Oz Life

I was looking through the photos on my phone and found a few that I had taken from our everyday life here. While some things are very similar to life in Ohio, there are definitely some differences.

I had one friend (Hi Elaine! are you out there?) ask what was the most challenging thing living here. I said driving on the opposite side, but I’m over that now. I change my answer: laundry.

Our washing machine is smaller; it is a stretch to fit a set of queen sheets in one load. And we line dry everything. For most days this is outside on a rack attached to the shed (garage) but we have indoor racks for rainy days.  This is a time-consuming process and requires consideration of the weather, sun light hours, and remembering to not leave clothes outside overnight. I will say that our whites are much brighter and I like reducing our energy usage. But I’m not quite sure how this will all work in the winter.

Getting around: We bought a (BRIGHT!) green Ford Territory (pronounced “tear-i-tree”) our first week in Melbourne and it has been a great car – it is similar to the Ford Escape with a third row. 

I’m not sure this town of 3,100 is big enough for TWO bright green Territories!

But for the most part we can get around town on bikes. Our morning commute involves the entire family riding to the big kids’ school and Eric helping them park their bikes whilst Maren and I continue down the road to daycare. Also involved: The “lollipop lady” (crossing guard) blowing a whistle and stopping traffic for us to cross the road at the zebra stripes (crosswalk).

Food: Some delicious additions to our meal rotations include pies. These are not dessert pies but dinner pies – filled with meats or vegetables and different sauces. My favorite so far has been a roasted vegetable pie that our friend Marg made (and, yes I got the recipe).

Despite the calorie expenditure with my daily bike ride, I am not likely to come home any fitter due to the amazing chocolate options available at just about every store. The milk chocolate here seriously rivals the creaminess found in Germany (in my opinion) and there are so many fascinating chocolate combinations. Cadbury has a large presence in my heart and stomach.

Protection: The sunshine is serious business here. UV rays are fierce thanks to a hole in the ozone above us. Hats are required at schools (including daycare) and we lather up with sunscreen every morning before leaving the house.

We also wear full shoes and socks when we go trekking (walking off pavements) or playing in natural areas to help protect us from snakebites. Unfortunately, venomous snakes are common here, including this (DEAD!) common brown snake we found on the road in front of our house. Yes, this incident induced nightmares (me). If I am not safe on the pavement in front of my house, where am I safe?!? Yikes. At least we don’t have crocodiles here? 

Micah and Paige

My brother Micah and sister Paige came to visit! They are doing a whirlwind tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti and managed to squeeze in a four-day detour to see us. The kids were in heaven with all the attention and it was really nice to have company and show them our favorite spots.

While they were here we hit our highest temperatures yet: 106 degrees (41 degrees C)! Yikes! We escaped to Mount Buffalo where it was 10+ degrees cooler and took a short hike, jump in the lake, and then down the mountain to the water park in Bright and the river slide (even Maren got in on the fun).

View from the top:

Hike in the gum trees:

Swim in Lake Catani:

Eric and Maren getting dumped in the river:

We also found some new favorite spots including a three-room lolly (candy) shop and a fruit farm that serves fresh fruit pies and sundaes (it is all about the food with the Myers family).

It was hard to let them go. Come back! And, we are extending an invitation to everyone, come visit!

First Week of School

The big exciting event this past week was that Cady and Asher started school. They are super brave and although it was something they were both excited about (Asher kept asking how many days until school starts!), it was also a nervous time for all of us. I won’t lie: the mornings were rough, especially day one when Asher, screaming and stretching out his arms toward us, had to be held by his teacher as we walked out of the classroom. But each day the kids came home chattering non-stop, excited to retell the events of the day. They love their teachers, they are making new friends, and every morning drop off gets a little better.

Every school child public and private in Australia wears a “uni.” At our school the colors are red and black. The girls can wear a dress or polo shirt, the hat is part of the uniform- kids can’t go outside for recess without it (too much UV radiation here), and everyone has to have black leather shoes and bring “runners” for PE.

Our school is very small. In total there are just over 300 kids from Prep year (kindergarten) to year 12 (senior year of high school). Although they are all at the same campus together, it is an outdoor campus – there are buildings for every cluster of years and so there is not much interaction between the high school ages and the primary ages and there are even different playground areas for the different age clusters. The “canteen” (cafeteria) and “toilets” (restrooms) are also their own buildings. Asher is in one of two prep year classes, with a total of 23 kids in his year. Cady fits in age-wise with the year 4 students but only had 4 months of 3^rd grade before we left Ohio. In consultation with the principal we put Cadie in a split level 3/4 class. (Year 3 and Year 4 have one other classroom each that are not split).  

The kids have “specialist” periods throughout the week where they go to different teachers: Art, Italian, library, PE and Sport. We haven’t exactly figured out what the difference is between PE and Sport although we suspect they will actually be focusing on a sport in “Sport” – including swimming!

Year 12 in Australia is not mandatory for high school students and usually is more like a trade school training year. There is a metal shop as well as an electrical shop on campus. Other students participate in 4-H type activities including taking care of the “chooks” (chicken) on campus!

On Thursday, one stage of a professional bike race, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, rode through town. The defending champion, Chris Froome (also 3-time Tour de France winner) and his team were racing. The year 3-6 students got to walk down to the course and watch the race go by. The students made posters and brought flags. Cady made a poster for the American team, Team United Healthcare (UHC). 

We met Cady and her class and got some fun pictures of the cyclists racing through.

This picture shows the yellow jersey followed by a smiling Luke (from Australia and probably seeing kids holding "Go Luke" signs) followed by Chris Froome!

The other exciting thing that happened this week is that we secured a pedal bike for Asher. In Ohio he had only ridden a balance bike but he was able to hop right on this bike and take off. 

We did some practice trail and road riding across the street at the fair grounds and then on Saturday took a family ride to the library and park. Asher and Cady tried out the BMX park – we will have to get elbow & knee pads and lots of pillows before I feel comfortable going back.