashier asked her, once hearing her American accent, if she was here to protest. Packs of Australian police patrolled the fenced areas keeping an eye out for any trouble.

The Opera House. When we saw that historic white building we knew we were really in Australia. It seemed quite unreal to actually be standing before it. Across the harbor from the Opera House we had a great view of the Harbor Bridge and some adventurous people scaling its arch. We weren't allowed onto the steps of the Opera House because of the fencing and APEC, but that didn't mean that we didn't feel in awe of it.

Craving icecream, we we took some final photos and headed home trying to beat the 4:30 train rush hour. Our trip back was crowded with businessmen returning home from the city, reading their magazines and newspapers. We felt a sense of accomplishment exiting the train at Hurstville due to our successful excursion into the city and the feeling that we could do it again without too much trouble.

Our jet-lag is on its way out the door, finally! It has taken a long time to feel normal. We are beginning to feel at home here although it is still unreal that we are on the other side of the world for another two months. We would like to end this post with a special shoutout to the Paul Schorran Family. After their insistant urging and hype, we visited the famous 'Cornerstore' to purchase some much wanted icecream. Don't worry Schorrans, it is still here and thriving, even though we believe it has a different owner than the one from your fables.

Don't worry parents, we are staying safe and sticking together.

Don't worry teachers, we are actually learning as well.

We love hearing people's comments, so keep them coming.

With love,

Carling and Sarah

Tribute to the Wright Brothers

We would like to begin this blog with a tribute to Orville and Wilbur, the Wright Brothers. Without their invention of the plane, we would not now, at this very moment be posting to you from the Land Down Under.

At 3pm, our trip began from the Philadelphia Airport. We took off to San Fransisco which was about a 6 hour flight, no promblems except for a terrible movie which we recommend to no one. Flying into San Fran at night was awesome because we had a great view of the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge. We then had about an hour break at the airport where we stretched and walked around to prepare for the longest flight ever to the other side of the world. Yikes! When we got on the huge plane it was 2am our time so we were super tired. But luckily we had tons of No-Jet-Lag, a homeophathic remedy to prevent grogginess, from Sarah's mom :). The flight through the night seemed a bit endless while we tried to get comfortable in our seats and sleep. But we managed okay. Finally, we flew into Sydney at 6am getting a good view of the water at the same time. Customs were easy and once we were through, we were met by our hosts, Margaret, Jeffrey, and Lori Heldon. They gave us big hugs and welcomed us into their country. A nicer group of people could not be found. On our drive back to the church we noticed that Australians drive on the other side of the road and have great accents. We have been practicing ours...

Once we arrived at the church, Margaret gave us a grand tour around the church property. It is quite lovely. There are beautiful gardens and birds and a great tennis court. We are staying in the manse which is very luxurious for two people. Saturday was a very, very long day. Fighting jet lag is a beast. We managed to stay awake for the day, but just barely. Getting into bed at 8:30pm has never felt so good. This morning we attended church and met some more of the Hurstville Society. Everyone was extremely welcoming and seemed excited to see some new faces. Today was Father's Day, so after church, we had a nice lunch with the Heldon Family to celebrate and played lots and lots of tennis.

Now we are making our first dinner in Australia! Pasta! It is very exciting. It is strange to be so far away from the US, but a great experience. There is loads to do here and many ways in which we can be useful to the society, and have fun at the same time.

Lots of love to everyone back home,

Carling and Sarah