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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Hurricane/Cyclone Oswald

This weekend Jason and I had plans to get away for the weekend to Brisbane! We had a hotel booked right downtown and were looking forward to being in a city with a wide variety of restaurants, shopping and Australia Day (Like our Independence Day) festivities!  Unfortunately, all the excitement for a weekend away came to an end Wednesday night when Cyclone Oswald decided to rear his ugly head! The rainfall began at 6pm on Wednesday and finally stopped on Sunday at 2am. The total amount of rainfall that we received was over 3 feet. All of the roads were closed leaving Gladstone in all directions so we had no choice but to stay in Gladstone and make the most of our 4 day holiday weekend! Fortunately, all of our friends were unable to make their weekend trips away as well so we were all stuck in Gladstone together. However, we did manage to make the most of the weekend by fun in the rain, board games, and a pajama pizza party!
















Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Wonderful World of Gladstone

Alot of you all have been asking what it's like to live in Australia and by our pictures that we have taken so far you have seen that there are some absolutely beautiful beaches and we have found some really fun and new exciting things to explore since we have been here. However, all of those fun and exciting things we do occur on the weekends! So I thought that I would share with you all what our life is like throughout the week. Gladstone is a relatively small town especially compared to Lexington and Cincinnati, the cities that we are used to. It is an industrial town so even though we are right next to the ocean, there aren't any pretty beaches here. (Luckily, the closest beach is only 15-20 minutes away!)
Downtown Gladstone...heading to the Marina. The library is located downtown, during my first few weeks in Gladstone, I spent a great deal of time at the library catching up with everyone from home while we waited for our internet to be installed at the house.



Majority of our days are spent working. Jason leaves the house at 430am to catch a ferry to the island. The ferry ride is about 30 minutes long then he catches a bus to the site once he arrives at the island. Here is a picture of Port Central where all the guys catch the ferry each day. Unfortunately, we aren't able to show any pictures of the island or the project that he is working on. He arrives back from the ferry at 6 each night.

 
I work at the Gladstone Base Hospital which is one of two hospitals in town. The Base hosspital is the public hospital. It is definitely much different and smaller than the hospitals I'm used to seeing in Lexington.
 




The town definitely has a small, country town feel where you can go to the mall and usually see someone you know, we are even beginning to have the happen to us. You also won't be surprised if you see at least one person walking around the mall or grocery store with no shoes on! On a typical day off work for me, I make my rounds to "my" stores. They consist of Big W (Like a Walmart but with cute clothes like Target), the Scrapbook store (I have developed a hobby since being here and I am obsessed! The ladies in the store know me and my neighbor well), Lincraft (local craft store), Woolworths aka Wooly's (grocery store) and the Reject Shop (like a dollar store but has some decent stuff). The Mall consists of Wooly's, Big W, Reject Shop and a few other like clothes shops that are outrageaously over priced (Mens Levi Jeans are $95) especially compared to Big W where I can get cute stuff for $10-20!

My favorite store!!


Strip Mall across the street from the Stockland Mall- The Target here doesnt even compare to the Target from home! :( And the Coles is a grocery store.

The Mall.




Just like a Lowes or Home Depot

Jason's "Man" store! Doesn't quite compare to Bass Pro!


Gladstone also has a make-shift Keeneland where in the Spring they race camels! We will definitely be checking that out this year! Everyone gets dressed up just like Keeneland and the girls wear facinators!







Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Crocodile Farm/ Cooberie Animal Park

This weekend we enjoyed the wildlife of Australia! However, we did still make some time for the beach of course! We visited both the Crocodile Farm and the Cooberie Animal Park both of which were very interactive! We held a baby crocodile, fed kangaroos out of our hands and cuddled with a Koala bear! It was a new experience for Jason and I and we were happy to be able to share it with our family!
 



Feeding time!
 

Yeppoon Beach. It was an extremely windy day but still beautiful!

This is a Cassowary, the most deadliest bird to humans. Jason stood close to the fence and this bird came at him! Thank goodness for the fence between them!



Kangaroos eating Califlower!



Soo Cool! He just climbed right into my arms like a baby! :) They are actually pretty soft but leave a sticky film on your hands after holding them.