Embassy, School and Driving

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wow.  What a busy day!  Today the kids and I got to go to the US Embassy.  They don't mess around with security!  I got my US Embassy badge so I'm now official.  Everyone at the Embassy was really nice.  It was nice to see the Stars and Stripes flying! I also got to see where we will collect our mail from our DPO post box.

After our time at the Embassy, we made the journey to visit Charlie and Chaney's school.  They start kindergarten tomorrow!  I'm so excited for them.  They will be attending St. Monica's Primary School about 2 km away from the house we are renting (but don't yet live in).  When we arrived at the school, Charlie just wanted to chat everyone's ear off. (not surprising) Chaney was a little nervous and hid behind me. (not surprising) They got to see their classroom, meet their teachers, and meet a few kids that will sit at their tables.  They are in the same class but they have one teacher that works Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and another teacher that works Wednesday and Friday.  We bought the school uniforms and I think we are all set for tomorrow! 

I really can't believe they start kindergarten tomorrow.  I'm a little sad to see them go off to school full time.  But, it is time!  I'm so proud of them.  They are handling all these changes so well.  In the last week, we moved into a new country, moved into a temporary apartment, and tomorrow will start school.  They will do a great job in kindergarten even though they have missed half of the year.  (The Australian school year runs February through December.)

"I LOVE it! I loved everything. Especially the library."--Charlie, when asked if he liked his new school. 

More quotes from Charlie:
"I'm so excited for school tomorrow.  I'm more excited then going to Chuck E Cheese. MORE EXCITED! This is the most excited I've ever been.  I just love libraries."

(Chaney is more nervous for school.  I'm sure once she goes tomorrow, she will love it too.)

Today I drove for the first time!  I wanted to pass out the entire time.  But I did it.  Erich was a big help. 

Random thoughts and observations...

• I saw my first kangaroo road kill today.  (No, I didn't cause the road kill.)
• The Australians drive either slow or very fast.
• It is beautiful here.  I can't wait until things slow down a bit and I can enjoy it a little more.
• At school, the kids have a snack of fruit in the morning while they work.  Then they have tea time around 11:00 and then lunch at 1:00.  Tea time is another snack.  We send all the food with them in the morning.  There is a canteen (cafeteria) where the kids can buy food.  Some of the items I would like to sample (ok, not really) from the canteen are:  Honey and Vegemite sandwich on wholemeal bread and a spaghetti/baked bean/cheese jaffle. (All three inside a sandwich grilled with the edges sealed.)  Sounds yummy, right?!
• Australian bacon is like ham - why even bother??

Kangaroo Sighting

I started this blog so we could have documentation of our time down under.  I also figure our family and close friends might be interested in what's going on.  A few months before we moved to Australia, after studying our globe, Chaney came and asked me, "When we live in Australia, will we be upside down?"  What a great question!  And that is where I came up with the blog name.

Some random thoughts and observations...

• Some light switches for a room are in the hall instead of inside the room.  I've had a good time with this one.
• I panicked (okay, not really) at the deli counter.  How do you order a half pound of ham?!  They don't use pounds.  Oh my gosh!  How much do I ask for??  (the answer-kilo.  I wanted a third of a kilo)
• Paper towel rolls are a couple inches shorter here.  But toilet paper is the same size. 
•  I still haven't driven .  But I'm not having panic attacks sitting in the passenger seat anymore. I have to be driving by Monday.  (holy crap) 
• We (Erich) are still driving our rental car.  We are looking for two new (used) cars to buy.  Its interesting that there aren't a lot of big cars or SUVs down here.  There are a lot of small hatchback cars. 
• We got the keys to our house today and we went to see it.  I can't wait to move in and be out of this sterile hotel apartment.  We will move in when our household goods arrive from the US.  That should be in September but could be as late as October.  And now we wait...
• Charlie is all better today!  Hopefully the rest of us remain healthy! 
• We saw kangaroos today just hanging out in a field munching away.  That is just something you don't see in the U.S.! Exciting!  I don't think we will ever get tired of seeing them.

Pushing a Trolley

Well, I don't know what the date at the top of this blog post says, but it's Monday, July 29th at 10:00 in the morning.  That international date line strikes again!

Erich just left to go to do some family inprocessing at the US Embassy.  I was really looking forward to going with him to visit the Embassy, being shown around, seeing the American flag, etc.  Well, unfortunately, our little Charlie started throwing up this morning.  :-(  It's bad enough to be sick.  Being sick in a strange place makes it harder.  He is being a real trooper.  The poor guy.  Before Erich left, he ran out and got some applesauce and saltine crackers.  Except there aren't saltine crackers here and we couldn't find a true substitute (yet).  Oh, and by the way, "applesauce" is just that.  A runny sauce made out of apples. "Perfect cooking or for a condiment." Its like runny baby food.  But it tastes good.  ;-) We think its just a 24 hour bug.  Keep your fingers crossed Charlie recovers quickly and the rest of us don't get it!

To Market, to Market to Buy a...

Yesterday we made our third trip to the grocery store. Its like a whole new world.  They have some different things here. For example, these:

Chicken flavored chips.

 

Ummm...I don't think chips should be chicken flavored.  I want the record to show that Erich picked these out.  Not me.  I (the person who likes about anything crunchy and salty) did try one.  Let's just say I will not be having another one. 

 

I had been told everything here is expensive.  But I was still shocked by the sticker price. 

 Four chicken breasts for $15.  They are skinless but I'm pretty sure the bones are still in.  I didn't see anything that was "boneless".

 





(An American brand!) $6.81 for some Hellmann's Mayo.  I don't know if you are up on your metric system but this is a small jar. 

 

You better sit down for this next thing.  

A six pack of beer is $20 or higher. Twenty. Dollars. Plus. 

What??  So far, I've only picked Australian wine I've had in the US. 

I know, I know.  I'm in Australia!  I need to be picking different wine! 

Well, I've been in a hurry to get the kids home each time I've been to the liquor store.

I've had Yellow Tail and Lindeman's Chardonnay. 

They were each $10. 

 

So around the grocery store we push our trolley (cart) around and try to find things on our list.  (I lost the list somewhere along the way).  It takes longer then normal because you don't know what the labels look like so its tough to scan down an aisle looking for items. And then you realize that while you have been searching the shelves, you've been pushing your trolley down the right (wrong) side of the aisle with people kindly going around you.  (Left! Think left!)  I guess I've got to work on my multitasking skills.   When you do finally find the section an item will be in, you have to carefully read the labels, shake the package, etc. to be sure you are getting what you think you are getting. (i.e. applesauce)  Now, I realize this is part of the whole "living abroad" experience.  I will start to enjoy this whole process more.  But I think I still have a bit of jetlag/culture shock/I-just-wanna-feed-my-family thing going on right now while pushing a cart down the wrong side of the aisle with two cranky 6 year olds and a husband in tow.  I look forward to things to calm down a bit!





 

Our twist on a Mother Goose classic inspired by our latest trip to the grocery store:

 

To market, to market to buy a chicken chip;

Home again, home again, a left-handed trip.

To market, to market to push a trolley cart;

Home again, home again, being money smart.

I know most of you don't care at all about pics of chicken and mayo.  I know the real reason you are reading the blog...  Pics of the kids.  Well here they are:

Our last night in the U.S. in Honolulu.

 

 

Chaney kickin' back in her Australian apartment bed watching TV.

 

 

A blurry photo but you get the idea.  Charlie and Erich playing basketball

in our dining area of our hotel apartment. This was taken yesterday, before the sickness struck.

 

 

 



And it begins...

So today is our third day in Canberra, Australia!  It has been a whirlwind getting here and we are glad to finally be living down under.  I decided I needed to document our time here and even though I was being encourage to write it by hand, I knew I would never keep up with that.  So, trying to be realistic, I decided to try writing about it in a blog.  So please excuse my rambling thoughts and the spelling and grammar errors.  I'm a busy mom!

Getting here...

We boarded the plane in Honolulu, HI on Wednesday just before noon on a sunny summer day and flew 10 hours and landed in Sydney, Australia on Thursday night in the middle of winter!  That international date line can get confusing when figuring our time changes, etc.! 

We spent the night in Sydney (we paid $$ to leave our 8 suitcases at the airport so we didn't have to wrestle with those to and from the hotel--money well spent) and left Friday morning for Canberra.  We were greeted (at the gate--something you can't do in the US any more) by two of the Australian Air Force bosses Erich will be working for and Derek.  Derek is an US Army officer that recently arrived in Canberra.  We had chatted with him through email prior to our arrival since we have a mutual friend that introduced us knowing we were both moving here.  They helped us gather our massive amount of luggage (8 large suitcases, 7 carry-ons, 2 car booster seats, and 2 six year olds), and helped us load everything up in Derek's car and our rental. 

This is the luggage cart in Sydney. 

This says to me, "Welcome to Australia.  Don't swim in our ocean!"

 



Our first days...

We spent the rest of the afternoon with Derek.  His help was invaluable. (we owe him a couple of bottles of good booze)  Since he had just gone through all this three weeks before, he was full of great advice.  He took us to get our Australian drivers licenses, open a bank account, and get Australian cell phone service.  Wow.  The kids were real troopers as we ran all these errands.  They did such a great job. 

On a side note...  Erich has done all the driving since they drive on the wrong left side of the road.  I am terrified.  I sit in the passenger seat with my eyes closed most of the time and the rest of the time I am stifling a scream.  I will have to start driving soon since Erich will have to start work and I will have to take the kids to school.  I am saying prayers asking for God to be in the car with us to keep us safe and to keep bad words from spewing my mouth.  I would hate to increase the vocabulary of my children that way.

Saturday we spent time relaxing and letting the kids play with the toys we brought along.  They hadn't seen them in a while and they had a good time.  We also ventured out to a grocery store and Big W (like a Walmart) to get some things we need.

My Random Observations...

• Driving here scares me.
• The birds are beautiful.  They are very colorful.  I will try to capture some pictures.
• The toilets are different. Different shaped and they have two buttons for flushing.  A low water button and a "I've got something serious to flush and I need more water" button.   I'm trying to teach the kids how to choose which button to flush with without them announcing to the entire public bathroom that they went poop or pee...
• The weather feels like a fall day in Missouri.
• You have to pay to park everywhere. 
• If you don't bring your reusable shopping bags, you have to purchase their plastic bags. (Note to self--Get reusable shopping bags and don't forget to bring them!)