Shocking

Thursday, August 15, 2013 - Day 21 Living Down Under

So I went to the chemist today. (That is what they call a pharmacy.)  Guess where it was.  In a MALL. *eye roll*  I needed some cold medicine for Charlie and me.  We seem to be catching every little cold or virus that we've never been exposed to before.  While I was there, I looked for rubbing alcohol.  You know, regular old isopropyl alcohol.  It was $12.99.  No joke.   Today's shocker #1.

Chaney didn't do well today with school drop off.  I feel so bad for her.  But overall, things have been better this week. And she does calm down once she is inside the classroom and I've gone.  Hopefully tomorrow...

In the U.S. some songs are released with a radio version if the original version has bad words or offensive, off color language.  Not here.  I heard a song on the radio today (and luckily I was alone in the car) that used the F-word AND the N-word.  I almost spit out my gum.  Shocker #2.

I visited Kmart today for the first time.  And if you were wondering, yes, it's in the mall.  It seemed a lot like Kmart in the U.S. but a lot of items are in different places than in a U.S. store.   It took me a while to find the four things on my list .  I had to ask where to find each one.  Contact paper is with school supplies and paper towels are by the cleaning supplies.  In the U.S. there would've been an whole row of paper towels to choose from.  Here there was one kind.  It's these differences I find interesting.  

Another interesting grocery store find:


I was tired of square and rectangular shaped crackers.  I was excited to find these.  Who doesn't just love drumstick shaped crackers?! (shocker #3)



 



 

 

Go Fish

Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - Day 20 Living Down Under

Our household goods are in Australia!!  Woot! Woot!  They are at a Aussie Air Base near Sydney.  Now we have to wait for customs and the quarantine which could be 2-4 weeks.  Keep your fingers crossed that everything passes the quarantine.  Australia has a crazy long list of things that aren't allowed.  Basically, if it was ever alive, it can't come in the country.  Pine cones, dried flowers, the grass stuck to the bottom of a shoe, seashells, etc. aren't allowed.  If there are problems, it will delay us getting our stuff and possibly cost us money to have anything that we missed radiated. Yes, I said radiated.  They open up the crates and also x-ray to search for contraband.   I look forward to getting in the house!

 Today I went to my first Canberra U.S. Military Spouses group function.  It was a nice potluck luncheon and everyone was really nice.  There were a few other new people too and the ladies that had been here for a while had some good advice for us.  Let me share with you some of the tidbits of information I learned today.

• Don't be alarmed when your child comes home from school and says, "I need to bring rubbers to school." That just means they need to take erasers. 
• Apparently kids here cuss and its acceptable. 
• There are birds that dive bomb humans during the birds' spring mating season.  They seriously dive bomb your head.  Spring is a month away.  Pray for us.
• Items ordered from Walmart.com take about a week to arrive.  That is amazing.

Chaney did a great job today going into school!  And the bribing continues...


Another interesting grocery store find:

Doesn't the name "Chicken Tubes" just make you want to rip the bag open and eat a handful??!

 

 

We had a hot game of go fish after dinner tonight.  It was cut throat.  Charlie kicked our butts. 

"Born in the U.S.A."

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - Day 19 Living Down Under

So being new in town, 4 people have my new mobile number.  Erich, The US Embassy, our bank, and the twins' school.  So when Erich was sitting beside me at lunch and my phone rang, I knew it couldn't be good.  Sure enough, Chaney had gotten hurt in gym.  The school wanted me to check her out so I drove out to the school. She ended up being okay but wasn't happy when it was time for me to leave.  But it all worked out.

Chaney did well during school drop off.  She started to panic a little bit as I walked away.  But I disappeared into the crowd and the teacher took her hand.  Chaney and Charlie are both making friends and we've been invited to two playdates.   Charlie asks a million questions during the day.  Chaney finds the work "hard" and shuts down easily.  We aren't pushing her yet.  The teacher wants her to get settled a bit more and feel good about school.  We have homework  every night and I'm hoping that gets easier. (I'll write more about that in another post)

Today I heard "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen on the radio.  I usually listen to about 1 minute of it and then turn it off because it's a bit monotonous.  This time I listened to (almost) all of the song.  I felt a bit obligated. 

Today we picked up our other new car. Finally!  We now have our own cars.  I feel like I'm pretty confident with driving on the left now.  Every so often I still have a flashback to driving on the right.  And I still get a bit nervous driving places I haven't driven before.  I'm finding it the most difficult to pull into parking spaces. This is a bit surprising.  It completely throws me off being on the right when pulling into a spot.  And I also think that the parking spaces are smaller here. 

My Random Thoughts and Observations...

• They don't sell acetaminophen down here.  No Tylenol. 
• I miss ice makers.  I thought filling ice cube trays was so 1980.  Nope. I'm going to be filling a lot of ice cube trays in the next 3 years.
• This was in the candy aisle and I don't understand:

  

  What in the heck is musk flavor?
  
   

Victory!

Monday, August 12, 2013 - Day 18 Down Under

Today I went to get the "rego" (registration) for our new Holden Captiva vehicle.  I have now confirmed that DVMs across the world will require you to wait a long time.  Tomorrow we pick up our Corolla from the dealership.  Luckily, they take care of the rego for us. 

While I waited in line to get the rego, Erich took the kids to school.  They arrived a few minutes late so their class had already gone to their classroom.  Charlie and Chaney were able to join them for circle time on the floor while the parents waited by the desks.  Usually, after morning prayer, the teacher asks the kids to go say goodbye to their parents.  This time, because their teacher is brilliant (aren't all teachers?!), she told the class to turn and wave goodbye to their parent.  Chaney (and Charlie) waved goodbye to Daddy and he slipped out the door.  Without any fight.  Without any tears.  Without any restraint.  Finally a school drop off victory!  Now, to recreate that whole thing tomorrow. 

We also offered Chaney a bribe reward.  This morning before school, I showed her a whole set of Lil' Pet Shop toys (courtesy of our friends Piper and Payton).  I told her if she went into school like  a big girl, she could have it after school.  She loved it.  I also said that I would go buy ice cream and cones if she went into school without a fight. We will use bribes for a week or so so she can see that she can go in without throwing a fit.  I hope this bribery doesn't backfire on me...

Random Thoughts and Observations...

• The Australian 50 cent coin has 12 sides (a dodecagon). The coin is quite large at 31.65 mm.

• I decided to get a package of bacon and to cook it up in the oven (an idea from Pinterest). I could then wrap up individual servings, freeze them, and then pull out bacon on our busy school mornings.  I know I gave bacon a hard time in a previous post and I decided to give it another try.  The store was out of "streaky bacon"  so I went for the middle cut bacon.  (Did you know streaky bacon is the cut of bacon that the U.S. uses? I learned that today.)  I opened up the package and found the pig skin is still attached to the bacon. Pig. Skin. On. The. Bacon. Gross. 
• Australia will elect a new prime minister next month.  Erich really enjoyed watching the debates on TV last night. (Boring.) He also thought it was cool that the debate took place about a block from our hotel. 
• You know that wonderful new car smell?  When we were at the car dealership last weekend, Charlie got inside a car and announced, "This car stinks!"

 

 

 

Zoo

Sunday, August 11, 2013 - Day 17 Living Down Under

Today is Erich's birthday!!  He is the big four - two!  42!!  Happy Birthday, Erich! We had Indian food delivered for dinner tonight.  Yum. 

Erich took the kids to the National Zoo and Aquarium.  We bought a season pass so we will enjoy going again.  Everyone had a great time.

Checkin' the map

Peacock

Kangaroos

Lunch

 



Charlie watching the Australian Rules Football game. 

Random Thoughts and Observations...

• Australian rules football uses an oval field.
• When you buy milk, you have three choices.  Full fat, light fat, or fat free.
• I have yet to find anything to use in my coffee for creamer except milk.  I have not found half and half, flavored coffee creams, or even the powdered creamer.  I am on a quest to make my coffee taste better. Maybe they've hidden these products somewhere I haven't thought of yet. (Remember they put maple syrup with the chocolate syrup...)  I must track down a clerk and ask. 

Please Pass the Napkins

Saturday, August 10th, 2013 -  Day 16 Living Down Under

A special shout out to a special lady, Erich's grandmother, Norma Chaney Wolf Hagler on her 90th birthday yesterday!  She is an amazing woman with some great stories.  Maybe she should start a blog!  Her husband, Erich's grandfather, was in the Air Force and the family moved overseas to Germany soon after the war.  Grandma had to ride a boat with a baby for something like 7 days by herself to make it over there.  I hear the seas were rough and it was a horrible trip.  Riding on the plane for 15 hours to get to Australia is a breeze compared to that!  Happy Birthday, Grandma! 

Today we joined Costco! Imagine the biggest jar of Vegemite.  They had it. The prices are going to save us some money since things here cost so much.  At grocery stores, the items are packaged in small quantities.  (Probably because you have to carry them through the mall to get to your car that's in the car park.)  It will be nice to be able to stock up instead of going to the grocery store three times a week.

Random Thoughts and Observations...

• When wanting to know when a business is open or closed, we ask about the "hours of operation." Here they ask about the "trading hours."
• An entrée in the U.S. is the main dish.  Here the entrée is an appetizer. That one, my friends, is gonna mess me up.
• When the Aussies say "ship"  it sounds like the four letter word "shi*."  We had the news on today and the newscaster said, "...a shipload of ..."  and we swore that instead of shipload he said "shi*load!" 
• I'm going to put a Jayhawk sticker on the back of my car.  I'm on a mission to spot another Jayhawk fan around Australia.
• We have been told not to ask for napkins at the restaurant because here the word napkin only refers to a feminine product.  But no one has told me what word to use for a napkin you use on your face!  What word am I supposed to use??! Please, tell me!
• I miss the automatic flush toilets in public restrooms and the frozen steamer bags of veggies.
• The Aussies don't say "vacation" they say "holiday."

Cars & Cats

Friday, August 9, 2013

We are now the owner of two new cars.  (well, one is new new and one is new to us.) We pick up the Corolla from the Toyota dealership on Tuesday next week.  Today we bought a 2011 Holden Captiva. I know.  I bet you have never heard of Holden cars and are probably wondering if we bought the Australian version of the Yugo.  I had the same concern but Erich did the research and we are good.  So tomorrow we will return the hire (rental car). Finally.


The Holden Captiva

Erich and I were at the mall the other day to do our banking, (our bank is in a darn mall too!) (Have I mentioned that I don't like malls??)  and we went to lunch in the food court.  I was very excited to see the KFC.  I had an AMERICAN tasting chicken sandwich for lunch and it was AWESOME.  Except they called it a burger.  Hmmmm...

I went to our house today to do the inspection for the rental agency.  I documented and took pictures of every little scuff.  The house is in really great shape and I can't wait to move in!!  While I was there the neighbor across the street had me over for a cup of coffee.  Her daughter is in kindergarten at St. Monica's Primary with Charlie and Chaney. I had talked to her through Facebook about the school before we had decided to go there. By the way, "primary school" in Australia is Kindergarten through Year 6 (6th Grade). 

We continue to have issues with Chaney at school drop off.  Today's behaviour (notice the Aussie spelling?) became more defiant and mad.  She had to be restrained again as Erich dropped them off.  I know we are doing the best thing for her but it breaks my heart.  I talked to her kindergarten teacher after school and the teacher isn't overly concerned.  She thinks it will work itself out soon.  We are going to offer rewards for going into school "like a big girl" and see if that helps.  I'm glad the twins have a teacher that has been around the kindergarten block a time or two. 

I really miss my kids during the day.  I knew that when they started kindergarten it would be a transition for me since both kids would be heading out the door.  I knew that my days would suddenly seem empty.  But what I didn't think about (and really should have) is that there just wouldn't be much time to spend with them.   I've shed a few tears because I miss playing with them, reading with them, talking with them, etc. as much as I used to.  Why can't they stay little forever?!

Erich woke up in the middle of the night and asked me where the cat was.  "I haven't seen the cat in a while.  Where's the cat?"  We don't have a cat. I thought this was the funniest thing.  So I lay in bed in the middle of the night laughing.  And then Erich got frustrated that I was laughing and not taking him seriously because he was concerned about the cat.  THAT WE DON'T HAVE!!  (We both are laughing about it now.)

 

Random Thoughts and Observations...

• They pronounce the letter Z like "zed".  Hmmmm.   "...W, X, Y, and Zed."   Just doesn't sound right to me.
• They pronounce Nissan (the car company) "Ni-sin"   (So Erich's car, the Nissan 350Z is pronounced "350Zed Ni-Sin") Ha!
• I looked at a pair of white runners (tennis shoes) for Charlie today. $99 and up....  For a little boy's shoe...
• One of the things I will miss about living in the hotel apartment is that someone comes in every Friday to clean, change the sheets, take out the trash, etc. It's heaven.
• Stores close early here.  The malls (and the grocery stores in the malls) close at 5:30 Monday through Thursday, 9:00 on Fridays, 5:00 on Saturdays and 4:00 on Sundays. 
• Adelaide time is 30 minutes behind Canberra.  Not an hour.  30 minutes.
• One of Erich's cigars he likes to smoke is $30 here. For one cigar.