G'day, Mate!

Yes, I made it and am alive. It's been a rough last few days though:

Friday: sat in the LCCT at KLIA for about 5 hours and ate tons of McDonalds. Result: stomach aches for hours. Then hopped on a plane for an overnight flight to the Gold Coast in Australia. It was okay. Surprisingly, the plane was rather spacious for a budget airline and brand new! Air Asia has got some interesting gadgets.... The flight information channel displayed a compass to show what direction you were flying as well as what direction Mecca was in (for Muslims in prayer). Ingenious. Jeremy didn't sleep at all (poor guy) and instead let me lay my head in his lap and take up the whole row (we had three seats to ourselves).

Saturday: I was a little afraid that I'd be searched and arrested for bringing in a petrified sea shell into Australia (they have the world's toughest customs regulations) and decided to declare it. Luckily, the customs officer didn't care and let me go! Yay for unique souvenirs! (I found the sea shell in the Sahara of Egypt). Once outside, I met Jeremy's parents for the first time and their lovely friend Eca (from Romania), who greeted me with a pashima shawl and a coin purse made of kangaroo leather. So nice! When we got home in Brisbane, it was a mad dash to unpack our boxes, pile up the laundry, eat a bit of food, pick up a hair straightener, pick up Jeremy's new 24" computer screen (yeah, big), and get ready for the 21st birthday party. I was under the impression that I'd be meeting all of his aunts and uncles too but as it turns out, Jeremy's brother is a little unmotivated these days and sent invites via email. Only his friends showed up. Which was fine with me, really. I was so tired. Jeremy, on the other hand, was full-speed-ahead on putting back together his computer, though in the end, he discovered that something broke while in the mail and it was going to take a lot of money to replace things--like $1,500. He went to bed a little defeated.

Sunday: the plan was to meet his friends that night but his mom had put together a big Australian meal for dinner, so we opted to stay in. And I was oh so thankful too. She made the most delicious turkey I've ever had as well as potato salad, lamb with mint sauce (YUM!), pumpkin, broccoli and cauliflower (oh, I missed veggies!!!), and an assortment of other yumminess. For desert we had pavlova--a meringue cake topped with fresh fruit. To. Die. For. I ate so well. Jeremy stayed up all night (literally) researching the compatibility of different computer components and makes so that he could go pick up the pieces the next day and start fixing things.

Monday: The house was quiet (I should mention that there are a LOT of people around here: grandparents, 4 of us "kids," and J's parents) and Jeremy finally got some sleep while I cleaned, ironed and read emails. That night we planned to meet his friends for Ashely's (a guy) birthday party, so I had to get iron some shirts--something like 12! Ha! Jeremy picked up the computer stuff and worked all afternoon on it. Dinner with his friends was great. We met in Fortitude Valley (similar to Seattle's U District), ate Chinese food and drink lots of wine. His friends are so nice and I had a great time getting to know some of the girls (tomorrow I'm supposed to go shopping with one of them?). Jeremy fell right back in where he left off (somewhat to his relief) and had a lot of fun relating the adventures of his trip in Iran. It was so good to go out for a change and feel like a normal couple again. It's been AGES since we've been out for drinks with friends. There's supposed to be another get together this weekend too. Something about a Risk tournament coupled with movies and we're all supposed to come in the traditional dress of some country. If this does indeed happen, I'm wearing my sari from India and J will be in his kimono. It was a busy night and we slept well (though it took a lot of convincing to keep Jeremy from heading downstairs and working on his computer all night!).

Tuesday: well, it was supposed to be "paper day" (as in, sorting things) but ended up being "computer day." I organized photos on Flickr and Jeremy put his computer together, asking for my help occasionally. It was sorta fun. I got to screw all the hard drives together and connect cables. I was a little honored that he would trust me to touch the innards of such an expensive machine! But I have no desire to get into computers myself. I'm quite happy being the computer nerd's girlfriend than nerdstress of the Moschner household. I'll take a self-contained, self-maintained laptop, please! That's pretty much all we did. In the evening, I convinced him to take a break and watch a movie with me. (It's easy to lure him away from the computer if you hold popcorn in your hand.) Then it was off to bed! So much for searching for jobs... I guess that will be today's chore...

More stuff to come including the episode where Kortney accidentally drank fruit concentrate and How To Speak Australian. :)