In Non-Australia Related News:

Please help me welcome my new baby cousin! (Loving parents Marisa & Orazio)

Vince Arrabito, 6 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches. Born January 24, 2007.

The name Vince was chosen to honor my Uncle Enzo (Vincenzo), Marisa's dad!

I can't wait to meet you Vince!!!!!!

Sydney/Bondi Beach

Last weekend we jumped on a plane and headed to Sydney - best known, of course, for the Sydney Opera House. Little did I know as we approached that on Saturday morning, I would conquer one of the biggest goals I had for this trip - to hold a Koala!!!!!!!!! (OK...maybe I didn't hold her, but we got awfully close!)

We arrived in Bondi Beach on Friday, and enjoyed the scenic and trendy beach town. While we opted to stay in Bondi, we ended up spending a lot of time in the city proper (not far from Bondi at all) - and I must say, I am in love! Sydney is a place that I could get used to.... picture Manhattan, but much cleaner, much more picturesque - and on the water.

We took a ferry from Circular Quay (pronounced 'key') to the Taronga Zoo - this is where we got some of the most amazing pictures of the Sydney Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge. At the zoo itself, the backdrop of Darling Harbor and the city made for some interesting vistas (such as the one pictured here of the Giraffes).

We rounded out the weekend with some time at The Rocks, a big outdoor market with homemade crafts and local foods, and spent some time in Darling Harbor - an area of town that sealed the deal for me - I LOVE Sydney. We plan on ending our trip there in May.

The highlight of the entire weekend for me was, by far, my new friend Carla. Koalas have always intrigued me, and when I realized that I was able to get up close to the Koalas, I was like a little girl! Jumping around, yelping, the whole lot. When you take a look at the pictures - you will see that my antics were not in vain:

Though we couldn't get as close to her, Florence was nearby too - Florence had a joey (baby) in her pouch that was the size of a jelly bean!

Here's the full set of pics from the weekend - my usual warning - many many pics! :)

The Great Ocean Road

SO ... to continue with the tale of our ambitious weekend, on Sunday January 14 we travelled the Great Ocean Road. We began our journey in Port Campbell, spending an entire day driving through the man-made highway that traverses what is known as the "Shipwreck Coast." It's called this for good reason - it is dreadfully curvy on the road, and even nuttier off the the road and on the sandy coast itself.

It was so breathtaking, the beauty of the open ocean on your right (as it were in the direction we were driving), and on the left, looking at wide open expanses or lush greenery. It was one of the most memorable days of my life.

First stop was London Bridge - this is a famous rock formation that formerly resembled a bridge - but in 1990 the arch that connected the two rocks 'fell down' - ironic, yes, I know. Here's a picture before takin 1959 (obviously not taken by me) and one after (can't remember if El or I took this one.

After hitting a few smaller sites, we headed to the 12 Apostles. For those of you who don't know the story behind these Rock Formations - you have probably seen photos of them and not realized it. They are world renowned - and most certainly the centerpiece attraction of the Great Ocean Road. The limestone that forms the cliff that sits behind the Apostles began forming these rock stacks approximately 20 million years ago - as water and nature formed a separation. There were originally 12 - and as of July 2005, then there were 8... Check out this page for more info. Anyway, forget the less, just look... (you can see the Apostle that most recently crumbled in the foreground of the first shot).

The rest of the day was sprinkled with stopping at different beaches (Lorne, and Apollo Beach) as well as swerving the car off the road at any sighting of Koalas or Kangaroos - heck, any pretty lookout there was to see.

After I thought the beauty couldn't get any better, we began the last stretch and heading to Lorne or Bells Beach - (Point Break!). I can't remember exactly which path we were on, but that was the longest stretch we spent inside the car - and its hard to explain how that was my favorite part of the day - given all that I had already done. We moved through what I felt like was the most scenic part of the road - it was twisting and turning, and you never knew what would confront you around each turn. Forget about when you looked back to see what you had traveled through from a new perspective. I got a little teary thinking that Sunil should have been doing this with me too ... it was hard not to when I was staring at the beauty and thinking how lucky I was to be exactly where I was ... let alone to be doing it with my sweetie...

I've tried to group my favorite pics from the day - so here is a truncated set - and here is a set of all 332 - you choose!

The Grampians

The best way to describe the Grampians to someone who doesn't know what they are (such as ME about 10 days ago) is just to use the word breathtaking. It has amazing rock architecture, beautiful wildlife, and heart stopping scenery.

As part of a very ambitious weekend that my travel crew and I set up, we spent Saturday, January 13, driving to, and experiencing the Grampians.

This day was one of the most amazing of my life - and I've had some amazing times so this must have been special.

We started the day driving to different portions of the National Park. We first headed to the Balconies, which I'm guessing described the rock formations that were adjacent to the lookout we were standing next to. The picture shown here is one of the most famous shots associated with the Grampians.


Next we headed to MacKenzie Falls - we hit a few small waterfalls along the way, but MacKenzie Falls feeds the water supply for one of the larger towns in the Grampians, so even in the midst of the crazy heat we were experiencing, it was still running. This is one of the better shots I got with the camera, messing around with different functions. What I love most about this picture is that it was taken in regular color, but look as if it were taken in black and white.

The next part of the trip is beyond my comprehension as I look back at it. We said we'd be doing some hiking, but I never expected what I experienced that day. We began to scale Hollow Mountain, or Mt. Wudjub-Guyan, as it is properly named.

Besides the fact that I never realized I was capable of hiking or climbing anything, after we reached the pinnacle of this mountain, I realized I was capable of a heck of a lot more than I thought. The climb was easy at parts, extremely difficult at other parts, and amazingly rewarding when I reached the top. (P.S. I'm now a hiking addict)

At the end of the day we headed for the Great Ocean Road - which is too beautiful to start explaining to you now - but en route we found a new friend....


This little guy moved so fast I'm amazed we even got him standing still this long! Here is the link to the rest of our shots from the Grampains...more updates soon from the Great Ocean Road!

More updates soon...mwahhhhhhhhhhhh

General Updates

Its been a little difficult to update lately, as the jet-setting crew I'm traveling with decided to head out to Sydney this past weekend (updates on that later), so here are some general updates with a bunch of new posts to follow!

First of all, we moved apartments - hence the better Internet connection, and the ability email and blog some more. They are so nice here - when they heard we were having some difficulty - they gave us some new, upgraded digs - check out this link - and click on apartments, and then the 3 bedroom apartment. It's crazy! The best part is that they will credit us for the time we had no connection. I heart Australia!

In other news we had our first Final today. Intro to Australian Legal Systems. It was fine. That's enough for school updates. :)

Please check back very shortly for many more updates! I plan on using this evening (its 9:30 pm here) on getting back in touch with y'all!

Miss all of you so much you have no idea...

Royal Botanical Gardens, Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne Victory

So, by the end of last week we were pretty well adjusted to living here in Melbourne - we had visited our share of local restaurants and pubs, and decided it was time to experience some of the local Melbourne destinations so we could really feel at home. :)

Last Wednesday, we decided that 110 degree weather would be the perfect day to take a walk through the city. Air conditioned trams? Why bother when it's just another five blocks away...or 10...or 20....alas, I digress. We meandered around South Yarra (yes, that is the area of Melbourne south of the Yarra River), had some lunch out Southbank, and decided we would try to find the Royal Botanical Gardens.

It's hard to imagine what this place would look like in the full bloom of spring time - as the stunning views were breathtaking in what was surely some difficult heat for this plant life to survive. Here is full set of the pictures!!


Thursday, we went to class in the morning - yes, we are actually going to school while we are here, and we then drove on to Mornington Peninsula.

Just as a bit of background Melbourne is set upon Port Phillip, which is a 745 square mile bay that opens into the Bass Strait (the waterway that separates Tasmania and mainland Australia.). Basically, if the land mass of Tasmania had never separated from mainland Australia, there would be no Bass Strait. At the SouthWest portion of the bay is the opening into the strait - better known as the rip - and the location of some of the best beaches on the Mornington Peninsula.

That is where we traveled to on Thursday - we chose Sorrento Back Beach to relax at, had some ale at the Portsea Pub (thanks to our new friend Steven's suggestion), and took in the breathtaking views:) Take a look!

We capped our week off with a trip to watch the Melbourne Victory play. As some of you have noticed in our pictures - the Telstra Dome located within a five minute walk of our apartment complex. We got very excited to see that there was a game being played there January 12, immediately bought tickets, and all spent lots of time time trying to figure out just how Aussie Rules football worked (it looks a heck of a lot like a mix between football, rugby, and soccer - definitely as rough as football, definitely no padding on the players).

If any of you have clicked on the link I conveniently provided above, you will see that, in fact, Melbourne Victory is the local soccer team! The Telstra Dome does also house Aussie Rules Football, but not until a little while from now. While disappointed that we weren't going to get to see the Aussie Rules game - we were still very excited to go to a live match - we listened to all kinds of chants that we couldn't understand, and watched our local Melbourne team sadly lose to Queensland...but we still had fun in the process - here are the pics!

Back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Hi everyone! Unfortunately, due to some frustrating apartment/Internet issues it has become increasingly difficult to update blogs, make phone calls, receive phone calls, essentially to touch base with everyone I love and miss soooo much (also besides the fact that we've been travelling quite a bit).

Never fear, we are back. Or I'm back. Or I'm reachable again - something like that! I have a lot to catch you guys up on so forgive the large number of emails to look at my blog you are about to receive - think of it as making up for lost time!

Week 1....You Had me at 'ello!

So its been an interesting week here in Melbourne....getting used to life in the Southern Hemisphere! First of all - 30 SPF. That's all I have to say about sunscreen here. Yes, 30! I, Stephanie T. Anelli, local sun goddess of the northeast, has been forced to wear 30 SPF EVERY DAY! Evidently the hole in the Ozone has landed right above Australia, and if I'd like to keep my youth...as quickly as its fading ;) ... its a must!...

Otherwise, we've been acclimating ourselves to the time difference, and not being able to talk to you guys as much as we'd like to - but we have made some new friends who are helping us feel better....take a look!

The above were taken at Healesville Sanctuary - we headed there via a tour provided to us by our sponsoring law school here. The day was spent first riding an Authentic Steam Train (the Puffing Billy), watching sleeping Koalas (look closely, that guy is frozen in that position), seeing various Australian Wildlife, and capping it off with a winery tour at the Rochford Vineyard.


Click Here for the full set of pictures from Saturday! (Warning: Many Many pictures!!)


We also made some human friends - in fact 2 in particular, Erin & Steve, had a dinner party for their new American friends tonight - people here are sooo nice!!!


What else have we done...well Elliot found home one day last week! We were walking around and just stumbled upon it :)


Up Next: The Great Ocean Road & The Grampians....stay tuned!

In the Land of Oz....

G'day! [Mentally hear Elliot's really bad version of an Australian accent :)! Why I love him!]

Happy New Year everyone! Although, New Years came 16 hours earlier for me than it did for a lot of you - it was so weird to call mom & dad at 4:00 pm my time, yelling Happy New Year!

So...where to begin? Getting here ended up being a bit of a debacle, (for more info see Elliot's Blog!) but I think we managed to stay in pretty good spirits. Here's a shot of us landing in Sydney on one of our stop overs, the line in the center of the picture is the coastline.

Once finally in Melbourne, Elliot & I checked into the Westin Melbourne right smack in the middle of the city for New Years Eve!

New Years in Melbourne is an all out party - in a matter of a few hours, the streets went from a basic ghost-town to a party every few steps. Federation Square, right along the Yarra river, could have put Times Square to shame (slight exaggeration possible here)...complete with a fireworks show.

Our adventure included a trek to find a bar...any bar...something that would welcome us thirsty souls to ring in the new year. Elliot came prepared with a "Map of Bars" he had found on his ventures earlier in the day...although we are now convinced that this was a tourist trap - think along the lines of "here's the map to the pool on the roof of your high school!" We walked and walked and walked, and none of the bars listed on this map were there! It was a comedy show! We eventually landed at the Crown Casino Complex - now this could rival a vegas casino, no exaggeration here. It was endless, with two full casino floors, and an endless number of bars! Here's our first pic of 2007!

The Apartment

Finally - while most of you were coutning down to midnight, Elliot, Jay, Jenn & I were checking into our room at the Grand Mercure. I"ll let the video of the view from our balcony speak for itself.

This is where we will call home for the next 6 weeks! Happy New Year to us!

Here's a link to the photoset of pics I've taken so far, including more of the apartment, and some more of New Years!

That's all for now folks, time to try to get more sleep. Miss you all! Mwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

30 Hours!

We're here! But not without a fight of a flight! As if 21 airtime hours was not enough, we were blessed with 9 more, thanks to delays at JFK, missing connections, dogs sniffing our bags for quarantine, waiting for a bus to take us around the runways in Sydney to get us to our connection to Melbourne! Exhausting, but once all was said and done, we are here, and ready to begin!