Christmas, New Years, and job searching

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

It's been awhile hasn't it? but I will try my best to think back and update all of you on our holidays in Australia :)

Jeff's mother and father are amazing and were so welcoming. We are very blessed to have this wonderful family take us in for the holidays. Christmas was a strange affair for Linds and I though with no snow, no pre-TSO music blasting, and no fondue, but we made do.... :D  We did get to go to mass on Christmas Eve and that made us really happy. Jeff's nephews are also fun to be around and we got to meet them a few times. Christmas involved opening presents and a lunch/dinner buffet on the front verandah. As most of you probably saw our pictures we also all have paper crown hats on our heads...yes that's a traditional thing here :)

Mostly the two weeks after leaving Daydream we've been pretty busy visiting new towns, shopping for presents, and actually going to the movies (finally!). Jeff lives near a town called Canungra and it's mostly at the base of a mountain area. The towns up on top of Mount Tambourine remind us of Gatlinburg a lot! We've also traveled to the Gold Coast a few times to shop and go to the beach. There was even a day we went to a waterfall up on the mountain and laid in the small creek on some rocks for a while one day to just cool off.

We've also experienced a new lifestyle being at Jeff's parents house. It's a bit out of the way so it's quiet and more wildlife can be seen. We've seen kangaroos hop through the yard, fed the exotic parrots and other birds (see facebook pictures), listened to kookaburra's laughing (creeeepyyyyyy), and watched a few foxes trot through the yard (soooo coool), and apparently there are koala's and we've heard them but we have yet to see them (oh well). OH! also Jeff and I saw an owl! (Linds and Amelia were in Brizzy).

By the way, Brisbane (aka Brizzy) is awesome. We really really like Brizzy. It's super clean and there are so many options for public transportation. It reminds us of a smaller cleaner Chicago with the river running through it and the different neighborhoods. We're trying to find a job in the middle of the city in order to rent a place so it's easy enough for us to do whatever we want when we want. While we've been so very lucky to be able to stay with Jeff and his parents we are also very very dependent on all of them for transportation and food which is starting to really get to Linds and I. (job searching pretty heavily this morning as a result)

But I'm getting ahead of myself.....New Years!

Linds was pretty adamant about having a proper New Years. Finally out of school and able to spend a few nights in a city made for a wonderful New Years Eve (NYE). We were able to spend two and a half days and two nights in New Farm, Brisbane. That gave us the opportunity to explore Brizzy to our content. We shopped for a proper dress for me (because apparently Linds said I needed one) and got a b-day present for Jeff (he's part child so we got him some juggling balls), and we spoiled ourselves by doing a double feature at the cinema :) (Hobbit was amazing!)

NYE was spent at Kangaroo Point, a cliff point overlooking the river to watch the fireworks and at Alfred and Constance, a tiki bar close-ish to our accomodation that was free to get into for the night. It was a cool little place that didn't get too crowded but had enough of a party crowd to mingle and dance with. It even had taxi's come up regularly through out the night that we didn't have to walk back after having danced the night away :)

The next day I, Brittney, took a train back towards Jeff's where he picked me up and Linds met up with Amelia to try out a kitchen job north of Brizzy (unfortunately that didn't work out too well).

Now that the holidays and b-days are over it's been pretty uneventful...save for the scorching heat! It's been over 100 degree's for the past couple days and yesterday got over 120 degrees! all we could really do was sit or sleep in front of a fan all day and chew on ice. I put a wet washcloth in the freezer and took it out every now and again to put on the back of my neck. While I don't like the snow it would feel really nice right about now.

So that's been our life for the last 3 weeks. An adopted family Christmas, a fun NYE in the city, and now job searching. So far we hadn't applied for much as we thought a job at a hotel was going to work out for all four of us and a place to stay for free opened up but after a week of waiting, interviewing, and waiting some more it all fell to pieces. So, it's back to our original plan. Linds and I are applying for any front of house, kitchen (linds), and even receptionist at hotels in Brizzy so that we can get our own place to stay until at least April.

At the moment we are feeling a little frustrated and pressured, but looking back I cannot see us taking any other journey. Daydream was getting too miserable for us and I think we had a wonderful holiday with friends that we desperately needed. But now it's time to get back on our feet and get back to work.

Jeff and Amelia are in Brizzy for the weekend and thankfully Jeff lent us the use of his car so we are able to come into town whenever we need, which is why we are spending a few hours at the local cafe with free wireless internet :D Just applied to about 5-6 jobs each in Brizzy, caught up with our emails, and just having some fun browsing for a little while. Not much to do back at the house other than read (oh and apparently watch cricket.....we really don't like cricket). I've finished quite a few books while staying at Jeff's. I'll actually list them for you cuz they were all pretty good!

1) Ken Follet's A Night Over Water (really should be made into a movie, it would be awesome)
2) Court of the Air (really really only for those who like fantasy steampunk sci-fi. pretty full on story)
3) The Parasol Protectorate series (I finally finished book 4 and 5. For those who like 19th century London society but with werewolves, vampires, and ghosts thrown into the mix)
4) American Gods by Neil Gaiman (AMAZING!!!!!) gosh I love Neil Gaiman

Welp, that's all folks :) Thank you for all your love and support and we hope you are all safe and sound with the weather out there!

Love Brit and Linds