Last days of January summer

Eric and I are coming home on January 30th. Eric will be going to Denver to see his family and pick up our car and I will be coming home to snowy Minnesota. It's bittersweet because we don't want to leave all our new friends, its summertime, we love Australia. But we have not had any luck with jobs and we are running out of money and we decided that it was wiser to come home now while we still have enough to buy our plane tickets home. So we bought tickets to come home on January 30th which means we spent exactly 2 months in Australia. Our friends are sad to see us go but we have to do what we think is best. It will be strange to go from 80 degree weather to below zero weather in 24 hours! I am going to have to go get all my winter clothes out of storage. Anyway, Eric and I are trying to get in a few last Australian things we wanted to do before we come home. We took the train into the city yesterday and walked around. We got an awesome watermelon berry fruit shake from a little cafe in one of the alleyways. We also window shopped a bit and then rode the train back to Dannii's work. Dannii was about a half hour from closing so she played dress up with me (she works at a women's boutique) and I tried on some crazy clothes. She took some photos of me pretending to be a model so that was fun. Then we decided that we wanted to try out this asian restaurant that Dannii has been telling us about since we got here - it's called Jack's Satay Bar. Dannii and I had the sizzling beef and I was so hungry I scorched my tongue trying to eat it. It was really good. Then we were thinking about going to the night market which is this cool artist market that happens in the city on Wednesday nights but Eben was tired so Dannii decided that she wanted to use me as a model for a real mini photo shoot that she has been wanting to do (Dannii does professional photography on the side). The sun was starting to go down so it was getting cooler but we thought we would go for it anyway. The shoot was me in a swim suit while Eric and Eben were on either side of me and they threw buckets of water on me. Dannii would take the shot just as the water hit me. We are going to try it again next week on another hot day. Today Eric and I rode the bus to the mall and I picked up my last paycheck and told my work that I wouldn't be back. Then we went to this place called the pancake parlour (sorry if you're hungry I know I'm talking about a lot of food but I love food okay). Anyways, there were 4 birds that got in somehow and were flying around the restaurant while we were eating. I had a chocolate pancake with ice cream and strawberries and Eric had a buttermilk pancake with banana's foster and ice cream. YUM. Then we walked around some more until our stomach's settled and then we had to go buy stuff to make dinner. We made a chicken shepards pie basically it was really good and I have the recipe if anyone wants it. I got it out of an Australian food magazine. I told you I love food! Tonight Eben, Dannii and Eric went to see Charlie Parr a Minnesotan musician that they like. I decided that since I don't care that much about seeing him that I would stay home and save us the money from an extra ticket. Maybe tomorrow we will go to the beach or to Brunswick Street - those are 2 things that I want to do again before we leave. This weekend we are going to go to Phillip Island. I'm not sure what's there but I will be sure to tell you about it when we get back. xoxo Paula
P.S. like me and Eric's "family photo" :) the other one is me and the lovely Daniella!

68 degrees... I can't believe I think this is cold!!

It's 68 degrees outside today and I actually think it's chilly. I am a little ashamed in saying that since I'm from Minnesota and it is probably below zero there right now. I worked at the cafe this morning and when I was looking at the schedule for next week I realized that I am not on it. I have to call the manager but I think that might be a discreet way of telling me not to come back. Our trip may be ending sooner than planned. Neither Eric or I have had much luck finding work and I guess we were counting on the fact that we would have jobs while we were here.
Yesterday we celebrated Dannii's mom's (Bella) birthday! The whole family went to the Melfi house and we had drinks, coffee and cake; It was fun! So far since Eric and I have been here we have celebrated 4 people's birthdays all in the month of January actually. We went to Mark, Dean, Lucie, and Bella's birthdays. Not to mention my fabulous sister BJ turned 18 on the 6th of January!! I still have a present for you BJ I just haven't sent it because I might just bring it home with me depending on when we leave.
Dannii and I took a tour of a fancy day spa because we went to pick up her mom's birthday present from her dad there. It was amazing! If I was rich I would spend a whole day there!
Sorry this isn't very long or terribly informative but we haven't done a lot of exciting things lately! I hope everyone who reads this is staying warm and having a good 2010 so far!

It's been awhile

Wow! I haven't written anything in awhile! Well let me get you caught up to speed...
New Years we were at Dannii's parents house and it was really hot all day and then as soon as it was time to go it started storming. Luckily the boys hooked a tarp from the garage to the back of the house so that we could still dance and have fun even though it was raining. It was weird bringing in the new year and knowing that everyone else back home would be doing it tomorrow. We had fun though - dancing, laughing, talking and eating!
Since then Dannii has been on holiday so her and I have been hanging out a ton! The four of us, (Eric, Eben, Dannii and I) went to a beach that was about an hour and a half away which was amazing! I love being near the ocean! We set up a tent and read magazines, the boys played catch and went boogie boarding. Dannii and I didn't go swimming because the water felt freezing even though the boys said we would get used to it if we just went in. It was a hot day but there was a cool breeze coming off the water. Dannii and I got gelati, which is the same as our American gelato, which is like ice cream. It was awesome on that hot day. On days when it gets up into the 90's we pull our mattresses out into the living room and have a slumber party in there because thats where the air conditioner is.
Yesterday it was 108 degrees and it was gross outside. It's a dry heat but its bad because even when there is a breeze its like someone blowing their hot breath in your face. We went to Dannii's mom's house and went swimming because she has a pool. It was great! We had to stay in the water though because if you got out then you would get too hot. We made iced coffees and listened to lady gaga and swam the afternoon away. Then later we met up with Dannii's cousins Sarah and Mark and went into downtown Melbourne for some ice cream. We went to where the docks are in the bay where everyone rich keeps their yachts. It was fun to walk up and down the boardwalk - there are a ton of waterfront restaurants there which look fun but expensive.
Today Dannii and I left Eric at home (and Eben was at work) and went to the mall for a girl's afternoon. It was stifling again when we left the house. We walked around and window shopped, had lunch, got pedicures (because Dannii had never had one!), and went grocery shopping for dinner. When we left the mall it was getting cooler and the sky was getting dark like it was going to storm. We were driving Eben's car because he took Dannii's since her's has air conditioning and he has to drive around for his job. Eben's car is like a tin can. It's terrible. Anyway we were on our way home with our groceries and whatnot when it starts sprinkling. We're thinking great now we have to carry all our stuff in through the rain. Dannii comes up to a roundabout to go left and pauses to let a car go past and then turns. The car doesn't stop turning though and we hit a tree!! The tires are completely bald and the wheels locked up and we couldn't stop. Not to mention he doesn't have power steering. We screamed we were so scared! Like I said Eben's car is a tin can and I thought that it would just crumple but it felt worse to us than what appeared as damage to the car. I banged my knee on the glove box and got some seatbelt burn on my neck but other than that I'm fine and nothing happened to Dannii. The front left headlight was busted and the car dented. But what made us really mad was that 4 or 5 cars drove by and saw us in the tree and didn't stop to see if we were okay!! How rude! One woman came out of her house because she heard the crash but that was it. Then we got back into the car and drove home and discovered that the alignment was off because the steering wheel was way off when we were trying to drive straight. Overall though we are fine - just had a bit of a shock!
Hope you feel a little more caught up now!
Love you!!