One Month Anniversary!

I can’t believe that we have already been here for a month!  Time has flown and while we are feeling more confident with a lot of the Australian ways, we still feel very behind in other areas.

So far, we have managed to find a home and get Alaina going to school.  We absolutely LOVE her school and the mums are so friendly!  We also love that we can walk to school and prefer this so much more over driving.  I’ll have to do a more in depth blog post on her school at some point because there are so many unique things about it.  She did just get an award and recognition as a new student at the school assembly which was really cool. (The school hall totally reminds me of Harry Potter with the House flags hanging and the formality of it all! Alaina is in the Parkes House and has a blue patch on her sports uniform)  We also heard the Australian National Anthem and School song & motto for the first time!  One other thing I love about this school is how much public speaking is encouraged…2 children (I’m guessing Year 4ish) led the assembly and did an amazing job!

                                     

We have also made the purchase of some much needed appliances and a few furniture pieces to make it through.  You’ll notice our loveseat in the middle of the room…it’s actually situated right in front of the heater!  While Australia is a much warmer place than Michigan, inside it’s actually pretty cold in the winter.  60’s outside, but the houses are not set up for cold (insulation, thermostat regulating, etc.) so we have been quite cold inside!

We also enrolled Kyla in preschool.  This will also need its own blog post as getting into a preschool here is a nightmare!  This was pretty much the only one left, so we are on waiting lists at 2 others that offer a little more kindergarten readiness programs.  She seems to love it anyhow!

We have learnt (this is how they spell “learned”) about some of their different verbiage (another post at another time) and where to shop for groceries and some great parks & libraries and other general info.  We have not yet, however gotten our vehicle, me a phone, home internet or TV, found a church home, found a place for play dates (you pay money and join groups) or figured out any of our normal care things (where to go for hair cuts, dentist, doctor, etc.)  So, we have quite a bit of work to do!

We were all happy when our air shipment arrived, but there were a lot of things not in it that should have been (we were over the weight, so they just picked things to take out…nice) like office supplies, kids backpacks, baby toys, special memory books from friends and family, etc.  We were very happy for some new toys to play with and boxes to make forts with!

All in all, we are enjoying our time here and are excited about all of the things yet to come!  We are not crazy about the cockroaches we have seen or the tick that we found on Hallie’s head, but hopefully that is the end of those creatures! 

We are looking forward to heading into downtown Sydney this weekend for some family fun!!  Miss you all!