Surviving Week One

Just a few weeks ago, Evan was asked to go to Sydney for an 9 week work project. Since neither of us had been to Australia before, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. We only had about a week to get flights, order passports, and pack, but everything came together.

We survived the 17-hour flight. Fortunately, we were able to fly business class and have fully reclining chairs. Campbell and Evan got more sleep than Courtney did, so we didn't explore the city too much when we arrived on Sunday morning. Evan began work on Monday, consulting for one of the country's largest retailers. The McKinsey office is just a 10 minute walk from our high-rise apartment. The apartment is fully furnished and has a great view of the harbour, bridge, and opera house. It's also a two-bedroom, so Campbell's days of sleeping in our living room are on hiatus for at least two months.

Despite the constant 100 degree temperatures, Courtney and Campbell have been exploring the city on a daily basis, checking out some museums and the botanic gardens. We also made a trip to the mall on Saturday to pick up the necessities we couldn't pack (extra diapers, a bathtub, and a walker). Evan's been making almost daily trips to the grocery store since our fridge is pretty small. The prices here on some items are almost twice as much as in the States. Produce is about to get worse because a cyclone just hit northeast Australia and wiped out most of the crops. 

We'll try to post updates every few days. There are a ton of things we're hoping to do while we're here: the zoo, New Zealand, the Great Barrier Reef, and climbing up the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Come back to our blog and visit often.

Here are a few pictures from our first week:

The view from our apartment

Playing on the bed

Royal Botanic Gardens

Museum in The Rocks district