Eric of Arabia

I think I once calculated that the Sun's rays are about 6% more intense during Southern Hemisphere summer than Northern Hemisphere summer at sea level around noon because the Earth is closer to the Sun during Southern Hemisphere summer. It definitely feels like it, and we need to be very generous with the sunscreen.

You wouldn't know it from looking at "Eric of Arabia" though. He looks like he hasn't seen the Sun since 2003.

We hope everyone is having a nice holiday season. We miss everyone back in the U.S. We're going to enjoy some meals and cheer with with some friends in our neighborhood here in Melbourne on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Australia has already shut down for a few weeks for the holidays. They take time off more seriously here than in the States. Eric is locked out of his office, and so he needs to work from home or coffee shops. More big news is that Isabel has finished 5th grade, and it is summer break until the end of January. Isabel will get to start 6th grade twice in 2015!

Christmas is different here. There are not as many decorations, maybe because most of the Northern Hemisphere decor (e.g. snowmen, sleigh bells, icicles, etc) doesn't really make sense. It is also light until past 9, and so not many people bother putting up lights. We found this somewhat humorous Olivia Newton John video from the 60s when she was 17, where she sings about how Christmas is different "Down Under": www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvyp8gOHWKI  The best line is "The only snow we have is on our Christmas tree. The Southern Cross is not the northern star,"

School Function Bash

Isabel had a school Christmas concert on Wednesday night. On first glance, this looked like a normal school function like we have in the U.S. with kids going up grade by grade and singing old standards from Taylor Swift and Kyle Minogue, while the parents sit silently in their small metal chairs in anticipation of their child's turn in the spotlight, politely clapping while class upon class of other peoples' kids perform on stage.

But let's take a closer look, shall we? Maybe we should have known something was different when as we arrived, the school band was playing "Tequila." Here is one young woman enjoying the party and imbibing on school grounds(!).

After the main part of the performance, part of the after-hours entertainment involved several teachers getting up on stage and rocking out (sorry, my autofocus failed me here). A mosh pit formed in front of the stage that included students and several other teachers from the school. Maybe this calls for a suggestion to the Poudre Valley School District on how to run their evening school programs?

Local lore claims that grunge started in Melbourne and not Seattle. I'm not sure about that, but hey whatever. We actually have a third(!) school holiday gathering tomorrow night on the beach. This is to celebrate the end of the school year, which ends here in December. Isabel will be going into Grade 6 in January!

We continued our weekend activities by heading down to Bell's Beach, the famous surfing beach just south of Melbourne (Keanu Reeves eat your heart out!). In addition to fun and frolicking on the water, we were also on a mission to buy Isabel a swimsuit at one of the local surf clothing outlets (Quicksilver/Roxy were started here). We were not successful at this, but perversely we all bought new snowboarding/skiing coats on a 90 degree day.  They were insanely discounted at about 80% off.  Heather also wanted to buy some new ski pants, but she refused to try them on because it was too hot. We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season so far.

Beach Santa

Beach Santa:

And I got my haircut today (but not by her, luckily).

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope all our family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday…

Holiday?  What holiday?  As you may have guessed, Australians do not celebrate Thanksgiving.  However, we were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday.  It had to be on Saturday since everyone is working today.  The family hosting the dinner had lived in America for a few years and wanted to continue celebrating the holiday to share a meal with family and friends and reflect on all we have to be thankful for.

It was a wonderful multinational group that shared a meal together.  The turkey was made by a Colombian and everyone brought a dish to share.  We had some traditional dishes made by the Americans in the group – cornbread dressing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie.  There were also friends there from Germany, England, Sweden, India and of course, Australia.

What about Christmas?  They definitely celebrate Christmas here, but it’s a little different.  I actually keep forgetting that Christmas is coming but it does not feel like Christmas.  It is Spring here – absolutely no possibility of a white Christmas.  The holiday is celebrated here with cherries, picnics, beach Santas and BBQs.   Turkey is available but you may need to order it in advance.  Many people prefer seafood for the big meal rather than turkey or ham.  They do have Christmas trees, carols and decorations with snowflakes.

"Do you live in Boulder?"

It seems that much of the time when we say that we are from the United States, without specifically saying that we live in Colorado, the next question is: "Oh really, do you live or have you lived in Boulder?" When we respond that "Why yes, yes we have lived in Boulder," the typical star-struck response is "oh wow [while batting eyelashes], what was it like?" We then feel like C-3PO meeting the Ewoks at the end of Return of the Jedi. When we tell people that we now live in Fort Collins, they typically say "Never heard of it. Where is that in relationship to Boulder?" It seems that the city of Boulder is synonymous with the United States for a good portion of Australians. I guess most of the Australians we knew in Melbourne before we moved here we did meet in Boulder. Aussies also seem to have a fondness for New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, but that is about the extent of it (oh yeah, and they also watch Portlandia). This is understandable. If you ask the average American what they know about Australia, they would probably say something about kangaroos, Sydney, Men at Work, the Great Barrier Reef, and that is about it.

I'm sure these guys don't know or don't care where Fort Collins is either.

Crapman!!!!!!

Hello this is Isabel!!!!! I know I haven't blogged a lot but I am doing a blog. YAY!!!! Here is a picture of "crapman" a weird "Super Hero" that the government made up to tell people to use recycled toilet paper to reduce reforestation . Their message is "Wipe for wildlife". We took this picture at the Healesville sanctuary. After the visit to the sanctuary we actually bought some recycled toilet paper!! It's from used office paper.

         I hope I can talk more often. I am sorry for being lazy about blogging.

 

  

Catch up

This is Heather.  Most of the other blog posts are written by Eric.  It turns out I don't really like blogging.  But I thought I better start contributing more or Eric will continue to post embarrassing pictures of me (see Mambo Queen) and telling stories of bike crashes - he barely had a scratch.

So...here's a belated Halloween photo of Miss Dracula

Here are my favorite pictures from our trip down the Great Ocean Road.  We had fun exploring the sandstone cliffs and rock formations on a windy day.

Last Sunday we went to the Healesville Sanctuary where we learned more about the animals here in Australia like the Tasmanian devil and dingo.  

Dingo puppy...I wanted to take this one home.  Surely, he wouldn't eat my baby!

Mambo Queen

Look at whom we spotted on a Melbourne Street dancing to Cuban music! (not the guy in foreground). Isabel and I were munching on potato on a stick.

Bad Biking Karma

Yesterday was a bad biking day. I broke another spoke (because of the cheap wheel on my temporary bike). And then I got hit by a car! (literally). It was more of a slow-motion train wreck than a serious crash, and so I was fine. Someone turned right and crossed the bike trail without looking and bumped me off my bike. I sarcastically said "thank you," gave him a dirty look, and then continued on my way.

The bike trail I ride in on does become a bit crazy in the summer. At one end is a cruise ship dock and ferry terminal for the Tasmania ferry, and so the scene there is generally chaotic with people getting on and off ferries and Carnival Cruises. The other end in St Kilda (close to where we live) is like Venice Beach with joggers, bikers, walkers looking at iPhones, people doing yoga and kite surfing, folks strutting their stuff, and people walking around in bikinis. It takes concentration to avoid slamming into someone.

While the mornings are seemingly less populated on the trail, I find the commute in to be akin to being in the Tour de France. Each morning is like a competitive race with people riding as fast as they can, cutting people off, and scowling at motorists and other cyclists. The biking vibe is quite unlike the more friendly biking vibe in Fort Collins. I do find myself acclimating to this more aggressive biking culture. I might come back as a wiry, angry biker who wears black all day!

"My ex-man brought his new girlfriend....."

"....she's like 'Oh, my god!'". Tuesday was a city holiday in Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup, the local horse race that is equivalent to the Kentucky Derby. It is the one day of year that the Melburians put away their black clothing and don "colorful" outfits, including derby hats. It is generally scandalous to wear tan pants in this town. Nevertheless, because of the holiday weekend we took a long 4 day road trip to the Great Ocean Road. Once you leave Melbourne, "local" radio deteriorates substantially, so much so that Mom and Dad were forced to start singing along to Taylor Swift and Nicky Minaj, and Isabel had to close her ears and beg us to plug in my iPad and play the Beatles. It was a good trip, regardless. We saw the 12 Apostles, koalas running down the road (some with youngsters on their back), and Dad got burned by the sun.

We ate at an excellent pizza joint in the town of Port Fairy that had a backyard that was like post-apocalyptic Fort Collins.

We also got to spend the night in an old commuter rail car, from Sydney or Melbourne.

And how can you resist this cuteness that we came across in the bush!

Halloween in Australia

Isabel went trick-or-treating with a friend Katherine from school. It was 90 degrees and bright sun during the start of trick-or-treating. Kind of strange. Halloween also hasn't caught on to the same extent as in the U.S. The stores sometimes make half hearted efforts to put up some decorations, and I saw one or two people walking around in costume during the day.

 Sometimes the lollies (candy) handed out at houses were pathetic. At one house Isabel got a single (!) unwrapped Skittle. Excitement ensued when Isabel got what was shown below.

The amount of single (and sometimes dirty and disgusting) pieces of candy individually passed out without wrappers was pretty amazing. Would you eat that weird banana(?)-type thing if someone put that in your bag?

Moving Date

First of all, we had an extremely intense lightning storm last night that woke us up at 2 a.m. (the following picture was not taken by me but by Jason Edwards and contributed to the Herald Sun).

Courtesy of Jason Edwards, Herald Sun

I also mistimed my ride this morning and got absolutely soaked riding to work (I can't stress enough how wet I was!). Bike might have been the best way to get to work though, since much of the Melbourne train and tram network (and roads) were running hours late this morning due to power outages and flooding. I think I was only about 5 minutes late, but my clothes are still hanging in my office drying.

In other big news, we just got our plane tickets back to the U.S.! We will be taking a road trip to Sydney with all of our stuff in tow in mid June, and then flying back to Chicago from Sydney, arriving June 23. We'll probably make it to Fort Collins around July 1, just in time for the 4th of July.

Sea Gulls

We seem to spend an inordinately large amount of time in this town trying to keep our food away from sea gulls.

We do enjoy many of the birds though. The Myna birds wake us up with their lyrical songs around dawn (much like the Robins in the U.S. start making noise just before dawn). The Mynas are not native though, and were introduced from India and other parts of South Asia, and are generally considered unwelcome residents. We especially enjoy the sounds the local Magpies make. It is hard to describe, but the most common call sounds like a somewhat robotic, but melodic and pleasing, squeaky gate noise. Magpies can also mimic many other bird species and human speech.

Tardis

I arrived back in Australia yesterday afternoon after a nice Fall trip back to Colorado. It was especially nice seeing friends we haven't seen in a few months. We miss them! Too bad they didn't take to the Vegemite more, which could be a strike against them when we get back. Maybe next time I'll bring back some meat pies.

To follow-up on Heather's last post on transportation, I thought I might add a few things. Oddly, after biking and driving on the left side of the road for 3 and a half months, I now feel more comfortable driving here than in Colorado. It was disorienting pulling out of the rental car parking lot at DIA. And the whole trip I kept mixing up which lever was the wipers, and which the turn signal.

As Heather mentioned, we are doing a car share. Each of the cars has a silly name such as G'Day, Dorcus, Pro, or Taco. Today we rented Tardis:

For non-Dr. Who fans, the TARDIS is a time machine with interior much bigger than the small exterior:

Not sure if the name fit in this case.

When not driving on the weekends, we typically get around by train, tram, and bike. I have a 15 mile roundtrip ride to work along the beach. I'll definitely miss this ride when we leave! 

FAQs

Eric is currently in Colorado.  Isabel and I had the chance to talk via Skype and FaceTime with some friends back home.  I thought I'd answer some of the questions we've been asked.

What's your favorite thing about living in Australia?
I love listening to people speak here.  I love the accent and the words they use.  The Australians notice my accent and sometimes look at me funny when I don't say things quite the way they do.  For the most part, we understand each other, but there are occasional moments that get "lost in translation."

I also love exploring a new area - restaurants, beaches, forests, wildlife, places to go.

Do you have a car?
Not really.  We have a membership with a car sharing deal.  There are many cars located throughout Melbourne.  There is one car just across the street.  Unfortunately, it's never available when we need a car.  But there are other cars a short walk away.  Each car has a scanner that will unlock the car when the membership card is swiped.  Keys are in the car and away we go!

I will probably go the entire year without driving.  I'm just too nervous about driving on the other side of the road.  School, grocery store, beach, library and several public transportation options are within a 10-15 minute walk away.  Eric drives on the weekends when we want to get out of the city.

Isabel, how is school?
Isabel attends a public primary school.  Children in years prep through year 6 attend primary school and then go to college.  College is for years 7 through 12.  American translation:  children in kindergarten through grade 6 attend elementary school then go to middle school and then high school.  

There are no school buses here!  Most everyone lives close enough to walk or ride bikes.  However, there are several cars at drop off and pick up times and some kids even take public buses to get to school.  For field trips, the school rents nice coach buses.

Her school is fairly big with over 700 students and about 4-5 school buildings.  Isabel's classroom is in the oldest building, about 100 years old, and on the third floor.  There is no school cafeteria.  The kids eat lunch is their classrooms and hot lunches are delivered by a local restaurant.  They can even have sushi on Wednesdays.  

The school year goes from the end of January to about midway through December.  The school year is broken into 4 terms with a two week break between terms and about a 6 week break for summer.  Isabel is currently in the 4th term of year 5.  She is one of the youngest in her class because the cutoff date for school is in April.  She will attend the first half of year 6 before going back to Colorado.

Is school easier or harder?
Math instruction is not as far along as the USA curriculum.  They just finished a unit on addition and subtraction in her class.  Isabel reports that in other subjects its about the same.  

They spend more time in school learning and playing sports.  In August, they spent two days on a big house sports competition.  It was mostly track and field activities.  They split up the kids in grades 4-6 into 4 different houses.  Isabel was in the Gordon house.  It reminded me of the houses in Harry Potter.  Most Friday afternoons, are spent playing sports.  Isabel is currently learning how to play sofcrosse which is a version of lacrosse.  She's also learned how to play some new sports:  footy (Australian Rules Football) and netball (similar to basketball).

Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers!
~ Heather

Tassie

Our trip to Tasmania was very eventful. Wombats are very cute, and we saw a few in the wild. This particular one kept sticking just its head into a hole and eventually fell asleep.

The bird life on the beach was also very impressive. These peculiar birds called Oyster Catchers were particularly cool, and buried their beaks completely into the sand to search for food (but not oysters).

We had some adventures with the bird life as well. We came across a penguin on the shore that we thought was stuck in the rock. Eric put on his gloves to try to rescue it, but the penguin did not appreciate this very much! Eric got bit (just a flesh wound). The penguin was gone the next morning and so we assume it was able to get out by itself.

The beaches in Tasmania were outstanding. White sand and beautiful clear water without all of the plastic trash that washes up on Northern Hemisphere beaches. The only negative was that the water was frigid! Isabel did dip her toes in though.

We took a trip out to Maria Island which was a former penal colony, since converted to a national park that is a refuge for various species including the now-endangered Tasmanian devil. The ferry ride out there was a bit choppy, but generally uneventful.

However, bad things happened in the afternoon. A front approached that caused the wind to swell to 60 knots and the waves to build. We were warned that we might have to spend the night stranded on the island with limited food and no place to sleep (although Eric thought this would be pretty cool).

Captain John and his small boat decided to come extract us at the last possible time, right at sunset. The trip across the strait was rather memorable with the boat being bounced to and fro in the large swells and waves crashing over the boat. Somehow we made it back though, much to the happiness of the many nervous island goers.

We did have some more mellow days too without penguin bites and near-shipwrecks. We enjoyed sampling some wine at the many vineyards, and also took a trip to a major former penal colony at Port Arthur, to the south of Hobart on the Tasman Peninsula.

Grandma & Grandpa come for a visit

My parents stayed in Melbourne for about a week.  We had a chance to explore the city,

feed the local wildlife 

at Grants on Sherbrooke in the Dandenong Ranges,

 kangaroos and wallabies at the Moonlit Sanctuary,

explore dramatic coastlines

at Cape Schank on the Mornington Peninsula.

and enjoy many delicious meals together.

Mmmmmm.... Cakes......

Day Trip

Some beautiful beaches are found in the immediate vicinity of Melbourne. We took the train about 30 minutes from our apartment to a great beach just south of a town called Sandringham. It was a bit too cold for Mom and Dad to dip their toes in the water, but Isabel was game. We found some odd red cliffs that reminded us more of the Badlands than the coast of Australia.

Spring is definitely here with the temperatures warming, and we are looking forward to summer. Next week promises to be a bit rainy and windy though, and so Dad might have some stiff headwinds on his ride to work!