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.