Friday, June 13, 2008



Friday the 13th, destined for bad luck. Work was going to be exciting because I got to go to the house of one of the clients I had been working on. Greg picked me up and we made our way across the city, He didn’t know where we needed to go so for some reason he trusted me with a map, even though I had never driven in the city. I looked up the address he gave me and directed Greg to the location. As we pulled into the street Greg said that something didn’t look right. He realized that I had taken him to the right street name but in the wrong suburb and we were already late. To make matters worse the builders, and seamstress, and glassier, were waiting for us at the clients house.



We finally figured out where we needed to go, and made our journey back to the right location. (We really had gone so far out of the way). Then I got to sit in on a client meeting with Stewart and Greg. It was one of the first meetings with this client, so it was fun to see the process that they go through. Then Stewart and I went to a few showrooms and then it was back to the office. Not too bad for a Friday the 13th at work, only a few minor set backs.

(Before we left Wendy found a cockroach in our sink, so Jayne and I had to find a way to get it out because it was too big to send down the drain. Honestly it creeped me out)

That night Wendy, Jayne, and I went to meet up with Sean, (Sean’s cousin is one of Jayne’s old coaches) at a bar by his work called Le Chifley. We had to take a taxi to get there and our taxi driver was 1, super stinky, and 2, super creepy. When I went to pay him he grabbed my hand and held it, and then did the same to Jayne when he handed her back the change. And to make matters worse, the spot where he dropped us off was super sketchy.


We called Sean’s number and it would just go straight to his answering machine so luckily we found the bar and awkwardly walked in. Now the problem was that we had no idea who we were looking for, but we went in and just didn’t know what to do because it wasn’t a normal bar, there was only a few people and we weren’t really going to drink, so what do 3 mormon girls do in a bar when they don’t know anyone and they don’t drink. I’ll tell you. They stand around awkwardly asking each other what they should do.


It wasn’t long till some guys walked up to us and wondered how three american girls found this bar in the middle of nowhere. These guys were old and creepy as well, so it made for a very interesting night. (And by old I mean like late 40's) We just didn’t know if we were supposed to keep waiting or if we should just go home. It was pretty hilarious telling these guys that we didn’t drink. Luckily, like 30 minutes later I got a call from Sean and apparently he had been there the whole time, somehow we just hadn’t seen him. We were glad we were freed from the creepy old men.


It turned out really fun! The group we were meeting were really nice, but still it was funny to try to convince them that we didn’t drink. They just couldn’t believe that it was even an option. It wasn’t until Jayne told them that we were recovering alcoholics that they stopped offering us drinks. Apparently that made more sense to them.


One of the girls there was obsessed with Jason Mraz and I found out she is going to the concert Wendy and I are going to. Apparently the last time he came to Australia she actually met him, got a picture and everything so we had a lot of fun talking about him. I was secretly really jealous that she has met him. And that was the end of my Friday the 13th, not too shabby.

Wednesday June 11- Thursday June 12, 2008

(This is our flat mates, Jorge and Ely, I just haven't blogged pictures of both of them yet!)

Nothing really too exciting on Wednesday... wait let me take that back. Some of our most adventurous moments take place in the preparing and eating of our dinner meal. Really, we prepare huge meals together almost every night. It is almost cute, but then we realize it is somewhat pathetic.

We love shopping for bread deals at Coles, the grocery store we visit more than necessary every week. (And by every week, sometimes I even mean every day) We picked up a baguette and made a mean dish of pasta.

(I wish you could see how good this really was.)

Funny story: One time Jayne mentioned the fact that there were so many of these adult book stores all over Sydney and Wendy replied, "I know, I went in one and was in there for hours, but I usually only go when I am not with Brighton." It wasn't until Jayne looked at her worried that Wendy realized what she had said, apparently she had meant a regular book store, but we are still watching out for any bad signs.

(Us at the noodle house. When we go out to eat we order three different meals and then rotate them around until they are gone. Its like we have to share everything!)

Thursday I met up with Wendy and Jayne so we could go to China Town. On Thursdays everything stays open later, so we ate at an asian noodle shop, and then just went to see what china town was like. In one of the shops the boy at the counter knew all about the Utah Jazz because he was a major Yao Ming fan and unfortunately for him, the Jazz had defeated the Rockets in the playoffs the last two years. He seemed pretty let down but Wendy loved that he knew all about the Jazz.

Tuesday June 10, 2008

Jayne arrived! Wendy and Jorge went to pick her up from the airport and then after Jayne had the chance to take a nap her and Wendy came to visit me at work. We went to lunch at a café by my work.

Just a side note, Australians love pumpkin in everything. Maybe that’s not weird but it really is like a staple food here. I ordered a pumpkin wrap thing that was fabulous, just a weird concept to me. I have just always thought of pumpkin as a thanksgiving food, but apparently I have been misinformed. Anywho...

It is way great that Jayne is here! Partay everyday now for sure! Minus the part where I still have to go to work.

Monday, June 9, 2008

(This is as close as they will ever get to snow!)

I didn’t have to work today because Australia was celebrating the Queens Birthday so it was a national holiday. Wendy and I hadn’t been to Darling Harbour yet so although it was very rainy we decided to see what there was over there.

(Darling Harbour)

When we got there we found out that there was a jazz festival going on so there were a lot of people there. They had 4 different stages set up around the harbour that made the vibe really cool. We walked around for a while, and then went to some shops. I found some skinny jeans for $20 which is steal here. We also had heard there was good shopping at Pitt Street Mall, but by the time we got there a lot of the stores were shutting down. (Remember this was probably around 5, I still can’t get used to the fact that everything closes so early here).

(I love that there are palm trees everywhere.)

As we were walking through the mall we noticed a big group of people gathering for something that seemed important, equipped with TV cameras and the such. When we asked what was going on someone told us that it was the Australian premiere for Kung Fu Panda and that it was rumored Jack Black was going to show up. We were one of the first that started lining up along the opposite side of the road. They had a red carpet set up and everything. They even had some real kung fu artists put on a show, with drums and everything. Then came the big panda, and then no one other than Jack Black!

(Jack Black in the flesh)

Not too long after getting out of his car he crossed the street to the side with the fans and got close enough for me to touch his jacket. I know that seems minuscule, but I know that he felt something great as I graced his sparkling gold ensemble. It may have just been the connection that us americans feel when we meet in a foreign land, but there was an instant feeling of companionship that is only felt between old friends.


Quite an adventure, but we went home feeling like celebrities, (Or at least as if we had just met one), looking forward to the part where we got to tell everyone!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

We of course slept in because we were exhausted from our night of travels, but we woke up to a very pleasant surprise because we had gotten a text that morning saying that Jess, one of the cute girls from our ward and her boyfriend John would drive us to Campbelltown for day number 2 of the conference. What a relief!

I don't think I mentioned before but we had been practicing for a while this little skit and dance routine for the convention. Every stake does one and then there is a little competition. So we arrived early to go over the dances and there was a boy there from our stake that was giving us advice and telling us what to improve on. He even mentioned in our dress rehearsal that everyone needed to dance like the american girls. (That fact will apply later in the story)

Prior to coming to this convention, we had learned that the boy that got 4th place in the Australian So you think you can dance was lds and was going to be at the convention. Wendy and I couldn’t be more excited. I haven’t mentioned it yet because it has been really hard to deal with, but I haven’t been able to watch the american so you think you can dance at all this season because our internet is limited and so we cant really watch things on you tube or download anything. This was something I had to learn to cope with before I even got out to Australia, it was a major factor in the con side of coming to Australia so you can imagine our excitement when anything somewhat related to our love for the show takes place in Australia. All we really knew was that this boys name was Graeme.

(This is us with Grame!)

When the skits started, we noticed our new friend that had given us advice was sitting at the judges table. It didn’t take long to realize that he was Graeme. We had been talking to him all along and even more, he had said the american girls were good dancers. We loved it!
The night was really good, and we made sure to get a picture with Graeme before we left. The ride home was a lot less adventurous than the night before, but I was more than grateful for that!

(This is one of the boys that had gotten us to the bus the night before)

K....I'm trying to catch up. All my posts wont be this long, promise!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Today was my first day that I got to go onsite to one of our clients places and do my first install. This may seem super cool, but all it really means is I take a taxi to the site and let suppliers in to deliver furniture, or install shelves, etc... and make sure that everything is okay with the delivery. It did make me feel important if nothing else. It was for an office building for a graphic design company and they were making the entry into the office into an art gallery, so it was an interesting space to see installed. It is cool just seeing all the work come together, even if I wasn’t there for this project. I was pretty much back and fourth 3 times throughout the day so that made the day go faster as well.

(This is the section that will be the art gallery)

That night Wendy and I and some other girls from our ward took a train up to Campbelltown to attend the first night of the big YSA convention in Sydney which happened to be a dance. We got to Campbelltown and it didn’t take long to realize we were gonna have to pay for a cab, and to make it worse, there were 5 girls and they wouldn’t let us squeeze into one, so we had to pay for two separate cabs.

(Waiting for the train, seemed like most of the night was spent either waiting or traveling on some sort of public transportation.)

As soon as we saw the church Wendy and I got so excited because it felt like we were back home. I really did just love it. It was like known territory. I felt safe and happy and excited all at the same time. We walked into the church and I was very surprised at how many people that were there. It was awesome to see the youth in our church all the way over in Australia.

Another noteworthy event was the food table at the dance. Wendy and I walked in, wide eyed and ready for a chow down, like a lion ready to pounce the item he selected to hunt. We literally acted like we had never seen real food, I think people were worried. We really are just so frugal with our money that it was probably hilarious if anyone caught onto our amazement. They had chicken wings of many flavors (ok, maybe just two), and we really were so excited to get some meat in our diet. (FYI: If I haven’t mentioned prior to this, meat here is so expensive. It is supposedly one of the most expensive countries for meat so we have a valid reason to be obstaining from purchasing it.)

(Some Aussie boys we got our groove on with)

It ended up being a lot of fun. We got to know our ward a bit more, and met some cool people. The dance got over at 12 and we had to make our way back to Sydney, which if it was going to be as easy as getting there would’ve been no problem. The issue was that the trains stop running late at night, and we had no way to even get to the bus station. Plus, a train had taken 1 ½ hours so this distance on a bus that would stop every 5 minutes would take ages!

(Some kool kats from our ward)

We ended up calling for a taxi which was sad because this trip was getting so pricey. When the parking lot was pretty much emptied and the leaders were trying to kick us out we started walking to see if the taxis were parked somewhere and some wonderful lady came up to us wondering if we had rides home. When she discovered we were waiting for taxis she would have none of that! She rounded up some of the guys from her ward and made them promise to get us to the bus station.

We split into two different cars and although no one really knew how to get to the bus we began our journey. Somehow the two cars got separated and the first car called saying they had found the bus but that it was leaving and they would try to make it stall. We rushed over only to catch it parked on a one way rode so the driver of our car switched into reverse and frantically got us to the door of the bus. When we frantically scrambled onto the bus the driver let all of us on without paying a toll. I still don’t know why, but was indeed grateful.



The adventures were not completely over. The ride home did indeed take a much longer time than the train had. By the time we got to Town Hall, which was just another stop on our journey it was like 3:30 am. Now, from there we had two options; take a taxi home, or walk to the bus stop that was like 10 minutes away and hope that the bus would come in a reasonable amount of time. We chose the latter, being the frugal gals we were and soon discovered that the bus didn’t come for another 20 minutes.



Now if you think, I’m so glad they finally got home, think again. That bus just dropped us at Bondi Junction where we had to catch a taxi anyway because we were too exhausted to walk the 20 minutes. In the end it was almost 5 am and I felt like I had just had the worst night of my life. I felt literally miserable and was dreading the fact that I had to make that same journey Saturday afternoon.

(This is how happy we were to see our flat, I honestly had started believing that being home would permanently be an object of my imagination)

Warning: This is a long entry, don't feel obligated to read, I just upload my journal entry because it is easier that way, rather than writing two versions so please excuse the length.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I went to work like normal and Wendy called me and said that Jorge said that his uni (that is what they call their university in the Aussie lingo) was throwing a big party because classes we’re over and finals were about to start. He made sure to warn us that it was at a bar, and that people would be drinking but that we were welcome to come. We obliged, and Wendy, Ely, and I met Jorge at his school. It was just at the uni bar that is in the center of campus. (Yes, I did mean to say that.) They have a bar in the center of their campus, I guess they figure students need a release from studying, so why not make it that much easier for them to let go?

It started off great when we walked in and met up with some of Jorge’s friends. Tobe was there from the night we went to the bar at Coogee. (It seems like there is starting to be a pattern of activity here, but you have to give us some credit, everything shuts down by 5, and the only thing left open is the bars, we are doing pretty good that this was only our second). Being at a bar, everyone had drinks and we were all walking over to the dance floor and a girl came charging through our group. In the rush of getting through the group, someone’s beer spilled on this girl so she turned around thinking it was Ely and called her some words that I don’t need to mention, and Ely is a very strong willed latin women that wasn’t going to take some girl getting up on her grill; so a girl fight began. It took many guys to hold back the two very angry girls, more alcohol was hurled, and eventually before anything major happened the girls were whisked away to opposite ends of the club.

So yes, if you asked, I would say that the night was young with great opportunities for exciting stories. Especially for a sheltered Utah girl. So we went out to the dance floor and it didn’t take long before the boys were flocking us. Okay, I made that part up, but one boy did come up to us and said we had to wait there until he got his friend. But we didn’t because we wanted to dance, but unfortunately we were found by who we now know to be Steven and Chris. Now from my side of the story, Chris came up to me and immediately grabbed my hands and said that he wanted me to take a chance with him and I was thinking oh no, what are me and Wendy going to do to get out of this predicament, little did I know that I was the only one in a predicament, Wendy and Steven were having a great conversation about sports.

There was another boy that kept looking at me while I was getting pursued by Chris and I was obviously giving him the signal of help me out here, but in the end Wendy helped me so that we could leave. Eventually the boy I had been signaling came over with his friend, (his name is Nick) and I obviously got mad at him for not helping me out. Nick said that he couldn’t interrupt that boy pursuing me because he was working his Aussie moves too strong to come in between. Luckily, these boys were super cool and we talked to them for a bit, and then kept walking around the bar some more eventually running into Chris and Steven again. This time Chris went straight to Wendy and Steven to me.

(This is me and Steven)

(This is Wendy and Chris)

I got into a really deep conversation with Steven about how I didn’t drink, which obviously got us into the topic about being LDS, which for some reason seemed funny trying to talk serious with someone that was at least partially drunk. He decided that we were going to get married and I was going to have his 6 children. He said I was too career oriented and that he would have to convince me to want to be a stay at home mother to raise our children while he went out everyday to earn the money. Apparently this whole time Chris was using all the same lines on Wendy that he had tried on me, so finally we had to say we needed to go home because I had work early the next morning. Chris did not want to take that, so he continued to run options by us about staying at his place that night, when that didn’t work he said we could just get coffee at his place then, and then go home. We just told him flat out that we wanted to just go home and he would just reply, I know you do, so do I, but lets just.....(and he would fill in the blank with some new great idea that he thought would persuade us to go to his place).

Well...with the help of Steven telling his friend to give it up, we got away and found Jorge to tell him we were going home. We went out to catch a bus home to find that the buses stop at midnight until 4:00 am, so we got the privilege of taking a taxi home, which gratefully was only $12. What an adventure for sure!

Sunday, June 1, 2008-Wednesday, June 4, 2008

(The wind was blowing so hard!)

Church was good and the first part of the week went without there being anything really eventful to report on. On Wednesday we had a practice at our church for the skit our ward had to do for the YSA convention so I met Wendy at the bus station after work and we went to practice the dances. By the time the dance got out it was pouring down rain, and my poor little umbrella just couldn’t take the wind, it just kept flippin inside out, which left for a very funny, but wet walk home. To give us a break in between our walk we stopped to get ice cream cones (which seems weird in a rain storm, but the temperature stays pretty livable, it just rains a lot).

(It was raining so hard! You can't really tell, but my whole black shirt is soaked through too. Great that we get to walk home in the rain almost everyday!)

Saturday, May 31, 2008

(This is the beach minutes from our flat!)

Since I finally got a day off of work Wendy and I decided to take advantage of it and go to the beach. It is only about an 8 minute walk to Bronte Beach from our flat, which is great! It was warm, but definitely not hot, but we were still able to get in the water. I love the beach! It is always so pretty. It made me sad that I was going to miss my families river trip this year, but I guess Australia is a pretty good reason to miss it! I’ve now only been to two beaches in Australia, so I need to get to more before it gets even colder. It was so funny how many old men, with wrinkled leather skin, were there; and in little tiny speedos at no less. (I guess it is good there was no less).

(These birds just wanted to go running with Wendy)!



(This was the pool that is just built into the beach, I don't know why they think they need a pool when they have a whole ocean)!

(Huge trees by the beach)

Then we went home and got cleaned up so we could go out to dinner, which was quite the occasion for the two of us because we are so dang frugal that we hadn’t allowed each other to eat out really ever because it was too expensive. We went to a cute little pizza shop by our flat, and then to top off our great Saturday we did none other than go grocery shopping. Which has become one of our favourite, (I meant to spell it that way, the Aussie’s think that’s the right way), activities. Then it was to home for the night.

(Our fantastic saturday activity)

While we were waiting for the bus with all of our groceries, a man came up to us and got in our faces and said that we had to be weary of guys coming to talk to us. He made sure to repeat that we needed to be weary, but that he wasn’t going to charge us for is time. It wasn’t long before we realized that he was the weary men he was warning us of. When he wasn’t acting like he was going to leave, we thanked him for the advice and told him to have a good night. After warning us a few more times, and saying some more bogus things, he finally started to walk away, and luckily our bus came right after. And that was the night!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008-Friday, May 30, 2008



Well... I was finally able to get some pictures of my office when I was settled in a bit more. My first week pretty much consisted of organizing the office, doing so many sample boards and getting all of the materials approved and coordinated with the client. I also worked a little bit with CADD, the computer program that I use to produce drawings (or drawrings, as they pronounce it here in Australia).

Some more about Greg...he really is a great designer. He is very demanding, always wanting me to do a hundred things at once, but I guess this pushes me to learn how an interior design firm is run. The firm is very busy right now, so at first I felt like I was getting all the crap work, but I really have been able to do all the things I wanted to do. Work can get tiring because I leave by 8:00 to get to work by 9:00, then put in a 9 hour day, and then its another hour home. So by the time I get home I am super tired. And it doesn’t help that in Australia it is completely dark by 5:00. Something that has been very hard to get used to. But remember it is the first of their winter.

(This is my desk!)

One other thing that has been surprisingly hard is getting used to the accents. Kind of silly that this is an issue, when we both are speaking English, but when I answer the phone I have the hardest time understanding what the person on the other side is saying. It can make for a very interesting phone call when I am needing the person to spell out every word of their message. Especially when it is designers and suppliers that I should know (that being if I had studied in Australia, but seeing as I didn’t I do have a valid excuse).

(This is the view of the office area. That stack of magazines is all the recent magazines that Greg has been published in that haven't been archived yet. He gets published quite a bit in Australia.)

Other than that the nights were spent really just getting used to our routine. Cooking dinner, emailing our friends and family, and trying to wear down some of the jet lag. Not the most exciting first week in the land down under, but we figured we had plenty of time to experience it that we could afford to take it slow.

(This is a custom rug that has the Greg Natale Design logo in it, pretty sweet)!

One of the funny things while I have been here is that it is winter, but winter here is literally like a utah fall. Usually temperature wise it is always pleasant, but it just gets rainy sometimes. (at least this is in my opinion). I must have an extra layer of insulation because I come home everyday and Wendy is freezing cold, and I feel like the temperature is perfect. One day it was really extreme and Wendy had on layers of clothing, socks and shoes (because the socks didn't keep the warmth in enough) including her winter coat and a blanket, and was still shivering. This was Wendy and me at the same time. She really was so miserable. (Notice me with short sleeves and no socks) :)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

My first day of work!!! Well...of course the day started out with picking out my outfit. (To be honest I did that the night before I just didn’t want to sound like a freak) I was super nervous, so Wendy came on the train ride all the way with me to see me off. (I think she was just too nervous that I was gonna wet my pants on the way because I couldn’t control my nerves. That would be embarrassing). What a great friend!

(This is the only picture I got at my work my first day because I was too nervous to take anymore. )

I even made Wendy come up the elevator with me. Pathetic I know. When I came to the door it was dark and locked so I was left waiting for someone to come to open up. I hid in the bathroom for a bit and then casually made my way to the now lit office. I rang and a man, that I now know as Stewart, opened up and welcomed me in. Stewart is my co-worker. I am sure I will mention later, but it is a blessing that he works there. I walked into a cute little office and was shown where I would sit. Greg, the main designer wasn’t supposed to be in for an hour, so Stewart introduced me to the office. When Greg came it was interesting to see him. My idea of what he was going to be like was completely off. Not necessarily in a bad way, just off.

That first day was spent organizing and cleaning the office, making sample boards for a client, and meeting with suppliers. It was definitely interesting to just be expected to know what I was doing in something I’ve never actually worked in. Also it made it a wee bit of a challenge because so many small things that I hadn’t thought about are different in Australia. ie: the size of their paper isn’t 8 ½ x 11, or they use the metric system rather than the imperial, even their vocabulary for things are different. The hardest thing to is that there are so many things that I have learned in school that just aren’t applicable in Australia. Little things like the standard size of a door or wall, things that I know by heart, but all of a sudden I am somewhere where all those numbers are irrelevant. Not only are they just converted from inches to meters, but they are completely different sizes as well. Hopefully I can start grasping this whole metric thing soon.
Other than that my first day was a bit overwhelming but good. I don’t really know what to expect for the rest of my internship, but it is weird to be preparing for something so long, then when the day actually comes you feel like, "oh...is that it?"



I’ll update more later. But honestly after my first day I really didn’t know what the next 3 months were going to be like. I could only hope that I would get the good experience I was hoping for. I came home and cute little Wendy had bought some nutella and bananas so we could make crepes. She knows the way to win my heart. If only some cute Aussie would. :)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Before FHE that I talk about below, Wendy and I had some time, and we wanted a picture on this bench in Hyde Park, the only problem is, it is lame to get a picture on a bench by yourself, and there wasn't really anyone there to ask to take the picture so I got this great idea that I could just photoshop it afterwards so it looked like we actually got a picture sitting by each other. Kind of nerdy, I know!

(Brighton on a bench)

(Wendy on a bench)

(Brighton and Wendy on a bench!)

Well...let’s see. I am a little under two weeks late on this journal thing, so we’ll see what I can remember. Other than stressing about starting my job the next day, Wendy and I woke up and spent the morning calling some of our family and friends on skype. When we finally got out of the house we went to Commonwealth Bank to open a checking account so we could have our money wired here. We figured this would be the easiest way to pay rent since we had to pay on a weekly basis and it would be too much to keep getting out of the atm. We didn’t really know how we were going to do the whole account thing, but when we found out that all accounts here have a fee, we decided to open our first joint account in order to save money. Hopefully there wont ever be a second. :) (A little much seeing as people already think that we act like a married couple).


Then we went to Bondi Junction to look for a job for Wendy and do a little shopping. It didn’t take long to find out that Bondi Junction is a very high end shopping center, but I still managed to find a cute skirt for $16.

Then we went to Town Hall where our church is located to go to FHE. On the walk over we passed a gelato shop so I had to check to see if they had hazelnut, and once I saw they did I had to have one. They are expensive, but I had to do it at least once!

(I was so sad because the gelato was so good that I ate it all without thinking to get a picture with it!)

Our ward They were getting ready for a big YSA (youth single adult) conference that was in a few weeks so they were practicing up on their dance routine and we were conned into participating. Then we were fed by one of the old stake presidents and that was pretty much it for the night.