wine – Jaclyn Grace

Home Sweet Home… Kind Of

The past few months have been crazy as always. Between finishing grad school (!), Christmas, New Years, and moving to Hoboken, NJ (!) I have barely had a moment to myself. For months and months I waited until New Years Day when I would be moving 3.5 hours from my childhood home to my first real apartment…. and here I am.

screen-shot-2017-01-04-at-6-06-37-pm — First glass of wine while relaxing in my new home!

I am finally settled in and trying my hardest to adjust before I start my new job next week. It certainly has been a rollercoaster to say the least. I’ve cried, laughed, celebrated, and cried some more (… there has actually been lots of crying if I’m being honest).

The last few days have been hard, but I knew that they would be. I know that it will be an adjustment to be so far away from the majority of my family. As you may know, my family is extremely close. Almost every night for the past few months my mom and I have sat down on the couch in our pjs to chat, drink our favorite David’s tea (more on this later), and watch a show together. I have loved our quality time and it’s hard to think that we can’t do that anymore. It’s also hard to wrap my head around that fact that I can’t just walk across the street to visit my grandparents or hop in the car for a minute to go visit my Godson anymore.

But, the important thing is that I know I will adjust in time! I know in my heart that this is exactly where I am meant to be and exactly what I am meant to be doing, no matter how difficult it is. Growth comes only from pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

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This post isn’t meant to be me throwing a pity party for myself –but rather me being completely transparent on how I am feeling so far in this post-grad transition. I have always hoped that this blog would showcase highs, lows, and everything in between that happens in my life. I never wanted it to serve as a highlight reel, because what’s the point of telling my story if I’m not going to be completely honest?

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my New Year Resolutions, along with a recap of the fun that Dan and I had today! Be sure to check in 🙂

xo,

Jaclyn

21st Birthday

I could not have imagined having such a great birthday away from home, but it was perfect. I am blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. The only thing that could have made it better was if my family was here.

On Monday (the night before my birthday) we went to the escape room that I wrote about.It was a lot of fun and basically like being in a puzzle. We weren’t very good at it though and didn’t get out of the room. After we finished up it was around 10:30pm and they wanted to bring me to a pub in the city to wait until midnight. When we got there the rest of the group was there hanging out. We didn’t actually end up staying until midnight, but I was happy everyone came out for my birthday. I didn’t expect everyone to come out on a Monday night.

The next morning, on my actual birthday, I woke up and went to the gym as usual before showering and heading to work. When I walked into the office, this is what I saw!

They decorated my entire area in balloons and streamers and everyone was there waiting and singing happy birthday. They got me a nice card and a pin to wear – Queen For A Day.

Then they took it a step further and had a party pie lunch for the entire office and a cake complete with 21 birthday candles. My group helped them plan the whole thing, I couldn’t believe they kept it a secret from me.

As the work day died down, my group told me that they wanted to take me to pub to buy me a drink for my birthday. We left work around 5:30 and headed over to a place called ABC.

When we walked in everyone else that we are here in Australia with was waiting to surprise me!

I had no idea that everyone was coming and they actually told me that they had been planning it since last week. We stayed there for about four hours and had a blast 😊

Shannon surprised me with a chocolate covered waffle from a little cafe that we had been talking about and my group members bought me dinner.

Of course, everyone else just kept buying me drinks that we all ended up sharing. One of my group members tried to one up everyone and came back to the table with an entire bottle of moscato on ice with only one glass.

It was really funny!

Everyone was very very sweet and we joked that it was like a group 21st birthday… It actually was though. I will definitely remember this birthday for a very long time!

I can’t express how grateful I am to be in such a beautiful place surrounded by amazing people. I’m so sad that my time here is coming to an end in only two weeks, because it truly has been the time of my life so far.

xo,

Jaclyn

Yarra Valley Wine Country

Today was my favorite day so far in Australia. We were picked up at 9AM to commence on a full day wine, chocolate, and cheese tour around Yarra Valley. Of our entire group, 14 of us went and we visited 4 wineries, 1 dairy factory, 1 chocolate factory, and a brewery.

The first winery that we stopped at was very low-key and laid back. I wasn’t feeling great this morning (thanks to a cold that will not go away), but I tried to enjoy myself anyways.

The man in charge of the vineyard there taught us the proper way to taste wine, which was interesting. He also taught us a lot about the different kinds of grapes that go into the different types. The one that I liked the most was a very sweet dessert wine.. the others I didn’t really like.

Next, we stopped at the dairy farm. We were able to sample 5 types of cheese and they were delicious. They specialize in goat cheese, but also had their own small bakery inside. I purchased some cheese called “Juno.” It is basically goat cheese in a garlic/olive oil coating. My friend Mike and I also bought a gigantic baguette to split. It was probably almost 2 feet long and we ate just about the entire thing on the bus ride!

The second winery we stopped at was my favorite part of the day. I have never been somewhere with such breath-taking views. I never wanted to leave.

It looked like the perfect setting for a wedding scene out of a movie. The guide actually told us that it is a $35,000 minimum cost to have your wedding there!

This place wasn’t as much of a wine-tasting place. Instead, everybody got to choose between 4 types of wine and have a full glass of one. I picked one that is created only in Australia and is rare in other parts of the world. It was a sweet red wine.

I hope that someday I am successful enough to have a lifestyle that allows me to visit places like this often. A lot of us were saying that as we sat on the back patio and sipped our wine. 🙂

We also got a tour of where they actually make the wine and learned all about it.

The third winery we stopped at provided lunch for us. I was a little skeptical, as our lunch on the Philip Island tour yesterday was nothing to write home about, but it was spectacular. I ordered the Spicy Baby Calamari Salad and it was perfect. We also got a glass of wine with our meal (which I hated) and a coffee.

The last winery we stopped at wasn’t the best. The woman running the place was extremely rude and would not give us the time of day. It was really disappointing but we tried not to let it ruin the great day we were having.

Next we stopped at the chocolate factory!

I don’t think I have ever seen so much chocolate in one place. When you walked in there were heaping bowls of dark, milk, and white chocolate chips that you could help yourself to as you shopped around the store. It was a really fun environment and the chocolate was delicious. I bought a marshmallow truffle.. it was a chocolate cookie with a giant marshmallow on top of it, dipped in milk chocolate.. yum!

Our last stop of the day was at the White Rabbit Brewery. Some people in our group got a beer to try out, but I passed.

Overall, we had a great day. The sun was shining, we had a great group, and we had a lot of fun! Now I am getting my stuff ready for the work week ahead and going to sleep.

xo,

Jaclyn