Here at last!

PART 1:
We've arrived in Adelaide at last :) I will write more soon, but I only have three minutes of internet time at the moment at the local library...we're currently house hunting and have found a house we'd really like...the decision will be made in the next few hours...
In the meantime we are staying with Rikki and Kristin, Joshua and Simeon. All of the aforementioned are currently sick, so please pray we don't catch anything! I was pretty useless yesterday with an upset stomach but other than that, we're doing pretty well :) Jordan starts work on Monday, but this week has been great, having some time off together and house hunting.
Gotta run, love you all!
Ellie and Jordan in Adelaide!

PART 2:
Well it seems I have more internet time...Jordan and I booked an hour on the computers here to look for houses but Jordan has since gotten depressed (we know what we want...we just need to hear back!) and wandered off to read the DaVinci Code, which I CANNOT get him to stop reading! I look forward to reading it after him in the next two weeks before I start work (24th). From here on I'll put stuff in headings so you can skip bits you couldn't be bothered with:

THE TRIP - Gold Coast to Dubbo
The drive down was great. Usually our family conquers the 24 hour drive in one mammoth effort, but Jordan and I thought 'what's the rush?' and took three days to do it, driving only at night time. The first day we drove from the Gold Coast to Dubbo (10 hours) and stayed in a supposed 4.5 star motel...was nice but we were treated to something nicer the next night...more on that soon.
The next morning we wandered off around Dubbo to find some people we met in Berlin who call Dubbo home. This is what we knew of them: their first names, their occupations, their church (we thought it to be the Baptist church) and that they were either incredibly pregnant or had a newborn baby. How long do you think it took us to find them? 20 minutes. We could SO be on the Amazing Race. Jordan wandered into the local Baptist church, asked after them, a chick said 'I have their home number', we walked outside, turned around and there was their street. Easy! So that was fun. We chatted about what had happened since the trip, they asked about our other travelers (yup, you too, Nic and Danny!) and they showed us their beautiful ten-day old baby, Charlotte :) (Quote: She's so useless! She just dribbles and we're like...do something?) Haha - good times.
After our random Berliner-freunde (sp? gr?) stop off, we went to the Dubbo zoo...Jordan, who hadn't been to a zoo, waslike a four year old...it was so great to see him so excited about the animals. I was equally impressed by many of them, particularly the giraffe...they were just beautiful. That being said, I'd prefer a monkey as a pet anyday!

THE TRIP - Dubbo to Hay
The Hay Plains are a famously boring stretch of land that one must drive through (you can't go under it, you can't go over it etc etc) on the way down to South Australia. Typically this drive is known for its boring-ness, dangerous-ness (kangaroos) and it's length (3 hours, no towns...nothin'). We stupidly drove INTO Hay at dusk and OUTTA Hay at dawn (the hardest time to see roos and when they're most on the move), but God was good and we only saw one (live) kangaroo the whole time. We were also relatively un-bored, since Jordan was hyped up on goodness knows what...baa-ing like a sheep and turning street signs into songs...for the first time ever, he wore ME out. His favourite phrase was HOW COULD PEOPLE LIVE HERE?!??! Ahhh, city boy.
We found the plains, at least the last 1.5 hours just BEAUTIFUL. We raced along driving in the middle of the road (you can see cars kilometres away) and pulled over to feel the 'serenity' (you can scream and yell and just nothing...no cars, no crickets...dead silence) and I got about ten prickles stuck in my havianas...prickles, something you just don't understand until you've stood on a three-corner-jack. On the way out of Hay we pulled over to look at the stars, uninhibited by city lights...just stunning.

THE TRIP - Hay to Berri, Berri to Adelaide
Internet time is running out...
As I said earlier, we stopped off that morning at 6am to look at the stars, then the sun chased us from Hay to Mildura and finally to Berri...that seemed to be the longest drive the whole trip...we seemed so close to Berri and yet we had 5 hours before we could enjoy the company of family.
It was quite strange arriving in Berri in Esther. I couldn't help feeling I was moving backwards in my life, but had to remind myself that Adelaide is different to Berri, with far more than 7,000 people, and that I would feel more at home here. I do.
Nanna Lambert loaded us up with oranges and lemons (the lemons for the sick Lamberts here) and we stopped off at Nanna and Poppa Scholz's to say 'hello' and 'see you soon' to Elmo and to grab a few mandies. Then I drove to Adelaide. We bought a UBD in Berri thank-goodness and have done a fairly decent job of navigating the city's streets...largely thanks to it being a SQAURE! Still, we're proud of ourselves.

Well internet time is up, I must run...will tell you more about Adelaide next time. In the meantime, COME VISIT! We'll have a house soon and the drive is just so much fun...but flights are cheaper :D
Lots of love,
Ellie and Jordan