Hangin' with the locals!

We spent the weekend at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where we could be hands-on with the Australian wildlife . . . aka "the locals". We first went on Saturday but Evan decided to either exhibit a terrible two's tantrum, or his 5-6 teeth that are coming in bothered him so it wasn't pleasant and we left after 30 minutes. We headed back on Sunday and had a good time. (Thank goodness we decided to purchase a family pass on Saturday!) We were able to feed the larakeets, watch a sheep dog herding show, pet the kangaroos, visit the emus, and see many, many, many koalas. It was alot of fun and quite interesting to be able to get so close to many unique animals. We uploaded two separate slide shows of pictures because we had so many pictures to share . . . make sure to check out both sets!

Evan turns 2 this week so we are attempting to throw a birthday party for him on Friday night (his birthday is Thursday.) So far we have been unable to find any theme related party decorations at all (so I guess we'll go with plain decorations) and we haven't been able to locate a bakery or place that will do ANY kind of theme decorated cake . . . we've inquired with a few people though so hopefully we can come up with something!

Australian Education: I ordered car insurance over the phone this week for my car. They asked my registration number (license plate number), so I told them 692 FMZ. He repeated 692 FMB. No, 692 FMZ. He repeated 692 FMP. All of a sudden it hit me - they do not call it /Z/ in Australia - as we would, they call it "zed". So I had to correct myself and tell him 692 FMZed. Interesting!

More of the locals . . .

The "Sunshine" Coast . . . hmmmm

We traveled to the Sunshine Coast this weekend with some Deere employees visiting from Moline for the week. We stress "Sunshine" because, once again, on our trip to the beach it was raining!! It hasn't rained in Brisbane for at least a month but each time we decide to venture out to the coast it rains!! Hopefully we will catch some sunshine on the coast once winter passes and summer hits! Evan talked and talked about going to the ocean and the beach but once there, with shoes off and pants rolled up, he didn't seem to like it much. Not sure if it was the semi-cold water or the teeth he has coming in but hopefully he also enjoys future trips to the beach.




We also went and toured the hospital where the next future Perry will be born. Just to update everyone on the baby situation in Australia . . . The first week we arrived in AUS I had to go to a general practitioner so that they could confirm my pregnancy (all they had to do was look at me!) Once the pregnancy was confirmed they then wrote me a referral to an OB. I had to call the OB and ask if he had "room" during the month of October for another pregnancy. If he didn't I had to go back to the GP for more referrals. Luckily the first OB I called had room in October (not really sure what happens if this baby decides to come in September though.) Once an OB was found I had to call the hospital he delivers in and make a reservation. They also had to check their logs and see if they had room for another October delivery. Somehow I was hitting the jackpot (I'm still waiting for a glitch) because they also had room to "book me in" with a reservation. So it seems that everything is flowing smoothly with doctors and hospitals, etc. Now we just have to figure out the complicated financial side of things since we continue to have US based health insurance! As far as the hospital tour goes, everything appeared "normal" or quite similar to the US. They did tell us that with a normal delivery I could stay up to 4 days/nights. WOW!! Too bad our insurance won't allow the extended stay!

I started taking aqua aerobics classes at a fitness center nearby. Evan is now enrolled in two different playgroups and swimming lessons and appears to enjoy his one day at week at the ABC Learning Center. Bryan is busy working, working, working (and trying to sort out our internet saga at home.)

Australian Education: Aussies frequently use the term "straight away" in their conversations. For example, someone in playgroup said to me, "I will call you straight away on Sunday evening." This means "quickly" or "immediately" or "soon". This phrase wasn't too difficult to understand but when Bryan started using the phrase last week when talking to me (after only being here for one month) I knew the Aussie influence was upon us!! Now we're just waiting for Evan to start sounding like a little Aussie!!

Our weekend . . . and some other pics

Here are a few pictures of our home and new car along with some pictures of our weekend trip to Toowoomba. You really can't get the full effect of the car without seeing me in it . . . sitting on the right side holding the steering wheel - but just imagine. Every time I have to get in the car I head to the left side, open the door, and get really confused . . . Then I remember where I'm at, try to look like I know what I'm doing, and walk to the other side to get in and drive away. Bryan says it gets easier to remember over time - let's hope! I have only turned the windshield wipers on once in the past few days when reaching for the blinker - oh boy.

We took a day trip to Toowoomba, Queensland to see the sites and visit the steam-powered trains for Evan. It was a cool day in Toowoomba. Due to the higher elevation the temp. is about 10 degrees cooler than in Brisbane. As we traveled we saw these interesting, VERY large ant hills all along the road, many times there were multiples (10+) in the fields. We were told that they only establish these hills in certain soils and it does take awhile to create them. I'm just glad we got a picture from afar and didn't have to see how many ants actually live in one of these hills! We also included a picture of a common cactus that we would see on the side of the road . . . kinda half tree, half cactus.

Australian Education: One of the hardest things I have been experiencing (besides driving) is learning how to state the date properly in AUS as they state date-month-year. So when writing Evan's birthday or having to state it outload I have to say 02/08/05 (which looks like February 8, 2005 to me but is actually August 2, 2005.) I have say it to myself before saying it outloud. Sounds easy enough but can be difficult!

Another phrase of interest: First I'll use it in a sentence and see if you can figure it out . . . "Shawna is UP THE DUFF." Give up . . . "Shawna is pregnant." I think I'll stick to the basic!

Another week in the land of AUS . . .

Sorry we don't have pictures to upload this time, hopefully by the weekend we'll have more to share with you. We have basically spent the past week getting a car for me (Shawna) to drive. We purchased a 2000 Holden Commodore on Wednesday night (in the quickest 15 minute car transaction we have ever experienced.) Another American family with John Deere moved down the block from us last week so we have been able to get out of the house more the past few days and visit with them and ride with them in their car, which is nice and makes the week move quicker. Evan and I started a new playgroup today as well. Australia has a VERY organized playgroup system. Our group is quite diverse. We are the only Americans and there are many other Aussies but also families from Japan, India, and the UK. Evan LOVED the toys they had available at the group (he really misses his cozy coupe car and they had 8 different ones for the kids to share!) Evan starts at his new Learning Center on Monday (one day a week) and then we will go to rhyme time at the library on Wednesday and playgroup on Thursday. Our internet SHOULD be hooked up by next Friday and our telephone gets hooked up tomorrow, so hopefully by August we should have everything in place!

We are going to go out sight-seeing this weekend and hopefully hit the koala zoo for Evan. We'll upload more pictures when we can!

AUSTRALIAN education: ALL Australians use the phrase "How are you going?" (meaning "How are you?" or "How are you doing?"). It really caught us off guard at first but now we're starting to get used to it. I'm doubting we will adopt the phrase but you never know!!

Kangaroos on the Loose!

We have only been here a week and we have already had our first kangaroo encounter! We heard about an area close to our house where TONS of kangaroos came out to graze/eat each night around 4-6PM so we headed there Sunday evening to take a peek. They were everywhere (and become roadkill easily) and were grazing and eating all over the place but the area is protected land so nothing can really be done about them. We mainly saw smaller kangaroos but as you can tell from the one picture there was a really big one that we spotted right next to the road that just stood there and looked at us for awhile. It was quite interesting and exciting to see these creatures . . . and for free - we didn't have to pay to go to the local zoo! We have also heard about a place where koala bears can be spotted so eventually we will head there as well.