Vacation and Tennis

Better late than never. That's once again my motto for Tuesday's blog. Meanwhile, I was on vacation in Wye River with my host family (Steve, my host dad, and the three kids) and on Monday, I went to the Australian Open. More on that later.

The vacation wasn't quite as relaxing for me. After realizing on the two and a half hour drive that we had forgotten some special fishing rods and the mood was already pretty low, Steve decided to drive back the next day to retrieve them. If I had asked my dad, he would have thought I was crazy. On top of that, the weather was quite rainy for the first two days, and I was glad that we brought the Xbox and the boys were occupied. Once the weather got better, we spent a lot of time at the beach, which was only 5 minutes away. However, it's not really relaxing with a toddler because you always have to keep a watchful eye to make sure Hannah is safe. Thanks to a playground right next to the cabin and a huge jumping pillow, time on the campsite flew by. We decided to leave one evening earlier because there was a stomach bug going around the campground and we didn't really want to risk getting infected. Last week, we had two days with temperatures over 40°C. We spent one day at the beach and the other day at home. Since the power kept going out due to everyone running their air conditioners, causing an overload, we spent the rest of the day at the pool.

On Saturday, I spent the day with Cecilia. It was really good to get out and about. We had lunch and went for a walk around the lake here. In Germany, I would never go to the movies at 30°C because you should take advantage of the warm days. Here, you look for the coolest place possible. We watched 'The Greatest Showman' and it's the best movie I've seen in a long time. Highly recommended.

On Sunday morning, Cecilia and I took the train to Melbourne to meet up with other AIFS au pairs for a BBQ. It was my last meeting since I only have 2 weeks left here...

Then, I stayed in a hostel from Sunday to Monday so that I could go to the Australian Open without any worries. Well, I didn't get much sleep since the walls here in Australia are generally very thin and the men's shower was right on the other side of the wall. Oh well, it didn't matter. Anyway, on Monday, I took the tram to Melbourne Park and the famous Rod Laver Arena. Yes, I was really there and watched three top games. I was incredibly excited because it had already been announced the day before that both Angelique Kerber and Roger Federer would be playing there. I met up with another girl and we cheered for and admired Angelique Kerber together. At some point, things didn't look so good for her. But in the end, she turned the game around and won in the third set. Then came the top game and the arena was packed. Roger Federer was playing. It looks so easy when he plays. No ball is too difficult and it wasn't always easy to keep up with the extremely fast rallies. Of course, I also took a lot of pictures. As a souvenir, I bought a cap (well, it was more of my own stupidity because I underestimated the weather change once again and left mine at home). But it was really useful in 25°C and full sun. My seat was quite central to the middle of the court, but on the sunny side, so I ended up sitting in the blazing sun for 6 hours.

The day as a whole was indescribable and I still can hardly believe that I saw the top players in the tennis scene.

Now I still have about 2 weeks here with my host family. It's slowly time to say goodbye and pack things up. I'm trying to see all of my new friends here before I leave. The first package with 8.5kg is already on its way home. Let's see who will arrive first. Me or the package.

See you soon