Independence Day

Rachael and I celebrated Independence Day with our Australian family on Monday.  Here I am in my red, white and blue outfit:

Rachael's parents very sweetly decorated the dinner table with red, white and blue balloons and American flag place mats and put some Bruce Springsteen on the stereo.

I was in charge of grilling up the hot dogs and getting other hot dog supplies ready.

Meanwhile, Rachael's parents prepared red, white and blue cocktails while Rachael marinated some mushrooms and made Waldorf salad (which Rachael's family strongly associates with America because of an episode of Fawlty Towers).

 After dinner Rachael's parents surprised us with an apple pie that they had made.

Here is my sweetie with American flags in her hair:

We also played with sparklers after dinner, but I didn't get any pictures of that.  It was a very sweet celebration and made me feel very welcome in this new country.  I hope the American branch of the family had a lovely Independence Day as well.

trip to the mountains and Kangaroo Fua

Yesterday Rachael and I went on a little road trip to the Blue Mountains, which is a mountain range immediately to the west of Sydney.  The Blue Mountains seem a lot like how I picture Colorado, since there are a lot of cute little towns where hippies live, sell antiques, and drink very good coffee.  I liked it a lot.  One of the major sights of the area is called the Three Sisters--a striking and famous rock formation in the Megalong Valley, which is itself quite a magnificent sight, a lot like the Grand Canyon but with more trees.

The other big piece of news is that today I was in charge of dinner and decided to make Ching Hu Fua with kangaroo instead of beef, a dish that I have christened Kang'Roo Fua.  It worked very well, and came out tasting almost exactly like normal Ching Hu Fua, except that for some reason it was perhaps slightly more bitter.  Here's the Kangaroo:

This was my workspace:

Step one was marinating the meat:

Followed by a lot of stir frying:

Dishing it out:

And finally serving it to hungry Australians:

The victorious chef reviews his achievements with pride and gustatory expectation:

All the best from Down Under,
Throckmorton.

Australia!

We have arrived!  Rachael's dad picked us up at the airport on Thursday morning (in American time, Wednesday evening) and drove us to Rachael's parent's house in the Sydney suburbs.  One of the first things we saw after arriving was a group of beautiful tropical birds visiting the birdfeeder in the back yard:

And also some cute towel-animals that he had made for us:

The next day Rachael took me on a little tour of the University of Sydney.  This is the building that I will be working in, which is the oldest building in the University:

Then on Saturday Rachael drove us in to town to look at apartments and walk around the city with Rachael's sister and brother-in-law.  We decided we weren't very excited about the apartments we saw, but we quite liked the botanic gardens:

Which led beautifully up to the Opera House and a beautiful view of the Harbo[u]r Bridge:

Sunday I tried my hand at driving on the left side of the street (which is perfectly legal because American driving licenses are honored here) on our way to see a movie.  Here I am, successfully avoiding an accident:

Note the McDonald's in the background.  Australia has both McDonald's and Burger King, but because of an old dispute about rights for the name "Burger King," many Burger King branches have to be called "Hungry Jacks":

My first day of work today was quite nice.  It seems like I'm going to be spending the next few years among very friendly and interesting people.  I've been made to feel quite welcome here, and I think it went well today.  I hope all is well Stateside, and will update again soon.

Honeymoon

Rachael and I are finally back in Pittsburgh now after our Caribbean honeymoon.  It was very strange to arrive in Spanish-speaking San Juan after such a long flight and realize that we were still in US territory.  But we didn't look around there very much until later; first we got on the boat, which took us to St. Thomas (one of the US Virgin Islands), Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Martin (which is jointly held by the Netherlands and France), and then back to San Juan.  Here is an ebullient Rachael shortly after arriving in St. Thomas:

And here, for Mom and Dad, is a picture of a kind of bird that we saw hanging out all throughout the Caribbean:

We went for a little swim Magens Beach on St. Thomas, which "National Geographic" claims to be one of the 10 best beaches in the world, although we did not find it to be that great, mainly because it was raining.

Our next stop, Barbados, was particularly lovely.  The people of Barbados seemed very happy and proud of their small, beautiful and well-run country, and were very friendly to visitors.  We went on a tour of the island which took us to its highest point, picked up a nice coral necklace for Rachael, hung out on the beach, and then I started to assemble my trousseau.  Here is Rachael relaxing with a nice book on the beach in Barbados:

Our next stop was the island nation of St. Lucia, where we mainly just sunned ourselves for an hour or so and then had cocktails.  Then we went to St. Kitts, which was a bit less intensely touristy.  We went on a tour of the island that included a visit to a really amazing fort that the Spanish (via their slaves) built in the early 16th Century:

While we were on St. Kitts, we paid a visit to a large stone that the native inhabitants of the island before the Spanish arrived had regarded as a symbol of fertility.

Our next stop was St. Martin, where we mostly explored the French side of the island.  We found a nice bakery and had croissants and baguettes, and my trousseau made great progress in the shirt department.  Here we are in the bakery:

Finally we returned to San Juan in Puerto Rico, which is the oldest city on US territory.  We explored its beautiful old town, which is the most Europe-like place I've ever seen in America.  Rachael and I really liked the Pina Coladas:

The last few days of our honeymoon were mostly spent loafing around on Condado beach in San Juan, avoiding sunburn pretty well until the very last day.  Here's the lower two thirds of me on a very stylish towel on the beach in Condado:

Hope you all enjoy the pictures.  -Throckmorton.

adventures of Throckmorton

I've decided to start keeping a blog to help everyone keep up with what Rachael and I are up to as we start our Australian adventures.  Watch this space for exciting updates!