525,600 Minutes

Firefighter meeple recently made an appearance on Michael's scooter to say, "Happy one year anniversary of living in Australia!". 

A lot has happened in a year. We've found our niches in many hobbies we already had and found some new hobbies (as if we needed more). We have a nice tiny apartment in a pleasant neighborhood with our two cats. Michael continues to work for the same company; I had worked for most of the year and now have a few leads on potential new jobs. We've both been back to visit the states separately, to see family and celebrate milestones with friends. We've welcomed friends and family who have visited Sydney. We've travelled to new countries: Fiji, Thailand, Laos, and Singapore. We've been able to travel some within Australia, getting to play at Ultimate Mixed Nationals in Queensland, check out Magnetic Island, drive the Great Ocean Road, and hike in the Blue Mountains. We'e gone skydiving and learned how to surf. We've found some favorite cafes and gelato places.

I like to think that 2014 was just us "getting started", so if we were able to do that much, I can't imagine what 2015 has in store. Perhaps we won't necessarily do more, but I'm hoping the things we do will be of greater quality. What I mean by that is now that we have found our niches in so many different areas, we know what we like and can get the most out of it. It's still fun to certainly try new experiences and restaurants and meet new people, but it's nice to not have to put as much effort into finding what's good. Instead of trying a new restaurant and hoping it's good, we can try more places recommended to us by people we know or go to places we already know we enjoy. Instead of showing up on the first day of a frisbee league and meeting a lot of nice people, we see familiar faces and catch up on what our friends have been up to and maybe make plans with them. Instead of having to find the right place to go to get whatever random item we happen to need, for example a new blender, I already know when and where to go and can complete errands efficiently without getting too frustrated.

Family and friends' lives back in the states are carrying on without us. It's kind of refreshing to think that when we do eventually get a chance to catch up in person again, we will have a lot to talk about. We will all be a little bit different, but mostly the same. 

Yes, we're still working on our Australian accents; no, we haven't perfected them yet.