It's midnight. You've got an Australian house-guest who is still on Australian time, and two Americans who are night owls. You want to do something. But everything is closed. What do you do? Well, the answer is simple! Go to Wal-Mart and entertain yourselves!
Sarah was in total awe of the hugeness that is Wal-Mart, and couldn't get over the fact that it's 24/7! She was pretty in love and still misses it...
Sarah and I constantly online shop together, and we had always dreamed of the day when we could actually browse a store and try things on together. And when that day finally came... The pocketbooks cried. But we rejoiced! So it was all worth it, right??
We live in a small town and I'll be the first to tell you our mall isn't the most impressive. But to Sarah, it was heaven!! After all, it has Forever 21 and Victoria's Secret! While she was here I think we went to Forever 21 4 times and to Victoria's Secret at least 3 times. I kid you not. Those stores loved us! It was shocking the amount we spent at VS alone...
The picture below is of just one of our many shopping trips. I wish we'd gotten a picture of all the bags we collected over the trip... The guest room was flooded with them!
While at our mall, Sarah discovered that there are indeed real life Mall Cops. She was so in awe that she asked for a picture. Here's the exchange that confused the Mall Cop that we lovingly named Nigel.
Sarah: Excuse me, I'm from Australia and we don't have Mall Cops with the little scooter thing there, would you mind terribly much if I took your picture?
Nigel: Umm.. *confused look* I guess not?
Sarah: *so excited* Thank you thank you! I can't wait to show all my friends back home. See we just saw the movie Mall Cop and we thought they were just made up!
Nigel: Wait. Now that you mention Mall Cop, you can't take the pic. That was a horrible movie!
Sarah: *super sad* Really??
Nigel: I guess you still can.
*Sarah takes the picture*
Nigel: *points to me and Ryan* So are you guys Australian too?
Us: No, we're from here.
Nigel: *confused* So how do you know each other?
Us: We met online.
Nigel: *more confused* like on myspace or something?
us: No, on Yahoo chat *smile*
Nigel: *even more confused* Okay... Uh... Have a nice visit. *rides off*
Yeah... we kinda have that effect on people...
June 21st was a day that I'd been looking forward to for months! It marked the day that my best friend/sis-in-law was coming for her first ever US visit!! Just to clear things up... No, my guy isn't Australian. And no, Sarah and Ryan are not actual bro and sis. But let me tell you - these two are more brother and sister than many who actually share DNA. They met randomly in a Yahoo chat room almost 10 years ago, doing what they love -terrorizing noobs haha Neither one can pin point when they started calling each other bro and sis. It just was!
When Ryan and I started dating, I was tossed into a buddy chat to be introduced to Ryan's "Australian sister". Sarah and I instantly loved each other and she is hands down my best friend in the world!
Last fall Sarah decided she was ready for a break from her life in Aus and wanted to come check out the US. Best. News. Ever. We've all been counting down to June for so long! Getting to hug Sarah in person for the first time was awesome! It was amazing how natural it felt for all of us to be together. And of course I loved getting to hear that awesome Aussie accent!
Poor Sarah's luggage ended up in Nebraska... So she was stuck without any clothes except the ones she'd been wearing for over 24 hours on the plane. After getting her a nice hot meal (which was most welcome after just eating airline food) - we showed her the wonders of 24-hour Wal-Marts! She was able to get some clothes to tide her over until the next day when hers would finally make it to Springfield. Even though she was so tried, we all stayed up until the early morning talking non-stop!
The next day Sarah and I had hair appointments! Sarah's always been a huge fan of my stylist, so once June arrived, she told me to make her a hair appointment for as soon as she got here. She decided to be daring and ditch her dark hair for a new sexy blonde hue!
After getting all beautified, we decided to enjoy the nice weather by heading down to The Branson Landing, a fun outdoor shopping plaza that's right on the lake. Sarah and I are total shopaholics, so we were stoked to finally get to shop together! The three of us had a grand time strolling around, shopping, and most of all enjoying getting to be together in real life!
Oh, and did I mention she came baring gifts?! And I'll let you all in on an embarrassing secret. In the two and a half weeks Sarah was here... We ate all those goodies... And another care package her lovely mum sent us... It was really shocking...
I'll be posting daily until the story of Sarah's US trip has been told in full. Here are the posts you've got to look forward to!
Saturday: Shopping! and our encounter with a mall cop (not as bad as it sounds... haha)
Sunday: Midnight Madness - Introducing Sarah to 24/7 Wal-Marts
Monday: Parlor 88 - Night on the town part 1
Tuesday: Spending the day at the pool & OMG I finally won something!!
Wednesday: Barhopping craziness!
Thursday: 4th of July! Even Sarah felt patriotic :)
Friday: Photography outing! We tackle nature photography and urban photography. All in one day!
Saturday: Last night out & tear filled goodbyes :(
Sunday: I'll wrap things up with a note on differences between American and Australia living. And a little American/Australian dictionary!
Whew! Hope I can keep up with that! *fingers crossed* Oh... and that's just the first part of the summer! Now you girls know why I haven't been blogging!
Hello everyone,
I happily return to the world of blogging! How are all of you doing?? I had the best summer ever! It ended up being so busy that I decided to dedicate all my time to living and save the blogging for when things calmed down a bit. Now that my life has returned to it's normal somewhat boring self, I have the time to share the adventures of my summer with you :)
I have so many great stories and pictures! I can't wait for you all to see. I'm having a blast writing about my summer because it's like living the fun all over again!
I'm also looking forward to getting back in touch with all my blog friends!! Hopefully you awesome gals remember me :)
First summer post will be tomorrow and then I will try to keep a steady stream of posts coming to you all! Ahhh, nice to be back in the blog world again *wink*
