A little piece of home

I was lucky enough to have my oldest and bestest friend come all the way from California to visit me in Brisbane during my break between semesters! It was so fun getting to show her around my new city (after 5.5 months, I'm just about feeling qualified to do so!) and to have a little piece of home here in Australia!

The beautiful sights of Brisbane on Molly's first day!

Molly's first authentic Aussie meal: steak and chips, of course! 

Picnic dinner on the Brisbane River 

2 American international students to Australia! We were torn over where our loyalties lie!

4th of July BBQ in Roma Parklands--I got Molly to eat kangaroo kebabs! She even liked it!

Beautiful day on the top of Mt. Coot-tha 

Me and Ellie at UQ St. Lucia campus--she is from the US, too, and studying in my master's program! 

Beautiful Hamilton sunset 

Molly and I went to the Rotaract Fundraiser and got to see Harry Potter 7 Pt 2 on the opening day in 3D!! Not only was the movie amazing, but the proceeds went to Paradise Kids--"Paradise Kid's is a Gold Coast Children’s Charity founded in 1996 to help children learn life-skills to deal with grief through death, loss or illness. Whether the loss is the death or approaching death of a parent, grandparent or sibling, grief through the stress of separation or divorce, or the child’s own chronic life-limiting illness, Paradise Kids provides programs to 'help heal the heartache.'" Learn more about it at http://www.paradisekids.org.au/ 

 Picnic at Surfer's Paradise!

I taught Molly the #1 rule in Australia: only swim between the red and yellow flags! 

This is Molly in front of Q1, the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere

Yep, Q1 is pretty tall! 

We had a yummy afternoon date to Max Brenner Chocolate shoppe in South Bank! I love chocolate on chocolate with a side of chocolate. 

My generous Rotary hosts, Brian and Cheryl, even treated us to a day at the Australia Zoo! It was sooo cool, plus the weather was a bit rainy so we had the whole place to ourselves! We saw so many koalas, kangaroo, crocs, reptiles, cassowaries... everything you'd hope to see in Australia! Even the official Croc Show (Steve Irwin's legacy) in the Crocoseum!

Molly and her first live kangaroos! (she had already eaten bbq'd kangaroo!)

Brian got us this kangaroo food from a vending machine!! Haha, only in Australia :) They were quite friendly!

"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave but not our hearts." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
It was tough to see Molly go after 2 weeks of a visit. It's not until you get about as far away as possible from home (how about a hemisphere?!) that you realize just how true the above quote is. Getting out of California and living here in Queensland has fulfilled just about all of my dreams and expectations, yet has gone even further and made me learn a lot about myself-- as much as I love, and live for, new cities, sights, and sounds, I love my family, my bestest friends, and the familiar places I know as home, even more. That's why having my oldest friend from home come to visit me in my new city was truly the best of both worlds!!