Greetings from Down Under!

Hi Everyone!
I can't believe that we've already been here for almost 2 weeks now. Having a fun and relaxing time, but Edwin is now fighting a cold. We are in Melbourne now and will be leaving for Ayers Rock tomorrow. It's been really crazy. Some of you may know, but some may not. The day before we left, Edwin accepted a new job at UCSF. We are both very excited to have him start working again. I'll let him tell you about the job, but all I know is he's getting 5 weeks of PTO. How does he do it???

On other news, I actually got a job offer as well. I'm still trying to decide what to do, but I got a job offer from IRI as a Research Manager and MarketTools is now trying to keep me. It's a good position to be in, but it is rather stressful trying to do this on the other side of the world. I'm leaning towards staying at MarketTools. The reason is that I am finally going to be able to do what I have wanted to do and that is writing surveys and doing the analysis. I also will be getting 3 more days of PTO in 6 months because I will have been there for 3 years. So, if they are willing to match IRI, I will probably stay.

So here's what we've been up to on our trip:
Sat. 11/18
We arrive in Sydney and took the Airport Link which is like taking a Caltrain for A$12.50/person or $10 US. After we checked-in, we went shopping at the Paddington Market and meandered around the area. We then walked around Circular Quay (that's pronounced like "key") which is basically the Sydney Harbour and walked to The Rocks area. It's all a tourist trap, but still very picturesque. We had drinks at the Harbor View Hotel which seemed very LA to me. Then we had German food at a restaurant called Lowenbrau to celebrate Edwin's birthday. (His birthday was actually skipped this year because we got on the plane on 11/16 and got off the plane on 11/18, so because we crossed the international dateline, his birthday didn't happen. Cool, huh?) It was this great meat platter with sausages, pork knuckle, pork belly, something that tasted like bologna, and a ham. My favorite was the pork belly. This dish was not for the faint of heart and any vegan would probably need to stay at least 10 feet away to not gag.
PS- We were able to use a Citibank at the Sydney airport (yeah!), but unfortunately, it didn't allow me to access all of my Citibank accounts and I had only $200 in my savings because I get a higher interest rate in my e-savings account (boo!) However, I actually had the foresight to transfer some money into my checking account just in case. (Really glad I did that!) So, we should be fine since I'll also get paid while we are gone and that goes into my checking account too.

Sun 11/19
We took the 10AM 1-hour Harbour Cruise which was really nice. All the guidebooks said that we should take the afternoon ferry which was like 2 hours, but I actually was fine with the morning one. I tend to fall asleep on these things anyways! It was a good intro to Sydney and Australia. Then, we went back to the Rocks Market and had a fisherman's platter (fried fish, calamari, shrimp, etc. ) at Costi's. For the afternoon, we took a bus to Bondi Beach. It was not the warmest day to go but it was still very pleasant. We had soft serve ice cream (me with a choc top which just means chocolate dipped and Edwin had a choc with nuts.) It was cold, but we both managed to get a little burned. Nothing serious, but just enough to be a little red. They also had some kind of art exhibit along the beach which was really nice. It made us seem more cultured, but I have never been to an art museum in a bathing suit before. There were close to 100 sculptures. Then,we met up with some old family friends, Philip and his wife Charlie. I haven't seen Philip for almost 15 years (we think the last time was in 1990 or 1991.) He is a friend of my Uncle Glenn's and he used to spend the holidays with my family. He's always very funny. I had never met his wife before, but she was really, really nice as well. They took us to a sushi boat restaurant that is owned by one of their friends. Really yummy. We had oysters and pipi hot pot which were these really sweet clams in a sake broth. It was really good catching up with them and they gave us some recommendations for the rest of our trip.

Well, I guess I'll have to write more about our adventures the next time because my time is almost up! See you all in another 10 days!