Meg and I have been in Australia for about two weeks now. Its been nice being in a country were we dont stick out like a sore thumb. Meg’s Dad, Dennis and his partner, Glenda have graciously welcomed us into their home in Ballarat while we are looking for an apartment in nearby Melbourne. Its hard to explain how much we started to miss things like hot showers, a (full) fridge, and a bug free bed. After an Aussie summer christmas with them, Meg and I have begun to explore Melbourne and the surrounding territory. We took the train into Melbourne so Meg could show me around a bit. The city is beautiful, well organized, and full of great people and food.

Meg will be attending RMIT in about six weeks, its located in the center of the city in several really interesting buildings.

The city has the Yarra River flowing through it, which really adds to the atmosphere.

And of course there’s the MCG,one of the biggest stadiums in the world and the home of Australian cricket. It holds about 100,000 people. Australia just won the Ashes against England. There has been quite a bit of cricket fever about, and ive actually figured the game out and begun to really enjoy watching it.  Im looking forward to going to a cricket game, or atleast an aussie football game, at the MCG soon. ( and John, if you’re reading this i haven’t forgotten about the hat.)

Back in Ballarat, Dennis has been helping Meg and I construct wood furniture for our new apartment. He has a carpentry workshop in his garage and a decent supply of old beautiful pieces of wood.

Our first attempts, which turned out succesfully, were recreations of the multipurpose wooden boxes that we had around our apartment back in Boston.

Last week we all drove down to the Great Ocean Road. The road stretches for hundreds of kilometers along the coast.

One of the big attractions is the beautiful collection of monoliths rising from the ocean called the Twelve Apostles.

I got my first delicious taste of the australian ocean surf at Torquay, the surfing capital of Australia.

On New Years eve we headed down to Melbourne.

We grabbed a nice spot along the river, for the festivities.

The early fireworks show was a bit down the river from our spot, but beautiful none the less.

We had front row seats for the midnight spectacular.

Yesterday, Meg and I hit the road for Bell’s Beach, made famous by the move Point Break.  The weather was beautiful and even though the waves were only 3 or 4 feet high it was a blast.

If you were patient and swam hard, you could grab some pretty big ones.

All in all it was a perfect beach day.

The surf up until now has been tame by Aussie standards. According to the forcasts, Wednesday will bring some big, clean, and consistent waves. We can’t wait.