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Australia Blog and Update (check out
Sydney's and
Sutter's pages
for additional updates!)
Many more
photos are posted on Kodak, click here to see those.
Christmas 2009
We kicked off the holiday season with a solid six week stretch of
visitors with no more than 24 hour break between visits. We
feel very fortunate that my sister and her family, Sydney's
preschool friend and his family and now Srima's dad and step-mom
have come to share in our first Christmas season in Oz. It has
made the holiday season fun and action packed and has left little
time for pining away for the comforts of home. It is also
summer here which makes the whole Xmas/NYE very different from what
we are used to.
August 2009
  My mom and I went to the Opera House to see a local comedian perform and then walked around the Harbour and had some dessert. It
was so beautiful to be in the city at night. We took
Sydney to
baseball try-ons (see
Sydney's page for complete story) and ended up registering her
for a team and
signing me up to be a coach. Ray and I took advantage of
my mom's visit and snuck away to the South Coast for two days.
It was an amazing trip and reminded me a lot of the scenic
California coastline near Big Sur with the added bonus that the
water and the beaches are a lot warmer in the summer.
We were very busy while Grammie was here and made a last-minute trip
to Jervis Bay (also on the South Coast but about 3 hours away).
They claim that Hyams beach has the whitest sand in the world
according to the Guinness Book of World Records but who really knows
for sure. Although Jervis Bay is gorgeous, it is not very
built-up nor is it very commercialized. It got us thinking
that if that were in the U.S., it would have high-rises, fancy cafes
and galleries and luxurious accommodations. The town we stayed
in looked pretty much the same as it had for many years and really
reminded us of a true fishing village. When we returned, we
kept to the aquatic theme and made a visit to the Sydney Aquarium.
It is right on the Harbour so we took advantage and had a delicious
meal while overlooking the water. Those are the moments when
we just pinch ourselves and think, "How are we so lucky to live
here?" We have been very lucky and the weather in August has hovered
around 70 F (20 C) so we have been able to take advantage of many
outdoor activities.
  
  
  
July 2009
   We
started the month off by going to the 4th of July party hosted by
the American Society of Sydney. It was great fun and had
entertainment for the kids and ended with a nice fireworks display
(at 7 pm which was nice too). They had the only bagel store as
well as the one Outback Steakhouse cater the event so it was funny
to have some tastes of home. We all cheesed out and wore red
white and blue so we could have the full experience. It was
quite surreal to be surrounded by American accents and American
culture. Of course everyone was exchanging the usual, "what
brings you here", "how long have you been here and/or how long will
you be here" and "where do you live" type greetings so it was easy
to start conversations with pretty much everybody. Our
neighbor (a fellow American who lives a few doors down) joined us at
the party and brought the kids sparklers. Sydney loved them and
started flinging them around like a pro in no time.
Term break- Sydney finished her
first term at school and is starting to form new friendships.
(See Sydney's page for lots of other
highlights). We started the break by spending Saturday
discovering a new outdoor market (Eveleigh market) in the city and
then hanging out with one of Ray's coworkers who has kids Sydney's
age. We got a new urban shopping trolley (see photo) so we can
store all of our goodies as we walk around. We love exploring
markets (which is a good way to get to see new places) and manage to
hemorrhage money at them regardless if they are food, craft or art
markets. Thank god for the rule that foreign money is like
spending play money or we would really be in trouble.
   
Grammie (Srima's mom) arrived mid-July and we have had a great
time exploring the Sydney surrounds and have been very fortunate
with sunny (but cold) weather. She brought some Twinkies over to
share with some of Ray's coworkers but Sydney managed to get her
first taste of one too. She liked them so much it is probably
a good thing we can't get them here. We had wonderful weather this
weekend and took a drive up the peninsula to
Palm Beach (1 hour north of Sydney) and were stunned by the
views as we were flanked on one side by the beach and crashing waves
and on the other side by a tranquil inner harbor. The newspaper site
says the following about Palm Beach, “Palm Beach is sometimes
colloquially referred to as 'Palmy'." “Regular holiday visitors to
Palm Beach and the surrounding area include Sir Paul McCartney,
Bono, John Cleese, the Packer family, Rachel Griffiths, Leyton
Hewitt and Nicole Kidman to name but a few.” They were going
to add the McQuillans to the list but they ran out of characters. We didn't anticipate
that the day would be warm enough to enjoy the water so Sydney ran
around in the icy water fully clothed. Nothing like exporting
some white trash culture to Oz.
Sutter took a while to
warm up to the idea of walking in the sand but once he got
accustomed to it he was off like a rocket.
   
  
  
We ended the month with a trip to the Blue Mountains. They are
about 90 minutes outside of Sydney and are similar to what would
happen if you moved the lush rolling mountains of the East Coast
into Utah/Arizonz so that a few colored rock formations could stick
out. We stopped on our way at a Wildlife park where we got up
close and personal with wallabys, kangaroos, koalas and other
various Australian wildlife. Sydney was super brave and pet all
sorts of creatures.
  
  
 
June 2009
June was pretty much absorbed by the move. For the first
weeks we made heaps of calls to try to get utilities set up and to
coordinate our move. At the end of July we are still without cable
TV but we did manage to get the other utilities set up thankfully.
The ship with our stuff actually arrived only 6 weeks after it left
and our stuff sailed through both customs and quarantine. We
only had to pay $100 import tax for the six crappy bottles of
wine/alcohol that we had left out for the movers if they wanted it
but somehow it got packed and put in with our stuff. Maybe the
movers were trying to get us back for leaving them some two buck
chuck equivalents. When our stuff arrived over here it took
two trucks and six huge men a full day to unload our 11,000 lbs of
furniture and household items. We then had two full days of
help getting things unpacked out of the boxes and Srima spent
another two days to get it "livable". We were thankful to have
a week of overlap when we had both places so that by the time we all
moved from the apartment to the house, the kids room were set up
enough so they could feel at home. The house is very different from
our home in the states so we are suffering from a lack of closet
space and storage so it should be interesting to see how we are
going to fit everything in our new home.
  
Even amongst all the chaos, we tried to have some fun and squeeze
in some day trips and new adventures. We took the ferry to the city and
walked around the arts and crafts market at the Rocks. The kids loved the
ferry ride and didn't mind the freezing cold wind blowing against
them. The city is so beautiful we were in
a trance as we wound our way through the narrow streets.
Earlier in the month we attended a charity event at Sydney's school that had a James
Bond theme with an Indian buffet (Ray was in heaven). We went in the
usual fancy outfits but there were some hilarious outfits including
people in scuba gear with various outfits underneath and a bikini
clad couple. It was a great theme for a party and we met lots
of new people who have children in the same school. Our new neighbor babysat for us so we were able to relax
knowing our kids were in good hands. We are going to do a
babysitting exchange so that we can avoid the $20-$25/hr babysitters
charge here. Through all the changes and surprises, the kids really seem to have bonded a lot over the past few
months and are learning to play with each other despite the age
differences.
  
   
May 2009
Money! $$$$$$! Sydney is super
expensive. Everything from cars, to gas, to electronics, to
groceries, to eating out is easily 30-50% more than what we are used
to. The first few days I felt like I had a hole in my pocket
because the money went out so quickly. Strawberries are $6 a pint.,
ground beef is $5/lb, a lame toaster oven is $100, cordless phones
are $130 for a mediocre brand, and chicken breasts are $7/lb. When
you get into the fancy items like steak ($15/lb), eating out (Subway
6" is $8.90), or real restaurant dining ($18-$25 at a pizza parlor)
you really feel the pinch. That is probably why Sydney
consistently ranks in the top 15 to 20 most expensive cities in the
world. There are rumors that Costco is coming to Australia
although I don't know where everyone would store bulk goods.
We found a house! Ray and I
are so excited that our home search has ended. Ironically enough
Ray had seen this house in March when he came over to find us our
short-term housing and then he suggested we look at it again for the
longer term. The owner decided to allow us a long-term lease so we
are in. The house is only 0.5 miles north of where we currently are
and will allow Sydney to stay at her school. It will be a 25 minute
walk (~1 mile) to school now but I am sure we can make it. Ray will
be just around 1 mile to work so it should be convenient for him as
well. We are about 10 minutes walking to a great café, shopping and
restaurant area called Crow's Nest that has a vibrant night life as
well (unlike where we are now that all closes after working hours).
It is a very urban location (which means a very compact & small
house - probably 1,500 s.f.?) and is convenient to all the buses that go to the City and
near a bunch of parks as well. It isn't as close to the train
station as we were before but the busses will suffice. The house
has a lot of character and charm and even has a tiny backyard (which
is rare in this area). The two kids bedrooms are upstairs and the
master bedroom and study are downstairs. The kitchen and other
parts of the house have been remodeled so we are lucky to have
modern amenities as well. Now we just need to get used to urban
living and get rid of some of our big American stuff. Our
container with all of our stuff is set to arrive in the beginning of
June and is expected to be out of quarantine/customs by mid-June.
We have rented our apartment until June 28th so we decided to start
renting the house as of June 22nd so we would have a week overlap.
We asked for the house to come with the major appliances but have
asked them to remove their furniture so our 11,000 lbs of stuff will
have a place to go. Photos and
details:
http://www.domain.com.au/Public/PropertyDetails.aspx?adid=5938593
   
  
Sydney is adjusting to school very well. I cherish
our walks to school because we tend to have the best conversations
as we walk. This week Sydney boasted about how she invented
the “kissing game” where she chased her two guy friends (one of
whom is Latvian and I am not sure he speaks enough English to
understand what she is doing) all over the playground and tried to
kiss them. Recently it has been very, very rainy and windy so
Sydney, Sutter and I often get soaked during the school
pickup/drop off and then escape by jumping in a hot bath when we get
home. Sydney really likes the “maths” (yes math is plural here for some
reason) part of school where she gets to add and subtract.
Her school is pretty big overall (5 kindergartens) and is very
diverse. I think somewhere close to 50% of the kids are
foreign born. There are a lot of Indians, Koreans,
Chinese, Brits, South Africans and eastern Europeans in her class.
Sometimes I can go days without hearing an Australian accent when I
drop her off. Next month there is a James Bond themed fund
raiser casino night at the school and Ray and I are hoping to attend.
We have just looked into babysitting and found out that it costs an
average of
$20-$25 an hour plus any babysitting agency fees you might pay. This
is just one of the many things that is super expensive here.
Every night Sydney
comes home with a reader as homework. It is fun to go through
the books which often have characters with British sounding names
who do things only someone from the Commonwealth would do, like
spilling their mums tea, eating too many “biscuits” or not “minding”
their parents. Here is a link to the school's website.
http://www.northsydneydem.com.au/
Hubby may I? The wife of a visa holder is not allowed to put
anything in her name. So that means all our medical insurance,
cell phone contracts, rental agreements etc.. all have to be under
Ray's name since he is the wage earner. Besides the blow to
the ego this means that anything I want that requires a contract,
Ray has to be physically there to sign it into his name.
Acting like tourists- We have spent the last two
weekends enjoying the City. We went to the Sydney aquarium, Manly
Oceanworld and Luna Park. We had a fabulous walk down to
the Harbour Bridge and to Luna park late one evening. We
learned the hard way that infants are not allowed in taxis without a
car seat and were forced to walk the 1.5 miles uphill home. We
were lucky that during the first few weeks we had help from Poppa
and Nana (Srima's dad and stepmom) to help us get acclimated.
It also meant we went all over town searching out the best food,
ingredients and restaurants but we enjoyed getting to know new parts
of the City.
   
  
House hunting. I just started our house hunting
process. Our container isn't going to arrive until June so we are
just trying to get an idea of the areas so we can figure out where
we want to live. Everything here is quoted by the week so you feel
like you are getting a good deal when it says $1,200 until you
realize that is $4,800+ a month. Things are VERY
expensive here as you can see. We are just trying to figure
out what qualities we must have and what we can compromise on.
Closer to the water/central city means small houses with zero to no
open space (no yards for sure) but lots of parks, hilly but lots of
character. Farther away is more suburban, bigger houses,
shopping is more convenience oriented (big supermarkets and
cheaper), no water views and more dependency on the car. We
will see what happens. 15 minutes of FAME All houses,
whether for sale or for rent, are only shown 1x a week and for
only 15-30 minutes at a time. Very rarely do they do private
viewings. The agents then bop over to another property so that
they can show multiple in one day. It is a bit unnerving because you
can have anywhere from 2-100 people in line whirling through the
house at the same time. If you want a place you have to be ready to
jump right then. Talk about feeling like cattle.
Sydney's First Day of School. Sydney was welcomed
into Miss Derrigs class with open arms. The school is quite large (5
kindergarten classes) but there are a number of buildings that
separate the campus so it still feels intimate. Each day
starts with the classes organizing outside for assembly. It usually
is about 5-15 minutes long and each day has a different topic and
different groups gather (whole school, K only etc..). She was shy at
first but then played well with the kids by the end of the day.
Each day she brings home a reader for homework and we comment on how
well she does. Our only major issue seems to be lunch since she
doesn't seem to want to eat it. Each day her lunch box comes back
with almost as much as I put in it. Even if I just put her
favorites :). School doesn't start until 8:55 so are mornings aren't
rushed and she gets out at 2:55 (right in the middle of poor
Sutter's nap). The school has music and gymnastics on Fridays
so the kids really look forward to that.
   
Shopping Spree. I tried to buy some napkins today
and asked a salesperson to kindly help me, when the red-faced
teenager showed me some feminine “napkins” I realized that things
aren’t always what they seem. Apparently I should have asked for
servilletes (sp?) to save us both some embarrassment. There are lots
of stores/restaurants that literally look identical to the U.S. such
as Foot Locker, Subway (which I don’t understand why it works here
since every other sandwich shop is so much better), KFC, McDonalds,
Pizza Hut, the Body Shop etc.. There is also a Target which uses the
same logo and has a similar concept but is about 30% of the size of
American stores. Then there is another category of stores that look
like American stores but are a bit different such as Gymbaroo, ”Wood & Barrel”
and “Beyond Beds and Baths”. The hardest part about going shopping
is the fact that you must carry everything you buy all the way home.
Ray and I learned this the hard way when we went shopping the first
day for some food essentials and ended up each carrying 4 super
heavy bags of groceries for about 1/2 of a mile.
  
Walk this way. Well, I thought that if I didn’t get
a car I could avoid figuring out the whole driving on the other side
of the road thing. Well, obviously crossing the street is an
incredible hazard but what I hadn’t counted on is the fact that you
need to walk on the left when you are on the sidewalk and that you
need to always stand to the left when you are using a shopping cart
etc. I can’t tell you how many people I have almost mowed over in a
head-on collision in the sidewalk.
Mr., Mrs., Miss and Master?
Little Sutter is actually Master Sutter here. How cute is that?
Our temporary accommodations. We are living in a 3
bedroom/2 bath apartment in North Sydney. We are on the 15th floor
and have great views of the Sydney harbor. This is a very urban area
that has lots of shops, a train station, lots of busses and big
parks. I am trying to shed my suburban ways and adopt to urban
living but I definitely have a long way to go. We are looking
forward to exploring all the neighborhoods so we can figure out
where we would like to be long-term. We will be here until the end
of June.
  
  
Sydney’s school. The school term in Australia
starts in January and since Sydney is already 5, she will be going
directly to kindergarten next Monday. We started the registration
process and bought her uniforms as soon as we arrived but it takes a
few days to purchase her school voucher ($4,610 per year) which
enables her to attend public school (workers on a temporary visa are
not entitled to the free education that permanent residents are
given). This is one of the main reasons we will be applying for
permanent residency right away.
http://www.northsydneydem.com.au/
Our 23.5 hour journey. At around 8:30, we left my
Aunt’s house in L.A. where we got ready for our flight, (kid baths
and our farewell Mexican meal) and headed for LAX. We had an
enormous amount of stuff, 4 large suitcases, 4 huge boxes, one car
seat, one stroller, and 7 carry-ons. I guess Americans are known for
not travelling “light” since all of the Sydney airport staff looked
at our stuff and asked if we were American. Sutter fell asleep in
the stroller as we waited for our 11:45 flight but Sydney was too
excited to rest. Just as we got both kids to sleep the medical
emergency and its associated P.A. announcements began. First the
staff asked to see if there were any doctors aboard, then we saw a
defibrillator go by and then they asked if anyone had Beta blockers.
At about 5 a.m. the captain announced that we were going to
double-back to Hawaii to off-load a passenger with a medical
emergency. After the passenger was off-loaded safely, we continued
on to Australia. None of us managed to get much sleep at all on the
plane due to all the disruptions so by the time we arrived in
Australia (4.5 hours late) we were pretty haggard. Our door-to door
ended up being about 23.5 hours because the car service that I
ordered off the internet was about 30 minutes late (and parked ½
mile away where we had to lug our 13 pieces of luggage) and our
property manager was also about 20 minutes late to let us into the
building. We managed to stay awake until about 6 pm local time (3 am
p.s.t.) and went to bed happily.
   
April 2009
VISAS APPROVED. DOWN UNDER HERE WE COME. We just got
word that we got our visas and are in the process of booking airline
tickets. We are aiming to leave Sunday night. Now things are
getting crazy!
4/23/09 Ray's 42nd Birthday.
We are hoping that Ray's birthday present is a phone call stating
that our application is approved and that our visas have been
granted. If we don't hear by bedtime tonight (which is close
of business on Friday in Australia), that means that we will have to
wait until next week sometime. We are anxious to get there
since Sydney's kindergarten starts their second term next Tuesday
and we would like to minimize her school disruption as much as
possible. We are also anxious to get over there so that
Srima's dad and step-mom can have a quick visit before they head
back to spend the summer in the U.S. (since they live in New
Zealand). If we hear good news today we would try to leave
ASAP (probably Saturday night). If we don't hear anything, we will just be
ready to leave within a day of whenever we do hear. All of this is
making the big assumption that we will be approved, I can't imagine
what would happen if we weren't. Meanwhile all of
our worldly possessions are sitting somewhere in the Port of Long
Beach awaiting a departure date. The next sail date is Monday
so we are hoping that our stuff can go on the ship then otherwise
our stuff will wait an additional two weeks to sail and then we will
probably have to wait until the end of July for our stuff to arrive.
4/20/09 MUMS the WORD.
Today I decided to look into things to do with the kids in North
Sydney. So I thought I'd check out Australia's equivalent of
stroller strides. So I googled all sorts of words, mommy,
exercise, stroller and nothing came up. After a number of
frustrating searches I realized that a stroller is a pram, Mom is
Mum and a Baby is a Bub so when I googled, Mums, bubs and exercise,
loads of pages came up. I am guessing this is just the first of many
cultural differences we will experience. In my search efforts
I also came across a number of community playgroups, a soccerfit
exercise class and some baby sign language classes that are all
located within a block of our temporary apartment. Hopefully all
these things will keep me busy so I can minimize any feelings of
loneliness that might occur.
4/17/09 The visa application has been resubmitted to the
immigration bureau. We are hoping that the new information will be
sufficient to get the rubber stamp we need. We were told it
could take another 1-2 weeks.
4/15/09 Still no work visa. Since the global economy is crashing,
immigration offices around the world are making it more difficult to
bring in outside labor in an effort to protect their own labor
markets. Verizon Australia is busy building a case to justify
using foreign labor for Ray's position. Meanwhile, we are hanging out in the Residence
Inn in Cypress as we wait for news. Luckily there is a nice pool and
complimentary breakfast to keep our spirits up. In addition,
Srima's mom has been helping with the kids so although the hotel
room is a bit crowded the kids are getting some extra time with
their "Grammie".
The kids. Sydney is very aware that something "big"
is going on. She likes the idea of moving and wants to get there as
soon as possible although she keeps saying things like "when we move
back" or "when the people are finished borrowing our house".
We have tried to minimize the trauma by bribing her with toys but at
age 5 they are very savvy about figuring things out. Sutter is
clueless but I am pretty sure he is tired of sleeping in a pack and
play and at all sorts of odd hours. Hotel living seems like a
"fun adventure" to the kids but the close quarters make it hard to
ensure that the kids get uninterrupted sleep.
March 2009
March Madness. In preparation for the move, we worked on
downsizing our lives to fit a more compact urban lifestyle. This
meant getting down and dirty with craigslist and ebay. We sold,
donated or gave away about 40% of our stuff. It was very
emotional to see our house that we worked very hard to make into a
home slowly disintegrate before our eyes. Our decorations,
furniture, clothes and other assorted items crept out the door day
by day and poor Sydney would come home from school each day and ask
to see what is gone. It was very hard to balance emotions,
tension, and timing during the moving countdown but we managed to
survive.
How long will we be going for? No idea at this
point. Ray is getting a work transfer (not a contract) so he
will be an Australian employee while we are down there. We
have to to stay a minimum of a year but are not obliged any further
than that. We will leave as soon as we get our work visas (permits)
and all of our belongings will follow us by ship in about 8-10
weeks. While we wait for our stuff to arrive we will be
staying in an apartment in North Sydney (this is across the harbor
from the famous Opera House) and we will look for a more permanent
residence to rent starting at the beginning of July.
Sydney will start kindergarten in our temporary neighborhood and
will likely have to change schools depending on where we rent longer
term.
January - February 2009
Over the three month period Ray worked on getting his transfer
and relocation approved and Srima worked on getting the house ready.
December 2008
Ray receives official news that he is going to be transferred to
Sydney, Australia. We are very excited but realize that the
next few months are going to be challenging. We decide to
start telling family and friends and that is when it hit us that the
move is "real". Although it was really exciting to think about
our new adventure, it was very sad to realize how far away we will
be from family and friends
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