Salamanca Market

Last Saturday the roomies and I went to the Salamanca Market which is in downtown Hobart.  This is where all the bars and clubs and some restaurants are.  It is a very cool street that has lots of great places to hang out in.  Well we went to the market there that is every Saturday from 8-3.  Private business owners set up tents to sell their goods.  There is pretty much everything imaginable to buy like bread, jewelry, books, shoes, sunglasses, fruit, clothes, and the list goes on and on.
We started at the top of the street and stopped by a girl we met through the basketball players.  Her name is Hannah and she sells handmade jewelry.  I bought a ring from her.  It is just a plain silver band but just perfect for me.  Check out her line of work below.

www.francescacollections.com.au

We moved on and tried some mead wine, which is made from honey and is served warm.  It wasn't too bad, but I don't know if it is something I could just sip on throughout the night.  Here is a picture of Lindsay, Caila and me.  You can tell how short I am compared to them!

We continued on and reached a tent that sold hand made wood items and at the same time Lindsay and I pointed out a cutting board that looked very similar to the ones that grandpa made for each family.  We both thought it was a sign from him since that was the anniversary of his death back in the states.  I like to think he was saying hello to us.

The next tent we stumbled upon had some unique items in it and I made Lindsay and Jordan try them on. After this picture we hurried on, because the owner of this tent, was not happy with us...but if your selling  it you can't be mad if we make humor out of it.  Here are the 2 bears and their crazy sunglasses.

Would you believe that Lindsay and I could find a bit of home here?  Sure did!  They were selling brats here and with the stinging pain of me not being able to have one at a Brewers game anytime soon, we decided to share one and see if they could compare to the ones back home.  I would say they were pretty good, but nothing compares to the brats back home.  We added all the fixings to it and enjoyed a taste of home. I think Lindsay may have been more excited about this than me!

After walking around for a bit and the need to wash our brat down we all went and had a drink at James Squire. (I think that is what it is called)  I finally found a beer here that I can enjoy!  It is called Sun Down and it is just perfect for me.  We sat out in the great weather and enjoyed our beer and some good talk.

It was nearing 3 by now so we headed home to relax because we had a busy night coming up.  We invited the girls and guys team over to our house to pre-game and then get ready to go out on Salamanca again.  At night Salamanca is a different scene...filled with people ready to drink, dance and just have a good time.  The scene is different then at home and there are a lot of lines to get into the clubs here, but since everyone knows everyone we all got in right away.  It was a good night and it everyone that went out with us are really great people.  I leave you with a picture of just some of the girls on the team.  We ended our night here and O Bar.... I am sure there will be many more nights of this!

Lindsay's first Hobart Chargers game

Last Friday was the day that Lindsay and even me were waiting for....her first Hobart Chargers game.  It was what we can down here for and finally after several trainings the day had finally arrived.  Lindsay and Caila left the house about an hour before the game and Jordan and I soon followed about 45 min later.  We arrived with about 5 more minutes before the game started and before the Australian anthem was sung.  I must say I was ready to start singing.... "Oh say can you see"....when I realized what country I was in and they were not singing our song.  But here is Lindsay clearly ready to play, what do you think?

About 5 minutes later they started to play.  Caila (our other roommate) was doing the jump ball.  It took 3 times to finally get it because every time 2 girls would grab the ball and it would become a jump ball again.  Finally on the 3rd one it worked and the game finally began!  Here is Caila jumping for one of the jump balls.

The game was a kinda boring in the beginning because the Hobart Chargers were up 23-1 at one point.  But I was still cheering loudly for my cousin...not sure if she could hear me since there were a decent amount of people in the stadium.  I like to think she could hear me.

Our friend Pamela and her husband Nic came to the game too so I went and sat with them for the remainder of the game.  Telling them the rules here and there.  Thankfully I knew all the questions they were asking me...thanks Rob.  But we all had fun watching and cheering Lindsay on.  After half time though things seemed to change.  The other team started to sink their shots and that huge lead was becoming closer and closer.  Caila got into foul trouble so she had to sit out for a bit and with her height that kinda hurt them.  But all in all they were able to win the game 77-70.  It was very exciting for them because last year it took awhile for the girls to win a game.  I am very hopeful for the season and I think that there are a strong bunch of girls.  As long as they play as a team and keep their energy up, they will go a long way.  Go Lady Chargers!

A few days later we found out that Lindsay got announced POW....now it's not Prisoner of War like I first thought, but it stands for Player of the week!!!!!! Go Linds!  Very exciting for her and the team.  Not only does she get the honor but also a pair of shoes! Which me being her manager...I take over.  Just kidding...but were determined to find her a really cool pair!  Here is the link if you want to read the article and there should be a video too.

http://www.seabl.com.au/index.php?id=257&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=3918&tx_ttnews[backPid]=262&cHash=78ebb0bb64#.T2lVd5pYHlA.facebook

Lastly the boys played after the Lady Chargers....now they didn't have such a great game and lost by 27 points..next time boys.  But I leave you with our roommate Jordan dunking!

Indian Food

So the roomies and I decided we would go out to dinner one night this past week.  Now I don't know if everyone knows who the other roommates are, so there is Caila, who is the other woman import and she is from New York, but played in Chicago.  And there is Jordan.  He is the mens import and he is from Idaho but played in Oregon.  Anyways, we all decided to go out to dinner and thought that Indian food would be delicious. So off we went to an Indian restaurant called TAJ PALACE.  Needless to say it was delicious but it was hot!
We started off by looking at the menu, which pretty much none of us know what it was saying.  We didn't have a clue as to what the name of the dishes meant or what was really in it.  So knowing that lamb is suppose to be good here I got a dish called Lamb Korma, which is lamb marinated in yoghurt cooked in almonds, cashew based creamy sauce with selected spices....sounds good right, and it was.  Now they asked if we wanted mild, medium or hot.  I was being adventuress and I went with medium because I like spice.  Someone should have told me that their idea of mild, medium and hot are way different then my idea of it.  My mouth was on fire!  Thank god we got bread to help cool my mouth down.  I think we went through 3 bottles of water because we were all on fire.
It was so spicy that I am pretty sure I started to sweat and my face was getting red.  Lindsay had to stop eating it because she was not feeling it at all, and it was too hot for her stomach at the moment.  I would go back there but next time I am going to get mild, and continue to always stay with mild in Indian restaurants.  Rob you would have loved this place and I know you would be getting any of the dishes hot!  But I warn you, it was really hot.  Here are just 2 pictures of our meals halfway through our dinner.  Enjoy!

Dolphin Sands and our new family over here

So for those of you have haven't heard this story yet, I will tell you how it happened.  While flying out to L.A. to meet my cousin there so we could fly to TAS together, Lindsay met a very nice lady in the airport.  Her name is Pamela and they got to talking while Lindsay was waiting for me to arrive.  Lindsay found out that Pamela was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Chicago but has been living inTAS for the last 19 years with her husband Nic and daughter Zooey.  I arrived and we sat with Pamela until we boarded the plane and then met up with her after in Sydney while we waited for our last plane to take us to Hobart, TAS.  Pamela is lovely and we exchanged our e-mails with her and parted ways once we reached Hobart.  About a little less than a week into our stay Pamela e-mailed us to see how we were doing and if we had settled in alright.  So why am I telling you all this....well this started our new friendship with Pamela and she has kindly adopted Lindsay and I while were are here for the next 6 months in Hobart.
Last weekend was a holiday weekend for the Australians here, it was their Labor Day, and so Pamela invited Lindsay and I up to their beach house for a night stay.  Their beach house is on the east coast in Dolphin Sands which is located on I believe 9 mile beach, correct me if I am wrong Pamela.  So Lindsay and I took the 2 hour drive up to Dolphin Sands to hang out with our new family over the holiday.
The house was wonderful and they built it about 4 years ago.  It has so many windows so you have a panoramic view of the Hazards, the wildlife and the ocean.  It is really beautiful.  We ended up walking down to the beach to check it all out.  We took some pictures and collect seashells which are scattered all along the beach and are mostly intact, not like what you would find in Florida.  The shells here were beautiful and so we brought some back home with us.  Here is a picture of Lindsay and I and a few of the ocean.

Now we ended up heading back to the house to drop our seashells off, have a bit of lunch and then went back out to the beach for a real walk.  But as we headed back I noticed something lying on the beach that was not there before.  We walked towards it and it was a shark that had beached itself.  Nic, Pamela's husband, is a marine biologist so Pamela ran back to the house to get him to see if we could save this shark that was still breathing.  The shark was maybe 5 feet long and turned out to be a gummy shark.  Nic was able to pull him back into the ocean and the shark wouldn't swim away and seemed to go belly up.  We left for our walk and Nic stayed behind to keep an eye out for the shark.  When we returned there was no more shark, so we thought we had successfully saved a shark!  But sadly we found the shark beached again the next morning. :( Here are some pictures of it and Nic pulling it back in the water.

After our walk with Pamela and getting to know her some more, we headed over to Pamela's friends house that feeds all these creatures in her back yard with carrots.  Only one showed up for us but it is so cute!  It is a Wallaby and was a selfish little guy that ate 6 carrots, but I guess since no one else showed up it's not his fault.

We sat down for dinner that was absolutely wonderful.  We had beets, a pumpkin/apple/leeks dish, chicken and of course a great bottle of wine.  Oh and at the end we had homemade ice cream that Nic made.  It was a great meal and a wonderful time to get to know our new family who all of you would enjoy.  Their hospitality has been wonderful and we appreciate everything that they have done so far to help us fit into this new world down here.  Here is a picture of Lindsay, Pamela and I the next morning right before we left.

The last thing we did before we headed back to Hobart was to stop at Kate's Berry farm.  Now we were so full from breakfast that we didn't get anything to eat then, but we did try some jams that were out of this world and then bought 2 dark chocolate salted carmels that we saved for later.  I leave you with a picture of Kate's farm and the thought, if we reached out a little more to people, it is amazing how many wonderful people and new friends we could meet!

A beach, a chocolate shop and a crazy store!

Lindsay and I headed back to Hobart the day after her game and of course had to go off on an adventure. We started off by hitting up the beach that is very close to where we are staying up here.  It was a great sunny morning and so we walked along the beach and then walked on the rocks that led out to the ocean. The rocks looked like lava rock, but I am not sure if there is a volcano on this island or not, or if they were made a long time ago.  Here are a few pictures of the ocean and then Lindsay and I out on the rock.

It was such a lovely view and I didn't want to leave but we did have the rest of our adventure to go on.  But before we left had to drive down Penguins main strip and have a look at their little town.  It is very cute and you can tell it is a very close community.  We were told we had to stop by the statue of the Penguin, and so we did and had our picture taken with it.

It is a little hard to see us because of the sun but I love that on top of the penguin's head is a seagull just hanging out. 

So off we went and decided to stop at the Chocolate store.  It is just off the main highway and we had to go and try all the the homemade chocolates.  We pulled in there and it was a beautiful area that had a house, a tasting area and a museum.  We of course headed to the tasting area first and tried all the goodies inside.  There were all different kinds of chocolates and my favorite was the dark truffle one.  We ended up buying 2 pieces to share and try which was the truffle and then we got a piece of chai fudge which tasted exactly like chai tea.  We also bought a little gift basket of chocolate for our friend Pamela, who you all will meet in the next blog.  Anyways back to the chocolate....we then went into the house which is a restaurant/museum.  Since we weren't hungry we went straight back to the museum.  You are able to see how they make the chocolate and the molds and ingredients they use.  It was pretty cool since it's this tiny area that produces a ton of chocolate that tastes sooooo good.  We plan on going back there for breakfast because it smelled so good, so hopefully this week that will happen.   Here is a picture of the tasting area.  Nothing to fancy...

Lastly before we headed home we stopped at this store that is famous world wide.  It was probably one of the craziest stores I have every seen.  It is one level but has around 18 rooms and each room has a different theme to it. There were doll rooms, wine/ice cream/jam room, Betty Boop room, hardware room, jewelry room, clothing room, astronomy room, adult room....the list goes on and on.  Some rooms were creepy like the doll room I couldn't go into.  Something about dolls freaks me out....maybe Chucky freaked me out as a child.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside of the store, which sucks but I can understand.  We didn't buy anything because it was kinda an overload of stuff, so we mainly walked through each room and looked and somethings and then got out of there.  You may be thinking how can it be an overload of things, so imagine what your basement or garage looks like times 10.  It was just packed in here.  So here is a picture of the outside but there was no way of getting any pictures from the inside.

After this we headed home.  It was a long day of looking at things and then driving.  We did nothing that night but watch a movie and go to bed early.  These drives and adventures do take a lot out of you!

Penguin Vs. Smithton

Lindsay had her first game for Penguin last Friday.  She played very well and had 31 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists.  She had a great game and I was proud to be the only American there cheering her on.  She says she can hear me cheering her on when she plays, so at least I know I am loud enough!  Here are a few pictures.  My camera couldn't get great shots of her moving, but you get the idea.

Now after the game the girls that she plays for had a little fun.  The team she plays for is PBA which stands for Penguin Basketball Association, and so the girls all dressed up as something that started with a P, B or A.  Since there was short notice, I didn't dress up as anything and Lindsay went as an Aussie. She tried to talk in an accent all night, but that didn't last long.  This is the team and the girls all dressed up.

Since it was a Friday night, everyone stuck around and watched the boys play and had some drinks.  Now I found a little treat that we don't have in the U.S. at least I can't find it there.  Trish you will appreciate this, and hopefully we will be able to bring it back home.  I leave you with a shot of my and my little piece of heaven that I found that night.

Yummy! :)  Oh and yes, I am wearing a Penguin shirt that Kathy gave to me.  I am officially apart of the team thanks to her!

Views from our House

So Lindsay and I decided to go on a little walk around our neighborhood to check out all the views.  Are house is on top of a mountain.  It reminds me a lot of the hills in California.  Each house is very close to each other and there is not a lot of yard.  However in our backyard, it is a marshy area, which seems unusual for other homes.  In fact we saw a kangaroo already in our backyard.  I wasn't able to get a picture but I am hoping it will return.
But back to Lindsay and my walk.  We are not very far from the top of the hill so we made our way up.  Here are a few shots of us and the views that we could see.

It is quite an amazing few, and these pictures don't really do it justice.  Now as we headed up the hill we started taking pictures of each other and as we were in the middle of taking pictures, a woman from across the road came out and offered to take a picture of both of us.  This is what I mean with people being so friendly.  She walked out with her dog who looked like a big white wolf.  So here is the picture that she took of Lindsay and I.

You can see the background and how what a gorgeous scenery it is there.  Plus on top of it, I love that is is March and I am walking around in a t-shirt and shorts. The neighbor then left us, and told us that if we needed anything, all we had to do was stop by.   We continued to walk on and when we returned to the house, Lindsay decided to plank on the roof of our house.  Now we called it the Tasmanian plank, because you will see that her arms are above her head, not to the side.  I hope this gives you a little glimpse of where we live.  Lindsay and I are headed to the coast for her first game and then off to a friends beach house for the night.  I hope are adventure on the beach is a good one!      

Hello from Tasmania, Australia!

So I have finally arrived in Hobart, Tasmania! Everyone is so nice and have been very welcoming. The weather is great here.  They are going into their fall here, but the scenery and the weather make it wonderful.  Yes I have been missing home, but I look at it as this is a great opportunity and for 6 months of my life, I am going to enjoy every minute of it.
We have been very busy since we got here.  Lindsay, my cousin for those of you who don't know, started playing basketball here and has had a few training sessions so far.  Down here they call practices trainings.  She is starting to get the hang of it down here as well and is really enjoying her team.  Their first game is in a little more than a week, so more to come of that.
Last night we drove up to the top of Tasmania, to a town called Penguin.  And yes I have been driving on the other side of the road.  It was a weird at first, but got the hang of it right away.  I sometimes have to second guess myself, but we have been doing just fine.  You will be able to see the car that we drive in the last picture.  But back to Penguin, this is where Lindsay plays on another team once a week.  They are just as friendly up there too and had a barbie for us, aka a dinner. It was lovely and after that we stayed the night at the coaches house since it is a 3 hr drive home.  We will be driving up there every Tuesday and then have all day Wednesday to take our time to come back.  Lindsay and I have decided that those days we will have adventures and explore the Tasmanian cities and sites.  Today we went to a wildlife zoo where there were wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, koala bears, parrots, and of course the tasmanian devil.  We spent about 2 hours there and learned quite a lot from the guide.  He informed us that there are not a lot of tasmanian devils left in the wild because of disease and of course humans.  But this wildlife park helps the captive ones reproduce and keep the devils population going.  They were not as scary as many people think.  We got to watch them eat a rump of a possum and then we decided to take off.  Also so you know, there is a guy with us and his name is Jordan.  He is one of our roommates and he plays for the boys team.  I'm not sure he was ready for what Lindsay and I had planned, but he seemed to fit right in and went along with the flow. Here is a picture of us holding a wallaby and then us with some kangaroos.

   After we were done with the wildlife we went back down the main road, and found a store that they make honey at.  And what was the name of the store, The Honey Store.  Very clever.  So we went in and got to taste test a bunch of the different honeys and jams and chocolate that they have.  Don't worry mom I wont come home empty handed, I bought 2 jars for back home so you can try it too.  That pretty much ended our adventure that day, but we know that we have every week till the end of August to keep having them.  I will leave you with a picture of the honey shop and Lindsay and I in front of the tasmanian devil.