#cool to see a few sydney harbour peeps show up

[marleneoftheopera]

Principal cast for Greece!

[austrhellyeahblog]

Stateside

Well this girl is officially back on US soil... holla!!!!!!!

Cam & I flew back to the states on New Years Day and because time zones are weird, we landed in LA before we left Sydney. Mind blowing, I know!

We flew out of Sydney at 12:20pm and prepared ourselves for the 13 hour flight we had ahead of us. Now, you might be thinking that 13 hours is a long flight (which it absolutely is), but 13 hours is actually the shortest flight I’ve ever seen. Most trips from Australia to the states take at least 20-25 hours total, including layovers. So we struck gold with only having to sit on the plane for 13.

Because we left in the middle of the day, sleep just wasn’t going to happen for me straight away. I think I only slept for 3-4 hours, and that was between Hawaii and LA. They try to trick you into sleeping by turning the cabin lights off & closing the window shades, but my body couldn’t be tricked. Luckily Delta had a large collection of movies so I could pass the time!

We flew into Chicago because the Cincinnati airport is too damn expensive & Chicago was the closet I could think of when booking flights. We also flew into ORD because that’s where Cam was going to be flying out of on his way back to Sydney, so it made things easier when booking return flights for him. Mare & Ed met us at ORD (as I’m sure you’ve seen from her FB video of our arrival - which, in my defense, I was very happy to see them, BUT after traveling for 18+ hours, a camera was not my friend!) & we made our way to my old roomies house, aka Lindsay’s mom’s house lolz.

Lindsay & her boyf, Mike, were there waiting for us, and to be truthful, once I saw her & we began to chat it felt like I had only been gone for a few months, and not an entire year. Thank god for technology man!

At this point, Cam and I were so exhausted because our body clocks were telling us it was 9am and not 6pm, so we went to bed shortly after getting there. After that first night’s sleep back, it became very evident that jet lag coming back from Australia is MUCH harder to kick than jet lag going to Australia. I slept for 12 hours (which lets be honest isn’t really that strange for me lolz) and then about 30 min into our drive back to Cincy, was right back to sleep for another 4 hours. Overall, I think it took us 5 days to fully beat the jet lag.

It’s a good thing we kicked it when we did cause two of my besties got hitched on the 7th so not sure I could’ve gotten home any later!

We arrived to cold weather & immediately wished we were back in the warmth of summertime in Sydney, but snow was in the forecast so at least we were gonna be cold & seeing snow. Nothing’s worse than freezing cold weather & no snow. Srsly.

It was pretty funny because a bunch of people texted me that morning of the snowfall asking if Cam had ever seen snow before, and although he indeed had, this was his first time seeing it fall from the sky. He was like a little kid trying to catch snowflakes in his mouth & drawing things on cars covered in snow. It was cute…but also embarrassing haha.

The first week we were back was basically him getting settled, me showing him some of the site of Cincinnati, and then prepping for the wedding that Saturday. Kinda jumped into everything, so I’m glad to have a little time to get myself sorted and into a routine these next few days.

One of the activities we did was go to the National Underground Railroad Museum in downtown Cincinnati. Cam loves learning about history, so he was keen to go have a look at it. I hadn’t been since like freshman year of high school, but still remembered that it was a great museum, so I was excited to check it out as well! The first thing we did before starting the exhibit was do a VR experience where we would be Rosa Parks sitting on the bus & being told to get up. It was super cool & a full on experience that I recommend everyone do if they visit the museum. It’s only 5 minutes, but a powerful 5 minutes. Overall, I recommend you make a visit to this museum if you’re ever in the area (or live in Cincy) cause a lot of what’s shown & talked about is extremely relevant today with everything happening currently in our country.

Check it out! Now to the partay!!

1.7.17 - Nina & Tim’s Wedding!

There’s a small group of people that could drag me out of Australia before I’m ready to leave, and Neener’s & Tim are in that group of peeps! I’d been counting down the days since they got engaged, and there was just no way I was gonna miss being apart of the happiest day of their lives. Their two of my fave people & I’m so happy I was there to help celebrate their love!

Neener’s was the most beautiful snow princess & Tim was her handsome snow prince. Haha. Neener also blessed us with fur to wear for the wedding pics, and that took the wedding to a whole other level. I’m telling you, fur changes people... need a confidence boost? put on fur. need to stay warm? put on fur. I suggest you get yourself some fur! I can’t wait to see how gorgeous the wedding pics turn out! I felt like an old hollywood movie star, and fully embraced it! haha

Here’s a few that I managed to capture. Was having too much fun to remember to take any!

This was Cam’s second wedding he’s been too, so he got to see how most American weddings are done - he had a good time! Poor guy had to meet loads of people too, so he’s a trooper & a keeper. Not many people can handle the meeting friends & family gauntlet haha.

We were pretty hungover the next day, so you know we had a good time haha.

We celebrated Mare’s birthday on the 9th and then got ready to head to Chicago for five days to show Cam around the city I love, and to have a much needed reunion with frands!

We stayed at the Millennium Knickerbocker hotel off Michigan Ave, and once we got off the Megabus, we immediately jumped right into sightseeing activities, starting with a Blackhawks game.

Watching the Blackhawks at the United Center is so much fun because the energy inside is constant and exciting! It was rivalry night against Detroit (although tbh not really sure if that’s as big of a rivalry as STL is), but nevertheless, we got to our seats & soaked in every minute of the game.

Blackhawks ended up winning in OT, so I’m 2:2 on seeing the Blackhawks win at the UC!

The next couple of days we hit up the Bean, Signature Lounge on the top floor of the Hancock building, Wrigley Field, Mag Mile, and the Art Institute of Chicago, & finished with a Bulls game to top the week off!

*This was my first time going to the Art Institute, and man have I been missing out! It’s spectacular and has a work from pretty much every artist you can think of. According to Trip Advisor, it’s been voted the best museum in the world the past 4 years, and I totally get why. They have works from every era, and little miniature’s showing what rooms looked like during the 17th & 18th centuries in France, London and the US - they were super cool! If you’re in Chi, check it out!

I did more in Chicago those 5 days than I did in the 2 years I lived there lolz. Totes worth it though!

Cam had to head back to Australia for work commitments (sad face), so now begins our journey of spending a few months apart. I can already tell it’s gonna be tough, but we’re gonna get through it!

A lot of people want to know what’s next for me, and tbh I’m not entirely sure. What I do know though is that I will indeed be moving back to Sydney (hopefully around April/May) but I’m in the predicament of trying to find a way to get back via sponsorship - which is proving to be difficult :( If anyone has ideas, I’m taking any & all! 

Until all of that’s sorted I’ll be living with Mare & Ed in Cincy and finding employment (of any kind), to keep the money flowing & my savings account growing!

Now that I have time on my hands, I’ll be able to blog a little more & share with you my journey of getting my butt back to Australia! Planning on doing a few posts of my last few months in Aus & how spectacular it was spending NYE on the Harbour!

Ta ta for now!