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Mum and Dad visit Australia

My mom had been talking about coming to visit for a while but I wasn't sure if the day would actually happen. One day while at work, I got a message with an itinerary for flights! Surprise. They were coming at the end of the school term and the start of school holidays!

The weather was so nice and it was a lot of fun showing them around. My mom and I visited the Botanical Garden, a Multicultural Festival in Fed Square, a Korean Festival in Southbank, and a going away dinner for Joel's friend Luisa from Germany. Luisa's dinner was held at a delicious restaurant in China Town with the lazy susan and everything. The food was so fantastic and I am sad that was my first time in 18 months eating in China town!

Sunday morning my dad arrived. To keep him from getting jet lagged too much,we headed to an Australian Rule Football Game.


Side notes about footy Or as they call it here, a Footy game. Footy is interchangeable depending on which part of the country you are in. In Victoria, it refers to Aussie Rules Football, in other areas it refers to Rugby. AFL is huge in Victoria for some reason and most of the teams are from here. Everyone will always ask you "who you go for", as if a transplant is supposed to have chosen a team immediately upon arrival. I usually say I go for Richmond Tigers as they are the closest team to us. Some of my students insist that I must choose a team to support. They also have tons of betting around Footy, which in some ways I guess is similar to our fantasy football. Usually they just guess which teams will will each week and then make it to the final in the end of the season. Even clients at some of my houses participate in things like this. It is cool to see everyone get so into it!

Sunday night after Joel returned from Fomula One Grand Prix race where his favorite driver won, we had a lovely bbq outside. We barbequed some steaks, sweet potatoes, and had some salad. I think... my parents liked the kangaroo steaks?!



Monday to Wednesday, I had to head back to school for my last three days of work before the break. My parents had to fend for themselves and explore on their own.

Thursday morning we took off for a road trip along Princes Highway to Sydney. We randomly stopped at a little winery, called Narkooje from the road sign and had a great time learning and seeing how they make their wine and tasting far too many different wines to handle.

We stayed over night in a tiny town called Mallacoota. We had more amazing Chinese food.. you might see a trend with all the asian food here. :) The next day, we visited Merrimbula, The Pinnacles, Pebbly Beach, and Jarvis Bay.







Yup, that is right, Kangaroos on the beach! They were pretty funny to watch and in the end got super close to us. When we first arrived we didn't see any and I was furious. How could so many sources tell me that for sure you will see kangaroos here but there were none! We took a little walk around the beach and wa la! They appeared. Super exciting and got some fantastic pics. We ended the night in Wollongong where my Ultimate Frisbee Nationals Tournament was the next day!

My parents got to watch a couple of games and meet my teammates. It was so fun to have them watch while we were still playing super well.

They continued onto Sydney on Saturday so they would have a day to explore Sydney while Joel and I continued in the tournament.
The following morning, we flew out to New Zealand! :) 

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