Digging in....and Floriade

Digging in...

First it was the two-year lease deal we signed for our car.  More recently, it was the two-year cell phone contract we entered into for...dare I say it...Mika??  It feels like the web of life is slowly but surely tying us down as actual and bona fide residents of Australia.  I am not saying that our time here will be dictated by the length of our technology contracts...but every time we sign on the dotted line, we do so with an intake of breath.

So...why does our darling daughter need a cell phone, you ask?  (This would be called "burying the lead" by my editor friend Laura Larson.)  Dan has recently joined the ranks of the duly and gainfully employed!  I will allow him to expound at his blog-writing leisure upon the details of the job, but suffice it to say that it is full-time, in the IT field, and allows him some outside intellectual stimulation as well as augmenting our travel budget something fierce!!  On the other hand, however, this development has exponentially increased the family's logistical challenges as we try to juggle three schedules while remaining--for the moment anyway--a one-car family.  Mika was buoyed to no end by the twin lures of her own cell phone AND the chance to be a latch-key kid.  So off we went to yonder mall to spend a horrifying four hours attempting to decode the incomprehensible code that is the average cell phone plan and actually sign on the dreaded contractual dotted line.  She has been good at texting us upon her arrival home--the texting lingo she has already managed to acquire is staggering, may I add.

For now, Dan and I carpool to our respective work sites and we're all getting a taste of the actually-pretty-good public bus system.  Mika's school term break is fast approaching, however, without a plan in sight...I may be putting her to work for the good of the AIS.

...and Floriade

....which looks like Florida misspelled by a second grader, but in Canberra, nuthin says "Spring!!" like Floriade.  My apologies in advance to those readers who may know more about this event, but my research into the origins and duration of this Canberra spring institution is sketchy at best.  It was going on last year during the time we were in Canberra for my interview, which puts a weird deja vu spin on things, even though we didn't make the time last year to take in the glories of Floriade.  So we decided this year to see what all the fuss was about, since all we knew was that involved a LOT of flowers.

We took advantage of a colder blustery Sunday in hopes it would aid in parking and tamp down on fellow Floriad-ians.  Little did we know, the event was even free!!

 Of course, no garden show is complete without the requisite garden gnome displays.

And nothing says "spring" quite like a presentation from Questacon (cool Canberra kid's museum) on the science of taste.  Kirsten volunteered to have her tastebuds counted to see if she was a "super taster" which unbeknownst to her beforehand meant having blue dye sprayed onto her tongue!!  Mika thought this was the best part of the day.

Be still, oh hearts of my gentle readers...I realize the stress on your systems with not one but two entries in a single month.  Will try to keep up the pace, but no promises.  But with a term break trip to the aptly named coastal town of Eden in the offing, hopefully there will be more news to report soon!!

Spring is coming!!

Hi from Down Under...I won't even try to explain the gap between entries but suffice it to say that life sometimes gets in the way of even the best of intentions.

Winter in Canberra contained much more whingeing (complaining) about the weather than actual weather in my humble opinion.  Australians love the sun and surf in a manner akin to religion and since Canberra contains neither, people approach living here with an audible girding of loins.  Particularly in the winter.  Ach, the winters, they are so cold, sometimes it gets to zero (Celcius).

When we are out and about in Australia (recent trips to Melbourne or Sydney), here's a typical conversation:

"So!  You're an American!! Where are you living?"   "Canberra!"  [pause]   Politely:  "So...how's that going for you?"

In actuality, the winter was incredibly mild by Colorado standards.  We had no snow and the coldest it got was just under freezing.  I will acknowledge that part of the problem people have with cold here has to do with the lack of insulation in homes.  Our house literally had holes cut out of our windows to allow for air in and out of the three bathroom rooms we have (one room each for toilet, shower, and sink).  We effected some amateur fixes using duct tape and foam insulation, to the detriment of air flow...but winced  nevertheless when we received our winter heating bill.

Mika has been playing soccer throughout the winter.  Her season will end in a couple weeks and I can't imagine what we will do with our Saturday afternoons!!  It has been a great season with nice coaches and not much travel.  Mika has really enjoyed her teammates and has had a good season to boot.  She is also taking lessons in judo which have been a nice complement to the team sport aspect of soccer.

Mika, much to her surprise and our delight, excelled at her school's cross country meet, and ended up doing well enough in the following regional meet to qualify for the all ACT competition. Kirsten was of course dreaming of a future running partner, but it turns out that Mika's enthusiasm went only as far as it meant that she got to miss school to compete.   But it was fun to dream!!

One weekend, we journeyed to local bird sanctuary where Dan and Mika enjoyed the local feathered wildlife.  Kirsten stayed behind the camera, disliking the feel of claws in her hair (unlike Mika).

On yet another weekend seeking some diversion, we ended up walking along the foreshore of Lake Burley-Griffen only to come upon a Segue rental shop.  Mika was game, but we hade to load up her backpack with 20 pounds to offer sufficient counter-balance to the weight of the Segue.  Only $15,000 and this, too, could be yours!!  Since then the ACT has outlawed the use of this vehicle, but the shop is counter suing...stay tuned.

More recently, Kirsten spent two weeks in Shanghai, China with the Australian national women's water polo team at their World Championships.  Shanghai weather was quite the contrast to brisk Canberra, like a warm, wet blanket smothering you as you walked outside.  The hotel we stayed in, on the other hand, was palatial.  I had no complaints!!

Here's an example of the always funny way in which English sometimes gets translated into Chinese (this was in the bathroom of one of our training venues).  And I quote, "Water conservation all praise to start the tree from my example."

This is but one example of the wacky, futuristic buildings in Shanghai.  Affectionately known as the "bottle opener."

It was a good trip in a sport psychology sense, working with the team and coaches in a high pressure situation, getting to know everyone better, and feeling like I fit in and could make a difference.  That is, until our final game at Worlds, which happened to be against the USA for 5th place.  My former colleague from the USOC, Peter, was the sport psychologist for the US team so there was a bit of banter pre-game.  The weirdest moment for me was when the national anthems for each team played.  I found myself really wondering what the etiquette in this situation was...could I without seeming to betray the Australians, put my hand over my heart and sing along with the anthem like I would have at any other point?  I certainly could not sing along with the Australian version--I still didn't know the words.  I compromised with the hand on heart, but no singing.  Aside from that moment, it wasn't as hard to be "against" the US team as I would have thought.  I realized that it was, as usual, about the people.

Australia beat the USA 10 - 5, the first time AUS has beaten the US in a major competition since 2000.   A bittersweet victory from my perspective...with some mixed feelings, for sure.

Here is the team doing wall sits in the hotel aerobics studio:

Other Shanghai touring photos include: a temple built right on the underlying vocanic rock:

And the famous 10 cornered bridge:

There's more to write...as I type, it's September 11 (on this side of the world, anyway) and I am impressed at the amount of airspace the local news agencies are devoting to this topic.  It is, as I imagine for most Americans, causing us to reflect on the horrific events themselves and where we each were ten years ago, and hope that the world is a better place since then.  The US Embassy here is hosting some events that we may join in on.

TTFN...ta ta for now.  Hope the next message won't be so long in coming.

Too much stuff and nothing says Easter like Melbourne

My heartfelt apologies for the long stint between entries.  It turns out that moving to a new country with family while trying to learn the ins and outs of a challenging job IS hard!!  I was out of communication commission while trying to sort out some interesting staff and athlete issues.  But now, the dust-up behind me and hopefully a bit wiser, I have some time to sum up our goings-on here in Canberra and surrounds.

So, after waiting and waiting, we finally got the call that our ship had indeed made it to Sydney and that most of our stuff passed quarantine.  Except for two pesky pinecone Christmas ornaments (you gotta be kidding me, they went through the whole box?? I shudder to look at what survived) which cost us an extra $50 for disposal.  Here was the actual exchange with the person from the moving company:

Moving person (MP):  "We must inform you that you had pine cones in your shipment and that it will cost $50 for their disposal."

Me:  (sharp intake of breath) "What??  $50 for two little ornaments??  Or is that $50 apiece???"

MP:  hearty laughter...  "Oh you are too funny, $50 for each?  That would be silly!"

Me:  (dryly) "Ahh.  There's where the silly line in the sand is drawn, I see."

MP:  "What?"

Meanwhile, I took guilty pleasure in knowing that the spices and herbs I had packed made it through without detection.  Our food will be illegally spiced for the time being.

Unloading day dawned with the movers not far behind.  They'd repacked our stuff into two smaller containers and of course all the big stuff was in the second one to arrive, making for a lot of shifting of little stuff to fit big stuff.  The movers were a cheerful lot, though, and willing to try to cram our 2400 square feet of furniture into whatever nook and cranny our current 1800 feet would receive.  The living room couch missed the cut, and is out in the garage.  Along with what will probably be about 10 boxes of extra schtuff that we have literally no surfaces to handle.

The good news is that things now do look better than they did that first day.  I laugh now at the thought we'd only live here a year and see how it goes--maybe find something better in terms of housing.  We are here for the duration, as god is my witness, at least!!  And it does now feel more like a home than just a house.  And now we have that extra bed (okay, just a futon, but still!) for visitors, so come on down!

Easter, as it turns out, is big business in Australia, complete with the requisite chocolate eggs, bunnies, and well all those other spring images.  The Australians are not ones to quibble over details like the fact that, well, it's fall here, for gosh sakes.  This year's calendar provided everyone with a longer-than-usual holiday weekend, combining Good Friday, Easter Monday and Anzac Day into an almost week-long fest.  Anzac Day comes from (and I am sure you will hear from Dan if I get this wrong) Australia-New-Zealand-[I go blank now for the rest of the letters, but it has to do with several countries heroic efforts during WWI] and is the local equivalent to our Memorial Day back in the US.  ANYWAY, suffice it to say that with that many days off in a row plus Mika's school term break, we were off to the holiday races.  Specifically, a trip to Melbourne to spend some time with Kirsten's work colleague Susie Parker-Simmons who used to work with KP at the USOC but coincidentally also moved to Australia so Susie could head up the Victorian Institute of Sport.

We had decided to make the 8 hour drive to Melbourne rather than flying so as to put miles on the leased car we were supposed to have in hand by now.  The tsunami hitting Japan, however, derailed the arrival of our car, so we're still in the borrowed AIS Holden Captiva.  Oh well...

So on the way down, we stopped at a coastal town called Lakes Entrance for more surf playing and hiking.  Very nice area and yet more opportunities for Mika to outpedal mom from the waves.

From there we drove to Mount Eliza, a coastal community south of Melbourne to meet up with the Parker-Simmons family.  Mika and I agreed that if we had to do it all over again, we could cheerfully live here--a 10 minute walk to the ocean in an area ripe with wineries and farms.  We got to attend our first netball game, the Melbourne Vixens outlasting the Midland Pulse.  Mika was unimpressed with the game even as us adults were amazed at the athleticism if not the action around the net.  There's no dribbling per se, so players rely on quick passing and movement away from the ball to get it close to the goal (think basketball hoop without a backboard).  The action sort of stops once the ball gets in close enough, but without a backboard and no real player-to-player contact allowed, the shot itself seems a little anticlimactic to those of us used to basketball mayhem under the basket.  This sport is the #1 sport for women in Australia (men don't play it).

Easter Sunday, we all went to yonder garden/hedge maze area to while away the better part of the day scrambling through several hedge mazes (kids are much better at this than adults), visiting farms for local produce, and sampling a little of the local wineries.  A wonderful day.  Here's us at the maze place:

Above is Susie with her two kids, Rachel and Blake, as well as Mika, looking appropriately confused pre-maze.  Below are kids, plus Susie, Dan, and Susie's husband, Jeff.

Easter Monday, we all drove into Melbourne proper--the Parker-Simmons family had scored tickets to the big Australian Rules Football game that day (called "footy" by those in the know) while we toured the city for the day.  Our highlight was a visit to the Melbourne Aquarium including the required shot of Mika in the shark's mouth, as well as an entertaining interlude watching the manta rays try to eat the divers who were in the tank trying to feed them...

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on the Canberra drive, this time taking the straight inland shot back.   Roadside highlights included a stop at the famed "Dog on the Tucker Box" exhibit, right off the highway no less.  It would appear that Australians are quite fond of capturing folklore or local points of interest in statuary--in some cases incredibly oversized statuary.  This particular attraction may have lacked physical stature, but it made up for it in sheer audacity.  

Dog and Tucker Box.

The dog and his tucker box (otherwise called the lunch pail) has been the subject of many different story versions over the years.  My current favorite is the one where the dog's owner--a workman of some kind--has a string of bad luck, he loses his way, his truck breaks down, and when he gets back to collect his tucker box, famished no doubt, he finds the dog (and this is a quote from the engraved story): "sitting--or worse--on the box."  We will leave it to your collective imagination to determine what "worse" might be.  But a story worth capturing and putting to print, wouldn't you agree?

Suffice it to say, we made it back to C-town in one piece.  Stay tuned for our next, hopefully more timely episode!!

A "normal" week goes by

Life is settling down, finally.  This will mark our second "off" weekend in a row, where we have no major plans or work trips for Kirsty.   So is life actually getting boring?  Not quite. 
 
A quick recap, last Saturday was Mika's first Saturday morning soccer practice, which allowed Mom and Dad some time for a hike together on nearby Mt Majura.  On Sunday, we visited the Glassworks factory and saw a demonstration, then hit the art and food market next door.  Mika had a great time sampling everything - chocolates, nuts, fruits, cheese, you name it.  Then wandered through the art and craft area where she bought a book on Useless Japanese Inventions (turns out there are quite a few of these out there), and then another book that had won an award last year for best historical fiction for youth. We also met the author who signed the book for her (Ok, that was a little more of a thrill for me, but one day she'll appreciate it.  Right?).  We capped off the afternoon with a picnic lunch on the lake with a variety of foods we bought at the market. 
 
The rest of the week went relatively smoothly, though I read a slightly disturbing headline on page 3 of the Canberra Times on Wednesday:  "High rodent numbers ready to march into our warm homes".  Apparently the unusually wet summer has led to a surge in the local population of "rodents", and experts are warning that with the first frosts expected in the next few months these buggers will try to get into homes.  Ok, fine.  Except something was gnawing at me (no pun intended), and I couldn't place it until it struck me this morning (again, no pun intended).  A few nights ago we were sitting in the living room with some music on and Kirsty asked me if I heard something.  I didn't, so I turned the music off.  Still nothing.  So I go and open the front door  Thats when I heard it, whatever "it" was.  Extremely bizarre, low guttural call.  Kirsty seemed to think it was a possum, and I was in no position to argue, but it just sounded…. bigger.  Finally, today, I put the two together and realized what I heard - R.O.U.S.  For those of you who have not seen the Princess Bride, well, go watch it.  For everyone else, wish us luck!

A soggy day in Sydney town

Only three months in and another visitor from the States! My hoops buddy Mike was the first, just a week after we moved into the house. Not sure that ever made the blog, but he suffered through our early grilling adventures at the house, though it was still good to have a friend in to talk with and share a meal with. This time it was Kirsty's sister Zoe, who was on the backend of a whirlwind business trip to the Pacific Rim. We were able to meet up with her Friday night in Sydney and had a good, if soggy, weekend visit. After a fruitless search for a hotel suite that would accommodate 3 adults and a child (for less than our monthly mortgage back home), I settled on a B&B in the Surrey Hills neighborhood, about a fifteen minute walk from the Opera House and Circular Quay (thanks Oprah! By all accounts, Sydney is experiencing unprecedented tourism the last two months, and theories are the culprit is the big O, and I'm not talking about Oscar Robertson. This has turned an already pricey city into a seller's market, and the sellers aren't budging!). Once settled, it was just a matter of filling time (and trying to stay dry) between meals! We did have a good hour or two where the rain let up in Manly, retracing the the coastal walk Kirsty and I took back in September. This time with less sun and much to Mika's chagrin, and only slightly less to my own, more spiders!

These guys were hanging out (literally) overhead in the bushes we walked through once we got to the point. I may have gained a few pounds since hitting these shores, but am still vertically challenged so was relatively confident of passing underneath without notice. Mika had her doubts, which intensified with each new gauntlet. Fortunately we made it back without incident, aside from getting dumped on again by the rain (mostly my fault as I had pushed for one last hiking segment along the cliffs).

A nice ferry ride back in to the city, a few more great meals and before we knew it we were dropping Zoe off at the airport and heading back to Canberra. All in all it was a good visit, highlighted by incredible food. To paraphrase an old friend, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting some hip\trendy\flat-out-amazing cafe or restaurant.

The Concert

Yes we went to a concert (how'd you guess?). Just last night Dad and I headed to a building that I forgot the name of to see Weird Al Yankovic perform live. I thought it was a good show and I even saw my dad laugh a few times. It was a small theater, about 15 rows then a few feet up and then the seats continued on, going up at a slight slant. He sang a few of my favorite songs including Eat it and Canadian Idiot. In between each of the songs he would play features from a show called the weird al show. It was pretty much weird al interviewing random people. They would also show segments from random shows that mention him. He also sang Fat (in his fat suit), the Saga Begins, Yoda, You Don't Love Me Anymore, and Dare to be Stupid. There were others but i forget what they were. All in all, I think it was worth the $200 that we paid for the two tickets.

Our Ship Has Come In! Not.

Hi from cloudy Canberra!  The unseasonably rainy weather that has dogged the region all summer and by some reports devastated the local wine-supplying vineyards continues.  Not that it rains all the time, mind you, but certainly way more than back in dry-dry-dry Colorado.  Kirsten personally still finds it fun and novel and loves the lullaby sound of rain on the roof.  Remind me of this entry when I start whingeing about it (whingeing = bitching, FYI) six months from now.

Other Aussie phrases of recent note:

Going pear-shaped = going wrong

I reckon = I think

Petrol = gas

Jumper = sweater

...and so on...so many of these are similar to British terminology that it was a bit off-putting to me when one evening a colleague of mind earnestly told me that if I wanted to fit in, it would be best to "hate the Poms."  I mentioned how alike I found the Aussies to the Poms (Brits) and wondered why the dislike and she said it was that Aussies feel sometimes like the neglected little sister to the UK.  And can't wait, therefore, to thump them in 2012 when London hosts the Olympics.  Not that anyone is waiting til then to cheer any and all British losses in any sport.  Boo you Poms!  And stop calling us Aussies bloody convicts, willya?

Pause to catch breath and return to my role as dispassionate foreigner...

We had a wonderful weekend at the beach (yes another beach weekend) this time at Jarvis Bay which is home to dolphins and is a seasonal stopping-off point for the annual whale migrations.  We did not see either species this particular trip, but learned enough about the area that we will return for sure.  Our friends Amy and Sally (Sally being a work colleague of KP's) had invited us to share in the bounty of a home lent to them so it was a free lodging weekend.  Jarvis Bay and surrounds is a national park, so little is developed, and no high rises in sight--wonderful for those who like their beaches unspoiled and minus the likes of boardwalks and hotdog stands.  The weather was not perfectly suited for sunbathing but we made it out for a couple swim sessions including (wait for it...wait for it...) Dan's initiation into the world of boogie boarding!  I have video in hand to prove it, but since Dan's the techno whiz in the house, you are unlikely to see it going to YouTube any time soon.  Which is your loss.  It did our hearts good to see him out there, and he was literally the last person out of the water.

As it happens, Jarvis Bay, like I suppose many coastal regions, consists of a bunch of different beach areas one after the other.  We visited several and here are some of our weekend highlights:

This is the beach closest to Vincentia where we were staying.  Mika enjoyed the game of following the wave out then running backwards like a bat out of hell to avoid the incoming waves.  My backpedalling skills left much to be desired.  More like back-staggering.

Murrays Beach on Saturday afternoon.  Damn you, rich yacht owner!!  I want your life, just for a couple days, please.

We hiked round yonder point and up onto the point itself which separated the bay from the ocean with some spectacular cliffs and waves.  At the top, we saw a warning sign about the cliffs but as usual were impressed with the general Aussie assumption that Average Joe wasn't there expressly to slip off the cliff so didn't need 10 foot fences to keep him from doing so.  We were also amused by even the warning sign "falling person" symbol who seemed much happier even as it plummeted to its demise than its American counterpart.

Okay, so upon closer observation, maybe not, but it still struck us as funny at the time!

Sunday, we boogie boarded (yes, all of us!) and then Amy took Mika on her first ocean snorkeling experience at Greenpatch Beach.  Upon their return to shore, Mika said they saw some angel fish and lots of minnows.  Amy called Mika the "mother ship" because the minnows were actually camping out in Mika's shadow for most of the snorkel trip!

A wave from our intrepid snorkeler!

The next day, Kirsten headed to Adelaide for a track cycling conference and the chance to see the South Australia Sport Institute (SASI) prompting this response from her when she was invariably asked, "so how did you find SASI?"  What else could I say but, "Sassy!"  Ba dum bum.

Using the word sassy (which I do not often get the chance to do) reminds me:  The Aussies are very fond of nick names.  Very fond.  As in taking one's name and morphing it into a nickname involving either the adding of an "o" or "ee" at the end some portion of it. Men are especially fond of this or at least they seem to be the ones with the names.  The male AIS sport psychs, for example. consist of Patchy and Lloydy--Patchell and Lloyd being the original last names.  And if you think that is the end of it, you would be wrong.  Very wrong.  In addition to the penchant for adding vowels to the end of names, I have been pulled up short by some nicknames that have no relation to their namees but are just classics--in my humble opinion, anyway.  "Dumpa" and "Grub" are some recent examples--and both freely owned by national team coaches, may I add.  I have found it best in both cases to stick with the standard, "Coach."

I have had several US-based pleas for me to take my obvious governmental clout here : ) to change the name of the national Aussie soccer team, the Socceroos to something--anything--else!  Having lived here now for just shy of two months, I would be ill-advised to take on the suicide mission of wiping out a nickname derived from the time-honored vowel-adding tradition.  It clearly meets all criteria for a dare I say nickname.  My advice: get over it, you stiff-necked Americans, and I am talking to you, Timmo Putz-ee!!

March 17 will mark the two-month anniversary of our arrival in OZ.  Plenty of time to have to live within the limits posed by our two suitcases apiece of goods, you say?  Ha, we retort!  Just you watch!  And you will get plenty of time to watch how long we can last--we found out today that our container carrying our worldly goods that was supposed to dock in Sydney on March 8 has been instead been beached in Taiwan due to a ship cancellation forced by the Chinese New Year.  Wahh??  Wasn't that holiday in January?  Nevertheless, now we are looking at an April 22 goods-in-Canberra date.  I for one (and I cheerfully count myself in the minority in the family on this) am not all that fussed by the news.  I still carry the scars of having purged, sold, cleaned, organized, and supervised the packing of our stuff.  Dan is missing some things (recipes being high on the list) and I think Mika would be buoyed by the sight of her things for sure but wait we will.  Everyone in the moving industry food-chain we have spoken to has taken pains to point out that this development is (and I quote) not their fault.  So I suppose we blame it on those Chinese New Year lovers??  Ah well, nothing says adventure quite like a small pile  of constantly worn clothing!

Poetry Contest alert.  Mika goes to Telopea (Tel-o'-pee-a) Park School and I have made it my mission to write her a great fight song, in the tradition of the Great School Fight Song.  Or as Mika would dryly put it, "to make my life miserable."  Either way, I am looking for powerful school fight song lyrics with the catch being that they must eventually rhyme with "Telopea."  Mika has rejected such classic riffs as:

"You will not mope-ea, when you go to Telopea!"

Or try this one,

"Our foes say nope-ea when they see Telopea!"

What, you didn't like that one?  How about this?

"Come to Telopea, don't be a dope-ea!"  "There is no hope-ea of beating Telopea!"  "Ya can't beat Telopea, not even at jump-rope-ea!"

Submissions encouraged.  Over and out from Down Under!  Keep the emails coming, we miss you.

Touched by an Angel (awww!), the End of Summer (wha?) and Spiders

All together now, "Happy Belated 12th Birthday, Mika!"  She turned a year older on 21 February.  A day that started inauspiciously when she said that it was just a birthday, nothing "happy" about it.  Sigh.  We decided to allow Mika to get a cat for her birthday to ease the pet-missing so headed off to the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and found our feline, a cute little 2-year old pre-named Angel.

Mika also opened a few presents (actual and virtual--books from her Amazon wish list) and we had the BEST chocolate cake ever.  Dan found it at yonder Manuka bakery and we will be visiting that bakery often if I have any say in the matter!!

I just found our yesterday that summer here in Canberra (and I guess in all Australia, though that has yet to be independently confirmed) ends on Monday.  March 1 is the beginning of fall.  Jeez, it feels like we just left winter (okay, we missed the minus gazillion degree days that you Coloradans had to face, but still!) and now we're heading right into harvest season?  I don't know why that seems even more confusing than just showing up here in the heat of summer, but there it is.  Our first season is ending.  Just writing that makes it feel like we have been here for something like a piece of time, and not just a few weeks.  I suppose I will be boring you all with my musings over these tiny milestones (or this that kilometer-stones??) for months to come.

Through Dan's perseverence, we have now returned to the ranks of the internet-enabled.  Installation came last Thursday and we are now proud parents of a wireless router, even.  Never mind that the cables for all this connectivity are about to pull the eaves of the house (no fooling)...we are BACK!!  I will let Dan rhapsodize on all that, since he was the one having to run from library to McDonalds for more than a week in the never-ending search for a reasonable Wi-Fi signal.

Other developments...

Mika tried out for a soccer team representing the Majura Football Club.  We'd initially spoken with a club closer to our house, but it turned out that not all clubs are really for girls.  The Canberra Football Club, we discovered, takes girls on, but only a few per team and the scuttlebutt was that they did so to keep their boys from getting too out of hand.  Not wanting to have Mika's soccer season purposed in this way, we moved on to a club further afield, but one that had a good reputation for being fun and low-key.    From the looks of things at the try-out, Mika's skills are on par with her Aussie counterparts and she's cautiously optimistic about the season.  We all were also pumped by the news of the club's plans for a team trip to Borneo next year.  Of course geographically challenged me has no idea where Borneo is, but I assume that Mika would never have made her way there otherwise, so we're thinking that it should be a go if things work out.

Today was house cleaning day for Kirsten.  Those of you who know me can stop your eye-rolling right now.  It was only to establish a cleanliness baseline...not a sign of things to come that I would regularly spend 4 hours cleaning all the floors in the house.  Now we can let things go to hell in a handbasket.  Ha.
But while cleaning, Mika found one of the big-assed Canberran spiders we had heard tell of prior to coming here, but had yet to see.  Right on our shower wall yet.  Okay, so it wasn't quite the size of an outstretched hand, but it did range larger with feet extended than my palm for sure.

Until next time....!

New School, New Job, and Parliamentary Procedures...

This morning, I actually had to count up the days we had been here because I was positive we'd been here for way more than a month, only to figure out it had been barely over three weeks!  Time has gone fast...and slow.  I am getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road, even finding US-based TV shows that show RH driving to be a little freaky.  That is, of course, until I again hit the #$%#$ windshield wipers rather than the turn signal and realize that I am still such...a rookie.

Aussie phrases of the week:

..."like a pork chop."  Used in sentences in such contexts as: "You were dancing like a pork chop."  When I asked what that meant, I was told that pork chops, as a meat product, tend to sizzle more in the pan, so it basically was a way of saying that you were really fussed or upset or obsessed by something.

"In the purple"  = "in the zone."

Kerfluffle = Dust-up or altercation or at least confusion (I think)

Homefront news:  it was a big week for all of us, and another time of shock and awe as we transitioned from pseudo tourists/house hunters into gainfully employed inhabitants (at least Mika and KP)  : )  Dan is dutifully assuming the role of house-husband/domestic god/caretaker of the 1000+ details yet to be ironed out as we assume status as bona fide residents and not just furnished-apartment wannabes.

Mika's transition to student was (and continues to be) a work in progress.  Unlike her parents, she was underwhelmed by her acceptance into one of our two schools of choice.  Her first reaction during the initial school tour was that the school was old and it stank.  The smell part I couldn't confirm, but in the old part she is correct.  Telopea Park School is the oldest in the Australian Capital Territory and was designed by the same architect who created the old parliament house (affectionately known by locals as the "wedding cake" but I digress).  Interestingly, Telopea Park School is half-funded by the French government (don't ask me why) so up to 6th grade, students have to speak French as it is exclusively spoken in half the classes.  Seventh grade and up, there is both an English and French stream which is why we were hoping Mika would be bumped up to seventh grade.

As part of Telopea's curriculum, all students have to take a language class.  Mika, by virtue of her last-minute enrollment, got her last choice of languages: Indonesian.  On the one hand, I empathize with her disappointment.  On the other I am secretly gleeful.  Indonesian.  A whole part of the world we all could stand to learn so much more about!  She will also (obviously) be learning about Australian geography.  I think Dan and I will be reading her textbooks as much as she will be.  We have a lot to catch up on.

By Monday, the first day of school, Mika had resigned herself to her fate and stoically rose to the challenge.  Upon our entrance onto school grounds, I could tell she was checking out the scene and assessing her relative appropriateness.  Off came the hoodie she'd been wearing and she increased her distance from me.  I captured this paparazzi photo (no posed "first day of school" shots this year):

We were ushered into the school auditorium for the "first day of school" introduction (parents were on the right side, students on the left).  It was hard to watch Mika leave my side and literally find her own way to a seat all by herself.

Really, it was a shock to all of us...another transition bigger than I at least thought it would be--after all, we'd been here for several weeks already.  Mika really struggled those first couple days, keeping to herself until one night when she finally broke down and let me know how sad and upset she really was about this ordeal.  I will say that it was wonderful for me for her to turn and hug me fiercely, finally letting me in, even if it was just for a little while.  Every adult I talk to about this echoes our own thoughts that it's just a process that will take some time to get through, that she will make friends and eventually settle in just fine, but boy does my heart go out to her in the meantime.  She really has the hardest job of all of us right now.

Meanwhile, I had my own transition issues, hitting work for my first full-time week.  I work for the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which is a subset of the Australian Sport Commission, the part of the Australian government responsible for sport and physical activity.  The AIS focuses on elite sport including but not limited to Olympic sport (hello cricket and netball!).  The main AIS complex is in Canberra and is much larger than the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  There are several sports based in Canberra, but like the US, most sports are in other places as well.  I head up the Performance Psychology Discipline for the AIS which means I oversee our staff of full and part-time psychologists and basically am charged with directing activity to make sure that we are appropriately meeting the psychological and mental training needs of our elite athletes and coaches.  (Do you like how I worked in the word "our"?  I have had to work on disassociating myself from my affiliation with the US and remembering who I work for now!)

My week has been spent figuring out emailing, phone system, learning names, wondering how I will ever learn it all, getting tutored on the psych staff's very fancy espresso machine (blowing away my assumption that I would have to drink tea here at work), strategizing, attending meetings, learning budget management, reading research proposals...I have needed a nap every evening as soon as I get home.

The week was topped off by a last-minute plea from AIS higher ups to "go up to the Hill" as part of an invite to present to an Australian Senate subcommittee (health and aging) on the topic of youth suicide prevention.  Apparently this is part and parcel of working for the government, that we are pressed into, well, helping the government!  It is without shame that I admit that I was practically the last person to be asked, but several more suitable candidates were unable to attend.  My initial reaction was to find someone--anyone!--to go in my stead...what did I know about Australian anti-suicide efforts?  I finally agreed to go figuring what the hell--what a cool thing and who could be that mad at the oblivious newly-arrived American?  So I dressed up and found my way to the *new* (aka not wedding cake) parliament house--a spectacular structure crowning the hill of the government circle, met my boss there, was issued the visitor pass, and ushered to a room fitted with miked table and recording studio.  Me and about 15 others deemed expert enough to answer questions of senate committee members.   All in all, it was a great experience.  I was able to contribute to a discussion of how sport and exercise involvement can act as a buffer for depression, and was asked more questions than even I thought appropriate, but realized that some committee members were just really interested in sport!  I was impressed at how well prepared the committee members were, asking thoughtful questions of the assembled psychologists and suicide prevention agency folks in attendance.

Tonight is our last night at the serviced apartment.  Feeling a tad nostalgic prior to our move to the house tomorrow, here are some pictures.

LR/DR:

Mika in her favorite Ipad reading pose on the couch:

KP playing house in the kitchen:

Mika and KP livin' it up in the living room:

Yes, we are the Slackers...

This weekend:  The Big Move and Mika finds a soccer team (we hope!)  Cheers!!

Another day at the beach

Second day at the beach in less than a week, are we becoming Aussies? Or just slackers? Probably a combination, and I'll leave it to others to assign the appropriate (individual) designations. This time we were down on the south coast of New South Wales, at an area called Batemans Bay. This is the closest ocean spot from Canberra, so guessing we will be making plenty of visits here. The drive itself was something of an adventure, as I was left with a quesy stomach on the way in with Kirsty driving, and flayed skin on the way back from Kirsty's radioactive glare while I drove home. We may need Mika to drive next time to keep the family peace somewhat intact. Once there and settled we had another good day. Body surfing in the morning, and then after lunch Mika and Kirsty bought boogie boards and tried those out.

(hmmm... blogger is not happy with the video upload of said bogie-boarding I've been trying for the last 12 hours. I finally gave up and uploaded to You Tube - You can watch here if interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8mcNgl8ipQ)

Before finally hitting the road for the trip home, decided to stop at the grocery store across the street from the beach and get some drinks and ice cream. Not sure if it was heat stroke, or just my sick of being charged 8X what I would normally pay in the states (three-fifty for a soda, 5 bucks for an ice cream, $18.75 for a thimble of beer), but I finally cracked and bought an 8-pack of ice cream bars. Yes, there are only three of us, and it was a two hour plus drive ahead, so obviously no saving for home. So it was a quick two apiece outside the store, before a brief respite, then two more in the car. Fortunately, the Aussies are much less judgmental than their European forefathers, so this behavior went by unnoticed.

So what led to this excursion (aside from the obvious)? Final closure on Mika's school! She's in! (Was starting to worry about that whole home-school thing, although not as much as her). Met with the principal and vice principal on Friday, they accepted the paperwork, and we even slapped down a deposit on her first school field trip (where? the ocean of course). So, tomorrow will be her first day of school, as well as Kirsty's first "official" day at her job. Which leaves me with…. blogging! Woo-hoo! I can just feel the excitement. Or maybe thats just the wind generated from all those browsers shutting down at once. E-breeze?

We Rent a House AND Go to the Gold Coast!

The good news is that we actually have ourselves a rental house and thus a spot of Earth to hopefully satisfy yonder tough-talking school administrators.  Of course having signed the lease, rushed to the governmental international education agency to have them provide the requisite stamp of approval on having jumped said hoops, we find out that the school of choice is doing professional development sessions until Friday, so my hope of immediate resolution of the school limbo was not to be.   Being a person who loves closure, I am, as my yogic friend consistently reminds me, learning to love breathing through my left nostril which is supposed to help me stay in the moment and not mind this "blowing in the wind" feeling.  Can you tell it's working?  Not.  : )

Anyway, back to the house.  It has "double brick" construction which folks here hold in high regard for being cool in summer, warm in winter.  Lovely rose bushes in the front, some fruit trees (which in addition to their being willing to consider pets clinched the deal for Mika), a great side deck, and a yard for the vegetable garden I have been missing all those years in Colorado.

Side yard fruit trees!!  (Photo credits to Mika)

Kitchen  --- note the small oven which seems typical of all homes we saw.  Apparently, the 18-pound turkey dinner is not going to be happening!  But all appliances have much higher energy efficiency ratings than I have ever seen, which is a great thing.  Our landlords own a kitchen renovation business which is clear from this beautiful space.

Side deck, which will not be looking as nice when this model furniture is replaced by our Sears Special outdoor set.  : )

A big selling point for us was and is how nice our landlords have been throughout the process.   I think in the end, it can make as much difference as the house itself.  They have the house furnished and will leave the furniture during the time until our own stuff arrives from the US.  From the looks of things, I think we will like their furniture better than ours!!  We will be moving in the weekend of February 12, a week after Mika starts school.  Seems only right to limit the major transitions in our lives to one per week.

Having nailed the house down, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief and set our sights on the impending trip the AIS had arranged for us, to the Gold Coast for the weekend.  The Gold Coast is located just south of Brisbane, and about a 2-hour flight north from Canberra.   It's a series of beaches famed for incredibly soft white sand where sunbathing and surfing are nigh onto the region's religion.  The ostensible reason for the trip was for me to get to meet the national team water polo coach whose team was having a camp there...but I really think the AIS was helping us to feel welcome, especially Mika!  I say this because it is also the theme park capital of Australia.  : )

We stayed in a great apartment a few blocks off the beach, a place Mika dubbed the "best hotel I have ever stayed in.  Ever."  Mostly because we slipped her into the master suite with her own bathroom and best of all, her own TV.

Note the remote in hand, despite the awesome ocean views.

We played and swam in the ocean the first day, and went to yonder water park after my meeting on the second day.  All in all, a great break from the grind of house hunting and worry about school stuff.

Note tiny surfers in the background...

A brief note about travelling in Australia.  There are several low-cost airlines that frequent the east coast cities/tourist destinations, and check-in processes are several degrees more laid-back than anything I have seen before (at least since 911).  Including no restrictions on liquids, so Mika was carrying around her favorite liter of soda the whole way home!  The onboard security speeches have a distinctly Aussie feel, which I think the stuffy US could stand to learn from.  Like acknowledging the reality that you clearly DO already know how to put on a seat-belt, but hey, just in case your elderly aunt might need a refresher...  It made me laugh, but also I actually paid attention to the patter for the first time in a decade.

So we're back in C-town waiting for our chance to prove ourselves school-worthy....stay tuned!