If you are interested in seeing some pictures of our first two weeks I've created an album.

First Two Weeks

Homesick

We left home two weeks ago. We have been here for two weeks trying to turn this into home. I am tired and circumstances have caused me to slip into a temporary hiatus from my love of all things Australian. I am tired, no, exhausted, from this rain. The Gold Coast, just up the road from us, got 12 inches of rain in the last two hours. It's ridiculous. But I would give up just the possibilty of a dry day to be able to walk into a grocery store and see something familiar. Just when I had completed the trial and error process of trying every possible combination of food options available in the US I find I have to start over. Why won't children just eat?! And could someone please send a Starbucks over? I thought Starbucks had conquered the world. Don't they realize there is an untapped market here? 

I'm probably a little down because we have just returned from another trip to the mall. Rosie required an additional pair of man shoes for school on Wednesdays now that she is in Year One. She attends chapel on Wednesdays and this requires a bit of a wardrobe expansion. I really love her school. I am so happy she is going there. But I have to ask myself  - what kind of mother sends her child to a Christian school without having ever talked to her about God? Oh, maybe thats why I am tired….its not the endless drenching rain, its the late night questions about where the first babies came from, and whether or not mommy is friends with God. I guess that mother is the same mother that would put her child in the wrong grade. Or tell her children that crocodiles eat people. 

It seemed harmless enough at the time. I mean, I was trying to protect her. I just didn't want her to get too close. The cage seemed rather flimsy. 

But now in addition to the late night questions about the origins of life there is always at least one reference to the terrible fate that awaits her when she goes swimming. In the middle of the night I find its hard for me to be calmly reassuring and expertly knowledgeable at the same time. But I am trying. I keep thinking if she could get some sleep and eat some food then when I drop her off at school she wouldn't weep. Mike assures me she is fine. As does her teacher, who was even so kind as to call me on Friday afternoon to say Rosie was having a terrific day. Yes, thats great, but neither of them are there in the middle of the night when the terrible crocodile appears. 

Granted she has only had three days of school, and only two of them were in her current class, so knowing Rose she will be back to herself before all the parenting books I ordered from Amazon arrive. 

Mike started his new job last week and seems to be off and flying. But like everything when you start over in a new country there are some unexpected bumps. For instance, he needs to do some business in India. No problem, he has been there and done that before. But he can't get a visa for India here in Australia until we have lived here fore two years. So he has to fly to San Francisco to pick up a visa at the consulate before flying to India. Adds a few days to the trip but at least he can get a double tall while he's there. 

I bought  a copy of The Australian Women's Weekly the other day at the mall. It seemed to have it all; recipes, home decorating and garden ideas, a health section, fashion and beauty tips, current events and the arts. So while the girls were swimming with Mike at South Bank I lay in the grass and prepared myself to fall in love with Australia's cross between O and Vanity Fair.

OK, I don't want to disparage my host country (but I have already admitted I am on a temporary hiatus) but let me please share with you what the fashion editors advice was. Advice that took up an 8 page spread mind you. Here it is, and I will quote, "If you buy one new thing this season, make it a shirt."

I'm sorry, did you say a shirt? Yes, a shirt. Thats it. Not a tailored shirt, a structured shirt, a patterned shirt, a bright shirt, a color of the season shirt or even a versatile shirt. Just a shirt. Buy a shirt. While I love that this is actually fashion advice I can easily follow it strikes me as not really advice. The editor continues, "they're perfect for all occasions". OK, good to know. When I attend the newcomers club luncheon on Tuesday I now know that a shirt would be appropriate. Even with the heat, rain and cloying mugginess I should not attend naked. I should wear a shirt. And apparently any type of dam shirt I please, so long as its a shirt. Thats all this season in Australia will require of me. What a relief.  

We drove out to Valiant Furniture Hire this morning with the girls to rent beds, mattresses, sheets, tables, chairs, forks, lamps, washer and dryer and a vacuum cleaner. Our relocation consultant offered to take me there next week but Mike and I thought it was something we should do together. Seemed like a good raining day activity. But it was closed.

Which brings me to another exhausting difference from the US and my new home. Businesses here seem loathe to post their hours. There are wonderful websites full of all kinds of detailed information, except the hours and days they are open. I have run into this time and time again. Even when I call and listen to recordings listing their address, directions from all points of the compass and complete store inventory, they say G'day! without mentioning anything about when they are open. I don't understand it.

Desperately wanting them to be open I told Mike they were and off we went. 

In my contrition I agreed to be dropped off at the mall with tired and hungry children while he went and test drove cars. 

My mistake.

But here we are, back in our apartment with another pair of shoes that I can't really believe I have purchased. Really, is it any wonder Rosie is having nightmares?

I am looking forward to leaving this apartment. Even though it means living in a rental house with rental furniture and rental cutlery for a month or two (who can say when the container will arrive and clear customs) and then moving all the rental stuff out and our stuff in. Oh dear, I think I can feel myself slipping off the edge already.

But as much as I want to leave and get to our (semi) permanent home, I suppose a part of me will miss the apartment. Our first landing. Nostalgia and all that. Plus, I have just figured out how to store food in the fridge without some of it freezing solid while others things go sour. A happy balance of maneuvering the lettuce and milk just so. I have also finally mastered the elevator technique of loading all the bags of groceries in before it shoots up to heights unknown without me in it. It always comes back mind you, fully loaded with my groceries. You see how that could become endearing. 

What I will not miss is the key fob to get into the parking garage. In order to enter the garage, I have to position the largest car ever made that wasn't classified as a class 4 truck, about 1/10 of an inch away from a postage size sensor, wave my key fob at juuuust the right angle and juuust the right speed. God forbid there is someone behind me waiting to get in. Thankfully there usually isn't. That only happens when I have no idea where the key fob is.

With any luck we will get a copy of our lease on Monday. Then I will be able to pick up my mortal sized car with it's badly needed navigational system and stop getting so profoundly lost without the ability to park. We'll rent some crappy but useful furniture and move at the end of the week. Hopefully this will cheer me up. 

Australia Day

One of the blog readers with more knowledge of history than I, or at the very least a superior ability to google, said this about Australia Day,

"Australia Day celebrates the landing of the "First Fleet" in 1788--the first 1,000 or so convicts to arrive from England. "

Aha! The birth of a nation! Its like the 4th of July! 

Australians seem to celebrate it much like we celebrate the 4th of July. BBQs, parades and fire works. All of which were canceled yesterday because of the rain......that actually

never came. The second dry day since we got here. It was wonderful! We got dressed up in green and gold and hit the town!

Here is a notable difference between Australia and the US. While their flag is red, white and blue, just like ours, those are not their national colors. They are green and gold, the colors of their sports teams. I am pretty sure they didn't have a sports program when the First Fleet landed, but I suppose if you know what colors to paint your face you can rally with your countrymen around anything. 

And rally they did. Let me just say one more time how much fun Australians are.

The Davis family rallied across the street from our apartment to the City Cat ferry dock, Regatta, for a ride over to Brisbane's South Bank. Brisbane, being a river city, has a great ferry system (and no less than 16 major bridges), called City Cats.  Our particular ferry, or City Cat, the Beenung - Urrung , I'm not making that up, whisked  us to South Bank at 25 knots with Nola shouting "WHOOHOO!" the whole way. It was a short ride. We stopped only once once but passed under five bridges!  City Cats are twin hulled catamarans and they are named after the Aboriginal place name for parts of the Brisbane river. Some of my favorite City Cat names, besides Beenung - Urrung, are Ya-Wa-Gar, and Binkinba. 

Now, had we actually gotten a copy of our new lease before everyone with a job in Australia knocked off for Australia Day, we could have gotten our drivers license, which then in turn would have allowed us to buy a City Cat pass for 1/2 of the $30!!! our five minute ferry ride cost us.

Ah well, it was sunny, it was a holiday and we were dressed in green and gold. We were off to get ice cream, sun burns and sandy bottoms.

First Day of School

Rosie started school today, again, after starting school yesterday. And this was not an attempt to live in two time zones. It was because we had trouble figuring out if Rosie should go into Year Prep or Year 1.  No one seemed to know if the Australian Year Prep was equivalent to American Kindergarten, and Year 1 equivalent to 1st grade. Add to that the different time of year the school year begins. September in the US and January in Australia.  When we arrived we met with the head of the Junior School at St Peters and we all agreed that under the circumstances - having just had her world turned upside down, and the fact that there was no room in Year 1 - Prep would be best for Rosie. So we scurried about getting her a new maroon wardrobe, man shoes, a maroon umbrella and all the necessary school supplies Prep required.

And then suddenly the big day was upon us! First day of school! In the new country! And to make it more exciting for me, it was Nola's first day of school too! And the icing on the cake, they both had to be at their schools at the same time!

Now, one of the reasons I choose Nola's preschool,  besides the abundance of purple dress up clothes, was that their start time was a half hour after Rosie's. But for the first day of school the start time was changed so my well laid plan was foiled. Fortunately Nola was only to eager to rid herself of her over emotional mother and jump, quite literally, into a purple costume without a backward glance at my sorry soggy self. On to St. Peters! And on, and on, and around this roundabout, and around it again, and onward still. The schools are less than a mile apart but I was hopelessly lost. We finally arrived 30 minutes late, but at least this gave our clothes a chance to dry out. Rosie settled in and I attended a lovely orientation, then tried to find my way back to Nola's preschool. Nola had had a great time! And we were off to get lost again on the way back to Rosie.

After a day in Prep it was decided that Year 1 would actually be a much better place for Rose. Luckily a set of twins from somewhere abroad had just pulled out so there was now a spot for her. We zipped to the uniform shop to purchase more maroon clothes, but now with the addition of some white. Lovely. And so this morning Rosie had her second first day of school. We met her new teacher, who we both loved instantly, and got acquainted with her new class room. If I am now emotionally exhausted Rosie must be comatose. Poor thing. She has been a real trooper through it all though. Fortunately tomorrow is Australia Day, a national holiday celebrating we don’t know exactly what.  But these four unknowing Americans will be heartily celebrating a day of rest. I think we all need it, with the possible exception of Nola. She thinks swimming in the rain is even better than purple dress up clothes. She is going strong!

Our air shipment successfully passed through customs and will be delivered on Friday! Happy Happy Joy Joy! I only wish it was being delivered to our new house instead of the temporary apartment. Yes, we got a house! We move in next Friday! It will be so good to have an address. Now we will be able to get check books, drivers licenses and pick up the car we bought last week but couldn't get registered without either a drivers license or lease.

I am not head over heels in love with the house, but I am in love with having an address and all the perks that go along with it. See above. I am also in love with the location. Walking distance to St. Peters! Take that roundabout!

There are mostly two types of homes here. Queenslanders - picture big verandas, tall ceilings, fans, lattice. Originally constructed in, well, Queensland, for life in a sub-tropical climate. Or there are really cool modern houses. Picture Miami Vice. Having never lived in a really cool modern house, or in Florida, I was hoping we'd settle in one of the new modern ones. If we'd wanted to live a bit further out from the CBD (the Central Business District, Brisbanespeak for downtown) or been willing to stay in temporary housing longer perhaps my dream could have come alive. As it is I am happy to be able to move into a Queenslander next Friday and get the kids settled. Phew!

I am half a world away from my friends and family. I have a new address, a new phone number, a new car and a new bank account.  All I need now is a new name and I think I will have successfully entered the witness protection program.

No Worries!

Super saturated sogginess. I'm sure I told many of you that January/February is the wet season here. But I completely forgot it. I forgot it when I packed and I forget it every time I leave our apartment. I keep feeling surprised when it starts raining. Oh, excuse me, did I say rain? I am a Seattleite for crying out loud - I know rain. This is not rain. This is like having a swimming pool emptied on your head. There is no escape. Remember when I mentioned getting caught in that exciting tropical deluge when we first arrived? I thought it was so fun! So exciting! So unexpected! Yippee! Well, let me tell you, it's hard to know what to wear in this fun and exciting rain so that you don't look like you peed your pants. Seriously, by the time I close my umbrella and toss it (with out even shaking it out first, there's no time for that dam it) into the car and jump into the drivers seat (or passenger seat if I have forgotten which side the steering wheel is on) I am soaking wet. We all should just be naked. It's too hot for boots and rain jackets so everyone is near to naked anyway, then with soaking wet clothes on....well, see what I mean. We all just might as well be naked.

I couldn't put it off any longer. I finally did the big stock the pantry shopping trip. Most of the grocery stores here are in malls. Picture Safeway or Met Market in Bellevue Square. Imagine trying to run in to Bell Square and grab a gallon of milk. What level should you park on? Imagine me with a shopping cart (trolley) of food badly needing refridgeration having to ride the travelator (an escalator that is a ramp instead of stairs) through five levels of every kind of shopping distraction. Literally everything can be found in the friendly neighborhood mall. We entered on the cinema level and discovered that is where the library is too. I was kind of surprised, but in a way it makes sense. You should read the book before you see the movie. So there you are in Bell Square, with your trolley, riding up and down the travelators. I guesse I'll get used to it, but so far not so much. I made three trips from the mall back to the level 5 car park before even hitting the grocery store. Level 5 is pink by the way and it's now my de facto car park level. I figure if Rosie has to wear man shoes to school the least I can do is indulge her choice of parking levels. I didn't mean to do so much walking back and forth. I meant to go to the store and provision up. But on my way I ran into a store that sold pool toys and after making a purchase there it occurred to me that carrying two enormous pink pool noodles through the grocery store might prove cumbersome. Not to bore with you with all my impromptu purchases, suffice to say that by the time Rosie, Nola and I finally reached the grocery store we were exhausted. Why I didn't just turn around then and there and go play in the rain I can't say. Probably my overwhelming desire to start cooking with salt and pepper. At any rate, we filled that dang trolley with everything an unequipped kitchen might need; salt, pepper, oregano, flour, sugar, baking soda, regulators, you name it, it was in the cart. Then, I assume feeling entirely and unaccustomedly too dry, Nola peed her pants. In all fairness she had told me in the dog food aisle that she had to go. But it hadn't seem that urgent. "No worries!" I was told by the smiling young man with a mop (I have yet to meet an Australian I wouldn't want to vacation with). So on we forged to the check out. Where my credit card was declined. "No worries!" I was told by the smiling young cashier. She directed me to a nearby bank machine where, miraculously, I was given $300.00. Why the bank couldn't have granted my wish for the $ five minuted previously I'll never know. Maybe there were too many spectators. So here I go, naked into the rain with my provisions and no worries!

Food Snob

It seems I am a bit of a food snob. Or as Mike told me today, really neurotic about food.
A week ago I would have disagreed, but after almost buying dog food yesterday because I thought I had found some healthy meat I'll admit he's right. Strolling down the meat aisle looking for reassuring words like natural, healthy, hormone free or even maybe, grass fed, and having no luck I suddenly stumbled on packages upon packages of just that. Yippee! I was slightly curious as to why it was all chopped up as I threw several packages in my cart. Then I noticed all the packages had pictures of dogs on them. What?! People eat dog here!? OMG! It finally registered that it was all dog food. A entire section, three rows of refrigerated real estate in the meat aisle, for natural raw dog food. You have to go to Ballard for that in Seattle.

There is more shelf space devoted to dog food than Mac and Cheese in fact.
How many different kinds of Mac and Cheese are there on the aisles of grocery stores in America? A least ten, right? And until now Nola has never met a box of Mac and Cheese that she didn't like. Maybe it's because  here it doesn't come in a box. Or because Australians know you don't actually need a million choices (but two is sometimes nice) but Nola finally met her Mac and Cheese match and it's name is Ready Mac. It comes in a bag and it's the only Mac and Cheese I have been able to find here and she won't eat it . "It's yuck!" So Nola hasn't really eaten anything since we arrived except a mango.

I realize there is much I don't know. Like what exactly are "Regulators"? They must be important if they are listed as the third ingredient on almost every box of crackers in the store. I may not know much, but I don't think I want my crackers regulated.

So if am neurotic or snobby when it comes to food, well, maybe this country will cure me of it.
But my husband has cooked dinner twice since we arrived and that's two more times than in the decade we've been together so that helps me look on the bright side of this regulator mess. He is so innocent, tooling around in a kitchen not even equipped with salt and pepper or a knife that will cut bread.

Many of you have asked how the girls are doing. I would say they are doing ok. Thankfully they are still young enough to think that we have everything totally under control. They remain positive and excited and their enthusiasm for small miracles like a parking place makes me so happy. That said, this is rocking their world .

Nola has been carrying her stuffed animal dog, Ginger, with her everywhere and back in Seattle she just slept with it. When the nightmare is sufficiently behind us I'll be able to share the story of Ginger's epic rescue from a locked rental house yesterday.
There have been more tears, crossed arms and foot stomping than in 7 seasons of the Brady Bunch. And that's just Mike and me.

We put in applications on two houses yesterday and with any luck we'll be renting furniture next week for one of them. I think it will help them to be settled somewhere snuggling in with the contents of our air shipment - where the frack is that btw? And to be back in school!

We took Rosie to St Peters to pick up her uniform yesterday. She is now the very proud owner of a totally maroon wardrobe. Except for the shoes. Those are brown and what a pair of shoes they are. You could travel to moon in these guys. It seems Australians take their school shoes very seriously. No messing about. After a nuclear holocaust these shoes will still be around to keep the cockroaches company. I'm not sure Rosie actually has enough strength in her legs to walk with them on. Fortunately during term one they are allowed to wear sandals. Unfortunately they are brown industrial strength uniform sandals. I am starting to wonder just what exactly goes on at school here that the children's feet require such protection. Rosie was a real trooper when she realized her uniform contained not a single sparkle, bauble, ribbon or pink embellishment, but when she saw the shoes she crumpled a little bit and wondered if I might be mistaken and could those actually be the boys shoes.

Not sure what is going to happen today, there is still a lot to do; drivers license, library cards, Mike needs a haircut and a dry cleaners.....Davis family will be on search and destroy, I'd better tell Rosie to put her school shoes on.

Love,
Julie, Mike, Rosie, Nola and Ginger

Settling in

I bought unrefridgerated eggs yesterday. Apparently if you don't shove newly laid eggs in the fridge you can keep them at room temperature for quite a while. I had no idea......but will still probably try to eat all these eggs quickly! I went to a neighborhood organic shop today, or should I say I time traveled to Berkeley, CA circa 1966. I think I might end up really missing the PCC, but I have yet to visit a farmer's market so there is still hope.

Yesterday we tried to find a house to rent. The apartment we are in is actually lovely. Much better than I expected. We have a terrific view of the river and downtown. But I am anxious to nest. Our air shipment arrives next week and there is no place in the apartment for it. Whatever is in the container crossing the Pacific I have already forgotten about and frankly don't think I ever want to see again.

We rented a Toyota Highlander (called a Kluger here) when we arrived. It seemed normal sized in the airport parking lot but driving around Brisbane it has expanded like a sponge animal. Must be from all the rain. I am surprised I have not sideswiped everything in my path. We visited a car dealership yesterday as well. First thing in the morning. We had been up since 4:00 and after playing a long and rousing game of hide and seek in our very small apartment in seemed the thing to do. We didn't actually purchase a car, but it appears it will be easier to do than buying a cell phone. We did that yesterday and let me tell you it was touch and go. We have no credit history in this country, no permanent address, no drivers license.....I'm pretty sure Mike ended up bribing the salesman in order to leave the store with a pre paid calling plan. Here is my new number in case you want to place a really expensive call, +61 448 689 897.

We like this place. The people are nice. I mean Nice. I think the word nice originated here. I sort of accidentally enrolled Nola in two preschools this week. A case of miscommunication and paranoia on my part that she would have no place to go to make new friends. Luckily they are both great. I'd like to report that I based my final choice of school on a rigorous vetting of the teacher and curriculum but really it just came down to the one with more purple dress up clothes. It was still raining buckets yesterday so we bought umbrellas. The humidity is causing Nola's hair to curl like Shirley Temple's. If we trip over another bouganvillia vine filled puddle or hibiscus flower we may break into song. Picture a wet family singing On the Good Ship Lollipop skipping down a sidewalk with price tags still hanging off pink butterfly winged umbrellas. We'll blend right in! It's after 6:00 a.m. and the girls are still asleep and the sun is up, huge and hot! Life is good. Throw a snowball for us! Julie

We made it!

Hello! We made it! It's 80 degrees........and pouring rain. The kind of drenching rain that you run a block through and even your underwear gets soaked.  I know because that's what happened to me yesterday. But I was badly in need of a shower anyway.  Real tropical deluge. Very exciting. All our umbrellas are currently crossing the Pacific so we may have to pick a couple up today (rain in the forecast all week)

Yesterday we ventured out on a shopping trip between a swim at our new apartment and getting caught in the deluge. We bought a new coffee pot and a cold bottle of Australian wine. The grocery store was large and while it contained pretty much the same things as you would find in the states, everything seemed unfamiliar to me. I spent way too long staring at the aisles looking for a familiar brand (with no luck until the cheese aisle where I spotted some Kraft cheese) and wondering what "natural" means in Australian. Then I agonized over whether Made in Australia products were superior to Made in America products, finally decided they were, right before deciding it didn't matter.

The plane ride went smoothly. The girls thought is was super fun, which was great because as good as the girls did on the plane they completely melted down after landing. Especially when we had to throw the opened bag of goldfish away before customs (we hadn't declared it on the customs form). Wow. I am surprised you couldn't hear the screams in Seattle. Australians really are the nicest people in the world. Not only did we not get any dirty looks, the looks we did get were supportive and more than one person even stopped to help. Unbelievable. Nola was momentarily mollified by the cute drug sniffing dogs, but then lost it again when the dog sat down by mommy's bag and mommy had to go to the special area where customs agents went through every single thing she packed because the cute little dog smelled a super secret hard boiled egg we had forgotten to leave on the plane (or declare). When the custom agent let Nola slide down her metal suitcase ramp I realized it was probably going to be O.K.

Then things got even better when Mike was able to rent a "pink" (it's actually red but don't tell the girls) car that he somehow engineered all 10! of our bags into and we got to what turned out to be a great apartment. The girls went for a swim and then later played at a park across the street where we were caught in the torrential tropical down pour. AND I drove! Not far, but the route did include two intersections!

Nola has asked twice already about when she will be able to make friends. Kinda makes my heart hurt a little. Today, after buying umbrellas, we are going to try and buy a car. Then we might drive past the girls schools so they can see them. Depending on the rain we may hop on the river taxi and go check out South Bank where there are some great swimming pools made to look like natural swimming holes. But who knows really what will happen today! Maybe we'll find a house to rent! When our air shipments arrives I will be able to get on the computer and send some pictures, and try to get a blog started. I don't have all my email contacts on my iPhone so feel free to forward this to anyone who won't fall out of their chair with boredom by reading. G'day my friends! XOXO Julie