Back on it....

Ok so after 3 monthes of being home I finally can get back at this.....wow has the summer ever flown by! I still cannot believe I have been home for this long. It has been quite the adjustment coming back to Canada and going back to the "normal" life. No more sitting on the beach, suntanning, and just relaxing everyday. And the change of scenery is so dramatic I can't even explain it. The hardest part has probably been how much I miss my friends over there...! But things are getting better and we head off to edmonton in only 8 more days. Tandri just found out he got accepted into "Professional Golf Management" at Grant McEwan in Edmonton so he is really excited for that. So looks like we will be living in Edmonton for a while now! Im getting excited to start school, get to know my classmates and profs and just to live in a new place. Now we can go to hockey games whenever we want! And now that we are in edmonton we can go to Yellowknife! haha. So my summer hasnt been to exciting up until last week when we headed down to Idaho to visit family. After the long two day drive we finally made it and had so much fun! We spent the first day at a waterpark/amusement park and was there all day. The second day we got to go shopping and spend wayyyyy to much money! And then the last day we got to go boating and just be around each other. Family means so much to me and I love being able to just "hang out." Though we were sad that everyone wasnt able to be there....we know for sure we are going to meet there again! Other then that I have been working out at the dauphin lake golf course basically everyday but I love it out there...plus I get to golf for free whenever I have spare time, but thats not too often! Last night we had this HUGE hail storm that wrecked like every car's windows, house windows and anything that was even left outside! So we have a lot of mess to clean up and have no vehicle for a long time. The line up to autopac was all the way through town up to the highway. So off to do some cleaning.......

7 hours and counting.....!

Right now we are sitting in Minneapolis, Minnesota waiting to come home!! Only 7 more hours and we will be in the Winnipeg Airport. Aahh thats so exciting and scary and sad all at the same time. It was so wierd leaving australia this time because we knew we were leaving for good. How do say good-bye to people you will most likely never see again? I havent figured that out yet...its hard to say and express to them how much they mean to you while your trying to say good bye, I probably wont see you again! I know there are a lot of people who I haven't expressed how much they have meant to me and you just kinda "oh i'll let them know later". So when your put on the spot to say everything you want to to these people its pretty hard. At least harder then I expected. We met so many cool people and some of them have become really good friends of ours. The girls I worked with became my "family" there and were part of every single day for the last five monthes of my life. So...... it was an emotional good bye. The last week we had so much fun with our friends and just making sure we took everything in. The picture at the top is of us at the Hard Rock Cafe where we ate the last few days! The plane rides so far have been sooooo long. Ughh it is so horrible being so close to people on a plane for 10.5 hours straight. LAX is so incredibly big it took us 3 hours to get through immigration, customs and our connecting flight line. But we made it here and now we just have a 1.5 hour flight back home. So we have a few hours until our flight leaves so we are going to go see a quick view of the Mall of America and then head off to wait in more line ups at the airport. So I made this thing to keep family and friends up to date with how Australia has been but Ive gotten to enjoy writing about all our adventures so I might have to keep writing these even though Im back in Canada. I was so surprised to hear how many people actually read this! So thanks to all you guys for your comments and emails..they really meant so much! And hopefully we will see you all this week! hehe! CANADA here we come....

Tandri and Brittni

Back in Surfers

We made it home! These long plane rides are so much worse then taking a bunch of short ones. Our plane was so cool though, it had hot pink, yellow, and purple chairs. They had movies that were still in theatres, ones that were brand new and old ones too. They also had tv sitcoms you could watch, and the best....super mario brothers. Yep, they had nintendo. We pretty much beat every level. So that made the time pass by quicker then usual. We had a 6 hour layover in Bangkok and so we were pretty worried about what we were going to do the whole time. Remember when I wrote earlier about how cheap massages were...hehe So we spent 2 hours in the spa at the airport. It was so awesome. We got massages, manicures, and pedicures. Then before we knew it we were boarding another flight. We had a good last couple of days in Phuket, basically just relaxing. We both got a good sun burn, and plenty of time in the pool. It was so hot sometimes that we couldn't even sit outside. It was their rainy season so it also did a fair bit of raining. Finished off our shopping...ahh they are just so so persistant. Its funny at the start but after 10 days it gets pretty annoying. You walk down the street and get asked every block for a massage, if you want a suit made, some dvd's or a tuk tuk. What is a tuk tuk....here is a picture of one. They are these vehicles that look like a tiny semi and you ride in the back, like a taxi but they are cheaper. We found a really really good mexican restaurant that we ended up going to quite a bit of times. We got just a little sick of eating rice, noodles, and chicken everyday so it was a good break. So it was so good to get off the plane and know we were back here. It has really become home for us. Its so wierd to think exactly one week from today we will be flying into Winnipeg. It will be so good to be back in Canada and with everyone but it will be hard saying good bye to our "family" that we have made here. This last week we are trying to get in everything that we can. There are lots of places that we want to see once more, and some tourist things that we haven't gotten to yet. We also have lots of cleaning to do and finishing up on a few things. Last night we headed up to this suberb called Cararra and watched our first AFL (Aussie Football Leage) footy game. It was so wierd, its kinda like soccer but they use a football and they either kick it to each other, or kinda punch it to each other with their fists. It was a really good close game and they get so into it, its fun to watch. So I know this week will go by so quickly. And we have so much to look forward to in the weeks after that, Becky is graduating from University, Noah turns 3, Ben turns 1, and Tandri finally turns 19! hehe. So 6 days and counting till we leave.....
Tandri and Brittni

Welcome to THAILAND!!

Well we are here!! There is so much to say about what we have been up to the past week! It is absolutley amazing here....we are staying at Patong Beach. Phuket is actually a big island and there are many many different "sections" or beaches that people ca stay at. It has been so different travelling this past week then it has been the past couple monthes in Australia. It is so different here and the culture is so different then what we are used to. Thats probably my favorite part though, I love seeing and learning about their traditions, culture, etc. The markets here are crazy! They are everywhere and the people are so friendly. They actually speak arabic here so sometimes it has been hard tryig to communicate, but everyone thinks we are australia so we walk by and everyone yells "G'day Mate!" hehe. There was a big Tsunami that hit here not long ago and Australia sent over heapes of supplies for them so they all like Australians. We have had so much fun bartering with everyone too, they try to rip you off so much here. But luckily we had a friend come here about a month ago so she was able to tell us how much we should be paying for everything. Food has been so good....and so cheap! We both ate at the mall food court which was all these little Thai food huts for $1 each and that was a noodle dish with coke. Crazy! Everything here you can barter down and get it so cheap! We have went on two different tours since we have been here for only $40 each, in Australia we would probably pay $200 each. The first one we went to "James Bond Island" which is where they filmed a Bond movie about 10 years ago,so that was cool to see it. We also got to to to a floating village where we got pictures with MONKEYS!! They are the most adorable things ever...one of them was even wearig a diaper! We had lunch at a really nice restaurant then headed back to land where we got to go Elephant Trekking. That was nuts you literally sit on the back of a huge elephant and walk through the jungle! Its a really bumpy ride though. Then we got to watch a baby elephant do some tricks in a show which was so cute. Then we also got to watch a monkey show as well. So that kept us busy for the day! The second tour we went on yesterday and toured around all the different islands. I think I wrote before about the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo Dicaprio, its about this perfect little island...well we got to go there! I don't think we have ever been in a more beautiful place in our whole lives. It is in this little like bay and has the whitest sand, palm trees, we can't even explain the beauty of it...you just have to see it. We toured around some more islands and did some snorkeling. The water was so picture perfect blue. Sometimes we would just look around and be like are we really standing here! It was almost unbelievable. Then we got to go to "Monkey Beach" where the monkeys are so used to people you can go and feed them and they are really friendly...well most of them. I was having so much fun taking pictures and feeding them and I saw this so cute baby one in the tree eating a banana so I though ohhh what a cute picture so I go near it to snap away and all of a sudden I could feel these things jumping up on my back and scratching my legs...it was pretty scary! haha. So I quicikly ran towards Tandri and they fell of and everyone was just staring at me like are you ok?! After I realized what had happened I was like woah....I just got attacked by 2 monkeys in Thailand, how many people can say that! hehe. So for our last stop we headed to this tiny little island that takes only 5 minutes to walk around the whole thing. We did some more snorkeling and sat on the beach chairs and had these so cool drinks where they actually cut a fresh pineapple or coconut open and you drink out of them. So as you can tell we have been doing so much here! We still have 4 more days here so we are going to do some more travelling around the island and getting in as much as we can! Only 13 more days and we are home!! We are getting so excited, we have to not think about it too much or else I cannot sleep! We will keep you updated about how the rest of our trip goes! Talk soon!
Tandri and Brittni

Happy Birthday to My Mom

Today is my moms birthday....but I will not say how old she is because I think she would like to keep that a secret. hehe so....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

One more month.....

Exactly 1 more month and we will be home!! Now that it is getting closer we are getting a little anxious. Tandri has officially been “retired” for about two weeks now but I have been working 7 days a week still….trying to get as much money as I can. We have made some really good friends with some people at work, and have had lots of fun going out with them. Lots of people have asked if I have gotten sick of eating Subway since I eat it everyday, so to answer that….nope! hehe It still tastes so good, and they have a different kind of chicken sub here that is really good. And I guess in New Zealand they have a pork one…weird. So I only have 6 more days of working there until I will be done for good. Its going to be weird not waking up and heading to work since I have been doing it for like everyday for the past month….I’m sure I’ll get over it real fast though. And only 7 more days until we head off to Thailand!! Everyday we hear stories from other people how beautiful it is there and how much fun we will have. I guess we can go canoeing under these caves and under waterfalls and stuff…sounds cool hey. I’m the most excited for the shopping though! We get back from Thailand on the 17th of May and then 10 days later we are on our way back to Canada. So I am sure this month is going to just fly by. We already have lots planned for the last couple of days here, making sure we see as much as we can before we leave. Today is my friend Nicki’s birthday, she turns 19. So if you see her….say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! This week we have been kinda bored at night as the biggest loser is over. The finale was so so good though!! The transformation these people have gone through is unbelievable. And guess what..?!?! I was working at Subway and Marty came in and ordered a sandwich from me!! He was one of the contestants who made it to the final 3 but ended up placing second. I was so shocked I couldn’t even say anything!! Oh but was I ever excited when he left and I realized what had just happened. hehe. The past month I have been thinking a lot about next year and where to live, go to school, etc. I had applied for the Dental Technology course in Edmonton but I had almost led myself to believe I wouldn’t get in so I thought a lot about other options. Well about a week ago at 2:00am I got a phone call from my mom saying my acceptance letter had come in!! So at the end of August I am heading off to Edmonton. I’m so excited to go, and I will be done school in only 2 years!! Then I will have my career and be working already…that’s crazy! I am now looking so forward to the next couple of years. So for the rest of this week we are just finishing up on some stuff before we go, cleaning, and working. And today we are off to Pacific Fair which is that huge mall to try to get some more souvenir shopping done….oh and a frappacino from starbucks. mmmmm.
Talk soon
Tandri and Brittni

Phuket here we come!!

The Top Things we take advantage of in Canada: 1.Tim Horton’s
2.Kraft Dinner
3.Canadian Ketchup
4.Cheese Whiz
5.Ketchup, Dill Pickle, Sour Cream & Onion Chips 6.Perogies
7.Ranch Dressing
8.Bacon
9.Egg Poachers
We are so excited to come home to come back to the "normal stuff!" Now the Top Things we have become addicted to while being here….
1.The beach!
2.The Biggest Loser
3.Vegemite
4.Gelato
5. Curry Flavoring (sooo many indian restaurants here)
6. Chili Flavoring (for some reason everyone here loves chili)
7.Lollies
8. Kangaroo and Crocodile
9. Thongs (the feet ones)
You have probably wondered what we have been up to the past while as I have not had time to write another blog. We have been busy- but just with work. We have been working almost everyday so we can save heaps of money for our next trip. I am also still working out things with the cruise company to get all of my stuff back- so that’s been annoying and a hassle. Last week we went out for supper at Kamikazee and we at kangaroo and crocodile!!! Tandri says its so good but I had a little hard time eating the cute animals....So after looking at all Brianne and Arlen's cool pictures me and Tandri decided to try at our creativity nature at the beach and this is what we came up with.....so you can all judge whos is better. hehe. But some VERY exciting news we finalized yesterday…our last trip while being here in Australia will be to……THAILAND!!!! We are both so extremely excited to go! We leave from Brisbane May 6th and spend one night in Bangkok then 9 nights in Phuket which is actually on an island. I do not know how we are going to wait a whole month to go…..we are going to get to ride on elephants, play with monkeys, and so so much more! A lot of people here travel to Thailand because it is actually really close and it is so cheap! Our travel agent said that we will pay around $4 for a big meal…WHAT?!! Massages on the beach are $10 for two hours, shoes about $10 a pair, handbags, sunglasses, clothes….it is like the shopping capital of Asia. Seems unbelievable…but it not! It is so beautiful there too; I did not think it was so tropical, if you ever have time look it up on the internet. Leonardo Dicaprio was in a movie a long time ago called "The Beach" and it was actually filmed on an island right by where we will be. It is going to be such a change from living here which is like the most expensive place in Australia. I am so excited to see their culture and experience their country, even though it has been amazing here in Australia its culture is not that different from ours. I’m most excited I think for the photo opportunities I will have! hehe. So we have the rest of the month to work and save money and just enjoy our last little while here. I know the month of may will go by so quickly. Its so exciting to think about how soon we will be home but as time goes by we have found ourselves feeling like this is almost "home." We have met some really cool people and made some really good friends, and it will be hard to leave knowing we will most likely never see them again. I am never going to forget this whole experience of being here. So we want to make our next two months fun and memorable! Now that we have a camera we can take more pictures and post them so you guys can actually see what we are doing everyday! Well I have more researching to do about Phuket….talk to you all soon!
Tandri and Brittni

We are finally back!!

I have been told by quite a few people to hurry up and write another one of these, so here we go......We have had quite the week full of adventure, excitement, and crazy times. We left Saturday morning to travel to Brisbane where we were to board the Pacific Star! First of all our bus to Brisbane was an hour and a half late, we were very worried we weren’t going to make the ship! We arrived at the wharf and saw the ship….it was soooo big! It was so exciting when we first boarded, we went and toured the ship and got lost too many times. hehe. There was a big disembarkation party on the top deck so we spent the next couple of hour’s sun tanning in 35◦ weather on the top deck. We were so looking forward to the next worry-free, work-free, and relazxing7 days. We were a little off on that one, a few hours after we sailed away from Brisbane I found out that my luggage had been dropped in the ocean. So I went the next day and a half without my clothes, make-up, and my most valuable thing-my camera! It was so annoying having to deal with the crew on the ship and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to get my camera back, but other then that we had an awesome time. Our first stop was in Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands which is probably the nicest part of Australia. We never got to go to the nice resort places but we toured around the city and went swimming in their lagoon. When you travel up to northern Queensland the ocean is full of boxed jellyfish which are so dangerous they can kill you. So you can’t swim in the ocean up there. The town was full of backpacker hotels, and travel places so we got to look into some things we wanted to do in the next few days. Tuesday we arrived in Cairns early morning. We spent the morning touring around and seeing what the town was like, we really liked it there except for the weather, way too much rain because it’s so tropical. We found a good travel agent who found us something to do all afternoon…..white water rafting!! I cannot believe we did it. It was so fun and scary and so exciting! It took four hours and we traveled down the Barron River which was so beautiful, we basically traveled through the rainforest. Everything was perfect until Tandri disappeared! We were on the last rapid which was the smallest one when Tandri fell backwards and under the river. We all laughed and waited…and waited…and waited for him to come up. He got stuck under the boat and came down the current with us! It was a short time but I think we all had a second of panic. He came up with a shocked looked saying “Good thing I took a breath before going under!” haha I am so glad that we decided to go. We went back on the ship for supper then headed back out too experience Cairns at night. We didn’t have to be back on the ship until 3:30am. We woke up the next morning early so we could get off to see Port Douglas. We liked it there the most; it was a cute little town. We got on this huge boat and traveled an hour to the outer Great Barrier Reef. We spent the whole day snorkeling and swimming and had the best time. It was so so cool snorkeling and seeing all the animals and coral. Tandri really loved it. The next couple of days we were just sailing and hanging out on the boat. We both got a little sea sick during the week so that kinda sucked but we loved being on the boat. We ate so much good food, and met a whole bunch of really nice people. We played bingo one day for fun and almost won $4000, we were only one number away. We were very ready and excited to be back home Saturday morning. We realized we definitely picked the best place to live, we love Surfers Paradise. Today was our first day back at work and now we have to get back into the old swing of things. We are going to go surfing tomorrow. I have loads and loads of laundry to do…….hope your week was good.
Tandri and Brittni

Almost Cruise Time!!

Its been a while since I have been able to update this, as our phone line was disconnected. We haven't done too much this week, just working a lot to make some money for our cruise!! Exactly one week from today we will be sailing Tropical Queensland suntanning on our cruise ship! We are both so so excited! Especially to see a new part of Australia. So far everything we have seen has been more then perfect so we can't wait to see what else they have to offer!! We had two days off and were such fun days. The first day we went to HarbourTown which is a 20 minute bus ride from here. They have one of the larges outlet shopping centers here and wow was it ever huge! Tandri was tired out after about 20 minutes, and it didnt take me much longer. There was stores after stores with so much stuff! So we spent all day shopping then went to the theatre for an afternoon movit to relax. We saw Wild Hogs, ate some gross movie theatre popcorn and almost fell asleep. Its funny here because they get movies like so much later then we do in Canada. So movies that we own are like just getting to theatres here. The next day we went to a town called Coolangata where there was a Roxy/Quiksilver Professional Surfing Competition (Where Matthew Maconhey was two days ago!) but to our dismay when we arrived we found out that it was over! I guess the waves were so good the other day they decided to just finish the competition then. So we just spent the day on the beach there, its a lot more secluded and not so busy so we really enjoyed it there. The waves were so strong but we had heapes of fun swimming! Some exciting news from today...Tandri bought a SURFBOARD!! So we are heading out to the beach tomorrow to have a go at it....apparently its like really hard, I guess we will see! hehe. We also took a journey to Southport to find the Harley Davidson store for the sake of my cousin Ricky and also Gail Irvine. Its quite the trek but we made it and it was pretty cool. We have had so much fun visiting all of the nearby towns, there are so many of them. The "Gold Coast" here consists of heapes of suberbs that are all like almost connected they are so close. Each one is so different and has cool things about them. We wanted to post a picture of this truck. These vehicles, I do not even know what they are called, are EVERYWHERE! I think every family and person who lives on the gold coast owns one of these things. I think they are extremely ugly. It looks funnier in person! hehe. We find out more crazy stuff each day about this place. I am using an internet cafe right now until our phone line gets hooked up again. Some 30 year old just asked if I wanted to go out for supper, hmmm nice but no thanks. I better get out of here. hehe. Off to eat supper. Miss you all tons.

Tandri and Brittni

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRITTNI

Look at all of these wonderful presents I got!! My birthday cake was these waffel things filled with ice cream and chocolate....mmm they were sooooo good! I got a wonderful card and the coolest outfit from Tandri (the blue one im wearing in the picture). My mom sent flowers all the way from Canada to me! hehe. Being away for my birthday was hard, as I missed spending the day with my family and friends! Tandri kept me busy all day though doing fun stuff! We woke up early and had some cake and opened presents then we got to call home and talk to my family and tandris. First surprise we headed off to a town nearby called Broadbeach and shopped and had a nice pizza lunch! I swear it was like +50 degrees! We came back to the apartment to change then headed out to surprise number two- a massage!! One thing I learned was to never underestimate the power and strength of a little chinese women. Yikes we had the hardest massages of our lives! hehe But we certainly felt a lot better this morning. I guess working all the time standing up has taken a toll on our backs. After that we came home to have a swim to cool off. Tandri had told me he was going to make me supper and that we had one more quick activity to do before he started. I was so curious to what we could do that was so quickly- he said this was the best one. So we hopped on a bus and came off about ten minutes up the road. I had to keep my eyes closed and then opened them to one of the nicest hotels on the gold coast "The Mariot". I knew exactly what we were doing and I was sooooo excited! We had talked about going out for supper to the hotels restaurant as they had the best cuisine where the chinese guys cooks it in front of you! It was one of the most entertaining thing I have watched. He did tricks with his tools and threw stuff in his hat, he even had us catching prawns in our mouthes! hehe. It was such good food too, I had the chicken and steak and Tandri had the steak and king prawns. We were so full after we had to come home and relax!

It was so exciting hearing from everyone at home- thank you so much to all my friends and family who remembered it was my birthday and took the time to email me! It meant so much! We both had to work the next day so we went to bed and woke up early to head off to work. It was another scorching hot day today too. We havent been up to too much just working still and enjoying this hot weather. We are starting a countdown until we go on the cruise! Only 17 more days.....thats also how long it is until my sister goes to New York City! I think my mom is going to go crazy with me in Australia and Becky in New York! hehe. We have had fun getting ready to go and planning out everything! I cant believe it is already march! We have officially been here a month and a half already- only three more monthes to go. Im signing off as a "19" year old now...hehe. What a fun day we had.....i think I have one of the best boyfriends! agree?!

Fun Weekend

Beach Volleyball....looks fun hey. All weekend long Surfers Paradise hosted a beach volleyball tournament with teams from all over the world and it was even broadcasted on tv! So we might have made australian television! hehe. We worked Friday and Saturday but Sunday we were able to come down and watch a few games. It was raining in the morning and a little windy so we dressed for the weather....like you would in Canada. Five minutes later the sun was blaring 30 degrees and the rain had stopped. I guess that happens a lot here. So it was a very hot afternoon of watching volleyball. The mens final was between Germany and Denmark (I was hoping there would have been a canadian team!) and wow were they ever good. They are all like 6'5 and can jump so high. The girls were ok, but not quite as interesting. They had the coolest guy doing the intermission show, he like did beep boxing or whatever you call it and was so so funny! He made these crazy sounds and sang and I have no idea how he did it. Monday we did not have to work until 4:00pm so we sat out by the pool and suntanned. I think it was the hottest day since we have been here, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was 40 degrees. We did not last very long outside but we defanitly have killer tans now....! Today I had to work from 12:00-4:00 and Tandri had to conveniently work 4:00-10:30 so he is at work right now and I am at home waiting for the Biggest Loser to come on tv. We are so hooked on this tv show and watch it everynight. It is soooo good but I don't think it is being broadcasted in Canada....to bad for you guys. Ohhh some exciting news.....WE ARE GOING ON A CRUISE!!! March 17th we leave Brisbane and travel on for 7 nights! Grandma and Grandpa too bad you guys couldn't come with me again...I know you guys would love this one! We travel from Brisbane to the whitsundays which is supposed to be one of the nicest places in Australia. The beaches look absolutely amazing. The third day is spent in Cairns, which was originally where we wanted to live. So that will be nice to see and explore that town! Port Doulgas is where we spend the fourth day and that is right beside the Great Barrier Reef, so we will get to do some scuba diving! The fifth day we get to see Willis Island, Coral Sea. I have not heard too much about this place so it will be interesting to see what it is like. The rest of the days are spent at sea. I had so much fun three years ago when I went with some family and I am so excited for Tandri to be able to experiance it too! We ended up finding this holiday because we were looking for a trip to the whitsundays but it was just way to expensive and so we started looking at other options. This way we can visit four other places instead of just the one. Talk about the perfect birthday celebration! It saved us so much money too. So until then we are working hard to save up some money and just hang out here. On our walk home the other day we just stopped to look at one of the MANY and I mean many real estate agencies to see what houses are like here. First of all, there are like no houses that we have seen yet. Everyone here lives in apartments/condos. The newest residential tower here is called Q1 and it is right outside of our window. It is the tallest residentual tower in Australia. They were advertising a one bedroom apartment- no furnishings, for $899,000. Can you believe that!?! That is like the price of 8 houses in dauphin! I defanitly like the small town living! So do not worry everyone....we will defanitly be coming home! hehe. I am off to sleep because we have to wake up early for work tomorrow. Good Night everyone!

Tandri and Brittni

We are Employed!!

Well we got to do something exciting this week! We were on our way to the mini golf course and got distracted by a photo store. I thought it was a photographer's store that he displayed his work but it was actually a studio where they take pictures of you. Beacause I love pictures so much I dragged Tandri in there with me while the sales lady proceeded to convince us how we would look "lovely" doing this. I was sold, haha. They do you hair and makeup and get you all ready and then take like a billion pictures. So Anyways, it was like the funnest day. The pictures turned out cool, but Tandri only let me put two of them on here. Since we never got to go golfing we decided to the next day. Sigurdur told Tandri that we need to go to a nice golf course where the grass is green! hehe Actually the state that we are in is experiencing one of the biggest drought season's that have happened. They are trying to preserve water in like everyway here. There even figured out a way to recycle the toilet water...ughh but don't worry they will not have that up and working until next year, and we will be gone! Its funny though on the toilets they have these two buttons for the flusher. If you go pee you press the half toilet button and if you go "the other one" you press the full toilet one. I guess this is another good way to preserve water. lol. So that would explain the lack of green in our golfing pictures. So we took Sigurdur's advice and went to a nice golf course in a town close to here called Robina. It's like around $115 to golf for one person but it was worth it. A lot more obsticles and hills and stuff to play around. But it was so hot we both got really tired out. Some more good news.....we are now employed again! We are both trained "sandwhich artists". We work at Subway and it is so much fun! haha. Its so easy and the people are really nice. It gets pretty busy so it is cool meeting everyone that comes in. We work with a girl who is from Ireland, and I'm pretty sure that is the hardest accent to understand. I just listen to her, smile, and say "oh ya" but I have no idea what she is saying. The best part of it is defanitly the food though. When we are working we get anything on the menu for two dollars, subs, wraps, and salads...only $2!! Thats amazing! ha. And free fountain drinks. If later we start to hate the job, we will probably stay for the food. mmmm It is so good. So now we are just planning on working lots for the next month or so to regain some money. We were walking home the other day and stopped at a convenience store for a snack and I picked up a chocolate bar and headed to the register. Three dollars later!! Yikes for a normal small chocolate bar its like 2-3 dollars! We were talking to a lady who owns a store here and she said that some things are more expensive here because everything is imported. It has such a longer way to come here then it does to Canada. But not everything is more expensive, just some things. It was a good $3 chocolate bar. So we are off this afternoon to work again, and eat some more. Have a good week!

Tandri and Brittni

Crocodile Hunter Zoo

We got to go to the best place in Australia yesterday........THE CROCODILE HUNTER ZOO!! It was the funnest time we have had here! And yes I finally got to see a kangaroo. About time. They are such funny animals though. As you can see in the picture they kinda look like deer. They aren't as colorful as the cartoons make them either. lol. There was this huge area that you could just walk into and there was kangaroo's everywhere! They were pretty tame so we were able to walk up to them, feed them, and pet them and they would barely even move. They were pretty funny though when they hopped! They have these short front feet that they do not really use and then their back legs are long and almost have "springs" in them they described it as. They were so soft though, we went back a second time to play with again! My FAVORITE part of the zoo though was the koala bears!! They are just as cute and cudly as the T.V. makes them look. I guess they sleep 19 hours of each day so they were all sleeping just about the whole day we were there. Both Tandri and I got to get our picture's taken holding a koala, and we didn't even want to let them go!! They are almost like little babies, the zoo keeper just laid them in our hands and the koala's just snuggled up close to us and hung out. They have the funniest hands, two thumbs and then a big space then three fingers. Their nails are really long and sharp so they were a little prikley. We are trying to figure out a way to bring one back to Canada. Early morning we got a change to feed the elephants, which was so wierd! I thought that they would just such up the fruit through their trunk but they actually use their trunk as more of a finger and pick it up and bring it to their mouth. Their trunk was covered in snot...ewww. It was a cool thing to do though. We got to watch a show in the "Crocoseum" where they did tricks with parrots, eagles, and kookabaras, snakes, and of course....Crocodiles. The crocodiles were pretty boring just watching them in thier cage but in the show they were so much more exciting. They are so much quicker then they look and are

such big animals! They can jump totally vertical which was so cool to see. The zoo is totally dedicated to Steve Irwin. I remember when he died and we were still in Canada, and we just kinda "Oh thats too bad, he was a crazy guy." Here the total country admired him as their hero. He is like the biggest celebrity here and so his death was such a major thing. They had this row that was so long of messages that people had wrote to him. I guess when we watch the crocodile hunter on tv and he's doing tricks with the crocs its actually filmed in that exact zoo. His wife Terri, and kids Bindi and Robert actually live there and walk around. I was hoping to see them but I guess they are over in the states right now promoting Bindi's fitness video. We got to see so many more kinds of funny animals there. Wombats are like these super fat balls. haha. They have these short little legs and kinda reminded us of dogs. We also got to see a tasmanian devil, they were kinda boring though. A komodo dragon, but it just sat there and did not move. Dingo's which are wild dog's and look exactly like a big dog. Enchinda's are kinda like a big spiky porcupine, and possum's are actually pretty cute! So yesterday was such a fun day for us! Today we checked out Surf City Christian Church and it was pretty cool. They broadcast their service on tv so its like a Springs Church, for those of you who have heard of that. Check out www.surfcity.org.au. Then we got to go golfing again, except today was a little bit colder. It was cloudy and a little windy but it was nicer then playing in 35 degree weather. We are pretty tired from all of the excitement within the past couple days! For those of you who don't know.....Rachelle (Tandri's mom) is going to be featured in Canadian Scrapbooker for her scrapbooking room!!!! We are sooo excited for her! Hope you all are having a good week!

Tandri and Brittni

Beach Day!!

Well this is our first official "At the beach" picture! In the background is Surfers Paradise. It is basically all along the coast, it only goes inward like maybe 7 blocks. So it is more of a coastal city. We had quite the interesting day at the beach! We found out very quickly after we got there that you are free to wear whatever you want....or nothing at all! I guess a lot of the girls don't want tan lines so they decide "Hey why even wear a top!" so that was a bit awkward. There were kids everywhere, and men, and ughh. So gross! We did convince ourselves to go swimming in the actual ocean today though. As we walked upon the beach you could see a whole bunch of "Stingers" that had been carried up. We took a picture of them because we thought they looked so cool! They are like mini jellifish and I guess they attach themselves to you and sting you quite hard, we have been told that it hurts a lot! There were so many washed up on the beach so we couldn't even imagine how many were in the actual water! You have to swim out pretty far to get into deep water though. There are a lot of sand hills that you have to walk through. We are officially done at B Smart, and we are so happy! It was just way too boring. We are ready to start working somewhere exciting! Today we just spent the afternoon shopping around and sitting by the water. I love it here how you can go look through all the stores and shop but then you can do it all again the next day and it never gets boring! haha. We then went and got a big load of grocerys to stock up the fridge. Luckily we found a cart lying in the road on the way home because it gets so tiring walking so far with all the grocerys. So here we are walking down main street pushing a grocery cart full of food. We have also gotten hooked on the show "The Biggest Loser" so we had to be home in time to watch that! Sitting out in the sun all day really tires you out so we are just spending the night relaxing watching some tv and reading. We have heard that the weather is soooo cold at home, so I guess we decided to come here at the right time! We wish that you could all come here and visit and see what we have been blabbering on about! I am so excited to hear all your replies and that people are actually reading this thing! We have so much fun telling you what we are up to each day. We really miss everyone though! And we absolutely love hearing from you and talking to you. I got to talk to Tami today and it just made my day so much better!!! We hope you are all doing well! Love Tandri and Brittni

Another week gone.....

Well the last week hasn't been to exciting for us....though we did get that job that we went to the interview for! So every morning we have been at work at 7:45a.m. and working until 3:00p.m. We worked for B Smart Communications which is an independant broker company who monitors all of the major phone companies here. So it was our job to call people and tell them about what the phone companys are doing to them. I guess they have to pay $30-$40 a month for line rental...I dont think we pay that in Canada. So it basically consisted of sitting on a computer all day and getting hung up on. It sucked but we thought we would stick it out because the hours were good, until we got our first paycheck. lol. Its based on commission and so its impossible to get a good wage until you are pretty experianced at it. So we decided that was enough and tomorrow we are going to find a different job. Everywhere here is hiring and so we are just going to find something that is more exciting. It has been really windy here the past couple of days because it is the cyclone season right now. We are too far south to get a cyclone here but up north they are having crazy rain storms and in one day they got a meter of rain...can you imagine that?!? They dont cancel school here because of snow, they cancel because of rain! It has already destroyed buildings so its a pretty big storm here right now. We are just getting the winds but still its so hot out. Saturday we went to the next town which is about ten minutes away called Broadbeach. They have this HUGE shopping center thats half inside and in the middle its cut out and everything is outside. There are so many stores and so much to look at so we spent the whole day there. We then went to the movie theatre here to see Dreamgirls...it cost us $30 for two people! A little bit more expensive then home! Today (Sunday) we went golfing again at the same course we were at before. Tandris golf club fell apart today as he was taking a shot, and it went just about as far as his ball did. haha. So tomorrow we are going to job hunting and see what we can find. Then we are probably going to lay on the beach and have a picnic. We havent gone swimming in the ocean yet because we are still too scared! Last week they shut the beach down that is only like 10 minutes away because there was a hammerhead shark...so we are hoping it did not make its way down to our beach! We are going to buy some body boards and try that out too....surfing looks way to hard. We have been looking on the internet a lot of places to travel while we are here. The family that we met a couple of weeks ago live in McKoy, Queensland which is right by the great barrier reef and they have invited us to come and stay with them for a couple days. McKoy is way north so while we are up there we are going to go to Airlie Beach which is also in the Whitesundays which is about 74 islands that are absolutley beautiful! We are so excited to go see that part of australia.....we just have to decide when to go! We have talked to so many people about where to visit and what to go see and there is just so much to do here I dont even think in the next five monthes that we are here we are going to be able to see it all. I can't wait to see whats next to come......

Tandri and Brittni

Sea World- Movie World

Sea World was quite the day! Not as exciting as I remember when i went ten years ago, but we still saw a lot of cool things. It was only like a five minute drive from Surfers Paradise. Throughout the morning we just looked around at the aquariums and animal nurseries they had set up. We saw a huge shark tank with about twenty sharks, and a whole bunch of coral fish, and some sting rays in it. The sting rays are so big and gross...I cant believe my family made me swim with them before! They also had a "Paradise Winter" where they kept four different polar bears, with an underground viewing place so you could see them swim. There was a bay where probably like one hundred little penguins were....but they smelt so gross we could only watch them for a few minutes. There was also a really ugly animal they had a tank for, it was like a cross between a dolphin and a whale. They called it "Pig". The afternoon was the coolest part though. First we watched a "Waterski Wipeout" show where they had a play going on with waterskiers, wakeboarders, and even surfboarders doing tricks off ramps and behind boats. After that we got to ride their version of splash mountain...got soaking wet! There was a seal show on but we missed that, then we headed off for the dolphin show. That was defanitly the highlight of our day. They are so funny how they just jump and flip and dive like crazy. They also had a waterpark but there was too much to do we had no time to go there. Today we went to "Movie World" which is like a disneyworld but smaller. It was really cool too. We got to meet Batman & Robin, Marilyn Monroe, Scooby Doo and the bunch, The penguins from Happy Feet, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Shrek, and The Police Academy people. The first part of the day we just walked around and looked at all of the displays they had, and watched some of the shows. They had Austin Powers and some disco girls dancing down the street...and they actually looked a lot like the people from the movie. We spent the afternoon going on all the rides. They have this crazy superman roller coaster that took us probably the fastest I have evern gone! That was a new ride to the park as well as the Batman Shoot. That was where they shoot you up soooo fast it is the wierdest feeling. There is a 4.5 gravity force..I guess that means a lot! lol. The "Lethal Weapon" is a roller coaster where you hang freely and do so many twists, turns, and loops, I thought I was going to puke. After going on those three our stomachs really needed a break. We went on their splash mountain and it was a lot more exciting than Sea World's. They take you through the mountain and there is displays and stuff in side and you go backwards down a hill. The drop is like ten times bigger and you get about ten times more wet! The Matrix Reloaded was actually filmed in one of the studios there, so we got to see the costumes and sets and stuff. I hated those movies though so I thought that was boring. They had so much cool stuff in all the stores too but of course they were so overpriced. But I did get a cool Batman mug! Tomorrow we have our first job interview!! So I will let you all know how it goes....hopefully this week we will both start working so that it gives us something to do. Tandri also wants to go golfing again tomorrow so we are most likely off to do that. Other then that not too much else is new here. We are off to make cookies! Miss you all!

Tandri and Brittni

Golfing-WetnWild-Australia Day

So Tandri finally got to go golfing! After a bus ride and then a taxi ride, we finally made it to the course. It was a little different golfing with palm trees as opposed to dauphins nice course. And there were birds everywhere..yuckk. But it was funny because someone hit one right in the head and it just died right on the tee box. haha. We didnt go until late afternoon but it was still sooooo hot out...thanks Bev for the hat! We are going to try and find different courses that are easier to get to. We are starting to feel like this is more home now. Everyone here is so laid back and it seems like they are on vacation all year. During the day it gets quite busy around the city center but even more at night. Everyone here goes out for supper and the night life is crazy! Every Wednesday and Friday night they have a market all along the beach where people bring their homemade crafts, food, and basically anything they think that they can sell. One guy worked all day and made a chameleon out of sand, its was really cool. We went to WetnWild yesterday- the huge waterpark. They had some of the craziest waterslides we had ever seen but the lineups were even more crazy. We stayed in line for two hours and only got on two waterslides! They had an awesome wave pool though that we were in most of the day because it was +35 so we couldnt stand in line for too long! There was some pretty funny pictures of us coming down the slides...lol. We went out for supper after for "kebabs" which are so good. They have little restaurants all over selling them. But they arent like shishkabobs they are more like a gyro/wrap. Everyone eats them down here. We are still trying to find a kangaroo...no luck yet. Officially the first animal we have seen that is new to us is a camel..haha. Yep thats it. So we really need to get to a zoo or something! Just thought I would post a picture of the view we get to see from our place....pretty nice hey. Some funny things we have learnt here...1)Mcdonalds has pasta kid meals 2)Burger King here is called Hungry Jacks 3) They spell tires with a y..Tyres and we are learning new crazy stuff each day. lol. Australia Day was today but not to much normal then any other day. Lots of people dressed up in patriotic clothes and drank all along the beach...thats another thing thats so different here, they all carry open alcohol and just drink wherever. And there was a live band and more markets everywhere. We didnt stay up to late though because we are still screwed up from the time change. So tomorrow we are off to Sea World and will hopefully get better pictures and see some animals. G'night!

Tandri and Brittni