Scarborough Beach

Of all the experiences within my life, few compare to the sunsets on Australia's western coastline.  For half the year of 2009, I would try every evening to be by the shore to bear witness to another glorious sunset over the beach.  Scarborough Beach. 

Prior to moving to Scarborough Beach, I had lived three years in QLD at the base of the Great Barrier Reef; but this new beach had a completely different kind of beauty.  Its sand was powder soft and white; its water was sapphire blue with enormous and angry waves and its seashells were types I'd never seen before.  There was a raw, untouched authenticity to its shore; where tall grass grew right onto the sand and rabbits would hide - real, adorable rabbits on a beach - nothing else I've seen yet beats that.  There were giant pine trees growing at the border line where sand met soil; and Rosella parrots were seen everywhere and  heard above beeping horns and crashing waves. 

This was our first home; Will and I.  A more magnificent backdrop we could never have imagined as we were consumed by our love for each other and took our first steps into a shared life.  It was on Scarborough Beach that Will proposed to me - surrounded by rabbits, gum nuts, crashing waves, those annoying parrots; and a setting sun that still takes my breath away just remembering it. 

Scarborough Beach was where I met Will's mum for the first time; where Will and I had our first argument; and there in that tiny, one bedroom apartment on Pearl Parade that I cooked our first dinner, paid our first bills, ruined our first load of washing and got my first taste of missing my home in QLD so much, that I stayed up and cried in private while he slept. 

It was there on Scarborough Beach that I realised for first time that I would spend the rest of my life with someone, as Will and I sat on a blanket sipping champagne (shhhh, alcohol wasn't allowed!) and watched as the sun set over the beach and that very first, very amazing chapter of our joint life.  At times, I close my eyes and I am right there again.


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Introducing Lena...

Last week, I moved from Brisbane QLD, Australia to Atlanta GA, USA so I'm a very fresh immigrant; but is not my first international migration. I was 6 years old when my parents, brother and I left Kazakhstan (yes, the same one as Borat!) and moved to Australia - a country that adopted us and swallowed us whole.  Since we were so young and both starting school at the primary level, I think it's safe to call my brother and I Australian; but our parents did their best to ensure that we retained as much of our Russian heritage as possible.  Now that I'm older, bilingual and have been exposed to such different ideologies and cultures, I consider myself blessed beyond belief.  For as challenging as it was sometimes to grow up feeling like an outsider; I now see that this adversity helped shape me into a stronger and more open-minded person.  

My parents are also responsible for the travel bug within me, since from our very first month in Australia, they always took my bro and I somewhere different and interesting on weekends. We would go to the beaches, mountains or State parks that surround Brisbane; on road trips to other States; or simply attend cultural landmarks such as museums, art galleries, theatres and concert halls... we always went somewhere!  The repercussion is that now, regardless of where I am permanently stationed, I become restless and need to travel; or at the very least explore the localities surrounding me. 

I had thought that once I visited those places within Australia I had always wanted to see, that Europe would be my next destination. I didn't ever imagine I would end up in Atlanta USA... or that I would be living FOUR HOURS drive from a the ocean - which had long ago become somewhat of a lifeline to me... But life had her own plans and so last year, I met an American boy named Will, fell madly in love and married almost instantly.  Will calls Atlanta home and brought me back with him, now making it my home too. 

This means that soon I will be exploring Atlanta and its surrounding areas, so I wanted to start a blog of my adventures and acclimation into a new country and home.  Of course I know it won't be easy and there'll probably be a few soppy posts about homesickness and the like; but hopefully you'll stick with me, give me lots of feedback and enjoy being a part of my new world.

Photography by Michael Corey Studios Atlanta