Happily Married

The whole past month has been wonderful. First the wedding, which was a glorious day - I almost cried walking up the aisle and seeing all the beaming faces of my friends who had come to wish me well - then the honeymoon, a whirlwind tour of Australia through Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Cairns, and Melbourne.

Australia has always been on my list of must-visit places, but now that I've been there I can't cross it off - I have to go back. In fact we were so smitten with Sydney that we talked about living there. I don't know how the logistics would work - I just know we loved being there. Especially the harbour. And the Blue Mountains. Walking around the Opera House when it was all lit up at night, seeing flying foxes in the palm tree outside our window in Cairns, getting to touch a joey at a zoo in Adelaide, are all experiences I'll treasure. We were struck with how friendly and open and nice all the Aussies were. You'd think they would get burned out with tourists, but they were great. Now I have delusions of saying "to hell with it" about my job here, and the two of us moving to Australia so I can work with flying foxes. It's a delusion because I could never bear to be that far away from my family - especially if we start one of our own. But it's nice dreaming about it.

The best part of the trip was just having all that time to spend together. After the stressful weeks leading up to the wedding, it was lovely just being able to spend each day as we liked, exploring and eating at nice restaurants and having fun. Going back to work today has been hard just because it's the first time we've been separated for more than a couple of hours, since we got married more than three weeks ago.